Nothing Is Off-Limits with God · What It Means to Follow Jesus with Your Whole Life

20:03 What is your rhythm of intimacy with God look like? In this current season, what does it look like? Well, in this current season, I'm my mom and I work full time and I'm a pastor's wife. So life can get really, really full. And like I said before, I'm a doer. And so I love to accomplish things. But I think sometimes when God trusts you with the ability to accomplish a lot in your own power, he brings you to a place where you can't. And so one of the things just just practically I do is when I walk into my office in the morning, thankfully, I get here generally before anybody else is. I don't think I'm too weird, but I just turn one lamp on in my office and I get down. I have a little pillow in my chair and I get down on my knees and I set a timer for five minutes and I just pray. I start the prayer by saying, Lord, I'm here. I'm attentive. I realize that today I can do nothing in my own power. Like, meet me here.

20:56 And then I physically get on my knees, not because there's anything super holy about it or more spiritual, but because it's a reminder to me that I have nothing good to offer today. And I need Jesus, not just for life and breath, but for this meeting and for this conversation and to love Britain well and to like be kind when I'm behind the wheel. But also when I go home and I meet my kids, like everything I need for today, like Jesus has to meet me in it. And so I set a timer for five minutes and I just get on my knees and I ask the Lord to meet me in that. And then we do we have a Bible reading plan that I follow because I do believe that God speaks through his word. And so I like to pray Psalm 119, 18, like, Lord, teach me to hold wondrous truths from your instruction. And sometimes he stops me dead and like just one verse, like sometimes it's not getting through all of it. And then when I do feel like he's illuminated my attention to that verse, I just stop like, Lord, what? What are you trying to teach me or show me in this?

21:52 And so it's a lot like what Ashley said, like it's a constant awareness and a communion with him. And the days that I don't have anything to offer, like even when life is so heavy and burdensome that I can't even pray the right words. Sometimes it's just like putting on a worship song and praising along with it. Like one of the things that we've been doing lately is the reminder that praise is a response to the goodness of God, but it's also a revolt against the lies of God. And so it's just when I don't feel it in my spirit, when I have the knowledge, I know God is good. I can take you to the verse that he's good. He sees he's there. He's omnipresent. He's omniscient. I know all those things. But when I don't feel it, one of the ways that I revolt against that is like I just praise him for everything that I don't feel. So like it feels like, God, you're absent right now.

22:45 But I know, Lord, your word says that you're here in all things. Lord, it feels like that you're not providing this situation. But I praise you, Lord, that you are the provider. And I've seen in the past in my life you're the provider. Lord, it feels like my prayers are hitting a wall and you're not there and you're not responding. But I know Revelation says every prayer that I've prayed, you keep in golden bowls. And so like a physical revolt against what I feel in my flesh, I'm going to revolt against that by saying, like reminding myself of truth. Like Britain calls it speak to your soul. Like I'm going to get up and speak to my soul that I know this is not true. And one really cool thing that happened this past week, it just had been a really particularly heavy week. And in a lot of ways, I felt like I was so absent. I felt like he wasn't hearing my prayers. I felt like he was not responding, but I had the head knowledge to know none of that was true. And so I decided just to take a walk by myself around a lake by our house, which we do all the time.

23:42 And as we're walking, I remembered the phrase like praise is a response to the goodness of God and a revolt against the lies against God. And I knew in my flesh I was feeling all of that. And so I just started praying as I was walking around the lake, like the opposite of everything I was feeling. just praising God for all of his goodness and all of his faithfulness, even though my circumstances didn't reflect any of that. And I said, like, Lord, everything in my life right now feels like chaos. But I know that that's not true. I need you to show me that you see me. I need you to remind me who you are and that you're seeing me. And so I rounded the corner on this path that we walk a couple of times a week. And right as I come around the corner, there was this huge bed of flowers, like as far as you could see in this lady's yard. And she had put a little sign and it said, flowers for you to pick, enjoy.

24:39 And she had some scissors there. And so I cut a couple of flowers and I got back on the path and I started walking. And something just stirred in me, like learn about those flowers, like figure out those flowers. So I stopped. I did what we all would do. I took a picture of it and put it in chat to you. Tell me about these flowers. and what I learned about those flowers was number one that the more you cut those flowers the more they're pruned the more they bloom and then I learned that those flowers are unlike they're called orange cosmos those flowers are unlike most flowers in that we know of is that they thrive when the soil is stressed, when they don't have what they need. And so if the soil has what it's need, they just grow green leafy plants. But if it's stressed, they actually bloom more flowers.

25:36 And then the last one, this was the one. Also, when the heat is high and the rest of the flowers wilt or die, they actually get stronger and they bloom more. But here's the crazy part. Remember, I prayed, Lord, everything in my life feels like chaos. the Greek word for orange cosmos, K-O-S-M-O-S, means order. And it was like in that moment, the Lord reminded me, you are not forgotten. It feels like chaos. Everything you're saying is a reality of what you feel, what you're experiencing, what your emotions are. But let me tell you who I really am. And I think that only that kind of intimacy, it didn't come from here. It can. It does. But when you're in relationship with God and you're communing with him all throughout your day, you learn aspects of his character that you only learn from being in relationship with him.