Peace in His Presence: Hope for the Anxious Heart

Have you ever felt like it was simply safer to stay small?
Maybe you've been putting off that dream, avoiding difficult conversations, or quietly convincing yourself that "someday" will be a better time. Maybe you've learned to hide in ways that don't even look like hiding anymore.
In this episode of Peace in His Presence, Michelle shares the deeply personal story of how childhood bullying taught her that staying unseen felt safe—and how that same pattern quietly followed her into adulthood, even as she stepped into podcasting, coaching, and writing.
If you've ever struggled with the fear of being seen, procrastination rooted in fear, or believing that staying small is the safest option, this conversation will remind you that there is a better hiding place.
Drawing from Psalm 32:7, Michelle explores the difference between the hiding places we build for ourselves and the refuge God lovingly offers.
You'll leave this episode encouraged to take one faithful step toward the dream God has placed on your heart, knowing you don't have to become fearless before you begin.
In This Episode You'll Discover:
Why hiding often begins as a way to protect ourselves
How childhood experiences can shape our adult patterns
The connection between fear, procrastination, and staying small
The difference between hiding from the world and finding refuge in God
A simple practice for bringing fear to Jesus instead of letting it keep you stuck
A calming breath prayer based on Psalm 32:7
Scripture
Psalm 32:7
"You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance."
Reflection Questions
Where have I been choosing the "safest seat" instead of stepping forward?
What fear is inviting me to hide today?
What would one faithful step with Jesus look like this week?
Free Resource
If you've been carrying a dream, a calling, or a project that keeps getting pushed to "someday," download my free Someday Project Companion Guide.
Inside you'll find gentle reflection prompts, Scripture, and practical encouragement to help you move from fear to faith—one faithful step at a time.
Connect with Michelle
Website:
michellediercks.com

When Your Inner Mean Girl Gathers Her Posse
Why the voices telling you to stay quiet, stay small, and stay safe get so loud when you try something new.
Have you ever wanted to start something new—a book, a podcast, a Bible study, a business, a ministry, or another dream you've carried for years—only to find that your inner critic suddenly has a lot to say?
Who do you think you are? What if you fail? What if you don't know enough? What if someone else could do it better?
Sometimes the moment we begin moving toward something that matters to us, the negative self-talk gets louder. Fear of failure, self-doubt, old patterns, and painful memories can create so much noise that we begin to wonder why we feel stuck. Before long, the dream gets tucked away again with a familiar promise: Maybe someday.
In this episode, I'm taking you with me on the gravel roads near my Iowa home, where some very protective mama killdeers helped me notice something about my own internal warning system. We'll talk about why your inner critic can get especially loud when you're doing something new, how old experiences can shape the patterns we carry into the present, and why the question "What happens inside me when I try?" may be more helpful than asking, "Why can't I just do this?"
I'll also share a story from my own childhood about the mean girls who taught me to stay quiet, stay small, and stay safe—and how that old pattern can still gather its posse when I step into uncertainty today.
But this isn't an episode about defeating your brain, silencing every negative thought, or trying harder to think positively. It's an invitation to notice what gets loud inside you and carry those words with you to the foot of the cross.
What does your inner mean girl say when you try?
I'm too late.
I'm not good enough.
I don't know what I'm doing.
Someone else could do this better.
I never finish anything.
Who do I think I am?
You don't have to argue with every thought until you win. You don't have to silence every siren before you move forward. You can bring the fear, the self-doubt, the questions, and the whole noisy posse to Jesus.
Because your inner critic does not get to tell you who you are.
Your project does not get to tell you who you are.
Your progress and productivity do not get to tell you who you are.
Jesus does.
In this episode, we'll sit together with the prayer of Psalm 139: "Search me, O God, and know my heart... and lead me in the way everlasting."
Search me. Know me. Lead me.
You don't have to figure out the whole road ahead. You can bring what you're carrying to Jesus, remember what is true because of Him, and ask one simple question:
Jesus, what is one faithful step You are inviting me to take today?
In this episode, we'll talk about:
Why your inner critic and negative self-talk may get louder when you try something new

How fear of failure and self-doubt can keep a meaningful dream stuck in "someday"

Why old experiences can create patterns of staying quiet, staying small, and staying safe

A gentler coaching question to ask when you feel stuck or keep procrastinating

How to notice the thoughts that surface when you move toward something that matters

Why you don't have to fight with every thought or silence every fear before coming to Jesus

What it looks like to carry your inner critic's words to the foot of the cross

How remembering your identity in Christ changes the place from which you take your next step

How to move forward with one faithful step, even when you still feel uncertain

A question to carry with you:
What happens inside me when I try?
And then:
What does my inner mean girl say when I do?
Write down the sentence that gets the loudest. Bring it honestly to Jesus. You don't need a polished prayer. You can simply say:
"Lord, this is what gets loud when I try."
Then sit with Him for a while.
Do you have a someday project?
Maybe it's a book you've always wanted to write, a podcast you've dreamed of starting, a Bible study tucked inside a notebook, a business, a ministry, or a message you've carried quietly for years.
If you keep wondering why you can't seem to begin—or begin again—I created The Someday Project Companion Guide for you.
This free Christian guide isn't another ten-step plan or another person telling you to try harder. It is a gentle place to take your someday project to the foot of the cross, sit with Jesus for a while, remember God's faithfulness, and ask Him for one faithful step.
Get your free copy of The Someday Project Companion Guide here:
[GET THE GUIDE]
Bring the dream.
Bring the questions.
Bring the racket.
And come sit with Jesus for a while.
Because someday may not be on the calendar. But today is.
Scripture mentioned in this episode
Psalm 139:23–24
"Search me, O God, and know my heart... and lead me in the way everlasting."

You've been worrying about them for months. Maybe years. And here's what all that worry has fixed: nothing. Not their pain. Not their situation. Not the ache in your chest that shows up every time your phone rings.
You know worrying doesn't fix it. You know that. And yet you cannot stop. You replay the conversations. You brace for the next phone call. You carry their pain home with you and set it right down on your kitchen table like it belongs there.
Friend — this episode is for you.
What This Episode Is About
In this episode of the When You Cannot Fix It summer series, we're talking about what happens when you love someone so much that their pain becomes yours — and your nervous system simply will not rest until it's resolved.
This is the invisible backpack. And most of us have been stuffing it full for years.
We talk about why we do this — not just out of love, but because sitting with someone else's pain is deeply uncomfortable. We talk about the real neuroscience behind why your body replays their story again and again. And we talk about what to do instead — practically, not just spiritually.
This isn't about caring less. It's about learning to carry less.
What Christian Women Are Searching For — And What Jesus Says
So many Christian women are carrying burdens that were never theirs to carry. Worry that belongs to God. Pain that belongs to someone else. Problems they were never designed to solve.
Maybe you recognize yourself here:
• You absorb the emotions of everyone around you — phone calls leave you heavy for days
• You replay conversations looking for the thing you could have said that would have fixed it
• You live under what I call "doom clouds".
• You cannot rest until everyone around you is okay
• You tell yourself you're just being a good friend, a good mom, a good daughter — and you're exhausted
 
That is not weak faith. That is not a character flaw. That is a nervous system that has been working overtime — protecting you and the people you love.
And Jesus meets you right there.
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." — Matthew 11:28

He is not saying — stop worrying and then come. He is saying — come. Weary. Burdened. Carrying what isn't yours. Just come.
The Story Behind This Episode
Years ago I had a friend who was carrying some of the heaviest things a person can carry. She would call me and I would listen — and I was always honored to listen. But here's what I didn't realize I was doing.
Every time we hung up the phone, I felt a deep ache in my heart. I replayed what she had told me. Not just praying about it — thought looping. Spinning. Trying to figure out a way to fix her pain.
And here's the honest truth of why we do this. We tell ourselves we are trying to help. And we are. But we also want to fix it so that we feel better too. Because sitting with someone else's pain is uncomfortable. And when we take it on, we feel it too.
It took me a long time to learn this: sometimes people stay stuck. And carrying their stuckness is not helping them. It is absolutely exhausting you.
I also share in this episode about the doom clouds I was living under with my kids — how they would call me from college, unpack the hard things, and then go live their best lives while I sat back in Iowa under the weight of what they had already set down.
This is not a tidy lesson from the other side of healed. This is a real story from a woman who is still learning to lay it down.
What You Will Discover in This Episode
If you are a Christian woman struggling with worry, anxiety, or the exhausting need to fix people you love — here is what this episode will give you:
• Why your brain absorbs other people's pain — and why that is not a spiritual failure
• The simple neuroscience behind why replaying someone's story puts your body in fight or flight again and again
• The invisible backpack — and what you have been quietly stuffing into it
• The one question that has changed everything: What am I trying to carry that is not mine?
• A practical way to bring what you are carrying to the foot of the cross — and actually leave it there
• An introduction to the Joy Pause — learning to stay present with what is actually here instead of time-traveling into worry
Scriptures Referenced in This Episode
1 Peter 5:7
"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."

Not some of it. Not just your own anxiety. All of it — including the worry you absorbed from someone else's phone call.
Philippians 4:8
"Finally, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — think about such things."

After you lay it down — what do you pick back up? Not the replay. Not the what-ifs. Truth. His promises. What is actually lovely and real right now.
Matthew 11:28
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."

Free Resource — Weary Traveler Reflection and Prayer Guide
I made something for you. It is completely free.
The Weary Traveler: Rest for the Over-Carrying Soul Reflection and Prayer Guide will walk you gently through eight reflection questions and a prayer of release — right to the foot of the cross with whatever you are carrying today.
If you are already on my email list it is on its way to you. If not — download it free right here.
👉 [Prayer Guide]
Ready to Go Deeper?
Sometimes a podcast episode is a beautiful starting place — and sometimes what you really need is someone to sit with you. Someone to hold space and actually listen.
That is what I do as a Master Certified Christian Life Coach. I would love to invite you to pull up a chair.
I'm calling these sessions At the Kitchen Table with Michelle. It's a free consultation call — no strings attached, no pressure, no obligation. Just a conversation, some practical faith-based coaching tools, and a safe place to start.
👉 At the Kitchen Table with Michelle — Book Your Free Call  
About Michelle Diercks
Michelle Diercks is a Master Certified Christian Life Coach, speaker, and the author of Promised Rest and Promised Hope published by Concordia Publishing House. She is the host of the Peace in His Presence podcast and lives on a farm in Eastern Iowa with her husband Troy.
Michelle helps anxious Christian women find peace through faith, neuroscience, and practical coaching tools — not from a place of having it all figured out, but from right beside them in the middle of it.
Subscribe and Share
If this episode spoke to something you've been carrying — would you share it with one woman who needs to hear it? You never know whose invisible backpack is packed a little too full right now.
Find Peace in His Presence on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere you listen.
New episodes dropping all summer. We are going on this journey together — one week at a time, one thing at a time, learning to lay it all down.
You were never meant to carry all of this, friend. And you don't have to.
 

Connect with Michelle
🌐 michellediercks.com
📖 Promised Rest and Promised Hope — available wherever books are sold

Are you a Christian woman who can't stop worrying about someone you love?
Maybe it's your child who is struggling and won't let you help. Maybe it's a marriage that feels like it's slipping through your fingers. Maybe it's a parent's health or a situation at work or a relationship that keeps you awake at 3am spinning through every possible worst case scenario.
You believe in God. You know He is in control. And your body still won't calm down.
Friend — there is nothing wrong with you. And you are not alone.
In this first episode of the When You Cannot Fix It summer series, I'm sharing something I've never talked about publicly before — a childhood memory that quietly shaped decades of anxiety, over-responsibility, and carrying burdens that were never mine to carry. And I'm sharing what I'm learning to do with all of it.
If you have ever felt like a control freak and wondered why you can't just let go and trust God — this episode was made for you.
What Christian Women Are Searching For — And What Jesus Says
So many Christian women are exhausted from trying to fix things they cannot fix. Trying to control outcomes they cannot control. Trying to manage the emotions of everyone around them while quietly setting their own aside.
Maybe you recognize yourself in this:
You are the one who holds it all together even when you are falling apart on the inside. You replay conversations looking for the loophole — the magic words that will finally change things. You feel physically sick when someone you love is hurting and you can't see them or reach them or make it better. You brace for disaster on a perfectly ordinary Tuesday because your nervous system has been on high alert for so long it doesn't know how to stand down.
That is not weak faith. That is not a character flaw. That is a nervous system that has been overworking for a very long time — trying to protect you and the people you love.
And Jesus meets you right there.
Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
He is not saying — get it together first and then come. He is not saying — stop worrying and then come. He is saying — come. Weary. Burdened. Braced. Just come.
The Story Behind This Episode
I grew up as a twin. My sister Jimella and I were little girls in a kitchen in International Falls Minnesota — the icebox of the nation — when something happened that quietly shaped the next fifty years of my life.
I didn't understand it until this past year when I began studying how our nervous systems build protective patterns. And when I finally understood it — I didn't feel ashamed anymore. I felt compassion. For that little girl who just never wanted to see someone she loved get hurt again.
That's what this episode is about. Not a tidy lesson from the other side of healed. A real story from a woman who is still in the middle of learning to lay it down.
What You Will Discover in This Episode
If you are a Christian woman struggling with anxiety, worry, or the exhausting need to fix and control — here is what this episode will give you:
A new understanding of why your brain builds protective patterns and why that is not a spiritual failure. The simple neuroscience behind why your nervous system stays in fight or flight even when there is nothing left to fight. Compassion for that part of you that cannot rest until everyone is okay — instead of shame. A practical way to bring what you are carrying to the foot of the cross and let Jesus hold what was never yours to carry in the first place. And the beginning of learning to let go — not perfectly, not all at once, but one thing at a time.
Free Resource — Weary Traveler Reflection and Prayer Guide
I made something for you. It's completely free.
The Weary Traveler: Rest for the Over-Carrying Soul Reflection and Prayer Guide will walk you gently through eight reflection questions and a prayer of release — right to the foot of the cross with whatever you are carrying today.
If you are already on my email list it is on its way to you. If not — download it free right here.
Ready to Go Deeper?
If you find yourself thinking — I need someone to walk through this with me personally — I would love to sit with you. I offer a free consultation with no pressure and no obligation. Just a conversation, some practical faith-based coaching tools, and a safe place to start.
👉 [Chat with Michelle]
About Michelle Diercks
Michelle Diercks is a Master Certified Christian Life Coach, speaker, and the author of Promised Rest and Promised Hope published by Concordia Publishing House. She is the host of the Peace in His Presence podcast and lives on a farm in Eastern Iowa with her husband Troy.
Michelle helps anxious Christian women find peace through faith, neuroscience, and practical coaching tools — not from a place of having it all figured out, but from right beside them in the middle of it.
She is not above you. She is beside you.
Subscribe and Share
If this episode spoke to something you've been carrying — would you share it with one woman who needs to hear it? You never know whose kitchen story is waiting to be understood.
Find Peace in His Presence on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere you listen.
New episodes dropping all summer. We are going on this journey together — one week at a time, one thing at a time, learning to lay it all down.
You were never meant to carry all of this friend. And you don't have to.
Connect with Michelle: 🌐 michellediercks.com 📖 Promised Rest and Promised Hope — available wherever books are sold

Maybe you've had the phone call you weren't expecting. The diagnosis. The season you didn't choose. Maybe you're watching someone you love suffer and there's nothing you can do to fix it. Maybe you're just bone-tired from carrying more than you were ever meant to carry.
Whatever brought you here today — you are welcome. You don't have to have it together. You just have to show up.
About This Episode
Isaiah 43 opens with words God spoke to a people in exile — people who were far from home, overwhelmed, and wondering if God had forgotten them. And before anything else, before the command not to fear, God says something deeply personal:
"I have called you by name. You are mine."

Not mom. Not the strong one. Not your role or your title. By your name. In this guided meditation, Michelle walks slowly and tenderly through Isaiah 43, pairing its promises with gentle breathing and grounding to help your overwhelmed heart receive what is already true about you.
This is not a promise of a pain-free life. It is a promise of presence. When you pass through the waters, God doesn't say swim harder. He says: I will be with you.
What You'll Experience in This Episode
•       Gentle breathing and grounding to help an overwhelmed nervous system slow down
•       A slow, unhurried walk through Isaiah 43 and its promises
•       Honest space for grief, loss, and the seasons that feel like fire
•       The reminder that overwhelm is not proof you lack faith — it is proof you are human
•       A closing invitation to breathe in His faithfulness and breathe out your striving
A Key Truth from This Episode
Isaiah 43 says: "When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you." Notice — God does not say if. He says when. He doesn't promise the fire won't come. He promises He walks into it with you.
"The same Lord who stood in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walks with you."

Jesus did not avoid the fire. He entered it. And because He did, the fire does not have the final word over you. Not the water. Not the flame. Not the diagnosis. Not the outcome. Christ does.
And this: overwhelm is not proof that you lack faith. It is proof that you are human. And you are not walking through it alone.
When to Listen to This Episode
•       When you've received news that has turned your world upside down
•       When grief is sitting heavy and you don't have words
•       When a season of life feels like too much and you can't catch your breath
•       When you're watching someone you love walk through something hard
•       When you need to be reminded: you are created, redeemed, and called by name
More from the Be Still Series
This episode is part of a growing collection of scripture-centered meditations for anxious hearts. Each one focuses on a different name of God and a different passage of Scripture, pairing His promises with gentle breathing and grounding exercises.
 
Rest from Anxiety | Bible Verses for When You Feel Overwhelmed (Psalm 91)
When worry feels bigger than you can carry, Psalm 91 invites you into the shelter of El Shaddai — the all-sufficient God. A meditation for weary, worried hearts who need to set down what they've been carrying.
Perfect for: Anxiety, overwhelm, and the weight of things you cannot fix.
Can't Sleep Worrying? Psalm 121 for Peace at Night
For the 2 AM moments when your mind won't stop. Psalm 121 holds a steady promise for restless nights: the one who keeps you will not slumber. When you cannot sleep, He is not asleep.
Perfect for: Sleepless nights and the worry that wakes you in the dark.
Scripture Featured in This Episode
•       Isaiah 43:1 — Fear not, I have called you by name, you are mine
•       Isaiah 43:2 — When you pass through the waters, I will be with you
•       Isaiah 43:3 — I am the Lord your God, your Savior
Connect with Michelle
If this episode resonated with you, Michelle would love to connect. She offers free 50-minute coaching consultations — real conversations where you can talk about what's going on and explore tools that might help. No strings attached.
Book a free consultation
Subscribe to Michelle's Newsletter
Visit michellediercks.com
Michelle's Books
Promised Rest and Promised Hope — both go deep into the names of God and how He meets us in our most anxious moments. You can find them on Amazon.
Promised Rest: Finding Peace in God's Presence
Promised Hope: Finding Peace in God's Faithfulness