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Episode 10: How to Keep Growing When You Feel Stuck Spiritually
59 Plays3 years ago
Mentioned in this episode:
The Critical Journey by Hagberg and Guelich
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Transcript
Introduction to Root Like Faith
00:00:02
Speaker
Hi, I'm Ruth Schwank and I am so thrilled you're listening in with us at Root Like Faith. It's our deepest desire to encourage and equip men and women to be rooted in God's word, transformed by the love of Jesus and moved by his mission in the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is more important.
Seasons of Spiritual Growth
00:00:20
Speaker
Well, in today's episode of Root Like Faith, we are talking about how God takes us through different seasons or stages of growth and what he's up to in those different stages and seasons. We're going to answer that question. What is God doing in this season? Maybe you've wondered that yourself. All right. We're really excited to get this conversation going, so let's go.
00:00:46
Speaker
OK, well, this is a part of the Christian life that honestly, when I started following Christ, let's see, how many years ago was that? Careful. I don't even know. It's been a minute. Honey. Maybe 25 years ago. I don't know. Wow, that's a long time.
00:01:05
Speaker
Um, I wasn't really thinking about, you know, my lifelong journey towards spiritual maturity. I mean, let's just be honest.
Lifelong Journey with Christianity
00:01:13
Speaker
I was just so grateful to have found Christ. I had, you know, felt like I knew, um, my whole life that there was something more. And so in high school, when somebody, a friend of mine invited me to youth group and I heard the gospel preached, it was like, Oh, that's what I had been waiting for.
00:01:30
Speaker
And I was eager to grow and learn, but I didn't have this concept of like this lifelong journey towards spiritual maturity. And so that's kind of where we want to go today. We want to talk about the different seasons or stages of the Christian life and what God is doing in each of those. And I think one of my very favorite things about this topic is that it's a journey, it's life and it's lifelong.
00:01:57
Speaker
because a lot of us want to, you know, we want the change now, we want it all now, you know, you think you should just be this spiritual giant, you know, right away. Yeah, I think, I mean, I think that's super encouraging because we've talked about that before, where it is, it's this lifelong journey of following Jesus, whereby the Spirit of God is transforming us from the inside out into the likeness of Jesus. And it is such an encouragement, I think, to remember that that is just a, like you said, a lifelong journey, lifelong process,
00:02:26
Speaker
with some successes and some failures. And by God's grace, we keep getting up again and following Him and being transformed by Him. And so it ought to be an encouragement. And yet on that journey, there's all sorts of different stages that we can go through. And I think it's just really helpful to understand that and to know what God is doing in each of those seasons and stages.
00:02:48
Speaker
And I think another thing to remember is that no matter where your story started, you know, God wants to work in your life. And so we can come from very different
Unique Spiritual Journeys and Backgrounds
00:02:59
Speaker
places. Like I know we've talked about many times here with you guys here on the podcast that, you know, my and I shared just a minute ago, my background is that I didn't grow up in a Christian home.
00:03:10
Speaker
And then, honey... And I did. And you did. My dad was a pastor and was a church planner, was in full-time ministry for, I think, over 25 years. And I remember, my story is that, in fact, I was working with somebody this summer, and she asked me to tell her my faith story as a child. And I had never really thought about that, and so I started working through
00:03:34
Speaker
the different times just in my childhood where I first began to encounter God or have a desire to know God. And one of the first memories that I have is I was probably eight, nine years old, and it's a very vivid memory. I remember going upstairs. We lived there in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I had this red picture Bible. And I absolutely loved reading that picture Bible. And that was the first memory, that is the first memory that I
Stages of the Christian Journey
00:03:59
Speaker
have.
00:03:59
Speaker
of just having a real interest in God and wanting to know His word. And so I just feel like God gave me faith at a young age. And then I just began to, you know, to write down on a piece of paper, you know, 13 or 14 different experiences or events in my life as a child, where I just sensed that God was pursuing me by His grace and drawing me into a closer relationship. And so my story really kind of starts in that way. You know, I began to notice a real love for God, a hunger to understand God, even at a young age, my sisters, as I shared before,
00:04:28
Speaker
had a tremendous impact on me spiritually. My parents did as well, but it really wasn't until high school I began to follow Jesus. That decision became my own and not my parents. And of course, over the years, as I look back, just all the different things that God has used and continues to use to shape me and to grow me. And that's really what we're talking about today is those different stages that I think are so important
00:04:50
Speaker
for a disciple, a follower of Jesus, to understand. You know, in Philippians chapter 3, you know, because oftentimes, you know, we want to start here, obviously, in the Scriptures, you know, you see this example of the spiritual life being a life of, it's a journey, it's a process.
00:05:07
Speaker
So the Apostle Paul says in Philippians chapter 3, starting in verse 10, he says, I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participation in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all of this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold
00:05:27
Speaker
of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. And so that's just one example.
00:05:45
Speaker
of where we see this idea of the Christian life being a journey or a process. We come to know Jesus by repentance and faith in Jesus. And now we begin this lifelong journey of growth or transformation into the likeness of Jesus. Some people call it sanctification being made holy, but growing in maturity or holiness. Yeah. Well, and that should be encouraging. I don't know. I hear you read that and I think, okay, well, they're saying that in the Bible, like, you know,
00:06:13
Speaker
If Paul didn't have it figured out. Exactly, like if he, if this is what he was saying, not that I have, you know, not that I have it all together yet, but I'm, you know, I'm pressing on, I'm persevering. I mean, that should be a real encouragement to us.
00:06:29
Speaker
Absolutely. Let me just sort of, you know, outline some of these stages or seasons that we go through. And, you know, again, I think you were saying at the beginning, like, we don't typically think about that when we start the Christian life. And I don't know that I even understood the different stages until I was doing my doctoral studies and we began talking about that.
00:06:46
Speaker
Well, because we don't talk about it. And so I think this is our hope for today is that by sharing these different stages on the journey towards spiritual maturity, it will bring some clarification. Because I think that people, they want to grow.
00:07:06
Speaker
but they don't see, they don't understand the different stages. And so like you just mentioned, you know, we see that it is a lifelong journey. We see that in the Bible, just like we shared. And I think now if we can share those stages with you, there's a lot of information here.
Progressive Spiritual Stages
00:07:22
Speaker
We're going to... I like information.
00:07:25
Speaker
No, there's good. And I think if somebody wants to dive into this deep, we're going to keep coming back to this over the next couple of weeks. But there is a lot of just, I think, really helpful information, truth that I think helps us in this spiritual journey that we're all on. And if somebody wants to dive deeper, we can certainly link to a couple books that are very similar to what we're going to be talking about today. The Critical Journey is one.
00:07:47
Speaker
where we're drawing some of this from. But one thing I think to keep in mind as we think about this journey is that the stages that we're gonna be talking about, they really are progressive. And they don't necessarily, it's not like you just sort of move through one stage and you never go through that again. It's not like you just check that box off and now I'm done with it for the rest of my life. They're not linear. Sometimes you can go through a stage or two stages.
00:08:12
Speaker
and you cycle back through or sometimes a stage takes longer than others. And so some of that will make more sense as we go through and talk about these different stages. But I think that's really important just to sort of know upfront that God is changing us in different ways through these different stages.
00:08:28
Speaker
And I think this gives us perspective on what God is doing in the season we're in. And I think, don't you think it helps us to really understand and actually, you know, helps, I feel like we surrender then more to what God wants to do in us when we understand maybe this stage that we're in.
00:08:49
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I just think about as a parent, like, I mean, I have no greater joy than being a parent. I just absolutely love being a dad. And I love to see my kids grow up and I want them to experience the good life, right? A flourishing life, a life of walking with God, loving God, knowing God. And God, who isn't just like a father, God is a father. He wants the same for us and he gives us his grace. I mean, we come to saving faith by grace.
00:09:13
Speaker
And growth is really a response to God's grace, his initiative in our life. And he's a good dad who wants us to grow up and to walk in virtue, walk in holiness. He wants us to experience life. And so as we think about spiritual growth or holiness, we ought to just sort of throw away some of those images of God being this, I think legalism sometimes can get in the way and just understand that the heart of God for us is the heart of a father who loves us, who created us to know him.
00:09:37
Speaker
and to walk with him and he's poured out his spirit in us to empower us and enable us to live the life that he's called us to. And he's a good dad who wants life for us. Oh, honey, I love that.
Navigating Spiritual Growth Stages
00:09:49
Speaker
Well, it's just such a powerful picture because I think anybody listening
00:09:53
Speaker
who has kids understands just that deep desire to, you know, you're teaching your children, you're hoping and praying that they'll, at some point, get it, you know? And you're just watching them over the years mature and to think about God as our Father who has that same desire, but even greater, obviously, for us, that's just a really powerful, just everyday real picture. I love that, I love that.
00:10:22
Speaker
So let me just highlight a couple of these stages. Okay. Hold on. Okay. Cause I want it in my, I'm like, okay, let's keep this organized because I feel like how many stages are there? You know, cause if it were me, I'm taking notes and I really want to understand this. So how many stages? Let's talk about five stages. There's more than that.
00:10:40
Speaker
So it's a little more complicated than that, honey. But anyways, so we can talk about, and other traditions use different stages, but let's talk about primarily five stages of spiritual growth. And so the first stage is this. And again, this is largely from a book called The Critical Journey, and we'll recommend others. There's just so much here that I think has been helpful to me over the last couple of years, but we're going to primarily focus on the language that they use in that book. But here's stage number one. This is called the converted life.
00:11:09
Speaker
And the converted life is really stage one where you, again, by God's grace through faith, you come into a right relationship with Jesus. You understand your own sin, you're turning from that sin, and you've turned to Jesus as your Savior. You come into, you get converted. There's the new birth and you come into this relationship with God. We're humbled by our recognition of who we are and begin to turn away from sin, all of that, that
00:11:35
Speaker
It is in our life that's dead and dying. We talked about in our series on Lent that sin really is about breaking relationship with God. It's all the stuff that's dead and dying in our life. And in that first stage, we begin to experience now the new life that God has for us. Yeah, and that's when we first accept Christ.
00:11:53
Speaker
Absolutely. Now, stage two is what we'll call the learning life. And so there's the converted life where we again, by God's grace, come to faith in Jesus. We experience the new birth and we begin that journey. Jesus has come follow me and we're taking our first steps. And then we enter into that next stage, which is really called the learning life. And this is where stage one really humbles us. We get an awareness of who we are and who Jesus is. Stage two is really what grounds us.
00:12:18
Speaker
And this is why, just think about your own life. I mean, when you became a Christian, we were talking about this the other day, like you just can't get enough. Every sermon, every book, every worship song, you just feel like you're hungry to know God and learn more about Him. Right. Well, when I first started following Christ when I was in high school,
00:12:35
Speaker
I mean, I just, I couldn't be at church enough. I couldn't be at youth group or church or with like, if our group would have something outside of church together, like I just couldn't be there enough and I couldn't open my Bible enough. I couldn't, like it was, it was intense. And then I, right after then I went to Moody Bible Institute and you know, of course that was like big time Bible learning. It's in our middle name.
00:13:02
Speaker
That's the running joke at Moody Bible Institute. The Bible is in the middle of our name. Yeah, so everybody that goes to Moody gets a minor in Bible, which is great. But when I went to Moody, I hardly knew the Bible at all. I mean, I was a brand new Christian. So that was like drinking from a fire hose, you know? But I'm so grateful for that opportunity. There was a lot I probably didn't understand just because I was a brand new Christian. But talk about learning. And I couldn't get enough at that time.
00:13:30
Speaker
Absolutely. So that's what we call the learning life. And again, that's that season where we're just really getting grounded. We're understanding, you know, the Bible or understanding maybe theology. We're just getting a sense of what the Christian life is all about. Now stage three is typically called the active life.
00:13:46
Speaker
And this is where we begin to now discover the different gifts that God has given us. And so now we come into an awareness that God has uniquely wired me or he's given me certain gifts that are meant to be used for the good of other people. And so we just really begin now.
00:14:02
Speaker
to live a more outward life. We get converted, we come to faith, we experience the new life of Jesus, and we enter into that learning life, that next stage where we're growing and understanding who Jesus is, and now we're beginning to give our life away. We begin to serve and to offer our life to other people in the context of the church, and you go on missions trips, there's just all kinds of
Dark Night of the Soul
00:14:23
Speaker
fun stuff because following Jesus is really, really good and loving other people is very exciting. And so we enter into that active life where we experience the reward of loving God and loving others. Right. And that doesn't mean, like you mentioned before, it doesn't mean that the learning life is over for you.
00:14:38
Speaker
You know, clearly you're still learning, we're always learning. But you see yourself, the desire probably begin to transition then into more service and you're putting into practice what God is teaching you. Right, absolutely.
00:14:55
Speaker
So, you know, most people, like you said, I mean, again, these are not necessarily, there's great overlap. And like you said, as you're now serving and giving your life away, you're continuing to ground yourself in who Jesus is, you're continuing to grow and understand and to learn. But at some point,
00:15:13
Speaker
in the active life in stage three, we hit what's called the wall or what other spiritual writers have called the dark night of the soul. And oftentimes what happens at some point in the active life, there's maybe, you know, somebody becomes to, they get burned out. They've been serving and giving and they just have nothing left to give. They begin to feel spent and now God begins to feel distant. And I don't really sort of sense God's presence or his love like I used to. And so sometimes in the active life,
00:15:43
Speaker
That season, that dark night of the soul, that wall that we hit is really characteristic of somebody having an experience of feeling burned out or something traumatic will happen. There's a diagnosis. There's the loss of a loved one. And now God is not behaving like I thought he was supposed to.
00:15:59
Speaker
And so early on in the Christian life, as we experience God's love and His presence, and we just sort of follow Jesus with the hair raised on the back of our neck sometimes. In the active life, as we hit the wall, we begin to realize that some of the answers that I had, some of the book answers that I had, some of the things I knew in my head.
00:16:18
Speaker
aren't adding up and God is now behaving maybe in a different way and he's outside of the box. And so we enter into really that dark night of the soul, which in many ways is a season that transitions us into that fourth stage, which is called the inward life.
00:16:33
Speaker
Well, see, OK, so I just feel like we need to stop here because this is why it's so important to understand these stages because we all get to I mean, wouldn't you say that's correct? We all get to this point. I'm sure you listening probably almost everybody listening can go. Oh, yeah. If they haven't heard these stages, they're going to that's going to resonate. Oh, my word. I've hit the wall. Maybe I'm in the wall right now. You know, you know, I'm at the wall right now, not in the wall, but
00:17:03
Speaker
Maybe I'm at the wall right now. This is why I feel like this is so impactful and was on you when you understood these. Right. You're right because I think what happened, every time I've ever preached on this over the last couple of years, inevitably somebody will email me after the sermon or that week and say, I need to drop out of doing this or I've got to give up doing this because I'm in the dark night of the soul. And so there are, I think, parts of this spiritual journey where we can go, oh yeah, that's exactly where I'm at.
00:17:31
Speaker
where I'm right here. And again, God changes us and He grows us in different ways in these different seasons. And so what you're describing is that some writers would say that most of the church gets stuck at stage three. And so what happens
00:17:49
Speaker
is that as we go through stage one, stage two, stage three, we hit that wall and there becomes a choice. Like we don't have to walk into the dark night of the soul. In fact, some would say most Christians do not, that we sort of just go through life sort of unaware of how God is uniquely using this season to grow us and to change us. So we're stuck at the wall. We're stuck at the wall or we cycle back through
00:18:12
Speaker
cycle one. We just think, I just need to learn more. I need to grow more. I need to enter into another small group, another Bible study, or I need to serve more. And so we can get stuck in this vicious cycle and never really enter into the dark night of the soul where God is doing something very unique.
00:18:28
Speaker
And then what happens is that we oftentimes then don't understand what God is doing. And so therefore don't grow in the way that God wants us to do when we never make it into that next stage or next two stages. And so you're exactly right. There really is, I think, a critical choice that happens when we enter into this season, when we hit the wall and enter into that dark night of the soul. And again, we want to be careful because the dark night of the soul
00:18:54
Speaker
is really different. I mean, there are people that really wrestle with depression and, you know, mental illness or things like that. And we just want to really be careful that I think that there is a difference between somebody who is going through a difficult time of depression and needs help in
Internal and External Transformation
00:19:09
Speaker
that way. And so when we're talking about the dark night of the soul, there's certainly going to be moments where we feel depressed or we feel sad.
00:19:15
Speaker
but you're not talking about- But we're not talking specifically about a season of depression, that that needs to be addressed in a different way. When we're talking about the dark night of the soul, we're really talking about this perceived absence of God, or sometimes feeling abandoned by God. God's not behaving like we think that he should, and it's in that season, we're gonna come back to this and spend a whole episode on this, I don't wanna say too much, but it's in that season that God is doing something very different than in stage one, stage two, and stage three. Now for those that do make the choice,
00:19:44
Speaker
to enter into the dark night of the soul. And I would just say that most people, most followers of Jesus cannot get through the wall alone. This is where they need a pastor, they need a Christian counselor, they need a spiritual director. There are some stages in the spiritual growth that we cannot journey by ourselves. And I would say this is one of them. I would say that we ought to always have somebody that's walking with us in the spiritual life, but especially during this season where we're now beginning to enter into that next stage, which is called the inward life.
00:20:11
Speaker
And now the inward life is that choice to go, okay, God is wanting to do something inside of me that he has not done before. Maybe that I haven't understood or allowed him to do by his spirit. And so the inward life is oftentimes marked.
00:20:26
Speaker
by just what it says, a journey inward, understanding past hurts, past wounds, healing that needs to happen, ideas that we have about God that were wrong, expectations about life that we had that were misplaced or inaccurate. And so the journey inward at its core is about learning and understanding that we are loved. This is the stage or the season in the spiritual life
00:20:53
Speaker
where what God is primarily up to is He's up to healing our wounds. He's up to confronting our sin, but He's up to ultimately helping us to see that we really are the beloved and enabling us to live out of that core identity, that we are loved by God, we are forgiven by Him, we're accepted by Him because of what Jesus has done for us.
00:21:15
Speaker
What I love about that is you go through these stages, the converted life, you accept Christ, the learning life, you can't get enough, the active life where you're serving, and then at some point you either burn out or you have a crisis of some sort, and you hit the wall, and I think that's when we feel, like you said, abandoned, and how beautiful is it that when we work through all of that,
00:21:43
Speaker
we go into this inward life where we really understand that God loves us. Here we have felt so abandoned and then we come to this deep understanding that no matter what happens in my life, God loves me and I can trust Him. Yeah, and I think, you know, again, as you're going through that dark night of the soul, I mean, God is after, you know, He's detaching you from all of the things that you look to for love or joy or security. And He's setting you free from that so that ultimately you might attach yourself to Him. You might be joined to Him in a new way,
00:22:12
Speaker
be one with him in the sense that we're now participating in who he is and the life that he wants to give us in the spirit. And we're understanding that we are loved, that he is for us. And he's really teaching us to love him for who he is, not just what he gives us. And so as we go through that series now, that season, we're really entering into that inward life where God has continued to heal us and reveal areas of our life that we look to for significance or security that are not him.
00:22:42
Speaker
And as we continue on in that stage or that season, eventually what happens is we enter into that fifth stage or season, I'm sorry, called the outward life. And again, God is ultimately after our good, He's giving us grace, He's empowering us with His Spirit, so we might love Him and love others well.
00:23:04
Speaker
And what happens in this fifth stage is that now we begin to love people freely. We don't really worry about success necessarily. We don't necessarily worry about whether somebody loves us back. I mean, there's this new freedom to loving God and loving others. I mean, it's a mature way of loving others. It's a mature kind of love. So the outward life, of course, there's a lot more to it than that. But ultimately, the outward life now is a pure love, if you will. I can love others.
00:23:32
Speaker
without needing them to love me because I'm anchored in God's love for me. And so sometimes early on in the Christian life, I mean, we're loving others and sometimes that's pure, but oftentimes it's not. I mean, we're doing things and serving others. We want recognition. We want other people to appreciate us. But what happens in that fifth stage is that now we begin to just give our life away because we already have God's love. We understand that we're his beloved.
00:23:55
Speaker
And that is success, is knowing that we're loved and living out of that love. All of our life is a response to God's love for us. And so the outward life now is a life where we're beginning to give our life away in all sorts of different ways, small ways, hidden ways. And it doesn't really matter to us because we're loved by God. And now we just are able to follow in the footsteps of Jesus in a greater, more mature way to love others.
00:24:19
Speaker
We can walk securely in that absolutely and you can I mean you notice that in a person You know if they're walking securely in God's love and so I you know what's interesting to me as we're talking about all of this is I just I really appreciate the emphasis you made on talking to a pastor or a counselor just really working through because I don't think I think we get stuck at the wall when we're not willing to deal with
00:24:46
Speaker
the stuff that we've been carrying around for years, maybe from our childhood, you know, maybe as we've gotten older, we all have issues. And I think we have to work through those. That's part of spiritual growth. Absolutely. And I think that that's again, you know, as we as we journey through, you know, Peter is a great example of this in the Bible. And just as Peter matures in the journey, you begin to see that he has a greater awareness of who he is, his own
00:25:12
Speaker
sin, his own pride, and as Peter gets greater knowledge of himself, he also gets greater knowledge of Jesus. And those two sets of knowledge are incredibly transformational in Peter's life. So Peter understands now in the journey his own sinfulness, his own weakness, he's denied Jesus, and yet when he's reinstated, he's restored to Jesus in John chapter 21, he gets not only a greater awareness of his own sinfulness,
00:25:40
Speaker
But he gets a greater awareness of the love that Jesus has for him as a sinner. And so he understands now that he is a loved sinner. And that is incredibly transformational in the life of Peter. And so he's a great example of somebody who journeys through these different stages and comes out on the other side as somebody who now loves Jesus. He's not perfect.
00:26:00
Speaker
But he loves Jesus, he loves others, and so I think it's so important for us as we journey through these different stages just to have an awareness of what God is up to, what he's doing, and how necessary it is to have sometimes other people in our life helping us in that journey. Right, speaking into it, yep. Because we don't always see rightly. You know, we don't see the situation rightly a lot of times. So it's always helpful to have that accountability.
God's Patience in Growth
00:26:28
Speaker
So okay, so we've covered a lot here and I know you mentioned that we are going to come back to this next week and So I want to just say that next week we're gonna really talk in depth about this, you know coming to the wall and
00:26:44
Speaker
and what God is doing in that season. And honey, I think it'd be really good in the next episode if you just shared some of your story of that, because I think it's so powerful when we can hear from somebody else who's walked through that. And so we will share some of that with you guys in the next episode. But as we close out today, I want to talk about just a few, you know me, I like the practical takeaways. Because we've talked about- You are the queen of practical.
00:27:10
Speaker
Well, I love it. It's good. I'm always looking for the practical. I don't always see it. But but so here are just a few practical takeaways from today. First of all, I would say don't focus on the season or stage. Focus on what God is trying to teach you. And that's the first thing we want to say here.
00:27:31
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I do have a mentor, a spiritual director who I meet with on a regular basis. And that was one of the things we talked about over the summer. As you said, don't focus on what stage you're on. You've got enough that God is clearly speaking to you about. And so just focus on what God is up to right now and continue to respond to His grace. And so the stages are just meant, again, to be a helpful guy and have an understanding, but don't get too caught up on, oh, I'm on this stage. I need to get to the next stage. Well, they are helpful. They're helpful because you can go, oh, my word.
00:27:59
Speaker
I'm at the wall and I am burned out and I have been there and this is the way forward. There's nothing abnormal happening to me. There's thousands of Christians. That's good. And so secondly, and maybe lastly for today, is just remember that God is not in a rush with you.
00:28:14
Speaker
And I know that sounds so simple and hopefully that doesn't sound heretical, it shouldn't be, but God is patient. He is a good, loving Father who's not in a rush. He wants a life for us and He calls us out of our sin because He wants to give life to us. But He's not in a hurry. God is so good and He's so patient as I think about my own life, whether it's over the last six months or the last three years or as a kid, I just think, oh my gosh.
00:28:40
Speaker
Lord, you have been so good to me. You've been so faithful and so present in times where I didn't even recognize it. That makes me want to start singing that song. So good to me. Anyways, go ahead. I'm just so patient. And so I just would encourage you if you're listening to this. I just think it's so easy. The enemy would love to keep you discouraged. And the enemy would love to keep you focused on your sin and focused on the areas that you're falling short. And yet as we look to Jesus, we're reminded of just how patient he is, how gentle he is.
00:29:08
Speaker
The scriptures talk about how Jesus, that he doesn't break a bruised reed. And most scholars, most commentators would say that he's referring to people, that the scriptures are talking about people. In other words, he's very gentle with those who are hurting and recognize their own neediness. And so he's gentle with you, he's patient with you.
00:29:27
Speaker
And he's doing a work by his grace in you. And so our response is just to keep opening to him and keep saying yes to him. Jesus, we want more of your life. I love that. Come and take us.
Community Connection
00:29:40
Speaker
Well, and again, I'm going back to that picture, the example you shared earlier about a parent with their child. I mean, you're not just going to be like, oh, forget it.
00:29:49
Speaker
You're never going to learn and we'll see you later. I mean, you won't give up on them and you keep loving them. And that's how God feels about us at an even greater amount. So, well, friend, we're so grateful that you have joined us.
00:30:04
Speaker
If we haven't met, we want to get to know you. So be sure to follow us on Instagram at Patrick W. Schwank and at Ruth Schwank or on Facebook. And listen, we are getting those DMs from you. So feel free to introduce yourself to us in the DMs. I love it. It's so fun.
00:30:21
Speaker
I didn't get any birthday presents. I don't know if you noticed that. Oh, that's right. I'm sorry, honey. Well, I don't think they have your address. I guess they could have sent you a... Well, people probably told you online, happy birthday. They did. I'm just kidding. Oh my goodness. He has an issue with his birthday anyways.
00:30:37
Speaker
It is April now. It's a little late. It's time to start talking about next February. Okay, you can prepare people. Okay, don't forget also that everything we've talked about will be at rootlikefaith.com forward slash podcast. We'll be sure to put a couple of those resources that we mentioned.
00:30:54
Speaker
And again, we just welcome you into our family here at Root Like Faith. Would you do us a big favor and leave us a review or rating and share this podcast online on your Instagram or Facebook with your friends? It just takes a second and it is a tremendous help to us as we spread the word about Root Like Faith. Be sure to tag us so we know when you do that. We're so grateful for your help in getting the word out. All right, friend, well, we will chat soon and we hope you have a great week.
00:31:24
Speaker
Bye!