When Panic Attacks

Dannah Gresh: Struggling with fear and anxiety? Paul Tautges encourages you to take it to the Lord.

Paul Tautges: Prayer is a key piece in the ongoing fight against anxiety, to have some people who are, in a sense, your prayer lifeline people. "Could you pray for me?" or “Could you pray with me?”

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of A Place of Quiet Rest, for Monday, August 11, 2025. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: When life gets hard—and Scripture promises that it will—how do you deal with it? We’ve asked Pastor Paul Tautges to help us answer this question.

I don’t think anyone sets out to become a pro on this subject. But sometimes God gives us the ministry we wouldn’t choose, and that’s certainly been the case for Paul. God has worked through painful experiences in his life to prepare him to ministry effectively to anxious and grieving people. 

Paul is a husband. He’s a father to ten children. He’s a pastor in Cleveland, Ohio, and the author of several books. One of those, which I had the privilege of endorsing, is called, A Small Book for the Hurting Heart. We’ll tell you more about this resource later. But today, Pastor Paul is unpacking an all-too-common struggle in our day and age—anxiety. Here’s Dannah to get that conversation started.

Dannah: What do you do when panic attacks? Well, have I got somebody to help you today! Our guest is no stranger to panic attacking, and he's found a beautiful solution through the power of Christ. Paul, welcome to Revive Our Hearts.

Paul: It’s such a joy to be with you today, Dannah.

Dannah: So, you’ve got to tell us, how did panic emerge in your life? How did anxiety show up in your life?

Paul: I’ve always struggled with anxiety at a low level. I was just raised in a worrying family. So, I just kind of accepted that that was kind of a part of me even after I got saved in 1984. Then the Lord began to show me that worry was something I needed to continually bring to Him, and surrender to Him, and learn to grow through.

But it was really during the course of what I call multi-layered trials in our family and in our church, that just came down upon me in such a way that I ended up in the emergency room twice in six months. I was convinced that I was having a heart attack. My doctor ran all the tests and everything. They wanted to make sure that he understood what was going on.

And it turned out that it was something that they really referred to as “broken-heart syndrome.” Basically, what happens is stress levels in your body get to the point where the anxiety literally does feel like an outside attack, so panic attacks you.

It’s a stress-induced condition that results in your body having this surge of stress hormones, and you have all of the symptoms of a heart attack. But thankfully, I did not have any type of situation that actually damaged my heart muscle.

That really brought anxiety and panic to a whole new level for me. I began to search the Scriptures. I was so refreshed and helped by the honesty of the Scriptures in the times that we find God’s people, both men and women, really struggling with these intense feelings that take over us. God then uses those to draw us closer to Himself.

Dannah: What were some Scriptures specifically that started to help you know what it was that you needed to do? I think sometimes the Scriptures comfort us. They also instruct us.

Paul: They do, yes. For me, Psalm 46 has really become a favorite of mine. We tend to quote the first verse,

God is our refuge and strength, and an ever-present help in time of trouble. 

And we tend to stop there. But the very next verse is key to what it’s there for. It says, “Therefore, we will not fear” (v. 2). Therefore, we will not be anxious. Therefore, we will not panic.

In other words, when I am in that kind of a situation, where I sense that anxiety is starting to take over, I need to redirect my mind, the focus of my heart, to the Lord, and remember that whatever is threatening me, that God is greater than that, that God is my refuge. He’s my hiding place. He’s my place to run and find safety from the things that I’m afraid of.

Dannah: Some people would say, “Paul, haven’t you heard of medication that can turn the anxiety off? Now, it’s a nuance conversation, and everybody’s body is very different.

Paul: Yes.

Dannah: But I am under the conviction that without the power of God’s Word, you’re never going to have a permanent fix. What are your thoughts for somebody that would say, “I don’t know about what you’re saying. It’s just the Bible. You just want me to say Bible verses to myself?”

Paul: Yes, there’s a time and a place for some people to have a temporary use of medications. But I think the way we look at it is important. It’s not the solution. It might be a help toward the solution. It might be a provision from God in the calming of a person so that you can then minister God’s Word in such a way that it nestles down deep into the heart.

In fact, during that period of time after my second severe panic attack, my doctor actually said, “Paul, I don’t think you really need this, but I’m not sure what else to do. So, let’s try some medication.”

I actually tried it for a couple of months, and for me, it did not help me. For me, it made things worse. It just intensified my whole anxiety and thoughts of dread and things like that.

I have known other people who are equally committed to the Lord, equally committed to God’s Word and wanting to follow Him and honor Him who have been helped through the use of medication.

But again, it’s got to be approached with wisdom. I think it falls within a Romans 14 Christian liberty scenario whereby it’s not a right or a wrong. It’s just a, “Is this a wise approach? Or, is it not wise?” And for some people, it may be wise for a period of time. For other people, it may not be wise.

But to echo what you said before, it’s not the solution. The solution is always the work of the Spirit of God in our souls through His Word.

Dannah: Yes. That’s right. Just to go back to the medicine for a minute. Sometimes it’s the right decision for a person one time, and then the next time not. After my second baby, I did use some medication because I had very severe post-partum depression.

But more recently, after I had COVID, COVID turned into anxiety for me. I’ve never had a long pattern of anxiety in my life like you, but I suddenly struggled with it, especially at bedtime. And for me, that time I was like, “I don’t think I need medicine this time. This isn’t as acute. This isn’t taking me under. I can do what I need to do to get better.”

I started walking and meditating on Scripture, and it totally changed things for me. So you do need that wisdom.

Paul: Yes.

Dannah: A question I want to ask you is this, “What is anxiety?”

Paul: Well, look at it from the New Testament perspective. The words that Jesus used in Matthew 6 refer to cares—the cares of the world, the cares of our life. These cares are not necessarily wrong. They’re just some things that occupy our thinking, that occupy our mind.

But the verb form of that word actually means “to pull apart.” And so anxiety is this inner sense that we’re being pulled in two different directions. You can feel that tension when you feel like, “Oh man, something’s going on inside of me. I’m just being pulled in several . . .”

Dannah: You’re not present. You’re not here in the room in the moment. You’re somewhere else thinking, Uh oh, what if? Right?

Paul: Yes. You feel a loss of control. I think that’s something that scares us because in our flesh we do like to be in control. The whole thing of walking by faith and not by sight is a growing and release of this sense of wanting to control everything in our life. 

So God can use anxiety to further our sanctification. It’s not necessarily something we need to run away from, but we need to actually work through it.

Dannah: There’s a difference between responding to fear and anxiety and living under it. What advice do you have for someone who’s living under it?

Paul: Let me just put it in first person. This is what I do: I have to run to the Lord. That’s the first thing I have to do. I have to go to God’s Word, meditate on some of His promises that assure me that no matter what threatens me, He is my protector. He has all things under control—like it was in the life of Joseph. But somehow, even though I can’t see it right now, He’s going to be working these things together for my good and for His glory.

Prayer is significant. As the apostle Paul teaches us in Philippians chapter 4, prayer is a key piece in the ongoing fight against anxiety.

But I think also we’ve got to guard our hearts from isolation. Sometimes we feel like we’re the only ones going through this, and, therefore, we’ve got to fight through it on our own.

But to have some people who are, in a sense, your prayer lifeline people—sisters in Christ in your church that you can just text and say, “I’m really struggling this morning with panic, could you pray for me? Or could you pray with me?” I find, personally, more help when someone prays with me than when they say, “I’ll pray for you today.”

When you just pick up the phone . . . use the phone for something more than just texting and looking up websites. But, to actually call someone and be able to pray together, it’s powerful.

Dannah: It really is. How does anxiety fit into our faith walk?

Paul: Well, I think they need to understand first that it is a common struggle. It certainly can become sinful, depending on how we respond to it. Most of the time, it just occurs. It’s not like we decided today we’re going to be anxious. It’s just there. I think it’s a constant reminder to us of how dependent on the Lord we’re supposed to be.

It was years ago that I was reading a book. It was either by Ed Welch or David Powlison, one of the two. He made the statement, “‘Do not fear’ is the most common command in the Bible.” That really hit me. I thought about that. “Okay, so God reveals Himself to us through His Word. Because He made us, He understands fully how we work. He understands that we need this constant assurance, “Do not fear; I’m with you. Do not fear; I’m your refuge. Do not fear; I’ll bring good out of this.” So that’s a good reminder for us. Then to talk to Him about that.

Praying Scripture is really helpful to me, to do more than just read. Reading Psalm 46 can certainly bring me some comfort, but when I stop, and I actually pray through that, and I insert into my prayers the very specifics of this particular situation. Like, “What do I feel threatened about? Is it a conflict with people? Is it a fear of something unknown in the future that maybe I’m trying to control?” I can work through a psalm in particular, pray through that.

Dannah: You really do grow in intimacy with the Lord when you do that, because a psalm is a beautiful poem until you need it, and then it’s medicine.

Paul: Absolutely.

Dannah: And it hits different, doesn’t it?

Paul: It does. Yes.

Dannah: Take me to one of the psalms that has been a medicine to your soul during one of your battles.

Paul: Psalm 27 is very significant for me. It’s also one of those refuge or fear kind of psalms. David begins with this: 

The LORD is my light and my salvation. 
Whom shall I fear? 
The LORD is the stronghold of my life. 
Of whom shall I be afraid?” (v. 1)

And then he goes on to recount some of the specific causes of his fear, the things that are provoking the anxiety in his heart. But, the way he begins that is very significant. He first declares truth to himself. “The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?”

It’s kind of like what Martyn Lloyd-Jones used to say in his preaching and, specifically in Psalms 42 and 43, in his book, Spiritual Depression. He talks about the difference between talking to ourselves and letting ourselves talk to us.

Once you hear that, you begin to see this pattern, especially in the Psalms. And that’s what David is doing here. He’s recognizing that, “Okay, anxiety wants to talk to me, wants to take control and dictate, wants to be in the driver’s seat of my life today. And what I need to do in order to put that anxiety in the back seat of the car is I’ve got to declare to myself what is already true about God.” It’s a God-centered truth that brings the equilibrium back, so to speak.

Dannah: It’s amazing how it works. I think one of the things that’s interesting about Martyn Lloyd-Jones mentioning that you talk to yourself is that what so often the psalmist tells himself is he reminds himself of who God is.

Anxiety is exalting these problems up so that they’re bigger than God. They’re going to overcome me. Right? So that means they must get through God. And the Psalms remind us, “No. We’re in His hand. We’re under His wing. He’s the refuge that we’re climbing up into.”

Paul: Yes.

Dannah: But you have to climb up into that refuge. You do have to climb up into that tower.

Paul: Yes, you do.

Dannah: That’s kind of what you’re talking about doing.

Paul: Yes. And to get back to the jargon of the car illustration, you’ve got to put your hands on the steering wheel. You can’t just let anxiety take control and drive that car.

My wife and I have been really blessed by the Lord. We have ten children and a growing tribe of grandchildren. It’s wonderful, but sometimes anxiety feels like and sounds like . . . The noise it creates in our hearts sometimes sounds like four or five kids in the back seat, or the back couple seats, of the van. They’re bickering, they’re arguing, they’re fighting about something.

You’re trying to drive. You’re trying to concentrate, but you’re constantly having to look back over your shoulder to see and deal with those things. I think sometimes the cares that Jesus speaks about in Matthew 6 are like that. They’re like that—all these noisy children that are crying out for us to help or fighting with each other, just creating a lot of noise. That’s what anxiety does. It creates a lot of noise in our soul, and what we have to do is, even as Psalm 46 ends, “Be still and know that I am God,” (v. 10) which is a command.

Dannah: Yes.

Paul: Quiet your heart. So you do have to do something. You can’t just sit and wait, kick your feet up in your spiritual recliner and wait for it to go away. You’ve got to do something.

So I think that’s where anxiety is a blessing because it can retrain us as to how we respond to the pressures of life. As we learn to put our hands on the wheel, speak truth, biblical truth, to ourselves, and let the Holy Spirit then massage those biblical promises and those God-centered thoughts deep into our soul.

Dannah: Good word.

I really want to talk a little bit about . . . I want to ask, I guess, a confrontational question. You started telling us that you had gone to the hospital and that you had broken-heart syndrome. The circumstances of your life were literally heartbreaking, like, not in the physiological sense, but in a chemical sense. You’re in crisis.

I guess I want to ask, “Was the only thing you did was to turn to Scripture? Or are there times when we also need to change the way we’re living, evaluate ourselves, take a pause, take a break?” Because there’s a spectrum of anxiety, right?

Paul: Yes, yes.

Dannah: Some people are at the end of the spectrum where, like you, they’re checking themselves into a hospital for some reason or another.

Paul: Right.

Dannah: So what did you do? What changes did you need to make to your life when that happened?

Paul: Well, the solution is certainly not singular. It is plural. There’s a bunch of things that are involved. Scripture needs to be part of that remedy. Prayer needs to be part of that remedy. Fellowship with other believers needs to be part of that remedy.

For me, I had to re-evaluate the commitments in my life. I was a pastor. We had a truck full of kids and grandchildren were starting to come. There were some conflicts in the church. And there were some things just going on at so many different levels of my life that I tried to keep going at a certain pace that I had been used to going.

The Lord kind of brought everything to a halt through that crisis. I had to re-evaluate and say, “Okay, this is not going to work long-term for the rest of my life. This schedule, this commitment level is not sustainable.”

And so for me, I had to re-evaluate and back away. In fact, I ended up, actually, backing away from pastoral ministry for a year. I said, “Lord, I just need to take a year off, and I’m committing that to You. I need You to just do in my heart what You need to do. I need You to show me Your direction for the future.” And the Lord did that, patiently, as we waited, He graciously worked.

He ended up moving us here to Cleveland, Ohio, actually ten years ago today, and a whole new chapter of our lives and a whole new season of blessing that’s beyond what we imagined.

So it’s just one of those examples, again, of how the Lord is always at work in the background, behind the scenes. We don’t see it at the time, but we need to learn to trust Him more—that child-like faith, as the Scriptures say.

Dannah: Right. So you take a year, and you back away from the very thing that seems to be your purpose. There must have been days . . . Did you ever second guess that decision:

Paul: No. I did not. I knew it was what I needed. I knew it was what my family needed. It didn’t take away all of the pressures. In fact, it increased some because I ended up going to work at a garden center in the daytime, and I was a janitor at a cheese factory in the evenings. So it’s not like I saw my kids more than I did when I was in the ministry. But it was just a different way that the Lord was working in my heart and preparing me and preparing my family for a move that we didn’t even know was going to happen. The Lord’s providence was just remarkable.

Dannah: That’s beautiful to hear that.

I hear you saying three things: when anxiety strikes, get in the Word, pray, and rest. You might have to find a different rhythm of rest in your life to fight that battle. Those are probably three really important ingredients.

Paul: Yes.

Dannah: There’s more to talk about, because this battle is thick and rich. Will you come back tomorrow so we can continue to explore how to overcome anxiety?

Paul: Definitely. I would love to.

Nancy: That’s Pastor Paul Tautges, talking with my co-host, Dannah Gresh, about navigating anxiety as a follower of Jesus. And what a comforting and encouraging conversation this has been!

Hardly a day passes that I don’t hear from a woman who is living with a heart that is weary from anxiety, fear, and loss. Maybe you’re there right now. You might have looked to this world’s solutions for your pain and found that they’re just not enough.

What we all need is to get in God’s Word and to get God’s Word into us. We need it spoken over us in tender, practical ways. And that’s why earlier I mentioned Pastor Paul’s book of daily readings, A Small Book for the Hurting Heart. This resource is rich, and it’s accessible. It’s a wonderful way for any grieving Christian to soak in the healing truth of Scripture.

And this month, we’re sending Paul’s book to our listeners who make a donation of any amount. Again, the title is A Small Book for the Hurting Heart. I like that title, by the way, because when your heart is really hurting, sometimes you don’t want a great big book, and that’s why it’s so helpful to have a small book that’s filled with godly wisdom and advice for hurting hearts.

To get your copy, you can visit ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959 to make a gift to this ministry and request your copy. I believe you’ll be richly encouraged by this resource. 

Well, as Dannah said, we’ve got more ground to cover with Pastor Paul Tautges. Tomorrow they’re taking on another hard topic: what to do with grief and sorrow.

Even if your life seems to be humming along just fine right now, it’s likely you know someone else who’s walking through a painful loss. Maybe you and your friend could listen together. 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 NIV.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.