Can I just say that I absolutely love that there are Biblical answers to everything that plagues our souls? That every person who has lived on this earth has faced similar trials spiritually, even if they looked different circumstantially? Sometimes it’s hard, however, for us to connect the Bible- full of words given to us by our Creator- to our lives practically. That’s why we need to dig deeper than just listening to sermons on Sundays. That’s why we need to be discipled and disciple others! Truly, the only difference between discipleship and counseling is that discipleship has the time to talk about everything and counseling usually has to focus on one problem at a time and hone in on change very strongly. But both require proper interpretation and application of God’s Word. Both involve one person serving as a conduit for God to help another person grow.
Today I want to show you one way that I use lists to help me, and help me counsel others, to begin addressing anxiety biblically.
The first step to taking control of anxiety – which may now be so engrained in you that you feel physical symptoms (adrenaline pumping, shakiness, nausea, etc.) – is to start understanding where it originally came from. We don’t learn any behavior or habit without thought. So at some point in your life, something happened, you had a thought, and you reacted physically. Then the event or something similar happened again, you had the same thought, and then you reacted the same way. Eventually this happened enough times that you created a pathway in your brain that automatically linked the event with the learned reaction (aka, the new habit).
If this is starting to sound a lot like Pavlov’s dog experiment (the bell made the dog salivate, eventually without food involved), I want you to know that it is very similar, but not completely. I can’t explain to this dog what happened to teach him to salivate. I can’t help him break the habit unless I ring the bell constantly and he starts realizing that there is no food. But you, my friend, are not a dog. You are not an animal. You have the power to learn about and assess your emotions (something not tangible). You have the God-given ability to break free from that habit that now seems so permanent in your life.
The first step (aside from prayer – our hearts and minds need His involvement to give us the ability to truly change) is to create a LIST of observations about your anxiety. If I was counseling you/When I counsel myself, a list of observations about the anxiety is a must. Proper diagnosis of a problem can only come from thorough data gathering. Make sense? Let’s give you the template.
- What triggers my anxiety?
What stressors happen right before you break down? Time has been a big one for me – always feeling like I’m running out of it. Another one for me has been absolutely nothing! I’ll just be sitting there, and find myself clenching my jaw and feeling like it’s time to start worrying even though nothing happened. Write these things down! - What does my anxiety look like physically?
Be extremely specific. Anything that you do, anything that your body does, write it down. Know the reactions that you chose long ago that you want to eventually replace. This could be hyperventilating, feeling dizzy, screaming, throwing objects, pacing, and more. Write them down. - What does my anxiety sound like spiritually?
What are you “hearing in your head”? What are some thoughts that you are able to pull from the cacophony? Some might sound like, “I am not capable of doing this,” “This is overwhelming,” “What if [insert hypothetical scenario]…?”. Do your best to record as many as you can. Note the thoughts you seem to have the most. - How often do I spend time with God?
Don’t think there’s a special formula that everyone can use to heal their spirit. There is a special formula (called the put off/renew/put on principle), but it involves God Himself working on your heart as you work on changing to become more like Him. If this isn’t your goal, you may find a way to experience temporary relief or change, but it has to be deep in your heart to be permanent. That’s simply only something He is capable of changing.
I will write a part two soon. This is a process, no doubt about it. Issues like anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and more deserve more attention from the Christian community than simply throwing some verses at a person. Bible verses are vital (they are God’s living Word), but they need to be explained for a person to know how the verses are practical today for them to do any good. And we should not start assigning verses until we know what is going on in a person’s life. Context is everything. I hope to see more Christians using the Bible wisely to help other Christians who are looking for guidance and don’t yet know how to find that guidance from the Bible for themselves.
