If you want to know how to stop anxiety, keep reading.
I’m not going to give you 5 ways to deal with anxiety or 10 steps to manage anxiety. I don’t believe anyone really wants to learn how to deal or manage anything negative that’s intruding on their best life.
We want it removed, and thankfully that IS an option.
Actually, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, freedom from anxiety is part of your inheritance.
How to Stop Anxiety: Step 1 – Identify & Separate
Disclaimer: I can only tell you what I know to be true for me.
I invite you to read these words with an open mind. Let them give you hope and then do the research yourself.
It took me a while to get ahold of these steps.
It was me, God and my Bible. The only thing I really had going for me was the fact that my brain has always gone to the highest and best possible outcome when it came to believing God.
I always said to myself, “If you’re God, the all-powerful Creator of the universe, and you sent Your Son to restore me to yourself and to separate me from all the works of the enemy, and You said that I am Your child, then why would I ever have to live with anxiety? It’s not pleasant. It’s not helpful. It’s not part of my inheritance through Jesus. I don’t want this anymore. What do I have to do to get rid of it?”
Step one involves identifying anxiety as an unwelcome intruder. The Bible tells us we have to recognize the enemy for who he is.
This means we can’t blame anxiety on our parents, our children, our employer or anyone else in our lives.
Sure, there may be people involved. There may be arguments and toxic relationships that we may need to change or even get away from.
There may be life stressors that need resolution; but we can’t pin our own inner turmoil on another person.
Anxiety is spiritual.
It is a plan for our destruction.
Ephesians 6:12 tells us, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
It’s easy to point the finger at another person, but as believers we have the ability to walk in peace regardless of the actions of others.
We will get into “how to deal with toxic situations” in another article, but for now it’s enough for us to recognize that anxiety is a direct plan of the enemy to steal our attention, steal our joy, disrupt our clarity and paralyze us from living our best life.
How to Stop Anxiety: Decide Not to Settle
Now that we agree that anxiety is an unwelcome intruder, we have to make a quality decision to NOT allow it in our life.
The Word of God is filled with promises of peace, but if we don’t take the time to look them up and meditate on them, we will be tempted to accept our current condition as something we “just have to deal with.”
I hear people proclaiming the problem instead of the promise all the time; even believers!
They say things like “My anxiety always kicks in when I go on an interview,” or “I have anxiety disorder. I’ve been diagnosed with it and it’s something I’ll deal with for the rest of my life.”
This is so wrong.
Speaking words of OWNERSHIP like “my anxiety” or proclaiming that we will deal with it for the rest of our lives does nothing to solve the problem. In fact, every time we say something like this we are giving the enemy more of a foothold in our life and giving him more authority to continue attacking us with anxiety.
We have to come up higher and look at what the Word says we are and what we have a right to.
The Bible tells us that “every good and perfect gift is from above.” —James 1:17
Anxiety is definitely not a good and perfect gift, so stop declaring it as belonging to you.
Stop agreeing to settle for something that is not yours.
How to Stop Anxiety: Know Your Rights
The Bible, specifically the New Testament, is not only a blueprint for how to do life; it’s also a covenant or a contract between God and man (or woman). This means you.
God is very clear in His Word about what belongs to us and what we have a right to.
The more I study the Word, the more I see that we (as a whole) have been duped.
We settle.
We are taught to “take whatever comes our way and try to figure out what God is teaching us through it.”
Having a passive attitude about the rich and full life God has provided for us through the finished work of Jesus on the cross is not at all what God has in mind for us.
In order to get your mindset right, think of it this way:
Let’s say your parents leave you a beautiful house on an acre of land. It’s your inheritance. It belongs to you.
When you take possession of the property, it’s immaculate. The house is well cared for. It has a new roof and updated plumbing.
The property is well landscaped. Even the flowers have been carefully selected and planted so you’ll have something beautiful blooming year round.
You’d be excited right?
What an amazing inheritance!
Fast forward a few years. You’ve been living in the house and all has been well. Suddenly you notice streams of carpenter ants running along your walls and a small leak in one corner of your living room.
Do you just leave it?
Do you let the ants and the leak continue and just tell yourself, “Well, this is just what happens. Now I have ants and a leaky roof.”
Of course not. That would be silly.
You would take care of what your parents had given you. You wouldn’t allow the property to be destroyed.
You’d figure out where the leak is coming from and fix it. You’d get rid of the ants so they wouldn’t destroy your home.
Well, taking care of the promises God has given us through the finished work of Jesus is no different.
We have a Bible full of inheritance. God tells us He “has not given us a spirit of fear but of love and power and a sound mind.” —2 Timothy 1:7
Jesus tells us “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” — John 14:27
If God has freely provided peace, then we need to protect it.
The promises are our house on the acre of land.
The promises are our inheritance and when something comes to destroy it, we need to take action.
“More than anything you guard, protect your mind, for life flows from it.” —Proverbs 4:23
Is There A Prayer for Anxiety?
So, now for the good part.
How exactly do we stop anxiety?
Is there a prayer for anxiety?
What are we supposed to do?
In the house on the acre scenario we could call a roofer or access a DIY manual for the roof leak.
But what do we do when the leaky roof is the weight of anxiety pushing us into paralysis?
What do we do when we can literally feel the oppression trying to overtake us?
I struggled with anxiety for over ten years.
Much of it was unhealed trauma from my past that I didn’t understand and didn’t know how to process.
The good news is, we don’t have to fully understand.
The Solution is in the believing and the speaking.
“I believed and therefore I spoke.” —2 Corinthians 4:13
The prayer for anxiety has two parts.
First, stop referring to anxiety as “my anxiety.”
It is not yours.
It is the enemy’s. It is part of the curse.
Next, find the Scriptures that promise your inheritance of peace and speak them out over your life.
Every time you feel anxiety coming upon you (and you can definitely feel it coming) choose to resist it and tell it to go.
I remember I used to lay my hands on my own head and say out loud,
“I thank You God that I have not been given a spirit of fear but of love and power and a sound mind.” —2 Timothy 1:7
You can do the same!
Below is an example of a prayer for anxiety.
I thank You God that I have not been given a spirit of fear but of love and power and a sound mind
I speak to my own thought life right now and I tell every bit of anxiety and fear to go, in Jesus name.
I am a child of God and peace is my inheritance.
I repent and turn from everything I have said that has opened the door for anxiety in my life.
I speak healing to all the wounded places in my heart that have given fear access to me.
I thank You God that You are called the healing balm of Gilead.
I thank You God that my body and my mind line up with the Word of God and manifest healing, peace and deliverance from all anxiety.
In Jesus name.
Yes and Amen.
