Andrew Hunt remembers the day he left church and at the 460 stoplight, he almost turned left. And kept going.

The thing that held him back was his new bride Kellie. He knew she’d call and ask why he wasn’t home for dinner. He didn’t have the heart to tell her, “I’m in Kentucky.”

This turning point came after a few monumental events. Andrew, Blue Ridge’s Technical Director, had gone on a missions trip, contracted sepsis and became gravely ill. He recovered, but realized later how deadly the situation could have been.

Then, Andrew’s brother, Mark, died suddenly of a heroin overdose after battling his addiction and moving into recovery. It was a year and a half before Andrew began to really deal with Mark’s death.

Then, someone unexpectedly came and cut all the main audio cables in the Blue Ridge Auditorium, hoping to “fix” a perceived issue. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Andrew, who would say he’s always been “anxious by nature,” began to notice some alarming symptoms.

“I was at home one day by myself, and I started feeling very anxious for no major reason,” he said. “I had pain in my chest, and I thought for sure I was having a heart attack.”

He and his wife went to the Emergency Room, where they learned that Andrew’s heart was fine. He was having a panic attack.

As Andrew and Kellie worked through this and prayed about it, Andrew was encouraged to try an anti-anxiety medicine.

“It did help. It calmed things down for me,” he said. “It kind of helped me slow down mentally, so I could process things. That was pretty helpful. I did that for about a year. During the course of that year, there were some things God taught me.

“Looking at it now, the majority of my anxiety had spiritual roots.”

While there wasn’t anything overt, Andrew began to realize that he had subtly slipped into some wrong thinking. He asked God to reveal truth to him. He began to see that he had developed a need to control his circumstances. And when things felt out of control, the panic set in.

As Andrew sought God’s wisdom for his stress and anxiety, he was drawn to 1 Peter 5:6-10:
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. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. (ESV)

“This became an anthem for me,” Andrew said. He found four important steps for overcoming anxiety within God’s Word.

1. Humble yourself. Andrew found he needed to share what he was learning with others, slow down and seek God’s perspective in each situation. He also learned to humbly confess where he was trying to control his life and surrender control to God.

2. Cast your anxieties on God. He said, “Whenever I found an anxiety in me, I would come to God and tell Him out loud what was worrying me. ‘God I’m going to cast it on to you. I don’t know what that looks like. But I’m stating it, and giving it to you.’ I still do that. I still have anxious thoughts …. When, I do, I might hold my hands up and say, ‘I’m trusting you with everything in me.’”

3. Realize we’re in a war. The adversary is a prowling lion. In Isaiah 7, God tells King Ahaz, “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.” Andrew explains, “We see the same thing in 1 Peter. Along with resisting against evil in one direction, we resolve to be firm in faith toward God in the other direction … That has impacted me. It is important to know His promises, know His truths. Being firm in your faith produces firmness in you. Don’t be naive. We’re in a spiritual war.”

4. Resting in the promise. Andrew said he’s learned to trust in God and rest in Him alone. “Before, I wrongly thought I had to try harder and do more. That’s what I was doing. As we actively live out faith in this way, trusting in Him, casting our anxieties, confessing our sin, repenting to trust, we can rest and know that strength and restoration are coming.”

Now, Andrew sees his anxiety differently.

“In Matthew 6, Jesus says, ‘Don’t be anxious about your life.’ That’s a command. If I’m choosing to be anxious, then I’m disobeying.,” Andrew said.

Andrew shared this and other insights in a Church Production magazine guest blog. There, he wrote about Matthew 6:

“Here's what I love. Reread this passage and notice that it does not focus on us or the fact that we struggle with anxiety. It focuses on God and His character. The fact that He cares for us and will, in fact, carry the load so we don't have to. It reminds me of the appropriateness of the famous hymn,

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.”

If you struggle with anxiety, Andrew recommends:

  • Sermon: John Piper, "Anxieties: To Be Cast Not Carried" 1993
  • Book: Edward T. Welch, "Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and The God of Rest"
  • Book: Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Spiritual Depression”