Casting all our anxiety on Jesus, our healer

Suffering is scary. A road of suffering often twists with crisis after crisis and brings sleepless nights as we battle with darkness. It all can foster fears of every scenario that our brilliant minds can concoct.

It’s exhausting, isn’t it?

Job felt it. On top of his kids’ sudden death, his financial destruction, and his chronic illness and pain, friends heaped on even more anxiety, stressing him out by making him think he must have sinned and somehow caused his own suffering. So often, our inward agitation brings about behaviors and conversations that can just make it worse and we spiral as Job did.

My inward parts are in turmoil and never still; days of affliction come to meet me (Job 30:27 ESV).

Healing of anxiety

Wondering why singing to the Lord as we suffer has helped me and others so much, I’ve done much academic research about how our embodied minds and cognitive thoughts connect with our emotions. Did you know emotions come from within the brain? Did you know emotions are a result of cascading sets of neurobiological and chemical activities in the body God beautifully designed?

Did you know that our bodies, emotions, and thoughts are so intertwined that God can bring about healing of these “never still” thoughts, as He progressively sanctifies us? It’s amazing!

Singing God’s Word and songs that echo His Word can be so powerfully healing because this uniquely integrates our body, mind, and emotion at the same time.

No wonder He tells us to sing!

It’s God’s healing gift of love as we sing His truth back to Him.

So, let’s interrupt our anxiety this week, trembling with awe at the cross instead, focusing on Jesus and singing of His love…as He also soothes the trembling of our earthly suffering.

Jesus understands our anxieties

Jesus understands our anxieties. Unlike us…

for we only imagine possible suffering that might come…

He knew exactly what would happen.

In His humanity, His anguish was so strong that God intervened.

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? 
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? 
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. 
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?

Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt. 27:46 ESV).

Jesus knew the forsaking abandonment of our Father would happen to Him. He anguished over being utterly alone while suffering the full penalty and punishment our sin deserves.

No matter what fears grip us, we never need to be afraid of this as believers. Why? Because Jesus is alive and we who are unified with Him are forgiven, never forsaken, never, ever, ever alone. He is always with us, by His indwelling Holy Spirit.

Casting all our anxiety on our powerful God

Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? 
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? 
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. 
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?

Do you hear the song’s crescendo into the darkness of the tomb, the loneliness of suffering, the pain of anxiety? It causes me to tremble with reverent worship, awe, and gratitude!

Our beloved Jesus is resurrected and alive in victory right now, healing our brains and emotions as we fill our minds with God’s Word to replace our fearful thoughts!

I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears (Ps. 34:4 ESV).

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6-7 ESV).

Were you there when God raised him from the tomb? 
Were you there when God raised him from the tomb? 
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. 
Were you there when God raised him from the tomb?

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Mt. 11:28-30 ESV).

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid (Jn. 14:27 ESV).

Thought replacement into our anxiety

Into our panicked prayers, our constant rumination on the plausible scary of suffering, what Scriptures is our healing and powerful God giving you, to replace those thoughts? If there were ever a time to nourish and fill our minds with long soaks in the counseling of God’s entire Word, it’s when we suffer.

If there were ever a time to sing God’s Word as we seek our Counselor and Helper’s healing, it’s when we’re trembling.

As we both pray for physical healing and keep seeking His answers for relief and comfort, let’s cling to the spiritual healing God’s already given us through the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Let’s rest in and obediently submit to God’s perfect and powerful work and grace-filled timing in our lives, knowing that our suffering is bringing about His healing in so many bigger ways. Let’s humbly come to Him and cast all our anxieties on Him because He cares for us, beloved in Christ.

Material adapted from Singing the Gospel to Job: Finding Hope in Suffering, Lauri A. Hogle, © 2022

Resources of singing Christ’s hope into our anxiety

This week, I’ve crafted a long playlist gift for those who are dealing with anxiety, including panic attacks, with physical and emotional suffering that takes over the brain and body.

With music therapy principles I used as an actively practicing music therapist, it’s carefully ordered so that it may be a helpful tool to you as you sing God’s Word and its truths to your body, emotions, and thoughts. As you breathe in time with the music while singing or speaking its words, they’ll soak into your soul and memory while your autonomic nervous system also calms. Many of the songs sing actual Scripture, the sword of the Spirit, offensively helping us replace anxious thoughts.

The songs point us to Jesus Christ, our beloved Savior who invites us to throw our every anxiety onto Him. The songs are filled with praise for what is true about our unchanging God, into our lament, making a turnaround toward Him in our tears and fears. It’s helped me so much lately, so I’m praying this helps with your healing as God “courages into” you too. I’m so excited to share it!

Sign up to receive it in your email (with more detailed tips on how to use it), and you’ll also have permanent access to it through a resource library.

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all (2 Thess. 3:16 ESV).

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