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25 Scriptures to Pray When You're Struggling with Anxiety

Jenn Soehnlin

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

I am not a stranger to anxiety. I was diagnosed with postpartum anxiety and put on medication after my second son was born. Before that anxiety seemed to be fully managed, I found myself struggling with alternating bouts of depression and crippling anxiety after both of my sons began receiving diagnosis after diagnosis and my life became filled with a million appointments (or so it felt), sleepless nights, and a constant worry I wasn’t doing enough for my children.

I began a regimen of looking up, writing down, and memorizing scriptures about peace and anxiety. There’s a lot, in case you were wondering.

The Scriptures reminded me that God doesn’t want us to be fearful or anxious. And while I clung to those Scriptures, I didn’t feel like they were doing much to fight against my anxiety.

I knew according to Ephesians 6 that we are in a war and we must protect ourselves and battle with prayer. And so I started praying fervently for peace, for healing from my anxiety.

One day at Bible study, the ladies asked for prayer requests and I (in a state of desperation and vulnerability and courage) shared my struggles with anxiety. What happened next is something that I will never forget…

The ladies circled around me, laid their hands on me, and prayed for me. All the prayers were beautiful, heartfelt, and full of such love, but then one of the ladies began praying and I noticed that her prayer was composed of the scriptures I was memorizing. She embedded those scriptures effortlessly into her prayers and it was such a powerful prayer and I felt peace wash over me in a way I haven’t experienced before, or since, and I wept as those ladies prayed for me.

My chronic anxiety was gone that night, and has yet to return. God is good!

I still get anxious from time with various situations that come into my life, but when that happens, I now know to combat the anxiety by praying scripture. I learned from those ladies that prayed over me that there is power in God’s word, and there is power in prayer, and when you combine those two elements together, powerful things can happen! I’ve experienced it and I pray that you will too.

Below are some of my favorite scriptures about peace and overcoming anxiety. I encourage you to make them applicable to your own life, your own worries and struggles and situations. Consider printing out this list and praying or journaling one of them a day. Fill your heart, mind, and prayers with the word of God and God’s truths will strengthen you with God’s truth, love, power, and peace in your life.

25 Scriptures to pray when you're struggling with anxiety

  1. Pray that you would release your burdens and anxiety to God and embrace the peace He wants you to experience. “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” Philippians 4:6-7 MS
  2. Thank God that He knows and cares for you. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me–just as the Father knows me and I know the Father–and I lay down my life for my sheep.” John 10:14
  3. Pray that you would trust the Good Shepherd and experience the peace He has for you. “The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he refreshes my soul.” Psalm 23:1-3
  4. Thank God that even in your fear and/or anxiety, God is with you and there to comfort you. “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4
  5. Thank God that He is always with you and watching over you. “The LORD watches over you–the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.”
  6. Pray that you would not be ruled by a spirit of fear or anxiety. “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7
  7. Pray that you would not live in fear or anxiety but in your spiritual identity as a beloved child of God. “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Romans 8:15-17
  8. Share your worries and burdens with God. “Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you. He not permit the godly to slip and fall.” Psalm 55:22
  9. Pray that you would be focused on the things of heaven, rather than the things on earth that worry 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?..But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:23, 33
  10. Pray that you would be able to focus on God’s truths and not the things that make you anxious. “…Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me–put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Phillipians 4:8-9
  11. Pray that your thought processes would be transformed from anxious thinking, to rooted in God’s truth and peace and rest. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2
  12. Pray that you would remember that anxiety is not from God and we can fight against it. “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes…” Ephesians 6:10-11
  13. Pray that your trust in God would grow and overrun your anxieties. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.” John 14:1
  14. Pray that God will help you experience freedom from your anxiety. “I waited patiently for the LORD;he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.” Psalm 40:1-2
  15. Pray that you would grow in your faith as you experience life’s storms. “The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” Jesus replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and the waves, and it was completely calm.” Matthew 8:25
  16. Pray that you would always remember that despite the troubles in your life, Jesus has overcome the world, and we share in His victory too. “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
  17. Pray that God would strengthen you to follow Him despite your fears and anxieties. “So, do not fear for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10
  18. Pray that God will exchange your burdens and anxieties for His peace and rest. “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
  19. Pray that God would deliver you from your anxieties and worries. “The righteous cry out and the LORD hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles. THe LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:17-18
  20. Pray that you would experience the peace that only Jesus can provide. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27
  21. Pray that your anxiety would not affect your sleep but that “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.” Psalm 4:8
  22. Pray that your home and all your family members will be filled with peace. “The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places; in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.” Isaiah 32:17-18
  23. Pray that you would continually grow in each fruit of the spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23
  24. Pray that you would be persevere in faith and obedience to God, despite your anxiety. “Stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58
  25. Pray that God’s power would be displayed in you through your struggles with anxiety. “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 2 Corinthians 12:8-9

Related post: 15 Scriptures to Pray When You’re Struggling with Fear