My Story of Overcoming Anxiety and How You Can Too

I'm going to discuss a subject today that applies to everybody on this planet, and that is the subject of anxiety, depression, and feeling overwhelmed. Did you know that at least 20% of the people in the U.S. alone suffer from anxiety disorders? And of course there are other mental disorders, and most of those have episodes of anxiety at some time or another as well. So we're dealing with an all-time high. You could say it's an epidemic of anxiety and depression disorders. You know, the Bible teaches us that faith comes by hearing, but fear also comes by hearing. And because we're living in a time where words are being spoken in our ears continuously, people have more opportunity for fear to come. You know, think about this. We have 24-hour news. We have social media networks. We have people that are addicted to their phones, and they're continually reading or listening to things that come across their telephones. So it's very common for people to get disturbed by what they're hearing in a way that throughout the past in history, people could not be disturbed. And so this is an important subject because so many people suffer. You know, you may not think that you have anxiety, but if you just feel uneasiness at times, if you catch yourself worrying about things, worrying about the future, worrying about climate change, for instance, you know, there's a subject which we're not going to get off on today, but just worrying about climate change instead of seeing what the Word of God says can absolutely put you in a state of fear and anxiety. These are not things that God wants us to worry about. And so we want to discuss this subject today because it is just so critical for our health. You know, it's also a fact that if you suffer from mental disorders, it's eventually going to catch up with you in your health. And I know that more than 80% of most physical illnesses can be traced back to a mental problem, actually the problem of fear and worry. And so we don't want fear in our lives. And above all else, God doesn't want fear in your life. Now, I thought it would be good today to just share my journey and my personal story of how I overcame fear and anxiety. And it's an interesting story because I really didn't think I had a problem in this area. And I think there are a lot of people that at least the first part of their lives may not even be aware that they're worriers. You know, you can spend so much of your life worrying that it just becomes a part of you. I like to say it this way, it becomes a companion and it travels with you everywhere you go. And you get so used to the presence of it and you find a way to cope with it until you don't even realize that you are worrying. And so my story really begins way back a long time ago when I was born. And I was born into a family that was broken. Not initially, my parents did get married, but they were teenagers, they were high school dropouts, and it was not the most sound or stable home life. I'm not sharing this in a way where I'm saying I'm angry with my parents or I'm blaming them for any of my past, because here's something that's very important for all of us to understand. We live in a fallen world. There's not one person that's been born into this planet, which is in its fallen state, that doesn't have some degree of dysfunction because a fallen world dictates that we're going to have dysfunction. You know, nobody does it right. Nobody lives a perfect life. Nobody handles stress in a perfect manner. And our parents are doing the best that they know how in raising us, but because they had their own dysfunction, they don't always do things right either. And so this I knew. I knew my parents loved me. I knew that my parents wanted the best for me, but I know that they were also overcoming some of their own issues while trying to raise me and my sister at a young age. And so some of the things that happened early on certainly contributed to having struggles with fear and anxiety later on. Now some of you maybe can relate to that. Some of you might have had a far worse upbringing than I did, and some may have had a far better upbringing. But no matter who raised you or how stable your home life was, and by the way, if it was pretty stable, consider yourself very blessed. But no matter who raised you, no matter what you went through, we're all working our lives out and working the bugs out, so to speak. And so there is no such thing as perfection. And so I just wanted to share that I am not disrespecting my parents in any way. I love them. I honor them. But they would admit if you asked them that, yes, they had dysfunction to overcome. And really, a lot of people, the reason why they don't get better is because they're never even willing to admit that they're dysfunctional. You know, I've tried to deal with people over the years. Not only am I a nurse, but I'm a pastor. I've tried to deal with people over the years and help them out of situations, but I've discovered until they can actually admit that they have a problem, there is no beginning point to get help. And don't ever deceive yourself into thinking that you're perfectly fine. I think maybe one of the coping mechanisms I had was just convincing myself that everything was fine. And so it was not recognizable until a little later in life. Now, in today's society, there is so much attention drawn to mental disorders, and especially anxiety and depression. And so I think maybe younger people get introduced to this concept, and they're aware of things at a younger age. But nonetheless, if you're aware of it, and you try to handle it just by the world's method, you will not have a great success rate. And so I just want to share some things today that can help you with permanent lasting results. So back to my story, I had gotten to the place in life where I was determined to succeed. I was determined that my destiny was going to turn out great. I went to college. I had a can-do attitude. And if anybody would have asked me, do you consider yourself to be mentally and emotionally strong? I would have said emphatically, yes, I'm strong. Now, let me just backtrack a little bit on that one as well, because I think in my generation, I grew up in the 60s and the 70s, we didn't draw attention to these issues. And so we just were really left to face them on our own. And we had to work it out. We had to make things work. Nobody was coddling us or petting us when we weren't feeling well. And so you did become strong to a degree. You were able to function and live life without all the coddling. Now, in today's society, I think we overly coddle our young people, and so we are crippling them. And I think there has to be a happy medium where, yes, there's help, but we can't continually allow people to continue in bad behaviors because we feel sorry for them or we say they can't help it. Because even though I had some bad behaviors, and they were more destructive against myself, not other people, I had to just deal with it. So anyway, life is going on. And I finally get married. I have two children. And then I've been in the ministry for about seven years. And one night, I went to put my kids to bed. And, you know, this was a normal routine. And then I went to sit on the sofa and watch Christian television. And as soon as I sat down and got comfortable, vroom, out of nowhere, I had a panic attack. Now, it was the strangest thing because even though I may have had problems worrying or etc. throughout my life, I know for a fact I had never had a panic attack up until that day, because you would remember something like that. And the strange thing about it was, I didn't receive any kind of, you know, terrible news. I didn't have a bad diagnosis. I don't really know exactly why it hit then. But I can tell you that after it happened, I discovered some things about my life. And the reason I'm sharing my personal journey with you is I think maybe some of you can locate where you're at. And maybe it'll help you to know you're not alone. You know, everybody's dealing with things. And if you think, well, it's just me, or there's something wrong with me, or I can't let anybody know what's going on, because then they won't think the same way about me. You know, you have to understand that everybody's facing things, and everybody is trying to work out their journey or their life, the best they know how. But we have answers through the Word of God. And that's what I really want to get to eventually here, after I share my story. So I ended up with this panic attack. And the first reaction I had was get up and start pacing. And I was always a person that kept moving, kept going. As a matter of fact, I had a very bad habit of working myself almost to exhaustion. And looking back on all of that now, I can see that that was a coping mechanism. Because sometimes I think if I would sit for too long, and I'd be left with my thoughts for too long, sometimes those thoughts would trouble you. And so my way of handling was just get up and find something else to do. And you won't think about it. The only problem is you don't get rid of thoughts that way on a permanent level. And we're going to see through the Word of God how you are supposed to handle troubling thoughts. So anyway, I got up and I started pacing, that didn't help. Then I started praying as fervently as I knew how, that didn't help. My husband, he tried to suggest a few things, that didn't help. I was at a place where basically nothing helped. And when it was time to go to sleep that night, I just did the best I could to lay down and try to get into peace. So I found a good cassette teaching by a man named Brother Kenneth E. Hagan. And it was on the subject of casting your cares on the Lord and the Father's care. He has a teaching called The Father's Care. And I listened to that all night long. And it probably took almost till morning until I was able to fall asleep. But then of course, I woke up thinking, okay, I'm all better now. But boom, there it was again. And this went on for a period of about two weeks. Now I'm not telling you that to discourage you if you're going through something and you have to think you're going to take two weeks to get to the other side of it. But I will tell you this, during that two weeks, I kept getting better little by little. And here's the reason why. Because I made a decision. I could either go to a doctor and get help that way, or I could do it God's way. And at that point in my life, I was so full of anxiety that I actually believed the lie that if I go to the doctor, they're likely to lock me up. And I think I was more afraid of being locked up than anything at the time, as silly as that may sound now. And so I decided I'm going to do this God's way. And I'll tell you, that's the best decision I ever made because by doing it God's way, it brought me into a place spiritually that I will never lose. I gained some momentum in my spiritual life and I learned some very valuable lessons. So what I would do is every waking moment, I was either meditating in scriptures, particularly the Psalms, because they're filled with comfort, or I was speaking the word, which is really a part of meditation, or I was praying, or I was worshiping, or I was listening to teaching. And of course, I have two children I'm taking care of as well. But it's amazing how when you put God first, how everything can stay peaceful around you and fall into place. And so that was my life for two weeks. And I did start getting better gradually. But I want you to know that at the end of two weeks, I was completely free of all fear, all anxiety, and all panic. And you know something, it was a victory. It was a victorious moment for me because I learned God's word can be dependent on. I can trust in him. You know, the Bible tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear. In First Timothy chapter one, he's not given us the spirit of fear. Actually, it's Second Timothy chapter one. He's given us the spirit of power, I say dunamis power of love and of a sound discipline mind. And so your mind doesn't have to be batty, crazy, confused, or anxious ever, if you'll learn how to take captive those wrong thoughts. And you know, looking back on it now, the thing that led up to all of this was I had gotten into a state of worry. You see, back in 1992, I was going to be turning 30 years old. And I don't know why, but I just had a dread of turning 30. And I'll tell you what, I nipped that in the bud so that when I turned 40, and when I turned 50, and then when I turned 60, so now you know my age, I didn't allow those decades to bother me ever again. But looking back, I can see that I probably had, really, it's rooted in a fear of death, because I could see how fast time was going by. And I thought, gee, if these 30 years went by this fast, then the next 30 are going to go by just as fast or faster, and then the next 30. And before you know it, it's going to be over. Now, that's almost comical for some people to hear that. But I think that when you meditate on wrong thoughts, and the devil's there sitting on your shoulder helping you, you can magnify something that's just ridiculous, so out of proportion, until it becomes real to you. And that really is what anxiety does to a person. It has you meditating on wrong thoughts again, and again, and again, until you're picturing negative things in your future. You know, meditating on God's Word allows you to think on His Word over and over again, until you picture your future as being victorious. And so really, if you could just take the worry habit, which is a meditation, and just turn that record over, and start thinking about God's Word, and meditating on His Word, then you'll see that your future is bright. And really, anything that I could have been afraid of was just a lie anyway. I'd never been sick. I'd never had problems, you know, physically in my life. I never really went to the doctor that much. So I don't know why I was afraid of growing old. But somehow that fear entered into my life at a young age, and it was with me all the time. Also, the fear of failure instead of succeeding. So I became a very cautious person at a young age, because I was careful about my future. How is my future going to turn out? Now, that's not altogether bad, because if you're careful about your future, your future will be better. But you don't want to be careful with a worry. You want to be careful in that you're planning it with the Word of God. So I wanted to share this journey with you, which is certainly by no means the whole story or all the details. But I know that I opened the door to the devil by allowing myself to think about wrong things again and again, year after year, and worrying about silly things. Worrying about, is the house clean enough before someone comes over? Worrying about how my children are behaving. Worrying about if I'm even handling them properly, and what's their future going to look like? You know, all these things that I didn't, didn't even recognize that it was worry. And worry is just fear. Now, if you've been watching today, and you've been suffering from a troubled mind, maybe you're just having feelings of uneasiness, feeling anxious, maybe even feeling depressed, there are answers for you. But I want to pray for you right now, that God will touch you today and give you relief from those symptoms. So why don't you go ahead and just add your faith to this prayer as I pray for you now. Heavenly Father, I pray for those watching that are suffering from mental disorders. Lord, I know that it is not your will that they suffer from these disorders. This lack of peace is from the pit of hell. It is not from God. And so Father, I pray for them now. I come against fear. I come against anxiety. I come against a troubled mind. I command it to stop in Jesus' name. Satan, I command you to take your hands off of them in the name of Jesus. And Father, I thank you for comforting them now with the peace of God that passes their understanding. I thank you, Lord God, for supernatural relief from a troubled mind. And Lord, I thank you that they are developing the ability to trust you alone, that you will completely deliver them from a past of a troubled mind. We give you the glory and the praise for this now in Jesus' name. Well, that's all for today. Thank you for joining us. If you were helped or encouraged at all, I would like for you to like us and subscribe to our channel. Until next time, remember, God has a purpose for your life, and it's greater than you know. God bless you.