If You’re Anxious, Your faith isn’t failing.
This past January and February, I was really struggling emotionally. You wouldn’t have been able to spot it in my personal interactions or when I was preaching on the platform. But I was filled with anxiety, not sleeping well, waking up at 2am with my brain ruminating on things completely outside my control. My joy had left and as hard as I tried, I couldn’t find it.
I'm a pastor. I believe deeply and fully in His goodness and His sovereignty. Yet, I was still anxious.
If you're in a similar place right now, I want you to read this carefully. Because I believe there’s a lie many Christians believe.
// The Lie We've Been Told
The lie goes something like this… if you had enough faith, you won’t struggle with anxiety. Spiritual maturity somehow means you've moved past anxiousness and worry. That real trust in God looks calm, collected, and unshaken. That’s one of the most damaging myths in the church today.
The Apostle Paul wrote what is arguably the most profound passage on anxiety in all of the Bible. And he wrote it from a prison cell, chained to a guard 24 hours a day, with no idea whether he'd be executed or set free. He wasn't writing as someone who wasn’t dealing with difficulty, he was writing from within it. And the church he was writing to? They were anxious too, about him, about conflict in their own congregation, and about things they couldn't control.
The fact that Paul had to write about anxiety tells us something important… God's people have always struggled with it. Anxiety isn't evidence of weak faith, it's evidence of being human.
// It Often Starts With Relationships
Before Paul gets to his famous prescription for worry in Philippians 4, he does something interesting. He calls out two women in the church who are in conflict with each other, Euodia and Syntyche. Two respected leaders in the church. Gifted women who had served alongside Paul, planted churches, and given their lives to the work of the Gospel. But here they were at war with each other. And the whole church knew it.
Paul addresses it publicly because he understands something… unresolved relational conflict is one of the most significant sources of anxiety in our lives. Research consistently confirms what we already know deep down, conflict with people we care about is among the top triggers for worry and stress.
So before he talks about the peace of God, he has to acknowledge the division in the room.
If you're reading this carrying unresolved tension with someone, a spouse, a friend, a family member, it might be worth sitting with that for a moment. Sometimes the path to peace with God runs directly through an honest conversation with another person.
// The Prescription = Prayer + Gratitude
"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done." — Philippians 4:6
That line "Don't worry about anything" can feel pretty dismissive when you're in the middle of something real and heavy. But Paul isn't telling us to just flip a switch. He's redirecting our energy. Instead of pouring it all into worry, pour it into prayer. Be honest with God. Be vulnerable with Him. Be specific. Tell God what you need.
But here's the part we often skip over… "...and thank him for all he has done."
Gratitude isn't an addition to prayer, it's part of the prescription.
Here's why that matters… anxiety almost always lives in the future. It's looking ahead, creating worst-case scenarios, imagining everything that could go wrong. Gratitude, on the other hand, is anchored in the past and present. It says, "Look what God has already done." It reminds you of who He is. It changes your perspective, not by denying your pain, but by placing it in a larger story of who God is.
What pulled me out of my own dark stretch this winter wasn't a book or some new habit. It was prayer and fasting. An intentional stop. Bringing my unfiltered, honest, anxiety to God and saying, "I'm done carrying this. It's Yours."
// Training Your Mind
Paul doesn't stop at prayer. He goes one step further, and it's here that this passage gets both deeply biblical and surprisingly scientific.
"Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise." — Philippians 4:8
"Fix your thoughts" …that phrase means to deliberately calculate. To make a conscious decision about where your mind goes. Paul knows our minds don't default to good things. He's saying you have to actively aim them in the right direction.
Modern neuroscience has spent decades catching up to what Paul wrote 2,000 years ago. Researchers have discovered something called neuroplasticity… the brain's ability to reorganize and form new neural pathways based on repeated thoughts and experiences. What you consistently focus your attention on, you literally strengthen. What you practice thinking becomes normal thinking.
The flip side is what researchers call negativity bias… our brains are wired to default to threats, problems, and worst-case scenarios. It's a survival mechanism. But in real-time, it means anxiety is our brain's default setting unless we actively train it otherwise.
There's a Mark Batterson quote I love… "Pray like it depends on God, but work like it depends on you."
That's exactly what Paul is saying here. The peace that guards your heart and mind, that's God's work. But the practice of fixing your thoughts? That's yours. God lifts the anxiety, but we have to aim our minds in the right direction, every single day.
// One More Thing
Sometimes anxiety isn't just a spiritual problem. Sometimes it's a biological one.
Some of you are wired, through genetics, trauma, or neurological chemistry, in a way that means your anxiety is more sensitive and reactive than the average person. That is not a character flaw. That is not a lack of faith. That is a physical reality.
For some people, the most courageous and faith-filled thing they can do is call a counselor or make a doctor's appointment. The brain is an organ. Sometimes organs need medical help. If you had high blood pressure, no one would question you about taking medication for it. There is no shame in getting help. Seeing a counselor or therapist requires humility, honesty, and the belief that God uses people to help people. That's not weakness, that's wisdom.
// finally
Again, Paul wrote Philippians 4 from a prison cell, chained to a guard. He had no idea whether he was going to see execution or freedom. He had every reason to be consumed with anxiety. Yet, he writes about a peace that "exceeds anything we can understand."
Understand, he's not describing peace as the absence of hard things. He's describing it as a protection, a guard stationed around your heart and mind, that holds even when everything around you is uncertain.
Here's what I've come to believe… The antidote to anxiety is prayer, gratitude, and a trained mind.
Not a perfect life. Not the absence of problems. Not emotions that somehow never gets rattled. But prayer that's honest and grateful. A mind that's being deliberately trained toward what is true, honorable, and good. And the humility to ask for help when you need it.
You're not failing at faith. You're fighting for it.
Let me leave you with three things…
Name the anxiety. Bring it to God honestly. He can handle your unfiltered thoughts.
Add gratitude to your prayer. Name something He's already done. It trains your heart toward trust.
Practice fixing your thoughts. What you repeat, you reinforce.
Keep looking up,
Pastor Alan is the lead pastor of Allegheny Center Alliance Church. To find out more about ACAC, go here.
