As we look around our world, there's much to
be fearful of. Financial uncertainty, health
crises, political and social unrest. So how do
we avoid being overwhelmed with panic? What can
we do to not only defend ourselves against anxiety,
but to fight back? That's today. Stay with me.
Welcome to this edition of Living on the Edge
with Chip Ingram. Our mission is to inspire Christians
to be genuine followers of Jesus and to empower
them to be active disciple -makers in our world.
While we're in the middle of our series, get
out of your head, taught by our guest speaker,
Jenny Allen. She's a best -selling author, teacher,
and founder of the If Gathering events, attended
by tens of thousands of women nationwide each
year. Today, she'll continue sharing spiritual
antidotes that can neutralize the toxic thoughts
polluting our minds. But before she gets going,
if this is your first time listening to Living
on the Edge, or you want to learn more about
what we do, visit livingontheedge .org. You'll
find resources on tons of topics and countless
programs to enjoy. Or if you prefer, the Chip
Ingram app is also a great way to get plugged
in with our ministry. We'll get your Bible and
notes as we settle in for our guest teacher,
Jenny Allen's talk, The Antidote for Anxiety.
We are about to talk about anxiety. And I know
so many of you are fighting this. So it matters.
Let's go. Let's see what scripture has to say
about it. Luke 12, four through seven. I tell
you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the
body and after that have nothing more they can
do. But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear him
who after he is killed has authority to cast
into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Guys, when
God says, do not fear anything in this world,
it is because. He has us. It is because nothing
is gonna come against you, even the enemy, without
God's permission. Some people have wrestled with
this truth and I'm such a little theologian.
Like I loved seminary and I still love reading
commentaries and books about theology because
when... I understand who God is. It really has
truly shifted everything about me and everything
about my fear and my parenting and my marriage.
It's just, it truly has invaded. When you truly
know God and he's in his rightful place, A .W.
Tozer says, a thousand problems are solved all
at once. So I believe that. And that's what I
always want to preach is I want to preach God.
I want to lift high God. And I believe that fear
that you feel will diminish. And when I think
of the theology of this truth, that God has power
over the devil, That bothers some people because
they think, no, like this is, if God had power,
if God allowed this into my life, this suffering,
this difficulty, whatever it is that you fear
would happen and it happens, then how can God
be a good God? And I'm telling you, you do not
want an impotent God over suffering and evil.
Like that idea that God isn't powerful over it
is not comforting. That's not actually helpful.
So let's start with what's true, which is God
has you. God has everything. circumstance that
you face. God understands the moments, the fears
that you're feeling, the doubts that you're feeling.
He understands and knows about all of it, and
He's powerful over it. However, There is real
things that we are afraid of. I was with one
of my good friends recently, and she confessed
that right before her wedding, two weeks before
her wedding, she went through paralyzing fear
that she was going to lose her future husband.
And then the weeks following, and she's only
been married a few weeks, the weeks following,
she wept as she sat across from me and told me
that her fear hasn't gone away. So these precious
weeks leading up to her wedding. And following
her wedding, her first few weeks in marriage
have been marked and tainted with an absolute
demonic attack, I believe, of fear over this
precious couple. And it has just completely taken
the joy out of those weeks of her marriage. And
she was saying, you know, it's making me grateful
and all these positive things about it. And I
hit the table and I said, you listen to me right
now. I said, don't put words from God on something
that's evil. This fear is not from God. This
is evil. Yes, God might have allowed this to
shape something about you, but girl, you fight
it. This is the devil. Like all fear is from
the enemy and he is seeking to kill, steal and
destroy. And so this precious couple, I'm sitting
there watching them and I'm watching her try
to like make sense of it. And I'm like, girl,
this is easy to make sense of. The enemy is coming
for you. You are a powerhouse couple. God's glory
is all over your lives together and was all over
your ceremony, was all over your... engagement
and the enemy is stealing all the joy out of
it. So we've got to take this seriously and we've
got to see this as enemy attack, that this fear
that has invaded our culture, has invaded our
minds, invaded the background noise of our lives.
We barely even notice it anymore. We're so afraid.
It's just part of our thought process every single
day. We've got to fight it. We've got to start
noticing it. We've got to call it out and we've
got to fight it. So let's talk about how we fight
this. Because when I wrote about this in the
book, we really came up with what are the weapons
that God's given us, these powerful divine weapons
that 2 Corinthians talks about. What are these
divine weapons that God has given us? And in
this case, it's trust, right? It's not that we
can avoid the things we fear. Will something
happen to my friend's husband one day? It will.
I don't know what day. They might be 90. But
one day something will. We cannot. completely
guard our lives from the bad things not happening,
right? Like that's not possible. That's not the
goal. In this world, we will have trouble, God
says. So we cannot guard our lives and protect
everything we love and just believe, oh, God's
never going to let anything bad happen to me.
You know, godly people. Bad things have happened
to them. Some of you follow Jesus and love him
with all your heart. Bad things have happened
to you. We follow Jesus. Bad things have happened
to us. So it's not that there's not real fears.
It's that those fears are mitigated by this hope
that is eternal. And so Paul says it this way.
He says, my light and momentary trials. Now,
the funny thing is when he says my light and
momentary trials, he's talking about being shipwrecked,
nearly killed, imprisoned, like the worst things
on earth that can happen to you are happening
to Paul. And so he's speaking of these things
as light and momentary. Why? Because he has a
view of eternity that is so real and palpable
to him. He knows he's in the first little opening
scene of eternity, that this is just such a short
and important part of his life, but he's not
going to be derailed by the only power the enemy
has, which is to right now, currently in this
world, he still has some power. Now, he doesn't
have victorious power. He's not going to win
in the end. But right now, God allows the enemy
to bring attack against us for a season, knowing
that that time will end. And Revelation promises
it. There will be a time where he is cast and
kept from the people of God and that suffering
and death and darkness will no longer be a part
of our story and a part of our lives because
God will deal with it forever. That time is coming.
But in this time, there is a mercy of God that
holds back his hand because at the time of justice,
at the time of judgment, there are people that
will perish. And so, yes, we are aching to be
with God one day, but we have work to do in the
meantime. And as long as history is still turning
and the earth is still spinning, that we have
work to do here. And Paul's mentality was, I'm
not gonna get distracted by the difficulty. I'm
not gonna live paralyzed by the fear that it
will happen. It will happen. Like difficulty
will happen. We won't be surprised by it, but
I will live with hope in eternity that I can
deal with anything I deal with here. And we've
talked about this verse before, but I love it
so much. It's in Philippians. And he says, to
live is Christ and to die is gain. There is a
hope in heaven and eternity that is bigger for
Paul than any other thing, any other thing in
his life. When I was preparing for this book,
what I taught through was the book of Philippians.
I taught through different verses. And we looked
at the mind and Paul was so single -minded. He
was so fixed on Jesus. There was such a clarity
to his life, to his decisions, to who he loved
and how he loved and what he spent his time doing.
There was so much clarity to his life. I mean,
I found myself as I really deeply studied Paul,
just envious of his certitude, of his confidence,
of his absolute possession by God of just spending
his life well. And so this is the model that
we have. He even said it, like, follow me as
I follow Christ. And so as we follow him, what
we find is a single -mindedness that has provided
this escape route from fear. It has provided
a way out from fear because what grips those
of us in fear is that we would lose something
on earth. And what Paul knew was, I'm gonna lose
things on earth. I'm gonna live like Christ if
I'm alive. And Christ lost his life. Christ lost
friends. Christ was betrayed. I'm gonna lose
on earth. And that's why death is a gain because
that's where everything is reconciled. So now,
what does it look like to lay down our fear?
What does it look like to have this kind of perspective,
to be single -minded, to not fear the enemy,
but to recognize that he's trying to mislead
us, right? That's what Luke's talking about is,
hey. Don't diminish the enemy. Don't be afraid
of death. Don't be afraid of sickness. Don't
be afraid of suffering here. If you're going
to be afraid of something, be afraid of the one
that can send you to hell. So he's saying, make
sure that's right. That's the only thing that
can be taken from you is eternity. Everything
else can be redeemed. It can be used for good.
It can be worked into this eternal story, but
make sure that thing is right. So let's do that
right now. My hope and prayer is that if you
don't know God, that this will be the time that
you know him. And so if that's you and you're
like, you know what? I'm afraid of everything,
but I have not even thought about death and eternity.
I want you to do that right now. I want you,
I wanna make sure that the only thing God says
to fear, which is separation from him forever,
that that's taken care of for you. So let me
tell you how simple it is. If you've never trusted
Jesus Christ, this is what you do. You say, God,
I need a savior. And I believe your son, Jesus
Christ, is it. I believe that he died for me.
I believe that my sins are forgiven because of
him and I wanna follow him with my life. I believe
he was raised from the dead and I wanna be raised
from the dead too. And God, I wanna give my life
to you while I'm here. And that's how simple
it is. That's what you pray. Rewind, do it right
now in your car, wherever you are. And that is
all that we have to do to be right with God,
y 'all. It is to trust in the blood of Jesus
Christ. That's it. We're covered. You're listening
to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Jenny
Allen is our guest teacher for the series Get
Out of Your Head. And real quick, if you'd like
to learn more about Jenny's popular book that
this series is based on, keep listening after
the teaching. Chip will join us in studio with
all the details. So be sure to stick around.
But for now, let's get back to Jenny's talk.
So now I want to speak to those of you that know
Jesus, that have known him for a long time. and
are paralyzed by fear. Do you believe? Do you
believe this book that tells us that he has gone
before us and is building a home for us? Do you
believe that this is the story you're a part
of? Do you believe that he is more powerful than
every single thing you fear? I told my friend,
I said, you know what? I can't tell you that
your husband's not gonna die. tomorrow. I can't.
That's not something I can absolutely with certainty
promise you, but I can tell you I have lived
long enough and I have been through enough and
I have seen people I love go through enough that
I can promise you this. On the day that something
unthinkable happens, you will have more grace
from God to deal with that than you can possibly
imagine right now. You don't have that grace
today, but on that day, I have seen it again
and again and again. He will give you everything
you need to go through that on that day. So we
don't fear that, not because it won't be hard,
not because my dear friend that did just lose
her husband is trying hard to just breathe and
take care of her child every day. I'm not saying
it's easy. I'm saying that it's possible to walk
through the darkest nights when we have a hope
that lasts forever. And we have a God who not
only is saying, hey, hope in heaven, he's saying,
I will walk through this with you. I will be
in it with you. I will provide things you can't
even imagine on that day. No, I don't understand
why bad things still happen to good people. I
don't have the answer for that. I can just tell
you that I know there is a good God that's more
powerful than all of it. And that one day we
will all understand. We may not understand here.
So how do we not fear? How do we not have anxiety?
Well, we start by making sure our view of God
is right. And that happens by knowing him intimately
and walking with him regularly, knowing his word,
knowing who he is. And it starts also by feeding
ourselves truths instead of lies. So many of
the things we're afraid of aren't even true.
On this day, my friend was not being asked to
deal with the death of her husband. It wasn't
even true. And yet it was paralyzing her on that
day. So we have to start by fighting the lies
on a given day. That's why in Philippians, Paul
writes, think on things that are true. He tells
us what to think about. He talks about all these
beautiful attributes. noble, incredible attributes
that we're supposed to focus on instead of lies.
And one of the first things he says is that whatever
is true, you think on these things. So is it
even true? We have what if'd ourselves to death.
And so much of our fear is pretend. It's not
even true. So on this one, I mean, you guys,
I know the last one, it's connection. We talked
about the weapon against isolation is connection.
That's a really tangible thing. You take somebody
to coffee. The weapon to noise is stillness and
time with Jesus. The weapon to this one is trust.
And y 'all, this just takes fighting for belief
and trust in God, that we would fight for our
faith, that we would prize it, that we would
realize that waiting on God and trusting in God,
it contains great reward. Like there is a great
reward in our faith, in our trust in him. And
as we trust more and more, we watch him come
through. That's what I've seen. Like at 40 something,
that's where I am today that I wasn't, you know,
at 23 is that I have just watched him come through
again and again and again. My trust has grown
that I know I don't stand here trembling about
what might happen to my kids. I don't stand here
afraid of what might happen to my husband. Now,
if I think about it too long, I will. And I don't
feed that. I don't give energy to that. When
I start to fear it, I stop it. I interrupt it.
I redirect it. I don't give it energy. Why? Because
why give something that dark, that hard energy
when God has not asked me to face that today?
Why would I feed that? Why would I give that
energy? One day I might have to face that. In
fact, I probably will. Somebody I love dearly,
my husband, my kids, something will happen one
day and I will have to face that. But I know
on that day I will have what I need. So I don't
feed it today. I don't feed that fear. So are
you feeding fear? What fear are you feeding?
And how can you interrupt it? How can you use
the weapons God's given you, the word of God,
the community around you? Like, how can you bring
those things into it and help to build your trust
to depend on him more and to not let this thing
take you out? Because fear is taking us out.
It is. It is distracting us. It is derailing
us. It is keeping us from being bold. It is keeping
us from joy. It is keeping us from peace. It's
derailing us. And so we've got to fight it better.
So let's go with this idea of, is it true? And
what I want you to do is just write down some
of the thoughts. And I want you to find the thing
that's worrying you the most, that's giving you
the most anxiety. And I want you to work it through
this grid. If you've read the book, you know.
And this grid has a few simple questions on it.
I can give them to you right now. One of the
questions is, is it true? Is that thing that
you're worried about even true? And if it is,
and some of you it is, right? I worked through
this grid and the thing I was worried about the
most was. my son, and he had just left for college.
And I was worried, you know, is he going to make
good decisions? Is he going to date girls I like?
And then somehow, you know, I worked through
this thing that I was, you know, he somehow ends
up in prison. You know, if I make these bad decisions,
this is going to happen and this is going to
happen. And somehow he's like in prison. And
is that even true? No. Like right now my son
loves God and he's making good choices for the
most part. And he's a great kid. Why am I so
worried that he's going to derail his life? And
it wasn't even true or real. I'm not saying that
it's perfect. I'm just saying it wasn't totally
based on reality. But even if it was, let's say
for you, the answer is yes, my son is in prison.
There is still hope over that. And my joke is,
I guess if he goes to prison, we can go do prison
ministry together. And I'm like, my poor son,
if he listens to this, he's going to kill me
because he's such a great kid. But my point is
there is redemption in all things, like because
of God, because of hope, because of eternity
stretched out forever, because of the power of
God to take things that are broken and turn them
into things that are beautiful. That is the continued
story of redemption and how God works. Then we
have hope in all things. There's nothing that
we don't have hope in because he. works all things
together for good. That is what scripture tells
us. So even if something about it is true, then
the next question is, what does God say about
it? What does God's word say about it? And you
begin to just note things like, you know what?
He is working all things together for good. Heaven
is coming and I have a home with him forever.
And you just start putting what's true. And then
the last question in this little grid is, are
you gonna believe God? That's the real question.
And I think for a lot of us, we can work through,
is it true or a lie? And then you can put the
truth on it. What's God's word say? But then
choosing to believe that truth on a daily basis,
that's where he gets us, y 'all. That's where
we've got to choose better. We've got to put
our foot down and say, no more. No more am I
gonna dwell on this. No more am I gonna feed
this. No more am I gonna give energy to this.
And you bring your community in fast and you
interrupt those thoughts and you stop the spiral.
You can. Because at the point that that thought
enters your mind, that fear enters your mind,
you can confess it. You can confess it to God.
You can confess it to people. And you can interrupt
it. You're listening to Living on the Edge with
Chip Ingram. Jenny Allen was our guest teacher
for this program, The Antidote for Anxiety, which
is from her series, Get Out of Your Head. Chip
will join us in just a minute to share his application
for this message. Let me ask you, what drives
your thought life? What influences the way you
think? Is it anxiety, loneliness, insecurity?
Whatever it is, do you feel trapped by it? Like
no matter how hard you try, your mind drifts
back to these harmful patterns. In this series,
author and speaker Jenny Allen calls out seven
toxic thoughts that derail our connection to
God. Discover the powerful antidotes God's given
us to break free from these dangerous mindsets.
Join Jenny to learn what you can do to fight
and win the war for your mind. Well, Chip's joined
me in studio now. And Chip, I know you're really
eager for our listeners to hear this teaching
from Jenny, but there aren't a lot of broadcast
ministries that invite special guests to teach,
especially those with their own audience they
minister to regularly. So what was it about Jenny
and this content that made airing this series
a no -brainer? Well, Dave, let me tell you, I
was a point guard in college. And what I learned
as a point guard was sometimes I needed to shoot.
And sometimes I needed to get the ball to the
best person in the best place to score. And when
I'm looking at what's happening to the next generation,
when I'm seeing the fallout and the family and
the gender confusion and all the kind of things
that are happening in our world, I thought our
audience needed to hear from a woman who... is
committed to Scripture, who lives this out, and
who teaches in a way where not only men, but
especially women, could hear the voice of God.
You know, part of Living on the Edge's mantra,
our mission is this, is helping Christians live
like Christians. And at this stage of my life,
what I want to do is I want to address what are
the issues that are keeping, especially young
people, from living like a Christian. And a lot
of it is their thoughts, these toxic thoughts,
and not renewing their mind. But I'm thinking
that the average 30-, 35 -year -old woman with
young kids will probably hear what Jenny has
to say in a way that they can really digest it
because I think she reaches a part of this generation
that I could never do nearly as well as she does.
Jenny and I both love the Lord. We both love
the scriptures. And that's why I've put her on
the broadcast. And not only that, we're promoting
her book. I would love people to get this book,
to read it, to study it, and get out of their
head. Thanks, Chip. Well, to get your hands on
Jenny's insightful book, visit livingontheedge
.org or call us at 888 -333 -6003. Her words
will challenge you to take every thought captive
and find freedom from toxic thinking. Again,
to order your copy of Get Out of Your Head by
Jenny Allen, go to livingontheedge .org or call
888 -333 -6003. App listeners tap special offers.
Well, here again is Chip to share some application
for what Jenny taught today. As we wrap up today's
program, some of you are thinking to yourself,
I think I know why Chip asked Jenny Allen to
speak to the Living on the Edge audience. You
can hear the passion. You can hear the application.
You can hear her commitment to God's Word that
we have to not just identify the lie. It's not
just enough to say, no, this is the truth. I
love her last line. We have to believe it. And
believing isn't like just intellectualizing.
You heard her say, you have to verbalize it.
You have to confess it. You have to act on it.
And you can interrupt those fears and interrupt
that anxiety. You know, it reminded me of a passage
I memorized and, you know, might be helpful for
you to do the same. But it's 2 Timothy 1, 7.
It says, for God has not given us a spirit of
fear, but of love and power and self -discipline.
And so the prayer changes, God, I can't do this
to you have given this spirit inside of me. And
so by your power and by your grace, I'm going
to verbalize out loud. I choose not to be afraid.
I choose not to be anxious about this. I choose
to take this step, even though I'm fearful. And
I'm asking you because your spirit lives in me
to give me the power as I take the step. And
all those teachings of Scripture and so often
the pictures in the Old Testament are God giving
us metaphors or examples of how things work.
You know, Moses is ready to open the Red Sea,
and it isn't until they step into the water.
In other words, there's an action of obedience.
There's a step into the unknown. But at the moment
that step happens, whoosh! That's when you experience
grace. So let me encourage you. Do not stay discouraged.
I like her spirit. She repeats something quite
a bit. Fight, fight, don't give up. You can hear
the energy and the tenacity. And I think we can
grab that from the Lord by his spirit and by
his power. So let me encourage you. Let's do
it. Good challenge, Chip. As we close, I want
to thank each of you who makes this program possible
through your generous giving. 100 % of your gifts
go directly to the ministry to help Christians
live like Christians. Now, if you found this
teaching helpful but aren't yet on the team,
Consider doing that today. Sending a gift is
easy. Go to livingontheedge .org or call 888
-333 -6003. That's 888 -333 -6003 or visit livingontheedge
.org. App listeners, tap donate. And let me thank
you in advance for doing whatever the Lord leads
you to do. Well, be sure to join us next time
as our guest teacher, Jenny Allen, continues
her series, Get Out of Your Head. Until then,
I'm Dave Drewy saying thanks for listening to
this edition of Living on the Edge.