Submitting to God's will is the key to conquering anxiety

photo courtesy of Anna Johnson

My foot taps anxiously, thinking of all the things I need to do: complete homework for each class, study for tomorrow’s test, write that article due at noon, practice piano for my upcoming auditions, apply to colleges, go to work, clean my room, work out, spend time with friends and family, get some sleep, work on my hobbies and a thousand other things. My mind goes down this rabbit hole of stress. I always get it all done, but what if this time I don’t? Or what if I do, and it still doesn’t satisfy me? I worry constantly about the endless tasks, the relationships, anything from the present moment to 20 years into the future. How could one person possibly handle it all?

The truth is you can’t. You can try, but you will find yourself exhausted, burnt out and feeling like a failure. Anxiety happens when you try to take control of your own life. When you attempt to bear the burden of life on your own, you find that things don’t work out. I can make all the plans I want, but they mean nothing if they aren’t in accordance with God’s will.

Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

Trying to take control demonstrates a lack of trust in God’s sovereignty. I understand that God is worthy of my trust, but my human nature still wants control. I want everything to go just the way I want, and I think a part of me believes that if I work hard enough, it will.

When we have a mindset of control, it not only takes our focus away from trusting God, but it also takes the enjoyment out of life. Picture this scenario: a father gets a gift for his daughter. He promises that he’ll give it to her, but she must wait until she is ready. She grows impatient, trying to guess what it is, hoping it’s the thing she wants, but she doesn’t wait long enough. She instead goes down a different path and gets the thing she thought she wanted for herself, only to realize that it doesn’t satisfy her. She didn’t trust that the gift her father had for her was good enough, when in reality, it was far better than anything she could have picked out for herself. This is what we’re doing when we try to make our own plan instead of trusting God’s plan.

Then the question is: how do I stop wanting control? I understand all of this logically, but how do I change the desires of my heart to align with God’s will? The answer is constant surrender. Ask Him to take your anxious thoughts from you, and trust Him with your heart. Tell Him what you desire. Tell Him your struggles. Remember He knows you intimately and loves you like no human ever could. I think for a long time I told myself I understood this, but I didn’t practice it. I said the words, but my heart wasn’t in it. Surrender isn’t a one-time decision; it’s a constant daily battle between the flesh and Spirit. Only when we truly surrender our will to God will we be content and free of worry.

Matthew 6:25-27 states, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”