Surrender Fear on Your Knees

Dannah Gresh: Judy Dunagan remembers a surprising piece of wisdom one man gave her father.

Judy Dunagan: He said, "Mark, if God wants you to go through a nervous breakdown, you ought to want to have a nervous breakdown more than anything else in the world."

Dannah: Unexpected, right?! Judy will explain!

This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of My Personal Petitions, for Tuesday, September 2, 2025. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Nancy: Ever since Genesis chapter 3, when sin entered the world, fear and anxiety have been a very real part of our human existence. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in a position of power or a place of vulnerability, fear plays a role. And sometimes fear can be controlling, even enslaving. We truly need freedom from that kind of fear.

We’re about to listen to part 2 of a message Judy Dunagan gave at a recent True Woman conference. Yesterday, she led us through Psalm 91 and exhorted us to make God’s promises our dwelling place. It was so encouraging. If you missed that program, you can find it at ReviveOurHearts.com or on the Revive Our Hearts app. 

Today, she’s challenging you to take your fears to the Lord in prayer. That reminds me of a sweet hymn we used to sing more when I was a girl. 

O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer! 

I hope Judy’s message will help you to release your burdens to the Lord in prayer today. Let’s listen.

Judy: One of the ways that I try to keep my mind focused on prayer, especially when I’m overwhelmed with anxiety . . . I’ve had to do this several times in my life, and we even taught our daughters to do this. It’s very simple. It’s called the alphabet praise. It’s going through the alphabet thanking God for His names and attributes.

It can help calm your mind. If you can’t fall asleep, or you wake up, try that, where you’re just worshiping Him in prayer.

I’m going to pray over us now just to show you what I’m talking about, and we’re going to lift Him up. Let’s pray.

Oh, Father God, we worship You as the Almighty.
Jesus, You are the Bread of life.
You are compassionate.
You’re our Deliverer.
You’re everlasting.
You are faithful.
You are good.
We worship You as the one who is holy, holy, holy.
You are infinite and just.
You’re our King of kings and Lord of lords.
You are majestic.
You’re near to the broken-hearted.
You’re omnipotent.
You’re powerful.
You quench our thirsty hearts.
You’re our Redeemer.
Jesus, You’re our Savior.
You’re trustworthy.
You understand when we’re overwhelmed with fear.
You’re victorious.
You’re wonderful.
I exalt You.
You’re Yahweh.
You’re zealous for us.

We lift You high in our hearts as we worship You. In Your holy name we pray, amen

Okay, I cheated on the “x.” Did you notice? Exalted. So if you guys have any ideas for an “x,” let me know. But that just gives you an idea of how you can turn to prayer when your anxious heart seems to be taking over.

The next thing that we have to do, another way to cast our anxiety onto God is through worship. I’ve talked a little bit about that already in terms of the alphabet praise. That’s part of worship.

One of the hardest times in my life that I mentioned, I was having a really hard time worshiping Him. I was journaling. I was journaling psalms that were comforting me, trying to write out my prayers. One day I sensed the Holy Spirit saying to me, “Judy, can you praise Me, even in the midst of this?”

Friends, I was kind of incredulous. I was kind of like, Really? I’m supposed to thank You for all this?! But out of obedience, I started to write thanksgiving in my journal. I would journal a prayer or a Scripture, and then on this side of the page, the left side, I would just write at the top, “Sacrifice of praise” or “Sacrifice of thanksgiving.”

The psalmist talks about that a lot, and I would just start listing things that I was thankful for. You know, our precious God knew that was going to turn my heart to trusting Him more. It’s just turning to what I could thank Him for. I don’t mean a thank you for the hardest thing I’ve gone through, but thank Him for where He is, what He’s doing for you.

I talked about prayer. Prayer is a gift. It’s a precious gift He’s given us that we take for granted. So I started thanking Him for the privilege of prayer, not matter what I am like when I enter into His presence.

This is a time, too, for worship, when you listen to worship music. There are some incredible worship songs coming out. I have a playlist tied into my book. It’s called “The Loudest Roar Worship,” available on my website.

You can create your own playlist, just to dwell on that. I’ve been doing that a lot, and I did that early this morning as I prepared for our time together. So turn to worship, even in the midst of sorrow. Worship, I believe is a weapon that you can also use against the enemy. The enemy has to leave you alone and flee when we’re worshiping our almighty God.

To begin your time in worship is very important. Not that you have to do that all the time. I had a grandmother who raised five boys on a farm, and she was worried about their safety. They were wild. My dad was in the middle of the five.

She would tell us a story. She was a prayer warrior. You would see her on her knees. Her whole family, all those men who are now in their eighties and nineties, they still talk about their mother covering them in prayer.

But she told us, sometimes when she’d see them racing down the road, she would just see them and go, “Oh God, keep them!” That was her prayer for her boys. Those whispered prayers can be really powerful.

I used to, when I would pray, just jump in, right into my requests, especially when I’m hurting, but I had a prayer partner who really mentored me. When we would pray together, she would want to get on our knees and just begin in worship. Sometimes we’d do that alphabet praise, but also just turn to Him and praise Him for who He is. It’s amazing how that can calm your anxious heart.

So we’ve talked about worship and prayer and God’s Word, but I want to talk about remember. It’s kind of a unique word there, and this comes from Psalm 77. I want to read some of that over us, because what Psalm 77 is, is a prayer, at first, of wrestling and kind of crying out to the Lord and saying that I don’t understand what this is all about.

It was written by Asaph, we’re told. If you look at it, the first half of the psalm is all the heartache and all pouring out, casting that all onto Him. Then there’s a turn, right in the middle of the psalm. It’s like the psalmist knew that he had to go back. Even though he couldn’t see the goodness of the Lord and His faithfulness, he had to go back to things from the past, and he started to say, “I will remember.”

I just want to read this psalm over you, again, as you think about your sorrow right now.

I cry aloud to God,
   aloud to God, and he will hear me.
In the day of my trouble I seek the LORD;
   in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;
   my soul refuses to be comforted.

When I remember God, I moan;
   when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah
You hold my eyelids open;
   I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

I consider the days of old,
   the years long ago.
I said, “Let me remember my song in the night;
   let me meditate in my heart.”
   Then my spirit made a diligent search:
“Will the Lord spurn forever,
   and never again be favorable?
Has his steadfast love forever ceased?
   Are his promises at an end for all time?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
   Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah

Then I said, “I will appeal to this,
   to the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
   yes, I will remember your wonders of old.

I will ponder all your work,
   and meditate on your mighty deeds.
Your way, O God, is holy.
   What god is great like our God?

You are the God who works wonders;
   you have made known your might among the peoples.
You with your arm redeemed your people,
   the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah

When the waters saw you, O God,
   when the waters saw you, they were afraid;
   indeed, the deep trembled.

The clouds poured out water;
   the skies gave forth thunder;
   your arrows flashed on every side.
The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
   your lightnings lighted up the world;
   the earth trembled and shook.

Your way was through the sea,
   your path through the great waters;
   yet your footprints were unseen.
You led your people like a flock
   by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

The writer of this psalm had all that heartache that he’s pouring out to God. Then right in the middle of the psalm, he said, “But I will remember.” He went so far back to where he’s proclaiming what God did for them in going across the Red Sea and escaping Egypt.

That can be what we do. I just encourage you with that.

Now women, I know that many of you are hurting. I wish I could talk to each one of you and see what you wrote down on your paper. I know one thing that a lot of women are dealing with as moms now is a prodigal child. I keep hearing this over and over.

I have a lot of dear friends who their children loved the Lord and then went to college and left Him. Or they’re fifteen and don’t want anything to do with Jesus anymore. If that’s your burden, I want you to borrow my hope.

I have a daughter who, her first year of college, was leaving the Lord. It was breaking my heart, and I was desperately afraid for her. My husband and I prayed for her, and we just didn’t know what was going to happen.

I started to pray that God would capture, fully capture her heart no matter what it took. That’s kind of a dangerous prayer, right? But I kept praying it. She was in a school far from us. She was in northwest Washington, and we were in Colorado.

I was thinking, Do I bring her home? Do I say you can’t go to that college? You can’t date that boy.

I sensed the Holy Spirit whispering over me, “Judy, you’ve been praying that I would capture her heart. I’m working on it, and you need to get out of the way. Just keep praying and be a prayer warrior for her.”

She was like nineteen. I adore her. She’s an amazing young woman.

That summer after her freshman year, she came home. In July, she went to one youth group thing for college students, and she came home a different girl. It was just the worship, the teaching. She came home and wanted to share some of her story with me. To this day, it’s one of the most precious times we’ve ever had!

She’s going to be thirty-one the end of October. She married an incredible young man, and they have two darling little boys. Their oldest boy is called William, which means resolute protector. My daughter’s name is Kelly, which means warrior.

She is a prayer warrior. She’s the one who, when my father died, she called me and prayed over me. She’s the one I text to pray for me. I text my other daughter as well. She is a prayer warrior as well.

Kelly went from where I thought she was leaving the Lord to where she came home to Him. I think her depth of how much she loves Him is even deeper, because she knows why Jesus had to die for her.

I just want to encourage you, praying moms in this room, keep praying! Keep running to Him. Keep casting that anxiety onto Him.

There’s others in this room, I’m sure, who are longing to have a baby. Or you’ve had a child with special needs, and you’re just longing for help with that. Or your afraid your marriage is imploding. You’re not quite sure. Or you have health issues that are scaring you.

I’m talking about surrender. We talked about worship and remember and surrender—to surrender to whatever God is trying to use through this deep sorrow or this fear that you’re facing.

I mentioned my dad. He is also an author. He wrote the books The Adversary and Overcoming the Adversary. His name’s Mark Bubeck. He served the Lord faithfully for many years. He passed away when he was eighty-nine.

What’s really sweet is I helped update The Adversary before I had the job at Moody. They were going to update the book, so they had me write preface, and I got to help him edit it. That’s how I ended up getting this job at Moody, which I love.

After I started there, I said, “You know, his second book is even better,” because he’s got all this great information on warfare and our protection, prayers that he writes. He teaches on the armor, and it’s called Warfare Praying, if you want to get it. It’s in the ministry center. His name, again, is Mark Bubeck.

 

While I was preparing this talk I remembered a story he used to tell us when he was a young pastor. I’m just going to read it over you, because it’s a story of surrender. Sometimes God can use our greatest fear to make us more dependent on Him. When we’re weak He’s strong. Also to prepare us to minister to others who are going through what you did.

So just listen to this in terms of surrender.

He writes:

Have you ever lost your sense of peace? What a time of panic, fear, and torment that brings!

A dark time in my life happened in the early years of my marriage. I was in my second year of seminary, taking a full academic load, working part-time and struggling financially to make ends meet.

Suddenly one day, as a result of a minor crisis, something snapped in my emotional well-being, and total panic swept in. Words fail to describe the darkness, the terror that comes to the human soul and spirit when fear begins to reign. God’s servants are not immune from such trials.

Adding to my own trauma was the feeling of dread and humiliation that I was going to have a nervous breakdown. To me, that would be the worst thing that could possibly happen to a young man preparing for the ministry.

This can’t be happening! I’ve never had a nervous day in my life! How can I ever be fit to comfort and counsel others in their spiritual and emotional needs when I’m falling apart?

Thoughts like those were constantly with me. The only way to describe my torment during those days is to say that I was experiencing a total loss of peace. My prayers, though fueled by desperation seemed locked away from God’s ears. The Scriptures, though often read, seemed like dead words to my troubled mind and emotions.

During that time, I learned that one of my professors at my seminary had gone through a similar trial when he had been in seminary. Just knowing that someone else had experienced such a trial and survived comforted me.

With a flicker of hope, I sought him out. He was most understanding and encouraging. I expressed my fear of experiencing a breakdown, perhaps ending my hope of ever being a minister.

With kindness, he spoke words that shocked me into a sudden awareness of truth. He said, “Mark, if God wants you to go through a nervous breakdown, you ought to want to have a nervous breakdown more than anything else in the world!” [Can you imagine that? I have that in bold.]

Those words stopped me. I did not hear anything else that was said. Truth had slain my pride and fear. Excusing myself hurriedly, I made my way home to get alone with God. On the way, I remembered having prayed during a special prayer day at seminary, “Lord, while I’m in seminary, do in my life whatever You see needs doing to prepare me to be a usable servant.”

Those words now rushed back to my consciousness with new insight into what my trauma was all about. I knelt in prayer that afternoon, and for the first time since the trauma began, I felt like I could commune with God.

With quiet surrender I prayed, “Lord, You know I really don’t want to go through a nervous collapse, but if You want me to, then here we go! I’m ready.”

At that moment, I was sure that God was going to take me through such a breakdown, but instead, as I arose from my knees, I noticed a return of at least a portion of inner peace. As I continued to surrender to the Lord’s perfect will, that peace kept growing, and in a few weeks, I was fully recovered.

What great lessons that experience taught me! During that traumatic time, God built within me a tenderness and an understanding for people going through emotional crises that I would never have learned otherwise. He taught me the absolute necessity of full surrender to His will, even if it threatens my own desires, but perhaps the greatest lesson of all was to learn the value and truth of a peace that goes beyond our human understanding.

I read that over you, because my dad told me that story when I was younger and overwhelmed with fear and anxiety. Our family moved to Beijing, China, where our daughter was sick all the time, and I was overwhelmed, where I thought I could lose my mind. I would cling to that story. I started to pray that same prayer, and I think there is a surrender peace.

What’s beautiful about my father is he was an amazing biblical counselor, probably one of the most compassionate people I know. I grew up watching him. We had people stay with us who were hurting. He started a ministry called “Deeper Walk” to provide biblical counseling to people who were hurting, so that’s part of his legacy.

I really believe it was forged from that surrender and what God taught him through that. He’s a big, tall, strong man, and to have almost a breakdown when he never dealt with anxiety. I do believe part of the reason God let that happen in his life was to create in him a heart for the hurting and an understanding of that.

So, my friends, we’ve talked about the importance of pressing into God. I’m just going to repeat the parts.

Dwell in promises of Scripture.

Prayer. Turn your worries into prayers. I forgot to mention that. That’s something I learned as a mom who was very fearful my girls were going to get cancer or snatched or something. I had that fear come, and I would turn it into a prayer for them, that worry.

Worship Him, even in the midst of the hard.

Remember. If you have to reach back just to remember when He’s been faithful, because you can’t trust Him right now, do that.

And then surrender.

So as you look back at what you wrote on your piece of paper about your greatest fear, I just wondered if you could pick one of those things that we’ve looked at and try working on that. Just pick one for whatever is on your heart and mind, and see what God will do.

You can write even a prayer of commitment, or journal to the Lord. If you have friends here, or even if you want to tell someone you’re sitting by, and you don’t know them, say, “This is what I’m struggling with the most. Will you pray for me?” And have someone pray over you. I have a prayer partner who has prayed for me for years.

I’m just going to give you just two minutes or so to think about that—which one you’re going to pick—and then to write on your piece of paper whatever you’d like. It could be a prayer of surrender. It could be like my grandmother, “Lord, help me!” It could be just pouring your heart out to the Lord. Just take two minutes or so.

I’m going to read some Scriptures over you about God and how He comforts us. You know, if you look up BibleGateway.com and just type in “fear not,” or “do not fear,” or “be not afraid,” it comes up at least 350 times in the Bible. We’re told not to fear, because our God knows there’s a lot to be fearful for.

So as you do that, I’ll just read these over you, and then I’ll pray, and we can let you go.

“Fear not, for I am with you;
   be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
   I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isa. 41:10)

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:27)

John 16:33, Jesus spoke this over His disciples the night He was arrested, right before, in the upper room:

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Josh. 1:9)

When I am afraid,
I put my trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. (Psalm 56:3–4)

I’m just going to pray over you now. If you’re writing, you continue to write. Whatever prayer of surrender, or what you’re writing to the Lord, but I’m just going to pray over us.

Oh Lord Jesus, we are so grateful that You chose to walk this groaning earth and to die for us. We’re so grateful that You were tempted in every way we were. You’re such a compassionate, loving, kind God.

Thank You that You’ve asked us to throw our anxiety and our fears and our worries onto You. God, I pray that You would make us women who pray, women who love Your Word and dwell in it and memorize it and savor it, women who choose to praise You, even in the hard things.

May we remember Your faithfulness from the past that gives us hope for the future. Thank You that You guard and protect us. You’re like a rampart around us. You hem us in from all sides.

So, Lord, I thank You that You know what each woman is wrestling with or hurting, or her greatest fear. I pray that You’ll calm her anxious heart and draw her ever closer to You. You are our only hope. We want to trust You. We love You, and we thank You for this time together.

In Your mighty and holy name, yet very personal name, we pray, amen

Nancy: That’s Judy Dunagan wrapping up her message on finding freedom from fear. 

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Tomorrow, we’re diving into a six-day series where I’ll be teaching on 1 Samuel chapter 30, and there’s so much for us to learn from that passage. In fact, sometime in the next twenty-three and one-half hours or so, why don’t you read 1 Samuel 30 and begin meditating on it? See if you can identify with any of the feelings David was struggling with. If you’re feeling discouraged, then this series is for you. 

I hope you’ll be back tomorrow for Revive Our Hearts.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the ESV.

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