In this episode Kimberly Faith and her dad answer the question through the Bible, “Do I really matter to God?” A question that almost everyone has asked themselves at moments when their job feels pointless, and their dreams are collecting dust on a shelf. A story that becomes the heartbeat of this episode was literally Spirit lead as it was not planned, is the story of the Shepherd who had 99 sheep that were safe but 1 has wandered off. The Shepherd loves his sheep so much that he goes out and finds that 1 sheep that wandered off and brings it safely back to the fold. This lost sheep didn’t do anything to earn the Shepherds love or care.
In this same instance we are like that sheep. We have done nothing to earn God’s love, yet God looks for us when we are lost. He seeks to bring us back to His presence. Kim and John discuss four different places in the Bible where God makes it clear that we matter to Him. Our lives are important to Him.
They talk about living inside his grace instead of just believing in it from a distance, the comparison trap of measuring our worth by followers or performance, and why the hardest seasons might actually be where purpose shows up clearest. Our life is not an accident looking for a purpose. It’s a purpose waiting to be realized. And like that one sheep, we were worth going after.
Key Takeaways:
Jacob Paul: Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your hosts Kimberly Faith and John Mac. The Truth in Love podcast seeks to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love.
Kimberly Faith: Well, dad, we’re back here on the podcast 99. How exciting is this?
John McLarty: Well, that’s a good number.
Kimberly Faith: The 99.
John McLarty: I think there’s a Bible story about the 99.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: Jesus went after the one.
Kimberly Faith: And, you know, you say that, and I really hadn’t thought about that till just now. The title of this podcast is Do I really matter to God? Finding our purpose
John McLarty: And that one lost lamb
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: They left the 99 and went to find the one
Kimberly Faith: Absolutely.
John McLarty: That had wandered off.
Kimberly Faith: You know, we always pray that
John McLarty: So we matter.
Kimberly Faith: We always pray the holy spirit will guide these podcasts, and here we are. You mentioned that, and all of a sudden, it all fits together just the way God intended it. You know, I think, I don’t know about you, but, you know, I’ve been reciting scriptures about my worth in Christ for years and years. But at the end of the day, I think there’s still that, do I really matter? Does anything I do actually matter? And, you know, do I matter to God?
John McLarty: And the good news is that we do. We really matter to God, and we’re going to explore that.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I mean, but honestly, I know that everybody listening to this has experienced this where, you know, at the end of the day, your job doesn’t give you any feeling of being, you know, having any sense of consequence that maybe your relationships are draining you more than satisfying you. And all the dreams you had when you were 10, you know, of greatness, whatever that looked like, are kind of collecting dust on a shelf.
John McLarty: I have gone through that.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John M McLarty: Yeah. Making adjustments. And, you know, sometimes we have to trade off our dreams for God’s purpose.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. But, you know, I want to push back on that just a little bit because I think that God planted in us a desire for greatness. And when I say that, I mean, a supernatural greatness that only comes through how he reshapes our desires and gives us this purpose that’s greater than self.
John McLarty: Right. But I’m talking about our dreams. Like, I remember when I was, maybe dreams isn’t the right word, but plans.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Like, I retired, Lynn and I were going to go see The United States and go to all these national parks. And then God just showed I mean, I was 65 years old. And the Lord made it very clear, no. You’re not going to do that. You may do a little of that
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: But you’re not going to go see, I mean, I had a dream, a plan to go see every national park in The United States. And the Lord said no. The Lord said, I actually have something better for you.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And have a ministry.
Kimberly Faith: I think you’re, I think you’re spot on. I think that we have an idea of what satisfies us but God redirects that and gives us what really will satisfy us.
John McLarty: Exactly.
Kimberly Faith: Because, I mean, travel, I love to travel and experiences are great. But honestly, what we’re doing right now is one of the greatest experiences of my life. And not because I ever conjured this up in my mind, but because God said, hey, you have the gift of Gab, and your dad does too. And y’all are going to make that gift that’s very natural to you be something that I use to reach people all over the world.
John McLarty: Yeah. It’s kind of interesting how sometimes God just shows us things purely spiritually.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: But sometimes, Lynn and I have just had some surgeries. I have knee surgery.
Lynn’s had two knee surgeries. And so getting in a RV.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John Mclarty: And driving, it doesn’t even, it’s not like, oh, we’re just giving up this, God just giving up this great dream
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: Because we’re going to go, whatever, minister. God just created a circumstance where, you know, that doesn’t even sound enjoyable anymore.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah.
John McLarty: He guides, I’m just saying, He guides our paths in different ways.
Kimberly Faith: Absolutely. And he gives you his perspective.
John McLarty: Sometimes He has to conk us over the head a little bit.
Kimberly Faith: Oh, I know. Believe me. I’m a major, I’ve been head head conked lots of times. But, you know, this lie that our enemy, Satan, you know, the world, culture, even our own flesh, that our life doesn’t matter. That is a corrosive, catastrophic lie. And what we’re going to talk about today, is just from God’s word, we’re going to talk about, I like to use the word exhibits. We have four exhibits from God’s word. But God’s word doesn’t just correct that way of thinking. It actually obliterates it, which is a pretty strong word to use. But I like that word because I want to, I need strong language, and I don’t mean foul language, but strong language in order for me to understand that the lie that Satan whispers to me that my life doesn’t matter is so contradictory to God’s word and God’s promises that I need to retrain my brain, so to speak.
John McLarty: Well, and just think the idea that we don’t matter is so serious it leads people to suicide.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right.
John McLarty: Or just, you know, cycles of depression that don’t end.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I think we talked about this in an earlier podcast about we have this pleasure button. We just keep pushing it and pushing it and pushing it to get that moment of satisfaction until it never works. Doesn’t work anymore. So today, just to kind of give everybody an idea where we’re going and building our case that our life does matter to God, we’re going to talk about four exhibits. Exhibit one is from Ephesians and talks about the riches that God gives us.
John McLarty: Sounds like your lawyer background’s coming out a little bit.
Kimberly Faith: Well, you know, dad, I like to use exhibits just because that’s you know, it’s easy. Exhibit two is how the riches of his grace become real for us, and we’re going to talk about Psalm 16 and Romans Chapter 8. Then exhibit three, we’re going to talk about trading the way we compare ourselves to each other for the truth from Psalms 139 and going back to Ephesians.
John McLarty: That’s good. Yes.
Kimberly Faith: And then exhibit four is just a reminder that because we have a purpose from God, that doesn’t mean we’re exempt from hard times. In fact, it gives us a greater opportunity to experience the purpose that God’s given us.
John McLarty: That’s very important to know.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And that’s going to be from Philippians. But at the end of the day, the verdict of every person, including you and me, should be clear. The lie doesn’t stand. Our life matters not because we’ve proven it, but because God has already promised it. And there’s a phrase that God gave me. I don’t know where this came from, probably just the holy spirit or maybe I read it somewhere. I don’t remember. But this phrase I want to kind of keep as our mantra, and it is this. Our life is not an accident looking for a purpose. It’s a purpose waiting to be realized.
John McLarty: That’s good.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Very good.
Kimberly Faith: It is. And I have this written down on a piece of paper on my desk because it’s such a good reminder for myself, but also for anybody who I’m talking to. And since I’m old, I have to have things written down so I can remember them.
John McLarty: We were created for a purpose.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. So let’s just dive right into exhibit one, which is Ephesians 1:7 and 8. You want to read that?
John McLarty: You know, I’ll read it and I just have to comment. Ephesians 1 and 2, they’re really just the eternal purposes of God, including us in a very big way. But, yeah, this is Ephesians 1:7-8. In whom,so that’s in Christ, In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, which he has made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
Kimberly Faith: You know, I want to just, this is an extraordinary passage because it’s a promise that a lot of us never learn to live in. And it is not the scraps of his grace, not the leftovers, but the riches of his grace. And, you know, I think when we, so what does that mean? What does it mean that when Paul says that we have this grace that God wants to make abound toward us, which means to overflow, in other words, there’s so much of it we have to give it away. And so what does that really mean?
John McLarty: I think it’s just God’s abundant grace. He wants to bless us abundantly. And just, you know, as we’re in Ephesians here, I just, I had to look over at Ephesians 2:6 and 7. He says, and he has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Kimberly Faith: I love that.
John McLarty: So God doesn’t just barely save us.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: He wants to show us this exceeding kindness.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And then we show that to others.
Kimberly Faith: The key
John McLarty: It’s like you were saying, it’s an abundant grace. It’s abounding. It’s the riches of his grace.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: It’s not this, he’s going to pull us out of the gutter and throw us the scraps from the table.
Kimberly Faith: Well, you know, one of the, I think the key ways to understand this idea of the riches of God’s grace is that to understand what grace is, which is unmerited favor, right? So here’s the thing. If we have received and are experiencing present tense, his rich grace, that means the evidence of that is how we show it to others.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: It’s not that we, because everybody wants to receive grace. The fact is we’ve already received it, and we’re receiving it every day in the form of the fact that we don’t have a car wreck. I mean, lots of ways that God is showing me his, us his grace. But the proof that we’re living in it richly comes in how we interact with others. Because we do not have proof of grace in our life, rich, abundant grace, if we’re not sharing it. And so how does that translate? Well, I mean, think about the difficult coworker or maybe somebody you have to see every day who’s doing things that make you mad. Maybe taking credit for your work, you know, being snarky, you know, anybody who makes you kind of feel like you have to tiptoe around them or avoid them. So just to be clear, this riches of God’s grace isn’t some magic personality change. Okay? This is what we have received. In other words, it’s not grit your teeth and endure it. That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about what we have received supernaturally in our soul, which has transformed our soul to be like Christ.
John McLarty: Well, I think we just have to add this here, Kim.
Kimberly Faith: Okay.
John McLarty: In Ephesians 2, after it says, he wants to show us the exceeding riches of his grace. The famous verses 8 and 9. For by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: So that very gift of salvation, of grace it’s pure grace. It’s not of works.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: So then as you were saying, then that brings about the born again nature.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: So this way we can deal with a contrary coworker
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Isn’t just gritting our teeth.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Oh, I just need to, what’s rule number 34 of how to, you know, biblically react? It’s just, show that grace we’ve received to somebody else.
Kimberly Faith: Well and it’s, so the way that that happens is, I mean, in practical everyday terms, is that we have to have the mind of Christ and the attitudes of Christ.
John McLarty: Exactly.
Kimberly Faith: And that’s not something that, I mean, we have this, the Romans Chapter 7 battle with the flesh, right? The flesh and the soul, the born again soul. And we have to be feeding our soul in such a way that it’s stronger than our flesh. Okay? Which is all the things we talk about. But there’s also a very interesting verse in Second Corinthians 5:16 and 17 that I want to read that gives us the kind of the bluff about this, like the bottom line. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh even though we have known Christ according to the flesh. In other words, we’ve had the ability to understand and become aware of him. Yet now we know him like this no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. The point of this verse is that we don’t have to look at each other according to the flesh anymore. Because now we’re in Christ and we have the ability to view each other from the perspective of Christ, with the mind of Christ, which is a game changer. This is an enormous claim. We don’t have to operate according to our five senses when we’re interacting with people. We have been given the supernatural senses of Christ to see, you know, when we talk about the fruit of the spirit, for example. Those things are already in us. And when we see that difficult coworker, to someone who’s been born again, we don’t size them up based on how what they say affects us. We size them up and react according to what Jesus shows us about them.
John McLarty: Exactly. And that’s because we’re a new creation.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: And we literally have the mind of Christ.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Now this is just interesting because the mind of the flesh can rear up and overrule that.
Kimberly Faith: It can.
John McLarty: But we have the ability to just, you know, go back to that, our new born again soul.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And, yeah, that’s the enormous claim that we have that ability.
Kimberly Faith: We don’t have to react. We don’t have to react because we don’t have that insecurity in our soul. Because Jesus isn’t insecure. And if we are in Christ, we’re not either. We don’t have to take credit for things that somebody else maybe steals our credit. None of that even, we have the option. And if they’re not born again, they don’t have that option. They’re stuck in their flesh. And, you know, it’s so interesting that we can respond with the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, mercy, all those things. And that is a powerful testament to Jesus living in us that we have as born again believers. Again, going back to our main, the main topic of this podcast. Because we really do matter to God, we can show other people through our interactions with them that they matter to God as well because that’s not the typical reaction. Typical reaction is in the flesh to retaliate and do all these things.
John McLarty: Yeah. And when people see love in response to either hate or, you know, just, you say, contrariness
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: That’s surprising.
Kimberly Faith: It is. And this is the riches of God’s grace. You don’t remove the difficult person. I mean, I’ve actually found this out kind of the hard way of being an employer. God had to shift my view of my team from being mercenary, which is the way most employers think. I mean, it’s legitimate. If they’re not making money, they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, then they’re out, right? And while there’s still some value in that way of thinking, it’s now okay. Look at the big picture, Kim. You’re to glorify me, and you look at this person the way I look at this person and you treat them the way I want them to be treated, I’ll take care of your business. And that doesn’t always mean just firing them. You know?
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: Sometimes it means being more patient, having more kindness, having more compassion, giving them more time. And again, this is real, I mean, if everybody in our world would just understand this, you know, our world would be such a different place. I
John McLarty: What if the fruits of the holy spirit ruled the world?
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.
John McLarty: It’d be such a nicer place.
Kimberly Faith: It is. And this applies whether you’re an exhausted parent or you’re going through, you know, a horrible health issue. I mean, this supernatural gift that we have, from God in that when we’ve been born again, the riches of his grace are something we can choose to use or we can choose to hide.
John McLarty: That’s important also to realize. Yeah. And we don’t have to manufacture it.
Kimberly Faith: Oh, so good.
John McLarty: And that’s kind of religious religiosity.
Kimberly Faith: Religiosity? You’re trying to make up some more words, aren’t you?
John McLarty: Making up a word.
Kimberly Faith: Yep.
John McLarty: Manufactured religious rules that you just memorize them and you’re like, oh, I should act this way.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And the actual experience of being born again and having that new creature, and, of course, there’s spiritual growth and there’s spiritual warfare, but it’s not us. It’s letting Christ out in us.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And his grace
John McLarty: And then we don’t really get, and there’s no credit to us really because it’s just
Kimberly Faith: We know it’s not us.
John McLarty: Letting him.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: Letting grace come out.
Kimberly Faith: And just to kind of tie this segment up in a little bow, this grace has a purpose, not just so we can exercise grace and that’s it. Grace has a purpose. And Ephesians 1:9, just to kind of the next verse down says, that God has made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself. You know, when we think about that verse, the mystery of God’s will, you know, people always, and I do the same thing. Ask, I just want to know God’s will for my life in this area of my life, and it may be like a job or whatever. Well, the problem is if we’re not living in the fullness of his grace and doing things we know to do and not doing the things we know we shouldn’t do, we’re never going to go to that next level of entering into the mystery of his will because we’re not even out of basic boot camp yet.
John McLarty: Right. It’s like an employee that doesn’t even show, won’t show up at work on time, won’t even get the next assignment.
Kimberly Faith: Exactly. Exactly.
John McLarty: What you do when you get there.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. So, you know, just to again, going back to our theme, our life is not an accident looking for a purpose. It’s a purpose waiting to be realized. And when we start living in the abundant mercy that God has given us, then we start seeing our purpose all around us in the souls of people that we are touching. And there’s no better life.
John McLarty: Yeah. And we do matter because we can have an impact on others.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: You know, it’s so contrary to the way of this, I don’t know what you call, secular world thinking that we matter because we’ve
Kimberly Faith: Because we are.
John McLarty: Found our purpose.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: It’s almost just the opposite.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: We matter because we can help someone else find purpose.
Kimberly Faith: Right. And we know from reading all through the scriptures that everything was created for God’s glory. It always goes back to that. And when we are giving other people the abundant grace that we have, that means we are loving the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and we’re loving our neighbor. Which if you’re loving the lord with all your heart, soul, and mind like Jesus said is the first great commandment, you have to love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other reaction to that because you can’t, you can’t, say you love God and hate your neighbor. Jesus said that. You know? So let’s kind of move on to exhibit two, how this becomes real, how this works. Because I think a lot of times, we’ll read these, you know, these great scriptures and these great truths, and they feel wonderful for about fifteen minutes. And then our, you know, our inbox fills up. The kids need dinner. The neighbor’s dog is in our garden. Whatever, you know? And it’s like, oh, okay. But God didn’t just tell us these truths to be decorations. I like to think of this section as he gave us these truths so it could become our basic operating system.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: You know, I don’t remember which podcast it was we talked about the operating system, but God’s truths have to be our basic OS. In other words, the underlying program running quietly in the background of everything we do. And it’s so solid that we don’t even have to really think about keeping it running.
John McLarty: Yeah. We kind of talked about God’s operating system, the born again nature.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And then the interface is kind of our mind and what we let in. It was in spiritual growth and spiritual warfare.
Kimberly Faith: Gotcha. Yeah.
John McLarty: Yeah. Which operating system we let control our actions.
Kimberly Faith: I’m so glad you remember that. I totally couldn’t remember which podcast. Good good thing we have your young memory, dad.
John McLarty: My young memory.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. Well, so we’re going to kind of switch gears to Romans 8:28. Do you want to read that?
John McLarty: Yeah. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose. So I’ll just comment on that. According to his purpose. God has a purpose.
Kimberly Faith: He does.
John McLarty: And I’m just, you know, I’m just thinking, our purpose does our life count? It’s when it’s aligned with his purpose.
Kimberly Faith: Absolutely.
John McLarty: It’s like we have a great king, a great leader that has a purpose. If we can get in sync with that, we have a purpose.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah.
John McLarty: And what a draw just think of humanity wanting to feel like you’re part of a great cause.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: You know? Whether it’s, you know
Kimberly Faith: Political cause.
John McLarty: Political or, you know, some war. World War Two needed to be won.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And you’re part of that. Or
Kimberly Faith: You’re just like a social
John McLarty: Feeding the poor
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: Part of a town.
Kimberly Faith: Well, like a convoy of hope going down to Venezuela.
John McLarty: Exactly.
Kimberly Faith: You know? People want to be part of something great.
John McLarty: Bigger that has purpose.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. That has purpose.
John McLarty: And here, God says that we are called according to his purpose.
Kimberly Faith: Right. And his purpose is brilliant. It’s far greater than any
John McLarty: And His purpose is love.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: Loving kindness towards others.
Kimberly Faith: Well and the thing is we understand greatness. We have a clue what it means to be a great football player or a great singer or a great national leader. But we have a hard time, I think, wrapping our minds around what God’s glorious purpose is because we’re so stuck in the ways we’ve been trained to think. And in other words we stick God in a box, and we forget that his purpose is really greater than any purpose we can conceive. So, you know, when we talk about this second exhibit, in other words, how does this truth actually become our background operating system? Well, the bottom line is first you gotta install it, which is, you know, salvation, right?
John McLarty: Salvation.
Kimberly Faith: Salvation. And then you’ve gotta, you know, you’ve gotta start memorizing God’s word. I mean, that’s
John McLarty: Amen.
Kimberly Faith: God’s word when I pray, the best words that I ever pray are God’s word. Because that is, Jesus is the word. The word is being spoken back to the holy spirit. The holy spirit is intervening. And, I mean, it’s just an amazing, I’m not even sure I understand it all. It’s such an amazing cycle.
John McLarty: Thy word is a light unto my path.
Kimberly Faith: Lamp unto my path and
John McLarty: Light unto my way.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I mean, well, Psalms 119. Read the whole thing if you
John McLarty: I’m reading that right now.
Kimberly Faith: Are you really?
John McLarty: Yeah.
Kimberly Faith: So all those verses about God’s word, the value of it. So you’ve gotta, you know, you’ve gotta, that’s gotta be running before the crisis hits, right? Which is salvation, and then, of course, you’ve got to be feeding that. You’ve gotta be feeding the right information into your OS, so to speak, to make sure. And that’s God’s word like you talk about prayer, memorizing God’s word. And then in the moment when the crisis happens, you can’t abandon it. You cannot abandon the spiritual operating system that Jesus Christ has implanted in our soul, right?
John McLarty: We have such a tendency to do that.
Kimberly Faith: We do. We do. And, you know, God is working this together for good even when I can’t see it right now. Because, you know, the fact is, it’s such an incredible thought to try to wrap your mind around the idea that God is in the future. By the time, it means nothing to God. And if I can get that in my brain, then when that deal falls apart or that friendship goes sideways, whatever that looks like, I can go right back to that scripture and say, it is working all things for good right now.
John McLarty: And that’s such a key phrase. All things work together.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes.
John McLarty: Yeah. I think of turning points in our life. I won’t get into it, but just where some plan, you know, well, one of them was to relocate a restaurant and it fell apart.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And I thought it was just devastating. And it turns out it was God’s plan, not revealed till three years later, but a whole kind of different career opportunity that was so much better than a
Kimberly Faith: Restaurant.
John McLarty: Running a restaurant.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: But at the time, you know, I mean, we say these things. They’re not easy.
Kimberly Faith: No. They’re not easy.
John McLarty: Sometimes things blindside us.
Kimberly Faith: No.
John McLarty: But that’s so good to have that in our heart. This verse is such a good one to have in our heart.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And, you know, I’ll use another example. It just happened. I mean, this podcast is, we’re coming up on year two. And it seems like for more than half of this year, I have been struggling with my voice. Haven’t had a voice. It’s been, you know, I feel like I’ve just had this sinus issue. I just, like, had no ability to do the podcast. Brain fog. And it was like, God, I’ve had to say, okay. You say that you are working all things together for good. I don’t see how this is good. I don’t see how this is helpful. I don’t see how this is glorifying to you, but you’re just going to have to show me what to do right now. And, you know, in this season that I’ve been in, God has downloaded some of the most amazing truths and taught me some things I don’t think I would have learned had I been doing my frantic pace.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: And so we, and so this
John McLarty: This health issue has slowed you down, Kim.
Kimberly Faith: It’s, yeah, It’s made me be still and know that he is God, not me, right? I always, I have trouble keeping myself off the throne. And so that kind of brings us to another idea under here, and that is remembering the evidence after the fact and keeping a record of it. Reminding, one of the reasons I started writing devotionals back, I don’t know, twelve, thirteen, fourteen years ago was because I wanted to remember what God was teaching me in my quiet time. And then, you know, started sending them to my kids, and then they wanted me to send them to my you know, my kid’s friends and other people. And then suddenly, it became three books. Here we are, you know, twelve years later, and this website. It wasn’t because I was looking to become a published author. It was because I was wanting to remember the things God taught me. And it’s so useful to journal those things or otherwise keep track of those things because then when you’re feeling discouraging and trying to remember in the midst of the darkness or the heaviness, what God has done, how he has brought you and worked all things for good before, you have a written record.
John McLarty: I think that’s really biblical too. I’m thinking of the words Jesus said, this do in remembrance of me.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Lord’s Supper.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And then the many times in the Old Testament, just things that were memorials. Set up some stones to remember I did this.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: The Passover.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Just to remember how God delivered the Israelis from Egypt. So that’s yeah, it’s really good to remember.
Kimberly Faith: Well, and then
John McLarty: And to ponder God’s blessings in the past.
Kimberly Faith: It makes us thankful.
John McLarty: Guide us into the future.
Kimberly Faith: And it makes us thankful. And we talk about gratefulness a lot.
John McLarty: And to realize that’s his MO.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: This great trial, there is a path forward
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: To this event that blindsided us.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. That’s right. And this operating system that we have, the more we let it govern our reactions, the more, in other words, we’re not just consulting our OS once a week, but it’s running underneath every decision. Underneath every decision, every counseling with every employee, every interaction with a child, every confrontation with a neighbor, underneath that is running this OS that says, you’re living for my glory. You belong to me. Then when something goes wrong, we don’t have to panic or be in despair because God is still working for good. We just need a part of his plan. It’s great. You know?
John McLarty: And he wants to bring us the abundant life, and he wants to bring us joy fulfilled.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And that’s Psalms 16:11. You want to read that?
John McLarty: Sure. Oh, I love this. You will show me the path of life. In your presence is the fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Joy is not just mountaintop experiences. It’s not. It’s not the reward for finally getting it all together. It is the natural fruit of living close enough to God that the awareness of his presence becomes the very heartbeat of our life.
John McLarty: And that’s so exciting to think about. God doesn’t want us just to live this mundane existence.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: You know, this solitary servitude of God that’s joyless.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.
John McLarty: That’s a great verse.
Kimberly Faith: It is. Yeah.
John McLarty: In your presence is the fullness of joy.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: That’s great.
Kimberly Faith: The great verse. And kind of going back to our theme, this again, reinforcing this theme, your life. Our life is not an accident looking for a purpose. It is a purpose waiting to be realized. And I keep saying this because I need to be reminded that today, the day we’re recording this podcast, that my life, every minute of it, has a purpose.
John McLarty: Amen.
Kimberly Faith: And so let’s kind of move to our third exhibit, which is this idea of our tendency to compare ourselves with others and trading that comparison for the truth of God’s word, because we keep score. We keep score and compare ourselves against each other.
John McLarty: That’s a big part of the culture we live in.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. And we think
John McLarty: Promotes that.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. We think that, and this is an exhausting lie, you know? If we can keep score by what our salary is, the number of followers we have, the number of likes we have, the number of accomplishments we have, our productivity, we think in this way that the bigger the number we have, the more we matter. And that inspires us. And I’m not going to lie. I mean, there are times I get trapped in that. I’ll look at our analytics on our website or something, and I’ll get discouraged because, oh, we’re down, you know, 2,000 people this week or whatever. And that is just pride. That is pride that comes from this lie that the only way I matter is if my numbers are high. That’s not true if you’re just one person.
John McLarty: Oh, I just think of the scourge of social media, you know, people are obsessed with that.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: You know, we say the millennials, but here I am in my seventies. And, yeah, you know,say it’s your birthday and you want to see how many people said happy birthday, you know?
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And if it’s just one or two, you know, it’s like, oh my goodness.
Kimberly Faith: And it’s not just, and what’s interesting about this measuring stick idea is that it’s not just that it’s unhealthy to compare ourselves to other people for ourselves, but that measuring stick we bring into our relationship with God. So that we think, we start measuring our value by our spiritual performance. And I’m so guilty of this. Like, I’ll have a week where I don’t pray like I ought to, and I’m kind of running from God a little bit. Like, oh, he doesn’t want to talk to me right now because I’ve been, I’m not praying without ceasing or whatever. Maybe I’m watching, I’m binging on a series, you know? And I know I shouldn’t be doing that. I should, you know, I’m not saying anything wrong with watching TV. I’m just saying there is a balance.
And, of course, what we put in our mind matters. But the enemy wants to divorce us from the sense of God’s presence any way he can.
John McLarty: Yeah. Discourage us.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. But I love what Psalms 139 says. And this is just anytime I start feeling this way, this verse is one of the best verses to help me remember how much God values me. And it says, for you formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well.
John McLarty: Love that verse.
Kimberly Faith: I love that verse. Our soul, when it’s born again, does know this. Our flesh never knows this. And, you know, I love that this knowledge that God talks about of you and of me didn’t begin when we became useful. Babies are pretty helpless.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: They’re not really useful. They drool. They, you know, need their diaper changed. They have to be fed. They squawk. But God says you were useful then because I loved you, not because of anything you did.
John McLarty: You’re fearfully and wonderfully made. And that your work, marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well. So we have this knowledge that
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: God’s doing a great work, just overall, and that we’re part of that work.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right.
John McLarty: Right. Really, you know, we’re by you might say by default part of that work.
We almost have to be, as born again Christians, deceived and deleted from that. We have to almost delete ourselves.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: But it’s the default. I mean, right here, proves
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: Our default position is to be useful, valued by God.
Kimberly Faith: We’re valued by God.
John McLarty: And part of His divine purposes.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And we just have to remind ourselves through God’s work that our value is not something we build. It’s something we received. And what that does is we stop measuring our days by what we produce, and we start noticing what God is doing, which is Ephesians 2:10, which you want to read Ephesians 2:10?
John McLarty: Sure. This fits in perfectly. For we are His, capital H, we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Kimberly Faith: Oh, I love that.
John McLarty: Wow. We’re created in Jesus for good works.
Kimberly Faith: You know, I love that, when I read this verse, the thing I always think of, and I know this is holy spirit, I don’t want to miss a thing that God prepared for me to walk in because it’s the best. And I love that this word workmanship is the Greek word poiema, which is where we get our word poem. We are God’s poetry, you know? And poetry isn’t something that just flung together. It’s intentional.
John McLarty: And just going back to this idea of it’s our default position, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So we almost have to take ourselves out of the game.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: Of course, you know, Satan urges us, but we have to
Kimberly Faith: Not my will, but thine.
John McLarty: Yeah. God’s default. The river we’re in
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Is his great purpose.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And we almost have to just by sin, selfishness, whatever.
Kimberly Faith: Swim against the current.
John McLarty: I’m getting out of this river.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: You know?
Kimberly Faith: Or I’m going to swim the other way or whatever. And so this idea of being God’s poetry, you know? I love that idea. And every work that he has prepared for us beforehand, I mean, don’t you know, I don’t want to miss a thing.
John McLarty: Doesn’t that just make you want to be more a part of it?
Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes. I mean, God who created everything that we love to look at, everything we love to eat, everything that we enjoy. He has good works, which if it’s good according to God’s standard, and we think it’s all good because we like, we all love these things, then we should be wanting to become almost gluttonously or gluttony gluttony? Gluttonously.
John McLarty: Gluttonously.
Kimberly Faith: Involved in finding and discovering those good works and never missing and eating them all, fire hosing. You know?
John McLarty: So, Kim, I have a river trip analogy.
Kimberly Faith: Oh, good.
John McLarty: Remember, on river trips, you’re seeking the main current. You want to stay in the main current.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And if you lose track or lose you know, you get distracted, you end up in an eddy.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Or the shallow
Kimberly Faith: A dead pool?
John McLarty: The dead pool. And the whole idea is to stay in that main current.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. It’s a great example.
John McLarty: And there are little eddies and little flows that take you, you know, into the slower water.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah.
John McLarty: And that’s just exciting. God has a main current.
Kimberly Faith: I want to stay in the fast lane.
John McLarty: I want to stay in the fast water.
Kimberly Faith: And so, again, you know, before we move on to the last segment here, our life is not an accident looking for a purpose. We are a purpose waiting to be realized, and God wrote that purpose. So exhibit four, this great purpose that God has versus great poetry that he’s written, that is our life doesn’t mean we’re exempt from hard stuff, hard seasons, hard trials.
John McLarty: That’s so important..
Kimberly Faith: And we need to anticipate it because what it is, is a greater opportunity.
John McLarty: And don’t let it blindside us.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Be ready. Be expecting the trouble because it is a greater opportunity to experience God’s purpose.
John McLarty: Kim, you coined a phrase. Dad, life involves trouble. Just get used to it. And I use that a lot in my own life and for other people. Like, just because there’s this trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re necessarily off course.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: The path is through the trouble.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Through the rapids.
John McLarty: Don’t stop.
Kimberly Faith: Right. The main current goes through the rapids. There are rocks. There are stones. There are places you could flip the raft. I mean, we’ve done that down some big water. When you look at Joseph, David, Paul, Job, would Job have been remembered today if he had never suffered like he did?
John McLarty: No. If he just had life easy on the beach?
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. If he just had his kids and his cattle
John McLarty: Listening to the water come in. Yeah.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. No, Job is remembered because he went through some of the most awful, awful trouble. And that’s, I mean, I’ve never read another story where someone has suffered as much as Job suffered.
John McLarty: Yeah.
Kimberly Faith: His name is a byword for trouble and, you know, the suffering of Job. But we don’t stop there because we know that Job came out
John McLarty: Not cursing God.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. He came out on the other side
John McLarty: Came out on the other side.
Kimberly Faith: He actually started in the beginning saying, naked came I out of my mother’s womb and naked I will return then, you know? And he didn’t curse God. He blessed him. So, you know
John McLarty: I like this phrase out of Job 13;15. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. That’s an amazing verse.
John McLarty: Amazing perspective.
Kimberly Faith: I mean, would we just, switching gears, would we have remembered David? What do we remember David for the most? Goliath.
John McLarty: Goliath.
Kimberly Faith: Right?
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: That’s the biggest children’s story probably ever told. We remember Jonah because of the whale, you know? We remember these stories because of the great courage, the great triumph.
John McLarty: I just think about great stories, great movies.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: You know, people that have overcome hardship.
Kimberly Faith: Right. Right. Yeah. So knowing that we have this amazing purpose to glorify God, it does something more to us. It prepares us for the difficulty. And, you know, we do that in sports. Like, when I coached club volleyball, we would do drill after drill after drill. They would sweat. They would get their knees scraped. They would, you know, they were hard, they’re working hard. But then I would bring in my volleyball team, adults, a lot of, and there was a coed team. So we had six foot four, you know, Marine Corps boys who would hit the ball straight down on my eighth grade girls, and they would scream and, you know, be afraid at first, and that was okay. And I’d just say, get back in the game. Do your soft block. Get up there. And when they would soft block a big old hit down and that ball would go up and they could set up another play, they were just thrilled. And so then when they’re playing against girls their own age, they weren’t nearly as afraid.
John McLarty: Yeah.
Kimberly Faith: It’s just that’s the, you know? And, of course, we hear this from Paul, the apostle in Philippians. You know, he’s, from what I understand, when Paul was in the jail, in the Philippian jail, He wasn’t just sitting in there, you know, hidden, beaten. He wasn’t just sitting there in a nice easy chair hanging out. From what I understand, he was actually chained to a wall with his legs spread apart and his arms up in the air. He wasn’t, you know?
John McLarty: And this was toward the end of his life. I mean, in addition to his current circumstances
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: Of being in prison. He’d been shipwrecked. He’d been thrown out of
Kimberly Faith: Stoned.
John McLarty: Stoned, thrown out of cities, left as dead.
Kimberly Faith: Right. And as he’s there and he’s able to write, he writes, rejoice in the Lord always. I mean, think about the perspective he’s writing that from. Again, I say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. And you think about why do we start thinking our life’s not worth anything? Because we stopped guarding our heart and mind, you know? Because we’re not experienced in the peace of God that passes understanding. That’s what I want.
John McLarty: And we lose our joy.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s right.
John McLarty: I did a study one time. Well, simple. But for our listeners, go through Philippians sometime and just remember Paul’s circumstances, that he was imprisoned.
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: And I just underlined the words joy and rejoice in the book of Philippians. And I think there were, like, 40 or 50
Kimberly Faith: Wow.
John McLarty: References to joy and rejoice or, you know
Kimberly Faith: Wow.
John McLarty: You’re my joy. I’m enjoying. I’m rejoicing in you, but it’s really, really remarkable.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. It really is.
John McLarty: The peace that surpasses all understanding.
Kimberly Faith: Well, Philippians 4:4-7, we just read, is so full of wisdom and hope and promise. And think about this, the Lord is at hand, you know? What is that? If I say, my dad is at hand, that means you’re sitting right here with me.
John McLarty: Right here.
Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And God is sitting right in this room, in the middle of this podcast, and that’s why we can be so free and have such confidence and have such a good time. Because God is the author of joy. He’s the author of peace. But if we were instead, like I was in a trial earlier this week, and I was struggling to find that peace. And I had to ask the lord, okay. I know I’ve done everything I can do to get ready for this. I don’t want to go in there showing a lack of courage, you know, giving my client a reason to be afraid other than the fact that he may have some consequences. And the Lord just took care of that.
John McLarty: Amen.
Kimberly Faith: And I, because he knew I had done everything he’d asked me to do to get ready. I’ll tell you, that’s a real, when you’re going through trials, that’s a real, real sticking point that I feel like the Lord keeps teaching me is you should be afraid if you haven’t done everything you’re supposed to do because then you’re not prepared. But if you have done everything that God has told you to do then you have that fear not for I am with thee, you know.
John McLarty: Yeah. That’s a good point. We can’t just live the, you know, this, you know, lackadaisical Christian life
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: Read our bible, never pray, and then a trial hits us.
Kimberly Faith: Or in our job, not doing our job.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: You know, not doing our due diligence for being paid to do something. You know? So, I mean, kind of just in rounding these thoughts up, you know, if you’re listening to this podcast and you wonder, does my life actually matter? Do I really matter to God? This is not a question God leaves unanswered. We have given, four exhibits today to
John McLarty: It’s very clear.
Kimberly Faith: Very clear that and and I think, honestly, that the best exhibit we’ve kind of danced around it, but the best exhibit is really Jesus Christ. What he gave up to come, leave heaven, leave his, become incarnate.
John McLarty: Sure. It shows we matter.
Kimberly Faith: Shows that we matter more than anything.
John McLarty: Jesus gave up his
Kimberly Faith: Jesus said no greater
John McLarty: Not only his, I mean, he gave up his life on the cross, but he gave up his status.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right.
John McLarty: I mean, he gave up so much, you know? Became the, you must say, the role of the son.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: You know?
Kimberly Faith: Yes. Well, we had this whole podcast on the incarnation of Jesus and what that means and, you know, what it could have meant for a long time for Jesus. But I think Jesus said it the best, like he always does, no greater love hath any man than he lay down his life.
John McLarty: Right.
Kimberly Faith: And I think that that gift, that sacrifice, going back to saving private Ryan, you know? At the end of his life, he asked his wife, did I earn it? Was the sacrifice they made worth it?
John McLarty: Yeah. I remember that saying.
Kimberly Faith: And I think we need to be asking rather than becoming introspective and just feeling sorry for ourselves and wondering if our life matters, we need to be looking to God and asking him to show us how much he’s given us that matters because we are his workmanship.
John McLarty: And even if we’ve, you know, gotten off into the eddy, you know, off the river
Kimberly Faith: Right.
John McLarty: We can get back.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes.
John McLarty: And all of whatever life we have left is in front of us.
Kimberly Faith: Yes. And I’d like to go back to Ephesians 1:11 because, Ephesians 1:11 says, In him also, we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. See, dad, you, me, and everyone listening to this podcast right now has a story. A story no one else can write. That’s really incredible to think about. And if we fail to write our story, if we fail to write the story that God wrote for us from the foundation of the world, what are we going to miss for eternity?
John McLarty: And this story is according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.
Kimberly Faith: Right. The one who created everything, who sustains everything, who is giving me the breath to say these words right now has a will. He has a purpose that he created just for me.
John McLarty: Amen.
Kimberly Faith: And we need to
John McLarty: Going back to the river analogy, what a great river.
Kimberly Faith: Yes.
John McLarty: What a great river trip God has us on.
Kimberly Faith: A great
John McLarty: The purpose of him who works all things.
Kimberly Faith: We don’t have to manufacture this purpose. We don’t have to make it up. You know, I remember, you know
John McLarty: Just gotta jump into it.
Kimberly Faith: That you jump into it. Right. But you don’t have to make it up.
John McLarty: No.
Kimberly Faith: I mean, I remember there were times in my life when I want like, I remember one time I wanted to be a great piano player. Okay? That is just not my gift. I tried. It was like I was putting the square peg in the round hole. I was not good at it. Then I go to my son’s church and there’s a 17 year old boy who plays the piano like he was born to play the piano. Guess what? I really enjoyed listening to him. And I don’t even want to be him because I want to be me now that God is showing me who I am.
John McLarty: That’s good.
Kimberly Faith: So just, you know, if you’re listening to this, just remember that you are the workmanship of God. And if you’re born again, you’re created in Christ Jesus, and he has good works that he has prepared for you before you were even a thought. And that is so incredible. And your life is not an accident. You don’t have to look for a purpose because you already have a purpose in Christ, and you just need to, like you said dad, just jump into the stream. Jump in.
John McLarty: Yep. You are his workmanship.
Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Walk in it.
John McLarty: Amen.
You have been listening to the Truth in Love podcast with your host Kimberly Faith and my dad, John Mac. To discover more answers to the big questions in life, visit us at gofaithstrong.com.
