Hope in the Midst of Anxiety

No one is immune from anxiety. Scripture is filled with stories of good kings, heroes of the faith, even Jesus the Messiah, burdened by anxiety. And yet, Scripture invites us to relinquish our fears, to “be anxious for nothing,” to be “content in all things.” How, then, do Christians understand and cope with anxiety? In this short work, we’ll explore biblical and personal stories of anxiety along with the usual Christian prescriptions for an anxious person. We’ll see that anxiety is not merely a disorder, though there are clinical manifestations of anxiety, but that anxiety is an existential reality every person, indeed every Christian, faces. We’ll see how the Bible invites us not to some unrealistic state of continual, non-anxious bliss, but to relationship with a God who we can trust, even amidst our fear. We’ll see that even in our anxiety, God meets us. Indeed, our anxiety is an invitation, in the end, to closer union and communion with a God who embraces us in our fear. Trust that no matter what it is, God’s got it.