overcoming anxious thoughts.

meghan geiser
Oct 25, 2018
4 min read

God has been trying to coax out a message about gaining control over fearful thoughts and I’ve intentionally placed a blind spot on His words. But all of a sudden, He moved me to see that there are a great number of His children held captive by a lie about His character. So I’m quieting down to get humble and hear Him speak into it; crouching down and pressing my ear to the Earth to receive every bit of these freedom words. Because it’s a desperate climate. He's shown me a sea of followers who believe God actually wants to keep people helpless and defenseless so that He can get all the glory of rescuing them. He wants them laying in gutters, weak and suffering, waiting on His return before they experience deliverance. False. God wants to break your suffering NOW. He wants to raise life from death on EARTH, not just in Heaven. He doesn’t want you to resign to human frailty with no hope until Heaven, He doesn’t want you to just borrow the Kingdom’s strength, He wants to teach you to build it. If you are tormented by fear, anxiety, obsessive thoughts, anxious feelings and feel too paralyzed to even approach reparation, I ask you to breathe. Be slow. Be gentle. There is a building going on, a reparation, and God has said, “I am DONE with peace being stolen from my children.” He is putting His foot down, and you should too. He has invited you into the building. Called you by name to break out of your old shackles and into a new battle – a battle for peace, for inner calm, and stability that is foreign to your current season.

So we have 2 small goals: Break out of the lie God has shown me. Learn that we can stand up to our own thoughts.

A while back, I was sending up desperate cries for a way to shut down attacks of fearful and anxious thoughts. To sound-proof my mind and throw up steel plates against outside confusion. My voice was getting hoarse, but God finally spoke a short devotional and said, “Feed the truth + starve the fear.” He spoke as if the answer came from inside of me, not outside of me. I saw paranoia and anxiety press in from the outside, so I begged Him to build tall walls to shelter me. Close me in, instead of sending me out. Like parents who put their kids in a plastic bubble to protect them from germs. But just because you’re not sick, doesn’t mean you’re healthy. He doesn’t want to protect us from germs, but build up our immune systems. He doesn’t lower Himself to our expectations of deliverance – He raises us to His.

"Feed the truth + starve the fear." Click to tweet

When He saw me, He said “I’m not going to leave you in helplessness. I’m not giving you the reprieve you expect, because it’s not good enough. Instead, I’m going to make you strong.” Why would we settle for merely coping with the Enemy’s attacks when we can destroy them completely? Far greater is the gift of learning how to sustain peace than simply being sheltered. In that short instruction, He taught me there is nothing to fear in the wilderness, except not knowing how to take care of myself. Our God is a better God than one who does everything for us. He’s a better God than telling us we’re not strong enough to fight for peace or learn how to build it. Instead, He shows us how to weave sustainability from the barest threads. Knit ourselves a thick, sturdy blanket so that when chaos comes, we know how to stand our ground. He’ll teach us balance; pull us into His intuition, have our ear to the door of the Throne Room so we can recognize there is something inside of us capable of learning health.

So, in case no one has told you this, you have the right, the power, the authority to talk back to your own thoughts. To say, “No.” “That’s not true.” “That’s an exaggeration of the negative.” “That’s a distorted reality.” “That is not who I am. That does not describe me. That is not my identity. I know this because God made me good, capable, strong, and pure.” “That’s wrong and I’m not listening to it.” “I am not the past. I’m renewed.” And then you actively choose to walk away. To change the channel of your mind. To think about literally anything else. Move on + be present + focus on the good that needs your talent/thoughts/presence. What doesn’t eat will die. What is fed will flourish. It’s so simple, it might actually be the hardest exercise you’ve ever done. Try it. For 1 month. 1 month of replacing anxious thoughts with good, healthy truth that intimates you all the more with a Kingdom mentality. And in case the Enemy has your ears too plugged up to hear Heaven speak over you, this is who you are: You are not helpless. You are invited into the building. You are not broken. You are a remedy. You are not captive. You are forgiven. You are not a victim. You've inherited Victory.