Anxiety is a universal human experience. It is the topic of podcast interviews, debates, medical studies, and books, and it is something counselors and doctors specialize in to try and understand in a biological context. People deal with anxiety in different ways and learn how to cope and combat it. How can such a thing as prayer help someone deal with anxiety? Though prayer is often looked upon with scorn as wishful thinking and merely talking to yourself, prayer is actually a conversation with a good and loving Creator whose agape love transcends time and space. The great Christian writer, C. S. Lewis, argued that prayer could never be refuted nor proven empirically, but that it was a real subjective experience for millions of Christians around the world who know Christ with their mind and heart. Many Christians have used The Book of Common Prayer, Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of The Presence of God, and particular verses from Scripture to help them when struggling with anxiety. This verse from Psalm 43:5 especially resonates with those who struggle with anxiety:
“Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.”
My Personal Experience with Anxiety
Speaking from personal experience, I have had intense struggles with anxiety related to father abandonment issues, toxic fundamentalist theology, and family genetics. How have I found healing in dealing with these struggles with anxiety? I will give a few anecdotes that will hopefully help someone who struggles with anxiety. It has not been easy being so vulnerable in writing and in conversation about my struggles with anxiety, but I have found it to be very meaningful to help others who struggle with it.
One afternoon I found myself very anxious about whether I was going to get the job, was worried about some family members that were sick, and if I was going to be able to get caught up on my rent. The fact that I was getting ready to move from the mountains of North Carolina to Scotland to pursue an M.A. in library science at The University of Strathclyde in Glasgow added to the different things that I was anxious about. I was in the process of leaving everything behind- all my community, family, and the dear town of Black Mountain I had called home for the past seven years. I asked myself if I was going to be able to handle being away from my community? Would I fail at this big adventure? I found myself overwhelmed, I could hardly focus and started to slip into a wretched funk of depression.
In that struggle, there was no St. Paul of Damascus light from heaven theophany experience. Sometimes, this kind of miraculous experience does happen when someone is in a desperate plight. Indeed, many intelligent Christians attest to this, yet it did not happen when I was having an anxiety attack. As much as I desired that, it did not come to pass. What did happen though, was in my desperate plight, I felt the comfort of the Holy Spirit as I prayed a prayer of panic and anxiety.
The verse “Be still and know that I am God” from the Psalms came to my mind. The struggle with anxiety did not go away, but in that struggle, I knew that Christ was with me, that I was not alone, and that I could trust him. Knowing that I was not alone when I was having an anxiety attack brought me a peace that did surpass all understanding, even though I was struggling. Faith is not a delusion, but is based on reason, and begins where reason has its limits- faith, reason, and the imagination all correlate together by grace.
Practical Ways to Help Your Anxiety
Faith is something that one has to cultivate, and despite the struggles with anxiety and all the existential doubts one can have, these struggles do, as I have found, strengthen one’s faith. Emotions are important, but they cannot be relied upon fully, as I found out years ago.
Anxiety is a very real existential experience that simply cannot be rebuked by repeating a particular scripture, or defeated by a certain type of medication, though anxiety medication can certainly help someone. Anxiety is a struggle that millions of people around the world wrestle with on an everyday basis. Sometimes medication is an incredibly useful resource to help combat anxiety. On my own journey I have taken it, but the doctor I had, who is one of the most compassionate and intelligent Christians that I know, told me not to view the medication as a crutch, but as something that God has provided to help me.
I have not been on medication for anxiety in quite a while, but to this day I still struggle with anxiety and probably will for the rest of my life. How do I combat anxiety? Through daily rhythms of prayer and scripture reading, journaling, going to Glasgow Cathedral, having conversations with friends, going for walks, reading, writing, and working on different creative projects for publication. For yourself, combating anxiety might involve hiking, meditating, swimming, surfing, painting, sewing, or other things. It will look different for everyone.
Prayers to Pray When You're Struggling with Anxiety
Whatever it might be causing you anxiety currently, may this prayer from poet, monk, and writer Thomas Merton bring you comfort as it has to me:
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the
road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor
do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following
Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe
that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I
have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do
anything apart from that desire. And I know that, if I do this, You
will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost and
in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for You are ever with me,
and You will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen.”
- Thomas Merton
As Christians, we are called to help bear one another's burdens. Whether one is single or married, one can feel quite lonely, get lost in their mind, and feel as if no one understands. Many Christians throughout the centuries have struggled with anxiety in different ways and have been of great encouragement to those that have struggled with anxiety, whatever the context might be or degree of the anxiety. Below is a prayer from Scottish writer George MacDonald’s Diary of An Old Soul, published in 1880.
“Take from me leisure, all familiar places;
Take all the lovely things of earth and air
Take from me books; take all my precious faces;
Take words melodious, and their songful linking;
Take scents, and sounds, and all thy outsides fair;
Draw nearer, taking, and, to my sober thinking,
Thou bring'st them nearer all, and ready to my prayer.”
Below is a prayer I have written that will hopefully help Christians in their struggle with anxiety.
In Matthew 28:10, Jesus tells his troubled disciples not to worry or be afraid. Like that moment in the first century when Jesus was comforting his disciples when they were struggling with anxiety, so does He comfort us now in our difficult struggles with anxiety. Although it can certainly seem sometimes that we have been abandoned by Christ, He is always with us, just as He promised.
“Christ, you are The Great Artist who is making all things new in this broken and hurting world. Please help me in my struggles with anxiety. Remind me that my hope, joy, and identity is found in you, and that you are always with me. Give me the courage and strength needed for each day, and help me on my journey of faith to be a blessing to others who have struggles with anxiety like myself. Amen!”
Photo credit: ©GettyImages/sdominick
Justin Wiggins is an author who works and lives in the primitive, majestic, beautiful mountains of North Carolina. He graduated with his Bachelor's in English Literature, with a focus on C.S. Lewis studies, from Montreat College in May 2018. His first book was Surprised by Agape, published by Grant Hudson of Clarendon House Publications. His second book, Surprised By Myth, was co-written with Grant Hudson and published in 2021. Many of his recent books (Marty & Irene, Tír na nÓg, Celtic Twilight, Celtic Song, Ragnarok, Celtic Dawn) are published by Steve Cawte of Impspired.
Wiggins has also had poems and other short pieces published by Clarendon House Publications, Sehnsucht: The C.S. Lewis Journal, and Sweetycat Press. Justin has a great zeal for life, work, community, writing, literature, art, pubs, bookstores, coffee shops, and for England, Scotland, and Ireland.
This article is part of our prayer resources meant to inspire and encourage your prayer life when you face uncertain times. Remember, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, and God knows your heart even if you can't find the words to pray.
Prayers for Healing
Morning Prayers
Prayers for Family
Prayers for Surgery
Prayers for Strength
Night Prayers Before Bed
Prayers for Protection
The Lord's Prayer: Our Father
