Anxiety, depression, and faith

If your anxiety or depression has brought you to thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 in the United States to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, at any hour. Outside the United States, find a free helpline at findahelpline.com.

If you are anxious, and worried on top of it that your anxiety displeases God, you can set that second fear down. Anxiety disorders and depression are health conditions, and Scripture is full of faithful people who were troubled, cast down, and afraid, including Jesus himself in the garden of Gethsemane. God meets anxious people with care.

What does “Do not be anxious about anything” mean?

The verse people most often worry about is Philippians 4:6, which many English Bibles render “Do not be anxious about anything.” Read the whole sentence, because its second half carries the promise:

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.

Philippians 4:6–7, NRSVUE

Paul is telling the Christians at Philippi what to do with their worries: bring them to God. He promises that God’s peace will “guard” their hearts and minds. Paul wrote this letter from prison, uncertain whether he would live or die (Philippians 1:21–23). He was writing to frightened people as a frightened person who had found help in prayer.

Paul knew anxiety from the inside, and he used the same word for loving concern. The Greek verb in Philippians 4:6, merimnaō (to be anxious, to be concerned), is the same verb he uses a few chapters earlier to praise Timothy, who “will truly care about you” (Philippians 2:20). In another letter he admits his own:

And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches.

2 Corinthians 11:28, NRSVUE

What did Jesus say about worry?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says “don’t be anxious” (Matthew 6:25) several times, using the same Greek verb:

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?

Matthew 6:26–27, NRSVUE

Read kindly, as Jesus meant it, this passage is comfort. Jesus was speaking to ordinary people, many of them poor, who could not be sure of their next meal, and he is telling them that their Father knows what they need (Matthew 6:32). He ends with a sentence that admits how hard life is: “Each day’s own evil is sufficient” (Matthew 6:34), meaning that each day has trouble enough of its own. Jesus meets the afraid with tenderness and points them to a Father who feeds the birds. The letter of 1 Peter says the same in one line: “casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

Was Jesus ever anxious?

Yes. On the night before he died, in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was overwhelmed:

He took with him Peter and James and John and began to be distressed and agitated. And he said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.” And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. He said, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me, yet not what I want but what you want.”

Mark 14:33–36, NRSVUE

The church confesses that Jesus was without sin, and still he knew trouble, distress, and sorrow “even to death.” Those feelings belong to the human life he shared with us. Jesus did not pretend to be calm. He asked his friends to stay near him, he fell on the ground, and he told his Father exactly what he wanted. Then he entrusted himself to his Father anyway. The Letter to the Hebrews says that Jesus is not a high priest “who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

What does the Bible say about depression?

The Bible has no word for depression as a medical diagnosis, but it describes people in deep darkness of spirit, and God meets them with tenderness. The writer of Psalm 42 argues with his own soul:

Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.

Psalm 42:5

The same psalm says, “My tears have been my food day and night” (Psalm 42:3). The psalm is in the Bible as a prayer for people to use, which means God expects people of faith to feel this way at times.

The prophet Elijah, after a great victory, fled for his life and fell into despair. He sat under a broom tree and asked God to let him die (1 Kings 19:4). God’s answer was practical. An angel touched him and said, “Arise and eat!” and there was a cake baked on the coals and a jar of water. Elijah ate, drank, and slept, and the angel came a second time with more food (1 Kings 19:5–8). Before God spoke to Elijah about his calling, God took care of his body.

Should Christians use therapy and medication for anxiety?

Yes. Prayer, therapy, and medication belong together, and you do not have to choose between them. The National Institute of Mental Health puts the line between ordinary worry and illness this way: “Feeling anxious is a normal part of life,” but “anxiety disorders involve more than occasional worry or fear.” It describes depression as a condition that “can cause severe symptoms that affect how you feel, think, and handle daily activities, such as sleeping, eating, or working,” and lists medication and talk therapy among its treatments.

Christians pray for healing and go to the doctor for a broken leg, and the same is true for the mind. The story of Elijah is a good model: rest, food, and care first, and then God’s word. If your worry is constant, keeps you from sleeping or working, or comes with panic attacks or dark thoughts, talk to a doctor or a licensed counselor. Many pastors can recommend a therapist who will respect your faith.

How can I pray when I am anxious?

You can pray the way Jesus did in Gethsemane: tell God exactly what you fear and what you want, and ask for God’s will to be done. You can pray the psalms when you have no words of your own. Psalm 42, Psalm 139, and Psalm 23 have carried anxious people for many centuries. For more help, see How do I pray?

Short prayers repeated slowly can steady both body and mind. Orthodox Christians pray the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” in time with their breathing, a practice handed down from the monks of the early Christian East. The old service of night prayer called Compline, as the Book of Common Prayer gives it, has a prayer many anxious people love: “Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep.”

You are loved as you are, on anxious days and calm ones. If you need to hear that said again, read Does God love me? If you are carrying more than worry, and suffering has made you doubt God’s goodness, see Why does God allow suffering?

What do the churches teach about mental illness?

The mainline churches, including the ELCA, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Methodist Church, and the Episcopal Church, treat mental illness as they treat any other illness, with prayer, medical care, and the support of the congregation.

Many churches also pray with the sick in the way the letter of James describes: “Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord” (James 5:14). Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopal worship books include rites of laying on of hands and anointing, and the Orthodox churches offer the sacrament of Holy Unction for any illness, at any time of life. A pastor or priest can pray in this way with a person living with anxiety or depression.

If you are afraid you might hurt yourself, call or text 988 now, or read Do people who die by suicide go to hell? for words of hope and more places to find help.

Worry is often loudest at night. Christians have long ended the day by placing themselves, and everything they cannot fix, into God’s hands. Martin Luther taught this evening prayer in his Small Catechism:

I thank Thee, my Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Thy dear Son, that Thou hast graciously kept me this day, and I pray Thee to forgive me all my sins, where I have done wrong, and graciously keep me this night. For into Thy hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Thy holy angel be with me, that the Wicked Foe may have no power over me. Amen.

Martin Luther, Evening Prayer, Small Catechism (Concordia Triglotta translation)