Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, Cece, midweek, how's it going?
[00:00:06] I'm so excited to be with you here tonight. It's my first time preaching at CC midweek, and when Sarah asked, I was like, heck, yes, I will. I've only been waiting a really long time to be asked, but it's totally fine. I'm in.
[00:00:21] I love what God is doing in this group, and it's been such an awesome thing to see how God's been at work and growing it and the cool things that are happening. I'm very happy to be here tonight. Let me say a prayer for us. Dear heavenly Father, I'm thankful for what an incredibly good God that you are. I'm thankful that you invite us into this space and in this time to draw nearer to you. I pray, Father, that you would just please be at work. Open up our minds, open up our hearts to you. I pray whatever we brought in here with us today that's distracting or derailing or frustrating us and getting us off course, I pray that you would clear it all away and point us in the way that we should go. Remind us who you are. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Have you ever gotten stuck before? Like, sometimes there's literally stuck. I signed up when my youngest was in preschool to be the mom who took all the kids. Like, you took cars and had, like, five kids in your car, and you went to the farm and they did, like, the fall festival thing. And we got there. I parked where they told me to park. It was a lovely day. We went to leave. Cars are backing up. My car is not backing out. It was a wet, muddy field. My tires were spinning. I was literally stuck. I was doing. I was literally the mom that people had to come over and, like, rock me out, you know? I was like, thank you. Your kids are safe, I promise. Sometimes I've been literally stuck before or, like, a problem I couldn't solve. I went back to school this year. I'm getting my master's degree in business administration, and I'm learning a lot of things that my brain doesn't normally focus on. Totally using algebra, you guys, you know the joke, like, when you're in high school, you're never going to use this again.
[00:01:58] Here I am in my adult life using algebra, and I'm not kidding. I was stuck on this problem. I'm building excel, never built excel before, and I cannot make these things go together. I'm looking at the directions, I'm following the directions, and it's wrong. Have you been here before? Like, no matter what I do, it's literally wrong. And I'm stuck, and I'm spinning my wheels trying to figure out the problem, can't figure it out. Fumble my way through some walkthrough videos. Obviously it was my fault, because math's math, and if you put in the wrong numbers, it's wrong, and it was me putting in the wrong numbers. But I was stuck until I found these videos that helped me. But maybe you've been stuck in a bigger problem, a life problem, a relational problem that you just can't figure out, a life problem that just seems to have no answer. You look and you look and you look, and it never seems to give you any choice that you really like or can live with.
[00:02:55] Maybe you've been stuck in a problem that feels like no matter what you do, it's not right. You can't get the answer right.
[00:03:03] Or maybe you faced a pain problem, a relational problem.
[00:03:08] Maybe you've faced a loss problem. Maybe you've been standing in the hospital looking over somebody suffering, and there's nothing you can do to fix it, and you can't take it away. Maybe you lost somebody you love, and it's not getting better. It still hurts, it's still raw.
[00:03:28] What do we do when we get stuck in problems like that? When the problems feel bigger than we are, when the solutions feel like no matter what we do, they're not coming together, they're not adding up? It's complicated, it's messy. It's not very clearly this or very clearly this. It's that ambiguous in between, which is where, like, 99.9% of our life is lived. Have you been there before? What do we do when we're stuck here and we're looking at it saying, I don't know how this could ever work out. I don't know how this could ever get better. I don't know how this could ever change, or I could ever feel good about any of this.
[00:04:08] What do we do when we face those kind of problems? Because I think the reality is many of us face those problems a lot, and we've learned a lot of direction on how to deal with certain things in life, but not this. How do we work through these problems when we're struggling and we're not sure what to do? So tonight I want to give us direction from Paul, and he speaks to us in Romans chapter eight and gives us an incredible idea that I just want you to walk away with tonight. So he talks through Romans, chapter eight is a great chapter in the Bible. If you've never read Romans eight before. You could just spend a lot of time in there. There's big ideas, small ideas, overlapping ideas. He ties things together that he's been building up to and connecting to. But in the midst of it, he talks about how to do life in the midst of suffering. Not life around suffering or instead of suffering, but, like, right in the middle of hard and messy, which is where we have to figure out how to do life every single day. How do you do it? Right there.
[00:05:10] I love the preacher and commentator Charles Wendahl. He talks about suffering. He calls it the universal language. He says, when life hurts and our dreams fade, we may express our anguish in different ways, but each of us knows the sting of pain and heartache, disease and disaster, trials and suffering.
[00:05:29] See, all of us face it. Nobody walks through life pain free. Nobody gets from beginning to end, not struggling or worrying or stressed or depressed or discouraged or anxious or overwhelmed or discouraged or disappointed or heartbroken. We all face these messy things in life. And every day we get up and we have to figure out, in the midst of all of this, how do we still do life well when it looks like it could never work out? How do we keep going? So this is the direction Paul gives us. He says in romans eight, chapter 28.
[00:06:11] And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. So the literal translation here, I'm using the NLT, but the literal translation that comes from the Greek is, for those loving him, God works together all things into good. So let me say that again. I just want you to hold on to this idea. For those loving him, God works together all things into good. Now, let's be clear. You've maybe heard this before, and I'm going to probably guess it was misused when you heard it, right? Like, God's working all things for good. It's not so bad. Chin up. Right? God's working for good. Or every cloud has a silver lining. Have you ever been, like, really grouchy and upset and somebody says that you're like, it's not helpful.
[00:06:59] My cloud is black and it's gray. It's real thunderous right now. You might not want to stand too close with your silver lining, right? People think they're trying to be helpful, and God bless them, they want to help. But Paul isn't saying God makes bad things good. He's not saying, this bad thing's not so bad. God's good. Let it go. That's not what Paul's getting because here's the truth. We've all experienced bad before, and it's bad because it feels bad. It doesn't feel good when you're in the midst of it. It hurts because it's bad. And we don't want to hear that. It could be a blessing in disguise, right? It doesn't change the hurt. It doesn't make the bad go away. So when Paul's telling us this, what he's closer to saying, this comes from Timothy Keller. He says, at the end of time, when we look at everything, when all things are done, all things are seen together, God is bringing about a greatness, a glory, a wonder. Everything that happened in the end is greater and more glorious than it would have been otherwise. What Paul's telling us is God is at work, and I might not always see it.
[00:08:12] God is at work from beginning until end. And in the end, when all is said and done, he's bringing about a goodness that I can't always see, maybe not even in my lifetime.
[00:08:26] But when I know God, I know something about God's work. I know something about who God is. I know something about God's power that even when I can't understand it, God is still in control. Even when I can't see it, God is still working for good. And our hope that Paul's trying to encourage us in isn't every bad thing's going to go away.
[00:08:53] It's not. You're going to understand everything perfectly, and life's going to come together easily. But it's a reminder that there is a loving, faithful God who is in control, and he keeps his promises.
[00:09:06] What Paul's saying is God can bring good things even out of bad moments, that even in the midst of everything hard, there is still a God at work who is in control in our life, in our world, and in our history.
[00:09:24] And what Paul's pointing us to is this hope that we have. It's much larger than just what I'm facing today. It's much larger than just what's happened in my lifetime, your lifetime, this year, last year. But when all things are laid out and I seen together, when all of time and history is played out before us, it will be glorious, it will be wonderful, it will be grand. And Paul doesn't just say some things God is at work in. God doesn't just say, like a few of those random things that maybe you're curious about. He says everything, all things. God is working together for good. All the places in my life. See, here's where there's attention and maybe you felt it.
[00:10:09] I've wanted something that I thought was good, and it didn't happen. Why would God do that? Have you been there? Like, I've been in something hard, and I was like, God, if you're good, why are you letting this happen? Because it doesn't feel good. See, all of us have this idea, this definition of what I think good is. Don't you? Like, when I was little and I imagined my life, I had this picture of what I wanted my life to look like. And then I don't know how your life played out, but my life didn't play out like the picture in my head. It didn't come together the way that I thought it should, the way it did for other people. Or sometimes you're looking at other people and you're like, God, why is it so easy for them and so hard for me?
[00:10:48] God, why does it all seem to come together for everybody else? But yet I'm struggling, and I'm struggling, and I'm struggling. See, I have this definition of what I thought good should be. And then my life got messy, and then it settled and it stabilized, and then I had more ideas of what I thought should be good. And then my life got messier. And then I have teenagers, guys, you know who has a whole new definition of what good looks like? This girl right here. Because what I thought our years would look like turns out isn't exactly how it's playing out.
[00:11:20] We have these ideas of what good should be. And when they don't work, we get frustrated, we get disappointed, we get upset with God. Like, God, if you loved me, if you wanted good for me, you would hear me telling you what I want to happen, and you would make that happen, right? God, if you really cared, if you really understand this isn't good, I don't want it to be this way. And then we're saying to God, how are you working for good when it feels like this?
[00:11:53] Maybe you've had questions similar to this, or maybe you've been in a place like this before. I want to share with you. It's an author named Lisa Turkhurst. I've heard her speak and I've read her books. It's probably one of my favorite ideas I've ever read about this.
[00:12:06] She says what happened is we really don't want to control God until we want to control God. And when do I want to control God? When do you want to control God? When his timing seems questionable, when his lack of intervention seems hurtful. And when his promises seem doubtful, see, when we're there, we get afraid, we get confused and left alone in these feelings of disappointment. God isn't doing the thing that I think a good God should do. And then listen to what she says. She says, I want to assume that my definition of best should be God's definition of best. I think my definition of good should be God's definition of good.
[00:12:46] I want to write the story of my life according to all of my assumptions. I want to take control from God. Right? When God's not doing what I think he should be doing, then I'm trying to say, like, okay, God, you take a break. I got this now, right? I'm going to do it my way. I think my way is going to work.
[00:13:03] I've planned it out. It's good. I got good ideas here, good goals here.
[00:13:09] And she says, here's where we make the most dangerous assumption of all of, I can do it better than God.
[00:13:15] God isn't doing what I think a good God should do. Now it's my turn. I think I can do it better.
[00:13:24] And when we come in to this tension, this inability to control things or people the way that we want them to, we feel frustrated, we get upset, we get mad at Goddesse. But listen to what she says. Even when we try to take control and make assumptions and misunderstand God on every single level, listen, he still has a plan, a good plan.
[00:13:51] I love this idea. Because her concept that she says is, what if God really hasn't denied us his best when things aren't working the way that I think they should work? Or my definition of good isn't playing out the way than I think it should. What if that's really not God denying me his best, but offering me his best?
[00:14:12] And she gives this analogy when the last time you had to fix something, usually it was broken, right? Like, you don't think about fixing it until it's broken. Because until it's broken, you just kind of keep shimmying things around, adjusting as you go. And then when it actually stops working and it's broken, then you call for help. Then you finally bring in somebody who can help you.
[00:14:33] The experts. We finally realize I can't fix it. I need help. But, you know, the same is true for ourselves. She said if our souls never ached with disappointment and disillusionment, we'd never fully admit and submit to our need for God. If we weren't ever shattered, we'd never know the glorious touch of the potter making something glorious out of dust, out of us.
[00:14:57] See, it just never seems like a good time, does it? Like, God, I want you to do a good work. I want it to be glorious. I want it to be wonderful. I want you to make me new. Just not right now. Right now is really hard. Right now is really stressful. I don't really have space in my calendar. God, for this, could we agree on a better time or negotiate a little bit now, a little bit later? See, I want to keep controlling goddess, and it never feels like a good time for him to do the work that he wants to do. But she says if we want his promises, we have to trust his process.
[00:15:33] See, if the promise of God is he's good and he's faithful and he's loving, I have to trust his process even when the pieces aren't lining up the way I want them to be.
[00:15:44] So here's the question.
[00:15:47] What if the place where I'm most disappointed, I'm most shattered, most hurting? What if these aren't actually God holding back his goodness from me? What if these aren't actually proof that God doesn't care and God doesn't love me? Maybe those places are the exact place where God wants to show up and show us how truly good he is. Maybe those places are exactly where God wants to meet us and start putting us together in a new and beautiful way that we never could have been put together otherwise.
[00:16:24] Can I trust him to do that?
[00:16:27] Can I trust when my definition and his definition don't line up? His definition is probably going to be better. His good is going to be grander and greater and more wonderful than even if every idea I have came to fruition.
[00:16:45] See, my idea of good is limited.
[00:16:48] God's is unlimited.
[00:16:51] I can only see so far, right? I can only see so far into my context, your contact, this life. I want to look out in the future and be like, oh, my gosh, it's going to be like this or like this. But I don't know. I can't even use the, it's not in my bingo card anymore. My bingo card blew up and burned a fiery death like two years ago. It just was done trying. Nothing happened that I thought. And then it was all these new random things.
[00:17:16] But whose definition of good am I going to trust more?
[00:17:20] Mine that's limited and broken and just skewed by my own expectations and disappointments? Or God's, who is eternal and grand and wonderful?
[00:17:33] And can I trust in God's definition of best?
[00:17:41] So here. Here's the thing that when I read romans 28 828, I always find myself. I love that. It's beautiful. I believe it. I got it written on a sticky note on my board with all my other verse sticky notes. I say it, I think it, I believe it. But sometimes I'm like, okay, God, how right? Because life is tricky and it's wonky and all these things happening. And I'm like, okay, God, great, you're working all of these things. But how, like, how are you working them? How do we know? Like in my darkest moment, when everything seems hopeless, how do I know that you're doing this when I can't see it, when I can't feel it, when I can't understand it, God, how do I know? And look at where Paul points us right back to God and what he's already done. Before we even were born, created or knew that God existed. Paul says, let me show you what God has already done. Look at verse 29. For God knew his people in advance. He chose them to become like his son, so that his son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. Having chosen them, he called them to come to him. Having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. Look at what Paul reminds us of. Before you even knew that there was a God to know, before you'd even heard of God's name or who Christ is, or put 1ft inside any church, anywhere, God knew you.
[00:19:20] And look at what God's already been at work doing. He chose us. He called us. He created this incredible plan in Christ Jesus where we get to know, know him and have a right standing, and he shares his glory with us. Now here's what's incredible about these verses. Every one of these verbs chose, called, knew, created, shared. They're all past tense. This isn't Paul saying, someday, this is going to happen for you someday when you stop being a jerk and you get your act together. This is going to happen for you someday when you stop messing around and you get your life straightened out. No, he says, right now, in the past already happened. Before we even knew. God had a plan that was in motion and you were part of it. Before you even thought about it, God was thinking about you, your life, your purpose, who he created you to be. Before you had a moment that you even considered. This isn't working. It's not how it's supposed to be. God already had a plan in place to help you, to cultivate in you a character and a spirit that is formed by him.
[00:20:40] You're not a surprise to God. Your life is not a surprise to God. Your hardest problems, they're not too hard for God. Your most disappointing, discouraging moments, they aren't nothing to God. He cares about you. Your life, your heart, your future, your purpose for what you've been created for.
[00:21:07] He already knew you, and he placed his love on you. Here's what's beautiful.
[00:21:14] If you ever read commentary on scripture, it's so interesting, and it just gives you such a rich understanding of what the words that are used and the ideas that are pieced together. Because Paul didn't use throwaway words, he was real intentional with these action verbs that he put in here. And this word that he used for new is always used in a relational context. So it's one thing to know something about somebody, right? Like, I watch tv. I know things about people, right? Like, I read the news, but I don't actually know these people. Like, sometimes my sisters and I would have all these conversations about, and one of my brothers in law is like, you don't know those people. You've never met them before. You can't actually have an opinion. I'm like, no, no, no, we know them, right? But I don't. I know of them. I don't know them. As opposed to your family, right, who sees you every day when you wake up, when you go to bed, when you haven't washed your hair in three days, when you're grouchy, when you're happy. They know you at a different level, right? Like, they've seen every good, bad, messy, stinky in between part of you. They know you more than just knowing of you. And when Paul uses this language, he's talking about a relational God who doesn't just know of us, but knows us personally, intimately, relationally. And listen, he didn't turn his back on us. Like, sometimes we're so afraid if people know who I really am, right? If they really see my messy kitchen self or all the gross stuff that's happening up here, they would never really want to be around me. Well, here's a really big shocker, guys. God does know it all. There's nothing up here that secret from him. All of those random thoughts or things that were like, thank God people can't read minds. Nobody needs to hear that nonsense, right? God knows it all and still loves us and still wants to be in relationship with us. He chooses us. He cares for us. He calls us. He invites us into this relationship with him because he's a God who's good. He's faithful, and please hear me, guys, he is in control.
[00:23:33] All of us have these very, very right now perspectives, right? Part of our context of how we grew up, conditions how we see the world right now, the home that we grew up in, the community that we grew up in, the culture that we're growing up in right now. I've watched shows with my kids from when I was a kid, and their reactions to it are hilarious to me. They're like, oh, my gosh. I'm like, you guys are so 2024. Their reactions are right now so different than my. I'm like, I didn't even see that when I was a kid. Right? I grew up in the eighties. There's a whole lot of things that got under the radar in those PG 13 movies that my kids are horrified by because it's so different. We all have this context, this lens through which we see things. And it's limited by our context. It's limited by our culture. It's limited by our perspective of history and time and just where we are right now.
[00:24:30] But see, God isn't his perspective. His view. His lens is all of time, all of history, all that was, all that is, and all that is yet to be. God has a view of all of it, and he's at work in all of it. He's in control of all of it. He's got authority over all of it, and he hasn't given up that authority. Even when I think the world is a crazy place, God still is at work. The question isn't, is God working? The question is, can I trust him to do his good work? The question isn't, will God do something here? The question is, can I still follow God here when it's hard? Can I trust his view as being greater and larger than my own?
[00:25:29] See, in this plan, look at what Paul's reminding us. God chose us to become more and more like Jesus Christ. See, he didn't just choose us at random. He chose us with a plan and a purpose.
[00:25:44] See, when I say yes to following Christ, it doesn't mean my life will get easier. It doesn't mean I'll never face problems or hard days or bad moments or loss or hurt or pain, just like everybody else. But sometimes so many of us are caught off guard when something bad happens. We're like, but, God, I'm doing all of the right things. How could this happen? God, I'm following you. Why would this be God? I read my bible this week. I did all of the things on my good girl checklist. Why is this happening? And we feel surprised that we still have to face hard times. See, following Christ doesn't mean my problems go away.
[00:26:26] Life is the human condition and it is marred. Bye, problems and loss and pain. But here's what following Christ does mean. Number one, I am not alone in my suffering when I'm following Jesus Christ. He met us in our suffering so we could meet him in his glory. Christ joined our story, took our part, took up the mantle of humanity, that we could know him and do life with him. Look, I never face any of the challenges alone. We never walk through the valley of the shadow of death without Christ by our side guiding us along.
[00:27:11] He goes with me, he goes before me. He goes beside me, all around me. What I could never do on my own, what I could never face on my own, fix on my own, heal on my own. There is a loving Christ I can turn to who has taken my part. And please don't ever forget he's with us and he's here to strengthen us and comfort us and encourage us. Yes, there will be pain. Yes, there will be heartache. Yes, I will have to endure things I don't like, I don't think are fair, and I don't want, but I do not do any of it alone. Because in Christ we can endure. In Christ, he strengthens us and shares his glory with us. We've talked before about this idea of glory, and it comes kind of like a churchy word. So we always try to unpack it and give you a little bit of context. There's actually, when you study the context of the word glory, it has this idea of weight stability.
[00:28:16] So that when Christ shares his glory with us, a weight that can hold us up, it's not flimsy, it's not gonna buckle, and it's too much to sustain. There's a sustainability and a weight in the glory of Christ that he shares with us, that we can stand firm in him. The world can be falling apart, but our foundation in Christ is solid because our glory, our future, our hope are in him. So one, following Christ doesn't make the problems go away, but it does mean I do not face the problems alone. And two, God is at work. And here's what he's at work doing, growing us more and more into the character of Jesus Christ. One commentator said it this the good God always is working for us, is character change. He's making us loving, noble, true, wise, strong, good, joyful and kind, just as Christ is.
[00:29:20] Here's one of the cool things about life with Christ, you can be saved in a moment. One moment. Say yes. Christ knocks. You say yes. You believe. You follow him, you are guaranteed salvation. One moment of belief in Jesus Christ, and you're saved.
[00:29:36] But then you have a lifetime of, how do you figure out how to grow up in Christ? Because I'm saved. But I still have messy parts of me that aren't great. I still wake up tomorrow. Me. And the struggle I had is a struggle that's real. I now have a resource in Christ to deal with the struggle. And so part of the good that God's working in you is the character development that makes you more and more, more and more like Christ. And it takes a lifetime to grow into some of these attributes. Some of them I don't even know yet. 20 years from now, God's gonna be like, hey, what about this one? And be like, oh, yeah, you're right. I got a lot of work to do there, right? I think I got one thing covered, and I get better at it. And then there's more areas to explore. Your whole life is about growth and development and being more and more like Jesus Christ, because what do we know? He shares his glory with us. The spirit is at work in us, working out a fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self control.
[00:30:48] And we need help growing in these areas. Guess what? Where all of us works in progress. But can I tell you something? Nothing is wasted. None of it. The good decisions you made, the bad decisions you made, the good moments you faced, the hard moments you faced, all of it. God is at work in, and none of those moments are wasted. Could we have done it better? Absolutely. Could we have saved ourselves a lot of heartache? Yes. But it doesn't mean that we can't learn and cultivate from those deepest, dark, sorrowful moments a character within us that is necessary to become who God is calling us to be.
[00:31:29] I was actually doing research for this, and I was going through some of my notes of these verses and commentary and different ideas that I read. And it was interesting because I came across an article, and it was by an NBA player. And he says to anybody going through it, and he was talking about anxiety and depression and panic attacks and how exhausting it was and how friends of his had intervened and the help that he was getting. And it wasn't easy, but it gets better. And his point in all of it was, you aren't alone. Right? Anybody who's going through it right now, you aren't alone. Everybody struggles. It's hard. And it was interesting because I was reading this article. I'm like, this is a really good article. Why did I never use it?
[00:32:09] I use the stuff I come across. I have to talk, and I want to use these articles. So I was, like, going through my notes and I looked at the date.
[00:32:16] I didn't use this article because that Saturday before I was supposed to preach that sermon, my mom had a massive stroke. And we were all in the hospital with my mom.
[00:32:26] And we were in that moment pleading with God for our mom's life.
[00:32:32] We were in a moment of darkness and fear and worry and scare, and we had no idea how it was going to work out. You've never seen so many people praying in so many different emergency rooms and hospital rooms in every corner. Every doctor we talked to were like, you need to make this right. You gotta fix it. We need her, right? Like, trying to, like they had to life lighter to Cleveland Clinic and we're talking to the helicopters. We're like, this is our life we're trusting you with. We need you to do your best job. Like we are those people. If you work in the hospital, God bless you. I'm sorry. We are those people.
[00:33:05] In that moment, nothing seemed like it could work for good.
[00:33:09] But I promise you this, not one of us was there doubting if God was good. We were pleading with him.
[00:33:18] None of us in that moment felt alone. None of us faced that heartache and sorrow and fear and worry by ourselves.
[00:33:28] In fact, we knew God was with us. If you talk to my mom, which, by the grace of God, she's doing wonderfully today, if you talk to my mom, she felt the outpouring of love and prayer and God's grace overwhelming her through that long, hard, dark week.
[00:33:46] See, there is a God at work beyond what you and I can see, beyond what we can all understand. And even in those crippling, fear filled moments, the question isn't God. Why God? How could you? We aren't in those moments alone. In fact, if we let him, he's willing to overwhelm our hearts with his goodness, his grace, his love, support and give us the courage and strength to do the thing we never thought we could do. Because he's with us and he's guiding us.
[00:34:19] We aren't in it alone. Friends, yes, there will be hard moments to face. I will have them, and you will have them. But Christ is with us. He's at work doing good in this world, in our life, in our people, in our church and in this community.
[00:34:37] So here's what I want to challenge you with tonight, if you walk away with anything, I just want to give you three things to walk away with, because all of these are great ideas in theory, but what does it look like in practice? Right? What does it look like in my day to day life when I'm working through or worrying through the problems that life has presented me? Number one, here's what I want you to do. Examine your definition of good. See, there's mine and there's God's.
[00:35:03] Can I trust that God's idea of best is better than my own limited view of good? Can I trust that God's plan is good, even when it feels like I don't know how this is ever going to work together and make anything? Can I trust that God is at work and he has a process, and even in the in between moments, I can trust his process because of the promises that he's already made. One, examine your definition of good. Can you trust that God's is better?
[00:35:39] And then second, I want you to remember.
[00:35:42] Remember who God is. Remember what God has already done. Remember what Paul tells us. Before we even knew God, God knew us. He placed his love on us. He chose us. He called us. He created an incredible plan that we would know Christ and be made right with him. And he shared his glory with us.
[00:36:04] These aren't maybe things. These are done deal things. They are assured. They are guaranteed. I don't have to question them. I don't have to worry. Is God going to choose me? Is God going to think I'm good enough? Does God really care or love me? He already has.
[00:36:24] He already has placed that on us and in us.
[00:36:29] I just forget about it. And usually when I find myself in my biggest problems, in my biggest what have I done? Moments, it's because I forgot who God was, or I made the assumption I can do it better than God. Because sometimes waiting is hard.
[00:36:47] It's one thing to wait for, like ten minutes, right? I get grouchy in the drive through. It's another thing to wait a lifetime. A lifetime to see what God is going to do. But if I really believe he is, who is, none of it is wasted. And I cannot forget who he is and what he can do.
[00:37:08] If he's already assured us of these things, why wouldn't he show up right now? Why wouldn't he continue his good work in my life and in yours? So I want you to examine your definition of good.
[00:37:21] Can I just. Can we all admit there are moments in our life where we begged God for something, and it didn't happen. And now you get a little bit older and you look back and you're like, thank God that didn't happen. Have you dated before anyone?
[00:37:36] You're like, thank God that didn't work out. Am I right? Right. Okay. But at the moment, it felt like the best thing that could possibly examine your definition of good. Can you trust that God's is better? Remember who God is, what he's already done, what he's already promised and shared with you. And then the last thing I want you to do is turn this all into prayer. I'm gonna be real honest with you. This has changed my prayer life. Because maybe you're like me, and so often my prayers sound like this. God, I need you to do this. God, I need you to fix this. God, I don't like this. I think we've talked about this before. God, I really need you to make this better. Or God, I need you to change this person. God, I need you to make them different. God, I need you to do something good in their life, or God, I can't. It's too hard. It's too much. Why would you ever think I could do this? I can't. God, no.
[00:38:31] And this has changed my prayer life instead, what if we prayed it like this? God, I trust you.
[00:38:39] God, I know you are good. I believe you are at work and faithful.
[00:38:45] What if we remember what God has done in all of time, in all of history? Help me to trust you more. More in this situation. God, show me how to be your girl today. I don't know what it looks like in this mess because it's beyond me, but I know that you're good. Show me how to do the right thing today. Show me how to show up and bring the best of myself in this moment with these people.
[00:39:08] Instead of telling God what I think he should do, what if we pray instead? That we could just trust him more, where we don't understand things, that he could grow in us more and more of who he wants us to be. See, God is working all things together for good. And at one point, maybe not even in this lifetime, we will see it and we will agree. It was better than anything I could have asked or imagined. His life of good will always be better and more worth it than anything you've ever faced that felt disappointing or full of sorrow. Because in the end, when he looks you in the eye, he welcomes you into your home and says, well done, good and faithful servant. You will know what it means at last to see God at work, fully in your time, in your heart and in your life. Dear Father, I pray that you would help us.
[00:40:05] I recognize that this is so hard in so many ways, in so many places. But I pray that you would create in us a foundation of trust in who you are. I pray, Father, when we're stuck in the problems and the mess and the disappointments and the sorrows and the hurts, that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to understand how good you truly are, even in the midst of pain. I pray that you would guide us in the way that we should go, that we would trust your process, your idea of best, and it would guide us in our life. I pray, Father, that we would never forget who you are, that you are a God who chose us and called us by name to be part of your family and your team. I pray we would never forget and you would show us how to show up today, tonight, tomorrow, in this moment, in this time, in this problem, in this pain, trusting you, following you, filled with your goodness, encouragement and strengthen, Father, where we do not feel like we have it on our own. I pray that you would give us all that we need to follow you holy, where we feel like we cannot do it one more time. I pray that you would renew in us the joy of who you are and a steadfast spirit that will endure to the end. Help us, I pray, in Jesus name, amen. I.
