Embracing Anxiety: A Path to Peace in God
Summary
Learning to live one day at a time is a journey that involves identifying a single, centering thought that keeps us connected to God, life, and hope. Today, I want to share how to live without anxiety by learning to live with it. Anxiety often tries to take the throne of our lives, convincing us that constant worry and preoccupation will protect us. However, this is not the way God intends for us to live. Instead, we are invited to approach anxiety differently, as Paul writes in Philippians 4:6-7, encouraging us to bring our concerns to God through prayer and thanksgiving.
The key to managing anxiety is to own it without enthroning it. This involves a three-step process: Observe, Welcome, and Name. First, we must observe our thoughts without judgment, recognizing the constant mental dialogue that often goes unnoticed. By stepping back and becoming aware of this inner voice, we begin the transformation of our minds. Second, we welcome anxiety instead of resisting it. By acknowledging its presence, we avoid overburdening our minds with impossible tasks and allow ourselves to be human. Finally, we name our fears and emotions, creating distance from them and reminding ourselves that we are not defined by these feelings.
Research supports this approach, showing that naming our fears can reduce their power over us. By bringing our anxieties to God, we allow His peace to guard our hearts and minds. This practice of owning but not enthroning our emotions helps us live in God's kingdom, where His will prevails. As we learn to live with anxiety, we grow towards a life of peace under the Prince of Peace.
Key Takeaways:
1. Observe Your Thoughts: Begin by observing the constant mental dialogue in your mind without judgment. This awareness is the first step in transforming your mind and owning your emotions without letting them rule over you. [05:03]
2. Welcome Anxiety: Instead of resisting anxiety, welcome it. Acknowledge its presence and avoid overburdening your mind with impossible tasks. This acceptance allows you to be human and prevents anxiety from taking the throne. [06:16]
3. Name Your Fears: Naming your fears and emotions creates distance from them, reminding you that you are not defined by these feelings. This practice reduces their power and helps you manage anxiety more effectively. [08:14]
4. Bring Concerns to God: In everything, through prayer and thanksgiving, bring your requests to God. His peace, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and mind, allowing you to live beyond anxiety. [03:11]
5. Live in God's Kingdom: By owning but not enthroning your emotions, you align your life with God's kingdom, where His will prevails. This alignment brings peace and helps you grow towards a life beyond anxiety. [10:12]
Youtube Chapters:
- [00:00] - Welcome
- [00:18] - Living One Day at a Time
- [00:40] - Learning to Live with Anxiety
- [01:25] - Anxiety's Strategy
- [02:02] - Biblical Perspective on Anxiety
- [03:02] - Prayer and Thanksgiving
- [03:29] - Own, Don't Enthrone
- [03:57] - Observe Your Thoughts
- [06:02] - Welcome Anxiety
- [07:38] - Name Your Fears
- [09:09] - Research on Naming Fears
- [09:47] - Living in God's Kingdom
- [10:27] - Growing Beyond Anxiety
- [11:02] - Conclusion and Farewell
Study Guide
Bible Study Discussion Guide: Living One Day at a Time
Bible Reading:
- Philippians 4:6-7
Observation Questions:
1. What does Paul instruct believers to do with their concerns in Philippians 4:6-7?
2. According to the sermon, what is the first step in managing anxiety, and why is it important? [05:03]
3. How does the sermon describe the strategy of anxiety and its impact on our lives? [01:25]
4. What are the three steps mentioned in the sermon for dealing with anxiety, and what does each step involve? [03:29]
Interpretation Questions:
1. How does bringing our concerns to God through prayer and thanksgiving help us manage anxiety, according to Philippians 4:6-7?
2. In what ways does observing our thoughts without judgment contribute to the transformation of our minds? [05:03]
3. Why might welcoming anxiety, rather than resisting it, be a more effective approach to managing it? [06:16]
4. How does naming our fears create distance from them, and why is this significant in the context of the sermon? [08:14]
Application Questions:
1. Reflect on a recent situation where anxiety tried to take the throne in your life. How did you respond, and what might you do differently next time? [01:25]
2. What is one specific thought or concern you can bring to God in prayer and thanksgiving this week? How might this practice change your perspective? [03:11]
3. Identify a recurring anxious thought in your life. How can you begin to observe it without judgment and what impact might this have on your mental well-being? [05:03]
4. Consider a time when you resisted anxiety. How did that affect you, and how might welcoming it change your experience? [06:16]
5. Think of a fear or emotion you often experience. How can you practice naming it, and what difference do you think this will make in your life? [08:14]
6. How can you align your life more closely with God's kingdom this week, allowing His will to prevail over your emotions? [10:12]
7. What is one practical step you can take to live one day at a time, focusing on a single centering thought that connects you to God and hope? [00:18]
Devotional
Day 1: Observing the Inner Dialogue
Observing your thoughts without judgment is the first step in transforming your mind. By becoming aware of the constant mental dialogue that often goes unnoticed, you can begin to own your emotions without letting them rule over you. This practice involves stepping back and recognizing the inner voice that influences your feelings and actions. As you cultivate this awareness, you create space for transformation and growth, allowing God's peace to enter your life. [05:03]
"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12, ESV)
Reflection: What recurring thoughts or dialogues do you notice in your mind today? How can you invite God into this awareness to transform your thinking?
Day 2: Welcoming Anxiety with Grace
Welcoming anxiety instead of resisting it allows you to acknowledge its presence without letting it take control. By accepting anxiety as a part of the human experience, you prevent it from overburdening your mind with impossible tasks. This acceptance is not about giving in to anxiety but about recognizing it as a signal that invites you to rely on God's strength. Embracing this approach helps you live more authentically and with greater peace. [06:16]
"Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved." (Psalm 55:22, ESV)
Reflection: How can you welcome anxiety today without letting it dominate your thoughts? What would it look like to cast your burdens onto God in this moment?
Day 3: Naming Fears to Disarm Them
Naming your fears and emotions creates distance from them, reminding you that you are not defined by these feelings. This practice reduces their power and helps you manage anxiety more effectively. By identifying and articulating your fears, you can begin to see them in a new light, allowing God's peace to guard your heart and mind. This step is crucial in the journey towards living a life of peace under the Prince of Peace. [08:14]
"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." (Isaiah 41:10, ESV)
Reflection: What specific fears can you name today? How does acknowledging these fears change your perspective on them?
Day 4: Bringing Concerns to God
In everything, through prayer and thanksgiving, bring your requests to God. This practice allows His peace, which surpasses all understanding, to guard your heart and mind, enabling you to live beyond anxiety. By turning to God with your concerns, you invite His presence into your life, transforming your worries into opportunities for growth and trust. This approach aligns your life with God's kingdom, where His will prevails. [03:11]
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." (Philippians 4:6, ESV)
Reflection: What concerns can you bring to God in prayer today? How can you incorporate thanksgiving into your prayers to experience His peace?
Day 5: Living in Alignment with God's Kingdom
By owning but not enthroning your emotions, you align your life with God's kingdom, where His will prevails. This alignment brings peace and helps you grow towards a life beyond anxiety. As you learn to live with anxiety, you are invited to trust in God's sovereignty and embrace His peace. This journey is about growing in faith and allowing God's presence to guide you through life's challenges. [10:12]
"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:33, ESV)
Reflection: In what ways can you align your life more closely with God's kingdom today? How does this alignment impact your experience of peace and anxiety?
Quotes
Anxiety will tell you the way that you deal with all that is, you worry about it, you brood about it, you think about it constantly, you allow it to preoccupy you and if this problem goes away, another problem will pop up. It's like playing whack-a-mole, and that somehow if you just keep them in your mind all the time, if you live with this obsessive sense of preoccupation, like a magic bubble of worry that will somehow protect you, that will somehow keep things at bay, anxiety will try to cause you to torment your mind in that way. [00:88:48]
Be anxious for nothing but then he doesn't stop there he doesn't say try really hard not to be anxious but in everything, in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, thank you god that you're real and you care, let your requests whatever it is that you want whatever it is that's going on inside of you, be known to god bring them before god and the peace of god that passes all human understanding will guard your heart and your mind in christ jesus. [00:170:00]
Here's the thought to let ring in your mind over and over again own, don't enthrone own it, acknowledge it admit it, but don't allow it to rule over you and here's how to do that that little word own is an acronym this comes from our friend rick the therapist and uh each of the letters stands for something the o stands for observe, we begin now not by trying to control our mind through willpower, but just actually observing what's going on in our mind. [00:212:48]
You have a mental dialogue going on inside your head that never stops, it just keeps going and going have you wondered why it talks in there, how does it decide what to say and when to say it how much of it turns out to be true, how much of what it says is even important and if right now you are hearing, i don't know what he's talking about i don't have any voice inside my head, that's the voice i'm talking about if you're smart, you will step back and learn to recognize this voice and come to understand it. [00:275:68]
God invites us to be aware of our mind it's a first step in the transformation of our minds of owning and not enthroning so to begin i just observe as i go through the day what's going on in my mind just be curious about it don't be so quick to judge yourself, you don't choose the thoughts or the emotions that automatically come into your mind, so you need to very carefully evaluate actions, but if we get too judgmental about our thoughts and our feelings, we never simply have the freedom to observe them. [00:325:12]
The w stands for welcome, all right come on in anxiety, come on in worry i already know you're there, and the the irony is the paradox is if i try to stop worrying through willpower and resistance and pushing it away i give my mind an impossible job, i try to make my mind do what a finite human mind cannot do and so we torture our own minds. [00:365:52]
I simply acknowledge to myself and before god, i'm just human welcome fear welcome anxiety, you are not me and and this leads to the end the end is to name it whatever that fear is whatever that negative emotion is whatever that negative thought is, instead of just having a vague sense that something unpleasant is going on or i don't feel great, i actually name it i'm feeling frustrated right now, i'm feeling anxious right now and an amazing things happens when we name it it gives me a little distance from that feeling. [00:461:28]
A week later it was the group of people who had named what they were feeling that when they had contact again with that tarantula in the glass jar their blood pressure was lower, their heart race did not speed up as much they didn't sweat as much, and what happened was simply naming the fear created a kind of distance that keeps the fear from being on the throne, and god has made our minds that way and he invites us, when anxieties come and attack us instead of trying to deal with them on our own or make our minds take care of them by ourselves to bring them to him. [00:544:56]
Make it kind of an adventure whatever is going on and they may be ordinary one of the real mill problems they might be really awful ones, i know i know, but they don't get to be on the throne, you know the bible says we live in a great kingdom and it's the kingdom of god the range of god's effect of will and i get to bring my little kingdom into his great big wonderful kingdom, that's the only way to live in the kingdom of peace under the prince of peace. [00:589:36]
I learn how to grow towards a life beyond anxiety precisely by living learning to live with anxiety when it comes today, just observe it what's that little maniac inside your head saying, and then welcome it it's okay be very gentle, fear anxiety it's okay, and then naming it together with god, i own it but i don't enthrone it i enthrone him. [00:622:80]