Welcome And Why Grace Feels Hard

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hi, and welcome to our podcast, Revelation Within on the Go. I'm Heidi Biulsma Epperson, one of your hosts, and the owner and lead coach of Revelation Within.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

And I'm Christina Botley, 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 Revelation Within. We're so glad you're here. Come on again. Put your feet up.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

That's right. Today's conversation, um, Christine and I are just gonna kind of wing this a little bit because I think we probably want to have a conversation about grace. And I know that some of you might say, Well, we we talk all about grace all the time. That's true. But um, I want to just kind of set a context for this, in that a lot of the people who have come to us over the years, even over the years that we were thin within, and then since the rebranding when we became Revelation within, are struggling with believing that God's grace is for them. And so much of our teaching, we want to just reinforce the fact of what God's word even says about God's perspective and and how gracious he is to us. And and so we're gonna do a little bit of foundation backing up for those of you that aren't as familiar with what we teach, maybe, and then we're gonna kind of go on from there and see where does grace take us in our quest to be at peace with food eating in our bodies.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

That sounds really good, Heidi. You know, I just feel like um so many of the women who come to us, and this was me. We come with this this huge, huge weight on our shoulders. And it's it is like overwhelming, and it is condemnation. Um, I'm a failure, I mess up all the time, I've been trying to deal with this my entire life. What's wrong with me? It's like it just it just comes out so easily to say those words, and I said them to myself probably since I was a young teenager. Um, and so we we at Revelation Within, Heidi and I, we get it, and so we go really heavy on talking about grace. Yeah, really, really heavy. I mean, we talk about it all the time, and you know, we're saying things all the time like you are not a problem to be fixed, right? You know, and you are not behind, and you are just where God wants you to be, and you are a girl of God, and you are chosen and beloved, and all of those things are absolutely true. And we could go on and on, we spend a lot of time talking about that because our brains are all wired, not wired, but our brains, well, kind of wired. They need rewiring, really. Our brains need rewiring, which is the renewing of the mind to what is really true. And that takes a lot of time and intentionality, and it takes for us to hear it again and again. Um, but when we look at all of grace, there's another piece to it too. And we're gonna get to that today. We want to talk a little bit about conviction and how conviction, loving conviction from the Holy Spirit is a gift. We don't want to miss that. Uh, we want all of it, all of the good stuff God

Relearning God’s Character In Scripture

SPEAKER_01 4:00

has so much to offer us.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Well, before we go too far ahead of ourselves, let's let's back up. And I remember when we were first putting the Thin Within program online, you know, we were like pioneers in putting our curriculum online. And um, we had to create the the the there's four workbooks before the ones that came out monthly back in those days. This was in 2000 and 2001 and two. And uh the the thing that we really wanted to do in the beginning, and we did this in the Thin Within book as well, was uh go into what does God say about his character? What is true about who God is and what is he like? And boy, God changed my life with that focus because I had a lot of things I believed about God that were based on my experience, but they weren't telling me the truth. My experiences were true, but the conclusions I drew based on those were not. And it was about God and what he's like. So I just want to share Exodus 34, verses four to seven, it's just the beginning of seven. Um, this was when God was having an interaction with uh Moses. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Wow, one of the things I love about this is it was in the old testament. Have you ever heard somebody say God was a God of grace in the New Testament and of judgment in the Old Testament? Have you heard that before?

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Yes, oh yeah, many, many times.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Yeah, and it's it's not true, it's alive from the pivot.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

It's not true, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Because I mean, even the sacrificial system, which we're not gonna talk about that, but just by way of reference, the sacrificial system that God set up was grace, it was a way of freeing the people from the guilt and condemnation of their sin. And so I think it's important for us to see how does God speak of himself, and so Exodus 34, verses 4, and following. That's a great place to return because I want to think God's thoughts about him, and that's what he has to say about himself, and a lot more is in the scriptures as well.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Yeah, merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, faithful. I mean, it just goes on and on, forgiving. It's beautiful. That's a beautiful, that's just a uh god list right there. And you know, a god list. It's one of the first things that you taught me how to do, Heidi, when we started coaching 12 years ago. Um, start a god list, write down the attributes of God, who he is, what he does for people. Um, I think we all kind of think, well, I have an accurate view of God, I know exactly what he's like. But when we really dig into the word and we start pulling out all of these beautiful phrases and words, we get a picture that is more and more full and complete about who he is. And I mean, my view of God was very, I want to say kind of shallow, even though I mean I feel like I had a really good relationship with him, but I just I didn't realize I was missing out on so much of who he is. Um, so now I have like God lists all over the place, and I use them to renew my mind, especially when I'm struggling and I need encouragement.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

And the reason this became so important to me, to their ministry of Thin Within and our ministry now is because as we think about God, what we think about him is drastically going to influence how we respond to him and what aspects of our life we will be open with him about. It's going to impact our food, our eating, our body image. It will affect everything. I believe that this and understanding my identity in Christ are two of the most crucial things that we get straight. What God says is true is true, both about himself and about who I am. Yes. A little bit more about what uh scripture says. Psalm 103, verses 6 to 14. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. He does not deal with us as our sins deserve, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him, for he knows our frame, and he remembers that we are dust. Wow, I just love what God says about himself. And here is where David is writing about what God says about himself, that this is what God says is true. His character is beautiful, and and the the Old Testament is filled with things like this. Yes, it's filled with other stuff too. Okay, but if we needed it to be settled once and for all, the cross of Christ proves that the message at the top of God's mind is grace, is love, is mercy.

Grace In Jesus And Titus Two

SPEAKER_00 10:00

So I'm gonna read a couple passages from the New Testament. John chapter 1, verse 1, followed by verse 14. In the beginning was the word, and the word was God, and the word was with God. And then verse 14 says, and that of course is Jesus. Verse 14 says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Ah, so beautiful, so beautiful. So, with that context in place, there's no doubt that God is gracious and merciful and kind and loving. He invites us to approach his throne of grace to receive mercy and help in our time of need. We could go on and on with passages about that. I mean, it it's just there's no question that God is gracious and merciful, his grace is available to all.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

And and it says in Titus 2, I want to kind of look at this passage a little bit today. Titus chapter 2, verses 11 to 14. You want to read that for us, Christina?

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Sure. For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Titus 2.11, the word grace in the Greek language, which is what it was written in originally, means favor, kindness, or goodwill freely shown, a gracious gift or benefit, undeserved generosity, God's gracious action toward people. And and we in the church, those of us who have been hanging out in the church for any length of time, have heard God riches at Christ's expense. That's the G-R-A-C-E. And that works, that works too. But in Titus 2, 11, when you look at this and the way it was structured in the writing, grace of God is the subject of the sentence, and God's grace has appeared. The context adds an important richness, I think, to the word. It does not merely mean God is feeling warm and fuzzy about people. It doesn't mean that warm and fuzzy. It is actually God's favor actively revealed and at work in us, in our world, in our lives today. I think that's something pretty awesome. So for instance, in verse 11, God's grace brings salvation.

unknown 13:06

Yay!

SPEAKER_00 13:09

And in verse 12, God's grace trains us or instructs us, and specifically to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. Yes, the same grace that brings salvation and all of the things we love also teaches us that there are appropriate boundaries that we want to have. In verse 14, that grace is seen through Jesus, who gave himself to redeem and purify people for himself. It doesn't put a big burden on us, but we want to realize what is God's goal here? It's to have a beautiful, redeemed bride of Christ, really. So in this passage, the word grace actually carries the sense of God's freely given, undeserved kindness made visible in Jesus, a grace that saves us and then actively teaches and transforms us. It's not just a one and done. You know, God's grace was what saved me, yes, absolutely, but it's what keeps saving me every day. It's what keeps me going every day, it's what enables me to look and learn every day. I mean, it's not simply God let us off the hook, it's God generously, generously acting for us and within us too, in a way we could never manufacture or earn. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

That is

When You Push Back Against God

SPEAKER_01 14:40

beautiful. So beautiful. So, I mean, as I'm as I'm reading this, as I'm listening and thinking about this, as I've been praying about this, I think about the times when I feel like I am pushing against God. I don't want to. I don't want to do what he's asking me to do. There's some kind of a roadblock there for me. There's a roadblock there somewhere. And I don't know, Heidi, if you've experienced this. I think that I know that you have because I know you pretty well. But I know that some of you out there might think, you know what? I feel like that sometimes. I love the Lord. I know the scripture. We've been in relationship for a long, long time. He's brought me through all kinds of things. I am grateful. But yet there's this roadblock. Over the years, um, I have come to realize that when I have a roadblock like that, I need to renew my mind. Why? Why? What difference does it make if I say, um, you know, if I use one of our tools, if I ask God what is true, um, what what is your perspective, Lord? Why does that make a difference? Because it turns my heart toward Him in a way that nothing else can. Um, I can use scripture to renew my mind, but even, you know, if I'm just grabbing at truths that I know from the word, I don't have to have the exact scripture. Right. Um, maybe it's through gratitude, maybe it's um any number of ways. We have so many tools, so many wonderful tools. It softens my heart, it turns my heart away from myself and the focus on me, me, me, me turns my heart toward the Lord and asking him, What do you want, Lord? What is your perspective? And then if I'm spending time in praise and worship, I'm spending time in thanksgiving, it changes the whole way that I look at whatever situation I'm struggling with.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

And that's that's where that roadblock is. The roadblock for me are things like I can do it myself, I can figure this out, let me have this one. I'm too afraid to leave to give it to you, Lord. I don't trust you. And that's that's very honest. And that's coming from somebody who loves the Lord very much, but you know, I'm human. And so when I think about this grace that God has lavished on me, and it's like, why? Why would I push against him? Why would I say I don't trust you? Well, because we're we're human, I'm human, and life is scary sometimes. And sometimes it's easier in the moment to kind of hide away and say, I'm okay over here on my own, Lord, I'll talk to you a little bit later. And we kind of push against him. But then when we renew our mind, like you were talking about, Heidi, thinking God's thoughts after him, dwelling on the truth, filling our mind with what is true, it changes everything. It changes everything. The way I see God, um, the way I see my struggles, my challenges, my obstacles, my problems, my fears. I can turn it all over to him and it's on his big, broad, strong shoulders. And I have such a such relief letting him have that. Yeah. And then comes peace, and then comes surrender, and all those things that are, I can't do that on my own. I can't give myself that peace. Right. Um, but if I don't turn to him and I'm just walking it on my own, going it on my own, um, I'm missing out.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

And I don't want to miss out on his grace, but this is part of his grace too. Um, not just forgiving me, not just redeeming. Those are so, so, so good. But also taking me in the moment and holding me and wrapping his arms around me and saying, Let me, let me do this, let me guide you, let me lead you. I've got it. You don't have to fear I'm already there. And it it changes everything. And then what happens? My actions change.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

And all of a sudden the roadblock isn't there, and I am ready and willing to do what he's asking of me.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

That's awesome. Thank you for sharing

Psalm 107 Rescue In Desperation

SPEAKER_00 19:15

that. Another example that we find in scripture is actually found in Psalm 107. It traces people who are struggling in four different, desperate situations. One of them is if they're lost in the wilderness, the second one is they're imprisoned in darkness, the third one is suffering because of their own foolishness. I can relate to that with my struggles with food eating and my body image. It's like, how many times have I been stuffed to the gills and gone back for something more to eat? And it's foolishness and it causes health problems and all kinds of other things. And then the fourth kind of situation that we see in Psalm 107 is overwhelmed by a storm. But in every single case, grace is the front runner. They the people cry to the Lord and He rescues them. The repeated refrain is that we should sh thank God. We should thank God for his steadfast love and his wondrous deeds for men. Uh, what makes it especially beautiful, I think, is that God, his kindness reaches people who are helpless, who are trapped, who are afraid, who are suffering, and even suffering because of their own foolish choices. Like, right, yes. Maybe maybe you can relate to that, listener. I can relate to that. For sure. He doesn't really feel compassion from a distance, like, oh, check her out. I'm so sad for her. He doesn't do that. He intervenes, he delivers, he restores, he satisfies, he heals, and he brings them home. Now I love that because home is so important to me at this point in my life. I love what I think of when I think of home is super special. I guess having lived at a couple of camps and losing the home that I had for so many years um due to circumstantial changes. Um, it's like I love that I have a home now that is ours, Michael's, and mine. And it just means so much. So when God says He brought them home, uh, I love that. Um, grace will always and forever be an underlying or very outspoken theme in Revelation. I guess it will be. Absolutely. But think about this for a minute. What would change in your life, in my life, if we really believed, really, really believed from the tip of our head to the tips of our toes that his grace, God's grace, extends to us no matter what circumstances we are in, whether they have been uh shoveled on us by others or whether we've gotten ourselves into the mess. Yeah, I can think of when um one of the ways that I saw God's grace so profoundly was when my husband of really long time, you know, 33 years we were married, felt like he needed a change. And one of the things God really laid on my heart was thank me, thank me. And like, are you kidding me? I want to scream at you. Yes, right. That's really yeah, he led me to write down, and I had a spiral deck of cards where I wrote it all, all the things I appreciated through all the years we had been through together, and the how what a good daddy he was, what a good provider he was, all things that I could then out loud, I really felt like that was a big part of it for me. Thank God for these things. Thank God for my uh former husband, um, and thank God for the way he interacted with the kids, and thank God for the provision God made through uh Bob working so hard. That was grace, not just displayed through me, but to me, because I tell you what, my natural default during that season would have been well, talk about wanting to eat. I would have wanted to eat and eat, neat, neat, and eat, and other things that I shouldn't have been doing. And that changed because my heart, I embraced God's perspective, which is a mind renewal. That's what mind renewal is all about. Thinking about thoughts. And so uh it's amazing to me. Now, here's the something that we don't always like to think of, though. Even while God's own kindness is on display like this, grace teaches us to say no to some things. And we see that in Titus 2, 11 to 14, to have boundaries. Um, so I'm just gonna read that again as as we're nearing the end of our time together today. For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. Now, verse 12 teaches us to say no to ungodliness and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. I love that this challenging admonition, which I could never do without his grace, all cascading all over me, okay? Um, has this context in this verse while we wait for the blessed hope. I think that is so cool. In verse 13, it says, you know, it teaches us to say no to ungodliness in verse 12 and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age while we wait. For who? For what? For the blessed hope, the appearance of him, the great God and savior Jesus Christ. I love that God knows it's hard for us to say no to some things, but he gives us this most amazing glimpse of what a great reward is ahead for us. And that makes me think of the passage, I think it's in 2 Corinthians 10, 4, that these light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. And if we can keep our eyes on that, that promise, that hope, it makes it possible with the grace of God to say no to those things that kind of bind me, keep me locked in. Um, and so anyway, I love I love that. It's not a passage we often see on plaques. I think partly because you know it teaches us to say no. But I don't want to say no, I want to say yes. We don't want boundaries. But anyway,

Praise And Gratitude That Open Hearts

SPEAKER_00 25:45

I just really felt like we wanted to share that today.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Um, just just a little something that you can take away from this too, something really practical. And we teach this all the time at Revelation Within. When you are feeling that sense of pushing against, that sense of pulling away, when you're feeling like the Lord is is distant, even though he's not, he's always right there, he promises. But if you're struggling with some kind of a roadblock praise, praise and thanksgiving, and of course, God says all over the word to do this, praise me and thank me. And as we do that, it's like our hearts open up. It's like the doors open up, the ones that you closed and and the ones that you maybe locked. And God wants to be a part of all of that. He wants to be in there with you, he wants to be in the mess and the struggle, um, in the difficulty, in his strength. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. Yay! So, yeah, I mean, this is like somehow, I can't even explain it, of course. Supernaturally, somehow, when we praise God for who he is and what he does, and we thank him for every little thing we can think of in our lives, it helps. It helps so much. There is something really amazing that happens. So if you're if you're struggling, that would be a great place to begin. And all of that is is part of God's amazing and beautiful grace. We are so grateful for his grace.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Yes, and uh for me too, it always helps to exalt God. And and if you wonder what does it mean to praise or how do I praise? Because I mean, I think we take for granted so often that we know the difference between thanks and praise. And and really for me, there's a big difference, but praise is I'm just saying back to God, like looking at Exodus 34, 4 and following. Um, he said these things about himself. So I'm gonna say them about him. God, you are merciful. Thank you that you're gracious. God, you are slow to anger and you you abound in steadfast love and faithfulness. Thank you, God, that you keep your steadfast love for thousands. Thank you that you are forgiving, always forgiving. So that to me is praise. Um, I mean, you could do it whatever way you want, but we use the scriptures a lot of times to write down attributes of God and the way he deals with people so that we can thank him for those, not thank him, but just say it back to him, who you are, you know, and way maker, and you know, that sort of thing. I mean, all of those there's a lot of good songs we can sing that are just praising God for who he is. Um so between that and gratitude, we should be well fixed to have a great perspective. But we want to recognize that the grace that we love and relish is also telling us, okay, can you say no today? Can you say no to something that you know it might be uh, I don't know, uh I don't know what might be, but um, for everybody it's different. Is there something that God is saying, don't push against me here? I mean, like Christina was talking about. Um, you know, God demonstrates his own love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And to me, a truth like that, grace, it just it's it's filled with grace, it's overflowing with grace, makes me want to love him with my actions. And if I don't, I want to just keep going through scriptures. You know, there is no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

What anyway, it's all good stuff. It's so, so, so good. We are so glad that you've been here today, and we would love to invite you to our next podcast episode of Revelation within.