Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 466 | Throwback - Grace Under Fire

Transcript

466 | Throwback - Grace Under Fire · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  Music.
• 0:07
  Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries,
• 0:11
  where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
• 0:18
  Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
• 0:21
  Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
• 0:25
  or on our website at watwm.org, we invite you to sit down with us as we look
• 0:31
  to the scriptures to learn more about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
• 0:38
  Living a life for Christ. She's a happy girl.
• 0:38
  Music.
• 0:48
  She's a happy girl.
• 1:02
  God tells us to put Him in our hearts. He also tells us to be always prepared
• 1:08
  to give an answer for the hope of Christ that lives within us.
• 1:12
  God tells us to be so well acquainted with Him that we know His ways.
• 1:17
  Join us in this program, Grace Under Fire, As Kim Miller of Woman at the Well
• 1:21
  Ministries takes us through 1 Peter 3.15, which says,
• 1:25
  But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer
• 1:31
  to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.
• 1:38
  Hello, and welcome to this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
• 1:42
  When we look at the title, it says, Grace Under Fire.
• 1:45
  When we think about grace, we think of how beautiful an eagle soars across the
• 1:51
  sky, or how amazingly graceful, we say, that a master gymnast is as they tumble across the floor.
• 2:00
  Or we see the elegance in the way that some lady walks across an aisle.
• 2:06
  We see the grace in which people move smoothly, and there's just a certain beauty about it.
• 2:12
  Many people who know the Lord in amazing ways can sit in the midst of a firestorm,
• 2:21
  one where people are in chaotic motion, where words are being slung around and
• 2:28
  many of them hurtful and hateful, where stress is at its highest,
• 2:35
  understanding at its lowest, and problems soaring.
• 2:41
  Yet you see some individuals with the ability to remain calm,
• 2:47
  cool, and collected, and navigate those stormy waters without any trouble at all.
• 2:54
  That's grace under fire.
• 2:58
  As Christians, we live in a world where the devil walketh about as a roaring
• 3:03
  lion, seeking whom he may devour.
• 3:05
  And the more work you do for the Lord, the stronger of an enemy you are to the
• 3:10
  devil, and the more he's going to want to attack you.
• 3:14
  So you're going to live under fire a little bit more.
• 3:18
  If you are a person who is strong in God, and you love him, and your focus is
• 3:24
  all about him and you have acquaintances and family members and friends who
• 3:29
  aren't serving the Lord,
• 3:31
  you're going to come under fire and scrutiny with everything you say and do.
• 3:36
  The question is, how do you handle that situation? Do you have grace under fire?
• 3:45
  Grace is unmerited favor that the Lord gives us.
• 3:48
  And when we walk close to him, we have a calmness a peace that passes understanding
• 3:53
  and a joy unspeakable and full of glory and we look at this scripture in first
• 3:59
  peter 3 15 and he says but sanctify the lord god in your hearts,
• 4:04
  sanctified to set apart for a purpose for a
• 4:07
  sacred purpose set apart yourself
• 4:11
  your desires what makes
• 4:15
  you tick and put God first put God in all of the crevices of your heart and
• 4:27
  bathe everything you do with God this is put the Lord God in your hearts,
• 4:35
  I think about that as I begin to think. He uses the term Lord God.
• 4:42
  God is omnipotent and omniscient. And he's our Savior.
• 4:48
  And he wants to be our Lord. But a Lord is one who has rule over you,
• 4:53
  one in whom you walk in subjection.
• 4:56
  And I wonder if all of us within the sound of my voice have come to that relationship
• 5:02
  where we serve God with such a love and such a desire, and he says to delight
• 5:07
  yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
• 5:10
  If we delight in him, I wonder if we have come to that place in our life where
• 5:15
  the things of the world, they don't matter.
• 5:18
  Only what God says, and only the things of God are what you're seeking and serving.
• 5:25
  Then and only then can you say he's Lord God.
• 5:29
  And have you made the conscious decision to place him first in your heart and
• 5:35
  in your life and allow him to have full reign of your heart.
• 5:40
  That means putting away your desires, putting away your agenda,
• 5:45
  putting away your ability to have people think you're right.
• 5:50
  Because sometimes you've got to do right instead of win the battle and be right.
• 5:56
  You see, it's about your godly witness. it's
• 5:59
  about others seeing him and you and when you look at this verse he says and
• 6:04
  be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the
• 6:09
  hope that is within you and it brings us to that important question when's the
• 6:15
  last time somebody asked you.
• 6:18
  About your attitude, about the way you have a joy, about the peace that you exhibit?
• 6:28
  When's the last time, unsolicited by you, that somebody wanted to know why you
• 6:34
  were so happy and why you had such joy?
• 6:38
  When's the last time someone asked you about your hope?
• 6:42
  You see, the real truth of the matter is that many
• 6:45
  Christians who've been saved by the grace of God who have
• 6:48
  hope in Jesus Christ whose home is
• 6:52
  not made with hands but it turned on to the heavens who knows he's
• 6:55
  surely going to come again they walk around this earth looking like
• 6:58
  they've been baptized face forward and pickle juice they
• 7:02
  don't have anything that anybody else wants or at least the billboard of their.
• 7:08
  Face the advertisement of their life does not attract distract others to want what they have.
• 7:19
  What a dreadful, dreadful misopportunity that is.
• 7:25
  For we have a hope, and we have a peace that passeth understanding,
• 7:29
  and we have a joy unspeakable and full of glory, and we have a God who hears us and understands.
• 7:36
  We have a God who seeks to have a personal relationship with us.
• 7:41
  We have a God who loved us so much that before we even knew that we were in
• 7:46
  need of salvation, he provided the perfect lamb. He gave us the gift and it was free for all.
• 7:54
  It wasn't of our works, but it was about the finished work on the cross of Calvary
• 8:00
  that Jesus willingly laid his life down, that his perfect sinless blood could be shed,
• 8:06
  that we, me and you
• 8:09
  might have life and have it more abundantly we
• 8:13
  have within us the king of kings and the lord of lords the bible says that every
• 8:21
  good gift cometh down from the father of lights and that he doesn't withhold
• 8:26
  anything from them that love him that he's watching us that his eyes never leave us,
• 8:33
  that he wishes to bless us, and that he came that we might have life and have
• 8:38
  it more abundantly, and that he has a plan for us, to prosper us,
• 8:41
  to give us a hope and an expected end.
• 8:45
  That we have a joy that comes from him.
• 8:49
  And the world didn't give it to us, so the world can't take it away.
• 8:53
  So why is it that our billboard and advertisement of our life and the billboard
• 8:58
  of our face doesn't glow with the glory of God?
• 9:02
  Because all too often, me and you get our eyes off of Jesus and focus on the things of the world.
• 9:11
  And that's what the devil is wanting to do. And he puts so many things in our
• 9:15
  path to detour us and to distract us.
• 9:20
  And a lot of times it's not hard for him because we put a lot of things in our own path.
• 9:25
  We stay so busy and so tired that we forget to be still and know that he is God.
• 9:33
  So today, take a good look in the mirror. What do you see?
• 9:38
  If you are a child of the Most High God you created in his image,
• 9:42
  you are hope fulfilled you
• 9:46
  are a blessing waiting to
• 9:50
  happen in someone's life as christ uses you
• 9:53
  each and every day you have the glorious privilege
• 9:56
  of being his hands extended of being
• 9:59
  his feet of being his eyes of being his earthly representation of the glory
• 10:05
  and love of god and the mercy and grace that flows through Jesus Christ through
• 10:11
  your heart into the lives of others around you so that they can see Jesus in you.
• 10:20
  There is no greater calling than to be a servant of God.
• 10:25
  I think as I look in that mirror, I know that the devil's going to tell me some things.
• 10:32
  Oh, Kim, you've made mistakes. He can't use you. That's a lie straight from the pits of hell.
• 10:39
  He talked through a donkey in the Old Testament. And let me tell you what, I don't care what I am.
• 10:45
  I've got more going for me than an old donkey because I was created in his image
• 10:50
  and he breathed life into me.
• 10:52
  And he has a home not made with hands eternal to heavens built just for me. And he's coming back.
• 10:59
  If I'm worth dying for, I'm special.
• 11:03
  If I'm worth coming back for, I'm special.
• 11:07
  And I'm all of those things because of the grace of God and his love for me.
• 11:12
  And the Bible says that for God so loved the world that he gave his life that
• 11:17
  whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
• 11:22
  You're a whosoever.
• 11:25
  Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
• 11:30
  The Bible says that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
• 11:33
  saved. That makes you special.
• 11:37
  And God has given you all he has that gives you hope.
• 11:43
  Live a life that attracts people to come to you, that they could ask you, why are you so happy?
• 11:50
  Because Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
• 11:55
  Why is it that you have a song in your heart? Because Jesus writes the melody,
• 12:00
  and I'm just skipping along to the beat of his heart and mine.
• 12:06
  Why is it that you believe that God loves you?
• 12:11
  Because I've read it in his love letter from Genesis to Revelations,
• 12:14
  and I feel it in my heart, and I talk to him, because he never leaves me alone
• 12:20
  and he'll never forsake me.
• 12:22
  And when I call unto him, he'll answer me and show me great and mighty things, which I don't know.
• 12:27
  That's what he tells me in his love letter.
• 12:30
  Oh, today look in the mirror, for you are precious bought with a price and you
• 12:36
  belong to the Most High God who is longing to bless you and to use you in His service.
• 12:51
  Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
• 12:56
  quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
• 12:59
  We pray today has been a blessing and we encourage you to reach out to us through
• 13:03
  our app, our website, or our Facebook page.
• 13:06
  You can find our app by searching for Women at the Well Ministries in your app
• 13:10
  store or through our website at watwm.org.
• 13:13
  We're on Facebook at facebook.com slash watwm.
• 13:18
  If you visit our website, you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits,
• 13:22
  a daily devotion written by Kim and delivered Monday through Friday by text message.
• 13:27
  Women at the Well Ministries is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving our Heavenly Father.
• 13:32
  And it is through your loving and generous support that our ministry continues to bless others.
• 13:37
  To learn how to partner with Women at the Well Ministries, please visit our website.
• 13:42
  Thank you to the Gospel Group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
• 13:47
  We greatly appreciate your prayers. We are praying daily for our listeners.
• 13:52
  Remember that God loves you. You are loved.
• 13:59
  Music.