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Transcript

Do You Really Believe You Can Change? · Honoring My Temple

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Honoring My Temple podcast.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking to put God at the center of your life and live that out practically through your health, habits, and everyday choices, this podcast is for you.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Kelly Wenner, founder of Soul Strength Fit and author of Honoring My Temple.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Here we explore biblical wisdom and how to apply it to real life, your mindset, food, exercise, and the habits that shape who you're becoming.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get started.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Do you believe, really believe, that you can break old habits and form new ones?
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: That you can set a goal and actually become the person you want to be?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Do you believe you can reach your health and fitness goals and then keep them?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Here's why I'm asking.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Scripture tells us in 2 Timothy 1.7 that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And when it comes to making change, breaking the old patterns, building new ones, learning to eat and move and live in a way that honors your body, that's exactly what you need.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Power, love, self-discipline.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: If scripture can be applied to every part of our lives, and I believe it can, then how does this verse apply to your health habits, to your eating?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: You've been given a spirit of power.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you honestly, do you have power over food or does food have power over you?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Are you able to make choices you don't later regret?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Can you set a plan and actually stick with it?
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have the power to act in a way that isn't governed by your mood or how you feel in a given moment?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Or does impulse sometimes run the show?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: You have been given a spirit of love.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Do you love God in such a way that you give him your moment by moment living, making the most of each opportunity, pursuing the best version of who he made you to be?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Do you love the people around you enough to bring them your best, your best energy, your best health, your best days?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the one we skip.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing it loving yourself?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Scripture says to love others as you love yourself.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the standard.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: So are you setting that bar high enough?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Or have you quietly lowered it for yourself?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Do you love yourself enough to keep the promises you make to yourself?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Enough to take the time it requires to care for yourself.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Enough to put in the effort to become the person you deep down know you can be.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: You have been given a spirit of self-discipline.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: A spirit of self-discipline isn't something you switch on in one area of your life and then leave off in the others.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a tool you reach for sometimes.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's a character trait.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Part of who you're becoming across your whole life.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Are you disciplined enough to say no to the foods you know aren't good for you and yes to the ones that are?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Disciplined enough to stop eating when your body has had enough?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: To eat for the reasons God intended food, nourishment, sustenance, health, rather than comfort or escape?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Disciplined enough to follow through on your commitment to exercise, even when you don't feel like it.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: You have been given a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that gift is enough to reach your goals.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you the real question.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Do you believe you have that spirit?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sit with that for a second.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's no wrong answer.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to guess that you and I might land around the same place.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: You might land where I so often do.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's my honest confession.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: I do believe this is true.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Scripture says it.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe scripture is true.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, and yet I struggle.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't always live with a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I feel worn down and powerless.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I just can't seem to love myself the way I know I should.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I wrestle with discipline and end up yet again making a choice I later regret.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I've come to realize: it's one thing to believe scripture is true.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's another thing entirely to believe it's true for me.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that gap, believing it in general, but doubting it for yourself, is where so many of us quietly live, a foot on both sides of the fence.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: I do believe, and yet I struggle.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: If that's you, I want to give you a simple prayer.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Six words.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: I do believe, help my unbelief.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's a prayer straight out of the Gospels, and it comes from one of the most human moments in all scripture.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: A desperate father brings his son to Jesus' disciples.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: The boy has suffered for years, seizures, episodes so violent they've thrown him into fire and water.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: The disciples try to help and they can't.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus arrives, the father's carrying the helplessness of watching his own child suffer, powerless to fix it.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: He pleads, if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus answers in a way that puts the focus on the father's faith.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is possible for one who believes.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the Father, this is the part I love, doesn't pretend.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't perform.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: He cries out, I do believe.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Help me overcome my unbelief.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's the whole prayer.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: An honest, imperfect faith that admits its own doubt and brings the problem to Jesus anyway.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus heals his son.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: You and I have a thousand chances to pray that same prayer.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: I do believe you know me, love me, and have a plan for me.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Help my unbelief.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: I do believe I can experience your peace and an abundant life.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Help my unbelief.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: I do believe I've been given a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Help me overcome my unbelief.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's deeply comforting to know that a small, honest faith that names its own doubt is still enough to bring to Jesus.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: And when his disciples later asked why they couldn't do it, Jesus tells them something just as freeing.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to a mountain, move, and it will move.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: The mustard seed was one of the smallest seeds they knew.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: His point wasn't the size of the faith, it was the object of it.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need giant, flawless faith to experience God's power.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: You need a tiny bit of genuine, humble trust placed in the right place in God Himself.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: In that culture, a mountain was the picture of an impossible obstacle.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So what's your mountain?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: A strain in your marriage, the weight of raising kids, an old hurt you've never fully healed from, a character struggle, maybe a battle with food you've fought for years and quietly stopped believing you could win.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is, Jesus says faith the size of a mustard seed is enough to move it.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: But in this matters, we can't stop at the prayer.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: James reminds us that faith by itself, if it isn't accompanied by action, is dead.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: We need faith, even as small as a mustard seed.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: But we need faith with feet.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what that looks like.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: You stand in front of your mountain and you come to God honestly.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: I believe you've given me what I need to face this.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: I believe you've given me a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline, and that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Help me overcome my unbelief.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then you ask for wisdom and you take the next right step.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you're praying this over your health, get specific.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Name the place you've struggled to believe you have what it takes.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Shine a light on the stronghold you've secretly doubted you could break.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: The goal you really don't think you'll reach.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: You believe you've been made new in Christ, but maybe you're not sure you can actually live new.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Where is that for you?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Then ask him, just for today, what's the next right step?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Just for this moment, what's the next right step and take it?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And tomorrow, take the next one.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because every choice we make carries a weight.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: It carries either the weight of defeat, regret, and stagnation, or the weight of glory.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Lord God, even when it's hard, even when I'm tired, even when I'm unmotivated, even when my faith feels as small as a mustard seed, help me choose the weight of glory.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for spending this time with me.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: To learn more, visit SoulStrengthFit.com.