Your Encouraging 5 Minute Podcast
A weekly dose of encouragement to start your week off right! Join your favorite WPER hosts every week for uplifting thoughts to keep your eyes focused on Christ and His promises.
Your Encouraging 5 Minute Podcast
Feeling Anxious and Struggling to Find Jesus
That feeling when your heart races, your mind won't quiet, and peace seems like a distant memory.
You're not alone, and -the best news is - there's hope waiting for you!
We're going to dive deep into what Jesus actually meant when He promised, "Peace I leave with you."
Jesus offers us his Peace. Not freedom from any of life's storms but REAL freedom! Freedom from being internally devastated by those storms.
Philippians 4:6-7 shows you how real peace follows surrender, not circumstance change.
Rather than carrying the crushing weight of trying to control everything, we can find relief in giving our anxieties to God, trusting Him long before seeing resolution. The sequence matters: prayer first, peace after.
Ready for a different approach to anxiety? Intentional stillness and trust create space for God's supernatural peace in our lives, space that anxiety may be trying to take over.
Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and remember you don't need to have it all together – Jesus meets you right in the storm, whispering "Peace, be still" to your troubled heart.
Share this with someone who needs encouragement, and download the WPER app for more spiritual nourishment whenever anxiety strikes.
This is your encouraging five-minute podcast. Over the next five minutes encouraging you, giving you something to maybe inspire you, lift your day, just to reassure you that God is good. And, by the way, if you need more encouragement at the end of the five-minute encouragement podcast, you can always listen to WPER Virginia's Home for Encouragement. Download the app too, if you need that. If you're out of that area, just search WPER. And since you clicked on this episode, pretty safe to say that you're probably feeling anxious, maybe.
Speaker 2:Maybe you're anxious about something you haven't even shared with anybody else, or maybe life just feels loud and overwhelming, and peace, you know especially the kind of peace that Jesus talks about feels like totally unreachable. So if that's you today, we want you to know that you are not alone and, more importantly, that there's hope. Truly, there is hope that you can have peace like for real peace, like the peace Jesus talked about.
Speaker 1:And John 14, 27,. Jesus says peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I don't give to you as the world gives. Don't let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
Speaker 2:Now, if you're anything like us, there have been days when you've read or heard that Bible verse and thought well, it sounds beautiful, but how do I actually get to feel that peace Exactly? That's really the heart of what we're going to be talking about here today, because peace in Jesus isn't about having a trouble-free life, right, it's about knowing who is with us in the trouble. And there's a story in Mark 4 about when Jesus and his disciples were in a boat. A big old storm comes out out of nowhere and the disciples freak out, which is funny if you think about it, because some were fishermen and people who actually know the sea. But okay, so this storm is fierce and all the while the boat is rocking and there's water all over the place and the waves are crashing around them. And all of the disciples were terrified that Jesus was asleep like sound asleep in that kind of storm. So the disciples wake him up and, of course, they're terrified. They're in a parodic and they're yelling at him, don't you?
Speaker 2:care if we drown, Jesus gets up, speaks to the storm, speaks to the wind and to the waves and says peace, A full sentence. Peace be still. And just like that, everything calmed down. So here's what I love Even before he calmed the storm outside, Jesus was calm, not just inside the boat, but inside his heart. Right, the peace that Jesus offers us isn't about changing every circumstance or calming every storm. It's about changing us in the middle of that, because his presence is our peace.
Speaker 1:Anxiety and stress tell us that everything's on us. We got to figure it all out. We can't rest until everything is under control and under calm.
Speaker 2:Right, but the truth is we're never meant to carry that kind of weight.
Speaker 1:No, like it says in Philippians 4, verses 6 and 7, reminds us. It says don't be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with Thanksgiving, make sure say I'm thankful. Present those requests to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 2:Now back up just a second. Did you catch that little little peace comes after we hand it over to the Lord. Peace comes after we pray, after we thank him, like way before things are even fixed. It's after we trust that he hears us and that he sees us and that he is already at work, even when we can't see evidence of it yet. You don't have to pretend you're okay. You can be honest with God. You can bring him into your fears and your worries and your doubts. He isn't disappointed in you for feeling anxious. He's inviting you to bring all that makes you anxious to him.
Speaker 1:His word says it, Jesus says it. Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I'll give you rest. That's Matthew 11, 28.
Speaker 2:Okay. So rest. Not performance, not pressure, not the responsibility of figuring it all out Rest. So right now, I want to invite you to do something simple. Unless you're driving, then keep your eyes open, but if you can close your eyes, take a deep breath, let it in and let it out. Do it one more time Inhale, exhale, let your shoulders relax, let your jaw unclench, let yourself be still like for a moment. Now, quietly, just repeat this Jesus, I trust you. Even when I don't feel it, even when I don't see it, I know you are with me because you are my peace. Thank God that he doesn't wait for us to have it all together, thank God that he meets us right in the storm and thank God that he whispers peace.
Speaker 1:Be still Hope you've been encouraged today. If you know someone who needs encouragement, invite them to listen to the Encouraging 5-Minute Podcast, and if you need more encouragement, you can always listen to WPER. Virginia is home for encouragement outside that area. Just download the app. Wper is what you're searching for.
