How to Use ANCHOR Verses to Quickly Calm your Heart

I am losing my mind!

When I get sucked into the overwhelming anxiety vortex I described in “How to Practice Detachment and Restore Your Peace,” this is exactly how I feel.

I’m losing it.

• I’m a grown woman.

• I love God.

• I read my Bible and pray.

And this is the best I can do?

Losing my mind?!?

Heaven help me.

Not Alone

I feel better when I read the Psalms.

David sure got swept away by emotion, too. Yet he’s called a “man after God’s own heart.” In an alternate version of Psalm 18:4, David wrote:

The waves of death swirled about me;
the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.

2 Samuel 22:5

Doesn’t this feel familiar?

I also feel better knowing that heaven really will help me:

He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.

He brought me out into a spacious place;

he rescued me because he delighted in me.

Psalm 18:16, 19

Now before I talk about any “how-to”, I want to be crystal clear: Nothing I suggest is meant to imply that you need to work harder at rescuing yourself.

Rescue is God’s job.

Ours is losing our minds … the right way.

Pushing Pause

Some people are naturally wired to do detach with ease. Some people have a host of skills to draw on.

But some of us have to actively re-train our brains. Or else we’ll keep drowning in adrenaline-fueled tsunamis.

We must learn to detach.

Push pause.

Dive into the base of the wave.

And the #1 thing that’s working for me is turning to ANCHOR verses the moment a trigger hits.

ANCHOR Verses = Pre-selected calming Bible verses

ANCHOR verses are scriptures that help me “lose my mind” in God’s word. I intentionally pre-select verses that:

Attach to an event

When I was in junior high, my BFF decided she hated me. Ever since then, I’ve felt insecure about my female friendships.

My ANCHOR verse for when I’m going to be mingling with women I don’t know well is John 15:16

You didn’t choose me. I chose you.

When I’m at lunch with an acquaintance and start to think, “She doesn’t actually like me…” my ANCHOR verse reels me back in. On Thursday, when I’m tempted to stay in my hotel room rather than meet the 749 other women at She Speaks, my ANCHOR verse propels me out the door.

Name the feeling

The problem with anxiety is that it’s not an actual emotion. It’s self-perpetuating physiological state.

Two of my favorite ANCHOR verses are Psalm 34:4-5:

I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces are never covered with shame.

“Fear” and “shame” are actual emotions that indicate trouble. They’re also the two most common emotions hiding under my anxiety. It’s a huge relief to realize, “No, I’m not losing my mind. I’m feeling afraid and ashamed right now.”

Create space

Years ago, we had a smart cat named Munchkin. Munchkin had one silly quirk: he got stuck in corners. He would climb furniture until he was high up where the two walls joined the ceiling and start meowing pathetically. We’d recognize his sad little “My world is coming to an end!” cry and run to his rescue. We’d pick him up, turn him around, and he would act amazed at how open everything suddenly appeared.

When emotions start blindsiding me from every side, I’m just like Munchkin. I withdraw further and further into a corner until I’m staring at the vanishing point, panicked that my entire world is coming to an end.

My favorite ANCHOR verses at times like this are Psalm 18:16 & 19:

He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters….
He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.

These verses help me heave a sigh of relief. They remind me that “a spacious place” give me some distance from the issue. It’s no longer looming so ominously.

Highlight The Real Problem

With a little space between me and the issue, I’m able to look more objectivly at the problem that’s triggering strong emotions.

And when I do, I recognize that the current problem isn’t The Real Problem.

Know what I mean?

Here’s an amazing visual illustration of what can happen when we don’t detach:

(Can’t see the video? Click here to view a video by the Slo Mo Guys directly via YouTube!)

The last rubber band didn’t cause the watermelon to explode.

Just like a husband’s comment or a child’s messy room or a student’s late assignment don’t “cause” me to lose my mind.

The Real Problem, most often, is my own failure to recognize that the rubber bands are piling on. That I’m starting to become misshapen from all the pressure.

ANCHOR verses that highlight this Real Problem for me are Psalm 46:1 & 10:

God is my refuge and strength.…Be still and know that I am God. 

Both are sequential:

• Refuge, then strength.
• Be still, then know.

Both remind me that the best way to avoid snapping…or exploding…is intimacy with God.

Open my heart

Once I’m honest with myself — admitting that the current problem isn’t The Real Problem — I become open to hear what God is saying to me about The Real Problem.

I become willing to hear His Real Solutions to The Real Problems.

I become ready to change my own attitudes and actions, regardless of what others do (or don’t) do.

Lately, an ANCHOR verse from Jeremiah 31:3

I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with unfailing kindness

keeps bringing me back to key questions God wants me to ask about how I’m treating others:

• am I demonstrating His “everlasting love”?
• am I showing His “unfailing kindness”?

Re-define the moment

I used to believe in “a defining moment.”

• The day when…
• The moment I heard…
• The realization that…

Now, I believe in “defining a moment” by prayerfully

• revisiting a past event
• putting the old story in perspective
• growing beyond

An ANCHOR verse I turn to when I feel an event becoming “a defining moment” is 2 Corinthians 10:5b:

…we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Moments don’t define me.

Only God does.

* * * * *

We do want to “lose our minds” to be transformed by God’s will, God’s truth, God’s love so that we can be our best selves.

We want to lose the old mind that freaks out and gain a new mind that trusts.

We want to “be transformed by the renewing of [our] minds” (Romans 12:2)

Which is the right way to lose your mind!

 

If you’re seeking calming Bible verses, check out these resources:

• You’ll find free, downloadable Bible verse coloring pages accompanying every episode of Grit ‘n’ Grace: Good Girls Break Bad Rules.
• You’ll find purse-sized sets of calming bible verses — laminated for durability —in my Etsy store.