Bible verses for anxiety
Anxiety is rarely answered by being told to stop worrying. The passages below do not ask that. They were chosen because each one assumes the worry is already there and speaks to the person carrying it.
None of them promises that the thing you fear will not happen. What they offer instead is company in the waiting, which is a smaller claim and an older one.
Psalm 94 : 19
In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.
It does not ask for fewer thoughts. It describes comfort arriving in the middle of the multitude of them, which is where anxiety actually lives rather than where we wish it did.
1 Peter 5 : 7
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
The reason given is not that worry is irrational. It is that someone is paying attention. For an anxious mind the second is far more useful than the first.
Psalm 55 : 22
Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Cast is a deliberate, physical word: something is set down rather than argued away. The promise attached to it is sustaining, not removal.
Matthew 6 : 34
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Often read as reassurance, it is closer to a boundary. Today has enough in it; tomorrow is not yours to carry yet, and anxiety is largely the attempt to carry it anyway.
John 14 : 27
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
The distinction matters: not as the world giveth. This is not the peace of everything being settled, which is the only kind anxiety will accept, and the reason it is never satisfied.
Scripture is the King James Version, checked against a copy held on our own server. Balmody is not a medical or mental health service.