A WOW Moment - June 4 2020

Isaiah 55 and Learning to Trust God’s Higher Ways

We always give it a few minutes, too. There we go. It's just right. Just right. And we are in the right direction. All right, how many people we got here? I can't see from here. Put my glasses on. Oh, that camera, I can't see that.

Four, that's good. We'll start. Hi, everybody, how are y 'all? Welcome to our Bible study. Will you shut that, because Jeremiah's out there. Welcome to our Bible study. I'm Vicki, you remember Mercedes.

Tonight, we have the wonderful and beautiful Miss Dana Snead with us. Dana has attended church here as long as I've been here, so it's gonna be a while. She has since, though, moved because she got an incredible job, so we don't hold that against her.

We love her. We accept her any time she comes home. She goes back to work on Mondays, so we're so happy to have her tonight, so thank you for meeting us here at church tonight. Tonight, we have asked Dana to share with us her go-to verse.

I hope that in some way or another that the Lord is able to use this in your life because she's really picked a good, well, she's picked a few verses. Which is fine. We leave that option open. So, Miss Dana, what is your go-to verse?

Isaiah 55, eight through 11.

Mercedes, will you read the scripture, please? Isaiah eight or eight. All right. Isaiah 55, eight through 11. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways. This is the Lord's declaration.

For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.

I have to say that says a lot, Dana. It does say a lot. So, how does this, why is this your go-to verse?

God’s Plan, Human Fear, and the Call to Ministry

So, this is one that has kind of helped me through a lot of different types of things. And I think one of the reasons that I keep coming back to it is just because it puts me in perspective. It's both an encouragement and a challenge.

And I think that's why in several different instances, things that I've kind of been learning through and journeys that I've been on, I keep kind of coming back to this because I feel like it applies to almost every situation.

And so, the first time that I really came upon this verse and it really just stood out to me was while I was in college. And I just really had no idea what my future was gonna look like and I was really stressing about it.

And so, at that point Wait a minute, you stressed? Oh, yeah. You did? I did. I mean, I still do. So, I dealt a lot with fear and a lot with control. I said that my biggest fear was uncertainty and failure, but that was a different kind of situation.

I had really learned a lot. I knew none of that about you. Yeah, so, from the time I was in ninth grade, I knew I wanted to be a forensic pathologist and I wanted to be a crime scene investigator and so, I had the 10-year plan.

I was gonna go to college for criminology, criminal justice. I was gonna get out. I was gonna join NCIS. I was gonna be a civilian special agent. I can see that. That's what I wanted to do. From the time I was in ninth grade, I had the whole plan and that's what I was working towards.

But then, there's a lot of other kind of stuff God was working in my life and stuff that I didn't even realize He was working on, but then it built to a pressure. And so, then when I was in college, He really just kind of changed my direction and it really threw me off guard and everything.

And so, during all of that upheaval, I was afraid of moving away. I was afraid of not knowing what the future was gonna hold, what it was gonna look like. If I was gonna do NCIS, the closest base is in Norfolk, Virginia.

And I grew up in Memphis. That was my whole life. Where did you go to college? University of Memphis. So, it wasn't a Christian-based college? No, it wasn't a Christian-based college, but it was home and it was safe.

I lived at home while I was going to college. And so, that was all part of the plan. And so, when God changed that plan, all of a sudden, and that is a whole nother story. We don't have time for it, but it was through a lot of missions work and ministry that happened at the BCM, the Baptist Collegiate Ministry, at the University of Memphis.

And so, through a lot of stuff that he was doing in my life there, I went on a mission trip. I went on several, it was a process, but the final one, the spring break of my senior year in college, I went on a mission trip and it was just all that pressure just came to a head at that point.

And I felt like God was calling me into ministry. At the time, I thought it was missions specifically. I love mission work.

It just does so much stuff. It is, it's amazing.

And it just kind of opens your eyes and it puts you in a whole different perspective. And so, through that trip that I was on, I felt like I was being called to missions, to ministry. So, I came back and told Brother Jeff, told the church.

And so, he was like, all right, well, you don't really have a plan. So, I would recommend that you go to seminary. So, I started going to seminary and long story, God just kind of led every step of that process.

But the thing was, I was terrified through all of it because it was nothing, it was not my plan. And everything that I had planned was completely falling apart. And so, and the more I tried to hang on to that control, the more God ripped it out of my hands, right?

Been there, done that one. Been there, done that one. And you're just gonna win. I had to come to a place. So, I had to come to a place and that's where I first found this verse, where specifically in that case, verses eight and nine, for my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways.

Your ways are not my ways. This is the Lord's declaration. For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. And so that, I was just like, okay.

So, like at that moment, that first impact was humbling myself because I thought I had a plan. I thought I knew how everything needed to go. And when it wasn't going that way, when I was losing control, everything was terrible.

And I had to come to a point where I realized it doesn't matter if I'm taking, if my plan is happening. It doesn't matter if what I think is the right way to happen. If God says that it's something else, his way is better than mine.

And I may not be able to see it now. I may not be able to understand what it is that he's doing in my life, but I recognize that this is him. And when I can set myself aside, my own plans aside, my own thoughts and desires aside and say, okay, this is where God is leading me.

I know that, I can see that. And I had to come to a place where I learned. And I mean, I'm talking about like every step of the way. It was like, he left it to where I had no idea what the next step was until that time to take the next step.

And then it was super clear. And I would stress out and stress out. It's like, I don't know what to do. I don't know what's gonna be next. So I mean, like I did that with college, right? So if I'm not gonna do crime scene investigation, then what am I gonna do?

What's next? Missions? Okay, well, it was perfectly clear. But what does that look like? As a single young female, like, am I gonna go across the world by myself? Like, oh my gosh, like talk about terrifying, right?

And so. I'm scared. But what else do you do, right? So like at that point, it's like, I didn't really know what missions looks like and what ministry looks like and all that kind of stuff. And so I think God intentionally left that really vague for me as I was walking through this journey because he was teaching me to let go of it, right.

And teaching me to trust him because his thoughts are higher than my thoughts and his ways are higher than my ways. And so in that sense, it's humbling and it's a challenge because it teaches me that I have to set aside what I think might be right.

And I forgot to look this one up, but there's a verse in Psalms or Proverbs, I think, it says that man chooses his step, but God directs his path. And so I had to come to learn that, to understand that, that I'm making this decision right now, but it's not my path, it's not my plan.

So like, I have to sit here and I have to struggle with this decision. I have to come to a place where, okay, I'm making this decision, but God is the one that's directing the path. And like, I don't have to worry.

About where that path is gonna go. He is a light unto our feet and a lamp unto our path. He shows us where we are, but it also shows us where we need to go.

Right, and then even Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. And so like all those truths, I mean, like his thoughts are not my thoughts.

And so I had, like, to me, that's just a challenge in this. And that has come up time and time again, as I, for me, the biggest thing and continues to be is the future. Like, what does the future look like?

What's next? I mean, moving to Kentucky was terrifying. I mean, all my family lives here. I've lived here my whole life. That was terrifying. But it was one of those things where, and this is one of the verses that helped me through that.

I mean, it was so clearly God orchestrating the steps to get me there that I had no doubt it was God calling me there. So I just had to release my own plans and my own thoughts. I don't know what it looks like.

I don't know how this is gonna happen,.

But his ways are higher than my ways and his thoughts are higher than my thoughts. And just to trust in that. Not your will, or not my will, but yours be done. Exactly, exactly.

So in that sense, it's a challenge, but then it's also a great encouragement because I don't have to know what's gonna happen. I don't have to know what the plan is. I don't have to know where the path is gonna lead.

And being able to let go of that and just to trust in God is a relief above everything else. And I still worry about some of those things sometimes. I still, I wanna know, but then I just keep coming back to this.

It's like, I don't have to know. And then that second part of it just, I think drives it all home because his thoughts are greater than my thoughts. His thoughts are higher. His ways are higher. I can trust him.

And I mean, I used to use analogy that God was like the master puzzle solver, right? So like he's got this big puzzle and I'm here and I've got this piece of the puzzle. And then I've got this piece of the puzzle and then I've got this piece of the puzzle that I can't see how they fit together.

And like, I can't even, I don't have the box top. So I don't see the big picture. All I have are these little pieces and I don't know how to fit them together, but he doesn't even need the box top because he just, he is the big picture.

He knows the big picture. He is the big picture. And he's working all those pieces together. And by the end of it, they're all gonna be a perfect tapestry of his purpose and his will for my life. And so then that's the second part of this.

Just as the rain and snow fall from heaven, they do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout, providing seed to sow and food to eat. So my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.

I mean, we have an omnipotent God. We have a sovereign God. And when he sends his word to do something, when he has a plan, when he has a purpose, it will be done. And I don't have to worry about that.

And I don't have to take that weight on myself. I don't have to make all my pieces connect. I can just trust in him and trust in the fact that.

His weights are just higher than mine. So let's say that you didn't want to give up that control. Okay. Let's say that you said, I don't want to go to this seminary. I don't want to do that. That you're still going to end up where he wants you at.

Oh yeah. I mean, you can fight it too, Danielle. You can go the easy route and just go with it, or you can just kick and scream and fight. Cause you know about that. Yeah. Yeah. I'm good. I've been good at kicking and screaming and fighting.

That makes me think of Ephesians 2 .10. For we are God's, we're his creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we would walk in them. He's prepared specific works for us to do.

He has prepared good works for us to do. So he knows how hard headed I am. He knows everything. And his ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And when he's got a purpose, it's going to be done.

Now we might make it harder on ourselves. Do the gravel and the muck, like we were talking about earlier. Right. But his purpose is going to be done. And what he sends is going to come back successful and it's purpose.

No matter what. No matter what.

So. Your happy being is always for our good. Oh. Oh yeah. Romans 8 .28. And for his glory.

And I'm glad you said that. Because I think a lot of people, especially Romans 8 .28, they will take that God works all things for good. Right? And then just stop there. But it's for the good of those who are called according to his purpose.

So it is about his purpose and it's about his glory. And when I really think about it, I'm concerned because I'm a human. I'm concerned about my own life. Right? I want to know what's going to happen for me.

I want to know what my future looks like. I want to know how does this affect me? But God is the creator and the sustainer of the entire universe. And like how many threads does he have? I mean, think about this, like going back to the puzzle analogy, right?

So I've got this one puzzle that's my life. And he knows exactly how all those pieces are going to fit together. But it's more like it's like a seven billion dimensional puzzle. Because you have a puzzle and you have a puzzle and everybody in this world has a puzzle and God knows all the pieces on all those puzzles and he knows how they fit together.

Right now, all of our puzzle, right now, this piece is the same piece in all of our puzzles to a degree. Because we're sitting here in this room. Yeah. Our pieces match. They fit together. We have matching pieces.

Right. That's so nice, Dana. But they're going to be spread like, because come this weekend, I'm going to go back to Kentucky. And so then our paths are going to diverge again. But that doesn't matter to God.

I mean, like he sees how all those threads work together and he, it's like an amazing tapestry that he's weaving that we can't even understand. And I mean, and that's where that comfort comes in because his ways are higher than my ways.

I don't have to know how all these things work together. All I have to do is trust him to direct my path. And I can focus right here on the task that he's given me today, the step that he has placed before me today.

And I can focus on that and let go of the control of the future.

So let me ask your, I hate to say thoughts because I know you're going to go straight to scripture. When we don't like something, because you didn't like the idea about moving to Kentucky. There was a lot of people here that didn't like the idea.

But we knew that it was God's calling. So how do you, I know it's like they say, it's just a hard pill to swallow when you just got to keep going. You know what I'm saying? But there's so many people really out there that don't swallow that pill.

Which again, leads straight back to what I said before, where we start going this way and he's steadily pushing. What do you tell people when they don't want to walk that path and stay on the uppity up?

You know what I mean? What do you say to people that, because you can sit there and beat it in their head until the cows come home and they still just. It's up to them at that point. You've done your job.

It is up to them to use the tools that has been provided for them. Yeah, I'm starting to learn how to use my tools. Okay, Vicki?

Well, Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, not particularly, but because Paul has long sentences. I'm gonna start in verse eight. He says, so don't be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, his prisoner.

Instead, share in suffering for the gospel, rely on the power of God. Okay, so relying on the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

So even our salvation, even our calling as ministers of God, as Christian people that are working within the church and in evangelism outside the church, our calling is all not based on our works, not based on our desires, but based on his purpose and his grace.

To which he has called us. Because even our good works are his filthy rags.

So I would say that if you're wanting to hold onto control, if you're trying to do those things yourselves, then you are not living in a manner worthy of the gospel as Paul tells the Philippians to do.

So, I mean, it's not just, am I holding onto control? Am I not taking that step to trust God? It's, am I living the Christian life the way that I'm supposed to live the Christian life? I mean, easier said than done.

Well, yeah.

But, I mean, I'm better at it. I'm about to reach 50 and I have that problem. Because trust me, I work within the government. It's not easy. Not easy. Going back to verse 10 in Isaiah 55. For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return there without saturating the earth and making it germinate and sprout and providing seed to sow and food to eat, into a loving, so my food, so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to be empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.

I think about evaporation. You know, rain, snow, it hits the ground. It waters, you know, the plants and everything. And then the sun draws it back up and evaporates back up out of the ground. So it's sent, obviously, to do, it has a purpose.

So when you take, so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to be empty. For us, it will increase our spiritual growth. So it serves a purpose here. And then it gives him his glory. It will come back to him.

He will get his glory. But in the process of that, our spiritual maturity increases. Yeah. And I think if you want an application, you were kind of asking, like,.

What would you tell people? I would say, go back to verse six. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call to him while he is near. Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord so that he may have compassion on him and to our God, for he will freely forgive.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts. So, I mean, I think, and this whole, you can go back and read this whole chapter. It all plays into that same kind of idea. You're seeking God. If you're seeking him, then you're not going to hold onto that control.

I mean, you may, in moments, and it may be a struggle, like everything that we go through in our sanctification process. But if you seek God, you cannot seek God and seek self. Yeah, it's one or the other.

Yeah. So, you didn't kick and scream. I probably did the first step of that journey. But once I realized that God was teaching me these things and that he was leading me along a path that I couldn't see, I just had to learn.

And I mean, it was terrifying. I mean, each step has gotten a little bit easier in the sense of, because of the experience, I understand that I can and should trust God. And so the decision to trust God becomes easier.

The fears don't necessarily always become easier. The struggle to want to know what is going to happen, how is this going to affect that? What is that going to look like? Those things are still a struggle.

And I mean, like, I was terrified to move to Kentucky, but it was never a question of whether I was going to or not. Because it was so obviously clear that that was God's path for me. And I had learned from these other things through college and through seminary and through the missions trips and all the things that I, the ministry that I had learned how to do here.

And a lot, thanks to Brother Jeff, continually pushing me outside of my comfort zone.

Oh yes, he did that very well, didn't he? Yes, yes, he's very good at that. Yes.

So through all of that, where I couldn't see where God was leading me, but I think, I mean, I know that all of those steps along the way were preparing me to make this decision. Not saying that that's the last decision, that decision, this decision, the decisions I'm making every day now still may be in preparation for some future decision.

But I can look back now and know for sure that God has been preparing me and that he has been training me and he has been teaching me to just trust in him, to rely on him, to give up the control. Even when I'm terrified, even when I want the control, even when I want to know what, and you know, sometimes I'll trick myself and I'll be like, it'd be like a justification, right?

Be like, okay, I want to do what you want me to do, God. I just want you to tell me what it is that I just want to know, right? I'll do it, I'll do it, I just want to know. Step one, step two. Right, but that is a cop-out in and of itself because that's me not wanting to trust God to handle the path.

That's me saying I want to know the path before I take the step. And that's not trusting God. Trusting God, at least in my instances, I'm not saying that God never shows you what the path is gonna be.

He gives different distances on the path to different people at different times in their lives for different reasons. But for me, he was teaching me just the step, just the step, just the step. One at a time.

One at a time.

And sometimes there were baby steps. It's like learning how to walk up the steps as you're a kid or down the stairs, you do one at a time and you hold the rail. And both feet. Both feet, holding on to the rail.

Yeah. In the meantime, Dana's wanting to see what's inside the present before it gets around. Meanwhile, she just wants to run down the stairs.

I just, I want to know what's at the bottom of the stairs before I take that first step. You just gotta keep stepping. You just gotta take the next step. So, I mean, I think that that is, and there's been different ways.

I mean, like I said, my first struggle was fear and then control. I mean, they all kind of play together, but like each step, there was maybe a different emphasis on that struggle. But every single step of the journey that I have been on, I feel like it keeps coming back to this.

Take the step. God's directing the path. His ways are higher than my ways. His thoughts are higher than my thoughts. Trust him to get me where I'm supposed to be going. And I mean, even talking about God's purpose, because sometimes it wasn't about my plan.

I wanted to do what God's will was. I wanted to do what God's purpose was, but I didn't know what it was. Like, well, just tell me what you want me to do.

Sometimes it's kind of hard to do what you want me to do, and I don't know what it is that you want me to do. Right.

But at that point, he was just telling me, I'll get you where I want you to go. Just do it. Just trust me.

Just do this. Just do this. Keep stepping. Just do this. It's like, almost like, you know, a visually impaired person, and they have a seeing eye dog. You've got to trust, they have to trust that dog to get them safely where they need to go.

That's a good analogy. I like that. Just like, we've got to trust God because he sees where we're going. We don't. Mm-hmm. I like that a lot. It happens. You can use it. I probably will. I'll give you the copyright to it.

I love analogies. I think I recently went through one of those preparations, just with work. The job change that I did, you know, the thing that happened was all that in my old job, and then, so I wasn't, I changed positions in my old job, and then COVID happened, and then they ended up at Evergreen, you know, and Elena had told me when all that was going on with my other job was, there's a reason.

You're being prepared for this for a reason. I'm like, okay, sure, whatever. I'm gonna rectify this situation, and I'll be right back to where I was. No. No. No. Well, Lake Dane is in Kentucky.

Yeah, right. Who would have thought that? Yep. Not me. Yeah, and so, another, more of a story, more of an account than a verse, but I always think of the account of Joseph in Egypt, because his brother sold him into slavery, and then God used Joseph in Egypt to save the nation of Israel.

I mean, it wasn't a nation yet, but he saved his family that would become the nation, and then allowed the nation to be preserved in Goshen, under the protection of Egypt, so that they could grow large enough to be a nation when God got ready to pull them out.

And so, I mean, that is the perfect account to me to just see how God has all these threads that he's pulling together, and we may not see it. And, I mean, Joseph didn't see it. Joseph died in Egypt. He didn't see God pulling his people out of Egypt, but God was working his purpose, and he was using these different people and these different things to his purpose.

And in Genesis 50, 20, we've got that famous verse where Joseph says, you plan evil against me. God planned it for good, to bring about the present result, the survival of many people. And so It goes back to the one in Romans.

Yeah, I mean, his brothers made an evil choice. They did a wicked thing, and God used that to bring about good, not only in Joseph's life, not only in the brothers' lives that made the evil choice, but also in the nation of Israel, and therefore, all of the rest of us.

I mean, God's ways are not our ways. His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and we can trust him. I mean, like, I couldn't have written a story that was so perfectly woven to make something incredible like that happen, where all people throughout all of history are impacted.

So why should I want to take back control? True, true. So every time I come back to this, it's both an encouragement and a challenge to humble myself, to give up the control, but also an encouragement that I can, and it's better if I do.

Because I'm a, well, we all know what happens when you don't. We all know that it's not a pretty sight. Yep. You would think that we'd learn. You really would. How many times do you just fight and fight and fight and fight?

I can't. I can't count. You think that we would just learn the first time? Well, you know. Or the second time. At the age that I am, I sit back now and I'm like, I'm not going to worry about this. Now, I'm not going to stress about this because I don't have any control over this.

And just like with my kids, they all go through their own thing because you know, there's five of them. And the older ones are grown and they're moved out. They have their own life. Well, they're all grown now, but I mean, you know, the older, older ones.

And I have a stepdaughter that's 30. No, she's not. She would kill me if she heard me say that. She will be 30 in January. But you know, all you can do is just, when they come to you, is just try to show them and try to tell them, you know, and just keep impacting it on them.

You know, I have friends that are young that still cease to listen to me sometimes. Can you believe that? I can't believe that. And I've been through the ringer 25 ,000 times in my life and I keep trying to tell them, you don't, just give it over.

Give it up. Stop trying to control it. But you know, I was the biggest control freak ever for a very long time. I'm here to tell you, I have the, as Jeremiah was speaking earlier about scar tissue, I have scar tissue.

A lot of it. So, the less you try to control it, the less scar tissue you come out with. I don't try to control anything now except for the speed limit I'm going in my car. That's because my foot is the one on the gas.

That's it. Honestly, my children are grown. All I can do is give them spiritual advice when they seek it. That kind of goes back to one of the things I said in our very first interview. Which was, do the things that you know you can do.

Handle the things that you know you can handle and the rest that you can't. Give it up. Well, what time is it? You have a lot going on. Jenny at some point said, I can't hear you. Too bad. We're done now.

Oh my gosh. Way over time. That's okay. Sorry. No, no, no. Nobody goes on after us. Why do you think I've been picked this time? There's nothing scheduled to come on after us. There's nothing before us.

We have the whole Thursday. Yeah. That's why I picked Thursday. But anyway, Stana, I hope that the next time that you're in town, you will come by again and visit with us because I would like to hear the story you said was too long to tell.

Okay. Maybe. Is that a maybe that you're gonna tell the story or a maybe you'll come back and see us? Maybe that I'll tell the story. Oh, okay. I'll be back. This is my home still. This is true. You know, they say once you're a midnight, you're always a midnight.

You can't wash it off. You can't. We're not dirt. Well. You're that person that we think is dirt. And we discover he's real. Oh, that's not coming off. But I hope that you have enjoyed your time at home even though it was because of this COVID.

But we're very thankful that you've been home for the time you've been home. I hope you have a safe trip. Safe trip back to Kentucky. Thank you. I hope that you continue to enjoy your job, which from what you were telling me before we started this, it was definitely the Lord putting you there.

Yes. I couldn't imagine you being a CSI agent now. I couldn't. I know it was something you wanted to do, but I think being a God's agent's better. Oh, definitely.

And I said that. I still get to play with forensic science sometimes because we have a few other workshops and stuff. So, every once in a while.

So you kind of get your cake and eat it too. Kind of. Every once in a while. Yeah.

To a minor degree. But I'm not, didn't have to give up the interest totally.

Yes, we'll definitely have to talk some more because that's interesting. So anyways, I'm so glad y 'all came tonight. I'm sorry if there were spots in there where you couldn't hear us. We're, again, in the lounge area.

Trove office area. And they actually are having a class across the hall from us, so I don't think we need to get too loud. But anyways, if you missed something, just go back and listen and turn it up.

That's all I can tell you. That's all the advice I got. Or wait until it goes on YouTube because Andrew will probably boost up the volume. Oh, enhance the sound, yeah. He can enhance the sound then. So, because he's incredible.

So again, Dana, thank you so, so, so much. Thank you so much for all the years that you worked in youth with my kids. Because you did actually leave something with them because Miranda will speak of you sometimes because she will remember our trip or our youth or something.

So, actually I think that you touched a lot of lives in our church and I thank you for that and I thank the Lord for you, for that. So, I guess we'll let you go back to Kentucky and continue to do his work.