I am a firm believer that the Bible is the best guide out there for our lives. It lives up to its reputation as the Living Word! I am beyond grateful for a loving and caring Creator who preserved His Word for all generations to learn from and grow closer to Him. This post is about applying Bible verses for depression and anxiety.
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I think we all struggle at times with our worth or value. Being a sinner, raising sinners, it can be easy to get down trodden and overwhelmed with all the shortcomings.
That is how Satan wants us to be.
Stuck.
Satan wants us all to wallow in our failures and take our eyes off what really matters – the redeeming cross at Calvary.
If we are focused inward with our heads down, it is difficult to walk. Likewise, it is difficult to walk with the Lord when we are stuck in Satan’s snares. This can lead to us becoming susceptible to the spiral of self-proclaimed worthlessness.
That’s not how God sees us! If that were true then Jesus would have never come to the earth! Jesus would have avoided being humiliated, mocked, and killed for our sake. Jesus wouldn’t have died and rose again giving us the gift and treasure of spending eternity with Him!
We aren’t worthless – we have value in the sight of an almighty God who created us. Don’t let Satan tell you otherwise, or worse, believe his lies!
Jesus paid the FULL price for you and me; Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.
Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:
Galatians 1:4
Showing your kids the power of gratitude
Let me invite you in to a time of struggle that, not so long ago, my kiddo was having at bed time. This particular kid was battling negative thoughts about self causing great distress, anxiety, and depression.
As the end of the day was coming to a close, right before bed, a teary eyed and anxious little person would express all the thoughts that began to rear their ugly faces with poison daggers in hand. My sweet child’s heart and mind were under attack.
It’s cruel how Satan attacks us all regardless of age, trying to devalue us as children of God, and make us feel worthless.
In an attempt to help, I would listen for quite a long time to all the dissatisfaction brewing ultimately leading to devaluation of self. I would thank my little one for sharing and then to combat the brewing depression and anxiety, I’d offer encouragement and share applicable bible verses.
Night after night, to no avail, peace seemed out of reach. Those poison daggers were too comfortably settling into a young mind.
I wasn’t enough when I spoke God’s goodness and my goodness into my child each night. So I took it to the One who is, and asked God for help in how to navigate this situation.
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
I felt like a hypocrite.
I too struggle with Satan’s attacks on myself. Of all the people in the world, I can and will critique my value and worth more than anyone ever could. Can you relate?
Then, God in His love and grace gently whispered to my heart, that we forget to see all His blessings in our lives.
We need to stop putting our short comings front and center and instead, set Christ’s redeeming love and how He has set us free from our short comings in our sights!
If you are a child of God, then He has set you free from your sins.
Jesus paid the ultimate price on the cross.
When you trust on the Lord, then the sins made yesterday, today, and that will be made tomorrow, are separated as far as the east is from the west thanks to the redeeming blood of Jesus!
How much joy do we have in knowing that our shortcomings, flaws, and sins are separated from us through Jesus Christ!
Satan wants us to be stuck. Bible verses teach us how to cut through depression and anxiety
Admittedly, I have been stuck, in what feels like concrete, more than I wish to share. In doing so, we forget to open our eyes and see our value in Christ and His blessings.
Through God’s love, I realized that my child AND I needed a journal, but not just any ordinary journal, a “Fortunately Journal”.
Like many of us, my little one had created a very sad habit of looking at life through the lenses of “unfortunately”. However, every unfortunate event has some fortunate thing you can pull out of it. It may be small and take time to see it, but it’s there.
Practicing this fortunately “muscle” helps in times that you feel immense or great despair. I have been there and swallowed up in it. That’s why I understand the great importance of being able to find joy in all things and strengthening your ability to find blessings that surround you continually.
How to put into action Bible verses about joy and gratitude to prevail over depression and anxiety
Every day has endless fortunately’s but for some reason all the unfortunately’s like to stand in front of all the good happening and make a big ol’ scene.
My solution was a “fortunately” journal.
I wanted us to have a journal, that was not only aesthetically pleasing on the outside, but more importantly, all the pages would be filled with beautiful blessings from each day, especially on those harder days.
For instance, it could be a normal day and at night you start to feel like you’re swimming in your shortcomings and failures. Well, if you’re a stay-at-home mom like me, then here are a few fortunately’s you could write down on a normal day:
- Fortunately, I have the privilege to stay home and raise my kids.
- Fortunately, I got to share a meal/s with my kids and hear their stories, thoughts, and dreams.
- Fortunately, I got to hug my kids today.
- Fortunately, I got to help grow my children’s character when they were struggling to find their own answers.
- Fortunately, I got to clean up the messes that I had time to do.
- Fortunately, God gave me a home and little people to manage and nurture.
- Fortunately, my husband provides for our family.
- Fortunately, my husband hugs me when he comes home.
- Fortunately, I have a husband.
- Fortunately, I have a house to make a home.
I personally don’t want this to feel like “work” or a “chore” so I encourage my little one to express through drawing in empty spaces or even to take a day off here and there. It’s a tool to rewire the brain, not a ridged to-do list to daily check the box.
Our favorite part is to read our hard days, best days, and even normal days to each other! We bond over being able to see how each other saw the good and blessings from God day by day!
Gratitude kills depression
Focusing and writing the blessings down at the end of the day makes the messes, things I didn’t get to, breaking up squabbles, and all the shortcomings I had (because *shocker* I am a flawed human being) seem not so debilitating anymore.
They aren’t the memories that deserve to stick in my limited memory banks. (Any women who has had babies understands this more than ever!).
Filling your memory banks with gratitude just makes sense, if you’re like me and limited on space!
Do I ever have perfect days? No.
Do I make mistakes daily? Yes.
Regardless, am I capable of identifying the blessings God has given me each day? Absolutely!
What about the not normal days, but the bad days, how do I find the fortunately’s then?
Well, do you have breath in your lungs?
Eyes that can capture the clouds or the flowers?
Ears to hear the birds?
A mouth to sing praises to God?
Clothes on your back?
Access to food to put in your belly?
If the answer to these are yes, right them down on those hard or bad days and thank God for the things that run in the background continually for your good!
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?
Matthew 6:26
The point is to help shift your heart posture from yourself and trying to be perfect (hint: you never will be), to seeing that the One who is perfect has blessed you beyond measure!
Taking time to meditate and reflect on your day negatively doesn’t give God the glory.
Taking time to meditate and reflect on the blessings you received from God gives Him the glory!
As a bonus, you are filled with joy and get to wipe your hands and feet from the yuck and gunk that Satan wants you to be stuck in.
In the end, give God the glory and you get a grateful heart, and the eyes to see the blessings God wanted you to receive. They are there all the time.
How much better to go to bed in that way!
So go get yourself a fortunately journal (any notebook will work!) and start ending your days with gratitude!
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Reading Bible verses squashes depression and anxiety
Psalm 139 is my favorite psalm. It is a great reminder of how deeply loved I am, when I find it hard to love myself. If you are unfamiliar with this incredibly loving message from God, please soak it in below:
O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.
Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.
For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.
Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.
Psalm 139
This Bible verse passage helps me so much to know that God, the wonderful creator of the universe, is so deeply in tune with little ol’ me! That alone helps overcome any bout of depression or anxiety that comes flying my way.
What?
Who am I that God of heaven and earth should concern himself to know when I rise or when I sit or when I lie down?
Why would He care about my path? My thoughts??? He does and it’s recorded in His book. By the way, this isn’t just my book, it’s yours too!
The part of this passage that blew me away the most and I still can not wrap my feeble mind around is this verse: How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.
When this Bible verse sunk in, I immediately grabbed my kids and ran to our dining room where I have some sand I have collected from different beaches around the world. I grabbed my favorite, the pink Bermuda sand, and poured a little in my hands.
I asked my kids, how many pieces of sand did I hold in my hand? They had no idea, neither did I!
I spilled a little on our dark brown table to contrast with the white and pink sand a little better. Then I asked, can you see how teeny tiny they are??
I then read that verse to them: How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.
So you’re telling me that God’s precious thoughts are more in number than that of the sand?!
Ok, I said to my kids, do you know how much sand is on this earth? Do you know that it is literally impossible to number the sand?? So God’s precious thoughts toward you, and you, and you, and you, and me are impossible to count!
When you stop and really soak that all in… WOW!
That is a lot of Bible to remind you that you are deeply loved and cared for by the greatest of all, God!
Our Creator has so many precious thoughts toward you and he tells us in these Bible verses, it’s difficult to have depression, anxiety, or sadness when you know and believe Him.
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More Bible verses to prevail over depression and anxiety
There are so many Bible verses that prove God’s love toward us and dissolve depression and anxiety. Here is a list of Bible verses that help shift your heart towards gratitude. Hide these in your heart:
Bible verses against depression
- The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; And saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Psalm 34:18
- Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; For I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. Psalm 42:11
- 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. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. 1 Peter 5:6-9
- Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: But a good word maketh it glad. Proverbs 12:25
- Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
- And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Revelation 21:4
Bible verses against anxiety
- Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. Joshua 1:9
- These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33
- Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3
- Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13:5
Gratitude Bible verses
- Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4
- Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Colossians 3:16
- Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17
- Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. Psalm 63:4
- Psalm 103
- And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:16-18
Do you need more biblical encouragement?
Check out my post about Quotes and Encouragement, and download the beautiful free printable to hang on your wall for instantly lifted spirits!
What encouraging words and thoughts Ashley!
God is so good!!!
Love the fortunately Journal and I will be implementing this into my own life!.
Thank you for sharing this, many will be touched by it for sure!