46: The Wilderness is Not a Detour: Why Does God Send Us Into the Wilderness?

46: The Wilderness is Not a Detour: Why Does God Send Us Into the Wilderness?

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2520553/fan_mail/new] Nobody signs up for the wilderness. One day you've got momentum, the thing is working, and the next you look up and the ground has changed. The green is gone. And the desert doesn't just make you tired. It makes you doubt. Because you start doing the math: if I were really walking with God, I wouldn't be out here. This is part one of a new four-part arc on the wilderness. Not how to escape it. How to be formed in it. We go back to Exodus 13:17-18, where the text says plainly that God led His people into the desert, on purpose, choosing the long road over the short one. To Matthew 4:1, where the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness immediately after the Father's audible approval. And we sit with a hard, honest question: what if the wilderness was never a wrong turn? What if, in the economy of God, the desert is not the detour off the path. The desert is the path. With help from Kelly Brown Douglas on hope that lives in the middle of suffering, and Barbara Brown Taylor on why new life always starts in the dark, this episode is for anyone convinced their dry season is a punishment. It isn't. You are not lost. You are being led. Connect with us via our Instagram: @faithformed_pod Email us any questions or comments to yourpursuitpodcast@gmail.com Order your copy of my latest book, "The Purpose in the Pause", here [https://www.amazon.com/Purpose-Pause-Trusting-When-Everything/dp/B0FR4M8GNP] Learn more about me at www.justindbelt.com

45. "Be Anxious for Nothing"? Can You Love God and Still Be This Anxious?

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2520553/fan_mail/new] "Be anxious for nothing." If that verse has ever felt less like comfort and more like a command you keep failing, this episode is for you. You're in the third row with your hands up and your heart racing for no reason you can name, and underneath the worship there's one quiet question: what is wrong with me? You love God. So why can't you make the anxiety stop? And why does the one verse everyone quotes seem to prove you're doing it wrong? This episode is for the believer who's been fighting on two fronts, the anxiety itself, and the shame of being anxious at all. We look honestly at the data, including Gallup, the CDC, Barna, and a Baylor University study on how often the church dismisses real mental illness. Then we go back to Philippians 4:6 and read what Paul actually wrote, from a prison cell, possibly facing execution, and discover it was never a whip. It was a hand reaching out. From there we go to Elijah, one of the greatest prophets who ever lived, collapsed under a tree asking God to let him die, and the startling tenderness of how God responded: not a rebuke, but bread, rest, and a hand on the shoulder. To the whisper on the mountain. And to Jesus in Gethsemane, the sinless Son of God in such anguish that He sweat blood. With help from theologian Soong-Chan Rah on the church's lost language of lament, this is a conversation about putting down the second arrow. For the one who was told to just pray harder. For the one performing a peace they don't have. For anyone who needs to hear that "be anxious for nothing" was an invitation, not an accusation. Scripture: Philippians 4:6-7, 1 Kings 18-19, Matthew 26, Isaiah 53, the Psalms of lament. If this met you where you live, share it with someone who needs it, leave a review, and follow the show. Note: this episode discusses anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. If you're struggling, you are not alone. In the U.S. you can call or text 988 anytime. Connect with us via our Instagram: @faithformed_pod Email us any questions or comments to yourpursuitpodcast@gmail.com Order your copy of my latest book, "The Purpose in the Pause", here [https://www.amazon.com/Purpose-Pause-Trusting-When-Everything/dp/B0FR4M8GNP] Learn more about me at www.justindbelt.com

44. Christian Before Black? The Lie Inside a Holy Sentence

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2520553/fan_mail/new] I felt like recently celebrating Juneteenth was as good a time as any to address something I see a lot on social media and something I’ve even said myself.  I used to say "I'm a Christian before I'm Black," but only in one kind of room. Never around people who looked like me. Always in white-leaning spaces, where the disclaimer made everyone else relax and made him feel nonthreatening. This episode takes apart that sentence. It honors the worship underneath it, the desire to make Jesus Lord over everything, then names the lie smuggled in alongside it: that your ethnicity is the thing your faith has to overcome. Through Revelation 7, Acts 17, and a careful reading of Galatians 3:28 and Colossians 3:11, Justin makes the case that God did not erase the nations to save them. He gathered them. And "neither Jew nor Greek," the verse people use to flatten you, tears down the ladder, not the differences. This one is for any believer, Black or not, who has either offered that disclaimer or quietly asked someone else to. It is a loving confrontation and a release at the same time. In this episode: * Why "Christian before Black" sounds holy but hides a false choice * What Revelation 7 and Acts 17 actually say about ethnicity and eternity * The most misread verse in the conversation: Galatians 3:28, explained * How Colossians 3:11 seats the "Scythian" at the table without erasing him * Why culture-free Christianity is usually just one culture in disguise Scripture: Revelation 7:9 · Acts 17:26 · Galatians 3:28 · Colossians 3:11 · Matthew 10:37 Voices referenced: Esau McCaulley · Willie Jennings · Andrew Walls · Lesslie Newbigin · N.T. Wright If it lands, share it with someone carrying the same disclaimer. Subscribe so you don't miss what's next, and a quick rating or review genuinely helps other people find the show. Connect with us via our Instagram: @faithformed_pod Email us any questions or comments to yourpursuitpodcast@gmail.com Order your copy of my latest book, "The Purpose in the Pause", here [https://www.amazon.com/Purpose-Pause-Trusting-When-Everything/dp/B0FR4M8GNP] Learn more about me at www.justindbelt.com

43. Why Am I So Hard On Myself?

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2520553/fan_mail/new] "Why am I so hard on myself?"  Have you ever wrestled with that question? If so, you've found just the right episode to help you understand it.  There's a voice that gets to you before you're even fully awake. It tells you you're behind, you're failing, you should've done more by now. And most of us never argue with it. We think it's just honesty. This episode is about the most important sermon you'll hear all week: the one you preach to yourself. Drawing on Psalm 42, where a man in the middle of a spiritual drought stops listening to his own despair and starts talking back to it, we look at the difference between honest lament and the quiet self-contempt so many believers have mistaken for humility. With help from Howard Thurman's idea of "the sound of the genuine" and the old pastoral wisdom of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, this is a conversation about taking back the pulpit in your own mind. This is for the believer who extends grace to everyone but themselves. For the one who'd never speak to their kids the way they speak to themselves. For anyone tired of waking up already accused. You are not the exception to grace. And the voice telling you otherwise is preaching a sermon the cross made illegal. Scripture: Psalm 42 and 43, Romans 8:1, 1 Samuel 30:6. If this episode meets you where you are, share it with someone who needs it, leave a review, and follow the show so you don't miss what's next. Connect with us via our Instagram: @faithformed_pod Email us any questions or comments to yourpursuitpodcast@gmail.com Order your copy of my latest book, "The Purpose in the Pause", here [https://www.amazon.com/Purpose-Pause-Trusting-When-Everything/dp/B0FR4M8GNP] Learn more about me at www.justindbelt.com

42. What to Do When Someone Tries to Talk You Out of Your Calling

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2520553/fan_mail/new] Not everyone who has an opinion about your vision has earned the right to speak into it. Knowing the difference might be the most important thing you do with what God gave you. Episode 42 closes the Formation Trilogy -- nine episodes on purpose, calling, and vision -- with the two questions this arc was always building toward. The first: what does God do with the person who is still standing after the vision was buried? The second: who gets access to what God gave you, and how do you guard it without becoming closed, defensive, or unteachable? In this episode, we walk through John 20, and the moment Jesus commissions the disciples while they are still afraid, still in a locked room, still carrying more questions than answers. The sending does not wait for readiness. It comes through the locked door. And then it goes straight into Nehemiah 2, where Nehemiah inspects the wall in the dark before anyone else gets a chance to speak into the vision -- because he understood that voices enter fast and change what you see. This episode names three specific voices that should not have access to a God-given vision: the voice of unexamined familiarity, the voice of institutional protection, and the voice of wounded wisdom. It gives you concrete language for how to tell the difference between someone who is refining your vision and someone who is replacing it. And it closes with the commissioning word that has been underneath this entire trilogy: you were not given a vision to hold forever in private. You were given a vision to be sent with. If you have been carrying something God gave you and you are not sure who to let in, this episode is for you. If you have been through a formation season and you are not sure what comes next, this episode is for you. If you are still standing after something that looked like the end, this episode is for you. In this episode: -- What it means to be sent before you feel ready (John 20:19-23) -- Why Nehemiah inspected the wall in the dark before he told anyone the vision -- The three voices that should not have access to a God-given vision -- How to tell the difference between correction and replacement -- What the word poiema (Ephesians 2:10) says about why your specific history matters -- The Joseph narrative: what God does with vision that was buried and survived -- Theological voices: Willie Jennings and N.T. Wright This episode is for you if you are asking: -- How do I know who to trust with my vision? -- What do I do when people mishandle what God gave me? -- How do I protect a God-given vision without becoming defensive? -- What does it mean to be sent by God when I don't feel ready? -- How do I know if I'm hearing from God or just from the loudest voice in the room? -- What comes after a season of waiting, formation, and loss? FaithFormed is a biblical discipleship podcast for people who are serious about building a faith that actually holds up. New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Connect with us via our Instagram: @faithformed_pod Email us any questions or comments to yourpursuitpodcast@gmail.com Order your copy of my latest book, "The Purpose in the Pause", here [https://www.amazon.com/Purpose-Pause-Trusting-When-Everything/dp/B0FR4M8GNP] Learn more about me at www.justindbelt.com