3 Prayers for Depression and Anxiety
Jesus knew that depression and anxiety would come. While some people will argue that the amount of fear and panic we’ve experienced in the past couple years has been heightened compared to previous times, the sentiment of humanity has always been the same — depression and anxiety will be experienced by all people at different seasons in life.
For some people, these feelings are fleeting — a slight inconvenience or interruption. For others, they act as an oppressive blanket, hanging heavy over us and forcing us to live with a weight that is burdensome and exhausting.
While anxiety and depression impact everyone at different seasons of life, there is still beautiful news for followers of Jesus: You don’t have to shoulder the weight of it alone.
Again, Jesus knew that depression and anxiety would come. And He gave us a road map for how to handle it so we don’t have to live our lives consumed by it.
The power of praying verses
Prayer is arguably one of the greatest gifts that God has given us. When we pray, we are invited to bring the full weight of everything on our minds and hearts and pour it out at the feet of the Creator. There was a woman in our church a while back that used to say, “I don’t know what the day will bring, but I know who brings the day.”
Just let that sink in for a moment.
None of us know what the day will bring. That’s one of the leading causes of anxiety — the unknown. We try to plan for all possible scenarios, but instead of feeling in control, we realize how many things in the day are entirely outside of our jurisdiction. It’s overwhelming.
But as Jesus followers, we know who brings the day.
We may not be in control of really anything in life, but we have direct access to the one who is in control. And we are invited to come before Him every second of every day and hand over our burdens, our worries, our praises and everything in between.
One of the most powerful things we can do as we are lifting our concerns up to God is to pray verses. To pray verses is to pray God’s words back to Him. It’s a way to submit ourselves to God’s truth, and submit our words to His.
Let’s be very clear about what praying verses is not: praying verses is not claiming a promise over your life that was never contextually written about your life. You can’t rip a promise to Joshua about defeating an enemy army out of the Old Testament and assume it holds the same promise for defeating someone at work who annoys you. There is a lot of danger in cherry-picking God’s promises that were meant for specific times and situations.
However, there are universal truths that Jesus stated that describe the nature of God and His love for us as it relates to our worries in life, and those promises are for all generations. God’s love for us is never failing and never changing, and those promises are as true today as they were 2,000 years ago.
Three verses about anxiety and depression
There are three verses that we should keep pressed into our hearts and minds for when anxiety hits:
Matthew 6:34 (NIV) — “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
1 Corinthians 7:32 (ESV) — "I want you to be free from anxieties."
Philippians 4:6 (ESV) — "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."
There are three key things to notice in these verses: In the first verse, Jesus gives us practical advice on why worry does not profit us anything. We are not the ones who bring the day; He is. Worrying about things outside of our control changes nothing. By praying this verse, we are submitting the control back into God’s hands, where it rightfully belongs. And He will grant us peace in those moments.
The second verse shows God’s nature toward us. We were never meant to be burdened with fear, anxiety and depression. We were meant to live freely, in constant communion with God. However, when humanity chose to disobey God because we believed we could do it better ourselves, we made ourselves into makeshift gods. And we were never built to carry all that weight. God wants us to live in freedom, and that freedom comes in beautiful submission of our worries into God’s hands.
The last verse is an invitation to pour out our fears and anxieties and depression to God, because He loves us. By praying this verse, we are telling God that we are following His Word and trying to do exactly what He tells us to in those moments. And He will meet us there.
It’s OK to have Jesus and a therapist, too.
While God invites us to pour out all our fear and anxieties and depression at His feet, He also gave us a beautifully intellectual mind to understand how the human body works. There may be times that God’s answer to our plea to take away our anxiety and depression is for us to seek professional help.
If our child were sick, we would absolutely pray for healing. We would also seek a doctor, knowing that often God works healing through the hands of others.
Our mind is no different. It’s a muscle, and it can get damaged in the same way that any other muscle in the body can be damaged. When anxiety and depression begin to eat away at the joy in our lives, it’s time to seek professional help. It’s like Jesus says, "I want you to be free from anxieties" (1 Corinthians 7:32 ESV). Many times, a certified therapist is the answer to your freedom.
There’s an old anecdote about a sea captain whose boat begins to sink. As he’s flailing in the water, he cries out to God, “Please save me!” A moment later, another boat comes by and offers help. The sea captain says, “No, I’ve prayed to God to save me. He will come get me.” Another minute later, and another boat comes by to help. Again, the sea captain sends him on his way in hopes that God will reach down and save him. A third boat comes by, until finally the sea captain drowns. When he gets to heaven, he says, “God, why didn’t You save me?! Didn’t You hear my prayers?” God simply looks at him and says, “I sent you three boats.”
As Christians, we need to recognize that sometimes God offers divine healing from our anxiety and depression, and sometimes God offers healing through the hands of others. It doesn’t matter the means; it matters that you are healed. If you have been waiting for God to heal you, and He is nudging you in the direction of seeking mental counseling from a certified mental health professional, then you need to heed His direction. He wants you to live free from your anxieties.
Centerpoint Church offers several mental health resources. Please reach out to us at any time for help finding a certified mental health counselor in the Tampa, Florida, area. You deserve healing.