July 17, 2025 • 17 mins
In this episode of 'Joy in Every Step', Sarita discusses the significance of taking the first step in personal growth, emphasizing the intertwined concepts of courage and encouragement. She shares personal anecdotes and biblical references to illustrate how God supports us in our journeys, instilling confidence and hope. The conversation highlights the importance of building 'Godfidence'—confidence with God at the center—and encourages listeners to share their stories to inspire others.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Introduction (00:03):
Welcome to a place of peace, hope, and divine
encouragement. This is Joy inEvery Step with your host,
beloved preacher, retiredteacher, and faithful servant of
the Lord, Sarita Bernadette.Each week, Sarita shares
heartfelt messages rooted in theword of God, filled with wisdom,
(00:25):
joy, and the gentle reminderthat God cares deeply for you.
Whether you're walking throughthe valleys or dancing on the
mountaintops, Sarita's voicewill guide you back to his
promises step by step. So openyour heart, settle your spirit,
and take the next step in faithwith Joy in Every Step.
Sarita Bernadette (00:52):
Hi. I'm Sarita Bernadette, And welcome
back to Joy in Every Step. Thankyou for listening today.
Remember the homework that wehad from last time last episode,
the first episode we talkedabout taking the first step. And
I asked you all to, over thenext three days after you
(01:16):
listened to that episode, totake the first step.
And we said that it could be assimple as opening a new doc on
your phone or making a list orjust putting down a few bullet
points. We said that he couldeven make a phone call to
connect with someone who wasdoing what it was or what it is
(01:37):
that you are called to do. Andwe just agreed that whatever you
were led to do in that moment totake the first step to just go
and do it. And I certainly hopethat you did. I certainly hope
that you did.
So I'm sure we'd all agree thattaking the first step when
(02:00):
moving into your next chapterrequires both courage and
encouragement. So let's talkabout courage and encouragement
today. Courage and encourage arewords that are related. They
stem from the French wordencorege. That's on to make or
(02:25):
put in and core which meansheart.
You go and look those up foryourself because I am sure that
I did not do them justicepronouncing them. I never took
French. The word encourage meansto instill confidence and hope.
To give heart, to give heart.And to have courage is to be
(02:48):
confident, brave or bold.
To have heart, again, to haveheart. So courage is having
heart and encourage orencouragement is giving it.
Courage, let's isolate that. Iliken starting something brand
new or embarking on a newchapter in life to you know that
(03:13):
first time you rode your bikedown a steep hill, anybody ever
done that? Short story, shortstory here.
Now I'm infamous for making ashort story long so just hang
tight here, we're goingsomewhere. When I was young, we
didn't have bicycles with allthe fancy brakes and whatnot. My
(03:35):
favorite bike was pink with along banana seat. It had the
nifty high rise handlebars withthose oh so special sparkly
tassels hanging from them. Therides down that hill, down the
hill on that thing were epic.
(03:56):
I do remember the feeling ofbeing at the top of the hill
preparing to come down. I meanyou know you could be in for the
ride of your life and you knewit but inside there's this tiny
bit of hesitation. Your friendsare gathered around watching and
you muster up the courage totake off but on the way down you
(04:21):
realize the risk you're takingand so you use the only breaks
available at the time, your twofeet. You manage to slow it down
just enough to avoid taking abad spill that causes your
friends to laugh, but you feelrelieved and you think you've
(04:42):
made the right decision in thatmoment. That bike was going too
fast and you were not ready forthat kind of ride.
You just weren't prepared.Stepping into what God has
called you to do can be scaryjust like that. Deep down you
know God has your back. You knowyou're going to be in for the
(05:03):
ride of your life. But thecourage to make that first move
is hard to come by.
You might even take the firststep, but as things get rolling,
you tend to put on brakes. Youdrag your feet, if you will. The
challenge can be believing thatyou have what it takes to move
(05:27):
into your next, whatever thatmight be. You have courage, you
have the courage, you needcourage or you need heart To
encourage, to encourage means toinspire with courage and
confidence and hope or as wesaid before to give heart. So
(05:51):
listen, I want to give you someheart right here.
You have to remember it's youmaking the moves or taking the
steps, but you're fully backedby God. Psalm one hundred thirty
eight and eight reads, The Lordwill work out his plans for my
(06:11):
life, for your faithful love, OLord, endures forever. Don't
abandon me, for you made me.Another translation uses the
word perfect or perfect. Itsays, The Lord will perfect that
(06:31):
which concerns me.
He'll make it perfect. He'llmake it all good. It's all Him.
If you're aligned with Him, it'sall good. Isaiah 4one 10 reads
like this, Don't be afraid for Iam with you.
Don't be discouraged for I amyour God. I will strengthen you
(06:54):
and help you. I will hold you upwith my victorious right hand. I
love that scripture so much.Don't be discouraged.
The message version says, don'tpanic. The living Bible in that
(07:15):
same scripture uses the words,do not be dismayed. So the Lord
is telling us because he is whohe is, we have no need to be
discouraged. There's no need topanic and there's no need to be
dismayed. He's going to give usthe strength.
(07:37):
He will give us the strength andHe will hold us up. And it makes
reference to His righteous orHis victorious right hand. That
part has always been importantto me. Listen, that part lets us
know that through all of thechallenges, through all of the
(07:57):
things that come to challenge usin this life, God will be right
there. His righteous right handdefinitely represents strength
and power, but it alsorepresents His guidance, His
protection and His favor.
And yes, even his victory andtriumph. I'm here to tell you,
(08:24):
your hesitation is a humanresponse and it's valid. It
happens. Hesitation happens. Ithappens and I believe that the
only way we can get past it, theonly way we can get over
ourselves if you will, is to goto God and be completely honest
(08:50):
with him about all of thosethoughts, all of those feelings
of hesitation, all thetrepidation that you're feeling,
all those old tapes that areplaying in your head, He knows
about them anyway.
All that stuff in your headthat's keeping you from making
that move, tell God about it.Tell Him about it. There is this
(09:13):
scripture that revolutionized mylife many years ago and it's
found in Mark nine twenty four.It's a cry for help, a prayer
even if it's a prayer and it'sspoken by the father of a boy
who was possessed by a demon.The verse reads like this, The
(09:35):
father instantly cried out, I dobelieve, but help me overcome my
unbelief.
The father comes clean in thatmoment. He professes that he
believes in the healing power ofJesus, but at the same time he
confesses or admits that he hasa problem. He admits that he's
(09:58):
struggling with doubt andunbelief. This verse has always
reminded me that even believerscan experience periods of doubt
and that it's all right to go toGod and ask for help with that.
He's available.
You can say, I believe you Lord,but I'm also battling unbelief.
(10:22):
I need your help. Just say so.He knows. Listen, what's going
to be required as you step outis what's known as Godfidence.
Some of you have heard this termbefore. It's confidence with God
at the center. It's when youmove, knowing that God is the
(10:47):
all powerful one, the omnipotentone, And you know that his
abilities far surpass yours.It's when we understand the
ability that we have, theability that you and I have
comes from God and he cannot andwill not fail. He will cause you
(11:11):
and I to triumph.
So I say this, you are equippedwith what you need for what's
ahead. You are destined to walkout a plan designed by the
master. A plan designedexclusively for you. No one else
can do what you are called todo. That desire that you have,
(11:35):
that urge to do more, to givemore, to be present for someone
else, that sense that your storyis the one that needs to be told
so someone else can benefit fromhearing it?
Well, put that there. That'swhat's going to bring you joy.
He's already put in place whatyou need. Remember the Word
(12:00):
says, Trust in the Lord and Hewill give you the desires of
your heart. Well, I'm tellingyou now to lean in and now's the
time.
Now's the time. Lean in. Ourcourage to make that move can
often be thwarted by our concernabout our resources, that we're
(12:25):
not going to have what we need.But I tell you listeners, there
are so many stories, so manytestimonies from people who have
launched out into the deep.They've done what God was
telling them to do and thefinances to do it showed up or,
(12:46):
or God stretched the little bitthey had and made that work.
Oh, don't get me started on thistopic. One quick reference in
the word of God. I want to, Iwant to share this with you.
First Kings 17, there's anaccounting there of a widow.
This widow is discouraged,dismayed and I dare say in a bit
(13:08):
of a panic.
There's this drought going onand she and her son don't have
any food or any money left. Inother words, their resources
have dried up. So this widowplans to use what little she has
and prepare the last meal oftheir lives. But God sends
(13:32):
Elijah, the prophet along andperforms a miracle. The miracle
was that the oil and the flourthey needed to survive lasted
them throughout the drought forthe whole duration of the
drought, three years they hadwhat they needed.
(13:53):
And one of the contributingfactors in this story that I
want to highlight here is thatthe widow did as she was told by
the Lord through the prophetElijah. She put what she had,
what little she had, into God'salmighty hand. You might have
heard the expression, littlebecomes much in the hands of
(14:14):
God, or maybe you've heard, Heowns cattle on a thousand hills.
In other words, God has endlessresources. Try Him.
Try Him. Be encouraged. Alongthose lines, I know that it's
not just money that concerns us,it's support, support. We all
(14:38):
need it. When you're embarkingon a new journey, charting a new
path, it can get lonely.
Remember Moses? We talked abouthim in episode one. We talked
about him and we said that Godspoke to him when he was all
alone on the backside of thedesert through that burning
(14:58):
bush. Many times instructions,revelations or ideas or plans,
if you will, come when we're allalone. I do believe the Lord
uses our time in solitude withHim so He can speak clearly.
That can be a challenge for ussometimes as humans because we
like to run things by otherhumans. We want other humans to
(15:22):
witness the same things thatwe're witnessing. We want them
to hear the same thing. We wantothers to help carry the
weightiness of God's messages.We want and we need support in
these moments.
I do believe God understandsthat. Support in the form of
encouragement is invaluable andGod knows. When you have someone
(15:46):
who's willing to walk alongsideyou and give you the push you
need, it's necessary part of ourjourney. It's a beautiful and
wonderful thing. So I pray thatas you gain more and more
courage that you grow inGodfidence as well.
I pray that it gets easier andeasier to make the next steps
(16:10):
and I also pray that you willfind ways to pass that along to
others who are in need of thevery same thing. Sharing your
story of courage will encourageothers. You need to share your
riding your bike down the hillstory. Someone needs to hear
(16:30):
that so go ahead and share that.You'll find joy in it.
You've been listening to Joy inEvery Step. I'm Sarita
Bernadette. I'm grateful youchose to spend some time here.
You can find Joy in Every Stepwherever you listen to your
podcasts. Do check out thewebsite at joyineverystep.org.
Welcome to a place of peace, hope, and divine
encouragement. This is Joy inEvery Step with your host,
beloved preacher, retiredteacher, and faithful servant of
the Lord, Sarita Bernadette.Each week, Sarita shares
heartfelt messages rooted in theword of God, filled with wisdom,
(00:25):
joy, and the gentle reminderthat God cares deeply for you.
Whether you're walking throughthe valleys or dancing on the
mountaintops, Sarita's voicewill guide you back to his
promises step by step. So openyour heart, settle your spirit,
and take the next step in faithwith Joy in Every Step.
Sarita Bernadette (00:52):
Hi. I'm Sarita Bernadette, And welcome
back to Joy in Every Step. Thankyou for listening today.
Remember the homework that wehad from last time last episode,
the first episode we talkedabout taking the first step. And
I asked you all to, over thenext three days after you
(01:16):
listened to that episode, totake the first step.
And we said that it could be assimple as opening a new doc on
your phone or making a list orjust putting down a few bullet
points. We said that he couldeven make a phone call to
connect with someone who wasdoing what it was or what it is
(01:37):
that you are called to do. Andwe just agreed that whatever you
were led to do in that moment totake the first step to just go
and do it. And I certainly hopethat you did. I certainly hope
that you did.
So I'm sure we'd all agree thattaking the first step when
(02:00):
moving into your next chapterrequires both courage and
encouragement. So let's talkabout courage and encouragement
today. Courage and encourage arewords that are related. They
stem from the French wordencorege. That's on to make or
(02:25):
put in and core which meansheart.
You go and look those up foryourself because I am sure that
I did not do them justicepronouncing them. I never took
French. The word encourage meansto instill confidence and hope.
To give heart, to give heart.And to have courage is to be
(02:48):
confident, brave or bold.
To have heart, again, to haveheart. So courage is having
heart and encourage orencouragement is giving it.
Courage, let's isolate that. Iliken starting something brand
new or embarking on a newchapter in life to you know that
(03:13):
first time you rode your bikedown a steep hill, anybody ever
done that? Short story, shortstory here.
Now I'm infamous for making ashort story long so just hang
tight here, we're goingsomewhere. When I was young, we
didn't have bicycles with allthe fancy brakes and whatnot. My
(03:35):
favorite bike was pink with along banana seat. It had the
nifty high rise handlebars withthose oh so special sparkly
tassels hanging from them. Therides down that hill, down the
hill on that thing were epic.
(03:56):
I do remember the feeling ofbeing at the top of the hill
preparing to come down. I meanyou know you could be in for the
ride of your life and you knewit but inside there's this tiny
bit of hesitation. Your friendsare gathered around watching and
you muster up the courage totake off but on the way down you
(04:21):
realize the risk you're takingand so you use the only breaks
available at the time, your twofeet. You manage to slow it down
just enough to avoid taking abad spill that causes your
friends to laugh, but you feelrelieved and you think you've
(04:42):
made the right decision in thatmoment. That bike was going too
fast and you were not ready forthat kind of ride.
You just weren't prepared.Stepping into what God has
called you to do can be scaryjust like that. Deep down you
know God has your back. You knowyou're going to be in for the
(05:03):
ride of your life. But thecourage to make that first move
is hard to come by.
You might even take the firststep, but as things get rolling,
you tend to put on brakes. Youdrag your feet, if you will. The
challenge can be believing thatyou have what it takes to move
(05:27):
into your next, whatever thatmight be. You have courage, you
have the courage, you needcourage or you need heart To
encourage, to encourage means toinspire with courage and
confidence and hope or as wesaid before to give heart. So
(05:51):
listen, I want to give you someheart right here.
You have to remember it's youmaking the moves or taking the
steps, but you're fully backedby God. Psalm one hundred thirty
eight and eight reads, The Lordwill work out his plans for my
(06:11):
life, for your faithful love, OLord, endures forever. Don't
abandon me, for you made me.Another translation uses the
word perfect or perfect. Itsays, The Lord will perfect that
(06:31):
which concerns me.
He'll make it perfect. He'llmake it all good. It's all Him.
If you're aligned with Him, it'sall good. Isaiah 4one 10 reads
like this, Don't be afraid for Iam with you.
Don't be discouraged for I amyour God. I will strengthen you
(06:54):
and help you. I will hold you upwith my victorious right hand. I
love that scripture so much.Don't be discouraged.
The message version says, don'tpanic. The living Bible in that
(07:15):
same scripture uses the words,do not be dismayed. So the Lord
is telling us because he is whohe is, we have no need to be
discouraged. There's no need topanic and there's no need to be
dismayed. He's going to give usthe strength.
(07:37):
He will give us the strength andHe will hold us up. And it makes
reference to His righteous orHis victorious right hand. That
part has always been importantto me. Listen, that part lets us
know that through all of thechallenges, through all of the
(07:57):
things that come to challenge usin this life, God will be right
there. His righteous right handdefinitely represents strength
and power, but it alsorepresents His guidance, His
protection and His favor.
And yes, even his victory andtriumph. I'm here to tell you,
(08:24):
your hesitation is a humanresponse and it's valid. It
happens. Hesitation happens. Ithappens and I believe that the
only way we can get past it, theonly way we can get over
ourselves if you will, is to goto God and be completely honest
(08:50):
with him about all of thosethoughts, all of those feelings
of hesitation, all thetrepidation that you're feeling,
all those old tapes that areplaying in your head, He knows
about them anyway.
All that stuff in your headthat's keeping you from making
that move, tell God about it.Tell Him about it. There is this
(09:13):
scripture that revolutionized mylife many years ago and it's
found in Mark nine twenty four.It's a cry for help, a prayer
even if it's a prayer and it'sspoken by the father of a boy
who was possessed by a demon.The verse reads like this, The
(09:35):
father instantly cried out, I dobelieve, but help me overcome my
unbelief.
The father comes clean in thatmoment. He professes that he
believes in the healing power ofJesus, but at the same time he
confesses or admits that he hasa problem. He admits that he's
(09:58):
struggling with doubt andunbelief. This verse has always
reminded me that even believerscan experience periods of doubt
and that it's all right to go toGod and ask for help with that.
He's available.
You can say, I believe you Lord,but I'm also battling unbelief.
(10:22):
I need your help. Just say so.He knows. Listen, what's going
to be required as you step outis what's known as Godfidence.
Some of you have heard this termbefore. It's confidence with God
at the center. It's when youmove, knowing that God is the
(10:47):
all powerful one, the omnipotentone, And you know that his
abilities far surpass yours.It's when we understand the
ability that we have, theability that you and I have
comes from God and he cannot andwill not fail. He will cause you
(11:11):
and I to triumph.
So I say this, you are equippedwith what you need for what's
ahead. You are destined to walkout a plan designed by the
master. A plan designedexclusively for you. No one else
can do what you are called todo. That desire that you have,
(11:35):
that urge to do more, to givemore, to be present for someone
else, that sense that your storyis the one that needs to be told
so someone else can benefit fromhearing it?
Well, put that there. That'swhat's going to bring you joy.
He's already put in place whatyou need. Remember the Word
(12:00):
says, Trust in the Lord and Hewill give you the desires of
your heart. Well, I'm tellingyou now to lean in and now's the
time.
Now's the time. Lean in. Ourcourage to make that move can
often be thwarted by our concernabout our resources, that we're
(12:25):
not going to have what we need.But I tell you listeners, there
are so many stories, so manytestimonies from people who have
launched out into the deep.They've done what God was
telling them to do and thefinances to do it showed up or,
(12:46):
or God stretched the little bitthey had and made that work.
Oh, don't get me started on thistopic. One quick reference in
the word of God. I want to, Iwant to share this with you.
First Kings 17, there's anaccounting there of a widow.
This widow is discouraged,dismayed and I dare say in a bit
(13:08):
of a panic.
There's this drought going onand she and her son don't have
any food or any money left. Inother words, their resources
have dried up. So this widowplans to use what little she has
and prepare the last meal oftheir lives. But God sends
(13:32):
Elijah, the prophet along andperforms a miracle. The miracle
was that the oil and the flourthey needed to survive lasted
them throughout the drought forthe whole duration of the
drought, three years they hadwhat they needed.
(13:53):
And one of the contributingfactors in this story that I
want to highlight here is thatthe widow did as she was told by
the Lord through the prophetElijah. She put what she had,
what little she had, into God'salmighty hand. You might have
heard the expression, littlebecomes much in the hands of
(14:14):
God, or maybe you've heard, Heowns cattle on a thousand hills.
In other words, God has endlessresources. Try Him.
Try Him. Be encouraged. Alongthose lines, I know that it's
not just money that concerns us,it's support, support. We all
(14:38):
need it. When you're embarkingon a new journey, charting a new
path, it can get lonely.
Remember Moses? We talked abouthim in episode one. We talked
about him and we said that Godspoke to him when he was all
alone on the backside of thedesert through that burning
(14:58):
bush. Many times instructions,revelations or ideas or plans,
if you will, come when we're allalone. I do believe the Lord
uses our time in solitude withHim so He can speak clearly.
That can be a challenge for ussometimes as humans because we
like to run things by otherhumans. We want other humans to
(15:22):
witness the same things thatwe're witnessing. We want them
to hear the same thing. We wantothers to help carry the
weightiness of God's messages.We want and we need support in
these moments.
I do believe God understandsthat. Support in the form of
encouragement is invaluable andGod knows. When you have someone
(15:46):
who's willing to walk alongsideyou and give you the push you
need, it's necessary part of ourjourney. It's a beautiful and
wonderful thing. So I pray thatas you gain more and more
courage that you grow inGodfidence as well.
I pray that it gets easier andeasier to make the next steps
(16:10):
and I also pray that you willfind ways to pass that along to
others who are in need of thevery same thing. Sharing your
story of courage will encourageothers. You need to share your
riding your bike down the hillstory. Someone needs to hear
(16:30):
that so go ahead and share that.You'll find joy in it.
You've been listening to Joy inEvery Step. I'm Sarita
Bernadette. I'm grateful youchose to spend some time here.
You can find Joy in Every Stepwherever you listen to your
podcasts. Do check out thewebsite at joyineverystep.org.
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