Am I a bad Christian if I have anxiety?

If you’re a Christian and you’ve ever been anxious (which is almost all of us at one time or another), you’ve probably been given the verse Philippians 4:6 which says: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

It’s a great verse, but somewhere along the way, instead of an encouragement to pray, we’ve heard that anxiety is wrong and experiencing anxiety - or having an anxiety disorder - is incompatible with being a christian. The truth is more complex and more beautiful than that.

We cannot live without anxiety, it’s what keeps us safe. You might have heard of the fight or flight instinct; it’s when we are faced with danger and our body responds to the threat and the physical manifestations of this are particularly helpful when the threats we faced were things like lions! Our bodies fill with adrenaline and cortisol; leading to a racing heart, tummy troubles and increased alertness. This meant that we could either prepare to fight the lion, flee the lion or alternatively freeze and play dead.

We cannot live without anxiety, it’s what keeps us safe.

All of these things are God-given ways to protect us - which means that anxiety in and of itself is not a bad thing - they’re a gift to help us face this fallen world. It’s actually the first emotion described in the Bible: “Adam and Eve were afraid and so they hid.” Genesis tells us that this is the reaction when God comes looking for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden after they’ve eaten from the tree of knowledge. 

What’s more, when Jesus is faced with the worst night of his life in Gethsemane, as he prays that the agony ahead of him might pass him by but submits to God’s will, the gospel of Luke 22:44 says: “His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” What is described here is “haematoidrosis” - an extreme anxiety reaction. Jesus, the Son of God - sinless, experiences anxiety so extreme he sweats blood.

Anxiety doesn’t make us bad christians - it makes us human - and even at it’s most extreme it does not and cannot separate us from Jesus, because the love Jesus has for each one of us drove him to experience the greatest anxiety anyone has ever known and still cry “not my will, but yours be done”.

Anxiety doesn’t make us bad christians - it makes us human - and even at it’s most extreme it does not and cannot separate us from Jesus.

But hear me on this; Jesus’ ability to face anxiety with a grace and strength we may never experience, is not a reason for us to feel guilt that we don’t feel we can do the same.

The verse I quoted earlier, Philippians 4:6 can sound like a rebuke when we read it without the context, but it’s an encouragement. Verse 7 goes on to sa:y “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Scripture doesn’t say we are bad christians if we experience anxiety - it says we are human - and more than that, it says that when we bring our anxieties to God we will be given peace beyond comprehension. That’s the promise of God - not that we will never experience anxiety - but that we can bring it to God and know his peace in the midst of it.

Rachael Newham’s books Learning to Breathe, 2018, and And Yet, 2021, are available now.