Good morning.

Welcome to season three, episode two of Real Life with Mike and Jason.

Good morning, Mike.

How are you?

I'm great.

How about you?

I am wonderful.

Thank you so much.

Welcome back.

We'll just jump right into it.

We're talking all about anxiety this season.

And so just to recap a little bit, the last time we opened, it was our season three opener.

We did our kind of our introduction podcast, and really we opened with the question I think that.

That a lot of people are.

Are talking about or struggling with is why is anxiety so overwhelming today?

I think many people would say that it seems like it's just getting worse and worse and worse.

And so obviously, the heart to ask the question, what does the Bible say about it, if anything?

And are we alone?

Are we the only ones that have struggled with it?

Or is it something that is not new?

Is it just a modern issue?

Or people.

Even in biblical times, people we see in the Bible, did they struggle with it?

Did they wrestle with it?

And so, with that said, that was last week.

Today, we're going to introduce a new question, and that is, where's God when everything feels like it's falling apart?

And so I think that, you know, if we were to be honest with each other, and I think life sometimes does hit hard, but I think many people understand what we're talking about.

To feel like maybe God's distant, that he's not there.

Like, I just feel alone.

I know there's moments.

I read this quote that kind of.

I really thought it was interesting.

It says, there's moments where it feels like our.

Our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling.

And I could definitely connect with that or like, that we're spiritually numb.

And so that's why today's topic, I think, matters so much, because we're talking about God, who is still present, who is still there, even in the moments of silence.

So that's kind of the direction of this episode.

And then as I was studying through it, I'm thinking, man, and I really hope that people don't.

If you just listen to this one podcast, you really got to take the season in its entirety to.

Because it builds.

Each episode builds on the next theme.

So just stick with us.

And again, we've got six episodes in this season.

So let's start off with, you know, just kind of the silence that we feel or that that theme does.

Let me ask you this.

What does it feel like, do you think?

What are the things you hear, maybe just from what you've experienced and maybe through the people you've talked to through your four decades in ministry.

What do people describe it feels like when God seems absent?

I think it just like you said that, you know, it's just silence.

There's.

You feel alone and just isolated and, you know, like, is there anybody there?

Anybody care?

And then you bring up the question, is there a difference between a believer and a non believer?

I don't think there's any difference between a believer and a non believer and how we feel.

I think we feel the exact same things.

Really.

The issue is how we respond.

And I shared that, I think last week, if I recall the difference between stress and anxiety, that stress is an external presence and we live in a world that's stressful.

There's nothing any of us can do about stress.

I mean, it's there, it's just part of life.

Anxiety is the internal response to an external stress.

So it's what happens on the inside.

And I think the difference, believers, non believers, I think we feel exactly the same.

I just think the way that believers learn and that it is, it's learned, that's part of being a disciple, is to learn how to handle the anxiety.

That definitely is a part of all of our lives.

Yeah, that's a great point.

And it's not a if, but it's a how because it definitely is just part of life.

And to understand that, you know, what we experience, what we feel isn't how it was supposed to be and it's not how it's going to be in the future, but because of sin.

These are just the results.

Anxiety, the fear, the doubt, the pain, death, all that stuff is just a result.

And man, that's why I love.

We were talking about this in youth last night, about just how really God's word is a love story from him to humanity.

It's about redemption and the fact that even when he was forming Adam, that he still knew what it was going to cost him to do that.

And it would lead all the way to the cross.

And so the point is, you're not alone that God is there, that he does have a plan.

And that's why I think this topic is so important, because there's so many people struggling with this anxiety.

You know, it really ties into.

I was thinking about that season two.

We talked all about addiction and man, what they just go hand in hand.

That feeling of loneliness and stuff.

I'd made a book quote, you know, last week I shared it with you.

You know, Jonathan Haidt, he wrote a book called the Anxious Generation.

And when I was thinking about this this morning.

There was another quote from the book that really, I think, kind of hits home with what we're talking about.

And he said, you know, people don't get depressed when they face threats collectively.

They get depressed when they feel isolated, lonely or useless.

Right.

And.

And I think that really speaks to the difference between, you know, the Christian and the non Christian is because what we're understanding, and I think just starting off today is to make sure that you get this as a believer, that you can feel all alone, but the proof is you're never alone.

You know, God is with you.

And of all the things that we could share today, let that stick with you.

You're gonna feel alone.

There's nothing you can do to stop that.

We all have moments in life where we feel isolated, we feel rejected.

Where is God in the midst of that?

But we have the promise of his word that he said, I'll never, ever leave you, nor forsake you, nor.

So I think the big difference between the Christian and the non Christian, as a nonbeliever, you really are alone.

And as a believer, you can't be alone.

Yeah.

No.

Amen.

That's a great, great point.

You know, I was thinking, too.

Did we.

And we talked about this one episode or season two, and we talked about it last week, too.

Is.

Was there.

Is there people biblically that struggle with the same thing?

I was thinking of Elijah, I remember in First Kings 19, where right after this major spiritual victory right on Mount Carmel, it's almost like he just crashes, like he's just exhausted.

But, you know, he has this thing where God just moved mightily.

And I just find it interesting how God handled that with Elijah.

He was there for him.

And, you know, I think about.

With the Israelites, too, right?

You just.

They go through the wilderness after escaping from Egypt, and it's not of their own power, but God's doing it.

He's going before him, he's going after him.

He's splitting the Red Sea.

He's providing for him, you know, really, in supernatural ways, whether it's food and water and how easy it is for them to be distracted and discouraged, even seeing all of that.

But it never changed God's promise to him.

And so I kind of think about that in my own life, you know, and there's times, certainly when I feel down or I feel anxious, but it doesn't change who God is.

And that's the point.

And we see that.

We see it in Elijah's life.

We saw it in Job's life.

We see it in, you know, Joseph, when he was just faithful to the Lord, even though he's in prison.

We see it with, you know, the whole story of Israel.

But were there other characters that you can think of that you would see maybe struggle with something similar?

Maybe it's the Old Testament, maybe it's the New Testament.

I think of Elijah, right, in 1 Kings 19 and 20, you know, when he's.

When it's pretty much told, you're going to die by tomorrow, after God just did all these things.

Right.

Really, it's one of my favorite interactions in the Old Testament is just how bold he was in the things that God did.

But are there other people that, you know, people can read about that maybe struggle with something similar?

No.

I think all through Scripture, I mean, especially in the New Testament, we see Stephen in the Book of Acts, you know, Paul and Second Corinthians.

He's dealing with an issue in his own life, and he's praying that God would take this thing from him.

And God just says that my grace is made perfect.

In weakness, God promises us his presence.

I'm always reminded, you know, something that, you know, Pastor Chuck Smith used to say, you know, never trade what you do know for what you don't know.

You know, because I think with Elijah, that was.

You said, you know, what would happen, you know, what would cause that.

You've just had this great spiritual victory.

And I think sometimes that's what happens.

You've had this tremendous high, you know, with God, you know, decades ago.

Like you said, when I was a youth pastor, you know, I used to tell the kids all the time at camp, you know, hey, you're having a mountaintop experience, but we're going to go back down into the valley.

You know, when you leave here and God's going to be with you, but it's not going to feel like it does appear on the mountaintop.

David in the 23rd Psalm, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, because you're with me.

So I'm always reminded of that.

It kind of becomes a cliche, but I love the saying, you know, that I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow.

Because I think that's what Elijah struggled with the most.

He saw God's hand.

And then all of a sudden, Jezebel comes along, goes, hey, by noon tomorrow, you're going to be dead.

And all of a sudden, that becomes his focal point.

And I think there's a To springboard from that.

Just real quick, I think Paul in the book of Philippians, he.

He draws this out when I look at Elijah and then.

And even David dealing with his own, you know, depression and things that he struggled with.

In Philippians 4, Paul reminds us, Verse 4, he says, Always be full of joy in the Lord.

I say it again.

Rejoice, he said, let everyone see that you're considerate in all that you do.

Remember, the Lord is coming soon, so don't worry about anything.

But instead.

And this is the instruction he gives us.

So, you know, anxiety is going to be part of life.

But what do you do?

What do you do when, you know, you feel as if God's not there?

And I love the instruction that comes with this.

He says, don't worry about anything.

So what is he saying?

He knows that we're going to worry about it.

So he says, okay, then, don't worry.

You change direction.

He said, pray about everything.

Tell God what you need and thank him for all that he's done.

There's a formula right there.

Then you'll experience God's peace which exceeds anything that we can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and your minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

I mean, he was, you know, he's asking God to kill him.

He's so despondent, you know, he's so discouraged over what's going on because he's seeing it wrong.

And what we need to do in order to see it right is we need to change the way that we think.

I can't control my circumstances, but I definitely can change the way that I think.

And what's interesting, you gave me another verse, and it reminded me of that Psalm 13 where David is praying to the Lord.

In verse one, he says, how long, Lord, will you forget me forever?

And he's in this place where he's so discouraged, but he continues on.

And in verse five, he ends up in a good place.

So he starts in a bad place.

And this kind of goes back to how we started today.

What's the difference between a believer and a non believer?

The non believer just keeps going down the wrong hole, the wrong rabbit hole here.

And the believer, you know, starts in the same spot.

But instead of going down, the Bible says to look up.

And then David, in verse 5, there, Psalm 13, he says, but I trust in your unfailing love.

Even though I feel like you're nowhere to be found, I'm going to trust in your unfailing love.

He says, I will rejoice because you've rescued me.

I will sing to the Lord because He is good to me.

And I love that.

That's so critical for us to understand that God is always going to be near to us.

And once we start to comprehend that, as you're reading your Bible, you're going to find that all these stories that we're talking about, whether it's Joseph, whether it's Elijah, whether it's David, whether it's Paul, whether it's Stephen, is they ultimately trusted God and they looked to him.

They took God at His word.

And when we start to do that, you're going to move from the place of discouragement, the place of anxiety, to the place of hope and the place of trust.

And it's just a wonderful place, you know, for us to be.

Yeah, we see it too with Job.

I think it's chapter one, where, you know, he's in the middle of this.

It's just starting, but his response is, you know, the Lord gives, Lord takes away, but blessed be the name of the Lord.

And so that realization that God's in control, even though we don't understand.

So, you know, we see these Bible heroes, these giants in the Bible that we grew up hearing about, knowing the stories about, and we see how it plays out for him.

Hindsight Always being 2020, we get the privilege where we're at in history of being able to see how it worked out for David, how it worked out for Job, how it worked out for some of these people.

But it could still be easy.

I think then as.

As a Christian to.

To say, you know, man, I'm praying, but.

And I'm praying and I'm praying.

I'm on my knees and I'm in tears, but I'm just not hearing anything.

Or I know he's there, but I just can't feel him.

Are there other kind of common thoughts or phrases that you hear from people that are struggling with anxiety but in the middle of it?

Yeah.

I mean, if they're struggling, it could be anything.

I always think of the cross.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Instead of seeing what God is doing, we're all guilty of it.

At times we're called to walk by faith and not by sight.

But we get so sidetracked all the things we see in the world.

That's what, you know, has happened since COVID The struggle of in parenting was that, you know, that we over protect our children in the world because we live in such fear.

Right.

Of what's happening out there.

And so we're overprotective, but we're under protective of our children with regard to what they have via the Internet and social media.

And so we're just, you know, we're just pressed from all sides.

There's just anxiety is, is all around us.

But again it's, how are we going to respond to it?

And it goes back to again the believer versus you know, the non believer is going to medicate, self medicate.

Like you said.

We just did the thing on addiction in our last podcast.

And then what's the difference between a believer and learning how to surrender to God, to trust God and put your hope in God, you know, and with that, you know, just reminded me there was know when you think of it was in Matthew's gospel, I want to pull this up and see if I got it here where I can share it with you.

Because it, it really, I think is maybe the most important thing, at least for me to end with today is just to really emphasize, you know, God's nearness in, in our life is that no matter what you're going through, you know, God is near.

And it reminded me of in Matthew's gospel and this was Jesus talking of himself in Matthew 11:28 30 it says, and Jesus said, come to me all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart and you will find rest for your soul.

For my yoke is easy to bear and the burden that I give you is light.

And man, I just, I love that.

I think it's just so profound with regard to dealing with the issue of anxiety.

You can't stop it, but take Paul's advice, cast all your cares on him.

And Jesus invitation is, you know, I'll never give you more than what you can handle.

And I love to all tell people I go, you might feel that God's given you more than what you can handle, but God will never give you more than what he can handle.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's so, so true.

So then let's transition into, you know, really what scripture tells us about nearness.

We've talked about it obviously already, but in your reference Psalms 34, I believe it was the Lord is close to the brokenhearted.

Such a beautiful verse in Isaiah 41:10, fear not that I'm with you.

You know, another verse that I really enjoy and really has brought me comfort too just in my own life is Hebrews 13:5.

I will never leave you or forsake you.

And I think that's such an important promise because.

And it's why it's one of the more comforting promises in Scripture to me personally.

Just because God's used that his word to bring me comfort.

It wasn't a band aid.

It didn't change my situation, but it was a reminder that God is there, that he is close to the brokenhearted, that he is with me, that he will never leave me or forsake me.

And really, it's not a feeling as much as it really is a fact.

It's a promise that God made.

There's no confusion at what he meant.

He meant exactly what he said.

And what he didn't say is, I'll stay with you as long as you're strong.

Which is often how we view relationships or we view marriage.

Yeah.

I think in Psalm 34, if you look at it in the context, I think it's even more beautiful.

Think of verse 17.

It says.

And I'm reading from the NLT says the Lord hears his people.

When they call to him for help.

He rescues them from.

From all of their troubles.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.

He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

The righteous person faces many troubles, but the Lord comes to rescue each time.

For the Lord protects the bones of the righteous.

Not one of them is broken.

Calamity will surely destroy the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be punished.

But the Lord will redeem those who serve Him.

No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.

And I think, you know, that just takes the whole picture.

I mean, you know, bad things happen to God's people in the sense of on earth, but our reward is in heaven.

And ultimately, you know, it's God who is going to balance the scales, and it's God who's going to reward us for our faithfulness.

So even when you're going through tough things, you know, it's like, I love Winston Churchill, probably said it best.

He said, you know, when you're going through hell, keep going.

And that's what I just.

I want to encourage you with that today, man.

If you're in life, if you're going through hell today, key is, keep going.

Just keep your eyes on the Lord and He will see you through.

Absolutely.

And so when our world is falling apart, I love that God is still there.

He stays.

When our faith is shaky, God stays.

When we feel abandoned by everybody else, God is there.

God stays.

And really, this promise is the foundation that we stand on.

You know, when everything Feels uncertain.

We might feel like God is far, but he hasn't moved.

He's right there.

He's still there.

He's still faithful.

And so I love the quote that God's presence is not based on our feelings, but it's based on his promise.

Amen.

And it is a promise.

You know, really, how could we seek God then in the middle when we're feeling these things in the middle of fall?

Yeah, I would just.

There's just really one verse that comes to mind just off the top of my head is Proverbs 3, 5 and 6.

It's learning how to lean not on your own understanding.

We tend to just get things wrong.

We think we see it right, but, you know, God has a lot better vantage point playing football.

The coach up in the press box had a lot better perspective on what was happening on the field than even the coaches on the sideline.

And I think, you know, Proverbs 3 brings it out.

You know, it's lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways.

Acknowledge him and God will direct your paths.

You know, it's keep.

Keep your eyes on the Lord.

You know, he's the author.

He's the perfecter of our faith.

Keep trusting Jesus and good things will happen.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

Amen.

So that, I think that pretty much wraps up this episode is just the understanding and being able to have the discussion that Christians, just like non Christians, struggle.

Anxiety is real.

We face it.

What do we do in the middle of that darkness?

And we feel, like I said, their prayers are just bouncing off the ceiling.

But the point is he's there.

Not only have I experienced that in my life, I know you've experienced that in your life.

We see it in the biblical stories of these heroes that God doesn't change.

He's there.

His promises are true.

And his silence doesn't mean absence.

But oftentimes we think that, right, if we can't hear him, we think of the 400 silent years between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

But God was still God.

God was still working.

Jesus was still coming.

And so, again, just as a reminder that faith isn't about our feeling, it's about trusting God, trusting his promises.

Because you had to have faith in me, then we're in trouble because I mess up.

But God doesn't.

Amen.

And so you don't have to fake not being okay.

It's okay to not be okay, but what do you do with that?

And so we're going to look at that next week as we get into episode three about practical faith.

What does trust look like?

Because God doesn't change, really.

If I could close and maybe as an encouragement, you know, even when life's falling apart, God is still present.

He's still working, he's still there.

And so if this has encouraged you, if maybe you found yourself in this place and you just need to talk, reach out.

You can email us@reallifeccbakersfield.com you can reach out to us@ccbakersfield.com we've got many ways for you to get a hold of us and we'd love to talk to you.

Or maybe you've been through this period where you just felt God is distant and this really kind of spoke to man.

Yes, that's where I was at.

That's how I felt.

Share it with somebody who might be struggling with it too.

But here's the key.

It's not about promoting this podcast even, but it's about you.

Maybe you're listening to this today and you've struggled with this and God's been there and you've seen his faithfulness.

Reach out to somebody who's struggling.

Love on them, pray with them.

Be the solution that God could use to speak into their lives.

So that's really my hope.

Be blessed.

Share this with somebody.

Follow subscribe if you have questions, if you have suggestions, reach out to us@reallifeccbakersfield.com and we will talk to you next week.

As we go through Episode three, we're going to explore what it means to actively trust God in the middle of fear, doubt, uncertainty.

We'll see you next time.

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Real Life.

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Out your faith in everyday life.

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