Facing Anxiety And Learning To Focus on Joy

(00:00): We have been recording this podcast for almost a year. And today I'm going to share a big secret, a big secret about my biggest struggle in this whole journey, with my relationship with God, you're going to want to stay tuned because I bet you're going to resonate with what we have to share with you today. Welcome to episode 49 of the well-versed woman podcast. I'm Renee teller and I'm Teresa Morgan to see Renee and I are two perfectly imperfect women. As we say, each week, we have a heart to share our life's journeys and our testimonies of faith with you. And we're going to be sharing part of that journey this week, because I know it's going to help you as well, but before we get started, there's one thing we have to do. And if you've been here for all 49 episodes, I bet you can tell me we are going to stop close our eyes, take some slow deep breaths and actually send an invitation right up to our creator and ask him to be with us. And secondly, ask him to open our eyes, to see our ears, to hear and our hearts, to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he's here giving us direction for our lives. So 20 seconds starts right now.

(01:49): [inaudible]

(01:49): That's it? That was 20 seconds. I'm gonna encourage you to grow that. Everything changes when we incorporate that stillness in our life in our day, especially in our morning, before our feet hit the ground to pause and ground ourselves with some slow, deep breaths, asking God to direct every step of the day, it's changed my life. It's changed Theresa's life. And I know it'll change yours too. But back to the big secret that I'm going to reveal today, there is one thing Theresa, and you know it so well that my middle name is not, my middle name is not patients. My middle name is not weight Renee it's anything. But although I feel I have a lot of perseverance. I don't like waiting Theresa. I don't like it at all. And I almost feel like I'm internally fighting with myself when I have to wait. And it seems especially true when I'm waiting on God. So true in a, you know, there are things in our

(03:00): That we see that we might have a hunch about that's coming in the future. God has given us giftings and talents, and boy, they're revving to go like a well-trained horse in the gate. However, we have to understand the timing is so perfect, right? The timing of when God says go, we don't want to be ahead of them. We don't want to be behind them, but we want to be right in step with him. And that takes a lot of patience for today. And that's what you and I are going to be talking about today is we're waiting in the waiting room of God.

(03:37): Yeah. Theresa, I think in the world we're living today. It's so difficult. We're so used to moving fast and with the technology and all of that, that's gone on the information overload, how quickly we can get the answer to the simplest question. You know, how old is Paul Newman? Like, Oh, you, you don't even have to type it anymore. You have to speak the words. And some device will tell you I was laughing the other day, Theresa. I woke up and my watch started dinging my Apple watch. And it said, your exercise ring didn't get enough. Love yesterday, Renee. I'm like, are you kidding me? Now? My watch is telling me what to do. And I think back to what we were kids, and there was this idea of robots and the Jetsons and things talking to us, and we were like that can't ever happen. Right? And here we are with this information overload. So it's no wonder that when we're asked by God to shut down, to wait that, you know, w we pick up our phone and look for the answer on Google as if God's going to put it through the, the Google.

(04:56): That's very true. You know, one of the cornerstones of faith is patience, right? Faith endures, until we know that God has spoken, or God has led us in the direction in which he has called us.

(05:12): Those two. I agree, Theresa. And I think, you know, one of the biggest difficulties for me is what do I do with myself? What do I do with myself? I don't know how to sit still. Oftentimes I know how to work. You know, some of us have spent years succeeding and I use that somewhat loosely, but progressing in life by doing, by being workers. And when we're asked to retreat, so to speak, it becomes very difficult. I certainly have made tremendous strides in the last probably seven years since my kidney tumor, and really have learned that. But it's still not easy when I'm waiting for answers. So even though I've learned how to be still, it's still tough when I'm waiting for God to answer something or to get that download from him on what's next. What's the next steps.

(06:16): That's so very true, you know, Renee. So if we just lay out the basics here for a moment, we know that God has a plan and a purpose for every life. Isn't that amazing as unique as our fingerprints are. That is how unique the plans and the purposes for our lives are. We know Jeremiah 29 11 says, I know the thoughts, I think toward you says the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope, then you will call upon me and go and pray to me. And I will listen to you and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. So we see right there, the premise that number one, God has the plans for your life. In number two, we start obtaining those plans as we enter into prayer. And of course, a relationship with the Lord, but it's okay, Lord, we're seeking you where we're asking, what are the plans? What are the plans? So now we're going to have to teach our flesh in teachers, so to calm down and wait on his timing so he can lead us into these plans. That's the hard part.

(07:34): It sure is. And one of the things I've always admired in you, Theresa, is you seem to be very clear on that. You and I talk frequently on what Teresa, how do I know when I'm waiting and listening? And when I'm just not hearing his direction when I've missed it, or when I have not really sure of what he's telling me,

(08:03): Very true Renee, you know, thank you for that. And, you know, I learned early on in my walk with the Lord, not to throw my faith away on my doubts, not to throw my faith away on my doubts. So when I see something, I say, okay, Lord, it's either true or it's not. And of course we, as Christians believe every word in that Bible is true. So I see that the Bible says in Philippians two 13, for instance, to work out my salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it has got all the while at work in me, willing to do and to choose according to his good pleasure. So if we stop and think and say, okay, I know that my steps are ordered of God. I know he has the plan. I know he says, come and pray. I want to give you the plan.

(08:56): I want to give you the blueprint. I'm always at work in you. I say, I trust you. I believe that word is for me. And I do what the Bible says. I sat my face like Flint. Flint is a hard stone. I, I I'm, I'm strong and sturdy in that position, Renee and I will now budge. That's my faith saying, I don't care what comes God's word is true. And I'm standing on that rock of a foundation of faith. And I can tell you when I do that, something arises in my heart and the Holy spirit takes hold of that faith in that stance, I've drawn a line in the sand, no devil. And you know where from, you know, where nobody is going to shake my position. As I do that, I start to watch God move in my life. And it's an amazing thing.

(10:04): Sometimes it happens sooner or more immediate. Sometimes as we know Renee, I just had my eye operated on and you know, I now have 2020 vision and I've believed the Lord for this for probably 10 years. Right. So I just, I take God at his word. I take him at his word. And in the meantime, while I'm waiting for things to come to pass, I do what my hand finds it to do. Right. I, I do what I know to do. And I like to delight myself in the Lord, Renee, we're going to be talking about that scripture in a moment.

(10:42): So that's fantastic. And what I want to do for all of us is in the show notes, Theresa, we'll lay that out just as she said it, you know, one, I stand on this scripture too. I do this three. I do this. You could hear in her voice, the deliberate nature of how she goes about it. And thank you for that reminder, Theresa, that it comes back to the word. And I think what was great for me with how you just revealed. That was the, again that I love the word deliberate, the deliberate nature at which you spoke that, and you have these series of scriptures that you stand on. So we're going to put those in the show notes. You're going to want to print those out today. I know I will and put them on your mirrors so that when you're waiting, you just go over that.

(11:45): And over that and over that, because it's, it's the foundation of this podcast, right? To bring the word of God and these things that we can stand on to help in these most difficult times. I believe you're just like me. That waiting is when we fall short, because you know, for me, I'll go step in the mud puddle and instead of waiting for the sun to come out and dry it up, so to speak, I want to, I want to leap before perhaps it's time. But if I spent a little more time on those scriptures, Tracy, like you say, and I loved that part where you said something rises up inside of you and I could see and hear in your voice, this bubbling, this, this beautiful spring that's bubbling up inside of you and then just gushes out all over. It was great. That was fantastic.

(12:49): When I thanks for that, that, that was a great commentary. I, I've also learned that to delight myself in the Lord to calm my, my engines. If, if you will, Rene, because I'm much like you, that I want to progress. I love to see things materialize in, in life that are helpful to those around me. I like to, I love to use my gifts. I love to use the mind God gave me however, we have to walk in step in, in the balance of that with the Lord. And so these scriptures that I'm about to share, tell us that it's okay to play. It's okay to delight ourselves in God. It's okay just to lay, if you will, and put on some praise and worship and, and just to talk to our father is we would a good friend or our partner in life, listen to Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31, or Nan, I just love this.

(13:54): It says, but those who wait on the Lord, shall we knew their strength. They shall Mount up with wings like Eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. So they have beautiful. So as I'm waiting on the Lord, I'm thanking him for renewing my strength. You know, I picture myself rising up like a great big Eagle, of course, on his wings. I also love Psalm 37 verses four and five that say, delight yourself. Also in the Lord. He shall give you the desires of your heart, commit your way to the Lord trust also in him. And he shall bring it to pass. I love that balance of us trusting him, bringing us, trusting him, doing us, following his lead in doing him, instructing some more someone once said, it's a beautiful chess game that God plays. He moves, we move, but I, I lose the intimacy in the chess game.

(14:59): So I like to say in the interaction and in the communication, in the, in the leading of the Lord, we are in that beautiful, delightful place. And Hey, let's face it. None of us are perfect. God knows that, but like a great air traffic controller, he keeps bringing us on the path, bringing us back back to the chartered path that he knows is our life. And we just have to be obedient. We just have to be pliable. We just have to be sincere and put our trust in, speak to the Lord in prayer and say, father, I want your perfect, well, I've told him, Renee, I don't want one jot or tittle on my blueprint. Not to be fulfilled when I see you, Lord, I want to, I want to know that I have fulfilled everything that you have called my life to be. So we, we sort of have that agreement in. He's got after all he's God, he will bring that to pass in my life. I just have to be obedient. I just have to be open to him

(16:09): So much in that that's rising up in me. One of the words that keeps coming up over and over again is this word trust. And we have trust in so many things. I was listening to that and studying that word just this week. So funny how that happens, but you know, we trust a restaurant when we go in there that the food they're putting on our plate is good and has not been, you know, messed with. We trust a chair. We sit in, we, we trust so much. And how is it that sometimes I fall short of trusting the most magnificent person I could ever trust. I love definitions. And Webster's says, trust is assured reliance on the character ability, strength, or truth of someone or something. One in which confidence has played. So you've reminded me, Tracy, of what am I saying when I do get anxious, when I do want to step out without having all the answers, you know, I'm saying I don't really trust that he's got me.

(17:25): And that's a great reminder for me to say, Whoa, wait, Renee. Uh, the other thing that I I get reminded of is I know from my experience Theresa, that God knows when I need rest before I even need it. When I need restoration, when I need to stop working, you know, I laugh because the Bible says on the seventh day, he rested, well, one out of seven is almost 15% of our time, 15% of a year, 15% of a day, 50, you know, it's 14 point something. But do you know what I'm saying in our society? And the way the world is spiraling, there is no time for rest. There's no time for restoration. And I just finished a complete week of a challenge to, uh, a group of women where we challenged ourselves to this idea of rest and restoration. And sometimes I know for me, God's got to say, I'm making it clear to you. You're stopping Rene and you're resting and you're waiting on me because I never stop. I don't tire. I don't grow weary. I never stop in your humanness. You need to stop. And I've got the rest

(18:53): Renee. That's so true. And when I think of your words and how you're sharing that we need rest, boy, we sure do in when I think of rest, I think of faith. When I think of faith, I think of rest because true faith brings us into the rest of God. Let's hear that again. True. Faith brings us into the rest of God. You know, the apostle Paul said, fight the good fight of faith. Why we're fighting to stay in rest. We want our faith to be vibrant and alive. When we're in faith, we're in a place of rest in where does that faith come from? It comes from the scriptures. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, Renee, this, this, uh, you know, this podcast is all about bringing the scriptures to light getting them in our heart because once they're in our heart, right, the faith will arise.

(20:01): We can count on it, time and time again, the Holy spirit of God, God himself takes a hold of our faith, takes a hold of that well and says I'm with you in, he starts to ignite that faith in that is the recipe for rest. I just love what the Bible says in Proverbs three, verses five and six. It says trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean, not on your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge him. And he shall direct your paths. So again, we see this beautiful dance. If you will, of us and in the Holy spirit on a daily basis, like a good partner, he's leading, we're following in, in the melody and in the delighting of ourselves, we're moving in. It's, it's joyful. It's restful. It's peaceful. That's how I live my daily life. Whatever comes my way. Romans eight 28.

(21:08): Thank you, father. You're working this out together for my good. We see in this world, a lot of strife, a lot of unrest, my goodness, but I keep myself in the scriptures. I keep myself in prayer with God. I keep myself in that beautiful harmonious position with the Lord. And it keeps me interested. People look at me and say, how can you be so calm? How can you be so confident? Well, because my calm and my confidence comes from knowing God, he's the God that flung the stars created the earth. That God is the God I dance with every day that God is the God I put my trust in. And that God is the God that never let anyone down. Never not a jot or tittle of his word. The Bible says will, uh, not come to pass. It will, it will prosper in the thing for which God send it. So I hold fast. My confession of faith, Hebrews 10 23, hold fast. Your confession of faith for he who promised is faithful. My faith rests in the faithfulness of God.

(22:32): All I can see you're going to laugh at this. I'm back in computer science class and I'm drawing flowcharts at nauseum. I might add, I took computer science long before we knew anything about these computers that everyone is using today, right? Teresa with big mainframes and flowcharts. And all I can see in the eloquence of the words you just spoke was this flow chart of the recipe for rest this idea. And if you have a pad, write it down. It's pretty simple. Step one is the word. And if you don't believe, or if you can't grasp right now that the word of God, the Bible is real is alive is truly God. Then just start reading it and ask God to reveal to you that it's real. Just start going through the motions. So start reading the word, start reading a proverb a day. That's all you need to with.

(23:46): But number one is the word is what Teresa was just saying. And number two is our heart. So getting the word in our heart, and when those start connecting, you can move on to number three, which is faith, the substance of what we hope for the evidence of what we can't see. So faith begins to evolve when we connect the word with our heart and then faith becomes substance of what we hope for. And faith is evidence of what we can't see. And then lastly, that allows us to rest and to be still, and to have this peace that the Bible says, peace, that passes understanding, meaning we look at tree Suh. We look at Renee, we look at people who understand this recipe and say, I don't understand how they can have peace. What the word says it, it says you have peace that passes understanding. You'll have rest, you'll have stillness. You'll have calmness, you'll have joy, all the fruits of the spirit of God that starts with the simple formula. And there's why I took computer science trace, I guess,

(25:21): To share. That was wonderful. It's just wonderful because you know, faith, if you will has a recipe to it, but as we know the recipe, anything, anything missing in our cake, uh, the Holy spirit will, will provide. And it's a beautiful way to walk out this earth. It's it's, there's, there's no better way than to know that we're walking in the blueprints of the life, that he has laid out and designed for us, but what a beautiful, beautiful fact it is. Renee, thank you for that.

(25:59): When you said the Holy spirit, all I could think Teresa was my favorite part of the whole cake, which is the icing and the Holy spirit is the icing on the recipe. Isn't he?

(26:11): It sure is. You know, when I think of the icing, right? Oh boy, that's the part where my grandkids love to stick their fingers in. And it's also the beautiful surprises that God brings on our path of life. It's the beautiful victories. It's the, he does exceedingly abundantly beyond what we could ask or think part of this cake. He wants to show up and he shows up big. And that's our God, please listeners. If you've never invited him into your heart, I encourage you to do so. A simple Jesus come into my life and be Lord and savior. I believe that you died for my sins. I repent of them and your life will change for the better.

(27:06): Um, well, Trey. So we are coming up on a whole year of our favorite scripture. And what is,

(27:14): Is that absolutely Renee Romans 10, 17. Faith comes by hearing

(27:20): By the word of God. Thanks for listening. We love you. Bye now. Thank you for listening. And I encourage you share this with friends. We're coming up on a year and we want to double our listenership in the course of this, because we want to spread this beautiful relationship with God. Remember the show notes, especially for this episode, you can click on the details button, whatever platform you're listening to, and you'll be taken to those show notes. They're going to be really important for this episode, especially if you're like us and you are waiting to hear from God for the next steps of your life. We also have a Facebook community. Well-versed woman just search it on Facebook and ask to join. And we'll pop you right in that group. And if you rate, subscribe and review this podcast, we will send you a well-versed woman journal in the mail where you can take notes and be recording all these amazing things God's doing in your life on this journey. I know that's one of my favorite parts until next week. We love you. Bye. Now we love you.