Life Challenges

The Answer to Anxiety

Peace is possible. The Bible paves the way to peace. It does not lead us to a place, but to a Person who carries all our cares. God desires that we would be people always at peace, because of our deep trust in his love and control over all circumstances. 

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Anxious? You're in Good Company.

Dear Friend,  

We want you to know that you are in good company. We know what it is like to be anxious—whether it is that nagging anxiety that distracts all throughout the day, that unidentified anxiety that keeps you from sleep, or that anxiety that keeps your mind spinning and spinning, wearing you out without offering a solution.  

The Bible is a wonderful book—and the best—to have around in times of anxiety. It is filled with stories of people just like us—anxious people. It sketches our real world quite accurately, not leaving out the darker parts of life, but giving us the whole story of reality including the dark colors like worrisome, stressful, and anxious seasons we so try to erase out of our own lives.  

The Bible does not just give you characters to empathize with you, or validate that you live in an anxiety-inducing world. It does something better. Remember, the Bible is God’s Word. Since God can never lie, he will tell us the truth about our world and about ourselves. So when we open his book, we will feel wonderfully at home even in our deepest distresses, because we will always read an honest assessment of our own hearts, our world, and our loving God.  

But God, the author of the Bible, is also called “The Wonderful Counselor” and “the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) When you open your Bible, you are hearing from a Counselor who actually formed your deepest parts and knows the hidden thoughts of your heart (Psalm 139:2, 13). You are hearing the gentle words of the One who is Peace himself.  

Because anxiety stems from all different places—sometimes sin we don’t address, sometimes sorrows we cannot control, and sometimes suffering, whether self-inflicted or not—the Bible offers diverse counsel, and we hope to help you  understand how God speaks into your anxious heart.  

If you are anxious today, would you pray with us, and ask God to meet you through his Word exactly in the way you most need? We may not know your name, but the Lord knows your frame intimately, and we believe he wants to minister to you.   

Dear Lord, Thank you for loving me enough to speak to me through the Bible. I am so very anxious today. Would you please help me hear what you have to say, and would you please show me what it means that you are the Prince of Peace. “Search me, God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). Amen.  

by Bibles.net

VERSE PAGES

Theme Verse

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

2 TIMOTHY 1:7 NKJV

What Is Anxiety?
Short Bible Study

Luke 10:38-42 ESV

Here’s a tale of two sisters: one anxious, one at ease. Which one do you identify more with? How do you think this passage counsels us to deal with our anxiety?
Quote

Is Anxiety a Sin?

True peace does not demand a denial of our emotions and concerns. What is the difference between godly concern and sinful anxiety? Actually the same Greek word is used for both, and it is only the context that reveals the difference. The difference can be seen in these mathematical formulas: Concern + unbelief = anxiety; Concern + faith = a biblical virtue (1 Corinthians 7:32-33; 1 Corinthians 12:25; 2 Corinthians 11:28).

by Bill Thrasher | Source
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Whoever
listens to me
will live in safety
and be at ease,
without fear of harm.

Proverbs 1:33 NIV
Messages: 34 Min

What Is Anxiety and What Do We Do About It?

by Alistair Begg

How to Find Peace
Article: 7 Min

The God of Peace

by Erik Raymond at The Gospel Coalition

Verse
Romans 5:1 ESV

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse
Matthew 11:28-29 NLT

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

Article: 20 Min

The Gift of Peace

by John MacArthur at Grace To You

Verse
Psalm 121 ESV

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
    From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved;
    he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper;
    the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
    nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil;
    he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep
    your going out and your coming in
    from this time forth and forevermore.

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Peace I leave
with you;
my peace I give you.
I do not give
to you as
the world gives.
Do not let your hearts
be troubled 
and do not be afraid.

John 14:27 ESV
Quote

Where Does Our Anxiety Come From?

The very essence of anxious care is the imagining that we are wiser than God, and the thrusting of ourselves into his place, to do for him that which we dream he either cannot or will not do; we attempt to think of that which we fancy he will forget; or we labor to take upon ourselves that burden which he either is not able or willing to carry for us.

by Charles Spurgeon | Source
Verse
Romans 8:31-32 NLT

What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?

Message Series

Anxiety Free Living by John MacArthur

Listen to Pastor John MacArthur explain Jesus’ teaching from Luke 12:22-34 on how to live anxiety-free. In the Bible, God commands us not to worry, and he gives us good reasons for why we need not worry. Anxiety-free living is something we must learn as we walk with God, but it is nevertheless God’s goal for his children.

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Have no fear
of sudden disaster
or of the
ruin that overtakes
the wicked,
for the Lord

will be at your side 

Proverbs 3:25-26 NIV
Article: 7 Min

7 Reasons Not to Worry

by Kevin DeYoung at The Gospel Coalition

Quote

The Secret of Freedom from Anxiety

It is only when we want to take our lives out of the Father’s hands and have them under our own control that we find ourselves gripped with anxiety. The secret of freedom from anxiety is freedom from ourselves and abandonment of our own plans. But that spirit emerges in our lives only when our minds are filled with the knowledge that our Father can be trusted implicitly to supply everything we need.

by Sinclair Ferguson | Source
Quote

Worry is a cycle of
inefficient thoughts
whirling around
a center of fear.

Corrie ten Boom
Messages: 38 Min

The Cure for Anxiety

by Drew Hunter

Image

Be still,
and know
that I am God.

Psalm 46:10 NKJV
Books
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