Stop letting fear and anxiety torment you!

Bible passage: Isaiah 41:10
“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand”.

I am someone who has always struggled with fear and anxiety. While for some it is greed, envy or lust, my greatest battle has always been fear. I have been job hunting and last week I got the news that I had a job interview, I was happy and full of thanksgiving. I even reassured myself that if I didn’t get this job then it wasn’t God’s will and something better was coming (all in an effort to prevent myself from worrying too much). But as the day of the interview got closer I felt fear and anxiety gradually creep in and torment my mind with worst-case scenarios. I started focusing on my weaknesses, fear of freezing up if there was a question I could not answer and not having enough time to prepare. Fortunately, at that moment God helped me to realise that the solution to this problem was to spend more time with him. So I stopped all my overthinking and started praying. I searched and meditated on passages in the bible that spoke about worry, listened to a sermon about fear and anxiety, prayed and worshipped God and before I knew it, my worry was replaced with peace and confidence. Confidence, not in my own abilities, but in God because He is the source of my strength and He has given me a spirit not of fear and timidity but of power, self-control and a sound mind. And my interview went even better than I could imagine and none of the worst-case scenarios that I was worried about happened!

At the end of the day, my desire is for God’s will to be done because I believe His will for my life is better than what I think is best for me. This helps me not to obsess over getting the job but instead to trust that if I do not get this job, something better is coming and if I do get it, then I can rest in the assurance that I am walking in the will of God for my life. So it is a win-win situation really.

While we can’t control the feeling of fear and worry, we can control how we react to it. We can either choose to welcome it and meditate on all the worst-case scenarios or we can choose to meditate on the promises of God in order to experience his peace. So remember not to let anxious thoughts consume you, instead attack them head-on with prayer, worship and scripture!

Philippians 4:6-7 – “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

Helpful resources that encouraged me: