We’re excited to celebrate a dear friend of the Renewing Life Center, Melissa Fisher! Her new book, Jesus for the Anxious, will be released on May 12, 2026. We’re so grateful for Melissa’s heart for those who are struggling and can’t wait to see how this message brings hope and peace to so many. Melissa has graciously shared a piece of her heart with us. In the following blog, she offers insight into the journey behind Jesus for the Anxious and a reminder of God’s presence in the midst of anxiety.
“Why do I have anxiety if I’ve given my life to Jesus? Does it mean my faith isn’t real?”
“Isn’t my anxiety my problem and not God’s?”
“What does it mean that I can’t pray my anxiety away? Am I not praying enough?”
Can you hear it? Listen closely and you’ll hear anxiety about anxiety. You’ll hear the fear about anxiety coexisting with faith. And beneath it all, you’ll hear shame.
Shame Traps Us
Satan knows if he can keep us in shame, he can trap us in our emotional issues. And if he can trap us in our emotional issues, he can keep us from growing deeper in our faith.
Why?
Because unaddressed emotional issues stymie spiritual growth.
The irony is that shame was never meant to be a response to emotions. It was designed to be an emotional response to sin.
Emotions Aren’t Sin
Sin is both a heart condition (often referred to as “Capital S Sin”) and the actions (“little s sins”) that flow from that heart condition. The actions (sins) are behaviors we choose.
In other words, the emotions alone are not sins, but what we do with those emotions can be.
I might not be able to control the onset of feeling upset when a person rudely crashes their grocery cart into mine, but I can control my reaction to the emotion, which can be sinful (yelling profanity) or healthy (taking a deep breath and firmly, but calmly, addressing the other person).
I can also learn tools and work on my own healing to prevent anger from taking over in the future.
Anger isn’t a sin: What I do (or don’t do) with it can be a sin.
Depression isn’t a sin: What I do (or don’t do) with it can be a sin.
Anxiety isn’t a sin: What I do (or don’t do) with it can be a sin.
Jesus isn’t afraid of your anxiety.
Jesus isn’t disappointed by your anxiety.
Jesus isn’t ashamed of your emotional issues.
Faith and Anxiety Come Together
Instead of pushing away my anxiety for fear it will damage my faith, I can hold space for these two seemingly opposing things.
It’s a space where anxiety and peace sit together at the table.
It’s a space where I can sense everything is unstable, chaotic, uncertain, and in the same moment I choose to say to God, “Yours is the glory. Yours is the power. Yours is my life.”
I might not feel it.
I might not understand it.
I might not even know what to do with it.
But I can acknowledge it.
And my acknowledgement is my act of faith.
Despite what shame tells me, my faith is real because I’m willing to “ascribe to the LORD glory and strength” (Psalm 29:1, NIV) even when I can’t see his glory or his strength. Over and over I do this, and little by little my heart and my emotions catch up to my faith.
Sometimes, they line up.
But they are never defined by each other.
Emotions are internal responses to things happening inside and around you. And if you want to change your emotions, you need to change things you focus on, things you do with your body (physically, chemically, somatically, etc.), and ways you relate to the world around you.
Real faith isn’t the absence of fear and anxiety: It’s moving forward despite the fear and anxiety.
Want more?
To the overthinkers and worriers, the perfectionists and the scatterbrained, to those who feel fear over nothing and guilt over everything, to anxious professionals and professionals at anxiety:
–there is hope.
In Jesus for the Anxious, Licensed Mental Health Counselor (and reformed worrier) Melissa Fisher integrates Scripture, neuroscience, and psychology into an 8 week daily journey, with a practical, easy-to-use approach—giving you coping tools and relationship skills you can practice today and keep for life. In the end, you’ll walk away with a peaceful mind, a more relaxed body, and more connective relationships. You’ll learn to overcome anxiety one day at a time—and draw closer to Jesus.
Because peace isn’t just a principle.
It’s an achievable practice.
Melissa Fisher, LMHC, is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Vancouver, Washington, working with trauma and anxiety. She has two decades of experience in Christian youth, women’s, military, and young adult ministries, as well as personal work in spiritual formation. Melissa has contributed to the Battlefields and Blessings book series. She and her husband, a retired military officer, enjoy traveling with their adult children and hiking in the mountains.