Mrs. PIE

Preparing for Life's Storms: Embracing Resilience and Renewed Mindsets Through Faith

• Shelley Jeffcoat • Season 3 • Episode 65

Share episode

Imagine facing life's biggest challenges with confidence and clarity. In our latest episode, we unravel the essence of "Preparing for Life's Storms and Renewal," a topic that couldn't be more timely. We start by expressing heartfelt gratitude to our dedicated listeners and offer a prayer for those in the path of impending storms. There's practical advice to ensure you’re ready for any disruptions, from stocking up on supplies to bolstering your mental resilience. Then, inspired by Romans 12:2, we transition to our uplifting theme, "Rise Again." This segment is all about renewing not just our minds but our communities, seeking God's will, and practicing discernment to navigate life's valleys and peaks with wisdom and grace.

Ever wondered what it truly means to embody love, compassion, and selflessness in today's world? Our second chapter, "Transforming Mindsets for Positive Impact," explores the complexities of living out Christian values amidst modern challenges. We tackle the nuanced questions of what is good, acceptable, and perfect in God's eyes and the importance of aligning our thoughts and actions with the mind of Christ. Drawing inspiration from the iconic "What Would Jesus Do?" movement, we emphasize the importance of Christ-like responses, especially during times of corporate downsizing and community upheaval. Tune in as we reflect on how we can offer healing, support, and non-judgmental love to those around us, making a profound impact on our communities and our personal faith journeys.

Support the show

Come join us at our virtual events monthly. Visit our website to learn more.

Speaker 1:

no-transcript.

Speaker 2:

I'm just turning on my soaking music. You know I got to get it together on my side. Good morning everybody. Good morning Y'all, especially good morning faithful Tracy. Good morning to those who watched the replay. I know a lot of y'all watched the replay, so I see y'all again. Good morning on Facebook, on LinkedIn, on Parade Deck or wherever you catch us. Good morning to the folks who listen to the audio versions on Audible and Spotify and Buzzsprout. Y'all thank you so much for all of the support. Y'all thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

Listen, I am just a busted up, broken and chipped vessel and I'm just graciously, y'all, I'm just in grace and I just love God. Thank you, lord, for letting us see another Thursday, and especially on one. Y'all that, yeah, we are going to get into the topic for this week, but I wanted to just pause and just say a quick prayer, if you'd allow me, for those of us who are in the path of the storms that's coming through, especially within the Southeast and as it's creeping up into the North and on the coastal lines and I know a lot of folks, I have family along those lines as well. So I just pray that God will protect you and your families and that no harm will come near your tent and I pray that there won't be any disruptions in your service and electricity and all those things but, more than anything, that you'll be safe and sound. And, as you know, these storms are coming and sound and, as you know, these storms are coming. This reminds me, y'all, of something I was thinking about last night, about, you know, when storms are coming and we kind of brace for the storms, we brace for impact. You know what I mean. You know we know that the storms are going to roll through.

Speaker 2:

There's nothing that we can do to stop the weather. There are things that we can do to prepare ourselves. So some of that preparation. For example, some schools are closed tomorrow in Georgia because they're, you know, the educators and the admins. They're trying to prepare kids so that they're not stranded at school. Or maybe you on your job, maybe your job is saying don't come in tomorrow because of the weather. So that's a way of preparing, but even preparing our minds for what's coming, so that we don't fall into fear and just overwhelming ourselves. I'm trying to look at what's coming in terms of the weather, just to try to track the pattern a little bit, but I'm not absorbing or over consuming the weather, because I don't want to go into that mindset where I'm literally just sitting over here waiting for the lights to go out. I don't want to do that. So, in preparation, just thinking about some of the things you need, maybe your preparation is you need to pick up some candles, some extra candles. You know, hit the Dollar Tree today and go pick up some extra candles. Or you know again, whatever it is, just making some kind of preparation for the storms that's coming.

Speaker 2:

And so now, as I'm leaning into week four as again the series this month is around rise again. That's our theme and we were going to focus on. I was going to talk about the Valley of Dry Bones. I'm sure you guys have read that in Ezekiel 37. Really it's about God bringing life to what looks like it's dead. But I think I want to lean a little bit more on renewing of our minds and just praying for our spiritual and our community renewals and asking God to breathe new life into literally every aspect of our lives and our communities. And I want to encourage you to seek that kind of renewal.

Speaker 2:

Why am I saying this? Because as I'm sitting here talking about preparing for the storms that's coming. Maybe the storm that's coming for you is a financial one, and you know what's coming. There's people who are getting notices on the job that they're going to lose their employment. Maybe that's the storm. Maybe your storm right now is just the physical one that's coming, or maybe it's a health storm or something like that. But even within our communities and when I talk about communities y'all, I'm also talking about your friends, your family, being a part of your extended community, where you spend your time, your community might be your church, might be where you live or worship, where you serve, where you spend your time, your job, as a part of that community. But trying to renew our minds as we're in these different environments.

Speaker 2:

So Romans 12, 2 in the ESV version I'm going to share my screen really quickly. It's just one verse and again, this is mainly sharing so that y' the renewal of our mind, the way we think, and that by testing these things, by testing, you'll discern what is the will of God, what's good, acceptable and perfect. Those are four things. So by testing, you're able to discern what is the will of God, that's one. What is good, that's two. What's acceptable, that's three. And what's perfect, that's three. And what's perfect, that's four. All right, so I'm gonna stop sharing and just talk to you for a little bit about the will of God and, first of all, discernment.

Speaker 2:

So discernment isn't something that comes naturally to everybody. Please don't be mad at me. We know folks in our lives that it just seems like they just trip and fall into one thing over the next. And maybe you're the person that has a stronger spirit of discernment, where you can see things, you can understand things that other people maybe can't clearly see with their eyes. You can spot something shady you can see. Now, I don't mean having the mindset where everything is the devil and the demons and everything. Not that mindset, but discernment being able to look at a situation and asking God to interpret what that means and then being able to make a clear decision about what to do. Right. So having that mindset.

Speaker 2:

So the first thing where it talks about not being conformed to this world, meaning not just following what the world says or even people people in your life, your family, your friends but being transformed by the renewal of your mind, the way you think, and testing what you discern, what is the will of God. So how do you discern what's the will of God. Well, the first thing is you got to have a relationship with the Lord, so to discern what God's will is. God's will is not going to be something that tells you to destroy other people, like the Holy Spirit. You know. He tells you what in the word, what the fruits of the spirit are. So if you want to discern God's will for his people and for you, you want to go back and look at this thing that you're doing. Is it producing the fruits of the Holy Spirit? Ok, so that's the first thing discerning God's will. And that's really important because we have a lot of people in our community telling us in communities again, I'm talking about outside of your household you have a lot of people who will tell you what God's will is for your life, and it really is up to you for you to have that relationship so that he can tell you what his will is for your life. That's why we have to have a relationship. So the first thing is understanding God's will for your life.

Speaker 2:

The second thing is what is good? What is good, what does good look like? And again it's going right back to the fruits, because what you might think is good might not be good for me, because what you might think is good might not be good for me. Right, your good might not be my good. So, again, what is good? Again, does it bear the fruits? Does it actually bear the fruit? Is it what you know? Your version of good might be something that's taking away my ability to make a decision for myself. Is that good or is it right? Right, I told you I'm going to make people mad this morning, right? So so that's the. That's the second point. What is good? The third one, what is acceptable? And then what is what is perfect? And again, remember, you're you're.

Speaker 2:

You're talking about renewing your mind and testing some of these things, and you test it against the word, you test it by you pray, you know, ask God, what is your will in this situation? What do you say about this situation? What do you want me to do about this situation? Right, not just, not just running with the first thing you think of, not just doing that. So, renewing your mind. Renewing your mind means, when you're operating in your community, again, it's asking God what is your will for me in the community that you place me in the environment, that you place me in the environment that he's placed you in on the job. What is his will for you? On the job, so that you can operate and do things that are good and acceptable in his sight, right In his sight. So, renewing your mind, meaning changing our mind to having the mind of Christ. Think like he does.

Speaker 2:

You remember back in the day we used to have those bracelets y'all I don't know if they still do it now, but we used to have these bracelets and it would say what would Jesus do? Do you remember those? And Christian folks loved it. I think this was back in the 90s and it was just about everywhere. What would Jesus do? What would Jesus do? And there was, there was also, it was almost like a culture that surrounded it. What it did was it was prompting us to pause before we even spoke, to pause before we thought something, to pause before we started making judgment, to pause even sometimes before you throw out a prayer right. Pause and just think what would Jesus do in this situation?

Speaker 2:

And I almost feel like we need to go back to that somehow, because right now we have a lot of believers, we have a lot of folks who've been Christians, but they're really not following Christ, they're following their pastor, they're following what's on social media, they follow the government, they follow everything, and the fruits that they yield have nothing to do with helping the sick, not even checking in on their neighbor. If their neighbor is a different color, they want nothing to do with them. It's all judgmental, it's things that are operating outside of the fruits, outside of his will. The Lord wants to reconcile all of us back to him, and you're not going to be able to do that through hate. You're not going to be able to do that through judgment. You're not going to be able to do that. People just get kind of turned off from us Christians. Right, that our job is to go, ye, therefore, and teach. Right, but drawing all men back to him.

Speaker 2:

And if your fruit is hate, if your fruit is frustration, if your fruit is gossip, if your fruit is negativity, then you do have to renew your mind. You have to think differently than what everybody else is doing. That's why we are separated, that's why we are marked. That's why we are chosen. We're not supposed to look exactly like the world. We're not supposed to be caught up in all the negative stuff in our communities. We're supposed to be the light. We're supposed to be the ones that go out and help, not judge. There's very different right. So no one wants to hear listen, I'm just going to be honest. But those Christians who are so angry and negative and you can't even find anything positive in your life, you know you literally are. You know your mindset is so caught up in turmoil and chaos. You know I ask you to just go back to the Lord and have him show you what his will is for your life. Right, maybe it's just going back to like the basics. What would Jesus do in these situations? If you're on the job, y'all?

Speaker 2:

We're in a season this is a time of year October where a lot of companies start thinking about how they can regardless of how revenue was they start looking at how they can save money and how we save money in business. It means a lot of times it's cutting jobs regardless. So people are going to be upset because they see CEOs making a ton of money. Ceos making a ton of money. You know work with people that you're like. You know, lord, help me, lord, right, but they get you go through this season. That's where we are right now, at the end of the year, where people, companies, start looking at the books, and so these people that we work with are a part of our community, and a lot of folks will be impacted. But, as a Christian, what is your mindset? What is the will of God for you while people are going through this season May not happen to you, but it's certainly going to happen to somebody you know. So what is your mindset in this season?

Speaker 2:

What would Jesus do on the job in this season? What would he do? Right, he would be offering healing. He would be offering uplifting words. He'd be praying for people. He wouldn't be judging people, right? You know what I'm saying? He wouldn't be trying to save himself. So he's throwing other people under the bus. Come on, y'all right, and the same thing in our communities. What would Jesus do if he knew that your neighbor was sick or broke, or they lost their job or their kids need help? What would Jesus do then? What are you going to do? So? Renewing our minds and just kind of going back to the basics. Y'all and I'm preaching to myself as well we are so blessed, y'all, we are so blessed. We're more blessed than we understand, I think, even especially in this country, though it's not perfect. Trust me, right, trust me, a Black woman speaking trust and believe, okay, but we are truly blessed. And then what do we do with that blessing? We're hoarding it. What would Jesus do in your community, right? Is this the time of year where you just go check on your neighbor? Y'all Right? Go check on a friend, what would Jesus do? So I pray this blesses y'all Again.

Speaker 2:

As I said, we are just in that time where we are looking to just do a different walk with the Lord. I don't want to have the kind of relationship that I had, even a month ago. I want to be the person that bears his fruit. I want, when people look at me, I don't have to say, hey, I'm a Christian. I want people to look at my life and see the Holy Spirit bearing his fruit through me. I want to be the kind of living witness. I don't have to open my mouth, but people will see his light on me. And by seeing his light on me and the joy in my heart and the peace that I carry and the grace that I have and the favor that surrounds me, and when people come into contact with me and I can shift their environment and help inspire their mindsets to find something good and to really have lives that are fulfilled and blessed. Like that, you know, Like when people come around me. That's what I want, yo, that's what I wanna give up. But that only happens because of the Holy Spirit in me, and I just don't wanna go back to the days where I was lost and frustrated and worried, and I just don't. I don't wanna go back to the days where I had no power or authority through me. Because of the Holy Spirit working through me, I cannot go back. Y'all have been delivered through so much. We cannot go back to the way we used to think. We can't go back to the way we used to think about our neighbors either. We can't. We can't, right, we're in this together. Whether you like your neighbor or not, we're in it together, y'all Right.

Speaker 2:

So my hope is, as we're closing out this month of September, we've talked about rebirth. We've talked about healing. We've touched on a lot of things in this month. Right, we talked about our strength. We prayed for first responders. We've been lifting each other up in prayer. We talked about spiritual rebirth. Right, you know, shedding off old stuff, all habits, and walking in the newness of life. We've talked about all those things and again, I just encourage you to keep moving forward. I encourage you to keep moving forward, no matter what your day looks like today. Know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he that has made us, and not we ourselves. We are the sheep. I mean, come on, I have a scripture on your tongue, I have a scripture in your heart that encourages you and I just encourage y'all. What would Jesus do? Go back to the basics. Before you say something to the spouse or that child. Jesus do. Go back to the basics. Before you say something to the spouse or that child, before you tackle this next storm that's coming to you, what would Jesus do? What would Jesus do? Amen, Amen.

Speaker 2:

So I'll pray for all of y'all who are again in the path of the storm, whether the storm is one that's from nature that's coming the hurricane or maybe the storm is a financial one, or a health storm, or a storm on your job, is job related. Whatever it is, I pray that that you will be blessed, that God is going to provide for you. I believe it for you. You need to believe it for yourself and I want to encourage you. You know, to just hang in there. I just, you know, don't lose hope, don't give up hope. What he started he will finish.

Speaker 2:

I want to encourage you to go back to the Bible and find the scripture that's going to help you through this season, whatever that is, and hold on to his word and don't lose that. I want to encourage you to think about what would Jesus do before you open your mouth, because I don't want you to open your mouth and curse the very blessings that you're asking for. You know, I want this season, when you go into the month of October, for you to go in with such a mindset. That's gonna, you know, take you through the rest of the year and you're gonna soar and do very well. I want you to be blessed, so blessed y'all that you're. You know the blessings are an overflow and it blesses your family and and the communities where you are, where we live, where we operate. I want this to be such a revival in your heart.

Speaker 2:

I want you to be so inspired to go, pick up his word today and find something. Find something, find out what the Lord said is for you, what is good and acceptable and perfect for you according to his will for your life, and that you will have discernment so that you know where to go and who to talk to, who not to listen to, right? Everybody can't give you advice, everybody can't coach you through the season, and so I pray that you will have the spirit of discernment to know who to listen to. A lot of people are talking right now, but doesn't mean you need to listen. So if they're not, if they're, if the people that you're listening to, they don't carry his fruit, the holy spirit.

Speaker 2:

Stop listening. Stop listening to crazy people. Please stop listening to people who are telling you you're not going to make it, or it's too hard, or it's never been done before, so you don't even need to try. Stop listening to people. Don't take advice from people who've never accomplished anything. I absolutely do not take, especially even in business. I don't take advice or counsel from anyone without a track record right. Same way, if you go to your doctor, you're not going to go to a doctor who's never done anything right. Same way, if you go to your doctor, you're not going to go to a doctor who's never done anything right, who's not been trained or has no success in that area. Stop listening to everybody can't be a coach, so stop listening to people who are taking you off your path. Find people who are winning, find people who are positive, find people who have actual fruit and be the witness and if that's you, you're bearing witness to the fruits of God working through your life.

Speaker 2:

Y'all encourage other people Right. Encourage other people. Renew our communities. Your community is not just your family, it's the people that you work with, it's the people that you live with and I hope again, I hope this encouraged you. Please stay safe. Y'all Make your preparation and your plans for the storms that's coming and the spiritual storms. That means you need to be in the Bible, you need to be in the word. So I thank y'all so much for watching.

Speaker 2:

I will be back here again on Thursday, but y'all know I come on a lot. So for those of y'all who are especially on the YouTube streets, subscribe so that you can get all the notification or just click notifications. I'm terrible at reminding people what to do. It's Thursday. We have our phone prayer line, so y'all can please call into the line If you're having a tough day. Call the phone line. It's free Every Thursday, one o'clock, seven o'clock. Pass it to your friends, pass it to your kids, pass it to your coworkers and just join us. It's just 30 minutes of prayer. Maybe that's what you need to do. That's what Jesus told me to do. What would Jesus do? He would pray for you. He would be praying for you, right? So that's what we're doing, all right? All right, that's it for me. Y'all have a wonderful day. God bless you, and I will see you next week. Take care.