Sometimes we are tempted to take our eyes off of God and place them one of His good gifts.  Sometimes we stop walking toward the Lord and start seeking a gift or a desire from Him.  This show explores how we can refocus and recalibrate away from building our own kingdom and toward trusting God that we are part of his Kingdom. 

Journaling Questions:

• What is my next step of trust
• Where have I built my own kingdom?
• Where am I called to trust?
• What desire or dream am I called to trust God with?
• Where am I building for myself instead of trusting God to do that work in me?
• Where have I allowed myself to be deceived that it depends on me?
• Who’s kingdom am I building?

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Verses mentioned in the episode:

• Revelation 2:3-5
• 1 Corinthians 13
• Ephesians 2:10
• Psalm 37:3

Look below for a full transcript of the show.

[00:00:00] Hi friends. This is Erin Michelle. Welcome to steps to trusting. At steps to trusting it is our goal to meet you where you are in your faith journey, and to encourage you to continue to take steps to trusting the Lord more fully.

[00:00:12] Last week on the show we talked with Jen Schultz, asking the question, who is kingdom, are you building ? I want to continue that conversation by looking at some verses and thinking about how do we step out to build the kingdom of God.  

[00:00:29] We’re going to continue on by looking at how we put our focus on God, how he turned back to him.

[00:00:35] When we realized that our focus has shifted from seeking after God to seeking after our own kingdom. I’m going to start us in prayer .

[00:00:45] Dear God, open our eyes to see where you are working. Open our eyes to see what you are building with the steps that you have laid out before us. Lord, that you have for us to walk in, that we can work with you, that we can build your kingdom.

[00:01:03] Father, give us eyes to see.

[00:01:05] Friends. I want to start with a passage in revelation.

[00:01:09] I’m going to jump there. You can always join me there. If you want. If you are joining me, we’re going to be in revelation two verse two. It says, ” I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false. I know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake , and that you have not grown weary. But I have this against you that you have abandoned the love that you had at first.”

[00:01:46] Friends. This passage is a super challenging.  And we’re diving right in, as you can tell. But as I look at these verses, as I see God is acknowledging the people’s works. He’s acknowledging that they are working hard for him. Working patiently with endurance. And he is saying that you are bearing up for my name sake.

[00:02:10] He’s seeing the things that they are doing, but he’s still calling them out. He is calling them out to something higher and greater. It makes me think of the passage in first Corinthians 13, where it talks about love. It says “if I have not love, then I am just a resounding gong.” And here, it says that this way, that God has something against us, he says in verse four, that “you have abandoned the love you had at first”, let’s continue reading just for a sec.

[00:02:47] It says, “remember, therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first.” In another version, that word repent is also looked at as turn, right. We talked about turning last week, turning from our sin, turning away from things and turning towards God.

[00:03:10] God is calling them out that they are not walking in a posture of love.

[00:03:16] Now, this is probably me putting my own failures, my own insecurities, my own. Not even just insecurities, but actual problems and sin issues into this verse.

[00:03:30] But it looks like they’re depending on their hard work. They’re depending on their actions that they’ve done. They’re starting to find pride in the things that they are doing instead of letting it pour out of the love that they are finding from God.

[00:03:49] And this is what God has against them, that they have abandoned the love that they had at first. Let’s jump next and let’s look at that first Corinthians first that I mentioned. It’s first Corinthians 13, starting in verse one. “If I speak in tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers and understanding all the mysteries and all knowledge and I have all faith. So as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I give away all that I have and deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love. I gain nothing.”

[00:04:31] Friends we’re called to this love. This is love the fruit of the spirit that God plants in us and lets it flow out of our lives. All the things that we do, all the actions that we take, if we do them without the love of God, without God working in our lives, then we are nothing. I would say there’s plenty of times in my life where I have been building for myself with these actions. I have been taking the knowledge that God has given me. And wanting to in pride , lift myself up instead of acknowledging God has given me knowledge and in love. I can give that to others.

[00:05:12] When we look back to what we were talking about last week, about whose kingdom are we building? And When we look back to the failures that we’ve had, where we’ve tried to build for ourself.

[00:05:24] Our focus is not on God. But if our focus can shift, if we can turn back, if we can repent of looking at ourselves and the gifts that God has given us, but using them for ourselves instead of acting in his love. I think that right there, that’s the shift that happens in us that we could be building for God’s kingdom.

[00:05:49] Let’s look at the next part of first Corinthians 13. It says “love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love, bears, all things believes, all things, hopes, all things, endures, all things. Love, never ends”

[00:06:22] If we look at this passage and we try to live this out. This is an overwhelming task that we cannot bear. We can not complete. We can not build this love in our lives. But God can build this love in us.

[00:06:41] And so my next question for you, is friends, are you in a place where you find that you have lost the love you did at first? Where you’ve lost sight of who you’re seeking, what you’re seeking. Who you’re loving for where you’re living for, where the love comes from?

[00:07:04] For those of you that are on my mailing list as I was planning out the season, you guys received an email from me talking about this reality in my life that I am recalibrating. Like Jen said in the last interview, she had to come to the place of saying, whose kingdom am I building? And I think it’s been worded differently in my life.

[00:07:29] But I think that’s exact question that God has me seeking out because I believe that God put in my heart the desires to do this podcast and be working on writing. I believe those desires are something that God put in my heart. And yet it’s easy, very easy to lose sight of our first love and to make the thing that God put on your heart for you to do the good work that he laid out for you to do, to elevate that and to start seeking, you know, success in podcasting or success in writing, whatever it is for you. We can see the position that God has given us the place that he has planted our feet, whether it’s as mothers in our home,

[00:08:20] our ministry leaders in our church, whether it’s your position at work, or it is the position in your family and all the places in between.

[00:08:32] We can take our eyes off of the good work that God has laid in front of us. And we can seek our own good in that thing.

[00:08:40] But friends, I’m here to remind you as I’m being reminded myself, that this is not the way of God’s love.

[00:08:48] In that passage in revelation, we are called to put God first, not the things we do first. If we do those things without love for God, our father. If we do them instead with pride for ourselves, then we gain nothing. We become resounding gongs.

[00:09:10] Friends, I found that passage in revelation because I remembered learning it as a kid, as you’ve forgotten your first love. I like that version. I like that way of saying this was your first love. God was your first love. And somehow we’ve become confused to let the gift that he’s given us be our first love.

[00:09:34] I want to read to you guys, a Psalm it’s Psalm 16 says “preserve me oh God. For in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. I have no good apart from you.

[00:09:49] Every good thing that we are given is from him. And yet we can take our eyes off of him and set them on his good gift and it no longer becomes good in our life. It becomes an idol at that point, a thing that is taking the place of our God.

[00:10:08] As I was studying for this podcast, I had this realization that sometimes the desires and the passions that God puts on our hearts, we get confused and we start seeking them as where we’re journeying to. Or what we’re working towards. And I began to wonder, what if those desires and passions,

[00:10:31] what if they’re the steps of the journey? What if they’re the good works that God is calling us to walk out and walk in, as we walk towards him, instead of walking towards those desires in our hearts. What if we use those as steps along the way to walk towards him?

[00:10:51] Friends as always. When I look at God’s word, I am challenged. I am left with the questions. What is my next step? So if I know that God has put on my heart things such as reaching out to you through this podcast. I could let that be my drive. Or I could let him be my drive and step in faithfulness in his faithfulness, Step in his love. As I walk out the desire that he placed on my heart, the journey that he has placed me on this is my, one of my constant questions for myself about trust.

[00:11:31] What’s my next step of trust?

[00:11:34] I want to ask you, what is your next step of trust? Where have you built your own kingdom? Where are you called to trust? With that kingdom or that dream or desire that he has put on your heart. Where are you building for yourself instead of trusting God to be doing that work in you. Cause if we look at the theme verse of this show, Ephesians two 10, if we look at the fact that God has prepared the steps for us to walk in them,

[00:12:08] and then we look at one of those steps, one of those desires that he has placed in us for us to start walking in, and we instead see that as something that we need to walk towards something we need to build up.

[00:12:23] Where have we allowed ourselves to be deceived in that way?

[00:12:26] Friends, this is important work. It’s important work to look at where we’re trusting ourselves and where we’re trusting God. We’re asking the question, are we building for ourselves? or are we building for God?

[00:12:41] I think that question goes deeper than that. I think that question at its core is, do I trust God to give me what I need, to provide for me, to give me the desires of my heart? Or am I going to build that myself? Am I going to trust myself?

[00:13:02] You guys know that this is a constant question for. You know that I am constantly asking, where do we step out interest next? And I think we need to ask ourselves that very question, where are we building for ourselves?

[00:13:20] And don’t just stop at that question, but why. Am I trusting myself? How am I trusting myself? Instead of trusting my God. Friends, I want to point you to take a step of trust because that’s what I need. I know that I need to step out in trust. And often it is easier to trust ourselves, trust the one that we can see, but that’s not what we’re called to.

[00:13:50] For those of you that have a burning desire in your heart, that is something that you find that you are seeking after. I want to point you to this next verse. It’s found in Psalm 37, starting in verse three, ” trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust him and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as a light, and your justice as the noon day. Be still before the Lord wait patiently for him; do not fret over the one who prospers in this way, over the man who carries out evil desires, refrain from anger, forsake, wrath, fret, not yourself. It tends only to be evil for the evil doers will be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.”

[00:14:50] we could seek after the desires of our heart. We could seek to build them back, could be what we do are we could trust the Lord. And did you notice that first verse, it says, trust the Lord and do good.

[00:15:06] It also says to wait for him,

[00:15:09] we are not to seek the desires that are in our. But to seek and delight in the Lord and he will give us the desires of our heart.

[00:15:19] We can trust that if we commit our way to the Lord, if we trust him, he will act. We can trust that he will bring forth righteousness and justice. If we wait for him,

[00:15:31] if we forsake. And wrath. We wait on him. He has an inheritance for us, an inheritance that he invites us to build into. He invites us to build into his kingdom. We are invited to be part of his kingdom. We aren’t asked to be like slave labor for a kingdom, that we will never see. We’re invited in to that kingdom.

[00:15:57] Friends. This is yet another question that I have. It’s almost as if we seek our glory and it will be ripped from us. But if we see His, he invites us into, it invites us into his kingdom. He invites us into the gifts that he has out of his abundance and love for us.

[00:16:18] So again, I remind you from Psalm 37: 3 “trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and be friend faithfulness, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

[00:16:35] Friends, He will give us the desires of our heart.

[00:16:39] And so the question that I will ask again and again, and again and again, and I leave you with it today is what is your next step to trusting the Lord more fully?

[00:16:51] If you find that you want help exploring these steps, I have a resource that’s five days of journaling alongside scripture and each day helping us to look at what is the next step that the Lord has for us. I encourage you guys to go ahead and sign up for my newsletter, which you’ll find that sign up at erinmichele.net

[00:17:13] and you’ll receive that in your inbox. Now don’t forget to look for it because sometimes that first couple of times it does go to your junk mail. So don’t forget to look for it and mark it as mail you want to see.

[00:17:25] I pray that that is encouragement to you to walk out your faith, with truth, reminding us what God is calling us to, how he supports us, how he loves us, how he invites us to his inheritance to his kingdom. Dear God help us to build your kingdom and not our own, help us to trust you with the desires of our hearts.

[00:17:50] Lord, help us to trust you that you are worthy and able. That if you have put a desire in our heart, that we can trust you with it. And Lord, if the desire and our hearts are not from you, we can trust you to take those desires away and to recalibrate us to you. Lord, I ask you to recalibrate our hearts to love well. To love you first. And that loving you will direct our path in the good works that we walk out. In Jesus’ name. I pray. Amen. Friends. I can’t wait to have you guys back here next time, but till then, I want to leave you with this reminder from Ephesians two 10 “for we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

[00:18:41] I’m praying for you as you keep on stepping.