Adjust Your Expectations Part 3

It’s by His grace not the law! #Expectmore #grace #pastorprince #mylife #forgiven #truth #autism #autismmom #serenity

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Well, hello, Ola, Bon Shu, Kanichua, Sawarika, Jumbo, Chao, Privet, Mi Ha, A Yang Hasayo, Mohaba Namaste. Yasa Swas. It's your girl, your friend, your sis, your chica, and your amiga, your homegirl and the gospel, lyric, the lyrical miracle, McCree. Thank you for stopping by my podcast. Let's talk with Lyric McCree. I am super excited, but I am hoping that you guys can please forgive the noise in the background because, hey, when the Lord gives me something to share, I have to share it. And unfortunately, there is not always complete silence. Um, my kid may be in the background with some noise, but it is what it is, and I won't let that stop me. And so I pray that in spite of what could be a distraction, I pray that you all receive and hear well, thus says the Lord. And again, thank you for stopping by my podcast. It's your girl ready to talk about something else. So I have been experiencing and going through this for a while, and I would like to just call this podcast Adjusting Your Expectations Part Three, because to me it's like an extension, maybe on a different level, but an extension of podcasts one and two dealing with adjusting our expectations. So, um, Pastor Joseph Prince, who I have mentioned quite a bit, is really one of, in my opinion, one of the most versed, respected, and anointed men of God that I have that I have experienced or heard in my lifetime. He's out of Singapore, and the Lord just uses him, basically. The Lord uses him, and his ministry has changed my life, it has changed the way I see God, the way I view God, the way I interact with God. The way I interact with myself, even um, the way I interact with other people. No, I am not perfect, I am very much flawed, but I am very much forgiven, and the Lord is not done with me, so I'm encouraged. Because there was a time when I was not encouraged, because I looked and felt like a train wreck, and I remember even saying to the Lord, like, wow, imagine the audacity of telling the one who created you, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, Lord, you're I'm too hard for you. I don't think you know who you're messing with. That's hilarious. Oh, that's hilarious. Now that I think about it, it's hilarious, it's absolutely hilarious because when I said that, like I have heard many times before in my spirit, not outwardly, like someone's talking to me, and I can hear them in my outward or in my external environment. I heard it inwardly. It's the only way I know how to describe it. So after I made the comment, I don't think you know who you're messing with. The Lord said, No, you don't know who you're messing with. And I just I just stopped. I just stopped what I was doing, and I was just looking into space, like, wow. Like I really heard that. It was like the Lord, like he really checked me. And it wasn't like rude or harsh or anything like that. It was just like, how dare you tell the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords that you don't think he knows what he's messing with. And he made you. You're he's literally the reason why you exist. But I'm telling you, when I say I was a broken mess, y'all don't even understand. I can't make you understand nothing like the things that I experienced in my childhood and my teenagehood, and even into my young adulthood, just really caused me some trauma and some mindsets that were wow. But that's how I know the Lord is amazing because, in spite of him, not in spite of, but because he saved me at a young age, in spite of my behaviors and attitudes and indifference towards him, I really got to experience his love and his affection and his truth about who he is. And I'm still learning these things, but yeah, the Lord is faithful. That's what I do know. That's what I do know, and so there was something that Pastor Krentz had shared that really just touched me, and I hope and pray that it resonates with you as well. I just felt led to share it, so that's what I want to do. And I just want to start with saying it's so easy to feel pulled in every direction by the demands of life. And what I'm sharing with you is like it's it's paraphrased and some direct quotes from Pastor Print, along with some of my experiences as examples of what he's saying, which is why it resonates with me so well. So um, again, it's easy to feel pulled in every direction by the demands of life. I have felt this recently um for probably over a year, and just to the point where I didn't even want to think about what I had to do the next day because it was so much, it just felt like so much responsibility, and that led to me just not doing some things because I was exhausted and I felt like I was being pulled in too many directions, and I didn't just I just didn't have enough. So with these demands of life, it comes with the kids need something, which is one of my things, and I only have one kid, she's a special needs kid, um, but I only have one daughter, and it it just it it felt like a lot, a lot, because it was. I won't lie, it oh, I love her so much, and it was just a breeze and a beauty. I do love her so much, and I'll do anything for her. But if I say it was a breeze and a beauty, no, it was not. Um, there were beautiful, beautiful moments, beautiful, beautiful times, and still are. But if I act like raising a level two autistic child with global developmental delay um is a walk in the park, I will be lying to you. And without exposing or disclosing some of her other diagnoses, I yeah, I'm I'm lying. I don't care how much uh Jesus I have. I'm not gonna sit here and lie and say, I want I had the Lord, and so it was just not hard. Stop it. Stop it. Because that's not the truth. It was so hard. There were times I wanted to quit, give up, run away. There were times I told the Lord, I think you have the wrong person for this job. Like, really, I just never wanted to be a single mom, let alone a single mom of a special needs child. Are you kidding me? There were times I was angry with God, like, I can't believe this. Like, like, are you for real right now? Still working through my own issues from childhood, still working through my own issues from teenage and young adulthood. Are you serious, Lord? Really? I couldn't believe that the Lord would send me a kid, like an actual human being to be responsible for? Like, Lord, I love you, but are you sleeping right now? Are you sleeping because no, really? I have said some things to the Lord that if I repeated it, repeated it to people, they'd be like, she ain't even saved. She ain't saved. Mm-mm. She ain't say. I'm for real saved. I'm shown up saved. And I shown up have had and still have some real issues and concerns with the Lord, and I don't just voice it in a way that sounds flowery and and pretty. I don't. I don't because I feel like the Lord understands me better than anybody, including myself. The Lord is the one who made me. He knows what I'm thinking and really feeling. Who am I trying to impress? I'm not trying to impress anybody. I'm really not. Sometimes I'm like, Lord, I think you I think you got this wrong right here. Like, and not even like, not even in a way where I'm feeling like I don't want her. I have been convinced, like, Lord, you chose the wrong mom for her. Like she deserves. Oh, I'm not gonna cry. No, I'm not. There have been times where I just felt she deserves so much better than me. And yeah, I've I've wrestled with that. Like here I am with my own childhood traumas, and here she is with her childhood traumas, and being autistic, level two, and being diagnosed with this and that, and you sent her to me of all people. I thought you said you loved us. Are you for real right now? No, I I've said that. I really have felt that. And the Lord wasn't like, How dare you? Yeah, he wasn't. He wasn't like, How dare you? Do you know that I am God? He did not treat me that way. Like the feeling and the impression and the words that he sent to me directly through his word, through other people. I was like, wow, Laura, you you're you're next level. I remember standing in the shower one night, and I was just so overwhelmed. I think my baby was about three. She was she was three. And I just felt so overwhelmed by my own issues and having to deal with the daily tasks and responsibilities of life. I just stood there and cried in the shower. I just cried. And I told the Lord, I just think you missed it. Imagine that. Imagine being so broken, so hurt, so bogged down with life that you think the Lord missed it. And I told him, I think you missed it. I think you made a mistake. As I'm crying and sobbing. Lord, please don't make me do this. Like she deserves so much better than me. Why are you doing this to us? And when I finished crying and venting, well, I was still crying, but I was venting and I was hollering. I was I was upset. The Lord let me calm down, and I heard him so clearly saying, if you trust me, you'll thank me. What? What? What are you talking about? Are you serious right now? But the feeling that came over me after I heard that, I knew. I knew the Lord was talking to me. If you trust me, you'll thank me. I think about that often, especially when I'm feeling overwhelmed and all that. I think about all the things that the Lord has done along the way. That even in spite of me sometimes still feeling like he made a mistake. I I have to just thank him. I have to acknowledge what I see and what he has done. Because he's done it, and he's done it in such a way where there's no way that I don't see it, and there's no way that I can escape the fact that he did it for us. Like, God is amazing. He's amazing. And so when I have thought of when I have thought about, and when you think about, you know, the kids, the house, the bills, the other people who need your help, it feels like everything is shouting more and more and more. Now, now, again, again, rinse and repeat. I've heard that so much in the world. Rinse and repeat. That right there is enough to make you feel defeated and just not want to keep going. But when life feels that way, you know, it's so easy to start living from a place of demand. We gotta begin, we gotta do this, we gotta do that. I've done it. I've you know, gone to bed thinking about what I have to do next. I've awakened feeling like, oh my god, I got so much to do today. But I heard Pastor Prince say, we we we have got to begin to believe that everything depends on God, including us, because we begin to believe that everything depends on us, expecting more from ourselves and sometimes more from the people around us. And it's true because there have been times where because I'm so hard on myself, honestly, I feel like I've been hard on my kid. Like I'm demanding from her what I'm demanding from myself, and why am I demanding that from myself? Because I think that God is demanding that from me, and He's not, He's not, and what many of us don't realize is that there really are only two ways to live under the law, which I can tell you is no fun, it's stressful, it's depressing, it's hurtful, it's self-defeating, it's all those things. Life is full of demands, or we can live under grace where life is full of supply, because that is what the Lord has promised us to supply our every need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. I believe that is found in Philippians, but it escapes me right now. I don't know the exact scripture, but it's in the Bible. Look it up for he shall supply it's it's Philippians, all of our needs according according to his riches and glory, and he will do it by Christ Jesus. So please be encouraged, you know, this day to shift our mindset again, adjust your expectations, just like the Lord has been dealing with me and us in this last two, now three podcasts, like he's really making a statement. Expect your adjustments of him, shift your mindset and shift it from demand to supply. Like take your expectations of yourself, or take your expectations off of yourself, rather, take them off of others and place them on the lower. Because truthfully, he is the only one who can meet those expectations, he's the only one that can show us if those expectations are realizable, if those expectations are unreasonable, if those expectations stem from our childhood and are not really part of the makeup in which he has designed for us. Like only he can show us that. So place your demands on the Lord and let him show you. Because either he will do them or he will show you that that's not quite what I want. That's not my will. And I think that's part of our, at least it's part of my issue, too. What if he doesn't do it? What if I expect him and he doesn't do it? And I let the enemy turn that into a whole fear of mine, which I addressed in the last podcast. I let him turn my fear of being disappointed because of my expectations into a fear where I almost settle for not believing God rather than believing him for what he is able to do, which is abundantly and above all that I can ask or think. And so don't let the enemy rob you, don't let him do it. Take it from someone who has allowed the enemy to rob so much from them, it just leaves your life miserable and empty. And then once you realize that you have been living beneath your privilege as a child of God, it out it almost stings twice as much because you feel like, oh, I've lost so much, I've wasted so much time. But the word says that the Lord can redeem the time, the Lord can redeem the time, and that's the wonderful thing about him. Even when we miss it, he doesn't. Even when we let things pass us, he has a way of bringing it back to us, and even more fruitfully and in a way that we know it was him. I mean, come on, God is good, he's great, he's worthy to be praised, he really, really is. And so, while the law is telling you you need to do more, you need to be better, you need to make it happen, grace is saying the Lord Himself will supply. He will lead me, he will carry you through. And that may sound simple, but it really can play out in our lives in a very well, very real way. Like the more you expect from yourself, your performance, your discipline, your ability to hold it all together, like I've done, uh the more weighed down you feel. I I was I couldn't even sleep some nights. Or there were nights where I was asleep, but when it was time to get up, I was like, uh, instead of me being grateful that the Lord opened my eyes that day, because somebody, yeah, somebody didn't have the opportunity to say, good morning, Lord, and they would have liked that opportunity. Here I am with the opportunity, and my first response is oh God. I mean, the enemy really knows me how to trick us, how to rob us. But the great thing is that he can't be successful unless we let him. So I'm sorry, I had to drink some water. Um, all of a sudden, I have that feeling in my throat that's making me want to just cough, but I rebuke it in Jesus' name. So, the more we expect from ourselves, the more we expect others to meet our needs and not let us down, and the more we expect that, the more stressed out and frustrated. And as they say, you you're you wound up real tight. The more tightly wound up we become, and I know that's true because I mentioned it earlier. I was in that space where I just was a To be disappointed or let down. God was stressing me out. It was frustrating me. I was feeling on edge, which is that example of being tightly wound. You know, like a clock. Just there's only so far you can turn that hand on or turn that lever and the back of the clock and wind it up. Imagine continuing to turn it and turn it. Eventually it breaks. Because it was not meant to be wound that tightly. Come on, Holy Spirit. It was never meant to be wound that tightly. So the more you twist it, the worse it gets, the tighter it becomes. And then eventually it pops, it breaks. And I felt that happening to me. Being so tightly wound that I was starting to break. I was starting to feel defeated. I was starting to feel not like I'm not saved, but like maybe I'm not one of those ones that are close to God. Even though I have my entire life and my history with my God. But based on this period in my life, I feel like it has affected everything. As if other periods in my life were not worse than this one. Way worse. And it's just a lie of the enemy to steal what the Lord has given to you and to make you doubt him. And um, I have this trademark, so don't play. Uh the Lord gave me, he gives me quotes and things in addition to poems and songs and children's stories. And I call these little sayings, not little, but I these sayings, these things that he gives me. I have called a collection of them lyricisms. Because lyric. And it's isms, it's it's these things that the Lord gives me. So I call them lyricisms and decided to have them copyrighted and trademarked. But one of them says, the devil already knows who you are. He's just hoping you won't. And it's so true. The devil knows who you are, he knows who you are to God, he knows who you are to the kingdom, he knows what the Lord has placed in you, he knows if you are a threat to him spiritually, he knows these things, he's just hoping that you don't know, and that is the attack that I have felt, and that is the attack that I feel that many believers have felt, and it was called something else because the enemy was trying to distract us. Oh, I'm depressed, oh I'm down, oh, um whatever the word is. Not that these things are not real things, because people struggle with depression. I did, but sometimes I feel like the the enemy will try to make us think that we have something that we don't have, just to keep us distracted from the truth which God were which God's word tells us. Um regarding the law and being under grace, he said there's a husband who is very demanding. He wakes up and wants his eggs done just right. He expects his coffee to be on the table before he even sits down. He doesn't tolerate any delays, no room for mistakes, no space for weakness. That is Mr. Law. Always exacting, always expecting, never helping, just demanding. Now imagine living with someone like that. How would you feel? Exhausted, anxious like you're never enough? I have felt that. And that's how I know I was under the law. So that's what it's like when you live under the law, where life is all about demand, performance. And here's what we need to realize as new covenant believers today that we are no longer under the law, under that old system of demand. Romans 7, 6 tells us, but now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the spirit. That means you have been brought under the new covenant of grace, where the Lord supplies you with what you need through his spirit. That's great news to me. I mean, I don't know about you, but that's fantastic news. Like we've been delivered from Mr. Law and joined to someone else, our Lord Jesus Christ, the person, the person of grace. He doesn't just have grace, extend grace, he is grace. And grace doesn't stand at the table waiting to be served. Grace gets up and says, You sit down, let me provide all the wisdom, the increase, the strength that you need for the day. And I agree strongly with Pastor Prince. I do. I really see where he's coming from, and I don't see it as him saying that you know we can live any old kind of way. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is that grace supplies, grace meets every need, it fills every lack, it keeps on giving, even when you fall short. That's the way the Lord meant for us to live, not constantly stressed out, pressured, because he's given us all the things, these things freely. The only person that it cost was him and Jesus. Absolutely nothing. And he has given us all these things freely, not to endure, not to maintain, but to enjoy. And that's how I had to start seeing my daughter. Like, I'm not enduring her, she was given to me to enjoy, and the Lord had to change my perspective because it was wrong, it was wrong, and I don't have a problem with admitting it because the one thing you will get from me is the truth, because it is way too much work to pretend to be somebody that you are not, and I'm not her. I don't have time to be trying to remember what I said and what I what I did. And wait, wait, where do how did I know that I'm already under pressure? I don't have time for all those shenanigans. I don't. And those who get me will get me, and those who don't, that's okay. But I was seeing my daughter in a way that I didn't even realize I was seeing her. Yes, I love her. I've always loved her, I'll always love her. That's my baby. But there were times where things were just so hard, I just felt like I just have to endure. I didn't know that I was seeing her as something I had to endure. I never I didn't know that. I didn't that I had reduced my child down to something, someone I had to endure and not enjoy. Oh my goodness, and I don't feel good about that. I don't feel good about that, but I'm so thankful that the Lord showed me that I was really viewing my situation the wrong way, and it was the enemy was using it to rob me of my life, of my joy, of my child. Lots of parents have special needs kids. There are lots of single mothers, single fathers out here with special needs kids. I just never, I just never thought that I would be one. I won't lie. I never, I never wanted that for myself. I never saw that for myself. And then when I became that, I I became I was angry with God. I was angry. I was so angry. But my daughter, guys, she's so amazing. She is the sweetest, kindest, forget most forgiving kid. Like she's so beyond her little five years. And even though there are so many things that you know we are trusting the Lord for. When I say we, I mean me and my kid because whenever I say the name of Jesus, my baby says amen. I'm not even done with my prayer yet. The moment she hears Jesus, she's like, Amen. She's amen. That kid right there, she's something. She's so kind of, she is some kind of special. And the Lord has used her tremendously in my life, and I know that he has used me for her. And I remember wondering what it's like outside of God, but in human form, to have unconditional love, to just be able to be me. I don't have to perform, I don't have to, you know, live up to some kind of standard. Just do my best. Trust the Lord, and you know, keep it moving. And my child is so my child is that she is that unconditional love. There are times when I'm hard on myself, and I'm sitting here, and I don't know if she can feel it or what, but she's in a whole different room doing something, and I'm in my room thinking about how I missed it and how I shoulda, coulda, woulda. And I'm feeling bad about myself, and I'm starting to cry. Not out loud where she can hear me, but I'm I'm I'm crying because I'm sorry and I'm sad. And my kid will just walk in the room out the blue and look me in the eye and put her little hand on my shoulder or on my leg and say, It's okay, mommy, and just walk away. Or she'll come in here and she'll put she did this the other day. It was so sweet. I was I was upset. I was crying. This time I was crying out loud because it was just so, uh, it was so much. My baby came in here, but she hugged my leg and she was just hugging me. And she just kept saying, It's okay. It's okay. She was trying to say there, there, but she said, bear, bear, bear, bear. I started laughing. Like the Lord used her. Like, I didn't even want to cry no more because I was so busy laughing. I was like, look at this baby patting her mommy on the on the shoulder and hugging my leg, talking about bear, bear, bear, bear. I love this kid. She's so perfect, she's perfect, and so I said all that to say that when you begin to live from a from a place of supply in the Lord, when we begin to do that, with our eyes on Jesus and our heart open to his grace, something beautiful happens. Something beautiful happens, just like it's been happening for me. The pressure lifts, peace and joy begin and return, and we stop expecting unreasonable things from ourselves and from the people around you because that's stressful for them too. Some people have asked, um, do you ever feel stressed or worn out? You seem to handle so much. Because they're used to seeing me a certain way, smiling, happy. One lady at church said, I'm changing your name. Your name is Joy. Like you are always joyful, but she doesn't see me when I'm at home and I'm sad and I'm crying, and I'm I don't know the answer to some things. But somehow the Lord will help me get through it, and then I'm back, you know, like because the joy of the Lord is our strength. That's what the word says. And so even though you feel sadness, or it doesn't mean you don't have joy, it just means in that moment you feel sadness because happiness and joy are not the same thing. Happiness is based on happenings, things that are happening in your life and your surroundings, joy comes from the Lord, and that joy is that it's that level, it's a different level of happiness and satisfaction because you know that no matter what's going on, God is in control, and so while I may not or you may not be feeling happiness in that moment, it doesn't mean you don't have joy, and so I tell them, yes, I do feel worn out, I do feel stressed, but I have the joy of the Lord because the joy of the Lord is my strength, the joy of the Lord is what keeps me going, the joy of the Lord is what allows me to be able to handle all these things. So one of the things I've realized is that in those moments, it's it always comes down to which direction have I been looking in? Have I been looking at myself, expecting me to perform and to provide and to do all these things? Or have I been looking to Jesus? Because it makes a difference where we're looking. If I'm looking to myself, I'm going to be exhausted. If you're looking to yourself, you're going to be exhausted. If you're looking to people, you're going to be disappointed. Yeah, it's just the truth. And not because they want to disappoint you. There are some people who really mean well. They really do. But people will disappoint you. There's a scripture, I can't remember right off the head right now what it where it's located, but it those who trust in man shall be disappointed. Those who put their trust in man shall be disappointed. And I agree. But when we look to the Lord, he always supplies because he's Jehovah Jireh, our God who supplies, the Lord, our provider. That's what Jireh means, provider. The Lord God, our provider. So what we need today isn't to try to like to it's not for us to try harder to meet the demands in our life. What we need is to refocus our attention and reset our expectations on the Lord. And when we do, I believe He'll meet us where we are because He's done it for me. He's done it for me. And He'll be ready to supply us with more than enough. And so I pray that this podcast has blessed you. Thank you so much for stopping by. I appreciate your time. Remember, God is with you, God is for you, and don't forget to talk about it.