Push From God

Bible verses for anxiety

The passage most people are sent to first is Philippians 4:6-7 — be anxious for nothing, pray about everything, and a peace you can't account for will stand guard over your thoughts. It is the clearest thing the New Testament says about worry. Below it are thirteen more, each with a note on the kind of anxiety it actually speaks to, because 3am dread and Sunday-night dread are not the same animal.

14 passages · World English Bible & King James · public domain

  1. In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.Philippians 4:6-7 · World English Bible

    The instruction is not 'stop worrying' — it's 'move it somewhere'. Prayer here is a place to put the thing, not a technique for getting rid of it.

    King James

    Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

  2. casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you.1 Peter 5:7 · World English Bible

    Six words that do most of the work: because he cares for you. Not because you're coping well. Not because you've earned a hearing.

    King James

    Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

  3. Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing? See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they? “Which of you by being anxious, can add one moment to his lifespan?Matthew 6:25-27 · World English Bible

    Aimed squarely at people running tomorrow's disasters in their head. The birds aren't a metaphor for doing nothing; they're a jab at how much of our worrying changes nothing.

    King James

    Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

  4. Therefore don’t be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day’s own evil is sufficient.Matthew 6:34 · World English Bible

    Permission to only carry today. Most anxiety is a Tuesday trying to hold Thursday's weight.

    King James

    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.

  5. In the multitude of my thoughts within me, your comforts delight my soul.Psalms 94:19 · World English Bible

    The honest one. It doesn't claim the anxious thoughts went away — it says something arrived alongside them.

    King James

    In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.

  6. Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.Isaiah 41:10 · World English Bible

    For when you're too tired to reason yourself out of it. Four short promises in a row, and nothing asked of you.

    King James

    Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

  7. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, I give to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.John 14:27 · World English Bible

    Jesus draws a distinction worth noticing: the peace he's leaving isn't the kind the world hands out, which usually depends on circumstances behaving.

    King James

    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.

  8. Cast your burden on the LORD and he will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be moved.Psalms 55:22 · World English Bible

    Cast, not carry. The verb is doing a lot of work.

    King James

    Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

  9. Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down, but a kind word makes it glad.Proverbs 12:25 · World English Bible

    The one nobody quotes. Half of it is about what someone else's kind word can do — which is a reason to say the kind word.

    King James

    Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.

  10. For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.2 Timothy 1:7 · World English Bible

    Useful when the anxiety has started telling you it's who you are. Paul says it isn't what you were handed.

    King James

    For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

  11. I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.Psalms 34:4 · World English Bible

    Written by someone who had been genuinely, physically in danger — not a general reassurance from a comfortable place.

    King James

    I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

  12. Haven’t I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”Joshua 1:9 · World English Bible

    A command given to a man about to do something enormous and frightening. Courage as an instruction, with company attached.

    King James

    Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

  13. “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”Matthew 11:28-30 · World English Bible

    For anxiety that has turned into exhaustion. The offer is rest, and a lighter thing to carry — not no thing at all.

    King James

    Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

  14. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.Psalms 46:1 · World English Bible

    Eleven words. Short enough to hold on to when you can't concentrate on anything longer.

    King James

    God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Which one to reach for

Anxiety doesn't arrive in one flavour, so a single verse won't cover it. Roughly: Philippians 4:6-7 and 1 Peter 5:7 are for when you need somewhere to put it. Matthew 6:25-27 and 6:34 are for when you're running the future in your head. Isaiah 41:10 and Psalm 46:1 are for when you're too tired to reason and just need something solid to stand on. Proverbs 12:25 is the one nobody quotes, and it's about how much a single kind word from another person can lift the weight.

The King James is not telling you to stop planning

Open the King James toggle under the Matthew passages and you get a phrase that has aged badly: take no thought for the morrow. Read cold in modern English that is an instruction not to plan, which would put this page at odds with most of Proverbs and with the farmer in James 5, who is doing nothing but planning. It is not what the sentence meant in 1611.

The useful part is that you can count it in this page's own toggles. The King James says take no thought at Matthew 6:25, by taking thought at 6:27, and then take … no thought and shall take thought in the two halves of 6:34. At Philippians 4:6 it says something that sounds unrelated: be careful for nothing. Five expressions. The modern rendering says anxious in all five places — and underneath all five is one Greek verb, merimnao, Strong’s 3309, glossed “to be anxious about, distracted”. The parsings are printed at Matthew 6:25, 6:27, 6:34 and Philippians 4:6.

So the whole difference is in the English, and the commentators say so without hedging. Ellicott notes that “this was, in the sixteenth century, the meaning of the English phrase ‘take thought’”. Barnes: “the word ‘thought’, when the Bible was translated, meant ‘anxiety’”. Vincent is the bluntest — the rendering “was a truthful rendering when the A.V. was made, since thought was then used as equivalent to anxiety or solicitude”, and “the word has entirely lost this meaning”. All are printed at BibleHub’s parallel commentaries. Barnes also draws the line the passage itself draws, which is the sentence worth keeping: “Thought about the future is right; anxiety, solicitude, trouble is wrong.”

And one verse says “care” twice about two different things

1 Peter 5:7 is six plain words in the modern rendering and a small piece of wordplay in the older one: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. It reads as though a single word has been turned around. It is two words. The first is merimna, Strong’s 3308 — the noun of the verb above, this page’s own word. The second is melei, Strong’s 3199, an impersonal verb that Thayer glosses “it is a care: to one” and Strong’s as “to be of interest to … it matters”. The interlinear has them side by side.

Worth the two minutes, because the English pun can be read as saying that God worries about you. The Greek does not say that. It says you are what matters to him. The modern rendering splits them — worries and cares — and gives up the music to keep the distinction.

Scripture's anxious people are named, not tidied away

A page like this is easy to write as though worry were a failure of nerve that the right verse corrects. The text does not read that way. It reports frightened people by name, without softening what they said, and without anyone in the story telling them to stop.

Elijah asked to die

But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree. Then he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough. Now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”1 Kings 19:4 · World English Bible

He had just won the most public victory of his career. The next thing he does is walk into the desert and ask for it to be over. What he is offered afterwards, in the verses following, is food and sleep before any conversation happens.

David described the physical symptoms

My heart is severely pained within me. The terrors of death have fallen on me. Fearfulness and trembling have come on me. Horror has overwhelmed me.Psalms 55:4-5 · World English Bible

Pain in the chest, trembling, a horror he cannot argue himself out of. This is a description rather than a complaint, and it is left in the songbook.

Hannah was mistaken for drunk

Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have not been drinking wine or strong drink, but I poured out my soul before the LORD. Don’t consider your servant a wicked woman; for I have been speaking out of the abundance of my complaint and my provocation.”1 Samuel 1:15-16 · World English Bible

She was praying so hard that the priest assumed she was drinking. Her answer is one of the most direct sentences in Scripture about distress: she is not misbehaving, she is pouring something out.

Paul despaired of life

For we don’t desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia: that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life.2 Corinthians 1:8 · World English Bible

Written by the same man who wrote 'be anxious for nothing'. He does not treat the two as a contradiction, and neither should a page quoting him.

And in Gethsemane

He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be greatly troubled and distressed. He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch.”Mark 14:33-34 · World English Bible

Greatly troubled and distressed, in the plainest words the gospel has. Whatever else this page says, it cannot say that fear is beneath the faithful.

What these passages do not promise

Read closely, most of them do not say the anxiety goes away. Psalm 94:19 says something arrived alongside the anxious thoughts. Philippians 4:7 promises a peace that guards, which is a description of a sentry rather than a cure. Matthew 6:34 gives permission to carry one day at a time and says nothing about the day being lighter.

That is worth stating plainly, because the alternative reading — that a sufficiently faithful person would not feel this — is both unsupported by the passages above and genuinely harmful to someone reading at 3am.

A note on what these verses are not

None of this is a treatment plan. Anxiety disorders are common and treatable: the US National Institute of Mental Health puts the figure at 19.1% of adults in a given year, and its overview of anxiety disorders sets out what treatment actually involves. Scripture has been a comfort to anxious people for a very long time and it sits alongside a doctor, a therapist and medication without any of them being an insult to the others.

If your anxiety is stopping you eating, sleeping or working, please talk to a doctor. Reading Philippians 4 more times is not the same as being cared for. If you are in crisis in the US, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is free, confidential and answered around the clock — call or text 988.

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God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Psalm 46:1

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Questions

What is the best Bible verse for anxiety?

Philippians 4:6-7 is the passage most often turned to: be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God — and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. It is the New Testament's most direct instruction about worry.

Does the Bible say anxiety is a sin?

No. Scripture repeatedly addresses anxious people with comfort rather than rebuke, and it names them: Elijah asks to die in 1 Kings 19:4, David describes trembling and horror in Psalm 55:4-5, Hannah is mistaken for drunk while praying in 1 Samuel 1:15-16, Paul says he despaired of life in 2 Corinthians 1:8, and Mark 14:33-34 describes Jesus in Gethsemane as greatly troubled and distressed. All five are quoted in full on this page. The Bible treats anxiety as something to be brought somewhere, not something to be ashamed of.

Can Bible verses replace treatment for anxiety?

No. Scripture can sit alongside medical care, therapy and medication, but it is not a substitute for them. Anxiety disorders affect an estimated 19.1% of US adults in a given year and respond well to treatment — the National Institute of Mental Health sets out the options. If anxiety is affecting your sleep, eating or ability to work, speak to a doctor. In a crisis in the US, call or text 988.

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