Let's Talk Anxiety

Are you overwhelmed? Are you feeling like life is life-ing right now? Do you feel anxious as a single? Are you worried about the future, your bills, your family or even your children? On this episode of the Singles Oasis Podcast, Mary Bowen and her special guest, Barbara Johnson discuss anxiety and provide biblical and practical advice on how to combat anxiety and bring peace to your anxious mind. 

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Thank you for tuning in! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

And we are live. So good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Singles Oasis Podcast. The Singles Oasis is a ministry of refuge and a gathering place for singles. Here at the Singles Oasis, you will receive biblical wisdom, wise counsel that will help you in your walk with Christ. Our foundational scripture is where there is count, there is no counsel, the people fail. But in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. And that comes from Proverbs chapter 11, verse 14. If you are watching for the first time, let us know in the chat. If you are a returning viewer, thank you for tuning in again. Please like and share the broadcast with your followers, friends, and family. So this is episode three. So tonight we are beginning our series Behind the Scenes with the Ladies of the Singles Oasis. Our topic tonight is anxiety. Yes, let's talk anxiety. Tonight, our special guest is none other than Barbara Johnson, aka Bobby. Some of you may recognize or know her or even remember her from our panel during the initial launch of the Singles Oasis last year in November. So I'm gonna stop talking for a minute. And Bobby, would you please introduce yourself to the Singles Oasis audience?

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Yes, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Um as Mary said, I am Barbara Johnson, uh aka Bobby, um aka Pastor Barbara. Um I am many things um by the grace of God, but most importantly, I am a child of God. I am an heir to the throne, um, and I am a royal priesthood, as we all are, who are children of God. So about me, um I live my life how God tells me to. I live my life, uh, I should say, I do the best to live my life and walk in obedience and to live in submission. It's not always easy, but that I have found to be the best way to live this Christian life for me because it could be hard in these here Christian streets. So the best way to live it is to allow God to drive the car and just go where he says go and do what he says do.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

Amen. Amen. So thank you for that wonderful introduction. And I know that you'll have something that you'll want to share a little later in the broadcast, and I can't wait for you to share that uh with our audience. So, again, tonight we will be talking about anxiety. So, to our singles oasis viewers, I know some of you we may have talked informally, and and I may have indicated that we were previously going to talk about rejection. Don't worry, that segment is coming in the near future, but the Lord has laid it upon our hearts to talk to you about anxiety, just given all that's going on with the world right now, with all of the chaos, with all the stress, with all the burdens and all the different things that are going on with you know all of our everyday lives, we want to make sure that we have something that is relevant for not only for our audience, but also relevant in terms of showing you, you know, what the Bible says about anxiety and what we can do to combat it. So before I discuss anxiety in more detail, I just wanted to share just a few stats before we get into the heart of our discussion. So there is some pre-pandemic data, probably somewhere around, I believe it's October 2020. Um, the Barner Group they conducted a study, the connected generation Barner Group study. And according to that study, half of those aged 18 through 35, so it's about 49% of those that participated in the study, expressed anxiety over important decisions and they indicated that they were also afraid to fail. Three in 10 people in this particular age range reported feeling sad or depressed, so which equates to about 39%, and then 34% reported feeling lonely or isolated from others. According to the CDC, they have something called the National Health Statistics Reports, and in 2022, about one in five adults aged 18 or older experienced uh symptoms of anxiety, so it's about 18.2 percent, and about 21.4 percent experienced symptoms of depression in the past two weeks. Um those percentages varied both in terms of symptoms among uh adults aged 18 through 29. Um, while these statistics, there was a decrease in some of these numbers in terms of age, those numbers were higher among women than they were men. And lastly, uh according to the Byrne Group, they conducted a poll in 2024, and 39% of Gen Z reported feeling uncertain about their future and experienced anxiety about important decisions. Those that were identified or classified as boomers or elders only reported experiencing this about 16% of the time. So, real quickly, we just want to establish some foundation and tell you all okay, what exactly is anxiety? So, I'm gonna give a medical definition of anxiety. So, according to the American Psychological Association, they define anxiety as an emotion characterized by apprehension and somatic symptoms of tension in which an individual anticipates impending danger, catastrophe, or misfortune. The body often mobilizes itself to meet the perceived threat. Muscles become tense, breath is faster, and the heart beats more rapidly. And the American Psychological Association adopted this definition from the APA dictionary of uh psychology. Some of you may have also heard of anxiety being characterized as excessive worry. The dictionary, uh dictionary definition of anxiety includes worry or uneasiness about what may happen, or an eager but uneasy desire or an anxiety to do well. Um, in the Bible, there are several instances where anxiety is referred to as a care or a burden in both the New and Old Testaments, which we will talk about a little short uh shortly. So, Bobby, do you have anything we want to add before we start talking about some signs of anxiety?

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Well, given the state and the climate of our country right now, I suspect a lot of people are suffering from anxiety and may not know it. Um there could be um uh there are I've heard cases of where anxiety is medical. You know, it could be a mental health thing, um, it can cause eating disorders, um, things like that. Sometimes it can cause us to sabotage ourselves, you know, because of our thinking patterns. So it's such a wide array of symptoms and causes, um, but it also starts in the mind. And and as far as anxiety, you have to figure out where is the root, where is it rooted? How do you cut that root? How do you pull it up? What is the weed killer to get rid of that root and to make sure that it never comes back? So those are some things that I know about anxiety, and sometimes people don't even know that they're going through anxiety, some experiences so much from the trauma that they've experienced in life that it becomes a regular way of life, and they they have no idea sometimes because of their thought pattern, you know, the negativity or being in a negative environment constantly, 34, you know, 24-7, 365 days a year, you're in this negative environment. You don't even know that your body is suffering through anxiety, causing all these illnesses, causing pain and and things like that in your body because it's normal.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

And there's something I want to add to that since you mentioned, you know, there's an instance where the body is constantly in this nervous state. I had posted something on Facebook about uh four days ago that there's a I included a quip about our mind and our emotions. So there's a part of the brain called the amygdala, and that's the part of the brain that is responsible for processing our emotions. This part of the brain is the brain's uh danger detector. So once it's activated, it triggers the body's fight or flight response, and it tells the hippothalamus to release stress hormones for the body to take action. The amygdala is also responsible for connecting our emotions to our memories, and you touched upon this a minute ago. Certain environments, relationships, the media, and things that we can uh consume affect this part of our brain. And too much consumption or exposure to traumatic or triggering events will affect our mind, specifically our emotions. It will put our bodies in a flight or flight mode, fight or flight mode, affect our sleep, it can also lead to anxiety or for some trigger PTSD and panic attacks.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Absolutely, absolutely. And some sometimes people think when you know, when you say the word consume, they think of how much food, you know, do you consume? I know some people who who suffer through anxiety, you know, or stress or worry, they turn to food. I turn to food sometimes. That is my comfort, you know, food, junk food, potato chips, cookies, things like that. That's that's my comfort for when I'm stressed, you know, or when I'm feeling anxiety. But sometimes it's what we consume in our eyes and in our ears. You know, what are we watching on TV? I purposely do not watch the news anymore. I I tune in, I'm not completely oblivious to what's going on in the world. You know, I tune in to see what's going on, and then I tune out because there was a time where I would watch the news before, you know, while I'm getting ready for work in the morning, the first thing to go on was the news. I'd watch the news when I come home, I watch the news before I go to bed. So I'm consuming all of this news and not just looking at it, I'm reading it. You know, so all of this time, I'm watching it on YouTube. So all of this time, I'm consuming all of this news, which is negative and it's fear-mongering. So if I'm being constantly fed fear and anxiety, then that's that's what I'm absorbing, not just in my mind, but in my body and in my brain, like you said, in our the part of our brain that that that pushes out stress and anxiety, I'm consuming that on purpose. So it's affecting not just my internal uh inside, you know, my body internally, but it's affecting my thought pattern, it's affecting my behavior, you know, and how I handle things, it's affecting my sleep, it's affecting my view because I'm taking in all of this next negativity. So if if this is what I'm consuming and over-consuming, over-indulging, then I don't have a positive view on anything because I'm not consuming anything positive. And so it just gets to the part where your body just gets used to it and you think, okay, this is this is just life. It's not going to get any better. You know, the Bible says we are what we think. And if this is what we're consuming, this is what we're thinking. You know, on that negative thought, we've opened the door to the enemy to just constantly feed us trash. Come on. And and the this garbage that's coming in, it's not being released. And what happens when the when the trash gets full, it stinks, right? Yeah. Because it's not taken out. So your thinking becomes stinky, you know, because this is all you're consuming.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

And I think something else we have to keep in mind, in addition to the thinking, you know, the stinking thinking, is we don't have any peace. So if you're constantly consuming the all of the negative meetings, uh media, so if the news is constantly in your ears, your ear gates, that's constantly getting in your spirit, if you're reading it and it all they're talking about is calamity, tragedy, um, you know, unaliving folks. Um, that's going to make you feel some type of way. It's eventually going to set up or establish a foundation for the spirit of fear to also enter into our hearts as well. And the Lord has told us not to be fearful.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Right, right, right. He told us to guard our heart with all due diligence. And that means to guard it from everything and not let the enemy come in, you know, and and fill us with all of this garbage.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

So speaking of which, since we're we're talking about it, so some people may not know, especially if they're in this chaotic state, if it's something uh they regularly experience. So, what are some signs in which we are experiencing anxiety? You know, a common sign is worrying, but but what else?

SPEAKER_01 14:27

I would say other than panic attacks, we could lose sleep. We we could um become suspicious of people, you know. I mean, because there are um because people are in such a constant state of negativity, they become suspicion, suspicious about people and their motives, you know, the trust is lacking. They think, oh, I'm waiting for the sh the other shoe to drop, you know, or this person, um, do they mean me any good? Sometimes people become suicidal. They get tired, you know, it it makes them weary, they can't concentrate. You know, they they they're confused. You know, I know for um myself when uh when I've gone through my periods of anxiety, I have uh I call it brain farts, you know, or you know, like when um sometimes when women, you know, when they're pregnant and they're in their last trimester, they have that pregnancy brain and they, you know, so foggy they can't think straight. That's how sometimes I feel, you know, when I go through anxiety. I can't think straight, I can't concentrate, you know. I try to focus, but it just escapes me and it it just doesn't seem to um work out the way I want it to work out, you know. Um, you mentioned it, losing sleep, nightmares. If if uh if I'm going through something very stressful, I'm always thinking about it. It's like replaying that movie over and over and over again in your head. You try to think on something else, but you can't because every time you try to put your thoughts somewhere else, that same thing that's bothering you comes back. And when you go to sleep, you're thinking about it, so you're dreaming about it, and you're having all these nightmares, so there is no peace, and it's a constant revolving thing that just doesn't stop until and that's why I said some people it and you know it can cause them to be suicidal, and I get it because you're constantly it's like this is going, going, going, going. It's like okay, this is not ending. I I can't make this stop. And so to stop that pain because it causes pain. Yes, this is what causes some people to commit suicide.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

And I would also say to add to that, there are some instances where um it may lead to compulsiveness, excessive compulsiveness, and uh in a well, you talked about the brain fog, so the inability to concentrate, your mind is racing, and it feels like you know you're being pulled in so many different directions, it is just so um difficult for us to focus, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Right, it makes you want to give up, yes. Yeah, absolutely, and the pressure, you know, stress causes pressure. Jesus, he even says in Matthew, he says, What is worrying going to do? Is it going to solve the problem? Is it gonna make things okay? No, it doesn't. Worry does not, if anything, worry causes you to go the opposite direction, it rots you from the inside out. Like I said, that trash, that trash is sitting there and is rotting because it has no escape. That's worry does. It rots you from the inside out, and so it does not solve the problem. And one thing I heard TD Jake say this a year, a few years ago, he said, um, if God can't do it, it can't be done, I'm going to sleep. So this is this is this is what I try to do, you know, when I'm worrying and I'm replaying that movie over and over again. Um, you know, my thing is, God, if you can't fix this, if you can't solve this problem, it can't be done. I'm done with worry, I'm going to sleep. I've even gone as far as to say, God, can you hold me in your arms like a little girl laying her head in her father's chest while I go to sleep so that I can have a peaceful sleep? I'm concerned about this thing. I know you said not to worry. I'm trying not to worry, but it's hard, God. I'm concerned. Can you help me? Can I lay in your arms tonight? Can I put my head on your chest and get some sleep tonight? And every time I do that, I have a really good night's sleep because I am laying in his arms.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

I love it. That's just such that is such a beautiful tip. And you know what? I'm going to use that beautiful tip. Because something else that I have done, um, and this is a question that I want to pose to the audience since you brought that up. Um, something else that I have done, because normally I prefer to do my devotion, you know, in the morning. But if there is something that's weighing on me, I'm gonna spend some time in the word. And I've noticed that when I've spent some time in the word and I've meditated on that word before I went to sleep, whatever was bothering me will cease.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. And music, like I'll put on music. I go to sleep every night with my worship music on. I set it for an hour, I have on my my ear, you know, plugs or whatever. Go to sleep with that music. Sometimes I forget to set it for an hour, and it just keeps playing all night, and I'm worshiping and I'm praising in my sleep because the music is going. This is what I'm feeding my spirit because I'm asleep, and that gives me peace.

SPEAKER_03 20:29

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

So I want to, I think we had you briefly touched on it, but let's kind of talk about what fuels I our anxiety. You briefly mentioned pressure a few moments ago, and I really don't think people really understand how much pressure we're under, especially as women, whether you are single, whether you're widowed, married, a single mom. There's just so much pressure because there's an expectation that you know the woman will take care of everything. She'll take care of the home, she'll take care of the kids, she'll take care of family members that are ailing. Because if you think about a lot of the family members that are guardians or caretakers for their parents or for their siblings, so they're responsible for caring for you know another person. If they work outside of the home, they also have work responsibilities and pressures that are on them. Plus, there are actually societal pressures that are placed on women as well. So when I was, you know, sharing that statistical data earlier, it came to no surprise to me that the stats said that women were more stressed than men because there are a lot of things that are on our plates, and at times it feels like we cannot breathe, especially if you wear multiple hats. I have felt like that in this season because I'm like, God, can I just take some? Time to pull away and get some rest. Can I shut off my phone? Can I stop answering emails because I just feel like you know there's too much access, there's so much noise, there's so many demands, there's so many things that that is required of me right now. And God, I just need the rest.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Sometimes you just need that silence. You know, I have the gift of ignore. I've always had the gift of ignore. I could tune people out, I could sit in a room full of people and not hear one person. I think it's a wonderful gift that God has given me, but sometimes I have to shut down, you know, because of the pressures of life. And I've been a single mom, I've been a wife, you know, and and when you are doing both, like I'll give you an example. When I was married, I was working, and I still had to come home and take care of the kids. You know, I had to go pick up the kids for first. I had to drop them off to school. So we're rushing in the morning, drop them off to the daycare, you know, where the it was a preschool program. They would take my kids to school because I had to leave so early, you know, it was too early before the school opened. So I had them in this um preschool or it's not preschool. I forgot the name, what they call it, but you drop your kids off, they take them to school, they pick them up, and then right? Is that Latchkey? Is that Latchkey? No, it's not Latchkey. Um, I forgot what the name of the program is, but it was it was a program that was through our church. And I would drop the kids off there at like 6:30 in the morning. The school was only a block away from the church, so they would walk the kids to the school, and then when the kids got out of school at three o'clock, they would go pick them up, and then they would go to the daycare center and they would stay there until I got off from work. So, you know, I'm dropping them off in the morning, which means we're getting up super early. You know, I'm rushing to get them out so I can get on. And I was I wasn't driving, I was on public transportation. So I'm rushing to get them there in the morning and then hop on the bus to go to work. And then when I get to work, you know, I have all this pressure from from the people that I work for, you know, who want me to perform like I'm this miracle worker, you know, like you don't make mistakes. I'm perfect. There's no mistakes, and they expect everything like five minutes ago before they even told me what they wanted me to do, you know, and and so I'm dealing with that pressure. And then getting off, going to pick up the kids, got to rush home, cook dinner, maybe pop in a load of laundry or something, clean up or whatever the case is, check the mail, pay some bills, you know, get the kids in the bed, and then try to have time to myself, which I never really did, because by the time I got finished with, you know, helping them with their homework, checking their homework, putting them to bed, cooking dinner, cleaning up the kitchen, getting the clothes and everything ready for the next day, it was time to go to bed. And so it was rinse and repeat five days a week. So, and then when Saturday came around, you know, you're doing the grocery shopping, you're doing more cleaning, you're doing laundry, you're doing whatever it is that you need to do, and you're trying to take the kids out to spend time with them, you know, but you you're too tired. So then you feel guilty because you're tired, you know. Let's not even talk about the times where sometimes I was asked to stay late for work. And so I'm calling the daycare center. Listen, I'm gonna be a few minutes late, you know, I'm gonna be 15 minutes late. That's pressure there. I have to rush to get there to get the kids, you know. Sometimes I had to work on Saturday, so I'm finding somebody to babysit while I'm working on Saturday, you know. It it just it's it's like a never-ending cycle. That's pressure because you still have to be that mother now. Mind you, like I said, I was married at the time, I'm doing all of this, didn't have the help. And people are like, wait a minute, you have a full husband at home. Why can't he pick up the kids? Why can't he drop them off? Why can't he cook dinner? I won't even go there with the dinner. I won't. He didn't have the cooking skills, so he gets a pass on that. I'm not even gonna mention that part, you know. But it was it was a lot of pressure, it was a lot of stress, you know. Uh later on, I found out that he was on drugs, and so that that's a whole nother story. So that you know, that's why a lot of times I had to do stuff on my own. I had to be the adult, you know. It was like I had three kids instead of two, I had three because I'm raising this this grown man who was coddled, you know, by his mom. I'm raising him trying to be his wife and his mother and a mother to my own kids. So that's that's a whole nother kind of pressure, you know. And to beat these meet these expect expectations, his mother expected me to step in and take her place and treat her son the way she was treating him. I'm like, well, if you'd have raised him to be a man, I wouldn't have to step in to be his mama. I'm not his mama, I didn't give birth to him, you know. So that's pressure, and all of this, it's like a boiling pot that's bound to run over eventually because you can only sustain it but so much. Yep, and for so long, exactly, and you get tired, you know. But somehow you find the strength, you know, especially as a black woman, you have to not only perform twice as hard on your job, but you have to perform twice as homework twice as hard with your kids because you want to make sure that they're safe living in this crazy world that we live in and how the disadvantage is for when you have uh when you're when you're you know people of color, you know. And I had a son, you know, I have a son. My son is a black man in this world, so that's another different pressure. Trying to teach him this is how you behave, you know, you're a black man, people are gonna be scared of you. This is how you behave, and then my daughter, you're a black woman, they're gonna expect you to like work twice as hard to prove yourself because you're a black woman, so it's like all this combustion, you know, all this pressure, you know, no one tells us how to deal with it. No one tells us you don't have to deal with it. No, no one tells us about boundaries because if you say no, that's almost like a curse word. Exactly. It's like you're right, it's like it's unheard of. If you set boundaries, what do you mean boundaries? I'm supposed to have access to you 24-7. But if you're going to keep from losing your mind, you have to. And the thing is, I didn't learn boundaries until my kids are grown. I didn't learn boundaries until I became an empty nester. I wish I knew about boundaries. Then I wouldn't have had people pulling on me all the time because I thought I had to always be there. You know, everyone dependable, Bobby. You could depend on her, just give it to her, just put it on her plate, she'll do it. She's the responsible one. And so it my plate kept getting higher and higher and higher and higher until it broke. And then when it broke, that's when I just I just said enough, enough, and kind of went into isolation because I had enough. I was so sick of people. Just leave me alone. I mean, but you get to that point, right?

SPEAKER_02 30:17

You do, you you do. I mean, there there becomes a point where we become um overstimulated, like there is such a thing as where folks become overstimulated because okay, there's again, there's so much noise, pressure, responsibility. So that's couple that not only with our own life, you know, responsibilities. And I'm not going to get into a long dire tribe, but political tensions, which has not only our country divided, but that it's causing division within the body of Christ and within the church, that's causing a lot of uh worry and anxiety amongst believers. Um, something else that we need to be mindful of, and you've mentioned this in terms of it contributing to stinking thinking and different things like that, but social media, especially if you consume too much of it, again, that will throw you off kilter. That too will rob you of its peace. It's not to say that social media is inherently bad, but when there is too much of it, and in the way that all the algorithms have changed, you know, if you constantly have things showing up in your algorithm, it it becomes a problem. Because what we don't, what we're not mindful of is like, okay, we the Bible tells us, you know, we need to meditate on the word day and night. The Bible isn't the only thing we meditate on during the day. What else are we meditating on? So if you're doing the mindless screen uh scrolling, you're doing the doom scrolling and all of that, guess what else you're meditating on? You're meditating on what's in your timeline, what's on your social media feeds, like whether it's Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, uh TikTok, yes, uh, which I think was formerly known as Twitter, I think that's the name of it now. Yeah, but if you're be mindful of like all the you know the applications and things, like even though I have the Facebook app, I do not have notifications enabled because I know we need to turn those off, they were huge distractions. Yes, because the constant, because the thing is you're gonna feel like you, you know, you're compelled, like, oh, I gotta look at my phone, I gotta see who's da-da-da-da. I mean, idleness, like we just have to be careful what we do in our time when we are idle, because you know, social media can rob us of so much of our time in addition to our peace, because what can start as 30 minutes can turn into hours.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

Exactly. Right. Even just looking at your timeline, seeing what you miss. You know, there was a time where I was always on Facebook, you know, and I had the notifications, but I I turned those off, you know. Um, but you're right, you could sit there and it could be like, I don't know, you think you were only on there for 30 minutes, but then you look up and you see it's like five hours later, and your day is just about gone, and all you've done was just swipe, swipe and scroll, swipe and scroll, you know, especially like YouTube. YouTube is a huge time killer for me. You know, I have to put it down and say, okay, I'm not looking at that. Uh that's enough, you know. That's a distraction for me. I love YouTube.

SPEAKER_02 33:41

You know, you can find so much stuff on YouTube, and and just like I think with all social media applications, I think it's built in now where you can like set a timer. I know if we can set timers on TVs, we can set a timer. And I know that there are like free apps out there that were okay, if you're having a trouble, if you're having trouble with you know, time management and productivity, you can set it to where either you can block these sites so you can get you know the work done or do what you need to do, or even just to limit your time, because you know, everybody when it comes to social media, I believe there are a lot of people out there that have like their Achilles heel. There is a proverbial, you know, either thorn in their side or there is a weakness.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

Absolutely, absolutely. The best thing that Apple did, besides the iPhone, of course. Oh goodness, yes, I'm an iPhone user. But besides that, the best thing they did was create a focus, a focus feature. And that focus feature, uh right now I work, you know, remotely, but when I was going in the office, I would put the focus feature on so that I wouldn't get those notifications and you know it would even chill like calm down like the text messages. If I you know set it for okay, this is an emergency. If somebody from this number texts me, it's an emergency. But everyone else, they couldn't get through until the focus hours were off. I even said it at night for when I when I shut down at night, I put my focus on, and so no phone calls or anything comes in after a certain amount of time. It's almost like a do not disturb, but it's not a do not disturb. It's like this is my focus time, and this is the time I don't want any notifications, I don't want I don't want to be bothered unless it's an emergency. I don't want to be bothered, I'll deal with it in the morning. And I had to do this because you know, stuff was coming in all hours of the night, and this is this dinging, it's going off, and it's waking me up, it's disturbing my sleep, right? You know, so I had to this is part of the boundaries, right?

SPEAKER_02 35:52

Right. Um, I think you might have gotten a notification too, baby, of that short. Yep, I just got one too. I'm like, wait a minute, I'm looking down, you look down, like I think we got the same notification. Yeah, we did.

SPEAKER_03 36:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:11

So let's shift the conversation a little bit. But before before we actually shift it, there's one other things I one other thing that I wanted to mention too that may be a source of anxiety for our viewers. Financial problems, money woes, layoffs, rumors of job loss, those are things that are giving a lot of people not only pause, but anxiety during this season. I'm I'm seeing it, you know, with comments and people are posting, you know, these things, or either they've been unemployed for an extended period of time. So, you know, they're seeking prayer, they're seeking, you know, if you know anybody or know of anything, they're seeking the connection. So that's something else that's weighing on the hearts of people, you know, in our nation. So really quickly, well, not we'll see how this goes, but okay, so what does the Bible say about anxiety? I know you have notes, and I have notes. So, how about this? Let's split it. So I'll cover Psalm uh 55 and 22, and then I might touch upon 1 Peter, and then maybe you can touch on touch on you know Mark 6, 25, and you know, and any other scriptures that come to mind, because I know I have a scripture that I did not list, but I know that you have mentioned it um previously on your social media. I believe it's Isaiah 26, 20, 26, 2, and 3, verses 2 and 3, I think. Um, in case you all are wondering, okay, so what does the Bible say about anxiety? So according to Psalm excuse me, 55 and 22, the King James Version, cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved. Let's look at another translation. We can look at it from, I believe this is the amplified, cast your burden on the Lord, releasing the weight of it, and he will sustain you. He will never um let the consistently righteous to be moved. In this instance, move is made to slip, fail, or fall. And another translation, I believe it's the New Living Translation, it says, Give your burdens unto the Lord and He will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall. And the NIV, um, the New International Version has to cast your cares uh upon the Lord or on the Lord, and he will sustain you, and he will never let the righteous be shaken. So in the Hebrew, the word cast means shalak, um, which means to throw, cast, or hurl, or fling. So to throw out, throw down away literally or figuratively. And burden in the Hebrew um speaks to is the word, I think it's Yahweh, which means burden or lot. We say all of this to say is when you have a burden or an anxious care, because in some instances it's referred to an anxious care uh as well, or when you have that anxiety or something that's weighing on you heavily, that's an instance where God uh welcomes the opportunity for you to cast it, throw it back on him. He can handle it because we are not meant to carry all these heavy weights and burdens, because those burdens and weights they weigh us down. I want to shift to the New Testament really quickly. I want to highlight some verses. There's a large passage passage in Matthew that talks about worry and anxiety, specifically chapter 6, verses 25 through 34. I'm not gonna read all of them for purposes of time, but I do want to highlight some verses for you, particularly highlight, highlight verses 25 through 27. So therefore, I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy, so anxious and worried about your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, or about your body, what you shall put it put on it. Is it is not life greater in quality than food in the body far above and more excellent than clothing? Look at the birds in the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth more than they? And who of you, by worrying and being anxious, can add one unit of measure or cubit to his stature or to the span of his life life? And then I want to briefly highlight verses 32 through 33. The father knows we have need of all these things, you know, the food, the clothing, um, the different aspects and things that we need in our life. But to but we need to seek, aim at, or strive after, first of all, his kingdom and his righteousness, his way of doing and being right, and then all these things taken together will be given you besides. So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own, sufficient for the day is its own trouble. And this comes from the amplified version. Now, I kind of broke down um 1 Peter 5 and 7, but Bobby, I did not want to dominate the stage because it's like two of us. So you tell me if you want me to talk about that or you want to get into it, you let me know.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

Well, you can talk about it, but I'm gonna tell you one thing about the cast. I heard this pastor preach on the cast your cares. He said throw. He used an analogy of a fisherman. When you throw your, you know, when you're fishing, you throw that whatever they call it. Uh, what is that called? The line. When you throw that line, you're casting that line into the water, you're reeling that fish in, you're essentially taking that burden in. But what if you cast that line and cut it and left it in the water? You can't reel it back in because you've cut the line. Oh, that's good. It's in there. You can't go back and get it, it's gone. So when we're casting, when we're throwing our anxieties, when we're throwing our problems on God, He can handle them, first of all. He can handle them. So when we're throwing them, we can't take them back. We're gonna go up to God and take them back. No, we're throwing them, we're leaving them there, and we're trusting that He's got this.

SPEAKER_02 43:12

Yes, yes, yes, and two things. Um, I remember I can't remember who said this. This either might have been, I believe this might have been someone either in ministry. I don't know if this was at my church or if I heard this on one of the radio ministries that I listened to, but someone gave an analogy of worry being like a rocking chair. Because all you're doing is rocking back and forth, you're not moving forward, and when you're worried about something, you're not giving it to God because this is an instance where you don't want to give it to God, then keep taking it back, then giving it back to God and taking it back because that totally defeats the purpose. And then again, you know, where's the fake? So think about worry um in terms of a rocking chair. That's in essence what you're doing because you're basically staying in the same place, rocking back and forth, rocking back and forth. And I just absolutely I love that analogy. So I can't take credit for that, but somebody shared it and it was good. So I said, let me share because it's that good.

SPEAKER_01 44:25

I was reading yesterday where um it's this this um ebook that John Eckhart has. They wrote this book called Overcoming Fear and Anxiety. And in it, he talks about when you know when we give stuff to God and we think he's taking too long to take care of it. So we take it back because the pressure is still there. It seems like nothing has changed. So we we take it back, and then God sometimes allows us to take it back. It's like, okay, you think you can handle it? All right, let's see how that works out. So he gives it back to us. We can't handle it because it's too much for us, you know. God has the capacity to handle it, you know. But he will like, okay, you you want to do it your way? You think you can do better than me? Okay, fine. Only for us to find out that our way is not a good way, you know, of handling this problem. We take him back on the pressure when he's given us the piece, but we kind of like threw the piece away because you know he wasn't moving fast enough. So we want to we figure, well, I can do this faster, I can do this better, you know, I can be God, you know, and then we find out uh oh crap, no, I can't. This is not working out. And God is sitting there, like, yeah, how did that work out for you? And we end up giving it back to him, you know, and and letting him handle it. And then we just have to take a back seat. That's why I said when I when I made the introduction earlier, I've learned to be the passenger in the car, you know, instead of I don't want to be in the front seat, I want to be in the back seat, drive Miss Daisy. I'll be Miss Daisy, you know. I don't want to be in the front seat because if I'm in the front seat, then I'm gonna be one of those drivers, be like, oh no, put your windshield wipers on. Yup, the yeah, I can put your cars exactly. I want Jesus to take the wheel and I will sit in the back because he knows where he's going. He doesn't need GPS, he doesn't need Siri, you know, he knows where he's going, and so I can sit back and trust that he's taking me where I'm supposed to go and enjoy that peace of being that backseat driver or rider, I should say, backseat passenger, that's a better word, being that backseat passenger and just sit back and relax and let God handle it.

SPEAKER_02 47:02

Yes, and and that's what God wants us to do, that's where the trust comes in. And we'll we'll get to we're gonna get to a scripture that talks about you know leaning not on uh on our own understanding, but you know, trusting the Lord with all of our heart and acknowledging him in all of his ways, and he will direct our steps. There is a reason, you know, why we can't uh lean into our own understanding because our own understanding is limited. We can't see that far ahead, but God can because he's omnipresent, omnip, and omnipotent. So he he knows what we don't know, he's already provided for you know what's ahead, and there's a reason why you know Paul and David, you know, gave these types of instructions because they know the weight of carrying these types of burdens and cares, what it does to the body and what it does to the mind. Let me break down first Peter 5 and 7 because I was just totally blown away when I was doing this study, the doing my word study. So um, hold on, let me get it. I just lost my page. Come back. Here we go. All right. So you may have heard us referring to, you know, casting our care. So this actually comes from 1 Peter 5 and 7. So I'm gonna read a couple different translations. So you may have heard um, this is a common strict scripture that a lot of us are familiar with. So casting all your care upon him for he cares for you. That's in the King James version. The NIV says, casting all your anxiety on him, for he cares for you. And then 1 Peter 5 and 7 again in the amplified version, I really like this. Casting the whole of your care, so all of your anxieties, all of your worries, all of your concerns, once and for all, on him, for he cares for you affectionately and cares uh about you watchfully. So I want to point out what this word um cast means in the Greek, and I also want to point out what the word care means in the Greek. So forgive me. I may butcher this pronunciation of this Greek word, I'm gonna try my best. So charge it to my head and not my heart. But cast the word caste in the Greek is pronounced epaherotopo. Don't again. You did good. I took Spanish in high school, not Greek. So, but what this word means in the Greek, it means to throw upon literally or figuratively. So, figuratively, in regard to a concern or a care, it means to cast off in a phileal confidence. The word care in the Greek is merum merimna, um which is to read from derive from the Greek word meriso. So meriso is uh uh through the idea of a distraction or to draw in a different direction, meaning to divide, also, meaning also to divide or part. So let's put let's put that root word in there. Let's let's let's talk about that duration. So let's put the derivative, let's put all that together. Meromina means an anxiety or care that brings disruption to the personality and the mind. Um, there are some instances where it may be referred to um as solicitude, which is the state of being concerned and or anxious. But Meromina means an anxiety or a care that brings disruption to the personality or the mind. So think about it. When we are anxious, when we are worried, we are not able to focus upon the task at hand. We can't focus at all because the mind is being pulled in many different directions because we're worrying about this, worrying about that. That's why the Bible says you need to cast, throw these, these things right back at God. He wants you to do that because he knows that your mind is going to be divided, you're going to be anxious, you're going to be pulled in so many different directions because that's what, in essence, anxiety does. Anxiety can cause uh even chaos in the mind because you're constantly replaying and worrying about these thoughts. It's disrupting your mind where you initially had a mind of peace, it shifts to a mind of like constant fretting and worrying and just being at a state of unrest. So, very quickly, before I turn the mic back to my uh Bobby, I want to ask the audience, you know, what's the first thing you do when you're anxious? If you are if you are watching the replay later on, you know, tell us, you know, in the chat or share a comment and tell us, you know, what's the first thing you do when you're anxious? Bobby, what's the first thing you do when you're anxious? Freak out.

SPEAKER_01 52:27

Yeah, I I freak out. I I start having palpitations. Sometimes I I don't bite my nails, but my fingers are busy, like you know, sometimes they're on my face or I might be chattering, like, you know, or my hair, or just go to that bag of chips, you know, when I'm anxious to something that's only causing more harm, you know, when I'm anxious. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:55

And and for me, I'm in a a high stress profession. Like we are in we're known for being a very high stress profession. We're we're in the top, in addition to those, you know, that are are in the medical field, you know, doctors, you know, as well. And I would even say therapists, in that anytime you are responsible for counseling or um advising people in terms of their other problems, or if someone else's life is in your hands, that's a lot of stress in and of itself. And even as you know, a lawyer, we have to wear multiple hats. So, yes, you know, we're counseling in the area of particular area of law, but there may be other circumstances and things that are going on in the background that we may have to assist them with, or we have to point them to other uh directions or at least counsel them, you know, to keep a cool head and different things you know of that sort. You know, worry or anxiety for me, you know, looks different. So if I don't want to sometimes if I'm real anxious and I don't want to deal with it, I'm gonna look turn to social media. I'm gonna spend too much time on social media because I don't want to deal with it, I don't want to touch it, and that can eventually lead to further procrastination. Or if it's something really troubling me, like if it's if it's really shook me to my core, I'm gonna have problems sleeping. And I typically don't have problems sleeping, or I'm gonna have problems eating. And people that know me well, I like to eat. I like to feed my face, I like to set my face. But if I'm under a lot of stress or a lot of intense pressure, or if I'm worried or concerned about something until that burden or that worry has lifted off of me, I'm not going to engage in or partake in what we consider the normal self-care or taking care, you know, of my body. Like I can understand the palpitations. Like I've I've felt a full-on panic attack. I have had those in the past. Those are not fun to deal with. So, what I am trying to do myself, one of the first things I'm trying to do, I'm trying to make sure that I am laying that on the altar, I'm laying that before God's feet, that I am praying about it, that I am being vulnerable with God and saying, God, this is concerning me. I have this deadline coming up, but I got also got all of these other things that are priority as well. I don't know how I'm going to meet this deadline. Or God, I've got family members that are struggling right now. God, help me to be there, but while setting a healthy boundary. Because that's other things that people don't realize. When you are in a uh profession where there is a lot of weight, you know, on what you do, and then you've got a lot of pressure, you know, from your family, and then they have their own expectations, and you may be a part of other organizations. Again, Lord, you got to give me wisdom, give me wisdom to say no, God give me wisdom to pull away, like give me wisdom basically, Father, to spend more time with you because that's something we have to really be careful about, especially if we are worrying. We cannot let our devotion, we cannot let our prayer life, we cannot neglect the time we spend with God, and we cannot neglect the time we spend in the word. We have to spend more time in the word, and we have to evaluate if we're finding out that we don't have time, we need to look at our schedule and realize because it has to be a priority, right?

SPEAKER_01 56:33

Because we don't fit God into our schedule, we fit our schedule around God, you know. If you sit an orange out on the table, what happens to that orange if it's not touched? That orange dries up, you know. It's the same thing. If you don't spend that time with God, you're like, first of all, you're like a car with no gas. If you don't put gas in the car, you're not going very far. If you don't do maintenance to the car, it's gonna eventually fall apart, you know. So you you you have to do that maintenance and spending that time with God, it's not maintenance, but it is maintenance because it's life to your soul. You know, you're feeding your soul, you're feeding your spirit. If you're not feeding your spirit and your soul, it's gonna dry up look like the orange and it's gonna stop driving, it's gonna stop moving and become a desert. So you want to make sure that you feed your spirit, you know, with that time with God, you know, that is what keeps us going. That is our strength. He is our strength. We can't do it without him.

SPEAKER_02 57:39

Oh, that's so good, and that is that is so true. I mean, that's that's something we cannot neglect. Like, he is our lifeboy, like he should be the first person we call. Like when we are facing a problem or something that is worrying us, rather than you know, looking to call mama, grandma, best friend, event, or whatever, take it to God first because oftentimes he has the answer. And sometimes the answer is right in front of our face, and we just overlook it, and the Holy Spirit just needs to point it back out to us. But that's the main one of the main things we we have to do is we need to not only shift our priorities, but we need to shift our thinking and our process when we're faced with anxiety. Like we we can't if what we have done before has not worked, then again, we need to get back to the basics.

SPEAKER_00 58:31

Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 58:36

So we've we've kind of transitioned, you know, into this somewhat, but but Bobby, what are some ways that you know we can combat anxiety? Like what are some tools that we maybe should have in our tool belt um to address this, to combat this, to to guard ourselves?

SPEAKER_01 58:57

Well, first of all, you want to find out where is it coming from? You know, as I as I mentioned earlier about the root, you know, what is the root to this anxiety? Where is it coming from? Why is it that every time this happens to me, I start freaking out? I start feeling anxious. You know, how can I counteract this so that uh every time this happens, I'm not I'm not having this panic attack or just freaking out. The first thing is worship. I've I've learned worship. Worship when I put on my worship music, that gives me inner peace. And sometimes I just have to sit there and just say, because when you're going through that anxious moment, you can't always pray. You don't even know what to pray for, you don't even know how to pray. It's like everything that you've learned that you know about God, it just you forget it. It's it's like amnesia, spiritual amnesia. And so sometimes the only thing you could do is just sit there and say, Holy Spirit, help me pray, or just Jesus help me. There's been times where all I could say is Jesus, period. Not even Jesus help me, just Jesus, and then he would take it from there. You know, do those anxious feelings go away right away? No, they don't go away right away. Feeling anxious is not a sin, it's not it's not bad. Thank you. It's not wrong. That doesn't mean we're a failure, it doesn't mean that we're we're messing up because that's a human emotion. Our emotions are real. That is an emotion that God has given us. But it's what do you do with that anxiety? What do you do with that anxious feeling? Do you feed it and and let it cause you palpitations and possibly a heart attack? You know, what do you do with it? You cast it, like you said, you cast it, you give it to God. You know, one of the things that I did, I asked God uh last year, maybe even the year before that, I asked him, God, teach me how to trust you. Because Proverbs 3 says, uh, what is it, three, five, and six, um, lean not into your own understanding, but acknowledge him in all your ways and he'll direct your path. So I said, God, teach me how to trust you. Because he kept telling me, trust me, trust me, trust me. God, I don't know how to trust you. I think I know how to trust you. I think I do trust you because I've given you things, but then I've taken them back because you were taking too long, or I didn't think you heard me. And I figured my way was better. So I figure, or I just give you a hand. Maybe you needed my help, so I would just give you a situation out because I'm I'm like, I need it like yesterday, and you're just moving too slow, you know. That's half trust. But the moment I say, God, teach me how to trust you is when all hell broke loose. And he taught me how to trust him, but I had to go through the process because the moment that was like my saying, yes, I surrender everything to you because I'm asking you to teach me how to trust you in everything, in every aspect of my life. And when I said that, I lost my job, I lost my apartment, I lost my car, I lost my savings, everything. You know, I had to learn to trust him because he was he was my only source. The job, the job was, I was acting like the job was a source, but the job was just a resource, because that as we see with all these people getting laid off, that job could be here today, gone tomorrow. Right, but God is always here, so that was number one. That was just a resource, he was teaching me. I am your source, same thing with the car, the car, the car was more than likely becoming an idol, you know. So that had to go because it was taking attention away from him, you know. The home out now, he didn't have to do that, no, right, but he was teaching me. I got you, like what you just read in Matthew. I got you. If he can clothe the lilies in the valley, if he can feed the sparrows, you know, he can certainly take care of me. Not once was I in the street, I didn't have to live in my car, I never went hungry. I always had something to eat. I may not have had any money, but my my bills were paid. How I don't even know. I had no money coming in, but yet my bills were paid. I had shelter, I had food, you know, I had the things that I needed. Yes, and he was showing me Matthew. I lived that verse. Yes, because he took care of me. And even when I look back, God, you took care of me when I had nothing. I asked you to tell to teach to show me how to trust you. And when I said to my bishop, when I said, Bishop, I was crying like bishop, what's going on? Did I do something wrong? I try to live right, I try to do everything God told me to do. What happened? He pulled the floor out from under me. What did I do? You didn't do anything, you asked him to teach you to show you how to trust him. It was a test, it was right. He took me through right, he took me through this. It was the beginning of bringing me into my purpose. Yes, it was the beginning of the transformation, yeah, because you can't if you you have to trust him, you have to learn how to trust him. And for one, I'm learning who he is, I'm learning to to take things to him and not take on things myself. I mean, do I still want to? Yeah, sometimes he has to slap me on the hand and say, remember, remember, but now we've we've already been down this road. Do you want to circle around this mountain again? No. Do you want to go through this test again? No. I've I've circled around this mountain long enough. I'm not trying to add. Oh my God, you got it. You handle it. I'll just sit right here and just shut my mouth and let you do what you want to do and trust you. You know, so it just it it gives you a whole different aspect. Do I still feel anxious? Yes, I still feel anxious, I still get scared, I still worry, but. I've learned in those times, God. I'm I'm worried. You know, just be honest, God. I'm worried. Like God, I'm sitting over here freaking out, God. You know, this is this is due. You know, this phone bill needs to be paid tomorrow. I'm not gonna have a phone. And I need to have a phone. If I'm gonna find a job, I need a phone. You know, so like God, it's like, okay, you write at the midnight hour, like, what's up? You know, and and and then he'll remind me, well, I did it last month, didn't I? Yeah, you did. I did it the month before that, didn't I? Yeah, you you did. All right then, and so I just okay, God, I know you're gonna work it out. And each and every time he worked it out. So it but it's a process, it's going through the refiner's fire. When you're going through the refiner's fire, you're going through cleansing, and the fire gets hotter and hotter and hotter. Yes, and when that kiln door closes and you're in that fire, you can't move. You can't do anything. He sat me down at times where I couldn't move, I couldn't do anything but sit there and just trust him. Yes, and that is a hard place to be because he's quiet, you can't hear him, you can't focus, you can't concentrate, you can't pray, you want to pray, but you can't get the words out. The words just don't come out. You want to even read your Bible, but you can't. It's like you're paralyzed. Yes, yes, you're sitting there, yes, and you just have to just sit there and trust that he's got it and know that he's got it. It's it's a it's a walking process, walking through anxiety. So the only thing I could say that some of the things I do when I go through anxiety is and you mentioned him, is is go to your word, you know, moaning and groaning. That's that's akin to praying. If that's all you can get out, you moan and groan. If all you can do is hum songs, make up songs. You know, if you have a heavenly language, pray in your heavenly language, ask Holy Spirit to take over, give him permission to take over your tongue, your vocal card, you know, so that you could pray in that language. Give him permission to take over everything. Come on, come on, you know, submission. When you submit and say, God, I I I I give this to you. I I, you know, this is yours. You do what you want. I'm your vessel. You do what you want. You just tell me where to go. You know, I learned how to lean on him more. Um, am I there yet? No. It's still a process. I'm learning day by day. Things have gotten better. They're not where I want them to be, but they will be where he wants them to be and soon. And they are where he wants them to be right now. I just have to wait on him, trust him, and move as he leads me to move.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:25

Oh, that's so good. That's so good. Um, something that you know, I'd like to add to that is, you know, I'm glad that you mentioned you, you, you mentioned that, you know, you gotta let God know, you know, how you're feeling. Like there's, you know, God is our father. Okay, he cares, he literally cares about his his children. Um, we see that throughout, you know, his scripture, how he provided for his children, you know, how he's come through for his children, even in the seasons of testing, you know, he's still there even when he's silent. I think it's very important for us to be vulnerable with God. And even though this scripture, you know, talks about dealing with temptation, but you can still apply the scripture to the instance where you're worried. We have to be mindful that we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, our weaknesses. And all in all points, um, Jesus was tempted, he was tempted as yet as we are, but yet he was without sin. So we can boldly go before God's throne of grace so we can obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. This is Hebrews uh chapter 4, verses 15 and 16. And another translation, you know, we have not a high priest who is uh not, I would say is not unable to understand um um anything or sympathize or have a shared feeling, you know, without our weaknesses. Like he's experiencing all of the infirmities and liabilities to the assaults of temptation, but he is one who has been tempted in every respect as we are, but yet without sinning. This is an instance. Jesus uh has been touched with with all of our infirmities, he's he's gone through everything, he's gone through the temptations, he's gone through every field of emotions that you can think of, especially leading up to his crucifixion. So we are not alone in this. God understands, and God wants us to go to him. And if we look at look at the book of Psalms, I'm gonna encourage uh our our audience to really look at the book of Psalms and see how vulnerable David was with God as he shared his frustrations and fears and anxieties, and even when he missed the mark, even when he sinned, but take a look at that, look at how vulnerable David was, and he still worshiped God, he still served God, he still praised God, and God exalted him in due season.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:03

Yes, absolutely. Yes, yes. I like uh Philippians 4, 6 through 7, which says, do not, well, this is the amplified version, do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything in prayer and petition, definite requests with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. And this is the one that uh for the King James Version. Now I remember this from way back when I became saved. Uh, be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds to Christ Jesus. So our keeping our hearts and minds to Christ Jesus is what we touched on earlier, guarding our heart, praying about everything. It may seem trivial. Yeah, I don't have any food in my refrigerator. God, I need you to bring me some food, I need you to send me some food or send me some money to buy some food. God, I don't have gas in my car. You know, I need gas in my car. Things that we may think are small. We think that he's not concerned about that, but he's our father, he's concerned about everything that we're concerned about. He cares for us. I mean, Jesus prayed tears, he prayed so hard before his crucifixion, his crucifixion that his tears became blood. Yes, of course, he was anxious, he was nervous. I mean, he knew what he was about to face. Any anyone, he he understood our feelings, like you said. So he knows exactly what we're feeling. Yes, you know, so uh pray about everything, you know. And in Philippians, it goes further. Um, in Philippians 4, it says, think on these things, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. So it starts in here. This here, our minds, our thoughts, it rules everything. Yes, and when those anxious thoughts come in, we put up a stop sign and say, No, you have to go. Fear, you have to go. Fear has been in fear and anxiety, they're go together, they're like twins. Yes, yes, they have been right, and so they have been strongholds in my life and strongholds in the life of others. And so, to get rid of those strongholds, we have to say, you know what? No more, enough is enough. Stop that. Thought didn't come from God because in in 2 Timothy, I forget exactly where, but 2 Timothy says, God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of love, peace, power, and of a sound mind. So when that fear comes, that is not from God, that is from the enemy, that is from the pits of hell, and so we send it back to the pits of hell. We send it's its twin, brother, anxiety back to the pits of hell to say, nope, you can't enter. I come out of agreement with you, you have to go now, and we have to say it out loud. We have to practice it. I have to practice it. Last week I was feeling anxious, and so I had to say, No, uh-uh, we're not doing this today. You gotta go. I'm uh we're not hanging out today. I'm not hanging out with you or your brother, you gotta go, and I command you to go right now in the name of Jesus, and so this is this is what we have to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:42

We have to speak to these things to get rid of these strongholds, they will eventually go, but like everything else in this walk, it's a process, but it all starts here in the mind, yes, yes, and the scripture that you were referencing was it was first Timothy um one and seven.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:04

So chapter one verse seven.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:06

So in case our audience, excuse me, it's actually it's second Timothy chapter one, verse seven. So you're right about the the the um it being the second book, but so second for the record, everybody, it's second Timothy uh chapter one, verse seven, because we want to make sure you all have these scriptural references because these are things that we are incorporating in our lives, and we want to make sure you have you know the tools and that you're equipped to deal with anxiety because again, if you're not dealing with it currently, you will eventually be faced with anxiety. Something will happen that will cause you to eventually become anxious. Why? Because you know, we live in a fallen world and we're all human, and we have a mind, will, and emotions. Um, so you know, both you and I have talked about how it's important for us to guard our mind and our hearts, you know, to guard our heart with all diligence for out of it flows the issues of life. You know, that comes from Proverbs 4 and 23. Bobby, you mentioned earlier, you know, what are we listening to? What are we watching? You know, are there people around us that are potentially making us feel anxious? Like, is there an instance where you're participating in a conversation? The conversation needs to shift because that subject matter um will give you pause or anxiety. So that's something else to think about. And you mentioned, I love Philippians, um, I think it's verse eight where it talks about, you know, what are you thinking about? So, are you thinking about those things that are true or honest, just pure, lovely, and of good report? Because when we're anxious, there are times where we're meditating a lie, we're meditating on fear, something that may never come to pass, that will never come to fruition, and it's not even true. And the enemy, because we have an enemy that's roaming about, you know, like a roaring lion seeking who he may devour, he's looking to wear us out, he's looking to devour us, he's looking to capture us, and and if you and he's looking for ways to cause us to stumble. And one of the ways that he can attack us is through our mind. Because if you don't have the enemy's gonna come in and he's gonna try and not only tempt you, but even uh um terrorize you as well. We've got to talk about that. I mean, we don't have a passive enemy, we have a very aggressive enemy that studies us and that knows you know our weaknesses.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:24

Um exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:26

Some other things we may want to you know keep in mind as well when we're dealing with the anxiety is we like you mentioned a moment ago, you know, take those thoughts captive. We play those anxious thoughts against scripture. What does the scripture say? Is this true? Is this honest? Is this just lovely of good report? Right on fear and apprehension, it is not of the Lord, it's often or of the flesh, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:52

Put it under the blood.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:54

Yes, yes. We need to be thinking about, you know, not only just you know, praying, because we definitely need to pray, we should pray without ceasing. We need to pray about everything. I mean, Philippians talks about that. We can, you know, bring all these cares and anxieties, bring be anxious for nothing, but pray about everything, right? Pray prayers of protection over yourself and your family if you're concerned about their safety. Trust God that He can take care of them better than you. And keep in mind, think about Psalms, you know, 23 and think about Psalms 91. Like these are psalms, these are psalms that you can pray over yourself and over your family. Both Pastor Bobby and I have mentioned spending time in the word that seek out and seeking out scriptures that speak to your situation. And this is a hard one for many. It's hard for me. I believe, Pastor Bobby, you mentioned this as well. We have to completely surrender, surrender every area of our life and surrender those areas, especially that are weighing on us. This is where the proverbs three and six, you know, comes in. We should also ask the Holy Spirit for direction in this particular area. Sometimes we're anxious because we don't have any direction, and we need the Holy Spirit to lead us and not only guide us into all truth, but to show us what to do, when to act, what to say, and so forth. Right, right. I am a huge proponent of journaling.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:32

I have different journals.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:34

I've got the prayer journals, I've got journals for where the Lord is revealing something to me either in prayer um or just in any instance. I also have other journals, you know, for our emotions. I heard highly encourage you all to journal. Get a journal, write about how you're feeling, why you feel that way. Is it something that you can control? Is there a scripture that specifically addresses this area and that can strengthen you? Because also, too, don't neglect the reading of the word because it can strengthen you, it can stir you up and you can encourage you. Because there are times where no one else is around and you need to be able to encourage yourself. And how can you encourage yourself? You can encourage yourself by reading the word. Um, I also want to mention, you know, as another tip, make sure you talk to somebody. You do not have to go through this walk alone. So seek some wise counsel. Um, wise counsel could be a pastor, it could be a counselor, a trusted elder or mentor that has biblical wisdom. Therapist, it is okay to uh participate in therapy.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:48

Yes, it's the therapy is a lifesaver. Go ahead, yes. Yes, I mean I because it's it's a stigma, is people of color is a stigma, you know. Talking to a therapist. I grew up, oh, you don't tell your business to a therapist. That's a stranger. You you know what happens in the house stays now is you don't tell anything, but that's why a lot of people are are so pent up like they are, because they can't get it out. You know, when you tell a therapist, of course you find someone that you trust, you know, but therapy is therapeutic, you know, no pun intended, but it it helps you. I know it has helped me, you know, greatly. And I highly recommend it. Same thing like you mentioned journaling, you're getting it out, you're getting all that trash out. Yes, you know, that therapy, you're getting all that trash out, you're getting those feelings out so that you can move on and become healthy and whole. And there's nothing wrong with it. Sometimes anxiety can be um, it could be a mental illness. You know, some people suffer from uh suffer from that as a mental illness and they need need medication or something. That is okay. That's not there's no stigma, there's nothing wrong. It's okay, you know, it could be a medical imbalance, anything. Sometimes medications, you know, can cause us to have uh anxiety or other issues, but it's okay, you know. Society puts a stigma on it that there's nothing wrong with with you, you know. Like to the audience, there's nothing wrong with you. If you need medical help, it is okay. That doesn't make you less of a person, that doesn't make you any less in God's eyes. You're still amazing, you're still wonderful. Take care of yourself and get the help that you need. There's nothing wrong with it.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:43

Yes, I mean, and I said this, I believe, on one of my previous segments with uh my special guest, um Crystal Harris, who is a nurse practitioner who runs a medical, uh, medical, a mental health um outpatient medical health facility or clinic. You know, and a practice primarily focuses on mental health. And I think we talked about this, you know, counselors, people that are responsible for you know other people's lives, whether it's medical, legal, or wherever, social workers, they need therapy too. They need therapists too. Like the therapist needs a therapist because of the weight of everything that uh we are carrying. And just like you mentioned, uh, you know, Pastor Bobby, you mentioned uh just a moment ago that it is okay to seek therapy. We talked about this in this segment. There is so much stigma, especially within the body of Christ, still, even though things have gotten somewhat better, but there is still stigma surrounding, you know, uh, you know, mental illness. I mean, anxiety and depression, you know, all of that can potentially fall under that umbrella if it's pervasive and serious enough. And you need someone that is trained that can help you walk through this because seeing the therapist um can help you figure out safe coping mechanisms so you're not falling into different traps and different vices that can eventually lead to sin or lead to other consequences that can cause you to walk away from God. So we say this, you know, we we we we we say this loudly, please. If you are at a place where you need some help, please utilize it. It is okay. And when you're meeting with your therapist, just know, or even if you're meeting with a pastor or whomever, it's going to be confidential, it's not going to be divulged because for the therapist, you know, there's the doctor-patient clip uh privilege for a pastor, you know, that's that's the uh pastor, and I believe it's clergy person. There's a particular nomenclature for it. I can't think of it as what it is, but there is a privilege, you know, there. And again, I just want to put this out here. Y'all, we are not giving about medical advice or legal advice. So let's I just want to put that disclaimer out here. So this is just for informational purposes only, but we want you all to be informed and you can use this to um take care of yourself, and something that um Crystal and I briefly talked about in that segment is you know, we're all made of a mind, a body, you know, a spirit, a soul. We have to take care of all of those. If we don't we neglect one, the rest are gonna suffer.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:36

Exactly, exactly, exactly. Self-care is very important. It doesn't mean we're being selfish. We have to take care of ourselves. If we don't, who's gonna take care of us?

SPEAKER_02 1:26:48

Come on, come on, that's true, because we this is a temple. Be mindful, your temple can, you know, we got the brain, you know, that houses the memory and and and you know, our mental, you know, we got this this physical, there's physical aspects to the body, but we can't neglect feeding our spiritual man because we'll become spiritually weak. But we have to take care of of this temple, this body, you know, as a whole.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:16

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:20

So, Pastor Bobby, we only have a couple more minutes left, so we're gonna have to wrap up. I can't believe it. Like, it is almost eight o'clock. I know. Tell me about it. Like, I have just had a ball, but I want to give you an opportunity to not only share some closing words, but you know, if you want to talk about your new book that just came out earlier this month, and if you if you want to also close us out, you know, in prayer too.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:46

Okay, okay, okay. Well, um, I have a ministry called Kingdom Village International Ministries. Um, it was founded in 2020 2022. Let's see, 2022. Essentially, what KVIM, that's the short abbreviation. Um, KVIM, it helps to, it helps people get the resources they need, like things what we talk about today. It helps people get the resources they need. It helps uh churches, you know, um get the resources they need for their community to to encourage and build up others. We have teaching programs, we have Bible study groups. Um, I just started a daily devotion actually on Sunday talking about anxiety, and I've been posting these little um memes. I don't know, I just say devotions, pictures uh devotion, short devotion, uh, with scripture and prayer on anxiety. I've been posting them on TikTok and I've been posting them on Facebook. You can follow me on Facebook at KBI Ministries, and you'll see all of the ones I did. Today we are on day four, and it just shows, you know, like um, like I said, the scripture, there's a reflection, and then there's a short prayer to to help encourage people who are going through anxiety, you know. Um, and so for the book that I wrote, um it's called let's see, can you see it? Uh Pregnant with Purpose. Right. And what pregnant with purpose is, it tells a story about birthing God's plan through crushing, transformation, and surrender. It's it talks about going through the pregnancy of purpose and the different stages that God takes you to get you to your purpose. Um, some people who experience anxiety are going through the fire, as we talked earlier. They're going through uh the transformation, they're they're going from who they were to who they are supposed to be. And so this book, you can find it on Amazon, Pregnant with Purpose by Barbara Johnson. Uh, it's available in paperback and ebook. Um, you can even look at a sample of the first chapter to kind of see what uh the book is about. And I give a little bit of my story in the book, a little bit of my testimony. Um, but it will help you walk through the different steps of getting from who you were to who God is calling you to be.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:28

Oh yes, I I love it. I love it. Um, and to our audio to our audience, um, the title again is Pregnant with Purpose by Barbara Johnson, and the book is available on Amazon. So I encourage you all to read it. I purchased the Kindle version. I have not had the opportunity to read it yet, but I'm definitely looking forward um to reading it. And uh, if you don't mind, uh, Pastor Barbara, would you like to just pray for our audience? Because I know that we're gonna have, we don't necessarily have a lot of folks that are tuning in live, but we will have a lot of folks that are are watching them replay. So I want to make sure our folks that are watching live or may watch later that they're covered in prayer, especially if they're struggling with anxiety right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:12

Yes, yes, Heavenly Father, we come to you right now, thanking you, God, for who you are, Father God. Thanking you, God, that you have not called us to walk this walk alone, Father God. We thank you that we can walk with you as we go throughout this life, Father God. Help us, Lord, to surrender everything to you, to cast our cares to you without picking them back up, Father God. Give us your peace, Jehovah Shalom. You are our peace. Give us the peace that only you can give us, God, that surpasses all understanding. For every person, God, who is on live and who will hear this replay, Father God. Envelop them, Father God, in your arms. Give them comfort, God. Assign your angels to comfort them when they're going through the moments of anxiety, when they can't speak, Father God, when they don't feel you or when they don't see you, God, let them know that you are right there, that you have not left them, Father God. Teach them, show them how to cast their cares on you, how to give it to you, Father God, and to trust you to walk them through their, through this life, through their situation, God, through the anxiety, Father God. We come against every lie of the enemy. We come against the spirit of anxiety and fear right now. We command it to go right now in the in the name of Jesus. For God did not give us the spirit of anxiety and fear. We put on our helmet of salvation, we put on our belt of truth, which is the truth of God's word. We put on the breastplate of righteousness, we take up our sword of faith, which is our confidence in you, God. We take up our shield of faith, which is our confidence, and we take up the sword, which is your word. So, Father, in times of anxiousness and stress, Father God, bring to remembrance the things that we know of what your word says, so that we can speak them over our life, we can speak them over our situation, Father God, and we stand under the blood of Jesus that saturates us, that cleanses us, that keeps us, God. We stand under his blood and we thank you, Father God, for what you are doing, for what you are about to do. We thank you most of all for keeping us, and we thank you, Father, that we can come to you for anything and everything, and we can trust you in anything and everything. And Father God, teach us how to surrender everything and make you Lord over our life. We ask this in the mighty, precious, matchless name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:43

Amen, amen, amen. Thank you, thank you, thank you for that wonderful prayer, uh, Pastor Barbara. So, oh my goodness, this has just been so much fun. Thank you for thank you for inviting me. Of course, of course. We definitely appreciate you participating in the in the first uh segment of behind the scenes with the ladies of the singles oasis. I am so glad that you were able to join us. I'm so glad that uh you're able to share your biblical knowledge and wisdom uh with not only our audience, but also sharing your testimony and your transparency because this is what we need to hear. This is what we need to share with you know with the body because it definitely resonates well. So, again, um we want to thank you um for your time. Please purchase uh Pastor Uh Barbara's book, Pastor Bobby uh book. She's Bobby to me. That's what I know her as. But I know that she has to go by her government name. Pregnant with purpose. It is available on Amazon. Please follow her on um on Facebook, K I V Ministries for short.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:59

K V I M. K V Sorry, K V I Ministries.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:02

K V I M. Oh my goodness. I apologize. K V I M. Let me clear the record. K V I M. Please follow, follow her um on Facebook, K V-I-M Ministries. And then for our uh singles oasis folks, um please make sure that you follow me on Substack at Substack.com at Mary Bowen and follow me on Facebook at Mary Bowen as well. So that's M-A-R-Y-B-O-W-E-N. You can also follow the singles oasis. We have a YouTube page, so follow us at the singles oasis. Just type out the singles oasis. And then on Instagram, you can follow us at uh the singles oasis as well. We've got a little chiron scrolling down at the bottom just for you all to see. But again, we want to thank you all for tuning in. We also want to thank you all for participating in the broadcast, for also watching this, the replay of this broadcast. We love, support you, and appreciate you. And of course, if you have any feedback, feel free to reach out to me on Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram. If you have any suggestions or if you need special prayer, feel free to send me a message and I'll stand in agreement and we will pray with you. So again, we want to thank you all for tuning in tonight. Again, I want to thank you again for Pastor Barbara for being our guest speaker. I so enjoyed our conversation. I so enjoyed both of us, you know, prepping for this. And again, I just had so much fun. Like my heart is just so full right now. So thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I thank God for you and for your obedience. So everyone, thank you for tuning in, and we are going to conclude episode three of our podcast segment. So have a good night, everyone.