WW.trusttrace.ww - 7_28_26, 11.43 am

Stephanie Oliver, a speaker and author, discusses trusting God even when you can't understand His ways. She emphasizes the importance of knowing God's voice through scripture and not questioning His plans, even when faced with challenges. Stephanie shares a personal story of loss and how she rebuilt her faith in God's promises. She encourages listeners to believe in God's goodness and love, especially during difficult times, to maintain trust and faith in Him. Stay hydrated, yeah, yeah, alright let me go, it's my life scripture until I really begin to understand what it meant. How are the indizolines showing, are my teeth going ding, I feel like they are reflective do you have them in, no I didn't even know you had yours in, okay, oh shoot I have to put the intro in there because I always forget it, okay, okay, well welcome to the wisdom workshop podcast, my name is Stephanie Oliver, I'm an author, speaker and a pastoral counselor and I am so glad that you are joining me today for a conversation, today we are talking about trusting God and trusting Him when you can't trace Him and so I want you to join me today, we'll take a few minutes and dive into God's word and see what He has to say to us about how to walk in trust when you can't trace what God's doing, alright, so I want to start off with, it's my favorite scripture, one of them, I have three, this has probably been my favorite for the longest and it's Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 and I'm reading out of the New King James Version, it says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path, now I think that that scripture has been, it's been a foundation for how I live my life and I feel like for the most part, it doesn't challenge me in my ability to say, okay God, you're always right, I'm just going to do it the way you said and do what you said but there are times in our life where the scripture sounds beautiful but things start to go a little awry and we, the temptation to sit in what we understand becomes almost irresistible and I think that one of the most important things we can do as believers is learn to trust God when we can't figure out what in the world He's doing with our story, so I think there's some things that we have to lean into and I'm going to address a few of those today, so the first thing I think is that you have to be in a place where you know the voice of God, remember Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and another they will not follow, you have to cultivate a knowledge of God's Word that is so pervasive in your life that when God speaks to you, you know it's Him and you can ratify that by His Word and once you do that, you sit in that and you say, okay God, this is what you said to me about me, this is what you said to me about my situation, this is what you said to me about my life and establish yourself and your faith in that and then once you do that, then you have to resolve ahead of time, I'm going to believe that no matter what. Now, the minute you do that, your adversary becomes aware of your stand and then the opportunity to prove this scripture comes into view, so I think about how many times people have asked me what should they do when they've prayed, they've sought counsel, they've written down the Word of God, they've confirmed it in the scripture, they've confirmed it through their leadership, they've received confirmation and they've stepped out, I'm sorry, you're going to have to cut it because I've got to blow my nose, sorry Devin, okay, it is running, I don't know why, maybe because Penny was sitting here, I'm allergic to the dog by the way, okay, so I'm going to go back, what do you do when life becomes much harder than you expect, it doesn't make sense and you really can't understand what God's doing through the circumstances of your life and when what you believe God said and what you've heard God said and what was confirmed and what was affirmed in your life doesn't come to pass and you feel like my life looks anything, looks like anything but what God said it would. I think it's important that you resist the temptation to question the Lord, I heard Tony Evans say this some years ago, you can ask God a question but you don't get to question God because just like Job learned, where were you when he put the stars in place and where were you when he created the earth and the reality is he made you, you didn't make him and so I think when circumstances go in a direction that we didn't expect and they challenge our trust in God, we have to first remember that he is God and we are not and that's a humbling thing to recognize, okay, I don't know what the heck's going on in my life, I don't know why things are happening the way that they are and I'm really at the mercy of God and I think what's important about that is now you come face to face with what you truly believe about the character of God, is he good, is he loving, is he kind, is he merciful, is he everything that you believed he was when things were going the way you thought they should go and so I think it's so important that you don't sit in this space of why God and questioning God's motives and questioning God's character because that's really the aim of the enemy through hardship and trials. That's literally why I think James and Peter, they admonish us to rejoice when we're going through trials, to rejoice when hard things happen to us because the character of God for us never changes, even if he has to take a bad circumstance and turn it around for our good, he will because that's who he is and so I think it's important that we remember when Proverbs says trust in the Lord with all of your heart, it means first of all not just the parts that you like, not just the parts that are easy to trust him in, even in the parts that are difficult and when you do that, you can't lean on what you think is right and what you think it should be. I can think of how so many Christians that get into a space of frustration with God because they have an idea of how things should go and it's not in agreement or in alignment with the way that God has designed for things to go and we develop those ideas based on our experience, our interactions, and our limited knowledge as a human being. He's ordered our steps based on his vast knowledge of the entire universe and the Bible says he knows the end from the beginning, so it's so important that we remember he's smarter than us, he knows more than us, he's literally everywhere and we are only here. So it's just an opportunity for us to walk in humility and recognize that God is God and we are not and that's enough of a reason to say, okay God, you know better what you're doing with my life than even I could, but pride challenges us and we get in a space where we're like, well, I don't really know if that's true for me and I don't really know if God is good for me. I know God's good to other people. Like I said, we end up face to face with our own perception of God's character and who he is and we really get an opportunity to confront, do I believe what the word says about God? Do I believe God and what he says about who he is and do I accept that not just as truth, but as truth for me, as truth for my life? When God says he heals, do I believe that he can heal me? Do I believe that he will heal me? When God says he restores, do I believe he will restore my marriage? Do I believe he will restore my child? Do I believe he will restore my well-being? It's that transition that says, I don't just believe God is good. I don't just believe God is love, but I believe that he is good and he is love toward me. It personalizes him. I think another thing that's important to consider is what happens when we have believed the word of the Lord and the circumstance doesn't align with what we believe God says. I think it creates something that I like to call injured faith and I think that's an important part of this particular scripture. How do you trust God and not lean to your own understanding when everything you believed God to be and you thought he would demonstrate in a circumstance doesn't happen that way? There's a time in my life where I knew the Lord had spoken to me that we would have another child. I had my daughter. She was like two, almost three. We were trying for another child and it seemed to be a struggle, like month after month. Then we're like, no, I'm not pregnant. No, I'm not pregnant. I remember that later in the year, it was like August, late August or September of that year of 2001, I was in the hospital. I felt the Lord firmly speak to me like, you're going to get pregnant. You're going to get pregnant. I remember praying through it and I wrote it down in my journal and checked in September and I wasn't pregnant, but I checked again in October and I was like seven weeks pregnant. The Lord was really faithful. We were super excited. We were going to have the second baby. The word of the Lord came and it was confirmed. Then the first week of December rolled around and I lost that baby. I can remember feeling like, but God, you said I would have this kid. You said we would get pregnant. We would have our second child. For about two to three weeks, I just sat in this space of disbelief that God didn't do what he said he would do. The enemy that really came for me in just my own ability to believe that God was good and that what he said was true. I realized after about the second week, that's what the devil was after. It wasn't just the baby that he took. It was an attempt to steal my faith or my trust or my ability to rely on what God says. I can remember after that second week of recovery outside of a surgery, the Holy Spirit began to deal with me and I began to go through the scriptures and just look up all the promises about childbirth and about family and about God's faithfulness and his love and his word. I began to build my faith to a place where I could actually believe God and try again. We decided we were going to try again in the month of January. We went to the doctor and the doctor said, well, there's something going on in your body. I'm going to need to send you for some ultrasound. There's some things there that I didn't expect to see. Then I thought, oh, wow, really? First I lose the baby and now the doctor's like there's something nefarious going on in your body. I don't know if that's why. We weren't showing up pregnant like on a pregnancy test. I remember they sent me to three ultrasounds. I went to one and they said, we're going to have to send you to a specialist. I went to a specialist and the first lady came in and she said, huh, I don't know. Then the third ultrasound tech came in and did the ultrasound and literally sat there and she said, Ms. Oliver, there is nothing wrong with you. I want you to look at this picture and that thing right there that's flickering is a heartbeat. It's a heartbeat. It looks like you're about seven or eight weeks pregnant. I remember just weeping in that office because first of all, there was no way I can be seven or eight weeks pregnant based on natural circumstances, except that God did something before I lost that other baby and had one already in the wings. That child is my second son, my second child. I call him my second son and he makes fun of that because we believe the first one was a boy based on the testing and stuff. I cry when I think about how the enemy tried to use the circumstance as a smokescreen for my ability to trust in the Lord and not lean on my own understanding. Everything I understood about the situation said there was no kid. We lost the child that God said we would have and that we were dealing now with some sort of medical issue and the Lord in just a second, really more like 30 minutes. He took that circumstance and I could hear his voice reminding me, lean not to your own understanding. He used what the doctor thought was a medical issue to put me face to face with what I knew to be a miracle. I later learned how that can happen. They have a whole biological explanation for how that can happen and I'm grateful for that. But for me, it was a test of faith and it was an opportunity to recover from a moment where my faith was really injured and I had walked away in disappointment and to see God take it and completely turn it around, not based on the things I understood, but based on his goodness. And so I think about the second verse where it says, in all your ways acknowledge him. It's so important when we've walked through an experience that challenges or injures our faith, that we acknowledge him and that we take a moment and say, okay, God, you are here. Now talk to me or show me or speak to me or help me. We're going to talk a little bit more about this. We're going to take a quick break for our wisdom wind and I will see you on the other side. Okay, I don't like crying because I can't talk when I cry. It's her husband. He's the miracle child. I'll need him to remember that. Okay. Oh, I missed a good line I wrote. The verse emphasizes the limits of our own understanding and its antagonism against our ability to trust God. I like that. You can also send that to me and we can use it over some B-roll as like a phrase and people can just keep watching it. Oh, I can just clip it then. That's a very good idea. Just send me the phrase. It's Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Okay. I love you. Okay, I love you too. Sorry, I had to see you cry. Are you kidding? No, that was like, I'm telling you the Lord is doing something. And we're breaking into uncharted territory with this podcast. Amen. I received that. Okay. We have to remember that the scripture says, do not depend on your own understanding. And this is so important because the verse really emphasized the limits of our understanding. And we have to be able to recognize we're limited. And that becomes antagonistic to our ability to trust God. You know, the Hebrew word for trust there really means to be confident, to be bold, and to be secure. That means I think the term we use now is we lock in. You lock in on what God says. You lock in on what he's promised. You lock in on his word concerning you. And it would make you feel that's where you find the safety. That's where you find the peace. That's where you find the ability to be bold and say, nope, I know what this looks like, but I trust God. The other thing is the Hebrew word for understanding. I always look up the Hebrew when I'm reading the Old Testament. I like it, and I think it's a richer understanding of what God's saying. But it literally means that we're seeing what is between things. So our understanding is our capacity to see between the lines. We don't do that very well when it comes to our life because we don't know the end from the beginning. Only God is able to really see between the lines. He's the only one that's able to really say, okay, I know it looks like this, but this is what's actually happening that you can't see. I think it's exciting when we really know what God's doing, but I also think it can be exciting when we don't. Because that is the point when we find safety and we find peace and we find boldness and we find security in everything but what the world has to offer. And that's the eternal treasure of knowing Christ and knowing God and having a personal relationship with him. So I want to say when we are acknowledging God, I think I was talking about that earlier. I forgot to say welcome back. Okay. We're acknowledging God. It's putting our attention on him. He says in all your ways acknowledge him. You've got to give him your attention in whatever arena or circumstance that you are living in. And so we know God's character. We recognize it's not changing. And we're willing to sit with the situation and sit with God in the situation long enough to discern where are you, Lord? Where are you? There's a saying that I like to repeat over and over again. It doesn't matter what's going on in our life. God is always and already at work. I want to say that again. It doesn't matter what's going on in your life. God is always and already at work in it. And it's our responsibility to take time to seek him, to give him our attention, to acknowledge him. He's so faithful about that whole requirement. He said he will direct our path. He meets us on the other side of us. And I think we have to get to a place where we are humble enough because I do believe that pride is the enemy of trust. We got to be right. We have to know and we want to be in control. And it's pride that feeds our desire for control. And the Lord, you know, he's better than that to us. We don't need our pride the way that we think we do. We don't need control the way that we think we do. He actually is more capable and able to govern and order our steps better than we ever could. Think about your own life. How many times has the Lord redirected you and you didn't understand it? And then you look back to say, whew, I'm glad I didn't do that. Or I'm glad I did that. So we have to be in a place where we remember that and we acknowledge him in that. A couple more things I want to share connected to this scripture that I think are relevant. And the next one is about blind obedience. What is it going to take for you to obey without having all the details? Again, I think blind obedience is not necessarily that we're blind. We don't have our eyes closed. We just have them focused on God. I think one of the things we experience anxiety about the most is not having all the information. Because we're trained, at least here in America, we're trained to go to school, learn what you can so that you can do what you have to do. But in God, you don't have to know all of the pieces in order to do what he said you have to do. You just have to keep your mind focused on him. And I think the enemy uses anxiety to stop us from doing that. But Isaiah reminds us that he will keep us in perfect peace if we keep our mind stayed on him and we trust in him, meaning that we rely and we have confidence in him. So obeying what God has clearly revealed, even when he's not given you everything, is to me the next step after Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. If you want to actually walk in the path that he shows you and that he's directed you to, then you've got to be willing to go forward and follow him even when you don't know what the end's going to be. I think we see that all throughout scripture. Abraham, we see it with Moses, we see it with Joseph. All of them are narratives where God gave them direction and he directed their path, but they had no clue what the end would be, but they knew that it would be good because they knew the character of God to be good. I think that it's important for us to reflect and think about a time when God asked us to do something and it didn't totally make sense, but we did it anyway, and then we saw the blessing of the Lord meet us on the other side. And here's what I love. The Bible says the blessing of the Lord makes rich and adds no sorrow. So it's so important that when you get into it and you're following the path that he's directed you on, that you remember, wait a minute, if I'm experiencing hardship or sorrow and I know I've obeyed God, it's an attempt of the enemy to derail my faith. And remember, we've already resolved ahead of time. He doesn't get to do that. He doesn't get to do it. Another one, I think, is to recognize that when you step out in obedience, you are going to see God bless you on the other side, but it doesn't mean the road's always going to be easy. Even a smooth road requires that you put some effort and some work to overcome the gap between where you are and where you want to be. And so I think sometimes people get over into things. I can say that as a business owner. How many times have I stepped out with business and I thought it was going great, and then all of a sudden it got rocky and things weren't the way they needed to be, and I got worried and I got over into anxiety, and the Lord had to remind me. And then I thought about Job. You know, Job gets into this situation where he's completely righteous, obeying the Lord, serving the Lord. Then all hell breaks loose in his life. And he has to walk through several different tests concerning that, right? First, he has to deal with his own woe is me mentality. He gets through that, and then he has these people in his life that he trusts, these people that have actually been there for him in the past, and that have been the voice of reason and the voice of care. And then they begin to speak to him in a manner that's contrary to what God's doing to him. I remember one of my favorite verses in Job is where he tells his friend, I'm sorry, who made you wisdom? You know, when did you create stars and do all this? And he had to challenge the wisdom of his friend, because he knew that it wasn't aligning with what God had given him to do and the path God had directed him on. And then Job continues on, and he finally takes these questions to the Lord, and then the Lord quickly reminds him, and the Lord quickly reminds him that I am God, you are not, and you're either going to trust that and trust that I'm going to pull you through this, or you're going to forfeit everything I have for you on the other side of your obedience. And I think that the Lord often comes to us the same way. Hey, I know you don't like what you're going through, and I know you feel like it's my fault that you've gone through it, because you did what I told you to do, and this is how it's going, but I need you to stick with me. You've got to stick with him. God needs us to stick with him and his way and his word long enough to see it all the way through, because people often talk about Job's suffering, and they relate to Job. They say, oh, I'm in a Job season because I'm suffering all these things, but they forget the last two chapters of the book. The book ends way better than it started, and I believe that that's God's reminder to us, hey, the end of a thing is going to be better than the beginning. There's a scripture that says that, and it reminds us that patience is required. Perseverance is required. The scripture literally says it's better to be patient than to be proud. That's the remedy for getting through the hard part when you have started to obey and God's directed your path and you haven't seen the blessing yet. Well, we're coming to an end to this discussion on what it means to trust God with all your heart and to lean not to your own understanding, to acknowledge him in all your ways, and allow him to direct your path, and I hope that you've heard something that blesses you and that helps you carry that scripture forward so that you can continue on the path that God's created for you and realize that the wisdom of God is meeting you in it and helping you get to the other side. I don't know. I don't have my outro here, so I don't know. That's totally great. I think you should say something, and we'll catch you next time. Okay. Yeah. So glad you were able to join us for this conversation. We'll catch you next time. Yeah, and then we just need to do the pickup of welcome back. Oh, Lord, he's going to have a hard time. We're going to get better, Devin. We're going to get better. Okay. Welcome back. Let's... I think you just say welcome back. I do. I say welcome back. Let's jump right in. Yeah. Okay. Okay, Devin, I'm sorry. That's on camera. Welcome back. Welcome back. Let's jump right in, back into our discussion about what it looks like to trust God when you can't trace him. Great. He's going to say you need to re-record that. No, I should have done a better job of, like, directing that part because I was in it. I did forget how to rebuild injured faith, but I talked about patience. I think you did such a great job.