The Limiting Belief That's Giving You Anxiety and How to Shift Your Thinking

Have you ever said to yourself, “I just need to give God complete control over this area of my life,” or prayed that prayer?

I have said that statement countless times in my life, and I have prayed that prayer time and time again. I operate in my day to day life as if I think that I have control over my circumstances. My intentions in those statements and prayers might seem good on a surface level, and up until recently I thought they were. My guess is that I’m probably not alone in that sentiment and that there are probably millions of other believers who have said the same thing and prayed the same prayer. But those words imply that we think we have control over our lives in the first place.

They imply that we’ve decided that we’ve tried doing things our own way and it didn’t work, so we’re choosing to pass the baton to God to see if He can do better. When in reality, we never had control to begin with. Why? Because you can’t hand something to someone if they’re already holding it…

I was listening to a sermon recently on this very topic, and it stopped me in my tracks. It revealed a heart issue that on some level I was aware of, just not of its magnitude. It revealed just how small I think God is. Even typing those words out, I’m tempted to delete them because deep in my heart I know He is a big God. As a seven on the Enneagram (where my sevens at?!), God has always worked in my life in big and bold ways. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Enneagram, it’s a personality test that I highly recommend taking!

Anyway, as a seven, I am just wired to always seek the next big thing in life. God knows that about me and has met me there time and time again. The narrative of my testimony is filled with big moments! So hear me when I say that I know that God is a big God. But when it boils down to it, I have been operating under the false assumption that I am passing things up to Him like I’m sharing responsibility. What a limiting belief of who He is!

God is sovereign over all of our circumstances. Nothing is too big or small for Him to be a part of in your life because He ordained it. He literally knew how your life would play out before He created the entire universe. Before He even made us He knew that He would send His son to earth, to become a baby and to die to save us from our sins. Ephesians 1:4 says “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight…”

He knows. He knows the struggles you’re going to experience, and He knows the desires that your heart will long for. You’re not giving Him control over these things because He already has it.

So today, instead of asking God to take control over something you’re struggling with that He’s ALREADY in control of, ask Him to teach you something through it instead. Ask Him to reveal something about Him that you haven’t noticed before. Ask Him to reveal the desires on your heart that you’re placing above Him and ask Him to help shape your desires to be more like His. This isn’t about giving God control over your circumstances. His hands are all over everything in your life today, tomorrow and forever.

This is about a choice you have to make not just every day, but pretty much every moment of every day. And that choice is this: you can choose to not have control over your circumstances and have anxiety, or you can choose to not have control over your circumstances and have peace knowing that God is in control. Either way, you are not in control. He is.

I know that kind of uncertainty doesn’t feel comforting. But you have uncertainty either way. And guess what? Faith and anxiety require the same circumstance to grow… Uncertainty. Will you choose to have faith? Or will you choose to have anxiety? That part is up to you.