Let me begin this blog with some facts:

• Anxiety disorders are the most common are the most common mental disorders in the U.S.
• It's not uncommon for someone with an anxiety disorder to also suffer from depression or vice versa. Nearly one-half of those diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
• SAD (Social Anxiety Disorder ) affects 15 million adults, or 6.8% of the U.S. population.
• PD (Panic Disorder) affects 6 million adults, or 2.7% of the U.S. population.
• Women are twice as likely to be affected as men.

I would like to point out a commonality between all of these facts: they all take place in the mind. The one place that the enemy has absolutely no control over…unless that control is GIVEN to him. Our thoughts were created to be our safe place or a place that satan cannot touch, enter into, manipulate, or control. God created our minds and he has given the control over our minds and all that goes on in them to us. He gave us the power and authority over our thoughts and that power and authority cannot be taken unless we ourselves allow it. The facts I stated above are situations where the people have relinquished their power and authority.

There are situations and circumstances that happen in our lives to shape our minds and what our thoughts become. It all starts when we are young. Arguing parents, divorced or split marriages, abuse (verbal or physical), being left alone to help yourself, all of these are things that can cause stress, anxiety, and panic later on in our lives. And all of these circumstances cause our thoughts and the way we process situations to be negative. We can become enslaved to our minds and what we think. The truth is that nothing and no one can take control over our minds unless we allow it. There is nothing that has that kind of power and authority unless we grant it. God has given us this authority, the key to our own minds, hoping we would take it and lock out all the negative, the bad, the enemy. But the enemy is smart, he waits for the perfect timing when we forgot to lock up shop and he attacks. He isn’t too busy to whisper lies. He is never too busy to bring another human down. He whispers the lies and makes us believe that they are the truth and if we are not dressed in the armor of God to protect ourselves against his attacks, we will begin to see the signs of anxiety, stress, panic, and depression. These things are the enemy’s strongest weapons. When he gets you to this place, he can take it a little easier, you know why that is? It is because at this point we ourselves, who have chosen to believed the lies, begin to bring ourselves down with doubt, self-hatred, putting words into others' mouths, negative thoughts. These soon turn into thoughts of suicide, taking a life, whether it be your own or ssomeone else’s. It is here that the enemy has won. When he gets you to this point.

At least he thinks he has won.

We allow the enemy to take over when we don’t guard our minds daily by praying and filling our thoughts with the thoughts of truth and beauty, of a saving grace, of a power far more powerful than the enemy. Thoughts of victory, being on the winning side, the side of a God who loves you, who cares for you, who died for you, who protects you, who forgives your mistakes, who never left you, who will never leave you. It is in these times of choosing right thinking that we begin to see God’s light once again. We come out of that dark hole we placed ourselves in (no matter how long ago it may have been or how recent it has been) God is there, waiting for us to take back the power and authority. And he doesn’t leave us alone to do it. He calls people, people who have gone through it all just like you, gone to hell and back, who are now living their best life, who have full and total control of their minds back. He gives you these people to grab hands with, to fight alongside, to gain traction in the right direction, to get back up.

Don’t give up. Don’t give up control of your mind or your thoughts. Don’t feel like the enemy is stronger, he may whisper that lie to you everyday, but choose to believe truth. Speak it out loud every day. You cannot deny what you hear repetitively. Your mind is forced to believe it. So force it to believe the truth, beautiful things, positive things, true things. Isaiah 41:13-14 – For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Let your prayers be louder than satan’s whispers. That is all he has got. When you take away the power to whisper lies, when you decide not to believe them, your taking away all of his plans, all of his attacks. He becomes powerless. With God, we have the power and authority to take the facts I have given, and make them disappear. So, listen, grab the hand of a struggling brother or sister, tell them truth, walk with them, help them get there, help them get their power back. Isaiah 61:1-11 – The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound.

Psalm 138:7 – Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.

He gives us Roots so we can Fly. Roots and Wing