Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 493 | Things Will Get Better. Here’s How I Know.

Episode Date: September 22, 2021

Today we're taking a break from the news cycle to offer biblical encouragement to anyone feeling worn out by the weight of the world. As Christians, we get to take solace in the fact that everything that happens, good or bad, happens within God's sovereign will. This means that, even when times are hard or when depression and anxiety rear their heads, we always have a reason to rejoice. --- Today's Sponsors: Reliefband is the #1 FDA-cleared anti-nausea wristband that has been clinically proven to quickly relieve & effectively prevent nausea & vomiting associated with motion sickness, anxiety, migraines, morning sickness, chemotherapy, & so much more! Get 20% off plus free shipping & a no-questions-asked 30-day money back guarantee at Reliefband.com & use promo code 'ALLIE'! Good Ranchers: did you know that more than 80% of the grass fed beef sold in the United States is imported from overseas? Good Ranchers' product is 100% American, arrives on your doorstep individually wrapped, vacuum sealed, & ready to grill! Go to GoodRanchers.com/ALLIE & use code 'ALLIE' at checkout to get an additional $20 off & free express shipping! --- Past Episodes Mentioned: Ep 492: Busting Border Propaganda | Guest: Rep. Chip Roy https://apple.co/39t6jq1 Ep 491: These COVID Lies Are Killing People https://apple.co/3kuRsBB Ep 490: Most Misused: Philippians 4:13 https://apple.co/3lQytkp Ep 480: Better Than 'Be the Bridge:' Biblical Unity | Guest: Monique Duson https://apple.co/3zDMeYU Ep 476: Anxious About Everything: Addressing Anxiety Biblically | Guest: Dr. Andi Thacker https://apple.co/3lN5sX4 --- Show Links: Founders Ministries: Church Search https://bit.ly/3AMjM8B --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Hey, guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day so far. So we've got a smorgasbord episode coming up for you.

We had a smorgasbord episode a couple weeks ago, a few weeks ago at this point where we just kind of talked about a variety of things. I really like my episodes to have themes. Like I like them to be cohesive. Every story that we talk about or every point that we make kind of goes together. I really like to tie things back in. And maybe I'll try to do that. But sometimes it's just a variety show and you get what you get. And so we might talk about the female draft.

We might talk about Nikki Minaj. We might talk about a couple COVID things. We might talk about some things that happened at the Emmys. And we might not talk about all of that. Honestly, this is kind of right before the camera came on, we were just saying, this feels a little fly by the seat of your pants, which is not typical for relatable. But never fear. It's going to be a great episode.

The last Morgasbord episode that we did was one of our most popular episodes ever. So you're going to live it. I asked you guys on Instagram what you wanted to hear about. And the number one thing that I got was, I need encouragement. I'm anxious. I'm sad. I'm depressed. I'm worried about the state of the world. And every week we try to take a step back from what's going on in the news. And we talk theology or we talk a topic like a couple weeks ago. I had a counselor come on. And we talked about anxiety, how to help our kids who might be struggling with anxiety, how to work through anxiety ourselves.

That episode was also really popular because I know a lot of us are struggling. with that. And then last week, last Thursday, we did a most misused episode where, you know, we take a popular verse from the Bible that is very often decontextualized and misapplied, misapplied, and we looked at the context and we looked at what it actually is. Yesterday, we also kind of took a break a little bit from the news and talking about what the Bible has to say about immigration and how we approach it from a biblical perspective. But I want to take a step back again and just give you guys some encouragement and a few reminders of what our purpose is here and how we can look at everything that's going on because I understand it can be really

overwhelming. It feels like the news is nonstop. The bad news is nonstop. It's just one thing on top of another. I mean, you could look at this administration alone and get super sad about the state of the country and the state of our world. And then, of course, you look on Twitter and you see some of the worst opinions and the worst takes. And I don't want to say the worst people trying to be charitable, but the worst characteristics, I guess, of some people on Twitter. And it's just sad. It's just sad to see a lot of people blocking in delusion. And I'm not just talking about people we disagree with. Of course, you don't think that everyone who disagrees with you is deluded in some way. But some people, especially when it comes to COVID policies, and especially

when it comes to, for example, gender ideology when it comes to abortion, when it comes to a lot of the big issues that we've been talking about, especially over the past few years, some people truly are diluted. It's not just a matter of, okay, we disagree on this particular policy. but some people have internalized just blatant lies about these things. And I think that is one of the most depressing things to feel. Like you feel powerless to show people what is true. You feel powerless to shake people out of their delusions and say, you're believing a false narrative.

You've internalized propaganda. That's not true. You're living in fear for no reason. And these false narratives are then shaping public opinion. Public opinion is this shaping public policy, public policy that is shaped by those false narratives. and public opinion are then going and hurting people. That's true when people get it wrong about the border.

That's true when people get it wrong about certain cases of police brutality. That's true when people get it wrong about abortion. When people get it wrong, as we talked about on Monday, about the actual statistical risks of COVID. The kind of false narratives, fear-based false narratives that people believe about things have an effect on policy and policy affects people. So that's why we talk about these things. A lot of people say, oh, you know, Christian shouldn't be talking about masks. They shouldn't be talking about the truth about, you know, COVID or vaccine mandates. They shouldn't be talking about abortion or these different political things. But gosh, people's opinion, again,

about what's going on in the world and either their acceptance of facts or their refusal to see facts. I certainly don't have a monopoly on facts. I'm not saying that. But people's refusal to actually try to see what is true and try to look at different perspectives and try to go past just the mainstream accepted narrative of something. Again, it has an effect on policy that then affects people's real lives. For example, as we talked about on Monday, people's lack of understanding of the real risks of COVID on kids and lack of knowledge of the actual efficacy of masks, which is very low, especially for cloth masks, I mean, it's under 10% and that is at best. The lack of acceptance when it comes to the completely negligible risk of COVID, at least comparatively when it comes

to kids, then influences policy like two-year-olds wearing masks. And then a two-year-old is forced to wear a mask on a plane in daycare, and that has some negative effects on their cognitive development and even their physical development, as we've talked about before and as we have linked to many times in the past. And so it's so important that we talk about these things. It is a way to love your neighbor, caring about politics, caring about the truth, getting past just public opinion and fear-based false narratives about things is a way to love your neighbor. I have gotten in, I got into a conversation with a very well-known female Christian teacher that a lot of you guys know and probably follow. and we had a disagreement about, you know, claims of systemic racism and how people are using,

for example, be the bridge curriculum in a way that I think is not biblical and is actually causing more division and resentment that it is any kind of restoration and biblical unity, as we talked about with Monique Dusson. And what I wanted to continue to get back to were the actual numbers surrounding the claims of racialized police brutality and getting back to some of the facts. And I could tell that those facts, and that kind of fact-based conversation was met with a whole lot of resistance. And the response was, well, we just need to have empathy. We just need to listen to what people say. And yes and amen. Of course we need to listen to what people say. But don't the facts matter? Because false narratives,

not every narrative, by the way, or every story about police brutality is false. Not every story about racism is false. Of course, I'm not saying that. But if you ask someone on the left, how prevalent they think an unarmed person being shot by the police is, their guess will be much higher than reality. And those things actually matter. Like the narrative surrounding police brutality and policing in the United States and systemic racism actually matter because how those how people react to those narratives again shapes policy and it can even encourage destruction as we saw unfortunately in many cities across the country

and I'll link to a couple past episodes on that if you're curious about some of that data that we have talked about but it matters it matters to talk about the truth it matters to talk about politics politics affects policy policy affects people and people matter. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality

itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed,

you can watch this T-Day Show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. And so I guess that was all an aside coming from what I originally said is that it can be very depressing to feel like people really just don't care about the truth, that people only latch on to, you know, a picture of a Border Patrol agent, grabbing a migrant by the shirt, and then assuming something is happening that is not actually happening. And that gets them rolled up. They decide to care about something that they haven't expressed any care about for the past few months. And then that drives their perception of reality.

And it distorts their perception of reality. It distorts collective perception of reality. So you talking about politics, you caring about what's going on in the news, caring about what's going on in the world. And speaking the truth and love absolutely matters because it shakes people from delusion. It shakes people from fear that may not be based on reality. And it can help shape policy. And if you ever feel like, well, what I'm doing isn't enough.

You know, I stood up to my school board when it comes to masks or I talked to my son's school administration about some of the divisive and a historical racial curriculum that they're learning, or you're pushing back against corporate policy, or you've written to your representative about certain things, or you're just trying to convince your friends that, you know, something they believe actually isn't based in reality. And maybe you think that none of that stuff matters. I promise that it does. I promise that it does. And my encouragement is to find that balance. As I try to do, people ask me all the time.

Like, how do you not stay, how do you not get depressed? How do you not stay down and burdened when you are reading the news all day? And I try to find that balance between, I don't want to idolize politics and the news, but I also don't want to ignore politics and the news. So we've got to stay somewhere within that. I have to remind myself that there's only so much news I can consume on a daily basis. There's only so many stories I can care about. And there's only so many topics that I can talk about.

So, for example, like, we didn't talk about what happened with General Millie on this show and what I think is kind of treasonous behavior. Not kind of. I believe that it is. I believe that it fits the definition. We didn't talk about, you know, some of the things that have been going on with the Biden administration over the past week. We haven't talked about the young woman Gabby who got kidnapped. And that's not because those things don't matter, but I don't have an infinite plate.

Like I can only put so many things on my plate. I can only tell you guys about so many things. And the same is true for you. Like when you're listening to this podcast, you might not be able to care about everything that we talk about. You might not be able to be passionate about everything that you hear on this podcast. And that's okay. Like you have to pick and choose the things that matter the most that affect your sphere of influence the most and that God has called you to care about and speak about. You can't ignore the things that are going on because as we already said, like that affects policy, that affects behavior, that affects especially the most vulnerable people like children who don't have any political capital and don't have a voice to speak up for themselves.

But we also can't idolize it. And this is really important to remember. And it's, you know, it's difficult for me. I can find myself super caught up in everything that's going on and think that the biggest things that are going on in the world are what's trending on Twitter. Or what you guys are asking me to talk about. I could think that the biggest thing going on in the world right now is that people think that there's, you know, Border Patrol. agents whipping people at the border when there's not. But I have to remember, that's not the biggest thing that's going on. That is a tiny, tiny, tiny dust speck on the span of eternity and not even

just on the span of eternity, but even relative to what's going on in the world today at any given moment, there are a million things going on. And I think everyone thinks that they are the center of the story or that America or their country wherever they live is the center of, you know, God's eternal plan of redemption. And it's just not. When God seems to be doing one thing, he's doing a million things. And none of those things may be trending on Twitter. None of those things may be making headlines. None of these things may be circulating on, you know, Instagram or going viral on TikTok. But God is never not working, as Romans 828 says, he is working all things together for the good of those who love him. And so God is actively working.

That's an active phrase that we see in Romans 828. He is working all things together for our good, for his glory. He is right now as we speak. He is softening hearts. He is drawing people to himself. He is strengthening his church. He is ensuring that his gospel, his word goes forth and his word does not return, return void. As Job 42 says, no plan of his can be thwarted. So when it seems like the biggest things in the world going on are what we see on social media, we have to remember that always things so much bigger than us, things so much bigger than what we see, think so much better than what we see are constantly going on. And I say this a lot, but I think it's important for us to remember that God is never thrown off. Like he wasn't surprised by 2020.

He's not wondering where COVID came from. He's not still trying to figure out whether it was a lab leak or whether it came from bat soup. Like he's not trying to dig into different theories and or conspiracy theories, trying to figure out what's really going on. He is not. He is not moving along this linear timeline in the same way that we are because God is not bound by time and space. He is omniscient. He is omnipresent. He is omnipresent. And so he is completely sovereign, completely in control of everything all at once. That doesn't mean that things don't break his moral will and that, yes, people sin. He doesn't want people to sin. He doesn't desire that, but nothing can thwart his sovereign will. If he is all powerful, then it wouldn't make

sense for us to be able to say that anything actually escapes his sovereign will because he has the power to start and to stop anything that he wants to. And so while that might be confusing to our finite minds and to our fallible reasoning, it is also something that we can rest in, that everything is working together and that there really are two options for, you know, what we see going on right now with what I think we all see, at least listening to this podcast, is a rise in authoritarianism, the loss of freedoms, the dogged pursuit of the breakdown of the family, the loss of rights. Like I think we all see the country going in a direction in general that we are really worried about. And what we can trust is that the two options

for all of this is either that it's all, we're in the in times, and that either, well, I don't want to get into all of my eschatological, eschatological views right now, but either Jesus is coming back and will put an end to, put an end to evil and wickedness forever and ever. And we know that's going to happen no matter what. But that could be imminent or it could be in a thousand years from now. And I think what history tells us is that things will eventually swing back in the other direction. I don't think that we are unique from the rest of human history. I don't think even the powerful technocratic governments of today are all that different than other authoritarian governments and groups in the rest of human history.

And so either we're looking at things getting a whole lot worse and Jesus coming back or we are looking at, yes, Jesus is coming back, but not imminently. and things are going to swing back in the other direction. We don't know. Like, we don't know the timeline. The Bible says that no man knows the day or the hour. We've talked about the possibility of being in times. I also have to remember that people have gone through a lot worse than what America in 2021 is going through right now.

That's not to trivialize, you know, the problems that we are facing. But certainly people have gone through a lot worse. People have gone through a lot harder things than we are going through right now. And so I can't say just because America is going through a hard time, that it is definitely the end times. I don't know. But I do take comfort in the fact that knowing no matter what, whether it's a thousand years from now, whether it's a thousand hours from now, that God is going to rule in perfect peace

and justice and righteousness, he is going to do something about wickedness. So whenever you find yourself looking around reading the news and wondering, why is God allowing this to happen? Why is all of this evil and oppression happening, both in the United States and abroad? How could a good, all-powerful God allow these things to happen? And I think it's a good question. And I do think it speaks to an understanding of God's power. And the response that I hate to that question is either like a dismissal of, well, why would you even ask that question, that shows a lack of faith. If you're asking why a good and all powerful God, if he is truly all good and truly all powerful, why he would let these things happen.

The other response that I hate to that is like an attempt to let God off the hook and say that, well, you know, some things happen that, you know, God just can't control. Like, he's just, he's just not in charge. He's just not in charge of all of that or, you know, he didn't want that to happen, but, you know, it slipped through the cracks kind of something like that. Maybe not those exact words, but almost like an excuse making for God. Apologies for God. Like, oh, God really didn't want that to happen. And he tried not to let that happen, but then it still happened.

Well, when you do that, you're taking away a key characteristic of God, which is that he is omnipotent. He is all powerful. And if God is all powerful, then he can stop something if he wants to stop it. He can thwart something if he wants to stop it. He can thwart something if he wants to thwart it. He can hinder something if he wants to hinder it. And he actively chooses not to.

And while I do not understand every situation that God wills, I certainly don't. And it's hard for me to reconcile all that we see in the world with God's sovereignty. I do know that evil exists. I do know that as Ephesians 2 says, Satan is the prince of the power of the air, who is now at work in the sons of disobedience. So there's the sons of obedience to the father. There's the sons of disobedience to Satan. Satan is working through them right now.

And so we understand that. But God doesn't compromise his power even as we see Satan at work. And so how do we reconcile all of that? How do we understand that God is still sovereign, even as all of these evil things go on. How I reconcile that, how I kind of take comfort is knowing that God's anger is kind of kindling. He's not just sitting idly by. He is not just sitting on his hands wondering what's going to happen. Like he is going to take care of wickedness. Like he sees the injustice that's going on both personally in your life and then collectively in the world on a small scale and a big scale.

he cares about every example of injustice, every bit of true oppression, every bit of hardship that you have experienced, that others have experienced. He cares about the evil that's going on. And Psalm 37 promises us that one day the wicked will be no more. One day, evildoers will be no more. Psalm 2. I love Psalm 2, that, you know, the nations, they plot in vain, they come together, and they try to make plots against God's people. And Psalm 2 says that the Lord laughs at them, that he holds them in derision. You should read the last few chapters of Job,

how he so almost sarcastically, but definitely sharply responds to Job in Job's lack of faith. and you will be reminded how powerful God is, how important it is to God that we understand what his power is and how powerful he is and how in control of every single part of creation he is. And the only reason he's not doing something right now, or it might not seem like he's doing something right now in some areas of wickedness and evil is because he is storing

up his wrath and he will take care of it. he is also being patient to call more people to himself, to soften more hearts to ensure that the gospel goes out to exactly where he ordains it is supposed to go out to. And so everything, even though it doesn't seem like it to us, is going according to his plan. So we trust that. We trust that God is good. We trust that everything that he wills, if God is love, which first John tells us that he is, if God is love, that everything he wills is ultimately for love. Everything that he wills is ultimately for his glory. When the Bible says that God is a jealous God, what he means is that he wants the devotion of his

people entirely for himself. He wants all the worship. He wants all the glory. And he promises that he will get it. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And on that day and on that day alone, will we experience full vindication and full fulfillment.

And that day is coming. Like that's where we have hope. So what do we do between now and then as we're seeing so much confusion and so much chaos go on? All we can do. All we can do is trust and obey. That's all we can do. Like, all we can do is do the next right thing, the next honorable thing, the next honest thing, the next generous thing, the next gracious thing, the next gracious thing, the next truthful thing. That's the only thing that we can do.

God knows that you're small. God knows that I'm small. God knows that we only have so many hours of the day. God knows that we have to sleep at night, that we have to rest one day a week. God knows that we can't be doing everything all at once. He knows that we can't care about everyone in everything all at once. He knows that we have capacity. How does he know that? Because he made us that way. He made us to have capacity. He made us to have a limit. He doesn't make us or call us to be God. He doesn't call us to bear everyone's burden. He actually calls himself our burden bear. And we're compared to

sheep in the Bible. We like to call people, you know, sheep today who believe propaganda and who just go along with whatever the state says. And I think, you know, that's an apt description, of course, but we're also called sheep. But we're following the good shepherd. Like, unfortunately, there are some, there are sheep in the world that are following wolves. We are following the good shepherd. and the sheep know his voice. And we can trust, as Psalm 23 says, that he is going to lead us, where he wants to lead us. He is going to lead us through places of provision, through places of rest. And he knows when we need rest.

He knows when we need provision. And he knows that we can only do so much. You can only do so much. You can only do so much. I know very well that it's easy to feel overwhelmed. and I have to trust that I am only called to do what God has called me to do. God has called me, and I've known this since I was a child, God has called me to talk. He's called me to speak.

He's called me to try to encourage you guys to try to explain things, you know, as best as I can, even as I am learning things to you guys. He has called me to try to build you up. I came in today as I was driving. And I have like literally 28 pages of notes of other things that I actually wanted to talk about with the news. But I just prayed on the way over here. I was like, please just help me say what you want me to say.

Help me say what I need to say. And I don't haven't even read the ads that I have to read because I haven't even found a good place to stop because I'm literally just kind of saying whatever is coming into my heart and head. And as you guys were telling me on Instagram that you just need some kind of encouragement I hope that this is it. Like I hope that it edifies you. And maybe your responsibility right now in your life is not to keep up with everything that's going on in the news.

Well, I think it's important to stay informed. While I would love for everyone to be, you know, contacting your representatives and to be pushing back against policy in your cities, in your towns, in your counties, in your states. in your state and on a national level. I know that that is not everyone's responsibility. It's not everyone's obligation to speak up about controversial topics on social media. Maybe how you are pushing back and you are obeying the Lord and you are doing the next right thing is by changing diapers joyfully, by washing dishes, by cleaning the kitchen, by volunteering somewhere in your community by helping a friend who is in need.

All of these things are acts of obedience. And if anything, they're actually more important than some of what people are doing in the public sphere and the public sector. All of those little things matter. God uses our obedience in big ways for impactful things. And we just have to trust that doing the next right thing for his and, glory and in love and in and with excellence is enough. It's enough. It might be public. It might be political. Or it might not be. It might be very personal. It might be very private. The point is,

is that we do what God is calling us to do in the next moment. As Elizabeth Elliott says, she said, I've never found more peace than when I realized that the only thing that I have to do today is the will of God. That's the only thing that we have to do today. It's not to save the world. It's not to convince everyone of everything. It's not to care about everything all at once. It's not to fix it all. It's to simply do the will of God. The God who made us finite, the God who made us with a particular capacity, the God who gave us some gifts and not others, some strengths and some weaknesses, to rely on him, to pray to him, to lean on him, to allow him to carry our burdens. That's literally all we have to do every day. And thank God for that. Thank God for that. That the same God who knew

everything that would happen in 2020, 2021, the same God who was not surprised by anything that ever goes on, who is completely sovereign and completely in control, that same God over and over again throughout Scripture, Old Testament and New Testament in the Gospels and the Epistles, in the Pentatee, like throughout Scripture, that same God. God who knows everything, who wrote every single day of our lives before any of them came to be, as Psalm 139 says, that same God says, do not fear, do not worry, don't be anxious about anything. We talked about that on Thursday in Philippians 4. Don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving,

present your request to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, and will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, that is a promise. That's a promise. The same God who knows every single thing going on in your life right now that is causing you to worry, that is causing you to fear, everything that's going on in the world that's causing us all to feel a burden, says, do not be anxious and in exchange for your anxiety. You give God your anxiety, he gives you peace. That's a really worthy exchange. That's such a worthy exchange. and how good a guide that we have that he also uses us graciously to do the things that he wants us to do to accomplish his will. He doesn't need us to be vessels, but he chooses us to be

vessels. I want to read. I was reading this coming in to record this, and I don't know why this came into my head, but it just reminded me of what God is doing with his church always and that we get to be, we get to be a part of this. And I'm not trying to conflate, like hosting a podcast or talking about the news with what I'm about to read. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm just talking about the role of Christians, no matter what sphere you occupy, no matter what role he has placed you in. So this is Ephesians for I love Ephesians. I encourage you to read this entire chapter, read the whole book to understand the context. We don't have time to get into all the context. But, um, so verse 11 of Ephesians 4. And he gave the apostles,

the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. There are so many people today. We've probably all been there at some point in our faith that are tossed to and fro by TikTok theology, by false doctrine, by things that sound good but aren't biblical, so that

we may no longer be children, tossed two and fro by the waves and carried out by every wind of doctrine by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth and love, we are to go. grow up in every way, and to him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. And so if we ever want to remind ourselves what God is doing, we don't know what God is doing, when everything seems to be falling apart, we can trust one thing that he is building up and bringing together the body of Christ. That is a lot. That is

one thing we know for sure, that he is strengthening the faith of believers, the faith and the joy of his children. He is always doing that. And that is his chief concern. That's his chief concern. His eternal plan of redemption made manifest through Christ and his church. And we get to be a part of that. Going back to another Ephesians verse, Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, by grace through faith, we get to be a part of that. So if you, one, if you're a Christian, who's been anxious, I hope that this edifies you. I hope that this encourages you, that God hears you, he sees you, he cares about you, he cares about everything that's going on, but he cares most that your heart is inclined towards him and that we are

trusting in him, that we're relying on him. And he's going to call you to do the next right thing always. He's not going to abandon you and make you figure it out on your own. Just do the next right thing and don't allow yourself to fall into the paralysis of overanalysis where you are so overthinking everything that you're unable to move forward in his in his will. He doesn't hide those things from us. He's not tricking us. Do the next right thing in love. And he will give you the wisdom that you need no matter what that is.

number two if you are someone who I know I have a lot of people that fit the description who are listening to this podcast who you're not really sure about the whole faith thing like you're not really sure about the whole Christianity thing but you have been trying and failing to find the fulfillment and the joy and the peace that you are longing for in yourself and your boyfriend in your spouse in your kids in your joy job in your physical appearance, in food, in alcohol, whatever it is, you've been trying to find the thing that makes you feel enough. You've been trying to find the thing that gives you refuge from all the craziness that's going on in the world, and you just haven't been able to find it.

You haven't been able to find it in your friend. You haven't been able to find it in all of these different avenues. Might I suggest to you that the feeling that you're having right now is a pull from the Holy Spirit to show you the God who created you, the God who wants a relationship with you, who sent his son to die for you, who sent his son to reconcile you to himself so that you could have that joy, you could have that peace,

you could have that fellowship today, but also that you could spend forever with him. I get a lot of messages every day from people who ask me, okay, I'm ready to start reading my Bible, What do I do? I don't, I have never been to church or I've been to church in a long time. I don't know what to do. What I encourage you to do and I'll include it in the description of this podcast.

I encourage you to, one, get an ESV study Bible. That's not the only version that's good. That's not the only study Bible. That's good. But that's the one that really helped deepen my faith. I encourage you to get an ESV study Bible. I encourage you to go to founders.org slash church search. again, I'll link it and find a church in your area. And I also encourage you to say, God,

okay, like, I want to figure this out. Or I want to know you. Can you help me? Can you give me wisdom? Or can you give me the desire to know you? I want to want to know you, but I don't want to and I'm scared and I don't know what it looks like. And I'm, I feel like I'm not good enough. All of these fears and these doubts and these inhibitions that you have, I would just encourage you to bring them before God and to pray to him because, gosh, she is so faithful and he is so gracious. And there's nothing that you could have ever done or ever thought or ever said that makes you too far from God.

He brings those who are far off. He brings those who are near. And his grace covers all of that. And so in the midst of this tempestuous world that we live in, this very confusing world where up is down where people are calling evil good and good evil. We have a rock solid, eternal, unchanging, steadfast God who is just as loving and is faithful and as good today as he has ever been. He has just as much grace as he has ever had. He has just as much mercy and just as much compassion as he has ever had. And we have the privilege of trusting him.

We have the privilege of trusting him and of knowing how this ends. So all we have to do then is trust and obey. All right. That was like very stream of consciousness. I hope that was encouraging for some of you. Now, I want to end. I want to end the episode with a couple announcements or a couple requests. Okay, so last week, we did, we did, I requested that you guys send me voicemails. And you guys, I told you some recurring dreams I've been having. Some of you told me what you thought that they mean. Of course, we're joking here. We're being lighthearted here. And then some of you gave me some of your recurring dreams and we listened to them on air. And it was so fun. And we didn't have time to do that again this week. But I want to do it

again. I want to play them maybe on Monday. So this is my first request. I want you to call the Skype number, and I want you to give me, this is my favorite game ever. My husband can tell you randomly we play it. And I literally am like crying, crying, laughing at would you rather's. I love would you rather's. Now, my like hidden talent, maybe this is the ministry that God is calling me to is giving good would you rather's. I don't have one off the top of my head right now, but like the most absurd and random would you rather's, I just have, I don't know what it is. I just have this inner talent, this deep buried talent to give really good would you rather. So maybe I'll give that on Monday, but I want to hear your would you rather's. And then I'll give my, maybe I'll give my would you

rather on Monday and then you guys can call in and you can tell me what your would you rather is and I'll tell you the next request that I have for a voicemail. So give me a really good would you rather. If it's, we only have time to play like a few on air. So you might send a good one. We might not play it on air. Don't be offended by that. But call 682-503-1369. Give me a good, would you rather? Like, for example, would you rather if you're a woman have your dad's haircut permanently or your dad's arms permanently. Like, which one would you choose? That's a really hard decision. If you're a guy, would you rather have your mom's haircut permanently or your mom's arms permanently? Like, that's a really hard decision. So I'm talking about something like that. Give me your best would you rather's,

and we'll try to play them on Monday, 682, 503, 1369. Okay, second request, last request here. So 500th episode is coming up. I believe it is on... I think it is Tuesday, October 5th. Tuesday, October 5th. And so that is just in a couple weeks. That's in, yeah, that's in a couple weeks. That's two weeks from yesterday. And so for our 500th episode, like, I'll just go ahead and tell you,

we were really trying to get Thomas Soul for our 500th episode. And unfortunately, I don't think that's going to happen. he is awesome. Maybe it'll happen someday in the future. Probably, probably not. We knew it was a reach, but we thought it would be awesome for a 500th episode. That's not going to happen. Instead, we're going to do some fun things. We're going to do a giveaway, the details of which I will talk about next week. But another thing that we want to do that we thought would be fun. If you guys could call that number, our Skype number, and you could say, you could tell us either something that has really impacted you from the show relatable, something that has really stuck out to you or

made you think differently about something or something that has completely changed your mind. Like if you started out thinking one thing about a particular subject or about everything, and then you changed your mind, we would love to hear about that. Now, I think the limit on the voicemail is two minutes, okay? So it has to be concise. And so if you have to kind of write it down and read it, that is totally fine. but we thought that would be fun to hear from you guys about something that changed your mind, what changed your mind, why your mind was changed, or just something that has really influenced you,

impacted you, meant a lot to you from the show. I am so thankful for you guys. I wouldn't have this show. I wouldn't be coming up on 500 shows if it wasn't for your dedication, your encouragement of me, your prayers for me. A lot of you guys, pray for me, pray for my family, pray for the show. Thank you so much. I love you guys. I really. do feel like this is a community and I'm so thankful for each one of you. So make sure you call 682-503-1369. Tell us some of those stories. If you can, fit it all into one voicemail. We probably can't play to back-to-back. It just kind of gets confusing. And yeah, I think that's it. And then like I said, we'll have a giveaway too. And so that will be super fun. And that will be

Tuesday, October 5th. So write that down on your calendar because it will be a very special episode. All right. Tomorrow I'm interviewing a Senate candidate from Arizona, Blake Masters, and he is very similar to J.D. Vance. We've got a new crop of conservatives coming up that have some new ideas, I think some fresh ideas and some different ideas about what conservative leadership should actually look like when they're in office. And I think it's something for. for conservatives to be excited about. So I'm excited for you to listen to that conversation tomorrow with Blake Masters. So tune in to that. I will see you guys then. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest

issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts.

I hope you'll join us.