Rochelle Jones shares inspirational messages to not dwell on what we cannot change, and to remember that "Many are the afflictions of the righteous" (Psalms 34:19-22). She also discusses finding your calling in life, and being conscious of the people you surround yourself with.
WBCA Podcasts
Never Give Up "Where Giving Up Is Not An Option"
[MUSIC] >> You're listening to WBCALP 102.9 FM Boston. Boston's Community Radio Station. [MUSIC] >> Hello, hello, you're listening to Never Give Up. We're giving up as not an option. Hello, I'm your host, Rachelle Jones. Good evening, good evening. It's so good to be back in the studio, to be able to just kind of talk to you about life and about encouraging you to not give up. That's our goal. [COUGH] I know that sometimes I talk to many people who are going through a lot of stuff. Guys, let me tell you, we are not free from going through situations. Remember the Bible warns us that many of the afflictions of the righteous, but he delivers us from them all. And so I thank God for the promise, and he doesn't say how long it'll take, or how he's going to do it, but we just, as we go through, guess what? We're going to find solutions, our answers, sometimes is going through the storms in the pain. And knowing that God didn't abandon me, he's there with me. And I kind of liken it to going through a dark tunnel, you know? You know how sometimes the train's going, those dark tunnels, and it's like, wow. And I imagine if I had to walk through it, you know, and that's why I love that his word is going to help us through his word as a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. His word helps us to get through and to keep pushing and pressing, you know? And sometimes it feels so dark and so lonely, but we've got to speak to ourselves. You know, you can't be afraid, you know how they used to, when I was growing up, they used to always talk about people who talk to themselves, you know? I think it's dangerous if you don't talk to yourself, you know? Like sometimes you have to say, self get up, it's going to be okay. Self we're going to get through this thing. We're going to get to the other side. We're going to allow God to show us some things while we're going through it. But don't make the mistake that many people do to think that if I don't participate in the game of life, then I won't get bruised and knocked up. And that's not the truth, that these tests and challenges come. One, they either come in to get our attention so they will call upon God or they're coming because God said, "Hey, have you tested my servant? You know, put your name in there." They also are coming because we're in a fallen world, you know? So we're not always sure why the test is there, but it's there, amen? And he's going to get us through it. It's like we're going to be able to, I'm trying to think of that scripture that talks about how the things that we're going through are not just, they're familiar to everybody. He's going to make a way of escape. And so we've got to look for that way of escape. But a lot of times the door is there, but are we looking? Are we noticing, are we just going through so much and flopping around and screaming to where we don't notice that there's a door? We don't notice the Holy Spirit is there. We don't notice that, wow, you know what? I remember trying to scuba dive. And sometimes it's like you can allow jumping in the water, you got that 50-pound tank on, you could be swirling around if your jacket isn't regulated properly, but you're breathing. Panic sets in, you're like, oh, wait, I'm breathing. I actually have this mouthpiece and I'm taking an air. I'm taking in this oxygen. I'm okay. I'm okay. You're okay. You know, let the swirl, the noise, the spinning, the enemy loves to make noise. We have to settle the noise, amen. And remember what God said, he said, my sheep know my voice and as strange as they will not follow. You have to remember, you have to recognize what is noise, the noise of the enemy, on what is truly God saying in this time, in this situation, in this moment. And sometimes it's the still quiet voice. It's not in the loud voices all the time. Really none of the time it's in that quietness. It's not going to be in the chaos. It's going to be in the peace. It's not going to be in the hatred. It's going to be in the love. It's not going to be in the sorrow. It's going to be in the joy. The joy of the Lord is my strength, that he's able to give me peace, which passes all understanding while in the test, while in the moment. But also too, even in our mishaps or our unfamiliar reality and being able to get through the situation, he's teaching us something even in that. And even when we fall, he's using it. You know, what the enemy's meant for our destruction, he's turning it around for our good. You know, he's reminding us that, look, that I'm able to keep you. I'm able to sustain you even in this situation. And oh, there's countless testimonies of people who are right at the edge or who had fallen and God picked them up just in time. Oh, hallelujah. What opportunities we have to be able to allow God to reveal to us who he is while in the test in the storm. Don't run from your test. Don't run from the storm. Don't run from the impossibilities because all things, amen, are possible to those, amen, who have trusted and believed God. And I finally am convinced that, you know, God is not the author of confusion. And so when we find ourselves in a lot of confusion, do we speak it on ourselves? Do we walk right into it, you know? Are you looking for trouble subconsciously or did trouble find you? And so these are the things we get to ask ourselves. And, you know, pressure is a good teacher because pressure allows us to be able to know how we're going to respond, how we respond it. Pressure allows us to hear what we're saying about ourselves in the situation. You know, it's funny as we go through life that it's always easy to believe that it's going to things, you know, things are working out. They're okay until pressure is applied, you know, and then you become unraveled or maybe not. Maybe you stand. Finally, my brother in the Bible says, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on that whole armor of God that you might be able to stand against the tricks, the schemes of the devil. And he's got lots of tricks and lots of schemes and some things we are aware of and then some things he manifests on the spot. And we're like, wow, I didn't see that. I didn't know that was inside me. I didn't know I thought like that. I hear people some reaction sometimes to turmoil and things going on in their lives. They begin to want to fight. Oh man, you know, they get the dukes up to fight, amen. That's what he said, but the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of the strongholds. And I know that we always use that one scripture about how Jesus got angry in the synagogue and turned over the tables, but he didn't fight. Matter of fact, when Peter pulled out his sword and cut off the Roman soldier's ear, he healed the man and told Peter, no. So it wasn't about fighting, right? But it was being able to have peace. What did he do when the winds and the waves were vehemently coming against the boat? The storm was at its highest peak. He spoke to it and then turned to the disciples and said, oh, ye of little faith. So our response and our attitude and how we handle things has a lot to do with our outcomes. And it's, you know, how do we not be so unsettled? And that spending time in the word of God and knowing God's character and who he is. And so what is it when the enemy knows how to puppet us? You know, are you a puppet for the devil? He's able to do a few little maneuvers and get you out of your character and out of your space and place of being? No, that's not what God desires for our life. He, he wants us to recognize, he wants us to trust him and recognize when we have those things, those unsettling things. And we have to ask God, God, I don't know why that's still in me. When I so desire to want to do your will. When I so do, you know, I look at Jesus, he, you know, he was having great distress in the God of Gethsemiti. He was like, no, take this cup from me. But he said, not my will, but your will be done. He razzled with his thoughts and his emotions and his inability to not at that time. But he realized that, no, I've been called to do this. And so I'm going to do it. I'm going to obey the will of my father. And, and sometimes we have to get to that place. When we have to say, no, no, I know, I, I know I don't want to do it. I can't continue to keep running from, from this Lord. Not my will, but your will be done. Is it pride? Is it ego that gets in the way that causes us to not want to be getting to have peace? Or we don't want anyone like to have a notch up or take advantage of us? In all my life, people have taken advantage and I'm not going to let them take advantage of me now. And so we get out of the car having road rage when I'll fist up. You're not going to get to the light before me. It may not be so simple, but listen, is the enemy puppeting you? Is, are you using the, the words of the world, the words of the enemy that leaves you feeling defeated? Can you put a thought in your mind and cause you, you know, that's the whole, the whole purpose of commercials. They said back in the day in the movie theater, there was a certain time that they would subliminally put Coca-Cola and popcorn and all of a sudden people would get up and, and go and purchase Coke and, and popcorn at the movie theater. And what's subliminal messages is the enemy putting in front of you to get you up out of the place that God has placed you or where he wants you to be? I think about if McDonald's continues, that's why they have those commercials. So kids would want a Happy Meal that they just put enough subliminal message to go, oh yeah, I want McDonald's. That's why Saturday mornings was such a, a plot of those wanting to get parents for, for Christmas. They would just put all these toys up and they'd run them Saturday morning because they know the kids were watching cartoons. That was back, of course, when I was growing up, you know, they'd wait to Saturday morning cartoons and I wouldn't even know about baby alive dogs. So I saw the cartoon and what did I do? What do you want for Christmas? I want a baby alive dog and the tactics of the enemy have not stopped. He's subliminally putting thoughts of defeat in your life and in your mind to make you believe that it's unachievable, that it's unaccessible. But God said that you're the head and not the tail above and not beneath. You're more than a conquering greatest. He that is in you than he that is in the world. He will cause you to triumph. Yes, ability. Yes. Being able to deny yourself and deny your flesh. All those things help, but God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that you could ever ask or think. We have to get to that place when we begin to see God so clearly that we begin to see his will for our life so clearly that when the enemy comes to put a thought of negativity or doubt or unbelief in your way, in your mindset or through somebody, you'll be like, Oh, no, but God promised. I heard the Lord say that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. It is God that both works into will to do of his good pleasure that I couldn't get the thought if I wanted it. I couldn't make it up if I wanted to. And so I have to believe at some place and some level God is saying to me, it is time to arise and to get up. What did he tell the man? He said, go now to the potter's house. He's about to tell him a great message. And so he got up and went down to the potter's house. And he began the Bible says that the thing that the potter was making was marred in the hands of the potter, but he could make it again another. And so God is the potter and we are the clay and he is forming and he is making and he is molding and he is showing, he's creating us in his image and we're going to come out. He's going to get us through this process. And I know it can feel daunting and sometimes feel impossible. And sometimes it makes you grip your hair and say, God, I'm not my will, but your will be done through the sickness, through the pain. I try to do good, but evil is always present. But keep doing good anyway. I tried to start the business, but all these things keep starting. Start again. Get up again. Live again. Hope again. Dream again. Do not stop dreaming. Do not stop believing. Do not stop trusting God. He said, I'm in the Father. The Father's in me and I'm in you. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. That is so significant for me because sometimes my thoughts can be loopy or my thoughts may be defeating because I heard growing up that you can't do that. What makes you think you can do that? Why would you even want to do that? Why would you want to go? Why would you want to be a missionary? Why do you want to join the Navy? Why do you want to do those things and behave like that? And so those negative thoughts and images, why would you want to be an engineer? You don't even do physics good. You don't even know math well. I loved fixing things. I love seeing broken things fixed and it's a wonder as I sit here that God wants me to come here to remind you that you are not broken. When did you get the thought that you were not good enough, that you were not valuable, that he did not love you when he's saying all through his word that I love you with an everlasting love? That I stand in the gap for you. I paid a debt. I paid a price that you could not pay. That my whole gospel is about how I'm going to set things back in order so that we could have fellowship again. Thank you, God, for your plan. Thank you, God. Somebody said, how do I get my thinking to the other side? Just begin to thank God for what you have. And I know that seems so hokey, like that's just not enough. But if you begin to thank him for what you have, if you begin to thank him for who you are, if you begin to thank him for not giving up, if you begin to thank him, hallelujah, for waking up. You know, it used to be that people were grateful. Thank you, Lord. I used to hear it in the Baptist Church when I was growing up. Lord, I just thank you for giving me my right mind. I thank you for waking me up this morning. You know, we thought that was just simple. Like, hello, of course, we're all awake. You know, but some people didn't get up. But I thank you for getting up. But I thank you for setting my feet and my mind in the right direction. I thank you because some people didn't even want to didn't get up with the thought to just say thank you, God. Because if you hadn't given me breath, I wouldn't be alive today. But if you're not thanking him, it's because maybe you think that you're it's your ability. It's you, the one waking yourself up. But without breath, I tell you, it does seem sometimes that we can take advantage of just breath. But you ever talk to somebody that have asthma and they needed their pump to help them breathe because they couldn't grab, they couldn't get enough air in their lungs. It was just all they could just they trying to breathe, you know. So we got to thank him. It seems so simple. But God, thank you. Thank you that the accident that could have totaled the car and taken my life. But I thank you that just spared me. Those simple things. Thank you for giving me the the the wherewithal to finish high school. Thank you for giving me direction for my next steps. Thank you, hallelujah, for giving me a plan and a purpose for my life. Thank you for helping me to connect with you. Thank you for sending your son Jesus. Thank you. That even when I didn't feel like there was a reason to be joyful. But I heard the Lord say count it all joy. Count it joy. Say it joy. Isn't that enjoyable happening? Joy. I'm going to speak life. Speak what you do not see. Speak what you do not have. Speak hallelujah. You can dwell on your loneliness and you can say God, I thank you, but cultivate in my relationships to make them meaningful. Thank you, hallelujah, that you're sending people in my life that are helping to motivate and to cultivate what it is that you desire. Thank you for helping me have good soil in my heart. So whatever seed is planted that when your word is planted that it begins to bring forth fruit. Thank you, Lord. That I stand on your word that says that I'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water bringing forth fruit in my season and my leaves shall not wither, but whatever it touches. Whatever it touches, it's going to prosper and the devil cannot stop it. My enemy cannot stop it. But they say it cannot stop it. Hallelujah, because my steps have been ordered by God. Hallelujah, but I'm reminded of the Psalms number one. Hallelujah. And in this Psalms number one, it tries to ensure that we're in the right place. Amen. And he said, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. Who are you allowing to speak into your life, into counsel, counsel you, nor stand it in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, excuse me, does he meditate day and night? But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, do we meditate day and night?" Hallelujah. Meditating is what I'm thinking on. Meditating is what I'm allowing myself to experience. Hallelujah. What am I allowing myself to frequent my thoughts? Because oftentimes we're allowing ourselves, amen, to be moved by nonsense, to be moved by things dwelling on things and situations that we cannot change. Hallelujah. But remember, Philippians 1 and 6 says, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you, will perform it into the day of Jesus Christ." You've got to be confident and knowing. You have to be confident, not in a lot of things, but in this one thing, that he who begun the work in you, say your name, say your name. He who begun the work in, say your name. Hallelujah. In Rochelle. He's going to perform it. He's going to do it. Hallelujah. Until the day of Jesus Christ. So we can't think it's strange when we're going through some things. Amen. We cannot be afraid. Amen. Amen. But we've got to count it all joy. We've got to tell the Lord. Thank you. Listen, sometimes when I don't have words, I just have to sing those songs, those soulful songs that they used to sing back in the churches. I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord. For loving me, for loving me, for loving me. For loving me, for loving me, for loving me, for loving me. I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord. You just got to begin to thank Him. You just got to say, "God, I know it looks real bad. It feels real bad. I don't know my way out. I don't know when my change is going to come, but I thank you." I thank you because you are a very present help in my times of trouble. I just give you all the praise and the glory. I'm going to do my part by following your word. I thank you, God, Hallelujah, that you are going to do your part. I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord. I thank the Lord for you listening, and I pray you will not give up no matter how it looks or how it feels. Continue to trust God. You've been listening to never give up. We're giving up as not an option. I'm your host, Rachelle Jones, and remember that greatness is on the inside of you. [BLANK_AUDIO]