All of us know what it's like to feel anxious.the butterflies in our stomachs, the tension and the way our hearts pound.  Anxiety can be really uncomfortable.  Anxiety can provoke us to action.  It gears us up to confront a threatening situation.  It compels us study harder for that big exam, and keeps us on your toes when we have to do things like making a speech in front of others.  Even those of us who seem the most confident and daring have moments of uneasiness.  Simply put, anxiety is the painful uneasiness of the mind that feeds on impending fears.  In its mildest form we simply churn inside. In its most severe form we panic.  Anxiety seems to be a natural part of us all, but, if anxiety is so natural, why then is anxiety so spiritually debilitating?

Anxiety always highlights the human side of things while smothering anything that concerns GOD, so we become fearful.  When we worry, we have such a high level of awareness of the human events surrounding us that GOD's perspective gets choked out.

Anxiety strangles our ability to distinguish the accidental from the necessary, so we get distracted. In the midst of the worrisome details, we add endless fears, doubts, tasks, expectations, and pressures.  Eventually we lose focus on what really matters.

Anxiety siphons our joy and makes us judgmental rather than accepting of others around us, so we become negative. We become negative when worry wins the battle. Inevitably we take our anxiety out on others. Worry works like bad cholesterol, hardening the arteries of our spiritual hearts and clogging the flow of love and grace toward people around us.

Anxiety is really another term for old-fashioned worry. Many people half-seriously refer to themselves as "worry-warts" when they bother with excessive details or try to prevent something negative from occurring by anticipating possible problems in advance. Even though these tendencies seem innocent and harmless, worry is actually a spiritual problem, one that GOD takes very seriously.  Planning ahead is one thing.anxiety is something else.

When anxiety creeps in, filling our minds with fear, distraction, and bitterness, we must turn to the One who offers an unexplainable peace, Jesus Christ. Thankfully we're not alone in this struggle.

GOD did not design us to be anxious or uptight. Our physical system may suffer many consequences when anxiety is prolonged, but more importantly, we suffer in your spirit.  Read carefully what Jesus said to the eager crowds as part of the Sermon on the Mount:

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.  Matthew 6:25-34

All of us at one time or another have worried about the basics of life. When most of our anxieties are reduced to their lowest terms, they all involve basic things in life.  These basics include things like where we live, what food we buy, what clothes to wear, what friends we have, what others think about us. In all these concerns, the issue for those who trust Jesus as their Savior is one of assurance.

To put it personally, do you believe that you are the one in charge of your life, or do you acknowledge that GOD is the One not only directing but also providing along the way? Your answer to this question has everything to do with your anxiety level at any given time.

The central theme running through the fallacy of anxiety is that what others think about us is of such crucial importance that we must anticipate it in advance in all of our actions.  We must do all we can in order to prevent others from thinking badly of us. Again, to put it personally, "it would be terrible if people knew just how lame I really am, wouldn't it"?

Anxious people usually believe and tell themselves that they are in danger of other people's reactions to them. This particular idea, like all erroneous beliefs are lies from Satan.  While we are certainly glad if others think well of us and love us, we can still live very well if we don't have the affection and approval of other people . . .

The Bible does not teach us to please everybody on earth. It does not tell us to work overtime trying to get people to love us. Jesus never told us to go out and take a course on how to get people to like us.  He told us simply to love Him and love others.  All the law is summed in those actions.

Have you ever watched a hamster running inside a wheel?  The faster he runs, the faster the wheel moves, but he doesn't make the slightest progress. He does not even have the sense to get off the wheel.  That is what anxiety does to us.  We run faster and faster, trying harder and harder to meet the demands or prevent disaster, and we still have no control over our circumstances.  Things do not go quite right, and frustration continues to grow.

If you are on that wheel there is a way to get off.  Remember, GOD created you. He knows your deepest needs.

Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.  Psalm 68:19

He longs for you to end the anxiety cycle and let Him lead.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Matthew 11:28

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.  1 Peter 5:6-7

The word casting in the verse above comes from the same Greek verb that is used in Luke's gospel, when the people on Palm Sunday threw their garments onto the colt for Jesus to ride, so He could enter Jerusalem. The motion described is the same, a deliberate action of setting something down and, more importantly, leaving it there. Jesus wants us to throw our cares on Him. They are too heavy for us, and nothing is too much for Jesus.

Actually, as seen above the act of humbling ourselves before the Lord precedes the casting activity.  Godly humility is recognition that we are not self-sufficient.  We all are dependent on Him for life itself, and the chief way we acknowledge and exhibiting this relationship is giving the Lord our problems and worries. 

We cannot remove worry until we replace it with something better.prayer.  The key is communication with GOD. When we tell Him what is on our heart, He literally guards our hearts with His supernatural peace. The circumstances or problems that stimulate our anxiety may not change.  Sometimes GOD chooses to let the problems remain, while at the same time giving us the peace to go through the difficulty.

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:6-7

Worry doesn't accomplish anything.it really doesn't!

Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.  Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.  Psalm 37:7-8

Worrying is a waste of time.  What good does it do? Will it add a single day to our lives? Of course not!  If worry can't even improve such little things as that, what's the use of worrying over bigger things?

And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?  If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?  Luke 12:25-26

Give all your anxiety to the Lord.  Let Him have all your worries and cares, for He is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you.  Take your anxiety to Almighty GOD. By taking your worries to the creator of the universe you can turn your woes from "high anxiety"  to peace.which is actually anxiety taken on high!