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EP 56 How to Combat Wrong Thoughts - Richelle Voth · iRefresh Podcast

• 0:05
  After a decade of gathering women together for prayer, we are inspired to bring our words of encouragement to you. This is iRefresh. I Refresh.
• 0:16
  Welcome to iRefresh, where we're ordinary women who desire to do extraordinary things for the power of prayer in God's Word. Today I have my friend with me, Rochelle Voth. Hi, everyone. Thanks for having me. Well, I thought it would be kind of fun for us to just take some dive into the Word of God. And the Lord has been really showing some wonderful treasures from His Word to Rochelle. So what is it? You were telling me it was out of John, but tell me a little bit of the backdrop. Like where was God leading you? What were you working through?
• 0:43
  It was kind of in the season of COVID. We were a few months after it had all kind of launched in the U.S. And just the pressure of all the anxieties that had kind of really come to town with that. In my personal life, I work in the ICU as a physician assistant. And, you know, there was just a lot in that terrain and that climate of fear.
• 1:02
  a lot of fear going on. And I started realizing that I was thinking a lot of fear-based thoughts and a lot of anxiety-based thoughts. And those, oddly enough, turned into accusations. Like, have you ever had the thought, Cheryl, like when you put on a pair of jeans, oh, I don't look good, I look fat. Or, yeah, I mean, we're women, right? Yes. Or I started hearing when I was in my daily job, you don't know what you're doing. Who thinks you can help?
• 1:27
  Wow. You know, and so I started realizing that these thoughts were kind of accumulating and I wasn't really necessarily doing anything about them. I was just letting them pass. Okay. And so I was sitting in my backyard one day when I had some time to do so and I was reading in John chapter 8 about the woman, the adulterous woman that was brought before Jesus. And the Pharisees were trying to say to him, what do we do here?
• 1:51
  knowing full well that he knew what the law of Moses said to do, but they were accusing her of something. And I kind of sat with me because I thought, I feel like that woman. I feel like I'm being accused all the time. And so I just started reading the story a little bit and the Lord showed me something that I'd never realized before. And he took me actually back to the beginning a little bit at the end of John in chapter 7.
• 2:14
  So if we could even just read a little bit of chapter 8. That would be wonderful. Yeah, let's do it. I think that would be fun because I know the Bible story. I grew up in Bible school, but sometimes you miss things. Exactly. I agree. And so it's just fun, I think, to read the Word of God. If I can read it, that would be okay. Let's do it. We'll start in chapter 8 and then I'll go to chapter 7 where I think the key to understanding chapter 8 is. But in chapter 8 it says, Jesus went to the Mount of the Olives. Now early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him, and he sat down and he taught them.
• 2:42
  Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought him to a woman caught in adultery. Okay. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to him, teacher, this woman was caught in adultery in the very act. Now, Moses and the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do you say? Okay.
• 2:59
  They said this, testing him, that they might have something, right, of which to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down to the ground and wrote on the ground with his finger as though he did not hear. It made me laugh when I first heard that. I was like, huh? Kind of rude. Right, a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, he doesn't play their game. It's part of the reason. There we go. So when they continued asking him, they were persistent and consistent, like many of our accusers and our thoughts are, right? Oh, yes. He raised himself up and said to them,
• 3:28
  He who is without sin amongst you, let him throw a stone at her first. And again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it being convicted by their conscience went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even to the last. And Jesus was left alone and the woman was standing in the midst.
• 3:46
  When Jesus had raised himself up and saw no one but the woman, he said to her, woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? And she said, no one, Lord. And Jesus said to her, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.
• 4:01
  And you know, Cheryl, I've always grown up hearing that story, been taught it in Bible class. And I always kind of focused on the woman's story and identify with the woman because there were so many accusers around here. The law of Moses said we need to stone her for the act of sin that she's committed. But I actually, the Holy Spirit kind of brought to my mind a different perspective. And he brought it to me from the viewpoint of Jesus and how he dealt with the Pharisees before he dealt with the woman. Okay.
• 4:27
  Because as a woman, I think we like the feeling of protection. We like to know that we're protected. And Jesus does that for us on a daily basis. And I see him in this deal with her accusers first before he then gently deals with her. So I said to the Lord, you know, Lord, I feel like I'm being accused.
• 4:45
  in so many ways and forms in my head internally. I don't know what to do. Will you help me? I want the same defense team that you're giving me here. And so that's when he brought me to a little piece in the story above in chapter 7. And in chapter 7, there's one verse where he's talking to... Actually, I think Nicodemus was talking about...
• 5:05
  But it gives you an insight into how the Jewish law and tradition thought and behaved back then. For he says in chapter 7, verse 51, does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?
• 5:20
  So kind of an interesting verse, right? And you're like, where are you going with that? But it struck me, the way we judge people, the way the Pharisees and the Sadducees had positional authority and power was based off of what people said. They could judge them against their speech and they could judge them against their actions.
• 5:39
  So when I read that, and then I placed it in the context of chapter 8 and looking at, the whole point wasn't necessarily in the Sadducees and Pharisees case about the woman. They were really using the woman to get to Jesus. Right. Right? So she was a pawn. She was a pawn. Yeah. Yeah. And it made me mad. Yeah. It made me really mad. They had wronged her. I was like, how dare they? You know? I sure wouldn't want to be that woman. I mean, can you imagine the embarrassment, first of all? I mean, you're in this situation. But then it's not even really about her. It was really about...
• 6:06
  them trying to trick him because it says that directly. And God kind of brought to my attention how, um, in the spiritual realm, I think where, where the origin of these accusations come from and how we can combat them and deal with them is how we look at Jesus's response. So the Sadducees and Pharisees are based on, um, the principle of the law, the words of Moses, the teachings of prior scriptural fathers, right? And it says that, um, where is it? Um.
• 6:37
  When they asked him about this woman in adultery, they said, what do you say? Because they wanted him to speak. The power of those words. Right. Absolutely. That's interesting. Because I've been really paying attention to my power.
• 6:52
  about what I'm projecting out. But when you just said that, I'm like, okay. So, because they knew there was power in whatever came out of his mouth. Right. Okay. So, because how they judge someone is based off of what they say, and then what they do and how they behave. So their speech and their actions.
• 7:11
  And isn't that just like the law of the world, right? We are judged based off what we say and what we do, largely, right? So if he was to have said to them, yeah, it is said that in the scriptures, then he would have been bound to their contract of understanding of how things work and how things are supposed to be done.
• 7:28
  So when I hear, to put it in a context where you can understand, I hear, okay, Rochelle, you're fat. And I say, yeah, you know, my size two jeans just aren't fitting me this morning. I feel fat. Well, now I've just spoken it into existence. I've come into contract with that accusation. But Jesus did it. He did it. He actually, it says he pretended as if he did not hear.
• 7:51
  Wow. So he actually almost didn't. He heard it, but he didn't receive it, which I thought was very interesting, because how many things do we hear that we just take and we receive? Right. Right. But he, you know, he's playing charades a little bit.
• 8:07
  I think it's funny. I'm like, Jesus has got a whole lot more wit than I never knew and a whole lot more grit to him. Right. Because he just ignored them. How many of you, I wouldn't think to be like, yeah, you just said that. I'm going to write in the ground, you know, to show you how unimportant that thought was. You are insignificant. Right. It does say that to them. That's so true. Mm-hmm. It really does. Because they were the influencers of the day. Absolutely.
• 8:27
  And they just think that whatever they say, it goes. Right. Wow, okay. And they hold positional authority, but based off of the law, which is speech and the actions of judgment, right? That's the only way they can excise their authority on others, is when they are able
• 8:46
  to judge a person based off of the law. Okay? So when I was reading that and understanding that, I thought, Jesus, what are you doing? You know, what are you doing? Why are you doing that? And then I realized, okay, step one, listen to what the thoughts are that you're having, the accusations, decide where they're coming from, right? And then decide whether or not you're going to receive them in your hearing or not. That was kind of an insight that I gained. I was like, oh, I have the choice to listen to things or not.
• 9:14
  And then it says he continued, they continued asking him. So those voices won't necessarily stop just because you chose to ignore them. Right? Right. So I was like, well, God, how do I handle those thoughts then? And so I keep going down further. And I've often realized that those thoughts that come at you, they're persistent and they're constant. Totally. I mean, we have the thing. Daily. Yeah. Right. Literally daily. Absolutely. It's like you mow the grass and then you have to mow it again. Nobody likes doing that. Right.
• 9:44
  But so what Jesus does, what he responds, he says instead, instead of responding to their original question, he actually responds back at them with a question, almost lops the question back at them. He says, who of you is without sin? Who of you?
• 10:02
  Because what he's doing is he's not coming into contract with their law and their authority because by his speech he is not agreeing with them. Wow. And instead what he's doing is he is actually asserting his own authority in some sense. And he's taking his position because God or Jesus was fully man and he was fully God. Right.
• 10:21
  So he was not under the contract of the law, though they did not know that. Right. Right. He was under the contract of redemption in the blood of Jesus Christ. His own blood, his own father lived within him. The Holy Spirit dwelt with him. Right. So he's not operating on the law like society expected him to. And so he says, who have you is without sin?
• 10:40
  And not a one person could stand there and cast a stone. It was kind of quiet. It was absolutely quiet. Yes. Because he stood up and he took his authority in Jesus, who he was, the blood hood of God, and he spoke back to them and said, essentially he said, you don't own me.
• 11:00
  Right. He said, you don't own me. You don't have authority against me, essentially. And what I thought was also interesting, there's this, you know, I love about scriptures, these little tidbits that go in and out. You know, you just the more you sit with it, the more detail pops out to you. And how it relates to us. Absolutely. Right. Yeah, absolutely. God is just the best author in the world.
• 11:19
  But I caught this detail because it said underneath it, beginning with the oldest, even to the last people left one by one. And I thought, how good of Jesus is he to us to deal with things from the past and the present? So those voices you've heard since you were four, since you were 14, those accusations that come against you that might've been planted when you were young, but have just germinated that you didn't even know about or the ones that you just picked up today on the news. Right? Right. The skincare commercials that say, you don't have good skin.
• 11:48
  Those inherent messages that come at you. Don't they though? They do. You know, what I like about this is that all of those who would be accusing him, all of those that were ready to cast up a stone, they left. From the least of them to the greatest of them. From the first of them to the oldest of them. Isn't it amazing though? Think about it. They never came back to...
• 12:09
  go to another question. Absolutely. Or redirect back to the original question to try to trap him. When you realize the authority that you have in the spiritual realm, it's done. You know, when you speak from a personhood of, I know who I am and I know what Jesus says about me, nothing can stand against that. That's great. It's dealt with, right? And those other things have to leave because you literally just played your ace.
• 12:36
  Right. Right. I love it. You're going to win the game here. Yes. So if we go a little bit further, what I loved about it was that he first dealt with her accusers because I don't think she could maybe necessarily hear. Can you imagine the noise that was there? All this crowd of stoners coming after not stoner stoners, but stones coming after her, you know?
• 12:57
  And these Pharisees saying, you, you, you, you, you, you did this, you did that. You know, we're going to stone you. And he cleared the room first before he came and spoke to her. And I thought that's just the kindness of Christ, right, to all of us, to deal with your accusers. Well, I mean, too, it gives her a safety to not feel humiliated any longer, which is what they were trying to do.
• 13:21
  And yet, that's so good when you say that. I'm like, you know, that's the gentleman that he tries to do everything to take care of and shut it down in order for him to then have that one-on-one with her. Right, right. I've always said God's been a better man to me than any man I've ever known. I don't mean to be rude to men. I just mean that he is such a gentleman
• 13:39
  to us personally, and I love seeing this story in the context of a woman. Another thing I thought about was the sin of adultery. You can really extrapolate that. I mean, adultery could really, really what adultery is at the core of it is anything that comes into or that we make a bed with that is not the perfectness of Jesus Christ, right?
• 13:57
  And so when we're talking about adultery here, it's obviously in a certain context, but if you really take it larger, this really applies to all of us. Because we've all committed adultery in that sense of breaking away from that perfect union with Christ. And here, I love that he's kind of using adultery as the example because this just so relates to all of us and puts us all in the same container of that story of that woman. So if you go on a little bit more,
• 14:25
  She says, there's no one here, right? And then he says, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. And I have some notes here because I like to remember some things. But what really hit me was and why I kind of titled this like laughably, humorly. I said, you know, Jesus, you did the groundwork. You literally wrote in the ground. You did her groundwork for her so that she could go live and be set free. And so when I was sitting there that afternoon, I was kind of wrestling and kind of going through all of this. And I'm a writer. That's why I have all these note sheets.
• 14:54
  I know you do too. Oh yeah, I do. All the time. It's a reference point, which is so good. Because I love to highlight that. Oh, I do too. To see the goodness of God. Absolutely. And then you have a memory of it. Because I think there's something about writing it. And there's something about speaking it. And then there's something about processing it, like we're doing here today. Oh, right. That just really solidifies things for you because you walk out the truth. Amen. I agree. What I loved about this was...
• 15:17
  I felt like the Holy Spirit kind of led me to understand the law and what the Pharisees were trying to do to her, binded her to an outcome, right? She commits adultery. She dies by stone. No mercy. No mercy. None. None. Judgment. Pure judgment. And the accusation held the weight of that power of authority to do so to her. Right. But because Jesus, and Jesus was perfectly God and perfectly loving, Mm-hmm.
• 15:41
  He decided that, you know, or not decided, I'm sorry, he acts upon, he doesn't act within that same law. And his law does not bind us to our expected outcome. Because when you hear an accusation, don't you think, I feel fat, okay? Well, that's my fault, right? Well, so now I'm gonna go eat more ice cream because it's just my fault anyways, right? There's a law, there's an accusation, and there's an outcome. So you believe. You believe, right? Because what does it say? So as you think in your heart,
• 16:10
  is are you or my but no my pronouns are off no but you become what you think right so you give into that that that beginning of a doubt right and it grows right just like you know james talks about that when first you know even sin sin is just a thought yeah but again when we begin to give root to that thought
• 16:29
  then it becomes full-fledged. It says, then it leads us to death because we give into a sin if we take it beyond just as thought. So it's that same thing, that same process of what he's doing. Yeah, that's good. A little bit of yeast spreads through the whole amount of dough. Oh, yeah. All that kind of same verbology in that sense. I think I made up that word.
• 16:48
  New word. Verbology. Cheryl is concordance. Exactly. I love it. So what I loved about that moment was what Jesus, how he showed to me that one, you don't have to accept the accusations coming against you. Two, he is my defender. And as a daughter of Christ.
• 17:05
  I have access to his authority, not the legality of the world in the spiritual sense of it. You still honor your president. You still honor your kings and queens. But I'm talking about in the spiritual sense of the word. And then three, you can actually say back to them, who are you to speak to me in that way? How dare you come against me almost? I mean, you've got to get your boots on and stand up and say, I'm a daughter of the king. You have no place here. You cannot speak to me in that way.
• 17:32
  And then I just love that His love sets you free from that contract that, you know, technically under fallen sin, we were judged. We were once, right? But today's a new day. And today is the day of Jesus Christ. And today is the work of the redemption of the blood of Jesus over our lives. And because of that, we don't have to succumb to sin. We don't have to stay in the adultery of being torn from Jesus. We can come to Him.
• 17:59
  When he comes to us, he gives us freedom. All he said to her was, go and sin no more. He just said, go and sin no more. I mean, I would have thought he would have told me, you know, you have to go to this rehab program and you have to turn left here and you have to wear this and then you need to make your bed and now you have to serve this punishment in time, right? Yes. He didn't do any of that. He said, just go and sin no more.
• 18:17
  Simple. Simple. Simple. So it just helped me in a time and a season, I think, especially in our culture in the day and age of what we're going through. We have so many voices coming at us, you know, and how do we weed through the noise of what's true and what's right and what's false and what we want to believe is our truth. And that's good. How do we separate these accusations from?
• 18:38
  the essence of who we are, how do we choose that, how do we define that? And this just helped me understand as long as I'm walking with Jesus and I ask him to help me delineate between the voices and to defend me when I need to, and help me learn how to defend myself, then the armor of God will protect me and will let me walk free. So, okay, so you go from the point of not accepting, so not giving a foothold really.
• 19:03
  of taking in a lie and knowing the difference. You know, sometimes it's our own self-talk. It's absolutely our own self-talk. So sometimes we give the enemy a lot of credit, but sometimes it's what we have allowed ourselves to focus on that causes us to have bad self-talk. Absolutely. Or if we're competing or comparing ourselves with somebody else, our talk becomes our enemy. Right.
• 19:27
  So you're saying when, if you even compared yourself or whatever caused you to think less than who God called you to be. Exactly. Then the first thing you do is you said, you know, to listen to where it comes from. Absolutely. Yeah. But that's discipline. Yeah, it is discipline and it's not easy. And we have so many thoughts. I know Carolyn, like, Leif talks about this. You know, I forget what the number is, but statistically like. What?
• 19:49
  exactly it's a good word yes of you know how many thoughts come through your head every day so to some point you feel like that's exhausting you mean I think about every single one of those thoughts twice kinda like I gotta review them almost like a filtered gate I mean you know that that's so true because you know when the scripture is so overly used almost is taking captive every thought right
• 20:09
  But if you really break it down, is the first time when you wake up, what's your first thought? Is it like a, of, thank you Lord for this day, or if it's a gratitude, or it's like, oh. Right. You know, I mean, we begin our morning is how are we going to reflect
• 20:25
  how the day is going to be. Absolutely. Because we almost give ourselves a way to which direction is going to be harder. Because starting now, you can begin at the heart. It's like, to me, what you're telling me is it's the discipline like if you were to exercise. If you haven't worked out for a long time or ever,
• 20:42
  You know, like when they go back and working out, it's brutal. Yeah. Oh, it's not fun. And it's not nearly as hard as when you were in shape and you go back to it. Very true. You're going to be in pain. I know. I think it's still a good pain. But nevertheless, you are going to feel it and hurt. But that discipline ultimately makes us feel better. Absolutely.
• 21:03
  And I think if we look at the long game, which is what you were saying about Jesus was looking at a longer game. It was not just this immediate, what they were trying to do, but he also was looking at her heart and he wanted to do a work in her. And protecting her. Yes, yes. I love that, that he wants to protect us even from our own past. Absolutely. And give us hope for the new future because he's saying, don't sin anymore.
• 21:31
  Right. And that's very true because to some degree he was saying don't send her no more. So she did have a responsibility in all of this to play. Right. Exactly. Absolutely. But I think I would think if I was her and I had just seen what had happened, I would have been amazed. Right. Oh, totally. I mean, basically, you just got out of jail free. You're like, well, I never saw that coming.
• 21:51
  I wouldn't. I would not. Because I think in the terms of the law, right? Totally, yes. I think if A then plus B equals C, and I'm a medical background, that's a lot more ingrained into me than some other creative people in the world. Yes. But C didn't happen. A and B did, right? She committed the sin, the Pharisees caught her. So C should have been death. Yeah. But death didn't happen. She actually got a second chance with the instructions,
• 22:16
  to take it and run with it for herself, the love of Jesus Christ, and to change her ways and her thoughts, probably. That's not said directly in here, but he dealt with her accusers. And I think sometimes we just have to ask Jesus to help us get out of our own head even. And I think that's why the Word of God is so important, is because it does do that for us. This is living scripture, and it gives us that, almost that turn on that light bulb. You know what I do, Cheryl? Sometimes I ask the Lord when I'm really struggling,
• 22:44
  Holy Spirit, would you give me a breakthrough thought? And I clarify it that way because to me that acknowledges that I can't, I'm sometimes not good enough to figure out my own problems and to mess through the weeds. So Holy Spirit, would you drop revelation into my life? And he's good to do it almost every time within 24 hours, somewhere in my day. He brings that thought that I needed, that counteractive, because again, he's not the law, right? He's love.
• 23:11
  And he's relational. Now, God is judgmental. Don't hear me wrong. Well, no, there's a difference. Yeah. Because we're still now we're under instead of just the law. Right. We're under the grace. But that doesn't mean you take grace for granted. Correct. Because I think Paul does talk about that, too. Yeah. We're still supposed to to press in and try to go and sin no more. Right.
• 23:31
  Right, absolutely. I've known Jesus to be a good person to me in that way. He's been my protector, my defender. He's been my breakthrough thought keeper. I love that. And when you said he's a defender, that's like a strong, especially for a woman, we need to feel secure and safe.
• 23:51
  And knowing that that's exactly what Jesus was doing, is giving her a point of knowing you are safe. You're no longer under that, but now I'm going to put a charge to you to now move this way. I think we can all take a lesson from that, is we can recognize, I tell you, overcoming negative thoughts of my past, and it doesn't take much if you get around somebody else who has that, you get on the same soapbox, and you go down that path. And I've learned, I'm like,
• 24:19
  It's better to just be quiet. So it gives you an opportunity to not give ammunition or like you talked about giving power to words. Right. That become authority over your life. But redirect in your mind. Yes. What it's supposed to be. Very true. And declaring. Mm-hmm.
• 24:35
  what it should be like. Yeah. I mean, he literally just, maybe we all need to walk around with a little bit of sand and some artwork, you know? So when somebody says something to us, we just start drawing on the ground. And we say, Jesus drew, he did my groundwork, he's drawing the ground. I don't know. I love it. Maybe that would be therapeutic for me, but yeah. The art part in your family, I know, for sure. That's true. But I think that this is a powerful thing when we know that,
• 25:00
  God is wanting us to look at a different realm of looking at not what our past was. Right. But the anticipation, knowing what he had for us in the future. I love that. You know, I think that that's the hope and that, gosh, what a joy of knowing that our father thinks those good thoughts. Right. He says to think on those things what are pure and lovely and a good report.
• 25:23
  And I think originally, you know, maybe we're in a season and we go through seasons where it's even harder than ever to counteract those judgments and those wrong thoughts. Right. But I also know that as we overcome and we begin to worship the Lord, I think worship is a lot of ways to battle.
• 25:41
  I agree. A lot more ways to battle our mind. When our mind is just not listening, I put headphones on. I'm like, I am not even going to give room to anything but worship. Like I was borrowing my sons. I put one on last night. Oh, these are really cool. I like these. And I'm like, then someone's trying to talk to me. I'm like, you're like, what? I got worship on.
• 26:01
  But it totally shifts everything into where it becomes where our body and our mind and our spirit get into alignment with what he says we are. That's good. And it's just like exercise. As we begin to do it, if we get disciplined at the beginning, it gets a bit easier. And then there's a routine.
• 26:20
  You know, I have a family, like some of us are very routine. And it helps you so you don't forget something. But if we get this into a routine, where, like you said, is the first time you hear a particular thought, where is it coming from? Right. Identify the source. Right. You know, is it just like we would today? What was it? Who did that quote come from? They come from your mother, from CNN, from the doctor, from the patient you were with, from your brother, your sister. Who said that to you? And one of the things I've learned in trying to ask myself that thought, because sometimes I don't know. Sometimes I have a hard time.
• 26:50
  was it me? Did I make that up? What's the feeling you're having with it? Is it something negative? Is it something positive? Because I think that just helps you clue you in a little bit, because Jesus is never, it says he never condemns us, right? In John chapter 30. It says he did not come to the world to condemn. He came because he loved. So if it's not, if that thought is not
• 27:14
  sitting with you and marinating in a way that feels, I'm not talking about like lovey-dovey, I got to love myself type way, a good feeling of love, but I am talking about a kindness. If it's not coming at you with a kindness, then likely the source is probably a little bit off. You know, at least it's not Jesus.
• 27:30
  As you do that, it helps to solidify who you are, what your identity is. I think that all of us, we get into that place where we have a struggle with our identity at some point or in different parts of our lives. It comes back and we're really challenged is to think less of who we are. I mean, I even posted something today too of just really seeing and reflecting back on what God's been doing in this year of allowing me, as I've been reading in His Word and some other books that have complemented and part of His Word,
• 27:59
  is transforming my thought process because I'm in the Word. So the Word helps me to throw out the trash. And it's kind of hard. Like if God says, I am this, and who am I to say that I'm less than if God says this?
• 28:17
  I have to say it by faith. I don't necessarily believe it, but I'm gonna say it by faith because it's difficult to receive it when if you don't like yourself, you don't like some part of you. Either it's a physical or a character flaw we feel like we have, or someone's spoken about they don't like something or they mock. I've listened to someone who mocked a relative of mine inside of me and it's like, oh, I don't like that feeling when I see someone mocking another person.
• 28:46
  Because I feel almost all they did to me. So I feel like that rising up to defend them. Absolutely. And you think about it, you just talk about that. That's who Jesus is for us. Yes. Defending us of those thoughts and not because they just hinder what God called us to do. They do. It is habitual. It is routine. Yes. But that's where he's good because, by the way, he's been around for forever. So, you know, he's not tired of it. He's got this. He's got this. He's got this.
• 29:14
  So I probably need a little more help and encouragement than he ever tells me. But I think it's been neat to just kind of recapture my thoughts in a way from the viewpoint that Jesus is going to help me understand and defend me, where I might need a little bit of extra legal counsel on my team. That's good. Because until you kind of realize what you're wrestling with, and until you really realize, you brought up a good point, until you really realize who you are,
• 29:41
  you won't stand up in yourself to say, no, I don't agree with that. Because if you didn't, I don't know, you're just going to let things come at you if you don't have any type of defense plan. But how does a defense Green Bay Packer know that he shouldn't go after his teammate? It's because he knows who he is, right? He knows that the other team was wearing the wrong color. Yeah.
• 30:04
  So he knows his position. He stands in his position. He fights against the other position because he knows that he's trained for years with this team. Right. So that is a good kind of way to think about it. For those out there that maybe you have also, I don't think there's not one of us who has not had a struggle.
• 30:22
  and accepting thoughts or people's viewpoints in one way or the other, whether it's through social media or just in life and counter-interacting with people. Even when you're around family and friends, sometimes we let down and we say things we didn't mean to say. But those really have permeated our hearts.
• 30:42
  You know, the thing is, is God wants us to be quick to release it and forgive it and let it go. Yeah. Because if it's spoken to us and it didn't come from within ourselves, we also need to walk in love and forgiveness. Right. Because really, Jesus was doing that for her. Absolutely. Can you even just talk to those out there that might be struggling? What would you want to encourage them with, with what God showed you? With all of this. One, I just I think.
• 31:04
  I think first it helps me to understand that God is a whole lot kinder than we think. Okay. I think sometimes we think of God in the way that we perceive ourselves and the way that others have perceived him to us. But this story tells me that God is first and foremost concerned about me and the way that I am dealt with. Right. And the way that I see myself and the way that...
• 31:33
  I get to live a free life because he wanted freedom for her. He didn't want her to be judged. If he did, he would have let them. Right? Plain and simple. So I think that was my first takeaway is that God wants to be with me. God wants me to live free. God doesn't want me to live in that confused place of negativity and chaos and accusations every day.
• 31:56
  But there is a part to play. If I look at the way that he dealt with it, I can model his way. Right now, knowing that this is who he is for me and to me and who he wants to be with me. But I can now look at how he did it for me. And now I need to start training myself to do it in the same way.
• 32:14
  And so I think I kind of took that to rest with me. And so now when I hear those thoughts, I'll say this truly. When I asked to pray to the Lord and I said, Jesus, would you defend me? Would you help me stand up against these accusers? And I actually felt the power of God come near me. And I felt almost like a roar over me. And I heard kind of in, you know how when you hear things and you don't hear a voice, but you hear God. I heard him say, I am jealous with love for you.
• 32:42
  And I felt like he cleared the room. I really did. And since that day, I've been quicker to catch the voices that come at me. I still have to capture them. There's still a filter, right? There's still a grass to grow and to mow. But I'm more aware ever since I read this and had this understanding and this revelation. And ever since I've been a little bit kinder to myself because I realized that Jesus is just as kind. So I don't know if that helps, but that's kind of where I was at.
• 33:09
  You know, I think one of the things that we need to do is, too, is just, it was a phrase my mom always used with me when I'd be hard on myself. No one was a greater enemy than myself. I would be quick to condemn myself because then if I'd said the worst thing, then nobody can trump what I had already said about myself.
• 33:28
  So, you know, she would tell me is extend grace to yourself. That's a good word. And I think that's what we want to encourage you is to extend grace to yourself. See what Jesus did, that he is your defender. Consider what those thoughts, when they come, do. Just like Rochelle said, Rochelle was talking about how those thoughts, what kind of mood do they create? Yeah. Because God is not a God of depression. No. And defeat. Yeah. And anxiety is not. Mm-mm.
• 33:56
  I mean, this is part of overcoming the fears and anxieties that she's really speaking to. It is, the Lord has really laid out a map for us to begin to recognize that he's not our accuser, but our defender. Right. And it's just powerful that he has done this for us. So we want to encourage you to take this, listen to it a few times. Because part of it is just getting into that exercising and cement it into our mind of stopping the thoughts
• 34:24
  and only allowing the thoughts that come in that are going to bring that inner joy and the peace that God has for us. Yeah, but just to your point, you know, in today's day and age when we're hearing so many messages across all platforms, right? Family, friends, media, Internet, etc.
• 34:39
  I've turned it off. I've just simply turned it off. And for almost three days straight, I just had, like you said, worship music playing in my house. And I just got close to the Lord. And I just let that be my zone that I was operating out of. Because if I do listen to all those other messages, fear, anxiety, judgment, condemnation, doom, gloom. Gosh, it got really heavy.
• 34:58
  So I just said, enough. I said, enough. Tune it out. I said, who are you to speak to me? Amen. I said, in the name of Jesus, we're going to just clear the air and we're going to get right thinking. We're going to get good songs. Amen. God will lead me. God will guide me because he just so wants our attention and he wants us to believe in him and to be with him on a daily basis. That's great. Powerful. We tag team together.
• 35:24
  Well, thank you. This is really good. Thank you for listening in. And we hope that you also share that with your loved ones and just be encouraged that God has you. He is your defender. He wants to help to rewrite the story that other people have maybe been sharing with you because of the story and who he says who you are.
• 35:42
  So get in touch with us at irrefresh.net. We are on most of the social media out there today. So we'd love to hear from you. And if we can pray with you and encourage you, even as you're walking through the same thing we are, I would love to see how we can encourage you as well or testify what God has been taking you through. Until then, go change your world. Perfect.