August 12, 2025 • 47 mins
The road to growth and greatness is rarely smooth or easy, but it's taking us where we need to go. How do we navigate life's challenges with grit, grace, and faith while leaning on God? Guest host Susie Larson welcomes Pastor Tim Timberlake. He'll share biblical truth and practical advice on how to tackle everything from hard conversations to major life pivots. Learn how to ride The Bumpy Road to Better on our next Equipped.
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The Bumpy Road to Better by Tim Timberlake
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:19):
Well. Hey there friends, welcome to another exciting edition of
equipped with Chris Brooks! I am so thrilled that you've
joined us today. Why don't you do me a favor?
Strap on your seatbelt. We're going to navigate through the
contours of culture, as always, with the lens of the
biblical worldview on. But before we do that, let me
remind you, this is the day that the Lord has made.
He has given it as a gift so that you
(00:41):
and I can rejoice and be glad in it. So
let's do just that. Let's follow the words of the
Apostle Paul. Let's rejoice in the Lord always. And again
I say, rejoice. I hope you're having a great day.
I'm going to be away from the program today, but
I want you to join me in welcoming Susie Larson
to the hot seat. Now, many of you know Susie.
(01:02):
She's a best selling author, a speaker, radio host. She
loves Jesus, and most of all loves helping people draw
into a deeper life in Christ. She's also a wife,
a mother, and a grandmother as well. Susie, thank you
for hosting this edition of equip.
S2 (01:21):
Thank you Chris, and we continue to pray for you
and your precious family. Well, we've got another great show
planned for you today. I'm so glad you joined us.
And here's a question for you, and I'm going to
ask it several times throughout the show. So if you're
ever ready to answer it, I'd love for you to
give us a call. But here it is. What trial
in your life has most trained you? What trial in
your life is most trained you? Which battle would you say?
(01:43):
I never want to go through it again, but I
wouldn't trade it for anything. We're talking today about resilience,
about God's redemption, how he equips and empowers us to
do hard things. We're going to get my guest on
in just a moment, but I'm going to tell you,
one of my favorite passages in Scripture is all of
Psalm 18. One of the reasons I love it so
much is that it's a picture of going from victim
(02:04):
to victor. First you hear the psalmist cry out, you know,
the enemy confronted me when I was at my weakest.
You know, the ropes wrapped their their ropes around me.
I thought I was going to die, I thought I
was going under. I cried out to the Lord and
my call, my cry reached his ears. And from his
throne God was mobilized. And it says he, the blast
(02:24):
of his breath, the bottom of the ocean could be seen.
It says that he's angry. He's not angry at us
for calling on him. He's angry at our enemy, for
opposing us. And so it says. He veils his approach.
He as he approaches with dark storm clouds, which means
we don't see him coming, but neither does our enemy.
And then it says he rescues us because he delights
in us, and he puts us in a spacious place,
(02:47):
but he doesn't leave us there. He trains us for battle.
He strengthens our arms to bend a bow of bronze.
And suddenly you see this turn of events in Psalm 18,
where suddenly we now are chasing down our enemy. We
are putting him under our feet. And I think if
you were to peel back the sky in Christianity, you
would see some running for their lives because they're terrified
(03:07):
of what the enemy is saying, threatening his roar. Others
are stomping their foot, saying, now you get out of here.
I'm not moving from my calling. We've got to somehow,
some way, know how to persevere in battle and what
God allows, he redeems. It's the only way we're going
to learn how to stand and fight. Carter Conlon writes
this without opposition. The church gets lazy. She turns inward.
(03:29):
She seeks power without purpose, which is a formula for
spiritual delusion. When the church comes to a place where
she's no longer opposed, she declines. You have a choice
to make now. You can sit on the hillside and
listen to the voice of your condemor for the rest
of your life, or you can stand up and recognize
the purpose of the opposition in your life. You can
choose to believe that as you turn to God, he'll
(03:50):
give you the courage to face your enemies and triumph
over them. If there's no mountains that stand in your way,
how will you develop faith? If there are no obstacles
to overcome, how will you develop spiritual agility and even resilience?
If there's no enemy to defeat, how will you enjoy
the victory and the spoils from your battle? This is
what we're talking about today. Tim Timberlake joins me today
(04:12):
to draw from his book, The Bumpy Road to Better
Unlocking the Hidden Power of Hard Things. And I'd really
love to know from you if you can think of
a battle when people ask you to tell your story,
you refer to this battle. You refer to this hard time.
You say, I don't want to go through it again,
but honestly, what I what I took from it, what
I drew from it, I wouldn't trade it for anything.
How have your battles shaped you and trained you? Why
(04:33):
don't you call me (877) 548-3675. Let me tell you about
my guest. We'll get him on the show. Tim Timberlake
is senior pastor at Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Florida. He's
the author of several books, including the one we're talking
about today. Beyond his ministry and writing, he finds joy
in life's simple pleasures and is a sports aficionado aficionado.
Above all, he's a devoted husband to Jennifer and a
(04:55):
proud father to their son, Maxwell Ace Timberlake. Tim, I
love our conversations. When you join me on my show.
So good to have you on equipped. Welcome!
S3 (05:03):
I am so honored, Suzy and I look forward to
our conversation today. I know that God is going to
unpack a lot of things through the two of us.
S2 (05:11):
I believe so strongly as I've been praying for today's
show that there are people are listening by appointment today,
and many, once we're done with this conversation, are going
to walk away feeling equipped and empowered with a new
redemptive perspective on their battles. So friends, do buckle up.
Bend an ear and I pray you lean in because
God has something for you today. And Tim, you heard
the question I asked at the open of the show,
and I'd love for you to answer it. What trial
(05:33):
in your life? I know you've had many, but what
trial would you say has trained you most, trained you
for what you're doing right now?
S3 (05:40):
I think all of us face various seasons of difficult pain,
and it's not the one pain that I believe trains us.
It's the compounding of pain. And you know, when we
are in physical gyms, you know, we have an expectation
that we're going to encounter pain. Our body is going
to encounter pain through resistance, through weight training, through endurance, through, uh, longevity,
(06:07):
but in life and in the spiritual sense, it's the unknown,
the unanticipated hits that consistently come that I believe test us.
And if we're not careful, we'll begin to lose focus
on what those moments of pain can actually teach us.
And so, you know, for me, those moments have been, uh,
(06:31):
abundant and constant. And, uh, I was sharing with a
friend not too long ago, in 21 years of senior pastoring,
I haven't had one season where I haven't pastored through
great pain, and I believe it keeps us at the
feet of Jesus. I believe it keeps us trusting and
relying and depending completely on him, and not in our
(06:53):
own abilities or in our own gifts. And so, uh,
as we grow older, we learn to live both in
great faith and with great endurance through whatever the pain
is that we may be facing in this season.
S2 (07:07):
So good. You know, to keep with that athletic analogy
is former fitness professional. I love sports and I love
just the principles that are written in the laws of
nature as far as physical health, because they so translate
to our spiritual health. But when you're looking at, let's say,
football players who are training in agility, they're changing up
directions forward, backward, left, right, you know, fast, slow because
(07:30):
your body, you're really, um, calling on your body to
learn to be quickly responsive and agile. And in that
Psalm 18 I reference and it says he makes me
walk on high places. He gives me hinds feet to
walk on high places. And to me that speaks to
him of spiritual agility as well, because you're, you know,
in high places the terrain is not, you know, level.
(07:50):
Oftentimes we think if our only going through one of
these things, I'd be fine. But it's really one of
those things is you're standing on uneven terrain on high places,
and the arrows are coming at you from every angle. Somehow,
some way, God's allowed it, and he's training you to
stand in those high places, even though it's not all
the circumstances aren't in your favor. Speak to that if
you would.
S3 (08:11):
Yeah, I think there's so much truth in that, in that, uh,
we don't get the best moments out of our life,
and we don't get strengthened spiritually from comfort zones and
from easy things. We we don't get it from convenience.
We get it from those moments where we truly have
to depend on Jesus. And I think in our society
(08:31):
and our culture, it is created, uh, for us, this, uh,
falsehood that when we, uh, turn our lives over to
Jesus and when we begin to follow Jesus, then life gets, uh,
a lot easier. And that's not necessarily the truth. Life
may not get easier, but life gets better when you
(08:52):
walk it out with Jesus. And one of the things
that I've learned is that truth is a threat to
the system that benefits from lies. And what I mean
by that is, uh, if the system benefits from the
lie that you should put your trust in Jesus, and
everything will be perfect and everything will be fine and
that life falls apart. Then you lose trust in Jesus
(09:13):
because you think that he was supposed to perform, or
you think he was supposed to do something for you
that was outside of the context of what His Word
promises us. And so I had to learn the hard
way in this. My my father got sick with terminal
throat cancer, and he died very early at the age
of 52. And I lost faith. And it wasn't until
(09:35):
I realized that my faith was not anchored in Jesus.
My faith was anchored in in something, and it was
anchored in the ability for him to perform and to
provide for me. And when he did not do what
I expected and anticipated him to do, then my faith
was wavering, my faith was shaken, and I had to
anchor my faith in him regardless of what I expected
(09:58):
and anticipated. And so I think standing on that uneven
Even surface. And you have the arrows and you have
the weapons that are turned against. You are a friendly
reminder that we can't rely on our own two feet.
We can't rely on our own strength. We have to,
and we desperately need to rely on the strength of
Jesus Christ because His Word says that although weapons may
(10:18):
be formed and turned against you, they won't prosper, nor
will they succeed. And so when we keep that in mind,
and when we keep that in context, I think it
allows us to put our expectations and anticipations in the
hands of Jesus Christ and not in our own abilities.
S2 (10:34):
This is a good point. I want to camp on
for a minute. We're going to take a break here
in just a few minutes. But my mentor years ago
said Susie. Expectations are premeditated disappointment. In other words, you're
creating a bull's eye that you expect God to hit,
and you're putting all these conditions on your faith in
God's faithfulness and his goodness by saying it has to
happen this way in this time. And if it doesn't,
(10:54):
which is flimsy faith and God is not bound by
our dictates. But she said, living with expectancy, on the
other hand, is this open handed, wide eyed wonder to say,
I don't know how, I don't know when, but I
do serve the God of the breakthrough and he will
breakthrough for me. But she said, too often people stop
at expectations. They deal with disappointment, and they walk away
and quit hoping in God. I would love your thoughts
(11:15):
on that.
S3 (11:16):
Yeah, I think again, when we place those expectations in
the hands of Jesus, it changes our perspective. I'm reminded
of James chapter one verses two through four and it says,
consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you
face trials of many kinds, because, you know, and that
emphasis on because you know that the testing of your
(11:40):
faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that
you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. And
so in this passage, it's teaching us that the test,
the trials, the pain, the endurance it's teaching us so
that we don't lack in anything. I believe that as believers, followers,
(12:03):
disciples of Jesus Christ, we get spiritually entitled, uh, when
we feel like we can endure. When we can sustain.
When we can stand on our own two feet and
not have to rely on Jesus. And it's the right
amount of pain that reminds us, no, no, you're not
in control. God is in control. And it's not until
(12:24):
you lose control that you realize I never had control
in the first place. And so I think once we
set our expectations in the hands of Jesus Christ, and
we realize what Ephesians chapter three verse 20 really says,
now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we can ask or think. I love that,
(12:44):
because it's a reminder to me that God doesn't live
up to my expectations. His word never says that God
doesn't live up to my anticipations. He always lives up
to His Word, though. And so if God lives up
to my expectations. He can exceed them. And so God
will give us things that we did not even know
we needed in a season, that we need them the most.
(13:07):
If we trust and rely on him, and not in
our own ability to perform or to provide things.
S2 (13:13):
So good, we're going to pause here when we come back.
I want to just ask one more question about this
idea of assumptions and expectations. I noticed in the years
that I have followed Christ and the hardships I've walked through,
that when you have misplaced expectations or assumptions about God,
it can kill your perspective. So let's talk about maybe
common mistakes we make with our perspective so that we
can better navigate our battles. I'm talking to Tim Timberlake today,
(13:35):
and his book is The Bumpy Road to Better. We'd
love to hear from you if you've got a question
or comment. (877) 548-3675. Don't go away. We'll be back in
a minute.
S1 (14:13):
Do you wish your quiet time was more meaningful? I
want to help you enjoy a daily conversation with the Lord.
This is why I'm offering The Quiet Time Kickstart by
Rachel Jones as this month's impact gift, with shorter scripture
passages and simple notes. This resource gently guides you into
a consistent, rewarding time in God's Word. Request your copy today.
(14:35):
When you support equip, call (888) 644-4144 or give online at. Org.
S2 (14:52):
This is equipped with Chris Brooks coming to you from
the studios of Moody Radio. Susie Larson here filling in
for Chris today. Well, here's the truth. I want you
to hear you bend an ear. Lean in and listen.
Here you go. You can do hard things. And when
you trust God in your trials, you become a force
to reckon with. You make the enemy sorry he ever
opposed you. Scripture tells us that overwhelming victory belongs to
(15:13):
us because we belong to him. You know, overwhelming victory
means it means a sound victory. Today I'm talking with
author Pastor Tim Timberlake. We're talking about his book, The
Bumpy Road to Better Unlocking the Hidden Power of Hard Things.
And I know you're leaning in and listening, but you're
a little quiet today, so I'd love to hear from you.
Here's my question again. What battle has most shaped you?
(15:34):
Or maybe you need some perspective. You need us to
pray for you today because you're in the thick of
the battle so you don't see the treasures or the
spoils yet. Here's our number 87754836758775483675. When I'm thinking about
the idea of assumptions and expectations that are misplaced when
you're in the battle, it's just lethal to the perspective.
(15:57):
And I've been there so many times before, but I
really draw strength to him. From the story where John
the Baptist, Jesus said, no greater man born to a woman.
I mean, you know, and here he is, though he's
in prison, and he starts to have his doubts, which
should comfort everybody, you know, no greater man born to
woman as a man who's struggling and he has to ask,
sends his friends to ask Jesus, are you the Christ?
(16:18):
Or should we be looking for someone else? And Jesus answers,
filled with compassion and conviction in my paraphrase, basically says,
go tell him the blind see the deaf get their
hearing back. The lame leap. And blessed are those who
are not offended by me and for me. Tim, that
knocked me between the eyes when I had. I was
so disappointed, honestly, in the Lord for how long I'd
(16:38):
been battling in my health. I'd done everything I know
to steward and be faithful, and I was army crawling
for years, and that when I knew and I read
that passage in a fresh way, I knew my my
work in this place is to no one. He's still
the God of miracles. There's activity all over the place,
even if I'm in obscurity. And two. My work is
to trust him and not be offended by his ways
(17:01):
with me. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
S3 (17:03):
Yeah, I think our role and responsibility is to believe. Yeah,
and Scripture tells us that he responds. He will provide,
he will perform. But we have to trust in him
and his timeline for the things that we have need of.
And I think that, like so many listening, um, that
(17:26):
have encountered great seasons of enduring pain, you get something
that I call faith fatigue. And that's when you've been
believing God for something so long that you no longer
believe him the same way, with the same tenacity, with
the same intensity that you once did. And I think
that if the enemy can get us into a position
(17:47):
where we no longer pursue our relationship with Jesus Christ
with the same intentionality. Uh, then it kind of puts
us in a position where our, uh, faith eyes are
no longer seeing the things that Christ desires for us
to see. And so we just have to endure when
(18:07):
we get tired. Scripture teaches us, come unto me, all
of you who are weary, and I will give you rest.
I believe that so important and so detailed for us
to look at, because some of us don't need just sleep.
We need rest for our souls. We need rest for
our minds. We need rest, uh, in various situations and
(18:28):
seasons of our life. Uh, that we can't, uh, uh,
accurately diagnose and treat in our own power. And so, uh,
I think that once we get to that place of
fully trusting Jesus when we don't see and, uh, when
we when we don't feel, and maybe for some of us,
when we don't hear, it It develops a dependency in
(18:53):
us that we we can never get anywhere else. And
I'm reminded as I'm kind of talking about that not
too long ago, I have an eight year old son.
His name is Maxwell. And we were playing this game
where he was blindfolded, but he had to follow my
voice to get to the place that I wanted him
to go. And it took complete dependence on me to
(19:17):
lead him. He couldn't fill me. He couldn't see me,
but he could hear me. And the more he trusted
my voice, the more accurately he got to where it
was that I was telling him to go. Any moment
of doubt, any moment of hesitation, any moment of delay,
would put him in a situation where his trust would
(19:38):
be in question as it pertains what I was instructing
him to do. And so delayed obedience was still disobedience.
And it's the same thing with us. We oftentimes can't feel.
We oftentimes can't see, but we can hear God. And
for those that are listening, like I've never heard the
audible voice of God, you feel the voice of God
impressing on your spirit. You read his words. That's the
(20:02):
voice of God. He is the Word of God. And
so when we trust God, when we don't feel and
when we don't see, we develop this dependency on his
voice and on His word that we can never get
anywhere else. And that in and of itself builds our trust.
It deepens our faith. It anchors our hope in him
in such a supernatural way that we see his hand
(20:25):
at work through the results that we see, and not
necessarily the physical hand or the physical touch that some
of us may be looking for. And so we may
not be able to see the wind, but we see
the results of wind. We see the results of wind
through the leaves that blow on trees or the dust
(20:45):
that's blowing on the ground. We see the results of wind.
So although we may not be able to see the
physical hand of Jesus, we experience the hand of God
and the hand of Jesus in in the outcome of
things that we see him working out on our behalf.
And so I would just encourage our listeners to trust,
regardless of what we see, regardless of how we feel,
(21:06):
our feelings lie to us. Our feelings are fleeting, but
the Word of God, it never changes. It is remained true,
steadfast and unmovable, anchoring us in the hope of Jesus
if we allow it to.
S2 (21:18):
Amen. Somebody give me an amen. Amen, Amen. I'm thinking, too,
about the power of of gratitude in the battle. I mean,
I can think of times when things felt so hard
I stopped being grateful. But that's exactly what makes you
spiritually blind in gratitude is entitlement, which makes you spiritually blind.
And what I realized in those places when I just
(21:40):
felt the invitation of God to look up and someone
once said, if tomorrow you woke up with only that
for which you thank God for today. What would you have?
There's so many things we take for granted that if
they were gone tomorrow, we'd miss them so much. God
makes sure that we're equipped in battle and the power
of gratitude in the middle of it all. To me, Tim,
makes me remember there's more right with my life than
(22:02):
wrong with my life. It might have a few areas
where the arrows are coming at me, but I've got
breath in my lungs. I've got people that love me.
I've got a roof over my head. Talk about the
power of gratitude when it comes to doing hard things
and navigating hard storms.
S3 (22:16):
I think if we focus our attention and we focus
our gratitude on what God has already done, it helps
to shape our perspective for the season that we may
be in. I believe that the grateful cannot fail. And
I also believe the ungrateful cannot succeed. And so gratitude
(22:40):
helps to shape that perspective. I'm reminded of what it says.
And David said in the Old Testament, I will bless
the Lord at all times, and his praise shall continually
be in my mouth. And that gratitude perspective, it helps
to shape and frame our world. And when we allow
(23:00):
God to mold us and make us, and we allow
the Word of God to shape and frame us, it
reminds us that regardless of what happens around us, as
long as we don't allow it to leak on the
inside of us, it can't dictate, nor can it determine
our thankfulness and our gratitude. And so I believe gratitude
is one of the quickest ways to transition from perspectives
(23:22):
of pain to outcomes, of utilizing that pain to prosper
and push you into a new season.
S2 (23:29):
Boy, that's so good. It's so tempting when you're in
the hardship to kind of do what the Israelites did
of the Old Testament looking over your shoulder, counting how
many years or days or months you've been in your battle.
And what you do then is compress your story to
it doesn't breathe anymore. You don't remember all of his mercies,
all of all of the ways he's shown up. And
that's what the enemy wants. If he if you're looking
(23:51):
back over your shoulder and lamenting and complaining now, lament
in and of itself is a holy exercise when it's
done with the holy expectancy. But I'm talking about complaining again.
You're missing that you have a history with God, which
makes you miss that you have a future with God.
She's got a minute left. What would you say to
the person who says, okay, that's me. I've been complaining, grumbling,
and I'm miserable. What do you say to them?
S3 (24:13):
Absolutely. I would encourage our listeners to to just remember,
complaining may get sympathy from people, but it doesn't unlock
access to God's presence. I'm reminded of Psalms 100, verse four,
where it says, enter his gates with thanksgiving and enter
into his courts with praise. So in other words, you
can't even step into God's courts without the right language,
(24:36):
without the right perspective, without that attitude of gratitude. And
so thanksgiving and gratitude. It's not a reaction to good times.
It's the password into the presence of God that changes
bad times. And I think that's important for our listeners
to remember and to reflect on and to kind of
(24:56):
chew on as we go into the break.
S2 (24:58):
Boy, that's so good. Had some girlfriends over the other night,
and I said, I want to enter his gates with
Thanksgiving and his courts with praise. So let's just start
thanking him for whatever in your life you're grateful for.
That went on for so long. We suddenly we're all
walking through hard times, but we suddenly felt like the
richest woman alive. And then we started to just praise
God for who he was, who he is. And I'm
telling you, we felt strength rise in our hearts and
(25:20):
in that room when we're heading to a break. Here,
you can learn more about today's topic and guest when
you check us out on the web equipped radio.org that's
equipped radio.org. Talking to Tim Timberlake about his book The
Bumpy Road to Better. You can also find us on socials.
If you want to look at Facebook Instagram, just search
at radio. When we come back, we're going to talk
about the idols of comfort and convenience and how those
(25:42):
actually weaken us in battle. If we can normalize trials,
struggles and find God in the midst of them, we
will come through them resilient, strong, wise, purposeful, and even
wiser to the enemy's schemes. We should love to hear
from you if you want to call and chime in
to the conversation. (877) 548-3675. Back in a minute. This is
(26:17):
equipped with Chris Brooks coming to you from the studios
of Moody Radio. Suzy Larson here sitting in for Chris
today talking with author and pastor Tim Timberlake. And we're
drawing from his book, The Bumpy Road to Better Unlocking
the Hidden Power in Hard Things. You normalize those trials
and those battles, and you trust that God will meet
you in them. You will come through those battles wiser, stronger,
(26:38):
and really more. informed on the way the enemy consistently
comes against you. So I'd love to know how have
your battles shaped you? How have your trials trained you?
Why don't you give me a call (877) 548-3675. And just
a quick note. If you've been blessed by this show,
we'd love to have you partner with us. You can
become an Equipper by making a monthly donation to support
(26:59):
the program. And as an Equipper, you get to receive
benefits like biweekly encouragement from Chris Brooks, discounts on moody
publisher resources, access to quarterly webinars, so much more. You'll
find all that information on the web at equip. Okay,
I want to grab a couple calls, Tim, if we can,
before we talk about comfort and convenience. So let's go
to Carol from Indiana. She wants to share testimony. Carol,
(27:20):
thanks for holding. You're on with Tim Timberlake.
S4 (27:23):
Hi, Tim. Hi, Susie. Thanks for taking my call. Um.
I'm a little nervous. I'm sorry, but my the testimony
I wanted to share is October of 2021. Um, During
a life changing event. I herniated two discs in my back,
two other bulges in a tear on my sacrum, and
(27:47):
I had a one year old and I had a
four year old, and that began a journey of pain.
I refused pain medication, but within steroids I was pretty
much on the floor for 5 to 6 days a
month in excruciating pain. And in the beginning I remember
(28:08):
crying out to the Lord and saying, Lord, I love you. Um,
what have I done right? What good is going to
come from this pain if you've called me to be
a mother? I can't even be a mother, you know,
to my children. And what do you do when you're
on the floor? I always had a desire to read
my Bible more. But all my life I've been a Martha. Um, busy, busy,
(28:33):
busy work. So that started a journey of reading my
Bible and really taking to heart you know the Lord's
Word and being comforted through His Word. And this pain
lasted until August of last year when I felt my
final injection. And, you know, back surgery was next. And
(28:53):
I was taking my daughter to swimming class and we
passed by a chiropractic and she said, mommy, you know,
maybe he'll help you. And I did. I went to
see him. He was a Bible believing man. And my
life has, you know, it's been transformed since. But the
beautiful part of this is that I've always been a
(29:15):
Moses when it comes to sharing the word. I get nervous.
And summer of 2024, it just started flowing out of me.
The Lord brought people to me, all in need of comfort,
and I was able to give glory to God with
just His Word and His Word alone. So ultimately, the
two things I want to share is in Gene salon,
(29:36):
where it says consider it pure joy. My brothers and sisters,
whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know
that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance
finish its work so that you may be mature and complete,
not lacking anything. But if you lack wisdom, you should
ask God, who gives generously. The notes I have from
when my pastor taught this is that when you fall
(29:59):
into tribulation, when sudden, unexpected difficulty comes to you, God
really wants us to receive it with joy. What is
that trial going to do? It's going to produce steadfastness,
which is Christ likeness. And that's produced through perseverance. It
leaves you mature and complete. Um, but then how do
you remain steadfast? God is at work and gives us
(30:20):
what we need. So receive it. The trial serves God's purpose.
We need to embrace it and ultimately not be a
slave to your emotions. Rather, rule over your emotions with
the Word of God and then you request it. You
request the wisdom God offers to get through that trial
and you regard it. You as believers in Christ, we
(30:41):
need to count and consider and think about it and
come to a conclusion and opinion and choose to esteem
the season and who our faith is rooted in, um,
the character and work of God. You know, your steadfastness grows,
draws God's blessing. And in God's economy, the temporary serves
(31:02):
the eternal. In the end, you're going to know God
in a different way because of that trial, which is
truly a blessing. Wow. And even though I would never
want to go through it again, I wouldn't change it
for the world because. It changed my life forever, and
I was able to comfort so many others in the
(31:23):
same way that the Lord has comforted me.
S2 (31:26):
Carol. Thank you. Thank you. Lord bless you for sharing
that story. Tim. Did you want to say anything to Carol?
S3 (31:31):
Absolutely be encouraged. You know, I think your story and
your testimony, uh, is helping those that are listening right now.
That may still be in a season of pain. You know,
we overcome by the words of our testimony. And I
believe your testimony is helping other people come out of
the various trials and tribulations that they may be faced with.
(31:53):
And so we thank you for sharing that testimony and
being a living witness of the faithfulness of God.
S2 (31:59):
And doing the hard thing by pressing into God rather
than being offended by him, running towards him. And now
look at the life and the Word of God that's
flowing in and through you. Carol, thank you. Thank you
for your call today. God bless you. I'm going to
see if we can grab one more call here before
our next break. We've got Lisa checking in from Florida,
checking in through the Moody Radio app. Lisa, thanks for holding.
You're on with Tim Timberlake.
S4 (32:22):
Hello.
S5 (32:22):
Hi, Suzy. Hi, Tim. Thank you so much for taking
my call. Um, I am at a point where I
am in an extremely low value Valley right now. It's
a medical condition. Um, last year, out of nowhere, um,
I noticed that I started losing some vision in one
of my eyes. So my husband went to several different
(32:43):
doctors and, you know, gave me some medication. Just saying
it wasn't infection. But it progressed to the point where
now I have about 50% of my vision. Um, the
doctors don't really know what caused it. They think it
could have been like a medication side effect, but they're
not even 100% sure. So I was working a grandmother mother. Um,
(33:09):
you know, wife. And this has dramatically changed my life.
I had to stop working. Um, I had to stop driving. Uh,
I can't really see my grandkids as much. I've lost
all independence. Of all the things. I was kind of
like that super mom, you know, just always running, always
(33:29):
doing everything, always involved in everything at church and other places.
And this has just changed me. So over the past year,
I've just, you know, dove into the word. You know,
I've been talking to Jesus. I've been I was prior,
but I mean, this is just really I mean, I
(33:50):
have no where to go but to talk to him
because that is yeah, that is where it's at. And
I'm just I'm trying to focus on gratitude, as you
talked about earlier, um, focusing on the things I still
do have, but there is some anger and there is some.
Why did this happen to me? Um, you know, I
(34:10):
just try really hard not to focus on that and
to continue to focus on Jesus. But when you've lost
so much, Susie and Tim, it's really challenging.
S2 (34:24):
Well, I want to I want to make sure we
give Tim time to respond before the break. But I'll say, Lisa,
you're in the grief process. Even if this is a
temporary loss, you've got to walk through the grief process,
which includes bargaining and anger. And why did this happen?
So be kind to your soul as you're sorting through
some of that and adjusting. Um, I'm going to have
you speak to this, Tim. And if there's time, I'm
going to pray for you, Lisa, before we go to break.
(34:45):
What say you, Tim?
S3 (34:47):
Absolutely. Lisa, I want to remind you of what the
word says in Exodus chapter 15, verse 26. This is
a reminder that I use, that I pull up, that
I read on a continual basis. Whenever I feel like
life is pressing in on me, my physical body is
turning on me. Uh, right now, currently, as I'm talking
(35:08):
to you, I have a broken arm. Uh, and so
one fellow me broke my arm and I had to
remind myself of what this, this passage of Scripture says
in Exodus chapter 15, verse 26, I am the Lord
who heals you, and I want you to stand on that.
I want you to to to declare that every single
day of your life. It is the Lord who is
(35:29):
healing your body, making you whole. And so I want
you as often as you can just to speak those
things that be not as though they were. And as
Susie prays, I'm going to be praying with you. I'm
going to be believing God with you for total and
complete healing. But remember that it is the Lord who
heals you. He hasn't forgotten you. He hasn't forsaken you.
(35:51):
We believe that the miracle you need, he will provide.
S2 (35:54):
Mhm. Amen and amen. And I too, Lisa, I'm dealing
with a pretty significant chronic affliction that I am crying
out to God for as well. In the verse that
I'm standing on is Jeremiah 30 verse 17, the first
part of 17. And it says, I will give you
back your health and heal your wounds, because I do
believe wounds come along with these kinds of affliction because
they're so traumatizing. And so, Lord God in heaven, we
(36:16):
lift up. Dear Lisa to you. We thank you that
you love her with an everlasting love. We thank you
God that you're the same yesterday, today, and forever and
what you did in Scripture you do today. You give
the blind back their sight. You give the deaf back
their hearing. You help the lame start leaping and dancing
for joy. And so we plead the blood of Jesus
over Lisa. And Lord God, we condemn any, any, uh,
(36:38):
assignment against her from the enemy in Jesus name, because
she is under the blood of the Most High God.
Psalm 103 says, bless the Lord, O my soul. Forget
not his benefits. He forgives all my sins, heals all
my diseases. Ransoms my life from the pit. Crowns me
with loving compassion, satisfies my desires with good things. And
my youth is renewed like the eagles. So, Lord God,
(36:59):
we pray this would be a temporary battle. And just
as this loss of vision came out of nowhere, may
healing come out of nowhere. May she go to bed
one way and wake up another. But I pray in
due time, just like Jesus you healed in Scripture, this
dear woman would start to see with greater clarity and
what she would come out of this trial with is
better spiritual clarity as she seeks you and trusts you.
(37:21):
I pray in the very way the enemy has come
against her God, You would bless her, bless her with
spiritual clarity, bless her with physical vision and restore what
the enemy has stolen from her. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
As we go to break, I gotta read this excerpt
from Tim's book. Here's what I want you to know.
He says many of the hard things we experience are
not just inevitable, they are essential. They are good for
(37:42):
us in some way. Maybe they teach us or shape us,
or purify us, or move us forward. The difficult is temporary.
But listen to this the reward we receive on the
other side of those things, that's permanent. Wow. This is
equipped with Chris Brooks. I'm Susie Larson talking to Tim Timberlake.
We're talking about this. You can do hard things. Your
trials train you. And his book is the bumpy Road
(38:04):
to better. We'll be back in a minute.
S1 (38:32):
In today's rapidly changing culture, Christians need solid biblical guidance
more than ever. That's our mission here at Equip to
provide biblical wisdom for life's toughest questions. When you step
in as an equipper, you're not just giving your monthly
support helps to offer clarity and hope to a confused
and anxious culture, and you'll get exclusive resources and updates
(38:53):
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S2 (39:12):
This is equipped with Chris Brooks coming to you from
the studios of Moody Radio. Susie Larson here sitting in
for Chris today, and I'm talking with author Pastor Tim
Timberlake about his book, The Bumpy Road to Better Unlocking
the Hidden Power in Hard Things. And I'm going to
ask this question just one more time today. How have
your trials trained you? What are some of the takeaways
from the things you've walked through? Earlier we talked about
(39:32):
gratitude and how it is essential for navigating your difficult seasons. Actually,
it's essential in every season in gratitude makes us spiritually blind.
I'm convinced of it. Gratitude opens the eyes of our
hearts so we can see more of what God is
doing in our midst. Well, Chris has got one such
testimony checking in from LeClaire, Iowa. Chris, thanks for holding.
I love your testimony. I can't wait for you to
(39:53):
share it. You're on the air.
S5 (39:55):
Yes.
S6 (39:56):
Thank you. Um, yes. When my younger son was in college,
he went through kind of a rebellious period, and I
was very discouraged. And when I was praying one morning,
I said, Lord, what is going on? And I just
I just asked for a grateful heart. I said, Lord,
remind me of all your goodness. And immediately he did.
The Holy Spirit just reminded me of of all the
(40:18):
good things that that I had and that were going on.
And some years later, when he got out in the
work world and realized life is hard. He thanked me,
me and my husband for just all the things that
we had taught him when he was younger. Things that
I didn't think he liked or enjoyed, but in fact
he did learn and I was so thankful.
S2 (40:38):
Wow. Chris. Well done, good and faithful mama. Appreciate that
so much. Tim. Did you want to say anything to Chris?
S3 (40:44):
Absolutely. You know, I was that son at one point
in my parents life, and they did the same thing
for me. And that is what drew me back to
the heart of the father and helped me to re-establish
a strong relationship with Jesus Christ. So well done.
S2 (41:01):
Yeah, Chris, thank you for holding and thanks for sharing that.
And maybe someone who's listening today, you need to hear
that because you're in the thick of it with maybe
a prodigal. Keep on believing. Look for opportunities to be grateful.
I mean, these hard times, Tim, come in so many ways,
and I've been thinking a lot about this, at least
in the West. I think this is true, but probably
true all over the world, that the idols of our
day are comfort and convenience. And if we don't, if
(41:23):
we're not careful, those become our goal. We make everything
as easy as possible and as comfortable as possible. But
if you're aiming in that direction, you're setting yourself up
to be soft, to be ineffective, to be unfruitful. And
I'd love for you to say a word about resilience,
because you said we have to be able to recover
quickly from difficulties. We have to be able to adapt
to challenging circumstances with strength and perseverance. None of that
(41:47):
happens in the space of comfort and convenience, so speak
to that if you would.
S3 (41:51):
Absolutely. I believe that in specifically a westernized culture, we've
made comfort and convenience idols, and, uh, we lean more
into our feelings than we do our conviction and resilience.
In my opinion, is not just the ability to bounce back. Uh,
(42:12):
in the kingdom, resilience is the ability to stand firm.
It's the ability to grow deeper. It's the ability to
keep moving forward even when life hits hard. And so
when we think through the lens of resilience, we can't
always take on culture and society's definition of that resilience.
(42:32):
We have to look at it from a biblical perspective.
One of the scriptures that comes to mind when I
think about enduring and resilience, and oftentimes we apply it
to everything, but it's not specifically talking to all things.
It's specifically talking to enduring and resilience. It's Philippians chapter four,
(42:52):
verse 13 where it says, I can do all things
through Christ that strengthens me. And when we rely on Jesus,
it pulls us out of that comfort and that convenience,
and it gives us a godly conviction, which is the
love of the father, to allow us to know, no,
there's more I have for you. There's more I have
(43:14):
for you than what you currently see than then the
season you're currently in. There's more that I have for you.
And so when we lean into that, it sharpens us.
It makes us better. And that season that we are
in of pushing against resisting, against operating in that resilience.
It makes us a lot more like Jesus than not.
S2 (43:36):
Mhm. Love this. From your book you said battles don't
last forever. Maybe you needed to hear that today. Battles
don't last forever. They feel eternal while you're fighting them.
But they have an end date. When the battle is
over and the dust settles. Will you still be here?
That's what matters most. And I promise you, the taste
of victory lasts longer than the pain of the struggle.
Hear this again. The taste of victory lasts longer than the.
(44:00):
Than the pain of the struggle. Say a word about that.
Especially with that person listening in mind who right now
doesn't have the long game in mind. They're really just
so immersed in the pain of the moment.
S3 (44:11):
Yeah. Both me and you, we love Sports and old athletes,
and I'm reminded of all of the greats and the
struggles and the pain and working out and being in
the gym when no one else is watching. And there's
a difference between those that are good at their craft
and those that are great at their craft. The people
(44:33):
that are good at their craft, they've done enough to
get them to the place where they're recognized. Those that
are great at their craft have not settled for what
has made them who they are. They have this drive
that they want to be greater. They know that they
have more left in the tank and they endure. They persevere.
They go through pain. They go through hardship because they
(44:53):
know at the end of it all that pain is
going to produce power, and that power is going to
produce results. And a lot of them would define every
championship that they've had and every championship that they've held up.
They would define it by the things that no one
else has seen. They would define it by the underlining, uh,
(45:16):
small steps that they took that created large moments and
large leaps. And so it's the same thing for us,
I believe. We are, uh, putting into place and putting
into practice our victories in the unseen things. And so
one of the things that I have, uh, listed down
(45:36):
in my daily reminders is I have to schedule my
victories because my defeats were scheduled themselves. Come on. And
if I don't? And if I don't have those victory
moments scheduled, making time to celebrate, making time to do
a little dance and thank God and honor God with that,
then I focus more on the defeats than I do
the things that I'm overcoming.
S2 (45:58):
Tim, this has been excellent. Thank you for joining us today.
Tim Timberlake is my guest today. The bumpy road to better.
Great book Tim. Such a good conversation. Remember, friends, you
can do hard things. Do not lose hope in the battle.
Resilience is what we need to navigate in the day
that we're in. God's with you, and it is impossible
for him to fail you. Well, I pray you found
(46:18):
some encouragement here today. If you need more information again
about our guests or anything dealing with equipped radio, you
find it online equipped radio.org equipped radio.org. Have faith in God.
He's the one who keeps you safe and he already
knows how he's going to deliver you. That's what Tim
says in his book, The Bumpy Road to Better. We
love and appreciate you so very much. Thanks for tuning
in today. I'm Susie Larson from all of us at equipped.
(46:41):
I want to say thank you so much for listening today.
Equipped is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of
Moody Bible Institute, and we will meet you back here
next time.
Well. Hey there friends, welcome to another exciting edition of
equipped with Chris Brooks! I am so thrilled that you've
joined us today. Why don't you do me a favor?
Strap on your seatbelt. We're going to navigate through the
contours of culture, as always, with the lens of the
biblical worldview on. But before we do that, let me
remind you, this is the day that the Lord has made.
He has given it as a gift so that you
(00:41):
and I can rejoice and be glad in it. So
let's do just that. Let's follow the words of the
Apostle Paul. Let's rejoice in the Lord always. And again
I say, rejoice. I hope you're having a great day.
I'm going to be away from the program today, but
I want you to join me in welcoming Susie Larson
to the hot seat. Now, many of you know Susie.
(01:02):
She's a best selling author, a speaker, radio host. She
loves Jesus, and most of all loves helping people draw
into a deeper life in Christ. She's also a wife,
a mother, and a grandmother as well. Susie, thank you
for hosting this edition of equip.
S2 (01:21):
Thank you Chris, and we continue to pray for you
and your precious family. Well, we've got another great show
planned for you today. I'm so glad you joined us.
And here's a question for you, and I'm going to
ask it several times throughout the show. So if you're
ever ready to answer it, I'd love for you to
give us a call. But here it is. What trial
in your life has most trained you? What trial in
your life is most trained you? Which battle would you say?
(01:43):
I never want to go through it again, but I
wouldn't trade it for anything. We're talking today about resilience,
about God's redemption, how he equips and empowers us to
do hard things. We're going to get my guest on
in just a moment, but I'm going to tell you,
one of my favorite passages in Scripture is all of
Psalm 18. One of the reasons I love it so
much is that it's a picture of going from victim
(02:04):
to victor. First you hear the psalmist cry out, you know,
the enemy confronted me when I was at my weakest.
You know, the ropes wrapped their their ropes around me.
I thought I was going to die, I thought I
was going under. I cried out to the Lord and
my call, my cry reached his ears. And from his
throne God was mobilized. And it says he, the blast
(02:24):
of his breath, the bottom of the ocean could be seen.
It says that he's angry. He's not angry at us
for calling on him. He's angry at our enemy, for
opposing us. And so it says. He veils his approach.
He as he approaches with dark storm clouds, which means
we don't see him coming, but neither does our enemy.
And then it says he rescues us because he delights
in us, and he puts us in a spacious place,
(02:47):
but he doesn't leave us there. He trains us for battle.
He strengthens our arms to bend a bow of bronze.
And suddenly you see this turn of events in Psalm 18,
where suddenly we now are chasing down our enemy. We
are putting him under our feet. And I think if
you were to peel back the sky in Christianity, you
would see some running for their lives because they're terrified
(03:07):
of what the enemy is saying, threatening his roar. Others
are stomping their foot, saying, now you get out of here.
I'm not moving from my calling. We've got to somehow,
some way, know how to persevere in battle and what
God allows, he redeems. It's the only way we're going
to learn how to stand and fight. Carter Conlon writes
this without opposition. The church gets lazy. She turns inward.
(03:29):
She seeks power without purpose, which is a formula for
spiritual delusion. When the church comes to a place where
she's no longer opposed, she declines. You have a choice
to make now. You can sit on the hillside and
listen to the voice of your condemor for the rest
of your life, or you can stand up and recognize
the purpose of the opposition in your life. You can
choose to believe that as you turn to God, he'll
(03:50):
give you the courage to face your enemies and triumph
over them. If there's no mountains that stand in your way,
how will you develop faith? If there are no obstacles
to overcome, how will you develop spiritual agility and even resilience?
If there's no enemy to defeat, how will you enjoy
the victory and the spoils from your battle? This is
what we're talking about today. Tim Timberlake joins me today
(04:12):
to draw from his book, The Bumpy Road to Better
Unlocking the Hidden Power of Hard Things. And I'd really
love to know from you if you can think of
a battle when people ask you to tell your story,
you refer to this battle. You refer to this hard time.
You say, I don't want to go through it again,
but honestly, what I what I took from it, what
I drew from it, I wouldn't trade it for anything.
How have your battles shaped you and trained you? Why
(04:33):
don't you call me (877) 548-3675. Let me tell you about
my guest. We'll get him on the show. Tim Timberlake
is senior pastor at Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Florida. He's
the author of several books, including the one we're talking
about today. Beyond his ministry and writing, he finds joy
in life's simple pleasures and is a sports aficionado aficionado.
Above all, he's a devoted husband to Jennifer and a
(04:55):
proud father to their son, Maxwell Ace Timberlake. Tim, I
love our conversations. When you join me on my show.
So good to have you on equipped. Welcome!
S3 (05:03):
I am so honored, Suzy and I look forward to
our conversation today. I know that God is going to
unpack a lot of things through the two of us.
S2 (05:11):
I believe so strongly as I've been praying for today's
show that there are people are listening by appointment today,
and many, once we're done with this conversation, are going
to walk away feeling equipped and empowered with a new
redemptive perspective on their battles. So friends, do buckle up.
Bend an ear and I pray you lean in because
God has something for you today. And Tim, you heard
the question I asked at the open of the show,
and I'd love for you to answer it. What trial
(05:33):
in your life? I know you've had many, but what
trial would you say has trained you most, trained you
for what you're doing right now?
S3 (05:40):
I think all of us face various seasons of difficult pain,
and it's not the one pain that I believe trains us.
It's the compounding of pain. And you know, when we
are in physical gyms, you know, we have an expectation
that we're going to encounter pain. Our body is going
to encounter pain through resistance, through weight training, through endurance, through, uh, longevity,
(06:07):
but in life and in the spiritual sense, it's the unknown,
the unanticipated hits that consistently come that I believe test us.
And if we're not careful, we'll begin to lose focus
on what those moments of pain can actually teach us.
And so, you know, for me, those moments have been, uh,
(06:31):
abundant and constant. And, uh, I was sharing with a
friend not too long ago, in 21 years of senior pastoring,
I haven't had one season where I haven't pastored through
great pain, and I believe it keeps us at the
feet of Jesus. I believe it keeps us trusting and
relying and depending completely on him, and not in our
(06:53):
own abilities or in our own gifts. And so, uh,
as we grow older, we learn to live both in
great faith and with great endurance through whatever the pain
is that we may be facing in this season.
S2 (07:07):
So good. You know, to keep with that athletic analogy
is former fitness professional. I love sports and I love
just the principles that are written in the laws of
nature as far as physical health, because they so translate
to our spiritual health. But when you're looking at, let's say,
football players who are training in agility, they're changing up
directions forward, backward, left, right, you know, fast, slow because
(07:30):
your body, you're really, um, calling on your body to
learn to be quickly responsive and agile. And in that
Psalm 18 I reference and it says he makes me
walk on high places. He gives me hinds feet to
walk on high places. And to me that speaks to
him of spiritual agility as well, because you're, you know,
in high places the terrain is not, you know, level.
(07:50):
Oftentimes we think if our only going through one of
these things, I'd be fine. But it's really one of
those things is you're standing on uneven terrain on high places,
and the arrows are coming at you from every angle. Somehow,
some way, God's allowed it, and he's training you to
stand in those high places, even though it's not all
the circumstances aren't in your favor. Speak to that if
you would.
S3 (08:11):
Yeah, I think there's so much truth in that, in that, uh,
we don't get the best moments out of our life,
and we don't get strengthened spiritually from comfort zones and
from easy things. We we don't get it from convenience.
We get it from those moments where we truly have
to depend on Jesus. And I think in our society
(08:31):
and our culture, it is created, uh, for us, this, uh,
falsehood that when we, uh, turn our lives over to
Jesus and when we begin to follow Jesus, then life gets, uh,
a lot easier. And that's not necessarily the truth. Life
may not get easier, but life gets better when you
(08:52):
walk it out with Jesus. And one of the things
that I've learned is that truth is a threat to
the system that benefits from lies. And what I mean
by that is, uh, if the system benefits from the
lie that you should put your trust in Jesus, and
everything will be perfect and everything will be fine and
that life falls apart. Then you lose trust in Jesus
(09:13):
because you think that he was supposed to perform, or
you think he was supposed to do something for you
that was outside of the context of what His Word
promises us. And so I had to learn the hard
way in this. My my father got sick with terminal
throat cancer, and he died very early at the age
of 52. And I lost faith. And it wasn't until
(09:35):
I realized that my faith was not anchored in Jesus.
My faith was anchored in in something, and it was
anchored in the ability for him to perform and to
provide for me. And when he did not do what
I expected and anticipated him to do, then my faith
was wavering, my faith was shaken, and I had to
anchor my faith in him regardless of what I expected
(09:58):
and anticipated. And so I think standing on that uneven
Even surface. And you have the arrows and you have
the weapons that are turned against. You are a friendly
reminder that we can't rely on our own two feet.
We can't rely on our own strength. We have to,
and we desperately need to rely on the strength of
Jesus Christ because His Word says that although weapons may
(10:18):
be formed and turned against you, they won't prosper, nor
will they succeed. And so when we keep that in mind,
and when we keep that in context, I think it
allows us to put our expectations and anticipations in the
hands of Jesus Christ and not in our own abilities.
S2 (10:34):
This is a good point. I want to camp on
for a minute. We're going to take a break here
in just a few minutes. But my mentor years ago
said Susie. Expectations are premeditated disappointment. In other words, you're
creating a bull's eye that you expect God to hit,
and you're putting all these conditions on your faith in
God's faithfulness and his goodness by saying it has to
happen this way in this time. And if it doesn't,
(10:54):
which is flimsy faith and God is not bound by
our dictates. But she said, living with expectancy, on the
other hand, is this open handed, wide eyed wonder to say,
I don't know how, I don't know when, but I
do serve the God of the breakthrough and he will
breakthrough for me. But she said, too often people stop
at expectations. They deal with disappointment, and they walk away
and quit hoping in God. I would love your thoughts
(11:15):
on that.
S3 (11:16):
Yeah, I think again, when we place those expectations in
the hands of Jesus, it changes our perspective. I'm reminded
of James chapter one verses two through four and it says,
consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you
face trials of many kinds, because, you know, and that
emphasis on because you know that the testing of your
(11:40):
faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that
you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. And
so in this passage, it's teaching us that the test,
the trials, the pain, the endurance it's teaching us so
that we don't lack in anything. I believe that as believers, followers,
(12:03):
disciples of Jesus Christ, we get spiritually entitled, uh, when
we feel like we can endure. When we can sustain.
When we can stand on our own two feet and
not have to rely on Jesus. And it's the right
amount of pain that reminds us, no, no, you're not
in control. God is in control. And it's not until
(12:24):
you lose control that you realize I never had control
in the first place. And so I think once we
set our expectations in the hands of Jesus Christ, and
we realize what Ephesians chapter three verse 20 really says,
now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we can ask or think. I love that,
(12:44):
because it's a reminder to me that God doesn't live
up to my expectations. His word never says that God
doesn't live up to my anticipations. He always lives up
to His Word, though. And so if God lives up
to my expectations. He can exceed them. And so God
will give us things that we did not even know
we needed in a season, that we need them the most.
(13:07):
If we trust and rely on him, and not in
our own ability to perform or to provide things.
S2 (13:13):
So good, we're going to pause here when we come back.
I want to just ask one more question about this
idea of assumptions and expectations. I noticed in the years
that I have followed Christ and the hardships I've walked through,
that when you have misplaced expectations or assumptions about God,
it can kill your perspective. So let's talk about maybe
common mistakes we make with our perspective so that we
can better navigate our battles. I'm talking to Tim Timberlake today,
(13:35):
and his book is The Bumpy Road to Better. We'd
love to hear from you if you've got a question
or comment. (877) 548-3675. Don't go away. We'll be back in
a minute.
S1 (14:13):
Do you wish your quiet time was more meaningful? I
want to help you enjoy a daily conversation with the Lord.
This is why I'm offering The Quiet Time Kickstart by
Rachel Jones as this month's impact gift, with shorter scripture
passages and simple notes. This resource gently guides you into
a consistent, rewarding time in God's Word. Request your copy today.
(14:35):
When you support equip, call (888) 644-4144 or give online at. Org.
S2 (14:52):
This is equipped with Chris Brooks coming to you from
the studios of Moody Radio. Susie Larson here filling in
for Chris today. Well, here's the truth. I want you
to hear you bend an ear. Lean in and listen.
Here you go. You can do hard things. And when
you trust God in your trials, you become a force
to reckon with. You make the enemy sorry he ever
opposed you. Scripture tells us that overwhelming victory belongs to
(15:13):
us because we belong to him. You know, overwhelming victory
means it means a sound victory. Today I'm talking with
author Pastor Tim Timberlake. We're talking about his book, The
Bumpy Road to Better Unlocking the Hidden Power of Hard Things.
And I know you're leaning in and listening, but you're
a little quiet today, so I'd love to hear from you.
Here's my question again. What battle has most shaped you?
(15:34):
Or maybe you need some perspective. You need us to
pray for you today because you're in the thick of
the battle so you don't see the treasures or the
spoils yet. Here's our number 87754836758775483675. When I'm thinking about
the idea of assumptions and expectations that are misplaced when
you're in the battle, it's just lethal to the perspective.
(15:57):
And I've been there so many times before, but I
really draw strength to him. From the story where John
the Baptist, Jesus said, no greater man born to a woman.
I mean, you know, and here he is, though he's
in prison, and he starts to have his doubts, which
should comfort everybody, you know, no greater man born to
woman as a man who's struggling and he has to ask,
sends his friends to ask Jesus, are you the Christ?
(16:18):
Or should we be looking for someone else? And Jesus answers,
filled with compassion and conviction in my paraphrase, basically says,
go tell him the blind see the deaf get their
hearing back. The lame leap. And blessed are those who
are not offended by me and for me. Tim, that
knocked me between the eyes when I had. I was
so disappointed, honestly, in the Lord for how long I'd
(16:38):
been battling in my health. I'd done everything I know
to steward and be faithful, and I was army crawling
for years, and that when I knew and I read
that passage in a fresh way, I knew my my
work in this place is to no one. He's still
the God of miracles. There's activity all over the place,
even if I'm in obscurity. And two. My work is
to trust him and not be offended by his ways
(17:01):
with me. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
S3 (17:03):
Yeah, I think our role and responsibility is to believe. Yeah,
and Scripture tells us that he responds. He will provide,
he will perform. But we have to trust in him
and his timeline for the things that we have need of.
And I think that, like so many listening, um, that
(17:26):
have encountered great seasons of enduring pain, you get something
that I call faith fatigue. And that's when you've been
believing God for something so long that you no longer
believe him the same way, with the same tenacity, with
the same intensity that you once did. And I think
that if the enemy can get us into a position
(17:47):
where we no longer pursue our relationship with Jesus Christ
with the same intentionality. Uh, then it kind of puts
us in a position where our, uh, faith eyes are
no longer seeing the things that Christ desires for us
to see. And so we just have to endure when
(18:07):
we get tired. Scripture teaches us, come unto me, all
of you who are weary, and I will give you rest.
I believe that so important and so detailed for us
to look at, because some of us don't need just sleep.
We need rest for our souls. We need rest for
our minds. We need rest, uh, in various situations and
(18:28):
seasons of our life. Uh, that we can't, uh, uh,
accurately diagnose and treat in our own power. And so, uh,
I think that once we get to that place of
fully trusting Jesus when we don't see and, uh, when
we when we don't feel, and maybe for some of us,
when we don't hear, it It develops a dependency in
(18:53):
us that we we can never get anywhere else. And
I'm reminded as I'm kind of talking about that not
too long ago, I have an eight year old son.
His name is Maxwell. And we were playing this game
where he was blindfolded, but he had to follow my
voice to get to the place that I wanted him
to go. And it took complete dependence on me to
(19:17):
lead him. He couldn't fill me. He couldn't see me,
but he could hear me. And the more he trusted
my voice, the more accurately he got to where it
was that I was telling him to go. Any moment
of doubt, any moment of hesitation, any moment of delay,
would put him in a situation where his trust would
(19:38):
be in question as it pertains what I was instructing
him to do. And so delayed obedience was still disobedience.
And it's the same thing with us. We oftentimes can't feel.
We oftentimes can't see, but we can hear God. And
for those that are listening, like I've never heard the
audible voice of God, you feel the voice of God
impressing on your spirit. You read his words. That's the
(20:02):
voice of God. He is the Word of God. And
so when we trust God, when we don't feel and
when we don't see, we develop this dependency on his
voice and on His word that we can never get
anywhere else. And that in and of itself builds our trust.
It deepens our faith. It anchors our hope in him
in such a supernatural way that we see his hand
(20:25):
at work through the results that we see, and not
necessarily the physical hand or the physical touch that some
of us may be looking for. And so we may
not be able to see the wind, but we see
the results of wind. We see the results of wind
through the leaves that blow on trees or the dust
(20:45):
that's blowing on the ground. We see the results of wind.
So although we may not be able to see the
physical hand of Jesus, we experience the hand of God
and the hand of Jesus in in the outcome of
things that we see him working out on our behalf.
And so I would just encourage our listeners to trust,
regardless of what we see, regardless of how we feel,
(21:06):
our feelings lie to us. Our feelings are fleeting, but
the Word of God, it never changes. It is remained true,
steadfast and unmovable, anchoring us in the hope of Jesus
if we allow it to.
S2 (21:18):
Amen. Somebody give me an amen. Amen, Amen. I'm thinking, too,
about the power of of gratitude in the battle. I mean,
I can think of times when things felt so hard
I stopped being grateful. But that's exactly what makes you
spiritually blind in gratitude is entitlement, which makes you spiritually blind.
And what I realized in those places when I just
(21:40):
felt the invitation of God to look up and someone
once said, if tomorrow you woke up with only that
for which you thank God for today. What would you have?
There's so many things we take for granted that if
they were gone tomorrow, we'd miss them so much. God
makes sure that we're equipped in battle and the power
of gratitude in the middle of it all. To me, Tim,
makes me remember there's more right with my life than
(22:02):
wrong with my life. It might have a few areas
where the arrows are coming at me, but I've got
breath in my lungs. I've got people that love me.
I've got a roof over my head. Talk about the
power of gratitude when it comes to doing hard things
and navigating hard storms.
S3 (22:16):
I think if we focus our attention and we focus
our gratitude on what God has already done, it helps
to shape our perspective for the season that we may
be in. I believe that the grateful cannot fail. And
I also believe the ungrateful cannot succeed. And so gratitude
(22:40):
helps to shape that perspective. I'm reminded of what it says.
And David said in the Old Testament, I will bless
the Lord at all times, and his praise shall continually
be in my mouth. And that gratitude perspective, it helps
to shape and frame our world. And when we allow
(23:00):
God to mold us and make us, and we allow
the Word of God to shape and frame us, it
reminds us that regardless of what happens around us, as
long as we don't allow it to leak on the
inside of us, it can't dictate, nor can it determine
our thankfulness and our gratitude. And so I believe gratitude
is one of the quickest ways to transition from perspectives
(23:22):
of pain to outcomes, of utilizing that pain to prosper
and push you into a new season.
S2 (23:29):
Boy, that's so good. It's so tempting when you're in
the hardship to kind of do what the Israelites did
of the Old Testament looking over your shoulder, counting how
many years or days or months you've been in your battle.
And what you do then is compress your story to
it doesn't breathe anymore. You don't remember all of his mercies,
all of all of the ways he's shown up. And
that's what the enemy wants. If he if you're looking
(23:51):
back over your shoulder and lamenting and complaining now, lament
in and of itself is a holy exercise when it's
done with the holy expectancy. But I'm talking about complaining again.
You're missing that you have a history with God, which
makes you miss that you have a future with God.
She's got a minute left. What would you say to
the person who says, okay, that's me. I've been complaining, grumbling,
and I'm miserable. What do you say to them?
S3 (24:13):
Absolutely. I would encourage our listeners to to just remember,
complaining may get sympathy from people, but it doesn't unlock
access to God's presence. I'm reminded of Psalms 100, verse four,
where it says, enter his gates with thanksgiving and enter
into his courts with praise. So in other words, you
can't even step into God's courts without the right language,
(24:36):
without the right perspective, without that attitude of gratitude. And
so thanksgiving and gratitude. It's not a reaction to good times.
It's the password into the presence of God that changes
bad times. And I think that's important for our listeners
to remember and to reflect on and to kind of
(24:56):
chew on as we go into the break.
S2 (24:58):
Boy, that's so good. Had some girlfriends over the other night,
and I said, I want to enter his gates with
Thanksgiving and his courts with praise. So let's just start
thanking him for whatever in your life you're grateful for.
That went on for so long. We suddenly we're all
walking through hard times, but we suddenly felt like the
richest woman alive. And then we started to just praise
God for who he was, who he is. And I'm
telling you, we felt strength rise in our hearts and
(25:20):
in that room when we're heading to a break. Here,
you can learn more about today's topic and guest when
you check us out on the web equipped radio.org that's
equipped radio.org. Talking to Tim Timberlake about his book The
Bumpy Road to Better. You can also find us on socials.
If you want to look at Facebook Instagram, just search
at radio. When we come back, we're going to talk
about the idols of comfort and convenience and how those
(25:42):
actually weaken us in battle. If we can normalize trials,
struggles and find God in the midst of them, we
will come through them resilient, strong, wise, purposeful, and even
wiser to the enemy's schemes. We should love to hear
from you if you want to call and chime in
to the conversation. (877) 548-3675. Back in a minute. This is
(26:17):
equipped with Chris Brooks coming to you from the studios
of Moody Radio. Suzy Larson here sitting in for Chris
today talking with author and pastor Tim Timberlake. And we're
drawing from his book, The Bumpy Road to Better Unlocking
the Hidden Power in Hard Things. You normalize those trials
and those battles, and you trust that God will meet
you in them. You will come through those battles wiser, stronger,
(26:38):
and really more. informed on the way the enemy consistently
comes against you. So I'd love to know how have
your battles shaped you? How have your trials trained you?
Why don't you give me a call (877) 548-3675. And just
a quick note. If you've been blessed by this show,
we'd love to have you partner with us. You can
become an Equipper by making a monthly donation to support
(26:59):
the program. And as an Equipper, you get to receive
benefits like biweekly encouragement from Chris Brooks, discounts on moody
publisher resources, access to quarterly webinars, so much more. You'll
find all that information on the web at equip. Okay,
I want to grab a couple calls, Tim, if we can,
before we talk about comfort and convenience. So let's go
to Carol from Indiana. She wants to share testimony. Carol,
(27:20):
thanks for holding. You're on with Tim Timberlake.
S4 (27:23):
Hi, Tim. Hi, Susie. Thanks for taking my call. Um.
I'm a little nervous. I'm sorry, but my the testimony
I wanted to share is October of 2021. Um, During
a life changing event. I herniated two discs in my back,
two other bulges in a tear on my sacrum, and
(27:47):
I had a one year old and I had a
four year old, and that began a journey of pain.
I refused pain medication, but within steroids I was pretty
much on the floor for 5 to 6 days a
month in excruciating pain. And in the beginning I remember
(28:08):
crying out to the Lord and saying, Lord, I love you. Um,
what have I done right? What good is going to
come from this pain if you've called me to be
a mother? I can't even be a mother, you know,
to my children. And what do you do when you're
on the floor? I always had a desire to read
my Bible more. But all my life I've been a Martha. Um, busy, busy,
(28:33):
busy work. So that started a journey of reading my
Bible and really taking to heart you know the Lord's
Word and being comforted through His Word. And this pain
lasted until August of last year when I felt my
final injection. And, you know, back surgery was next. And
(28:53):
I was taking my daughter to swimming class and we
passed by a chiropractic and she said, mommy, you know,
maybe he'll help you. And I did. I went to
see him. He was a Bible believing man. And my
life has, you know, it's been transformed since. But the
beautiful part of this is that I've always been a
(29:15):
Moses when it comes to sharing the word. I get nervous.
And summer of 2024, it just started flowing out of me.
The Lord brought people to me, all in need of comfort,
and I was able to give glory to God with
just His Word and His Word alone. So ultimately, the
two things I want to share is in Gene salon,
(29:36):
where it says consider it pure joy. My brothers and sisters,
whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know
that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance
finish its work so that you may be mature and complete,
not lacking anything. But if you lack wisdom, you should
ask God, who gives generously. The notes I have from
when my pastor taught this is that when you fall
(29:59):
into tribulation, when sudden, unexpected difficulty comes to you, God
really wants us to receive it with joy. What is
that trial going to do? It's going to produce steadfastness,
which is Christ likeness. And that's produced through perseverance. It
leaves you mature and complete. Um, but then how do
you remain steadfast? God is at work and gives us
(30:20):
what we need. So receive it. The trial serves God's purpose.
We need to embrace it and ultimately not be a
slave to your emotions. Rather, rule over your emotions with
the Word of God and then you request it. You
request the wisdom God offers to get through that trial
and you regard it. You as believers in Christ, we
(30:41):
need to count and consider and think about it and
come to a conclusion and opinion and choose to esteem
the season and who our faith is rooted in, um,
the character and work of God. You know, your steadfastness grows,
draws God's blessing. And in God's economy, the temporary serves
(31:02):
the eternal. In the end, you're going to know God
in a different way because of that trial, which is
truly a blessing. Wow. And even though I would never
want to go through it again, I wouldn't change it
for the world because. It changed my life forever, and
I was able to comfort so many others in the
(31:23):
same way that the Lord has comforted me.
S2 (31:26):
Carol. Thank you. Thank you. Lord bless you for sharing
that story. Tim. Did you want to say anything to Carol?
S3 (31:31):
Absolutely be encouraged. You know, I think your story and
your testimony, uh, is helping those that are listening right now.
That may still be in a season of pain. You know,
we overcome by the words of our testimony. And I
believe your testimony is helping other people come out of
the various trials and tribulations that they may be faced with.
(31:53):
And so we thank you for sharing that testimony and
being a living witness of the faithfulness of God.
S2 (31:59):
And doing the hard thing by pressing into God rather
than being offended by him, running towards him. And now
look at the life and the Word of God that's
flowing in and through you. Carol, thank you. Thank you
for your call today. God bless you. I'm going to
see if we can grab one more call here before
our next break. We've got Lisa checking in from Florida,
checking in through the Moody Radio app. Lisa, thanks for holding.
You're on with Tim Timberlake.
S4 (32:22):
Hello.
S5 (32:22):
Hi, Suzy. Hi, Tim. Thank you so much for taking
my call. Um, I am at a point where I
am in an extremely low value Valley right now. It's
a medical condition. Um, last year, out of nowhere, um,
I noticed that I started losing some vision in one
of my eyes. So my husband went to several different
(32:43):
doctors and, you know, gave me some medication. Just saying
it wasn't infection. But it progressed to the point where
now I have about 50% of my vision. Um, the
doctors don't really know what caused it. They think it
could have been like a medication side effect, but they're
not even 100% sure. So I was working a grandmother mother. Um,
(33:09):
you know, wife. And this has dramatically changed my life.
I had to stop working. Um, I had to stop driving. Uh,
I can't really see my grandkids as much. I've lost
all independence. Of all the things. I was kind of
like that super mom, you know, just always running, always
(33:29):
doing everything, always involved in everything at church and other places.
And this has just changed me. So over the past year,
I've just, you know, dove into the word. You know,
I've been talking to Jesus. I've been I was prior,
but I mean, this is just really I mean, I
(33:50):
have no where to go but to talk to him
because that is yeah, that is where it's at. And
I'm just I'm trying to focus on gratitude, as you
talked about earlier, um, focusing on the things I still
do have, but there is some anger and there is some.
Why did this happen to me? Um, you know, I
(34:10):
just try really hard not to focus on that and
to continue to focus on Jesus. But when you've lost
so much, Susie and Tim, it's really challenging.
S2 (34:24):
Well, I want to I want to make sure we
give Tim time to respond before the break. But I'll say, Lisa,
you're in the grief process. Even if this is a
temporary loss, you've got to walk through the grief process,
which includes bargaining and anger. And why did this happen?
So be kind to your soul as you're sorting through
some of that and adjusting. Um, I'm going to have
you speak to this, Tim. And if there's time, I'm
going to pray for you, Lisa, before we go to break.
(34:45):
What say you, Tim?
S3 (34:47):
Absolutely. Lisa, I want to remind you of what the
word says in Exodus chapter 15, verse 26. This is
a reminder that I use, that I pull up, that
I read on a continual basis. Whenever I feel like
life is pressing in on me, my physical body is
turning on me. Uh, right now, currently, as I'm talking
(35:08):
to you, I have a broken arm. Uh, and so
one fellow me broke my arm and I had to
remind myself of what this, this passage of Scripture says
in Exodus chapter 15, verse 26, I am the Lord
who heals you, and I want you to stand on that.
I want you to to to declare that every single
day of your life. It is the Lord who is
(35:29):
healing your body, making you whole. And so I want
you as often as you can just to speak those
things that be not as though they were. And as
Susie prays, I'm going to be praying with you. I'm
going to be believing God with you for total and
complete healing. But remember that it is the Lord who
heals you. He hasn't forgotten you. He hasn't forsaken you.
(35:51):
We believe that the miracle you need, he will provide.
S2 (35:54):
Mhm. Amen and amen. And I too, Lisa, I'm dealing
with a pretty significant chronic affliction that I am crying
out to God for as well. In the verse that
I'm standing on is Jeremiah 30 verse 17, the first
part of 17. And it says, I will give you
back your health and heal your wounds, because I do
believe wounds come along with these kinds of affliction because
they're so traumatizing. And so, Lord God in heaven, we
(36:16):
lift up. Dear Lisa to you. We thank you that
you love her with an everlasting love. We thank you
God that you're the same yesterday, today, and forever and
what you did in Scripture you do today. You give
the blind back their sight. You give the deaf back
their hearing. You help the lame start leaping and dancing
for joy. And so we plead the blood of Jesus
over Lisa. And Lord God, we condemn any, any, uh,
(36:38):
assignment against her from the enemy in Jesus name, because
she is under the blood of the Most High God.
Psalm 103 says, bless the Lord, O my soul. Forget
not his benefits. He forgives all my sins, heals all
my diseases. Ransoms my life from the pit. Crowns me
with loving compassion, satisfies my desires with good things. And
my youth is renewed like the eagles. So, Lord God,
(36:59):
we pray this would be a temporary battle. And just
as this loss of vision came out of nowhere, may
healing come out of nowhere. May she go to bed
one way and wake up another. But I pray in
due time, just like Jesus you healed in Scripture, this
dear woman would start to see with greater clarity and
what she would come out of this trial with is
better spiritual clarity as she seeks you and trusts you.
(37:21):
I pray in the very way the enemy has come
against her God, You would bless her, bless her with
spiritual clarity, bless her with physical vision and restore what
the enemy has stolen from her. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
As we go to break, I gotta read this excerpt
from Tim's book. Here's what I want you to know.
He says many of the hard things we experience are
not just inevitable, they are essential. They are good for
(37:42):
us in some way. Maybe they teach us or shape us,
or purify us, or move us forward. The difficult is temporary.
But listen to this the reward we receive on the
other side of those things, that's permanent. Wow. This is
equipped with Chris Brooks. I'm Susie Larson talking to Tim Timberlake.
We're talking about this. You can do hard things. Your
trials train you. And his book is the bumpy Road
(38:04):
to better. We'll be back in a minute.
S1 (38:32):
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more than ever. That's our mission here at Equip to
provide biblical wisdom for life's toughest questions. When you step
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(38:53):
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S2 (39:12):
This is equipped with Chris Brooks coming to you from
the studios of Moody Radio. Susie Larson here sitting in
for Chris today, and I'm talking with author Pastor Tim
Timberlake about his book, The Bumpy Road to Better Unlocking
the Hidden Power in Hard Things. And I'm going to
ask this question just one more time today. How have
your trials trained you? What are some of the takeaways
from the things you've walked through? Earlier we talked about
(39:32):
gratitude and how it is essential for navigating your difficult seasons. Actually,
it's essential in every season in gratitude makes us spiritually blind.
I'm convinced of it. Gratitude opens the eyes of our
hearts so we can see more of what God is
doing in our midst. Well, Chris has got one such
testimony checking in from LeClaire, Iowa. Chris, thanks for holding.
I love your testimony. I can't wait for you to
(39:53):
share it. You're on the air.
S5 (39:55):
Yes.
S6 (39:56):
Thank you. Um, yes. When my younger son was in college,
he went through kind of a rebellious period, and I
was very discouraged. And when I was praying one morning,
I said, Lord, what is going on? And I just
I just asked for a grateful heart. I said, Lord,
remind me of all your goodness. And immediately he did.
The Holy Spirit just reminded me of of all the
(40:18):
good things that that I had and that were going on.
And some years later, when he got out in the
work world and realized life is hard. He thanked me,
me and my husband for just all the things that
we had taught him when he was younger. Things that
I didn't think he liked or enjoyed, but in fact
he did learn and I was so thankful.
S2 (40:38):
Wow. Chris. Well done, good and faithful mama. Appreciate that
so much. Tim. Did you want to say anything to Chris?
S3 (40:44):
Absolutely. You know, I was that son at one point
in my parents life, and they did the same thing
for me. And that is what drew me back to
the heart of the father and helped me to re-establish
a strong relationship with Jesus Christ. So well done.
S2 (41:01):
Yeah, Chris, thank you for holding and thanks for sharing that.
And maybe someone who's listening today, you need to hear
that because you're in the thick of it with maybe
a prodigal. Keep on believing. Look for opportunities to be grateful.
I mean, these hard times, Tim, come in so many ways,
and I've been thinking a lot about this, at least
in the West. I think this is true, but probably
true all over the world, that the idols of our
day are comfort and convenience. And if we don't, if
(41:23):
we're not careful, those become our goal. We make everything
as easy as possible and as comfortable as possible. But
if you're aiming in that direction, you're setting yourself up
to be soft, to be ineffective, to be unfruitful. And
I'd love for you to say a word about resilience,
because you said we have to be able to recover
quickly from difficulties. We have to be able to adapt
to challenging circumstances with strength and perseverance. None of that
(41:47):
happens in the space of comfort and convenience, so speak
to that if you would.
S3 (41:51):
Absolutely. I believe that in specifically a westernized culture, we've
made comfort and convenience idols, and, uh, we lean more
into our feelings than we do our conviction and resilience.
In my opinion, is not just the ability to bounce back. Uh,
(42:12):
in the kingdom, resilience is the ability to stand firm.
It's the ability to grow deeper. It's the ability to
keep moving forward even when life hits hard. And so
when we think through the lens of resilience, we can't
always take on culture and society's definition of that resilience.
(42:32):
We have to look at it from a biblical perspective.
One of the scriptures that comes to mind when I
think about enduring and resilience, and oftentimes we apply it
to everything, but it's not specifically talking to all things.
It's specifically talking to enduring and resilience. It's Philippians chapter four,
(42:52):
verse 13 where it says, I can do all things
through Christ that strengthens me. And when we rely on Jesus,
it pulls us out of that comfort and that convenience,
and it gives us a godly conviction, which is the
love of the father, to allow us to know, no,
there's more I have for you. There's more I have
(43:14):
for you than what you currently see than then the
season you're currently in. There's more that I have for you.
And so when we lean into that, it sharpens us.
It makes us better. And that season that we are
in of pushing against resisting, against operating in that resilience.
It makes us a lot more like Jesus than not.
S2 (43:36):
Mhm. Love this. From your book you said battles don't
last forever. Maybe you needed to hear that today. Battles
don't last forever. They feel eternal while you're fighting them.
But they have an end date. When the battle is
over and the dust settles. Will you still be here?
That's what matters most. And I promise you, the taste
of victory lasts longer than the pain of the struggle.
Hear this again. The taste of victory lasts longer than the.
(44:00):
Than the pain of the struggle. Say a word about that.
Especially with that person listening in mind who right now
doesn't have the long game in mind. They're really just
so immersed in the pain of the moment.
S3 (44:11):
Yeah. Both me and you, we love Sports and old athletes,
and I'm reminded of all of the greats and the
struggles and the pain and working out and being in
the gym when no one else is watching. And there's
a difference between those that are good at their craft
and those that are great at their craft. The people
(44:33):
that are good at their craft, they've done enough to
get them to the place where they're recognized. Those that
are great at their craft have not settled for what
has made them who they are. They have this drive
that they want to be greater. They know that they
have more left in the tank and they endure. They persevere.
They go through pain. They go through hardship because they
(44:53):
know at the end of it all that pain is
going to produce power, and that power is going to
produce results. And a lot of them would define every
championship that they've had and every championship that they've held up.
They would define it by the things that no one
else has seen. They would define it by the underlining, uh,
(45:16):
small steps that they took that created large moments and
large leaps. And so it's the same thing for us,
I believe. We are, uh, putting into place and putting
into practice our victories in the unseen things. And so
one of the things that I have, uh, listed down
(45:36):
in my daily reminders is I have to schedule my
victories because my defeats were scheduled themselves. Come on. And
if I don't? And if I don't have those victory
moments scheduled, making time to celebrate, making time to do
a little dance and thank God and honor God with that,
then I focus more on the defeats than I do
the things that I'm overcoming.
S2 (45:58):
Tim, this has been excellent. Thank you for joining us today.
Tim Timberlake is my guest today. The bumpy road to better.
Great book Tim. Such a good conversation. Remember, friends, you
can do hard things. Do not lose hope in the battle.
Resilience is what we need to navigate in the day
that we're in. God's with you, and it is impossible
for him to fail you. Well, I pray you found
(46:18):
some encouragement here today. If you need more information again
about our guests or anything dealing with equipped radio, you
find it online equipped radio.org equipped radio.org. Have faith in God.
He's the one who keeps you safe and he already
knows how he's going to deliver you. That's what Tim
says in his book, The Bumpy Road to Better. We
love and appreciate you so very much. Thanks for tuning
in today. I'm Susie Larson from all of us at equipped.
(46:41):
I want to say thank you so much for listening today.
Equipped is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of
Moody Bible Institute, and we will meet you back here
next time.
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