Overcoming Anxiety

Overcoming Anxiety

Even strong people reach breaking points.

Depression is not a broken mind, it is a signal

1 Kings 19: Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”

3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die.  “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”

This is the beginning of the spiral of Elijah the great prophet.

 You don’t just wake up in anxiety. You drift there.

• First, he was exhausted
  + Click to add your own note

3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,

Victory does not cancel exhaustion.

• Second, he isolated himself.
  + Click to add your own note

3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,

Isolation does not protect you. It weakens you.

• Third, he focused on the negative.
  + Click to add your own note
• Anxiety magnifies what’s wrong and minimizes what God has done.

Fourth, he believed a lie.

1 Kings 19:10 10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

• Fifth, he forgot God.
  + Click to add your own note

HOW GOD BRINGS YOU OUT of Depression

5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”

1st prescription:

• Take care of your body
  + Click to add your own note

6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

7 The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.”

8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

Rest and proper diet.

• We need to talk less about chemical imbalances and more about the imbalances in the way we live
• “We were never designed for the sedentary, indoor, sleep-deprived, socially-isolated, fast-food-laden, frenetic pace of modern life.” TLC Principal Investigator Stephen Ilardi, PhD
• Find the Pace of Health
  + Click to add your own note

Some of you are trying to fix something, and you are too exhausted to fix it.

Eccl 4:6 6 Better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.

Learn how to say no to things that might be good, but bad for your schedule.

9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.

The Lord Appears to Elijah

And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”  (Lying to himself here.)

11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

2nd prescription:

• Make room for the whisper of God
  + Click to add your own note

The presence of God is one of the greatest answers to anxiety. If God is whispering it means he is close to you!

Psalm 73:16–17 Asaph:
“When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God…”

13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

“You’ve talked yourself into a lie about you that’s not true.”

And if you don’t confront the lie, it will control your life.

Anti Psalm 23

I’m on my own.
No one looks out for me or protects me.
I experience a continual sense of need.
Nothing’s quite right.
I’m always restless.
I’m easily frustrated and often disappointed.
It’s a jungle — I feel overwhelmed.
It’s a desert — I’m thirsty.
My soul feels broken, twisted, and stuck.
I can’t fix myself.
I stumble down some dark paths.
Still, I insist: I want to do what I want, when I want, how I want.
But life’s confusing.
Why don’t things ever really work out?
I’m haunted by emptiness and futility — shadows of death.
I fear the big hurt and final loss. Bad things can happen.
I find no lasting comfort.
I’m alone . . . facing everything that could hurt me.
Are my friends really friends?
Other people use me for their own ends.
I can’t really trust anyone.
No one has my back. I belong to no one except myself.
My cup is never quite full enough.
I’m left empty.
Disappointment follows me all the days of my life.
Will I just be obliterated into nothingness?
Will I be alone forever, homeless, free-falling into void?

Prescription 3:

• CHANGE THE STORY IN YOUR HEAD
  + Click to add your own note
• Let the word of God be the method you use to discover your identity and what God says about you

2 Corinthians 10:5
“We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

God shifts Elijahs attention and focus

1 Kings 19:15–16
15 The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet.

God gives Elijah assignments again.

Prescription 4

• REDISCOVER or find your PURPOSE
  + Click to add your own note

When your life becomes all about your pain, your world gets small.

Viktor Frankl 
“Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but by lack of meaning and purpose.”

2 Corinthians 4:16–18
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

• Purpose lifts your perspective.
  + Click to add your own note

Prescription 5

• DON’T DO THIS ALONE
  + Click to add your own note

1 Kings 19:19
“So Elijah went… and found Elisha… and threw his cloak around him.”

You were never meant to walk through this alone.

Ecclesiastes 4:9–10
“Two are better than one… If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.”

You cannot win a mental battle in isolation.

Healing happens in connection.

You don’t fall into the this overnight.
And you don’t come out instantly.