Episode #164 The Fruit a Lesser Story Can Produce in Your Life (Mine Grows Anxiety) – Significant Stories

Hey friends! One of the beautiful things about belief is that beliefs simplify a lot in our lives.

We live and act and engage and interact with the world according to our beliefs.

And that's really beautiful and helpful.

That's part of why it's so important that we believe in God, that we put our trust in him. But our belief in God goes far beyond salvation.

The things that we believe about God and the things we believe about ourselves are so closely intertwined with our daily life experiences. And for a lot of us, we just don't slow down to intentionally evaluate those stories. That's what we're doing here as part of this series.

And today we're on question four, which really is looking at the impact that you're experiencing from the story that you've believed.

So if you're just joining us, jump back a few episodes to step one. We'll have information here in the show notes to help you with that. And we're picking a story that we tell ourselves to take a fresh look at it.

Today we're asking the question: How does this story influence me? What fruit is this story bearing in my life? How do I feel about it? Maybe even what is the impact that this story has on other people in my life?

We want to be curious about our responses here, not beating ourselves up for them, but looking to better understand what the fruit is that the story is bearing in our lives.

A verse that's helpful for me to remember in this stage of looking at the influence a story has on me comes from Matthew 12:33, and it's talking about the fruit of trees and it says:

“A tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad.” (Matthew 12:33 NLT)

And we can apply this to the stories that we believe because sometimes, a story bears bad fruit. But we still try and justify the story as good, or helpful, or worthwhile. But a tree is known by its fruit. A story is known by its influence.

I've shared with you a little bit that I am processing a story on anxiety. And one of the fruits that this storyline has been bearing in my life is anxiety. It makes me disproportionately nervous to take different steps because I'm concerned that something bad is going to happen.

I have times in my life where I experienced lack or failure, and I'm nervous that I'm going to experience those same things again. And so this story of anxiety, it's producing angst in me, but angst to a degree that it shouldn't. It's not an appropriate response. And I can tell that about myself. I avoid certain emails. I assume the worst about different circumstances. And that doesn't apply to those stories. It's not the same thing. It's not the same people. I'm not even the same person.

And so by stepping back, I can start to see that this story is negatively impacting me in a super strong way. And in a way that doesn't even make sense. Which is a good indicator that it's probably not a story that belongs in my life.

But it's been in my life for so long, especially in these areas, that it feels like it belongs. That story feels like it has a home here, and it has validity here because it's been there for years.

And so looking at this question is really helpful for my own processing. But even more than what I can understand on my own, this is one of those questions that it's really important to bring to the Lord. Because he's going to speak to things that we haven't seen yet.

A reminder from one of the verses we've been reading in this series, Psalm 139:23-24, and it says,

“search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24)

As I go through this conversation with God, and I'm looking for how that story is influencing me, I'm asking him to also search me and to show me the things that I won't notice on my own.

To search me and to know my heart.

To know my anxious thoughts and to share with me his insight about them.

And so here's our question to ask him today:

God, how does this story influence me?

What else do you want to show me about the fruit that it's bearing in my life?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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