Latest / Women At The Well: REJOICE / Episode 27-From Bitter to Blessed: Shifting Your Mindset with Naomi

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Episode 27-From Bitter to Blessed: Shifting Your Mindset with Naomi · Women At The Well: REJOICE

• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Grand Rising.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Hello.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Women at the Well Rejoice.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: I am so incredible blessed to have you here with me today for episode 27.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: I am Rose, your host.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you are tuning in during your morning walk while tending your garden or simply sitting down quietly with a cup of tea?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: I pray this space brings peace, encouragement, and a renewed sense of purpose to your day.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you a question that might get a little close to home.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever found yourself trapped in a reality that you didn't ask for?
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Holding on to a narrative that is entirely fueled by disappointment, exhaustion, tiredness, grief?
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe your story didn't turn out the way you planned.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're looking at an empty bank account, a medical diagnosis, or an empty seat at your table.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the voice inside your head is replaying on everything you've lost.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, those thoughts can start to feel like a fortress, locking you into a cycle of despair, anxiety, sleepless nights.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: It is so easy to let the weight of this world shape how we see our future.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: But scripture offers us a profound way out.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: It tells us that we are not meant to be conformed to this work.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, we are called to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: In Romans 12, 2, the NIV, the Apostle Paul gives us this timeless instruction.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Do not conform to the patterns of this work, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: A mindset shift isn't about pretending everything is perfect or relying on the superficial positive thinking.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: It is a deliberate, daily decision to view our circumstances through the lens of faith, grace, and divine purpose.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: It is about shifting from a posture of why is this happening to me to a posture of what is God cultivating within me right now.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, ladies, grab your tea, coffee, or water, and let's dive into the word of God.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Father God, as we come to the well this morning, first of all, we've got to say thank you.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for watching over us last night.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for waking us up this morning.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for all the provisions you've made all through our lives.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the ups and the downs.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Father God, today we're asking you to shift our mindset.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: If we are feeling despair, anxiety, or anything that is against the will of God, we're asking that you transform us this morning.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Give us a word to help us move away from the sadness and the grief and to the joy and the hope, increase our faith, increase our beliefs.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Father God, we thank you for joining us this morning.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: In the precious name of Jesus we pray.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Alright.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Let us move into the word.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, there are at least three components to a mind shift.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: In order to transform your mind, you gotta know something.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, you must believe, you must have faith, and you must have hope.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to take a look at Naomi.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Naomi was the mother-in-law of Ruth.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Naomi's loss was great, very great.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: She had lost her husband and her two sons.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So great was her loss that she wanted people to refer to her not as Naomi, which means pleasant, but Mara, which means bitter.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: She felt completely broken and bitter by grief after losing her husband and her sons in a foreign land.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: But her journey shows us that shifting your mindset isn't about ignoring your pain.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's about allowing God to change your perspective despite it.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: In Ruth, the first chapter, verses 20 through 21, let's go there.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be reading from the NIV.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to what Naomi said.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Don't call me Naomi, she told them.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why call me Naomi?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord has afflicted me.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now Naomi felt pain.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Her heart was bitter due to her losses, and this is not a surprise.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: You lose your husband, you lose two of your children, and you might feel bitter too.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's a real pain.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: But look at here.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: When we look at God, you see, faith doesn't always look like a bold shout.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it looks like a quiet, desperate decision to keep moving.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Naomi's faith was activated when she stopped looking back and started looking around her.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: She noticed that the barley harvest was beginning and that her daughter-in-law Ruth had found favor in the field of a man named Boaz.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Furthermore, Naomi took the step to move to Bethlehem.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: She changed her scenery.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: In Ruth, the second chapter, verses 19 through 20, in the NIV, Naomi questions Ruth about gleaning in the field.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Let's read it.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Ruth, the second chapter, verses 19 through 20.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: It reads.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the man who took notice of you.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: The name of the man I work with today is Boaz, she said.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord blessed him, Naomi said to her daughter-in-law.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead, she added.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: He is one of our guardian redeemers.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the switch.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: By the end of the book of Ruth, Naomi's empty arms are filled.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Boaz marries Ruth, they have a son named Obed, and the community celebrates Naomi's restoration.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: In Ruth, the fourth chapter, verses 14 through 15, take a look.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: The women said to Naomi, Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian redeemer.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: May he become famous throughout Israel.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 15, he will renew your life and sustain you in your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Naomi's story ends with a complete restoration of hope.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Obed would go on to become the grandfather of King David, placing Naomi directly in the lineage of Jesus Christ.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Her pain had a purpose that stretched across generations, proving that a shifting mindset yields a lasting legacy.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Let's look at this one more time.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Naomi is the perfect example of God using broken pieces to build a magnificent future.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: She felt empty and abandoned by God.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: She had to make a shift.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: She had to believe that God is still good, even when the circumstances are bad.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Psalms 27, verses 13 through 14 helps us to hold on to our beliefs.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: It says, and it's personal, I remain confident of this.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Wait for the Lord.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Not only did she have to believe, but she had to keep the faith.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Understand she was paralyzed by grief and poverty.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: She took a risk to strategize and step out by sending her daughter-in-law Ruth to glean and Boaz's field.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Faith requires that we do something.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: James 2, 17 in the King James Version tells us, even so faith, if it had not worked, is dead, being alone.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: It is important to trust God and put that trust into action.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Put your faith into action.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Lastly, although Naomi believed her legacy was dead, God had a plan of restoration.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: You see, he restores all of our brokenness.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: He is our hope.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: In Jeremiah 29, 11, he speaks to all of us.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: God says, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Plans to give you hope and a future.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great promise.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's a promise from God.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: But one more thing.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 8.28 reminds us in the King James Version.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: It says, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: To them who are called according to his purpose.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: According to his purpose.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: All things.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Don't care what you're going through, God has a plan for that.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get despondent.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Just keep your eyes turned towards heaven and keep praying.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: God has a plan.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, sisters, this is where we have to stop and just rejoice over what God did for Naomi and understand that He can and will do the same thing for us.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to see this picture here.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: In chapter 1, she walks into Bethlehem covered in the dust of a broken path, weeping and telling the neighborhood women, don't even call me Naomi anymore.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Call me Mara.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because my life is bitter.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: She thought her story was over.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: She thought her womb was dried up.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Her lineage was cut off, and her name was erased.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: But oh, aren't you glad that God gets the final say over your story, my story?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: We fast forward to chapter 4.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says Naomi is sitting on the porch, but her arms aren't empty anymore.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: She is cradling a newborn baby boy named Obed.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: The very same neighborhood women who watched her walk in, hanging her head in shame, are now standing around her shouting, Praise be to the Lord, who has not left you without a redeemer.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Those are those people.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Those are those people.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And y'all know what people.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody listening to this today needs to rejoice right now because Naomi's God is your God.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: My God.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: If he can renew the life of a broke, grieving widow and fill her arms with a generational blessing, he can do the exact same thing for you and for me.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: We got to praise him.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: In spite of our situation, we have got to praise him.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just thank him right now for turning things around and around and around.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go to God in prayer.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, thank you for the women of Scriptures whose life reminds us that you are a redeemer, a restorer, and a promise keeper.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Your word won't return void unto you.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: As we renew our minds through your word, help us to release our bitterness, our anxieties, our fear, our grief, and doubts.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, fill our hearts with faith, hope, peace, and joy.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: May our lives testify that you are faithful in every season.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you are with us in every season.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And no matter what's going on, it is working for our good.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining me today at The Well for Episode 27.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: I am Rose, and I have been your host.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: If this message resonates with you, please consider sharing it with a sister, a friend, or anyone who might need a gentle reminder to adjust their focus today.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: May your week be filled with clarity, your heart be filled with peace, and your mind be anchored in joy.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Keep pressing for it.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Keep planting those beautiful seeds.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And above all, keep rejoicing.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, this wall is living and this well never runs dry.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Until next week, may God bless you abundantly.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Bye bye, ladies.