[thunder crashing] [thunder crashing] ♪♪♪ Dr. David Jeremiah: Are you feeling powerless, powerless to control your destiny? The fate of our nation, your career, financial security, and even your daily life? We are in a spiritual battle for our hearts and minds, sometimes with little strength to be victorious.

What if I told you there is one who can empower you to prevail over the emotional, physical, and spiritual chaos in your life, one who can give you the power to be more than a conqueror, more than a winner, more than a victor, but an overcomer? As an overcomer, you are no longer defined by your trials but by your victories.

As an overcomer, you put on God-given armor that both protects you from the enemy and empowers you to conquer your greatest obstacles. Dr. Jeremiah: We’re called to be overcomers, men and women. We’re called to walk in victory, and strength, and peace, and love. Sometimes I hear people say when I ask them how they’re doing, “I’m doing okay down under the circumstances.

” But we don’t belong under the circumstances, we belong above the circumstances. We’re not undercomers, we’re overcomers, amen? Dr. Jeremiah: Live a life of unstoppable strength, unmovable faith, and unbelievable power. Discover how you can be an overcomer. ♪♪♪ male announcer: Unstoppable strength, unmovable faith, unbelievable power, these are the qualities of an overcomer.

Discover the eight steps to unlocking God’s power in your life in David Jeremiah’s book, “Overcomer.” Feeling powerless, hopeless, anxious, tempted? The message in “Overcomer” can help you start living victoriously. Request “Overcomer” today when you give a gift of any amount in support of this program.

And if you give a generous gift to the ministry of $75 or more, you’ll receive the comprehensive “Overcomer” study set, which contains the “Overcomer” book, Dr. Jeremiah’s complete teaching series on DVD, including his interview hosted by Sheila Walsh, a correlating study guide, and “The Warrior’s Prayer” bookmark.

Plus, with any order of the “Overcomer” book or set, you will receive the, “Super 8 Overcomer Cards,” stunning cards highlighting the God-given powers of an overcomer. Be defined by your victories. Be strong in the power of God’s might.

Be an overcomer. Order Dr. Jeremiah’s book, “Overcomer,” or the complete study set today. ♪♪♪ female announcer: Thank you for watching “Overcomer” here on “Turning Point.” In appreciation of your viewership, Dr.

Jeremiah would like to send you the warrior’s prayer bookmark absolutely free. Contact “Turning Point” today. And now, here is Dr. Jeremiah with his message, “Overcoming Anxiety with Peace.” ♪♪♪ Dr. Jeremiah: “Stand therefore, having shod your feet,” now listen to this, “with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

” Say it with me. “The gospel of peace.” The New Living Translation renders this verse: “For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.” The word “peace,” believe it or not, occurs over 400 times in the Bible. And basically, there are two kinds of peace that the Bible describes.

First of all, there’s what we might call peace with God and secondly, what the Bible refers to as the peace of God. Now, let’s talk about the first one. The Bible teaches that when you try to live your life outside of a relationship with God through Jesus Christ you can never achieve a deep peace in your life.

Everyone is aware of this cosmic discomfort to some degree. But when we come to Jesus Christ and put our trust in him, here’s what the Bible says about us. Listen to this. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” What that means is when we become a Christian, the hostility between God and us goes away.

You say, “Well, I’m not hostile to God.” Well, I hate to tell you this but God’s hostile to you because of your rebellion against him and his plan for your life. And when you come and submit yourself to God and you accept his plan for your life, especially a relationship with his Son, Jesus Christ, the hostility, the barrier, the closed fist that we often have toward God, ends up going away and all of a sudden that feeling of being at odds with God is evaporated and now you know you’re not

Let me just give you two of those promises. John 14:27, Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world do I give it to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” And later on in the same book he said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” You know, I know that a lot of us, we do this when trouble comes, do you ever pray this prayer: “Lord, please make this go away. Please make this go away.” Or, “Lord, I don’t know what to do about this problem.

Would you just resolve this because I don’t know what to do?” I’ve been praying that prayer for well over 50 years and I’m gonna tell you what my score is. It’s 50 to 0. God does not do that. God allows these problems in our lives, and then he orchestrates the circumstances so that he can show us his strength in the midst of it.

God’s purpose in your life and in mine, is not to make all our trouble go away, but to show us that in the midst of our trouble, and in the midst of our stress, and in the midst of our anxiety, he is enough. And when we find that out, we are so rich. We could get up every day with confidence, amen? But we can say, “I don’t know what’s gonna happen today but here’s what I know.

My God is enough.” Yeah, and I’ve fallen in love with this little song by Jo Dee Messina called “My God is Bigger Than This.” And every time I think of something in my life that’s challenging I just sing that little song, “My God is bigger than this.” And he is. But let me ask you a question.

o you find that out unless you have trouble in your life? God allows trouble in our lives to show us how strong he is in the midst of it all. So here we are, all of us, probably somewhere along the continuum and we know that we’re living a life of anxiety that is not the life God wants us to live.

So I wanna give you some strategies today for peace to place in your heart where anxiety now resides. I’m gonna ask you five questions. I’m gonna use the five interrogatives that journalists always use: how, what, who, where, and when. And each of these is a strategy that you should mark down in your heart.

Number one, here’s the question: “How are you praying?” There are two passages in the Bible that help us with this particular problem in our lives. One is Philippians 4 and the other’s Matthew chapter 6. I would call these the central passages in the Bible on anxiety. Philippians 4:6-7: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts

” And let me tell you what I have learned in my own personal life and from the Scripture. When I’m facing stress and turbulence in my life, there are two kinds of prayer that are helpful that often get overlooked in most discussions of prayer. The first one is progressive prayer and the second is proactive prayer.

So let’s take them one at a time. What is progressive prayer? Well, let me just say when we’re under pressure, what do we do? We run to the Lord, we rush into his presence, and we dump our list of stuff on him without even saying, “Hello.” We say, “God, I need this, this, this, and this, and I need it now and tomorrow and the next day and if you could get it ahead of time, that would be great.

It’d even be better.” But real prayer is a lifestyle of love for God. And rushing into his presence with our laundry list of needs without pausing to truly focus on him can depress us more than if we hadn’t ever prayed at all. Because if we talk to God and all we talk to him about are our problems and we don’t see him high and lifted up in our worship, all we’re doing is rehearsing our problems and driving them deeper inside and prayer is not a help, it’s a hindrance to our issues.

I’ve discovered that when I am under pressure, it’s easy for me to skip right to my issues and forget about the God to whom I am praying. But when I pray and I worship God, here’s what happens. God grows in my life until my problems are put into perspective. If I only give God my problems, all I got is me and my problems.

But when I go to God first, I’ve got my problems, I’ve got God, and I’ve got me. That’s the first thing. Number two, I like to call this proactive prayer. We usually treat prayer as remedial. By that I mean we pray when we have a need. We pray when we’re in trouble. We pray when we find ourselves in a spot we don’t know what to do.