A Prayer for Anxiety and Fear

Father, fear has me by the throat again. My shoulders are pulled up to my ears, my jaw is clenched, and a low hum of dread is running underneath everything I do today. I cannot always name what I am afraid of, but my whole body is braced as if a blow is coming.

I confess I have let fear become the loudest voice in the room. I have rehearsed disasters that may never happen and treated my worst imaginings as if they were already true.

So I bring this trembling to You, the One who has never once been caught off guard. You are not anxious about my life. You are not pacing or worried about what comes next.

Steady the part of me that is shaking. Quiet the alarm bells that keep ringing for no reason. Help me tell the difference between a real danger and a frightened thought dressed up as one.

You told me that You have not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind. Let that calmer mind settle over me now, like a hand laid gently on a startled child.

I hand You my fear, all of it, the named and the nameless. Be bigger than my dread. Walk close beside me through this ordinary, frightening day, and let me feel, even faintly, that I am safe with You. Amen.