And an updated version:
Prayer for When Anxiety Strikes
James 4:8: “Come near to God, and he will come near to you.”
Psalm 55:16-17, 22: “But I call to God, and the Lord saves me. Evening, morning, and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice…. Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.”
Philippians 4:6-7: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you…. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
2 Corinthians 12:9: “But [the Lord] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in [your] weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
Psalm 62:5: “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.”
Lord, You say that we can present to You all of our concerns and needs, that we can cry out to You in our distress. You say that You will never let us fall, that You will sustain us, that we will be filled with Your peace if we pray with thanksgiving. Well, I am pouring out my fears, doubts, and concerns to You right now. I am weak and scared and don’t know what to do. I need You. I am casting my cares on You because they are too heavy for me. I am putting them in Your hands and letting them go because they are crushing me. (Maybe list your concerns one by one and pray them over to God.) You say that when we are weak, Your power shines. When we are weak, You are strong. Please be my strength right now.
I thank You that You always hear my cry, that You are always ready to help me when I call out to You and draw near to You. I thank You for the eternal forgiveness You offer me through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. Because of His death for my sins, I can go to heaven. [If you haven’t accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior yet, do so now.] I thank You for Your continued forgiveness for the times I fail. We will all continue to stumble throughout life, but You promise that if we confess our sins, You will forgive them (1 John 1:9) and restore our souls. [Confess any known sins to God right now.] I thank You for Your faithfulness in the past, how You have helped me through hard times before, how You pick me up when I fall, how You won’t abandoned anyone who sincerely calls on You. I thank You that You can handle the things I can’t. That You are strong when I am weak and scared. Even now, in the pain and fear, I know You are there for me, protecting me in ways I don’t even know about. And I thank You.
Lord, please, I need Your peace right now, the kind of peace that protects my heart and mind in Christ Jesus. I feel scared and vulnerable and fragile and so broken. I have no peace of my own, no hope, no rest. And I cannot find it in anything in this world. And so I look to You right now for true peace and hope and rest. Please, Lord, give me the peace, hope, and rest that You promise those who seek You and call on You. Surround me with Your heavenly angels to protect me from the evil which seeks to cause me more pain. Thank You for being a God who truly cares about me, who won’t abandon me in my pain. Thank You for being faithful and for being there for me, even if no one else is. You are enough for me. I put my hope in You right now, not in my circumstances or in myself or in other people, and I ask that You grant my soul comfort and rest as I trust in You.
In Jesus’s name, Amen
Also, a note from November 28, 2017:
Just yesterday (November 27), I got so "stress sick" over a health concern for one of my children. Lately, it seems as if I have been falling into a huge, black hole of despair where all I can do is cry out to the Lord, "Please, come back. I hate this place. I hate life sometimes. I want You to come back and get us out of here. Please, come back, Lord."
I have really been hurting inside. And the stress of everything makes me feel like I just want this life to be over. I want Jesus to come back again. I feel so little hope or peace or rest. And this is not an easy place to be in. It makes every day a chore. I'm struggling. I'm really struggling.
But in between the tears yesterday and the "sick to my stomach" feeling and the tension pain in my back, I found two things that helped.
1. As I felt myself starting to spiral into full-fledged panic, I thought to myself, "I can't do it anymore. I can't carry this burden. The fear, the unknown. I can't have this decision rest on me. I'm not strong enough. I'm cracking."
And that's when it hit me (again) that sometimes there's only one thing to do when you feel like the anxiety will break you and you are too weak to carry a burden ... and that's to drop it.
Just drop that burden right there on the ground in your mind and tell the Lord, "I'm done with this burden. I can't carry it anymore. I'm not strong enough. And so I'm dropping it at Your feet right now. You are going to have to do something with it. You are going to have to carry it and sort it out, because trying to do it on my own is killing me. I'm done. It's Yours now. I trust You more than I trust myself anyway. Please, carry this burden for me. I'm done with it!"
Of course, that doesn't mean that we won't still have to make a decision eventually or take some sort of action, but it does mean that we can rest in Him until then - until He shows us the next step, when it's time to take it.
I can make myself so sick struggling with the "what ifs" and "but what abouts," with speculation and the unknown details, with the fear of this possibility or that possibility.
But God promises to lead us in the right path if we abide in Him. We don't have to know all the details ahead of time. (We don't get to know the details ahead of time anyway, no matter how much we try to figure it out.) We don't have to wonder about "what if" and "but what about." He knows all that already. We just have to listen for when He says it's time to do something. And until then, sometimes the only thing we can do is drop our fears and anxieties at His feet, declare that we are done with them for now, and let Him worry about them for us.
2. And once again, I am brought back to the incredible power and encouragement of praying Scripture, of praying God's truth. This morning, I decided that instead of praying in despair that God would come back and end it all, I was going to find some biblically-sound prayers that other people posted on-line, prayers that relate to anxiety and spiritual warfare. And I prayed them out loud. And as I did, I could feel a small bit of peace flood my anxious soul and slowly grow.
https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/prayer/prayers/a-prayer-for-spiritual-warfare.html
http://www.inspirational-prayers.com/spiritual-warfare-prayers.html
http://www.focus-on-prayer.com/Spiritual-Warfare-Prayer.html
While these prayers are not necessarily "praying Scripture" prayers, they are good, helpful, truth-filled prayers. And there are links to other specific prayers on the side-bars of these sites. If you still need more prayers, google things like "prayers for spiritual warfare" or "praying Scripture back to God" or "prayers for fear, anxiety, encouragement, etc." And see what other godly people share. Just be discerning and steer clear of ones that sound too "out there," too mystical and not biblically-sound. (For starters, try http://greatbiblestudy.com if you are looking for some emotional help and spiritual warfare information. I haven't read it all, but it's worth a look.)
When our own words fail us or cause us more anxiety, turn to Scripture, to God's Truth, to helpful words from other godly people, to the reality of spiritual warfare and how to battle in it, and even to godly music (click on the links in the side-bar).
And if you want to make your own "Scripture-based prayers" the way I do, simply find verses that speak to what you are going through and then reword them into a prayer, relevant to you and adding the proper pronouns to make it personal. Remind God of His promises and remind yourself of His truth. And then pray these prayers out loud. Write them down even, if you want to. These prayers seem to carry so much more weight and power than our own words do, especially when our own words are filled with panic and fear and despair.
For more encouragement, also see https://lovehealme.blogspot.com/2017/08/war-rooms-praying-scripture-and.html
(This post is linked up at https://holleygerth.com/blog/ and http://www.godsizeddreams.com)
