10 Christian Books about Overcoming Anxiety and Worry

Here are ten Christian books about overcoming anxiety and worry that the Cross-Points team recommends.

1. Gospel Hope for Anxious Hearts: Trading Fear and Worry for the Peace of God by Charles Spurgeon

 “The man who is full of care, is ripe for any sin, but he who has cast his care on God stands securely, neither shall the evil one be able to touch him!” —Charles Spurgeon

Is true peace possible in our anxious world?

From his time until the present day, Charles Spurgeon’s sermons have captured the hearts and imaginations of listeners and readers alike. Drawing from this rich tradition, Gospel Hope for Anxious Hearts leads readers from fear and worry to the peace of God that passes all understanding in Christ Jesus. Readers will be challenged and empowered for overcoming anxiety through the healing balm of the gospel. Read 40 quotes from Gospel Hope from Anxious Hearts.

2-3. Anxious for Nothing: God’s Cure for the Cares of Your Soul and Found: God’s Peace: Experience True Freedom from Anxiety in Every Circumstance by John MacArthur

Anxious for Nothing Description: Stress has become part of our daily lives. We worry about our jobs, our relationships, and our families. And while there’s no lack of remedies for anxiety, no solution seems to offer true peace of mind.

John MacArthur, Jr. believes that peace is not only possible, it’s a divine mandate. Drawing from a rich legacy of teaching and ministry, MacArthur puts aside cultural cures to uncover the source of our anxiety and stress. Based on solid Biblical insights, Anxious for Nothing shares how we can overcome uncertainty, defeat doubt, and be truly worry-free.

In Found: God’s Peace, trusted pastor and teacher John MacArthur tackles this vital question head-on. Throughout the book, MacArthur shares principles to help you overcome uncertainty, defeat worry, and experience true freedom from anxiety.

As Pastor John MacArthur writes, the key to worry-free living is to replace worry with prayer, right thinking, and action. Here he draws on rich biblical truths to show us how.

4-5. Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the Rest of God and When I Am Afraid: A Step-by-Step Guide Away from Fear and Anxiety by Ed Welch

In Running Scared, Edward T. Welch investigates the roots of fear in the human soul and the ramifications of living in the grips of anxiety, worry, and dread. Welch encourages readers to discover for themselves that the Bible is full of beautiful words of comfort for fearful people (and that every single person is afraid of something). Within the framework of thirty topical meditations, Welch offers sound biblical theology and moment-by-moment, thoughtful encouragement for life-saving rescue in the midst of the heart and mind battlefield of rampant panic-stricken responses. This comprehensive primer on the topic of fear, worry, and the rest of God will have readers retreating to scripture for invariable constancy, stalwart care, and robust comfort, instead of as Welch terms it hitting the default switch by responding with characteristic human independence, control, and self-protectiveness.

If you are tired of dealing with anxiety and worry on your own, then CCEFs When I Am Afraid: A Step-by-Step Guide Away from Fear and Anxiety is for you. As you go through each set of meditations by biblical counseling expert Edward T. Welch, anxiety will gradually yield to hope, peace, and rest. Of course, this is a lifelong process, but going through this devotional guide, either on your own or with a small group, will kick-start the process and bring lifelong change.

6. Overcoming Fear, Worry, and Anxiety by Elyse Fitzpatrick

Elyse Fitzpatrick, coauthor of Women Helping Women (a GoldMedallion Finalist), offers practical advice for conquering the paralyzing emotions many women encounter as they battle difficult, often overwhelming concerns about rebellious children, problems in the workplace or home, health issues, financial difficulties, and more.

In the Bible, God gives guidance and offers the true solution to our anxieties and fears. Overcoming Fear, Worry, and Anxiety accesses this information to help women—

  • Identify the source of fear, worry, and anxiety
  • Transform fearful thoughts into peaceful confidence
  • Discover specific strategies for overcoming anxiety

Women will find comfort and encouragement through real–lifeexamples of how others, including Elyse, cast their cares upon God and experience His strength and love.

7. Stressed Out A Practical, Biblical Approach to Anxiety by Todd Friel

You are definitely not the only person on the planet to wrestle with anxious feelings. Billions upon billions of people battle garden-variety stress and anxiety every day. Everyone, to varying degrees, worries.

Jesus Christ is a sympathetic high priest who understands us, and He knows we are prone to worry. He is so thoughtful and kind that His last sermon to the disciples (and us) was dedicated to the subject of anxiety.

Prepare to discover 12 anxiety relievers from Jesus Christ that will get to the root of your anxiety problem and give you the tools you need to replace your anxious thoughts with profound, settled, hopeful joy. Stressed Out: A Practical, Biblical Approach to Anxiety isn’t like most Christian self-help books that promise to fix your “stinkin’ thinkin.’ ”

8. Mindscape: What to Think About Instead of Worrying by Timothy Z. Witmer

Mindscape builds a practical action plan for changing your mental landscape—and your life—based on Paul’s rich exhortation in Philippians 4:8. Author Tim Witmer draws from thirty years of experience in helping worried people apply Scripture to their lives to present a clear, biblical, and deeply pastoral guide to replacing worry with a new way of thinking.

Mindscape is not a self-help book or an academic tome on behavioral theory. It is a real-world guide to the transformation that Jesus works in us as we go to him in faith and ask for his power to change, to listen, and to think differently.

Chapter-by-chapter application questions make Mindscape perfect for personal reflection or small group use.

9. How to Overcome Worry: Experiencing the Peace of God in Every Situation
by Winfred Neely

Do you struggle with worry or anxious thoughts on a regular basis? Does your mind get fixated on the same concern over and over? Do you know you should stop worrying but repeatedly fail to do so?

How to Overcome Worry presents a biblical and practical strategy for this exact problem. Dr. Winfred Neely, who has experienced his fair share of anxiety-inducing circumstances, walks you through Philippians 4:6–7 to help you:

  • Understand the difference between concern and worry
  • Use prayer as a means of grace to overcome worry
  • Cultivate gratitude and thanksgiving as an antidote to worry
  • Navigate changing seasons and circumstances without falling into worry
  • Employ practical strategies for experiencing the peace of God

Worry is one of the top issues in our world today, even among Christians, and this concise and biblical approach will offer real solutions. In His Word, God tells us to stop worrying, pray about everything, and expect His peace. This is a true promise of Scripture, and this book will help you to lay hold of it.

10. The Anxious Christian: Can God Use Your Anxiety for Good? by Rhett Smith

Is anxiety “un-Christian”?

Many Christians believe the answer to this question is yes! Understandably, then, many Christians feel shame when they are anxious. They especially feel this shame when well-intentioned fellow believers dismiss or devalue anxiety with Christian platitudes and Bible verses.

Rhett Smith, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, helps us understand anxiety in a new way. Rhett argues that, rather than being destructive or shameful, anxiety can be a catalyst for our spiritual growth. Using Biblical thinking and personal examples, Rhett explains how anxiety allows us to face our resistance and fears, understand where those fears come from, and then make intentional decisions about issues such as career, marriage, money, and our spiritual lives.

Allow this book to challenge your view of anxiety, and allow God to use your anxiety for good.

BONUS: Battling Unbelief: Defeating Sin with Superior Pleasure by John Piper

Pastor John Piper shows how to sever the clinging roots of sin that ensnare us, including anxiety, pride, shame, impatience, covetousness, bitterness, despondency, and lust in Battling Unbelief.

When faith flickers, stoke the fire.

No one sins out of duty. We sin because it offers some promise of happiness. That promise enslaves us, until we believe that God is more desirable than life itself (Psalm 63:3). Only the power of God’s superior promises in the gospel can emancipate our hearts from servitude to the shallow promises and fleeting pleasures of sin.

Delighting in the bounty of God’s glorious gospel promises will free us for a less sin-encumbered life, to the glory of Christ. Rooted in solid biblical reflection, this book aims to help guide you through the battles to the joys of victory by the power of the gospel and its superior pleasure.

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