Welcome to season seven of Posture.
We're going to just jump right into the content today.
No intro or anything, because I have a lot to say today.
I want to focus this episode on sharing with you my heart
and what season seven is going to be all about.
But first, I just want to take a quick minute,
because I know we have some new people
and I want to just refresh us and remind us what Posture is all about.
Some of you might even be wondering, like, why is this podcast called Posture?
Well, this podcast was birthed from the promise that we find in Isaiah
26, three that says, You, Lord, keep in perfect peace
those whose mind is stayed on you because they trust you.
And that word stayed.
Other translations say things like a mind that is fixed or a mind
that is steadfast, but it means to lean, lay, rest upon.
And that original meaning, it's so captured my imagination
because I could visualize taking this daily posture of leaning on the Lord
positioning myself in total trust and dependency on him,
on him, on the one who keeps me in perfect peace,
not living a life dependent on the promise of peace itself.
And that's what we're going to talk about in this episode today,
because the Christian life is not a formula to follow or a standard to achieve.
It's not a code to crack or a wage to earn its relationship.
And from that relationship
with God himself emerges a lifestyle of perfect peace,
even in the midst of an imperfect world,
an imperfect life and imperfect circumstances.
Perfect peace, by the way, this is just a fun truth.
In the Hebrew, it's Shalom, Shalom.
It's a double emphasis, and it means complete completeness.
Nothing missing, nothing broken.
This is the life that we have been gifted by Jesus.
Now, some of you know my story.
It was anything but perfect or peaceful.
A few years ago, when I was in the chokehold of anxiety and panic
and I was living this lifestyle that was fueled by the fumes of hustle,
I was captured by these promises that I found in the word of God
that Jesus gave us for peace, specifically the promises in John 1427
and in John 1633.
But the promise for perfect peace that I found in Isaiah 26, three,
it sealed the deal for me because I was so odd
that my God is a God who gives me peace,
not just any peace, but perfect peace, complete completeness.
I thought, what kind of God does that?
And so my heart for every episode of Posture is not just to remind you
of the promise of peace, which you have full access to in Jesus Christ,
but it's really to explore together the God who gave himself up for us
so that we could live in complete completeness
with nothing missing and nothing broken.
Now, David wrote in Psalm 16, five, he said, Lord, you are my portion.
He didn't write the promises you give me are my portion.
He said, you are my portion.
He said, Yahweh, you alone are my inheritance.
You are my prize, my pleasure, my portion.
And then listen to this position, this posture of trust.
He says, you hold my destiny and its timing is in your hands.
In my journey of overcoming anxiety, I discovered what David discovered,
and that is peace is not the prize, the promise is not the prize.
God is him.
His never leaving, never forsaking presence in our lives is everything.
It's more than enough for everything we will ever face in this life.
But here's how I used to live.
When trouble of any kind came into my life,
you know, any circumstance that did not line up with the promises
that I knew were in his word, I would lean on the promise.
Specifically, I would lean on my understanding of what that promise
needed to look like on what I believe the solution to the trouble should be.
You know, if there was conflict, I leaned on anything that I could find
that I thought this would bring the resolution to the circumstance.
If there was pain, I leaned on, you know, the manifestation
I believed would bring relief.
And I thought this was the Christian life applying promise to pain
and promise to pain and promise to pain.
However, living this way
kept me focused and had all my trust placed on the promise.
So let's say peace, for example, I was totally focused and trusting
in what I thought the promise of peace needed to look like, how I believed it.
needed to manifest for my anxiety to go away instead of living in total trust and surrender
to the one who gave the promise in the first place. The one who says he is my prince of peace.
I used to think that the Christian life was all about figuring out what the promise giver
wanted me to do and if I figured that out then he would make good on the promise he gave me.
I thought this was what my relationship with God was all about and I did this with healing,
I did this with provision, I did this with peace. And can I tell you something? That made my battle
with anxiety so incredibly terrifying because I thought it was my responsibility to figure out
the creator of the universe in order to be free. And I thought if I didn't figure him out,
if I didn't say the right prayers or declare the right things or have enough quiet time or
understand the scriptures well enough that I was going to lose the battle with anxiety.
And that fear-filled belief had me in more bondage than the anxiety itself.
Maybe for you it's not anxiety, maybe it's physical sickness or financial lack or relational
conflict, but if we live this way, if we live dependent on the promise instead of leaning on
the one who gave the promise, we're going to end up believing that we're always on the verge of
total abandonment by our heavenly father. And we're going to live as if we are threatened by
everything because anything could be the thing that makes our father leave us.
Our ability to make the right decisions, our ability to pray enough, our ability to
manage our behavior, our intellect, our education, our family background, generational curses,
generational blessings, our cultural norms, the people who govern our nation. You know,
if we live this way, we're going to think if those things are not in order, he's going to
leave us to our own devices. And it's not true. It's not true because it's not who he is. If you
read his word, you will not find a God who wants to be figured out. It is clear through his word
that he's given us that he is a God who wants to be known. Not a God who just wants to be known
about, but a God who wants people to know him through genuine, intimate relationship, not
religious rules and rituals. Father, bridegroom, helper, this is how the Godhead describes
themselves to us. This is the depth of relationship that they desire to have with us. And they are so
committed to having that kind of relationship with us that they placed Christ in us and they placed
us in Christ so that there could never again be any separation ever. You don't have to chase
after peace or healing or protection or provision because you are in a relationship with the Prince
of Peace. You are in a relationship right now with the healer, with the provider, with the
redeemer, the protector. He's in you and you are in him. You have everything you need right now,
today, right now. And you have everything you will ever need for any future circumstance.
Nothing in the universe has the power to diminish God's presence in you. Not your difficulties,
not your disappointments, not your abilities or your lack thereof, not your family background,
not your socioeconomic status, not the country you live in, nothing. I realized that every
circumstance, every attack from the enemy could be turned on its head in an instant,
not by some instant manifestation of a particular promise, but by recognizing that in this
circumstance, I would come to know my God even more. And therefore, I would be leaving this
circumstance stronger than when I came into it. This is the Romans 828 promise. Overcoming anxiety,
it didn't happen because one day I initiated a relationship with God. The overcoming took
place as I discovered the relationship with God that was already there. A relationship that
he initiated, not me. It's already there. We have full access, not just to the promises,
but to the promise giver and the promise keeper. Now, we may not have awareness yet,
But the Christian life is a journey
of greater and greater awareness
and deeper and deeper relationship.
And that is what season seven is going to be all about.
We are going to become more and more aware
of who our God is and who we are in him.
We are gonna uproot the lie of abandonment once and for all.
We are going to completely let go of condemnation,
especially that low-grade condemnation
that we tend to carry with us every day
when we believe that our lives are all about
trying to figure out God and set ourselves free.
We can't set ourselves free because Jesus already did.
And we are going to set aside ritual
and we are going to embrace this beautiful, wonderful,
delightful, awesome relationship
that God desires to have with us.
Now, if you're watching or listening right now
and maybe you really resonate
with where I was a few years ago,
maybe you're just feeling so on the edge right now
because you are in the thick of it,
facing some kind of battle, some kind of circumstance
that just does not line up with what God promised you,
you're in good company.
Because Romans 8 says this about the children of God.
It says, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
We're overcomers.
You're an overcomer.
And that means there are gonna be some things in this life
that we have to overcome.
But you are in a relationship with the answer
to every circumstance, every problem, every question.
You already have everything you need to overcome.
Jesus told us in John 16, 33,
the world is gonna give us some trouble.
It's a troubled world.
But he said, cheer up, I have overcome the world.
You're not subject to the thing
that you're overcoming right now.
You're not subject to any circumstance.
You're not subject to sickness or mental illness,
panic, anxiety, depression, lack, poverty, scarcity.
You're not subject to it.
You're only subject to him.
And here's the good news.
In this circumstance, you are about to discover more of him.
You are about to know him even more.
And as he is, so are you in this world.