The Cycle of Trusting Jesus: Breaking Free from Anxiety

Often, I have laid in bed at night whispering to God, “I can’t believe you are asking me to do this.”

These are nights when pain threatens to get the upper hand. As it edges deeper and sharper, I can feel my anxiety building on itself as I fret, thinking, will it get worse? Will I ever get to sleep? My anxious thoughts worsen my pain, which then increases my anxiety for an ever-tightening cycle that leads to no good end.

So, I steady my nervous breathing and say to God, “But obviously, you think I can do this…. So, I am going to believe you rather than my anxious feelings. God, show me Jesus in this; show me how to endure, how to carry on without falling apart.” 

I then engage pain directly. I study its stern features, arm myself with Bible promises, and with the grace of God, I enter into the pain, unafraid.

This idea of entering into the very thing that causes anxiety requires the same kind of trust in God as modeled by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they entered Nebuchadnezzar’s blazing furnace. I’ve learned from their example. I know that just as in the fiery furnace, Christ will meet me in the fury; he will uproot my dread of my greatest fears and transform my pain as a place of resurrection and hope.

Anxiety often catches us unaware, like a rogue wave on a summer day at the beach. At other times, it may seem more subtle, like a rising tide we’ve forgotten to watch for. No matter how it threatens to overwhelm me, I know I must face it the instant I catch on. In that moment, I breathe slowly, deeply, and quietly.

I calmly recall the words of II Corinthians 4:8, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed.”

Sometimes I even tell the rising tide of anxiety just that: Pain may press in on all sides, but God promises that it cannot crush me. It can’t damage my soul.

I recognize that God is after something more valuable than my physical comfort: God is after our hearts. God prizes the formation of perseverance and patience over a life of comfort. He wants to uproot a spirit of complaining and nurture a more buoyant, hope-filled trust in him and his promises. God stands ready to dispense courage at the moment of our need—so, we prayerfully release anxiety and hold fast to courage.

Virtually the entire chapter 8 of Romans assures us that we don’t have to live under the slavery of anxiety or fears of the future.

Jesus suffered for me, and when I suffer with him, my love for him boosts me above the misery.

He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?…No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us, (Romans 8:32, 37).

What’s more, every time I trust God, I find him reliable to bring me through.

Then, when the next difficult situation arises, trusting him comes more naturally. Anxiety is not the only thing that builds on itself: my trust in God builds as I hold fast to his promises, one circumstance after the next.  

Yes, those nights still come when I am hurting horribly, but I know God will somehow see me through.

Each night of pain—when anxiety tempts me to despair—becomes one more opportunity to prove God’s faithfulness.

For, as we read in Hebrews 13:5-6 “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.’”

That’s a promise to carry us through the hottest blazes of anxiety!