Rachel Whisman

Years ago, there was a foreign squeeze in my chest that caught me off guard. The inability to console myself was disorienting, and tears tried to salvage what little peace remained. I thought I would never experience them. My pride blinded me, yet there I was having a panic attack. I was confused and unable to take the next step. I felt like Frodo from The Lord of the Rings on Mount Doom. Exhausted from the anxiety and grieved by the depression, it all flared up in a panic attack. In this scene of the movie, Sam courageously says to Frodo, “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you.” I, too, had a friend like Sam who helped me. Through the counsel and wisdom of this friend, she directed me to Biblical counseling. From that, I gleaned the wisdom of what to do while in the depths of my own Mordor. I learned to bring my weakness to the Lord, go to His word, and respond in worship. 

Anxiety, panic attacks, and depression are elixirs that cut off your legs from underneath. It might seem counterintuitive to say “be weak,” but that is what qualifies you. God doesn’t want us to be tidy and organized. In Isaiah 50:7, he says the opposite, “But this is the one to whom I will look; he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” Humble, those who need help. Contrite, those who are broken, and I had never felt more shattered. He says this as well as in Matthew 5:2, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” In what I was experiencing, I realized there was nothing I could bring except my brokenness, and that is exactly what the Lord wanted. 

His word is sufficient (2 Tim. 3:16-17). I found that nothing else could settle my thoughts except flooding my mind with his word. Psalm 119:50 was a reality in my life, as he proved himself true, “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promises give me life.” Not immediately, but as they coursed through my heart, the Lord did his work. Opening up the Bible,  it was my counselor and the light in the darkness (Ps. 119:24, 105). In the midst of a tumult of emotions, His promises are an anchor—a place to reside, rest, and provide an oasis for your heart. I urge you to immerse, saturate, and overwhelm your heart and mind with the truth of God’s word. Pray with it, write it out, place sticky notes in your eye sight, and listen to it. His word is living and active. It is always doing something, but are you? By faith, drown the lies with the word of God and pray to him who is speaking to you through his word. 

In our weakness, we go to the Lord, and with the word, we renew our minds with His truths to lead us to worship Him. The devil will do whatever it takes to make us linger longer in the quicksand and mud of anxiety and depression. He wants us to make it our second home. We are to flee, but how? We remember, and by the power of his spirit, we take a step and worship. Look at what Isaiah 50:7 says,

“But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.”

We set our face towards the Lord and worship Him by what we say, do, and think. With what we say, we preach to ourselves the truth of who God is over the fluidity of our circumstances. We sing worship songs out loud to praise Him in the midst of it and sway our minds to settle in the truth. We do, by doing the next thing that needs to be done. Even the smallest acts of making the bed, eating breakfast, and going to work are acts of obedience that display trust in God. It also includes getting outside, maybe literally going for a walk, and basking in God’s creation of a sunset and praising him for it. Or it means getting outside of yourself and seeking someone to serve. It could be with a meal, a prayer, or a note of encouragement because “we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves have been comforted by God” (2 Cor.1:4). We worship by hoping and trusting in our hearts who the Lord is and taking each step by faith wherever he leads us because he is with us. 

In The Lord of the Rings, Sam was heroic, faithful, and courageous as he helped carry Frodo when He couldn’t. However, in the waves of anxiety and depression, we have someone better. Someone who doesn’t just carry us in the midst of despondency, but someone who has also carried it before and nailed it to the cross, our savior, Jesus Christ. It did not overtake him, but he overcame it, and he is seated at the right hand of God in victory and interceding on our behalf. There is hope. You are not alone.

Scriptures of Hope, Comfort, and Identity.

“The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:29-31

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

“So shall my word that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and I shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5

“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while if necessary you have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith- more precious than gold that perishes though it is to be tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him, though you do not now see him, you believe in him with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” 1 Peter 1:6-9 

“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:1 

“Because the darkness is passing away and true light is already shining.” 1 John 1:8 

“I am writing to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” 1 John 1:14

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are.”  1 John 3:1

“By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him: for whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.” 1 John 3:19

“Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4

“O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.” Psalm 131