dealing with anxiety as a christian

[0:00]As Christians today, a lot of us know that Jesus promises those who follow him that they will have peace. Yet so many of us as Christians lack peace. We don't have peace. We're anxious about everything and anything and constantly worried about the things of life. So welcome to the House of Jacob podcast, where in this house we serve the Lord. I'm your host Braxton and guys this is episode number 15 in our names of God series where if you're new here each week for the last couple weeks, we've been talking about a different name of God in the Bible and what it means to us today. So, if you haven't watched previous episodes, I highly recommend it. It's been a super transformational series for a lot of you guys as I've seen in the comments. Um but this week I wanted to talk about anxiety as Christians and how to stop living an anxious life as Christians. And what's funny is is there's this passage in Matthew chapter 6 where Jesus talks all about anxiety and that's not what we're going to be reading today. I hope to come back to anxiety and read that passage in a future episode after I end this series. Um but in that passage, Jesus tells the person who's anxious to look to the birds of the air because because the Lord even feeds the birds of the air, so how much more will he feed us? We don't need to be worried if he cares about the birds, how much more does he care about us who are made in the image of God? And what's funny to me about that is right now I'm at my parents' house and they have these big trees right by their house and y'all, I'm not kidding, there are maybe 500 birds around me right now all throughout the trees. Like maybe a thousand like just birds everywhere. And I feel like it's it's it's so the Lord because the Lord tells us to look to the birds of the air when we're anxious and the reason I want to talk about anxiety this week is because Jesus in John chapter 14 promises us peace as Christians. Y'all, there are a 100, 200, 300 more birds flying over right now. Wow. Thank you, Lord. Um, wow, he's so cool. But in John chapter 14, Jesus says, my peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you. And in John chapter 16, Jesus promises, he says, these things I say to you that you may have peace. As Christians, we're promised peace. Yet so many of us lack peace. So many of us are anxious about the future, about who we're going to marry, about money, about what we're called to do, about if we're saved or not, if we're going to go to heaven. We're we're anxious about so many silly things and I believe the Lord wants to free a lot of you guys from that. So, I want to talk about what the Bible says about anxiety because here's the truth. Wow, all the birds are flying away. Wow, what a sight. Thank you, Lord. Here's the truth. In Philippians 4:6-7, Paul says to not be anxious about anything, but in everything to give prayer and petition to the Lord and make your request known to him, and if you do so, the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your heart and it will guard your mind. And the reason I want to talk about this promise is because the next name of God we're going to talk about is Jehovah Shalom. Jehovah Shalom means the Lord is peace or the Lord who gives peace. And in Philippians 4, there's a promise, and the promise is this. When you are anxious, and you shouldn't be anxious about anything, but when you are, make prayer, make petition, and all of those things will depart from you and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and it will guard your mind. There's a promise there. But why do so many of us fail to obtain this peace that Jesus talks about here? Why do so many of us, you know, even though we pray and petition, we can never find the peace of God. Here's why I think we can't find the peace of God. Because we think the peace of God is something that we can just grab when we need it or something that we can just find within ourselves. It's something we already have, we just need to find it. Here's the truth about the peace of God. The peace of God is found in the secret place, and I want to do a full episode on the secret place sometime soon, but the peace of God is in the secret place. That's why Paul says, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, make your request known to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. First of all, if you're someone who's anxious right now, I want you to sit in that. Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, make your request known to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your heart and guard your mind. What a promise. But you want to know why so many of us missed that promise? Because we're not in the secret place. Like ain't that convicting? Paul says that the one who lifts their prayers to the Lord will obtain the peace that guards their heart and their mind. It's the person who prays. So you want to know why so many of us lack peace today as Christians? Because we can never be still enough in the secret place to obtain his peace. I'm going to say that again. So many of us as Christians lack the peace of God because we can never be still enough in the secret place to obtain it. See, here's the thing, if you don't make time to be still and sit in the secret place, you will never obtain God's peace that guards your heart and guards your mind in Christ Jesus. Because the prayer that Paul is talking about in Philippians 4:6-7 is not a passive prayer. It's not, Lord, help me with my anxiety. Amen. No, it's you sitting down and making your request known to God. It means if you're anxious about money, it's you praying about money. If you're anxious about the future, it's you making petitions about the future. It's literally you praying into the things that you are anxious about, and that's when the peace of God comes. So the key to finding the peace of God as a Christian is by prayer, it's by the secret place, it's by stillness. And we see this in Judges chapter 6, where Jehovah Shalom actually comes from. There's this story where the Israelites are in this battle, and it's not a battle that they look like they were going to win from what I remember. And the Lord appears to this fighter named Gideon, Gideon. And this man is super discouraged and he sits with the angel of the Lord. We're going to talk about that in a second, but he sits with the angel of the Lord and eventually he finally has peace. The Lord comforts him and says, you're you're going to go and you're going to win this battle. And Gideon says, he declares Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is peace. What's my point in this story? In Gideon's story, Gideon spends time alone with the angel of the Lord, which is probably Jesus. And he receives the Lord's peace and encouragement in that place. You want to know what Gideon did? He spent time in the secret place. He was alone with God and he was communing with God, communicating with God, or prayer, and he was making his request known to God. The angel of the Lord comforted him and he received God's peace. Why? Because he sat with him. He didn't say, hey, help us win and walk off. No, he sat with the angel of the Lord and he talked with him. So, in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says, when he's talking about fasting, your father who is in secret will reward you. There's something to catch there. Because he is the father who is in secret, and that's important because when Jesus says that, he says, he's identifying the father as a father who dwells in the secret place. The Father is found in secret. So, the Father is a father who dwells in the secret place. We find the peace of God when we get alone with him, when we spend time alone with him. And when we don't make time alone to be with God, of course, we're anxious. Like we're not seeking Jehovah Shalom, and Jehovah Shalom, the peace of God is not a thing, it is a person, and his name is Jesus. His name is Jehovah Shalom, and when you're not seeking Jehovah Shalom, you're not going to have peace. Like that just that's just how it works. Like if peace is a person that I'm not seeking, I'm not going to have peace. So, because peace is a person, I need to daily meet with him in the word, in prayer, in worship. I need to meet with Jesus in the secret place and that's where I find peace. So here's my encouragement to you. I once heard a pastor the other day, his name is Aaron, I think it's Aaron Smith, and he runs a podcast called the Handlebar podcast. Shout out, shout out to another good podcast. Um and what he said was he believes that anxiety is accumulated unprayed prayers, I believe is how he said it. Meaning, anxiety is things you haven't prayed about built on one another. So I find that in my life, I get anxious when I don't pray. When I don't pray, I start to live in anxiety. But when I'm living in the presence of God, when I live in the secret place and I'm feeding on the word of God, I'm reading my Bible all the time, and I'm spending time in prayer all the time, and I'm communing with God. When I'm in that place, I naturally have peace. It's just like a byproduct of truly following Jesus. But when I don't, and when I am separate, excuse me, when I'm separate from God and I'm not with him and I'm just living by myself, of course I'm not going to have peace because I'm not with him. So if you're someone who's dealing with anxiety right now, I have a full other video on anxiety on my page. It's one of my most popular videos, you can find it easily. I would recommend watching that as well. That one's very practical. But the really what I wanted to get across to you in this video, if you're someone who deals with anxiety, the peace that your soul craves is a person. You won't find it anywhere else. You're not going to find it in medication. You're not going to find it in in, you know, like distracting yourself, you're not going to find it in like meditation and like doing these breathing exercises. You can and it can work temporarily, but the peace that truly sets you free from crippling chronic anxiety is found in Jesus Christ because he is peace. Jehovah Shalom, he is peace, and I know that better than most people because I have dealt with OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder, my whole life, and it is a miserable, miserable mental illness. And I dealt with it for most of my life and I was on medication, I was on hard antidepressants for it, called Prozac, and I tried all the things, I was in therapy, I was in exposure and response prevention, which is a form of therapy. I was doing it all. Guess what? It didn't work. You know, you want to know what worked when two months ago, I was at a worship conference, and I was spending time with Jesus, and in faith my friends prayed for me, and I met a man named Jehovah Shalom, and I got set free from OCD. And it's been almost three months now, and I haven't had one OCD thought. OCD thoughts come all the time. OCD is an anxiety disorder. So, listen to me, if you're someone who deals with anxiety all the time, the solution is found in Jesus. So, I want to pray for you. Let's pray because I I I truly believe that there is power in prayer, and I also believe that Paul says that the one who's anxious, he obtains the peace of God by prayer in Philippians 4:6-7. So, let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for this week's episode. Thank you so much for um just what you're doing in this podcast and in this series. Lord, we just thank you for that. I thank you for what you've done in this series and how you've spoke to us, and I pray for these people, those that struggle with anxiety as Christians. I pray you bless them, give them the peace of God. I pray right now in this moment that they would meet Jehovah Shalom and they would be set free from their anxiety. And that they would obtain a peace that they've never felt before. I pray even as we're praying right now, that they would have a calmness and a peace like nothing they've ever felt before. Lord, just calm their souls, release them from anxiety, and I pray when anxiety comes knocking at their door again, that they would cast their anxieties on him who cares for them. Lord, I pray Aaron's blessing over them that you would keep that you would bless them, you would keep them, make your face shine upon them, be gracious unto them, turn your face toward him and give them peace. Lord, I pray all across the world, would you save the lost, heal the sick, and grow the saved. In Jesus' name, Amen, and Amen. I have a couple quick announcements for you guys. First of all, let me know how this episode impacted you. Let me know how you deal with anxiety, what you're anxious about, um, you know, just where you're at and how this episode spoke to you. Um but a couple huge announcements. First of all, um next Tuesday, the next time you'll see me, I'll upload a podcast next Tuesday is my two-year anniversary of House of Jacob podcast. It's been a long one, and the Lord has really moved. I'm so beyond great, I am more grateful for this podcast than I am most things in my life. And this podcast has changed my life probably more than it has a lot of you guys. So, it's been really cool doing it, and I'm I'm so blessed by it. And um I'm so glad I get to talk about the word of God with you guys. My second announcement is I have finally the videos that I post on Instagram and TikTok normally, I have started posting on YouTube shorts. So if you're listening on YouTube, check them out. Also, um I filmed a podcast recently with some friends of mine and uh just talked about some things with the Lord and um following Jesus and discipleship and a lot of different stuff. So I'll leave a link in the bio, you should go check it out if you want to hear more about my story and just hear more about the Lord, really, more than anything. That's what we really talked about. Um and also, there is links in the description. I could really use you guys' prayers for provision. I'm still needing a lot of help financially with my schooling, with Bible school. I'm at Moody Bible Institute trying to get my bachelor's degree in biblical studies and eventually I want to get my masters and do seminary so that I may pastor one day. Um so if you would like to support me in any way, there's links in the description uh to be able to help out with my schooling, with my podcast equipment. Uh just all ministry stuff that I need some help with. And lastly, if you're on YouTube, like this video, drop a sub, it helps me out a ton. If you're on Spotify, follow the podcast, drop a rating. It helps me out so much. Same thing if you're on Apple podcast and uh share this podcast with someone who you think needs it. Your friend who struggles with anxiety or just share it with somebody who you think needs it. But yeah, I love you guys, bless the Lord for Coke Zero. I'm about to go enjoy this Coke Zero while I edit this video to get it to you guys. But yeah, I'm so excited to celebrate the two-year with you guys next month. It's been quite a journey. So, I love you guys, God bless you guys. I hope this episode spoke to you. I felt a little off filming this episode. Not like emotionally, I just felt like I didn't communicate it the best, so, um I hope that this episode still spoke to you all because God will use anything. So, and to be honest with you guys, every time I have an episode where I feel like I didn't do a good job is when the Lord like really uses it and I get all these comments about like how much it's blessed you guys. So I'm learning to just like trust the Lord with that and be like, man, God is sovereign, he did what he needed to do. Um but yeah, I love you guys, God bless you guys. Let me know how this episode spoke to you, and I will see you guys on our two-year anniversary next Tuesday. Have a great week.