Does repentance never feel like enough? Do you wonder how God could love someone as wicked as you? Do you doubt your salvation every time you sin? Sister, you can have assurance of your salvation and escape those weighty feelings of self-hate and condemnation—all through the gospel.

You’ve been told all your life that God’s Word will put your mind at peace and calm your fears, yet they still rage no matter what you do. Even as you repeat Bible verses to yourself, your heart stamps in your chest. You try to focus on the text before you, but anxiety fogs and clouds your brain. How do we stay in God’s Word while anxiety fills us?

My entire life I’ve waged war against anxiety. I’ve longed for the day when I wouldn’t be afraid of vomiting or social gatherings. After all these years, I’m still facing anxiety. Maybe you’ve heard those stories of victory and overcoming I’m learning that those aren’t the only stories. But that doesn’t mean the rest of us are hopeless—if we choose, we can find quite the opposite.

We want peace. How do we tuck peace away in our hearts when we live in a sin-struck world? Where do we find “peace that surpasses all understanding” (Phil. 4:6-7) when our world feels anything but peaceful?

We often condemn fear, but is there perhaps a level of fear that’s good and God-given? Like the fear of animal attacks or our children running in the road. We’re told not to worry, not to fear, but to be bold and courageous. How do we reconcile these two? How do we know the difference between good fear and bad fear?

The night before the cross, Jesus took his friends to a common place: the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew His suffering, humiliation, and death were near, but He didn’t hide. Instead, He prayed and asked His closest friends to pray with Him. In this prayer, he instructs us how to pray in the midst of our suffering.

How do we study the Bible as sleep-deprived, weary moms? Mothers at any stage can easily fall into the lie that says we must study the Bible a certain way, everyday. Though Bible study is essential to the Christian life, we must guard against Bible study legalism.

I fear vomiting. I have my entire life. Yet God has proven faithful time and time again, even though I continue to struggle with this overwhelming fear.

In motherhood, there are many things I want control of. I want to control my child’s health and safety. I want to control their future happiness. I want to control their behavior. I want to control their salvation and ensure that they become believers. Yet I need to entrust those to God.

Does motherhood feel more fearful that joyful? It did for me, and here’s how God comforted me in my unending anxiety.

Though I now laugh at my childhood (and adulthood) paranoia, many of us fear our own death. We consider this a normal fear—and if someone didn’t share in this fear, we may consider them odd. But does the Bible promote this attitude? Perhaps we should consider our fear and see what God’s Word has to say about it.

We want hope that will help us persevere in the suffering that will inevitably come. But for our hope to do this, it needs to be set on something. Friend, which kind of hope do you have? Is your hope sure, or does it only lead to more pain and anxiety?

Have you ever needed to speak truth into a friend’s life, but feared their reaction too much to speak? In those moments I need to love my friends more than I fear them, and that I need to learn how to speak truth with gentleness and with the power of Scripture.