Fighting Anxiety with Worship

In my last entry, I talked about my strategy in dealing with anxiety. Mainly, it's summed up in trusting the goodness of God. There are a couple more things though that help me fight anxiety and the one I want to talk about today is worshiping God. More specifically, I want to highlight two worship songs that have helped me immensely, then try and explain why they have helped me, and what I think worship accomplishes for us.

The first worship song that I want to highlight is called Fill My Cup, which is fairly new, and its actually from Lee University's worship band on their debut album. Musically, the whole song has this calming effect, but what impacted me the most was just one line of the song, "in you[God] I'm made whole." There are so many theologically significant things I can say about this, but it mainly points me back to what Scripture says about our beings residing in God's care. Psalm 139:13 says, "For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s  womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made...

...Wonderful are your works; that I know very well." We are first and foremost creations of the God of the universe. We were made for purpose by a mighty hand whose works capture our wonder. Furthermore, for those who find salvation in Christ, Paul writes, "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" So, the line, "in you I'm made whole," reminds me that ultimately my purpose and existence lies in God's hands and that in Christ I'm being healed, restored, becoming more like him, and that anxiety has and will be overcome.

The second song I want to draw attention to is called Great I Am. The whole song is powerful and wrecks me every time I hear it, I can barely make it through singing it without breaking down. If I had to categorize it, I would say that it is a spiritual warfare song where the writer expresses that, "There is no power in hell, Or any who can stand Before the power and the presence of the great I am!" The saying "I am" goes back to the Old Testament and we first see it in the book of Exodus when God speaks to Moses as the burning bush. I Am means that God exists without cause. It takes me back to Romans 8:38-39, which states, "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Anxiety might seem overwhelming at times, but it falls to pieces in the presence of God.

It's hard to praise God when we are suffering from anxiety, heck, when we're just plain suffering. Yet, worshiping God brings God back to the center of our lives and at the same time can place us in the center of Him. When we worship God, when we obey God, we have the ability to experience His presence. When we worship God with others we have the chance to encounter God in ways we wouldn't ordinarily expect. I encourage you then to keep praising, worshiping God even though it seems difficult. Remember that worship can bring you close to the heart of God.

Again, if you are feeling that it is taking over you life, don't give up. There is help.