Monday afternoon mix – David Myles

0:00Hi, I'm Bill Arnold. Thank you for listening to this podcast. There are many more podcasts available at myfaithradio.com. Your support makes this possible. Thank you. Okay, it's time to begin. Let's start a countdown. 20, 19, 18, 17. I just start the song. Oh, don't you know it's the Bill Arnold show. It's Bill. And a warm welcome to the Bill Arnold show. I'm looking forward to spending time with you today. I hope you had a great weekend and I'm thinking we're going to grow in our understanding of God's Word today. And I think that's always the goal. And I hope you are ready for that hearing from

1:02the Lord today. We're going to talk about when life shakes, what loss reveals, and how to guard your spirit. That's going to be the topic of the discussion for the Monday afternoon mix with Pastor David Miles and Wyatt Morell, who happened to both be in the studio right now. Gentlemen, welcome. Hello, Bill. Good to see you both. Yeah. Good to see you both. Yeah, we're all happy to be here, aren't we? You know, technically we could have been snowed in today, but we weren't. Thankfully not. We still got a lot of snow in the Twin Cities area, but we were able to get to the studio and have a great hour here and looking forward to it very much. We're looking forward to it. So David, if you would do the honors of giving us a little introduction to what happens when life shakes. Yeah, guys, I mean, like there's seasons of life. And as we talk with people as we connect with family, friends, co-workers, and things like that, that sometimes like life feels super steady. It's predictable. You know, you have your things that are just happening, and it's just part of

2:03routine. And then there's other seasons where it feels like, wow, the ground is like completely shaking all over the place. Something's changed. Something's broken. Something's lost. And sometimes even some things that you thought were really secured and locked down. All of a sudden they don't feel as certain as they did before. And that kind of that kind of season, it can really touch every part of a person's life, emotional, spiritually, relationally, physically, mentally, you know. So there's a number of different ways that that happens. And so today we want to just talk honestly about it. Like, what does loss reveal when one's person's life gets shaken? And then on the other side, just not just talking about what happens when life gets shaken. How do we guard our spirit and hard seasons so that pain doesn't become poison? Those are great questions. And David, you asked something about ask what's being revealed, which is a challenging question in the midst of having your life shaken. Sometimes it's hard to

3:06look for that. It's too painful. It is. You know, we often, we don't, it's not like people say, hey, I love pain. Nothing better to do today than take a hammer and hit my thumb, you know. So yeah, that's one of the things. Pain is a reality of life. Pain reveals a number of different things. And sometimes, was CS Lewis that said that pain can be God's megaphone? Um, yes. Okay. And so yeah, I can't remember how that goes. You whispers and something and then shouts in pain. Yeah. And so we've got to get him on the show. Oh, yeah. Yeah. If you could get he'd be great. Yes. Yes. Come. You can't do something white. Uh-huh. Why it's got like certain connections. I know it is. Yeah. See what we can do. Yeah. And you know, one of the things that we find out is that, um, in Hebrews 12, it says that everything that can be shaken will be shaken, you know. And, um, so that which cannot be shaken may remain. And this isn't just

4:16like a warning. It's like an invitation, you know, because like sometimes we think shaking is merely meant to destroy something, but sometimes it really reveals things as well. You know, you kind of shake or sift things out. Uh, it can sometimes expose what was temporary, some things that actually weren't as important as other things, some things that are fragile. And oftentimes it can reveal some of the things that we were leaning on, um, without realizing it and finding our identity and our security in it. Hmm. Why do I think I'm ready for a five-person survey already? Ah, let's hear it. Uh, when pain strikes, do you reach out or do you stay isolated? Hmm. When pain strikes, do you reach out or stay isolated? Do you do withdraw? Yeah. Or do you reach out? Yeah. Because I think that's important to our discussion today, because we're all going to be in pain. And then we're going to find strength in community, not in isolation. I'm guessing. Yeah. And if you're not in pain, you're probably going to experience it at some point.

5:19Mm-hmm. So that would be interesting. So simply yes or no to that. Well, do you do reach out or withdraw? Yeah. Yes or no? If you, yeah. When you are in pain, do you reach out or do you withdraw? So type the word withdraw or reach out. Mm-hmm. 877-933-2484. These surveys don't take long because we, uh, we tell you them quickly. Yeah. But I'd be very curious to see what your default is when you are in pain. Do you withdraw or do you reach out and try to find community that will help you process your pain? And guys, yeah. One of the things in this, sometimes people feel like, like what Peter wrote, don't feel like something strange is happening to you. But we, we often feel like something strange is happening. And like to say this about trials or pain or things like that, either you're currently coming out of a situation, you are currently in a situation. Yeah. Or you're sure enough about to go into a situation at some point. So this applies to you whatever season, you know, that you're in. And so it's not that you're strange or something's

6:21wrong as we sometimes feel life just being shaken around us. Mm-hmm. All right. Yep. So, all right, David. This is good. Would you find in here? Uh, so there are first, uh, Texas men I withdraw. So I think we're going to try to point people to, uh, reach out and be in community. Yeah. It's two, two actually right now is they keep coming in. So we're waiting for that tiebreaker. Oh, and there it is. And it's withdraw. So three withdraw to reach out. The withdraws are pouring in, aren't they? Well, and we've, uh, somebody's been on the show before, but I can't remember who it is. But we do the very thing that's actually hurting us when we come across these situations. And we do withdraw and we do isolate because we think it's good for us. But that actually turns us into more of a downward spiral. But we think it's helping us, even though it's the very thing that's hurting us. And so it's interesting to hear, uh, see these responses rather come in and know that that's a very common occurrence for people to want to withdraw when something happens. But why it looks like there's a lot of people that reach out and other people

7:22that do both. Which is great. Some say I need to reach out because I need to request prayer. Hmm, which is great. Absolutely. That's no point. It's only one thing for you to be praying, but you get other people aware in on it and community prayer is a big deal. Yeah, it is. You know, and like pain can make people feel isolated because sometimes we feel like, man, I'm the only person going through this. And how do I explain this? And sometimes like, I don't want to be a Debbie Downer or I don't want to complain about something or things like that. It's just remembering that you are not alone if life feels shaky even right now. It doesn't mean that you're weak because something hurts you. It's not that you're faithless because something's disappointed you. It's not that you're beyond hope with those various things because these things are happening to you. It is part of God telling the truth in Genesis chapter two when he said to Adam and Eve, hey, on the day that you eat this fruit, you will die. Okay. And I remember once writing a paper and seminary called, did God tell the truth? And when you go to Genesis chapter five and you

8:26read through the genealogy, it's got this equation. So and so was born, lived X amount of years, begot this person, they died. And that's like throughout. So God, when he says things, which is also guys a really good reminder for all of us to be in God's word, when God says something, he actually, you know, as a creator of the universe actually does know a little bit of what he's talking about. It's an interesting concept, isn't it funny how that works? Yeah. I'm noticing that someone texted in, I'll allow people to of course be anonymous, but the withdrawal was today. So there's a person that is in pain that withdrew today. So let's pray for the people that reached out, did the survey. Yeah. Heavenly Father, you always keep your promises and you always meet us where we are at. And I pray for the many people today who are in pain and they're feeling

9:27this sense of withdrawal, isolation, and I want them to just be confident right now that you are with them. You'll never leave them or forsake them. And you'll be with them throughout the day and into the night because you are true and faithful in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Yeah. No, and thank you for reaching out in this moment. You say you've withdrawn, but to let us know that, that's a great step. We're praying for you and I agree. It's hard too, though, for us to read that and see that. So we are praying for everybody that's been texting in and is maybe going through something today. David, you said sometimes the shaking in life reveals what was fragile and what remains solid. It's kind of a... Yeah, I mean, you begin to lean on certain things like for some, you might lean on your job, sometimes just leaning on the predictability of every day. And sometimes we forget, I remember some of the old folks and my mom and church folks

10:34would say, you know, God woke me up this morning, gave me a sound mind, allowed me to put one foot in front of the other foot. And sometimes I want to say like not everybody woke up this morning. And so there's all these different things that that we take for granted, which is why repeatedly in scripture God would say in the Old Testament, remember, remember, remember who I am, remember that I brought you out, remember that I'm with you, remember that I go before you. And that's one of those things where gratitude, as we practice gratitude and we live gratitude, when those difficult times come, it's still not going to, you know, there's still going to be difficult, but being reminded of who God is. And so one other thing about pain, pain really gets a hold of your attention. So years ago, a couple of years ago, when I had some health things going on, and I remember having some pain. And in that moment, I could say, hey, I was thinking about

11:41doing this, I might read or send an email, no, in that moment, I was in pain. And one of the interesting things that can happen is that sometimes when pain happens, we just think to ourselves, how do I get out of this? We just like, how do I get out of this instead of asking, what is this showing me? What is this clarifying me? And what I found a couple years ago, when Bill Arnold showed up at the hospital, at HTMC, and he was Pastor Bill Arnold for me. No, seriously, like, Bill showed up, and I remember you, dude, I hooked up to stuff, but you showed up. And it's such an incredible thing, because there were people that I would have never met and never would have had an opportunity to minister to had I not been in that much pain and needed that type of medical

12:42care. Now, I wasn't loving the pain. It's not like that. In the midst of it, I could see what God was doing and trying to trust him. And I couldn't even fully see what he was doing. But there are some things that are happening where we think, I really would not prefer this. I mean, think back as there's some things that have been hard on life that's happening. You maybe said, I really would not have picked that. But then looking back, you can see even just the goodness of God and God showing up and revealing Himself and walking us through it and giving us mercy and connecting us to the body of Christ and all those different things that it becomes one of those most memorable things and deeply humbling and deep gratitude. So it is one of those things. If you've experienced this or gone through it, you can testify to how God has worked it and turned it into something good. But for those right now that are going through that, maybe a better prayer instead of, hey, God, take me out of this situation would be God, help lead me through this situation for

13:44your glory and show me what this is going to look like on the other side. You know, rather than getting taken out of the situation, it's better maybe to say that prayer of, lead me through this. It's not going to be fun. It's going to be painful. But having that perspective maybe will help get you through that in the meantime. Well, why one of the things that hit me several years ago, I remember one guy who speaks and he used to say, you know, if you're going to go through suffering, you might as well get a reward for it. So Dr. Arick Thomas said that. And you know, neat, godly man. And I remember I was getting ready to speak at something internationally. And as I was preparing, this thought came to mind like God gave me this thought that my, you've heard me say this, that my adversity is the fertilizer to God's future harvest of my life. So the idea is that as you go, let me say it again, because Bill would say, go slow down, say it again. My, my adversity is the fertilizer to God's future harvest in my life.

14:49And when I'm in faith neutral places, I just say that my adversity is the fertilizer to my future harvest. Because in some government education, context is, yeah. So what does that look like? It's the idea that as you're going through difficulty, it's fertilizer. Some of the best fertilizer in the world is manure. And it smells pretty bad. It's clumpy. It's nasty. It's sticky. All those different things. But the purpose of a harvest is to feed other people. And I'll read this real quick, because we like to read things in the Word, meaning as we go through difficulty, it allows us to actually encourage other people taking Corinthians chapter one, verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ, suffering so

15:54through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too. And there's ways that we begin to understand stuff because God has actually walked us through it and allows us to walk others through that as well. David, I'm going to ask you to pray. Maybe one of the most important things we do this hour is to pray for this dear couple that lost their 11-year-old to a tragic bicycle accident in September. We are now going back to church and trying to not isolate. So would you pray for that couple and then we'll go to break them? I do want to. And before you can say that though, when a person lives their wife, they're called a and when a woman lives their husband, they're called a widow. But to date of studying languages, there's not a word for when a parent lives as a child, but there's literally no category for that. So Heavenly Father, your Father who understood your son dying, and I just pray that you, Lord Jesus, would wrap your arms and your presence around this family, Lord, that they would

16:59palpably just cinch your nearness, your love for them and for their family and their extended family in this great loss because God is just that stinks. I mean, like losing a child with a great pain and I pray, Lord God, that you would comfort come alongside them, bring others to love on them and that you would show your goodness and work things out in ways that we don't understand in Jesus' name. Amen. It is my deepest desire that you take the very first step of faith by placing your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. If you've got questions about what it means to begin a relationship with Jesus, text the word faith to 4124. All right, we are back with the Monday afternoon mix of Pastor David Miles, Wyatt Morel and me. We're talking today about when life shakes,

18:04what loss reveals and how to guard your spirit. David, you had a couple of extra thoughts you wanted to share before we move on. Yeah, I mean, the encouragement for the Body of Christ and just people listening to continue to lift this couple up that we're praying for. One of the things I want to encourage people is this. There are things that happen in life and really it just, it stinks. It's just doggie. I mean, like it's just, it's not the greatest thing. It's, you know, and when a person loses a child, sometimes people are inclined to say like, oh, you know, God needed two extra sets of angels, wings or something like that. And a lot of times it's coming from people's own discomfort in the moment. And sometimes just looking at a person and saying, that's, that's horrible. It stinks. And I've, I've observed people say, you're right. It does. And actually open up because they're so used to bracing themselves for some things that sometimes

19:06Christians say to one another that might, you think might make you feel better, but it's definitely helping the person. I know I'm talking with widows and widows sometimes a question that I would ask them is, you know, the name of your loved one. Hey, what colorized did they have? What color was their hair? I once had a conversation with someone at a post office. And I asked these questions and she's like, it just took her back. And I said, you know what? There's a, there's a bazillion things that you miss about this person. What's one thing that you miss? Yeah. And they shared in this gal, like she just hugged and cried. And we had, I mean, this is a stranger. We're having a conversation. And she's like, thank you. Because sometimes building on why people say, well, I don't want to bring this up because I, you know, I don't want them to, you know, make them remember, like they're going to forget their loved one. No. And sometimes people are like, well, I don't want to make them cry. But tears sometimes that's part of the healing. So let me encourage you,

20:11brothers and sisters, get outside of yourself and your discomfort and really put your eyes on this person and listen. They love that person. It's important. They're actually more afraid that other people are forgetting. So yeah, just having a tenderness in your heart and not to speak flippantly. Good words, David. All right. Let's talk about what loss reveals. Yeah. You know, one of the first things that happens that loss reveals is that, you know, it shows what are we leaning on? Like what are we trusting in? We often think we know what our foundation really is until things start moving beneath our feet. And we often say like God is our source in years, but then things get shaky financially, physically, relationally, emotionally, vocationally. And we actually realize that our trust is more in the paycheck and the employer and a person and a position and a dream and an outcome and a routine. So we're actually more

21:12trusting in those things. It's, it's that whole thing of being theological Christians and practical atheists. Like in our head, we know what we believe. You know, and we're pretty sure, but in that moment, man, you know, that anxious feeling that's really real and that is God going to come through on this or let me put is God going to come through in the way that I think that he should come and come through. And if he doesn't come in my way, that means he's not coming through and can't be trusted. And so we're thinking it needs to be because guys, over the last three years, I've gone through a lot of real, I mean, like, refinement and furnace stuff and God working deeply, deeply in my life. And I can't say to you and I won't say to you because that would be in true to say that I'm always like, praise God from whom all blessings flow. You know, you are good. There's moments where I'm like, dude, like, Lord, what's going on? Like,

22:14Heavenly Father, I know you love me. I'm just kind of feeling stepchild right now. You know, just to keep it 100. And I mean, so sometimes it reveals that what we were really trusting and wasn't the Lord, it was actually in something else. I know. And I can't remember the passage. It said that some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but we trust in the Lord. Yeah. Well, of course, there's the famous one in Joshua too, you know, choose today who you will serve and who you will trust. But as for me and my household, we're going to serve the Lord. So he's putting all of his trust in the Lord. Yeah. And sometimes David, I think, and maybe you want to speak to this a little bit, but we put our trust in these things on this earth because we do see them. They're tangible right in front of us. Well, as God, we don't always necessarily see God or feel his presence at times. So it's so easy to forget that he is there by our side because we don't always feel that. No. And so sometimes we're wanting to, it's almost like,

23:15God, I want to see first, then I'll believe, you know, and it's like, it's not how faith works always. And like, sometimes, I mean, like, it is hard. I mean, like, if we're honest, sometimes it's hard to trust God. If we're just being 100% honest, I mean, sometimes it's very easy to, but this is one of the things, just as in case someone's driving that right now and kind of berating themselves, sometimes it's easy to trust God because we've had to trust God and other things and watch him show up to build our faith muscles. So sometimes we want to have like faith and we want, but we don't necessarily want to go through the things that is required. It's like, you know, we want to have, you know, I don't know, great shape and great health and great fitness, but we don't want to eat right and we don't want to go to the gym. And so Paul said in the word,

24:16physical training is a value, but godly training is much more value. And so some of the things that we're going through, some of the things I'm going through right now, it's been able to walk through them because of some of the hard things that I went through a couple of years ago. And so some of the hard things I'm going through now, God's still using those things to grow. And so Jesus didn't say, if you have trouble, He says, in this world, you will have trouble. You will have situations, but take cheer for I've overcome the world. You know, and so, so loss can often, you know, really show us like, what are we depending upon? You know, like, what are we really, really looking at? What are we looking at for our security? And sometimes finding that some things are a lot more fragile than we think they are. That's a good reminder. It's good word.

25:16You know, seasons, they change. You know, we have summer, fall, winter, spring, relationships that you have with family members, friends, those change over the years. As you grow older, you're going to change everything around you in this world changes. But Christ is the same yesterday today and tomorrow. So build that firm foundation on Him. And as we lean into Him, I'm reminded recently I was talking to this man and he was holding his very young son. And I kind of reached out, hey, buddy, you know, that kind of thing to this little boy. And he just kind of further withdrew into his dad's chest. And it's like, basically, he was saying to me, I don't know who this stranger is. Right. But I know where I'm safe. Yeah. I'm safe in dad's arms. Yeah. I don't know who this guy is. But I know where I am right now. My encouragement is just to remind you of where you are right now. You are in your father's arms. It's a sweet illustration.

26:19And another thing guys about loss is it clarifies what actually matters. Because there are a lot of things that seem like really, you know, really important. And, you know, I remember when we didn't move back to the cities. And my mom was in Kentucky at her hometown visiting family. And had some health things. Was there a lot of things on my plan at that moment? Yep. None of it mattered. Would mattered was me hopping on a plane. And I remember telling a church family this one time. I said, guys, if you have a situation where God's been tapping on your heart and saying, Hey, you might want to talk to this person. You might want to visit with them to do that. Because whatever, let's just, I remember telling a person, you will not look back and say, I spent $400 on a plane ticket. No, you're going to look back with interest and regret and compounding and assets. And you're going to say, why didn't I go? Why didn't I go? And I had one

27:23of my leaders and I remember was talking with his wife and was just saying, was telling me a situation with her mom. And I said, listen, I haven't even talked with Tammy about this. But I will pay for half your ticket. That's how serious I am about it. Because one of the greatest memories of my life was when I flew down to see my mom. And, you know, we thought we were losing air. Came back and I remember one day I'm sitting at the end of her bed and I'm reading and my mom wakes up and she says, David said, yeah, mom, she goes, I'm fine. And I said, oh, you mean like the temperature and all that. And she started laughing. She's like, and I was like, oh, I said, you're fine, fine. She said, yeah, I'm fine, fine. I said, mom, if you're fine, I'm fine. I said, I've always sought to honor you and dad and the Lord. And I've always wanted the best for you. And Jesus is the best. And I would never trade that memory. You're killing me. I would never trade that memory for anything, for anything. And I had the blessing of my one leader, his wife actually went

28:32to Illinois to see her mom. And she came back and it was just like, I'm so glad that I took that trip. Because sometimes when there's ways that doors get shut that when that door shuts, it's done. Right. You know. And yeah. So sometimes loss clarifies what matters. Amen. David Miles, White Morel is the Monday afternoon mix. We're going to take a short break. And when we return, we're going to continue our discussion on when life shakes. What loss reveals and how to guard your spirit. We'll be right back. We're back with the Monday afternoon mix. Pastor David Miles, White Morel and myself. We're talking about when life shakes, what loss reveals, and how to guard your spirit. So speaking of guarding your spirit, I got Proverbs 4, verse 23,

29:35open that says above all, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. That must be a big piece of this study. It is. And I mean, like one of the first principles in guarding your, you know, heart is guarding what you rehearse to yourself. What is the story, you know, and what is kind of the narrative in the background and the soundtrack? I mean, because sometimes, you know, the truth is, we can have a PhD in brooding. You know, we just have a dance degree. It's like we specialize in that. And, and, you know, there's a difference between honesty and brooding. And, you know, processing isn't the same as like, you know, building this massive negative thing. We can be honest and real because we see that in the Bible. We see that in the Bible of people being really like, God, I don't like this. And like even Jesus's prayer was the prayer out of Psalm 22. My God,

30:38my God, why have you forsaken me? Like, we're yet. And, and sometimes because we're so used to just saying things are fine. Sometimes guys, things aren't fine. They're not. And sometimes things aren't going to be fine for a little bit of a time. You know, I remember one of my elder pastors had once said in a message, he goes, life wouldn't be so hard if we expected it to be so easy. That's so true, David. And it's like, we want it to be, you know, we want it to be like, you know, pull up to the thing or to your order your food and hear, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And sometimes it's taking a long time. So one of the first things is you have to guard what you heard. Because oftentimes hurting people, we will replay

31:38the offense. Like, we'll replay. And that's where that whole term nursing a grudge. Like, we get that grudge bottle up to our mouth. And we are like all day on that thing. And so we will replay the offense, the betrayal, you know, the fear, the humiliation, the uncertainty will kind of, and then also the what if. And then the imagine, you know, we imagine what's in the future. So I heard someone say this the other day, you know, we beat ourselves up for a path that we can't change. We stress ourselves ourselves out for a future that hasn't come yet. And then we like, we disrupt the present that we live in. And I'm so grateful that Jesus just says, hey, if you're not, it's me. Like, I'm here. Not I can't believe that you're you're stressed out about this. It's like, no, he like meets us in our our point of need. God is near to the broken hearted is with one of

32:43the Psalms says, and Isaiah 26, three says, you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you. We think about the perfect peace part. But there's that part whose mind is stayed on him on God. Because of our minds are staying on him. And I'm not guys listen, I'm not saying this is easy. Sometimes you got to remind, well, maybe I, I have to remind myself multiple times like within one minute. Okay, dude, just keep your eyes on him. Keep your eyes on him. Because it's so easy to get our eyes off of him and to say like, how's this going to happen? How's this going to happen? What about this? What about this? And yeah, David, when you talk about guarding what you rehearse, is that another way of saying, be careful of your self talk? Yes. Self talk can be horrifically destructive. Yeah. Self talk can be put it this way. Sometimes the enemy I see

33:47is the enemy in me. And then, you know, that really truth be told, we we talked to ourselves in ways that we would never speak to another person or let another person speak to one of our loved ones. But our self talk vicious vicious. Yeah. I saw a counselor many years ago and he said, if you treated others the way you treat yourself, you wouldn't have any friends. I guess I was being hard on myself. And that's when I needed to adjust self talk. Yeah. So we want to guard what we rehearse. We also want to guard what we agree with, you know, pain talks, fear talks, shame talks, accusation talks, but not every thought that arrives in your mind to serve your agreement or red car, red carpet treatment. Men, you know, I started saying amen before you finish your stance. I thought that's all exciting. Which is totally fine. That is totally okay. I don't like

34:49to interrupt ever, but you're fine. You know, second Corinthians 10.5 says to take every thought captive. So what that means is that we don't not let destructive thoughts build a house in our soul. We test them against the truth of God. And you know, what it says in Revelation 12, 11, we've talked about this before that they overcame the enemy by the blood of the land and the word of their testimony. You know, that self talk that they were having and also the talk that they were having with other people. Because it's easy to get an echo chamber and like, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. You're like that whole thing. And it's like, you have your circle of concern and your circle of influence. Like some stuff you're going to be concerned about, but you're not going to be able to influence. But there are some things that you can influence. And how do we go about influencing the things that we can? And sometimes letting go of the things that we cannot.

35:53You know, so we want to be mindful, you know, of guarding what we were hurts, guarding was what we agree with. And then, you know, because sometimes we'll say like the thoughts, I'll never recover. You know, God has left me. This is ruined everything. Nothing good can come from this. And, you know, that's not true. That's a squeaky little voice. It is. How do you step on, put that one in a box? How do you do that? Well, get the box, put the little squeaky thought in it, close it. Well, let's go like what did Paul tell, you know, Paul sitting in a prison, not exactly the greatest place. And he says, hey, guys, finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. So that's what you should be rehearsing. You should be rehearsing. That should be your

36:57stream of thought. Yes. Why is the negativity often a default? Is it our broken sinful nature? Is it not trusting God? What is it, David Miles? I think, you know, like, is it negativity of those company or something like sometimes like the proverb says that like gossip and stuff is like sweet, juicy morsels. Sometimes just like being negative. And sometimes actually, Bernay Brown, who writes on vulnerability, had called it for boating. So in some ways, we try to scare ourselves to try to prepare for what might actually happen. I so, you know, so like, you know, you're at at home and you're expecting someone to be at home a certain time and they haven't. Well, you, you've rehearsed the car accident, you know, the hospital, the funeral, all these things within seconds. And sometimes there's this part of us that wants to really just say like, well, if I think of this to the worst, you know, I'll be prepared.

37:58And no, you know, it's a false alarm. It is. I don't think God answers false alarms. Do you? He certainly hears everything, but I'm not so certain he answers false alarms. I don't know. I think, you know, I'll leave that to him because he's not. Of course. I was just speculating. Yes. But how many things do we run to him with that are absurd? Because we're making it about us and not trusting him. That's some deep thoughts for today on a Monday. Yes. Glad you're asking David all these questions. Oh, I'm looking. I'm not kind of looking here directly. I'm looking at Wyatt too. And I'm looking over it. You know, maybe that's another topic we should discuss. That's probably worth a full hour at least. I'm guessing. I would think, but because you hear yourself say or other people say, what you just said, David, a person that not home in a specific time, you project into the future, what might be happening? And you come to the worst conclusions in an effort to try to prepare yourself for what could be a possibility in 99.9% of the time. It's not. Yeah. And that was actually

39:05the study on generalized anxiety disorder that the University of Pennsylvania did. They had given people pages and they said, listen, if you have an extra thought, we want you to write this down, write down the thoughts. And they'd found like 99.9% of them never happened. The few that happened were nowhere as bad as they thought. But we love to run out. Well, okay, I'm going to say, I like to run myself up that flagpole. All right. Sometimes it's like, hmm, look at that, look at that rabbit trail. Look at that rabbit trail turned into a kangaroo, monster, big rabbit, kangaroo, mixed hybrid trail. And let's just walk those thoughts down. And God's like, no, what did the the psalm of sermon or the hymn writer say, oh, what needless, something we carry, oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not take it to the Lord and prayer. Oh, that's good. You know, I messed up the first part of the hymn. Yeah, it was good, though. But it's that whole thing like the part of needless. Because and sometimes there's just

40:06something, maybe it's not nice, but what it feels like, it feels like we're doing something, the energy and the anxiety and all that stuff. And so sometimes people get actually, and they would talk about just getting addicted to adrenaline, getting, you know, that we, we like to walk that out that makes us feel, you know, alive. It also makes us feel stressed out. But it feels like we're doing something, you know, trust in the Lord is all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. Remember the Lord and everything you do. And he will show you the right path. Proverbs three. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So sometimes identifying what's going on in our hearts and minds and sometimes just saying, stop. It's not always that easy, but sometimes it, it really, it is. It's just sometimes, sometimes we want, it's nip it in the bud. Do you want me to say that to you? Yeah, nip it in the bud. I don't know what that means, but all I

41:08knew is I was supposed to stop it or stop it before it gets going. Yeah. Yeah. I think the whole nip in the bud part is like, so before the plant or whatever can grow if you nip the bud. Okay. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know why it. What do you think? I think that was a phrase I did not think was going to appear on the Monday afternoon mix, but here we are. Well, it's a generational thing. Yeah. I don't think you ever heard it did. I never heard. I know the saying. Okay, but I don't know what it means. If anybody knows what nip in the bud, let us know. That would be helpful. Yeah. That'd be very helpful. All right. We're going to take a break and come back. Lots more after Monday afternoon mix with Pastor David Miles and White Morale. Be right back. Right back. You don't need to know why Bill needs a minute none of your Bennett. He'll be right back. You're looking the studio, but Bill isn't in it because Bill took a minute. He'll be right back.

42:12Welcome is a word said universally all over the world. Every language on the planet has their own way of making a friendly greeting. At Faith Radio, when we welcome, we really mean it. Learn more about us by requesting a free welcome pack gift. Text the word welcome to 877-933-2484 or visit myfaithradio.com to request your welcome pack today and a warm welcome to you. Bill took a minute and now he's back. We're back and we're talking about what life, when life shakes. We started off talking about that very topic when life shakes. We should be asking what is being revealed here and we talked about what loss reveals and then how important it is to guard your spirit and guard what you rehearse. Your self-talk is really important. Now David, I want to wrap things up with staying soft before God. Yeah, because one of the temptations of pain

43:19is this hardness. You know, it becomes one of these things that I will never trust again. I'm not going to hope again. I won't feel again because in doing that, I felt pain and there's a part of us that really instinctively wants to avoid pain. I can't remember the psychologists who wrote the book about the gift of pain. It has good things to tell us. If you have your hand underneath a hot faucet, that's trying to protect you. But the hardness of heart part being careful about that because on the surface, we can seem like, man, I'm super strong, but it's not really strength. It's more self-protection turning into a prison. So that again, that's important. On the surface, you know, it can seem like we're being strong, but it's often that strength, it's self-protection turning into a prison. Well, that's what a lot of people do is just survival.

44:19And then it appears as isolation and retraction and then all of a sudden things will get worse because we need one another. We do. And we often think that we need to be the will tree out in the middle of the plane by herself where a stiff wind is going to blow it over and I've read it. And God is like, no, I want you to be redwoods in Sequoias, where your brits only go down five foot, but you're over 300 foot tall and thousands of years old, why? Because you're interconnected with others. So with the Bible says in Hebrew, let us not forsake the assembly together. We need one another, you know. And I remember like being in Sunday school when I was in college, I was up at my college town this past day to get one of my sons out of the blizzard, the crazy stuff. But I remember like, you know, being in Sunday school and you have a senior saint sharing some things of a long walk of faithfulness in the same direction. And their perspective would encourage me

45:29because I was kind of short on, I was just kind of starting this. And so that's why we need one another because when it's just ourselves, we can really get both myopic, we can naval gaze, it can feel like this is never going to, you know, work out. And then sometimes you get with other believers and they've been through those things. And we encourage one another in the Lord, like we need relationships were made for that. So David, when you say, I don't know if things are going to work out, I'm asking this gently, are we supposed to know how it's supposed to work out? Therefore presenting an idea to the Lord, assuming we know better than he does, presenting the idea that we say, this is how it will work out looks to me. And he's looking at us going, I got something way, way, way better. Yeah, way better. Yeah. I mean, like sometimes we forget the, the beauty of unanswered, like when God said, no, think about this in your life. Some of the things you're like, God, I have to have this. And if

46:32you really would have got that, whoo, hot mess, you know. And so sometimes the beauty and the blessing of God saying, no, just as a parent saying to a child, yes, you're eight years old, sorry, you don't get the keys to the van. I know you might feel like you can try. It's not happened. You got to wait two or nine. Yeah. What's so funny? Why? Because you're supposed to wait till they're 10. Bill. Okay, double digits. Yeah, I got to go double digits. All right. No, but you're right. Bill, yeah, you're spot on. Okay, I'm going to quote Heather Holliman. Do you already know the quote? Well, no, because it's been a while since she's been on the show, but I'm going to remember my favorite quote every rejection is God's protection. It's a good one. I don't know if I completely understand it, but I like the quote. I love it. Yeah, I did make a lot of sense. And you know, going back to what we said with praying for a certain outcome or telling God, we know better. It's almost a posture of, you know, we talk all the time about saying, God, I want your will to be done. Not mine, but it's almost like in praying for

47:35a certain outcome, we're saying that we aren't really in your will or want your will to be done. We have our own selfish agenda here, something we got to be very careful of. Please accommodate my request. Right. Sometimes we're asking God to bless our mess. Yeah, right. You know, and I can feel really real. It's like, oh, you know, and sometimes it's like, no, actually, what's really needed is the opposite. And so this is why to this point, Psalm 51 10 says, created me a clean heart. Oh, God and renew a right spirit within me, not us renewing a right spirit in God. We're saying God renew a right meaning our spirit can be wrong. And we're saying God put us on your right path. You know, and so like David's like saying, I'm not just asking you to change circumstances in this. He's saying, I want a clean heart and I want to write spirit with you. So how do we guard our heart, our spirit and hard season? It's a couple of things. First,

48:36tell God the truth daily. Don't fake being fine with God. Already knows. And it can be hard because sometimes we think God is like the people who have let us down. I think he doesn't carry, doesn't have time, things like that. Second, rehearse what is true, scripture, God's character, what remains, what he's already brought you through. Third, limit what feeds chaos. Not every voice deserves access to your spirit. And sometimes doom scrolling, not necessary. Fourth, stay connected to wise and safe people. Isolation distorts perspective. Fifth, keep doing the next faithful thing. Keep doing the faithful next, but next faithful thing. And know that there is a God who loves you as it says in Romans 8, he who gave his son. How will he not more than that give us all things for the glory of its great name? Good discussion, David Miles. Thank you. And thank you, Wyatt, for the Monday afternoon mix. It's been great. I've enjoyed this topic tremendously. We're

49:40going to take a break. And then our two Dr. Tim Walsh was going to join the program. We're going to talk about values and the neural science of values. It's going to be interesting. We'll be right back. Thanks for listening. Programming like this is made available through your support. Information available at myfaithradio.com. Coming this Easter, an epic four-part audio podcast series, The Christ. My hour has not yet come. My son, your hour was written before time. Starring David O'Yellowow, who claims to be a king, Tom Pelfrey. My kingdom is not of this world. Paul Walter Hauser. He is the light, the true light. With narration from John Rees Davies and Patricia Heaton, The Christ, wherever you listen to podcasts.

50:42Bart Millard, lead singer of Mercy Me, says there was a season when his faith felt anything but strong. Literally, I was hanging by a thread. Even the stuff as simple as God is good all the time. All the time God was good. Saying these things, I didn't believe that. That's what would get the biggest amen if I said it from a crowd. So if I did the right things on the outside, no one would interfere with the inside. And one of the hardest times, Bart learned God's love is secure. And so is his identity in Christ. Here, Bart Millard's story on this week's episode of The Unfolding. On Apple and Spotify. And at myfaithpodcasts.com.