Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Have you ever gotten stuck in negative thought patterns that lead you to feeling anxious and worried? Do you feel like this all the time? Anxiety can be all consuming and sometimes it's downright debilitating. That's why we want to face it head on. God has a lot to say about our emotional health. So today we're talking about what the Bible says about anxiety and how you can begin your journey to victory.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: If you're tired of leading others while secretly battling doubt, discouragement and mental warfare.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: When you want practical tools to renew your mind and walk boldly in your.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Calling as a leader, you're in the right place. Welcome to Believe and Become.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: We're Josh and Karina, your spirit filled coaches, here to help you overcome those limiting beliefs and lead others confidently.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: If you're ready to hear God's voice more clearly, to step into your purpose and find joy and strength in the.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Everyday silence those Bible app reminders judging you from your lock screen and let's jump in.
Hey friend, here's a quick invitation before we dive in. If you're a spirit filled Christian in leadership, whether you're a pastor, business owner or a stay at home mom and you're feeling stretched thin, stuck and overthinking or unsure how to break through, what's holding you back? You are not alone. We would love to invite you to our brand new Facebook group, Overcome Limiting Beliefs for Christians in Leadership. It's a space for faith filled leaders like you to be refreshed and encouraged and equipped to renew your mind and lead from God's presence, not pressure. Inside you'll find community, practical guidance and uplifting conversations that help you step into greater clarity, peace and purpose. Come join us. Follow the link in the show notes. We'll meet you there.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: Well, welcome to the podcast today. I'm excited for today's episode because I know that God is going to bring freedom. If you've struggled with anxiety at all, or even if you just worry sometimes God has freedom for you, has something so much better for you. And so today we're sharing biblical encouragement for anxious minds. I'm going to share a little bit about my story, my journey with anxiety and then we're going to go through and just give you some of God's promises for you and some of the things that have really helped me in my journey of overcoming anxiety. So let me share a little bit about my story. For years I was really worried about a lot of things and just really it came to the point kind of around Covid and then post Covid it got really pretty difficult where I couldn't sleep because I was worried about I was going to have health problems. Anything in the news was making me worried. I was worried that just terrible things were going to happen to us. Even driving down the freeway, I would just get really anxious that we were all going to die in a fiery car crash. And I would have to do everything I could. I'd have to breathe, I'd have to pray, recite scriptures just to calm myself down. It was really. It was rough to live in that constant heightened state of feeling like bad things were going to happen. And it really came down to I was not trusting God. You know, I was trusting in myself and what I could do and not trusting all that to the Lord because he promises he's going to take care of us. And so we attended a conference. And during the conference in worship, I felt something physically fall off of my body. And I knew that that was the anxiety and the stress, all of the fear falling off of me, and immediately felt lighter. We had someone pray for me at the end of the conference. And it was like I was a different person. I could eat things that I couldn't eat before. That used to give me terrible digestive issues. I just felt so free and so light and just God had delivered me from anxiety, which was amazing. And I thank God for that moment. But I realized over the next several months, it took effort, it took work to actually walk out that freedom.
Yes, God had delivered me, but if I continued to think the way I used to, I would. I was falling back into anxiety, and I recognized that. And so we're gonna share some of the things that I learned with you today. Also, I tell more about my story, and there's lots of resources in my book that I wrote my devotional. It's called 40 Days to Peace. Daily Devotions for Demolishing Fear, Anxiety, and Discouragement. If you've struggled with anxiety, please check out that resource. I know it's gonna help you walk out your journey to freedom. And we'll put the link in the show notes if you wan grab that. It's available on Amazon.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: I think that it's important to recognize that any mental battle we face can be seen through the lens of Scripture. Corinthians 10:3 5 says, for though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. So the weapons that we have, the spiritual weapons that we have, have the power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments. And every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. In Corinthians 10, 3, 5 especially helps us to recognize that anything in any. Any thought that we have that sets itself up against the knowledge of Christ is a stronghold that is something that the enemy has planted and has been allowed to build upon, and he defends it. And so when you live in constant fear or constant worry, you're actually reinforcing that stronghold. And so we know that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. That means you're not gonna be able to exercise your way out of it or, you know, just punch somebody in the face and feel better and it's gonna go away, right? You really need to take up the spiritual weapons, the weapons that the Lord has given us in the Word and recognize that scripture is our greatest weapon. And so as we tear down those strongholds of thought, then we make these thoughts obedient to Christ. What does the word of God say? What does Jesus say? Situation? And we can see this clear strategy that we take our spiritual weapons, we tear down the strongholds, we submit them to the mind of Christ. So we have to know, what does God think? What does Jesus say? And then we begin to build new strongholds with the truth.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: One of the main takeaways from that scripture for me has been we have to pay attention to what we're thinking and we can actually control our thoughts. We can tell our brain what to think, and we can reprogram the way that we think.
And that's been one of the most helpful things, is just, okay, pay attention to my thoughts. Those are actually not thoughts from God. I don't have to think that I can choose to think a different way. And then that actually flows out into every part of your life, every part of your body. You know, your. Your brain is very powerful. It affects everything about you. And so as you train your brain to think in the way that God thinks, you're going to see that flow out in all of your life.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: And I think it's. It's really valuable to make sure that you're speaking out loud. The promises and the truth of God's word, that you are reminding the enemy that he has no place. Really, what you're doing is you're rewiring your own brain as you speak the truth of God's word over you. You are creating new neural pathways. You are re planting good Seeds and you are watering them so that they grow into healthy neural pathways just to give you some thing to fight with. We wanted to share some Bible verses about anxiety. Matthew 6:25-34 is one of my favorite passages. It is part of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus talks about, do not worry. This is basically this whole passage, don't worry. Don't worry about what you're going to eat or what you're going to drink or what you're going to wear. Don't worry about any of these things that he says are not that important. He says, the pagans run after these things. You don't have to do this. You don't have to worry about these things. We look at these as necessities, right? What you're going to eat and drink and wear. I'm like, God, those are the main things in my life that I feel like I should probably worry about sometimes. And he says, my Father in heaven knows what you need before you even ask. He knows it and he has it for you. So seek first the kingdom of God. This really gives us a clear picture that when we are abiding in him, when we are seeking after him, he takes care of the rest. I love when he says, can any of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life?
Can you add a single cubit to your height? Like, he's like, can you make yourself taller by worrying about it? Can you live any longer? No, you absolutely can't. You can't do the things that you are so worried about. So why not give them into his care and trust him to take care of the things that you need?
[00:08:32] Speaker B: Yeah, worried. It's totally illogical. And I love that Jesus brings light to that and he releases freedom. I love what Paul wrote in Philippians 4, 6 and 7, which says, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, present your request to God, and the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. The peace of God. So it's a divine heavenly exchange. We give him our worries, our anxieties, and he releases his shalom of heaven, the perfect peace of God over every situation in our lives. We can always rely on him to show up. And sometimes it's. That's the battle. The battle is to recognize, I'm worrying. I'm anxious about this. I'm going to give it to God and I'm going to receive his peace. And you can even you can imagine, okay, this is the situation I'm worried about. I'm Going to box that up and give it to Jesus. And you can even do that, you know, imagining it. And we're handing it to Jesus, then we're allowing him to take care of it, do whatever he wants to do with it. Just ask him, jesus, what are you doing with my worries? What are you doing with this situation? And just see how he shows up and then receive, sit and receive his peace in his presence. It's so helpful.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: I think it's important to note that these feel like commands, right? Do not worry, be anxious for nothing. It's like Jesus is just being like, okay, they're there. Stop worrying. But that's really not what it is. He's giving us strategy. In the Matthew passage, He's showing us, trust me, seek first my kingdom. I'm going to take care of you. So when we look at this passage, we're not looking at what he's telling us to do or not to do based on this idea that I just can't stop worrying, right? I can't just stop being anxious about it or stop thinking about it. No, that's not what he's saying. He's saying, redirect your attention to what I am providing for you and really focus on who he is. Right? And he says, I take care of all of creation. Why wouldn't I take care of you? And so really recognizing his care. And even in the Philippians passage, He's not just saying, okay, stop being anxious and move on with it. No, bring it to me, pray, thank me for what I'm doing in the situation. He gives us a strategy that we can come to him in prayer, with thanksgiving and rejoicing, and then he provides the peace. So we. We hang on to the promise of peace, the promise of provision in these passages. And I love first Peter 5, 7, cast all your anxiety on him, for he cares for you. And once again, we have this command of giving him the anxiety. Just like Josh said, we're gonna take it, we're gonna put it in a box, we're gonna hand it over. But it's because he cares for us. And so we have that promise of his care, his unfailing love that comes to our rescue.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: One of the things that has helped me the most in my struggle against anxiety overcoming it is biblical meditation. We have to be prepared with our weapons, those weapons of our warfare that are spiritual weapons. And one of the most powerful weapons that God has given us is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word. So we have to have some verses prepared for when Those anxious thoughts come. Or when you wake up in the middle of the night and you can't get back to sleep because your mind is racing about all the things that could go wrong or that you're worried about are going to go wrong. And so be prepared. One of the ones that has helped me the Most is Isaiah 26:3, which says, you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. That's such a powerful verse, and I like to change it into. As I'm saying it, I thank God that he's doing this. Thank you, God, that you keep me in perfect peace because my mind is stayed on you, because I trust in you. And I feel like God really gets to the root of. Of anxiety, of fear. In this verse, it's trust.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: Anxiety is I've placed my trust in the wrong thing. And I place my trust in something that does not stand. It's not a firm foundation. I put myself my trust in myself. I put my trust in money, in whatever it is, you name it. You can, you know, ask the Lord, what am I trusting instead of you? It's just misplaced trust. And when our trust is in the Lord, who doesn't change, he never fails. He's completely 100% faithful. Then your thoughts, your mind is focused on the right place, and that's when the perfect peace comes.
[00:12:48] Speaker A: Yeah. That's so beautiful. First John 4:18. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear is one of my favorite scriptures. As a child and really through my early 20s, I struggled with fear so much. It was. It was kind of like my constant companion, but not in a good way. This is a verse that I repeated over and over and over that I would remind myself that his perfect love casts out fear. And I used to actually read this verse, like, well, I needed to have perfect love in order for fear to leave, right? I would be like, well, that's probably why I'm afraid, because I don't love God perfectly. I just read it as condemnation, which is crazy, because what it's really saying is that his love for me is perfect, and his love for me provides a way out of fear. And so when I rest in his perfect love, there is no fear in that place. And I can rest in his presence, in his peace. And I have everything I need, and so I don't have to be afraid.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: One of my favorite verses of all time is 2 Timothy 1:7, which dovetails perfectly into what Karina was talking about. It's for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. This is one that I would just repeat over and over and over. Thank you, God. You haven't given me a spirit of fear, but you've given me power, love and a sound mind.
And I think that perfect love verse in First John is just talking about, we need a revelation of how deeply the Father loves us. Because once we understand that, we know he's not going to let us down. Yeah, because you just, you just think about the best earthly father that you know. God is a million bajillion times better than that. Like, he loves us so, so deeply. Even if you're struggling with anxiety right now, I just release over you a revelation of the deep, deep love of the Father for you. And that changes everything. Once you've encountered his love, it changes everything.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
Psalm 27:1 says, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? These verses are so crucial, they are so crucial in helping us fight this battle that as you go along, when anxiety strikes, when fear strikes. Because anxiety is really built on fear, right? It's the fear of something happening that we just go over and over and over until it's this big huge thing that overwhelms us. And so when we start to feel those feelings, we can stop and say, God, thank you that you keep me in perfect peace. Thank you God, that I am surrounded by your love. And there is no fear in love. Lord, you are my light and my salvation. I'm not going to be afraid of anyone or anything. And so you can take these verses, repeat them over and over to yourself until you feel that anxiety lift and the peace come. And then throughout your day, when you start to feel it coming on again, you just go back to your scriptures and then begin to pray them as though it was straight from your heart if you were the one writing them. Because that's how we fight. We begin to declare the truth over and over and we see the strongholds break.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: Get those verses, write them on note cards, stick them on sticky notes around your house, memorize them, read them over and over, be prepared, have them on your phone so that you just put em in your notes and say, okay, I'm feeling anxious. Even if you're at work, pull out your phone, start declaring those promises from God. And just like Karina said, it'll break. But you have to fight. You have to partner with the word of God. And fight those anxious thoughts. Another tool that has been so helpful for me is the practice of breathing. And I did a quick search through the Scripture.
The breath of God is so powerful. That's how God brings Adam to life in Genesis 2, by breathing into his nostrils. Ezekiel 37. God raises an army of dry bones by breathing on them. And in John 20, Jesus breathes on his disciples and fills them with the Holy Spirit breath. There's something like God doesn't spell it out for us exactly in the Bible, but it is so powerful. And I think it's a tool. Now, we know from science that it's a tool that God gave us that actually can hack our nervous system. So when you're anxious, your fight or flight system is going crazy. And one of the ways that you can overcome that is just by breathing, especially nose breathing. It activates that vagus nerve that goes all throughout our body, and it activates the parasympathetic rest and digest part of our nervous system. And so although we feel like, oh, my nervous system's just going crazy, actually, God said, here's a tool. If you just breathe, you can calm that down. Yeah, it's incredible. So just taking a few minutes to breathe slowly in and out through your nose, it is just. It's kind of incredible, the tool that God has given us.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: And doing this regularly, setting aside at time. And I like to start my morning with some breathing, either while my coffee is brewing, or maybe I'm waiting for my tea to steep. I'll just sit down and take some deep breaths in and deep breaths out. Like just allowing my body to come to a space of calm. Because I think sometimes we wake up and our body, brain is racing, right? Our mind is racing. We're thinking about all the things we have to do today. What's the next thing that I have to accomplish or that big thing that's coming up. And so it's. It's so good to start your day from a place of peace and calm. And so I'll just take a minute, I'll set a timer on my phone, or if you have a, like on your Apple watch, there's a little breathing app where it'll buzz you to breathe in and then buzz you to breathe out. And you can set it for two or three minutes, however long you want. But I'll just do that. I'll sit in a quiet place and take some deep breaths with the Holy Spirit, because it helps me to start my day from a good place. And the more regularly that you practice Breathing, the more effectively you can train your nervous system to respond calmly in stressful situations. So you're practicing for when something big happens. Your body's gonna know how to respond because you've trained it to take those deep breaths, to respond in a calm way instead of totally freaking out.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: Yeah, that's so helpful. And aim to do it three times a day. Morning, noon, night. You know, when you get up, before you get out of bed or while you're brushing your teeth, that's a great time to do it. Take a break in the middle of the day just to be calm and to breathe. And in the evening before you go to bed, those are great times to do it. Or anytime that you feel anxious or stressed during the day, that's a tool you can break out and slow. Slow down and breathe and use that tool that God has given us. It has really helped me so much. That was one of my main breakthroughs that I got, was really from just taking the time to breathe. And it. It. It has that physiological effect. Calms your body, it calms your nervous system.
And really, you want to also not be thinking about things while you're breathing. So one of the techniques that I use is called pyramid breathing. So we're just gonna breathe in through our nose for our count of five and out for five. And then you're going to count up. You're going to do that, you know, in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, out, 2, 3, 4, five. Do that five times up to five, and then count backwards as you do the repetitions of that. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. It makes you think a little bit harder about the breathing part because you can breathe and also think about what's stressing you out. And that doesn't help. So that's kind of a trick. And it's simple. If you want to Google more complicated breathing techniques, there's lots out there. But this is just something really simple that I did that really helped me out a lot.
[00:20:13] Speaker A: I think what it does is it draws your attention to your breath. So it's making you be present with what you're doing, which is often our problem in our busy culture. We are doing one thing and thinking about something else or the next thing or the last thing that we screwed up. Right? And so we're never really fully present unless we intentionally become present.
And I. It's. It's as I even see it in, like, we'll be watching TV in the evening and I. Every time there's like. Cause we don't pay for all the premium apps. So we'll. There'll be commercials, and as soon as there's a commercial, I'm picking up my phone to distract myself or to think about whatever, you know, and so I'm working on. No, I'm just going to be present in the moment. We're going to. We always mute the commercials. And we just sit there and it's like, well, my family's here. I can actually talk to them. I don't have to, like, grab my phone to distract myself because there's people in front of me. Right. Or even just sitting and appreciating. I get to be in this room with everybody that I love, and we get to be together and, you know, enjoy a show together or whatever it might be. So just having some gratitude, drawing yourself to the present moment. I think something as simple as that can oftentimes alleviate a lot of anxiety.
[00:21:23] Speaker B: Yeah. And I like to think about while I'm breathing, I can breathe in the presence of God. He's all around us. He's always with us. And just like in those. Those three passages I briefly shared at the beginning of this section, we can breathe in his presence. If you're just focused on the Lord and Him being with you as you're breathing, that is so powerful. You're like, very presence of God. I'm breathing it into my body. And one of our pastors taught us Yahweh breathings. The Hebrews did wouldn't say that word Yahweh because it was just too sacred to say the name of God. And it actually doesn't have the vowels recorded in the scripture, which just wild. But they think that that that word or that name for God is actually the breath of God. Because you can breathe in Yah, like, and then out way.
[00:22:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:15] Speaker B: And so you can actually do that.
You kind of do that under your breath. But imagine as you're. You're breathing in on Yah and out on Wei, you're breathing in his presence. Presence because God is our very breath. He is the breath of our life. It comes from the Lord. It's not just oxygen. We need his presence for every breath.
[00:22:39] Speaker A: So good. I love that.
[00:22:40] Speaker B: Which brings us to our last point, which is getting help. There's no shame if you need help overcoming anxiety, fear, if you have any mental health issues. I know that there's been, traditionally in the church, a stigma around God should be enough. But God gave us other people to help us in our journey. Other people that are experts and have gone through it before us. And I Know, in my journey, that was incredibly helpful. Once I found somebody that I could talk to and just gave me some of these simple tools like the breathing and paying attention to my thoughts. It actually really didn't take that long. Maybe a few months once I found help to really see a lot of breakthrough in this. And I just encourage you. You get help. So James 5:16 says, or confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. A prayer of a righteous person when it's brought about can accomplish much. There is healing when we confess to one another what we're going through and pray for one another. I know that this verse says the word sins, but sin is just anytime we miss the mark, when we're not living up to what God has for us, to his promises. So it doesn't mean you've done something wrong. It just means I'm actually just struggling with the way I'm thinking or I'm incredibly worried about this. And sometimes I know that when I bring up, I'm really stressed about this or I'm really worried. You talk about it with another person and it seems stupid. You're like, wow, I was really just twisted up in my thoughts, believing lies. And once you confess that to another person, they help you go, really? That's what you're worried about? It just, it loses its power. And you can kind of. You laugh, we laugh about it. It's like, that was silly. Why was I so worried about that? So you can choose to stay stuck for years if you want, or you can just go talk to somebody and get breakthrough. Sometimes it's really quick. Yeah, Sometimes it takes. It depends. If it's been a pattern of thinking for a really long time, it might take a while to break that. And it continues to be something that you have to be aware of and work on. Yeah, but there's so much healing that comes from talking to another believer, a counselor, therapist, somebody that's trained, or just somebody that's already been through this before.
[00:24:51] Speaker A: Scientists believe that when we give words to what we're feeling, it actually helps to release those feelings. And so when you do something like speaking to someone that you trust, that you know you can confide in, and you, you speak out those words, you're actually releasing the problem. You're releasing the, the tension of carrying all of the weight of what you are worried about. That's why things like talking to a therapist or talking to your best friend or your, your mom, talking to a close, trusted person, your pastor, or even Journaling, you're, you're giving words to what is going on in your head. It's almost like in your head there's a substance that you can't quite put your finger on, but when it comes out of your mouth, you're, you're substantiating it. When you write it on a paper, you're, you're giving weight to what you were carrying, but you're also releasing the burden of it. So often, just like you were saying, just in saying the words out loud, you get relief from what you've been struggling with. Psychology Today says studies have shown that simply talking about our problems and sharing our negative emotions with someone we trust can be profoundly healing. Reducing stress, strengthening our immune system, and reducing physical and emotional distress. So sometimes just talking about the problem instead of trying to figure it out and fix it on your own, in your own mind, with your own stress and anxiety and all the things that are swirling around in there with it, sometimes just speaking it out and talking it through with somebody can bring the relief that you're looking for.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: And that's why we're so passionate about helping people overcome fear, anxiety, any lies that are holding you back. We have our coaching program. Joshandkarina.com coaching J-O-S-H-A-N-C-O-R-I-N a.com coaching we're available. We love to work with people and help them get the breakthrough that they need. As we sit down together in a session, we're going to invite God's presence, we're going to partner with him to uncover lies that we're believing, patterns of negative thinking, and then we're going to ask him to reveal the truth. And then through that process, he is so faithful. Even if you feel like you have trouble hearing God, he always shows up in these sessions that we do so powerfully to deliver us from wrong thinking, from lies that the enemy has planted and we've partnered with for way too long. And the freedom that comes from that is so incredible. That's why we're so passionate. That's why we do this podcast, that's why we have our books and our coaching, all this. We want you to get the freedom that God so desperately wants for you and that Jesus paid the price for.
[00:27:28] Speaker A: It's so important for our well being and for our fulfilling our purpose in life that we align our beliefs with the truth of God's word and what he says about us, that we rest in the identity of who he's made us to be, but really that we just get ourselves thinking like Jesus. We get ourselves moving in the right direction. Because if I can see myself the way he sees me, I'm gonna get a lot farther than if I'm just looking in the mirror, because I don't always like what I see.
So renewing our mind with his truth is gonna take us farther. It's gonna get us unstuck. It's gonna help you when you feel like, I know the truth, but I don't know why it's not working. We're gonna help you sort all of that out and learn how to actually apply the truth of God's word to your life, to renew your mind for lasting freedom and breakthrough.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: So we hope that this has been helpful. I just feel the Lord right now releasing his grace upon you. That's his supernatural power to change in order to find freedom, to live upon his promises, to break off negative thinking, to break off those anxious thoughts, the fear, the misplaced trust. God is doing that in you right now. He's releasing his truth over you and an incredible ability to move forward, propelled by the strength of the Holy Spirit. You don't have to do it on your own. You just partner with what God is already doing and what he's already done. Through the blood of Jesus, the truth has set you free. And as you partner with that, God is moving powerfully in your life. So we just bless you with that. Have an amazing week, and we'll talk to you on the next episode.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: Bye.
Hey, friend. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you take 30 seconds to share this podcast with someone who may need encouragement or practice practical tools for fighting their battle?
[00:29:17] Speaker B: Then rate and review this podcast. Help us Spread the message of transformation far and wide.
[00:29:22] Speaker A: All right, time to walk back into the noise with peace, purpose and maybe a tiny bit of caffeine.
[00:29:27] Speaker B: We'll meet you back next Thursday for another episode. Bye.
