Trust God: Finding Peace, Freedom from Anxiety

If you need freedom from anxiety and worry, there is path to peace. But how? How do we practically get set free from worry and anxiety?

In small group, they asked a great question this week that holds the key to finding peace:

How did you learn to trust God?

In my early years with Jesus, before I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, I would read God’s Word and it felt so far from my experience in real life. Jesus would say things like:

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and 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,” Philippians 4:6-7.

Don’t worry, Instead Pray:

Over time, I kept trying to practice Jesus’s instructions to not worry about anything and instead pray. So big or small, if I worried about it, then I prayed about it. (And I worried a lot!) So this practice alone is one that taught me to be in constant prayer throughout the day. Mostly because I worried so much! (Ha!)

But God forged those worries and anxiety into a tool that helped me become prayerful about everything. And I mean everything. From finding the right gift for a toddler’s birthday party to facing my husband’s deployment to praying for a good haircut this time to helping me schedule my day.

As I began to pray about every little worry that popped up, I started to see God come through. To my delight and surprise, He answered prayer for the smallest things. Truly inconsequential things in the span of history. But very important to me at the time. As I saw God provide for such little things, I grew to trust Him more and more.

Freedom from Anxiety and Worry:

And as I practiced this habit, worry has slipped away from me. To the point that if a worry crosses my mind nowadays, it feels like a foreign thing. (This is miraculous because worry used to be my constant and normal.) And if or when a worry does pop in, a prayer quickly shoos it away. I share this because I want you to know that Jesus’s Words are true and trustworthy and a worry-free life is really possible for you!

This is miraculous because when my progesterone tanked to next to nothing (that’s your calm-down, anti-anxiety hormone), my anxiety was so high that I was practically in terror just walking to my car in the parking lot. But God set me free completely and He can do that for you too!

Trustworthy with Little and with Much:

My worry about catastrophes and traumas that happened only in my fictitious imagination, tethered me to the Lord in prayer. This was an incredible grace because I was later thrown into many truly traumatic crisis situations. Situations where God’s answers and provisions didn’t come through for months, years, or even decades.

But because I learned I could trust God in little things, I was able to still trust Him with monumental things. Smaller things like trusting God with my grocery bill or healing the pain in my wrist grew a faith in me that God can be trusted in big things like failing health, the death of my beloved, and the instability of move after move.

Jesus taught us that, “Anyone who can be trusted in little matters can also be trusted in important matters.” Luke 16:10. Yes, it’s a lesson that we need to be trustworthy. But I think it’s also an invitation to find that Jesus is equally faithful with little and therefore trustworthy with much.

Peace Comes From Trusting God:

Lastly, let’s look at Romans 15:13 because it holds a key to finding peace and freedom from worry:

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

This verse breaks down how we can find peace. It shows us the two-way street to peace. Our job is to trust in God. And as we trust in God, God will fill us with hope and joy and peace.

I first came to this verse when my husband was deployed. God did a lot to free me from worry during that long deployment, a big part of how He set me free was through this verse, teaching me how to press in and trust God more and more.

More Resources:

If you are struggling with anxiety or worry and need more support, here are some of my favorite resources.

1. A book by Linda Dillow called Calm My Anxious Heart was my first introduction to how to get free from worry and anxiety. It was a foundational book for me. Here’s one of my favorite excerpts from the book on the Secret of Contentment and here’s a post on how to find peace When Seasons Change.
2. A video by Radiant Church called Break Free from Anxiety and Worry. Pastor Todd Hudnall does an excellent job of deep diving into how to find freedom from anxiety as well. I highly recommend the entire Break Free series where you can find teaching on how to get free from bitterness, addiction, regret, control, shame… You name it, there’s freedom in Christ for it!
3. Memorizing and thinking on Romans 15:13.
4. Soaking Prayer and rest in God’s truth. I like to listen to Scriptures set to music by Hidden in My Heart each night. They have a beautiful version of Philippians 4:6-7.