Learning to Interrupt Anxious Thoughts Through Prayer – Philippians 4:6-7

It was on year ago, September 2021, when I was officially diagnosed with anxiety. My unpredictable, constantly changing life circumstances had pushed me to my limit, and I knew I needed help managing my stress.  Thankfully, I found a wonderful, licensed counselor who equipped me with additional tools and resources to better manage life’s curve balls.

One tool she reminded me we all have is direct access to God through His Word. She taught me to disrupt my anxious thoughts by pausing and taking deep, slow breaths. Once the slow breathing calmed my nerves, I was instructed to replace my negative thinking with biblical truths.

After using this method for a year now, I’ve found one of my favorite verses to disrupt my anxiety is Philippians 4:6-7. It says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need. Thank Him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (NLT)”

As a Communications and Public Relations major in college, I was told constantly to tell my audience what to do. End every message with a call to action. The bible is FULL of calls to action and my PR brain has been trained to identify them whenever I read. Philippians 4:6-7 provides us with two calls to action, specific instructions for us to follow.

The first instruction is “don’t worry about anything.” Clear? Yes. Simple? No. God knew this was a challenge, so he provided additional instructions in the second command, “instead pray about everything.”

God is instructing us to stop worrying and to replace our anxiety with prayer. These verses give us two insights into how to pray. First, we should tell Him what we need. The simple act of asking God to give us what we need draws our attention away from our worry-inducing circumstances and to our all-powerful God. He already knows what we need but asking Him to fulfill those needs builds our faith and dependence on Him.

The second thing we are told to do is to, “thank Him for all He has done.” One of the best antidotes for anxiety is to remember all the blessings God has given you. It’s hard to freak out over my life’s stressors when I’m focused on celebrating the victories.

Now, here comes a really cool part! When we cease our worrying and commit instead to pray by asking God for what we need and thanking Him for all He already has given, God promises to give us His peace. And not just any peace, but peace unlike anything the world can give and beyond our full comprehension.

Verse 7 ends by saying, “His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” It’s pretty awesome that as we surrender our anxiety to God, He promises to provide the very thing our anxious hearts and minds need – peace. And that His peace will protect the very places our anxiety takes root – our hearts and minds. To experience this peace and the guardianship it provides, we must surrender all to Jesus.

I pray that as we navigate whatever stressors life brings our way, that we are able to disrupt our anxious thoughts by talking to Jesus and clinging to His incomprehensible peace.