Daily Bread
Daily Bread with Dr. Jerrell & Angela Stokley offers inspiring biblical content designed to educate, empower, and engage everyone to seek God's Word as daily bread for the soul and live a life of purpose in Jesus Christ.
Daily Bread
The Struggle is Real, Again - PT 2
Can enduring life's struggles lead to a more profound sense of purpose and personal growth? Join us on the Daily Bread Podcast with Dr. Jarrell Stokely Jr. and Angela Stokely as we promise an inspiring journey through the trials and triumphs of faith. Starting with scriptures from James and 1 Peter, we unpack how challenges are designed to refine our character and strengthen our faith. Our first segment, "The Struggle Just Got Real," centers on maintaining joy and perseverance through adversity, encouraging listeners to embrace struggles as pathways to maturity.
In "Navigating Through Struggle," we delve into how resilience and strength are cultivated through adversity, buttressed by faith. Drawing from the biblical experiences of Jesus, Paul, and Silas, we highlight how each trial can elevate us to higher levels of glory. We also weave in contemporary research from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, demonstrating how overcoming obstacles enhances key character strengths like bravery, persistence, and resilience. By maintaining a growth mindset and faith, we illustrate how to navigate hardships without losing hope.
Our final chapters, "The Power of Enduring Grace" and "Finding Hope Through Struggle," focus on finding strength in weakness and placing our hope in God rather than worldly things. We reflect on Apostle Paul's thorn in the flesh and Jesus' agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, emphasizing that enduring pain can be an integral part of God's plan to refine us. We discuss the importance of verbalizing our struggles and the transformative power of faith, as exemplified in Romans, Chapter 5. Through honest dialogue and spiritual resilience, we advocate for inner renewal and the profound growth that comes from trusting in God's will amidst life's inevitable trials.
Please sponsor the Daily Bread Podcast by clicking the link above. You can also connect with Dr. Jerrell & Angela Stokely at www.JerrellStokley.com or www.CovenantGraceChurch.org. Visit our online apparel store at www.OfficialGloryGear.com for all of your faith-based outdoor, casual, and athletic gear with a message of faith and belief in Jesus Christ.
All right, welcome everyone. Welcome back. Welcome back to Daily Bread Podcast. I am Dr Jarrell Stokely Jr and my lovely, admirable, kind, warm, generous, beautiful, sexy, anointed wife, angela Stokely, we are here with you today. Thank you for tuning in to our show and to this time of ministry and empowerment and education and girding you up in the body of Christ to fulfill your passion, your purpose, your dream and all that God has called you to do. Thank you for being here, angela. You want to welcome our guests and viewers and family.
Speaker 2:Hey, family, it's so good to our guests and viewers and family, hey family, it's so good to have you with us and us have this opportunity to sit in the seat again, to share God's revelation power, his word, and to edify you in every area of your life so that you can accomplish the very thing that God has called you to do.
Speaker 1:So we are glad you are here, all right. Just a quick note about sponsorship and partnership. We do want to ask you to pray, be led by God to commit to a monthly partnership with Pastor A and I as we continue to take Daily Bread podcast around the globe. We want to be able to continue to bring you the word of God and empowerment. In order to do so, we need your sponsorship and your partnership. You can go to covenantgracechurchorg and click on the Daily Bread podcast page and you can sow your support there, or you can just go to dailybreadpodcastcom I think that should get you to the page and so your gift of support. We need you. We can't do this without you.
Speaker 1:Of course, you know there is a cost for studio time and cameras and lights and batteries and SIM cards and air time to continue to put this podcast out everywhere that we can. You can find us on every platform available Daily Bread Podcast with Dr Jarrell and Angela Stokely. So please consider if you have been fed by this podcast in the past, if you are being fed by today's session, which is going to be so great, please, please, partner with us and sow to help keep us on the air. You can sow in increments of 15. You can sow $15 a month, $30 a month, $45 a month Whatever gift that you feel led by God in your heart to sow. You got to pray first and commit as a monthly partner. We need your monthly partnership, but if you can give a one-time gift, we praise God for that as well, all right.
Speaker 1:The Bible says give and it shall be given back to you a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over. So we pray, as you give, that your harvest comes running over in your life. In Jesus name. Today's topic, which is awesome, is it just got real again the struggle. Just got real again, let me repeat that.
Speaker 1:The struggle just got real again. If you tuned in to the struggle just got real part one oh my God, it's going to bless your life. If not, this one will stand alone. Go back and listen to the struggle got real, just Real. Part one oh my God, it's going to bless your life. If not, this one will stand alone. Go back and listen to the Struggle Just Got Real, part one. This is the Struggle Just Got Real Again.
Speaker 1:We want to start off with two passages of scripture to help lay a foundation, because what we understand is that each of us, as believers, are going to endure struggle, matter of fact, whether you're a believer or non-believer, no matter who you are on this planet, if you're alive and breathing, you are going to go through struggles in your life, and it is critical to know how to endure and process through struggle in a healthy way, in a way where you have power, where you are moving through with your joy intact and you are practicing your disciplines to build you up in your faith, your character, your perseverance, your grit, your trust in God.
Speaker 1:And we're going to talk about all about, all about, about and process through our teaching on today. So the struggle just got real again. So I'm going to ask Pastor A to lead out with our first passage of scripture in the book of James, chapter one, verse two through four, and I'm going to chime in in first Peter, chapter one, verse six through eight, and then I got some crazy stats for you to show you about kind of what's going on with struggle and how you can benefit from it.
Speaker 2:Amen. So, james, chapter one, verses two through four, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything that is so powerful.
Speaker 1:So we learn, pastor, from this first passage of scripture is that there actually comes times when we're going through a lot of different struggles at the same time and that's when it gets real again. And in cases like that, james was talking to the church at Jerusalem and he was basically telling them listen, you know, these things didn't come to destroy you. God doesn't allow tests to destroy you. But they came to test you. He doesn't send problems to kill you, to take you out, to destroy you, but to test your faith. And that word in the Greek, that word test your faith or try your faith, it actually comes from this idea, in this concept of purifying a coin or a piece of gold to get all the dross. Actually, god using real life circumstances in order to refine us in our faithful um, in our anointing and our gifts and in our trust and belief in him. So we we come out better if we have the right focus and perspective when we're going through tests. So remember, when these trials and stuff are coming, god's not sending something to kill or destroy you. God's refining you. The Bible Jesus talked about those who are in me shall bear much fruit. And then you know, he said and those who bear fruit shall be pruned to bear even more fruit. And pruning is a difficult process. Challenges and suffering is a difficult process, but we're supposed to go through that process a certain way.
Speaker 1:I want to read my commentary from the book of James and then I'm going to jump to Peter, just to piggyback on how we go through trials and tribulations. Just to piggyback on how we go through trials and tribulations. It says these are outward circumstances, conflicts, sufferings and troubles encountered by all believers. Trials are not pleasant and may be extremely grievous, and I like this. This is in your Bible, saying that you're going to go through some things. That's extremely grievous, it says. But believers ought to be considerate. Believers ought to consider them as opportunities for rejoicing. Troubles and difficulties are a tool which refine and purify our faith, producing patience and endurance. I love that. I love that God is not intimidated to inform us that life gets grievous and life is prepackaged with suffering. But when we are born again, we are prepackaged with the joy of the Lord, with our strength. So when that suffering comes, my joy ought to be elevated to saying and that's a learned process, you have to learn to rejoice in tribulation. But let's look at 1 Peter and see what Peter says about this, and I love this passage.
Speaker 1:1 Peter, chapter one, starting in verse six, and he says in this you, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while. And I want you to hold on to that, because most suffering doesn't last long and those that do last long, in comparison to what God has in store for us, is a little while. He says for a little while, if need be. You have been grieved by various trials, being. Watch this.
Speaker 1:He said that the genuineness of your faith I like that word the genuineness of it, the struggle come to get down to the genuine you, the genuine believer, so you can see, you know where your metric is, you know where is my metric, you know what's my rubric. Am I down here in my faith? Am I up here in my faith? The test come to show me where I am in my faith, so that the genuine faith, the most precious faith, it says, being more precious than gold. Wait a minute, my faith is more precious than gold.
Speaker 1:Number one. It is to God, who means more than anything than anybody in this world, means more than anything than anybody in this world. Watch this now, it says, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire. Oof, that is something May be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ whom, having not seen you love, though now you do not see him yet believing you rejoice with inexpressible and full of glory receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your soul. It means, if you hang on in there with Jesus in the process, you're going to see the end. That Christ is real, he came for you, that God has eternal life in store for you, he has rewards stored up in heaven for you, and that you endure through the fire of your struggles.
Speaker 2:Struggles are fiery. Pastor. One of the things that we forget as believers is that this entire process is taking us somewhere. Come on. And that is to go.
Speaker 1:Can you say that to the kids? I love that. Can you say that?
Speaker 2:You know, we as believers, sometimes we forget that this entire process and this entire Christian journey is taking us to a place, and that's what we forget. And I believe that, because we forget that the plan is to get to heaven, that's the whole plan, that we can't get tripped up at what happens in the journey, what happens along the way, because ultimately, and no matter what my destiny is sure I'm going to make it to heaven. You know what I mean. And I think that if we learn to reflect on that a little bit more and let that really be almost a guiding thought, if you will you know what I mean I like that I am on a journey to glory.
Speaker 2:I'm on a journey to be in the presence of my father. Come on. That's so good that, that that perspective, mentality and posture can shift how we manage.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:During the struggle struggle.
Speaker 1:This is so good, that's so powerful what you're saying, because it took me to the reality when the scripture says if we're going to reign with Christ in victory and triumph in eternal life in the heavenlies with our Father, we must first suffer down here as Christ suffered. Not pleasant, it's grievous, but with Christ with me dwelling in me, I can endure this process and build my perseverance and my character and my grit and my power and my faith and my prayer life along the way.
Speaker 1:Check this out. Okay. So here's some statistics on post-traumatic growth Whenever you ever heard those three words together post-traumatic growth In 2017, a study published by the Journal of Positive Psychology found that people who experience significant struggles, such as trauma, often report positive changes in character, including increased resilience, a deeper appreciation for life I love that one, that's me and improved personal relationships. Just because you made it through your struggles, just because you went through something, when you go through with the right perspective watch this About 50 to 60% of individuals report some form of post-traumatic growth following adversity, and this is Tedeschi and Calhoun 2017. So you can look up this report for yourself. The work has been done, the study has been done.
Speaker 1:People who go through adversity and struggle are the strongest people on the planet, and when you have God on your side in the midst of that, you come out with a testimony. You come out with resilience, your bounce back grows, your ability to resurrect out of every situation improves and increases, and that's how, I believe, we go from glory to glory. Come on somebody. Jesus went from being rejected by the Pharisees and Sadducees one level of glory being rejected by the Jews when they wanted to throw him over the cliff in the city another level of glory. Being beaten and whipped at Pontius Pilate's right, being flogged and whipped with a cat of 39 to another level of glory, because every time he went through suffering, it was another level of glory. Then he went to the cross, which was his final level of glory in terms of suffering, and then he died and was resurrected in power. Which another? Which that's another realm of glory, that's another dimension of glory that he moved in. So, listen, you're not a victim. You're one of the strongest group of people on the planet from what you went through.
Speaker 1:Can we break this down according to what this word is teaching us and what this, what these stats are teaching us? Listen to this. This talks about character strengths. This was a study Research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2015, showed that individuals who encounter and overcome their difficulties often develop key character strengths. Come on now. What is character? Integrity, altruism, doing what's right for the right reasons, the golden rule do unto others as you would have them to do unto you. All this happens. Here's some of them bravery, persistence, resilience. The study noted that individuals who faced and navigated adversity reported higher levels of these strengths. So so when you get in suffering.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Time to start navigating. Yeah, you have to turn on your God mind. You have to. You have to turn on your scripture, your word mind and you have to turn on the. You have to tap into the wisdom of God, because now it's time to navigate. Turn on the. You have to tap into the wisdom of God because now it's time to navigate. It's not time to sit still and die when you get in suffering. You have to start navigating by the word of God. What does God want me to get out of this? How do I not go through this? But how do I grow through this? This reminds me of my book Grow Into your Greatness. Oh my God, oh my God. It's already out. It's on Amazon, it's on a born to noblecom, it's at Westbow press and, of course, you can get copies through Jarrell Stokelycom.
Speaker 1:But people think greatness is for the elite Number one. No, it's not. All of us have greatness inside of us. Greatness is tapping into the best version of yourself and evolving into the best version of yourself. That is the greatness in your life. Greatness is defined as extraordinary. There's only one. You. Nobody has your fingerprint. Oh my god. And we and people think you could step into greatness. Greatness is not a destination. Greatness is growth. Yeah, it's an evolution, and so quit trying to step into your greatness, and my greatness is coming. No, your greatness is already in you. Yeah, and this talks about navigating through suffering, because that suffering brings out the greatness that is in you. It's a process that's what I'm.
Speaker 2:It's a process. That's what I'm saying. It's a process.
Speaker 1:Shameless plug on the book, but it's a process, oh my God.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. You know, I was. I was thinking, oh Lord. I think one of the one of the errors that we make when going through struggles is spending. We spend so much time wishing that we were not going through the struggle. And as a result, we kind of for lack of a better phrase he and her about it. You know, we moan and be moan.
Speaker 1:There, you go.
Speaker 2:You know we ache and pain and we go through all of that and we spend a lot of time. Yeah, the why me's, the I don't like this, all of that. We stay there too long. Right, I'm not saying it's not normal to go through that, because I feel like it is normal as a human being.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm glad you said that you know. Can you repeat that?
Speaker 2:so the listeners and the watchers can hear. It is very normal to go through those types of feelings, but the thing is it's not staying there and for whatever reason I keep thinking about. Was it Peter in prison? Was it Peter who prays?
Speaker 1:Paul and Silas did. Thank you, it was Paul. Okay, I was like Peter.
Speaker 2:It wasn't sounding right, but Peter was in prison too. Okay, so Paul and Silas found something other to do than complain about their situation Come on. You understand what I'm saying and the reality is is that they had a reason to complain. Come on, If they did complain, I believe we would all understand.
Speaker 1:Right, they hadn't done anything wrong.
Speaker 2:Right, right but instead, they tapped into a greater power.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:They tapped into the gift of prayer and the power of prayer and the power of praise. Boy, if we could just shift there quicker than we usually do, if we can hurry up and get there again, we may complain, we may moan about it, we may ache about it, but we have got to start. I like to say this, giving ourselves a time limit. I remember years ago I'd be like, okay, well, you only have these amount of tears to cry, so cry them tears. And we got to get up and we got to get moving, because you acknowledge that it happened, but you can't park it right there. You've got to get back up and you've got to do something, and that's something. Let's take a note from Paul and Silas.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Let's pray and let's pray.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's so good.
Speaker 2:Because it'll shift situations. It'll shift you Right While you're still in your situation.
Speaker 1:What's the if that'll shift?
Speaker 2:them. I didn't hear you.
Speaker 1:The if you said it will shift.
Speaker 2:What's the?
Speaker 1:if.
Speaker 2:What's the it? What's the it Prayer?
Speaker 1:and prayer Prayer. I just wanted you to repeat it, yeah.
Speaker 2:Prayer and praise. It will shift you.
Speaker 2:Come on, it will shift you, and I think that I think that's one of those, those things that we have to learn, we have to train ourselves to do. You know, ok, I'm going through this struggle. Yes, I don't like it. Yes, I don't like it. Yes, I may cry about it, yes, I may be upset about it, yes, I may be frustrated, yes, I may moan and complain.
Speaker 2:And we've got to get to the point, as the body of Christ, that we hurry up and get that, but in our sentences. But God is going to deliver me out, but I still trust that he has a plan for my life, but he is able. You know what I'm saying. We've got to so that we don't give opportunity to the enemy to beat us up any more than we already feel beat up while we're going through our situation. So I think one of the one of the really important things for us to learn in the process is to hurry up and shift. We have to learn to hurry up and shift. Don't say, yeah, it's a reality and it hurts and there are tears and there, but we got to hurry up and get over to praise hurry up and get over to prayer, you know, so that it will help shift us while we're processing and growing through that struggle.
Speaker 1:That's so good. Yeah, as you were talking, I was reminded of a passage of scripture in second Corinthians, chapter four, starting in verse 16. And Paul, writing here, says therefore, we do not lose hope, even though our outward man is perishing. It is, it's present tense, see, that's, that's a right now thing. That's happening because in the society and the culture that we live in right now, the climate that we live, we live in, all of us are processing new affliction. See. It says, though, our outward man is perishing.
Speaker 1:Perishing is that trouble, that affliction, that moaning, that agonizing. Some stuff is agonizing. I know I've got some people watching or listening. You've been going through some agonizing. It's not strange to go through agonizing. The church of Jesus Christ went through agonizing in the New Testament when the diaspora, when the believers were scattered under Roman authority, when Nero was killing Christians and putting them in spike barrels and rolling them downhill and killing them by dropping them into hot boiling oil and pitching them with tar and lighting a match on them and using them as lamps down the corridors to his castle. So you know, it's not the first time that we have gone through struggle. We've just become softer by the culture that we live in. But here it says our man is perishing, but our inward man is being renewed day by day, which goes back to what you said. If you don't quickly make the shift from the problem, the pain and the prison to the prayer and the praise, you'll do what Paul said here You'll lose heart.
Speaker 1:You will yeah, and that's when you start diminishing in the suffering and you start losing heart. Yeah, and maybe some of you are there right now. We like this podcast to be ministry. We're not just here to talk. Maybe you are heavy of heart right now. God wants to give you the garment of praise for your spirit of heaviness and, if you will allow God, right now, in this very moment, I feel the Holy Spirit. This happens on this podcast. I feel the power of God moving for someone. I see crying, I see tears, I see so much pain right now in the spirit.
Speaker 1:Listen, don't you lose heart. Make your shift. Yes, it's grievous. Yes, it's grievous. Yes, it's suffering. The suffering just got real again and it may get real again and again and again, over and over, but count it all joy. When you fall into these diverse temptations, god is purifying you. He doesn't hate you. He hasn't left you. This is a purification process. We all are going through suffering, so God doesn't abandon us in the suffering and he doesn't have to send it. It's here on earth. Suffering is a part of the human existence. I want you to know something Make that shift so your heart can be healed and made whole again, because God loves you, loves you and he has that plan for you. You want to jump in or you want to read this?
Speaker 2:I was thinking about. One of the things that I use to cope with struggle is that I remind myself that God loves me too much to allow it to take me out. Come on. And because of that, because I am convinced of that, then I learned to say okay, god, if you allow this, I consider it a compliment. Come on, because you obviously see something in me that I have not yet realized, that you have on the inside of me that is so good.
Speaker 1:My goodness, I think you're preaching. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:And so, god, I thank you for trusting me with this trouble. It does not mean that I like the trouble. I don't like it it means that I recognize that if God allowed it, the God who is over everything, if he allows it, then he is going to allow it to be worked out for good in my life.
Speaker 2:When I was 828. Again, it's going to work for good. It doesn't feel good, it doesn't look good, none of it seems good, but once God gets finished it doesn't look good. Yeah, nothing about it seems good, but once God gets finished, come on. I got to believe the word of God that tells me that all things I mean all things he will take and make all things good for me. So, god, I thank you. It is a compliment, because if I had to choose, I would say there's no way I can handle that, come on.
Speaker 2:There's no way. If you tell me in advance, I'm going to tell you I am not the girl for the one for it. But what he does is he sends it because he knows that you're already qualified.
Speaker 1:Yeah, come on, come on.
Speaker 2:God, what would it be amazing if you got a job and people say I'm calling you to get you this job because I already know you qualify. I'm about to run, oh my God. But that's what God does, because he knows us.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God.
Speaker 2:And he knows us better than we know ourselves. He's like, by the time this thing is done, you don't even realize the person that you're going to be after this. So it's a compliment to an introduction of what's next in you. Come on in you, oh my goodness.
Speaker 1:Oh my.
Speaker 2:God, I love that, oh my.
Speaker 1:God.
Speaker 2:Introducing. That's His way of introducing us to a version of us that we have not yet met. Oh my God, a powerful version of us, yes, an ordained version of us. Isn't that something? Come on, Isn't that something? Come on, Like this struggle. This struggle is a tool for my enhancement. Come on, it's like you's like the cell phones have an update. The struggle is like an update.
Speaker 1:That's so good. That's it. Hold on. No, ladies and gentlemen, the struggle is your update.
Speaker 2:My goodness, by the time this thing is finished.
Speaker 1:Beyonce said let me upgrade you. I think time this thing is finished. Beyonce said let me upgrade you. I think she got that from Jesus, right? What Don't be trying to steal Jesus' stuff.
Speaker 2:Right what? I'm going to function at a level greater than I was functioning before. Oh my God, this struggle is an update. That's so good, it's so powerful. Oh God, Thank you. Good, it's so powerful, oh God, thank you Jesus.
Speaker 1:Oh my God. Okay, that took me back. I lost my thought and everything that I was going to say. But some of us, Pastor, we go through long-term suffering.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And to my brothers and sisters who have been in long-term suffering, been suffering for a long time. I have some things that I've been suffering for a long time. I had some stuff it took me until I was 40 something years old to get over. Let me tell you, I understand long suffering. I get it. You ask my wife, she's a witness. In my life I get long suffering, but you must understand that in your long suffering, god is working out his plan. In your life, in your weakness is his strength.
Speaker 1:So let's look at Paul, then, because we know that he had a thorn in his flesh that he kept going back to God with. God said no, this one I'm going to allow you to live with, to live with this right here. This critical moment that we're teaching is for people who've been living with long-term agony, long-term suffering Ooh, god loves you. Long-term pain Ooh, god loves you. He hasn't forgot about you. You just got more grace than the rest of them. Let's look at them. So here it is 2 Corinthians, chapter 12,. Pastor, I'm going to show them Paul and I'm going to show them David, 2nd Corinthians, if you get there before me. 2nd Corinthians, chapter 12. 2nd Corinthians, chapter 12. Right, and let's look at verse 7 through. And let's look at verse seven who?
Speaker 2:Verse 10.
Speaker 1:I found it, you get, can you get? Can you get some 22? Yeah, and that's David. Here's what Paul says. He says unless I should be exalted above measure. So now, mind you, this suffering was protection from him, based on what he's saying. He said unless I should be sorted, I wouldn't be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations that I get from God and the Holy ghost. I get all these abundant revelations that God speaks to me, shows me things. They come to true, they come to pass. He has me to write about them. They come to true, they come to pass. He has me to write about them. And all these abundance. Y'all know Paul wrote two thirds of the New Testament that we read. He like all this revelation and the stuff God was giving me. Watch this. He gave me a thorn in my flesh. A thorn in my flesh was given to me A messenger of Satan to buffet me. Watch this now, buffet me, watch this now, lest I be exalted above measure. That means God didn't send the thorn.
Speaker 2:He allowed it.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, oh my God. Now, this whole word he used about to buffet me. It comes from a Greek word that means to polish, to refine. Remember we were talking about that in the book of James and in the book of 1 Peter that God allows challenges and tribulations to refine us like gold, to bring the best out of us.
Speaker 1:See, if Paul would have been high-minded in all this revelation that he had, it would have been terrible to deal him. Look at what he did when he was high-minded about the law. He was so zealous, high-minded about the law of Judaism he went around killing Christians. So if he get high-minded about Christianity, he gonna go around killing Jews. God, like man, I gotta keep you humble, yeah, so that you bring me glory and don't defame my name. Watch this, he says. Concerning this thing, he said he pleaded y'all. I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
Speaker 1:Hit the brakes. You got to read your Bible. This is the man of God begging. This is the apostle of the Gentiles wrote most of the New Testament church writing letters on his missionary trips in prison. This is the one that was so anointed that one time he was preaching, a little boy fell out the window and died. Paul went over to him and laid on him and the boy got up. Paul went right back to preaching. He had the anointing to resurrect the dead, but he's over here begging.
Speaker 2:God don't you consider yourself resurrect the dead, but he's over here begging.
Speaker 1:God, don't you consider?
Speaker 2:yourself an outcast, because the struggle is real.
Speaker 1:Let me preach it, pastor Say whatever you want, come on.
Speaker 2:That's on the hand, because the struggle is real Again. The struggle is real Again. We're not exempt. Come on, we're not exempt. It doesn't matter what our title is, it doesn't matter what we're anointed to do, we are not exempt. Come on, we're not exempt.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter what our title is, it doesn't matter what we're anointed to do, we are not exempt from struggle, and don't you let people with false spirituality, which is nothing but mass religion, make you feel bad because you cried about something or you had a day where you were sad or you were depressed.
Speaker 2:Ie, you were human, you were human.
Speaker 1:You were going through some sorrow, paul. You are telling Paul was begging. Why are you judging me? He was begging God to take his stuff away. Do you know what it means to plead? He had to be on his knees, he had it. Ok, let's, let's back up, let's take it to Jesus.
Speaker 1:What about Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, who was going through the pain and suffering of knowing he was going to be separated from the father on that cross? He said if you would let this bitter cup pass me by. And he was in such agony that the carpals burst in his skin and it's raising his cells and blood start coming out instead of sweat. What kind of agony is that? But you know what he said. Not my will, god, I trust you, your will be done. I'm coming out of this better. I'm coming out of this with persistence. I'm coming out of this with resilience. I'm coming out with a version of me I've never seen before. I'm coming out of this with power.
Speaker 1:And he did it. And Paul said I beg three times. He said. And he said to me my grace, grace. We've limited, we've narrowed it down to God's unmerited favor. Please, let's do better than that. God's grace is God's presence, his goodness, his kindness, his gifts, his love, his favor. Grace is everywhere. Grace was before the law, grace was before the New Testament, because Jesus is grace. Jesus is the gift of grace to us. That's why the Bible says we are saved by grace, through faith, right, not of works, lest that any man should boast. So grace is all the goodness of God that you can come up with, of God that you can come up with that's grace.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. So we know that God has given us grace. We know that God has given us his grace to endure. What was God really saying to Paul? You're going to endure this, paul. You're going to make it through this. You're going to make it through this. You're going to be okay.
Speaker 1:And I need to talk to somebody. God knows you have diabetes, but you're going to be okay. God knows you've been battling through cancer and it went into remission and it came back and remission, but you're going to be okay. God knows that you're living with some type of skin disease. It's going to be okay. God knows that you are living with financial struggles it's going to be okay. Sometimes the gifts that he gives us to bring us out is grace and grace doesn't bring us out. Sometimes physically is grace and grace doesn't bring us out.
Speaker 2:sometimes physically, it brings us out internally.
Speaker 1:It brings out our peace, it brings out our joy, but most of all it gives us strength to endure when we believe in him. I didn't mean to take that much time with that you know.
Speaker 2:Oftentimes I'll say what my experience and struggles have been. If I you know. This may sound kind of petty, but it's real, if I can just feel better, if I can just feel better, sometimes it's not so important for the thing to be resolved, it is for the burden to be lifted Come on.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean and for me I think that is powerful, Because if I can just learn to manage it, if I can pray and praise my way through the burden and the pressure of it, I can still keep holding on until I am delivered out of that thing.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. We, we, we we've learned to praise God and, and when we do it right, we can praise in a way where we shift I said this a minute ago where we shift but we're still in the prison. Come on, and the way we saw it before praise is not how we see it after praise. We see it after praise. Come on, my God. So praise will in fact shift us even before we are delivered out of the struggle.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And I think that is so powerful. Sometimes we want so bad to be out of it that we can't appreciate the tools we have that shift us while we're still in it.
Speaker 1:Glory to. God, that's so good, very well very well said my God, thank you. Well, because that goes back to when Paul said though my outward man perished my inner man is being renewed. So when you're in that prison you go through an inner renewal that gives you deliverance while you're in it. So only thing that is imprisoned by that situation is your body Exactly Nothing else.
Speaker 2:Nothing else that's powerful.
Speaker 1:That is so good.
Speaker 2:That is, that's that's transforming it is.
Speaker 1:That's life transforming it is. What about David's distress? And what do you say there in Psalms, psalms?
Speaker 2:22, one and two 2 it says my god, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My god, I cry out by day but you do not answer. By night, but I cannot. But I find, wow, wow, this is King David the warrior.
Speaker 1:The warrior, the man of the gods on heart, one of the greatest kings in Hebrew history, the one we preach about, one who slayed Goliath, one who would go out and slay a thousand Philistines and bring their foreskins and cast them before Saul. King Saul that David was going through so much suffering, he said God, why did you leave me? That's permission, ladies and gentlemen, to be human, to be in suffering and say God, where you at, where you at, man Daddy, where are you? I need you. Why have you left me here? It's OK. What you're doing is you're processing through your suffering. Just remember to hold fast to your strength, like David did. He said why is my soul cast down? Why is my soul disquieted in me? I will look to the Lord. So you got to come back to the reality that I know God loves me and he's going to see me through. But don't you come under condemnation just because you went through it.
Speaker 2:That's so good for somebody right now.
Speaker 1:So you need to know that God is with you in your suffering. So let's look at this. So I was reading some statistics, sweetheart, and I called you sweetheart online. I can't help it. You're my sweetheart, it says. Research indicates that religious coping can buffer against the negative effects of stress.
Speaker 1:See so when you practice your spiritual disciplines when you talk about religious, we're going to talk about spiritual when you let the fruit of the spirit manifest in you, when you practice prayer and devotion and consecration and fasting and worship and praise in your struggle. Yeah, come on, it has a. It has, it's a buffer.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Against the negativity going on in your life.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is so good.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I think you know the last episode. We talked about prophecy and we talked about confessing. That is so powerful.
Speaker 1:Right, that's another one.
Speaker 2:You know we have to. We have to be sure to profess the word of God over our life. We have to be sure to constantly, you know, speak those things that be not as though they already were, and that is rehearsing the promises of God. Come on, that was for somebody.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You've got to get to the point where you rehearse the promises of God, because as long as I know that if I have a promise from someone who is reliable and dependable and I am constantly reminding or rehearsing that promise, I am reminding myself to have hope in that very thing that I was promised. It is so important during the struggle that we learn how to rehearse the promises of God that our hope can remain.
Speaker 1:That's powerful.
Speaker 2:That our hope can remain, because oftentimes and I think you touched on it already when we are going through the struggle one of the things if we're not careful, we can become very disheartened and begin to feel hopeless when we really have an opportunity to be hopeful.
Speaker 1:Can you get Psalms 39 and 7? Oh my God and 119 and 147. That scripture just hit me 39 and 7?
Speaker 2:Yeah, 39 and 7 hit me, 39 and seven.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 39 and seven. What is 39 and seven? If you can read that please.
Speaker 2:But now, lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you. Come on somebody. Where do we?
Speaker 1:land our hope, ladies and gentlemen, because you brought up hope and hope is so powerful Psalm 119 and verse 147. Hope is expectation. It is it's saying I'm going through this suffering because I know he loves me. I expect God he doesn't have to bring me out. I expect him to be with me in the struggle, and if that means him guiding me out of it, fine. If that means him renewing me in it, fine. But I do. I have an expectation that God is with me, absolutely, and I have a hope that God is with me.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Okay, come on Psalm 119, 147. It says I rise before dawn and cry for help. I have put my hope in your word.
Speaker 1:Can you please ask our audience families and friends where have they put my hope in your word? Can you please ask our audience families and friends where have they put their hope?
Speaker 2:Where have you placed your hope? See, that's so important. It is very important. Come on, talk to us, Pastor it is very important where we place our hope, because we have to place our hope in a place where our hope can be fulfilled, and that is not in material things. Our hope has to be in a place, in a place that can actually build our hope. Come on, that's it. I love it, come on.
Speaker 1:He is the deliverer.
Speaker 2:He is, he is the deliverer, absolutely he is. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:And I think you said it on the first episode, and I think you said it on the first episode you talked about Sometimes the struggle that we're in is because of of what did you say, of what we, or did I say, that did, did or did not do.
Speaker 1:I think you said that.
Speaker 2:OK, so sometimes, when we put our hope in places that can't deliver hope. There you go. We find ourselves in a struggle there you go.
Speaker 1:That's where I'm going. With that, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Sometimes, when we place our hope in the wrong things, the wrong places, we become hopeless because they were never meant to deliver. Hope To be deliverers.
Speaker 1:God has to be our one and only deliverer, as he was for the children of Israel. For 400 years they were praying for deliverance, but they knew. Even though it took 400 years, they kept praying to the same God because their hope was in Jehovah, oh my God and the God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say. And another thing have to. We have to be willing to be honest with ourselves when we start feeling our hope diminished. We have got to run to the one who gives us hope, and that is in the word of God. I can recall one day I remember I said to God. I said I'm starting to feel hopeless.
Speaker 1:I don't like this.
Speaker 2:So we have to, we have to be willing, just like just like David cried out in distress, just like um Paul went, went to God about the thorn, we've got to be willing to be honest about where we are. This thing is troubling me, or my hope is fading. Help me, but I know I gotta go to your word to get the hope. I know that, I know that you know what I mean. But we have to be willing to about where we are, because silence sometimes is a killer. Keeping our mouths closed sometimes is the worst thing to do, worst thing to do.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it is necessary to open up our mouths for one, to cry out to God. Come on. Number two, to confess what we believe God is going to do in our lives, but also to be honest about where we are. When we try to hide from our realities, it gives the enemy more power to suffocate us in those things. But when we are verbal to God and say, god, here is my struggle, god, here is my dilemma, god, here is what I'm dealing with. God, it gives power. It gives power for God to be able to come in and speak to our situation. But when we quiet over in the corner man, that enemy going to start sending you all kinds of thoughts, the wrong ones, to do all kinds of things that you ought not be doing. But when we can be transparent before God and say here's what I'm dealing with, this is what I'm struggling with.
Speaker 2:I'm starting to feel a little, you know, lost. I feel a little confused. Whatever it is, we gotta be willing to be transparent with God. The Bible talks about confessing your sins one to another, but I'm talking about confessing them to the Lord. What about that part? God? Here I am, this is what's happening, this is what I've done, this is what I'm feeling. I'm starting to get angry, and I'm angry too long, and I know the word says don't be angry long, or otherwise you're going to sin. I don't want to sin, but I feel like I'm right there on the verge of doing something crazy. Help me, teach me, guide me, lead me whatever it is, you know what I?
Speaker 2:mean.
Speaker 1:I think it's important that we do that. Yeah, you really hit on what I was thinking about and how men, when a man continues to go through suffering and problems and issues, he can get bitter and angry. And if he is not practicing a deep, intimate relationship with God and allowing the process to renew him inwardly, to refine him, he will come out of it a bitter, angry man and he will become an abuser rather than an embracer and someone who promotes, protects and lift others up. He'll become the type of person that is angry, bitter, sarcastic, pessimistic, you know it's sharp-tongued and even abusive in a lot of ways and violent. So it's important, you know, for everybody. But it is important, brothers, to hear me. Well, you're going through one test after the next. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and in due season he will exalt you, because men are most frustrated with failure. We become most frustrated with a lack of success. I'm not the financial provider I want to be. I'm not the brave man I want to be. I'm not the success story. I want my family to see me as I'm not the presence that I want at home and at work. It's not there. I don't have the job I want. I'm not getting paid what I want, I'm not getting treated like I want. Here I feel the Holy Ghost. Do not let yourself go bitter. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and in due season he will exalt you when he sees that your inner man has grown through the process. So your hour of that parish. Your inner man is renewed day by day.
Speaker 1:This takes me to Romans, chapter five, and this could be our last passage of scripture. We can, we can. We can wrap this up. I think we've really hit on some really key things about suffering. When the suffering just got real again. One thing, most critically, is be renewed through it, not ruined through it. Be renewed through it, not ruined by it. Let it renew you and refine you, not ruin you. And refine you, not ruin you, and define you. Come on, somebody Throw in a little preaching up in there. Romans, chapter 5. Oh, you smile so pretty. Thank you, romans, chapter 5. Therefore, having been justified by faith, Verse 3?.
Speaker 1:Romans 5, verse 1. I'm sorry, verse 5. Therefore, having been justified by faith, how am I justified? Justified means you're acquitted as if I didn't do it my faith. So God's not trying to punish me.
Speaker 1:My sins are not before God. My righteousness is. God's not cursed me, god's not mad at me. My righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, is before me when God looks at me. So now we have peace with God. There it is Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Watch this. Through whom also we have access? Somebody you need to know. You've got access by faith. There it is An expectation, that hope into this grace in which we stand. Hallelujah, I'm standing in grace, oh my God, okay, and rejoice in the hope of the glory. It's so much packed in that that I don't have time to break it down.
Speaker 1:He says this and not only that, as if you needed any more than that. If I got his grace, if I've been justified, if his glory is with me, if I'm in the glory of Christ, if my faith is bringing me into this grace, what else do I need?
Speaker 1:But, he says and not only that verse three, but we also, here it is we glory in our tribulations. Glory means that we praise, that we honor God, that we exalt God in our tribulations. Glory means that we praise that we honor God, that we exalt God in our tribulations. Why, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, trouble molds me to better process through new trouble.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And so once I get up, once I become the pattern of perseverance, now I can go through anything. See, once you're molded into a pattern, nothing can come and unmold and unshape you. A quarter is a quarter, a penny is a penny, it's molded into the pattern. See, once I go through successfully, go through my tests, I can go through the same test over and over and over again and not be moved. Oh my God, I'm trying to help somebody. So, since God knows trouble is always headed our way, he says I'm going to allow these sets of suffering so that they can prepare you for the rest of this trouble that you're going to see through your lifetime and you'll be whole and, in time, wanting nothing Because you'll have perseverance. Watch this.
Speaker 1:He says I have perseverance because I have some perseverance about me, the ability to go through something. Now I have character For my peace, I can keep my temperament, I can keep right, I can have bravery, all right. Character, then, gives me hope. Right, because once I'm calm and I'm content and I'm stable and I'm balanced and I'm still in my righteousness, all right, the only thing on my mind is okay, I'm believing in my God. So I have hope. Watch this Now, hope does not disappoint. Come on somebody, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts. By who? Here we go back to that relationship with the Holy Spirit, by the Holy Spirit who was what Given to us.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 1:Come on, gift. I have hope in God in my suffering, because he poured out his love on me. I know he loves me. The knowledge of his love is keeping me through some of the worst times of my life, absolutely. Come on, somebody. The struggle may have gotten real again, but this time you're coming out better than you went in. Amen, oh my God.
Speaker 2:Amen. Can I tell you something? When we allow the struggle to do what God wants, the struggle to do, we come out so much better than we. The struggle to do Come on. We come out so much better than we ever thought we would. Come on, but we have to be willing to. It goes back to trusting God.
Speaker 2:We talked about that part one. It goes back to trusting God. I have to trust him, even in my struggle. I have to trust him. Right, I have to trust him, trust him. I have to trust him because when I trust him then I can say no matter how this feels or looks, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I come out of this better than I was in.
Speaker 1:That's a moment Did you feel that God said that's it, leave it right there. I want you to take this moment to practice trusting God. Set your heart on him, set your mind on him, set your focus on him, set your love towards him. Gaze your eyes upon him, and right now in this moment, your trust is growing.
Speaker 1:The struggle is real again, but so is your help. So is your grace. Lord, thank you for this time that we've had. In Jesus name, amen. Please don't forget, go and support Daily Bread Podcast. Become a monthly subscriber. You can subscribe with $5 a month, $10 a month, $100 a month, whatever is on your heart, but we're looking for monthly partners and subscribers. Covenantgracechurchorg, you can go and give monthly. It'll go to this. You can put it in the memo to the podcast or you can go to dailybreadpodcastcom. It should get you there. God bless you. We'll talk to you next time and see you next time on Daily Bread Podcast with Dr Jarrell and Angela.
Speaker 1:Stone.
