Bible verses about anxiety and worry
Anxiety can be a passing worry about tomorrow or a weight that stays for weeks. The Bible speaks to both. The psalmists bring their racing thoughts and fears to God, and Jesus and the apostles teach His people not to carry their cares alone.
Scripture does not forbid ordinary care for our lives and families. As Matthew Henry puts it, what Jesus warns against are “disquieting, distracting, distrustful cares”, the kind that forget God is our Father. Albert Barnes makes the same point on Paul’s words in Philippians: the cure is not carelessness but a trust in God that frees the mind from anxiety.
These verses can be read slowly and prayed. It also helps to share the load with people you trust or with your pastor, and if anxiety stays with you or grows heavy, it is wise to talk with a doctor or counsellor as well.
God knows your anxious thoughts
In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.
Ps 94:19 · King James Version (1769)
The psalm was written when the wicked were crushing God’s people. The Hebrew word for thoughts, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain, means distracting, perplexed thoughts, like branches tossed by the wind. Among them, the thought of God and His promises gave the psalmist rest.
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Ps 139:23–24 · King James Version (1769)
The same Hebrew word for anxious thoughts appears here. Barnes reads this as a prayer for sincerity: David asks God to examine his heart so that he is not deceived about himself, and to lead him away from any wrong way into the way everlasting.
What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
Ps 56:3 · King James Version (1769)
According to its heading, David wrote this psalm when the Philistines seized him in Gath (1 Samuel 21:10–15). His enemies pressed him every day, and every day, when fear came, he chose to trust God.
Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Ps 55:22 · King James Version (1769)
David wrote this psalm after a close friend betrayed him. He says these words first to his own soul, then to all who suffer as he did. God may let the righteous be shaken for a time, as John Wesley notes, but He will not let them be overthrown.
Jesus speaks to our worries
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Matt 6:26 · King James Version (1769)
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus argues from the lesser to the greater. The birds do not sow, yet the Father feeds them, and His children matter far more to Him. This is no excuse for idleness: Henry stresses that some care for daily needs remains a duty. What Jesus forbids is anxious distrust.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Matt 6:34 · King James Version (1769)
Every day brings its own troubles, and worrying in advance only doubles today’s load. Barnes adds that if tomorrow comes, God will be the same Father then and will provide for it as He does today.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matt 11:28 · King James Version (1769)
The invitation is to all who are weary and weighed down. Barnes and Wesley see the heaviest burden here as the guilt and power of sin: Jesus gives rest first to the soul, by forgiving and renewing it.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
John 14:27 · King James Version (1769)
On the night before His death Jesus used the usual Jewish farewell, peace, but from Him it was a gift, not just a wish. Wesley contrasts it with the peace the world gives, which never satisfies and does not last.
Bring every care to God
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Phil 4:6–7 · King James Version (1769)
Paul forbids anxiety, not care for our duties, and gives the remedy: bring every need to God in prayer, with thanksgiving. As Wesley says, “Carefulness and prayer cannot stand together.” God’s peace then guards the heart and mind as a garrison guards a city.
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
1 Pet 5:7 · King James Version (1769)
Peter takes these words from Psalm 55:22, as Barnes notes. They follow the call to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand: we hand our anxieties over to Him because He cares for us.
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
Isa 26:3 · King James Version (1769)
These words belong to a song of God’s redeemed people. In Hebrew “perfect peace” is literally “peace, peace”: the repeated word marks a full and settled peace for the one whose mind leans on God in trust.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Rom 8:38–39 · King James Version (1769)
Paul wrote this for Christians facing persecution and death. He is fully persuaded that nothing in life, death or the whole created world can separate believers from God’s love in Christ.
You do not have to carry your worries alone: God invites you to bring them to Him, as often as you need.