The Cure For Anxiety

Anyone who has struggled with anxiety knows the hopelessness that tags along. No matter what you have been told, anxiety can be cured. There is freedom in the name of Jesus.

Approximately 40 million adults in the U.S. struggle with an anxiety disorder, that’s over 18 percent. Yet one of the biggest lies we believe when struggling with anxiety is that no one can understand what we are going through.

The internet is flooded with tips and tricks to try to ease anxiety and honestly, there are some things out there that can help to ease the anxiety at times or help to control panic attacks. The problem is that these “techniques” only ease the symptoms temporarily.

I myself struggled with extreme anxiety for years. I remember searching all over for a cure and I tried everything. The most disheartening thing I seemed to always stumble across was that anxiety was something I was going to struggle with forever and  I needed to just find ways to ease the symptoms of it.

I am here to tell you that this is simply not true. As I write this I have been anxiety free for almost 3 years now! This didn’t happen by accident or with some special pill or tea, I was cured of my anxiety and set free forever by Jesus Christ.

The Cure For Anxiety

My Struggle With Anxiety

Before surrendering my life over to Jesus a few years ago I was living a very destructive life. I was a cigarette smoking alcoholic who spent most of my days playing music and partying.

Being in a band can be an awesome experience in so many ways, the people you meet the relationships you build, and simply just the enjoyment of playing music. For me, however, living this way came at a cost.

I quickly began to be consumed by the alcohol and drugs, and my life began to slip through my fingers as I struggled to hold on to what was left of it. This is when the depression and anxiety began to consume my life.

It got to a point where I couldn’t go anywhere or do anything without having at least a couple drinks. I couldn’t even go grocery shopping because I would have a panic attack while waiting in line.

The only way I could get through it was to get wasted and even then, I would still be anxious. I felt like there was really no escape. The darkness of it all began to completely consume me.

I remember spending so much time searching the internet for an answer, the most disheartening thing of all was that no one had one. I began to accept the fact that this was how my life would be forever.

The thought of living this way for the rest of my life weighed heavily on my mind. I remember thinking that I could never get married or start a family because I would never be a good husband or father living in fear like this.

Then one night when I was at my lowest point ever, I decided that I no longer was willing to live like this, that I couldn’t live like this anymore. I was laying on my bathroom floor weeping and finished with this horrible tormented life I was living.

I remember saying out loud that I was done, that I was giving up and that I no longer wanted my life. That’s when Jesus stepped in. I felt him calling to me as if He wanted my life and I told him “fine if you want my life you can have it.”

In that moment I felt a warm calm embrace as if someone was there with me holding me. As I continued to cry, I began to laugh as I felt filled with joy and excitement.

In that moment I just found myself thanking Jesus over and over and saying “I don’t know what you want from me or what I need to do but just show me and I’ll do it. I want to live for you!”

At that moment my entire life changed… forever.

Get Up and Walk

The next day, for the first time in forever, I woke up with a huge smile on my face. As I stretched out my arms the excitement for the day flooded my body. Something was different and I knew that my life was completely changed.

I never forgot that promise I made to Jesus that night, that I wanted to live for him. Honestly, at first, I had no idea what that looked like. So I began to pray and for the first time in my life, Jesus felt real, close, and my time in prayer felt intimate.

Since that night I have been completely sober and smoke-free for almost 3 years now. It was truly a miracle. At the time before that, I was smoking over a pack of cigarettes a day for over 5 years and was drinking heavily every single day.

My depression was also completely gone but the anxiety was still lingering. At first, I didn’t get it, I knew first hand the power God had and I truly believed that He could heal my anxiety but it was still there.

The echoes of the internet saying that this was something I was going to struggle with forever again began to flood my mind again. But I didn’t let the doubts consume me, I knew that Jesus could take this thing from me so I began to pray like never before.

At this point I was reading my bible every single day, not to know more about the faith but purely to know Jesus more on a more personal and intimate level. That’s when I stumbled across 2 Corinthians 12.

“…Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 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. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

When I read this I felt the spirit completely overwhelm me and I knew that this was what was happening in my life. I was praying time and time again and God wasn’t taking away my anxiety but I realized that he was using it to grow me in some way.

Now I began to pray with more focus and more intent asking God to reveal to me what He needed me to learn from this experience. Then one day when I was praying, afterward I realized how thankful I had become for my anxiety because it had allowed me to really rely on God and pray for his strength before every single thing I did and before every decision I made.

That’s when I heard Him say to me “Get up and walk!” I remember laying there in bed saying this over and over in my head “Get up and walk, get up and walk, get up and walk. What do you mean, get up and walk?”

Then it hit me. I was flooded with the Holy Spirit and I felt an instant release from the tension of the anxiety and it was gone. As I lay there overwhelmed and crying, I realized that I had already been healed from my anxiety and God had already supplied everything I need through the death of his son on the cross. I had been saved, healed, delivered in Jesus name. I just need to get up and walk in my salvation!

A Life of Freedom

The power of the gospel is not what it can give you or what it can do for you, it is all about what God wants to change you into. He wants to transform you into something completely new. So often as Christians we feel God is obligated in some way to bless us or heal us when the reality is that we are missing the whole point.

It is already finished, God has already done so much more for you than you than you can ever imagine. You just have to believe and realize it.

There is true freedom in the name of Jesus beyond anything this world could ever give us. Through him, you can be completely forgiven of your sins and be made new.

The truth is that most people don’t really want to repent of their sin because they are ignorant of what sin really is. Sin isn’t bad because God forbids us to do it, God forbids us to sin because it is bad. It defiles us, corrupts us, and tears us apart on the inside.

Our sin is the reason that we face so much hurt and pain in this world. It is the root of our struggles, our fears, our doubts, our shame and God wants to set you free from all of that. These things are all connected to our sin so the only way to be free from its bondage is to be free from sin.

God made this possible through Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17.

We treat God as some kind of a killjoy like sin is awesome and God is trying to ruin our good time. Yet here we are in a world filled with pain and sorrow. We all know deep inside that we hurt and that there is something missing from our lives. With depression, anxiety, and suicide at an all-time high the world is desperate.

People are turning to so many things for an answer but few are willing to just try Jesus, the only true answer. There are people who are willing to try experimental drugs with horrible side effects in search of some relief and yet won’t just try Jesus, a complete cure with side effects including… a peace that passes understanding and an inexpressible and glorious joy.

The truth is Jesus is standing at the door of your heart and knocking, it’s up to you to answer the door. But if you answer it I can guarantee you that what you find on the other side is beyond anything you could ever think or imagine.

There is a cure for anxiety and His name is the name above all names, Jesus Christ. He has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand with angels, authorities, and powers in submission to Him.

He is the answer to all of it, there is freedom in His name. I will tell you from first-hand experience that there is nothing like Him and there never will be. I have been completely surrendered to Him for only three years now, but it has been the greatest three years of my life.

I am smoke-free, sober, free of depression and anxiety and am living a completely joyous and abundant life in Him. For some, all of this may be hard to grasp or understand but I’m telling you just call out to him, taste and see that the Lord is good. Your life will be changed.

Not only have I received complete freedom in Jesus name but now I am married and have a baby on the way. Every aspect of my life is a testimony to the grace of Jesus Christ and I am not ashamed to proclaim His name!

At one point I thought I could never be a good husband because of fear, now I am a loving husband because I know what true love really is. At one point I told myself I could never be a good father because of fear, now I know that I am going to be the best father ever as I follow the example of my Heavenly Father.

There is power in the name of Jesus, this isn’t about religion or trying to be a good person. This is about a relationship with the author and creator of the universe, made possible through the blood of Jesus Christ.

If you are struggling with anxiety today it doesn’t have to be something you just “deal with” for the rest of your life there is freedom in the name of Jesus!

P.S. If you are reading this today and you want to learn more about my testimony or what Jesus can do for your life, or if you just want prayer please email me at nick@abideandseek.com. I would love to hear from you!