It’s news to no one that rates of anxiety across the world are rising. We see it in our communities, feel it in our friendships, and grapple with it in our families. About 19% of American adults struggle with anxiety, and “studies show normal children report more anxiety than child psychiatric patients in the 1950s,” according to the American Psychological Association. Furthermore, the recent book The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt uses compelling research to show how technology has revolutionized childhood and led to an overall more anxious society, markedly since the widespread adoption of smartphones.

We’re a world of worriers.

Anxiety can be defined in many ways, but I like how author Curtis Chang puts it in his book The Anxiety Opportunity: “Anxiety is the fear of loss. Regardless of the nature of the objects we fear losing, the spiritual essence of anxiety is our very human worry that we may lose something we value” (p.23).

Our world is petrified of losing the things we love, and we get easily overwhelmed by all that we can’t control. We cling so hard to our youth, our health, our money, our relationships, our influence, but—bedrock though they may seem—all these things are temporary. These good gifts are out of our control. We get old. We get sick. The stock market crashes. People we love hurt us or leave us or die. Our power fades. We lose one thing after another in this life.

How to combat this? Modern psychology would say the antidote for all this anxiety is to stop trying to control things outside our ability and to remember that we can only control ourselves. But sometimes that bare minimum isn’t even true! How often do we give into addictions even though we promised we wouldn’t? How often do our brains race around to the worst possible outcomes of a situation even though the Bible says, “Do not worry”? We can’t even control our own minds!

As someone who struggles with anxiety and depression, I know that the logical part of my mind desperately wants to be chill and happy all the time, but the other part of me continually struggles, despite my best efforts. It’s disheartening to feel like my own brain is working against me. I heartily agree with the apostle Paul when he says, “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:17-19).

This world and our own frustrating human nature can make us want to crawl out of ourselves. When we are consumed by worrisome thoughts and crushed by stress, when we can’t control the external world or other people’s actions or even our internal minds, where can we turn?

Continuing in Romans 7, Paul goes on to say, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (verses 24,25).

God. God is where we turn! Even if we’ve turned to anything else except God, he always takes us back. He always loves us, always forgives us, and is always there to lift us up from our pit of worry.

Money isn’t the antidote to anxiety. Trips and sports and cleaning the house and romantic relationships and anything else we try aren’t going to help long term either. The antidote to anxiety, the way to find peace in an uncontrollable world, is to turn to our Savior Jesus. He is the controller of all things, the One who triumphed over the devil, the world, and even our own condemnable thoughts and actions. He is stronger than any of our strongest anxious thoughts. His broad shoulders bore the weight of the sins of the entire world, and when Christ lived, died, and rose again, he banished our sins “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12).

In this worrisome world, God alone is our rock, our fortress, and our deliverer (Psalm 18:2). When anxiety crawls up our spines, when shame coats us in a thick cloud, be reassured: “If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:20). When you are afraid of losing something important to you, combat those fears with the truth of God’s Word—you are loved, you are chosen, you are redeemed, and you will forever live in heaven when this life ends thanks to the work of your Savior.

We might be an anxious generation, but our Lord God is the peace we can always count on.