Embracing Resilience: Finding Faith and Courage in Life's Fiery Trials

Facing the heat of life's challenges can leave us searching for a beacon of hope, and it was during one such personal 'furnace' moment that a profound truth struck me: we are never alone in these trials. My own journey through the shadows of loss became a canvas for expression, where each brushstroke was a step toward healing and resilience. This episode is an intimate exploration of how our darkest times can lead to the most illuminating of transformations. As we delve into the stirring promises of Isaiah 43:1-2, I invite you to join me on a path of courage and commemoration, where our pain becomes the very thing that forges an unbreakable bond with the Divine.

The heroes of old, like Moses and the trio in the fiery furnace, remind us that our trust in God's eternal goodness is the shield that guards us from despair. Together, we examine the unique tapestry of trials that each of us faces, understanding that these experiences are not punishments but rather invitations to draw nearer to our Creator. As I share stories of how faith has protected, provided for, and delivered those who have walked before us, let this conversation be a wellspring of encouragement. No matter the intensity of the fire we face, this episode stands as a testament to the power of faith as our unwavering shield and guiding light.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the Weed Seeds and Beautiful Things podcast. I'm your host, connie, and I am so glad you're here. The Weed Seeds and Beautiful Things podcast is a bi-weekly show that is not about gardening or growing marijuana. This podcast exists to tell others about the God I've learned to trust. Exists to tell others about the God I've learned to trust. Trust is a learned discipline that takes courage to grasp and denial to accept. There's a cost to knowing Jesus deeply, but its preciousness far outweighs the burden. I'm honored to be able to share the worthiness of counting it all as loss that we might learn to know Christ deeper together. Join me today as we fill our cups with encouragement from the word and stories from the heart.

Speaker 1: 0:56

Today I want to talk about this concept of being in a very difficult situation in your life. Being in a very difficult situation in your life, we'll call it like in the furnace. There are so many references in scripture to being on fire, being in the furnace, being through times of fiery testing. I want to focus on a passage in Isaiah 43, verses 1 and 2. It says but now thus says the Lord, he who created you, o Jacob, he who formed you, o Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers they shall not overwhelm you. And when you walk through the fire, it shall not consume you, the flame shall not kindle upon you, the flame shall not kindle upon you.

Speaker 1: 2:06

What strikes me in this verse is there is a very direct call to number one, saying God, saying to us do not be afraid. And then, right after him, saying do not be afraid. He lists very scary things that will happen. He's saying fear not, for I have redeemed you. So he's calling out on his people, he's telling them don't be afraid, and I have redeemed you. But then he says when you not if you or not, maybe, if or not some of you, unlucky bunch, fear not, I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine. So at the beginning of everything, he's giving this cry out to his people to be brave and courageous and to remember that their victory is already sealed.

Speaker 1: 3:16

And then he's intimately getting very personal and up close and he's saying I've called you, not everyone, I've called you by name. And not only have I called you by name, it's not like Rhonda, rhonda, get back here. It's like, come close, you're mine. It's this loving father gathering you up on his lap and telling you not to be afraid. And generally, when that happens, when we do that to our children, when I call my daughter, eden or Ivy to come sit on my lap and I tell them not to be afraid, it's because I know that there's nothing to be afraid of. I'm encouraging them that, whatever the problem is, it's either just a perceived issue that they're, you know, blowing up in their mind something that's not going to happen, or it's not a big deal to begin with. But here God is doing something totally different. He is calling us, his children, onto his lap and he's saying fear not, I've redeemed you, I've called you by name, you are mine.

Speaker 1: 4:28

When you pass through the waters, you're going to, you're going to pass through waters, you're going to pass through rivers and you're going to walk through fire. And when he's saying you're going to pass through waters and through rivers and walk through fire, I don't get the sense that he's saying it like you're going to pass through them and it's not going to be a big deal. Because if he was, he wouldn't state that he'll be with us. They won't overwhelm us and we won't be burned. Friend, the fact is we are going to suffer in this life. We are going to go through things that break us, because God is not opposed to breaking the people that he loves. He is not opposed to using terrible and dark and painful situations that sometimes last years to create us into the people of God that he knows and intended us to be. But what we need to understand is that God starts out by telling us to fear, not Because when our trust is in him and him alone, not in the outcome and not in the situation, and not in money and not in people and prestige and medical help or any other thing that could offer us comfort, but when our trust is solely in him, we are already victorious. He has redeemed you. In order for something to be redeemed, it needs to be whittled down to a state where there's nothing left of it. Redemption the very definition of redemption is giving back something's dignity and refreshing it and creating it into something new. It's taking the dead that was there and turning it into something beautiful. Do you need an extra special gift? Custom art by Connie Lawson.

Speaker 1: 6:52

Art is a part of me, just as the color of my eyes or the way that I laugh. I believe it is an expression of who I am that comes to life on paper. My favorite mediums are watercolor and calligraphy. My talents and skills have grown exponentially through my struggles. The difficulties of life have given me a sixth sense as to how to incorporate beauty and suffering together. I am available to create custom pieces as well as prints of the art that I make. My passion is to make watercolor keepsake name pieces to help you remember your special and precious ones, from new babies to wedding announcements and everything in between. I am here to create your custom piece. Just head to my Etsy store, fill out the form or message me directly through my website to create your custom piece.

Speaker 1: 7:51

My passion for creating these precious keepsakes came through the loss of my firstborn son. Creating a piece for him is where it all started. It served as a way to keep him close, grieve with purpose and remember the preciousness of his short but meaningful life. From there, I have made many to bless friends, family and my favorite strangers, helping them to celebrate and grieve with beauty and purpose. Helping them to celebrate and grieve with beauty and purpose. You can find the contact form on my website at wwwweedsseedsbeautifulthingscom. Forward slash art or on social media, Instagram and Facebook at Weeds, seeds and Beautiful Things.

Speaker 1: 8:44

We will pass through the waters and we may feel like we're going to drown when we're there in those waves, but the Lord assures us I will be with you. We will go through it, but we are not alone. Woe to us when we refuse to suffer. Well, woe to us when we choose a spirit of entitlement Over a spirit of submission. I am of the mindset that God does not have to make bad things good, but that bad things are in fact good in the hands of a loving God. I want to say that again God does not have to make bad things good. Bad things are in fact good in the hands of a loving God, and if he has allowed it into your life, he intends to use it To bring you closer to him.

Speaker 1: 10:03

It says in Job my ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. To go from hearing about God to seeing God. Something had to take place, and we know from the story of Job that it was absolute, abject sorrow and loss. But we also learn in that story that there was a limit to the power that the enemy had, but to us, to me, the power that he was given was more than we would like him to have, and that is why we don't trust in anything aside from God himself. Believing that God is good is the anchor to our faith, because if he is good and we have that squared away, then we know that we don't have to understand. We are simply finding the beauty in the unknown and resting in the fact that God is good.

Speaker 1: 11:15

And every time the arrows come, why, why me? Why isn't God doing this? Why isn't God doing that? Why is this happening? How will I handle it? We quench them by holding up our shield of faith and claiming the truth. I don't have to know, because I know whom my soul believes my God, my God, is only good.

Speaker 1: 11:47

You can be on fire and not be burned. We see this all throughout scripture. A few instances Moses in the burning bush, the bush friends, was on fire, but it was not consumed. Shadrach, meshach and Abednego were in the fire, but they were not consumed. We will walk through the fire. We will walk through the fire, but when our trust is placed in almighty God and his goodness, that in quotations, highlighting it, bold it, italicize it his goodness. That's what we're trusting in. We're trusting in the fact that, no matter what happens, we're trusting in the fact that, no matter what happens, we don't have to fear because he has redeemed us and when we pass through the waters he's with us and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm us. And when we walk through the fire, we will not be consumed, because our God is good, and bad things are in fact good things in the hands of our good God. He has called us by name to our specific fires and our specific waters and our specific rivers.

Speaker 1: 13:27

Just as intricately planned and designed as our personalities and the steps that we will take on our life are our seasons of testing.

Speaker 1: 13:33

Your seasons of testing are precious to God. They are designed by the creator of the universe, who knows you intimately and who has called you by name to bring you closer to him. We can often identify with other people's seasons of sorrow, but even in our identification with another's pain, there is always something precious and unique about our seasons. Although so physically and emotionally, and sometimes spiritually, devastating, are the most precious and deep times of intertwining us and sewing us together into the Father's bosom. Them, your seasons of sorrow, your seasons of walking through fire were planned by God to break you and bind you up and bring you into a very deep relationship with the Father. So be encouraged, because God has his hand on you and his hand out to protect you and his hand covering you to provide for you. He is everything that you need all of the time and you only have a reason to lift your head up and trust because your deliverance draws near.