Speaker 1: 0:01

Hi and welcome to our podcast, revelation Within On the Go. I am Heidi Biles-Muyeperson, one of your hosts and the owner and lead coach of the RevelationWithinorg ministry.

Speaker 2: 0:13

And I'm Christina Motley, your other host, also a Revelation Within coach and Heidi's partner in all things Revelation Within, and we are so happy to invite you to join us for this episode of.

Speaker 1: 0:34

Revelation Within Welcome back, friend oh last time we talked about why we turn to counterfeit comforts, and it's not a new subject for us at all. We've done other podcasts about it. Today we're going to explore really how we can move from counterfeit comforts toward Christ-centered confidence.

Speaker 2: 0:56

Oh, that sounds good.

Speaker 1: 0:57

Yeah, it does, doesn't it? It's not a quick fix, but it is a real path to healing. I love that. So at Revelation Within, we believe in taking the lid off our trash cans. Yes, I'm just saying, if you want to keep that trash can lid on, it's going to get smelly and you will not be able to hide it from anybody not be able to hide it from anybody.

Speaker 2: 1:29

I'm thinking, of course, of the old metal trash can. Is that what you're thinking?

Speaker 1: 1:31

of and not the classic ones. Green goo At Revelation Within. We don't want to slap a Band-Aid or 12 on heartache. Nope, nope, nope. We want to invite God to do his work as he takes the lid off of our trash can. And the trash can, of course, is the metaphor for all the hard things, all the yucky things, all of maybe even the sin in our lives over the course of our lives.

Speaker 1: 1:59

So we want to be sure we invite him in and hand it over to him to take the lid off and do what he will.

Speaker 2: 2:07

Oh, invite him into the trash, can? Oh, this is going to be tough.

Speaker 1: 2:13

He's omnipresent, so he might be in there. I don't know how that works, yeah that's true.

Speaker 2: 2:18

He's omnipresent, he knows everything that's in there already, right right. He knows what's at the bottom, where you can't see and it's like the smelliest. Yeah, I think that so much of kind of our culture, our world, even our families, even our church culture at times will tell us put the lid on.

Speaker 1: 2:42

And don't ever take it off.

Speaker 2: 2:44

We don't want to see it. We don't want to see it. We don't want to hear about it. Pull yourself up and just keep going. Move on, get over it.

Speaker 2: 2:51

Get over it Like let's get going. What's that old saying about the bootstraps? Last night my husband and I watched Little House on the Prairie and let me tell you, those men had bootstraps and I noticed them because of the way we've used that. You know that saying hold yourself up by your own bootstraps, nobody else is going to do it. There's these little little straps that help you to pull your boots up, and all the guys in the in the show had them. I thought that was so interesting and of course, it's filmed in your neck of the woods and I know that now, which is really really fun. It's fun to watch, anyway. But I think that there is kind of this pressure, not everywhere, certainly, but in families, in churches, in schools even, and it's like we don't want to see it. Put it away, sweep it under the rug. You know, let's just move on without dealing with it and things will just get better over time.

Speaker 1: 3:58

Yeah, it's so tricky. I've been involved in Bible studies with other women who I know and admire and trust, and some home groups with the men too, where the idea of exploring anything that is difficult is kind of cast aside as not having value In fact it's cast aside as being self-indulgent almost value. In fact it's cast aside as being self-indulgent almost. And yet when I look in the Psalms as one good example, I see a lot of trash cans that have the lids off. I mean, psalm 88 is a good example.

Speaker 2: 4:37

Darkness is my greatest friend, my only friend. I think it said yeah, my closest yeah.

Speaker 1: 4:45

Can you imagine. So I think that it's important to recognize that that may not be God's thought about those difficult trials, the traumas and so on. Maybe he has a different perspective. And I like to think about it kind of like in Psalm 23, verse four, it says even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because you are with me.

Speaker 1: 5:10

I think of walking through the valley of the shadow of death, as sometimes it has been me inviting God along or he's there anyway to walk through some of those difficult memories, the traumas, the challenges, the sin committed against me. I mean, I'm talking about really tough stuff and rather than you know, here's the thing Our God is omnipotent, he is all powerful, he is sovereign, he is good, he is loving, he's compassionate, he's all these things. And if he has allowed something in my life, I want to think the way he does about it. I want to reframe it by sitting at his feet and saying, okay, I don't know what you were thinking when you allowed this and he can take it. So maybe it proves that he can take it. But I want to know how you want me to think about it now.

Speaker 1: 6:06

What am I to learn from it?

Speaker 1: 6:08

And so it's like kind of like in Psalm 23, verse four, we're going to walk through that valley together, within that valley of the shadow of death.

Speaker 1: 6:16

We're not going around it, we're not going to ignore it, we're not going to pretend it never happened, right, I mean and this can happen in a number of ways, really, when I've been with Christian women, and sometimes we will say things to one another like, oh, but praise God, this happened afterwards, or, and it's like it minimizes that pain, that heartache, and we don't want to do that. You know whether it was a one-time thing, or I think we tend to do that too with people who are struggling with chronic issues, and we really we don't want to do that. We want to acknowledge that challenge that God, for some reason, not protected us from it, but allowed it, and what are his purposes in it? It doesn't mean he condones sin, of course. It doesn't mean he condones whatever caused us the trauma, but it does mean he has a greater purpose in it than we might be able to fathom on our own, so inviting him to walk with me and show me.

Speaker 2: 7:20

I, you know, I think it just really has to do with fear. Um, when we are minimizing and pushing things away and pretending they're not there and, you know, ignoring those kinds of things, and I mean I've been there many times it's like if I open this up, it's going to be too scary.

Speaker 2: 7:40

I'm not going to be able to kind of get out of that dark place or whatever. So I think there's a lot of fear there and that makes sense. But God says again and again and again do not fear. And then he says the reason why we shouldn't fear and that is because I am with you. You know how they I mean 365 times or more in the Bible it says do not fear. And God tells us again and again I'm with you, that's why you don't have to fear because I'm with you.

Speaker 2: 8:18

Let's open this box together. Let's look at this memory together. Let's process your feelings together. You don't have to be afraid. That helps me when I am too afraid to go there.

Speaker 1: 8:33

Right.

Speaker 2: 8:33

I think about God saying gently, lovingly, compassionately to me it's okay, I'm right here. You don't have to be afraid. That's beautiful don't?

Speaker 1: 8:48

you don't have to be afraid, that's beautiful, you know the whole. Keep the lid on the trash, can? Analogy reminds me of another analogy that, uh, our marriage coach once told us, uh, and that was, you know, when you try to keep a beach ball under the surface of the water yes, it takes a lot of energy a lot of energy to just keep it under, keep it it under, keep it under, don't let go, don't let go, don't let go.

Speaker 1: 9:07

Oh no, there it goes. And now everybody knows Right. We really want to be able to recognize what's there and go with God in the direction God says to go with it. Christina, have you ever been told, maybe directly or indirectly, to kind of just move on, get over it? And how did that affect you, if you were?

Speaker 2: 9:29

Yeah. So I knew you were going to ask me this question, Heidi, and when I first saw it, what was my response? I don't know that I want to answer this question. That's a tough one for me because I feel like it happens often, with with me having a chronic illness and just in the last few days, Um and I know that people mean well and I know that they're not directly trying to minimize what I'm going through, but they do.

Speaker 2: 10:03

Some people just do, and I think it's out of fear maybe, and it's almost like they don't want to hear about it and I don't talk about it very much. I have my few safe people, of course. You're one of them, heidi, and Heidi knows all. So she carries the burden with me, which is a hard thing to do and I'm forever grateful. But what happens is, you know, if we just choose a few people who we can really trust with that and that they won't say, can you just kind of, you know, change your life so you can get better? Can you just rest more? Are you drinking enough water? I mean, what about this? What about you know? And there's a tone that says, can't you just move on? There really is, and our feelings get hurt.

Speaker 2: 10:54

This happened just a few days ago. A friend of mine, who I don't see that often, asked me how are you feeling, how are you doing these days? And I thought, well, what do I do? Do I minimize it? Does she really want to know? Do I tell her that I'm really in the middle of a difficult flare up or not? So I decided to tell her and she listened and then she said wow, and changed the subject. Yeah, and totally changed the subject to something that she was dealing with that was completely different. So I'm just going to say this to all of you who are listening If you know someone who is in chronic pain or having a chronic illness and they tell you what's happening, please say to them. That must be really hard to deal with.

Speaker 1: 11:48

Yes.

Speaker 2: 11:49

I am sorry that you're going through that. That must be really hard. You don't have to know the answers. Just don't minimize what they're going through.

Speaker 1: 12:00

And really we minimize what they're going through when we say, oh well, god's got you. That may be true, but it's minimizing what they just shared.

Speaker 2: 12:11

Yeah, it is, and I think that we do that out of fear, and I'm sure I've done it. I'm sure I've done it in the past, before I had a chronic illness. Wow, I mean, I think back. How did I respond to people? I'm sure I messed it all up. So, you know, hear that from me.

Speaker 2: 12:29

But if you know someone who is in chronic pain or has a chronic illness, please just validate them. You can say almost the same words back to them Wow, you know, that must be scary for you or hard for you or that kind of thing. You don't have to fix it, just be there in, there, be in it with them, because it's so hard when you are almost ignored, to the point where someone is saying this is too scary for me to listen to. So will you please just sweep it under the rug. That's what it feels like it's really tough, you know, and that's this is from people who love us. Like it's really tough, you know, and this is from people who love us. So, yeah, we don't want to do that. We are okay in the discomfort, we are okay to say this is what's happening and inviting God in and then inviting people in, if they can be okay with it too. That is so, so healing and so important, so important.

Speaker 1: 13:33

Yeah, I think it's a big, like you said, it's so healing. It's a big step on the path to experiencing healing. It really is we we have to be I don't know trust God, that the people that we share with he will help us to process that too. You know, I have to tell you it kind of cracks me up a little bit, but you know, we moved to this new house recently and Michael and I have been married almost six years and but we're a lot older than that. So we have, you know, over a hundred years of baggage that we do, the two of us and now I'm kidding, of course that's emotional baggage, but then we also have a lot of stuff.

Speaker 1: 14:21

So we had put because we haven't had our own like home, to call our own really. Uh, since we got married, we've moved in and lived in camps and whatnot all things that were temporary and so it was time to move to our own home, which we purchased. God has blessed us, and it meant emptying out this storage unit that we have been paying $130 a month for for five years Wait a minute, what? That's crazy Just to keep a bunch of stuff that we don't use. Anyway, that's another story entirely, but anyway, and so we moved it all to our new home, into the carport the two car carport. It filled the carport carport. It filled the carport.

Speaker 1: 15:09

No, I knew I was having trouble going through the boxes, one at a time. I knew I was having trouble with that and I just assumed it was because of my previous marriage or because you know something concrete and okay, that's yes, that's part of it. But then I got to a box that had I mean, yes, there was the box with my previous husband's love letters in it to me that was hard Okay.

Speaker 1: 15:34

So I closed that box. But then I got to the clothes, all the clothes I'd saved over the years, all of the clothes that represent all of the sizes I've been, which, all at the heart of it, it's telling me you have had this stronghold for decades and are you really free?

Speaker 2: 15:59

Yes, that's so real, heidi.

Speaker 1: 16:01

Yes, and it's like not only that, but then there's the box filled with my old Bibles.

Speaker 1: 16:09

That bible was given me to me by my boyfriend in high school and I'll it's like in that bible was given to me by so-and-so my cousin, who led me to the lord and then she died of brain cancer and she had renounced her faith.

Speaker 1: 16:23

Oh my gosh, okay, what do I do? My husband wants me desperately to go through these boxes and make it so hard, and so I yeah, I said to him I tried to get through another box today and he goes oh great, no, it didn't go very well, and here's why. And I told him some of these reasons and he's like, yeah, I have that problem too too, and I felt so minimized and it didn't help a lot, and what I wanted was him to acknowledge that I'd been trying and to recognize there's pain here, right, and so I was able to, about a half hour later, tell him that and and we did have a good conversation about it but really, when you think about it, there are so many things that still affect me today and most of us, I think, can relate to that, whether they're in boxes out in our carport or not.

Speaker 1: 17:26

Yeah, and God's healing. Here's the thing. God's healing may almost assuredly involve sifting through some of that old pain, with him, but with his presence. So, as I look at all of those old clothes, where am I now with this Lord? How am I growing in you?

Speaker 2: 17:47

How am?

Speaker 1: 17:48

I turning to you to manage this stronghold that has happened for so many years.

Speaker 2: 17:53

What can I?

Speaker 1: 17:54

thank you for. What can I anticipate in the days ahead? Oh, those are good questions, Aren't they? Yeah? They're from God. I know they are from God.

Speaker 2: 18:04

So Lamentations 3, verse 40, says Let us examine our ways and test them and let us return to the Lord, which is exactly what you were just talking about, heidi. Let's go ahead and open the box, let's examine, let's talk about it, let's think about it, invite God in, test them, and then returning to God with it again and again and again. I love that. So you asked me earlier is there a box from your past that you've had to open up and process with God? And I was thinking about how to answer this and it came to me while you were just talking. So it wasn't when we first moved into this house. It was when my mother-in-law was going to move in with us, so we had to move out. We moved across the street so that the addition could be added onto the top for her, and so we moved across the street and then, six months later, we moved back. So that's the kind of thing that really makes you look at your stuff. Because you're moving it so much, it's like we have too much stuff, like let's figure this out, okay. So that's when it was.

Speaker 2: 19:20

That was before I met you, heidi, that was two years before I met you, so, and I had been struggling, you know, my whole adult life with food and eating issues, body image, all of it. So I found a box and it just came to me. I just thought about this and I had to make a decision Am I going to move it across the street and bring it back, or is it time to sift through it and get rid of it? And part of me wanted to just close it up and move it and move it back, but I did feel a strong nudge from the Lord let's open it up. I knew what was in it, but I really didn't want to look. It was an entire box of journals. Wow, you know, I had journaled for years and years and years, journaled my thoughts and feelings and prayers and scripture, and I didn't really want to look. And this is why because at the time I felt like I had not moved forward at all in the stronghold. I didn't even really realize it was a stronghold. At the time I was incredibly self-condemning.

Speaker 2: 20:32

And so I pulled out these journals and started reading them and pretty much they were all the same. I mean, there were there were wonderful things about my family and my husband and things that have happened and events, but there was a theme to every journal and that was I'm a mess, I'm a failure, I can't move forward, there's no hope for me. God, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I blew it again. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2: 21:03

So I'm sitting here pouring over these journals and it was just kind of awful really to, to be honest and my husband comes over and he says we need to, you know, like, keep going, we've got so much to do. And he saw what I was doing and he said would you like me to burn those? How did you know, I know? And I said really? And he said, yeah, I mean, is there any reason for you to keep those? And he didn't really even know what they were. But I feel like God really used him to give me the courage. And my husband loves to burn things. You know he loves fires. He loves fires, he loves to burn and do fires outside, inside, in our wood burning stove, and so I said yes, and he put one in the fire, one at a time, and it was gone and it wasn't. It didn't feel so freeing then because I didn't know what to do with those feelings. I didn't know. It was like shame, shame, shame. I and learning how to renew my mind.

Speaker 1: 22:13

And.

Speaker 2: 22:13

I learned the truth about shame it's not from God.

Speaker 2: 22:26

It's not from God, I learned the truth about being transformed and forgiven and grace and all those things, even though I had been a Christian since I was a little girl. I had a lot of confusion there, a lot of lies going on, and so later I mean I'm thankful that that box was gone at the time, but later, and even now, I can look back and say, wow, that was something that God led me to. He wanted to bring healing. I wasn't quite ready, you know, for kind of the bigger healing, the bigger understanding, but then when it came, I thought back to that box and I was so grateful that my husband had burned all those journals that were full of guilt and shame. That's not who I am, nope, and it's not who God calls me, and it's not who he is either.

Speaker 1: 23:27

This analogy that we've been using a box is from our past is literal for us and it may be for you too, right, but all of us have boxes quote unquote boxes from our past that we need to open up with the Lord and process with him and walk through the valley of the shadow of death with him. And whether we do that journaling, or whether we do that just prayerfully, whether we do that with a wonderful Christian, hopefully therapist or a friend, or by ourselves with him, it's just really an important step in our healing to dare to go there with him. And, at the very least, if you listen or decide to try this, please call a friend and ask for prayer. Yes, yeah, just let them know that you're trying to process some things with the Lord that are important to you and and that you know he's calling you to it.

Speaker 1: 24:16

But you know it's going to be hard and you'll want to run. And if you want to run or shut down, that's when the counterfeit comforts are going to seem most appealing. He is the God of all comfort and he wants to comfort you. So get some prayer support for that, definitely. You know, in our Christian circles we really do have a lot of people in the camp of forget the past. And yes, there are scriptures that speak of forgetting the past.

Speaker 1: 24:44

I think we tend, when we use those scriptures, we can misuse them a lot of the time, because if you look at how the past is treated, it's often because we've been wallowing in the past that we need to forget it. Yeah, right. And so we want to find a biblical balance between forgetting the past and remembering the lessons that can come to us from looking with the Lord at the past. So, like perhaps, as you've listened to us talking about walk with the Lord through the valley of the shadow of death, you're like no, we're called to forget the past. God has given us these experiences and he intends that they become treasure. I really believe that and it's important. So let's, let's just be sure that we go there with the Lord and recognize we want to balance that thought, forget the past or remember the lessons from the past, and he will show us what we need to do with that.

Speaker 2: 25:44

Right. The Bible encourages us to learn from the past while not being defined by it. We're not going to live there, we're not going to be defined by it, we're not going to sit in there, you know, sit there and be consumed by it, but we're going to learn from it and then truly move on in healing. Not moving on toward counterfeits, we're going to move on toward healing and freedom. Philippians 3, 13 and 14. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. So forgetting what is behind but pressing forward because of what we have learned. Amen, there's both. We need both.

Speaker 1: 26:42

And that's the way it is with many things it's an and not an, either or or a but yeah, deuteronomy 8.2 says remember how the Lord, your God, led you all the way in the wilderness. I mean, there were a lot of difficulties in the wilderness, but God had a very specific reason for challenging Israel to remember. And how do you suppose we can honor the past that God has allowed in our lives, by learning from it, without getting stuck there? What comes to mind for you?

Speaker 2: 27:15

Yeah, what comes immediately to mind is my mom, and I was just talking about her earlier in our podcast and it was just Mother's Day, so she has been on my mind so much this week. And again, you know, I mentioned we're going to go on this trip. We're actually going to go to the place where she was born and raised and went through those difficult, traumatic times, and so I know I want to honor the past that she went through and I want to honor her and her efforts to love me and raise me as well as she could, with all the mistakes and stumbles. I want to honor what she went through. I want to honor her.

Speaker 2: 27:59

A long time ago I had to go through some forgiveness work with her. I'm not with her. It was while she was still alive. It was about her. She had Alzheimer's disease, so there wasn't an opportunity to do it with her, which was totally okay. But I feel like I'm at a place now where I can see so much more of what was good in our relationship and how God was there in the midst of it all and how he protected me and provided other supports in my life to hold me up when she couldn't, like my grandmother like best friends, things like that. Yeah, I love this idea of honoring the past by learning from it, examining it, spending time in it, looking at the pictures, the notes, whatever it is, but not getting stuck there and it's a jumping off point toward healing and freedom rather than, yeah, getting stuck.

Speaker 1: 28:59

Yeah, and it's good stuff. It's challenging me with this task ever before me this weekend. I want to heading back to the carport and the boxes that are out there. I really do want to. I really do want to process some of it. Try throwing some of it away. Wouldn't that be novel? I mean, michael bless his heart. He saw that I had two flat boxes, you know the big kind that fit under the bed. He saw that there were two boxes under our bed now and he's like what, what is that there for? And I said it's just old clothes. And I said I know I'll never be that size again. It was too harsh what it took to be that size, what I had to do to my body to be that size. That was part of my dysfunction as well. And he said why didn't you just get rid of it? I mean, good question, right? Yeah, whatever that is, it's there for me to go with God too. I need to walk with him through that.

Speaker 2: 30:05

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:06

And so I think I'm going to, I'm going to do it.

Speaker 2: 30:09

It's hard. Those things take a lot of courage.

Speaker 1: 30:12

Yeah, they do.

Speaker 2: 30:13

And sometimes time is needed as well.

Speaker 1: 30:17

That's true, yeah, so Christ-centered confidence is what we're after, instead of turning to counterfeit comforts, and a really good thing to know is that confidence living in Christ-centered confidence isn't about me feeling strong.

Speaker 1: 30:33

Yeah, it's about knowing that I'm held by the one who is, that I'm held by the one who is. I know that I need to go to God with this discomfort of oh, it's just a huge discomfort. It's making me squeamish even thinking about it the whole stronghold being so long lasting and all the different phases of it, and on and on and on it goes. But I can bring it to him and I can have prayer support, of course, as I do, and not turn to self soothing or counterfeit comforts. I can do what we call titrating. I can do a little bit of the hard work and then intermingle that with a little bit of something fun that I can enjoy, like go and play with my dog outside or go for a walk or something like that, and then come back to it. I don't have to do it all in one sitting, and so I know that in this way my capacity will grow for processing the uncomfortable stuff with the Lord who loves me so much.

Speaker 1: 31:34

One of the things I think I'm also going to do to be able to bring things to him as I go through this stuff in the carport is I'm going to remind myself of who God is. Who God is, it's really important in all of this, and so my God list. I'll probably do a lot of praise, festing some of the tools you've heard us talk about, and then I'm going to remind myself who I am in Christ, because that's who I am. I'm not defined by who I was. I'm not defined by my choices over the years. I'm not defined by any of that. I'm defined by the one who has made me and continues to do the work that he planned to do until it comes to completion, like Philippians 1.6 speaks of.

Speaker 2: 32:17

I love that. I love that. I love what you said, heidi, about I don't have to do it all at once. I think that's huge for so many of us. I didn't realize that for a long time I thought I'm going to have to deal with this whole thing this weekend or today or whatever it is, and that is not at all true. You could do one minute. You could do one minute, that's it. Just go there for a minute and process. Or, for me, invite God in and say, lord, let's just do one minute of that really hard thing and then put it aside for a while. God doesn't mind, he's not calling us to do this huge, you know difficult processing time. I mean, sometimes that happens.

Speaker 2: 33:05

I think sometimes it does, but for the most part it's really okay to do little bits, because it's hard and it hurts. It's okay to do little bits. I love that.

Speaker 1: 33:18

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 33:19

So we have a couple of practical ideas for you, and these are just a few of many, many, many different things that you might do just to enter into that minute or five minutes or 10 minutes, with the Lord processing something that's hard. One is just sitting with the Lord, just sitting with him. Actually, you don't even have to say a word. And if that's hard for you because your mind starts spinning which happens to me maybe just grab one verse and read it over and over or one truth you know God is here, or just Jesus, his name, just Jesus, yeah.

Speaker 2: 33:58

Invite him in in such a simple way. You don't have to figure it all out. What am I going to say? How am I going to do? No, just sit with him, just invite him in and begin that way.

Speaker 1: 34:10

Great idea.

Speaker 2: 34:11

Another one is breath prayers during moments of discomfort. And we do this, heidi, and I, and we know a lot of people that are using breath prayers. Now, it's not complicated, it's so simple. It's just breathing in and out and saying truth as you do. That's all it is. It calms your body physically and it fills your mind with truth. So an example that would be so simple would be breathing in and saying, jesus, I trust you. Breathing out and saying I know you're here. Or you could use a scripture verse or part of a scripture verse or any truth that lines up with scripture. Maybe you want your breath prayer to be about inviting God in. Breathe in and say, god, I invite you in. Breathe out and say to this time with me, you know. That's all it could be, it could be so simple. And those breath prayers in moments of discomfort, it gives you a little moment to just kind of pause before you run to the counterfeit. Pause and invite God in, and, of course, it cal've kind of mentioned already, heidi, just being in community.

Speaker 2: 35:35

You don't have to do all of this by yourself. You know talking with people that you know and trust about what's going on, about what happened. Maybe it's confession. Maybe it's something that not something you've done, but something that's been done to you, or pain from you know a different circumstance. Maybe it's something physical, you know, reach out to someone who is a safe person and talk about it, and you could even say to that person do you have five minutes, cause that's all we're going to do today? We're just, if you, you know if you'll enter into this with me, let's sit down for five minutes and then that's it for today. That's, that's okay, and for many of us we think I have the capacity for five minutes. I can do that.

Speaker 1: 36:25

Yeah, that's doable. Second Corinthians, 12, verse 9, says this is Jesus speaking. Of course, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. You got to love it because he knew that we would wonder how on earth can I do this? But he says okay, you are weak and that's okay, because in your weakness my grace is sufficient. My power is made perfect in you.

Speaker 2: 36:59

Yeah, so thinking about that, what does Christ-centered confidence look like in the middle of discomfort, not just after healing? But you've done five minutes, it's still there. There's still going to be a lot of work that needs to be done. What does that look like? What does that look like?

Speaker 1: 37:18

Yeah, I think for me it has to look like. Even if there's no heavenly chorus of angels singing and feathers falling from heaven, it's like I recognize and confess the truth. God has been here with me and he has entered into this time with me and I will be back. I will do it again, and so, even if I don't feel like it's finished, that's okay.

Speaker 2: 37:46

That's okay, right, right. Yeah, that's so valuable, heidi. I mean, does anybody ever tell us that?

Speaker 1: 37:54

No, I don't think so, I don't think anyone's ever told me that it's.

Speaker 2: 37:59

You're okay, Even though you processed only five minutes with the Lord or with that difficult thing. You're okay because you're in God's grip and we'll get back to it. You're really okay, this is going to be all right and that's Christ centered confidence, not me centered confidence. There's a big difference there. That feels really really good.

Speaker 1: 38:22

I think it's true that oftentimes, even in bless their hearts recovery circles, which I don't consider revelation within a recovery ministry but it is in many ways consider revelation within a recovery ministry, but it is in many ways, I suppose. But it's almost like you are either not yet healed or you're all good. And I don't think that's from the Lord, because if we set up a dichotomy like that, we're going to, I think, always feel like we're not quite doing it right.

Speaker 1: 38:48

And we have to just press into him. Press into him and recognize this moment is one where he is with us in our imperfection, in our weakness, and he is there to love on us and to validate us and affirm us.

Speaker 2: 39:03

Yes, so healing is a journey. Processing with God is the only path to true peace. What you're longing for, that peace, I mean what I'm longing for in that moment, what you're longing for, Heidi there is only one place where we can find that and that's.

Speaker 1: 39:26

Jesus, the answer is always him.

Speaker 2: 39:29

The rest it's all counterfeits. When we go to him first, that's where we can find that peace and everything else will be added after yeah.

Speaker 1: 39:38

I think there's a Bible verse about that. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well.

Speaker 2: 39:45

Well, and there's that other verse about life and peace that you quoted when you were going into surgery.

Speaker 1: 39:51

That's in Romans and it, and Romans 8, 5 or something like that. Yeah, the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace. There you go, love that verse, love it, love it, love it. So consider, listener, as we're wrapping up now, where do you feel like you are tempted to numb right now, like maybe not this minute, but this evening or tomorrow sometime, or?

Speaker 2: 40:16

or after that event or that difficult phone call.

Speaker 1: 40:19

Yes, yeah, I mean it's interesting how many people we have talked to over the years who have said that, oh, I did great on Thanksgiving day. It was the day after Thanksgiving that I had all kinds of problems and went off the rails. And I think that happens. So, knowing ahead of time that there might be those situations that will tempt you to numb out, look at that with the Lord. Invite him to show you where might I be tempted to numb, if not right now, then in the future, and then ask him to show you what would it look like to invite the Lord to take the lid off or open the box or whatever you want to call it, to look at those feelings of discomfort, their origins, whatever it is for you, what it would look like to look at that with you.

Speaker 1: 41:07

Like, for me, you know, why do I have those boxes of clothes that I'll never wear, ever again, and it's not just down a size, I mean, it's down 10 sizes, basically, you know, or whatever it might be. And and the love letters from my previous husband, what is going on inside of me that makes me hang on to that? And is that from the Lord? And really invite him to show me. What is his way of thinking about these things? How can I honor him and renew my mind about yeah, I want to think his thoughts about all the boxes and even if they aren't literal boxes in your life, then you know, like the things, that you know what they are, what the thoughts are that you struggle with or that motivate you to numb out.

Speaker 2: 41:50

Well, we are so glad that you've been here today and we would love to invite you to our next podcast here at Revelation Within.

Speaker 1: 42:11

All righty, see you next time. Bye-bye.