Overcoming Anxiety, A Scriptural Study – Healing 2025

Summary

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In a world filled with uncertainty and pressure, anxiety can easily take root in our heart; however, Scripture offers us real hope and practical tools to reclaim peace. In this talk, speaker Bart Schuchts explores Philippians 4 and how St. Paul’s words invite us to rejoice, pray, and trust in God to free you from anxiety.

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Reflective Study Guide Questions

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Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

1. What is making you anxious right now? How do you tend to deal with this anxiety? Does it give you the peace you’re looking for?

2. Do you trust God enough to turn to Him during these moments of anxiety? If not, what do you think is holding you back? If you do, do you truly hand your worries over to God or do you take them back after you say “Amen”?

3. What’s the difference between “presenting your requests to God” and trying to control outcomes through worry?

4. Can you recall a time when giving thanks in the midst of hardship helped bring you peace? How does gratitude help shift your mindset when you’re anxious?

Text: Overcoming Anxiety, A Scriptural Study

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Hello friends! Welcome back for Talk four. I want to talk to you now about anxiety, but really I want this to be more of a scriptural study, if you will. We’re going to go through Ephesians 4 and then break this down into steps and how to overcome anxiety. But before we do, let’s go ahead and pray. As I’ve done in the other sessions, I like to, start each session with two catechism quotes and a Saint quote, 2670 2671, and Saint Bonaventure. But let’s just jump right in and pray. If you will place your hand upon your own heart, and you can pray this with me. Say this with me.

Opening Prayer

Come Holy Spirit, fill the heart of your faithful, enkindle, in me the fire of your love. May the fire of the Holy Spirit touch me and transform me. Lord Jesus, teach us your ways. Father bless this time, name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

How To Deal With Anxiety From the Scriptures

Let’s talk about anxiety and how to overcome anxiety. Let’s look at scriptures in Philippians four. This is Philippians 4:6-7. It says this to be anxious about nothing. It says, “Do not worry or be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer. And supplication petitions with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding that it will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Anxiety, we all struggle with anxiety at different levels. What do we do when we feel anxious? What do we do when we’re worried? What do we do when we can’t see something in the future good or bad, and we don’t know what to do, and we feel a sense of responsibility to come up with an answer that we don’t yet have. What do we do? When we feel anxious,

St. Paul is sitting here to be anxious about nothing, not to worry about anything. Well, that’s easier said than done, isn’t it? How do we do that? Well, that’s what’s beautiful about Philippians four here as I see steps and I want to lay these out for us.

Step one, do not worry. Don’t be anxious about anything. Okay. How he says, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving. Let’s focus on that for a minute. Thanksgiving, you know, we’ve all heard, right? Count your blessings. Yeah. To be thankful for everything. Yeah. But what’s it like to pray with supplications in petition with Thanksgiving? I don’t know that I know the answer fully, but I do know in my own journey that it’s easy to complain. It’s easy to see what I don’t have, it’s easy to see difficulties and hardships. And I often have to remind myself to be thankful.

King David in the Psalm said he told his own soul, “Bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me, bless His holy name.” Sometimes we have to tell ourselves, Hey, let’s not be anxious here. Let’s bless the Lord soul. Everything within me. Let’s, let’s praise his Holy name .

Thanksgiving during Anxiety

Thanksgiving. You ever thought about all that Jesus has done for you and I? And it just baffles me when I stop to think about it that here is God, perfect. He lowers himself of his divinity and he dwelled among us as a man. And though he was without sin, he took upon himself, you’re in my sin. You see in the Old Testament, they would sacrifice a lamb before they can enter in to the courts, to the church.

It said they would enter the courts with Thanksgiving and then they would enter in and there would be a basin, and they would place their sacrifice, often an unblemished lamb, and they’d have to sacrifice it to make atonement just so they can enter in to the sanctuary. Jesus became that atonement for our sins. He became that sacrifice. He became that lamb who was slain.

Though fully God, he dwelled among us as a man. He demonstrated the ways of the Father. He demonstrated everything for you and I so that you and I could come to Christ and we can come to the Father and we can live into the mission and purpose of Jesus Christ. And we know that when Jesus was 30, he was baptized and the Holy Spirit descended upon him, and the father spoke, said, this is my beloved and whom I delight and whom I’m well pleased. And the heavens opened. And then we know for two and a half to three years that Jesus lived in the mission that he was sent to do a profound mission ending in his own death. Publicly, scorned in shame, naked, beaten, bloodied, gasping for air, nailed upon a tree, a cross. He took you and my sin, you and my suffering, and nailed it to that cross and then died. Snatched the keys and rose from the grave.

He said he came to bring you and I abundant life. He came to make a way where there was no way that when you and I come to Christ, the old things would pass away and all things would be made new. That we would come into intimacy, relationship with Jesus Christ and the Father and the Holy Spirit. Wow.

There was a debt that needed to be paid because of sin. Jesus paid that debt for you, for me. I heard someone say, if you were the only person alive, Jesus would’ve died for you. Wow. As we stop and think about that, I isn’t it then easy to be thankful. Thank you, Jesus for paying that price of my sin. Thank you Jesus for making a way for me to come to the Father. Thank you, Jesus. You made a way for me to come into relationship with you and the Holy Spirit.

Thanksgiving. Thank you, God for the very breath that I breathe. Thank you, God, for the life that I have. Thank you, God, for the relationships that I have. Thank you, God, for the purpose that you’ve invited me to be a part of. Sometimes it feels like there’s nothing to be thankful for until we stop and reflect on all that Jesus did for us.

So Philippians Paul says, do not worry to be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication. With Thanksgiving, let your request be known to God. What does it mean to make your request be known to God?

Letting God Know Your Anxieties

I don’t know about you, but there’s times when I wake up earlier than I want to, but I’m troubled by something. I’m anxious about something going on in my family or in my life or in ministry, or I’m anxious about something or I might just be heavy hearted. I might just be burdened with something I don’t always know.

But sometimes I get up earlier than I want to and I can’t go back to sleep. And it’s in those times that I often journal. Sometimes I journal like a letter to the father. And I say, father, I’m struggling with something. I’m feeling anxious about something, but I want to thank you for who you are and all that you’ve done for me, for being there for me that I can even come to you. Jesus, thank you for making a way for me to come to you and the Father. Holy Spirit, thank you for being with me. I come to you in prayer. And, and petition supplication with Thanksgiving, and I want to make my request be known to you. Father, this is what I’m struggling with and I’ll just write it out. This is my request.

Will you please speak to me? Will you please show me as a father, would a son what I should do in this situation? And I literally will put it before him. And I’ll be still, Jesus, will you reveal what you want to reveal to me? Holy Spirit, can you reveal the heart of the Father to me? Father, share with me as a father, what his son, and I’m just still, and then I’ll just continue to write whatever comes to my mind in my heart. And it’s amazing the majority of the times when I do that, making my request be known to God through prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving. It’s amazing how when I’m done, I feel peace. And that’s what I believe Paul is saying here in Philippians to be anxious about nothing, to not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition applications. Supplications with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God, and then the peace of God, shalom, peace, complete peace, supernatural peace. The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus, the peace of God.

Isn’t that what we’re all looking for? We’ll guard your heart and your mind. You know, the catechism of the Catholic church talks about the heart. It’s in 2563, paragraph 2563. It says this, “The heart is the place to which I withdraw. The heart is the place of decision deeper than our psychic drives. The heart is the place of life or death. The heart is the place of encounter. The heart is the place of covenant. The heart, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.”

Scriptures to Turn To When You Feel Anxious

Here’s some basic steps. When you feel anxious, follow Philippians four, six to seven. Do not worry. Bring your prayers, your supplications with thanksgiving. Then make a request known to God and the peace of God will follow. It’s a supernatural peace that surpasses all understanding. It’ll guard our heart and our mind in Christ Jesus. I pray for you and for me that the things that we might feel anxious about, that we bring them to him with Thanksgiving, making a request, be known to him, and I pray that the peace of God that surpasses understanding will guard your and my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

You know, in Philippians four, after this, I believe it’s like seven to 10 or somewhere in there, Paul goes on to say, meditate on these things. Those things that are praiseworthy, noteworthy of good report. You know, we become what we think about most. If I’m dwelling on my problems, if I’m dwelling on what I don’t have, now, I need to bring those in prayer.

But if I’m dwelling on them and I feel like it’s up to me and I, it brings me into anxiety. But as I’m focusing on him and what he’s doing and who he is, those things that are noteworthy, praiseworthy of good report, I find the peace of God. That surpasses understanding guards. My heart and my mind. My heart and my mind in Christ Jesus.

Couple other thoughts. Matthew 11:28. Jesus said this, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, anxious, and I will give you rest.” Peace. When we’re heavy burdened, when we’re anxious, we’re weary. We can run to Jesus and Jesus will give us rest. He’ll give you peace. I find that I struggle with anxiety the most when I’m not trusting in God and there’s things that pull me out of that, and it’s a journey, but it’s when I’m not trusting. When I feel like it’s up to me that I have to figure it out, that I have to come up with something that I don’t know how to come up with it, where I feel powerless, right?

I don’t know what to do. I feel like I’m supposed to do something. I don’t know how to get there. I don’t know how to do it. Or there’s something going on, some struggle, some trial, and I don’t know how to find the rest. And I remember this in Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And do not rely, do not lean on your own, understanding your own insights.” I find when I rely upon me is when I’m the most anxious.

You know, I realize I’m pretty inadequate, but Jesus is very adequate. And when I rely too much on me, I struggle with anxiety. But when I bring it to him, and I’m thankful for all that he’s done for me and thankful for what he’s going to do, and I put my trust in him, trusting him with all my heart, bringing to him my prayers, my requests, asking for his peace, to guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely. On your own insights, your own understanding.

Jesus never intended us to do this alone. It’s another scripture. Actually, my kids like it. I believe it’s Proverbs 16. It says, “Man plans their way, but the Lord directs their step.” We have a part to play. We need to plan. We need to do what we need to do. But we plan away. But the Lord directs our steps.

Seek first the kingdom of God. Matthew, is it 6:33? “Seek first the kingdom of God and all of his righteousness and all these other things will be added onto you.” We plan, but the Lord directs when we feel anxious, make a request be known to him with thanksgiving. Ask for his peace, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

Closing Prayer

Let’s close in prayer if you will. Close your eyes, and I want to invite you just to pay attention to whatever’s happening, whatever’s stirring within your own heart. Is there something you’re anxious about? Let’s bring it to him.

Say this with me. Jesus, forgive me for being anxious. I come to you now in prayer in Thanksgiving. Thank you, Jesus, for who you are and all that you’ve done. That you paid the price for my sin, and you made a way for me to come into relationship with you and the father. Come Holy Spirit. Lord Jesus, I ask for your peace, the peace of God that surpasses my understanding. I pray now that your peace would guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. Jesus, I belong to you.

Come Holy Spirit. Let’s close the same way we began. If you will place your hand upon your heart. Pray this with me. Come Holy Spirit. Fill the heart of your faithful and kindle in me the fire of your love. Dear Heavenly father ask you to bless us. Bless all that you’re doing and will do. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

God bless you. Hopefully you were encouraged and inspired. I was. Have a great day and a great week. May the peace of God that surpasses whole understanding guard your heart and your mind right now in Christ Jesus.

About Bart Schuchts