When your mind is stuck in a pattern of fearful thinking, you have to break free from it! It might feel unnatural, or counter-intuitive at first, to praise God in the midst of anxiety, but in choosing to activate your praise for God—you activate your faith in Him. By praising God in the midst of anxiety, you too, can break free from anxiety’s grip.
When anxiety is trying to get its grip on me, I start praising God! Rather than focus on my fear, which only serves to grow anxiety, I make the conscious choice to thank God for His goodness in my life. What I mean by this is, I start naming all the things that are going well—because of God. After a long, hard day, I say things like, “Thank you Lord that while I didn’t accomplish all I set out to do today, I was able to take my dog for a walk.” “While, I wasn’t able to do the work I had planned on doing, I was able to help my kids with their school work and make them lunch.” And, “while I may have struggled intensely with my autoimmune chronic pain issues today, I was there to give my husband a back massage when his back was hurting today. I may not have been able to ease my own pain, but at least I could ease some of his.“
If you are anything like me, though, when your mind has been consumed with anxious thoughts, it can be really difficult to think of words of praise for God. When this happens, I turn on my praise and worship music, and start singing. The lyrics to these songs often help me put into words my thoughts and feelings, while at the same time, praising God for the good things He has done for me, and the awesomeness of who He is.
We can also praise God by declaring His Word out loud. King David, who authored many of the Psalms, also struggled with fear many times throughout his life. He spent much of his life on the run from his enemies. It was during these times, while hiding out in a cave, or locked up in a jail cell, that he wrote many of the psalms we now have. Psalms are songs, or hymns. Which tells us, that when David was afraid, He knew that praising God would help him overcome his fears! This makes the Psalms a great place to start looking for words of praise!
Take Psalm 57, for example. In this psalm, David opens up about his fears. He says, “I am in the midst of lions; I am forced to dwell among ravenous beasts—men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.”
What I find so interesting, however, is that David doesn’t stay parked in his anxious thoughts. He doesn’t allow fear of his circumstances to consume him. Instead, he quickly turns his anxious thoughts into words of praise for God. Starting in verse 7, of Psalm 57, David wrote, “My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music. Awake my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn! I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.”
Praise God until your breakthrough comes! You will soon discover that you cannot both praise God from the heart, and continue to feel anxious at the same time.
Psalm 56, verses 3-4 says, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise—in God I trust and am not afraid.”
God bless you!”
