To Overcome Fear, Anxiety, and Worry

20 Words To Make A Difference

Words are important. They form our expressions. They are tools we use to express our heart to people. Words sometimes slip out of our heart, revealing what we had hoped to keep hidden. Words are used to think. They are how we grasp a hold of images, hopes, and dreams. Words are also tools we use during times of worry, fear and anxiety.

Who hasn’t filled their minds with negative words prior to a stressful conversation?  Negative fear filled words are what we ponder in times of anxiety. These words are in our mind because fear and worry are in our heart. This correlation between our words and our heart is necessary for us to be authentic. We all have times of pretending to be one thing outwardly, but our inward reality is different.  Intuitively we know that a life like this is unhealthy. Yet,the battle to live a life of both peace and integrity is hard. Most everyone wants peace both inside and out.

Flustrated. That is a word from my heart that I speak in my head. It’s a made-up word, but it’s real. It represents being flustered and being angry. Some days I’m "flustrated" a lot. Those words that come to my mind are an expression of my heart. This is a blessing. My emotions and inner man are not hiding from me. I am not living in the dark, trying to discover what is going on.

OK, sometimes I am in the dark. Sometimes I don’t know why I am nervous, fearful, or stressed out. But most of the time, if I take the time to listen to myself closely, without judgment, I can hear the words of my heart expressed in my mind and they reveal the conditions that need to be addressed.

Truth, perspective and hope are three ways to deal with heartfelt conditions. All three of these can be addressed in multiple ways, but one common way is through the word of God. The word of God can do all three at once in both our minds and heart.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12 NASB

Most people use this verse to recognize how conviction from God works. But more than conviction is revealed here. Revelation from the Word of God opens the way for life as God intended. We still live in this world filled with pain and suffering. We still live with the conditions of the fall. The word of God in us and upon us doesn’t make “it all good.” But it is not powerless to do nothing.

Just as you have reactions and responses to the things you have encountered in life that have produced fear and worry, you can encounter the Word of God and have a better reaction. A TV show, a long dark alley, a raging drunk parent, a kid sticking a gun in your face, an automobile accident in the rain, all these can imprint our heart with fear. It’s complicated.

The Word of God can have an impact on your life too. It too is complicated. There is not a one size fits all response. Some people can ponder a word and bang, life changes. Others cling to a word for years, seemingly in vain. But then looking back, that word, while not producing deliverance did produce clinging and little by little life improved.

Here is a list of twenty words with their Biblical definitions.  The full definition of the words do not appear here but nuances that I think we overlook. I want the uniqueness of the word as the Bible uses it to be exposed. I hope you will discover a word or two that is not at all what you thought. Maybe you will see that the “good life” is the life pleasing to God and has little to do with easy, highly influential or prosperous. Then, when you wonder or fear that your life is not good, you will have a perspective of considering not your life’s ease but its pleasure and joy to God.

Go over the twenty words and see what you have in your heart or what you desire to do today. Pick one, or maybe two, if you are ambitious. Now make that word a part of your life, inside and out. To do that, listen for God’s perspective. Truth alone is not enough. It is God’s empowering presence we need too.  So, if you are feeling defeated seek God’s perspective. Maybe He wants you to push back. Maybe He wants you to accept a wound in your life so that it can be healed. Maybe understanding how you have been struck down can help you be raised up.

Face your fears. You are not alone. Jesus did not come to condemn, but to save. Honestly, I need a savior more often than I want to admit. In fact, the issue is my ongoing battle to try and live good enough on my own that I don’t need a savior. Jesus addresses my issues often when talking to the Pharisees. May God’s presence and perspective help you today.


Easy – to make light, be swift, small, naught (not substantial, like a shadow)
Good – to be pleasing, done well, joyful and beneficial, pleasing to God
Best – pruned, fruitful, the best part, fat, think well of, important
Lovely – friendly towards, handsome, pleasant, suitable, beautiful
Worthy – deserving, suitable, appropriate,
Achievement – burdensome, heavy, work, labor
Purpose – plan, consider, imagine, advise, counsel of will
Fear – alarm, dread, timid, awe, impressed negatively
Value – dignity, money paid, equipment, a pile
Discouraged – break, non-effect, slack, fail
Defeated – strike, beat, push, inflect, bruise
Overcome – be able, hammer, strike down, subdue, prevail
Victory – rescue, aid, free, deliver, prosper
Help – rise, stir up, aid, surround, protect, to be useful
Comfort – breath, to be sorry, avenge,
Peace – safe, happy, volunteer thanks, quietness, rest
Joy – exceedingly glad, rejoicing, cheerful, welcome, delight
Happy – straight, level, right, make well, well off
Hope – wait, be patient, expect, confidence
Love – befriend, have affection, benevolence, charity,