Welcome And Episode Setup

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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, my friends, and welcome to episode 13 of Everyday God for your everyday. So tonight we're going to do things a little differently. So as we wrapped up the Acceptance series, I was really talking to God and trying to figure out, well, what's next? What are we going to discuss? And I thought I had the last three episodes of the series pretty much figured out, right? So it would have been today's episode, which is episode 13 and then 14 and 15. And then my usual kind of, you know, process didn't happen as it normally does. I normally have this recurring theme. Everything in my devotionals are pretty much saying the same thing, podcasts that I'm watching, all of that. And then I normally have my episodes completely written out by Thursday. Not so much this week. This week I've been in what I would say is a little bit of a weird head space, right? And I've I've not been sure as to why until I started to record today. This is probably my 12th or 15th attempt or 20th. I'm not sure. I've lost count. I know that I've recorded an entire episode today. I was done like this morning,

When God Disrupts The Plan

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spent hours editing it only to listen to it and really say, I'm not happy. And then I tried to write out an episode, and I just feel like God's telling me, no, ma'am, that is not how we're going to do 13 this week. And I'm thinking, why, Lord, are we making this so challenging for me? And with each recording that ultimately I've either deleted or recorded over, there's a theme that's kind of presented itself, which is as I'm talking to you, and as we've discussed, you know, what is everyday God, seeking God, knowing God deeply, the names of God, the whole acceptance series, accepting God's love, accepting God's grace, yourself, your identity in Christ, and then accepting others, his authority, God's authority in your life, and then of course, God's will in your life. I realize that for maybe many of you listening, especially those that have not necessarily been walking with God, with Christ that long, or maybe this is brand new to you. You're saying, what's next? Once I've accepted, right? Once I've done all of this, what does it look like? And I think this whole thing today, with me not having my security blanket and truly trusting God to help me through this episode is really living out what we've been talking about. What do I mean by that? Well, as I started to do this and realized how intensely I held on to my ways, my structures, these constructs, how how I really I clung to them. Like I could not, I mean, and I've talked about like this is a collaborative approach with God, right? Like I can be secure knowing that God is not going to make me look like a fool or God's not going to let me down. And I know that we're going to deliver by the deadline Sunday an episode. That's how I've felt. But I felt that way, but yet still always had my episode

Trust Without The Paycheck

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written out. And so it reminds me of what my life was like 15 months ago or 14 months ago when I had a job and I had a regular paycheck. And so, yes, I knew that God was my provider. And yes, I did depend on God, but I had the security of a job that provided me a paycheck. So, yes, I trusted God, but I have my paycheck coming in. And then I left my job, and then I've not been looking for a job because that is not where God is, you know, is telling me to go. And it's really brought me to a place where I've had to depend on God for certain things and I've had to depend on God for what does my future look like? Like what is going to be the next step? Where to now? And I know that I've discussed this. It's a it's like next level trust. Well, I think it's the same thing for what happens after I accept all of the things that we've talked about in starting this episode and realizing just how how we cling so strongly to whether it's our ideologies, our way of life, everything that we believe that we need to people, to institutions, whatever it may be. Why do we do that? But I think even more interestingly, it is how do we let go and let God? Because that is difficult. I mean, I'm finding it difficult right now. And we're not even talking about life, we're talking about a podcast that I still have editing privileges to, but yet I have struggled the entire day, entire day. It is now Friday evening. I've struggled the entire day trying to record this podcast without all of my words clearly written out. And let me also explain the challenge with that. Kathy, hmm, circa 2021, 22, probably would have been no problem. By the 20th attempt, I would have remembered every word already, and it would have been like having a script. But Kathy of today, Kathy, that is menopausal, Kathy, with brain fog, where my short-term memory leaves a lot to be desired, is a struggle. And so I think how interesting, how intentional God can be. So going back to that, why do we cling so intensely

Clenched Fists Cannot Receive

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to these things? Well, we know that I just said it a minute ago, they make us feel safe. Even if I know that it's a false sense of security, it's still something, right? That's what we say. But I want us to think about something for a minute in terms of not even the why, but how do we let go? Because we've talked about this, we've just wrapped up this series on acceptance, right? So, in order to accept anything, one has to be receptive to it. You have to be open. So I want us to think about our hands. If I am busy clinging, so imagine just look at your hands and clinch your hands, make two fist. So now you're clinging to something. Think about like whether it's gold or rope or whatever it is that you're clinging to, right? Your clinch fist, they're closed. Your hands are closed. Can they accept anything? Can they receive anything? They can't. So I think that God is telling me and telling you, yes, it's one thing to talk about accepting God's love. It's one thing to talk about accepting, you know, your identity in Christ and who you really are, and to accept God's grace and to accept others, but you can't really truly accept any of that if you're busy clinging to your old way of thinking, your old self, old, again, ideologies. Can't do that.

Signs You Have Accepted Grace

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And I guess it's maybe this whole thing started from a question that a friend of mine asked. How do you know or if you've accepted God's love or God's grace? And as we started talking about that, I said, well, it's it's gonna look different for everyone because one person's journey is not going to be another person's journey. But I know that there should be some kind of common themes, right? So if I've accepted God's love, then it means that I've exchanged my idea or my concept of what love is for what God says love is. That if I've accepted my identity in Christ, it means that I've exchanged my old identity, who the world maybe says I was, who my family may have said I was, who I may have said I was, who Satan may have said you were, who your past mistakes may have said you were. And you've exchanged that for who God says you are, which is you're his beloved, you are fearfully and wonderfully made, you are a royal priesthood, you are set apart, you are chosen, you are redeemed, he has called you by name. So you know if you've accepted God's grace when your past no longer has power over you. And what I mean by that is that you've exchanged the pain of the past, the shame and regret of the past for what Christ did for you on that cross. That you believe that when scripture says for those who are in Christ Jesus, there now is no condemnation. And that you believe Scripture when it says that there is nothing that you can do that can separate you from God's love. That's that's when you know. You know that you've accepted others, not because you're perfect and you become the perfect neighbor or the perfect person, not because you don't lose your stuff. Because you're willing to extend grace to not only yourself, but to the other person when they've made a mistake. You start finding that you have an unoffendable heart. What do I mean by an unoffendable heart? What I mean by that is it's not easy for you to get offended by everything. That even if someone says something to you, you tend to respond with grace instead of, you know, being either defensive or feeling that you have to go on the offense. I think you start seeing the fruit of the spirit in your life. That you are more compassionate, that you've become more patient, that it has become easier for you to love the unlovable, the undesirable, especially when you're talking about yourself. You start seeing people not as you were, but as you are now, which is someone who is redeemed or someone who is redeemable. We don't look at others in terms of black and white. That what I mean by that, I'm not talking about color, I'm talking about bad or good. The reality is we no one person is fully evil or fully good. We all are evil and good. That it's really God at the end of the day that makes us righteous. It is what Christ did on that cross that makes us holy, that sets us apart, and that makes us a royal priesthood. As I was thinking about that, I'm like, okay, so so we've talked about, right? You know, how do you know that you've accepted God's love? I've just talked about it. You really do start seeing a change. Now you might say, well, Kathy, how does that change happen? Well, that change doesn't happen by your own power, my loves. That change doesn't happen by my own power. I've neither the strength, the wisdom, the anything to be able to manifest in my life the fruit of the spirit. It's it's just not possible. The only way that we become fruitful, that we bear fruit, that we see the transformation, that we become more Christ-like and less like us, less like our sinful nature, is through God's grace, through grace's power, it's work in our

Grace Powered Change And Fruit

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lives. So I wanted to talk about that for a minute. We hear a lot, and I do, I do agree to a certain extent, that the Christian walk, that of a Christ follower, it is not easy. So I know that many of you, if you've been listening to the episodes, you've heard me say that my life is easier because of Christ, because I do my life with God. So how can you say that the Christian life is not easy, Kathy, but yet say that your life is easier? Well, fairly simple. I do think that when when we say that the Christian life is not easy, I think what we really, what's more accurate, what's a more accurate reflection of that, is that it's not convenient. The Christian life is not convenient and it is not comfortable. And the Christian life is not about you. It's not about us. See, your life does not belong to you. Remember, we talked about the fact that, hmm, unlike the Invictus poem, we are not the captains of our own souls, that it is God, that it is Christ who is the captain of our souls, because he has paid the price for that. So, yes, the Christian walk or Christian journey is not easy as the world defines easy, which is having it your way, it being convenient, and it being comfortable. Well, but let's stop for a minute. Neither is life. Whether you are a Christian or not, I don't believe that life is easy. I think that there are challenges for every single human being because of the very fact that we live in a fallen world. But I do think that if we look at, you know, two roads diverged in the woods, right? Christ talked about two roads, the wide one and the narrow road. So if we look at the narrow road for the Christ follower, it is narrow for a reason because it

Not Easy But Not Convenient

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means that you, me, we surrender our lives, we surrender our rights, we surrender our own will, we subvert our will to God's will, to what he wants for us. We die to self. And when you're on the wide road, what the world is offering, even though things may not be easy, but it's still about your will, your way, your right, your comfort, your everything. It's about it's about you, it's about the flesh, it's about the id. But as a Christ follower, it cannot be about my id, cannot be about me, cannot be about my ego. So, yeah, in that regard, absolutely, the Christian walk is not easy. It is not about your convenience and it is not about your comfort. What does that mean? I don't want to mischaracterize what it is like to be a Christ follower. I love my God because my God first loved me. I love my God because he came to get me from where I was. I love my God because I do not have to do life on my own. I love my God because I have exchanged my guilt, my shame, I have exchanged rejection, I've exchanged my sinful nature, I have exchanged the feeling of worthlessness, I have exchanged sexual abuse, I have exchanged abandonment, I have exchanged pride, I have exchanged a whole host of things, selfishness, all of that for God's forgiveness, for his goodness, for his love, for his mercies, for his grace, for his community to be part of his family. And

A Rhythm Of Ongoing Acceptance

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so if I again think about how we started this episode, let us not cling to our old ways, our former ways, our old ways of looking at things, the ways that we have done things. Let us not cling to those things and then render ourselves either incapable or unwilling to accept what God is offering us. So we've talked about the fact that acceptance is a continuous process. It's a continuous journey. It's, you know, I like to think of it like a rhythm. I do laundry a lot. Like laundry is very close to my heart, by the way. So it's gonna be a weird analogy, but I'm gonna use it. It's very much like wash, rinse, dry, repeat. It's that's it. If anybody has done their laundry, they get it. It may not be sexy, it may not be exciting, but it is. This rhythm follows the seasons of our lives. It follows whatever is going on in our lives, the ebbs and flows of life. But isn't it wonderful to think that, you know, if I I can exchange all of this, all of this stuff that let's face it, what good is it doing any of us? If it were that good, oh my word, would we have as many people as we have right now that are lonely, that are anxious, that are depressed? Would we? I'm not saying that those things

Let Go Of Offense And Control

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don't exist within the church, within the body of Christ, because let's face it, all we are as Christ followers are a whole bunch of sinners, heathens, who have been saved, who've accepted salvation, that we were saved by grace, a gift from God, not by works, so that no man, including myself, can boast about it. That's it. That is worthy of celebration. That is worthy of, you know what? Kicking off my training wheels, kicking off my scripts, and laying it bare before my God and saying, okay, Lord, you want me to do this without my safety net? You know what? I'm gonna do it because that's a that's a safety net that is really not that safe. Because I have the greatest safety net in the world, that is you. So I can get on this podcast and I can go at it without anything else but you by my side, knowing that you are the best partner that I could ever have. You are the best person that I could ever do life with. So I'm gonna say it again. Where to now? Where to now? It's up to you. You can cling to your old self, you can cling to your old ways of doing things, but then how will you be able to accept God's love? How will you be able to accept who God says you are, your identity in Christ if you're so busy holding on to who the world says you are or who you say you are? How will you be able to accept yourself? Fully accept yourself, look at yourself in the mirror for all that you are the good, the bad, and the ugly. Do you know why you can do That do you know why I can do that? Because I know that God loves me. He is the one that I can never disappoint because he knows every good thing about me and he knows every awful thing about me, even things that I might not know right now that I'm capable of. He knows, and he loves me just the same. If you're busy holding on to, I don't know, unforgiveness, to things that people have done to you, to grudges, to hurts, I get it. We are awful towards one another. And I get that sometimes holding on to that anger and holding on to that grudge, it can make it feel like it's this sense of control and it's your sense of, I don't know, but it's not. So exchange it. Exchange it for God's grace instead. Receive forgiveness from God for your own sins and then let go of every offense and give it to God. Give it to God and forgive and release yourself, free yourself from all of that because it's not serving you anymore. How will you be able to accept others when you're so busy, so busy beating yourself up because you got a plank in your eye, and you're also whipping everyone else around you because you are carrying that plank and you're not only punishing yourself, but you're punishing everyone else around you.

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Let go.

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God says, cast it all on him. He'll do the work, he'll transform you, he'll free you. Receive what God wants to give you freely. You know, where do we go from

Closing Prayer And Blessing

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here? I want you to take some time and to really think about what you're holding on to. What old hurts, what false constructs, what old thinking are you holding on to that is stopping you from accepting what God is trying to give you, so that you can do every day with him, so that you can walk freely with him, so that he can be involved in every facet of your life, so you can take hold of the future plans that he has for you, a future that is not meant to harm you, a future that is meant to prosper you, to give you hope in a future. So take some time, my friends, my loves, and let go of all that is holding you back from accepting all that God means for you to have. Let it go and let God, just like in this episode, I have let God speak through me and guide me to the message that he meant for you to hear, the message that he meant for me to deliver, the lesson that he wanted me to learn, which is to trust. Trust God. Trust God when you don't know, when you are unsure, when you are uncertain, trust God when you don't know, trust God when you're scared, trust God when you're angry, trust God when you're doubting, trust God when everything else feels just too much. Trust God. Let go and trust God. So we're gonna wrap up this episode and we're gonna pray. Lord God, thank you. Thank you for all that you are doing, Lord, through this podcast with it in my life, in every life of every listener. Father, thank you that it is your power at work within us that will enable us to accomplish the good works that you have already prepared in advance for us to do. Thank you, Lord, that because of what Christ did on that cross, it is finished. Meaning there is nothing more than we can add to it, and there's nothing that can be taken away from it. Father, I pray that your grace would continue to work in us, Lord, to put us where we need to be, to give us the right perspective, to give us the right lens by which to see what you are doing, the work that you are doing around us, through us, and in us. That Lord, that you would transform us, Lord, that you would help us to focus less on what we think or how we think others should be, and instead that we would seek you, Lord, and that we would get draw closer to you and just focus on things unseen, that we would set our minds on you, that we would set our minds on the work that you are doing in us, and that we would be less critical of those around us. Father God, I thank you that even though the Christian walk, the Christ followers journey is not comfortable, it is not convenient, but Lord, it is so worth it, that Lord, it is so fulfilling, that Lord, it is so good, it is easier than doing life on our own. Father, I just give you all the glory, I give you all the praise. It is in Christ's holy, matchless and mighty name I pray. Amen. See you guys next time.