Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Oh, my goodness.
[00:00:04] Hey, welcome back. It's been a couple of weeks. I've been extremely busy. Had a little bout with sickness. So, anyway, here we are again.
[00:00:14] This is the Grace and Grit Mindset podcast. I'm Shannon Williams, your host, and we have been in a fun series called the Steadfast One. And what we've been doing is looking at these different attributes or aspects of God in His steadfastness.
[00:00:33] Because he is steadfast in absolutely every area of who he is, every facet of who he is. We can always rely on that steadfastness character that he has.
[00:00:45] And so I had an idea a few, I don't know, months ago of putting together a series, and then eventually this will become a book that I'm working on as well. So. So every episode is getting me closer to releasing something that I'm so excited about because it's going to bring together the concept of, I guess, a little bit of devotional teaching. It leans more towards, I guess, the teaching, but not so heavy that you couldn't read it in just 15 minutes, maybe. And then behind every single one of these meditation truths is a meditation section to help you really mull that over, because it means meditation is to, like, ponder something, to roll it over, and to continually bring it up into your mind constantly.
[00:01:38] That's what we do. We meditate on the Lord, as opposed to meditating to the negative things in the world, or our problems or our suffering and pain. We actually are commanded to meditate on him, his law, day and night.
[00:01:52] So this will be a great tool because it will kind of bring those two ideas together of, okay, how can I make my day better? Okay, One of the ways I can make it better, because I may not be able to change my circumstances, but I can change my perspective, I can change my responses if I learn to meditate on the Lord. And by doing that, that will begin to change my character. I'll begin to transform into the person that God wants me to be. So and has for me to be. So my voice is like, hey, what's going on today?
[00:02:29] So bear with me.
[00:02:31] But I'm super excited because, you know, just. Just these moments of meditation and thinking about him being the Steadfast One in different ways can really set your day up for so much better of a day. I just challenge you to take this seriously for, I don't know, just try this for even a week. This idea and this principle of taking maybe go back and listen to every one of my episodes daily on the Steadfast One where I focus on a different aspect of God and then meditate on that truth.
[00:03:08] Find those scriptures that I talk about and do that for a week straight, because I think there's probably five, six, seven of those already.
[00:03:14] And see if your day or if your week didn't just seem like a much better week. And it's not that anything changed in your circumstances, but maybe you figured out that you are elevated above your circumstances because you have learned how to behold him, which is what meditation is in some way. It's a beholding of the Father and the Son and the Spirit, and it really just is going to change your life. It has definitely changed mine. So as you can tell, I'm really excited about it.
[00:03:49] We have covered quite a few of the aspects of his steadfastness, like he's a rock, he's a refuge, he's a shepherd, he's my father. And then we went over just the general understanding of what it means for him to be steadfast, what steadfast actually means, and the covenant language that it kind of alludes to.
[00:04:14] So this week we're going to talk about God is my strength.
[00:04:19] And, you know, for me, this is a very real meditation and thought that I have, because I have been down this road my whole life.
[00:04:31] If you have listened to any of my.
[00:04:36] Well, if you've read any of my books and some of my podcast episodes, whether it be here or on my other podcast, I've talked about being bullied as a child, and I've talked about my weaknesses a lot.
[00:04:49] I'll just kind of recap that for you. But I was born with some facial cranial deformities. A lot of times you see babies that have the helmet on, and it is too, because partially their soft spot has grown up. Grown already. They were born with a partially closed soft spot, actually was a better way to say it. And so what happens is, in order to keep the. The brain and the skull to form correctly, the helmet helps keep things in place. And so for whatever reason that my doctor, my mom's doctor, and the one that delivered me did not feel that I needed that. And I really, really don't understand that because that really would have helped me in so many ways. But I also had a severe lazy eye. I had to have surgery when I was 2. My mom says, I mean, it was a really bad lazy eye crossed. I mean, it wasn't just lazy. It literally would cross the absolutely other direction. So have a lot of, you know, I have some pictures and I cringe I'm gonna be honest when I see these pictures of me as a little toddler, little, little baby with crossed eyes, so you can imagine that. That those two things combined created in me a real sense of deficiency, a real sense of weakness, and that there's something wrong with me. And unfortunately, you know, my.
[00:06:19] My issues were very external and they were things that everybody else could see.
[00:06:25] You know, sometimes people are born with issues inside their body. You know, maybe genetic mutations or abnormalities, and you can't see them. And that's horrible. Absolutely horrible.
[00:06:36] But for me, the fact that other people could see it made me very ashamed. And it made me feel very weak and vulnerable.
[00:06:45] And so what I did, thank God I did it, thank God I did something right, was that I ran to God as a little girl.
[00:06:53] The feeling of. That I had internally of just feeling like I was weak and, you know, just did not have my own strength.
[00:07:09] It pushed me towards him. And I was fortunate enough to be in a family that we went to church every Sunday, every Wednesday, sometimes Tuesday nights, Sunday nights as well. And then my parents were always in, like, gospel groups, so we were constantly going with them to things in the area, revivals and things like that that they were going to be singing at. So. So all I knew was God. And honestly, for me, I felt that safeness, that warmth, that strength that he provided. And I knew even as a little girl that I could run to him. And so I learned at first, you know, at first I hated my weakness. I'm going to say that I hated it. I despised it, especially as I got into my teenage years, because the older you get, you know, as you grow up as a child, you start to become more self aware. And that self awareness is what creates a lot of our issues, a lot of our shame, a lot of our self, our inferiority complexes that we might have, or we start. Our personality starts to change because we are trying to hide or whatever the case may be. For me, it was definitely trying to hide, which was so crazy, because the Lord called me to stand out. He called me to stand on stages and sing and talk and to have people look at me, which was like, what? Are you serious? So, but I'm saying all that to say that I had to learn pretty quickly that he was my strength.
[00:08:42] And so when you're not naturally a strong person, like, and I mean in terms of like, you know, like you're just born as kind of that runt of the litter, that's. That's what I would say. I felt like the runt of the litter, and you just feel inadequate. It's. It's a little bit easier for you to run to God because there's not as much. There's not as much pride in the way you're kind of desperate. And so for me, finding strength in God has been.
[00:09:14] I feel like kind of the lifeline of the thread through my whole life was not, you know, and it also. Not only did it lead me to that, but it's kept me in a place of.
[00:09:27] I wouldn't say no one's completely humble about everything, but it's kept me leaning towards the Lord, leaning on him, because I remember where he brought me from. I remember who I was, I remember how weak I was. And so it's not really a struggle for me.
[00:09:43] It can start to become that as I become more and more so successful in life and as I overcome things, adversity and challenges that most people crumble under, you can start to think, oh, that was me that did that. But then I'm reminded, oh, no, I remember who I was when he found me.
[00:10:04] I remember he. He and I know it, and I'll say that to him sometimes. You and I both know who I was.
[00:10:10] This is all you. The only reason I am doing anything successfully or any great accomplishments or character development, development in me. And it's because of you.
[00:10:23] So I just wanted to read a few. I wanted to set that up for you, but I want to read a few passages for you that I think are just beautiful. Psalm 18:1 2. I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge. This is the David saying these things.
[00:10:45] Psalm 28, 7 and 8. The Lord is my strength and my shield. In him my heart trusts and I am helped. The Lord is the strength of his people. He is the saving refuge of his anointed. I love that.
[00:10:59] So realizing he's my strength, I can. I can trust him. And then that leads into allowing him to help me. My humility to say I am weak and I lack strength, leads me into. But I know who you are. Your character is solid, you are steadfast. I trust you. And that leads into him helping me. So it starts with that humility is the backbone. I believe of absolutely everything in the kingdom of God.
[00:11:28] I love. Psalm 73:26. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever.
[00:11:39] So that's probably one of my most favorite verses that talks about strength, the strength of God because it doesn't say, like, if my flesh fails or if my heart fails, or it's saying, you know, it's probably going to happen at some point.
[00:11:58] My flesh may fail, my heart may fail, but God does not. So it reminds us of that eternal strength of who he is, that he cannot fail.
[00:12:11] He has unlimited strength.
[00:12:14] And it's not that he has to go back and recharge sometimes. It's literally constant. He is the source of all life and strength. I love Isaiah 40:28. The Lord is the everlasting God. He does not grow faint or weary.
[00:12:31] He gives power to the faint. And to him who has no might, he increases strength. Man, that is so good. And then right after that, those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.
[00:12:45] So here's something to remember as you're pondering that scripture. God doesn't become stronger.
[00:12:53] We just receive strength from the one who never grows weary. You know, I found myself in seasons of my life where something drug on and on and on. And I'm specifically thinking about, like, jobs that I hated. That God, he put me in those jobs, you know, for reasons beyond my understanding, but I needed them. We needed the financial blessing of the job, but I just hated it. I felt caged.
[00:13:18] And there were times when I would just say, lord, I don't. You know, I'm four years into this job that I hate. I don't have the strength to take, keep doing this. So right now, I'm calling on your strength. You are limitless. You do not grow weary or faint. And your word promises me that when I ask you, you'll give power to me. I am weak.
[00:13:42] And I leaned.
[00:13:44] Instead of running away from my weakness or acting like it wasn't there, I actually learned that.
[00:13:50] And this is just another scripture we're going to read that when I was weak, he was strong. It was actually good place to be. Even though I hated it. I didn't want to be weak. Did anybody ever really want to be weak?
[00:14:02] Like, nobody likes that feeling of feeling like you have to depend on someone else because you can't do it for yourself. But that's exactly what weakness does for us. It keeps us in a place of humility. And we realize that here he is, everlasting, and he never gets tired, and he never wavers in his strength.
[00:14:30] It's never up and down, and he needs a break. And, oh, my gosh, it's Sunday. Can you just leave me alone? I need to rest.
[00:14:36] He never gets weary. And so when you start to realize that that he actually welcomes you to come into his presence and to ask him for strength, that he actually likes it.
[00:14:48] You're not annoying to him.
[00:14:50] You aren't getting on his nerves because you constantly need strength. Actually, I would say the needier you are, the better.
[00:14:58] And that's so crazy, isn't it? Because that's not the world we live in.
[00:15:04] If we were to constantly ask somebody for strength or help or whatever, they would get annoyed with us pretty quickly. Even our parents right after. Like, come on, on, you're 45 years old. Can't you. Can't you get this together? You know? But he never says that. And I think this shows just his patience and his. His persistence. His.
[00:15:26] His heart to help us is so huge that we can't even understand it.
[00:15:32] Exodus 15:2. God Himself is my strength. The Lord is my strength and my song. And he has become my strength. Salvation. I love this. And this is Moses and Israel song. Immediately after they crossed the Red Sea.
[00:15:48] This wasn't theoretical for them. They weren't saying, oh, I'm gonna metaphorically paint a picture. You know, he's my strength and my song. No, they're saying, this is not symbolic. They're saying it after God really did what they could not possibly have done for themselves. Could they have really parted the Red Sea and crossed it?
[00:16:11] Could they have really escaped Pharaoh? I mean, his chariots and horses, they were overtaken when the Red Sea came back together. I mean, could they have really done this? No, there's no way. And they knew it.
[00:16:25] And they were like, he is so strong. He is so mighty.
[00:16:33] Isaiah 12, 2. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and I will not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he's become my salvation. Now, I gotta say, because I am a musician, this is one of the scriptures that I have posted on my website because I love this idea that God has become my strength and my song. There's something special, so beautiful about singing this truth that God is my strength and that he is the very literal song that I sing. I don't sing about his strength. I sing that he is strength, that he is my strength. And now he is my song. So this is just really cool.
[00:17:18] There's this beautiful thread of having strength when you're afraid. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Who shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Whom shall I be afraid? That's Psalm 27:1.
[00:17:31] I just. I love this. It's the strength. He's the strength. I Receive when I hide in his refuge. Psalm 46:1, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. He doesn't just have strength, he is strength. And it's a place that I can run to and hide in his strength.
[00:17:53] And then if you're exhausted, Habakkuk 3:17 says, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. God. The Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the deer's. He makes me tread on my high places. Listen, when you have these moments of I, I met. I'm at the end of my rope here, Lord, that's actually a really good place to be because you're going to be just like Moses and the Israelites when they had to cross the Red Sea and there was no other way except for God to intervene in his strength and his might.
[00:18:32] And that's what you have to look forward to in those moments where you are at the end of your rope and you have nothing left. I promise you this.
[00:18:43] You will call upon him, and he can, and he will become your strength, and he will make your feet like deers, and he'll enable you to tread on those super high places that are so hard that most people give up on. So many people when life gets this hard and they're this exhausted, this is when they decide, I think I don't really want to be a Christian anymore.
[00:19:12] I think it was so much easier when I was just doing it without God. It's actually become more challenging since I became a Christian and started following Him. And that very well is probably true, because now that you are walking in fellowship with him, you're more aware of the principalities, the demonic, the stuff that constantly gets thrown, thrown at you. Not to mention the Lord also shaping and molding you. You've got a lot of stuff, you know, for your good, but it hurts.
[00:19:46] And I just want to encourage you, if you're listening right now and you have been like, I am so ready to just throw in the towel.
[00:19:52] Don't.
[00:19:53] He's shaping you.
[00:19:56] And the crazy thing is he's using your weakness to draw you to him so that you can walk in complete dependence upon his strength. And then, of course, these are famous passages in the New Testament, 2nd Corinthians 12, 9. My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect.
[00:20:17] I would say perfect, meaning complete whole in your weakness. These are Paul's words, because Paul is begging God. Practically three times he's begged God, please take this, this thorn in my flesh, this weakness away from me.
[00:20:31] And then you know, the Lord says, no, My grace is sufficient.
[00:20:35] So there's a sufficiency in grace for the season that you're in.
[00:20:41] God will always provide for you a grace to get through the season that you're in. And when you feel weak and powerless, there is a grace. You have to tap into it, and that requires honesty with the Lord, humility and asking him for it.
[00:21:01] Instead of asking him to constantly change your situation, ask him to teach you and to show you what he wants you to learn. Ask him to become strong in your weakness. Thank him that you're weak. Goodness gracious, that's a crazy talk. Thank God for your weakness because it's drawing you in to the heart of him, of the heart of the Father, to teach you more about who he is.
[00:21:32] And he is your everything, my everything, our everything. He is I am that I am.
[00:21:39] So every situation that you walk through is not meant to destroy you. It's meant to teach you more about I am that I am. And I am all that you need. I am provision, I am anointing, I am favor, I am protection, I am wisdom, I am strength, I am might, I am your stronghold. I mean, come on, everything, y'. All. I'm your shepherd, I'm your rock, I'm your refuge. I'm your Father.
[00:22:11] I mean, He's I am that I am. That's why there is no name that can fully encompass him, because he's literally all of it.
[00:22:21] So thank God for your weakness and don't give up. Don't let it cause you to give up in a way that's like I'm walking away from God, but let it push you and pull you even more into who he is.
[00:22:35] So don't be stronger in yourself. Be strong in him. You know, Philippians 4:13. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
[00:22:44] And that's just not about, hey, I can get anything I want and whatever. Because Paul is really talking about in that context. He's actually talking about learning to live through plenty or hunger or abundance and need. He's talking about it doesn't matter what my situation is. I can do that. I can walk through this because Christ, Christ in me is the one that's strengthening me.
[00:23:11] What a beautiful concept. You are not looking inward to your own self and your own strength. You're looking inward to the strength of Christ, the Son of God, the Holy Spirit of God who now resides in you, is this source of eternal strength. All you need to do is to look inward to Him.
[00:23:38] Focus your attention on him. Not on you. Not on the circumstance. All you have to do is say, I know that I'm weak, and confess that. Confess that to him.
[00:23:51] Yep. Christ gives me strength to remain faithful and content.
[00:23:56] Content regardless of what circumstances I'm walking through. That's challenging sometimes.
[00:24:05] Yes, yes, yes, yes. This is so good. I hope that you're still here and you're getting a little bit. Oh, gosh, maybe you're getting a little bit excited about being weak. Are you getting excited about being weak? Because I think I'm a little bit excited about that.
[00:24:22] You know, something interesting about this word that's in a lot of these passages. We've been reading about strength. In several of these Old Testament passages, you'll encounter, it looks like Oz O Z E is how we say it, meaning strength, might and power.
[00:24:43] What's interesting is that this repeated construction is something like this. Yahweh is my strength. Not merely Yahweh gives me strength. It's Yahweh is my strength. I mean, there are certainly some scriptures in the Old Testament where God gives strength to people, but it also makes this more profound statement that God himself is strength for his people.
[00:25:05] So maybe here's a thought for you as we're wrapping this up. Maybe steadfastness isn't about becoming a person who never gets weak. Maybe it's learning where to go with your weakness.
[00:25:18] That's such a good summary of what we've been talking about.
[00:25:23] So, you know, here's the thing. You know, According to Psalm 73, My heart, my flesh may fail, but God remains the strength and my portion forever.
[00:25:32] So it's not saying my flesh and my heart will never fail. It's actually saying they will fail. They probably will fail. They may fail. More than likely you're going to have times where your heart, just because of what you're going through and the pain and the suffering and the despair in this world is probably going to fail.
[00:25:53] So you can't rely on your own strength.
[00:25:59] You left to learn how to allow God.
[00:26:03] He is the strength of your heart and your portion. And it's not that you have to try to talk yourself into that. It's to really meditate on this truth and wrap your mind around it and realize that it is true, that this is not just theory.
[00:26:20] This is true. He is the strength of your heart. All you must do is turn toward Him.
[00:26:28] When you turn your face toward God, man, fullness of joy is found in his, in his presence and pleasures forevermore. So walking, you know, because I Think we kind of don't understand what it means to be in the presence of God because I mean, honestly, we are, we are always in the presence of God, right, of course now because we have the Holy Spirit with us. But there's this, there's this concept of turning toward him and, and being intentional. That's what it is. It's being intentional about it and actually acknowledging him.
[00:27:02] Some of us think, well, why do I need to really do that? He's always with me. Because like, how would you like to be in a relationship with someone who never talked to you, who never acknowledged that you were there?
[00:27:12] How about we say things like, I thank you Lord, right now I know you're with me in this moment.
[00:27:18] Thank you for being with me, Father. Thank you for being with me, Holy Spirit. Thank you Jesus for allowing for doing what you did and tearing the veil and re establishing the connection between me and the Father that I can know right now in this moment, you're all three with me and you're for me.
[00:27:39] See how that changed my entire attitude? Instead of me thinking I'm alone and I'm weak actually like, but you're with me.
[00:27:46] So you are my strength. I don't have to manufacture strength.
[00:27:51] I am weak. And I'm coming to you because you are my strength. I am here again, Lord. Fill me up with your strength. Help me to do the things that you want me to do that I am destined to do.
[00:28:04] So I hope that makes you feel better this week.
[00:28:08] I get so excited when I talk about these things, y'. All. It's just the word of God is so powerful, active, sharper than any two edged sword, right? Rightly dividing truth from lies, in our soul from our spirit. So listen, I hope this blessed you this week. If it did, please, please, please, please reach out to me. Shanna. ShannaWilliams.com make sure you follow me on my hand, my social media channels. I'm everywhere y'. All, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, all the places. I think even LinkedIn find me. If you want to be encouraged, definitely check out my website, shannonwilliams.com youm'll find blogs, you'll find links to my other podcast.
[00:28:54] I also have books on Amazon you can go buy that will help you. All the things, all the things I create out of, out of abundance and fruitfulness of my walk with God. Not because I want people to buy all my stuff and make me rich, but because I truly want people to experience, experience what it is like to walk with him in an intimate way and not just a superficial way. So hope this blesses you and I will see you you guys again next week.
