Hello,

I am 27 years old and gave my life to Christ last November and am a new creation, old things have gone, I am justified, and have crossed over from death into life. The Holy Spirit now makes His home in my heart. However, let's say you have a broken leg then become a Christian You still have a broken leg. I know that I have been given a spirit of a power, love and a sound mind but I have struggled with anxiety since college. I am a Physical therapist. In Graduate school I started breaking out into sweats all the time. I felt like I used to be outgoing and confident, but anxiety and the cycle of fear of fear, self condemnation, lack of trust in myself, low self esteem etc. has made me suffer greatly. My mother struggled with mental illness i.e manic depression, schizo-affective disorder. Some of my anxiety is learned, and was environmental. I feel like my body just has a mind of its own and is just hard wired for fear and worry I can feel stressed for very prolonged periods of time and can get really worn out even if I'm not in necessarily stressfull circumstances. My parents divorced at age six and my father gained custody because she was not competent and probably put my brother and I in some neglectful situations. My childhood was pretty intense. Then my mother took her own life at the age of nine. My Dad can be very critical but I love him nonetheless. I have recently discovered my mother was a believer so I know she is with Jesus. I have succeeded in spite of myself because I feel like Im fighting against myself or Satan. I am terribly tired of struggling and striving. Now I feel like I have to totally redefine how I view my heavenly Father and trust that he Loves me. I want to feel His Love. Jesus came to set the captives free. Where should I start? I've been pretty well discipled and have a good start at least as far as building on the Rock but I do not want to be in bondage to fear and anxiety for the rest of my life. I want to remove any barriers to receiving his love and forgiveness and run the race set before me. From a Biblical perspective I do my best to allign my life with biblical principles. I believe that the bible is the infallible, inerrent Word of God and I am very conservative evangelically whatever that means. I would appreciate any guidance spiritually or in regards to using the system.

God Bless

I know how it is to struggle with anxiety and be a Christian-it seems contradictory. However, there is VICTORY! It may not come for a long time but it will. Get in the word everyday and renew your mind with scripture. Recognize that you can do nothing apart from Christ-He is the one who is your strength-He is the one who will help you to overcome. Above all-TRUST IN HIS WORD-TRUST IT IN YOUR HEART! I am 26 and have been dealing with this since I was 18-but the Lord is slowly working the anxiety out.

In this you greatly rejoice. Though for now you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials-these have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold-which perishes even though it has been refined by fire-may be proved to be genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Val,

Thank You for your reply. I'm starting a book by Beth Moore which is called breaking free. And I'll start the system today which I got in the mail yesterday. I think Satan attacks families and children early to wound them to keep them in bondage, and also keep them from a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I think once your saved then the process of sanctification begins and God wants to mold you like His Son. To truly receive his Blessings , one has to admit that they have been wounded and allow God to go to work. I think God is definitely teaching me forgiveness, not only of others, my past, but also, forgiveness of myself. It's one thing to hope that you are forgiven then to know without a doubt that you are forgiven. Feelings don't always match up in Christianity. I think you have to step out then the feelings will come. By the way, I read the thread that caused all the controversy . When you are witnessing or sharing Christ to a lost person intense feelings can arise. Don't take it personally, you did the right thing. Some people get accusatory, some get very emotional, others get defensive, and others are just apathetic. I think about how I was when I was searching for the truth. Jesus' name is offensive if you are not at peace with God. Also, I responded to the course in miracles thread. Helen Schucman is a false prophet and probably leads unbelieverswand believers astray if they are not grounded in the Word.

Nick

Thanks for your encouraging comments (smile). I am not afraid to witness to say the least (smile). I feel that I have been given the most wonderful gift in the world and I desire to share it with those who are lost but you are right-the name Jesus is offensive to those who don't believe. Anyways, I thought I would share a little something else if you don't mind. You know, I think a lot of my anxiety is rooted in pride and the other day I really saw in myself the ugliness of who I am apart from Christ-nothing happened out of the ordinary, I was simply driving home and realized how prideful and arrogant I really am-even though-on the outside it doesn't show. I am not what you would call caucky. In that moment, I realized my need for Christ-my total dependency on him-I have felt so much better since that day-realizing I can't do a darned thing apart from Christ-It is really freeing. Depending on yourself is way tp hard.

I read your stuff on the course post! Awesome-I totallly agree with everything you said. I just had this image of Nick being the one who wrote it and not Gobucks. Anyways, what is sad is that some people believe that all paths lead to heaven-it will be a sad day when they come face to face with our Maker and realize all other paths were wrong.

Val,

When you give your life to Christ he sees your sin as far as the east is to the west, and "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus". We have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us upon conversion, so in His eyes we are pure, holy, and spotless. It is a lie to refer to ourselves as sinners saved by grace we are now saints who may sin at times because we are human. How neat is that. One of my favorite verses is "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind , then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good pleasing and perfect will." I think this world breeds anxiety and fear and pride and worry and lust etc. so we have to be strong and very courageous. God will get the job done when we continue to abide in him, if not He'll still get the job done it will just take longer. I think when sin entered the world things like disease, mental illness, anxiety attacks came about. We live in a broken world in jars of clay but be of good cheer because Christ has overcome the world. It is finished.
I'm starting to put on the spiritual armor everyday before I get out of bed and have a daily quiet time. Also, how should apply these tapes, should I take what works from the system? I don't want to built up my self esteem so that I am an egomaniac and forget about God. I want to stay close and clean and pure and depend on Him through the highs and lows. Do any of these psychological techniques conflict with biblical principles?

GoBucks, Nick