Here's Pastor Alan Wright with Today's Blessing: a Biblical Faith-Filled Vision. For your life. With the Lord as your shepherd, you'll never be lost. Need nourishment? He leads you to the green pastures.
Need refreshment? He leads you beside clean waters. Need direction? He'll lead you. by the right paths.
When you can't see the next green field, He sees when you can't see the fresh water. He leads. And when you don't know the right way forward, He knows.
So, I bless you today to see the shepherd, to hear his gentle voice. to feel the nudge of his staff.
So you can rest easy. and the guidance. of a very good shepherd. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. I memorized every single monarch in the history of Britain, along with their spouses.
and made the highest grade in the class. And all I can tell you today is Henry VIII had a lot of wives, and that's all I can remember. But I got really good at letting that adrenaline-based, kind of anxiety-driven. Thing makes me be a better student. And there's a little part of me that's like: if I didn't have that, would I even study at all?
But do you see what I'm saying here? Could this actually be God's way for us to live? Is it in a sense we harness our fear and use it so that we could be more successful? That's not God's plan. That's Pastor Alan Wright.
Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt. Excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, The Untroubled Heart, as presented at Renolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries.
So, as you listen to today's teaching, today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Just contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. or call 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860.
More on this later in the program. But right now. Let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Pastor Alan Wright. We are giving ourselves a kind of false comfort.
And we won't be able to ever be instilled with the kind of courage that can actually conquer a problem. Scott Peck in his famous book, The Road Less Travel, began by saying life is difficult. And that until we can accept that and accept that there are problems that we have to face, and that we shouldn't just spend our energy trying to go around them or pretend they're not there, we can't really become mature and emotionally healthy. He wrote this, when we avoid the legitimate suffering that results from dealing with problems, we also avoid the growth that the problems demand from us. And he makes this statement, most mental illness is some form of an attempt.
to avoid legitimate suffering. I think that's right.
So the lowest level, the least effective and lowest level that we try to deal with fear is we try to pretend like we don't have it. We try to just push it to the side, not even acknowledge it. And I think sometimes we do this in ways that it's squirting out of us. And this is, it's not just that we repress it, it also can be the way that it kind of manifests. And here's some of the ways I think about it.
And one might be in the statement, like, you're my problem. That when we Get into those anxiety-producing times, there's something in us that wants to shift it instead of saying, Okay, I'm anxious. And I need to bring this anxiety to God and bring my whole self to God. We have this tendency to shift. It's like the people of God who were brought out of their bondage in Egypt.
And they go into the wilderness, and next thing you know, they're having a hard time because they don't have the food they want, and they get anxious. And what they do instead of saying we're anxious, Let's come before God. Let's come for the comfort of the Holy Spirit and the reassurances that His Word brings us. Instead, they turned everything towards Moses and said, you did this to us. Why did you bring us out here?
We'd be better off in Egypt. And so, you know, watch that in your own soul. And when it happens to you, that oftentimes when somebody's saying, you're the problem, it's like the Pharisees that said, Jesus, you're the problem. They really were anxious about losing their own power. And so acknowledging anxiety is a way of helping us get away from all of the shifting of that anxiety by the pointing a finger towards others.
Or sometimes I think we can hide our anxieties by saying, I'm not afraid. I'm just angry, and I deserve to be angry about this. I think a lot of anger is actually fear.
So like for example, let's imagine there's a mom of a teenage girl and the teenage girl is going to go out one night and she comes down from her room and she's dressed just what the mom thinks is inappropriately, is too provocatively dressed. And maybe it is and maybe they need to have a discussion about that. But the mom is really mad. And then they have a big brouhaha over it like that. But what if the mom is actually really not so mad as she is anxious?
because she doesn't want her daughter to recapitulate some of the mistakes that she made in her own teenage years. Our anxiety often gets masked as anger. Or maybe it's, I'm not afraid, I'm just superior, I'm just better than you. This is like the root of prejudice and racism.
So, like, Ku Klux Klan, with all of their hate, I don't really think they had a hate issue. I think it's an anxiety issue, afraid of losing control, afraid of feeling inferior. Or we can hide our anger by like, I'm not afraid, I'm just tough. You know, I'm just not one of those emotional people. You know, like the man who's got a really callous, tough exterior and never shows emotion because it feels like it's a sign of weakness.
And I worry about that because um Sometimes what looks like toughness is a fear of intimacy. Or maybe we're hiding our anxiety by just saying, I'm not afraid. I'm just trying to get people in line. I'm just trying to get control so that maybe the nagging wife is not so much a mean person as she is a fearful person. Afraid of being unloved, afraid of being left without anyone caring for her.
I'm just talking about some of the ways that. We superficially, unconsciously refuse to acknowledge our anxieties. Archibald Hart, a Christian psychologist, has written a book called The Anxiety Cure. It's an older book. But I highly recommend this.
If you're struggling with anxiety, it's one of my favorite books where he deals with some of the science of what goes on chemically in your body. And he was uh one of the pioneers in understanding about how Stress hormones are affecting us. But he's It's very important early on, he says that when you are anxious, the first and best thing to do is acknowledge it. He writes this, don't fight your feelings of panic. Instead, work at resisting them.
There's a difference. Fighting your panic systems is likely, system symptoms is likely to make them worse. It increases the fight-or-flight response that's responsible for the anxiety. Brene Brown says this: when we deny our stories and disengage from tough emotions, they don't go away. Instead, they own us.
They define us. Our job is not to deny the story, but to defy the ending. I love that. To rise strong, recognize our story, and rumble with the truth until we get to a place where we think: yes, this is what happened. But I will choose how the story ends.
So Let's be done with the kind of denial It acts like that none of us, you know, we don't really have anxiety. We recognize it. We see this is what that is. And it's a wonderful Principle kind of nuts and bolts encouragement to you if you have when you have highly anxious times Pause long enough, take a deep breath. I go, okay, what am I feeling?
Okay, this is, I'm anxious. What am I anxious about? and begin to think of it like that. The second level that's inadequate of the way we try to face fear, I think, is what I'd call hushing the fear. That's to just try to do something.
Take something.
Something act some activity. that will just quiet the fear. Like, you know, if you go down to Calabash and order a shrimp platter, it's going to come with hush puppies. And hush puppies got their name because the sailors would take little bits of cornmeal fry and throw it to their dogs to get them to be quiet. Hush puppy, hush, hush.
And so I think this is one of the ways that we try to think we're going to deal with our anxiety is we just want it to hush and we'll give it almost anything to make it hush. And, you know, it could be substance. My substance, the choice, is Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I don't know what yours. You know, it is it could be almost any kind of substance.
And here's the thing: there's nothing wrong with a good, a good small portion of Ben and Jerry's ice cream or a Gary Deli hot fudge sunday, which is even better. And but you can't do this all the time and you can't do it very often. It won't be good for you, right? It will make you actually feel a little better for sugar will make you feel better a little bit for a minute, and then you won't. And of course, there are other substances, right, that are even more destructive.
Are there activities, or things that we look at, or things? These are ways, there's hush puppies. It's just like instead of actually getting healing for the anxiety, it's like we're throwing something at it. That's Alan Wright. and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series.
Do you ever feel like your heart just can't rest? Like no matter how much you try, peace always seems just out of reach?
So many of us wrestle with anxious what-ifs. leaving our hearts restless and unsettled. But Jesus offers us something the world cannot give. His own peace. The calm of his very heart.
This month's featured resource from Pastor Alan is the Untroubled Heart, a powerful digital bundle. including audio messages and a digital study guide. In this series, Pastor Alan unpacks Jesus' promise from John 14:27. I leave you peace. My peace I give you.
I do not give it to you as the world does.
So don't let your hearts be troubled or afraid. With practical insight and biblical encouragement, You'll discover how to quiet anxious thoughts and rest in Christ's peace that endures. When you give today to support Allen Wright Ministries, we'll send you the Untroubled Heart digital bundle as our thanks. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.
When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-500. Five four four 4860. That's 877.
Five four four four four four four four four four four four four four. 4860. or come to our website. PastorAllen.org Day's teaching now continues. Here once again.
is Alan Wright. A third level that I would say that's inadequate is what we're getting better, though, at it, and I'd say it's just handling our fears. And I'm for this, right? This is like coping. And there's nothing wrong with coping.
It's just that it's just not the end result. Like if you said, To me, Alan, can you see well? And I'm like, well, are we talking about with contact lenses? With glasses, are we talking without corrective lenses? And if you say, Can you see well?
And we're talking about with no corrective lenses. No, I can't see well at all. I can see the third row of you. But I would love God to just heal my eyes so that I don't even need any corrective lenses. My brother, Mark, I was talking to him, he wore glasses, and he retired early, about five years ago.
And he said, The strangest thing has happened. He said, I'm not looking at computer screens anymore. And he says, I went back to the eye doctor and said, You don't need glasses anymore. I'm like, well, woohoo, that can happen. I did, you know, and I'd love that.
But the fact of the matter is, I cope with my poor eyesight. And I cope very fine with it. I wish I didn't have it, I wish it were healed.
So handling it is not Healing it, but there are a lot of things that do help in handling anxieties. And I'm I'm in favor. Of all of that. And I think that's important. Listen, meditation is not an Eastern religion thing, it's a Jesus thing.
and mindfulness and being able to learn to live in a moment. That's a Jesus thing. Living one day at a time is a Jesus thing. And so learning how to breathe properly, I believe in that. In fact, if you have highly anxious moments, Sometimes just taking a real slow breath in, four seconds long through your nose.
Hold it for four seconds, deep in your lungs, and then breathe out. And through your mouth, and as you do, if you pray. Maybe As you breathe in, the Lord is my shepherd. I have everything I want. I have everything I need.
So all of these things are good. In fact, I can't remember who wrote it, but there was a recent book called Breath as Prayer. It's a good book. I'd recommend it to you.
So, this is all part of learning to. handle or cope with our fears. It's good, but it's not the same thing as healing it, is it? And then I want to mention a fourth level that, because I've seen it, Actually, I'm own life. But I've seen it in a number of lives as well, that I would call keeping the acceleration going, harnessing the fear.
And the name is ironic because it normally seems like a good thing to harness something and to ride it. Like a wild stallion, that finally you get a bit in its mouth, and then it can carry you where you want to go with greater strength. And I think that there's a way in which, consciously or unconsciously, sometimes. We essentially get addicted to our own anxiety. That sounds like a crazy thing to say, but I think it's a very real thing.
And Archibald Hart writes about this: there's a kind of addiction we get to our own adrenaline. But let me just give you an example from my own life that I'm so thankful I finally got to understand what was happening. Because I grew up with some shame-based thinking that led to kind of a performance mentality. Nobody ever told me, Alan, you got to perform or else you're not going to be loved. I just sort of breathed it in.
I just thought, well, I'm a good student, so I'll feel better when I make an A. And so I was really afraid of not succeeding. at something like like school. And because of that, I'm not talking about this, took me all the way through college like this. Because I'm really afraid of Not only not, I wasn't afraid of making an F, I was afraid of not making an A.
That's how perfectionistic I was. But because I was afraid of that, it would motivate me highly to stay up all night if I needed to to study for the test. And I was really good at that. I'd just stay up and just study, just cram my mind full and go in there and make an A on the test, and then just forget it after that, you know, because I wasn't really learning it. At all.
I laugh, I said, because I was an English major. They told me, they said, you ought to take British history. And so I took British history one and two. I just the teachers weren't it just wasn't exciting and I just I memorized every single monarch in the history of Britain along with their spouses and made the highest grade in the class and all I can tell you today is Henry VIII had a lot of wives, and that's all I can remember. But I got really good at letting that adrenaline-based, kind of anxiety-driven.
Thing, make me be a better student. And there's a little part of me that's like, if I didn't have that, would I even study at all? But do you see what I'm saying here? Could this actually be God's way for us to live? Is it, in a sense, we harness our fear and use it so that we could be more successful?
That's not God's plan. And it's ultimately very destructive. It's destructive to our bodies, and it's destructive to our relationships. It's not God's plan at all.
So I think all of those first four are kind of levels of trying to deal with fear, but the fifth that I would call healing our fear, this is what really in the end God offers. I think this is what Jesus is offering when he offered his own peace to us. My peace I give you. My peace I leave with you. This is what the offer is of saying the truth.
will set you free. This is not just living somewhat better while still in captivity. This is actually about freedom, and we're talking now about getting to the deepest root. of fear.
So back to my silliest fear anybody ever had. And I'm telling you, it was real to me. I thought when I was in second grade, I thought I'm not going to have a place to live when I grow up. That's a really sad thought, isn't it? But it was real to me.
I didn't talk to anybody about it. I assumed everybody else had the same fear because of the coming population bomb. that Paul Erlock wrote about in 1968.
So the way out of that fear is not going to be by denying that I had the fear. That is, you know, just trying to. Get rid of it in some form of denial, and it's not going to be in some way just trying simply to learn to cope with that fear. What we all could say of it is that no, that would be ridiculous. That's a fear that just needs to be healed.
And it's going to get healed. by the truth. And it's going to be a truth that's kind of a big part of you. This is the way I think of this. In Romans 10, 17, when Paul says faith comes from hearing, in hearing through the Word of Christ, what is the Word of Christ?
The word of Christ is truth. Jesus said in John 14:6, I'm the way and the truth and the life. That Jesus himself is the truth. And the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, is the Spirit of truth. And Jesus called himself the light of the world.
And he said, whoever follows me will not stumble about in the darkness. Jesus says that He is a kind of light, therefore, that is dispelling darkness, which is a metaphor for all that is deception.
So Christ is truth. and therefore all that is not truth is antichrist. Fear is a perversion of faith. Have you ever thought about this, that fear is not exactly what you'd say, the opposite of faith? It's just an inversion or a perversion.
It is a twisting around of faith. Because fear and faith are very similar in this sense. that they are both expressions of deep belief. Faith is an inward confidence. of a positive future, right?
and fear is an inward confidence of a negative future. Alan Wright, and today's good news message: the five levels of facing fear. It's from our series, The Untroubled Heart, and Pastor Alan is back with us here in just a few moments with a closing thought. Stick with us. Unlock the power of blessing your life.
Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing. It's free, and just to click away at pastoralen.org. Do you ever feel like your heart just can't rest? Like no matter how much you try, peace always seems just out of reach.
So many of us wrestle with anxious what-ifs. leaving our hearts restless and unsettled. But Jesus offers us something the world cannot give. His own peace. The calm of his very heart.
This month's featured resource from Pastor Alan. the untroubled heart. a powerful digital bundle, including audio messages and a digital study guide. In this series, Pastor Alan unpacks Jesus' promise from John 14, 27. I leave you peace.
My peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world does, so don't let your hearts be troubled or afraid. With practical insight and biblical encouragement, You'll discover how to quiet anxious thoughts and rest in Christ's peace that endures. When you give today to support Allen Wright Ministries, we'll send you the Untroubled Heart digital bundle as our thanks. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen Wright Ministries.
This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-500. Five four four.
4860. That's 877. Five four four four four four four four four four four four four. 4860. or come to our website.
PastorAllen.org Back here now with Pastor Alan Wright in the studio and the five levels of facing fear. And the big reminder Racha's here to hush it. This is complete. We're not trying to just cover it up. or merely just cope with our fears.
I think that God really wants us to have healing for our fears. And as we've been learning, the key to all of this. is truth. That If it's true. That What the scripture has taught us that.
there is a way in which Just understanding what is reality can bring freedom to us. If we can believe that, then we can understand the power. of exposing even the simplest lie. If faith comes by hearing, in hearing by the word of God. Then It makes sense that fear comes by hearing and hearing that which is anti-Word of God.
So if we can get. Those lies exposed, I think Bring the truth of God's word. This is the way we deal with our fears in the deepest way. What's the lie that's underneath your fear? Discover that.
and bring God's word. and replace it with the truth, you'd be surprised how much healing can come. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-557-1. 544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production.
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