Anxiety may be the fear over your shoulder, the worry by your side, or the dread hanging over your life. For many, it’s a powerful giant that would like you to believe that your life will never be normal again. Over the course of seven days, we will set our gaze on someone bigger and more powerful – Jesus, our giant slayer.

Anxiety. This looming giant in a deep valley threatens, taunts, intimidates, incapacitates, and paralyzes. This giant is real. And it can be deadly.

Anxiety and its cousins—panic, worry, fear and dread—is complex. There are spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, genetic, and circumstantial factors that can cause us to fall into the grip of depression, pulling us away from those we love and shuttering our ability to deal with everyday life. To underestimate the problem, or blow it off with a, hey, shrug it off and bounce back mentality, is a mistake.

I know this because I have suffered defeat in this valley in years past. Yet, I also know there is a way to overcome anxiety. I know first hand that you can emerge on the other side of depression and dread, and live to tell about someone who is more powerful than whatever has a grip on you. I am not offering a quick fix, nor a promise that you will escape the fight. But I’d like to tell you about a champion, a giant-slayer, who is on your side in the battle.

I have heard stories of others struggling with anxiety that sound similar to mine, yet every person’s battle is different and every experience is unique. A “one-size-fits-all” approach isn’t going to be helpful here.

But coming to terms with the formidable size of this giant in no way diminishes the promise of God—you can live free from the demoralizing grip of anxiety.

It’s imperative for you to know that you are not standing helplessly alone in your valley. God Almighty is with you and he is fighting for you. In fact, he’s already taken on every “Goliath” and won!

Over the next six days, we will set our gaze on him. We won’t ignore that a behemoth called fear or worry or panic has its foot on our neck. But we will choose to lift our eyes and see someone bigger and more powerful—someone who loves us and plans to lead us back into the light.

Each person’s anxiety is complex and unique. But all of us have the same hope today—God is fighting for us.

Walking free from panic attacks, depression, fear, and worry is a process, one with many steps and turns. But the key to living untangled from anxiety is not a plan, but a person.

Your hope is in Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And he is inviting you to allow Him to lead you through whatever you are facing in this world.

God understands that we get stressed in life. Dozens of places in Scripture speak directly to anxiety, and hundreds more to fear and worry. Why? Because people have always been anxious.

Arguably the best-known text in the Bible is Psalm 23. At the core of this Psalm is an extraordinary offer from God—that He will lead and guide us through every season. Specifically, God promises to lead us through the valley of the shadow of death, that dark place where we doubt everything good and fear every possible negative outcome.

As David writes Psalm 23, he is facing life-threatening danger, but he is confident in his Shepherd. He describes it like this, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (v.4 ESV)

Do you know a valley like that?

Do you feel isolated and alone, as if no one understands the crushing load you are under, nor the enemy you fear?

Or is your valley less defined—a hard to describe cloud of doom that descends on your best thoughts, turning life into a shadowy mist of confusion?

If so, God is offering to walk with you through this valley. He does not lead you to the valley, but He promises to lead you THROUGH it. This current place of struggle will not be the end of you. Your hope is in Jesus.

This may sound simplistic or elementary. But, in a world that has quick-fixes at every turn, we have the God of Heaven standing in front of us, offering to be our shepherd in whatever valley we find ourselves in.

Jesus is offering to lead, provide, protect, and preserve you through the darkest valleys and most imposing nights. I invite you to call on Him right now, out loud.

You may feel like God is a billion miles away. You may believe your voice won’t even get past the walls of the room you are in if you were to call on Him. But, the name of Jesus is power. Call on Him now. Tell Him you can’t see Him, but you have heard He is near. Ask Him to stop and consider the pit of depression you are in. Tell Him you want Him to lead you through the valley of anxiety. Be honest with Him and ask Him to shine light into your darkness.

You may not know how He’s going to do it, but in faith tell Him you know He can.

You will never win.

You are in this alone.

You are going crazy.

The Enemy wants you to believe these lies. He wants you to feel like you are the only person who is in this bubble of darkness. He wants you to believe there’s no way out…no end to this misery. He’s trying to convince you right now that you will never be normal again. That you are in fact crazy.

A big breakthrough in my journey to freedom from anxiety was when I learned I was not alone. A friend told me about a pastor I very much respected who had shared a message about his battle with depression. At the time, I had never heard of anyone who was dealing with a situation like mine. When I realized this other pastor had similar initial symptoms to mine (“crazy” physical symptoms), a layer of hope was deposited into my heart. Though things didn’t change instantly, I was comforted by knowing someone had survived to tell about it.

I didn’t have an instant turn-around. But I did come out of the night and into the light of day. My bout incapacitated me for months and afterward, my anxiety didn’t permanently go away. In fact, to be transparent, some days that lingering sense of anxiety still lurks over my left shoulder about sixty miles behind me. The difference now is I know what it is and I know it’s not going to take me out.

And I believe, by the power of Jesus’ name, it’s not going to take you out either. The Devil may be prowling around, seeking someone to devour. But Jesus is a roaring lion King, and He is with you in the valley called the shadow of death.

Call out to Jesus even now. Call on His mighty name. Thank Him that He is with you. Tell Him you believe He can lead you to the light again.

Father, I lift up my friend who is reading this right now, especially the one who feels like there is nowhere else to turn. I speak the powerful name of Jesus of Nazareth over their situation. Please shine truth into the cobwebs of despair and allow them to see You right there with them in the midst of the darkness. I thank You that You promise to lead them to the other side if they will put their trust in You. Jesus, You are greater than whatever is trying to take them out. Preserve. Protect. Awaken. Restore. For Your great glory, amen.

One of the many things the Devil lies about is the size of your giant. For David, Goliath wasn’t a shrimp of a guy. He was over nine feet tall and towered over the best of Israel’s fighting men. It’s likely your anxiety looks a lot bigger and more powerful than you, too.

The Enemy might be telling you right now that reading through this journey “thing” is not going to work either. He’s saying, Don’t get your hopes up, friend. Things are never going to change for you.

But, you must remember that when the Devil speaks he never leads us to the truth.

Your giant may be big, but your giant is not bigger than Jesus.

Today, Jesus wants to break the power of the lie that says otherwise, and tell you again that He is bigger than whatever you are up against . The question today is which voice will you choose—the liar or the One who speaks truth.

You have the power, no matter how helpless or broken-down you feel, to choose what you set before you today. You can fix your eyes on the giant, or you can lift your eyes higher to the God of heaven and earth. With the Almighty in view, your giant will be resized by God’s greatness.

When Moses led the people of God out of bondage in Egypt, God brought them toward the land of promise. Once they were close, Moses sent twelve men to spy out the land and assess the situation. They returned to report that the land was, in fact, amazing, filled with bounty and provision just as God had said.

But, warriors filled the fortressed cities. These giants made them say, “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” (Numbers 13:33 NIV)

The issue wasn’t the size of the giants that inhabited the land. The problem was that they failed to remember the size of their God.

We forget about the powerful work of Jesus on the cross to defeat every giant, destroying once and for all the power of sin, death, and the grave. We forget that He created the universe with just a word and sustains all things by His mighty power. We forget that He has promised to lead us through the valley and to fulfill His purpose for our life.

So, do whatever you must today to move Jesus into view; to remember His work on the cross. Put Him in front of your anxiety, depression, panic or worry. Let Him stand in front of them all. And when He is there, worship Him for who He is.

Many of you have fought the giant of anxiety for years, suffering from the paralyzing effects of panic, anxiety, or depression. I would be a fool to try to prescribe a simple Band-Aid of spiritual-sounding mumbo jumbo. But, as I sit on the other side of this valley, I can tell you that God does not want you to lose hope.

During my journey, it was important to realize my “anxiety” wasn’t a thing in and of itself. Rather, my anxiety was a symptom of something else. I found myself saying things like, “I’m not going to be able to make it to work today, my anxiety is acting up again.” Or, “I feel like my anxiety is rising up, I better go lie down.”

I was acting like anxiety was a cause rather than a symptom.

That’s incredibly frustrating because you can’t touch or see anxiety, or even describe it well. Anxiety in all its forms, is vague, murky, invisible and hard to pin to the wall.

But, something was causing the anxiety. Sometimes it was something deep in my heart, and other times right on the surface of life. Most often, it was a person. Someone was doing or saying something that unsettled me, or was outside of my desired outcome. I was spending hours trying to manage results, replay conversations, control scenarios, or protect myself and those around me.

But, Jesus offers a better way.

1 Peter 5:7 invites you to cast all your anxiety on Jesus, because he cares for you. I love the mental picture of us throwing our anxiety onto Jesus—off-loading what’s troubling us onto him.

Once you can identify it you can specifically cast it on Jesus in a meaningful way. You can transfer the weight and concern to His care, knowing He cares about you.

Because Jesus cares about you, He wants to make you strong. He wants you to learn that He can be strong in and through you. So when “anxiety” starts creeping in, don’t generalize your condition. Stop and think about what it is that is actually making you anxious. Name it. Say it out loud. And cast it on Jesus.

“Jesus, what ______ is saying about me is making me angry.”

“Jesus, I’m afraid of what’s going to happen when I show up for this class at school because of _____, ______ and ______. They are taunting me and making me feel afraid and inferior.”

“Jesus, I’m worried about my son.”

“Jesus, my business partners, _____ and _____, are trying to rip me off and cut me out of this deal.”

Once you can say it, hand your worry to Him.

To do so doesn’t guarantee that you will wake up to find the problems are gone. Living free from anxiety is all about trust. Do you believe God is able? Do you believe he loves you and cares about you? Do you trust Him to work in and through the circumstances you are facing to do what’s best for you?

Your answer is found in the cross, the place where God demonstrated He is able to take any situation and bring through it what is good for us and what brings glory to His name.

Dwell on the cross. Dig down beneath your anxiety. Look up to your Shepherd. Give your worries to him.

The problem for those who battle anxiety is there isn’t a physical weapon big enough to defend us from every fear we face in life. But, thankfully, we have a Shepherd who has pledged to defend us.

Every shepherd in the time of David had a rod, a formidable staff carved out of the center of the lower part of a tree trunk. With that rod the shepherd could fight off the lion, the cougar, the wolf, or the bear. With the staff it would guide the sheep, but with the rod it would pulverize anything that tried to snatch one away.

To put an “X” through your anxiety you are going to have to see Jesus as your defender. So often when we feel under attack, vulnerable or stressed we look for someone who will take up our cause no matter what. Someone, as we say, who has our back!

Some time ago when I was coming through a challenging season I traveled to speak at a conference in another country. Before the session started a large group of leaders and conference organizers gathered for prayer in an upstairs room behind the stage.

Afterward, a woman approached me with a word of encouragement. I had never met her before and she knew nothing about my personal life. But her words shot through me that night. She said, “I just wanted to encourage you…I sense someone’s trying to trip you up, but God’s got your back.”

What she didn’t know was that I was spending a lot of sleepless nights trying to watch my back.

I don’t need to know your situation to pass that encouragement on to you. I don’t know for sure what you’re afraid of right now, but I want to remind you, God’s got your back.

As a child of God in Christ, God Almighty has your back.

No evil plan, attack, or fear can stand up to your Shepherd, Jesus. And even while you are sleeping, He watches over you. He doesn’t just send you into the dark valley, he leads you through it with a rod in one hand and a staff in the other.

Call out to Jesus right now and thank him for promising to protect your life. Tell Him you are depending on Him to guard your life and those you care about. Because He is with you, you can close your eyes at night and know that He is watching every side, every angle. In fact, He sees your circumstances coming before you do. He protects you in ways you don’t even realize. Jesus is for you. He loves you. And He’s got your back.

When you stop and think about it, it’s amazing that we’re not all in a heap in the corner given what is happening in the world around us. Add to that the challenges we face in our personal world and you have a recipe for worry, fear, and, in the most extreme cases, a complete nervous breakdown. It’s easy to forget that we are not in charge of the universe, and we then run the risk of collapsing under the weight of the affairs of the world.

Anywhere you turn for help with anxiety you will find a few common themes. One of those is to relinquish control—to bend the knee and admit to God that we are trying to manage life on our own.

Father, thank you for every person finishing this devotional journey. Thank you for giving them the strength to make it to the end, especially those who were afraid they would give up and not make it this far. I pray that You will continue to open eyes by your Spirit so that each of us can see Jesus more clearly. And, I ask that You would give each person the faith they need to take the next step in Your power. You have broken every chain that binds us. Give us the grace to clothe ourselves in the light of Your truth and love. Jesus, we confess that You are Lord of all. Be praised in us as we cling to You and walk free from anxiety. Amen.

To admit this doesn’t imply that we shrink our responsibilities, or that we fail to pray in faith, believing that God can change nations and history. Rather, to admit we are not in control allows us to remember who it was that brought us from death to life in Christ, and causes us to realign ourselves with the reality that He is actually in control of this world.

Let’s do that now. Transfer control to Him. Pray and do what is in your hands to do. But leave the rest with Him, knowing that’s when your rest will come.

Another theme is taking deep breaths. You might hear the encouragement to stop and take a few deep breaths when you feel a sense of panic setting in. That’s because the “fight or flight” mechanism that keeps you from harm triggers when you feel like you are under threat (real or imaginary). Once this happens, your breathing becomes shallow, or you unknowingly stop breathing altogether.

Re-igniting your breathing has a calming effect. The American Institute of Stress (yes, we have one of those) echoes this view, “Deep breathing increases the supply of oxygen to your brain and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes a state of calmness. Breathing techniques help you feel connected to your body—it brings your awareness away from the worries in your head and quiets your mind.”

It is God who gave us our first breath and it is God who gives every breath (Acts 17:25). So, it is God who can give calming breath to those who are crumbling under the weight of worry. If you are going to be free of anxiety you must learn to take deep physical breaths and deeper spiritual ones.

Breathe out: I cannot.

Breathe in: But Jesus, you can.

When we breathe deeply, we remember the other side of the gospel story. Christ lives to be and do in and through us what we cannot do in our own strength.