00:00:00 John Murphy

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

00:00:03 Beth Murphy

I'm Beth Murphy and we're talking today about having peace in any crisis, how to respond in crisis, and how to access the promise of God that we actually can have peace in the middle of what we have defined as a crisis in the.

00:00:18 Beth Murphy

Past and so.

00:00:19 Beth Murphy

Starting with just the perspective here, what we know is.

00:00:23 Beth Murphy

That there is no crisis that you can't bring.

00:00:26 Beth Murphy

God, for him to give you peace and to redeem the circumstances.

00:00:31 Beth Murphy

The two big things that make a crisis feel like a crisis.

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We're feeling like something that we value is at risk, so there's something at stake here and then.

00:00:40 Beth Murphy

Secondly, we typically feel like we're all alone to solve it.

00:00:43 Beth Murphy

We don't have the solution, and we don't know what to do about it.

00:00:46 Beth Murphy

So trusting intense life challenges to God is what's going to bring you peace to hear his leading and then be able to know what is the best possible response.

00:00:55 Beth Murphy

So in this podcast we talk about how to access his peace and his wisdom in the midst of any crisis.

00:01:01 John Murphy

At Rock House we frequently have clients ask us what to do in a situation of crisis.

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It's very common here.

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What we've discovered in these conversations is that how people are reacting has a whole lot to do with their personal story or what's going inside, what their personal values and fears are.

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Not everyone would agree that a crisis is a crisis in every situation.

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If you think about it, there are a lot of different situations where depending on who you are and what your perspective is, it may feel like a crisis, or it may not feel like a crisis.

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And that's an important first aspect to understand is just how a situation feels has a lot to do with what's going on inside of each of us.

00:01:38 Beth Murphy

So if you find out that you're being sued.

00:01:41 Beth Murphy

But there's a whole range of responses that a person might have, but if somebody is an attorney and being sued or suing is an everyday literally in every day kind of thing in their life, then they not wouldn't necessarily like it, but it would probably feel like a looming threat or a giant crisis 'cause they have an understanding of kind of what do we do about that could be very different.

00:02:00 Beth Murphy

Person who knows nothing about the legal system has never known anybody who's been sued, and it just feels like a giant threat.

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Or if you're in a car crash.

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And don't have insurance.

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Don't know what to do, don't know what the next steps are.

00:02:15 Beth Murphy

Then the whole situation can feel pretty threatening, can truly feel like a crisis, but if you've gone through life and and had a lot of these kinds of things happen, it's not something you necessarily want, but you know what the steps are and you walk it out.

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You do have insurance.

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You feel like you've got the things in place to deal with the situation then.

00:02:34 Beth Murphy

That person probably would not call that or experience that as a crisis, and the same thing can certainly apply when someone dies.

00:02:43 Beth Murphy

If a parent dies or spouse dies, there's of course always going to be a loss, and there's grieving and there is all of that to go through.

00:02:51 Beth Murphy

But if you have a level of dependence on that person.

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That makes it feel like your entire world has has crashed, has caved in and you don't really know how to proceed in life.

00:03:02 Beth Murphy

Based on the level of practical or emotional dependence that exists, it can feel like not only the sorrow and the loss.

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But also a devastating blow and a real threat aura can trigger things like high anxiety or panic attacks because that person who has had the loss has so much more tide up in that in terms of what they feel like is at stake.

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In addition to the loss of the relationship with the person.

00:03:28 John Murphy

So it really has to do with the circumstances and how it feels to each individual person.

00:03:33 John Murphy

So it's just an important understanding of a crisis.

00:03:35 John Murphy

A crisis is.

00:03:36 John Murphy

It can be difficult, or you might not even see it as a crisis, depending on what the situation is or how you approach something or those kinds of experiences you had or what sort of dependencies you might have.

00:03:46 John Murphy

So you boil that down, and what we understand is that an experience feels like a crisis to the extent that something we depend on has been lost or put at risk.

00:03:56 John Murphy

And usually includes the feeling of losing control over this thing, which is very important to us.

00:04:00 John Murphy

Uh, so that's one aspect of how what makes a crisis feel like a crisis and the other piece of that is, do we feel like we're in this alone when we feel isolated and alone, which is exactly where Satan would love us to always to feel is alone and disconnected from God.

00:04:13 John Murphy

But whenever we feel alone in the situation in the crisis that exacerbates it, and it's going to make it feel much more intense.

00:04:20 John Murphy

It would be great if we could look into our heart and discover what it is that we're too dependent on.

00:04:25 John Murphy

That's an important part of understanding how to set ourselves up for success in a crisis is to work on and look at the things that are inside of us which.

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To make things.

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To work through and make situations seem more intense or crisis like.

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And this of course is a great conversation to be having with God at any one time.

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Whenever you feel like you've got fear, you know that it's from hell.

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So God is ready and willing and wants to help you get free of that fear that you have around the situation and a way to begin to process this and start this conversation.

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Is to follow that thought through to what are the things that you're most afraid of happening right now?

00:05:00 John Murphy

What would put you in a state of crisis if it occurred?

00:05:04 John Murphy

That's a great way to start a conversation without asking, just to reveal that to you so that you can discover the things that you have a dependency on.

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Something other than God about and then you can shift that dependency over to him.

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And the reason you want to do that is because he is so trustworthy to come through on whatever that need is a lot of the time.

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Our crisis is around, we have dependency.

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On something that is not dependable.

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However, God is dependable for all the burdens of life, and that's what he invites us to do.

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This does bring up the question of what is it that you do in the moment, and there is a great story in first Samuel about.

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A crisis that was redeemed and brought into a blessing, and there's a lot to learn from it.

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It's a story of David and Ziklag, when the Amalekite.

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Raiders broke into the encampment of David's army and literally took everything. Women, children, possessions and livestock.

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When he and his army returned, his men were broken hearted, dejected, felt a tremendous amount of loss and what happened next ended up putting David in a situation that was very difficult, which was they turned on David and they wanted to stone him.

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So by any definition you would think of that as a crisis, an ultimate low point for him, and all these things that David had experienced.

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Now it was actually his own men.

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That we're turning on him.

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They had all been out in battle together and they come back just that thing where people are looking around for somebody to blame and he was at the top so he got blamed and the Bible does say he experienced great distress.

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So we know that David had to have been experiencing a crisis, but his response to the crisis is a model for how every Christian is called to respond.

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In order to get the best possible outcome.

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So let's talk through what exactly he did in that moment, because it's such a great example.

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It says simply that he earned and strengthened himself in the Lord, and then it tells us what he did after that.

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But pausing right there.

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What we know is we know from Psalms what David wrote and what he did when he turned and strengthened himself in the Lord.

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You know he would cry out that they're chasing me and hurting me.

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I'm hiding in caves I'm starving they're trying to kill me but at the end of that given Psalm he would turn and praise the Lord and start just immersing himself in the truth.

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God's love for him got protection for him right in the middle of the very threatening circumstances.

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So what happened there was that he brought God into the context of the situation.

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That was really important.

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The full awareness of the relationship and all the dependency and all the trustworthiness and all the love.

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Of God was brought into this moment where it was just him alone against all of these people, and that's the critical thing we want to make sure that we do first is bring the dialogue with God into the moment.

00:07:39 Beth Murphy

David walked it out by getting his peace back.

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He turned and strengthened himself.

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In the Lord.

00:07:43 Beth Murphy

Now if he had responded out of fear, I guess you know we could.

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Speculate what he would have done because he was a warrior.

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He probably would have gone to war, which may have been from a practical standpoint.

00:07:56 Beth Murphy

The right thing to do, but it would have been done out of fear and couldn't have been blessed.

00:08:01 Beth Murphy

And so fear we're spawning in our own, you know, taking the burden on ourselves and not connecting with God is always from hell.

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And so somehow the enemies purposes would have been advanced if he had jumped into just making his own decision and responding out of whatever his flesh was comfortable with.

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Probably would have gone after the Raiders without God's blessing and protection.

00:08:27 John Murphy

Yes, and So what happens is that he's the first thing that occurred in this encounter.

00:08:32 John Murphy

In this story is that he got his piece back, and so that's a really critical thing that we need to relate to in that when we all start up on the inside, we don't hear very well.

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It would be very difficult in the midst of distress in the midst of fear in the midst.

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Of being on.

00:08:47 John Murphy

Feel like you're all on your loan and feeling the full weight of that, and when you're really stirred up and emotional, that's a really hard time to hear God still small voice leads you and what it is that he wants you to do.

00:08:58 John Murphy

So he got his piece back number one critical.

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That's what we all need to do in the context of God.

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It's full relationship and the weight of that in our lives, and that's that is the true context of how we're experiencing every situation.

00:09:11 John Murphy

From there he went, it says, and he asked for the Ephod, which was, I presume, a prayer shawl of some sort that he wore, which was the tradition for asking God for leading.

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So think about it.

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He's standing there in front of these men who want to take him out.

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He gets peaceful.

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He kind of puts all of them on pause.

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Was and asked for a leading from the Lord.

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Now he's peaceful.

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Now he's asking God what direction do I take next, which again, is absolutely correct for us.

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Now we want to get to the place of peace.

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We want to bring the the fullness of God relationship into the moment and then we want to also then ask for it.

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What do I do in this?

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Moment in this difficult distressing moment.

00:09:52 John Murphy

Which is your will, which is the best possible outcome.

00:09:55 John Murphy

So what did God tell him to do?

00:09:56 John Murphy

God told him to go get his stuff back, which seems a little implausible in the context of a bunch of men standing there who were his most powerful warriors, and they all have rocks and want to take him out, and so he simply rallies the troops and heads out and goes and gets the stuff back.

00:10:11 John Murphy

Or I think something else was functioning.

00:10:12 John Murphy

Which is that God is in the picture and he's in the answer and I believe that what he did was he turned the hearts of the warrior.

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Back in, away from rebellion into submission and obedience to their leader.

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I don't know if David could have done that just by saying you must obey me now in the.

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Middle of it.

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Seems pretty improbable, so this is the way in which, as we bring in God in, we're asking for leading.

00:10:33 John Murphy

We understand that God is with us in his leading to accomplish the things that it is that he puts forth for us.

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To do.

00:10:39 John Murphy

So what they do they go out.

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He rallies his troops and he got all of his stuff back and more.

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Actually it says that he ended up ahead.

00:10:47 John Murphy

His bank account had more in it when he was done then when this whole event started before it was ever taken.

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Away from him.

00:10:53 Beth Murphy

So there it is.

00:10:54 Beth Murphy

When we bring our crisis to God and express our trust in him, we have the opportunity to give him the burden.

00:10:59 Beth Murphy

And respond in what we would say is relative peace.

00:11:02 Beth Murphy

It's not like you're.

00:11:03 Beth Murphy

This can be ho hum yelling.

00:11:04 Beth Murphy

This is not a problem but relatively peaceful compared to the way it has been in the past.

00:11:10 Beth Murphy

But responding to how he leads us, because we now have the confidence that we are leaning on him as opposed to responding out of fear.

00:11:19 Beth Murphy

And that is always going to result in a less than best outcome.

00:11:23 Beth Murphy

Something is going to go awry, and we're not going to be pleased with the outcome.

00:11:28 Beth Murphy

Whereas even if we step out and do something that seems improbable like it did for.

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David, it's going to be the best possible track for us to go, and we're going to go.

00:11:37 Beth Murphy

We're going to walk through it.

00:11:38 Beth Murphy

Kind of in a sense, like linked arms with God himself, and he's the one that's going to truly take the burden and walk us.

00:11:45 John Murphy

Through it, we really have a lot of fascinating and miraculous stories and testimonies around clients who have come in.

00:11:53 John Murphy

And have been through a process of growing that relationship and bringing God into the context and getting things out of their heart which they have depended on instead of God for things that only God can deliver.

00:12:03 John Murphy

You might want to share some of those testimonies.

00:12:05 Beth Murphy

Well, of course we had those through all the years since we started all this back in 2006, but this particular year has been one where things have ramped up because we had the whole coronavirus and the lockdown that started in March. And all of what came around with the developments of COVID and all the social unrest.

00:12:25 Beth Murphy

And we have heard from many Klein.

00:12:27 Beth Murphy

Who just wanted to contact their counselor just in the just wanted to let you know how great I'm doing and how different this experience is for me than it would have been had I not gone through the program at Rock House.

00:12:41 Beth Murphy

Like one in particular that comes to mind is that she had lost her job and the way she was expressing it to me.

00:12:47 Beth Murphy

She said that you know just losing her job at any time in the past would have been a.

00:12:52 Beth Murphy

10 on a scale of 1 to 10 crisis for her.

00:12:55 Beth Murphy

She didn't experience that as a crisis and it was in the midst of the whole COVID thing, which in itself also would have been a number 10 crisis.

00:13:03 Beth Murphy

She was just kind of moving along with that, trusting that there are many unknowns here.

00:13:08 Beth Murphy

I don't know what's going to happen, but I am trusting you, Lord, and we're going to get through this, and so both of those things would have been very high.

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Anxiety events for her in the past and simply weren't.

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She was just contacting us to let us.

00:13:22 Beth Murphy

No, just like I'm here praising God because I can.

00:13:25 Beth Murphy

Just see the.

00:13:26 Beth Murphy

The kindness in his hand on my life and the same thing true for many family situations.

00:13:32 Beth Murphy

Where you know all of the things that have happened again with other people losing jobs, husbands losing jobs, kids, whole school, being disrupted and everyone at home and then just the the unknowns and the sense of impending doom that some of the world circumstances.

00:13:52 Beth Murphy

Some of the ways in which these kinds of.

00:13:54 Beth Murphy

Expressed just on the issue of the social unrest alone, how that would have tipped the scales for them in the past.

00:14:02 Beth Murphy

And felt like a crisis, even though it wasn't in their personal world, they simply weren't experiencing it that way at all.

00:14:07 Beth Murphy

They're looking at it for wow.

00:14:09 Beth Murphy

Wonder what Gus going to do with?

00:14:10 Beth Murphy

This wonder how he's going to redeem this situation with all of these things that look really bad right around me now.

00:14:17 Beth Murphy

The way in which people have reported that they've experienced the events of this.

00:14:21 Beth Murphy

Fear is even with just such different language where things where they would have used words like crisis, devastating tragedy.

00:14:31 Beth Murphy

They're not using those words because they're not experiencing it that way.

00:14:36 Beth Murphy

So I think we want to go ahead and pray actually is a series of things here that we want to help you pray about three of them.

00:14:42 Beth Murphy

First, we want to ask God and ask you to ask God right now.

00:14:46 Beth Murphy

What is the thing that would be your greatest fear, the greatest fear?

00:14:50 Beth Murphy

If this thing happened, I just feel like that would wreck my world and there maybe is even an undercurrent thing in your life.

00:14:57 Beth Murphy

Where you have come.

00:14:58 Beth Murphy

Kind of trying to keep it at Bay, but you know you've got this looming threat or fear that I really don't want this thing to happen because it would just pull the rug out from under me in life.

00:15:09 Beth Murphy

So ask God what's the thing I have?

00:15:10 John Murphy

The greatest fear of happening, which probably points to something that we have a tremendous dependency on that got more likely, is the real answer.

00:15:18 Beth Murphy

And then the second thing to pray for is to.

00:15:21 Beth Murphy

To ask him now and every day to invade your heart with the strength to call on him and trust him in every life situation.

00:15:28 John Murphy

Yeah, that's what I do every morning actually, which is I'm asking God to invade my heart and make my heart peaceful.

00:15:33 John Murphy

Asking you in now this morning for the day, because then I get in the middle situation.

00:15:38 John Murphy

I may not have the presence of mind to bring him in, so I'm inviting him in now.

00:15:42 John Murphy

I don't wait until it happens.

00:15:45 Beth Murphy

That is so important 'cause you really don't want to leave yourself kind of stuck and isolated in when the crisis thing itself happens.

00:15:53 Beth Murphy

You want to be able.

00:15:54 Beth Murphy

To kind of have a foundation built so you're going with the flow and you're kind of flowing in more of an awareness of how it is that.

00:16:01 Beth Murphy

God's leading you go other.

00:16:02 John Murphy

The only way I'm going to have soup, the supernatural PC promises is if he is engaged and he is brought into the moment.

00:16:07 John Murphy

So I want all that supernatural peace.

00:16:09 John Murphy

I can get, so that's.

00:16:10 Beth Murphy

A third thing that if you're into what we're going to pray about, so right.

00:16:14 Beth Murphy

If you're in crisis now.

00:16:16 Beth Murphy

And this is hitting you because it's defining how you're experiencing life in the moment.

00:16:21 Beth Murphy

Then you can just pray and release the burden to God and ask him for supernatural peace, right in the middle of it, because that is, of course, that's promise you know when Paul was talking about having the peace that surpasses understanding, who's talking to 1st century Christians who.

00:16:36 Beth Murphy

Knew that they could be subject to persecution.

00:16:38 Beth Murphy

They could be burned at the stake or have their limbs cut off and he's telling them God promises in the middle of that.

00:16:44 Beth Murphy

You can have the peace that passes understanding.

00:16:47 Beth Murphy

That's a big promise.

00:16:48 Beth Murphy

And So what we want to do is pray at in the middle of whatever you may be experiencing now.

00:16:53 Beth Murphy

Now for God's help to hand it over to him, release the burden to him, because we're not wired to take on those God sized burdens, and we need his help and his leading for the best response to the situation. That's going to advance his purposes and.

00:17:08 Beth Murphy

The best thing for you.

00:17:10 John Murphy

So let's wrap.

00:17:11 John Murphy

All of these together up in a prayer.

00:17:12 John Murphy

We've put the other prayer that we'd love for you to follow along with so that you can touch on each of these three things to degree that it really expresses where you are at the moment.

00:17:21 John Murphy

So I want to invite you into this prayer.

00:17:23 John Murphy

Follow me, dear Lord, thank you.

00:17:27 John Murphy

For the offer of supernatural peace.

00:17:30 John Murphy

In the midst of any crisis or trying situation.

00:17:35 John Murphy

I reject and repent of depending on anything or any strategy of the world.

00:17:43 John Murphy

To give me the peace and assurance.

00:17:46 John Murphy

That only you can give me.

00:17:49 John Murphy

Lord, I invite you now.

00:17:52 John Murphy

And every day.

00:17:54 John Murphy

To invade my heart to bring me peace in challenging times.

00:17:59 John Murphy

If necessary, I ask you to make my heart trust you and you alone.

00:18:06 John Murphy

For peace.

00:18:09 John Murphy

Father, I roll up on your shoulders.

00:18:11 John Murphy

The challenge I am in right now.

00:18:14 John Murphy

Tell him what that challenge is.

00:18:17 John Murphy

I release it to you.

00:18:19 John Murphy

And commit it to you and ask you.

00:18:22 John Murphy

To make my heart.

00:18:24 John Murphy

Agreeable with your will.

00:18:27 John Murphy

So that my role in redeeming the situation or the crisis.

00:18:34 John Murphy

To your glory is clear to me.

00:18:38 John Murphy

Thank you for.

00:18:40 John Murphy

Relieving me of this burden.

00:18:43 John Murphy

And allowing me to have peace.

00:18:46 John Murphy

In the midst of it.

00:18:48 John Murphy

Father, I trust you to work in all of the hearts involved.

00:18:53 John Murphy

So that your ultimate purpose.

00:18:56 John Murphy

Can be achieved.

00:18:58 John Murphy

Thank you for your redeeming power.

00:19:02 John Murphy

In any burden or situation that I bring you.

00:19:07 John Murphy

I pray this in the name of your precious son Jesus.

00:19:10 Beth Murphy

Hey man.

00:19:11 Beth Murphy

We pray that this is has blessed you and will continue to bless you and encourage you to bring anything and everything to the Lord for his peace and his leading.

00:19:21 Beth Murphy

We also welcome you to contact us, call us, or send us an email to contact at rockhousecenter.com if you've got anything that you would like to talk about.

00:19:32 Beth Murphy

Or learn more about with rockhaus and and please do share this podcast with anybody that you know is going through a crisis and would be blessed by hearing these truths.

00:19:42 John Murphy

Really appreciate your joining us today, goodbye.