Episode #165 Word Check: Your Stories in the Light of Scripture – Significant Stories

Hey friends, it's Jen. I'm so excited to spend these few minutes with you as we draw near to God. And in this part of the series on significant stories, we're slowing down to take a few minutes to inspect a story that we commonly believe about ourselves or about God.

And we're looking to identify if this is part of the greater story of who God is and who we are in him and how he cares for us, or if this is a lesser story. Something that is only partially true or maybe not true at all. Something that discourages us or distracts us from God makes us not draw near. And if so, I'm walking you through a real simple process to replace that lesser story with a greater one.

I shared step one in this process back in episode 161. So if you're just joining us now, I encourage you to catch up on those past episodes. And now we're taking that insight that we've gained from our own reflection and from our conversations with God, and we're bringing that story up to the light of scripture. And so question number five is:

Where and how does the story line up with scripture?

Lesser stories are not going to line up with what the Bible says, but sometimes it can be hard to tell. And so if you think a story lines up with scripture, my encouragement is to walk out the full scope of this question, where and how? Go look for it in the Bible, go look at the context of that passage, look for how that verse lines up with the whole of God's grand story of love and redemption for humanity. It needs to fit.

If a singular verse doesn't line up with the context of the passage, and with the whole context of God's grand story in the Bible, then that's not a true interpretation of that passage. And sometimes these lesser stories that we believe feel like, or seem like, they line up with scripture when really, it's just a small segment of scripture that's taken out of context to try and make something look like it belongs when it actually doesn't.

In my circumstance here, I'm processing these storylines that I've believed about anxiety. And one of the stories that I have told myself is that anxiety helps me sometimes. That by being overly worried or extra cautious, by being nervous and stressful, I'm serving myself because I'm protecting myself from something worse happening.

And I see this anxiety as something that keeps me alert or on guard or helps me notice things more quickly. I've partnered with my anxiety in some ways, and it creates this tension. I can recognize that within myself, that I don't actually want to be anxious, but I don't necessarily want to stop being anxious altogether because I think it's helping me in some way.

And so I take that story and then I go, and I line it up with scripture. What does the Bible have to say about this? And I'm not surprised to find, I kind of knew already, that my story of anxiety deserving to stick around because it's helping me? That doesn't actually line up with what the Bible says.

Philippians 4:6 says, “don't be anxious about anything, but in everything with prayer and supplication, make your requests known to God.”

Now, even reading that verse, I'm recognizing, okay, here's another part of that story. If I'm looking to avoid anxiety, one of the tactics that I can use in different areas is just avoiding the topic altogether. If I don't know the details, then I won't be anxious about them. But that's not what scripture says either. Scripture doesn't say to avoid concerning things to you, but it says, make your requests known to God.

1 Peter 5:7 tells us to “cast all our anxieties on him because he cares for us.” Again, the story I tell myself is either I need to carry this because no one's going to worry as well as I will. Or I need to avoid this concern, so no one has to deal with it, especially me. And scripture tells me that I can actually cast this care to Jesus. That he will care for it because he cares for me.

As I hold this storyline, this narrative up to God, in the light of scripture, I can see very clearly that this story does not line up with the Bible. Which is a good indicator that this is a lesser story that doesn't belong.

And so I encourage you today, ask God to help you see This story in light of scripture, Google things, look it up in the Bible. If you're not sure, and you need help, ask a friend to help you, and we're going to ask God to help us because we want to see the storyline in light of the word.

So here's our question:

God, you know, this story that I've been believing, please show me where and how does this story line up with scripture or does it not?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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