Anxiety sucks, doesn’t it?
If you’re reading this book, you are probably someone who is struggling with anxiety and is a Christian and likely is feeling or have felt guilt and shame about feeling anxiety as a Christian. It’s a difficult place in which to be. I’ve been there and have friends who visit that anxious, guilty, faith-filled place from time to time.
This was me three years ago…
As a woman of faith and a minister, I know my Bible. I know all the pithy little “spiritual” sayings, and I’m sure you’ve heard them, too.
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“Fear not” is in the Bible 365 times, so every day we should remember not to be afraid of anything.
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God doesn’t put more on us than we can bear.
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You just need more faith.
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Leave it at the cross and don’t take it back.
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Just pray about it more.
These are not helpful for people going through anxiety. I prayed a lot. God and I had many conversations. Never once did I doubt God’s love for me or lose my faith. I’m not one of those people who ask, “If God loves me, why am I going through this?” Sometimes, we just go through stuff, and God is much bigger than our junk.
God doesn’t put anything bad on us. That’s just an idolatry of self-sufficiency, because some people – good, faithful, God-loving people – have to go through much more than they can endure.
“Leave it at the cross and don’t take it back” is a favorite saying of my Dad’s. Anxiety doesn’t like being left behind, and no one wants to take it back. We can take our brokenness to the cross, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be healed for being there. The two thieves who were crucified with Jesus were at the cross in the moral brokenness, but they didn’t leave alive. They left in death, still condemned thieves. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was at the cross, an emotionally broken wreck. She left, still broken and sorrowful down to her soul.
In addition to these little secular quips cloaked as “spiritual” wisdom, there are ample Bible verses about being strong and courageous and about trusting in God. In fact, these verses present as commands directly to the reader of the words. Eventually, they become almost like new commandments, as iron-clad as the Ten Commandments and as inviolable, just more “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots” to weigh upon people’s mortal souls. Those who fling these sayings around in an attempt to bolster themselves ultimately end up layering guilt and shame on top of their anxiety. My heart broke as I watched a friend do this to herself.
