The Second Cup Podcast
Featuring The Joshua Year Series: Fear, Freedom, and What Happens In Between
Are fear and anxiety ruling your life? Do you want to know how to get free?
Let's navigate the wilderness of our minds and hearts together, and explore how God is in the business of freeing his people - whether in mind, body, or spirit.
04
Are you trying to do life apart from God? Has it been a day? A season? Years? Your whole life? Is it because that’s what you really want? Because you don’t believe in him, or you don’t like him, or you don’t need him?
Or are those just the stories that you have told yourself about God because you are too scared to sit in his presence and face the terrible prospect that he would see you, know you, and reject you?
Spoiler alert - he won’t.
03
The Bible says that there is no fear in love (John 4:18). But aren’t we all a little bit scared of love, if we dare to admit it? Aren’t we all clawing it for it, gasping for it, feeling desperately terrified of how much we need it? Is there a single human heart that doesn’t simultaneously long to be loved, and also fear that it won’t be?
The rest of the verse says that perfect love casts out fear. There is only one perfect love, and only one perfect Lover, and that is Jesus. The rest of us are just trying our best to push our selfish motives and quavering insecurities aside to clear a path wide enough for love to leak in. Lots of times, we fall short. None of us have quite been able to perfect it.
Episode 03 on the Second Cup Podcast Today is called “Why are My Friends So Scary?” Here, we talk about the concept of Otherness, learning to lay down our pride (a survival mechanism for insecurity), and how to find the courage open our hearts to make way for real connection.
02
Today, we talk about how to have a ‘burning bush’ moment with God, and how to discern his direction as we prepare for our journey out of fear and into freedom.
Listen for a guided prayer that you may use to ask God for his help and direction on the journey.
01
I used to be confined - and defined - by my fear and anxiety.
Does this sound familiar to you? You're not alone.
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America recorded that nearly 20% of the U.S. adult population have an anxiety disorder. That’s one in five people.
In this age of fast media and bad news and self-sufficiency, and where trauma affects an increasingly large number of people, it’s not surprising that worry has become commonplace, and even expected.
In speaking with friends, especially other women, I find that I’m not the only one who has lain awake at night, imagining worst-case scenarios. We, somewhere along the way, have become wired to believe that something bad is always on the brink of happening. Rationalization and optimism are not helpful tools; when a mind is in fight, flight, or freeze mode, it can’t just “stop worrying.” Those who experience everyday anxiety live in a constant state of hypervigilance, and over time it can seriously affect relationships, decisions, and physical health. Plus, it makes it nearly impossible to experience peace or joy as God intended for us.
So what hope is there for getting out of this cycle? Is there hope?
Yes. A huge, resounding YES.
