The Top 5 Truths God Wants You to Know About Overcoming Anxiety and Depression

Posted on Oct 14, 2021 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Bonnie Gray

During one of the happiest chapters of my life, I suddenly started having panic attacks and debilitating insomnia. I was happily married with two boys, loved God, had friends, and yet the panic attacks came. I didn’t know why.I had never experienced physical abuse or fought on a battlefield. What my therapist said next stopped me in my tracks, “Did you know emotional abuse has the same impact as physical abuse?”

Healing parts of your heart may be the most powerful act of faith that God is calling you to make today.

Here are the Top 5 Myths and Truths about healing:

1. MYTH: Jesus commanded us not to worry in Matthew 6. If you worry, you’re sinning.
TRUTH: Jesus encourages us not to worry about money.

In Matthew 6:25, Jesus was not issuing a command that makes worry an act of sin, but He was giving us the reason why we can’t serve both God and money. He was also encouraging us not to worry about money because God will provide for us as He does for the birds of the air and the flowers in the field. So be at peace. God understands why you worry, and He loves you. He is a God of comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles (2 Corinthians 1:4).

2. MYTH: If you don’t have peace or joy, you must not be trusting God enough.
TRUTH: Emotional honesty is part of faith, and faith is the intimate act of trusting God with your real self instead of hiding how you feel or trying to do or be more.

Jesus tenderly whispers, “Don’t hide.” He invites us to come, and He promises to give rest to our souls (Matthew 11:28). We’re invited to come to Him weary, confused, numb, anxious, angry, or stressed. Jesus tells us to simply come as we are — imperfectly His.

3. MYTH: If you read God’s Word more, pray more, praise more, give thanks more, rejoice more, you will have peace that surpasses all understanding.
TRUTH: Faith is not emotional amnesia. Faith gives us the courage to face the brokenness of life and heal from the losses we’ve suffered.

Jesus Himself obeyed, prayed, praised, and gave thanks perfectly. Yet He suffered emotional trauma, overwhelmed by impending physical and emotional abuse, abandonment, and betrayal.

My soul is deeply troubled, overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Going a little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him.Mark 14:34-35 (NIV)

When the Apostle Paul encourages us not to be anxious but to pray, give thanks, and present our requests to God (Philippians 4:5-6), he was encouraging us to experience the peace in taking our problems to God rather than finding peace in our ability to solve them with our own understanding.

4. MYTH: The Bible says to forget the past and focus on what’s ahead.
TRUTH: God remembers the moments that break us. We go back to heal our past with Jesus, experiencing His love intimately and recovering all parts of our hearts with Him.

When the Apostle Paul said, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,” he wasn’t talking about erasing his past. If you read the rest of Philippians 3, you’ll discover he was referring to forgetting his old way of life as a Pharisee, focusing his worth on how things appeared and his spiritual performance. Paul was now focused on knowing Jesus intimately and sharing in the sufferings of Jesus.

5. MYTH: You don’t need a therapist. You just need Jesus and God’s Word.
TRUTH: If you look at most instances of healing in Scripture, someone had to step out in faith and take action to go somewhere, see someone, or ask for something.

If you’ve been hurt, you deserve to take care of yourself now that you’re safe to heal with Jesus. God’s Word will give you the strength to heal and investigate your emotional wounds. Just like God uses skilled doctors to help us heal from physical wounds, God uses therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists to help us heal our nervous system and process events that have wounded us.

You are worth valuing; your story is worth remembering. Again, God wants to heal us, not shame us. Let Him love you as you walk the journey toward healing, you’ll be amazed by the beauty, and you’ll be truly transformed by it.