Cure to anxiety

In this episode of the Bible Gal podcast,  we talk about one of the major issues of today, of how many of us women battle with anxiety. We dive into scripture and see what God has to say about anxiety, and how we can lean on him to heal our anxiety. 

In this episode we cover: 

1. Matthew 6:25-30
2. Matthew 6:33-34
3. Philippians 4:6-7
4. Jeremiah 29:11

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:24

I'm on a mission and passion to empower you and all the women out there. This is going to be your new favorite podcast for daily devotionals and Bible study chats.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode. Today is episode 21. We um are going to be talking about anxiety. But before I get started, I just want to start in prayer like I always do. Dear Father, I just ask that you open our hearts, that you open our minds today. Fill us up with your Holy Spirit. Fill this up with your daily bread, Father. I pray over this message, Father, that you will speak through me and just say the things that need to be said, Father. I pray for all the listeners who are listening, that it touches their heart today, Father, that not only do they get a takeaway, but that they walk away and they were able to think about something that they get to change or um take with them. Okay, so I'm going to start by getting kind of personal um with my testimony. So um I have had anxiety my entire life. Um I've been married now um for two and a half years, and right before my wedding, um is when my is when my faith started, is when I was saved. So I've always had real bad anxiety and before my wedding, um, I was engaged there was like a year from you know, being engaged until I got married. During that year a lot had changed for me. Um I got a promotion and I was the director at um a childcare and um it was a lot. I was under so much stress. I was also planning a wedding at the time, and it was a lot. I was working, you know, fifty plus hours a week um trying to plan a wedding all at the same time. And so I was just really stressed out. My anxiety was really bad, and to top it all off, I was um trying to lose weight for my wedding dress, and so I was losing a bunch of weight and so my coping mechanism at the time was caffeine. Um and so I just wouldn't really eat I because you know I was trying to lose weight, so I didn't want to like eat my emotions away. So I I didn't necessarily like starve myself super bad, but like I just wasn't eating emotionally, like when I was stressed I wouldn't eat type of thing. So instead I would drink coffee. Um I would be super tired from working crazy hours and super stressed, and so that's kind of like how I would keep stay going. Um so I would have coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee. I would have an energy drink in the morning, a pre-workout, when I would go to the gym, I would have multiple cups of coffee throughout the day, obviously with my anxiety, I mean it was making it worse. Um, and with my stress of everything going on, being um, you know, I was the only director, so there wasn't anybody um really else helping me run the place. It was all on my own, so it was really stressful. Um, so also there was that and you know, just all the things that were going on had been adding to my anxiety. And so I had this pretty massive panic attack um one afternoon waiting for kids to get off the bus. I called my boss and was like, I need to go to the ER, like I can't breathe, something's wrong with my chest. Um so, you know, I called my my fiance at the time and so we had rushed to the ER and so they checked me over and said that I had an ulcer in my esophagus. Um, an ulcer, you know, I had basically a hole in my esophagus, I had an ulcer in there. And they had told me that it was because I was stressed. Um, they also told me most likely that the reason why I felt the way I felt was because I was having a panic attack. Um, and so they were talking to me, basically had told me that this issue that I was having with my esophagus, I ha also have acid reflux, but that's like beside the point. So I was having acid reflux, the long story short. Then I was so stressed out, I had so much terrible anxiety that I was literally making myself sick. And um I had basically they told me that was my reason for the ulcer in the esophagus was stress and anxiety. Um, so basically I was just making myself physically cool, you know, not well either. And um so once they had told me that I it was finally like a wake-up call. I was like, oh my gosh, I have been having so bad anxiety my whole life. I've had anxiety. Um, I knew that I've had it, but I just kind of learned to deal with it and kind of submissed it. Um, but this was the breaking point. I was like, I'm not okay. Like the nurse in the from the ER just told me my anxiety was terribly bad and terribly high, and it was the reason for my health problems. Um, so I had quit my job and I was like, I need I need some time off to be home, to be not work, to get my life together. So I started going to therapy, um, and I went to, you know, somebody who could diagnose me and get me on some medicine. Um, and then I was diagnosed with severe chronic anxiety. So I was told I was gonna have really bad anxiety for the rest of my life that it was never gonna go away. Uh so I kind of knew I had bad anxiety my whole life, but hearing that was just definitely like depressing. Like, wow, like no matter what I do, it's never gonna go away. Like, no matter what I do, it's always gonna be bad. Like, obviously, there are gonna be waves and seasons when you know you have anxiety and it gets worse and it gets better in different seasons, but you know, it was just really discouraging that I was always gonna have it really bad. Um, so they had literally they had me on literally like all different kinds of medicine. Um, and uh so I was really battling and I got really depressed while I was home because I was trying to heal for my esophagus, uh so like I couldn't really digest anything, so it took me a really long time to eat, and I had to like cut out a lot of things out of my diet to be able to eat for a little while. And um then I just was getting really depressed, and so the anxiety was getting worse because I was just sitting in the house all day, you know, I couldn't really eat. I was it sucked to eat, and so now I didn't have a job to keep me busy, so no, my anxiety was just pooling and it was getting real bad. And so I grew up in the church. Long story short, I started coming back to God, and um I was saved. My sister brought me to the to a church. I had asked her to help me um find a church, and so she brought me to the church I am now. God led me to my home, and um, yeah, I've been there ever since, and he saved me. And when he saved me, you know, one of the first times I had gone to church, I'd gone to like a a youth night, they were talking about, you know, how anxiety God had healed their anxiety, and I was like, I want that, I need that, you know. And I had tried therapy, I had um tried medicine, I used to smoke pot, and that was the only thing that would like temporarily take it away. Um, you know, nothing was working, that wasn't really all working, right? And so I was like, you know, I need something to take away my anxiety and to actually heal me that I won't struggle with severe anxiety for the rest of my life. Um and so I brought it to God and they had this one sermon about, you know, how God can break our chains and you know how he can heal us of our anxiety. And I was like, I want that to be me. I want to be free from this. Um, and um, yeah, so I prayed about it, and I obviously didn't happen necessarily overnight, but it did happen pretty quickly. I prayed about it and I gave it to him. I kind of surrendered and was like, Lord, I'm surrendering my life to you. Uh please just take this anxiety away. I don't ever want to live with it ever again. Um, and you know, pretty soon in my journey, it was taken away, and I had no longer struggled with anxiety. Now, fast forward to today, um, obviously there are still some chemical imbalances where yes, I do still get anxiety in certain situations. Um, I do still have social anxiety here and there. Certain situations do still give me anxiety, so it's not like I've never had it ever again, but I don't have that severe anxiety that just comes and sits and causes like utter chaos, and you know, I'm not hypochondriac anymore, like I used to be. Um, so you know, let me get into the message because I feel like I've been talking forever. You know, many of us have struggled our whole lives with anxiety, and you know, we might have tried things like I have, you know, yoga, medicine, therapy, drinking, smoking pot, maybe working out, you know, um, and it works for a little bit, you know, but then the anxiety comes back. So we do it again, and then it comes back, and then we do it again, and it comes back, and it's a suspicious cycle of trying to get rid of anxiety, and what we're doing is just band-aiding our anxiety, and so we get frustrated with it because we don't know how to get rid of it for good. And I just want to say that you're not alone. I was there too, you know, and I yes, I was diagnosed with chronic severe anxiety, so I really understand, you know, you how you're feeling when the anxiety just feels like you're doomed, you know, but but you're not. Um, you don't have to let that be the end of your story, you don't have to let that be, you know, the rest of your life. You know, God didn't let that be my story. My story was changed. I was healed because of him, because of his goodness. And so I really want to jump into the word and see what God really has to say about worrying and about being anxious, because this truly has been my Bible. Yes, we all have our Bibles, but I mean my Bible, like this is something that I have been, you know, really memorizing and reading and rereading and highlighting and rereading and praying over and speaking and you know, declaring over and rereading and rereading, and what you know, having God speak to me through this scripture over and over and over again has really helped me stay healed from my anxiety. So, Matthew chapter 6, um, verses 25 through 34 is the whole um piece we're gonna be in. So, Matthew 6, 25 says this. That is why I tell you, do not worry about your everyday life, whether you have enough food or drinks or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than the food you eat and the body more than the clothes you wear? So God says to us here in this verse, don't worry about the things in your life, don't worry about the small things, don't worry about what you're gonna eat or what you're gonna drink or what you're gonna wear, or you know, what's gonna happen if you're five minutes late to work. I mean, not saying, you know, don't be late to work. I have no room to say I'd be late to work all the time. But uh what I'm saying. Um and so he's saying don't worry about those things. Don't worry about are you gonna have enough money for groceries this week? Don't worry about is your child being taken care of at school? Don't worry about um I don't know, I'm trying to think of something that we could worry about. Anything, honestly. Um I worry about everything all the time. Um he says, Don't worry about anything, don't worry about the small things. Um And so then he continues to say in Matthew chapter 6, verse 26 and 27, he says this. He says, Look at the birds, do not they don't plant or harvest or store food in the barns. Wait, let me read that again. I am at a dyslexic moment. Sorry. Verse 26 and 27 says, try this again. Look at the birds, they do not plant, they don't harvest, they don't store food into barns. Yet your heavenly father feeds them. Aren't you worth more than they? Aren't you more valuable than they? Can you add a single moment by worrying in your life? So here he gives us a perfect example of how birds live and how that they trust that their God will provide for what they need, right? They don't walk, they don't fly around freaking out, worrying, having panic attacks, you know, freaking out, worrying if they're gonna when when's their next meal gonna be, what are they gonna do if it rains? Where are they gonna land? Um, they don't they don't worry about that. But yet God provides and they know that and they trust that. They know that there's gonna be food, they know that they're gonna have shelter, they know that they're gonna have a direction when they're flying to warmer places in the winter, they just know that God's going to show up for them. I just think it's so beautiful. Like, isn't that just beautiful and encouraging that we can have that kind of mindset? You know, he says to us, we are even more valuable than the birds flying in the sky. So if he takes care of them, if he guides them, and if he provides for them, don't you think that he will even do even more so for us? He literally says, Can you add a single moment by worrying? He calls us out, he drops the mic. He says, Why are you worrying? That's not doing you any good. Right? You know, in verse 27, he that's where he says, like, you know, don't um does worrying add any time to your life? He's really, and he's not just dropping the mic, he's not saying this in a mean way, but he's bringing light and he's shedding the light out of the loveness of his heart that he has for us by saying, Hey, worrying's not good for you. Don't worry. Why are you worrying about these things? Are you adding time to your life? Are you adding health to your life? No, you are not doing any good by worrying. He's saying this out of a place of love. You know, when we're battling fear, when we're battling worry, anxiety over such things, over not having enough time in our day to get the things done that we need to get done, where the money for our bills is gonna come from, anxious about work problems and how we're gonna handle them, you know, anxious about our children when they're at school, worried about them when they're not in our care, worried about our spouse when he is away working, you know, all these examples that we could think about, all these things that we could be anxious about. When we start having anxious thoughts, truly the best way to fight it is to immediately just stop what you're doing, stop the anxious thoughts. You have to be strong. Yes, you have to you have to be strong to stop that raging sea of the anxiety of all the thoughts just swarming in you. You have to say, enough is enough. Stop immediately what you're doing, immediately where the anxious thoughts are, right then and there in that moment. And to get them out of your head, you have to stop. You have to pray, and you have to bring your needs to Jesus. You have to ask him to break the chains of your anxiety. You have to say, Lord, help me get rid of this anxiety. I don't want it anymore. I need your help. I'm coming to you, I'm seeking you, I need your peace. And, you know, we have to trust that he will show up for us, you know, and says in Philippians 4, verse 6 and 7, do not worry about anything, but instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, thank him for all he has done, and then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything that we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. That he says, Don't worry about it. Don't worry about all those things that you're freaking out about and you have anxiety about, but he says, pray about it. I already know that you need them. You come to me with thanksgiving, you come to me in prayer, you come to me with your requests, I will give you peace over that situation, I will give you peace over that person, I will give you peace over that worry, I will give you peace over that anxiety, I will give you peace over that fear, I will give you peace over that doubt, I will give you peace over that panic by praying. So many times have I been anxious and I just had to stop. I do it all the time. So many times the second my, you know, I start to get even a little bit anxious anymore, I stop and I pray and I'm like, hold on, pause. Let me come to God. And and I'll just pray and I'll be like, look, Lord, I'm really struggling with anxiety right now. Please help me. I'm so grateful for all the other times that you have helped me. I'm so thankful for the way you have healed me from my anxiety. But right now, in this moment, I'm worrying about the grass growing too tall. I don't know. And I'm like, hey, Lord, help me not worry about the grass growing too tall and help me, help me be at peace. And immediately after I'm done praying, boom, done. And prayer is answered, right? And that's really what this Philippians 4, 6, and 7 is saying. But let me get back to the main scripture here. Um, I don't want to get off too off topic. So continuing in Matthew chapter 6 and 28 through 30, he continues to say, So why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They do not labor, they do not spin thread. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all of his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown in the fryer tomorrow. Not the friar of the fire. He won't do, won't he do so much more for you, you of little faith. So he gives another example that we don't need to have any anxiety, we don't need to have any worry, but just wait on the Lord, seek him and see how he provides for us. He says, How valued we are so much more than any of this. You know, more than the birds, more than the lilies, more than the grass. And he says, how much more that he cares for us. And he does another mic drop here. Again, he exposes our thinking. He says, Won't I care so much more for you, even though you have little faith in me? He expresses the multitude of his love for us here. I think sometimes we miss, you know, we we read scripture and we understand it, yes, cool, but we miss the underlining I love you in there. We miss the underlining multitude of his love for us. Sometimes it's not really underlining, it is it's in bright bold letters, honestly, but we miss that part, really. Because now he has explained twice in the scripture that we are more important to him than the animals and the plants of the world. He expresses how much he really cares to help us, to provide for us, to guide us, to bless us. He also says, even though he's hurt by our lack of faith. He's hurt by our lack of trust, that we don't trust him to provide, that we worry about these things. He's his feelings are genuinely hurt when we worry about things. He's literally like, oh yeah, Amber, preaching to yourself, huh? Um, but you know, he says, like, we don't we shouldn't be worried about any of this. But even though your lack of faith in your in times, even though you've got lack of trust in those times, he still loves us. He says, I still love you. I still will take care of you. I still will make sure you've got food on the table. I still will make sure you've got clothes on your back. I still will watch over your kids while they're away from you. I will still protect your spouse while he's at work. I will still provide finances when you are able, you know, when you don't think you're able to pay your bills. I still will give you peace in this situation. I still will get rid of your anxiety. I still will calm the sea. I still will get rid of your fear, I still will get rid of your doubt. He says, I still will do more, so much more for you, even though you have little faith. Whatever your anxiety is, whatever your worry is, he says he will take care of it for you. Because that's how much he loves us. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Think about if you have kids, think about this. Maybe your child might doubt your ability to cook. I don't know. But they're hungry, they're real hungry. They didn't like their lunch at school. You cook them the best, their favorite meal. Anyway, even though they doubted you your ability to cook. You say, you know that hurts. But we're gonna work on that. But you say, you know what, we're gonna work on that. But I still love you so much, I still care about you so much. I am not gonna Gonna let you come home hungry. I'm gonna feed you, and I don't even am I just gonna feed you some frozen chicken nuggets. No, I'm gonna feed you your favorite home cooked meal because I love you that much. Think about that love that you have for your child and like multitude it by 70 times seven. Multitude it by 150. That's how much he loves us. He knows what you need, he knows your best interests, he knows what is best for us. We may think we know, but let me tell you what, he knows better. He's always making a plan to provide and to bless us for what is best for us. You know, in Jeremiah 29, 11 says, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. So let me wrap up my message here, truly, because I feel like I've been rambling extra today. In verse 33 and 34 he says, But first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. This is one of the pieces in the scripture that I really focus on because it's very similar to what he says in Philippians 4 6, where he instructs us to seek him. He says, But first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness. We seek him, we come to him, and not just come to him when you need help with your anxiety, but you come to his, you you seek his kingdom, you see you come to seek who God is, you want to spend time with him, you want to get to know him more, you want to try to pray more, you want to try to go to church more, you want to try to, you know, you're seeking him, you're seeking his work, you're seeking a relationship with him, right? You're seeking to obey him. And and through all of that, and by asking him to help you with your anxiety for A, B, C, D, E, F, G. I don't even know how long your list is. I know my list used to be pretty long and it gets shorter and shorter over time. At the end of all of this, he tells us not to worry about the future because he will take care of it. He will take care of it every single time. Even if it is extreme, and I can say I have seen the extreme. I was pregnant and I didn't think I could have kids, and that was nerve-wracking, and he provided. And then I had complicated I didn't really have complications, actually. My pregnancy was beautiful, and I'm really sick of these notifications interrupting my podcast because I know you guys can all hear them. Anyway, nothing was actually wrong, but I had so much anxiety because the doctors kept saying, What if? They kept that not what if they kept saying, like, well maybe so we're gonna watch it, well maybe so we're gonna watch it, well maybe, so we're gonna watch it. And so I had all this anxiety because I was just so scared that something was gonna be wrong with her. Or something was gonna be wrong with me. And let me tell you what, he provided, he said, No, your baby is healthy, you are healthy, you will carry this baby full term, you will make it out. And he provided. And then all the way up to my birth, my birth was by far probably one of the most traumatic ones I can have out there, not that I'm trying to make a pissing hot dust at all whatsoever. But long story short, I really wanted to give birth naturally, and then I was induced because I was 41 weeks, um, and I was well one day shy of 41 weeks, and um I was in labor for 26 hours on ketosin with no pain medication because I really wanted to do my absolute best to rely on God and his nothing else but his presence. And I was really like, I'm gonna surrender to you. And let me tell you what, the anxiety was so bad by the end of it because um I had a lot of complications. I had to get an epidural, it failed. Um, I had to get catheters that I felt all the pain to. I wasn't dilating correctly. Um, I had to get a C-section, and it wasn't the the medicine wasn't working the way it was supposed to. Um, I yeah, the surgery didn't go so great. Everything was fine, everything perfect, it all came out alive, everybody came out healthy. Um, but the in-between process was probably one of the most anxiety I've ever had in my life. And I had to keep reminding myself that no, hey, God's here, no hey, God's gonna provide. And he did. I can't tell you how many times in the hospital room during those 26 hours, God was like, Hey, I'm here. That I quite literally felt the hand of God on my stomach taking away my pain and my anxiety. Multiple times. He was like, hey, boom, I'm here for you right now, in this moment. I have a plan for you. It's all gonna work out. Let me be your peace. I have plans to prosper you, I have plans to bless you. He kept saying that, he kept saying you're strong and you're courageous. I got this, and he kept giving me peace in that anxiety. I have seen so, so much severe anxiety, severe, you know, I've got that. I understand, I I see where you're coming from, and I have seen him handle severe anxiety in my own life and and and in the others around me. I have seen um currently right now somebody I know is losing their house, and yet guess what? God is providing for them. That's how good he is. All right, I feel like at this point I'm just fan-grilling about God. Let me let me wrap this up here. Um, ending this off, he says, Don't worry about your future because he takes care of it. He gives us guidance, he tells us to take it one day at a time because we have enough to focus on today. You know, tomorrow's gonna worry about itself. We're gonna worry about today. And he says that in scripture. Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each trouble has enough on its own. He says, take one day at a time. Don't focus on what are you gonna do next week? How are you gonna do pay your bills next month? How are you gonna afford the trip? How are you gonna pack your bags and fit all your stuff in one bag? I don't know. All the things you can try to think about in the future to worry about. He says, Don't worry about that, focus on today, focus on one day at a time. Let's conquer one day at a time. I got you, I got plans for you, I will provide for you, I care for you, I love you. So, um, as I for real wrap this up, I just encourage you to memorize these scriptures when you're feeling anxious. Allow God to give you this peace and to fight the worries with the truth and allow God to heal you from the anxiety and the fear that you have and truly heal from this once and for all. Not a band-aid, not a oh, I was healed, but it came back. Truly be healed of this. You do not have to let anxiety be your story. I don't care if it runs in your family, I don't care if you were diagnosed with it, I don't care if you were on seven different medications and it didn't work because let me tell you, I am a standing alive witness of his truth. Anxiety runs in my family. I've tried multiple medications, I've tried it all. Let me tell you what, when you thought I was a lost cause guy, I was like, don't stand a chance with me, baby. Right? I don't know why I talk like that. Alright, let me wrap this up. I'm gonna end in prayer. I really hope uh today spoke to spoke to you. Um, and I really hope you were able to get a takeaway from it as much as I was rambling, I feel like, and even though I was being silly at times, I just really hope that this was something that you were able to relate to and to get a good takeaway from because you're not alone and he can heal you too. Dear Heavenly Father, I just lift every single one of these listeners up to you, Father. I just pray over them. I pray I cover them in peace, Father. That I pray that they will come to you with their requests, that they will come to you, that they will seek your face, that you will give them the peace that surpasses their understanding, Father. That you will give them not the peace as the world gives, but the peace as you give. And I pray that their hearts will not be troubled, that their hearts will not be afraid, Father, but they will be open to you, that they will know that you can heal them. And I just pray that healing over everybody um with anxiety who is listening, Father. Amen. All right, with that note, thank you so much for listening. If you have any prayer requests, please, please, please email me, your BibleGal at gmail.com. You can also find me on Insta or TikTok in my link tree or in the show notes. Um, you can find me there. I would absolutely love to pray for you and to get connected. Um and to, yeah. So thank you so much for listening, and I will see you guys next time.

SPEAKER_00 30:59

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you'd like to hear more, there are new episodes that drop every Monday and Thursday. If you liked what you heard, please help me give a lump by leaving a review. You can also give using the link below. I'd love to pray for you. If you have any prayer requests, please send me an email to your email. Please send me some of the links.