Latest / Beliefs, Ballots, And BullDawgs / Wednesday May 20, 2026
Transcript
- Greg: Good morning, everyone. It is Wednesday, May 20th. I'm your host, Greg Miller, and you have reached the podcast of Beliefs, Balance, and Bets. Today's theme is going to be persevering through challenges, and we're going to talk about maybe some practical ways to keep going when the road gets long and hope feels small. We have to remember that endurance is learned and earned, not inherited. The scripture of the day is Hebrews chapter 12, verses one through three. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning at shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Scripture here is, ⁓ it's picturing perseverance as running a race, but in our case, this ⁓ is a faith-based race. This is not based on self-powered endurance, but rather, fixing our eyes on Jesus and the future with him. Two things that really matter here is dropping what weighs you down and keeping a forward, faith-filled gaze at what the ultimate issue is. The problem is we normally when we get through some tough times, we just try to muscle through it and we just put our head down and deal with the shame or comparison and denial, which is only going to make the race longer and harder and in this case, lonelier because you're going through everything by yourself. There's some things we can do and three of these common traps that we talked about, ⁓ one of them is we often deal with hidden burdens and... And maybe this manifests itself in the form of, know, unconfessed sin, possibly some unrealistic expectations or some shame from the past that slows you down because you just never quite got over it. ⁓ Another trap after hidden burns is sometimes it's short-term fixes. The old adage of putting a bandaid on a bullet wound, so to speak. Sometimes you can find a quick escape or something that makes you feel better in the short term, but long term it's just gonna end up creating more work and draining you even further. And then the third real big trap people deal with is just isolation. Feeling like when troubles come up that they're meant to go through them all and they don't want to burden anybody else. Each of these traps is really going to hinder your ability to get through life in a faithful manner. Hidden burdens, short term fixes, or trying to be an isolationist. It's not what God calls us to do and all of these can be... can be addressed with some gospel shaped practices and simply keeping our eyes focused on Jesus. Some short, kind of quick little tips that I use, and one of them is reframing the race. And remember that your life and the course set out before you is, it's a course shaped by God. So when something, when you're going through something, when trials or tribulations are all around you, Instead of asking yourself, you know, why me? Why is this happening to me? Why am I having to deal with this? You know, shift the focus to ask yourself, you what is God trying to teach me in this? And this will shift the tribulations and this can often even shift pain into something purposeful. Ask yourself, know, is God trying to teach me in this troublesome time to make me better for a future self? You know, another one is setting up a small relay, you know, try to set up one small faith forward action you can repeat. Maybe it's a short scripture verse that you decide to start saying before big meetings or big phone calls. So, you know, consistent, we talked about this on several of our previous episodes, consistent, small, faithful acts really do add up over time. And a lot of this, you know, if you could do small consistent things, it will oftentimes outpace the spikes of severity. I've always told people whether it's, you know, investing, working out, faith, no matter what it is, consistency is way more important than intensity. A third little tip we can try is, as I kind of refer to it, it's almost like a Sabbath refresh. And this doesn't have to mean, you know, a full-fledged Sabbath taking one full day off, but it does mean being intentional about setting some consistent rest markers. You know, we live in a world where we feel like... earn our rest, but rest is not earned, it's received. Rest is given to us by God to reset our fight or flight biology and to replenish our spiritual stamina for things that are still to come. And then the final tip is, know, name a couple of people, go really tight into your inner circle and name a couple of people who you believe will speak truth for you and will pray for you and share some of the things that some of the burdens you're going with and let them know we are often surprised I think by just how willing people are around us to get in and help us out. Try some of these. It can be something simple. Refrain the race and instead of asking yourself, why is this happening to me? Ask yourself, what is God trying to teach me? Create some small little habits. Maybe it's a quick little prayer you go back to. Maybe it's a specific Bible verse you like to repeat when things get tough. Remember to set a consistent rest marker. Every now and then you need to detach, you need to unplug, you need to just get away from the device and everything that's weighing you down and just take a break. Maybe it's four hours, maybe it's six hours, maybe it's 12 hours, maybe you can do a whole day. Set something up consistently though where you can unplug from this world and really spend some quiet time with him. And then the truth people, name some people in your circle that you trust to be honest and vulnerable with and to ask them to pray for you when you're going through something. It's hard to be that vulnerable, but I promise you prayer works and the more people praying for you the better off you'll be Try some of these and see if see if some of these little tips can help you Help you help you stay strong and stay focused on Jesus next time you're you're going through a Getting on to the plays for the day. I went back and calculated. We've been on a pretty nice little 20 and 11 run over the last couple of weeks despite a break with some internet issues. So, 2011 doesn't suck. We'll take making that kind of profit all day every day. We four plays on the books today. We three baseball plays and a basketball play. First baseball play, we're going with the Texas Rangers minus 135 at the Colorado Rockies. Same plays yesterday, hoping it catches again. Second play is Cincinnati at Philadelphia. We're going under the total of 10. I know it's a high number for a reason. I'm sure there will be runs for it, but I think we get home under the 10 run total Baltimore and Tampa Bay. Give me the raise at home minus 130 and then in the basketball player we're going to hope and pray that we don't get double overtime. We're going to San Antonio at OKC under the total of 216 and a half. As we as we get ready to log off for the day and. and we talk about staying true to the race and keeping our head down and staying focused and just taking that next step on the path that God has called us to be. It's very important to remember that no matter what God has you going through, no matter what season of life it is, God is only asking you to take that next step. Just one, He's not asking you to go the whole way. He will come to you. He will make it easier for you, but you got to commit to that first step, that next step. Think of one challenge that just something you're going through right now that just feels heavy, just something that's burdening you and weighing on you. And ask yourself, is one next ordinary step I can take today? Nothing heroic, nothing huge, nothing fancy, just one small, faithful move in the right direction for this problem. It might be a little five minute prayer time. It might be ⁓ a short message to a friend to ask them to pray for you or ask them to help. Or it can just be going for a walk. clear your head and try to find a new way to address the issue. Whatever it is, just picture yourself doing it. Picture yourself taking this one next step and then imagine handing the weight to Jesus and asking him to take the next steps with you. Commit to it. See if this works. It sounds silly at times, but say it out loud. Commit to Jesus. Say, Lord, I am going to give you this burden to take the next few steps with me. We can always be thankful that God only asks us to take that one small step in His direction and His outstretched arms will reach the rest of the way. As we log off, guys, always remember, get in your Bibles, say your prayers, love one another, and tell the truth. God bless.