Divorce and Abandonment. What the Bible Actually Says | Just Nona

There are some questions people of faith are afraid to ask out loud.

Not because they do not feel them, but because they are afraid of being judged, misunderstood, or confronted with what the answer might require.

One of those questions is this:

Is it okay for me to divorce?

In this episode of Just Nona, I am answering a heart question from Shonda, who is wrestling with what faithfulness looks like when a marriage still exists legally, but no longer functions as a covenant in daily life.

This is not a conversation about giving up on marriage.

It is a conversation about what happens when one spouse is left carrying the full weight of the household, the finances, the children, the grief, and the future alone.

We talk about:

• What the Bible actually says about divorce
• Why God’s heart is for covenant
• The context of Malachi 2:16
• The exception clause in Matthew 19
• What 1 Corinthians 7:15 says about abandonment
• Whether incarceration can be a form of functional abandonment
• The identity distortion that makes people fear God’s disappointment
• Why peace is not just the absence of conflict, but the presence of wholeness
• The practical steps to take before making a decision this significant

God’s heart is always for covenant.

But God is also a God of compassion.

And He would not want covenant to become a prison that keeps you wounded.

You are not a failure for asking the question.

You are a person of faith bringing one of the hardest questions of your life to God, and that is exactly where it belongs.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey friend, this is Nelna, and I'm so glad that you're here. Uh this podcast exists to provide a safe space where people can ask the hard questions that they're carrying in their heart and receive biblical wisdom from me, a friend. Uh in order for this podcast to be distributed as far and wide as possible. Ratings and reviews really, really matter. So when you can, please leave a rating and also leave a comment because I love to read your feedback. I hope that you give it five stars, but whatever rating you give it, it really, really matters. So please just take a minute and let me know what you think, okay? I'm so glad you're here. Enjoy the show. There are some questions that people of faith are afraid to ask out loud. Not because they don't feel them, but because they're afraid of what it will mean if they say them, afraid of being judged, afraid of being misunderstood, and honestly afraid of what the answer might even require of them. One of those questions is the one we're going to tackle today. Is it okay for me to divorce? And before you rush to an answer in either direction, I want to actually slow down because this question almost never exists in isolation. It lives inside of a story, a real one, with real pain, real history, real vows that were made, and real circumstances that have shattered them. And when the person asking has been left, not just emotionally, but literally, when the life they built has unraveled through no decision of their own, when they have been holding everything together alone while their spouse is physically absent and legally bound elsewhere. The question of divorce is not a question about giving up, it's a question about what faithfulness looks like now. Today's episode is for anyone who made a covenant and is now living with a partner who cannot or will not uphold theirs and is trying to figure out what God actually says about what comes next. Let's talk about it. Welcome to Justona. But we're just afraid to ask. I cannot tell you how many people have either commented or messaged me saying that they have found their way back to hope in Jesus because of the answers provided on this show. Up until now, this show has been entirely funded by me. But God has placed a really big vision in my heart to expand it globally. And I simply can't do it without you. So if you have been blessed by this show, would you consider partnering with me by giving a gift of any amount to help us grow the reach and impact of this ministry? If yes, there's two ways to help. If you're watching on YouTube, just click the donate button, or you can head over to nonajones.com and click the give button at the top of the site. Now, when you go to nonajones.com and give there, you can either give a one-time gift of any amount, or if you really believe in this ministry and want to support in a deeper way, you can become a ministry partner by signing up to give monthly. I would be so, so grateful. May God bless you for your generosity. All right, back to the show. Today's heart question is coming to us from a beautiful sister named Shonda. Shonda, welcome to the show. Tell us what's on your heart.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Hi, Nona. My name is Shonda. I'm from Houston, Texas. Um, I'm here today to kind of um seek some guidance on um from a marriage standpoint. How do you navigate a marriage that um you kind of feel like was never meant for you, so to speak? So to provide some context, um I've been married for 10 years, um I have two kids. Um, unfortunately, um my husband is incarcerated, and this is his second time around. Um, I know that the Bible says, you know, divorce is bad, divorce is awful. Um, but at what point, um, honestly, at what point is enough enough? Um and how do you move on knowing that um the situation that you're currently in is not the best for you or your kids?

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Shonda, thank you so much for that question. Um I think the question that you were asking is uh is it okay to leave a marriage when um the circumstances seem like they're beyond repair? Um but I believe the question behind your question is would God be disappointed with me if I choose to divorce? And so I'm going to deal with your presenting question, but I'm also going to deal with your question behind the question. And I want to first acknowledge that you took so much courage and bravery to ask this. Um the truth is, if if anyone listening to this or watching this is married and you're a Christian and you took your vows seriously when you made them, you wouldn't arrive at this question casually. This is not something that you just wake up one morning after a simple fight and say, you know what? I think I need to end this. Uh by the time you even come to asking whether it's okay to divorce, I'm going to take a wild leap in the dark and guess that you have probably spent months, if not years, trying to hold together something that just keeps falling apart. And that of course leaves you feeling discouraged and disappointed. Uh, and the weight of it is real. It's very, very real. It is true that there are some people who treat divorce casually, but Shonda, I can tell not only by the length of your marriage, but also by the tone in which you're asking this question, that that is not the case for you, that you take your covenant very seriously. And so I want to first address what I think is going on uh within you, because every question that a person asks, it's not just dealing with the situation at hand, it's also really dealing with what's happening internally within you as an individual. And so uh there is an actual psychological phenomenon called ambiguous loss. This is a term that's used to describe grief over something that has not officially ended, but it no longer functionally exists. So a situation where you are married to a person who is physically absent, right? But they're alive. And so it's it's a loss of something that is still present. It's something that still exists, that's ambiguous. And in your case, Shonda, and perhaps in the case of others who are listening and watching, uh, you know, the the challenge of all this is that your marriage is legal, but it's not functional. It's not operational. So the marriage exists on paper. You have a husband on paper, but you don't actually have a husband in your home. And I think what that does is it creates a tremendous amount of psychological angst. I'm not even dealing with the spiritual yet. I'm just talking about psychologically uh what's happening to you mentally, how you're seeing yourself as a woman, as a wife, it creates a lot of angst. And uh it can be very, very disorienting because there is a grief there for something that still exists but isn't functioning. I want to just acknowledge that because in your case, Shonda, and in the case of others walking through this similar situation, there is not a point of loss that you can really look at and say, okay, that was the moment when it ended that that didn't really happen. And so now you're left with some questions and uh there is really a slow unraveling that uh a lot of people don't want to discuss or or even try to understand. So I want to go to scripture and I want to do it honestly, not selectively. I will say I have been married to my husband. Uh we'll celebrate 22 years of marriage this year. I'm filming right now in 2026. So we'll celebrate 22 years of marriage uh next month, actually. And I've never been through divorce, but I will tell you, I have contemplated it. And my husband and I have been very transparent about struggles that we've had, um specifically as it related to me not having an example of marriage. And so when I got to a place that I felt like things could not be salvaged for whatever reason, I felt like the only recourse was divorce because I didn't know or see an option other than that. And so there's a lot of, there's a lot of anxiety around that. There's a lot of um grief around that, uh uh psychological trauma, all of the things, just even contemplating it. And so I want to make sure that I offer you a biblical framework for how to approach this decision because I cannot and I would not ever tell you what to do. I will tell you uh what the Bible says, and hopefully that will give you at least the principles that you need uh with which to approach the Lord personally and and make some decisions so that you will have peace, because that's the ultimate goal. You know, you want to have peace with whatever decision that you make, okay? And so I want to say at the outset of this, God's heart is for covenant. God's heart is for covenant. Uh, you referenced in your um question uh Malachi 2 and 16, where God essentially says that he hates divorce. It's not, it's not even something that he uh, you know, just tolerates, something that he dislikes. No, he hates it. So it's a very strong word because um the way that our relationship with God is best represented is as a marriage. And covenant is very different than a contract. A contract is a legal document that two or more parties, but in this case, let's just say two parties, sign, where uh there are very clear stipulations for whatever relationship that contract is going to cover, and uh it's conditional. So if the person doesn't keep up their end of the contract, then the contract can be nullified. However, a covenant, and this is where it does get complicated, a covenant is uh for life. A covenant is not just an agreement with another person, it is a vow that is made to God. And it is a vow where it is your life that is exchanged for whatever the benefits are of the covenant. And so uh God is a God of covenant. Um, I do want to say though, Malachi 216, the context for that verse that gets quoted so often is uh historically, men who were the ones who had the power to divorce, they were divorcing their wives and marrying younger women. Uh there were cases where men were divorcing their wives because they didn't like the meal that the wife made. Um, just very trivial, insignificant things. And so um they were divorcing their wives simply because they weren't, you know, happy or maybe they just uh for whatever reason had a moment where they didn't feel like they were getting the benefits that they wanted out of the marriage and they saw somebody else and decided they want to divorce their wives. Well, the reason why that was really a problem uh beyond the covenant piece was because in that time, historically during that time, women were 100% reliant on their husbands. 100%. And so women were very, very vulnerable. Um, if a woman did not have a husband, chances are very good that she had no source of income, she had no source of livelihood, she may not have had a home. And so she became vulnerable to things like prostitution uh in order to make a living for herself and maybe her children, because there was really no other way to make a living outside of marriage. And so prostitution, she became vulnerable to that. She also became vulnerable to rape and to enslavement. I mean, it was a very, very uh when we think about patriarchy today, it is nothing compared to the patriarchy of um the biblical ancient times. Um, it was another form of patriarchy where the woman was completely and totally beholden to her husband. So God was communicating that his heart for marriage was covenant because um the heart behind this verse is God wanting to protect the vulnerable, not imprison the wounded. I need to say that again. Malachi 2.16, the heart behind that verse was God wanting to protect the vulnerable, not imprison the wounded. Malachi 2.16 is one of those verses, one of many verses, that has been so distorted and so taken out of context. Uh, and women have been harmed physically, sexually, mentally, emotionally, because that verse has been essentially used uh to keep them imprisoned in an abusive marriage. There are countless cases, and you can search them online, countless cases of women who went to their pastor to tell their pastor what their husband was doing to them, like physical abuse of them, uh, oftentimes rape. And people will even say, well, but you can't rape your spouse. You absolutely can. Rape is simply about consent. And so they were going to their husbands about these things, uh, even dealing with their children, things that the husband was doing to the children. And the pastor was like, Well, you know, God hates divorce, so you're gonna have to just, you know, submit and humble yourself, you know, to your husband. And it's just horrible. And a lot of times these women, they either ended up even worse off, battered, uh, or in some cases they ended up dead. And so Malachi 2.16 has been taken way, way out of context, which is why I want to make sure that I give you um as much scriptural grounding as possible. So in uh Matthew chapter 19, beginning at verse 3, Jesus um affirms the covenant nature of marriage. And he identifies sexual immorality. The uh Greek word there is pornea, where we get the word pornography from. Uh, he identifies sexual immorality, pornea, as grounds for divorce, with the idea of that being very different than we understand it to be. So, right now, you know, the idea of sexual immorality is typically limited to, well, if we got married and the person committed adultery in the marriage, then that would be a problem. But it also extends to before marriage, because in that time, it was expected, certainly for the wife, maybe not as much for the husband, which was weird. But anyway, that the wife would be a virgin when she got married. And so if it was discovered that she in fact was not a virgin when she got married, if that was discovered after marriage, then uh it was believed that that could be grounds for divorce. And I believe that should work in the opposite direction. And so if the husband uh was um unfaithful, maybe presented himself as pure before getting married and come to find out he was going all around town doing all kinds of stuff, then that could be grounds for divorce as well. And then, of course, in the marriage context of adultery, if if a spouse is unfaithful to their covenant, well, that also becomes a ground for divorce. Now, what's fascinating though, and this is where the nuance comes in, is many times, and not all the time, but many times, spouses who are unfaithful in marriage, there's often a history of unfaithfulness even before marriage. Now, that doesn't mean that the spouse knows or or finds out, but a lot of times the spouse kind of knew, like, okay, well, this person was out there doing all this, that, and the other, but I forgave them, and so now we're gonna get married. Um, I have a friend who had a very similar situation where her husband, now ex-husband, um, before they got married, he was constantly cheating on her, constantly. And she would find out about it, she would break up with him, he would come back, he would apologize, promise to never do it again. Of course, he would do it again, she would break up with him, then that cycle would continue until one day um he broke up, uh, she broke up with him because he cheated on her. And then when he came back as usual, he came back with an engagement ring and asked her to marry him. And she said yes, despite his track record. And shock and awe, he cheated on her in marriage too, because past performance is always the best indicator of future behavior. And I say this to anyone, especially if you're considering marriage, I need you to hear me well, please. Do not overlook the character flaws and issues of the person you're interested in, thinking that marriage will change the person. Marriage does not change a person. Marriage does not change a person's character. Marriage does not change a person's level of commitment. Um, marriage is simply uh the agreement that we are together. But frankly, if a person hasn't, um, if they haven't been able to live up to that before marriage, please hear me. They're not going to suddenly flip a switch uh at the altar and saying, saying their vows, and now they're going to be completely faithful to you. I really need you to hear me on that because I've counseled so many women who were absolutely shocked and heartbroken that their husband uh cheated on them. And then when I began to dig into the history of the relationship before marriage, that had happened before marriage too. And so I'm telling you this uh with the heart of a sister, the heart of an aunt, the heart of a mom. If you are interested in someone and they've already cheated on you, you have got to be very, very circumspect about agreeing to marry them because they've already shown you uh that they have issues with uh commitment. They have issues with self-control, which is a fruit of the spirit. So I'm I'm I'm completely off my notes, but I just felt led to say that um to anyone who's considering marriage, please be very eyes open before you get married. If the person doesn't have the character to uh control themselves before marriage, marriage is not going to change them just overnight. So going back to Matthew 19, uh, verse three, so Jesus does uh point to sexual immorality as a ground for divorce, and many theologians call this the exception clause. And so this is really important because Jesus himself acknowledges that a covenant can be broken by the actions of a partner. So there is, in fact, at least a ground for divorce. Now, there's another passage that tends to be overlooked. It's found in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verse 15. And the apostle Paul is addressing a very specific circumstance, which is what happens when a believing spouse is abandoned by an unbelieving partner. So let's say, you know, uh both uh partners are not committed to the Lord, both partners don't go to church, both partners don't care anything about Jesus. One of them gets saved, comes home, and is like, oh my gosh, I'm saved now, I'm on fire for the Lord. I really want you to consider becoming, you know, a Christian. I want you to become a disciple of Jesus. And the other partner is basically like, no thanks, I'm out, and they leave. Well, in that case, uh, he says in 1 Corinthians 7:15, if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so. The brother or the sister is not bound in such circumstances. God has called us to live in peace. That phrase there, not bound, is significant because that phrase is translated from a Greek word, and I believe it's pronounced dedote. Y'all, I am not any type of like Greek scholar, but it's, I think it's pronounced didote, and it's from the root word dulos, and that means a slave or one in bondage. And so what Paul is saying is that in the case that you are abandoned, um, you are not in any way enslaved to a covenant, to the marriage covenant, when your spouse has walked away from it. Now, I think the theological question in your question, Shonda, and certainly anyone else who uh may be walking through this, in your specific case is okay, well, is incarceration uh a form of abandonment? And uh I would say that many theologians and Christian scholars hold that it can be a form of abandonment, particularly when there's three um attributes to the incarceration. One, the incarceration is a result of choices that the spouse That violated the integrity of the marriage. Okay. Number two, the incarcerated spouse is unable or unwilling to fulfill the basic responsibilities of the covenant. And number three, the remaining spouse is left to carry the full weight of the household and finances and family alone indefinitely. In this case, in the case where the incarcerated spouse made choices that essentially jeopardize the integrity of the marriage when they are unable or unwilling to fulfill the basic responsibilities of the covenant, and when the remaining spouse is left to carry the full weight of all the responsibilities for the marriage and the family, then you really don't have a loophole there. You actually do have an acknowledgement that abandonment is not only physical departure, it can also be the functional absence of a spouse who is no longer able or willing to fulfill the covenant that they made because of their own choices. Now, there are cases, and it happens all the time, there are cases where people are locked up and they are innocent. I think if you as a wife or if you're a husband in this situation, if you believe that your spouse is innocent, then I don't think it would be an issue of abandonment. But if you believe that they're innocent, then I do think that that becomes a bit of a nuance that you would want to take to the Lord and just get his mind on the matter. However, if it's very clear that they did what they did, um, that it jeopardized the integrity of the marriage, that they are now unable and or unwilling to fulfill their part of the covenant and the full responsibility weights uh weighs on you, they have in essence functionally abandoned uh the marriage at this point. Um, now I want to deal with, because I'm really big on how trauma distorts identity, I want to deal with um the progression that you may be walking through, Shonda, and certainly anyone else kind of in this situation and how it affects your identity, because I think if it's left unaddressed, it can create shame. And shame is a breeding ground where the kingdom of darkness loves to operate. I want to make sure that you are free from shame. I want to make sure that you are walking in the fullness of who God says that you are, not the lies that the enemy says that uh apply to you. So the identity distortion can go something like this. Let's say uh your marriage is failing, your spouse has left, and you're thinking, well, look, I made a vow before God to stay in this marriage. So if I leave, that means that I gave up. And if I give up, that means that I'm a failure. And if I'm a failure, that means that God is disappointed in me. That entire progression is identity malformation, and it can lead to a theology of punishment, this idea that God is upset with you because uh, you know, you failed, because something didn't work out the way that you had hoped or that you had planned. And um, because of that, I think that many people are staying in situations in marriages that are literally destroying you. They're destroying you. Uh, your spouse may be physically or functionally absent, and you have convinced yourself that I have to stay in this situation because if I don't, God will be upset with me. And sometimes we make the very um, very wrong, false equivalency between God's disappointment and people's disappointment. So we will sometimes assume that God will be disappointed with us because people have said we shouldn't do this or else they will be disappointed with us. We have to remember that people have a different outlook on the decisions that we make based on their own vested interests. Sometimes people will want you to stay in a dysfunctional situation because they are somehow benefiting from the dysfunction. Sometimes people want you to stay in a dysfunctional situation because they're also in a dysfunctional situation. And if you left your situation, then that would force them to have to confront the fact that they're staying in their own situation. So this is why it's important to really have a biblical foundation, um, to have a prayer life where you are before the Lord, uh hearing his heart on the matter, getting his mind on the matter. Because I need you to, I need you to really be very uh careful that we don't just focus on God's commands, but we also focus on God's character. We have to hold both of those things in tension. We have to hold them in tandem together because God is his word and God is his character. Why does this matter? God is a God of covenant and he is a God of compassion. God is a God of lifelong commitment, and he is a God who is near to the brokenhearted. He is a God that cares about the marginalized and the oppressed. He is a God who cares about the hurt that you carry. And God would never ask you to destroy yourself on the altar of a covenant uh that your partner has already broke. I mean, think about that. Like, what glory does it bring to God for you to destroy yourself trying to uphold a covenant that your partner has already broke? And this is where it gets really challenging because, especially when children are involved, children are so perceptive. And so they're watching everything that you do, they're watching what you say. And sometimes people will stay in a dysfunctional situation and say, Well, I'm doing this for the kids. But what actually happens is it teaches the kids that dysfunction is okay, that abuse is okay, that harm is okay, that disrespect is okay, that dishonor is okay. Because what they'll do later is they'll say, Well, mom stayed. Look at what dad did and mom stayed. So you have to be very um just very careful about the rationale that you use for the decisions that you make and make sure that they're grounded in scripture as well as the character of God as a God of compassion. Um, going back to 1 Corinthians 7, verse uh 15, it says, God has called us to live in peace. Hear me when I say this. Peace is not just the absence of conflict, peace is the presence of wholeness. God does not want you to simply grin and bear it or just suffer through it, especially a situation that brings him no glory. Like when no one is looking at your situation saying, wow, God is really good. Look at that situation, you have to begin to ask yourself, what's actually keeping me here? Is it because I believe this is bringing glory to God, or is it because I am afraid of disappointing people? And you have to get real about that. Um, in Isaiah 54 and 5, it says, your Maker is your husband. And this was spoken to people who were in exile. This was spoken to people who had experienced uh abandonment. And God was not saying, hey, stay in a situation that is destroying you, stay in a situation uh that is breaking you down, stay in a situation that your children look at this and they're like, I don't want anything to do with that, stay in that. No, God was saying that your identity and your covering are not contingent on whether another person stays. Because God is your husband, even if your physical, earthly husband abandons you, God is your husband. He cares about you. Uh, he is your provider, he is your priest, he is your protector. So practically, I want to just leave you with a little bit of guidance because this is not a decision that I think you make alone or quickly. This is not a decision that I recommend you make out of anger and frustration alone. I think you really need to take four actions before you make this decision. First of all, I'm so glad that you're watching this podcast. I'm so glad that you're listening to this podcast. Thank you, Shonda, for asking this question. There are four things I want you to do if you're in this situation. One, seek counsel from a licensed uh therapist or counselor who can really help you process both your grief as well as the practical realities of your situation. Uh, sometimes we allow our grief to make decisions for us that end up causing uh a lot of complexities practically later. So you want to be able to sit with someone who can uh be kind of an impartial thought partner on this to help you both unpack the grief, unpack uh if there is some shame there, unpack all of that, and then think through, okay, well, what does it look like practically if you were to divorce, if you were to leave? What does that look like practically? How does it affect your children? How does it affect your psyche? How does it affect the way that you see yourself? How does it affect the way you think? Those things matter. Second, if you are connected with the church community, I would highly recommend that you consult with your pastor or or at least a spiritual director who can even walk you through the scriptural framework that aligns with the context of your circumstances. I have tried my best to do that just in this, you know, brief episode. However, there may be an opportunity to go even deeper because the goal in all of this is to get you to a place of peace. And I don't want you to simply take my word for it. I really want you to be able to stand on the word of God. Number three, and this is really important, I want you to gain understanding about the legal realities of your situation. What does divorce mean practically for your finances, uh, for any shared obligations, for your own stability going forward? I would highly recommend that you at least do a consultation with an attorney to talk through, you know, what it would look like in the future, how this would play out. And I don't know, Shonda, in your case, uh if your husband is locked up for life or if he is gonna be getting out sometime soon, that certainly factors into the decision as well because now you're gonna have to deal with potentially his resentment and all types of things. And so you just have to talk through those things and make sure you have a practical plan. Um, and lastly, this is really important, and I I want to say this because I sensed as I was uh watching you uh your question, I sensed that you have been so focused on keeping everything together that you have not allowed yourself the space to grieve your marriage, to grieve what you lost. Um, not just what you lost, but what you had envisioned, you know? Sometimes grief is not just about what you tangibly lost, it's about what could have been, what should have been, what would have been. And so I want you to create space to really process that with a therapist, with God, um, and get to a place where you're honest about how you're feeling. So um, whatever you decide, whether that is to stay, whether that is to file, whether that is to wait, I just want to affirm that God's grace covers anyone who cares so deeply about his heart and mind on their situation that they bring it to him. His grace covers you, Shonda. His grace covers anyone listening to this, watching this, uh, that you're also wrestling with this and you're you're really wanting to do the right thing, you're really wanting to honor God, his grace covers you. This is not a simple question, and so there's not a simple answer, but God um is not afraid of it. He's not afraid of your question, and you should not be either. So I want to reframe some of the questions that you're probably thinking about. Uh, number one, will God be disappointed in me if I leave? Instead of asking, will God be disappointed in me if I leave? I want you to ask instead, what does faithfulness to the life God is calling me toward actually require in this season? Instead of asking or even saying, hey, I made a vow and I have to keep it no matter what, I want you to ask, what does the covenant actually look like now? And is it still a covenant when only one person is keeping it? That's a really important question for you to consider. All right, four questions, four reflection questions that I want you all to be thinking about uh over the next week or so. Number one, have I given myself permission to grieve this marriage honestly, not just the circumstances, but the version of my life that I thought I would have right now? Number two, where am I staying out of fear of God's disappointment rather than genuine conviction that the marriage can be restored? Number three, what would it look like to seek wise, safe counsel about this decision rather than carrying it alone? And number four, what does the life God is still calling me toward look like? And what does faithfulness to that life require of me right now? Listen, I said it at the beginning and I'll say it again. God's heart is always for covenant. And God is also a God of compassion. And He would not want you honoring a covenant to end up becoming the prison that keeps you wounded. So stay open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Um, continue to bring this question before the Lord, continue to study, seek counsel spiritually, uh, emotionally, psychologically, as well as legally. Seek counsel so that on the other side of whatever decision you make, you will have peace. And I want to pray for that uh before we go. God, I'm grateful for um the question that Shonda asked. And I'm just so grateful for everyone who's listening, everyone who's watching this uh episode, Father. There are so many people wrestling with questions that are deep, questions that are dark, questions that reflect the pain of losing a future that we thought was so assured. But God, I thank you that even though our future is uncertain, you're already in it. And so what that means is we can take heart and we can have hope in a future that we don't know or understand because God, you're already in it. You hold the future. You are our hope. I pray, Lord, that you will give everyone wisdom on uh how they need to steward every decision that they're making, especially those that are as consequential as this one. And God, I just speak shalom. I speak your peace. I speak your peace now, Father. I come against anxiety and confusion and uh fear. I come against insecurity and shame. And I declare the blood of Jesus now over every person who has been carrying those things. And instead, God, we take you at your word and we thank you, Lord, that when we take your yoke upon us, God, in exchange, you give us rest. I speak rest. I speak rest. I speak clarity and I speak wisdom. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Thank you so much for joining me this week. And if no one has told you this, please know that God loves you, and so do I. I'll see you next time.