Vulnerability: How God Reveals His Will When you Release What You’re Holding Inside

Podcast Links

https://www.buzzsprout.com/936544/9363590
https://tuneinwithmeredith.buzzsprout.com

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Tune in with Meredith Podcast!

So it’s the third week of October and I’ve had a message planned for this week about my Heart for America. But of course God had another plan and He wants us to tune into our hearts!

So! We’re rolling with it because His plan is always best.

Heavenly father direct my steps and give me the words to whomever needs to hear this message today.

So here’s what I want to talk about today – the importance of resting and remaining in the Lord, trusting Him to heal us, and letting ourselves be vulnerable. 

Now, if you follow me on social media you may have seen that I spent yesterday in the ER.

I’ve been having pain on my right side for over a week, would actually eat and have pain under my right rib. I had an ultrasound end of last week and hadn’t heard anything, the pain was getting worse so I went to the ER yesterday and found out it was my gallbladder.

BUT I HAD TO WAIT ON THE LORD FOR HIM TO REVEAL IT

Waiting on the Lord can sometimes be the hardest time, because God pushes you into this place where the only thing you can do is REST in HIM, when you want to move forward. But I have found the Lord gives MUCH revelation in that waiting, if you are willing to listen. 

Lamentations 3:25 says in the Amplified Bible Says: “The Lord is good to those who wait [confidently] for Him, To those who see Him [on the authority of God’s word}.”

So the whole weekend I was in this emotional unrest. I was grumpy, not kind and emotional. I had some unrest in my soul, some unforgiveness, some anger that I had to write about for God to reveal it to me, because I couldn’t figure it out by myself.

So the Lord gave me these little opportunities to release those emotions. On Saturday it was getting out of the house and going for a drive So I could cry. Then the next day, Ellie was sick so we couldn’t go to church which is the place where I could totally release those emotions. But I couldn’t. So I was given the opportunity to physically work through those emotions via exercise. What a relief! Bit by bit, I started to realize how much the Lord just wanted me to REST in Him. And when I did? The release came. 

But I had to BE STILL And KNOW that HE Is God (like 46:10 says) Not me!

SIDENOTE: THIS TIME OF YEAR and MOM LIFE

Now, I don’t know what it is about this time of the year but I should put a reg flag on the calendar that says, “Warning: Emotional stress may manifest in body.” I don’t know if it’s the change of seasons or anticipation of the holiday and the craziness of fall, but it’s like clockwork. The first week of October every year is just a weird time. Moms, do you have any stress when the seasons change like this? I’m sure not. HA!

Anxiety is NOT a fun thing. I trust in the Lord. My life verse is

Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

I continually pray and “Cast my anxiety on Him” like it says in 1 Peter 5:7. But it’s part of my being vigilant about my mental health. So many times, I’ve thought something was going on inside my body, when it was my mind playing tricks on me. 

Thankfully it is ALWAYS God who brings me through. It is ALWAYS and ONLY God who heals me. But I also know my anxiety is a weakness that I have in which I MUST depend on the Lord.

WE HAVE TO RELY ON THE LORD FOR STRENGTH IN OUR WEAKNESS

I have so many weaknesses. The older I get as a Christian, the more I realize how much I cannot do without His strength. I love that God’s power is made perfect in my weakness like it says in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my POWER is made perfect in weakness.” YES and Like Paul says, “Therefore I will BOAST all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

Let’s just talking about those weaknesses for a minute. How often do we want the Lord to remove them when He’s like, “Can you just let me be your strength in them?” 

One of those is my relationship with my Mom, which I don’t talk about much but it is definitely an area of my life where the enemy tries to derail me. Another area is the food. I’ve been in recovery for almost 14 years but it wasn’t until last year that He really spoke into this for me and good news is if you struggle in this area, you will get to learn more about overcoming it in Christ very soon!! 

Now, it’s this galbladder. I’ve been through so many surgeries- my appendix, left shoulder, rod in my right forearm, laparoscopic C-Section and removal of endometriosis. I mean I’ve been through a lot of them  and every one of them has shown me that God is MY strength when I am physically weak!

It’s Psalm 73:26 that says, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” AMEN!

THAT is why I POSTED about being in the ER yesterday. 

Because of JESUS.

My heart wasn’t to share it because I wanted likes, followers, attention, sympathy or pity. NO. I am a VICTOR in Christ, not a VICTIM.

No I was sharing it because everyone needs to be reminded that it’s okay to have weakness! We ALL DO! And everyone needs to see someone that is pointing to CHRIST in that weakness.

We’re so busy in this society trying to make our life look good on social media because that’s how we’re trained. But we all know that life behind the feed doesn’t always look like that. That doesn’t mean we have to tell the world everything. But it does mean we have to be VULNERABLE!!!

(Ironic that God got me vulnerable with Him this weekend, so I could get vulnerable with you.) 

WE HAVE TO BE VULNERABLE

This week, in my Griefshare Group at church I had the opportunity in a group setting to both be present to someone’s vulnerability and to share mine. There were tears, there was laughter and right there was God. 

I know Brene Brown is the queen of teaching on vulnerability and she’s got some great insight. 

She says, 

“Vulnerability is a path back to each other, but we’re so afraid to get on it.” 

“Vulnerability is not weakness. And that myth is profoundly dangerous…Vulnerability is the birthplace of connection and the path to the feeling of worthiness. If it doesn’t feel vulnerable, the sharing is probably not constructive.” 

So good!

But  we could read 50 Brene Brown quotes and books and not know this – 

AS children of God, we are meant to connect to each other. We’re meant to be vulnerable with each other so we can be more present to our family in Christ. There is deep connection when we share our pain. We may not want to be vulnerable, but someone else who loves the Lord wants to love us as He loves us and BE there for us in that pain. They want to pray for us and have empathy for us so the Lord can keep our pain on their hearts so they can continually pray for us. We have to trust that in the family of believers, God wants us to be comforted the way He comforts us like it says in 2 Corinthians 1:4.

“It is so much more important to connect BEHIND THE NEWS FEED than to look like we have it all together all the time.  If you don’t have true, deep connections behind the news feed to God and to other believers you will feel very alone.”

So take the risk and be vulnerable! Not about everything. No, but pray for God to reveal what He wants you to be vulnerable about because I can tell you when you are, he will use it.

When I posted that last yesterday in the ER, I had so many people say they would pray that I know will, AND multiple people medsage me and text me about their experience having their galbladder out. It was awesome. Their vulnerability gave me confirmation from God that others have been through this and he can bring me through it too. 

WHY IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR ATTITUDE IN THE STRUGGLE

I don’t know if this surgery will happen or when, but I also know it’s GOD who is in charge of the outcomes, not me. I CAN TRUST HIM.

I know it’s all about the attitude you have going into it. When we have difficult things happen in life like surgery, we can either play the “woe is me,” or we can say, “God’s got a plan and it is good and he will bring me through it.” 

In fact, I have a quote cube in my office that says this, “When something bad happens you can let it define you let it destroy you or let it strengthen you.” I choose the last.

Someone I love texted me today saying, “Man you have the worst luck Mere!” (with all my surgeries) But I have to tell you, I really don’t see it that way. I see it as, “God wants to heal me more in some way physically. He wants to remove something that isn’t working for me to be the best vessel for his holy spirit that I can be and I have to be willing to surrender to His will.”

It makes me think of John 15:1-2 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears NO fruit, while every branch that DOES bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”

He prunes our branches when we abide in Him. But we must do the action of abiding. Verse 4 says, “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself: it must remain on the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” 

You never know where in your life God wants to do the pruning. I’ve had times where it’s relationships. Other times where it’s my ego. Other times where it’s everything I’m trying to do on my own. Every time though, it leads me to deeper dependence on Him. 

I don’t know what area of your life that God wants to do some pruning but I pray you will let Him. I pray you will surrender to His will. Let him work in you. Let him speak into your rest. Let him catch those feelings you feel that need to be released.  

It doesn’t matter what you go through, God is THERE. Let him be THERE. Don’t push him away. Keep Him close. 

It’s funny, last week our Pastor at Summit gave a sermon about joy versus happiness. The truth is when we have the joy of the Lord as our strength, we don’t have to think negatively when approaching situations that are out of control. We can TRUST the Lord and REJOICE IN HIM like it says in Phillipians 4:4,

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!!” 

So REST in HIM. WAIT on HIM. LET HIM RELEASE WHATEVER YOU’VE GOT GOING ON. LET HIM PRUNE YOUR BRANCHES SO HE CAN MAKE THE GOOD ONES FRUITFUL. LET HIM BE YOUR STRENGTH IN YOUR WEAKNESS, EVEN IF IT MAKES YOU VULNERABLE.