Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity

by Nabeel Qureshi

One key passage that occupied much of my thinking was Philippians 4:6 – 9, where Paul exhorts believers to control their anxiety (v. 6), which often contributes heavily to emotional doubt. I knew that curbing my anxiety would provide a huge advantage in treating my emotional doubt. Paul issued a four-step remedy. He commanded prayer to God regarding our needs. Peter offers additional details to his anxious readers, telling them to cast their worries on God (1 Peter 5:7). Paul states that thanksgiving (Phil. 4:6) and praise (Phil. 4:8) should be given as well. Testimony shows that these practices, during anxiety or periods of being downcast, are often fantastically liberating actions that lessen our anxieties and fears. In perhaps the strongest “cognitive” passage in Scripture, Paul instructs his readers to exchange their anxiety for God-honoring truths. His readers should meditate steadily, deeply, and single-mindedly on God’s truths, employing these concepts (Phil. 4:8) instead of the ruminations that led to anxiety in the first place. Last, Paul adds a behavioral component — practicing the actions that he had just listed (Phil. 4:9). This does not mean that these four steps must be duplicated every time; other texts encourage the same steps, either by themselves or along with different practices. Many popular writings explain how to implement this process in more detail, but I have long preferred the bestseller Telling Yourself the Truth by William Backus and Marie Chapi...