Fight Fear and Worry with God’s Truth
Editor’s Note: While we believe the gospel provides hope to moms in all of our fears, we also acknowledge that sometimes there are additional layers of anxiety, trauma, grief, etc. that affect us physically, mentally, and emotionally. As such, this article is not meant to replace professional help. We encourage anyone who is struggling with deep-seated fears to seek help from a counselor, pastor, medical doctor, or other skilled professionals in your local community.
As moms, our minds are never not working. We’re constantly going through our mental lists—adding new items, crossing things off, setting reminders for our reminders. We’re ordering and orchestrating everything we need to keep the plates spinning, including all those little plastic ones! Our thoughts are always on the move, traveling back and forth on well-worn paths.
But some of those paths lead us where we don’t want to go. The honest truth is, not all of our thoughts are merely practical or benign. And some of them take us to dark places. We think about our situation and fear the unknowns: What would happen if . . . ? We worry about all our people: How can I protect them from ______? We wake up in the night wondering, Will I ever be good enough? We have this sneaking suspicion pop up again and again: Does anyone actually like me? We replay conversations in our minds: What did they mean by that? I wish I would’ve said . . . We get stuck thinking, What if I fail? These are the places we often go in our minds, even when we don’t want to. How can we reroute our thinking?
When we find ourselves stuck on the path of worry or anxiety or insecurity or fear, we need a way out. We need better things to tell ourselves—better thoughts to dwell on. We need to speak God’s words to our discouraged, distracted hearts.
Can you imagine? What would it look like if you reminded yourself of God’s faithful promises in the middle of the night when you wake up with worry? Or if you remembered God’s words about his love for you when you feel alone or unwanted? Or if you spoke God’s truth whenever you heard the enemy whispering lies in your ear?
Yet memorizing Scripture to call to mind in these moments can feel hard. We know we need it, but how do we make it happen in our busy lives?
Here’s a hack for you—one simple way to memorize a Bible verse:
Pray and ask God to help you find a verse that will meet you where you are.
Write the verse you want to memorize on a notecard.
On the other side of the card, write the first letter of every word of that verse.
Put that card in a place where you will regularly see it.
Alternately, write the first letter of the verse on your wrist or arm so you will see it all the time and memorize it even more quickly.
When you see those letters, your mind is prompted to remember the words they stand for. And once those words are in your mind, you can spend time meditating on them throughout your day. You can take time to read and study the surrounding passage. You can pray the verse back to God. You can share your verse with a friend who might need to hear it. You can let those words really sink in deep as you dwell on them and allow them to reroute your thinking.
If you’re not sure what to memorize first, here are some great verses to get you started:
When everything feels out of control, remember that Jesus has everything firmly in hand: “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17).
When you feel like you're in the dark and need someone to rescue you, remind yourself of this truth: “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1).
When you feel like you’re not enough, remember who loves you: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you” (Jeremiah 31:3b).
This is it! This is the best thing we can grab ahold of—God’s own words for us—in the middle of the night, in the middle of the worry, and all day long. You can start right now with just one verse. Start today, bring your kids into the learning process with you, and see if it doesn’t make a world of difference in both your home and your heart.
Note: The Dwell Differently team has graciously put together some free resources for Risen Motherhood readers to learn the verses cited above (in NIV translation). To access, check out: https://dwelldifferently.com/pages/risen-motherhood.
