Bible, Bros & Brew
Bible, Bros, & Brew is all about helping you navigate your relationship with God in practical, real-life ways. Hosts David and Phil dig into scripture—'chopping up the word'—and bring it to life with insights you can actually use every day. And while they’re at it, they share their favorite 'brews'—don’t worry, it’s not booze! Just a solid lineup of classic coffees and teas to keep the conversations flowing.
Bible, Bros & Brew
Q&A : Managing Thoughts, Environments, and Anxiety Through Faith
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Can you imagine how your thoughts shape your reality every single day? In this closing episode of our Thought Life series on Bible, Bros, and Brew, we tackle your pressing questions about the significance of our thoughts and the things we should consciously avoid worrying about. We start with our favorite brews—Stok Cold Brew, Peet's French Roast, Maple Bourbon coffee, and Paramount Roasters Pumpkin Pie flavored brew—to set a relaxed tone before diving into a vibrant Q&A session.
From the heart, mind, and mouth connection to the formation of mental strongholds, we cover it all, offering practical insights on maintaining a healthy thought life. David, Ryan, John, and Phil use the principles of scripture to delve into topics such as how your surroundings can disrupt your peace, the nature versus nurture debate, and the importance of spiritual maturity in finding true peace beyond comfort. Drawing inspiration from how Jesus maintained His peace even in disruptive environments, we offer advice on how filling our hearts with God's Word can help fend off negative influences.
This episode promises to equip you with practical tools to overcome insecurities and find peace in God's love.
gotbrew@biblebros.net
Q&A on Thought Life and Coffee
Speaker 1Hey everybody and welcome to this episode of Bible Bros and Brew. I'm David and, like any good boy band, I've got three other dudes with me. I've got Phillip up in the corner. Joining us again is Ryan Holdeman, yes, and bringing himself to the stage, as usual, is our producer, john, who's here on the ones and twos, creating the beat that we, the boy band, sing to. We are so glad that you guys have joined us.
Speaker 1Listen, for the last couple of weeks we've been talking about our thought life. We've been talking about what we should be thinking about, we've been talking about the things that we should not be worried or anxious about, and then we've been talking about strongholds, how they develop and what we need to do to deal with them. And then we wrapped up with the episode that's live now that you can listen to on your favorite podcasting app called the Heart, mind, mouth Connection. And there is a deep connection between what goes in your eyes, what goes in your ears, what comes in and goes out of your mouth, that goes into your heart and creates a harvest that then begins to impact and direct your life. So today we thought we would take some of the questions that we've had come in as we wrap up this thought life series that we've been working ourselves through.
Speaker 1So it's all Q&A all day on this episode of Bible Bros, and All right, everybody, welcome back to this episode. We are getting ready to chat about our thought life, but before we do, we've got to talk about what's going on in our drink life. Coffee is life, and if you don't have a cup now, you need some coffee, you need some hot chocolate, you may need some tea, but you need something, because it makes the sound of our voices go down better, that's right, make sure you grab something.
Speaker 1I'm going to start with you, phillip. What are you drinking?
Speaker 3I am drinking one of my favorites that I found recently in the cold brew world. It is our good friends at Stoke Assuming it's. Stoke that has that horizontal line over the O. Oh, nice Stoke cold brew and we like to do the extra bold because it just has a good flavor. Got it in my mason jar because I'm trying to do the whole Magnolia, Kip and Joanna Gaines situation and I'm feeling the vibe right now, Loving it man.
Speaker 1This is some good stuff. I love Stoke. I think it's a great coffee.
Speaker 3Yes, sir.
Speaker 2Great Brian what about you? What did you drink? Oh man, I've got my Pete's coffee today. We got the dark roast, the French roast it's real good. I got it over's coffee today. We got the dark roast, the French roast, it's real good. And I got it over the rocks in my little cup here. Come on now.
Speaker 3Yeah, cold brew crew. Yes, sir, that is so super fancy of you.
Speaker 1You got your coffee on the rocks, ladies.
Speaker 3Yes, coffee on the rocks, please.
Speaker 1John, what are you drinking?
Speaker 4I am drinking. Actually it's called maple bourbon. Delicious stuff, dude, mixed with some Irish creamer. I guess it's very simple, very simple flavors, Very delightful. You can find this stuff, I believe, in Lidl actually, so if you got one of those around you, it's definitely worth a shot. I also have a sweet tooth, so maple anything is delicious to me. Nice, what about you, mr David?
Speaker 1So I got enticed by Amazon of all places, Uh-oh. You can absolve me of my sin now. So I got enticed by Amazon of all places, uh-oh, so you can absolve me of my sin now. But I saw this coffee and got it in and I added it to my list of fall coffees that I just purchased. This is from Sweetie Pie, it's from Paramount Coffee Roasters and it's pumpkin pie. Ooh, okay, and tonight is my first time having a sip of this, and let me tell you Is this a live tasting?
Speaker 1It's a semi-live because I did sip it earlier because I didn't want to hate it publicly.
Speaker 2But yeah, this is really good.
Speaker 1It really does have that nice taste of pumpkin pie and it's also at a pretty good price when you buy it from Amazon. We'll share all of this all of the coffees everybody's drinking, in the comments section when this goes live, so you can grab a bag for yourself, all right? So we said we're going to do some Q&A this week about the thought life and what's going on up here, and you know I'm going to start with the first question and then we're going to turn it over to John, and John will ask the questions and Phillip and Ryan and myself will tackle the questions as many as we can get in in the time that we have allotted. But I want to ask you to you know, in all that we've talked about in the thought life, what is something that stood out to you in our discussion that's either made an impact with you or that's just stood out as something meaningful that you've carried with you over the weeks as we've discussed this? Phillip, I'll let you go first, or should I have made Ryan go first?
Speaker 3I'm going to ask Ryan to go first. I feel like I need to have his wisdom to precede my thoughts.
Speaker 2I don't know, I don't know if anything one thing has stood out to me. I mean, I I've enjoyed, I've enjoyed it all. You know, I don't know, I don't have any one thing right now. He kind of caught me off guard with that question.
Speaker 1You know, there's one thing I can say from you that you said that stood out to me. It was your definition of what a stronghold was. That was a really good and clean definition to help people to understand what a stronghold is, and we even got into a little bit of how those are developed and built over time. So, yeah, I thought you bought some good heat to the table with that one Amen, thank you.
Speaker 2I thought you brought some good heat to the table with that one Amen, thank you.
Speaker 1How about you, Philip?
Speaker 3I think the thing that stood out to me is probably just the process of how the Word of God works, in terms of how it's supernatural seed that goes into the soil of your heart.
Speaker 3It's how compatible it is with the human spirit. It's meant to feed our spirits, it's meant to be the nourishment for our spiritual life and from that you know, from planting the word in your heart, I mean it really is a spiritual farming process, because Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a man casting seed into the ground. It's mark four, you know. And he even told the disciples he said if you don't know this parable, how can you know any of the parables that I'm going to talk about? That's right. So that, in my mind, means that was a priority concept, you know. So, um, to me just learning, kind of reminding myself of that, even though I've read those scriptures for years or whatever, it's still good to to remind yourself that the system hasn't changed one bit. Even though life has changed, technology has changed god's ways and his system has not changed, he still operates by that same seed time and harvest system for planting the word and seeing fruit from the word in your life.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's good, philip, that's really good. I think if there's something that has stood out to me, it is that it's the need to be intentional about governing our thought life and not just letting anything that comes across your mind run free and being you know. I was thinking about how it says in first Peter chapter I think it's first Peter, chapter four how it talks about you know, be sober, be vigilant, you know, because your enemy Satan, satan roams around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He's not a roaring lion and he doesn't necessarily know whom to devour. Except I imagine that when we are less vigilant over our mind and we allow anything to pass through, we ponder anything, we start playing the mental movies about whatever comes through and we just let it all fall on our head. That makes us candidates to be devoured. And so that vigilance and intentionality have stood out to me as part of our discussion on this subject matter. That's good.
Speaker 1Yes, sir, john, you've got some questions there, so we'll let you ask the questions and we'll tackle.
Speaker 3And let me just also.
Speaker 1let me also say if you haven't had the opportunity to hear this, make sure that you go again to your favorite podcasting app. You can go to YouTube, you can go to Rumble and you can listen. There have been, I think, four. We did four discussions around the thought life. We did four discussions around the thought life. Take the opportunity to listen to those, because they build upon one another and I think you'll get a lot of good out of it.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 4All right, john, I hope y'all are ready. Um let's. I want to start off with the very general question, which is what are some factors that affect?
Speaker 2my thinking.
Speaker 1Good question. Who would like to go first? Well, that one got you written all over it.
Speaker 3The first thing that comes to my mind is entertainment choices. I honestly think it plays a far bigger role than we probably give it credit for. But the type of music you listen to on a regular basis, the type of shows you watch, movies you watch video games you play people underestimate how much of an impact those things have. Much of an impact those things have. And you always get pushback from people when you say these types of things, because you know there are organizations out there that for years have tried to bring this to the forefront and say, hey, you know, these lyrics to these songs can't affect the way young people think things like that.
Speaker 3And then there's always the groups on the other side that say, oh, give me a break, that's not true. You know, you need to tell me, if I listen to a song about somebody shooting somebody, I'm going to go out and kill somebody myself, and they don't really think that there's a connection there. But the thing that kind of you know, I guess the light bulb moment for me for this was what I thought about the entire advertising industry, about the entire advertising industry. If it's true that a repeated message has no effect on a person's thought, life or behavior, then every advertising agency on this planet should be bankrupt.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 3And every company who advertises is wasting their money. But we have seen it and there's case studies by the thousands of companies that spent money on ad campaigns. Think of geico, think of, you know, budweiser, all these major companies that that came up with clever ads or things that you know. Even that one from back in the day uh, the most interesting man in the world, I don't know. Know if you remember that campaign. It was from Dos Equis, the beer company, and their sales went through the roof, even though the commercials hardly had anything to do with the actual features of the beer.
Speaker 3But it was just because the repeated message, it was connecting to people emotionally. It was humorous stuff and that was enough to drive behavior, to have people start to consider hey, I might want to try this instead, this product over here instead. So in my mind, you know, these people aren't stupid. They understand the psychology of human behavior and that a message that's repeatedly brought before someone in a way that connects with their emotions or something that kind of triggers something in them, there's no such thing as it not affecting you in some type of way. I'm not saying that it can make you go out and do something, but I am saying that there's no such thing as it not having any effect, so that to me I is one of the biggest ones. Entertainment choices music, you listen to, things you watch on TV. If you're hearing those messages over and over again, you may not do the exact things that the song suggests or whatever, but don't think that it's not tilting your mind in a certain way to start to consider things. So just some thoughts there.
Speaker 1Brian, how about you?
Speaker 2I think that you know the major. You know, in addition to what Phil's saying, the major factors that affect your thinking is you know the. The simplest way I've thought about it is what environments are you putting yourself into?
Speaker 2And I think that that includes the you know, the entertainment stuff that you're feeding yourself the music, the movies, all that but it also includes the relationships you're surrounding yourself in and you know whenever you plant a seed, and you know whenever you plant a seed, the soil that that seed is planted in will determine what the outcome and what the fruit of that seed is. You know, phil has referenced it several times in the series Matthew, chapter 13, the parable of the sower, and that's so powerful to think about in your thought life, and so I think that's probably a major factor in the way that you think is what environment are you planning yourself in?
Speaker 1Yeah, I agree with all of you guys, but I want to throw something special in there, I think, something that will positively or negatively impact the way you think is the church you affiliate yourself with I believe in the entertainment, I believe in the relationship, and we're really talking about environments here, like Ryan said, and different types of environment.
Speaker 1I've been in churches where they don't teach the word and you are left out there to just believe whatever the pastor says is what's true. And we were literally right before we started listening to a pastor really speak heresy and say that morality is relative in this world. That's a pastor who said that in this world. That's a pastor who said that. And we know that if we believe the word, we know that can't possibly be true. So the place where you plant yourself to be fed the word of God first of all, you have to be responsible for planting the word of God in your own life but also the places where you affiliate yourself with as a member of the body of Christ are critically important that you choose well.
Speaker 2Amen.
Speaker 4I think you guys already kind of touched on it and you might have even answered it. But the next question would be why do specific environments affect a normally peaceful thought life? Why do specific environments affect?
Speaker 1a normally peaceful thought life.
Speaker 4Like I said, you might have already touched on the environment situation, but yeah, it's because they're bad environments.
Speaker 1Why? Why? Any environment where Okay, let Any environment where God's not honored is going to be a challenging environment for the believer.
Speaker 1That's good man, that's for the believer's thought life. Life. Now, remember, the Bible tells us, you know, just because the world is doing worldly things doesn't mean that we should separate ourselves from the world. God didn't separate us from the world. He left us in it and said be salt and light. Right, so we're supposed to be impacting a change in the world around us, but the reality is is that it's like Lot, you know and we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, I think you know it said that in Sodom and Gomorrah, you know, in that town and all the stuff that was going on.
Speaker 1It says that Lot's spirit, lot's whole spirit in him, the God-given spirit in him, was vexed. In other words, lot was. There was dirt being thrown on Lot's heart. There was soil being thrown on his heart of all kinds of junk, day in and day out, and it's hard to control it. It's like, you know, you don't know that when you go to Target, somebody is going to be cussing next to you. You don't know the things that people are going to say. You don't know you're scrolling through Instagram and something pops up that's completely violation, right? So we live in this world and we live in an environment that doesn't always honor God, and any environment that doesn't honor God has the ability to impact your heart and to impact your thought life in the way that you're seeing and thinking about things.
Speaker 3Yeah, absolutely, it's good, you know. And speaking on environments, it's like that classic argument of nature versus nurture, you know, like how much of how a person turns out is how they were, you know, genetically inclined or whatever it is, versus the environment that they come from. I'm just, this is my humble opinion. This isn't, this isn't biblically supported necessarily, but I I believe that environment has a much bigger role than than how your you know, how your genes may, you know maybe, or whatever the case is. I just, I just in my mind, it's like you know, you raise somebody around an environment of fear, anger, you know, oppression, whatever it is that's going to affect their soul, that's going to affect how they think about themselves, like an abusive home. You know, it's hard for me to imagine someone being raised by an abusive parent who is also a very confident and happy person. You know what I mean. It can happen, but most of the time it takes some extraordinary deliverance and effort from that person, even sometimes after they've left that house, you know, for the years following where they finally work out some of that stuff that they dealt with in their childhood.
Speaker 3So I definitely think that you can't discount, you know, like you're saying, david, I think it's great the way you put it an environment that doesn't honor God. It's hard to be spiritually productive in those types of environments. It's going to put a damper on your ability to, you know, keep your focus on the things of God. I mean, I don't care who you are, you won't be unaffected in an environment like that. Now, jesus did say you know, in this world you'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer because I have overcome the world, you know. So there is hope. It's not like you're doomed to to, you know, suffer in that environment all the time, but it does take, like you were saying, david, vigilance, staying on the word, filling your heart with the word um, so that that you have some tools spiritually to kind of combat that stuff that's good.
Speaker 4Ryan, did you have anything to add to the environment conversation?
Speaker 2yeah, I was just trying to think of like a time that not to do a Jesus juke, but a time when Jesus went into an environment and it affected his peace, maybe from the outside looking in. The first thing that comes to my mind is when he went into the temple and turned the tables an environment and it affected his peace. And maybe from the outside, looking in, you know, the first thing that comes to my mind is when he went into the temple and turned the tables. But then I thought about it.
Recognizing Conviction Over Condemnation
Speaker 2I don't think that affected his peace, because I think so often and I've done this guilty, I've confused my comfort with my peace and that's and you have to, just you have to be, and that takes maturing and takes time to separate your comfort from your peace, because when you're a baby, when you're comfortable, you're at peace. But as you get older and as you become a man if we're talking about Bibles, bros and bros as you become a man, you know, you just have to learn that your comfort isn't necessarily your peace. Sometimes your comfort is, is the, is the the enemy of your peace? Um and so, uh, the question is why do some, why do specific environments affect a normally peaceful thought? My, my thought of that is, you know, and I've experienced this too is that some environments or some encounters or some situations affect my peace because I'm being reactive versus proactive.
Speaker 2And most days I'm being reactive is when I'm thinking about myself and my expectation is it's about me today. My expectation is I don't want to work today. My expectation is I'm going to have a slack day. My expectation is I've earned it and really what all that results into is just the word pride. But when your expectation is I'm going to honor God today, there is nothing that can affect your peace. In fact, in stressful situations, you will live out the truth that God will give you a peace beyond understanding.
Speaker 2Phil, where's that at? Is that in Philippians? He'll give you a peace that is anxious. Causing that is fear. Causing that is whatever, just peace disrupting. And you will have a peace beyond understanding because your expectation is not set on you, because I don't know about you. When my expectations are set on me, that means they are set on the good parts of Ryan and the really bad parts of Ryan, the secure parts of Ryan and the insecure parts of Ryan and the really bad parts of Ryan, the secure parts of Ryan and the insecure parts of Ryan. And I'm here to admit there are more days than not that I'm setting my expectations on Ryan. And so then, when something tips the apple cart, then it tips my peace. But when I set my expectations on the kingdom and on the things of God and I set my mind on the things of God, then nothing can disrupt my peace. And I don't mean that as a condemning answer, because it can come off kind of that way.
Speaker 1But no, that's a convicting answer.
Speaker 3True.
Speaker 1John, can I jump in Because we do have a question from YouTube? Yeah, because, ryan, you just said something about you're not trying to condemn, and one of the questions that came in from the YouTube channel was how do you know what thoughts are conviction versus condemnation?
Speaker 2That's good.
Speaker 4Wow, Good one man David.
Speaker 1David, I was going to throw it back to Ryan first and let him compound the interest on that thought he just had.
Speaker 2Well, that's a great question. And how do I know what a conviction versus condemnation? And they can run very close together and they have. For me, I think it all has to do. In my response to it, um, is it making me think you know less of myself and putting me down, or is it pushing me to be closer to God? Because if it, if it, if it causes me to think down and focus in on myself and I'm a victim, then that's condemning. But if it convicts me, it pushes me closer to God.
Speaker 2You know, it's like the man that Jesus healed of the paralysis. At the end, he has paralysis his whole life. Nothing can cure him, so all he can do is beg. But at the end Jesus healed. In the story, jesus heals him and then Jesus says get up, pick up your mat and then go. And if that's what the word causes you to do get up, pick up your mat and go, you're victorious. You go, you move forward in life. You don't stay there, you don't stay on your mat, you don't stay begging for food or money. You get up, you pick up your mat and go.
Speaker 2And so that's how you know, and it and it to him if you put yourself in that man's position, that doesn't feel good, because all he knew he didn't even know how to walk there. People had to carry him to that spot every day. So it's uncomfortable for him to pick up his mat. He's never done that before. He's never gone anywhere else other than that spot his whole life or his whole adult life. You know what I mean. And so it's not conviction isn't comfortable, but it doesn't cause you to be a victim either.
Speaker 1And so I think.
Speaker 2if it causes you to be a victim that's how you know it's condemnation If it causes you to move forward in your life and move closer to God.
Speaker 1That's conviction, Good stuff, Jump on in Phil.
Speaker 3What Ryan said. I mean, that was a great answer, man, great response. The only thing I can add to it would be remember in Revelation, where it says that Satan is the accuser of the brethren yeah, and it said he accuses them before God, day and night. If you're over into that realm where you just hear accusations in your own mind, you know you suck, you're horrible, can't believe you did that. What kind of Christian are you? You know? Stuff like that? That's not conviction, that's, that's condemnation. Anything like Ryan Ryan nailed it basically just anything that's making this turning it back on you and making you feel less than making you feel, uh, you know, like you're the scum of the earth, whatever it is that is. That can't be conviction. Conviction is simply that signal that you're getting from the Holy Spirit. Oops, that was wrong. It's just there to alert you that you went off the path. It is not there to tell you how horrible of a person you are for going off the path.
Speaker 2And can I add just one more thing Remember, you know, remember the principle to you reap what you sow. So if you feel like you've been reaping condemnation, well then so conviction, and it's not to say like, go find people that are doing wrong and tell them they're doing wrong, no, no, no, or push people to the kingdom, speak words of life to people, encourage others and those that are around you. If you've been feeling condemned. Sow conviction. Sow life into those that are around you.
Speaker 1I think, if there's something I'd add, I would add that condemnation keeps you where you are. Conviction moves you forward, amen.
Speaker 3Right, yes, sir.
Speaker 1Remember Romans 8.1,. It says there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Praise God Because we're in Christ Jesus. We shouldn't even accept condemnation. That's right, because we know that's first of all not of our heavenly father, and we know how he works and he works in conviction. The challenge sometimes is that the two can come across so similar at times that you sometimes can lose sight. And that's when you ask yourself, like Ryan said, is this going to move me forward or is this going to keep me right here where I'm sitting? This going to keep me right here where I'm sitting Right? And if it keeps you right here where you're sitting, you need to rebuke that thing and let it go and go on forward with Christ.
Speaker 4Good stuff, man, man you guys are killing it. So far, so well. I want to tackle this other question that came up as well. Um, any quick tips on keeping vigilance mentally, or I guess, keeping mental vigilance I know you guys touched on it a little bit, but, uh, any tips and tricks, any helpful advice?
Speaker 1I. I have one, I have one piece for you. Stay in your word daily. Yes, sir, I mean, don't let the word become a hobby. Let it be a daily thing where you know the word says. You meditate on the word day and night, observing to do all that is written therein. I read and I'm in the word during the daytime. I'm in the word at night before I go to bed, so that I'm constantly applying the word. I'm at least reading it and taking it in and giving it a place in my life. And especially during a day where you get so many things going on within the world around you, you need a regular, consistent planting of the word in your life daily to help you to make it. You've got to have that.
Speaker 3Very true, that's good man. Yeah, vigilance, the very nature of vigilance, it implies effort.
Speaker 3You know, intentionality and effort. It's not something that's going to fall on you or, you know, it's not going to necessarily be a force outside of you acting upon you to make you vigilant. It's something that, honestly, I wish I could say it a different way, but it's an act of the will. A lot of times it's a decision that you make to say you know what, instead of me, you know, I don't know doing something kind of unproductive here, let me just take this five minutes, crack open my Bible and just get the word in front of my eyes for a little bit here. You know, I mean, it's not always easy to do and a lot of times you don't always feel like doing it. You know, sometimes it feels like the word is kind of stale, maybe when you're, when you're reading it, or it seems like nothing's jumping out at you In times like that, which I've had many, okay, many, many times like that. But in those times I always remind myself this is a process that God has put into the earth that works, regardless of whether I feel like it's working or not.
Speaker 3Correct Trust in that process of seed time and harvest. It's like the farmer who goes out and plants rows of corn or wheat or whatever. It don't matter what he feels about. You know the crops and how they're growing. If he's done the work, the results will be there. It doesn't matter what his feelings or emotions about it are, you know. So that's a huge, huge thing is don't let your feelings trick you, especially if you feel like there's nothing there. Don't let that trick you into thinking that it's not working. Trust in the system, trust in the process, because God I mean the Bible calls his word first Peter. It says incorruptible seed, it will produce Good.
Speaker 1Nice. Praise God, this was produce Good Nice.
Anxiety, Negative Thoughts, and Insecurities
Speaker 4Praise God, this was an interesting one. So does anxiety lead to a negative thought life, or is it the other way around? That's good Spicy one.
Speaker 1Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Yes, ryan, you look like you had something, yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, can I share my screen? I'm going to share this because I went to Matthew 625, or what scripture is it? Don't be anxious about anything, right?
Speaker 1And so.
Speaker 2I just wanted to see in the Greek what that word was. I thought it was kind of interesting. You know what it, what it says, so you know. Right here it talks about being divided into two parts, properly drawn into opposite directions. Yeah, this word anxious. And so you know I was thinking of, like math, you know, being drawn, subtracted, divided into two directions, and when you subtract a negative from a negative, then you get a negative. And so you're asking you know what is what came first, negativity or anxiousness, anxiousness or negativity? And when you're anxious it can cause negativity because you're being drawn into two separate directions and a house divided cannot stand. And so I just thought I don't know you guys can expound on this, but I thought it was. I know I didn't research this until when I saw this question come through, but I just thought it was very interesting that that word anxiousness means drawn into two separate directions.
Speaker 1That's good. I also like the second part of that Pull that back up for us, buddy, divided into parts, to go to pieces because pulled apart in different directions, like the force exerted by sinful anxiety, that's a significant definition, philip. I don't know. I'd love to hear what you think about this, because I'm thinking on this and I'm't know. I'd love to hear what you think about this because I'm I'm thinking on this and I'm not sure. I'm not sure.
Speaker 3You know it's interesting, man, when it says about divided into parts, go to pieces, pulled apart everything. It seems like it's this, like it's fragmenting that happens in your thought life. You know, you got some thoughts that are doing okay, some thoughts that are combating the other thoughts, and it's like this war going on in your own mind. It made me think of James 1 when it says a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. And that word double there, I think in the Greek oh, man, don't quote me on it, but in the Greek it means like, uh, almost the same thing, like split between two or something like that. Um, but to me, the instability which that's what anxiety really boils down to, you don't feel stable you know, um, that's somehow.
Speaker 3It's become that way. Because of divided thoughts, you know, fragmented thoughts. You're allowing more than one type to have dominance or to have a place in your mind. And the only way and I know we may sound like a broken record by the end of this podcast, but the only way to really combat that is loading your mind up with God's word, like inundating yourself. I don't even know that there's a level called too much when it comes to God, to be honest with you, because, man, when you think about the craziness that can grip your mind and your heart, when you've dealt with anxiety, which I have dealt with before, I've dealt with anxiety, panic attacks, that's a whole other episode. We could probably get on there, man, but I had to inundate myself with God's word. That included even when I was going to sleep at night.
Speaker 3I would put on the. I had a this is back in the old school days the Bible on CD. I would play. Yeah, put that bad boy on repeat and play the CD, the Bible CD, all night long, dude. And the Bible says in Ecclesiastes while my body sleeps, my spirit yet waketh. You know so, even when you're physically asleep, your spirit, it's not dwelling in the same realm. So you can. It can still receive things, and even in science has even proven that your brain records everything that happens that goes through these five senses. Even while you're sleeping the brain has recorded every sound. You hear everything, and so to me it's like load your spirit up with the word man when it comes to that stuff, because you don't realize sometimes the forces that you're battling um, it's, it can get intense and you need as much ammunition as you can get for sure.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's good, you know, as I sit here thinking about it, um, I think that the, uh, john, the question, what would the question again is it does do anxious thoughts which, oh sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 4Does anxiety lead to negative thought life or is it the other way around?
Speaker 1Anxiety is part of a negative thought life. Yeah Right, it's not a precursor to, because the Bible tells us to be anxious for nothing, precursor to because the Bible tells us to be anxious for nothing. And we looked at Matthew, chapter six not last week, but I think the week before where we saw that it said don't worry about what you're going to eat or what you're going to drink or what you're going to wear, because your heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things, right? So God says he has the plan for anxiety. If you're functioning in anxiety, then that means the negative thought life already exists. So that's had access through some portal and you have to, like Phil was saying, take opportunity to remove anxiety and literally to pull yourself back together and walk stably. That's good, or someone can walk soundly. So, yeah, I think that it's a sign of negative thinking, which means you need to find out what is the thought, how is that thought getting in, that's causing you that anxiety.
Speaker 3Come on.
Speaker 4That's good stuff. So kind of to segue into the next thing. The question is how do I let insecure thoughts of myself go to sit in the security of who God says I am, I know, he is, I know?
Speaker 3who he says I am, but insecurities seem louder. Wow, wow, been there, done that Twice and wrote a book. And not to minimize whatever this, you know things this person has been through. But you know, we all have our own experiences at different levels. But I can tell you, man, I know that feeling and I know those thoughts and it's like sometimes you feel like the voice that's insecure, the voice that's condemning, the voice that's, you know, wants to tell you that you're not worth anything. It seems to be a lot louder and stronger than the other voice.
Speaker 3The thing that I go back to. This is an old phrase too. It says feed your faith and starve your doubts to death. I don't know if you've heard that before. Again, broken record by this time, but inundating yourself with the word of God. If you think about how Jesus dealt with Satan in the wilderness in Matthew I think Matthew 4, maybe all he did was respond to Satan's temptation with the written word. Everything that Satan tried to come at him with he came back with. It is written da, da, da, da. He even said it. You know, in that way it is written blah, blah, blah. And he did that on purpose, to show us he was doing it as an example for us how we should live when we are inundated with those kind of insecure thoughts.
Speaker 3We got to know Ephesians 1, 6. You know what God's made me accepted in the beloved. You know, I am not what some idiot said that I was, or some person who doesn't love me say that I was. I am what God says I am. And you have to get to that point of what we call you know, true humility, which is agreeing completely with God. Say it, phil, that's good.
Speaker 3True humility is agreeing completely with what God says about you, and about everything else for that matter. And so if he told you that you're accepted in the beloved, the humble thing to do is to say, yep, that's right, I am, you know. If he told you I'm more than a conqueror, well, that you're more than a conqueror through Christ Romans 8, 37, then doggone it. That's who you are. You know to humble yourself, the way, biblically speaking, is to agree with everything God has said about you and to not accept the things that don't line up with what he said about you. So it takes work, it takes time. So it takes work. It takes time, it takes patience with yourself.
Overcoming Insecurities and Seeking Help
Speaker 1You know, and it takes digging into God's word to find those scriptures and to have them in your toolbox, you know, and to speak them. Because you have said, you know I know blah, blah, blah and I know blah, blah, blah, but I'm like, do you know, is such an important part, it's the crux, it's the critical piece in this mix. Because you know, I've struggled in my life and you know I've said, you know, for a period of time I've been struggling with this concept, that I have done so much bad stuff in my life that I have struggled with the concept of God loving. And I said to myself, you know, I know God loves me, but you know what that was really almost like. It was really almost like I know God loves me.
Speaker 1And that communicated something so casual. And it also communicated that maybe I didn't believe it like I said I did, because the reality is is, if I believed that the way I said I believed it, then the conflict of the things that I've done. I'd be more like Paul who could say I've wronged no man, but I've moved forward to the things that are in front of me. I pressed towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, rather than pondering the thing that's in the past. Yeah, and it's so interesting. I was just listening to something about the screw tape letters today and I was reminded that one of the things that the uncle was saying to the young demon is to keep them caught up in their past but if you can get them worried about the future, because the past is finite but the future is infinite and if
Speaker 1you could keep them worried about those things, that would be great, but never let them come to the place where they're focused on now, because now is where the divine is and that's just. It's an amazing thought, but I would challenge you to really make sure that you believe what you say. You believe about yourself, because sometimes we don't. We know what the word says about us, but do we believe what it says about us and not everybody else but me specifically?
Speaker 1yeah, yeah it's good, man, that's good john I think we could do maybe one more after this one, after Ryan. Ryan, you want to add to that?
Speaker 2Yeah, just a little something, you know. The question says how do I let insecure thoughts of myself sit in the security of who God says I am in? This is coming from a very insecure person who's let his insecurities get the best of him, I mean day in and day out. I mean really and truly. Um, but if I have to be honest with myself, I've thought this too, like I've got to, you know, just let my insecurities rest in the security of God, and I now that, uh, I'm working through those things. God does not want my insecurities to sit anywhere.
Speaker 1He wants me to serve.
Speaker 2He wants me to surrender them and if I I've let my insecurity sit, but it was because I was so prideful to let them go. If I was being honest with myself, it was because I wanted to hold on to them. I don't like this or I don't like that or this part of myself, whatever, and things that made me insecure. But if I was being honest with myself, I was holding on to him because I was arrogant and prideful and I wanted to fix them myself. But God does not call you to let them sit. God calls you to surrender them and let them go all the way. You cannot let your insecurity sit anywhere, not in the security of God, not in the security of your own hands, nowhere. You have to surrender them and crucify them on the cross and then you will start to believe what God says. Because the next part of the questions I know who he says.
Speaker 2I am, but my insecurities seem louder Whenever you say no to something.
Speaker 2You have to have something bigger that you're going to say yes to.
Speaker 2If you're going to say no to those insecurities, they're going to seem loud because you're saying no to them no different than saying you can't have a cookie out of the cookie jar. Those insecurities seem so loud because you're finding something yes to say or something to say yes to and you have to has to be bigger than your insecurity and so and so if it's you're trying to lose weight, your yes can't be because you're going to please everyone else, because you're going to find the insecurity of that. If you're going to try to lose weight, it has to be because I want, I need more energy to do what God's called me to do. That's a bigger yes, it's internal. If you're going to say, well, I don't like this little mark on my face, well, you got to find something bigger to say yes to that, and I don't know what that is. But if you're going to say no to something, you have to have something bigger to say yes to and don't just let it sit. You have to crucify it.
Speaker 1You know, ryan, to say yes to and don't just let it sit, you have to crucify it. You know, ryan, you've said something twice now that has poked me, and it's this concept. You've used the word pride a couple of times now and I haven't thought about up till you, as you've been saying it, the impact of pride on the thought life. Yeah, and I think that we're not going to tackle it right now, but that's something worth exploring, exploring, as you've mentioned, two things now that I'm like, yep, that was my pride there. It is right there, that's really good.
Speaker 1That's really good Amen.
Speaker 4To finish tonight and to kind of wrap things up a little bit, I want to ask at what point does someone need to seek counseling or medical help when it comes to fear, anxiety and those types of thoughts?
Speaker 1wow, I know what my answer to that question is. What is it, david? Anytime you need it, you literally don't have to wait for things to get out of control to find somebody to talk to.
Seeking Faithful Help for Mental Health
Speaker 1That's good To find somebody to work through what you're struggling with. Honestly, I would say don't be like me, because there have been times where I have really felt like I needed to talk to somebody, and I can talk to my wife about things, but there are some things that you know. Sometimes, as a man, you may feel like you need to get together before you go trying to talk to your wife about it. There have been times where I have just felt out of control of things. I have had fear and anxiety take such a strong hold in my life and I have needed help to get through and to get over those things, and so I don't think that there is any shame whatsoever in seeing a therapist going and talking to your pastor or having a close, mature Christian friend who can help you to walk through those issues, because think of it this way the sooner you get those obstacles and strongholds out of your way, the further you can go faster yes, sir that's good, yes sir, I think it's worth the time and the effort.
Speaker 2Don't wait, don't hesitate yeah, there's really much more to add to that, david. I think, yeah, I think in our minds that we really build up this, that there needs to be a line of demarcation before we go and get professional medical help. But I agree, and I think it's being more and more stigmatized in our culture today that there's not really condemnation. It's becoming more and more normal in our culture today. There's not really condemnation. It's becoming more and more normal in our culture today, which I think is a good thing. But, yeah, there's. If you know, when do you need someone to tell you to go get an oil change?
Speaker 2You know what I mean Like um so yeah, I mean, it'll just make you. If you feel like it's going to make you better, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. And there's no line of demarcation to say now, oh, now you've hit the, you know you've hit the thermostat level, so it's time to go get medical help. You know you're right and you know when there's no like, oh, you're beyond help, that's when you need to go get professional help, oh, you're beyond the pastor, and all that. No, no, no, If do it now, you know what I mean. And um, there's nothing to get to those places, right, Right, Exactly.
Speaker 3That's good. That's good Absolutely. The only thing that I would caution is um try to keep it within the bounds of your faith in terms of who you enter into that type of relationship with, in terms of a therapist or something like that, because not everybody has godly counsel. You know, they may have good counsel, but sometimes it can come from some wacko, sometimes it can come from some wacko ideas. That may not necessarily be, you know, I don't know. I guess even more than that, some professionals would rather medicate you right off the bat.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 3And I think you do have to watch out for that, you know. If it's just a thing where they tell, okay, tell me about your this, me about your this and that, okay, okay, well, here's three prescription drugs for you to get on, hopefully they won't interact with each other the wrong way and screw you up, you know, I I think you got to definitely be be mindful of that. I think it's better, like what david said, find someone to talk to first, just sometimes there's, there's healing just in letting things out. I think that's underrated, to be honest with you, just finding somebody that you can, for lack of a better term, you can just dump on. That may sound bad, but sometimes it's needed.
Speaker 1And.
Healing Through Community Support
Speaker 1I'm not trying to disparage those who are in those fields, but you just don't want to set yourself on the wrong course with someone who may not necessarily have your best interest at heart. If that makes sense, right, I'd say look for a Christian counselor when you can. There are a lot of good local churches that have counseling centers now that are connected with them. That may be of help to you. But in all of this thing, just like, even if you were in the world, you would do your due diligence before you went to any doctor there you go you should do your due diligence.
Speaker 1Yeah, phillips, right, sometimes. Sometimes we just need to shine the light on that thing that's been hidden in darkness, that we've been struggling with. And so allow people around you to become brothers and sisters to you and be a part of helping to heal what's hurting inside of you.
Speaker 3Yeah, yep, absolutely.
Speaker 4Man, that's. I think that'll be. I think think that'll be a great way to wrap up tonight's episode. Man, Just so you know, there are plenty more questions down the line. If only we had the time tonight, Definitely. As for you guys, I definitely encourage you guys to keep shooting us those questions, Keep letting us know, keep keep talking to us. We love having these conversations, we love being able to be, a part of those conversations with you guys.
Speaker 4Um, if one of y'all, I guess, if y'all don't mind, uh, having this conversation be prayed out at the end, um, I'll lick myself If that's what I guess. That's what is being led to right now. I'll lick myself if that's what I guess that's what is being led to right now. Let me go ahead and close this out real quick. I threw it out there and I realized nobody had their hands open for me, see that's a perfect example of conviction.
Speaker 1You knew you were the man from the very beginning, when you started saying it.
Speaker 4Yes, man, I set myself up for that.
Speaker 3Yes.
Speaker 4Dear Jesus, we praise you, god, we worship you, lord, thank you for your insight, god, thank you for your peace and for your understanding. Lord, I pray for anybody listening, anybody contemplating these conversations. Lord, I pray that they come to find you first, god. They seek counseling, god, in you, god, that they seek comfort, whatever situations they're in. Lord, you know our hearts and you know our minds. God, you know our thoughts and we just can't hide from you. God, I pray that you'd convict us to stop lying to ourselves, convict us to reveal our thinking to you and have those conversations with you, god, to let our pride down. Jesus, I pray that you lead all of us closer to you in our thinking and our acting and everything that we do. Jesus, I pray that you bless us. God, bless everybody here, bless everyone listening and watching In your holy name we pray amen, Amen.
Speaker 1Well, everybody, we're so glad again that you joined us today. We hope that you got even just a little bit of inspiration out of these questions and our conversation. I want to thank Ryan for joining us again tonight.
Speaker 1Thanks for having me Wisdom to the table and helping us out. So much you know. Don't forget you can connect with us on social media. We're out there on Instagram and Facebook, so make sure you stop in and say hi, make sure you subscribe and like our pages. We are always putting out content, snippets from the show and other things out there, just to keep you encouraged and to keep you caffeinated throughout the the week. So, um, uh, by the way, ryan, you'll be happy to know, this week I put out the coffee of the week. We do a coffee of the week every week and this week's coffee of the week was a tea.
Speaker 1Ryan got all over my case about it it was sleepy time tea.
Speaker 2That's opposite of coffee. It was sleepy time tea. That's opposite of coffee.
Speaker 1I've opted to change it from coffee of the week to brew of the week, right? So next week's brew will be a coffee, though, so I guess it won't matter. But, yeah, join us for things like that, where we can help you get connected to the coffee you need to help you to stay sane in a strange world. Also, don't forget, you can reach us on social media by using the comments section, leaving us a note, but you can also reach us by email at gotbrew, at biblebrosnet. Shoot us over a note, let us know you want to talk about something, you've got a question or anything like that. We'd be happy to do our best to be of assistance to you Until next time. I'm David, he's Phillip, he's Ryan, that other guy in the corner with the yellow shirt on is John, and we are out of here.
