Whose Anxiety​​?

Anxiety is normal. I’ll say it again: anxiety is normal. Phew! I’m glad we got that out of the way.

The very word “anxiety” often carries a heavy stigma. But at its core, it simply describes feelings of fear or worry, an uneasiness that can show up both emotionally and physically. Many of us have brushed shoulders with anxiety this week, maybe even today. Some of us face it daily depending on the pressures of life. Acknowledging that these feelings are part of the human experience is healthy, but claiming anxiety as an identity is where things get dangerous.

I’ll give you a real moment: I was in the store, minding my business, when a song came over the speakers. The beat was infectious, the melody was smooth, and before I knew it, my head was bobbing. I told myself I didn’t even like the song, but there I was, humming along. Then the lyrics slipped out of my mouth while I was grabbing a box of linguine pasta:

“It’s my anxiety…”

Wait. Hold up. Nooooo. I literally stopped and said, “I rebuke that in the name of Jesus. That is not my portion.”

Maybe it seemed a bit dramatic, but here’s why it mattered: in today’s culture of manifestation and affirmation, words have weight. As believers, we know this isn’t just a trend, it is truth. Scripture tells us that life and death are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). What we speak shapes what we see.

I wasn’t the only one wrestling with this either. The song sparked heated debates on social media about whether Christians should even be singing it. And while opinions flew back and forth, the reality remained: it is all too easy to let something catchy slide into our vocabulary until it becomes a declaration.

Think about it. How often have you heard or even said things like:

• “My anxiety won’t let me sleep.”
• “My anxiety has me overthinking everything.”
• “My anxiety is acting up again.”

See the problem? Those two little words, “my anxiety”, attach ownership to something God never intended us to carry.

That’s what this 30-day plan is all about. We are going to normalize the fact that yes, anxiety exists, but we are not called to own it as ours. Instead, we will look at what Scripture actually says about anxiety, how God calls us to respond, and how we can take back authority over our words and our minds.

There’s a popular saying: “It takes 21 days to build a habit and 30 days to break one.” So here’s the deal: for the next 30 days, we are going to build new habits of faith, break old cycles of anxious speech, and reclaim our words and our peace.

Let’s walk this out together.