Transforming Trials into Triumph - Spiritual Growth Through Adversity Ep. 1

What if the challenges we face are not just obstacles, but stepping stones to a more fulfilling life? Tune in to explore how spiritual maturity can transform your perspective on adversity. We unpack the journey of overcoming past wounds, like "church hurt," and maintaining a mature outlook on life’s trials. By reflecting on the stories of biblical figures such as Moses and the Apostle Paul, discover how reframing your mindset can turn suffering into opportunities for growth.

Our conversation takes you through the compelling narratives of Moses, plagued by self-doubt, and Paul, who found peace amidst imprisonment. Their stories help us see that our greatest struggles often lead to our most profound growth. With insights from passages like Romans 8:28 and James 1:2-4, we highlight how trusting in God’s sovereignty can transform trials into moments ripe for sharing faith. The real battle often lies within our minds, and shifting our perspective can illuminate the path toward spiritual and personal development.

Lastly, we delve into how embracing trials can serve as a catalyst for spreading faith, even when facing rejection or discomfort. Just as certain birds nudge their young to fly by creating discomfort, sometimes challenges are God's way of urging us into action. Through this lens, obstacles become powerful tools for building endurance and spiritual resilience. We conclude with an invitation to deepen your relationship with God, trusting in His timing and wisdom as you step into your divine calling. Join us to find out how viewing life’s challenges with a reframed perspective can lead to profound growth and fulfillment.

Chapters

• 0:00 Reframe Your Life
• 11:51 Perspective in Trials and Tribulations
• 19:15 Embracing Trials as Opportunities
• 22:53 Learning From Trials and Wisdom
• 28:57 Turning Trials Into Opportunities

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

What is up? Faith and Failures community. It is a new year, so we're going to talk a little bit about something today that I think is key to having a successful year not only having a successful year this year, but also maybe working out the kinks of what didn't go wrong or what didn't go so right in the year that we just went through. So one thing we will learn and you will listen over and over and over and over again, and I say that we need to be more mature. So, talking biblically, talking church wise, talking spiritually, we need to be spiritually mature. I sing this to my church almost every Sunday because we have a lot of immaturity in the house of God, which leads to bad decisions, leads to suffering, leads to pain, leads to drama, leads to hurt and how many of you know, church hurt can be some of the worst hurt, and the cuts are so deep that we may feel like we never can heal from them. So, as we go through this episode today, I want you to think about. What have you allowed to stay in your life? How has your perception of life been skewed, damaged and even manipulated from past experiences? So stick around. Today we're going to talk about how to reframe your life.

Speaker 1: 1:30

Before we get into today's video, I just wanted to say thank you to all of the new subscribers. If you haven't yet consider subscribing, hit that bell notification so that you can see every time I put out a new video. A major portion of you that watch my videos haven't subscribed yet, so why not? It's free. You can also find a PayPal link below if you want to give a one-time or give a monthly to support the channel. Anything, great or small, is appreciated.

Speaker 1: 1:57

Now let's get into the video. All right, thank you so much for sticking around, so let's go ahead and kick it off with a key verse today. So we want to talk about, so we want to come from Philippians 1, verses 12, 13, and 14. So let's start from the beginning, and I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of his birth, resurrection and salvation For everyone here, including the whole palace guard knows that I am in chains because of Christ, so he's saying that I am going through some junk and he's not having a pity party. He's actually reframing it and looking at it from a different perspective. So we're going to talk about perspective change today, so stick with me. I haven't changed because of Christ and because of my imprisonment.

Speaker 1: 3:03

Most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God's message without fear. We get drilled hard if any Christian retaliates when something comes against them. So, for instance, when I was a kid or a teenager and someone said something and I had something to come back to say, or I stood up for myself, and then what's the immediate response? Well, I thought you was a Christian, or I've told my church this the last couple of Sundays or two Sundays ago, then maybe people don't pay attention to you when everything's going good, but they will sure start watching you when things begin to go bad. And so the way we look at things as believers, the way we see things, the way we look at our trials, our tribulations, our bad seasons, is equally man my tongue is tied today equally as important as how we maintain our faith in the good times, because, how many of you know, it is a lot harder to for some people to remain faithful when everything's going good. Most people come to God when things are bad, when they have trouble, when they have issues, when they have trials. So we must maintain a level-headed, spiritually mature attitude towards Christ, towards our salvation, towards his sacrifice, but also towards our trials. This is one thing that if we can get this as people of God, if we can harness the power of our suffering I know that sounds terrible, it's like man. I don't want to go to church and be a Christian if I'm going to suffer. But you are guaranteed to suffer whether you are with Christ or whether you are not. So I would rather do it with Christ and I hope that you are the same. So the title of today's message is Reframe it. So we are going to be looking at how we can rewire, even rebrand, the bad stuff in our lives.

Speaker 1: 5:43

Like, probably somewhere along the way in the year 2024, you had a spot, you had a problem, you had a season, you had a something, somebody died, you broke up with somebody, maybe you got a divorce, maybe your kids left the house and now you're empty nesters and you're having to relearn all of that. Or maybe they came back and you thought you finally made it to empty nester status and you didn't. It's just now you're having to reparent over again, or maybe they have kids and it's just. It's this crazy, chaotic world that you thought was gone and now it's back in your life. Maybe you had uh we mentioned that a minute ago church hurt. Maybe you've had some serious hurt in a church and now you're trying to find a way to heal and uh and start over.

Speaker 1: 6:26

None of these things are necessarily bad, but if we are to not just survive what happens to us but we actually thrive and grow from it and have benefit from the burden, have benefit from the pain, have a crop from the blood and the sweat and the tears that has went into maintaining and working through and breaking that ground and letting seed grow Like there's effort, that has to happen on our side. But first it starts to to receive things well and to do it right and to do it without tripping up and falling up or going back into our old ways. We first have to realize that the battleground is in our mind and that we have to think properly so that we can see things clearly. Okay, so let's look over in Romans.

Speaker 1: 7:25

Actually, before we go to that, before we go to that, I want to talk to you a little bit just for a second. I'm going to frame this up, reframe it, frame it up. I want you to understand that your life and you as a believer, your life is not meant to just exist. Your life is not meant to just exist. You are meant to reproduce spiritually what God has produced in you. What I mean by that is so, as Jesus came, and if you read the four gospels Matthew, mark, luke and John, jesus came, he was born, and when he began his ministry, after he was baptized, after he went in the wilderness, when he was fasting and praying, he began to pull people out and began to disciple them, and to disciple them.

Speaker 1: 8:22

Now, sadly, probably, where you go to church doesn't have really much of a discipleship program or thing, and I'm a pastor of a church and I'm working on this myself Like, how do we implement discipleship beyond just a Sunday morning service? Like we're a church that was a little bit smaller and now we're getting bigger, and so these are part of the growing pains to figure this out. But I believe that these answers are actually in the Bible and one major thing of that is to spend time with each other, and so if you come to a church and you only are in contact with the church people at church, you will never get the fullness that God designed for the body of believers. You won't be able to live that full life, and I understand being a loner, not wanting to be a part of people, but you can be a part of people's lives and not have them branch over into your business and your stuff. You can still do things and be a part of things, your business and your stuff. Like you can still do things and be a part of things.

Speaker 1: 9:22

And whether it's the conditioning of your past that things happened to you that made you not want to be a part of anybody else's life and made you want to pull away, made you want to make, makes you want to not get plugged in, maybe because you were hurt, the people where you are now is not the people that hurt you. The people where you are now is not the people that hurt you. The people where you are now is not the people that left you. The people where you are now is not the people that that did you wrong and left you hanging and and just to fend for yourself. So I had to learn this in my in my marriage, my, my second marriage because everything that she would do in the beginning of our marriage it reminded me of the things that I was hurt from in my first marriage and she wasn't doing those things. It was that it kind of resembled and it just triggered me in some way because I wasn't actually healed.

Speaker 1: 10:12

Now see, when we say we're healed or we're forgiven, you won't have the same trigger. I'm going to stop for a second. You won't have. The trigger will not be there if you've actually forgiven them. Now you can recognize and see oh yeah, I remember that, but the trigger will not be there if you have fully forgiven them. You can't be triggered.

Speaker 1: 10:38

If you have forgiveness in your heart and now you see them with compassion, whatever they do to you around you, it won't trigger you because those chains have fallen off. And the only way those chains stay off is that if you continue to live in forgiveness and not justify your unforgiveness and your crappy behavior or your attitude, because easily our life can pull us down in the slumps, pull us down to where we are bitter, we are angry, we are mad. It could be at people, it could be at circumstances, it could be even at God, but God is not scared of your attitude, he's not scared of your questions, he's not scared of you screaming at Him. He's not scared of you asking why, god? How could you let this happen? Because I believe in these times that we're real and we're raw with God, those are the times he desires to show up and show Himself to us. I've been told in the church before I don't preach this way or teach this way or lead this way. But I've been told like, oh, don't ask those questions, those aren't godly questions. And I completely disagree.

Speaker 1: 11:51

I was reading this morning of Moses and the dude would not listen when God told him to do something. He constantly complained and said of how good he was not, and he always had a reason why God couldn't use him the way God was trying to use him. How many of us do the same thing All the time? So the Apostle Paul, a man whose life was a series of unpredictable events the dude could have had his own movie, he could have had his own reality. He could have had his own reality TV show, nailed it, but it was always unpredicting, like always in trouble, always in prison, always issue after issue after issue. But he still had peace, he still had joy, still had peace, he still had joy. And he gave us this profound insight to the key ingredient to being truly content, and that is your perspective Perspective. He teaches us an invaluable lesson you cannot control what happens to you, but you can control how you frame it. You can't control how you see it.

Speaker 1: 13:03

So Paul's journey to Rome, in Acts, paul had a vision Acts 23, verse 11, to take the gospel to Rome, the epicenter of political power and cultural influence in this time. So imagine the impact he thought of sharing Jesus with the leaders of the known world. Imagine, because he was the opposite. He was the one seeking out these Christians. Now he was one of them. Yet Paul finally arrived in Rome. It wasn't as a celebrated preacher, but as a prisoner, chained, awaiting trial and possibly execution. His reality was far from what he had envisioned. I really don't. I mean, sometimes you're like, well, this is kind of the way it had to be, but I don't think Paul really looked at what it had to be. I think he was just seeing what it was as an opportunity to do what God called him to do.

Speaker 1: 14:06

And so in our key text Philippians 1, 12-14, we see the essence of this reframed principle. Despite his chains, paul saw his situation not as a setback but a set up for the gospel to advance in ways that he had never imagined and that would change churches forever. Every guard chained to him became an audience to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul didn't control his circumstances, but he could control his perspective. Control his circumstances, but he could control his perspective. And when you begin to realize that the dark place you are in right now isn't a place of being abandoned by the Father, but it is a place for you to shine the light of the gospel into the darkness, now you may see nothing but darkness around you. You may feel the weight of life on top of you, no light in sight. You feel that life has buried you alive. But you have not been buried and forgotten. You have been planted. So let's look at some more scripture to echo this principle. Okay, romans, chapter 8, verse 28.

Speaker 1: 15:24

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. Even in our darkest moments, god is weaving our stories for our good and his glory. See, here's something that I preach to my people all the time, and I hope that you internalize this as I share it with you. I'm pretty sure I've said it on this podcast before, but I want you to let this seed take root in your heart is that if your life belongs to God, then whatever he allows to happen and whatever he allows you to go through trials, tribulations, stress, trouble, drama that you are not causing.

Speaker 1: 16:10

Now come on somebody. You can cause some serious drama and sometimes you're like God I don't know what happened or Lord, why are you making me go through this? And he's just looking at you like that wasn't me, bro. So use your brain. Is it you or God allowing you to go through some things? There is a massive difference. One, you will always mess up and it will be a disaster. The other, it is working for your good. I guess, even if we're stupid, god still works it for our good, because I've done a lot of stupid and God has worked it for my good.

Speaker 1: 16:40

What I'm saying is don't blame God or question God about things you're causing. Be self-aware. You know what I mean, so understand. If your life belongs to God, then you should be living like it, no matter what happens, god is working it for your good. When you are being obedient, you are loved and you are called according to his purpose, so trust in God's sovereignty. When you finally begin to understand the mighty power of God, you begin to step back and let the good Lord do what only he can do.

Speaker 1: 17:25

Let's look over in James 1, 2 through 4. It says, dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy, for you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. Now think about this and let this sink in. Trials aren't just obstacles, they are opportunities. They're opportunities to grow your faith, and they are opportunities to grow your faith and they are opportunities to grow your endurance. Look at every obstacle that you go through, for let's give a simple example a flat tire where you have to get your oil changed. Like it's that time, dang it. I gotta go get this done.

Speaker 1: 18:14

Okay, when was the last time, as a believer, if you don't know god, just turn it off, change the channel, whatever you want to do. But if you are a believer, listen to me. When was the last time? As a believer, if you don't know God, turn it off, change the channel, whatever you want to do, but if you are a believer, listen to me. When was the last time you had to do something that you really didn't want to do because it was inconvenient, but you were looking for an opportunity anyways to share the gospel. When was the last time you said to God Lord, I'm really inconvenienced right now, but if you have a plan that I'm not seeing, would you reveal it to me and let it be known so that I know how to step, know how to speak, know how to walk this out? Because I guarantee you that if you are submissive to God's authority and you are sensitive to his spirit, there are things in your life that you're going to come into that you normally would be inconvenienced by. But then you realize, wait a minute, this is not an inconvenience, this is not a spot where I'm just going to be miserable and cry about it. This is actually something God has set up for me to do.

Speaker 1: 19:15

If we begin to look at it that way and that is our perspective we begin to see life differently. We begin to see obstacles differently, we begin to see trials and tribulations differently. All of a sudden, the people we're chained to now we're going to share the gospel with them and they're going to want to rotate out because they aren't liking what they're hearing, but that's okay. Aren't liking what they're hearing, but that's okay. I would rather share the gospel with 20 people and one person receives it and the rest hate me, than to shut my mouth and not say anything for fear that people may not like me. So trials aren't just obstacles, they're opportunities. Let every obstacle be an opportunity to show Christ, even when you don't agree with how things are going.

Speaker 1: 20:05

If you don't like how it feels, know that God knows more than you and can see things you can't. I'll let that sit there for a second. God knows more than you. He knows more than me. He saw, he knew you before you were ever even in your mother's womb, before your parents even met. He set things apart and put things in motion so that where you are right now is where he has you for a purpose and a season, has you for a purpose and a season for you to not only do what he's called you to do, to be used in the purpose that he has planted in you, in your heart long ago, but to also grow from where you are. A rubber band is useless until it stretches. A person remains weak until there is resistance to lift. So embrace the resistance, embrace the stretching, embrace the trials, because, as James said again we'll read it again Definitely worth repeating. Write this down, Matter of fact. I'll put it back on your screen for you so you can take a screenshot, or whatever you want to do with it.

Speaker 1: 21:18

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy, for you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. When God allows us to be tested, he's actually spurring us into growth. I think it's the eagle us into growth. I think it's the eagle, I'm not sure. Probably multiple birds do it, but one of them will make their babies bring thorns into the nest, to where the nest becomes so uncomfortable that they will want to jump out and fly. And if they don't jump out and fly, I believe if my, if it's not, then just we'll say it's true with something else, it's not, just we'll say it's true of something else they will push them out and make them have to fly, because they will not survive if they can't fly. And so maybe God is putting some thorns in your nest so that you will be brave enough or be uncomfortable enough to go out and do what you've already been told to do, but yet maybe you're scared and timid to do it. I don't know. That's between you and God and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead you, but I really want you to internalize this because we can sit and say we're doing God's work and feel good about ourselves. And in reality we're doing God's work and feel good about ourselves and in reality we're just maintaining, we're not growing, we're not doing anything more, we're just consuming, we're never contributing, and this leads to a stale relationship.

Speaker 1: 22:53

Imagine if your marriage was like this. Probably most are. That's why they end. They stop trying to please the other person and it becomes all about them. We're trying right now to teach our teenager this very same principle, because I was the same way teenagers and my son is so giving. He really is, but when it's in the house, he is completely selfish. He never thinks about anybody else. I say never. That's an extreme, is completely selfish. He never thinks about anybody else. I say never. That's an extreme. He's getting better. But he has to learn that that selfish behavior is not going to land here. Talking to people in disrespectful ways is not going to work in this house. He's learning I'm putting thorns in his nest so that he realizes that in order to make it safely in life. So trials are not obstacles, just obstacles. They're still obstacles, I mean, come on, but they are opportunities.

Speaker 1: 23:54

So let's look at another verse, look over in 2 Corinthians 4, 17 and 18. And before we read this, I want you to think about this Trust him with all your heart and lean out on your own understanding. Okay, that's also scripture. I didn't quote, I didn't cite the verse, but listen. So 2 Corinthians 4, 17 and 18, it says For our present troubles are small and won't last very long, yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever. So it's saying that the things that are coming against us is greatly smaller than what it produces out of us when we allow the Holy Spirit to do His work, when we actually learn the lesson. Now, that's key, right there. Learn your lesson.

Speaker 1: 24:49

How many of you hold on? Let's get a little widescreen here. How many of you have been through the same situation over and over, the same problem or the same person over and, over and over? And you wonder, why does this keep happening? Well, let me explain it to you very simply. You have not learned your lesson because you're still repeating the same negative, the same bad, the same toxic, like whatever it is that you're doing wrong. You keep repeating the same thing over and over again. So it's very easy to not see this when you're inside of the circumstance or inside your own head.

Speaker 1: 25:26

So what do you need? The Bible talks about wise counsel. You need someone outside of your bubble, probably outside of your family, unless you have somebody in your family that will speak truth. But most of the time, even if they're speaking truth, you, as their relative, will not receive it as being the actual spot on truth. Because you know them, you're familiar with them, you will excuse anything they say, because you just don't trust their word. You may love them, you may trust them, but you don't, you don't receive it as you would someone outside of that bubble, if that makes sense. So I hope, I hope you understand what I'm saying. So get somebody outside, get wise counsel around you. Be surrounded by wise counsel.

Speaker 1: 26:11

Okay, so let's look at this first, for our present troubles are small. Oh, I guess we already read that. We'll read it again. Why not, for our present troubles are small? Uh, oh, I guess we already read that. We'll read it again, why not? For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Okay, so what the troubles are going through, just say you're small, I don't have to waste my time on you, you will be over soon enough. Sometimes that soon enough is a month, sometimes that soon enough is a year or two years. But keep saying that like that's okay if it not done. Obviously I've got more to learn Perspective.

Speaker 1: 26:45

Yet they produce for us a glory. So for us they're producing a glory. A lot of times the Bible talks about God's glory, but in this they're actually producing a glory in us because of the perseverance. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever. So we don't look at the troubles we can see now, so don't focus on the trouble. Rather, we fix our gaze on things that we cannot be seen, for things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Speaker 1: 27:20

So he's actually talking about heavenly things. Focus on heavenly things, focus on the Lord, focus on how good he is. You can't be grateful enough to God, like you can't overdo gratefulness, you just can't. I mean God first of all. He never stops. So he's always doing something good, whether you know it.

Speaker 1: 27:39

Now, how many of you know that? You go through a season, you go through a situation and you're on the other side of it and you look back and you see God's goodness, but in the middle of it it was really hard to see. So trust that hindsight that you have seen God be faithful time and time and time again. Trust that and know that he is still that same God. Okay, so trust that and know that he is still that same god. Okay, so let's go on to. Uh. So paul reminds us to focus not on our temporary troubles but on on our temporary troubles. But on, hold on. Let's try that again.

Speaker 1: 28:23

Paul reminds us to focus not on our temporary troubles but on the eternal glory they're producing, eternal perspective on temporary troubles. This contrasts the temporary nature of our troubles with the eternal glory they're preparing for us. So what does that mean? Things will pass with time. Pain will pass with time. Hurt will pass with time.

Speaker 1: 28:57

Drama, trauma fill in the blank with whatever you got going on. It will pass with time. Drama, trauma fill in the blank with whatever you got going on. It will pass with time. But while it is passing. Take what good you can, what lessons you can, and let the opposition turn into opportunity for you to learn. Turn into opportunity for you to learn Change from.

Speaker 1: 29:23

Well, I know you probably heard this. It can't get much worse to. It could be much worse. If you can reframe your mind, you can restore your perspective back to biblical principles and promises. Every one of us has faced or will face circumstances beyond our control the job we didn't get, the relationship that didn't work out, the plan that fell apart. But, like Paul, we have the choice to reframe our perspective, our perspective. Ask yourself, what if your current obstacle is actually an opportunity? What if, in this waiting period, god is working behind the scenes in ways you can't yet see and maybe you're not ready for that season yet? I know that's tough. I know you want it now. You think you can handle it now.

Speaker 1: 30:24

But God knows more than we do. He sees more than we do. He is wiser than our greatest wisdom on this earth. He is more knowledgeable than all knowledge put together that we can obtain. He is bigger, better and badder than anything we can ever dream or come up with. He is God Almighty, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, he is the all-knowing, and so if that is true, if you're a believer and you believe in God, then you must submit to the notion that he is exactly who he says he is.

Speaker 1: 30:57

If not, you shouldn't be a believer. He is exactly who he says he is. If not, you shouldn't be a believer. Not that you can't have questions. You should seek, and the Bible says that you will find if you got questions. He is not scared of your questions in the slightest. But if he is your God, if he is your Lord, if he is your King, then you must. You must be okay with what he allows you to go through, but, as the Bible promises, what he allows us to go through, what we do go through, from the beginning of our life to the end of it, everything can be worked for the good of those that love him, for the good of those that love him. I love you. I'm praying for you, and look at this new year as the year Of where you get closer to God and you step into the calling that he's been calling you into all along. Hope you have a great and amazing week. Faith and Failures Podcast.