Welcome back again to another podcast of Struggling Well. We're glad you've joined us and We've been batting around a lot of different things here recently, but you know, one of the things, Suzi, I've noticed is that there's a whole subculture of language that our kids use, our grandkids use that I have no idea what they're talking about.
That's fly, Jimmy.
Yeah. And it's dope, you know.
No, I don't think they use that anymore. It's now like cap.
Yeah.
But it got me to thinking while I can laugh at our grandkids in this generation, and the words that they come up with and they use the way they use words. we have a Christian subculture language too,
which, we think everybody knows and understands because we understand it and know it and we use it all the time in our Christian subculture. And the truth of the matter is sometimes we don't know what we're saying.
Yeah. Can you think of anything in particular?
Well, yeah. When we think that, I guess it's more in this case, I'm going to give you one that I don't know that we believe I think we say it flippantly not know that we believe it that God will walk with you every step of every day on the journey
right
I believe that I'm not sure that when people say it they fully buy into it particularly if they're going through something difficult or something challenging the tendency to think then at that point is okay where where's God where'd he disappear to
just a little caveat one of the things that happens before we before sometimes ing and then definitely afterwards as we kind of debrief with Tim and we peel his brain back and see what he's thinking and we so enjoy him being here with us. he brings a fresh breeze of experience with God that is so encouraging to us. But we he mentioned this morning as we were preparing for this that there are these well-intentioned cliches that we use with one another. And that's it's not a cliche. It's true. God does walk with us every step of the way. But is it because we believe that like you're questioning or is it because we're trying to convince ourselves that God does that? And so if we say it then maybe we'll convince ourselves
like saying it into an existence type thing.
I guess I don't know. I think Yeah. If I say it enough, maybe I'll believe it. Maybe it'll be true.
Yeah.
Maybe I'll feel it as real and not just a phrase.
Yeah. And to me it's that combination of I believe it to be true and yet do I experience it in my daily life.
I think that people are very well-intentioned. certainly there are a lot of things that get passed around in our subculture of Christianity, little phrases, etc. But most of the time people are so yearning to comfort somebody that they come alongside with a phrase days that you know we've talked about this, you've heard it before. if a child dies, somebody well-meaning, wanting you not to hurt, says to a parent, "Well, God needed another angel." Or, you know, something that they're hoping will bring comfort. And what we are trying to do is I think what we've been doing since the garden is avoid pain.
Avoid pain and make sense of it all. We have a friend who years ago lost his brother in a plane accident. And as he was doing a memorial service for his brother, somebody came up to him afterwards and said, "Well, if you know, one person comes to know Christ because of your brother's death, then it basically is worth it."
And that's easy to say when it's not your brother,
right?
And again, it's that attempt to make sense of something to cause somebody to feel at ease or peace. And it's not going to take away the pain.
The other phrase that gets bantered around is God will not give you more than you can handle. And oh, that would be true, but it's not. It's a misinterpretation of 1 Corinthians 10 I think
10:13.
10:13. And what we say to one another is when especially when people are seemingly overwhelmed with struggle, one thing after another, well, God's not going to give you more than you can handle. Well, the fallacy in that is it's not the verse the actual verse says the temptations in your life are no different from what others experience and God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted he will show you a way out so that you can endure. So the point there is there will be a lot of things that will come into our life. God allows things to come into our life. We live in a world where there is brokenness and we obviously know there's evil. There's all sorts of things that cross our lives and it's not that what God what that verse is saying is you're going to be in the midst of something and along the way in that trouble, you're going to be tempted. I hope I'm interpreting this correctly. You're going to be tempted to shake your fist at God, to walk away from God, to deny who God is, but God will give you a way to endure that temptations and ultimately so that he's glorified and you are you grow.
Yeah. And I think again it's to me it's that whole thing about we're going to understand all that God's doing and we're going to be able to make sense of it all and as opposed to simply trusting him and in trusting him it is that sense that I want to trust the outcome of whatever I'm going through. And so like you said the temptation that comes he provides a way out so that I don't deny him,
right?
So that I stand firm for him.
Because every I think that everything that comes our way there's a little mini fork in the road. This is just where my head is going right now. A little mini fork in the road is how am I going to respond to this? How what am I going to think about God? What am I believing about who God is when I'm in this situation? Whether good or bad, but mostly it occurs from in my life. When I'm in a tough situation, my heart is breaking. I am tempted to either make God the object of my anger and my hatred and my disappointment. I'm tempted to choose my own way.
Yeah. Yeah. And you know, again, I just am more and more of a belief that there is mystery to this life. There's mystery to how God operates. I think back in the Gospels and Luke where Jesus is predicting that Peter is going to deny him and he says this in Luke 22. Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I have pleaded in my prayer for you, Simon, that your faith would not fail.
And I, you know, I'm just I go, but God, that's not what I want to hear. When you when Satan comes to him and says, I want to sift Simon Peter, I want God to say, no. You can't do that.
Yeah.
But Jesus says, "Listen, I he wants to sift you. He's going to do it. And I'm praying for you that when you come through it, your faith will not fail." And so he knew that Peter was going to deny him. He knew that was part of what was going to happen. And it's not to prevent those things that God steps in, but it's to say, "I'm going to pray that you when you've repented, your faith has will not fail."
So that's the same idea that you have in that first Corinthians passage of the temptation. He's going to provide a way out.
Yeah.
So that you don't walk away from your faith.
one last phrase that often gets bantered around is when people say God told me,
usually it's God told me to tell you, Jimmy,
argument's over. The minute you say that,
God told me. I mean, how? Yeah, really. Argument is over. but I always think when somebody says I'm not going to deny that God spoke to them. I don't know whether he did or not, but I've got to take what they said or what I think God told me and I've got to put it through the test of scripture. Does it fit with what scripture says? because until I am well and I never will have Genesis through Revelation down and I'm following everything and you know no questions about anything. When if I say God told me to tell you this I think it has to go through the litmus test of the word.
Yeah. So, these rambling thoughts this week are just
Are they rambling?
Are just a few of the phrases that we would just encourage you as you walk with Christ. We would encourage you to as Suzi just finished saying run things that people say through the grid of scripture and the grid of scripture and the Holy Spirit to give you understanding of what you need to know. But
before we end, I want to thank those of you that make it a going to either drop us a note or those that live in our town that come by and tell us that you've listened to the podcast. I think the thing that really tickles us the most is when people say they really enjoy Jimmy and I talking back and forth because it makes them feel like they're with us. That really means a lot to us. we pray with Tim before we do these podcasts because it's a place for us to be able to share what God is stirring in us, but we want it to be from the word of God. And we want the words that are said here to go out and make a difference in your heart as you strive to follow Christ.
So, have a great week.