Faith Through the Storm: Overcoming Adversity with Endurance and Christian Strength

Hi, Welcome to Finish the Race. Thank you so much for joining me. My name is Eric Thompson out here in Oklahoma. I own finishrace dot com.

Please check it out. This podcast is going to go work alongside of everything else we’re doing over here, and we wanted to three times a week reach out to you guys. In this podcast. We’re looking forward to encouraging you, challenging you, and building you up in the Lord and helping you in your individual races that God has called you to.

In this podcast, we’re going to go over kind of what does it mean from you hear someone say finish the race or I’m running my race. We’re gonna go over some examples in scriptures. We’re gonna cover job as someone who’s unwavering faith and endurance is good. The Lord uses in the scriptures to help build us up, because the Bible says some of the trials and the victories that people that went before us that are recording scriptures are there for our edification.

So each time we get together, we’re gonna look at one of them. On Friday, we’ll look at Noah. We’re also gonna look at some characteristics, some basic characteristics of a strong and healthy Christian family. We are all different stages in our walks, so even if things are not quite perfect, you can get write the scriptures down and pray.

And we’re gonna do some series over here and there’ll be sermons on the website and some courses with raising children and families and stuff like that. We’ll look at some people that you probably know their names, like Chuck Colson and Corey ten Boom, but who turned around? Did you turns for Christ? And then the lives they lived, and we’ll see how what it looks like when people are running as if they’ve done you turn just like Paul. We’ll also try to get to a little bit of some keys to entrepreneurial success. And I’m starting a business in twenty twenty five.

You may own a business, you may be starting a business, and it’s always good to be learning because it’s changing in the by business climate and we want to be blessed and we want to be good stears with the talents and resources God gave us. So that is kind of the plan here on the podcast. Every morning, God’s mercies are new. They never end, which is why in Lamentations three, Jeremiah even though Jerusalem is going down and he’s just lamenting over and he’s like, oh, even though everything the Lord used me to try to warn the king and he didn’t do it and everything fell apart.

God’s character is always perfect and doesn’t change. And so he wrote in Lamentations three, twenty two and twenty three that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercy has never come to an end, and they’re new every morning. So be encouraged.

God loves us. God is working in our lives. He’s causing things to work together. And sometimes we go through trials.

Sometimes God uses us like he used Job and he used Paul and others and scriptures to say they were blessed. And now I’m going to show I’m going to brige on my children that as they go through trials, that they will stead stay steadfast in their faith, which then increases their confidence in the Lord. And then some people will be drawn to Christ because of the trials we go through, which is why Jesus promised us you shall go through tribulations, but don’t worry. I’ve overcome the world.

So we have God’s word, which was penned by forty men who were inspired by God the Holy Spirit over fifteen hundred years on three contents. It’s finished, it is closed, it cannot add or take away to it, and everything necessary for godly living. We have it written down in God’s Word and then Paul says it it’s God breathed all of it. So we have the Holy Spirit in us upon believing by faith the finished work of Jesus Christ.

We have God’s word, and God’s Word tells us, yes, God’s mercies are new. But Paul reminds us that our struggle in this world it’s not against flesh and blood, because we’re here. God is spirit, and we worship Him in spirit and truth. And when we are glorified, we will our bodies will transform, will be like the bodies of angels, and will well we’ll live forever in perfect bodies without sickness.

But right now we’re in a spiritual war. This world that we’re living in is controlled by Lucifer and the fallen angels. So yes, we get up as mercies are new. We’re in the Word, we’re in prayer, and we’re realizing then that our struggle, the stresses we have in the situations, it’s not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Therefore, take up the full armor of God. You can get a list of that armor and Ephesians chapter six. So how do we then run this race or the Christian walk? Or how do we how do we? How do we live as good Christians? We spend time in prayer, God’s word, fellowship with other believers, go to a healthy church, humble ourselves before God, pray for wisdom, prayer, Word, fellowship, church. And then God, the Holy Spirit will have a lot of ammo in in us to use, since our heart will be pursuing God.

Our mind will be taking things captive. And will you have a knowledge of some of the attributes of God. And then we can be even built up more and walk confidently. Job is our example of the day of unwavering faith amidst suffering.

If you’re suffering right now, we’ll pray over here for all of you that are listening and watching the network. Pray that God’s will will be done, and that your prayers will help you to come in conformity to God’s will, but we know and I’ll have a podcast up here on over maybe one or two podcasts fifteen of the really more prominent, immutable characteristics of God. And the more we know God, the more we love his son, because Jesus demonstrated his love for us while we were sitting. He died for us, and he’s sitting in the right hand of our Father in heaven and he’s he’s praying for us.

Well, before I started Job’s story here, I did want to remind you guy, well, this is new. But for those of you that have listened to my other podcast, like Christian Talk, hundreds of people over the last couple of years have left to AT and T Verizon or T Mobile or Sprint because I told him about a company called Pure Talk. If you haven’t done it already, or if you haven’t heard of pure Talk, here’s a nice thing about him. They’re in Covington, Georgia.

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The oldest scriptures we have Job it says, was very rich and Job through his general revelation of God through creation and the spirit of God. This revelation that that job was. He learned and he took in the nature of God, and so he knew that God was good, and so he would sacrifice for his kids in case they sinned, not after they sin just if in case they sin. I’ve got a sacrifice out there for him because he loved his family.

So picture this, everything’s going great for Job. You in your life, you may be going through a great time. Will praise the Lord in your blessing to God be the gloria always. You may be going through just a time of you just came out of a trial, or you just were came out of a blessing, whatever it is.

But you’re you’re you’re you’re marching along your race. You’re you’re running the path is pretty clear. Things are pretty pretty open in front of you. And then you may be where you’re going through a trial.

I think all of us can relate to job depending upon our life experiences and me and where you’re at right now. So this is what happens, and I’m going to give you kind of the abbreviated story here. You can get all this through the Book of Job. Job ends up being kind of a display of God’s faithfulness, but it involves someone who loves him and his family to go through severe trial for a season.

But the reason why God allowed Satan to try to destroy Job was because God’s spirit, in God’s God’s revelation to Job, he knew that Job would stay the stay on the course, that his unwavering faith would stay strong even in the faith of adversity, immense trials. Job stayed steadfast. This is how it worked. Satan’s up and he says, hey, do the only reason, hey, God, the any reason why Job worships you is because you’ve put a hedge around him and he’s got everything, so of course he worships you.

And God’s like he wouldn’t turn regardless, So Satan, you can. You can have at him, but you can’t kill him. Remember this is written for our benefit. And also it takes Job through a trial that when he comes out he’s blessed even more and his testimony was even more.

And that was passed down through the generations. Because God causes all things to work together for good. Regardless of what happens, God will work it out for his good and for his glory. So he has everything a lot of sheep and cattle and all this will in one day, Job loss nearly everything that he had.

Job one fourteen and fifteen says the ox were plowing and the donkeys feeding besides them. This is one of the servants that came and ran up to him and said, the Sabians rated them and took them away. Indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword. Eye loan have escaped to tell you.

A strong wind had come through, fallen on all of his children, killed them all same day. And to make it worse, he gets inflicted with painful boils from head to toe, big painful boils, constant pain. So what did Job do? Did he say? Where are you? God? There must not be a god. God went, why did you let this happen to me? Now? In Job two seven he declared, naked, I came from my mother’s womb.

Naked, shall I return? The Lord gives, The Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Just like Jeremiah lamenting over Jerusalem as it fell, here is a guy in total pain. To spare.

God brought me out of the wonderfully made me in the mum my mother’s womb, brought me out. I was naked, I didn’t have anything. He gave me everything, and he’s taken everything, and so blessed be the Lord and Job thirteen fifteen. Even though his three friends quote unquote showed up and his wife told him to curse God and die, as one of his friends said, are you do you have a sin? You haven’t repent, you haven’t asked for forgiveness from that’s what are you causing this on yourself? Joe thirteen fifteen, He says, though he slay me, yet I will trust him even so this is about I’m not gonna I’m not agreeing with the end of this.

I will defend my own ways before him. That doesn’t go too well later in Joe, but Job’s feeling like, no, no, no, I don’t have any hidden sin. So I’m even willing to defend myself before God. So that’s not a good idea, by the way, but he felt we’re seeing that he felt like he was doing what God would require.

Now, Job didn’t have the Old Testament, didn’t have the New Testament, and that before Christ in Pentecost, the Holy Spirit did not permanently take residence and people. So this is a guy who by faith, like Abraham believed, and that faith was credited to him as righteousness. He recognized God’s wisdom and plans were not his ways and beyond comprehension. That’s why the Bible says God said, My ways are not your ways.

Joe forty two to two. Towards the end of the book, I know that you can do anything, and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. So what do we get out of job by? Just when encourage you? God is sovereign in control even when it doesn’t feel like it. And when the one who’s sovereign and in control is good and loves you and has saved you through his son and will be your Lord and savior forever, you can take comfort in that and then with the Holy Spirit in prayer and in the Word to be encouraged fellowship in the church.

That’s why the Church is so strong, which is why when we hear like the young generation coming out of this last Christmas, there’s a decline of Christianity in the youth. I mean, if you go back a little bit, two thousand and seven, seventy eight percent of Christians described themselves I’m seventy eight percent of Americans described themselves as Christians, but by twenty nineteen that had dropped to sixty three percent, and the religiously unaffiliated rose from seventeen to twenty nine percent. Why is that because the Bible says that we the parents and grandparents, are to be teaching our children as we walk along the pals, as we put them down to bed, as we have our meals. I’m encouraging you to invest in your children accessibly in wisdom and in the word, show demonstrate the love of God.

And there’s six characteristics that they’ve kind of put together based on scripture, because see, a family unit in the culture is huge, right for kids graduating high school, for not getting pregnant before they’re married, and even getting married. Well, the Christian family unit in a society is what our founders had intended, and that’s the constitute in the Bill of Rights, we have functions. Well, when you have a god fearing and religious people. But he said in a letter to the Massachusetts Militia, if we as a nation fall away and pursue debauchery and arrogance, then the constitution is wholly inadequate to govern any other type of people.

So This is why we want to invest in our children. This is why in Genesis two four we know that Christian family starts with the marriage, and that’s why marriage has been so attacked in the United States. God’s plan made at him name the animals made at him, realize he was lacking, put him asleep, you know, out of a we have Eve, who have a helper suitable. And then Genesis two twenty four, this is God’s plan for marriage, not finished, a racist plan, Eric Thompson’s plan.

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife and they become one flesh. The Christian family unit with a family with the husband and wife that love each other working in unison and then to many leading to children which then are then they are to be built up and to also fear and love the Lord. And when that’s happening, you end up with like Ephesians chapter five. So if you want to, if you want to kind of see the design, husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved a church and gave himself with the husband that is has picked up his cross life laid down maybe his selfishness or the desires that are maybe getting in the way of worship of the wife to the Lord.

She then submits unto her husband as she is worshiping the Lord. And then this one has trust, and thus they walk. The family unit is healthy. The children are commanded.

If he’s in six ‘s one, children, obey your parents and the Lord, for it is right. If you want to live a long life, children, then you must obey your parents who are obeying the Lord. Matthew four to four. Jesus answered his written man, Shalla live by bread alone.

But every word that comes from the mouth of God. We have to feed ourselves, and we have to feed our children the Word. Their minds then have truth. And then what happens is when they have truth, when the lie comes, they can go, oh, you know what, No, that’s not that’s actually not true.

No, the Bible says, God says, So the marriage is. You want to come together one flesh. Want the children to be taught that it is right to obey their parents unto the Lord. Then we want to raise the children up in the Word.

They need to know that the prayer is the most powerful weapon that a believer has. Mark eleven twenty four. Jesus said, Therefore, I tell you whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you ever sived it, and it will be yours. Now this one is hard, but they found that Acts two forty six.

Every day the church, the New Believers continue to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts the fellowship of the church. The breaking of bread communion is crucial. But they also as these are the temples of the Lord our body.

They didn’t eat like unkosher foods the Jewish people, but they were permitted eat whatever they want because they of the New Covenant. But they took care of their bodies. They took care of them. They even in their health.

They ate in a way to take care of it. And they show the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Glatians five twenty two through twenty three. The family unit, you should see a humility, a love, and the manifestation of the fruit of the spirit.

Glatian says. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such things. There is no law.

God loves us, we love others. And if you’re blessed to have a family. Then you get to see the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit in your life, in your marriage and in the family, and it’s a beautiful thing and it draws people to the Lord. Let’s talk about some people that you’re gonna know the names that transformed.

And there’s a guy named Chuck Colson. He was known as President Nixon’s hatchet man, and he was involved in the Watergate scandal. So when you hear Chuck Colson, at first, it’s like wow, Okay, then you find out what he became Christian? Okay. Are there people in your lives, in your life that you just know not good, that they’re pursuing their flesh thereof the world and there’s no way God could save them, and so maybe you choose to avoid them, you choose not to say anything.

Well, guess what happened with Chuck. Well, he went to prison for what happened in Watergate? And what happened What did God do with the crooked hatchet man? What happened in prison? He gave his life to Jesus Christ. Paul, even though he murdered and separated families and was just racious and going after the Christians, he was able to finish because of the grace of God, the love of God, and because his heart that He had poured out to those so they could be set free in Christ. He was the one.

He said, I finished the race. I’m leaving life, headed toward my meeting of the Lord with the Lord. To be absent from body is to be present with the Lord. And I know Paul Hurd Enter in Good and Faithful Servant, Chuck Coulson Crooked Man hatch a man goes to prison, get saved, and then he founded when he got out Prison Fellowship, one of the world’s largest outreach programs for prisoners, ex prisoners, and their families.

Remarkable testimony of how God can use even the most broken moments in our lives to lead us to a greater calling. Colson’s ministry has touched the lives of millions, showing that no one is too far gone to be redeemed. His journey from political disgrace to being a beacon of hope for the incarcerated is a testament of God’s ability to transform hearts. One more and then we’ll continue this on Friday.

John Newton, you heard of John Newton. He wrote a song called amazing grace. But you know what John Newton was before he got saved. He was a slave trader.

Yeah, he would bring the slaves over on the boats to England. He lived his life as of a slave trader before his dramatic conversion in the midst of a violent storm at sea. Okay. See, so, so how does God work If just like with Jonah, right, if God is calling you, you will be saved.

You will listen. You will be in a position where you have to listen. In the midst of a violent storm slave ship, Newton cried out to God for mercy. In that moment marked the beginning of a spiritual journey.

Newton renounced his former life and eventually became a pastor advocating for the abolition of the slave trade. Amazing Grace reflects Newton’s gratitude for the grace that saved him, and his story serves as a profound reminder of God’s ability to redeem even the most hardened hearts. So the first two we can see that God can transform even disgraced people’s hardened hearts. God can even redeem hardened hearts of people in the slave trade.

So hopefully you can see as we’re going through this podcast here that in the midst of everything God is working. God is good. God’s intention is to cause things to work together, and that we that believe and are saved, we’re part of the plan of God, and we are a testimony, like it says and Hebrews, as this cloud witnesses of the people that have gone before us. So be inspired.

No one is beyond being saved, and our our responsibility is to be preyed up, to know God’s word and be prepared to give an answer for the hope that lies within us. And if God chooses to, we get the unfathomable, which I’ve seen it a few times, I would say more remarkable moments when you’re sharing and the Holy Spirit, there’s this illumination take place and then all of a sudden they go from dumb founded to believing because we have a big God that loves all. Right, let’s finish up here with some keys to being successful as an entrepreneur. But before we do that, I want to ask you guys, if you’ve got the flu, or if you’ve been battling the flu, or if you like, if you want to kind of stay ahead of even getting sick hundreds of people that listen to my podcasts have headed over to this website get the letter z stack dot com.

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And if you like what you see and you want to even get healthier than you are, you put in the promo code of save at check out to get fifteen percent off. Go to get zstack dot com promo code save. Okay, do you own a business? Are you thinking about starting a business with AI and digital stuff? Or you look I mean, are you just really trying to figure out is my job going to be here? There’s I can tell you my experience as an entrepreneur, but I thought we would use some a list here that’s Forbes put out seven keys to entrepreneurial success, and we’ll go through them quickly. Don’t let your background dictates your future.

You can’t say, well, I am trained to do this only or this is what I know. No, when opportunities come up, if you’ve been you know, we’re still in peer or in the world we’re in fellowship. Be open to what God may put in front of you as a business opportunity, but understand it. Starting a business is a lot different than getting going to a job because it’s all on you and there’s no guaranteed payday.

But with when opportunities are out there. You may live in a community where there’s a shortage of people in certain fields. Get educated or trained in those fields, maybe plumbing or service work or but don’t let what your past employment has been dictate what which you might be able to get into if an opportunity pops up. You have to be tenacious if you’re going to go into business.

That doesn’t mean we’re gonna be like the world step on people, but we do need to have determination and say, oh, I thought it was gonna be easier than this, but I’m gonna push on. I’m gonna push on. I’m gonna keep studying, I’m gonna keep getting equipped, I’m gonna learn, I’m gonna read articles and blogs, and I’m gonna keep figuring out maybe I’m doing something a little bit wrong. And I’m be in prayer.

So you want to you want to be open, you want to be tenacious, steadfast, stay the course, and you want you have to commit to the business. You got to put one hundred and ten percent in during the hours you’re gonna put in the business. And I have to tell you that if you start a business, you don’t really make a lot of money the first couple of years, and you’re gonna put a lot of hours in. So you definitely if you if you see an opportunity and you’re preyed up and you’ve got some resources and you get in, then you just say, you know what I’m on.

Here’s the business plan, here’s my course, this is what it’s going to take to get started, this is what’s going to take to keep running. I’m gonna keep self educating. I’m gonna put in the time it’s required, and there’ll be time you’ll be putting in hours and you’re not gonna get paid for it because it’s all on you. You want to you want to shine during the times of adversity.

Certain times are going to be difficult. But it seems like even I think ninety eight percent of the venture capital investments don’t make it. Small businesses don’t typically make it. But if you get into it, understand just like you’re Chrisha walk.

You’re going to have ups and downs. You’re gonna have adversity. But just like Jesus said, you have to count the cost before you do things. Generals count the cost before they go out to war.

How many troops? How many troops are we fighting. If you’re going to build a house, you’re going to build it on a rock or build it on the sand. When you go into business, understand step up in the midst of the adversity and hang in there, work through the tough times. If you stay the course and you come out, you’ll be able to say, Hey, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, Thank you Lord for taking me through this.

Surround yourselves with people that you can relate to. This is important. You want to be surrounded around people that will be for you. Also, people that understand what you’re doing so they can help you.

They can walk along with you, they can pray for you. Some people are gonna have you know what, I see you really trying. I’m going to have a space here. You could set up your business for free for a couple of months, or you don’t.

You never know. But you want to surround yourselves with people that you can relate to, you can talk to, you can talk across to. That’s why our family business I started, called Delivery Pros, was the family and we had some intier family’s tension because my parents and myself who’s gonna be the boss? But I ended up the lord ended up blessing it. I ended up walking away.

The family kept the business and my parents and a couple of my brothers lived off its until my parents passed away. So surround yourselves with people you can relate to, continue to learn, and then set goals. But I have to tell you this in your mind even or you write it down. Set an audacious goal.

Set set a goal out there, and just say God, if you choose to, I’m gonna work hard, I’m gonna be educated, I’m gonna be surrounded with good people. I’m gonna be working hard. I’m not going to complain. I know there’s trials are coming.

If you’re willing to do these, then you have a lot higher chance of succeeding as an entrepreneur than ninety percent of the people that doubt themselves because they didn’t have the background. When times get tough, that aren’t aren’t tenacious, they wanted to have a business where they could kick their feet up and have money. Supposedly, just roll in that are committed. They’re gonna it’s all.

They’re all in that, they’re gonna step up and they’re gonna choose to shine during the trials, not whimp or down or complain. If you do that, and you never know, sometimes the Lord you may end up hitting this of knock. You know, this audacious goal. But see, God knows your heart.

So as God, if you choose to go into be an entrepreneur, if the Lord blesses it, your business endeavor to him be the glory. Yes, you’ll work hard, but to God be the glory. So make sure you check these things out. You have your business plan, you have everything ready, but the basics.

According to Forbes and the study they have here, those are the things that successful people have done. Do not let your background dictate your future. Be your future. Be tenacious, commit your business, shine during times of adversities around yourselves with people you can relate to, continue to learn, set an audacious goal.

And for people of faith, I add in all things, seek the wisdom of God and make much of him with what he does through your efforts as a child of God in your own business. So hopefully this has been a blessing for you. There is a lot more we’re going to be covering here. I’ve got a lot left on the plate that we’re going to cover on Friday.

But please share this with your friends and family. Please check out the website Finishthrace dot com. We’re going to be doing adding more Christian articles as in family living and raising children, and more testimonials and things like that. When to get away from the political because really the nation needs that are pursuing Christ and making much of Him.

And then if God’s people will repent and turn from our wicked ways, God can heal our land. So God bless you guys. This has been finished the race. My name is Eric Thompson.

I’ll talk to you on a couple of days again in the website finished race dot com. Please like our podcast, share it and we’ll get better reach, reach more people and we’ll build our community up here. Take care.