How to Turn Your Anxiety Into Healing

Many of us have struggles that we aren’t comfortable sharing with others. These secret sins seem so taboo that if we told anyone, they might stop speaking to us. Often these deep soul wounds manifest as anxiety or anger or other sins that affect our relationships with friends, family and community. So how do we get to the root of these issues? How do we find healing from these sins that constantly seem to trip us up?

Many of us have struggles that we aren’t comfortable sharing with others. These secret sins seem so taboo that if we told anyone, they might stop speaking to us. Often these deep soul wounds manifest as anxiety or anger or other sins that affect our relationships with friends, family and community. So how do we get to the root of these issues? How do we find healing from these sins that constantly seem to trip us up?

Key Questions from the Podcast

  • How should Christians deal with fear, anxiety and stress?

  • Is it a sin to be anxious?

  • How can we learn to be content?

  • If our discontentment is coming from misaligned values, how can we get them back on track?

  • If someone doesn’t feel they can be truly vulnerable in church, where can they find healing for the deep issues of the soul?

Notable Quotes from the Podcast

I pray that we, as Christians, get beyond always happy, peppy, bursting with songs. That is where we were meant to live, but you don't get there through denial. You get there through facing the crisis, hardship, suffering, and pain of life. Once you do, you come out of that with a maturity that you would not have otherwise. – Gary Wilkerson

Worry is like a good rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere. - Erma Bombeck

When you're examining yourself and you're full of anxiety, that's a signal that something is off. We think, "Oh Lord, I'm so sorry. I'm anxious." There can be sin in anxiety because it's a lack of trust, but it also can be a signal. A lot of our emotions that we label as sinful are actually gifts. – Gary Wilkerson

Contentment is born out of understanding biblical values, wanting those biblical values, and then asking for the grace to live in those biblical values.  – Gary Wilkerson

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference. - Reinhold Niebuhr

Sin is born out of a core pain and the poor choices we make because of that pain. I'm not saying that sin has an excuse. You are responsible for your sin. We have to deal with the fruit that we see, which is the sin. And we have to deal with the root as well, the healing. Our churches are very well versed at dealing with the sin and the fruit, but very poorly schooled and able to deal with the root of it, which is the need for healing of the soul. – Gary Wilkerson

Bible Verses Referenced in the Podcast

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” – Psalm 46:10

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. – Philippians 4:6

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. – Philippians 4:11

Resources Mentioned in the Podcast

About Gary Wilkerson

Gary Wilkerson is the President of World Challenge, an international mission organization that was founded by his father, David Wilkerson. He is also the Founding Pastor of The Springs Church, which he launched in 2009 with a handful of people. He has traveled nationally and internationally at conferences and conducted mission ventures such as church planting, starting orphanages, clinics, feeding programs among the poorest of the poor and the most unreached people of the earth. Gary and his wife Kelly have four children and live in Colorado Springs, CO.