November 3, 2025 • 23 mins
Hey friend, If you forget to pray, you're probably not persuaded that God is good, He hears you and that He loved you first. This episode explains how God has to love you with all of his heart, mind, soul and strength or He could not require that from you and I tell my story about getting free from anxiety.
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
God loves you with all of his heart, all of his
soul, all of his mind, and allof his strength.
That's the only way he couldrequire it of you, is because he
did it first.
Do you love God but forget topray?
Or feel guilty instead ofenjoying his presence?
I understand.
I know how unsatisfying timewith God can feel if we believe
(00:22):
he's distant or busy.
I'm Lenora, mom, Jesus lover,and former international
trainer.
If you're looking to feel closerwith God without fear or
pressure, have a greater abilityto receive from him and desire
more confidence to make animpact with your own life.
Well, get some coffee and let'stalk.
If you're carrying stress andwant support with prayer, I
(00:45):
wrote a book to help you.
100 Prayers, Releasing 100Cares.
It's full of real stories,scripture, and 100 prayers for
every part of life.
A link to the book is in theshow notes.
How persuaded are you that Godis for you?
You already believe there is aGod.
If you're listening to thispodcast, you know he exists.
(01:07):
But my question for you today ishow persuaded are you that God
is for you?
I mean, is God just observingyou?
Is he there for you sometimes,like a you know, a loose
connection on a speaker or amicrophone?
Or is he for you?
Is he your best friend?
(01:27):
If you have a battle to fight inlife, is he someone you trust?
You know he will be there foryou.
If you are afraid, you know he'sthe place to run to.
You know you can call on hisname and he's gonna be there.
If you have a request and you'resaying, God, I really need this
for my family, or you share aparticular desire you have in
(01:49):
your heart, do you believe thathe is going to hear you?
And by the way, the word hear inthe original language, it's it's
a term that means, if you heardme, you'd be moving, kind of
like what my parents did when Iwas a little kid, or what I did
to my kids is I'd say, Did youhear me?
(02:09):
Because I assumed if you heardme, you'd be moving.
So if you call on God, do youthink he hears you?
When you ask for something, doyou think he takes action?
Now, if you don't believe thathe's taking action, then we've
got trust issues.
Or we don't know, is it a game?
What's the game here?
(02:30):
How do I make him take action?
I see.
I think we have a lot ofassumptions about God, a lot of
things we think we know aboutGod, and we throw up a prayer
here and there, but we don'tknow, we're not persuaded that
he hears us, meaning that he'salso taking action.
Now, some people think it'sactually weird to expect God to
(02:52):
do something when you have aprayer.
You kind of like, well, I hopehe does it.
I hope I'm not being tooarrogant to ask him for
something.
Again, that tells me we don'tknow his character.
Now, if you know much about yourBible, it's a book full of
promises.
Full of promises.
I mean, there's stories andwarnings and different things
(03:14):
too, but it is a book full ofpromises.
And if you have a friend whogave you a bunch of promises and
said, hey, in our relationship,this is how it's going to go.
Here's some of the benefits,here's some of the commitments,
like a marriage.
If you get married, here's thebenefits.
Here's what we offer to eachother, and here's the boundaries
(03:35):
because of that relationship.
Here's what you are saying no tooutside of this relationship.
You're no longer seeing someoneelse as far as dating, that type
of thing, or whatever you wantto call that.
But with God, it's like you'regonna have one God.
If you're gonna have the God ofthe Bible, you're saying, I have
one God because he says I am theonly God.
(03:56):
And if you have him, then youhave his promises.
You have whatever he's like,that's what you have.
That's who you're connected to,who you are in covenant
relationship with.
And again, quickest way toanswer what covenant is, is a
marriage.
Now, in a God kind of marriage,you fully belong to each other.
(04:21):
Think of Abraham.
Abraham's in the Old Testament,and God actually called himself
the God of Abraham.
I'm the one Abraham can call on,and I'm there for him.
Now, if you have said yes toGod, he is your God.
A covenant means I belong toyou, you belong to me.
(04:43):
We belong to each other.
I belong to God, but God alsobelongs to me.
But again, what kind ofcharacter did I connect with?
What kind of personality?
I mean, can he be trusted?
So I'm gonna go through someverses really quick here because
you have to get to know yourBible.
You can get to know God bysaying, I accept Jesus Christ.
(05:07):
Maybe you went forward in achurch or someone prayed with
you somewhere and you justcalled on Jesus even by
yourself, which is what I did.
I mean, I started off in churchand and my mom prayed with me,
and I prayed on my own.
But when I, as a teenager, cameback to God and really came,
let's say, recommitted my lifeto him, it was a conversation
(05:29):
with me and him.
And I let him love me and I lethim rescue me from fear and
guilt and shame.
And then I felt like, oh mygosh, this is the love I've
always been looking for.
And I wanted to be inrelationship with him.
And then I began over time tostudy the Bible.
(05:51):
I went to Bible school for acouple of years.
Best decision I ever made afterjust calling on the name of
Jesus.
A Bible school that just taughtme the Bible for the Bible's
sake.
I want you to get to know God.
And we all need that because itgives us a foundation so that we
can have trust.
And yet your learning with himwill never stop.
(06:14):
But again, I'm gonna go througha couple of verses because God
is for you.
So I'm just gonna read you a fewverses or portions of verses.
Here we go.
Romans 8.31.
If God is for us, who can beagainst us?
Romans 8.32.
He who did not spare his ownson, how will he not also
(06:35):
graciously give us all things?
I mean, if God gave you his ownson, who gave his life for you,
why would you wonder he's gonnahold back in other areas?
Psalms 56, 9.
This I know that God is for me.
The person who wrote that Psalmsaid, This I know, I'm confident
(06:56):
of it.
Psalms 118.6.
The Lord is on my side, I willnot fear.
What can man do to me?
Deuteronomy 24.
For the Lord your God is he whogoes with you to fight for you,
to give you the victory.
Isaiah 41, 10, fear not, for Iam with you, I will help you, I
(07:18):
will uphold you.
Isaiah 41, 13.
I hold your right hand.
It is I who say to you, fearnot, for I am the one who helps
you.
Psalms 46, 1.
God is our refuge and strength,a very present help.
Psalms 27, 1.
The Lord is my light and mysalvation.
(07:40):
Whom shall I fear?
Quick side story.
A couple of years ago, I dealtwith anxiety like I never had
before for a brief period oftime.
But my attitude was, I'm notgoing to live like this.
I am not going to live a lifefull of anxiety.
I had faced some trauma.
I had been shaken to my core, orreally, some ancient things in
(08:04):
my life kind of had been stirredup, and I didn't know what to
do.
But I said, God, I am not livinglike this.
And I know God enough to knowthat since Jesus said in John
10, 10, the thief only comes,the only reason that the thief
comes is to steal from you, tokill you, to destroy anything
(08:27):
around you.
I just said, gave you theamplified version of that verse.
But Jesus said, the thief comesonly to kill, to steal, and to
destroy.
But I came so that you wouldhave life and have it to the
full.
Jesus said it so simply.
(08:47):
And I knew that at my core, Iknow he came to set me free.
I know Bible verses.
I have meditated on them.
I have thought about them.
I have experienced the goodnessof God in many different ways.
And so when I dealt with thisnew challenge, I thought, no
way.
I'm not living this way.
(09:08):
I'm not going to start having totake pills.
And trust me, I considered it.
And I'm not saying it's wrong ifyou do do whatever you need to
to help you through a phase, butI want you to know God has a
delivery plan for you.
And for me, it I needed somegood tears.
I needed some good conversation.
I went to a counselor whounderstood trauma.
(09:29):
I learned a ton about myself,but I knew God had a pathway
through for me.
And I am anxiety free.
And I'm telling you, I've dealtwith sleep challenges a couple
of times throughout my life.
And again, I thought, no, I'mnot living this way because I
know God is for me.
He's a God of peace.
(09:50):
So ultimately, what this episodeis about is you have got to get
to know God better, to beconfident that He is for you and
that He has answers for you, andthey're good answers.
We go through battles in life.
Everyone does.
There's a verse that says, Manyare the afflictions of the
righteous, but God shall deliverus out of them all.
(10:13):
A-L-L, all.
And that means all.
So whatever I face, I havelearned to fight with the word
of God by getting it in front ofmy face, putting it in my ears,
and speaking it out of mymouths.
And I want to encourage you todo that.
I don't know what you're facing.
(10:33):
I don't know what you're goingthrough right now or what you've
gone through in the past.
And maybe people have said,you're never going to get past
this.
I want to tell you, that's alie.
You can get free from shame,from guilt, from fear, from
disease.
God is a healer.
He is good, but you are going tohave to seek him.
(10:55):
You're going to have to get toknow him so that you're
persuaded of it.
Jeremiah 29, 11 says, For I knowthe plans I have for you, plans
for peace and not for evil.
But let me say again, we have tobecome persuaded.
Persuaded, because that's whathelps us lean on God, trust him,
and follow through with him to agood path.
(11:18):
Yeah, sometimes there's sometime.
And the thief would love toconvince you God is not for you,
or well, look at what happened,or give you reasons to try to
persuade you he's nottrustworthy.
Maybe you've had a lot of peoplebreak their trust with you in
the past, or you've thought Godwasn't for you, you don't
(11:38):
understand what happened, andthings did not work out the way
you wanted to.
Maybe you've even been reallyangry at God.
I've been there.
Turns out it's never God'sfault.
So let me read you a couple moreverses.
Romans 8, 38, and 39.
I do happen to be using the ESVversion.
Anyway, I'm sure that neitherdeath nor life nor anything else
(12:00):
in all creation will be able toseparate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Persuasion comes from knowing weneed to know his love is
unbreakable.
God's not moody.
God's not like a daisy.
He loves me, he loves me not.
He loves me, he loves me not.
No, he loves you, he loves you,he loves you.
(12:22):
God is always going to bepatient with you.
He is kind.
He is all the things 1Corinthians 13 talks about.
Romans 8, 31 and 32.
If God is for us, who can beagainst us?
As I said earlier, God alreadygave you his son.
He covered everything with thatsacrifice.
(12:45):
So the everything you need iscovered under the promise and
provision of his son.
Romans 10, 17, faith comes byhearing, hearing by the word of
God.
You need to become persuadedthat God's for you.
So you need to feed, meditateon, say, read the word of God.
That will help persuade you.
(13:06):
You need to know what God says.
If you're going to be persuadedthat a contract is solid, if
maybe you have a business andyou sign a contract with someone
else, first of all, you want toknow what did you sign up for?
You should know the terms of thecontract, but then you need to
go to your contract and know,wait a minute, what are my
rights here?
You have rights with God becausehe wants you to have rights.
(13:29):
It's like if a parent adopts achild, that child now has rights
to that whole family.
That's what you have with God.
You have rights with God becausehe wants you to.
Religion says, oh, don't be sobold.
Don't think God will do that.
Who do you think you are?
That is from the thief.
God does not have an egoproblem.
(13:51):
He's not insecure.
He on purpose gives you himselfbecause he wants you as his
child.
And that means he's giving youeverything that he is.
It's more amazing than werealize, but we have to become
persuaded.
1 John 4.16 talks about beingpersuaded.
So we have come to know and tobelieve the love God has for us.
(14:13):
We've had some experience withit.
Now we're starting to trust it,rely on it.
1 John 4, 18 and 19.
Perfect love casts out fear.
We love because he first lovedus.
God loved you first.
He said, I chose you, I pickedyou, I've given my love to you.
You know, the Bible says to loveGod with all of your heart,
(14:35):
soul, mind, and strength.
Now, if God loved you first,that means he already loves you
with all of his heart, all ofhis soul, all of his mind, and
all of his strength, or he couldnot require that from you.
Think about that for a minute.
If God is requiring you to lovehim first, that is the first
(14:55):
commandment in the OldTestament, and the greatest
commandment in the NewTestament, is to love God with
all of your heart, your soul,your mind, and your strength.
And again, if first John chapter4 says, We love because he first
loved us, then sound reasoningsays that God first loved you
(15:17):
with all of his heart, all ofhis soul, all of his mind, and
all of his strength.
This is the God of the universewe're talking about.
You could just ponder on thatfor the next six months and your
life would change.
God loves you with all of hisheart, all of his soul, all of
(15:38):
his mind, and all of hisstrength.
That's the only way he couldrequire it of you, is because he
did it first.
Psalms 34, 8 says, Oh, taste andsee that the Lord is good.
Blessed is the man who takesrefuge in him.
Psalms 27, 13.
I would have lost heart unless Ibelieved that I would see the
(15:59):
goodness of the Lord.
I've been in dark seasons of mylife personally where I felt
like there wasn't a way out.
I didn't know the Bible as well.
I didn't know God as well.
And I was convinced somehow thatI had committed the unpardonable
sin.
I was in a rough, dark spot, I'dsay mental health-wise, even.
And that's way too common thesedays.
(16:21):
But I'm telling you, um, thosethoughts and those feelings of
shame that come against you andtell you there's no way out for
you, they are flat-out liesbecause Jesus paid it all.
And God wants you in his family.
He wants you whole.
He wants you to have a good,providing job.
He wants to give you favor onthe job.
(16:44):
He wants to heal your body.
He wants to set your mind free.
He wants you free from fear.
He wants your sleep to be sweet.
I promise you, because hepromised you.
My promise doesn't mean anythingif he didn't promise it.
I'm just trying to persuade youon a podcast.
But God has persuaded youthrough the gift of his son, and
(17:07):
he's filled his promises in theBible.
And I'm telling you, you want tostart reading it.
You've got to get it in you tobecome confident because we have
feelings, but we also have abrain and we need to reason
through is God really for me?
And we need to experience thatGod is for me.
And he is.
You can begin to trust him.
(17:29):
And if I find myself reallywrestling with trust, even
though I think I know what theBible says, that tells me
there's part of my heart that'sconvinced otherwise.
So you may have experiences thatare telling you, uh, I know in
my head God should betrustworthy, but in my heart, I
am really struggling.
(17:50):
That just means you have somebroken-hearted trust issues.
He's greater than your heart.
He understands it, he's patientwith you.
We just want to get to know himbetter so that fear goes away.
We want to get to the placewhere we can forgive everyone
who the enemy has used to breakour trust.
(18:10):
Any situation that has come upand been used as an argument
saying that God is not for you.
It's not true.
But it's what the Bible callsthe fight of faith.
It is a good fight of faith.
The reason why it's a good fightis because God can be trusted
and because God will help youfight, and He's already done
(18:33):
actually all the work.
Our job is to cast down wickedimaginations.
That's from uh, I want to sayfirst Corinthians, but you can
look that up.
Cast down wicked imaginationsand every high thing that exalts
itself against the knowledge ofGod.
So see, I have to have knowledgeof God to throw down lies that
(18:55):
say he's not for me, or to sayit's not going to work out for
you this time.
One of my habits is I will speakthe word of God out loud
regularly.
It's one way I fight.
It's called from Ephesianschapter six, the sword of the
spirit, which is the word ofGod.
Use the word of God and say itout loud.
(19:16):
Say it out loud, especially whenyour mind and your emotions are
feeling the opposite.
In fact, that's one of the besttimes to fight the fight of
faith out loud, is wheneverything in you feels like God
can't be trusted.
There was a season in my lifeback in my twenties where I
didn't feel like I believedanything.
(19:37):
I didn't believe God was real,didn't believe anything.
Thankfully, I knew a Bible versethat said, Let every man be a
liar, that God's word would beheld truth.
And I thought about myself andsaid, Lenore, that includes you.
I knew that me not believing Goddidn't change the truth about
his character.
It just separated me from him.
(19:57):
So, in a way, blindly, meaningby no feelings, I chose to keep
going the direction of Godbecause I had been away from him
already, and that's not a goodpath.
So though I didn't feelanything, I just stayed
basically on course.
And as my heart softened again,I began to recognize and be
(20:20):
persuaded.
And I'd say by sense and byknowledge and by experience,
I've become persuaded.
I'd like to say fully persuaded.
I am fully persuaded about JesusChrist.
I am fully persuaded that Jesushas done everything for me to
have all of his promises.
But there are still areas in mylife where I have easy wins with
(20:43):
prayer and other areas whereit's a fight of faith in this
area to trust God's really goingto come through.
I do know that he's with meeither way.
Thankfully, I know that.
I don't have to feel it.
It's more like two plus two isfour.
Okay.
I don't have to feel that twoplus two equals four.
It just is a mathematical truth.
(21:05):
God is with me whether I feel itor not.
Now there I'm persuaded.
I sometimes feel God's presence,but uh plenty of times I don't,
but I know he's with me.
That's maturity as a Christian.
And yet I do feel his presencemore than I used to because my
heart is softer, and because Iam persuaded.
So I want to encourage youwherever you're at, let's say a
(21:29):
quick prayer.
Father, you are real.
We know you're real.
We want to be persuaded thatyou're for us.
We want to be persuaded thatyou're the faithful friend we
can talk to about anything, andthat you've already provided for
us in your promises.
God, we're not trying to get youto do it.
We are saying thank you thatyou've done it, and we are
(21:49):
fighting for it to come to fullum reality in our life because
you're good.
You said you love to see theprosperity of your own kids.
Father, we want to have the lifeyou've already promised us and
be a light in this world becausethis world needs it.
Thank you.
All right.
In Jesus' name, so be it.
(22:11):
Amen.
Now, FYI, God says he numbersthe very hairs on your head.
He's obsessed with you.
He loves to bless his kids.
And if we know how to give goodgifts to our kids, the Bible
says, how much more does he wantto bless you?
So let me just encourage youtoday.
God is for you, whether you feellike it or not, whether it's
(22:31):
looking like it or not.
Scripture also said he's all thewhile at work within you to will
and to do his good pleasure.
God's always working in you, hehas blessed you.
Read the book of Ephesians.
And keep speaking life overyourself.
Speak it over your family.
That's part of the fight offaith.
And get in his word so you'repersuaded that he's for you
(22:53):
because he is.
Hey friend, I hope you enjoyedtoday's episode.
Would you share this withsomeone else who may need to
hear it or go on this journeywith you?
Also, please take 30 seconds andleave a quick review for the
show on Apple Podcasts.
And of course, subscribe if youhaven't already.
It really makes me happy to knowthis podcast is helping you.
(23:14):
And remember, a link to get mybook is in the show notes.
Thank you for listening.
I'll see you back next Mondayfor another episode.
Until then, remember, be kind toyou because it makes it a whole
lot easier to be kind to anybodyelse.
God loves you with all of his heart, all of his
soul, all of his mind, and allof his strength.
That's the only way he couldrequire it of you, is because he
did it first.
Do you love God but forget topray?
Or feel guilty instead ofenjoying his presence?
I understand.
I know how unsatisfying timewith God can feel if we believe
(00:22):
he's distant or busy.
I'm Lenora, mom, Jesus lover,and former international
trainer.
If you're looking to feel closerwith God without fear or
pressure, have a greater abilityto receive from him and desire
more confidence to make animpact with your own life.
Well, get some coffee and let'stalk.
If you're carrying stress andwant support with prayer, I
(00:45):
wrote a book to help you.
100 Prayers, Releasing 100Cares.
It's full of real stories,scripture, and 100 prayers for
every part of life.
A link to the book is in theshow notes.
How persuaded are you that Godis for you?
You already believe there is aGod.
If you're listening to thispodcast, you know he exists.
(01:07):
But my question for you today ishow persuaded are you that God
is for you?
I mean, is God just observingyou?
Is he there for you sometimes,like a you know, a loose
connection on a speaker or amicrophone?
Or is he for you?
Is he your best friend?
(01:27):
If you have a battle to fight inlife, is he someone you trust?
You know he will be there foryou.
If you are afraid, you know he'sthe place to run to.
You know you can call on hisname and he's gonna be there.
If you have a request and you'resaying, God, I really need this
for my family, or you share aparticular desire you have in
(01:49):
your heart, do you believe thathe is going to hear you?
And by the way, the word hear inthe original language, it's it's
a term that means, if you heardme, you'd be moving, kind of
like what my parents did when Iwas a little kid, or what I did
to my kids is I'd say, Did youhear me?
(02:09):
Because I assumed if you heardme, you'd be moving.
So if you call on God, do youthink he hears you?
When you ask for something, doyou think he takes action?
Now, if you don't believe thathe's taking action, then we've
got trust issues.
Or we don't know, is it a game?
What's the game here?
(02:30):
How do I make him take action?
I see.
I think we have a lot ofassumptions about God, a lot of
things we think we know aboutGod, and we throw up a prayer
here and there, but we don'tknow, we're not persuaded that
he hears us, meaning that he'salso taking action.
Now, some people think it'sactually weird to expect God to
(02:52):
do something when you have aprayer.
You kind of like, well, I hopehe does it.
I hope I'm not being tooarrogant to ask him for
something.
Again, that tells me we don'tknow his character.
Now, if you know much about yourBible, it's a book full of
promises.
Full of promises.
I mean, there's stories andwarnings and different things
(03:14):
too, but it is a book full ofpromises.
And if you have a friend whogave you a bunch of promises and
said, hey, in our relationship,this is how it's going to go.
Here's some of the benefits,here's some of the commitments,
like a marriage.
If you get married, here's thebenefits.
Here's what we offer to eachother, and here's the boundaries
(03:35):
because of that relationship.
Here's what you are saying no tooutside of this relationship.
You're no longer seeing someoneelse as far as dating, that type
of thing, or whatever you wantto call that.
But with God, it's like you'regonna have one God.
If you're gonna have the God ofthe Bible, you're saying, I have
one God because he says I am theonly God.
(03:56):
And if you have him, then youhave his promises.
You have whatever he's like,that's what you have.
That's who you're connected to,who you are in covenant
relationship with.
And again, quickest way toanswer what covenant is, is a
marriage.
Now, in a God kind of marriage,you fully belong to each other.
(04:21):
Think of Abraham.
Abraham's in the Old Testament,and God actually called himself
the God of Abraham.
I'm the one Abraham can call on,and I'm there for him.
Now, if you have said yes toGod, he is your God.
A covenant means I belong toyou, you belong to me.
(04:43):
We belong to each other.
I belong to God, but God alsobelongs to me.
But again, what kind ofcharacter did I connect with?
What kind of personality?
I mean, can he be trusted?
So I'm gonna go through someverses really quick here because
you have to get to know yourBible.
You can get to know God bysaying, I accept Jesus Christ.
(05:07):
Maybe you went forward in achurch or someone prayed with
you somewhere and you justcalled on Jesus even by
yourself, which is what I did.
I mean, I started off in churchand and my mom prayed with me,
and I prayed on my own.
But when I, as a teenager, cameback to God and really came,
let's say, recommitted my lifeto him, it was a conversation
(05:29):
with me and him.
And I let him love me and I lethim rescue me from fear and
guilt and shame.
And then I felt like, oh mygosh, this is the love I've
always been looking for.
And I wanted to be inrelationship with him.
And then I began over time tostudy the Bible.
(05:51):
I went to Bible school for acouple of years.
Best decision I ever made afterjust calling on the name of
Jesus.
A Bible school that just taughtme the Bible for the Bible's
sake.
I want you to get to know God.
And we all need that because itgives us a foundation so that we
can have trust.
And yet your learning with himwill never stop.
(06:14):
But again, I'm gonna go througha couple of verses because God
is for you.
So I'm just gonna read you a fewverses or portions of verses.
Here we go.
Romans 8.31.
If God is for us, who can beagainst us?
Romans 8.32.
He who did not spare his ownson, how will he not also
(06:35):
graciously give us all things?
I mean, if God gave you his ownson, who gave his life for you,
why would you wonder he's gonnahold back in other areas?
Psalms 56, 9.
This I know that God is for me.
The person who wrote that Psalmsaid, This I know, I'm confident
(06:56):
of it.
Psalms 118.6.
The Lord is on my side, I willnot fear.
What can man do to me?
Deuteronomy 24.
For the Lord your God is he whogoes with you to fight for you,
to give you the victory.
Isaiah 41, 10, fear not, for Iam with you, I will help you, I
(07:18):
will uphold you.
Isaiah 41, 13.
I hold your right hand.
It is I who say to you, fearnot, for I am the one who helps
you.
Psalms 46, 1.
God is our refuge and strength,a very present help.
Psalms 27, 1.
The Lord is my light and mysalvation.
(07:40):
Whom shall I fear?
Quick side story.
A couple of years ago, I dealtwith anxiety like I never had
before for a brief period oftime.
But my attitude was, I'm notgoing to live like this.
I am not going to live a lifefull of anxiety.
I had faced some trauma.
I had been shaken to my core, orreally, some ancient things in
(08:04):
my life kind of had been stirredup, and I didn't know what to
do.
But I said, God, I am not livinglike this.
And I know God enough to knowthat since Jesus said in John
10, 10, the thief only comes,the only reason that the thief
comes is to steal from you, tokill you, to destroy anything
(08:27):
around you.
I just said, gave you theamplified version of that verse.
But Jesus said, the thief comesonly to kill, to steal, and to
destroy.
But I came so that you wouldhave life and have it to the
full.
Jesus said it so simply.
(08:47):
And I knew that at my core, Iknow he came to set me free.
I know Bible verses.
I have meditated on them.
I have thought about them.
I have experienced the goodnessof God in many different ways.
And so when I dealt with thisnew challenge, I thought, no
way.
I'm not living this way.
(09:08):
I'm not going to start having totake pills.
And trust me, I considered it.
And I'm not saying it's wrong ifyou do do whatever you need to
to help you through a phase, butI want you to know God has a
delivery plan for you.
And for me, it I needed somegood tears.
I needed some good conversation.
I went to a counselor whounderstood trauma.
(09:29):
I learned a ton about myself,but I knew God had a pathway
through for me.
And I am anxiety free.
And I'm telling you, I've dealtwith sleep challenges a couple
of times throughout my life.
And again, I thought, no, I'mnot living this way because I
know God is for me.
He's a God of peace.
(09:50):
So ultimately, what this episodeis about is you have got to get
to know God better, to beconfident that He is for you and
that He has answers for you, andthey're good answers.
We go through battles in life.
Everyone does.
There's a verse that says, Manyare the afflictions of the
righteous, but God shall deliverus out of them all.
(10:13):
A-L-L, all.
And that means all.
So whatever I face, I havelearned to fight with the word
of God by getting it in front ofmy face, putting it in my ears,
and speaking it out of mymouths.
And I want to encourage you todo that.
I don't know what you're facing.
(10:33):
I don't know what you're goingthrough right now or what you've
gone through in the past.
And maybe people have said,you're never going to get past
this.
I want to tell you, that's alie.
You can get free from shame,from guilt, from fear, from
disease.
God is a healer.
He is good, but you are going tohave to seek him.
(10:55):
You're going to have to get toknow him so that you're
persuaded of it.
Jeremiah 29, 11 says, For I knowthe plans I have for you, plans
for peace and not for evil.
But let me say again, we have tobecome persuaded.
Persuaded, because that's whathelps us lean on God, trust him,
and follow through with him to agood path.
(11:18):
Yeah, sometimes there's sometime.
And the thief would love toconvince you God is not for you,
or well, look at what happened,or give you reasons to try to
persuade you he's nottrustworthy.
Maybe you've had a lot of peoplebreak their trust with you in
the past, or you've thought Godwasn't for you, you don't
(11:38):
understand what happened, andthings did not work out the way
you wanted to.
Maybe you've even been reallyangry at God.
I've been there.
Turns out it's never God'sfault.
So let me read you a couple moreverses.
Romans 8, 38, and 39.
I do happen to be using the ESVversion.
Anyway, I'm sure that neitherdeath nor life nor anything else
(12:00):
in all creation will be able toseparate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Persuasion comes from knowing weneed to know his love is
unbreakable.
God's not moody.
God's not like a daisy.
He loves me, he loves me not.
He loves me, he loves me not.
No, he loves you, he loves you,he loves you.
(12:22):
God is always going to bepatient with you.
He is kind.
He is all the things 1Corinthians 13 talks about.
Romans 8, 31 and 32.
If God is for us, who can beagainst us?
As I said earlier, God alreadygave you his son.
He covered everything with thatsacrifice.
(12:45):
So the everything you need iscovered under the promise and
provision of his son.
Romans 10, 17, faith comes byhearing, hearing by the word of
God.
You need to become persuadedthat God's for you.
So you need to feed, meditateon, say, read the word of God.
That will help persuade you.
(13:06):
You need to know what God says.
If you're going to be persuadedthat a contract is solid, if
maybe you have a business andyou sign a contract with someone
else, first of all, you want toknow what did you sign up for?
You should know the terms of thecontract, but then you need to
go to your contract and know,wait a minute, what are my
rights here?
You have rights with God becausehe wants you to have rights.
(13:29):
It's like if a parent adopts achild, that child now has rights
to that whole family.
That's what you have with God.
You have rights with God becausehe wants you to.
Religion says, oh, don't be sobold.
Don't think God will do that.
Who do you think you are?
That is from the thief.
God does not have an egoproblem.
(13:51):
He's not insecure.
He on purpose gives you himselfbecause he wants you as his
child.
And that means he's giving youeverything that he is.
It's more amazing than werealize, but we have to become
persuaded.
1 John 4.16 talks about beingpersuaded.
So we have come to know and tobelieve the love God has for us.
(14:13):
We've had some experience withit.
Now we're starting to trust it,rely on it.
1 John 4, 18 and 19.
Perfect love casts out fear.
We love because he first lovedus.
God loved you first.
He said, I chose you, I pickedyou, I've given my love to you.
You know, the Bible says to loveGod with all of your heart,
(14:35):
soul, mind, and strength.
Now, if God loved you first,that means he already loves you
with all of his heart, all ofhis soul, all of his mind, and
all of his strength, or he couldnot require that from you.
Think about that for a minute.
If God is requiring you to lovehim first, that is the first
(14:55):
commandment in the OldTestament, and the greatest
commandment in the NewTestament, is to love God with
all of your heart, your soul,your mind, and your strength.
And again, if first John chapter4 says, We love because he first
loved us, then sound reasoningsays that God first loved you
(15:17):
with all of his heart, all ofhis soul, all of his mind, and
all of his strength.
This is the God of the universewe're talking about.
You could just ponder on thatfor the next six months and your
life would change.
God loves you with all of hisheart, all of his soul, all of
(15:38):
his mind, and all of hisstrength.
That's the only way he couldrequire it of you, is because he
did it first.
Psalms 34, 8 says, Oh, taste andsee that the Lord is good.
Blessed is the man who takesrefuge in him.
Psalms 27, 13.
I would have lost heart unless Ibelieved that I would see the
(15:59):
goodness of the Lord.
I've been in dark seasons of mylife personally where I felt
like there wasn't a way out.
I didn't know the Bible as well.
I didn't know God as well.
And I was convinced somehow thatI had committed the unpardonable
sin.
I was in a rough, dark spot, I'dsay mental health-wise, even.
And that's way too common thesedays.
(16:21):
But I'm telling you, um, thosethoughts and those feelings of
shame that come against you andtell you there's no way out for
you, they are flat-out liesbecause Jesus paid it all.
And God wants you in his family.
He wants you whole.
He wants you to have a good,providing job.
He wants to give you favor onthe job.
(16:44):
He wants to heal your body.
He wants to set your mind free.
He wants you free from fear.
He wants your sleep to be sweet.
I promise you, because hepromised you.
My promise doesn't mean anythingif he didn't promise it.
I'm just trying to persuade youon a podcast.
But God has persuaded youthrough the gift of his son, and
(17:07):
he's filled his promises in theBible.
And I'm telling you, you want tostart reading it.
You've got to get it in you tobecome confident because we have
feelings, but we also have abrain and we need to reason
through is God really for me?
And we need to experience thatGod is for me.
And he is.
You can begin to trust him.
(17:29):
And if I find myself reallywrestling with trust, even
though I think I know what theBible says, that tells me
there's part of my heart that'sconvinced otherwise.
So you may have experiences thatare telling you, uh, I know in
my head God should betrustworthy, but in my heart, I
am really struggling.
(17:50):
That just means you have somebroken-hearted trust issues.
He's greater than your heart.
He understands it, he's patientwith you.
We just want to get to know himbetter so that fear goes away.
We want to get to the placewhere we can forgive everyone
who the enemy has used to breakour trust.
(18:10):
Any situation that has come upand been used as an argument
saying that God is not for you.
It's not true.
But it's what the Bible callsthe fight of faith.
It is a good fight of faith.
The reason why it's a good fightis because God can be trusted
and because God will help youfight, and He's already done
(18:33):
actually all the work.
Our job is to cast down wickedimaginations.
That's from uh, I want to sayfirst Corinthians, but you can
look that up.
Cast down wicked imaginationsand every high thing that exalts
itself against the knowledge ofGod.
So see, I have to have knowledgeof God to throw down lies that
(18:55):
say he's not for me, or to sayit's not going to work out for
you this time.
One of my habits is I will speakthe word of God out loud
regularly.
It's one way I fight.
It's called from Ephesianschapter six, the sword of the
spirit, which is the word ofGod.
Use the word of God and say itout loud.
(19:16):
Say it out loud, especially whenyour mind and your emotions are
feeling the opposite.
In fact, that's one of the besttimes to fight the fight of
faith out loud, is wheneverything in you feels like God
can't be trusted.
There was a season in my lifeback in my twenties where I
didn't feel like I believedanything.
(19:37):
I didn't believe God was real,didn't believe anything.
Thankfully, I knew a Bible versethat said, Let every man be a
liar, that God's word would beheld truth.
And I thought about myself andsaid, Lenore, that includes you.
I knew that me not believing Goddidn't change the truth about
his character.
It just separated me from him.
(19:57):
So, in a way, blindly, meaningby no feelings, I chose to keep
going the direction of Godbecause I had been away from him
already, and that's not a goodpath.
So though I didn't feelanything, I just stayed
basically on course.
And as my heart softened again,I began to recognize and be
(20:20):
persuaded.
And I'd say by sense and byknowledge and by experience,
I've become persuaded.
I'd like to say fully persuaded.
I am fully persuaded about JesusChrist.
I am fully persuaded that Jesushas done everything for me to
have all of his promises.
But there are still areas in mylife where I have easy wins with
(20:43):
prayer and other areas whereit's a fight of faith in this
area to trust God's really goingto come through.
I do know that he's with meeither way.
Thankfully, I know that.
I don't have to feel it.
It's more like two plus two isfour.
Okay.
I don't have to feel that twoplus two equals four.
It just is a mathematical truth.
(21:05):
God is with me whether I feel itor not.
Now there I'm persuaded.
I sometimes feel God's presence,but uh plenty of times I don't,
but I know he's with me.
That's maturity as a Christian.
And yet I do feel his presencemore than I used to because my
heart is softer, and because Iam persuaded.
So I want to encourage youwherever you're at, let's say a
(21:29):
quick prayer.
Father, you are real.
We know you're real.
We want to be persuaded thatyou're for us.
We want to be persuaded thatyou're the faithful friend we
can talk to about anything, andthat you've already provided for
us in your promises.
God, we're not trying to get youto do it.
We are saying thank you thatyou've done it, and we are
(21:49):
fighting for it to come to fullum reality in our life because
you're good.
You said you love to see theprosperity of your own kids.
Father, we want to have the lifeyou've already promised us and
be a light in this world becausethis world needs it.
Thank you.
All right.
In Jesus' name, so be it.
(22:11):
Amen.
Now, FYI, God says he numbersthe very hairs on your head.
He's obsessed with you.
He loves to bless his kids.
And if we know how to give goodgifts to our kids, the Bible
says, how much more does he wantto bless you?
So let me just encourage youtoday.
God is for you, whether you feellike it or not, whether it's
(22:31):
looking like it or not.
Scripture also said he's all thewhile at work within you to will
and to do his good pleasure.
God's always working in you, hehas blessed you.
Read the book of Ephesians.
And keep speaking life overyourself.
Speak it over your family.
That's part of the fight offaith.
And get in his word so you'repersuaded that he's for you
(22:53):
because he is.
Hey friend, I hope you enjoyedtoday's episode.
Would you share this withsomeone else who may need to
hear it or go on this journeywith you?
Also, please take 30 seconds andleave a quick review for the
show on Apple Podcasts.
And of course, subscribe if youhaven't already.
It really makes me happy to knowthis podcast is helping you.
(23:14):
And remember, a link to get mybook is in the show notes.
Thank you for listening.
I'll see you back next Mondayfor another episode.
Until then, remember, be kind toyou because it makes it a whole
lot easier to be kind to anybodyelse.
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