Anxiety has a poor memory. It forgets every hard thing you already got through and treats tomorrow as the first crisis you have ever faced. If you are a person who stares at the ceiling, here is a quiet, practical place to start: remember.
One word before we start. Anxiety is real and it lives in the body. If you see a doctor or counselor, or take medication for it, keep doing that. Nothing here asks you to stop. This is about where you turn your eyes while you do.
1. God brings you to the crossroads with a record behind you
In his message The Crossroads, Pastor Alan Baggett began with Deuteronomy 30:19: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life.” But before the choice, he walked the church through what came first. God brought Israel out of Egypt. He sustained them in the wilderness. He protected them for forty years. He provided food, water, and directions.
The choice stood on a history. Israel was not asked to trust a stranger.
2. Past faithfulness is a foundation
Pastor Alan gave the church a line to keep: “God’s Past Faithfulness is a Foundation for Today’s Faith.” And right behind it: “When you remember what God has done, it becomes easier to trust Him for what He is about to do.”
Easier, not easy. He is not saying that memory cures worry. He is saying it makes trust more possible. That is a fair claim for a tired person, and it is a true one.
3. Israel survived what should have destroyed them
Notice how he put it. Israel survived what should have destroyed them “because God’s Provision was Greater than their Problems.” Think about your own record. The year you did not know how the rent would be paid. The night in the waiting room. The job you thought was gone. You are here. You may not have felt God in those days, but the provision was greater than the problem, and you are the evidence.
Try a simple exercise. Take a sheet of paper and list five things you were afraid of a year ago or five years ago. Next to each, write what actually happened. Most of us find the list does not look the way our fear predicted.
4. Do not let Egypt stay in your mind
The same message carries a warning that fits anxious people, and it is gentle if you read it carefully. Pastor Alan said, “Israel left Egypt in one night, But Egypt remained in their minds for years.” Their circumstances changed. Their thinking took longer.
If you have been through something hard, whether a loss, a hard season, or a crisis that frightened you, your mind may still be living there. That does not mean something is wrong with your faith. It means you are human and healing takes time. It also means there is a next step, which Romans 12:2 names: “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Renewing is gradual work. If you have a counselor or a doctor helping, keep going with them. They are part of the way forward.
5. Choosing is small and daily
Pastor Alan taught that “Your Future is not Determined by Chance. It is Shaped by Choices,” and that those things are “Built One Decision at a Time.” For a person who feels powerless against fear, that is good news in a modest form. You cannot choose whether the worry arrives. You can choose what you do in the next five minutes. You can choose to read Psalm 23 instead of the news. You can choose to call someone. You can choose to write down what God has already done.
Another of his lines is useful on a bad night: “You cannot always choose what happens to you, but you can choose how you think about it.” Not perfectly, and not alone. One decision at a time.
6. Tonight
Before you try to sleep, name one specific way God has been faithful to you. Say it out loud. Thank Him for it. Then hand Him the thing you are afraid of, and tell Him that you are choosing, tonight, to trust Him with it. If it comes back at 3 a.m., say it again.
If you are in the White House, Tennessee, area and would rather not walk through this alone, Today’s Victory Church meets Sundays at 3 p.m., and Thursday Bible Study is at 6:30 p.m. You do not have to have it together to walk in. If you are ever in immediate danger or thinking about hurting yourself, call or text 988 right now.
Scripture in this piece: Deuteronomy 30:19; Romans 12:2