Finish Strong With Fearless Faith

Escaping the Grip of Fear #05

January 25, 2021 Fearless Faith Season 1 Episode 5
Finish Strong With Fearless Faith
Escaping the Grip of Fear #05
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Show Notes Transcript

Fear is paralyzing.  It can keep you from your calling.  It ultimately can destroy you.  Hosts Dan Wheeler, Terry Steen, and Brian Roland discuss how they escaped the grip of fear on their lives and how you can too!  You can defeat fear once and for all and live your life in victory!

 This podcast will help you live your life with purpose, change someone’s life for the better and leave a lasting impact on those around you. Everyone starts the race... but only the Fearless Finish Strong!
 
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Dan Wheeler:

But faith and fear can pull us through and I said it was the spiritual door that opened for me to bring me back. I would never forget the day that the sun broke through, I could see the sun shining again. I realized that I'd been in this darkness. But the verse that I kept coming back to I kept going to my room, and it seemed like every time I opened up my Bible, I opened it up to Isaiah 41 and verse 10, says, so do not fear.

John Matarazzo:

Live your life with purpose, change someone's life for the better, and leave a lasting impact on those around you. Welcome to finish strong, the podcast designed to help you discover your unique purpose and develop a plan to leave a powerful legacy. In this episode, Brian, Terry and Dan, take an in depth look at fear and how you can overcome it. Here's Dan to start today's conversation.

Dan Wheeler:

What keeps you awake at night? What are your biggest fears? Let's face it, we all deal with fear. We either face it and conquer it, or we let it grip us paralyzed and destroy us. And this episode of finish strong. We're going to explore what fear is, what it can do to us and how we can escape its grip. I'm Dan Wheeler, and I'm joined by my two great friends Brian Rowland and Terry Steen. Guys, the topic of fear is something everybody's dealing with. I think everyone's fears have only been heightened over the past year. What do you think

Terry Steen:

I'm almost afraid to do a podcast on it? Really?

Dan Wheeler:

Yeah, I know, we had to really have a lot of prayer before this. But you know, Brian, as a society, our fears have drastically changed in this past year, haven't they? You know,

Brian Roland:

they really have been as recent as 2017. Some of the biggest fears were public speaking, people afraid of heights, bugs or insects. You know, even drowning. There's different things that people were afraid of. They were natural. And it was something that was happening outdoors more than indoors, I think because I get bugs inside the house. But Outdoors is when you see things that are happening, and you start getting fearful of our people, we're fearful of it. But since the 2000 pandemic is happening now, the 2020 pandemic, it's really taken a change. People are more afraid of that pandemic and what it can do to them. They're afraid of financial ruin. You see, the stock market's going up and down like crazy. And not knowing if it's just a false positive or not, that's going on with that. The rioting and the violence that has taken place. It's just we feel like we're losing our country to really to socialism, or communism. And we want to keep the country as it was, but there's so many people that want to change that now. And it brings fear to people's hearts. And but there's some of the things that fuel it. Once you agree, Terry?

Terry Steen:

Oh, yeah, you know, it just compounds the fear. If you just sit down and watch television for a little bit or, or get on your phone into social media media is fueling fear incredibly, every night. All you hear him talk about are the cases of death and how full the hospitals are. And yes, that's all serious stuff. But when that's all we hear, when that's all that we focus on in the grim predictions of where everything's going, it's hard not to let that anxiety and that worry and fear sneak in, you know, like you said, the riots and violence and everything that's going on. It's been crazy.

Dan Wheeler:

There's certainly enough to worry about. And I've got a mother in law who has always worried and but she's always worried about the future and the what ifs. And there was a famous French philosopher from the 1500s. I'm going to try and pronounce his name right. It was Michel de mon Tanya. Thank you, I appreciate that very much. But he said, My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened. And isn't that true? Yeah. And you know, in Matthew 6:34, Jesus talked about that. He said, Don't worry about tomorrow basically said, tomorrow's gonna take care of itself. There's enough to worry about today. But fear. What are your fears as you're listening right now, think about your biggest fears. And Terry fear can have harmful effects on us mentally, physically and spiritually. Why don't you tell us about some of the effects mentally

Terry Steen:

Oh, I see that

Dan Wheeler:

Is n't it funny I picked you for the mental...

Terry Steen:

affects you thought I'd have a good handle on ever since the frontal lobatomy you never forget

Dan Wheeler:

You can't forget But well, since they operation

Terry Steen:

Well, in reality, you know, an alarm goes off in our head that tells us Danger, danger, danger. You know, it's it's something that that our body reacts to Our brain sends those signals to our body, you know, to fight or flight and creates where the blood flow goes, and all that sort of thing. So our memory gets impaired, we start getting confused. And then the anxiety when you're going through as long a period of anxiety and stress, as you let fear overtake you, there's just severe mental fatigue, you go home from our day, it may not have been physical, but you're exhausted because of a mental fatigue. It's kind of like a kid at school who gets picked on by the bully, the bullies not always around, but he's looking around every corner and he is exhausted at the end of the day, waiting for somebody to get him.

Dan Wheeler:

It's really true. I mean, fear can do things to him mentally. I remember years ago, and I'll talk about this a little bit later on. But it was the spring of 2012. And I literally you guys probably remember I. had kind of an emotional and mental breakdown and ended up in a hospital and I, I remember a friend of mine that I had made there, he his mom brought a guitar. And I said, Oh, man, cool, I play guitar, let's go in a room and, and sit down. And maybe I could play it a little bit, you could play a little bit and I sat down and I was having trouble remembering chords that I'd known all my life, remembering how to play any songs. I was, my brain was so overloaded with fear and worry and anxiety, it really does take a toll. And then Brian, it can take such a physical toll on us as well. You know, it

Brian Roland:

really can worry and stress and fear. And in general, it attacks our body, I really believe it can bring your immune system down. Because you're so concerned and drawn up into that, that you're leaving yourself. It's like letting your guard down. You're trying to keep your guard up, but you're actually letting it down. When you're going through this stuff, it can really deplete the body's ability to adapt and resist any other types of forces and illnesses. This can result in burnout, adrenal fatigue, dysfunction, resulting in sicknesses. And, you know, personally, I know how that is because my body was attacked like that I let it down, I let my resistance Get down, I wasn't sleeping, I couldn't get any sleep. My serotonin levels were completely exhausted. And I couldn't get a good night's sleep. And I also weighed 60 pounds heavier. So I had sleep apnea. And I was asleep. And I had to get up and sit in the chair. But you try to sleep in a chair all night and all the Bloods running to your to your legs, which, you know, when you're on a long flight, the title get up and walk. And that's the reason but wasn't getting asleep and my body was shutting down because of that. And that's what will happen when you let fear take over. But it just doesn't happen to that then it goes back to the emotional aspect too

Dan Wheeler:

it really does emotionally, worry. And fear and stress can affect so much of our ability to even love or to care about other people we become so centralized on our own life and our own fear, we can't reach out, it can leave us with a sense of helplessness. We can have mood swings, and paranoia. I feel like I'm a an expert on this after what I went through back in 2012. Because I was paranoid, I was afraid to leave my bedroom. I just wanted to sleep all the time. I just wanted to escape. Real life. I was afraid that if I went outside that there would be cameras on me. People were doing documentaries on me, I mean, weird stuff. And and Beth kept saying to me, you're not thinking right, and I really wasn't. But emotionally and spiritually, I felt so far away from God. And when I was feeling far from God despair set in. And I think the reason I felt so far away from God, and I'm gonna be real open and honest here is I wasn't living, right. I wasn't close to God. And I had to really get my whole act together. And it was the spiritual side of things that brought me out of all the rest of it.

Terry Steen:

Isn't that interesting? You know, that the emotion and the spiritual go hand in hand. You know, so many times we focus on all the emotional stuff going on, and many times don't realize it. It's got a direct spiritual correlation.

Dan Wheeler:

Well, you know, nothing against psychology and the whole field of psychiatry, but all the psychiatrists and psychologists they didn't help me. The drugs didn't help me. It was God's word. Yeah. And it was my faith that brought me all out of that spiral. And God brought me out just in time, and it was only three or four months after that, that my wife Beth was diagnosed with stage four cancer. If I hadn't have gone through what I had gone through. I don't think I could have been strong enough to face what I had to, to do with Beth. But I realized that God had brought me through The worst Valley, he was going to be with me through breast cancer, and he gave me the strength to do what I needed to do. So, guys, have you had any of those feelings? Brian, have you ever had a period of just, you know, overwhelmed by fear where it gripped you?

Brian Roland:

Well, that's what happened to me, then I ended up with severe depression. But that came from the fear, I felt that I was afraid of something I didn't know what I was afraid of. But what really affected me was I broke my foot. And I was at the hospital. And Deb was telling me, man, you just you're happy. You're just laughing, everybody, and like, nothing's ever happened. But and I was trying to escape because I felt like somebody had me tied up like on the rope, and I wanted to run, I just wanted to get up and run. But then

Dan Wheeler:

that's hard with a broken foot.

Brian Roland:

Oh, yeah. But the fear just took over. And then I was afraid of something I didn't know what I was afraid of. And so that did affect me in that way. I got out of that, and we'll talk about that later, too. But I just, it was, it affected my life that I wasn't able to do anything, except sit there and I would cry. And I would say I don't want them afraid of, I would just hug myself and just go out what's going on here. God, you know, so it's, it has an effect on you like you would not believe if you let it grip you,

Dan Wheeler:

Terry, you're a happy go lucky guy. And I haven't seen you through too many down periods. But I know you've gone through that.

Terry Steen:

Well, I think if everybody's honest, they all have to some degree. A unique thing happened to me five to seven years ago, it came out of nowhere. But I began to have bouts with claustrophobia. And that's that's a fear that we don't necessarily think about too much. And all of us have, sometimes there's irrational, illogical fears that overtake us. And I can't explain it. It happened on an airplane. And I've struggled with it since that time and and fight with it back and forth. So that's something that's kind of isolated to a certain situation. But yet at the same time, I feel like something that I have to keep going to the Lord for and asking him to help me with that. And then and then otherwise, it's I think it's interesting that as I'm getting older, I'm becoming a little more anxious and fearful about just the day to day small things of life. And I've never really been like that. But it's another little battle that pops up that they're things that well, I don't know, maybe that I'm older, I know what can go wrong. So my so my mind's going to worry about it when I didn't before and don't need to I know I don't need to. So it's a battle sometimes.

Dan Wheeler:

But faith and fear can pull us through and I said it was the spiritual door that opened for me to bring me back. And it was I would never forget the day that the sun broke through, I could see the sun shining again. I realized that I'd been in this darkness. And I told the hospital I wanted to be off all medications. I was checking myself out that weekend and they said No, you can't. And I said no, I know what my rights are as a patient I am checking out. And and I was really from that point on. It took some time to get completely back to normal. But the verse that and I'm going to ask you guys about your go to verses. But the verse that I kept coming back to I kept going to my room and it seemed like every time I opened up my Bible, I opened it up to Isaiah 41 and verse 10 says, so do not fear for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God, I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. And boy, that verse just spoke to me as power. God, I felt his presence God was with me. And he did help me. Terry, what was your go to verse?

Terry Steen:

I come back a lot of times to Joshua, where he's getting ready to go into the promised land. He's fearful. He doesn't know if he has what it takes. In the first chapter of Joshua, in the ninth verses says, Have I not commanded you Be strong and courageous. Don't be terrified. Don't be discouraged. For the Lord, your God will be with you wherever you go. And that's his promise to us. If we can just get in his presence, he will be with us wherever we go. He's right there. It's kind of like a child who has a nightmare in the middle of the night they run the mom because they need to be in the presence of that parent and that adult and that brings comfort, even though nothing's changed as to the fear that presence brings comfort. And that's what God can do for us.

Dan Wheeler:

Absolutely. That's Good, Brian, how about you? Is there a verse that really stands out that helps to calm your fears?

Brian Roland:

I'll tell you the verse that standsout to me. And you mentioned it when we were talking the other day, Dan, and it's really hit home. And it's a psalm 34, four and five, and said, I sought the Lord. And he answered me, he delivered me from all my fears. Those who looked at him or radiant, their faces are never covered with shame, you know, and it's the truth, I sought the Lord, but he brought people into my life that were suffering the same way that I had suffered, I never realized that. And he brought them into my life so that they helped me get through that as well. And to keep me focused on the Lord and Deb did that especially she prayed with me constantly. And of course, I got my mom on the phone, and I'm talking to her and she's going, Brian, this isn't like you. And but my mom was such a strong Christian, as you know. And she would just pray and pray and pray. She had she get on the phone with me to do that, too, and kept me focused, so that I was looking in the right direction, and how is going to conquer this fear and overcome it.

Dan Wheeler:

Before we move on, I sometimes like to check in with our young producer, because Terry was talking about as we get older, sometimes these fears pop up like claustrophobia out of nowhere. JOHN, you're a young man. Is there something that keeps you awake at night? Or do you have fears your face?

John Matarazzo:

Oh, my goodness. Yeah. I mean, just turn on the news. Turn on social media. And you'll see, there's different things fighting to get your attention to make you the most afraid. And, you know, you scroll down a little bit more if you don't have something that you're afraid of in the first screen that you see. Yeah, so as you guys are talking, I'm just, I really appreciate just how open and vulnerable you guys are talking about the different fears that have come up later in life. And so many times people don't want to talk about that. And so knowing that that's something that you guys have gone through even a little bit, you know, a few years older than me. I'm trying to not say old, but you know what I mean? Just the fact that you're, you're talking about it, and you're open about it, and how God has brought you through that is really encouraging. So I want to thank you for that.

Dan Wheeler:

Sure. I think as we get older, we realize we have to share what we've learned. But I've also learned it's important to be transparent. And that's one of the things we really strive for with fearless faith. We want to be honest, we are not preachers up on a pulpit, we are just like the person on the other end of this podcast, you listening at your kitchen table or on your couch. I mean, we face the same things. The same fears driving, yeah, maybe you're listening to us in the car. Try to pay attention. Try not to laugh too hard. But you know, we want to share I know we don't have a lot of time, time always goes by so quickly here. But there are lessons of faith in the Bible. And Brian, I'd like you to share one of your favorite ones that I know comes from the book of Mark.

Brian Roland:

Yep, it's Mark 4:35-41 and its... Well, I'll read it real quick. On that day, When evening came, he said to them, let us go to the other side, leaving the crowd they took him along with them in the boat, as just as he was in the other boats or with him. But there arose a fierce Gale of wind and the waves were breaking over the boats so much that the boat was already filling up with water. Jesus himself was in the stern asleep to on a cushion and they will come and said, teacher Do you not care? We are perishing. And he got up and he rebuked the wind and said that a sea hushpuppy still, and the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And he said to them, why are you afraid? How is it that you have no faith? I'll stop there. Because you know, it's what happens? Well, he was questioning why didn't they have faith? They were with Christ. They were with Jesus on the boat. And I think what he was telling them is that, while you can always stop fear from coming, you can keep fear from abiding in you and being in you. And the message I get is that you need to focus on the character of God, rather the characteristics or the current circumstances that you're in

Dan Wheeler:

Focus on God's character rather than the characteristics of your situation. That's really good. Brian. Terry, I know you'd like the story of Jesus walking on the water.

Terry Steen:

Yeah, let's just stay on the same scene. Maybe just you know, a few yards over one, I see what you did there. I see. This story I was referring to is in Matthew, the 14th chapter of Jesus walking on the water and I won't read the whole thing because of time. But in verse 29, as you know, Jesus has come into the boat, the disciples see him they think he may be a ghost and Peter saying, hey, Jesus, if it's you, let me come out and Jesus says come. And it makes me think that Jesus was giving an opportunity for Peter and all those disciples to exercise their faith. God gives us opportunities every day to exercise our faith. And too many times we have the fear of failure we think we're going to fail so we don't even try. So he goes out there begins as you know, the story begins to walk starts to fall, Jesus picks him up by the hand and they get into the boat. And he says in 31 verse 31, why did you doubt? Now I it sounds like when you read it, it might be a reprimand. But I don't think it was I think it was an encouragement to him, I think, why did you doubt you were almost there. You almost made it. He's not reprimanding us. And I get emotional talking about it. Because he's always there to encourage us. He always wants to build up our faith. We can't be afraid of failure, right? Because Peter was not the failure. The other 11 were the failures, right? They didn't even get out of the boat.

Brian Roland:

It's right

Terry Steen:

Peter grew his faith, walking toward Jesus.

Dan Wheeler:

He did and he actually walked on water until he started looking around. My favorite story of faith. Well, one of my biblical Heroes is the guy was named after Daniel. My mom told the Lord that if she had a son, she would name of Daniel, and that she would dedicate them to the Lord and hope that one day I would go into ministry and you know, here, here we are, man, Terry, you're getting emotional. Okay, but the story comes from Daniel chapter six. And this is amazing. Daniel, was so favored of the Lord and of other people that he rose up through the ranks. He was in charge of the entire country, there were 100, it was under King darious. And there were 120 administrators. And then there were three guys over all of those administrators. But Daniel was number one. So he was second only to the king at the time. And it's a familiar story. When you think about what goes on today in the political world. These other politicians, if you will, or administrators were jealous of Daniel they so we got to find something on him. We got to get him in trouble. But they couldn't. Daniel was above reproach. So they went to the king. And they talked him into this silly edict or decree that he should issue that no one should worship or pray to any god or any man during the next 30 days other than the king. So he went along with it, the king went along with it, and they knew Daniel kept praying. And so they went and they followed Daniel and I love verse 10. It says, What when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room, where the windows open toward Jerusalem three times a day, he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to God to his God, just as he had done before. Daniel didn't change a thing. He stayed with his routine, he stayed with his faith. He didn't let him shake him. He didn't panic, as we tend to do when prayer sets in. He just said, No, I'm gonna keep worshiping the Lord. And then you know the story. They went to the king and they said, Hey, your man, Daniel, here, look what he's doing and you made the decree. The King didn't want to do it, but he threw him into the lions den. And all night long. The King didn't sleep because he was worried. The next morning he comes in, he hurries in down to the lions den. And he called out and said, Daniel, servant of the living God has your God whom you serve continually been able to rescue you from the lions. And Daniel answered, oh, King, live forever. My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. And then the king was overjoyed. And he had all of the angels accusers thrown in the lion's den. But if you step out in faith, you can walk down the water. Yeah, if you realize God is in the boat with you, right? Focus on his presence, as Brian said, and his character, God will pull you through it. Don't panic, right? Never stop worshipping God. So we're near the end of the podcast but let's go ahead and review some of the key points we talked about.

Brian Roland:

I see that fear can paralyze and destroy you. So we get to exercise our faith, keep exercising that don't fear the future. Leave it in God's hands, focus on God, not the circumstance

Terry Steen:

and then pray instead of being panic stricken.

You know, Psalms 34:

4 says, I sought the Lord, He answered me and he delivered me from all my fears. That's David.

Dan Wheeler:

Yeah. And I think you know, it's a good idea to, to put those verses around to have verses, memorize, commit scripture memory, and then focus on the character of God rather than the characteristics of your circumstances. Boy, this has been, you know, another great podcast. I hope that you've been encouraged in your faith. Don't let Fear overwhelm you. Stay with your faith, exercise it. Keep praising God keep worshiping Him. And our next episode is going to be on unlearning fear and activating faith. That should be a good one. JOHN, can you quickly tell people where they can find our podcast and what they should do? I know we like reviews, right?

John Matarazzo:

Yes, we love reviews. And you can leave a great review for this podcast episode and on iTunes or Google podcast, wherever it is that you're listening. Please give us a wonderful five star review and share this with a friend because as you do that, it helps more people discover how they can finish strong.

Dan Wheeler:

Alright, and I'll leave you with God's words. He says, fear thou not for I'm with you. God bless and we'll chat with you next time.

John Matarazzo:

Thank you for listening to finish strong. For more information about finish strong and fearless faith. Check out their website, f faith.org. Make sure that you rate and review this podcast to help more people accomplish their God given purpose so that together we can finish strong