Above Anxiety | He Cares

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[Music]
all right good morning 242 my name's
steve it's just a real privilege to be
with you as a church i know we have not
met before but i've actually been a
friend of 242 church for about 10 years
it was about 10 years ago that i started
running into some of your staff
at various pastor conferences and we
really hit it off and we've developed
some deep friendships so even though we
don't know each other necessarily
a number of the staff of 242 are dear
friends of mine and i've been following
this church with tremendous interest for
a decade because particularly because of
your community engagement which is a
profound passion of mine i'm a lead
pastor to church in colorado i know my
accent does not quite sound like i'm a
western american we'll get to that
but we love in our church community
engagement and really going into the
margins of society and that's one of the
things that 242 that's that's your
national reputation as a church is the
way that you love and care for your your
city and your place the way you use this
building for example for some amazing uh
outreach so i'm just honored to be with
you we are wrapping up a series this is
the fourth week in the above anxiety
series and i know in week one i love how
tony put it where he said that this
really isn't about eliminating anxiety
like if if you have come today to try to
eliminate your anxiety all that's going
to do is give you one more thing to
condemn yourself for one more thing to
fail at really none of us can eliminate
our anxiety what we can do
is get from underneath it and and once
in a while we can get above it so it's
really about managing it it's really
about noticing when it starts to flood
us and taking some steps to where we're
not spun up by it anymore another thing
i just wanted to remind us of that tony
mentioned in week one is that in our
culture today anxiety is a very big word
that covers a broad territory like it
covers a lot of different things so it
covers grief for example it covers
trauma it even covers some forms that
require psychiatric medication what
we're really focusing on in this series
is what's known as chronic anxiety that
is a clinical term it's a particular
type of anxiety chronic anxiety it's the
type of anxiety that most people deal
with
in their interior world in their
thinking and also in their relationships
so like for example some of you you just
wrapped up at thanksgiving
how'd that go
around the family table right sometimes
you notice some interesting patterns
where you come away from the family
table maybe you have the tryptophan in
your body with all that turkey but your
mind is spinning because of what's known
as chronic anxiety so chronic anxiety is
different than trauma for example or
it's different from
some of the anxieties that need
psychiatric medicine because it's based
on falsehood it's based on a false
premise it's based on shifting sand
chronic anxiety is generated by false
belief
the things that you think are true about
you that may not be true or maybe
another way to say it the things that
you think you must have to be okay that
you don't really need to have to be okay
so for example one of the false beliefs
i have in my life
i believe that everyone i ever meet has
to like me
and if i feel like i've disappointed
someone or that they're upset with me
then i get filled with this thing
this kind of reactivity and then weird
things start to happen i try to use
humor to win them over or sometimes i
just use more words like i believe the
lie that more words from me will make
you like me more
now that's not very healthy but that's
an example of chronic anxiety another
one in my life might be that i believe
that if you ask me a question i must
have the answer i believe that if you're
in trouble i must be there for you
you can hear some of these false beliefs
false needs and also false assumptions
and expectations so what i want to do
today is just two very simple things i
want to see if we can figure out what's
under our anxiety what beliefs are
generating anxiety and then just a
couple of very simple tools to displace
our anxiety because here's what i know
about clinical anxiety if we don't
actively work it it festers
it doesn't
tend to dissipate on its own it has to
be displaced it has to be
dealt with
so let's begin by seeing if we can pay
attention to the message of anxiety uh i
i was born in perth western australia if
you're wondering i'll just put you out
of your misery now my accent's a little
muddy muddled i've lived in the united
states for a long time but i'm a perth
i'm an aussie kid and uh in the 1990s i
moved to the united states for college
and i moved from perth western australia
which is probably the equivalent of san
diego uh if you a beach culture a beach
beach culture i moved to appalachian
tennessee just for a little change of
pace
knoxville tennessee and that's where i
went to college i went to johnson
university in knoxville and uh a couple
years into my college i i was required
to do an internship so i chose a ranch
in montana western montana i had seen
lonesome dove the finest western of all
time i'll fight you in the lobby if you
want to come at me with unforgiven or
some nonsense it's learn some dove we
all know this is true it's objective
fact and and so lonesome does all about
a road trip to montana and i found a
ranch in montana that worked with kids
that got in trouble and so okay i'm
going to do my internship in montana so
daniel and i another college student we
thought okay road trip we're both going
to montana we're going to spend the
summer working in montana so we drove if
you know your american geography which
you probably know better than i do we
drove through tennessee and then other
states i think and then we got to
illinois and then iowa
and then by the end of iowa we're ready
for some scenery no offense those of you
from iowa i was beautiful but we were
excited about the western states and we
get to south dakota the border of south
dakota and right away we start seeing
these billboards for this magnificent
place called wall south dakota wall
south dakota right
there were hundreds of billboards from
from 100 i mean we must have been 500
miles away from wall and we see these
billboards again and again all of these
incredible promises that wall south
dakota is offering and one of the great
things it offered was free water like
probably a hundred of the billboards
said if you come to wall drug not just
wall the town but there's one particular
place in wall called wall drug basically
what the billboards were offering is
your life will never be the same like
you will be a transformed human being
after being to war drug south dakota and
as an aussie tourist i was so excited to
see the old west in fact just to just to
play my hand a little bit we went to war
and i'll tell you about it but as we
were leaving there were even billboards
threatening you you're missing all drug
like you've gone too far you need to
turn around and come back um
just just a quick show of hands
who's ever been to wall south dakota
yeah a few of us those of you who
haven't i'll just tell you now i have
never in my life experienced the depth
of desolation and and disillusionment
as when i went to war drug south dakota
it's just a truck stop
that's
that's all it is it's a truck stop you
can get gas
you can get a hot dog that's rolled up
and down that thing for like 17 miles in
a day
and you can get a t-shirt that says i've
been to wall south dakota there's
nothing to it it's an absolute sham
and it's probably the most oversold
under-delivered town in the country now
what's interesting about this is i i
went to a wall i think it was 1994
and then i had occasion to go there just
a few years ago my kids like i've now
got kids i've got a 20 year old 18 year
old and a 14 year old i'm like hey kids
we are doing wall south dakota but i i
brace them i'm a good father as i don't
get your hopes up
and i
nothing's changed like in the last 15
years or so wall has not really updated
it's still just a glorified
truck stop the message of all south
dakota it did not deliver on its
promises it made promises to me it
couldn't keep i i feel this sudden
compulsion to quote captain tom stinger
from top gun walls billboards were
writing checks it's truck stop could not
cash it
it was terrible and the reason i bring
that up is because wall
if you will has a gospel
it it has a message
and it's it's a cloud there's nothing to
it it cannot deliver on its promise
even the idea that you can get free
water in wall i discovered not long
after that that actually it's legally
required by every gus gas station and
restaurant to offer people free water
like that's the law in the united states
so even that was not really a unique
selling feature
it's the same with anxiety if you want
to get above your anxiety you have to
look at the message the propaganda that
your anxiety is offering you the promise
that it's delivering and you just have
to take some time and this is something
you can do this week just to step off
the treadmill of your anxiety and look
at what it's promising what is it
offering you and is it delivering on its
promise this is
this is the weird thing about our
chronic anxiety is it makes a promise it
cannot keep
for example one of the ways that my
chronic anxiety shows up in my life is
in my thinking i i start worrying i
start spinning
if i go to bed and i'm worrying about it
and then i wake up and as i wake up i'm
already worrying about it that's a sign
that i'm filled with chronic anxiety
that's how i know
so actually use that as a sign for me to
start doing my displacement tools a
couple of them i'll i'll show you here
but here's what anxiety is telling me it
says you can worry your way to peace
and that's a lie
it's lying to me
i have never yet successfully i'm 49
year old man so i'm not old but i'm old
you know what i mean
49 year old man i'm yet to successfully
worry my way to peace
but when i get an anxiety's grip it has
a message it's putting all these
billboards in my head it's saying
believe me believe me do what i tell you
to do i have this great thing for you
but it never leads me to freedom the
reason as a pastor i get so excited
about helping people understand chronic
anxiety is it's a chief competitor with
another gospel
with another gospel which is the gospel
of jesus christ
those of you who are not followers of
christ that was my journey i did not
grow up in the church i came to christ
as a teenager i come from a completely
unchurch background and to discover this
idea that there is this god that not
only exists but actually loves me
and also is available to me when i need
help
like i have access to this power that on
my own i don't have access to that was
unbelievable
so here's the question that you can ask
yourself this week what promise is
anxiety selling you that it's not
delivering on
and and then maybe a deeper question
why do you keep believing it
like when has anxiety ever done anything
good for you
and yet we stay
stuck one of the most powerful things
that you can do is get to the bottom of
the gospel of anxiety and here's what
you'll find out it's always bad news
anxiety tells me to worry more
anxiety tells me
to bear down
try harder
here's a message that anxiety says to me
hey why don't you do more of the
same whatever you're doing now that's
not working just do that more
and then when that doesn't work try
harder all of these patterns that leave
me stuck
when i'm at the end of anxiety's road
like if if a message or a gospel or
these billboards if they're sending us
on a journey at some point we get
somewhere right at the end of anxiety's
road is doom
i start to feel like it's all on my
shoulders
most powerfully
i forget that god is with me when i'm
anxious i actually forget
that god is right with me and i start to
feel this need for me to act for me to
do
that's why i believe that today the
chief competitor for our hearts actually
is no longer money in this culture
it's anxiety
because it's very very difficult
to be filled with anxiety
and also be aware that god is with you
at the same time
it's not that god isn't with you
it's that you forget that god is with
you
and so one of the things i've done in my
life and i've been working on this for a
number of years now is i try to get
really clear on the gospel of anxiety
and the gospel of jesus christ
and i work hard and i'll tell you it is
hard work to believe one over the other
because what's true in my life maybe
this is true in your life too
is the story i tell myself about myself
is a louder voice in my head a more
predominant message more billboards from
that voice
than the voice of god
god is invisible and intangible and i
don't know that we talk about this
enough in church but that makes god
quite difficult to follow
the the apostles in the bible they had a
competitive advantage over us
because following jesus was a physical
experience there he is
like you want to follow jesus he's over
there that's it just go over there and
you're following him when jesus takes a
walk just walk with him you're following
him and of course i don't mean to make
it sound so simple as if they didn't
also have to do things and as if jesus
didn't flummox the disciples again and
again that's true too but we have a more
difficult job of following an invisible
and intangible god
god who is with us who is as close to us
as the air our breathe but it feels
right it feels elusive at times
particularly
when you're filled with false belief
when you're filled with all these
assumptions when you're putting all
these expectations on yourself
that are not true so one of my false
beliefs that i've uncovered in my life
is i don't believe that god loves me
i know that's a a pretty bold statement
for a pastor to say but i spent most of
my adult life until about 2016 actually
not believing that god loves me
particularly now i believe that god
loved me generically
those of you who are fans of the musical
les miserables
i'm prisoner 24601 i'm a generic human
being that god loves generically because
it's god's job but i struggled to
encounter the particular love of god for
me
because what anxiety tells me one of the
messages in my life is others have it
worse and it's not that bad whatever i'm
going through others have it worse
focus on other people there's other
people in worse shape than you so don't
bother god with your problems and it's
not that bad whatever's going on in your
life it's not that bad suck it up cheer
up now these two belief systems in my
life these are false beliefs these
aren't true and because that those
voices were louder in my head than the
voice of god i never wanted to bother
god with my problems or when i had need
it was very difficult for me to ever
reach out to god and say i
need
help
and one of the most powerful weapons
against anxiety is vulnerability
it's very brave
to say to god or sometimes it's even
braver to look at another human being
the eye
and to say i need
whatever blank whatever you need
and so here i am not believing that god
loves me even as a pastor sometimes i i
could i could get up and and talk to you
about the love of god in a way that
would make you cry and i struggled to
experience it for myself but but the
gospel of jesus christ says something
different
the psalmist says in psalm 139 that you
are fearfully and wonderfully made so
now i have a decision to make which one
am i going to believe am i fearfully and
wonderfully made or am i loved
generically because it's god's job one
of those is a message of doom one is
good news that leads to freedom i've got
a choice to make
jesus in that wonderful sermon on the
mount where he said god knows the number
of hairs on your head and the older i
get and the less hairs i have the more i
believe it's true because it's easier
for god now than it was a couple of
decades ago a couple of decades ago
god's sifting around my head like a
monkey cleaning out the lice and he's
like there's so many of them and now
god's like oh yep i know exactly that
number i didn't even have to think about
it god knows like god's love for me is
particular and so one of the ways that i
walk by faith is i believe god over my
own self
and that's very difficult to do
and so one of the things that you can do
to begin to overcome your anxiety is you
can pause
and look at the gospel message that's
sending you and figure out
what's the promise
can it deliver on the promise
and is it good news
or is it bad news
now there's a couple of quick tools and
we're going to move pretty quickly
through these but i just want to give us
two tools that are tangible and
practical that can help and both of
these tools involve this skill called
casting casting your anxiety i moved to
colorado in 2005 from las vegas i used
to work at a church in las vegas and you
know i i you don't need a
venn diagram between las vegas and
colorado they're quite different and one
of the things i discovered about
colorado is it's gorgeous it's just
beautiful i'm sorry for those of you
living in michigan but i just flew in
from colorado and it is a spectacular
place to live i live about an hour's
drive from the kind of fly fishing
streams that people fly in from all over
the world to fish they're just in my
backyard and so i realized in 2005 it
would be a sin not to fly fish
i would actually be grieving the lord if
i did not fly fish that's bad
stewardship so i took up this hobby of
fly fishing now i grew up ocean fishing
in australia and if you've ever ocean
fish particularly in the open water you
don't need any hints that there's a fish
on the line it's bait fishing and you
know when there's a fish on the line
turns out fly fishing it's a whole
different skill it's elegant and dainty
and you end up doing all these weird
studies like you almost have to become a
get a master's degree in etymology to
understand bug life
when you become a fly fisherman you find
yourself in the fabric section of hobby
lobby like way more than you'd ever be
like asking for certain weird threads
it's very discomforting but
but if you really want to be good at fly
fishing you have to learn to accurately
cast
it's all about the cast if you can place
a fly
right where you want it to be so it can
drift into the the mouth of the fish
you'll you'll catch a fish an accurate
cast will catch a fish a sloppy cast
never will
and it turns out that if you want to
manage your anxiety you have to learn to
accurately cast
first peter 5 7 peter writes cast
all your anxieties on him because he
cares for you
be self-controlled and alert
your enemy the devil prowls around like
a roaring lion looking for someone to
devour
cast all your anxiety on him
because he cares for you be
self-controlled and
alert
my mother used to always teach me she
said be alert because the world needs
more alerts
anyway that's the thing about anxiety if
you don't cast it it doesn't go anywhere
and anxiety is like a bog it just keeps
you stuck in the mud it's based on false
belief but we have all this power
available particularly those of us in
this room who are followers of christ we
have the power of jesus that sets us
free but what i've learned about anxiety
is it will not go away on its own
you have to intentionally cast it
so if you want to learn to accurately
cast
one step is to figure out what's
generating it
what's generating your anxiety when you
notice that you're getting reactive
that you're no longer connected to
someone that the voice in your head is
louder than what they're saying or what
god's saying that's the moment to start
figuring out okay what's going on under
the surface
there are five core generators of
chronic anxiety
now again we're not talking trauma
that's different we're not talking
generalized anxiety disorder for example
that's different we're talking false
belief anxiety there's five chord
generators and if you don't get one of
these five things
you get anxious first one's control
perfection
knowing the answer
being there for people
and approval from others
we're just going to leave these on the
screen for a while
which one or ones of these
do you believe that you must have to be
okay
and when you don't get them you get
anxious
i'm three of them i have three some of
you right now you're like i've got all
five and you want to like tunnel out the
back before anyone sees you it's okay
that's not uncommon some of you you must
be in control when when you don't know
like you're going into a meeting and
you're not sure what's going to happen
so you've already planned the eight
possible scenarios so you can be ready
for any scenario because anytime you
don't know what to do or you're not in
control you get flooded with this thing
called chronic anxiety others of your
your perfectionist you believe the lie
that you must get it right every time
the first time even though you've never
done it before so like if you were to
start fly fishing you expect to catch
fish on the first cast and if you don't
you go into condemnation those of you
who are perfectionists you've never
looked at something you've done and said
that was so well done
you always say well here's how i could
have done it better
perfection
knowing the answer that's uh that's one
of me i'll be in a meeting and someone's
not even asking me the question they're
asking someone else the question and i
believe the lie that i must answer it
and when i don't know the answer to
something
i feel stupid
and then when i feel stupid i feel
completely exposed as if everybody in
the room knows i'm stupid and so i
compensate thank god for the internet
oh let me find out for you
okay let me talk to you about it like
i've known about it for 10 years
knowing the answer
always being there for people
how many of you when you know that
somebody is in trouble you feel this
compulsion to cook a lasagna
and show up at their door uninvited
and they're like thanks for the lasagna
you're like i just wanted to help
some of you who must be there for people
sometimes you even feel taken advantage
of
like no one really appreciates all that
you give to others and you don't realize
it's not really about them it's about
you
filling this hole in your life that must
be valuable to other people like not to
get too deep in just a quick sunday
message but the only way that you'll
ever get love is if you're always there
for other people
and finally approval from others that's
another one for me as well as is being
there for people it's very difficult for
me if i know someone's in trouble not to
be there to save the day
now if you look at these characteristics
these are the same character traits as
god when we try to be like god we get
anxious
god's in control god is perfect god
knows the answer god is the one that's
there for people and god's the one that
gives us our approval
chronic anxiety has a false gospel
it's trying to make you like something
you were never designed to be and that's
god
and you and i were never designed to be
like god and so what our chronic anxiety
does
is it either tries to supersize us some
of us when we get anxious we get bigger
we start interrupting people we must
have the last word it's my way or the
highway we dominate
others when we get chronically anxious
we shrink ourselves down like a
turtle popping into a shell and we're in
a meeting and we're saying i hope no one
calls on me don't call on me
or we don't give that last 10 of what we
really think we hold back we diminish
ourselves that's what chronic anxiety
does when you really study its gospel
and the product of it it ends up trying
to make you more than you are and you
carry all this pressure to deliver or it
diminishes you and shrinks you down and
shrivels you into something less than
human but all that god requires is that
you are an exactly human-sized follower
that's all that god's ever required out
of you
and jesus died
to free you from having to be in control
anymore
from having to do it perfectly anymore
those of you who are perfectionist
here's what you can do this week is do
something like build a bookcase and make
it three degrees off perfect and then
show it to someone and brag about it
those of you who always have to be there
for people who can you let down this
week
those of you who must be in control
what chaos do you have grandkids who are
toddlers perfect
put yourselves in situations to discover
that you actually don't need what you
think you need and in that moment when
you feel that reactivity you can rest in
christ
the second casting tool i've learned is
to make a life-giving list
make a life-giving list
just make a list of the people
and the places and the activities
that make you feel like a kid
in the kingdom
this is an actual intentional list a
list of the people places and activities
that make you feel like a kid in the
kingdom you know particularly those of
us who have been around church for a
while we volunteer so much we pour out
so much when we hear the gifts of god
the idea of the gifts of god what we
think of is
spiritual gifts
i call those the conduit gifts those are
the gifts that god gives us that we then
pour into others
but one of the ways that you can
guarantee anxiety is the simple
imbalance of output and input too much
output not enough input if you're always
giving giving giving and never receiving
i want you to imagine having a child
that every birthday and every christmas
you give them gifts and they unwrap them
and they say thank you and they give
every gift away to someone in need
now i know that our church was we would
make a video testimony about that kid
but that sick behavior
right that sick behavior
sometimes god gives us gifts for us
and there are two kinds of gifts in the
bible there's the conduit gifts that
paul talks about but then there's the
gifts that jesus talks about where he
said god loves to give good gifts to his
kids he enjoys it and so making a
life-giving list is a simple helpful way
to to capture the gifts that god has
given you
because one of the things anxiety does
one of the gospel messages of anxiety
is it it takes away your imagination
this is actually a clinical thing you
move into rigid thinking you lose your
sense of wonder your sense of
astonishment you lose the gift of
frivolity and laughter but if ahead of
time you make a life-giving list all you
have to remember when you're anxious is
to pull out your list and do something
off the list it's so simple
now there's two ways you can make a
life-giving list you can just draw one
up on a piece of paper but i've made a a
simple downloadable excel spreadsheet
and you can just scan the qr scan and
it's there for you that the biggest
problem with the life-giving list is
people love the idea and they never
actually make one
so i'm going to challenge you today or
tomorrow just to spend 30 minutes
filling out your list who are the people
that god has given in your life that are
life-giving to you
now every one of us have people in our
life that the only reason we love them
is jesus commanded it
don't put those people on your list
what about the people that god has put
in your life that give you life that
make you feel like a kid you lose track
of time
what about the places in your life
the places should be anywhere from
places in your house little micro places
you can walk to to places you have to
get on a plane for
what are the places where is a place you
love to go where you just feel alive you
feel free
but also there shouldn't be these multi
thousand dollar multi-day they should
also be simple places around the house
and the yard what about the activities
micro and macro activities activities
that take two minutes
all the way to activities that take two
days so for example the two minute
activity in my life
scratching my dog's floppy ears is on my
life-giving list my dog i've got a
golden retriever and he has these little
bit outsized ears and every time i see
him i'll be home later tonight after the
initial big greeting he's going to stick
his nose right between my legs it's
completely inappropriate he never asked
permission and he what he's doing
is he's saying you get the privilege of
rubbing my floppy ears and so as i'm
rubbing his ears i'm literally saying to
god thank you god for the whimsy of a
dog's ears what a joy to be a human
being that i just get to enjoy the
whimsy of a dog's ears
does that sound crazy to you
i'll go crazier for you i have 136 items
on my life-giving list hands up those of
you who are competitive 136 what can you
do
what can you do
today or tomorrow if you can come up
with 30 items
because what happens is anxiety says
bear down keep your nose to the
grindstone try harder more of the same
and so what i do with my life-giving
list
is i use it to to cast my anxiety when
i'm full of anxiety because in the
moment i can't think of what to do but
if i pull out my life-giving list and it
says
a 60-second hug from your wife
it says pick up your guitar and play it
for five minutes
these little micro things but also these
macro things plan a two-day retreat at
st wallburger's monastery where they
chant gregorian chant seven times a day
it's amazing when you go on the hunt for
the gifts of god they're everywhere
big and small capture them on a list
and use it reactively
when you're feeling anxious and you can
cast your anxieties on god the the list
is the things that god has given you
because god is good to you the list is
for me the the how i worship god
but also use it proactively you can
build your anxiety tolerance by bumping
into the love of god several times a day
one of the things on my list is watching
five minutes of stand-up comedy every
day
because clinically chronic anxiety
cannot abide love and laughter
if you want to cast your anxiety on god
love and laughter are two of the most
powerful tools to displace your anxiety
all right as we close the good news in
the scriptures is we're not the only
ones that cast god is also the master
caster
first john 4 there's no fear in love but
perfect love casts out fear
because fear has to do with punishment
the one who fears is not made perfect in
love
and again i'm just going to move really
quickly here but i'd encourage you to go
back to first john and take a look at
this on your own time it's a fascinating
dichotomy between perfect love and the
gospel that it leads to and fear and the
gospel that it leads to
chronic anxiety always punishes you
god always pays for you
so one of the simplest ways that you can
notice the difference is who's paying
right now am i paying
is is anxiety exacting a price for me or
is god paying so i don't have to anymore
that's the gospel of grace
it's a choose you this day moment
turns out god casts our anxiety
psalm 103 where the psalmist says as far
as the east is from the west
so far has he cast out transgressions
from us
as far as the east is from the west
so far has he cast our transgressions
from us
i've been fly fishing now for about 12
years and i'm i get a solid b minus in
it i love it i've never done something
that i'm so bad at that i love so much
but i've gotten pretty good at casting
but i'm nothing like god when i cast
something it lands
i even when i do my really long you know
river runs through it kind of cast that
i feel like brad pitt even though i
don't look like brad pitt i feel so good
it still lands it plops it stops
but when god casts
he sends it into oblivion
he takes our sin and our shame he takes
that inner voice of condemnation when we
cast our cares on god he takes them and
he cast them and they're still heading
far far away as far as the east is from
the west the way i picture it you know
when god created the heavens and the
earth and he set up this amazing
universe and solar system the idea that
it's still expanding it's still going
out because that's what god does is he
spreads things out and he casts the
psalmist says as far as the east is from
the west that's how far our
transgression is from us and it's still
moving
so just as we close i'm going to invite
you to take everything out of your hands
and just if it's helpful close your eyes
and
you can have your hands in the air like
this or might help just to have them on
your lap and we're just going to give
you a time to cast just a time of
silence
the time of quiet
if there's something that you have a
tight grip on
or something that has a tight grip on
you
and you know god's inviting you to cast
it on him i just want to give you some
time to do that now
[Music]
while your hands are in that open
posture it's not just a posture of
release it's also a posture of receiving
if there's something that you need from
god
or
something that god has done for you that
you just want to give thanks for right
now
just
gratitude
you can name that to god now
[Music]
oh father i just want to thank you that
we're not stuck because of you we don't
have to
stay spinning and reactive
we can cast
and lord it's hard work you know what
it's like to be human it's hard
but thank you that you're faithful and
thank you that you are a good caster
that
you can you can displace our anxiety
with your love
thank you for the gift of love that
displaces anxiety thank you that we can
rest in christ
and we thank you in jesus name
amen
[Music]