Participants: Jill Morikone
Series Code: HLFT
Program Code: HLFT000009A
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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. 00:32 We're on a journey toward hope, toward healing, 00:35 toward the transformation that the Lord Jesus wants to work 00:39 in your heart and mine as women, as daughters of God. 00:44 If you just joined us, we're in the middle of a 00:47 section on sadness. 00:49 Last week we identified sorrow from loss, 00:53 and sorrow from choice; two different types of sadness 00:56 and pain that we deal with as women, 00:59 and really as humankind in general. 01:02 I shared a little bit of my husband Greg and I, 01:05 and our story, our journey of infertility. 01:08 Maybe that's not your pain or sorrow. 01:10 Maybe you're dealing with disease, or death, or betrayal. 01:14 Whatever the pain is, the Lord Jesus says, I want to pour into 01:20 your heart My healing, and My grace. 01:24 I want to turn your sorrow into joy. 01:27 Our Scripture today is Isaiah 61. 01:35 Now this Messianic prophecy Jesus read in Luke 4 when He 01:40 stood up in Nazareth to share. 01:42 We're just reading one verse of it. 01:46 Talking about what Jesus is going to do. 01:49 To comfort all who mourn; to console those who mourn in Zion, 01:55 to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, 02:01 the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. 02:06 Let's pray. Father we thank You; thank You that You want to pour 02:12 into our hearts your oil of joy in place for our mourning. 02:18 You want to pour in and clothe us with Your garment of praise, 02:23 in place for our spirit of heaviness. 02:25 And right now, I don't know what pain is in my sisters' hearts 02:30 at home, but we pray right now that you would bring comfort, 02:35 that You would bring peace, that as we talk today, they would 02:40 begin to experience Your transformation, Your joy. 02:45 And we thank You in the precious and holy name of Jesus, Amen. 02:50 Greg and I were traveling from Florida back to home. 02:56 We were coming back... 02:57 This was a couple years ago. 02:58 We were coming back from GYC, or it's called Generation 03:02 of Youth for Christ. 03:04 And as we were driving back, we decided to stop at my 03:08 Uncle and Aunt's home. 03:09 They live near the Chattanooga area. 03:11 It was kind of a halfway point. 03:14 But I'm just being honest with you, there was another reason 03:17 that we wanted to stop. 03:20 You see, my Uncle, my Uncle Mike had cancer, and he was 03:26 even then dying of cancer. 03:30 We came in and I talked to my Aunt Donna and to my Uncle Mike. 03:37 I remember as we walked in the front door Uncle Mike looked 03:42 different because the ravages of cancer had effected his body. 03:46 And in my heart I hurt for him, of course, 03:52 but especially for my Aunt Donna. 03:55 And you know why? 03:56 Not only was she in the process right then 03:59 of losing her precious husband, she had laid her daughter 04:05 to rest six years before. 04:07 My cousin died of cancer six years before this time. 04:13 She was only thirty-six years old. 04:15 And you say, God that hurts. 04:20 She left behind two little boys and a husband. 04:24 So my Aunt had to deal with the pain of losing her daughter. 04:30 Six years later she went through another funeral. 04:35 And probably a month after we stopped and saw my Aunt 04:38 and Uncle, my Uncle passed away. 04:41 And we went back to Chattanooga for the second funeral. 04:45 The interesting thing to me, my Aunt went through terrible pain, 04:51 incredible loss, and while we were there at her home she said, 04:56 Jill, I still trust Jesus. 05:01 I still love Him. Where would I go if I didn't have Jesus? 05:09 She said, In spite of all of what I have been through it is 05:15 drawing me closer to Jesus, and I'm thankful for that. 05:19 I don't know what pain you have right now in your heart. 05:24 It could be you're dealing with something similar to my Aunt, 05:28 and there's pain, there's sadness because of that. 05:31 Know that the Lord Jesus Christ wants to bring peace, 05:36 and even joy into our hearts, and into our lives. 05:40 I believe there's several steps that God can take us on in our 05:49 journey toward peace, and our journey toward finding 05:52 joy again after pain. 05:54 We're going to discuss three of those steps today. 05:57 And then the next program we'll finish, 06:00 and we'll discuss the rest. 06:01 The first step is to allow yourself time to grieve. 06:06 We often try to rush the healing process. 06:08 We say, Why am I not over some pain, maybe two or three 06:14 days after a big loss? 06:16 Don't stuff your emotions. 06:19 Don't try to force yourself to get over it. 06:22 Don't try to rush the healing process. 06:26 And at the same time, don't do that to somebody else. 06:29 If you're in a happy place and doing well, 06:32 and someone that you know and love is suffering with pain, 06:36 don't say, Snap out of it! Just get over it! 06:40 It's important! Don't rush the healing process. 06:44 Psalm 30:5. Weeping may endure for a night, 06:47 but joy comes in the morning. 06:51 So that's a Biblical principle that we don't immediately 06:54 snap out of something. 06:56 Sometimes it takes time. 06:58 So, 1. Don't rush that healing process. 07:02 2. Surrender your thoughts, your sadness, your control over 07:09 the situation to God. 07:12 No matter what it is, no matter what you're experiencing, 07:16 no matter what your loss is, identify the source 07:20 of your pain and sadness. 07:22 You could go to God and say, God I would love to be married. 07:25 Maybe you're single and say, Oh, I want to be married. 07:28 Identify that. God, I would love to be married. 07:32 For Greg and I years ago, it was God, 07:34 we would love to have children. 07:37 Maybe you're in a rough marriage and you say, God, I would love 07:42 to be loved and cherished by my husband, 07:45 but he sure doesn't do that right now. 07:47 Maybe I would love to have kids that walk with You. 07:52 I would love to spare my friend from the suffering that 07:55 she's experiencing, or I would love to bring my loved one 07:58 back from the grave. 08:00 Identify the source of your pain and sadness. 08:04 3. Acknowledge your inability to control the situation. 08:09 So, God, I would love to be married, if you are single, 08:12 and then say, But I can't find a husband. 08:17 Okay, that's just acknowledging your inability to control 08:21 whatever the situation is. 08:23 For Greg and I it was, God we would love to have kids, 08:26 but we can't get pregnant. 08:27 Maybe, God, I wish my spouse loved me, but I can't control 08:32 how they treat me. 08:34 God I wish that my kids would stay in church 08:37 and walk with You, but I can't control their choices. 08:41 They're grown. They make their own choices. 08:45 God I would love to spare my friend the suffering that she's 08:48 experiencing, but I can't change the disease 08:52 that's ravaging her body. 08:54 Identify the source of your pain and sadness. 08:57 Acknowledge your inability to control that situation. 09:03 Next, surrender. Surrender the person or situation to Jesus. 09:09 Come to Him and say, God, I wish I could get married, 09:13 but I can't, and I choose to surrender this to You, 09:17 and I will trust You. 09:19 The last one is trust Jesus with the outcome. 09:22 And I will trust You whether I ever get married or not. 09:26 That is a total surrender. 09:29 We're not talking about a surrender that I say, Okay, 09:32 I give You part of my heart. 09:33 No this is painful. 09:35 Surrender can be very painful. 09:37 But in the midst of that, when we surrender, we allow God 09:42 to work into our hearts; to work His will in our lives, 09:47 to free us from that pain. 09:51 I know in Greg and my experience we'd surrendered; 09:55 God I surrender my desire for children. 09:59 God I will trust you whether we ever have kids or not. 10:02 I will trust You. Maybe it's a marriage. 10:05 Maybe it's health, or whatever it is, identify it. 10:10 Surrender your control over the situation, 10:12 because we don't have control anyway. 10:14 We like to think we do. 10:16 And sometimes my husband, Greg, always reminds me, 10:19 Jill, hold onto what you have with an open hand. 10:24 And so many times I like to control the people, 10:27 or the situations, or the things, because it gives me 10:30 a sense of security. 10:32 But there's no security in that. 10:34 We have security in the Lord Jesus Christ. 10:37 Surrender that. I think Jesus faced the ultimate surrender. 10:43 I don't know if you can picture Him, but I can see Him there 10:46 in the Garden of Gethsemane. 10:48 He's just had His last supper; His meal with His disciples. 10:52 He has washed their feet. 10:54 And now He's in the Garden of Gethsemane, one of His favorite 11:00 retreats with His disciples. 11:02 He takes three of them and says, Come away a little 11:05 while with Me and pray. 11:08 They came away a little while with Him. 11:12 And then we see what He does in Luke 22. 11:15 Luke 22. We see Him going to God in agony, in pain. 11:23 It says, He withdrew from His disciples about a stones throw. 11:27 This is Luke 22, we're in verses 41-44. 11:31 And He knelt down and prayed. 11:33 Father, if it is Your will, let this cup pass from Me. 11:40 Nevertheless, not what I want, but what You want. 11:45 Then it says an angel appeared from heaven 11:49 and strengthened Him. I love that! 11:51 Did you notice, after the surrender came strength. 11:56 And I think you'll find that in your own walk, 11:58 and your own journey with Jesus. 12:00 Once we surrender to the Lord Jesus; once we surrender that 12:04 pain, that situation, you know what happens? 12:08 He gives us strength. 12:10 The last verse. He said... It was He was in agony. 12:14 He prayed more earnestly. 12:16 Then His sweat became like great drops of blood 12:19 falling down to the ground. 12:22 To me that is the ultimate surrender. 12:25 I don't know about you, but I have never bled... 12:29 Well, I have if I've been cut. 12:31 I'm not talking about that. 12:33 But if I'm struggling with something; if I'm dealing with 12:35 pain, if I'm trying to surrender to the Lord Jesus, 12:38 I have never bled. 12:40 That's being honest. 12:41 And my guess is you probably haven't either. 12:43 That shows you the agony that He went through. 12:47 He said, God I don't want to go forward. 12:48 I don't want the separation from You. 12:50 But if this is Your will, Yes, I will do it. 12:54 For Greg and I, our surrender was very easy in comparison to 12:59 what Jesus had to do in the Garden of Gethsemane, 13:01 yet it still required surrender. 13:04 God, if Your overarching plan for our lives, 13:07 if Your will for our lives is for us not to have children, 13:12 we accept that. We accept that. 13:15 And the important thing is to surrender as often 13:19 as the feelings arise. 13:20 You might say, I surrender Jill. 13:22 I'm done. No we're not. 13:24 We surrender once, and Satan's going to bring all that back 13:27 in again, and you've got to surrender again, and again, 13:31 and again. It might seem like you keep doing this process, 13:36 but you know what? 13:38 Each time it gets easier, and each time it takes longer 13:41 before you have to make that surrender again. 13:45 1. We allow ourselves time to grieve. 13:47 2. We surrender our control over the situation; 13:51 our sadness, our pain back to God. 13:55 And 3. We practice thankfulness. 13:59 I believe this is where the battle is fought 14:02 and the victory is won. 14:04 I mentioned on an earlier program that I don't believe 14:08 practice makes perfect. 14:09 You know that old adage. 14:11 And they say, Practice makes perfect? 14:12 I believe practice makes permanent. 14:17 In other words, what I do consistently over time 14:22 becomes part of who I am. 14:23 It becomes part of my DNA. 14:26 If I choose to practice thanks when it hurts, when I don't want 14:31 to, when it doesn't make any sense to, guess what? 14:35 God is going to change even my DNA, who I am inside, 14:40 and I will become a more thankful person. 14:43 If we nurse feelings of sadness, of self-pity, of bitterness, 14:50 we will become accustomed to thinking that way. 14:54 If on the flip side, I focus on a thankful heart, 14:59 a joyful heart, a thankful spirit, if I choose to practice 15:05 thankfulness until it becomes a habit, God will work to change 15:10 my heart and life in that as well. 15:13 Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 5, 1 Thessalonians 5. 15:19 This is a very interesting Scripture. 15:20 Three verses. We're going to read verses 16, 17, 18. 15:24 The Bible says, Rejoice always. 15:26 Pray without ceasing. 15:29 In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ 15:34 Jesus concerning you. 15:37 Now this Scripture does not mean that everything is thankworthy. 15:43 It doesn't mean that when your spouse dies that 15:46 that's a good thing. 15:47 That is not what the Scripture means. 15:49 It simply means that in the midst of everything, 15:55 we don't give thanks for everything, 15:57 but even in the midst of what we're dealing with we can 16:00 choose to give thanks. 16:02 We can choose to praise Jesus even when it hurts, 16:08 because when we praise it changes who we are. 16:12 It changes our thoughts and our habits. 16:16 2 Corinthians 10:5, 2 Corinthians 10:5. 16:21 We choose... This verse used to terrify me. 16:24 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts 16:27 itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity 16:31 every thought to the obedience of Christ. 16:35 And that used to terrify me. 16:37 I would say, God every thought? 16:39 I have thousands, millions of thoughts every day. 16:43 How in the world am I supposed to bring them 16:45 under Your captivity? 16:46 It's not our job to do that. 16:48 Of course we can't do that. 16:50 God knows that we can't do that. 16:52 But we can choose to ask Him to take our thoughts. 16:55 We can choose to surrender. 16:58 Romans 8:28 is another one of my favorite verses. 17:01 It says, We know that all things work together for good 17:05 to those who love Him, to those who are called 17:08 according to His purpose. 17:10 You notice Paul doesn't say all things are good. 17:13 Of course they're not. 17:15 But in the midst of something painful God can work to bring 17:19 about something good. 17:22 This was where I fought my own battle with my feelings of 17:26 loss over our infertility. 17:29 I would go to Wal-Mart, say I'm buying a baby gift for a 17:32 friend's baby shower. 17:34 Those used to be very painful. 17:36 And I would go to the friend's baby shower. 17:38 I would go to Wal-Mart first to purchase the gift. 17:40 And I'd be in the baby section with the rubber duckies, 17:43 and the onezies, and all of that baby stuff, 17:47 and God would say, Jill, count your blessings. 17:53 Jill be thankful. And in the midst of that, in the midst of 17:58 all my wanting to nurse self-pity, wanting to indulge 18:03 in bitterness... And I know I did that sometimes. 18:06 I'm not saying I didn't. 18:07 But in the midst of that God would say, Count your blessings. 18:11 And so I would. I would go to God and I would say, 18:14 What are my blessings? 18:15 I have a friend. Thank you, Jesus. 18:17 And I can go to her baby shower. 18:19 Thank You, Jesus that you've blessed her with a child. 18:23 Thank You, Jesus for my husband. 18:26 Thank You for the money with which to purchase a gift. 18:29 Thank You for my eyesight. 18:31 Thank You for a car, and I was able to drive in to the store. 18:34 It's all a matter of perspective. 18:37 Praise God, self pity cannot endure a praise party. 18:42 If you start praising the Lord, self pity, that demon, 18:46 self pity is going to flee. 18:49 Nehemiah 8:10. The Joy of the Lord is our strength. 18:56 Do you need strength? 18:57 Do you need courage? 18:59 Do you need fortification for the road ahead? 19:03 Choose to praise Jesus. 19:05 And His joy you're going to experience strength. 19:10 1 Corinthians 15:57. 19:12 God knows we cannot conjure up joy ourselves. 19:18 He knows we can't do that. 19:20 All we do is make a choice to praise, 19:22 and He brings the victory. 19:23 Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through 19:27 our Lord Jesus Christ. 19:30 There's one more verse I want to look at. 19:32 This is Habakkuk. It's one of those little books, 19:36 minor prophets in the back of the Bible. 19:39 Habakkuk 3:17-19. 19:41 Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the 19:47 vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, 19:51 and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off 19:56 from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls;... 19:59 Now let me stop there a moment. 20:01 If you hear that, what does that sound like? 20:04 That sounds depressing to me. 20:05 That sounds like they're having economic disaster. 20:10 Did you catch that? 20:12 Their livelihood was centered around their crops, 20:15 their fields, their animals. 20:18 And all of that was gone. 20:20 The next verse: verse 18. 20:23 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the 20:28 God of my salvation. 20:30 The Lord God is my strength,... 20:32 There it is again: The joy of the Lord is our strength. 20:35 The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my 20:39 feet like deer's feet. 20:41 He will make me walk on my high hills. 20:45 What is God saying there? 20:46 He's saying no matter what's going on, no matter what pain 20:51 you have in your life, choose to praise, choose to give thanks. 20:59 And in the act of giving thanks, God will give you joy. 21:06 My husband Greg and I have a framed poem next to our 21:12 bed in the bedroom. 21:13 Now this was a poem that was very special to me. 21:15 And I said, I really like this, and I'd like to keep it. 21:18 And he said, Yea, if it's special to you 21:19 Jilly, let's do that. 21:21 And so I have it right up next to my side of the bed. 21:24 And it's a poem, and I love it, because it talks about accepting 21:30 with joy anything that comes my way. 21:34 Here's the words: In Acceptance Lies Peace. 21:39 Oh my heart be still. 21:41 Let thy restless worry cease, and accept His will. 21:46 Though this test is not my choice, it is God's. 21:52 Therefore rejoice! 21:54 In His plan there cannot be anything to make me sad. 21:59 If this is God's choice for me, I want to take it and be glad. 22:05 Make from it some lovely thing to the glory of your King. 22:11 Cease from sighs and murmuring, sing His loving grace. 22:16 This trial means my furthering to a wealthy place. 22:22 From my fears God's going to give release. 22:26 In acceptance lies peace. 22:30 That poem combines two of the principles that we spoke about 22:34 today: surrender... 22:35 Did you catch that? 22:37 ...in acceptance. 22:38 That is surrender. 22:39 The second one was giving thanks. 22:42 Give thanks for everything that is going on in our life. 22:46 Because as we do that God can bring about a miraculous change, 22:52 and begin to turn our sorrow into joy. 22:55 We're going to take a break, and in just a moment we'll be back 22:58 with our application for this week. |
Revised 2016-04-12