← ONE | A Potter's House Church
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- [00:00]
Torre Roberts
Foreign.
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Hey, good people, this is Torre Roberts. Blessings to you and welcome to the ONE podcast. I'm excited that you're here. ONE is a community of dynamic and vibrant thought leaders, preachers, teachers, and just a community of wonderful people all together. And we're excited to bring you this weekly podcast from our services from ONE in la. If you haven't been the One, I encourage you to check it out. You can go to one the Word one O N E and find out all about the service times and all about the teachers and all the philanthropic things that we have going. I believe you're going to be blessed to be a part of it. And speaking of being blessed, we're getting ready to get into a teaching right now that I believe is going to bless you. So tune in, enjoy, and I'll be back with you at the end.
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I am going to read a lot of scriptures, as always. Amen. See, somebody loves the word. We love the Word. We do. But I'm gonna let you sit down because I'm gonna introduce a guest. I'm gonna have somebody up here with me today, last night. And y', all, I don't have cable and I don't watch much tv. I'm a streamer after the fact. I started doing that when I moved to California. I wanted to see what would happen if I didn't have access. It's been nice. Tomorrow, June 23rd will be my two year California resident anniversary. I love it here. And so I didn't know some of the things that were brewing in the news. But last night God spoke to me clearly and said, to teach you about anxiety this morning. And then I got a text message from a colleague and friend who I knew was in LA but in my craziness forgot. And yeah, but she's conscientious. So she's like, hey, still coming to church tomorrow? And I said, hey, yes you are. Because she's also a nationally known psychologist who specializes in anxiety. And so would you all please welcome Dr. Alicia Hodge to the stage with me today? Dr. Alicia is in the house. She is a licensed clinical psychologist, which I know. Speaker, wellness educator. She specializes in helping high achievers. Any high achievers in here or trying to be high achievers? We trying child high achievers overcome anxiety, perfectionism and burnout. She's licensed to practice in 42 states. First of all, I got anxiety just hearing that number because it's a lot of work to stay on top of 42 states. And so I guess that means if you might be interested in working with her. She must be licensed in this state. I gotta imagine California is one of the 42 states.
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
California is actually very complicated.
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Torre Roberts
It is.
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
We could do some coaching.
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Torre Roberts
Okay, but we can do some coaching. So you're gonna wanna connect with her, but. Welcome, Dr. Lisha. We're so glad to have you. Now, I'm gonna let her have a seat for a moment, and I'm gonna sit down, too, so that I talk fast, like I don't get. So I behave. So I behave. But I'm so excited to share this word with you today. I'm gonna spend this first few minutes, maybe 10 minutes, giving you the biblical framework that God showed me for this. And then we're gonna talk about with Dr. Alicia how anxiety sometimes disguises itself as your faith. Mm. And how do we unravel it when it does? Because we can be anxious about that. Anxious about whether our anxiety is. So we anxious about being anxious. But we got some information for you today. Amen. I'm gonna start with First Kings, chapter 18. This is a story about the prophet Elijah. He has a battle with the prophets of a false God called baal. And at this time, the children of Israel are under duress. They've been living in a drought for three years. Things are not going well. Study your Bible this week. You can read the whole story. I can't give you the whole background story, but things are not going well. There's been a drought, and they are being placed in a difficult, challenging position by the worshipers of baal. And God always does show up for the children of Israel. Now, let me say this because when I woke up to the news this morning, I said, God, you gave me 1 Kings 18 last night. I believe that. I don't want anyone to think that this is my undercover preacher to say, israel, Israel, Israel. It is not. It is the word of the Lord about how we connect with him. Please remember that the Children of Israel is a spiritual group. And so I don't believe that Christians have any one. I respect people's decisions, but I don't believe that all Christians have to see things the same way. And so just remember that people didn't believe it was Jesus when he came, because one of the things they wanted was a political movement from their Messiah. And when he didn't give it to them, that was major proof that to them, among other things, that he was not actually who he said he was. But in the meantime, he revealed himself to Samaritans and women and. Okay, y' all with me. Okay. All right. So first kings 18. It starts with this face off that's about to happen between Elijah and the prophets of baal. And in here is an incredible lesson about how our anxiety and our religion can get tangled, starting at verse 21. And Elijah came to all the people and said, how long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if BAAL follow him, but the people answered him, not a word. How long will you go back and forth between trying to figure it out yourself and what God says? Verse 22. Then Elijah said to the people, I alone am left a prophet of the Lord. But baal's prophets are 450 men. That's real numbers. So one of the challenges with anxiety is there be facts. You know how they say fear stands for false evidence appearing real? No, it don't appear real. There was 450 of them and one of him. So we don't gotta be all spooky about it. That's false evidence. No, I have data. 450 of them want a me. Therefore let them give us two bulls, and let them choose one bull for themselves. Cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, put no fire under it. And I, Elijah, will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but no fire under it. So they're getting ready to do this ritual sacrifice. And he says, so you do your sacrifice to your God. I'm gonna do my sacrifice to my God. Verse 24. Then you call on the name of your God, and I will call on the name of the Lord and the God who answers by what? Fire. Fire. Ah, that fire. He is God. So all the people answered and said, it is well spoken. Now Elijah said to the prophets of the baal, choose one bull for yourselves, and you prepare it first, for you are many. And call on the name of your God, but put no fire under it. So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it and called on the name of BAAL from morning even till noon, saying, o baal, hear us. But there was no voice and no one answered. So then they leaped about the altar, which they made. So first they were like, he, help us. Nothing happened. So they were like, okay, help us, help us, help us. They start moving. They like maybe a bell, don't see us, help us. But that didn't work either. Oh, but you do some stuff when you're trying to solve your problem. Mm, uh huh. You lay out your sacrifice. Well, I'm a fast, I'm a pray, I'm a fast. Some More, I'm gonna stop this, I'm gonna give up that. And then that didn't work. So you're like, okay, let me call the pray partners. I'm gonna get up at 4:30 every morning, sunrise. What you checking the weather at what time do sunrise? 5:42. At 5:42 I'm gonna be up because I'm trying to make God answer me. Huh? So you're like, I don't believe in baal, okay, but there's something to learn from those prophets trying to get to a God and solve their problem. So it says that they got to leaping and then what happened? Verse 27. And so it was at noon, Elijah mocked him. Now Elijah got to acting up and he said, cry aloud, for he is a God. Is he meditating? Is he busy? Is he on a journey? Or perhaps he's sleeping and baby you got to wake him up. See there's gotta be these moments when you look in the mirror and say, what's your problem? Do you believe in God or not? Because you know, a lot of us got a BAAL prophet on this shoulder and a prophet of God on this shoulder. And they're going back and forth and you gotta sometimes tell this one, thank you. So they cried, but they did what he said. So they cried aloud, and this is big. And they cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances until the blood pushed out of them. So now they are in such an emotionally painful state, they are so afraid that their God is not gonna now in order. They have prayed, they have jumped, they have yelled, and now they're cutting themselves. There's nothing new under the sun. There are some of you in this room right now with scars on your body from times that you cut yourself, just trying to get the emotional pain to stop, trying to make something happen. Try to shed your own blood to make something happen. Everything is in this word. Bet you didn't know that was in there. We call it non suicidal self injury. Everything is in the word that should excite you, that God doesn't miss you. And so they did that until the blood pushed out of them. Go on to verse 29. And Elijah said, is that 21? Whoa, there we go. Verse 29. And when midday was passed, then they start prophesying until the time of offering in the evening. So now that this is them making, now they confessing it. My Bible said, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything with prayer and supplication, present your request to God. He is a God that asks and shall Receive, knock, and shall be opened unto you. Huh? Anybody ever start quoting every scripture they can think of until their mouth was dry? Your heart beating fast, you wondering when something's gonna happen? Mm, mm, mm, mm. And when midday was passed, they prophesied until the time of offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice. No one answered, and no one paid attention. That'll get your anxiety higher. Then Elijah said to all the people, okay, that's enough. Come near to me. So all the people came near to him and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. The relationship between anxiety and prayer, something we're gonna get into today as well. Has your altar broken down? The place where you pray? Do you think you have it, but don't realize it's broken down because we're not in the stance we need to be? And we're gonna dig into that. And so he repaired the altar that was broken down. And Elijah took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes, of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, israel shall be your name. Then with the stones, he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench around the altar to hold two seals of seed. He put wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, laid it on the wood, and said, fill four. What? Water. Fill four water pots with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. Then he said, do it a second time. Then he did it a second time. And he said, do it a third time. And they did it a third time. 12 buckets of water they poured on top of this place that they need to be on fire. 12 buckets of water. So the water ran all around the altar. And he also filled the trench with water. And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, O Lord. Hear me that this people may know that you are the Lord God and that you have turned their hearts back to you again. Then the fire of the Lord fell. Fire came, y'. All. And this fire was so hot. Where's my fire flow? People, we talked about this. This fire was so hot that it consumed and burnt the sacrifice. It burnt up the wood. It burned the stones up the dust and licked up all the. It was nothing left. It burned the rocks, y'. All. Everything Completely disappeared, including licking up the water that was in the trench. Now, when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord he is God. The Lord he is God. Hallelujah. So we're gonna stay in that story. I want us to go back and I'm. Let Dr. Lisha talk, I promise. Because she and I looked at three areas that were evident in what the prophets of BAAL were doing that we get to doing when we let anxiety eat our prayer. And the first one, and I'm gonna give it to her, is compulsive religious behavior. This is what us therapists call it, compulsive religious behavior. Tell us what that is, Dr. Hodge.
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
Hello. Good morning. And so a compulsive behavior, as we talked about, is doing something over and over and over. And part of the reason that we're doing this is because we have an idea or a belief. If I just do a little more.
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Torre Roberts
Are we married to an idea?
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
Married, committed.
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Torre Roberts
Just asking.
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
Yes. And so if I have this idea, I need to do more. And if it's not producing, I'm tense. I feel an inner tension in my body. And so that can look like I need. I didn't pray that. Right. I need to start over. I'm going to pray it again. I want to get it just right. I want this to be suitable and perfect for God.
- [15:25]
Torre Roberts
Yeah. Anybody ever fell into that? God. I just want to do it right. I just want to. I just want excellence. And it hides in there. Yeah, it hides in there. And so I think what she said, that stands out to me so much is it doesn't. You don't feel any different. Like it never enough. And so it's an extreme right we have not praying at all or something. And then on the opposite extreme, we're praying, we're fasting, we're reading scripture, we're doing a certain. And it's like, if I don't do it, then I'm not positioning myself for God to answer. And so we carry this strain and this anxiety. How do we anchor that? How do we anchor ourselves?
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
Well, I think one of the ways that you want to think about it is that God is not demanding a ritual for you. Grace is not something that we've earned. And so ultimately, if we're trying over and over to make something right and perfect, we're negating the fact that God himself is the perfect one.
- [16:22]
Torre Roberts
Thank you. I have up there live fearlessly, which our one family knows is one of our missions in this life. God is not, as she said, demanding rituals. You are already loved. You are already loved. First John 4, 15, 16. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. And we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. Love takes fear away. But we have to recognize that anxiety is a form of fear. And so when you say, I'm feeling anxious, I want to challenge you to say I'm scared, because that's more honest, right?
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
Name it. Yeah, if you can call it into the room and name it, you automatically reduce its power.
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Torre Roberts
Listen to that. That takes power away. Wait, wait, so you mean, like, if I say I'm scared, I'm not making a bad confession? No, because sometimes we get caught up in that religiously, right? Like, well, now if I say it, I'm bringing it to pass, so I can't say I'm scared. So, so. So the enemy's trying to make me scared. Boo, boo, boo boo boo, baby. Say it what it is. I'm feeling scared because then I know where to go in my word.
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
Exactly.
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Torre Roberts
Then I know how to talk to God. You know, when you have clients who follow Jesus struggling with this, what are some of the advice, some of the pieces of advice you give them?
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
We often talk about, too, stepping back and really thinking about who God is, not just your situation. Who is God? Who does God say he is? Those things don't change. Our situations change. But God himself never changes.
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Torre Roberts
Yeah, come on. He was. He's the same yesterday, today, and will always be forevermore. And so we do have to take a moment to remember. But I want you to pay attention to what's happening in your body. When you start feeling like there's something you haven't done enough of for God. I used to struggle very much to fly planes, and me never loved each other. And then after 9, 11, I was like, yeah, no, no, no, no, I'm finished flying. And I watched that plane hit that tower way too many times on the news. And so I was so traumatized that the next time I needed to fly, my body was just panicking and I didn't want to do it, but I stopped. I had to go where I was going because I believe God had called me to go do some work. So I'm like, I can't afford to be afraid to fly. God is sending me places to do my work in his ministry. And so I put my hand on the side of that plane. As I was getting on there, I prayed, a sense of peace came over me. And I reminded myself, he said, who God is? And I was like, well, Lord, if you ready to take me out of here, like, I guess you can do it on the ground, you know? So the first thing is reminding ourselves how little control we have. You know, have you seen that Instagram post? You didn't have. You never had control. You just had anxiety, right? Since I wasn't in control of the situation. And so God ministered to me and saw that plane. So it became a ritual for me to lay my hand on the plane when I was getting on. But then one time I was on there and it was taken off, and I realized I forgot. I had just walked onto the plane and sat down. And I was like, oh, you know, right when they said, we're closing the doors, it was like. And so now I'm like, can I lay my hand on the window? Can I lay it on the ceiling of the seat? What counts? And the Holy Spirit dealt with me in that moment because I had gone from faith to ritual. Watch yourself. I didn't say God, I don't need to do this anymore. So I forget you, you know. No, I just. It just generally didn't cross my mind. Maybe God had healed me from a level of fear that it didn't jump up in my mind. And so of course, I still said, God, you know, take us on a safe flight. But I had to sit there for a moment and check myself, because if I jumped up and started trying to touch every part of the plane I could reach, that wasn't faith, that was baal. You see me touching stuff. And what does that say about the God I serve? That he's gonna kill me if I don't touch the plane? So I need you to check these compulsive religious behaviors. If they are causing your body to tense up, that's not the fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit is love is the first one. And love casts out fear first. John 4 says that. And that's why I read to you that verse about love. Compulsive religious behavior, spiritually. Response. The response is the love of God to remember that you are loved. And also go to therapy. Go to therapy. Amen. Amen. Can you tell us about the next one? What's the next thing that we see?
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
We find that people may avoid rest or joy.
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Torre Roberts
Ah, Anybody avoiding rest? Talk to us about that.
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
Well, first I like to start off and say rest. In no way is a Reward. Rest is not a reward. Rest is a part of life. Rest is an important part of productivity.
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Torre Roberts
Yeah.
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
And so oftentimes we may feel a fear around. If I stop, if I slow down, if I let myself stop. I don't deserve this. I haven't earned it. I don't. I'm afraid that this is going to be so fleeting.
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Torre Roberts
What do we do?
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
Well, one of the things that we need to do is to consider, do I need to earn this? I have done enough. I am enough. Rest can be safe. Often, though, we talked about that tension you feel in anxiety sometimes. That tension feels like, oh, I can't rest. This is not safe. It means that your body has been in a state of hypervigilance, or it's been going too much, or it's been afraid. And so giving yourself a moment to take time and practice rest. I know that sounds strange, that rest could be a practice, but you have to practice it. Oftentimes people say, I tried to rest. I sat there for five minutes. I was, I'm just gonna get up and do something else. I'm okay.
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Torre Roberts
Anybody want to confess to that?
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
Right. I have.
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Torre Roberts
Okay, I see.
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
Yeah, it's so common. I have things to do. I can't rest right now. But the reality is you add to this cycle of burning out where you keep going and you go and you go, and you don't rest until your battery is dead. It's gone. And so rest is important because we are looking to seek control whether it's over our inside. Right. If I sit down too long, I start thinking about things that I don't want to think about. Let me get moving. Or is this idea of, I'm enough, I can rest, it might be okay, but you have to practice it.
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Torre Roberts
What? You use the phrase hyper vigilance. Could you define that, please?
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
Hyper vigilance is a state of being aware and alert.
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Torre Roberts
Head on a swivel.
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
Yep, that's what I was going to say. Always watching, always waiting, always looking. That can come from an experience of trauma.
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Torre Roberts
Thank you.
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
And so it is important to know that just because you're hypervigilant, you're not in the wrong. Your body is doing what it is meant to do. Your brain is there to protect you. And so oftentimes, if we have maybe experienced something traumatic, we're just making sure nothing like that ever happens again. But what that means is that I'm always on, I'm always looking, I'm always watching. And I'm tired, exhausted. And so one of the ways that we can help with that is a lot of times we want to use our mind to think. We can just simply return to our bodies and breathe. Your breath is something that is very natural and something that if you pay attention to it, will give you a sense of calm. It will help reset some of that tension in your body.
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Torre Roberts
Can you show us a breath that. A kind of breath that would help us with that?
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
Yes. Something that I like, because I'm a visual person, is I like something called square breathing. So if we think about a square, four sides when you breathe, a lot of times we think we're deep breathing. We're just. You want to make your stomach expand. Imagine you're filling your belly up with air. So a square breath I'm going to show you is follow the square. You want to go in, out.
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Torre Roberts
In.
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
Out. Even I feel better up here.
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Torre Roberts
I do. Did you guys feel the difference already? It always brings us right down. And when I do it, I like to put my hand on my belly. So I actually feel my hand move. So I know I'm not going up here.
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
That's true.
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Torre Roberts
But down here I know it's moving. And then it should fall when I breathe out. And immediately your body starts coming down. And I love the fact that our bodies, because our emotions are bodily experiences. You can shift your emotions by working through your body. It's actually much more direct route than trying to think your way to where you want to go, because your painful emotions are watering those hard thoughts that you're having. And so instead of spinning in the thoughts, we want to get into how we're actually feeling. Right. When it comes to the rest part, what other kinds of rest are some of your favorites besides sleeping? And you have a little young child, so sleeping probably gets away from you.
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
We don't do much sleeping.
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Torre Roberts
Yes.
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
You know, rest can feel prescriptive, and people want to. How should I rest? Sometimes it means I'm not going to give myself something to do. I'm not going to come up with a plan. I may set a timer. Sometimes I take 10 minutes and I sit and I let my mind gently do what it wants to do. I think a lot of times we're looking to change ourselves and change our thoughts and be forceful, and that's actually a little bit activating. It's the opposite of what we're going for. And so the idea is thinking about your favorite place, a calming place. I mean, I am originally from Connecticut. I live in D.C. right now. But when I come to LA, the water is the place for me. So just visualizing something gentle and giving yourself the power of a pause to say, I just need to take a second love that.
- [26:52]
Torre Roberts
I think that. And this was on part of the first topic that we looked at but didn't say it. I wanted to jump back to that in that rest. Do some of that in the presence of God. Which means sometimes spend unstructured time with God. Just sit there and just like, God, sit with me. You know, I sometimes would pat the sofa next to me. I'll be like, come sit, Holy Spirit. And just imagine I'm sitting there with. I don't have to say anything. Prayer is not just talking. It's being in his presence. It's being in communication with God. And so have some unstructured time. Some of you guys got prayer closets that would make the war room look bad. I mean, you got your posters laid out. Look, my girl's like, that's me. You got your special mat. This is the mat I pray on when I'm praying on this issue. But this is the warfare mat. This is the thank you, God mat. I mean, y' all got that. That closet is hooked up. But sometimes just go sit on your front steps with God. It can be unstructured. You can talk to him in the car. You can do. It doesn't have to be ritualized because that makes it sometimes feel like work. You come out of your prayer closet more drain than you went in, and that means something's missing. And so that don't take that. I mean, this is the enemy's just attacking me. I just gotta pray harder. We spiritualize all these explanations. And part of that is because we have been taught, and you guys know how I feel about this, to separate our emotions from our faith. And so we think we have to get our feelings away from God. And so then when we move our feelings now, our faith is strong, and that is not how it works. Bring your messy to God. I feel scared. I feel sad. I feel mad. I am confused. I'm a little mad at you because he already knows. He already knows. It doesn't scare God for you to say the truth about how you're feeling. I always imagine when I would have moments of feeling kind of mad at God because I didn't understand something. That when he sees that, it's like my child being 2 years old and walked up to saying, I'm mad at you. And you're just like, okay, baby, that's fine. You know, that may not have been fine. You may have had A upbringing where you were not allowed to say, you might have heard something like, you can be mad, but keep it to yourself. I'm not going to say whether I heard that or not. I heard that. I did. I heard that. And so we get taught because we can't. We weren't allowed to express our emotions to the authorities in our life, to our parents, that we don't go and express them to God either. And so you have to allow God to re parent you. He's a loving God. Loving God. Amen. A loving God. God wants joy for you. And he commanded us to rest. He commands us to rest. Genesis 1. All the way through the seventh day, he said, rest. Each day that God created on it says, the evening and the morning were the first day. The evening and the morning were the second day. He always says the evening and then the morning. So God designed you to start your day by resting. See, you think your day starts when you get up, but it starts when you go to bed. Because while you're sleeping, God is working. So then when you get up, you're in the second half of the day. Now let me get up and see what God been doing while I've been sleeping. The evening and then the morning. You getting up in the morning, like, okay, when I got to do what I got to do, uh, when you go to bed tonight, remember this. Let me begin my day. Good night. God, I thank youk for what yout're gonna do while I'm sleeping. And then when I wake up, it's time to go. Amen. So that is rest. So I Love this tip, Dr. Alicia, that you gave us. Choose one joyful act per week.
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
Just one.
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Torre Roberts
Can you give us some examples of some easily accessible joyful acts?
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Dr. Alicia Hodge
And this is obviously very personal, but oftentimes think of the things that just bring you those little moments. Like, that was nice. And that could be a walk. It could be watching a sunset or a sunrise, depending on who you are. It could be eating one of your favorite snacks. It could be humming your favorite song or listening to it and dancing to it full out. And so think of one. What is one thing that I can do once a week? Because the goal is that it'll snowball. You'll say, I want to do something joyful today. You'll start to notice joyful moments. You'll open yourself up to them and really get a chance to see how God is present everywhere and everything.
- [31:28]
Torre Roberts
Amen. Amen. And joy feeds us. Our body literally recovers when we're in a State of joy. That vagus nerve, that tree of life that lives in our body, is awake and that is healing and restoring us so that when we are under duress and stress, in those moments, we feed off of what our body gained when we were experiencing joy. But if you skip joy all the time because you're so focused and anxious about the thing that's not done, not right, that you don't know, when you have these moments, you are starved. So we have to soak up joy. You guys have heard me say how I wallow in joy. I will bring it back up and think about every good thing because I need to go back to it in my body so that my body can get strong. That's how God made us. That's why he said in John 15, 9:12, as the father loved me. Now think about this. Love addressed that compulsive religious behavior because we're doing that because we're afraid. We're doing that because we are serving a God who we think is going to hammer us and kill us and say, smack us if we didn't do everything right. Now we know that love replaces that. So it says, as the Father loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things. Have I spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full? This is my commandment that you love one another as I've loved you. Now, why is this important to this idea of avoiding rest and joy? Because it shows that God's love, the next thing we get as a result of interacting with his love is that we abide in joy. So God actually wants you to feel joyful? Please stop quoting. Well, the joy of the Lord is my. The joy of the Lord is my strength. And. Yeah, stop. You're trying to make joy not be a feeling. It is something you feel. It's not something you just mad about all the time. He said, I want you to abide in joy. But we get that from love. What's the second fruit of the spirit? I'm gonna get to that verse later. Joy. And so love builds from joy. So stop avoiding rest, stop avoiding joy. Chase those things, because that's God's offering to you. Rest. Rest and have joy. And it also ends by saying, love one another as I have loved you. When we are in our duress state, our anxious state, go love on somebody else. Go love on somebody else. Yesterday I was getting my Starbucks in the morning because they get a lot of my money, bless God. And a gentleman was standing in front of us. He turned to me and my girlfriend and asked us what we were getting. And we told him and he was like, great. And he paid for it. And he's like, I just want to bring kindness to people. And that was like this little joy moment, right? So I'm like, oh, I'm going to do that for somebody soon. Because when we do things for other people, when we love other people, it lifts us. So love on somebody when you are anxious. It is one of the ways that we can move into love and joy. And also let somebody love you. Let somebody love you. Let somebody fulfill that commandment to love someone else by being the target of that love. Amen. So we got to do that. All right, let's go to our third one, Catastrophic thinking. Help us, help us, help us.
- [34:53]
Dr. Alicia Hodge
Catastrophic thinking is the most common phrase is I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
- [35:01]
Torre Roberts
It's not gonna work out.
- [35:02]
Dr. Alicia Hodge
Yeah, this is too good. It's too good to be true. It's believe in the worst, worst case scenario of a situation which we then begin to act on and feel. And so if I'm thinking, oh, I'm going to be late, I'm going to miss it, and you get down to the bottom of like, this is going to be the worst day ever. That's catastrophic thinking.
- [35:22]
Torre Roberts
I love that you said anxiety is always looking for proof that it's not safe to hope. Anxiety is always looking for proof that it's not safe to hope. Talk to us about that and the essential nature of hope.
- [35:40]
Dr. Alicia Hodge
Because hope is about endless possibility, Right? And usually it's associated with positivity. And one thing that I actually like to tell people is if you're using your creativity of your mind to think of the worst case scenario, what if we use it to think of the best case scenario?
- [35:56]
Torre Roberts
Come on. What if it all works out?
- [35:58]
Dr. Alicia Hodge
What if today was the best day ever?
- [36:01]
Torre Roberts
What if something turns the corner? What if it goes well? What if they didn't mean it that way? Even though something hurt my feelings, can I imagine that they didn't mean it in the way that I took it? Can I imagine that that person's not looking at me funny? Uh huh, uh huh. Because that hypervigilance is always trying to draw facts. And so like she said, it is still creative. Fear is very creative. And we're supposed to create intentionally here at one So I want you to be intentional about what your mind is creating. What do we do when those thoughts are just talk about, not just catastrophic, but what we call intrusive. Can you explain what an intrusive thought is?
- [36:43]
Dr. Alicia Hodge
And so ultimately, intrusive thought, like the word intrudes into your mind. You don't have to try, you don't have to formulate it. It comes in and it interrupts. And usually it's something negative or scary. And oftentimes I tell people the power is in a pause. We're so quick to fix. Like, I don't want to think that. Let me think something instead. And sometimes I say, let me step back and say, ooh, my mind's doing that thing again. It's thinking it's the worst day ever. And again, we talked about, there's proof. There might be proof.
- [37:11]
Torre Roberts
There might be. There might be some facts.
- [37:14]
Dr. Alicia Hodge
I spilled coffee all over myself. But there is an opportunity to turn it around. And the pause is to say what you said. Is there an alternative? This is one way to look at it. Is there another way that I could look at this?
- [37:27]
Torre Roberts
Yeah.
- [37:27]
Dr. Alicia Hodge
Do your square breathing. Bring yourself to a more calm place and try to think something different.
- [37:34]
Torre Roberts
Yeah.
- [37:34]
Dr. Alicia Hodge
Try to say a quick prayer. Try to ask yourself, okay, what can I do from here? Today didn't start off so well. Where can I pick it up?
- [37:43]
Torre Roberts
Yeah, and I love that order. Hit that body first. Because your thoughts, when you start trying to change your thoughts, if you don't shift where you are emotionally, the intrusive thoughts and the catastrophic thinking, there's just like weeds. They're going to grow right back. Right? And so then they were in this cycle of wrestling and wrestling. And so breathe. That's a great breathing exercise. Ask yourself, how am I feeling? What am I feeling? That's feeding what I'm thinking. Because once you get down to that emotion space, you're allowed to feel more than one thing at a time. And so I'm feeling scared about X. But if I take a moment, I'm also feeling a little bit encouraged by God. So maybe if I lean into that feeling, let it begin to build, I can start to have a different thought pattern. Does that make sense? Because when we wrestle with those intrusive thoughts, just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, they just. They just get a little stronger and a little bit stronger and a little bit stronger. And so. And how does this show up in our prayer life? As soon as it starts saying, oh, the devil is talking to me. And so now we're pleading the blood. And am I saying that the enemy doesn't do stuff I'm not saying? Absolutely. But you have authority over the enemy. And so once you say you have that, you have authority over the enemy. So once you say in the name of Jesus, Satan, the Lord God rebuke you, you will not speak anything to my mind. Leave this space, leave this place, what I say. The one thing that can stop your running mind is your running mouth. So you talk to the enemy, but you ain't got to talk to him for days. Now you're getting into a catastrophic place. Now you're doing some compulsive thinking. Because if you think the enemy is strong enough against the blood of Jesus to be picking on you day after day, all day, every day, day after day, therapy. I need you to go to therapy because you got to get back to Scripture. What does it say? We know that we have authority, and so that has been taken care of. So now something is happening. As she said earlier, am I hypervigilant? Is there some trauma work that I need to do? Do I need to ask God to renew my heart and my mind about who I believe God to be? What am I afraid of? But yes, you can absolutely use your spiritual tools. I never want you to lay them down. But be careful that that anxious feeling isn't what's driving the prayers that are coming out of your mouth. That's a challenge. When you feel your mind spiraling down, spiral up, recognize I've been here before. How do I take a different route? Don't give into the. I'm a Google this 27 times at 2am push the phone out of reach. But the challenge with that is what, as she said earlier, and maybe you can give us some tips on this. How do I be in the presence of my body when I stop doing the things that distract me from my body? Because some of you are using prayer and scripture and fasting and repetition to distract you from your body where you're actually feeling the real feelings. How else can we do get. Can we address that? In addition to the breathing, there are.
- [40:43]
Dr. Alicia Hodge
Some other ways you can do if you want to little things like wiggling your toes. So I tell people learning to come into your body is difficult because we're often taught to just stay in our heads and we don't notice tension in our body. So little ways throughout the day, wiggle your toes, take your tongue off the roof of your mouth.
- [41:02]
Torre Roberts
Mine was there.
- [41:04]
Dr. Alicia Hodge
Make some space between your ears and your shoulders. I think a lot of us who Work at computers, just kind of thinking about that. But really it's about presence, using your senses. So in those moments where you're feeling swept up in a way, a lot about anxiety is it pulls you out of the moment. In those times when you catch yourself, say five senses. What do I touch? What does this table feel like? I might drink a sip of water, take a deep breath. Do I smell anything? Often this may only apply to a certain group, but scented lotion, if you have it, put some on your hands and smell it. But really think about my senses. I want to be in the here and now. I don't want to be pulled into the future, into the catastrophic event.
- [41:45]
Torre Roberts
I love what I'm hearing you saying is have a little bit more of a love affair with your body. And we've been sometimes taught in church that our bodies are these sin suits that are fighting against us and we're just trying to make it to heaven and cast off this old body, you know. But this body was handcrafted by God in the day of creation. It's special. It's special. The gospel story begins with God making a body, putting us in it and breathing life. And then we mess up, there's a fall, and it changes our body. But then Jesus puts on a body just to be connected to us, to understand our experience. Hebrews 4:15 says, we have not a high priest who cannot be touched by the feelings of our infirmities. And he can be touched by it because he put on a body so that he would feel everything we felt. So the body was important enough for Jesus to put one on. Come down, feel everything, have that body die. Have that body resurrected. And the gospel story is not finished until our bodies are in his presence. Resurrected, incorruptible. Our body is the beginning and end of this story. Have some love for that body. And so, yeah, rub some good smelling lotion on it. Look at something beautiful, smell something nice, taste something good. I know we got calories, but just let the chocolate melt slow in your mouth. You know, pay attention to it. How does it feel if you spend, I love to challenge people. 30 Days of Love affair with your body. Do something nice every day. Just, you know, if you were abused physically, sometimes that part of your body will activate your legs or your thing, or if your face was slapped, you were. Sometimes that part of your body will activate one love affair thing with your body. Just that part of your body. I love you. You're loved. Give your body a different experience than it's had before. Do that Little thing, put your. Everybody put your hand under your left arm and then wrap your. That's how you hug yourself, close your eyes and give yourself this really big hug. Your body responds the same to a hug from yourself. Even the other people. And I love you and do that. So 30 days. Anyone take that challenge? Have a little love affair with your body for the next 30 days. You will be surprised at how it shifts your emotions. Bring some of that anxiety down. Yeah, this is a divine vessel. So we're talking about mental health, but it's always spiritual because I'm asking you to tap into how God made you so that we can approach wellness his way. And so what she's giving us is spiritual insight because it helps us understand what we're working on. And that catastrophic thinking is dangerous. Avoiding rest and joy is dangerous. Expecting. What was the first one we did? The religious over ritual is dangerous. We saw the prophets of BAAL do all of these things. And all that's happening. Elijah, just chilling. Elijah didn't do it. He wasn't over there all day. God, when this is over, you gots to show up. I'm believing you're going to show. He was ready. He was relaxed a whole day. That's serious business. He wasn't overdoing it because he wasn't coming with anxiety. I want to read you a verse that you know well. Philippians 4, verses 4 through 7. I'm gonna read you a few. Rejoice in the Lord always. Now, this is huge because we went from love to joy and now we're going to peace. Peace is the opposite of that catastrophic thinking. Peace is the opposite of anxiety. So rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice. Rejoice. Get the joy you had and re up it. Rejoice. Remind yourself of what God has done. Remind yourself of the moments he's given you. Bring up that testimony. You have to rejoice. Bring that back up. Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing. Now, this verse is sometimes translated, do not be anxious about anything. You know that one. Let me explain. This is not the 11th Commandment. When he says, do not be anxious, Paul's not saying, do not be anxious. Do not kill, do not covet. Honor your father and mother. Do not be anxious. This is not a law. And so when you feel anxiety, you're not breaking a law, you're not sinning. But Paul is telling us that anxiety is an ineffective posture for prayer. He says, be anxious for nothing. But in everything by prayer. So anxiety and prayer aren't even. They are opposites. And so when anxiety tries to disguise itself as prayer, and then you're wondering why your prayers don't feel effective, because it's actually anxiety. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And then the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. Anxiety is all about understanding. Anxiety is all about knowing what's happening. When is it happening, how can I understand it? How can this be? How will that happen? So how can you have peace beyond understanding if you're still chasing understanding? Peace actually abides in the spaces where we don't know. That's where divine peace comes in. And so if I want the peace, I gotta be willing not to know. Dr. Alicia, why do we struggle so much with ambiguity?
- [47:24]
Dr. Alicia Hodge
Well, we want to know. Like you said, we just want to know. Certainty gives us points and ideas, and we believe it's control. So when we don't have certainty, we don't have control.
- [47:36]
Torre Roberts
You never had any anyway. You never had any anyway. And you know who else the Bible doesn't say is in control? There's no scripture in the Bible that says God is in control. We love to say that God's in control. And that gets us excited because we're like, if I'm not in control, then I want to know who it is. Oh, it must be God then. God's in control. So now we're waiting for God to do what we would do if we were in control. But that is not a verse in the Bible. We know that God is the king over this kingdom, and kings have dominion. Control and dominion are not the same thing. Dominion is movement in a system. And so God has dominion. And there are systems in place in the kingdom. And we'll have a kingdom session another time. And so we work within the system, but God's not. That's different than controlling everything. Because you say, well, God, why did you let this happen if you control everything? Well, when you did something you weren't supposed to do, when you hurt someone, when you lied, when you cheated, when you stole, when you failed, when you relapsed. Did you say God you're supposed to in control? Why you let me do that? You have never wondered why God didn't stop you from doing what you knew you shouldn't be doing. God is in control. Why didn't you stop me? I've never has anybody ever got mad at God for not stopping you from doing what you wanted to do. One person, okay, you got to get that. You gotta let that go. I need you to see a therapist. I love you. She's not messing with you. We are always wanting him to control what happens to us, but we don't want him to control what we do. Okay? Yeah. All righty. Yeah, you got me. So you gotta let those things go. So who is God? God gives us dominion. He has dominion, and he gave us dominion. So that's why we struggle so much. A lot of times we bring anxiety to that will of God. I've talked to you about that. Because we're trying to make sure we don't have a mistake, that we don't fail, that we don't miss it. You will. You will have failures. You will miss some things. You will mess up some stuff because you have to learn. And so one of the other antidotes for anxiety is humility. It's okay for me to get it wrong. You know, Sometimes you gotta. I am enough in me, and sometimes I'm clear that I am not enough. Are we allowed to also know that we're not enough?
- [49:50]
Dr. Alicia Hodge
We are.
- [49:51]
Torre Roberts
Can we please, can you. Can you help us with that?
- [49:53]
Dr. Alicia Hodge
Because I think also the concept of enough, we're calling it enough, is perfection.
- [49:57]
Torre Roberts
Yes.
- [49:58]
Dr. Alicia Hodge
So we're hoping to be perfect, and that would imply that we're enough, but that's not the requirement.
- [50:04]
Torre Roberts
Yeah, come on. Perfectionism. Perfectionism. So let me get back to this. Let me get back to this scripture, Galatians 5, 22, 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. We just covered those three long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such there is no law. If, when you come into your prayer closet, when you pick up your Bible, when you fast, when you come to church, if you are aware of the absence of these things, not saying you're a bad person, but you're not tapped in in that moment, your anxiety might be eating your prayer. Because when we don't have hope and we have anxiety instead, we are not able to move in faith. What does Hebrews 11:1 say now? Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Anxiety is eating hope. By saying, I'm going to predict a future that is terrifying and then try to stop it. I'm going to not rest until I do, and I'm going to think of every other worst case scenario I can in order to make sure that I do something when you don't even have the capacity to do anything about it. And so we got to look at those things. Was there another tip? Before I go further, I want to say, was there another tip that you wanted to. To give us for the catastrophic thinking? I know we talked about not spiraling down. I don't want to miss anything.
- [51:25]
Dr. Alicia Hodge
I think one of the things that you can do also is ask yourself, truly take a step back and say, what am I really worried about?
- [51:33]
Torre Roberts
That part.
- [51:33]
Dr. Alicia Hodge
What am I really worried about? Get honest with yourself. Because at times we'll have some fluffy ideas like, oh, this is my bad day. I'm really worried that I'm not going to do well. Or I'm really worried that I'm not enough. And so at the heart of some of your thinking, it might be an opportunity for you to just really be honest with yourself and say, what is it that I'm really worried about? And name it. As we talked about, naming really reduces the chokehold that something might be having on you.
- [51:58]
Torre Roberts
Yeah. And on those moments of I'm not enough, you don't have to convince yourself you are. Especially if you have Jesus. Because where does Jesus get to show up? Where does the Holy Spirit get to do something? When does he get to do more for me than I could do for myself? When do I make room for him to be strong? When I'm weak. And if my goal is to be confident in a way that I feel like I got it, it's so much more powerful to walk in being like, I ain't got it, but the Holy Ghost bout to have it. And now I have a testimony about what God did for me. And I understand he's bigger than me, more than me. So sometimes I don't feel like I'm enough. And I don't feel like I have to fight to the point of believing that I am. Cause that's a little prideful anyway, that I'm gonna be enough for everything all the time. Humility is a safer place. Humility's a safer place. Let me read you some more verses. Can I do that? Philippians 4, 8, 9. This is on that catastrophic thinking. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are good, report. If there's any virtue, if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on those things. The things which you do and learn, which you learned and received and heard and saw in me. These things do. And who will be with you? The God of peace. The God of peace. And so even when that catastrophic thinking starts get into that other emotional place, start thinking about anything good. That's how you rejoice. I'm gonna go ahead and remember the last time that God came through for me. I'm gonna go ahead and remember how he blessed me on this day, how he blessed me on that day. Because anxiety takes you into the future. The goal is not to try to fix the future. The goal is to go backwards. Anxiety says, what's going to happen? We say, what has God already done? Let me say that again. Anxiety says, what's going to happen? We say, what has God already done? A lot of times, and it is good. As therapists we try and say, stay in the present moment. But I want you in the past. I want you in the past with God because we are overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. And so start reminding yourself what God has done before. Hope is derived from the past. You can't get hope from the future. If you try to get hope from the future, you're wishing. I wish this would go well. But you don't have anything to work with. But you have something to work with from the past. Hope is in the past. I know what God has done for me before. And so we then don't come into our prayer closets with all of that anxiety. We come in and we let that. We work through it. We let ourselves feel the fear. You might need to shed some tears, but we approach prayer with a different attitude. So let's go back to that challenge between BAAL prophets and Elijah. The prophets of BAAL spent the whole day getting in escalating religious rituals. Now let me say this. They wouldn't have been doing some of that stuff if it had not worked before. There would not have been four hundred and 50 prophets of Baal if nothing they had done had ever worked. They wouldn't have been cutting themselves, they wouldn't have been leaping, they wouldn't have been dancing and chanting this. Some of this stuff had worked before. Something had happened. And so, yeah, you've checked your horoscope and it worked before. You feel like it worked. You were like, but it did. I read it and it was true. It worked before. Oh, oh wait, I did. I burned that sage. And then I did this thing with the crystal and it did seem like it worked before. They wouldn't be doing it if it hadn't worked before. So I'm not gonna stand here and tell you that nothing you've tried outside of Jesus never worked before because you got the immediate relief maybe that you wanted. And sometimes You. The only relief was the fact that you could control it and choose it when you wanted to. Because you can go to see the psychic when you want to, but you can't make God show up when you want him to. He shows up when he shows up. And so you're out here just trying all kinds of stuff because it wasn't before. I'm sorry, I'll be right back. And so you then take that same desire for control, to make it work when you want it to, to get the relief that you want. And then you say, oh, well, now I'm going to live for Jesus. And so then you come to the Bible and to prayer with the same energy that you had when you were doing things that weren't centered around Jesus. And then you're wondering why it's not working. And so then you want to go back to work. Worked. So I don't believe that the prophets of Baal was new to this. They was true to this, 450 of them. They willing to cut they self. Something worked. But what did it work for? If your goal is just to control things and get what you want, when you want it, how you want it, then that's fine, repent. What did I teach you? That repentance means change your mind, change your way of seeing things, change your beliefs, that I don't have to control this situation. I can survive. Philippians 4:13. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, including experience the emotion of fear. I can do that and survive. I once heard Dr. Alicia Someone say that anxiety is a fear of feelings. It's not when you said, what are you really worried about? It's not that. What I don't want to happen is how I don't want to feel. If X happens. I don't want to be scared, I don't want to be sad. I don't want to be mad. And so I'm trying to control circumstances that might leave me feeling. And so if you allow yourself to be healthier, well, and some of that means go to therapy. Oh, my God, it's 10:56. I gotta let y' all go. If you begin to build this wellness, I'm anxious. If you begin to build this wellness so that when you come into your prayer closet and we're gonna. We're gonna have to dismiss, and we're gonna dismiss with this prayer. When we see Elijah get his turn, he doesn't say, God, send fire. He just prays, God, show the people who you are. Do a thing that's going to turn their heart towards you. God already knew what needed to happen and so he teaches us how to pray. It's not a control thing. And then Jesus comes and teaches us how to pray anxiety free. Stand to your feet because we're going to dismiss with this anxiety free prayer. Matthew 6, 9, 13. In this manner, therefore pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. If you're going into your prayer closet, anxious, breathe, admit how you feel, bring all your stuff to God, and then try praying like this. There's no specific ask in that prayer. There's no demand in that prayer. There's humility in that prayer and there's trust. And if after you finish that prayer, you feel like you have to say something else because you must tell God what you want, then you know you're working with something you need to let go. It is okay to ask God specifically. Ask and you shall receive. And also if anxiety is driving the ask, it's stealing prayer. So pray the Lord's Prayer as one of your first lines of defense against bringing anxiety into your prayer closet. Seek love, joy, peace. And when you have found that state, then talk to God about the hard things. You might not even have anything else to say because you found out you trust him.
- [60:45]
Hey family. Well, I pray that you were just as blessed by this teaching as I was. I'm just so grateful again to be a part of a dynamic community full of love, full of revelation and wisdom. One has been a movement that's been blessing people for over two decades and I'm so glad that you got an opportunity to experience it. I also have a podcast called the called it's right here on wherever you're listening to this Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening to this podcast. You can just look up the call T H E C A L L E D with myself, Terry Rob Roberts. This is designed for entrepreneurs, leaders and business people. It's a weekly podcast and it will bless you. But hey, I enjoyed having you here. Meet us here next week. Check out the call. Much blessings to you. We'll catch you next time.