3 Ways to Overcome Anxious Thoughts

1. Rejoice in the Lord

Our passage above begins with the Apostle Paul calling for the church at Philippi to rejoice! It was literally a call to joy. This didn’t mean that he was telling them to laugh and have fun; he was encouraging them to choose joy. You see, Paul actually wrote this letter to the Philippians from prison! Throughout his imprisonment, he emulated to them what rejoicing in the Lord looks like no matter what your circumstances.  

This same call to joy applies to us. When we are anxious and our thoughts are spiraling, we can still find our joy in the Lord. No person or circumstance can take away our joy in Him. Joy in the fact that He died for our sins. Joy in the fact that He rose from the dead so that we too would rise again. Joy in the fact that perfect love casts out fear. Joy in the fact that the Lord is our ever-present help in times of trouble. The list goes on and on of all the reasons we have to rejoice in the Lord even when our circumstances are bleak or seem hopeless. When we choose joy, we are choosing the sure hope we have in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.

Isaiah 26:3 (AMP) says, "You will keep in perfect and constant peace the one whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on You—in both inclination and character], Because he trusts and takes refuge in You [with hope and confident expectation]."

When we rejoice in the Lord always, we will overcome anxious thoughts because our minds will be centered on God and His goodness alone.  

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2. Pray with Thanksgiving

The Apostle Paul instructs us in Philippians 4:6-7 to “be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (emphasis mine).  

There seems to be a “prescription” for prayer: confession, praise, and making our requests to God. Indeed, thanksgiving is part of our prayer session, but if you’re like me, praise is usually related to something separate from any prayer needs I bring to the Lord.

Here we see that not only is Paul encouraging us to pray about everything but to do so earnestly and humbly during times of deep need or desire as the word "supplication" implies. Not only that, but we are to be thankful in our request. How can we be thankful if we are having anxious thoughts? By offering up thanksgiving along with our deep-felt prayers.   

Last year, I was hit in rapid succession with one serious respiratory illness after another—RSV, COVID, and the flu, and then a few months later COVID again. RSV was actually the scariest because of the nature of the sickness, typical remedies like inhalers, nebulizer treatments, and steroids are not effective. I was struggling for every breath. If I had any relief from the above treatments, it would only last an hour or two and then I’d have to try to last until I was able to do another treatment usually four hours later. 

At some point, I don’t remember by what means I heard this, but I do remember thinking to myself, “When you pray for healing, thank Him for the answer before receiving it, thank Him for ease of breathing when it does happen, thank Him for His peace even in the midst of very anxious thoughts.”  And in a very unnatural way to this normally anxious girl, I found my anxious thoughts would disappear, and I would be in a place of contentment in the Lord despite my serious health challenges. I still prayed and pleaded for help and healing, but it was the gratitude I felt, despite all of this, that allowed me to overcome the anxious thoughts I was initially plagued with.

When we pray with thanksgiving, we are leaving our anxious thoughts in God’s hands by acknowledging with expectation that He will answer our prayers regarding that which is making us anxious.

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3. Dwell on What Is Good

Let’s face it, life is hard, and these days we are living in seem to be getting harder and harder. With world unrest, political unrest, inflation, the cost of living, let alone our own personal trials and tribulations, it can be hard to find anything good to dwell on. Yet, the Apostle Paul calls us to think on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, anything worthy of praise.

Years ago, I read a book by Ann VosKamp called 1000 Gifts. It was a life-changing book. The premise behind the book is to go about your day listing everything that you are grateful for, from a beautiful sunset, to the birds chirping outside, to the sun shining, and so on. I think sometimes we feel that only the “big things” are worth being thankful for, but the fact of the matter is that even the most insignificant moments that touch our lives throughout the day are praiseworthy. I think we can take for granted, especially when we are in good health, every breath we take, but is it any less worthy of thanksgiving when we are breathing just fine? Or, on the flip side, we may feel all we have in life to be thankful for is each breath we take. We may find it very hard to be thankful about anything, especially when anxious thoughts are crippling us.

I recently read a poem in a Lifeguide Bible Study that I am doing called, "Busyness: Finding God in the Whirlwind," written by Juanita Ryan who wrote the poem after being the caregiver for an elderly friend. She witnessed her friend's determination to walk the few steps from her bedroom to her bathroom and how she saw each step as a gift. Her friend would say with each step, “Thank you, thank you.” I’ll share some excerpts here because I think it captures what it means to dwell on what is good:

““Thank you. Thank you,” she’d say,

Offering her soft spoken hymn of praise to you 

With each step she took.

Ninety-seven, clutching walker,

While I held onto her,

She walked in thankful wonder

Like a toddler taking first steps with glee.

Each step a gift, counted.

Walker steaded and grounded her body in motion

While her thanksgiving steadied and grounded her spirit

In the here and now flow of grace…

“Thank you. Thank you.”

I find myself whispering to you

Over and over throughout the day,

Noticing how my eyes open to the outpouring

Of grace and blessing in every moment,

How I feel myself carried on the current of your joy,

How I am able to use the walker of gratitude

To steady and ground my heart and mind, body and soul

In your glorious presence with us here and now

“Thank you. Thank you.””

I was so struck by this poem. Here this sweet woman, her 97-year-old body stooped and wracked with age, yet she found a reason to praise God. She was dwelling on the goodness of God with every step she took, no matter how few and slow her steps were.  She was not allowing anxious thoughts of all the things she could no longer do to pervade her outlook on life, but, instead, she dwelled on all that was good in her life in the here and now.

I have a framed quote on my desk (no author was provided), which says, “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” The Lord Jesus came so that we would have an abundant life. When we are overcome by anxious thoughts, we are robbing ourselves of the abundant life He died for. Instead, dwell on all the good gifts God places in your life every minute of every day. As you develop the habit of looking for these gifts and cultivating a heart of gratitude in your daily life, you will overcome any anxious thoughts in the process. After all, they say that anxious thoughts and gratitude cannot occupy your mind at the same time. Apparently, it's physiologically impossible. So why not fill your mind with gratitude and squelch those anxious thoughts?

Let’s overcome our anxious thoughts by rejoicing in the Lord always, praying with thanksgiving, and dwelling on what is good.

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