I love Jesus. But I also struggle with feelings of overwhelming anxiety.

I am a worrier.

I feel a deep kinship with A. A. Milne’s melancholy Eeyore.

I ruminate. I overthink. I catastrophize.

If left unchecked, I can spiral into an anxious bundle of fear and worry faster than Eeyore’s friend Pooh can mumble his iconic “Oh, bother.”

Anxiety has been a lingering, uninvited companion throughout most of my days. And I know I’m not the only one. The breakneck speed of modern life coupled with a global pandemic, economic uncertainty, and a never-ending torrent of polarizing current events have led to an overwhelming global increase in stress and anxiety. According to the 2024 American Psychiatric Association’s annual mental health poll, 43% of adults say they feel more anxious now than they did last year, up from 37% in 2023 and 32% in 2022.

Anxiety can be a challenging topic in our faith communities. The message so many of us hear from churches, whether implicitly or explicitly, is that anxiety itself is a sin. After all, the Bible says, “be anxious for nothing” (Phil. 4:6), and “do not worry about your life” (Matt. 6:25). Maybe like me, you got the idea that if we have any feelings of anxiety or struggle with mental health symptoms of any kind, then we are doing something wrong. I used to think that if I just have enough faith, or if I just prayed enough, or if I just trusted God more, then I should be from all anxiety, from all worry, and from all the symptoms that come along with it. But that’s just really bad theology, and it left me bound by shame for many years. I didn’t understand what anxiety really is, and I didn’t understand God’s heart for me in those verses.

The truth is, anxiety is as much a physical health condition as it is a mental one—and it is actually a necessary and normal part of the complex system that God gave us to deal with sensory input from the world around us. And when God tells us to not be anxious or fearful, He is not doing so with a voice of judgment and condemnation, but with a voice of gentleness and compassion. He knows we will worry. He knows we will be afraid. Those are normal emotions that we will feel at times. So, He comes to us as a kind Father, gently scooping us and our worries up into His arms, and lovingly reminding us, “You don’t have to be afraid. I’m here. I’ll take care of you.” And He gives us a different way to respond to our feelings of anxiety, a way that will lead us to abiding peace regardless of our circumstances, by turning to Him in gratitude and prayer. (Phil. 4:6-7)

God is not mad at us for being anxious, He isn’t waiting to strike us down because we are afraid. He knows we will feel these things. He wraps us and all our fears into His loving arms and reminds us that we are safe and held and loved, no matter what our feelings or emotions may be telling us.

For so many years, though, this is not how I saw God, or how I viewed my anxiety. I felt like my anxiety was a curse, a chain that kept me bound and tied to fear. I believed that the presence of anxiety in my life meant I didn’t have enough faith, and I felt like God was somehow disappointed in me. This left me in a cycle of shame and fear.

I didn’t tell anyone how my hands trembled and my heart raced when I was in crowds of people. I didn’t tell anyone I would go to the bathroom and hide, crying and struggling to catch my breath when I was overwhelmed. I didn’t tell anyone about the racing thoughts that kept me up at night. I didn’t tell anyone that I was drowning in sea of worries that I didn’t know how to calm, no matter how much I prayed.

I spent so many years hiding and even denying my own mental health struggles. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, my anxiety was masked beneath layers of relentless over-working, obsessive people-pleasing, and persistent perfectionism. I ignored my symptoms, pushed them down, denied their impact on my life, and refused to truly admit that I had significant struggles.

But over the past few years, I have learned what anxiety really is and how it works within my body, and I’ve learned how to recognize the symptoms and to acknowledge those symptoms as a signal, a warning that I simply need to slow down and pay attention. It is no longer an emotion that binds me in fear and shame, because I now know that I can choose to respond to it in a different way.

I’ve learned that anxiety is not an enemy that I have to fight. And anxiety does not have to be a roadblock to my faith. In fact, it has actually been the catalyst that has grown my faith in ways I never expected and desperately needed. Anxiety has helped me recognize my deep need for Christ and it keeps me daily turning toward Him.

One way I help calm my anxiety is through a regular practice of Christian meditation. Christian meditation, particularly Scripture meditation, is a classical spiritual discipline rooted deeply in the Bible and in ancient Christian practice. It is a holy habit that has played an important role in my mental health and spiritual growth.

Christian meditation is the focus of my new book, Present in Prayer. While there are many different forms and methods of Christian meditation and a vast number of plans and guides for meditating on God’s Word, the method I have personally found most helpful in cultivating my own spiritual rhythm of daily meditation is a centuries-old practice called lectio divina. Lectio divina (Latin for “divine reading”) is an ancient monastic practice introduced in the sixth century by Benedict of Nursia as a method of reading, praying, and meditating on Scripture that emphasized listening deeply “with the ear of your heart.” Although it is traditionally known as a monastic practice, many Christians today from a variety of traditions have found that

it provides a helpful framework for meditation, a valuable practice for spiritual growth, and a way to “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16 ESV).

Lectio divina is a way to slow down and linger over Scripture, to savor the Word in a way that brings deep nourishment to the soul. It isn’t a mystical, subjective approach to God’s Word. It’s simply a framework, a rhythm, for a kind of prayerful meditation on Scripture that stills the soul, quiets the mind, and opens the heart to hear the voice of the Lord.

To be clear, meditation is not a cure for anxiety, nor is it a replacement for professional medical treatment or therapy, but it can be a powerful tool that benefits our physical, mental, and spiritual health. Finding this quiet time to commune with God has helped me change unhelpful and negative thought patterns, and now, rather than seeing anxiety is a barrier to God, for me it has been a means of deeper connection to Him. 

Jennifer Tucker

Jennifer is a bestselling author, artist, graphic designer, wife, mother, grandmother, devoted follower of Jesus, and advocate for mental health. She shares her heart and art online at littlehousestudio.net. Jenn is the author of Breath as Prayer: Calm Your Anxiety, Focus Your Mind, and Renew Your Soul and Present in Prayer: A Guided Invitation to Peace Through Biblical Meditation.