GGB+ | Angela — The Power of Choice | PREVIEW

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Speaker 1 And Jesus is standing right in front of him saying, I'm here. I'm willing to help you, but you have to meet me and you have to partner with me.
God longs to partner with us.

Speaker 1 From the beginning of time with Adam and Eve, he's always wanted to co-labor and partner with us and do this with us. He's not just far away in heaven, so far from us.
He's here. He's in it.

Speaker 1 He's in the mess. But we have to meet him.
We have to allow him and we have to say yes. Jesus says, would you like to get well? The guy starts making excuses as to why he can't.

Speaker 1 So I don't know what might be in your life that there's an area in your life that is hindering you, that's hurting you, that's making you sad.

Speaker 1 And I'm not saying that it's not valid because it's completely valid. But is there a chance that you're making excuses to sit in it? That you're saying, oh, well, but this person really did hurt me.

Speaker 1 But this person really did break my heart. But this person really did do this.
And I really did. I am valid.
And it's like, yes, you are valid. You are.
You are.

Speaker 1 But love yourself enough to not want to be valid and want to be better. That's what I encourage you for.

Speaker 1 It's like when you're in a fight with someone and it's like you love that person so much, you'd rather be good with them, rather be right in the argument.

Speaker 1 You'd rather win the relationship than win the argument. I would rather just get well than have my emotions validated.
So the man is making all these excuses and then Jesus tells him.

Speaker 1 Jesus is just like, hey, you're coming up with all these things. You're saying all these things.
You're going into your trauma. You're going into your hurt.
You're doing this. You're doing that.

Speaker 1 And I'm just saying, all right, stand up. He like I want you to know that that's how easy it is to receive healing, to receive deliverance, to receive freedom, liberation.

Speaker 1 Like God is like, just stand up. We might feel all these things, but we have the choice to submit to God, to have a different perspective, to see clearly.

Speaker 1 Sometimes our negative emotion completely distorts and destroys our vision and our ability to see clearly.

Speaker 1 And Jesus, in this moment of deep, deep agony, he still had clear vision of being like, Yes, this is how I'm feeling, but I know that this is the end result.

Speaker 1 And that's where choice comes into that: of being like, I'm gonna choose, although I feel this way, I'm gonna choose to believe God. I'm gonna choose to have this perspective.

Speaker 1 I'm gonna choose to go this way that God is calling me to.

Speaker 1 And then my other favorite part about this: so, in his agony, in his suffering, it says that an angel from heaven, so Jesus prays, and then immediately God sends an angel from heaven to appear and strengthen him.

Speaker 1 So in his agony, in his suffering, Jesus sent an angel to strengthen him.

Speaker 1 And it said that then he even prayed more fervently.

Speaker 1 So in our negative emotion, in our sadness, in our brokenness, in our depression, in our suicidal thoughts, in our disordered eating, in our addiction, in all of the things that we face, you guys, we call on the name of Jesus.

Speaker 1 And he sends us an angel or himself to strengthen us. And so, even in the midst of our suffering, we then pray even more fervently.

Speaker 1 What I encourage you is that when you're going through something negative, do not let it hinder your prayer life, but let it strengthen you.

Speaker 1 Let God, amidst your pain, strengthen you that you would pray even harder in that time.