6 Ways To Beat Anxiety
Declare the Word of God. Read it, breath it and make it be your life.
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17
Don’t get overwhelmed if you don’t know a lot. It’s not about that. You are better off to know 1 verse intimately and well then to have the whole Bible memorized and have no intimately with God.
The more you “taste and see the Lord is good” the more the Holy Spirit becomes your friend and guide
Matt 6:33-34 “Seek 1st the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Understand your growth areas, triggers, pray about them and go after healing
John Maxwell said “You can’t know where you are going if you don’t know where you are at.
Do you overfunction or underfunction? Do you withdraw or pursue? Do you numb yourself and strive for perfectionism? Recognize it, Turn these over to God and pray. Don’t feel bad about it
What behavior is not from God – do you get impatient with your kids? While this is normal the Bible says we are to have patience so go for it
Triggers and hidden hooks can be trauma
Get therapy, get outside prayer and outside help
Medication for a time is absolutely fine. Now, God says we can live free without meds, but if you are needing it to help you get through a time so you don’t need them, embrace them and take them. See it as a gift. However, you do need therapy at the same time to increase the ability to feel your feelings and not get triggered like you used to
Feel your feelings. Don’t avoid them. Whether it be hurt, fear, sadness, loneliness, happiness, anger, etc. Allow yourself to FEEL. When we avoid them it bottles up and lies start to get crunched and squeezed and distorted. When we feel the feelings they don’t highjack us and we are more equipped when they show up again. We aren’t shocked and our body stays in that Shalom peace.
Have a healthy lifestyle consistently
Prayer and worship daily
Drink lots of water, Stay away from energy drinks, excessive pop (soda) alcohol or tobacco
Exercise – your body needs this
Healthy food. Treats are okay as a treat not
Sleep
All this impacts your body and your brain and increases you to BE triggered if you do have a trauma history – which we all have something
Don’t strive for this – if you only pray for 5 min 1 day that’s a start. Work up to 4 days. Don’t beat yourself or stress. It’s meant to be a relationship with your heavenly father, intimacy.
Know your identity as a son or daughter of Christ
This is the most important thing. Everything else I just mentioned helps you to get here. Walking in this identity is key.
Our identity comes from the Word of God, not by our past experiences and what we feel
We pray from heaven. You are seated in heavenly places. Not focusing on the problem, it’s from the solutions
Notice what Jesus is doing and thank Him – thankfulness is the soil for increase
If you have 1 moment where your heart didn’t beat around a group of people and normally it does, thank God for this!! God is driving your life here, not anxiety, even if it is for a moment. He will grow these moments when you acknowledge them and thank Him for it
One time during worship at her hometown church in Minnesota, Heidi Mortenson, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, was grumbling and complaining. About her husband. She believed he was the problem, not her. Her focus what on things he wasn’t doing.
When we get in these places where our troubles are our focus, we don’t see Jesus and receive the freedom He wants us to have. However, He needs us to trust Him with our problems. Remember that Heidi was in the middle of worship? Well, that’s exactly where you need to be when grumbling and complaining. God needs us to be vulnerable to Him.
As she was spinning in her negative thoughts she heard a quiet whisper from the Lord. And this is what she heard: Trust. Immediately, her head shifted and the complaining and negativity left. Her perspective changed and the Lord showed her husband the way that He sees Him. The love of God came over her and she felt like God was saying that the more she trusts her husband, the more she will know God.
Proverbs 3:5-6 say to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” When we don’t trust in the Lord, we rely on our own understand and fight for our own beliefs instead. This is exhausting.
God doesn’t want us to ignore our problems, hurt or pain. He wants us to trust Him with them. He wants us to vent, grumble and complain to Him. When we do this, God hears our pain and has compassion. He doesn’t punish us. The key here is to trust God to take the pain. We don’t hold onto it. We allow Him to take the pain and give us Him in replace. When we do this, our relationships improve, depression and anxiety goes. Because where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corin 3:17).
For more of Strong Tower Mental Health with Heidi, listen to this podcast.