Episode 115: Overcoming Worry and Anxiety Through Prayer, Gratitude, and Faith (Distractions Part IV)

Have you ever felt paralyzed by worry, unable to seize new opportunities? Reflecting on a heartfelt conversation with a close friend, Stephanie uncovers how worry and anxiety can become a major distraction in our lives. 

In this episode of Giving Your Best Life, we delve into the power of prayer and gratitude as tools to combat anxiety. Inspired by a specific Bible verse, we emphasize the importance of bringing all our concerns to God. By sharing practices such as maintaining a prayer and gratitude journal, we build a close relationship with Christ and tackle common worries through faith. I also address the deceptive nature of worry and the importance of resisting the devil by staying strong in faith. 

Join me in building a strong foundation in faith, overcoming life's challenges, and experiencing the transformative power of collective prayer. Let’s stand together and cast all our anxieties on God.

Bible verses mentioned: Matthew 6:25-34, 1 Peter 5:7, and Philippians 4:67

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey friends, it's Stephanie here with episode number 115 of Giving your Best Life podcast, and today I am going to continue my conversation on distractions. I did episodes, so if you haven't listened to the episodes on distractions, I did a series. It was episode 102, 105, and 111. I intended it to only be a three series of on distraction, except the other day I was talking with one of my best friends and she said worry has been such a distraction in our life and it was like she punched me in the gut because we live in a society that we worry about a lot of stuff that we should not be worrying about. We are a very anxious society. I think worry and anxiousness go hand in hand, and she and I continued to have a conversation about this and it was just eye-opening. I just paused and I've been noodling on that ever since she and I talked about it.

Speaker 1: 1:15

And when something stays with me, I challenge you to see that in your own life also. If something stays with you, if there's a thought that stays with you and this can even go into giving is if somebody kind of keeps coming up in your life or you keep thinking about them, I encourage you to reach out. I'll give you an example, a little off topic. I'm getting distracted, but I think it's important for me to share this because a lot of times I love to give you guys. You know part of giving your best life is giving.

Speaker 1: 1:49

And this morning I had got a newsletter from one of my girlfriends. She owns an amazing business and I get her newsletter all the time and it's actually more than a newsletter. I feel like I see her emails a couple of times a week. It might be on her product, it might be on her podcast, it might be something going on with somebody in her business, so whatever multiple times a week. So it just gives you an idea. It's not like it's once a month. But this morning, when I got it, and it wasn't even like I don't want to say this, I don't want to say it wasn't like there wasn't anything special about this. It wasn't saying, hey, look at me and this is what I done and, um, you know, I hit this big milestone. It wasn't anything like that. It was just kind of like this um, hey, we're bringing back this product Everybody loves was very simple, very clean and they were just something in my spirit and I was like I and it was specific, it was very specific of um I'm going to tear up, is I just needed to reach out to her and say I'm proud of you? And I did that. I just I didn't ignore that, I just sent her a little gift Is that what they're called? A little gift that just said I'm proud of you? And it was just a little note that said just wanted to let you know I'm proud of you, I love you, friend. Now I immediately got a response back from this friend and said I needed this. This was right on time.

Speaker 1: 3:26

Now, first, I have no idea what's going on in my friend's life. She's somebody we kind of touch base with every couple of months, but we both are super, super busy. She's building a big business and so it's not like we were somebody that stays in touch. So, anyways, I know I got a little off topic today and I didn't intend to talk about that, but I just encourage you that if things keep coming up in your life, or somebody, or a message, or maybe you keep seeing a book or whatever it is, I encourage you to pursue that and pray through that. Now for this little thing this morning. I didn't really need to pray about it. There's nothing that's going to come out bad out of you know or not be. I really thought it was the Holy Spirit nudging me to reach out to her. But on bigger things, maybe it's.

Speaker 1: 4:16

I actually met with a friend the other night for dinner and she shared some things with me and it was like shared some things with me and it was like I don't want to say random, but really out of the blue, couple of job opportunities in a similar area which is outside of the area that she's been working in. And I told her don't ignore that, you know is I would start praying and take the next step and pray hey, god, if this is from you, if this is a door that you're opening, if this is something you want me to seek and pursue, and not even with the intention of, like, actually getting that job, but we never know is it might be a person that we are gonna meet, it might be a conversation we never know A lot of times where God is leading us on the journey which this will tie in. A lot of times we don't do that because we worry about whatever it is that prevents us from even taking that next step, because we're so worried which we're not trusting God in the process, and a lot of times you know what the end result is looks very different than what we think it's going to look like. But God had a plan that whole time and a lot of times we can let worry get in the way. I think about this one friend. It was worry even a little bit about like, do I even have the skill set? Like I've never done that, I will say. Women are really bad about not applying for jobs because they're worried they don't have the skill set. They worry they don't have what it takes to do a certain job where a man will apply for that same job with probably less skills. And so that's just something to think about, women, as you look at an opportunity that God may be opening up for you. That seems really outside of your comfort zone. So we're kind of diving into worry a little bit.

Speaker 1: 6:29

If I think back when I was going from a police officer to working in the tech industry 15 years ago, I had a lot of worries because I had never worked for for-profit business. I had never worked in for for for profit business. I had never worked in a sales organization. I had never really worked from home. I had done some consulting, but not like full time work remotely from home. I'd never used the technology that we had to use. Like there was a lot of things that I had not done and not to say that I wasn't worried about it, but it was like very clear that God had opened an opportunity, and so that's where trust has to come in and go. Okay, god, this seems really out of, you know, my comfort zone, but I'm going to trust you, I'm going to have faith and you know, friends, that led to an amazing career for 15 years of by taking a job that was so very, very different from anything I ever thought I would be doing in my life.

Speaker 1: 7:39

I want to go into the Bible and read Matthew 6, 34. And actually I just want to go to Matthew 6, and the whole section, 25 through 34, is titled. Do Not Worry, and I encourage you to read this whole section. I'm just going to bounce around of some things that stuck out to me, because I think a lot of times it's like wow, when I'm reading through the Bible. It's like what is sticking out? God, what do you want me to see? What do you want me to talk about today and these are the things that I underlined that really stuck out to me.

Speaker 1: 8:24

And so if we look at verse 25, it says therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life. I mean, is there a more clear direction and guidance in the Bible? I mean, there's a lot of that. The Bible is very clear. A lot of times, the majority of times, they're not gray areas. It's like this is what you do and it says do not worry about your life. And then we jumped down to 27 and it says and which of you, by worrying, can add even one hour to his life? So it's like, even if you worry an hour, it's not going to add anything to your life, it's not even going to add an hour. I say it takes away Worrying takes away the hours of your life.

Speaker 1: 9:14

I think we waste this is what my friend was talking about, which is why I want to talk about it is we waste so much of our lives worrying. It keeps us stuck. That is one thing about giving your best life is getting you unstuck so that you step out in faith and move forward to whatever God has for your life. You get one life. You get one time to do this, and so I'm going to talk in the end of, like, what do you do if you're a worry wart and I am a worrier If you've ever been around me. My girlfriend and I did a trip to New York City and she really got to see all my worry come out, because I had a lot of worries and fears while we were in New York City. But I will say is it did not prevent me from doing one thing that we were doing while we were in New York City. And so there's not I really struggle with worry, but I really try to take capture of that and flip it around and let's just jump there. I'll come back to Matthew 6 here in a second, but I just want to jump to. You know how do we respond to worry? And let's see here. It's in Philippians 4, 6.

Speaker 1: 10:43

And this is one of my favorite verses of the Bible. Again, it's very, very specific. It's not gray. It's not gray, friends. It says do not be anxious about anything. Do not be anxious about anything Instead. Okay, so here's what you do when you worry, when you're anxious. It says instead in every situation not just big situations, not just scary situations In every situation. This is what you do, through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving tell your requests to God. Gosh, that just seems like so simple. We have access to God 24 seven.

Speaker 1: 11:26

And you guys know I am big on prayer and gratitude. I've written books, I have a prayer and gratitude journal, thank you notes to God, uncommon prayers. The gratitude challenge Like this is a big part of my life. It is something I practice every day and I still have worries, and it shows you how reliant we have to be upon God to come to Him with everything in our lives. This is such a great reminder. I sit in my prayer closet and I've really just been trying to just like revel in the amazingness of God and who he is and the power, and sometimes I feel guilty because it's like, oh my gosh, I'm just like pouring out all my like, woes and anxiousness and, you know, fill in the blank, but it's like. No, the Bible tells us that, instead of doing that, instead of worrying, instead of being anxious in every situation, that through prayer we tell our requests to God, that's what he wants us to do and then guess what happens. It says and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds. I love that. It will guard both your heart and your mind not just one, but both of them, friends.

Speaker 1: 13:03

There's a couple other things that I was just thinking about as it relates to this topic. If you are somebody that worries or anxious, get you know. I don't like the word and I think I've mentioned this before. You know it's not a habit. Prayer and gratitude are not a habit, and I probably mentioned this, I probably said that before, so I apologize, but it really is about building this relationship. Christ should be the number one person in your life that you're going to, that you're walking hand in hand in life with and I want you to think about this is a lot of times.

Speaker 1: 13:38

What are some of the things that we worry about? And, as I mentioned these, if some of them resonate with you, write it down and then take that to God in prayer. Be very specific. Let him give you. After you, tell him your request and petition him in prayer and thanksgiving. Look for that peace that comes beyond the understanding what the Bible tells us. We trust in the word of what the Bible tells us. What the Bible tells us. We trust in the word of what the Bible tells us.

Speaker 1: 14:15

Friends, we don't do things or we don't say things because we worry about what people are going to think about us. We don't do or say things or we confront people maybe that need to be confronted or just having some hard conversations. Why? Because we're scared. We're worried how people are going to react.

Speaker 1: 14:34

Go back and listen to episode 106 that I did with Zach on navigating friendships, and you know we talked about some things that he confronted me with. He wasn't worried at all, because he kind of has a worry on the other side is what if I don't? What if I don't say something to somebody? We worry that we're not enough, which we're never going to be enough. We worry, you know, talking about the friend who has this potential job opportunity is we worry, okay, well, what if I take that? What if it doesn't work out? Well then God has something else for you. You might be single and you were dating somebody, or you went out on a date and you haven't heard from them, and so you're worried about oh, they're not calling me back, they're not texting, whatever it is, and it's like I would say is give that to God, give that person to God, give that relationship to God. And guess what? If that person is supposed to be in your life and that's a person you're supposed to be married to or or date for a while, then God, god's got a plan. Going back to when I talked about that trust and faith. God has a plan. Going back to when I talked about that trust and faith. God has a plan.

Speaker 1: 15:58

And what I have found over and over and over again remember this is that worry is usually a bunch of lies. Worry is a bunch of lies. If we go to 1 Peter, 5, 7, it addresses this. So it says or actually, let's back up to 5, 6. And it says and God will exalt you in due time if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand by casting all your cares on him, because he cares for you. Friends, god cares for you. He wants you to cast all his worries, all your doubts, all your anxieties on him. He cares for you. But I think it's interesting that these two go hand in hand in the Bible, because the next thing that the Bible says in verse eight is be sober and alert your enemy. The devil, like a roaring lion, is on the prowl looking for someone to devour. Don't you think that when you're in this worry, state that that is the devil. He's roaring around, he's looking, and what does the Bible tell us to do in verse nine? Resist him, strong in your faith. Strong in your faith.

Speaker 1: 17:14

I'll give you an example this is kind of like a funny example, but I think it'll get my point across of what I'm talking about is I've been doing grounding. Um, I like to walk around my yard barefoot. Um, I challenge people to research grounding and the benefits of grounding. I just think it's so cool like last night I was even tearing up to think about, like, how God made the earth and all this research that I've been done about grounding and standing in the ground or earthing and having your feet and how healing and the things that it can do to your body. It's like, oh my gosh, god even created us to have our feet in the ground. Anyways, that's kind of a sidetrack, a distraction, as I want to say, but anyways, so I've been doing this and today I don't know what hit me, but I had been outside and I was grounding, I was watering, uh, my container garden, um, just kind of walking around, and I got the idea to run in my yard.

Speaker 1: 18:22

Do a 10 minute run without shoes or socks on and you're like Stephanie, what are you doing? I know I, these are the crazy things that happen in my life. I know my husband, when he left for work, was like, what are you doing? But anyways, I did that and I'm constantly doing these things that are uncomfortable. And I challenge you to constantly, big or small things, do things that are uncomfortable in your life.

Speaker 1: 18:51

Big or small things, do things that are uncomfortable in your life. And why you're going to be like Stephanie why is like running in the grass uncomfortable? Well, one in our grass. We have a pretty big yard and this is why it's uncomfortable is because there are some really big sticker weeds and I mean, these thorns on these weeds are very long. I can't imagine if you stepped on one. I mean, oh my gosh, how bad that would hurt. But they're hardly any of them in the yard, so they're so sparse. But you really have to pay attention because there's been multiple times. I've almost stepped on them. Okay, so I was worried about well, when you're walking, it's easier to kind of pay attention where it's at because you're going slow. I'm very deliberate about my steps, but when you're running you're kind of moving fast, that you could potentially step on something with that before you see it. So that was thing one.

Speaker 1: 19:45

Thing two is I didn't discover this until I started it, but there's animal poo in our yard. So when I started, I was like not once, but twice. I saw two different scats and I was like, oh, now I have to pay attention that I don't step in animal poo. Three is there are bees, because we have those little clothes and there are bees and I was like, oh, so we got thorns, we got poop, we got bees, all these things. I started running. I kid you not, I set my alarm for 10 minutes because I wanted to force myself to be uncomfortable for 10 minutes running in the grass, and it wasn't 30 seconds and I wanted to quit. Why? Because it was making me anxious. I was worried, I was going to step on a thorn, I was going to step in poo or step on a bee.

Speaker 1: 20:37

Now, friends, I made the 10 minutes I made myself. I had to talk. This is what you had to do. Now, in this situation. I didn't need to talk to God, I don't know, maybe I should have, maybe I should have asked for protection around my feet. But I tell you this silly story because this is what we do a lot of times is there's something that's uncomfortable, and whether it is an opportunity, whether it's a conversation, whether it's I don't know fill in the blank of something that you're doing. Like I told you, my friend is they've been in their whole life just worried about every little thing, and 30 seconds 30 seconds is all it took for me to about tap out. I had to pause. I hit stop on my timer on my phone. I had a little pep talk with myself and I was like, no, you're going to finish these 10 minutes. I had a little pep talk with myself and I was like, no, you're going to finish these 10 minutes. Now, guess what? I finished the 10 minutes.

Speaker 1: 21:34

Um, it was harder than I thought. I only stepped. I didn't step in poo. I didn't step in a bee on a bee. Um, I did step on a sticker thorn. And then I was worried about the red.

Speaker 1: 21:50

Well, I had on my foot for a little while. I put Maluka on it or tea tree oil. I put this other bacteria stuff on there. It's fine, I'm. It's easier for me to put my tennis shoes on and run around the grass. It's easier for me. Better yet is to stay in the house and run on the treadmill. It's not uncomfortable. It's a little uncomfortable because I'm kind of out of shape, but you know, we can let worry. It was just such a great example today of how worry stops us in our tracks, stops us from doing uncomfortable things, and I the feeling of when we do what we know God has called us to do, the hard things, at the end it builds up your trust in Him. It builds up your faith in him. I always say is, if we worry and we stay in this worry mode and we let that control our lives, it puts us in a box. It puts us in a box and God is so much farther than we can even imagine outside of that box. But we have to trust him, we have to have the faith. We have to say okay, god, I am not enough, but I am going to trust you.

Speaker 1: 23:24

Friend, I saw this all the time in my giving journey and still, as I give a gift every day is there were opportunities that I saw to give and I would start worrying about what someone's reaction was going to be. Sometimes it wasn't even worry about the reaction of the person I was giving to. It would be the reaction of the person I was giving to. It would be the worry of what people around me might say. I can remember I was in Alaska and I saw a man sitting by himself at a table an older gentleman and I was with a group of people. We were up there speaking. I was with a group of people and man, I just felt like God saying, go sit down One. I was worried that the guy would tell me no Two. I was worried about what the group of people I was with would think when I went to set with this older gentleman.

Speaker 1: 24:20

And what I realized over and over again is every time I just said, okay, god, I feel like this is a person you're putting in my path. Every time I just said, okay, god, I feel like this is a person you're putting in my path, I'm going to trust you. Almost 100% of the time it was like, oh my gosh, I'm so glad I did what God called me to do in that gift, because almost every person needed the gift that I was offering that day, and a lot of times it's way more than what we can see or they tell us. And so I just want to encourage you today to take some time to journal, to write, to dump out, to pour out to God. He cares for you, he wants you to give him your request and write out what is worrying you, what is weighing you down, and just give it to God. Give it to God and say I'm giving this to you and I'm going to move forward in faith.

Speaker 1: 25:27

There's a verse in the Bible and I don't have the. Is it 5-7? Is it no, sorry, I don't know, it might be back. Sorry, it might be back where I was at. Is it in Matthew? Let's see here. Yeah, okay, let's go back to Matthew, matthew 6, 34. It says so then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.

Speaker 1: 25:59

So, friends, I just want to say, you know, part of giving your best life is, you know, our foundation is in our faith that we have in Jesus Christ. It is our prayers and it is gratitude, and it is building that relationship that we will never. We will never reach. The point that we are striving for is to be where we're just dependent, 100% dependent in everything, that we don't go through life without worry, because it's just like God's got that. I would love to get to the point. You know where in my life I'm just constantly like something comes up. I'm worried. God's got that. Move forward.

Speaker 1: 26:48

So, friends, hopefully this episode has helped you out. Again, I encourage you to write out the things that are your. Just a prayer, a prayer to God of what's worrying you, what's on your heart. Give it to him and then move forward, move forward, step out in that faith. You know, worry will keep you stuck. Worry will keep you stuck, and that's where the devil wants you. The devil wants you stuck, and I hope this conversation on distraction and worry is just another way that you can get to giving your best life. Friends, if this impacted you, if you know somebody that struggles with worry, please share this episode with them. Share it on social media, message me, share with me what you're worried about, share with a friend. The Bible says where two or more are gathered in our prayers. I have a ton of people that I pray for, and so I'm always happy to be a prayer warrior for you. And yeah, thank you so much. Friends, have a fabulous day, evening or morning whenever you're listening to this.