Dear Church Leader: Jesus Felt Anxious, Too

The Weight Church Leaders Carry

You’ve seen the worst of humanity up close: the phone calls no one wants to answer, the hospital rooms heavy with grief, and the quiet confessions that haunt you long after the conversation ends. As a church leader, you hold the pain of your people because that’s what ministry requires. 

But lately, it’s not just personal burdens you’re carrying. It’s the world’s noise, too. The political division that seeps into your congregation. The headlines that demand outrage. The pressure to say the right thing, to please everyone, to somehow be prophetic and unifying at the same time. 

You love your vocation, but now the constant tension has started to live in your chest. It steals your breath in staff meetings and sermons. It follows you home after Sunday service. 

And it all feels a lot like… Anxiety. 

A word that feels somehow both too common to mention and too shameful to admit – even though it shouldn’t be.

Jesus Knew Anxiety

If any of that sounds familiar, I want you to know that you are in good company. 

Why? Because even Jesus himself felt this kind of pressure. Even Jesus himself experienced anxiety. And the way he responded gives us a blueprint to follow.

In Luke 22, we find Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. The night is still. Olive trees frame the scene. The familiar garden – a place He had prayed many times before –  feels different this time. The air is thick with tension and grief.

Jesus knows what is coming. Betrayal. Arrest. The cross. So he brings a few of his closest friends and asks them to stay awake and pray with him. But as he prays, they fall asleep.

In the midst of all this, Luke tells us that Jesus was “in anguish," and his sweat fell like great drops of blood to the ground. Many scholars believe this describes a medical condition brought on by severe stress – the kind of anxiety that can make you shake, lose your breath, and yes, even sweat blood.

Jesus, the Son of God, experienced that kind of anxiety. And scripture doesn’t minimize this fact. It emphasizes it.

Fully God. Fully Human. Fully Honest.

Jesus’ experience in the garden reminds us of a profound truth. Yes, he was fully God. But he was also fully human. He laughed, wept, got hungry, grew tired – and he felt anxious. Which means he isn’t afraid or ashamed when you experience anxiety.

But more than that, he showed us what to do with anxiety. Jesus didn’t stuff his emotions down or try to fix things in his own strength. He brought his agony to the Father. He let his worry become a prayer. And though he still faced the cross, he knew there was joy on the other side.

“For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)

Anxiety Is Not a Failure of Faith

Many pastors and leaders wrestle with anxiety but keep it quiet, often out of pride or the mistaken belief that it’s a sign of weak faith. Philippians 4:6 tells us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, present your requests to God.”

So does that mean we’re never supposed to feel anxious?

Too often, we read this verse as a reprimand instead of an invitation. But Paul wasn’t telling believers to ignore their anxiety. He was reminding them that they don’t have to carry it alone.

When you feel anxious, it’s not a mark of failure. It’s an opportunity for surrender. It’s a moment to say, “Lord, I’m human. You know this feeling. Help me trust you with it.”

Allow Your Worries to Be Shaped Into Prayers

That’s exactly what Jesus did in Gethsemane. He allowed his worry to take the form of prayer. I like to picture each word he spoke poured out as an offering – each word a deliberate choice to stay in communion with God the Father in the face of the darkest moment life could offer.

As ministry leaders, we can follow his example. When the pressure mounts, when the headlines spin, when the burden feels too heavy – we can take time to pause. 

In the Message version of Philippians 4:6, it reads “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.”

Or, as I like to think of it, “let your worries be shaped into honest prayers.”

You don’t have to have the perfect words. You just have to bring your heart.

God doesn’t dismiss your emotions. He meets you in them. And he’s strong enough to carry the weight you were never meant to bear alone.

A Prayer in the Face of Anxiety

If you are facing anxiety as you read this, I want to pray with you. You are not alone. I pray you’ll pause and let these words settle deep into your heart as you pray:

Lord, I need you. I am desperate for you. You know every single emotion I am facing – the grief, the stress, the worry, the fear (pause and name your own.) You know where anxiety shows up in my body and how it affects my thoughts and reactions. You know I am overwhelmed.

But when my heart is overwhelmed, you know which way I should turn. 

You have peace and rest for me. You do not abandon me in my anxiety but walk with me through it.

Thank you that you aren’t a distant God that doesn’t know my pain. Thank you for meeting me right here, in the middle of it. 

I don’t always understand my own emotions, and I don’t always know how to move forward, but that’s okay because I choose to trust you.

I trust you to calm the waves and the storms of my life.

And even if I don’t quite see the waves stilling yet, I will keep trusting you. 

 I invite your peace in.

In Jesus’ name, 

Amen.

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