Trusting in Worldly Strength: King Saul’s Downfall

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Welcome back to Diary of a Black Woman podcast, and I'm your host,

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Connie Morris, and today we're diving into another powerful topic in our series,

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the games we play with God.

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This episode is titled, Trusting in Worldly Strength.

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It's so easy to rely on our abilities, resources, or connections when challenges

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arise, but But trusting in worldly strength instead of God's power often leads to disappointment,

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frustration, and missed opportunities and missed blessings.

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Today we're going to look at the story of King Saul, who repeatedly trusted

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in his own understanding and worldly strategies instead of God's commands.

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If you've ever been tempted to take matters into your own hands,

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this episode will speak directly to you.

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So let's talk about this one. Our story today starts from 1 Samuel 15, verses 1 through 23.

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And for the sake of time, I won't read all the scriptures, so I'll give you a summation.

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You know, so Saul was given a clear command from God through the prophet Samuel

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was to eradicate the Amalekites, leaving nothing behind.

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But Saul disobeyed, sparing the king and keeping the best of the livestock.

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And so let's see in 1 Samuel 15, 19, it reads, but Samuel said,

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why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the sight of the Lord?

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So here, Saul was given a clear command from God through Samuel to kill everybody,

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including the livestock.

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But Saul, the king, took it upon his own to decide to spare the best of the

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livestock and to keep the king.

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So Saul's justification of his

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actions by saying he intended to use the livestock as a sacrifice to God.

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But Samuel responded with a powerful truth.

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So many times this is another form of disobedience, right?

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God gives you a command and you find 101 reasons.

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They probably are the best reasons that you could think of why you didn't follow

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through on what he asked you to do. but this is what.

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Was said by Samuel, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

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So Saul thought it was cool just to say, I was going to sacrifice this to the Lord.

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Ooh, how many times you heard that one? I was going to sacrifice this to the Lord.

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I'm playing the lottery because I'm going to give some of this money to the

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church, And then when they win, you can't even find them. I don't think they even found the church.

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You know, so, yeah.

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So Saul's decision to rely on worldly wisdom, which is easy to find,

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that seems logical at the moment, led to his rejection as king.

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So he was king. He was asked by God through the prophet to do one thing.

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So can you just do that one thing?

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And God knows the heart of man, so he knew Saul wasn't going to obey.

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But can you do that one thing?

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And Saul could not do that one thing.

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And then he used worldly wisdom and gave himself a quote to say,

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so Saul decided not to do it.

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So he trusted in worldly wisdom and often led to disobedience and spiritual

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consequences. Remember, when we disobey God, there are consequences.

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Sometimes we think there's not, but there are consequences.

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So are there areas in your life

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where you are relying on your own strength instead of trusting in God?

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Lionel, I'll just say it's trusting in God. Why do we trust in worldly strength?

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For many of us, it's about control.

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We feel safer when we can see, touch, or manipulate the outcome.

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But the mindset often reveals a lack of trust in God's sovereignty.

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Wow. So why do we trust in the worldly strength?

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Because we can see it, we can feel it, and we can probably try to manipulate the outcome.

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And Psalms 20 verse 7 says it best.

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It says, some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

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Worldly strength might look impressive, but it's not compared to the power of God.

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So let's go back to Saul.

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Saul had one thing to do. So I decided to use his own wisdom.

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His wisdom was like, you know, why kill everybody? Why even kill the king?

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Let's keep the best. Let's keep the king.

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And we're going to save this good lifestyle. We're going to sacrifice it to

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the Lord. So we make it sound really holy, like it's really powerful.

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But did God ask you to do that thing?

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And so we have to wonder, like, is it our idea or is it God's idea?

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What did he tell you to do?

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What did he tell you to do? So worldly strength might look impressive,

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but it's not compared to the power of God.

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So let's see how we can fix this up, right? So what are the consequences?

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We're always talking about the consequences of trusting in worldly strength.

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So our reliance on its own wisdom have far-reaching consequences.

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You know, yeah, it sounds like really good at the time.

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Your worldly wisdom sounds good at the time. But what are the consequences when

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you use worldly wisdom over God's wisdom?

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Number one, loss of God's favor.

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Saul's disobedience caused God to reject him as king, a position that was meant

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to be blessed and sustained by divine favor. How powerful is that?

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Number two, spiritual blindness. When we trust in worldly strength,

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we often fail to see how God is working in the situation.

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And number three, miss blessings. Saul actions forfeited the opportunity for

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his lineage to continue on the throne, a blessing that could have been his.

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I just want to slow this down a bit.

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Saul had the full instruction. Sure.

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Now, we talk about delayed disobedience is disobedience. What about partial obedience?

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Partial obedience is still disobedience. And so we see here that when Saul had

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partial disobedience, it's just like he didn't obey the rule.

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Kill everybody, kill everything, and he kills only what he thought was appropriate.

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So he lost favor with God. And so he was rejected from God. We don't want that, do we?

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Spiritual blindness. And so when we have spiritual blindness,

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we trust in worldly strength, worldly power, even worldly leaders.

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And we often fail to see God working.

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What was God's plan behind the scene?

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We won't know if we're thinking about our way.

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And then Miss Blessing. Saul missed opportunity for his lineage to continue

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on the throne, so he missed a blessing.

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Jeremiah 17, 5 says the best. It says, Cursed is the one who trusts in man,

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who draws strength from mere flesh, whose heart turns away from God.

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Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh,

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whose hearts turn away from God.

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So trust is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh,

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whose hearts turn away from God.

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Trusting in man and trusting in your own flesh.

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When we place our trust in the world instead of God, we cut ourselves off from

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the blessings he wants to pour into our lives.

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So how do we turn this around? How do we break this habit of trusting in worldly strength?

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God keeps calling it a habit, right? He calls it the games we play,

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but then he calls it a habit.

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How do we break this habit? Number one, we acknowledge our limitation.

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Recognize that your strength is limited, but God's power is limitless.

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Recognize that your strength is limited, but God's power is limitless.

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So when we trust in the world's power, we limit ourselves to what the world knows.

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And according to 1 Corinthians 12, God says, my grace is sufficient for you,

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for my power is made perfect in your weakness.

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So you limit yourself when you trust in the world's way.

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But God's power is limitless. Number two, seek God's guidance first.

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Before making decisions, pray and seek God's wisdom through his word.

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Proverbs 3, 6 reads, In all your ways, submit to him, and he will make your path straight.

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So seek his guidance first. And finally, number three, celebrate God's faithfulness.

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Look back on times when God came through for you, even when you couldn't see a way forward.

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The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusts in him and he helps me.

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Psalms 28.7. So how do you break free from the habit of trusting in worldly wisdom?

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Acknowledge your limitations.

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Seek God's guidance first and celebrate God's faithfulness.

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And so, for instance, for Saul and then for us too, God asks you to do a hard thing.

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Lord, do this? All this? You sure?

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We're not negotiating with him. We're like, just confirming.

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You go do it, right? So he's going to say yes, yes, and yes.

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You go do it. And so you acknowledge, this is a lot.

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I just want to make sure that you want, I want to make sure I get this right.

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You want me to kill everybody here. Okay, got it.

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All right. And last time I did this, then you gave me this. I'm looking forward

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to see what you have for me when I do this, right?

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And so I'm being able to know that through the prophet, Saul was supposed to do one thing.

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But in his own worldly wisdom, he did his own thing.

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So we have to be careful of that, that we don't do our own thing because we

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want to, like, I don't know.

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Are we trying to impress God? Are we just trying to be God?

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Or we want to kind of control the outcome? I don't know.

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But long story short, the guy who he kept showed up again, part of that family

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generation, showed up again in the book of,

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man, I can't think of it right now. the book of Esther.

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Yeah, the book of Esther. And so we don't, God knows the future,

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so we don't take care of things.

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He's trying to get rid of the root of the problem, and we just don't understand his whole story.

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Maybe because he's not telling us, or we don't ask, or we just want to do our

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own thing, that we keep kind of some junk keep going, growing,

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and growing, and growing.

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You way in our families, too. You know, I won't go into all that,

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but God might be telling you to do something even in your families,

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but you only do it halfway, and yet that root grows up out of a grandchild,

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and then you don't do what he tells you to do,

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and you keep seeing that same root grow up.

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So just acknowledge your limitations.

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Seek God's guidance. He's trying to clean up your family, too.

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You know, he's trying to clean up you and everything. Just be obedient.

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Be obedient. So how do we just trust in his strength? Let's declare these.

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I decree that I will trust in the name of the Lord, not in worldly strength or wisdom.

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I want to just confirm that you heard me. I decree that I will trust in the

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name of the Lord, not in worldly strength or worldly wisdom.

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I decree that I will seek God's guidance in every decision, knowing his plans are perfect.

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I decree that God's strength in my source of power and his wisdom is my guide.

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So we're just trusting in God. We're trusting in his wisdom.

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We're trusting in his guidance. We're trusting in his plans.

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We're trusting in his power, and we're just trusting him wholeheartedly.

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So how can we kind of develop this strength and trust in God.

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So I want you to, this week or today or tomorrow, rely, how to,

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this week, reflect on where you've been relying on worldly strength instead of trusting God.

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That's easy to do, right? So you can take a paper, draw a line.

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You can put trust in God, trust in wisdom.

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And you can just put, make a list.

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And then see where you need to continue your decree and to build up your faith.

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What steps can you take to release control and let God guide you?

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Those are some questions you can ask yourself.

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What steps can I take to release control and let God guide me?

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And then how can I lean into God's promises and rely on his power?

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How can I lean on his promises, into his promise, rely on his power?

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Another one you can ask, how can I acknowledge my limitations in these decisions?

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How can I accept God's guidance first?

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And how can I celebrate God's faithfulness? I remember I had a job and I was

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working as a CPS worker. And those cases can get really hard sometimes.

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And I remember trying to make these decisions, you know, what to do with what.

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You have supervisors, but, you know, you want to try to make the right decision at the right time.

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And so, and the Lord was saying, like, bring each one of these cases to me so

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that I can help you make the decision, you know.

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And I would just, it'd be a chance where I would just list the names and I'll

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go before the Lord and I'll say,

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Lord, what about this one? And then he'll give me a little background.

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I'll make a decision. Then I'll give another case. And it was just like he was

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kind of the supervisor of the cases.

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I didn't have to carry that burden on trying to determine what's the best outcome

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because that's that worldly wisdom, right?

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We don't know the end of the story, but God does.

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And each one of those cases turned out the way he wanted them to,

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or how they were going to be.

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Let this person do, she's going to do this.

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He just had the whole story. And I love that.

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And even in a recent job I had the same thing. I just took those cases to them.

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So those examples are like, instead of you using your worldly wisdom at your

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job, take your issue, your problem, your circumstances, is take them to God

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and ask him, how should I handle this problem?

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How do you want me to handle this situation?

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And before I resigned from this other job that had a lot of pressure,

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I think a lot of control, a lot of manipulation.

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I saw it on the 30th day, and I continue to see it on the 60th day.

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And I was like, Lord, what is going on? I loved it the 30th day.

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I said, okay, I can handle some of this. It really got really pressing on the 60th day.

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And I said, okay, I don't think this is the job for me because of the things

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that God was showing me, like exposing to me.

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Because when you take things to the Lord, your worldly wisdom will think,

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okay, this too should pass.

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And you're not, if nothing's happening, you're just like, okay,

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this ain't working for me, but you don't know why.

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But if you take it to God, he will

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say, this is what's going on behind the scenes. and then he can help you.

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And so we talked about Saul, and we see that Saul had a word from the Lord, but he disobeyed it.

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And so we may have a word from the Lord about working at this particular job,

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but yet things are happening kind of crazy, getting chaotic.

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Go to the Lord. Don't use worldly wisdom.

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Go to the Lord and ask him, what do you, like Saul to Paul, what would you have me to do with this?

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And make it your day. Like you're going, a lot of times we have to meet with

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our supervisors. Go to the Lord first.

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And then when you meet with your supervisor, you already have a plan.

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They've like, kind of you, you have a great control of your cases.

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Why? Because I didn't get it from worldly wisdom. I got it from the Lord.

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Amen. So I want to let you go and close out in prayer. But just a little bit

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of wisdom here. Go to God with everything.

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Go to him for everything, with everything.

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Heavenly Father, I thank you for being our strength and our shield.

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Making that you are available to us to answer our questions,

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to manage our caseload, to give us your wisdom and your knowledge on stuff that

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we don't even know, Lord God.

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We ask for forgiveness for the times we trusted in worldly wisdom and our own

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ability instead of relying on you.

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Teach us to surrender control and lean wholly on your power and promises.

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Strengthen our faith and guide us every step we take. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Well, I thank you also for this opportunity just to be able to flow with you.

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It's just been fun. It's just been fun.

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All right. So thank you for joining me for this episode on the games we play with God.

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If this is the message that challenge or encourage you, share with a friend

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and subscribe so you don't miss the next episode where we will discuss game number 10.

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The game of half-hearted obedience. Until next time, stay trusting,

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stay surrendered, and be blessed.