Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 493 ｜ Things Will Get Better. Here’s How I Know.

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day so

00:00:15.200 far. So we've got a smorgasbord episode coming up for you. We had a smorgasbord episode a

00:00:21.400 couple weeks ago, a few weeks ago at this point, where we just kind of talked about

00:00:24.740 a variety of things. I really like my episodes to have themes. I like them to be cohesive.

00:00:31.020 Every story that we talk about or every point that we make kind of goes together. I really like

00:00:36.000 to tie things back in. And maybe I'll try to do that, but sometimes it's just a variety show

00:00:42.140 and you get what you get. And so we might talk about the female draft. We might talk about

00:00:47.300 Nicki Minaj. We might talk about a couple COVID things. We might talk about some things that

00:00:53.680 happened at the Emmys. And we might not talk about all of that. Honestly, this is kind of

00:01:00.020 right before the camera came on, we were just saying, this feels a little fly by the seat of

00:01:04.580 your pants, which is not typical for Relatable. But never fear. It's going to be a great episode.

00:01:11.020 The last smorgasbord episode that we did was one of our most popular episodes ever. So you're going

00:01:16.320 to live it. I asked you guys on Instagram what you wanted to hear about. And the number one thing that

00:01:24.640 I got was, I need encouragement. I'm anxious. I'm sad. I'm depressed. I'm worried about the state of

00:01:31.900 the world. And every week we try to take a step back from what's going on in the news. And we talk

00:01:38.260 theology or we talk a topic. Like a couple weeks ago, I had a counselor come on and we talked about

00:01:44.060 anxiety, how to help our kids who might be struggling with anxiety, how to work through

00:01:49.580 anxiety ourselves. That episode was also really popular because I know a lot of us are struggling

00:01:55.440 with that. And then last week, last Thursday, we did a most misused episode where we take a popular

00:02:04.400 verse from the Bible that is very often decontextualized and misapplied. And we looked at

00:02:10.220 the context and we looked at what it actually is. Yesterday, we also kind of took a break a little

00:02:15.900 bit from the news and talking about what the Bible has to say about immigration and how we approach

00:02:20.840 it from a biblical perspective. But I want to take a step back again and just give you guys some

00:02:27.500 encouragement and a few reminders of what our purpose is here and how we can look at everything

00:02:35.240 that's going on. Because I understand it can be really overwhelming. It feels like the news is

00:02:42.420 nonstop. The bad news is nonstop. It's just one thing on top of another. I mean, you could look at

00:02:47.760 this administration alone and get super sad about the state of the country and the state of our world.

00:02:53.880 And then, of course, you look on Twitter and you see some of the worst opinions and the worst takes.

00:03:01.060 And I don't want to say the worst people trying to be charitable, but the worst characteristics,

00:03:07.340 I guess, of some people on Twitter. And it's just sad. It's just sad to see a lot of people

00:03:16.160 locking in delusion. And I'm not just talking about people we disagree with. Of course,

00:03:20.540 you don't think that everyone who disagrees with you is deluded in some way. But some people,

00:03:24.700 especially when it comes to COVID policies, and especially when it comes to, for example,

00:03:33.940 gender ideology, when it comes to abortion, when it comes to a lot of the big issues that we've

00:03:39.420 been talking about, especially over the past few years, some people truly are deluded. It's not just

00:03:44.820 a matter of, OK, we disagree on this particular policy. But some people have internalized just blatant

00:03:51.540 lies about these things. And I think that is one of the most depressing things to feel. Like,

00:03:56.320 you feel powerless to show people what is true. You feel powerless to shake people out of their

00:04:01.200 delusions and say, you're believing a false narrative. You've internalized propaganda. That's

00:04:06.320 not true. You're living in fear for no reason. And these false narratives are then shaping public

00:04:11.500 opinion. Public opinion is this shaping public policy. Public policy that is shaped by those false

00:04:17.180 narratives and public opinion are then going and hurting people. That's true when people get it

00:04:21.480 wrong about the border. That's true when people get it wrong about certain cases of police brutality.

00:04:26.300 That's true when people get it wrong about abortion. When people get it wrong, as we talked about on

00:04:32.520 Monday, about the actual statistical risks of COVID, the kind of false narratives, fear-based false

00:04:41.120 narratives that people believe about things have an effect on policy and policy affects people. So

00:04:47.780 that's why we talk about these things. A lot of people say, oh, you know, Christians shouldn't be

00:04:51.560 talking about masks. They shouldn't be talking about the truth about, you know, COVID or vaccine

00:04:57.380 mandates. They shouldn't be talking about abortion or these different political things. But gosh,

00:05:03.900 people's opinion, again, about what's going on in the world and either their acceptance of facts or

00:05:09.220 their refusal to see facts. I certainly don't have a monopoly on facts. I'm not saying that. But

00:05:15.140 people's refusal to actually try to see what is true and try to look at different perspectives and

00:05:20.980 try to go past just the mainstream accepted narrative of something. Again, it has an effect on policy that

00:05:28.980 then affects people's real lives. For example, as we talked about on Monday, people's lack of

00:05:37.060 understanding of the real risks of COVID on kids and lack of knowledge of the actual efficacy of

00:05:44.640 masks, which is very low, especially for cloth masks. I mean, it's under 10 percent and that is

00:05:51.160 at best. The lack of acceptance when it comes to the completely negligible risk of COVID, at least

00:06:00.520 comparatively when it comes to kids, then influences policy like two-year-olds wearing masks.

00:06:06.500 And then a two-year-old is forced to wear a mask on a plane in daycare. And that has some negative

00:06:12.880 effects on their cognitive development and even their physical development, as we've talked about

00:06:17.960 before and as we have linked to many times in the past. And so it's so important that we talk about

00:06:26.040 these things. It is a way to love your neighbor, caring about politics, caring about the truth,

00:06:32.600 getting past just public opinion and fear-based false narratives about things is a way to love

00:06:39.700 your neighbor. I have gotten in, I got into a conversation with a very well-known female

00:06:45.800 Christian teacher that a lot of you guys know and probably follow. And we had a disagreement about,

00:06:51.980 you know, claims of systemic racism and how people are using, for example,

00:06:57.840 be the bridge curriculum in a way that I think is not biblical and is actually causing more

00:07:04.820 division and resentment than it is any kind of restoration and biblical unity, as we talked about

00:07:10.800 with Monique Dusan. And what I wanted to continue to get back to were the actual numbers surrounding

00:07:17.720 the claims of racialized police brutality and getting back to some of the facts.

00:07:25.520 And I could tell that those facts and that kind of fact-based conversation was met with a whole lot

00:07:32.300 of resistance. And the response was, well, we just need to have empathy. We just need to listen to

00:07:40.480 what people say. And yes and amen. Of course, we need to listen to what people say, but don't the facts

00:07:45.580 matter? Because false narratives, not every narrative, by the way, or every story about police brutality

00:07:50.900 is false. Not every story about racism is false. Of course, I'm not saying that. But if you ask

00:07:58.020 someone on the left how prevalent they think an unarmed person being shot by the police is,

00:08:05.680 their guess will be much higher than reality. And those things actually matter. Like the narrative

00:08:12.080 surrounding police brutality and policing in the United States and systemic racism actually matter.

00:08:19.160 Because how people react to those narratives, again, shapes policy. And it can even encourage

00:08:27.660 destruction, as we saw, unfortunately, in many cities across the country. And I'll link to a couple

00:08:34.220 past episodes on that if you're curious about some of that data that we have talked about.

00:08:40.400 But it matters. It matters to talk about the truth. It matters to talk about politics. Politics

00:08:45.060 affects policy. Policy affects people. And people matter. And so I guess that was all an aside coming

00:08:59.760 from what I originally said is that it can be very depressing to feel like people really just don't

00:09:04.880 care about the truth. That people only latch on to, you know, a picture of a Border Patrol agent

00:09:12.040 grabbing a migrant by the shirt and then assuming something is happening that is not actually

00:09:17.980 happening. And that gets them riled up. They decide to care about something that they haven't expressed

00:09:26.440 any care about for the past few months. And then that drives their perception of reality. And it distorts

00:09:33.920 their perception of reality. It distorts collective perception of reality. So you talking about politics,

00:09:40.580 you caring about what's going on in the news, caring about what's going on in the world, and speaking

00:09:46.200 the truth in love absolutely matters because it shakes people from delusion. It shakes people from fear

00:09:53.040 that may not be based on reality. And it can help shape policy. And if you ever feel like, well, what I'm

00:10:01.160 doing isn't enough. You know, I stood up to my school board when it comes to masks, or I talked to my son's

00:10:09.040 school administration about some of the divisive and ahistorical racial curriculum that they're

00:10:18.100 learning, or you're pushing back against corporate policy, or you've written to your representative

00:10:24.100 about certain things, or you're just trying to convince your friends that, you know, something

00:10:29.300 they believe actually isn't based in reality. And maybe you think that none of that stuff matters.

00:10:34.960 I promise that it does. I promise that it does. And my encouragement is to find that balance. As I

00:10:44.320 try to do, people ask me all the time, like, how do you not stay, how do you not get depressed? How do

00:10:48.620 you not stay down and burdened when you are reading the news all day? And I try to find that balance

00:10:57.460 between, I don't want to idolize politics and the news, but I also don't want to ignore politics and the

00:11:05.320 news. So we've got to stay somewhere within that. I have to remind myself that there's only so much

00:11:11.520 news I can consume on a daily basis. There's only so many stories I can care about. And there's only so

00:11:17.360 many topics that I can talk about. So for example, like we didn't talk about what happened with General

00:11:23.360 Milley on this show and what I think is kind of treasonous behavior. Not kind of, I believe that

00:11:29.980 it is. I believe that it fits the definition. We didn't talk about, you know, some of the things

00:11:36.720 that have been going on with the Biden administration over the past week. We haven't talked about

00:11:41.600 the young woman, Gabby, who got kidnapped. And that's not because those things don't matter,

00:11:47.560 but I don't have an infinite plate. Like I can only put so many things on my plate. I can only

00:11:55.240 tell you guys about so many things. And the same is true for you. Like when you're listening to this

00:11:59.360 podcast, you might not be able to care about everything that we talk about. You might not be

00:12:04.020 able to be passionate about everything that you hear on this podcast. And that's okay. Like you have

00:12:12.480 to pick and choose the things that matter the most, that affect your sphere of influence the most,

00:12:19.480 and that God has called you to care about and speak about. You can't ignore the things that are going

00:12:26.540 on because as we already said, like that affects policy, that affects behavior, that affects especially

00:12:32.420 the most vulnerable people like children who don't have any political capital and don't have a voice to

00:12:37.880 speak up for themselves. But we also can't idolize it. And this is really important to remember. And

00:12:45.840 it's, you know, it's difficult for me. I can find myself super caught up in everything that's going

00:12:50.780 on and think that the biggest things that are going on in the world are what's trending on Twitter or

00:12:56.260 what you guys are asking me to talk about. I could think that the biggest thing going on in the world

00:12:59.980 right now is that people think that there's, you know, Border Patrol agents whipping people at the

00:13:05.100 border when there's not. But I have to remember, that's not the biggest thing that's going on.

00:13:10.020 That is a tiny, tiny, tiny dust speck on the span of eternity. And not even just on the span of

00:13:17.040 eternity, but even relative to what's going on in the world today, at any given moment, there are a

00:13:24.100 million things going on. And I think everyone thinks that they are the center of the story or that America

00:13:29.800 or their country, wherever they live, is the center of, you know, God's eternal plan of redemption.

00:13:36.420 And it's just not. When God seems to be doing one thing, he's doing a million things. And none of those

00:13:42.720 things may be trending on Twitter. None of those things may be making headlines. None of these things

00:13:48.400 may be circulating on, you know, Instagram or going viral on TikTok. But God is never not working,

00:13:57.400 as Romans 8, 28 says. He is working all things together for the good of those who love him.

00:14:04.420 And so God is actively working. That's an active phrase that we see in Romans 8, 28. He is working

00:14:12.500 all things together for our good, for his glory. He is right now as we speak, he is softening hearts.

00:14:18.920 He is drawing people to himself. He is strengthening his church. He is ensuring that

00:14:27.400 his gospel, that his word goes forth and his word does not return void. As Job 42, 2 says,

00:14:38.000 no plan of his can be thwarted. So when it seems like the biggest things in the world going on

00:14:44.240 are what we see on social media, we have to remember that always thinks so much bigger than us,

00:14:52.360 thinks so much bigger than what we see, thinks so much better than what we see are constantly going

00:14:59.380 on. And I say this a lot, but I think it's important for us to remember that God is never

00:15:04.180 thrown off. Like he wasn't surprised by 2020. He's not wondering where COVID came from. He's not still

00:15:11.900 trying to figure out whether it was a lab leak or whether it came from bat soup. Like he's not trying

00:15:16.940 to dig into different theories and or conspiracy theories, trying to figure out what's really

00:15:23.100 going on. He is not moving along this linear timeline in the same way that we are because

00:15:28.320 God is not bound by time and space. He is omniscient. He is omnipresent. He is omnipotent. And so he is

00:15:37.300 completely sovereign, completely in control of everything all at once. That doesn't mean that

00:15:44.000 things don't break his moral will and that yes, people sin. He doesn't want people to sin. He

00:15:51.140 doesn't desire that, but nothing can thwart his sovereign will. If he is all powerful, then it

00:15:58.980 wouldn't make sense for us to be able to say that anything actually escapes his sovereign will because

00:16:05.880 he has the power to start and to stop anything that he wants to. And so while that might be

00:16:13.980 confusing to our finite minds and to our fallible reasoning, it is also something that we can rest in,

00:16:22.720 that everything is working together and that there really are two options for, you know, what we see

00:16:29.800 going on right now with what I think we all see, at least listening to this podcast, is a rise in

00:16:35.840 authoritarianism, the loss of freedom, the dogged pursuit of the breakdown of the family, the loss of

00:16:47.380 rights. Like, I think we all see the country going in a direction in general that we are really worried

00:16:55.500 about. And what we can trust is that the two options for all of this is either that it's all, we're in the

00:17:06.500 end times, and that either, well, I don't want to get into all of my eschatological views right now,

00:17:15.300 but either Jesus is coming back, um, and will put an end to, uh, just, uh, put an end to evil and

00:17:27.320 wickedness forever and ever. And we know that's going to happen no matter what. Um, but that could

00:17:32.160 be imminent or it could be in a thousand years from now. And I think what history tells us is that

00:17:37.520 things will eventually swing back in the other direction. I don't think that we are unique from

00:17:44.880 the rest of human history. I don't think even the powerful technocratic governments of today

00:17:52.140 are all that different, uh, than other authoritarian governments and groups, uh, in the, in the rest of

00:18:01.960 human history. And so either we're looking at things getting a whole lot worse and Jesus coming

00:18:08.640 back, or we are looking at, yes, Jesus coming back, but not imminently. And things are going to swing

00:18:16.480 back in the other direction. We don't know, like we don't know the timeline. The Bible says that no man

00:18:21.800 knows the day or the hour. We've talked about the possibility of being in the, in times. I also have to

00:18:27.720 remember that people have gone through a lot worse than what America in 2021 is going through right

00:18:33.420 now. That's not to trivialize, you know, the problems that we are facing, but, um, certainly,

00:18:40.960 uh, people have gone through a lot worse. People have gone through a lot harder things than we are

00:18:47.080 going through right now. And so I can't say just because America is going through a hard time that it

00:18:52.800 is definitely the end times. I don't know, but I do take comfort in the fact that knowing no matter

00:18:58.140 what, whether it's a thousand years from now, whether it's a thousand hours from now, that God is

00:19:03.060 going to rule in perfect peace and justice and righteousness. He, he is going to do something about

00:19:08.600 wickedness. So whenever you find yourself looking around, reading the news and wondering why is God

00:19:13.780 allowing this to happen? Why is all of this evil and oppression, um, happening both in the United States

00:19:20.440 and abroad? How could a good, all-powerful God allow these things to happen? And I think it's a

00:19:26.520 good question. And I, I do think it speaks to, um, an understanding of God's, of God's power. And

00:19:34.180 the response that I hate to that question is either like a dismissal of, well, why would you even ask

00:19:40.960 that question? That shows a lack of faith. If you're asking why a good and all-powerful God, if he is truly

00:19:46.480 all-good and truly all-powerful, why he would let these things happen. The other, the other response

00:19:52.220 that I hate to that is like an attempt to let God off the hook and say that, um, well, you know,

00:20:00.120 some things happen that, you know, God just can't control. Like he's just, he's just not in charge.

00:20:06.000 He's just not in charge of all of that. Or, you know, he didn't want that to happen, but you know,

00:20:10.120 it slipped through the cracks, kind of something like that. Maybe not those exact words,

00:20:13.540 but almost like an excuse making for God, apologies for God. Like, oh, God really didn't

00:20:18.580 want that to happen. And he tried not to let that happen, but then it still happened. Well,

00:20:22.580 when you do that, you're taking away, um, a key characteristic of God, which is that he is

00:20:28.720 omnipotent. He is all-powerful. And if God is all-powerful, then he can stop something if he wants

00:20:36.580 to stop it. He can thwart something if he wants to thwart it. He can hinder something if he wants to

00:20:42.160 hinder it. And he actively chooses not to. And while I do not understand every situation, um,

00:20:51.060 that's, you know, God wills, I, I certainly don't. And it's hard for me to reconcile all that we see

00:20:56.860 in the world with God's sovereignty. I do know that evil exists. I do know that as Ephesians 2 says,

00:21:03.360 um, Satan is the prince of the power of the air who is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

00:21:10.740 So there's the sons of obedience to the father. There's the sons of disobedience to Satan.

00:21:15.600 Satan is working through them right now. And so we understand that, but God, um, doesn't compromise

00:21:22.840 his power, even as we see, um, Satan at work. And so how do we reconcile all of that? How do we

00:21:32.140 understand that God is still sovereign, even as all of these evil things, uh, go on? How I reconcile

00:21:39.340 that? How I kind of take comfort is knowing that God's anger is kindling. He's not just sitting

00:21:46.500 idly by. He is not just sitting on his hands wondering what's going to happen. Like he is

00:21:51.600 going to take care of wickedness. Like he sees the injustice that's going on, uh, both personally

00:21:57.380 in your life and then collectively in the world on a small scale and a big scale. He cares about,

00:22:04.620 uh, every example of injustice, um, every bit of true oppression, every bit of hardship

00:22:12.940 that you have experienced that others have experienced. He cares about the evil that's

00:22:19.200 going on. And Psalm 37 promises us that one day the wicked will be no more. One day evildoers

00:22:25.740 will be no more. Psalm 2. I love Psalm 2 that, you know, the nations, they plot in vain, they come

00:22:32.260 together and they try to make plots, uh, against the, against God's people. And, uh, Psalm 2 says

00:22:40.580 that the Lord laughs at them, that he holds them in derision. You should read the last few chapters of

00:22:46.020 Job. Um, how he, um, so, uh, almost, uh, almost sarcastically, but definitely, uh, sharply responds

00:22:58.100 to Job and Job's lack of faith. And you will be reminded how powerful God is, how important it is

00:23:06.200 to God that we understand what his power is, um, and how powerful he is and how in control of every

00:23:14.060 single part of creation he is. And the only reason he's not doing something right now, um, or it might

00:23:21.300 not seem like he's doing something right now in some areas of wickedness and evil is because, um,

00:23:27.840 he is storing up his wrath and he will take care of it. He is also being patient to call more people

00:23:34.100 to himself, to soften more hearts, to ensure that the gospel goes out to exactly where he ordains it is

00:23:40.780 supposed to go out to. And so everything, even though it doesn't seem like it to us is going

00:23:46.000 according to his plan. So we trust that we trust that God is good. We trust that everything that

00:23:51.920 he wills, if God is love, which first John tells us that he is, if God is love, that everything he

00:23:57.800 wills is ultimately for love. Um, everything that he wills is ultimately for his glory. When the Bible

00:24:04.220 says that God is a jealous God, what he means is that he wants the devotion of his people entirely for

00:24:10.120 himself. He wants all the worship. He wants all the glory. And he promises that he will get it,

00:24:15.340 that every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And on that day and on

00:24:20.880 that day alone, will we experience full vindication and full fulfillment. Um, and that day is coming.

00:24:28.760 Like that's where we have hope.

00:24:39.120 So what do we do between now and then as we're seeing so much confusion and so much chaos go on?

00:24:45.020 All we can do, all we can do is trust and obey. That's all we can do. Like all we can do is do the

00:24:51.240 next right thing, the next honorable thing, the next honest thing, the next generous thing, the next

00:24:57.060 gracious thing, the next truthful thing. That's the only thing that we can do. God knows that you're

00:25:02.940 small. God knows that I'm small. God knows that we only have so many hours of the day. God knows

00:25:07.960 that we have to sleep at night, that we have to rest, uh, one day a week. God knows that we can't

00:25:14.420 be doing everything all at once. He knows that we can't care about everyone and everything all at

00:25:19.480 once. He knows that we have capacity. How does he know that? Because he made us that way.

00:25:23.380 He made us to have capacity. He made us to have a limit. Um, he doesn't make us or call us to be

00:25:32.260 God. He doesn't call us to bear everyone's burden. He actually calls himself our burden bearer. And

00:25:38.700 he compared, we're compared to sheep in the Bible. We like to call people, you know, sheep today who

00:25:44.060 believe propaganda and who just go along with whatever the state says. And I think, you know,

00:25:48.800 that's an apt description of course, but we're also called sheep, but we're following, uh, the

00:25:55.100 good shepherd. Like, unfortunately there are some, there are sheep in the world that are following

00:26:00.540 wolves. Uh, we are following the good shepherd and the sheep know his voice and we can trust as Psalm

00:26:06.700 23 says that he is going to lead us, uh, where he wants to lead us. He is going to lead us, um,

00:26:13.200 through places of provision through places of rest. And he knows when we need rest, he knows when we

00:26:20.120 need provision and he knows that we can only do so much. You can only do so much. You can only do so

00:26:26.480 much. I know very well that it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Um, and I have to trust that I am

00:26:34.880 only called to do what God has called me to do. God has called me, and I've known this since I was a

00:26:40.300 child. God has called me to talk. He's called me to speak. He's called me to try to encourage

00:26:45.080 you guys to try to explain things, uh, you know, as best as I can, even as I am learning things to

00:26:52.180 you guys, he has called me to, um, try to build you up. I came in today was, I was driving. I have

00:26:59.460 like literally 28 pages of notes of other things that I actually wanted to talk about with the news,

00:27:04.880 but I just prayed on the way over here. I was like, please just help me say what you want me to say.

00:27:09.540 Help me say what, what I need to say. Um, and I don't, haven't even read the ads that I have to

00:27:15.480 read because I haven't even found a good place to stop because I'm literally just kind of saying

00:27:19.980 whatever is coming into my heart and head. And as you guys were telling me on Instagram that you just

00:27:26.340 need some kind of encouragement, um, I hope that this is it. Like, I hope that it edifies you. Um,

00:27:35.000 and maybe, maybe your responsibility, uh, right now in your life is not to keep up with everything

00:27:42.340 that's going on in the news. Well, I think it's important to stay informed. Um, while I would love

00:27:47.900 for everyone to be, you know, contacting your representatives and to be pushing back against

00:27:54.640 policy in your cities, in your towns, in your counties, in your state, and on a national level.

00:28:01.000 Um, I know that that is not everyone's responsibility. It's not everyone's obligation

00:28:07.220 to speak up about controversial topics on social media. Um, maybe how you are pushing back and you

00:28:13.680 are obeying the Lord and you are doing the next right thing is by changing diapers joyfully, by

00:28:20.060 washing dishes, by, uh, cleaning the kitchen, by volunteering somewhere in your community, by,

00:28:27.640 um, helping, uh, a friend who is in need. All of these things are acts of obedience. And

00:28:33.900 if anything, they're actually more important, um, than some of what people are doing in the public

00:28:41.200 sphere and the public sector. All of those little things matter. God uses our obedience in big ways

00:28:48.560 for impactful things. And we just have to trust that doing the next right thing for his glory

00:28:55.500 and in love and in, and with excellence is enough. It's enough. It might be public. It might be political.

00:29:04.320 Um, or it might not be, it might be very personal. It might be very private. The point is, is that we

00:29:10.860 do what God is calling us to do in the next moment. As Elizabeth Elliott says, uh, I, she said,

00:29:17.860 I've never found more peace. And when I realized that the only thing that I have to do today is

00:29:22.980 the will of God. That's the only thing that we have to do today. It's not to save the world. It's

00:29:28.060 not to convince everyone of everything. It's not to care about everything all at once. It's not to

00:29:32.280 fix it all. It's to simply do the will of God, the God who made us finite, the God who made us with

00:29:37.820 a particular capacity, the God who gave us some gifts and not others, some strengths and some

00:29:43.220 weaknesses, um, to rely on him, to pray to him, to lean on him, to allow him to carry our burdens.

00:29:50.060 That's literally all we have to do every day. Um, and thank God for that. Thank God for that,

00:29:56.820 that the same God who knew everything that would happen in 2020 and 2021, the same God who was not

00:30:04.640 surprised by anything that ever goes on, who is completely sovereign and completely in control,

00:30:09.920 that same God over and over again throughout scripture, Old Testament and New Testament in

00:30:15.060 the gospels and the epistles, uh, in the Pentateuch, like throughout scripture, that same God who knows

00:30:21.760 everything, uh, who wrote every single day of our lives before any of them came to be as Psalm 139 says,

00:30:30.160 uh, that same God says, do not fear, do not worry. Don't be anxious about anything. We talked about that

00:30:36.580 on Thursday in Philippians four, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and

00:30:41.200 petition, uh, with Thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God, which surpasses

00:30:47.400 all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. That is a promise. That's a

00:30:53.560 promise. The same God who knows every single thing going on in your life right now, that is causing you

00:30:59.060 to worry, that is causing you to fear everything that's going on in the world. That's causing us all to

00:31:03.900 feel a burden says, do not be anxious. And in exchange for your anxiety, you give God your anxiety,

00:31:12.060 he gives you peace. That's a really worthy exchange. That's such a worthy exchange. And how good,

00:31:18.260 how good a God that we have that he also uses us graciously, uh, to do the things that he wants us to do

00:31:26.180 to, um, accomplish his will. He doesn't need us to be vessels, but he chooses us to be vessels. Um,

00:31:35.620 I want to read, I was reading this coming in, uh, to record this. And I don't know why this came

00:31:44.820 into my head, but it just reminded me of what God is doing with his church always. And that we get to be,

00:31:53.020 um, we get to be a part of this and I'm not trying to conflate like hosting a podcast or talking about

00:31:59.660 the news with, uh, with what I'm about to read. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm just talking

00:32:05.320 about the role of Christians, no matter what sphere you occupy, no matter what role he has placed you

00:32:11.080 in. So this is Ephesians four. I love Ephesians. I encourage you to read this entire chapter,

00:32:17.540 read the whole book to understand the context. We don't have time to get into all the context, but,

00:32:21.880 um, so verse 11 of Ephesians four, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists,

00:32:29.260 the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body

00:32:33.860 of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God

00:32:38.400 to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer

00:32:43.380 be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. There are so

00:32:49.080 many people today. We've probably all been there at some point in our faith that are tossed to and fro

00:32:54.980 by TikTok theology, by false doctrine, by things that sound good, but aren't biblical. Um, so that

00:33:02.740 we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried out by every wind of doctrine,

00:33:06.980 by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather speaking the truth in love, we are

00:33:11.560 to grow up in every way and to him who is the head into Christ from whom the whole body joined and

00:33:17.320 held together by every joint with which it is equipped. When each part is working properly,

00:33:21.520 makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. And so if we ever want to remind ourselves

00:33:27.440 what God is doing, we don't know what God is doing. When everything seems to be falling apart,

00:33:33.480 we can trust one thing that he is building up and bringing together the body of Christ. That is one

00:33:42.020 thing we know for sure that he is strengthening the faith of believers, the faith and the joy

00:33:48.360 of his children. He is always doing that. And that is his chief concern. That's his chief concern.

00:33:54.500 His eternal plan of redemption made manifest through Christ and his church. And we get to be a part of

00:34:01.720 that. Going back to another Ephesians verse, Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, by grace through faith,

00:34:07.320 we get to be a part of that. So if you, one, if you're a Christian who's been anxious,

00:34:15.660 I hope that this edifies you. I hope that this encourages you, that God hears you. He sees you.

00:34:20.840 He cares about you. He cares about everything that's going on, but he cares most that your heart

00:34:25.640 is inclined towards him and that we are trusting in him, that we're relying on him. And he's going to

00:34:31.140 call you to do the next right thing always. He's not going to abandon you and make you figure it out

00:34:35.780 on your own. Just do the next right thing. And don't allow yourself to fall into the paralysis

00:34:43.820 of overanalysis where you are so overthinking everything that you're unable to move forward

00:34:49.700 in his will. He doesn't hide those things from us. He's not tricking us. Do the next right thing

00:34:58.320 in love. And, uh, he will give you the wisdom that you need no matter what that is. Uh, number two,

00:35:07.160 if you are someone who I, I know I have a lot of people that fit the description who are listening

00:35:13.760 to this podcast, who you're not really sure about the whole faith thing. Like you're not really sure

00:35:18.820 about the whole Christianity thing, but you have been trying and failing to find the fulfillment and

00:35:25.800 the joy and the peace that you are longing for in yourself, in your boyfriend, in your spouse,

00:35:33.140 in your kids, in your job, um, in your physical appearance, in food, in alcohol, whatever it is,

00:35:41.640 you have been trying to find the thing that makes you feel enough. You've been trying to find the thing

00:35:46.240 that gives you refuge from all the craziness that's going on in the world. And you just haven't been able

00:35:50.740 to find it. You haven't been able to find it in your friends. You haven't been able to find it in all of

00:35:54.480 these different, um, avenues. Might I suggest to you that the feeling that you're have, that you're

00:36:01.460 having right now is a pull from the Holy Spirit to show you the God who created you, the God who wants

00:36:08.180 a relationship with you, who sent his son to die for you, um, who sent his son to reconcile you to

00:36:16.420 himself so that you could have that joy. You could have that peace. You could have that fellowship today,

00:36:22.100 but also that you could spend forever with him. I get a lot of messages, um, every day from people

00:36:29.300 who ask me, okay, I'm ready to start reading my Bible. What do I do? I don't, I have never been to

00:36:35.540 church or I haven't been to church in a long time. I don't know what to do. Um, what I encourage you to

00:36:40.560 do, and I'll include it in the description of this podcast. Um, I encourage you to one, get an ESV study

00:36:47.360 Bible. Uh, that's not the only version that's good. That's not the only study Bible that's good,

00:36:52.340 but that's the one that really helped deepen my faith. I encourage you to get an ESV study Bible.

00:36:57.060 I encourage you to go to founders.org slash church search. Again, I'll link it and find a church in

00:37:03.280 your area. And I also encourage you to say, God, okay, like I, I want to, I want to figure this out

00:37:11.440 or I want to know you. Can you help me? Can you give me wisdom or can you give me the desire to

00:37:17.200 know you? I want to want to know you, but I don't want to, and I'm scared and I don't know what it

00:37:21.960 looks like. And I'm, I feel like I'm not good enough. All of these fears and these doubts and

00:37:26.440 these inhibitions that you have, I would just encourage you to bring them before God, um,

00:37:32.720 and to pray to him because gosh, he is so faithful and he is so gracious. And there's

00:37:38.560 nothing that you could have ever done or ever thought or ever said, uh, that makes you too

00:37:44.680 far from God. He brings those who are far off. He brings those who are near, um, and his grace

00:37:52.120 covers all of that. And so in the midst of this tempestuous world that we live in, this very

00:37:58.000 confusing world where up is down, where people are calling evil, good and good evil, we have a rock

00:38:04.640 solid, eternal, unchanging, steadfast God who is just as loving and as faithful and as good today

00:38:13.480 as he has ever been. He has just as, uh, much grace as he has ever had. He has just as much mercy

00:38:21.520 and just as much compassion as he has ever had. Um, and we have the privilege of trusting him. We have

00:38:29.900 the privilege of trusting him and of knowing how this ends. So all we have to do then is trust and

00:38:36.900 obey. All right. That was like very stream of consciousness. I hope that was encouraging for some

00:38:41.880 of you. Now I want to end, I want to end the episode with, um, a couple announcements or a couple

00:38:49.380 requests. Okay. So last week, uh, we did, uh, we did, uh, uh, I requested that you guys send me

00:38:58.940 voicemails and you guys, I, I told you some recurring dreams I've been having. Some of you

00:39:05.080 told me what you thought that they mean. Of course we're, we're joking here. We're being lighthearted

00:39:09.520 here. And then some of you gave me some of your recurring dreams and we listened to them on air and

00:39:12.940 it was so fun and we didn't have time to do that again this week. Um, but I want to do it again.

00:39:17.960 And I want to play them maybe on Monday. So this is my first request. I want you to call the Skype

00:39:25.360 number and I want you to give me, this is my favorite game ever. My husband can tell you

00:39:30.760 randomly we, we play it. And I literally am like crying, crying, uh, laughing at Would You Rathers.

00:39:38.660 I love Would You Rathers. I, now my like hidden talent, maybe this is the ministry that God is

00:39:44.900 calling me to is giving good Would You Rathers. I don't have one off the top of my head right now,

00:39:49.380 but like the most absurd and random Would You Rathers. I just have, I don't know what it is.

00:39:55.180 I just have this inner talent, this deep buried talent to give really good Would You Rathers. So

00:40:02.200 maybe I'll give that on Monday, but I want to hear your Would You Rathers. And then I'll give my,

00:40:08.700 maybe I'll, I'll give my Would You Rather on Monday. And then you guys can call in and you can tell me

00:40:13.580 what your Would You Rather is. And I'll tell you the next request that I have for a voicemail.

00:40:18.040 So give me a really good Would You Rather. If it's, we only have time to play like a few on air. So

00:40:23.520 you might send a good one. We might not play it on air. Don't be offended by that. Um, but call 682-503-1369.

00:40:31.140 Give me a good Would You Rather. Like for example, would you rather if you're a woman have your dad's

00:40:37.420 haircut permanently or your dad's arms permanently? Like which one would you choose? That's a really hard

00:40:43.180 decision. If you're a guy, would you rather have your mom's haircut permanently or your mom's arms

00:40:48.040 permanently? Like that's a really hard decision. So I'm talking about something like that. Give me

00:40:53.520 your best Would You Rathers and we'll try to play them on Monday, 682-503-1369. Okay. Second request,

00:41:01.200 last request here. Um, so 500th episode is coming up. I believe it is on, uh, I think it is

00:41:11.960 Tuesday, October 5th. Um, and so that is just in a couple weeks. That's in, yeah, that's in a couple

00:41:25.840 weeks. That's two weeks from yesterday. And so for our 500th episode, like I'll just go ahead and tell

00:41:30.620 you, I, we were really trying to get Thomas soul for our 500th episode. And, um, unfortunately I don't

00:41:36.840 think that's going to happen. Uh, he is awesome. Maybe it'll happen someday in the future. Probably,

00:41:43.280 probably not. We knew it was a reach, but we thought it would be awesome for our 500th episode.

00:41:47.240 That's not going to happen. Instead, we're going to do some fun things. We're going to do a giveaway,

00:41:52.460 the details of which I will talk about next week. Um, but another thing that we want to do that we

00:41:58.940 thought would be fun. If you guys could call that number, our Skype number, and you could say, um,

00:42:06.760 you could tell us either something that has really impacted you from the show relatable, um, something

00:42:13.380 that has really stuck out to you or made you think differently about something or something that has

00:42:18.180 completely changed your mind. Like if you started out thinking one thing about a particular subject or

00:42:23.900 about everything, and then you changed your mind, we would love to hear about that. Now, I think the

00:42:28.560 limit on the voicemail is two minutes. Okay. So it has to be concise. And so if you have to kind of

00:42:34.500 write it down and read it, that is totally fine. But we thought that would be fun to hear from you

00:42:39.060 guys about, um, something that changed your mind, what changed your mind, why your mind was changed,

00:42:44.300 or just something that has really influenced you, impacted you, meant a lot to you from the show.

00:42:49.960 Uh, I am so thankful for you guys. I wouldn't have this show. I wouldn't be coming up on 500 shows.

00:42:55.540 If it wasn't for your dedication, your encouragement of me, your prayers for me,

00:43:00.640 a lot of you guys, uh, pray for me, pray for my family, pray for the show. Thank you so much.

00:43:05.540 I love you guys. I really do feel like this is a community and I'm so thankful for each one of you.

00:43:10.320 So make sure you call 682-503-1369. Tell us some of those, uh, stories. If you can fit it all into

00:43:18.560 one voicemail, we probably can't play two back to back. It just kind of gets confusing. Um,

00:43:24.220 and yeah, I think, I think that's it. And then, like I said, we'll have a giveaway too.

00:43:28.280 And so that'll be super fun. And that will be Tuesday, October 5th. So write that down on your

00:43:37.000 calendar because it will be a very special episode. All right. Tomorrow I'm interviewing a Senate

00:43:42.900 candidate from Arizona, Blake Masters, and he is very similar to J.D. Vance. We've got a new crop

00:43:49.180 of conservatives coming up that have some new ideas. I think some fresh ideas and some, uh,

00:43:54.380 different, um, ideas about what conservative leadership should actually look like when

00:43:59.740 they're in office. And I think it's something for conservatives to be excited about. So I'm

00:44:03.820 excited for you to listen to that conversation tomorrow with Blake Masters. So tune into that.

00:44:08.840 I will see you guys then.

00:44:12.900 Bye.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - September 22, 2021

Ep 493 ｜ Things Will Get Better. Here’s How I Know.

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