Abigail Denton

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Welcome to the refresh podcast. Today we’re going to talk about a script I’ve been using for some particularly hard days. Some days I just need to repeat a script over and over and over. I don’t have the energy and strength to muster through and process and respond, I just need to cling to truth and rest in that truth. There’s no room for “fake it till you make it” when we’re living in the kingdom and today we’re going to talk about that.

I’m going to share my script, then we’re going to dig in a little to the bible passage it comes from, and then figure out what it means for us today and how we can use it to move forward. Let’s go

Well, it has been a week! This week has been all wonky because my kids have two days off of school, but not consecutively so we’ve just been trying to figure out what day it is and who needs to go where and it’s been so confusing for me. Monday I was thinking and praying and trying to rely on God’s strength and it all just felt too heavy.

Whenever I’m in a season or day or even a moment when I feel so overwhelmed I can’t even process what to do, I go back to a script. I’ve talked about scripts before and I do a lot of this with my coaching clients, and they are just my favorite! I’ve seen so much fruit in my own life and in a lot of my clients from this one technique. To explain what I’m talking about, let’s start with a definition. One definition of a script is a phrase or word I’ve decided ahead of time that speaks truth over a tricky situation. In heavy and hard moments I can’t rely on my emotions or my feelings to guide my thinking and my actions. I need to rely on a script, something I’ve written before the heavy and hard moment. This monday I kept saying the script “God’s grace is sufficient for me, for God’s power is made perfect in weakness.” I have this truth ready to go, almost as a shield or weapon that I can pull out whenever I need to use it. In hard moments I don’t have the capacity to pause and think through what the Bible says about this. I don’t have time to discern my theology and filter out culture and expectations and pressures from places other than God. I just need to have it ready to go, prepped and prepared ahead of time.

Another definition of a script is a written version of a play or movie. I love this definition! The reason I love this definition in this context is because I’m not faking it. I hate that phrase actually, fake it till you make it. Faking is pretending and I don’t have time for that. That speaks death and shame and that’s not from God. Having a script means that I’m claiming a version of my circumstances that I know is true and from God and filled with light and hope. I’m claiming a kingdom perspective and mindset. A written version of my life.

For me this so beautifully allows me to hold the truth of how hard the situation is. How difficult and unfair and how deeply I’m struggling. While also allowing me to hold the truth of how good God is. How much He loves me and how strong and powerful He is through me. I don’t need to discount one side and only claim the other, I can hold both, and hold them both at the same time.

Let’s transition to a mini bible lesson. I want to share a little about this verse from 2 Corinthians that this script comes from. For context, Paul was sharing to the Corinthians about how He had begged God to take away a thorn in his flesh. He was given this thorn and He asked God three times to take it away. The use of the word begged to me speaks of emotion and pleading and deep longing. This wasn’t a flippant trivial thorn like not finding a parking spot at my local coffee shop. This was deep and raw suffering, this is heavy and life altering suffering. In the passage God tells Paul no, He’s not going to take this suffering away. He’s going to walk through the suffering with Paul. And Paul records what God said to him: “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Until a few years ago, I had assumed this verse meant that through God’s power I could overcome my suffering, but that’s not what this says. God says his grace is sufficient and His power is made perfect in my suffering, in my weakness. This is when we don’t overcome and God hasn’t yet moved us to the other side of this suffering.

If we jump over to Romans 8 we read about all the things that can’t separate us from God’s love. I’m not going to read it all right here but I’d encourage you to spend some time with God reading and meditating down through verses 31-39. It is a beautiful passage teaching us how much God loves us and reminding us that overcoming sin and being powerful is not why God loves us. He chose us and He loves us and there’s nothing we do to earn that, there’s also nothing we can do to earn less of God’s love.

Let’s bring this all together because you might be wondering what these two passages have to do with each other. When I use the script God’s grace is sufficient for me because God’s power is made perfect in my weakness, what I mean is this: Two things:

God’s grace is sufficient for me, God freely and abundantly gives me love and adoption and blessing and all the heavenly things. Having weakness and suffering and struggle is not a mark of God’s displeasure. My unfair circumstances do not mean that God doesn’t love me and wants intimacy with me. God’s grace is sufficient for me and that blesses my heart, that gives me rest and peace. This allows me to pause and take a deep breath in of God’s goodness and pleasure and love and let out fear and anxiety of earning God’s love and grace.

God’s power is made perfect in my weakness, God is glorified in my weaknesses. When I operate in my own power, God isn’t glorified. When I’m strong and can handle the situation all on my own, there’s nothing there for God to miraculously move in. When I’m operating fully aware of my weaknesses though, there’s nothing but God’s glory. I know and can testify to the power of God. Each moment of suffering when I rely fully on God’s strength to obey and to bless God and to like Paul “boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

I want to close today with some coaching. I want to offer 3 coaching prompts that you can think through and process. Spend some time taking this to God.

What situation could you spend some time writing out a script for? Think back to recent days or weeks and see if something pops out to you. A comment that triggers something inside when you hear it. A behavior that instantly makes you sad or mad or anxious.
What would it look like if you started seeing your weaknesses as places for God’s power to be put on display and His glory to be most shown in your life? What would it look like to lean into your weakness and this particular situation?
What script could you write to remind yourself of the version God speaks over my circumstance, not your feelings or reactions or emotions?

As always I am so grateful for you and I hope you know how loved and cherished you are. God is mighty in you and I am always on your team. We are not women who pretend like our lives aren’t hard and suffering isn’t real. We do not live fake or shame filled lives. We are kingdom women who live in God’s goodness and power. We do not hide our weaknesses, but we take them to God and we authentically share them with others. We can do hard things because we have God’s grace and His power shines in our weakness.