Episode 8: The Day Hope Was Born

Finding Hope and Faith in the Christmas Season -
Heartbeat of a Woman Episode 8

Join Jodi Howe and her mentor Patti Davis in episode 8 of Heartbeat of a Woman, where they delve deep into the power of hope and faith during the Christmas season. Filmed at The Shop Community Space in North Carolina, this multigenerational conversation covers various aspects of life, including relationships, finances, and health, through the lens of biblical scriptures and personal testimonials. They emphasize that Jesus' birth brings a profound sense of hope, urging listeners to turn to God's promises even when facing life's trials. With anecdotes about the importance of scripture, the duo shares insights on how to keep hope alive in a 'pressure cooker world' and encourages listeners to surround themselves with positive, faithful people. They also discuss the importance of spiritual growth and how hope can manifest in daily actions. This heartfelt episode is perfect for anyone looking to find solace and encouragement during the festive season, reminding us all that God's mercies are new every day.

00:00 Introduction to Heartbeat of a Woman
00:24 The Spirit of Christmas
01:34 The Power of Hope and Faith
03:39 Living with Hope in Daily Life
06:08 Hope in Relationships and Finances
09:07 Hope in Health and Healing
21:49 Conclusion and Christmas Wishes

Transcript

0:01

Something about Christmas just brings kindness out. It does, but it truly does bring out hopefully the best of people. Yeah. God either is the God of hope or he isn't. Yeah. And we've tested him. We have. That God can do abundantly more. Then what we could ever ask for what we will see in the world. Well, hello. We are back for episode eight of heartbeat of a woman. It is a multigenerational conversation between a mentor and a mentee. My name is Jody. How the mentee, this is Patty Davis, the mentor. Welcome back, Patty. We are here with some more nuggets of hope. Oh my goodness. I love it. Fun. This has been really been amazing. It's been a beautiful blessing. We're here in answer, North Carolina at the shop community space. And it is so. Christmasy feeling and I know we talked about that in the lamppost and we're not gonna take that to be Ahead of our hearts for Jesus, but I do love it when you feel the atmosphere You see the wreaths you feel the coldness in the air and we are just definitely getting excited. It's a time where calmness comes on Yeah, and we'll never talk about politics, but we just came through elections so that air that hovered over us for months was heavy. And so I like that something about Christmas just brings kindness out. It does. It just does. You can't not be kind unless you're, um, the, the Grinch. But, but even he turned around and grew a heart. He did. But it truly does bring out hopefully the best of people. Okay. And so I love what we're going to talk about. And I was hoping that you would just get us started because I know that we'll go into so many different, not rabbit holes, but incredibly good nuggets. So our listeners can take this away as they bring this into the last weeks of preparation. Perfect. And I hope when Jodi and I are talking, we can just scratch the surface of some of these topics. We tell you about a scripture, but I want to I hope you're doing your homework. Uh, don't take our word for it. Go in here. Go in there and do your homework. Make sure it's real. Um, I just want you to fall in love with the word. Um, and do it every day. Um, again, it's powerful. But again, I don't want to put you under bondage. You're doing it every day. I know there's you young mommas. You're just trying to Oh, you're just trying to catch your breath and also pace yourself, but be around people that know the word, be around someone that's going to speak positively and speak life to you. I just, I just thought of something. It's so beautiful because the urgency of Jesus and everyone knowing him and walking with him, there is an urgency there, but he wasn't the urgent. Jesus when he was on this earth, everything was so Beautiful and melodic and and he was very he walked everywhere. Think about that. He didn't fly around in jets There was no speed. It wasn't speed. It wasn't urgency It was he allowed everyone to come to where they needed to come But his his power brought them there quicker. Like if you think a woman of the well His power brought them there probably quicker. But anyways, I don't know why I thought of that But I just thought of that it was just like there is an urgency We want y'all to know jesus because when you start to know him your life It is a game changer, but that's not who jesus was god's timing was perfect It was amazing and beautiful and it unfolded a beautiful story Thank you for bringing that up because if you think when jesus was here that culture was calmer You Yes. No one, no one moved faster than they could run. Right, right. Today we're on jets and fast cars, but I thought, but the Holy Spirit can keep up with us now. Yes. The Holy Spirit is within us so we can access Him at any time. So the area that we kind of are going to chew about today with you, Jodi, let's just talk a little bit about how, um, this Christmas season is a time that, um, hope was born because God became flesh. Yes. Yes, God became flesh. That has to give you a lot of hope, young lady. It truly does because Jesus felt it, he breathed it, he hurt in it, he was excited in it, he had all the emotions, all the feelings, all the attacks, everything that I think we walk through as human beings on planet earth today. He came in the flesh. And so anything that goes wrong in our lives. How is it that we're not turning to hope? Well, anything that comes against our flesh. Anything that comes against our flesh, yes. Because remember, when something strikes your flesh, it can start to shrink you, it can paralyze you, it can lock you up. But we get to push back from the inside out with hope that we'll be able to conquer whatever attack is coming. You know, because we talk about much about living in a pressure cooker world. We do. But we have this, this treasure, you know, we have this hope and we get to push back. This is not. I have a huge, I've, I've had this huge, um, just adoration for Helen Steiner Rice, who used to write poems and put out books in the 90s and the early 2000s. My mother used to give me these books and they became kind of Bibles to me. It was before I actually started reading the Word of God. And in one of the poems, she would always give you a scripture and she would give you a poem and she would give you a prayer. And one of those prayers used to say, God, give me the strength through the day and remind me that tomorrow is a new day and with that new hope, we get to start over every single day. His mercies are renewed every day. The hope is always waiting for us for the new day. I, I have utilized that thought. Thought of that prayer and the, the God given hope to get through days of divorce. There you go. To get through days of being abandoned. Okay. To get through days of wondering how I'm going to see the next days. And you needed it fresh every day, didn't you? You needed it new. You know, food on the table. I needed that hope. God is a God of promise and possible, so that hope is going to come. Something is going to happen in my life. If I stay close to him, he is the God of hope, which means we may not see it happening, but we can trust it's going to happen. Well, and then is your hope built when you've read all the stories here in the Bible? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not the first woman to be abandoned. Right. I'm not the first woman to be abandoned. Ill and all. So we have so many examples and that's part of what I want you to understand why the Bible is here. There's instructions, there's correction, but it's just an amazing journal and a testimony of those that went before us, right? So we get, we get our hope because they did it. Yeah. My hope comes from the Lord, the chapter is it? It's called the, the chapter of faith, but I think they'll still think hope and faith are laced. But in Hebrews, you know, it lets you know, um, those that went before us and how they walked it. Beautiful. And they didn't use it all up. No. Um, I love the scripture that tells us that God's mercies are new every day. And I'm grateful for that. And you know why? They're new every day because I used them all up yesterday. That's how fleshy I am. I used up all his mercies yesterday. I need some new for today. That sin I committed yesterday. And worry is sin. Fear is, you know, I mean, we don't want, let's be careful if that's okay. That's a little heavy. It is, well, it is heavy, but it's doubt and doubt does not help us walk with the Lord. Let me separate it. Yeah, please. Doubt is definitely that separates us from God and I was dealing with a lot of that yesterday. Okay. Dealing with a lot of doubt. I wonder where that came from. I wonder where it came from. Yeah. But I was able to be renewed today. And renewed under your presence we did between before every episode we do communion and it's so beautiful It's so beautiful. It just reminds us what we're doing this for. Yes, and so his mercy of he's like, yeah, I know jody You were not believing that this could happen. You weren't believing that this was going to come together You weren't believing you weren't believing that wasn't of me because you know, that's not who I am I'm the god of peace. I'm not the god of chaos There you go. So you allowed enemy sources to step in and blu blu blu blu blu, you know, give me over. But not for long. Isn't that cool to recover? No, not for long. I don't harbor any. Because Jodi, I've got to be honest with you. Our last conversation was later last night. And so you had borrowed a spirit from somebody else. I did. And then Jodi, with that spirit, came to me. And then, no kidding, Jodi, I'm in bed. feeling that spirit. And I said, I'm not going to do this. I'm not good. No, don't apologize. We're just saying it's real. And I had guilt. Yeah. Don't don't don't don't don't. But we're learning and you're teachable. And also I just want you to know at 68 years old, those spirits still want to come to me, but see, I can push it away. I can shun doubt. I can shun this negative thinking, Jodi, and so can you. If you're having a negative thought, honey, well, my goodness, isn't it nice that you get to go have a new one? Yes. And if you need to stimulate new thoughts, I hope you get lost in the book of Psalms. Every human emotion is in the book of Psalms. Right, right, right. So if you don't even have a vocabulary or know what to say or how to start to get yourself up, go to Psalms. Go to Psalms. David and Moses, you know, Moses wrote some of the Psalms. And all, uh, and what's really neat is when you can study the Psalms and we'll, we'll do that next year a little bit. But again, every emotion is in there. Yeah. But hope prevailed. They were honest. You were honest about how you were feeling. I was honest when I laid on my pillow last night, and I said, Lord, I, I don't, this is not how I'm going to sleep. And all, and so we were able to turn that around. But that's what hope does. Hope does that. Hope. It's not just a pretty word on a Hallmark card. No. It's not pretty calligraphy. It's not a nice stitching on Grandma's quilt. You know, hope is Is alive. Hope moves me, Jody. It does. It moves me. It moves me. In Psalm 23, when Even out of curiosity. Yes. It moves me. I want to see what he's got for me, Jody. I'm all excited. I'm very hopeful of my future just as a single woman. I'm hopeful to see what the Lord is going to do in that. But, with the word of God in Psalms 23, where he says, I walk, as you walk through the valley of the shadow of death. You will fear not, and the Lord is my rod and strength, and I just paraphrased that, I apologize. This is Jody Hill. This is Jody, this is, yes, exactly. This is the book of Jody. Um, but it just, you know, he was my rod and my strength as I walked through the valley of the shadow of death of divorce. He was your hope, huh? As I did it through anxiety, as I've done it through challenges in my family. Yes, he is my rod and my strength, and that is hope. Yeah, God either is the God of hope or he isn't. Yeah. And we've tested him. We have. Not disrespectfully. Yeah. No, I like how you say that. He's tested tried and true. He tests us, but we, we kind of have to kind of like be humans and look at like what Mary said in the beginning, a few episodes that we recorded ago, a few days, a few weeks ago. Okay. When we recorded the first episode, you talked about Mary. About Mary. And he looked right at Mary and said, You will. Bring in the Messiah Paraphrasing again, you will bring the Messiah. He didn't say we'll be with child. You will be with child He didn't say you want to be with child. What do you think about this idea? He said no, you will be trusted it with you, right? And so she but she Kind of asked how am I going to do this? How is this going to unfold? I think it's okay to have a childlike questioning. Oh, absolutely. I'd rather you ask God than go ask the bartender, you know. Right, right. Ask God, don't ask the bartender. Ask God, don't ask social media. Ask God first. Don't ask, I mean, well, that's one of the things that I kind of suffer in a lot. Yeah, please access hope. Looking for hope in social media. We hope that you find us. Yes. On social media. But we hope that we give you right back to God to show you that that is where the true hope comes from. Absolutely. Okay. And if we take this back into the contents of Christmas, you're listening to this in the Christmas season. Jesus stepped into history. Yeah. At this season. Yeah. He stepped into history, Jodi. And he did that. He stepped into brokenness to give hope. Yeah. I love him. He stepped into brokenness. Yeah. And all, isn't that beautiful? So beautiful. So Christmas is about the birth of God's Son, Jesus. Yeah. And remember, Christ, Christmas is Christmas. It is a Christian festival. Anything outside of that is just, um, empty, I guess. It's going to cost you a lot and all, or it gets you bound into retail. But this is just really the essence of, of what our faith is all about. And stuff, a God who took time. It's about how he came to give us love. Hope and joy. Yeah, and I've looked at a lot of demigods and they just I'm having to work for them I'm having to hope they're there. I can't feel them or sense them But Jesus came and that hope can be felt we don't have a deeds based relationship with Jesus How refreshing is that? Oh my goodness. It is not a deeds based faith We don't have the deed was done at the cross. It was done at Calvary. We don't have now. Are we intentional? Do we need to be intentional? Do we need to get into the world? The things we need to do? Okay. But truth be told, I hope that they're joyous. Even though sometimes they can be hard. I hope you're like excited to get into the world Hopefully as you mature Jodi, are you able to say I need to do this, but now I'm wanting to do I gotta get into the word because I got to figure out how I'm gonna get through this doubt Okay, I just experienced how am I gonna get through this pain of anxiety that is overwhelming me? These are the only answers comes from this. It doesn't come from Anything else? They'll try to give you answers. The world, the flesh, the social media, the Google. And they give us this kind of hope. They give us this kind of hope. This that was born at Christmas is deep in my belly. I just know that I know that I know and it's unshakable. Isn't that the coolest thing? So cool. So cool. It was written that the hope of God, it's about a hope that God hasn't forgotten the world, Jodi. I know for all of us, what we're coming through, we think he might have forgotten us. Well, I think you're right. We were talking about the last month, the last couple months. Exactly. He knows exactly what he's doing. He knows. Why do we demean his power of being such a good planner? He knows exactly. Well, if he's Alpha Omega. Beginning and end. Yeah. And then I delightfully am snuggled in between there somewhere. Yeah. There's my hope. Yeah. There's my hope. I can't figure this out. I have a God who's not only figured it out, he's designed it, he's tested it, and he came out victorious. Amen. And that's the hope that was born. I like this thought, um, let me read it correctly. I didn't read it. It says, it, yeah. About Christmas, it was the hope that God hadn't forgotten about the world He made. Jesus name means rescuer. So there's the hope. Um, my daddy's military. So, um, he, uh, Uh, joined just after Pearl Harbor, uh, World War II, and then he was in Korea, and he was in Vietnam. And so we all know what POWs are. We know what prisoners of war are. We know what that means. But they all had a hope of being rescued. Right. Yeah. You know, a hope Um, keeps us alive, helps us get up. Hope makes, helps me endure things, Jodi. does. It helps me endure things. It, it, it, let me, let me go into if I can because I think that's a really great, I, I made sure that I pulled out this scripture that I wanted to share with the listeners. It's Proverbs 13, verse 12, which says, hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. And I, and I thought the word that popped out in my spirit was, was makes the heart sick. So when we're deferring hope, we're not living in a hopeful mindset. If we're not trusting in God's hope, then we're going to be sick in our hearts. There you go. And you and I both know that when our hearts are sick, everything starts to, it starts to become this flow of, of sickness in our, our character. Absolutely. It's a sickness in our health. Yes. It becomes a sickness in our environment. The way we are with our, Spouses or children or work people it really does Flow in a bad direction. It's such a powerful tool Hope and so I hope that that scripture gift helps you but you know One of the things that we've made a promise in this podcast is how do we allow it to be done? How are they doable? Our words. How are they doable? The scriptures. How are they doable? Well, good. Well, then let me ask you, Jodi. What's, what's the big deal about hope? What's the big deal about hope? What's the big deal about it? We'll talk about it. I love some of the notes you wrote, so I'm just going to read what you wrote because I think this is so relevant and what I experienced in the last couple of years of my life, relationships. Hope helped me breathe again. A horrible breakup in a marriage. Hope is what helped me breathe again. The Lord gave me a faith cocoon. He gave me the option to go into a place of worship to associate only with Godly people to stick closely to his word and meditation daily and to be able to Feel the wisdom of my my mentor about how I'm going to get through this Those were all elements of hope of hope good. Those were all elements So you can we can apply hope to relationships. We can absolutely reply it. So what else can we apply it? We can also reply to our we can apply it to our finances. Look when you wake up from Your whole world crashing down and you're like, how am I going to pay the bills? How am I going to take care of a at the time a high schooler and a college student? How is god going to provide this manna? Well through his hope Through his hope we get to pick up the manna daily Opportunities we get to pick up the manna down He gave me so many opportunities if I was steadfast in the trust and in the belief he gave me so many place opportunities in front of me to You Start a voice lesson business, which I have done with a friend. A friend of mine actually has the business But I'm one of her coaches and we work in such beautiful unification together and it's such a beautiful opportunity My manna was being sent from heaven And so I'm able to live through this new life and that was from the hope from God Okay. Now, how can we apply hope to maybe Well, I mean, if you all haven't had a chance to go back and listen to episode two, that's the cancer one. It's the cancer episode. Patty, when my mom called me during a horrible fear factor of this cancer that she was dealing with, it was crying. Yeah. And I didn't know where I was supposed to, I didn't know how to answer. I know the Lord. She knows the Lord. I know the scripture. I know the faith. But you've not walked the cancer arena, but I have not walked this arena. The Lord gave me hope in calling you and saying, Patty, can you please talk through this with my mom? You talk through this with my mom. And again, hope was just being reincorporated into the conversation. It became a Power tool from my mother. She's doing really well. Thank God right now in this moment still doing very very well with it How does hope help you through health issues? We have the ability to believe that God can do abundantly more than what we could ever ask for what we will see in the future In the world of Google document or Dr. Medical. Yeah, Dr. Google. We will in medicine and all of that. There is hope that he can do things through things that the world won't necessarily show us flesh through science. He can do immeasurably more than we can amass. Amazing, amazing. And let's back up and add to it that hope helps you submit because part of any healing is we have to submit. We have to sit. If I if you want to fight it, Submitting doesn't mean I'm giving in to it. It's just that I submit, and where am I submitting it to? I'm submitting it to God. My hope is in that my God is going to take this and work His will, His plan. And if this is the vehicle to bring me home, I submit to this. If it's a vehicle to teach my children that their God really can hold her together, then, yeah. But I love submission because it's a tough pill to swallow. It is a tough, it's a tough belt, but I'll tell you, it's a great place to rest your head when you have to recline and submit and then the resources that come through this hope, the resources, not just financial, um, just emotional resources, spiritual growth. You know, I, I'm so in love with Jesus and, and as I'm learning and growing each day with him, the spiritual growth that comes through that hope is to say, to be able to speak into someone's life when they're feeling so hopeless. Yes. We serve a God of hope, faith, hope, and love. Those three components. Don't you love when you come to somebody? Those three components of life, faith, hope, and love. It is so simplistic, right? And that's what I love about you as a mentor and someone who speaks of the word of God in such a way that you're always like, we're making it too complicated. It, listen, there's a lot in here, but faith, hope, and love. Those are what he left for us. He said, live in faith, live in hope. And live in love. Show love to others. Those things are an emotion, aren't they? They're an emotion. We have to implement them. We have to implement them as anything. It's an action step. But we want to encourage you that even those three things that you wrote in your notes that I just shared with you. Finances, relationships, and health. Everything falls under those three categories. Be intentional of being hopeful in the Lord. And wait and see what he does. Oh yeah, let him have the last word. Let him have the last word. I love that. I love waiting to see what he's going to do with something. Well, for being with us. This is so, so much fun. And again, Jodi and I are, are speakers and authors, and if you need to know more about our stories, uh, go to, Where do we go? We could Amazon and also yours is Redemption Press and and also Amazon. Mine is also available on Amazon. We have this new book that just came out that we really want to share for the last two minutes here. And this is a great. These are all great Christmas presents, holiday, New Year, whatever. This is called Strength in the Storm and it's 30 anthologies, ladies and gentlemen who are watching about women's stories. Of pain to redemption. If there isn't a book about hope I don't know what is because each one of these women all still continuously intentionally and wholeheartedly walk with jesus christ and the stories are Remarkable, of course divorce, of course cancer. We've got my story is more about living with the brain injury Mine's living with the brain injury obviously about divorce, but we also have stories about You Brain injuries. We have brain, um, aneurysms. We've got people with health crises. We've got people that had addiction issues. It is endless. This is such a tremendous book. You can get this on Amazon. Strengthen the Storm. I highly recommend this. We are just all a plethora of books and authorship and I'm so grateful. Listen, y'all have a fabulous and beautiful, wonderful Christmas. And remember where your hope comes from, where your faith comes from, and where your love comes from. And we love them. And we love them. And I love you and I'm so grateful. Thank you for coming to Heartbeat of a Woman. I can't wait to see what Jodi got me for Christmas. Okay, it's only one gift because you said in a prior episode I don't have to do one gift because we don't have to make it fluffy. So I guess it's just one thing. I'm being on me. Okay. But you know what, come back for Heartbeat of a Woman in the new year. We love you and we'll catch you next time.