Identity in Christ for Christian Women: Overcoming Lies and Finding Joy

What does it actually mean to live from your identity in Christ — and how would that change the way you experience joy, even when life is uncertain?
This episode of Encounters at the Well is for the Christian woman who feels like her identity shifts with every season — empty nesting, transitioning roles, or simply feeling lost in the mundane.

I sit down with my friend and fellow Christian coach, Johnna Johnston, to talk honestly about the pressures women face, the lies we believe about our worth, and the unshakable truth that we are already fully known and fully loved by God. Johnna shares how she learned to let go of striving and begin living from the truth of who she is in Christ — not what she does or how well she performs.

You will hear us talk about:

• What identity in Christ practically looks like in everyday life
 • How social media subtly distorts our view of our worth
 • The difference between joy and happiness, and why joy is not circumstantial
 • How to replace the lie of “not enough” with the truth of Scripture
 • Simple and gentle ways to reconnect with God and rediscover joy

Whether you are feeling unsure of your purpose, stuck in comparison, or simply longing for deeper peace, this conversation will remind you that you do not have to earn God’s love — you only need to live from it.

About Johnna Johnston
 Johnna is a Christian coach passionate about helping women step into more — more purpose, more freedom, and more of the life God has for them.
 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnnajohnston_coachingco

Email: johnna@johnnajohnston.com

About Amy and the Faithfully Free Program
 I am Amy Donathan, a Christian life coach and host of Encounters at the Well. I help women discover who they are in Christ, overcome fear, and walk in the freedom God offers. My Faithfully Free program equips you to live anchored in your God-given identity with practical tools, biblical truth, and supportive community.

Website: https://www.hopeandhealinglifecoach.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574602179682

Website: www.hopeandhealinglifecoach.com

Email: amydonathan@hopeandhealing.faith

Website:  www.hopeandhealinglifecoach.com

Email:  amydonathan@hopeandhealing.faith

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome to Encounters at the Well, the podcast for Christian women who love Jesus, but also need coffee, grace, and honest conversations about the hard things we don't always talk about in church. I'm Amy Donathan, your host, and I'm so glad you're here. Inspired by the Woman at the Well in John 4, this is a space for deep faith, real talk, and the reminder that Jesus meets us right where we are. Messy buns, doubts and all. In each episode, I'll sit down with amazing women who share their stories, their biblical wisdom, and of course a few laughs. So grab your coffee, get comfy, and let's dive in. Welcome to Encounters at the Well. Hey friends, and welcome back to Encounters at the Well. I'm your host, Amy Jonathan, and I am so glad that you're here. Today I'm talking with my friend Jonna Johnston about something I think that we all wrestle with at all different points of our life, and that is our identity in Christ and our joy and how to keep that joy throughout all the seasons of our lives. So if you have ever wondered who you are outside of all of your roles that you have as a mom or wife, or felt like your joy was slipping through your fingers, this conversation is for you. We're diving into what it really looks like to walk closely with Jesus and to reclaim your identity in him and to hold on to joy in every season. Jonna, thank you for coming on my podcast. I'm excited to have this conversation with you today. Thank you, Amy, for having me. I am so excited to be with you today. So we're gonna start off talking about our identity in Christ because that is a big thing. As women, we have so many roles that we we play and those become our identity. And so when they're gone, like when you become an empty nester, kind of the mom identity changes and is gone from what you knew. Or if your spouse dies, then the wife identity is gone. So it needs to be rooted in something more stable. Have you ever had a season where you just didn't recognize yourself anymore? And if so, what brought that on?

SPEAKER_00 2:04

You know, for me, I don't think it would necessarily be that I didn't recognize myself anymore, but maybe it was just a really hard season where I was having to wear some hats that I didn't necessarily love or I didn't necessarily feel like I was the most gifted in. But I knew that they were God ordained seasons. You know, I was telling somebody last night that even like I enjoyed having small children, but there are times that that's really challenging because you have plans for your day, and very seldom do things go as you want them to go. And when you have a lot of days like that stringed together, it can start to get overwhelming and you feel like you're fighting the ocean. And you can start to kind of go, like, who am I? What's happening? And you kind of live out of frustration instead of, wait, God has called me to this. And who does God say that I am? And I'm called and I'm capable, and we're gonna do this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

And I think one of the things that it has hit me in my life is that if I was not capable of doing it, God wouldn't have given me the children he gave me. That he sees something in me that my children needed that nobody else could give them. And so I think we forget that, like you said, in the hustle and the bustle and the, you know, okay, we're supposed to be here at 10 in the morning and my kids keep taking their clothes off.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

And I think remembering that as we're parenting our kids, our heavenly father is parenting us. So it's kind of a, I see it kind of like railroad tracks going together. Sometimes when we feel like we're doing it all on our own, taking a step back and realizing, gosh, I have a heavenly father that's working in my life right now, too.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Have you ever had a time where something you were teaching your kids that God just said yes for you too?

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Absolutely, absolutely. I have found several times. We would read like the kids' story Bible to them at night. And I can recall several different times where I start to, I started to get teary-eyed, and the kids would be like, Mama, why are you crying? Why? And I'd said, Because God is speaking to me right now. God is teaching mama some things. Amy, just for context, our kids are now um nearly 20, 18, and 14. So we still have a few more years of of kids at home, or our youngest anyway, but a couple that are uh gonna be, you know, college age. And so I just I've seen God's faithfulness through a number of different seasons already. And that's helpful, you know, as I look forward to think, you know what, God has been faithful in the past. When I start to worry about the future, I think God's been faithful in the past. I know he's gonna be faithful in the future.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Absolutely. As women, we have a lot of pressure on us to be moms and wives and work in the workforce and do it all perfectly and you know, have it all together, like able to get it all done. What are some of the lies within that? Because the reality is we do wear all of those hats, but what are some of the lies that that Satan brings and society brings to us as women?

SPEAKER_00 5:13

You know, I would first like to even ask a question to that woman listening right now and say, where did you hear this? Who who is telling you these things that you have to be all these things right now? And I think that's worth just giving some time to ponder. But I think one of the lies is you have to do it all in one season. I like reading Proverbs 31 and it talks about, you know, the picture of a godly woman, and she's amazing. And what I see is that she is just endowed with gifts and she's a good steward of what's been given to her. But I would like to dig in a little bit more on that because I I think the truth is that was not all in one season. That could be a snapshot hovering over her whole life. She did those things. It wasn't between the ages of 20 and 28. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

And I think in there it talks about they bring in the harvest. Well, that is not all. You don't plant and then harvest the next day. Right. So you have to wait. And um, so I think that is is very good. I think for me, one of the the places that we get these things from to answer your question is I mean, social media. I think social media plays a big part in um the pressure that that we have when you see uh I mean, kind of like what you talked about, the Proverbs 31 woman, like a snapshot. Like you see a snapshot on social media of people's lives and and you compare their snapshot, and usually it's like the best of the best. So um a highlight reel. Yes, you compare that to your whole life, and that's unfair because you're not seeing their whole life and the struggles that they have. And and being a therapist, I know everybody has struggles. Like I've worked with like hundreds and hundreds of people, and nobody has it all together.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

They really just to the poor, the women with a big career, down to to women who don't have a career, whatever. It doesn't matter, everyone is has struggles.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

But I think that's a lie that is perpetuated by social media, and I'm gonna say social media isn't good or bad, it's just what you do with it. But I think it's perpetuated in that you see this and you're like, my life is not like that, and I don't have that. Um, so God must not love me. I must not be who God wants me to be, or He would give me the things that this lady has. And you're not seeing, um, I always compare it to if you do a Zoom call with me or therapy with me, you see part of my office. Um, you don't see my desk. My desk is a mess. I have sticky notes everywhere. You only see the snapshot of my picture and my printer, but you don't see anything else. And so you think, okay, her office is really clean. It is not, and so that would be you know what social media does to us is gives us these lies that our life is not good enough because it doesn't look like somebody else's snapshot. Right. So so do you think with those lies, those shape our identity?

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Yes, I think so. And then we pick up little messages, whether it's just our own sin nature or even the enemy feeding us lies. And sometimes, you know, we I believe the mind and the brain are separate. The mind can choose, it's part of the soul, and the mind is where we take thoughts captive. You know, we a thought may come up in, and then we realize, you know what, this doesn't line up with scripture, so we reject it. And so then it doesn't get to go to the brain for the brain to run in our lives. There's sometimes we have thoughts that come in that it's like we open that gate and it goes into the brain and the brain starts running it. It's like a code, it runs it for our lives, and it's not truth. And it's those lies that they become like soundtracks, you know, and like I'm not good enough, I'm not pretty enough to do that. I should go do this. Oh no, what will they think of me? I'm not smart enough. My kid threw a tantrum in the store, no one would ever listen to me, you know. Or you know what, maybe I had a big failure in the past. Somebody might have a big failure and they think, well, that disqualifies me for everything in life, you know, and so they're running those soundtracks over and over, and some of those need to be taken out and replaced. Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

So compare that to identity, like our identity in Christ.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

What is what is that truth? I think our identity in Christ. And when I talk about that, I'm talking about it's the most foundational thing about a person. Are they in Christ? Do they have they experienced the new life of Christ, not just the old life of the flesh that we're all born into, separated from God, but the new life in Christ is when the Holy Spirit, at the minute of salvation, the minute you say, Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross for me and you rose again and you paid for my sins. I believe in what you did, that you paid the penalty, and it was sufficient. At that moment, the Holy Spirit comes in and takes residence in our hearts and we become born again. You know, in the Bible, uh, Nicodemus went to Jesus in the night and said, How can I be uh how can I enter the kingdom of God? And Jesus said, You have to be born again. He said, Well, how can I enter my mother's womb again? And he said, It's you have to be born of the spirit. It's a spiritual rebirth. And I think at that moment we are placed in Christ. And so, like for me, that's that's the label. I mean, if you kind of I think in picture sometimes, at that moment, a label gets stuck on us and everything changes. So instead of just being, oh, I'm a wife and a mother, and this is my job. I drive this color of car, I live in this house, all those labels. It's like Jesus comes and puts his big label over all of those and he says, She's mine, she's mine. And he wants to be the big, he becomes the author and the finisher of our faith. And he gives us the desire and the motivation through his spirit at that time. And it just becomes foundational in everything. Yes, I still have other roles, but when those things can't be shaken, or those things can be shaken, let's say that everything in life can be shaken except our identity in Christ. He is the rock that cannot be shaken. And, you know, I just think of every single title that I might have or hat that I might wear or roll that I might play. Most of them are temporary in this world. Let's say I'm a school teacher. Well, if I'm a teacher, guess what? I'm not going to be a teacher for the rest of my life. That's temporary, right? I'm married. Well, most likely you won't be married for the rest of your life. One of our one of us will die. You know, that will change, but my identity in Christ will never change once I'm in Christ. And then I can start to uh live out of that identity. You know, if I'm if I'm a mom, what I do is rooted in who I am. If I'm an attorney, the work I do is rooted in who I am in Christ.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

And and for a woman who says, like, what does that practically look like in my life? Because I think um, and I know I've struggled with this, like, okay, well, what does that mean? Like who I am in Christ. How is that different from who I am as a person now?

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Can you expand on that a little bit?

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

I can think of a number of examples, but let's just say, as a as a mom, if I have a teenager and what if my teenager is making choices that, you know, I've I've told them to do this. This is how I want them to live. And what if they make a choice that I don't like or they they mess up, you know? And I can, if I'm not in Christ, I can start to go, I'm just such a bad mom. It's all my fault. I must not be cut out for this. And you just start to question everything about you versus, no, you know what? My identity first is in Christ. It's not, I'm not graded on just what kind of mom I am. Because I'm in Christ at that moment of salvation, I believe he gave me an A that I carry forth. And so because I'm in Christ, that changes the way I parent. It changes the way I talk to my kids. And instead of always talking to them about their performance, I switched to talking about who God made them to be. And I think about how it changes how I'm a wife because I I want to approach things in a way that honors the Lord because God has my heart and I'm I'm seated with Christ in heavenly places. My citizenship is in heaven. It's not, I'm just passing through this earth, this world, you know, and it's temporary. Anyway, those are just some some quick things that come to my mind, some examples.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Would you say that living in your identity in Christ is living like his values? So it changes your thought process. Where before, maybe if you know your kids were doing something, but that biblical value of like kindness, you respond differently because you want to foster that kindness, and and that is now who you are. And and you have the Holy Spirit to help you do that, because I think on our own we can't we can't do it. Would you say that that that is also like living your identity?

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Yes, yes. I think so. I really like what you said just about our values and we operate from kingdom values, we don't operate from worldly values. And you know, Amy, I've had to even think about this this past week because our kids are in high school and they're playing some different sports, and there can be so many things wrapped up in the activities that our kids are gonna do or not gonna do. When I when I take a step back and say, how does this matter to God? You know, it's not just necessarily the who and the what, but it's the how we do things and how we approach this. And I was reminding one of my daughters to that we're to seek first the kingdom of God and all and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto us. And so I think when we're not operating out of our identity, we start to just go after the things of the world, thinking that they can satisfy. And it's like we're trying to find our identity in the things of the world and realizing wait, well, the creator of the universe, the king of kings, the lord of lords has already spoken over my life. And he says, she is loved, she's accepted, period, she is gifted, period. I I don't have to operate or I don't have to strive for per to perform for acceptance anymore. And I didn't learn some of this till I was out of college. And when I I got saved at about eight years old, but when I started to understand this right out of college, it was life-changing for me because I didn't realize I had been performing for acceptance all my life, and that's the way of the world. Absolutely. And it chains were broken in my life when I started to realize I'm accepted, period. Maybe not everyone is gonna like me, and that's okay, but the most important one in the world has changed my identity because I'm in Christ.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Does that make sense? Absolutely. So you stop trying to work to get good tally marks, so many tally marks in the good side to offset the tally marks and the bad side. All of that is gone. Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

That kind of thinking that many of us have probably struggled with, that kind of thinking is very law-based. Where it's like you're rewarded for the good, you're punished for the bad, but in Christ, there is grace. Yes. And it doesn't, like Paul said, we don't keep sinning so that grace may abound. That that's not the right kind of thinking. Right. Grace will continue to abound, but the right kind of thinking is wow, because of this is who I am, so therefore this is how I live. You know, we talk to our kids sometimes about that. We in our family, we're the Johnstons. And we each of us, praise God, my kids are believers, but we said, because we're Johnstons, and most importantly, because we're Christ's followers, this is how we're gonna live. We're not gonna gossip about people. We're not, we're gonna be kind and compassionate, we're gonna forgive because this is it's an identity issue. It's who we are, it's not just what we do, it's who we are.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Yeah, absolutely. And I think when that changes for people, when that thought process and that perspective changes, it does change everything because it doesn't matter the situation, those kingdom values are constant. And you and those can't ever be taken away. And so they stay through whatever situation you have and whatever season of life you're you're in, you can always act within those kingdom values, which is and and with the help of the Holy Spirit, because you know, we talked about before, you can't do it on your own, but with the Holy Spirit, it doesn't matter the situation. You are gods, period.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Yeah. So and I get excited just thinking about the young woman who might be hearing this, and you know, light bulbs coming on for her, and I just think, wow, what if somebody starts to really live into their identity from the age of 15 or 20, 25, 30, all the way until they're 95 years old. I mean, think of all the different seasons of life that that person will walk through and at the end of their life look back and just see the difference that their identity in Christ has made. That's something rooted and grounded in him. Absolutely. They're not rooted and grounded by their money, they're not rooted and grounded by their looks, they're not rooted and grounded by the car they drive, or the behavior of their children, or the their titles they have at work or don't have, they're rooted and grounded in Christ.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

Then how much of the negative thoughts and negative self-talk that that we give ourselves that they would not have to deal with? Because they because you can't say anything negative about being God's child. You are loved by the creator of the universe, you're his. And so, because I know just being a mom and when you know, going to church and seeing somebody walking with their kids and they're all like little ducks in a row, and mine are laying on the floor throwing a fit. I I'm like, I'm a horrible mom. Like, I can't get my kids together. And God still looks at me and says, No, you're mine. It's okay. It's okay. Thank you for for clearing and clarifying what identity looks like because I think that's uh something that's hard to grasp, especially if you are a new Christian, that's really hard to grasp. And sometimes if you're an older Christian, it's hard to grasp because it's hard to let that go because we live in in the world. We're not of the world, but we live in it, and so it's really easy to let it come in and affect us in a negative way.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

You know, Amy, I'm I just thought of a like a little illustration. If one of my kids, let's say they're fourth grade and they came in and they had a really bad grade in math, and my child is just crying, and he says, You don't love me anymore because I made a bad grade in math and all this. What would I tell? What would any good mom tell that little boy? They would say, Honey, yeah, you I will always love you. You are mine. You don't quit being a Johnston because you made a bad grade, and maybe he didn't study, maybe he didn't turn in his homework, maybe it's all his fault. I don't know. But it I would just say, I love you, and nothing can ever change that. And so now, because you're secure, you're safe, you're secure, now let's figure out how to get your math homework turned in. Let's figure out how we might need to do some extra practice so you can get a better grade. You know, the Lord comes alongside us, he sends a spirit, then it's like you're because you're secure in Christ, now we can brush up on your skills. You know, if it's your parenting skills or your marriage skills, we all have work to do, but it's not it's not our security or our salvation that's hanging in the balance anymore. That's been settled.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Absolutely. And and I love that illustration that you gave because I that's how I understand God better is after I became a parent. And you don't have to be a parent to understand this because most everybody I know loves somebody so much. Yes. So, but being a parent, like you know, having hard times with my kids, I never ever stopped loving them. Ever. They could, you know, we went through the stage of like, I hate you. I think I heard that one time, like from like from one of my kids. I hate you because I put in a rule they didn't like or they thought I was being Unfair and um but that didn't change anything about what I felt towards them at all. And when I think about that, it it floors me that that the creator of the universe feels that way and more about me when I'm having a temporary tantrum or when I don't do something that I should do or I'm doing something I shouldn't do. His love never fails. Yes. And he will turn.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

I think too, when we're trying new things, it can be really scary. I know that even as an adult, it can be scary to put ourselves out there and to try new things. And yet I know in my spirit, God is so proud that I take a step forward in faith. And he doesn't grade me on the outcome. He is so proud that I took a step of courage, just like we would be as a parent. We would never belittle our children for taking a step and trying something new. Right. We would celebrate that. And that's why I think we need to think about how God celebrates us. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

And that is amazing when you think about it and how unworthy that I feel to even have that. But his word says that I do have it. And so standing on his word of okay, I don't feel that I should have it, but you say that I do have it. So I'm gonna trust trust your word over my feelings.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

And why does he say that we're loved? Not because of all the good things we've done, but because the work Jesus did on the cross was so magnificent and so powerful that he accomplished what our works could never accomplish through his death and resurrection. And I've had women, you know, come and say before, Well, I don't know if God could forgive this or that. And I said, You know what you're saying is would you look at Jesus hanging on the cross and tell him, Your blood is not strong enough to cover my sin? And I said, No, I would never say that. I mean, how could you? And I said, Exactly. Right. And so it's not it, it's not that our sin was not that bad. It's that his blood is that powerful.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Absolutely. I love that. And I love thinking that he did it while we were still sinners. We didn't have to have the identity first. We didn't have to do all of the things first for for him to die on the cross. He wouldn't, he wouldn't have done it because we couldn't ever get there. He did it because we couldn't do it. And to really remember that that we don't have to be all cleaned up to come to him. We don't have to have this great identity and do all the things to come to him. He wants us just as we are. And I love that you said that it's not that our sin is too great, it's that his blood is so powerful. I love and so that kind of leads us into the next thing, and that's about joy. Joy is a word that I think we sometimes use synonymous with happiness, but they are two different, two different things. Can you explain the difference between joy and happiness and then what that looks like in in everyday life? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

So I think in the Bible, you know, when it talks about joy, that the joy of the Lord is my strength, or in his presence is fullness of joy. And joy comes from our proximity to Christ, not our proximity to comfort. And the world's definition of happiness and Jana's definition of happiness and making my flesh happy is comfort. I love to be comfort, comfortable, you know. It's hot. I'm in Texas, it's hot in Texas right now. I don't like to be outside because it's uncomfortable and everything. So if you stick me out in the heat, I feel like my happiness meter can go up and down. But when I'm really rooted and grounded in Christ, there's a joy that even when hard things happen, there can be a deep abiding peace, comfort, um, inner soul happiness that goes way beyond a surface level happiness. Because I've seen people who honestly maybe have been drunk and they appeared happy, but they didn't have joy. And that happiness was going to be very temporary because their hangover was waiting for them in a few hours. And sin will bring happiness for a season. That's what the Bible tells us. But then there's regret and remorse. And walking with Jesus brings joy, and that's a deep abiding joy. And that's what really what our souls are all craving.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

And I think it it comes with um going back to identity and relating it to joy is when you have that and you know you know you're a gods, and you know that he's working in you. And maybe you come to a situation that is hard, but you handle it in a godly way, and maybe not in a way that you would have handled it before. That to me brings great joy and um confidence and contentment that I handled it in a way that pleased God, you know, hard situations, and and those aren't ever gonna go away, the side of heaven. It's not you don't start being an adult adult at 18 and then um when you're 50, like life is all good and it's gonna stay that way. It doesn't, it doesn't work that way. And so it's having that joy of I am God's, and so whatever that comes into my life, I'll be able to handle because he's he's there. I have a sign hanging hanging in my office that says everything is figure outable. And uh and I like that because the only thing that's not figure outable is dying apart from Jesus. Everything that's not that is figure outable because God will help you, and so that helps. I think that helps with my joy of I can do this because I am God's and it and he'll he'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

You know, Amy, this past summer we have been blessed to get to go on a couple of we went to family camp together, which was really fun. And then um we got to go to the beach last week, actually, and uh it we just had a great experience. But there have been times in our lives that maybe finances weren't there for us to go on a trip, or there wasn't time, or we had little bitty kids, and it just didn't feel like that would be very peaceful anyway to try to go on a trip like that. And uh, but I all those things are good, and I think it can be a great investment in your family to to go somewhere like that and kind of get out of the daily routine. But I realized being on those trips is not where my joy came from. My joy came from, just like Paul said, I have learned the secret to contentment. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. And I think that's like that's where my joy is. It's tied to walking with Jesus. And I can do that whether I'm at the beach or I'm at home or sitting in a carpool line. I have to remind myself of those things. But I think the world tries to feed us, especially like on social media and just in all their advertising for sure, all the marketing is seek this thing, go on this vacation, and then you can be joyful, you know. Drink this beer, drink this coffee, buy this shirt, get this purse, and then you're gonna have joy. It's like, no, no, no. Joy comes from one place, and God is the only source. Everything else is fleeting, you know.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Right. And and it will give you some happiness, but it will not give you that abiding joy that God promises. So, how do you stay connected to joy? Um, even on the hard days or even on the mundane days that, you know, like we're in, you know, just a routine and it's the same thing over and over again. How do you stay connected to that joy?

SPEAKER_00 29:39

For me, there have been a a number of things I've done. I think even finding purpose in those things. And some of that is, you know, if your kids keep messing up, you know, the house. Or I found a picture the other day, my little girls, when they were little, they had gotten the role of toilet paper and it was scattered everywhere. You know, I was like, well, I didn't have that in my daytime. Right. But realizing even in cleaning up some of those messes, I'm modeling to them, I'm parenting them, and that's a value. And God doesn't just parent us on the mountaintops, but he parents us in the valleys, he parents us as we ascend, as we descend. And so having purpose in those mundane things gives me joy. And when I realize, gosh, you know, the dishes are gonna have to be cleaned every single day. And when I kind of switch my mindset to I don't have to, I get to. I have dishes. And I recently heard even the word appreciate. We hear, I think right now we're all being saturated with gratitude. Oh, we need gratitude and the power of gratitude. I think that's really good. And I totally agree with it. But I heard the word appreciate the other day, and it kind of unlocks something in my mind for me. And just trying to use that word more. God, I appreciate the fact that I have dishes. God, I appreciate the fact I have clothes to wash. God, I appreciate the fact I have a house to clean. I appreciate the fact I have a family to cook for because there are many, and I don't even want to say there are many people who wish they had that. Let's just not even play the comparison game. The fact is all these things are a gift. And any gift we have on earth is kind of a two-sided coin. You know, if someone hands you a brand new mansion, well, guess what? Now it has to be kept up. There's responsibility that goes along with gifts, right? And so I have like an inner two-year-old that wants to throw a fit sometimes. And so I think just reframing those things, but reading the Bible, man, it is so important for me to be in God's word so that my joy stays up. And because I can start to believe lies really quick. And there's something about God's word that just cuts through the muck and the mire and and shows me truth. I think turning on music with a good beat for the household and singing, especially words and music that edifies the Lord, also edifies our spirits, you know. Absolutely. Uh, so I think there's little things like that, especially like the Bible says, put on a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. And when you have a spirit of heaviness in the house or even over your own heart, that is the last thing you want to do. And I mean, it nearly becomes like spiritual warfare to put on a garment of praise. But I promise you, if you will, the darkness has to flee because when the light comes in, the darkness has no place to go but to run. Absolutely. So that's what I mean. Even if there's somebody listening to this, I would tell them if you're feeling a spirit of heaviness, just start lifting up your voice in praise, praising God for who he is. There may be things going on in your life right now that you don't love, but you can begin to praise and worship because he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And he's faithful.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Absolutely. Well, I was going through a hard time earlier this year, and um Brandon Lake's hard fought hallelujah. Um, that was the only song I could sing. God brought that to my Pandora playlist every day. Wow. And I remember like standing in the shower singing and crying. Yeah. Because I'm like, all I have is this hallelujah, not for what's going on right now in my life, but because you're God and I know you have this. Because I've been praying to you about this. And so you're gonna hear me and you have it. It just may not look exactly like what I think it should look like, but you have it, and so you know I think remembering that we walk by faith, we don't walk by sight.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

The quickest way to be down and lose your joy is to walk by sight. Yes, that's what I found in my life, and just it's by faith that we can persevere. You know, the Bible talks it. Paul wrote so many times in his epistles about perseverance, and honestly, I like to talk about it more than I like to live it out, especially when things are too hard. As I want, it's like I'm tired of persevering, I just want it fixed. But I know perseverance is doing a work in me. And even last week, there was somebody God brought across my path that I was able to comfort, and it was with comfort that I had just received from the Lord because I was struggling with something that was causing me anxiety, and I had to go to God to get that comfort. And then I was ready and able to help my sister in Christ when she was going through something similar and her heart was hurting. And I was like, let's go. I'm gonna come pick you up. Let's go get a coke and talk. And even through that, like I just saw God's hand and it, I was like, Lord, thank you that you work all things together for your good. I don't have to like it all the time, but you are really the grand weaver and you are working on a much bigger scale than I can see, and I'm gonna choose to trust. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 34:56

And I think that for me for sure, knowing that he has a plan and knowing that nothing that is ever allowed to come into our life is in vain. He doesn't he doesn't let hard things happen and just say, Good luck, they happen, whether it's by our choices or somebody else's choices for us. But he always, if we let him, he always uses them and he always teaches and he always and for me that's a comfort. Yes. And helps me stay grounded in in who I am because as parents, there are some things that our kids want to do that we don't let them do. Play in the road. I remember we had good friends that lived across the street from us when we lived in Missouri, and my kids would want to run over there and play, which was great, except for they didn't stop and look about crossing the road. And so we had a rule that if you ran across the road without looking, then you were gonna have to come back and you couldn't play because I knew that cars were gonna run down the road fast and and maybe not see the kids. I didn't do that to squash their fun or to make their life hard. I did that because I saw a bigger picture than what they saw. And when I that's one of those things, you know, we talked about did you ever learn anything when you're parenting your kids? That was one of the things that God taught me. I see this bigger picture. He had to put that in my head and and show it to me that way for me to understand the hard things that he has let me go through and um or the bad choices that I've made that you know I didn't know how we're gonna how they were gonna work out. But he had to put it in that way so I would understand that he sees this bigger picture like I see for my kids.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

Yes, yes. Sometimes we get to understand the why later on, even on earth. And don't you think, Amy, there's some questions though we won't get the full answer to because we don't have the mind to comprehend, and it will get answers in heaven one day. Absolutely. We'll have full understanding at that point. We will never I think it's like we have to understand we will never have full understanding on earth. Yes, but as much as we want to control things, I think that's part of the curse is we want to control and know everything Eve ate from the from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And I think that's like, gosh, that's we want to know all these things because we think that's where life is going to be found. Well, when I know this, it's like, no, that's not where life is found. It's eating from the tree of life. Well, now the tree of life is Christ and our life in Christ.

SPEAKER_01 37:28

Yes, and it's trusting that God's plan is for our good and his glory, and trusting that he doesn't do things in vain. Yeah, we do things in vain a lot, but he never does. And so it's been a reminder, Amy. I love it. It's being able to trust trust that and and like you said, you know, looking back in your life and seeing how faithful he was in the past, why would he be indifferent now?

unknown 37:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

And you know, for the woman who might just be a really young believer and hasn't walked very many miles with the Lord, I would encourage that person. If you can't recount ways the Lord has been faithful to you, well, probably if you're still living and breathing and you have a pulse, you can recount something. But I would say, go to the Bible, go read some stories. And that's the same God who's working in our lives today, the same God who parted the Red Sea. He's the same God who is alive and living in me today. And so go back and use those stories to praise him.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

Absolutely. But like you said, if you're living, you can just salvation in itself is and seeing what he did and and the how big it is that that he did that. I had a conversation with a man about salvation and how he said that Christianity is just a social construct to control. And I said, Well, if it is, it doesn't do a very good job. Because if God is all knowing, all-seeing, and all-powerful, why would he send his son to die on a cross to pay price a price I couldn't pay? Why wouldn't he just make me obey? Yeah, that's a really great point. It's not, it's not controlling. It's he did this, he saw us, he loved us, he wanted to do this, and he also gives us the choice to choose him or not. He does not make us.

SPEAKER_00 39:13

He could have created robots, but instead he created male and female in his own image because he wanted us to bear the same heart that he has, right? Yes. Wow, that gives me that gives me goosebumps. So powerful and how I think he delights in even the smallest things because he sees even the secret decisions we make in our heart to honor and obey him. It could even be I'm gonna pick up that dirty sock off the floor for the umpteenth time. Why? Because I'm just showing part of God's faithfulness, you know, and he keeps doing for me even when I don't necessarily deserve it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

Absolutely, absolutely. And it's really just having that appreciation.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

I appreciate that there's a sock that I can pick up and and there's training that's gonna be part of it as well. It's like Lord, I appreciate the fact I have kids to train. I don't know. That's the new word of the week, I think, is appreciate. That's I'm I'm gonna I'm committing to practice that myself.

SPEAKER_01 40:09

Yeah, I think I'm going to also. So, what is one simple thing that a woman can do this week to reconnect with God, to start finding her identity? Um it's there, just discovering it for herself and to reconnect with that joy.

SPEAKER_00 40:26

You know, Amy, I would say uh this is something that is so necessary in my own life, too, is clearing the noise and just getting quiet. Maybe putting your phone in another room, if it's going and sitting in your car, sitting on the back porch, sitting somewhere quietly, if it means you need to set the alarm earlier in the morning, whatever. But taking five minutes and just get still, like the Bible says, be still and know that I am God. And even focusing on that, be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God, and be still and know that I am God. Sometimes I need to remember I'm not God. He is God and I'm not. And I think just having a right size view of that, of him and a right size view of myself is helps me connect with him. And I think even our silence and be silent before the Lord, and it's a reverence and it's a holy thing, and it's part of our worship. And I was thinking about this story in the Bible. It's 1 Kings 19 had just experienced a huge spiritual victory, called down fire from heaven on Mount Carmel, but then now he's exhausted and discouraged and afraid for his life, and he flees to the wilderness, he hides in a cave and he tells God he wants to give up. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I have been there. And then God tells him to stand on the mountain because the Lord is about to pass by. And then a powerful wind comes by, but God was not in the wind. An earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake, a fire, but God was not in the fire. And then after the fire came a still small voice, and it was in that whisper that Elijah encountered God. And that's what I feel like God has been speaking to me is Jonna, get quiet because you want to see the fire. You want to see the big, exciting things. I mean, I'm kind of a dopamine addict in some ways. I'm working on that, but I think God is asking me, will you pull away and and get pull away from the hustle that the world is preaching at you? Pull away and find me in the stillness. And it's something that the world cannot replicate. But there can be things that happen in our hearts in those five minutes of stillness and quietness before the Lord that a week-long conference or vacation could never do for us.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 42:49

All right.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

Well, thank you for all of that insight. I'm so excited for the women that are going to hear this podcast to be able to have these tangible things. But another tangible thing we I want to talk about is your coaching program. I met you through Christian Coaches Academy and we had a nice coffee chat, and I got to hear about your program, but tell everybody else about your program.

SPEAKER_00 43:12

Yes. So I offer a coaching program for women. I call it a boutique coaching approach because I want to talk to the to that specific woman and come alongside her, find out what she wants in life, what's going on in her life, and where she wants to go. And together we co-create a plan to get there. It's not always about the having. I say it's I take a framework, it's called be doing helping people to have more than they ever thought possible. And I'm talking about spiritually, emotionally, physically, financially. Sometimes when you feel stuck or if you know God is calling you to more, you need to reach out to someone else who's gonna help walk along along the road with you and as a guide. And that's what I love doing. So if someone would like to reach out to me or get in touch with me, there's two different ways. You can find me on Instagram. It's Jonathan Coaching Company and it's Jonajonston underscore coaching co. And then they can also just send me an email at Jonah at johnajonston.com. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:20

And I will um I will put those in the description of the podcast and uh have them on the description when this goes out to social media so people can find you.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

Um and I offer a free introductory call for anyone interested. So there really is no risk. So if if you listener hear this and you think, gosh, I would love to talk to her, but well, I don't know if she would love to talk to me. Yes, I would love to talk to you. Send me an email or DM me on Instagram, and I would love to connect with your listeners, Amy. So awesome.

SPEAKER_01 44:53

All right. Well, thank you again so much. This has been so insightful and so real. And thank you for using just illustrations from your life and coming on. And I'm gonna pray, dear Jesus, I thank you for today. I thank you for this conversation with Jana. And I thank you for who you are, Lord, to give us an identity in you and to give us your joy and to call us your child and to love us even before we loved you. And so I pray blessings over Jana, over her life and her family, and I pray blessings over her coaching program. And I thank you that for her heart to do what pleases you, and I thank you that she helped us to remember that even the small things please you. We don't have to do big, great things, that even the small things done for your glory please you. And I thank you so much for all that you have done, and I pray expectantly and excitedly for all that you're going to do. And I pray these things in your name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Amy. This was awesome. Yes. Have a great rest of your day. Bye. Hey friends, I hope your heart is as encouraged as mine is after that conversation with Jana. We covered a lot from what it really means to find our identity in Christ to how joy isn't tied to our circumstances, but to our Savior. My prayer is that you walk away today feeling lighter, more rooted in truth, and reminded that you are fully loved no matter what season you're in. But before we wrap up, I want to take a moment to pray over you. Lord, I lift up every woman listening who already knows you, but maybe she's feeling weary, unseen, or like her joy has been fading. Remind her right now that her identity is secure in you, not in her roles, not in her performance, and not what others think of her. Fill her heart with peace and her spirit with joy that circumstances can't take away. But help her release the lies she's believed and hold tight to the truth of your word. And if you're listening and you've never put your faith in Jesus, I want you to know this. He loves you and he sees you, and he's inviting you into a relationship that will change your life forever. You don't have to clean yourself up first. You don't have to earn his love. And you can simply pray something like this Jesus, I know I need you. I believe you are the Son of God, that you died for my sins and rose again so I could have a new life. Please forgive me, change me, and make me yours. I want to follow you from this day forward. If you prayed that prayer, welcome to the family of God. I would love to hear from you and celebrate with you. Before you go, if you want to go deeper in discovering your identity in Christ and walking in freedom from fear, I'd love to invite you to check out my faithfully free program. It's designed to help Christian women just like you step fully into who God created you to be, with practical tools, biblical truth, and a supportive community around you. You can learn more at www.hopeandhealinglifecoach.com. And be sure to connect with me on Facebook at Hope and Healing Christian Life Coaching. I would love to hear what God is doing in your life. If today's episode encouraged you, would you please share it with a friend? Leave me a review or follow encounters at their well wherever you listen to podcasts. Every share helps more women hear the truth that they are loved, chosen, and called by God. So until next time, remember, your identity is secure in Christ and his joy is yours to keep.