Origin
Origin
Disarming Deception, If It's Hard, It's Not God
How many times have you wondered if you are "in God's will?" Have you ever caught yourself thinking, "Wow, I must have missed God," just because a situation is difficult? Not always so according to the Word. Join us for this conversation today around the table of Origin, "It it's Hard, It's not God!"
Welcome back to the table of Origin where we're known to talk about the elephants in the room. This season we're disarming deceptions. Today, the deception
we want to talk about is this:"If it's hard, it's not God." I'm Regina Johnston. I'm at the table of Origin, once again with my friends, Jina McAfee and Kyli Rose. We want to begin by talking about some hard things that have happened, even in our own lives, and some thoughts that we've had in the midst of those hard things. So, girls, helped me share some hard things.
Jina McAfee:The first thing that comes to mind is how God used job loss in our family's life. We've had three major job losses that all involved huge moves to other cities and states. For the first two, I was pregnant both times. I asked my husband, "Are we going to lose a job every time I get pregnant?" But that didn't happen, only with the first two of four children. Those first two, God was revealing Himself to us in the midst. We were young. We weren't following God. We were doing this thing ourselves. We had the job. We were making it. And then all of a sudden, we didn't. I remember thinking,"Wow! What are we going to do?" And then God reveals Himself to us. It was like He was calling us to Himself. He did something supernatural, something we could not do at all. The interesting thing is, the third job loss was after we'd been following Him for l7 or 18 years. Richard loses his job, and in the midst, we know it's God. I found out that my husband had been asking Him for more. God decided,"Well, yes, I'll give you more." This one was harder because there was a long time period between the time he lost the job and when we got another job. So even though I knew it was God in the midst, I would go from faith to fear, faith to fear. I'd be saying, "God, I know You're doing this." And then the next day, I'd be saying, "But this is really scary." And when it was scary, I would start cleaning the house. My house was so clean, my freezer, my refrigerator, and every blind slat in the house. So, you know, we do go through hard things. And He takes us through it on purpose for His purpose.
Kyli Rose:2009 was a very defining year. I had made a lot of plans. I was going to get into this program, I was going to marry this man, we were going to do this, and this, and this, and this. And everything absolutely just fell apart. The basket that I had put all my eggs in broke. And those eggs cracked and splattered everywhere. It was in that place, having lost everything--the plan, the relationship, the program--that my life was defined. There was something that took place inside of me. It was a process. It did not happen overnight. There were plenty of questions and me just sitting with the Lord. I love how you talk about that faith and fear and faith and fear. It's not some tidy, right process. It's this journey that He took me on as well. But it was in that season that I got to know Him in a way that I'd never known Him before. And He had a better plan. He had a better way of being in a relationship. I ended up marrying that man. But our marriage would not have looked the same had we gotten married when we had planned to. The Lord wanted to do something individually in both of us. And then He brought us back together. We weren't honoring the Lord. That program wasn't for that season. That marriage wasn't for that season. There was some stuff He wanted to do in him and some stuff He wanted to do in me. But that season has really defined everything since. It's made a difference in our marriage. It's made a difference in us individually. It changed everything. So it was hard, but so much good came out of it.
ReGina Johnston:You can be right in the middle of what you believe God has called you to do and still suffer hardship. I know there was a season in our lives where we believed we were following God and hearing His voice, and there came a move to Memphis, Tennessee, to work in a church there. We went as the fifth pastors on staff, and within a year and a half, we were the only ones left. The church had gone through a lot of hard things in that year and a half. We were new in ministry and idealistic. We held believers to a certain standard of behavior, and we thought believers just behave differently. But we saw all kinds of things come out of behavior when believers were involved in conflict. It was so eye opening for us. And the question was, "Did we hear God?" We heard the question in our hearts, and we pondered it. Sometimes you don't know in the midst of it. But when you don't know in the midst of it, it doesn't necessarily mean, "I've taken the wrong path, and God is not with me." When you're trying to hear His voice, and you're trying to walk in obedience to His Word, you can make mistakes but God is with you in the midst of your mistakes. What He'll do is He'll take those mistakes and still work His will and way in and through you. If you have taken a wrong path, He will get you back on the right path. That's how much we can trust Him. In retrospect, as we have looked back on our journey with the Lord, we see how He used that time to show us so many things about leadership, to teach us things, to prepare us for future hardships. We thought that was hard, but we had no idea of the hardships to come. The thing about this life is it is hard. It's a sin-filled life that my friend says we were not created for. We were created for the garden, but this is the life we have. And it's not an easy life. The promise is God is with us, and He will help us. And so I love that. We can look back in the Bible and see that some of the disciples have a story of hardship. So take us there. Give us some examples.
Jina McAfee:One of the first examples that I can think of is Stephen, the first martyr for the church. Right after Pentecost, right after the church started, it was growing like crazy, by leaps and bounds, by 3000, by 5000. They needed to raise up some more leaders because they just couldn't get the work done. They were looking at raising up seven men and Stephen ended up being one of those men. I love how they were choosing them. They were choosing people that were full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit. That was the criteria. Stephen was one of these men and was actually doing miracles and signs and wonders so he was very visible. And, and because of that, people got jealous. When they question him, he ends up addressing a council and telling about the journey of faith. In the midst, he calls these men out. He says, "You're just stubborn, you're heathens at heart, you're deaf to the truth and you resist Holy Spirit" Acts 7:51. They got mad. Acts 7:55-60 says, "But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hand. And he told them, 'Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God's right hand!' Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him." They don't like him, but he is still who God called him to be. As they stone him, he falls to his knees. And he says,"Lord, don't charge them with this sin!" What do you think of when you hear that? You think Jesus did that on the cross. So was he in God's will? Yes, he was in God's will, and God used him.
Kyli Rose:There was Stephen. And then we see, Paul, the apostle Paul, the guy who wrote a third of our New Testament. What we see is an exhaustive list in Second Corinthians. He is trying to make a case to the church here in Corinth, because there have been some other people coming along sowing seeds that are not truth. They're saying that the gospel is something different than what it is. This church is kind of toeing the line here of jumping ship, and he is saying, "Don't do it." He actually makes his case by listing all of the things, the hard things he has gone through. What he's trying to say is because I have gone through all of these things, it makes a case that it is worth it. It's worth it. Stay in the game. If I can endure all these things, I'm doing it for a reason, and it's worth it. Stay in it. In 2 Corinthians
11:23-31, Paul says that he had worked harder, he had been put in prison more often, he had been whipped more times than he could count, he had faced death not only from those who were his countrymen but from those who were not, he had been given lashes, he had been beaten with rods, he had been stoned, he had been shipwrecked three times, he had traveled on journeys, he had faced danger in the city and in the desert, he had been hungry, he had been cold, he had been uncomfortable. And the list goes on and on and on. But ultimately what Paul is saying is, "I have suffered for the cause of Christ, and it is worth it." You cannot say that unless you know Him. But Paul got something that a lot of us don't. This is the place that we're trying to get to, this place of maturity that says, "I don't care what happens to me, and I don't care how hard it is, I am going to follow Jesus until I get to see Him face to face." And like Stephen, ultimately He is my reward. My reward is not here on this earth. I'm moving towards it. He is the ultimate reward.
ReGina Johnston:Paul is the one who had a life changing encounter with God that you could never write off, you would never forget. If all of a sudden you're blinded, you can't see and in a few days, you're touched and healed, your name is changed from Saul to Paul, you come to a place where that's an undeniable experience. And I guess the question for us is,"Have we had undeniable encounters with God that changed us?" Paul was changed. He knew he was going to be different. His trajectory changed forever. He was never going back. It didn't matter what happened. He was going forward with God. He trusted God. Here's the thinking, "I'm shipwrecked, God healed me so He can deliver me." Every now and then, I get on a pity party, and ask, "Why is it so hard, God?" and I actually hear the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking back to me,"Well, you haven't been shipwrecked yet. You haven't been beaten yet? This is really not that hard."
Kyli Rose:You're talking about how there are different kinds of hard, right? Sometimes the hard that we're experiencing is right in the middle of God's will. He is actually doing something for our good and His glory in the midst of that hard. The hard that I experienced in 2009 is really what changed the trajectory of my life. I had that road-to-Damascus moment like Paul had in my apartment back in 2009. I wasn't blinded, thank God, but this wasn't the being-in-God's-will kind of hard. This was Kyli made poor choices. No one else made those. It was me, it was all me. I would understand if the God of the universe wanted to meet me and walk me through and sit with me and carry me if I was in the middle-of-His-will hard, but that wasn't my story. He stepped into my hard that I had created myself through my choices and my sin. He actually stepped into my story anyway. And He redeemed it. And it changed me forever. It was one of those life changing encounters with the Lord, because even though I had gotten the shovel, and I had dug the hole, He still put a hand in the pit, and He pulled me out. So if you're listening and you're saying, "I'm not the Stephen, I'm not the evangelist Paul, I'm just living in the pit, the hard of my own choices and my own actions, and I'm not sure if He is going to meet me there," He is. If we will surrender, He will meet us there. I think that's what was so life changing in my story. My hard was due to my sin. And He still met me, and He still redeemed me. There were consequences, but He met me there anyway. It changes everything.
ReGina Johnston:Another example is John the Revelator and right in the midst of God's will. History tells us he was boiled in oil and still lived. I can't even imagine. And eventually cast out to the Isle of Patmos where one of the greatest revelatory books of the Bible was written. John the Revelator was another one who experienced the hard life right in the middle of God's will.
Jina McAfee:And we don't want to forget Jesus. He came to earth knowing what He was going to experience, with the purpose of dying for us that we might have life. So we know, but know, but know, He was in the center of God's will. But it wasn't easy for Him. He was fully God, but also fully man. And right before He went to the cross, right before He was taken as a prisoner, He goes before the Lord, before His Father in prayer, and He says, "Father, if You can take this from me, please do, but not My will, but Yours." We know that Jesus did
die on the cross. John 19:17-19 says this, "Carrying the cross by Himself, He went to the place called Place of the Skull. There they nailed Him to the cross. Two others were crucified with Him, one on either side, Jesus between them. And Pilate posted a sign on the cross that read,'Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.'" So we go right to the source of our belief, Jesus Christ Himself, God Himself giving His own Son. Can you imagine?
Kyli Rose:And we're talking about these people two thousand
Jina McAfee:We go back to the original design that we started years later. So the goal is not easy. The goal is impact. They didn't live easy lives, but they lived impactful lives. And as believers, we were not designed for easy. We were designed for impact. with, to bear His image and to bring fruit on the earth. We're still called to that.
ReGina Johnston:Lest we think this hardship that the disciples
Kyli Rose:Culture says that we are living for retirement. suffered, many of whom were crucified, some beheaded, are measured here with talk about moves and hardships in jobs alone, it does not stop there. There are modern day martyrs for Jesus. Forbes magazine says one in seven Christian minorities are under threat and that was in 2022. Persecution has been at its highest levels for Christians since World Watch lists started 30 years ago. Another quote, "Across 76 countries, more than 360 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith." And just to name some of these things that Christians are experiencing
today:physical and verbal abuse, imprisonment, kidnappings, bribes, deportation, destruction of their property, fines, torture, even some lives given for the cause of Christ. You might be listening and say, "Then why would I ever want to be a Christian?" Because there's eternity in mind. We can choose hard now and be right in the middle of God's will, and have eternal life. Or we can choose, really you can try to choose easier now, but the bottom line Really, the Gospel presses against this idea that we are is, hard comes to all of us. In this life, hard comes to all of us. So do you want to live a hard life with Jesus or without Him? And if you choose to live a hard life without Him, there's just sowing seeds into a bank account so that one day we can eternal destruction in the end. And life in Christ is worth it. That's the bottom line. just sit on our couch and go off and take cruises in our latter years. I'm not anti-cruise. I'm just saying we were designed for so much more. So I would rather live hard with purpose than just constantly trying to press against the thing that I was put on the earth to do, and just try to be living for one day. If the greatest thing that we're living for is retirement so we can just kind of waste away our last 20 or 30 years, that is not living. We were designed for so much more. There is more within us. There's more to do.
Jina McAfee:When Regina was just talking about the revelation Paul had of God, I thought about how exciting that is. Like Paul, we can see the supernatural. We're made for more than just getting up and making food and cleaning it up and making the bed. We were made for more.
ReGina Johnston: Luke 6:22-23 says, "Blessed are you when the people hate you and when they exclude you and insult you and scorn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and jump for joy. For behold, your reward is great in heaven." I love that. But then also there's this promise that we can come to him in Matthew 11:28-30. It says,"Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened. I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." So in the midst of hard, we have a promise, and that's Jesus. We can come to Him. But this life that we're living, it's not for the faint of heart. Oh my goodness. And the Apostle Paul let his mentee Timothy know this in 2 Timothy 4:1-4. I'm going to read this and then listen from my girlfriends here at the table. "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom. Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned aside to fables." So we have a job to do, a purpose like you said, Kyli, in the midst of hard. But, Jina, contrast that with with the Scripture I just read where it talks about the yoke being easy.
Jina McAfee:One of the things I remember when our teacher taught this session, she had a picture of two animals yoked together. One was a huge animal. Have you heard of a beast of burden? He is the animal that carries the load. The animal next to it is like a baby in comparison. Think about a parent teaching his/her child to do something, maybe teaching them how to mow with a push mower. It would be like a parent pushing the mower with the child, the parent carrying the load, rght? I love that picture. So Jesus is saying,"Come to Me. Let Me carry the load." And actually, you can look at this in another level as well. Jesus talked about how the religious leaders laid burdens on people, the law that was before Jesus, the law that was impossible to follow. The religious leaders weren't following the law, but they were expecting the people to follow it. There were some 600 or more laws that were added. It was a burden. They couldn't keep them. It would be like me and my husband trying to do life without Jesus. So Jesus says,"Come to Me. I've got a better way. I carry it. I'm going to be with you. I'm going to teach you. And I'm going to give you rest. I'm going to give you peace." I love that picture of the beast of burden carrying the load. Jesus took our sin. He took it. He carried the load for us. Another Scripture that goes
along with it is John 16:32-33. Jesus says, "In this world, you will have trouble." So we know that up front. In the Message version, He's telling those closest to Him, "Do you finally believe? In fact, you're about to make a run for it--saving your own skins and abandoning Me. [He knows what's going to happen. He tells them.] But I'm not abandoned. The Father is with Me. [I'm not alone, right?] I've told you all this so that trusting Me [like Kyli said] you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I've conquered the world." So that peace that we have, is just peace knowing that He's got us, He carries it, and we're never alone. We can handle it because He's doing the work.
Kyli Rose:I look at the fruit when I'm in the middle of something. I evaluate how I'm responding: anxious, frustrated, angry, all these things. If I'm staying in this state, then what has happened is I am actually at odds with Him under that yoke. I'm trying to carry it. We end up wearing ourselves out mentally, physically, spiritually, in every single way. He is bigger. He knows the right direction. And sometimes we prolong our hard or we make it harder, because we will not let Him lead. We will not come up under that yoke and allow Him to lead. Can you imagine the smaller animal and this very large animal?One's trying to go left, and one's trying to go right? How frustrating and exhausting that would be.
Jina McAfee:You are going to go the way of the bigger animal.
Kyli Rose:We do that a lot. I know, I do that. I just wonder how often we prolong our season of hard sometimes because we will not come up under His yoke and allow Him to lead us.
ReGina Johnston:We can make it harder, or we can allow God to help us. One of the things we know about God is He doesn't waste our pain. And there are benefits to hardships. So, Kyli, talk to us a bit about what happens in the hard if we actually yield to that bigger beast of burden, to the Lord, and allow Him to help us.
Kyli Rose:We're talking about the deception, If it's hard, it's not God. But really the truth in all of this is that you can develop faith under pressure. It's in those moments of pressure, it's in those moments of hard, that our faith is refined and defined. I was telling my friends before we we pressed the record button that I am so thankful for the good moments. There are more than I can count on my timeline when God has been good and faithful. But sometimes those aren't as clear in my memory. The moments that I remember, the moments that changed me, the moments that really solidified something in me and have held me and carried me and solidified my faith, have been the hard moments. Those have been the testing moments. We see in James 1:2-4 that he talks about how if you want to get to the place of hope, it actually is through the vehicle of suffering. If you're going to experience hope, it comes through the vehicle of suffering. You cannot bypass that. There are no shortcuts to hope. You experience hope through suffering. It's wild. And we don't like that vehicle. We want to pick another one. But we can't. We can't. Trials and testing develop perseverance. And ultimately, that leads to us growing and maturing. Can you imagine: I have two boys. They're not going to mature into men if there is never any amount of pressure on them, if there's never any amount of responsibility, or if we went before them and we made everything easy for them. Can you imagine the immature men that they would become, how they would fold under pressure, they would fold if there was ever anything hard that they had to work through, conflict resolution, offense? They have got to learn how to interact with the world around them. And sometimes it will be good, and sometimes it won't be. And so what our job is, as parents, is to help them grow into mature men who are one day able to even lead their families. And our Father does that same thing for us. It's for our good. It doesn't feel good, but it is for our good. We see that. We actually get to identify with Christ through fellowship and suffering. We see that in Mark 1:17. And then in Philippians
3:10, it says that you never look more like Christ than when you are actually serving and suffering in some capacity. And I know this isn't like a"woo-hoo" podcast, but what an honor that we get to identify with Jesus whenever we suffer. It leads to something. It produces something on the earth and in us. It's a good thing. And then we see lastly, sound teaching is essential for spiritual maturity. If we're going to grow, we have got to be connected to truth. If you are in the middle of hard, what you are listening to in the middle of your hard will change the outcome. It will change how you get through it. It will change where you land at the end of it. It changes everything. You're in one of three places this side of
heaven:we just came out of something hard, we're in something hard right now, or we will be going into something hard at some point. We have to purpose: How am I going to get through this hard? I don't always get a say in what the hard is, but I get to say how I go through it. What you are listening to, who you are listening to, what you are putting into your mind, what you are meditating on, what you are reading, what you are watching, will determine how you get through your hard. Choose wisely. It matters.
ReGina Johnston:Scripture teaches us how to prepare ourselves for times of difficulty. One of the things we hear, and we've said it regularly in our podcasts, is that we need to know Jesus. I want to highlight that we need to understand the character of Jesus. When you're in the midst of conflict with someone and things get hurled at one another, we can forget that we're talking to someone that we know their character. If you know someone's character, you don't put all kinds of suppositions on what they're saying. You can say, "The way I heard that is out of line with their character." Sometimes we want to blame God, but we're blaming Him for things that are out of line with His character. We've got to understand, we've got to know the character of Jesus. We need to put our faith in Him, not in what He does for us. Our faith is in Him first and foremost. Not "What," but"Who." That's our firm foundation. That's our rock. Jina, there was a conversation about this in the Bible in the book of Matthew. Tell me more about that conversation.
Jina McAfee:I think it's so interesting "when" it takes
place. Matthew 16:13-19 is before the Cross. Jesus wants His disciples to know Him, right? He wants them to know Him because it's going to get hard. He's coming into the region of Caesarea Philippi and He asks His disciples, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" They're answering, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." But then He says,"But who do YOU say that I am?" I love Peter, because he is quick to answer so many times, and here, he gives a great answer. He says, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." When Jesus asked, "Who do people say that I, the Son of Man, am?" they're looking at prophets and men. Peter says,"You're the Son of the living God," and we know Jesus was both. He was fully God and fully man so that he could reveal God to us. But he says to Peter,"Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in in heaven." I think in some ways, it's like Jesus is giving Peter, the same word that he gave Paul later. This is who you are, and you've got to know who I am. We just talked about that in our last podcast. We have to just settle it up front, God is good. He's good. That's His character. So we build our foundation on this truth--who He is to us. When the hard comes, we're going to find out who He is to us, what we have really believe in our hearts. It's an inward revelation. Paul had that revelation and it carried him the whole way, through all of the hard. Peter had that revelation. He floundered some, but it carried him the whole way too.
ReGina Johnston:So one of the ways we can prepare ourselves is just to know Him and know His character. Kyli, what else?
Kyli Rose:We had read 2 Timothy 4:1-4 where Paul is essentially trying to encourage Timothy. Timothy was called to preach, but we laid the groundwork for the environment they were preaching in. It was hard. Talk about hard. This was hard. You go and preach the Word to a hostile crowd. You may or may not live. We have a lot on the line here. We see mentor, Paul, telling his mentee, Timothy,"Timothy, you know the Word and you preach it anyway." Essentially, what he's saying is, even though it's hard, you have been given a job to do so you have to do it anyway. Do it in the midst of hard, do it regardless of what the outcome is, because that's the call that God has placed on your life. So this has multiple implications. What do we do when it's hard? Well, we do need to be in the Word. We all have been given a similar call to know the Word and to preach it, whether you're on a stage, or you're preaching the gospel to yourself, you're encouraging yourself, you're doing it at work, whatever the space or the place that you've been entrusted. We have a similar call to Timothy. That's to know the Word, to know God, to make Him known to the people. That's the mission. What is our default when things get hard? US. We shrink back. We become the mission. We become the filter. We shrink back. We boundary our life to such a capacity that we have absolutely no impact on the world around us anymore, right? All of a sudden, we become ineffective. What Paul is encouraging Timothy to do here is even though it's hard, you do it anyway. Because there is a call on your life, Timothy. And so that's what we see him saying. He says, "You know the Word and you preach it." In 2 Timothy 4:2, he says, "Preach the Word and be ready in season and out of season." So Timothy, you stay prepared. You stay in My word. You stay connected to God. And you do the thing that you're called to do. And then thirdly, we see Paul basically encouraging Timothy to stay focused on the mission. We think we have a lot of time but we don't. We're here for such a short amount of time. And sometimes when you're in the middle of hard, time becomes a trippy thing in our life. We sometimes lose the grasp of the grid. Does that make sense? Like when I know when I'm in the middle of hard, it seems as though time stands still. God is reminding us constantly, we're not here very long. I think that's why He's constantly pointing towards eternity. He's trying to say, "You're not living for this little blip on a timeline; you're living for something far greater and eternal, beyond this place." So Paul is encouraging Timothy in that as well. You stay focused on the mission, because you're here for a short amount of time. Make it count.
Jina McAfee:I love that! Paul basically speaks to Timothy, his purpose, in just a couple of lines. And the expectation: it is going to be hard, but you stick with it. And I thought, it carried Timothy the whole time.
ReGina Johnston:Honestly, if our focus is on ourselves our whole lives, Scripture even tells us, we're miserable people. But when we focus outside of ourselves on something of eternal purpose, then really, we are a very fulfilled people. It's not always easy to do, but we're a very fulfilled people. In the natural, fire is a way to test gold. So when all the impurities are burned away, what is left is this 24 karat gold which is considered very, very valuable. In much the same way, we as Christians are refined by the trials of life that we go through, and that makes us ready to meet God face to face as we become more and more like Jesus. The Bible says, from glory to glory, He's changing me. We used to sing a song, a little kids' song that says, "From glory to glory, He's changing me, changing me, changing me, His likeness and image to perfect in me, the love of God shown to the world."
Jina McAfee:That's a powerful song!
Kyli Rose:So don't hop out of the fire. The practical implications here is don't hop out, don't shortchange the process.
Jina McAfee:It's so interesting that over and over again in Scripture, He shows us something physical to represent the spiritual. The way diamonds are formed are another example. Just like gold comes through the fire, diamonds are formed deep in the earth where there's a lot of weight and pressure plus a very high temperature. So weight and heat form a diamond. You get this beautiful, clear stone. No wonder we like diamonds. I mean, they're gorgeous. So don't circumvent what God wants to do in your life. You will glad you leaned in.
Kyli Rose:So we've been talking a lot about the hard, and you're asking, "What's going to hold me in the fire. How do I stay in the fire?" We see the encouragement all throughout Scripture, that the love of God will hold us. It holds us in the middle of the hard. I think sometimes in our western world, we minimize this word, "love." It's like, "I love tacos," and"I love my shoes," and "I love my kids." But God's love supersedes our understanding. It's so big and so vast, and it holds us. It will carry us. So if you are in the fire, Scripture gives us this encouragement. It's a little long, but I want to read it to us because it's powerful. And wherever you are in the middle of your hard, you are not alone. The love of God is there, and He will carry you through, in and through. I'm going to read Romans 8:31-39. "So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing Himself to the worst by sending His own Son, is there anything else He wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? [Can I just insert something here? If we're in the middle of hard, sometimes it feels like we're in it alone. And God is saying, you are not in it alone. And I'm going to help fight this battle that you're in the middle of. And I just love that. You're safe even in the middle of hard.] Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us--who was raised to life for us!--is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. [Sticking up for me, sticking up for you.] Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture. [And this was their reality guys] They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. [He's saying they kill believers because they hate Jesus.] We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one. But none of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing--nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable, or unthinkable--absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has already embraced us." Love that!
ReGina Johnston:We can be right in the middle of God's will and
Jina McAfee:Me too. right in the middle of hard at the same time. But how do I know the difference? How do I know when I'm right in the middle of God's will and that hard is just because I'm doing his work? Or, how do I know if the hard that I'm experiencing is because of my wrong choices? Well, here are some questions. Is God with me? Is what I'm doing lining up with his Word? Am I caring about what He cares about? Ask yourself those questions. And lest you think you're alone in wondering whether or not it's worth it, John the Baptist had that same thought process when he was in prison. He sends his disciples to ask, "Jesus, are you really the One? Or, should we look for another?" He's in jail. He's alone. And Jesus hasn't come to deliver him. It looks grim. And he's basically saying, "Did I get this right? Is it worth it?" He's basically asking that question: Is it worth it? Jesus sends back the Word through the disciples, "The blind see, the lame walk, the dead are raised to life again." In other words, He is saying, "John, you got it right. And I guarantee you, it's worth it." So here's our challenge to you today. Do the hard things. Choose to do the things God has called you to do no matter what. Don't turn back. Stay in there. God is with you.