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610 | I am a Child of God · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast
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with Kimberly Miller, where we believe that every man, woman,
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boy, and girl must come to Jesus just like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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Our highest priority is helping you experience the reality of God in your everyday life.
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Whether you're listening in our app, on your favorite podcast platform,
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are on our website at watwm.org.
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We invite you to sit down with us as we open the scriptures to learn more about
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who God is and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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Well, hello, everyone. And before we get into today's podcast,
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I just wanted to let all of our listeners know just a couple of things.
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First, I do want to let you know that if you haven't heard, Kim's newest Bible
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Bit book, Bible Bits in His Presence, is now out.
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It is available just about wherever you get your books. You can find it,
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and you can certainly head over to our website, and you'll be able to link directly
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to where you can purchase that book.
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But we just invite you to grab a copy and take a look at it. It is really exciting.
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We're excited about this book and so excited, most importantly,
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to have it in the hands of our listeners and those who read Bible Bits so that.
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You can get just an extra special dose of Scripture to start your day.
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The other thing that I wanted to let you know about that I think some of you
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may not know about is that we do have another podcast.
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So Woman of the Well Ministries also has the Bible Bit Podcast.
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So maybe you actually receive the Bible Bits each and every day on your phone from Kim.
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But in case you want to also listen to them, if you just search the Bible Bit
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Podcast in any podcast service, you'll find it.
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So again, it's called the Bible Bit Podcast.
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You'll recognize the cover. It looks pretty similar to the cover of the Woman
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of the Well Ministries podcast that you're looking to right now,
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but it has a too big B for Bible Bits in the podcast cover.
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So we just invite you to listen to that.
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Each Bible bit is five to seven minutes, Monday through Friday.
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And if you're looking for a tremendous way to start your day,
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and perhaps you can't read your Bible bits when you want to,
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but you could listen while you're driving down the road as you head to work,
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we invite you to do so. So again, that is the Bible Bit Podcast.
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All right, let's hop into today's podcast.
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In this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast,
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join Kim Miller and Erica Close in a conversation as we walk with Jesus.
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In today's conversation, we're chatting about what life looks like when we trust
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in a God who sees us and knows us.
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Well, thank you everyone for joining us in today's podcast.
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Today is one of our discussion podcasts, which we enjoy so much.
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And today we're going to talk about some of the topics in a little more depth
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and in a little more personal manner related to what you may have heard on Monday's podcast.
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So Monday's podcast was episode 609.
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It was called Overloaded but Not Overwhelmed. And if you listened,
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you would have noticed that it was a little bit different.
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So it was recorded at a local church where Kim was speaking to a group of women
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on the topic of being overloaded, but not overwhelmed.
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And so as you listen to it, you probably noticed a little more background noise
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and things like that, but it was live and it was such a wonderful time.
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And we so enjoyed actually being able to be live and in person with some remarkable,
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wonderful Christian ladies.
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So today we're going to talk about what we talked about in that message and
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some of those topics that really just deserve a little bit more conversation
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and a little bit more discussion of how they apply to our lives.
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So today, again, overloaded but not overwhelmed.
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If you were able to listen to that message, you know that a lot of that message
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centered around the account of Hagar.
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And when Hagar becomes pregnant with Ishmael and about her interactions with Sarah and Abraham.
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But that message started...
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With some just incredible points. And I want to start there.
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So Kim, one of the things that you talked about as you began that message was
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just the reminding that we all need that we're His child.
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And you made the statement, I will be His child and I will bring Him honor.
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And I loved that Because you talked about how God knows us and He knows us well.
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But I think sometimes we forget to see ourselves the way He sees us.
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Absolutely. And one of the things I was thinking about, the context around that
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statement, had to do with how many things that are on our plate.
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Yeah. And the enormous amount of tasks that we put on our to-do list and the
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responsibility we wear on our shoulders to complete all of that,
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even when it's unrealistic that we've got that schedule.
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And I was breaking it down so that we could see that those things are important,
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right? And no doubt many of them really need to be done.
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But our real task every day, Joshua said it best when he said,
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choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
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Every day, it's kind of bad if I say he said it best since Jesus said,
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take up your cross daily and follow me.
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But Jesus was giving us a command to let us know what life is going to be like.
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And every day you have to choose to take up a cross and follow him.
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Joshua was explaining as a person, wholly us, not at all a deity,
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how we have to still choose.
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And what we often do is we don't choose to be his child, right?
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Even though we've chosen him as our savior.
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Because as a child, you look to your parents for the answers.
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You submit to the will of your parents. and you go to your parents for directions,
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answers, comfort, they really are the center of your universe.
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And when we become adults and we enter into adulthood,
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we start getting all these responsibilities that honestly take us away from
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what the main task is we have.
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The main task we have is to choose Jesus, to choose to walk and follow after
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him, and to choose to be his ambassador and his light.
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And the statement that you.
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We're quoting about, I will be his child and I will bring him honor,
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is the one thing that scripture reveals to us that at the end of the day,
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we need to have accomplished.
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Because we must choose him and we must follow him.
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And Matthew 5, 16 says, so let your light so shine before men that they may
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see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
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And so instead of the big to-do list, I think if we got that one right,
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if we got up every morning following the lead of God, I think our to-do list
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that was really necessary and what was intended for us to get done would get
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done every day. Absolutely.
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Absolutely. I think so often we seek to serve the list instead of serve the Lord.
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Right. Instead of the list being a tool, it becomes a hammer.
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Oh, yeah. You know, it's not a tool to get through the day.
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It's a hammer that keeps us in the line. And I am a big planner,
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as you know. I love a list.
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Huge scheduler, huge time management person. But the real...
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The real benefit of time management is that it allows us to know where we have
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gaps in our day that we can do things when God has interrupted what we planned.
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I like that. And it's really just a place to know, hey, here's what I can do at this time.
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Oh, well, God wants me to do this at this time. Well, okay, I have a big gap
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in the afternoon. I'll take what I was going to do before and just move it down to that.
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So time management isn't restrictive.
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It is actually freedom because it allows you to know what you're working with.
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And as a child of God, we need to allow the Lord to lead us,
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but we need to be prepared.
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In that same message, I talk about David putting five stones in his bag when
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he only needed one because he was being prepared.
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He was doing his part. He shows up to the battle that isn't his,
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prepared as God would have him to be.
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And the Lord asks us to be prepared.
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In 2 Timothy 2.15, he says, Study to show thyself approved unto God,
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a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. We are to be prepared.
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He says, be ready always to give an answer for the hope that is within you.
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Preparation does not remove God.
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Preparation puts us in position for God to use us. Oh, I love that. I love that.
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Preparation puts us in position for God to use us. I love that.
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Be holy for I am holy. Amen. Sayeth the Lord.
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So one of the other things that you said in that message that really struck me was about peace.
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And again, this was in the context of so many things, having so many things
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sort of on our list and feeling that we are responsible for so many things.
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And you said that your peace is more important to Jesus than to you.
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And you talked about then how he died on a cross to give us the ultimate peace.
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But I think so often we think that peace is something we have to find,
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something we have to discover.
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But the reality is when we find him, we find peace.
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And he's the one that brings us ultimate peace to our days, to our lives.
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Which is why my interpretation of all those truths that you are speaking about
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that are revealed in the scripture is that our peace is.
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Is of utmost importance to him because he says in Isaiah 26,
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if thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee,
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because he trusteth in thee.
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In Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, he explains how we're to trust in the Lord.
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He tells us in Scripture that anything done without faith is sin.
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So trusting in Him produces an infallible faith.
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And so He has come to give us peace because He is our hope.
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And it's more important to Him that we are peaceful because He's laid His body out for it to happen.
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For us, we think it's a good feeling.
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For us, we think it's a good thing. for him
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it is a demonstration of who
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he is in your life and peace
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is of utmost importance so he's not hiding it
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from you he's not holding it back from
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you if you're not feeling peaceful because you're not following the recipe he's
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given us from genesis to revelations which comes down to the faith you have
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and where you place it if you're placing your faith in yourself you're surely
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going to be disappointed.
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If you're placing your faith in other
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people, you're surely going to be disappointed because they will fail.
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Only faith placed in Jesus Christ will lead you to the way everlasting.
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Only Jesus Christ and a personal relationship with Him will provide for you
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the joy he intends for you to live in in John 10.10.
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So peace for him, our peace, is of utmost important to him.
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And he gave everything he had.
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To provide it. If it was as important to us as it was to Him,
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we would protect our peace with our life.
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And instead, we let all kinds of crazy stuff in our lives that we know are going
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to be chaos, turmoil, and problems.
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That is such truth. Such truth.
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All right, another thing that you talked about that I wrote down because it really,
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really resonated with me was
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that God wants us to unload our lives on him and then leave it with him.
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And I want to just talk for a minute about what that actually looks like to
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sort of unload our lives on him.
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Well, first, I would like to establish where we get that. Yeah.
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And in Jeremiah 33, 3, he says, call unto me and I will answer thee and show
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the great and mighty things which thou knowest not.
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In 1 Peter 5, 8, he says, casting all your care upon him for he cares for you.
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Or it could be 1 Peter 5, 7.
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One of them is casting all your care upon him for he cares for you.
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The other one is the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
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And that's why we have to cast our care on him. Because the devil is constantly
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giving us stuff that we aren't built to handle.
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And that's one of the problems that I see in the world today is that we,
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and you see it at such a young age and
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some of it is social media and some of it's just culture
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and some of it is just the the pressure to to grow up but what we see is that
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we are carrying pressure we were never meant to carry absolutely he said cast
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cast upon him because he cares for you.
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And then he gives you the beautiful passage in Matthew about his burden being
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light and his yoke being easy.
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And he tells us that we trade that for that.
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There is no better return on investment you're going to get anywhere than that.
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We give him all of our junk and our yuck, and he gives us a light burden and peace. So.
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When we're thinking about what that really looks like, I think that for me,
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when I have just so many things, one of the things that I, you know,
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is that I go to him in prayer with all the things, right?
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If I take those things to him and say, these are the things that are burdening
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me, and I, you know, name them to him, to me, what that often does is it puts it in perspective.
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Because I think these things are so big, but I am laying them before a huge holy God.
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And the ticket to that is that you leave them there.
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Right. You don't tell them all about your problems and then pick them back up and worry about them.
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He says, be anxious for nothing, be careful for nothing, but in everything with
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prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto God.
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And the peace of God will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
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In Philippians 4, 6, and 7.
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He wants us to come to Him not because He doesn't already know every intricate detail of your life,
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but because that act of coming to Him is a demonstration that you place Him above you.
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You're submitting yourself to Him and giving Him your burdens,
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and walking away with a peace that only God could give through the comfort of
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the Holy Spirit within us.
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Is an expression of your faith. Because he said, Ask, and ye shall receive.
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Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Which is Matthew 7, 7.
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So he's giving us this recipe that says, Listen, if you trust me, let me handle it.
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And then he gives us this beautiful example of that. In 1 Samuel 17,
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around about verse 47, David says, The battle's not mine, it belongs to the Lord.
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When we allow God to be God of our life, then we release the responsibility.
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Not that we release the responsibility for living responsibly.
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We release the responsibility for our life to him.
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And when you think about it, it's really the only sensible thing.
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He created us. He knows yesterday, today, and he knows what's ahead.
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And he's fully capable of equipping us. So we're just doing the smart thing.
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Well, because, you know, I think that so much of the time when we are really
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in that situation, when we are overwhelmed with a situation,
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it's because we're trying to grasp control of the situation.
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And we're trying to control all these different aspects of a situation from him.
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And ultimately, we think we're taking control and we may be messing things up,
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but ultimately, we're no match for him either. I think we can put ourselves in the way.
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I think we can make ourselves an obstacle, almost like, bless me if you can. Oh.
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Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I know what you mean. And I feel like that
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one of the other ways that we unload our burdens is to get in his word,
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because that's where he's speaking to us as well.
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And we watch what happened. We see the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace.
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We read where he says, when you pass us through the waters, I'm going to be with you.
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And when you go through the fire, you're not going to be overtaken. You won't even smell.
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That's what happened to the three Hebrew children. They didn't even come out smelling like smoke.
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We see what he said. We see that he shut the mouths of lions.
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So he'll shut the mouths of the lions in your life.
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You see that he shut up the ark and kept Noah and his family safe.
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So he'll keep you safe. You read where he provided everything Abraham needed
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because Abraham walked in faith and he provided the lamb.
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So he'll provide you for you. So we see that he provides for us.
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We see that in Philippians chapter four, when he talks about that we can do
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all things through his strength. And he says he'll supply all of our needs.
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So what we find is that when we read the word and the word was made flesh and
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dwelt among us, when we are spending time with Jesus,
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his characteristics become well known to us.
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And they also rub off on us.
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And we begin to see our faith increase and we begin to see what he did for others, he'll do for us.
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We read that we are victorious through him and that we are more than conquerors because he loves us.
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And then we read that his love will never fail. As you continue to string these
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amazing truths from the word of God together,
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then your problems don't diminish they become transferred on him.
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And as you said, it's not a problem. It's not a problem.
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You know, I really love that you said that. As we get to know His Word and it
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becomes well known to us,
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one of the things that I think happens is our minds are changed because we have
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so much Scripture in them and so much of an understanding of Scripture and of who He is.
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And I think of times in my own life that have been very scary or could be very
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overwhelming and things like that.
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One of the greatest tools I have to just get my mind turned somewhere else.
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Right. I mean, that's what happens when you're so overwhelmed.
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Right. Your focus is only on the problems. You can't see anything else.
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And our minds are just in the wrong place. And the greatest tool that I feel
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like I have when I'm in that situation is the scripture that I know.
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If I can't get my mind off of, you know, the list of 10 things that are stressful
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and that are probably very real in my life.
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But if I can't get my mind off of those 10 things, I need to get my mind to somewhere else.
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I need to put my mind somewhere else. The best place for me to put my mind is on his word.
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Because he says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
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If you are feeling weak in faith, or if your life is demonstrating and you can't
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even like put a name on the fact that your faith is weak,
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but you are realizing that there is doubt, there is fear, there is stress.
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If that is part of your everyday life, you've got to get in the Word more, even if you're in it.
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Because he says, looking unto him,
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the author and finisher of our faith. He will give us the faith we need when we look to him for it.
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And so looking at all your things that are overloading your day,
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and you may even be able to let it overwhelm you, but as a child of God,
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you should never be overwhelmed.
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Because it's just not how it should be.
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In 2 Corinthians 4, I want to read a passage of Scripture that I think all of
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us should spend some time reading on a regular basis at 2 Corinthians 4, verses 7 through 11.
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And it goes like this. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the
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excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
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So we need to live our lives where God is shining through us.
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We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.
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We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted
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but not forsaken Cast down but not destroyed Always bearing about the body The
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dying of the Lord Jesus That the life also of Jesus Might be made manifest in
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our body For we which live are always delivered Unto death for Jesus' sake.
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That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our own mortal flesh. Amen.
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We need to be different than the world. We need to be a people that shows that God has transformed us.
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He has changed us. Because if you're no different than somebody who doesn't
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have the Holy Spirit living in you, I don't know how the Holy Spirit's living in you.
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If there's no evidence, it's really hard, right?
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It would be difficult for that to be the case.
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But he says what's great about all of this is his love is so complete and his
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thought pattern is so amazing that he leaves no gap in any thought process or in any thing.
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He says if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins
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and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's a promise.
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And I pray that I'm better tomorrow than I was today. And I pray I'm better
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the next day than I am tomorrow.
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Because every day is a new day. And I have more of him working in my life because he has more of me.
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I get all of him when I get saved. but I have a better understanding because
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I've given him my whole heart.
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I've given him my whole life, and I am studying from Genesis to Revelations.
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I'm spending time with him.
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That's what it looks like to unload your burdens on the Lord,
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spending time with Jesus Christ. Amen.
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All right.
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There's a whole other part to Monday's message, but the reality is it's covered
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great in Monday's message.
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But I can't let go of one part.
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So in Monday's message, you talk about the account of Hagar.
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Hagar, Sarah, and Abraham, and at the point at which Hagar is pregnant,
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because Sarah has sent her to Abraham because the Lord is not sending them a
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son fast enough, according to Sarah.
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And Hagar becomes pregnant and starts to, you know, have a little more status
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around the camp. And it doesn't go well.
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And a lot- It never goes well when you get ahead of God's plans. Amen.
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And so it's not going well. And Hagar runs. And she runs to the desert.
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She runs back in the direction from whence she had been delivered from.
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Amen. There's the other part.
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There's so many lessons in here. But I just want to get to the one.
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The one thing that I just want to talk about is that an angel of the Lord comes
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to Hagar, which is a type of Jesus. Correct.
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And has this amazing conversation with her.
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But in that conversation, she refers to God.
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And we know there are many names for God that each speak to a different aspect of his character.
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And if you ever want something to study, that's an amazing thing to study.
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But she refers to God as El Roy. The God who sees me. the God who sees me.
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And as we close up today, I want to talk about what that means.
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What that means in our lives, that we have a God who sees us.
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What does that mean to you? Scripture also refers that He was tempted like as we are yet without sin.
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He knows that,
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everything that we are experiencing.
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We aren't a blip on a map or an afterthought or something he creates, saves, and leaves.
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He never leaves us nor forsakes us. So he sees every tear we cry.
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He sees everything that we have endured.
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And in that same passage in Genesis 16, 11, he tells her to name her child Ishmael,
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which means she was heard.
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So he's the God that hears and the God that sees.
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So he hears your prayers, sees your problems,
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understands your deep pain, your loneliness, your despair he understands your
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affliction and he's attentive to your prayers.
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Elroy, the God who sees me, is to me the God who values me and has his eyes on me.
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And that means he's watching. And Scripture tells us he never sleeps nor slumbers.
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He loved me enough to create me, but I'm so personal to him that he gave me
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the Holy Spirit to dwell in me because he never wanted to be away from me.
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And his eyes are always watching with love and compassion.
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So the God that sees me stamps his approval and his affirmation that I am valuable.
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I love that. I love that.
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When I think about the God who sees me,
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I think about sort of going back to that idea of taking things to him and that
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idea of handing over control because we don't really have it anyway.
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And when I think of going to God and spending time with him and knowing that
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he sees me, I think forces me to see myself as he sees me.
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But in doing that, I think it forces me to see him and to see him in all of
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his omniscience and omnipotent as such a great big God.
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And I think that as someone who
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has a tendency to run ahead and has a tendency to want to be in control,
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to sort of realize where I am positionally in relation to him,
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but then to your point, to also realize, oh my goodness.
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He is so significant. And in
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the grand scheme of things, I am so small and yet I am significant to him.
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And that gives me such joy.
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And to bring it down for something that probably speaks more of my heart than I can articulate,
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is very much like the kid riding the bike who takes his hands off and says,
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look, mom, no hands, and so desperately wants the mother to see that.
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And what God wants us to do is take the hands off of our life.
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And we don't have to say, look, no hands.
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Look, because he's already watching. And for me, it's that assurance that we
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want the parent to see us for who we are and to be proud and to love us.
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And God's saying, I'm already doing that.
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Never take my eyes off you. You know, and you think about when you have a youngster
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near the pool and you stay so close and your eyes won't even take off.
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I mean, you won't hardly pick up a glass to get a drink of water because you're
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afraid that kid's going to fall in that pool.
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And you're diligent because everything about their safety and their growing
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up and their experiences are vital to you.
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That's what I think he means when he's called a Roy, the God who sees me. Amen. Amen.
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Well, this has been so much fun. If by chance you haven't listened to episode
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609 called Overloaded but Not Overwhelmed, we invite you to go back and listen
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to it because there's so much in there.
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And it was such a fun event to be with those women. So we just invite you to
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go back and take a listen to that.
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But most importantly, we just hope that as you go on with the rest of your day,
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that you remember that you are loved and that Jesus loves you.
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We look forward to seeing you with us on our next podcast.
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Episode in the show notes. We pray today's message has been a blessing.
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If it has, please consider leaving a rating or review on your podcast platform.
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Your feedback helps others discover the truth of God's Word.
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You can connect with Woman at the Well Ministries through our app at watwm.org
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and on Facebook and Instagram.
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While you're there, learn more about Bible Bits, Kim's daily devotional delivered
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Monday through Friday by text message and the Bible bit podcast.
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Thank you for your prayers and support.
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Remember, Jesus loves you.