Anxiety
Anxiety is stress about what might happen. God commands us to answer it—not to baptize it as “just how I am.”
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Care course · Part 3
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”Philippians 4:6 (ESV)
Drawn from the congregation’s teaching series What Christians Should Know About Mental Health, taught by Jason Cheney (elder; LPC — EMDR and PCIT certified). Counseling is wise help under Christ; it does not replace the gospel, repentance, or the assembly of the saints.
Series source. Part 3 — Anxiety (2025)
What it is
Stress reacts to what is happening; anxiety frets over what could happen. Minds drift toward worry by default. Some people are naturally steadier; others must train harder. Training the mind is not optional—God tells His people not to live ruled by anxiety.
The feeling itself is not automatically sin—James describes desire conceiving and giving birth to sin (James 1:13–15). What we do when the thought or emotion arrives matters. Martha confessed Christ yet was anxious and troubled about many things; Jesus pointed her to the one thing needful (Luke 10:40–42). Part of peace is knowing which problems are yours and which to lay down.
Godly people and anxiety
Job carried deep fear after loss. Paul admitted anxiety for the churches and brought it to God. Jesus sweat like drops of blood and took His burden to the Father. Scripture never treats prayer as weakness.
“I discipline my body”
Paul said, “I discipline my body and keep it under control” (1 Corinthians 9:27), and we take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Christians are not to be owned by anger, panic, or despair. The body and mind serve the Lord—not the other way around.
- Stay present. Matthew 6 pushes us out of tomorrow’s imagined disasters. Practice noticing now—five senses, a walk, cold water, prayer of thanks for this hour (Lamentations 3:22–23; Ecclesiastes 3).
- Check yourself. Notice tension, posture, facial expression, and wandering thoughts in real time. It is hard to catastrophize the future while honestly observing the present.
- Breathe and settle. Anxiety pulls the body toward fight-or-flight. Learn to return to a calmer mode before intensity spikes past what you can think through.
- Guard the door of thought. Decide what you will rehearse and what you will refuse—skills also used in trauma-informed work—so imagination does not run the house.
What God says to do
Pray about everything, with thanksgiving—thanksgiving forces the mind toward what is true and good (Philippians 4:6–8). Seek first the kingdom (Matthew 6:33). Cast all your anxieties on Him, even the ones you think you “deserve” (1 Peter 5:7). Hold the finished work of Christ and the promise that He is with you. Confidence that the story ends well is not optimism for its own sake; it is faith.
We will have anxious moments. Responsibility is to bring them to God, practice peace in the moment, and use wise means—including skilled help—when anxiety rules sleep, work, or assembling with the saints.