How Do You Deal With Anxiety From Overthinking About Stuff That Is Unknown?

When the Unknown Triggers Anxiety, I Return to What Is True

 

For me, the first and best answer is prayer, because I have to remember (and I do forget) that I do not control anything: not my next breath, not whether I wake up tomorrow, not what news I’ll hear next week. So when my mind starts running ahead of my life, I try to bring my mind back under the Lord’s hand, because He is the One who actually holds my times (Ps 31:14–15). That’s why Scripture keeps calling us back to trust, not because life is easy, but because God is faithful. I’ve learned that anxiety often grows in the gap between what I can’t control and what I’m trying to control anyway. 

 

When I talk about “anxiety,” I’m not talking about a mild concern. I’m talking about the racing thoughts, the “what if” loop, and the sleepless nights that show up when I’m staring at an unknown I can’t solve. Recently, my anxiety centered on health, waiting on test results and hearing a wrong diagnosis first. That month of waiting exposed something in me: I feared forgetting who God is more than I feared anything else, and I cried out to Him in the night, asking Him, “Please, never let me forget You.” In that season, I leaned hard on the promise that God is near to the brokenhearted (Ps 34:18) and that He keeps our minds in peace when we keep them stayed on Him (Isa 26:3), even when nothing feels settled yet. 

 

Here’s what overthinking sounds like for me: it’s the endless mental checklist that never ends- reading, writing, chores, health, income, responsibility- and it’s like an inner voice that won’t shut up. Overthinking pretends it is wisdom, but most of the time it is anxious control. Wise planning prepares, but anxious control panics. Wise planning can say, “I will do what I can today,” and then rest; anxious control says, “If I don’t keep spinning this in my head, everything will fall apart.” Scripture confronts that lie gently but directly: “Be anxious for nothing…in everything by prayer…let your requests be made known to God” (Phil 4:6–7). Not “some things,” not “easy things,” everything. 

 

Jesus also addresses the unknown head-on. He tells us not to worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about its own things (Matt 6:34). He points to birds and lilies, not as poetry, but as a rebuke to the illusion that worry can add one cubit to our stature or secure the future (Matt 6:25–34; Luke 12:22–26). And this is the part we miss: Jesus doesn’t shame us for being human; He calls us to seek first the kingdom of God, because the Father already knows what we need (Matt 6:25–34). Anxiety tells me, “I have to carry my life.” Jesus tells me, “Bring that burden to Me” (Matt 11:28–30). That is not weakness; that is discipleship. 

 

So what does it look like when I “give it to God”? For me, it means I stop letting the problem live only in my head. I talk it out sometimes to a trusted friend, sometimes out loud in prayer, and I keep repeating the truth until my heart remembers it: patience is faith, and faith learns to wait without spiraling. “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you” (Ps 55:22). “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Pet 5:7). Those aren’t decorative verses; they are survival verses. 

 

One of the most practical lines that steadies me quickly is still Proverbs 3:5–6: “Trust In The Lord With All Your Heart, Do Not Lean On Your Own Understanding, In All Your Ways, Acknowledge Him, And He Will Direct Your Paths.” When my mind is spiraling, I can feel myself leaning on my own understanding like it’s a life raft, and it isn’t. That’s where I also need the battle verse: taking thoughts captive (2 Cor 10:5). The battle begins in the mind, and if I let my thoughts run wild, my body follows them into fear, fatigue, irritability, and despair. 

 

I also learned something important through that health scare: Community Matters. I brought it to my Christian friends, and we prayed weekly while we waited. It wasn’t magic; it was fellowship. It was the body of Christ doing what the body of Christ is supposed to do: carry burdens and help someone stand when they’re tired (2 Cor 1:3–4; Heb 13:5–6). Sometimes the answer God gives is not a “why,” but a “with.” “I will never leave you nor forsake you” is not sentimental; it is a line we cling to when the unknown is loud (Heb 13:5–6; Deut 31:6; Josh 1:9). 

 

Now, I’ll be honest: I still wrestle with the urge to be “perfectly prepared,” and that mindset feeds overthinking. I can feel the temptation to believe, “If I do more, I’ll finally feel safe.” But safety isn’t found in more control; it is found in the Lord who sees, knows, and cares. He is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble (Ps 46:1–3). He brings peace that the world cannot give (John 14:27). And He doesn’t promise a tribulation-free life; He promises His peace inside tribulation (John 16:33). 

 

So if you’re stuck in “what if” thinking right now, here is what I would tell you plainly: do what you can do today, and then stop acting like you are God. Pray. Ask for wisdom (James 1:5–6). Hand the rest to the Lord and go to sleep. If you wake up, praise God; if you don’t, praise Him anyway, because to be absent from this world is to be with Christ, and everything is finally made right. Either way, the Lord is good, and He knows those who trust in Him (Nah 1:7; Rom 8:28). 

 

And when you need one sentence to carry with you, I’ll give you the one I use to remind myself where this battle starts:

“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny”—so by God’s grace, I’m bringing my thoughts back under the obedience of Christ (2 Cor 10:5). 

Book: I Cannot Give You What I Do Not Have: Finding Unconditional Love in Christ 

I Cannot Give You What I Do Not Have: Finding Unconditional Love in Christ

 

Study Guide: I Cannot Give You What I Do Not Have: Companion Study Guide: Healing Generational Wounds Through 40 Devotions

 

#ChristianAnxiety, #Overthinking, #TrustGod, #FaithOverFear, #BiblicalCounseling, #Philippians4, #Matthew6, #Proverbs3, #ScriptureTruth, #MentalHealthAndFaith, #Prayer, #ChristianEncouragement 

What’s The Best Mental Approach To Deal With Rejection?

The Best Mental Approach to Rejection Is Remembering Who We Belong To 

 

The best mental approach to rejection starts with one decision: I will not let a human response become the final verdict on my value. That sounds simple, but it is one of the hardest disciplines in life, because rejection doesn’t just touch our emotions; it threatens our sense of worth. For me, the first step is to properly frame rejection. Rejection is not always a statement about my character. Sometimes it is a statement about expectations. Sometimes it is a statement about timing. Sometimes it is a statement about values. And sometimes it is simply a statement about another person’s limitations, blindness, or pain. If I don’t frame rejection, I will personalize it, and then I will start living like a slave to approval, chasing that hamster wheel of “not enough.” 

 

1) Separate Correction From Rejection 

One of the most freeing things I can do is ask: Was I corrected, or was I rejected? Correction can be a gift even when it stings because it can make me better. Rejection, on the other hand, can be nothing more than someone choosing not to align with me, not to understand me, or not to value what I’m offering. If I confuse the two, I will either become defensive when I should grow, or crushed when I should keep moving. Scripture doesn’t teach me to live fragile. It teaches me to live rooted. Jesus said the storms will come, but the life that holds is the one built on rock, hearing His words and doing them (Matt 7:24–27). That means when rejection hits, I don’t run to panic; I run to foundation. 

 

2) Anchor Identity In God’s Acceptance, Not People’s Approval 

This is where I have to be honest: people-pleasing is a trap. It looks like humility, but it is often fear: fear of man, fear of losing status, fear of being disliked, fear of being left. Scripture warns me plainly: if I still live to please men, I cannot live as Christ’s servant (Gal 1:10). The mental shift is this: I don’t need everyone to approve of me if God is for me. Romans 8 doesn’t speak softly; it speaks like a fortress. If God is for us, who can be against us? Who can bring a charge? Who can condemn? And who can separate us from the love of Christ? (Rom 8:31–39). Rejection is real, but it is not ultimate. Human rejection can hurt me, but it cannot define me because God’s love is not fragile, and His grip is not weak (Rom 8:31–39; Heb 13:5–6). 

 

3) Expect Rejection If You Follow Christ, Don’t Be Shocked By It 

A major part of staying steady is learning not to be surprised. Scripture tells us, “Do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial” (1 Pet 4:12–14). Jesus told us plainly: if the world hates you, remember it hated Him first (John 15:18–20). This matters because many people collapse under rejection because they didn’t expect it. They assumed following God would mean smooth roads and universal applause. But Jesus lived rejected, misunderstood, and opposed, yet He did not lose stability because He knew who He was, why He came, and where He was going. If I remember that, I stop treating rejection like an emergency and start treating it like something the Lord can use: either to refine me or redirect me. 

 

4) Rejection Can Become A Refining Tool Or A Root Of Bitterness 

Rejection can do two things: 

·      It can shape me into someone wiser, stronger, and humbler, or 

·      It can poison me, turning into bitterness, cynicism, and isolation. 

 

The danger is not just the rejection itself; it’s what I do with it afterward. If I replay it, ruminate on it, compare myself, and build false stories in my head, I am giving rejection more power than it deserves. So I have to respond with discipline: renew my mind (Rom 12:2), refuse anxiety (Phil 4:6–7), and bring my heart back under God’s care (1 Pet 5:6–7; Ps 55:22). If my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take care of me (Ps 27:10). That is not poetry to me it’s survival. 

 

5) Practical Steps That Keep Me Steady After Rejection 

Here’s what helps me in real life, not just in theory: 

·      Stop replaying the moment. I don’t need to rehearse pain to honor it. 

·      Return to routine. Sleep, work, writing, responsibilities life doesn’t end because someone rejected me. 

·      Pray and release the weight to God. He is my refuge and strength (Ps 46:1–3). 

·      Ask: Is this rejection a redirection? Sometimes God closes doors to keep me from wasting years. 

·      Keep moving forward. “Do not grow weary while doing good” (Gal 6:9). 

·      Set boundaries when needed. If a relationship has become caustic to my walk with Christ, it may need distance, not hatred, not revenge, but wisdom. And when rejection is tied to righteousness when people revile you or exclude you because you belong to Christ Scripture does something shocking: it calls that blessed (Matt 5:10–12; Luke 6:22–23). Not because pain feels good, but because it proves alignment. 

 

Closing

So the best mental approach to rejection is not pretending it doesn’t hurt. It is placing rejection inside the larger truth: God is with me, God is for me, God is shaping me, and God will finish what He started. And if I can hold that, I can live steadily prepared for the unexpected because I have come to know the God who goes before me, walks beside me, and holds me up when I stumble (Isa 41:10; Josh 1:9; Rom 8:31–39). 

 

#Rejection, #ChristianEncouragement, #BiblicalCounseling, #FaithOverFear, #Romans8, #PeoplePleasing, #IdentityInChrist, #MentalHealthAndFaith, #RenewYourMind, #Prayer, #HopeInChrist, #Perseverance 

Why Some People Grow Through Struggles—and Why Others Quit Too Soon

Why do some people grow through struggles while others give up? In this opinion, the difference often comes down to what we ascribe to the struggle. Some people see hardship as meaningless punishment, and they collapse under it. Others, sometimes with the same pain, and sometimes with even worse pain, eventually begin to see that the struggle can produce something in them that comfort never could. That does not mean suffering is good. It means God can use what is painful to build something that lasts. I also want to say this carefully: this is not true in the same way for every person or every situation. Across history, many people tragically end their suffering by ending their lives. Others survive and then turn around and help people who are drowning because they do not want anyone else to suffer the way they suffered. 

 

1) What “Struggle” Does To Us Depends On What We Believe It Means 

Most of us do not feel a sense of growth while we are in the middle of a trial. We feel alone. We feel stuck. We feel like tomorrow will be the same as today, as it was yesterday. That hopeless loop is one of the first warning signs that a person is giving up on the inside. But Scripture gives us a different framework: trials test faith, and testing produces patience (James 1:2–4). And Paul lays it out like a chain reaction: tribulation produces perseverance; perseverance produces character; and character produces hope (Rom 5:3–5). That hope is not make-believe. It is rooted in God’s love being poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5). When I can see my trial through that lens, I stop interpreting pain as “God forgot me,” and I start seeing it as training, sometimes slow, sometimes painful like a Father shaping His child (Heb 12:7–11). 

 

2) Why Some People Give Up: Drift Starts Before The Fall 

Giving up can look like a person taking their life, and that is heartbreaking. But giving up can also look like someone numbing out, isolating, turning cold, or walking away from God because they believe God is no longer interested in them personally. A lot of times the drift begins with simple neglect: I stop praying. I stop taking in the Word. I stop fellowshipping with believers. Then doubt grows because I am not feeding truth. And once doubt takes root, deception is not far behind (Heb 3:12–14). Sin hardens. Hopelessness thickens. The person starts living by sight rather than by faith (2 Cor 4:16–18). Jesus even warned that some receive the Word with joy, but because there is no root, they endure only a while; then tribulation comes, and they stumble (Matt 13:20–21). 

 

3) Why Some People Grow: Identity And Meaning Keep Them Standing 

I believe perspective and identity are huge. Many believers do not understand who we are in Christ, what He has accomplished for us, and what it means that God calls us His and that He is not finished with us. That is where the accuser gains ground, because we start believing we are disqualified instead of disciplined, rejected instead of refined. But Scripture keeps pulling us back: God knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold (Job 23:10). And sometimes the affliction itself becomes a teacher: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.” (Ps 119:71). Paul says outwardly we may be perishing, but inwardly we can be renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:16). And when we stop staring only at what is seen, we remember that what is unseen is eternal (2 Cor 4:17–18). That is not denial. That is direction. 

 

4) Expectations Can Crush Us—Or They Can Be Surrendered 

Expectations are some of the most damaging thoughts we allow into our minds. People-pleasing makes us chase acceptance like a hamster on a wheel. Even worse, we chase our own impossible standards, thinking, “If I achieve this one thing, then I’ll be okay.” And when we finally reach it, we move the goalpost again. The biblical view steadies me because it tells me plainly: hardship is part of this life, but Christ does not leave us alone in it. Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). And God’s grace does not show up only after I become strong. It shows up in weakness (2 Cor 12:9–10). 

 

5) Community Is Not Optional For Endurance 

We are not meant to endure alone. The Bible says Exhort one another daily so we are not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Heb 3:12–14). Some people make it because they stay connected to people who genuinely care for them and pull them back to truth when their thinking gets dark. Others isolate, and isolation becomes the place where lies sound like wisdom. 

 

6) What I Want To Say To The Person Who Feels Like Quitting 

If you are at that place right now, I want to speak plainly: it is almost always too early to quit. Patience does not feel spiritual when we are in pain, but patience is where faith becomes real. God gives power to the weak, and those who wait on the Lord renew strength (Isa 40:29–31). And if you have fallen, I want you to hear this: “Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.” (Ps 37:23–24). A righteous man may fall seven times and rise again (Prov 24:16). That is not permission to live carelessly. That is a reason not to drown in despair. 

Here is what I believe: all of life is preparation for the opportunity to be used of God for His glory and purposes. And to be used by God for His glory is one of man’s greatest honors.