Episode 11 – The BE-Attitudes: Living Your Best Life Part 9: Maximizing Every Problem As An Opportunity

Kimberly Faith: Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith, and my dad, John Mack. We seek to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love. Welcome back to the Truth in Love podcast, and I’m here today with my dad, John McLarty.

John McLarty: It’s great being here, and these Beatitudes have been really amazing digging into them. I’ve really enjoyed it.

Kimberly Faith: Well, I’m very excited that we’re doing this last one, and and it’s, you know, maximizing every problem as an opportunity. And, you know, we’ve we’ve gone through this whole series of beatitudes. And at the end of this podcast, we’re gonna kinda do a little recap. But in the last beatitude, we discovered that God empowers us to become powerful peacemakers through the reconciliation we experience in salvation to Jesus by Jesus Christ to God the father. And as as born again believers, we are empowered to not just have that peace, but to live it out in this world and in the path that we take in life and to share it with others.

And, you know, we we are just so blessed to have the cure for eternal anxiety. We carry it around as peacemakers.

John McLarty: What a great purpose that gives us.

Kimberly Faith: Oh, it’s amazing.

John McLarty: Be alive. It’s amazing.

Kimberly Faith: And and so these first the the first seven beatitudes that Jesus gives us are attitudes for life that prepare us for this last one. And Jesus says, in in Matthew 5 verses 10 through 12, he said, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted the prophets who were before you. You know, at the when you read when I read that beatitude, just like I when we started this whole series, you know, one of the things that I I confessed was these were not the things that I thought I needed to learn because I didn’t wanna be persecuted.

I didn’t wanna be poor. I didn’t wanna be, you know, lowly. I didn’t want any of these things. They didn’t sound like appealing things to me. But now that we have studied these, I’m recognizing the genius in Christ, which I’m because I’m in the slow class because I’ve you know, everybody should recognize the genius in Christ when you look out the window.

Right?

John McLarty: But but even the order they’re in, it makes so much sense as

Kimberly Faith: you do that too.

John McLarty: But it is it’s it’s God’s mind.

Kimberly Faith: So much sense. And, you know, and so Jesus is ending this kind of series of attitudes that we’re supposed to assimilate. And he’s saying, you know, guess what? You’re gonna have pain. This is the theme of this beatitude.

You’re going to have trouble. You’re going to have pain. This is not how I created everything to be, but man chose to basically depart from my law of love. And so we’ve got a world that is suffering, and you have a choice. Your suffering can be used for eternal glory or it can be wasted.

What an opportunity. What a perspective. What a great attitude that we can approach what is inevitable for every human.

John McLarty: It’s how we react to it.

Kimberly Faith: It’s how we react to it. Not only react though, dad. I I I think I appreciate you saying that because it’s not just a reaction, but, you know, the the Bible says for us to put on the whole armor of God. In other words, not just learn to react, but learn to anticipate. You know?

And I think that that our our secular culture, you know, looks at pain and suffering as it’s a great inconvenience. It’s unexpected. It’s not something that I plan for.

John McLarty: Right. Well, when we know it’s coming, we know how to we’re prepared to react.

Kimberly Faith: When when we don’t have cancer, that’s that’s a wow. That’s I’m really one of I’m an anomaly. You know? Because, it it happens to so many people. Right?

When we’re not in that car wreck, wow. This is such a blessing. But we know bad things are gonna happen because we’re on a battlefield. Right? Evil you know, if if the enemy had his way, he just decimate the entire human population.

If he had his way, he would he would want all of us to be where he is in misery. Right?

John McLarty: We’re living in a world that’s controlled by the god of this world, which is

Kimberly Faith: Right. Satan.

John McLarty: Right. And there’s going to be trouble.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. And and, you know, the question we left the last in the last podcast, we left everybody was with, how do you view trouble, and is this view of trouble healthy? Look. I’m not saying that we need to become kinda, you know, this this, you know what is it called? A sadist when you when you

John McLarty: Looking for enjoying trouble. Looking for trouble.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: I’m not saying that. I’m just saying it’s it’s kinda like, gosh. When I, when I played competitive volleyball, when we saw that the team that we were playing was really good, we started preparing for that

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: Because we wanted to win. And we didn’t expect that they were gonna go over there and play like 1st graders. If that’s what we expected, then what what were we even doing in a tournament? You know? No.

We need to expect the trouble will come. And these attitudes that Jesus is giving us train us on how to be ready for that. And then Jesus culminates us by saying, hey. Not only are you ready for this because you develop these attitudes, but you can be blessed if you approach this for my glory.

John McLarty: I kinda see 2 aspects of that. I was just looking at Romans 8. It’s talking about the fallen world we live in. And it says, we know that the creation growneth the whole creation growneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which are the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, even the redemption of our body.

So we’re in this world of trouble, and we’re in a body of trouble, And there’s just trouble all around us. Right. Hurricanes, tornadoes, bills. Bills. Just trouble.

And then and I but I wanna say I say that to say this, then there’s another kind of trouble that’s specifically persecution for being a Christian. Mhmm. And that’s that’s to be expected. Right. But it’s it’s something we can anticipate and know how, what the right reaction is.

Kimberly Faith: You know, that there’s How our response

John McLarty: should be and can be. Give glory to God.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Because our purpose is to glorify God. That’s all through the scripture. We see we were created for his glory. Right?

And it’s it’s kinda like, you know, if an army is is not fighting for individual valor, they’re fighting for victory. Mhmm. Victory for their nation. Right? Who do we represent?

We represent the kingdom of heaven. Jesus told us to pray to bring God’s kingdom to this earth. Well, God’s kingdom isn’t raining on this earth. It’s there’s a there’s a prince and power of the air, and that’s Satan. Right?

So we know the battle’s already here. But when we understand that our purpose is to glorify God and that greater is he that is in us than he who is in the world, then and and we’ve assimilated these attitudes of complete dependence upon God of becoming strong in his strength, not in our own strength, all these different things, then we look for the opportunity to glorify him. So and and this is again, I I don’t wanna sound like I’m looking for trouble because I’m not. But, just, you know, just recently, I had a pretty pretty significant obstacle arise, and the the I started to spiral into my own. Okay.

Am I gonna fix this? How am I gonna, you know, how am I gonna make this right? And and god’s like, wait a minute. It’s like he took his finger and put on my forehead and pinned me against the into the chair and said, would you just sit down for a minute and pay attention to what you’re doing? Mhmm.

And, he’s like, what have you been learning in this in the in that I’ve been teaching you in these beatitudes? What’s the first one, Kim? What did you learn the first beatitude? What did you learn?

John McLarty: Poor in spirit.

Kimberly Faith: Poor in spirit, which means completely dependent upon God. You know, what did you learn about meekness? Did you learn anything about meekness that it’s my strength, not yours, and that you just need to pay attention? I was like, okay, god. I’m gonna I’m gonna give it to you, and I’m not gonna take it back.

Right? And I just said, you know what, lord? I’m gonna do I I don’t know how to solve this problem, but now I see it as an opportunity. This is an opportunity to bring you glory and to say, look what god did. In this victory, look what god did.

Not look what Kim did. Not look at Kim’s brilliance, but look what god did. And and, you know, it it’s kind of interesting because it this problem that that arose involved some really personal attacks on me. And, of course, you know, the the the the the most common thing we do is try to defend ourselves. Right?

Justify ourselves. Defend our character and reputation. God did not give me the liberty to do that. He said, you do exactly what I’ve set before you today. You get up.

You spend time with me. You write your devotional. You have time with me in prayer. You go to work. You solve the problems you know that I put before you to solve the legal step that you were trained to solve.

And you pray about this situation, and you just you do not do anything until I give you the green light. You know what? That’s exactly what I did. And, you know, it was amazing. God God’s solution was so mind blowing that in the end, he was glorified, and I never had to defend myself ever.

And it didn’t matter because, you know, the people it’s it’s interesting. We we wanna defend ourselves to this public. Right? This whoever they are. Right?

John McLarty: Mhmm.

Kimberly Faith: But but the Bible’s clear that God is our defender. He’s our shield. He’s our our our refuge. He’s our bulwark, right, which is our protection. He gives us armor.

And we don’t have to our life is not protecting our about protecting our reputation. It’s about protecting his.

John McLarty: And that story is so telling that it it ended well, obviously, but you had to give it to god. Right. And why I’m asking this myself. Why can’t our first reaction always be that first giving it to God? We always seem to have that initial our way.

We’re gonna figure this out. And, I think what you say is is right, having that armor of God. Learning what we’re learning now is that maybe we can get to a place where our first reaction is just to give it to God in the first place. Right. That’s I

Kimberly Faith: think that’s what Jesus said.

John McLarty: That’s what

Kimberly Faith: He’s trying to take us there.

John McLarty: We’re learning here.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I mean, that’s what’s so beautiful. This is why the beatitudes these beatitudes of Christ are so pivotable pivotable. Again, making up words again. Pivotal in my life because they are training me to make my first reaction.

Okay, god. I’m gonna cast all this care on you because I don’t know what the issue I don’t know how to even solve this problem. And it’s funny because the the solution to the the the big disaster, it it wasn’t it was so unconventional. It was, like, not even in the bailiwick of typical man made solutions. And and what’s god has been showing me is that most of his solutions involve a lot more love and giving than I would have wanted to do.

John McLarty: Probably being merciful. Being merciful. And forgiveness.

Kimberly Faith: You know what?

John McLarty: Showing the love of God.

Kimberly Faith: It’s funny that you say that because it’s exactly right. You know, the solution wasn’t me justifying a way forward that was according to conventional wisdom, which is what most people would have done because that’s the way it’s done under the law and and logic and common sense. No. God’s way was, you know what, Kim? This is an opportunity for you.

This is an opportunity you for you to shine the light of Jesus for this person who is wronging you and to be merciful in the same measure that I had been merciful to you. You know, it’s it’s Gee.

John McLarty: That’s one of those beatitudes. Gee. You

Kimberly Faith: know? Gee wiz. I, I I think that God and and what’s crazy is that when we take stock of we’ll just use the the merciful beatitude of how much mercy. There’s no way I could repay God for all the mercy that he has given me. So why would I begrudge a, you know, several $1,000 worth of mercy to a person who had wronged me, you know, when when they weren’t expecting that, first of all.

They were expecting a fight. You know? And then be able to shine for God’s glory. If there’s ever a chance that this person was going to remember that someone loved them, someone representing God had loved them, this would be it. You know?

It’s brilliant. God is brilliant. He’s gonna he’s gonna provide. I mean, money is such a a fungible thing. We’re not gonna take any of it with us.

We we desperately think we need to hang on to it. You know?

John McLarty: That’s the opposite of the story that the servant of the rich ruler that was forgiven a debt. Right. What if instead of demanding that smaller debt be paid, he’d just said, well, not only do you not owe me the debt, I’m gonna give you I’m gonna match I’m gonna give you extra money.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I’m gonna take

John McLarty: you to lunch. You don’t owe me, but I’m taking you to lunch. And I’m gonna pay your rent for a month. Yeah. You know?

I mean, this

Kimberly Faith: is this is what we need. That would have

John McLarty: been a incredible

Kimberly Faith: ministry because it’s the opposite of what he would

John McLarty: have expected. Which is what Jesus did all his whole life. You know?

Kimberly Faith: You know, we have we have to learn to view, persecution, wrongdoing, trouble, whether it’s cancer, whether it’s, you know, you know, something that’s not another person, a person’s causing, but because we have, like you said, the world just is brooding under the weight of the sin that’s destroying it. You know, whether it’s whatever trouble, we have to retrain our brain to think about this in terms of this is another opportunity to show how great god is. And there’s nothing greater than love. There really isn’t anything. You know, I ask, I was at this at the church, I was asked to substitute teach for the 4th through 6th grade, Sunday school class.

And I didn’t have lesson prepared because I didn’t know about it till 5 minutes where I was supposed to do it. And, my cousin, Crystal, said, yes. Just go in there, and I’m sure you’ve got some lesson. Well, I was praying on the way back there because and it turns out it’s all boys. You know?

So I was like, oh, lord. What, you know, what do I what do I teach a bunch of of of preteen boys? I think they call them tweeners. And so the the the message that God gave to me was this. I asked him.

I said, what do y’all think is the greatest miracle that ever happened on the face of the earth? And, of course, you know, they gave typical tweener boy answers. Oh, you know, God explodes a mountain and and or or he, he parts the ocean or, you know, just these physical miracles. And, and I said, do y’all think it’s any trouble or any any problem for God to do any of those things? And they said they said, well, no.

He created the world. I said, doesn’t that kind of bring you back to what is the one thing God can’t force? What is the one thing that’s such a great miracle that even God can’t make it happen? They’re like, well, I didn’t think there was any. I said, think about it.

Can God force you to love him? Can God force you to surrender your heart to him? To him. And I I was like, you know, the greatest gift, the greatest miracle that we can we can be part of is bringing someone into relationship with Christ.

John McLarty: True. And the angels rejoice in heaven.

Kimberly Faith: Right. So when we start looking at suffering and pain and trouble in that context, then it’s it’s so interesting that that this is the last one because this Jesus is like is this culmination. He’s like, hey. This pain, suffering, trouble, someday it’s gonna be over. It’s gonna be like a blip on the radar.

Right? And and how you handled it for my glory and for the kingdom of heaven is what’s gonna matter. Then suddenly we get this perspective like, oh, wow. This is an opportunity. You know?

What can I do with this opportunity? God help me maximize this opportunity. Because Jesus said after this you know, he continued the sermon on the mount. And, in this last beatitude, he said in Matthew 5 14 through 16, he said, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp, put it, and put it under a basket.

But instead, put it on a lampstand, and it gives light to all

John McLarty: who are

Kimberly Faith: in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and do what? Glorify your father in heaven.

John McLarty: Just a light of mine.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Then let it shine.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And, you know, the when you think about that in the context of let’s just take the word persecution, you know, or or somebody doing you wrong or somebody ridiculing you for your faith or, you know, you having this, this you know, I I remember having a a an inordinate fear that people wouldn’t like me if I told them about Jesus. You know? If you look at in that context, Jesus, you know, Jesus is saying, hey. The greater the darkness, the greater opportunity for light.

And if your if your light that I’m that is from me is under a bushel, what’s your purpose? What’s your point? But the greater the persecution, the stronger the light is because the greater the darkness, the greater light. You know, I think about cave darkness. You’re in a cave.

It’s pitch black. One little match. Everybody can see it. Everybody can see it. Whereas if you’re out in the sunlight, you light a match up, and people may not be able to see it.

John McLarty: That’s great example.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

John McLarty: Now think of and we’re we’re not here we’re not in this place in United States. The they’re this is happening in other countries, but I’ve I’ve we’ve I think back to the the the martyrs Mhmm. The dark ages and that we know more about, because there’s books written in Fox’s Book of Martyrs. Right. Those people who were persecuted unto death and for them to not recant, but to even stand stronger for Jesus, that led to great revivals.

Kimberly Faith: It did.

John McLarty: They were a lot shining in darkness.

Kimberly Faith: Well and and you think about the greatest stories. Even the greatest stories that we enjoy watching on, you know, a movie or reading, it’s always the one person standing for good and right against the hordes of evil. Right?

John McLarty: Overcoming horrible circumstances. Right.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. When you think about the lord of the rings, you know, and and just the struggle against the the forces of darkness and how we we’re all rooting. You know? We’re rooting for the for the 3 little, harp what were they?

John McLarty: Hobbits.

Kimberly Faith: Hobbits. Yes. The hobbits to make it. Right? And and it just seems like there’s insurmountable odds, but then, you know, Gandalf comes in and and and, you know, does this great intervention here or, you know, we have these different interventions.

And I love that story because it’s it’s such a great just visual of we are winning. We’ve already won when Jesus Christ because he conquered our greatest enemy death, and we are the light of the world. We get to be light just like he was. And, you know, and and the greatest weapon that we have really is the gospel, which is love. God the gospel is love.

God is love. The gospel is, hey. You were my enemies, and I said I’m gonna die for you anyway. That’s nobody has any love like that except Jesus.

John McLarty: And offer peace, offer reconciliation. Right. Offer peace into our souls.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. And, you know, I I think I think that we we need to these beatitudes help us to reorder our brain. We reorder our loves. We reorder our thinking. We don’t we no longer expect this world’s culture to love us because we get all the love we need from God.

We don’t expect the things of this world to give us peace because our peace comes from God who has planted that in our soul. We don’t expect this world’s culture to give us satisfaction because our soul has been satisfied. And those attitudes that we develop are so powerful. They’re so powerful. We’re that tiny light maybe in a dark cave, but everybody that’s in that darkness can see it.

John McLarty: And to see our our response to troubles with joy Mhmm. And anticipating what’s God going to how is God going to use this?

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: That’s that’s a remarkable testimony to others. Right. Because they’re expecting stress, depression, oh, woe is me.

Kimberly Faith: Despair. Despair. Right.

John McLarty: And we we have the ability only through him. Mhmm. And you said it perfectly. It’s when we seek his solutions Mhmm. Instead of our own way.

Kimberly Faith: Right. We

John McLarty: can find, rest in him.

Kimberly Faith: Well, you know, he talks about, in his beatitude, he talks about, the the rewards. Right? And for greatest reward in heaven. I just wanna I just wanna say this, that I I don’t even have a clue what the reward in heaven will look like. Okay.

I mean, I don’t think I can wrap my mind around what that’s gonna look like because we really aren’t given a lot about that in the Bible. But I I can imagine that the at least in from my mind, the greatest reward, I I I think, that of being in heaven are gonna be the people that I meet, that I got to have a part in them being there. Mhmm. You know? I I can’t imagine you know?

And then, you know, I I don’t wanna imagine that there are people that are not gonna be there because I failed in my mission. I don’t wanna fail my mission. You know? I want to have the greatest impact possible. And if trouble gives us a greater opportunity, then as far as I’m concerned, bring it because I know that God can handle it.

You know, people say, God helps those who help himself. I don’t believe that. No. God helps those who let him do the work. Right.

You know? And, and other people say, god doesn’t give us more than we can bear. That’s not true either. God doesn’t give us more than he can bear because he’s god. Right?

I

John McLarty: thought about those rewards in heaven. That’s a great thought, those that we’ve we’ve led to the lord or helped to get over a a a trouble spot in their life.

Kimberly Faith: Became warriors because we helped them. Exactly.

John McLarty: Yeah. Another reward I thought of people think of rewards as these great things, but I think one

Kimberly Faith: of the

John McLarty: greatest rewards would be Jesus. Just simply coming up to us and saying, good job, thou faithful servant. Right. Yeah. As opposed to and, you know, this this could happen.

He could say, you are ashamed of me on earth. I’m ashamed of you in heaven.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. That would

John McLarty: be great. Here. You’re saved. Yeah. And I just I’m gonna make this very personal.

It’s like for for you you’re my daughter. Mhmm. And how does it make you feel when I say, Kim, I am really proud of you.

Kimberly Faith: I love it.

John McLarty: And for my mom and dad to say that to me. Yeah. And that’s tremendous. Rather than your parents saying, well, you’re still my son or daughter, but I’m disappointed in you. Mhmm.

That’s just so crushing. That’s crushing. So let’s I I think of that as the reward, but then the others that might come up to us is, I thank you for being there when I was in this tough time in life, and you lifted me up.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I’m glad you brought that up because, you know, we tend to focus on these the types of rewards we associate with here on Earth.

John McLarty: You

Kimberly Faith: know? We we think of our, you know, our reward for ourself as a vacation.

John McLarty: A gift card. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. A gift card, whatever. But the other part of that reward, you know, it it it’s really if you study the prayer of Jesus, the the model prayer, he mentions one time physical needs. Give us a say our daily bread. Right?

The rest of the prayer, 80% of the prayer or more, maybe 90%, is not about physical things. Interesting. It’s not about our health. It’s not about our wealth. It’s not about our comfort.

It’s all about the kingdom, bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth.

John McLarty: Being a part of that.

Kimberly Faith: What is that? Bringing the kingdom to heaven to earth means bringing the kingdom of heaven to the souls of people. It’s not preserving this earth for none another 1000000 years or however long it’s

John McLarty: been around. It’s all about people.

Kimberly Faith: It’s all about people. That is the kingdom of heaven. And when a each trial that we have, even, you know, even people who attack us, when we look at them through the eyes of mercy, we see them the way God sees them. And their attack doesn’t become a personal pain. It becomes part of our mission.

It becomes part of our mission to glorify God and bring them into the kingdom. It’s Jesus is is you know, I mean, he’s concerned about our comfort to some degree, but he’s not really that’s not his primary concern for us. It’s our it’s our character. It’s our mission.

John McLarty: Our mission. Are we being fishers of men?

Kimberly Faith: Right. Because if if all we’re concerned about, you know, for the for the person that is that is, you know, foots on the gas pedal racing for the for the cliff that drops off a 1000 feet into the ocean is that they’re yelling curse words at us instead of, you need to stop. You’re you’re gonna die. You know? If we’re like, well, go on ahead then.

You’re gonna curse me that way. If that’s our attitude Mhmm. Then we are we have not assimilated the attitude of mercy. We don’t understand mercy. We don’t understand love.

And and it’s such a waste. This people when people persecute us, when people have have ill will towards us, it’s their problem is not with us. We need to understand. Their problem is with God. They have not established that vertical relationship with God.

We have.

John McLarty: And our pride wants to take it so personally. So that’s a shift we we make to, have to show mercy.

Kimberly Faith: Right. We we are you know, as we’re wrapping up this beatitude series, I I I I just I really wanna encourage everyone who’s listening. Number 1, if you have never received Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, that is that is that’s so important.

John McLarty: I

Kimberly Faith: I it’s the most important event in your life. It’s more important than anything else that happens in your life because it’s going to determine your eternal life or death.

John McLarty: It’s the starting place. He he That’s right. For all of them, all of the beatitudes.

Kimberly Faith: We all fear. We all fear, physical death, but there’s a greater thing that we should fear, and that’s eternal death. You if you think about all the misery that that you’ve ever experienced and and that happening for eternity, that is the that is the worst thing that could ever happen is that you have heard the gospel and you know that Jesus Christ died for you and died for me, and he paid the penalty for our sins so we didn’t have to. And that when we surrender everything to him because we have we realized that the path we’ve chosen is is offensive to him. It separated us from him and that we don’t wanna go down that path.

That’s called repentance. And we do a 180, and we say, lord, I want you to accept your gift of salvation. I surrender my whole life to you and give you every part of my heart, and I believe that you can save me because you’re good on your word. You said you would. That’s the most important decision that we can ever make for ourselves.

And then if you’ve done that, if you’ve accepted Christ and you’ve been reconciled to him, Jesus is telling us in his beatitudes, you can develop the attitudes for life that will make you eternally victorious. Eternally.

John McLarty: Eternally and and in the present today. That’s right. Very practical, but also eternal implications.

Kimberly Faith: It’s a double blessing.

John McLarty: It is.

Kimberly Faith: All of it. These these attitudes for life are a double blessing. To be poor in spirit means completely dependent upon God. That means we’re not living in original sin, right, which Eve said I can be like God. Right?

That means we’re letting God who is higher his thoughts are higher above our thoughts. His ways are higher than our ways. Direct our life. And we basically get to just do what he says, and he knows better than we do. What a great way to live.

Right?

John McLarty: It’s a great adventure. And then Notorious.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. And then when we’re mourning our sin, we are it’s like we’re recognizing cancer for the horror it is instead of embracing it. You know, who would not want to have cancer excised from their life if it was killing them?

John McLarty: And all of it. And and let’s get it all.

Kimberly Faith: Get it all. Every cell. Yep. Right? And and when we mourn sin, meaning we recognize it’s it kills everything good in our life.

That’s a great attitude for life. When we are submitted to God, we’re meek. We’re submitted to God so that every bit of what we do is drawing from his strength, not our own. We have strength that takes us beyond what we can ever ask or imagine.

John McLarty: Tap into his strength.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. I mean, think about that. The the power that raised Jesus from the dead, the one thing that we all when no one wants to die, and the power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us when we are born again. All we gotta do

John McLarty: Tap into

Kimberly Faith: it. Tap into it. We say, lord

John McLarty: Submit to him.

Kimberly Faith: I’m putting your bit in my mouth.

John McLarty: Yep.

Kimberly Faith: You know what? You’re the you’re the you’re the writer. You just tell me where to go. You know, we hunger and thirst for righteousness, meaning we it’s our great passion. God’s word is our greatest passion, and his ways are may are our ways.

It’s his way, not our way. Always.

John McLarty: Seeking him. Seeking his word. Seeking his presence.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And seeking I think you’d mentioned seeking first seeking him first. Mhmm. And then all things are added.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: You know? When we’re in the cycle of just this awakening to God’s mercy, And, therefore, we view everything through the lens of mercy. What a what an incredible way to live.

John McLarty: God toward us and us toward others.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: And how liberating that is. It’s

Kimberly Faith: so liberating. And, and then he produces this purity in heart as we these these be these attitudes are being assimilated into our life. We begin to see him everywhere because he’s purifying our heart. We see him in the sunrise. We see him in the person that’s angry angry towards us because we see what he sees.

In other words, he’s letting us get, like, an inside view. He’s giving us his intel. He’s downloading his mind into us, the mind of Christ. And

John McLarty: And we’re saying the flesh doesn’t lead us to good places, but as we let that inner part, that born again nature lead us Right. It’s it’s what it allows us to see him. Right. His wonders and be part of his adventure.

Kimberly Faith: His adventure. And and I I I always say this. I know y’all probably get tired of hearing it, but I I love to watch God blow my mind because he does it every day. If I let him, he just totally my mind is so small compared to his. And I’m like, boy, god, you just did that.

Woah. That’s I guess, y’all would’ve said that was far out back in the day. Right? And then we become peacemakers, the most powerful peacemakers on the face of the earth. No military action can cut can even touch what we’re able to do in the power of God.

And then we are blessed because then we are we get to be the light of the world no matter what troubles come our way. We are blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed beyond what we can ask for from

John McLarty: the perspective that the greater the darkness, the greater the light our light can shine. So it’s actually an opportunity

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: To troubles Right.

Kimberly Faith: And it’s

John McLarty: in a total flip from the way the world sees it.

Kimberly Faith: Complete flip. And it’s you know, we’re we’re we’re so we’re so pleased that everybody joined us for this this series, and I would just encourage you, you know, we’ve got this series, written, in our on our website. I’m actually putting together a a tabletop book that has actually photographs of the the place where the Sermon on the Mount was given on the Sea of Galilee. And, it’ll be a nice little I did it. I’m doing this because I have it for myself, and and I realized this could be a great resource for us to have this reminder, you know, just constant reminder of these attitudes at Jesus that are just so remarkable to giving us that full satisfied abundant life that he said that he came to give us.

And when he when he said that in John chapter 10 verse 10, I have come to give you life and to give you life more abundantly. And in this podcast series, we have really been just I dad, thank you so much for joining me, and I know mom’s not here today, but she she was a blessing too.

John McLarty: Oh, it’s been great. These these bad attitudes are such building blocks that we’re studying over and over.

Kimberly Faith: Absolutely. Going back through. Yeah. And that’s why we put together some resources because I I have to go back and remind myself what God has taught me. So thank you so much.

We are so glad that you joined us for the Truth in Love podcast, and now that it’s rolling around Christmas time, I think you’re gonna love some of the podcasts we’re we’re going to do for the for December. I’m gonna keep that as surprise. So we’ll we’ll have a little announcement about that, through the email and probably do a little a little small podcast announcing that, here in the few near future. God bless you, and thank you again for joining us. Bless you.

You have been listening to the truth in love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith, and my dad, John Mack. To discover more answers to the big questions in life, visit us at gofaithstrong.com. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You rescued me.