Latest / Kate’s Devotional Podcast / God, Why Can’t I Catch a Break in Life?

Transcript

God, Why Can’t I Catch a Break in Life? · Kate’s Devotional Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Kate Dresden, and welcome to Kate's devotional podcast.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I drop my podcast every Wednesday.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's always a five-minute or less devotional to bring you encouragement as we try
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: to live our lives according to the Bible.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: So glad you're here.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to talk about how discouraging it is when one bad thing after
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: another happens,
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: and it feels like the problems just keep piling up.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, recently, my friend Gary had a doctor's appointment.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: He'd been having a lot of tests, trying to figure out why his health was declining so fast.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: The doctor told him they not only found cancer, but they found two different types of cancer.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: He was already dealing with an autoimmune disease that was giving him a lot of problems.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I can't even imagine how one tries to process all of that.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: But it got me to thinking,
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: sometimes in life we feel like we're in a game of whack-a-mole that's the game
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: where you have a mallet and every time a little furry mole pops up in the game you
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: have to hit it down and the minute you get one down another one pops up life can
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: feel like that just as soon as you think you have a problem under control another
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: one pops up and sometimes you have a lot of hard things going on at once
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: When too many bad things start happening in our lives,
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: we can feel crushed by the heaviness of our burdens.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: We start to wonder if God even cares.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: The discouragement we feel can act like blinders that cover our eyes,
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: and then we can lose sight of our hope.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: After all,
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: we're doing our best to live for the Lord,
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: so why does he allow one hard thing after another into our lives?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it can seem downright unfair, like God's not watching out for us.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to lose heart.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So what can we do when we feel like this?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm going to give you three things that I thought of.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, we can be honest with God about our discouragement.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: in spite of being overwhelmed by our circumstances,
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: we can still draw near to him and ask for comfort.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: After all,
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 1,
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: 3 and 4,
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to read out the New King James Version.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: It says,
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: who comforts us in all our tribulation.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: We can ask God to help us feel his presence and help us not to feel so discouraged.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, we don't want to lose hope.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Waiting patiently on the Lord is never easy,
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: especially when it takes a long time before we see any type of improvement or help.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 5, 7 says we walk by faith, not by sight.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to trust God when things are going well,
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: but when nothing makes sense,
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: we have to hang on to our hope.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Trusting in God is our lifeline.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And number three, we don't want to panic or worry.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Many times we focus only on the bad things happening right in front of us,
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: and we fail to see the bigger picture.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us to seek God first and trust in him for the rest.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew 6,
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: 33 and 34 says,
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: and all these things shall be added unto you.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Our situations in life are going to work out according to God's sovereign plan, not ours.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes God's timing is way different than ours.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I believe our job is to have faith,
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: seek truth in the scripture,
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: practice gratitude,
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: and wait patiently on the Lord.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I know those things are a lot easier said than done.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: I know I'm just like you.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I struggle with the problems piling up too.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: But let's try these things.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about being honest with God about our discouragement,
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: not losing hope,
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: and trying not to worry or panic about everything.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: This week's been a hard week for me,
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: so I'm going to be trying to take my own advice,
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: and I hope it can help you too.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you want more of my podcasts or written devotionals,
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: check out my free Substack account at katedreston.substack.com.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Make it a great day, and thanks for listening.