Mrs. PIE

We're Not Meant to Suffer: Breaking Free from the Struggle Mindset

• Shelley Jeffcoat • Season 4 • Episode 152

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We must break free from the mindset that suffering equals being chosen by God and instead embrace the truth that we are meant to walk in victory and joy as children of the King.

• Making a conscious choice to live the second half of life filled with joy and love
• Addressing the misconception that being "chosen" means perpetual suffering
• Understanding biblical suffering refers to being set apart, not being cursed
• Finding encouragement in Isaiah 35:1-2 about the desert blossoming with joy
• Believing God will make a way when there seems to be no way
• Changing our mindset from struggle to victory
• Recognizing perspective by acknowledging others face greater challenges
• Rewriting your personal story through prayer and faith
• Making specific changes in August to embrace a life of joy
• Finding hope despite challenging circumstances like teachers preparing classrooms

Call upon the Lord to help you rewrite your story. Submit your life to Him and be obedient in small things, then watch Him work things out in your favor and give you greater blessings.


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Speaker 1:

no-transcript. All right, good morning y'all. I'm over here acting like I'm new to this and not true to this what's going on, but good morning, it's Thursday. It's the last yeah, it's the last Thursday in July, and so I'm just. I had to take a quick pause. I'm putting on a little background music because we're going to talk about something that's joyful. God will make a way, and I'm so grateful. It's been a month y'all, and I'm so grateful that you're here with me. So shout out to those, whether you're watching the live or the replay, whether you're on Facebook, linkedin, youtube, wherever, or even if you're listening on the audio versions. And I have to still say hello to my parade deck family. So I'm messing around in here because I don't know. I think Spring Yard changed again and I can't see there. They are my bad. Good morning y'all. I'm trying to catch up on the comments in the room. So good morning y'all. I'm not sure if we're showing. Good morning, Dr Tracy. All right y'all, so we're going to get into it.

Speaker 1:

Like I said, this is the last Thursday in July and our theme we've really been leaning into joy this month, and I have a lot of joy in my heart. And having joy in your heart doesn't mean that things aren't happening. Life is a life and people aren't equaling. But I find now that I'm more. I'm more intentional about choosing. Oh, thank you. I'm more intentional about choosing how I live my life.

Speaker 1:

Like yesterday y'all I was sharing. First of all, I was talking to Holy Spirit. We were having a conversation, okay, about this second half of my life. I'm over 50. I'll be 54 this year. I keep like forgetting I was born in 71. My birthday is in November and I'll be 54 this year. And I was saying you know, lord, I don't want to live the second half of my life without living it filled with joy and love. Like I want to not just exhibit the, you know, the fruits of the spirit. I want to, I want to. I really, I really want to experience it. I want to experience it so much in my life that y'all see it right. That kind of that's where I am right now.

Speaker 1:

I don't, I don't believe in like there's some folks on TikTok cause you know I'm over there minding other people's business but there's all these posts that talk about if you're chosen, then you're leading a life of suffering and all that. And I think, again, this is where people can take things out of context in the word in the New Testament, and the suffering that goes along with that means that you're not going to be in the cool circle all the time. You know people aren't going to treat you differently because you are separate, you're not supposed to be of the world, that we are in the world right, and so you might not have the same levels of access or things like that. Right, things aren't going to play out in the same way that it does for someone who is, who doesn't you know, hasn't chosen the lord. The lord isn't kind of the center of their life, jesus they have, you know. I'm saying I'm not talking about people who go to go to church and just they're just religious. I'm talking about folks who have lived a surrendered life to the lord. So there is some form of, uh, suffering that comes with that because we're not going to be doing certain things, we're not going to be in certain groups, and I'm OK with that. But that doesn't mean that we are meant to live lives that are cursed and we're downcast and we're sad and we're downtrodden. It doesn't mean that you don't have any form of victory or joy or happiness in your life, or joy, or happiness in your life, you know. So, just putting that back, when I saw that thing on that post on TikTok and it was probably, you know purely the gentleman probably had good intentions, right, he probably wasn't trying to stoke anything.

Speaker 1:

But you know, again, talking about those who are chosen, you know you're chosen if you're suffering. No, I know I'm chosen because I'm blessed. Like which God are y'all serving? Right? We serve the God of all, all creation, everything, and you really think that me, his favorite, according to what he says in Psalms, he's going to make me suffer, no, right.

Speaker 1:

So I had that conversation with myself and with the Holy Spirit where I had to, like, I had to put a fork in the road, because I also hear it within my own household, my own family, that negative cycle of you know, just got to be content with what you have. You can't like there's this, you can't even hope for more, because it listen, this second half of our lives. So, even if you're 30 and you're watching this, I hope I'm catching you, you, you know, uh, 30 years early, so that you, you won't make the mistakes that a lot of us do is, don't choose to live a life that you're where you're suffering all the time. Okay, don't choose to live a life where you're not walking in victory. Um, I, um.

Speaker 1:

I am so, I'm so grateful because I have have mentors in my life. I have spiritual mothers, spiritual sisters in my life, and we encourage each other to keep moving forward and for our lives to be better and better, not less and less. We truly believe that we are the head and not the tail. We absolutely believe in all of the blessings that are covered in Deuteronomy right. We stand in agreement with what God says about us being blessed, and so I just want to encourage you as we're closing out this month of July, and I am going to share my screen and pull up a scripture that I want us to lean into. It's from Isaiah 35, which is such a hopeful scripture.

Speaker 1:

The hope that that's talked about in Isaiah 35. At this point, the prophet was talking about Jesus, the I was about to leave the room. The hope that is talked about is it is really about the second coming of Christ, and even with this, you know, it's not about waiting for the Lord to come back. We can have joy in our heart, like right now. Y'all, okay, it's not. How do you put it? It's not deferred joy, it's joy right now. Okay, joy right now. So this is Isaiah 35, verses one through two.

Speaker 1:

This is the HLE ESV version, and it says the ransom shall be, shall return. I love the ESV because it has these captions in it and this is just the two verses and I hope this blessed you. The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad. The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus. The crocus is a plant, okay, it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it the majesty of Carmel.

Speaker 1:

So, things being restored, y'all, they shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. And so every now and then I have to remind myself that I'm going to see the majesty of my God in my life. Right, I'm going to see things return to is not even just let me stop sharing, not even like returning to his former glory. I'm talking about when the Lord is moving and doing things in my life. I'm not even asking him to don't, don't just restore, don't just. You know, give me what the enemy has stolen. No, no, no, give me greater than okay.

Speaker 1:

And so I have so much joy because I, first of all one, I believe in Christ, I believe in what his word says. I believe that has something to do with me. I believe he's speaking to me, right. So, because I believe it in my heart, right, because I know he's speaking to me because I received his blessings for my life, right. Then, when his words talks about that kind of joy, again, the wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, right, it shall blossom and rejoice with joy in singing. Then I have such incredible hope. I know that God is going to make a way out of no way, right? I know that all things are working together for my good. I am not meant to suffer, okay, I'm a daughter of the King.

Speaker 1:

So we have to change our mindset. Y'all you got to come out of the struggle mindset, the hustle mindset, the mindset that things aren't going to happen or it might. You got to stop Like I don't, I can't even, I can't even be around that kind of mentality. Because I have to, I have to be encouraged, right, we all do. Right, I have to be encouraged on this journey that I'm on. I want the best for my family, I want the most for my family, and I'm not ashamed to say that I'm a hard worker and I have wisdom and I have all the favor that God gives me and I want the best for my teams. I want all the things right and I'm walking in a life of victory and joy, and you have to decide that for yourself. Listen, all of us have all have life. Life is laughing for everybody. Okay, trust me, no one has it. I don't care how much money you have. The op.

Speaker 1:

People have a lot of optics that you see on social media. So things on social media look like you know, it's all perfect and it's not okay. So that's just. That's just. But no matter where you are in your life, you still have, you can still have hope. You still have hope. There's always someone my mom used to say this all the time there's always someone. No matter what, what station you are in life, there's always someone who's doing worse than you. There's always someone looking at what you have and wishing they had it Okay. So we have reasons to be grateful it Okay. So we have reasons to be grateful for even the little that we have.

Speaker 1:

And even if you have little right now, let me tell you something. Even if you have little right now, it doesn't mean that that's going to be your story. You need to sit down with the Lord and say Lord, help me rewrite my story Right. Lord, help me rewrite my story. I am your child. You are the king of kings. You have all the favor, you have all the wealth, you have all the things right. Help me rewrite my story. Give me wisdom so that I know which decisions, where to go, who to speak to, and I'm choosing to live a life of joy. I'm choosing to believe that you, lord, you're going to make a way out of no way. And I start to believe that, and I speak that over everything that I do, even the meetings. Lord, I know you're going to make a way out of no way. You're going to bless this meeting to be successful. You know our children, lord. I thank you for my children. I know you're going to make it.

Speaker 1:

There's people going back to school teachers who, financially, don't have the money to fill up their. Imagine. I think a lot of us, because we don't work in this field, so you don't understand what it feels like Most of us who work in an office setting the pens and the markers and all the things your job is going to provide, that Imagine going to that job and you have to pay for your own stuff, your own computer, your own you know what I'm saying All the things to so that you can be, you can be a good stakeholder on your job, right? So, teachers, having to come up with cash and having to create Amazon wishlist so that they can have things to take care of your kids, right? So again, there's always someone who is doing worse than you and even so, even so, even for even in those situations, god's still going to make a way. So, if you're a teacher watching this or a staff member watching this and trying to figure out where's that, where's that fun going to come from to help me set up my classroom so I can help these kids, right? I still want you to believe that God's going to make a way. Out of no way he's going to. Help is coming and you start receiving and believing that you're not. You were put in that assignment but you're not meant to struggle, right? So? So I hope this encourage y'all.

Speaker 1:

Again, I touched on Isaiah 35,. One through two, I am choosing to walk in joy. I'm choosing that and again, you know not not to be Pollyanna, but I do believe that all things are working together for my good. I do believe that there's better and better and better. Why? Because I submitted my life to the Lord and he's working things out in my favor, right, and I'm, I'm being obedient to the small things and taking care of the small things, and in that, he's giving me the bigger things. And I want you to have joy in that. I want you to make a conscious decision in your mind, in your thoughts. I want you to make a conscious decision about how you're gonna, how you're gonna, move into this next month of aug.

Speaker 1:

We spent the entire July talking about joy, okay, but what are you going to do come August? What are you going to change? Come on, some of us is our attitude, some of us, the people we hang around with, some of us, you know, we, we, we know it's the things we read, the things we watch. What are you going to do in the month of August? That's going to change things, right, because we are no longer struggling. Right, we're not struggling, we're not cursed. So what are you going to do?

Speaker 1:

So I hope this blessed y'all. That came out of Isaiah 35, one through two. I had a little, had a little music, a little music in the background my podcast, my early podcast days. I love that. But again, the intention was just to lift our spirits a little bit, so I hope that really blessed you.

Speaker 1:

So, lord, I just want to pray for every person who's watching now, who might be listening later, anyone who is just yearning for a change in their life and just really seeking you out. I thank you for that spirit of joy that you'll give us, lord, that that you'll just put a song in our heart and bless us. That you'll watch over all of us, anyone who's standing in need. That you'll just put a song in our heart and bless us. That you'll watch over all of us, anyone who's standing in need. That you've heard their cry and you've answered their prayer. But make it plain to them so that they know where to go, who to speak to and what to do next. We thank you for an incredible month of July. We thank you for all of the doors you have opened. Thank you for seeing us and hearing our prayer and letting your face shine upon us. We thank you, lord, for the three praying sisters. As we close out the month of July with the two 1 pm and 7 pm prayers, and as we move into August with our 7 pm prayers. We are so grateful for all of these ladies who dedicated their lives, lord Now, for two years, dedicated their lives to serving your people through prayer, and thank you for that faithfulness and all of these things. We ask in Jesus name Amen.

Speaker 1:

All right, y'all, let's go get it. We've got a lot to do today. It's Thursday morning. If you're not fully up yet, come on, get up. Let's go. Let's do this thing. Let's go out there and take this day. Let's bless this day. Let's receive everything God has for us. Don't walk in fear. Um, put on some upbeat music if you need to. Like I said, we are turning the page, all right, let's keep moving. Haters hate. Let haters hate by themselves. Don't worry about what people think or what people say. Let's keep it moving, all right. I love y'all and I will see you next week.