I’ve always struggled with fear.

It’s been something that I’ve battled since I was a small child. In my teens, I came to understand that fear is not from God. That Jesus paid a great price to free me from all of my fears. I made a decision that fear was not going to have the last say in my life. It doesn’t mean I haven’t been afraid. In fact quite the opposite. Sometimes when we stand up to something it gets worse before it gets better. I’ve battled fear, asked God for more faith and did my best to just do things afraid. But over time, I began to understand (and get a revelation) that the antidote to fear is LOVE. Perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18). When I begin to receive more love I begin to become less afraid (the truth is…I still don’t have a total revelation of how great God’s love is. If I did there would be no room for fear).

These days I’m learning there is a difference between anxiety and fear.

If you asked me if was an anxious person. I would tell you yes. Those closest to me could confirm this. A few weeks ago, I really got an understanding while reading The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery. In the book I read that…. fear says, “Something wrong is actually happening!” While anxiety is more anticipatory: “What if this or that happened.”

In recent years, while going through some pretty heavy change in my life, anxiety became overwhelming. I was so worried about the situation, the outcome, the future, and my loved ones that I would sometimes find myself wringing my hands, walking in circles, or gasping for breath. When I started having health issues I finally realized that this was not OK and that I did not want to live this way.

I was not resting in LOVE,  I was wandering in worry.

Anxiety is a thief. It is an epidemic in this day and age. The state of the world is uncertain and most of us are facing at least one form of personal uncertainty.

There is only one thing that I know to be certain and that is a God who does not change (He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Hebrews 13:8). This unchanging Love did warn us that in this world there would be trials and tribulations but to be of good cheer because He has overcome the world (John 16:33).

So what do we do? How do we stop wringing our hands? How do we silence our worries?

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Yes, we take practical steps to reduce stress in life such as: implementing boundaries, eating right and find stress reliving activities, like yoga. But most importantly we have to renew our minds. Redirecting the inner chatter from “something could happen” to “with God, something good will happen.”

I have a very long way to go with this. I liken it to a recovery process.

Anxiety is redundant.

But so are God’s promises.

And so I choose to be redundant with replacing my anxious thoughts with the truth.

I read the promises and I speak them–because this is how we silence the chatter. I quiet the voice in my mind and I listen to the voice of LOVE.

Since there were many that said they struggle with anxiety too…I wanted to share some of my favorite promises. I wanted to offer a resource. Something you could print out and keep before you. Something I could print out and keep before me.

You can download this Promise Print out HERE.

Here is a peek . . . .

Freedom from fear and anxiety is paid for. It’s available. The work on our part is to receive and rest in perfect love and to diligently replace anxious thoughts with the truth (even if we do it while wringing our hands).

Let’s mull over these promises together. Let’s listen to the voice of Love. Let these words be the inner dialogue and the outcome we end up at.

Do you struggle with anxiety? 

Leave me a comment and let me know if you are downloading these promises and keeping them before you, along with me!

P.S. Don’t’ forget to download the free LOVELY print and smartphone wallpaper to dress up your tech!