FeedSheep Podcast

The Trust Test - Part 1

• Dan Schilling • Season 1 • Episode 16

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Ever feel like you're stumbling through life's challenges, questioning whether you're on God's path or your own? Trusting His plan can often feel like a leap in the dark, especially when we're stuck in the wilderness of uncertainty. Today on the FeedSheep Podcast, we unpack the character trait of trust, drawing inspiration from Deuteronomy 8, and explore the journey of the Israelites who, despite their doubts, were sustained by God’s provision in their past, present, and future. 

Our doubts can take us on a distracting detour, often causing us to lose sight of God's unchanging faithfulness. Yet, in His divine mercy, God invites us back to His table, offering us His unwavering patience, kindness, and love. He patiently grooms us, testing our trust and character, like a parent who disciplines a child for their good. We reflect on how this divine discipline and humility can lead to character growth and how, as disciples, we can build our "trust muscles" one day, one step at a time.

However, mistrust can also lead to missed opportunities, preventing us from experiencing the fullness of God's blessings. As we delve into the miraculous provision of manna for the Israelites, we're reminded of God's constant faithfulness, even when we doubt it. Through prayer and confidence in His word, we can break free from mistrust and enter the unlimited possibilities of a Christ-like character and faith. So, let's embark on this journey of trust together, one episode, one story, and one lesson at a time.

Dan Schilling:

Hey, welcome to the Feed Sheep podcast, where we help you hear God's voice, follow His lead and thrive as a disciple. I'm Dan Schilling and I'll be one of your guides. Now let's get into today's topic. Hey, thanks for tuning in to the Feed Sheep podcast. Thanks for joining us today. Good to be back, Michael. Haven't seen you in a while.

Michael Blue:

Yeah, that's been really nice. I mean no offense.

Dan Schilling:

Good brings me back. Good to see you. Well, thanks for tuning in. Today we're going to go into a topic that, Michael, you and I were just talking a little bit about, that our goal is here is to help all of us you and I included Michael to hear, follow, thrive. Hear God's voice, follow His lead, thrive as disciples. And sometimes, in the midst of this journey, it doesn't always feel like we're thriving, and I know we've talked about this on some of the past episodes. When you think about how Paul, when he was in a season of life being beaten, shipwrecked, snake bitten you know all the different things that were going on would you think he was thriving. And I would say, if you asked him today, he'd say, man, I was, because I was experiencing joy of the presence of God, I was spending time with my Heavenly Father, and so today we're going to address some of that here today in the area of trust.

Michael Blue:

So yeah, it's such a tough place to one, I think, is we have this idea of thriving. It's given to us by you know just all the things that we see in here around us, and so we think that these certain elements of life equate to thriving, when oftentimes those actually end up drawing us away from a nearness to God, because thriving happens in nearness and relationship with God. And so those 10, those outward things that seem like thriving oftentimes make our inward life not thrive. Yes, but that's a tough reality to swallow sometimes.

Dan Schilling:

Well, we're going to again talk about an area of trust. You and I've talked about this many times in our journey and how God asked us to do things. We shared some of our story and some of the past episodes of areas where God was asking us to trust him and take steps of faith and do different things. But I recognize in this season of the journey that it is still a journey and I'm still in the on the potter's wheel, being formed and fashioned, made into the image and likeness of Christ, and trying to get that junk, the dross, the gold. And so I feel like the heat feels like it's being turned up a little bit in this season and some aspects of that doesn't make me feel like I'm thriving, but I do. When I'm spending time with my father, I do feel like I'm in the midst of a thriving season. It's just not easy. So we're going to address some of that today.

Michael Blue:

Yeah, I'm glad that we picked something light on our on our return at the end of the summer.

Dan Schilling:

Yeah, yeah, well, and I think this is something for all of us, right? We all, every day, we all have an opportunity to say am I going to? Am I going to trust Jehovah, jireh, him as the provider, not just for the material things that I need, but am I going to trust him in how I deal with my teenage son right now? I've got some provision I need in that area of my life right now. To trust him. Is he going to help me? I mean, is he going to provide for the issues that are going on with work? Is he going to provide for the things with our kids that the schools they're at?

Dan Schilling:

They're at a new school right now. For the first time in our married life, our boys are attending Christian schools. So we've been homeschooled my wife done all the labor, really, but homeschooling for the last almost 20 years. Now the boys are all going to Christian schools. So it's a new season and we're just kind of navigating through this whole trust journey. So what I'd know is for each of us that God wants to meet us in each one of these areas of our life and show us that he's trustworthy. So yeah, that's good Well.

Michael Blue:

I'm excited. Okay, god, thank you so much for a chance to come together. Thank you for your word that we get to dive into today, and I just pray that you administered our hearts and the hearts of those who are listening as we seek to thrive in the way you define it and not the way we define it. We love you and thank you for time together in Jesus name, amen.

Dan Schilling:

Amen. Well, michael, we're going to look at Deuteronomy 8. Today is the text of our passage. Before we get there, I want to look at a couple things. And this character trait of trust right, we're talking about that. This, with this whole context of Deuteronomy 8, is going to take us into to see what God was doing with the children of Israel, why he took them to the desert, what he was trying to accomplish in and through them and really what he wanted, not just to see them, how he was the provider for them in the in the past, but also the present and in the future, and then gives them a warning of when that provision comes. That the problem is sometimes our heart gets stuck on provision that's come and we miss what God wants to do going forward in the future. So there's two words that I want to we're going to look at in our points that. There's five different points, but as I was processing through this, there was two words.

Dan Schilling:

I'm not a grammarian, but there's sometimes like words come and I had to Google it to look it up to make sure I was thinking is it mistrust or is it distrust? Is it miss or dis? I'm like I don't remember. Is it one or the other, and so I looked it up. Have you ever looked this up, by the way? No, okay, so I'm the only goofy one that doesn't know these things right. So I'm like, okay, what is it?

Dan Schilling:

So they're actually, they both are words distrust and mistrust are both English words and so, as I was looking at, here's the definition distrust is the feeling that someone or something cannot be relied upon. Mistrust is being suspicious of, having a lack of confidence in. So I'll repeat that distrust is the feeling that someone or something cannot be relied upon. Mistrust is being suspicious of and having a lack of confidence, and so what I've kind of landed on for our time today is, I think a lot of what I'm going to deal with today is mistrust, and that mistrust is, in some ways, I'm kind of suspicious of God. Now, I shouldn't be, but I'm kind of suspicious or I'm lacking confidence in him to be who he says he's going to be. He's God, he's Jehovah-Jer, he's. That shouldn't be in question. But the reality of my life and decisions and choices and things that I exemplify many times would say that I have a lot of mistrust in him.

Michael Blue:

Right, yeah, I mean and I think that's a good distinction Distrust is seems like a level too far that we know that we ought not distrust God, but we tend to mistrust God and that displays itself in the fact that we're kind of suspicious of whether he'll be there and so we take care of it on our own, as opposed to we always say we trust that God will is reliable, but we act in a mistrustful way where we're actually suspicious of whether he will be reliable.

Dan Schilling:

Yes, and you know we we had a series a while back on the be, then do, and I feel like that continues to be something. God has been inviting me back, you know, to a place of being with him, coming and being at his table, the father's table and I shared with you a little bit ago just kind of the imagery that I feel like he's been showing the around. This is that it's like a big, long table, like those big, long banquet tables, and I'm sitting at the end not the head of the table in any way, but I'm sitting at the end, the one end of the table, and he comes down, you know, and sits beside me, kind of like adjacent to me on the corner, and just sits down and brings that low a loaf of fresh bread and there's an aroma of that bread. You know, like when you go into a place and there's that man, that fresh bread aroma, and you're hungry and so that aroma of that bread's there and he just like enjoy it, have some, let's have, let's have fellowship together and you need to enjoy this bread together.

Dan Schilling:

But the problem is that I'm so anxious inside with different aspects of life right now, so concerned about the future that I'm so worried about how I'm going to make, bake and eat next week, next month, next year, next decades bread that I'm missing the enjoyment, right here in front of me right now, with my father, in that fresh bread that he's sitting before me and I'm not able to enjoy then because I'm so worried about what's to come and those you know, maybe some bills that are coming, maybe some different aspects of how is this going to work out, how is that going to work out? And so, in some ways, I feel like I'm being robbed of the enjoyment and the pleasure of just being with my father and recognizing that he is Jehovah Jireh and that the issue really is. I'm looking to Dan Jireh, which there's no Dan Jireh in the Bible.

Michael Blue:

I'm 100% certain of it. I sure sound a place. It sounds like a place.

Dan Schilling:

But you know, this is Dan Jireh doesn't exist.

Michael Blue:

There's Wailing and gnashing at thieves.

Dan Schilling:

Yeah, that one, and that I'm missing out. And that the. You know, when Matthew 13 talks about this and 13, he says you know that the, that the riches cares, and a pleasure this world choke out or crowd out the seed or the word, and that we're going to look at this because this is in our tax today, that man doesn't live by bread alone. But every word that proceeds from the mouth of the father right, that I'm missing out on those words, those words of encouragement from him that are just saying I got this, you don't have to worry.

Michael Blue:

Right, and I think of, as you, as you say that, I think of Mary and Martha, right, and you have the busy body and you have the worshipful posture and it's really easy. And I think what Deuteronomy gets to is is we have these good, busy, you know productive actions yes, that you know that have their place. But if they crowd out worship, if they crowd out drawing near to God, they become very dangerous. And so you know, in both of those, you know that Martha, mary and this Deuteronomy passage just say look, when you follow God, there's going to be, you know, some productive, thriving, if you will right the fields and the houses and all of those things. But the danger is is they make you busier, they make you distracted and so, and then they actually lead you into this weird place of mistrust of the person who's given you all those things.

Dan Schilling:

Yes, yes.

Michael Blue:

And then you're suspicious of whether he's going to continue to do it in the future. Yes, yes, and so you've drawn to, you've drawn near to those things as opposed to, you know, eating that bread in the presence of the Father.

Dan Schilling:

Yeah, and that distraction, right, that the cares, the other attention and time is no longer there with him at the table, at the father's table, just Resting. And I've been thinking about this too. In the Hebrews 3, when he talks about you know that they never enter into my rest, and it's not just in Hebrews, it's throughout the Old Testament, but he's reminding again in Hebrews, the writer there is saying, you know, because they didn't, they weren't hearing my voice, they never, they wouldn't enter my rest. So, um, you know, there's parts me think, oh god, I don't want to miss this, I don't want to miss the fellowship with you here at the table. And when I find myself kind of like what you just said to we're gonna see in Deuteronomy, like the problem is, then I get so distracted and worried that I've been many times I start complaining, I'm I'm ungrateful for all the fun, all the things that he has done, and I feel like in this season when I'm with him, that he's been Encouraging me towards many things. One is saying to me Well, look behind you, like in life, right, look behind you. How many days number the days for me, would you? How many days behind you have I left you hanging when I didn't take care of it. Go ahead and count them up real quick. Go ahead and count them up like Well, there's none. But so why would I be suspicious of him that he's not gonna be there tomorrow, right when the track record is and years ago I felt like One time that I just my time with the Lord.

Dan Schilling:

I felt like he said, let me just put it for this way you, you have boys, I have boys. Imagine one of your boys coming to you and they come to you at breakfast and they say daddy, I'm worried that you're not gonna feed me today. I'm worried you're not not gonna take care of me. And you say hunt, son, I love you, there's, there's no way I wouldn't do that. You, you get him some food, need to take him over the cover and say and I've got enough for the rest of Today, you're not gonna have any problem today, I got you right. And then he comes back at lunch, he crying and, just you know, distraught, and says you, I'm daddy, I'm just I'm. You're not gonna feed me, you're just not gonna take care of me. Again you say, son, I got it. I mean, show him the cupboard. You know you screw him.

Dan Schilling:

He comes back again at dinner and comes back again and again and again and I felt like, that said, I want to ask you how long if your boys did that with you, how long would it take before you'd be frustrated and angry and, you know, agitated with them? Like man, I wouldn't make it to lunch. Yeah, shut up. Would you stop it? Like, what are you doing? Why are you so suspicious of me? Why do you have mistrust in me? I'm I love you, I'm gonna take care of you. Yeah, guys in like. But but you come back to me, like that, day in, day out, year in, year out. And Yet I felt like he was also showing me in that time that it wasn't. He wasn't trying to make me feel guilty, but he was also letting me see that his mercies are new every morning for me. Right, despite my mistrust in him, he invites me back to the table, that's down the fresh bread and says it's okay, I got you, I love you and I want to, I want to be with you.

Michael Blue:

So yeah, that's good Grateful. He is much more patient than we are with our children.

Dan Schilling:

Yeah, well, let's get into our text. Deuteronomy 8, one of the vote verses that we're gonna focus on today. Just kind of a highlight here we're gonna see in just a second and it's verse 3, and it's where he talks about humbling ourself, and so let's just actually just get right into it and we're just gonna pull that out when we read it. Here we're gonna look first, michael, at verse 1 and 2, and I got we have five points that we're gonna go through today. Let me give those to us real quick. So the first one is mistrust limits my character growth. The second one is mistrust leads to missed opportunities, mistrust leads to ingratitude. Number four mistrusts causes relational distance. And number five, that mistrust leads to pride and destruction. So let's, let's look now here and verses one and two this is again Deuteronomy 8 have a new living translation and we're gonna look here about mistrust limits my character growth.

Michael Blue:

All right, I'm gonna read it for us Be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today. Now, this is Moses speaking to the Israelites. Just context for people yes, then you will live and multiply and you will enter and occupy the land of Lord swore to give your ancestors. Remember how the Lord, your God, led you through the wilderness for these 40 years, humbling you and testing your own and testing you to prove your character and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands All right.

Dan Schilling:

So if you were looking to say what was the test I that God was giving the Israelites and Moses is kind of telling them if you were saying well, what was the test, what was the thing that he was really trying to figure out with these folks, and it was will you the?

Michael Blue:

trust. Well, right? Yeah, do you trust me, right?

Dan Schilling:

it's tested to prove their character yes, and that character trait of trust is when, when I think about back to what we were talking about here again, about these relationships like with a father and a son, if you want to, your boys continued on that path, would there, would it inhibit the growth of your relationship if that mistrust was present absolutely? And then you'd say, well then what? What happens if that mistrust and that that relationship, then it, we never enter into that place of closeness of him, knowing that I'm gonna take care of him. And then that angster, that rub, and that relationship again. We have a good, good father who doesn't cast us away, but he's wanting for us to know his character and become more like him and his character being conformed into the image and likeness of Christ. And so there's. You ever do p90x, any of those exercise program? Did you do it? Did you? Okay, I?

Michael Blue:

was 30 years old. I don't know if I could do today I couldn't do it today I could.

Dan Schilling:

But so my wife was doing p90x years ago and I was. You know, I was younger, you know, you did 30, I might have been 30 something, but I I'm still feeling like, yeah, I got it and so she's doing it, and I'm wondering like, hey, I'll do it with you, and so I did. You know this thing. And the next day I was literally so sore I couldn't move. I mean, I was the most pain I've ever been in playing, being an athlete, you know, playing sports, football, whatever. I've never been so sore in my life. I mean, I literally was like in tears, like God, just take me now.

Dan Schilling:

Yeah, and what God was showing me at that season was also another season of our journey, where he was teaching me to trust in him. And he said you know, just like right now, like your muscles were flabby, out of shape, full ago, and so when you pushed him to this level, you, you know it's creating great pain you pushed them to an extreme and just like those physical muscles are flabby, not a shape, your trust muscles, you know, are flabby, out of shape and flu, and I'm I'm gonna be developing them, not in one big, you know, p90x, but over time, lovingly, not so that you can't walk the next day. But I want to just keep building these muscles in you, these strength in the area of trust. This character traded you right?

Michael Blue:

yeah, it's. It's funny. As you talk about it, people would ask me after I did it, like does that work? And you know, after a while it's like, of course it works. You work out for an hour to an hour and a half every single day for 90 straight days, basically yes, yeah, I'm in great shape it's.

Michael Blue:

I could have done practically anything for that length of time in an exercise and it would work, yes you know, as I thought about that as a and you're talking that it's kind of like we chuckled out that, but that's the same. It is with trust, like if someone says well, yeah, I began to trust and I began to exercise these muscles daily. Yes, and so yeah, of course, I grew in my trust. Yes, because, like you said, you look behind and he is faithful every single time. And so, just like, if we exercise 90 minutes a day for 90 straight days, we're gonna be in really, really good shape.

Dan Schilling:

Yes, if we exercise these trust muscles, we will grow in our faith because we'll see him have we'll, we'll, we'll strengthen them but I've said this before and it's just most of us like, oh yeah, I want, I want to trust that, but I just don't want to be in a place where I have to trust him, right, I don't, I want to. I want to be big and strong and you know, big muscles, like I'm gonna get on P9X, I want my trust muscles to be big and strong. But I don't want to have the pressure of the bar on my chest Right when I feel like, oh, now what, you know, like I need some help here. So and that Is part of what this journey has been for us you know it's like, oh god, I don't, I don't want to, I Don't want to feel that pressure.

Dan Schilling:

But the question for all of us sometimes am I willing to put myself in a place where I have to trust him? And Most, most of our culture, most of everything, is try to do everything we can to insulate ourselves so that we don't ever have to be in a place. And I know some folks would argue and say that's irresponsible, that's not good stewardship, that's not whatever. And I'm not talking about being Foolish, I'm talking about if the spirit of God leads me to a place and am I willing, like the rich young ruler when he says, hey, I got a plan for you, you know right, so you have good porn. Come follow me You'll. Your trust will be placed in me and it says, be, he couldn't, because his great wealth, right, he is heart and his love and his affection was in his wealth and it kept him from following right.

Michael Blue:

Well, in the reality of building our faith and trust muscles, it requires us to take steps, yes, and to be in places and positions where, where we need God to come through, and so that's not just financial, but it certainly Places of risk. It may be, you know, there's evangelism, there's, you know, there's trial and tribulation that we go through, that we certainly don't pursue, but happens that we learn to trust. But there's the, the building of faith muscles, like the building of muscles, comes in through discomfort, like if I'm lifting those muscles it's not like, ah, this is fun, I'm loving this, like I'm uncomfortable and it hurts. Yeah, if I, if they're gonna get bigger, I grown and I strain and I and I push more than I think I can, and I and I do that, and I think it's this, I mean the analogy.

Michael Blue:

We could take it too far, but the analogy, I think, is good in that I Must be willing to strain and strive, which means I'm walking into these places where I, where I need to Trust God, and that might be with hey, god's leading me to give an amount that I can't imagine, how I'm gonna give that amount, leading me to fund a project, like I don't have that. But, god, I'm gonna trust you and I'm gonna take the first step into it. Yes, and watch yes.

Dan Schilling:

Well, and the other part of this verse that I think is is a key part is that he says remember that he took you there for a couple of things. It wasn't just, I think, just for trust, but it's also for humility. Yeah, and that willingness to say, okay, I I can't come up with the answer on my own, I Don't have the solution, I don't know, like you just said, made me think of it, like I don't have the resources to take care of that. Right, okay, good, now you know where it's actually coming from you recognize who's taking care of it right, and I'm not looking for Dan gyra.

Dan Schilling:

I have realized my position as A servant at the table, that it isn't about me doing something. It really is about me coming to my father and says so how do I handle that? And and I also just want to say here too, when it comes to trust, I think there's another aspect to relate relationally To. So I don't want to just make this about financial things, but you know, there's sometimes, just like God, I don't know what to do about this certain situation right now with my teenage son.

Dan Schilling:

I Mean, I'm, I'm lost and I just felt like this last week, as I was spending time with Lord at that table and I'm saying to him I don't know what to do with this, I felt like he said Well, why don't you just go to him and tell him that you love him, that you want to do whatever it's going to take to have a good relationship with him, that he's so important to you, that you love him and you you, just you value him and you don't want to miss this season of my life together, an Enjoyment of having the best relationship you can have, and that you want to do whatever. What's it going to take? What's it going to take? Ask him, what's it going to take that we can have a great relationship? I thought, wow, that's good, I should go ask him that, right.

Michael Blue:

Thank you, I should do that.

Dan Schilling:

Yeah, I should do that right, but that time that that okay, I trust you right and so last night we we started that process with with our son and so just trusting him for, okay, you can give me that wisdom, you can give me that insight, you can, you want to help me in all aspects, so that's good.

Dan Schilling:

Yeah, well, let's, let's get at least the second one here in this episode. Let's go get that next, starting there in verse three, this is our highlight verse, and let's read three and three through five. You do five, all right.

Michael Blue:

Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with mana, a feed of food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone. Rather, we live by everywhere that comes from the mouth of God. For all these 40 years, your clothes didn't wear out and your feet didn't blister earthwell, think about it. Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord, your God, disciplines you for your own good.

Dan Schilling:

Well, and this area of Scripture, several things that I want to pull out here as we look at. This Is the second point here is that mistrust Leads to missed opportunities and that many times in our in our journey Again when we talked about this little video that I don't want to be in a place where I have to trust him, but it's in those places I have to trust him. I get to see his miraculous provision and I don't. You know, I don't really want to be in that. But how many times am I missing Opportunities because of my mistrust? I don't, I don't want to be there, I don't want to have to. And you know the story.

Dan Schilling:

You and I talked about this a couple of weeks ago when we were sharing we're sharing our story, sharing about our story, and that we were coming to a end of the year one year and I was like I'm gonna write letters.

Dan Schilling:

You know I deserve to start asking people for support and I'm gonna send out these support letters and we've been missionaries and we're okay, I'm gonna do it and felt like God asked us to you know, trust him, but I'm not gonna do that anymore. I'm gonna go ahead and take care of it in my own, my own way, and just felt like the Lord said, okay, it's gonna be your way, my way, but it won't be both. I mean, like you know right, we're not cope, not co-doing this. You know, I've given you the directions and so we didn't send the letters out, and then that month ended being one of the biggest months of giving we had ever experienced, and again it was. It's a great story now, but in the midst of it, I mean it was one of the most painful, trust muscle building times of our life. But I would have missed out on opportunity. I would have missed out on that aspect of the story, if you will, how God wanted to show himself again to us as Jehovah's Jireh right.

Michael Blue:

Yeah, I mean the and you know you think about this the stories of God's provision. I mean this is one of the most remarkable verse four to me Versus in all of scripture and one of the most remarkable miracles in all of scripture that I know. People talk about it. It gets kind of skipped over and it's for these 40 years walking in the desert, yeah, your clothes didn't wear out and your feet didn't blister or swell. I mean that Pretty remarkable, that that God cared for them in such a remarkable way of. You know, in some ways I'm sure just became you almost don't realize the provision and that he's given to you because they're they're not wearing out. Yes, not like they wore out and he miraculously made them new again.

Dan Schilling:

It's like they just lasted yes, you have any shoes at a 40 years old no.

Michael Blue:

I am wearing a pair that are about 18 years old, but I don't wear them every day, nor do I walk in the desert and I look pretty terrible yeah.

Dan Schilling:

Yeah comfortable. Yes, Well, it's.

Michael Blue:

They didn't have cowboy boots like we have Dan.

Dan Schilling:

Oh, that's true, that's Texas, got cowboy boots, right, so right. Well, I think what a couple things that I see here. One, obviously, that that verse three that we want to focus on. You know, we see this other places of scripture as well. But he homo'd you by letting you go hungry. Well, I think what I see there, for it's a starved of the death. But they did feel some discomfort, right, or some Displeasure, right, when I'm really hungry, that doesn't feel good. But in the midst of that hunger that he, he still provides.

Dan Schilling:

And then I started feeding them mana, which no one had ever seen before, right, he's essentially saying no one's ever seen it before, unknown to you and your ancestors, it's never existed before. But I did it because I had something in mind. I did it to teach you that people don't live by bread alone, but rather every word that proceeds or comes from the mouth of the father. Again, we see that passage you know quoted another text throughout the scriptures but that the picture that I see is like this time with my father. Yes, he did right, but the picture that I see is this what I'm kind of painting is I'm sitting with my father and he sets down that loaf of Bread, which is encouragement, and but it's not just to to physical provision, it's it's the time that we're together Enjoying that bread Together.

Dan Schilling:

Yeah, that word, that that I'd like to tell you. What did what I have for you today? How about this for your son? How's that sound? Oh man, it's really good. Or how about this for the? Take care of the, that bill you have coming up, oh man, thank you. So having that type of Relationship and intimacy was always what God's goal, was what he was trying to teach them, and I believe what he's still trying to teach us today is I want to teach you this and yes, we probably don't see menna coming down I don't have any in my backyard but he still does reveal himself in ways that are beyond our understanding. Conference, if we're willing, and that's the hardest part.

Michael Blue:

Yeah, and I think you know, talk about mistrust leads to missed opportunities. If we, if we begin to doubt God, we kind of doubt the fact that he's actually through all of it, through the difficulty, through the Struggle, he's, he's preparing us like, he's training us. He's. It says discipline like a child, but you know, discipline is not punishment. It's not the same thing as punishment. Punishment is it's like making you pay for what you did, versus discipline is is Preparing you and training you, yes, and other things.

Michael Blue:

And so all of this points to a loving father, who's, who's care. He's intentionally Teaching you that you do not live by bread, a bread alone, disciplining you for your own good, so that you'll trust him, and so all of these Things when we try to avoid, then we actually miss the training, missing, miss the hand of a loving father to kind of shape Us and mold us into people who remember the 40 years where our clothes didn't wear out and when the manna came down every day and when we were hungry. Yes, and they teach us, as you said beforehand, to follow a loving father or the good shepherd.

Dan Schilling:

Ultimately, yes, yes, well, we're gonna Pick up on the next episode here. We're gonna get the points three, four and five, but let's just kind of tie a bow on this first part here. Any Any other insider thoughts around these first couple passages or anything we're talking here so far about them? Training in 48 provision.

Michael Blue:

I Just this this trust thing is so big and and that it it locks us out of so much growth and so much opportunity. And so you know, I read a quote I think William McDonald maybe said it in a book called true discipleship where you know, in heaven there will be people who didn't didn't trust God enough, but there will be nobody who trusted God too much. Yeah, the idea is is we're not gonna get to a place where it's like man, I trusted him too much, but we only learn that by actually stepping into trust and learning, and that's where we grow, that's where we come closer, that's where we see these opportunities. So I think it's really important that we we see that mistrust leads to kind of a weakening of our of our own faith. It's really to our detriment.

Dan Schilling:

Yes, Well, I want to wrap up this segment with this and, just as an encouragement to you, that I just want to make sure One, as you're listening today, this is not about guilt, condemnation, like you're not good enough, you, you're terrible, you know, you've got mistrust, you've got a problem, I have a problem, and so I just want to help you. Join me on this journey, because I want to. I want to hear, follow and thrive. I want to be in a place where Mistrust isn't stealing from me, and I'm in the midst of it right now. But I want to encourage you.

Dan Schilling:

Doesn't matter where you're at, wherever you're Struggling in this area Maybe, or you feel like gosh, I'm just not meeting. It's okay, because the father is inviting you and I both to that same table and to come to enjoy that fresh bread, that Fellowship with him, and to know him as the good, good father, know him as the good, good shepherd who wants to care for us and take care of us. So yeah, michael Wanchip, we pray for us. Close this segment up and we'll Jump back in here and get the next couple points and get it for next time.

Michael Blue:

Sure God. Thanks so much for time I this first part of Deuteronomy 8, just a reminder that that you do provide that you, you're one, who, who is, is ultimately and always trustworthy. So help us to move and freedom from a place of mistrust Hopefully never distrust Help us give us confidence to take the steps and I so we don't miss opportunities to grow in Christ like this Jesus, and I pray amen.

Dan Schilling:

Amen, and then thanks for tuning in the FeedSheep podcast. We'll be back again next time. God bless you.

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Dan Schilling

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