ACBC Counseling Exam 6 - Fear Anxiety Worry

00:00:00.000 | and that you are walking closely with our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and finding

00:00:05.280 | much joy in your relationship with Him. This has been a great blessing and a great privilege to be

00:00:12.000 | able to study God's Word with you, and we're working our way through some very important

00:00:16.880 | counseling issues that we trust that you will dig deep and study well on these topics. They will

00:00:24.560 | serve you well in counseling ministry for years to come, and it's just a privilege to study with you

00:00:30.720 | in this online format. And so tonight we are looking at the subject of worry, anxiety,

00:00:38.320 | and fear, the WAF combo, as we called it in our year one training. Worry, anxiety, and fear tend

00:00:49.200 | to go together and are really used interchangeably in the Scriptures. I guess there's someone who

00:00:56.080 | could possibly say that I'm really worried, but I'm not anxious at all, or someone might try to

00:01:03.040 | say that I'm really, really anxious, but I'm not afraid, but I think all of you would agree along

00:01:08.960 | with me that if you are worried, you are most likely also anxious and fearful, that those three

00:01:16.800 | terms tend to go together. And we made an argument in our year one training that the WAF combo, the

00:01:24.160 | triad, is really dealing with a cluster of sins that need to be addressed biblically, and we want

00:01:34.480 | to do our best to do that, to give hope and help from God's Word. And I trust that you will be

00:01:42.240 | equipped to help people change in this area. Just an introductory comment as we began before I go to

00:01:51.680 | prayer. The Bible does give so much hope and so much comfort to those who are anxious, to those

00:02:00.400 | who are afraid. John 14 verse 25, Jesus said to his disciples, "These things I've spoken to you

00:02:10.400 | while I am still with you, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,

00:02:16.800 | he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace

00:02:23.040 | I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you.

00:02:28.320 | Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." And I often think to this

00:02:36.400 | last evening that Jesus spent with his disciples in the upper room, and how

00:02:40.960 | they were tempted to be anxious, they were tempted to be afraid, they were facing the prospect of

00:02:48.880 | life without their Master. As Jesus has told them, "Then I'm going away, and where I'm going

00:02:53.920 | you cannot come." And Jesus speaks to them these words of comfort, these words which speak peace

00:03:03.120 | to their souls, and he promises them that there will come the Helper, the Holy Spirit, who will

00:03:09.360 | bring his peace into their lives. And I just think that the tenor and the tone of Jesus's

00:03:16.320 | loving words to his disciples ought to mark and characterize our ministry as biblical counselors,

00:03:24.160 | especially as we minister to those who are anxious and weighed down by life's troubles,

00:03:32.480 | that God has given to us his Holy Spirit, that we may experience the peace of God,

00:03:37.920 | that Jesus the Prince of Peace has died on the cross and risen again, that we may have objective

00:03:46.320 | peace with God our Father, and because of that we can experience the peace of God which surpasses

00:03:54.320 | all comprehension, and we can face the future with courage and with assurance, knowing that

00:04:04.880 | our Father will never leave us or forsake us, knowing that the Son has died in our place for

00:04:10.640 | our sins, and that the Holy Spirit lives in us and will produce his sweet fruit in us as we walk

00:04:18.960 | by his influence and his leadership day by day. I just think that we as biblical counselors have

00:04:26.560 | so much hope and so much help to offer those who are anxious, those who are afraid, and if you look

00:04:32.400 | at this subject from the standpoint of secular psychology, you will find that so many of what

00:04:38.960 | the world calls psychological disorders really center around this triad of worry, anxiety,

00:04:47.440 | and fear. You have everything from social anxiety disorder, those who experience great anxiety in

00:04:56.480 | social settings. You have the issue of PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, those who have

00:05:05.440 | experienced traumatic events in the past and who in some sense relive that past experience due to

00:05:14.080 | certain events that happen in the present. You have the issue of obsessive compulsive disorder or OCD,

00:05:24.560 | those who seek to deal with their anxieties and their fears, their worries through repetitive

00:05:31.520 | behavior. They seek to control their lives or control a certain situation,

00:05:36.960 | and you have what the psychological world calls generalized anxiety disorder.

00:05:42.240 | Just a whole host of psychological symptoms and what the world calls disorders that really center

00:05:51.600 | around the triad of worry, anxiety, and fear, and as Ed Welch has said helpfully in his book

00:06:01.440 | "Running Scared" that the most common command, the most repeated command in the scripture is

00:06:08.960 | what God says to his people, "Do not fear and do not be afraid." He always attaches that

00:06:17.360 | commandment with a promise that the Lord has promised to be with us. He has promised to provide

00:06:24.560 | for us and therefore we have every reason not to be afraid and not to live in fear. So we just have

00:06:31.840 | so much help and hope to offer on this subject. So whether you are counseling someone who is dealing

00:06:38.400 | with insomnia, just the inability to fall asleep due to anxieties and the stresses of life or

00:06:46.880 | possibly counseling someone who is involved with a business and who is just being driven to

00:06:52.720 | overwork and experiencing what Psalm 127 calls anxious toil, just this anxiety mixed with an

00:07:03.280 | overworked type of lifestyle that results many times in burnout and exhaustion or whether you

00:07:11.600 | are dealing with someone who lives in the fear of man. Ed Welch has a great book out called "When

00:07:19.760 | People are Big and God is Small" dealing with the desire to be a people pleaser or a desire to

00:07:29.120 | live in fear of man. Just a whole broad section of counseling issues are addressed by

00:07:38.400 | worry, anxiety, and fear. And I do trust that you will be well equipped to handle this issue,

00:07:44.320 | that you will study the scriptures thoroughly as it relates to worry, anxiety, and fear, that you

00:07:50.800 | will study both the Old Testament and the New Testament teaching on this subject, and that you

00:07:57.040 | will be well equipped to help people walk with God through the trials of life. The answer to worry,

00:08:06.560 | anxiety, and fear is not behavioral modification. It's not just telling people stop doing that or

00:08:16.080 | stop being afraid. The answer to worry, anxiety, and fear is to help people walk with their God

00:08:23.600 | through the issues of life. Help them walk with God their Father. Help them know the provisions

00:08:30.480 | of Christ their Savior. Help them to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And then they will experience

00:08:37.680 | what the Old Testament calls the shalom of God. Not just the absence of anxiety, but the presence

00:08:45.920 | of God's blessing and a wholeness of life that comes through the knowledge of God as revealed

00:08:53.920 | in the scriptures. That's something that secular psychology cannot offer. We offer people a

00:09:01.520 | relationship with God through Christ our Savior. And so we offer the world what the secular world

00:09:11.120 | can never offer. So just a great topic, and we'll dive in in just a moment. But let me pray for us

00:09:18.160 | and ask the Lord to bless us in our study. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you indeed are the

00:09:24.800 | God of peace. We thank you that you have sent the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ, into this

00:09:31.600 | world to be the sacrifice for our sins. And we thank you that your Holy Spirit gives us peace,

00:09:39.200 | that the fruit of the Spirit is indeed the peace of God. We thank you that as we trust in you and

00:09:47.360 | as we walk with you through the issues of life, that you indeed give us the peace of God which

00:09:54.640 | surpasses all comprehension. And we pray that we as counselors will be filled with your peace,

00:10:02.320 | and that we would be able to minister your peace to others. Help us to come alongside those who

00:10:10.000 | are weighed down by life's anxieties. We think of so many in our churches who are just

00:10:15.280 | weighed down by the worries and the stresses of life, and we pray that you would help us to

00:10:20.160 | bring to them the hope that is found in your word. And so we thank you for this time, and we pray this

00:10:25.440 | in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, let me go ahead and read the counseling exam question for you.

00:10:34.320 | This is counseling exam number six, and the question is, "Provide a biblical definition

00:10:39.520 | of anxiety and fear. Describe manifestations of anxiety and worry in both the inner and outer man.

00:10:48.480 | Explain the biblical factors that drive anxiety and fear. Detail several biblical strategies to

00:10:56.720 | respond to anxiety and fear." So, you see the W-A-F triad right there in the question. Even

00:11:05.280 | the question itself is using the words anxiety, fear, and worry interchangeably. And so in your

00:11:13.440 | essay, you can go ahead and note that and use those terms interchangeably, and this question

00:11:21.520 | is addressing that triad of worry, anxiety, and fear. You'll notice that there are four parts to

00:11:28.880 | this question. It breaks down nicely into a four-paragraph essay, if that's how you want to

00:11:35.280 | approach it. Give a definition. Describe the manifestations in both the inner and outer man,

00:11:42.160 | and then we'll talk about some of the biblical factors that drive anxiety and fear and end with

00:11:49.040 | some practical helps to ministering to those who are seeking to overcome anxiety and fear.

00:11:58.000 | If you look at page one of your handout, I just noted there are some good resources that you can

00:12:04.400 | use in your study for this exam question. I know that you're not going to run out and get all of

00:12:11.280 | these resources, but I do want to commend them to you for further study, and I do think that as you

00:12:18.480 | work your way through the counseling ministry that you will want to do further research,

00:12:24.880 | further reading on the subject, and just deepen your understanding of worry, anxiety, and fear.

00:12:31.840 | The first book you have there is Marshall and Mary Asher's The Christian's Guide to Psychological

00:12:37.200 | Terms, which I have recommended for your reading in year one. The Asher's have actually some really

00:12:46.080 | good definitions as it relates to this particular topic. If you look up the definition of panic

00:12:53.840 | attack in that resource, or if you look at the definition of obsessive-compulsive disorder,

00:13:00.080 | or if you look at the definition, I believe there's a section there on social anxiety disorder,

00:13:07.120 | you will find both the secular description of that disorder, and you'll find the biblical

00:13:14.400 | terms that are related to that issue, and they do have some helpful definitions there that

00:13:23.280 | you might want to quote and use in your essay exam, so just a great work that I would commend

00:13:30.400 | to you and would recommend that you have on your bookshelf. Elyse Fitzpatrick's work,

00:13:36.640 | Overcoming Fear, Worry, Anxiety, Becoming a Woman of Faith and Confidence. Some of these resources,

00:13:45.120 | they are written for an audience of women, but that particular resource is really a helpful one

00:13:52.160 | and both men and women will benefit from that material. She has some really good resources

00:13:59.200 | there or some language there talking about how to put off unbiblical thoughts about the future

00:14:06.640 | that lead to anxiety and fear, and then putting on the thoughts which lead to peace and lead

00:14:15.200 | to confidence in the Lord. So, I would recommend Elyse Fitzpatrick's work to you. John Piper has

00:14:20.960 | a chapter in his book, Future Grace, that's entitled Applying the Purifying Power of Faith

00:14:28.480 | in Future Grace vs. Anxiety. The thesis of that book is that you can apply the promises of God

00:14:36.480 | to specific sin issues and that the issue behind many sin issues is really an unbelief in the

00:14:46.480 | promises of God. That's a thesis that we have sought to unpack in our year one training that

00:14:53.600 | I would love to unpack even further, but if you want an example of that, look at chapter 3 of

00:14:59.360 | Future Grace, and it just talks about how the promises of God can be applied to the issue of

00:15:06.560 | anxiety, and that's an approach that I would recommend that we follow as biblical counselors,

00:15:12.800 | that counselee is usually experiencing much anxiety because there is an unbelief in God's

00:15:21.600 | protection, provision, and promises. Jesus said, "Why are you anxious?" in Matthew chapter 6,

00:15:29.440 | and then he said, "O ye of little faith." The issue that is driving much of our anxiety

00:15:36.640 | is really an unbelief in the promises of God, and Piper does a great job in unpacking that material.

00:15:43.440 | Stuart Scott's booklet, Anger, Anxiety, and Fear, is a good one to put into your

00:15:50.480 | counselee's hands. It is brief, it is summarized material, it is short, and that is a very helpful

00:16:00.240 | work that we have used in our counseling ministry. Paul Tochkis just came out with this resource that

00:16:08.640 | we have just started using in our counseling ministry. It's called Anxiety, Knowing God's

00:16:13.040 | Peace, and it is a 31-day devotional centered around the issue of anxiety and fear. PNR Publishing is

00:16:23.520 | doing a really good work coming out with these 31-day devotionals. They're meant to be read one

00:16:29.280 | reading per day, and I have not read this entire work myself, but I have put it in the hands of

00:16:37.040 | those who are struggling with anxiety and gotten just some really rave reviews about this 31-day

00:16:44.880 | devotional. People's lives are being changed as they interact with the material in that devotional,

00:16:50.160 | and so I would recommend that resource to you and just a helpful work to put in the hands

00:16:57.600 | of those struggling with anxiety. Four books by Ed Welch. Ed Welch probably has done the most

00:17:05.360 | thorough thinking on the subject of worry, anxiety, and fear. I really have come to appreciate his

00:17:13.280 | writings on this subject, Running Scared, which is an excellent work I would commend to you that

00:17:20.800 | you read, and really I would hope you would get the flavor or the tenor of the counseling ministry,

00:17:27.680 | what he calls the ethos of our ministry or the spirit of our ministry as we interact with those

00:17:35.120 | who are dealing with anxiety. Just a very helpful work there, and then he has written a smaller work

00:17:43.680 | that's meant to be read for 50 days at a time, a brief reading for 50 days in a row. It's called

00:17:52.000 | a small book for the anxious heart, and that is a good homework assignment to give to counselees

00:17:58.720 | who are wrestling with anxiety. Some book lists there. Our senior pastor at Kindred has come out

00:18:05.760 | with a booklet, Help, I'm Anxious. That is a very helpful resource to be used for homework

00:18:12.160 | in our counseling ministry. We have that on our counseling bookshelf, and then as I said before,

00:18:18.880 | anything by David Powelson as well is worth reading, worth digesting, and just helpful material.

00:18:27.920 | He has a couple booklets out on the subject of worry, so just a wealth of material that's

00:18:33.360 | been put out there on this subject from the biblical counseling world, and I hope that many

00:18:39.040 | more good resources will be written on this subject. Let me move to page two of your handout,

00:18:48.960 | and just talk through a beginning introduction on this subject, and just note, as I said,

00:18:56.400 | that the Bible does abound with hope for those who are dealing with worry, anxiety, and fear.

00:19:02.640 | Jay Adams has said, and we want to repeat, that our task in biblical counseling is to give people

00:19:10.320 | hope. We want people to have true hope, biblical hope, hope that is grounded upon the truth of

00:19:17.040 | God's word, not pie-in-the-sky thinking, not the sun will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar

00:19:22.800 | that tomorrow there'll be sun, not just optimistic thinking, but real hope that is grounded in the

00:19:30.240 | all-sufficient word of God, and we want to be counselors who abound with hope. We have hope

00:19:37.520 | to offer to those who are anxious. Psalm 23, verse 4, "Even though I walk through the valley of the

00:19:44.080 | shadow of death, I will fear no evil." That is a believer who overcame fear based upon an

00:19:53.920 | understanding and a knowledge of his shepherd. He says, "You are with me, your rod and your staff,

00:20:00.880 | they comfort me." I do want you to note that there is a simplicity to ministering to those with

00:20:09.680 | anxiety. We want you to understand the breadth of all that scripture says. We want you to

00:20:14.640 | understand the breadth of all that's been written on this subject, but I also want to emphasize

00:20:20.400 | that ministering to those who are dealing with anxiety is not complicated. You want them to walk

00:20:28.320 | with their shepherd. You want them to know the presence of Christ. You want them to know God's

00:20:34.480 | gracious provisions. You want them to intimately know their Savior and His love for them. There is

00:20:42.560 | a simplicity to this, of just helping them talk to God about their anxiety and fear, and to have

00:20:50.160 | them interact with the word of God, and to learn what God's word has to say about their problems.

00:20:56.000 | David said, "I will fear no evil." Psalm 27, verse 1, "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom

00:21:03.440 | shall I fear?" That's a verse that can be applied to social anxiety, or people pleasing, or what the

00:21:13.200 | secular world will call codependency, but the Bible would call an idolatry of man's approval.

00:21:21.200 | "Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?" I love Isaiah

00:21:31.280 | 41, verse 14, "Fear not, you worm, Jacob, you men of Israel. I am the one who helps you, declares

00:21:37.200 | the Lord. Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel." You will note here that the Bible does not just

00:21:45.200 | say, "Stop being worried," or "Stop being afraid," but there is attached to that command a promise,

00:21:52.960 | "Fear not." Why? God says, "I am the one who helps you." If you would only understand the one who is

00:22:01.520 | with you, you would understand you have no reason to be afraid or to be worried. This is the same

00:22:09.680 | language or the same line of reasoning that Jesus follows in Matthew 6, verse 25, where he says to

00:22:16.160 | his disciples, "Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what

00:22:23.040 | you will drink, nor about your body. What you will put on is not life more than food, and the body

00:22:29.040 | more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,

00:22:35.280 | and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" Jesus is reasoning

00:22:43.760 | with us. He's not just telling us to stop being anxious or stop being worried, but he is reasoning

00:22:49.520 | with us from the lesser to the greater. You have a heavenly Father who is committed to provide for

00:22:58.160 | you. He even provides for the birds of the air. He even provides for the flowers in the fields.

00:23:04.800 | Are you not of more value to him than they are? Because you have a heavenly Father who is

00:23:14.640 | committed to provide for you, you have no reason to be afraid, and you have no reason to be worried.

00:23:22.240 | And so I just want you to note that the commandment is always attached to a promise,

00:23:29.120 | and there is a tenderness here in how Jesus deals with his disciples. You will notice the

00:23:36.480 | compassionate language of Luke 12 verse 32, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good

00:23:44.080 | pleasure to give you the kingdom." That's a tender word of encouragement and comfort. "Oh,

00:23:53.600 | little flock, little sheep, fear not. You have a heavenly Father, and it is his pleasure to give

00:24:02.640 | to you not only everything that you need, but to give to you the kingdom." See the generosity of

00:24:09.440 | your Father who is in heaven. I really pray that this type of language and perspective would be

00:24:15.360 | what you bring into your counseling sessions. It's really easy just to say to your counselee,

00:24:21.920 | "Well, repent," or "Don't you see that that's wrong?" or "Stop worrying, stop being afraid."

00:24:28.320 | But a seasoned biblical counselor will call out sin, to be sure, and will call for repentance,

00:24:35.200 | to be sure, but will also bring into that conversation the promises of God and the

00:24:41.920 | tenderness of the Father and bring into the conversation the blessings of God given to

00:24:48.720 | his children through the all-sufficient work of Jesus on the cross, and will plead with the

00:24:54.480 | counselee to abandon the orphan mentality. You are not an orphan. You do not need to fend for

00:25:01.280 | yourself. You do not need to take care of everything on your own. You have a heavenly

00:25:07.280 | Father who is committed to provide for you, and therefore you ought not to be anxious or afraid.

00:25:16.960 | So we have much hope to offer to those who are struggling with life's problems. Ed Welch writes,

00:25:23.600 | "It sounds that the king actually cares about us. He isn't ordering us to make bricks without straw.

00:25:29.680 | Instead, it sounds as if he wants his people to know peace." So even when seen as an authoritative

00:25:37.440 | command, this reveals something lovely about God. Unlike other kings, at least those who have

00:25:43.120 | despotic authority, God knows the concerns of those in his realm and commands things that are

00:25:49.360 | in their best interest. Now, we note here that there are many issues that cause anxiety and worry

00:25:58.160 | for the believer. Now I'm going to bring you back to what we learned in year one, and you will

00:26:07.040 | recognize this from our year one training, hopefully, the three-tree diagram, which is

00:26:13.040 | a diagram that's been put out by the good people at CCEF. And I know that you all love this diagram.

00:26:20.640 | We've used it in our self-counseling project, but you will note that we have used this diagram to

00:26:27.360 | make a distinction between heat issues and heart issues. And so the heat represents,

00:26:35.760 | the diagram is based upon Jeremiah 17, where it says that the believer will be like a tree

00:26:41.520 | who will not fear even when the heat comes. And so the heat broadly is used conceptually to refer

00:26:49.280 | to the external circumstances that a believer faces in life. And we just use this diagram,

00:26:56.800 | if you remember, to note that we want to be thinking through heat issues versus heart issues.

00:27:03.040 | What is the external situation that the counselee is in? And then what are the heart issues that

00:27:10.480 | are being brought out by that situation? So you will note here that believers do experience

00:27:18.640 | situations and circumstances in life, which bring about or draw out an anxious heart.

00:27:29.600 | Some of these heat issues include financial pressures. There are many who struggle with

00:27:37.760 | financial anxiety. I mentioned Psalm 127, verse two, "It is vain that you rise up early and go

00:27:43.920 | late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil." That phrase, anxious toil, refers to a godless

00:27:53.920 | hype of activity, a striving. It is not just talking about the diligent worker that's described

00:28:02.960 | in the book of Proverbs that is working hard at his job because of a desire to honor God,

00:28:10.320 | but it's talking about this heart that feels that he or she has to take care of it all on their own.

00:28:18.000 | And I'm alone in the world, and I've got to provide for myself, and I've got to do it all

00:28:22.720 | by myself, and there is no God who loves me and who's committed to care for me.

00:28:26.640 | And so it drives this anxious toil that usually results in overwork, usually results in exhaustion

00:28:34.880 | and a type of burnout. Well, there are financial pressures that people face in life. There is

00:28:42.000 | physical illnesses. I want to recommend, I was talking to one of the counselors that I'm working

00:28:51.440 | with and just recommending Esther Smith's 31-Day Devotional on Chronic Illness and Physical

00:28:58.400 | Sickness. That is an excellent work put out by PNR Publishing that talks about the issues that

00:29:05.280 | people deal with as they walk through a chronic physical illness. It's a very helpful work,

00:29:11.920 | but you will find that that is a heat issue that will also draw out a heart issue, a heart of

00:29:19.760 | fear, worry, and anxiety. And so we want to be equipped to minister carefully and compassionately

00:29:27.280 | to those who are dealing with a physical illness. There's decisions about the future

00:29:32.560 | that needs to be made. There is the prospect of getting old and dying. There are just the

00:29:39.520 | daily responsibilities of life. Sometimes it's not the big issues in life which causes anxiety. It's

00:29:45.840 | just what's on my to-do list for today. Jesus said to Martha in Luke 10 41, "Martha, Martha,

00:29:55.440 | you are worried and troubled about many things." And Martha was trying to get a meal together. She

00:30:01.280 | was trying to clean the house and she was worried and anxious about those things. Sometimes it's

00:30:08.240 | just getting things done today that is causing us anxiety. And so these are heat issues that deal

00:30:16.000 | with, that draw out the anxieties of life. And there are many types of anxiety that is caused

00:30:25.760 | in relation to each of these heat issues. Now just keep that in mind. I'm going to throw a

00:30:30.320 | number of pictures your way. Hopefully you'll be able to pull them together in your mind. Some of

00:30:36.080 | this is going to be review. And I think this is going to be helpful if you can put all of these

00:30:42.000 | concepts together. But let me move to page three of your handout there. And let's talk through

00:30:49.200 | manifestations of anxiety and worry in the inner and outer man. Now remember that man is both

00:30:59.280 | physical and spiritual. We did a whole essay on this in the theology exams where we talked about

00:31:09.760 | the dual nature of man. Man is material and immaterial. He is physical and spiritual. Man

00:31:17.680 | has a body and man has also a soul. And so as we talk through inner and outer man, we're talking

00:31:24.080 | about the spiritual aspect of man and also the physical aspect of man. And we're always thinking

00:31:31.840 | through how does the two aspects of man relate to each other and go together. Well, you will note

00:31:39.680 | that as you survey the secular literature on anxiety disorders, that there are many physical

00:31:47.600 | manifestations of an anxiety disorder. You will note that the DSM-IV and its treatment of

00:31:56.000 | anxiety disorders talks much about a person's physical manifestations of anxiety. Now we will

00:32:06.400 | note that the DSM-IV is helpful insofar as it makes observations about human behavior.

00:32:14.160 | Secular psychology can't diagnose the root cause of that behavior, but secular psychology can

00:32:20.240 | make observations about this is how people behave when they are anxious. And so I think the DSM-IV

00:32:28.720 | is helpful insofar as it describes the physical manifestations of people who have anxiety. And

00:32:37.520 | here are some of the things that the secular literature notes. There is an inability to relax.

00:32:43.280 | You have under generalized anxiety disorder, a persistent worrying or anxiety about a number

00:32:49.280 | of areas that are out of proportion to the impact of the events, inability to set aside or let go

00:32:55.920 | of a worry, inability to relax, feeling restless and feeling keyed up or on edge. I think you can

00:33:04.160 | include in that many people have an inability to sleep at night. They have insomnia. They're

00:33:11.920 | possibly on sleep medications because they are up thinking through the issues of life. The mind is

00:33:19.440 | racing with anxious thoughts. You also have under physical manifestations, the feeling keyed up or

00:33:29.840 | on edge, we noted repetitive behaviors. This would be under the classification of obsessive compulsive

00:33:38.560 | disorder. And the secular literature notes hand-washing, ordering, checking,

00:33:43.360 | aimed at preventing or reducing distress or preventing some dreaded event or situation.

00:33:50.080 | Now, obsessive compulsive disorder, there is full-blown OCD. And then there is what we might

00:33:56.720 | call a mild form of OCD. But this is repetitive behaviors that are designed in the counselee's

00:34:06.240 | mind to control a certain situation. And then you have panic attacks, which are characterized by

00:34:15.360 | palpitations or pounding heart. Oftentimes, a panic attack can feel like a heart attack

00:34:21.920 | because it deals with a person's accelerated heart rate. There is sweating, trembling or shaking,

00:34:30.720 | difficulty breathing, chest pain or discomfort. A panic disorder, according to the secular

00:34:37.200 | literature, is characterized by recurrent panic attacks. But you do have physical manifestation

00:34:43.200 | there of an anxiety issue. You have PTSD, in which a person has been exposed to a traumatic

00:34:55.520 | event and persistently re-experiences that event. The person with PTSD can experience

00:35:01.680 | intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that resemble

00:35:07.600 | an aspect of the traumatic event. Now, I can't speak to all the full manifestations of PTSD,

00:35:17.440 | but I use this example in my own life where I was on the freeway and got stuck in traffic and

00:35:26.160 | was rear-ended by a lady who had a trailer that had a couple of horses in it. And it totaled our

00:35:37.760 | van. And we were thankfully not injured in that accident, but it was a scary moment of just being

00:35:46.800 | rear-ended on the freeway. And for about a month or two after that incident happened, whenever I

00:35:55.600 | drove that certain place in the freeway, I noticed that my body was tensing up and that my heart

00:36:02.640 | started pounding, even though the incident was past and was in the past. I just took that as

00:36:11.520 | a mild form of when you go through something traumatic, and then you go through a situation

00:36:17.360 | where something reminds you of that incident, there can be a bodily response, a physical response to

00:36:23.760 | what you've experienced. And I think when you deal with the issue of the broader subject of PCSD,

00:36:31.200 | you are dealing with something that is much bigger, in many cases, much more traumatic than

00:36:38.560 | being rear-ended on the freeway and is something that you want to think through and be able to

00:36:45.040 | provide some help biblically. Greg Gifford has a good work on PTSD from a biblical counseling

00:36:53.200 | perspective. I didn't note that on your bibliography, but I would encourage you to

00:36:58.880 | make use of Greg Gifford's work. I'm not sure what it's called, but he does have a work on PTSD.

00:37:06.160 | And then social anxiety disorders, specific phobias, I think you can note that all of those

00:37:13.360 | have physical manifestations, even though they are expressions of a heart issue.

00:37:22.560 | And so man is physical, and man is also spiritual. We observe the physical manifestations of anxiety,

00:37:30.720 | fear, and worry, but that's not where we as biblical counselors have our focus. We want

00:37:38.880 | to understand how the physical is relating to the spiritual, but our task as biblical counselors is

00:37:45.200 | to address the heart issues. We are those who care for souls, and so we want to be focused on

00:37:54.720 | the inner man. We want to note the outer man aspects of anxiety, fear, and worry, but we are

00:38:02.000 | tasked to focus on the inner man. And so what does the Bible say about the inner man? What are the

00:38:09.440 | heart issues that are expressing themselves in these physical manifestations? Well, this is a

00:38:18.480 | review of year one material. We note that the inner man has thoughts, Matthew 6, verse 31. Jesus says,

00:38:27.040 | "Therefore do not be anxious, saying," now this is the internal monologue of someone who is

00:38:33.920 | experiencing anxiety about the future. The internal monologue of the heart is, what shall we eat? What

00:38:41.680 | shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? These are the questions that are going through a person's

00:38:48.000 | heart that is resulting in anxiety, fear, and worry. One of the helpful assignments that you

00:38:58.160 | may want to give to a counselee who's dealing with anxiety is to journal their anxious thoughts,

00:39:05.120 | is just to write out what are the thoughts that are going through your mind in your most anxious

00:39:11.760 | moments. Or maybe if you are on the verge of having a panic attack, what are the thoughts

00:39:17.520 | that are racing through your mind? Or when you are up at night and you can't sleep, what are

00:39:22.160 | the thoughts that you are dealing with? And writing them down can be helpful in just identifying

00:39:29.920 | the anxious thoughts that characterize a person's heart attitudes. And in most cases, you will find

00:39:39.920 | that those anxious thoughts do not include the promises and the provisions of a faithful God.

00:39:48.800 | You also have an inner man desires. Anxiety and fear would reveal what you most desire. As David

00:39:58.960 | Powelson well notes that if you are anxious about financial concerns, then it reveals a desire for

00:40:07.680 | financial security. Or if you're most anxious about physical illness, then it reveals a desire for

00:40:15.200 | physical health. This is really basic. I don't think I need to explain all of that to you,

00:40:20.560 | but anxiety would be the flip side of desire. And the heart is always characterized by desire. If I

00:40:28.400 | am up at night and I'm anxious about my children's education or my children's wellbeing, or what are

00:40:35.280 | they doing in life? Or what are they going to do in the future? Then it reveals a desire for

00:40:42.080 | a certain future for my children. And so what you are most anxious about reveals what you most

00:40:49.040 | desire. And the heart issue of that we all face in our sanctification is submitting our heart's

00:40:57.280 | desires to the gracious authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. But as you look at the number of

00:41:04.480 | ways that fear presents itself, you will find that the heart is always desiring a certain outcome

00:41:12.880 | or a certain thing. And that brings us to values. Again, this is a little bit of review of year one

00:41:19.280 | material, but the heart has treasures or values. You will note what you tend to worship when you

00:41:28.640 | see what you are most anxious about. Sinfully, that is where you will find the idolatry of the

00:41:37.360 | heart saying to a certain thing or person or event, "You are my greatest treasure. You are

00:41:44.640 | worth living for." And so the thoughts and desires and the values of the heart are always expressing

00:41:51.200 | themselves in certain behavior. Now you will note here, again, watch the interaction between physical

00:41:59.920 | and spiritual. The values of the heart, the immaterial man, the immaterial aspect of man,

00:42:09.120 | the values of a worshiping heart. Let's say, for example, if I most value and worship my physical

00:42:17.760 | health. So I'm spending all my time at the gym and I'm eating only vegetables and bran. And there's

00:42:26.080 | nothing wrong with that if that's what you want to do. But let's just say, for example, that my

00:42:30.320 | idolatry is my physical health. And so I'm obsessive compulsive about washing my hands,

00:42:38.320 | which by the way, in this time is not a bad thing to do. But you get the picture here that I

00:42:44.080 | develop these obsessive compulsive behaviors guarding my physical health. And then because

00:42:51.360 | I'm most treasuring my physical health, then I'm up at night worried about what's going to happen

00:42:59.840 | in the future, worried about certain physical illnesses. And it actually impedes my physical

00:43:07.360 | health from being all that it could be because now I'm not sleeping, I'm anxious. And you will

00:43:13.360 | note here that the values and the desires and the thoughts of the heart express themselves

00:43:20.800 | in physical manifestations. So what this essay question is asking you to do is to think through

00:43:28.080 | anxiety, fear, and worry in terms of inner and outer man. You will want to craft most likely

00:43:34.960 | a paragraph that talks about outer man manifestations of anxiety and fear, and then

00:43:41.600 | relate them to the heart issues, the thoughts and the desires and the values of the heart,

00:43:49.120 | which give rise to physical manifestations and expressions. So just use that what's on the slide

00:43:57.600 | as a basic framework or as a basic template. We're always thinking through this physical and

00:44:04.640 | spiritual. What aspects are physical? What aspects are spiritual? And as I said in previous classes,

00:44:12.880 | we are not anti-medication. We are not against the idea of psychotropic drugs necessarily,

00:44:20.960 | although we have a concern that those things are over-prescribed. Our agenda is not to do

00:44:27.680 | away with all psychotropic medications, but you do see the limitations of such an approach that

00:44:34.720 | deal with anxiety issues only from a physical perspective. Let's say that the issue is only

00:44:42.560 | physical and there must be an imbalance chemically that is causing all of these

00:44:47.760 | behaviors and gives only a physical response to what is perceived as a physical issue. You do see

00:44:55.360 | the limitations of such an approach that that approach does not deal with the issues of a

00:45:00.720 | worshiping heart. And that is where we as biblical counselors can be helpful and that we can give

00:45:08.080 | real hope and help to those who are in need. So let me move on at this point and go to page four

00:45:15.040 | of your handout. I want to talk a little bit about the biblical factors that drive anxiety

00:45:24.160 | and fear, and just note these for you. Some of these you will note are the dynamics of a worshiping

00:45:32.480 | heart. The heart is always worshiping either rightly or wrongly, but just talk through some

00:45:38.320 | biblical factors as it relates to this issue. Letter A, a lack of trust in the sovereignty,

00:45:45.200 | wisdom, and love of God. What I've described as the orphan mentality. This is related to Psalm

00:45:56.720 | 56 verse 3 where the psalmist says, "When I'm afraid, I put my trust in you." So the opposite

00:46:02.880 | of fear is trust in the Lord. Jerry Bridges does a great work on this where he talks about

00:46:13.360 | the whole idea of worry, of fear, and anxiety in relation to a person's trust in the Lord. I'm

00:46:22.160 | having a little trouble here with my slides, but okay, we'll get through this.

00:46:30.160 | I'm not a technical wizard here. I'm having anxiety about my slides, but you'll all be

00:46:38.880 | gracious to me. I'll work up my handout here. We have a lack of trust in the sovereignty,

00:46:46.320 | wisdom, and love of God. I want to encourage you to get Jerry Bridges' Trust in God. He talks about

00:46:53.440 | this whole idea of the sovereignty of God, the wisdom of God, and the love of God really being

00:47:01.920 | the three truths that go together that give us reason to trust God. So we're not just telling

00:47:09.120 | people, "Well, trust God. Just do it." We're reminding them of these beautiful truths that

00:47:15.680 | God is sovereign over every aspect of our lives, that he is in control of every circumstance in

00:47:23.600 | each of our lives, but he's not just sovereign and in control, but he's also loving, that he

00:47:29.360 | loves us with an infinite love, and therefore he orders the events of our lives for our good and

00:47:35.520 | for his glory, and that he is also wise. That means he ordains the best ends, and then he also

00:47:42.480 | ordains the best means to those ends. He has a goal to which he is working all of human history

00:47:50.000 | towards, that he is moving your life and mine to a glorious conclusion, and that every event in our

00:47:57.520 | lives is meant to move us toward that goal. The result of understanding the sovereignty, wisdom,

00:48:04.960 | and the love of God is that we can trust him. We can place our lives in his hands, and because we

00:48:11.120 | trust him, we are not afraid. We don't fear the future because we know that God is in control

00:48:19.040 | of every aspect of our lives, and so one of the biblical factors that drive anxiety and fear is

00:48:27.360 | just a lack of trusting God, wanting to take our lives in our own hands, which is a very scary

00:48:33.680 | thing to do because we are not God, and we cannot control all of the events of our lives. Trying to

00:48:40.080 | control an uncontrollable world is a recipe for anxiety and fear, and so you often find that people

00:48:50.640 | who are really anxious are also in control. I am most anxious about my children when I'm trying to

00:49:01.520 | control every aspect of their lives. I am most at peace with my children's future when I trust God

00:49:08.880 | with my children and with their future. Letter B, you have an inner monologue which rehearses

00:49:16.560 | unbiblical thoughts until they become the dominant theme in the heart. This is Psalm 42, verse 5,

00:49:24.720 | the psalmist speaking to himself and not allowing his internal monologue to go unchecked,

00:49:32.320 | but questioning himself, asking himself, "Why are you cast down on my soul? Why are you in turmoil

00:49:38.800 | within me?" and then exhorting himself, "Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation,

00:49:45.120 | and my God." You will find if you assign counselees journal assignments that they

00:49:51.280 | are oftentimes rehearsing godless thoughts in their heart that, "I have to take care of myself.

00:49:59.520 | I have to provide for myself. I have to do it all," and they have rehearsed these thoughts in

00:50:05.040 | their hearts to such a degree that it's become a dominant theme in their heart's monologue,

00:50:12.720 | and they need to learn to question themselves, to correct themselves, to speak to themselves,

00:50:17.360 | not listen to themselves, but that is a factor that does drive anxiety and fear. Letter C is

00:50:25.120 | refusal to live in the present. Jesus said, "Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow,

00:50:31.840 | for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

00:50:36.560 | Have you ever noticed that, dear friends, that most of our anxieties concern the future,

00:50:40.960 | does not concern the issues of today, that today is very simple.

00:50:45.600 | One day at a time, give us this day our daily bread. Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's

00:50:52.080 | prayer, and yet most of our fears and anxieties relate to things that haven't happened yet,

00:50:58.640 | that probably will never happen yet, never happen in the future, but we've created in our minds a

00:51:04.160 | certain future that we project to be a worst-case scenario, and then we live in that scenario and

00:51:12.800 | experience fear and worry as it relates to what might happen. We imagine the doctor's appointment,

00:51:21.840 | the worst-case scenario, and then we live in that possible future, which many cases does not come

00:51:29.440 | to pass. It's just helpful to know that that's a factor that drives anxiety, is the heart's desire

00:51:35.920 | to live in tomorrow, where God is always calling us to live one day at a time, sufficient for the

00:51:45.120 | day is its own trouble. God gave manna to his people in the Old Testament one day at a time.

00:51:51.520 | You can't store it up. You can't save up for tomorrow or next year or next decade. You have

00:51:57.920 | to live trusting one day at a time. Ed Welch has talked about this, that worriers are false prophets.

00:52:06.320 | They look into a future and they predict a future that does not come to pass, and then they live as

00:52:12.960 | if that future is true, and so we want to bring our counselees to live one day at a time. It takes

00:52:20.400 | humility to live one day at a time. It takes a recognition of your own limitations to live

00:52:26.800 | one day at a time, trusting in God's provision for today. Pride always wants to have the answers

00:52:34.320 | for the next 10 years and to have those answers right now when God is always calling us to humbly

00:52:42.320 | walk with him, and then letter D related to that is a refusal to recognize personal limitations.

00:52:48.240 | You know this from Psalm 131, where David says, "I do not occupy myself with things too great and

00:52:55.520 | too marvelous for me." I wake up every Monday morning probably as you do. I have thoughts about

00:53:00.800 | the United States. I have thoughts about the government. I have thoughts about what the

00:53:04.880 | senator should do. I have thoughts about the Supreme Court. I have thoughts about global

00:53:10.480 | trends and economics. I have opinions. I have perspectives. I have thoughts about what should

00:53:18.560 | happen nationally as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, what should happen in the church,

00:53:24.800 | and then I wake up on a Monday morning and I have to humble myself and say,

00:53:28.400 | you know, I just got to go to work and love my wife and love my kids and do the dishes tonight

00:53:36.080 | and take out the trash and just concern myself with the simple things in life. It's not that

00:53:41.600 | I'm naive about what's going on in the world and what's going on in the nation, but there are things

00:53:46.480 | that are too great and too wonderful for me, and it's an act of humility just to recognize

00:53:52.480 | that I can't solve the world's problems. I'm not a senator. I'm not a congressman.

00:53:58.000 | I don't belong on the Supreme Court. My world is much smaller than all of that,

00:54:04.480 | and even though I pray for all of those things to be done in a God-honoring way,

00:54:09.040 | there is a humble recognition that I need to occupy myself with my circle of responsibility,

00:54:17.840 | and David says that that's why my soul is like a weaned child and that I'm resting upon the care

00:54:23.200 | of the Lord because I have made a commitment not to occupy myself with things that are too great

00:54:33.120 | and too marvelous for me, and if you look at that language of things that are too great and too

00:54:38.400 | marvelous for me, you will find that the language of great and marvelous in the Old Testament is

00:54:44.000 | used in reference to the things which God does, to the issues that God concerns himself with.

00:54:53.200 | David is saying, "I'm going to allow God to run the universe, and I'm not going to try to be God.

00:55:02.640 | I'm going to concern myself with what he has called me to be responsible for, and therefore,

00:55:10.640 | my soul can be free of anxiety because God has this world and the nation's history and the history

00:55:19.360 | of the world under his control, and he is working it out for his glory and for my good," and so just

00:55:28.160 | note some of those factors. Use Paul Tripp's helpful circles of responsibility diagram that

00:55:37.200 | is found in his work Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands. That's helpful to use with a counselee,

00:55:43.360 | just what is your circle of responsibility? What has God called you to be responsible for,

00:55:49.840 | and then what is outside of your circle of responsibility? What are the things that God

00:55:54.320 | has called you to trust him for? Just to note that when you move outside of your circle of

00:56:00.400 | responsibility, that is when your heart is going to experience anxiety because you are trying to

00:56:07.040 | concern yourself with things that only God can do, and you're going to have anxiety, worry, and fear

00:56:15.680 | in your heart. Just a helpful thing to observe as we work through what are the factors driving

00:56:24.320 | fear and anxiety. Now, let me wrap this up by moving to the last page on page five

00:56:29.040 | with some practical words on how to help a counselee with anxiety and fear,

00:56:36.560 | and this is just from some of my own experiences in counseling as well as interacting with

00:56:44.880 | counselors in our ministry who have worked with people dealing with anxiety and fear. I would say

00:56:52.480 | that we can help. We have the Bible. We have Christ. We have the Holy Spirit. The local church

00:57:00.880 | is the place you want to go to when you are dealing with anxiety and fear. We have help to offer,

00:57:09.040 | and even sometimes just giving a simple assignment as Philippians 4 verses 6 to 7

00:57:16.560 | to pray with thanksgiving about everything and to not be anxious about anything, and a simple

00:57:22.400 | assignment such as giving to a counselee, write out the things that are causing you anxiety,

00:57:28.080 | and then a separate column, write out the things that you ought to be thankful for, and then what

00:57:33.680 | I want you to do this week is to pray each day down your thankfulness list, and you'll be obeying

00:57:39.680 | Philippians 4 verses 6 to 7 to pray with thanksgiving about everything, and then I also

00:57:45.920 | want you to everything on your anxiety list, I want you to saturate those things with prayer

00:57:51.680 | and to pray through each item on your list. A simple assignment like that can do wonders

00:57:58.560 | in helping a counselee work through anxiety, and that is the power of biblical counseling,

00:58:06.000 | that we can give our counselees real hope and help from the Word of God, and so just some

00:58:13.120 | perspectives real practically on counseling those who are dealing with anxiety and worry. Number one,

00:58:19.280 | I would encourage you to view the counseling opportunity as an opportunity to help the

00:58:26.240 | counselee experience God's grace. When someone comes in for counseling in other words, and they're

00:58:32.000 | saying I'm having panic attacks, or I'm on medication for anti-anxiety, taking anti-anxiety

00:58:40.000 | medications, or I can't sleep at night, or I'm having you know PTSD type of symptoms because

00:58:46.720 | I had a traumatic event in my past, it's easy to hear that type of experience and struggle

00:58:54.800 | and feel overwhelmed, or feel like I don't know if I can help as a biblical counselor.

00:59:00.720 | I want to encourage you to look at those counseling opportunities as an opportunity to bring

00:59:08.640 | the counselee closer to the Lord, as an opportunity for God's grace to be put on display, because

00:59:16.640 | if you look at what the scripture says about anxiety and fear, God wants to draw near to the

00:59:24.560 | believer who has an anxious heart. I think if you take the broad teaching of the Word of God

00:59:33.600 | on this subject, the number of times God addresses the anxious heart, the number of times that God

00:59:40.320 | talks to the person who is fearful about the future, the number of times God addresses the

00:59:46.160 | issue of worry, and then if you take all of that and look through the tenor of scripture, of all

00:59:53.440 | the promises that God gives to the person who is struggling with anxiety, I think we could summarize

01:00:00.160 | in this statement that God desires to minister to the anxious heart. God desires that the anxious

01:00:08.080 | person experiences his peace, his provision, and his comfort. That's Jesus in the upper room with

01:00:16.480 | his disciples, that he wanted the disciples to experience the peace of God, and so he spoke

01:00:23.360 | words of comfort and peace to his disciples, and that's Jesus walking with the disciples through

01:00:29.360 | his three-year public ministry, oftentimes gently admonishing them, saying, "Oh ye of little faith,

01:00:37.920 | why are you afraid? Why are you anxious?" That if you just knew the promises and the provision of

01:00:45.120 | God, you would understand that you have no reason to be worried or be afraid, and so just view this

01:00:51.520 | as an opportunity for God's grace to be put on display, and I think that God will give you

01:00:59.200 | opportunities to help counselees to overcome anxiety. Number two, give hope. Emphasize the

01:01:08.000 | presence of Christ and his faithful provisions. Number three, you do want to become skilled at

01:01:14.960 | exposing the heart issues which are driving fear and anxiety, so just some practical questions.

01:01:22.000 | You want to find out walking through the heat issues versus the heart issues. What are the

01:01:28.080 | external circumstances that are drawing out the counselee's anxious heart? You want to ask the

01:01:34.400 | questions, what is the counselee anxious about? What is the specific concern that is leading to

01:01:41.680 | fear and anxiety? How often does the counselee struggle with anxiety? What are the settings that

01:01:51.680 | cause anxiety and fear? What is the intensity of the anxiety that's being experienced? Does it

01:02:01.120 | become more intense in certain times and issues versus other settings? Now, those are just some

01:02:08.720 | questions that you want to ask, and then drawing out the issues of the heart. What are the thoughts,

01:02:15.840 | the desires, and the treasures, the values that are being exposed by a counselee's

01:02:24.800 | situation or heat issues? And just note that the number of times that Jesus identifies the issue

01:02:35.040 | of faith being the root issue that drives anxiety and fear. "Oh ye of little faith,

01:02:42.720 | oh you of little faith, oh you of little faith, why did you doubt," Jesus said. That's one word

01:02:48.320 | in the Greek, by the way. It's "little faiths." It could be translated. It's a term of both

01:02:55.280 | affirmation and correction at the same time. You have faith,

01:03:00.880 | and that faith is real, but that faith is little and it needs to grow. And oftentimes,

01:03:10.240 | our anxieties reveal where we have placed our trust, and it reveals the true state or the true

01:03:20.320 | status of our faith. And so, as Robert Jones writes, "Worries and fears are simply concerns

01:03:28.320 | that become inordinate. They cross the line. They become sinful because of unbelief and idolatry."

01:03:36.000 | And John Piper says, "Well, that Jesus says that the root of anxiety is inadequate faith in our

01:03:42.320 | Father's future grace. As unbelief gets the upper hand in our hearts, one of the effects is anxiety.

01:03:48.880 | The root cause of anxiety is a failure to trust all that God has promised to be for us in Jesus."

01:03:56.000 | A last helpful work that I would recommend, I believe it's Adam Clark's Book of Promises. It's

01:04:04.480 | an older work, but it's a work that I have put into counselees' hands who struggle with anxiety.

01:04:11.520 | I believe it's Clark's Book of Promises, C-L-A-R-K-E, and just a number of promises found

01:04:22.480 | in the Word of God that you can just have your counselee read through that and study through that

01:04:28.880 | and just realize that God has promised to give provision in whatever the issue is that they're

01:04:38.080 | having anxiety over. And then number four, lastly, let me encourage you to get practical. "The battle

01:04:44.720 | to overcome anxiety and fear must be fought in the trenches of everyday life." And so, we call this,

01:04:54.000 | this is the battle at the dishwasher or the battle at the kitchen where you're doing your dishes or

01:05:01.440 | some counselors call this the stoplight battle. This is the battle for the mind and the heart

01:05:09.040 | when you are at a stoplight and you're waiting for the stoplight to turn green. What are the

01:05:14.800 | thoughts which are flooding your mind and causing you anxiety? What do you think about when you

01:05:22.000 | don't need to think about anything? And there are certain places and situations in life where you

01:05:27.760 | are not having to have your mind occupied and that's when anxious thoughts flood in. And so,

01:05:33.920 | some of our counselors give very practical assignments, writing out the promises of God

01:05:40.080 | on index cards and then placing them at those certain situations. An index card at your kitchen

01:05:49.600 | sink where you are tempted to have anxious thoughts and you can quickly glance at a certain

01:05:56.160 | promise of God like Hebrews 13 verse 5 and 6 that the Lord has promised never to leave me or forsake

01:06:02.720 | me. Well, you can place that on an index card next to your kitchen and as you do the dishes,

01:06:07.040 | you can be rehearsing that promise in your mind instead of the anxious thoughts about the future.

01:06:12.880 | And you can help your counselee to do that as well or even placing the index card on the dashboard

01:06:18.480 | of your car so that when you are at the stoplight, I mean, you want to be watching the stoplight,

01:06:23.440 | but you can be rehearsing a certain verse as you wait for the light to turn green. And in that way,

01:06:31.760 | do a real battle for sanctification in the everyday situations of life. As a counselor,

01:06:39.840 | if you are not seeing the change that you want to see in your counselee, then you want to get

01:06:46.320 | more specific about your counseling, your homework assignments. It takes work to design homework that

01:06:53.520 | is that specific. And that's why I appreciate some of the counselors who have given me these

01:06:57.920 | recommendations. They've really thought through the issue of homework. How do you design homework

01:07:03.440 | to help the counselee do battle for their sanctification in real practical situations?

01:07:12.400 | And it's not like you can do battle for that one day and then coast off that victory the

01:07:17.440 | rest of the week. You need to engage in that battle on a daily basis. And just helping your

01:07:22.560 | counselee work through that is very conducive to a profitable counseling relationship.

01:07:32.080 | A thankfulness journal, being very specific, I've noticed that counselees who struggle with anxiety,

01:07:40.800 | many of them can quote Philippians 4, 6, and 7 to pray about everything and be thankful

01:07:45.600 | for everything, but not to be anxious about anything. They can quote that. But when you

01:07:51.680 | ask them the question, are you actually praying that way? They are not praying that way. Because

01:07:57.200 | if they did pray that way on a daily basis, then the peace of God would guard their hearts and

01:08:02.160 | their minds in Christ Jesus. And so just good homework assignments, again, that are designed

01:08:07.440 | to keep the counselee accountable. Are you actually praying about everything on your anxiety list?

01:08:13.840 | Are you actually giving thanks to God for everything on your thankfulness list?

01:08:18.640 | Those are helpful assignments to give to a counselee. Engaging in service opportunities

01:08:24.400 | for others. Oftentimes, counselees are overly occupied with their own world. They need to engage

01:08:30.960 | in the concerns and the cares of other people. They need to, in a godly sense, be anxious for

01:08:36.800 | other people's concerns. It's difficult to be overly anxious about yourself when you are engaged

01:08:42.880 | in prayer for 10 other people and intensely engaged in interceding for other people. That's

01:08:49.840 | helpful in just overcoming your own anxiety. Scripture memory. And then I've noted the

01:08:55.600 | circles of responsibility assignment, noting what is in your own circle of responsibility

01:09:01.760 | versus what is in God's circle of responsibility. So I hope that's helpful. There's much more that

01:09:09.680 | can be said, but just noting that in the end, there's a breadth of material to study and

01:09:19.680 | digest on this subject. But in the end, counseling with someone who is struggling with anxiety,

01:09:27.600 | it can be a very simple focus, and I would encourage you to start there. What you want to do

01:09:33.440 | is you want to bring the heart to worship Christ, to experience Christ's grace, to understand Christ's

01:09:42.480 | provisions and promises. And you can do that, and I can do that because we have the Word of God. We

01:09:50.400 | are biblical counselors, and we are able to give hope and help in this area. So may the Lord bless

01:09:57.120 | you this week as you study on the subject and as you write on this topic. I encourage you to dig

01:10:02.640 | deep, and if you do so, you will build a great foundation for future counseling ministry. And

01:10:08.720 | then I would encourage you to take this material and be confident. Be humbly confident in your

01:10:18.960 | ability to take God's Word and give it to someone else so that an anxious heart can be flooded with

01:10:28.240 | the peace of God which surpasses all understanding. And I trust that God will give you

01:10:33.520 | grace for that. So may the Lord bless you. Thank you again for joining us tonight on this webinar.

01:10:42.000 | We will be back next Sunday at 5 o'clock p.m. Pacific time, and we're going to be talking

01:10:47.680 | through the issue of how to conclude a counseling relationship. Some of those relationships

01:10:54.880 | go really well, and you want to know how to conclude good counseling relationships. You

01:10:59.600 | also want to know how to conclude counseling relationships when they aren't going so well,

ACBC Counseling Exam 6 - Fear Anxiety Worry

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