My wife and I have two young boys. One of the things that means is that we spend a lot of time reading stories about knights defeating dragons. When I read these stories with my boys, wonderful things happen. They grow a desire to be brave, courageous, and honorable like knights, and they grow a disdain for the evil that dragons represent.

But occasionally, the fictional worlds that we’ve read about can start to take on a life of their own in my boys’ minds. In the darkness of the night, the swaying branches outside their bedroom window begin to look like dragons. In the stillness of a sleeping house, the rumble of a truck begins to sound like the roar of a monster. And as the shadows grow more serpentine and the noises more nefarious, my boys begin to tremble in fear.

What is happening when my boys fear dragons in the dark? What’s happening is that they are beginning to believe that the fiction is a reality. They are telling themselves that they need to be startled by the shadows.

This is a problem that stretches much farther than little boys who fear fictional dragons in the dark. It is a problem that you have almost certainly faced. It is the problem of anxiety.

Anxiety is when you are afraid of something that hasn’t happened. It is when your heart is darkened by the shadows of what might happen.

When the “dragons” of potential bad news loom large in your life and cause you to tremble, you know that you are anxious.

But thankfully, God does not leave us in the dark. The Bible has answers for anxious people.

Overcoming Anxiety by Seeing God

The ultimate problem with anxiety is the problem of blindness. My boys become afraid of dragons in the dark because the darkness distorts their vision. Likewise, we get anxious when the darkness of potential future pain eclipses our view of God. This means that the key to overcoming anxiety is to see God clearly.

Here are three biblical ways to fight anxiety by fighting to see God:

1. Look Up at God’s Character

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7).

Peter reminds us of two truths about God that are vital in our battle against anxiety: 1) God is mighty, and 2) God cares for you.

Consider the implications of these truths. Because God is mighty, nothing can happen to you that he does not allow to happen. Because God cares for you, nothing can happen to you that he doesn’t purpose for your good.

This means that you can trust God with your anxieties.

Perhaps you are anxious about an upcoming medical exam. You can think, “God is mighty, and that means that the results of this exam are in his control. God cares for me, and that means that he will use the results of this exam for my good.”

2. Look Back to God’s Faithfulness

Anxiety happens when we forget what we know. We know that God is faithful, but when we’re anxious, we forget about that and we wonder, “Is he going to be faithful to me again?”

The fight against anxiety is the fight to remember what God has already done for us. It is the daily battle of remembering the wonderful reality that Paul articulates in Romans 8:31-32:

“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

This truth about God’s faithfulness is a powerful weapon that you can wield against anxiety. If God has already been so faithful to you that he sent his Son to redeem you, won’t he also be faithful to you in every other circumstance, including the ones you are worried about?

3. Look Forward to God’s Promises

When you think about what your future holds, what do you think about? Anxious people think about all the bad things that might happen. God calls you instead to think about his promises.

The Bible is filled with promises of God that provide us with rich and living hope. Consider just one of them:

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

Anything that you could ever be anxious about is included in the list of things that Paul tells us cannot separate us from the love of God. What that means is that even if your worst nightmare came true, you would still have the best thing ever. You would still have the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Consider a future that takes you deeper and deeper into the love of God, no matter what circumstance you face. If you think about it for long enough, you’ll run out of reasons to be anxious.

When you meditate on the fulfillment of God’s precious and very great promises, anxiety loses its power.

Hope in the Light

When one of my boys calls me into their bedroom because they are afraid of dragons in the dark, do you know what I do? I turn on the lights.

And when I turn on the lights, something striking happens. Everything that they were afraid of just moments ago dissipates as the distortions of the darkness give way to the truth of the light.

In an instant, they see that they were only afraid of shadows on the wall. They remember that these shadows are always there at night and that there’s nothing to be afraid of. They gain confidence that everything is going to be okay and that they are safe in their bed.

The way to overcome anxiety in your life is to turn on the lights.

When you turn on the lights by looking up at God’s character, looking back at God’s faithfulness, and looking forward to God’s promises, the darkness of anxiety will give way to the light of hope. Your doubts will give way to trust in God’s character. Your fears will give way to confidence in God’s faithfulness. Your dread will give way to hope in God’s promises.