December 13, 2025 • 23 mins
Jenny discusses the concept of having a 'word of the year' and how it can impact your life, but is not a “have to.” She shares her journey of finding her word for 2026 and gives a “behind the scenes” look at her very practical approach to an ongoing, personal relationship with God and how to hear Him speak.
Find all Scripture references from this episode at http://jennyzentz.com/podcast-word-of-the-year
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(00:04):
Welcome to the Intertwined Life podcast.
I'm your host, Jenny Zenz. I am a wife and a mom on a
mission. I've got a passion to help women
discover practical ways to applythe power of God's word to our
everyday stuff. I truly believe that our walks
with the Lord should be seamlessly intertwined with our
everyday lives. It should affect every move we
(00:25):
make and every breath we take. So come on, let's do life
together. You've got this because he's got
you. Hey everybody, I hope you're
doing great. If you're watching this in real
time, I'm doing it live and so you know how that goes, but I
(00:45):
hope you enjoyed this. We're going to talk about how I
get my word of the year. So we're at that time of year
where everybody's going to starttalking if they haven't already.
I'm recording this in real time on December 12th, 2025 and
everybody's going to start saying, what's your word of the
year for 2026? Do you have a word of the year?
What's your word of the year? And I don't know about you, but
that used to annoy me. It used to really annoy me.
(01:08):
I'm like, what is this the word of the year thing?
Where did this come from? It's not in the Bible, in case
you're wondering. But as I began to think about
it, I'm like, OK, I often will have a focus or something that
the Lord's laying on my heart and like, that's, that's what
I'm going to use this year to kind of like have my focus or a
scripture verse. That's my focus.
So I started leaning into this whole word of the year thing a
few years ago. But if I'm being completely
(01:29):
honest, most of the time it is January 4th, 5th.
And all of a sudden I'm like, Ohno, I need a word of the year
because I start hearing other podcasters and other friends
talking about their word of the year and it sounds so
intentional. And they had this great
revelation. I'm like, crap, how about, you
know, I'm just like pulling ideas out of thin air.
At least that's the way it feelsoften.
(01:51):
God has honored that in beautiful ways and or I have
gone to him in prayer. Lord, you know what, what is the
word of the year you have for methis year, if there is one and
he is gracious even when I am behind to still help me find
something that is inspiring and encouraging.
So for this past year for me, itwas forward and I found some
(02:13):
great scripture verses just about leaving the things that
are behind and looking towards what is ahead and pressing on
and knowing that God has plans. And in Isaiah where it says he
makes a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
So that has been a beautiful thing for me this past year
forward, just knowing to let go of regret of pain of where I
(02:35):
could have should have been by now if only I had, you know,
those kinds of things. And it's made a difference.
And I kept those scripture versein my mind.
And I have this, I have several journals as most of us women do,
just random things all over my house.
But I started writing in this one and I wrote down somewhere
in here that my word of the yearis forward.
And so as I did, I found those scripture verses that really led
(02:58):
me to that direction to lean into that.
And I wrote those down. And then I would every every
day, especially at the beginningof the year, read my word and
those scripture verses and I would write those scripture
every day. It was like two or three
scripture that kind of had that focus so that it really got
ingrained in my heart. And for me, I do want you to
(03:18):
hear this every day. You should just spend some time
talking to Jesus because how do you build a relationship with
anyone? You just hang out and there's
not always this agenda, there's not always this plan, there's
not always this great need or these super fancy words.
You just show up and you make time to just sit together and
(03:40):
maybe that sounds odd because you're like, OK, what do I do?
Well, you know what? Leave that up to God.
Literally just show up and say, God, I'm here.
If you have anything to say to me, I'm here.
Open the Bible, get a devotionalstart in the book of John, start
in the New Testament and just read a little bit each day.
Use Tara Lee Coble's Bible recapapp or her plan on the Bible on
(04:01):
the Bible app. You can get all those plans.
There's so many options these days.
Nobody has any excuse of not knowing what to do.
So if you aren't sure, I mean, you know me, I'm always like,
hey, let's start with the book of Ephesians because I love,
love it, love it, love it. But that's beside the point.
Just show up and God will meet you there.
And he tells us if we draw near to him, he draws near to us.
So I want to give you a really practical look into what that
(04:26):
looked like for me. And I actually have a word of
the year. I got it in November.
What? I'm so ahead of the curve.
This is the first time that's ever happened.
But it was comical because the way God and I communicate is
very practical. I laugh a lot when I'm reading
scripture or when I'm praying and it almost makes me like I
(04:47):
can feel the tingling right herein my eyes, my eyes starting to
water a little bit when I think about just that feeling I get
when I know that I'm just communicating with God.
So if you have put your faith inJesus and you believe he's the
Son of God and you believe that he died on the cross of your
sins, he rose again and that we can't make ourselves perfect
enough to be with a perfect God.But if we put our faith in
(05:09):
Jesus, who is holy man and holy God, he takes our sins and he
gives us his righteousness and he makes us perfect before God
so that we can be united with God.
And in that moment when you justsay, Lord, I don't have all the
answers, I don't know all the things, but I want, I believe in
you and I want to receive your free gift of the forgiveness of
(05:31):
my sins, making me right with God through your sacrifice.
Jesus, just help me figure this out.
You know, it doesn't have to be fancy.
The sinner's prayer is not in the Bible.
There are no specific words. It is literally just leaning in
putting my faith. I want you to be Lord of my
life. I believe that you died for my
sins. And the Scripture tells us that
when we put our faith in Jesus, we are made new and we are
(05:54):
filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
And Jesus told us that that HolySpirit is what teaches us.
And so it's amazing because thenyou have this connection inside
and you can't fully explain it, but you know, you know when you
know that you know, and you justbegin to feel it.
And the best way to develop thatwhere you notice his voice is to
just hang out with him. And so I talk about that a lot
(06:16):
with my husband. When we first met, he would call
me and he would have to say, Hey, this is Tim Zenz.
And then after a while, I just knew his voice.
And I honestly just kind of knewwho was about to call.
You just kind of get connected, right?
And now if he were to walk into a room full of people and just
start having a conversation withsomeone, my ears would perk up
(06:37):
because I would recognize, even in the midst of all the stuff,
the voice of the one that I loveand the one who loves me.
Because we have spent 20 years now together and listening to
each other and communicating, and I don't only know the sound
of His voice, but the inflections of His voice.
And how many times do I get intoa situation where I might
actually know what He would do because I know His character
(07:00):
enough. It's the same thing with God.
Sometimes we can make some of these things way over
complicated, but I promise it's not.
It is so simple to just show up and just lean into him and just
the more we show up, the more weget to know him.
The more we read about who he isin the Bible, the more we know
his character, the more we pray and talk to God and just say
(07:22):
what's on your heart and then just be still, the more that
Holy Spirit we begin to recognize and hear and lean into
that. And so it's not a thing only for
like special people. We're all chosen anybody who
will put their faith, whosoever believes in him.
OK, so not just for the special people, there are no special
(07:43):
people. We all have that access to God.
So my talk with the Lord is very, very basic, very, very UN
fancy. So the other day it was I can
tell you the exact date and I'llexplain that why in a minute.
But I believe it was November. I just said I can tell you, but
I believe I have it marked in here this morning and then the
(08:03):
paper fell out. But it was November 9th.
OK, so November 9th I was havingmy God time.
It was early in the and I just get up, I get my coffee this
time of year when my Christmas tree is up, I sit on the corner
of the couch and that's my spot,my Bibles there, my journals
there, my To Do List, sticky notes are there in case things
keep coming up that I need to write down so I can put it out
(08:26):
of my mind for a while. All of that is there.
And then as I'm sitting there and as I'm resting in this and
taking this in, I thought, oh, you know what?
It's almost like the new year and usually I wait forever to
try and then I forget to try to think about and actually pray
(08:46):
about a word of the year. So I literally said, God, it's
earlier than usual and I'm here.And if you have a word of the
year for me because another sidenote, it's not necessary and
maybe there's not one, it's OK. You don't have to feel weird if
you don't have a word of the year.
But so I just got, if you have aword of the year for me, if
(09:06):
there is something you want me kind of leaning into and
focusing on this new year, wouldyou just speak that to my heart
just laid on my heart And I'll just kind of be be aware, you
know, we've still got a month and a half to go.
Is this what I was thinking at the time on November 9th until
the new year. So if you have a word for me,
(09:27):
make that clear for me. Amen.
And that was it. So I just kind of said it like
that, prayed it like that. And I trust the key is that
that's ironic. I just said that so you'll find
out. But the key is that when we say
a prayer to God, we leave it there and we believe he's going
to answer. Now, there's no such thing as
unanswered prayers. OK, Garth Brooks in the 90s,
(09:50):
great song. But that's no such thing.
OK, look it up if you're I really dated myself.
But anyway, so God either says yes, no, or wait, not right now,
you know, but He always answers.There's always an answer.
He doesn't just not listen and not answer.
He comes to answer our prayers. So trust Him in that.
(10:10):
No, He's going to answer. Lean into that and then, OK, go
with it. Don't think I have to do all
this stuff to make sure I don't miss it.
God knows how to speak to your heart where you are.
But as we pray and then we beginknowing and believing that God's
going to answer us, our minds and our hearts and our eyes, the
eyes of our hearts, our spiritual hearts, eyes and our
(10:30):
physical eyes are more attentiveto what he's doing around us.
And since we have made that a point of prayer and we are
leaning into that, we begin to actually see him more often.
So I love that aspect of it. It just opens us up to, to him.
But I prayed that prayer and then I said Amen.
And then I probably filled my coffee cup or whatever.
And then I was flipping through one of my journals, Excuse me, a
(10:55):
journal from I don't even know when it was just sitting there.
And it's one that it may have notes in it from four years ago,
'cause I don't journal every day, like I just don't.
But I keep it with me when I'm reading the Bible or when I'm
praying or whatever, because sometimes something will come
up. Either I'll come across a
scripture that I'm like, oh, that hit me really good.
So I'll write it a couple times to kind of get it deep down
(11:17):
inside of me. Or I'll maybe I'll write prayer
requests or maybe I'll write goals or whatever.
Sometimes I feel prompted to write.
I am not legalistic about this at all.
So I found an old journal. I was flipping through it.
I was just laying there and I'm not sure why I was flipping
through it, but I found a page where I had written out several
(11:39):
verses, but there was one scripture that I had the
reference, which is like the book, the chapter and the verse,
the address of the scripture. But I didn't write what the
Scripture was. And I thought, that's
interesting. So I picked up my Bible and I
thought I should look up what that scripture is because that's
weird. It's just probably notes from
years ago. Why didn't I write that one
(11:59):
down? So that one was from Psalm 437.
Sorry, being live, it makes it really awkward, right, to have
to do this in person. So now I got to find it.
Here it is. OK Psalm 37, four through 7A.
If I say 7A, that just means thefirst part of that verse.
(12:22):
OK, so book a Psalm kind of in the middle of your Bible chapter
37, starting with verse 4. It says delight yourself in the
Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and
(12:43):
your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and
wait patiently for him. Now I had that already
highlighted this. This is scripture that I have
loved for a while. And when I saw that reference
written in my journal, it didn'tautomatically occur to me what
it was. And they went to it.
(13:04):
I'm like, Oh yes, but my, I don't know.
Little like senses went off whenI read that verse 5.
Commit your way to him, trust inhim and he will act.
I looked up and I literally likea child, like, oh, is the word
trust? Is it trust?
Because for whatever reason, that word just jumped out of me.
And then I kind of laughed. I'm like, OK, am I being silly
(13:26):
because I just prayed that and now 5 minutes later I'm like,
oh, maybe that's the word and amI going to be just be looking
for it everywhere? And I literally said to God, am
I, is it trust or am I just making this up?
You know, like I ask God that a lot because if I feel something,
you know, when you say God speaks to me, I'm not saying I
(13:46):
hear this audible voice, but youknow, you just know something
deep down or this thought just comes into your mind and you
don't know where it came from. Like things like that.
God uses that if we lean into him and he does speak to us that
way. So I'm thinking, is it trust?
Is it trust? And I'm like a silly little kid.
So then I move on. I kind of laugh and I'm like, I
(14:07):
may have just made that up. If it is trust, OK, let me know.
Well then I opened my devotionalfor that day.
So this is the devotional I've been using.
If you're familiar with the devotional Jesus Calling, which
has been around for a long time by Sarah Young.
I enjoyed that when I listened to it or I read it daily for a
few years. Well, this one is called Jesus
listens. And this is like prayers that we
(14:29):
can say to God. And it's very interesting
because I don't know, she, she prays in a way that's very
specific, like, you know, Lord, I'm dealing with blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah. And when you first look at it,
you're like, well, maybe I'm notdealing with blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. And on certain days, on occasion
I read it, excuse me. And it's it's not something that
(14:51):
is on my heart that I'm dealing with.
So I don't it's OK. You know, there's still truth
because she links it to Scripture and she uses Scripture
in those prayers. It's still great prayers.
And then later when I am dealingwith whatever that is, I can go
back to that. But that specific day after all
this would happen, I prayed. I put that aside.
(15:11):
Then I read this random verse. And then I said, oh, is it
trust? Like, I don't know.
So I kind of laughed at myself and I put that aside, and then I
opened up that day, November 9th, and I began to read
Sovereign Lord, please help me trust you here and now.
(15:33):
Are you kidding me? That was the first word.
Please help me trust you here and now.
Chills, tears. OK, I get it.
I get it. Yes, the word is trust.
God just affirmed that. And do you see how how kind that
is and how practically and easily that worked?
(15:55):
And I'm not saying every single time it's going to be that
immediate. Most of the time it's not.
But it was a really cool moment with the Lord.
And I wasn't even like, you know, I was kind of throwing it
out there almost slightly flippantly.
And he made it so clear and he affirmed it with his word.
He affirmed it through the author of this devotional.
(16:17):
And when we say he affirms, likehe made it clear.
He said something. I thought something.
And then he kept showing me again and again all these ways
and my mind and my heart was open to it because I was, it was
there in the forefront. I was expecting him to answer
me. So it's kind of a aware.
And then I see one thing and I'mlike, OK, but then another and
another, You're like, OK, Lord, I get it.
Isn't that cool? Like, I just love the way the
(16:40):
Lord works. And so I also wanted to show you
the scripture that was linked tothat day.
And one of those is so awkward when it's live.
OK, first we're going to go to Psalm 33, verses 20 through 21.
(17:04):
Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield,
for our heart is glad in Him because we trust in His holy
name. And then the next scripture
verse that was linked to this day is Isaiah chapter 50 verse
10. And it says, who among you fears
the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant?
(17:26):
Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the
name of the Lord and rely on him.
OK. And then Micah, which it's,
it's, you know, like a minor prophet, It's an Old Testament.
There's nothing wrong with it, but it's not a book you go to
(17:49):
quite regularly that I would have just naturally gone to.
But again, here it was the exactsame day, all of this happening
within about 10 minutes. And Micah Chapter 7 verse 7
says, but As for me, I will lookto the Lord.
I will wait for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me. The amount of Scripture that
(18:14):
kept coming up about trust, trust, trust was so powerful.
So what I did, the next step I did was I first of all said a
thank you, Lord, I think my wordfor 2026 is going to be trust.
And then I grabbed the journal and I wrote 2026 trust and I
wrote out some of the Scripture that God showed me and that
(18:37):
really connected closely with that.
One of them, Psalm 25, one through 2 says to you, Oh God, I
lift up my soul. Oh my God, in you, I trust so,
so many things. Isaiah 26, three through 4.
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you
because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever.
(18:59):
For the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
So all of this just kept coming and it was almost like a
snowball. And so this is how God works.
This is how practical it can be.This is how not pretentious and
intense it needs to be. And think about it, when you
talk to God, just use your regular voice, OK?
(19:21):
Yes, God is worthy to be praisedand deserving of reverence and
honor. But if you have a child that you
want this close intimate relationship with, and the
minute they walk into the room, they say, oh, mother, thou art
here. What mightest I do for you?
(19:42):
Mother might just I have a portion of whatever you'd be
like, really like just talk to me.
Just be let's be real. And so I think about with God,
he is our father. He's Jesus called him ABBA,
which meant daddy. And he said that we're supposed
to have that same relationship with God.
(20:02):
And so he wants us to really to like, come to him, curl up in
his lap, just talk to him. Talk to him kind of think about
how kids might talk to their like young kids might talk to
their grandparents, joy and excitement and maybe even saying
all these things they want, you know, just come and just talk.
I've mentioned many times of a pastor at a church I used to
(20:24):
attend often said, if you don't know how to pray, just talk to
God about it. And I love that because that is
how simple it is. So here's your homework.
I'll give you a little homework.Get on the Bible app or on Bible
Gateway and search the AmplifiedClassic version for wait
expectantly. I want you to think about when
(20:48):
you pray, whether it's for a word of the day or for anything
else. We are supposed to wait
expectantly. What does that mean?
So if you look up again on the Bible app on your phone or you
go to biblegateway.com and in the search bar you type wait
expectantly and you change the version of the Bible that you're
(21:08):
using to the Amplified classic AMPC is how it's sometimes
abbreviated. When you find that, look at the
verses that pop up. I challenge you, write down the
ones that jump out to you and learn what it means to just come
to the Lord and then wait expectantly for Him to answer.
And I promise when you do, you will begin to see Him and His
(21:34):
guidance for you popping up everywhere you go.
And it's a very exciting way to walk in your faith in the every
day. So I hope this is encouraging.
Look forward to Christmas. I hope everyone is excited about
this holiday season and Hanukkah.
You know, whatever you celebrate, that it is a time
(21:54):
where you are shining the light of Jesus through your heart to
those around you, that you are loving on those that you are
having deep connections, a heartof gratitude.
And in the midst of what can be crazy excitement, may you find
peace, comfort, contentment, joy, and love as you wait
(22:17):
expectantly for your Lord. All right, guys, I will be back
in January with some inspiring stuff.
I'm going to call it encouragement for the way, and
we're going to talk about reallywalking closely with Jesus in
this new year. All right guys, love you, see
you soon. Hey friend, if you enjoyed this
(22:40):
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If you didn't like what you heard, just pretend it never
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me, just take a couple seconds and do that.
(23:02):
Not only would I be crazy excited, but also it would just
be a great way for us to partnertogether, for you to help this
podcast be seen by more women out there.
And you could be a part of helping more women discover
these practical ways to apply God's Word to just everyday
stuff. So I would love it, love it,
love it if you could help me outin one of those two ways.
Welcome to the Intertwined Life podcast.
I'm your host, Jenny Zenz. I am a wife and a mom on a
mission. I've got a passion to help women
discover practical ways to applythe power of God's word to our
everyday stuff. I truly believe that our walks
with the Lord should be seamlessly intertwined with our
everyday lives. It should affect every move we
(00:25):
make and every breath we take. So come on, let's do life
together. You've got this because he's got
you. Hey everybody, I hope you're
doing great. If you're watching this in real
time, I'm doing it live and so you know how that goes, but I
(00:45):
hope you enjoyed this. We're going to talk about how I
get my word of the year. So we're at that time of year
where everybody's going to starttalking if they haven't already.
I'm recording this in real time on December 12th, 2025 and
everybody's going to start saying, what's your word of the
year for 2026? Do you have a word of the year?
What's your word of the year? And I don't know about you, but
that used to annoy me. It used to really annoy me.
(01:08):
I'm like, what is this the word of the year thing?
Where did this come from? It's not in the Bible, in case
you're wondering. But as I began to think about
it, I'm like, OK, I often will have a focus or something that
the Lord's laying on my heart and like, that's, that's what
I'm going to use this year to kind of like have my focus or a
scripture verse. That's my focus.
So I started leaning into this whole word of the year thing a
few years ago. But if I'm being completely
(01:29):
honest, most of the time it is January 4th, 5th.
And all of a sudden I'm like, Ohno, I need a word of the year
because I start hearing other podcasters and other friends
talking about their word of the year and it sounds so
intentional. And they had this great
revelation. I'm like, crap, how about, you
know, I'm just like pulling ideas out of thin air.
At least that's the way it feelsoften.
(01:51):
God has honored that in beautiful ways and or I have
gone to him in prayer. Lord, you know what, what is the
word of the year you have for methis year, if there is one and
he is gracious even when I am behind to still help me find
something that is inspiring and encouraging.
So for this past year for me, itwas forward and I found some
(02:13):
great scripture verses just about leaving the things that
are behind and looking towards what is ahead and pressing on
and knowing that God has plans. And in Isaiah where it says he
makes a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
So that has been a beautiful thing for me this past year
forward, just knowing to let go of regret of pain of where I
(02:35):
could have should have been by now if only I had, you know,
those kinds of things. And it's made a difference.
And I kept those scripture versein my mind.
And I have this, I have several journals as most of us women do,
just random things all over my house.
But I started writing in this one and I wrote down somewhere
in here that my word of the yearis forward.
And so as I did, I found those scripture verses that really led
(02:58):
me to that direction to lean into that.
And I wrote those down. And then I would every every
day, especially at the beginningof the year, read my word and
those scripture verses and I would write those scripture
every day. It was like two or three
scripture that kind of had that focus so that it really got
ingrained in my heart. And for me, I do want you to
(03:18):
hear this every day. You should just spend some time
talking to Jesus because how do you build a relationship with
anyone? You just hang out and there's
not always this agenda, there's not always this plan, there's
not always this great need or these super fancy words.
You just show up and you make time to just sit together and
(03:40):
maybe that sounds odd because you're like, OK, what do I do?
Well, you know what? Leave that up to God.
Literally just show up and say, God, I'm here.
If you have anything to say to me, I'm here.
Open the Bible, get a devotionalstart in the book of John, start
in the New Testament and just read a little bit each day.
Use Tara Lee Coble's Bible recapapp or her plan on the Bible on
(04:01):
the Bible app. You can get all those plans.
There's so many options these days.
Nobody has any excuse of not knowing what to do.
So if you aren't sure, I mean, you know me, I'm always like,
hey, let's start with the book of Ephesians because I love,
love it, love it, love it. But that's beside the point.
Just show up and God will meet you there.
And he tells us if we draw near to him, he draws near to us.
So I want to give you a really practical look into what that
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looked like for me. And I actually have a word of
the year. I got it in November.
What? I'm so ahead of the curve.
This is the first time that's ever happened.
But it was comical because the way God and I communicate is
very practical. I laugh a lot when I'm reading
scripture or when I'm praying and it almost makes me like I
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can feel the tingling right herein my eyes, my eyes starting to
water a little bit when I think about just that feeling I get
when I know that I'm just communicating with God.
So if you have put your faith inJesus and you believe he's the
Son of God and you believe that he died on the cross of your
sins, he rose again and that we can't make ourselves perfect
enough to be with a perfect God.But if we put our faith in
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Jesus, who is holy man and holy God, he takes our sins and he
gives us his righteousness and he makes us perfect before God
so that we can be united with God.
And in that moment when you justsay, Lord, I don't have all the
answers, I don't know all the things, but I want, I believe in
you and I want to receive your free gift of the forgiveness of
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my sins, making me right with God through your sacrifice.
Jesus, just help me figure this out.
You know, it doesn't have to be fancy.
The sinner's prayer is not in the Bible.
There are no specific words. It is literally just leaning in
putting my faith. I want you to be Lord of my
life. I believe that you died for my
sins. And the Scripture tells us that
when we put our faith in Jesus, we are made new and we are
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filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
And Jesus told us that that HolySpirit is what teaches us.
And so it's amazing because thenyou have this connection inside
and you can't fully explain it, but you know, you know when you
know that you know, and you justbegin to feel it.
And the best way to develop thatwhere you notice his voice is to
just hang out with him. And so I talk about that a lot
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with my husband. When we first met, he would call
me and he would have to say, Hey, this is Tim Zenz.
And then after a while, I just knew his voice.
And I honestly just kind of knewwho was about to call.
You just kind of get connected, right?
And now if he were to walk into a room full of people and just
start having a conversation withsomeone, my ears would perk up
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because I would recognize, even in the midst of all the stuff,
the voice of the one that I loveand the one who loves me.
Because we have spent 20 years now together and listening to
each other and communicating, and I don't only know the sound
of His voice, but the inflections of His voice.
And how many times do I get intoa situation where I might
actually know what He would do because I know His character
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enough. It's the same thing with God.
Sometimes we can make some of these things way over
complicated, but I promise it's not.
It is so simple to just show up and just lean into him and just
the more we show up, the more weget to know him.
The more we read about who he isin the Bible, the more we know
his character, the more we pray and talk to God and just say
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what's on your heart and then just be still, the more that
Holy Spirit we begin to recognize and hear and lean into
that. And so it's not a thing only for
like special people. We're all chosen anybody who
will put their faith, whosoever believes in him.
OK, so not just for the special people, there are no special
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people. We all have that access to God.
So my talk with the Lord is very, very basic, very, very UN
fancy. So the other day it was I can
tell you the exact date and I'llexplain that why in a minute.
But I believe it was November. I just said I can tell you, but
I believe I have it marked in here this morning and then the
(08:03):
paper fell out. But it was November 9th.
OK, so November 9th I was havingmy God time.
It was early in the and I just get up, I get my coffee this
time of year when my Christmas tree is up, I sit on the corner
of the couch and that's my spot,my Bibles there, my journals
there, my To Do List, sticky notes are there in case things
keep coming up that I need to write down so I can put it out
(08:26):
of my mind for a while. All of that is there.
And then as I'm sitting there and as I'm resting in this and
taking this in, I thought, oh, you know what?
It's almost like the new year and usually I wait forever to
try and then I forget to try to think about and actually pray
(08:46):
about a word of the year. So I literally said, God, it's
earlier than usual and I'm here.And if you have a word of the
year for me because another sidenote, it's not necessary and
maybe there's not one, it's OK. You don't have to feel weird if
you don't have a word of the year.
But so I just got, if you have aword of the year for me, if
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there is something you want me kind of leaning into and
focusing on this new year, wouldyou just speak that to my heart
just laid on my heart And I'll just kind of be be aware, you
know, we've still got a month and a half to go.
Is this what I was thinking at the time on November 9th until
the new year. So if you have a word for me,
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make that clear for me. Amen.
And that was it. So I just kind of said it like
that, prayed it like that. And I trust the key is that
that's ironic. I just said that so you'll find
out. But the key is that when we say
a prayer to God, we leave it there and we believe he's going
to answer. Now, there's no such thing as
unanswered prayers. OK, Garth Brooks in the 90s,
(09:50):
great song. But that's no such thing.
OK, look it up if you're I really dated myself.
But anyway, so God either says yes, no, or wait, not right now,
you know, but He always answers.There's always an answer.
He doesn't just not listen and not answer.
He comes to answer our prayers. So trust Him in that.
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No, He's going to answer. Lean into that and then, OK, go
with it. Don't think I have to do all
this stuff to make sure I don't miss it.
God knows how to speak to your heart where you are.
But as we pray and then we beginknowing and believing that God's
going to answer us, our minds and our hearts and our eyes, the
eyes of our hearts, our spiritual hearts, eyes and our
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physical eyes are more attentiveto what he's doing around us.
And since we have made that a point of prayer and we are
leaning into that, we begin to actually see him more often.
So I love that aspect of it. It just opens us up to, to him.
But I prayed that prayer and then I said Amen.
And then I probably filled my coffee cup or whatever.
And then I was flipping through one of my journals, Excuse me, a
(10:55):
journal from I don't even know when it was just sitting there.
And it's one that it may have notes in it from four years ago,
'cause I don't journal every day, like I just don't.
But I keep it with me when I'm reading the Bible or when I'm
praying or whatever, because sometimes something will come
up. Either I'll come across a
scripture that I'm like, oh, that hit me really good.
So I'll write it a couple times to kind of get it deep down
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inside of me. Or I'll maybe I'll write prayer
requests or maybe I'll write goals or whatever.
Sometimes I feel prompted to write.
I am not legalistic about this at all.
So I found an old journal. I was flipping through it.
I was just laying there and I'm not sure why I was flipping
through it, but I found a page where I had written out several
(11:39):
verses, but there was one scripture that I had the
reference, which is like the book, the chapter and the verse,
the address of the scripture. But I didn't write what the
Scripture was. And I thought, that's
interesting. So I picked up my Bible and I
thought I should look up what that scripture is because that's
weird. It's just probably notes from
years ago. Why didn't I write that one
(11:59):
down? So that one was from Psalm 437.
Sorry, being live, it makes it really awkward, right, to have
to do this in person. So now I got to find it.
Here it is. OK Psalm 37, four through 7A.
If I say 7A, that just means thefirst part of that verse.
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OK, so book a Psalm kind of in the middle of your Bible chapter
37, starting with verse 4. It says delight yourself in the
Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and
(12:43):
your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and
wait patiently for him. Now I had that already
highlighted this. This is scripture that I have
loved for a while. And when I saw that reference
written in my journal, it didn'tautomatically occur to me what
it was. And they went to it.
(13:04):
I'm like, Oh yes, but my, I don't know.
Little like senses went off whenI read that verse 5.
Commit your way to him, trust inhim and he will act.
I looked up and I literally likea child, like, oh, is the word
trust? Is it trust?
Because for whatever reason, that word just jumped out of me.
And then I kind of laughed. I'm like, OK, am I being silly
(13:26):
because I just prayed that and now 5 minutes later I'm like,
oh, maybe that's the word and amI going to be just be looking
for it everywhere? And I literally said to God, am
I, is it trust or am I just making this up?
You know, like I ask God that a lot because if I feel something,
you know, when you say God speaks to me, I'm not saying I
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hear this audible voice, but youknow, you just know something
deep down or this thought just comes into your mind and you
don't know where it came from. Like things like that.
God uses that if we lean into him and he does speak to us that
way. So I'm thinking, is it trust?
Is it trust? And I'm like a silly little kid.
So then I move on. I kind of laugh and I'm like, I
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may have just made that up. If it is trust, OK, let me know.
Well then I opened my devotionalfor that day.
So this is the devotional I've been using.
If you're familiar with the devotional Jesus Calling, which
has been around for a long time by Sarah Young.
I enjoyed that when I listened to it or I read it daily for a
few years. Well, this one is called Jesus
listens. And this is like prayers that we
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can say to God. And it's very interesting
because I don't know, she, she prays in a way that's very
specific, like, you know, Lord, I'm dealing with blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah. And when you first look at it,
you're like, well, maybe I'm notdealing with blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. And on certain days, on occasion
I read it, excuse me. And it's it's not something that
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is on my heart that I'm dealing with.
So I don't it's OK. You know, there's still truth
because she links it to Scripture and she uses Scripture
in those prayers. It's still great prayers.
And then later when I am dealingwith whatever that is, I can go
back to that. But that specific day after all
this would happen, I prayed. I put that aside.
(15:11):
Then I read this random verse. And then I said, oh, is it
trust? Like, I don't know.
So I kind of laughed at myself and I put that aside, and then I
opened up that day, November 9th, and I began to read
Sovereign Lord, please help me trust you here and now.
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Are you kidding me? That was the first word.
Please help me trust you here and now.
Chills, tears. OK, I get it.
I get it. Yes, the word is trust.
God just affirmed that. And do you see how how kind that
is and how practically and easily that worked?
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And I'm not saying every single time it's going to be that
immediate. Most of the time it's not.
But it was a really cool moment with the Lord.
And I wasn't even like, you know, I was kind of throwing it
out there almost slightly flippantly.
And he made it so clear and he affirmed it with his word.
He affirmed it through the author of this devotional.
(16:17):
And when we say he affirms, likehe made it clear.
He said something. I thought something.
And then he kept showing me again and again all these ways
and my mind and my heart was open to it because I was, it was
there in the forefront. I was expecting him to answer
me. So it's kind of a aware.
And then I see one thing and I'mlike, OK, but then another and
another, You're like, OK, Lord, I get it.
Isn't that cool? Like, I just love the way the
(16:40):
Lord works. And so I also wanted to show you
the scripture that was linked tothat day.
And one of those is so awkward when it's live.
OK, first we're going to go to Psalm 33, verses 20 through 21.
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Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield,
for our heart is glad in Him because we trust in His holy
name. And then the next scripture
verse that was linked to this day is Isaiah chapter 50 verse
10. And it says, who among you fears
the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant?
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Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the
name of the Lord and rely on him.
OK. And then Micah, which it's,
it's, you know, like a minor prophet, It's an Old Testament.
There's nothing wrong with it, but it's not a book you go to
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quite regularly that I would have just naturally gone to.
But again, here it was the exactsame day, all of this happening
within about 10 minutes. And Micah Chapter 7 verse 7
says, but As for me, I will lookto the Lord.
I will wait for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me. The amount of Scripture that
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kept coming up about trust, trust, trust was so powerful.
So what I did, the next step I did was I first of all said a
thank you, Lord, I think my wordfor 2026 is going to be trust.
And then I grabbed the journal and I wrote 2026 trust and I
wrote out some of the Scripture that God showed me and that
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really connected closely with that.
One of them, Psalm 25, one through 2 says to you, Oh God, I
lift up my soul. Oh my God, in you, I trust so,
so many things. Isaiah 26, three through 4.
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you
because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever.
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For the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
So all of this just kept coming and it was almost like a
snowball. And so this is how God works.
This is how practical it can be.This is how not pretentious and
intense it needs to be. And think about it, when you
talk to God, just use your regular voice, OK?
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Yes, God is worthy to be praisedand deserving of reverence and
honor. But if you have a child that you
want this close intimate relationship with, and the
minute they walk into the room, they say, oh, mother, thou art
here. What mightest I do for you?
(19:42):
Mother might just I have a portion of whatever you'd be
like, really like just talk to me.
Just be let's be real. And so I think about with God,
he is our father. He's Jesus called him ABBA,
which meant daddy. And he said that we're supposed
to have that same relationship with God.
(20:02):
And so he wants us to really to like, come to him, curl up in
his lap, just talk to him. Talk to him kind of think about
how kids might talk to their like young kids might talk to
their grandparents, joy and excitement and maybe even saying
all these things they want, you know, just come and just talk.
I've mentioned many times of a pastor at a church I used to
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attend often said, if you don't know how to pray, just talk to
God about it. And I love that because that is
how simple it is. So here's your homework.
I'll give you a little homework.Get on the Bible app or on Bible
Gateway and search the AmplifiedClassic version for wait
expectantly. I want you to think about when
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you pray, whether it's for a word of the day or for anything
else. We are supposed to wait
expectantly. What does that mean?
So if you look up again on the Bible app on your phone or you
go to biblegateway.com and in the search bar you type wait
expectantly and you change the version of the Bible that you're
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using to the Amplified classic AMPC is how it's sometimes
abbreviated. When you find that, look at the
verses that pop up. I challenge you, write down the
ones that jump out to you and learn what it means to just come
to the Lord and then wait expectantly for Him to answer.
And I promise when you do, you will begin to see Him and His
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guidance for you popping up everywhere you go.
And it's a very exciting way to walk in your faith in the every
day. So I hope this is encouraging.
Look forward to Christmas. I hope everyone is excited about
this holiday season and Hanukkah.
You know, whatever you celebrate, that it is a time
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where you are shining the light of Jesus through your heart to
those around you, that you are loving on those that you are
having deep connections, a heartof gratitude.
And in the midst of what can be crazy excitement, may you find
peace, comfort, contentment, joy, and love as you wait
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expectantly for your Lord. All right, guys, I will be back
in January with some inspiring stuff.
I'm going to call it encouragement for the way, and
we're going to talk about reallywalking closely with Jesus in
this new year. All right guys, love you, see
you soon. Hey friend, if you enjoyed this
(22:40):
episode and you got some good stuff out of it, there's a few
options. You have 1 you could click that
little subscribe button. And also if you would review
this podcast, Oh my gosh, if youlike what you heard, get on
there. Give it a five star review.
If you didn't like what you heard, just pretend it never
happened, OK? But if you would do a review for
me, just take a couple seconds and do that.
(23:02):
Not only would I be crazy excited, but also it would just
be a great way for us to partnertogether, for you to help this
podcast be seen by more women out there.
And you could be a part of helping more women discover
these practical ways to apply God's Word to just everyday
stuff. So I would love it, love it,
love it if you could help me outin one of those two ways.
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