Faith and Anxiety

“If I have anxiety, doesn’t it mean I don’t have enough faith?”

It always breaks my heart to hear this question. I’ve heard it in other forms, such as:

“Does my doubt mean I don’t trust God?” 

“How can I be a Christian and struggle with anxiety?” 

“Is anxiety a sin?”

Look closely, and you’ll see that each one of these questions comes from shame.

Shame about anxiety.

Shame about fear.

Shame about doubt.

Shame Traps Us

Shame about emotions is one of Satan’s greatest tools in keeping Christians stuck in both spiritual and emotional deficits. If you have shame your propensity is to hide the issue versus dealing with the issue. Hiding keeps you from facing things that might otherwise help you grow closer to God. Satan loves to use shame because he knows it stymies our spiritual and emotional growth.

But if we move through the shame, we open ourselves up to healing and change and growth. And the irony is, shame was never meant to be a response to emotions. It was designed as an emotional response to sin.

Emotions Aren’t Sin

Sins are listed in the Bible as things we do–things we can willfully control. I might not be able to control feeling angry when someone wrongfully accuses me of something, but I can control how I respond in that anger. Also, there are things I can do to mitigate future anger, so it doesn’t become problematic. Anger isn’t the problem: What I do in and about it can be the problem.

The same is true for sadness, disappointment, and anxiety. Your emotions aren’t always healthy and can certainly become problematic, but they are never defined as sin in the Bible. Instead, they are responses to things happening around you and inside you. In other words, if you want to change your emotions, you need to change the things around you and inside you. Some of those things we can control, others we cannot.

Faith and Anxiety Come Together

Instead of pushing away my anxiety for fear it will mar my faith, I can hold space for these two seemingly opposing things. It's a space where anxiety and peace sit together at the table. It’s a space where I can sense everything is unstable, chaotic, uncertain, and in the same moment I choose to say to God, "Yours is the glory. Yours is the power. Yours is my life." I don't feel it. I don't understand it. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do with it. I just know I'm supposed to acknowledge it. And my acknowledgement is my act of faith.

Despite what shame tells me, my faith is real because I'm willing to  "ascribe to the LORD glory and strength" even when I can't see his glory or his strength. Over and over I do this, and little by little my heart and my emotions catch up to my faith. Sometimes, they line up. But they are never defined by each other.

Real faith isn’t the absence of fear and anxiety: It’s moving forward despite the fear and anxiety

Want more?

I address concerns about faith and anxiety–and more–in Week One of my book, Jesus for the Anxious. Preorder today and you’ll receive this amazing 8-week guide that dispels myths, teaches truth, and provides practical tools toward overcoming anxiety.