Well, welcome back to another podcast of Struggling Wealth, part of our ministry, Tandemspirituality. And we're delighted to be back with you again this week. And as we talked last week about the difficulties that come into life, the difficulties we've had in our life, one of the questions that we pondered, Suzi was the one who pondered it for us or started the pondering with our kids was so what happens or what do you want God to do in you in the midst of life in 2024?
Let me tell you about when that conversation came up. was I had I've really thought about this cuz we've got a great family and we love to sit around the table at different times and I'm like the FBI CIA agent whichever one is the more glamorous one I'll take and so I've been thinking and the question that I came up with was it New Year's Day might have been
was it was around that time
yeah was what do you want God to refine in your heart regardless of your circumstances if nothing changes then one of the daughters who will remain nameless answers and she answered something and then I said, "Well, no, that's not exactly. I'm not talk. I know your circumstances are difficult." And then the next daughter answered like bam. She just about singed our eyelashes off and I could feel myself getting frustrated because I didn't think my question was that hard, but apparently it was. But what our own kids were answering was they were responding to the circumstances,
right? Wanting circumstances to change or not happy with circumstances or whatever it was, which is what we typically do. but what you were getting at and I think it's a legitimate question that we don't often times ask ourselves is all right in the midst of circumstances which I can't many times control what I want to focus on is internally inner man, inner woman What do I hope that God will do in me as it relates to him in my relationship with him?
Do you remember we've talked about this before about how in the Psalms David often asked and so did other psalmists, how long, how long, how long,
right?
And you know, it was the circumstances were terrible. I mean, David was being pursued. Other psalmists were seeing, hey, this guy's grass is greener than mine. I'm pure. I keep myself pure and all this and he seems to be successful and thriving. And so the question as you read the psalmist starts way on the outside like change these circumstances they're not fair and then as you read further you see how it comes inward and David often ends one of his laments with but then I went into the sanctuary and I met with God. it happened with Job. I mean there's Job asking circumstantial questions and I get it. I totally get it and so do you. But then he says, you know, I had heard of him, but now I've seen him. That's very different than change my circumstances.
Yeah. And the another way that you could pose the question of how long, oh Lord, because like Habach when Habach poses that question, how long, oh Lord, how long, oh Lord, is I think the way we oftenimes say it is where are you God?
Yeah. and then God says, "Well, I've been here all along. You want me to act here?" And in Habach's case, Habach didn't like the way God was going to act
to answer that question of how long, oh Lord. but that's something that we typically do in the midst of the difficulties of life. is where was God?
Which leads to a bigger question, I think, of, where do you want God to be in your life?
Yeah. Isn't that often times and I think this has probably been a thread throughout our podcast, but isn't it true that so many times we're in that place between a rock and a harder place than the actual rock is we go, "Why, God? Why did you do this? Why did you allow this?" And the week that I was in the hospital and just feeling awful, I can remember one night in particular where it was probably the worst night there and as I was praying and laying there and of course it happens in the dark and I'm laying there and maybe a year ago maybe not maybe five years ago I would have said God where are you please change this circumstance I feel awful please make me feel better but I found myself last week in that dark night of soul and body saying God, I'm not going to ask you to change the circumstances here because I know you're working something. Now, don't hear me sound like I'm some big spiritual giant. I am not. I'm a spiritual midget and proud of it. But I said, "God, I just need to know your present." And I turned on some scripture reading and what calmed me was the truth. But we tend to default to being angry at God. And I wonder if some of the reason why we do that is because we don't really know who he is. So we make our own little story or narrative, theology, whatever you want to call it, of who God is that doesn't meet up with who he is in his word. And then we get angry at that construct that we've made because that's not what God said at all. Or we take parts of what he said and make this little whatever and it makes us mad.
Yeah. I'm going to look at it a little bit differently. I don't disagree with that at all, but it's also is the fact that I just don't know him well enough.
Yes,
I don't know him well enough to go through what I'm going through to be able to accurately portray who he is in the midst of it. Now, the other thing to me is so there's a physical issue going on inside of your body. We're going to pursue that to try to get answers, to try to get relief. And so physically, when we are hurting, when we have illness. When we have something that can't be explained, we turn to medicine to doctors because we want to get an answer, which is legitimate. I mean, we're not going to stop pursuing this.
Yeah.
But the heart, the soul, the spirit, the inner being of who we really are there is there are no easy answers and there's no guaranteed, oh, okay, now it makes sense to me. it's and that's where your question that you raised with our family earlier this year and is one we've raised with each other is so good which is who do I want God to be in my life
in the midst of all those things the circumstances all right I'll pursue what I can pursue to get answers but I also have to be willing to admit that there's a mystery
yeah
that may be there I mean that was one of the things one of the nurses or doctors said to you when they were examining coming in to talk to you about your chart and everything they said well this sure is a mystery. Well,
yay.
You don't want to necessarily hear that when it comes to physical things, but life is a mystery.
It is.
And so, I can't many times control the circumstances of my life. But what I do need to do, I need to know him better. I need to get to know him better to see who he is. So, as you were crying out that night in the hospital, it was you wanted him to reassure you of his presence,
right? You know, the again the circumstances did not change. nurses tried to comfort me with the right medicines, but what where I could feel the shift was the ache in my heart that like, oh my gosh, God, are you present? That's where he answered. And I had to go through that long night. morning is always better, but you know, we're still in the midst of this mystery. But he is exactly who he says he is. It's just looking for him and waiting for it and wanting that more than my circumstances to change. And please don't hear me being trit because some of you are dealing with difficulties that will take a bite out of your life for the rest of your lives. And you have to deal with difficult situations. But I can tell you and I want to read something to you from Isaiah 26. which I'm planting this in my heart and this is from a translation by a man named Alec Maty who is a British theologian and this is Isaiah 26 3 and 4 the one of sustained frame of mind you will preserve in true unbroken peace and that word peace there is really literally means in Hebrew peace because in you trust is reposed in other words in me because I'm sustaining my mind on him. I'm going to have unbroken peace, peace, peace and in because in your trust I'm sorry, in you trust is reposted. It's deposited in my heart. And then verse four says, trust in Yahweh forever, for in himself Yahweh is truly an eternal rock. That's what my soul is longing for. Yes, we are going to visit doctors and wherever we need to go and look at lab results and do everything that needs to be done. And I encourage you to do the same. And whatever situation you're in, financial, marital, whatever, don't just sit around. Move forward. God is going to use the forward motion of your pursuit of help to reveal himself, but also to you're going to meet a million zillion people. but also along the way, just know that he's going to give you peace, peace, and he will give you knowledge along the way, but this isn't it. I mean, my peace is not because I've got a great doctor, and I do, but it's because of him. And so, it could get way worse before it gets better.
Well, and the description that you just read from Isaiah 26 that will not change for us is who he is. He's our eternal rock,
right?
Well, that doesn't change.
No,
we may never get answers to what's going on in inside of your body physically. I hope we do and we're going to pursue them, but at the end of the day, if that proves to be elusive, if at the end of the day, you can't find a job, which again, I don't make light of that.
No.
But at the end of the day,
you're not talking about me finding a job. Are you? No, I'm not.
Okay, good.
At the end of the day, if whatever it may be, he doesn't change. He still is our eternal rock who offers peace, who deposits that peace inside of us that we can rest in.
So, all of that to say, as we go about living our lives, one of the things that many times gets pushed to the side is spending time alone with him.
Yeah.
Being quiet before him, being still before him. and listening for his voice which letting his voice drown out all the other voices that are speaking into my life and producing fear and producing doubt in producing those kinds of things.
And if I could just if we could end with one thing that is to caveat or piggyback rather off of what Jimmy just said is you've got to be in the word and you've it's necessary to be in fellowship in a church where you're hearing the word. taught rightly divided. You're hearing the word. You're rubbing up against other believers, your spiritual life and theirs. You're iron sharpening iron. Not plastic on plastic, but iron sharpening iron. You need to be in the word. There are lots I mean there's a bazillion ways to get into the word of God from devotionals to studies to whatever. Don't let your circumstances keep you from him. However, know this that he is still present. You don't have to perform for him to be present. That's a promise. He's never going to break that. But he wants you to know who he is, who he really is.
So spend that time. Have a great week.