I’ve dealt with anxiety for as long as I can remember. When I was little, I constantly had a suitcase packed with toys and clothes for emergencies. Each night when I went to bed, I was worried that our house would catch on fire, or someone would break in, or something bad would happen to my family. As a middle schooler, I dealt with insomnia and used to lay awake thinking all night. During high school, my “real world” anxiety crept up. I became anxious about money, my appearance, my future, and my family. In the middle of my junior year, I became depressed. I wore leggings and t-shirts every day, I was tired no matter what, I was sad and lonely, and I stopped doing my schoolwork.

When I first started having feelings of depression, I brought it up at a church retreat. When I was sharing, one of the ladies stopped me and said, “You’re not depressed. Depression isn’t from God.” As soon as she said that, I felt embarrassed and ashamed to have those thoughts and feelings.

After that day, I became so scared. I was scared that people would think I was less of a Christian or I was a crazy person because I thought I was depressed. I wouldn’t even say the word “depression” out loud.

Long story short, my doctor put me on some medication to help my body and my mind work together to get out of my period of depression. I began going to a counselor to help me process and work through some of my unhealthy thoughts. Since then, I work each day to process my thoughts in a healthy way and I have great tools to help me work through my anxiety.

Although I am in a much better place now, I still deal with anxiety all the time. I feel like to some extent everyone has anxiety about something. The list of things we get anxious about is endless: money, relationships, careers, appearance, health, social interaction, the future, family, etc.

Last week at Newspring Church in Anderson, Lee McDerment gave one of my favorite sermons I’ve ever heard. Lee shared some of his own struggles with anxiety, while also sharing tools from the Bible we can use to ease our anxiety.

I had two favorite quotes from McDerment during the service. The first is, “Anxiety is the fruit of the belief that God is going to let you down.”

He used the verses Philippians 4:4-7: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Basically, anything we choose to rely on other than God is going to let us down. No matter what it is, it will never give us what Salvation through Jesus will because God will never die. When Lee broke the verses down, he gave us a few main points that stand out.

The first is that “Rejoice in the Lord,” means to lean into His grace. His grace will never go away, there is nothing that can test his grace, break it, push the limits, or take it away.

The second is with the Holy Spirit, we can choose to be “reasonable.” The reason we can choose to be reasonable is because “The Lord is at hand.” He is with us always. He is behind us. He is in front of us. He is beside us. He is in us. Nothing can get to us without God’s approval. Go to him always and thank Him for what he has given us, thank him for salvation, thank him for everything.

The last point is my favorite. “The Peace of God” is so powerful. God wants us to have peace, it is not his desire for us to miserable. “The Peace of God” is such a comfort because we know that because Jesus lived a perfect life, died for us, and rose again, we will never die. WE WILL NEVER DIE. We get to sit in the presence of the God for eternity, what could be better?

My second favorite quote from McDerment was, “Peace is the fruit of the belief that God will never let me down.”

When we realize that God is with us on that stage when we are giving a speech in front of the class, we have peace.

When we realize that God is on the plane with us and he controls what happens, we have peace.