THE LIES ANXIETY LAYS // S01E05 (EPISODE 5)
Although over 40 million American adults report suffering from an anxiety disorder, less than 40% seek treatment. Anxiety is loud and full of lies—we need to listen to the Father of Truth. God’s voice must be the loudest one we hear and the only one we pay attention to. Let God guide you through your anxieties.
QUESTIONS WE TOUCH ON IN THIS EPISODE:
- Does anxiety play a role in your life?
- Where does your confidence come from?
- Have you surrendered your anxieties/worries to God?
VERSES FROM THE LIES ANXIETY LAYS
Jeremiah 17:9, 1 Kings 18-19, Proverbs 12:25, Psalm 94:19, Jeremiah 33:3, Proverbs 1:33, Jeremiah 30:21, Psalm 94:19, Isaiah 26:12
QUOTES FROM THE LIES ANXIETY LAYS
“That’s really amazing that we can be sustained, that the Lord is always there, that he’s always sending something, a message, someone in our life to try to sit there. And you know, if he can’t get to us directly, sometimes he goes indirect, he’ll send a friend with the perfect verse.”
Shea Watson, The Pantry Podcast S01E05: The Lies Anxiety Lays
“I wasn’t even thinking, I was just rolling. It makes me realize where was that confidence coming from? Was it coming from the Lord and knowing he would always provide me with the route to take, or was it me having confidence in myself that it was me and what I was capable of or something I did that gave me favor with the Lord and now suddenly that’s broken and now I’m not able to provide the same thing.”
Michelle Watson, The Pantry Podcast S01E05: The Lies Anxiety Lays
“And you know, and he comes back and God’s like, okay, fine. I sent my angel. This dude ain’t listen. So, so God comes on the scene. He’s like, what are you doing here? Like, you know what he’s doing in this cave? What did you not see? What I just did? And you’re in a cage. You should be on a throne. You know what I’m saying? It’s like, why are, why are you lowering yourself?”
Shea Watson, The Pantry Podcast S01E05: The Lies Anxiety Lays
“I love this one verse in Isaiah 26:12, “Lord, you will grant us peace. All we have accomplished is really from you”. You know, when we remember, it’s all of him. Like you said. So often. All these voices that we hear in our own head and outside, they’re all panicked or frantic or demanding or they’re those storms. Those wins, those everything. That’s why he can be quiet because he has that confidence and he’s the only one that sounds like he’s got it all together because he does.”
Michelle Watson, The Pantry Podcast S01E05: The Lies Anxiety Lays
ANNOTATED TRANSCRIPT
Shea: Hey everyone. How are y’all doing?
Michelle: *Pause* Hi.
Shea: Today I tried something different. “Hey, how is everyone doing?” Of course, I won’t get no responses, but I know that you’re doing great.
Michelle: Hey, let us know on thepantrypodcast.com and on The Pantry Podcast on Facebook. That’s my job to say that every week as a marketer, that’s my job. Okay.
Shea: And if you want a quirky podcast, I mean we’re here.
Michelle: We love you. We don’t know you, but we love you.
Shea: Yeah, we’ve been called to do that. That’s cool. And it’s a fun thing. It’s a fun calling! It changes a person’s heart. And we’re kind of going to talk about that tonight. We’re going to talk about the heart and how anxiety played a role in a biblical character’s life. And it’s an amazing story of how you can go from one point to another point so quickly. Jeremiah 17:9, it says: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick who can understand it.” And I think that’s like a lot of us. I think a lot of us sit there and it’s like, I want to get rid of this feeling. I want to get rid of this feeling of anxiety. I want to get rid of this feeling of depression. I want to get rid of this feeling of just insecurities.
Shea: We sit in this constant battle of our mind and we just roll and roll and roll in this. And you’re gonna hear this probably a lot. And it’s one of those things I use a lot is because our minds play a huge part in our relationship with God and our trusting God and where we stand in God. Elijah ends up with a heart issue. He really does. He allows the enemy to kill, steal, and destroy something that was so great. You know, he forgot his identity and the victory. You got to understand something. We’re going to look in 1 Kings 19 and this is the story where you see him kind of fall apart. But in 1 Kings 18, this brother just wins an epic battle of faith. You build an altar, I’ll build novelty. You bring your guys, your people. I’ve got my guy.
Michelle: I’ll add water. Fire will still come like it’s the most legit story.
Shea: And so you know, and watch this, they fell and he mocks them there. You know
Michelle: He’s got some spunk and pazazz the full time. They must be sleeping.
Shea: It’s like, okay, so this dude’s on fire. He knows who his God is. He’s, he’s set his ways. I mean do we go through these times? It’s like, man, I’m on top of the world. I’m on the mountain. I’ve been in the Valley. Now I’m on top of the world. I got this. And then I don’t know, he kills the prophets. Jezabel gets mad and she actually sends them a letter and she says, I’m going to do to you what you did. To my prephets. He, it’s like he gets up, he, he gets up and he runs. He’s like, I’m like, I’m done. I’m outta here. You know, he goes away from his own servants. So what do we normally do when, when something really starts to get into our head or starts to affect us, we pull away.
Shea: We isolate and that leads us into hopelessness. You know, it’s kinda like we isolate ourselves. That is not what the community of Christ was all about. It’s like we weren’t here to isolate. We were here to be a part of. And when we isolate ourselves, we end up out there alone with a mentality that sometimes it’s even hard for God to really, it’s like, cause it takes that one instant, but you know, it’s cool.
Shea:This story tells us God always is there. God chases us. I like that idea. He never forgets us. He never forsakes us. He is constantly, they’re constantly working in the backdrop to say, Hey, I’m going to bring them back. You know, he’s like, they’re mine. We belong to him. We’d been bought and paid for it. You know, it’s like that’s an amazing feeling. We should all really dial into that thought because Elijah doesn’t do that man.
Shea: They think, you know, we see him sleeping under a broom tree. Right. But watch an angel comes and touches him and he’s like arise and eat. We’re in this dark place, but God is continually trying to feed us, sustain us. At least keep us level enough that we don’t sink deeper. You know? Sometimes we do, sometimes it takes a lot more. Sometimes it takes a lot less. Sometimes it’s just that little tap on the shoulder and we move on.
Shea: Well Elijah no one once wasn’t enough and we go again. Right. And he’s sitting there and it’s like he nudges him again. This angel comes back and he’s like, okay, come on now, let’s get moving. We’re going to feed you again. And this time he sustains him enough for 40 days.
Shea:That’s really amazing that we can be sustained, that the Lord is always there, that he’s always sending something, a message, someone in our life to try to sit there. And you know, if he can’t get to us directly, sometimes he goes indirect, he’ll send a friend with the perfect verse.
Michelle: It makes me think of two things. Proverbs 12:25 that says “anxiety in a man’s heart weighs them down, but a good word makes them glad”. And then that’s mirrored in Psalm 94:19 where it says, when the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.
Michelle: And it’s God always being willing to bring us back that truth. Cause I find it so interesting in this story, God has used him to do some of the most famous miracles and then he gets a salty letter from an angry woman. And because it wasn’t just win after win, after win, it was win after win. And then the salty letter, right?
Michelle: It completely trips him up. He’s like on this winning streak. And because it’s not just this perpetual forever winning streak. There’s like this quick little blip.
Michelle: He forgets that God literally does miraculous things every day and he gets incredibly fearful to the point where anxiety just overwhelmed him and he’s in the middle of the forest all alone under a broom tree, which just instantly sounds sad. The broom tree like not the cherry blossom tree? No, the broom tree.
Shea: Well to be fair, I’ve never looked up what a broom tree is.
Michelle: Feel like it’s like a weeping Willow or something like it’s broomy. I don’t really know. Maybe not. Maybe it’s a tree where if you break off a limb it can be used as a broom. I don’t know. I’m sure there’s meaning to even that
Shea: But each time though he does as commanded. That’s something that we should like, you know he, he Rose up, he drank right this before the 40 days, but even on the first time he, he Rose up, he and he ate because he was at least still listening. He was still, he was still hearing it might’ve been faint. He might not quite be all there in thought, but there was this, this faint, Hey, come on, I’ve got you. Right. Of course he doesn’t see it, you know, and usually we don’t.
Shea: Usually we sit there and we like, I’m hiding from God and this kind of cause, this is where the story goes. You know, he’s hiding from God. He actually runs to a cave and he goes into a cave. He’s in the mountains and the forest or the wilderness, that’s, that’s the right term.
Shea: He’s in the wilderness and he finds a cave and he’s like, I’m gonna go bury myself in this cave. I’m going to hide out. I’m going to be fine. I’m all by myself anyways. And you know, and he comes back and God’s like, okay, fine. I sent my angel. This dude ain’t listen. So, so God comes on the scene. He’s like, what are you doing here? Like, you know what he’s doing in this cave? What did you not see? What I just did? And you’re in a cage. You should be on a throne. You know what I’m saying? It’s like, why are, why are you lowering yourself?
Shea: Who is, who is your God who reigns above you? Who do you walk with? You walk with me. I kind of, that’s what I see in this, you know, it’s kind of, and then of course, you know what we always do when fighting a feeling–the complaint.
Shea: But God, I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel, for sake in your covenant, torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left and they seek to take my life. I alone. He’s like, I’m all by myself.
Shea: God just came and talked to you, but he don’t get it yet, right? So then guys, okay, look, go stand out on the mountain. And you know, this is that cool part where the strong winds tear into the mountains and break the rocks into pieces before the Lord. But the Lord wasn’t in that wind and after the wind and earthquake, but the Lord wasn’t in the earthquake and after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire is still small voice. God is an overseer of everything.
Shea: Everything is his. Everything is his. But the earthquake, the wind shattering rocks the fire. He wasn’t in it. That was Elijah, and he came to him. Instead of being this big forceful, he catches Elijah with the softness and love that he has, and he has that voice that comes up. Elijah, Shea, Michelle, Michelle, here I am. Here I am I love you. What are you doing? And of course, where does you know? It’s like Jeremiah 33:3 it says called me and I’ll answer you. That’s all he wants. He’s like, yeah, here I am. Jeremiah 33:3 says “call to me and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known”. That’s our God. He’s like, you don’t know anything. We really don’t know anything.
Michelle: It’s a lot of pressure to know what to do. It’s always been one of my biggest pressure points. And now that I’m a mother, it’s a whole different level. But anxiety has always been something for me. But the fact that I’ve battled trichotillomania since I was two years old, actually, technically before that probably, and I don’t necessarily know what spurred it on. It’s kind of like my thorn. But when I do sit and try to think about what is triggering it at any given moment, and for those who don’t know what it is, it’s in the OCD family. It’s something, it’s a compulsive hair pulling and stuff, compulsive nail biting. Um, and for me it’s in my eyebrows and I consider that a blessing cause for some people it’s like tons of hair out of their scalp from me. It’s very concentrated. And one of the things they tell you to do is to figure out what your triggers are because then you can work on your triggers.
Shea: What’s funny is in the world that advice, as great as it is, is actually putting more pressure on you, that when you find your triggers, which are these huge things, now you know, these huge monsters defeat them. Right? You know, and for me it’s been when the to do list gets too long or when I get a creative wall where I can’t figure out, you know, and
Michelle: It reminds me of Elijah because I can sit there and design these amazing things one after the other after, after the other, I’m on this creative streak, nothing can knock me down. People are approving the design so quick and then I get to a design that I think I’m not going to have any problem with and suddenly I don’t know what to do. You know what I thought was going to work, didn’t. Now I’m drawing a blank or I had something and I gave it to the requester and they don’t like it at all or they’re asking for something that is really hard to deliver.
Michelle: Those are the kinds of things that in that moment it’s like that salty letter where it’s like I was on a roll and I had such confidence. I wasn’t even thinking, I was just rolling. It makes me realize where was that confidence coming from? Was it coming from the Lord and knowing he would always provide me with the route to take, or was it me having confidence in myself that it was me and what I was capable of or something I did that gave me favor with the Lord and now suddenly that’s broken and now I’m not able to provide the same thing.
Michelle: That’s a big key when it comes to anxiety is sometimes when we hit this wall of anxiety, we have to not just question, okay, what was triggering it, but really sit there and be honest and say, was I actually trusting in the Lord before or was I taking some credit for the blessings or not seeing them as God’s blessing, seeing them as things, well, of course I got that. I worked really hard, or of course that worked out. I practiced. I studied when really?
Michelle: Yeah, that contributes to it, but it’s really ultimately God and one of the things that I have started to tell myself is it’s in Proverbs 1:33 and it says “whoever listens to me will dwell, secure, and will be at ease without dread of disaster”. That’s often the way it is if I’m, if I’m stuck, if I’m blocked, if I don’t know what to do, this will never end.
Shea: Let’s see here. Is that still small voice I liked? Then that turns me to Jeremiah 30:21 it’s like, and your ears shall hear a word behind you saying this is the way walk in it. Yeah, that’s what we miss. Elijah missed this again and his struggle continues cause he, he goes before the Lord and, and suddenly a voice came and said again, what are you doing here Elijah? Right? And here he goes again. He says, Lord, same thing. It’s like we sit on this like, okay, I don’t know about all y’all, but record players. Sometimes they would be going and I’m like just stay to do, to do, to do on the same word or note or whatever to get caught. It would just sit there to do it. It’d be like, you mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. It sits there and this is kinda where Elijah’s at, right?
Shea: He’s like, I have been very zealous for the Lord. God knows I’m reading this again. I don’t care. Dude is like not listening. It’s like dude, stop. And he’s like, because the children is a forsaken, your covenant torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone, they seek to take my life and I’m just like, dude, God’s talking to you now. See I say that now cause I’m reading from an outward perspective, but sometimes when it’s that inward perspective, everything seems so big. Seems so big, so impossible.
Shea: Like you know you have battled, you have battles and I know you pray. You’re prayerful about it and I know that you, you constantly do it and we still are praying for it and I know one day we’re going to be delivered from it. It’s just a matter of when you know, and sometimes it’s not our time, it’s his time.
Shea: Right? And you know what he’s about to be delivered. I love Psalms 94:19 because it really explains his anxiety in the multitude of my anxieties within me. Your comfort, the lights, my soul. This is an admission in his word, in the multitudes of my anxiety. God’s saying you’re going to have this, but I want you to find comfort, right? I want you to find comfort in your soul from him and this is what he will eat, what he wants in us.
Shea: The Lord then goes to him and says, okay look, he’s done. He’s like, now he goes into just like, okay, I’ve tried this way, now I’m just going to tell you like straight-up fact cause sometimes we have to sit there and kind of figure it out our own and then sometimes the Bible opens up and we’re like, Oh snap. That’s what you meant.
Shea: And so this is one of the moments where he just comes straight and he’d go, look, go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. This is in verse 15 through 18 I’m up on my sub pair here a little bit and when you arrive, anoint Hazel as King of Syria. Anoint Jehu the son of Nim, Shi as King over Israel, annoint Elijah as the prophet in your place. No enemy will escape the swords of Hazel Jehu and Elijah, it’s amazing. He’s like, you’re not alone bro. You got all these people and then watch this person 18 this is the one that I’ve always focused on cause he’s like, I’m alone. I have nobody. I’m doing this all by myself. Everybody wants to kill me. Nobody’s in my corner. Not even, you God almost, I mean that’s what he’s saying and he’s sitting there.
Shea: God’s telling him, he’s like, he’s sitting here going, I’m here. I am. Hello. I mean, come on. If I had an angel, an angel, and Jesus called me, maybe I should listen. But I love how he multiplies, so it’s not, you know, he’s like, okay, fine. I’m going to give you an example because you’re not seeing this connection. So I’m going to let you see this connection. And he goes in verse 18 yet I have reserved 7,000 in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to bell and every mouth that has not kissed him. 7,000
Michelle: “Soooo alone”. Right, right. That’s us all the time.
Shea: But it is, it really is. And I, and I’m not, and I don’t take this as something that I’m lightly throwing. We all go through this. When you become awakened to truth, it’s like, Oh yes sir. That’s how I always do. It’s kind of like, cause that’s the military in me. It’s like, yes sir. You’re right. Absolutely. Thank you for showing me that though. You know, cause I, I love this idea. He never leaves you nor forsake. I don’t know what else to say past that. God is always there. You could just go through the stories in the Bible when we’re in our anxieties, when we’re in our depressions, when we’re in our lower moments.
Shea: However you wanna describe that, whatever title you want to put that to your trichotillomania. You know, for me, I have my own puffed up is very easy for a dude, my size. Humility doesn’t always roll like the easiest, I mean military then, you know, you come to Christ and now you’re in the church and it’s a whole different war and it’s like be humble but strong and you’re like, ah, I balanced that. But we all have it. Um, the low moments in our lives, but even in the turbulence, even as the oceans are storming and you’re rocking and you’re rolling, don’t look down to Jesus and say, why are you sleeping? Just know that Jesus is there.
Michelle: I love this one verse in Isaiah 26:12, “Lord, you will grant us peace. All we have accomplished is really from you”. You know, when we remember, it’s all of him. Like you said. So often. All these voices that we hear in our own head and outside, they’re all panicked or frantic or demanding or they’re those storms. Those wins, those everything. That’s why he can be quiet because he has that confidence and he’s the only one that sounds like he’s got it all together because he does. Yeah. He doesn’t have to yell because he’s the only one that counts. And if you’re talking to him, that’s proof in point. You’re not alone. So amen. Amen.
Shea: Elijah did have communication. We don’t always approach the Lord in the best ways. But you know what’s cool? He did approach the Lord. He said how he felt, you know, whether our feelings are right, wrong or indifferent. He sat there and he told him how he felt, and you know what? God guided him to the solution, right? And he will guide you to the solution. Amen.
Michelle: Yes, amen. Thanks guys. I already plugged the podcast website, thepantrypodcast.com and Facebook: The Pantry Podcast. So drop us your thoughts, your prayer requests, your questions. We would love to hear from you. And we are going to be doing a Q and A at the end of this season. You would love to have some questions from real people, so go ahead and drop those in. And until next time, bye.
Shea: Bye!