Craig Groeschel
Appearances
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Because you can doubt your way away from God, or you can doubt your way closer to God. I would say define why do you doubt? Some people would say, it's like I come across something in the Bible that I don't understand it. And so it's a theological question. Some people would say, well, I can't reconcile what I see with who God says He is.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Hey, thank you, Ange and Ari. I'm really, really excited to be with you guys. Your passion for Jesus shows in every single thing that you do.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
You might see someone with a brain tumor, and you're saying, God, I'm praying and believing, standing on your word that you're going to heal, and you haven't. So where are you? Some people, it's because they've been hurt by Christians, and then they'll often blame God for it or something. Someone in the church was mean to me or unkind. And so all Christians suck.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
I'm mad at all Christians and God's not real, whatever it is. And so I found that if you just, if you really talk about what it is, I'm hurting, I'm disappointed, I'm mad at God. He didn't come through for me. I don't understand. They said one thing, they did something else. My pastor does. Now he lied about something or whatever. If you name it, you can take it to God.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
It's easier for God to heal something when you know it needs healing. And so don't be afraid to get specific about it and to take it to God. And I think sometimes the more specific we can be about, this is what I don't like. This is what I don't understand. When you read Habakkuk, this is what the guy did, the prophet. He's like, God, I don't understand. Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And what's powerful about his name is super cool if you read him. His name Habakkuk in Hebrew, it means to wrestle and it means to embrace. And that's what you do. It's like you're wrestling with God going, I don't like it. I don't understand. Where are you? And I'm not letting go. I'm trying to trust you and I'm not sure I trust you and I'm holding on.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And I'm convinced God would rather have you come and yell at him than to walk away.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
It's faith that you're questioning because you want to believe. It's not a lack of faith.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Don't you get Thomas? Yeah. Thomas probably, he went through some stuff.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
He had some people let him down. Yeah. Or he didn't, he was the guy that had prove it to me. And Jesus did, right? Jesus gave Thomas what he needed. Thomas said, I need to touch, I need to see. And Jesus said, here, touch and see. And that's encouraging to me. Jesus gave Thomas what he needed. Oh, I love that. He didn't get mad and say, why are you doubting? He said, okay, let me show you.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
But he ended up with more faith I mean, he's the guy tradition tells us that he was preaching in India for years, and he wouldn't deny Jesus, and they ran a spear through him. So he's the one who said, I need to see the spear mark in the side, and then he died because he wouldn't deny his faith in Jesus. So he gets a bad rap.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
It's a relationship, right? So like Amy, and thank you for speaking highly of her. She is... a gift beyond measure. And she's the one who taught me, if we get in a kind of disagreement, I'll withdraw. And she's like, no, you won't. If you love me, we're going to work this thing out.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And I kind of think I had to learn that with God too, that if I am in a relationship with God and I don't understand, I might pull back. And I don't think He wants to pull back. You have to push in. And so that's one of the 50 million things I learned from Amy. Yeah.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
She is as beautiful inside, I promise you, as she is on the outside.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Thank you. That was Bobby Grunewald who came to me years ago, and he said he was really kind of upset at the lack of Bible engagement. And a lot of it was, like he said, honestly, he said of himself. And so his kind of driving question was, what can we do to make God's Word more accessible? And so that was kind of the beginning of the questions we asked that led to something.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Well, it's a real... People ask questions all the time. So, you know, you said, I'll look at things differently. I think... I came to the Bible without Bible history knowledge. So I looked at it. I tried to look objectively. And so people will say, why do bad things happen to good people? We see it all the time.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And when you take a step back, let's just ask some questions like, what does the Bible say our heart is? Without Jesus, what is our heart? It's deceitful, right? And is anyone righteous? No one's righteous. And so we've all sinned. So technically speaking, we're not. good people. And so bad things don't really happen to good people. Bad things happen to bad, sinful people, right?
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
So the only time something bad happened to someone good was when Jesus paid the price for us. So if we look another way at it, I actually deserve the penalty of my sins. And so when I don't get that, that's the most amazing display of grace ever, is that I actually deserve the wrath of God, and He doesn't give it to me. He gives me grace. And so that changes... the narrative.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And so the evidence of God's goodness isn't just if I get a raise or have a job with benefits or have good friends or get to go on nice vacations. The evidence of God's goodness is His character and His grace for me. And it doesn't mean I don't get disappointed if one of my daughters is sick and she is and still is and hasn't been healed. Yes, I'm disappointed. Yes, I don't understand.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And what's really kind of hard to believe, but this year we're going to celebrate the Bible app being on a billion devices. So that'll happen sometime around October or November of this year. It's an unbelievable honor to get to give that away. And it's a lot of donors and a lot of hardworking people here make it possible.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Yes, I'm frustrated. Yes, I get angry. And yes, God is still drawing us closer and she's closer to him than ever before. And we see his faithfulness and goodness. And so it's both. The evidence of God's goodness is not the quality of my life. The evidence of God's goodness is his character and his nature.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Yeah. And good thing our faith isn't in Christians, right? Right, right.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Well, church hurt is real. Yeah. But what's interesting too, and I really, I don't ever want to pick at it because, you know, I've been around a long time. I've seen a lot of things that are really heartbreaking to God, the way Christians can act. But it is interesting. People get hurt in college and they don't have college hurt. Right?
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
People go to a restaurant and have bad service and they don't say, you know... Olive Garden. I hate their breadsticks. I'm never going back to restaurant. They don't do that. So I think that to, you know, you don't hear about church hurt. You know, I don't have, you know, I don't have, um, Job hurt, I'm never going to work a job again.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
So I think there's this little bit of a spiritual attack that our enemy wants to separate people from the support that God intended them to have. So when you look at it objectively like that, I don't want to ever belittle the fact that people are devastated by Christians. And this horrible one is always wrong.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
But just because one Christian or five Christians are ungodly doesn't mean that God's body isn't still important. And so I want to try to separate what someone does from who God is. And that can be a little bit difficult. But the other thing is, think about this. If we do get hurt by Christians, what are we called to do? Love them. And forgive, right?
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And so to be a part of a church, we probably are going to have to endure some hurt.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
100%. Yeah. And Jesus kind of promises us that, right? Yeah. In this world, you're going to have trouble. If you follow me, you will be persecuted. There is going to be spiritual opposition, and the opposition can come from within the church or without the church. So I would just say pastorally to someone, you know, my— My brother-in-law was sexually abused by a pastoral figure in the church.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
That's wrong. It's horrific. It's a nightmare. It's always wrong. It's demonic. It's horrible. And the church is still the bride of Christ. And Jesus is coming back for his church, and the church is still important. And so, yes, we have to name it and call it what it is, demonic, horrific, wrong, a nightmare, tragic, and still see that the Holy Spirit works through people in the church.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And it's all... God is still good and he's good. And then I could tell you all the stories about what happened to David through, he went in a bad place and then he rediscovered Jesus because of the church. And so you still see the hand of God in the pain because God is sovereign and he is working in all things, even the things that we hate.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And so it's hopefully it'll serve you all well because you're kind of the Bible girls, right?
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
So, great question. And so, deconstruction, depending on who you ask, there's a lot of opinions about it. So, some of my peers as pastors would say, deconstruction is always bad. And the reason they would say that is because they have a limited view of what they've heard about it of people that might be
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
really hurting, genuinely hurting, and get with a group of people that basically says, forget all churches. I hate God. All Christians are bad. And they flip off God in the church and walk away. And so that does happen. But I would say that deconstruction done well it can actually be a form of discipleship.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Meaning that when you look at what Jesus did when he came, and see, five different times, he said, in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, you have heard it said, but I say to you. Your whole life, you've been taught this. But I'm going to tell you that's either incomplete or it's not true. And let me tell you what is true. So in a sense, what was he doing? He was kind of deconstructing.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And so here's the thing. The problem is, we all read the Bible with a bias. As much as we want to read it purely, we come to it with our own hurts, our own family backgrounds, from what country we're from, what type of church we're raised in. I could preach the same text. Another preacher could preach the very same text, and we preach it with a different tone.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
I'm preaching on the love of God in the text. He's preaching on the judgment of God. And God is loving, and he's judged. He's both. And so there's different emphasis. So sometimes I tell people that everything you believe about God may not be true.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And you have to start there, that you might have grown up in a church that was too legalistic, or a church that was too full of grace, or a church that only talked about the judgment of God, or a church that only talked about the grace of God. And so what we have to do is, I would say, in a community, Look at what we believe.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
If there's something that's untrue, something that's hurtful, we unbelieve it. We say, that's actually not consistent with God's word. And we deconstruct that. Then we reconstruct it with what is true. How do we do that? I always tell people, start with the Gospels. Start with Jesus. Read everything through Jesus. I have four daughters. I have six kids total, four daughters.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And the four of them were raised in two rooms that had really bad mold. And I was so dumb, like, what's that black stuff? Like, dumb. And so it was not good for them. So when we found out we didn't tear down our whole house, we tore down, we took the mold out.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And that's what deconstruction is, is that we're identifying what's not consistent with God's word, what is not true, what doesn't reflect Jesus. And we say, okay, that's not true. We deconstruct it, but we don't burn the whole house down. We take that away. And then we rebuild it with what is true.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And again, if you want to start with truth, there's no better place to start with Jesus and interpret everything through the lens of what did Jesus say about this?
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
So Peter kind of thought Jesus was going to be like a reigning king, a conquering with the sword. Peter wanted... He brought the sword fight to the garden. He wanted to fight. And Jesus said, I'm going to lead with love. And so whenever... Peter argued against the way Jesus was going to save the world. Jesus called him Satan. He said, get behind me, Satan. Like, that's not true.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And deconstructed those beliefs and then reconstructed them. The same thing when Peter denied Jesus three times. What did Jesus do in John 21? He kind of reconstructed. He said, hey, do you still love me? Then feed my sheep. So here's what I want you to do. He's rebuilding his faith. And then, I mean, when you think about it, Did Peter deny Jesus three times?
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Like literally you could say he deconstructed and walked away from Jesus, kind of. I mean, we could make that argument. Who did God choose to be the guest speaker on the day of Pentecost? Peter, the guy who didn't believe, the guy that doubted and fell in the water, the guy that denied him because doubt isn't always the enemy of faith. Sometimes it's an invitation to a deeper faith.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Just go. Just do your stuff. Just do your stuff.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
There's some crazy stuff in the Old Testament.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
So, good question. I believe Jonah was swallowed by a whale and... Vomited back out. Yeah. Do I technically have to believe that? The Bible doesn't say, believe in your heart that Jonah was swallowed by a whale and was vomited back out. So the Bible says you have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and was saved. So I'm going to start with what we really, really have to believe.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And the gospel... that my righteousness is not enough, that Jesus was the Lamb of God who was slain for my sins. He didn't just die for me. He died instead of me. And by believing in his perfect death, I'm forgiven. So that's where I'm going to start. Then we can debate everything else. I personally believe that the word of God is inspired.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
I also believe there's some, not just weird like miracles, but there's just like, you get in Leviticus and there's like some weird stuff in there. And so we have to say, what is the New Testament? The New Testament is a fulfillment of the fullness of who God is. And so that, yes, our foundation is built on the Old Testament and God is the God of the Old Testament.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And the fullness of who God is, is manifest through Jesus. Jesus came to fulfill the law. And so I'm always going to go to Jesus. But then let's talk about everything back there. If God could create us, the guy could live in the belly of a whale for three days, three nights.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
So if you want to get hung up there, I'm not going to sit there and debate that for days, as much as I'm going to point to Jesus. But I'm also going to say that we serve a God with whom all things are possible. And so I would rather err on the side of believing all of what God's Word says than me saying I'm smart enough to pick it apart.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And in the end, if I'm wrong, I'm going to be wrong on the side of trying to have faith rather than trying to be smarter. That's putting above my pay grade.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
You were in Oklahoma when there was almost a tornado. Yes. And you didn't even know. That's how California you are.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
That is 100% bad, just so you'll know.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
I don't want a tornado. So, camera guy over here was one of the most famous storm chasers, like for real.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Like Emmys and stuff, like Emmy Awards. Emmy Awards. Storm chaser, yes. What? Yeah, so you're in the room with a guy that doesn't want a tornado coming your way.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
I would love to talk about prayer for days. Yes. And the reason is because I always felt like I was not a good prayer.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
So Amy is like... She wants to pray for a long time and loves it. And it even takes her a long time to get started. She's like, let's pray. And then she'll be breathing. I'm like, let's just, God's waiting, I'm waiting, let's go. And then she starts and she just genuinely will tell God how good he is for a long time and then pray about everything. And my mind's wandering.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
I'm like a pastor and I suck at prayer. So I had to learn a lot about prayer. What I've discovered is we all have different personalities, right? And so I got six kids and I relate to them differently. My oldest one, she likes to write. And if we're writing, we can connect. My second one is face-to-face talk. My third one, I'm going through three. My third one is during activities.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
My fourth one is on the phone. My fifth one is only if we're playing catch. We gotta be doing something. And my sixth one is she's an extrovert, anything and everything all the time, whatever. So six different kids, six different ways of relating. You're gonna relate to God in prayer different than somebody else.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Some people are going to want to talk to him for an hour. For me, what I've discovered is that I never pray for a long time, but I never go a long time without praying. And so when you talk about praying without ceasing, to me, it's prayer as much not just talking to God, but it's an awareness that he's with us always. So all through the day, I'm like, give me wisdom, God.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Okay, God, am I supposed to encourage that person? God, am I supposed to pray for that person? Am I supposed to give something? And so it's like ongoing awareness of God. And then one of the big questions in the doubt book is like, why didn't God answer my prayer? Right? And his word said this, and I prayed for this. And so...
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
There are actually a lot of reasons in the Bible why he doesn't always answer prayer. Sometimes, literally, there's a verse that says, if you're disrespectful to your wife, your prayers are hindered. Isn't that... That's in there.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
You watched the movies with him in it. That was him.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Well, okay. So if I am to love the Lord God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength, and if I'm to love my bride as Christ loved the church, and if I'm being a jerk to her, imagine I've got two kids and they're fighting and hitting each other and say, "'Dad, will you take us to get donuts?' Like, no, you're being a jerk to each other. You gotta be nice to your brother."
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Okay, so if I am a stronger physical being and I am using my power, my influence to be unkind to my bride, God says that hinders your prayers.
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That's in the Bible, right? There are other reasons. If you're praying for something that's not God's will, like literally a lot of times I'm praying for my will. If you're praying with the wrong motives, like when I was a new Christian, there was a really pretty girl that was really far from God. And I was like praying that she gets saved. I didn't care about her salvation.
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I just wanted to date her. And that's not praying with the right motives. And a lot of times we pray with the wrong motives. And so there's a lot, like we may have, the Bible says this, that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. And that means if I am unrighteous, meaning maybe I've got unconfessed sin, or I'm just, maybe I'm living with
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an ongoing problem and saying, well, that's okay, God, just deal with it, then that may be actually hindrance to my prayer. The Bible says God honors your faith. So if I have no faith at all, then that may hinder my prayer. So all that to say, those are just some little things to look at when we're praying, and there's more.
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And yet, the beautiful thing is God says that if you have faith like a mustard seed, like just a little bit of faith, that He'll hear your prayer. And so... Through a lot of praying, a lot of searching scripture, a lot of miracles where God has answered prayers like unbelievably miraculous. And other times, devastatingly, He didn't. And I knew He would.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
I have discovered that, kind of what you just said, that prayer does not exist for God to do what I want Him to do. Prayer exists to conform my heart to His heart so that I'm actually doing His will. And so now, more than just coming to Him with my wish list, I often go to him with a blank page and says, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So your will be done in my life.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
God, help me know your heart and your will.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And it doesn't mean that I don't get frustrated when he doesn't do it. It doesn't mean that I'm not asking him to do it. There's so many times I don't understand. And his ways are higher than my ways. And I only see in part in one day. We'll see in full when we're with him.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Frustrating mysteries, meaning like, I am frustrated with God now, at this moment, as we're speaking. And I love him and I trust him and I don't understand him all at the same time. I mean, I got sick daughters and I'm like going, you know, I mean, it just sounds pitiful. It is like, God, do you know what I'm doing for you? Can't you do this for me? You know? Where are you, God?
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And I talked about it transparently in a message. Like, I literally don't want to pray for sick people to be healed because I'd rather Amy do it because, like, she just prays with—she believes God will do it. I believe He can. I know he can, but I haven't seen him in a while. And so that frustrates me. And not only does she believe he can, she believes he will when she prays.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And so I'm always like, you pray. And she's like, no, no, you gotta work through it. So it's like, I'm just blabbing, but it's just, it's just, it's, it's just, it's, The father whose boy was demon-possessed said, Jesus, I believe you can, but help me overcome my unbelief. That's a real good prayer. I believe you can. I know you're real.
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And there's part of me that's still very human and broken and needs more help. Help me where I doubt. Help me where I have questions. Help me where I'm frustrated. That's a good prayer. It's an honest prayer.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Yeah, I want to talk to your family first because I just feel the angst. I feel your pain and your emotions. And for me, that was my dad for a long time. And so I would say a couple things. One is sometimes you're a prophet without honor. So you're the one too close to them. And so they don't listen to you. And it is not your job to save them. It's your job to reflect the love of Jesus.
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And you do that, you pray, and God cares about their salvation even more than you do. And he's patient. And so he's, sometimes when they get worse and worse, sometimes they actually have to get so low that they have nowhere else to look but to call on him.
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And then what I've found, and just doing this for a long time, is that there are other people that God may be setting up to cross paths with those people that you love. And He is so good. And you guys are younger and have been walking with God five years, two years-ish. And it seems like forever, and God is a patient God. I've seen those miracles sometimes after 25 years, 30 years.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And when you feel like there's no hope, sometimes a person that seems the farthest from God is actually closer than you think. So don't lose faith. When you were saved, the people around you never would have thought you'd be doing that. And so as big of a miracle as you were, I believe that you'll see that for many of the people in your life.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Well, first of all, I would say that, you know, let's just start and recognize we live in a really big world with a lot of different traditions, faith backgrounds, families. And so for someone else to say, hey, I've been exposed to a different belief system, that's just really, really normal, right? So we don't want to judge that. We don't want to be arrogant.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
But what we have to do is we have to investigate every kind of faith belief and say, okay, who's the main player here? What does he say about himself or what his witnesses say about him? And so for Christianity, we're gonna start with Jesus and say, let's consider who Jesus is. And so he claimed he's the son of God. He claimed he is the way, the truth, and the life.
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He claimed that he would die and be raised from the dead. And so when you look at the resurrection, you're gonna find there's like really strong historic evidence That the disciples died for him. Would they have died for a lie? That there were people that were converted that were skeptics that saw him at the tomb. And there's ongoing evidence that the resurrection is real.
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Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
If Jesus claimed to be that, then what is he? It was C.S. Lewis who said, if he claimed to be the son of God, then he's either full-blown crazy, like he's a lunatic, or he's a liar, or he's Lord. And so we have to acknowledge, which one is he?
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
He might be crazy, could be, maybe he just made it all up and then his disciples were willing to die for it. Maybe he was a liar or maybe he was Lord. And so just really look at what the disciples said, look at the transformed lives, look at what God's word says, talk to him, ask him, if you're real, prove it to me.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And so I would just say, pursue Jesus, read Jesus, look at Jesus and base your decision on what you can discover about Jesus. And then look at others if you want to. But I think if you look objectively and honestly, you're going to see that who makes up a God that becomes flesh? Born of a virgin... And then is born in poverty and serves and loves the sinners and the broken.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And you can't make up something that beautiful, that powerful, that life transformative. And look at your testimony. Look at you. You're dead and you're alive. You're lost and you're found. You're in bondage and you're free.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
So it's pretty cool. My story mirrors yours in some way. I was in college. I was an athlete, fraternity guy, and fell into all the traditional stuff that is rough and sinful. And so my fraternity got in big trouble. We had four guys commit grand larceny, and we were in trouble at the school.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And you see the 700 prophecies, 700 prophecies. He'd been born of a virgin. He would suffer. You look at the Passover in the Old Testament, the temporary, you take a lamb and you shed its blood and you put some on the top of a doorpost and some blood on the sides and then death passes over you. You look at that, what happens when you put blood on the top of a door? It falls to the bottom.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
You look in, I think it's Exodus 12, and what do you see? You see on the door, you see the cross in the Old Testament. You see it right there in the Old Testament. foreshadowing Jesus. You see Jesus all over the Old Testament and everything points toward him. The gospel is the good news. It's the best news. It changes lives. And then you doubt sometimes and you don't understand.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And so you go back to that. You go to Jesus and you hang on to him, who he is. And that's the thing I go to all the time is the moment when I knelt down alone in a softball field and called on his name. It was one person when I knelt down, and I was a new person when I stood up. And that I hold on to when I don't understand.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
The Catholic girl that gets saved in the Word is mentored by Africans. If you're in profits, it gets freed from alcohol.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
So there's so much I want to say to it because I've been there. Like my honeymoon stage as a new Christian, I mean, I was... out of control, witnessing, crying out to God, praying for everybody, sensing His presence, feeling it. I got saved out of what was like kind of the church I went to was like a no expression into a very charismatic, vibrant, God's everywhere.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And it's a little bit like with Amy, you know, we were madly in love. We didn't have a fight for three years when we were married until we had our first kid, and then we made up for lost time because I was dumb. But then now we're 33, almost 34 years into it, and...
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And so I was a president at the time and decided to, as partly like a PR move, but partly because I was just really spiritually curious, I said, we're going to start a Bible study. So you can imagine no Christians there. I mean, nobody. And I said, hey guys, we're gonna start a Bible study. And they were like, they said cuss words like, to bleep we are. I didn't know any better.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
the like the new um goosebumps thing isn't there all the time but the depth of intimacy is a thousand times what it was before like legitimately anyone who says a godly marriage isn't possible um talk to amy well it is it is very very possible and the same is true with god that i think and it's just a theory and there's doesn't say this in the word but i think god gives you a little extra when you're a new christian kind of like a baby needs a little more care
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
You need to burp. Someone needs to change your diaper. You know, goo-goo-ga-ga. I think when you're a baby Christian, I think God gives you a little bit extra sometimes and just shows himself to you in other ways. And then after a while... Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Sometimes you have to pursue Him without feelings and just faith. Like, literally, faith pleases God.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And so, why don't I always feel the presence of God? Again, the Bible gives us some clues. Sometimes I think we're over-sensationalizing it. Jesus said, hey, everybody's looking for a sign. Everybody wants a feeling. And so— I don't want a sign. I want what the sign points to, and the sign points to Jesus. So we're not looking for a sign. We're actually looking for the sign pointing to Jesus.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
So we want to keep our eye on Jesus. Another thing, too, would be this, that we know that sin does separate us from God, right? So if you were in Oklahoma a month ago and it was really, really cold, negative two degrees one day, If you put on a lot of clothes, the clothes will separate you from the cold. It won't feel as cold. You'll be separated.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
If you sin a lot, ongoing sin, it doesn't mean like, you know, you did something wrong, so God doesn't love you. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying, you're cheating on your wife and you're not repenting. You're living in pornography and you don't care. You're doing drugs on the side and you're keeping it a secret. You're living in ongoing sin.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
That might block some of your intimacy with God.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
If I am not being truthful to Amy or hiding something from her, I'm not going to be as intimate with her because sin separates. And so it could be that it's not that God has moved away, but you've put up some kind of a barrier. It could be that sometimes God just wants you to draw close.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Maybe he's not, you know, I don't feel him because he wants me to draw closer to him and spend more time with him and be intimate. And so what I do want to do is I want to enjoy the presence of God in this very, very real. And I think, I mean, you can, I think there are people in this room that are working behind the scenes that would say, I feel the presence of God in this place right now.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And then there might be one person in the room, but I don't. And that doesn't mean he's not here. And it doesn't mean necessarily you've done something wrong. Enjoy him when he does and pursue him always, always.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
I've had a few supernatural experiences where if I told you two or three, people would probably stop listening because I go, that guy's weird.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
So I said, well, to bleep we are. We're gonna do a Bible study. And so I announced that on Tuesday, we're gonna have a Bible study. I didn't have a Bible. And so I was walking into a business class and I just thought, I don't have a Bible. Well, how amazing is this? I walked down and there was a guy from the Gideon's organization standing out there. And he said, would you like a free Bible? you
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Well, I mean, genuinely. So at my salvation point, yeah. And it does sound super weird. I physically couldn't get up for a while. I couldn't get up. And it felt like I had to surrender. My prayer was not what I call like a real technical salvation prayer because I didn't know how to. But I was like, okay, God, if this is you and this is real, then I give it all to you. I surrender.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And then the weight removed, and I was able to get up. So physically, I felt like I was under the presence of God in a way that I just couldn't. I had another time where his presence was so real, I stayed in a place praying. And again, I don't pray for a long time. until well into the night. It got really dark, and I was out in the woods.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Then I got scared because I had to walk back through the woods, and I was really scared of animals. But his presence was so, so real, and I forgot where I was going with it. Oh, but then I'm preparing to preach, and I'm faithfully studying the Word, and I'm getting up there going, I don't feel anything right now. And that's happened too. So it's not a formula. It's like a relationship with anybody.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
There are times when you— You feel more, and there are times when you have to pursue more. And all those times are meaningful. It's a part of a relationship.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
So I just want to compliment you and tell your community, I think one of the reasons why God's bringing a favor to you is just because you're pointing people to the Word. You could talk about anything. You could be about, hey, let's talk about relationships. Let's talk all about mental health. Let's talk about how to be your best you. Let's talk about fitness.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
But when you point people to the Word, the Word is living, it's active. The word directs, it guides, it corrects us. And so I just applaud what you're doing. Thank you. It's the most important thing you could do.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And so he gave me a Bible. So I had my little New Testament Bible and started reading it with seven other non-Christian guys. And we would read the Bible and then we'd pray. And it's embarrassing. We didn't know how to pray. We would pray like, God, protect us as we party tonight. Watch over us as we drink and drive. God, we pray for Mitch's girlfriend. Pray she's not pregnant, God.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
It's renewed your mind. It's made your mind new.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
You have a talk on- What that means is that I've been doing this a long time. Someone said the other day, he goes, you're really seasoned. I'm like, okay, call it what it is.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
It's interesting that there just seems to be a real spiritual attack on mental health today. And you can kind of, like all the reasons why are super interesting to study. And there are a lot of theories and such. But I would say like that, where do you go? Turn to Jesus, turn to his word right now. And anxiety, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. What a beautiful thing to do.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And unfortunately, I had to walk through some of that 29 years in the ministry. Didn't expect it, didn't see it coming, but kind of hit a wall. And so I've got a lot more compassion for people going through that as well. And did some work in counseling. And I want to say that asking for help is not a sign of weakness. It's a sign of wisdom.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
The Holy Spirit's a counselor, right? Yes. And so you can go to God and then God can speak through people and can be so helpful.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
So I want to ask you guys this just for the heck of it before we wrap it up, because I want your community here too. How can we pray for you?
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Yeah, and I would say to your community, please do that, because people look on and go, wow, God's hands on you, and you're traveling, and you're talking about Jesus, and you're on airplanes, and it's so much fun, and it's just hard, hard, and the opposition is real. And as you are being really bold for Jesus, that just invites spiritual attack. Yeah.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
I will get your tour list and your dates and I'll get that to Amy. And I would just ask your communities to take that seriously because that's really important.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
We didn't know that we'd pray. And we started reading. I read Matthew, Mark. I got so excited. I read ahead. Mm-hmm. And it was in Ephesians chapter 2 that I read about the grace of Jesus, that you could be saved by grace. And so when you say you were saved by reading the Word, I was saved by reading the Word. It wasn't a sermon. It wasn't a song. It wasn't somebody witnessing to me.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Can we get a little? Don't offer that because we'll take you up on it.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
We'll let Mad Dog take you on a storm chasing trip if you come here.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
It was reading the Word. And so fast forward to this day, the fact that God would allow us to give away the Word in the form of the Eversion Bible, how crazy is that? The kid that was saved by a free Bible now has the opportunity and the responsibility to steward that well, you talk about humbling. And it was like your story, Ari, you were saying you were saved right out of alcohol.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
No, that was your story. No, you were saved out of, miraculously delivered. That was my story as well. My dad was an alcoholic and I couldn't stop. And then met Jesus and survived. And overnight went from being party guy to being very, unfortunately, probably obnoxious about my faith. Maybe not always in the wisest ways, but certainly with a pure heart, trying to be bold for Jesus.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And I felt like I was called to ministry the very first day I was saved. And I think because, probably because we all are, right?
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
It is a miracle. And it doesn't happen that way for everybody, but it did for me. And I'm thankful for... There are so many miracles and still see them all the time.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Yes, yeah. Well, I think what you're saying is so true and so sad that so often in the church, we almost shame people out of being honest, right? And we think if we have doubts, then we must be a bad Christian. Well, if you have doubts, it doesn't make you a bad Christian. It makes you human. And if you look at the way Jesus handled people that doubted, He didn't shame them.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
He didn't push them away. He had grace for them. And if Jesus had grace, I mean, Martha doubted whenever Lazarus died and Jesus said, I'm the resurrection of life. And he healed. A guy questioned, could Jesus heal his son? And Jesus built his faith and healed his son. Peter walked on water and and sank in the water. And Jesus said, why'd you doubt?
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
What's funny is I always thought that was like an accusation. Like, why'd you doubt, you dumb guy? You have little faith. But when you think about it, Jesus was, he reached down, he pulled the guy out of the water. I think Jesus was saying like, why are you doubting me? I'm here, I'm helping you. You're walking on water, I love you. I'm pulling you out of water.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
That he had grace for people to doubt it. So if he did, shouldn't we? And I've found, it's crazy, but as a pastor, I've had seasons I could tell you about, very distinct seasons of doubt. And by talking about them, I found that other Christians are both relieved and then learn that doubt isn't the enemy of faith. In many ways, kind of like what you're doing, it's an invitation to a deeper faith.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Yes. You don't doubt because you don't love God. You doubt because you do love God and you don't understand. Mm-hmm. And God is big enough to handle your questions. I think He wants them. He embraces them. And you see all through the Bible, people going to God going, why? I don't understand. Where are you? Why do the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer? And it's all over the word.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
So if other people of God can go to God with questions, I think you can go to God with questions. And I think He welcomes it and will not push you away, but help you grow through it.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
So imagine this, and a lot of people miss this. Jesus has risen from the dead. He's about to ascend to heaven. He's up on a mountaintop. He's with the disciples. And Matthew says right before Jesus gives a great commission, right before it says, and they worshiped him. And some doubted. That's what the Bible says. They worshiped him and some doubted.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
And Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. So he said, go into the world and do my work, doubts and all. Like literally right there, they're looking at the risen Christ. And they worshiped and some doubted. That's me. Like one day I'm worshiping and then sometimes I'm going, is this really true? And he still sent them out to go and do the Great Commission. That makes me feel...
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
seen, valued, loved, understood, inspired, that it's okay to still go do ministry when I don't understand it all.
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Yeah. And so, when you did that, when you went to God and said, I don't understand, and talked to Him, what happens?
Girls Gone Bible
Doubting God w/ Craig Groeschel | Girls Gone Bible
Yeah. So what's interesting is you'll learn in counseling if you have a fear or anxiety or whatever, and you talk about it in counseling. kind of put skin on it that in some ways diffuses it. And the same thing is true with doubt. So I try to get people, and again, I'm not like a doubt evangelist. I'm not saying, hey, you should go doubt ever. I'm saying that if you do, here's how to do it well.