Faith That Stands: Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

Welcome to Season 5 of Faithfully Invested — and we’re starting with something every Christ follower knows too well: your faith can feel steady… until life’s constant distractions start tugging at it.

In this episode, Allen and Stacy Jo break down why we don’t usually “sink” because the storm is too strong — we sink because our focus drifts. Using Peter walking on water (Matthew 14) as the anchor story, they unpack how distraction, anxiety, comparison, and overload quietly scatter our attention “one inch at a time”… and what Scripture says to do when your peace starts slipping.

This is not a pep talk. This is a reset for your focus and a call to build a faith that stands — not because life never shakes you, but because you keep learning to refocus on Jesus in the middle of it.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why faith wavers even when Jesus never moves
• The difference between storms and distractions
• How “slow fade” drift happens spiritually (without you noticing)
• Why spiritual maturity isn’t about perfection — it’s about attention
• The power of “release before you receive”
• A simple, biblical reset prayer you can use this week

Weekly Action Step:
When you feel your peace slipping (fear, pressure, distraction, comparison), pause and pray:
“Jesus, I turn my eyes back to You. I release this to You. Fill me with Your truth and Your peace.”

Key Scriptures: Matthew 14:30–33, Hebrews 12:2, Deuteronomy 6:6, Romans 12:2, James 4:7, John 16:33

The Kingdom LeadHERship Conference 2026 is happening January 31st in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. This one-day, Spirit-led experience is for Christian women in business and leadership who are ready to step boldly into their God-given calling.

🎟️ Tickets are limited. Sponsorships are available.

👉 Get your ticket now:   www.acbw.org

Reviving Recovery: Unbound starts online Monday, February 2nd at 7:00 PM We worship, we learn, we break out into gender specific groups and we journal with. Each other and with the Holy Spirit. If your heart is stirring listening to this, pay attention Healing begins here. Click the link below to join us at Reviving Recovery Unbound starting February 2nd.

www.revivingrecovery.com

See you in the room!

Transcript

0:01

Are you ready to build a life, business and legacy that truly lasts? Welcome to Faithfully Invested with Allen and Stacy Jo Thorne, where Faith meets real talk. Biblical wisdom meets everyday life and leadership meets laughter. Together we will uncover God's blueprint for leadership, marriage, and mission, helping faith-driven leaders invest in what matters most. Each episode, we explore biblical wisdom, have real conversations, and of course, have some fun along the way because let's be real. Walking in faith is an adventure. It sure is. So pull up a seat, grab your coffee or your sweet tea, and join us as we steward our callings with intention, because when we invest in his kingdom, he brings the increase. Hey friends. Welcome to Season five of Faithfully Invested. I'm Allen and this lovely lady is my beloved bride, Stacy Jo. Yes, I am. As we step into a new season, we want to start with something that every Christ follower faces. Uh, we wanna talk about the places where our faith feels steady until life's redundant, challenges start tugging at it. Mm. We know that you're listening because you want something deeper than a pep talk, and we're not interested in, in mere words, we're not interested in giving you a pep talk. That's right. But what we're, what we are interested in, what is, what God's word has to say about our daily challenges? We believe that we're all hungry for a faith that empowers us to roll with the punches, not just when everything is just swell. Swell, huh? Yeah, it's, it's my Eddie Haskell word. Eddie Haskell. You're on like a, a trip with Eddie Haskell? I don't know, but I'm definitely not going on a trip with Eddie Haskell. I could not stand that guy. The guy was a good actor though, man. He made you really wanna. Anyway. Yeah. Well, if you're joining us today, which if you're hearing us, you're joining us today. Here you are. And you feel stretched thin, maybe mentally overloaded. Gee, I haven't never felt that or spiritually pulled in every direction. Have you ever felt like that? Then you need to hear this because you are not alone and you are not failing. Let me repeat. You are not failing. Excuse me. Are you all right there? I'm all right. I'm gonna make it okay. You're not failing. I'm definitely not failing. But you're walking through what it means to be human while trying to follow Jesus in a world that is constantly fighting for your attention, do you feel like the world's constantly fighting for your attention? Whew. Some because I do, sometimes I feel like, um, we're just getting pulled in 10 different directions. Mm-hmm. And, you know, we gotta, it, it's important to designate our non-negotiables. Yeah. You know, and most often that comes with a what, what's a, a time priority, you know? Mm-hmm. Know what's due first. Yeah. You know, what's, what's most important. Mm-hmm. You know, what's gonna change the pattern of the day. Right. You know, so as you can tell, we've been there too distracted. Scattered, overwhelmed. I've been feeling quite overwhelmed in the last couple weeks. And so we're walking right alongside this, beside you or right along, right alongside you in this, so Right. So settle in and take a breath and let's talk honestly about where focus gets lost. Yeah. And how God's word anchors us in the middle of that. Yeah. I think it's a really good topic. It's a great topic and it's, and so on. Point for timing for me. It is, it is bullseye. Bullseye. And we, we all, we say this all the time, uh, in reviving recovery, unbound and, and, and really just with our friends and, and family, that we're, we're not alone and you're not alone out there. Uh, and the enemy would surely like you to feel that you are alone, but you're not. And, uh, we're, we go through it as well. Often. Yeah. So this is, this is just a, what faithfully invested is, is is us sharing our experience with you and, and hopefully you take something away from that and see how to navigate through with Jesus. Mm-hmm. And, um, so yeah. So I got a question for you. Okay. The question, uh, is a question that we've all asked at one time or another. Why does our faith waiver. Uh, when Jesus never moves from his promise, position, gee, it wouldn't be because we're moving or anything. Right? I think that's definitely it. Yeah. The cat's out of the bag now. That's it. That's it. We, we've all experienced, or, well, I hope we've experienced his, his faithful character. Uh, we say that we believe. Uh, and trust in his word. Mm-hmm. Uh, but when that moment that the wind picks up and the pressure rises and the emotions engage, and, and for me, the hair on the back of my neck comes up and which that doesn't happen often, right? Hard to catch my breath. It's, uh, yeah. When the unexpected blows up, uh, our eyes tend to drift. Uh, so we gotta. What I've learned to ask myself here is have the words of the word, uh, the biblical scripture. Ha. Have the words of the word come off the page. Are they still on the page or are they on the tablets of our heart?'cause it says in Deuteronomy, uh, chapter six, uh. That God's people for He, what he tells God's people is that, uh, the words of his commands beyond their hearts. That's Deuteronomy six, six. Uh, this is to say that the word is more than just informational knowledge, and we've talked about this before. Mm-hmm. Uh, and are in between messages. Uh. A concern in reviving recovery, unbound.'cause that's one of our main points is that informational knowledge never transforms. Right. Uh, it's, it's knowledge isn't a bad thing, information isn't a bad thing. But if we're, if we're just keeping God's word here, then we're never going to be transformed here by his word. And, and what, what Paul writes in Romans 12 is that we're not to be conformed to the pattern of this word, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind and. To renew our mind, we must, we must engage with the Lord. Engage with the spirit in his word. Mm-hmm. Uh, so that we might be transformed so that we might, uh, discern his how he wants to work in our life. Discern those voices. Yeah. Uh, between the, the voice of the enemy and the voice of the spirit so we can move forward, uh, into his purpose for our lives. Yeah. Um, so his truth. Yeah. We gotta, you know, that, that is his truth. We gotta move forward in his truth. For his truth. Yeah. Uh, but, but when we get flooded by everything under the sun competing for our focus, is it just us or are you flooded with a bunch of stuff competing for your focus? You know, his word speaks over that nonsense. Yeah. When we're in it. When the words come off the page and they're on the tablets of our heart hearts, his word speaks over the nonsense. And we grow closer with them. We grow closer to him. Um, so are the words still on the page or are they on your heart? Mm. So that's a great question. Uh, you know, we most likely are not drowning because we don't believe that Jesus Christ is king. We're drowning because distraction is constant. You know, we have distraction in so many areas of our lives, and we move from one task to another, or one worry to another, or one expectation maybe to another. And before long, I don't know about you, but my attention can get diverted into a thousand microscopic pieces, right? Maybe even a million microscopic pieces. Same. I don't know. But you know, Matthew 14 depicts this so clearly, clearly that you know, Peter didn't sink because the storm grew too strong. He went under because he was distracted from his focus on Jesus. Yeah. And the doubt crept in. Yeah. Quickly. Very quickly. And therein lies the challenge. It's not in the storm's existence. But in the plethora of distractions that shift our eyes off of the one who studies us. And that's when he started to, to sing. And that's when he went under, right? That's it. Yeah. He was, he was doing good. And then, right. Uh, we'll come back to that. Uh, so when we think about how this plays out in our daily lives. You know, God calls us to something. Maybe it's a new business, uh, maybe it's a new ministry assignment, uh, uh, commitment to a healing or, or forgiveness that you've been avoiding. Is there something that he's placed in front of you that you've been avoiding? You know, at first, you know, uh, when we step out, you know, we got, we got all that confidence. We got that God confidence. Yeah. Uh, we feel bold and we feel the strength of God beneath our feet. There's clarity, there's purpose, there's direction. Uh, but when the proverbial wind starts to rise, you know, maybe there's a financial distraction. Uh, maybe you maybe. People aren't paying attention. Yeah. Maybe there's a strained relationship. Uh, maybe there's a personal health challenge. Uh. Maybe there's, there's always the increasingly overwhelming schedule. Oh yeah. You know what we're talking about. We're not, we're not alone. We're well aware that we're not alone. And if you don't, we would love to share some of our schedule with you. So, uh, you're carrying response. We're all carrying responsibilities to stretch us way beyond our. What we feel we're capable of. And these distractions seem to gang up on us. And we become more focused on the wind, the waves, and the storm than we are on the one who is there to see us through the storm. Yeah. And we wonder, Hey, where'd that guy go? Yeah. And then there are the internal storms, you know, the quiet ones that nobody sees. Mm. That self-doubt. Yeah. You know. The self doubt that whispers, Hey, are you really doing what you're supposed to be doing right now? Do you really have time for this? You've gotta do this over here, or that, did he really say, yeah, to do this right? Oh, did he really say, yeah, that this is your responsibility, right? The enemy's got nothing new. No, no. Maybe it's that insecurity that creeps in, you know, that lie that says you're behind everyone else, you know, you're not as good as them. You're, you're not as talented as them. You're, I could go on and on with that because I have felt that, yeah, and the thoughts that replay, maybe the thoughts that replay your mistakes more loudly than God's promises. You know, that's tough. And most of the time it's not the dramatic moment that takes us down. It's the accumulation of little, small distractions, tiny anxieties, or maybe those subtle shifts in our focus. And you don't intentionally take your eyes off Jesus. I don't say, oh, you know, sorry, Jesus. I've gotta look over here now. Yeah. It just, it happens one inch at a time. One millimeter at a time. Right. And before you know it, you know you're going under, yeah. Maybe not dramatically, but maybe emotionally, mentally, spiritually. But peace can seem void sometimes. And clarity can seem like it becomes confusion. Yeah. You feel unsteady and you wonder, how did I get this far under without noticing? And I will say without a shadow of a doubt, I have felt that way because I'll feel like sometimes I'm on the top of the world and next thing you know, I feel like I'm buried under it. Yeah. And, and it happens bit by bit, by bit. And as, as we were putting this together, uh. As we were studying this and, and like I said, putting this together, the, the song, there was a song that come to mind. It's an older song by the casting crowns called Slow Fade. It never, it never happens all at once. It's a slow fade. Yeah. It's one, one. It's incrementally, we, we lose focus. We, we misplace our focus on that. Yeah. And it's a slow fade. You know? Yes. And I definitely get that, you know? Mm-hmm. We're, we're in it together, uh, and we're, we're in it to win it together, but sometimes winning it, you know, it comes outta cost. Yeah. Um. So, and when you're sinking, it doesn't always look like a crisis. Sometimes it looks like emotional numbness. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Where do I, I get that one emotional numbness. I, I remember when I was coming through my recovery, I was, uh, I was, I was known for either being way up high or, or way down. And then there was a point. Uh, when I was coming into sobriety following the Lord and I was just blank, and that freaked me out. I remember that. Yeah. That freaked me out. And I, I went to my sponsor and I was like, dude, I, I feel nothing. Mm-hmm. The emotional numbness. He is like, I know. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, it only lasts for a little while. Yeah. And it lasts even. A, a shorter while when we decide to release it to him. Yeah. Uh, sometimes it looks like our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. Sometimes, uh, we're losing joy in things that, uh, used to shine bright with us. Uh, sometimes it's feeling like our spiritual footing just keeps slipping and slipping no matter how hard you try. To grip onto something that's solid, you just keep slipping. And that's, that's what happens when our focus transfers from Jesus to everything else. Pulling a, pulling on us, pulling us away from Jesus. Yeah. You know, I don't know how many episodes in a row. I say this. Pastor Joby Martin of Church 1122 says, if the enemy can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. Yeah. And he is the enemy's a master of distractions. And distraction drains our faith quietly and consistently. And here's for sure, here's what we need to recall, friends. Yes. Peter went under when he was distracted from Jesus, but also Peter was the only one who had enough faith to get out of the boat and go to Jesus. Yeah. He, when, when obedience mm-hmm. Uh, also noticed this, and in the storm, uh, while he was sinking, Jesus didn't change his position. He was always with him. He was with him the whole time. Yeah. And more than that, and I love this part, even when Peter was distracted by the doubt, when he cried out to Jesus, Jesus, the word says, uh, the um, English standard version ESV says Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him. Saying, oh, you of little hate. Oh, you of, oh, you of little faith. Yeah. Why did you doubt? Yeah. Is what Jesus said to him. And finally, this, this point. Is, uh, when they got back in the boat, the wind ceased, the storm settled, and it says that the disciples in the boat worshiped him, recognizing that he was indeed the son of God. This is in Matthew 14:30-33, and these men walked with him. Uh. For three years. I'm not sure at what point this was along those three years, but they, they did life together. They, they traveled together. They ate and slept together. They, they, uh, learned together. They were there when he said, take my yoke upon you, and learned from me. And they learned from him and, and it, it took him a while. Because these were Jewish men in, in the first century. Mm-hmm. Uh, steeped in Jewish religion and time after time when he would show that he was who he said he was, and, and Jesus is who he says he is to this very day and. When the, when the wind ceased in this, in this chapter here, Matthew 14, they, they, they were like, Hey, this guy is he, he is the son of God. And yes, he is the son of God. But if the enemy can sway our belief, if he can just distract us mm-hmm. Over here. Yeah. He's done his job, so Right. Well, and you, you talked about, you know, Jesus immediately reaching his hand down in to pull him up, not leaving him there. You have that picture as your screensaver, or at least you did. You used to have a picture. See, it's one of my favorite pictures there, there are several renditions of it, but it's it's a beautiful, yeah. It, it's, it's, it's beautiful. It's Peter's. Perspective from down under. Yeah. And Jesus reaching down through the water. Yeah. That's one of my favorite pictures. And I just, I love that. Yeah. But you know, the takeaway here is that he's, he is with us in our storms. He never leaves us. He never, the Bible says he'll ne he will never leave us or forsake us. Yeah. So he never leaves us. And if it feels like we're alone in it. And we just have to call out to him and he is right there to pull us up. Just like that picture of that Allen had, I, I see that every time I, you know, envision that, that story of Jesus pulling Peter out of the water, I see that picture and it's just such a beautiful picture. Mm-hmm. But he's the one who gets us back to the safe place, and as we experience him. As we experience him, our faith increases as we come to realize that he is who he says he is. Yeah. He is the son of the living God. Yeah. And no one else. No one else. And what, what I love about that picture, and if you don't know about that picture, I, I. I wish we could put it in the show notes, but it's not our picture, so we might get in trouble for that. Yeah, I don't know if we can do that. We could put a link to it, maybe put a link to the picture, maybe a link to it. Yeah, maybe we can do that. But what I love about that picture is ge is Jesus, the, the countenance on his face as he's reaching down to help Peter out. It's not a man there. He did it again. Oh, come on. How many times now, Peter? He, there's no disappointment there. There's a, a look of I'm with you. Come on now. I got you. I got you. Yeah. And let's go. Yeah, let's, let's go. Uh, yeah, let's try this again. Let's, he says there's no disappointment on his face. So, you know, scripture gives us a solution that sounds simple but incredibly powerful in Hebrews 12:2. Um, it says, fix your eyes on Jesus. It doesn't get much simpler than that as far as a command goes. Right? But he isn't talking about a soft suggestion. It is a command, and the word fixing in the Greek means to intentionally turn your gaze away from one thing towards another. And that means the minute our focus drifts, we have the power through the Holy Spirit to redirect it. Jesus isn't asking us to. He's never asked us to pretend that storms don't exist. He's never asked us to pretend that we live in this perfect world, right?'cause obviously we don't. Yeah. And in this world we will have trouble. He was very clear about that, that he was very clear about that. But he's encouraging us to trust him through the storms. Right? A faith that stands babe. And that's what we're talking about this season. Season five is, is all the, the, the. Crux of this season is mm-hmm. Uh, faith that stands. Yeah. Uh, and a faith that stands isn't, it's not built to never be shaken. It's built, it's not built by never being shaken. It's built by consistently being shaken. Yeah. Our faith will be shaken. Jesus, like states just said. Jesus said, you will have trouble in this war. Mm-hmm. But take heart, I've overcome the world. Jesus says, yes. And, and that's who we need to keep our eyes fixed on. Yeah. He's the, the right after that, in Hebrews 12 says, he's the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. Mm-hmm. Um, so again, a faith that stands is, consist, consist. It's, it's consistently shaken, but it's also consistently refocusing. On Jesus. Yes. Lessons are, are very rarely learned when life is just peachy keen. That's, uh, peachy keen, peachy keen. That's, where'd that come from? That's my Richard Cunningham. Uh, yes. I'm a product of 70's, television. I was gonna say, have you been watching? What's that? What's that? Uh, network that has all the old shows, like it used to be Nick at night, but, uh, maybe it is. I don't, I don't, I don't think, don't, I'm not up that late anymore. But anyway, I watched a lot of 70's tv. Peachy Keen and, uh, the Eddie Haskell thing, you know, leave it to Beaver, was on, on syndication, on Channel 61. Oh boy, you even remember that fashion long time ago. And a galaxy far, far away named Ohio, right? Uh, yeah. Uh, anyway, uh. Yeah. But lessons aren't learned when life is peachy. Keen. No, they're learned through the sinking moments and the failures. That's it. The greatest, my greatest life lessons have been learned through my greatest mistakes. Yeah. You know, we, we don't, we learn, uh, through our mistakes. Standing, uh, standing faith is born, uh, one redirected mistake at a time. Write that down unless you're driving right. Uh, standing Faith is born one redirected mistake at a time. Every moment that fear arises, what we need to do is say, Jesus, I turn my eyes back to you. When anxiety creeps in, we pause, we reset. And we say, Lord, I give this to you. I release this to you. Anxiety is not from you. Mm-hmm. The word says, fear not. And anxiety is born of fear. Mm-hmm. And it's easy to say, but again, have the words come off the page and onto the tablets of your heart. You know, this is more than just information. So when anxiety creeps in, we encourage you to just pause and say, Lord, I release this to you. This is not of you. Uh, I come against anxiety in the name of Jesus. Yes. And, and what the word says is if you resist the enemy and he will flee, resist him in the name of Jesus and believe that in the heart of hearts. Yeah. When you believe that. And he fleas even quicker, uh, when insecurity whispers. Mm-hmm. And it does, yes, it does. Too often. I'd like to say, yeah, when insecurity whispers we operate. We must remember that we operate under and in the authority of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and we shut down insecurities access because our security is found in Christ. In Christ alone, right? Yes. Amen. Am I right? Amen. Amen. Yes. I'm preaching to myself. Amen. Because, because we face these struggles as well. I don't know how many times we've said that here, but we face these struggles. Uh, this is about our experience that we just this week share with you. We have faced these challenges. Yeah. You know, our spiritual maturity. One thing I've learned, uh, as I, as I grow in my faith, and I, and I continue to grow, is that our spiritual maturity is not about perfection. It's about attention. Who are we giving our, where, where's our atten, our attention focused at? Mm-hmm. I, uh, I wrote an unbound that. Our, we don't have a sin problem. Jesus, Jesus overcame that challenge for us. Jesus took our sin. He died for our sin before we were born. As we exist and, and, and as we continue on, he took that burden. What our challenge is, is our attention. What our, our, our challenge is, belief bound allegiance. Hmm. Who are we listening to? Are, are we, are we focused on the storm? Is that because that's where the enemy wants us focused at? Or are we focused on Jesus? Our challenge is belief, bound allegiance. What do we believe? Where is our belief aligned with? Who is our, who are we listening to? Yeah. It's understanding that our footing, uh, always follows our focus. True. I love that. When our footing always follows our focus, uh, when we stare at the storm, we get what the storm offers and we sink. Mm. And when we, but when we stare at Jesus, we get what the Savior offers and we stand on the water with him. Yeah. And anchoring ourselves in his word is a major, major part of that. Uh, I mean, Peter didn't walk on the water because he felt brave. Or because he had perfect faith, because we've already come to understand there is no such thing as perfect faith. Right? He walked because Jesus said, come. And it was the word of Jesus that held, held him up. It wasn't adrenaline, it wasn't confidence, it wasn't self-assurance, you know, not op optimism. Um, you know, the word of Jesus in Peter's. And faithful obedience in the moment empowered him to stand on the water. Yeah. And that's what holds us up as well. We don't need perfect confidence. We don't need a, we, or I should say we, we don't need to be focusing on anything else. We just need a steady focus on the one whom the wind and the waves obey and pliable heart to learn from the sinking moments. Yeah. Um, which is hard sometimes, but it does increase our faith through that journey. Yeah. I like to, I like to say and, uh, and obvious, I mean, not obviously, I like to believe that it was, it was obedience that got Peter out of the boat. Mm-hmm. Uh, faith, obedience and faith that got Peter out of the boat. It was doubt that. He went under, but it was, it was the love, the compassion, and the everlasting Christ that brought him back to the surface and got him to back to safety in the boat. And will do that for us as well. And, and that, that's the, he's done it for us. He will do it for you and he will do it over and over. And over and over. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. You, grace. Grace. That's right. Uh, so there's, there's this one truth that I think everyone needs to hear here. Hear, hear here. We, and we already mentioned it once, but it's worth repeating. Uh, when we call out to Jesus, he reaches out to us who are going under immediately. Yeah, so don't hesitate. Call out to Jesus. He didn't stand back. Notice with Peter. He didn't stand back and say, well, let's see how long old Pete can tread water before he learns his lesson, not the case. Or how long can he hold his breath? How long can Pete hold his breath there? Yeah. What do you say, John? Yeah. No, no. Thankfully that's not how he works. So, but, uh, that's definitely not how Jesus operates. Instead, he, he reached out instantly and it's so, it's comforting that our faith isn't grounded and how tightly we're holding onto Jesus, but. Our faith is grounded in how tightly that he's holding on to us. Yes. So even when you're sinking, even when you feel you're going under, even when you've drifted, even when your attention has been scattered for weeks, months, or even years, his reach, the reach of Jesus Christ, our Lord, is still stronger than your slip. Oh yeah, absolutely. There is way more grace in Jesus than there is slipping sin in us. Yes. Way more. That's a blammo moment and we are so grateful for that. Yeah, blammo. I'm personally grateful for that. Yeah, absolutely. So, so here's your, uh, we always like to give you an action item. So here's your action item for the week. You know, whenever you feel your piece slipping, whether it's fear, pressure, distraction, comparison, or anything that pulls your eyes away from him, simply pause and say, and I think Allen already said this. Jesus, I turn my eyes back to you. Yeah, I release it. I release these distractions or this distraction to you, and just please fill me with your truth and your peace, and then just receive all that he has for you. Yeah. And let that be your reset. Let it interrupt. Let it interrupt your cycle. Yeah. Let it retrain your focus. And it's, it's not dramatic. It's not complicated, but it is just simply powerful. You said something there and it, and it's key. Uh. We, we gotta release. Mm-hmm. Release the anxiety, release, the depression, release, release, whatever's holding you back, release, whatever's distracting you. We must release it first so that we can receive what he has for us. We're not able to there if we don't release the junk. Yeah. We can't. There's no place for us to receive the truth, so we, or it's up to us that Lord. Jesus, I release this to you. Mm-hmm. This, this, I don't want this. I, I want take this anxiety, what have you. Yeah. Release it first and then, Jesus, what, what, what do you fill me with here? What's your truth for me in this situation? Yeah. And then he'll fill you with this truth. Yeah. You know? But we must release before. Yeah. We can receive or so that we can receive. Yeah, absolutely. I always liken it, you know, if, if I'm carrying a bunch of stuff right, and you want to give me something, I have to lay it down right before I can take what you, you are wanting to give me. Right. And it's the same thing with Jesus. If we're carrying this anxiety, this pain, this, uh. Whatever it is, you know, the sin, the lies. The lies. Yeah. If we are carrying that, how can you receive what he has for you if you don't surrender it and lay it down? You gotta, you gotta release itt Yeah. So you can receive truth. That's right. Right. That's it. Yeah. So we'd love to hear, um, how God meets you in, in your moments. And the moments that you release him to him and, and your prayerful him, how is he meeting you? Where you're at? Uh, send us a message and, and share this if you, if you like this episode, if you love this episode and you know you love this episode, uh, share it with someone, uh, that, you know, needs to hear this, this message. Uh, someone who will benefit mm-hmm. From this message and, and tell us, um, how God's. Calling you to refocus. Yeah. Uh, we grow stronger and we honestly believe this'cause we're, we're reviving recovery unbound People we're re recovery's done, uh, great things for us. And, and we, so in that we believe that we're always stronger as we stand together. We're better together. Uh, and we also understand that our storm doesn't disqualify you. You are not the summation of your failures, your storm positions. You, you're rightly positioned to experience Jesus's steadiness in a deeper way. Yes. So thank you for joining us for this first episode of Season five, season five. I can't believe it. Moving right along. We are moving right along, but there's so much depth coming in this season. And we are honored to walk with you. So keep your eyes steady, keep your heart anchored, and keep choosing Jesus over the distractions. You'll be really glad you did right. And as always, stay faithfully invested because when you do, God brings the increase. We love you. Thanks for tuning in. God bless. Bye-bye now. Thanks for joining us on Faithfully Invested with Allen and Stacy. Jo, if today's conversation encouraged you, challenged you, or helped you see your calling more clearly, don't keep it to yourself. That's right. Share it with a friend. Leave a five star review and keep leaning into God's blueprint for your life, your leadership, and your legacy. So until next time, remember, when you invest in his kingdom, he brings the increase.