A Game Plan for Anxiety

Proverbs 25:28 gives a good description of what happens with anxiety: Like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit. How do you get a grip when fear and anxiety have taken over? Nothing seems safe or certain. Its an experience that is no respecter of persons. Anxiety is universal in scope.
However, there are things to use as a game plan when we do start to worry. David Powlison gives us six things to do (Seeing With New Eyes, 122-24):
1. Name the pressures. We always worry about "something." In the midst of worry, it may seem as if a million things are pressing at us. But really, we're only obsessing about a few things, maybe even just one. It helps to name the one thing or the few things. Anxieties feel endless--but they're infinite and specific.
2. Identify how you express anxiety. How does it show up in your life? For some people it's the feeling of panic or maybe just a vague uneasiness. For some people the sign is anger. They get irritated. For other people, worry shows up in their bodies (e.g. a tension headache)or in the cheap remedies that sin manufactures to make us feel better (e.g. gorging on food or a stiff drink).
3. Ask yourself, Why am I anxious? Worry always has its reasons. Anxious people are "you of little faith." If I've forgotten God, who or what has started to rule in his place? Identify the hijacker. What do I want, need, crave, expect, demand, or fear either losing or never getting?" Anxious people "eagerly seek" the gifts more than the Giver. They deposit treasure in the wrong place.
4. Which promises of Jesus speaks to you most? Take to heart those seven promises (see post below). It may be tough to remember all seven at once, so pick one.
5. Go to your Father. Talk to him. Your Father cares about the things you worry about. Your Father knows what you need. Cast your cares on him, because he cares for you. You'll have to leave your worries with him--they are always outside of your control! How will your kids turn out? Will you get Alzheimer's? What will happen with the economy? Will gas prices continue to increase? Will your dad or loved one come to know Christ? You have good reasons to be concerned about such things, but you have better reasons to take them to Someone who loves you and can actually do something about it.
6. Give. Do and say something constructive. Care for someone else. Give to meet human need. In the darkest night, when life is hardest, there's always some way to give yourself away.