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Is Your God Faithful?
Episode No. 17

This week, we cover God’s faithfulness and share some stories from our friends and listeners of this show. Often times we struggle to see God’s faithfulness when we are in the midst of struggle and heartache, but God is faithful and He is at work. We talk about how to be reminded and live into God’s Faithfulness, especially when life gets hard.

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Resources

Verses – Hebrews 13:8-9.
Verse – Matthew 25:14-30.
Book – The Character of God.
Book – Discovering the God Who Is

Transcript

Josh: Hello. Hello. Hello. We’re just two normal dudes trying to live this jesus’ life. My name is Josh.

Andrew: Hey, Hey, I’m Andrew. And we are this Jesus life podcast. Josh, my man. How you doing on the road, dude?

Josh: On the road? No joke. I’m sitting at a ironing board, found a chair. It’s my bedroom because it’s the only place I could find relatively quiet.

So if you hear a big old freaking trucks driving by or Matt yelling in the background, it’s because we are at a conference right in Idaho. So I’m traveling actually, I’ll be traveling next week too. I’m like the traveling, wow. Work with boat means where you get to travel everywhere. I don’t even, I even told you this.

So I’m in Idaho for a conference next week. I had to Boston, Providence and New York city. Yeah, like right down the street.

Andrew: Yeah. You are a couple of hours away, man. Nice

Josh: for a week. Now my brother’s out there for Navy training, so he’s like, you should come out and hang out. And I said, well, I can work from anywhere.

So sounds good. So what’s up. Never been to Boston, never been to New York city.

Andrew: I’ve never been to New York city, but Boston is a sweet town, like awesome food dude. Awesome food everywhere. Cause it’s like built that goes down to, uh, I don’t think it’s beach beach, but like the ocean’s right there, you know, like big Bay or whatever it’s called, but awesome food.

Crazy history. Really cool looking city. You should go on Harvard campus while you’re there, man. Like just go and walk around. It’s pretty cool. It’s like right. Downtown, it’s solid.

Josh: So either for like a day and a half, if that right, my brother has to work. So I. Yeah. So when I get in Saturday, I’m going to head to Boston.

Yeah. That’s the killer man.

Andrew: I am sitting, uh, pretty much exactly, exactly where I’ve been for all of these discussions in my, my office at home. Um, my daughter is napping on the other side of that wall, so that’s really good. Hoping she has a really long one, dude. I don’t know if I told you I know it was on Instagram, but, um, we officially got our first three chicken on Sunday.

And we got one more yesterday. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s like, dude finally,

Josh: or at least the Instagram filter made no, no gray,

Andrew: no, they’re green. They’re green eggs, Easter Egger chickens. That’s like the variety of chicken. Those ones, we have five or six of them and they like green eggs. The other ones late Brown eggs.

Josh: Is that green inside?

Andrew: No, no eggs, totally normal outside. It’s just the shell is like green on the inside.

Josh: I was just thinking like some green eggs and ham.

Andrew: Yeah. Green eggs and ham. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, so that’s kind of cool, actually. That’s really cool. I’m like finally you burn through it, like doing something right.

Dude, we got them in April. So it’s been a while we got them like mid April, but that’s like, right.

Josh: We have a friend, we have friends that have chickens. Uh, I won’t say the name just for the sake of, but have they laid eggs yet? Have you asked him.

Andrew: Uh, they had not like a week ago when we asked, so yeah, we, uh, we’re getting this chickens, you know, finally doing something for me.

Dang burns. I know

Josh: fricking free loading this whole time. Yeah. Three episodes ago, like cut off their head. Just one of them to show dominance, let them know you’re in charge and demand those eggs

Andrew: and they did it. I should have.

Josh: Yeah, I really should. What’d you say they escaped,

Andrew: dude. Okay. I got to tell, I know this is two chicken updates, one episode, but yeah, I, I got some serious cardio and the other day, so I put up this temporary fence, uh, so they can have like an extended run area and, um, basically they were loving it.

Like they were so happy out there. And I was like, you know what, I’m just going to leave you guys out to run for like few hours. I gotta mow. I gotta do some stuff, you know, and I’ll put you back in a bedtime, well, an hour and a half later, I go back to this area because I like out of there coroner. My I’m pretty sure I saw chicken just walking.

Like not in the room, like, Oh, so, uh, so I pull my mower over there and sure enough, one of the supports of the fence had collapsed, um, because I didn’t hit it in heart far enough with the hammer. So dude, like there was one chicken in the run area. All the rest were spread out, like in woods, like everywhere.

So Clementine my dog comes running back there and the next thing I know she’s back in the woods, dude. She was sheep dogging the chicken chickens back to the coop,

Josh: but

Andrew: like she would run into the woods and go like a hundred feet back there and then I’d see a chicken just like, you know, like six feet in there and then like start making its way back.

But she like was pushing him back, but then I have these sticks to like wide and like push them in. So I was like literally, probably 45 minutes of nonstop running and chicken chasing like, like getting them up towards the fence and then grabbing them, like putting one in at a time and I’ve moved like five of them real close, and then I’d actually get one and a bunch of others go all crazy.

Josh: It was

Andrew: just. Huge. It was ridiculous. It was really ridiculous, but I got them all back in. I didn’t kill any of them. I’ll

Josh: be honest as I started to watch your Instagram story with this playing out. Now that I remember it, uh, when you first posted like what you did, I was like, Oh, this is going to embed it.

Andrew: That’s exactly what my wife said. She’s like, that’s not going to work. Yeah. So yeah, I might try it again, but I will do it, uh, more securely I’ll use like a mallet and the things and cause the idea was solid. But a execution was flawed.

Josh: What did you have a ladder is one of your supports

Andrew: I may or may not have.

Okay.

Josh: I built something like that. Once we used to do a big old Dodge ball tournament when I ran the junior high ministry in Phoenix. Um, and we like, we did it on the basketball court, but we made this like ginormous cage, uh, with saying like, CA like orange plastic cautionary fence or whatever. So it was like, it was legit.

Like you had to pull like the fence apart to get into the end of the arena. Like it was top notch probably spent a couple thousand dollars on building that for an event that it took two hours, but Hey, who cares? Oh my God. Lots of money. And it wasn’t fun. Well, we don’t get yelled at during that one. So like we had the speakers going outside and there was some lady came over.

It’s a Saturday afternoon. Right. Just tore into me in front of everybody. She’s like, I work all week. This was my Obama. And I was like, man, would you, would you rather them? I don’t know, be out spray, painting your house or rather have them here being safe.

Andrew: Feel like, man, what does he hurt you? Because I have 300 teenagers.

I’m going to send a toilet

Josh: paper. You’re sending people to your house. Dude. Mind boggling.

Andrew: Speaking of speaking of dodgeball, what do you, why are we talking about faithfulness this week, bro?

Josh: Uh, why are we talking? Cause God is faithful. Um, and I think oftentimes you see this with you Israelites, right? Like you go through, um, their history through the old, old Testament and just see over and over again of how they forget that God’s faithful.

They lose faith and turn to other gods turned to other solutions rather than relying. So I think it’s important for us. To keep that perspective. I think that’s what we’re talking about. God’s faithful. And we kind of put it all by itself. One, because we have these grand elaborate plans of we’re going to collect all these stories and then we did, and they were like, well, we don’t really know how to share them.

Yeah. We’ll figure that. We’ll try to bring some into this episode, but let’s be honest, probably not going to pull wallet. Um, But the other part of it, it’s like, I think it’s an important characteristic of God. Like it’s the thing that keeps hope instilled inside of us. If we’re constantly reminded that God is faithful.

And I think people also miscue it or misunderstand what it means for God to be faithful. And we just assume God’s going to give us everything we want. Like, that’s what it means for God to be faithful. And it’s not everything we want. It’s what we, what we need. Like, I was just telling someone last week, uh, I was having lunch with, and we were just talking about kind of our journeys and catching up with each other up to this point.

And, um, Yeah. I just had the thought of like, man, the things that I’m dreaming today, I would never have dreamed if my last church didn’t end the way that it did, because in all reality, it didn’t end the way that it did. I probably would have ended up just at another church doing the same thing rather than dreaming about the things that I’m dreaming about.

Um, so like there’s God’s faithfulness and the moment you’re like, this is crazy, but like, even through that whole story, like God was faithful over and over again. So like totally agree. I don’t know if I’ve ever shared this part of the story, but I was fired on a Monday. Uh, I had a job interview on Tuesday and was hired within a couple of weeks after that, uh, for that same role.

I’m like God was taking care of me each step of the way. And now like, shoot, I make significantly more money today than I ever did at that church. So thank you. Working in the business world for churches, uh, we kind of never thought possible. But so it’s little things like that. Like, did God have to do like take the money piece out of it?

I’m like, yeah, it was extremely faithful. Yeah. In providing me income and providing me, you know, what I needed to pay my bills and all those kinds of things. Yeah. And then also provided me a extremely healthy culture that I got to heal. And then learn from and, um, see the toxic, you know, things that I fell into for my last employment.

Um, and also see, like, how do you treat people well and how do you work with coworkers and learning all those things. I’ve never learned any of those things, but it ended up where I’m at today, but like, yeah.

Andrew: lessons. You’ll figure out a little down the road once you’re in the next she’s, whatever that is, whether that’s starting church maybe, or at a different company or a different church or whatever.

Um, I am sure there’s even more that you’re gonna be like, Oh, that was like, so formative and vital. But due to her, I remember, I remember that moment you just got fired and like, I don’t know, 12 hours later we were talking and you’re like, yeah, I might have to sell my house. Yeah. Just real realistic. Like.

Might adapt to sell my house. I have like a couple of weeks pay or whatever vacation, and that’s pretty much it, you know, like you were just kinda got hosed. Um, so just the faithfulness. That’s so good. I forgot that part of your story, man. It’s pretty awesome.

Josh: Well, and I think, and we’d say this all the time, but like, um, so often when you’re in the midst of whatever it is, whatever the struggle is, whatever, wherever is testing your ability to believe that God is faithful.

Um, we so easily, quickly forget all the ways God has been faithful. Um, So, you know, time and perspective are kind of the keys, um, that have to happen for us to be able to, Oh, that’s how God was working. Like in the midst of it, you could be like, woe is me. Everything is horrible. And not believe that God is at work, but with a little time and perspective, um, you’re able to look back and say, Oh wow.

Even in the midst of those dark days, God was still working here, here, here, and here. Like, those are the pieces that I think God knows human character. Like this is why he gave the Israelites so many different times. Like. Things to remind them, excuse me, if God’s faithfulness, like, you know, when they crossed into the promised land and they grabbed stones and they went through that whole rigamarole and then bolt built that, that, uh, mic shift alter, it was a reminder of, no, God is faithful.

God is bringing about what he promised he was going to bring about. Maybe not how he wanted it to happen. Maybe this is your lights just wanted to inherit the land and night. I have to defeat any of, of the, um, Tribes and nations that were there, but that wasn’t God’s plan. And there’s probably a fair amount of learning that happened inside of that.

Like shoot, think of Jericho, like God’s plan in Jericho was hair’s wants you to walk around and play music. Yeah. Yeah. And other times I want you to just be completely silent and just be, and then, you know, the final day, should you do this so many times completely silent, and then I want you to really loud and blow all your trumpet.

Like this is not how you conquer a city. Um, and then

Andrew: takeover.

Josh: Right. God said something was going to happen. You deal with the way that he said it, and then it happens like God is a promise keeper.

Andrew: Yeah. You’re absolutely right. And yeah, I think it’s good. You put a caveat on there of like God’s faithfulness, not always just being prosperity.

Um, a lot of the things that I think about in my life as God’s faithfulness, Kind of look like prosperity, but not always, like, I think of, um, like the friends that God has put in my life, the relationships that God has put in my life after moving to Pennsylvania. Yeah. Cause I love, you love a lot of friends, but it’s also really good to have friends who are physically in the room, you know, um, as well as friends who aren’t, but, um, that God’s provided that in a huge way in the last year.

Um, now he’s also provided financially. He’s provided a home for us. He’s provided work for me all like, but, but it’s really easy to link God’s faithfulness to prosperity, but I feel like we’re we’re you and I are pretty quick to be like, wait, we’re not trying to say, if you pray three times a day and give 10% of your income and do this, that God’s gonna.

Double your income and give you a better house and give you a cooler, whatever, you know, because their test theory

Josh: give me 10% of their income. Just me personally. I promise I’ll use it for jesus’ things. We can test it to see if that doubles yourself.

Andrew: That’s all right. I can’t give you a tax write off. I can’t help you in that way, but I will use it and I’ll send you a thank you card.

If you want to send that?

Josh: Well, how often it comes me like a good place, right? Like the, the thing we always like to make is like, you know, God is in, we’re quoting scripture, but you know, um, if God can trust you with literally, he’s going to give you great, like that’s true, but what is great to him might not necessarily.

Will necessarily be the same definition of what is great to you. You’re looking at saying, well, he’s going to give me, cause I’ve heard the stories of like, I remember being little like elementary school age, and they’re talking about tithing to the church, which you’re like, I’m not sure why you’re teaching an elementary school child.

It’s fine. Whatever. Um, and. You know, she tells a story of like, you know, we, we didn’t, um, we didn’t have a ton of money, but I felt like this is what God wanted me to do. So I gave this money and then, you know, I wasn’t gonna be able to buy my Turkey for Thanksgiving. I’m not sure how she made it there, but this is how, remember the story probably missing some things.

Let’s be honest. I probably was not a good child in elementary school. I wasn’t listening. Um, and then we couldn’t buy a Turkey cause I gave all our money away and then God gave me two turkeys, uh, through like this. So you hear those stories. You’re like, Oh, that’s what it means. I gotta give up something now.

So God gives me greater stuff in this life and that’s not necessarily true either. Right? Might not ever be speeding in this life. It might be for the next.

Andrew: Well, so I should have put this in her notes, but I don’t even know exactly where it is in the Bible, but if you Google the parable of the talents, the story will come up where, uh, basically it’s a, it’s an example Jesus gave where a master has, um, kind of three servants and he’s a really rich mastery goes away to a different property.

And before going, he gives the one servant, something like five talents, you know, five bundles of money. You could say $5,000. Um, we’ll say, um, and the other servant, $3,000, um, three talents, the other, the last servant, you just gives one talent. A thousand dollars and he goes away and he’s there for a long time.

And then he comes back and pretty quick, as soon as he gets there, he calls the servants in and says, um, Hey, show me what you did, uh, with those talents, that with those dollars while I was gone and the one with five comes back and says, you know, a master, I invested in this, I did that. And, uh, you know, with your five talents, I actually earned five.

More, I doubled that investment. Here’s your 10,000 back. Here’s 10 talents. I don’t know why I keep going between dollars and talents, but, um,

Josh: the other one

Andrew: was just to confuse people. The other one comes back and says, the next one comes back and says, Hey, with those with the three talents you gave me, I invested this, I did this, I bought that field.

I did this thing, whatever. Um, here’s six talents back. And, uh, and then the third servant comes back and says, um, Master. Uh, I know that you’re, you’re a man who, um, you don’t want to be on the wrong side of you. You do things, uh, pretty severely. And, uh, and I was kind of scared of you because I know, I know the type of, kind of ruler that you are, you, you do justice, but you, you don’t let things slip.

So I basically just hid that one talent in the ground. I did. So here’s your talent back? And the master says. You wicked servant. Why don’t you just hide it in the ground? It did nothing good with that. Uh, you just hit, you could have at least put it in the bank and got it a little bit of interest or something.

Uh, but you just wasted that talent. I gave you, you just put it in the ground, you did nothing with it. Um, and, and basically he took that talent from that servant and gave it to the one who had invested the five and, and had doubled it. He gave it to that servant. And, uh, and then he put those two good servants in charge of a whole lot more than they ever were entrusted with.

And that is kind of that verse where you started with where it says, like those who have been given much will be given more, those who have been, uh, are faithful with much will be given more, those who have been unfaithful with little, even what they have, will be taken from them. Um, and I just. We’re so we’re quick to think about faithfulness as in just money.

Um, money’s a good kind of liveness of that, but there’s a lot of things that could be considered the talents that God has given us the things are, are you faithful with them? Are you faithful with the. Emotional intelligence I gave you, are you faithful with the people that I put you in leadership over?

Um, if you have a manager job title, or if you’re a CEO or a head pastor or whatever, um, are you faithful with the people that, that you can influence? The ones that I put in your life, um, that you have fluence over shoot, man, you and I are you faithful with the pie cast that God is allowing you to grow and influence over time?

Like, that’s a, that’s a responsibility that we have to make sure that we are faithful in that. Um, because yeah. Yeah, man. We don’t want to lead people astray. I don’t want to lead people astray because that’s going to come back on me if we do it on purpose. Um, so anyway, the good news is God is

Josh: perfectly favorable.

Andrew: It’s just the word for it. If it’s not on purpose. Yeah. But no 10, I don’t know. I just always think of the story of the talents. Um, when I think about faithfulness, that’s more of how we use the things God gives us, but my mind always goes there for whatever reason.

Josh: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, that’s good. I think, um, like I was looking at this versus and wonder like, man, I wonder if you did do your best, if God would still have been.

Proud in terms of like, I’m not going to take it everything away from you. I’m like, I wonder if it’s the fact that you did something with it, that you took a risk, you took a chance, um, and you did something with it that got lost. This is, this is you being faithful. Cause you did what I asked you to do rather than, Hey, take this and squander it, hide it.

Live inside of fear. And. Lack of faith that something happened because of it. And that’s when God’s like, yeah, we’re going to take this and put it in somewhere else. Cause like faith, right? Like that’s the currency of, of spiritual, the spiritual world. Like that’s the

Andrew: thing, the currency of spiritual world.

Josh: Thousand dollars bills, thousand dollar bills or no, no

Andrew: faith.

Josh: Yeah. Faith is the currency of the spiritual world. Like that’s the thing that God is looking for inside of his people. We see that throughout the, the epistles, right? Like over and over again, like it’s faith that is commended. Um, like it’s because of our faith that we follow, like it’s all those things.

So I think that’s a big piece of it, of like fear so easily sneaks into our, no, we’re getting off the topic of God. God’s characteristic of faithful, but we’ll bring it back. We promise. Faith has that piece of like, we have the ability to, um, take on the world and overcome fear when we live inside of the faith, that Jesus is who he said he was, he’s going to do what he said he was going to do.

Um, and not only that he did, um, those things in our past. Um, so I think. Kind of circling a background of this characteristics of who God is like, this is where we find our faith is inside of God’s faithfulness. Like we find our confidence, our courage inside of the fact that God is faithful. And I think this is why it’s so cool Horton for us to hold onto this because the second that we believe God isn’t faithful, or we believe that God may not come through for us in this moment.

Everything falls apart so quickly. Like you see so many in ourselves included. Um, but we look at so many different lives of, of those that they claim to follow Jesus. Um, and there’s, there’s not a hope. There’s not an excitement. There’s not a man. I was going to do like, all the cards are stacked against us, but like how awesome is it that all the cards are stacked against us so we can see God be God and act the way that God acts and watch him come through in the most miraculous of ways.

But that’s not how we function. We function in safety and we want it to be, feel safe and we want it to work out the way that we thought it was going to work out. But the problem when we live in that world is, um, we never see them because it’s always lined up and we doing everything in our power to make sure that it lines up.

Yeah. Um, and in all reality, like when we live in the end, there’s a part of my personality that like, I don’t like the unknown. Um, I don’t like to not be in control. I don’t like to let things be free flowing. Um, I typically don’t get along well with people that like free flowing. Um, but for whatever reason, those are the people that God circles around me.

Um, we’ll take it. He’s trying to teach me something. But, um, like in the midst of that, like that’s the piece where like, man, like that’s when I get to see them, God, that’s when I get to see the yeah. The big moments of God flex his muscles just a little bit that blows us away in such a large, um, uh, inexpensive way.

And that’s when we, we believe they got it is faithful. That God cares about me, that God cares about my wellbeing. They’ve got cares that I become person that he’s called me to beat or accomplish the things that he called me to accomplish inside this life for the sake of his kingdom, like living in that place, then we hold onto those.

And sometimes you need silly, silly things like, Hey, it’s the year of the chicken that I need to hold on to right. To hold on to, to remind myself that no, God is faithful. He was faithful in the past. He’s being faithful right now. And he’s going to be faithful in the future though. I may not see his hand at work.

Um, I’m going to choose to believe that his hand is at work because it is, but I’m going to choose to believe in those moments that it’s a work so I can continue. Excuse me to continue to have faith, continue to have hope, continued to believe that others, this miraculous God that could do miraculous things.

Andrew: Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, I mean, man, all what you just said. Absolutely. But we do need the reminders. I at least I need the reminders. Like one of them. Yeah. One of the church that we used to go to, one of my favorite sermons are our friend Ray. Preached a sermon. And he was talking about the Israelites.

This was like, I don’t know, four or five years ago it’s been awhile. But, um, he said, uh, he, I kept using this, this phrase of basically Lord remind us. Cause we’re so quick to forget. Um, and then he, that was kind of like a theme he used throughout. Like the Israelites were so quick to forget, right. We’re so quick to forget, you know, uh, in my day, on a Tuesday, on a Wednesday, or to remind me, cause I’m so quick to forget that that Jesus was so faithful to me, that he went onto the cross with me in mind with my sin in mind, taking my sin upon himself, uh, physically, spiritually doing that as a sacrifice for me.

But man, Tuesday’s done and on Wednesday, I can start to forget that. And on Thursday, maybe it’s fully out of my head and I do something dumb. So again, on Friday, Lord, remind me of the things that I know are true. Remind me of the, the times you’ve been faithful in my life. I like that the year of the chicken, I shared that, that story, um, or a good chunk of it.

Um, I don’t know an episode yeah. Or two ago. So if you, if you’re just listening now for the first time, um, go back, listen to our last three or four episodes. They’re really all about these characteristics of God and kind of good views of God. Um, essentially, but one of the things that I was reminded of about the year of the chicken is as you were.

Telling your story? Um, a little bit. It goes just that I, that all started when I went to my employer, my boss, um, and said, Hey, uh, we’re having a baby in October and, you know, shared that news and then follow it up. Pretty quickly with, I need remote that, uh, a job that is fully remote so that I can work from Pennsylvania.

Um, because we’re moving to Pennsylvania shortly after our baby is born because we want to live near family and we believe God’s opening the doors for us to do that. So it started with this like leap of dude. I have no idea what’s coming. And in September, um, a month before the baby was going to be born, I still didn’t have a job.

Lined up with, with my current employer, compassion. Um, I didn’t have a job. It was like, uh,

Josh: like I didn’t have a job job.

Andrew: I was planning to resign my job in like December and make the move regardless. So, um, I was actually out on a couple of weeks of paternity leave. Right after my daughter had been born, um, when I did the interviews for the role I’m in now, um, and it was like, it was just, this is crazy chain of events from there has, has cemented God’s faithfulness in my life and in my mind.

But, um, I know you can see this Josh, they can’t, uh, watching, but I did a wood burning of a chicken. Uh, and I just done a little piece of wood. Uh, I burned it in and I keep it on my desk where it can see it real clearly, because I know that I’m real quick to forget God’s faithfulness. Um, so if I don’t keep it in front of me, if I don’t keep it top of mind, then I can forget that really quick and start thinking.

Um, no, it’s my power to provide for my family. I have to figure out my income. I have to figure out my friends. I have to figure out. All of it, man. So I don’t know. That’s, uh, that’s where it takes me is like, it, it sometimes starts with the thing that seems crazy, whether it be walking around Jericho seven times being silent and then playing music really loud, or just be saying, Hey, employer, who?

I love job that I, I like I’m resigning. And this is my line of when I’m going to do that, because I believe God is opening doors for me to do this. Um, and then seeing where it goes. So I don’t know, but God is faithful and that’s just in, that’s just in a smaller my, my day to day life experience of faithfulness.

That’s not in this macro concept of God being the same constantly. Um, being always faithful, always present, always good. All the things we’ve been talking about, but, um, But that’s the best kind of example I can think of, of just it’s the year of the chicken.

Josh: Yeah. And like, you know, as, as we read through these stories that we’ve collected of God’s faithfulness, you know, marriages on the, you know, a moment of collapse or dreams that.

You know, pursuing for years that never came to be or taking huge risks because they felt like this was what God was coming, calling him to do. And then hitting struggles along those risks. And then questioning is God really in this who’s God really called me to this. And then all the ways that they all ended of God is faithful and.

I think maybe instead of Andrew, instead of digging into each of those stories, we’ll post them to our website. We’ll figure out a way to do that. Um, just cause I think it’s helpful to be reminded of other people’s lives. And if you have stories, you know, continue to email us@helloatthisuserlifepodcast.com and we’ll get them up as well.

Because I think when people are in the midst of it, when it’s hard, when it’s difficult, when they’re wondering where God is and maybe, you know, with COVID and everything else going on the murder. Hornets and the hurricane and whatever else, 20, 20, whatever it is. Yeah. Yeah. Riots, uh, not just riots, like, you know, devastating, destructive riots.

Um, yeah, it’s all over. Maybe you’re in the midst of it right now. And you’re just like, man, I gotta be reminded of that, of God’s faithfulness. And I got to see these stories of how God was in. Here’s how the enemy attacks me is yet God is faithful. I firmly believe that I believe God could intervene if he chose to, but I don’t believe God wants to intervene for me.

And that goes back to having a poor view, that God is good, that God is full of love, and God is merciful. Um, you know, as we talked about last episode, um, and that’s kind of the miss. So it’s taking a step back. Like, no, no, no. God is like, there’s nothing I could do. That’s going to change. God’s love for me.

And there’s nothing that’s going to remove that. I’m I am Jesus’s and that’s settled. Um, so it may be you’re in the mode, you’re in the middle of like, God doesn’t intervene. God, isn’t active in our lives. God doesn’t care. And reading through those stories may be super helpful. Um, and we’ll get those posted, but, um, yeah.

I think it’s more important to, uh, at least from a practical standpoint is to record the times when God is faithful in your own lives. Um, I think that’s super helpful when things are good and this is hard for us, right? Like when things are good, we spend a lot less time talking to God. Yeah. But those are the most fruitful times.

Cause that’s when you’re not distracted by everything else, you get to genuinely focus in on what Jesus does to tell you. But, um, like when things are good, figure out ways to record it, whether it’s the year of the chicken and I know for you, it was. You were headed into a rough season and God gave you the words of, you know, chicken.

And, um, it was the thing that held you over and that God can definitely work in, in your life that way, as well as you listen. But when things are good and things are happening, like record those stories, it’s important. Um, you know, whether it’s physical things you purchase to remind you of those things, or it’s.

You know, you write them down in your journal or in your notes app on your phone. So you can, you ain’t have them and go back to them. I think it’s really important to record those things. Um, you know, it’s the same principle that God used with the Israelites over it over again. Um, it’s the same principle we see written out through the epistles, through Paul’s writing and Peter’s writing as we talk about the future, like don’t focus on the now and the here focus on the next life.

Everything you do in this life is for that. Yeah, I think there’s a perspective piece inside of that, that helps us remain, remain in the fact that God, God is faithful. Cause it’s not a matter of is God faithful. God is faithful like that. The answer to the question, it’s not questionable. It’s not like he is.

That’s just who he is. As much as he is loved as much as he is just as much as he is all powerful and knowing you ever present God is 100% all the time faithful to his creation. Now. God lets us choose our, our destinies. God lets us make us choices on whether we want to follow him or not. But God will give us opportunity after opportunity to come to know him as our Lord and our savior.

So yeah, and we can experience that. Like that’s the faithfulness of God is I’m going to give you every opportunity to you. Take your last breath, um, to experience who I am and what I’m about. My God is faithful. So when we come into places where we feel like God isn’t being faithful, or it’s not turning out, like we thought, and we’re frustrated angry, maybe it’s, you know, you’ve been trying to have baby a baby for years.

Um, and you find yourself constantly wondering, like, is this like maybe you just pull back from the dream for a moment, just to be able to say, no, God is faithful. So how is God going to be faithful in this? God might not give me what I want. I might not have the baby that’s my own. Um, from the perspective of I push that thing out, um, or I had to cut out, I guess you feel either way.

Um, I was cut out since I came out black and blue and conehead shape cause I wasn’t gonna fit. And the doctor wanted me to, so I was eventually cut out, but maybe it’s not. You know, biologically you’re a child that there’s children that God wants you to be. The mother of God wants you to be the father of I’m like there’s other way.

And maybe it’s going to give you a level of fulfillment that you never thought was going to be possible because God provided them before. So like, like it’s, it’s hard for us to give up dreams and this is the Christian life, right? Like less of me more of Jesus will, less of me means I have to let go of my hands of the things that I’m holding and just.

Hold things loosely and believe that God is going to be faithful in the midst of it. Right? Like it’s hard. I get it. Like I’ve been in those moments. It’s difficult to, to process of feeling like that. God didn’t have your back. Cause he didn’t, it didn’t turn out the way that you want. Like my youth pastor used to tell a story.

I think it was my youth pastor. I could be wrong. It could be just another story that I heard, but I’m pretty sure it was him went to a funeral of his aunt or someone he was close with and he was going to pray that this person came back to life. Wow. Now can God do that? Yes. Has God done that? Yes. Like it’s recorded in scripture.

Um, But does that mean God’s not faithful if he doesn’t do it? No. Um, and I think that’s part that we have to really hold on to is God’s plan is perfect. God’s plan might not be the way that I thought it was going to God’s plan might even cause me pain in the midst of it. But God’s plan always turns out for the betterment of those who follow.

Um, so like that’s the piece that I hold on to. Um, and I think practically write them down, grab a journal and just that be your faithfulness journal. Like that’s all you write in it. It’s just stories of faithfulness, whether it’s faith, God face faithfulness in your life for God’s sake in other people’s lives.

Um, like write all the stories because what’s gonna happen is when shit hits the fan life, you know, the bottom falls out. Well, that’s the journey you pull back too of like, no, no, no. I felt this way that God wasn’t going to come through. I felt this, these are the same emotions I felt before, and God did come through.

So I’m going to keep holding onto the fact that God is it’s going to come through. Um, maybe not how I want it, but he is going to come

Andrew: through. To absolutely. We, we have to figure out ways to remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness. Um, what you hit on a physical journal, uh, a purchase of a small thing that reminds you of, of God’s faithfulness, of God’s forgiveness, of his kindness, of his goodness, whatever, whatever that trait or lesson is that you need to be reminded of.

If you’re listening to figure out how to market, you know, like I say, market, like physically. Do something, um, because I don’t mean build an altar in your house or anything like that, but, but we see it all throughout the old Testament that, that like they would, um, like when they crossed, I think you were talking about this earlier, when you were referencing, when they built a small altar, wasn’t it like when they crossed the Jordan sea or the red sea?

That the Israelites, uh, E each grabbed a stone, um, as they crossed and they made basically a large, large stack of stones to remind themselves of when God led them through the river. Um, after leaving Egypt, wasn’t that the case.

Josh: Because when they’re going into the promised land, so different number, but

Andrew: different river.

Yes.

Josh: But like it was a 12 stones

Andrew: tribe. Yeah, you’re right. And so they just, they physically marked the location so that every time they were going back past there, they were like, that’s what God did for us. He brought us into the promised land right there, physically. Um, If you want to hop on our website, this jesus’ life podcast.com.

We’re making a little section where we’re just going to call it. Maybe God’s stories or something like that, where the first stories up there will be a bunch of God’s faithfulness. And the thing we, we texted friends, we emailed friends and we got back to some short stories. We got back some longer stories, but they’re all really good and diverse, um, kind of experiences of God’s faithfulness.

Like. I don’t know what I was expecting when I reached out, uh, about these, but one of my buddies, who’s just a brilliant doctor. Um, he, he wrote back about a time where he almost flunked out of college and this was like early into med school. He was positive. Not even in med school, he was just early on his undergraduate track into med school, but he was so positive.

God had had dream of you’re going to be a doctor in his, his mind and his heart, um, that he put them on this path that he basically flunked a calculus test. And it was like, he couldn’t mess up in this class. He couldn’t. He couldn’t get a low grade in this class. Cause if he did he’s whole dreams derailed, like either retake the class or whatever, but it’s like, it was going to mess with them.

It was going to mess with his plans. And in that moment he turned to God and was just questioning like, did you ever even speak this into my life? Did you ever want this at all? And he kind of gave him, got an ultimatum, which you can read the full story on our website, but, um, As it stands today, he’s he is a doctor and he’s brilliant at what he does and he’s following God’s will and treating people in a really awesome and holistic way that, um, that was awesome and unique, you know, but God has equipped him to be a doctor.

That’s not a prosperity story. That’s a story of like, Doubt. And God probably was calling him back in that moment to say, well, I put that dream in your mind. I put that, that call on your life. But, uh, but you weren’t trusting me with it. So you were doing it in your own power and, uh, and it wasn’t going so well.

So if you trust me with it, I’ll give it to you. If you don’t trust it with me, I might take it away from you. You know, something like that, where God is faithful. Um, but. You know, his ways, aren’t our ways, uh, like you were saying, we don’t always. Experienced his faithfulness in the way that we expect. We don’t always experience as well in the way that we, I expect, I think so often in our lives where like, um, Oh great.

God gave me this dream. I’m just going to white, knuckle through it and I’m going to get it done. And he’s like, no, I gave you that dream because I can help you accomplish it. You can accomplish it if you do it in my will. If you do it by leaning on me. Non by white knuckling it not by figuring it out.

Yeah. I didn’t give you that dream so that you could go and look great in it. Keep it that dream because I can equip before it. And so that I look great. Through it. Um, so yeah, I don’t know.

Josh: Yeah, that’s good. I like, it reminds me, I might’ve told this story before we talked about alcohol. Cause that’s what the conversation was about.

But, um, I think, or maybe it was just with the same guy and I’m just confusing conversations, but I had a pastor once tell me, like, uh, gave you a brain for a reason. You should use it in terms of making a decision in your life. And you’re like, yeah, that’s not the point of this. Like you missed a completely, no offense, but you’re wrong.

Um, That really comes down to exactly what you’re saying of like, no, no, no. This life was designed to do in relationship with Jesus. Like, this is what we do. We walk side by side. And I think so often we get the dream from God and then we run with it. Like I’m going to do everything in my power to make this happen.

And exactly what you’re saying. He’s like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. He never asked you to do it all on your own. He asked you to do the dream and he’s going to walk every step along the way. I think so often we make it. More difficult, uh, in our own lives, in our own, in our own hearts than we needed to. If we just stopped for a moment and said, I’m not in control, Jesus is in control.

I’m going to walk in a line with what, like, this is what a biding and Jesus looks like. Right. We talked about a couple episodes ago, but like, and I think too, like, as you were talking, I was just kind of thinking through your story too. Like I think it’s also important, not only for us to record our own stories and, and find physical things to remind us of those things.

Um, But also like, do it for your friends, do it for the people around you. Like when they’re in the midst of it, like, can you locate things? Can you do things? Can you record stories? Can you do whatever you can do from your perspective, help them remind to be reminded that God is faithful. So like it’s simple things like, and I’m not tooting my own horn.

I’m just like, I probably stole the idea from somebody else. But like when you went the year of the chicken, I got a key chain with the chamber

Andrew: and I still have that.

Josh: Yeah, it has made a couple bucks. Like it’s not yeah. A huge thing, but like, here’s something I can do to remind Andrew. Yeah. That he’s, that God is faithful.

So look for those opportunities in your lives. And people have done the same for me. Like they’ve done things to remind me that God’s faithful and whether it’s buying me something to remind me or reminding me of a story when I’m in the midst of it or what, like, this is what Christian community should look like, what should be.

Bearing one another’s burdens and this is a burden. So can we remind each other, other of God’s faithfulness and live in that community and you can do that with all characteristics of God. It’s just for whatever reason, faithfulness is the one that oftentimes we struggle with believing that it’s true.

It is 100% true.

Andrew: Yeah. And you did, you did do that. So whether it was an idea of somebody that you stole or not, it was a solid move. That was a great idea. And it is a great challenge to do that in other people’s lives. If you know what God’s speaking to them, encourage them in that, you know, and don’t do it in like a, Hey, you suck.

So I got you this thing I want to encourage you because I believe that thing you think God told you is true. I believe it’s true. So I want to help reinforce that in your life, you know, Positively,

Josh: but, um, like if you believe it’s true, you believe it’s true. Go with it. And if you don’t believe it’s true, like don’t lie to the guy and say it is just going to cause destruction.

Right.

Andrew: Here’s the fake million dollar bill. Cause I know you’re going to make a million bucks

Josh: because God gives us, God gives us huge dream, right? Yeah. If we. As we’ve been talking, we don’t try to whiten the knuckle. It’s not us. We’re still relying on Jesus. But even in those moments, dreams feel so far out of reach.

And so often that you feel discouraged of like, yeah, God’s, God’s not in this. Like I miss her. God, God’s not around. Right. I’m like, yeah. You need those people to remind you. So like, if you’re the other person outside looking in and you’re saying, no, I believe that God, right. I really did call you to this as well.

Um, yeah. And speak that into them. Cause they need to hear it now. Make sure it’s true. Don’t just because you want it be a good friend. You’re going to tell him something because you know, it’s gonna make them, I feel better. That’s not helpful at all. Like that’s just cause if you’re wrong and he’s wrong or she’s wrong, she’s going to end up down a path that God never want her down.

Right. Say anything. So like speak truth, like that’s the key speak, what you believe is to be true. So that situation, but speak it. I think so. Oftentimes we don’t, even if they’re not asking you to speak it, speak it because I think so oftentimes like, Hmm, we have no idea that the doubt and the things that are running through them, their head of what God has called them and they completely convince themselves otherwise and move on.

And there could have been a moment in there, Rick. No, I do believe this. I’m going to say something to say something to her because I believe this to be true. Well, I’m going to push into this. Like I think we miss out for both good and bad, and the opposite is true as well, where you’re like, I don’t think God’s in this at all.

Don’t keep that to yourself. Like if you’re in relationship, you have some kind of influence, say something and if you’re wrong, you’re wrong. And that’s fine. Go ahead. Everything will move on, but yeah, like you also don’t want to and do your due diligence, pray through it. Don’t just make decisions on your own that you know, best about everything.

But if you feel like something’s wrong in your spirit, something’s not settling right. Speak that over them so they can hear the truth of whatever. Good and bad. So, yeah, I think Christian community is, is huge in this area.

Andrew: How do you do and. And, you know, a fun thing about planning for this episode was being able to go to friends and say, I just texted people and said, Hey, would you, would you send me a quick story of God’s faithfulness yeah.

In your life. Um, and I got back a bunch of responses, um, and. You know, I was thinking about it. Like during these, these podcast episodes, I asked you, I asked you just the most wildly difficult questions I can think of around each topic that we’re, we’re talking about usually, but it gives you a chance to share what you really think about things.

And you do the same back to me, you know? Yeah. Ask I’ve got stuff, but don’t ask it. We’ll call it questions just to be difficult, but yeah. Like, there’s something great in community of saying, Hey, how can I really pray for you? Like, what’s really going on in your life. What’s really going on with you and your wife and your friends, your mom, whatever, you know, what’s really going on.

Like, how are you really doing? There’s something beautiful about that, but there’s also something great about like, Hey, can you tell me a time when God was faithful in your life and you’re going to learn something, I didn’t know. Any of my friends would come back with the answers. They sent me the stories they sent me.

They all surprised me. Um, yeah. And there’s just something beautiful about that. Like we think of, we hear this word testimony a lot. Uh, if you’re in church for a long time, share your testimony, um, share. We have a lot of words like that, you know, but, but it’s basically just given account of what God’s done in your life, you know, and we hear that often testimony is like when you first got saved, but I think the longer you’re in this Jesus life, it’s not just that.

It’s like, no, if you believe that the kingdom of God is here and we’re a part of it today and it’s active today. Um, and it’s. It’s here, then live into it. Don’t just make a retirement plan of I’m going to die and be in heaven. No, the make a, I’m going to, I’m going to live in the kingdom of God here and now.

And then, um, so give your testimony of. You know what last Monday, this happened a month ago, this happened and two years ago, this happened the year of the chicken happened. I’m going to be telling that story for a long time, man. I don’t know what the next thing is going to be. The next big season is going to be, but I hope I have a simple word like that where I can, where it can refer back to it, or it can put a physical thing in front of my eyes were on my desk here so that I can see it and think about it because.

It’s awesome. But I don’t know if you, if you don’t believe God is faithful or you don’t believe any of these traits, um, if you don’t believe God is omnipresent, that is everywhere at once. Ask God to tell or ask somebody, you know, that that loves Jesus and loves you to tell you a story of, Hey, have you ever.

Yep. Experienced God’s presence. Can you tell me about that? Like, can you tell me about a time you experienced it when you didn’t expect to? Can you, but tell me about a time when you were running away from God really hard and he showed up anyway,

Josh: cause he’s 12,

Andrew: you know, and he is omnipresent. It’s a combo.

Like I just think. Ask questions. I ask questions of everybody all the time. Um, but it gives people a chance to tell you here’s all the ways that I know this is true. And then you can read verses like Hebrews 13, eight that says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And you can start to believe that stuff in a different way, because you’re like, well, Josh told me this and, and my wife told me this.

And John told me this and Joel and Michael. Well, yeah, Jesus must be faithful. You know, that must be true. It says it’s true. But all these people I know, experienced it, so it must be true. So, yeah.

Josh: It’s also good too, for the people you’re asking, right? Like how often it’s kind of that principle of like, you.

You solidify things in your mind, it can be anything if you’re able to teach somebody else that thing. Right. So it’s the same thing kind of principle at play here of like you ask the question, you’re like, Oh God, God is faithful. I think that’s true. I think I believe that’s true. Let me think about a story.

And now they’re solidifying things in their own mind of like, no, Oh yeah, there’s this story. There’s this time that, and then there’s this other thing time, like you’re doing them a favor as much as you’re doing yourself a favor in terms of like solidifying those, those characteristics of, of. That’d be true.

So like, here’s your homework for those listening? Um, Reach out to two, three friends this week. And just ask that question, like, how has God been faithful or whatever characteristic of God, like you said, that you’re struggling to believe in your life, like, ask him, Hey, how has God this? How has God love ’em with all this stuff going on?

Or how is God? Just, if I feel like justice isn’t happening around us or whatever the question is and see what kind of things you’ll filter through. Yeah, you’ll get some bad answers too, but like, you’ll see the things in your own. And then hopefully others are asking you of that as well. And, um, you know, that’s going to solidify some characteristics of God in your own mind and you’re like, Oh yeah, God is this and this.

Or here’s some examples that might be. I think we don’t communicate the spiritual. Um, as often as we probably should in our lives, we don’t give an account of it. Um, and we miss out on so much because we’re just not talking about it. And I’m not saying spiritual in the sense of like, let’s get creepy and weird kumbaya moments.

And, and God saw, I saw gold dust in the air. We’re not talking about any of those heads, but I think there is a part of our relationship with Jesus that we miss out on, because we’re just not talking. We’re not, we’re not ready to give an account. About what what’s going on and what has happened, but no, that’s good.

Yeah. It’s exciting.

Andrew: Yeah, man. And when you say gold dust, I immediately thought of a rattlesnake ministry. Are you thinking if you, if you do plant a church at some point, you’re going to have rattlesnakes in, right? Like that?

Josh: Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s, that’s a big deal in terms of like, I’m really testing your faith, God tests our faith.

And I think we should be grabbing rattlesnakes, looking at dead in the eyes and kissing them all the time. I think,

Andrew: Oh my gosh, I would never my pants. I could not do it.

Josh: I wouldn’t touch the fricking thing in the beginning. They just know I wouldn’t be in the same room. I’m like, no, no part of this. No, but on a serious note, like yeah.

God, like there’s a level of testing of our faith, not for the sake. I don’t think it’s for the sake of it testing to see if your, your good are testing to see if you know, but I think there’s a part of going through difficult times, what it tests. Our faith is only going to strengthen our faith because God is faithful and he will get us to the other side.

As long as we keep leaning in, um, Like you just went through the year of the chicken. Wasn’t an easy year, but God slough, I thinks, well, he’s going to give you even bigger challenges for the future to accomplish, right? Like there’s other things on the, on the horizon that are gonna be even more. And I think it’s that gradual increase.

Like you look at people in their lives. You’re like, Holy crap. Like the level of faith that they function inside of it, like that is mind boggling and that they have such courage and such a confidence that God is in the midst of this and God is going to come through. Well, they didn’t get there.

Overnight, like it was trial after trial, after trial that got them to the place of great faith. Like, it’s the same thing it’s in this, like in, sometimes it feels dumb to believe that it’s true, but God is faithful still. And he keeps pushing through like, there’s plenty of times you look at Abraham’s life over and over again.

I’m like, he’s probably thinking this is the stupidest thing and it’s our world. Okay. I guess I’m just going to do it. Um, but. That ends up getting to this place where it, now he is, you know, uh, fathering a massive nation after he took some huge, like, do you really believe, like he could get to that place where he was about to sacrifice his child?

Because God told him to, because he believed God was going to continue to be faithful. Like, no, that doesn’t come overnight. It’s not like, Hey Andrew, I need you to take care of your daughter for me tonight so I can show you that I’m faithful. Well, you don’t get that overnight. Like no trial, the trial that gets you to this places.

And I think it’s the same, same in our own lives. But, um, dude, I think, I think this is, could be super helpful and really leaning into this area. Reach out to those around you and. Ask those questions and see what, what comes back, be sure to write your experiences down or find a way to memorialize those experiences or again, was faithful.

Um, so you can be reminded them, like how awesome would it be? Say you have a spare bedroom or maybe it’s in your living room or your office, whatever it happened to have. And you just have these little tokens throughout where you walk in. It’s like memory lane. You’re like, ah, yeah. Oh, let me tell you about this.

Like I just think of like, here’s grandpa Andrew walking grandkids into his room and he’s, and you’re just like, Oh, let me tell you how God showed up with the chicken.

Andrew: There’s the year. Yeah. The chicken. That was a good year, but that was nothing compared to this.

Josh: Yeah, yeah. Right? Yeah. It’s just like those cool moments.

And you’re like, man, God. And then when God brings crazy things in front of you, crazy dreams where you thought it was going to be one thing, and now you’re moving across the country for another, or you’re giving up a job for another. Or you’re walking away from a loved one to like, those things become easier and easier for us to do when God asks us to do it because we’re to look back and say, man, look how God has been faithful.

Um, and look, our was just faithful in my life. Been faithful in the lives of those around us. And you know, maybe you’re in a season where you’re like, man, it’s so good. Like I can’t complain about anything. Um, that’s awesome. That’s great. But take these moments to record the times when God was, because let’s be honest, the trials around the corner.

Yeah, it’s going to come. It’s inevitable. Jesus promised us. And in those moments you’ve got to have, you’ve got to have an arsenal built up. Um, you know, maybe you have a prayer closet, you just go into your prayer closet and you’re reminded of all the ways that God is faithful. Yeah. I think, I think that’d be super powerful in your life.

So start collecting those things in your lives and yeah.

Andrew: Um, I’d like, I like what you said a lot, man. I wrote it down. You said faith is the currency of the spiritual world. Um, I think that’s pretty cool. When I think about currency, my first, uh, my first job was, um, working at, um, a, a Kroger and I was a courtesy clerk.

And I think on my first day I got to clean up puke like three times, uh, from the. Uh, from like, you know, spill on aisle six, get there and it’s actually puke. Um, and I got to work for something like six or seven bucks an hour. It was really, really low, but my next job, you know, uh, after a few years I was able to do some like landscaping and made a little bit more money.

And my next job after that got to sell roofs and I made a little more money. Um, and, and not that I’m rich by any means, but like, God has given me increasing responsibilities and increasing job jobs that are more complex, more difficult over time. And, uh, and I think faithfulness is, is the same way. I think God.

Teaches us he’s faithful in a small way. Um, and it may be the small job, um, or he, when you first get saved, you first say, God, I want to have a relationship with you. And I believe Jesus was, um, was your son. I believe he came to die for me. Um, he lived perfectly and died so that, so that I can have a new relationship with you.

You know, maybe that’s your first step of faithfulness, your first job, but you go from there and you get, you get into. The year of the chicken or the divorce that one of these guys, that us story walked through, you get into, um, questioning. Am I even going to I’m ever going to be a doctor. Then you get into things 10 years from now that are increasingly, uh, Tough to deal with that.

But if you were faced with those challenges, initially, you never would have had the currency of faith built up to be able to handle, you know, we, we titled that episode a while back, um, something about, uh, mountains, valleys and the hike in between or something like that, because it’s a slow uphill hike, you know, sometimes it’s way down, sometimes it’s up.

But if you’re following God over time, it’s up into the right. You know, it’s, it’s, you’re going, you’re growing in faith. You’re growing in trust. You’re growing in your understanding of God, your ability to hear from him. And, uh, and you have increased currency of faith, which at the end of the day, that’s the currency that matters.

More than a lot of other currencies do. So, um, I don’t know. That was a good word. He is the currency of the spiritual world. Um, that’s my, that’s kind of my final thought. I don’t know if it’s catching you by surprise that I’m ready to rap, but I feel like that’s such a solid phrase that. I’m just going to give you credit for it.

Maybe you read it somewhere, but faith is the currency of the spiritual world. Oh,

Josh: percent take credit for it, but let’s be honest. I probably go from somewhere who knows. I was just telling, uh, another buddy of ours has a podcast. If you haven’t listened to. Uh, shoot the right side up leader. Uh, listen to Alan and Alan Briggs and David bloom.

Uh, they have great guests on it. Really. You learned a ton from it. I’m trying to help leaders be healthy, but there’s a quote that I steal from Alan all the time and never give him quote, never give him credit. I was just, I saw him a couple weeks ago and told him this, but, um, the lines always just take the right next step.

Yeah. Like if this is the dream that God’s put in front of you just take the right next step. You don’t have to have all the answers or what the step is after that. Just take the right next one. Yeah. And they said, dude, I don’t know how many people I tell that to you. Uh, and they’ll give you credit for, um, but that’s the, that’s the preacher’s life.

We still so many things. Let’s be honest, but yeah. Hey, as, as we kind of close out. Yeah. And hopefully this was helpful. And um, we’re just going to end out with, um, uh, A story of God’s faithfulness that we got on audio. So we’ll end it out. So you can actually hear it in her words. This is Stacy, she’s a friend of ours that shared this story.

It’s a great story. Um, but yeah, I’ll throw it over to her, which is the first for us. We’ve never, it’s kind of like having a gap guest, a guest guest that, uh, uh, but not really. Yeah, I guess, cause she’s not physically here. Yeah. But we’ll have a guest soon. Our producer is coming into town in a few weeks and he really wants us to record an episode while you’re here.

Andrew: We love this guy.

Josh: No, we want to, so we’ll, we’ll, we’ll figure that out and make that work, but, um, yeah, that’ll be exciting, but let me throw it over to Stacy. Uh, and this is her story of God is faithful.

Stacy: Hi, my name is Stacy Reiki. And I want to share how God has shown his faithfulness in my life. It’s hard not to get wrapped up in this world. My Bible sits by my bedside, or I placed it on a side table where it becomes dusty with time and good intentions. But when I rise in the morning, few are the days when I think of God first.

And I forget to thank him for this new day and beginning. I usually wake up anxiously going through my, to do list for the day. My Bible app on my phone dings at 6:30 AM. And with bleary eyes, I read the scripture of the day. There are times that God has something profound to say to me. I have to remember that nothing had planned more important than what God has ready for me.

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying. We plan God. Laughs. I find myself sitting here. I’m writing this after an only child has shipped off to boot camp just three days ago. As I cleaned out my son’s room. The tears and memories overwhelm me while my heart just broke in half. I don’t know what the future holds, but I lunch the hope and knowledge that God will guide me through every step.

It’s scary to start a new chapter. But my son was nevermind to keep. He belongs to God. It is time for God to shape Christian into the man. He is to become the army, says moms aren’t mandatory at bootcamp. I don’t agree, but I have to let go. I don’t know. Who’s going to walk back in her front door when I see them next.

But I do know that God’s faithfulness has never led me wrong. He has been there through my darkest moments and to be quite Frank, I have no clue how people can sustain life apart from God, because life can get dark. And indeed, I had the great pleasure to be a stay at home. Mom are signed Christian, it’s been a joy to raise.

We were an active family. My husband and son are joiners. I am not. I was an antisocial helicopter taxi mom through time. I slowly got out of my comfort zone because I wanted to be a part of everything they were doing. I think of how different life would have been. If I hadn’t met Matt, if I hadn’t gotten married, I never would have known the hurt and pain I would encounter, but I also would never get to experience compassion for another and shared laughter it’s hard work.

But then the things in life that are worth having are the ones that we work the hardest for. Then you add in a baby, you think you’re ready? Forget it. Christian would teach me more than I ever imagined. We are all intrinsically selfish people. It is with courage that we choose to share our lives and our hearts.

They can be so easily jaded and broken by another. We watch movies and romance, the passion and the white picket fence. We don’t want ugly tears. The red face, the pimples, the baby weight and lack of sleep. It’s a package deal. And without seen God move in, all of life’s messes, it can be hard to see the blessings and the monotonous and difficult times.

Early on in my marriage, my husband and I were fighting all the time. We didn’t think our marriage was going to survive. And one day we decided we were going to make a change and go to church. I found out quickly, you cannot just go to church. You have to join it. Now I had been raised in a church and I had not, I was terrified who were these people?

They want them, I need a volunteer my precious time and then sign up for classes. I just wanted to attend service and then jet out of there and get on with my day. But at some point, as I continued to go, something began to fill me something unexplainable. I would describe it as pure joy and brought tears to my eyes.

And I had hope for the first time I wanted to know Jesus. But I still want it to be in control. It’s like two people trying to drive a car at the same time. It doesn’t work at all. God is perfect. We aren’t, and he already knows this. We aren’t built to love perfectly. Like we imagined on our wedding day, we’re going to hurt each other.

I can not love my husband or son without the help of Jesus. I am broken. That means I’m selfish. And I like to do what I want to do when I want to, I say mean and hurtful things and hurt those around me. I know when I mess up, but how can I ever feel good about myself again? How can this incredible creator not be utterly disgusted with me?

So being the determined person, I am, I opened my Bible and started reading what the Bible was particularly hard to understand. But as time passed church and I’m preaching from the pastor, made it more understandable. God pursues it. He is always there. We just get so wrapped up in this world that we get sideways for a bit and we do it again.

And again, we’re always wondering while we’re living in such turmoil, why? Because we want to be in control and we don’t trust that God’s got everything else. The only thing we are in control of is ourselves. If you don’t take care of yourself and work on yourself, you tend to get sick and tired, irritable, and drained.

You have nothing left of Jesus to bring to the table extract except strife and selfish, hurt, and anger. You become a victim of your own making and you hurt people. Instead of being able to encourage and love on them. When you join a church, you become a part of a community which develops into a family guide, created community so that we can lean on each other and laugh and cry together and share our stories with each other.

I now understand that yes, I mess up, but he can heal me through his word, his church and his community. This has taken me 20 years to come to this point and I have so much more to learn. God gives us free will to choose him. He cannot do all of the work for us. We have to meet them halfway. We’re always in a rush and can’t carve 15 minutes out of urn, 12 hour day for God.

I used to expect the genie in the bottle rub and you will receive, I now talk to him every day. Some days are better than others, but I have to keep the line between me and him open. He is my father. He has walked through everything I’ve gone through. The only thing I understand is that I would not have had the positive outlook I do without his word.

And the sudden phone call from a friend or family member at the right time. I wouldn’t have had the strength this last Monday to not cry in front of my one and only son as he headed off to bootcamp, I had to be positive and supportive while my heart was breaking. That’s Jesus. People with him, I would have been a mess and that wouldn’t have been good for my son.

I wanted to be selfish. I wasn’t ready yet. After my son blur, boarded his flight, I wanted to curl up in a ball. I didn’t want to write this, but God’s faithfulness has never let me down. When I sat down to start this, I found the strength. I didn’t know I had to finish it. And one stop the pain I have to go through on the changes that I will encounter, but I know that God’s got my son, Christian belongs to him, not me.

He will do good works through my baby boy. We are not alone. God has made sure of that. Don’t make yourself an Island go out there and join every day against easier. When the enemy throws you off track, you’ve got a family to go to that can help you. God can and will heal you through time so that you can return the favor for someone else who is hurting.

That’s what it’s all about. He may use you to bless someone else. Always keep your eyes on him because he’s smiling at you. The perfect father that loves us perfectly, and we can have him every chosen.

Josh: Amazing, great story.

Andrew: So good first guest. Thank you, Stacy.

Josh: Yeah. She didn’t even know she was going to be our very first guest.

She just helped us out with this, but yeah. Hey, as always, it’s good to see you, my friend.

Andrew: Good to see you, man. Thanks for this conversation

Josh: for sure. Hey, we love you guys. We are praying for you guys. Have a great week. We are at this Jesus life podcast. See you later.

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