#109: The Antidote for Anxiety

On episode 109, Tim discusses anxiety and focuses on verses 6, 7 on Philippians chapter 4.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into episode one hundred and nine of Bring Heaven Down.
My name is Tim and I'm the host of this
daily devotional podcast. We are in Philippians chapter four, and
we are going to be focusing in on Versus six
and seven today, which is a monster of a subject

(00:27):
in twenty twenty five. So let me just read the
verses if you want to follow along. We're in Philippians
chapter four and we're reading verses six and seven. It says,
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by

(00:48):
prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understand, will
guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Anxiety

(01:09):
is higher than it has ever been. Depression, mental illness,
all of these things are much more prevalent right now
in society than they have ever been before. And why

(01:30):
is that? More than ever people post on social media
about just how happy they are, So there is direct
conflict between the truth of our mental health state and

(01:52):
the way that people perceive themselves to be on social media.
And it's talking about anxiety. Do not be anxious about anything.
And when I read do not be anxious about anything.
My first thought is, well, that's easy for you to

(02:16):
say you don't have the issues or worries that I
currently have in my life. It says, do not be
anxious about anything. What how is that supposed to solve

(02:36):
my problem? But in the very next sentence there is
the anecdote to anxiety. But in everything, by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. What is so

(03:02):
fascinating about anxiety is that the anecdote to anxiety is gratitude.
They have done studies on the brain and the area

(03:26):
that fights anxiety in the brain. How to do that,
they have said is gratitude is thankfulness. And what's so
interesting about that is this was written a few thousand
years ago, and now doctors have just discovered that thankfulness

(03:54):
and gratitude actually push anxiety away. And that's what this
verse says, with thanksgiving, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
And sometimes when I get anxious, and I'm not an

(04:17):
overly anxious person, but sometimes when I personally get anxious,
what I tend to do is try to push through
it by myself, is try to rely on my own
strength or idea to find a way to the other side.

(04:39):
Scripture says to do it by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
presenting your requests to God. Have you ever just taken
a breath, stopped, looked around and was grateful? Have ever

(05:03):
done that? Because for one anxious thought, there has to
be at least one hundred grateful ones that we can have,
at least at the bare minimum. I mean, I look

(05:25):
around this room. I got a computer, I've got my phone,
I've got my microphone. I'm in the basement of our
house recording a podcast. I work from home for iHeartRadio.
I'm gonna take care of our kids today Monday, Wednesday,
Friday while my wife is at work so that we

(05:45):
don't have to send them to daycare. My amazing wife,
my two kids, three on the way, the area where
we live. I mean, there is so many things to
be grateful for. But why is it that when I
get anxious, I can only think of that one thing

(06:10):
and another area that I've found that anxiousness really isn't
there is when you're in a moment where you have
a heart for serving. When I've gone on missing trips
with our youth group, people that have had anxiety have

(06:36):
been on some of these trips, and they didn't show
any signs of it at all during the Missing Strip.
And I asked them and they said, yeah, I didn't
really have it. And why do you think that is?
We can feel so hamstrung by anxiety that the only

(06:57):
way to get free from anxiety is to have a
heart for serving others. It gets your mind off of
yourself and onto others. And then this verse finishes and says,

(07:19):
and the Peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will
guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So
a peace, a peace of God, will transcend understanding and

(07:39):
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
And in order to have this peace, we must be
in prayer and petition with thanksgiving through everything. And one
of my favorite phrases is peace isn't the absence of problems.

(08:06):
Peace is the presence of Jesus. How true is that?
Thank you for choosing Jesus today. And I hope the
Holy Spirit reveal more and more about our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ