"Just Checking In"

Sometimes we just need to pause and check in. In this honest and heartfelt episode of Honestly Speaking: Alone Together, we take a moment to talk about things people face on a daily basis. But, you are not alone in what you are carrying. If you've been feeling overwhelmed, tired, or just needing a little encouragement, this conversation is for you. If you ever need me, reach out!

Transcript

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Hello, hello, hello, everybody. Welcome back to Honestly Speaking, Alone Together. Um, this episode is going to be a little different. Um, the Lord placed this on my heart just now, and so I of course love being obedient. I'm gonna be obedient, and so we're just gonna do a check-in. So this episode is just checking in. So I'm glad you're here today. This episode is going to be a little different, like I said. There's no big outline, no structured topic, it's just a moment to pause and just check in with you guys with life and with the things that we all carry quietly sometimes. So wherever you are right now, driving, cleaning the house, sitting in your car, walking, or maybe just needing a few minutes of peace, I'm really glad you chose to spend time here. So let's be honest for a minute. Life has a way of piling things on us all at once. All at once. Some of our seasons can feel heavy, our days can feel confusing. Some of my days, y'all are I'd be so confused. But God is good in the all the time, and sometimes we're smiling on the outside, but carrying a thousand thoughts on the inside of us. Is that you? If that's where you are today, I want you to know something. You are not strange for feeling that way, you're not weak for struggling, and you're definitely not alone. That's the kind of heart behind this podcast, y'all. Alone together. Because see, right now we're in our respective places alone. I'm I'm in my location, you're in yours, but we are together. Because even though so many of us feel isolated in what we're going through, you know, the truth is there are thousands of people walking through similar emotions, questions, and struggles just like you. And sometimes the most healing thing to say to someone, or even for you to hear yourself, is yeah, I have felt that too. It lets people know that they're not alone. So a lot of times we deal, we've talked about battles that we face um in life that aren't the ones that people see. Um, maybe life didn't turn out the way you thought it would. Maybe you're carrying anxiety, maybe you've been dealing with grief or depression or worry, or maybe you're just tired, exhausted. And honestly, being tired in your soul is a different kind of exhaustion. But if you're feeling that today, this is your reminder, dear friend. You're allowed to pause, you're allowed to breathe, and you're allowed to take life one step at a time. Now, the faith in the middle of it, because I can't leave God out of this, you know, because God is my guy, He that's my daddy. So for me personally, one of the things that has helped me the most in hard seasons is remembering that God is still present, even when life feels messy. Because let's be real, life can get messy. Not when everything is going well, just when everything is going well, but in the very middle of your questions, in the middle of the disappointment, in the middle of the healing process that you may be walking through, I'm walking through. Sometimes faith doesn't look like having all the answers because let me be real with that. We're not gonna have all the answers all the time. Sometimes faith just looks like saying, God, I don't understand this, but I'm still trusting you through it. Yeah. And I think more people relate to that kind of faith than we realize. Because who's got it all figured out? Who's got life all figured out? Who's in control? Lord, the Lord is in control, but he will allow some things that will show us in our life that we are not the ones in control. So, God, I trust you, and I take that back to my verse, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all of your ways, but acknowledge Him, and He will direct our path. So, this is a moment for the listener, for you. I want you to listen up, dear friend. Let me ask you something. How are you? Really, not the automatic I'm fine, but the honest answer. Take a moment and check in with yourself. Maybe you need encouragement today. I'm here to give you that encouragement, friend. Maybe you need to rest, maybe you need hope. And I'm here to give you that hope too, friend. Wherever you are, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, right now, it's okay to be there. Because growth doesn't happen overnight, healing doesn't happen instantly, but little by little, friend, step by step, things can change. And my saying, um, especially ever since my son passed away, my saying is one moment at a time, one solid moment at a time with God. That's all I can do. Don't ask me to do nothing else outside of that, because that's all I can do right now is one moment at a time. Keeping it simple here. So if you're listening today and things feel heavy for you, I want to leave you with this reminder. Your story is not over. The chapter you're in right now may feel confusing, painful, and uncertain, but our chapters change. Healing happens, hope can return, friend. And sometimes the very things that break us open become the places where our strength grows. Yeah. Where our strength grows. So I want to read this to you. Um, it's out of my Bible, and let me tell you how God works. He just, Lord, God just has this way because I have told him, God, you just be just make it crystal clear to me when you're speaking to me. And let me tell you, he does just that. So I sat down today to just get in my word, get in my Bible, and lo and behold, I just opened my Bible to a specific place. And this place was Micah chapter 4, verse 10. And the the uh devotional is called Passion to Continue. So I would like to read this to you guys. I told you I was coming to give you some encouragement. I'm coming with some reinforcement, I'm coming with some backup. So this is taught uh titled Passion to Continue. Submit your passions to the Father, just as our Lord submitted everything on the cross, where he yielded all of his zeal and all of his strength, his passion was aimed at the joy set before him, being the submitted son of God. The father tested the power of his son's committed passion at Calvary. If it if it had not been effective, Jesus would have had to buy Joseph's tomb instead of borrow it. Have you ever faced some tragedies that have left you in a state of shock? I remember going through a time of complete emptiness in my ministry. I had lost the passion to continue. It was almost as if nothing mattered to me anymore, and I isolated myself from everyone. I became indifferent about details, could care less whether or not things got done. I simply disconnected. As long as I didn't care, it didn't hurt. When God spoke to the first woman about childbirth, he spoke of sorrow and travail. He forewarned her of the violent, tempetuous pain of labor, the near-death-like pains would come faster and harder as she drew closer to delivery. However, God says that at the end of all this, he will recycle the relationship between the woman and the man by returning desire. He says, Your desire shall be for your husband, Genesis 3 and 16. God knows that there is no cure for past pain, like present desire. If the desire is strong, is strong enough, the pain of the past will disappear like a shadow at high noon. The wounded and the weary ones will rise victoriously with new desire, and the cycle continues. My dear friend, you may have gone through some life-shaking experiences, but you can't live the rest of your life in fear and dread. God wants to renew your passion and revive your desire so that you will once again be powerful and productive for Him. May the passion to be all that God wants you to be sweep across your soul like a gentle breeze. And as the Bible says, Jesus presented himself alive after his suffering, his passion, by many infallible proofs. Do not hide, child of God. Show yourself alive with many infallible proofs. As the passion to continue comes creeping back into your life, resist the temptation to hide behind the fig leaves of your past. Come out of hiding and show yourself. Is that not beautiful? Beautiful. And that comes from um Micah 4 and 10. And it says, Be in pain and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in birth pains. For now you shall go forth from the city, you shall dwell in the field, and to Babylon you shall go. There you shall be delivered. There the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies. So this check-in today, I want to encourage you that the Lord is doing something so big behind the scenes for you. I just need you to hold on, friend. I just needed to come in and just check in today. And that's what God told me to do. But He didn't want me to leave you hopeless. So I came to give you hope and I came to give you encouragement. So I'm so glad that you took just a few minutes to just pause and check in today. If this episode resonated with you, feel free to share it with someone who might need it too. And remember, friend, even when life feels isolating, even when you feel like no one else understands, we're all in this together. And we're all a little alone together. So until next time, take care of your heart, take care of your body, take care of your mind and your soul. Take a deep breath and keep going. You're doing better than you think, friend.