The Bryce Crawford Podcast - How To Overcome Anxiety (EP 83)

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

In this episode, Bryce breaks down how to overcome anxiety with scripture and Jesus.

What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford podcast. I'm Bryce, and today, by the title of the episode, you guys know we're going to be talking about how to overcome anxiety. This is something that's near dear to my heart. And I want to share this before we get into this. This is the heart of every podcast episode we do, not just this one. I don't want you guys that ever think I'm preaching to you. Oftentimes the things I'm saying every time are stuff that I need to hear. So rather the podcast episodes, these are just an invite of things that the Lord is teaching me and things that I'm learning about myself. situations I'm going through.

And so today we're going to be talking about anxiety. God set me free of crippling anxiety right when I was 17 years old the moment I encountered the Lord. If I'd be lying to you if I told you that I don't have anxiety that creeps up on me. So we're going to look at scripture and what Jesus says about dealing with anxiety and look at a specific passage in the Bible where we see the disciples go through deep anxiety and what Jesus does about it. It's going to be super cool.

I'm going to end the episode in a unique, different way. but I'm going to pray into the episode just asking God to move in our hearts today as we listen to it. So Jesus, thank you for today. Thank for who you are. Thank you for the cross. God, thank you that all of our anxieties and worries,

you've handled it. Whether we like the outcome of it or not, you've handled everything. So God, thank you for that. We love you. Allow this episode to impact my heart and strength and my relationship with you alongside everybody else listening and watching.

God, we love you. Thank you. Praise you. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Guys, we're going to read into the Bible about how to deal with anxiety, but what exactly is anxiety?

Anxiety is directly correlated to fear and anxiety, I would describe it as the fear of an outcome of a situation, of a person of something. So anxiety could be correlated with something like, I don't have money to pay my bill. Anxiety could be correlated with, what is this person going to say about me at school?

Anxiety could be correlated with, where am I going to go after I die? We're going to cover all of this. The first scripture I want to talk about right now is Proverbs 1225 where it's laid out pretty clear. Anxiety weighs a man's heart down, but a good word makes him glad again. It is no doubt if you struggle with anxiety,

I think we can all universally agree that it is wear and tear on your mental and physical. I mean, it is no doubt. It does something to you physically. When you're anxious, you don't want to leave, you're worried, you're confused, you don't want to make the wrong move. So it's like you just want to stay in bed,

you want to rot, and it kind of can put you in a depressing mood. Anxiety can. And then mentally, like it just drains you, man. you just get tired physically and mentally, and it's so draining. And Proverbs is right, anxiety weighs a man's heart down. But I love the back half of this verse. He says, but a good word makes his heart glad again. What could a good word be?

There's no amount of self-help books that you can use to make your anxiety go away. There's no amount of alcohol that can numb the pain of your anxiety. There's no amount of drugs. There's no amount of sex that can numb the pain of your anxiety. So what is the good word that's going to make your heart glad again? The good word is the good. good news of the gospel, the fact that we have a suffering God that understands our anxiety, that understands our worry, because he lived in the sinful wicked world that we did, except perfection,

humbled himself and became a human and lived a perfect life in this crazy, sinful, suffering, wicked world. And then he died on the cross, defeating our anxieties, defeating suffering, defeating worry, defeating sin, all on the cross. And then he resurrected, resurrected from the dead, defeating death. defeating sin, defeating suffering, defeating anxiety. The good word is that. It's the gospel. The gospel has this generational impact from old to new.

It doesn't need to progress and adapt to society's culture, and it doesn't need to revert and retract or remove a little bit less. It has generational impact before us and after us to come. The gospel is good news every day. It's not something we listen to one time we go, all right, I know this. I don't need it anymore. No, the gospel is good every day.

And to be honest with you, the days that Bryce is having a suck. day, the days that Bryce is having anxiety creep on him, the days that Bryce sins the most, the days that Bryce is having a hard time, is the days that Bryce doesn't preach the gospel to himself. I have to preach the gospel myself every day. And this is a call to you. You've got to preach the gospel to yourself every day. The gospel is good news and the gospel love for Christ, love for what he did for us, should be our driving factor. anxiety, fear about the outcome of something, fear that no one loves me, fear that I'm not valuable, fear that I'm going to do this, fear that this is going to happen to me is all trumped by the fact that Christ handled it all.

Anxiety, directly correlated to fear, but this sphere can be fizzled out when we know the truth of who Christ is and what he's done for us. It's powerful. And that directly correlates to 1st Peter 5 and Psalms 5522. What have both of these scriptures stay in common? Cast your anxieties on the Lord. Cast your burdens on the Lord. What does it mean when the Bible says cast your anxieties and burdens on the Lord. It means give it to him. Here's a story from Luke chapter 8 that I think correlates well with these verses. See Jesus has to do his disciples, hey guys, we're going to go to the other side of this lake. They go, okay, they get on a boat, they start, they start sailing to the other side and the storm arises. Jesus is asleep. This crazy storm arises.

This is an app, blah, blah, blah. And they think that they're about to die and they wake up Jesus because they're like, dude, are you kidding me? You're asleep in the storm. What are you doing? Jesus, do something we're about to die. He gets up, he calms the storm. He calms the storm. and he looks at them and he says, why do you have little faith? Now, when we read this passage, we go, oh man, Luke chapter 8, man, why did Jesus, like that's kind of insulting? Why did Jesus say, why do you guys have little faith? No, the reason he asked that question is at the very beginning, before they get on the boat, he tells them that they are going to the other side. He goes, hey, we're going to the other side. They get on the boat, the storm comes, and they're not even focused

on the promise that Jesus has given them. They're focused on the storms and trials and the anxieties, so I'm about to die, what's going on? And Jesus, Jesus, says no no no it doesn't matter how hard the storm gets it doesn't matter how hard the trials get how hard you suffer if i've made you a promise i'm going to fulfill it i'm going to fulfill it and so when the when the bible tells us to cast our anxieties on god psalms 5522 cast our burdens on the lord it's saying give it to him because he's already handled it god thank you that you're a promise keeper thank you that you got this under control and thank you that you answer my prayers and my situations whether i like the answer or not god you've handled it thank you thank you

you for who you are, thank you for the cross, I love you, Jesus. That's what it means to cast your anxieties on him. Matthew 1128, Jesus says, come to me, all who are weary and heavy burden, and I will give you rest. The reality of anxiety and pressure is that you were never meant to build the pressure. The reality of this is that you were never meant to handle the pressure and anxiety, so give it to him. Jesus's yoke is easy and like, that's a crazy thing is the yoke was a farming tool that you put on it was like a heavy farming tool and whenever you're trying to carry this anxiety carry the burdens of your life carry your sin whatever it may be on your own it weighs you down but when it says take on the yoke of christ the yoke of christ is actually removing the burden of

anxiety and sin and suffering and giving it to him that's the yoke of christ putting on christ's yoke is actually giving him all your junk and that's what gives us rest knowing that he's handled it knowing that he is a perfect almighty God that humbled himself and came down on this earth so that he could bear the burden of because he did on the cross. And we got to give it to him. Why are we still carrying something that was killed on the cross? Why are we still carrying this junk that was killed on the cross and defeated when he was raised from the dead? Philippians 4, 6 through 7. I love this verse. We're going to break this down. Paul writes, now keep in mind where Paul is writing is from. Philippians is considered the book of joy and he's writing this from prison.

Okay. He says this, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything. By prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Stop right there before we read verse 7. What is he saying? He says, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, okay, not just anxiety, but with everything, prayer and supplication. There's a call for prayer and supplication. In importance of this, we made an episode on the Power of Prayer a while ago. You guys can go check it out, but not just for anxiety, prayer. praying to God and asking God to do something specific about your situation.

But specifically with anxiety, he's asking us to pray. Pray to God. Talk to an all-knowing God. There is an action step on us. Yes, God knows exactly what we're going through, but he wants us to go to him because it's personal and there's a relationship. Go to him, pray to him. What does supplication mean? Supplication literally means to ask God to do something specific about your situation. God, I'm anxious about this. God, do something about it. I'm your child. You said you would take care of your children. Do something about my situation. And then the back half with Thanksgiving. When we make requests known to God,

we do it without grumbling or moaning or complaining about our situation. Despite the outcome, whether it's what I want to hear or not, God, thank you for who you are, thank you for what you've done for me, and thank you for the cross and thank you that you've handled it. I love you Jesus. Amen. Let your request be known to God. Then verse 7, this is what I love about it.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ Christ will give you a peace that does not make sense to your brain, but will totally flood your heart with love and peace and tranquility and contentment. The peace of Jesus Christ will totally offend your brain. It does not make sense to your brain, but it calms and soothes your heart and makes your heart glad. I have a deep fear of flying.

I hate flying. I have deep plane anxiety. Daniel, Josh, Dylan, they all make fun of me. They crack jokes of me because we fly all the time and I have deep fear and anxiety of planes. It's like the moment I get in the airport, the day before the flight, when I'm on the flight. And I was flying back from North Carolina to L.A. with Daniel. And we were on the plane, and we had a really bad turbulence. And I'm not going to lie, I was freaking out.

I was gripping the seats on the handles. I got my eyes closed. I'm shaking a little bit. Maybe it might have shed a couple tears if I'm being completely vulnerable. And Daniel's cooling on the flight. And I'm freaking out. All right. I'm freaking out.

Now, why am I freaking out? It's because I'm afraid. I'm afraid of something that I can't control. I'm afraid of the outcome of the situation. and I'm talking to myself right now like, man, Bryce, I really need to hear this. And then there was a moment on the plane. There was no self-help book. There was no amount of fact.

So it's safer to fly in the air than it is to be on the highway. There was nothing that was helping me in my situation. And I literally go, I need my dad. I need my dad. I need my dad. God, I need you. God, I need you. God, I need you.

And then all of a sudden, I wasn't shaking and I wasn't gripping the thing. And I was calm. And my tears went from tears of fear. and sadness to tears of joy and gladness of, wow, God, thank you that in the middle of this thing that feels unconquerable, God, thank you that you give me this peace. And that was the moment. It was the peace that surpasses all understanding. The peace that just does not make sense to my brain, because Bryce is deathly afraid of planes, but I'm super calm and composed, not out of my own strength, but I'm calm out of the strength of the Lord,

knowing that despite the circumstance, I can't control it. God's got it under control. God loves me. You know, give me a peace. And all I had to do was just call on to him. That's a crazy thing. It's like when we go through things

and hard times or trials come, it's like, oh, let me call my friend or let me call my mentor or let me make a post on my private story on Snapchat about this to gossip about it. It's like we want to do everything first other than I need my dad. I really need my dad.

When anxiety comes, like, go to your dad, go to Jesus. God, I need you. God, this sucks right now. Do something about this. Man, this is awful. I mean, really, how many hours do you add on to your lifetime by worrying? You don't add any hours. It's like you lose time, you lose willpower, you lose strength.

And the reality of it is, like, there's no amount of worrying that will do anything about your situation. Like when are we going to understand that worrying doesn't do anything? Like Bryce, when are you going to understand Bryce that worrying doesn't do anything about your situation? Oh, where am I going to go when I die? Christ has paid the price. It's in him that we find eternal life. What am I going to do about money this month? God takes care of his children. Don't be greedy. Just trust in him that he's got it. God, I'm losing my friends. What am I going to do about friends? Find friendship in me. God. God just find friendship. friendship in me. Look for friends that love me. Good company. I will give you new friends. I will

mend your friendships. God, what do I do about my family? My family's broken. I can't do this. God, God, I got this for you, my child. I got you. That's why I want to close with Matthew chapter six. I'm not going to explain. I'm not going to break down what each word means and the Greek of this and that, whatever, like we did in Philippians. Instead of praying to close, I'm going to read this passage, and if you're watching this or listening to this, whatever you're doing, I want you to stop right now and let the words of Jesus Christ comfort you in the midst of your anxiety.

Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life. What you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body. what you will put on, is not life more than food and the body, more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns,

and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than that? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his lifespan? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the flowers. field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothed is the grass of the field, which today is

alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothed you, oh, you of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we where for the Gentiles seek after all these things and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. To close this episode, I just want to say, for someone personally that has struggled to anxiety for a long time and even had crippling anxiety

for a portion of my life. I always thought God was mad at me when I was anxious. And so whenever I heard the words, don't be anxious, don't be anxious. I thought God was shunning me for being anxious. But God isn't mad at you when you're anxious. When Jesus says, don't be anxious, he's not shunning you or scolding you.

He's actually saying, you don't have to be anxious. you don't have to worry. I've got this under control. So to you, my friend, that struggles with anxiety, like you don't have to be anxious. You don't have to worry. Trust in the unwavering

and the firm foundation of the words of Christ. He's got it under control. I love you guys. I pray this episode to encourage you guys. Be looking forward to next week's episode. We've got an amazing guest coming on. I love you guys. Subscribe to us.

on everything, Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Bryce Crawford podcast. I love you guys. Pray this and encourage you guys. See you guys in the next episode.