Anxiety, I'm Taking a Stand!

Anxiety is not an easy struggle to overcome. Although different in every person, we all have to deal with it at some level. In my case, my anxiety levels are very sensitive to anything that has to do with health issues. I can handle almost anything else rather well (usually through an outburst of yelling and screaming which doesn’t last long at all), but when it comes to health…things are different. I’ve always known this, but I have recently become truly aware of how it may be some kind of deeper dysfunction. I’m not sure, but I think it is in the genes that were passed down to me through my Mother’s side of the family, where depression and hypochondria are very present. Whatever it is, though, I am tired of it. I don’t want to be a slave to my fears about health issues. I want to be free of this bondage and the Only One who can break all those chains is Christ.

Today, I’m making a stand. Today I resolve to counter my anxiety with truth. As Jesus, Himself tells us:

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." 

John 8: 31-32

Truth will set me free! And truth is not a thing. Truth is a person.

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 
John 14: 6

Therefore, now that I am feeling anxiety tighten around my throat, and begin to choke me, I will, by the power of Truth, break its grip by clinging to the Word, that is Jesus and by claiming His power in me! I will go to the Bible rather than to the Internet, and I will meditate in Him who is found in the Word, rather than concentrate on test results. I won’t let statistics, blood work or physicians’ thoughts determine my destiny. I know who holds my future, and I know who holds my hand!

And, even though I know that my resolve will waiver, it doesn’t matter because it is not by my own strength, but by the power of His Mighty Hand that I will accomplish this. I don’t need to be strong enough to overcome. He has already overcome for all of His children…even for me.

Today, I cling to psalm 139 for he has known me since before I was formed in my Mother’s womb, and…even so, He still loves me...and that truly is too wonderful for me… too lofty for me to comprehend.

Psalm 139

You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.