Welcome to another podcast of Struggling. Well, did you hear that little voice modulation? I've been so working on that. that y'all.
No, do I get credit for it? Okay.
Um,
we are glad to be with you another time. as people often say when they're greeting you at your church, there are lots of podcasts out there. and for those of you that listen to us, thank you. We really do appreciate that. And our times together are conversations that Jimmy and I have had, places where we're struggling, places where God has laid an interest, a curiosity on our heart. hearts. And this morning it Jimmy wants to share with you something that God has been stirring in his heart.
Yeah. We met recently with a what I'll call him a new friend and we spent some time talking and in that conversation he said we kind of had replayed some of the events in our own world that have been challenging, have been difficult, have been unexplainable. And he simply said this where have you seen evidence of God in your everyday life? And it's a question I've probably been asked before by different people. I don't know. But I know it hit me this time in a different kind of way to see where has God shown himself. where has you know to use another phrase where is the manifest presence of God surfaced in my life?
When somebody asks you that question it's like I have found before that I answer a very surfacy type thing. But I think when this gentleman asked us that question in light of where we had been for, you know, in the past year in particular, he was asking for us, were there evidences of God in the midst of rough times?
Yeah. And so I thought about that and have thought about it a lot since then and I'm drawn to probably one of the most familiar, if not the most familiar passage in all of the Bible, the 23rd Psalm. And what drew me to it this time, and I have been different reasons for different times in past, but what drew it to me this time was it's an evidence of God walking through life with his people.
the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And then he takes what I think is like everyday life. he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside his water. He restores my soul. He leads to me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. So in those everyday mundane days, you wake up on a Monday and okay, what do I even look for God in that day? And I get to the end of that Monday and I go, well, it was just a normal day. Well, did I see God anywhere in that day? Because his promise, if I read the 23rd Psalm in that way, is that he will walk with me in all those things. And then the psalmist shifts, David shifts and says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fe fear no evil for you are with me. So in those hard days, in those difficult times, in those life-changing moments, he's there and present too. And you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, which is a verse that has always struck me odd. so, so God prepares a table, a feast for me to sit down at, which who doesn't want to do that? But then he says it's in the presence of my enemies. And so again, all throughout life, God's presence is there. Do I take the time to stop and to see it? And one of the things that we do I do if I'm leaving the house before Suz's moving around I'll just drop a note, just a brief little note, say, "Hey, I'll be back." Or whenever. And I remember one day recently, I just said, "Hey, my prayer for you today is that you'd see evidence of God in your life."
Yeah.
And it was amazing to see. I don't know if it was that writing that caused me to be more sensitive to God's presence cuz there wasn't anything big that happened, but he showed up.
And the verse about preparing a table in the presence of my enemies, we talked about this yesterday. we've memorized Psalm 23, but my question was last night when we were talking is who are my enemies?
And I don't think anybody's ever named as who the enemies are. And again, we're you've got to look at context. You've got to understand when it was written. And if I could just, you know, wander just a little bit, not trying to change scripture in any way, but some of my enemies are things like worry and anxiety and fear. you know, no one right to Excuse me. Take Jimmy and I sound like we're dying over here choking, but we're good. Are you okay, babe? I'm good.
Okay.
some of those enemies are things that are just me worrying about something, being anxious about something. And I started to think about, well, what is an enemy? And as you and I were talking about David, as he's written this, you he was being pursued. And there were times when the pursuer was really close to him. There were times when he was literally attacked. And then there were times when he was completely alone. So when I think about my enemies, I think about what's coming after me? Do I sense you know the enemy of the world, the enemy of our lives as a believer? Is how's he coming at me? What is he what temptations is he putting in front of me? sometimes you feel attacked. I mean physically, emotionally, spiritually attacked. And then sometimes my enemy is isolation. And in that time of isolation is where I worry and I feel anxious and I'm afraid and I can't, you know, I can't bear to hear any more bad news. And so there's this place that God says in the midst of your enemies, those things that attack you, that isolate you, that take something from you, I am preparing a feast. So you're not ready for this question, but I'm going to ask you anyway. What's the feast?
Well, I think it's the realization. Couple things again. when we think of enemies, you talked about it. I think you've opened up the thought process. which is legitimate that it's not necessarily a person. I think when we think about enemies, we think of somebody that embodies who's out to do us harm. And we don't know when David wrote the 23rd Psalm. So, we don't know what part of his life maybe he was referring to there. But, but the verse that follows the table and the feast is surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And so, I think that it has to do with the realization that God is a good God and his mercy is fresh and new every morning as he promises and so throughout life if Psalm 23 is a journey through life and the realization that God is always with me at the end of the day David recognizes that the goodness and mercy of God will follow him all of his life and he'll one day dwell in the house of the Lord
and it's such a different perspective because okay he's in the presence of, God prepares a feast for me. I'm reading NLT. In the presence of my enemies. So, there's this feast, you know, I think in pictures. He honors David us by anointing our head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. At some point, the enemies have to retreat from the scenario in our heads and our hearts to see that my cup is overflowing, that God is good, that his unfailing love is pursuing me. all the days of my life. So, it's changing the posture of your heart, the way you see, the way you hear everything. And it's, we've talked about this many times in our podcast, is looking for God. And like you said, babe, in the mundane, in the everyday part, but at the feast when you're sitting there and realizing, "Oh my gosh, my God, my God is supplying everything I need, and he wants me to see who he is so that the enemies re my enemies recede. Is that the word?
Yeah. And it's not that again I think this is so true as I look at the Christian life. It's not that the circumstances of my life change. It's that my perspective and how I see them and how I include God in that and how I look at that. That's what changes.
So as you are in the midst perhaps of struggle this week, maybe you're simply going through mundane life this week. We would encourage you to sit with this reality that the presence of God is always with you. Have a great week.