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Speaker 1: Life audio.

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Speaker 2: Delayed rescue doesn't mean diminished love. Delay doesn't mean abandonment. There's a difference between grief and despair, and delay doesn't have to lead to despair because it can actually be the backdrop that God uses to bring deep healing and greater spiritual and emotional freedom and increased faith.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Faith.

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Speaker 2: Over Your podcast, where we discussed powerful truths to quiet anxiety and fear big and small. I'm Jennifer Slattery with a question I've wrestled with numerous times. What happens when life plays out much differently than you expected. When it feels like God isn't answering your prayers, your future seems uncertain, and you're wondering why Jesus isn't intervening. When pain seizes your soul often lies attached to it like God must not love me if he let this happen, or He must be upset with me, And then our minds fill in numerous reasons why we might have forfeited his favor. But here's the truth. God is good, faithful, kind and loving. And today my guest Courtney Risick, and I will be talking about what it looks like to hold tight to belief when it feels like our hardship, our circumstances changes absolutely everything. Courtney, thank you so much for joining us.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 2: Courtney Risick is a writer and Bible teacher living in a Little Rock, Arkansas. She's the proud mom of four sons, happy wife to Daniel, an author of several books, The Accidental Feminist, Glory in the Ordinary, Teach me to feel worshiping through the Psalms in every season of life, and the one informing Today's conversation, Someone to believe in embracing the Savior who stays the same when everything else changes. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Gospel Coalition, and Christianity Today, among other publications. When she is not writing or wrangling her kids, she enjoys running and a relaxing Friday night. Will include information on how to connect with her and find her work in the show notes. I also invite you to download our free companion guide that will help you process today's content more deeply and most importantly, while connecting with the one who loves you more than you can fathom. Courtney, having read your book, I know you've had your faith shaken, And I would love if you would share with listeners about a time when you felt so sideswiped by your circumstances and your pain, you weren't sure that you could keep stepping, let alone hold tight to faith.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so Keith said, there's a number of things where I felt blindsided, and I think a lot of people probably feel that way. But the one probably that still feels fresh. And then also I'm probably still processing is I was on staff at a church and in many ways was doing work that I thought I was made for. And so I was overseeing adult content and discipleship curriculum and training of Sunday school leaders and women's ministry. And I had gone to seminary and really thought prior to that point, I stopped going to seminary, had kids, we moved to plant a church, and it felt like I put my life on hold for my family. And then I was serving on staff full time in my church and was like, oh, this is my reward for putting my life on hold. And I was able to serve in this role and I loved it. And I was a part of a church where some allegations of sexual abuse had been uncovered and one instance in particular, and so in the process of trying to work to notify the church and report the abuse as we heard about it, I came to a head with leadership over how it was handled, and it really exploded our life. I resigned from staff because I disagreed with how things were being handled, and as a result, even more allegations of abuse that had been prosecuted, and then another victim had come forward. All of that had been hidden as well, and so Little Rock's not a huge city, but it exploded in our city. So my resignation became public, my reporting of the abuse became public. Things went to trial, and our family was not impacted by the abuse. Our children were not abuse, but people that we knew because I served on staff, they were deeply impacted by it. And all of a sudden, I was unemployed, we didn't have a church home, and people that I thought were my friends didn't want my friends anymore and felt like I was a problem instead of someone who was trying to help those who had been abused. But there's still in my life a lot of like I thought this was where my life was going to go. I thought this was my camp and my tribe of people and it's not anymore. And so my world became really small. My friend group became really small, The people who I trusted became really small, and I had to come to terms with do I really believe that Jesus is all I need and all I have? And do I really believe that God is for me? And God would abandon me even when earthly people abandon me. And so the scriptures became really dear to me and still are really dear to me because they're full of people who are in the same boat where David is right psalms of being abandoned by people who he once called friends. The Book of a Back is about asking God over and over and over again, are you going to deliver us? And waiting on him to come? And so spiritual abuse is hard. Being mistreated by a leader is hard. But when you add the spiritual component of these are people that you were supposed to trust, these people who taught God's word to you, and these are people that you grew under, like I grew under this pastor's ministry, and yet still saw such contrary ways with the teaching of God's word and the action didn't line up and so we hold a different line on what is ethical and right. Those are the hard things of where your interpretation of scripture leads you to think this is an okay action, and I think God says that's an injustice.

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Speaker 2: As I'm listening, you're right where the disciple would soon find themselves like loss of a sense of identity, loss of their faith community, probably slandered by people, they had people abandon them, maybe even in their own family. And as you're talking, I'm just thinking of the layers of grief in your story. It's not just one thing, right, It's like this, And then added, I can understand what you probably felt like the ground beneath you was coming undone. I imagine too it's hard seeing your kids like they lost a lot too.

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Speaker 1: They did, and what was hard for them was because of the way our community is. Every area, the school, they're every area of their life was connected in some way, and so they had to learn about things we didn't want them to learn about really early on. We didn't want them to learn about the layers of sexual abuse and what that can do to somebody. But we had to have some hard conversations with them about people that they interacted with and ask them hard questions, and we know you like going to this church that we're visiting and your friends are there, but they don't have the same standard of child protection that we hold because of what we've experienced and seen, and so it was in many ways they had to grow up and see people don't act like Jesus and they don't protect kids like they should. And that was hard when it became public in the news because of the connection. Students at school would talk about it, not knowing that their mom was the one who was the whistleblower. So that was really hard. I want to clarify that we experienced difficulty because of it, and it was really hard and disorienting and the ground was shaken underneath us. But my children weren't abused, and people I love dearly their children were And those are things that you don't We will heal and we will be scarred from it, but there's a level of trauma that those kids experience that they will live with for the rest of their lives. That's not just the physical trauma of abuse, but also the spiritual trauma of being not believed by the leadership in their church and being mistreated like they were the problem, and so we experienced the suffering because we stood up for something that was right. But that's not the same thing as someone maliciously targeting us and abusing us like these kids were abused. I tried to show our children that what we did was on behalf of others. It's our job as believers to be willing to be hurt and abused and targeted for the sake of justice for somebody who can't see justice themselves. That's part of what it means to be a Christian.

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Speaker 2: A couple of things I'm hearing well. The first thing is some of our listeners that probably hits them in a really tender place. They are probably some who maybe have experienced what those who are advocating for felt like, like you said, that's a deep, deep pain to endure. And then it's also difficult to suffer for doing good. And that's basically what happened. You took a hard, courageous step of obedience, and you're like, bam, this is what happened. But by the time we get to the end of this episode, we get to hear a little more about just where God has met you and all that, and it reminds me that hardship doesn't disqualify our faith and actually deepen it. And that's really the message of your book. And there's one section in Scripture I think can really anchoring when we find ourselves in those places where we're like, what in the world, what this isn't what I expected? This faith community isn't what I expected, This leader isn't what I expected. And it was actually something Peter said when Jesus was speaking some hard truths and he was experiencing opposition and people are bailing on. Can you share that a little?

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Speaker 1: Yeah. So it's in John six and Jesus is saying all these things to them about unless you drink my blood and eat my flesh and all this stuff, and they're like, well, that's craziness, Like I can't even fathom that. So it says many who followed him walked away. And so we often forget that there are disciples in the scriptures who were who were called disciples of Jesus. They're just not named. They're not the Twelve. The twelve were kind of the last men's standing at the end. But these are people who who eventually fell away. The harder and harder it got and Jesus looks at Peter and says, are you going to walk away?

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Speaker 2: Too?

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Speaker 1: And Peter says, to whom else shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, like there is no other place for us to go. That's what I had to come to is and still had to come to. I think the spiritual abuse and dissolutionment because of things that happen. It doesn't go away overnight, and having to continue to fight that fight of faith. But at the end of the day, what other alternative is there? And that's what I think for for whatever doubt is creeping in, whether it's the path that following Jesus is too hard, which is what the disciples and John six were doing, or it's I don't trust anyone in the church and therefore I don't want to be a Christian anymore, or Christians all act bad. Why would I want to follow Jesus? Or my suffering is just too hard and God's not delivering me from my trial, and so I don't know where else to go. I don't want to follow him anymore. At the end of the day, there's no other path that has a solution to our struggle. So to walk away from it is to walk away from the hope of restoration and resolution. There is going to be resolution. The hardest part about walking through dissolution or suffering or spiritual abuse is that you are living in the muck and meyer of the injustice and you don't know when it's going to end. And the sad reality is and the hard reality is it might last your whole life. Like we might not see resolution in this life, but we will one day see resolution. And there's no other pathway Atheism, other religions that provides the hope that one day it'll be fixed. To just hope in nothingness feels completely hopeless. I'm a high school English teachermany I've just wrapped up a you know, on Frederick Douglas, and we read the narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas. And one of the things that slaves continue to hope in was that they would sing these spirituals. And all of them died without seeing any hope of justice. And yet what anchored them and helped them to continue singing the ones who are trusting in Christ was that one day this too will be made right. And they held on to faith, many of them can read. I mean they had, it was just passed down through oral tradition. But to hold on to the hope that the Christianity of the slaveholders is not right, but the God that I trust and the christ to save me is the one worth believing in, and so I hope in that. You have to just say, where else are we going to go? There's no other answer that's going to provide another solution. And I do think for someone who's struggling, you have to come to that conclusion on your own. You have to be like Peter and stand face to face with Jesus and see him as the one that's worth believing in, and then you have to trust. And what's hopeful about the story of Peter is Peter says that, and then a little later he says other things that are wrong, and Jesus essentially says, get behind me, Satan, like you're an instrument of Satan. And then a little bit later Peter tries to use the earthly sword to deal with problems, where he cuts off the sort the ear of one of the soldiers trying to arrest Jesus, or just a little bit later than that, he denies Jesus and then it acts. He forgets that Jesus is coming to save the Gentiles and refuses to eat with him. So Peter doesn't have this one moment where he says, you're the one we trust in, and then he forever and always does the right thing. He does it once, and then he falls backwards. Then he has to trust again, and then he falls backwards. That's a trust again. And I think, for the one who's struggling to believe right now, the one who keeps us is not ourselves. The one who keeps us is the one who feeds us, who gives us his bread and his blood to drink for life. And so if I will for any encouragement, if you are disillusioned and you feel like I can't be like Peter, no, you probably can, because you're not the one keeping yourself.

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Speaker 2: Amen. Well, I also think too, Yes, we don't always get reconciliation, restitution, justice in this particular area. But you know, I'm thinking of all. And he said for me to live a Christ and to die is gain. We do get a deeper understanding if we press into Christ through our suffering. I feel like he gives us a deeper understanding of his heart and his nature and a greater intimacy with Him. For those who are really experiencing, you're in the midst of it. A good practice is just ask yourself, if we don't turn to God in our pain, where will we go? And this is important as well, where will that lead us? How can that question comfort our souls bolster our faith? And I think, like you said, it reminds us that our faith is beyond this moment, and it helps us recognize if we turn from God, the pain isn't going to go away. Like those who suffer that abuse or who are experiencing abuse now, the pain is not going to go away, but the difference is we'll be enduring it alone. So we're going to be a lot weaker and we're not going to have the hope to both stress and so my perspective is faith doesn't shield us from pain, but it does make it easier to bear.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely yeah. Because then on fourteen Jesus says I won't leave you his orphans, I'll come to you. They were deeply troubled by the fact that he says I'm going to leave you. I will not be here in my physical body any longer, and that was incredibly troubling to them. And yet Jesus says, but I'm gonna I'm gonna be here. I'm going to be with him. We better than my bodily presence. I'm going to forever be in Dwelt in you through the Holy Spirit. And so I think, yeah, you're absolutely right, is that we have nowhere else to go. But we also have the presence of the Lord with us always to guide us in this faith.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we also have things that He's built into our soul that can bowl stress you. I'm thinking of the disciples as well. And by the point this point, John six, they'd experienced Christ personally, probably for at least a year. They had witnessed numerous miracles. He'd fed thousand from a child's lunch. They'd watched him walk on water quite a storm, Peter had walked on water. And so God had given them a lot of reasons to hold tight to faith despite the doubts, the questions, the inner wrestling. And the reason I mentioned that is we had somebody on our show not terribly long ago where he talked about faith through the rear view mirror, and a really good practice is reflecting on Lord. How have you built into my soul evidence of who you are in my life, evidence of where you're taking me your goodness? And I think it's interesting to Courtney the people who were offended and left, they left based on their misunderstanding of Christ's words, and I feel like that is sometimes what happens with us as well. Hardship can be telling us one story, but is that the accurate story? And how much of our despair, our disillusionment, how much of it stems from our difficulty to understand God and his ways or maybe even subconsciously, what story is our pain telling us? And then what do we see in scripture and in our past experiences with the Lord. Here's why I feel that's important. When pain hits, a view of Christ can become this stored it. And so we're actually going to take a break for a brief word from our sponsors, but stay tuned because when we return, we're going to discuss a powerful biblical example of what seems like shattered and then resurrected faith, and I would say resurrected and straightened. So hold tight. We're back. Earlier, my guest Courtney Riisick and I talked about how hardship can shake our expectations and test what we believe about God. And now we're going to look at a powerful biblical example of someone whose faith seemed shattered by loss and confusion, but was ultimately I'm giving the punch line here, but was ultimately resurrected and strengthened through a deeper encounter with Christ. And so Courtney, I'm thinking of Jesus's encounter with Mary and Martha and John eleven. For those who aren't familiar with that story, would you mind giving us a brief explanation of that historical account.

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Speaker 1: The Gospel of John is divided into what's called the Book of Signs in the Book of Glory, and so it is John eleven and is the hinge point of the book, and then it flips into the Book of Glory, moving Jesus towards the cross. As you can imagine, it's the ultimate sign because up to this point Jesus has done a lot of miraculous things where he's multiplied bread and turned water into wine. But at this point he's going to take a dead man. The dead man's going to walk out of the tomb. John could have used any of Jesus' resurrection stories because he's risen other people and other gospel accounts, but he does this one in particular of Lazarus because the text tells us that Jesus loves Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Mary Martha are Lazarus's sister, and so the text begins with Jesus' is not with them, and Mary Martha send word to Jesus the one you love is sick, which is Lazarus, and so they appeal to their shared love for their brother, but they also appealed to the fact that they know Jesus loves him and is dear to their family. The expectation is when someone you love is sick, you run to them. The text tells us that Jesus delays two days, and many commentators say that so that you would know that he's dead, like really dead. So he gets there, they run to him, and people tell the sisters that Jesus is here, and Martha gets up and runs to Jesus and she appeals with this immediate if you had been here, my brother would not have died, and Jesus. Tim Keller says that Jesus responds to Mary and Martha in different ways because he has a perfect ability to respond to people directly how they need. And he said Martha needed Jesus's truth and Mary needed Jesus's tears. So he responds to them with the hope that he's the resurrection of the life and that their brother will rise again. But they, like many and the Gospels, don't understand fully what that means. When he gets to Mary. He goes to Mary because Mary does not get up and run to him because she's so deeply grieved. But the text tells us on more than one account that Jesus is deeply moved and for someone walking through suffering and death and loss to know that we have a sympathetic savior who comes to us in our grief, who provides truth when we need truth, who provides tears and empathy when we need that. And so Jesus comes to the tomb and then calls Lazarus out, and Lazarus walks out alive, and it moves quickly. Those of us walking through loss and grief that doesn't move quickly. So some people might be in the Jesus is sympathizing with you in your grief moment. Some people might be in the Jesus is giving us the truth that we need to hear in the moment, or he's because none of us respond perfectly in grief, and so sometimes he needs to come to us with heart truths, and sometimes he needs to come to us with his tears. And the reality is that we don't live in the New creation yet and so none of us have seen the resurrection of those we love. So we're all living in this already but not yet time of the resurrection. But the hope is that Jesus, after this account, went to the cross and died, and he himself was resire, and so his resurrection is proof that those who trust in him will one day be resurrected as well. And so for anyone walking through that type of loss and grief, the hope is that He's with you, is not afraid to associate with those who are deeply grieved in their suffering, and then one day he will raise us all from the deadlack Lazarus, which is an incredible hope.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And I just want to speak into those who pray for relief and aren't experiencing that nallyby I want them to just pause and put themselves in Martha and Mary's position. For a minute, when I read that story, I'm thinking, if it was my loved one. I've actually watched loved ones past, and I prayed for loved ones for healing that didn't come. And that is excruciate when you know God can do something with a mere command. If he can create entire galaxies, you know from a mere command, you know he can do this. But then also pausing, So I'm a mom of a fur baby and a human and for me, when I watch somebody I love stuff for, I am just torn up. Even if I know that they're gonna make it through, yep, it's still destabilizing. It creates grief, like you said. And one thing I when kind of piggybacking on what you said, like Jesus gets it. I'm thinking of his words in Matthew twenty five where he's like, if you if you gave the least of these water, you fed them, you visited them in prison, whatever you did for them, you did for me and to me. I take that to mean exactly what you said. He deeply feels our pain, and so I wonder if it took self control when when you know you can you can do it. You know you can do it, but you're you're trying to do something better. Yeah, I mean you're you're doing a better work. And I'm thinking as a parent, there so many times when I've tried with when my especially when my daughter was young, and you know, they got to get this is a minor obviously, but to a child that's huge. You know, when you got take them to get shot. I cried.

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Speaker 1: Actually, yeah, absolutely, me too. It's horrible because it hurts, because it hurts us deeply.

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Speaker 2: But we know the alternative is worse, right, right, and he was doing a greater work. And so I'm gonna pose that question again while we are waiting for him to do what only he can do. He invites us to once again ask ourselves that question that Peter asked, Lord, where else will I go? You alone hold the keys to life? Because delayed rescue doesn't mean diminished love, delay doesn't mean abandonment. I think there's a difference between grief and despair, and delay doesn't have to lead to despair because it can actually be the backdrop that God uses to bring deep healing and greater spiritual and emotional freedom and increased faith and I would like to hear. So you were in that space, you're in the messy middle. So what are some truths that when you're in And I don't want to speak for you, Courtney, but for me, I can have one minute be really strong faith. In the next minute I am just consume with doubt and then back and forth I go. So, when you're in that place where you're in the mess middle, like you are right now, what are some ways you anchor yourself in God's goodness?

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Speaker 1: So honestly, for me it seems so simple. But I do not neglect taking in the scriptures daily. I mean for me that is the in prayer daily. That is the thing that I know if I gave it up and said, even if I don't want to, if I stopped it, would I know my faith would falter. It doesn't mean I always glean something from it, but not going to find hope or a inchor anywhere else. And I think that's what I mean Mary and Martha were doing, is Martha did not stop running to Jesus when when he was delaying. And I think that's the hope for us, is Martha had all kinds of hope that Jesus was going to do something in the resurrection. She knew there was a resurrection coming, and she says it to Jesus. What she did not know or understand was what Jesus could do for her right then. But she kept coming to him, waiting and hoping and trusting. And I think it's that same principle of to where else are we going to go? We have to keep coming to him. We have to keep running to him. And even if going to church is hard, you don't have to be super involved.

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Speaker 2: I was.

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Speaker 1: There was nothing that you could be involved in that I wasn't in before, and now I'm not that much. That's okay. I mean that someday I won't be. But you can still put one foot in front of the other and still have boundaries and guard yourself from earthly things. But run to him without boundaries, because he can be trusted. We just can't always make sense of him.

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Speaker 2: I like that you mentioned it's okay because I know a lot of people in our community, a lot of listeners as well, have experienced significant religious abuse. Yes, it's okay to give yourself space to heal. I know sometimes that can be challenging because we're taught so much be a contributor, not a consumer, and all of those things.

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Speaker 1: Value the local church, like all right, right.

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Speaker 2: And those are true. But it's also true that there are times when Jesus says, you know what, now is your time to sit with me. John was on the island of pat most forward the hand of his wife.

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Speaker 1: Nobody else.

00:25:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I want to I want to read one passage for the listeners who are struggling to hold on to that God is good, that He's for them, that He's loved, he loves them. This is from Romans chapter eight, which I really love because it's a whole chapter on suffering, like this, this world is hard, and it's gonna feel like you're in the middle of childbirth, which if you have ever had childbirth, it's that is super hard. But so this is Romans eight thirty seven to thirty nine, and it's one of my favorite chapters. Paul the author for Century Evangelist, he wrote that like all of these things that we're suffering, and all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons. Neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, either height or depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. And since your book anchors in John, which I love, there's another promise Jesus made, which is a hard and encouraging promise in John sixteen thirty three. Do you what I'm talking about?

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Speaker 1: Yes, in this world you'll have trouble, but take heart, I've overcome the world.

00:27:05
Speaker 2: Yes. And I think it's significant of when he spoke that as well.

00:27:09
Speaker 1: Well, because he's speaking it to them as he's about to live out the trouble that they're going to experience. They've had this religious high. They've been with him. He's been showing them all these miracles and teaching them all these things that they had never heard before or had not heard expanded upon before. And then he's about to be taken by force to the cross and be betrayed by religious leaders. And really, for them, it was a foretaste of the spiritual persecution that they were about to experience when he ascended to the Father and left them there. And so God is always kind to give them a preview, even in the Old Testament, gives you a preview of what's to come, and then gives you the promise of how he's going to help you endure through it, which is what he's doing for them there is you're going to have a lot of trouble. The same promise is true for us. And I always think of the passage in the children's version of Pilgrim's Progress. It's dangerous journey, and at the very end, when Pilgrim is about to cross over the waters to get to Heaven, the celestial City, the writer says, but the trouble that a man goes through in these waters is no sign that God has forgotten him. And that's such a comfort, because in the way the story goes, he thinks he's going to sink, he thinks he's done all this journey up to this point and there's no hope for him going forward. And this little insertion is the trouble he's going through is no sign God's forgotten him. And then within a couple of sentences he feels level ground and he walks the celestial city. And I think that's the promise for us as well, is that we're going to have trouble. We won't overcome the world. But He's overcome the world. But I wanted to say too about the local church. I had one other thought is that you can believe that God has promised to establish his glory through the Big Sea Church, the church, and not trust a local expression. That's okay. Local expression of a church does not, by definition of being calling themselves a church mean they're faithful by any stretch of the imagination. And so it's okay to say I trust the Big Sea Church, I trust the global church. I trust that God is working through the church. I just don't trust these local expressions here right now, and they are not walking faithfully. If for the Book of Revelation bears out is some local expressions are unfaithful and is going to be removed. And your discomfort with that is a sign of the spirit working in you. Again, that's another sign of trouble. Jesus has ever come right, He'll deal with them well.

00:29:23
Speaker 2: I also like for the beginning of the John sixteen thirty three verse where he says, I told you these things so that in me you may have peace, and for our listeners a practice that you can try that I particular. So I experience chronic anxiety from the time before I could even talk, and I'm learning when I'm feeling really anxious or when I'm really hurting, I'm learning to pause and invite God's presence, to sense his presence, and to really sit in that. So I invite our I invite listeners. When you're sensing the overwhelmed, when you're seting grief, begin to train your soul, like Courtney said, Martha ran straight to Jesus. Begin to train your soul to seek Jesus in those moments. And I would say, be patient, be consistent, be persistent, because the more i practice sensing his presence, the more I'm able also to sense his presence. And I will tell you I think for if you've been in religious abuse, this will feel really confusing because you may have been trained that fear is conviction, that anxiety is conviction. When God convicts me, I still sense his peace because I sense hope. It's a conviction that says, you know what, I have got better life for you. It is not a conviction that says this is hopeless, you're terrible. So when you sense a bit of peace that is from God. When you're sensing more agitation, then there's probably something else going on. So I would just encourage you to keep and when I say something, it can be so many different things, hormones and things and can affect it. But it's just a practice for you to begin to learn. Okay, this is how I seek God, this is how I encounter him, because it'll be different. Just like you said, he spoke to Mary and Martha differently, I think will encounter him differently, received his comfort differently. But to keep to keep pressing into that. And one thing Courtney keeps reiterating, and in your book it came out really loud and clear. Hardship changes our circumstances and maybe our expectations, but not Christ. I'm going to say you say that one more time. Hardship changes our circumstances, but not Christ, Courtney, when you were and maybe right now when you're in it, I don't know when, but especially when it all came down like I can't even imagine the anxiety of having to stand against religious like I just can't. Did God is there? Did he speak into your soul a truth that maybe you've really clung to since then, the one.

00:31:52
Speaker 1: That has stood out to me the most is from John ten, where Jesus says He's the good Shepherd. And I find that passage so comforting because Jesus is speaking that in the context of the man born blind being healed. And when the man born blind is healed, he's cast out of the temple and the religious leaders want nothing to do with him because of his association with Jesus. And what we forget about that time period is that the original hearers would have thought the religious leaders were the best Jews there could have been, and so they are equated with our pastors today, and yet they shunned him. And so Jesus says, I'm the good Shepherd. All these other shepherds they are the ones who devour. And so that has been a comfort is that I might not be able to trust earthly shepherds, but I can trust the good Shepherd, and that is okay. That's going to have to be enough when I don't feel great about the landscape of earthly shepherds. That's going to have to be enough until the Lord continues to heal me. And I can look at how he behaves and he operates.

00:32:57
Speaker 2: And know.

00:33:00
Speaker 1: That that's enough for right now.

00:33:02
Speaker 2: I love that to our listeners. Here's another practical tool that you can try if you're going through a really difficult time. Maybe tucket in your pocket if you're not presently, because probably a difficult time will come. But journal prayerfully. Consider ask yourself what has God told me previously or maybe right now to strengthen me for this present moment, to help you cling to faith, and again to help you journal prayerfully and process that question. We've created a free companion guide and replacing a link in the show notes so you can download it for there from there. Because yes, trouble and hardship will come, but if we've entrusted our souls to Jesus, will never face anything alone. So if you could, as we close, if you could remind us what was his promise in that John sixteen thirty three passage.

00:33:55
Speaker 1: In this world you'll have trouble, but take heart, I've overcome the world.

00:33:59
Speaker 2: Yes, and so we can overcome as well because Jesus lives and reigns in us. This has been such a great conversation Courtney, and it's a fabulous book. Again. Her book is titled Someone to Believe In Embracing the savior who stays the same when everything else changes. Here's a little about the book. When the things that once steadied your spiritual life suddenly shift. When faith is shaken, leaders fail, ministry drains you, or someone you love walks away from God, where do you turn? Author and Bible teacher Courtney Risic has wrestled with those questions. When painful circumstances stripped away the trappings of easy Christianity, she faced a difficult choice walk away from faith or stay and search for what remained that was worth believing. And in that painful place where trustfelt fragile and spiritual stability seemed distant, God met her through powerful moments in the Gospel of John. He revealed the steady truth when everything else changed, jes Jesus does. If your fail faith feels shaken, Courtney's message in her book will point you back to the unchanging Jesus Christ, someone you can still believe in Again. Courtney, this has been awesome. Thank you for the book. Reading It has helped to fortum five my soul. I know it's going to do the same for the listeners.

00:35:21
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me.

00:35:22
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening. If you haven't already done, so I encourage you to subscribe to this podcast so you won't miss a single episode. And we've got some great discussions coming up. This Tuesday, Carol will be speaking with therapists Christian Faith Evans on practical grounding exercises you can use to calm your soul when anxiety spikes, along with what makes those tools so effective. Then, on the twenty first, musician and author Michelle Wilkins and I will be talking about fighting for your heart when hardship, disappointment, and unanswered prayers try to pull you into bitterness and despair. Share today's content with your family and friends because we're living in hard times in which we could all use reminders of God's love, power, and grace and engage with us in the comments like Darrell and Lynne Alicia did Hi friends, thank you so much for connecting through Spotify. We appreciate you, and to everyone until next time, may you live this one who truly has been set free