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Speaker: It is day four of our ADHD friendly advent study.

Speaker: If you are new here.

Speaker: Hi, my name is Rachel.

Speaker: I'm an ADHD and a Jesus lover and I help fellow women with

Speaker: chaotic brains seek, find and live the abundant life that

Speaker: Jesus offers us.

Speaker: If you are just finding it today, you are not behind.

Speaker: This study is specifically designed to be low effort while

Speaker: being high impact.

Speaker: It is study or it is created rather for ADHD brains.

Speaker: So even if this is your first day seeing this study, you are

Speaker: in the right place.

Speaker: Let's get into it.

Speaker: But real quick there is a free

Speaker: workbook that goes along with

Speaker: this.

Speaker: You can download that at the link in my bio.

Speaker: Okay, let's dive in for today.

Speaker: If you have not listened to this week's song, which is O come, O

Speaker: come, Emmanuel, I would highly recommend taking a second going

Speaker: and listening to that.

Speaker: The skillet version that just came out is fantastic.

Speaker: Um, so if you have not done that, go ahead and listen.

Speaker: Otherwise we can just get going.

Speaker: Today we've got a short passage of scripture and only one

Speaker: journaling prompts today.

Speaker: And just for those who are new,

Speaker: there is a suggested schedule in

Speaker: the study.

Speaker: Uh, in the workbook, it's listed out there.

Speaker: If you are the type of person

Speaker: who thrives on a little bit more

Speaker: structure, awesome.

Speaker: It's there for you.

Speaker: Otherwise, you are free to consume whatever parts of the

Speaker: study that week that you want, in whatever order you want.

Speaker: It is designed to be accessible and flexible for you and how

Speaker: your brain works.

Speaker: Because God designed your brain that way.

Speaker: He meant it to be like that.

Speaker: So we're working with it.

Speaker: Okay, so today's scripture

Speaker: passage, we are still in Luke

Speaker: one.

Speaker: I am in the ESV.

Speaker: We are reading verses twenty one through twenty five today.

Speaker: Uh, let me find twenty one.

Speaker: Where is it?

Speaker: Ah, and the people were waiting

Speaker: for Zechariah, and they were

Speaker: wondering at his delay in the

Speaker: temple.

Speaker: And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and

Speaker: they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple.

Speaker: And he kept making signs to them and remained mute.

Speaker: And when the time of his service was ended, he went to his home.

Speaker: After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for

Speaker: five months she kept herself hidden, saying, thus the Lord

Speaker: has done for me in the days when he looked on me to take away my

Speaker: reproach among the people.

Speaker: Which, as we talked about

Speaker: previously, the reproach she's

Speaker: talking about.

Speaker: She and her husband had been

Speaker: barren for all of their adult

Speaker: lives, which had multiple

Speaker: implications, especially in that

Speaker: culture.

Speaker: Number one, you know, your kids were your retirement plan.

Speaker: If you didn't have children to

Speaker: care for you, you basically had

Speaker: no one to care for you when you

Speaker: aged out of being able to care

Speaker: for yourself.

Speaker: So on a very practical level, it was a very uncertain thing.

Speaker: It was introduced a lot of uncertainty when a couple did

Speaker: not have children.

Speaker: Number two, it also called into

Speaker: question your morality very,

Speaker: very, very heavily in that

Speaker: culture.

Speaker: If you were not able to have children, it was seen as God

Speaker: punishing you for something.

Speaker: And typically the woman, um, would you would essentially have

Speaker: your morality questioned, your character questioned, because

Speaker: just like we see in the story of the man who had been blind at

Speaker: birth that Jesus healed, people tend to question, okay, well,

Speaker: what did you do?

Speaker: What did your parents do that led to this, you know,

Speaker: disability that you have very much the same.

Speaker: Um, in the case of infertility, essentially the thought would

Speaker: be, okay, well, what did you do to deserve this?

Speaker: Which, as we know, fortunately,

Speaker: is not how God operates, and

Speaker: this is such a beautiful picture

Speaker: of how he had a plan for their

Speaker: pain.

Speaker: There was purpose in their pain.

Speaker: So they had been facing this

Speaker: reality of infertility, which is

Speaker: such an incredibly heavy thing

Speaker: to experience.

Speaker: And he ultimately had a plan for it that they had to question.

Speaker: They had to still have their faith in God their entire adult

Speaker: lives to get to this point.

Speaker: So this was not a quick resolution for them, which is

Speaker: something we at least I very much struggle with not knowing

Speaker: how long this season is going to last, not knowing how long this

Speaker: difficult thing is going to go on for can be an incredibly,

Speaker: incredibly difficult thing.

Speaker: Let me know if you can relate.

Speaker: And finally, you know, the third

Speaker: point is infertility is is

Speaker: incredibly difficult.

Speaker: So Zechariah and Elizabeth, even purely from the perspective of

Speaker: just wanting and longing to be parents, they did not have that.

Speaker: And so we see this angel come to Zechariah and go, hey, man,

Speaker: you're gonna have a baby.

Speaker: And they get that?

Speaker: Yes, from God.

Speaker: They've been just crying out to God for so long.

Speaker: They've been just desiring in the deepest heart of hearts to

Speaker: have a child.

Speaker: And they get that.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: And Zechariah's immediate response is to go, but how's

Speaker: that gonna happen?

Speaker: Like he goes, how shall I know this?

Speaker: For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.

Speaker: He's like, uh, you're gonna have to prove it to me, my guy.

Speaker: Which is the wrong answer.

Speaker: Now, before I dig too deeply in here, let's go ahead and read

Speaker: the third Scripture journaling prompt, which is the only

Speaker: journaling prompt that is on the docket for today.

Speaker: When you receive a yes from God, what is your typical response?

Speaker: Do you automatically accept it and rejoice?

Speaker: Or do you like Zechariah, have a moment or many of doubt or even

Speaker: questioning God's motives?

Speaker: And again, all of these journaling prompts, along with

Speaker: everything you need to complete the study, is in the workbook

Speaker: that you can download for free at the link in my bio, so

Speaker: definitely go do that.

Speaker: I am doing this study for free,

Speaker: so if you would like to support

Speaker: me and buy me a coffee, you can

Speaker: also do that at the link in my

Speaker: bio.

Speaker: That would be very much appreciated.

Speaker: But the workbook is free, the study is free.

Speaker: All of it's free.

Speaker: It's at the link in my bio.

Speaker: Go download it now.

Speaker: I don't know about you.

Speaker: First pause.

Speaker: Take a minute.

Speaker: Go answer the journaling prompt for yourself.

Speaker: So pause this video, go do that and then come back.

Speaker: But for me, I want to be vulnerable here and share that I

Speaker: am very much like Zechariah.

Speaker: I tend to when God gives me a yes or a prayer is answered or a

Speaker: blessing comes my way, I'm waiting for the yes and I'm

Speaker: waiting for kind of the flip side of that.

Speaker: I'm waiting for the lesson.

Speaker: It's very difficult for me to

Speaker: just accept something as a gift

Speaker: from God.

Speaker: I have a very anxious brain and so my brain immediately is

Speaker: spinning, going, okay, what's the next part of the story?

Speaker: This is a wonderful thing.

Speaker: Yeah, but nothing is ever truly perfect.

Speaker: So if nothing's ever truly perfect and God constantly wants

Speaker: to refine us and make us better.

Speaker: What is the bad part of this that's going to refine me and

Speaker: make me better?

Speaker: Because in my experience,

Speaker: refinement is a can be, can be

Speaker: and has been for me, a very

Speaker: painful process.

Speaker: I've been in a season of refinement for about four and a

Speaker: half years now, pretty much since my son was born.

Speaker: Um, and it's been really difficult.

Speaker: It's been really brutal.

Speaker: And while there's been so much

Speaker: beauty in this season as well, I

Speaker: am now married to a wonderful

Speaker: man.

Speaker: I have two other incredible

Speaker: kiddos whom I love very, very

Speaker: much.

Speaker: We have a wonderful home.

Speaker: I even have the chickens that I've wanted my entire life.

Speaker: There's so much beauty that came

Speaker: as a result of God's yeses to me

Speaker: in this season, but it is still

Speaker: very dark.

Speaker: It is still very challenging.

Speaker: There are still so many unanswered questions.

Speaker: And so if you are in a similar place where getting a yes from

Speaker: God, receiving something you've been praying for, hearing that

Speaker: door finally creak open, that you've been knocking and

Speaker: knocking at for so long.

Speaker: You are in a very normal place and you are in good company.

Speaker: If that door creaking open leads to more questions and leads to

Speaker: hesitation, we see here in the text from Zechariah that that's

Speaker: not the correct response.

Speaker: So we are, you know, called to fully trust in God.

Speaker: We are called to rejoice in the things that he gives us.

Speaker: He has a plan to prosper us and not to harm us.

Speaker: But that is not a promise of prosperity.

Speaker: Gospel.

Speaker: God challenged me to go look at Jeremiah twenty nine eleven

Speaker: today, and I ended up reading an article from the Bible Project

Speaker: on Jeremiah twenty nine eleven.

Speaker: And how, yes, it promises peace

Speaker: and prosperity and all of these

Speaker: wonderful things.

Speaker: But it is in the context of exile.

Speaker: God is telling the Israelites

Speaker: when they are exiled in Babylon,

Speaker: hey, yeah, I brought you out of

Speaker: Egypt and I gave you the

Speaker: promised land, and now you've

Speaker: been pulled out of the Promised

Speaker: Land.

Speaker: The land was very much part of their identity, and they once

Speaker: again had been pulled out of their home and sent into exile.

Speaker: They were oppressed.

Speaker: They were overworked.

Speaker: They were in what seemed like this very terrible situation.

Speaker: And there were prophets at that

Speaker: time telling them, don't worry,

Speaker: this is only going to last two

Speaker: years, two years, and you guys

Speaker: are out.

Speaker: You'll be good to go.

Speaker: And that was a lie.

Speaker: That was not the truth.

Speaker: And so Jeremiah, when he wrote these letters that then were

Speaker: sent to the the people who were exiled, living in Babylon.

Speaker: Golly, can you tell I'm about to start my period soon.

Speaker: Even in the darkest times imaginable, even when our

Speaker: circumstances do not change, there is so much that we can do

Speaker: to experience God's beauty for us that he has in mind for us

Speaker: that ultimately leads to his glory and our good.

Speaker: We can still experience that

Speaker: now, even in the midst of exile,

Speaker: even in the midst of the darkest

Speaker: season imaginable in the midst

Speaker: of whatever you are dealing

Speaker: with.

Speaker: If it is cancer, if it is job loss, both of those are on our

Speaker: plate right now.

Speaker: If it is the loss of a child, if

Speaker: it is the destruction of a

Speaker: marriage, if it is just a season

Speaker: of melancholy and you're not

Speaker: sure why.

Speaker: Whatever you are struggling with, God cares so incredibly

Speaker: deeply about it.

Speaker: And he has a plan for your good and for your peace.

Speaker: But that might include putting

Speaker: down roots in this season, and

Speaker: that is something that I am

Speaker: wrestling to come to terms with

Speaker: here.

Speaker: And I am working on preparing my heart so that when that next yes

Speaker: comes, when that next door starts to creak open, that I'm

Speaker: knocking at, my response can be joy instead of trepidation.

Speaker: So I invite you to join me in that today.

Speaker: I would love to hear from you in the comments what you are

Speaker: wrestling with right now.

Speaker: I would love to give you some encouragement, whether that's,

Speaker: you know, talking through it in the comments, whether that's

Speaker: responding to you in a video, you can always email me.

Speaker: My email is Rachel at Rachel.

Speaker: I read all of my emails.

Speaker: I respond to all of my emails as long as they are not from AI

Speaker: bots, that's a whole thing that's going on.

Speaker: It's really annoying.

Speaker: I swear.

Speaker: I create a new email account and boom, the next day it's filled

Speaker: up with just like AI garbage.

Speaker: But anyways, that is besides the point.

Speaker: I am here as a resource to you.

Speaker: I am here as an encouragement to you.

Speaker: You are welcome here.

Speaker: You are in the right place.

Speaker: You are never behind when you are seeking God.

Speaker: When you are in step with him, you are always in the right

Speaker: place at the right time.

Speaker: So that is all I have for you today.

Speaker: I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Speaker: These episodes are available on my podcast, The True Grit

Speaker: Podcast with Rachel Grit.

Speaker: You can find the link to that in my bio.

Speaker: So if you would prefer an audio

Speaker: forward format that is available

Speaker: to you as well, make sure you

Speaker: follow.

Speaker: Make sure you like.

Speaker: Comment.

Speaker: Share this video with a friend who needs to hear it.

Speaker: Feel free to go back and watch

Speaker: the other days, the goal is to

Speaker: keep it short and accessible

Speaker: again.

Speaker: We're going for low effort, high impact.

Speaker: That is the sweet spot for ADHD brains.

Speaker: But thank you so much for joining me today and I will see

Speaker: you in the next one.

Speaker: Bye.