Conquering What Ifs — Finding God’s Grace in the Present [24]

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: In this episode of Back to Rurality, rural pastor TJ Freeman delves into the paralyzing effect of 'what if' worries and the importance of embracing God's grace for today. Listeners are encouraged to focus on 'what is' and let go of future anxieties. 

Key Points:

• God's Presence: Matthew 6:24 and 2 Corinthians 12:9 show us that God is with us and he is actively caring for us. His grace is sufficient for us right in the moment we are at our weakest!
• God's Grace is for the 'What Is': We often harbor anxieties and fears over various 'What Ifs'. Whether our fears are about our careers or our families, we actually cause more trouble for today if our eyes are fixed on our future worries. We miss the grace God has for us in this moment. 

Listener Takeaways:

• Be in God's Word. Memorize it and it will work on your heart! When you are struggling with anxiety think through those memorized passages. 
• Ask yourself where you actually need God's grace right now? What do you really need? That allows you to focus on asking God for grace in what is actually troubling us in that moment. 
• Remember God's faithfulness over time. Look through Scripture and look back through your life and reflect on the times that God has shown his faithfulness to you.
  
  

Connect with Us:

• Website: backtorurality.com
• Social Media: Facebook

Transcript

Have you ever found yourself struggling or overwhelmed with the what ifs in life? What if I lose my job? What if this illness doesn't improve? What if my kids don't turn out like I hope? What if everything just falls apart? Questions like these have a tendency at times to paralyze us. Sometimes, By distracting us from everything going on in our lives.

Other times by really paralyzing us spiritually, leaving us stuck. You can be anxious and stressed and just kind of have this low level discomfort that lives with you. But what if you're missing out on the grace that God has for you right now by focusing too much on tomorrow?

In this episode, we'll talk about why God's grace is for what is. Not so much for what if. Well, hello, I am TJ Freeman and I am the host of this podcast. I am a rural pastor and I know firsthand how easy it is to get caught up in worrying about the future, especially when things start to feel A little out of control.

Today, we're going to dive into why we need to trust God for his grace moment by moment, rather than worrying about tomorrow's problems. And I've got some personal anecdotes because I'm pretty familiar with this struggle myself.

By the end of this episode, I'm praying that you'll be able to have your hope anchored firmly in God's grace moment by moment for today. What do you say we start with some scripture? That sounds like a good idea. Matthew chapter six. This is a passage I have gone to over and over and over again. In verse 34 of Matthew.

6, Jesus says, Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow. For tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day. Is its own trouble that might not sound so reassuring like you got enough trouble today that you don't need to worry about tomorrow The point is that today's issues Today's reality is what you actually need to live in light of not what you're worried about for tomorrow. That passage comes after a whole section starting in Matthew 6 25 where we're told not to be anxious, and in being told not to be anxious, we're compared to the birds, and we're compared to the lilies of the field.

Two things that are super temporary, no one would pay anything for them, and yet God takes care of them, and makes them beautiful. And the point is, how much more should we understand that God will take care of us, and even bring beauty to our lives you

So that's where the scriptures begin, with this idea that you don't need to worry about these things because God is with you, He loves you, and He's actually actively caring for you. Paul talks about something similar in 2 Corinthians 12. This is verse 9. The Lord says this to Paul when Paul is asking for some help with a weakness that he has been afflicted with.

Here's what the Lord says, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. So notice that Paul isn't talking about some future thing, you know, some provision of grace for tomorrow. When is the grace active? In the middle of Paul's weakness. God's power is made perfect in weakness, and in that moment, God's grace is sufficient.

And we begin to form our understanding around the fact that God is present with us, and whatever we're walking through in that moment, God's grace is sufficient for it. The problem comes in when we start worrying about things that are up ahead or may be up ahead. Outcomes, probabilities, sometimes just totally irrational fears.

We start to worry about these things and we're not in that moment. And God's grace for that potential circumstance isn't being realized because that circumstance isn't being realized. Today has enough trouble of its own and you're adding to it these worries about things that might be tomorrow. So here's what God's grace is sufficient for.

Helping you. Navigate the situation you're in, in the moment, in a way that is godly, that is good, that will produce the kind of outcome that you desire, which, by the way, is not necessarily perfect circumstances, but contentment. and peace, and joy, and abiding sense of God's presence growing as a result of the things that the Lord leads you through in a way that you actually desire.

God is going to use all of these things for good. You need to trust that. And then, when you start to worry about the future, you're worried about what if. So there isn't, like, a well of grace for the what if. that we see from scripture. The well of grace is for the what if. The only way that God's grace applies to the what if is when you turn your anxieties over to him and say, I'm not going to worry about the things that come tomorrow.

Hey, there's a principle I think that we could go to even in the Old Testament that is right along these lines. Do you remember in the Exodus when the Israelites are out in the desert and they're like, we got no food, we got no jobs, You know, that whole scene and God provides food for them miraculously.

You remember what it's called? It's called manna, which means what is it? They went out, the ground's covered in this frosty looking stuff, frosted flakes, and they go, what is it? That's what the stuff gets named. It's manna. It's God's provision for them daily. Here's the kicker about manna. If they stored the manna, overnight in hopes of having fresh manna in the morning, you know, fry up a little manna cake.

That manna overnight had turned rotten. Why? Because God provides each day exactly what his people need, and that was the lesson for them. Now on the Sabbath, they couldn't go out and collect manna, and guess what happened? The mana that they went out and collected and kept overnight so that they didn't have to go collect on the sabbath That mana didn't spoil, but if they would have saved some that night after the sabbath for the next day God is teaching his people to understand I really will provide exactly what you need even as circumstances change a little bit.

God's grace is for what is, not for what if. I really needed to learn this when I was in college. Listen, let's be honest. I've needed to learn this over and over and over again. This is a habitual struggle that I have had that I keep trying to turn over to the Lord. And with his help. I've seen a lot of growth in this area over time.

The struggle is real, but God's help is, is more real and more important.

This came to a head for me when I was in college and I completely bombed a final in microeconomics. Now, I didn't bomb it because I didn't know the information, or because I did poorly on the test. I didn't even take the test. I didn't even remember that I had a class with a test that needed to be taken.

Why? Well, because it was the end of the semester. And my parents were driving out to pick me up at college to bring me home for break. And I was worried about them driving. And here's why when I was in high school, I never used to worry about stuff like that. And I, I had some friends who were really, really late for an event.

And I was like, guys, relax. They're fine. Well, when they got there, they were both red faced from crying. And it turns out a drunk driver had almost taken him out. He had Hit the car behind them, spun around them, and hit the car in front of them, and there was a fatality. And they were almost the fatality.

That got under my skin. That began to work on me. Because I realized, I thought, We were invincible. You know, you're teenagers. Of course you're invincible. And then this car accident happens, and although my friends walked away unscathed, it almost got them, and it really could have, and they witnessed a fatality.

That just worked on me, and I started to get nervous when I would hear ambulance sirens. Start praying for everyone in my family that they would be okay. I got really worried about driving. And when my parents were driving 500 miles to come pick me up at school and I was supposed to be taking a final, I was so worked up that I missed the class.

Now, let me tell you about my sweet professor. He, in an act of kindness, called me and said, you need to come take your final. I noticed you weren't here. He let me take it. And when I was done, he even hugged me. What a guy. And that moment revealed to me that I had some idols in my heart, and that's what was causing me to worry.

I was not worrying about what is, I was worrying about what if, because I wanted my family to be safe. That's not an idol.

Wanting your family to be safe is not an idol. But failing to trust the Lord to do it, is I'm thinking, you know, all these other vehicles out there, they're out of control. I'm forgetting the fact that there's a sovereign God who is able to keep my family safe, who also has the right, should he choose, to allow An accident to happen and if it did he would give everyone involved the grace to walk through it moment by moment So I need not worry.

I mean truly there is no reason to worry about that at all It reveals this idol in my heart of not wanting to have to go through discomfort and and potentially Trusting in the wisdom of men instead of the wisdom of god the power of men instead of the power of god To keep my family safe. So that experience really taught me this valuable lesson that when we worry about things that haven't happened yet, we actually cause more trouble today and we miss God's grace for the moment that we're actually in. So if you're struggling with that, it might help you to think through some practical tools.

Number one, you need to be in God's word. You need to be memorizing passages of scripture like Matthew 6, 25 to the end. I think that would really help you. It's been such a rich blessing in me. And the amazing thing about scripture is that it's alive and powerful and active. It will work on you.

So when you start to feel that anxiety, just start to think through those scriptures. And then here are three things that you can, you can do as you, as you do that. One, pray for God's grace. In that moment, instead of worrying about tomorrow, ask for God's help. Ask him to get you through the moment you're actually in.

Even if that's like fighting anxiety. Lord, would you help me? Would you give me the grace not to get anxious in this moment? Or, Lord, I've gotten so anxious, I think if I tested my blood pressure right now, it would blow up the machine. Would you bring me back down to reality here? God can do those things.

He's willing to do those things, and you need to rely on Him, and trust that He's giving you all the grace that you need. The second thing is asking yourself, what are the actual needs that I have right now? Where do I actually need God's grace? My family, in my scenario, hadn't died in a fiery car crash.

So I didn't need God's grace to help me get through that. What I needed was God's grace to go take a final, to be faithful for the things that he had called me to, to be a good steward of the finances that I had invested in taking those classes, to demonstrate the knowledge that I had learned. I needed that kind of grace.

And, yeah, I can pray for my parents to have safe travels, and should. The grace that I need from the Lord is to do the kind of work He'd called me to that moment. And because I was worried about tomorrow, I was focused on the wrong needs. I was worried about a what if instead of a what is. I think the last thing that you could do that would really help you is to remember God's faithfulness over time.

I know because the Bible says God works all things together for good, for those who love Him, that you have some evidence in your life of God's kindness. God's grace reflect on that praise him for it. Look at God's track record in scripture You'll find zero instances where God was not faithful to provide for his people.

He's just done that over and over and over on repeat. Sometimes he even allows circumstances to get especially dire so that we're reminded that we must depend on him and he will deliver us. So trust God's track record, trust what he's doing in the moment, even if it looks really bad, and just pray, as I mentioned, for his grace.

Look at the needs you actually have today. Trust his track record. Well, today we've talked about what it means to trust God for His grace in the moment of what is, not getting worked up about the what if. Remember that worrying about your future won't actually change it. Even worrying about today won't change it.

The anxiousness we feel is not useful with one exception. And that exception is that it's meant to point us to Christ. And when your anxiety points you to the Lord, take the steps I mentioned, pray, identify what you need the grace for, just think about what you actually need the grace for, and then trust God, who has a proven track record, and all of that comes under the umbrella of applying His word to the moment.

I hope this has been useful for you. Hey, this podcast is sponsored by the Brainerd Institute for Rural Ministry.

We help equip the saints to faithfully demonstrate the glory of God in rural places, because we believe that God wants the whole earth to be filled with his glory, and that includes the middle of nowhere. That's why a podcast like this is worth investing in. And as you work out your salvation with fear and trembling, trusting the Lord in the middle of nowhere, I hope that this resource is a blessing for you.

You can go over to brainerdinstitute.com if you'd like to learn more. And we'd love it if you'd sign up for the mail list there, just so you can stay in the loop on some of the things that God is doing in rural places, just like the town that you live in. For now, though. What do you say we get back to life, back to Rurality?