There are many good books on anxiety written by Christians. It’s a broad and complex issue, and no book can say everything, so there are also a lot of angles in which to approach it. One of the books I’ve found most helpful is Struck Down but Not Destroyed: Living Faithfully with Anxiety by Pierce Taylor Hibbs.
Since there are several good books on anxiety, here are a few reasons why I appreciated this one so much.
First, the author writes from personal experience. Much of the book includes his own stories of panic attacks, anxiety, discouragement, and fear. For those struggling with anxiety, it’s helpful to know that someone truly understands what you’re feeling, and this book is written from a fellow sufferer.
Second, while Pierce talks about his lifelong struggle with anxiety, experience isn’t his authority. The Bible is his authority. But he’s not wielding the Bible as a sledgehammer, nor is he slapping it on our pain like a spiritual bandaid. The Bible is graciously and personally applied, believing that Scripture offers encouragement, comfort, hope, and answers to us in our trials. His counsel and theology are firmly biblical, but they’re also communicated compassionately and personally because of his own experiences.
Third, he’s a writer. He writes poems, prayers, fiction, nonfiction, and a great substack newsletter. Not all books on anxiety or from biblical counselors are as engaging as this one, but Pierce’s combination of personal stories, biblical teaching, and well-crafted sentences make his book on anxiety stand out.
And fourth, and this is the big one for me, I think pastorally this book is so helpful because of its focus on how to better know God and grow in Christ through anxiety. He wants his readers to think of anxiety not so much as something to eliminate but as a tool God uses to shape and mature us.
The book encourages us not merely to fight anxiety (though it has helpful counsel here), but to allow God to grow you through it. Anxiety can lead to greater dependence on God, deeper intimacy with God, and experiencing God’s strength in our weakness. So many resources and conversations on anxiety miss this element. The spiritual side of anxiety isn’t the only side to consider, but as followers of Christ who see everything in relation to the sovereign God at work in all things, we can let God shape us and strengthen our faith in it.
Pierce asks his readers to consider what it might look like as they read his book to make their focus: “not to eliminate anxiety to learn from it in my relationship with God.” He summarizes what I think is the heart of the book in this way:
“Our anxiety is a tool in the hands of a grand physician who knows our name, who knows where we are right now. God has all of our experiences in mind all the time. So, we can be sure he will use our experiences with anxiety to whittle away at our soul and shape us to the image of his Son. Using this acronym, in other words, helps us fixate on the divine purpose for anxiety. Our goal, remember, is not to get rid of anxiety; it’s to use it and learn how God is shaping us through it.”
10 Favorite Quotes
“God’s primary purpose is calling us into a trusting relationship with himself, and he can use our anxiety to do that.”
“One thing that I’ve learned over the last decade is that when anxiety lingers, God continually uses it to shape and form us. When anxiety stubbornly stays, God sovereignly shapes.”
“Christ doesn’t just meet us where we are; he takes us where we need to go. He lifts us up in the power of his Spirit and carries us to spiritual safety. Remember the promise of his presence.”
“When you’re dealing with anxiety, you feel out-of-control and helpless. You’re utterly convinced that someone else is driving your life. And you’re right! God is the one who is in control of everything. You’re not in the driver’s seat. You never were. But the wonderful thing about not being in control of your own life is that the one who has the greatest love for you and has made the greatest promises to you—that one is in control. And he’s already decided to bring you safely to his side for eternity. That’s your destination. That’s my destination. It’s fixed and final. It’s written. Take a deep breath. Smile. Your ultimate what if goes silent before the divine company you’re promised.”
“These are the only two spiritual directions that exist: towards God in trust and love or away from him in distrust and fear…anxiety will always move you in one of these directions… We’re never static As spiritual creatures made in God’s image, were dynamic and relational, always moving and developing in relation to someone, whether that’s God in his goodness and mercy, or Satan in his evil and corruption. It’s never a question of if you will move in response to your anxiety; it’s simply a question of which direction.”
“God has instilled a ridiculous amount of detail in his world. That detail is one of his countless gifts to you. Open each one…slowly. Enjoy the concrete gift of creation right in front of you.”
“God actually delights in our prayer. That’s one of the reasons why it’s commanded of us (1 Thess. 5:16-18). It’s not just that God arbitrarily requires it. Nothing that God does is arbitrary. He requires prayer because it please him, because he delights in it. And why does he delight in it? Because he delights in communion, in relationship.”
“The sad truth for many Christians is that prayer only re-enters our lives when tragedy or trauma step in. When we live in darkness and doubt, prayer becomes a lifeline. What anxiety can remind us of is that prayer is a necessary constant. It squares our shoulders to God. It shows us where to step in a thousand concrete situations. We can’t abandon it when our health improves, or when our lives feel relatively trauma-free. Continuous dialogue with God is our spiritual oxygen. And this is precisely because we were born for communion with him.”
“It’s not a mathematical equation. It’s not ANXIETY + PRAYER = PEACE. If you want to think of it as an equation, it’s ANXIETY + PRAYER = CONTINUAL RELIANCE ON GOD. That reliance, that trust, eventually will bring pace, but the thing that it gives you immediately is the thing you want most and the thing God has designed us for: relationships. Remember: God is always calling us to trust as he builds our relationship with him. When we pray, we act on that trust.”
“We can start by asking the sorts of questions that prioritize God’s Christ-conforming purposes for us. Rather than asking why when we feel anxious, we can ask, ‘God, what are you teaching me?’ This approach prioritizes the spiritual meaningfulness of our anxiety. To find an answer to that question, we need to hear the voice of God. But we don’t hear the voice of God in some mystical, subjective sense; we hear it when we open the good book. In Scripture, we encounter the voice of God, made audible to his people by the power of the Holy Spirit in us. When you ask God what he is teaching you, look for the answer in what he has already said.”
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