How do you tell a worrier not to worry? As a child, I struggled with anxiety which led to panic attacks as a teenager and as a young adult. I did not understand why I struggled or felt the way I did. Often I wondered, why me? It was difficult to express to my parents or others what I knew to be either irrational fears or unknown anxieties so I mostly kept them to myself. My calm exterior didn’t match what felt like chaos on the inside.
Anxiety is deafening and robs us of our focus. We busy ourselves with tasks that keep our thoughts off whatever concerns us. We overestimate what we perceive as a threat and underestimate God. This can only be overcome with experience and trust. We must experience our fears by facing them head-on and put our trust in Him. In Matthew 6:25 – 27 Jesus tells us just how precious we all are to our heavenly Father and how futile it is to worry about what He has already provided us - “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can anyone of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
As a young adult, I gave my life to Christ. As I began to dive into the Word, my focus gradually turned away from self-worries and doubts to His promises and direction for my life. Allow God to do the same in your life by staying faithful in reading the Word and putting your trust in Him.