A panic attack can make danger feel immediate even when no clear threat is present. Your heart may race, your breathing may change, and your thoughts may become difficult to control. For a Christian, the experience can bring another layer of distress: Why am I this afraid if I really trust God?
Ray Comfort writes about that struggle from personal experience in “Closing Words of Comfort,” the closing essay in the Evidence Study Bible. Comfort describes a season of severe fear that forced him to confront his weakness and depend more deeply on God.
Get Help Today
Help and healing are possible through our Christian rehab programs.
If you are ready to take the next step and learn more about how a Christian rehab center can aid in your recovery, feel free to reach out to us at any time.
Ray Comfort’s Experience With Panic Attacks
Comfort recounts a period beginning in 1985 when intense, irrational fear disrupted ordinary parts of his life. He describes being unable to eat normally with his family, lead family devotions, or even gather the courage to attend church.
Those experiences shaped the way Comfort later wrote about panic. He understood how frightening it can be when the body reacts as though a person is in grave danger even though no external threat exists.
A Christian may know what Scripture says about trusting God and still feel overwhelmed by fear. Comfort’s encouragement is not that genuine believers never experience panic. Rather, weakness can become a place where Christians learn to rely less on themselves and more on God’s grace.
Ray Comfort discusses his history of agoraphobia and panic attacks with Kirk Cameron.
Panic Is Not Proof That God Has Abandoned You
One of the most comforting themes in Comfort’s essay is that a difficult season does not necessarily represent the end of the story. He draws particular encouragement from the word “afterward” in Hebrews 12:11.
“Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Heb. 12: 11, NJKV)
The present trial may be painful, but Comfort sees that word as a reminder that God can produce something beyond what a person can currently see.
That perspective may be especially meaningful for someone seeking help for emotional distress. Whether a person is working with a counselor, receiving treatment at a women’s rehab center, or simply trying to get through another difficult day at home, panic does not mean that hope is gone.
Comfort encourages believers to resist self-condemnation and hopelessness and to look beyond immediate fear toward God’s character, promises, and care.
Taking Both the Body and Soul Seriously
Paul Tautges, an ACBC-certified counselor and Senior Pastor at Cornerstone Community Church in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, adds a helpful perspective in his article “When Panic Attacks.”
Tautges also writes from personal experience with severe anxiety and stress-related physical symptoms. He emphasizes the body-soul connection: physical conditions can affect emotional and spiritual life, while prolonged stress, grief, and anxiety can affect the body.
Importantly, Tautges cautions against assuming every physical symptom has a purely spiritual explanation. He recognizes the value of reliable medical research and appropriate intervention. At the same time, he writes, “Some things are physical, but all things are spiritual.” Even when physical factors are involved, a suffering Christian still needs grace, truth, prayer, and hope in Christ.
Practical Ways to Respond to Fear
Neither Comfort nor Tautges promises that panic will disappear immediately if someone simply prays harder.
Instead, both emphasize practices that redirect attention toward God. Comfort gives particular attention to thanksgiving. When fear narrows a person’s focus, remembering God’s faithfulness can help restore perspective.
Tautges similarly recommends returning to Scripture, remembering God’s works, caring responsibly for the body, examining sinful thinking where appropriate, remaining in prayer, and staying connected to other believers.
Medical or mental health care and spiritual care do not have to be treated as competitors. Someone experiencing severe or recurring panic symptoms can seek appropriate clinical help while also receiving encouragement from Scripture, a pastor, or a qualified biblical counselor.
Comfort shares his experiences with a young Christian.
Who Is Ray Comfort?
Ray Comfort is an evangelist, author, and founder of Living Waters, a ministry known for biblical evangelism and for using God’s Law to help people understand their need for Christ.
His experience with severe panic attacks also became the basis for his book Overcoming Panic Attacks. In it, Comfort draws on his own struggle with debilitating fear and presents Christian principles he believes can help others face panic with greater hope.
Hope When Fear Feels Stronger Than You
Panic attacks can make a person feel trapped inside his or her own body and thoughts. Comfort’s testimony is valuable because he writes as someone who endured that struggle himself.
His message is that fear does not place a Christian beyond God’s care. Tautges adds that wise help should take the whole person seriously, including physical and spiritual needs.
For the Christian facing panic today, the goal is not to pretend the fear is small. It is to remember that God is greater, His grace is sufficient, and the present struggle is not necessarily the final chapter.
Get Help Today
Help and healing are possible through our Christian rehab programs.
If you are ready to take the next step and learn more about how a Christian rehab center can aid in your recovery, feel free to reach out to us at any time.