Anxiety is one of the most universal struggles of our time — and if we’re honest, it doesn’t always loosen its grip just because we’ve been born again. We try to manage it. We schedule it away. We work out, we scroll, we talk to a therapist, we set 6PM rules. And sometimes those things offer a little relief. But relief and cure are two very different things.
In this episode, Kimberly and her dad John are tackling what’s actually at the root of spiritual anxiety — and more importantly, what God says the cure is.
The world has plenty of tools for managing the symptom. But God went after the cause. And the cause — that gaping, restless, relentless thirst that no routine, no relationship, no therapy, and no amount of willpower can fully satisfy — is a soul that was made for relationship with God and is trying to survive without it. Romans 1 makes it clear.
But here’s what keeps coming up in this conversation: the cure is not a technique. It is God. And He’s already extended the invitation. The question is whether we will accept the invitation and revel in the relationship daily, not just when it suits us or we are in crisis mode.
Key Takeaways:
Jacob Paul: Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your hosts Kimberly Faith and John Mac. The Truth in Love podcast seeks to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love.
Kimberly Faith: Well, dad, we’re talking about a really important topic today, and that is what is the cure for spiritual anxiety?
John McLarty: Kim, shall we use the term, this is relatable, because God is a God of relationships.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: So even as I’m just going to, we’re just talking off the cuff, Kim, I’ve realized more and more, we’re to have a relationship with God, but God created us to have relationships with others. And actually, something you said really just blew my mind the other day
Kimberly Faith: Oh, Lord.
John McLarty: That God, the father, the son, and the holy ghost, they have a relationship.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. They have for eternity past.
John McLarty: And, you know, there’s not just this stoic one god up there. They have a relationship.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And that’s an example, and we can really dig into that in a later podcast, what does that relationship look like? What was given up? You know?
Kimberly Faith: We are actually going to, God willing, we’re going to do, there’s a couple podcasts that are coming up that the Lord has been brewing in my little brain about who the Holy Spirit is, and about what Jesus gave up. And tied into that is this idea that you’re bringing up that of course, I can’t take credit for it. It’s the Lord. But actually that idea about the Holy Spirit, the Father, and Jesus having this relationship in eternity past was sparked when I started studying what God’s love looks like. Because the Bible says God is love in First John. And the fact that love cannot be enjoyed in isolation. It can’t be experienced without other people, right?
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: So if God is love, that means that explains part of the reason that we have this trinity, or not the reason, but the tie in of how God can be love because he is three persons. And so, yeah, that’s really not what we’re talking about today, but I’m glad you brought it up because it’s very, apropo for this topic.
John McLarty: Yeah. God is a God of relationships. So we’re to benefit from those relationships among the brethren.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: And one on one with God.
Kimberly Faith: And the reason we have we’ll just give the bottom line up front, as my son says, the bluff. The reason we have spiritual anxiety is because we need that relationship. We are invited like, I think it was CS Lewis who said that we are invited to the great dance. We are invited by the Spirit through Jesus Christ into the fellowship with the Father, where we get to be part of that relationship that has been for eternity past. And that is the cure, the final cure for our spiritual anxiety. But we’re going to zoom out for just a minute and because that is, you know, that’s kind of giving the spoiler alert upfront.
John McLarty: The teaser.
Kimberly Faith: The teaser. Yes. So bringing this back down to where we live. You know, I was reading something and I don’t remember where it was, maybe in the Wall Street Journal or something about this woman who, and I don’t remember the title was something like, how I learned to cure my anxiety or something. But this woman was describing how she went to her therapist, she had just relentless anxiety that was ruling her life and her therapist gave her a tool. And, she called it the 6:30PM rule. So from 6:30PM until morning, worrying was strictly off limits. And, you know, she kind of said, well, at first it kind of felt impossible, but then I started, you know, I started feeling lighter and everything in the evening. My sleep improved, my evenings were better. This bully of anxiety seemed quieter and she was all celebrating this breakthrough.
And you know what? I don’t, I get it. I get it. That’s a great tool. And it sounds like that was a good tool for her life. But here’s the thing that I got to thinking about when I read that article. The source of the anxiety wasn’t gone. It was just postponed until the morning.
John McLarty: That’s a good point.
Kimberly Faith: So the rule that her therapist established, it managed a symptom, but it never removed the cause. And you know, it’s kind of like, and this is what we’re going to talk about today, because physical and psychological remedies, I mean, sometimes people say, I go work out, I feel better. You know, it balances me. Well, that’s true. But those remedies can never fully cure the spiritual anxiety because that’s a deeper problem.
John McLarty: Puts off the problem.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And what’s wonderful is that God gives us the cure. He doesn’t hide the ball from us. And you know, I was talking to a friend of mine about therapy. And, you know, this person was telling me how, you know, therapy, she’s been in therapy for I don’t know how many years now. And I asked her, I said, you know, is the cause of your need for therapy, is it still ongoing? And she said, no, that it was related back to her childhood. And I said, well, I thought the goal of therapy was to be off therapy. You know, just kind of challenging. She’s a friend I can challenge like this. It was a well received conversation, I’ll say it this way. And she said, I never thought about that. And that’s kind of one of the things that precipitated this podcast.
John McLarty: I actually have researched that lately, and yes, that is for a really qualified, competent counselor, therapist, that is the goal, is to resolve the problem.
Kimberly Faith: Right. It’s like if you had cancer, you wouldn’t want to have radiation for the rest of your life.
John McLarty: Exactly.
Kimberly Faith: I mean, you’d rather just not have it and maybe have a quicker death, enjoy some of your life, right? Maybe that’s not a good example, but the first thing that popped in my mind.
John McLarty: Well, you want to be cured of your cancer.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Not be treated forever.
Kimberly Faith: Right. So, you know, and going back to this article that I read, we’re not invalidating the struggles, okay? There is a need for many people including myself to have needs for therapy, for counseling. Setting healthy boundaries, doing therapy, having good habits, those have real value. But they kind of treat anxiety like a scheduling problem instead of a soul problem. Does that make sense?
John McLarty: It does.
Kimberly Faith: I mean, if you’re dying of thirst, you’re dehydrated, one cup of water at 10AM is not going to do it. You have to have water, a lot of water, and you have to keep drinking water to stay hydrated. So, dad, I know you’ve taught this, our basic bible concept study many times. So, what is actually causing, we’ve touched on it. What is actually causing this, what’s the root cause of all anxiety?
John McLarty: Well, it’s really a simple idea. We were created by God to have a relationship with God. And then through sin, the law of sin and death, when we sin, we’re separated from God. And this is, you know, kind of beyond the age of accountability. At some point we as a human willfully sin, we lose that relationship with God and then we spend, we can spend our entire life trying to fill that empty hole that can only be filled by God. And this explains so much of human behavior.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: We might try, some might try fast cars, some might try a lot of money, some might try drugs, some might try alcohol.
Kimberly Faith: Work.
John McLarty: And then being remedied by being saved, developing that relationship with God through Jesus Christ, through asking forgiveness for our sins.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Asking Jesus to become the Lord of our life and trusting in him, turning from sin to him, which is the whole true salvation, but we can let anxiety creep back into our life by not developing that relationship with God.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: It’s kind of like a parent child. Once that relationship happens, it’s there forever.
But if a child goes way off track, then a good parent will never just burn that bridge, but there can be unpleasant moments.
Kimberly Faith: Yes, yes, I remember those times in the car when you counseled me when I was a teenager. Well, you know, you bring up an excellent point. This is how we’re wired. We are wired for all kinds of relationships. Relationship with God being the very most important relationship.
John McLarty: Central.
Kimberly Faith: And all other relationships are much better when we have the relationship with God, when he’s the foundation of our relationships. Because, you know, it blows my mind. And I don’t mean to chase a big rabbit, but I think I will. But I think about where I was fifteen years ago. And although I was born again, you brought up that example of a child, you know, I was God’s child. But I had wandered so far from the relationship, I had forgotten who I was. And the fact that I had forgotten who I was and maybe never even really learned who I was, I mean honestly, because I don’t think I had grown the relationship, I had more gone into the religious aspects of
John McLarty: List of behaviors.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Like going to church and just not, wasn’t a transformation. It was more of a reformation after I was born again. Because sometimes just religious ideas sit with you so long, you gotta knee jerk that, right? So when I fell so far fifteen years ago and recognized the goodness of God for who he truly says he is, that journey back has been a great self discovery.
And what I mean by that is, you know, not self discovery in the way the world culture talks about it. It’s discovering who God is for who he says he is in his word that has enlightened me to who he made me to be. There’s very much a nexus between the more you know God, the better you know God, the more you know who you are. Does that make sense?
John McLarty: Yeah. And I kind of think of using the child example and just so many people will be able to relate to this. So a newborn baby is just obviously connected to the parents. There’s, you know, and if things are as they should be, just loving and connected and doesn’t even think a thing about it.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Then that child grows up and say they go off into some rebellious years, you know, the hormone poison that you refer to.
Kimberly Faith: Testosterone brain damage.
John McLarty: Hits especially boys about 15, and maybe they get over about 30. But then as we’ve seen, they rediscover that relationship with their parents. And it’s actually more wonderful
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: Because they’ve rediscovered it.
Kimberly Faith: Kind of like our relationship. I mean, that’s probably what you’re talking about.
John McLarty: Well, I can just think of countless examples.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: But, yeah, the relationship we have now is very spiritual based. We just, you know, we get excited about each other’s biblical thoughts.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And we just enjoy each other’s company.
Kimberly Faith: Well, and it’s, I’m glad you brought that up
John McLarty: And you kind of had that as you know, just think about your childhood.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: We got along great.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: Then, you know,
Kimberly Faith: Crazy teenager.
John McLarty: Your 15 year old era hit.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.
John McLarty: And it got a little, you know, a little rough through there. You know, just even more distant. You know, we saw less of each other.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: How can that, and that’s you know, we as Christians, God never walks away from us.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: We walk away from him.
Kimberly Faith: I love that you brought that up. I love that you brought that up because, you know, we have talked a lot about eternal security and how we have the genetics of Christ. Just like, I mean, when I had my son, my daughters, they have my genetics. They can never lose my genetics. And it’s us who moves away, not God. And people say, well, God’s abandoned me. No. God never abandons his children. But so tying this back to what we’re talking about, we were made for relationships. The most important foundational relationship being with God through salvation and Christ Jesus.
John McLarty: Absolutely.
Kimberly Faith: And that is then the foundation for all of the connections, the love that we desire from other humans. And so, you know, thank you again for making that parent child analogy because I think everybody can understand that. And so, going back to this idea of spiritual anxiety, we know, Romans Chapter One makes it very clear that we know we were created for a relationship with God. And, when that relationship is absent, there’s a desperate thirst that no rule, no routine, no therapy, no friendship, no marriage, no children, no church, nothing can quench that thirst. And we need a relationship with God. And I love the Psalms for the pictures that the psalmist gives about our relationship, our need for relationship with God. You want to read the scripture at Psalms 42?
John McLarty: Sure. And that’s not only a good scripture, a great song.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: As the deer pants for the water. So Psalms 42:1-2. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you, oh God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. And I just think about being when I’m out working outdoors in the garden
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And you get really hot, you want water. I don’t want a, you know, I mean I enjoy a fizzy drink every once in a while. But when I’m really thirsty, I just want some water.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And so as the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you.
Kimberly Faith: That’s a good example. That kind of reminds me of Psalms 63 as well. You know, when you develop a strong relationship with God, your soul longs for him. And the psalmist captured that. He said, oh God, you are my God. Early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. You know, we
John McLarty: That’s a yeah. It’s a great companion verse.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. It really captures what happens to us when we develop a relationship with God. We can never get enough of him. I like to say God’s presence is the only addiction that will never hurt you. God’s presence is the
John McLarty: Amen to that.
Kimberly Faith: When that becomes, when God’s presence, our sense of God’s presence in our life because he’s always here. It’s our sense of God’s presence. When it becomes our greatest need, he satisfies the longing of our heart. And that is, you talk about a cure for spiritual anxiety, that’s it. That’s it.
John McLarty: I’ll just point this out too. That’s the cure for physical anxiety. I mean, how can people that have been diagnosed with cancer and I actually know someone very close that’s diagnosed with cancer. And sure there was some processing time, but within three or four days, this person was like, but God. But God’s going to take care of this.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: I’m at peace.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. That’s so interesting.
John McLarty: So even physical anxieties the cure is still the same.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Relationship with God.
Kimberly Faith: Or even if you’re in financial crisis.
John McLarty: Financial, sure.
Kimberly Faith: You have a relationship crisis. You know, if you know if your relationship with God is strong, then he gives you his perspective. It’s like, you know, kind of like that podcast we talked about on whether you’re, if you’re trusting God 100%, that’s the only way you know you’re trusting God. If you’re not, you’re not, right? So let’s kind of back up a minute. You touched on this earlier, but I think we need to make sure that, you know, this is very clear where the cure begins. Because we know God doesn’t hide the ball from us. He wants to relieve our spiritual anxiety. In fact, he wants to relieve our physical anxiety. So, dad, you’re kind of the expert on you kind of touched on it earlier on explaining the new birth. And let’s just break that down for us.
John McLarty: Well, the new birth goes back to the law of sin and death. As humans, when we sin, we die spiritually. Adam and Eve were, in the day you eat of the fruit, you shall die. They didn’t drop dead physically.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: But they were separated from God spiritually, and then that was even pictured by them being cast out of the garden. They were actually physically, you know, removed from that special dwelling place of God.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: But we as humans sin and we lose that relationship with God. And there’s, actually it’s because of God’s justice, it’s a law that’s been violated. So God can’t just give us a pass like, oh, you did bad, but, you know
Kimberly Faith: Right. Or you only committed five sins.
John McLarty: Yeah. So I’m giving you a pass on that. The God of justice requires that that separation has to be taken care of.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: The penalty has to be paid.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And of course, that’s what Jesus was doing.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: God himself came in the flesh to take upon the sins of the world so that justice could be satisfied, that God’s love could be expressed, and we could be reconciled to God.
Kimberly Faith: It’s the most beautiful story ever. For people who say God is, you know, God is this mean judge, they haven’t read about Jesus. They haven’t understood what Jesus actually did.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: What and I mean, it’s remarkable that the one who was owed the debt said, I’ll pay it.
John McLarty: I’ll pay it.
Kimberly Faith: Even though you don’t deserve it because you’ve actually incurred the debt against me. It’s not like you went out and borrowed a loan from the bank and I said, well, I’ll pay the bank off. No. You actually, you know, if the offense was against the one who paid for the offense.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: You know?
John McLarty: And then even with that, then forgiveness can be offered but it has to be accepted.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And so as someone, a listener right now, oh, separated from God, I’ve sinned, I’ve never been reconciled.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: You have to just acknowledge. So if you’ve heard this, actually God is enabling you to sense that Jesus is God, he did pay the price, and that he wants you to be reconciled. And he’s given you,but it’s not easy believism. It’s this sense that, well, you need to be sorrowful for your sins
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And turn from them. That’s called repentance.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And it’s being drawn by the, it’s all God, being drawn by God. But you have to basically say, yes. Yes, I want that. I want that forgiveness. I want that relationship restored.
And Jesus, forgive me of my sins and I want to become, you know, I want you to be the Lord of my life. And then, very importantly, when you ask, you just believe. You trust. God said it. I’m asking him. It’s a done deal.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I love that.
John McLarty: And that’s salvation.
Kimberly Faith: That’s so simple. And, you know, when we do that, when that transaction happens because I think when we ask for Jesus to be our savior and our Lord, that’s that repentance part of it.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: You know, we’re surrendering like, oh, wow.
John McLarty: Yes.
Kimberly Faith: Giving it all to you. Then the Bible says, we are in Christ in Second Corinthians 5:17, and we’re a new creation.
John McLarty: That’s so important.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: It’s that new birth.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: That born again soul.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: I’ll just follow,the rest of that verse says, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. That in other words, the old things is the spiritual deadness. That’s been conquered. We’ve been, our soul and spirit have been raised in life, in the newness of life, right? We have this, we have life because we are now connected to God who is life.
John McLarty: And that’s why it’s a transformational experience. It’s not this slow, oh, I’m going to reform my life. Oh my goodness, I’m in jail and I need to, or my wife left me or whatever. And I need to make a list of things I’m going to do better. No this is asking the Lord to save you, believing in him, you have that repentance, and then it happens instantaneously.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: You’re a new creature in Christ, that very moment.
Kimberly Faith: I appreciate you
John McLarty: You’re born again.
Kimberly Faith: You pointing that out because the reformation has been very much confused with transformation.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: And even myself, as I remember as a teenager, going to God and making false professions of faith, I would pray. I mean, it was just like this. Lord, please save me. I don’t want to go to hell and I’ll be good. That and I’ll be good meant I was trusting in my own reformation to work about the transaction of salvation.
John McLarty: I’m trying to stop this. I’ll come to church more regularly.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And I’ll, you know, x y and z.
Kimberly Faith: Think about all the things I have to give up. Okay. I’m going to give up all these things. I don’t really want to give up. Well, that’s not even repentance. That’s just me trying to climb into
John McLarty: Bargain.
Kimberly Faith: It’s bargaining with God..
John McLarty: Negotiate.
Kimberly Faith: Exactly. Yeah. Like, as if God’s not who he says he is, right? And what’s amazing is when it says these old things have passed away, that means all things have become new. What is this all things? Your soul and your spirit are in Christ. Christ can’t die. Christ is the life. He is the truth. He is the way, right? We are in Christ. And I love what Romans 8:15 and 16 says about our new birth. Can you read that?
John McLarty: For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
Kimberly Faith: Abba, Abba is an Aramaic term of endearment. It’s daddy. You know, it’s not, this is a father who knows your name and calls you his own. You know, I’ve got some Jewish friends and I’ve heard one of the guys call his daddy Abba.
John McLarty: That’s sweet.
Kimberly Faith: It’s really sweet. Yeah. But that’s what it means. And we as born again believers have the right to call the father, the heavenly father, the God of all that is Abba. That’s amazing.
You know, if you’re listening to this today and you have never experienced that kind of closeness with your heavenly father, then I can imagine that your thirst is real. Your anxiety is real. But this is the beginning.
John McLarty: It’s the beginning. The Lord has to start.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And dad, what you just explained is, you know, rewind this. Play that again. If you have any questions about salvation, of course, you can always reach out on our website, gofaithstrong.com. But we have the plan of salvation right on the website. It’s so important. It’s not, God does not hide the ball. He does not make this difficult. It is surrendering to the offer that he’s made.
John McLarty: The offer he’s made. That’s from the price he paid.
Kimberly Faith: Right. And if you have been born again, but you’re still overcome with anxiety, welcome to the club. You know? We all struggle. Because like you mentioned earlier, once we’re born again, we’re still not finished. You know, we have the daily struggle that Paul talks about in Romans Chapter Seven, where our flesh isn’t any better than the day we were born again. It still wants what it wants.
John McLarty: In fact, being born again sets up this warfare in our mind.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: You have a born again soul, which is the mind of Christ, and the flesh is exactly the same.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. We’re like babies born onto a raging battlefield.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: You know? And spiritual warfare is all around us. Our enemy, this again, going back to last week’s podcast about the church. This is another reason the church is so important, the local community of believers. If you stuck a baby, you know, onto the battlefield, they would have I mean, they wouldn’t make it. Born again believers have to be in a church community to grow.
John McLarty: The church is for the work of the ministry and the perfecting of the saints and the edification of the body. And perfection means maturing.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: So this relationship with Christ one on one through the word and prayer but then through you know, the church, discipleship through a church, other believers. But yeah, we’re in a battle now.
Kimberly Faith: And our enemy is the real deal. I mean, he is
John McLarty: And he wants to isolate us.
Kimberly Faith: He does. That’s a good point. He does. That’s a good point, dad. Because if he can isolate us, we’re easier to get rid of.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: To disable, you know. I think about, you know, the fact that we have this constant pressure, you know, just in our physical lives like work and relationships and maybe kids and all the things. Our neighbor, maybe our neighbor’s dog is always in our yard or whatever. Just anything from the most serious to the mundane. All those things Satan wants to use to distract us and give us anxiety. Physical anxiety is, I try to think about it this way. Physical anxiety is one of Satan’s strongest tools he can use to get me out of, take me out of the battle. Because then I start thinking about myself and using my own mind instead of using the mind of Christ. And so we’ve talked about the mind of Christ, the attitudes of Christ over and over and over again. How important it is to develop those. If we maintain a spiritual babyhood, then we were going to be in a lot of anxiety. A lot of anxiety, got to mature.
John McLarty: Sure. The growth, the warrior mentality, you know, the athletes, you know.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
Jon McLarty: Fighting the good fight.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: The Bible is just full of that idea of being strong and of good courage.
Kimberly Faith: Put on the armor of God.
John McLarty: Put on the armor of God.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. If, you know, and you know, it’s so interesting.
John McLarty: Or you will be overcome by anxiety. The enemy will overcome you
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: If you don’t prepare and resist and grow and kind of get in the battle.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Well, I love that Jesus uses metaphors so often to teach us. For example, the water metaphor that you brought up earlier. You know, a relationship with Christ is not a one off. That is not a one off experience. That is, yes, we’re saved. We’re born again. And then we have to keep drinking, right? Any more than one glass of water is enough to keep our body alive for a few days. We need it daily, continuously. And you know, could you read I got a promise that Jesus made in John Chapter Four. Can you read that?
John McLarty: Sure. Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
Kimberly Faith: That is so good.
John McLarty: A fountain that, like I think of a spring.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: It’s just continually running.
Kimberly Faith: We drove by a spring yesterday
John McLarty: We did.
Kimberly Faith: Out of the mountain and it was just gushing.
John McLarty: And that’s exciting to see.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes. And you know, I think about, just in my own experience with this, about how, when I am growing in the attitudes of Christ, the mind of Christ, when I am drinking of his word, when I am fellowshipping with believers, when we’re doing this podcast, when we’re studying to do this podcast,it’s a different experience than if I’m, it is experience. It’s kind of like what I think it’s Psalms One that talks about being, a tree planted by the rivers of water.
John McLarty: Right. I just read it today.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I feel like, as opposed to a shrub in the desert, right, dying. This is like we’re turning the faucet on and letting that fountain that we already possess run through us. And it’s so much of it that we can’t keep it to ourselves.
John McLarty: And that’s that relationship with God.
Kimberly Faith: Right. And if you have plenty of water running through your veins, so to speak, you aren’t thirsty. If you have plenty of God’s word and his presence running through your soul and your spirit and making, it’s so abundant that you start giving that water away like what we’re doing right now. We’re giving the water that Jesus gave us to others. And you know what? I can say this, during any of the podcasts that we’ve done, guess what has been absent from this podcast? Anxiety. This is a conversation about the one we love the most, about the things that he’s done in our life.
John McLarty: I think of one of these beatitudes, just looking at it now. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.
Kimberly Faith: I love that. Yeah. That’s part of that attitudes of Christ series that we did. So let me ask this. How do you get to the point where, because this is a big deal for anxiety, right? How do you get to the point where you hunger and thirst for righteousness? Besides after you’re saved. We know you have to be saved first, obviously.
John McLarty: I think you just, off the top of my head, I wasn’t prepared for that question. But I think of those that are either runners, they just, and it starts as a discipline. And just think of just starting, you know, reading the word, starting into prayer, finding a good church. And it’s like, then runners kind of get addicted to that feeling of running. People that go work out.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: I mean, I hear this.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Or say you’ve just started getting healthy by good nutrition.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And then all of a sudden you find you don’t want a Coke.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: You want a good, you know, power drink. And it’s because you started.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And so when I think of, you know, that thirst is that desire, but then once you start getting it, then you start thirsting for it more once you start getting that fulfillment.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: I think we’ve all, you know, gone through these dry periods in our life. And then we’re like, no, I need to get back to that righteousness, to that relationship with God. And then it becomes addictive.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I think of that old adage that says what you feed the most grows, right? So we have our flesh and we have our soul. Alright? And so if we’re disciplining ourselves to feed our soul and we’re starving our flesh, I don’t mean physically starving ourselves from food, I’m talking about the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, the things that are sin, okay, just to put it bluntly. And then our soul grows stronger and the addiction, I call it the addiction to God’s presence
John McLarty: Yes.
Kimberly Faith: Becomes our most, our biggest craving.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: It’s the one we recognize the most because we developed it. You mentioned a runner. I’ve never been a runner unless I’m being chased other than a sprinter in college. But, you know, I remember, you know, when I was in the gym doing CrossFit a lot back when I was younger, I loved it. I loved it because I loved the way I felt. I loved the, you know, the fact that I’d lost some weight and that I wasn’t sore in a bad way. But when I am in love with God, when that is a discipline that has turned at the corner and turned into I love being here, I don’t have to discipline myself to spend time with God in the morning because I can’t wait. You know, that’s the switch that flipped. It’s such a remarkable experience because God is the fountain of all goodness that when we discipline ourselves and that switch flips where we love it, it’s something we never want to be without. It’s the fountain of all goodness.
John McLarty: Yeah. And I think that here’s just an analogy too. Lynn and I’ve experienced this. Lynn’s my wife, by the way, Kim’s mother. Say you’ve been blowing it with your diet for a while, just a lot of birthday parties and cake and ice cream and you kind of want, you know, ice cream and you want more ice cream and cake, right?
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Then you get off of that and you get on healthy food.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Then after about three days, it’s like that’s what you start craving, that healthy food.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And I’ve just noticed then things will come to my mind like, oh, you know what, I’m on this healthier diet now and I haven’t had any beet juice for a long time. I would have never thought about that if I’m on a cookie and cake binge.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: But if I’m getting healthier, I’m thinking of things that I know to do.
Kimberly Faith: That are delicious.
John McLarty: Like, oh, you need to go make some beet juice or, you know, make a healthy salad or something. And your thinking changes.
Kimberly Faith: That’s a great example.
John McLarty: It’s because you’ve headed that direction.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. That’s a really great example, dad. It’s like you’re awakened to what’s good. Your senses are awakened. I think the more that we discipline ourselves and that discipline becomes what we love, in meaning God’s presence, then the more that we, like I call it walking the path of peace. I can tell you that this week, you know, there have been times when I thought I’m going to do this particular thing. And it may not be something sinful, but maybe it’s just I’m going to go here first and I can tell that I’m not supposed to because I can feel my peace diminish. That’s the kind of sensitivity that I love to have with God, but I don’t always have it. But that anxiety that we feel we’re not feeling the presence of God is actually a gift. And I think all anxiety to a degree is a gift. It tells us something’s wrong.
John McLarty: Yeah, it’s actually part of God’s design.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: If we didn’t feel anxiety, we wouldn’t know there’s a problem.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: It needs to be solved.
Kimberly Faith: You know, and and it’s again, it’s not like God doesn’t hide the ball on this. In fact, Jesus said, these are some of the most beautiful words, Jesus said in Matthew 11:28. He said, come unto me all you who labor heavy laden. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. When we’re walking in the path, the yoke being the path, right, that God has planned for us, he carries the burden. We’re letting him carry all the burdens that we have and he makes our burden light. Our part is just doing what he says, not bearing the whole weight of the world.
John McLarty: And just think how important that phrase is. He wants rest for souls.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLary: That’s an absence of anxiety.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: He wants us to relieve that anxiety through him.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. This is not a technique, this is not some physical thing we do, this is a person. He is the cure for our anxiety. And, you know, so let’s kind of switch gears for a minute. We’ve kind of talked about this. What does this look like practically? We’ve talked about salvation is obviously a must. You have, you know, talked about some things you do. I’ve talked about some things I do. But let’s kind of go through, I’d like to, let’s talk about, Philippians.
Because you know, Paul in the book of Philippians just, it’s just a brilliant book. It’s a brilliantly God inspired book about how to live in a hard world, you know. And what has the Lord prescribed for us in Philippians 4:6 and 7?
John McLarty: Well, that’s a perfect verse for this subject. It’s be anxious for nothing. So this is how to get rid of
Kimberly Faith: Anxiety?
John McLarty: Anxiety.
Kimberly Faith: It’s a commandment actually.
John McLarty: Be anxious for nothing. But, and that word but means instead of, but in everything. So this is like part of the solution. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Important word there.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Let your requests be known to God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Kimberly Faith: Right. So we have anxiety.
John McLarty: Is that not the solution?
Kimberly Faith: It is the solution. We have anxiety on one end. We’re told, we’re commanded. Don’t be anxious for anything. Anything in your life, we’re commanded not to. And the other end of the spectrum is, but if you do these things, you’ll have peace.
John McLarty: I’ll just give you an example here. Say somebody says, well, I’m all full of anxiety. I just don’t feel like praying right now. I’m going to go back to the example of Lynn and I, we’ve been blowing it, we’re 10 pounds overweight and we just made a decision. I’m going to change my diet. No more cake, no more cookies.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Get that all out of the house and just you start prayer.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Even if you don’t feel like it.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John Mclarty: But it’s like eating healthier if you just do it.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And this starts with be anxious for nothing, but that’s interesting, the first thing it mentions. But in everything by prayer and supplication, but with thanksgiving, God will bring those to you. Then as you start or reading the word more. Like, oh, I’m not getting anything out of the word, or I haven’t read my Bible in a year. Well, just start. And you get that, it’s like, oh, this is good.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: It’s like eating healthier food.
Kimberly Faith: Do you think that this thanksgiving, that gratitude, talking about thanksgiving, that gratitude, if we, just like prayer is like, people act like, you know, I a lot of people just have like, well, I don’t know how to pray. Like, well, you have a conversation with me. You can have a conversation with God just like that. You know, it’s not like you’ve gotta say some kind of Latin prayer.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: No. You can have a so sometimes I’ll tell people like, come on, let’s sit down. We’re going to invite God at this table and we’re just going to have a conversation.
John McLarty: Prayers should be an easy thing.
Kimberly Faith: You, me, and God. And they’re looking at me like, what? I’m like, no, seriously. So come on, let’s go. Okay, God, we’re here. We want to start by thanking you.
John McLarty: Very good.
Kimberly Faith: And I look at this, I remember this one girl, and I said, what do you want to thank God for? And this is part of our prayer,right? And and so she started thanking God for things, and I started thanking God for things. And we just kind of went back and forth. And pretty soon, it was like you could feel the holy spirit in the room. Like, he was just excited that we were so
John McLarty: That is exciting.
Kimberly Faith: Full of thanks. And guess what? There wasn’t in the room, when we were giving thanks. There was no anxiety in the room. And then because the bigger you make God, the smaller you make your problems. Because the more you realize much God can do, is doing, has done, you know, he will carry our burdens. But thankfulness through prayer is I think we often start our prayers when we’re anxiety riddled with what we want. But I find that starting my prayers with what I’m thankful for takes what I want and redefines it through the lens of who God is.
John McLarty: So kind of a good, what we call takeaway from all this for the cure for spiritual anxiety, really this Philippians 4:6 and 7 says it so well.
Kimberly Faith: It does.
John McLarty: I mean, just addresses it. Be anxious for nothing.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: But then in every everything by prayer and supplication start with prayer, but with an attitude of thanksgiving. And then what happens? Peace of God which surpasses all understanding.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. And you know that will guard your hearts and minds, that part of the verse. That’s actually a military term in the Greek. It’s like God is standing like a sentry and guarding your peace and your mind.
John McLarty: I love that.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And it kind of reminds me of Isaiah 26:3. It says, you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts you. This is perfect peace. This isn’t managed anxiety. This isn’t therapy. This isn’t working out to make yourself feel better. This is a mind that’s fixed on God. And I kind of want to segue for a minute, to an example that God gave me. You know, going back to the lady who was saying she has this 6PM rule. I kind of like to picture my mind or my heart as many rooms, right? You’ve got your family room, you’ve got your work room, you’ve got your neighborhood room, you’ve got your sports room, whatever. And I think anxiety is triggered when we try to manage those rooms by ourselves.
John McLarty: By ourselves. Yep. Exactly.
Kimberly Faith: But if we keep God, like if we keep God in the basement, well, he’s not going to be in the living room. He’s not going to be in the work room. But if we surrender, this is kind of the cure in opinion to spiritual anxiety is surrendering over and over and over again every room of our heart and our mind. In other words, we invite him to sit on the throne in every space in our heart. Not just Sunday morning, not just in a crisis. And it has to be, because we are so much in our flesh. We have to do it over and over again. When I start feeling anxiety, I immediately want to ask the Lord, where am I not surrendering to you? Well, clearly, I’m not surrendering the problem I’m anxious about. So I have to start there. But there’s, I think for me the key in the morning is to start off with thanking God for all the things he is to me, you know.
John McLarty: I think it’s key to something you just said. This is an ongoing battle because the default human position, we have a born again soul, but our mind, which the brain, the human brain is still the flesh.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: And it tends to it’s that voice screaming the loudest.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.
John McLarty: And so it’s really this discipline, it’s this understanding to do this instead.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. You said something in an earlier podcast that really resonated with me. You said, God solves one problem. And, you know, almost immediately, I’m worried about the next problem.
John McLarty: Right. Yeah. That’s something I struggle with.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And then at some point, I’ve recognized it.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And I go, why are you doing this?
Kimberly Faith: Right. We all do that.
John McLarty: It’s because the human brain kind of wants to worry about stuff.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And I think it’s kind of like this divide and conquer or, you know, distract us from this peace.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Because if we’re doing that, we’re not representing Christ very well.
Kimberly Faith: Exactly. Well, I mean, that’s where Satan wants to keep us distracted.
John McLarty: Exactly.
Kimberly Faith: And, you know, we, but the solution is to keep our mind stayed on Christ, on God, you know. So kind of bringing this back full circle, you know, gosh, we all want relief. But relief and cure are really two different things. We want relief from our anxiety, but do we want the cure? The cure is found in God’s presence.
John McLarty: I’ll give you another analogy. I mean, this was a technique for this lady at 6:30, just stop worrying. Some people get their relief from smoking marijuana. Getting drunk.
Kimberly Faith: Playing sports.
John McLarty: Playing sports.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.
John McLarty: And it’s just temporary.
Kimberly Faith: Scrolling through Facebook. I mean, it’s
John McLarty: In fact, some of those remedies actually make it worse.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.
John McLarty: Obviously, they do.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: I mean not only put it off, but make it deeper.
Kimberly Faith: You know, and I think you’re right. And the remedy that God gives us is I mean think about this. Our relationship with God. Who is God? He never panics. He doesn’t need to sleep, so he had to lose sleep. He’s not, you know, he’s not anxious. He’s already in the future. He says, I’ll be your best friend, you know?
John McLarty: I’ll guide you through this.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And Jesus said in John 14, he said peace I leave with you.
John McLarty: Perfect.
Kimberly Faith: My peace I give you. Not as the world gives, not the therapy, not all the things. Do I give you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Anxiety is a manifestation of fear. And First John says that perfect love casts out fear and God is love, right? And so, it’s full circle. The closer we get to God, the more we have a manifestation of the cure for anxiety. We already have the cure by being born again. It’s kind of like we have the cure for cancer sitting in a bottle right next to our bed, but are we using it? Look, I’m not saying, you’re not saying we’ve arrived. We’re just saying, hey, this spoke to us to remind us that God is secure for every time we lose our path of peace. That anxiety is a sign that we need to do something different. And like you said, get our discipline back. You know, stop eating the Twinkies.
John McLarty: Go back to the fountain.
Kimberly Faith: Go back to the fountain, exactly. So, you know, if you’re struggling with anxiety, man we understand that. It’s a universal problem that we have until we get our transformed body, it’s something we’re going to struggle with.
John McLarty: It’s the christian struggle.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Go back to the fountain.
John McLarty: God’s the remedy.
Kimberly Faith: Go back to the fountain every day. Sometimes multiple times a day.
John McLarty: With thanksgiving, prayer, his word. And again, I just keep going, the fellowship of believers, you know, find your church and if you’re in a country where there’s not a church, find a group of believers.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. God will bless that.
John McLarty: Find that band of brothers and sisters.
Kimberly Faith: And it’s, you know, God’s presence, his presence has to be our daily drink. It can’t be an emergency ration. You know, it has to be we go to this, we open the fountain that’s already in us, right? If we’re born again, that fountain’s already, we open that fountain every day through reading his word, through, like you said, fellowship with the believers, through thanksgiving. And because you can’t be thankful and be anxious.
John McLarty: True.
Kimberly Faith: So, dad, this has been good.I’ve been learning some more stuff just doing this podcast.
John McLarty: Well, we always, the word of God’s always challenging.
Kimberly Faith: It’s rich for sure.
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