Podcast
Episode #12. How do we live unoffended when life disappoints? Beth Wahl
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From Today's Episode
Beth Wahl and I talk about how to cultivate hope and live unoffended when life disappoints, when dreams are shattered, and when our stories remain unresolved. Beth shares how God taught her to carry her story lightly rather than being crushed under the weight of sorrow.
Key Takeaways:
- I know He has written the truth of who He is on my heart. He is good and He is sovereign.
- Job didn’t know the full story and it doesn’t seem that he ever did. God didn’t let him in on the cosmic battle. So I think there is always more at stake than whatever it is we want.
- I have to remind myself what’s true: I can get to that place where I surrender the story that I wish I had for the story that God has entrusted to us. And it’s a sweet place of surrender.
Today's Verses
- John 9:1-5
- Philippians 1:29
- 1 Peter 5:10
- Job 1-3 and 38-40, 42.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:14
- Heb. 4:15-16
- Heb. 12:3
- Matthew 11:4-6
- 2 Corinthians 1:9
- 2 Cor 4:16-18
- Romans 8:18
- Romans 11:33-36
Additional Resources
How do we live unoffended when life disappoints? Beth Wahl
Kelly: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Unshakable Hope Podcast, where real life intersects redeeming love. I’m Kelly Hall and this is where we wrestle through faith questions such as, how do I trust God’s heart when his ways and delays are breaking mine? How can I believe God is good when life doesn’t seem good? My prayer is that God would renew our hope in these conversations and that each of us would experience the very real power of his presence and love.
Welcome. I’m just so grateful you’ve joined me here. Today you’re going to hear my friend Beth Wahl drop some hard-earned wisdom on us. She just has such a humble, honest way of sorting through hard questions of faith.
If you’re carrying some heavy burdens today, I think by the time we’re done, those burdens will feel a whole lot lighter. About three quarters of the way through this interview, I ask Beth how she’s able to carry her story so [00:01:00] lightly rather than being overwhelmed by grief or heartache. You’ll hear a story I’ve never heard before. This happened early on in her marriage to Dave and I’ll just give you a little teaser. It has something to do with his dream of becoming an astronaut.
I wanted to mention also that in episode eight, Beth shares the story of their sweet son, Jason, who they lost 18 years ago when he passed away by suicide. If you haven’t heard this story, I encourage you to go back and listen to the many tender ways God revealed his goodness and how he comforted and sustained their whole family through the years following Jason’s passing.
Today you’re hearing what is actually the second half of the recording Beth and I made several months ago. So I just want to reintroduce her. Beth is the women’s ministry director at a church in Colorado [00:02:00] Springs. She has her Masters of Divinity. She loves teaching Bible study and counseling women. She and her husband Dave have been married 41 years
As we begin, Beth is explaining what her not-so-empty-nest looks like right now.
Beth: So right now our daughter and son-in-law moved to Colorado Springs five years ago. And I said that I would watch the grandkids if they came. And so I watch Ada and Emith. I get up every morning and I go and I pick them up and I drop Ada at school. It’s like I’m a young mom and I drop her at school, and then Emmy and I, we do whatever we’re gonna do.
We go to the park or he goes with me to staff meeting. So he takes a nap every staff meeting. So I watch the kids and I lead women’s ministry. I lead a Bible study. Dave’s an elder, and our interim [00:03:00] pastor has just stepped down. And so for a time the elders are gonna be preaching. So he’s gonna be preaching. We’re busy with that. And then I,
Kelly: and he’s still working full-time also.
Beth: And he’s still working full-time. Yes. And then I meet with women and so I just tuck in things. It’s just a tucking life. I tuck in this, I tuck in that, and it is not an empty nest.
Kelly: You don’t really have these big blocks of free time.
Beth: No. Alright. No. In fact, I have two girlfriends that we love to see each. We maybe see each other once a quarter , maybe. And we always say, we’re just so thankful we can have this time. You know? Yes.
Kelly: Well, can you describe some of the health challenges your daughter and your grandkids are dealing with as well?
Beth: Mm-hmm. So our life changed just very recently, actually. Sarah has [00:04:00] had 30 surgeries in her life. She has dealt with a lot in her life. All has to do with her jaw and bone, and they’ve never 100% figured out why. But right now they’re doing something different and they’re really looking at gut health.
A doctor recently was mapping her gut health and taking hair samples and blood samples, and just has found that her body is not absorbing the things that it should absorb. And,
Kelly: and that’s probably been going on for a long time, right?
Beth: Yes. Yes. And then she has several infections and those have to do probably leftover from surgeries that she had before, and they just never got healed. And so the end result of all of this is that he said to her, you just need to rest. You need to stop everything and you need to rest. We’ve taken it very seriously. , she’s dropped out of,[00:05:00] Pretty much everything. So I’m taking up, I’m trying to take kid, the kids to more things and Manish and I are cleaning their house.
Her husband? Her husband, yes. So we’re just picking up the slack and doing whatever we need to do. And then Ada our granddaughter; We noticed she was really struggling in school, in math, which seemed kind of unusual since that’s the world her parents live in.
Sarah took her and they did a brain mapping of Ada, and it turns out that she had a big concussion at one point, and it has really impacted her. We spend a lot, all of us spend a lot of time, we all help with her homework and I take her to music lessons and and teach her music. So we’re, yeah, it’s very full.
Kelly: So I wanted to clarify what you had said. So the brain scan revealed that she had had a concussion. Yes. But it also [00:06:00] revealed that there had actually been brain death on that top of her brain.
Beth: Yes, that. Thank you for asking that. Yes. And so that has impacted her sleep and it has impacted school. She just has not slept well. For about five years. So in that same amount of time, Sarah has not slept well in five years. So they’re very much correlated. Yeah.
Kelly: and , does Emith also have some health challenges?
Beth: He does. But interestingly, I think, they were passed to him from Sarah. So I think they are being taken care of, he went through this phase where he wasn’t eating much and it seemed that it had to do with the gut health that he has. Probably impacted by Sarah’s gut health.
Kelly: All right. Well thanks for explaining all that. I remember a long time ago y’all described it as Sarah has a genetic condition where [00:07:00] her bones are not very strong. And I just thought, oh my goodness, both their children have these genetic issues. Mm-hmm. And of course, I could relate because three out of my four children have genetic issues.
Mm-hmm. And I just remember when I was writing Courageous Faith, I was studying the Book of Job for one portion of it, and I noticed in that story: so many times we think, if I walk through suffering then I’ve kind of filled my suffering cup and so I am protected from further suffering.
And so, yes, I had people say to me, well, you know, surely God wouldn’t give you more special needs children. And then we had two more children that had special needs. And then, I guess in my own mind I would think, well, one day, they’re gonna be good and everything’s gonna look normal.
But yet they’ve developed all kinds of chronic health issues that have made them very, very sick. We are just living in this [00:08:00] unresolved story of ongoing suffering. Mm-hmm. But it’s so easy to have a wrong view of God. Yes. When it comes to this issue, and I know your family’s been through so much, and so I’m wondering if you’ve had to deal with that question in your own heart,
Beth: mm-hmm. You know, I think just in studying the Word, one of the stories that I just think helped me so much, it’s in John where the disciples asked Jesus, they asked him about a blind man and they said, well, did he sin or did his parents sin? And Jesus said, neither. It’s so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
You’ve witnessed that in your family and and I have witnessed that in my family that this wasn’t something that we did, it’s God’s providence for our life, and so we need to steward it and we need to patiently walk through it. And, I think , that’s how [00:09:00] I’ve walked through it.
Do you remember in Philippians 1 at the end of the chapter, Philippians 1: 30, I think he says, Paul was told he would suffer. He just was told he would suffer. I’ve always been amazed by that. But then at the end of that chapter in Philippians 1, he says, for to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake, and there is just nothing scripturally that says we get an out on suffering.
Yeah. It’s woven throughout scripture.
Kelly: Yes, yes. Thanks for sharing that scripture. I think it’s so important to understand that we do not get an out, but yet we are given so much comfort from scripture. Yeah. And so much encouragement that as we talked about last time, not an ounce of our suffering is wasted.
Mm-hmm. Nothing. God is gonna bring good out of this and [00:10:00] nothing’s gonna be wasted. Not one tear that slipped on our face that is lost from Jesus’ sight.
Beth: Yes. Yes. It’s so, true. There’s another verse that I would say it is my favorite verse, it’s in first Peter 5, and he says, after you have suffered for a little while, So it’s like after you’ve, after it’s happened, it’s gonna happen.
The God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself perfect. Confirm, strengthen and establish you. And so God, he knows we’re gonna suffer, but he’s saying it’s not a waste. This is what I’m doing in the midst of it, and this is gonna be the end result for you. And that verse is, so hopeful to me because what it says is he’s gonna confirm our faith. He’s gonna prove that it is true and real, and he’s gonna establish [00:11:00] us and perfect us. That verse has comforted me so much through the years.
Kelly: Yes. As you read that, I just felt my shoulders relax a little. It’s very comforting.
Beth: It’s so comforting.
Kelly: Our Lord fights for us, and even though it may seem like he’s not doing a thing, he is doing things that will blow our mind if he just opened our eyes to all the spiritual things that were happening.
Mm-hmm. Our jaw would be on the floor.
Beth: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Kelly: So I’m wondering how you process unmet expectations. You’ve lived with a lot of them. Mm-hmm. And I know that with unmet expectations, we can have thoughts of self pity. We can wish our story was different. We hurt for the people that we love.
How do you process through those feelings?
Beth: Mm-hmm., it really goes back to what I talked about the last time we were talking. When I feel that [00:12:00] self pity rear its ugly head, I ask the Lord for help and mercy to just sit in the truth that he is good and sovereign.
Mm-hmm. And that what I am walking through he is working through it in me. And, I really just go back to that over and over. There’s one other thing I do and it really is the Job lens and that is, God never told Job what was going on. Job was not aware of that cosmic battle, and yet there was so much at stake there.
I’m reminded of that I can’t see everything that is going on, in the things that I want or may have or may not get, but the Lord knows and he sees it. From such a different angle and from such a different viewpoint that I just really have to trust that.
Kelly: Lee and I are really struggling right [00:13:00] now because one of our daughters is, is very sick and is basically home bound and has not been able to do things outside of our house for about four years.
Mm-hmm. When we moved to Arizona about five years ago, she was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease, but there were a lot of other neurological issues going on. She was getting so bad that it was difficult for her to chew, to swallow, to breathe, to move. She felt like she was gonna end up in a wheelchair.
She was able to tolerate some treatment, and we were able to get her stable, and yet she still basically spends her life in her bedroom for years. And it just breaks my husband and I, it breaks our hearts. I think for me, the unmet expectations and self pity, it comes down to this issue of comparison.
So when I look at someone else’s story where their daughter gets to leave the house, you know, [00:14:00] oh, it just hurts me so much. Like I would love for that to be my Megan’s story. And she said it was okay that I use her name. But I just remember this particular time in my life when God revealed to me that I had an idol of normalcy.
Like, I just wanted our girls to have a normal life. Of course, they’re profoundly deaf and they have some other neurological issues, but I wanted it to resemble normal and I realized it wasn’t going to, and our life doesn’t even come close to resembling normal and I go to the Lord with this and He just says to me, Kelly, this is her story. I need you to trust me with her story. Mm-hmm. And Megan has this incredible enduring trust in God. Yeah. She does not feel sorry for herself. Yeah. She trusts in God’s goodness and care, and she has this unique ability to celebrate every, [00:15:00] itty bitty, tiny improvement in her health with great joy.
Mm-hmm. And so I feel like God is often just reminding me, why do you want normal when I’m doing something really beautiful here in her and through her I’m at work and I’m doing something that’s good.
Beth: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That reminds me of one of the other verses that when I start to say, Lord, Lord, you know that yes, Lord, change this. It’s from Romans 11, last couple verses, and he says, oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgment and unfathomable his ways.
It’s just, he is God and we are not. And then it, and then it goes on, he says, for who has known the mind of the Lord or who became his counselor.
And it’s very humbling. It’s very [00:16:00] humbling. It’s very humbling. I can truly say that the Lord has changed my heart. It is not often that I’ll say, Lord, you just need to do it this way, because he really has changed my heart.
And I’m so grateful because I know that’s not me. I know that he has written the truth of who he is on my heart. And like, you’re Megan, you know, He does that, and then we just know who he is and there’s just no doubt. Yes. He is good and He is Sovereign.
Kelly: Yes. It takes me a long time still to work through all of those parts. I have to rehearse what’s true. I have to remind myself what’s true. And once I do, I can get to that place where I surrender. the story that I wish I had for the story that God has entrusted to us. And it’s a sweet place of surrender.
Beth: It is a [00:17:00] sweet place. It’s not easy to get there. and not every time do I just automatically go there, but I am grateful that slowly he is transforming me. Yes. To truly just believe him.
Kelly: Yes. You said earlier, looking at life through the Job lens, and so when my perspective is off, I think of these scriptures. It’s 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 and I’m just gonna read them. Therefore, we do not lose heart though outwardly, we’re wasting away. Yet inwardly, we are being renewed day by day for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us and eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen for what is seen as temporary. But what is unseen is eternal.
Beth: Those very verses are the verses that helped [00:18:00] me and that I would say to my mom when my grandma was in a care center for seven years with Alzheimer’s and didn’t speak and laid in a bed, and it was so hard. And yet, and yet we knew. She loves Jesus. And we knew that the Lord was doing those very things.
He was working in eternal weight of glory and we would say that to each other. And now my dad is in that very same care center, and, and it’s the same thing. Alzheimer’s is slowly impacting him, and yet we can see how the Lord is working. We were just there this last week, and one evening he was good.
He was really good this one evening, and so we started singing hymns and his roommate said, amen. I love Jesus too. It was so sweet. And that poor man’s body is wasting [00:19:00] away too. And it’s like, thank you Lord. Thank you for that scripture that encourages us when life is so hard. Yes.
Kelly: Amen. My dad also passed away from Alzheimer’s and so did my mom, but his favorite scripture was Romans 8:18. For I know that our present suffering is nothing compared to the glory that’s gonna be revealed in us, and that was a great comfort as we went through that time with him.
Mm-hmm. It was very difficult, but But he had hope. through that scripture and, and also through this: he was already losing his vocabulary, yet God gave him this vision and gave him the ability to communicate it to me when I was there visiting and he said, God spoke to me and told me how much longer I have to live on this earth. And I said, really, dad? He said, yes. I saw a vision. There was a bright light. [00:20:00] Jesus was standing there and there was something counting off time and it boomed two times. And so God was just telling me I have two times left to live on this Earth and, and in the Bible “times” can sometimes represent a year.
And so he actually did pass away two years later. Wow. But the fact that Jesus met him in this place where his language was diminishing and gave him such beautiful hope for the future, he no longer worried about my mom, and he no longer worried about leaving her. He wasn’t worried about going to heaven.
He was worried about just leaving her without him. Because he’d always cared for her. So sweet. Oh. Oh, that is so wonderful. No, I love how God just cares for us. He knows how to speak to us in a way we can hear him. That is such a great comfort.
Beth: [00:21:00] It is. It is such a great comfort.
Kelly: This is on the same topic, but we’re gonna just shift gears a little bit. How do you walk through ongoing difficulties, you know, that don’t let up and ongoing heartache without being offended toward God and without becoming bitter? You know, how do you arrest your thinking in a way that prevents you from going down that road of taking offense? Mm-hmm.
Beth: First I wanna mention a book. I actually haven’t read it, but several of my friends and it’s next on my list, it’s called Unoffendable: How just one Change can make all of Life better by Brant Hansen. And I think our culture is just very easily offended.
But I go back to 2 Corinthians 1 where Paul, you know, had been told he was gonna suffer his whole life and, this is what he wrote. He said I was burdened utterly [00:22:00] beyond my strength, but he tells us it was only to make him rely on God.
And so that’s how I live unoffended. It’s okay, Lord. This is even beyond me. I don’t even know how I’m gonna do this, but you, you will walk me through. You’ve done it over and over and over again and I think it’s just rehearsing all the ways that he has met me in the past. Dave and I say that to each other. We remember together and I think that just helps us. Okay. He’s done it before, whatever, whatever we’re gonna face. Now, he’s gonna get us through.
Kelly: Yes, that is huge. I’ve asked a lot of women this question, and that is the number one reply that gives people hope, is remembering, rehearsing all the ways that God has been faithful to us in the past, because then we’re able to believe him to be faithful in the future.
It’s very powerful. [00:23:00] It’s, and it’s really being grateful, right? I mean it’s, it really spurs you to be grateful to the Lord.
Beth: Yes, and I think that’s such an important thing because I think we have to cultivate thankfulness, and I also think we have to cultivate a sacrifice of praise. Praising when it’s hard, and it’s called a sacrifice of praise because sacrifices cost us. But I think if we keep our hearts soft like that toward the Lord, then we won’t be offended and we won’t be bitter. Mm-hmm.
Kelly: I love that you use that word soft. I think that’s really the key that, okay, I’m hurt and I’m confused, and I may even be mad, but I’m not gonna turn away from God. I’m gonna turn toward him and I’m gonna talk to him about all of this until I can get to that place where my heart is tender towards him. Mm-hmm. Instead of just shutting him out. [00:24:00]
Beth: Isn’t it funny that shutting him out is such a temptation? Yeah, it really is. It really is. It’s such a funny thing because where else is our help, that’s why I go back to Hebrews four, you know? ’cause we need help, and that’s the place to get help.
Kelly: One of the places that I have found a great deal of hope for me, and you know this story, John the Baptist, when is in prison and his image of who the Messiah is, is really bumping up against the fact that Hello, I’m in prison and you’re not rescuing me. And so he sends his friends to Jesus to say, are you really the Messiah? Are you the one we’re waiting for? Because he is in this place where it just doesn’t make sense that Jesus is the Messiah, but he’s not rescuing John who the one who prepared the way for him.
And it seems like such a perplexing question, right? Because he’s the one who baptized Jesus. He saw Spirit of God descending on him. He heard the testimony of God from [00:25:00] heaven declaring what was true and Jesus replies to the disciples or John’s friends who come and ask this question and he tells him what he’s doing and it all lines up with Old Testament prophecy.
Mm-hmm. That says, yes, I am the Messiah. But then he ends with this one phrase, blessed is the one who is not offended by me. And some of the translations say, blessed is the one who doesn’t stumble over me or stumble on account of me. So he’s saying don’t be offended by my ways. Don’t be offended by the things I choose to do and the things I don’t do.
And I remember reading that book. I know you’ve read this by Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker. Yes, yes. He tells this story that it honestly impacted me so deeply. I was on my knees in tears. So this couple, they are terrific prayer warriors and people go to them for prayer, [00:26:00] and they love to pray and they love Jesus.
And a large portion of their prayers are answered except for the prayers that they pray for their special needs son. And so one day Mark goes to them and says, How do you deal with this? How do you process the fact that, mm-hmm so many of your prayers are answered for other people, but not for your son?
And they immediately replied, we choose to live an unoffended life. Hmm. It was so beautiful. I just fell to my knees in tears and said to the Lord, I so want to have a heart that is unoffended. Because I realized that I was offended by some of the things he was allowing in our girls’ lives.
Beth: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes. I think as Mama bears, if we’re gonna take offense, it’s gonna be with our kids. Right. You know, when we want, like you said, normal, when we want them to [00:27:00] just experience what it seems others are experiencing. But, you’re, Megan is such an example because she has a joy of the Lord that so many don’t have.
And that’s because he has written that on her heart.
Kelly: Yes, he has. And it is miraculous. . I remember this sweet story that Johnny Erickson Tada told. A girl was struggling with being a quadriplegic, and she said, I have no purpose. I have no way to bless people and so she was angry and bitter, and Johnny said to her, What if you made it your job to bless your mom every time she comes into the room and cares for you, what if you chose to pray for her and bless her with kind words and words of gratitude? And she began to do that and it completely changed her life.
Beth: How wonderful. It’s true for every single one of us, isn’t it?
Kelly: Yes. Yes. It’s We can have all the money, all the comforts in the [00:28:00] world. Yeah. Yeah. And still be missing out on the life that Jesus has for us. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, Beth, one of the things that I’ve really noticed about you over the years, I love this so much about you, is the way you’re able to hold your story so lightly.
Mm-hmm. I have had to work through almost being paralyzed by sorrow in some places in my life with my girls, and I’m just not seeing that in you. And so I wonder if you could be, I don’t know if you know how you got to this place, but I wonder if you can just talk about it. Hmm.
Beth: I think there were some early on when Dave and I were first married, he wanted to be an astronaut and he wanted to fly. And so, he went into the Air Force and my dream, my dream was to travel the world. And so he went to pilot [00:29:00] training and was progressing until they started doing spins and all of that. And he got airsick and he was in right at the time where they didn’t need pilots. And so they just said, oops, sorry. We don’t need you, Sayonara. And so our whole dream just went down the toilet in our first year of marriage. Oh, that’s huge. We were crushed.
I will tell you, we were crushed and we cried and we thought, and we had no vision for ourselves. What I mean by that is we said, well, I mean, we both were college graduates. We both said, well, I guess we’ll just go back and dig ditches. I mean, we were just, we were just flailing. We were just flailing and Dave was working.
They were waiting to separate him, and he was working at a desk and he gets a phone call from a guy who [00:30:00] needs a pilot who’s been washed out, who is a business major. I mean, it was, it was Dave. Dave picks up the phone and Dave said, well, that’s me. And he said, okay, you meet me in Texas and I’ll get you retained.
And so we said, okay. But we were so broke. We debated do we spend the $200 for him to fly down there or do we not, so we said, okay. I mean like we prayed, but it wasn’t like it is now, and So Dave went down there and the guy took him through all of the different people that you know, and everyone said, sorry, no, we can’t retain you.
No, no, sorry. And he came home and we were like, okay, God, what do you want? What do we do? And we were just crushed. The next day he gets a phone call from this colonel. He doesn’t remember who he is, but he says, I like you. I didn’t like the guy you were with. [00:31:00] So you can do anything in the Air Force, but work for him or fly or be a navigator.
You pick, what do you wanna do? That’s crazy. But you know what that did for us more than anything? It made us realize that God was leading our lives. And we could trust him. Mm-hmm. Because we were so young. We just couldn’t believe it. We were so stunned by that loss. Yeah. And I don’t know, God has used that moment in my life, my whole life, honestly.
Kelly: Wow. So at that moment, he convinced you more deeply than ever before, that he was sovereign, that your times actually were in his hands? Yes. And that you could trust him?
Beth: Yes. Yes. I don’t think I’d ever really even thought about it before.
I think I was so prideful and cocky and arrogant and, I could do anything, yeah. I’m woman, hear me roar. and I went from that to [00:32:00] our total dreams being crushed.
So yeah, it was really interesting. The Lord used that. I have thanked him so many times, Lord, thank you for doing that, for crushing us so early.
Kelly: Wow. That’s powerful. We can trust him. Mm-hmm. Even when our dreams are broken, and he will take care of us, and he wants us to be reliant on him, not on our own plans, not on our own strength. It’s a grace and a mercy when he teaches us that he can be trusted.
Beth: Yes, it really is. We wouldn’t have said it was a grace or mercy at the time, so, but we sure know it now and we knew it pretty fast. He really showed us pretty fast that. I can be trusted. Mm. Raise him. It wasn’t my doing it all.
It was him.
Kelly: Well, is there anything else that stands out to you that God uses to encourage you in the word? Or through his [00:33:00] character when you were walking through unexpected or hard things.
Beth: Mm-hmm. I think just what we said. I really very quickly began to rehearse all the ways he has been good to me.
If I start to have those conversations in your head, where you debate someone or you’re, just kind of going through stuff.
I realize now the Lord has just been teaching me through the years. Pray when you, when you start to do that, stop and pray.
Because if I don’t go to him, I’m not gonna get help. And then, That verse in one Peter where, okay, this may be a trial that I’m gonna have to walk through. Okay? So, Lord, prove my faith, establish perfect me, confirm me, strengthen me. I want him to do those things. I think that’s what I do. And, by his grace I, Do it [00:34:00] fairly quickly. Mm-hmm.
Kelly: That’s so powerful. Well, this was really encouraging for me just to think through some of these issues about unmet expectations and stories that maybe you didn’t want, but just being reminded that God’s got us, no matter what our story is, that he’s gonna be the hero of our story.
He’s gonna prove himself faithful, and he’s gonna bring glory to himself, and he is gonna work for our good in ways we can’t even imagine.
Beth: Absolutely. And we’ve already seen him do that in our lives, haven’t we? Yes, we have. Yes.
Kelly: Well, I’m gonna close this in prayer I wanna pray for your family and also for people who might be struggling with some disappointments.
Mm-hmm. So, Father, we really don’t want sorrow to be a part of our story. That’s just the truth. But we thank you that you understand all of our broken places and you understand our deepest [00:35:00] needs and how to talk to us. In those deep places and it comforts us, and we thank you that in Jesus we have this high priest who is perfectly able to empathize with our pain.
We thank you as we talked about that not one cry is ignored by you and not one tears slips down our face unnoticed by you. You are with us in our pain.
We lift up the Wahl family and ask you to cover this dear family with your grace. Strengthen them and provide beautifully for all of their needs, for their grandkids needs, and for all of our listeners we ask you to cover each one of us with your love and to pour out fresh expressions of your goodness and your care. Mm-hmm. May we sense your delight and your love and your presence in tangible ways? And Father, I ask that you would help us remember and [00:36:00] rehearse all the ways you’ve shown your faithfulness to us, and even bring them to mind
Thank you that your mercies are new every morning. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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