Latest / The Father's Business Podcast / Safe in the Father's Heart-Part 8-At the Window

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Safe in the Father's Heart-Part 8-At the Window · The Father's Business Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_04: The Father's Business was founded by Sylvia Gunter to encourage people to a deeper relationship with God.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_04: I'm Elizabeth Gunter Powell.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I am Kimberly Roddy.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to The Father's Business Podcast.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: We are so glad that you've joined us.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_04: Welcome, everybody, to this week's podcast.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_04: This week, we're going to focus in on chapter 10 in the book, if you're reading along with this, which is called Out the Window, which begins with my mom, Sylvia, sharing a little bit more of her story of the struggle that continued as she tried to grasp with the thought and the belief that God truly is a good father.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_04: So let's listen in and hear her story.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: I was a different person resting in my father's love.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: The father's love continued to reinforce my feeling of worth and belonging.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: I was years along in this process of learning to trust God as father.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: When he interrupted a normal Monday morning, I had sent our family off to work and school.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: I had loaded the dishes in the dishwasher and then put a load of laundry in the washer.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: I was headed upstairs to change the linens on the beds.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: I was taking the shortcut through the dining room on the way to the stairs.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: All of a sudden, I heard myself yell, you were never there for me.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: It was intense, raw emotion that came up from my depths.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: I went to the dining room window and drew back the lace curtains with my left hand so I could look out across the autumn treetops below.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: I asked, Who was not there for me?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: I began a litany of perceived losses of presence of relationship.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: My father was not there for me.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: My mother was not there for me as she dealt with her own pain.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: My husband's busy work schedule made him unavailable at times.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Our second son had just gone off to college, which is a perfectly normal rite of passage, but still was a loss of relationship that I had known.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: So he was not there for me.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Two prayer partners had taken jobs and our prayer group disbanded.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: so they were not there for me.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: The church was not there for me.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: Various friends had not been there for me.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: The list went on and on as the instant replay of losses rolled like a highlight reel.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: I suddenly began to see a lifetime pattern of feeling abandoned and afraid that no one would be there for me.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: It made sense that so many things in my life came from that route of abandonment.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: For example, I was well-known in my family for becoming frantic when I lost something.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: I overreacted because it was not there for me.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: That day, as the flood of memories subsided, I remember very quietly asking God, did I transfer that abandonment to you?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: I will never forget his reply to my heart as I stood staring out the window.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: I heard his still small voice say, no, it caused you to draw closer to me.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: That statement resonated in a deep place inside me.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: I knew that it was true.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: I never would have asked for the circumstances I had lived through.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: I wish it could have been different i wish i had responded differently but what the enemy meant for evil god redeemed for his glory the pain and struggle i felt drove me to my heavenly father and made me delight in his love that much more i had been diligent to pursue god as father and allow him to heal my heart but apparently a trigger was still there inevitably in life something Somebody else does or says hits our abandonment button, and we feel that we are a prisoner of abandonment all over again.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: The deeper the original abandonment wound, the harder the new provocation hits us.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: And the more times this happens, it compounds and builds.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Fear of abandonment is serious and heavy.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: It feels like a predator ready to pounce.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: and blindsiders when we least expect it.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: Regrettably, we will all experience loss in some form through death, divorce, the end of our friendship, and move to a different place.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: The list is almost endless.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: The question becomes, what do you do with the pain?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: So as Sylvia was just saying there, that abandonment wound is it's pretty deep.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's serious.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's heavy.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like she said, it blindsides us a lot of times.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: And we're not aware that that's what's being triggered.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I really like what she was saying earlier about asking God, did I transfer that abandonment to you?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: And he said, no, it caused you to draw closer to me is what she heard his still small voice say.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I think we've alluded to that, Elizabeth.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's really important to recognize that these father wounds in us, for some people, it's the abandonment wound.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: For others, it's...
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: has other names, the rejection or what are some of the others?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_04: If your father was physically abusive, it's fear.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_04: It all depends on what your relationship was with your dad, but we all have those statements that we believe to be true based on those types of wounds.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so in all those wounds, they will do one of two things to us.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: They will cause us to walk toward and draw closer to our Father God and lean on Him.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_03: And
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: still that gets messy and it's in and out of leaning on him and leaning away from him and, you know, tension and that.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: But generally speaking, some choose to lean toward, draw closer to God, lean toward him.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: And then others choose to turn away from God because it's just too painful to face or it's too, the wounds go too deep, the hurts too strong, the fear is too big, whatever.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so we turn away from, I think in a lot of those places, if we could recognize the fear and name it for ourselves, which takes work.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_03: If
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: we could recognize it's a fear of abandonment, it's a fear of rejection, it's a fear, a literal physical fear.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: If we can recognize our story and what it comes out of, I don't think that makes it easier, so to speak, but I think it makes us more aware so that when it hits, we can try to process it differently.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_04: I think in some ways it it also makes you feel a little less crazy.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, because it's not like when my abandonment issue or my feeling unwanted, or I have to work hard so that I'm not in a burden, whatever, what are my father wounds are when they spring up, it has nothing to do with my dad.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, sometimes it's about another relationship.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes it's about a mechanical object.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_04: My computer won't do what I need it to do.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_04: And all of a sudden, I had this overwhelming feeling that no one is there for me.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_04: Even my computer is not there for me.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_04: And so you have this overwhelming, as we talked about on the Orphan Heart podcast, you have this overwhelming response to something going on in your life.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_04: And if you can, as you say, Kimberly, stop and name it and say, okay, yes, it's frustrating that my computer just shut down and I lost what I was working on.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_04: But that Mm-hmm.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_04: That was way beyond what it should have been.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I understand why I'm having this reaction.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_04: And yes, it would be abnormal of me to have this level of reaction about the computer.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_04: But if you add the layers of my history and my story on top of this, this makes more sense because I'm feeling helpless and alone and out of control and no one is coming to help save me in this situation.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_04: Therefore, I have to do it on my own.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_04: Those are so much deeper places.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I think in a lot of those places, it still sometimes doesn't make sense.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll share a little bit of my personal story here to kind of talk about what I mean here.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I had colic as a baby.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: I was a firstborn.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: And my mom talks about, like, I just wouldn't stop crying.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: And she didn't know what to do.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing worked.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: One doctor told her I just had a temper.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: And finally, which, you know, maybe truth in that, but that wasn't the problem.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: Finally, a doctor said, shh.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: She just has the colic.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: So they made some adjustments and changes to my formula and things that I was eating.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: And mom says she remembers seeing me smile for the first time, just being a happy baby because the internal pain in my body subsided.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: But.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: I was a baby, so I didn't know how to tell them I was hurting except to cry.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: That's all I had.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_04: And
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: my mom didn't know what to do because she'd never had that situation before.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: There can be these deep things in us, like along the journey, God has kind of helped me reconcile that there's times that I feel like a burden because...
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: But for anyone who understands attachment theory and a lot of these things, which I'm not an expert on, but I love the ideas that are behind that, it's similar to this.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: I don't realize that in there, a message is being developed in my small little space, in my small infant space.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so there's a fear that, again, I don't know how clearly this is articulated.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: It takes years to put this together, but part of me is like, okay, well, I think I might feel abandoned if I cry too much.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that's a big statement.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: Logically, I'm not aware of that, but I'm reacting to that constantly.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: I'm in situations and you're like, oh, don't cry.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: Don't cry.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: Don't you don't want to react.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: You have to react the proper way, the right way, whatever that is.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: Mm
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: hmm.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: And so you're believing a lie.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: You're believing a message that, one, I had good parents.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: They didn't want to put that on me.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: But that's what I'm saying.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes there's obvious situations where you're clear, oh, here's what's happening here.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: I am being hurt and harmed.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: In this situation, no one was intending harm, but it still had an impact.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: In the book, it says, I so wish there could be a one-time prayer, like a magic formula that could zap all of this and make it disappear so we never had to deal with this again.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_04: There's
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: not.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_04: And
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: God was intentional with that.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: I think he created us to desire acceptance and belonging, connection and intimacy, because his deepest desire for us is to come to him, to abide in him and to be with him.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so those things draw us to him, but they still leave us in that space.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: And it gets triggered over and over and over again.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes for me, I can stop and I can recognize, hey, this is a lie, but other times I can't.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like this is a lie that I'm feeling abandoned.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not really abandoned.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm putting that onto a situation that doesn't belong to, right?
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm reacting to a situation.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I can recognize that.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: Unfortunately, more often than not, I don't.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: I hope to grow in that.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that's a journey probably a lot of us find ourselves in of just, I had a good childhood.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: What's wrong with me?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, and I think all of us, whether it's something from our childhood or just even some of us are carrying around wounds from broken dating relationships, like all different types of relationships, wherever there's been any kind of rejection, there are those statements of if I had just been a different person, if I had just done a different thing, then they would not have left me.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_04: And I know that's something that mom struggled through the years is what was her part in her dad leaving?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_04: That is a childlike question to ask that I think all kids go through.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_04: through a divorce, think, well, if we, if we had just acted different, mom and dad, maybe still would still be together.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_04: There's obviously a lot more going on in a marriage than just the kids, but those are the types of things we question.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm with you, Kimberly.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes I can catch it and go, you know what, this situation I'm in is hitting that abandonment button in me.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_04: And I need to be mindful of that and proactively seek out God in this.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_04: And other times I'm, you know, through my second pint of Ben and Jerry's before I figure out what's going on.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_04: So that was like, sometimes you have to wait and go, okay, as we talked about in a podcast this last fall about broken cisterns, where do you run?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_04: Whatever your fix is, when you find yourself deeply searching after that fix, that's when it's time to stop and go, okay, am I eating ice cream just because ice cream is delicious and it's summertime and I want some or am I eating ice cream because somewhere along the way I've gotten triggered by something and I'm trying to mask the pain of an old wound instead of going to Jesus with it.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm with you.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_04: I wish Several things in life you did once and they stuck.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_04: I wish you could pray for God to heal all of your abandonment issues and for all of the completely gone forever.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_04: I wish if you exercised and got in shape that it would stay like there's lots of things that I wish, but that's not the pattern we see in scripture.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_04: And there's a familiar verse in Matthew where Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest and take my yoke upon you and learn from me.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_04: And I, for I am just And you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and burden is light.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_04: And that verb come is that present continuous action verb.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_04: It's not a one time thing.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_04: We don't just come to Jesus once.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_04: It's this come and keep on coming and having to continually choose to be present and continually choose to come back to him.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_04: Because again, that's another one.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_04: I wish I could take the yoke of Jesus upon me once and then I would live perfectly in the yoke of jesus but that's not what life looks like here it's a lot more about am i more easily able to recognize when things aren't going well and get myself back to god to me that is growth and that is healing because we're never going to get to a place where we're a hundred percent living in the safety and security of who god is and who we are in him and and never struggle
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: so that reminds me of john 15 where jesus encourages us to abide right abide in his love on paves Right, right.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: abide and keep abiding, continue to come and be present and be held and be kept in God's love.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: And it's an invitation.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: I love that word.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: We all love to, well, most of us love to receive an invitation.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: I guess it depends on what it's for, but you know you're wanted typically when you receive an invitation.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's an invitation from our Father Right.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: And not recognize sometimes that it's a lie.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like it takes us longer to realize, wait, that was a lie.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: That's not the truth.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the people that we spend time with, we know their voice, right?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so when we abide with someone, we spend time with him, then we get to know his voice, and then we can know the voice of the imposter.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_04: But so, so important to really tune our hearts in and be able to know what God's voice sounds like.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_04: And I know for some people, they're like, that sounds sounds like an alien concept.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_04: We have been at conferences and taught on this some, and I've had women tell me, I've never heard God speak to me.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, I think you probably have.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_04: You just didn't recognize it.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_04: Because the Bible says in John 10 that Jesus is our good shepherd and the sheep know his voice.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_04: And so in those moments, I try to invite them to think about a time.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_04: Because I think sometimes people think like, it's a burning bush moment.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_04: Like if God speaks to you, you hear a thunderclap in the sky and an audible voice comes down and speaks to you and says something.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_04: And I've never had that.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_04: If I do, I'll be sure to tell you about it, but that's not what I'm talking about.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_04: It's just this gentle, soft, almost a knowing, not necessarily an audible voice at all, but If you're not sure if you can hear God's voice, you're not sure, well, what is God's voice versus the imposter's voice?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, for one thing, God's voice is never full of shame and condemnation because the Bible says there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_04: So if whatever inner voice you're hearing is critical and is trying to beat you up for all the things that you've done wrong in your life, that's not God.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_04: So that's a pretty simple one.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_04: But I try to encourage people to think in the past.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_04: of a time where you felt the nearness of God, the kindness of God, or you saw God just really show up for you.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_04: And it doesn't have to be a big way.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_04: It could be a very small way.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_04: And just allow your mind and heart to remember and rehearse.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_04: There's so many times God commands us to remember who he is and what he's done and just allow those memories of God's kindness to come into your mind, remember how that felt.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_04: And that's kind of how it's almost like tuning in radio, which I know this is going to date me.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_04: And yes, I am of a generation where there used to be a dial that you would turn and you would hear static and then slowly it would become clearer and clearer and clearer.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_04: And then if you got to adjust the right, turn the dial just enough, the voice was clear.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_04: And so if you feel like you're struggling hearing God's voice and remembering and rehearsing those things in your mind are a great way to kind of get the knob tuned in to where you can really know who God is.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_04: And sometimes worship music helps me do that.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_04: But just a time of meditating on who God is, remembering what He's done for me, then allows my heart to be more open to say to God, you know, what do you want to say to me?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_04: And I think the easiest question to always start with, if you don't feel comfortable that you're hearing who God is, is, you know, how do you love me?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_04: Because you know he does.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_04: The answer is not going to be, well, I don't.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_04: But God may bring a scripture to your mind.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_04: He may bring a memory of something to your mind.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_04: There are different ways that God can speak to us in those moments.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_04: And the other thing that always comes along, if I'm hearing the voice of God, there's just this sense of peace.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_04: And it may just be almost like a thought flashes across my mind, not necessarily, again, a voice.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_04: I have never heard an audible voice of God in my life.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_04: As you just kind of know in your knowers, the only way I know how to describe it, but as you know in your knower, I think this is where I'm supposed to be headed or I think this is the direction God is leading me.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_04: There's just this subtle peace that comes with it.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_03: And
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_04: so even with younger kids, as I've tried to kind of help them to learn how to tune in, they're like, you got to follow the peace.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_04: And so if you're making a decision and you don't have peace about it, then you don't move until you do.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_04: And so I think there's lots of ways that we can begin to picture who God is, remember his faithfulness, because it is just as in this story with mom.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_04: She was standing at the window rehearsing all the ways that people had not been there for her.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_04: If you do that, then you're going to feel abandoned.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_04: And it's so easy to do.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_04: Cause I mean, I remember doing that many a time where it's just like one bad thing happens.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_04: Then all of a sudden, you know, the Eeyore syndrome comes along and I'm rehearsing every way that everything has gone wrong.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_04: And this has been the worst day ever.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_04: And you start listing off everything that's happened versus stopping and going, you know what?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_04: God woke me up this morning and I was able to get myself up out of bed and and walk and clothe myself and feed myself.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_04: And I had the ability to leave my house and go do something.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_04: That's not something to take for granted as there are people who cannot.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_04: learning to focus in on the where is God in my day a thousand times that I don't even know that He's there.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I was thinking, Elizabeth, as you were sharing about the dial and the radio and the static, I was thinking even about my cell phone today.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: So here's a little bit more modern example.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you for bringing us into this entry.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_04: I
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: live in a little bit of a dead zone for some of the towers for my cell service.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so a lot of times when I have to take a phone call, I need to go outside into my backyard.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: And when I step into the backyard, I actually have a different perspective.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: I have to do that.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_02: So it gets frustrating at times.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, oh, I can't take the phone call to a walk outside, but my reception becomes clear on the phone.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: So I can actually have the phone call and I'm in a different space.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so sometimes that's what I was thinking about when you talk about the window, like just sometimes going to the, like looking at the window, we can stare at one thing.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_03: Or
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: we can begin to change our focus a little bit, shift our focus.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so in the book, you use the example of what part of God's creation reminds me of the kindness of God.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, honestly, right now I'm looking out a window and I see lovely roses blooming and growing, and I see a squirrel climbing up the fence.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: And it's a different perspective than if I turn my head and I look down at my computer in my desk.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: It allows me to look differently.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_04: And also remembering the truth of Zephaniah 317 that says God rejoices over us with singing.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_04: So sometimes I need to stop and just say, okay, God, what are you singing over me?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_04: And allow my heart and my mind to get quiet enough.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_04: And again, I've never heard an actual God singing a song.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_04: But oftentimes when I ask that question, there is a worship song or a Christian song.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes it's even a secular song that will start playing in my head.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_04: And it's reminding me of God's love for me and how much He cares for me.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_04: So I think God is far more willing to be a part of our lives than what we're asking for.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that's why He keeps going back to come and keep on coming.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_04: Like, abide with me.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_04: Fight to get into my rest.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_04: Because really, there's so much I can feel responsible for in a day.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_04: And there's, I mean, you think of not only my life, but ministry and my husband and my kids.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_04: All of us have them.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_04: There's a list a mile long of issues going on with people that we love, and it can get overwhelming.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_04: And so I can try to hurry and scurry and try to problem solve everybody's issues in all of their lives, or I can fight to get into the rest of who God is and just sit in the center of His belovedness, knowing that He is good and He is kind, not only to me, but to everyone I love.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_04: And he's got them and he's got them and I don't have to carry it all.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_04: And that is so refreshing, but also very hard to do because I think my own desire for control, I'll just be honest.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, some of it is the enemy, but a lot of it is just me feeling like I need to figure it out and I need to fix it.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_04: What our focus is to be like you said, Kimberly, a different perspective that we would focus on abiding in God, resting in his arms.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_04: allowing the closeness of our relationship with him to come in, speak to those wounded places.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_04: Some of them, like even yours, Kimberly, with a colic, you weren't even fully aware that that was an issue at some point in your life.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_04: And so allowing him to come in and speak to those issues in our lives and then not to be surprised if on a random Tuesday morning, all of a sudden we're having to battle it again.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_03: Because
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_04: I cannot remember who says it, but I've heard mom quote it many a time when she's talking about spiritual warfare.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_04: She says, where the line is drawn, the battle will begin.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_04: And so if we choose the line that we're drawing is, I'm going to choose to live in the beloved and as the beloved of God, that is where the enemy is going to try to come and say, Oh, yeah?
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_04: Let me see how much I can thwart this in your heart.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_04: Because he knows, he is fully aware of how important and powerful it is to just come and keep on coming back to God's love and live a life full of His love.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the invitation, the invitation He gives us.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: As we close out today, we pray that you will be blessed as you hear our friend and board member, Richard, reading The Blessing of Your Belovedness.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Blessing of Your Belovedness You are your Beloved's and He is yours.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: He called you His Beloved from eternity.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: Your Father was pleased to make you His own.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: The voice of your loving Father resonates in you in a deep place.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: He is blessing you every day with Himself, nothing less.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: He is there for you.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: Your Father wants you to know His deep bonds with you, His deep attachment to you with cords of never-ending love.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Hear Him speak to you about trust, faith, and love that is much deeper than the mindset of survival.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to Him say that the Beloved of the Lord rests secure in Him, for He shields Him all day long, and the one the Lord loves, rests between his shoulders.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: He is holding you close to himself.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: He is whispering to you, I care for you.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: I know every detail about you, and wherever you go, I go with you.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Wherever you rest, I keep watch.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: I give you food that will satisfy all your hunger, and I quench all your thirst.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: I will never hide my face from you.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing will ever separate us.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Wherever you are, I am.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Taste deeply of love, of God, and of truth.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Hear him speak to you about your deepest yearnings, your wishes, your hopes, and your dreams.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Know the treasure you are to your Father.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: You are a chosen one, a special person.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: noticed in your uniqueness, eternally valued.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: You are priceless and irreplaceable, safe in his everlasting embrace, at rest in his non-comparing love.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let your Abba protect your emotions as he surrounds you with the shield of his presence.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: Be blessed by your Father who can never leave you or forsake you.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: I want to thank you for listening to the Father's Business Podcast.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_04: Check us out at thefathersbusiness.com or follow us at The Father's Biz on Instagram and Facebook.