Marcus Hart (00:02.306)
Hey there, welcome to the Transform You Live Show. That's Transform the Letter You Live Show, where we have the opportunity to share with you the God-given practical wisdom and faith that you need to unlock your God-given potential. Ultimately, to transform you. I'm your host, Marcus Hart, and today we're kicking off an exciting three-part series called Three Biblical Keys to Overcoming Anxiety.
and finding God's peace in a chaotic world. So yeah, we talked about this in previous episodes, so you may want to go back in time and see if you can find an episode that's similar to this, which is a real good foundation to set the stage on this one. If you have ever felt overwhelmed, worried, or like your prayers for peace just isn't working, this series is for you. Today,
We're to be diving into the hidden reason you are anxious and the first biblical key to start your breakthrough. Plus, I'm going to share a little bit of my personal story that changed how I see anxiety today. You might want to stick around because we are going to be building up to an incredible expert interview in episode three. I'm not going to tell you who it is. I'm to surprise you in episode three.
It's going to like bring this train to a stop at its destination. So you don't want to miss that. Before we dive in, I want to share a resource that's helping Christians like you combine faith and psychology to lead with purpose. My new book, Transform You, unlocking leadership potential through faith and psychology. You can grab a copy of that by simply going to amazon.com and doing a quick search on it. I'll make sure I have that episode.
Let me rewind that. I'm going to make sure I have that link in the episode description so you can start applying these biblical principles today.
Marcus Hart (02:11.308)
Now, let's be real. Anxiety, folks, is a battle. It's a battle for so many of us, whether it's stress about work, family, or just the chaos of the world. And it totally feels like peace just isn't within reach. How many of knew that just 58%, and I say just very lightly, of young adults report feeling
Purplous, feeling like they have no purpose at all, no mission, which fuels or brings the anxiety to an all-time high. You know, it gives it that gasoline that is lacking. Okay. That's the fuel when you don't have no purpose. And that's a statistic I read recently and it hit me very, very hard. As Christians,
We know God's promises about peace, but why does it always have to feel like it's so elusive? Here's a hidden reason you're anxious, and this is going to surprise you a great deal. Anxiety often comes when we too focus on worldly validation instead of God's truth. We end up chasing the likes, the promotions, or the approval.
when God is already calling us to rest in His plan. There's a scripture that I like, Jeremiah 29 verse 11. tells us, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans that will prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. But when we take our eyes off that anxiety,
would creep in. It would creep in very strongly, folks. In my book, Transform You, I talked about how psychology and faith revealed this trap. You see, we are wired to seek approval, but God's word, it often redirects us to his unchanging truth. Let's unpack that first biblical key to break this cycle on down. Let me start by sharing a story. A few years ago, right?
Marcus Hart (04:39.052)
I was low at a very, very low point. I was leading a project, pouring my heart all into it, but you know what happened? It fell all apart. I felt like a failure and anxiety just took me right on over. I went overboard off the boat. I couldn't sleep. My mind was racing and I kept on asking, what, why isn't this working?
Because I was so focused on proving myself to others that somewhere down the line, I forgot about God's approval and how that was enough. It took for me just to open the Bible, more specifically a Bible hat. And I came across Philippians 4, verses 6 through 7, and it tells us, do not be anxious about anything. Anything!
But in every situation, whether it be by prayer or petition, with all thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Woo! That verse hit me. You know what it hit me like? Like a lightning rod, like a lightning bolt. I realized I wasn't praying with thanksgiving.
I was praying out of desperation. Okay. I was on prayer crack. Instead of just focusing on the failure, I wasn't at all focused on God's faithfulness. See, he's faithful. He's faithful in all situations, but it's just us sometimes. And I realized that moment was a turning point for me. I started praying a lot more differently.
started thanking God for his plan, even when I could not see it. Because you know what? After that, peace came. Not because my circumstances changed, not at all. I ain't gonna sit up here and say it was over and done with. But instead, my focus changed. It did a lot. And transformed you the book, I share how this shift in mindset grounded in scripture and psychology can
Marcus Hart (07:08.074)
transform how you lead and how you live. So let's get to that biblical key that I've been talking about. And it's a very important one, very, very important one.
So here it is, the first biblical key to overcome anxiety. You might've heard it when I was telling you my story. And that's to pray with Thanksgiving. Philippians 4, 6 through 7, it's just not a feel good verse. Like so many people, they look for verses that's gonna make them feel good for the moment, but God does so much more better, more bigger than that.
That verse is a battle plan. When you pray, you ain't just listing your worries. Okay? You want to absolutely start with thanking God for who He is. And who is He? Your provider, your protector, and the most important thing, your peace, especially when you are crying out for it. How do you do it, Marcus?
I'm glad you asked that. Here's how you do it.
way you do it. You start with gratitude. Before you even ask for anything. Thank God for something specific. And I used to man I used to get this all wrong. I will put that at the end. But what about all that he's doing positive in my life already? What about all the things that he is keeping together in my life that
Marcus Hart (08:56.13)
I don't even think about. So it was very important that we ask for nothing right away, but thank God for something. His love, His promises, and even just those small wins that we might've gotten before we even got down on our knees and prayed. We have to do it. And then after that, you present your requests. How do we do that?
You got to be honest. Be honest about what you're worried about. And you ain't just venting, okay? I know it sounds like you're venting and complaining, but the other part of that is once you are honest about what it is that is tearing you down spiritually, you want to release that. Give it over to God. Okay? And then there's a most important step in the prayer.
process here that we put together is to expect his peace. Once you give it over to him, that means you are willing to trust that his peace will guard your heart even if the problem doesn't go away right away. And sometimes it won't, but we can go through the storm and have shelter over our head even though the storm is
very frightful outside of that shelter. See, you didn't take yourself out of the storm. You simply put safeguards around you. You put a comfortable dwelling, a shelter to protect you against it so that you can, you might have a little bit of worry, but you're more at peace. You know that like you're not going to die. You're not going to.
not get through it at all. mean, you able to wait it out better. The weight becomes better. Instead of sprinting, you run that marathon. And I've seen this work in my life all the time. And that's why in Transform You, the book, I break this down on how faith and psychology together can absolutely make this practical. And I want you to try this tonight. I want you to try this right away. know, pray Philippians 4, 6 through 7 over your anxiety.
Marcus Hart (11:20.95)
It's going to be a game changer, folks. It's going to do miracles for you. Trust me. Come back and comment and tell me what it did for you. Email me. Do something to get your testimony out there. Testimony is so important. And you know what? We're just getting started. This is the first of three biblical keys to finding God's peace. And in the next episode,
which is episode two of this series, I'm going to be sharing a biblical habit that absolutely transformed my anxiety into peace. And trust me, you are probably missing this one. I know you missing this one. This particular biblical habit that's going to change everything for you. You have to do this. Okay. And then in episode three,
When we bring it on home, we're going to be bringing in an incredible expert to reveal the final key that ties it all together. We're going to put a nice little bow on it and tie it up. So you don't want to miss it. To dive deeper while we're going through this series and even beyond this series, we're at my book, Transform You, Unlocking Leadership Potential through Faith and Psychology at Amazon. I'll have the link in the description for you. And you're going to find a lot of tools.
in that book to help you lead with faith and overcome anxiety. Because like I said, I've been fighting the anxiety monster for all of my time in my life. And at some point I was installed as a leader and I asked myself, I asked God, like, how can you install me as a leader with all this anxiety? So I had to start looking through the scriptures.
and talking to God more often and boom, we will stare. So remember, you got to action step tonight.
Marcus Hart (13:29.038)
Tonight, as you watching this tonight, I don't care if this three years down the line, but if you watching this, I want you to try this tonight. Listen to me, come a little bit closer. Please pray, Philippians 4 verse six through seven, write down one thing you're thankful for and one worry that you're be giving over to God. Come back, share your experience in the comments or social media with the hashtag, transform you live, that's transform the letter you live.
And let's begin to build a community of faith and transformation. I want to see it. I want to see more of you guys coming back and smiling from ear to ear. Ready to join us again next week. OK. Thank you for joining me on the Transforming Live show. If this episode blessed you at all, hit that subscribe button, share it with a friend, and join us at the Shameless Faith Church, which is another YouTube channel of mine, this Sunday.
This Sunday, we're to be touching on finding peace all day for that little time we have on the virtual church, okay, in our sermons. So we're going to talk about finding that peace, okay? So this is where we get in a little bit more. Follow us on Instagram too and YouTube clips.
from this episode because we have a YouTube short clip channel that's called Transform U Clips. You'll see all the clips from all my interviews, all of the solo episodes and a lot of cool things on the Transform U Clips YouTube channel. And don't forget to check out the Transform U book on Amazon. Let's transform our lives together with faith and purpose. I will see you folks again on the next episode and episode two of this series.
I'm out, many blessings, peace, and lots of love.
