Hello Everyone; Kevin

Hi all,

I came across this site doing a google search for "catholic anxiety prayers." I couldn't help but read some of the stories on here pertaining to anxiety issues. All I can say is that you're not alone in the battle. I myself struggle with fear, doubt, and anxiety daily. There have been periods in my life where I've literally trembled with fear almost to the point as if my soul would BURST from my body. I, however, feel God gives us these trials to go through to STRENGTHEN ourselves and to understand the big questions in life. Some of my anxiety has been existentialism, the questions of "why," and plain out the fear of having an anxiety attack. It's important to note, however, that our fear and anxiety, in a way, is a blessing. For without FEAR how would we know when our thinking is wrong? God gives to us fear when our thought process is off or scattered....sometimes the fear is overwhelming and our thoughts hurry through our mind and at times feels like we're not in control. Believe me, I've been there and I'm sure you have as well. That's where you need to step back and get into your higher self (spirit) and know that these thoughts are not YOU and not THE TRUTH. By having an anxiety attack you're letting the fear paralyze you. I look at it in this regard....God is LOVE....God creates everything. God PUT HIS LOVE into YOU! When people act out of that LOVE when SIN presents itself in either thought or verbally and we willfully act upon that sin...then we have succumbed to evil. If you feel like you can't control you're thoughts and they're piercing your soul....manifest it in a way as if the devil is whispering it in your ear. For EVERYTHING in life is made up of ENERGY. You were made in the image and likeness of God with a holy soul...your soul becomes clouded and dark when you let the negative energy into your pure self (soul)....and the way to get out of that darkness is to BE MINDFUL when you are under an attack. An anxiety attack = a spiritual attack and you have to be armed with prayer, calmness, and a transcendent mind to beat it. God doesn't allow us more suffering than we can take....even though it can be VERY dark. But I believe he lets us suffer to: a) share in the suffering with Jesus, and b)"seek out your salvation with FEAR and TREMBLING" (the epistle of St. Paul to the Philippians Ch. 2.)

A good book for anxiety is Padre Pio's Words of Hope. You can find it at Barnes and Noble or amazon.com for around $12. He is the Saint who suffered the stigmata and died in 1968. He suffered TREMENDOUS FEAR AND ANXIETY.

"Bye now and God Love You!"
-Kevin

p.s. YouTube Fulton Sheen "Angels"

Hi Kevin! Welcome to the site. You give some good advice, but I would like to offer some alternative perspectives to some of the things you said. Fear is the one thing that God said He does not give. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, "For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind." This means that not only did God not give it, but also that the spirit of fear is demonic. Throughout the entire bible, when God sends his angels to speak to His people, the first thing they will usually say is "Fear not." God takes credit for other bad things. It says in Exodus 4:11, "The LORD said to him, 'Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him dear or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I the LORD?" Isaiah 42:24 states, "Who handed Jacob over to beceom loot, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned?" Amos 3:6 says, "When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?" 1 Samuel 2:7 says, "The LORD sends poverty and wealth." There are other verses, but I'll stop there.

God takes credit for all kinds of bad things, but the two bad things he never took responsibility for was sin and fear. In fact, God promises peace to his people. Psalm 85:8 says, "God promises peace to His people, His saints." So not only does the bible say that God does not give fear, it goes on to say that He promises peace to his people, though granted, this peace comes through obedience because the rest of Psalm 85:8 says, "but let them not return to folly." Isaiah 48:22 says, "There is no peace for the wicked," declares the LORD. But if we are living faithfully before Him, His peace to us is a promise. God does not use fear to discipline us because 2 Timothy 1:7 says he does give fear. However, if we go out of fellowship, God can use Satan to discipline us, which he gives us fear because fear is demonic.

And concerning the verse you quoted in Philippians 2:12: fear here means reverential respect in context. The first part of the verse says, "as you have always obeyed...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling [and the rest of the sentence] for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." If it is a good purpose, there is nothing to fear. Paul here equates obedience with working out salvation with fear and trembling. And, as a side note, he is not talking about saving eternal life salvation because he made it clear that only God can work out our eternal life salvation, for he said that is by faith alone, not by works, so that no one can boast. This "saving" in this verse refers to saving us from our troubles, strongholds, and trials and tribulations. We have to live out our faith to be overcomers and overcome our trials and tribulations. Furthermore, if we look again at verse 13, God does not expect us to do even that in our own strength, for it says, "for it is God who works in you..." So it is saying we are to be obedient using the power that God provides us, which is his grace in Jesus CHrist.

Lastly, God does not want us to live a life of fear. How can Jesus say, "Peace I give you, my peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives, I give true peace," if He at the same time wants us to live in fear. We can't have both fear and peace. Fear takes away peace, and peace takes away fear. So God wants us to serve him in reverential fear, not panicking, anxiety fear. And with this said, it is true, that it is a dreadful thing to fall in the hand or wrath of God, as Hebrews chapter 10 (I think) says. Yet God does not want us to serve him fearing his wrath, but rather out of a loving relationship through responding to His love, peace, and grace.

Hi Statesman!

Thank you for you insightful reply....I agree 100% everything you say. I guess I just have questions as to why so many Saints (Padre Pio, Therese of Lisieux, John of the Cross, Mother Teresa) suffered from the darkness of depression, anxiety, fear etc...

I would guess probably when growing up if one didn't read much in the bible (myself for instance) and didn't read scripture for Truth and Wisdom my soul would be "fair game" for fear and anxiety to attack. So really I would have no one to blame but myself for allowing my soul to be afflicted from turmoil not knowing the Scriptures. However, through my fear and anxiety.....it has literally forced me to PICK UP THE BIBLE and READ! I going on a hinge that this is one way God is working through me to get back to Him....and maybe He let evil forces attack me for a bit? Does my thinking sound off? Please help me more with some insight.....

Also, what about 1st epistle to st. paul to the corinthians ch 2 v 3? would that mean the same as far as in a reverential respect?

Another thing too,....I'm pretty sure you agreed with me in a more biblical sense when I said God can use fear as a blessing...or something along that line....
For instance, you said, "God can use satan to discipline us if we fall out if fellowship with Him" Well, if God is seeing we're falling out of fellowship with Him and decides to let satan tempt us or pierce us with fear and anxiety....couldn't that be seen as a good thing? That God still loves us enough even though we've discoursed that he would let dread come among us so that we might throw ourselves back to him?

Even the GREAT Fulton Sheen said in one of his most popular telecasts titled "Angels"....that, "God might use our Guardian Angel to stir our souls a bit to cause a little fear and anxiety....so that if we're not taking the path to God that we might throw ourselves back to Him." However, in a different view regarding spirits that are evil... he does say in that episode, "Many people today who have commit murder...they say I heard a voice saying, 'kill him, kill him' though an evil spirit cannot impose itself upon the will of man....it can only suggest....such as a billboard..." So again, like you said...you have not the spirit of God, but the spirit of evil causing fear.

...one other thing....Before I knew that God IS LOVE itself.......A lot of my anxiety stemmed from a fear of death in my early 20s....I guess you can say that was my "gateway" to lead to other anxieties in my life....would it be congruent to say that God had allowed the spirit of fear to come upon me since I feared death so much without knowing a truly loving God. When in my 20s, I wasn't sure what happened after death. I knew that God existed, but didn't know that God is Love....and that's where my fear set in, was not know that God IS Love.

Also, Padre Pio stated in one of his books, "I feel all this suffering for God wants to make me more like his Son" Did not Jesus tremble with Fear and sweat blood? Padre Pio is also quoted as saying, "suffering and tribulation to the Christian is worth more than Gold"

I would guess probably when growing up if one didn't read much in the bible (myself for instance) and didn't read scripture for Truth and Wisdom my soul would be "fair game" for fear and anxiety to attack. So really I would have no one to blame but myself for allowing my soul to be afflicted from turmoil not knowing the Scriptures. However, through my fear and anxiety.....it has literally forced me to PICK UP THE BIBLE and READ! I going on a hinge that this is one way God is working through me to get back to Him....and maybe He let evil forces attack me for a bit? Does my thinking sound off? Please help me more with some insight.....

That is not off at all. The exact same thing happened to me too. While God does not give the spirit of fear because it does not come from him, He many times uses it to break His people to bring them into submission to Himself. The exact same thing that happened to you happened to me too. It is an absolute truth that if anxiety and fear never came into my life, I would not have a love for the Word of God nor be as submitted to God as I am now. It took panic attacks for me to open up the bible and search scripture for answers. It took panic attacks to break my own will, see my insufficiency in myself and to learn to rely completely on the grace of Jesus. And I found that when I sinned, God used panic attacks to rebuke me, and lessened them on days that I wasn’t sinning. So yes, God definitely uses fear and even Satan to break us when He sees us stubbornly not choosing to submit our lives to Him. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:7, “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh from a messenger of Satan, to torment me.” Here Paul says that God allowed a demon to torment him with a physical ailment. We don’t know what exactly his thorn was. I’m quite certain his thorn in the flesh was not anxiety for the simple fact that God denied Paul’s request to take it away from him when he prayed to God 3 times for Him to take it away. As I pointed out, God promises peace to the believer. He promises to take away our fear when we submit to Him. And Paul elsewhere expressed his ability to be content in any and every situation. So his was not an anxiety thorn in the flesh because he had it until he died. But our thorn in the flesh was certainly anxiety. And like Paul’s thorn, both were from demons, and yet God used that to break us and humble us before Him.

Also, what about 1st epistle to st. paul to the corinthians ch 2 v 3? would that mean the same as far as in a reverential respect?

That’s a great question. I think this fear and trembling here in this verse is a little different than the one we were discussing for the simple reason that we are to have the reverential fear to God only, not to man. Paul is describing something else here. In 1 Corinthians, Paul in several places tries to convince the Corinthian church that he is a qualified Apostle along with the rest of the Apostles. The mere fact that he has to write these things suggest that there were some in the Corinthian church who were questioning Paul’s authority and his qualifications of writing and giving them the words of God. They questioned these things because Paul used to persecute the church, and now here he is telling them what “thus said the Lord.” What Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 2:3 and the surrounding verses is basically, “I did not come to you preaching myself. I did not come to you with any pride. My message was only about Jesus crucified. I did not come to you in my own strength. I did not try to win you over with high sounding words and eloquence. I did not try to put on a show and perform for you with miracles to ooo’ and awe you. I came humbled in weakness and fear. I came as one of the least of all Apostles because I come from humble beginnings: I used to persecute you people I now fellowship with.” Paul was expressing his lowliness before the people and that he did not come with his own strength, but with God’s power only.

Another thing too,....I'm pretty sure you agreed with me in a more biblical sense when I said God can use fear as a blessing...or something along that line....For instance, you said, "God can use satan to discipline us if we fall out if fellowship with Him" Well, if God is seeing we're falling out of fellowship with Him and decides to let satan tempt us or pierce us with fear and anxiety....couldn't that be seen as a good thing? That God still loves us enough even though we've discoursed that he would let dread come among us so that we might throw ourselves back to him?

I absolutely agree. As I stated had it not been for anxiety, I would not have such concern to seek God. Therefore, anxiety turned out to be one of the greatest blessings to come into my life. Even concerning anxiety, Romans 8:28 holds true: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” God is awesome like that. He can take complete darkness and work it out so that that darkness becomes a great light. But with that said, I don’t think that God wants our end to be the darkness. He uses the darkness to change us so that He can bring us to the light. He doesn’t want us to stay in the darkness. He doesn’t want us to be content in fear and learn to just get by with it. He wants us to seek Him, humble ourselves before Him so that He can take away the fear that He used to bring us to Him. Isaiah 51:14 reads, “The cowering prisoners will soon be set free; they will not die in their dungeon, nor will they lack bread.” This verse has other applications that I won’t get into here, but it can certainly be applied to you and me in what we have gone through and in what God promises He will do for us.

However, in a different view regarding spirits that are evil... he does say in that episode, "Many people today who have commit murder...they say I heard a voice saying, 'kill him, kill him' though an evil spirit cannot impose itself upon the will of man....it can only suggest....such as a billboard..." So again, like you said...you have not the spirit of God, but the spirit of evil causing fear.

Evil spirits can certainly possess people and can also take over. The Anti-Christ, when he comes, will be Satan embodying a man. Jesus throughout the gospels casts out demons from people. Even today evil spirits are possessing many people and they don’t even know that an evil spirit has entered them. It is hotly debated whether or not a Christian can be possessed by a demon. All Christians have the Holy Spirit in them, so it would seem through simple logic that where the Holy Spirit is, a demon cannot come in and possess. But I know through experience that had the evil spirit of fear in me and was a Christian at the same time. I am not going to try to reason that though. I do fall short on answers sometimes. But one thing I know is that if it is true that a demon cannot possess a Christian, an evil spirit can certainly influence a Christian so much so that it seems like it is possessing the Christian. I say that through experience alone. I’m quite sure that a Christian cannot be taken over and controlled by a demon. Romans clearly states that the Christian is controlled by righteousness because we were given a new nature. It does say in 1 John 4:4, “…greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” This verse does strongly suggest that only the Holy spirit can enter a Christian and not a demon. And then we can raise the question: “Is there a difference between a demon and an evil spirit?” And, “Can only evil spirits enter Christians and not demons?” And I just do not have the answers to those questions.

...one other thing....Before I knew that God IS LOVE itself.......A lot of my anxiety stemmed from a fear of death in my early 20s....I guess you can say that was my "gateway" to lead to other anxieties in my life....would it be congruent to say that God had allowed the spirit of fear to come upon me since I feared death so much without knowing a truly loving God. When in my 20s, I wasn't sure what happened after death. I knew that God existed, but didn't know that God is Love....and that's where my fear set in, was not know that God IS Love.

I hear you well. And once fear creeps into our lives in one area, it can open other fear doors in other areas. I know you know now: the bible makes clear that there is nothing to fear in death. In fact, we will not even be there to attend our own funeral. We will not be dead long enough to even realize that we are dead. For absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The next life will be just as real (and even more so) than this life. We will one day have our bodies that rotted in the grave resurrected to perfection and holiness and will be given those new bodies and experience life on a grander scale than we know it now. Death is not a period that ends all consciousness; rather it is a comma that transcends us to a loftier experience (That’s what Dr. Martin Luther King said).

Thank you so much for your replies and for helping me to further understand. I'm 30 and hope to continue to grow in faith, hope, and charity. If it weren't for God allowing anxiety and fear to creep into my life, I probably would never have picked up the Bible since there are other "important" things in life to accomplish. It's so easy to get "off track" and get away from practicing the faith. Between 22-25 I had a really difficult time in my life with anxiety; however, I refused to take any pills because I knew it was my faith that was going to save me. And also that my questions were faith based. Then, from 25 - 29 I felt comfortable with answers that I had (however they turned out to be my own egotistical answers, in other words evil was still around me and comforting me with my own thoughts) . The past 7 months I felt like God let loose on me that fear and anxiety again showing me how wrong I am. Even though I felt the pain and agony of anxiety, I'm so thankful for it because I can look back at the last 5 years and see with my limited vision and far away (probably still am) I was living from God. I can only hope that I continue to grow closer to God; I felt this time anxiety attacks that were so painful I almost questioned living. However, each day I feel I'm getting better and spiritually stronger...not nearly how I felt back in October.

Thanks again and God Bless.
Kevin