Participants: Jill Morikone
Series Code: HLFT
Program Code: HLFT000010A
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00:25 Hello, and welcome to Heart Lift.
00:27 I'm Jill Morikone, and I'm so glad that you 00:30 have joined us today. 00:31 We're in the midst of a journey toward hope, toward healing, 00:36 toward the transformation the Lord Jesus wants to work 00:40 in your heart and in mine, as women, as daughters of God. 00:45 If you're just joining us, we're in the midst a discussion 00:49 on sadness, and how the Lord Jesus wants to turn our sorrow, 00:53 our pain, into peace and even joy. 00:58 Last program I shared the first three keys, 01:01 the first three steps toward experiencing peace and joy 01:07 again in our lives. 01:08 They are: 1. Allow yourself time to grieve. 01:12 Don't rush the healing process. 01:15 Give yourself time. 01:17 2. Surrender. Surrender your pain, surrender your loss, 01:22 surrender your control over that situation or person 01:27 to the Lord Jesus Christ. 01:30 3. Practice thankfulness. 01:33 Practicing thankfulness is not always easy. 01:36 But I can tell you it produces incredible results. 01:40 Today we're looking at the next five steps, or the next five 01:46 keys toward experiencing that full transformation, 01:50 that full turning from sorrow into joy and peace. 01:54 Our Scripture today is Psalm 30. 02:00 David says, You have turned from me my mourning into dancing. 02:06 You have put off my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness. 02:11 Now the amazing thing to me about this verse, 02:13 David could have said, You turned my sorrow into 02:18 resignation, or into peace, or even joy, but he said dancing. 02:23 Now dancing means to me a lot of joy. 02:25 You're just kicking up your heels. 02:27 You're getting out. 02:29 You're happy. Turning sorrow into joy. 02:31 That's what God wants to do. Let's pray. 02:35 Father we come before You right now in the name of Jesus. 02:38 Thank You for the transformation You are in the process of 02:42 working in each one of my sisters hearts 02:44 and lives at home. 02:45 And we ask You right now that You will continue the work. 02:49 That You would pour in the oil of Your Holy Spirit, 02:53 You would bring in comfort, You would bring in peace. 02:55 And that today we could receive what You want to give us. 03:00 And we thank You in the precious and holy name of Jesus, Amen. 03:06 One of my friends is a beautiful picture of what Jesus is like. 03:13 If you were to meet her, I'm sure you would agree with me. 03:17 She is an incredible woman of God, and she seeks to minister, 03:21 she seeks to serve. 03:23 Every time I'm in her presence I come away and I feel, 03:27 I want to follow God more. 03:30 I want to serve Jesus more. 03:32 You just have that sense when you spend time with her 03:37 that you want to serve Jesus more. 03:39 Now my friend has had pain and sorrow in her life. 03:45 Looking at her, spending time with her, 03:47 you would not even really know that. 03:50 She has the pain of having children who have left Jesus; 03:55 children and grand children who turned their back on God, 04:00 and who have turned away. 04:02 But instead of her wallowing in self pity, or some sort of 04:06 bitterness of spirit, she's opened up her heart to God, 04:11 and allowed God to pour in His healing. 04:13 She spends time with other kids. 04:15 She spends time praying for other people's children. 04:20 She's an incredible picture of Jesus. 04:25 And she trusts her own kids walk with God. 04:29 I think that's an example. 04:31 Now your experience may be different. 04:33 It might not be your kids or grand kids who have left God, 04:36 but it might be another pain. 04:37 But I think this is an example of how the Lord Jesus can come 04:41 in and can change us, and can turn whatever the sad, bitter, 04:46 painful experience is into joy. 04:49 We're looking at today the next five steps, or the five keys 04:53 to experiencing that peace and joy. 04:57 The next one is claim Bible promises. 05:00 Turn with me to Psalm. 05:01 We're already in Psalm, but we're jumping over a couple of 05:04 chapters, Psalm 40:2, 3. 05:10 David speaking. He said, He brought me up out of a horrible 05:14 pit; out of the miry clay. 05:17 Do you feel like you're in a horrible pit today? 05:20 Do you feel like your feet are stuck in miry clay? 05:23 The interesting thing to me about this is he could have 05:26 said, My feet were just in the grass, or in the dirt. 05:28 They were in miry clay. 05:32 What does that mean? They were stuck. 05:34 Maybe humanly even, it was so stuck you couldn't pull it out. 05:39 They were stuck in the clay. 05:40 He said, God pulled me out of that pit. 05:44 God pulled me out of the miry clay. 05:47 Then it says, He sat my feet on a rock. 05:49 God doesn't pull us out to let us slide back in, 05:53 to let us get all back in that mire. 05:55 He says, I'm going to set your feet on Me, the rock of ages. 06:01 The next verse: He established my steps. 06:04 He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. 06:11 Many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord. 06:15 Now it's interesting to me, because God brings our feet 06:19 out of the miry clay. 06:21 He sets them on a rock, that's Jesus Christ. 06:24 He puts a new song in our mouth. 06:26 Did you notice that? praise. 06:28 Praise is connected. 06:30 We talked about that last week. 06:32 Praise is connected with pulling out of the pit 06:35 of sadness and depression. 06:36 Praise is pivotal in bringing us out of that. 06:40 And, you notice, God didn't do all of that for David so that 06:44 David could boast, so that David could say, Look at me. 06:47 I'm doing really well; I was here, now I'm here. 06:50 No! What does it say? 06:52 Many will see it and fear and trust in the Lord. 06:57 Do you know what he's saying there? 06:58 Whatever situation you are in right now, whatever pain you 07:03 have experienced, God says, I can bring you out of it. 07:08 Not only can I bring you out of it, I can so transform your life 07:12 that the people looking at you are going to say, 07:14 You're not even the same person. 07:16 You used to be different. 07:18 You used to be, maybe, wallowing in self pity. 07:20 You used to be one of these depressed people. 07:22 And all of a sudden, What happened? 07:25 Where did the joy come from? 07:26 If God can do that in your life, maybe I want 07:30 to try this God, too. 07:31 Maybe I want to give Him a chance. 07:34 It's a beautiful testament; what God can do in our lives. 07:37 So pick up a specific Bible promise. 07:41 As you work on claiming these Bible promises, 07:44 pick a specific Bible promise and claim it. 07:48 Pick a promise dealing with joy, maybe one dealing with 07:51 surrender, or one dealing with practicing thankfulness. 07:55 J. D. Quinn, he works here at 3ABN in the Pastoral Ministries 07:59 Department, and he likes to write Bible promises 08:02 out on 3 x 5 cards. 08:04 That's his favorite way to write out, 08:07 and to memorize Bible promises. 08:10 Now you might like to do that. 08:12 You might... For me, a lot of times I just pull out a 08:15 Post-it note, or a little scratch piece of paper, 08:18 and in my car I tape up a Scripture. 08:21 And I work on memorizing as I'm driving. 08:23 Although Greg was a little concerned about that, 08:25 so I promised him I'd look at it before I actually started, 08:29 so there wasn't any danger there. 08:31 You might... Sometimes I take that paper and I'll put it 08:35 above the kitchen sink. 08:36 And I can work on memorizing a Scripture as I do dishes. 08:39 I can put one next to my computer at work, 08:42 even one next to the bedside table. 08:45 So the last thought I have before I go to bed 08:49 is the Word of God; putting promises from the 08:52 Word of God into my mind. 08:54 Now my friend Christine, she likes using journals. 08:58 And that's a great option. 09:00 You can write in your journal those promises. 09:02 You can pull it out and you can claim that over your life. 09:06 So 1. for today is to claim those Bible promises. 09:11 2. Is to develop friendships with other women. 09:15 I believe that sadness thrives in solitude. 09:20 Reach out to other women. 09:22 Join a support group. 09:23 Start a Bible study on grief in your own home. 09:27 Be accountable to somebody else. 09:29 Be willing to step out of your comfort zone and ask 09:34 for help when you need it. 09:36 This is a little difficult for me. 09:39 I'm just being honest. 09:40 I have a lot of people that I would consider to be friends, 09:43 people that I love to converse with and talk with. 09:46 But it's hard for me to trust someone with a painful places 09:50 of my life until I'm kind of past that, 09:52 and then it's easier to talk about. 09:54 So in my own journey, in Greg and my own journey, 09:57 I shared with you the last couple programs about our 10:00 journey with infertility. 10:02 In my own journey I found a friend, two actually, 10:07 that I felt like I could be honest with. 10:10 Someone that when they said, Jill, how are you doing today? 10:12 Most everybody I'd say, I'm doing great. 10:15 Is that honest? Not necessarily. 10:17 But neither did I want to spill my guts to everybody. 10:20 I picked one or two women that I felt safe with, 10:23 and I would say, I'm having a hard time, 10:26 or today's not a good day. 10:28 Would you please pray for me? 10:30 Find that; find support. 10:32 Find someone that you can reach out to, 10:35 and that you can share with. 10:37 I believe God puts us in friendship with other women 10:40 not so we can just gossip about the latest fashions, 10:43 or about the latest movies, or about the latest hairstyles, 10:47 or clothes, although that's kind of fun. 10:49 God puts us in friendship with other women so that we can 10:54 pray for each other, so that we can encourage each other, 10:59 so that we can reach out and minister for Jesus together. 11:05 1. Claim promises from the Word of God. 11:08 2. Develop friendships with other women. 11:11 3. Serve God; don't just keep busy. 11:16 There's a vast difference between the two, you know. 11:19 We might be keeping busy, as a way to run from our pain, 11:23 as a way to run from our sadness, 11:26 as a way to stuff our emotions. 11:29 It might be a way to shut out those people closest to me, 11:33 or a way to avoid surrender, giving thanks, 11:35 and real relationships with other people. 11:39 On the other hand, we might serve God while 11:43 choosing to surrender, while choosing to give thanks, 11:46 while choosing to develop friendships with other women 11:49 while walking in community. 11:51 And that's a good thing. 11:53 So what I'm saying here is you can't look at somebody else's 11:56 life and saying, Boy they sure are running from their stuff, 11:59 because they're always busy doing stuff. 12:00 That doesn't mean it necessarily. 12:02 Only you know in your heart. 12:04 You know if you're serving God out of a heart that longs 12:09 to serve Him, and to follow Him. 12:10 At the same time you're being accountable, and you're seeking 12:14 friendships with other women, and you're seeking to surrender, 12:18 or whether you're doing that as a way to stuff those emotions, 12:22 and to run from that pain. 12:26 Matthew 22, Matthew 22:37. 12:29 Jesus gives the two commandments: love the Lord 12:32 your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. 12:35 And what's the second one? 12:37 Love your neighbor as yourself. 12:40 Point 4. The next one is to focus on other people. 12:45 Seek for ways to serve. 12:48 Ask God to show you somebody else who is hurting. 12:52 If you have money, share with those who are less fortunate. 12:56 If you have time, give of yourself. 13:00 If you have neither, seek for other ways to serve. 13:04 Acts 20:35 says, It is more blessed to give than to receive. 13:11 It is more blessed to give than to receive. 13:16 1. Claim Bible promises over your life. 13:20 Write them down. Keep track of them. 13:24 2. Develop friendships with other women. 13:27 Don't be alone, because sadness thrives in solitude. 13:32 3. Serve God. Don't just keep busy. 13:37 And 4. Focus on other people. 13:40 The last one is to trust in God that He is going to bring joy. 13:46 You know Psalm 30:5 says: Weeping may endure for a night, 13:51 but joy comes in the morning. 13:55 You know, I began this journey a couple of programs ago, 14:03 Our Journey Through Sadness, talking to you about Greg and my 14:07 own battle with infertility, and our own struggle. 14:10 As we went through this pain, in the beginning 14:17 there was a lot of pain. 14:18 There was a lot of self pity, bitterness, all of that stuff. 14:22 And in the midst of that God said, Jill surrender. 14:26 Surrender those desires. 14:28 And I'd surrender them, and I'd take them back. 14:35 But then I just kept giving it back to God. 14:38 God take it. You know I truly want You to have it. 14:42 I really do. I chose to give thanks. 14:46 And this wasn't just my own journey. Greg did, too. 14:48 But I'm just the one sharing here. 14:50 And this is specifically dealing with women; 14:52 women's stuff, women's issues. 14:54 I remember in the beginning of our journey someone shared a 14:59 someone shared a Bible promise 15:02 Bible promise, and you know it, Psalm 37:4. 15:03 Delight yourself in the Lord. 15:05 He will give you the desires of your heart. 15:09 And someone said, Jill God is either going to remove those 15:14 desires from your heart for children, or He's going to make 15:18 you content without kids, or something. 15:20 But He's going to do something in the midst of this. 15:24 And as I chose to spend time in the Word of God, 15:28 to practice surrender, to practice thankfulness, 15:31 I don't know when it occurred. 15:33 I can't pinpoint a day when I said, Okay, 15:36 this is when it changed. 15:37 I can't tell you that. 15:38 But what I can tell you is this: God changed my heart. 15:42 He took that pain. 15:45 It went to resignation, then I think it went to peace. 15:50 And then after that it was joy. 15:52 That pain, that irritation, that angst was gone. No more. 15:57 Not only that, in our own experience God even removed 16:03 in my heart that desire for kids. 16:05 Now I'm not saying I don't love kids. 16:07 Of course, I love kids. 16:09 I spent ten years teaching kids, and I loved 16:12 every minute of that. 16:13 But at the same time God took away that desire, 16:17 and replaced it with a burning passion for ministry, 16:22 for working for other people, for ministering to women. 16:26 And I think that's what God wants to do in each one of 16:30 our hearts and lives. 16:31 You might be dealing with infertility, and your journey 16:34 might be completely different. 16:35 God might say, My plan for you is to give you a child one day. 16:39 God might say, My plan for you is to have you adopt. 16:44 And those are all beautiful plans. 16:46 Because God leads us all on a different journey, 16:49 on a different path. 16:51 But in our own case, God actually took that desire, 16:55 and filled it with Him. 16:58 It was incredible. 16:59 Psalm 16:11, Psalm 16:11. 17:04 You will show me the path of life. 17:07 In Your presence is fullness of joy. 17:10 At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. 17:15 You know, it's interesting, I was an acquaintance, 17:20 I could say, with a woman who, I would call her 17:24 a little bit negative. 17:25 Have you ever met somebody who's like that? 17:28 Somebody that, you might say, Jill that's a little bit of 17:31 a negative person. 17:32 It seemed like every time I was in her presence I would walk 17:36 away, and I would feel discouraged, or I would feel 17:39 like, Oh, some of that joy was sucked right out of my tummy. 17:43 You know, it's just incredible. 17:44 Some people are like that. 17:46 And one day I went to the hospital. 17:51 Greg and I went to the hospital to visit a man who was 17:54 experiencing tremendous pain. 17:56 And he was scheduled for some sort of surgery. 17:59 I can't even remember. 18:00 And we went there to encourage him. 18:04 He was having a hard time. 18:05 He was experiencing pain in his life. 18:08 So surely he needed encouragement. 18:10 We went into the hospital room and we talked to him. 18:14 And I'm here to tell you that we came away more 18:18 encouraged than we went in. 18:20 He was sharing Jesus with the nurses and with the doctors. 18:25 He was possessing a thankful heart. 18:29 Does that mean that everything he experienced was good? 18:32 Absolutely not. He was in a good deal of pain. 18:36 But at the same time he was choosing to surrender, 18:39 choosing to give thanks. 18:42 And it made a huge difference in his attitude. 18:45 I spoke with this woman later, the woman who's a little bitter, 18:49 and she asked me how's this gentleman? 18:53 And I said, Oh I said, He's encouraging. 18:57 I was just amazed. 18:58 We went to encourage him, and he ended up encouraging us. 19:02 He's doing well. And do you know what she said? 19:05 She said, Some people are just born that way. 19:08 Now some people are born with a naturally happy disposition. 19:13 I agree with that. 19:14 Some people are born with a naturally 19:16 not so happy disposition. 19:18 But do you know what the truth is? 19:20 We choose our disposition. 19:22 We go to God, and if we practice the principles found in the Word 19:27 of God, if we practice the principles of surrender, 19:32 the principles of choosing to give thanks, 19:36 even when I don't want to, even when it hurts, 19:40 even when I'm in a difficult place in my life. 19:44 If I choose that, you know what's going to happen? 19:46 That becomes who I am. 19:48 That becomes a piece of my temperament. 19:52 And it was incredible to see what God can do, 19:56 what God wants to do in different people's lives. 20:00 I don't know what pain or sorrow you're experiencing 20:06 in your life today. 20:07 Maybe you'd say, Jill I'm just coming back 20:10 from the funeral home. 20:12 Maybe you'd say, I don't even know the source of my pain. 20:15 I can't identify it, but just feel constantly covered 20:20 with a grey cloud. 20:21 That was one of my other friends. 20:23 She told me, Jill I'm covered with this. 20:27 I can't identify it. 20:28 I don't know what it's from. 20:30 I don't know what's causing it. 20:32 All I know is I'm in pain. 20:34 All I know is it hurts. 20:37 I don't even want to get out of bed in the morning. 20:39 Maybe that's where you are now; some sort of mist obscuring 20:44 the face of Jesus. 20:45 No matter what it is, no matter what the source of the pain, 20:49 God says, I see, I know. 20:52 I want to bring healing. 20:55 I want to bring deliverance. 20:58 I want to bring peace and joy and transformation. 21:03 Allow yourself time to grieve. 21:05 Surrender those feelings, those thoughts back to God. 21:11 Choose to practice thankfulness. 21:13 Choose to give thanks. 21:16 Claim those Bible promises over your life. 21:21 That, that one principle alone makes a radical difference 21:25 in our hearts and in our lives. 21:27 Surround yourself with other women; women that you can trust, 21:31 women that you feel safe with, women that you can share with, 21:35 and that will pray with you, that will encourage you on your 21:39 journey heavenward. 21:41 Allow God to change your feelings, your heart, 21:47 to change your sorrow into joy in His time. 21:52 And finally, don't just keep busy as a way to stuff those 21:57 emotions, serve God out of an open thankful heart. 22:02 In just a moment we're going to take a break. 22:04 When we come back we're going to share our 22:07 application for this week. 22:09 Practical steps, practical tips that you can practice, 22:12 that you can use at home that will make a difference, 22:16 I pray, in your heart and life. 22:18 And then our next program we begin several programs dealing 22:23 with the concept of purity; Purity From A 22:27 Woman's Perspective. 22:28 We're going to take a break and be right back. |
Revised 2016-04-12