EP 198 He Saw the Stress in Me

Yo, what's up people? I'm your host Jay Will and I would like to welcome you to Inspire Guys, People Where We Violence Faith and Business to guide you to your purpose. This is episode 198. He saw the stress in me.

That's right. Today we are going to be talking about what to do when you are stressed, how to cope with stress. And you know, we're going to talk about three tips in particular I'm going to share and how to like deal with the stress, but also go beyond the stress because everybody know that stress is something when it's on you. It's rough man, but I want you to know the day that God sees you.

That's what it's about. I believe on episode, I ain't going to say the number a couple episodes ago, how to guess Selena deal on here who's a licensed counselor. And she talked about being seen by God and the importance of being seen. And I think one of the things that happens to us is that when we're going through stress or when we're going through a rough time, we don't feel seen.

We don't feel like God sees us. We don't feel like God hears us. And so we don't know how to cope with it. And you can get caught up in your emotions and your emotions can take you out.

So today it's all about God seeing the stress in you and how to go beyond it. That's right. He saw the stress in me. Listen, I'ma be real with y'all.

I've been stressed. This episode is maybe I ain't going to say the realest because everything we do, we try to like be authentic on the show. And by we, I mean me. I don't know why I say we, maybe because this I'll have guests and stuff.

But I try to be authentic on this show. And I got to shout out my homeboy, Red, is kicking it with Red and Katrina today. And Red gave me some great advice. First of all, I told him that I hadn't done a show in like two to three weeks.

And the look on his face alone made me realize, ah, you're going to have to do a podcast today. And my homeboy, Red challenged me. Number one, appreciate that. I take challenge in from friends with credibility, like super serious.

Friends are family. If you challenge me, like I welcome challenges with credibility. You know what I'm saying? I don't want to get the wrong impression that I need any and everybody challenging me.

He has some credibility with me. And he challenged me after he listened to me. That was important because I was sharing some things about some things that I'm going through personally. And you know, looking for advice from friends.

I don't even say I was looking for advice to be honest. I really was just sharing because I've been really stressed professionally, maybe for a year now. And you know, we going to get into that. So I want to, you know what, I'm going to start right there.

Let's get the intro out the way. You know what I'm saying? And we come back. We're going to talk about, you know, he saw he saw the stress in me, you know, saying like, we listen when everyone else around can only see the work in me.

Maybe I got to do it in a deep voice. He saw the stress in me. You ever been stressed out fam? Like, I just really want to know tonight.

Like, you know, if you catch this on the replay, whenever you listen to the watching to this, this show is on YouTube Instagram. Why did I just lie? YouTube, Apple podcast, Spotify, Facebook, you know what I'm saying? We everywhere.

So you might be watching, you might listen to the audio. I appreciate how ever you get down audible, I heart radio, we on auto spots just search for fire guys, people or just googling, fire guys, people. If it comes down to it. But I want to know tonight, have you ever been stressed?

Because I've been stressing. I'm just going to be keeping it extra crispy with you all the night and sharing some of my stresses. But I want to know, can you feel me? You know, but whether you can feel me or not, guys, look, this is Inspire Guys, people episode 198.

Let me stop with all the mumbling and rambling and let's get into the content today. Alright guys, people, let's get into the content on today's show. Again, this is episode 198. He saw the stress in me.

This is for my people out there to be dealing with stress and want to know how to get through it. And I want to be first vulnerable. Right? So I'm going to share three specific tips, thoughts, however you want to receive it around dealing with stress.

And it's all about really looking at the present, the past and the future. So keep that in mind. And we're going to start with the present. The first thing in my opinion, in dealing with stress and working through stress is being present and looking at things for what they are.

And that's all about being vulnerable. I experienced that today. That's what led to this episode. Like in real life, this episode was not happening until I was vulnerable with some friends today and talking about my stresses.

I do want to share a little bit with you. I always tell you all, my life is private, but my strategies are public. Right? So I don't really get into my private life good or bad a lot when this show, because that's not what's not, not what's, I can talk.

Like it happens all the time. I can't talk. But I don't get into that stuff because that's not really what the show is about. But I love sharing the strategies and the thoughts behind it.

Now some of today, when I think about my stresses, I have to be wise about how I share things because I'm a business man. I'm in business. So I can't always give the specifics of everything. So keep that in mind.

Maybe one day I will write a book. But my stresses in the last year have been largely professionally related. I have worked for a long time in corporate America, building my career and getting to a certain point. And you get to points in your professional career that are highs and lows, right?

And I'm going to be real with you all. I feel sometimes the vulnerability thing is tough for me because it's challenging being unvulnerable because I look at my problems and I'm like, oh, these kind of first world problems, you know, you complaining about things professionally, but somebody is going through words, you can definitely look at other things in life and say, why would I be complaining about this? But I do think part of that is a tricky enemy. You do have to have a balance and understanding.

Like you don't want to be a complainer. You don't want to be going around making it seem like your problems are the biggest problems in the world. But one thing that I've learned personally when you're dealing with stress is like, well, you do have to also give yourself the freedom to express your problems as problems. And that might mean, you know, family, close friends, a spouse being vulnerable with those people and sharing with them.

And the reason, the first reason I believe in being vulnerable is because I do think sometimes just expressing yourself can be somewhat of a coping mechanism and say, okay, I got it out. When you hold things in, you know, they continue to boil up and get worse. But I also think you have to share things with the right people. So for me, it's about, you know, first it was like sharing with my wife, right?

And, you know, like I said, it's been going on for a year. I didn't even tell her right away that I was stressing because I'm kind of the person that typically people usually come through, come through for advice and share stuff like that. So sometimes it's hard changing those roles, but I realize at some point that that vulnerability represented humanity, which is important because I'm definitely human. And I always kind of preach like, yo, don't put me on the pedestal.

I'm just like you and all of that. But, you know, unless you actually act that out, people never see you being human. So I also think that's important when it's authentic and genuine. And that's part of for me, what I've kind of been working through on this, you know, in this season of my life where I've been dealing with a lot of stress, is like, yo, finding people to be vulnerable.

So that started with my wife, some close friends, some family. I've also shared with them. And one of the things that, you know, being vulnerable kind of represents is trust. It's like, yo, I'm trusting you with this information that you're not going to judge me.

You know what I mean? That you're not going to downplay it and that you're going to listen. And that was something that was real dope, you know, that happened to me today is like, hey, my homeboy, Red, just listen. He responded with feedback that was specific to me.

That wasn't just like general feedback and things like that. So my vulnerability paid off in the sense that it led to today's show because, you know, his response, which I'm not going to get all in depth with it, you know, but his response to me was really like, he just challenged the way I was thinking through it. Like, yo, I know you tired. I know that you're dealing with A, B and C, but sometimes, you know, creating from that raw space produces something better than producing from creating from like this great space where everything is going perfectly.

So that was some of the feedback that I said today and that vulnerability led to again today's show. Another thing, another important part of being vulnerable is being honest with yourself. So sometimes we going through things in life and we stressed out and we haven't even stopped and really been honest with ourselves. And I feel like, yo, like it's hard probably to move on or progress in life when not only are you lying to everyone else, but you lying to yourself.

Like I know you lying to us when you upload the picture and, you know, you put all the info in your story and try to make sure your life is all great in it. You never had no downs and you know, never had no losses, but man, you're going to lie to yourself. And that's something I take pride in is like, yo, at least tell yourself the truth. I believe that vulnerability is important as a believer because it's not until you express and be vulnerable.

And of course, I should say be vulnerable with the Lord, right? That should go without saying, but let me say that you God is definitely the first that we need to be vulnerable with so that the key to vulnerability is to get the response that's going to be productive to our lives. And that's why I say you have to be really like selective with the people that you express your personal life, your wins, your losses, your ups and downs, your stresses with because ultimately you're not expressing and communicating stress to remain stressed. So that I'm going to sharpen iron so that you can get some wise counsel.

And we know that the Bible is full of that. Actually, you know, I have one verse that I want to look at as we think about, you know, being present and being vulnerable as it relates to stress. What's up in the comments? How you doing?

Sharel Manique? Hopefully everything is good. Your way system. But there's a scripture I want to jump into.

I'm actually going to share is Genesis chapter 41 and verse 16. Now I want you to keep in mind with these scriptures that I'm going to jump into today. These are not going to necessarily be your cleashay scriptures, maybe one of them. Your typical scriptures that you hear when you hear about like, oh, how do you deal with stress?

What you're focusing on is a high intensity situation in the Word of God that I am, you know, I am assuming to be stressful based on the context. And then looking at that and saying how did God lead his people to respond in that moment? And the goal of today is to hopefully give you, you know, tangible information and some scriptures that you can rock with when you find yourself specifically in this situation. And again, first one is being vulnerable.

It's not always easy. You have to trust those that you're talking to. I would even argue that some of us are too vulnerable on social media publicly. Again, because we have the access to share everything, all our thoughts, our life feelings, sometimes we're sharing our thoughts and feelings with people who don't have our best intentions at heart.

And so when you put that out there, the information that you get back isn't always the best for your life because you're sharing with people who don't have your best interests at heart. So we got to keep that in mind. You know, you need to take who you're sharing your personal situations in life with very seriously starting with the Lord. You feel me?

And I know like I want to say this like being vulnerable can be scary. Like some of us are scared to show that we're human. Like, yo, it's cool. We are human.

And I know we live in this cold world. And what I mean by cold is that we have less interpersonal connections because we have so many of the social media and technology driven connections, but those don't have the warmth of human touch. You know, again, I talked about some information advice, a challenge I received from a friend today. I was in person, you know, I don't know if he would have taken me that if I would have received it the same way.

I don't know if he would have DM me on Instagram or something if I would have received it the same way, but in the context and the warmth of like seeing and talking to somebody in their tone and their body language and like seeing that they actually listen and that they care, it's easier to receive that. So, you know, in being vulnerable, you also want to create an environment where you're sharing that is conducive to the information so that you want to receive back so that you're able to receive it in a proper context. So let's jump into the scripture real quick though. I want to, you know, I want to look at this and say, let's see, let's share the screen.

Let's try this out. So again, we talking about Genesis chapter 41 verse 16 and, you know, when I look at this, what I'm really looking at and thinking of is like, yo, how did they respond in this moment now in this moment? Let's just read the scripture first. It is beyond my power to do this, Joseph replied, but God can tell you what it means and set you at ease.

So Joseph, the vulnerability is that Joseph is saying that it's beyond my power to do this. Now, if you read in Genesis, the entire chapter of 41 of those in front of it to understand the full context, Joseph has just been released from prison and Pharaoh wants him to interpret his dream. And this is a very high sense situation because if you've been sitting in prison and someone gave a word that you have a gift and it's like, yo, we let my man's out. My man's is going to share his gift with you, right?

That king in that moment, Pharaoh is looking like, yo, somebody better interpret my dream. And if you find yourself as Joseph as the one that is being pressured to interpret this dream, let's look back at it. You know, like that's a tense situation. Let's go up to, all right.

So when you go on 14, I want to read a little more context into it. Pharaoh sent for Joseph at once and he was quickly brought from the prison after he shaved and changed his clothes. He went in and stood before Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, I had a dream last night and no one here could tell me what it means.

But I have heard that when you hear about a dream, you can interpret it. Now think about the pressure that's going Joseph in this moment. You got out of jail. They didn't get you a crispy cut through you on some fresh linen and now and they said they called for you at once.

You know what I'm saying? I'm like, yo, somebody put at once back in those days. That sounds like an urgent, high-tense situation. All right.

And then so what I'm looking at here is how did Joseph respond when he was in a tense situation? And the reason I'm looking at this is because we tell them how to deal with stress and the first tip is to be present and to be present means to be vulnerable. When you're thinking about the present, think about right now. If you are stressed out, be vulnerable.

You might be asking yourself, where's the vulnerability in this scripture? It is in verse 16 where you find the vulnerability, my people. In verse 16, Joseph responds to Pharaoh who is urgent, who is in a high-stress situation that wants some information from him and that has just free him from prison and said to him, Joseph said, it is beyond my power to do this. God's people, God's people, God's people.

The importance of this scripture is that in the most tense situation, Joseph was vulnerable enough to say, it is beyond my power to do this. And the first thing we got to realize when we're stressful, it is that it is beyond our power to save ourselves. We need the Lord. So, Joseph, Pharaoh told Joseph his dream.

All right, cool. So, he tells him the dream and then let me go down somewhere. All right. So, verse 25, Joseph responded, both of Pharaoh dreams mean the same thing.

God is telling Pharaoh in advance what he's about to do. All right. So, the importance here is that when Joseph found himself in the most tense situation, dealing with Pharaoh, I can only assume what failure would have looked like if the king calls you at once, he'd hit you with the crispy fay, hit you with some fresh lemon and say, tell me what this dream means. I can only imagine that Joseph in that situation was tense and maybe it was life or death if he wouldn't have an interpretation.

But in the midst of that, he was honest and open and said, it's beyond my power to do this. Now what if him saying that favor would have chopped his head off like, oh, it's beyond your power. Get him out of here. Let's get someone else.

But Joseph also recognized that I need the Lord to speak through me. It is God who gave me this gift. So, my message to you first and foremost is that if you like me, because this is like, I'm telling you all, I'm preaching to myself right now, because I've been dealing with some stress and some heightened situations in business and professionally. And, you know, there are times where you'll pry can get in the way, you're emotion can get in the way and you want to respond a certain way.

You know what I mean? I can't really get into the details of what I'm talking about specifically because it's business related and that's confidentiality. And I respect that. But ultimately, it's like, yo, be vulnerable.

All right, cool. It's a high, I'm telling you all I'm being vulnerable. I'm trusting you all. You know what I'm saying?

I'm trusting you all with this information. But I'm also saying, you know what? It's beyond my power to do this. What I need God to do right now and how I need God to smooth some things over and get me to a better place where I'm more where I have time to be focused on the things that I believe God want me to be focused on.

It's beyond my power to do that. Doesn't mean it's not urgent. Doesn't mean that I don't need an answer like, yo Lord, I need you to. It just means I'm being vulnerable and recognizing God.

This on you. So I think the first thing we have to do in our vulnerability is be vulnerable to God. Now let's move on to the second part of this and tip number two is to be thankful. So when you're dealing with stress, after you've been vulnerable and you've been present and been honest with yourself and honest with God, maybe some trusted people around you, think it's real important to be thankful.

And to be thankful is to think about the past. So first we covered the present. Now we looking at the past to be thankful. To me, the importance of being thankful is to remember what God has already done.

Because I think it's easy when you want God to do something or where you need something. It's like you forget like, oh, you know what? I've seen this mountain before. You helped me climb this back in 2015 like, oh, we can do this.

And sometimes that just through that thankfulness, you start remembering who God is. So it's like for me professionally. It's like, all right, like if I'm being real, is this a mountain? It is.

But I saw this mountain when I was broke. It's like, all right, well at least I ain't broke. All right, so thank you, God, that the last time I saw this mountain, you know, circumstances were different. Like I'm seeing this mountain in a whole different situation now.

It's still a mountain. You know what I'm saying? And I also think it's important for us to realize like money don't save everything. Like just because you have a couple of dollars, you know, whatever money is money.

It's not everything material things ain't everything. You know, like when you have stresses in your life, when people have stresses in their life, it's real. And one thing that I try to do is whether somebody has more than me or less than me is look at us all the same as human beings and say, you know, it's easy to look at people with more of you more than you and just think, oh, because they have more than me. They don't have no problems.

And it's also easy to look at people with less than you like, oh, they have less than me so their life may be horrible and neither is true. Sometimes the person with less than you is that way more peace than you are because they have God as the sinner and anchor of their lives and they're trusting him for everything in a person with more than you and have all the material things and maybe the status or the titles or whatever. They have way less peace because they have not trusted God. They have not put their lives in trust.

And they got lives in trust. And like, what are you taught? I can talk people. I don't know what I'm talking about.

Why did I say that? Lives in, you know what? He saw the stress in me when everyone else around. I need to take what's the point?

This show is getting high intensity. There's a lot going on right now. All right. He saw the stress in me.

People, God sees the stress in you. He sees what you're going through. And when you're being thankful and you're remembering that he brought you out, you're also remembering that he sees you. Don't allow the enemy to make you think that you are going through this alone and that God is somehow just completely oblivious to totally oblivious.

God is teal. And to even think that that he doesn't know is a trick of the enemy. So let's think about being thankful. And being thankful and thinking about what God has already done, you also realize that this struggle won't last forever.

So I want to tell you, secondly, that whatever you're dealing with, whatever you're stressing with, it ain't going to last forever. And that's actually some, a random Katrina said that today to me, like, God, I got you. Like what you're dealing with ain't going to last forever. And the thing about it is, even though I know that, sometimes when you hear from other people with sublessing, my wife has said that.

And I also want to say the importance of like selling the right people about your stresses and what you're dealing with in life is you get the proper feedback. Like my wife has been super dope in the way that she has supported me, even listening, even like anybody who knows if like she ain't really talking a lot, she's like, she has shared some advice and some thoughts. And that's a big thing. If you can get her to talk, that's a big deal.

So I appreciate her because, you know, again, as a man, as a husband, really, you know, me and we have pride, I'm proud of the man. I'm proud to be a man, proud of being a leader in my house and some of the things that I've been able to do professionally, I'm proud of that. So that vulnerability to go to someone and be like, yo, I know, I know, I'm used to having some answers and things, but like I don't really have an answer for this right now or whatever. That takes a lot of vulnerability and it takes a certain type of woman to be able to not receive that information from her husband, but also give the right feedback.

And when you marry, a lot of times what happens is you can take those stresses out on your spouse. And that was the other reason I wanted to tell her where I was at and what I was dealing with is because I wanted to make sure that I wasn't projecting and that if I was projecting, she could call it out and she could see it like, yo, I kind of think you've taken this out on me, whatever you're dealing with in the business world and professionally. So she has been super dope. So shout out to my wife for that.

I appreciate that. And, you know, just been super helpful throughout the process. And even as I think about being thankful, when I think about God, you know, my wife has been at this place professionally before and God has answered many prayers and came exactly when we needed them to give him me wisdom, her wisdom, open some doors, shown some favor. And so even to know what he's done for her is also an inspiration for me to be like, all right, God, when I'm being thankful, I'm remembering what you're capable of, you know what I'm saying?

But a lot of this, y'all, I think this is worth saying, a lot of us are living in such toxic environments that that stress is like normal. Like some people can be in such toxic and negative environments around negative people, listen to negative music, get negative feedback, your timeline on social media is negative. And so you've allowed the stresses of life to become normal. You know, you're sick from stress and you don't even realize you're sick because the only thing you know is sickness.

And what I'm the reason I'm talking about this today is because I believe there's peace in Christ. I believe that you don't have to live your life in worry and in stress. I do believe it's normal because I've been in it, you know what I'm saying? I'm dealing with my own things, but I'm also speaking to myself.

I don't allow myself to think that, well, this is just normal, right? You want to have to write people around you so that you can get to a point where peace is normal. For some of us, war, it has become the norm because we got so many negative situations around it. Now, I'm gonna be real with you.

I see people online and I'm like, oh, I actually think this person enjoys negativity. Like I actually think some people get off on that. And it's like, yeah, those are the people I stay far away from, people who are living a lifestyle of negativity, I want nothing to do with you at all on any level. And I'm just being real because at the end of the day, you know, to get to the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Like I realize that that peace is found in Jesus Christ and that I need to surround myself with people who also know that peace so that when I'm not at my best, the strong people around me can help me stay up. But some of us are around such toxic people that when you find yourself in a weak moment, those people are not holding you up, they're kicking you while you're down. And so it's very important to find a circle of people that you can trust to find an environment, change up your timeline. I unfollow people every single day and block a few of them too because it's like, yo, I can't live a life where all you want to talk about is this negativity every day.

All you want to do is talk about this toxic stuff every day. You live in war, you live in anxiety, you live in stress. No, no, no, bro, I might have visited the island, but I'm going to a better place. I'm going to a better situation in my life where peace is the norm, where trusting God is the norm.

That's what this podcast is about bringing believers together because the world will want you to live in stress. You know what I'm saying? I'm just being hunted with you. The world will want you to live in stress.

What up, people out there in comment land. What up, Lishana? Yes, the reminder, the reminder is always good. Lady Ray, what's up, stress has been here so long.

Man, it's rough when it get like that. Say, he saw the stress in me when everyone else around, when everyone else around, around, around. Sometimes you got to try to sing it in a different key. You know, I ain't no real singer.

It's all the stress in me when everyone else around, everyone else. Then you go, let me see if I can go higher. He saw the stress in me when everyone else around. He saw the stress in me.

Y'all going to be singing that. A single man with a fan of faith comes by remembering who God is, what he can do, and what he's done for you and others. On the other hand, anxiety comes when we take our eyes off Christ like Peter did in the storm. He saw God sees you, fam.

That's a good one. Y'all feel me? What about Brittany Jones? How you feeling?

Alright, so I got another scripture to share with y'all. Let me get to it first and foremost. Where are we going now? We want to go to Joshua chapter eight.

Alright, remember, if you just jump in this, Joshua, what did I say? I'll say verse one and two. Oh, that might be because I want to go to seven. Alright, alright, let's do this.

Joshua chapter eight verse one and two. This is going to be dope. Alright, so again, we're talking about high stress situations. Um, how does God like, how do the people of God react and respond in high stress situations?

Alright. Um, so right here in Joshua, first I'm going to reach verses one and two and then I'm going to give the broader context of what's going on in the scripture. Okay. And we're talking about thinking about the past.

How do you be thankful for the past and look at what God has already done to help you when you're coping and dealing with stress right now in your future. Alright. So then the Lord said to Joshua, do not be afraid or discouraged. Man, I love like just.

Let the scripture marinate. Let it marinate like do not be discouraged. Do not be afraid or discouraged. That's something important because we talking about a very high and sense situation.

And a lot of times what the enemy wants to do is get you all out of sorts and panicking and just everywhere and all like just emotionally everywhere. But the first thing is like, God is like, do not be afraid or discouraged. Now what I love about this particular scripture is like, we're going to look at the context of this and you so you might be thinking like, yeah, but you may in my current situation, ain't no way in the world. I can not be afraid or discouraged because I'm dealing with something you don't understand what I'm dealing with.

Hey, you don't understand what I'm dealing with. Hey, you don't understand. All right. But when we look at the context of the scripture, it was dealing with something way more like me.

I'm just dealing with stress in professional business world, you know, like be life in, but I'm talking about like the stress I'm dealing with real is professional. Like it's like in the business world, this is way more tense with they were dealing with. So then the Lord said to Joshua, do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all your fighting me and attack I for AI, AI, I'm assuming that's how you say that when I let the Bible like at read it, they just spilled it as AI.

So again, I'm not a scholar in the sense of like knowing how to pronounce every term in the Bible, but I can't talk people. All right. So we're going to call it I for now because I believe that was that's how, you know, the I a second that's how we'll be pronounced in English. Do not be afraid or discouraged.

Take all your fighting in and attack I for I've given you the king of I his people, his town and his land verse two, you would destroy them as you destroyed Jericho and its king. That is the memory. You will destroy them as you destroyed Jericho and his king. Remember, we're talking about in high intensity situations.

How can we trust God, which is a challenging thing to do sometimes when you're stressed, like how can I think about what God has already done to know what he'll do in my future? In this situation, God is telling them, Oh, yeah, you destroyed Jericho. Like just like you did that. We going to do that.

But look, there's some even extra, but this time you may keep the plunder and a livestock for yourselves. Like, yo, like not only, not only is the Lord telling them that, yo, I'm going to do something that I already done, but this time it's going to be better. This time it's going to be better. That's like a little jazz.

Little jazz song. That's just how I make up songs, you know, might be a different time. This time it's going to be better. This time it's going to be better.

This time it's going to be better. This time it's going to be better. Anyway, I don't know how I get off track people. This is like literally how I do stuff.

Now when we look at this scripture, let's go a little deeper on what's happening in Joseph, right? So we understand that God told them just like you defeated Jericho, you're going to defeat this kingdom of I, but this time you're going to keep the plunder. Now I want you to think about the intensity of this situation. When you go back to Joseph chapter seven, I want you to read that on your own time.

You go back to Joseph chapter seven and you see what happened before this time with the situation in Jericho, they defeated them and God told them, don't take the plunder. And then Aiken, one of the individuals got greedy when he saw it, right? And so because he saw it in that situation, he actually caused them because God had warned them, God, this, you tell my word, this is tense. God had warned them, you're going to destroy these people, but don't touch this stuff.

Don't do it. All right. Am I man took it for himself when he saw it? So when they originally went to the kingdom of I, which they were posted when that battle, they lost.

And not only did they lost some of their people died, and it was all because he disobeyed God and touched and took something that God told this man not to take. But all right, cool. So they lost. So they were, they were discouraged.

They were defeated. If you go back to verse seven, it's like, yo, matter of fact, we got to do, I'm sorry. I can't, like, cause you ain't going to believe me. Otherwise, like I don't really like just saying stuff.

And then people looking like, um, is he lying? All right, let's just look at it together. We got to scroll through this. But verse one, but Israel violated the instructions about the things set apart for the Lord, a man named Aiken has stolen some of these dedicated things.

So the Lord was very angry with the Israelites. All right. So we see that God was mad. That ain't good when God is mad.

So I got to scroll down on it. Don't get dizzy at the scrolling. I'm just looking for this other one. Um, that, all right.

Verse four, so approximately 3000 warriors were sent, but they were soundly defeated. The men of I chase the Israelites from the town gate as far as the quarries. And they killed about 36 who were retreating down the slope. The Israelites were paralyzed with fear at this turn of events and their courage melted away.

That's the part I want you to really see their courage melted away. So we're talking about how to cope with stress as believers in very high-end situations. In this situation, we're talking about specifically war, like they're dealing with war. They were at a part in this war due to their own disobedience where they found themselves now being defeated by an enemy that they were supposed to win against.

It says this situation left them crippled and paralyzed with fear and their courage had melted away. People of God, have you ever been in a situation like this? Now this is like much deeper than what I'm personally going through in the business world, but all of us I believe to relate at some point in life, you've been discouraged. You've been stressed and you have felt like, yo, it's like giving up.

Like it's a wrap. A man's will give up. It's over like no way out of this situation. And I'm looking at the Bible and I'm like, how do the people of God respond in these situations?

So when you look at chapter eight, now let's go back to eight. You know what I'm saying? Let's do it. Let's do it.

See, that's a different vibe. We went from jazz to that. Anyway, I'm sorry, y'all. This is just, I don't know.

It's like, I just love it. You know what I'm saying? It's how we read the word. Let's read it.

Now, if you read Joshua one and two, after really getting into the context of your courage being melted away, being defeated, now let's read Joshua eight. Then the Lord said to Joshua, do not be afraid or discouraged. Now, remember, remember when we talked about on the first time that not being afraid or discouraged? See, it hit different now.

When you know that they courage is gone, they paralyzed with fear and encourage melted away. Now when God says, do not be afraid or discouraged. After you already been in a messed up situation, it hit kind of different. Like all your fighting men in attack, I, for I've given you the king of his people, his town, his land, you would destroy them just like you did last time.

Hey, just like you did last time. Hey, and then it says, but this time you may keep the plunder in the livestock for yourselves, brother, this time you can get a gold chain. Now, I don't know. That's kind of wild to me, but it's like, hey, bro, not only can you win this time, but this time we're going to make you a necklace.

You know what I'm saying? So what I really want you to take from that portion is that God was reminding the children of Israel and Joshua, listen, we've already defeated something before. Now, what we didn't cover in verse seven is because they messed up, they had to go and purify themselves. So it was like, this is the importance of repentance, like because we've all fallen short of the glory of God, but repentance is important.

Turning away from seeing is super important because essentially in this situation, God wasn't going to bless them and today turned away. So you know, there are some times that you're dealing with stresses in your life that are self-inflicted, like the children of Israel in this situation had some self-inflicted stress when Aiken had disobeyed God. And one of the things like even in my professional situation, right, it's like, I believe you have to always be willing to take a step back and look at yourself and say, where did I miss that? Where am I messing up?

You know, one of the things for me personally right now, I think in my professional situation is I have some pride. Like, in this instance, it's not even that I think the pride itself is wrong. I just think God don't want me to have it. Like, that's weird because sometimes pride is justified.

At least I do. I'm going to talk about me. I justify pride sometimes because I feel like, yo, like, instead of somebody talking to you a certain way and you like got some pride about that. Like, yo, you ain't going to be talking to me any kind of way, son.

It's like, all right, but maybe God wanted you to respond differently. Maybe that's a turn the other cheek moment. Like, we always look at turning the other cheek. I don't know cheek broke.

Somebody hit me in a jaw like maybe sometimes it's just you like turning the other cheek and shutting your mouth like, don't say what you want to say. He saw the stress in me. All right, let's go to some of the comments. Lady Carolyn just like, order son has been out of order.

So we so long, we think it's right. I could not agree with that anymore. Some things have been so out of order for so long that we allow them to become norm for us. Kendra, what up?

Thank you so much and see what a single man said. Just said something great to me. It ain't good when God is mad. You feel me, son?

A lot of times when you're following God, folk are going to be mad at you. And if you let that stress you out, ooh, you can lose your proper focus. That's very well said because I wouldn't even think of it like that. Some have you said that like, it's not good for God to be mad, but sometimes we allow ourselves because following God makes people mad and we choose the people over God.

So that's what he's saying. That's super dope to me because it's like a different perspective of like, like, y'all could be mad at me. I'm not really tripping off people being mad at me if I'm in right standing with God. And I think sometimes what we do is we want people to like us so much that we like turn away from God.

And, you know, that's not really it. All right. So let's go into the last tip that I have for y'all on today's episode. I can talk people up a show on today's episode.

I can talk fam. And that is about the future and that is being patient. I had to think of what I wrote down being patient. When you stressed out and you're dealing with stress again, like I am professionally, you want to answer it right away.

Like you want relief of the stress immediately. And it can be challenging sometimes to have faith and to be patient when you're enduring something. But the word of God has many scriptures in the book of James, I believe. It talks about your faith and endurance.

That wasn't the scripture I wrote down, but maybe we'll visit that as I'm talking about this. I went to Matthew chapter six, which is kind of a go to for what I'm going to talk about with not worrying. But we have to have faith that God sees us. Faith that he sees the stress in us.

And the reason that is so important that he saw the stress in me, it's important because if you feel like God doesn't see you, then you also feel like God doesn't have an answer for you. And a lot of times we feel like God doesn't see us because we're not hearing him and we're not hearing him because faith comes by hearing, hearing comes by the word of God. So sometimes you don't feel seen because you're not hearing. Our senses do work together in that way, you know, where, you know, when you have a lack of one sense, it's like if somebody loses a sense, another one can come stronger.

So like, I know our senses and I'm not a scientist and I probably didn't say that right. So don't judge me. But my point is that our senses can be interconnected. So your lack of feeling seen can be from a lack of hearing.

And so ultimately, I don't want us to get to a point where we're shutting God down and we're creating space between us and God because let's be real. That's sometimes the challenge of like, all right, God, if you're not seeing me and you're not seeing, I'm stressed and you're not seeing what I'm dealing with, then I ain't hearing you. And first we need to realize that we need to hear God first. Now he sees us regardless, but we need to hear him.

And the reason we need to hear him is because if God sees me, which he does, but I'm not listening to him, then ultimately he can see me and I can remain in stress. But if I'm hearing him, not only does he see me, but by hearing what his advice and his responses are in these high and tense stress situations, I can also respond accordingly. And some of us are just, you know, expressing our stress. We are telling any and everyone, but we are not hearing what God said about it because we're not convinced that God has an answer because we haven't cracked open the Bible.

And so my final tip to you today is to be patient to have faith, but hear God. All right. So let's go to, oh, I want to say this too, learn from the experience. Like right now, when I'm dealing with professionally, as much as I might be stressed with this certain situation, there's also a lot that I've already learned.

Now in my prayers and full transparency, I'm kind of like, all right, I kind of learned it. Can we like move past and I'm like, all right, learn that lesson, check, let's keep it moving. What I'm thankful for is that God is still providing in a situation. I'm still in a good situation, overall and I'm blessed.

And that's why it's like it even feel weird sometimes. That's how the enemy play like, oh, this ain't this ain't important enough for me to share. But like I'm telling you that vulnerability to share is what also shows the humanity, but opens you up for challenging and counseling people to advise you. And again, we talked about all that in today's show, but this being patient and enduring while it's still going on.

When you don't yet see the light at the end of the tunnel, when you don't necessarily know how the movie ends and you're in it, if we be honest, that's when the stress sometimes is a lot. And we allow our minds to hear what the world is saying. And I want to go to Matthew chapter six because I think this is so important, y'all. Like this is like, yo, I hope you all like enjoying this.

Look, if you like this, please share it. Subscribe to the show on YouTube. We do short clips by we, I mean me every single day, dropping shorts on YouTube to inspire guys, people. And yeah, man, subscribe.

Check out what we doing fam. He's sound stressing me. Don't get dizzy while I'm scrolling down to chapter, this is chapter six. I'm looking for verse 27.

So let me just go down. Red letters mean Jesus talking. We know that. Red letter.

Red letter. Alright, first thing I want to read. Verse 27. And it says, can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

Guys, people, like I feel like we could almost just, I could just end it right there. Can all of your worries add a single moment to your life? I think we know the answer to that. It's a rhetorical question.

The answer is no, because we can worry and allow ourselves to be stressed out, but it adds nothing to your life. If anything, it takes away because stress can lead to sickness and headaches and all type of other things. And I've experienced it. And when you allow yourself to live in that stress and to continue to reinforce that stress, you're not adding moments on your life according to Jesus.

According to the Red letters, like, no, and he asked a question in verse 28, and why we're about to close it? Like Jesus is like, he couldn't tell you. Where else I want to go? 31.

So, so, oh, now let's go 30. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Jesus asked another question. Why do you have so little faith?

I mean, God, why are you going? Why are you going to do me like that? Like, do you really have to cut into me and ask me? Why do I have so little faith?

Okay. Like, I was vulnerable. I was present. I was thankful.

I thought about the past. I remember what you did. And I want to try to be patient. And I'm trying to think about the future.

And you're telling me why do I have so little faith? And then the 31 guy says, so don't worry about these things saying what will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?

All right. Hold on. Those all sound super important. Remember, I'm specifically talking about how to respond in high stress situations.

So if you find yourself saying like, yeah, I'm aware about that. Okay. This is specific. Like I'm saying, these are important things.

I'm saying these are if you don't have something to eat or wear like this is important. But I'm just sharing with you these rare letters, fam. I don't know what you want me to say. Like I don't know if I should lie and say this ain't how Jesus said respond to it.

Jesus said, get emotional, lose your mind, be out of control, like just be all over the place or if there's a proper way for believers to respond to certain things. All right. Verse 32. These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly father already knows all your needs.

He saw the stress in me. Y'all got to understand. See unbelievers, it said Jesus said their minds are dominated with worry. Worrying constantly worrying about something, but it says, but your heavenly father already knows or he saw the stress in me.

And then verse 33, a very familiar scripture. Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously and he will give you everything you need. Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously and he will give you everything you need. People of God, like yo, God is telling us that you worried about stuff.

That I already have answers for. If you seek me first because I'm the source, then live according to the way I'm telling you to live, I'm going to give you all this stuff. Just like in Joshua, when we go back in verse 7, he told him, purify yourself and you messed up. You know what I'm saying?

You lost that battle because you was wilding. That was on you. But if you come and purify yourself and get things together, okay, split me first. Now we good.

Not only can you go and win this next battle, but I'm going to give you a go chain. He ain't literally give him a go chain, but he said they could take the plunder. So this is me being silly and adding a little bit of 2023 humor instead of where to go. You feel what I'm saying?

Let's see what Brittany says. We normally don't want him in the details. We just want him to, whoo, he saw on the stress in me. Brittany just slicing, slice us up, Dean fam.

Y'all know how it is. God just provide for me. But don't get all in my business telling me how to respond, telling me how to react, telling me what to do. Just answer my prayer.

That's such an important point, Brittany, because when we do that, we turn God into a genie that's just grant and wishes and God wants to be a father. And you know, a real father not only provides for the family, but spends time, teaches the children life lessons, covers the home. Like a real father does a lot of things. A lot of times we know when a father really ain't in the life of a child, they just send money and like that's cool, but it's like the money without the relationship means nothing.

So God, like that's what we want sometimes from God. We want the money and the things without the relationship. But God is saying like, no, I actually want to be your father. He saw all the stress in me.

God sees your stress. He sees what you're going through, but he wants you to depend on him. He wants you to draw closer to him so that he can be a father in deeper relationship with you than just providing you a new car or providing you a house or providing you a promotion at your job. He wants something more intimate from you.

And some of us are living in a cycle of stress and anxiety and worry and blaming God that he hasn't provided us the material thing when God just said in Matthew 6 and 33, seek me first and my righteousness and I will give you those things. But the things were in last place when Jesus talked about it. And the problem is when we ask him, Jesus, for it, the things are in first place. The cars in first place, the money is in first place, the houses in first place.

It's all out of order. It's all out of order. You feel what I'm saying? You feel me, Brit?

So it's like, we got to line these things up in order according to the Word of God. And again, I want to say this, if you find yourself, if you're a person that listen to any of us and you like, yo, I've been going about it all wrong. Guess what? I've been there too.

We all human. We don't use the Word of God to bash people or to make people feel less than or not good enough. We use the Word of God to show you your true identity. It's a mirror for you to see.

Like yo, fearfully, wonderfully made. You should be a reflection of him. Like look here and find what you should look like. We shouldn't be looking at celebrity, shouldn't be looking like the world because Jesus already told us their minds are dominated with worry.

And then on top of that, the things they are worrying about are the least important thing according to Jesus Christ. So if you were trying to build your whole life off of celebrities, and I'm not saying all celebrities are bad, they're human too. But what I'm saying is like the celebrity lifestyle is hustle, culture, get rich, quick, like all that stuff. Like, you know, and we talk about finances on this show, we try to do, try my best to talk about it in a proper context.

But like living in this world where that's the only thing that's the end of the year, like it ignores so many scriptures when you think like that. Now there's a place for it. That's why we talk about it a lot because this is a faith and business show. But one thing I know in business is just like me, a lot of people in business live in stress.

And whether you're in business, not you making your money, you hustle and you're doing all this stuff, the word of God applies to you too. Mr. and Mrs. successful, Mr.

and Mrs. you know, high title, president, directors, CEOs, whatever it is, the word of God applies to you just because you a CEO and you making money doesn't mean that you don't have to adhere to the word of God if you're a true believer. And some of us, I'm telling you because I've been in the corporate world for almost 17 years now, like fresh out of college and like when you're in that corporate world is so high, high speed, fast pace. I mean, I'm at a fortune 100 company really like a fortune, it's probably 50 something.

And like you, you're living in this environment where the profitability matters, the revenue matters, the supply matters, the operation matters, like all this matters, even the social agendas now matter in corporate America. But you see like godliness is nowhere to be found. And no matter who you are as a, as a believer, if you're in corporate American, you have these jobs and these titles, you have a responsibility to adhere to the word of God, to the biblical principles that God has called you to in your home, in your family, in your fellowship at your church. Like there is a responsibility that we should be adhering to.

And if you allow yourself to only be caught up in the money, to only be caught up in promotions, to only be caught up in a recognition or the success, you can lose yourself. And I'm telling you, I'm living in no stresses. So I'm speaking from a certain experience of like, yo, I've worked for years to build my career. Guy has blessed me with promotions and put me in situations that only he could have put me in and given me favor that only he could have given me.

And the thing is, even when God has done all that he can do, there's always more that we're asking him for. Now he's very capable because he's God, but in your asking and in your seeking, I want you to remember who he is. I want to remember who he is. Like yo, Jermaine, in your seeking, in your asking, don't forget what I already did.

I'm telling you all one thing about me. I can't stand when somebody forget what you did for him. You ever find yourself there? Like you ever find yourself in a place where like, you like, bro, you don't remember what I did?

Like I looked out for you and you don't remember you don't remember. Is it DC? What's up DC? You know what I'm going to do?

You know what I'm going to do? You want to do your favor? DC? Because you might have just jumped on.

We just read that right there. He saw the stress in me. You got to know that God sees your stress and you're 100% right DC. You know, scripture is always misquoted.

They say all the things, be added, they forget the righteousness. That's right. We just read that and live righteously. So I could not agree more.

I couldn't agree more. So people that got today's show, you know, we talked about really three things. We talked about being vulnerable, being thankful and being patient in your journey with the Lord, living for the Lord, dealing with the stresses of the world. Now here's the thing.

Look, y'all, I know that it's so many things that stress about the world. Life be life in people be people in, but don't forget that God be gotten to. And it's a lot of things that go in the world that can cause you to forget or draw distant or lose faith in who God is and what he has done. But living for God is the ultimate goal.

It is the ultimate payoff more than the car, more than the promotion, more than the things that we're seeking. Living for him is the salvation. And that is ultimately the most important thing is to be safe so that our souls may be safe. So it ain't the most important thing that I get a promotion of corporate America or that I make a couple more dollars and take a couple more trips and do a couple more that and do a couple more this and then go on and on and on and on and on.

All right. Anyway, I'm sorry. That's not the most important thing. Living for God.

That's what we got to remember in today's culture and the social media culture of showing off all our items and our things to people and wanting to prove to people how good we are living. Man, I'm telling you one of the reasons that I said from the get going to show my life is private, but my strategy is public is because I think it's a dangerous place when you start living life to prove something to people. That's not that's not a world I want to live in. Like bro, like it's a slippery slope once I start posting things to prove to people that I'm happy versus actually focusing on being happy.

And there's a lot of little weird things that I think we've been conditioned to do in this world today because of the access we have to one another. One thing is about with access is people invade. You know what I'm saying? You can give people access and now people are invading your space on social media.

Now people are, you know, digging too much into your business and things. So I think we just got to carry ourselves in a way to be careful, be mindful, be smart out here. But all things trust God, man, look, this is inspiring guys, people where we balance faith and business, the God you see your purpose. Episode 198, he saw the stress in me to remind you that God sees what you're going through.

You are not alone, but there are some things that you can do to put yourself in the proper position to receive the blessings of God, to receive the advice and the counsel of the people of God. Look, hopefully our show is a supplement is something that adds to your life in addition to your life in the most positive Godly way that unifies the believer that does not tear them apart based on all the things in the world that we like to categorize ourselves. Those ethnicities and nationalities and, you know, what, political agendas and all that stuff. No, we are believers.

We need to be united by faith. That's what I believe in on this show and inspire guys, people. That's what it's all about. And hopefully today's show, bless you.

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