Quick question for you, friend. As we kick off this new podcast episode this week, are your problems bigger than God? Right now in this season of your life, in your current circumstance, in this current chapter of your story, are the problems that you are currently facing bigger than God in your eyes, in your mind, in your world? This is a really tough question to sit with because I am a learning keyword am because I'm still learning this. I am a learning how easy it is to unintentionally focus on your problems more than you focus on God himself. No matter how much you claim that you believe in God, that you trust Jesus, that you feel at peace and you feel content because you just know that God has got you, subconsciously, you are battling with doubt. Subconsciously, you're facing fear. Why? Because the reality is that your problems are bigger than God. At least that's how you are seeing them. And that's what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about it and I want to dive right into the juice of it all, the meat of it all. Because This is such a dangerous place to be in. If we are not careful to view our problems as bigger than God himself, the creator of this world, the creator of you as a unique, incredible human being filled with purpose to see our worldly problems bigger than the divine God himself. It triggers our lack of trust. in God. It makes us question if we really do believe that God is a good God, that God is going to do what he said he's going to do. You viewing your problems as bigger than God himself feeds your unbelief in God. It feeds your doubt. It feeds your fear. It feeds you being reliant on yourself being more self sufficient rather than being God sufficient. And that my friend is a dangerous place to be. And what I've realized is that a lot of times we don't even know when we're in that place or when we're starting to be in that dangerous place. So I want to dive into what signs you should be looking out for. it is my hope that we learn to stop it before we get to that very dangerous place of viewing our problems bigger than God. And if we are already there we backtrack and that we reverse it, we flip it and we start to see God as the almighty. bigger than our problems. We trust fully. We're not led by fear. We're led by faith. We're content. We're okay. We just trust. So let's talk about a couple of mental signs to look out for that will tell you if you are starting to see your problems as bigger than God and how to fix it. the first sign. that you are starting to view your problems as bigger than God without you realizing it is when you can't stop thinking about it. You are overly obsessed. That problem, that roadblock, that circumstance, it keeps you up at night. It is marinating in your mind over and over and over again to the point where you feel like there is no escape. When your mind is overly obsessing about a problem, you are unintentionally focused on that problem. You are not focused on the God who can pave the way for a solution to that problem. If you would just let him by refocusing your attention back on him. this is a really hard thing to do. It can feel impossible sometimes because yes, we say we believe in God and yes, we trust Jesus, but we have this mental restriction that causes slight doubt because we're in this world. We're in this world sitting in our problem, sitting in what feels like, Where is the solution? God, what am I supposed to do next? God, what about finances? I'm broke. What about this business idea? It's not working. What about this plan over here? What about my family? What about my health? Something is going wrong. God, what am I supposed to do? And I had read something or watch something. I can't remember. I cannot recall this, but I'm trying to give credit where it's due to the person that said it. But I had read or watched that Someone had said, stressing out about your problems is you praising your worry, not praising God. Whew! And that hit me hard. Because of course we don't want to praise our worries, of course we don't want to give our worries the credit or the attention, but we are! It's hard not to when it is so hard. Consuming us and when we feel like we don't know the way out where we're struggling and just trying to find a solution But that's where faith comes in That's where praising God no matter what you're dealing with comes in you praise God Anyway, you trust God anyway, you put your faith in God anyway And remember in previous podcast episodes, we talk about your role being faith, obedience and effort and God's role being everything else. The solutions, the open doors, the closed doors, the opportunities, the outcome, the results. That's all God. But God can't do that when you view your problems as bigger than him. Second sign to look out for. When your problems are starting to be seen as bigger than God in your eyes is when you are constantly burning yourself out, trying to look for a solution. The Bible tells us to put in effort. It's good to have works with our faith. What's not good is when you step into this hustle overworking mentality to the point where you're overworking supersedes your relationship with God himself. And why are you overworking? Because you're stressed out about trying to find a solution. So you hustle, you go, you try to figure it out. That could be mentally overly hustling while you're trying to think through the solution, physically overly hustling while you're trying to implement the solution. No, you have to draw the line somewhere, my friend, put in your effort, try and put in your faith, but draw the line somewhere and trust that God has got the rest. All right, and then the third sign you should look out for of your problems starting to become bigger than God through your eyes through your mind is when you feel so defeated or exhausted by the problem that you're currently facing that you unintentionally distance yourself from God. You might not even know that you're distancing yourself from him, but you are because you're allowing your problems You're allowing what you don't like about your current season your current situation To consume you to the point where you are taking multiple steps back away from God himself away from that relationship away from the joy the peace and the contentment that he wants to give you the Goodness that he wants to give in your life if you would just let him work In your life, the way that he wants to, to equip you, to shape you, to pivot you. And yes, sometimes my friend, that takes you going through roadblocks. It takes you going through problems to become the person that God wants you to be, to become stronger, to finally heal, to finally deal with something that you have been idolizing over God himself. And that's a really hard heart check. I've been there before many times, many times. So think about that. Are you finding yourself unintentionally distancing yourself from God because of your problems? Because of facing depression, anxiety, stress, confusion, feeling hopeless, feeling purposeless. Distancing yourself from God can mean that you don't pray as much, or you don't open up the Bible as much, or you don't go to church as often. You're not having godly conversations with friends, family members, or coworkers as often. Yes, it can look like all of that, but it also can be hidden. in the way that you act and the way that you show up. If you are producing a behavior of selfishness, restlessness, not being kind, anger, if you find yourself in those moments consistently, you most likely have unintentionally distanced yourself from God. And I want to bring up another saying that I read or watched somewhere. I've got to get better at remembering where I'm seeing these things or reading these things so that I can reference them in podcast episodes, but I'm just going to say it, okay? Because it's so good, it read, when you feel Like God is far away from you know that he is not the one that moved. When I heard that, I was like, wow. it gave me that hopeful reminder that God does not move away from you. God is not wishy washy with you. God is not. wavering with you. God is consistent. He is right there wanting to be close to you. if you feel like God is far away, when you feel that distance, it's not because God moved. It's because you did and you just didn't even realize it. the reason why you probably moved is because your problem is now bigger than God himself. That is how your mind Is perceiving it. So how do we fix all this, right? I'm sure you might be listening to this episode and you might be like, all right, Angel, heart check. All right, I get it. This is intense. This is a lot. Let me start off by saying I'm with you. I have these heart checks a lot and that's why I wanted to bring this to this podcast episode in hopes to re inspire you, to help you remember. How good and how big and how miraculous and wonderful God's presence is over your problems. Your problems are like a tiny little mosquito to the vast ocean that God is. And when we start to look at it like that, it's like, wow, this huge, wonderful divine is taking care of me. I might get bit by this little itty bitty mosquito and yeah, it hurts and yeah, I don't like it and yeah, it's annoying and yeah, I don't ever want to get bit again because I can't stand those things. God's got you. He's the ocean. It's okay. so how do we fix it? How do we finally start to see God as bigger than our problem so that we feel more content and more joy and more peace, no matter what we're going through in the highs of life, in the lows of life, in the middles of life, we are okay. First thing that I want to say and how you can fix this and how we can fix this. is to be so intentional in bringing every thought about a worry to the foot of the cross. Every single time you think about a worry, a stress, something giving you mental trouble bring it to the foot of the cross, put it in God's hands. This is an act of reminding yourself to retrust God again. Because it's not easy. It's not a simple fix. It's not a simple turn of the page to be like, Oh, okay. Well, God is bigger than my problems. Okay. Whoo. I feel better. Let's be real. Those problems are so loud in your mind. That noise is so powerfully loud that it is hard to hear God's voice. Sometimes it is hard to turn the page, to finally see God bigger than your problem so that you can fully hear his voice and trust in him again. It's hard. You have to build up the discipline to take every single thought that you are worrying about to God's hands. It can be as simple as that worry entering your mind and you mentally or verbally saying, God, I trust you. I'm giving this problem to you. Short to the point. And guess what? That worry in your mind will wrap back around and it'll come back into your mind within the next 30 seconds, minute, hour, whatever. Guess what? You do it again. God, I trust you. God, you take hold of these problems. I cannot carry this, God, but you can. I trust you. Every time, and you'll find that it's harder to do that than you think. Why? Because you're in your day to day, you're doing your daily tasks, your routine, you're at work, you might not be as aware of that worry just marinating in your mind because it feels so normal to you in the season of your life. We need to learn to not make it such a norm and to stop turning something that feels normal to us we need to build up the discipline to get the better habit of Being more self aware of our thoughts and if it is a thought about a worry Bringing it to God every single time. Don't even allow your mind to overly obsess. Now remember, it's okay to put faith and effort in. So if you're thinking about something that worries you and you're trying to attach a solution to it, trying to use your brain and think through, okay, what can I do? How can I pivot? How can I change this? How can I do this? Just bring God in that conversation with you. God, help me to find a solution to this. God, open up a door. God, if this is where you need me to be because it's gonna turn me more into the person that you want me to be, God, just be in this storm with me because I am struggling. It's different when you invite God into that problem solving with you. Because when you do, you start to get more of a hold of your role versus God's role. Remember, your role is faith, effort, trust, obedience, God's role is the results, the outcome, the open doors, the closed doors. That's Him. And to develop that partnership between you and him, you have to invite him into your thoughts, every single worry, every single one. All right. The second thing that I want to say and how we can fix this, my friend, how we can remember to see God as bigger than our problems in our day to day lives. Set your mind on what's working well. I have a really hard time doing this. Because when something is off or doesn't feel right, it triggers my perfectionist problem and catapults me into survival mode where I'm like, Oh this isn't right. Okay, solution, solution. I got to find it. And then I'm just overly obsessing about what isn't working well and trying to find a solution to that rather than Putting my mind on things that are actually working well, on the blessings that I have, on things that I am just grateful for. And I just want to encourage us to do more of that. whatever problem is overly consuming you right now, Whatever seems to not be working well in your life. Maybe it's your finances. Maybe it's your business. Maybe you feel like you're struggling in your calling. Maybe it's your health. Maybe it's your mind and you can't escape that anxiety. Whatever feels like it's not working well. Start thinking about what is? It could be any small thing or big thing, any blessing, anything that feels like a norm to you, but is actually such a huge blessing because it's not a norm to everybody else. For example, the fact that you can see that's normal for a lot of people, but it is not everybody's reality. There's quite a few people in this world who cannot see. Same thing with there being quite a few people in this world who cannot hear. Being grateful for sight. Being grateful for the beauty of hearing sound. Being grateful For your family, no matter how big or how small, being grateful for the friendships and the community that you have, no matter how big or small. Being grateful for the roof over your head, for the food that you were able to eat yesterday, being grateful that last week someone gave you a gift. Being grateful that you just read this amazing book that gave you this new perspective. There are so many things that we just bypass. In the moment we're like, Oh, I'm grateful for this. So cool. Great. And then the next day we just are like, Okay, on to the next. What's the next thing I can be grateful for? Where's my next blessing? We forget so quickly what God already gave us. What he blessed us with now. And if we would just have more grateful hearts, it can really help change our perspective or give us some sort of peace in the midst of our problem that feels so loud. What could it look like for your gratitude to be louder than your problems? That's a tough question. What could that look like for you? Think about that. Third thing I want to say, and how we can fix our struggle and seeing our problems as bigger than God himself. Remember all that God has done for you before, all that he's brought you through, all the things that he helped you overcome in the past. Because if he did it before, He will do it again. That is one of my all time favorite sayings because it's so true. And many times he will do it even greater than he did before. If you would just trust him, if you would just see him as bigger than your problems. I think sometimes we really need to meditate on that. We need to remember all that God has brought us through. And sometimes that thought might come to you pretty easily. Like, Oh yeah, I remember God did this for me and he blessed my bank account here and he made a way over here. I remember that like sometimes it's obvious what he did before, but sometimes we really need to meditate on it because I believe that there's a lot of situations in my life and in your life where You didn't know it was God, but it was. You thought it was you. You thought it was that friend, that boss, You thought it was them or you. You thought it was just a worldly thing. But man, I can almost guarantee that so many times, if not every single time, it was God. It was God. So what could it look like to meditate on what He did before every small and every big thing? Because when we do, that produces gratitude in us. And when that produces gratitude in us, it helps us to remember how powerful God is and how minute our problems are in comparison to that. If he did it before, he can, and he will do it again. But you have to see God as bigger than how you're seeing him right now. You have to see that he works everything together for your good. You have to understand that he knows you. He knows every intricacy of the current problem that you're dealing with. He sees every millisecond of your life, every teardrop, every ounce of anxiety. He sees it and he knows, and he will work all of that together for your good. If you would just let him, if you would just trust him, if you would stay in your role and let God be in his, Easier said than done, I know. But I wanted to talk about this and just allow this episode this week to be such an encouraging reminder for you. It's really going to be okay. I know it doesn't feel like it. I know things feel messy and all over the place. And I know it feels like you've been in this forever. I know you feel like, Oh, why can't I just win? Why can't this just happen for me? I know. But God, He knows you better than anyone. He knows what you need. He knows what to take away. He knows what to add. He knows what roadblocks to put in your path at times. And even roadblocks that were not put by God Himself, but were maybe put by your actions or actions of others or just worldly things that happen. Guess what? God will use that roadblock for your good. Like He does with everything. You are going to be more than okay. And I am so ecstatic to hear about the testimony that comes from you. Remembering that a year from now, you could look back and say, wow, look what God did. Look what he did. And all it started with was by me making the choice to view God as bigger than my problems. Oh, all right, my friend. I hope you felt encouraged from this podcast episode today. if you did, I would love to hear your thoughts on it. Feel free to drop it in the comments below this YouTube video if you're watching it there, or if you are watching it on, Apple podcast, Spotify, Google pod, wherever you're watching this podcast, please leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts. I love to hear how this particular episode uplifted you today. Thank you so much for tuning in. And we will see you next week for another episode of the God Empowered Podcast.