October 3, 2025 • 35 mins
In this episode, Jenny explores the themes of faith, focus, and grace through the biblical story of Peter walking on water. She emphasizes the importance of engaging with scripture, understanding that God equips us for the challenges we face, and maintaining our focus on Christ amidst life's storms.
Get all the Scripture references mentioned in this episode: https://jennyzentz.com/podcast-eyes-on-jesus/
And please don’t forget to subscribe, share, rate, and review. Together we can help more women discover practical ways to apply the power of God’s Word to our everyday stuff!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
There was no way that Peter in any way had any confidence that
of himself. He could walk on that water and
yet he knew he was stepping intothe impossible.
But he had the faith and the confidence that if Jesus said he
could, then somehow he would. Welcome to the Intertwined Life
(00:21):
podcast. I'm your host, Jenny Zenz.
I am a wife and a mom on a mission.
I've got a passion to help womendiscover practical ways to apply
the power of God's word to our everyday stuff.
I truly believe that our walks with the Lord should be
seamlessly intertwined with our everyday lives.
It should affect every move we make and every breath we take.
(00:43):
So come on, let's do life together.
You've got this because he's gotyou.
Hey friends, welcome back to theIntertwined Life podcast.
I'm glad you're here. This is episode 126.
And so for this one, I have actually reprised a message that
I had the honor of giving, I won't say to our church, but for
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our church, because it was during Kovid.
And so it was a recorded Sunday in your own home in your P JS
kind of morning. So during COVID, I had the
opportunity to bring this message.
We're talking about what are youlooking at and how where our
focus is will affect where we goin life and also how we move
through life. And we're looking at the
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Scripture with Peter walking on the water to Jesus in the middle
of the storm. And it really encapsulates a lot
of my favorite scripture versus truths from the word power that
keeps me going in everyday life and some of the best ways to
truly intertwine our walks with the Lord in our everyday life.
So I hope you enjoy this. I think you will.
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It is well, gosh, I guess it's five years old now, so my my
hair was a little shorter, but probably was a little younger or
whatever. So I hope you enjoy this.
If you are on YouTube, you're seeing the video, otherwise you
may just be hearing it, but I hope you enjoy it.
And also please know because in this specific episode, most of
the episodes mention a lot of scripture.
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This one definitely mentions a lot of scripture.
So what I want you to know is all of the scripture references
that I mention are always in my show notes.
So wherever you are watching or listening, if you go to the show
notes at jennyzents.com and if you Scroll down, there's going
to be the show notes, like the link where you can get the full
description of the episode and every one of those for every
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episode, there is a show note page on my website that gives
you the references for every scripture we mentioned.
So it's sometimes hard to catch them all or you'll hear
something like, oh, what was that?
Or with this one, I would even challenge you.
I would be, I think the greatestthing I would love to see people
glean from this is listen to it and then go to the website, get
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those show notes so you can movethrough those scripture
references. And if you don't know what else
to do in your time with the Lordin the morning when you sit down
with God, go through those verses slowly, one by one.
Look them up, write them on notecards, let them seep into you.
Like I like to say, you know, when we get into the word of
God, the word of God gets into us and that stores up.
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And in this episode, I'll talk about filling our arsenal and it
really stores up the power of his word in us so that we have
something to stand strong with and fight with when we need to.
So enjoy this episode. I challenge you to get those
show notes. Don't forget right now I have
our let me see if I can find them for those you watching on
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video are like what is she doing?
OK sorry so I found them. I have my note cards, the 52
printable scripture cards. It is APDF.
If you go to my website, jennyzents.com or click the link
in the show notes, there is a link for 52 scripture cards.
And when you go there, if you use the code intertwined, you
will get those for free 100% coupon code.
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So go get those, print those off, print a couple copies, give
them to friends. You can cut them, separate them,
tie them up, put them in a cute little gift box.
They make great gifts. But really the whole point is
let's get ourselves saturated with the word of God.
So enjoy that. And one last thing, if you
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would, if you have not rated theIntertwined Life podcast,
especially on Apple, because that seems to be one of the
places those reviews really havean impact on how the show
actually shows up. I am getting close to that 100
reviews and ratings. If you could go on there, if you
go to the shown up page, you Scroll down and you can click
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five stars, that'd be great. Or you can take the couple extra
seconds to write an actual review.
But if you will rate or review this show, it helps it be seen.
And so when people are searchingfor encouragement in Apple
Podcasts, hopefully this will come up and be an opportunity to
share God's word and to help more women discover the power of
applying the Bible to our everyday stuff.
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So if you can write and review, I'd appreciate it.
Go get these cards for free and enjoy this episode.
I'm excited about the things that we are going to dig into
this morning. I hope that you will enjoy
digging in with me as much as I have enjoyed just receiving this
message from the Lord. It is so cool when you just sit
with God and read a scripture and through the power of the
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Holy Spirit, He just begins to open your eyes to things that
even if you've read it a milliontimes, you never saw that
before. And that is because the Word of
God is alive and it is active and it gets down inside of us
and it is such an exciting thing.
I love it and I hope you will enjoy this with me.
So we're going to dig in this morning.
We are going to be looking at Matthew 14, so I'm going to get
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there. This is the story where Peter
walks on the water and I'm goingto be reading out of the
Amplified classic version. And you may notice a few extra
words. And that is because the
Amplified Bible really takes theoriginal text and sometimes the
translation from the Greek and the Hebrew is not exact into
English. Most of the time, you know, it's
not. And there can be several
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different ideas that the author was trying to convey with the
original word. So the Amplified kind of
expounds on that and gives us more options to give us a fuller
understanding of the meaning of what was being said in the
original text. So that's why there's more
words, but hang in here with me because there's also a lot of
insight to be grabbed here. So that's why I love studying
with this translation. So Matthew 14, we are going to
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head to verse 22. Then He directed the disciples
get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while He
sat away from the crowds. After He had dismissed the
multitudes, he went up into the hills by himself to pray.
When it was evening he was stillthere alone, but the boat was by
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this time out on the sea many furlongs, and it says a furlongs
was about an eighth of a mile, so many eighths of a mile, so
probably miles out in the midst of the Sea of Galilee, beaten
and tossed by the waves from thewind that was against them.
And in the 4th watch, between 3:00 and 6:00 AM of night, Jesus
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came to them walking on the water.
And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were
terrified and said it is a ghost.
And they screamed out with fright.
But instantly he spoke to them saying, take courage, I am, stop
being afraid. And Peter answered him, Lord, if
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it is you, command me to come toyou on the water.
He said, Come. So Peter got out of the boat,
walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
But when he perceived and felt the strong wind, he was
frightened. And as he began to sink, he
cried out, Lord, save me from death.
Instantly Jesus reached out his hand and caught him and held
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him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?
And when they got into the boat,the wind ceased and those in the
boat knelt and worshipped him, saying, truly, you are the Son
of God. And then they crossed over to
the other side. OK, let's, let's pray.
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Let's pray. God.
Thank you for the opportunity. Lord, thank you for your power
and your wisdom. Thank you for your word that is
alive and active. Thank you for everyone watching
right now, Lord. Thank you for Rock Harbor Church
and all the churches, Lord, around the globe.
Lord, where your name is high and lifted up, we know you tell
us when you are raised up, you will draw all men unto you.
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We just pray that you will be drawing multitudes to yourself
through this virtual platform, God.
And I just pray right now, Lord,especially as we open this text
and we spend this time together,that you will open the eyes of
our hearts. God, it will.
We will behold wondrous things out of Your law, and You will
put a guard over my mouth that Iwill only say what You would
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have me say, Lord, and that Yourword will go out and accomplish
what You have it to accomplish. In the name of Jesus we pray.
Amen. OK, all right, here we go.
First thing I want us to look athere, What He calls you to, He
will equip you to do. Write that down.
What He calls you to, He will equip you to do.
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Sometimes we find ourselves in situations in life that we
wouldn't have asked for. They're difficult.
They're harder than we expected.Maybe it's a tense marriage.
Maybe it is tough relationships.Maybe it's a work situation.
Maybe it's motherhood. Maybe you find yourself in a
situation in life and you never dreamed that it would be as
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difficult or as challenging as it is.
And I can say that about mine and Tim's marriage.
I thought I was so ready for marriage and wow, was I shocked
and blown away. I was surprised at how bad I was
at it. And we had our struggles and we
had our difficulties at the beginning.
But you know, and we and we do, we say that we didn't make it to
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the honeymoon phase until about year 7.
That's just, that's just honest truth.
But had we not gone through those times, if we had run away
instead of pressing in, we wouldnot have seen the growth that we
saw in our marriage and our relationship would not be what
it is today. So in the absence of that
trials, we wouldn't have grown the way that we did.
So whatever it is, we may rest assured that He is never going
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to put us in a situation that Heis not going to empower and
equip us to succeed in with His help.
And therein lies the key, right?Just because things get tough,
that doesn't mean that you weren't called to it.
Keep your eyes on Christ and youwill prevail.
Jesus told Peter, come Christ did not calm the storm and then
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tell Peter, OK, it's safe now come on.
No, Jesus called Peter to prevail in the midst of the
storm. He called Peter to prevail in
the midst of the storm. He called him into a storm to do
something that in and of himselfPeter knew was absolutely
impossible. And yet when Peter stepped into
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that storm and stepped out of the boat in obedience, he was
given the ability to walk on water.
What God calls you to, He will equip you to do and do well with
His help. What God calls you to, He will
equip you to do and do well withHis help.
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It took great faith for Peter tostep out of that boat and often
times we read this story and what we look at is how much
doubt Peter had and how he sank.But we forget he stepped out of
a boat in the middle of an ocean, in the middle of a storm,
believing he could walk on the water.
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And we, we forget that sometimes.
Now we live here in Florida, especially on the Space Coast.
We are surrounded by water. We're right on the Atlantic.
The ocean is half mile that way.The river is half a mile that
way. There's a pond in my backyard
and a pool right there before I get to the pond.
There's water everywhere, right?Some days you have those days,
if you've been to the lake or you've seen the water, when it's
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really smooth, sometimes early in the morning, it's like
smooth, like glass, we say. And we almost believe that we
could step out on it. I almost think you can get the
courage to walk on the water. Maybe this was not that kind of
situation. There was no way that Peter in
any way had any confidence that of himself.
He could walk on that water. And yet he knew he was stepping
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into the impossible. But he had the faith and the
confidence that if Jesus said Hecould, then somehow he would.
Often we summon the courage and the faith to step into something
that takes us to be brave. It takes us to be strong.
It takes us to believe that. Yet somewhere in the middle we
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lose our focus. And that leads us to our next
point and the title of our message today.
What are you looking at? Where is our focus?
So I'm going to throw a lot of scripture at you and be sure you
have your pen, you have your paper.
Write down the references, especially those that jump out
at you so that you can go back later and just sit with the Lord
with those references and just let Him unpack those for you.
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Find some quiet space. Sometimes.
I know that means getting up earlier than we'd like, but you
won't regret it. You will not regret it.
So I just hope that you will take some notes, write these
scripture down. We're not going to turn to all
of them. First one we're going to look at
though, Colossians 32. It tells us to set our minds on
things above, not on things on the earth.
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And the amplified says set that your mind and keep it set Love
that. Hebrews 12/1 through two tells
us to strip off everything that holds us down, everything that
could be a burden, everything that encumbers us looking away
from all that will distract untoJesus, the author and the
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finisher of our faith. Are we looking to Christ or are
we looking at our storm? Whatever that trial may be?
Is our focus on the trials that rage around us or on the One who
can give us the ability to walk with confidence in the midst of
the chaos? You see, Peter could walk on
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water until he shifted his focus.
Now whether that was emotionally, mentally shifting
his focus or physically moving his eyes, he could walk on that
water until he took his focus off of Christ.
It's like I tell my kids when I was teaching the kids to ride
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bikes, I told them where you look you will go.
If you are looking at the pavement or you are looking into
the grass, or you were looking off to the side, you will go
that way. But if you set your focus
straight ahead to where you wantto go, if you look up out of the
scary stuff around you and the pavement in the ground and you
look straight ahead where you want to go, that is where you
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will go. There's a lot to be said there
about teaching our kids to ride a bike and how that we can also
teach them how to walk with the Lord at the same time.
There's actually on jennyzenz.com.
I think I have a blog post aboutthat, but you can go read more
about that specific thought. But there's so many ways in our
lives that we can make those connections in these practical
ways to put God's word and everyday stuff together and
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intertwine those. That's why I call my podcast The
Intertwined Life, so that the things of the Lord and everyday
things are seamlessly intertwined and they affect
everything. So that's why I'm so excited
about this. So let's keep looking here.
If we fix our gaze straight ahead, then that's where we
were. We will go.
So my question for you, are you focusing on the things that
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overwhelm or on the one who overcomes?
Ask yourself, I have to ask myself this a lot.
I have struggled with anxiety, depression.
These types of things are very real, almost daily battles for
me that I have to walk through. And if I can pause and ask
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myself, am I focusing on the things that overwhelm or on the
one who overcomes, then I can see things entirely differently.
I just have to stop and do that,right?
And I'll just give you this perspective.
If this is your situation and this is you and you're looking
straight at your situation, it looks scary.
It looks big, it looks impossible.
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If Peter, when Christ was out there near the boat, standing on
the water, if he had only lookedat the storm, he would have
never gotten out of that boat. But if we look to God and then
to our situation, we get a wholenew perspective.
We see things in a different light.
We see the impossible become possible because of the power of
the Almighty God inside of us. When we accept Christ, the Holy
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Spirit comes to dwell on us, andthe Scripture tells us that the
same power that raised Jesus from the dead is on the inside
of us. So if instead of looking
directly at our issues, we can look to our God first, these
issues look a whole lot different because we're not
doing it alone, right? So I love this scripture, Isaiah
4110, and I'm actually going to turn there.
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So Isaiah 4110, let's go there together.
OK, so this scripture, I'll readit first in the new King James,
it says fear not, for I am with you.
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you.
I will hold you with my righteous right hand.
And I love the way the amplifiedsays this.
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It says fear not, there is nothing to fear for I am with
you. Now check out this part.
Do not look around you in terrorand be dismayed, for I am your
God. I will strengthen you and harden
you to difficulties. Yes, I will help you.
Yes, I will hold you up and retain you with my victorious
right hand of rightness and justice.
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Don't love that. Don't look around you in fear
and terror and be dismayed. Whatever's going on in the
world. You know all the crazy stuff
right now and it's intense and it can be scary, but if we don't
look around us, we don't look too much to media.
You know, if we don't look to all of that, if we look 1st and
we set our mind and keep it set on Him, things are going to look
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a lot different. And we can see His promises in
His Word. If we know His Word and we hide
it in our hearts, then when these hard times come, it's a
lot easier to stand in those impossible and difficult
situations. It's a lot easier to get out of
our boat when we know who we're looking at, right?
So let's keep going here, OK? So we've been talking a lot
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about setting our minds and keeping them set.
It sounds great, but when we hitthat hard time, when that storm
comes, when we get sick, when something tragic happens, all
this talk and all this, go get them raw, raw Christianity.
The bottom just might fall out because we're human.
The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
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You are going to have times. I have had times.
We all have times where it doesn't make sense and it hurts.
And our focus just goes off track.
And it may simply be, it may noteven be the tragedies.
It may be The Dirty dishes, right?
It may be the intense situationsor the struggle to find toilet
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paper. It might be those things.
And all of a sudden our smiling,praise the Lord, how are you
love them in the name of Jesus goes out the window, OK?
And our focus goes from Jesus tothe craziness around us, and we
start to sink. That is going to happen.
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So give yourself grace. Romans 81 tells us that there is
no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Peter had walked on the water. OK, But before this, Peter
walked physically with Jesus. He had listened to his teachings
from his own mouth, from the mouth of Jesus.
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He heard these teachings. He had seen him perform numerous
miracles. And just before he got into this
very boat, he had just witnessedthe feeding of the 5000.
And yet Peter still lost focus. Jesus, who he knew was standing
right in front of him and he's still, his mind still got off
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track. So one of the life verses for my
family is Ephesians 423. Be constantly renewed in the
spirit of your mind. An amplified version says.
Have a fresh mental and spiritual attitude.
If you ask my kids, if somebody gets in a bad mood and you say
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be constantly renewed, they willgo in the spirit of your mind
having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude.
Because this is one that we say again and again and again to
help us reset our minds and refocus.
As soon as Peter realized that he was sinking, though, what did
he do? He didn't cross his arms and go,
well, that's over, that's it, I'm going down.
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No, he turned his eyes back to Christ.
He turned his eyes back to the source of his strength, and he
cried out to Jesus. And verse 31 says instantly,
immediately Jesus reached down. James 48 tells us that if we
will draw near to God, he will draw near to us.
As soon as Peter cried out, Jesus reached down.
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Jesus didn't cross his arms and say, oh, sure, now you want my
help, right? While Christ was lifting him up
out of the water, that's when hesaid, oh, you have little faith.
Why did you doubt? I believe this was
compassionate. Sometimes when we read the
Scripture, we kind of perceive it to be more condemning.
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We feel like Christ is saying, how little faith do you have?
How dare you doubt? What is wrong with you?
And I think whatever reason, whether it's the way you were
raised or the situations you've been in, or just the world, that
culture that you're in, whateverit is, our minds get kind of
tainted sometimes. But this is a God of love.
This is a loving father. This is compassionate Jesus.
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And I think it was more like when your child gets afraid and
you're right there with them andthey're scared something's going
to happen and you pull them up in your arms and you're like,
sweetheart, it's OK, I'm right here.
I think that's what this was. So what I want us to see is that
Ephesians 423 tells us to be constantly renewed in the spirit
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of our mind, having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude.
So the beauty of it is if you get off track, you can get on
track. But here's what I want us to see
about giving ourselves grace. God would not tell us to be
constantly renewed in our minds If He did not know our minds
would be getting constantly messed up, right?
And I love that Psalms one O 3. It tells us that he remembers
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that we are dust, that he considers our frame and he
pities us and he remembers we are dust.
That cracks me up because he knows it's OK.
They're not always going to makeit.
They're not always going to get all the right decisions.
So they're just dust. They need us, they need me,
right? So I love that we can give
ourselves grace because God gives us grace upon grace and
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mercy upon mercy. So if you find your mind not
focused, just get back on track.Now, don't miss this.
The storm did not immediately cease when Peter learned his
lesson. So when he got his focus back
where it belonged, the storm didn't just stop and there was
peace and rainbows and butterflies, right?
Sometimes we think the instant we're like, oh, Jesus, OK, all
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my problems should be gone. That's not what happened here.
It didn't stop until he got backin the boat.
Peter still had to walk through the storm, but this time he was
walking hand in hand with Christ.
When he returned to the Lord, the storm did not cease.
He still had to walk through thestorm, but this time he was
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walking hand in hand with Jesus.God rarely just takes away our
trials, but He always gives us what we need to make it through
our storms. God rarely just takes away our
trials, but He always gives us what we need to make it through
our storms. So for the sake of time, which
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is not always easy for me, I'm going to have to kind of wrap,
start wrapping things up, bows on things, but I could go on and
on and on and on and on where weare right here.
So how do we stay focused in thehard times?
And what do we do so that we're able to stand when those
difficult times come? And if not stand from the onset,
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how do we stand back up? How do we regroup?
Proverbs tells us the righteous man falls 7 times but he gets
back up the powers in the getting back up.
So what do we do? Two things.
The number one thing is what I call filling our arsenal.
A country cannot wait until a war happens to start building
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their army, and we cannot wait until hard times come to start
building up the strength of our spirit.
We have to be in the Word. If you think about Jesus in the
wilderness when he's being tempted by Satan and every time
that Satan comes against him, what does Christ say?
He says it is written, it is written, it is written, and
Jesus didn't have time to run and get the scrolls right.
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He knew the Word and that was the weapon He used.
He had everything at his disposal, but what he used was
the Word of God. We look at Ephesians 6.
That is where we find the wonderful, powerful passage that
Paul gave us of the visual of the image of the armor of God
talks about the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of
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truth, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, the shoes
of peace. What is the 1 weapon?
He gives us the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of
God. We've got to know our word.
You see, if we don't know the word, we don't have anything to
fight with. We have to be regularly building
our faith. It has to be something that we
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commit to when things are good and when things are mundane, so
that when those hard times come,that stuff that is stored up in
US comes out. The Holy Spirit will bring it
back up. You don't have to worry about
that. You just get it in there.
God will do the rest. So that's how we fill our
arsenals and then with a full arsenal.
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The second thing is we stand on what we know regardless of how
we feel. We stand on what we know
regardless of how we feel. Jesus told us that hard times
would come. It's a promise.
OK John 1633, Christ says in this world you will have
trouble, but take heart. I have overcome this world.
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So if anybody ever told you thatthe Christian life should be
easy and you shouldn't really have any problems, they lied.
That's just the fact they lied. OK, Jesus himself told us that
we would have trouble, but he said take heart because I have
overcome this world. Why do we go through hard times?
Well, I actually have a lot to say on that topic, but I'm going
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to spare you and try to get through this.
But I truly, truly believe with every single ounce of my being,
with every fiber of my soul, that there is purpose in pain.
I truly believe that. I believe that God can and will
use absolutely everything. Nothing is in vain, nothing is
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wasted if we will give it back to Him.
I don't want you to miss this. I want to look back at verses 32
and 33. OK, so again, we're in Matthew
14, verses 32 and 33. And when they got into the boat,
the wind ceased, and those in the boat knelt and worshipped
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him, saying, truly, you are the Son of God.
They were chilling out with Jesus all the time, right?
They were watching Him work, they were seeing His miracles.
They were lounging in the grass listening to sermons straight
from Christ's own mouth. But once they met him in a
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storm, it was then that they worshipped him and then that
they truly saw him for who He really is.
Jesus knew hours before that they were heading into a storm.
So see, if we look, it tells us that Jesus made them get into
the boat. This is, I know, sometimes hard
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to take right, But verses 22 and25, He made them get into the
boat, and immediately after seeing a miracle, He sent them
away. And then He went up to pray
right after they watched this powerful thing He did, He sent
them knowingly right into a storm.
OK, He went off to pray. When it was evening, Jesus was
still up there praying. So by this time the disciples
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were in the midst of their stormalready.
But then it tells us that He came to them in the fourth
watch, which is between 3:00 and6:00 AM.
Why did He wait? Why did He wait?
I can't say for sure, but when we have filled our arsenal with
powerful scriptures that tell usabout the promises in God's Word
to us, his children, when we learn from the Word of God about
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his character and we begin to know, as Paul said, not I know
who I believed in, but I know him.
I know whom I have believed. I don't know about him.
I know him and we're in the Wordof God and we know him.
We have the faith to get throughthese hard times even when we
don't understand what's going on, right?
In those uncertain times, we canreflect on Scripture like first
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Peter 510, it actually says. And after you have suffered a
little while, then God himself, the God of all grace, who has
called you by his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore,
confirm, strengthen and establish you.
Yes, that suffering thing again,right?
But it's attached to a wonderful, powerful promise.
(30:20):
And when we know the word of God, we can think about Job at
the end of Job, his reflection after going through all he went
through, he said, you know, before all this.
So this is Jenny's paraphrase. But before all this I had heard
about you. But now my eyes have seen you.
You see, when Jesus sent his disciples off, He knew that they
(30:42):
were headed into a storm, but Healso knew that the revelation
and the elevation that they weregoing to find on the other side
of that storm was worth going through that hard time.
Just like with our kids, we can't spare them from every
difficult thing, from every trying situation, from every
pain, because if we did, we would not be doing them any
(31:04):
favors, right? They wouldn't grow, they
wouldn't learn, they wouldn't mature.
If we saved them from the shot that would heal their sick
bodies, they wouldn't heal, right?
We know what's on the other sideof those difficulties, even if
they don't. And it's the same with our
Heavenly Father. And I want to challenge you that
if in the midst of these times, if we will press in instead of
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turning away, our faith can growin the midst of trials like it
never could in the absence of them.
So I want to challenge you the next time you find yourself in a
storm of life, Yes, you have to feel it.
You have to process it. You don't have to ignore it and
deny it. But instead of getting hung up
on the Y at some point, shift your focus back to Jesus and try
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saying, OK Lord, how are you going to use this?
And then give it to Him and watch Him work in and through
you to advance His Kingdom in ways you never imagined.
I promise you, you will come outstronger.
On the other side, diamonds are formed under pressure, bones
broke and grow back stronger, and gold is purified by fire.
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One last thing, we do not have to have all the answers.
Peter said, if it's you and he received no condemnation, he
said, Lord, if it's really you and Jesus didn't say, what do
you mean if it's really me, right?
No, Jesus simply said come. He simply said, come.
We don't have to have all the answers to come to him.
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We just have to step out of the boat, right?
Even in the midst of a storm, just keep your eyes on him.
Just keep your eyes on him. If you long to draw near, even
if you still have questions, even if you aren't quite sure,
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even if you just want a closer look, he says come God, I thank
you for your love and your powerand your grace.
I thank you that you are with usthis morning.
I thank you that your word is alive and active.
And I pray that as we dig in together and as we dig in
one-on-one with you, our eyes will continue to be open to the
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promises and the power that you have called us to and placed in
US. Lord, I thank you for Jesus, for
what he's done, and for the examples he's given to us, Lord,
And if there are those who are listening or watching who
haven't made that decision yet and you have questions and
you're just not sure, but you, you want to walk towards Jesus,
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you're ready for Jesus. Just pray this prayer with me.
God, I thank you for your love. God, I know I cannot do anything
to make myself good enough to bereunited with you, but I believe
that Jesus was your son. I believe that Jesus died on the
cross for my sins and that he rose again and I accept the free
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gift of forgiveness for my sins.Thank you Jesus for taking my
sin and giving me your righteousness.
Lord, I give you my life in Jesus name, Amen.
Hey friend, if you enjoyed this episode and you got some good
stuff out of it, there's a few options you have 1.
(34:26):
You could click that little subscribe button.
And also if you would review this podcast, Oh my gosh, if you
like what you heard, get on there.
Give it a five star review. If you didn't like what you
heard, just pretend it never happened.
OK, but if you would do a reviewfor me, just take a couple
seconds and do that. Not only would I be crazy
excited, but also it would just be a great way for us to partner
(34:49):
together, for you to help this podcast be seen by more women
out there. And you could be a part of
helping more women discover these practical ways to apply
God's Word to just everyday stuff.
So I would love it, love it, love it if you could help me out
in one of those two ways.
There was no way that Peter in any way had any confidence that
of himself. He could walk on that water and
yet he knew he was stepping intothe impossible.
But he had the faith and the confidence that if Jesus said he
could, then somehow he would. Welcome to the Intertwined Life
(00:21):
podcast. I'm your host, Jenny Zenz.
I am a wife and a mom on a mission.
I've got a passion to help womendiscover practical ways to apply
the power of God's word to our everyday stuff.
I truly believe that our walks with the Lord should be
seamlessly intertwined with our everyday lives.
It should affect every move we make and every breath we take.
(00:43):
So come on, let's do life together.
You've got this because he's gotyou.
Hey friends, welcome back to theIntertwined Life podcast.
I'm glad you're here. This is episode 126.
And so for this one, I have actually reprised a message that
I had the honor of giving, I won't say to our church, but for
(01:05):
our church, because it was during Kovid.
And so it was a recorded Sunday in your own home in your P JS
kind of morning. So during COVID, I had the
opportunity to bring this message.
We're talking about what are youlooking at and how where our
focus is will affect where we goin life and also how we move
through life. And we're looking at the
(01:26):
Scripture with Peter walking on the water to Jesus in the middle
of the storm. And it really encapsulates a lot
of my favorite scripture versus truths from the word power that
keeps me going in everyday life and some of the best ways to
truly intertwine our walks with the Lord in our everyday life.
So I hope you enjoy this. I think you will.
(01:47):
It is well, gosh, I guess it's five years old now, so my my
hair was a little shorter, but probably was a little younger or
whatever. So I hope you enjoy this.
If you are on YouTube, you're seeing the video, otherwise you
may just be hearing it, but I hope you enjoy it.
And also please know because in this specific episode, most of
the episodes mention a lot of scripture.
(02:09):
This one definitely mentions a lot of scripture.
So what I want you to know is all of the scripture references
that I mention are always in my show notes.
So wherever you are watching or listening, if you go to the show
notes at jennyzents.com and if you Scroll down, there's going
to be the show notes, like the link where you can get the full
description of the episode and every one of those for every
(02:30):
episode, there is a show note page on my website that gives
you the references for every scripture we mentioned.
So it's sometimes hard to catch them all or you'll hear
something like, oh, what was that?
Or with this one, I would even challenge you.
I would be, I think the greatestthing I would love to see people
glean from this is listen to it and then go to the website, get
(02:52):
those show notes so you can movethrough those scripture
references. And if you don't know what else
to do in your time with the Lordin the morning when you sit down
with God, go through those verses slowly, one by one.
Look them up, write them on notecards, let them seep into you.
Like I like to say, you know, when we get into the word of
God, the word of God gets into us and that stores up.
(03:14):
And in this episode, I'll talk about filling our arsenal and it
really stores up the power of his word in us so that we have
something to stand strong with and fight with when we need to.
So enjoy this episode. I challenge you to get those
show notes. Don't forget right now I have
our let me see if I can find them for those you watching on
(03:35):
video are like what is she doing?
OK sorry so I found them. I have my note cards, the 52
printable scripture cards. It is APDF.
If you go to my website, jennyzents.com or click the link
in the show notes, there is a link for 52 scripture cards.
And when you go there, if you use the code intertwined, you
will get those for free 100% coupon code.
(03:59):
So go get those, print those off, print a couple copies, give
them to friends. You can cut them, separate them,
tie them up, put them in a cute little gift box.
They make great gifts. But really the whole point is
let's get ourselves saturated with the word of God.
So enjoy that. And one last thing, if you
(04:19):
would, if you have not rated theIntertwined Life podcast,
especially on Apple, because that seems to be one of the
places those reviews really havean impact on how the show
actually shows up. I am getting close to that 100
reviews and ratings. If you could go on there, if you
go to the shown up page, you Scroll down and you can click
(04:40):
five stars, that'd be great. Or you can take the couple extra
seconds to write an actual review.
But if you will rate or review this show, it helps it be seen.
And so when people are searchingfor encouragement in Apple
Podcasts, hopefully this will come up and be an opportunity to
share God's word and to help more women discover the power of
applying the Bible to our everyday stuff.
(05:01):
So if you can write and review, I'd appreciate it.
Go get these cards for free and enjoy this episode.
I'm excited about the things that we are going to dig into
this morning. I hope that you will enjoy
digging in with me as much as I have enjoyed just receiving this
message from the Lord. It is so cool when you just sit
with God and read a scripture and through the power of the
(05:24):
Holy Spirit, He just begins to open your eyes to things that
even if you've read it a milliontimes, you never saw that
before. And that is because the Word of
God is alive and it is active and it gets down inside of us
and it is such an exciting thing.
I love it and I hope you will enjoy this with me.
So we're going to dig in this morning.
We are going to be looking at Matthew 14, so I'm going to get
(05:47):
there. This is the story where Peter
walks on the water and I'm goingto be reading out of the
Amplified classic version. And you may notice a few extra
words. And that is because the
Amplified Bible really takes theoriginal text and sometimes the
translation from the Greek and the Hebrew is not exact into
English. Most of the time, you know, it's
not. And there can be several
(06:08):
different ideas that the author was trying to convey with the
original word. So the Amplified kind of
expounds on that and gives us more options to give us a fuller
understanding of the meaning of what was being said in the
original text. So that's why there's more
words, but hang in here with me because there's also a lot of
insight to be grabbed here. So that's why I love studying
with this translation. So Matthew 14, we are going to
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head to verse 22. Then He directed the disciples
get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while He
sat away from the crowds. After He had dismissed the
multitudes, he went up into the hills by himself to pray.
When it was evening he was stillthere alone, but the boat was by
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this time out on the sea many furlongs, and it says a furlongs
was about an eighth of a mile, so many eighths of a mile, so
probably miles out in the midst of the Sea of Galilee, beaten
and tossed by the waves from thewind that was against them.
And in the 4th watch, between 3:00 and 6:00 AM of night, Jesus
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came to them walking on the water.
And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were
terrified and said it is a ghost.
And they screamed out with fright.
But instantly he spoke to them saying, take courage, I am, stop
being afraid. And Peter answered him, Lord, if
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it is you, command me to come toyou on the water.
He said, Come. So Peter got out of the boat,
walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
But when he perceived and felt the strong wind, he was
frightened. And as he began to sink, he
cried out, Lord, save me from death.
Instantly Jesus reached out his hand and caught him and held
(08:00):
him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?
And when they got into the boat,the wind ceased and those in the
boat knelt and worshipped him, saying, truly, you are the Son
of God. And then they crossed over to
the other side. OK, let's, let's pray.
(08:20):
Let's pray. God.
Thank you for the opportunity. Lord, thank you for your power
and your wisdom. Thank you for your word that is
alive and active. Thank you for everyone watching
right now, Lord. Thank you for Rock Harbor Church
and all the churches, Lord, around the globe.
Lord, where your name is high and lifted up, we know you tell
us when you are raised up, you will draw all men unto you.
(08:41):
We just pray that you will be drawing multitudes to yourself
through this virtual platform, God.
And I just pray right now, Lord,especially as we open this text
and we spend this time together,that you will open the eyes of
our hearts. God, it will.
We will behold wondrous things out of Your law, and You will
put a guard over my mouth that Iwill only say what You would
(09:02):
have me say, Lord, and that Yourword will go out and accomplish
what You have it to accomplish. In the name of Jesus we pray.
Amen. OK, all right, here we go.
First thing I want us to look athere, What He calls you to, He
will equip you to do. Write that down.
What He calls you to, He will equip you to do.
(09:23):
Sometimes we find ourselves in situations in life that we
wouldn't have asked for. They're difficult.
They're harder than we expected.Maybe it's a tense marriage.
Maybe it is tough relationships.Maybe it's a work situation.
Maybe it's motherhood. Maybe you find yourself in a
situation in life and you never dreamed that it would be as
(09:44):
difficult or as challenging as it is.
And I can say that about mine and Tim's marriage.
I thought I was so ready for marriage and wow, was I shocked
and blown away. I was surprised at how bad I was
at it. And we had our struggles and we
had our difficulties at the beginning.
But you know, and we and we do, we say that we didn't make it to
(10:05):
the honeymoon phase until about year 7.
That's just, that's just honest truth.
But had we not gone through those times, if we had run away
instead of pressing in, we wouldnot have seen the growth that we
saw in our marriage and our relationship would not be what
it is today. So in the absence of that
trials, we wouldn't have grown the way that we did.
So whatever it is, we may rest assured that He is never going
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to put us in a situation that Heis not going to empower and
equip us to succeed in with His help.
And therein lies the key, right?Just because things get tough,
that doesn't mean that you weren't called to it.
Keep your eyes on Christ and youwill prevail.
Jesus told Peter, come Christ did not calm the storm and then
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tell Peter, OK, it's safe now come on.
No, Jesus called Peter to prevail in the midst of the
storm. He called Peter to prevail in
the midst of the storm. He called him into a storm to do
something that in and of himselfPeter knew was absolutely
impossible. And yet when Peter stepped into
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that storm and stepped out of the boat in obedience, he was
given the ability to walk on water.
What God calls you to, He will equip you to do and do well with
His help. What God calls you to, He will
equip you to do and do well withHis help.
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It took great faith for Peter tostep out of that boat and often
times we read this story and what we look at is how much
doubt Peter had and how he sank.But we forget he stepped out of
a boat in the middle of an ocean, in the middle of a storm,
believing he could walk on the water.
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And we, we forget that sometimes.
Now we live here in Florida, especially on the Space Coast.
We are surrounded by water. We're right on the Atlantic.
The ocean is half mile that way.The river is half a mile that
way. There's a pond in my backyard
and a pool right there before I get to the pond.
There's water everywhere, right?Some days you have those days,
if you've been to the lake or you've seen the water, when it's
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really smooth, sometimes early in the morning, it's like
smooth, like glass, we say. And we almost believe that we
could step out on it. I almost think you can get the
courage to walk on the water. Maybe this was not that kind of
situation. There was no way that Peter in
any way had any confidence that of himself.
He could walk on that water. And yet he knew he was stepping
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into the impossible. But he had the faith and the
confidence that if Jesus said Hecould, then somehow he would.
Often we summon the courage and the faith to step into something
that takes us to be brave. It takes us to be strong.
It takes us to believe that. Yet somewhere in the middle we
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lose our focus. And that leads us to our next
point and the title of our message today.
What are you looking at? Where is our focus?
So I'm going to throw a lot of scripture at you and be sure you
have your pen, you have your paper.
Write down the references, especially those that jump out
at you so that you can go back later and just sit with the Lord
with those references and just let Him unpack those for you.
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Find some quiet space. Sometimes.
I know that means getting up earlier than we'd like, but you
won't regret it. You will not regret it.
So I just hope that you will take some notes, write these
scripture down. We're not going to turn to all
of them. First one we're going to look at
though, Colossians 32. It tells us to set our minds on
things above, not on things on the earth.
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And the amplified says set that your mind and keep it set Love
that. Hebrews 12/1 through two tells
us to strip off everything that holds us down, everything that
could be a burden, everything that encumbers us looking away
from all that will distract untoJesus, the author and the
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finisher of our faith. Are we looking to Christ or are
we looking at our storm? Whatever that trial may be?
Is our focus on the trials that rage around us or on the One who
can give us the ability to walk with confidence in the midst of
the chaos? You see, Peter could walk on
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water until he shifted his focus.
Now whether that was emotionally, mentally shifting
his focus or physically moving his eyes, he could walk on that
water until he took his focus off of Christ.
It's like I tell my kids when I was teaching the kids to ride
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bikes, I told them where you look you will go.
If you are looking at the pavement or you are looking into
the grass, or you were looking off to the side, you will go
that way. But if you set your focus
straight ahead to where you wantto go, if you look up out of the
scary stuff around you and the pavement in the ground and you
look straight ahead where you want to go, that is where you
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will go. There's a lot to be said there
about teaching our kids to ride a bike and how that we can also
teach them how to walk with the Lord at the same time.
There's actually on jennyzenz.com.
I think I have a blog post aboutthat, but you can go read more
about that specific thought. But there's so many ways in our
lives that we can make those connections in these practical
ways to put God's word and everyday stuff together and
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intertwine those. That's why I call my podcast The
Intertwined Life, so that the things of the Lord and everyday
things are seamlessly intertwined and they affect
everything. So that's why I'm so excited
about this. So let's keep looking here.
If we fix our gaze straight ahead, then that's where we
were. We will go.
So my question for you, are you focusing on the things that
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overwhelm or on the one who overcomes?
Ask yourself, I have to ask myself this a lot.
I have struggled with anxiety, depression.
These types of things are very real, almost daily battles for
me that I have to walk through. And if I can pause and ask
(16:18):
myself, am I focusing on the things that overwhelm or on the
one who overcomes, then I can see things entirely differently.
I just have to stop and do that,right?
And I'll just give you this perspective.
If this is your situation and this is you and you're looking
straight at your situation, it looks scary.
It looks big, it looks impossible.
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If Peter, when Christ was out there near the boat, standing on
the water, if he had only lookedat the storm, he would have
never gotten out of that boat. But if we look to God and then
to our situation, we get a wholenew perspective.
We see things in a different light.
We see the impossible become possible because of the power of
the Almighty God inside of us. When we accept Christ, the Holy
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Spirit comes to dwell on us, andthe Scripture tells us that the
same power that raised Jesus from the dead is on the inside
of us. So if instead of looking
directly at our issues, we can look to our God first, these
issues look a whole lot different because we're not
doing it alone, right? So I love this scripture, Isaiah
4110, and I'm actually going to turn there.
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So Isaiah 4110, let's go there together.
OK, so this scripture, I'll readit first in the new King James,
it says fear not, for I am with you.
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you.
I will hold you with my righteous right hand.
And I love the way the amplifiedsays this.
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It says fear not, there is nothing to fear for I am with
you. Now check out this part.
Do not look around you in terrorand be dismayed, for I am your
God. I will strengthen you and harden
you to difficulties. Yes, I will help you.
Yes, I will hold you up and retain you with my victorious
right hand of rightness and justice.
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Don't love that. Don't look around you in fear
and terror and be dismayed. Whatever's going on in the
world. You know all the crazy stuff
right now and it's intense and it can be scary, but if we don't
look around us, we don't look too much to media.
You know, if we don't look to all of that, if we look 1st and
we set our mind and keep it set on Him, things are going to look
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a lot different. And we can see His promises in
His Word. If we know His Word and we hide
it in our hearts, then when these hard times come, it's a
lot easier to stand in those impossible and difficult
situations. It's a lot easier to get out of
our boat when we know who we're looking at, right?
So let's keep going here, OK? So we've been talking a lot
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about setting our minds and keeping them set.
It sounds great, but when we hitthat hard time, when that storm
comes, when we get sick, when something tragic happens, all
this talk and all this, go get them raw, raw Christianity.
The bottom just might fall out because we're human.
The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
(19:11):
You are going to have times. I have had times.
We all have times where it doesn't make sense and it hurts.
And our focus just goes off track.
And it may simply be, it may noteven be the tragedies.
It may be The Dirty dishes, right?
It may be the intense situationsor the struggle to find toilet
(19:32):
paper. It might be those things.
And all of a sudden our smiling,praise the Lord, how are you
love them in the name of Jesus goes out the window, OK?
And our focus goes from Jesus tothe craziness around us, and we
start to sink. That is going to happen.
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So give yourself grace. Romans 81 tells us that there is
no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Peter had walked on the water. OK, But before this, Peter
walked physically with Jesus. He had listened to his teachings
from his own mouth, from the mouth of Jesus.
(20:13):
He heard these teachings. He had seen him perform numerous
miracles. And just before he got into this
very boat, he had just witnessedthe feeding of the 5000.
And yet Peter still lost focus. Jesus, who he knew was standing
right in front of him and he's still, his mind still got off
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track. So one of the life verses for my
family is Ephesians 423. Be constantly renewed in the
spirit of your mind. An amplified version says.
Have a fresh mental and spiritual attitude.
If you ask my kids, if somebody gets in a bad mood and you say
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be constantly renewed, they willgo in the spirit of your mind
having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude.
Because this is one that we say again and again and again to
help us reset our minds and refocus.
As soon as Peter realized that he was sinking, though, what did
he do? He didn't cross his arms and go,
well, that's over, that's it, I'm going down.
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No, he turned his eyes back to Christ.
He turned his eyes back to the source of his strength, and he
cried out to Jesus. And verse 31 says instantly,
immediately Jesus reached down. James 48 tells us that if we
will draw near to God, he will draw near to us.
As soon as Peter cried out, Jesus reached down.
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Jesus didn't cross his arms and say, oh, sure, now you want my
help, right? While Christ was lifting him up
out of the water, that's when hesaid, oh, you have little faith.
Why did you doubt? I believe this was
compassionate. Sometimes when we read the
Scripture, we kind of perceive it to be more condemning.
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We feel like Christ is saying, how little faith do you have?
How dare you doubt? What is wrong with you?
And I think whatever reason, whether it's the way you were
raised or the situations you've been in, or just the world, that
culture that you're in, whateverit is, our minds get kind of
tainted sometimes. But this is a God of love.
This is a loving father. This is compassionate Jesus.
(22:23):
And I think it was more like when your child gets afraid and
you're right there with them andthey're scared something's going
to happen and you pull them up in your arms and you're like,
sweetheart, it's OK, I'm right here.
I think that's what this was. So what I want us to see is that
Ephesians 423 tells us to be constantly renewed in the spirit
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of our mind, having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude.
So the beauty of it is if you get off track, you can get on
track. But here's what I want us to see
about giving ourselves grace. God would not tell us to be
constantly renewed in our minds If He did not know our minds
would be getting constantly messed up, right?
And I love that Psalms one O 3. It tells us that he remembers
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that we are dust, that he considers our frame and he
pities us and he remembers we are dust.
That cracks me up because he knows it's OK.
They're not always going to makeit.
They're not always going to get all the right decisions.
So they're just dust. They need us, they need me,
right? So I love that we can give
ourselves grace because God gives us grace upon grace and
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mercy upon mercy. So if you find your mind not
focused, just get back on track.Now, don't miss this.
The storm did not immediately cease when Peter learned his
lesson. So when he got his focus back
where it belonged, the storm didn't just stop and there was
peace and rainbows and butterflies, right?
Sometimes we think the instant we're like, oh, Jesus, OK, all
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my problems should be gone. That's not what happened here.
It didn't stop until he got backin the boat.
Peter still had to walk through the storm, but this time he was
walking hand in hand with Christ.
When he returned to the Lord, the storm did not cease.
He still had to walk through thestorm, but this time he was
(24:11):
walking hand in hand with Jesus.God rarely just takes away our
trials, but He always gives us what we need to make it through
our storms. God rarely just takes away our
trials, but He always gives us what we need to make it through
our storms. So for the sake of time, which
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is not always easy for me, I'm going to have to kind of wrap,
start wrapping things up, bows on things, but I could go on and
on and on and on and on where weare right here.
So how do we stay focused in thehard times?
And what do we do so that we're able to stand when those
difficult times come? And if not stand from the onset,
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how do we stand back up? How do we regroup?
Proverbs tells us the righteous man falls 7 times but he gets
back up the powers in the getting back up.
So what do we do? Two things.
The number one thing is what I call filling our arsenal.
A country cannot wait until a war happens to start building
(25:18):
their army, and we cannot wait until hard times come to start
building up the strength of our spirit.
We have to be in the Word. If you think about Jesus in the
wilderness when he's being tempted by Satan and every time
that Satan comes against him, what does Christ say?
He says it is written, it is written, it is written, and
Jesus didn't have time to run and get the scrolls right.
(25:40):
He knew the Word and that was the weapon He used.
He had everything at his disposal, but what he used was
the Word of God. We look at Ephesians 6.
That is where we find the wonderful, powerful passage that
Paul gave us of the visual of the image of the armor of God
talks about the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of
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truth, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, the shoes
of peace. What is the 1 weapon?
He gives us the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of
God. We've got to know our word.
You see, if we don't know the word, we don't have anything to
fight with. We have to be regularly building
our faith. It has to be something that we
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commit to when things are good and when things are mundane, so
that when those hard times come,that stuff that is stored up in
US comes out. The Holy Spirit will bring it
back up. You don't have to worry about
that. You just get it in there.
God will do the rest. So that's how we fill our
arsenals and then with a full arsenal.
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The second thing is we stand on what we know regardless of how
we feel. We stand on what we know
regardless of how we feel. Jesus told us that hard times
would come. It's a promise.
OK John 1633, Christ says in this world you will have
trouble, but take heart. I have overcome this world.
(27:04):
So if anybody ever told you thatthe Christian life should be
easy and you shouldn't really have any problems, they lied.
That's just the fact they lied. OK, Jesus himself told us that
we would have trouble, but he said take heart because I have
overcome this world. Why do we go through hard times?
Well, I actually have a lot to say on that topic, but I'm going
(27:25):
to spare you and try to get through this.
But I truly, truly believe with every single ounce of my being,
with every fiber of my soul, that there is purpose in pain.
I truly believe that. I believe that God can and will
use absolutely everything. Nothing is in vain, nothing is
(27:45):
wasted if we will give it back to Him.
I don't want you to miss this. I want to look back at verses 32
and 33. OK, so again, we're in Matthew
14, verses 32 and 33. And when they got into the boat,
the wind ceased, and those in the boat knelt and worshipped
(28:06):
him, saying, truly, you are the Son of God.
They were chilling out with Jesus all the time, right?
They were watching Him work, they were seeing His miracles.
They were lounging in the grass listening to sermons straight
from Christ's own mouth. But once they met him in a
(28:27):
storm, it was then that they worshipped him and then that
they truly saw him for who He really is.
Jesus knew hours before that they were heading into a storm.
So see, if we look, it tells us that Jesus made them get into
the boat. This is, I know, sometimes hard
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to take right, But verses 22 and25, He made them get into the
boat, and immediately after seeing a miracle, He sent them
away. And then He went up to pray
right after they watched this powerful thing He did, He sent
them knowingly right into a storm.
OK, He went off to pray. When it was evening, Jesus was
still up there praying. So by this time the disciples
(29:12):
were in the midst of their stormalready.
But then it tells us that He came to them in the fourth
watch, which is between 3:00 and6:00 AM.
Why did He wait? Why did He wait?
I can't say for sure, but when we have filled our arsenal with
powerful scriptures that tell usabout the promises in God's Word
to us, his children, when we learn from the Word of God about
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his character and we begin to know, as Paul said, not I know
who I believed in, but I know him.
I know whom I have believed. I don't know about him.
I know him and we're in the Wordof God and we know him.
We have the faith to get throughthese hard times even when we
don't understand what's going on, right?
In those uncertain times, we canreflect on Scripture like first
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Peter 510, it actually says. And after you have suffered a
little while, then God himself, the God of all grace, who has
called you by his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore,
confirm, strengthen and establish you.
Yes, that suffering thing again,right?
But it's attached to a wonderful, powerful promise.
(30:20):
And when we know the word of God, we can think about Job at
the end of Job, his reflection after going through all he went
through, he said, you know, before all this.
So this is Jenny's paraphrase. But before all this I had heard
about you. But now my eyes have seen you.
You see, when Jesus sent his disciples off, He knew that they
(30:42):
were headed into a storm, but Healso knew that the revelation
and the elevation that they weregoing to find on the other side
of that storm was worth going through that hard time.
Just like with our kids, we can't spare them from every
difficult thing, from every trying situation, from every
pain, because if we did, we would not be doing them any
(31:04):
favors, right? They wouldn't grow, they
wouldn't learn, they wouldn't mature.
If we saved them from the shot that would heal their sick
bodies, they wouldn't heal, right?
We know what's on the other sideof those difficulties, even if
they don't. And it's the same with our
Heavenly Father. And I want to challenge you that
if in the midst of these times, if we will press in instead of
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turning away, our faith can growin the midst of trials like it
never could in the absence of them.
So I want to challenge you the next time you find yourself in a
storm of life, Yes, you have to feel it.
You have to process it. You don't have to ignore it and
deny it. But instead of getting hung up
on the Y at some point, shift your focus back to Jesus and try
(31:53):
saying, OK Lord, how are you going to use this?
And then give it to Him and watch Him work in and through
you to advance His Kingdom in ways you never imagined.
I promise you, you will come outstronger.
On the other side, diamonds are formed under pressure, bones
broke and grow back stronger, and gold is purified by fire.
(32:16):
One last thing, we do not have to have all the answers.
Peter said, if it's you and he received no condemnation, he
said, Lord, if it's really you and Jesus didn't say, what do
you mean if it's really me, right?
No, Jesus simply said come. He simply said, come.
We don't have to have all the answers to come to him.
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We just have to step out of the boat, right?
Even in the midst of a storm, just keep your eyes on him.
Just keep your eyes on him. If you long to draw near, even
if you still have questions, even if you aren't quite sure,
(32:58):
even if you just want a closer look, he says come God, I thank
you for your love and your powerand your grace.
I thank you that you are with usthis morning.
I thank you that your word is alive and active.
And I pray that as we dig in together and as we dig in
one-on-one with you, our eyes will continue to be open to the
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promises and the power that you have called us to and placed in
US. Lord, I thank you for Jesus, for
what he's done, and for the examples he's given to us, Lord,
And if there are those who are listening or watching who
haven't made that decision yet and you have questions and
you're just not sure, but you, you want to walk towards Jesus,
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you're ready for Jesus. Just pray this prayer with me.
God, I thank you for your love. God, I know I cannot do anything
to make myself good enough to bereunited with you, but I believe
that Jesus was your son. I believe that Jesus died on the
cross for my sins and that he rose again and I accept the free
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gift of forgiveness for my sins.Thank you Jesus for taking my
sin and giving me your righteousness.
Lord, I give you my life in Jesus name, Amen.
Hey friend, if you enjoyed this episode and you got some good
stuff out of it, there's a few options you have 1.
(34:26):
You could click that little subscribe button.
And also if you would review this podcast, Oh my gosh, if you
like what you heard, get on there.
Give it a five star review. If you didn't like what you
heard, just pretend it never happened.
OK, but if you would do a reviewfor me, just take a couple
seconds and do that. Not only would I be crazy
excited, but also it would just be a great way for us to partner
(34:49):
together, for you to help this podcast be seen by more women
out there. And you could be a part of
helping more women discover these practical ways to apply
God's Word to just everyday stuff.
So I would love it, love it, love it if you could help me out
in one of those two ways.
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