Is Your Anxiety & Worry Coming From Divided Loyalty? (Mine Was)

Hey Friend!

With everything that is going on in the world, such as inflation or polarized politics, it’s understandable if you feel some anxiety from time to time. I struggle with it too sometimes. Lately, I’ve been facing a feeling of overwhelming worry and anxiety with all that is going on. Sometimes to escape the stresses of life, we do things that distract us such as scrolling on social media or watching endless TikToks for a quick dopamine rush. Unfortunately, this brings us to a space of divided loyalty in our hearts and can make our anxious feelings go from bad to worse. 

Divided loyalty often comes when we are feeling anxious or nervous about something in our lives. Too often we turn to other things instead of God. This is something that Christians can all too easily fall into.

Recently I had a massive recalibration with what I needed to be focusing on in my life. God had some serious words for me about the divided loyalty that I have been struggling with, and I want to share it with you as I think you may be able to relate. Keep reading to find out what God showed me about how to overcome divided loyalty in my life.

Do You Struggle With Divided Loyalty?

I met with a spiritual growth mentor because I was struggling with worry and obsessive thoughts. For example, most mornings, I would wake up with strong feelings of dread and heaviness. I brought my thoughts to her, and we ended up having an incredible call with so much breakthrough. She helped me see areas of divided loyalty in my heart, and I learned some helpful tips on how to overcome divided loyalty, and I want to share them with you. 

She helped me trace back to traumatic events that happened in my past, specifically around the age of 7-8. At that age, my parents got divorced. I ended up moving and went from a two-income family to a single mom. My mom worked two jobs. There were a lot of things going on for me in that delicate age and I realized that a lot of stuff from my past, I was projecting into my current reality. 

So many of us experience life based on perceptions that we glean from childhood. I realized in my call with my mentor that recently I have been so stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, and heavy because of my past baggage. 

Divided Loyalty Often Comes from Distractions of Daily Life

After realizing where my anxiety comes from, she brought up a concept to me. She said, “If Satan keeps you distracted and focused on the noise, you miss the peace of God,” She asked me “How often are you working on these things with God?” 

I responded, “Oh, yeah, sometimes,” but then I realized I was not. That day I made a commitment to sit with the Lord about these issues because I knew if anyone can take this off me, it is Him.

Are You Spending Time With God?

I know I should have come to God with my worries a while ago, but I kept making excuses. I was struggling with divided loyalty. My excuses were that I had to exercise or watch a few YouTube Shorts. Nothing is wrong with those in moderation but it continued to feed my anxiety and my worry. 

I was also worried about my son who is about to go into 6th grade. I wasn’t sure if he should go to a STEM magnet public school in the community that we love or if he should go to a Christian private school in town. The overwhelming decision that I could not seem to make has been extraordinarily debilitating for me, but I wasn’t relinquishing it to God. I wasn’t sitting in His peacefulness and His presence.

The Word of God is the Solution to Overcoming Divided Loyalty Struggles

The Word of God is the solution to overcoming divided loyalty in our lives. I feel like God gave me some direction through James 1:5 after my conversation with my spiritual growth mentor. 

“5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.” (James 1:5, NLT) 

After reading the verse, I started journaling. I asked God for wisdom in all these areas of my life. I realized God will give it to me. He won’t rebuke me, but it says “…be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.” And guess what? I’ve been unsettled. Which made me wonder, where is my divided loyalty coming from?

Divided Loyalty Sometimes Shows up as an Idol in Your Life

I did a little bit of a deeper dive and I realized I had a lot of divided loyalties right now. And maybe  you do too. This is something where we as Christians have to search the corners of our hearts because often we don’t even see it. 

We are to be loyal to God alone. When we look inward at ourselves we see these things that we might be idolizing. You may think, I don’t social media, alcohol, or spend money. However, idolatry is defined as anything that we look to more than God. Let that sit with you for a hot minute. I pretty much look at my phone a lot more than I am looking at the Bible. 

HOMEWORK: Find a quiet place. Pray and ask God to reveal areas of your life where you struggle with idols and divided loyalty. Take out a pen and paper, and write down the areas in your life where you are struggling with idols. 

→ For me, my divided loyalty is that I idolize staying busy. I don’t know the last time I was bored.  I am not really comfortable having nothing to do. 

→ Another idol I struggle with is control. I am so focused on my safety on my children that it’s almost to the detriment of my trust in God’s plan for their life. I will send my son to whatever school God says to because it is not up to me, it’s up to God.

Do You Idolize Your Phone?

There’s a short video clip that I saw recently where a man demonstrates how cell phones all too often take away from our time with God and our loved ones. 

In the video, he walks to the hallway and he’s reading his Bible. He’s in the car and he looks at his Bible. His kids are talking to him and he looks down at his Bible and he looks up. Guys, that’s what we normally do with our phones. Watching that video was so convicting to me. 

We are all really guilty of this, right? We are all guilty in this day and age where our phones have become the new normal. Busy has become the new bored. Politicizing everything has become a way of life. Polarizing people is normal. All these pieces have become second nature in our lives. Maybe just maybe, that is the source of our stress, the source of our anxiety, and our worry.

Ask God for Wisdom to Help Overcome Divided Loyalty

After I reflected on the divided loyalty in my heart (the idols I still carry with me and how much time I waste on things that aren’t life-giving), I ended up sitting with God and releasing it all to Him. 

If you are struggling with anxiety, worry, stress, idols, or divided loyalty today, please say this prayer with me. Or, read it as an example of a prayer you can pray when you struggle with anxiety or divided loyalty in your life.

A Prayer to Overcome Anxiety and Divided Loyalty in Your Life

 Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and take this away from me. Lift these worries, this anxiety.  Father God, I release and relinquish these idols that I’ve been coveting. I ask You to take these handcuffs of control and this focus on business, and doing, and I ask You to just crush it in the name of Jesus Christ.

Father, I ask You to take my children whom You love more than me and show me the way. Your will is the way. I ask You to just lead me in it. I do not want to be in control of it, I want to be partnered with You in it. Father, I ask You to realign my heart in a posture of undivided loyalty. 

Convict me of the things that I am looking to more than You and remove them from my life. I trust You Lord. I believe in Your purpose and Your will over my life, my business, my family, my marriage, my children, my motherhood, myself, my body, and my health. All of it is Yours.

And I pray that You will hear me in my desire to have undivided focus and faith on You. Sorry if I haven’t. Thank You for Your grace, goodness, forgiveness, tenderness, and compassion. I am grateful for Your love of me. 

Thank You for helping me through it. I pray for peace. I swap peace for anxiousness. Calm instead of chaos. I give You my burdened mind. In return, I receive a calm, clear, purposeful mind that is intentionally focused on what You are calling forward from me every single day so that I can glorify You in my actions. I can look to You more than my phone and lean on You more than the screen. I can look up verses instead of looking up on chat GPT what to do. Father, I relinquish all of it to You. Thank You for loving me through this and being beside me. In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Your Journey to Undivided Loyalty Starts Here

I share with you the prayers I pray because I have an inkling that you might be feeling similar worries or anxiety in your heart. Friend, if you are, head to James 1:5 and do a deep dive. Do an inventory and journal, because I promise you God has a solution for you. 

The worry and stress that you are dealing with does not belong in your heart or on your mind for one more day. God has a way for you. He’s full of peace, provision, and faithfulness. We just have to ask Him for it. I’m sending you a big hug. I hope this encourages you. I hope that this showed you that I’m a human and I fail, too. But, we are all in this together, and God is our strength. I love you. Big hugs.

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

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