 Good morning and welcome everyone. Thank you so much for connecting on this morning's mentoring hour. We have a subject which is of concern to all of us and we'll get into it shortly. But before we talk about the subject and hand it over to the person who will be sharing, let's begin with the word of prayer and I want to request one of us on the call to please go ahead and lead us in prayer. Alright, maybe Natasha? Natasha, is it possible to please lead us in prayer? Yeah, sure Nancy. Thank you so much. Father God, we just want to come at this hour into your care. Lord, you know our needs. You just fulfil the desires of our heart this morning. Just answer our questions, meet our needs and be with the deeper Ma'am as she teaches us Lord and everyone who has some question on their heart. Just answer them. Lord, we just come at this hour into your care. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much Natasha. So today's subject is familiar to all of us because in some of the other season of life we're sure we've all experienced worry and anxiety to a certain extent. But today Pasadipika is going to shed more light concerning what is a godly concern regarding matters as compared to worrying or being anxious about matters. So I'll just hand it over to Pasadipika who's also one of our faculty here at the Bible College and Pasadipika will take us through what she has for us today. Over to you Pasadipika. Thank you so much. Yeah, I will open up the presentation and then we can get started. Yeah, just let me figure out. Is it showing up on everyone's screens? It is, but it's fairly large. So if possible to just reduce it a little, it would be helpful. Yeah, perfect. This is awesome. All right. Yeah. So yes, today we will talk about the difference between godly concern and ungodly anxiety. If we were to look in 2 Kings chapter 13 verse 23, it says over there that the Lord had compassion on the Israelites and showed concern for them. So it is a good and godly thing to have concern for our families, for the people that we love regarding the things that are important to us. It is good to have a godly concern in the same way God was concerned for his family of Israelites, for their life, for their future. So we should be concerned about how we manage our finances, about paying our bills on time, about our health. These are things that God expects us to be concerned about and to be proactive in fact about. However, we are told to never worry about these things. So we should be careful and see to it that our godly concern for these things doesn't cross the line and turn into ungodly worry or anxiety. So how can we know whether what we are experiencing in our mind, whether it is godly concern or whether it is ungodly worry. So we will look at a few points which can help us to determine whether what we are experiencing is godly concern or whether it is ungodly worry and anxiety. So the first point to remember is that whenever it is legitimate godly concern, it is always god-centered in the sense in a crisis situation believer with godly concern would do whatever he is able to do in his capacity from his side. And whatever is beyond his capacity, whatever is beyond his control, he trustingly releases that into God's sovereign hands. He chooses not to worry about it. In other words, he is content to let God resolve the issue in what way God sees fit. On the other hand, worry is very self-centered because worry rises out of a desire to control every event and somehow make it turn out exactly the way we want it to turn out. You know, because God doesn't give us exact details about how exactly he is going to resolve the problem and what exactly he is going to do, when he is going to do it. He doesn't give us those details. The warrior is not comfortable with this. The warrior is not comfortable with leaving things in God's hands. He wants to be in control of every aspect of that issue and only that will make him feel safe. And so he worries, he thinks to himself, what if God doesn't make things go the way I want it? What if the outcome is different? What if this happens? What if that happens? And so he is not comfortable with allowing God to be God and allowing God to decide what is best. So the warrior is very self-centered and this causes him to worry. On the other hand, a person who trusts God will do whatever he can from his side and leave the rest in God's hands trusting God to decide and make decisions. So one question that we can ask ourselves when we are feeling concerned about something is, we can ask ourselves, am I just doing my part regarding this problem regarding this issue? Am I just simply doing my part sincerely and leaving the rest in God's hands? Or do I keep worrying and wishing that somehow I could control even God's part and somehow make him do things the way I want things to go? So that indicates, I mean if our attitude is of the second type where we are trying to control all of it and we want to just somehow make God work things our way, if that is our attitude, it shows that we have crossed over from godly concern into ungodly worry where we want to control events, where we want to have our way. And that is why we go on reflecting upon that issue in our mind and thinking, okay, what can I do to somehow force things in this direction instead of just trusting the Lord and leaving it in his hands. A second point that maybe we can keep in mind is that godly concern is always action-oriented because the person has a godly concern and he is looking to God trustingly. He asks himself, what would God have me do in this particular situation? Because we read in Ephesians 2-10, we are told that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So which means for every situation of our lives, God already has certain works in mind for us which he would like us to do in those particular situations. So a person who is trusting will ask the Lord and say, Lord I am deeply concerned about the situation that I am going through that my family is going through. What would you have me do with regard to this? So they trust God and they take a step of faith and they do whatever God is leading them to do. On the other hand, worry paralyzes action because instead of looking to God, the warrior goes on looking at the problem and the more the person looks at the problem, the bigger the problem becomes in their eyes and they become so filled with anxiety and fear that it literally paralyzes them and they do nothing, they just keep worrying. So that would be a negative way of approaching it. So we see that especially in the case of the David and Goliath story where we are told in 1 Samuel chapter 17, we are told that for 40 days, every morning and every evening, Goliath comes to the Israelite army and he challenges them saying, give me a man to fight with. And we are told in 1 Samuel chapter 17 verses 10, 11, it says over there that Saul and the Israelites kept looking at this giant and it says over there that they were dismayed and terrified. So you see their eyes were on the giant. Their eyes were on what the giant is saying and that dismayed and terrified them. On the other hand, David does not look at the giant. He doesn't look at the problem rather he looks at God and he takes a simple step of faith. He takes his staff in one hand. He takes up the sling in the other hand. He takes five smooth stones and he steps out to do whatever little he can do. And in fact Goliath is amused with his efforts. Goliath says to David in 1 Samuel 17 verse 43. He says, am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? Because you see what David is doing on his part is very, very little. But then David clarifies and he says, I'm coming to you not with sticks. That's basically what he's trying to indicate. He says, I'm not coming to you with sticks. He says in verse 45 he says, I am coming to you in the name of the Lord of hosts. And he says in verse 46, this day the Lord will deliver you into my hand. So David was not under any impression that his staff or his sling is going to achieve the end result. He was stepping out in faith doing the little bit that he could do. Trusting God to do the bigger part of bringing down the giant. So a question that maybe we could ask ourselves, a second question that we can ask ourselves is, when we are concerned about something, we can ask ourselves, am I proactively going to God trustingly and saying, Lord for all of my life situations, you have already planned good works that you would like me to do. So in this situation, what small role would you like me to play? So we ask him and whatever we feel the Lord telling us to do, we do that. Knowing that that little bit that we are doing is not going to resolve the problem. But the God in whom we are trusting, he will take care of the bigger issues. Our role is just to do the little part that he is entrusting to us. So we ask ourselves, am I exercising godly concern and just doing whatever God is leading me to do? Or am I so paralyzed with fear that I am not able to take any action? So if it is the latter, then that would be ungodly worry rather than godly concern. A third point that maybe we can keep in mind is that godly concern shows love and care. But ungodly worry tends to get obsessed when we care about someone, when we love someone. Yes, we do feel deep concern regarding them, regarding the situation that they are facing. But we choose not to become obsessed with it. An example that we can look at is in 1 Samuel chapter 15, where the Lord says that Saul is now rejected from being king. And this grieves Samuel very deeply. In 1 Samuel 15 verse 11, it says, it grieves Samuel and he cried out to the Lord all night. The entire night he intercedes on behalf of Saul. This is an example of godly concern where Samuel takes this issue before God and pleads on behalf of Saul. But then later in 1 Samuel chapter 16 verse 1, this is what God says to Samuel. He says, how long will you mourn for Saul? And he says to him, fill your horn with oil and be on your way. So we are not sure how many weeks or how many days Samuel spends in thinking about Saul and in praying for him and all of that. But a point comes where the Lord says, no, I have rejected him as king and now it is time for you to move on. So it is good for us to care for our loved ones and be concerned for them and intercede for them in prayer and think about them. But we are never meant to be obsessed with them and their issues. We are meant to leave things in God's hands and let God be the final person in authority who decides what should be done and how things should go. So a third question that we can ask ourselves is, this thing that I'm very deeply concerned about, this person about whom I'm deeply concerned. Am I placing them before God in prayer? If I'm doing that, that is definitely godly concern. But if I'm constantly worrying and obsessing about them and I want things to go in a particular way regarding them, then that would be ungodly concern. So these are just three simple points that we looked at to assess whether what we are experiencing in our heart and mind is godly concern or whether it is ungodly anxiety. So in case we are experiencing ungodly concern, ungodly worry, then what can we do regarding that? How can we see to it that our concern stays godly and something acceptable in the eyes of God and not turn into something that is displeasing to the Lord so that we don't allow this godly concern to turn into anxiety or worry? What can we do? What preventive measures can we take? There's this one Christian counselor who suggested this. He said, imagine two circles, a very large circle, that would be God's circle, and then imagine another small circle. And so he says, whatever is outside of your control, things that you can't do anything about, place them very firmly in God's circle. They are meant to be handled by the Lord. So you commit it to him and you say, Lord, you take care of these things for me because they are outside my control. And whatever you can do from your side, whatever little faith steps that you can take with God's permission and with his help, you write down those things in the small circle. So you do those things to the best of your ability and choose not to worry about the things which have been placed in the large circle. To use an example, let's assume that a mother is very concerned about her teenager who's becoming very, very rebellious. So she's very concerned now about the future of this girl. But can she control the future of her daughter? Can she make things go in a certain direction and determine what kind of a career that girl is going to move into and what life choices she's going to make? Those are outside the mother's control. So she has to trustingly place the daughter's future in the large circle. But as a mother, there are many things that she can do to improve the future of her child. So in the small circle, prayerfully, she can jot down the things that she can do to work towards improving the child's future. For instance, she can keep her in prayer, intercede for her. She would maybe write down in the small circle in what way she's going to spend more time with her so that they can start talking, be comfortable with each other and talk about certain issues that need to be brought up. Maybe in the small circle, she could put down prayerfully some point that she specifically wants to take up with a girl and then ask God for an approach on how best to bring up that topic. So things that she can do, she places them in the small circle, focuses on those things, prays about them, does it to the best of her ability with the Lord's help. But she makes a conscious choice to place the bigger things which are outside of her control in God's circle and say, Lord, you take care of it. I choose not to dwell upon this. So whenever thoughts come about, okay, what's going to happen? If she doesn't get the required marks, will she get a seat in that college? So whenever those thoughts come which are outside of her control, she would firmly say to herself, no, this is in God's circle. God is going to take care of it in his time. So I choose to trust in him and not dwell upon this. So that would be one good strategy to employ in dealing with worry. So from our side, we are acting in faith so we can have confidence in that, that we have God's backing. And on the other hand, when it comes to the larger circle things, we are choosing consciously to place those things in the Lord's hands to move very, very quickly into the rest of the points. Another thing that we can choose to do is to prevent our concerns from growing into idols. Because it says in Matthew 633 that if we seek God's kingdom first and His righteousness first and the spiritual things that need to come first, which should be the first priority, He says that if we seek those things and focus on those things, all the other things which we need for our life will anyway be automatically added to us. That is the promise that He has made. So rather than idolizing the secondary things and worrying about them, if we choose to keep our priorities straight and if we keep the first things first, then we can have the confidence that God will do His part and He will add the secondary things to us as and when required. So rather than idolizing the secondary things, if we can get our priorities right, that would help us not to worry too much. Another point is that... Sorry to interrupt you. Would we be able to wrap up maybe in a minute or so so that we can open up the time for questions? Alright. Sure. So another point is that we are expected by God to plan for the future and work towards the future, but we are not supposed to worry about the future because it says in Matthew 6.34 that when that future comes, when that day of future, that day that we are working towards comes, whatever is required for that day will be provided on that day, on that tomorrow. So we work towards it, we plan towards it, but we don't worry about it because the provision for that day will come on that day. So we don't need to worry about it beforehand. Another point that we can dwell upon is to offer our prayers with thanksgiving because when we offer our prayers with thanksgiving, it's a reminder to our heart and mind about the nature of God, His faithfulness of God and that builds up our faith and another point when we have these worrisome thoughts coming into our minds about what if I don't get a job, what if my health doesn't improve. So when those what-ifs come into our mind, we take hold of those what-ifs and we declare scripture to them. That's basically what we do. So if the thought comes, oh what if I don't get a salary hike, how am I going to handle all the bills which are going to come in? So I take hold of that worrisome thought and I declare to it and say whether or not I get the salary hike, my God shall take care of all my needs, He shall supply all my needs according to His riches and glory. So these are just some of the pointers that we can use in seeing to it that our concern stays on the side of godly concern and doesn't go over, cross over the line and go into becoming a very ungodly anxiety or a worry. Yeah, so let me stop sharing the screen and yes, yeah. That's about it. Thank you. Thank you so much Deepika. This subject as we stated earlier is, you know, it's interesting but it's also something that each one of us have experienced at some point or the other experiencing godly concern and then, you know, maybe worry, anxiety and I'm sure that there will be a whole bunch of questions today. So we're going to open up this time for us to go ahead and ask our questions. You may either post the questions on the chat or kindly unmute your mics and ask the questions. Deepika is here and so are our other faculty and we'll do our best to answer your questions. All right, so maybe just let me just pose a question to Deepika. Deepika, practically how do you handle worry? Like if you're in a situation where worrying is an option then what do you do practically in order to overcome that? Yeah, so I mean it was a few months ago that I read about these two circles so I practice it almost every single day. And when a thought comes into my mind if it is something that is outside of my control something that I cannot do anything about I immediately remind myself this is in God's circle. So God is going to take care of it in his time, in his way. I just need to do whatever I can in the smaller circle. So if it is something that I can do something about maybe work towards achieving that bigger thing so whatever little bit I can do from my side I will prayerfully do but I have made a conscious choice and ever since I got to know about this whole two circle thing to tell myself if it is something that belongs in that bigger circle I say no, I'm not going to dwell upon it the Lord will take care of it and the faith to be able to do that that basically has come by spending a lot more time than earlier in God's presence basically to learn two things first to educate my mind more and more about his faithfulness and his love that has been a big help the second thing is to become more and more aware of who I am in Christ my status so these two things even as I'm dwelling upon them and improving in knowing these two areas God, his nature, his faithfulness and who I am how he regards me what my status is so even as I have been dwelling more on these things it's become much easier for me to leave those things which are in God's circle let him take care of it in his way in his time I'm not going to meddle, I'm not going to try to control that area and make God do things in my way it's become easier because now I'm able to trust him more so that has been one very very helpful thing for me sure thank you so much thank you Deepika while we wait for questions would just like to open out this question to all our faculty anyone can please answer if you're facing a very difficult situation there's always that temptation to go into worry and anxiety but how do you handle it what are some practical things that you do in order to take care of that situation and not move into worry and anxiety any of our faculty please feel free to unmute and share okay I think I'll go ahead and ask Pastor Jai Kumar Pastor Jai Kumar any thoughts on this morning everyone I think that was a great distinguisher between godly concern and worry and while we have the direct commandment from the Lord not to worry and practically some other things that we can do for me personally there are a couple of things that I'd like to do in the natural and in the spiritual one of the things is in the natural physical I just like to go for a walk just to move more and physically do something that always helps me and at the same time just to pray in the spirit and just to worship the Lord pray in tongues and we know that we pray in tongues that we are being edified in the inner man sometimes we don't know what we should pray for as we ought but the Holy Spirit makes the prayer for us and with that Francis so those are things that I immediately I can think of that I would move to and do in my life thank you thank you Pastor Jai Kumar that was really helpful any others of our faculty want to share please feel free to how do you handle a difficult situation and not going to worry alright while we wait for questions or comments I can just share two things that I can think of right now one of course is prayer as Philippians chapter 4 encourages us to bring everything to the Lord with thanksgiving that is very powerful so when we pray we can actually strengthen our trust our faith in the Lord and we know that we hand over our burdens we cast our cares on the Lord and then we receive off His peace and that is incredible that's a great privilege that we have so praying in these times and secondly I think breaking down the task into doable sections so to have a good look at the task be very objective about it and as Pastor Deepika was sharing she was saying that what God can do we need to just hand it over to Him and do what we can do and so when we take a good objective look at the task we can understand which sections we can tackle and then if we can break that down and tackle with the smaller sections and therefore have a plan to deal with what we are able to deal with that's also empowering so those are two things that I can think of and that way be able to overcome worry and anxiety so we have a question here in the chat section Jefina is asking what's the difference between worry anxiety and depression that's quite technical but any thoughts on it about the faculty as well so worry is generally thoughts about the future things which have not happened and will probably never happen it's all these thoughts in the mind what if this happens what if that happens so it's basically the what ifs so worry is about thinking about things which may happen or purely imaginary things which will never take place that would be worry I suppose anxiety is more a kind of pervasive feeling of fear that goes on and on because I mean you might have had a bad experience in the past and now you're anxious that maybe it's gonna happen again and it's this kind of fear always constantly that oh you know the bad experiences of my past are gonna get repeated again what am I gonna do what am I gonna do that would be anxiety I suppose it can also be a very severe worry where you are so worried about these imaginary things that you're thinking may happen that it turns into anxiety where it becomes a kind of pervading fear that's always there in the background you know it's always there running in your mind so anxiety I would say is a stronger you know yeah it's a stronger symptom where you have allowed the worry to get to a stage where it has now become a continuous background noise of anxiety depression on the other hand with regard to worry and anxiety is it because depression on its own I suppose would be sadness I know it's a feeling of deep sadness that you're not able to come out of it's a sense of hopelessness so with regard to the topic of worry and anxiety depression is maybe when you have if you have given up hope you feel that the problems are so big and so huge and these imaginary things which you think may may happen in the future seem so impossible that you have just given up and maybe that has you know left you feeling depressed so maybe that could be one way of putting it across if anyone else can throw more light yeah that would be good yeah yeah thank you Deepika you know as I stated these are technical words as well like as far as mental health is concerned so to get their exact definitions a little bit of Google search and some research would help but Deepika shared you know from her understanding so we're grateful for that I hope that's okay Jafina can we move on to the next question okay thank you thank you for that we'll go to Sheba's question Sheba Shinde she says in sickness sometimes we get scared about that sickness we know the word we confess we confess it then also suddenly sometimes we get scared what is this and what we can do in this situation is it anxiety or fear yeah if I'm going through a sickness then I would have a lot of thoughts coming into my mind you know in different scenarios I may wonder whether it's going to take a long time for me to get well I may wonder whether the medicines are going to be working so you just have all of these thoughts coming in so we would have to you know whatever we can do you know if you think that sickness has lasted long enough and you would need a second consultation so whatever you can do from your side logically thoughtfully prayerfully you would take those steps and do that but then some of the things that you may be imagining about your sickness those things may not even take place because those are in the future you're thinking it may go that way it may go this way so anything that is beyond your control the Lord will take care of he would not hold you responsible you know to somehow resolve something that is out of your hands so the bigger issues regarding your sickness the Lord will take care so you continue to claim the scriptures and we would just continue to exercise our faith and in his time the Lord will provide the healing so when these thoughts different thoughts come to us any step that we can take from our side we do we go ahead and take it but if it is something beyond our control and it may not even happen in the future we just leave it in the Lord's hands and we say Lord you know you will take care of this in your time and we continue to hold on to the scriptures so yes thank you Deepika I was just wondering if we could also discuss the faith aspect in such a situation because you know as she was sharing here in when one is sick and seemingly it's you know be extending that sickness is extending and a person is getting scared anxious and fearful so how can we apply faith I will just request Pastor Ashish would you have any thoughts about how to handle this matter what the Bible teaches us is you know to to just continue strong in faith so there is God's side to this to healing and there is man's side to healing man's posture is not one of passive waiting but it's active faith and that's where I think a lot of us miss it faith is not passive faith is active that means so you know sometimes we use the phrase leave it in God's hands and how do we translate that the wrong way to translate leave it in God's hands sit and do nothing that's not what the Bible calls us to to leave it in God's hands means yes I know God's the healer his will is to heal me his timing is now his timing is not in the future my second Corinthians after 6 verses 1 and 2 says now is the appointed time now is the day of salvation so when does God want me to be saved God doesn't want me to be saved tomorrow God wants me to be saved now that's God's appointed time so that's very clear that scripture so God's timing for salvation is now but and faith is now but many times because of our our thought we say I'm leaving it in God's hands what we're really doing is we're putting it off into the future but God's timing is now salvation is now and the word salvation we understand includes healing safety deliverance everything so what is God's time to heal what's God's time to save us it's now not tomorrow not day after so our the wrong understanding of faith is I leave it in God's hands which means I become passive that's not Bible faith Bible faith is active it's dynamic it means I am standing in faith and I'm pressing into what is mine that's Bible faith passivity is not Bible faith right so going back to this question we have to ask ourselves what is the posture of my faith is the posture of my faith passive what is the posture of my faith active if my what is active faith it's pressing in right Jesus said Matthew 11 verse 12 the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it not the passive take it or the violent take it by force so there's a difference between being violent and being passive and who are the ones who are going to take what's in the kingdom those who are violent not those who are passive so in those times of sickness we need to stay violent we need to stay active we need to keep pressing in with every ounce of strength we have to press in not to be passive right so how would that translate that means okay my healing hasn't manifested but I'm going to maybe double up in the time in the word of God if I was spending an hour meditating healing scriptures I'm going to start doing two hours or if I've been speaking God's word you know once a day I'm going to say Lord this is mine I'm going to do it twice a day now so God's appointed time for our healing for our salvation for our deliverance is now not tomorrow and so we have to be aggressive pressing into the kingdom of God and like Paul said and I'll probably close with this verse I don't want to make this a sermon what Paul said in Ephesians 6 he says having done all to stand stand therefore that means I've done everything what else must I do keep standing you know and that's standing is not a posture of passivity passivity would be having done put on your full hama having done all to stand, sit down, relax that's passivity but the active posture is having done all to stand I'm standing up and I'm pressing forward with the the weapons that God is giving me so I think that's what we should be doing being very active and not faith shiva and fear is an enemy it's something we don't tolerate doubt is an enemy anxiety is an enemy so we resist it we don't tolerate it so there's that active sense of pushing against those things sorry thank you pastor, thank you so much that is very helpful pastor sorry to bother you once again but if you could also address Natasha's question that will be very helpful so Natasha is asking sometimes when God seems silent for years then what should be our attitude to handle this issue yeah I think I've shared some thoughts which definitely is to continue to be to be active in faith and and maybe double up in what we're doing in the active expression of faith and also to discern what is it that that's going to give me my breakthrough there could be things that we can't do to get us a breakthrough I think if we actually seek God for that He will definitely speak to us so continue with active faith double up or increase what we're doing in pressing into the kingdom and also seek God for what is it that's very specific going to give us our breakthrough you know we continue to very actively seeking God for the breakthrough and He will lead us into it Thank you pastor, thank you so much for answering Natasha's question as well I hope both Sheba and Natasha are okay with those answers please let us know we could accommodate one more question so if at all there's a question that any of us call have please feel free to share that or a thought or an experience even like if you just want to talk about it please feel free alright so seems like we have addressed the questions that were posed and there are no more questions so what we can do is we can pray and wrap up for this morning and before we do that I just want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Deepika for sharing on this subject of godly concern versus worry and anxiety truly helpful to you know understand these aspects and also see how we can live our lives as believers putting our trust in the Lord and staying away from worry and anxiety so let's close with the word of prayer and would like to request one of us on the call to please go ahead and pray not able to hear anyone let's pray yes father in heaven we thank you for this wonderful day we thank you for the lecture for the mentoring hour that we've been having but many of us we've always been having worry but at least now we have a glimpse of how we should react in case such a thing happens and again being Bible college with the faculty and with students we should also extend what we've learned to all those out of the people in our circles so that worry should not get a better of them I do pray please Lord continue in anointing to all the faculty especially to our lecturer who has shared with us the moderator plus all the bigger drums in the house Lord I do pray for our ourselves the students as we prepare to go into our next we do pray that you bless us in the name of the Father the Son the Holy Spirit Amen Amen Amen Thank you once again Deepika Thank you everyone for joining on this call God bless you have a wonderful day ahead