Have you been feeling anxious lately?
Have you been feeling filled with worry and doubt and you don't know how to stop?
Do you feel like the world is crashing down around you?
Trust me when I say...I've been there
In today's episode, I'm going to be going over fear and how fear is a liar. I will be pairing this with scripture and also a little story time of my struggles with anxiety and I will be providing 3 steps to implement when you start feeling anxious. I do these 3 steps every time I start to feel anxious or get caught up in fear or doubt now, and they have helped me tremendously.
First I want to say a quick prayer: "Lord, I pray that You lift up every single person reading this right now. Please open up their eyes, their ears, their hearts, and their minds to you. Lord, I pray that the spirit of fear leaves each person that is reading this. I pray that you fill us with Your love, Your peace, and Your patience and just reveal the fruit of the Spirit in our hearts. Lord, I pray that You wrap your arms around us, that we can feel Your love, and that you guide us and protect us through every aspect of our lives. Pease give us the strength to do all that You've called us to do. Lord, I know that You'll provide it and I know that You will help us to see the truth. I thank You so much for every single thing that You've done. I love You with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen."
So if you're new here, I'm going to go over my story a little bit with fear and anxiety. So I have had anxiety basically my whole life. I remember being very anxious as a child and I would want to leave school because I was anxious, but I always just thought it was a belly ache. I didn't understand back then what anxiety was. I was officially diagnosed with anxiety when I was 15. Since then I have done a lot of very unhealthy and also healthy things to try and cope with my anxiety. There have been a lot of things that I tried to use to cope with my anxiety that may have helped a little bit, but in the end it ended up just making it way worse. I ended up getting depressed and just went very downhill trying to use drugs, alcohol, partying, relationships, and just things that were not good for me to try and mask what I was feeling. Throughout the years of struggling for now officially 15 years of being diagnosed with anxiety, there is only one thing that I have found that has helped me more than anything else in this world, and that is Jesus Christ.
I'm not saying because I gave my life to Jesus Christ that all my anxiety went away. After all, I proclaimed to be a Christian my whole life. I thought I knew Jesus my whole life and I still had anxiety and I still dealt with it in very bad ways. Over the past few years of just really strengthening my relationship with Christ, I have gotten to another level of having a relationship with him that has deepened, because I have been relying on him and him alone, or at least trying to. We are all humans, we fail, and we make mistakes from time to time, but I have been making it a point to deny my flesh, pick up my cross, and follow Jesus every single day. The peace that Jesus Christ provides is greater than anything I've ever felt. I've had momentary peace in my life by doing things that were not good for me, but Jesus Christ gives a true inner peace that we can't get anywhere else.
I know you may be thinking, "Okay, well that sounds great, I want that true inner peace, but how do I get it? I have been trying to rely on Jesus, I've been trying to do all these things, but I'm still anxious. I still worry, I still fear. I still have all of these issues, and I'm a Christian. I love Jesus, I spend time with them, so what do I do now? Am I really saved?" I mean, you may be thinking these things because you may still be struggling with anxiety. I'm not here to tell you that your anxiety is going to completely go away, because mine hasn't gone away. I do want to give you some steps that you can implement that will help whenever you are feeling afraid, when you're getting anxious, and I also just want to give you some inspiration with some scripture.
3 steps that I implement when I start to feel anxious:
Recite scripture
So first I took certain scriptures and put them on index cards, and then I spent a few minutes every day trying to memorize those. So depending on how many scriptures you have, it may take longer to memorize, but just start with one or two scriptures. I would read them over and over a few times, say them out loud, and then I would flip the card over and try to say them without looking at them. I normally would try to do that five times without looking at it and then I knew that I had it pretty much memorized. I would continue to do that every day. It's gotten to the point where now I have several scriptures memorized that I can use.
So whenever I am feeling afraid, when I'm getting anxious, whenever I know that I need to do certain things and I'm scared to do it, or if I just need a reminder that God is right here with me, I will recite those scriptures and I know them by heart now, and it's just incredible.
Psalm 23 is a scripture that I say to myself every single night before bed and also I say that throughout the day when I'm starting to feel anxious. It's incredible the amount of just peace and comfort that I feel when I say certain scriptures. I just can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, I can feel the presence of God, and sometimes I just almost feel like a big hug, it feels incredible. Whenever you're afraid, you're reciting scripture, and you're being reminded that God is right here with you, that is you using scripture as your weapon against the enemy. Fear and doubts in your mind are not always an attack of the enemy, but they can be. Using scripture will help to give you peace. It'll help to remind you that God is always right here with you, and you can use it as your weapon against the enemy whenever he is trying to get you down with fear and anxiety.
There are a few scriptures that I've memorized that I say out loud whenever I am afraid or anxious. So I'm going to tell you these scriptures in case you want to memorize these too.
"The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." -Psalm 23
"The LORD is my strength and my shield, my heart trusts in him and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I give thanks to Him and song." -Psalm 28:7
"Do not fear for I'm with you. Do not be dismayed for I'm your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
-Isaiah 41:10
So those are just a few verses that I've memorized and I say out loud whenever I do get anxious, afraid, or worried. So if you want to write those down and memorize them you can. You can memorize and say out loud any scriptures that you want for whenever you get anxious or afraid. I know that if you do take the time to memorize some scripture and you say it out loud whenever you get those anxious thoughts, it will help you so much just like it's helped me
Pray and ask God for help
Whenever I am very anxious or afraid, or sometimes my heart starts racing and my mind goes crazy and I don't even know why, I will just stop and ask God for help. Sometimes I don't even know what to say and I will literally just say, "Lord, please help me." Sometimes I say, "Help me, help me, help me" over and over in my head because I start getting anxious and I don't know what else to do. I know that the Lord is always right here with me and His presence is always with us. So asking God for help during your time of need, whenever you are feeling anxious and afraid and just acknowledging Him and acknowledging his presence will help you. Now it gets to the point where I almost immediately start to feel at ease and feel peace whenever I'm reaching out to God. I can feel His presence with me whenever I'm inviting Him in, I'm asking Him for help, and I am acknowledging that I know that He's here and I need Him and I can't do this without Him. I will feel that instant presence of the Holy Spirit and the instant presence of Jesus Christ.
Before I go into the third thing, I did want to mention, because I mentioned earlier that fear is a liar. I know people are diagnosed with anxiety, I've been diagnosed with anxiety. I know that it is something that people need medicine for, but also it can be an attack from the enemy. Just like it says in 2 Timothy 1:7, "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." So we don't have the spirit of fear. That doesn't mean we're not going to be afraid. Doesn't mean we're not going to have anxiety, but God did not give us that spirit. He gave us a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline. Sometimes the enemy uses fear as a weapon against us because the enemy is afraid that if we truly live out the purpose that God has for us, if we truly live out the calling that God has placed in our hearts, he's afraid of what we're going to do. So the devil tries to put fear inside of us to keep us down so we're not doing the things that God has called us to do, we're not being the light of the world, we're not doing all of these things, because he doesn't want that.
I'm actually going to read a scripture about fear being a liar. It's Proverbs chapter 29:25, "Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe." We have to trust in the Lord. The Lord will protect us, guide us, and help us through everything. That doesn't mean that we're not going to face hardships and it doesn't mean that everything is going to be okay, but our true home is in heaven and when it's our time to go, we're going to be going to heaven with God the Father and Jesus Christ.
I want us to read one other scripture before I get into the third thing. This scripture is Joshua chapter 1:9 and it says, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged for the Lord. Your God will be with you wherever you go." His presence is always right here with us. We don't have to worry, we don't have to fear, we don't have to be discouraged, because God is always right here with us. When He has called us to do something, He will provide and He will get us through it. I'm actually going to go into an episode on this in a few weeks, so I'm not going to get too much into it, but if God calls you to do it, He will get you through it.
3. Do it anyway.
So after I say out loud the scriptures and I'm reminded of the presence of God, I'm reminded of the strength that He gives me and everything that He has provided me with, and I pray and ask God for help, then I just do the thing anyway. So this is particularly whenever I'm afraid to do something, something that I know that God has called me to do, but I'm scared to do it, I do it anyway.
Now, if you have alarm bells in your heart and in your spirit about something and not wanting to do something, even though you may be afraid of that, sometimes that is actually the Holy Spirit telling you that's not a good thing to do. So it's important to discern the truth and know if the thing that you're afraid of doing is actually what God wants you to do or if maybe it's something that you shouldn't be doing and that's why you're worried about it. So I want you to discern it. Don't just do irrational things anyway, especially if you know something is not good for you and you're afraid to do it, don't do it. But if you know, like for me for instance, I'm just going to give you some examples. There are a few different things that I have done lately that I know God called me to do and I was afraid to do them and I did them anyway. One thing being the silent retreat that I just went on, I knew God called me to go on that women's retreat, but I was afraid and I did it anyway because I knew God wanted me to do it. Signing up for this mission trip to go to Peru and trying to raise the funds to do it, I've been afraid. I was afraid to sign up. I've been afraid to ask people for funds.I have been afraid throughout this whole time, but I'm doing it anyway because I know God has called me to do it. There havve been other things in my life that I know God's called me to do that I've done anyway. So whenever you know you've already discussed it with God, you already feel it strong in your heart, but you're afraid to do it, do it anyway. I'm telling you, God will give you the strength. He will provide everything that you need to get through it. You just have to walk in obedience. You have to be faithful and you have to do it anyway.
This also is the same thing for simple little tasks, like going to the grocery store used to be so hard for me, driving used to be so difficult for me. There are so many things that I have done anyway because I know that God is right here with me and we cannot let fear hold us back from living life. God has so many plans for us. He has plans for us to go out there and to be the hands and feet of Jesus. That is what we are called to do. If you don't know your calling in this life, one thing I do know for sure is you are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus. You are called to go out there and to help, love, and serve others and to be a light in this world. If we are constantly letting fear and anxiety get in the way of that, that is stopping us from doing what God has called us to do, from being the hands and feet of Jesus, and from loving on others. We cannot let the enemy take that from us. We cannot let him take what God clearly wants us to do and we can see clearly in scripture time and time again, love and serve others, "love one another as I have loved you," "T "Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them all that I have commanded you. And surely I'm with you always." There are clear things in the Bible that we know we're called to do. If we can't go to the grocery store, if we can't drive, if we can't do these simple tasks daily because of our anxiety, that is stopping us from doing what we are clearly called to do by Jesus Christ.
So I hope this episode helped you guys. Throughout the past couple years, but especially over the past few months of me praying and asking God for help as soon as I start to get fearful or have anxiety and saying scripture out loud and just pushing myself to do things anyway that I know that I need to do in order to do what God has called me to do, iIt has helped me so tremendously. He has provided, He's always provided everything that I need. He's providing what I need right now through this episode because I've had anxiety throughout this whole episode. The enemy is trying to not get me to tell you guys and I'm telling you guys anyway, these are the three steps to implement. These are the things that have helped me, and I know they will help you. I know that fear is a liar, and I know that the enemy tries to use fear as an attack against us. We are going to break some strongholds, we're going to break some chains from this episode in the name of Jesus. If you really just rely on Jesus Christ, rely on God the father, know He's right here with you, know that He will never leave or forsake you, and if He's calling you to do something, you have to do it. He will give you everything you need. Just walk in obedience, take that step, do what He's called you to do, do the simple things that will get you to the big things. I'm here for you, I'm praying for you, and I love you.
I love you guys so much.
Never forget to choose faith over fear.
-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)
If you do want to contribute in any way, if you want to donate $5, $10, $500, whatever you can do to help me go on this mission trip, there are specific things that you will want to do whenever you click on that link to make sure that they know that you're supporting me as the missionary. So I'm going to tell you exactly what to do. If you want to click on that link and donate whatever you can. So you're going to go on the website: https://globalventures.tv/give and then you want to make sure you click on where it says "support a missionary." Once you do that, you'll put in however much you want to donate. Then in the "memo" portion of it, make sure that you type in my name so they know that it is for me, my name is Lorena Espy. Whatever you can do would be so greatly appreciated. I will be praying for you guys. I love you guys so much and if you can just send love and prayers and that's all you can do, that's amazing.
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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights
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