Overcoming Fear and Anxiety Through Faith and Spiritual Growth Ep. 2

Ever felt like fear is an unwelcome guest in your life, dictating your actions and emotions? Join us as we unravel the complex web of fear, anxiety, and negativity that often ensnares us. Drawing from the wisdom of 2 Timothy 1:7, we confront the misconception that fear is an inevitable part of our spiritual journey. Through heartfelt stories and practical insights, we shed light on how fear can manifest as anger, straining our relationships and testing our faith. Discover the powerful role of church communities as sanctuaries for those seeking healing and spiritual growth, especially when life's challenges seem overwhelming.

In a world constantly bombarded by unsettling news and negative social media, maintaining peace and joy might seem like an uphill battle. But what if surrendering to God and embracing the Holy Spirit could transform your life into one of love, peace, and fulfillment? Through self-examination and trust in God's plan, we explore how faith can be a powerful antidote to jealousy and negativity. Our conversation is a heartfelt invitation to break free from the shackles of fear and anxiety, urging listeners to anchor themselves in the unchanging promises of God as depicted in Isaiah 41.

Life's unpredictability doesn't have to lead to unending stress and anxiety. With the "five, five, and five" routine—five minutes each of prayer, scripture, and praise—we offer a simple yet profound method to nurture your spiritual life daily. This episode is a reminder that even brief moments with God can shift your perspective, offering solace and strength. By meditating on God’s faithfulness and building a meaningful connection with Him, we can transform our hearts and minds, finding peace amid chaos and fulfillment on our spiritual journey.

Chapters

• 0:00 Overcoming Fear With God's Power
• 12:34 Breaking Free From Fear and Anxiety
• 24:26 God's Presence Overcomes Fear
• 28:20 Practical Ways to Grow Spiritually
• 43:20 Finding Peace Through Faith and Meditation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

What is up, faith and failure. So in today's episode we're going to talk a little bit We've already talked some about the beginning of the year and things we need to let go of and who we need to be as God's people. One of those things I think that we forget to let go of is fear of the future, and when I say fear of the future, I'm meaning that, like you cannot, you have an agenda for tomorrow. You have an agenda for next week. I put things on the calendar with my business and with church, but I can literally not predict what is going to happen from day to day.

Speaker 1: 0:33

And so some people live in a state. Christian people live in a state of fear and anxiety, and this seems to control how they think, make them question what they know to be true, such as biblical principles and scriptures, that that they should have a firm grasp on and be a little more mature in handling. Yet and and listen, I'm not, I'm not throwing stones here. I'm describing something that can, at some point in all of our lives, can get us and hit us sideways, and that is fear. And fear can creep in so easily and so quickly, and the crazy thing about fear is that when it creeps in, sometimes it's like this and it's quick and it's fast and, like you know, especially if it's like something that happens to you, suddenly fear grips your heart. Or it could be an overtime continuation of something happening, happening in your life, or it could be something that happened in your childhood and now you're living in the echoes of that and you're trying to deal with everyday life and you can't get past that fear, past that pain that hurt, that trauma that happened in your life. And so this is not going to be a long episode, but I just want to throw some scriptures at you so that you can understand that the creator of the universe cares about you and that fear is not of him. So stick around and we're going to dive in.

Speaker 1: 2:08

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Speaker 1: 2:34

Now let's get into the video. All right? So let's begin with the scripture that addresses one of the most common emotions in uncertain times. So this is going to be from 2 Timothy 1.7. It says For God has not given us a spirit of fear or timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline. Power, love and self-discipline. So this verse, it challenges us to step back and recognize that fear is not something God has intended for us. Instead, we've been given the power, the ability to stand confidently through the Holy Spirit, love which overcomes fear and unites us in compassion and self-discipline, the wisdom and resilience to act accordingly to God's principles rather than panic. I say this a lot to my people, if you don't know, first of all, thank you for being here and watching this video today. Make sure you give a thumbs up like the video, subscribe to the channel, hit that bell notification if you don't mind. I greatly appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 3:52

And so this fear? Sometimes it gets a response out of us in ways we don't fully realize it's happening. Let me give you a real world example. So when, when my son or somebody scares me like jumps from around the corner, that instant fear causes anger and I get mad at my kid because he scared me and it could be a little bit because of pride, it could be. I mean, you fill in the blank, whatever, but like that instant something happening, it got a real response out of me and usually out of men. It's anger. I laugh at men that say, oh yeah, she's emotional, talking about women or his wife or whatever. First of all, you shouldn't be talking about your wife that way and meaning it. That's a setup for failure and a house divided against itself. Anyways. But like fear, anger is an emotion and so fear can drive that Like, if a man is scared of something, or he's scared he's going to lose his job, or he's scared he's going to lose his, his house, or you know, fill in the blank with whatever.

Speaker 1: 5:08

Um, that fear that that being scared of something happening can can really drum up some anger and ends up taking it out on the people that we love. And that's why god does not desire for us to have that type of room in our lives and our minds and our hearts and our attitudes and the way we speak. We're not designed for that. We are actually given a way out of that so that we don't have to live in that, because if you've ever gotten hurt bad in your life whether it's relationships, whether it's physical, mental, emotional, fill in the blank with whatever spiritual and maybe you've been church, hurt our church. For some reason we have. We have attracted people who have been church hurt and they come in and they feel they feel alive again, they feel like they've been, their wounds have been healed and, um, it's a pretty amazing thing the way God is using our church. We see new people come in and you find out later that they've been really hurt in church and people have done things wrong in the body and I believe it's kind of backwards of the way God designed the church to be. That being said, so let's go back to our notes before I get sidetracked, because that could be another episode on itself of how church should really look like, what church should really be.

Speaker 1: 6:36

It's easy to let fear guide our decisions, especially when every headline or social media post seems more unsettling than the last. It irritates me. Politics irritates me. Why? Because not that you shouldn't do your due diligence of you know, researching, voting, whatever that case, whatever it looks like for you in your country, some of you watching other countries, whatever it looks like for you.

Speaker 1: 7:10

Whoever's in the office here in America, east Texas, whoever's in the office, the Bible says, whether we like them or not, we're supposed to pray for them because God allows for them to be there. He is a sovereign God, which means he is in full control Everybody who comes in there. He is God. He has allowed it to happen. So, that being said, you need to do what you're supposed to do and I need to do what I'm supposed to do, and that is pray for our leaders, even especially if I think we don't like them, because that puts us in a place of humility, to submit ourselves to the notion that the Bible tells us to pray over our enemies. Even David says you sit, you prepare a table for me in the midst of my enemies. So there's a common theme in the word that we're supposed to look at our enemies different than the world does. I mean look at Jesus.

Speaker 1: 8:06

I give this example all the time. Jesus did a lot of cool things in his ministry and his walk on this earth, but one of the cool things that Jesus did to me that I don't know if I could have done yes, lay down his life. You know you start squirreling and trying to find a way out when you're facing imminent death. But I'm talking about like he washed the feet of Judas when he knew he was going to betray him. I don't know if I could do that. I want to kind of and I'm being honest like this is a guy that's going to stab me in the back. But also I know that the Bible does promise that everything that happens in our life good, bad, the ugly that he will work it together for our good, for the good of those that love the Lord. Which means I have to submit my life to God completely and that means that whatever he decides to allow to happen or make happen, however you want to look at it, whoever he wants to put in my path, whether they are there to destroy me, to try to trip me, to try to whatever faith that is not tested usually won't persevere because it has no.

Speaker 1: 9:16

It's like working out in a gym. Okay, if I go and stand in the middle of a gym and I look at weights and I watch other people lifting weights, I watch other people on the treadmill, there's absolutely no benefit to me being in the gym. The same is with you in church and reading the word and praying and praising. There's absolutely no benefit for you to watch other people do live Christian lives, to act like they love life. It takes action on our part and so, that being said, some of us think we are, and, especially if I talk about Catholics, they really love my channel. They like they'll write me paragraphs of things that they don't like about me and all this other stuff, and they have no clue what's going on. Don't like about me and all this other stuff, and they have no clue what's going on. But we allow things that we see posted on social media to pull something out of us and make us sometimes be a person we're actually not proud of when we are settled down and we look back.

Speaker 1: 10:27

So I want you, as the believer, to and if you're not a believer, you can use this as well to have a plan beforehand that you don't react out of emotion but you respond. Respond out of logic, wisdom, knowledge. Use these things to your benefit. So you already have a plan set up in motion and that will help when something does come up against you. You will have a better footing on a firm foundation because you have decided that you are going to respond this way. You're going to do it this way. This is how you have chosen to.

Speaker 1: 11:15

If you have a financial crisis, what's the plan? If your marriage is on the rocks? What's the plan If your children are acting out? A lot of these? These are the three major things. You have finances, religion, um uh what. Sex and marriage. Things like that, like these three things right here, are well known to be either a a great atmosphere of marriage if these few things are all in order and the spouses are on the same page, or they can be the detriment, they can be the stumbling blocks of a marriage to where, if you're not on the same page with your finances, you keep spending. You keep spending. You keep spending, even if you're on the same page, but you're both spenders. Guess what? You're going to be broke. That's the way it is. You only have a certain amount of money and that's controlled by how much you work and bring in. After that, there's nothing. So if you're not on the same page with money, if you're not on the same page with sex, if you're not on the same page with raising your children, with your religion, your church preferences, things like that, you're not going to survive very long because you immediately are welcoming division into the marriage before it even begins.

Speaker 1: 12:34

And some are so jealous. What do you call it? A branch from a tree, family tree, a branch of jealousy is stemmed from or it produces anger, it produces a fear of someone else being able to come in and take what you believe is yours, and so All these things. And then on top of that and that's just regular life then on top of that you see other people on social media or the news or whatever you listen to and watch. You see all these negative things, these bad, bad instances, bad stories, this and that this politician is doing this and oh, now this one's doing this over here, and then this guy guy said this and this lady said this, and it's just like this constant, there's never peace. And so we allow things like that to steal our peace. And what follows the absence of peace is usually fear, anger and all a bunch of other emotions that in reality you could have sidestepped all that and been free from that If you would allow the joy of the Lord to be your strength, the peace of the Lord to calm your mind, and if you would not have the spirit of fear be in your house, your life would be different.

Speaker 1: 14:01

Your life would actually be fulfilling, enjoyable, satisfying. And this is the life that God desires for every believer. This is not something that's like a mystical thing that only certain levels of preachers or church lady or whatever like this is for every believer. It doesn't mean that everything in your life is going to be perfect. That doesn't mean your marriage is going to be perfect, your kids are going to be perfect, you're going to have the perfect job, you're going to have the largest finances. That has nothing to do with peace and joy, and this is the false synthetic that the devil tries to sell to us A false joy, a false sense of hope, a false sense of well-being and satisfaction, when only those can actually be found in a life full of the word, full of the Holy Spirit, deep into a relationship with God and with Jesus.

Speaker 1: 14:50

Like these are the things that matter. It should matter to every believer, and I believe sometimes we are so lazy in our walk and then we get five years down the road when we were on fire for God, we were living a life we enjoyed and we loved, and then we get five years down the road when we were on fire for God, we were living a life we enjoyed and we loved, and then we had five years down the road and we're like well, what happened? Well, I guarantee you, if you stop and look, I'm all about self-examination. If you've been following this podcast, if you follow my church which I hope you do you can search on Instagram, facebook, youtube, and now I put my church on podcast as of this week of recording this. You can look for connectchurchlongview or go connectchurchlife for all of our stuff and all these things. I forgot where I was going with that, but I just plugged the church.

Speaker 1: 15:40

So it doesn't matter All these things. They produce chaos in our lives, and so, if you're like me, and most people are, you can consume so much and not realize that your bag has become so full that you're about to bust at the seams, and not in a good way. So it's like you miss out on the blessings of God. You miss out on the wisdom of God, on the knowledge of God, you miss out on being led by the spirit of God, on conversations that God was trying to have you have in the middle of your obstacle. That was actually an opportunity, and all you could see was the negative, because your bag is so full and so, if you know this, by just regular logical, physical stuff, if your bag is full and you try to put more in it, it will fall out on the side and it can't actually be filled with the stuff God desires for us.

Speaker 1: 16:30

And that's the danger of having fear in your life. It will rob you of peace, it will rob you of joy, it will rob you of being fulfilled, because you always think something like the other shoe's about to drop, something like the other shoe is about to drop, and this can bring depression, this can bring anxiety, this can bring hopelessness, and these are not fruit of the Spirit. God desires for every believer to have a fulfilled life, full of love, peace, all the fruit of the Spirit. He desires for us to have it. So this scripture let's go back up to the scripture again, for God has not given us a spirit of fear or timidity, but a power, love and self-discipline. This scripture reminds us that fear does not have to be our permanent mindset. We've been equipped with resources that are stronger than any fear we might face.

Speaker 1: 17:39

I don't know if you're in a hospital bed, maybe you're in a jail cell, or maybe you've just lost a loved one, or you've gotten divorced, or maybe you got divorced and you lost your kids. I've been there. I almost lost my child and, through the grace of God, now he lives with me full time. There are things that shook my life and to this day I could still be holding on to those things. But instead, when I gave my heart to God and I gave my life to God and I vowed to God that whatever he wanted I was okay with. And as soon as I began to do that in my life, it was like the things that I truly desired in my heart. He began to put them in my lap.

Speaker 1: 18:36

One thing after another with my wife. Another thing with serving in ministry, which I didn't even have really a desire to. I just was serving and the pastor began to elevate me because he saw my servant's heart. And then the thing with my child, my teenager, living with me full-time in the summer between second and third grade. It was a God thing where she just gave him to me and said you can be the custodial parent. I didn't even ask for that. Everything that was truly my heart's desire. How do I?

Speaker 1: 19:13

Let me give you an example of how my son's part was, my heart's desire, that I never actually verbalized before God. I never prayed for my son to live with me full time. I didn't think it was possible. But what I did pray was you remember Abraham, when he took his firstborn Isaac? That was actually a promise from God. He took it up the side of the mountain and God told him to sacrifice his son. This was a test of obedience. Okay, god will test your obedience.

Speaker 1: 19:39

And so, as my wife and I was moving kind of up in the church, so to speak, we I was doing music and then we got asked to do youth pastor. And then, um, soon after it was, uh, soon after it was, uh, youth pastor and then associate pastor, and but in this time I found myself when I just crying and praying to God because I'm thinking in my head, like Abraham, I'm like I'm going to have to, because I can't, I don't know where God's taking me, but I know it's not here, like this is not our permanent place. And so I cried and I prayed, I said, lord, I truly mean this from the bottom of my heart If you, if your desire is for us to go somewhere else and you're working things out. I give the whole situation with my son over to you and to me. In my mind, I was picturing me being Abraham and laying my son on the altar before God and saying whatever your desire is is also mine. And it was not long after that that I got a phone call from his mom about getting him.

Speaker 1: 20:49

And I can't even, I couldn't have even orchestrated it myself, and that was right after my wife and I bought our first home, so we would actually have the space, instead of a tiny little apartment, to have him full-time and have him have a yard and, you know, the woods and down by the lake. And it was just like one thing after another. God aligned it, but he was waiting for me to not be controlled or manipulated by a spirit of fear, by a spirit of fear, but to give that to God, to give that control and that space and that place of my heart and my mind to not be manipulated, controlled or influenced by the fear of moving and losing my son, because that's what would have happened. I literally would have had now we're in Longview at the time where they were living. That would have been three hours away, there's no way working and everything else that I could make that trip on a Friday and make it on a Sunday. A Sunday would be a lot easier, but Fridays would nearly be impossible. Longview I had no clue we were coming to Longview until 2019. So all these things that just God orchestrated and ordained and aligned.

Speaker 1: 22:16

But it was after I realized and I internalized this next verse Look at this with me. Isaiah 41, 10,. It says don't be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious hand. Here God directly speaks to our hearts and he says I am with you. The very creator of the universe is with us in every single trial. It's more than just a comforting thought. It is a biblical truth. We are not left to handle life's difficulties by ourselves. Instead, we're upheld by his victorious right hand.

Speaker 1: 23:11

I don't know if you know this or not, but God is not ever lost. He has never broken a promise, he is never lacking, he has never lied. And so if he has never lacked and he has never lied, then his promises, from cover to cover in the word of god, are true, which means that every time. And see, you got to understand this. I know we like to place ourselves in the bible and say, yes, that's yes, lord, I received that word. But understand that the the Bible was written for us, not to us.

Speaker 1: 23:45

So it was description, some poetic, some story, some just describing what was going on in the timelines and everything like the four gospels, four different accounts that were overlapping just to give us different perspectives. You can see how the writers wrote different and the phrasing and stuff like that. But the same stories, just different overlaps. That solidifies every single story from each individual writer. But everything that is written in the Word of God is who God is, so it's describing His character.

Speaker 1: 24:26

So this right here in Isaiah 41, we see the characteristic of a God that does not leave the side of His people, people and New Testament, you have Jesus. That was come. He is the Messiah, he is the one that died for our sin. He died for everyone's sin, but his ministry was for the Jews. And then, when Paul came into the story, and then you have some of the disciples that branch over with Paul, of the disciples that branch over with Paul, he was for the Gentiles, and so this right here is for every believer that we will not be left alone, that we do not have to be afraid. We don't have to fear, we don't have to be discouraged, for God promises that he is with us, not because this specific scripture is written to you or to me, because it's not, but it's written about the promise and character of God, and so that's how you can look at scripture and know that it is true.

Speaker 1: 25:35

For today is because when God says something, he is not a liar and he is sovereign. So that means at the time of writing and speaking to a certain people, he also knew a certain people. You and me would be reading it later. He is so powerful and so all-knowing that he can see simultaneously then of what they needed to hear, and also know that it would reach us here today and be used to encourage us, to remind us of God's character, that he will not leave us, and that it would reach us here today and be used to encourage us, to remind us of God's character, that he will not leave us and that he will lift us up by his victorious right hand. Okay, so God speaks directly to us, the creator of the universe, and says I am with you Now. That's powerful.

Speaker 1: 26:21

So if you have some fear in your life or you've been questioning things, when I find myself worried about tomorrow, I remind myself God is with me now. It doesn't mean everything changes overnight. It doesn't mean everything is magically going to be different when I wake up in the morning it's all going to be rainbows and butterflies and life is just going to be perfect. But it does help me with my perspective and how I see things, how I see God, how I see the way he works, how I see the way he moves. And I don't know if you've ever been through this before, but even if you're in a terrible season now, you're in a terrible time of your life and you got a lot of pain, a lot of heartache, a lot of trouble, a lot of struggle.

Speaker 1: 27:04

I guarantee you, if you look back and stop focusing on where you are right now and the things you're going through, just sit in a quiet place and meditate on all that God has done outside of where you are, it will encourage you from where you came from, what he brought you out of, and it will encourage you, where you are right now, to not fear and to believe that his scripture is true, his words are true, they do not return void that he is with you and you do not have to fear. So that gives us a confidence in scripture, a confidence in the characteristic of God, that we do not have to fear because God is with us. So what's some practical ways to strengthen our faith? Okay, I'm going to give you some things that you want to write this down. I don't have it on the screen, but please write it down on a post-it note, do it on your phone, make a little note as you listen. But I give my people this encouragement we just started the discipleship class on a Wednesday night Bible study and my wonderful wife is teaching it and I'm kind of partnering with her a little bit.

Speaker 1: 28:20

I get excited about stuff like this, so I have to say something. She probably wishes I'd shut up, but I just sit down. But, uh, I do this thing where I challenge my church almost every single Sunday and we're um, I do the same, um, we're doing the same in the site disciple class and we are doing a five, five and five every single day. That means five minutes of prayer, five minutes of reading the word, five minutes of praising the Lord every day, preferably before you start your day. Now some of you may wake up, hit the ground running. You got kids, you got all these things to do. But even if it's in your quiet time, between going from home to the school to drop them off or back from dropping them off back home, or to work or whatever it may be, make time, make good use of your time. Five minutes of praying, five minutes of reading a word, five minutes of praising the Lord every single day.

Speaker 1: 29:16

So practical ways. Living out a steady faith is a lot easier when you take little bites and you start small. There's this saying that. I guess it's supposed to be a brain teaser, or they asked a kid, I don't remember which one. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time?

Speaker 1: 29:33

So don't try to overcomplicate getting back into reading Scripture this new year. Don't overcomplicate. Like well, last year I didn't make it through the YouVersion app that Life Church put out. They have a way where you can go in there and you can do a 365, you know, every day, read some scripture to make it to the Bible in a year. Maybe you made it through 10 days last year and you're. Don't beat yourself up this year, make it through 20. Even if you only have five minutes a day. But I guarantee you, when you begin to dig into scripture and you get excited about it, you can't get enough and you want to do more, you want to learn more, you want to dive in more. I do that all the time.

Speaker 1: 30:16

My wife was laughing at me because I have a book that someone gave me me, because I have a book that someone gave me and it's called systematic theology. It is not a light read before bedtime but I started reading it and it was just like there's so much and I'm actually I probably am going to use it for my sermon in these Sundays and just kind of break it down in smaller bites and spread it out over a series or something, because there's just so much in there that believers need to know and there needs to be understanding in the church and not just always a feel good message or you know, those are nice but like the church needs to be challenged in their theology, challenged on what they believe, to know what they should believe, like sound theology should be coming from the pulpit. So anyways, five, five and five. So these are kind of broke down in four, four different things.

Speaker 1: 31:13

So daily scripture reading make it a priority to read or listen to the Bible each day. Even a few minutes in the morning or bedtime can reshape how you view your circumstances. Allow God's word to anchor your thoughts. When you remember we just talked about God's characteristics when you remember who God is and you remember what he has done, it gives you more faith to sustain you through where you are. So number two. So number one was daily scripture reading, even if it's a little tiny. Don't bash the small steps. They count as long as they're going in the right direction.

Speaker 1: 31:52

Number two frequent prayer. Instead of letting prayer be a last resort I've said this before to my church a lot of times for prayer, we end up asking God to fix after something is wrong or we're sick, or this and that. But what about preemptive prayer? Like? What about praising God? Like when Jesus was teaching the disciples how to pray, how did he start off? He started talking about how great God was, how big God was, how glorious he was. He was praising God and then he began to ask for some things. How glorious he was, I mean, he was praising God and then he began to ask for some things, which is good.

Speaker 1: 32:26

God desires for us to ask. He desires us to petition him and ask for things. That is not out of line at all. Do never think that God is like, oh, this guy again. God wants to hear from you. God wants to hear the cries of your heart, like God wants to hear the cries of your heart, but he also wants you to talk to him and actually not come to him. For instance, let's get a little adult. If you're a child watching, please plug your ears. Or a child listening.

Speaker 1: 33:03

If I only communicated with my wife when I wanted sex, that is the most unhealthy marriage that you can have. That's the facts. So that intimacy. So let's come back from the, from the dirty that intimacy with my wife is produced more that I desire if I am in relationship with her, with god. He desires for intimacy with us and him, not the same as marriage, don't get weird. But he desires us to have a closeness with him to where, when we're hurting, it hurts him and when he is hurting, it should hurt us, like for people who don't know him, for people who are far from him or those who have ran from him. It should grieve us, it should hurt us, it should break our hearts that they don't want anything to do with God. And so some of us act like that. The example I used in my marriage we act like that with God.

Speaker 1: 34:09

We only deal with God, or pray to God, when we want something that benefits us, and that is not how God wants. That's not a relationship, not at all. That's a grocery list or a slot machine, and you apply that principle. That's why we have so many divorces. You apply that principle to anything else and just you're out for what you want, you get what you get, and then the other person who cares? That's how we treat God.

Speaker 1: 34:37

We have been conditioned by the way we do things and we apply that to a holy God and he deserves rightfully so, more than that. He deserves more attention than that. He deserves more relationship with that. We should honor him, which is what I do with my wife. So all those extra benefits that I really enjoy and I desire, I get those because I honor her, I uplift her, I listen to her, I hold her, I talk to her like she is my best friend. So I benefit in so many other ways, and then I benefit in the intimacy ways, naturally. And so the same with God.

Speaker 1: 35:21

When we pray, when we know him, when we're being led by his spirit, when we listen to his spirit, when we know him from his word, we understand his characteristic. We already know him. So those benefits of our prayers being answered, our bodies being healed, him so those benefits of our prayers being answered, our bodies being healed, our marriages being restored, our kids staying close to the Lord, those things are the benefits that we reap when we already have been cultivating that relationship with God. So our will is in line with God's will. And so God desires something. He desires to heal, he desires to restore, he desires this and that fill in the blank with whatever. And we already know that because we have been cultivating that relationship already, you know what I mean. So frequent prayer that's number two. Instead of letting prayer be a last resort, make it your first response in moments of tension or worry. Pause for a quick prayer, ask God for guidance, ask God for peace and the ability to trust Him more deeply. And number three is very important Intentional gratitude.

Speaker 1: 36:31

Actively look for reasons to be grateful, even in chaos. There are blessings, Health, friendships. I mean I thank Him for the new sunrises. This is kind of funny and some people may think it's dumb, but when I'm in traffic and I get a green light that I'm about to come on, it's red and I come up on it, it turns green. I don't have to stop. I thank God for it. I know that sounds weird, but I'm very grateful for that. Here in Longview they have these petitions in between these curbs, in between the six lane, three lane, four lane, whatever it is. So you have to. You have to literally get in this turn lane and then make a U-turn to get back on the other side of the road, like you can't just zip across all the traffic, you have to go down with the flow and then make a U-turn and come back. It's all up and down the main road here and so when I'm doing that and there's this massive break where I can turn around and I don't really have to sit there and wait for a while, I thank God for it. I know that's weird, but I want God to be included in everything that I do Like it. That kind of stuff really matters to me, so I want to make sure that God knows. I am appreciative of just the small things that probably most people take for granted and so intentional gratitude. I want to look for a reason to be thankful. It's important to me for him to know that I'm grateful.

Speaker 1: 38:01

Talk about marriage again With my wife Now. Fellas or women, whoever cooks, listen to the, or whoever doesn't cook in the house or whatever, or whoever sits at the house or gets off work and you come home and food is ready, or someone always picks up food. Whatever your situation may be, this will make sense in a second. Every single time that we sit down to eat food, we all sit at the. Every night, we sit at the table. There is no exception. No matter how late we get on from church or whatever on a Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday, we always sit together and we begin to eat. And every single meal, I tell my wife thank you for the food, every single meal, because I know she spent time and her effort doing something that she honestly didn't have to. She could have just said figure it out for yourself, but she's so gracious to be the mother of the house that does that.

Speaker 1: 39:07

My point is how many things are you in your life whether it's in your relationships or your kids or whatever like? How many times do you overlook things that you really should be grateful for because you've gotten used to them, and whether it's in your relationships or your kids or whatever like? How many times do you overlook things that you really should be grateful for because you've gotten used to them and now it's just the common nature of the house or your relationships and you actually aren't being grateful. You're just expecting it to be done when you come in. I want to have a grateful heart before my wife, the same with God. I want to have a grateful heart before my wife, the same with God. I want to have a grateful heart before the Father. To me it's important. So, number four so that was intentional gratitude. Number three. Number four serving others.

Speaker 1: 39:47

Sometimes the best way to move beyond your own worries is to help those around you. A small act of kindness can remind us that we're a part of something bigger than our individual fears. So let's talk about trusting God's peace. So let's read this scripture from Philippians, chapter 4, 6 through 7. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. So what is pray about everything?

Speaker 1: 40:20

This is an all full, blanket, all encompassed statement. It's not just things. It's not praying for things that you need, it's actually praying for everything. This means talking to just conversation with the Lord. He cares that much about us, which blows my mind because I could think of just 10 things off the top of my head of why he shouldn't care to talk to me. But he does. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything, tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then so it's saying do this and then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace there's the word again. His peace will guard your heart and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. So I think this is incredibly comforting, because we're encouraged to not only reject worry but pray about everything. Nothing is too small or too big for God. He desires to hear from you.

Speaker 1: 41:33

When we choose prayer over anxiety, over depression, over fear, and combine it with thanksgiving for past blessings and future promises, god's peace will guard our hearts and our minds. This peace goes beyond the human logic. I told my church this the last couple of weeks. I said you know, most people won't really pay attention to you until you really start going through something. And as soon as you start going through something now, they're watching you to see what you do, especially if they know you're a Christian. People pay attention. So how will you respond? How will you be in a moment when every other logical mindset says you should be angry, you should be fearful, you should be anxious, you should be depressed, you should go out and drink, you should go out there and really just get hammered, or you should use this substance. It'll take the edge off, fill it in with whatever you want to fill it in with. But that kind of stuff, that kind of mindset, is a worldly mindset and you, as a Christian, should not be thinking that way, because it will rob you of your peace, it will rob you of your joy, it will rob you of your peace, it will rob you of your joy, it will rob you of your relationship with Christ. God's peace will guard your heart and your mind. The peace goes beyond human logic. It's not dependent on whether circumstances are perfect. It's rooted in our relationship with Jesus Christ, who is with us in every trial.

Speaker 1: 43:20

When things come up and things happen, it is a natural response to feel anxious. It is, and to not be in that state of mind when something happens takes years of training and being in places where you should be anxious, but getting your head more level, uh, like, some people it's a fight, fight or flight. Some people can't handle it and they just take off running. They leave their whole family, like if you get a snake around me, listen, I'm gonna'm going to push you down, I'm going to run so it gets you and not me, because anxious being fearful can. It's a very real emotion. Being anxious, depressed, letting things weigh us down to get us down, it's a very natural response. So we have to retrain our mind, we have to retrain our hearts and we have to allow the Holy Spirit to do a work in us that will change us and transform us into a new mind, into a new way of thinking, into a new way of feeling, a new perspective. And that's the whole purpose of the word of God to show us that God will be faithful in these types of things. Just let him do what only he can do, and he is faithful and he is present, even when he feels like he is absent. If you're feeling overwhelmed, I hope that you let some of these truths sink in that we talked about today Meditate on the scripture, take true time out of what you do every day.

Speaker 1: 45:02

Okay, say you got 15 kids. I know some people they got too many kids. They really needed the TV. They didn't get one. I guess I don't know, or they don't know how to work it. That is going to weigh down and take up every opportunity of your day until you pass out in the bed that night after work, after kids, after getting them all in bed, bathed, sleep, fed, all the stuff, hopefully not in that order and you get to the bed and all you want to do is just close your eyes and your morning probably started off just reverse of that your eyes open and it's time to go. Got to go put on the pot of coffee. So you have your sanity. Got to go start with the littlest kid and get them up, because they take the longest to get up and work your way up, whatever the case may be.

Speaker 1: 45:42

So it may not be that every single day you can actually find a quiet place and get alone with God. But if you have to, whatever it takes, even if it's putting time on the calendar, and tell your husband or your wife listen, I need my God time for the week. Give me an hour, why not? So find a way to meditate, find a time to meditate on the scripture, bring your concerns to God in prayer and remember that he promised to be your solid rock in shifting sand. Life may be unpredictable, but faithfulness of our heavenly father is always unwavering. So I hope today, if you needed this, or maybe you know somebody that needs this, share this video with them. Let them know that they don't have to live with anxious thoughts, they don't have to live with fear in their hearts, they don't have to wonder what's coming and worry about what's going to happen tomorrow, that we have a savior, we have a good, gracious God that cares so much that he promised us that he will always be with us.