I was standing at the checkout lane earlier when I glanced over to the magazines and one in particular caught my eye.  This time it wasn’t an article plastered on the cover about a delicious recipe.  All I saw was, “Walk Away Anxiety…The 7 Day Plan”  The wheels in my head just started churning away full speed ahead and I couldn’t wait to get home.  All day I jumped from making a grocery list, to a budget, checking emails.  Everything but writing.  I was lacking inspiration and here I was at the grocery store and BAM it hit me just like that.  ANXIETY!!!  We all have dealt with that beast of Anxiety at one time or another.  I nearly gave myself a heart attack allowing all these things at work to just get to me then I’d get home and pile that on.    I continued reading this cover, never once flipping through the pages.  Why?  The cover was more than enough to raise these eyebrows.  Topic after topic, “Reduce Your Stress For Good”, “The Pill-Free Way To Feel Less Anxious”, “Beat Anxiety Naturally Without Drugs”, “Foods That Will Calm Your Brain”.  WOW!!!

When I was going through my bout with that ugly horrid beast we know as ANXIETY, I am grateful that I never turned to any kind of pills, drugs, foods or anything of that nature that I’d depend on to make me feel good or better.  Instead I turned to God.  You might say, Ileen that’s easy for you to say.  But trust me when I tell you this, it was NOT easy as it sounds.  I still felt the rapid heartbeats and suffered severe headaches.  My health was being affected by all the stress and worry.  I just kept pushing towards God and believing in Him for my relief.  And He gave me just that.  I couldn’t just sit there feeling sorry for myself and or taking it out on others.  I had to find a way to deal with this but I knew I couldn’t do it on my own.  I NEEDED God.  I read my way through the bible finding scriptures that would ease this anxiety, the fear, the worry, the stress.  I sang to God even on days that I felt horrible.  And I’d cry to God.  Not one day would pass that I wasn’t leaning on God as my support.  As my rock.  When I say lean on God, believe me when I say, you only have to GAIN and not lose when you do.  When you trust in God and believe in what He can do for you, there is nothing that you will lose from this.  It took time before I was fully healed but day by day I would see a difference in me.  My attitude was changing.  My sleepless nights were fading into a deep sweet nights of rest.  I agree with one thing from this magazine cover, you don’t need pills or drugs and walking is a great way to release stress, as is exercise.  And I am a firm believer in God’s healing.  I believe in prayer and I believe in His word being the best medicine and therapy out there. I meditate on His word.  His promises to me and you.

Let me share with you how you can Pray Away Anxiety through scripture.  I searched through scripture for those comforting words reassuring me that everything would be fine.  I sought out those affirming words that my fears, my worries, my stress was nothing too big that God could not handle.  I searched for those words of strength I needed.  That reminder of how GREAT our God is.  I want you to know there is no obstacle too great, no problem too big for God.

Pray Away Anxiety –

7 Scriptures To Healing

• Matthew 6:25-27  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air;  they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feed them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
• Matthew 6:34  “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
• Proverbs 3:5  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”
• Proverbs 12:25  “Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.”
• John 14:27  “Peace I leave with you;  my peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
• Matthew 11:28  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
• Psalm 56:3  “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.”

Isn’t so reassuring knowing how much God loves us that when we turn to Him with all our worries, fears and frustrations, God gives us relief.  I pray that these 7 scriptures bring you the comfort they brought me.  I pray that as you read through these scriptures you find that peace knowing that God will take care of whatever circumstance you are facing today.

XOXO…Ileen

psst…God Loves You

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.  Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  1 Peter 5:6-7