When the Future Feels Heavy
If you feel anxious about the future, it usually isn’t because you don’t trust God. More often, it’s because you’re staring at what’s right in front of you and wondering how it’s all going to work out. When things feel unresolved or unclear, it’s easy for your thoughts to spiral. You start thinking about timing, outcomes, and what happens if things don’t fall into place the way you hoped.
That kind of anxiety doesn’t mean your faith is failing. It usually means you’re human, trying to make sense of a moment that feels bigger than you can carry.
When Circumstances Take Centre Stage
Anxiety tends to grow when we fixate on our current circumstances. When you look only at what you can see, it can start to feel overwhelming. I’ve learned over time that our circumstances often feel far heavier when we forget who is holding them. What feels big to us is never big to God, but in the middle of waiting, it’s easy to lose that perspective.
Faith doesn’t ignore what’s in front of you. It simply lifts your eyes so your circumstances are no longer the loudest voice.
Redefining Success and the Future
For a lot of women, anxiety about the future is tangled up with success. With where life “should” be by now. Whether you’re doing enough or moving fast enough. When the world’s definition of success creeps in, it can quietly create pressure and stress, even if you don’t realise it straight away.
Faith gently begins to undo that over time. It shifts success away from achievement and towards trust, obedience, and faithfulness. That doesn’t mean those old thoughts never resurface, but they don’t carry the same weight when your focus stays grounded in God.
When Anxiety Turns Into Striving
Anxiety also has a way of pushing us into striving. When waiting feels uncomfortable, the instinct can be to do something, anything, just to relieve the tension. To open doors ourselves, rush ahead, or try to control outcomes so we feel a little more secure.
But striving rarely brings peace. It usually brings exhaustion.
Faith reframes waiting by reminding us that we are not meant to force what comes next. Waiting isn’t doing nothing. It’s choosing trust over control, even when that choice feels hard. What God has for you doesn’t need to be chased or manufactured. It will come together in His timing, not because you worked harder, but because He is faithful.
Drawing Near Changes Everything
One thing I’ve noticed is that anxiety tends to creep in when I’ve grown a little distant. Not intentionally, but quietly. When I’m not spending time with God, not anchoring myself in His word, or not slowing down enough to listen, that’s when worry finds space.
Drawing near again always changes something. It doesn’t suddenly answer every question, but it brings peace back into the picture. It recentres the heart and reminds you that you are not carrying the future alone.
Scripture puts this so simply in Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV) , "6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
This sciprutre instructs believers to replace anxiety with prayer, petition, and thanksgiving in every situation. It promises that this approach brings the "peace of God, which transcends all understanding," to guard hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
