WVW #008 How to let go of perfectionism and give yourself grace

(00:00): I come from a dog, loving family, all five sisters have more dogs among us than we have grandchildren. At Christmas time. There are 12 dogs in my house and only six grand babies that tells you how much we love dogs. And we love to name them. We love to name them meaningful things like my Ballou, which is from the jungle book. Bear reminding me about the bare necessities of life and Mickey that was named after Mickey mantle by my, at the time eight year old son who loved the Yankees, my golf pro sister, Denise. She named her dog Mulligan. Well, that's pretty funny. Probably you heard Theresa and I grew up playing golf and a Mulligan is not anything that pros do. It's things that Theresa and I probably did as kids. Like we didn't like the shots. So we just picked up and did another one.

(00:54): It was like a duo over when you hit a bad shot and it was called a Mulligan. And that's what she named her dog. I love a grace period. Don't you? I love in the financial world with credit cards or mortgages. I love that if I'm not exactly on time or I forgot to make that mortgage payment, that they give me a grace period. Let me tell you. I've had such freedom from overwhelm and perfection in my life because I learned this one simple Bible truth, and that is grace. Welcome to episode eight of the well-versed woman podcast. I'm Renee teller. And I'm here with my cohost tree, some Oregon or two perfectly imperfect women who love to share our life's experiences with women. Like you stay tuned because what we've experienced is a love of God. And that is the foundation of what we share each and every podcast.

(01:53): If you've been listening to our podcasts, you know that each one is building on the last today's episode is about grace and truth. And we spoke last week about truth. So we're going to continue the discussion today, but before we do make sure you hit that subscribe button, because that's going to allow you and remind you to go back and listen to the other episodes. Once you come back, we're then going to take our 20 seconds that we do every episode to stop what we're doing, calm our spirits down so that we can listen to what God might be telling us today. These 20 seconds, we're going to close our eyes, take some deep breaths and just open our hearts and our minds and our ears to listen to God. So you're ready. Here we go. Here starts your 20 seconds.

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(03:12): One last deep breath and that's it, 20 seconds. And I continue to encourage you that when you open your eyes in the morning, you just stop and think about the God who loves you so deeply that he has a plan for your life. We've talked about that and ask him to direct every step of your day, and it's gonna make a huge difference. But today we're going to talk about this idea of living up to all these things. Trey said that God has in his word, all these truths, all these principles that can be very overwhelming. And that can cause us to feel like I'm never going to stack up. I'm never going to be able to live up to what the Bible tells me. I should be as a Christian. It's really hard. Isn't it? Theresa? You know, that is such a great point because we see truths in the word of God and we say, Oh my goodness, I don't know if I could ever do that.

(04:12): And today we want to talk about the fact that you can do what God is asking you to do in his word, because you're not alone when Jesus left the earth. So we've been talking in prior podcasts about the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ that he came. So that's the sins of mankind can be forgiven. I mean, really that is, that is the gospel message in that when we hear the gospel and we say, yes, that is true. And we put our faith in the finished work of Jesus and we invite Jesus Christ into our heart. The Holy spirit of God comes into dwell in us. And it's that Holy spirit of God, that is with us, that is in us, that brings the grace to enable us to do what he's asking us to do on a day to day basis.

(05:09): You know, we've been talking about that. God has the blueprint for our life, Jeremiah 29 11. He knows the plans and the purposes that he has for us. So if the plans and the purposes are a little bit overwhelming, we can rest assure that he is going to bring his grace, his mercy, his enablement, to help and work with us, to bring our life to the place where those plans and those purposes unfold. So that's the journey that he accepts to take with us. And it's just, again, such a beautiful way to live Renee. So I I'm reminded of this idea that God lives in me. And so I think, okay, well, that's just a magic button. Sometimes we think in the beginning of this journey with this relationship with God, that, okay, I asked him to be here with me and plus it should be just like magic.

(06:13): That's not quite the case trace. And we've talked in past episodes about how we have to grow this faith. We have to grow our spirituality like anything else. Yes, we do have to grow our faith. And as we grow our faith through meditation on the word, through listening the word, the word of God, and then by acting on the word of God, our faith becomes alive. And our faith becomes that part of our life that is pleasing to God. And that activates his grace, if you will. Um, I, I really love, uh, the Bible in the book of Romans chapter eight verse 14 says for as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God and sons, meaning all of mankind, men and women alike for the Bible goes on to say, in verse 15, you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out.

(07:19): Abba father. Isn't that beautiful? It's so beautiful to know that when a person invites Jesus Christ into their heart to be Lord and savior, that the Holy spirit is now indwelling and day by day, moment by moment, whatever we face God is there in, when we just cry out, help Lord. He's there to bring peace to bring resolution. Sometimes it takes some time, but he's there to bring us the victory. Renee. He always brings us victory in our life. And I love that the scripture that he gives us in first Corinthians chapter 15 verse 57 says, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus. So no matter what challenge, no matter what problem we face in life, God has our answer. And he brings it to us when we just cry out. It's amazing. Amazing, and Renee, I know you and I have so many wonderful testimony mommies of this grace that swoops on in and gives us what we need to overcome. You know, the Bible says Renee, that we are more than conquerors through him who love us. So if we are more than conquerors, that means just what it says, that the answer to our problems always existed. And again, when we cry out how he's there, he's there in a, like a great father, a wonderful, a good coach. He's there to bring us victory each and every time

(09:01): I love the idea of this free grace period. I love it. You know, in my daily, you know, financial living, because I inevitably always forget the due date of something. And I love that grace period. But it seems when I think about my relationship with God and walking with him and trying to live by his principles and it's overwhelming, well, it doesn't really matter because who cares. I've got grace. I can, I can trip all day long and I can never get better necessarily because God will always give me grace. It seems kind of almost like too good to be true trees.

(09:43): That's a great point. You bring up and Renee, just like the grace period that is given to pay a mortgage or to pay a debt, you still have to pay it, right? The grace doesn't come in to abscond your responsibility to pay them mortgage. So, because God's truths are good in wholesome, in pure, because he knows how he made a human being and the actions, the behaviors, the patterns, the principles, the morals, the ethics that if a person takes hold of these, their life is going to be prosperous and successful. He knows those truths work, but he also knows that we're fallible human beings and that we need great help in great assistance. So his grace comes in to enable the truths that he sets out in his word for us to follow. His grace comes in to enable us to walk out those truths.

(10:53): Renee, I love in the book of Philippians chapter two verses, Oh, let's start with 12. It says, therefore, my beloved is you have always obeyed. Okay? So there it is. Obeyed watt obeyed what God is asking them to do not is in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to willing to do for his good pleasure. So there we see both truth. Hey, you know, if you over eat, it's not good on the organs of your body. It's not good on your system. If you over eat, it might just cut your life short, like a good father. Don't dive in the shallow, right? So these are truths that if we have a problem, for instance, over eating, I know I love to eat, right.

(11:52): I come from big Italian family and everything that one might think about a big Italian family is true. We like to eat in our family. Gatherings are surrounded in, they're brought together over food. So I did find myself, you know, crying out to God. Lord helped me give me a strategy because I do not want to overeat. So, you know, the verse 13, it's God who works in you both to willing to do for his good pleasure. His grace is always there to help us in every situation that we face in life and eating perhaps is one of them. But how about some of the more difficult situations that I think all human beings face, Renee difficulties in relationship, perhaps difficulties in finance, anything you can think of God is there with his love and his grace, Hebrews 10 23 is one of my most favorite scriptures.

(12:52): Renee. It says he who promised is faithful. He who promised is faithful. Let that sink in just for a minute. He promises right to work in you. He promises as we've already seen today, that when we cry out Abba father, that's crying out. Daddy help that he is there. And he rushes in time in time in time again, to bring exactly what we need. You know, Renee, in a previous podcast, we talked about prayer and do you know, in the book of Ephesians, it says that God will provide in. He does more that exceedingly more. The Bible says exceedingly abundantly and beyond what we could even ask or hope for. You know, we're talking about God here. We're talking about the God of the universe that hung the stars created earth, created the sun, right? Every big thing, every small thing to the atoms and the cells of, of mankind.

(14:00): This is the God who says, give me a little and I'll show you what I can do. His power, his grace, his truth comes in. And all of a sudden situations that you find yourself in are getting better. They get better in it's not beauty is it's not always for us to understand because that's what faith comes in. Faith comes in and say, says, I don't understand. You know, back in the day I was struggling with something. And to be quite honest with you, I sat on the floor of my kitchen. I was crying and I was in such a mess. And I just was saying, Lord, I don't know how you're going to straighten this out in the Holy spirit inside of me brought a scripture to my mind that says, I will all that concerns you. So that came to my mind that scripture at the time, I didn't even know where in the Bible that was. I will perfect. All that concerns you in the word. Perfect. In the Bible. We have to be careful that doesn't mean a perfectionist type, a personality type thing. It means mature. I will bring all of the situations in your life to a beautiful victorious maturity. If you, if you just put a little bit of faith, right? Faith, like a mustard seed, a little bit of faith. Look my way and watch my power move on your behalf.

(15:35): So great. Teresa. Here's a lot packed in that. And what came to mind for me listening to you was first of all, when you talked about the physical, you know, food kind of things that we try to do when we make the decision to be better with our diet, for example, it doesn't happen instantaneously. It happens over time. Like Jesus, like with Jesus as we grow our faith. And I love the first festival, Ionians five 23, where the Bible talks about grace is there. We, we receive grace until our spirit is changed. So like with our diet, until our habits are changed and we can see the fruition of our efforts, the grace from God is there until our spirit is changed and able to do and handle and complete what God would have. Right. And then the other thing I love about what you were saying goes back to our previous episodes.

(16:41): And when you were sitting on the floor crying, what came to mind was a scripture that said I will perfect all that concerns you. Now, why did that scripture come to mind? Theresa? It came to mind because you were about meditating on the word again, what we talked so much about in this podcast, the well versed woman is a woman who meditates on the word, who recognizes that the words in the Bible are worthy of being meditated upon. They are truth. And if we meditate on truth, they will be in our, I always like to say in our molecules, in every cell of my body, just like the food is in every cell of my body, whether I eat good food or bad food, the food is in the cells. And when I'm meditating on good truth, then the untruths leave me. And the truth comes to stay in those molecules, just like our food, it's our spiritual food. So I love that. And I love the proof

(17:50): In your testimony that as you're crying on the floor, the truth comes in. The word comes in. You didn't even know where it was in the Bible, but like listening to this podcast, you're just hearing these scriptures and you begin to believe them. You meditate on them. You say them over and over again. So just to kind of bring us home and together, Theresa, last week we talked about truth. Then we talked about grace and truth and how they go together. So talk to us about that, how grace comes to apply truth. That is absolutely right. And I wrote something down that I thought was started cute and catchy. And for those of you who are Mary Poppins, you know, uh, just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, right? We could say that God's grace is the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine of truth go down.

(18:53): And I, I like that because it has God's truth. These are received into our life. The Holy spirit of God is there every step of the way to help us apply the truths. As we saw last week, the Bible teaches in Lamentations three 22 to 23 that his compassions never fail. His mercies are new and fresh every morning in great is his faithfulness. So his grace is there in abundance, but we do have to marry that with truth. So why are God's truths so important? It's because in John, the book of John chapter eight, verse 32, Jesus teaches that you will know the truth and the truth will set you free when God's word comes into our life. And we see at the Bible describes it is it is in a mirror and we see ourself and we see the truth that that will bring freedom.

(19:56): Okay. I need to change X, Y, and Z. Some of the truths that we face in life as a human being, I think the toughest truth can be the truth about ourselves. What has to be changed. And God's love does not. If you will, uh, clean the fish before he catches them, you know, Jesus is a great Fisher of men and women. And, uh, so he catches us if you will, um, meaning he puts you in the boat of salvation. When you hear the gospel, you invite Jesus Christ into your heart to be Lord and savior. As the book of Romans, chapter 10 describes here, the gospel, you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, the Lord, Jesus Christ. You shall be saved once that takes place, the Holy rushes in and wow, you are born again. Your spirit is, is made brand new.

(20:53): The Bible teaches. And then as we said, in Philippians two 13, you're working that out. So if you had wrong patterns of thinking, if you had anxiety, if perhaps you had addiction, right, the God that loves you and has your keys to freedom is the one that's going to help you unlock that door so you can walk free. And he helps us every step of the way. So Renee, going back to where I had so many problems, so many problems in God, didn't overwhelm me and show me my future and say, here's where I'm going to take you. He just said, honey, I love you. He rushed. Assured is you trust me and walk with me. I will take care. I will perfect. All those things that concern you. And to be honest with you, Oh my goodness. I look back. I can't even remember all of them, but I do know today, Renee, I am at a place of peace.

(21:58): The peace that Jesus Christ talks about in the book of John, when he says peace, I leave you peace. I give you not as the world can give, but only the peace that I give because he is God and his love never fails. His love never fails. And the Bible goes on to say, perfect love, casts out, all fear. So, so many times Renee, you know what we're dealing with and the anxieties of life are caused by fear, right? Oh my goodness. How am I going to pay the mortgage? Oh my goodness. You know, or my loved ones going to get sick. We're going to pandemic with COVID-19. Oh my goodness. There's so much unrest. There's so much injustice in the world. How's that going to affect me? We have to look to Jesus. You know, he says he will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.

(22:55): So, you know, even Renee in these trying times, um, I wouldn't be truthful if I didn't say that. What I feel is going on in the world. And I see it does come in, brings on rest to my soul. And that's when I've got to focus my attention back on Jesus, get myself back in a place of faith. I've got a fight that good fight of faith to stay in the rest in peace of God that he promises to give us. Wow. So true, Teresa, I think about how grace helped my need to be perfect and my need to figure it all out and fight the good fight of faith. Instead, Renee, just sit still and focus on your faith, focus on God and don't fret. That's what a, what a beautiful conclusion. You know, we talk about how the salvation happens in the spirit, but then our soul and our mind, and even our body has then got to be renewed.

(24:01): That's the sum up of what we've been talking about. We need to be patient with ourselves and that is not my strong suit. So grace is just so near and dear to my heart because I know that through God, through the spirit living in me, I have the ability to be kind and patient and gentle with myself because God is kind and gentle with me. And that's just so great, Theresa. That is exactly right. I can testify. I've been walking with the Lord over 25 years and boy Renee, you know, I can, we both, I mean, we we've shared so much cause we've just been together. His sisters in the Lord and his friends for such a long time. And we could keep the listeners here, you know, all day and all weekend here, uh, listening to our testimonies of his goodness and his faithfulness.

(24:57): But I did want to mention, you know, maybe perhaps one last scripture today, and that's found in first Thessalonians five verse 23 made a God of peace. Okay. So there it is again, he's, he's the God of peace right himself. I love that. Who's going to do this. He's going to do this. He's going to sanctify you completely may. Your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord. Jesus Christ. There's a lot in there, but suffice it to say this scripture, undergirds what you were saying, Renee, that the Holy spirit, the spirit of Jesus, right? When one is born, again, comes into our spirits to dwell in. Then the salvation that we have received in our spirits begins to be worked out through ourselves where, you know, let's face it. That's where we need sanctification, which is a big word that means to be made. Holy right? So the holiness that is in our spirit is going to be worked out through our souls, through the, through our earth suits, the bodies in which we live. And all of a sudden they have peace is going to permeate us spirit. So in body, Hey, mentoring Lisa. Well, we always conclude with the one foundational scripture we want you to remember. And what is that? Theresa Romans 10 17 faith comes by hearing and hearing

(26:31): Bring by the word of God. Thanks so much.

(26:35): Thanks for listening. We appreciate it so much. We would love to hear from you. We would love questions from you. We, you to hit the

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