Welcome And Why We’re Here

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello my friends and welcome to Everyday God for Your Every Day with Kathy, a space where we'll discuss real practical ways for life with God, especially for those days when life is hard, complicated, and messy. How do we apply biblical principles such as God's love, mercy, grace, and wisdom to our daily grind? Well, join me each week as we do just that together. So wherever you may find yourself today, please know that you are seen, held, accepted, loved, and never alone. So let's get to it. Hello, friends, and welcome back to another episode of Everyday God for your everyday. I am Kathy, your host. So to think that I am recording episode five. Not too long ago, just the thought of recording a podcast, quite frankly, made me sick with anxiety. Just the thought of recording, editing, the steps involved, I found overwhelmingly just too much. So, nonetheless, by God's grace, we are here in this moment. So today we're going to discuss love. More specifically, God's love. I know that as we've talked about everyday God for your everyday, the concept of what it is and how God wants to be involved in every facet of our lives. And episode two, we discussed how we can seek God, whether we've been walking with God forever, or what seems like forever, or whether we don't know who this God is, how we might start to seek Him. By the way, let's be real. God seeks us first. We're not that smart. So when you do feel that prompting, or you think, oh, I want to kind of know whether he exists, he is truly drawing you near to him. And of course, we talked about how do we go about knowing God, right? What are some of the things that we can do to know God? And then episode four, I spent quite a bit of time on what I said was my favorite subject, and it is God, you know, hit the names of God, who God is. I shared a bit about God as I know him, you know, my heavenly daddy. So as I really was preparing for this, I already had an episode written out on faith. And I know better now, having walked with God as long as I have, and certainly having done this podcast, you know, the few weeks that I have with God, that ultimately I can write the episode, but doesn't necessarily mean that that's the way it's gonna go with God. So I was called to do a fast normally around this time of year, starting in 2024. God originally called me March of 2024 to do this three-day fast. It was the first time that I'd really ever done a fast like that, where I fasted from not only food, but from essentially the world, from all electronics. So mind you, in 2024, March of 2024, I was working, very busy, always, never disconnected from my work. And even on vacation, I mean, I would be on a ship or on a plane, and I would still be working. For 22 years, essentially that's what I did, and I was okay with that. But God called me to this three-day fast. Now, at the time, I didn't know how drastically my life was going to change in the next 12 months. Now, God did, but I didn't. So when he called me to this fast, I was a bit apprehensive. Three days to not eat, three days of no phone, I think that was more overwhelming for me, not being tethered to my phone than actually not eating. And then no television, nothing. Lo and behold, as I've said to many people who know me, it was the most wonderful three days of my life. The most wonderful three days of my life. I have often likened it to a honeymoon. God orchestrated this beautiful weather. I live in Florida, so to have weather where it was mildly overcast because I don't really like it when it's too sunshiny, and it was breezy and it was wonderful. I spent three days reading. I like read four books. I read the Bible, I spoke with God, I walked with God, I spent time in nature with God. It was the most glorious three days of my life. I think at that point I was addicted. I was addicted to it. I had never in my at that time, I was 46, I had never been in God's presence in that way before, truly to be still, truly to be present and to have a holy appointment with God. And that's what it was. So I went in, really having, I think, only maybe a couple of things that at the time I was really bringing to God. And God gave me two promises in essence. And I realized there were probably more, but those were two promises that were kind of all-encompassing. One was that there was a journey, this God dream that was going to be incredibly hard, difficult. And I thought, okay, check, it's gonna be hard. Two years later, y'all, a hard was an understatement. And the other was where you need to be, I will get you there. For as long as I live, I will never forget that. Where you need to be, I will get you there. Now I have in the last two years used that promise as intended, as a promise and as something that I would hold on to when the road got hard, when I felt like I was struggling and I was failing, I would hold on to it and it would encourage me. Most recently, meaning this week, God called me to fast again. Now, I had already planned to do it because I'd done it last year. It's it's in essence become a yearly tradition for me, right? He'd called me to do it right before I resigned from my position a year ago. So right beforehand, I'd been called to do this fast. It was prior to my original like schedule time. God called me to do the fast. And then when I got out of that fast, I tendered my resignation. God was like, it's time to leave. So then I did it approximately a month afterwards, because it had been a month since I'd, you know, approximately a month since I'd left my position and wanted to for God to really give me vision and clarity on what was to come. And I will say that the experience the third time around, when I took it, you know, when I did it on my schedule, was not the same as it had been the first time that I was called and the second time that I was called. The third time, it was still good. It was great. I think anytime one can fast, anytime one can really practice the discipline of solitude, of fasting, time with God, a blend of really kind of isolating oneself from the distractions of the world, that is always a good thing because there's a lot of introspective work that happens in that space. Needless to say, you know, the last 13 months of my life have been, you know, incredibly challenging and new. It's it's transition, right? I had planned to do this three-day fasting beginning Thursday, Mondri Thursday, which would have been yesterday technically, doing it Holy Friday and then Saturday, and then lifting it essentially the end of Saturday before Easter. But God had other plans as usual. God called me to fast. I believe it was Sunday, Sunday, Palm Sunday. So I started Palm Sunday and I was having a really hard time, guys. Normally, when God calls me to a fast, you know it, it's meant to be, it works out great. By midday Sunday, I'd broken my fast because I was cooking for my family. I hadn't prepared, and normally I prepare to go on a three-day fast. I'm a mother of three, so I have to. And I broke my fast. So I'm gonna tell you a little bit about myself. I like structure. I have recorded over probably 20 times to record one episode because if I make a mistake, instead of just thinking I can edit or add another, you know, track to it, I would rather start over again. It's it's a bit of a problem. I get that. I'm seeking help. But no, that that's me. I I can sometimes be a bit regimented. So it really threw me. So then, but I started the fast on Monday. Monday I slept longer and more than I intended to. Tuesday was a better day. I spent outside. The weather was amazing. I spent time with God, but all the while there was just a tension. There was not this peace that I normally have when I'm fasting. I started reading this book, and I will share some of the wisdom gleaned from it. Book called Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster. And I realized that right now we're like 10 minutes into the podcast, and I said we're going to talk about love and God's love more specifically. But then I really am talking about this fast, and there's a reason for it that I'm deviating from my regularly scheduled programming. As I lifted the fast, my spirit still wasn't completely at peace. And I couldn't pinpoint why it was. And I'm one of those people, like I have to understand. I have to understand everything. I overanalyze, sometimes I overthink. The reason why I like to simplify things, it's because I can overcomplicate things. So I simplify things and it makes it easier for me. Because if I don't simplify it, I can go crazy. And mind you guys, I'm doing this podcast. I am really in a phase of my life where I am truly seeking to be closer to God and wanting to be a better person. And I don't want to be out there if at the end of the day I'm not better, right? I'm not better than I ought to be. And I think that sometimes we don't realize how much pressure we're putting on ourselves or how many things we're holding on to that we're ultimately meant to let go. Before I tell you what happened after my fast, we're going to discuss God's love and we're going to discuss acceptance and grace. Now, obviously, the vastness of God's love cannot be covered in a 30-minute podcast, not an hour podcast, not in a all the days of our lives podcast, because it is quite frankly that vast and that amazing and that wide and that deep a love. It is one that, quite frankly, is inexplicable in many ways. So love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it doesn't dishonor others, and it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, it always trusts, it always hopes, it always perseveres. Love never fails. So for those of you who are familiar, you know what that is. It's the love chapter. It's 1 Corinthians 13. These verses specifically, verses 4 through 9. So I will tell you that as I came out of my fast as a person who is a Christ follower, but I have always said I was flawed. I had an epiphany through an experience that I will call a failing as a mother, where I was not patient, I was not kind. I didn't sleep last night very much as I had this kind of blow-up yesterday. And as I was trying to figure out where did that come from? What happened? I just came off of this fast. I think before anything was, I knew as I blew up and as it was happening that I'd caused damage. Now, what I said to her was, I know that I cause irreparable damage right now. And I think what kept me awake last night and kept me up, and as I went to Pilates this morning, normally Pilates provides me some level of peace and respite. It did not. And as I walked a mile and a half, really seeking God's face to understand what happened, I realized something. Something that I think it's not the first time that I've realized it, but we read these verses at weddings. We really do hold ourselves to these verses. We want to be patient, like love is. We want to be kind. We do not want to envy, we do not want to boast, we certainly don't want to be proud in the sense of pridefulness that we understand it to be in terms of arrogance. We don't want to think of ourselves as self-seeking, but we know that we can be. We don't want to hold records of wrongs, but we very quickly realize that sometimes there's a running tab of all the things that others have done wrong. But I dare say that as we start to really look at it, there is this tally in the background that's all of the ways that we have failed, how we have failed ourselves, failed our own expectations of our lives, failed God if we're walking with God, failed, just failed. And it's a constant thing. And then you realize that, you know, the very things that sometimes may annoy you or drive you crazy, that button that a certain person or these people at work kind of can, you know, push the reason why when you're driving, you have road rage. And then you start to realize that there is a kind of recurring theme, a common denominator that links all of these different things together. And if we look deeply enough, oftentimes it's because the very things that we're raging against are the things that we dislike most about ourselves or cannot accept. So I know that on a previous episode, I mentioned that we cannot extend grace to others if at the end of the day we cannot extend grace to ourselves. Now, I didn't go into detail about that, but I want to express something. It is not something that happens once and once only, and then you move on, especially in periods and seasons where we are being tested. If we do not go to God, if we do not let ourselves be vulnerable, if we are not willing to let go of the things that we are holding tightly to, those things seep out. Once again, you find yourself holding on to and being angry about things that, quite frankly, you thought very long ago you let go of. I think that love ultimately is a very fragile thing. It truly is. We aim to do it well, to do it perfectly, but no one loves perfectly except for God. No one loves perfectly except for God. God is patient, God is kind, he is not envious, he does not boast, although he has all the reasons to boast, he is not proud. If he was, he never would have left heaven, said Jesus, because Jesus is God, he left heaven to come here for his creation, his subordinates, his subjects, if we were to look at it the way that human kings do. Jesus didn't do that, he was the servant king. Today's Good Friday, and I've never been more aware of why Jesus had to die. As I saw myself lose control and be angry and say things that I shouldn't have said, and I woke up this morning and I was met with grace. I was met with grace. I was met with grace and acceptance. See, the thing is that God knew before he called me to that appointment, to my fast, that I would have a failing of semi-epic proportions this week. And that I needed to know that that promise where you need to be, I will get you there, was not only a promise, but a command, meaning that I and you, none of us, can get ourselves to where we need to be by ourselves. There is no amount of works that you can do, no amount of retrospective, introspective work that will get you to the place that you need to be, including a place of where you fail and you do something wrong to go to the father and say, I need your help to fix this. But I also know that I have to take accountability, I have to own what I've done wrong, and I have to accept whatever those consequences might be. And friends, I also learned that, and I'm going to read this from Celebration of Discipline. It says, and this is page 112, and it's the chapter talking about submission. So the discipline of submission. It says that outwardly we can do what people ask, and yet inwardly be in rebellion against that. I mean, I was drawn by this. And the following sentence says, this concern for a spirit of consideration towards others pervades the entire New Testament. So this chapter is really talking about the discipline of submission, which the biblical teaching on submission focuses primarily on the spirit with which we view other people. In submission, we are at least free to value other people. Their dreams and plans become important to us. The freedom to give up our own rights for the good of others. For the first time, we can love people unconditionally. We have given up the right to demand that they return our love. So that's love. I once heard that love is loving someone and accepting that they do not love you back. And I used to say before, may not love you back, but I think it is important that we say that do not love you back. When we love people, it means that we have to be okay with showing grace when what they do. Offends us when what they do is not what we agree with, when what they're doing may even unsettle our spirits. It means that we have to show grace. It doesn't mean that you have to approve of it. It doesn't even mean that you have to understand it. Grace transcends all of that, and so does love. Love is patient, love is kind. So I'm gonna read from 1 Corinthians 13, but this time verse 1 through 4. If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gone or a clinging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all that I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardships, then I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. And what I've learned with this, and I always knew it, but I came into contact with this yesterday and this morning. I have faith that can move a mountain. I have knowledge. I speak in the tongues of men, not quite angels, but yesterday I did not have love. And all of that meant nothing. All of that meant nothing. So today I really wanted to have a very succinct, clearly written out episode. But that was not the plan. The plan is that we are all flawed on this walk. That's why he's an everyday God, because we're gonna do things, we're gonna fail, we're gonna stumble, but he's gonna be right there to pick us up, right there to remind us that we're still loved, right there, being patient, being kind, not keeping a record of our wrongs, not delighting in our failures, but rejoicing with the truth that he is our God and we are his beloved. He will be right there protecting us, right there trusting in the spirit that he created and put in us. He's always going to hope that we find him, that we seek him, and his love perseveres even when we stray as far as the East is from the West. And his love, ladies and gents, never fails. So I think it is quite apropos that it is on Good Friday that I should be talking about love, failure and love and grace and acceptance.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

Because last time I talked about Peter denying God and failing and accusing himself, and I found myself, quite frankly, in a similar situation, and really feeling like I failed God, and I don't know why you would pick me to do this podcast and to talk about you when I have failed you and I don't represent you well, and I don't reflect the love of God well, and I have not been as good as I should be, and being reminded that it's okay where you need to be, I will get you there, my daughter. It's okay. I love you, I have already forgiven you.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

It is finished. So, my friends, I want to share this with you that no matter what failings, no matter what disappointments you might have in life, no matter where you might be, no matter what you might be feeling today, it is finished. Jesus did it on the cross over 2,000 years ago for all of us.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

For all of the parents who have failed their children, for all of the children who think that they have failed their parents and have disappointed them, for all of the siblings who have failed their siblings or think that they have, for the ones who think that they are too far away, for the prodigal sons, for the prodigal daughters, for all of us who fall short of his glory and often fall short in the way that we love ourselves and certainly the way that we love others.

Identity Declarations And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_01 26:47

Remember that today it is finished. So I know that we normally finish with a prayer, and we will, but I want to read you this. So I want you to repeat after me as I'm telling myself today. I want you to tell yourself this. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I am blessed and highly favored. God has called me by name. I am a royal priesthood. I am redeemed, chosen, and set apart. I have been made in God's image. I am more than a conqueror. I am a child of the Most High God. I am God's beloved. So it is with that that we are finishing this episode. So, Lord God, I thank you for this moment. I thank you for the fact that you are so good to me, that you are so patient, and you are so kind, not just to me, Lord, but to all of us, that on this Holy Friday, that we would all be reminded that you so loved us all, not just me, Lord, but whoever is listening, that you so loved us all, the entire world, that you sent your only begotten son, that whosoever would believeth in him would not perish, but have eternity spent with you. Lord, I pray for all of the lives listening, for all of the children, for all of the parents, for all of the siblings, everyone listening, that Lord, we all have our failures and we all have the things that we carry with us that we have not yet buried, that the tally that we keep, the tab of all of the things that we've done wrong, all of our shortcomings and all of these things that we don't like about ourselves that we have not accepted. Lord, I am praying, Father, that your spirit would touch hearts, that you would heal hearts, Lord, that you would heal old wounds, and that you would remind hearts today that it is finished. And that you would extend that promise and that grace that you have extended to me, to them, that wherever they need to be, that you would get them there. It is in your holy name, our Savior, Jesus Christ, that I pray. Amen.