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Healthy And Redeemed - Fighting Depression · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

0:23
Welcome to the Healthy and Redeemed podcast hosted by Healy
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Eicherd. Healy is a licensed counselor
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with a passion for helping Christians live healthier lives
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emotionally and spiritually. Each episode combines the truth
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of God's Word with practical advice to help you in your
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everyday life. Whether you want to grow
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emotionally, strengthen your faith, or handles life
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challenges with more peace, this podcast is for you.
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We're so glad you joined us. Let's get started.
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To God be the glory. Welcome back to another episode
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of Healthy and Redeemed. I'm your host, Healy.
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I am happy, happy, happy that you're here today.
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Today we are going to talk about hope and depression.
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I've decided that I'm not going to do that deep of a dive on
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depression. I do want to cover it in this
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episode, but hopefully that we can talk more about hope and how
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to work through these depressed feelings or the symptoms of
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that. Have you ever had a time in your
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life that you felt like really, really down and felt like there
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was no hope or did not see the point of living?
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Maybe you were questioning life in general or like, what's the
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whole point of this? Sometimes that place is so dark,
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like it's hard to think outside of those questions.
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Often we can get very upset at people if they consider, you
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know, suicide or thinking those kind of thoughts.
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Yeah. I had someone tell me one time
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because, like, you can go through all the things of, like,
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OK, think about these things when you're feeling down.
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But really, your emotions are so big.
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Like, it is hard to think through like, oh, the family I
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leave behind or all these other things that are actually good in
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my life. Like it's hard to think above
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those emotions to get to that place.
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So I've really transformed my own thinking on that too.
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Now I know better, as far as I know, that it is an emotional
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thing going on. And so I've learned how to
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manage that better if I have depressed feelings coming on.
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I think the last time I felt really down, I wasn't really
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even aware that I was because I feel like I stayed pretty
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positive most of the time. But many years ago, well maybe
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10 or 15, I was having a lot of physical pain and I had been
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diagnosed with endometriosis in when I was in my 20s.
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But because I had a child, they kind of said, oh, well, you
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probably don't have it anymore, you know, because normally when
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you have endometriosis you either can't get pregnant or
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something. So anyway, but I was
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experiencing a lot of pain which I had most of my life, but it
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was getting so bad. Like instead of just a few days
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here and there or, you know, a week or something, like I was
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feeling pain a lot of the time and it was really affecting my
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mental Wellness as far as like I was just feeling discouraged.
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And that is one of the things that a lot of times you'll find
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if people are really struggling with their physical health that
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they are more prone to feel depressed because it is really
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hard to get your mind feeling well when your body hurts.
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We see this in the story of Job too.
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Like it almost seems like he is doing fairly well mentally.
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I mean, not, you know, like his circumstances were bad when he
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lost his children and, and everything that he had.
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But when he really started to experience a long term health
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issues like the pain and the sores and his skin and like it
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was just like repulsive to him and to others and he was in a
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lot of pain, that's when he really started showing signs of
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being depressed, of just having a lot of depressed feelings.
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I'm not sure how long his health issues actually went on, but it
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seems as if that he really had in some ways lost his will to
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live or at least questioning why God even let him be born as did
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a lot of the characters in the Bible.
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A lot of them struggled with depressed feelings for sure.
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So anyway, but that was probably one of the the times that I was
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like, Oh my goodness, something's really wrong.
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And I had actually gone to a counselor to kind of explore
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like, why am I feeling so down? I didn't even this is how
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disconnected I was. I wasn't even thinking that it
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was my physical symptoms, like I was looking at other things that
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were going on in my life. And then as I talked it through,
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I was like, that just really doesn't stress me out.
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And even though the counselor was kind of thinking it was
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could be this or this, these things, and I was just
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internally thinking, I don't really feel stressed about that.
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I mean, it was some stuff, but I can normally bring myself around
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pretty good. So I wasn't feeling too
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concerned about that. But anyway, it wasn't until I
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actually had to have surgery to they were going to go in and
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look and see what was the issues.
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And sure enough, it was endometriosis.
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Like I've been diagnosed 20 years earlier and with no
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treatment. Yay.
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I should have probably been more advocating for my own health
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during those times, but yeah, that's how I am.
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I'll go a long time in pain before I actually go to the
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doctor. Unfortunately, that's not a good
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trait. So don't, don't do as I do.
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Anyway, so once I had surgery and he removed that.
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And even though I I was going through a grieving period
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because it also took away my ability to have children, which
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I was fairly newly married and I really wanted, and another child
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or more, even though I was grieving that loss, I did feel
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better overall. I like I had no more pain.
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And it was so weird because suddenly I was like, wow, I
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didn't even realize how much I had been hurting the whole time.
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Like it was just like all these places in my life were suddenly
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pain free. And yeah, it was quite amazing.
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And so that was my most recent journey with having depressed
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feelings. I probably wouldn't say I could
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have been diagnosed with depression, but I certainly had
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been just struggling maintaining my what I feel like positive
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personality of feeling good. So.
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So anyway, I don't know why I tell you all that story, but to
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say that, yeah, sometimes we can have depressed feelings or we
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can have depression that's actually diagnosable.
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So I wanted to just share a little bit about what's the
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difference in depressed feelings and depression per SE.
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We all experience depressed feelings at times.
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Some of that will have to do with circumstances in our life.
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If we're having a stressful situation, maybe we're having
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health issues like I had, or maybe we're having relationship
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issues or something like that, we can feel down.
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If we've had a loss in our life, we can feel down.
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But to get actually diagnosed with depression, you will
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typically have to feel depressed for most of the day for at least
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two weeks. So that's one criteria is
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feeling depressed most of the day for at least two weeks.
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You may also experience loss of interest or pleasure and
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activities, especially ones that you found pleasurable before.
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You may have a significant weight loss or gain.
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You may have disturbances in your sleep, you may have fatigue
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or loss of energy. You'll see that one a lot.
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At least I see that one a lot in my office.
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Feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt, difficulty
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concentrating, and reoccurrent thoughts of death or suicide.
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If you have at least five of those for two weeks and it's
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occurring like most of the day, then you would probably be
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diagnosed with depression. Now I am, I don't know if I've
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shared this in previous episodes, but I'm not a big
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person on diagnosis. I, I do diagnose people, but I'm
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always a little bit hesitant to even tell them the diagnosis
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because sometimes we as a people like to take on labels.
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And I don't know why we like to do this, but we do it in the
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positive sense and we also do it in the negative sense.
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I have anxiety, I have depression, I have this, I have
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that, or I am this or I am that that That's the main reason I
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don't really like sharing diagnosis of things because I
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don't want us just to be hiding behind a label.
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Because I think that if we experience symptoms of anything,
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then we can work on that issue that we don't have to take on
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that label. We can go, oh, this is where I'm
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at. But I also want to work to make
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that better. I understand I've been trained a
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lot in this diagnosis area, but I just want to say that if you
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do have a diagnosis, don't make that your identity.
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That is not who you are, and God gives us paths that can help
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alleviate some of these troubling symptoms, and I'm
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going to talk about some of those today.
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Let's look quickly at some people that I believed
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experienced depression or depressed feelings.
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So let we talked about job that he had a lot of loss in life.
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We talked about him and the grief episode that he
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experienced a lot of a lot of loss because of his physical
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symptoms of his illness and probably his friends that
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weren't very encouraging to him. I mean, did they tell him
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anything encouraging? The friends were just basically
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telling them you're a Sinner, you need to repent.
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And that is not, I mean, it may be true, but it's not the most
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encouraging thing to say, especially if Job says once
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that, well, I've looked at everything and I'm not aware of
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anything, then I would say the friends probably should have
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just prayed and said, God, if he has done something, reveal it to
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him instead of just going on and on and on about it.
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Like that was probably very discouraging to Job.
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Here is just one line. I'm not going to read all of
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these depressing thoughts of Job and like they can't be helpful
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at some level. But let me just like read one
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line from Job 30, verse 19, talking about Job's talking
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about God. He says he throws me into the
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mud and I'm reduced to dust and ashes.
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Oh, that's not funny. But it's it's very sad that Job
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is feeling so discouraged that he feels like God's just thrown
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him into the mud. But can you relate?
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Have you ever felt so down that you feel like I'm just like in
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the dirt here and I don't even want to get up?
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Yeah, that's how Job was feeling.
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And there were times that he wished that he had never been
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born. That's so discouraging.
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But Job comes around, and he says he's got encouraging words
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throughout his writings. They're just little Nuggets here
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and there, but one of his Nuggets is he says, I know that
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my Redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand on the
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earth. I mean, that's probably a
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prediction of Jesus right there too.
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But I think that's always one thing that we should remember
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when we're feeling down is go back and be reassured about who
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God is and what he says, especially about life.
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Another person that we see a lot that fell down, Jeremiah, he was
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called the weeping prophet because he felt such sorrow over
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Israel's sin. And OK, I don't know about you,
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but have you ever felt discouraged sometimes living in
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the US? We are a very blessed nation.
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We're a very blessed people. However, we have a lot of sin in
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our country and sometimes it is so grievous, like it can hurt us
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when we hear negative things and just it can be overwhelming
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sometimes when you know, people are talking about killing babies
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in the womb and that that's OK and just flaunting what God
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calls sin. It could be very discouraging to
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us. And we're like, is there any
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hope in this world for us? There is hope.
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And that's how Jeremiah felt. I mean, Israel had sinned so
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much and now they were going to be taken captive by Babylon.
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Like, how discouraging is that where another country comes in
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and actually takes the people captive.
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And that's that's the life that Jeremiah lived.
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So you can see why he was feeling down much of the time,
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he says in Jeremiah 2018. Why did I ever come out of the
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womb? To see trouble and sorrow and to
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end my days in shame. I mean, we can relate to that.
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Like, why am I even here? All I see is trouble.
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All I see is sorrow. And yeah, so I think it's
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frankly pretty comforting when people in the Bible at least
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wrote down things that we feel at times.
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Also, here is a scripture that Jeremiah also wrote.
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Sing to the Lord, Give praise to the Lord.
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He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.
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I think that, again, is just so encouraging when we see these
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people feeling down, like, don't even want to be here.
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And yet they can find hope in God, the creator of hope.
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Ezekiel is another prophet that really experienced a lot of pain
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and grief over the sins of the people during that same time
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frame. Naomi we talked about last time
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in all the losses that she experienced and how her life
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appeared to be redeemed at the end.
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You know, she said, call me Mara.
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She's telling her friends, call me Mara instead of Naomi because
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the Almighty has made my life very bitter.
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I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty.
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Even in that, even though that's real negative because she's kind
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of blaming God for all the misfortune brought upon her, I
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think it still says something about she actually has belief
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that God's in control and that He has all authority over
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everything that happens. And we don't understand His ways
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and why He allows certain things or causes certain things, but we
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trust in Him and that He will redeem, if not now, at some time
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in the future when the timing is right.
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And of course, David, we love our David because we can relate
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so much to him, right? He felt very depressed at times.
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When Scripture says Psalm 6, my soul is in deep anguish.
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How long, Lord, how long? Wow, I think that encompasses a
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lot in Scripture of just like, you know, we can, we can relate
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to that Scripture, right, that sometimes we feel deep anguish
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about things in this world or things in our life or just our
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own emotions and we wonder how long, Lord, how long?
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Are you struggling with anxiety or worry?
18:53
God has given you the power to change those emotions.
18:56
In the workbook Changing Your Feelings, licensed counselor
19:00
Healy Eichert merges biblical principles with practical
19:03
psychology and tools to help Christians overcome anxiety,
19:07
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19:10
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19:13
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Visit any online bookstore to get your copy and start changing
19:19
your feelings and your life today.
19:23
David is a great example of the landing well.
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He always seems to land well in his writings, so he also writes
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in a different place. Soulmate, Lord, our Lord, how
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majestic is your name in all the earth?
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He's got great, great scripture for encouragement if you need
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some. When we are having depressed
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feelings or we're feeling depressed, that is important
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that if we communicate that to others or even to ourselves,
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that we're not saying I am depressed.
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OK, we're saying I am feeling depressed or I have depressed
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feelings. And the reason I say that it
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seems small, but the I am depressed is taking on an
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identity that depressed is who you are and depressed is an
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emotion. And so I always just want to be
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clear in as we communicate our emotions to others or to
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ourselves that we remind ourselves it's an emotion and we
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can work on changing how we feel.
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So I am feeling depressed or I am having depressed feelings.
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OK, here are four things that we can focus on.
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We're going to use the acronym of HOPE HOPEH.
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We're going to focus on our health and that will be our
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physical health, our spiritual health and our brain health as
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well. So under physical health is our
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sleep, it's our physical activity, our body and the
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nutrition that goes into our body.
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So we want to be taking care of ourself.
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So if there's anything we can do in our body to make that
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healthy, that's going to help our mental mindset a lot.
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So always make sure that we're taking care of our body.
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The other thing that falls under health is our spiritual health.
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We need to always make sure that we are taking care of ourselves
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spiritually because that is the essence of who we are, right?
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So we need to be making sure that we're praying, that we're
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reading our Bible, that we're attending church.
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Now, it's OK to attend church once in a while online, but
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really we need to be in the fellowship of other believers.
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I know they're not perfect. We aren't perfect, but come to
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church with us and we'll be in perfect together, striving to be
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as holy as we can to reflect the image of God.
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We're not saying we're all right.
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And I know a lot of people don't attend church because of the
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people in the church, but we're just trying our best.
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And I'm sorry that you have been hurt by people there, but there
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are a lot of good, good, good people there too.
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And I, I hope that you will give church another chance if you've
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stepped away for a bit. So we want to pray, we want to
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read the Bible, and we want to attend church for brain health.
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You can find a lot of this information about brain health
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in my book, Changing Your Feelings.
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I've got a section on brain health and I may even have an
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earlier episode. I think it's called Anxiety in
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the Brain. I think I may have talked a
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little bit about good things to do for the brain.
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So either check out that episode or get my book.
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So the foods that we eat help the brain and how we take care
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of our body helps the brain. Thinking well helps the brain.
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So we want to make sure that we're thinking well because
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remember, we're focused on our good neurotransmitters, that
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those are positive ones going through our brain.
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And we also want to make sure that good chemicals are being
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released all the time. We've got serotonin and dopamine
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and oxytocin, so some important chemicals as we take care of our
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brain that in our body that those things will be released to
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help us. So number one of hope, HOPEH is
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health. We're going to focus on our
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health #2O is others. That means that we do things to
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engage with others. That can be like volunteering,
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where we're actually helping other people.
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This might look like engaging with other people in the sense
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that we're doing activities with other people.
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We're having some interactions with others.
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Volunteering should do that. But sometimes we may be
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volunteering at the library and maybe not engaging as much.
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So we wanna make sure that we're hanging out with our friends and
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doing things with others that bring joy to us.
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So social activities, we also want to be investing in others.
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So helping people, if we've got a good knowledge of the Bible,
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maybe we mentor or lead a Bible study or do something that helps
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share what we know about the Bible.
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It might mean volunteering in a church ministry so that you can
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help minister to others. We are designed for that kind of
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work of focusing on others, and so that's what we really want to
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do is help others in ways of volunteering, in the ways of
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social activities, or just reaching out to a friend and
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encouraging them. We're focusing on hope, health,
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others, and we're at P for promises.
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Focus on God's promises. God's promises are exactly what
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we need to do to bring truth, encouragement, and helpfulness
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into our lives. So we really want to focus on
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that. So whether that looks like
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meditation, that just looks like reading.
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Let me just share a few with you right now.
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Psalm 3418 says the Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves
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the crush in spirit. Wow, just a little focus on that
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could really bring some encouragement and hope into our
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emotions. Isaiah 4110 says fear not for I
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am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your
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God. The reason I love this verse so
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much is because God says fear not for I am with you.
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And then he says, do not be dismayed for I am your God.
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He's not telling you anything to do.
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It's only focused on who he is and what he's doing.
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He says I am with you. So we're not to fear because God
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is with us. We don't even have to do
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anything except focus on that. Do not be dismayed for I am your
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God. Because of our relationship, we
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don't have to do anything except focus on that and that's going
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to help take away the fear and that's going to help us take
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away that feeling of dismay. To me that's so encouraging.
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Matthew 1128 says come to me, all who labor and are heavy
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laden and I will give you rest. We again don't have to do
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anything. It just says come to me and then
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that's all we have to do is be in His presence and He will give
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us rest. His promises are what we focus
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on because in those he gives us something we're not going to get
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anywhere else. So that's our third focus is on
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promises, on God's promises specifically.
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So we focus on hope, HOPE, health, others, promises, and E
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You've probably guessed it because I've said it a Jillian
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times already encouragement. We are going to focus on
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encouraging behaviors and encouraging thoughts.
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Encouraging behaviors looks like enjoyable physical activities.
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It looks like hobbies or other things that we enjoy in life.
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Or maybe we have a hard time enjoying because we're feeling
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down. But I would encourage you to do
28:28
those things anyway. Sometimes we'll notice when
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we're feeling down and depressed, we don't really want
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to do anything. We're having a hard time getting
28:37
out of bed. But if we can rise above what
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we're feeling and use our cognitive mind to say, I know I
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don't feel like getting out of bed, but I'm going to do it
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anyway, I promise you, you will feel at least a little bit
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better. It's not going to take away
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everything, but it will help you feel a little bit better.
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And it's the same with sometimes we don't want to do social
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activities, right. We don't want to go hang out
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with a friend. We kind of know though, we're
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going to feel better if we do that.
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But we don't really have the energy, you know, and we really
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don't want to have to get all dressed and all that.
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But I'll tell you that if you do the thing, you rise above the
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emotion, what the emotion is telling you to do.
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The emotion is saying, I stay home.
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You don't feel like doing that. I stay in bed.
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You don't feel like getting up. If you can rise above what the
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emotion says and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying or
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your mind is saying, you get up and you go.
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You go hang out with that friend.
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You do that because you know you're going to feel better
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after you do that. So instead of listening to our
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emotions, we have to listen to our mind because that's where
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we're going to find encouragement at.
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Our emotions, in a sense, can't even just create encouragement
29:57
for us. We create the encouragement from
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our behaviors and from our thoughts.
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Also, we always make sure that we are doing the things that we
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know to do. We know we need to do something
30:09
specific. Do that thing.
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Don't let the emotion tell you not to do it.
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Do the thing, do the thing. It's the same with, you know,
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sometimes getting the motivation to read your Bible or to pray.
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Like sometimes it's hard to find the emote motivation, but I
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think it was Zig Ziglar that said action precedes motivation.
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And you know what that means? That we have to do it before we
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feel motivated. So don't let the emotion of
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motivation be your God. Do the thing, rise up above your
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emotion and do The thing is one of the most important things I
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learned in the Army was that specific thing.
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It's mind over matter. Basically, it doesn't matter how
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you feel, you keep on marching or you keep on low crawling or
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you keep on going. In whatever scenario you're in,
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your emotions can get you all sidetracked.
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Oh my goodness, I can't do this one more step, but yes, you can.
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You just did it. So take another and take
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another. And that's what we have to just
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rise above how we're feeling and do the thing we know to do.
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The other part of encouragement is having encouraging thoughts.
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We've talked a lot about this in previous episodes, but we have
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to have healthy, encouraging thoughts about ourselves and
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about others and about our situation.
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So how we have healthy thoughts about ourselves or that we
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replace our negative thoughts with good healthy thoughts.
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If there is something that you want to improve upon, say that
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maybe you don't display a character trait that you would
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really like to display more like maybe you aren't as patient as
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you would like to be, so pursue that.
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Don't just beat yourself up because you don't have the trait
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or you don't have it as much as you would like.
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I would challenge you that you probably do have some of it at
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least, but if you want more of it then just pursue it.
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Don't just beat yourself up because you don't have it.
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That's not fair and it's not encouraging.
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Take time to practice that skill whenever you get the
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opportunity. Small steps, small steps.
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It is also important that we think healthy and encouraging
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thoughts about others. We need to give other people
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grace. They are walking hard roads just
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like we are. And I know it's easy to call
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people names when they frustrate us or say, you know, disparaging
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things about them if, if we're upset or they're rude or
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something like that. But we need to do better as
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God's people and giving other people grace and just responding
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kindly to them. And I'll be the first to say I'm
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not perfect at this either. Like this is a hard one.
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But if we're thinking negatively about other people all the time,
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that is not going to rise us up out of our depressed emotions.
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That's going to keep us stuck. So we really have to work on
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seeing others in a more encouraging light.
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And the last one is being having encouraging thoughts about our
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circumstances. And what that looks like is that
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we develop the skill of gratitude, that we incorporate
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gratitude and thankfulness into our life, that we can look at
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hard, difficult, troubling, despairing situations through
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the light of eternity. To me, that is what helps us see
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gratitude and to see thankfulness and to remember
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that we have a God who is with us in the midst of it all, that
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we don't have to work hard to change everything around us.
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But he says, do not be dismayed, for I am your God, your God.
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I am your God and we don't have to be dismayed because we're
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looking at the situation in light of eternity.
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And so looking at that last, the E in hope is encouragement.
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And we're focusing on our behaviors, having encouraging
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behaviors in our life, having encouraging thoughts about
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ourselves, about others, and about our circumstances.
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So I want to end today's episode with some encouraging
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scriptures. These are some scriptures that
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frankly, I just like. It's not necessarily ones that
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are any more profound than any other ones.
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Hope is what we need to fight these emotions of depressed
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feelings or depression. OK, from Isaiah 32 one through
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3, do not fear, for I have redeemed you.
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I have summoned you by name. You are mine.
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When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and
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when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over
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you. When you walk through the fire,
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you will not be burned. The flames will not set you
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ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the
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Holy One of Israel, your Savior. Tell me where in that Scripture
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that we have to fight, worry, be anxious, be down or anything?
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He understands those emotions. But really he is saying to us,
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you're going to pass through the waters.
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I will be with you. He's going to be with us.
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I mean, that makes me feel pretty confident.
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I don't know. And when you pass through the
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rivers, they're not going to sweep over you.
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So you don't have to swim like a frantic person.
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He just says they're not going to sweep over you.
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We focus on him and what he's capable of, not what we're
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capable of, what he is capable of.
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Romans 12/12. This is one of my favorites.
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I have it in my office. Be joyful in hope, patient in
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affliction, faithful in prayer. That's why I think like hope
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brings joy. Second Corinthians 4/8 through 9
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says we are hard pressed on every side but not crushed,
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perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned,
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struck down but not destroyed. That's eternity thinking because
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we can feel like we are crushed, but it doesn't mean we are
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because God says we're not. It makes says perplexed.
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Not in despair. We may feel despair, but we're
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not in despair because we have hope.
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It says a persecuted, but not abandoned.
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We may feel abandoned, but it doesn't mean we are struck down
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but not destroyed. We may feel destroyed, but we're
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not destroyed. Remember, we're thinking through
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eternity's eyes. We are not destroyed.
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We are not abandoned. We are not in despair.
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We are not crushed because why? We don't rely on our feelings to
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determine truth for us. We let Scripture determine truth
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for us. Romans 826 and 28 says In the
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same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
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We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself
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intercedes for us through wordless groans, and he searches
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our hearts and knows the mind of the Spirit.
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Because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance
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with the will of God. This Scripture reminds us that
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we are going to be in times of weakness and that we are going
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to feel so out of it. And, and I, I don't know if you
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felt this, but I felt this like so down, so overwhelmed with all
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that's going on. I don't even know what to pray
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for. I can only say, Lord.
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And this Scripture reminds me that the Spirit's going to
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intercede for us because it intercedes for God's people in
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accordance with the will of God. That to me is so encouraging.
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So even though we go to God in prayer, if we ain't got it all
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right, that's OK. And if all we can say is, Lord,
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Lord, how long? What's going on?
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I don't even know what to pray for.
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The Spirit will help us in verse 28.
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And we know that in all things God works for the good of those
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who love him who have been called according to his purpose.
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That's you and that's me. That it doesn't matter what in
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this life, in our circumstances, that's going to try to break us.
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It won't, because God's going to work it for good.
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It doesn't mean that He will redeem every physical situation
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here on Earth, but He's working for the good of us.
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He's working out traits in us that can help us to be more
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holy. So sometimes we think good,
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like, oh, he's going to bring good from this.
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And that may be from Heaven's perspective, not from our
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perspective. So just remember that sometimes
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if we can't see the good, it might be a character trait.
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Most likely it's a character trait that God's bringing out
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good in that and not necessarily our circumstance.
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Let's end with Romans 1513. It says may the God of hope fill
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you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may
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overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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I'm I just read it again. I don't even know what to say to
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this. Like it's so big and powerful.
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May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you
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trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power
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of the Holy Spirit. Well, it sounds like our focus
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is trusting in Him and that He's going to do the rest and bring
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about different emotions, or it's something even deeper than
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emotions. The peace and joy that God
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gives, that's like in our soul. Like it's deeper than the
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emotional part. That's so powerful to me.
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I'm going to encourage you this week to focus on hope, focus on
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your health, focus on others, focus on promises, and focus on
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encouragement. This can be so powerful in our
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lives if we let it. Whether you're feeling depressed
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or not, whether you're having depressed feelings or not, you
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might be feeling anxious like any negative emotion you're
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having. Let's focus on hope, health,
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others, promises, and encouragement.
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And if we can do that, we are going to be living healthy and
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redeemed. And that will help us reflect
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Jesus Christ rightly in all that we do.
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Friends, thank you so much for joining me.
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Lord willing, I'll see you next time.
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Thank you for listening. The information provided is to
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be used as a resource. If you have a serious mental
42:39
issue, we would encourage you to contact the therapist in your
42:42
state.