Revive Our Hearts

Dana Grash: Did you know that according to the National Institute of Mental Health, 23% of women in the US face an anxiety disorder? And anxiety does not skip Christian women, neither does suffering. But suffering with Jesus is never empty. He meets us there, and he gives it hope and purpose.

You know, just a few years ago, I began to experience panic during the night when I was trying to sleep. At first, I suffered for many hours each time it happened, until finally, usually right after a 2:00 AM run to the kitchen for peanut butter toast, I would fall asleep. The more tired I grew as this problem went on, the louder the anxious voice in my head got.

Then one day, I thought, "Dana, you have Jesus." What I did next changed everything for me. Later in the program, I will tell you what worked for me to calm my anxious heart. You will need a Bible and a good set of walking shoes. What might it look like in your life to not only survive anxiety, but actually magnify Christ in the midst of it? That is what we are talking about today.

I am your host, Dana Grash. You are listening to Revive Our Hearts Weekend. Blair Linne says anxiety has been one of the best things to happen to her faith. How does that sit with you? Well, I think when you hear Blair's testimony, you will feel hopeful about your own battle.

Blair is a wife, a mom, and a spoken word artist. She is also the announcer for a new podcast and radio program from Revive Our Hearts coming next year. And Blair has written a book to help women combat anxiety. It is called Made to Tremble. In her book, she explains that a season of intense anxiety began after running into a deer with her whole family in the car.

Blair was grateful everyone was unharmed, but that moment would lead to panic attacks and an all-day, every-day anxiety she just could not shake. She realized she needed to seek spiritual and practical help in community, and that is where we will pick up her story.

Blair Linne: My next step was eventually to get a counselor. Actually, I give, it is funny in the acknowledgments, I mention Revive Our Hearts. I am going to read the acknowledgments here. It says, "Thank you to Nancy Wolgemuth and Revive Our Hearts, who when I had to pull out of a conference in 2017 due to crippling anxiety, recommended a counselor, and suggested rather than return the honorarium, they encouraged me to use it to pay for my first group of counseling sessions."

So, I am just so grateful for that because, you know, we were a young family in ministry, very strict budget at the time, and that was really a means of grace, you know, to recommend that counselor and get me going with seeing someone who can walk me through what was happening and give me the tools to find help and to find hope.

I met a beautiful counselor via recommendation, who walked me through and it was wonderful, opening every session in prayer, you know, leading me to the scripture. Also sharing with me breathing techniques that were helpful when those panic attacks would come. I remember her encouraging me because, you know, I literally kind of had to learn to drive again. I would drive for 10 minutes and then I would start hyperventilating.

So, her encouragement to me to play Christian music, you know, to cry out to God and the Lord really met me again and again. That really was my comfort. It was seeing God for who he is and realizing, well, he is not anxious, right? My God is never biting his nails. He is never hyperventilating. He is always at peace. He is peace. So if I know that he is with me, it does not matter the level of affliction or suffering, I can have peace in the midst of it, even if I die.

I mean, literally, even if I die, death is not a bad thing for a Christian. I had to reconcile that in my mind because I think in those moments I was afraid to die. I wondered about that, "Well, I am a believer. I know the information about death." But in a sense, I had to wrestle with God to say, "Okay, I can be satisfied with this," you know, "Be okay with leaving my husband and my children in the hands of the Lord."

Often, when it comes to sinful anxiety, it can be about control. We want to be in control. We have these concerns, we have these cares. So we think thinking about it, ruminating over it is going to allow us to have some sense of control, but it is a false sense of control. There is only one who is in control. He has sufficient resources. He is not divided. He is the God of peace who is with us. So when we realize that, we can relinquish control, and there is a lot of peace that comes from the God of peace.

Dana Grash: So Blair is telling us some ways God helped her combat anxious thoughts after a car accident. During panic attacks, Blair could not breathe, and she got help for this problem from the example of Joni Eareckson Tada. Joni has been confined to a wheelchair with quadriplegia for close to 60 years.

Blair Linne: I remember hearing her pray one time and she prayed and she asked God to help her breathe. It just struck me because I had never heard anyone ask that of God. The reason it struck me is because I thought, you know, we all need God's help to breathe. Like, we do not breathe on our own, but her circumstances caused her to rely upon God in a way that maybe if she did not have the circumstances, maybe she would have been tempted like we often are to not ask God for the things that we need.

Certainly I am in a different trial or different affliction, but I have had to ask God for help to breathe and I am grateful for that because what it does is it helps me to see my humanity. It helps me to see, again, I do not have the resources. I am not in control. In seeing that, I then go to the one who is in control. I go to the one who is holding the universe together, you know, Colossians says. My mind is being held together by God. My body is being held together by God.

Anything that would cause us to see that, I think is a good thing. It is working good in our life, even though we do not say, "You know, anxiety is the good thing," right? But God uses every trial in our life to help us to rejoice in the Lord, to help us to be able to see our dependence upon him.

Dana Grash: He does indeed. That is Blair Linne, magnifying Christ's strength in the midst of her anxiety. The experience of anxiety was not easy, but it helped her to see, really see her need for Jesus. This has changed her life in the sweetest way.

When we feel our need for the Lord, we can run to him with our every anxious thought. That is what our next guest, Paul Tautges, encourages us to do. Paul is a husband, he is a father to 10 children, he is a pastor in Cleveland, Ohio, and the author of several books, including A Small Book for the Hurting Heart. I talked to Pastor Paul not too long ago. Lean in for some advice on what to do when anxiety threatens to rule our lives.

Paul Tautges: There is a difference between responding to fear and anxiety and living under it.

Dana Grash: What advice do you have to someone who is living under it?

Paul Tautges: Well, for me, let me just put it in the first person here. This is what I do. I have to run to the Lord. It just has to be. That is the first thing I have to do. I have to go to God's word, meditate on some of his promises that assure me that no matter what threatens me, he is my protector. He has all things under control, that like it was in the life of Joseph, that somehow, even though I cannot see it right now, he is going to be working these things together for my good and for his glory.

Prayer is significant. As the Apostle Paul teaches us in Philippians chapter 4, prayer is a key piece in the ongoing fight against anxiety. But I think also we have got to guard our hearts from isolation. Sometimes we feel like we are the only ones going through this, and therefore we have got to fight through it on our own. But to have some people who are in a sense your prayer lifeline people, sisters in Christ in your church that you can just text and say, "Really struggling this morning with panic, could you pray for me or could you pray with me?" I find personally more help when someone prays with me than when they say, "I will pray for you today."

Dana Grash: Hmm.

Paul Tautges: Just pick up the phone. Use the phone for something more than just texting.

Dana Grash: Texting, right?

Paul Tautges: And looking up websites, but to actually call someone and to be able to pray together. It is powerful.

Dana Grash: It really is. How does anxiety fit into our faith walk?

Paul Tautges: Well, I think we need to understand first that it is a common struggle. It certainly can become sinful depending on how we respond to it. Most of the time it just occurs. It is not like we decided today we are going to be anxious. It just is there. I think it is a constant reminder to us of how dependent on the Lord we are supposed to be.

It was years ago that I was reading a book, it was either by Ed Welch or David Powlison, one of the two. He made the statement that, "Do not fear," is the most common command in the Bible. That really hit me because I thought about that. Okay, so God reveals himself to us through his word. He also, because he made us, he understands fully, you know, how we work. So, he understands that we need this constant assurance. Do not fear. I am with you. Do not fear. I am your refuge. Do not fear. I will bring good out of this.

So, that is a good reminder for us, and then to talk to him about that. Praying scripture is really helpful to me to do more than just read. Let's say reading Psalm 46. Yeah, that can certainly bring me some comfort. But when I stop and I actually pray through that and I insert into my prayers the very specifics of this particular situation. What do I feel threatened about? Is it a conflict with people, you know, is it a fear of something unknown in the future that maybe I am trying to control? I can work through a Psalm in particular and pray through that.

Dana Grash: You really do grow in intimacy with the Lord when you do that too because a Psalm is a beautiful poem until you need it, and then it is medicine.

Paul Tautges: Absolutely.

Dana Grash: And it hits different, does it not?

Paul Tautges: It does.

Dana Grash: Yeah. Take me to one of the Psalms that has been a medicine to your soul during one of your battles.

Paul Tautges: Psalm 27 is very significant for me. It is also one of those refuge or fear kind of Psalms. David begins with this, "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" Then he goes on to recount some of the specific causes of his fear, the things that are provoking anxiety in his heart.

The way he begins that is very significant. He first declares truth to himself. "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" It is kind of like what Martin Lloyd Jones used to say in his preaching and specifically in Psalms 42 and 43 in his book Spiritual Depression. He talks about the difference between talking to ourselves and letting ourselves talk to us.

Dana Grash: Mhm.

Paul Tautges: Once you hear that, you begin to see this pattern, especially in the Psalms. That is what David is doing here. He is recognizing that, "Okay, anxiety wants to talk to me."

Dana Grash: Mhm.

Paul Tautges: My anxiety wants to take control and dictate. It wants to be in the driver's seat of my life today. What I need to do in order to put that anxiety in the backseat of the car is I have got to declare to myself what is already true about God.

Dana Grash: Mm.

Paul Tautges: It is a God-centered truth that brings the equilibrium back so to speak.

Dana Grash: It is amazing how it works. I think one of the things that is interesting about Martin Lloyd Jones mentioning that you talk to yourself is what so often the psalmist tells himself. He reminds himself who God is. Anxiety is exalting these problems up so that they are bigger than God because they are going to overcome me, right? So that means they must get through God. And the Psalms remind us, "No, we are in his hand. We are under his wing. We are he is the refuge that we are climbing up into." But you do have to climb up into that refuge. You do have to climb up into that tower. That is kind of what you are talking about doing.

Paul Tautges: Yes, you do. Yeah, and get back to the, you know, the driving the car illustration. You have got to, you have got to put your hands on that steering wheel. You cannot just let anxiety take control and drive that car. It is kind of like, well, my wife and I have been really blessed by the Lord. We have 10 children.

Dana Grash: Yes, that is blessed.

Paul Tautges: And a growing tribe of grandchildren, and it is wonderful. But it is like, sometimes anxiety feels like and sounds like the noise it creates in our heart, sometimes sounds like four or five kids in the backseat or the back couple seats of the van. They are bickering, they are arguing, they are fighting about something. You are trying to drive. You are trying to concentrate. But you are constantly having to look back over your shoulder and see and kind of deal with those things.

I think sometimes the cares that Jesus speaks about in Matthew 6 are like that. They are like all these noisy children that are crying out for us to help or fighting with each other, just creating a lot of noise. That is what anxiety does. It creates a lot of noise in our soul. What we have to do is, as even as Psalm 46 ends, "Be still and know that I am God."

Dana Grash: Be still.

Paul Tautges: Which is a command. Quiet your heart. So you do have to do something. You cannot just sit and wait, kick your feet up in your spiritual recliner and wait for it to go away. You have got to do something. So I think that is where anxiety is a blessing because it can retrain us as to how we respond to the pressures of life, as we learn to put our hands on the wheel, speak truth, biblical truth to ourselves, and let the Holy Spirit then massage those biblical promises and those God-centered thoughts deep into our soul.

Dana Grash: That is Paul Tautges. When we run to Jesus with our anxieties, we are confessing that he is an able helper. Run to him. He wants to be your safe place today and always.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: That is the truth Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is closing us out with.

Dana Grash: A while back, we shared a series on our daily program called A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, based on Psalm 46. We are going to focus on verse 5, which is talking about the nation of Israel. It says, "God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns." Here is Nancy to unpack these hope-filled words for an anxious heart.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: The verse goes on to say, "Not only will we not be moved, defeated, destroyed, but God will help her when morning dawns." He is the only sure help and hope for his people. Scripture reminds us over and over again of the futility, the foolishness of looking to anyone or anything else for help. Psalm 60, "Oh, grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man. With God we shall do valiantly. It is he who will tread down our foes."

Psalm 146, verse 3, "Put not your trust in princes." In a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. Listen, princes can seem, you know, your Prince Charming, they can seem wealthy and handsome and and secure, but God says, "Do not put your hope there." Verse 5, "Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord, his God."

The great hymn writer and co-founder of the Methodist movement, Charles Wesley, was preaching once in the fields of Ireland when he was attacked and pursued by a mob who disapproved of his doctrine. So he sought refuge in the house of a local farmer. The farmer's wife sent him out to hide in the milk shed. But shortly, the angry mob arrived at the house and demanded to know where Wesley was. Well, the farmer's wife offered the opponents, the pursuers something to eat, and while they were snacking, she went out to the milk shed and told Mr. Wesley to go out through the window and to hide under a nearby hedge that was located next to a brook.

It was in that place, hiding from his pursuers with their cries echoing all around him, that Charles Wesley wrote what some have called the greatest hymn in the English language, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul." Let me read the second stanza to you and just picture him under that hedge next to the brook. "Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on thee. Leave, oh leave me not alone. Still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee is stayed. All my help from thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with the shadow of thy wing."

I do not know that there is any line in hymnody that is more precious to me than that one. I have cried that out so many times, "Oh, Lord, cover my defenseless head with the shadow of your wing." And though we may be defenseless, what safer place is there to be than under the shadow of the wing of our helper God?

"God will help her when morning dawns." Literally, at the turning of the morning, at the break of day. It is so often true in scripture that dawn, the breaking of the day is seen to be the time of God's help. Well, he may not come immediately. It may not seem that he is coming to our aid immediately, but he will come.

Sometimes we have to go through the night first before we get to the break of day. The night may seem long, it may seem endless, but we need to remind ourselves and remind each other that dawn is ahead. With the dawn of the day will come his supernatural, right on time help. "Weeping may endure for the night," Psalm 30 says, "but joy comes when in the morning."

Now, something that just struck me as I was thinking about this last night, it is not that God is not working during the night. It is not that God is sleeping during the night, and then he wakes up when the sun comes up and he goes, "Oh, I think I better go down and help those people." It is just that in the light of dawn, we can see what we could not see during the night, and that is how he was helping us.

As the morning light dissipates the shadows of night, so the rising of the sun of righteousness signals the dispersing of the darkness of evil and adversity. God is working all through the night. He was in that Red Sea situation. He was during the night with the Assyrians. He was working, but when it is dark, we cannot see what God is doing. That is why I love that quote by Pastor John Piper, "In every situation, God is doing a thousand different things that we cannot see and we do not know."

It may be night where you live right now, and you think, "Nothing is happening. Nothing is changing. Is God really working?" Well, the scripture says God will help at dawn, and what I think that is really saying is that dawn, you will see how God has been helping. God is a helper and he will disperse and dissipate the night. Let me just remind us that his help is not just for extreme emergency situations, much as we need it then, but it is for everyday.

Because every hour I need thee, right? "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness." If I could quote my friend Matthew Henry again, he says, "This may be applied by particular believers to themselves." That means you can apply it. "If God be in our hearts, in the midst of us, by his word dwelling richly in us, we shall be established. We shall be helped. Let us therefore trust and not be afraid. All is well and will end well."

As I meditated on this verse in Psalm 46, verse 5, "God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns." I could not help but think of a hymn that is familiar perhaps to most of you, but let me just read the words and let us affirm them in our hearts. "How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word. What more can he say than to you he has said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled. Fear not, I am with thee. Oh, be not dismayed, for I am thy God and will still give thee aid. I will strengthen and help thee and cause thee to stand, upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand. When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee. I only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine."

Dana Grash: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, encouraging you to take refuge in the Lord. That is what I finally did with my anxiety. That kind of anxiety that kept me awake at night, fearful and panicked. When I realized I could take refuge in Jesus, not Netflix or peanut butter toast, I decided I needed to do it practically. So I memorized Psalm 91, a promise that we will not fear the terror of night. I walked while I memorized those words because I thought maybe physical exertion might wear me out. Let me just say, it is always good to do practical things to battle for our mental health. Well, the walking and the scripture together turned out to be what helped me win the battle. I am still walking, still meditating on the Psalms four years later. So maybe give it a try. Go to the Lord as your refuge.

But know this, anxiety will not last forever. Morning always, always dawns, and the Lord will be your mighty fortress while you wait for relief. May your testimony be that he has been good to you in the midst of anxiety. What a beautiful way to magnify him.

So many women in scripture face circumstances that might have undone them, had the Lord not been their refuge too. Women like Hannah, who pleaded with God through barrenness, the woman at the well, who would have withered in her sin had Jesus not offered her living water, or Mary of Nazareth, who could have crumbled when the angel told her she would carry the Savior in her womb. But instead, they said, "Yes, Lord." You can explore each of these stories and more in our new study, Devoted. It is a beautiful resource based on Nancy's teaching over the years. We would just love to send a copy your way when you donate any amount. To give and request the Devoted study, visit reviveourhearts.com.

Next weekend, we are going to dive into some of these women's stories and explore what it looks like for a woman to say, "Yes, Lord," even in the hardest of circumstances. There is so much for us to learn from the women gone before us, especially those in God's word. Thanks for listening today. I am Dana Grash. We will see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend. This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.