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The Long Road: God Shows Us Beauty Along The Way · The God Who Sees You Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: I realized that both joy and grief, both joy and heartache, both joy and sadness and disappointment can be held in the same hand and in the same human heart.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, friend, and welcome back to the podcast.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: We are going through our series of the long road and how God takes us on this long journey to show us so many beautiful things along the way.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And today, especially, I want to talk about how the long road is sometimes the more scenic road.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And there's this road by my house that I drive to often, and I'm heading to go see my doctor actually, but I take this longer route because I drive over this hill and I can see the ocean from there.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just so beautiful and breathtaking.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And on the way back, I drive back up the hill and I can see the mountains.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And this route takes me a little longer, right, than going a certain way.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I enjoy it and it's a time when I can just look at the beauty of God.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a theme that I see throughout Scripture, throughout God's Word, that He also loves to bring us in and show us beauty because He is the one that created beauty.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And He wants a relationship with you, like a real lasting relationship where you guys can talk about anything and where you can share stuff and where you can have fun together.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think sometimes we put God in a box, right?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't think that He enjoys beauty, but He is the one that made it all.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: So the big idea for today is that God loves the long road because that is where beauty is found.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And here's something that kind of revolutionized my walk with the Lord.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: I realized that both joy and grief, both joy and heartache, both joy and sadness and disappointment can be held in the same hand and in the same human heart.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you're on the long road, it means you are struggling with something, right?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're waiting and you're hoping for God to come through for you.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And these feelings come up, right?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: These feelings of grief and sadness and anger, right?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: We can't wait for these feelings to go away.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: But it's important that even if they're not going away, that we come to God with them anyways, and that we just come to Him when we're feeling all of this.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: He will give us joy, but He often gives us joy as we still hold grief, as we still hold this sadness and these feelings inside of us.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: These two things can exist together.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I learned this as I struggled with health issues.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like I could be having the worst day where, you know, I was dealing with so many unknown symptoms.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I could look at my two-year-old smile, and my heart would just burst with absolute joy.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: I held both of these things in my heart at the same time.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I sat there with God and I said, okay, Lord, will you be here with me?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Will you sit here with me as I experience all these different emotions, conflicting and confusing things, but some of them were so beautiful.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I just said, Will you be here?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Will you sit here with me?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Inviting him in was really what changed things for me, what changed my relationship with him, because I used to only invite him in when I felt put together, when I felt like I had my life kind of generally in order.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: But that was no real relationship.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't the kind of relationship where he could share with me everything because I was just being fake in front of him.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was pretending like I had it all together.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was when I learned to be my real self, messy, you know, holding multiple emotions in one hand, that I began to experience this depth of relationship that I really desired to have with God.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I had to open myself up to him first.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about this.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: God created just this incredibly beautiful world, right?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: With flowers and trees and sunsets and oceans.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you think he made all of that beauty?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you think he did all of that?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because he wants to enjoy it with you.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: The long road gives us the gift of what?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Time, right?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Time with him.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Time to enjoy the scenery, time to soak in the gifts of joy that he so freely gives.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: He puts all around us.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: 2 Peter 3.9 says this.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise, as some people think.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: No, he is being patient for your sake.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: You might feel like his timing is slow, but this verse is clear that his timing is actually perfect.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's because he's patient with you.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: I have seen this so much in my own life.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: His patience is unending, and he's working things out little by little.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't give up on us when we have setbacks or when we don't get what he is trying to teach us or say to us.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: His timing is perfect.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for us, friends.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, sometimes we feel like your timing is slow and we don't get it.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, sometimes taking the long road is painful because we don't see anything happening.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: But Lord, help us to stop and look up and look around and see all the beauty that you've put in front of us and see your world that you've created.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for making sunsets and oceans and trees and flowers.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the beauty you put everywhere in front of us.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us to notice the seasons change.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to notice your just fingerprints all over our world.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I pray that we could, as we are on this long road, waiting for things to be answered or waiting for things to happen or waiting for circumstances to change, I pray that we could still enjoy the scenic route with you.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that that would just overtake our heart with joy and that we can hold things like joy and sadness in our hand together and sit with you in that.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: In your name.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining me today, friends.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: I have a link below if you want to go a little bit further in this study and you want to maybe do your own study, ask some questions.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've made that Bible study for you.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put the link below and I will see you next time.