He has been faithful before, and He will be faithful again.

Well, today, we’re bringing you a very short therapy in theology.
And the reason it’s short is we intentionally wanna give you something.
To hold on to when you are facing situations, you just think, I don’t know if I’m gonna make it.
Like, this is hard. In therapy and theology, we talk a lot about hard situations, hard relational dynamics, hard life dynamics, and, you know, some times, we may just hit a day where you need something to return to where three people who cared deeply about you shares just a negative wisdom of what we do when we hit those spots.
We think we’re just not gonna make it because we want you to know you are gonna make it.
So, of course, I’m here with doctor Joel Munamalay and licensed professional counselor, Jim Crest.
Mhmm.
So who wants to go first? On those days, you think, I’m not gonna make it.
Let’s just give our listeners a gift. You are gonna make it, and here’s why.
Um, you’re not alone, you know, you’re not alone, and you’re part of a story, and that story is the story of god’s people.
And there’s a long history of people that have felt the exact same way that you’re feeling.
I felt it on the both of you guys have felt it.
And there’s one scripture reference that I go back to often.
This is, uh, at the epicenter of the people of Israel’s just torment and torture in in Egypt under the Prussian, Apharaoh, and I think they felt like that.
Like, I’m not gonna make it out. This is horrific.
This is what, uh, Moses tells us that in Exodus two or three verse seven, It says, and the Lord said, I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and I’ve heard them crying out because of their oppressors.
I know about their sufferings, and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptian.
So those three descriptive words, the god sees, the god hears, and that he knows, and that those three realities let us know that he is a god who acts as well.
Um, and so we can know that’s true about god.
I love that, Joel, because I think it’s so comforting for us to know that god is not just omniscient, omnipotent, but he’s personal.
Right.
And when he he looks at people, he doesn’t just see a crowd.
He really not only sees, but hears and cares deeply for the individual hearts.
So mine will dovetail, right, off of that because I think it’s crucial on this macro level to understand those principles of how big god is and how intimate god is at the same time.
I wanna go to Mark chapter fourteen.
You know, I go here often because when I was in some of the lowest moments of my life laying in my bed, weeping, um, taking my arm and, and, you know, just out of habit, putting my hand across and realizing there’s no one else in my bed.
And, you know, I used to feel so safe.
Bed time used to be my most favorite time to go, um, just lay in my bed, and it was just like the day was up, and this was my safe little cocoon, and, and, you know, I had a person, my person there beside me.
And so it was a massive adjustment for me to get used to the dark, for me to get used to the silence, for me to get used to feeling afraid for me to get used to, you know, just coming home, and and they’re not being anybody there, you know.
And so they’re that there were that was a lot.
So I just wanted to know, just Jesus get it because if if I know that Jesus gets it, the depth of this pain, then be able to trust his his advice.
I’ll be able to trust his teaching on a different level.
It’s hard to trust somebody’s teaching when you’re not sure if they really have ever experienced the depth of the hurt and the pain that you have.
And so in March chapter fourteen, bright before Jesus goes to the cross, he’s in the Garden of Yosemite, and he says that his soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.
Here’s what’s so fascinating to me. This is Jesus, you know.
And and I used to think if I only knew why this was happening to me that it would ease the ache of my sorrow.
And yet here’s Jesus who had access to all answers. I mean, he was full divinity and absolute humanity.
He was very much sinless, but absolutely sinned against. And he had access to all answers.
And yet, He was overwhelmed with SARS to the point of death.
So it made me realize even if I had the answers as to why this happening, how long was it gonna go on, all of those questions, those answers wouldn’t comfort me because I would still sit in the source of my sorrow because sorrow isn’t comforted by the answers.
You might not even like the answers that you were given, even if you could get them.
And then Jesus goes on to say, God, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me.
And that was also mind blowing to me because I very much know what it’s like to say the first part of Jesus’ statement.
My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow. I just think that this might absolutely kill me. I’m not gonna make it.
Right? And then to kind of feel like a little angst, god everything is possible for you.
In other words, god, you could fix this, so why aren’t you? You could change this.
I don’t want this to be my story.
And so knowing that Jesus experience the depth of my pain made me realize that I could trust what he taught next.
And there’s just this little simple saying as he concludes this time of deep sorrow and crying out to god where he says, yet, not what I will, but what you will.
In other words, Jesus trades his will for thy will because he’s so confident God will.
Now that may seem like a big biblical answer, but here’s what it really did to me as I was laying in my bed weeping, thinking I’m not gonna make it.
It made me realize that not only does god see me and care about me and is intimately interested in my life.
But it also made me realize this is one of the reasons that Jesus came.
Because he cared about moments like this.
He came and walked the brutal realities of this earth Not just to make atonement for my sin, like we learn in Hebrew, but also to be a merciful and faithful high priest.
So that he could feel what I feel and he could model what to do.
And so we look at the life of Jesus and his teaching, we must always filter the reality that he knows the depth of human angst and pain and betrayal and all of those emotions.
And so it’s from that place that he taught what he taught.
I love, uh, I mean, what a biblical theology, and we didn’t practice this beforehand.
It’s like, hey, I’m gonna do this and you’re gonna do that. And I just love, like, the excess passage.
You see, see, heard. He observes. And he says, I’m gonna come down.
And what you just said is the fulfillment of he came down. He did come down.
In the person of Jesus. Mhmm. Brilliant.
I’d like to add if I may.
Um, as brother Joel has said so well, we didn’t rehearse and practice this or script this on the teleprompter.
I use a lot of music and you know that, um, in my work and, uh, just to a resource.
We’ve used it. I remember at a book launch, we used it, but Hillary Scott singing, uh, thy will be done.
I play that so many times and to use the the language of the song.
Lord, I know you’re good, but it don’t feel good right now.
Right now,
And that’s just that honesty to come to god with your red dot.
The red dots says you are here and to say, and then thy will be done. The song lyric, right?
But I can go there, and I don’t that will be done.
Uh, I can go and say, I feel like a mess and lord, I don’t know, and let this cut pass might have some angst or anger or other emotions but, uh, just being real when I come and say, okay, you know, thy will be done.
That’s so profound, Jim, that you had mentioned that because that song, and this, this whole understanding of Jesus hurting like we hurt and being in the garden exchanging his will for god’s will so that, um, he was so confident that god would do so thy will be done.
The song and that teaching is the very reason no matter how you feel about tattoos.
Please don’t send me ugly letters about tattoos. Oh. We can cover that on another therapy and theology. Right?
But my girls and I, and I’ll just show it to you.
My girls and I went and got this tattoo all in the same place on our arm, and it’s written in ancient aramaic.
At least I don’t know ancient aramaics. I really hope that it really says what it says.
I hope it doesn’t say like. I like chicken sour, you know, sweet and sour chicken or something.
And then
you’re getting up to you, it means.
Yeah. Yes. Supposedly according to the monk that wrote it on a piece of leather that we then had it tattooed our arms, it says thy will be done.
And you’re
doing a good job with the Arabic.
You’re reading from the right to left, not the the left to the right. It’s a great job.
Thank you.
That proves it’s accurate right there.
Thank you. Thank you. Well, and the reason it was so important for me to have it
—
Mhmm. — we me all the time is because I wanted to look at it.
I wanted to remind myself because healing and hurting both happen on a very daily basis.
So, Jim, what would you say is your go to? I love that you love music.
Um, is there anything else on those days you feel like, uh, I’m not gonna make it.
And what you could share that transferable wisdom to them.
Oh, yeah. Um, these, you both know and one, you know, I use a lot.
I’m gonna start with Niamaya, and then I’m gonna go to the words of Saint Paul.
Um, I I love in Niamaya, at least in two places. First, and this is for you today.
And I have this over my life on a daily basis.
He prays to god, and he says two things, the vertical, and the horizontal.
You get to do this folks. It’s in the Bible.
He said grant a success today because we need to go we’re gonna go rebuild our lives.
We’re gonna go forward. Grant a success.
And then I need one of the horizontal before a man who was King Art Exertsies, would you grant me favor?
One version would say mercy. But grant me favor.
And then maybe I say, as you go into this conversation, Lord, it’s not a demand. It’s a desire.
Thye will be done. Grant me favor in this conversation, if you will, but I want you to grant me success.
Why? Because in two places, and here’s what it says, The king granted him what he asked for.
Because the good hand of my god is upon me. Wait.
The good hand of my god is upon me for good.
And you’re gonna hear that in Romans eight twenty eight, but clear back here. Mhmm. God’s good hand.
If you’re walking with Christ, god’s good hand is upon you for good. He intends good.
And then, uh, said I’d go over here to Paul Um, I don’t even need, I can quote it.
We all can quote it. Right? In Philippians one six, but he, Jesus, god.
Son, spirit, father, he who began this good work in you.
Hey, you don’t have to carry the ball by yourself.
He will continue to perfect that and perform that in until we get to heaven when the race is finally run.
That is he will be doing his work. We do our work down here. Right?
There there’s no question about that progressive sanctification. But god’s good hand is on me.
He is good hand is on you and everyone at this table, and he’s gonna keep perfecting.
I said, Jesus, keep doing your work. And that’s appropriate perfectionism, but it’s all about Jesus.
Thank you, Jim. And on a practical level, you taught me one time three things to do.
When I am overwhelmed and just feeling triggered or flooded with emotion.
And I just am having one of those panic moments, but full of anxiety. I’m not gonna make it.
I’m not gonna make it. You know, I won’t get through this.
And you said practically that it’s scientifically proven that if you’ll go and drink four ounces of water, it will reduce your anxiety.
Who knew? Right? Then you also said, give it about twenty minutes. Don’t make any decisions.
Don’t have any conversations. You know, just give it twenty minutes.
And and that’s about how long it takes for
The amygdala back here where traumans is stored fear to calm down. And who knew, isn’t that funny?
I know you know this is rhetorical? God knew.
That’s right.
God designed this whole thing with the water and with the amygdala called. Oh, no.
And then the third thing I like to do is I I like to take my shoes off if it’s possible and go and stand in the grass and look up at the sky and say, It may feel like my world is falling apart, but the world is not falling apart, which also helps me understand this is a part of the story, but this moment, this intensity, this extreme emotion, it’s not the whole of the
story, you
know, and and there’s a big beautiful world out there. There’s there’s more to discover.
There’s people you’re gonna meet, and and the sun is really gonna shine really brightly again.
And the the thing about not giving up, it’s like don’t give him up in this moment.
Because you’ll be trading a million other moments that if you walk toward healing and hold on to the lord, and pursue a future in the right direction, it will be amazing.
It may not ever look like you thought it was gonna look. But Did
you write a book about that?
Yes. I sure did. It’s
not supposed to be this way.
By the way, you talked about the sun and all that, which you already know all this, and that is the feat We’re on carpet.
We’re on the second floor. We’re on concrete. You know, they’re washing the feet in the bible all the time.
They were out there in the earth.
So the idea of getting bare footed in grass, not just doing your concrete and walking the track around the neighborhood school, whatever, to get your feet.
This is still my father’s world. That grass that earth is is emanating up god’s own precious energy.
So the idea of getting grounded in there because most of our life even when you come home at night, kick your shoes off, but you’re on carpet or hardwoods.
Right?
That’s
this is god’s world to get my feet in the earth.
That’s beautiful. And so the last thing I’ll say is I remember when I was kinda consumed with this thought, like, my life fell apart.
But then one day, I asked myself, what if it was actually falling together?
And what if today I could invest wisely in stopping this feeling that I’m falling?
And what if today could be the day that I start rising.
I hope this has been helpful for you.
You are gonna make