When anxiety strikes, get busy. Spare no time knocking down its pins. You can’t knock down the bowling pins of anxiety if you let your mind roll into the gutter.

“Life’s like bowling. A pinsetter keeps setting up pins–negative thoughts, tormenting emotions, and destructive desires. Our job is to keep knocking them down.” Jesus said: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” The way to experience His peace and not be troubled is to use the spiritual weapons that He has freely gives us and knock down the devil’s pins that constantly try to disrupt our inner peace. Doing that we can refuse to let our heart to be troubled.

My heart is frequently tempted to be troubled, but I use God’s spiritual weapons to resist and knock down the pins of trouble. I use weapons like continual prayer, brokenness, humility, resistance to all things demonic, faith, honesty, confession, repentance, staying focused on the risen Jesus, daily heart-felt Bible reading, praying with other people, asking people to pray for me, thinking on godly things, pursuing holiness and God’s kingdom, frequently reading anointed Christian writers (most of them already in Heaven), speaking in tongues, refusing to watch or listen to sinful media, taking communion, listening to and worshiping with powerful praise music, telling Jesus I love Him, listening to Jesus and doing what He tells me to, etc.

Counterfeit peace consists of the mere distraction of our attention away from our anxiety and/or various attempts to deny or medicate our angst. I sometimes turn to various types of clean entertainment in a futile attempt to find peace. However, it never gives me anything but temporary distraction.

Jesus is the Illuminator. Seeing life through His eyes makes it bright and filled with light!