Proverbs 12:25 tells us about the intimate connection between anxiety and depression:
I recorded the following video when I felt anxious once. The Lord gave me a good word about the situation, giving me a new way to look at anxious feelings:
In the past, I just went along with anxiety whenever potentially anxiety-producing situations occurred. I thought I had no choice.
But when I started to go there this time, God said to me:
Just because you received an invitation to be anxious doesn't mean that you have to accept it. "
An invitation to an experience? Wow! Seeing my emotions as an invitation to an experience versus a command I had to follow gave me a new way of looking at negative emotions.
Then I started thinking about how many other invitations I have been accepting over the years:
- Invitations to be frustrated
- Invitations to be depressed
- Invitations to be discouraged.
Then I repeated to myself:
Just because I received an invitation doesn't mean that I have to accept it when it comes to negative emotions.
Rather than being anxious when I started thinking about that negative, anxiety-producing situation, I started saying scriptures to myself.
I started saying:
- I'm the head and not the tail. I am above only and not beneath (see Deuteronomy 28:13)
- I am an Overcomer through Jesus Christ (John 16:33)
Philippians 4:8 tells us which type of words qualify as "good words" to speak to ourselves and others:
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things."
The scriptures I spoke built up my spirit. I started feeling better. and the anxiety fled.
Consider the negative emotions that you experience habitually, and then remind yourself:
"Just because I received the invitation doesn't mean that I have to accept."
While we can't control the thoughts that enter our minds, we can control the thoughts on which we dwell (live with).
So when you accept the invitation, that means that you're choosing to dwell on thoughts that make you feel that way.
As for me, I decided that I don't want to feel anxious because I did not want the anxiety experience.
This is another thing that I want you to think about: When you experience anxiety or any other type of emotions, those represent physical symptoms in your body.
It's your mind that chooses how to interpret those physical symptoms (what they mean).
In the case of the anxiety, I started feeling tightness in my chest, my heart started beating faster, and my breathing became shallow.
But once I started speaking scriptures to myself, everything just calmed back down.
And all it was were those physical symptoms. I chose to label those symptoms "anxiety".
Once again, consider your negative feelings as an invitation to an experience, one that you can choose to accept or reject. You can then respond in ways that serve you better!