What does the Bible say about panic attacks?

Well, we would not compare one text with another where all are from God’s Word, and the expression of His people’s confidence in Him, and as such comforting. There is the infirmity of human nature, and in this our great High Priest has sympathy, and no one need chide himself or herself if a certain amount of fear and apprehension possess the heart during those times of stress, if only in the fear there is a turning to the Lord to find a refuge in Him. “What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.” Happy man, happy woman, who has this experience; happier still if this leads to a deeper acquaintance with God so that in quiet confidence in Him they can really say, “I will trust and not be afraid.” For let us remember that it is also written, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusts in Thee.” And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will surely garrison that heart and mind that is careful for nothing, but which in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving makes its requests known to God (Phil. 4:6-7).

The Apostle faces the many things that in a world of change and need may give the believer occasion for care and anxiety. In the presence of these things he would have us to be care-free, for he says, be careful for nothing." Then we learn that this is only possible by taking "every thing" to God in prayer with supplication and thanksgiving. It is not simply "some things" or "difficult things" but "everything" is to be taken to Him – the small worries as well as the great trials. Whatever weighs upon the spirit at the moment, whatever fills us with dread and foreboding as we think of the morrow, all is to be poured into the ear of God.

Now, many Christians have a feeling that it is scarcely legitimate to expect that God would condescend to the small and petty affairs of our life. As in the case of some great dignitary amongst men, they feel as though they could not presume to trouble Him with their personal concerns. The thought may not be quite definite, and they would shrink from expressing it. But it lingers in the mind sufficiently to create hesitation and doubtfulness in prayer. It is important, therefore, to see that we have in these Scriptures ample warrant for regarding the whole interior of the life of a Christian, as under the purview of our God and Father. Is some item too small to be brought to Him in prayer? Is it too purely personal, too exclusively our own, for Him to consider? What stronger expression could the Lord employ to disabuse us of the notion, and to encourage confidence, than that the very hairs of our head are all numbered? Have we the feeling that some things we can take to God, but that some things we cannot? The Scripture says, " In every thing by prayer and supplication." Have we a request, as to which we have no strong confidence that it is according to His mind? Well, we can at least make it known to God, and the result for our souls when we leave it with Him will be "peace" - the request being submissively laid before Him, His peace will keep both heart and mind through Christ Jesus, and we can then be content, whether we have our petition or not.

We know that the believers to whom Peter was writing were suffering. The word suffering is used in connection with them ten times in the epistle1 and because of these many trials they were in heaviness and distress (1 Peter 1:6). In chapter four we read of the fire of persecution that had come upon them (1 Peter 4:12). They were being persecuted by their Jewish brethren according to the flesh and by the unbelieving Gentiles. They were being persecuted by the power of Rome and it would seem from 1 Peter 2:18-20 that some were being persecuted by harsh and unreasonable employers. We can understand, therefore, how many cares they would be carrying. The first word for care in 1 Peter 5:7 signifies anxious, distracting, care. In his “Expository Dictionary of Bible Words” W.E.Vine says that it is probably connected with a word that means to draw in different directions. Who has not known something of this kind of care, this kind of anxiety? It is care that robs of quietness and sleep. The divine direction is that this care, not in part but the whole, is to be cast upon God. The reason for our doing so is then given “..for He careth for you” and here a different word for care is used. This is care of forethought and interest. It is demonstrated throughout the epistle and a consideration of some of the references to God will show this.

That soldier of Jesus Christ, of whom I have just spoken, had learned to travel with a very light pack, and perhaps that was the reason that she (for she was a lady-soldier) was able to bear more of the burdens of her sisters and brothers than any other person I ever knew. If we have filled up our own private load that we have to bear for ourselves with all sorts of things of our own, then we cannot expect to bear one another's burdens. We spoke of some burdens from which we are set free — our sins and the law — but there is another burden that is never meant for the shoulders of a Christian, and that is the heavy, heavy burden of anxiety. The Lord says: "Be anxious for nothing; but in everything 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. He tells us also what to do with anxiety when it comes, as it so often does, trying to take possession of our hearts: "Casting all your anxiety upon Him, for it matters to Him about you." 1 Peter 5:7. But the word for "casting" here, is not the ordinary word to throw or cast or put; it means to hurl it away, as something we do not want to have anything to do with. It is the word used for the thirty pieces of silver, that became so terrible to Judas that he hurled them back to the chief priests into the inner temple. The Lord invites us to hurl our anxiety upon Him, for it matters to Him about us. If we fill up our pack with anxiety, we will never have any strength left to bear the burdens of one another. Christ is the great Burden Bearer: our sins, our griefs, our sorrows, our anxieties, our every burden, we may cast on Him. May we then learn from Him to make a habit of on the one hand ever bearing one an-other's burdens, and on the other hand, to always bear my own load. In Heb. 10:35 we are told of something we are not to "cast away" (a different word) and that is "our confidence, which hath great recompense of reward." Another has remarked, that too often "we cast away our confidence, and carry all our care."

These pages are being written during times of greater stress than men have known since the world's foundation. Many beloved children of God are over-wrought. Frequent alarms; destruction of property; loss of loved ones; combined with lack of help in the duties of daily life, are telling their tale. With lowered physical vitality, the temptations of the Devil are serious; faith can only be maintained at its true level by moment by moment dependence upon God. No circumstances are too serious for His abounding grace.

Many today are discouraged, the pressure in every way is great, and faith and love seem to be on the wane. Certainly as we look back on the past we marvel at the mercy that has brought us hitherto, many a time we faced the future with fear, yet God did not fail, nor will He; and as we face it again as a New Year begins, our faith may take a fresh hold of the God of peace, and we may commit our future into His hands with confidence, and rest in Him. If we make our requests known to Him with thanksgiving, His peace will keep us; if we give our thoughts to things holy and true, He Himself will walk with us. Troubled. Christian, you may have the God of peace as your daily companion, and may be without fear, for that means that though the storm rages around you, your heart may be at rest, for He keeps in perfect peace him whose mind is stayed upon Him, because be trusteth in Him.

Many today are discouraged, the pressure in every way is great, and faith and love seem to be on the wane. Certainly as we look back on the past we marvel at the mercy that has brought us hitherto, many a time we faced the future with fear, yet God did not fail, nor will He; and as we face it again as a New Year begins, our faith may take a fresh hold of the God of peace, and we may commit our future into His hands with confidence, and rest in Him. If we make our requests known to Him with thanksgiving, His peace will keep us; if we give our thoughts to things holy and true, He Himself will walk with us. Troubled. Christian, you may have the God of peace as your daily companion, and may be without fear, for that means that though the storm rages around you, your heart may be at rest, for He keeps in perfect peace him whose mind is stayed upon Him, because be trusts in Him.

The God of peace is invoked on your behalf. The road that faith travels is often rough, dangers and foes beset the pilgrim's way; conflict abounds in it and often suffering. Truly it is no flower-strewn way. But the God of peace is your God, and He it is who has said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” That means, that the Friend is greater than the foe, that whatever they may do to me I will fear no evil, and however the storm may rage without me, I'll have peace in my heart, it means that the supplies are greater than the demand, for is it not written, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because be trusted in Thee.” And again, if you do but carry your wants and woes to God, has He not pledged His word for it that “the peace of God shall keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus”? The God of peace is our God, and He is with us. Let us rejoice and be glad.

The God of peace is invoked on your behalf. The road that faith travels is often rough, dangers and foes beset the pilgrim's way; conflict abounds in it and often suffering. Truly it is no flower-strewn way. But the God of peace is your God, and He it is who has said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me." That means, that the Friend is greater than the foe, that whatever they may do to me I will fear no evil, and however the storm may rage without me, I'll have peace in my heart, it means that the supplies are greater than the demand, for is it not written, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because be trusted in Thee." And again, if you do but carry your wants and woes to God, has He not pledged His word for it that "the peace of God shall keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus"? The God of peace is our God, and He is with us. Let us rejoice and be glad.