What if? What about? When? So many fears start with the previous three questions. Being pregnant can easily give a new rise to those fears especially for a first-time mom. Becoming a mother changes things. All of the sudden the future is so much more important (and sometimes scarier). Now you are responsible for another person, and you don’t want to muck up their childhood.
There can also be anxiety about the pregnancy experience itself, especially if you are feeling all sorts of weird things starting from the first trimester. Where did my sex-drive go? Why does everything smell bad? When am I ever going to get my energy back?
Maybe you have deeper worries. Is my family going to accept my pregnancy? I don’t know who the baby’s father is. I didn’t plan for this baby. How will I have enough money to care for my child?
While I don’t have the answer for all of these important questions. I do know that God is willing and able to help you out. He can lead you to the place you need to be and to the people you need to be with. Let’s start off here, in the Bible, with this list of 6 Scripture verses for pregnancy anxiety and stress. You can find strength and hope here.
Need more advice? Maybe you need to hear from another human who is cheering you on? Email me! I’d love to chat and send you some genuine encouragement.
1. Isaiah 4:13
For I the LORD your God keep hold of your right hand; [I am the Lord], Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’ – AMP
I love how God is so affectionate with us, holding our hand through the hard times (and good times). This is a promise and an instruction. Firstly, you do not have to be afraid. Secondly – the promise, God will help you.
If fear is trying to tell you that God does not exist or that he doesn’t care about your pregnancy, you can shut it right down with this Scripture. God very much cares about what you are going through. Just as much as you care about what your child goes through.
2. Isaiah 26:3-4
You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, for in YAH, the LORD, is everlasting strength. – NKJV
When this Scripture refers to “him” it means humans. So you can mentally change that to “her”. If you trust in God, he will keep you in a peace that is flawless and uninterrupted. When you focus on God, you realize that his love for you is perfect.
There is nothing he wouldn’t do for you. Deal with your baby’s father for you? He’d do it. Take all of your anxiety for you? He’d do it. Send his Son to die for you? He did it. God loves you perfectly and proves that through Jesus.
Another thing, in God is strength that never runs out. Girl, any time you need God’s strength, ask him for it. He will always have more than enough for you.
3. Romans 8:37
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing – nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable – absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love… – MSG
You will face challenges, some bigger than others; that is a part of life. Does each situation have to throw you for a loop? No. Because Jesus loves you. And since he loves you, you can be confident that he wants the best for you. All you’ve got to do is ask him what the plan is.
God doesn’t hide himself from us. But we do need to put some effort in, because its a relationship. If you can put your faith in and be as convinced as the writer of this verse was, you will find that pregnancy anxiety and stress won’t be able to stay with you.
4. 2 Peter 1:2
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord… – NKJV
This Scripture is great for a prayer of blessing. In knowing God and Jesus, grace and peace is multiplied to you. Peace is what God brings and when you put your faith in him, that peace belongs to you.
If you find that you seem to be running short on peace during this pregnancy, take time to build up your understanding of God. Pregnancy anxiety and stress tends to happen when you lose sight of who God is.
You might be stressing because you see your pregnancy as God’s punishment. Maybe the whole situation surrounding your pregnancy is not very “Biblical”. Don’t get caught up in all that guilt. Jesus lived on this earth. He knows what its like on this planet. If maybe you find yourself in a mess, just know that Jesus can make your mess a masterpiece. Those aren’t just very nice words. They are true. I know because he did it for me.
5. 2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. – NKJV
This verse talks about never lacking ANYTHING. That means material, spiritual, relational, emotional etc. God wants you to be able to rely on him to give you that abundant life (promised in John 10:10).
When you are feeling that pregnancy anxiety and stress, go to this verse and remind yourself that God has provided for all of your needs. He has taken care of your child’s future. He is taking care of your health. He is providing the right health practitioners for you and the right time for birth. Learn to follow his lead. Pray for the type of pregnancy and birth that you desire and believe God to provide it for you.
6. 2 Corinthians 12:9
But He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you [My lovingkindness and My mercy are more than enough – always available – regardless of the situation]; for [My] power is being perfected [and is completed and shows itself most effectively] in [your] weakness.” Therefore, I will all the more gladly boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ [may completely enfold me and] may dwell in me. – AMP
This verse is pretty much life for me because I feel like I’m failing so often. Its good to know that God completes all my shortcomings. Being a wife? Being a mom? Being a mommy blogger? Starting my own business? Once upon a time not so long ago, those were only dreams. But God’s grace filled my insufficiencies, and now I’m here, living the dream.
If you have been hoping to get pregnant and are now finally pregnant, remember the days when pregnancy was just a prayer. Sometimes we get stuck in the worries of the day and forget that we are actually living what we have prayed for. Remembering to be grateful totally switches the perspective on pregnancy anxiety and stress.
Take it one day at a time and realize that you are not alone. Anytime you feel that this pregnancy is too much, rely on God’s grace. He fills in our shortcomings and can work on our inconsistencies, if we let him.
I’ve got lots more to say about this Scripture which is my ultimate verse for the first trimester of pregnancy. Check out that post here.
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