November 5, 2025 • 31 mins
Questions of the Day:
- How has Jesus shown His love to you this week?
- What are you wrestling with that you need to cast on Him and trust Him with the outcome?
Anxiety can cripple me at any given moment with fear about the future. Concern about relationships. Feeling responsible for other people's reactions rather than walking in the peace of the Lord. These are just a few of the examples where anxiety takes over.
But I've realized many times that my anxiety stems from my pride and my need for control. However, I'm learning that Jesus wants me to not only cast my anxiety on Him, but trust His character - which has already been revealed in Scripture! I pray this episode encourages you and deepens your walk with Jesus.
Scriptures mentioned:
- 1 Peter 5:6-7
- Matthew 6:25-34
- Lamentations 3:21-23
- Colossians 2:6-7
You can find me on Instagram / Threads
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Questions? Comments? Email me at: carrie@ps8116.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:07):
Hey everyone! Welcome to episode six of Honey
from the Rock.
I am glad you're here, and I amactually recording this the
night before I am set to usuallyrelease episodes.
I try to record them a littlebit earlier.
The reason I'm saying that isbecause I'm actually going to
reference an Instagram post thatI made earlier today and wanted
(00:31):
to share a little bit about whatJesus has been teaching me and
what he's been showing me aboutanxiety.
So um, and I usually don'trecord this late, but we've had
family in town and we'llcontinue to have family in town
this week, which will be great.
And then also I've been helpingmy mom paint and do some home
improvement projects.
So it's been a little bit crazybusy, but crazy busy in a good
(00:56):
way.
So except for I'm sore frompainting, and I actually really
hate painting, but I also liketo see the results of painting,
so it's kind of a catch, a catch22.
But anybody else out there hatepainting?
I would love to know.
I hating painting unite, like Iwatch all these DIYers on
Instagram, and everything theydo is just so beautiful, and I
(01:17):
know it's taken them years tolearn how to do their craft, and
they've you know messed a lot ofthings up, but now they're at
this point where they're thesebeautiful influencers and they
share all these things, and Iwatch them do it, and I, you
know, in my mind, like it's likewatching the Olympics.
Like, oh, I could do that, Icould do that, and then I go to
actually do it, and I'm like,no, no, I cannot, I cannot
(01:38):
actually do that.
So, but the paint looks good.
I mean, not to scare anybodyinto thinking that I've done a
horrible job helping helping mymom, um, but you'll have to ask
her.
Anyway, um, what I want to talkabout today very briefly is, and
I mentioned it, I can't rememberif I mentioned it last week or
(01:59):
if I mentioned it in the episodebefore, but um, I wanted to talk
a little bit about anxiety andanxiety from the place of what
does scripture really say aboutanxiety?
Um, and not using scripture orJesus as a band-aid to say,
well, we all just better suck itup and stop worrying.
(02:21):
But what does it really looklike to have the Holy Spirit
minister to us in the midst ofanxiety, which is actually what
happened to me yesterday.
And then the Lord had to remindme about it this morning because
as I mentioned, I posted onInstagram uh today, and I
literally posted a graphic thatsaid, I cannot handle one more
(02:45):
thing.
And those were the words thatliterally came out of my mouth
last night when my cat, Stella,decided that she was going to
climb down into my mother's airvent and not come out for a
solid 45 minutes, sending meinto a bit of a panic spiral.
(03:05):
I'm not kidding.
Like it just that, you know, Ilove my cat.
My cat is beautiful, she isadorable, she loves to cuddle
with me.
And in fact, as I record thisepisode, she's no longer in the
air vent and the cold airreturned.
No, she is comfortably stretchedout next to me, laying there
like she doesn't pay any rentand has no care in this life,
(03:27):
which she doesn't, she reallydoesn't.
So, but last night it was justone more thing on top of what
has this this year has just beenthe worst.
And I'm going to be reallyhonest, that's not actually
hyperbole or exaggeration.
It it has been the worst, it hasbeen so difficult.
(03:49):
There has been so much grief.
I have lost two family membersthis year.
My dad passed away in April, andmy sister, my middle sister,
passed away six weeks after him.
And then in the midst of that,other things have happened, and
there's just been a lot oftransition, and there's been a
lot of things up in the air, andand just a lot of grief and a
(04:10):
lot of loss.
And yeah, I decided to start apodcast in the middle of all of
it, which probably sounds weirdto some people, but I again,
like I said on episode one, itis something that I know that
Jesus has absolutely led me todo.
But as I sit here tonight and Ilook at I look at this little
(04:30):
furry life that God createdlaying next to me, so cute.
And I think that 24 hours ago, Iwas ready to just absolutely
lose my mind.
I I laugh a little bit.
I was not laughing last night.
You can ask my mother.
I will be really honest withyou.
I said some cuss words.
(04:51):
I mean, it was not my bestmoment.
I was super frustrated, but itwas the cap on a day and really
a season of just of just, like Isaid, loss, but just also just
feels like things perpetuallygoing wrong and weird things
happening.
Like, and you might ask, why didmy cat climb into the cold air
(05:13):
return?
How did she get in there?
Well, we had pulled the grateoff to paint it and had it
propped up, covering the hole,but what did she do?
She's a cat.
She's not made of bones.
She's no, she's made of she'smade of like liquid, liquid
slime or something.
You know how cats are.
They're just able to like crush,they go boneless and they just
(05:35):
worm themselves into weirdspaces, which is exactly what
she did.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, that sheis food motivated and a solid
tapping for five minutes on acan of wet food got her scrawny
little butt out of there.
But I really I was like, Icannot take one more thing.
And and so earlier in the day, Ihad been sitting with the Lord
(05:56):
and I had been talking with mymom just about how I was
processing this season thatwe've that we've walked through
her and my brother and I, andand just on and off, I all of
the sudden it just waves, wavesof grief will hit me.
And but they will hit me inweird ways.
And one of the ways that griefhas really actually manifested
(06:19):
in me is anxiety.
I start to feel just just thepounding in my chest and the
tightening, and I get so anxiousand worried about different
things, and and it's like Ican't think about a lot of
things.
The brain fog in grief is real,um, but then my brain tends to
like hyperfixate on certainthings and and and just really
(06:41):
ruminate on them, and I and thenI just start to get worried, and
then I start to panic because Ifeel worried, and the Lord said,
doesn't worry, you know.
I mean it just becomes thiscycle in my brain.
But where I was with the Lordyesterday was in 1 Peter 5, and
I think I brought this thisverse up last week or the week
(07:03):
before, so forgive me forrepeating, but I just in praying
about what to do today, and thisis something significant that
the Lord did for me in just thelast 24 hours, and I and I just
really wanted to share to shareit with you, knowing that our
experiences won't be the same.
But the God who loves us and whohas died for us and who calls us
(07:25):
his own, uh, the the Lord whowants us to know him and and
absolutely shows us himself in avariety of different ways,
including through helping usdeal with grief and anxiety and
loss heat, he will minister tous how he chooses to.
But I wanted to encourage youtoday because I know that there
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are so many things in this worldthat are causing anxiety,
causing worry, people notknowing uh where the next meal
is going to come from, peopleexperiencing homelessness,
people not being able to findjobs for months on end, and and
just the worries mount up andthe anxieties mount up, and they
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are real, and the Lord knowsthat they're real.
And like I said a few minutesago, I don't want to be like,
oh, let's stick a bandaid on it.
Jesus says not to worry, sowe're going to be fine.
But what I experienced yesterdayin them in the midst of
expressing some real frustrationto my mom about where I find
myself is I know the Holy Spiritled me to 1 Peter 5, where Peter
(08:36):
talks about humbling ourselvesunder the mighty hand of God so
that he may exalt us in in theproper time.
And then he says in verse 7,having cast all your anxiety on
him because he cares about you.
And I did some research on thatverse.
You know, I've I've talked toyou a lot of times about Bible
Hub.
Again, not an advertisement,just the website I love the
(08:57):
most, um, about you know,digging into word studies and
what does it mean and what doesit say?
And what I love is that there issuch intentionality in the
scriptures, there'sintentionality in the words that
are used to describe things tous, and that when we really dig
(09:23):
into the word, I find it veryhelpful to really dig into what
I'm reading so that I canunderstand it better.
And when Peter uses the wordcare, that the Lord cares about
us, what that word means is tocare about or to be concerned
with, especially payingattention and giving thought to,
(09:46):
taking an intense interest in,which is amazing.
And obviously, we see that theLord has taken an intense
interest in us.
Obviously, he loves us, he hasdied for us, and and again, the
topical lexicon says that thisword in in the Greek for cares
(10:09):
traces a line from human doubtsabout Christ's concern to the
climactic assurance that Godtruly cares.
Its occurrences challengeapathy, expose hypocrisy, and
console the faithful, weaving arich tapestry of pastoral and
theological encouragementthroughout the New Testament
canon.
(10:30):
And I just I loved theintentionality.
Jesus truly cares about us, hetruly loves us.
And what hit me yesterday as Iwas as I was studying this verse
and asking the Lord to help meis that there's two actions that
(10:50):
that Peter calls us to in thesetwo verses.
The first is to humble ourselvesbefore the Lord.
And often I find that when Ihave gotten caught up in
anxiety, when I have let my mindget into distress, when there's
things that peck at me and gnawat me and just cycle in my
(11:12):
brain, that it's it usuallyhappens because I've put myself
in a position where I think Ineed to solve what's going to
happen, or I think I need tohave the answer about a problem.
I need to be the solutionfinder, or sometimes honestly
(11:34):
getting stuck in a rut where Ifeel responsible for other
people's reactions and for otherpeople's issues, which is not
true.
And that's probably a wholeother podcast episode.
But I was noticing as I was, asI was just working through some
things yesterday, that I reallyhad, I had put myself in a place
(11:55):
where I was so stressed aboutabout a few things because I
really felt like it was on me tofigure it out.
And and not only did I need tofigure it out, but I had to
figure out the solution to thisin such a way that also, you
know, basically made me thinkthat I had to decide how other
(12:18):
people were going to react, youknow, cause and effect, every
action has its equal oppositereaction, like it's it's all of
those kinds of things.
And as I was just sitting beforethe Lord and crying out to him,
I had to confess to him thatthat's just pride.
I don't know what's going tohappen.
I can't control outcomes.
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But the the only person I cancontrol is myself.
And the only thing I can do isbe obedient to the Lord and
submit myself to him.
And so when I realized that, I Iconfessed it to the Lord and and
it was and really owned it,really said, you know what,
Lord, I I do this consistently.
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I live in a place where I feellike I have to manage things.
And in my managing of things,because I'm so anxious about
them, you know, I I I begin toput all of the responsibility on
me to fix everything or to havethe right answer for anything,
or um, I need I need to figurethis out so that I don't fail
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and fall on my face in front ofpeople.
I mean, it comes in a milliondifferent ways, right?
And it comes in a milliondifferent ways for all of us.
And yet when I take it to theLord and I honestly say to him,
you know what, Lord, I am onlyresponsible for me and I'm gonna
humble myself before you.
Lord, take this pride from methat thinks that I have to
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figure everything out and that Ihave to know what's gonna
happen, and that I, you know,it's like what Jesus says in
Matthew 6, how can I change onecolor, one strand of my hair,
the color of my hair, right?
I mean, I can dye my hair, butit eventually grows back the
natural color that Jesus gave meoriginally, right?
What who by worrying can changethe color of their hair, right?
(14:07):
You know, again, and he tells usto look at the lilies of the
field, to look at the birds, youknow, he talks about the
sparrows in one place.
And we have really, I thinksometimes we read those things
and we think they're reallycutesy little sayings that just
make us feel better when they'rereally admonitions from Jesus.
(14:27):
Look at how the God of theuniverse holds this entire world
together.
If he hiccuped, it would allfall apart.
And yet he holds it alltogether.
The father, the father God ofScripture who who through his
son spoke everything intocreation and everything into
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being and made humans out ofdust and gave us the breath of
life by breathing his spiritinto our lungs.
Who are we to think that he willnot care for us?
And and again, I know how easyit is to say it when things are
going well, but I also know thetruth of it when everything is
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falling apart, when everythingis in shambles around me.
I have had to say, I know thatJesus will care for me, and he
has every single time.
And so I had to humble myselfbefore him and confess my own
pride, that a lot of the anxietyI was feeling yesterday was
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coming from my own pride.
And then, and he and then, youknow, Peter goes on to say that
the Lord will, he will raiseyou, right?
He will exalt you at the propertime.
And then he says, having castall your anxiety on him because
he cares about you.
And that's from the NASB.
And the word anxiety literallytalks about your mind being
(15:55):
pulled in two directions in thisparticular instance in in 1
Peter 5.
It is literally having your mindpulled pulled apart.
And I know many of us know thatthat's what anxiety can feel
like a lot of times.
And and again, meditating onthis scripture and having the
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Lord lead me through it as Istudied it, did it take all of
my anxiety away?
No, it didn't.
Did it lessen it significantly?
It actually did.
The Lord met me in the study ofthis verse, he showed himself to
me in a very beautiful, quietway.
He comforted me because I just Iwas actually driving to
(16:38):
McDonald's to get my mom and toget my mom and I diet coach.
And um, and I was crying.
I was crying out to the Lord andI was wrestling through these
things, and I just kept going tohim saying, Lord, I don't know
what to do about this, I don'tknow how to feel about this, I
am struggling with thisparticular issue in my life,
Lord.
I am wrestling.
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I don't know where you are inthis, Lord, and I need your
help.
I need you to show me yourself.
I need, I need your leading andyour wisdom, Lord.
I need you, Holy Spirit, to helpme.
And what I realized when I gotback and I was sitting down and
reading this verse out of 1Peter again was that is
literally casting my care uponhim.
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That is going to him and saying,I don't know what to do, Lord.
I need you to help me.
Now the key is to cast ouranxieties, our cares on him, and
and to entrust them to him andnot take them back.
And if we do take them back, tocast them on him again and keep
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fighting in that way to say,Lord, I believe you are who you
say you are, that you arewilling to, you have taken on
all of my sin.
You love me enough to help mewith my cares, Lord.
You say that our Father is goodand he will give us an egg.
He won't give us a serpent, hewants to give us good things.
The Father gives us the HolySpirit, He He has given us you,
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Lord Jesus.
He's given us your gospel, Lord.
Like it, I mean, all of thethings that the Lord, the good
things that the Lord has givenus.
And I find so often when I'mdealing with anxiety that that
that it wants to crowd out thegoodness of the Lord.
It it puts me in a place againwhere where I become my own
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provider rather than the Lordbeing my provider.
And and again, please hear mewhen I say this.
It's this is not always easy.
It isn't, because there arethings that are difficult and
devastating, things that theLord doesn't necessarily show us
right away, things about ourfuture, things about what he's
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going to do that are hidden fromus because he has chosen not to
reveal them at a particulartime.
And we have to trust him.
We have to make the decision totrust him.
And that is not a one-timedecision, that is an everyday
decision.
It is hand in hand with thecommand to pick up our cross and
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follow him.
To pick up our cross, what he'sappointed and follow him means
we trust him.
We trust him with our life.
We trust him with our future.
We trust him with doctors'appointments and unknown
diagnosis.
And we trust him with when welose friends or relationships
(19:37):
blow up in our face.
So we trust him when peoplewound us, or again, when we
wound other people, and whenwe're sharp with our tongue, and
we have to go back and we haveto own it and confess it and
repent and apologize.
And when we are just struggling,all of these things, the Lord is
big enough to handle, and hedesires for us to cast our
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anxieties on him because he doescare for us, he loves us.
And so I I wanted to read aquick quote from Spurgeon
because I posted the uh onequote from Spurgeon on my um on
my Instagram post, but I umthere's another quote that I
really, really loved bySpurgeon, and I thought it was
(20:22):
very, very thought-provoking.
So Spurgeon says, Thy burden orwhat thy God lays upon thee, lay
it thou upon the Lord.
His wisdom casts it on you.
It is thy wisdom to cast it onhim.
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He casts thy lot for thee.
Cast thy lot on him.
He gives thee thy portion ofsuffering, accept it with
cheerful resignation.
That seems like an oxymoron,doesn't it?
Cheerful resignation, and thentake it back to him by thine
assured confidence.
He shall sustain thee.
(21:06):
Thy bread shall be given thee,thy waters be sure.
Abundant nourishment shall fitthee to bear all thy labors and
trials, as thy days shall as thydays, so shall thy strength be.
He shall never suffer therighteous to be moved.
(21:26):
He may move like the boughs of atree in the tempest, but he,
Jesus, shall never be moved likea tree torn up by the roots.
He stands firm, who stands inGod.
Many would destroy the saints,but God has not suffered it and
never will.
Like pillars, the godly standimmovable to the glory of the
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great architect.
And I love that so that so muchbecause the picture that it
paints and the the King Jameslanguage is different, difficult
to read, so forgive mystumbling.
But just the thought that, youknow, the Lord, the Lord allows
suffering in our life.
We know scripture tells us thatin this life we are appointed to
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suffering and affliction.
These things happen.
Jesus uses it to shape ourcharacter, to shape our soul, to
produce fruit in us, to conformus to his image.
The whole purpose of all ofthese things that buffet us is
so that we would know the Lordmore deeply and that our root
systems, right?
If we're going to be plantedlike oaks of righteousness along
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the shore, along the river, thenthat system has to go deep.
And trees only grow deep rootsin the midst of storms.
I think that that's true.
If I'm remembering thatcorrectly, if there are any
arborists who listen to thepodcast, please let me know.
But but the storms and thetrials that are sent to us by
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the Lord are they are appointed.
There are certain things thatJesus does not do, but that he
uses.
But in the midst of it all, thepoint that I want I want to make
is that as Spurgeon says here,with whatever is appointed to us
to walk through, though the Lordmay have appointed it, maybe he
didn't, but we're still walkingthrough it, we can cast it back
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on him.
And he wants us to cast it backon him.
He wants us to be able to run tohim with every care, every fear,
every doubt, every worry, everytrial, all of it to cast it on
him so that we continue to holdsteadfast and sure in that Lord.
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And though there are times youhave been silent, and there have
been times I have many, manytimes I have not known what you
were doing.
And these difficult times haveshaped me and broken things in
me and exposed things in me.
Lord, through it all, you haveproven yourself faithful.
Your character never changes.
(24:14):
Your mercies are new everymorning.
Great is your faithfulness.
I will remember the works of myGod.
I will not forget how Jesuspulled me out of Egypt.
I will not forget the miraculousthings he has done in my life to
deliver me from the snare of thefowler, from the pestilence that
walks in noonday and the terrorthat sneaks around at night.
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I know that I abide under theshadow of the Almighty and Lord
Jesus, I will keep believing itand standing in you and on you,
and I will not be moved by everyfiery dart that comes at me to
try and extinguish my faith.
I won't do it.
I won't do it.
And there are days, my friends,where I am absolutely rotten at
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this.
I stink at it, and I get allbound up in all sorts of junk in
my mind and in my heart.
And there are other days where Iknow that the Holy Spirit is
rising me up and helping mestand firm.
And on the days when I'mterrible at doing it, I'm crying
out to the Lord, asking him tostrengthen me.
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And again, this is not to saylike there's just, you know, the
Lord's always moving on me, andthere's a miracle happens every
time.
No.
But the Lord's character issure, and he desires to comfort
us because he cares for us.
And that's what happened to meyesterday.
In that morning session where Iwas sitting with the Lord and
just quiet with him.
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I had cast things on him, I hadtalked with him about it, and I
was sitting and I was justreading this verse again and
again.
And my friends, I will tell youthe burden didn't lift.
The burden didn't lift, butcomfort came from the Lord.
And there was a definite, adefinite knowing that the Lord
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had heard my cries and that hewas with me in them.
And then this stupid cat thinghappened last night, and it set
me on edge.
It felt like it was gonna pushme over the edge, and I cried
myself to sleep last night.
Oh, I was so mad.
I was mad at this cat.
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I was just so angry about whathad happened.
Like I said, it just felt likeone more thing, trying to snatch
my sanity from me.
And yet, there was the Lord thismorning as I woke up reminding
me what I had studied yesterday,reminding me how he had so
faithfully come through for meyesterday, and that hadn't
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changed.
His mercies were new tomorrowthis morning.
They will be new tomorrowmorning, they were new yesterday
morning, but I need to grab ontohis mercies that are available
for today.
That's it.
Tomorrow has enough evil foritself today.
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Walk in today.
Lord, your mercy is enough fortoday.
Your mercy and your grace areenough to help me cover my
anxiety.
Lord, they're enough to help metrust you and believe that you
are exactly who you say you are,Lord.
And so I want to encourage youwith this, friends.
And I want to ask you thesequestions.
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How has Jesus showed you hislove this week?
I want you to think about it.
And I want to think about it,meditate on it in the midst of
all the things that try tocapture our attention, try to
make us, try to divert ourattention from the Lord, make us
question all sorts of things.
Let's go back to what isactually true.
How has Jesus shown us that heloves us today?
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This week, even.
And what are you wrestling withthat you need to cast on him and
trust him with the outcome?
Those are two questions I wantyou to think about.
I want to think about, I want tomeditate on.
And I've shared, I I've shared,you know, how the Lord showed me
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that He loved me.
There's just that that deep,immovable sense of comfort
yesterday morning was was soamazing and and so needed.
I was grateful, grateful to theLord for it.
And then just the things thatI've been wrestling, anxiety
about my future.
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You know, there's there's a lotof changes going on in my life.
I don't know what's next, butJesus does.
And I need to trust him.
Again, I go back to that CoreyTenboom quote.
It is the quote for my liferight now: never be afraid to
trust an unknown future to aknown God.
And so, friends, I pray that asyou are facing whatever you are
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facing, that you willconsistently turn back to the
Lord, turn back to hischaracter, remember who he is,
remember how he loves you, thinkabout how he has specifically
shown up for you this week, andthen think about where you are
facing anxiety or worry or whereyou're struggling.
What do you need to cast on theLord?
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Because he is strong enough, heis strong enough to carry it.
And so, like I said, I love toleave our time together with a
blessing.
And today I want to readColossians 2, 6 through 7, and
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this is what I am praying overus, this is what I am asking the
Lord to absolutely just pour,pour into us that we would
remember this and that.
This would be the walk of ourlife, Lord Jesus, that we would
honor you, Father, Holy Spirit,that we would follow you.
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So Colossians 2, 6 through 7.
Therefore, as you have receivedChrist Jesus the Lord, so walk
in him, having been firmlyrooted, and now being built up
in him and established in yourfaith, just as you were
instructed, and overflowing withgratitude.
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I pray, friends, that as youwrestle with Jesus and as you
seek him, that you will do sooverflowing with gratitude for
the ways that he has shown upfor you, the ways that he has
ministered to you, theopportunities he has given you
to minister him to others.
And I pray as we go through therest of this week that we would
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know that the Lord cares for usand his shoulders, his heart,
his person is big enough forevery anxiety and care to be
cast upon him.
Amen.
Hey everyone! Welcome to episode six of Honey
from the Rock.
I am glad you're here, and I amactually recording this the
night before I am set to usuallyrelease episodes.
I try to record them a littlebit earlier.
The reason I'm saying that isbecause I'm actually going to
reference an Instagram post thatI made earlier today and wanted
(00:31):
to share a little bit about whatJesus has been teaching me and
what he's been showing me aboutanxiety.
So um, and I usually don'trecord this late, but we've had
family in town and we'llcontinue to have family in town
this week, which will be great.
And then also I've been helpingmy mom paint and do some home
improvement projects.
So it's been a little bit crazybusy, but crazy busy in a good
(00:56):
way.
So except for I'm sore frompainting, and I actually really
hate painting, but I also liketo see the results of painting,
so it's kind of a catch, a catch22.
But anybody else out there hatepainting?
I would love to know.
I hating painting unite, like Iwatch all these DIYers on
Instagram, and everything theydo is just so beautiful, and I
(01:17):
know it's taken them years tolearn how to do their craft, and
they've you know messed a lot ofthings up, but now they're at
this point where they're thesebeautiful influencers and they
share all these things, and Iwatch them do it, and I, you
know, in my mind, like it's likewatching the Olympics.
Like, oh, I could do that, Icould do that, and then I go to
actually do it, and I'm like,no, no, I cannot, I cannot
(01:38):
actually do that.
So, but the paint looks good.
I mean, not to scare anybodyinto thinking that I've done a
horrible job helping helping mymom, um, but you'll have to ask
her.
Anyway, um, what I want to talkabout today very briefly is, and
I mentioned it, I can't rememberif I mentioned it last week or
(01:59):
if I mentioned it in the episodebefore, but um, I wanted to talk
a little bit about anxiety andanxiety from the place of what
does scripture really say aboutanxiety?
Um, and not using scripture orJesus as a band-aid to say,
well, we all just better suck itup and stop worrying.
(02:21):
But what does it really looklike to have the Holy Spirit
minister to us in the midst ofanxiety, which is actually what
happened to me yesterday.
And then the Lord had to remindme about it this morning because
as I mentioned, I posted onInstagram uh today, and I
literally posted a graphic thatsaid, I cannot handle one more
(02:45):
thing.
And those were the words thatliterally came out of my mouth
last night when my cat, Stella,decided that she was going to
climb down into my mother's airvent and not come out for a
solid 45 minutes, sending meinto a bit of a panic spiral.
(03:05):
I'm not kidding.
Like it just that, you know, Ilove my cat.
My cat is beautiful, she isadorable, she loves to cuddle
with me.
And in fact, as I record thisepisode, she's no longer in the
air vent and the cold airreturned.
No, she is comfortably stretchedout next to me, laying there
like she doesn't pay any rentand has no care in this life,
(03:27):
which she doesn't, she reallydoesn't.
So, but last night it was justone more thing on top of what
has this this year has just beenthe worst.
And I'm going to be reallyhonest, that's not actually
hyperbole or exaggeration.
It it has been the worst, it hasbeen so difficult.
(03:49):
There has been so much grief.
I have lost two family membersthis year.
My dad passed away in April, andmy sister, my middle sister,
passed away six weeks after him.
And then in the midst of that,other things have happened, and
there's just been a lot oftransition, and there's been a
lot of things up in the air, andand just a lot of grief and a
(04:10):
lot of loss.
And yeah, I decided to start apodcast in the middle of all of
it, which probably sounds weirdto some people, but I again,
like I said on episode one, itis something that I know that
Jesus has absolutely led me todo.
But as I sit here tonight and Ilook at I look at this little
(04:30):
furry life that God createdlaying next to me, so cute.
And I think that 24 hours ago, Iwas ready to just absolutely
lose my mind.
I I laugh a little bit.
I was not laughing last night.
You can ask my mother.
I will be really honest withyou.
I said some cuss words.
(04:51):
I mean, it was not my bestmoment.
I was super frustrated, but itwas the cap on a day and really
a season of just of just, like Isaid, loss, but just also just
feels like things perpetuallygoing wrong and weird things
happening.
Like, and you might ask, why didmy cat climb into the cold air
(05:13):
return?
How did she get in there?
Well, we had pulled the grateoff to paint it and had it
propped up, covering the hole,but what did she do?
She's a cat.
She's not made of bones.
She's no, she's made of she'smade of like liquid, liquid
slime or something.
You know how cats are.
They're just able to like crush,they go boneless and they just
(05:35):
worm themselves into weirdspaces, which is exactly what
she did.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, that sheis food motivated and a solid
tapping for five minutes on acan of wet food got her scrawny
little butt out of there.
But I really I was like, Icannot take one more thing.
And and so earlier in the day, Ihad been sitting with the Lord
(05:56):
and I had been talking with mymom just about how I was
processing this season thatwe've that we've walked through
her and my brother and I, andand just on and off, I all of
the sudden it just waves, wavesof grief will hit me.
And but they will hit me inweird ways.
And one of the ways that griefhas really actually manifested
(06:19):
in me is anxiety.
I start to feel just just thepounding in my chest and the
tightening, and I get so anxiousand worried about different
things, and and it's like Ican't think about a lot of
things.
The brain fog in grief is real,um, but then my brain tends to
like hyperfixate on certainthings and and and just really
(06:41):
ruminate on them, and I and thenI just start to get worried, and
then I start to panic because Ifeel worried, and the Lord said,
doesn't worry, you know.
I mean it just becomes thiscycle in my brain.
But where I was with the Lordyesterday was in 1 Peter 5, and
I think I brought this thisverse up last week or the week
(07:03):
before, so forgive me forrepeating, but I just in praying
about what to do today, and thisis something significant that
the Lord did for me in just thelast 24 hours, and I and I just
really wanted to share to shareit with you, knowing that our
experiences won't be the same.
But the God who loves us and whohas died for us and who calls us
(07:25):
his own, uh, the the Lord whowants us to know him and and
absolutely shows us himself in avariety of different ways,
including through helping usdeal with grief and anxiety and
loss heat, he will minister tous how he chooses to.
But I wanted to encourage youtoday because I know that there
(07:48):
are so many things in this worldthat are causing anxiety,
causing worry, people notknowing uh where the next meal
is going to come from, peopleexperiencing homelessness,
people not being able to findjobs for months on end, and and
just the worries mount up andthe anxieties mount up, and they
(08:09):
are real, and the Lord knowsthat they're real.
And like I said a few minutesago, I don't want to be like,
oh, let's stick a bandaid on it.
Jesus says not to worry, sowe're going to be fine.
But what I experienced yesterdayin them in the midst of
expressing some real frustrationto my mom about where I find
myself is I know the Holy Spiritled me to 1 Peter 5, where Peter
(08:36):
talks about humbling ourselvesunder the mighty hand of God so
that he may exalt us in in theproper time.
And then he says in verse 7,having cast all your anxiety on
him because he cares about you.
And I did some research on thatverse.
You know, I've I've talked toyou a lot of times about Bible
Hub.
Again, not an advertisement,just the website I love the
(08:57):
most, um, about you know,digging into word studies and
what does it mean and what doesit say?
And what I love is that there issuch intentionality in the
scriptures, there'sintentionality in the words that
are used to describe things tous, and that when we really dig
(09:23):
into the word, I find it veryhelpful to really dig into what
I'm reading so that I canunderstand it better.
And when Peter uses the wordcare, that the Lord cares about
us, what that word means is tocare about or to be concerned
with, especially payingattention and giving thought to,
(09:46):
taking an intense interest in,which is amazing.
And obviously, we see that theLord has taken an intense
interest in us.
Obviously, he loves us, he hasdied for us, and and again, the
topical lexicon says that thisword in in the Greek for cares
(10:09):
traces a line from human doubtsabout Christ's concern to the
climactic assurance that Godtruly cares.
Its occurrences challengeapathy, expose hypocrisy, and
console the faithful, weaving arich tapestry of pastoral and
theological encouragementthroughout the New Testament
canon.
(10:30):
And I just I loved theintentionality.
Jesus truly cares about us, hetruly loves us.
And what hit me yesterday as Iwas as I was studying this verse
and asking the Lord to help meis that there's two actions that
(10:50):
that Peter calls us to in thesetwo verses.
The first is to humble ourselvesbefore the Lord.
And often I find that when Ihave gotten caught up in
anxiety, when I have let my mindget into distress, when there's
things that peck at me and gnawat me and just cycle in my
(11:12):
brain, that it's it usuallyhappens because I've put myself
in a position where I think Ineed to solve what's going to
happen, or I think I need tohave the answer about a problem.
I need to be the solutionfinder, or sometimes honestly
(11:34):
getting stuck in a rut where Ifeel responsible for other
people's reactions and for otherpeople's issues, which is not
true.
And that's probably a wholeother podcast episode.
But I was noticing as I was, asI was just working through some
things yesterday, that I reallyhad, I had put myself in a place
(11:55):
where I was so stressed aboutabout a few things because I
really felt like it was on me tofigure it out.
And and not only did I need tofigure it out, but I had to
figure out the solution to thisin such a way that also, you
know, basically made me thinkthat I had to decide how other
(12:18):
people were going to react, youknow, cause and effect, every
action has its equal oppositereaction, like it's it's all of
those kinds of things.
And as I was just sitting beforethe Lord and crying out to him,
I had to confess to him thatthat's just pride.
I don't know what's going tohappen.
I can't control outcomes.
(12:40):
But the the only person I cancontrol is myself.
And the only thing I can do isbe obedient to the Lord and
submit myself to him.
And so when I realized that, I Iconfessed it to the Lord and and
it was and really owned it,really said, you know what,
Lord, I I do this consistently.
(13:00):
I live in a place where I feellike I have to manage things.
And in my managing of things,because I'm so anxious about
them, you know, I I I begin toput all of the responsibility on
me to fix everything or to havethe right answer for anything,
or um, I need I need to figurethis out so that I don't fail
(13:22):
and fall on my face in front ofpeople.
I mean, it comes in a milliondifferent ways, right?
And it comes in a milliondifferent ways for all of us.
And yet when I take it to theLord and I honestly say to him,
you know what, Lord, I am onlyresponsible for me and I'm gonna
humble myself before you.
Lord, take this pride from methat thinks that I have to
(13:44):
figure everything out and that Ihave to know what's gonna
happen, and that I, you know,it's like what Jesus says in
Matthew 6, how can I change onecolor, one strand of my hair,
the color of my hair, right?
I mean, I can dye my hair, butit eventually grows back the
natural color that Jesus gave meoriginally, right?
What who by worrying can changethe color of their hair, right?
(14:07):
You know, again, and he tells usto look at the lilies of the
field, to look at the birds, youknow, he talks about the
sparrows in one place.
And we have really, I thinksometimes we read those things
and we think they're reallycutesy little sayings that just
make us feel better when they'rereally admonitions from Jesus.
(14:27):
Look at how the God of theuniverse holds this entire world
together.
If he hiccuped, it would allfall apart.
And yet he holds it alltogether.
The father, the father God ofScripture who who through his
son spoke everything intocreation and everything into
(14:51):
being and made humans out ofdust and gave us the breath of
life by breathing his spiritinto our lungs.
Who are we to think that he willnot care for us?
And and again, I know how easyit is to say it when things are
going well, but I also know thetruth of it when everything is
(15:13):
falling apart, when everythingis in shambles around me.
I have had to say, I know thatJesus will care for me, and he
has every single time.
And so I had to humble myselfbefore him and confess my own
pride, that a lot of the anxietyI was feeling yesterday was
(15:33):
coming from my own pride.
And then, and he and then, youknow, Peter goes on to say that
the Lord will, he will raiseyou, right?
He will exalt you at the propertime.
And then he says, having castall your anxiety on him because
he cares about you.
And that's from the NASB.
And the word anxiety literallytalks about your mind being
(15:55):
pulled in two directions in thisparticular instance in in 1
Peter 5.
It is literally having your mindpulled pulled apart.
And I know many of us know thatthat's what anxiety can feel
like a lot of times.
And and again, meditating onthis scripture and having the
(16:16):
Lord lead me through it as Istudied it, did it take all of
my anxiety away?
No, it didn't.
Did it lessen it significantly?
It actually did.
The Lord met me in the study ofthis verse, he showed himself to
me in a very beautiful, quietway.
He comforted me because I just Iwas actually driving to
(16:38):
McDonald's to get my mom and toget my mom and I diet coach.
And um, and I was crying.
I was crying out to the Lord andI was wrestling through these
things, and I just kept going tohim saying, Lord, I don't know
what to do about this, I don'tknow how to feel about this, I
am struggling with thisparticular issue in my life,
Lord.
I am wrestling.
(16:59):
I don't know where you are inthis, Lord, and I need your
help.
I need you to show me yourself.
I need, I need your leading andyour wisdom, Lord.
I need you, Holy Spirit, to helpme.
And what I realized when I gotback and I was sitting down and
reading this verse out of 1Peter again was that is
literally casting my care uponhim.
(17:23):
That is going to him and saying,I don't know what to do, Lord.
I need you to help me.
Now the key is to cast ouranxieties, our cares on him, and
and to entrust them to him andnot take them back.
And if we do take them back, tocast them on him again and keep
(17:45):
fighting in that way to say,Lord, I believe you are who you
say you are, that you arewilling to, you have taken on
all of my sin.
You love me enough to help mewith my cares, Lord.
You say that our Father is goodand he will give us an egg.
He won't give us a serpent, hewants to give us good things.
The Father gives us the HolySpirit, He He has given us you,
(18:08):
Lord Jesus.
He's given us your gospel, Lord.
Like it, I mean, all of thethings that the Lord, the good
things that the Lord has givenus.
And I find so often when I'mdealing with anxiety that that
that it wants to crowd out thegoodness of the Lord.
It it puts me in a place againwhere where I become my own
(18:32):
provider rather than the Lordbeing my provider.
And and again, please hear mewhen I say this.
It's this is not always easy.
It isn't, because there arethings that are difficult and
devastating, things that theLord doesn't necessarily show us
right away, things about ourfuture, things about what he's
(18:53):
going to do that are hidden fromus because he has chosen not to
reveal them at a particulartime.
And we have to trust him.
We have to make the decision totrust him.
And that is not a one-timedecision, that is an everyday
decision.
It is hand in hand with thecommand to pick up our cross and
(19:16):
follow him.
To pick up our cross, what he'sappointed and follow him means
we trust him.
We trust him with our life.
We trust him with our future.
We trust him with doctors'appointments and unknown
diagnosis.
And we trust him with when welose friends or relationships
(19:37):
blow up in our face.
So we trust him when peoplewound us, or again, when we
wound other people, and whenwe're sharp with our tongue, and
we have to go back and we haveto own it and confess it and
repent and apologize.
And when we are just struggling,all of these things, the Lord is
big enough to handle, and hedesires for us to cast our
(20:00):
anxieties on him because he doescare for us, he loves us.
And so I I wanted to read aquick quote from Spurgeon
because I posted the uh onequote from Spurgeon on my um on
my Instagram post, but I umthere's another quote that I
really, really loved bySpurgeon, and I thought it was
(20:22):
very, very thought-provoking.
So Spurgeon says, Thy burden orwhat thy God lays upon thee, lay
it thou upon the Lord.
His wisdom casts it on you.
It is thy wisdom to cast it onhim.
(20:43):
He casts thy lot for thee.
Cast thy lot on him.
He gives thee thy portion ofsuffering, accept it with
cheerful resignation.
That seems like an oxymoron,doesn't it?
Cheerful resignation, and thentake it back to him by thine
assured confidence.
He shall sustain thee.
(21:06):
Thy bread shall be given thee,thy waters be sure.
Abundant nourishment shall fitthee to bear all thy labors and
trials, as thy days shall as thydays, so shall thy strength be.
He shall never suffer therighteous to be moved.
(21:26):
He may move like the boughs of atree in the tempest, but he,
Jesus, shall never be moved likea tree torn up by the roots.
He stands firm, who stands inGod.
Many would destroy the saints,but God has not suffered it and
never will.
Like pillars, the godly standimmovable to the glory of the
(21:50):
great architect.
And I love that so that so muchbecause the picture that it
paints and the the King Jameslanguage is different, difficult
to read, so forgive mystumbling.
But just the thought that, youknow, the Lord, the Lord allows
suffering in our life.
We know scripture tells us thatin this life we are appointed to
(22:13):
suffering and affliction.
These things happen.
Jesus uses it to shape ourcharacter, to shape our soul, to
produce fruit in us, to conformus to his image.
The whole purpose of all ofthese things that buffet us is
so that we would know the Lordmore deeply and that our root
systems, right?
If we're going to be plantedlike oaks of righteousness along
(22:38):
the shore, along the river, thenthat system has to go deep.
And trees only grow deep rootsin the midst of storms.
I think that that's true.
If I'm remembering thatcorrectly, if there are any
arborists who listen to thepodcast, please let me know.
But but the storms and thetrials that are sent to us by
(23:00):
the Lord are they are appointed.
There are certain things thatJesus does not do, but that he
uses.
But in the midst of it all, thepoint that I want I want to make
is that as Spurgeon says here,with whatever is appointed to us
to walk through, though the Lordmay have appointed it, maybe he
didn't, but we're still walkingthrough it, we can cast it back
(23:24):
on him.
And he wants us to cast it backon him.
He wants us to be able to run tohim with every care, every fear,
every doubt, every worry, everytrial, all of it to cast it on
him so that we continue to holdsteadfast and sure in that Lord.
(23:54):
And though there are times youhave been silent, and there have
been times I have many, manytimes I have not known what you
were doing.
And these difficult times haveshaped me and broken things in
me and exposed things in me.
Lord, through it all, you haveproven yourself faithful.
Your character never changes.
(24:14):
Your mercies are new everymorning.
Great is your faithfulness.
I will remember the works of myGod.
I will not forget how Jesuspulled me out of Egypt.
I will not forget the miraculousthings he has done in my life to
deliver me from the snare of thefowler, from the pestilence that
walks in noonday and the terrorthat sneaks around at night.
(24:35):
I know that I abide under theshadow of the Almighty and Lord
Jesus, I will keep believing itand standing in you and on you,
and I will not be moved by everyfiery dart that comes at me to
try and extinguish my faith.
I won't do it.
I won't do it.
And there are days, my friends,where I am absolutely rotten at
(24:59):
this.
I stink at it, and I get allbound up in all sorts of junk in
my mind and in my heart.
And there are other days where Iknow that the Holy Spirit is
rising me up and helping mestand firm.
And on the days when I'mterrible at doing it, I'm crying
out to the Lord, asking him tostrengthen me.
(25:20):
And again, this is not to saylike there's just, you know, the
Lord's always moving on me, andthere's a miracle happens every
time.
No.
But the Lord's character issure, and he desires to comfort
us because he cares for us.
And that's what happened to meyesterday.
In that morning session where Iwas sitting with the Lord and
just quiet with him.
(25:41):
I had cast things on him, I hadtalked with him about it, and I
was sitting and I was justreading this verse again and
again.
And my friends, I will tell youthe burden didn't lift.
The burden didn't lift, butcomfort came from the Lord.
And there was a definite, adefinite knowing that the Lord
(26:04):
had heard my cries and that hewas with me in them.
And then this stupid cat thinghappened last night, and it set
me on edge.
It felt like it was gonna pushme over the edge, and I cried
myself to sleep last night.
Oh, I was so mad.
I was mad at this cat.
(26:25):
I was just so angry about whathad happened.
Like I said, it just felt likeone more thing, trying to snatch
my sanity from me.
And yet, there was the Lord thismorning as I woke up reminding
me what I had studied yesterday,reminding me how he had so
faithfully come through for meyesterday, and that hadn't
(26:46):
changed.
His mercies were new tomorrowthis morning.
They will be new tomorrowmorning, they were new yesterday
morning, but I need to grab ontohis mercies that are available
for today.
That's it.
Tomorrow has enough evil foritself today.
(27:11):
Walk in today.
Lord, your mercy is enough fortoday.
Your mercy and your grace areenough to help me cover my
anxiety.
Lord, they're enough to help metrust you and believe that you
are exactly who you say you are,Lord.
And so I want to encourage youwith this, friends.
And I want to ask you thesequestions.
(27:33):
How has Jesus showed you hislove this week?
I want you to think about it.
And I want to think about it,meditate on it in the midst of
all the things that try tocapture our attention, try to
make us, try to divert ourattention from the Lord, make us
question all sorts of things.
Let's go back to what isactually true.
How has Jesus shown us that heloves us today?
(27:56):
This week, even.
And what are you wrestling withthat you need to cast on him and
trust him with the outcome?
Those are two questions I wantyou to think about.
I want to think about, I want tomeditate on.
And I've shared, I I've shared,you know, how the Lord showed me
(28:17):
that He loved me.
There's just that that deep,immovable sense of comfort
yesterday morning was was soamazing and and so needed.
I was grateful, grateful to theLord for it.
And then just the things thatI've been wrestling, anxiety
about my future.
(28:38):
You know, there's there's a lotof changes going on in my life.
I don't know what's next, butJesus does.
And I need to trust him.
Again, I go back to that CoreyTenboom quote.
It is the quote for my liferight now: never be afraid to
trust an unknown future to aknown God.
And so, friends, I pray that asyou are facing whatever you are
(29:00):
facing, that you willconsistently turn back to the
Lord, turn back to hischaracter, remember who he is,
remember how he loves you, thinkabout how he has specifically
shown up for you this week, andthen think about where you are
facing anxiety or worry or whereyou're struggling.
What do you need to cast on theLord?
(29:23):
Because he is strong enough, heis strong enough to carry it.
And so, like I said, I love toleave our time together with a
blessing.
And today I want to readColossians 2, 6 through 7, and
(29:44):
this is what I am praying overus, this is what I am asking the
Lord to absolutely just pour,pour into us that we would
remember this and that.
This would be the walk of ourlife, Lord Jesus, that we would
honor you, Father, Holy Spirit,that we would follow you.
(30:06):
So Colossians 2, 6 through 7.
Therefore, as you have receivedChrist Jesus the Lord, so walk
in him, having been firmlyrooted, and now being built up
in him and established in yourfaith, just as you were
instructed, and overflowing withgratitude.
(30:28):
I pray, friends, that as youwrestle with Jesus and as you
seek him, that you will do sooverflowing with gratitude for
the ways that he has shown upfor you, the ways that he has
ministered to you, theopportunities he has given you
to minister him to others.
And I pray as we go through therest of this week that we would
(30:50):
know that the Lord cares for usand his shoulders, his heart,
his person is big enough forevery anxiety and care to be
cast upon him.
Amen.
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