Episode 81: The Secret To Maintaining Control In Crisis

Jacob Paul: Welcome to the truth and love podcast with your hosts Kimberly Faith and John Mack. The truth and love podcast seeks to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love.

Kimberly Faith: Well, dad, this is a holy week. They call it holy week.

John McLarty: I can’t believe it’s almost Easter. Right? 2026.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And and we are you know, we think about the birth of Christ being a celebration and fast forward to the week preceding his death. And I think that it’s so important that we understand what Jesus was facing to the extent that we can in his darkest hour, before his crucifixion. And and the reason I thought this was a good, I think the reason god prompted me actually to talk about this in this podcast was because we all face dark hours. We all face crises.

And if we can handle our crises just one one nth of the way Jesus handled the worst crises in the history of the world, then we are going to have a much better opportunity to use that crisis for God’s glory and give it purpose.

John McLarty: And this was an intense saying. It’s interesting. We just our church is going through a study on John, and we’ve just finished to this part of around John 18 where Christ is in the garden and on his way to the cross. So it is fresh in my mind and very revealing how Jesus handled the situation.

Kimberly Faith: Well, you know, I think if we can just think about the Garden Of Gethsemane, I mean, because picture the scene from John 18, two to four where the Bible says, and Judas who betrayed him also knew the place, meaning the garden, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. Then Judas having received a detachment of troops and officers from the chief priests and pharisees came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. I mean, he and and Jesus then and and let me just comment on that for a minute. You know, he knew Jesus was unarmed. He he knew that that it was just the Jesus and his 11.

And the the scripture goes on and says, Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that would come upon him Mhmm. Now this this part of the scripture is very interesting because I’m assuming what he what they’re talking about is the crucifixion, you know, and and him dying here. Yes. Went forward. In other words, he walked towards them and he said, whom are you seek are you seeking?

That’s the end of that quote.

John McLarty: Yeah. I have to read the next verse, though, Tim. Oh, yeah. Go they answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. And he said unto them, I am.

So no fear. But kind of went way over their heads. Instead of saying, Oh, that’s me. He said, I am.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And the religious people knew what that Yes.

John McLarty: That’s what the burning bush God in the burning bush said to Moses, Tell them, I am.

Kimberly Faith: I sent you.

John McLarty: So it’s a power statement. But He didn’t draw a sword. He didn’t call His disciples to fight. He just said, I am.

Kimberly Faith: And you know what’s interesting about that too is you know, we we talked about God using ordinary people to do extraordinary things and how he uses the weak to confound the mighty a couple podcasts ago. But this when they asked Jesus of Nazareth to to put it that way, Nazareth that’s an it was kind of an insult. They were they were to say Jesus of Nazareth was a nowhere. You know?

John McLarty: Yeah. Was a little

Kimberly Faith: Podunk town.

John McLarty: Thought about that as a little jab.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. It was a little And he comes back with just two words, I am. You know? And I I love that. And he so and and here’s the thing too.

I I love that the scripture tells us that he knew all things that would come upon him. He wasn’t caught off That’s

John McLarty: a great he wasn’t caught off guard. Right? Didn’t surprise him.

Kimberly Faith: It didn’t surprise him. And and, you know, in that olive grove, you know, in the under the cover of night, you know, the eternal son of god who had enjoyed perfect unbroken fellowship with the father before time began, now faced this unimaginable pain. We can’t see, the difference between Jesus experiencing this and the way we experience pain is we don’t know it’s coming. So, you know, you’d think you’d wanna know because it might prepare you. I don’t think so.

I don’t think if I knew all the pain I was going to experience in my lifetime that’s to come, I could handle it in this moment. But Jesus did, and he faced an unimaginable pain, not only bearing, the sin of every atrocity committed by every human in the past and everyone in the future, every cruelty, every betrayal. Think about the genocide. You know? Every betrayal that’s ever happened, past, present, and future will be laid upon him.

I don’t know if that was a greater weight to him than just the separation from his father. I don’t know.

John McLarty: Not to mention, he did feel the physical pain of the crucifixion.

Kimberly Faith: His body. He still had his

John McLarty: flesh. Human body.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: That’s right. Separation from God and then the sins of the world upon him.

Kimberly Faith: And and he knew all that in that moment. And yet the Bible says that he went forward. He went forward. He didn’t run. He didn’t hide.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And and what’s so interesting about this is that they came at him with you know, the bible doesn’t tell us exactly how many people were there, but, you know, they they scholars have said it could be up to five or 600 people. Yeah. Right?

John McLarty: The detachment.

Kimberly Faith: Weapons, torches. And, you know, because many times, if you read in the New Testament, the life of Jesus, you know, the people had tried to kill him, he just walked through him like and nobody could move, you know? But he doesn’t run. And and and it’s so interesting to me that despite what he was he was getting ready to face, he said, here I am. You know?

And he walks towards he walks towards the trouble, the pain. I think about second Corinthians five twenty one that says, he who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. You know, he knew no sin but was about to be made sin for us and absorbed the full wrath of holy God against every evil decision made by humanity. And I just

John McLarty: And experience the total separation

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. I mean

John McLarty: from his beloved father who, you know, the Trinity Right. Has been together

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: I mean from eternity past.

Kimberly Faith: You you think about the I mean, I just recently heard a news report about the Iranian guard taking a 16 year old girl who had been out violating rules, I guess, after dark and had been raped, they hung her body from a crane.

John McLarty: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: Awful. Jesus died for that sin.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: I can’t even imagine doing that. But here he is. He knew about that in Gethsemane, and he’s like, yeah. I’m gonna die for the sins of those people. Mhmm.

We can’t really we can’t really understand that mentality because we’re not God. And, you know, this kind of we were I was in a discussion with some people the other day who were talking about, well, I think God is this. I think God is that. I don’t think God would punish sin. I don’t think God you know?

And and and and I said, well, are you creating a God that you can understand that’s more like you? And if so, is that a god worth worshiping?

John McLarty: That’s in yeah. We mankind, human god, tends to create god in our own image. Right.

Kimberly Faith: So it’s

John McLarty: actually the reverse.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. So this is the question we’re exploring today is how can we maintain control even in our darkest hour? How to maintain control?

John McLarty: And using Jesus as the example. Jesus. This was a dark hour.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. He is the gold standard. He’s the gold standard of how we’re to live. He it’s not me. It’s not you.

He’s the gold standard of how we are to suffer. He’s the gold standard how we maintain control in suffering. And, you know, and I I’m just gonna give everybody the bottom line up front or as my son calls it, the bluff. I learned that term and I use it and it probably annoys him to death. But Jesus’ example is that true control is not about gripping tighter to our plans and avoiding pain or preserving our own comfort.

It’s about releasing our entire will into the hands of our trustworthy father.

John McLarty: So surrender.

Kimberly Faith: It’s a surrender, absolute surrender. And he you know, we have to choose surrender under over self preservation, over escape. You know? And I think as this week unfolds and Easter draws near, I think I’m using this moment to remind me that in my darkest hours, in even my the small, you know, the small moments of trouble and trial, they don’t have to destroy me. They don’t have to derail my peace.

They don’t have to take my joy. They be they become places of useful that I can use those to glorify God in ways I could not have glorified him but for that trouble. And the whole key is though it’s not going to be my will, it’s gonna be God’s will. And that’s what Jesus prayed in the garden. He said in Luke twenty twenty two forty two, he said, father, if it is your will, take this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

John McLarty: That keyword, nevertheless.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Not not

John McLarty: my will, but your he yeah. That surrender. Well and and So rather than yeah. This darkest hours, rather than gonna fight against it,

Kimberly Faith: Find a way around it.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: Squirm like a worm on the hook. Right? You you think about this prayer of Jesus, I remember when I visited Jerusalem and went into the Garden Of Gethsemane, you know, these olive trees are huge. I mean, you know, they they say they were around the time of Jesus, but and just trying to imagine him there praying because the Bible says his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Medically, this is this is called, hemadrosis where extreme emotional and psychological stress causes the tiny blood vessels around the sweat glands to rupture and mix blood with respiration.

I mean, this is literally a bodily response to the overwhelming dread of carrying our sin in enduring divine abandonment. And yet he was praying, Lord, not my father, not my will, but yours be done. So interesting because he didn’t run. He wasn’t out of control.

John McLarty: And that’s a picture of the tremendous stress he was under.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes.

John McLarty: And we think, well, we tend to think in our human reason, well, he’s God, it wasof course he was going to accomplish it. But he was fully human.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: And that’s so powerful.

Kimberly Faith: It’s so powerful.

John McLarty: And he sweat like great drops of blood. Right. So it was no minimizing that, what he went through. There’s no, you know, like, oh, well.

Kimberly Faith: I think It

John McLarty: was easy for him.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: He was God.

Kimberly Faith: And I think the fact that he prayed, you know, take this cup from me, shows his humanity. Yeah. You know? And it’s so it I don’t know about you, but it’s very encouraging to me that Jesus asked his father questions. You know?

That even though he was willing to do God’s will, he wasn’t afraid to say, do I have to go through this?

John McLarty: Mhmm. But

Kimberly Faith: I mean, I really can’t wrap my mind around that, but it’s very comforting to me because when we’re going through hard stuff, you know, it’s okay to ask our father, do I really have to go through this?

John McLarty: He’s the perfect example for us in all situations. Yes. He sets the standard.

Kimberly Faith: And it’s not he wasn’t out of control by questioning his father’s will. You know? But rather he in other words, our father is okay with us verbalizing our lament. He’s okay with us verbalizing, questioning him. But in the end, we’re going to find the greatest experience and use of our suffering by submitting to his will.

John McLarty: Yeah. And I’ll give an example. Is just the human flesh. We might go out and say we’re late for an appointment or a doctor and we go out and we have a flat tire.

Kimberly Faith: And

John McLarty: we don’t just immediately say, Oh, your will, God. We go, oh, really? This is really happening to me? Yeah. It’s just a human reaction.

Yes. And then of course we deal with it. But Jesus had this realness to it. But that you know, in a much more serious way, he was facing the cross. Father, if it’s your will, take this cup from me.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But then that immediate, nevertheless.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: It wasn’t like a five minute debate. Yeah. Like we have these longer debates in our mind.

Kimberly Faith: Well, and you think about I have a friend who has been battling a significant health issue for a long time. And there’s no doubt that this person begs God, please take this from me. Because this friend of mine is suffering. You know? And and just in walking through that sort of thing with people, I think that there there’s not any good answers.

You can’t just there’s no flippant one liners you can give a person who’s walking through like what Job went through. Right? Mhmm. But to to give them, you know, to give them Christ through your presence, through your prayers, through, you know, spending time with him, listening to them lament without without being you know, judging them. Well, maybe, you know, like Job’s friends did.

Right? I think this is an opportunity for us as well. But, again, I don’t mean to to chase that rabbit, but the bottom line is when we’re suffering, we can always look to Jesus’ suffering and say, he walked towards it, and he knew all the consequences. We don’t have to run from it either. Not that we look for trouble.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: But when when like, what maybe maybe, like, if I’ve made a mistake in my law practice and I’m dreading having to make it right. No. I if it was an honest mistake or even if it was a dishonest mistake, a dishonest thing that I did, to face it and say, you know, with repentance and and and just, God, you work your will through this. Show me how I can glorify you through this, is that is maintaining control in dark circumstances, whether they’re our own cause, whether we cause them, or whether they’re somebody else caused them. Because nothing takes God by surprise.

John McLarty: And you just kind of said it. It’s in that situation, it’s the surrendering to God.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: It’s like, well, God, let’s just go on through this.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Even though it was even if it was my mistake or just it happened. Know? Yeah. It’s come upon me.

Kimberly Faith: Let’s go

John McLarty: through it.

Kimberly Faith: And I think it’s so interesting if you read further in the book of Luke about this, when he spoke, all those people fell back.

John McLarty: They did. Yes.

Kimberly Faith: It’s almost humorous. You know, he said, I am. And everybody fell back. Just the power of his word. And I I love that because if Jesus endured a trial that none of us are gonna ever face.

Right? And he, in doing so, made available to us the power of the resurrection, which the Bible says that’s what we have. Then and he knocked down a hostile army with a single word. Right? To live in his authority, to live in this kind of authority and this kind of control in any circumstance, we have to be living in a loving obedience to him.

That puts us in that groove with him.

John McLarty: Yeah. And he could have called 10,000 angels.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. That’s what the psalm says. Yeah. So it’s it’s

John McLarty: But he yeah. He he even in that moment, he had control.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. He had control. And the thing is, it’s not we’re not this this podcast is not about self control. This is about god control. Okay.

John McLarty: Control.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. We are surrendered to the one who really is in control anyway, which is just a wise wise advice.

John McLarty: Surrendering to he who is in control.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly. Exactly. And, I mean, we often say, I’m willing to die for my faith, right? But yet we struggle every day to live for it day by day. We in the small in the micro decisions that we make, you know, whether to pay all of our taxes or try to shoot stuff under the table, whether to stop and minister, stop from our, you know, our our our rigid schedule and minister to somebody who appears on our radar.

All these micro decisions are evidences of whether we are truly living for our faith day by day. If we’re not living for our faith day by day, we won’t die for it. When the crisis comes, we will not be willing to die for it because we don’t even know how to live for it. And I think this is where I think this is where this this podcast and and and this when I was studying this, this was so good for me because if we are willing to compromise living for our faith and when when we don’t have any trouble, then when the real crisis comes, we’re we’re not gonna comp we’re gonna compromise. We’re not gonna surrender.

We’re gonna compromise. If we’re not willing to surrender when it’s easy, we’re not gonna surrender when it’s hard.

John McLarty: It’s almost like habits. You develop habits, and then the more you keep a habit up, it becomes your go to.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Spiritual habits.

John McLarty: Right. Spiritual habits.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. For sure. And I think that that doesn’t come learning to live for our faith and surrender in our in our life, everyday life is it it goes back to those first of all, we have to be born again. This is not something that’s an outward transformation. It’s an inward inward regeneration.

And when we’re born again, our soul and spirit have the ability now to surrender our make our flesh behave.

John McLarty: Right. To our born again soul, Christ within us.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And then we have the ability to have the attitudes in the mind of Christ. So but that’s that requires us to commit every corner of our life, every closet, every decision, every thought. You know, sometimes it’s it’s things that are really uncomfortable for us, but God isn’t about his his goal for our life is not our physical comfort.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: It’s really not. It’s doing eternal things. We get to do hard things. We get to do hard things. And and that is such an opportunity.

And it’s it’s like, why would you it’s kinda like if you were you know, if you knew somebody who owned a a horse that held the right bloodlines and could win the the triple crown. And all they did was, well, I’m I’m I don’t I want them to be comfortable. Let’s keep them in the stable. Let’s not ever take them out and work them out hard. What a travesty.

But we are that racehorse. We are destined every person created in God’s image is destined for great supernatural glory.

John McLarty: We’re all ambassadors for Christ.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: Which means our king is the king of kings. Yes. And we have a job to do. Yes. And it’s an exciting job.

It’s not a miserable job.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Well, we have the power to step toward the enemy and watch them fall back. We have the power in us, the resurrection power, to live like Jesus did. He said that we’re supposed to live like he is. Take up your cross and follow me.

Right? Go ahead, dad.

John McLarty: And share the gospel,

Kimberly Faith: which

John McLarty: is the power of God into salvation.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And it’s

John McLarty: such as And see that greatest miracle, a soul be saved.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And I think about just how does this translate in everyday life? We give some examples. But let’s just take your job. You know?

You’ve got you’ve got chronic work burnout. Right? You’re facing maybe your job insecurity. Maybe you’re a government employee, and and you’ve got all these you know, you’ve got congress not approving a budget and, you know, all this back and forth. These these things cause us anxiety, exhaustion, resentment, you know, and we have to we have to think, okay.

Wait a minute. Lord, this is your job. This isn’t my job. This is your job. And if this is where you want me, then you’re going to need to give me the, the mind of your mind and your attitudes about how to handle the pressure.

And, you know, I think God just delights to answer that prayer. And don’t you?

John McLarty: Yeah. I just really wanna emphasize that these are, you know, nothing compares to what Jesus faced on the cross.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But this work insecurity. I mean, I know people that have federal jobs and literally went through several months, almost every day, getting an email to show up here or not show up. Or they have a job and then they don’t have one. And this person I know, it was very, very stressful. I’ll just tell this one little story.

She not only was a federal employee, she had eighteen years. She needed two more years to get all these retirements. So it wasn’t just like losing a normal job. This was her whole retirement package, kind of just being

Kimberly Faith: On the line.

John McLarty: And so, yeah, to give things like that to the Lord. We can just read it in a statement. But I just want to emphasize with our listeners out there, it’s real stuff.

Kimberly Faith: It is real stuff. God has a real remedy.

John McLarty: Yeah, He has a real remedy. Not like going out and your tire’s flat. You’re gonna be late for work.

Kimberly Faith: Right. Well, and there’s also, right now, a lot of people living paycheck to paycheck because there’s just a lot of residual post pandemic economic crisis still.

John McLarty: Mental strike.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And, you know, some people are still not able to cover the basics about dipping into savings or borrowing money. And, you know, there’s a real anxiety about where how are we gonna make it? And, you know, again, it comes back to this question, is Jesus Lord over our finances? Because if he is, the Bible says God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

And I think well and I’ll just give an example. During the pandemic, I mean, it was hard. Our our law practice was it was like month to month. And I I had to over and over and over again just give it to the Lord and say, this is your law practice. If you’ve been shut the doors, then you need to just show me that.

And he just, you know, kept providing. It wasn’t we didn’t and we tightened our belt a bit, you know, but God was it was a struggle for me to make him lord over the law But then when he brought us through, now I’m you know, the struggle is, okay. So now we have this time of plenty. Now the struggle is not taking it back. Right.

You know? Because and and God is so good to also to remind me that he is Lord. Like, it it this is gonna sound really like a a real admission, but it’s just really being transparent. The other day, one of my staff has asked the Lord to bless a particular area of our law practice. And she has you know, she’s told me, I pray that God will bring us this kind of business because it’s a really foundational financial part of our business.

And I kid you not, it has been unbelievable how God has answered her prayer. I don’t know why I think it’s unbelievable, but it’s just been it’s been a miracle in my book. And so the other day we had five of these particular types of cases come in within three days, which is unheard of, which is almost our whole monthly budget, just to give you some perspective. And after I finished with the last client, it I have I have been praying, Lord, help me to be thankful. Because you said something in an earlier podcast that really has resonated with me, and that thankfulness is the key to everything else in our life.

And I’m paraphrasing. But every our relationship to God

John McLarty: perspective. Yes.

Kimberly Faith: Mhmm. And I so I’ve been praying, Lord, help me to be thankful that you are answering my staff person’s prayers. And every time you see I see that you you do that, I need to be thankful. And, you know, God’s just so good. And I stood there after the client left, I was like I just had this sense of overwhelming gratefulness.

And I knew even that was from God. This is how this is how, you know, how much of a of a deficit we run-in, you know, in our flesh. I was like, thank you, God. Continue to perpetuate this thankfulness in me because I am not in control of this law practice. You are in control of it.

This is your law practice. And I wasn’t in a crisis and having to give control. I was in a non crisis having to give control.

John McLarty: So

Kimberly Faith: that training though, I want that training to be able to then be ready for the crisis, the next crisis.

John McLarty: Yeah, and that’s interesting because there’s thankfulness when the crisis is resolved, but then you walk that back. And another great challenge is to find that peace with God that surrender when you’re in a crisis and you don’t know what the solution is going to be.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. Yeah.

John McLarty: But you’re just having to, you don’t know the answer.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But you’re in a situation that needs an answer. Yes. A family drama or work crust, just Right. And you just say, Lord, I don’t know the answer right now. Yeah.

But I’m going to trust you that we’re going to get there.

Kimberly Faith: Well, that’s a great tie in to I’ve mentioned my friend earlier who has just this chronic illness. And it’s just like she’s crying out to the Lord, what is the answer? Why can’t you make me well? Her health continues to spiral down. And, you know, to the point that she can’t even stand up for more than fifteen minutes, you know?

And it’s like, you know, knowing how to come alongside her is so challenging. Right. Because, you know, it there’s no words. There’s no words. There’s just prayer, which is I don’t know why I act like prayer is my last resort when it should be my first response.

Right? I think I try to solve things before I give them to the Lord.

John McLarty: Yeah. And it’s hard to just tell a person like that, oh, just trust in the Lord. That’s You’re not in their shoes.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Yes. We

John McLarty: wanna That’s a solution. But we just can’t minimize people that are in that kind of situation.

Kimberly Faith: You can’t minimize it.

John McLarty: Yeah, can’t minimize it.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. And coming alongside, and you know, we talked about what is love in our last podcast. Mhmm. And love says, I’m here for you. You’re right.

But then it demonstrates, let’s get together. Let me let me come along beside you, pray with you, listen to you, lament with you, you know, give your give me I will give you my time. And, you know, again, I I I know this is this is part of us relinquishing control because there’s only one answer to these everyday crisis. There’s only one answer that we can give that is the right answer, and is it and it is is Jesus my lord? That is the one answer to living in God’s divine power.

Have we surrendered every area of our life to him? Because when we do, then everything belongs to him. Every trouble belongs to him. Every trial belongs to him, And there’s no more capable hands than his.

John McLarty: I’m just thinking, we can’t make someone surrender like that. But I’m just thinking, a lot of these podcasts are just coming to my mind that you’ve done, where we’ve heard of a story where their son died unexpectedly. And there’s no words that we could have given them. But they give it to God.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: And their example, that’s an inspiration to us and to others.

Kimberly Faith: That’s right.

John McLarty: So just hearing that story, oh, someone else was in a similar situation.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And

John McLarty: they found the peace of God Yeah. And an unimaginable tragedy.

Kimberly Faith: Well, again, I’m just so grateful for the example of Jesus and that we have so much of his life

John McLarty: to And talking look to him being the perfect example.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. Because when we really contemplate, as much as our little minds can can understand about what he was facing, because really we can’t wrap our minds around it, it gives me anyway such great hope that nothing that I face is even close to that. And if God the father could handle Jesus’ crisis, he could handle mine.

John McLarty: Amen.

Kimberly Faith: There’s nothing that God cannot do. And I love the words in first John four four. Says, you are of God, little children, and have overcome them because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. There’s nothing in this world that God can’t handle. There’s no crisis that he can’t handle.

The thing that we have to remember is he doesn’t handle things like we do. You know? Mhmm. We have to have his perspective, more and more his perspective, and less and less our own perspective.

John McLarty: It right there.

Kimberly Faith: And that is and that is comes from from drawing close to him. It comes from studying his word, not just reading the bible story, which is good to do, but asking him to show us why does this matter to me? How does this apply to me? How can I know you better? You know, when we talked about love in the last in the last podcast and and what it is, if when when I started pursuing God with the same passion I had reserved for pursuing every other thing in my life that I loved, the results were exponentially more satisfying because only God is the well that satisfies every desire of our heart.

And he gives us the desires of our heart when our heart desires him because that’s what our soul needs. And I’m you know, I’m I know I’m going off script here, you know, when it comes to what the point of this this podcast, but it’s so true. It’s so true to experience God in control of every aspect of our life. Like the song, Jesus take the wheel. Right?

Right. We have to stop grabbing the wheel. We have to stop wrestling to get in the driver’s seat. We have to know that we’re never gonna have freedom, the freedom from control really, and all of the terrible things it brings, unless we say your will, not my will, father, but yours be done like Jesus.

John McLarty: And I love that verse you just read. It’s first John four four. It reminds me of the story of a movie we watched, Brian Burdlesworth, which the title of the movie was greater. Because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. And this young man was a up and coming football player.

He’d just been drafted by the NFL. He’s a Razorback player.

Kimberly Faith: It’s a

John McLarty: great movie.

Kimberly Faith: Great

John McLarty: movie. But it was why did this happen? He was killed in a car wreck Right. On his way back home to see his mom and dad.

Kimberly Faith: Right after he got drafted.

John McLarty: Right before he went off

Kimberly Faith: to Right.

John McLarty: The NFL. And there was no answer

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: Except that God is greater. But then it turns out his testimony. They still celebrate Brian Burlesworth at Rays and Rec football games.

Kimberly Faith: I did not know that.

John McLarty: And they have all these kids that are would never have an opportunity to come to a football game. And they come, and it’s called Burrell’s Kids. I love that. And so there’s a ministry there. And just the whole town is impacted and just their faith.

So God is greater. But it was an unimaginable tragedy.

Kimberly Faith: You know, I remember watching that movie and thinking you know, it’s such a Cinderella story, first of all. Mhmm. You know? He was a walk on.

John McLarty: Walk on.

Kimberly Faith: And Yep. Nobody thought he was good enough. He he worked so hard. And he ended up just being a phenomenal player, like he said, getting drafted. And just in the in the world’s culture, all you can say is that’s a waste.

When all you have is a humanistic view of of the world, that picture, it just says waste. What a waste. Right? No purpose was served through all of his struggle. But when you have the god’s perspective

John McLarty: God’s perspective.

Kimberly Faith: Man, that just opens up the dimension of of the the none of them were the spiritual warfare and how so many lives were impacted by his death Right. Because of his faith in God. And, you know, I always think of I always think of the prophet Elijah and his servant when the Syrian army had surrounded him. Say this all time because it’s such a great story. How Elijah’s servant could not see the protection

John McLarty: The army

Kimberly Faith: The army of of angels, the chariots of fire surrounding him. But Elijah was walking so close to God. It was very nonchalant. Lord, show him what’s really going on. You know?

Don’t you want to live knowing what’s really going on? Man, that’s such a great gift. And it’s not like it’s God trying to hide the ball from us. It’s our choice to sin and to doubt and just try to stay in control that really keeps us from seeing the real picture, the reality of of that that every person who does not know Jesus Christ as lord and savior is driving towards the cliff. Mhmm.

And over the cliff is eternal separation from God. And if in the midst of our darkest hours, we could grasp that thought like Jesus did. Right. That’s what Jesus was thinking about. He was thinking, I don’t wanna do this, Lord, but not your will, but not my will, but your might yours be done.

John McLarty: And there’s a greater purpose.

Kimberly Faith: There’s a greater purpose. Yeah. And it was and if we could live our life that we are given the gift of a greater purpose that is so far beyond our comfort. Our comfort on this world in this world is so temporary. We don’t even remember our last vacation.

We don’t even think about our last great sleep. But for eternity, we’re going to get to experience the greater if we can learn how to have God’s perspective, how to say, Jesus is my Lord. God, you are my father. I trust you in this situation. I’m gonna step forward towards the enemy because I know you’ve got me.

John McLarty: Amen. And, you know, every podcast we give is a challenge to us, Kim.

Kimberly Faith: Absolutely. Absolutely. Again, this I this was actually this podcast was inspired by a sermon I heard when I went to visit my son in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and he was it was his his minister. And and I was just blown away by this idea that Jesus stepped forward towards the enemy, and he was in complete control in the in the worst crisis in eternity for, you know, for in the whole history of of the whatever time, and God’s outside of time. But I thought that’s who I want that’s how I wanna live.

And it’s a challenge, but it’s not a challenge that God can’t handle. I like to say, God never gives us more than he can handle.

John McLarty: Amen.

Kimberly Faith: You know? Anyway, I hope that you all have enjoyed this, and I I certainly have enjoyed talking with you about it, dad.

John McLarty: I’ve enjoyed it too, Kim. Always have. Challenging conversations. And fun.

Kimberly Faith: If today’s episode stirred your heart, we want to invite you to go even deeper. At gofaithstrong.com, you’ll find a growing library of faith based resources designed to encourage, equip, and strengthen your walk with God every single day. Whether you’re searching for meaningful devotionals, real life testimonies, Christ centered blog posts, or soul stirring music, it’s all there, created to meet you where you are and lead you closer to where God is calling you to be. We believe that walking in faith doesn’t just happen on Sundays. It’s a daily pursuit.

That’s why everything we do at Go Faith Strong is focused on helping you live boldly for Jesus Christ. Our podcast is just one piece of the journey. There’s so much more waiting for you. Resources to inspire your prayer life, deepen your understanding of the scripture, and help you share the gospel with others. So visit us at gofaithstrong.com and explore, read, listen, worship, and be encouraged.

Your life matters. Visit us at gofaithstrong.com.