What's the Point?
What's the Point?
Gotta Risk it for the Biscuit
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Ever wonder why you struggle to act on what you know is right? Join us for an insightful episode, as we uncover the psychological barriers that prevent us from taking action. We dive deep into the fears, comfort zones, and distractions that hold us back from personal and spiritual growth. This episode promises not just to entertain but to inspire you to take action and close the knowing-doing gap in your life!
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Intro to Episode
Speaker 1Hello everybody and welcome to what's the point podcast, where we discuss the word in a relatable way that leads to life and culture change. And I just blew everybody's ears out on the microphone, I just came in.
Speaker 3I came in hot. It's been a Welcome back.
Speaker 1I am really excited to be here. I don't know if you guys can tell I'm talking a little louder. Welcome back, trev. It's fun to be back. Before we started, we were talking about Danielle and her voice and I wondered who's got the best Danielle impersonation.
Speaker 3I think it's you. Yeah, I think you got that one.
Speaker 6I think you got that one. All right, here we go.
Speaker 1We're going to do this little fun little thing real quick. All right, danielle, say this phrase right after me Rubber baby, buggy bumpers.
Speaker 5Rubber baby bumpers. I don't know what that is.
Speaker 1Rubber baby bumpers. How?
Speaker 6was that guys? That was pretty good, that was good. Good job, rubber baby, buggy, bum Dude it got me too.
Speaker 1I was like rehearsing in my head. I was like I got this, I got this, I need to see it visually. Yeah, oh man, maybe the speech pathologist Corey can help us say that faster.
Speaker 3Yeah, she has to slow it down and pace herself. Why don't you do some visual aids? Rubber baby buggy bum Not speeding up cheating.
Speaker 1She had a whole class in college of those types of things.
Speaker 3Absolutely Just a room full of rubber babies. I can tell you where to place your tongue. Start your sound. Are you ready?
Reasons For Inaction
Speaker 1Oh, man, enough fun, enough fun, let's go ahead and jump right in. The first question we have is so the knowing-doing gap is knowing what to do, but struggling to turn knowledge into action. So what factors contribute to this knowing-doing gap in our lives?
Speaker 5Well, I have a few things that I think contribute to that gap in my life and I won't go into like super detail, but probably fear of the unknown would be one. When I just have knowledge of something, I have the perfect expectation of how I think it should work or turn out. But when the knowledge is put into action in reality, a different outcome could take place and it could really be harder to obtain than I think.
Speaker 3I know. Another one for me is just sometimes lack of motivation and laziness. I want change, but I don't want to put in the work.
Speaker 6Especially in today's culture, we get so caught up in entertainment and everything else that we find value in, especially when God's calling us to deeper places in the kingdom of God or to a higher level. Personally, that doesn't seem fun, because usually change requires work and work's not always fun. And in today's culture when we're so, it's so fast paced and there's so much hitting us a constant entertainment everywhere we look, without even trying, we're entertained. And when when God's trying to call us to deeper and he's trying to get us to put in the work, it can be hard to be motivated sometime. And that that it shouldn't be and he's trying to get us to put in the work, it can be hard to be motivated sometimes, and it shouldn't be that way, but it is. We're all selfish by nature and if we're not careful we'll be motivated toward the wrong things or unmotivated toward the right things, and sometimes we have to put ourselves in check, pay attention to that.
Speaker 4That's good.
Speaker 5Yeah, I think that can be like you're comfortable where you're at, and action requires thought and change because we can't do what we've always done anymore. If we want to do the action to change.
Speaker 6Yeah, pastor Jared, you had something. No, go ahead. That's kind of the fear of the unknown, trying to figure everything out before you take action before you. You want all the details before you step into trying to make change. And ultimately, I think that boils down to we want control and and when we can. When we don't have control, we don't like it.
Speaker 6Control is comfortable and the moment we lose control we get uncomfortable and it is a fear of the unknown and it we't want to be there, yeah, and so that definitely puts us in that um, knowing doing get I think another area is the what's.
Speaker 4What's the fight? Flight or freeze?
Speaker 6fight or flight fight, flight or freeze that's what they say in Vernon Paris.
Speaker 1The all-powerful. They added freeze sometime in 2020. We just didn't know.
Speaker 5Fight flight or freeze? Please tell us about freeze. Go ahead.
Speaker 4Well, fight is you get angry and you kind of just want to fight right, Flight, is you want to run away from it? Freeze is what you just said paralysis.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 4I call it from Vernon Parrish Trevor. I call it deer in the headlight, look Right. You just kind of freeze and you don't know what to do, and I think a lot of times that with fear it it, it captures it and it's like, oh, we don't know what to do or we run away from it.
Speaker 6Yeah.
Speaker 4Anyway, that's makes a lot of sense. I from it, yeah.
Speaker 6But anyway, that's Makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 4I like it.
Speaker 6Fight, fight, freeze.
Speaker 5Another one could be fear of failure. I struggle with that. I want to be really good at whatever I'm going to start, but to be good at anything you've got to fail a few times yeah.
Speaker 1It is the best teacher. Yeah, it is.
Speaker 6But I mean, there's your pride at stake and there's, you know, a list of things that yeah, I was. I was gonna say and you mentioned it pride. I was gonna say, when it comes to to that in my life, I think, ultimately, when I'm locked away by by what you just said, it's because of pride, it's. I don't want people to see me in a negative light, I don't want people to see the failure, I don't want them to see the mistake, and so it's hard to step out when you're worried about your image and, and you know, when you're not secure in who you are. But there's no reward without risk.
Speaker 5Yep.
Speaker 6And we have to be willing to take that risk.
Speaker 1Well, it's also hard to see to to not see other people as perfect.
Speaker 3You know, it's?
Speaker 1it's like that because we think, oh my God, they have such a perfect lifestyle on Instagram. Their life looks great, you know. And then we live with us. Every day, we see the behind the scenes on us, and so we think that we have to measure up to the perfectness that we see. But it's probably not perfect, you know, nobody's perfect.
Speaker 3Yeah Right. And we all have naysayers in our life, and so one of the worst phrases to hear is oh, I knew that wasn't going to work, or I told you so. And so sometimes I find myself not taking a risk that I know I'm being prompted to, because I just don't want to have to defend and it plays into that. I don't want to fail, I don't want to have to deal with the pride factor, or I have an unrealistic expectation about. Just keep planning, I'll make the perfect plan and then I won't have to deal with possible failure.
Speaker 3But you have to be willing to just jump off the cliff sometimes and yeah be okay with someone saying I told you so to and it also might it also might reveal that you can't do it by yourself.
Speaker 5You will need help, you know you will need to reach out to an expert?
Speaker 2yeah, and we don't like that, we like to do it alone.
Speaker 6It's true. Sometimes for me it's the launching point itself.
Speaker 2The starting point.
Speaker 6Yeah, it's like you look around and you know where you're supposed to be, or at least you have some kind of general idea of where you're supposed to be, what you're supposed to be doing for God, what he's calling you toward. But you look at where you are in that moment and it's almost intimidating sometimes. And sometimes the launching point itself can keep you locked in. But you have to start somewhere. I mean, we all have to start somewhere. And I read a quote the other day that said your present circumstance doesn't determine where you can go, it only determines where you must begin. And I just thought that was so good. Like we use our launching point or we use that point of where we're at today as the reason why we shouldn't, we are, we can't or we're inadequate. And this quote just was a solid reminder that it shouldn't control where we're going, it should just control where we're starting. And we have to start somewhere, even if it's small. But let's just get started.
Speaker 1Awesome. Is that a tag in for our new podcast? Launching Point no Coming next February. Launching Point.
Speaker 4I think another one is perfection is the enemy of action. Somebody sent that to me the other day. We have that. We want it to be perfect before we do anything, and then it's that perfection mindset keeps us from moving even a little bit forward.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's, that's so true because if it's, if it's perfect, you don't get to to see the, to witness the progress.
Speaker 4Yeah, right, that perfection robs you, so you just stay put. Yeah, well, if I can't do it all, I'm not it nothing.
Speaker 5Yeah, I read a book one time it was called Present Over Perfect and it helps you live in the moment instead of always trying or not doing something because it's not going to be perfect. So it's really good. I actually need to. It's one of my favorite books. I need to read it again. But I did want to mention that the knowing-doing gap that's a new term on it. But I want to mention that the knowing doing gap it like that's a new term on it, but I think that the bible brought it up in james like the principle is from the bible james 1 22, but don't just listen to god's word yeah you must do what it says, otherwise you're only fooling yourselves yeah, so well, that's, yeah, that's 22 so.
Importance of Spiritual Vulnerability
Speaker 1So Sunday Pastor Jared said taking action to do what we have planned takes vulnerability. If we're just talking about it, there's no risk of failure. So why is it necessary to be that we be spiritually vulnerable?
Speaker 3I think that this culture in the world teaches us to hide our flaws and to keep it all inside and to fix it yourself and to present your best self to the world. And so social media and just the way culture is really propels us to and you said it earlier, trevor to appear perfect and to see everyone else's perfect world. And I think it just becomes a mechanism of kind of protection of I'll just keep all the dirty things inside and I'll protect that and I won't share it. And I find myself doing that with God, because it's just easier to give them the parts I think are good than to really open up and be vulnerable that hey, this is broken and I need a savior. And I don't think you can really begin to grow in God until you're willing to be real with him.
Speaker 3And I struggle with it sometimes still, it's hard to get there and say, look, I'm ugly and I'm mean and I'm grumpy, and I'm this and I'm lazy and just like I'm sorry, jonathan said amen over there.
Speaker 1I'm also violent when my husband's saying amen, you had a witness over there.
Speaker 3It's hard to be real with God sometimes because I just want to like justify everything away and I want to keep that little part hidden, but that's exactly what God requires is honesty, right To be open before him he knows us anyway, right, but he wants us to be open and honest he already knows.
Speaker 1He already knows. Yeah, he's just waiting for you to acknowledge. It's almost like the security authorization that God's waiting on.
Speaker 4He's like uh, yeah, I think someone mentioned in the last question, but I think really the root of the issues is pride. It's our pride, it's our prideful nature, right, that we don't want to be open and honest and we don't want to put ourselves out there, because what will other people think? Yeah, what they might say how they're going to look at us yeah, I think vulnerability and connection are very closely related.
Speaker 6You can't truly have connection unless you're willing to be vulnerable. It's so true and even in our relationships with each other. If we're not willing to be vulnerable, you're not going to get close, there's going to be no intimacy. How much more is it that way with God, like if we're not willing to take a risk and be vulnerable with God? He knows it all anyway, you already said that but he wants us.
Speaker 6I think sometimes what the Bible says, confession is good for the soul, I think sometimes that part of it is us God listening as we pour ourself. He knows, but when we begin to pour ourself out, it opens a space for him to inhabit and he can't inhabit that space if you're not willing to pour yourself out. I think it's part of intimacy and we've got to be willing to do it. I haven't thought about saying this, I just thought about it now. I think, especially in Christian culture today, this is such a huge topic, especially for men, because we've been taught men are supposed to be tough and we're supposed to be rigid and we're not supposed to be emotional, and I wonder sometimes if that's why men have a hard time really getting connected to God in a deep and intimate way, because we're not willing to kind of take the mask off and step into a deeper Feeling space where we're all up in our fields and our emotions and we're just letting it go and letting God replace it.
Speaker 5I do wonder that sometime yeah, I think vulnerability doesn't always mean you have to be emotional, but I think it causes emotion because it's something close to your heart. It's like something that really means something.
Speaker 3That's why.
Speaker 5God wants it and I believe he wants it because really, that's ultimately how we can be set free, that's how we can be blessed and that's why it's necessary.
Speaker 1It's like acupuncture for the soul there you go.
Speaker 4Perfect.
Speaker 6Yeah, I'm glad you said that, Danielle, because I don't want this image that I think all men are supposed to be walking around snotting and boohooing and crying all the time. That's not what I mean.
Speaker 6But yeah, men should be men, definitely. So I'm glad you clarify that. What I'm saying is that men should be willing to to unravel their feelings and and let god know, and I'll even say let their spouse know, and and those that are close to them. I mean you don't have to be the tough guy who feels nothing all the time, like it's okay to let people know that are close to you. I'm broken, I'm miserable, I'm, I'm. I'm not what others think. I am like. I need healing, just like you. You know what.
Speaker 6I'm saying Sometimes you need to take the mask off if you're going to grow and going to heal. And men struggle with that, and women do too, but men I feel like men really struggle with that.
Speaker 3Yeah, absolutely. I read this week on an article this phrase, I mean this sentence, and it stuck with me I can't make room for God can, if I won't ever say I can't. Wow, and it's, it's really, I mean. The Bible says his strength has made perfect in our weakness and so until I will open up and reveal that weakness, he's never going to come in and make himself strong yeah in my life, so that stuck with me yeah, that's very good.
Speaker 6It's always at the end of myself that I feel like God shows up the strongest.
Speaker 3That's the truth, so why do we resist?
Speaker 5It's like a cycle. We start over every day.
Speaker 3It's true.
Speaker 5The nature of humanity.
Speaker 3God can do it, I can do it, I can do it. Oh, never mind, I mess everything up.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5it's like god's over there saying hey, watch me do it, but you gotta, let me first watch me do it, you gotta back off.
Speaker 6Yeah, watch me do it bro it's like as a parent, you realize the truth is that growth requires risk. You see your kids developing and growing and if, if you're a good parent, there's this balance you have to find between letting them explore their own feelings and their own physical limitations. Your kid gets up to ride a bike for the first time and there's a chance he's going to fall and scrape his knee. You know that going into it, but you still encourage him to do it. You still let him do it because and Myron's smiling why are you smiling?
Speaker 4Because I just had one break an arm. I'm not going to tell him to get back on the truck, please don't. I'm joking, but you're right yeah.
Speaker 6And Pastor Jared said there's no risk. You're never going to get anywhere if there's no risk involved. And I think that's so true is sometimes and I think God sometimes, as the loving father, looks down at us like the little kid on the bike and he's like come on, you can do this. And we're so afraid. But if we're going to grow in him and if we're going to do great things for him, we're going to have to be willing to take risks.
Speaker 1You've got to risk it for the biscuit, yeah.
Speaker 4Got it Well put.
Speaker 1So, wise.
Speaker 6And, if you think about it, we're. We're afraid of failure, but doesn't failure. Isn't that what?
Speaker 4connects others to us in a in a more real way.
Speaker 6Yeah, like doesn't god show up? You mentioned it, cory god shows up in our imperfections. I think sometimes, as christians, we try to be witnesses, but we try to be way too perfect in our witness, and and sinners, who are far from god and don't know him, look at us and say, well, I could never be like they are.
Speaker 1In reality, it's not a witness without imperfection.
Speaker 6Yeah, I was going to say, in reality we're probably not that far apart, except for the grace of God, and I think people need to see that. If God shows up in our weaknesses and that's where he's seen the most, then it just makes sense to me that weakness is what others should be allowed to see, if that's where they can see him the most. If they can see me overcoming my struggles, then maybe someone with the same struggles can find hope that they can overcome theirs, and I think that's why our testimony is so important.
Speaker 3All right and I really I feel like God has really propelled me in the last year or two to be more willing to share a testimony and we like to share a testimony of you know, god saved me and everything was great. But sometimes the testimony was you see someone in life and they're in the middle of a season you were in and it was your worst season or a really bad one, and you don't want to drag up the old feelings or the old memories or the old failures. But God's really propelled me in the last year or so to just say, hey, I've been there and I was terrible at the season. I messed up the whole time, I was scared, I was mad at God, I was, you know just that realness of but he was so faithful even though I was barely making it.
Speaker 3I think that speaks to someone, because I needed someone to tell me that one day that you're going to mess up a thousand more times, and it's okay because the journey keeps going and he keeps carrying you and there's faithfulness. So be willing to share the good testimonies, the bad, the awful moments. God's been pushing me. Example of that in the Bible I think Apostle Paul.
Speaker 4He really put his weaknesses out there.
Speaker 6Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 3His past.
Speaker 4He's always sharing his testimony, sharing the bad things that he did, but he also shared the grace of God and the mercy of God. His grace is sufficient. And how he prayed three times for the thorn to be removed.
Speaker 6Yeah.
Speaker 4But it was that like you said Corey. It's that openness and sharing that testimony that he's seen God do mighty things.
Speaker 1Well, the only way people could see the contrast is by him being risky and getting out there and being somebody totally different, with probably people saying dude, that's not you.
Speaker 3Right, it's true. Or seeing your humanity. It's really easy to share the miracles. God healed me, he answered this prayer, but it's a lot harder to share the miracles.
Speaker 5God healed me, he answered this prayer, but it's a lot harder to show the dirtiness and say it's a perception of once god gets a hold of you, it's, it's great, it's perfect yeah, you know like we have that for some reason.
Speaker 3Yeah but that's not the reality no, it's not, and the raw thing is that we're all still humans.
Speaker 4Oh yeah, and I think the secret is we talk about miracles a lot and we we share just the yeah the the top of it right, we don't get into the details, but if you look at most miracles. Most miracles are ugly. If you need a miracle, that means you probably had a problem right, let's be honest right.
Speaker 4Lazarus was dead and he was stinking right. So it was a miracle that happened, but look at before that, you know. So I think being open with that prior to the miracle, like you said, is really key to our testimony.
Speaker 6Yeah, and just to put it in perspective, kind of bringing it full back around to what we said earlier, but it not only doesn't mean you had a problem. If you need a miracle, it means you had a problem that you couldn't fix, right.
Speaker 4You needed a God, we needed a Savior. That's right.
Speaker 6You had to come to the end of yourself. It was something you couldn't do on your own but, God always shows up in that, and that's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 4Yes it is Very beautiful.
Speaker 6It draws you closer to God. I have a question based off of this. So we're talking about vulnerability. I want to know how y'all say that over in Vernon Parish, Myra Hold up, I'm going to help.
Speaker 3There you go.
Speaker 4With friends like you.
Speaker 5He has a visual aid.
Speaker 2How do you say? It in Vernon Parish.
Speaker 1Vulnerability. Not bad, missing a couple letters, but that's fine.
Speaker 6He shortens it up. It was better than the way you said it earlier. Try it one more time, nope.
Speaker 3I think we should all say it like that for the rest of the podcast. I like it.
Speaker 1It's actually shorter, it's actually more simple.
Speaker 4See, I'm being transparent with my week.
Speaker 6That's right. You're going to bless someone today with that.
Speaker 4I'm being open. Oh man, Very vulnerable.
Speaker 5Somebody listening can relate. Yeah, oh, surely From Vernon Parish, hi Mom.
Speaker 4Yeah, I was like hi, Mom Call all the Leesville folks.
Procrastination vs Waiting on God's Timing
Speaker 1Ask them how they say it. Be careful you might get a yeehaw at the end of that, so watch it. How can I know whether I'm procrastinating or genuinely waiting on God's timing before acting in faith? That's a good one For me it's Let that one sink in.
Speaker 3Yeah for me it's.
Speaker 4It hurts. I'm reminded the Bible mentions it many times throughout the Old and New Testament about the farmer. And when you look at the law of the farmer, I guess we can put it that way he tills the land right and he prepares the land, he tills it, he gets the soil ready, but then he sows the seed. But there comes a point in that process that he has to stop and he has to wait for the rain and he has to wait for God to produce the fruit. And I think for us it applies that same way.
Speaker 4I think we do everything that we're supposed to do and we know that we can do, and we sow the right places. I think then we can stand and stand still and watch God do the miracles. We can't produce a miracle, we can't produce a fruit Right, but we can pause and we can do everything that we're supposed to do and then stand and then stand in peace and in faith that God's going to step in and take over from that point forward. But a lot of times we sit on the porch and we want the harvest but we don't want to sow the seed.
Speaker 1Can I get my sweet tea?
Speaker 6That's the person on the porch, or are you asking someone?
Speaker 3to bring it no, no, a little bit of both.
Speaker 6I'm a little.
Speaker 3If we're going to be honest.
Speaker 1That came from nowhere.
Speaker 6Myron looked like what you really want sweet tea. He'd like some green Skittles too, while you're at it.
Speaker 1Spiritually, I might be saying that Give me my sweet tea.
Speaker 5Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1Yeah, I'm done. Sorry, I didn't mean to wreck it.
Speaker 4In that season of waiting, though, god gives the increase, and we have to know that we've done everything that we're supposed to do, and I think a lot of times we don't, we get lazy. We can put it that way and we're supposed to do, and I think a lot of times we don't. We, we get lazy, we can put it that way and we're like, ah, god do it, god do it.
Speaker 5And he's like well, sow the seed and I'll grow it yeah yeah, I've heard it preached before that preparation's the highest level of faith. So um, and then I would say procrastination's doing nothing. So if you feel like you're doing nothing, then it's procrastinating.
Speaker 3So yeah, I think my procrastination in the spiritual world mirrors my procrastination in the physical world. I'm a master procrastinator and I'm not doing nothing. I'm doing every busy job in the world to not do the one that I really don't want to do. That I know I need to do. I do that too, but I think the thing that divides it out for me is, if I'm procrastinating, it doesn't matter how busy I'm making myself. I'm still so anxious because I know I'm supposed to be doing something else but I'm not. It doesn't give you peace, and it's different when God's like you can work in the waiting, but you need to wait in this area because you're right. There's peace because he's doing the work and I'm just following. But when he's telling me to do it and I don't, I feel like a kid who didn't fold the clothes and my parents are coming for me.
Speaker 6You still have that same anxiety.
Speaker 3But no, I'm supposed to be doing something else and I do it all the time still, and I think it goes back to what Myron was saying earlier.
Speaker 6In those situations it goes back to these we wait for the moment that we feel like we have everything perfect before we step out and do something, and unfortunately, that causes a couple of problems.
Speaker 6It causes a problem because seldom are we going to get to a place where everything's perfect, right.
Speaker 6And it also causes a problem because I think when we're looking for perfection in order to step out and do what God's calling us to do, that means we're putting the emphasis on our gifts, our talents and our abilities and we're taking the emphasis off of God, and God doesn't want to share the glory.
Speaker 6Most of the time, god doesn't call us to things that we're just able to master and do on our own. He calls us to things that's too big for us, that we have to depend on Him and rely on Him for. And if we're not willing to step out in faith which is kind of what this message was all about if we're not willing to step out and risk it all because we know that he's going to have our back, because he's calling us toward it, then we're never going to see those big things that we're looking for. Perfection is so not within our grasp. Without his spirit and without, one day, him calling us home, we need to forget the idea of perfection and just understand. Start doing. I love what you said a while ago, danielle preparation is.
Speaker 5The highest level. Yeah, that's really good. Really good. Yeah, I have like something.
Speaker 5Maybe this will be like a touchy subject but some people think that their waiting is just praying, so like, but then if, if, god, I don't know, how do you know that praying isn't? Praying is always enough, but how do you know you're supposed to do, how do you know when you're supposed to do something other than just pray? Does that make sense? Like you're actually required to do the practical part of it? Yeah, that makes sense. So you can't pray for a new job and not put applications out?
Speaker 5You can't pray for a healing but not do the physical therapy that you need to do or go have surgery. I mean, god can just completely heal it, but anyways, we can go on and on. Does that make sense? I think something else is up there.
Speaker 3You have to make a move and no, you don't just go out there and start something new every day, all day, every day, just because you're not fed and you're not controlled. But if you're sitting there doing nothing, it's sitting on the porch asking for your sweet tea. You're not going to make money if you never work. And so it's the same thing, Like you're not going to have a blessing if you never step out of your little comfort bubble and do anything.
Speaker 3And so I think there's a happy medium and I think God's so gracious that and I think Pastor Joe had actually preached about it one time that if God is telling you to do something, you can't quite figure out what, Start doing something and He'll direct that something into what, and you may take two steps the wrong direction and get redirected, but you can't be redirected until you start moving, and if you're just sitting there, well, he's still waiting on you and he's not going to steer you.
Speaker 3So I do think there's a lot of good value in thinking about that in our lives.
Speaker 4I've experienced that in my life. Danielle and I had someone call me and give me a word, and the word was the man's house was flooding and he's on the roof right.
Speaker 3You probably heard it.
Speaker 4And then he's praying for deliverance God save me. And a boat comes by, god's going to save me. The helicopter comes by, god's going to save me. So I think we stay in that moment of wrong expectations, right, sometimes we pray and we want it a certain way, but God's saying, hey, here's your way out, here's your way, here's the miracle. You just got to get on the boat or you got to take the helicopter. What I present to you, I think so many times we just kind of it's easier to pray.
Speaker 3It is Than it is to take action. It's easier to talk about it. The other 11, stayed in the boat right Than 11 stayed in the boat right To do it, Absolutely it took a lot of courage for Simon Peter to step out, take that first step.
Speaker 4Oh, it did, yeah, and he still failed.
Speaker 3Right, that's right, and God still used it Exactly and God saved him.
Speaker 4That's right.
Speaker 6And since we're talking about prayer, I find almost from a different, from an opposite perspective, but I'm agreeing with what you're saying. So don't take this wrong at all but I find in my own life that a lot of times when I'm stuck in a moment of indecision something that I don't want to do, and my motives for the indecision that's one thing I would say is examine your motives for your indecision. If you can honestly say I'm not acting and doing what I'm supposed to because I'm afraid, it's not because I'm lazy, it's not because I'm indifferent, if it's none of those like big negative reasons, if that's not why you're acting, then maybe your motives are good. But if you say you know what I'm not acting and it's probably because I'm afraid, then that's an impure motive. So that can help you decide if it's really a God thing or if it's true procrastination.
Speaker 6But when it comes to prayer, I find in my own life that a lot of times when I'm stuck in a moment of indecision and it's because I'm afraid and I have one of these negative emotions, I'm not really praying about it. I'm praying, but I'm not praying about a real answer. I'm praying God, help me through this. God give me strength. God, help me through this. God, give me strength. God, clear my mind. God, make a way.
Speaker 1God but I'm not You're hyping yourself up to make the big jump.
Speaker 6Yeah, and it's not like God. What do I need to be doing here? God give me clarity on the path and I'll take it, because it's a path I don't want to take, and so I'm praying, but I'm praying to avoid instead of praying to embrace, and I think there's a huge difference there.
Speaker 3That's really good. Sometimes I feel like I'm praying, because I'm trying to change God's mind.
Speaker 2But somewhere in there.
Speaker 3I know that he's pushing this way, but I'm like I just keep convincing him. I'm great, he's going to see it my way and then what I'm asking for is going to happen, instead of he's telling me why it's not, and he's telling me why it's not, and he's showing me there's another door, but I won't even see it. I can't even have the knowing doing gap because I won't listen to know what he wants me to do.
Speaker 1I think Jesus might be the greatest example of this. In the garden, he was doing the same thing. He's like dude, please let this pass for me. But if it's, your will do it, and he made that jump, so if he did it, you can do it.
Speaker 6See, that's an example of a good type of prayer. If I would have been in the garden, I would have been praying everything but that.
Speaker 3I don't want to do this God.
Speaker 6Surely this can't be your will, oh Lord, surely you don't want me to. Isn't that how we pray sometimes? But he prayed the good prayer of God. I don't want to do it, but very good, I like it.
Speaker 4But, to put a personality twist on it, I think some personalities are going to struggle in one way and others are going to struggle in the other, like some that are just go-getters ah, let's go. They're going to have to check back and say, okay, I've done all.
Speaker 1I've got to wait on the Lord. People are so annoying Right.
Speaker 4And then there's others that's like, oh, I'm not going to do nothing, but they got to get the lead out and go do something right. So it's the two, and some of us swing from one pendulum to the other and I still don't even know what my personality is. Because sometimes I'm a beast and sometimes I'm an instant and I'm just. I'm speaking from experience.
Speaker 6Hurry up, slow down. Hurry up, slow down, it is.
Speaker 3Conquering the world. In the world, we're gonna just pray about it. I need a chill day today. Today is a recovery day.
Speaker 6We're not gonna step out in faith today so one more that I think we have to mention is we talked about examine your motives. I would also say, examine the fruit of your, your, your, procrastination. If, if your procrastination is only causing you to be more afraid or more depressed or more downcast, then it's probably not a God thing. You're not waiting on God. You're messed up somewhere along the way. If your procrastination is somehow helping you grow and helping you develop not your procrastination. If you're waiting is helping you grow, helping you develop, helping you get closer to God, then you're probably waiting on him. I think, examine the fruit of it.
Speaker 4Yeah, your roots are growing deep right into him.
Speaker 6That's good yeah so look at the fruit.
Creating a Lifestyle of Action
Speaker 1Look at the fruit, look at the fruit, love it. All right, so let's move on to our last question here. What can I do to cultivate a lifestyle that prioritizes action over planning in my spiritual walk?
Speaker 6Yeah, that one's a big one for me. I think, first and foremost, stop judging others by their actions and myself by my intentions. I know that's a big one. In my own life, I look at everybody else and I judge them according to what they're doing, but when it comes to my own self, because I intend to do it, it doesn't matter whether I'm actually doing it or not.
Speaker 6I think, I'm good because I intend to, and I fully do intend to. My intentions are good, but I can intend to pray every day for a week and pray once or twice, and my intentions didn't get me closer to God. I can intend to do good for the poor and never lend a hand to anybody. My intentions didn't do anything and I think a lot if we'd be honest. We live looking at ourselves through the lens of intentions and if we can learn to judge ourselves the way we judge others and maybe we shouldn't judge others. But I'm just saying I think it'd be a healthy exercise to look at yourself.
Speaker 1Just inevitable, I think.
Speaker 6But look at yourself the way you look at others, and are you measuring up to the same scale? Probably not.
Speaker 3That's good.
Speaker 1Ouch.
Speaker 3I say also to eliminate excuses, because I'm the master of excuses and I can make every excuse in the world why I could just wait a little longer before I make those changes.
Speaker 1The procrastinators are the best negotiators.
Speaker 3I am, I can. When there's a hostage situation, they just ask the crowd who's a procrastinator.
Speaker 1It's true, stretch it out.
Speaker 4I was listening to Greg Creshell and he was talking about this, talking about habits and then how you work that into your life. And for him he said, to get started he would do one thing a year. He'd take one step a year, add one thing. Over time he would begin to accumulate. He mastered that one. I know I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it for the full year. The next year he's like oh, I got this mastered. The next year he added something else to that. So it's taking that action and kind of breaking it.
Speaker 4He made a plan and then acted upon it. Playing the long game. Yeah, Sometimes you have to do that. I mean, sometimes it's you gotta, you gotta take some baby steps.
Speaker 5I think it's important because I think sometimes when people want to change, like at new years or whatever, they have all these resolutions it's at new years or whatever they have all these resolutions, it's just it's really unlikely that you're gonna do the 10 things perfectly that you put on your list? Yeah, why not just every for 10 years? Conquer one thing at a time, yeah, and be more perfect at it, because I actually wrote down that we should make a list and put the things make it current like what do you feel god wants you to do?
Speaker 5and then, what are you actually doing?
Speaker 4yeah and focus on one thing at a time to make your list of action bigger that's right yeah, so I got an email that I received an email this morning in my inbox and it was most people tell themselves that if they felt better, they'd do the thing when it's actually doing the thing that makes you feel better, that's good. So to me it's like hitting me between the eyes, because you look at all the things that you know you should do, but you don't feel like it. If I just felt like it, I would cut the grass. Well, cut the grass and then you'll feel like it.
Speaker 4If I just felt like going to the gym. Then it goes on and on and on. But it's so true to hit me between the eyes.
Speaker 5Definitely that way with prayer too, because usually we're like anxious or something if we pray, we're like, oh, I've got a lot of peace now.
Speaker 3I did not go to the creator it's true and, I think, just kind of tacking on to what everyone's been saying because it's right on the same path.
Speaker 3But I know in my own life, when I felt God calling me to be a person of action, but I wasn't really wanting to it's my first excuse or was to look around and to say, well, there was an apartment in the church that would do that.
Speaker 3Or well, if this spiritual leader was doing that, like if God's calling me to pray this way, you know, it's really easy to look externally when God's calling you for something internally. Really easy to look externally when God's calling you for something internally. And I'll never forget, as a young person, 20-something-year-old, I was expressing all my great things that I felt God called this church to do. And I was sitting with a woman of God and she said did you ever think that these are things God has called you specifically to do, and maybe not even for today, but he is planning a burden in you and if you keep looking to other people for the rest of your life, you're never gonna do anything about it. And it was so impactful that 20 years later I give myself the same speech all the time. Because if you are feeling the feeling of needing to break forth and do something new, but all you keep doing is looking around and you never look up and inward and say take these hands, let me make a step, even if it's wrong.
Speaker 3It was the beginning of a journey for me and it stuck with me.
Speaker 6That's really good. I wish you'd have shared that with me sooner.
Speaker 3I have been preaching to you for years. We've got to listen.
Speaker 6God really smacked me and I preached about this in the last message. But god really smacked me between the eyes the other day when I was praying and I thought it was good prayers. I was praying although we want revival, show us how to have her. And god really did smack me and say you're praying the wrong prayer. And when I really got down to it, long story short is he. He revealed to me that you need to pray for yourself. Like I want revival, I what can I do?
Speaker 6because as long as I'm praying we, somebody else will do it in my mind and so, but it's only when I'm looking at what can I do, how can I grow, how can I get closer to you? And when it becomes personal, that's when things begin to change and so, yeah it's, it's very.
Speaker 3You can't deflect it to anyone else.
Speaker 1It really becomes personal yeah, I wonder if it's like we we have these grand thoughts when we get each get ourselves so hyped up and like it's so dire and so like just big. But I wonder if we just calm down and just simplify it and say ask ourselves, is it best, it blessed? Does it tear people down? If all of those are a go do it. It's simple, it's not that big a deal, right.
Speaker 6And I, like you say, make it simple. One of the things that I had written down is create a habit of immediate obedience. If God's calling you to do something, I think me in my life.
Speaker 6The longer I think about it, the less chance there is I'm going to do it, but when he speaks and I move like that's when I accomplish, and so I think if we could create a habit of immediate obedience. Right, if you know it's God talking, just go ahead and do the thing and you'll find that you'll find the power along the way. Don't think about it. Just do it, just respond.
Speaker 3Be obedient way. Don't think about it, just do it. Just respond, be obedient, and I think that would go a long way.
Speaker 4That's spot on because, um, if you wait, you, you're just gonna slowly talk yourself out of it, or it was just my idea. It wasn't god, but I think it goes back to what you may have mentioned earlier about relationship or intimacy yeah, it's if you're in the spirit and the flow.
Speaker 4I know, like billy cole he was one of the prophets years ago he He'd say, I would just go, when the Spirit told me to go, I'd show up and God would do whatever he was going to do, right? So I think if we get into that flow and that rhythm with the Lord, then he speaks to us and we get that confidence and then we can act. It might be giving a word to someone, a word of encouragement, or even sharing your testimony. If we're in tune in that relationship, he speaks to us how he speaks to us. It might be an audible voice Everyone's different, right, but he still speaks and then we take action on that. That's when you get into that flow and you don't have time to procrastinate or think about it. It's like, oh man, god said it, let's do it and so many times.
Speaker 6when it comes to that, we want the whole plan laid out.
Speaker 4I'm guilty.
Speaker 3It doesn't usually work that way.
Speaker 6No, I was talking to Bishop Pavlou not too long ago and he reminded me I've heard it before, but he reminded me of the context of the scripture that the word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. And he reminded me that what that means is, in the Bible days, they would take a lamp and tie it to their shoe or their ankle and as they walked, it was just enough light to illuminate the next step in front of them. They didn't have the full picture of where they were going when they walked, and he said that's what the writer was saying is the word of God. Sometimes it comes to us and it just reveals the next step.
Speaker 6It doesn't show us the full journey. But because we don't know the full journey, we're scared to step out. But if we'll just take it a step at a time. We'll get where we need to be and uh just just do it like you said, just do it, man just do it.
Speaker 6Anybody have a. A big one. To me with christianity is understand the sin of omission and and I think so many times in in our walk with god, we focus on the commission stuff, all the things that we do that we're not supposed to, and that's all that we focus on is the sins we commit. But James, the brother of Jesus, reminded us that to him that knows to do good and doesn't do it, it's just as wrong as doing the wrong thing Like it's. He called it, he flat out called it a sin. He called it out and said you can't be a Christian and be lazy. You can't be a Christian and be inactive in the kingdom Like you just can't do it.
Speaker 6It's a sin to know you're supposed to be doing good things and right things. It's a sin to for God to be calling you somewhere and you constantly be resisting it. And so if we're going to call out all of the gossip and the lies and all the stuff that we like to talk about as Christians, I think we got to call out the other side of it too, just like James, and say that there's things that we should be doing that we're probably not, and we need to pay attention to that, and that's a scary proposition, but I think it's something we should talk about tells me that um sin is just just means you miss the mark yeah it doesn't mean that there's this list of bad things.
Speaker 5It's. It's. You miss the mark if you don't obey god. Yeah, you know you.
Speaker 4Yeah, yeah, I think it was paul. I'm not sure where it's located, but he mentioned that if he's not disciplined, that he could be judged. It's good, it's like wow.
Speaker 6Yeah.
Speaker 3That's another level.
Speaker 4That's another level, right. It's like okay.
Speaker 3So we're grateful for grace. Right but we're all still taking that next step every day, right, yeah?
Speaker 4I need to find that passage. I'll read it after we're done.
Speaker 6It reminds me of Hebrews. I can't think of the one that talks about the milk is for the babes, the solid food is for the mature Christian. But if you read it, it says that solid food is for the mature Christian who, by constant use, have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. You train yourself by constantly doing what you're supposed to do. That's how you train yourself and the Word of God that's what it says is. You don't train yourself by just reading and studying and being inactive. You train yourself by constantly doing what you know you're supposed to do, and the more you do it, the better you get at it. And the more you want supposed to do, and the more you do it, the better you get at it, and the more you want to accomplish and the more you're willing to take home.
Outro/Promos
Speaker 1It goes back to what daniel said about preparation if you're, if you're, if you're not knowledgeable, then there's no no knowing doing gap to begin with.
Speaker 3So there's no course of action exactly so the responsibility to gain knowledge and prepare.
Speaker 6Yeah, that's true, it's true the first step of the knowing doing gap is get some knowledge.
Speaker 2It's to know.
Speaker 6Make it simple for us.
Speaker 5Trevor, I like that man. We're just bringing it back around, that's right Back to the beginning.
Speaker 6It makes sense. That makes a lot of sense Prepared.
Speaker 3Like it, good stuff.
Speaker 1Like it, love it, want some more of it? Yeah, oh, man. Well, if you guys, if you want some more of it? This podcast is on every week. We're cranking these things out every week. We love doing this for y'all. I know everybody that sits here has a good time every week doing this, so please give us a listen and give us a shout. So listen and give us a shout, share us on Facebook, tell your friends, and we love you guys.
Speaker 4I like it and I love it.
Speaker 5I'll see you all next week. Good night.
Speaker 3Later. Bye guys Bye.
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