Election Anxiety: 7 Quick, Helpful, and Just Plain Wonderful Reminders

“Election Anxiety” is a thing. In fact, three out of four Americans have it right now, says the American Psychiatric Association. If you’re worried and stressed, you’re not alone.

And yet, there’s good news, and it’s news that’s very practical, deeply true, and maybe something you might want to share with others.

Starting with this:

• God isn’t worried at all.

He’s not one of the three-out-of-four, apparently.

In fact, He’s never worried. He’s quite joyful. And He’s not joyful because He’s naïve, or just doesn’t understand how important this election is. He’s not joyful because He knows less. He’s joyful because He knows more.

• He wants you to “outsource your worries” to Him.

Really, you can do this. Time-management guru Tim Ferriss writes that he outsources much of his work to an assistant in India. Once, as a joke, when he was worried about something, he asked her, “Could you worry about this for me, today?”

The weird thing: He said it worked! Just knowing someone else was worrying in his place helped him free up his mind to do other things.

Imagine outsourcing your worries to a God who can actually do something about it! In fact, we’re told to do exactly that. It’s brilliant: “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”

• You can capture your thoughts, and replace them with gratitude.

You can’t get more practical than this. Instead of being anxious, tell God what you need, and then drop that and start being thankful. What happens after that? Peace.

Peace happens.

And that’s exactly what Paul tells believers in Philippi, who were under tremendous stress from the government:

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7 NLT)

• With Jesus we don’t need to be anxious; He knows what He’s talking about.
  
  He told us to be like the birds of the air, and they’re not stressed about tomorrow. They’re not bothered by worst case scenarios. Again, He’s not being naïve. He’s not out of touch. He’s not unaware of the importance of the issues.
  
  He's telling us to trust Him and His Kingdom, and if we do, we’re making our lives unshakeable, like building a home on solid rock. No matter what happens—and things will happen!—we can “be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” We can be joyful, no matter what. And speaking of “joy”…

• Joy is something we can have no matter what happens. Seriously. Even when we’re unhappy. Even when we’re under fire. Even when we’re grieving.
  
  I love Dallas Willard’s definition of joy: It’s a pervasive sense of well-being, regardless of circumstances.
  
  Again: Regardless of circumstances. No matter what. We’re supposed to be so weirdly joyful and hopeful that people ask us why. (I Peter 3:15) “How could you possibly be hopeful right now?” “Well, I’ll tell you…”

• We can pray FOR people… even our enemies.

Make no mistake, this is at the very heart of following Jesus. Praying for our enemies means praying for blessings for the people who drive us crazy. Or the people we think are up to no good, even evil.

When we do this, we find ourselves less anxious. (Seriously: Try it.)

We’re reminded of God’s goodness toward us. We’re also reminded that there’s a very real battle against evil, but it’s among spiritual powers. It’s easier to have more compassion on people whom we think are captured by those powers, when we realize there’s a bigger story, and that God still wants them.

• This is when the whole “trust” thing matters.
  
  We can talk about trusting God a lot, but it’s when we’re stressed we find out if we actually do trust Him, right? Jesus took his followers out on boats, knowing they would be hit with a storm. And they panicked.
  
  He asked them, effectively: Okay, so what happened? Where’s your faith? Where’d you put it? You said you had it, so where did it go?
  
  The truth He makes plain is this: They were truly safe all along. Even if the ships go down, they’re still ultimately safe with Him. And so are we. We needn’t worry because yes, God knows all the big issues. He knows everything at stake, in this election and in every kingdom that’s ever existed.

He even knows the future. In fact, He’s already there.

And—remember the first point?

He’s not worried at all.