Louie Giglio - The Best Thing To Do With Your Anxiety
There's all kinds of us in the room today. And I think that the best thing we can do today is to maybe all just move our hearts a little bit towards this idea of expectation. That you didn't come to a show today, you didn't come to a thing, you didn't come to check a box, say, "We made it. We went to church, ain't that awesome"? And even if you came with all this, you know, excitement in your heart, we didn't come to normal, we didn't come to business as usual and I will tell you why. Because none of us need business as usual, we need God to be something in our lives that only God can do. Our nation needs it, our families need it, I need it. And I have a feeling that if we would just got honest today that almost everyone in this room would say, "If God is still doing miracles, I need one".
I'm gonna preach just for a couple minutes. We've been in this series, "Putting an X through anxiety". We almost didn't do it. And then, just at the last minute, I thought the Lord say, "No, we're gonna do that". So, we did and I am so glad we did. Man, I don't know that I'm kind of in that zone where I just think we need, if possible, and I know this is not possible, but if it were to just take that word out of our vocabulary. I feel like it's just gotten, you know, too much space. And when I say that, I'm not minimizing anxiety, I'm not saying we should act like it doesn't exist. I'm definitely not in the campus saying, "You should just have more faith. You should just believe God more", I just, you know, that's just not helpful for people that are struggling.
And it is true that you should have more faith and you should believe God more. That's very true. And God is bigger, and He's able, and heals, and delivers, but when somebody is in a critical moment, that's not what they need to hear. And they might need actually to have help. And I think that, I don't wanna prescribe anything, I say this every single time and I will forever will. I am not a doctor, I am not a psychologist, or a psychiatrist, or a therapist, I don't have any credentials or any kind. So, you can just chunk my opinion out the window. But when you're in a critical place, you need help.
And I think that people of faith shouldn't make people decide, do you wanna have faith or do you wanna get help? I think people of faith should say, "Well, God is a physician, and He made physicians". You know, and your toilet breaks people don't just say, "Well, guess ya'll should pray more". You do believe in miracles, right? And I say that tongue ain't cheap but I want us to just always acknowledge that God is a healer and His plan for us is to be well, and so we should always trust that even if it doesn't happen overnight, doesn't happen in five minutes or maybe even in five years that we should never lose hope that God plans for us is to be of sound mind. That's His plan.
So, we wanna just wrap today with a thought. And I wanna kinda match these things up one more time in saying that you can take care of yourself and you can be anchored in the almighty. I've read this article and if this was the only talk today, you'd really need to find another church. But it's not the only part of a talk but it is, I think very interesting. I've read this article, "22 ways to calm yourself down," which sounds a little bit, you know, could make you anxious just knowing there's 22 ways. Some of you are like, "Oh man, I wish you just said like there's one thing you can do real quick".
Number one, breathe. Remember the first talk? Ruach, the breath of God. I'm telling you, these people that write articles on mental health, where do you think they get this stuff? They get it from the one who is wisdom Himself. Nobody's making anything up that God doesn't already know about that's gonna help you be of sound mind. And at the top of most list is gonna be breathe. And then, you're like, "Well, how do you breathe"? Well, I'll tell you the best way to breathe is to get the breath of God, the Ruach of God, the Spirit of God in your lungs. That's how you learn how to breath.
The second thing, admit that you are anxious. We're gonna talk about that in just a second. Because anxiety sometimes, and I don't know, anxiety means a lot of different things to a lot of different people and I think we call a lot, we call everything now anxiety. But a lot of anxiety comes from pride. For example, I think the last thing that pushed me in the hole that I fell in, Kyle, was control. I didn't realized how much of a controller I as until a few things happened in that season of life. And I think the inability to control things, there it went. And the root of control is pride. And I think at the root underneath some anxiety is pride. And I think these people are right, you have to admit that you're anxious. And a lot of time, prideful people won't even admit that they're anxious.
And number three, challenge your thoughts, did a whole book on that called, "Don't Give The Enemy a Seat at Your Table". Gotta examine every thought that comes in your mind. You can't control thoughts from coming in your mind, but you can examine them and decide how long they stay in your mind. And by challenging the thoughts that this article was just saying things like, you know, "Is it really gonna be that bad? What if the worst case happened, then could I survive that and move on in life"? I'm gonna actually talk back to this thing.
Number four, gonna really lean into this one today, release the anxiety. They recommend that you go for a run, get some exercise, just for free if you don't wanna read the article, they recommend that you do not take out your anger by boxing things because that makes you focus on being more angry. I've never heard that before. Those of you who go to the boxing thing and punch all of your anger out.
Number five, visualize yourself calm. Now, that sounds kinda like, you know, it's too touchy feely.
Number six, think through it. Highly recommend that.
Number seven, change your focus. I think we did a whole message last week about looking up.
Number eight, have a centering object. They recommend a rock that you could sit on your desk and hold. I'm gonna recommend a better centering object in just a minute. No, not knocking the rocks, but or if you've got something in your pocket that you like to hold on to or they set a stuffed animal. But I have a centering object I'm gonna recommend in just a minute.
Relax your body. I liked this one, drop your shoulders. Man, they talked about when you dropped your shoulders in the article that it makes your posture better and it lifts your head up. I was like, "Hmm, text neck".
Identify pressure points. Get some fresh air. I don't think we talked about that, one of the simple pleasures of life. And then they kinda go downhill from here but... not, not downhill but just fuel your body. In other words, if you're dehydrated, it does add to anxiousness.
Chew gum, listen to music. So, we're not going way downhill 'cause we talked about worship and how powerful worship is and anxiety.
Listen to music. There it is right there. What kind of music? Well, I'd recommend listening to something that's good. I don't think heavy metal is probably gonna lower the anxiety.
Number 16, dance it out. I did not expect you to be the dance-it-out guy of all the people in here. Got two for one on that one. I was talking to one guy, got two guys. Watch funny videos, write it down, could be helpful. Squeeze a stress ball, try aromatherapy, seek social support or spend time with a pet. So, let me just focus on a couple and what the scripture says to us in 1 Peter 5. It says, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you".
So, the very best thing to do with your anxiety is not to numb it, it's not to ignore it, it's not to give in to it, it's definitely not to feed it or to try to control it. The best thing to do with your anxiety is to humbly cast it on the one who cares for you. So, I want you to focus on these words with me. The first one is humble. To humble is to say, "I can't, but You can". And to humble is to recognize that God has a mighty hand. Most of our anxiety is us having amnesia about or not trusting in or having never experienced the fact that God's hand is mighty, therefore God can handle it. Handle what? Whatever you're anxious about. And to humble ourselves means to just say it out loud, "You know what, I cannot do it. I can't control it, I can't stop it, I'm not in charge of it. But I do have an option, I can humble myself under the mighty hand of God".
And I believe someone's word today in this journey we're on is going to be humble yourself. Just get down low under the mighty hand of God and say, "I have refused to onboard the responsibility to work out every outcome in the world". The second word is, cast. And so, when they said to release it, to release the anxiety, that was number four. How? Did you experience probably what I've experienced. I released it and then, you know, I took it right back. I did set it down, but then, "Better take that back".
And there's just this give and take of Yes. There's a lot of releasing going on, but there's also a lot of taking it back. And I think we've got to find a destination where we can absolutely lay it down. And the invitation today from God Himself is to cast all of our anxiety on Him, just chunk it on Him. Cast it on Him. It's not a polite little, you know, "I really been stressed out about a few things. I wrote them down on a piece of paper and I, I just wonder if I could just give these to you"?
That doesn't look like casting to me. I think casting looks like an absolute transfer. With all the intensity we have, I'm going to throw this off. But now just throwing it off, I'm throwing it on to you because you invited me to. Because the things that a lot of us are anxious about are very important things and the people that we're anxious about mean a whole lot to us. And you don't wanna just haphazardly say, "You know what, I'm sorry your marriage is going under, but I ain't worrying about that anymore. I am just chunking that". No. You're saying, "I don't know, you guys need a miracle or we need a miracle or they need a miracle, or they need a miracle. I am going to offload the responsibility for being the miracle worker onto the almighty God".
And then, He makes two promises, or two things can happen in this verse. Number one, He says He'll lift you up in the right time. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and He will lift you up at the right time. In other words, He's gonna bring you up out of the heap, on the floor. And at the end of the day, in the story of God, you're gonna be standing on a rock. This is what He promises. If you will humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, your story will end with you standing on the rock of Christ. Cast your anxiety on Him, and we've looked at the this word before, but you need to see it one more time. It comes from this Greek word, mérimna. Its root is Merizo.
You say, "Why do I care about that"? Because Merizo means to divide. So, if you dig this word up, it means properly, that it's a part, or separated from the whole. Figuratively, it is to worry. And anxiety again, means dividing and fracturing a person's being into part. So, when God wrote this to you, that's what He knew was going on inside of you. That you were being pulled apart on the inside, fractured on the inside. That's why we say, "I was worried to pieces". Where'd that come from? Right there. When your neighbor says that, they don't even know any Greek words. I mean, we were just worried to pieces.
Well, that's very Biblical what you're saying right there because that is the root of the word anxiety is to divide. Divide our minds, divide our peace, divide our heart, our soul, our well being, just to pull it apart. And how do you get it back together? You get it back together when you realize when I cast this on the almighty, I do that knowing that the almighty cares for me. He doesn't just care about the thing that I'm anxious about, He cares for me. Cast your cares on Him because he cares for you. And so, all of a sudden, it clarifies and you're like, "Why am I so anxious about this when the almighty God of the universe cares for me"? And I want you to picture today the almighty God putting His arms around you and telling you, "I've got you. I got you. And I've got everything that's trying to pull you apart. I got that too".
And I want your answer to anxiety to be, "Yahweh cares for me". Yeah, breath, chew gum, get a squeeze ball. Ain't nothing wrong with that. Go outside, get some fresh air, look up, dance it out if you need to, but nothing will trump Yahweh cares for me.So, I'm gonna humble myself, I'm gonna get down low and I'm gonna say, "God, I can't. I'm sorry that I acted like a control freak, I know that it's not honoring you when I do that, so I'm sorry. I'm gonna humble myself. Under Your mighty hand, I'm just gonna say out loud, your hand is strong, your hand is able, your hand is pierced, your hand is powerful, your hand is loving, your hand is global in reach. Your hand can pluck someone out of a pit and put 'em on a rock. Your hand can hold back a thousand. I'm gonna humble myself under the mighty hand of God. I'll let you decide when and how but I believe I'm gonna stand 'cause I believe you're gonna lift me up".
And I'm gonna cast, here it comes. I'm just casting. I'm just doing a lot of casting, it seems like, right now. I'm just in a casting season right now. Oh my word, here it comes again. I can sense it rising up inside of me. My chest is tightening, my breath is shortening, I can feel the weight coming now. I'm gonna just cast this on you, Father, and I'm gonna remember right now that you care for me. Anybody forgotten that Yahweh cares for you? Anyone forgotten that? Just show a hand, maybe just a little. Anyone forgotten that? Anyone? I've get six people, anyone else forgotten that? It's just a question, I'm just looking for a... it's amazing how easy it is to forget that and just start operating out of, "Nobody cares for me. I got this on my own. I gotta do this by myself. I gotta figure this out somehow because nobody else cares".
And somehow the enemy causes us to have massive spiritual amnesia and we forget that God cares for me. And I'm just gonna agree that He does. Not even know if I feel like it, the circumstances definitely don't seem like they're applauding it. But there's scars on His wrist and His feet in His side and I'm gonna let that be my guide today. My God cares for me. We're just gonna have a time where we can pray into that. The guys at the other locations are gonna lead that in their rooms. And even here at Trilith juts for a moment, I just want us to be able to lean in to the power of humble, cast, lift, care. And I wanna give us the opportunity, all of us today to do that, not to wait until we get home, "Oh, I'm gonna do that later today. I'm gonna cast all my anxiety on God later today, I'm gonna humble myself before God later today at some point. I'm gonna do that".
Why won't we just do that right here and right now? Why don't in this moment, if that's the step you need to take, you find a way to do that right now and believe that God can meet you in the space right here and right now? God, I thank you that this is not complicated, that you don't make things complicated. It might not be easy, but it's never complicated with you. And so, I trust you right now that you will be able to take someone out of the pit and move them out from under the heavy weight that is suffocating them right now. And that just by the atmosphere of worship that is created in this room, and by their willingness maybe today to say I'm gonna humble myself, and trust that you are going to lift me up.
So, were just gonna play, just quietly, just as we are right now. And I'm gonna just give you the freedom, you may wanna just kinda slip out of your aisle and find a place where you can just kneel down before God and say, "God, I wanna humble myself today. I mean, I wanna kneel down before you and I just wanna surrender this sense of me controlling everything, and I wanna let go of that today. Not just into the atmosphere, but under your mighty hand which I trust today". Or you may just wanna stand in this space and just say, "I don't wanna just stand in agreement that Yahweh cares for me".
You might wanna turn to somebody that you're sitting with and say, "This is what God's saying to me, right now, will you pray with me right now, right here, right now about A,B,C,D,E"? What ever it is that God's speaking to you, whatever you need. We're just gonna give a moment for God's spirit to bring this word to every seat. It is not the will of God that one person would leave this room today under the tyranny of anxiety.