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Waking Up to the Goodness of God

Waking Up to the Goodness of God

Released Thursday, 2nd May 2024
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Waking Up to the Goodness of God

Waking Up to the Goodness of God

Waking Up to the Goodness of God

Waking Up to the Goodness of God

Thursday, 2nd May 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
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Episode Transcript

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0:00

Dawn and Steve welcome Susie Larson

0:02

to aid us on our next steps with Jesus

0:04

pilgrimage that we're all on as we explore

0:06

God's invitation to flourish, heal,

0:09

and know his peace in a way that changes

0:11

us forever.

0:12

Oh, Susie Larson, we're so thankful

0:14

to have you with us. Happy Valentine's Day, sis.

0:17

Good to have you.

0:18

Good to be back with you guys. Thanks for having me.

0:20

Yeah.

0:21

Okay, so we're looking via zoom and I

0:23

am like, okay, girl, where's your pink? Where's your red?

0:25

You're celebrating Valentine's Day blue today.

0:28

What's wrong with that?

0:29

Yeah. Thank you.

0:30

Yeah. Thank you. I didn't even think

0:32

about it. But again, I can't compete with you. You

0:34

got red and then you got a tiara on your mic.

0:37

So, I mean, you sparkle every

0:39

day, hands down. Yes. You got it.

0:41

Sparkling every day. Well, and really,

0:43

your latest work, waking up to the

0:45

goodness of God in a and

0:47

I to me says, let's

0:49

look to the Lord for our sparkle,

0:51

our strength. Uh, his goodness

0:54

is what makes a difference in our lives.

0:56

And you want to talk about

0:58

bracing for impact and

1:00

holy expectancy. That's that's

1:02

some pretty big words

1:04

on any given day. What is

1:06

it that you thought was important for

1:08

us to hear about bracing for

1:11

impact?

1:12

Well, you know, a little bit about my backstory. I don't

1:14

know that your listeners all do. But, you know, given

1:17

that I have a history, I contracted

1:19

Lyme disease 30 something years ago, and

1:21

it was a pretty big battle for me. I had

1:23

some childhood trauma prior to when I was a little

1:25

girl, jumped by teenage boys,

1:27

beaten mercilessly. And I had a few

1:29

things like that that, um, when

1:32

they happened, there was just the repeated

1:34

message that that enemy

1:36

can get to me anytime, anywhere, and God will

1:38

never stop me. And so even when I became a

1:40

Christian, that still felt

1:42

true. It was like it was a lie that was sitting

1:45

buried in my soul. And then, you know, I, I

1:47

battled pretty bad with the limes in the early

1:49

years as a mom for about seven years.

1:51

Then about 20 years I just managed

1:53

and I was a fitness person. I'm a

1:55

fighter. I wanted to live. And so I did everything

1:58

I could, you know, to get my life

2:00

back. But I would say three, four times a year,

2:02

sometimes five times a year, every few months,

2:04

it seemed my face would start to go numb.

2:07

My arms would start to go numb, the vision would

2:09

blur, the room would spin, and I'm like, oh, here

2:11

we go again. And I'd get knocked over and

2:13

couldn't get out of bed for a few days, and then felt

2:15

crummy for a few weeks. And that was sort of the cycle.

2:18

And then, um, as you know, eight, nine

2:20

years ago, I had a pretty massive health

2:22

relapse, and it was Lyme and then some.

2:24

And it turned out to be people with chronic Lyme

2:27

can't process mold. And I was

2:29

unknowingly, repeatedly exposed to back black

2:31

mold and it affected my brain. So

2:34

as a I'm a live talk show host, you

2:36

know, you have to have an economy of words.

2:38

You've got to be able to think on your feet as you both

2:40

well know. And at the same time. I was writing

2:42

a book and forgot how to spell key words.

2:44

I'd be on the air and was putting the wrong

2:46

words in my sentences, and my

2:49

tongue would go numb, my head would go numb, and

2:51

I'd have these surges of neurological

2:53

symptoms that were so terrifying that there

2:56

were times I would I didn't want to wake my husband up

2:58

because my heart's beating out of my chest,

3:00

irregularly numbing is shooting up my neck,

3:02

feeling like I'm on the verge of a stroke, and I'm

3:04

passing this floor back

3:06

and forth, quoting scripture all night long.

3:08

And finally, by morning, I'd say something

3:11

like, you have to kill me or heal me because

3:13

I can't keep doing this. And

3:15

even though I was still getting up in the morning

3:18

spending time with the Lord, I was serving him with all

3:20

my heart on the air. This is before Covid,

3:22

right? And I had a friend tell me

3:24

very lovingly and compassionately,

3:26

it seems like you're bracing for impact.

3:28

It seems like you are waiting

3:31

for the next shoe to drop. And I

3:33

and she was so compassionate. I really felt

3:35

like I encountered the compassion of Jesus. So

3:37

there was no defensiveness in me.

3:39

But it was like curious to me because,

3:42

excuse me, I am. I thought

3:44

that posture was a natural result

3:47

of an unpredictable disease,

3:49

but because I encountered such compassion

3:51

with no judgment and it flickered something

3:53

in me, I decided to bring it with the Lord and just

3:55

said, is there more here? And God showed

3:57

me that I was disappointed

4:00

in him. He showed me my heart, I

4:02

was hurt, I couldn't believe

4:04

that he'd allowed it to go to this

4:06

lengths again. At this age of my life and

4:09

stage of my life, I didn't know

4:11

that I wasn't harboring an offense. I mean, some

4:13

people who have no fear of God will flippantly

4:15

say, I'm mad at God, you know? And that's immaturity.

4:17

And, you know, eventually hope you grow out of that.

4:19

I wasn't like that, but I think

4:21

it was excuse me, I've got a little post-nasal

4:23

drip this morning. Uh,

4:26

I think it's kind of I would liken it to a

4:28

wife who loves her husband deeply, but

4:30

has been profoundly hurt by him. And it's just not

4:32

that's not been a wound that's been addressed

4:34

yet. That's sort of how it felt. And

4:37

when I start to dig in and go, Lord, show me

4:39

more. Um, I really

4:41

learned to move from bracing for impact

4:44

to anticipating his goodness. And we can

4:46

talk a little bit about how I did that. I

4:48

didn't set out to write a book. I was trying to really

4:50

change my posture before God,

4:53

and something changed in me. And my

4:55

husband's like, your eyes look different. You.

4:57

You carry yourself different, and I

4:59

could. Feel physiologically, my body

5:01

starting to heal. Little did I know, the

5:03

world would be thrust into a season

5:06

where everybody's bracing for impact.

5:08

And so I do feel like the timeliness of this

5:10

book is from the Lord.

5:12

Well, the book is called Waking Up to the Goodness

5:14

of God. Susie is a best selling author.

5:16

She's a national speaker and host

5:19

of Susie Larson Live on many, many

5:21

radio stations across the country. And

5:23

when we come back in just a moment, Susie, I do want

5:25

to talk a little bit about how when that

5:27

light bulb went off for you and you

5:29

realized that you were disappointed

5:32

in God, and because I think a lot

5:34

of us have been there at some point in life,

5:36

and there's something in us that maybe feels like,

5:38

am I allowed to feel this way? I, I

5:40

don't want to feel this way. But yet

5:42

those feelings are so raw. Those

5:45

emotions are so real to us, and we know

5:47

that something should be different, but we don't know how to

5:49

get there. So we want to talk a little bit about

5:51

how we begin to make that change. Coming

5:53

up in just a few minutes, it's

5:55

Don and Steve in the morning on Moody Radio.

5:58

We're talking with Susie Larson this morning. Susie

6:00

is a best selling author, a speaker, radio

6:02

host. She's written Waking Up

6:04

to the Goodness of God. And we'll link you to that through

6:06

our Facebook page. But, Susie, you're just describing

6:09

a scenario where you realize

6:11

that you're disappointed with God,

6:14

and probably all of us can relate to that in

6:16

some way. Circumstances may be different, but

6:18

we come to this sometimes surprising

6:20

realization like, oh man,

6:22

I am disappointed. I God, I

6:24

am angry at him because

6:27

he has not been treating

6:29

me the way I think I deserve, or answering the prayer

6:31

that I've been praying so faithfully. And I've been trying

6:33

to live and serve him well.

6:36

And so as that realization happened

6:38

for you, how did you begin to think

6:40

and live differently?

6:42

Such a good question, Stephen. I want to just, you

6:44

know, say to when you're in that mode, like you

6:46

said, going out to the break. We don't

6:48

want to admit it. If if you're a serious follower

6:50

of Christ, you don't want that

6:52

to be true for you. But if you don't resolve

6:55

the hard parts of your story in light of God's love,

6:57

they're like open loops in your brain, and they're the

6:59

very places the enemy can get in to accuse

7:02

God of things that he's actually guilty

7:04

of. And we have to be able.

7:06

God already knows our hearts. He knows what's in

7:08

us. And so. And the thing is, when

7:10

you don't deal with that stuff, what you will naturally

7:13

do is default to temporary pleasures.

7:15

You will find some way to numb out, some

7:17

way to treat yourself because God's not treating you.

7:19

Just pay attention to your coping mechanisms.

7:21

And I address that in the book because

7:24

you think God's not doing a new thing. So I'm

7:26

going to do a new thing for myself. And

7:28

that is heartbreaking when you think of that.

7:30

Every good gift comes from him. So that's how I started

7:32

when I'm like, Lord, show me a way out of this,

7:35

because, you know, it's literally not

7:37

good for your cells or your soul

7:39

or your physiology to be living, bracing

7:41

for impact and you can't at once receive

7:43

from God and live with elbows

7:45

locked. You can't do it. And that's why the enemy

7:48

wants us constantly stuck in fight

7:50

flight. So the first thing that he

7:52

showed me to do is just to look around and notice

7:54

every good gift in my life

7:56

is from him. But not just like, count

7:58

my blessings, to amass my blessings,

8:01

but to see each blessing like

8:03

a gift with a gift. Tag to Susie from

8:05

God. A gift that's

8:07

tethered to a good God who's meticulous,

8:09

miraculous, and very specific in

8:11

knowing what would bless me. And

8:14

I started to realize everywhere I was looking,

8:16

I was seeing handiwork of his.

8:18

And it brings me back to Jeremiah

8:20

17. I'll go to verse seven before

8:23

to six, but it says, blessed are those

8:25

who trust in the Lord, who've made the Lord their

8:27

hope and their confidence. They are like trees

8:29

planted by streams of living water.

8:31

Their roots go down into the water. They

8:33

leave, stay green. They're not bothered by the heat

8:35

or by long months of drought. They're like, stay

8:37

green and they continue to bear fruit. My paraphrase.

8:40

But that's a point saying they're not impacted

8:42

by the elements because they're so tapped into

8:44

the life giving stream of God. But

8:46

the previous verse, verse six, it

8:49

says, cursed are those who trust in

8:51

man. And you can expand that to mean man

8:53

made solutions. You know, your own

8:55

flesh's ability somehow to hike

8:57

yourself up by the bootstraps

8:59

and political systems, anything where your eyes

9:01

are off of God and on a man made solution.

9:04

It's like you're a stunted shrub in the desert.

9:06

And the new King James Version reads the closest

9:09

to the original. And it says, when you

9:11

do that, you don't see goodness when it comes.

9:13

So this is the thing is, when you're bracing

9:15

for impact, when you're looking at your

9:17

symptoms or your struggles and you're counting

9:19

your days in the desert like the Israelites did,

9:22

you will not see goodness when it comes.

9:24

But God says, you see, I'm doing a

9:26

new thing. Do you perceive it, though? It springs

9:29

up? If you don't perceive it, it means

9:31

you likely could miss it if you're not looking

9:33

for it. So I just started to look around.

9:35

Somebody once said, if tomorrow you only

9:37

woke up with the blessings you thank God for today,

9:40

what would you have? So I started there

9:42

and I just thought, what would I miss tomorrow

9:45

if I that I'm taking for granted today?

9:47

And it showed me, Steve, how wrapped

9:49

up I was in my struggle. And

9:51

it was I had to repent, I really did. But

9:53

then I started to thank God, and I felt

9:55

my whole body relaxed because it gave me

9:58

clarity about who God is and who the

10:00

enemy is. And suddenly the distinction became

10:02

very clear. So that was my first step.

10:04

Oh, that perspective shift.

10:06

When you look at those gift tags

10:09

that say two Susie from God, you

10:11

realize counting your blessings is

10:13

more than just an old hymn. Is that

10:15

part of the strategy, Susie, that you

10:17

were talking about? When you are looking

10:19

at rejecting or accepting

10:21

the things in life, is was that part

10:24

of beginning to say, okay,

10:26

Lord, I'm seeing this more clearly

10:28

because you're showing me.

10:29

Yeah, I love that, Don. You know. Yes.

10:32

Because this is a 40 day journey and I'm asking

10:34

even take 60 if you need take your time. Better

10:36

to go slow than fast, because what

10:38

you'll realize is everybody has trauma.

10:41

Everybody needs healing. And that particular

10:43

chapter, strategic accept and reject

10:46

what I'm believing and praying for. As you go through

10:48

the book, new things will surface as

10:50

they will, and that one strategically

10:52

accept and reject shows you that you have

10:54

a choice about the stuff that you let into

10:56

your heart and mind and the stuff that you reject.

10:58

But when you're in that kind of self-obsessed

11:01

mode, you don't discern which

11:03

is the enemy or your voice or the world

11:05

or your flesh, right? But when you start

11:07

to tap into the goodness of God,

11:09

you more clearly discern the

11:11

schemes of the enemy because he's

11:14

constantly trying to plant lies in your

11:16

life. His native tongue is to steal, kill,

11:18

and destroy. He's a liar. And

11:20

as my friend Maria says, there's a pattern of

11:22

theft in everybody's life. And

11:24

all you got to do is go back to your childhood

11:26

to see how he's conditioned you to believe his

11:29

lies. And when you start to pay attention

11:31

to wait a minute, this thought

11:33

is bringing life and peace, well, then it's not

11:35

from God. I'm strategically

11:37

rejecting that, even if it doesn't feel

11:39

true that I'm the object of his affection that

11:41

I. I should be wearing a tiara like you, Don.

11:44

If that. Even if that doesn't feel true, I'm accepting

11:47

that I'm accepting acceptance because I'm believing

11:49

God is who he says he is. Uh.

11:51

Action steps. Action steps to

11:53

follow the Lord, allowing him to work in our

11:55

lives. This is the practical

11:57

truth of what it means to follow

12:00

the Lord. Susie Larson helping us do that

12:02

and helping us with the resource. Waking

12:04

up into the goodness

12:06

of God. I just so

12:08

appreciate how clear he makes things

12:11

when we start to truly partner with

12:13

him, work with him not

12:16

just against him, which our nature

12:18

is so prone to do.

12:19

And Susie Larson is joining us to talk

12:22

about when we really

12:24

wake up to the goodness of God, because some

12:26

of us have been going through life and even living

12:28

what we think is a faithful Christian life,

12:30

trying to serve God, love him well, but

12:33

we're living in that posture of just

12:35

waiting for the next shoe to

12:37

drop. Susie, you found yourself there

12:39

and you said things began to change. Number

12:41

one, as you recognized it. And number two, as you began

12:43

to look around and see

12:45

the good gifts that God has given

12:48

you, that began to kind of take your eyes

12:50

off of yourself, onto him.

12:52

What else helped you in

12:55

that process of being able to recognize

12:57

God's goodness and quit living in that posture of fear?

13:00

Yeah, I love that question. Uh, really

13:02

asking God to show me the story that I've been telling

13:04

myself. That's not true. You know, to

13:06

show me the lies I picked up in life let me

13:08

down. And that's extremely

13:10

important, because you don't realize the narratives

13:12

that you have around especially painful parts

13:14

of your story, but sometimes even the broader

13:17

part of your story, that's actually not

13:19

true. And in disagreement with God. It's

13:21

not in agreement with God. You know, a

13:23

friend once said to me years ago, she says, Jesus

13:25

is interceding daily for

13:27

you. The devil is accusing you daily.

13:30

You're the one who cast the deciding vote.

13:32

And so when I when I start to picture whose

13:34

line am I getting in and who whose agreement

13:36

am I standing in? And, uh, you

13:39

know, at the end of each chapter there's short readings, but

13:41

there's a faith declaration and then a brain retrain

13:43

statement. And the faith declarations

13:45

are really to help reframe your story.

13:48

Like for me, because of the

13:50

trauma, really, of how this health

13:52

battle has been, it has been traumatic for

13:54

I had to go to counseling after this last relapse

13:57

for a few sessions, just to sort through

13:59

how scary it was for me and

14:01

just what the toll it took on me. And

14:03

so one of mine that God gave me because I

14:05

just said, show me the story I'm telling myself.

14:08

Uh, this one was the cross has spoken.

14:10

The curse is broken. Jesus has set me free.

14:12

Now there are again a number of these at the end of

14:14

each chapter. And the point is for you to

14:16

find one that that resonates, that

14:19

speaks to your story, but your

14:21

your narrative might be this the kind

14:23

of thing runs in the family. Nothing ever works

14:25

for me. I'm so fat, you know

14:27

I'll never get ahead. I'm on the outside

14:29

of the circle. And you think these

14:31

things and say these things without

14:34

thinking about it. And I'm kind of a

14:36

brain science nerd. You know, the big joke is

14:38

I'm not a doctor, but I play one on radio.

14:40

Yeah, but, uh, you know, I've read a lot.

14:42

So basically it makes me an expert. But anyway,

14:45

again, I'm surrounded by doctor friends, though,

14:47

and I'm fascinated by brain science because

14:49

I needed to get my brain back. I mean, I

14:51

needed to get it back. I took an online course

14:53

for limbic rewiring of my brain. I

14:56

mean, I had some they did an MRI, I had some brain

14:58

damage from this wretched mold. And so I'm

15:00

like, I got stuff to do. But when I

15:02

really started to dig in, I started to learn about

15:04

these neural pathways. And when you're just

15:07

automatically even if you're privately thinking

15:09

thoughts that bring weakness, that

15:12

don't strengthen you, they're paving

15:14

paths in your brain that affect you

15:16

physiologically, physiologically. Let me just say this one

15:18

more thing. Let's say you say,

15:20

uh, just, uh, you're you're watching TV and you're you

15:22

hate the politician and you spew some

15:25

toxic junk to yourself in your

15:27

room that sets off a chemical reaction

15:29

in your body. It affects you physiologically

15:32

in the same way when you smile

15:34

and you forgive someone or you, they bud in line

15:36

and you choose to die to yourself and

15:38

live for Christ, that literally

15:40

affects you physiologically. So

15:43

that next step was Lord, show me the lies

15:45

I picked up when life let me down. Show me the

15:47

stories I'm telling myself that aren't true,

15:49

and show me the thoughts that are weakening me.

15:52

And it was a journey just one by one.

15:54

And he was so kind and with the skill of

15:56

a surgeon, he would say, this is the next

15:58

thing we're going to look at, okay, this is the next thing.

16:00

And it was a journey of just redemption

16:02

and healing.

16:04

It's so huge. I'm listening and I'm just

16:06

completely zoned

16:09

in on what you're saying. Suzy, because

16:11

of the truth, the brain science, the

16:13

Lord's allowed us to learn about

16:15

the retraining of the brain. And I'm often

16:17

very curious about we as believers

16:20

in how we will marinate in

16:22

the world and will allow so many

16:24

things to define our

16:26

day, define our thinking. And when we talk

16:28

about speaking truth over our lives

16:30

and as you're naming it, retrain

16:33

the brain. The effort

16:35

that we give seems to be pretty minimal.

16:37

And yet we're in a battle. It's a spiritual battle,

16:40

right?

16:40

We're so. Passive about

16:43

the crud that we put up with, with

16:45

the enemy, you know, and we just we just

16:47

sort of let him march into our house and

16:49

knock things over, and we think we have

16:51

no recourse, but we have all

16:53

authority given to us by Jesus. We've got the

16:55

weapons of our warfare, and we've got to get our

16:57

game on a little bit and get a little feisty about

16:59

this. And one of the things that I've been thinking

17:02

about lately is you keep hearing stories

17:04

of high profile Christians

17:06

falling, and it makes me think of

17:08

David. When most kings go out to war,

17:10

he stayed back. Now I write in the

17:12

book a recipe for vitality is deep

17:15

rest and purposeful faith. But that's

17:17

different than a life of ease when you're choosing

17:19

to be to to self-soothe. Like we

17:22

were saying at the beginning of the show, when you're not dealing

17:24

with your stuff and you get your buzz

17:26

or your hit from status, popularity

17:28

or whatever you're doing, you're literally

17:30

reinforcing captivity and weakening yourself.

17:33

And so what I've been finding myself lately,

17:35

you guys, is on my knees thanking

17:37

God for the battles. I've. I have found

17:39

a way to thank him in them. But lately I've been

17:41

thanking him for them because while I'm doing

17:43

hand to hand combat, I shudder to

17:45

think about where I would be if

17:47

I would have opted for an easier path. And that

17:49

hand to hand combat made me a better warrior.

17:51

So some somebody listening today needs to rise

17:54

up, get your game on, and say, not today,

17:56

Satan, and not tomorrow either.

17:58

Um, and I know that the Word of God

18:00

is the sword that you're wielding. Susie

18:02

Larson encouraging us with

18:04

waking up to the goodness of

18:06

God. And as you can imagine, there is a lot

18:09

to this resource connecting you through our

18:11

Facebook page and Steve in the morning. Also,

18:13

if you text (800) 555-7898,

18:17

we can send you the link for the

18:19

info as well. What

18:21

I love about the sister we're talking to

18:24

today, Susie Larson, is that Susie?

18:26

You have learned the lessons

18:28

that you share with us by

18:30

walking them. You're in the battle, you know.

18:32

It's a spiritual battle and you have said something

18:35

that totally has

18:37

me jazzed because I think

18:39

it's resonates so true. We have learned

18:42

as even Christ followers, a

18:44

helplessness and there

18:46

is vitality in Christ to be had.

18:48

Help us go from what we've maybe

18:51

learned unwittingly to

18:53

a life of vitality in following

18:55

and trusting Jesus.

18:57

Yeah, thank you for that. And it's probably

18:59

one of my favorite little chapters in this

19:01

book. It's called recipe for vitality.

19:03

And I look at the the Israelites and

19:05

the way Scripture described their

19:07

brutality and their their slavery was

19:09

brutality oppressive, relentless,

19:12

um, and the whole goal was to break them down.

19:14

So they cried out to God. Their cry

19:16

reached God's ears. He mobilized Moses,

19:19

who had his own identity issues, but he

19:21

was so submitted to God. Those things got solved

19:23

along the way because it says that

19:26

that he no longer feared. There got to be a point where

19:28

he no longer feared the king's anger. But

19:30

something didn't change in the Israelites. They

19:32

had to learned helplessness. Slavery was

19:34

baked in. And so when God emancipated

19:36

them. I want you to think about all that he did for them,

19:39

to set them up for success. I mean,

19:41

he loaded them down with the riches of Egypt.

19:43

How is that even possible when you think these

19:45

were their oppressors? But they wanted them gone so

19:47

bad that they're like, here, take all this stuff that

19:49

also says not a feeble one was among

19:51

them. My layman's thought

19:54

on that is that when the angel of death

19:56

was passing through the land, they were under the blood.

19:58

I think their bodies were healed. You know, I was

20:00

a fitness professional for over a decade,

20:02

and I'm just telling you, based on what they

20:04

endured, there's no way there were not

20:07

herniated discs, a plantar fasciitis

20:09

and parasites and blocked colons

20:11

and all kinds of physiological problems

20:13

from the physical and emotional trauma they went

20:15

through, not a feeble one among

20:17

them. That has to be a miracle.

20:19

And then they saw the Red sea part. They saw

20:21

they were front row seat to see all these miracles.

20:24

And so why did the first generation not

20:26

make it into the promised land? When

20:28

you jump to Hebrews and it says, the promise

20:30

did not benefit them, because when it came,

20:32

it wasn't met by faith. Now, I want you to

20:34

think about this for just a moment. God wove

20:37

into the narrative, I know you've been under backbreaking

20:39

slave labor, but Sabbath rest is going

20:41

to be a part of the new story. And

20:43

he wanted them to learn a deep, abiding

20:45

rest and then an engaged, purposeful

20:48

faith. And the Psalms. It says they refuse

20:50

to enter the Promised Land because they refused to

20:52

believe God's promise to love and care for them. What did

20:54

they do? They stayed in their smallness of

20:56

their tents, grumbled and complained, and

20:58

refused to obey the Lord. Scholars

21:01

say that though their fears were understandable

21:03

at first, they clung to them so tightly

21:05

that they became rebellious. Their fears made

21:08

them rebellious. That confronts me

21:10

because I battled fear on varying

21:12

levels my whole life. But I'm just determined

21:14

not to be a fearful person. And

21:16

you think about when you're doing in that helpless,

21:19

learned, helpless state. You're

21:21

staying in the smallness of your circumstances and

21:23

blaming God for it. So what I say

21:25

that the recipe for vitality is, is

21:28

learning that deep, abiding rest. And that's

21:30

not numbing out. It's not binge watching. I'm not

21:32

being a legalist. I'm just saying there's an abiding

21:34

rest that actually fills your soul again.

21:36

But it's not just rest. It's then re-engaging

21:39

your faith. Like, what are you believing God

21:41

for? Because I shudder to think of all the

21:43

things we've cried out to God for all

21:45

the ways he's answered. And when the answer came

21:47

to us, it didn't benefit us because

21:50

we didn't change our hearts at all. When

21:52

the answer came, it wasn't met by faith.

21:54

So I submit to you that

21:56

the recipe for vitality is when

21:58

you're exhausted, when you're blaming God, get

22:00

that deep rest and reconnect till you find

22:02

peace again, and then rise up. And to say,

22:05

I can't please you without faith. I want

22:07

to be activating my heart. So when these answers

22:09

come, I'm ready for it. I will see

22:11

goodness when it comes. Mm.

22:13

So good. Susie, in the last minute that we have

22:15

here, when we talk about abiding rest,

22:18

you're talking about something different than just

22:20

taking a week's vacation or two weeks and sitting

22:22

on the beach. Yeah, there's something deeper

22:24

than that. Because we can go away for a little bit, take

22:27

a vacation, come back, and within 24 hours,

22:29

we're on the same spot we were before vacation. So what

22:31

do you mean by abiding rest in

22:33

Christ?

22:34

Well, I will say, God will never grind your gears

22:36

to the point of exhaustion. So in his rhythm

22:38

for you, there are always exit ramps. Besides

22:41

still waters. And that's so different than

22:43

what David did when he opted not to go to war.

22:45

Because there will be times you want to rest. And he's like, no,

22:47

you got to engage. But this abiding

22:50

rest is being so on the heels

22:52

of the Savior. So in step with him,

22:54

when he leads you to get that nourishing rest,

22:56

you take it and you steward that

22:58

time so your soul gets filled back up again.

23:00

Susie Larson with us. She has written

23:03

the book Waking Up to the Goodness

23:05

of God, bestselling author, talk show host,

23:07

national speaker. And we want to connect you with her

23:09

and with this book. And you're going to find the link

23:11

when you start at our Facebook page, you're just

23:13

Don Steve in the morning or text us, we'll send

23:15

you the link 800 555 7898.

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