Sermon quotes on anxiety
Augustine of Hippo
Watch, O Lord, with those who wake or watch or weep tonight, and give your angels and saints charge over those who sleep. Tend your sick ones, O Lord Christ. Rest your weary ones. Bless your dying ones. Soothe your suffering ones. Pity your afflicted ones, shield your joyous ones. And all for love’s sake.
Marcus Aurelius
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
Henry Ward Beecher
The little troubles and worries of life may be as stumbling blocks in our way, or we may make them stepping-stones to a nobler character and to Heaven. Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things.
John Bunyan
If we have not quiet in our minds, outward comfort will do no more for us than a golden slipper on a gouty foot.
Francis de Sales
Do not scrutinize so closely whether you are doing much or little, ill or well, so long as what you do is not sinful and that you are heartily seeking to do everything for God. Try as far as you can to do everything well, but when it is done, do not think about it. Try, rather, to think of what is to be done next. Go on simply in the Lord’s way, and do not torment yourself. We ought to hate our faults, but with a quiet, calm hatred; not pettishly and anxiously.
Biography and Works
Timothy Jennings
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problem in America, affecting 28.8 percent of adults at some point in their lives—and the rate of anxiety disorder incidence appears to be on the rise.
Taken from The God-Shaped Brain by Timothy R. Jennings. ©2017 by Timothy R. Jennings. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove IL 60515-1426. www.ivpress.com.
Søren Kierkegaard
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.
Bruce Larson
On days when life is difficult and I feel overwhelmed, as I do fairly often, it helps to remember in my prayers that all God requires of me is to trust Him and be His friend. I find I can do that.
George Macdonald
Anything big enough to occupy our minds is big enough to hang a prayer on.
Alexander MacLaren
It is of no use to say to men, “Let not your heart be troubled,” unless you finish the verse and say, “Believe in God, believe also in Christ.
Biography and Online Library
Helen Mellincost
I was regretting the past and fearing the future. Suddenly God was speaking: “My name is I am.” I waited and God continued: “When you live in the past, with its mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I was. When you live in the future, with its problems and fears, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I will be. When you live in this moment, it is not hard. I am here. My name is I AM.”
F.B. Meyer
Tears are the material out of which heaven weaves its brightest rainbow.
John Stott
A Christian’s freedom from anxiety is not due to some guaranteed freedom from trouble, but to the folly of worry and especially to the confidence that God is our Father, that even permitted suffering is within the orbit of His care.
Corrie Ten Boom
Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.
William Wilberforce
The objects of the present life fill the human eye with a false magnification because of their immediacy.
Charles Williams
The strong hands of God twisted the crown of thorns into a crown of glory; and in such hands we are safe.
Charles Williams
The strong hands of God twisted the crown of thorns into a crown of glory; and in such hands we are safe.
Bertrand Russell
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.
Mark Twain
I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.
T.S. Eliot
Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity
William Ralph Inge
Anxiety is the interest paid on trouble before it is due.
John Arnold
We are too anxious to be able to wait for fruit and time to ripen, so we take the shortcuts of robbery and violence, even the torture of little children; sin leads to crimes against both nature and our fellow human beings.
Rebekah Lyons
When I was sick, I only looked inward. Through healing, I started seeing everyone else.
Timothy Jennings
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problem in America, affecting 28.8 percent of adults at some point in their lives—and the rate of anxiety disorder incidence appears to be on the rise.
Taken from The God Shaped Brain by Timothy Jennings Copyright (c) 2017 by Timothy Jennings. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com
John Mark Comer
Psychologists tell us anxiety is often the canary in the coal mine, our souls’ way of telling us something is deeply wrong and we need to fix it, fast.
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, The Crown Publishing Group, 2019.
Ruth Burrows
I was born into this world with a tortured sensitivity. For long I have puzzled over the causes of my psychological anguish.
Rebekah Lyons
When I was sick, I only looked inward. Through healing, I started seeing everyone else.
Timothy Jennings
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problem in America, affecting 28.8 percent of adults at some point in their lives—and the rate of anxiety disorder incidence appears to be on the rise.
Taken from The God Shaped Brain by Timothy Jennings Copyright (c) 2017 by Timothy Jennings. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com
Jessica Thompson
Anxiety has replaced depression as the number one problem teenagers deal with. From 2010 to 2017, anxiety has been the main reason kids seek mental health services, and each year has seen an increase in the number of teens seeking help. “This year, 51 percent of students who visited a counseling center reported having anxiety, followed by depression (41 percent), relationship concerns (34 percent) and suicidal ideation (20.5 percent).
Jessica Thompson
Studies indicate that females are more likely to experience anxiety (approximately a two-to-one ratio), and white Americans are more likely to be diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. “The differences were significant: 8.6 percent of White Americans will experience symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder in their lifetimes, compared to just 5.8 percent of Hispanics, 4.9 of Black Americans, and 2.4 of Asian Americans.”
Jessica Thompson
The church, in general, has done a horrible job with mental illness. We have ignored it, pretended it doesn’t exist, or worse, acted as though all mental illness was a result of sin. Our obsession with outward perfection has led us down a dark, dangerous path of contempt toward anything that doesn’t measure up to our false definition of what a “good Christian” should look like.
See also quotes on Depression, Fear
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