October 29, 2025 • 34 mins
In a follow up to last week's episode, I wanted to share some of the lessons the Lord taught me about Himself and His Word. Walking through suffering and affliction isn't easy and the Lord is so gracious and kind in His comfort. However, He also uses these things to deepen our union with Him.
The Lord has used the things I've walked through to not only help me learn about His grace and mercy, but to expose areas of sin in me: where I have believed wrong thing about Him, fallen into self-centered wallowing in the midst of difficulty, and fought to believe Him and not the lies of the enemy. I pray this episode blesses you and encourages you in your walk with Jesus.
Scriptures referenced:
- John 8:31-32
- Psalm 130:1-6
- 1 Peter 5:6-11
- Matthew 7:24-27
- Hebrews 5:7-10
- 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
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Questions? Comments? Email me at: carrie@ps8116.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hi everyone, just a quick note before this episode.
About 20 minutes in, you'regoing to hear my voice get
really muffled and hear somestrange, like distorted, muffled
sounds.
And it's my cat.
She decided she wanted to jointhis episode by starting to chew
(00:20):
on my cord.
And I was so deep in my thoughtthat I just decided to try and
wrestle her out of it ratherthan stop recording.
So if you're listening and youhit that point, you're like,
this sounds a little bit weirdor muffled or like there's
something going on.
There is.
I'm just fighting with my cat,but I just wanted to let you
know.
So I hope you enjoy today'sepisode.
(00:50):
Hey everyone, welcome to thenext episode of Honey from the
Rock.
I am so glad that you are herewith me today.
And before I get into today'sepisode and what I want to
share, I want to take a quickmoment and say thank you.
So many of you were soencouraging last week as I
shared my story and my journeythrough infertility and with all
(01:13):
of my reproductive issues.
And I will say I felt reallyvulnerable putting that out
there in a medium where I hadn'tshared it before.
You know, usually when you'resharing your story with someone,
maybe you're being interviewedor you're just talking with
friends and you can see people'sfaces and their expressions, and
you can make that humanconnection.
(01:33):
And recording this podcast,usually I'm by myself in a room.
Sometimes, like today, I have mycat with me.
And I mean, but she's notsitting here looking at me.
She's she's got her back turnedto me today.
But um I was just reallyencouraged by how thoughtful uh
so many of you were in yourfeedback and sharing your own
(01:56):
stories with me.
So I just wanted to say thankyou for listening.
Thank you for yourencouragement.
And I pray that the Lordcontinues to use all of our
stories the the good, the bad,the difficult, the joys, all of
the things that this lifebrings.
I pray he uses it for his glory.
And that's actually a little bitwhat I want to talk about today
(02:19):
is as I was thinking about mystory, I shared a lot last week
about how Jesus really carriedme through intense physical,
emotional, mental suffering thatcame with all of the stuff that
I walked through.
But I would be remiss if Ididn't share some of the lessons
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that he taught me, some of thethings that he showed me in
walking through suffering.
Because while Jesus meets us inour suffering with so much
kindness and care andcompassion, he also uses our
suffering and affliction to showus himself to open our eyes to
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his word more deeply.
And I can speak from my ownexperience, is in the midst of
chronic pain and physicalsuffering and a lot of the uh
emotional struggles thatbrought, you know, the struggle
to understand, the grief, theweariness, the tiredness, the
Lord also showed me a lot aboutmyself, areas where he was
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trying to deepen my faith in himand help me know him in a in a
more intimate way, so that whenI came through the other side of
this suffering, that I would beable to, and even in the midst,
I should say, even in the midstof suffering, that I would be
able to point to him and givehim glory and thank him for
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everything that he has done forme.
And that doesn't negate thedifficulty of it, but scripture
is so full of the Lord wantingus to be able to rejoice in him
in the midst of suffering, toturn our eyes to him, that we
can cry out to him and ask himto hear our cry and to know that
(04:08):
he will answer.
Even in the times where it feelslike it's so silent and he's not
answering us.
We know that scripture says thathe has never left us or forsaken
us, right?
He he promises to those who arehis, I will never leave you, I
will never forsake you.
But there are things that thatwe do have to learn and and
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things that we don't know,things that we don't know about
the Lord, and things that wegrow in in the Lord that come
through pain and suffering.
And so as I go through thisepisode today, these are just
things that Jesus has taught me.
He has taught me through thedepths of grief in so much loss.
(04:50):
Like I said, with theinfertility last week, I've also
lost a lot of people who arevery near and dear to me, which
I will I will talk about soon.
Uh, which he, I mean, there arethings that he has taught me as
I have wrestled in my sufferingand in my affliction.
The Lord has used some of thatpain and affliction to to show
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me things that I believed abouthim that were wrong, to open my
eyes about how I, you know, wasasking him to move and wanted
him to do whatever he wanted todo.
But really, deep down in my ownsoul, I had an expectation that
he would move one way for me.
And and just there's so much,there's so much in it.
(05:32):
And again, please hear me saythat yes, the Lord is kind and
he's compassionate.
And especially in the early daysof just the affliction and the
pain and the grief and thewrestle, he is so kind and he is
so gentle.
And and the Lord doesn't change,right?
He's the same yesterday, today,and forever.
But the Lord also, in hiskindness and in his goodness and
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in grace and mercy, calls us tohim.
And in his call that we wouldcome to him, he wants to
strengthen us and he wants tostrengthen our faith, and he
wants to strengthen us inknowing him.
And so much of that comesthrough, comes through
affliction.
And so one of the things thatthe Lord taught me as I was
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wrestling through this, and Iknow last week I I read a lot of
scripture that the Lord used inmy life as I was as I was
walking through making decisionsabout surgeries or medications.
And and the huge basis for beingin the word and seeking Jesus is
number one.
I mean, we're we're called toit.
But I remember reading John 8,uh, 31 through 32, where Jesus
(06:40):
is talking to the Jews whobelieved him, right?
This is right after the womanwith adultery, uh, caught in
adultery, and Jesus um, youknow, doesn't condemn her but
tells her to go and sin no moreafter everybody wants to stone
her.
And he's talking to the Jewsabout essentially being being
enslaved.
(07:01):
And he says to them, if youcontinue in my word, then you
are truly my disciples, and youwill know the truth, and the
truth will set you free.
And and that's that became oneof the foundational verses of my
whole life.
Uh to be a disciple of Jesus, Ineed to be in his word.
And I can't just, you know, Imean, devotions are great and
(07:24):
getting our little snack sizeverse of the day from the Bible
app on our phones or whatever.
Those are good in and ofthemselves.
But Jesus says there's acontinuing in his word that we
need to be walking in.
We need to abide, we need toabide in his word, never leaving
it, constantly in it, lettingthe word feed us, feasting on
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Jesus, right?
He said, I mean, Jesus is theword.
And he says in John 6, if youeat my flesh and drink my blood,
right?
I mean, he he was saying, like,you need to consume me.
You need to consume me, and youneed to consume my word.
And and disciples are not abovetheir master.
And so as Jesus, excuse me, asJesus was so committed to the
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Father and continued to the withthe Father, right?
He is the very embodiment of theword of the Father.
So we have to continue in hisword because his word is where
we find the truth.
The word is where we find him,because Jesus is the truth, and
the truth sets us free.
Jesus Christ sets us free.
And and as I was walking throughand have continued to walk
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through just a lot of differentthings in my life, there have
been a lot of lies that havecome my way.
And I touched on some of themlast week.
A lot of them were centered onmy womanhood and my femininity
and what it means to be a womanin Jesus.
And and just that, that inmaking a decision and having to
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have, literally having to have ahysterectomy or die.
I mean, that was my choice atthe time.
That I was, I was still a woman.
But there were so many lies thatcame to me.
There was so much, there was somuch warfare around these
decisions, so many things wheremy brain, you know, you just you
just start spiraling right downand and and struggling with what
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it means, what it means to be awoman in the Lord.
And that's why I said last weekthat I have to trust that the
body Jesus has given me is thebody that gives him the most
glory.
And I don't know that as truth,as the truth of of who Jesus is,
if I'm not in the word.
Then I then I don't know if I ifI don't read Psalm 139, which
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tells me I've been knit togetherin my mother's womb and I'm
fearfully and wonderfully made.
I don't know those things.
But if I'm continuing in hisword and I'm seeking him out and
I'm asking the Holy Spirit tohelp me and lead me into all
truth, the Lord is going toanswer that prayer.
It's a prayer that he loves andit's a prayer he loves to
answer.
(10:02):
And it was one of thefoundational things I had to
learn.
It's so easy to spiral out ofcontrol in my feelings and in my
emotions because what I feel andall the things that I get up
into in my head, they're not,they're not always true.
There may be some truth in how Ifeel, but if I don't have an
absolute truth by which tomeasure how I'm feeling, then
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I'm gonna let myself spiral outof control.
And believe me, I I did.
I did.
I there were days, I I mean,it's you're you're processing a
lot, yes, but there were dayswhere I just let myself wallow
in self-pity and just spiral andreally let myself get into why
is the Lord doing this to me?
Why is he letting this happen?
(10:45):
I don't understand.
And and those are absolutely Ican ask those questions to the
Lord.
But we all know the differencebetween Lord help me understand
I don't get it, and you know,what what is happening?
What the crap?
Are you kidding me?
You know, and and spiraling intothat self-pity.
And so that's why when we'rewalking through anything, if we
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are not anchored in the Fatherand in Jesus and in the Holy
Spirit, if we're not anchored inthe word and we're not feasting
on the word every day, we're nottaking in the word and just
meditating on it, then then wewill have no anchor.
And we will be tossed about bytwo, you know, to and fro.
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You know, we'll be like the manwho who built his house on the
sand.
And I'm not saying that if webuild our house on the rock,
that the storms aren't going tocome, Jesus says they come.
Matthew 7, he says those stormsassail, but the foundation of
the house and the house remainssure because it was built on the
rock.
And what does Jesus preface thatwhole parable with?
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Anyone who hears my words anddoes them will be like the man
who builds his house on therock.
Things are going to shake us.
They're going to shake us to ourcore.
There are going to be thingsthat are going to rattle us.
There is going to be loss in ourlives that comes that is so
devastating that we feel like wewill never crawl out of the deep
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hole of grief.
But friends, I am here to tellyou, if we anchor ourselves in
Jesus, we have that sure andfirm hope, right?
The hope, the anchor behind theveil, I think is how the writer
Hebrews puts it.
This the storms may come and wemay be buffeted, but we will not
sink and our foundation will notbe eroded.
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And so if you are going throughanything right now, I would
encourage you to grab yourBible, get into the word, and
and don't be over, you know,we're not going to the word
being like, okay, I got to be inthe word.
And so I've just got to havethis all figured out.
No, it it's it's a going to theword and saying, Lord, help me
understand.
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Help me to know you better.
I don't get this.
Lord, I need your help.
I need your help.
And you've told me that if Icome to your word, if I come to
you, if I cry out to you, youwill, you will hear my cry.
And he does.
And he does.
So even in the midst of all ofthe doubts you may have in the
struggles you may be having withthe Lord, don't run from him.
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Don't run from him.
Grab, grab your word, grab theBible, get into it and seek him.
Because Jesus says, the Lordsays that he will show himself
to those who seek him earnestly.
That's what faith is.
We must believe that he is whohe says he is and that he is a
rewarder of those who diligentlyseek him.
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He will do it.
And so as I was walking, youknow, through, I mean, the
Psalms are also a, I mean, Lord,again, you know, I know a couple
of weeks ago I was like, Lord,thank you so much for Peter.
And today, Lord, thank you somuch for David.
Yes, he was a man after theLord's own heart.
He was a man who sinned.
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He was a man who repented.
And he wrote so many vulnerablethings.
And the Lord and his goodnessput them in his scripture.
He put them in his book.
So that as we wrestle in thislife and as we as we strive and
press on to know the Lord, thatwe would see how the Lord can,
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how He He can take anything fromus.
He can.
Now, do we need to be reverentand do we need to be careful?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And we also have plenty ofexamples of that in scripture.
You know, we need to, we need toknow that the Lord can take all
of our questions, but we alsoneed to make sure that we don't
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accuse the Lord.
And there's there's there'slines to walk in it.
And obviously, if we do accusethe Lord, we can repent and turn
back to him.
Again, Job being a great exampleof that.
Being a great example of that.
The Lord can take everythingthat we can throw at him, but
the Lord is also holy.
He also deserves our reverence.
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He deserves our faithfulness.
And so, and that's part of whatmakes this Christian life a
wrestle.
And again, the comfort is thatthe Lord's not expecting us to
get those things 100% perfect.
We can't do it.
We're sinners.
It won't happen.
But if we're wrestling and ourheart is for him and toward him,
and we're wrestling and we'refalling down and we're getting
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back up and we keep coming tohim, I am a living example of
the Lord answering, answering somany prayers in the midst of so
many questions.
And that was where Psalm 130,verses 1 through 6 became such a
huge comfort to me.
Because like I said, I the Lordwas comforting and he was kind
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in my suffering, but there wereplaces that he was also dealing
with me.
And it was through this psalmthat he showed me that.
So Psalm 130, 1 through 6 says,Out of the depths I have cried
to you, Lord.
Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive tothe sounds of my pleadings.
If you, Lord, were to keepaccount of guilty deeds, Lord,
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who could stand?
But there is forgiveness withyou so that you may be revered.
I wait for the Lord, my soulwaits, and I wait for his word.
My soul waits in hope for theLord more than the watchman of
the morning.
Yes, more than the watchman ofthe morning.
I love these verses so much, andthey so ministered to me because
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I was crying out to Jesus in mypain and asking him to end it,
asking him to take away thechronic pain that I was in,
asking him to help me, help mewith my mind and help me with my
emotions.
And and yet also I knew in themidst of it, as I said earlier,
he was showing me things where Ididn't trust him, or I had a
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wrong idea about him that wasn'tscriptural, or he was just
simply convicting me of my sin.
There were times, and like I'vesaid, in the midst of wrestling
with this, where I knew the Lordwas saying, you are being a
brat.
Knock it off.
Repent of that.
Repent of your snottydisposition, you know, and and
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again, this is my story, and I'mspeaking from my own experience
because in the Lord's kindnessand goodness, he also doesn't
leave us how we are.
And suffering and affliction doso much in the secret places of
our heart that that sometimeswe're not even cognizant with,
uh cognizant of to refine us andand and to make us that
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beautiful gold in his refiner'sfire.
Sometimes we're not even awareof sins that we're committing
against him, and yet in hisgraciousness and walking through
the fire with him, walkingthrough pain and suffering and
grief with him, that he just hejust refines things out of us.
But then there are also thingswhere he's where he says, This
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is this is wrong.
You've sinned against me andthis, and you need to repent.
And that's why I love in themix, in the midst of David
crying out to the Lord andsaying, please hear my cry.
Lord, I'm I'm I'm gonna laymyself bare before you and I'm
gonna repent, Lord, because ifyou held my sins against against
me, I would never, I would neverbe able to stand.
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I can't stand.
But Lord, thank you.
Thank you for hearing my plea,not only in the midst of my pain
and suffering, but in the cry ofmy heart for your forgiveness
when I repent and when I sinagainst you.
And that's where it's in theLord's forgiveness and in his
grace and in his mercy and inhis kindness and in his
discipline, right?
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I mean, David is this is thesame man who wrote, your rod and
your staff comfort me.
Lord, there is both comfort inyour discipline by your rod and
comfort in the drawing to youwith your staff.
Lord, that is what he does forus.
And so I love that David tellsus, like, we need, Lord, if you
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hold on to my sin, I can'tstand, but thank you for
forgiving me and help me toreverence you.
Help me to reverence you, helpme to wait on you and to wait
for your word.
And and this tied in with umjust like I said, I only the
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Lord could do it.
Only the Lord can perfectly walkus through pain and suffering,
through affliction.
If Jesus learned obedience bythe things that he suffered, how
much more so do we need to?
How much more does the Lordteach us how to obey him, how to
follow him, how to know himthrough suffering and happiness
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and joy and good things, theLord giving us good things.
We learn in those things too,but we learn, I will say from my
own personal experience, and Ibelieve scripture bears it out,
that I have learned much moreabout the faithfulness of the
Lord, about the true joy of theLord in walking through
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suffering, in in experiencinghis grace and his perfect and
holy blood washing me clean ashe has dealt with me and refined
me and and can and continued toconform me to his image.
And he has used suffering to dothat.
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He has used pain and afflictionto do that.
And so I just I want to keepencouraging you when it feels
like, you know, because thedevil wants to tell us that the
Lord's picking on us and thathe's cruel and he's a hard
taskmaster, and it is not true.
Like I said in the episodestalking about the love of the
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Lord and loving the Lord, Jesusis our example.
Jesus is our example.
He has suffered temptation inevery way as we have.
You know, we often have thisidea that if we just had a
perfect life, that everythingwould be okay.
Jesus literally lived theperfect life as man and they
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killed him for it.
He was crucified for it.
We have crucified him.
Our sins have crucified him,right?
And so we have this idea aboutperfection.
We have this idea about whatlife should look like and what
we think we're owed or we'rejust what we deserve.
And again, I just I am, I wantto encourage you that Jesus
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doesn't leave anything behind.
Every single thing that we walkthrough in him, he uses.
Even the sins that we committedand the things that we did
before we came to him, beforewe've come to him.
He used he uses it all.
You know why?
Because there are men and womenin this world who are walking
through horrible, horrificthings, things they've done
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themselves, things that havebeen done to them, and they need
people who know the Lord, whohave walked through the fire of
refinement, who have walkedthrough the fire of affliction
and suffering, both in Jesus andout of Jesus, who have a
testimony of the faithfulness ofGod and drawing them to himself
when they were sinners, right?
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I was with you in your sin, theLord says, because I was drawing
you to myself.
And then being in him, being inhim, knowing that coming to
Jesus means that we we get to beone with him, and we also get to
be put to his use.
We get to be put to his use, andwe have a part to play in his
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kingdom, and it's amazing, andit is amazing, and so I want to
encourage you, I want toencourage you with these things,
my friends.
Because in the midst of it, theLord also showed me and it he
led me to First Peter and andFirst Peter 5, and they're
verses that we're reallyfamiliar with, and um we tend to
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just read, you know, maybe oneor two, you know, so and
sometimes you know it's wherethe Lord leads.
We just read one or two versesand we just kind of sit on those
and we encamp on them, and andit's great.
But first Peter 5, 6 through 11,the whole context of it is so
important.
And it was something that theLord showed me because on top of
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walking through health issues,you know, there's a lot that
comes with it.
There's the mental, there's themental stress and the mental
war, you know, and and we cannotforget that as as disciples of
Jesus, as as Christians, we havean enemy.
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We have an enemy because Jesushas an enemy, and that enemy is
the devil.
And so in the midst of pain andsuffering, I mean it can get it
can get crazy, you know, andjust you can find yourself going
down rabbit holes, you can findyourself swirling into things,
and you're like, what on earth?
But then there's also this theseduction of lies, the the
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temptation to to not believe theLord, right?
The temptation to to believethat he's a harsh master or that
he's forgotten about us or thathe doesn't care about us, or
that he, you know, we our lifeis just gonna really suck and be
full of all of this crap.
And everybody else, uh, youknow, who walks with Jesus, you
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know, their lives get to bebetter, but my life just has to
has to stink for the Lord, andit's not true.
And it the scripture is is veryclear that those who who want to
live a godly life willexperience persecution, they
will experience pain andsuffering.
My cat just fell off the couch.
Sorry if you heard that.
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Um, but that we will experiencethese things in the Lord.
So 1 Peter uh 5, 6 through 11says, Therefore, humble
yourselves under the mighty handof God, so that he may exalt you
at the proper time, having castall your anxiety on him, because
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he cares about you, he caresabout you, cast every anxiety on
him because he cares about you.
Humble yourself before him, beof sober spirit, be on alert,
right?
So humble yourself before theLord.
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I need to humble myself beforethe Lord and and trust that He
will He will exalt, you know, Hewill lift me out of what I'm
going through at the propertime.
And I need to continue to castevery anxiety on Him.
That word in anxiety, when Jesususes it in Matthew 6, it talks
about the mind being pulled intotwo different places.
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So to cast my anxiety on theLord, Lord, I'm I'm feeling
anxious about these things.
Anxiety, I and I do, I've Istruggle with anxiety.
And and it's the consistency ofLord, I know I need to cast this
on you and ask you to help me sothat I'm not divided from you.
You know, and again, that's notjust a like, oh, and then I'm
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just over my anxiety.
Again, all of these things are awrestle.
Because not only are we tryingto overcome ourselves, again, we
are trying to overcome an enemy.
The devil who hates the thingsthat the Lord has created, the
devil who hates the Lord'speople because he hates the
Lord, the devil who hates everygood thing that the Lord has
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created and tries to distort andcreate counterfeits and lure us
away from the goodness of God,from the goodness of Jesus
Christ, who gave himself for usbecause he loves us.
And that's why Peter here tiesthese two things together.
The Lord cares about you, sohumble yourself before him, lay
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yourself out before him.
But as you do, be on your watch,be alert.
Your adversary, the devil, prowlprowls around like a roaring
lion, seeking someone to devour.
So resist him.
Resist him firm in your faith,knowing that the same
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experiences of suffering arebeing accomplished by your
brothers and sisters who are inthe world.
And after you have suffered alittle while, the God of all
grace, who called you, he hascalled us to his eternal glory
in Christ, will himself perfect,confirm, strengthen, and
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establish you.
To him be dominion forever andever.
Amen.
This is what we are called towhen we are walking through
suffering and pain and grief.
The Lord wants us to come andthrow ourselves on him.
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Right?
I know my grandmother used toquote Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 all
the time.
It was her favorite.
And she loved the promise thatthe Lord would direct her path
no matter what.
But that word trust in theHebrew means to lay your face in
the ground.
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That's what trust means.
And I just throw that in therein the context of us humbling
ourselves before the Lord.
And so I again the encouragementbeing that the Lord, He has us,
He cares about us, but we are ina war.
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We are in a war.
And and in this war, we have anenemy who seeks to devour us.
And and the Lord wants to giveus Himself, He wants to give us
everything we need to be able toresist Him, firm in our faith.
Well, who or what is our faithin?
It's in the Lord, it's in JesusChrist and who He is and what He
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has done.
It's in the word that He's givenus to show us His character, to
show us the character of theFather, to show us the character
of the Holy Spirit.
And we are promised suffering.
We are promised affliction.
And we need, and and and Petertells us that, because I think
the other lie that we get stuckin our heads is that we're the
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only ones going through thingslike this.
And we're not.
We're not.
There are brothers and sisters,and we certainly know that.
We should know that today.
That there are brothers andsisters around the world who are
suffering for the sake of Jesus,who are walking through intense
persecution and horriblesickness and pain and suffering
(30:18):
for the sake of the gospel ofJesus Christ.
But the Lord doesn't leave uswithout hope because what does
he say?
What does he say?
He says, after a little while,the God of all grace, who called
you to his eternal glory inChrist Jesus, will himself
perfect, confirm, strengthen,and establish you.
(30:40):
He will establish you to him, bethe dominion and the glory
forever and ever.
And so these are just a few ofthe things that the Lord has
taught me in the midst of my ownwalk through grief and loss and
pain and suffering.
And I pray that they encourageyou today.
(31:01):
That no matter where, where youare with the Lord, my prayer
always is, friends, for each oneof us, that no matter where we
are with Jesus, that we would,we would not be satisfied with
where we are with him, but thatwe would keep pressing, pressing
in.
Let us press on to know theLord, right?
I love it in the Chronicles ofNarnia, C.S.
(31:23):
Lewis, as as at the after thelast battle, and they're all
walking towards towards Narnia.
Further up and further in iswhat they keep being called to.
And that is what we are calledto in Jesus.
Further up and further in andknowing him and in and trusting
him and growing in not only lovefor him, but growing in the
(31:45):
knowledge of the love that hehas for us, right?
That's what Paul talks about inEphesians 1.
And so, and and this is trulyhoney from the rock.
When we are pursuing the Lord,even in our weakness, especially
in our weakness, right?
It's what Paul talks about in 1Corinthians or 2 Corinthians 12,
(32:09):
right?
He had that that thorn in hisflesh.
It was a messenger of Satan totorment him.
A messenger of Satan to tormenthim.
Why?
Because of the greatness ofrevelation that he had gotten.
And he and it and Paul says itwas to keep me from exalting
myself.
This man had gotten a ton ofrevelation about the Lord.
We know it.
(32:29):
We're reading it most of it.
And then here comes this thornin the flesh, and he pleads with
the Lord three times to ask it,asks the Lord to take it.
And the Lord says, No.
He says to me, My grace issufficient for you, for my power
is perfected in weakness.
And I and I want to leave youwith this.
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This is my benediction, this ismy blessing for us today,
because this is how Paulresponds.
Most gladly, therefore, I willrather boast about my weakness,
so that the power of Christ maydwell in me.
Therefore, I delight, I rejoicein weakness, in insults, in
(33:13):
distresses, in persecutions, indifficulties in behalf of
Christ.
For when I am weak, then I amstrong.
And friends, that is my prayerfor you and me today, that in
our weakness, in whatever we arefacing, that we would trust, we
(33:34):
would trust Jesus, trust hislove for us, trust his goodness,
and know that he is perfectinghis power in our weakness, and
he is also showing us the gracethat he has so beautifully
purchased for us by the power ofhis perfect and holy blood.
(33:55):
Friends, let us rejoice in thethings that the Lord is doing in
our lives that we may know himand that we may make him known.
Amen.
Hi everyone, just a quick note before this episode.
About 20 minutes in, you'regoing to hear my voice get
really muffled and hear somestrange, like distorted, muffled
sounds.
And it's my cat.
She decided she wanted to jointhis episode by starting to chew
(00:20):
on my cord.
And I was so deep in my thoughtthat I just decided to try and
wrestle her out of it ratherthan stop recording.
So if you're listening and youhit that point, you're like,
this sounds a little bit weirdor muffled or like there's
something going on.
There is.
I'm just fighting with my cat,but I just wanted to let you
know.
So I hope you enjoy today'sepisode.
(00:50):
Hey everyone, welcome to thenext episode of Honey from the
Rock.
I am so glad that you are herewith me today.
And before I get into today'sepisode and what I want to
share, I want to take a quickmoment and say thank you.
So many of you were soencouraging last week as I
shared my story and my journeythrough infertility and with all
(01:13):
of my reproductive issues.
And I will say I felt reallyvulnerable putting that out
there in a medium where I hadn'tshared it before.
You know, usually when you'resharing your story with someone,
maybe you're being interviewedor you're just talking with
friends and you can see people'sfaces and their expressions, and
you can make that humanconnection.
(01:33):
And recording this podcast,usually I'm by myself in a room.
Sometimes, like today, I have mycat with me.
And I mean, but she's notsitting here looking at me.
She's she's got her back turnedto me today.
But um I was just reallyencouraged by how thoughtful uh
so many of you were in yourfeedback and sharing your own
(01:56):
stories with me.
So I just wanted to say thankyou for listening.
Thank you for yourencouragement.
And I pray that the Lordcontinues to use all of our
stories the the good, the bad,the difficult, the joys, all of
the things that this lifebrings.
I pray he uses it for his glory.
And that's actually a little bitwhat I want to talk about today
(02:19):
is as I was thinking about mystory, I shared a lot last week
about how Jesus really carriedme through intense physical,
emotional, mental suffering thatcame with all of the stuff that
I walked through.
But I would be remiss if Ididn't share some of the lessons
(02:39):
that he taught me, some of thethings that he showed me in
walking through suffering.
Because while Jesus meets us inour suffering with so much
kindness and care andcompassion, he also uses our
suffering and affliction to showus himself to open our eyes to
(03:02):
his word more deeply.
And I can speak from my ownexperience, is in the midst of
chronic pain and physicalsuffering and a lot of the uh
emotional struggles thatbrought, you know, the struggle
to understand, the grief, theweariness, the tiredness, the
Lord also showed me a lot aboutmyself, areas where he was
(03:26):
trying to deepen my faith in himand help me know him in a in a
more intimate way, so that whenI came through the other side of
this suffering, that I would beable to, and even in the midst,
I should say, even in the midstof suffering, that I would be
able to point to him and givehim glory and thank him for
(03:47):
everything that he has done forme.
And that doesn't negate thedifficulty of it, but scripture
is so full of the Lord wantingus to be able to rejoice in him
in the midst of suffering, toturn our eyes to him, that we
can cry out to him and ask himto hear our cry and to know that
(04:08):
he will answer.
Even in the times where it feelslike it's so silent and he's not
answering us.
We know that scripture says thathe has never left us or forsaken
us, right?
He he promises to those who arehis, I will never leave you, I
will never forsake you.
But there are things that thatwe do have to learn and and
(04:29):
things that we don't know,things that we don't know about
the Lord, and things that wegrow in in the Lord that come
through pain and suffering.
And so as I go through thisepisode today, these are just
things that Jesus has taught me.
He has taught me through thedepths of grief in so much loss.
(04:50):
Like I said, with theinfertility last week, I've also
lost a lot of people who arevery near and dear to me, which
I will I will talk about soon.
Uh, which he, I mean, there arethings that he has taught me as
I have wrestled in my sufferingand in my affliction.
The Lord has used some of thatpain and affliction to to show
(05:10):
me things that I believed abouthim that were wrong, to open my
eyes about how I, you know, wasasking him to move and wanted
him to do whatever he wanted todo.
But really, deep down in my ownsoul, I had an expectation that
he would move one way for me.
And and just there's so much,there's so much in it.
(05:32):
And again, please hear me saythat yes, the Lord is kind and
he's compassionate.
And especially in the early daysof just the affliction and the
pain and the grief and thewrestle, he is so kind and he is
so gentle.
And and the Lord doesn't change,right?
He's the same yesterday, today,and forever.
But the Lord also, in hiskindness and in his goodness and
(05:53):
in grace and mercy, calls us tohim.
And in his call that we wouldcome to him, he wants to
strengthen us and he wants tostrengthen our faith, and he
wants to strengthen us inknowing him.
And so much of that comesthrough, comes through
affliction.
And so one of the things thatthe Lord taught me as I was
(06:15):
wrestling through this, and Iknow last week I I read a lot of
scripture that the Lord used inmy life as I was as I was
walking through making decisionsabout surgeries or medications.
And and the huge basis for beingin the word and seeking Jesus is
number one.
I mean, we're we're called toit.
But I remember reading John 8,uh, 31 through 32, where Jesus
(06:40):
is talking to the Jews whobelieved him, right?
This is right after the womanwith adultery, uh, caught in
adultery, and Jesus um, youknow, doesn't condemn her but
tells her to go and sin no moreafter everybody wants to stone
her.
And he's talking to the Jewsabout essentially being being
enslaved.
(07:01):
And he says to them, if youcontinue in my word, then you
are truly my disciples, and youwill know the truth, and the
truth will set you free.
And and that's that became oneof the foundational verses of my
whole life.
Uh to be a disciple of Jesus, Ineed to be in his word.
And I can't just, you know, Imean, devotions are great and
(07:24):
getting our little snack sizeverse of the day from the Bible
app on our phones or whatever.
Those are good in and ofthemselves.
But Jesus says there's acontinuing in his word that we
need to be walking in.
We need to abide, we need toabide in his word, never leaving
it, constantly in it, lettingthe word feed us, feasting on
(07:46):
Jesus, right?
He said, I mean, Jesus is theword.
And he says in John 6, if youeat my flesh and drink my blood,
right?
I mean, he he was saying, like,you need to consume me.
You need to consume me, and youneed to consume my word.
And and disciples are not abovetheir master.
And so as Jesus, excuse me, asJesus was so committed to the
(08:10):
Father and continued to the withthe Father, right?
He is the very embodiment of theword of the Father.
So we have to continue in hisword because his word is where
we find the truth.
The word is where we find him,because Jesus is the truth, and
the truth sets us free.
Jesus Christ sets us free.
And and as I was walking throughand have continued to walk
(08:32):
through just a lot of differentthings in my life, there have
been a lot of lies that havecome my way.
And I touched on some of themlast week.
A lot of them were centered onmy womanhood and my femininity
and what it means to be a womanin Jesus.
And and just that, that inmaking a decision and having to
(08:53):
have, literally having to have ahysterectomy or die.
I mean, that was my choice atthe time.
That I was, I was still a woman.
But there were so many lies thatcame to me.
There was so much, there was somuch warfare around these
decisions, so many things wheremy brain, you know, you just you
just start spiraling right downand and and struggling with what
(09:19):
it means, what it means to be awoman in the Lord.
And that's why I said last weekthat I have to trust that the
body Jesus has given me is thebody that gives him the most
glory.
And I don't know that as truth,as the truth of of who Jesus is,
if I'm not in the word.
Then I then I don't know if I ifI don't read Psalm 139, which
(09:41):
tells me I've been knit togetherin my mother's womb and I'm
fearfully and wonderfully made.
I don't know those things.
But if I'm continuing in hisword and I'm seeking him out and
I'm asking the Holy Spirit tohelp me and lead me into all
truth, the Lord is going toanswer that prayer.
It's a prayer that he loves andit's a prayer he loves to
answer.
(10:02):
And it was one of thefoundational things I had to
learn.
It's so easy to spiral out ofcontrol in my feelings and in my
emotions because what I feel andall the things that I get up
into in my head, they're not,they're not always true.
There may be some truth in how Ifeel, but if I don't have an
absolute truth by which tomeasure how I'm feeling, then
(10:25):
I'm gonna let myself spiral outof control.
And believe me, I I did.
I did.
I there were days, I I mean,it's you're you're processing a
lot, yes, but there were dayswhere I just let myself wallow
in self-pity and just spiral andreally let myself get into why
is the Lord doing this to me?
Why is he letting this happen?
(10:45):
I don't understand.
And and those are absolutely Ican ask those questions to the
Lord.
But we all know the differencebetween Lord help me understand
I don't get it, and you know,what what is happening?
What the crap?
Are you kidding me?
You know, and and spiraling intothat self-pity.
And so that's why when we'rewalking through anything, if we
(11:08):
are not anchored in the Fatherand in Jesus and in the Holy
Spirit, if we're not anchored inthe word and we're not feasting
on the word every day, we're nottaking in the word and just
meditating on it, then then wewill have no anchor.
And we will be tossed about bytwo, you know, to and fro.
(11:30):
You know, we'll be like the manwho who built his house on the
sand.
And I'm not saying that if webuild our house on the rock,
that the storms aren't going tocome, Jesus says they come.
Matthew 7, he says those stormsassail, but the foundation of
the house and the house remainssure because it was built on the
rock.
And what does Jesus preface thatwhole parable with?
(11:50):
Anyone who hears my words anddoes them will be like the man
who builds his house on therock.
Things are going to shake us.
They're going to shake us to ourcore.
There are going to be thingsthat are going to rattle us.
There is going to be loss in ourlives that comes that is so
devastating that we feel like wewill never crawl out of the deep
(12:11):
hole of grief.
But friends, I am here to tellyou, if we anchor ourselves in
Jesus, we have that sure andfirm hope, right?
The hope, the anchor behind theveil, I think is how the writer
Hebrews puts it.
This the storms may come and wemay be buffeted, but we will not
sink and our foundation will notbe eroded.
(12:33):
And so if you are going throughanything right now, I would
encourage you to grab yourBible, get into the word, and
and don't be over, you know,we're not going to the word
being like, okay, I got to be inthe word.
And so I've just got to havethis all figured out.
No, it it's it's a going to theword and saying, Lord, help me
understand.
(12:55):
Help me to know you better.
I don't get this.
Lord, I need your help.
I need your help.
And you've told me that if Icome to your word, if I come to
you, if I cry out to you, youwill, you will hear my cry.
And he does.
And he does.
So even in the midst of all ofthe doubts you may have in the
struggles you may be having withthe Lord, don't run from him.
(13:18):
Don't run from him.
Grab, grab your word, grab theBible, get into it and seek him.
Because Jesus says, the Lordsays that he will show himself
to those who seek him earnestly.
That's what faith is.
We must believe that he is whohe says he is and that he is a
rewarder of those who diligentlyseek him.
(13:40):
He will do it.
And so as I was walking, youknow, through, I mean, the
Psalms are also a, I mean, Lord,again, you know, I know a couple
of weeks ago I was like, Lord,thank you so much for Peter.
And today, Lord, thank you somuch for David.
Yes, he was a man after theLord's own heart.
He was a man who sinned.
(14:00):
He was a man who repented.
And he wrote so many vulnerablethings.
And the Lord and his goodnessput them in his scripture.
He put them in his book.
So that as we wrestle in thislife and as we as we strive and
press on to know the Lord, thatwe would see how the Lord can,
(14:20):
how He He can take anything fromus.
He can.
Now, do we need to be reverentand do we need to be careful?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And we also have plenty ofexamples of that in scripture.
You know, we need to, we need toknow that the Lord can take all
of our questions, but we alsoneed to make sure that we don't
(14:41):
accuse the Lord.
And there's there's there'slines to walk in it.
And obviously, if we do accusethe Lord, we can repent and turn
back to him.
Again, Job being a great exampleof that.
Being a great example of that.
The Lord can take everythingthat we can throw at him, but
the Lord is also holy.
He also deserves our reverence.
(15:04):
He deserves our faithfulness.
And so, and that's part of whatmakes this Christian life a
wrestle.
And again, the comfort is thatthe Lord's not expecting us to
get those things 100% perfect.
We can't do it.
We're sinners.
It won't happen.
But if we're wrestling and ourheart is for him and toward him,
and we're wrestling and we'refalling down and we're getting
(15:24):
back up and we keep coming tohim, I am a living example of
the Lord answering, answering somany prayers in the midst of so
many questions.
And that was where Psalm 130,verses 1 through 6 became such a
huge comfort to me.
Because like I said, I the Lordwas comforting and he was kind
(15:47):
in my suffering, but there wereplaces that he was also dealing
with me.
And it was through this psalmthat he showed me that.
So Psalm 130, 1 through 6 says,Out of the depths I have cried
to you, Lord.
Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive tothe sounds of my pleadings.
If you, Lord, were to keepaccount of guilty deeds, Lord,
(16:09):
who could stand?
But there is forgiveness withyou so that you may be revered.
I wait for the Lord, my soulwaits, and I wait for his word.
My soul waits in hope for theLord more than the watchman of
the morning.
Yes, more than the watchman ofthe morning.
I love these verses so much, andthey so ministered to me because
(16:35):
I was crying out to Jesus in mypain and asking him to end it,
asking him to take away thechronic pain that I was in,
asking him to help me, help mewith my mind and help me with my
emotions.
And and yet also I knew in themidst of it, as I said earlier,
he was showing me things where Ididn't trust him, or I had a
(17:00):
wrong idea about him that wasn'tscriptural, or he was just
simply convicting me of my sin.
There were times, and like I'vesaid, in the midst of wrestling
with this, where I knew the Lordwas saying, you are being a
brat.
Knock it off.
Repent of that.
Repent of your snottydisposition, you know, and and
(17:22):
again, this is my story, and I'mspeaking from my own experience
because in the Lord's kindnessand goodness, he also doesn't
leave us how we are.
And suffering and affliction doso much in the secret places of
our heart that that sometimeswe're not even cognizant with,
uh cognizant of to refine us andand and to make us that
(17:44):
beautiful gold in his refiner'sfire.
Sometimes we're not even awareof sins that we're committing
against him, and yet in hisgraciousness and walking through
the fire with him, walkingthrough pain and suffering and
grief with him, that he just hejust refines things out of us.
But then there are also thingswhere he's where he says, This
(18:08):
is this is wrong.
You've sinned against me andthis, and you need to repent.
And that's why I love in themix, in the midst of David
crying out to the Lord andsaying, please hear my cry.
Lord, I'm I'm I'm gonna laymyself bare before you and I'm
gonna repent, Lord, because ifyou held my sins against against
me, I would never, I would neverbe able to stand.
(18:29):
I can't stand.
But Lord, thank you.
Thank you for hearing my plea,not only in the midst of my pain
and suffering, but in the cry ofmy heart for your forgiveness
when I repent and when I sinagainst you.
And that's where it's in theLord's forgiveness and in his
grace and in his mercy and inhis kindness and in his
discipline, right?
(18:50):
I mean, David is this is thesame man who wrote, your rod and
your staff comfort me.
Lord, there is both comfort inyour discipline by your rod and
comfort in the drawing to youwith your staff.
Lord, that is what he does forus.
And so I love that David tellsus, like, we need, Lord, if you
(19:10):
hold on to my sin, I can'tstand, but thank you for
forgiving me and help me toreverence you.
Help me to reverence you, helpme to wait on you and to wait
for your word.
And and this tied in with umjust like I said, I only the
(19:31):
Lord could do it.
Only the Lord can perfectly walkus through pain and suffering,
through affliction.
If Jesus learned obedience bythe things that he suffered, how
much more so do we need to?
How much more does the Lordteach us how to obey him, how to
follow him, how to know himthrough suffering and happiness
(19:56):
and joy and good things, theLord giving us good things.
We learn in those things too,but we learn, I will say from my
own personal experience, and Ibelieve scripture bears it out,
that I have learned much moreabout the faithfulness of the
Lord, about the true joy of theLord in walking through
(20:18):
suffering, in in experiencinghis grace and his perfect and
holy blood washing me clean ashe has dealt with me and refined
me and and can and continued toconform me to his image.
And he has used suffering to dothat.
(20:40):
He has used pain and afflictionto do that.
And so I just I want to keepencouraging you when it feels
like, you know, because thedevil wants to tell us that the
Lord's picking on us and thathe's cruel and he's a hard
taskmaster, and it is not true.
Like I said in the episodestalking about the love of the
(21:03):
Lord and loving the Lord, Jesusis our example.
Jesus is our example.
He has suffered temptation inevery way as we have.
You know, we often have thisidea that if we just had a
perfect life, that everythingwould be okay.
Jesus literally lived theperfect life as man and they
(21:27):
killed him for it.
He was crucified for it.
We have crucified him.
Our sins have crucified him,right?
And so we have this idea aboutperfection.
We have this idea about whatlife should look like and what
we think we're owed or we'rejust what we deserve.
And again, I just I am, I wantto encourage you that Jesus
(21:51):
doesn't leave anything behind.
Every single thing that we walkthrough in him, he uses.
Even the sins that we committedand the things that we did
before we came to him, beforewe've come to him.
He used he uses it all.
You know why?
Because there are men and womenin this world who are walking
through horrible, horrificthings, things they've done
(22:16):
themselves, things that havebeen done to them, and they need
people who know the Lord, whohave walked through the fire of
refinement, who have walkedthrough the fire of affliction
and suffering, both in Jesus andout of Jesus, who have a
testimony of the faithfulness ofGod and drawing them to himself
when they were sinners, right?
(22:37):
I was with you in your sin, theLord says, because I was drawing
you to myself.
And then being in him, being inhim, knowing that coming to
Jesus means that we we get to beone with him, and we also get to
be put to his use.
We get to be put to his use, andwe have a part to play in his
(23:01):
kingdom, and it's amazing, andit is amazing, and so I want to
encourage you, I want toencourage you with these things,
my friends.
Because in the midst of it, theLord also showed me and it he
led me to First Peter and andFirst Peter 5, and they're
verses that we're reallyfamiliar with, and um we tend to
(23:27):
just read, you know, maybe oneor two, you know, so and
sometimes you know it's wherethe Lord leads.
We just read one or two versesand we just kind of sit on those
and we encamp on them, and andit's great.
But first Peter 5, 6 through 11,the whole context of it is so
important.
And it was something that theLord showed me because on top of
(23:49):
walking through health issues,you know, there's a lot that
comes with it.
There's the mental, there's themental stress and the mental
war, you know, and and we cannotforget that as as disciples of
Jesus, as as Christians, we havean enemy.
(24:09):
We have an enemy because Jesushas an enemy, and that enemy is
the devil.
And so in the midst of pain andsuffering, I mean it can get it
can get crazy, you know, andjust you can find yourself going
down rabbit holes, you can findyourself swirling into things,
and you're like, what on earth?
But then there's also this theseduction of lies, the the
(24:31):
temptation to to not believe theLord, right?
The temptation to to believethat he's a harsh master or that
he's forgotten about us or thathe doesn't care about us, or
that he, you know, we our lifeis just gonna really suck and be
full of all of this crap.
And everybody else, uh, youknow, who walks with Jesus, you
(24:54):
know, their lives get to bebetter, but my life just has to
has to stink for the Lord, andit's not true.
And it the scripture is is veryclear that those who who want to
live a godly life willexperience persecution, they
will experience pain andsuffering.
My cat just fell off the couch.
Sorry if you heard that.
(25:15):
Um, but that we will experiencethese things in the Lord.
So 1 Peter uh 5, 6 through 11says, Therefore, humble
yourselves under the mighty handof God, so that he may exalt you
at the proper time, having castall your anxiety on him, because
(25:36):
he cares about you, he caresabout you, cast every anxiety on
him because he cares about you.
Humble yourself before him, beof sober spirit, be on alert,
right?
So humble yourself before theLord.
(25:56):
I need to humble myself beforethe Lord and and trust that He
will He will exalt, you know, Hewill lift me out of what I'm
going through at the propertime.
And I need to continue to castevery anxiety on Him.
That word in anxiety, when Jesususes it in Matthew 6, it talks
about the mind being pulled intotwo different places.
(26:19):
So to cast my anxiety on theLord, Lord, I'm I'm feeling
anxious about these things.
Anxiety, I and I do, I've Istruggle with anxiety.
And and it's the consistency ofLord, I know I need to cast this
on you and ask you to help me sothat I'm not divided from you.
You know, and again, that's notjust a like, oh, and then I'm
(26:39):
just over my anxiety.
Again, all of these things are awrestle.
Because not only are we tryingto overcome ourselves, again, we
are trying to overcome an enemy.
The devil who hates the thingsthat the Lord has created, the
devil who hates the Lord'speople because he hates the
Lord, the devil who hates everygood thing that the Lord has
(27:01):
created and tries to distort andcreate counterfeits and lure us
away from the goodness of God,from the goodness of Jesus
Christ, who gave himself for usbecause he loves us.
And that's why Peter here tiesthese two things together.
The Lord cares about you, sohumble yourself before him, lay
(27:24):
yourself out before him.
But as you do, be on your watch,be alert.
Your adversary, the devil, prowlprowls around like a roaring
lion, seeking someone to devour.
So resist him.
Resist him firm in your faith,knowing that the same
(27:45):
experiences of suffering arebeing accomplished by your
brothers and sisters who are inthe world.
And after you have suffered alittle while, the God of all
grace, who called you, he hascalled us to his eternal glory
in Christ, will himself perfect,confirm, strengthen, and
(28:10):
establish you.
To him be dominion forever andever.
Amen.
This is what we are called towhen we are walking through
suffering and pain and grief.
The Lord wants us to come andthrow ourselves on him.
(28:31):
Right?
I know my grandmother used toquote Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 all
the time.
It was her favorite.
And she loved the promise thatthe Lord would direct her path
no matter what.
But that word trust in theHebrew means to lay your face in
the ground.
(28:52):
That's what trust means.
And I just throw that in therein the context of us humbling
ourselves before the Lord.
And so I again the encouragementbeing that the Lord, He has us,
He cares about us, but we are ina war.
(29:13):
We are in a war.
And and in this war, we have anenemy who seeks to devour us.
And and the Lord wants to giveus Himself, He wants to give us
everything we need to be able toresist Him, firm in our faith.
Well, who or what is our faithin?
It's in the Lord, it's in JesusChrist and who He is and what He
(29:36):
has done.
It's in the word that He's givenus to show us His character, to
show us the character of theFather, to show us the character
of the Holy Spirit.
And we are promised suffering.
We are promised affliction.
And we need, and and and Petertells us that, because I think
the other lie that we get stuckin our heads is that we're the
(29:57):
only ones going through thingslike this.
And we're not.
We're not.
There are brothers and sisters,and we certainly know that.
We should know that today.
That there are brothers andsisters around the world who are
suffering for the sake of Jesus,who are walking through intense
persecution and horriblesickness and pain and suffering
(30:18):
for the sake of the gospel ofJesus Christ.
But the Lord doesn't leave uswithout hope because what does
he say?
What does he say?
He says, after a little while,the God of all grace, who called
you to his eternal glory inChrist Jesus, will himself
perfect, confirm, strengthen,and establish you.
(30:40):
He will establish you to him, bethe dominion and the glory
forever and ever.
And so these are just a few ofthe things that the Lord has
taught me in the midst of my ownwalk through grief and loss and
pain and suffering.
And I pray that they encourageyou today.
(31:01):
That no matter where, where youare with the Lord, my prayer
always is, friends, for each oneof us, that no matter where we
are with Jesus, that we would,we would not be satisfied with
where we are with him, but thatwe would keep pressing, pressing
in.
Let us press on to know theLord, right?
I love it in the Chronicles ofNarnia, C.S.
(31:23):
Lewis, as as at the after thelast battle, and they're all
walking towards towards Narnia.
Further up and further in iswhat they keep being called to.
And that is what we are calledto in Jesus.
Further up and further in andknowing him and in and trusting
him and growing in not only lovefor him, but growing in the
(31:45):
knowledge of the love that hehas for us, right?
That's what Paul talks about inEphesians 1.
And so, and and this is trulyhoney from the rock.
When we are pursuing the Lord,even in our weakness, especially
in our weakness, right?
It's what Paul talks about in 1Corinthians or 2 Corinthians 12,
(32:09):
right?
He had that that thorn in hisflesh.
It was a messenger of Satan totorment him.
A messenger of Satan to tormenthim.
Why?
Because of the greatness ofrevelation that he had gotten.
And he and it and Paul says itwas to keep me from exalting
myself.
This man had gotten a ton ofrevelation about the Lord.
We know it.
(32:29):
We're reading it most of it.
And then here comes this thornin the flesh, and he pleads with
the Lord three times to ask it,asks the Lord to take it.
And the Lord says, No.
He says to me, My grace issufficient for you, for my power
is perfected in weakness.
And I and I want to leave youwith this.
(32:50):
This is my benediction, this ismy blessing for us today,
because this is how Paulresponds.
Most gladly, therefore, I willrather boast about my weakness,
so that the power of Christ maydwell in me.
Therefore, I delight, I rejoicein weakness, in insults, in
(33:13):
distresses, in persecutions, indifficulties in behalf of
Christ.
For when I am weak, then I amstrong.
And friends, that is my prayerfor you and me today, that in
our weakness, in whatever we arefacing, that we would trust, we
(33:34):
would trust Jesus, trust hislove for us, trust his goodness,
and know that he is perfectinghis power in our weakness, and
he is also showing us the gracethat he has so beautifully
purchased for us by the power ofhis perfect and holy blood.
(33:55):
Friends, let us rejoice in thethings that the Lord is doing in
our lives that we may know himand that we may make him known.
Amen.
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