Do you ever battle with worry, anger, and anxiety in your thoughts? Have you tried pushing them away? But they just keep coming back. How can you conquer them so your mind is filled with contentment and peace?

Also, find links to last week’s other posts. They covered everything from responding to private temptations and the unpardonable sin to how to trust God when evil seems to be triumphing everywhere.

How to Conquer Worry, Anger & Anxiety in Our Thoughts

Faithless & Ungodly Thoughts

Do you ever struggle with thoughts like the ones I described above?

Our thought lives are reflections of what’s in our hearts, whether our hearts are filled with faith and trust in God and His sovereignty and whether or not God is at the center.

Hebrews 11.6 tell us:

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

And Jerry Bridges in his book Respectable Sins, says this about ungodliness:

Ungodliness may be defined as living one’s everyday life with little or no thought of God, or of God’s will, or of God’s glory, or of one’s dependence on God.

We usually think of ungodliness as involving major sins not our little struggles. But it can include times when we are not keeping God, His purposes, His commands, and His sovereignty at the center. We’re just not thinking and processing things God’s way.

Again quoting Jerry Bridges from Respectable Sins:

Anxiety is a sin also because it is a lack of acceptance of God’s providence in our lives.

That lack of faith and habitual ungodliness play a major role in our worry, anger, and anxiety. Rather than seeing our circumstances through the eyes of faith and accepting God’s providence, we fret, worry, and get anxious. And rather than trusting God to deal with those who sin against us, we get sinfully angry, give no thought to God, and think about getting even. Sometimes we even justify it.

The Battle

There is a battle. Yet, too often, we believe we are helpless victims of our thinking. The Bible paints a different picture. 2 Corinthians 10 says this:

³For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. ⁴For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. ⁵We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

Notice several key words … arguments, opinion, knowledge of God, and thought. These all have to do with our thinking. We are told to destroy arguments and opinions that oppose the knowledge of God. And we are to take our thoughts captive to obey Christ.

Destroying & Taking Captive

Arguments and opinions must be destroyed with the truth, God’s truth. It must fill our minds. We need a steady diet of God’s Word, especially passages that teach us about God’s character and His work in the lives of His people. One of my favorites is to study the life of Joseph starting in Genesis 37. Reading the Psalms can be another good place to hang out.

And how are we to take our thoughts captive? It’s not by thinking things like, “I shouldn’t worry,” or “I’m trying not to be anxious,” or looking for a healthy way to vent sinful anger.

It begins with repentance. We must see this kind of thinking as sin, humble ourselves, and seek God’s forgiveness. Then we must make the effort to replace sinful thoughts with God-honoring, faith-filled ones.

The Bible is filled with what we call put-offs and put-ons. Ephesians 4, 5, and 6, Colossians 3, and Philippians 4 are good places to start finding them. We are told to put off the behavior, including our thinking, of the old, unredeemed man and to put on godly thinking and acting (Eph. 4.22-24). It’s not enough to do one or the other. We must do both.

Fear, Worry & Anxiety

Philippians 4 says:

⁶do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

“Do not.” That’s a command. We are to put off worry and anxiety. Instead, put on prayer and thankfulness. Then we must replace every worried, anxious thought with the truth. Remind yourself of God’s love, goodness, and sovereignty. You may have to do it repeatedly in the beginning but you can discipline yourself to think in godly ways. Write appropriate verses on 3×5 cards. Memorize them. Meditate on them. Pull them out and read them when you begin thinking in ungodly ways.

Anger

Ephesians 4 says:

³¹Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. ³²Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

We must put off anger and all its ungodly cousins, beginning in our thoughts. We can’t think angry thoughts and act in godly ways. Whatever fills our hearts (our thinking) will spill out in words and actions.

Instead, we need to choose kindness, tenderheartedness (compassion), and forgiveness. Again, it begins with our thinking. When we’re tempted to be angry we need to think about God’s grace and forgiveness in our lives. We need to think about ways to be kind even if it’s undeserved. And we need to allow ourselves to have compassion for those who have sinned against us.

It Requires Practice

It takes effort. We must practice these new ways of thinking. And it requires praying for God’s help and His grace and mercy when we fail. But we can conquer faithless and ungodly thinking, not perfectly in this life, but God is looking at the heart. And while He doesn’t expect us to be perfect, He does expect us to be growing in these things (Eph. 4.14-15).

Last Week’s Most Read Post

Last week’s most read post along with a little preview:

“Can God Redeem Your Past?” January 19

Can God redeem your past? What things in your family or your past do you wish weren’t part of your personal history? Can God really use those things for good? Do they disqualify you from serving God or ever being used in a meaningful way? You might be surprised who God uses.