Passion founder and pastor Louie Giglio shares steps toward ending anxiety

During Liberty University’s Wednesday morning Convocation in the Vines Center, Louie Giglio, pastor of Passion City Church and founder of the Passion Movement, offered students practical steps for fighting anxiety as they keep their eyes on Christ.

“What a privilege to be at Liberty, to be in Convo, to be worshipping Jesus together,” Giglio said as he walked on stage.

Before his main message, Giglio expressed his appreciation for Liberty, which he said was the most represented university at this year’s Passion Conference in Atlanta.

“I just love that Liberty and Passion somehow have a great relationship together,” he said.

He began his message by explaining to students the freedom Christ has given His children through His sacrifice on the cross. Because of this truth, believers do not need to be living under the burdens and weight that Satan tries to place on our shoulders.

“I know that God will speak to all of us, but I’m asking that somebody’s story is going to turn around today and that the weight that is on you is going to be lifted,” he said.

Hope will not be found in looking to situations in the world, Giglio cautioned.

“This is not our home. We are travelers passing through this place,” he said after reading from Psalm 46. “We’re going somewhere that is fortified by the very presence of God Himself. And it will not fail.”

No matter one’s past or present situation, Giglio said that Christians can “be still” while trusting in the Lord, and anxiety and discouragement can be fought through holding onto the truth that God is our refuge and fortress.

“I’m an anxiety overcomer,” he said regarding his own testimony. “I fell so far into a pit of depression 10 years ago and I still feel it. … There’s a deep, dark hole of desperation that I didn’t know existed until I was in it, and when I was in it, I could not conceive of getting out of it.”

While he is now in a strong place of freedom which he attributes to God’s grace, medical help, and many prayers, Giglio said there are still scars.

“It took me a little while to get put back together again,” he said. “My brain was so fried and shattered that all of me as a result of that was so shattered. It took me a little while to get back into the zone. But eventually I did, and eventually I was able to do the thing I’m called to do (preach the Gospel).”

Now, Giglio has a greater appreciation for the magnitude and power of God’s grace.

“I’m here today by the grace of God,” he said. “When I say it’s possible that you can be free and some of the weight can go away today, I’m not kidding.”

He expressed his concern for how often he hears anxiety talked about in a casual manner.

“God isn’t intending for you to live with that weight,” he said.

“It isn’t God’s plan for you to be shredded by your circumstances, by your past, by what you are worrying about in your future,” he added.

Gilgio listed four ways students can begin to lower their anxiety, starting with what he called “punting the Plan” meaning pushing aside any weight of expectation that others or they themselves have placed on their backs. He explained that having goals and structure is important, but living under self-induced or outside pressure from other people can cause worry.

“As soon as God knows you love Him more than everything in the world, He starts adding to the equation all the other things in the world,” he said.

Secondly, he told students to “just be great today,” and not live with the worry of knowing every answer to their futures.

“You can’t go back and be great yesterday and you can’t go forward and be great tomorrow, but you can wake up and be great today,” he said.

The third way, he said, is to stop comparing ourselves to others and not ride through life like our feet are locked into the pedals on a stationary bike. The world, he said, has put in front of us “an infinity mirror which has caused us to clip into the comparison trap.”

He challenged students to seek God’s calling for their lives and not the lives of peers, an action that often leads to anxiety.

“I’ve only got one goal and that’s to ask God to mold me and shape me into the person that will fulfill His calling on my life,” he said.

The fourth way to fend off anxiety, Giglio said, is to “immerse yourself in a bigger story.”

“The more you’re willing to immerse yourself in God’s grand story, the lower your anxiety will be of what is going on around you and your story,” he said.

When people’s lives become about serving God through serving and loving other people, greater peace will enter their souls.

“If you want to find yourself, lose yourself in the story that is greater than you,” he said.