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Unshaken: Standing by Faith When You Don't Understand · Grace for My Home | Christian Women, Growing in Faith

• 1:13
  Audrey McCracken: Hello and welcome back to Grace For my Home.
• 1:16
  Audrey McCracken: I am so glad to be back here with you again this week.
• 1:20
  Audrey McCracken: I hope that your week has been going well and that you have seen the Lord's hand on you and on your family this week, and I am just thankful for these last two weeks that I'll be homeschooling my son after this school year.
• 1:39
  Audrey McCracken: He'll be going to public school and he's asked me not to say any more than I'm going to miss him because apparently I've said it too much, but I really am going to miss him.
• 1:48
  Audrey McCracken: I just can't tell him that anymore.
• 1:50
  Audrey McCracken: But I'm getting him registered for school and doing all of those things and that's exciting.
• 1:57
  Audrey McCracken: I know he's excited and I'm I'm a little nervous for him, but I know he'll be fine.
• 2:02
  Audrey McCracken: I have two other sons older than him who have made the same transition and and they have done great.
• 2:10
  Audrey McCracken: So I know he'll be fine, but I sure will miss him.
• 2:14
  Audrey McCracken: But besides that, our coffee shop is going well.
• 2:19
  Audrey McCracken: My husband and I are planning a trip together just the two of us for our anniversary this summer.
• 2:25
  Audrey McCracken: I'm really looking forward to that.
• 2:27
  Audrey McCracken: We're going to go up to the mountains of North Carolina, so not a long trip.
• 2:30
  Audrey McCracken: It's just a few hours.
• 2:32
  Audrey McCracken: Even by driving it's about four hours.
• 2:34
  Audrey McCracken: But I just look forward to having that time alone with him.
• 2:38
  Audrey McCracken: But we are doing well and, like I said, very thankful that the Lord's hand is on us.
• 2:45
  Audrey McCracken: You know his hand is on us even when we don't feel it or we're not aware of it.
• 2:50
  Audrey McCracken: But it's so much sweeter when we recognize his hand on us and we can have that fellowship with him at all times.
• 2:59
  Audrey McCracken: But it's just, there's something about you know, recognizing, taking a minute to say Lord, I know you're with us, I know you're with us and I want to talk with you this week about the shaking.
• 3:11
  Audrey McCracken: There is a shaking that the Bible talks about and we all go through it.
• 3:18
  Audrey McCracken: There's no escaping it.
• 3:20
  Audrey McCracken: The Bible says that it rains on the just and the unjust, and that is so true.
• 3:25
  Audrey McCracken: One of the biggest questions that people ask is why does bad things happen to good people?
• 3:32
  Audrey McCracken: Well, the truth is, bad things happen to all people and good things happen to all people, whether they recognize it or not.
• 3:41
  Audrey McCracken: But there is a shaking that it talks about this in Hebrews.
• 3:45
  Audrey McCracken: I want to read it for you out of the Bible, hebrews 12, starting in verse 26.
• 3:51
  Audrey McCracken: It says this, and his voice shook the earth then.
• 3:55
  Audrey McCracken: And his voice shook the earth then.
• 3:56
  Audrey McCracken: But now he has promised, saying Yet once more, I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.
• 4:03
  Audrey McCracken: This expression, yet once more denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
• 4:15
  Audrey McCracken: Therefore, since we have a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe.
• 4:28
  Audrey McCracken: So he's saying here that there is a shaking and it shows, after the shaking, those things that can remain, those things that are eternal, are the things that remain standing, but the things that are not eternal, that are temporary, those are the things that are shaken away.
• 4:48
  Audrey McCracken: And a lot of times we don't recognize the things that are eternal until we go through that shaking.
• 4:56
  Audrey McCracken: And, guys, I don't like the shaking, but it happens to all of us.
• 5:09
  Audrey McCracken: There are seasons in our lives when things are shaken to the very core and it hurts.
• 5:12
  Audrey McCracken: It hurts because God gets down to the very core of how we're made up and what we're standing on and what we're focusing on.
• 5:26
  Audrey McCracken: You know, jesus said at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.
• 5:29
  Audrey McCracken: He preached this whole sermon and at the very end he said there were two men.
• 5:35
  Audrey McCracken: One built his house on the rock, on a firm foundation, and the other built his house on sand.
• 5:46
  Audrey McCracken: And the storm came and the wind blew and the floods rose and the man who built his house on the sand, that house fell with a great crash.
• 5:59
  Audrey McCracken: But the man who built his house on the rock was still standing after the storm.
• 6:06
  Audrey McCracken: And he ends by saying if you hear my words, you know he just preached a sermon.
• 6:14
  Audrey McCracken: And he says if you hear my words and you put them into practice, then you will be like this man who built his house on the rock and he is our foundation.
• 6:24
  Audrey McCracken: Jesus is our firm foundation.
• 6:27
  Audrey McCracken: And when we build our house on the rock doesn't mean we're not going to go through shakings, doesn't mean we're not going to go through storms.
• 6:34
  Audrey McCracken: Doesn't mean we're not going to go through storms.
• 6:40
  Audrey McCracken: It just means if we build our house on the rock and we stand on him and we stand on his word, then after the shaking we will still be standing.
• 6:45
  Audrey McCracken: But if we did not build our house on the rock, if we build our house on the things that are not permanent, on the temporary things that can be shaken and that will be shaken.
• 6:56
  Audrey McCracken: Then, after the storm, we will be washed away with those things that are not eternal, and God does not want that for us.
• 7:06
  Audrey McCracken: He wants us to stand on him, to stand on the rock, to stand on truth, to be firm and immovable when the storms of life come in in, because they're going to come.
• 7:18
  Audrey McCracken: That's one of those promises.
• 7:21
  Audrey McCracken: You know.
• 7:22
  Audrey McCracken: It says it rains on the just and the unjust.
• 7:24
  Audrey McCracken: So during the times when it's not shaking, that's the time to firm up our foundation, because when it does shake, there's not time to prepare.
• 7:37
  Audrey McCracken: There.
• 7:38
  Audrey McCracken: That's the time when God reveals those things which are important and not important, those things that are eternal and those things that are temporal.
• 7:48
  Audrey McCracken: So I want to talk with you today about the shaking.
• 7:53
  Audrey McCracken: You know, a lot of times we'll refer to the book of Job, which is a wonderful book when it comes to the trials and the things that happen in our lives and trying to make some kind of meaning from them.
• 8:08
  Audrey McCracken: It says in the book of Job that there was a conversation going on in heaven between God and Satan and God said look at my servant, job.
• 8:18
  Audrey McCracken: There's nobody like him.
• 8:20
  Audrey McCracken: He is a righteous man.
• 8:22
  Audrey McCracken: And Satan, the enemy, said of course he obeys you.
• 8:26
  Audrey McCracken: You give him everything he wants.
• 8:27
  Audrey McCracken: You know, let me touch him, let me shake him up, and he'll curse you.
• 8:35
  Audrey McCracken: He won't stand.
• 8:36
  Audrey McCracken: And so my paraphrase the Lord said give it your best shot.
• 8:44
  Audrey McCracken: And Job was solid.
• 8:46
  Audrey McCracken: He took a huge shaking.
• 8:49
  Audrey McCracken: He lost everything in this world that he could lose, but he remained faithful.
• 8:56
  Audrey McCracken: And he remained faithful by faith.
• 9:00
  Audrey McCracken: You know, he hoped against hope.
• 9:03
  Audrey McCracken: He believed when there really didn't seem like a reason to believe.
• 9:08
  Audrey McCracken: He did not curse God the way that his wife encouraged him to do.
• 9:13
  Audrey McCracken: He held on to his faith and he said my Redeemer lives and one day I will see him.
• 9:21
  Audrey McCracken: And so Job was tested to the utmost and he held on.
• 9:28
  Audrey McCracken: But there's something about Job, that story, that has always gotten under my skin, and I think it's that partly that he didn't know what was happening.
• 9:39
  Audrey McCracken: You know, god didn't tell him, he didn't let him in on the conversation that was going on in heaven.
• 9:46
  Audrey McCracken: He just knows one day everything broke loose in his life, everything fell apart, everything shook and he never got the why.
• 9:59
  Audrey McCracken: And God never set him down.
• 10:02
  Audrey McCracken: I had a conversation with him and said Joe, good job, look what happened.
• 10:05
  Audrey McCracken: And you stood the test.
• 10:07
  Audrey McCracken: He just had to trust that.
• 10:11
  Audrey McCracken: I don't know why this is happening, but I trust God.
• 10:16
  Audrey McCracken: And, guys, that is faith, that's raw faith, that's real faith.
• 10:22
  Audrey McCracken: That's raw faith.
• 10:22
  Audrey McCracken: That's real faith.
• 10:24
  Audrey McCracken: That's hard faith, but faith pleases God.
• 10:28
  Audrey McCracken: You know there's a scripture in Job that says though he slay me, I will serve him.
• 10:36
  Audrey McCracken: And there are times in our lives when things happen we don't know why we don't see the big picture, we don't understand the conversations picture, we don't understand the conversations that are going on in heaven and it feels like, it looks like God is not kind, god is not loving, god is not here and against hope.
• 11:01
  Audrey McCracken: We have to hope, we have to believe that he is good, he is kind, he is here, he is involved, he does care.
• 11:12
  Audrey McCracken: And that is standing on the rock in the middle of the storm.
• 11:18
  Audrey McCracken: And, guys, I don't pretend to know everything you've gone, you're going through.
• 11:24
  Audrey McCracken: I don't pretend to to have been shaken in all the areas where you're being shaken or where you have been shaken, but I can tell you that the areas where I have been shaken and at the time I thought I was dying and I thought, you know, if God loved me, if and so many questions come up if God loved me, why?
• 11:48
  Audrey McCracken: Why do I have to go through this road?
• 11:50
  Audrey McCracken: Why did this have to happen?
• 11:52
  Audrey McCracken: I still don't know.
• 11:54
  Audrey McCracken: But I do know that he is patient and he is kind.
• 11:59
  Audrey McCracken: I do know that his tender mercies are new every morning.
• 12:02
  Audrey McCracken: I do know that the sun does come out in the morning, that there is weeping for the night but there's joy in the morning.
• 12:14
  Audrey McCracken: And I can't make you believe that, but I can encourage you to believe that.
• 12:21
  Audrey McCracken: And God wants you to hold on during those times.
• 12:30
  Audrey McCracken: And I want to share with you some scriptures that have helped me in those times when my mind is saying where is God?
• 12:41
  Audrey McCracken: Where did he go?
• 12:45
  Audrey McCracken: Why am I going through this?
• 12:48
  Audrey McCracken: The first one is Hebrews 13, 5.
• 12:50
  Audrey McCracken: It says I will never leave you nor forsake you.
• 12:57
  Audrey McCracken: The second is Matthew 28, 20.
• 13:00
  Audrey McCracken: And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.
• 13:06
  Audrey McCracken: It's what Jesus said as he was about to ascend back to heaven.
• 13:12
  Audrey McCracken: He said lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.
• 13:17
  Audrey McCracken: And the third is Jeremiah 31, 3.
• 13:21
  Audrey McCracken: I have loved you with an everlasting love.
• 13:25
  Audrey McCracken: I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
• 13:31
  Audrey McCracken: I have to stand on those scriptures, especially when I don't understand, especially when God seems unkind, I have to remind myself that he is patient and kind, that his loving kindness never fails and his tender mercies are new every morning.
• 13:52
  Audrey McCracken: Because the enemy wants me to doubt his love, the enemy wants me to doubt his goodness and his care and his protection.
• 14:01
  Audrey McCracken: So what do we do?
• 14:05
  Audrey McCracken: The only thing we can do when it feels like everything around us is falling apart is to trust God.
• 14:14
  Audrey McCracken: We stand by faith or we don't stand at all.
• 14:19
  Audrey McCracken: Hebrews 11.1 says Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
• 14:28
  Audrey McCracken: Now that word substance.
• 14:31
  Audrey McCracken: If something has substance, it's real.
• 14:34
  Audrey McCracken: You can touch it.
• 14:35
  Audrey McCracken: Faith is the substance foundation, the solid ground.
• 14:42
  Audrey McCracken: That's what faith is.
• 14:44
  Audrey McCracken: It's more solid than anything in this world, and so, during these times when everything is being shaken, we can stand firm on faith.
• 14:58
  Audrey McCracken: Faith and see people make faith out to be something mystical, something way out there somewhere.
• 15:10
  Audrey McCracken: But faith is very real and it's very solid and it's very stable and it's a gift from God.
• 15:19
  Audrey McCracken: There are times when I have had to pray.
• 15:22
  Audrey McCracken: Lord, you've got to give me faith.
• 15:23
  Audrey McCracken: I don't have the faith, but I'm willing to have the faith if you will help me.
• 15:31
  Audrey McCracken: And you know there's not a feeling involved, it's a trust.
• 15:36
  Audrey McCracken: It's like a leap of faith.
• 15:38
  Audrey McCracken: Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.
• 15:40
  Audrey McCracken: And he answers that prayer.
• 15:44
  Audrey McCracken: You know Abraham was commended as one who trusts God and it was credited to him as righteousness.
• 15:51
  Audrey McCracken: You know he could not be righteous in his own ability, in his own doing.
• 15:57
  Audrey McCracken: None of us can.
• 15:58
  Audrey McCracken: But when we trust God, when we put our trust in him, he credits that to us, to our account, as righteousness.
• 16:07
  Audrey McCracken: He loves it when we trust him, when we trust him.
• 16:13
  Audrey McCracken: That's our way of saying we believe, we love you and we're putting our eyes on you.
• 16:20
  Audrey McCracken: And we're putting our eyes on you.
• 16:23
  Audrey McCracken: And there is great reward in putting our eyes on Jesus and believing, even when it feels like everything's falling apart and he's nowhere to be seen.
• 16:32
  Audrey McCracken: He's right there with you.
• 16:36
  Audrey McCracken: He is the fourth man in the fire.
• 16:39
  Audrey McCracken: He's right there with you.
• 16:40
  Audrey McCracken: He is the fourth man in the fire.
• 16:40
  Audrey McCracken: He's right there with you.
• 16:44
  Audrey McCracken: The last scripture that I want to share with you is Isaiah 7, 9.
• 16:48
  Audrey McCracken: The last part of that scripture says if you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.
• 16:56
  Audrey McCracken: That's how we stand.
• 16:58
  Audrey McCracken: We stand on faith.
• 16:59
  Audrey McCracken: We stand on faith.
• 17:02
  Audrey McCracken: We stand on trust.
• 17:03
  Audrey McCracken: We stand on our belief that Jesus is on our side, that he will never leave us nor forsake us, that he cares about us and that he's very involved and that, even though we don't understand everything or the details, that he is trustworthy everything or the details that he is trustworthy.
• 17:29
  Audrey McCracken: And that's how we make it through the storm, when it feels like all of the supports have been knocked out from under us and it we wonder does he see?
• 17:37
  Audrey McCracken: Does he care?
• 17:38
  Audrey McCracken: Does he know?
• 17:39
  Audrey McCracken: Yes, he's right there with you and he cares and he loves you and he's going to help you get through this.
• 17:49
  Audrey McCracken: Years ago, there was a woman who found out that her husband was having an affair and she found out because he told her he was leaving her for this other woman and she loved the Lord and she prayed and trusted the Lord to put her, her home or family back together and it didn't happen and he ended up leaving her and marrying this other woman and and she was just devastated and she said that her greatest struggle after that was believing that God was good.
• 18:31
  Audrey McCracken: She said the enemy came and tried to turn me against God and she said all I could do was just throw myself at his feet because he was all I had.
• 18:42
  Audrey McCracken: He was all I had.
• 18:44
  Audrey McCracken: My husband had left and if I didn't trust God, then I had nobody.
• 18:51
  Audrey McCracken: And she said that's how I prayed.
• 18:55
  Audrey McCracken: Was Lord, I'm throwing myself at your feet and I want to be mad at you.
• 19:01
  Audrey McCracken: I want to leave, I want to be angry because I feel like you know, you let this happen and and you didn't answer my prayer.
• 19:09
  Audrey McCracken: And and now you know, I just, I don't even know where to turn.
• 19:13
  Audrey McCracken: But if I don't turn to you, I don't know what I'll do.
• 19:18
  Audrey McCracken: And sometimes we have to be like that Lord, I, I, I I'm going to serve you.
• 19:25
  Audrey McCracken: Even it feels like, even if it feels like you've let me down and I'm going to trust that down the road, down the road, I'll understand one day, even if it's when I see you face to face.
• 19:38
  Audrey McCracken: One day, I'll understand.
• 19:40
  Audrey McCracken: I just want to leave you with that today.
• 19:43
  Audrey McCracken: You know, if you're struggling, throw your arms around Jesus.
• 19:47
  Audrey McCracken: Don't let go of him.
• 19:49
  Audrey McCracken: Draw near him, don't draw from him and he will keep you through the storm.
• 19:56
  Audrey McCracken: And one day you'll look back on these days and you'll say look how far God has brought me, look what he's done because he loves you so much.
• 20:09
  Audrey McCracken: I want to pray with you before we go, father.
• 20:12
  Audrey McCracken: I pray today for my friends who are listening.
• 20:15
  Audrey McCracken: I pray for hope.
• 20:17
  Audrey McCracken: I pray for supernatural strength.
• 20:19
  Audrey McCracken: I pray, lord, for faith, not our faith that we work up, but, lord, the faith of the Holy Spirit that lives in us.
• 20:26
  Audrey McCracken: I pray, holy Spirit, that you would quicken us, that you would help us to trust beyond our feelings.
• 20:32
  Audrey McCracken: And, lord, I pray for grace.
• 20:35
  Audrey McCracken: I pray, lord, god, that whatever these ladies are struggling with or going through, that they would feel you as that very present help in time of trouble.
• 20:43
  Audrey McCracken: And we thank you for it, lord.
• 20:45
  Audrey McCracken: We thank you that we have a good father who cares about us and is touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
• 20:53
  Audrey McCracken: In Jesus name, amen.