Today I would like to share a word that really inspired me. I took part of it from a pastor called Steven Furtick.
Let’s read
Mark 4 . 35- 41
35 “That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36-Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!””
Mark 4:35-41 NIV
Anxiety can come in different ways, because of different situations. Today I would like to highlight some situations that can create anxiety in your own life.
Normally it comes like a storm – full of winds and waves inside of us.
Five things that can create anxiety in us.
1- Words – They can create waves that can cause anxiety in our world.
- If you always say: – I am worried to death. I am afraid. I want to die. I am cross. I am crazy. I am tired. I am sick of it. I can’t cope any more. I am mad. I am so stressed. I am overwhelmed. I’m messed up. I am depressed today. I am scared. I am bit off.
- You are just declaring with your own mouth what you believe, you think inside of you.
You are creating space for anxiety to grow inside of you. A storm full of waves and winds.
2 – Approach– It is the way we approach the situation. The way you deal of the situation.
– If you are anxious about money, always thinking “I need more money”. But you have no control how do you spend your money. You don’t know how much enter. And you don’t control how much you spend. You will suffer because of your your approach.
– If you’re always stressed when you go to school or to work, maybe because of the traffic, no time to have breakfast, then you don’t enjoy what you’re doing. Again the problem is your approach, the way you organize yourself. The time you woke up, you went to bed. It’s your approach.
– Maybe you are anxious because you have an assignment to give tomorrow and you haven’t finished yet. You are stressed, some of your friends had fished and you are anxious because you don’t. You have been procrastinating. It’s your approach.
3 – Wrong voices– you wake up in the morning and the first thing you do: you read your messages on Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, the News. You check if you have new likes your post …You are feeding your mind with waves of anxiety. Too much media. Can cause anxiety.
You are searching for likes and approval from people far away from you. You are not building relationship with those close to you.
People are becoming addicted to mobile phones, tablets. Children cannot leave without it. Pay attention.
Have ever heard about dopamine.
Dopamine is a neurochemical created in various parts of the brain and is critical in all sorts of brain functions, including thinking, moving, sleeping, mood, attention, motivation, seeking and reward. Dopamine causes you to want, desire, seek out, and search. It increases your general level of arousal and your goal-directed behavior.
With the internet, twitter, and texting, instant gratification of your desire to seek is available at the click of a button. You can talk to anyone just by sending a text and they respond in a few seconds. All the information you could want is readily available by a google search.
Therefore, it’s easy to get into a dopamine induced loop. Dopamine starts you seeking, then you get rewarded for the seeking which makes you seek more. It becomes harder and harder to stop looking at email, stop texting, or stop checking your cell phone to see if you have a new notification.
What is happening nowadays.
Instant gratification It’s killing people’s desires, motivation, and goal-directed behaviour.
Scientific research can back up this up in the example of rats conducted by Kent Berridge. Whereby the dopamine neurones in rats were destroyed. The rats could still walk, chew, and swallow. But had lost their anticipation and desire to have food, so would starve to death. Not eating any food even when it was right under their noses. This is what’s causing the inequality.
What is the Solution?
Simple, STOP GIVING KIDS THESE DEVICES!
If they get you hooked at a young age, then they’ve got you for a long time.
There’s a drinking age, a gambling age. But there are no age restrictions on technology devices. We’re essentially allowing kids to use highly addictive drugs in the form of technology before their brains have developed and before they have any natural defenses against them.
We are raising an anxious generation.
You have two options- Wait and see. Or change it.
How do I know if I am addicted? When was the last time you had a conversation without looking to your phone? Is your child able to play without these devices, is she or he creative? If your answer were yes.it means that you are becoming addicted to it.
Wrong voices can be also be, depressive news, talk to depressed peoples. You need to watch and pay attention to what are you listening to.
4 – Expectation – some time we don’t expect problems and when they come, we feel surprised and disappointed. It’s because we did not understand what God said. He said for us to put the armour of God. (Ephesians 6.13)
Why? Because battles will come, problems will come. We need to expect battles and problems. They will come. Also Jesus that in this world we will have troubles. (John 6:33)
5- Shame – because you hide stuff and you are afraid that they will find your secret. Some children are afraid of parents look to their phones, because they are hiding things, husband and wife’s full of shame and guilty because they are doing things on secret.
Some are ashamed of something that God already forgave them. Probably because you still ashamed and you don’t forgive yourself.
Conviction comes from the Holy Spirit and you feel that God had forgiven you. But when you feel guilty you think that people are judging you, when they are not. You think they are talking about you when they are not. This is shame.
Mark4:38 “save us we are going to die” – In the passage we read, we see the disciples anxious and nervous, also upset because they trying to do something, but Jesus wasn’t helping. He was sleeping. Relaxed. They forgot what Jesus said.
In Mark4.35 “That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.”
They became agitated. Do you know someone like them?
What the Bible says.
Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
We must go before God and believe he will listen.
But don’t assume that he doesn’t care.
The real waves that put you down are not the waves that are outside but the waves that is inside of us. It Is not the circumstances that put us down but the fears inside of us.
Jesus was teaching his disciples. Because he knew that he will not be with them personally forever. Only the Holy Spirit in them. And also, in us.
Jesus is calling us to work in our beliefs.
Doubts are like waves. Those waves and winds are within (inside of you) not without (outside, circumstances) . As you have peace inside you can overcome the battles outside.
But first you need the learn to calm the waves and winds within. Be still.
Jesus said to the waves and wind and now it’s your turn to speak to the waves and winds inside of you. Be still.
When the waves come you need to learn to become brave, not anxious anymore. Because problems will come, doubts, battles, illness will come.
Let’s recap:
How to be anxious
1- Words
2 – Approach
3- Wrong voices
4- Expectation
5- Shame
To be brave you have to :
1- Breathe = in and out. Breathe in and out. It will help you to think properly. Let’s do it together.
2- Remember – what he had done, what he said. He said that we are going to the other side, hold on to his promises.
3-Ask with Thanksgiving – ask, pray for help and thank him for his help.
4-Visualise – visualise yourself overcoming. Like David said if I killed the lion and bear. God will help me with this Giant.
5-Elevate – put your mind in the things from above. Worship God praise him.
This is how you can become brave and overcoming the waves of anxiety.
Finish with praise and worship and moment of prayer.
Song: Awake my soul. Chris Tomlin
Click here and take the PowerPoint of this preaching.
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