Why Anxiety Isn’t Always the Enemy | Dr Wes Beavis

What if stress isn’t always the enemy?

In this message, Dr. Wes unpacks what Scripture and science reveal about anxiety, stress, and the way God designed the human body. Looking at Psalm 139:14, Isaiah 41:10, Philippians 4:6–7, and more, this teaching explores how fear, cortisol, resilience, and faith all connect.

You’ll hear a powerful real-life story of survival, learn the difference between a fear-based mindset and a growth-oriented mindset, and discover how speaking God’s truth over your life can reshape the way you face pressure, pain, and uncertainty.

If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, anxious, exhausted, or mentally stuck, this message is a reminder that you are fearfully and wonderfully made—and that God is with you in whatever you’re facing.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

242, everybody who's here in the room, thank you for coming out and everybody online. Good morning. Great being with you. And uh it's just uh exciting to know that I'm gonna be sharing tonight with any parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, youth leaders on how we can help our young people uh develop mental resilience. And so if you're not doing anything this afternoon at 4:30, we have food trucks and uh to start off the evening with. So um thank you for being here. Now, I I don't know about you, but I always, when I hear a speaker that I've never heard before, I like to know a little bit about them. So I just thought I'd introduce you to my family on the left-hand side here. That tall young man, his name is David. He is a pastor up in uh Montana. And next to him is my wife, Ellie. Uh, we've been married over 41 years. And uh we just uh there she is, she was graduating with her PhD. Um uh she started that in her late 50s and took about six years to knock out. So if you're here and you're thinking, you know, all that, you know, possibility is past me. No, not at all. You're as young as you choose to be. This is my uh second son, our second son, um Dr. Zach Beavis. He is a doctor of medicine serving in the US Navy. And uh I'm very uh very grateful that uh God has blessed me with uh this family. Oh, I have a YouTube channel. Get your cell phones out. This is this is a uh a time that you can uh help me out here. It's called Making Life Better with Dr. Wess. Making life better with Dr. Wes. And I worked really hard to put together these little documentaries on all types of subjects. It's psychology by a passionate Jesus following Christian. And uh so I have lots of little uh uh films, mini-films. This one is called Wives Want This. Three qualities a husband must provide. Every husband in the room, you gotta watch that. You gotta know what three qualities your wife wants the most. And physical touch is not one of them. Sorry about that. But maybe if you get the three right, it might lead to that. Who knows? God is good. Uh, burnout, three signs that you need a break. Um, I am a burnout specialist. It's what I uh spend a lot of my time in the clinical world doing. Anxiety is not the enemy. Sometimes, you know, we think that if we're depressed or we're anxious, there's something wrong with us. I had uh I spend most of my time counseling pastors. I had one pastor contact me this week and said, uh, Dr. Wess, um, I'd like to uh book some sessions with you. He he said, I lost my dad in December, and uh and I think I'm struggling with depression. And I texted him back and said, so you should be. You lost your dad. That's a big deal. You know, there is a time and a place for anxiety and depression. It's not the enemy. Sometimes God uses these things to get our attention, and so that's just a little bit uh of added bonus that you can uh uh subscribe and like, um, you we can keep connected and I can continue to minister to you. Okay, my message today is based on Psalm 139, and I'm gonna be picking it up in verse 13. Very familiar to you, for you, God, created my innermost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. You know, when we look at that verse fearfully, we, you know, sometimes our modern interpretation is like, you know, God we are fearfully made. It was God in heaven going, oh, I hope I get this right, you know, I mean, it's been, you know, so far so good, but I'm creating the the pinnacle of my creation. Oh, I hope I no. Fearfully in the Old Testament meaning is we are made with awe and reverence. With awe and reverence. We are wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. And because I spend my life at the intersection of faith and scientific research, I love it when scientific research comes up with something that God has known and taught us all along. And so today I'm gonna be sharing with you, you know, some a little bit of neuroscience just to help you understand just how wonderful with awe and reverence God has made you. Now, you may have come to church and you may be going through a tough time. This week has been hard. Well, you're in the right place because what God has asked me to share with you today is going to encourage you in the way that you think to make a difficult time actually better. You're gonna end today having a fuller understanding of just how wonderfully God has made you. Okay, let me introduce you to a friend of mine, Ann Yella on the right here, and her friend Debbie Nichols. They're avid mountain bike riders, and they were riding their uh mountain bikes in Whiting Ranch, Southern California. And I was interviewing Ann and I said, uh, Ann, tell me about your experience. And she said, Well, I was ahead of Debbie by some distance, and I came over a hill, and I sensed this reddish-brown fur movement in my peripheral vision. And I thought I had startled a deer. But Dr. West, nanoseconds later, I realized it was no deer. It was a fully grown male mountain lion, and I was being attacked. The veracity of the force of the attack pushed her off the bike, and as she came down on the ground, her helmet slipped off her head and was dangling around her neck. And this was frustrating the mountain lion because the mountain lion was doing what mountain lions do. They were get that was wanting purchase on the neck so that he could snap Anne's neck and make the kill. But this bike helmet was dangling there, and so he did the next best thing. He took his jaws and he grabbed Anne's face, and he started dragging Ann down into a ravine. Cheek, face, flesh, tearing all the way. Debbie Nichols saw it all unfold before her. She threw her bike to the side. And she went down into the ravine as Anne was being dragged down by this mountain lying intent on killing Anne. And Debbie Nichols grabbed her ankle and started pulling her up all the time at the top of her lungs, saying, Anne, I'm not gonna let you die. I'm not gonna let you die. And so this slight woman, about 115, 120 pounds, was pulling Anne up the ravine with gravity against her, pulling also a mountain lion that was attached to Anne's face. How does a woman, how does a woman who who is is 120 pounds, how is she able to summon that type of energy to be able to, in that moment, be able to perform the way she did, to start pulling Anne up out of the ravine and yelling, I am not gonna let you die, I'm not gonna let you die. How what was in Debbie Nichols that allowed her to perform that way? The same thing that's in you, same thing that's in me. You see, when we find ourselves in a crisis, when we find ourselves in a stressful situation, what happens is our body releases certain hormones, certain chemicals. Oh, I always have to put this slide in because sometimes I forget to let people know that Anne lived. Um, life light helicopter came in. Just so fortunate that one of America's leading trauma surgeons was on call that night. And so the trauma surgeon said it was if her whole left side of the face had been pulled open with handfuls of dirt thrown in. And he said it was it was a terrible mess. And Anne went through uh just countless surgeries, but she survived. And and then the uh invitations for all the uh the television shows, Good Morning America and today's show, wanted Anne to come and just share her story. And Anne said, I'm happy to do so as long as you let me say Jesus saved me. Because Anne is a passionate follower of Jesus. And she said, When I was under attack, she goes, I had that option for a split second. Do I just hand myself over to this lion? Hopelessly lopsided fight. But then she just sensed the Spirit of God to say, No, Anne, you fight. And fight she did, and she survived. So uh she's a beautiful woman of God. Uh, just wanted to make sure I can uh I let you know. Okay, so back to these hormones that God puts in our system. Every one of us have kidneys in the back here, and on top of our kidneys are our adrenal glands. And our adrenal glands, in response to whatever we're going through, will secrete certain chemicals to help us perform. So, with Debbie Nichols, the first chemical that gets coursed into her bloodstream is adrenaline. Now, adrenaline shocks all your muscles into action. And then, followed by adrenaline, is cortisol. Cortisol helps you keep incredibly focused on the task at hand. So, what cortisol does is it turns sugar and fat into energy, it improves the ability of your body and your brain to use that energy. And it happens so quickly, but that's the way God has designed us. In certain situations, when we're under certain stressors, God has so designed us to release certain chemicals to help us endure what we're going through. Now, what cortisol does is it suppresses some biological functions that are less important during stress. For instance, digestion. Guys, if we're out there in the wilderness and we're getting chased by a bear, we're not thinking, man, I'm kind of hungry right now. Should have had that second bagel.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

No, our digestive system has shut down because God designed us that way. Because all that energy that our digestive system uses is reassigned to help us perform in uh this stressful situation. Your reproduction system is shut down. Now, you know, for uh for all the married guys in here, you know, we think about we think about the intimacy a lot. And um, but I can guarantee you, when you're being chased by a bear, you're not thinking about sex. Because that whole side of you is shut down. I can see there's a few wives around here going, honey, we need to get a pet bear. Now, there's another neurosteroid called dehydroepiandrosterone or DHEA for short. Now, dehydroeandrosterone is a neurosteroid that helps your brain to grow. So, um, how many people ever see the inside of a gym? Go and work out. Let me let me see your hands. Okay. Um, let me uh these two handsome guys down here. What's your name? Will Will and Zach. Okay. Um, when I go to the gym and I work out, you know, I'm pumping iron. I don't make me take my shirt off to prove it, but um Will and Zach, after doing that, you know, the next day, um, my arms really hurt. Do your arms hurt too? Do you know why that is?

unknown 13:42

Working out that specific muscle.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Yeah, you're working out that specific muscle, and what happens is when you when you use it, when you put that muscle under stress, you create micro-tears in your muscle. And so your body naturally releases testosterone as not only a healing agent, but it rebuilds the muscle so that you end up with arms like Will and Zach here. Will, you wore a t-shirt. Perfect for today. Will's getting up to get dressed and goes, Lord, what do you want me to wear today? The Lord said, Wear a t-shirt so you can show those guns. I don't know about you, Zach. You're wearing a wearing a sweatshirt there. Dehydroephiandrosterone does the same for the brain, it stimulates the production of new brain cells. Now, scientists thought back in the day that when we were born, we were born with, you know, a certain amount of brain cells, and that's all, that was, that was all we got for the rest of our life. And we'd spend the rest of our days kind of burning through those brain cells so that when we're elderly, we're dumber than a box of rocks. And that's not the truth. The reality, what scientists have discovered, is uh dehydroepandrosterone is an active neurosteroid that is being produced in our body even up until our final days. Producing new brain cells, neurogenesis. That means the formation, the beginning of new brain cells. Isn't that cool? Now, so which is better, cortisol or dehydroependrosterone? You know, which would you prefer? I if I had to make you choose between one. But the reality is it's it's it's it's the wrong question to ask. It's the ratio that's important. You see, when we're high cortisol, like when we're you know trying to outrun a bear, and we're low dehydroephyandrosterone, what scientists have discovered is that configuration, high cortisol, low dehydroephyandrosterone, um, it uh is associated with harm to our immune function. So um my my son, who's the medical doctor, uh he said, Dad, what that is is um our immune system is is when it's operating well, it shields us from pathogens that are all around us. Like you came to church at the moment, you walked into this way, you thought you were walking into uh a worship center. You walked into a pathogen incubator right in this room. There are so many pathogens in this place, and and uh if you've got you know, if your immune system is really suppressed, then you know you could catch something by coming to church. Um hopefully the Holy Spirit, but now it's also been linked to experience the experience of depression when you have high cortisol, low dehydro of androsterone. But uh when we're in certain stressful situations, that's the configuration that we are meant to be in. Because cortisol is that active agent, that active hormone that's helping us perform in certain stressful situations. Now, here's the issue. God intended for us to be in this configuration for short bursts of time. When we come up when we're going through something really stressful, short bursts of time. But we live in a culture, we live in a in a society that uh likes to uh keep activating our fear response so that they can keep um keep their attention. Or we we give them our attention. Oh, what's going on? You know, this has been a big couple of weeks. You know, I I like the news, I like, I love America, I um and what America is doing at the moment is it it just makes me want to check the news all the time. But I find that it's it stresses me. And if I don't watch it, I can find myself in this configuration a lot and God never intended for us to be in this configuration, high cortisol, low dehydroephy androsterone for most of the time. That's what the world wants. But God only wants us to be this in short bursts, not 24-7. So when we're in this configuration, and by the way, this research comes out of Stanford University. Uh, Dr. Kelly McGonagall leads a research team there. And uh when I was reading her research, it just like, oh my goodness, that's I I see God's design all over that. When you're high D hydroandosterone and low cortisol, which is the configuration that God wants us to be in most of the time, unless you're getting chased by a bear, that has been linked to reduced anxiety and depression, reduced heart disease, and reduced brain cell deterioration. So isn't, you know, you kind of want to be in that configuration because I want reduced anxiety and depression. I want reduced heart disease, I want reduced brain cell deterioration. Now, what Dr. Kelly McGonagall and her research team have called this is the growth index. When we're in this configuration, high dehydroepandrosterone, low uh cortisol. They call that the growth index, which is when we're in that configuration, we have greater persistence, greater resilience, higher performance, greater focus, superior problem solving skills. You know when you know when you get so stressed that you can't even think straight? It's like, and you think, what's wrong with me? You know, I'm just I I I can't I I have no idea where I put my keys. And I'm so stressed about that, I it's it's I I I can't even think of where I've been leading. Superior problem solving skills comes when we're in that state of calm. High dehydro epiandrosterone, low cortisol. So the question is how do you activate the growth index? Are you in control of the ratios? Can you control whether you're high cortisol, low dehydro epidosterone, or flipping that? Are you in control? And the answer is categorically yes. And you being in church today is helping you stay in that configuration. You see, it's not stress that's the enemy. You know, sometimes, you know, maybe us doctors are guilty of it. We'll go, oh, you know, you're under too much stress. You've got to, you know, you've got to avoid stress. And so we get this sense that stress is bad. And that's not actually accurate. We're meant to operate under an appropriate level of stress. Um, Anton was playing guitar here. If I went over there and uh messed with his strings and thought, oh, these these poor strings, they're they're under tension, they're under stress. Let me just release the tension, release the stress so they can feel better. What that guitar is gonna sound like terrible. There's stress. Stress is not the enemy, it's an view of the stress. So if you have a fear and worry view of the stressful events, then that is gonna lead to your system re releasing certain chemicals into your bloodstream. So what is uh what is a fear and worry of a stressful what does that sound like you're signaling to your brain. Your life is under threat. You're being changed by so adrenaline all released into your system. Because I think you're you know you're in a in a life-threatening situation when you speak those words and you're like, this will be the death of me. Or you can have a view of stressful events and think it goes like this. I believe, regardless of what I face, God is with me, and he will bring good out of it. That's a growth-oriented view of stress. So I want us to do this exercise together. I want us all to stand up, and we're gonna say this uh together. Um and uh on the count of three, we're gonna go line by line. I don't know what happened here, but just imagine that it's on the same line. And uh uh let's let's go for it. One, two, three. I believe, regardless of what I face, God is with me and he will bring good out of it. Again, I believe, regardless of what I face, God is with me and he will bring good out of it. Come on, I believe, regardless of what I face, God is with me and he will bring good out of it. Come on, church, I believe, regardless of what I face, God is with me and he will bring good out of it. Okay, does anybody at the end of that, does anybody feel something in your body when you said when you declare that? You you felt kind of a tingling in your body? Yeah. Congratulations. You just changed your body chemistry just by the words that you proclaim. So if you want to be depressed, definitely go with uh I'm gonna call an audible here. I want the whole band out. We're gonna do that um uh the the miracles. The first song we did. Um we've got time. So my time, we can do this. So I want Renee to come out, wherever Renee is. Renee's got a lot of adrenaline and cortisol running through her system right now. Oh my goodness, he's called an audible. What is it? Okay. And uh Anton, I I want to start with the I don't want to start kind of, you know, kind of meander our way up the mountain. I just want to go straight there, helicopter in. I Anton, I I want you to thrash that thing like there's no tomorrow. Like, I want you to thrash that thing like you can earn your way into heaven by just playing the guitar really hard. So, church, the Bible is full of words that you can speak over your life in your stressful situations. Let's say this together on the count of three, one, two, three. So do not fear, for I am with you, do not be dismayed, for I am your God, I will strengthen you and help you and will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Here's another one from Deuteronomy. Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or terrified because of them. For the Lord your God goes with you, he will never leave you nor forsake you. Church, when you speak the word of God over your life, you change your body chemistry and you become more resilient in the face of whatever stress you go through. And there'll be people that will go, how do you do that? How can you face what you're facing and still have a countenance of peace? It's because you have figured out that you can configure how wonderfully God has made you to your advantage, to the building of your faith. Alright. I've always loved this passage. Do not be anxious about anything, continue. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. I always looked at this as kind of metaphorical, you know, that uh the peace of God transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts, you know, kind of the center of our being and guard your minds in Christ Jesus. Until I read the research coming out of Stanford University, which says when you're in this configuration, high dehydroepandrosterone, low cortisol, because of your view of stressful events, you'll have reduced heart disease, reduced brain cell deterioration. In fact, you will produce more brain cells. And here's why when you go through it, God strengthens you, and God gives you experience, and God builds your faith, and you're gonna find yourself having greater empathy for other people, and you're gonna find yourself being called to new ministries, and God is going, All right, we need some more brain cells here, because uh we're going into territory that this person hasn't been before, so he'll produce more brain cells that are are focused on the mission of what we've discovered. So, so it's not only metaphorical, it's actually physical as well. God, as we as we're not anxious about anything, but in everything, well, that the actual Greek says, Don't be imprisoned by your anxiety. It's okay to have anxiety, it's not okay to become so imprisoned by it you can't move. But in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God which transcends will guard your hearts and your minds, both metaphorically, spiritually, and physically. Isn't God good? How wonderful are you made? How wonderful are we made. Rob, get over here. Rob, come over here, man. Stand right there. Okay, we're gonna ramp that up like like Jesus is coming back before lunch. Okay, just alright. Just let me do something with Rob here. Rob, speak into the microphone. Let's make sure it works. Okay, okay, Rob, first of all, you've got a great voice, and it was really good to hear you minister this morning. This is Rob's first time on the on the worship team. So, alright. So, yesterday, yesterday, Rob threw his back out. And uh it was really, I know what it's like to throw your back out. It's it's painful, isn't it? So when you got up this morning and speak it, speak boldly into the microphone, Rob, when you got up this morning, did you notice the pain? Yes, and Rob, when you're standing here leading us in worship before the throne of God, did you notice the pain as much? No, no, do you know why? Adrenaline is a natural analgesic, it helps you notice the pain less. The pain is still there, but God gives us that neurosteroid to help us perform in situations where you know, without his spirit, without his design, it would be so hard to perform. So I just want to say thank you for not waking up this morning, my back hurts, and so my throat's going out in union, in unison with that, when you know, another day. You showed up, you served Jesus, you let us well, even though you're in pain, and you're a testimony to what can happen when we have a God-oriented view about stress. So come on, come on, let's uh let's have just a little bit. That you've reminded us today that we are made with reverence and awe and made wonderfully to be able to perform supernaturally in some really tough situations. And Father God, I know by virtue of the fact we have hundreds of people here and hundreds of people online, that some are really facing some very difficult circumstances. Lord, right now I pray that you would inspire them to have a godly view of what they're going through. I believe, regardless of what I face, God is with me and He will bring good out of it. Thank you, Jesus.