Anxious Joy

So we said, we want this blog to be a place to share our joys and struggles and well, this post is both.
I've been struggling with anxiety and borderline depression for about 6 months now and find it constantly challenging to live my life without fear or something else trying to bog me down.  I've been praying for a pure peace in Jesus- free of worry and do KNOW that prayer and reading scripture has been the only thing that has helped ease the tension and worry in me.  Don't get me wrong, I do struggle and I struggle  deep, but prayer and God's word does bring me unexplainable peace.
This month in our church we have been reading through 1st Peter.  The word from 1st Peter has really been blessing my heart. Specifically 1st Peter 1:3-9 ; 
^"3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

There is hope knowing that there is splendor in the furnace and though I do struggle, I recognize that my pain helps me recognize when I do experience joy that only comes through the Father.