(upbeat music) - So we've been talking about anxiety and ADD in the last two episodes, episodes 281 and 282. And Pastor John, you wanted to talk specifically about physical forces on our lives and how to use natural strategies to both cope and flourish within our personal limitations and challenges.

- Right, this is huge to me. And I think I'm still learning about it. It relates to ADD, it relates to anxiety and anxiety attacks panic attacks, to the issue of whether they're sin or sickness or a mixture. And it might be helpful to lay out just a little bit of what I've learned about making the physical remedies or strategies spiritual.

And that's the way I think about it is, what makes the use of a physical strategy in coping or flourishing with ADD or anxiety attacks or any other problem for that matter, what makes a Christian experience Christian or spiritual when they use the things that the world would use?

And we all know that our spiritual condition is affected by physical aspects of life. Our souls are woven together with our bodies and our environment in ways that are complex, inevitable. God made us that way. We are souls with bodies. We always will be souls with bodies. We're not platonic trying to slough off our body.

We are gonna be raised as bodies and souls in the last day. And so this is huge. We are physical, spiritual creatures. And we know that our spiritual responses in life are treating people with grace, for example, is affected by sleep, food and nutrition, drink, whether water for hydration or coffee or alcohol, all those affect us.

Exercise affects brain chemicals are brought about by heavy workout, weather conditions with high and low pressure. When I was in Germany, everybody blamed certain traffic patterns on the food. This was a weather condition of certain kinds of pressures that made everybody more irritable, they thought. Inactivity, sitting around all day can make you listless and it has an effect on your mind.

A bracing walk on the beach or a peaceful chair by a sunset on a lake will have a different effect on your mood than if you're stuck in traffic all afternoon. Smells of new moon grass and pine woods and ocean spray and cooking bacon. I mean, you're talking about the things that just changed my whole outlook, right?

On life hormone replacements for women, for example, in menopause, things like that, iron supplements in your diet, and then of course, antidepressants. And so you see the whole range all the way from sleep to antidepressants. We are people who are affected by the physical strategies and physical remedies that we embrace.

And so the question that we ask is one that Paul asks, I think in 1 Timothy 4, 4 and 5, where he's referring to food and sex. And he says, "Everything created by God is good. "Nothing is to be rejected "if it is received with thanksgiving, "for it is made holy," so now he's thinking sex and food, "it is made holy by the word of God and prayer." So embedded in those two verses is the question, how do you take a natural thing that the world enjoys as well as we do and turn it into something spiritual or holy?

And here are my five steps for doing that, Tony. This may be, this is my best shot at trying to help a person practically think about sleep or antidepressants or the whole range of everything else in between that affects our moods and our spiritual condition. Number one, acknowledge this physical benefit that we are now getting, whether it's sleep or food or exercise or medication, acknowledge that this physical benefit is a gift of God, not just nature.

What do you have that you did not receive? Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4, 7. Number two, admit you are dependent utterly on God, totally on God, whether through a created help or supernatural, this is gonna make a difference. I mean, God can step in supernaturally and cause a difference, or he could use the natural means we're using.

John 15, five, "Without me, you can do nothing." And so we're utterly dependent on him. Number three, pray for his intervention through this physical means, or if he pleases, supernatural. Let all your requests be made known to God and the peace of God will keep your mind. So pray.

Number four, trust him to fulfill the promise of his help. This is where the rubber meets the road. I will help you, I'll strengthen you, I'll hold you up with my righteous right hand. So trust me, trust me that this is gonna make a difference and I'll help you through this physical means.

And then finally, number five, thank him for what he does. Give thanks in all of those circumstances. So, conclusion, whether it's sleep or coffee or exercise or antidepressants, this is how we take the gifts of God in the physical world and sanctify them for the sake of our souls.

- Yes, thank you, Pastor John. And thanks for listening to this episode. This episode follows two earlier ones on anxiety and ADD. Those were episodes 281 and 282, which can be found in the Ask Pastor John archive. Well, imagine you meet a young man who is a brand new believer.

He holds out to you his brand new Bible and he asks you where he should start reading this intimidatingly long and old book with no pictures. Where do you encourage him to start reading? I'll ask Pastor John that very question on Monday. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Have a great weekend.

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