Inviting God Into Your Worry

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hello and welcome to the Overflow podcast my
name is Craig Booker the title of this episode

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is inviting God into your worry the material
in this episode is inspired by winning the war

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on worry by Louis Giglio note I will talk a lot
about mental health but please note this is not

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a substitute for therapy or mental health care
I am not a counselor or a physician if you need

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help with mental health challenges please
find a qualified mental health professional

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the title of this episode is inviting God
into your worry in last week’s episode we

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talked about embracing concern and rejecting
worry in this episode we’re going to pick up

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with inviting God into the daily interactions of
our worry so in this section of the book uh Louis

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Picks Up starts talking about you know basically
what do we know based on what we’ve learned so far

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like we’ve gone through a few different chapters
we’re we’re covered a lot so far and what we know

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is that knowing who worry is which is a liar
and what worry is made of it’s Anatomy rooted

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in fear we can know our enemy and his tactics
so he goes on to say and knowing our enemy is

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essential to being able to fight well this quote
is from Sun Tzu from The Art of War if you know

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your enemy and know yourself you need not fear the
result of a hundred battles if you know yourself

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but not the enemy for every Victory gained you
will also suffer a defeat if you know neither

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the enemy nor yourself you will succumb in every
battle and Louis goes on to say as we continue

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this journey to become more equipped to win the
war on worry we we know our enemy his purpose

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is to take us down and steal our joy and that’s
referencing it’s not a direct quote but it’s from

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John 10 10. so we also need to know ourselves and
most importantly we need to know our God because

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here’s the reality if we don’t know God we won’t
be able or willing to invite him into our worry

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that’s a big problem because the act of inviting
God into our worry is one of the most crucial

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strategies of winning this war he goes into the
section that’s titled going on the offensive it’s

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not enough to call worry out or to break it down
and study it if we want to win this battle we need

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to strap on our armor and get ready to go on the
offensive so he talks about like our first battle

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is to surrender our concerns To God In Prayer
Philippians 4 6 of the NLT says don’t worry about

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anything instead pray about everything tell God
what you need and thank him for all he has done

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Louis goes on to say Paul wasn’t just saying don’t
worry he was giving you an additional offensive

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step to take he was encouraging you to invite God
into your worry by telling him everything that’s

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concerning you the word worry in this verse me
means to rip into pieces it’s the same word it’s

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the same for the word anxiety in scripture anxiety
and worry tear our minds and hearts apart that’s

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why we have the phrase I was worried to Pieces
worry turns our peace into pieces God wants us to

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bring every little piece to him that’s the first
step in how God brings us peace just like Adam and

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Eve in the garden our first response when we miss
the Mark is to hide or run from God much like them

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you know when we mess up our our first response is
to either try to hide or run from God when Louis

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says we run from God when we need to be running
to him he goes on to say don’t try and fix worry

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on your own you might be stuck in worry and feel
like there’s no way out uh but also he goes on to

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say don’t hide from God you might feel ashamed and
embarrassed that you cannot do better you might

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feel like a failure but you know the purpose
or the idea here is that we not try to fix it

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on our own and we don’t try to hide from God but
that’s exactly what we tried to do in most cases

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when we have worry fear anxiety uh is we
we kind of turn inward instead of going

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to God so it says what should we do
we need to call out to God we need to

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you know tell him what we need tell him our
struggles we need to invite God into the anxiety

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and worry through prayer and then we need to tell
God what we need and thank him for all he’s done

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when you do this God is in the middle of your
worry with you so that’s bringing them in to the

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worry he goes on to talk about abiding in the
vine he says we counter anxiety by Abiding and

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what does it mean to abide to abide is to remain
or dwell Louis says to stay in constant posture

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it’s to stay in a constant posture of surrender
and dependency not on your own strength and

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or uh now if I made a typo there but and for own
power but on the character nature of God John 15

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5 of the NLT it says I’m the vine you are the
branches those who remain in me and I in them

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will produce much fruit for apart from me you
can do nothing Louie says we are the branches

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Jesus is the vine that means that he’s the source
of Life of nutrients of richness and vitality he

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is our source we are the receivers as branches our
job is to remain we are to stay connected to the

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vine and when we do we bear much fruit Galatians
5 22-23 ESV says the fruit of the spirit is love

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joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness
gentleness self-control Louis says when we invite

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God into our worry we surrender off board our need
for control and we onboard his call to dwell and

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abide in him and the next thing we know we’re
bearing fruit we’re blossoming with patience

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love and peace for most of us the primary reason
we fall short on Abiding and dwelling with God

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isn’t because we’re not spiritual enough
or because we don’t understand the concept

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most of us fall short of Abiding and dwelling
because we’re easily distracted and so in

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in this section of the book he goes on
talks talking about one of the reasons

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why we’re so easily distracted is due to our
screens our devices and you know he says how

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you know how much time we the average person I
think spends on a screen and talks about how many

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times we pick it up and all of that information
that you’ve probably heard in other forms in other

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places and he says he’s not here to like throw
stones or accuse people of doing it he says he

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he uses his device much like we anybody else uses
their device but he’s just showing how I guess how

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prevalent distraction is and how easy it is for us
to be distracted by by our devices and the type of

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reward it provides our brain when we are always
on our device the thing with abiding is that it

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takes time just as is hard to pour water into a
shaky cup it’s difficult for the peace of God to

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flow into a heart that’s in constant motion
when we quiet ourselves and sit before him

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really sit and create space to surrender our fears
our anxieties our burdens to him then we abide

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when we spend time with Jesus we read his word
and meditate on his truth and his life we begin

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to unlock something in our souls so in in this
section he says we start by breathing out the lies

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that cause us to feel anxious or stressed next
we need to fill that space with something good

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something true and as we breathe in we proclaim
a promise of God so he gives some examples here

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I think that’ll help it make more sense so if
you’re you know you might be breathing out saying

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I’m abandoned and then you breathe in and say
God is in me you breathe out saying my enemies

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are against me breathe in God is for me breathe
out I am weak breathe in God Is Bigger Than Me

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breathe out I am lacking breathe in God Is Enough
For Me breathed out I am forgotten breathe in God

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is faithful to me but the Practical exercise is
is one where we’re you know we’re breathing out

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a lie and we’re breathing in and replacing it
with truth a promise of God and so I I think as

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individuals we can figure out things that really
resonate with us maybe we identify lies that we’re

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believing ourselves and then we go through
the Bible and find a promise or a word from

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God that kind of counters that lie and so I think
that’s a great exercise we could all do to help us

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in our daily walk as we identify lies and
try to replace them with the truth of God

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we’re trying to identify problems and come up
with fixes that will get us through or get us

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through get us over or get us around the issue but
that’s not the answer to our war on worry when it

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comes to our war we we don’t need a solution
we need a savior so as humans our tendency is

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you know ever since the garden our tendency
is to try to live a life apart from God

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um and instead of just trusting in
Him we try to find fixes ourself when

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someone’s struggling their their tendency
is typically not to reach out to a friend

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some people that may be their first instinct
but a lot of people that are struggling with

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brain health uh anxiety fear uh depression
they typically turn inward instead of

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doing what would really help which is to
reaching out to God or reaching out to a friend

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and so you know what this is hinting at is that we
don’t need to solve it ourselves we really need to

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tap into God and to reach out to God I would
also add to that we also need to reach out to

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other people like our community we have discussion
questions here for this section it says take two

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minutes shut down your phone sit in the quiet and
focus on your breathing breathe in deeply through

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your nose and out through your mouth make a note
of how you feel that’s number one number two it

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says Galatians 5 compares the fruit of the
flesh with the fruit of the spirit read over

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those scriptures and reflect which of those fruit
are currently most evident in your life three it

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says God wants to hear about what concerns you
what holds what holds you back from going to God

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with the big and small things that way weigh you
down number four is the scriptures often describe

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God as a place of Refuge what does refuge mean
and why would it be beneficial for you to have

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a strong and sturdy Refuge to run to that’s all
for this episode thank you for watching if you

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