May 3rd, 2026 - Is It Well With My Soul? (10:30 AM)

God didn't keep them out of the fire, but he went into the fire with them. And because he was there, the fire didn't destroy them. That's the promise for us. God doesn't always keep us out of the fire, but he always goes through the fire with us. He doesn't always remove the valley, but he always walks with us through the valley. Sometimes it's in the valley that we experience god's most profoundly. Sometimes it's in the darkness we learn to recognize his voice. Sometimes in the struggle, our faith becomes real in ways it never was when everything was easy. [00:53:19] (37 seconds)  #GodGoesIntoTheFire

So how do we get to it is well with the soul? We start by being honest about where we are. We bring our pain to God without pretense, we lament, we cry out, we ask the hard questions. Then we remember who God is. We rehearse his faithfulness. We recall his promises. We fix our eyes on him, not on our circumstances. And when we choose to trust, not because we understand, not because we feel like it, but because we know that God is good and he's with us and that's enough. It's a journey, not a one time decision. It's daily, sometimes moment by moment, choose to keep trusting. [01:05:21] (38 seconds)  #ChooseTrustDaily

Our troubles feel anything but light and momentary when we're in them, but from an eternal perspective, they are, and they're not wasted. They're achieving something, building something in us, preparing us for something greater. So hold on to hope, not because your circumstances are gonna magically change tomorrow, but because God is faithful and he's not done yet. Your story isn't over. The valley right now isn't your destination. Keep walking. Keep trusting. Keep hoping because the God who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion. [01:00:57] (36 seconds)  #TrialsBuildCharacter

Now, here's where we need to address something important. When you're going through difficult seasons, one of the most common prayers we have is, god, please take this away. Please fix it. Make it stop. And sometimes, God does. Sometimes, he intervenes miraculously. Sometimes, he removes the obstacles, heals the sickness, resolves the conflict, provides the breakthrough. We serve a God who can do immeasurably more than even we can ask or imagine. But sometimes, and this is harder to accept, sometimes God doesn't remove those difficulties. Sometimes, the valley doesn't disappear. Sometimes, the circumstances don't change, at least not right away. And in those moments, we face a choice. [00:51:52] (45 seconds)  #FaithAmidUnansweredPrayers

Now, this verse can be misunderstood as well. It doesn't say all things are good. It doesn't say that God causes bad things to happen. What it says is that God works in all things, even the painful things, even the broken things, even the things that we were never supposed to happen, he works them together for good. It's like a master weaver taking threads of different colors, some bright, some dark, and creating a beautiful tapestry. From the back, it looks like a mess. The threads are tangled, the colors don't make sense. But from the front, there's a picture, a purpose, a design. [00:58:22] (38 seconds)  #GodWeavesTheTapestry

Joseph didn't say what his brothers did was good. It definitely wasn't good. It was evil. But God took that evil and worked it into his redemptive plan. He brought good out of it, not because the evil was okay, but because God is that powerful, that creative, and that redemptive. The same is true for you. Whatever you're walking through right now, whatever valley you're in, whatever pain you're carrying, God hasn't wasted it. He's not absent from it. He's working in it. He will bring good from it even if you can't see how yet. [00:59:45] (32 seconds)  #GodRedeemsEvil

Do we conclude that God has abandoned us? Do we decide that he doesn't care? Or do we discover a deeper truth that God's presence with us in the valley is more precious than life without valleys? What about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the three fellows in Daniel that refused to bow down to king Nebuchadnezzar's golden statue? The king throws him into a fiery furnace, the three of them bound by the hand. And then all of a sudden, the king sees, wait a second, there's four people in there, and they're unbound, and they're talking, and they're walking around, and he says, that fourth one looks like the son of the gods. [00:52:37] (42 seconds)  #GodWithUsInTheFurnace

And maybe you're somewhere in between, you're not in a crisis, but you're not at peace either. You're just tired, weary, going through the motions. If that's you, I want you to invite you to bring that weariness to Jesus. He says in Matthew eleven twenty eight, come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. He's not put off by your exhaustion. He invites you to come as you are. Wherever you are, the invitation is the same. Bring your real self to a real god who loves you, who's with you, and who will never leave you. [01:07:33] (34 seconds)  #ComeAsYouAreToJesus