00:00:01 John Murphy

This is the Rock House Center podcast and I'm John Murphy.

00:00:03 Beth Murphy

And I'm Beth Murphy.

00:00:04 Beth Murphy

And we're here today to talk about the fact that God is just one thought away.

00:00:09 John Murphy

It's amazing how much that one aspect of people relationship with the Lord is so important, but missed so often and is the source of a lot of distress in peoples lives.

00:00:20 John Murphy

They they come in and talk about their anxiety and despair and the way in which they feel lonely, or some other fairly negative.

00:00:26 John Murphy

Emotions and what you find is they're really kind of having a hard time connecting with the reality that God is on board that when they became a believer they were conveyed into the Kingdom.

00:00:35 John Murphy

The Holy Spirit was became present within them and God became present within them through the Holy Spirit.

00:00:41 John Murphy

But it's just something that is commonly missed and there's a lot of benefit available through it, and there's a lot of suffering.

00:00:47 John Murphy

When it's missed.

00:00:48 Beth Murphy

The ways in which we see this at Rock House Center every day are things that get described in day-to-day life situations.

00:00:55 Beth Murphy

Like certainly any despairing situation, parent despairing of their young child anxiety or their teenagers depression or their teenagers rebellion or a child despairing of their life and ultimately.

00:01:09 Beth Murphy

Coming around to maybe they're 12 years old or 18 years old and deciding that they're really not sure they want to keep going in life.

00:01:16 Beth Murphy

Or the kind of anxiety that people experience believers experience daily about unknowns, whatever those unknowns may be, the things that are around the corner that are no way to predict and those exist in every aspect of life or loneliness.

00:01:32 Beth Murphy

People can be very lonely even when they're with other people.

00:01:36 Beth Murphy

They're in relationship, maybe even meaningful relationships, but still have an aching kind of loneliness.

00:01:41 Beth Murphy

And these things are actually all connected in terms of where it comes from and the antidote for it.

00:01:48 John Murphy

Yeah, we have.

00:01:48 John Murphy

It's back to the divine needs concept where we have some deep divine needs that relate to our connection with God.

00:01:54 John Murphy

And we really are made to be dependent on him and that only really works out well and the opportunity for there to be a good outcome from depending on God is when we bring him into these situations.

00:02:07 John Murphy

A lot of times we'll know who he is, but we don't actually engage him in the thought we find ourselves isolated, which of course is one of the things that we most want to avoid is being isolated.

00:02:16 John Murphy

And by ourselves, that's never a good formula for doing well and.

00:02:20 John Murphy

Those are the times when we most need God in the context of our life, we need to be in conversation with him.

00:02:25 John Murphy

We want to make sure we never get isolated and God literally is on board now and always.

00:02:31 John Murphy

He calls us the permanent dwelling place.

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This God lives in us here on the planet.

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He's no longer in the cloud or in the fire, and the other things that were going on the New Testament or over in the.

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Attentive meeting over the Ark of the.

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Covenant in old.

00:02:45 John Murphy

In the Old Testament, right?

00:02:46 John Murphy

Sorry, sorry in the Old Testament and he's given up those places of existing here and he exists within us individually.

00:02:53 John Murphy

Appropriately, and so he is really just one thought away and it is about and the thought is just thinking about him and bringing him into the context of the moment.

00:03:02 John Murphy

And that's one of the things which we find that a lot of folks, although they know who God is, they find themselves still sort of taking the position that they're they're doing life on their own.

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He's not with them.

00:03:12 John Murphy

And then there a lot of their suffering comes from that.

00:03:14 John Murphy

We're built to be dependent on God.

00:03:16 John Murphy

He built us to be dependent on him, our highest state of well being in peace comes from, well, the degree to which we are able to depend on him and count on him and trust him.

00:03:24 John Murphy

And our loss of peace comes with degree, to which he's not in the context of our life.

00:03:29 John Murphy

And we don't think about him, we feel like we're on our own.

00:03:31 Beth Murphy

Zero clue when you're, you're kind of succumbing to that or slipping into it.

00:03:35 Beth Murphy

It's just when life feels bigger than we are.

00:03:38 Beth Murphy

It feels bigger than we are because actually it is, and it's not possible to be at peace on our own and in our own strength we urgently need God in our lives because he created us in that way.

00:03:49 Beth Murphy

He created us to be dependent on him.

00:03:52 Beth Murphy

All the time and so that feeling that I'm overwhelmed by life life is void.

00:03:58 Beth Murphy

Maybe it comes from the perspective of just feeling like we're going it alone, and the undercurrent belief that often start too early in life because perhaps the child was sort of on their own emotionally or practically can become a strong believer.

00:04:13 Beth Murphy

Have a really good solid relationship with God, but still have an undercurrent, foundational belief that they're not even really fully aware of.

00:04:20 Beth Murphy

That they're just really kind of slugging it out in life.

00:04:23 Beth Murphy

Going through things on their own, and it's really not possible to live in a state of ongoing peace in that condition.

00:04:31 John Murphy

Right, because every the things that we will encounter in our lives and have concerns which are bigger than we have answers for.

00:04:37 John Murphy

And if we do not bring God into the context of that thought in that thinking in that life, then we are without answers, and therefore we have uncertainty, and therefore we have fear about the outcome.

00:04:46 John Murphy

I think another thing that causes people to not draw God into the context of their lives and in the details.

00:04:52 John Murphy

And what and to help them solve the problems they have is I think they commonly will.

00:04:56 John Murphy

They will limit.

00:04:57 John Murphy

God's ability to engage in their life and bring them an answer to whatever their personal horizon is is the way they see it.

00:05:03 John Murphy

So if they're looking across the horizon of their life, they see their problem.

00:05:07 John Murphy

They see the thing they've got to resolve.

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They see the way they feel.

00:05:09 John Murphy

And if they don't see potential or something to hope in on the horizon of their life, then they've decided that it is hopeless, and therefore there is no more conversation.

00:05:18 John Murphy

There aren't any other options that that's the end of it. Well, the reality of it is is that God's horizon is way beyond our horizon.

00:05:25 John Murphy

He can bring all kinds of answers that we don't see.

00:05:27 John Murphy

We can't predict, and I've we've certainly experienced that.

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In our own lives where God has shown up and he had an answer that nobody would consider as a rational next thing that could have happened, right?

00:05:37 John Murphy

It's not a rational next thing.

00:05:39 John Murphy

It's because it's man rational.

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And it's got.

00:05:41 John Murphy

Doing and God does what he does when he does it, when he knows it's the best thing to do.

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It doesn't matter whether or not we think it's rational to anticipate it or expect it, and really the appropriate perspective.

00:05:51 John Murphy

What God just is that God is if I'm bringing God into this context and I'm counting and depending.

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On him that.

00:05:57 John Murphy

It I see what I see and if I don't see it here on my horizon then.

00:06:01 John Murphy

This is going to be interesting 'cause God is going to come up with something 'cause he's promised to give me peace in difficult situations and help me cope and help provide for me in those kinds of things.

00:06:11 John Murphy

But if I.

00:06:12 John Murphy

Limit what he can do to what I see then I will not have any peace and it's very important for us to focus on.

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He is not limited by what we see and that a lot of times his solutions are beyond anything that we would rationally consider.

00:06:24 Beth Murphy

So limiting him in that way without realizing it, we're just kind of bringing him down to our level, which is is very limited, and so a fascinating way that.

00:06:29

Right?

00:06:32 Beth Murphy

That this so commonly plays out at rockhaus center when we see people express themselves.

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They'll come in.

00:06:38 Beth Murphy

And and do paperwork before their initial session here for their biblical counseling program and indicate in the 37 different questions on this sheet.

00:06:47 Beth Murphy

They'll indicate that they feel like they are trusting God.

00:06:51 Beth Murphy

They're in a pretty solid place with that because they know God trustworthy in their mind and believe him to be so know a lot of right.

00:06:58 Beth Murphy

Things about God commonly have been Christians for a long time.

00:07:02 Beth Murphy

But then they also indicate that they're experiencing high levels of anxiety, fear or panic.

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Or maybe it's depression, or despair, or hopelessness, and don't understand that those two things can't coexist.

00:07:16 Beth Murphy

If we're highly trusting in God, then we have the fruit of what goes along with that which is.

00:07:23 Beth Murphy

The peace that passes understanding and.

00:07:25 John Murphy

Yeah, just unpredictable piece.

00:07:26 John Murphy

That's not rational to have peace in the moment.

00:07:28 John Murphy

That's because that's coming from God.

00:07:30 John Murphy

It's not about a rational thing.

00:07:31 John Murphy

It's about trust thing.

00:07:32 Beth Murphy

And it exists not because I'm just really such a great Christian and I'm going to make myself have peace.

00:07:39 Beth Murphy

I can't do that anymore than I can make myself sneeze or not sneeze, you know.

00:07:44 Beth Murphy

It's just an involuntary reaction to what's going on on the inside and my the existence of peace in me is a reaction to.

00:07:52 Beth Murphy

What's going on inside me spiritually and it's always connected to what I'm believing to be true about God.

00:07:58 John Murphy

But who God is right?

00:07:59 Beth Murphy

And so an interesting example of that that is so practical in what we're talking about here, in limiting God to what we can see in our horizon or not is when a person has a certain set of information about their own financial situation and what they can afford or not afford, whether they could afford counseling, whether they could.

00:08:19 Beth Murphy

Send their child to college whatever the thing may be and they can see what they can see.

00:08:24 Beth Murphy

But as God invites us to trust him and helps us do that, some of our favorite testimonies are the people who think they couldn't afford more than one.

00:08:32 Beth Murphy

Question who actually finished going all the way through the program and all kinds of different things happen along the way?

00:08:40 Beth Murphy

All of them unpredicted.

00:08:41 Beth Murphy

Commonly, some expenses go away.

00:08:44 Beth Murphy

Some resources appear all the way to include literally the check from the uncle that you hardly knew, and so just those sorts of things.

00:08:53 Beth Murphy

That have happened in our own lives, and of course we appreciate this because of how much that has happened in our own lives and and really on the 30 plus books we could write, there could be 1 written on God.

00:08:58 John Murphy

Oh yeah, it's definitely.

00:09:04 Beth Murphy

It's winging in out of nowhere financially, which is why there is a rock house center and why there's a thriving rock house center all the way to where we are right now.

00:09:13 Beth Murphy

When at many points it seemed completely impossible.

00:09:17 John Murphy

Yeah I have to say that I've come to the place where it's sort of like just take a ticket and take a seat and just watch how this thing is going to play out because there are those times where certainly had a lot of concern.

00:09:29 John Murphy

A lot of fear you know.

00:09:30 John Murphy

Try and trust God trying to be peaceful, but he does deliver and that's another thing that helps build our faith is that.

00:09:36 John Murphy

One of the ways that we want to be thinking about God also is that in the context of the things that he has done, giving him the credit for what he has done and just extending that credit forward in terms of that belief forward in that proof forward that he will come through for things, even when it seems impossible.

00:09:51 John Murphy

I mean, we've had situations like you're referring to, where there was no way to predict.

00:09:56 John Murphy

How this financial issue was going to get resolved?

00:09:59 John Murphy

And it simply came from the most improbable.

00:10:02 John Murphy

Place on the planet that you can imagine, and it shows up and it's just what you need.

00:10:06 John Murphy

Just in time, which is kind of the way he works.

00:10:08 John Murphy

Just what you need just in time and it really.

00:10:10 John Murphy

It's happened so often now that I have probably by some people perspective and unrealistic expectation of God to show up.

00:10:17 Beth Murphy

Now and if he doesn't show up in a given thing that we want something for, we just conclude.

00:10:22 Beth Murphy

Well, we didn't really need that in the first place.

00:10:24 Beth Murphy

We'll move on and we'll adjust our expectations accordingly.

00:10:27 Beth Murphy

So in this whole thing of looking.

00:10:28 Beth Murphy

Yet, really, how are we going to get to the state of peace that God has for us?

00:10:34 Beth Murphy

It begins with having a correct understanding of who God is, and one of the ways that that's most deeply entrenched is what you referenced just a minute ago in terms of gratitude and thankfulness, it's amazing how quick we are to get something we've prayed for for a long time.

00:10:50 Beth Murphy

From the word have it unfold in some way, maybe in some unexpected way, and then move on to the next thing that we need or the next focus.

00:10:58 Beth Murphy

And I I say this not facetiously, but truly really that.

00:11:04 Beth Murphy

I just really want to stay in a place in my life of being the one of the 10 lepers that went back and thanked Jesus.

00:11:10 Beth Murphy

Because when you think of what he did for them, they were dying and were outcasts separated from their families and absolutely miserable life, and he miraculously supernaturally healed them and sent them on her.

00:11:25 Beth Murphy

On their way, and only one of the ten came back and thanked him.

00:11:28 Beth Murphy

And so living in that place being that one that comes back and thanks him rather than move on with an expectation of what's the next thing.

00:11:37 Beth Murphy

But just stop and rest and have you know, like talks about in the Old Testament, the stones of ebenezers, the stones that came out of the Jordan River bed when they wanted to thank him and memorialize him for holding the water back so they could all pass through the Jordan.

00:11:52 Beth Murphy

And on and on.

00:11:53 Beth Murphy

We just want to thank him because there's power in that that you know somewhere.

00:11:57 Beth Murphy

You know it's Isaiah 61 that talks about trading in a spirit of despair for a garment of praise, getting rid of the heaviness and the despair through.

00:12:07 Beth Murphy

Focusing on God in a place of praise, and it's like one of those things where a concept is revealed in terms of the power that there is in gratitude and thankfulness and praise.

00:12:18 John Murphy

Yeah, it builds an absolute trust.

00:12:19 John Murphy

It builds a certainty that he is going to continue to do what he has always done, and we've seen the evidence of it and we begin to rely on it.

00:12:27 John Murphy

Lean on it and we progressively have greater and greater peace as a result of it.

00:12:31 John Murphy

But we do have to bring him into these situations because it is in our sort of running through life and the challenges.

00:12:38 John Murphy

And so forth.

00:12:38 John Murphy

We can find ourselves at moments where we where we believe this about God.

00:12:42 John Murphy

But we catch ourselves in places of despair.

00:12:44 John Murphy

That somehow we've gone back to our old thinking, or what?

00:12:46 John Murphy

River is and it's just very important that we recognize that when we are losing our piece that that's only possible because God's not in the context of the moment that you're isolated.

00:12:56 John Murphy

You're not thinking about the perspective, just like I've got an emergency, I've got an issue.

00:13:01 John Murphy

What am I going to solve it?

00:13:02 John Murphy

This is bigger than I am and then the fear and the anxiety comes up well in those.

00:13:06 John Murphy

Moments, those are the some of the things that are some of the some of the times when it's most difficult.

00:13:11 John Murphy

To pause, start thinking about God.

00:13:13 John Murphy

Bring him into the context of the moment recognizing the.

00:13:16 John Murphy

You're not actually going to have to deal with this by yourself.

00:13:19 John Murphy

God is going to be there and bring him into the into the conversation into the context with a reminder of all the things he's done and what he has done and what his character is like.

00:13:28 John Murphy

Promise he's made to you promises that you feel like in terms of just basic promises of to hold you up and to bring you peace in.

00:13:36 John Murphy

In a supernatural way to provide for you.

00:13:39 John Murphy

All those kinds of things are there, but when we are, it's just very common for even believers to find themselves in that moment where they feel isolated and alone and apart from God and not trusting God in the moment of whatever their crisis is.

00:13:53 Beth Murphy

We all know that David really specialized in revealing that part of his heart.

00:13:59 Beth Murphy

And you know, God of course talks about David twice.

00:14:02 Beth Murphy

You know it's in the Old Testament and it's repeated.

00:14:04 Beth Murphy

I think in acts where God talks about him as a man after my own heart.

00:14:08 Beth Murphy

And there is a lot about David's heart that was really found to be lovable and endearing by God.

00:14:15 Beth Murphy

And certainly this would have to be at the essence of it, which would be no matter how desperate his situation was.

00:14:22 Beth Murphy

You know he's being hunted and he was hiding in caves and they were after him and trying to take his life and devour him.

00:14:28 Beth Murphy

Literally, and he would despair about that, but he would ultimately always end up turning and encouraging himself in the Lord and commonly within the same Psalm.

00:14:36 Beth Murphy

You know he.

00:14:37 Beth Murphy

He brings it all the way around full circle to praising God and getting his strength from God.

00:14:43 Beth Murphy

And of course there are many stories in the Old Testament that reveal that in very colorful ways.

00:14:48 John Murphy

So there's a situation at ziklag.

00:14:50 John Murphy

When he returned to his camp, and everything that his he and all of his warriors possessed, including their family and all their possessions had been stolen by marauders and had been taken away.

00:15:00 John Murphy

And they were in deep despair.

00:15:01 John Murphy

And they were very.

00:15:02 John Murphy

Angry and they they felt like, like all, was lost.

00:15:05 John Murphy

All it's been taken from them and they actually turned on David and they began to pick up stones and they began to threaten to kill him.

00:15:10 John Murphy

There were 300 of his mightiest warriors were trying to stone him to death and it said that his immediate response was to feel despair about the situation. Which makes a lot of sense. He felt.

00:15:22 John Murphy

Despair this was going to maybe be the end, but it's also interesting that right after that it says.

00:15:27 John Murphy

But then he strengthened himself in the Lord.

00:15:29 John Murphy

So so that.

00:15:30 John Murphy

The moment of despair he was feeling would only have been possible if it was just him against 300 people and him trying to solve this problem all by himself, and then that was the essence of why the despair came and then.

00:15:41 John Murphy

And he brought God into the context.

00:15:44 John Murphy

But context by saying that he's strengthened himself in the Lord, he was reminded of how much God loved him.

00:15:49 John Murphy

He was reminded of all the things that God had done for him in the past, all the ways that God had been faithful to him all of the ways in which he had specific examples of miraculous interventions and his life repeatedly.

00:16:01 John Murphy

Over time, he felt God love.

00:16:03 John Murphy

He also had promises that God had made to him, which were yet to be fulfilled.

00:16:08 John Murphy

That was another piece of it.

00:16:09 John Murphy

Certainly he was promised to be king at that time that hadn't happened yet.

00:16:12 John Murphy

So it's very clear that when he was by himself in that moment, it's him and 300 guys. There was one feeling and that was despair, but when he brought God into the context of that situation and he saw it from the full perspective of his relationship and the promises and his history with God, then he became peaceful. And then once he became peaceful he then had.

00:16:32 John Murphy

The opportunity to then say, alright, now I'm going to inquire of God the linen ephod was brought forward, and he inquired of God, what do I do now?

00:16:40 John Murphy

And so this is a really important example of how we interact with God as we bring him into the moment we get gain our peace, and then we acquire inquire of God.

00:16:49 John Murphy

Or what do I do next?

00:16:50 John Murphy

And in my place of being peaceful, I'm able to hear the leading of the Lord if I'm in despair, I'm going to be functioning in and influenced by all the negative emotions in me.

00:16:59 John Murphy

I'm going to do something reactionary, something poorly conceived, probably a very poor outcome, but if I'm at peace then I have the ability to hear God and connect with God and have him lead me.

00:17:10 John Murphy

And some people say, well, I just can't.

00:17:11 John Murphy

I always think to bring God into the moment.

00:17:13 John Murphy

Well, you know it was really getting away from me.

00:17:15 John Murphy

Well, this is a situation where it was pretty much getting away from.

00:17:18 John Murphy

It was a pretty critical, difficult situation.

00:17:21 John Murphy

He was in and we want to be able to get to where we build this muscle that we and we also ask God to help remind us too, and we'll pray about that in a minute.

00:17:30 John Murphy

But we want.

00:17:31 John Murphy

To build this expectation or this response to difficult situations, and know that when we lose our peace, that means that we are not doing life.

00:17:39 John Murphy

We're not experiencing life and the full relationship in the full context of God, so loss of peace is A is a really important flag waving in front of our face saying wait a minute I need to connect with.

00:17:50 John Murphy

God, because if I'm not at peace that means I do not have the fullness of my relationship with God in this moment.

00:17:55 John Murphy

Where I'm.

00:17:56 Beth Murphy

Struggling so David didn't do anything more than just what you said.

00:17:59 Beth Murphy

He sought the priest because that's where how they did that in that season of life or history, before the Holy Spirit resided inside him and believers.

00:18:08 Beth Murphy

So he sought the priest priest springs linen.

00:18:11 Beth Murphy

He thought, and he specifically asks God, what do I do?

00:18:14 Beth Murphy

Do I pursue the troop?

00:18:16 Beth Murphy

And God clearly confirmed to him.

00:18:18 Beth Murphy

Yes, you do pursue the group and you shall surely overtake them.

00:18:23 Beth Murphy

Interesting because David of course was a warrior and his natural instinct would be to do that would be to go to war and go after these people.

00:18:30 Beth Murphy

They had burned the town.

00:18:31 Beth Murphy

They had kidnapped all the wives and children and taken all of their possessions and it was a desperate.

00:18:36 Beth Murphy

Situation, and so that would be his response.

00:18:40 Beth Murphy

But he did not go to that place that we we go to on our flesh on our own strength of just doing whatever we would default to.

00:18:47 Beth Murphy

He could have defaulted to that or to just totally given up because his men were.

00:18:51 Beth Murphy

Running him and.

00:18:51 John Murphy

He could defaulted to taking on his men too and ended up probably being a, you know, a very handy warrior with a sword, probably killing some of the people who most support him through this season of his life and losing very important people in his world that that could have come out of, uh, despair.

00:19:05 John Murphy

A pure despair response.

00:19:07 Beth Murphy

That's such an interesting example of how any of us can make really bad decisions.

00:19:11 Beth Murphy

When we're operating out of our own way of thinking, our sense of being in a desperate moment and we really kind of allow the enemy to get us separated from God.

00:19:21 Beth Murphy

And so that's what we want to develop that muscle like you were talking about developing muscle.

00:19:27 Beth Murphy

Kind of like you go to the gym, you diesel muscle.

00:19:29 Beth Murphy

Do these old weights and then you do weights that are a little bit heavier and a few more times you know spiritually.

00:19:34 Beth Murphy

God wants to help us build that muscle, so we first invite him in.

00:19:39 Beth Murphy

We ask him to invade our thinking to remind us of how much we need him.

00:19:43 Beth Murphy

When there is no crisis going on.

00:19:45 Beth Murphy

Just kind of laying that foundation.

00:19:47 Beth Murphy

And really seeking to to build that when things are going smooth so that when they're tough and when you have this situation, then you can know that you're getting the sensing and the prompting that oh wow, wait a minute.

00:19:58 Beth Murphy

This is this one need you or I really need?

00:20:01 Beth Murphy

You can't do this on my own and so of course the outcome of the story is great, they go.

00:20:06 Beth Murphy

It's a really interesting they they go off to find them, and if I remember correctly they they saw a fellow who had deserted the camp and got him to kind of rat on his folks and that he directed them to them and they found them and and they were either drunk or asleep around the campsite, but they were.

00:20:26 Beth Murphy

Out one way or another, and they.

00:20:28 Beth Murphy

Went in and.

00:20:29 Beth Murphy

Just totally got it all.

00:20:31 Beth Murphy

They got every family member.

00:20:33 Beth Murphy

All of their own possessions, plus some plunder. And so it was a tremendous outcome and and very interesting in terms of the way it developed to be in the timing of David's life. Given that he was anointed to be king when he was 12 years old. And then he has decades of all of this suffering that he had, and he's never becoming king.

00:20:35

Right?

00:20:53 Beth Murphy

You know he's going through all these difficult trials where God is obviously using those things.

00:20:59 Beth Murphy

As he promises to do, doesn't cause the suffering, but he uses the suffering for our good.

00:21:04 Beth Murphy

So he was using the trials of life for David to bring him around, finally to his ultimate calling and anointing.

00:21:11 John Murphy

Yeah, I think it's also interesting that he didn't get out in front of God that you know there was two things that occurred that were really kind of fascinating.

00:21:18 John Murphy

One was that the very idea that God had was OK.

00:21:22 John Murphy

You're about ready to get stoned so now just turn and get your stuff and it's all going to resolve.

00:21:28 John Murphy

Well, who in a rational thought we wait a minute? I have 300 people who are about to stone me.

00:21:33 John Murphy

How is it that the next best thing to do is just turn towards chasing down these people and get my stuff back?

00:21:38 John Murphy

How is that going?

00:21:39 John Murphy

To solve this problem, it's just not going to be a rational thing someone would.

00:21:43 John Murphy

Think so, I'm just.

00:21:43 John Murphy

Trying to figure out how am I going to survive this.

00:21:45 John Murphy

That's where we go in our despair and our limited thinking.

00:21:48 John Murphy

And and there's a great example of just that.

00:21:50 John Murphy

God said, just go get your stuff that's so OK, I'll go get my stuff so he's a BD.

00:21:55 John Murphy

And the other thing was that, again, like you said, he was aware he could have taken off, but he didn't get in front of God, which was really important when.

00:22:02 John Murphy

We think about.

00:22:03 John Murphy

How well we function when we feel like we're in God's will versus when we kind of don't know when we're lost.

00:22:09 John Murphy

So he had the peace of knowing that he was following God's will, and that the outcome was going.

00:22:14 John Murphy

To be advantageous.

00:22:15 John Murphy

Him was going to have we have a.

00:22:16 John Murphy

Outcome well clearly that left him in a place where he's functioning in peace.

00:22:20 John Murphy

When you're functioning in peace, you have the greatest access to your skill set, so he goes out with assurance and the peace of the outcome.

00:22:27 John Murphy

And so obviously this facilitated.

00:22:29 John Murphy

You know, the effectiveness of him being a leader and leading all his men to do what they need to do to get his stuff back, so it's just.

00:22:37 John Murphy

Interesting aspect he didn't get ahead of God and he had the assurance of God blessing gods leading on the outcome, which I think also facilitated the outcome.

00:22:45 John Murphy

Being as good as it was.

00:22:47 Beth Murphy

You could make a case that this was potentially a low point for David even given all the hardships and trials that he had leading up to this, but these were his own men.

00:22:56 Beth Murphy

Who were his trusted friends and followers and warriors?

00:23:00 Beth Murphy

And they were turning on him out of their grief and despair.

00:23:02 Beth Murphy

So in this that even in that low lowest of low moments he was able to turn to God and seek God.

00:23:11 Beth Murphy

I don't think it's coincidental that it was just a few chapters later when he finally does.

00:23:16 Beth Murphy

Walk into.

00:23:17 Beth Murphy

To becoming the King of Israel, he finally reaches that place of stepping into his anointing and calling.

00:23:24 Beth Murphy

So I think that that's also just a hopeful way of looking at the truth about trials and suffering.

00:23:31 Beth Murphy

The level of redemption that God has for us as we release our grip on trying to do it in our own.

00:23:37 Beth Murphy

Strength believing the lie that we're alone and suffering this out.

00:23:43 Beth Murphy

Kind of like holding your breath until the problem goes away.

00:23:45 Beth Murphy

Believing that we're all alone, untethered from God, none of that's true.

00:23:50 Beth Murphy

God wants us living locked arms with him, knowing that he is always just one thought away.

00:23:58 John Murphy

I think it's time to pray about this and kind of lock in some of these things and cast off some thinking that maybe God isn't with us or that somehow we're going to do these things in our own and really invite him in to invade our thinking, so that obviously if we're going to have this outcome, what's going to take?

00:24:13 John Murphy

Probably got intervening, sometimes into reminding people that he is here.

00:24:17 John Murphy

And he is available to be called upon.

00:24:19 John Murphy

And I know it's a common prayer of mine is just invade my thinking or I'm giving the the ticket to my heart to ticket to invade my thinking.

00:24:27 John Murphy

Now, while I'm peaceful because when I get all caught up in the stuff, whatever The thing is, I might not have the presence of mind and so I'm inviting you in for whenever you need to come in to help me out of my difficult situation.

00:24:39 John Murphy

So let's pray a prayer to kind of engage this these concepts and bring God into these moments.

00:24:45 John Murphy

Heavenly Father, I reject the lie that I am on my own in life.

00:24:51 John Murphy

I declare the truth that you live in.

00:24:53 John Murphy

Me through the Holy Spirit.

00:24:57 John Murphy

And that I can bring you into any context of my life.

00:25:02 John Murphy

And return my soul to peace by declaring the truth of.

00:25:05 John Murphy

Who you are?

00:25:08 John Murphy

And that your promises are true regardless of how things may look to me.

00:25:14 John Murphy

I declare that the ways.

00:25:16 John Murphy

You will intervene in my life, are not limited to my knowledge or my imagination.

00:25:23 John Murphy

Father, please forgive me for not being willing to trust you with every aspect of my life.

00:25:31 John Murphy

I declare that you do love me perfectly.

00:25:34 John Murphy

And that you are perfectly trustworthy.

00:25:36 John Murphy

I invite you now into every part of my life.

00:25:41 John Murphy

And I ask you to invade my thinking with your presence and times when I am too distressed.

00:25:48 John Murphy

To remember to engage you in my life challenge.

00:25:54 John Murphy

Lord, please accept my thanks for all that.

00:25:57 John Murphy

You've done for me.

00:26:00 John Murphy

Including the things you have done for me that I may never know about.

00:26:05 John Murphy

Thank you for taking on my burdens with no more effort than accepting the light yoke of submission to Christ rule in my life.

00:26:13 John Murphy

Lord, please give me the peace that comes from knowing you and trusting you.

00:26:19 John Murphy

I pray these things the name of.

00:26:20 John Murphy

Your son Jesus.

00:26:24 Beth Murphy

Thank you for joining us on our podcast today where we're focused on the truth that God is always just one thought away.

00:26:32 Beth Murphy

We welcome you to join us on this podcast and any others that you find on the Rock House Center website or anywhere that you like to listen to podcasts.

00:26:41 Beth Murphy

We've gotten a couple of good ideas from listeners.

00:26:44 Beth Murphy

That we're going to be focusing on in future podcasts, and we invite you to send your idea for something you would like us to address.

00:26:51 John Murphy

Thanks for joining us today.

00:26:53 John Murphy

God bless.