When Anxiety Hits at 2:40 A.M. | God Met Me in His Word
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When is the last time you awoke during the middle of the night with your mind racing about some situation that was out of your control? Well, it happened to me last night. Hey, I'm Steve Marston, and I'm here to help you live more like Jesus. Let's get to it.
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anxiety. Now I know as born-again people that are followers of Jesus that we aren't supposed to be anxious for anything. I mean the scripture says that plainly over and over and over that we are to not have all of that worry but to cast all of that at His feet and to pray about everything. Right? We know that's what we're supposed to do.
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But let's be honest, let's strip away and get real. Do we do that very often? Well, let me give you a real life example that happened to me today. All right, let me first give the backstory. Over the last few weeks, my wife and I have just kind of gone through the financial wringer. And look, I'm not trying to make you feel sorry for us or anything like that, far from it, but it started out...
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On a good note, we wanted to help my daughter get a used car. She's 21 years old. We were able to do that. Then after that, my wife's car breaks down on us. Then my car broke down on us. And all of a sudden, this happened like within three weeks of one another. Just bam, bam, bam. It's just life. You know how it is. And it happened all at once.
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So we felt like we were out of the woods. had thankfully, I mean just, just enough money to get everything covered that we wanted to or needed to have covered. So we were thankful for that. We were praising God for that. And then when we think all the dust has settled, once again, my car goes down. And these are cars we had had zero trouble out of. And it's just all of a sudden. So...
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Now we're kind of strapped. We're like, I don't know how we're going to pay for the repairs on this because it's not an issue related to what was worked on. It's something totally different. Of course it is. So we've been kind of struggling with that. And again, it's not anything that's going to keep us, you know, from having a house or over, you know, a roof over our head or food in our stomach or anything like that, but just one of those things where it's, it's kind of difficult. And
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This morning at like 2 40, I woke up and one of the first things that popped into my brain was this whole financial situation and how are we going to do it? Is there anything we can sell? Is there things that we can do? And how are we going to scrimp and save? And do we need to take our lunch all this week and blah, blah, blah. mean, all these things. And all of a sudden my mind is just racing a million miles an hour.
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with all the different scenarios that could happen but could not happen too, and just going on and on, and I'm all of a sudden feeling panicked and feeling stressed at 2.40 in the morning. I should be sleeping. And yet I'm thinking about this. And then somehow in the quiet, or I'm sorry, not in the quiet, in the racing of all this, I hear the quiet voice of Jesus.
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Look, I'm from a Southern Baptist tradition. If Jesus were to spoke to me audibly out loud, I'd probably have a heart attack and go meet him, right? So it was a still small voice. And basically it just said, open your Bible. I'm like, come on, it's 2.40 in the morning. Am I going to open my Bible really? Well, I did. I grabbed my phone, opened up the Bible app, and picked up right where I had left off in my reading. Now,
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The reading I was in doesn't have anything to do with finances or whatever. It was Elijah on Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal. That's where I left off in First Kings. It's like, okay, how does that jibe with what I'm going through and the anxiety and pressure I'm starting to feel while I'm supposed to be asleep? Well, all of a sudden I start reading that and...
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Before I know it, a calm, a peace, and a just feeling comes over me. And it's like God just whispering, it's okay. It's gonna be fine. Now, I was able to read and have all those thoughts kind of dissipate and was able to go back to sleep. Why?
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because I obeyed what God said. Now, has my situation since I woke up this morning changed at all? No, I'm still facing the same financial pressures, but God met me right where I was and calmed me and gave me a peace of mind and a ability to return back to sleep because I know my father has got it.
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No sense in me worrying about what's going to happen in the future. Just take care of the here and now. And the here and now is I needed Him more than I needed to focus on my circumstances. I hope you're raising your hand and saying amen at this story. I hope you have experienced this yourself. Because I'm afraid that too many of us as born-again Christians are just living such a shallow life, spiritually speaking.
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that we don't do that. We are robbed of our peace and our joy and our sleep and our comfort because we don't give things over to Him. And I know that sounds so simplistic, but you know what? It really is a big step of faith when you can say, all right, I don't know how this is going to work out, but what I'm going to do is I'm going to pivot and I'm actually going to open the Word.
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and I'm just gonna let my Father speak to me. Even through the prophets of Baal and Mount Carmel and the fire from heaven and everything. It's what He did for me and He'll do it for you as well. But we just have to take those anxiety moments, those panic-filled moments, and I think turn to Him in the best way. Yes, prayer is an awesome way to ask Him to take it and do with whatever.
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Yes, but I fully believe that when we're able to stop what we're doing, open up the Word, He meets us there. And there's just something special and unique about doing that. And it's a habit that we should get into, disciplining ourselves that when the stresses and the pressures and the anxiousness of life come, because it will, we don't focus on it.
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We turn instead into the Word. That's living on a different level. That's growing in our faith. That's what Jesus has called us to do.
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Thank you for being here. It's the Steve Marston Show. Discipleship has never been more fun.
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Always a thrill and a delight to be with you. It's time for Sunday Morning Takeaways. This is where we hear from you about what stood out in the sermon that you heard yesterday. We love getting interactive, really for a couple of reasons. Number one is it's your chance to brag on Jesus. That's first and foremost. But second is also really important, and that is it's such an encouragement for those of us who are on this side.
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listening to it because I think it just does something to know that God is working in different people's lives all over the country in different areas and ways. Just real people experiencing God and God meeting them right where they are. It's so good. So if you'd like to send us your Sunday morning takeaway, it's not too late. Just hit me up, Steve at SalemMedia.com.
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just shoot me an email and we'll see if we can't get it on for you here momentarily. But I always start every week and yesterday, it was actually last night, our children's pastor gave the sermon and he taught on the story where the four guys brought the paralytic man to Jesus. Now if you are a member of a church or have been around church for any length of time,
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I'm pretty sure you know this story. Those of you that grew up in church, this is one of those staple stories that has taught from Sunday school to the littlest kids all the way up to the adults. And you could probably tell the story better than I can. However, there was a couple of things that really stood out to me that I had never seen in this before. And like I say, I've been in church all of my adult life.
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And so he brought this point out that, you know, we typically say that it was four of his friends that brought him to Jesus. But you know what? If you really read the text, it doesn't say that. The image you get is Jesus is in a house and everyone has crowded in to the point that no one can even get inside anymore. And that there's this paralytic man that's sitting on the road
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to Jesus' house, to the place where he was. And everybody had to pass by him. And for some reason, just out of compassion, four people say, well, look, let's take this guy. This guy needs to go see Jesus. And of course, you know the story from there. They pick him up. They try to get in through the door. Of course, it's crowded with humanity. Can't do that. No way in in the back. No window to go through.
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So they said, well, let's climb up on top of the roof. And that's what they did. And they ripped through the kind of the mud roof and they lowered this man down to Jesus.
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I was just blown away by that, that it's not his friends, it's just four people, four guys that said, this guy needs to get to Jesus. And then, this is what really was a big spotlight for me that I had never seen before, even though I've read the stories over and over and over, and that is when Jesus looked at the paralyzed man and said,
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your sins are forgiven. The Bible says that the reason he said that is because of the faith of the four people that lowered him down. Yeah, those guys knew who Jesus was and knew that this guy who couldn't help himself needed to come to Jesus. And they did whatever it took. He said because of their faith,
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I say to you, your sins are forgiven." Now, that obviously didn't take away that the man believed who Jesus was and believed that he was Messiah too, because you can't be saved any other way. But Jesus pointed out the faith of those four people. I loved it, and that really put a whole new perspective on it for me. Okay, let's get to your Sunday morning takeaways. Again,
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Steve at SalemMedia.com. Brian checked in and said the sermon was about the church at Smyrna on Revelation chapter 2 verses 8 through 11. Said God doesn't promise to keep us from tribulation, but He promises to be with us through tribulation. That's good. Terrell says, don't be a relational vampire. Ooh, that's good. I think that's a great teaching there. Neil says,
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Storms don't last forever. Cindy checked in with her Sunday morning takeaway. Be generous. Carla said, we all have issues, but none of them are too big for God. Amen to that. John said, beware of false teachers, wolves in sheep's clothing. Yeah, that's something unfortunately we're seeing on a daily in church culture over the last several years. Susan said,
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from my church be still and know that I am God." Psalm 4610. Again, another just great passage of Scripture that you can really kind of hold on to as an anchor. So thank you, Susan. Roger said, you can't remember something you have never experienced. And the references was Matthew 3 and Luke 19. That's good as well. Let's see, Lee says,
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As a Christian, I am called to be salt and light, be engaged in politics, and don't vote for personality but policy." And he says as well, I know that that's more than one, but they were all extremely important. Well, yeah, they absolutely are. And I think your point is well-made, Lee, because salt and light is exactly what we are. It's not that we're supposed to be.
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Jesus says we are salt and light. We have to be engaged, I think, in politics because it's what's happening in our society. And if we don't stand up for things that are our beliefs and the things that we think are more godly, then we need to rethink that because we should be involved. And don't vote for personality, but policy. I agree 100 % on that because sometimes
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You have to choose the lesser of two evils, and that's unfortunately just the system we live in. So you can either not vote and just say whatever, or you can participate in the process. And I really think that God is honored and is glorified when His people participate in the process, because if we don't, not only can we not gripe, that's probably the least important of it.
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we could lose more freedoms. know, if we don't stand up, we could lose a lot of the religious freedoms that are already eroding us. So thank you everybody for checking in with your Sunday Morning Takeaways here on the Steve Marston Show.
