Peace in the Storm: Encouragement and Strategies to Overcome Anxiety

When we look at our external and internal worlds, our lives sometimes resemble raging storms. Torrents of health issues, family matters, economic woes, and political dissension can catapult our lives into tumult. Wind howls and waves surge, tossing our lives every which way within a massive ocean. It can unsettle us, rousing questions within. We find ourselves, like Christ’s disciples, wondering if God sees us or if He cares.

There is a distinct difference between our experience of reading the account and living through a storm surge. As Bible readers, we can bypass the messy middle and skip to the happier ending in just a few moments when Jesus spoke and settled the storm in His followers and the one on the sea.

That is encouraging, but when we are facing significant threats, we need these stories to advise us on how to navigate and hold on, despite tempestuous situations. Jesus’ followers lived through a real storm, with a real Savior, in real-time. Their example went ahead of us to provide takeaway truth when we find ourselves tossed on life’s seas.

In His interaction with followers, Jesus modeled that we first address our faith, submit our distress to Him, and speak peace to still our storms. When we surrender anxiety and worries to the Spirit whose Breath fills us, we recognize that the wind and waves do not hold sway over us. They, too, have to bow to the God that created them. The God of mercy, who created us has given us the power to call and command storms into stillness in our faith-filled words.

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live. – Deuteronomy 30:19, NIV

Forging faith to overcome anxiety

It may seem unlikely and impossible, but our words release the power of life and death. They bolster faith or break it. Our Father and God spoke everything into being at creation, fashioning us with the same ability to create reality with words.

Where we feel diminished in faith, we can take courage, asking the Lord to help us to believe even where we may have unbelief (Mark 9:24). God responds to this cry, and He will stir faith within as we hear and understand His Word (Romans 10:17).

Dealing with distress

Our faith pleases God (Hebrews 11:6). He builds our faith, as we meditate on His Word and hold to it more than the temporary and shifting nature of life storms. When we are facing distress, we can submit our worries to God and trust Him with both faith and feelings.

God cares; and in those moments, He invites us to choose our path and our words with Him. Although it may be easy to blurt out all we think and feel, God is inviting us to focus on His Presence in storms of anxiety and turmoil and then, to pattern what we say after what He speaks.

Speaking to storms

The compassionate nature of God isn’t trying to capsize our lives, but rather train us to follow His faith and example in real-time and through real-life encounters. As the Prince of Peace, Jesus modeled the need to rest and believe.

When we face the elements, speaking peace catalyzes faith to subdue storms and the spiritual forces behind them. How we engage the storms of life reflects the depth of and degree to which we allow peace to preside over what swirls inside and around us. Pursuing peace embodies both an ongoing process and intentional practice to submit our thoughts and words to the Spirit.

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. – Proverbs 18:21, NIV

The attitude of peace

Peace may elicit a feeling of calm at times, but it is more. It is a spiritual attitude that establishes and rivets our focus. We train our eyes more on the person of our God than the appearance of circumstances and the feelings they evoke.

It doesn’t mean that we ignore our external condition or avoid necessary steps to bring about positive change in our lives. On the contrary, our spiritual reality of being seated in heavenly places in Christ offers a more complete and accurate picture where we can see from a God’s-eye perspective that He is working something greater than what is visible at ground level in our situation.

When looking at our lives solely through the lens of circumstance, we capture a limited view. Sometimes the waves of trouble loom large, and our first inclination tends toward fear. In feeling the challenge of confronting difficulty, the Lord stirs and reminds us who is actually in control and knows what is on the other side of the trial.

Who we are and what we have to work with is infinitely more than what we face. As beloved children, our Father has armed us with authority and equipped us with the weapons to stand in the fight that Jesus fixed in victory. (Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. – Colossians 3:1

The authority of peace

We are enabled and empowered from a place of authority in Jesus, to release the Truth of God’s Word and shift storms. Whether those storms are embedded in our most difficult circumstances, or if they are the turbulence in our minds, the Word of God in our mouths has the power to quiet anxious hearts and minds, giving perspective and direction.

When Jesus and his followers were traveling and encountered the windstorm, He used the peace principle to settle the external weather conditions and that of their hearts. He questioned why they would allow themselves to believe that He wasn’t concerned about them. Then, Jesus commanded the wind and spoke to the waves, releasing stillness over the storms and those within His followers.

And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. – Mark 4:39, ESV

Sometimes the state of our present anxiety and life troubles eclipse our view of our Savior. It seems impossible to imagine a life beyond our current conditions. However, we can experience another degree of transformation every time we choose to re-present ourselves to the Lord. (Romans 12:2)

God longs to hear our cry and our declaration of His lordship, even over the matters that trouble our minds and grieve our spirits. Our vision shifts when we place confidence in the God who is greater than the storm.

The ability of peace

When we pray and declare God’s Word, we are not reminding God of His supernatural ability. He knows who He is and what He can do. Often, we are the ones who limit Him, either forgetting or not realizing that He is greater in us than the storms that rage outside of us.

Both prayer, which is communicating with God, and speaking His Word actively reconnect us with the Source of power and peace. We are putting ourselves in remembrance of our Great God and His limitless power to do all that we need.

This imparts the ability for us to command the storms of life, beginning with the anxiety that rages in our hearts and minds. As we surrender the stress, fear, and worry to the Lord, the Holy Spirit stirs our memory. He causes us to not only recall Scriptural Truth but also to remember incidents in our lives where God showed Himself miraculously on our behalf. This is where the Word of God forges our resolve, and calms our disposition, despite the ferocity of the elements.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. – 1 John 4:4, NIV

Next steps to overcome anxiety

Without a doubt, you have lived through turbulence and will face storms of one sort or another in the future. For those who experience various forms of anxiety, the external storms outside are often a reflection of what is swirling within. While you may be aware of this, please know that pairing your spiritual insight with practical interventions will support you in navigating and overcoming the storms that anxiety brings.

Search and select a counselor on this site as you prepare to take the next step for your mental and emotional well-being. There may be significant storms raging around you, but take courage in the peace that is also yours, right in the midst of it all.