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28. Feeling Disconnected? 3 Devotional Habits To Draw Closer to God this Year · Believe & Become | Ministry, Biblical Encouragement, God's Will, How to Change, Holy Spirit

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Speaker A: James 4:8 says, Come near to God and He will come near to you. God's desire is to be close to you. So today we're talking about healthy devotional habits to draw you closer to God. Something sweet happens when we realize God is all about connection. He's not interested in how many boxes you've checked. He just wants to get to know you and reveal Himself to you. So listen closely as we share some of the best ways to engage with the beautiful one we call Lord.
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Speaker B: If you're tired of leading others while secretly battling doubt, discouragement and mental warfare.
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Speaker A: And you want practical tools to renew your mind and walk boldly in your.
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Speaker B: Calling as a leader, you're in the right place. Welcome to Believe and Become.
0:43
Speaker A: We're Josh and Karina, your spirit filled coaches, here to help you overcome those limiting beliefs and lead others confidently.
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Speaker B: If you're ready to hear God's voice more clearly, just step into your purpose and find joy and strength in the everyday.
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Speaker A: Silence those Bible app reminders judging you from your lock screen and let's jump in.
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Speaker B: Hey friend, here's a quick invitation before we dive in. If you're a spirit filled Christian in leadership, whether you're a pastor, business owner or a stay at home mom and you're feeling stretched thin, stuck in overthinking or or unsure how to break through, what's holding your back, you're not alone. We'd love to invite you to our brand new Facebook group, Overcome Limiting Beliefs for Christians in Leadership. It's a space for faith filled leaders like you to be refreshed, encouraged and equipped to renew your mind and lead from God's presence, not pressure. Inside you'll find community, practical guidance and uplifting conversations that help you step into greater clarity, peace and purpose. Come join us. Follow the link in the show notes. We'll meet you there.
1:49
Speaker A: Well, welcome to the podcast. We are so excited to be here with you today. Josh and I were raised in church. We were raised in godly homes where our parents loved Jesus and they served him. We probably were at church multiple nights a week. I know I was. And we were both raised with this idea that to love God meant that we had to serve and we had to do something. And I don't think that was something that we were necessarily taught, but it was definitely something that we believed. And it, I think it comes from lots of places, from youth group, from messages that you hear where it's like you're not spending enough time with Jesus or it's that's what we hear what we heard, and I don't necessarily know that was the message that was spoken, but probably not. It was like, you know, a hundred ways to get closer to God. And I'm like, I'm not close enough to God. Right. Like, there's something innate inside of us that wants to please Him. And so that can sometimes turn into a chore. And so for me, growing up, my devotional time often felt like a chore. Like home homework, like something I had to do in order to make God happy or to stay in his good graces. And then when I would miss a day or a week or a month, coming back felt like this whole routine of repentance and weeping and mourning and gnashing of teeth, you know, in order to get back to a place where I felt connected to him again. But the reality is that God is more interested in connection with us. He really just wants to hang out with us. Um, I know for me, when my kids have stuff going on and they're running around and we're dropping them off places, we don't get to see them as much, you feel a little bit sad because you're not as connected or you don't get to spend as much time with them. But then when they come and they sit and they say, you know, our oldest son especially is really fond of just coming and standing and looking at me and saying, how you doing, Mom? And it's just so sweet. And I would never be like, well, I'm not going to talk to you because you didn't talk to me this week. You know, I'm like, yes, 100%. Let's have a conversation. And that is the way God sees us. He wants to engage with us. There is such blessing in learning to view our time with God as connection and not something that I have to do to earn his love.
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Speaker B: Yeah, I had the exact same experience of just feeling like I never read my Bible enough. I never prayed enough. I was just never. I was never good enough. And those are just lies of the enemy.
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Speaker A: Yeah.
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Speaker B: Trying to accuse us and make us feel bad about ourselves. And then we go into this driving performance mode instead of just relying on the presence of God. We have the Holy Spirit inside of us. We are always connected to Him. We can't even. We can't disconnect from him even if we wanted to, because he lives inside of us. And so just coming to that realization was huge. And it takes the chore and the checklist out of spending time with him and changes it into, hey, Jesus, let's have fun together. What do you want to do?
4:39
Speaker A: And I think you hit on something really important, that it is accusation and it is lies of the enemy that cause us to feel that way. It's not what anybody else has said or done. You could even be around somebody who is really devout and really loves to engage with Jesus. And they get up every morning for two hours and they pray and do all the things and it. You automatically feel bad, you know, you're automatically like, I'm a terrible Christian, but. And so it's not necessarily that they're saying that to you. It's what we're, what the enemy is lying to us. And so I think that's really huge that we recognize it doesn't matter. None of the things, the external things are really the important part. The important part is the connection to Jesus and overcoming those lies.
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Speaker B: Yeah. So we're just breaking off the lie that you have to do more or you're not doing enough or that you're not good enough. Jesus paid the price to put you into perfect relationship with himself. And so let's just live on that. You can live on that today.
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Speaker A: Yeah.
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Speaker B: So one of the things that is important in your devotional life is to recognize what season are you in. Recognize what, what can you do time wise with your schedule, with your energy, if you're a busy mom, a busy parent, you're always running the kids around, or if you have very intense job that's super busy and you don't have a ton of extra time. God understands that and he knows that. He doesn't say, well, you really should be getting up at three in the morning to spend two hours praying, even.
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Speaker A: Though you probably just went to bed at 2 because you were nursing.
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Speaker B: Right, Exactly.
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Speaker A: He's so not there.
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Speaker B: He's not, he's not condemning you. He understands and he just wants, even if it's five minutes, if you're only alone time is five minutes in the bathroom. Read it. Read a quick devotional, pray for a couple minutes. And he can he multiply our time and multiply our relationship with him and then you realize that you can actually do all of your day with Him.
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Speaker A: Yes. And that is something that I have so loved learning with Jesus. I wish, just like so many things, I wish I had really grabbed ahold of it much earlier. But recognizing that you can make your work your worship, that the things that he has given you to do the work of your hands, that is an offering to Him. And so if all the time you have is when you Wait, your eyes open and you say, God, I just. I give this day to youo. Thank youk for another day. Thank youk for your blessings. And then your feet hit the floor and you're running till you're back in bed. Do the rest of it in between with Him. Everything that we do can be worship. And we can live a life that sings his praises, even if we're not, you know, constantly in solitude, in stillness, in quiet. Because sometimes we're in a season where that's not the reality of our lives. One book that I really love is the Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. And it's just this testimony of his life how even as a monk, he struggled with this idea of making everything he did worship. And so if you haven't read it, it's a really great read. But we just encourage you. What are you doing? What. What work has he given to you? Offer it to Him. Do it as an offering and see if that doesn't draw you closer.
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Speaker B: I think so many of us are struggling in this area. I think it's really, really common. And there's this shame about it where it's like, I don't want to tell anybody that I'm struggling to read my Bible. I think we all go through seasons where it's difficult or where you read something and it feels like I don't. I don't know. It doesn't feel like I'm hearing anything, I'm not receiving anything. So we just want to break that off of you. There's no shame. It's okay to go to your friend or somebody that you can talk to and say, hey, I'm actually struggling in this area. Talk to your pastor and say, I'm struggling in this area. Pray for me. And we impart to you right now a fresh wind to blow through your devotional time with Jesus, and that he's going to speak powerfully to you and it's going to make it into a pleasure, not something that you have to do. I remember it was probably a couple years ago. We're talking about inviting Jesus into everything that we're doing. Karina suggested, well, why don't you work out with Jesus? Because I was working out every morning. So I said, okay, Jesus, I just invite you to come work out with me this morning in the garage. And I just got this vivid image in my mind of Jesus. Jesus, he showed up in all purple spandex with the purple sweatband and the wristbands. And he was like, yeah, let's go he was ready to go to work out with me. And in that season, I had really sweet times with the Lord while I was lifting weights or whatever I was doing in the garage, just my different exercises and spending time with Him. And then a lot of times at the end of the workout, I would just sit on my workout bench and say, thank you, Jesus, for working out with me. What do you want to say to me? And, like, he would reveal amazing things to me and speak to me in ways that I really hadn't even experienced before. Whatever you're doing, just invite Jesus with you. If you're going on a walk, if you're taking your kids to school, you're doing the dishes, you're, you know, commuting, whatever it is, Jesus is available. He wants to meet with us. And it helps actually to imagine him like I used to when I was communing. I would imagine Jesus in my passenger seat and just have a conversation with him like, he was your friend. Cause he is. And he's there. And we have that same kind of access to Him. It's amazing.
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Speaker A: Yeah. That's so good. So another thing that is really important with your devotional time is to make sure you do it. It sounds so simple, but there's so many things where we have really good intentions and we never follow through. So set a time. Schedule it into your calendar. Make it specific. Josh says, say it out loud. Tomorrow, after I make my coffee, I'm going to sit down and be really specific with what you're going to do. And say it out loud to your. To yourself. Make it a task or to do in your calendar. Set a reminder on your phone. Or you could even just attach it to a current habit that you already have so that it's something that you're like, okay, when I do this, because I always do this next, the next thing I do is my devotions or my quiet time, or I'm gonna read my Bible, or I'm gonna pray out loud or sing or whatever it might be. And so make it specific. Say it out loud to yourself. And just make sure that you are actually scheduling that time to meet with Jesus.
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Speaker B: Yeah, those are just tips for any new habit that you want to develop. If there's something like, after I brush my teeth, I'm going to say my declarations. It's like, I know I'm going to brush my teeth. And so you just attach it to something you already do. It makes it really easy. I also love to have a plan for how I'm going to Spend time with the Lord, overcome any obstacles. So just like if you wanted to work out, you get your workout clothes ready, put them by the door, you have your water bottle filled up, is ready to go. It's the same thing with the Lord. Have your, your bible ready, have your journal, decide what you are going to read the night before, set it out ahead. I had a youth leader when I was in high school that used to set the table for God. And she would, the night before, lay it out and she would have her Bible, she'd have her journal and her pen ready to go, all in her favorite chair where she was going to meet with the Lord and then have her your favorite coffee cup ready to go, make your cup of coffee. And that's just a beautiful picture of how we can be prepared, be ready. And then when you wake up and you're a little bit bleary eyed from still waking up, it's like, I actually don't have to think about any of this. It's all ready to go. And it just makes it that much easier to step into your quiet time.
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Speaker A: With the Lord and it really sets your intention for the next day. If you set that table for him the night before, you make sure everything's ready for him. I think that's really a really beautiful way to show him. God, I'm here, I'm ready to meet with you. And that brings us to our first point, which is to expect to receive from the Holy Spirit. We're not just checking a box, we are coming with expectation. And so the first habit that you can really implement to make your devotional time something beautiful is to set your expectation. God, I expect that you are going to speak to me today. Whether it is through a feeling, through a song, through a word that I read in the scripture, whether it's through hearing your voice, I know that you have something for me. And so we want to invite him to speak. Invite him to speak to you, ask him what he wants to talk about and then make the space to listen.
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Speaker B: It's so important that we come in with expectation. And I always pray before I sit down to read my Bible. I'm like, holy Spirit, thank you for this time. Thank you that I know you're going to speak to me, make me aware of what you're saying through your word, highlight your word to me. And that makes a huge difference. When we come in expecting for him to speak and also expecting to receive from him, which is a little bit different because sometimes you read and you don't necessarily Nothing necessarily jumps off the page. You don't feel like you heard anything, like in the normal ways that you hear God. But at the end, I'll just say, thank you, God, that I received what I needed from you. Because we can receive in our spirits things that our brain's not aware of. Like, our mind is not aware of what God is saying, but in your spirit, you can receive things from Him. And so that's what we want to do, is to connect to him spirit to spirit. And sometimes it bypasses our mind, and that's okay. Just say, okay, Lord, I receive on faith that I got what I needed. And then I'm going to actually pay attention throughout the rest of my day to what happens. Maybe there'll be somebody will say something, or something will come on the radio, or you'll read something in a book.
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Speaker A: Or you see a bumper sticker.
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Speaker B: You see a bumper sticker or billboard or something, and you're like, oh, just pay attention. It's not like, okay, I did my time with the Lord this morning. Check. And then go on with the rest of my day. He's actually going to continue to speak to me. And the more that we tune ourselves to be aware of what he's doing, what he's saying, the more we're going to notice it. It's just the way that we were created.
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Speaker A: Yeah, we have a couple of verses to go with this. Hebrews 11:6 says that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. And so when you come with expectation, seeking his face, seeking his voice, he is going to reward that. It may not be the first day that you hear something or the heavens open. It may not be the second or the third day, but he is revealing Himself to you. He is going to speak to you, because that's his promise. And Jeremiah 29:13 says, you will seek Me, and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart. So come with all your heart, with all your expectation. Get your hopes up, because you're going to meet with Jesus today. So the second habit that we would encourage you to try is journaling with Holy Spirit. Now, this can feel a little bit uncomfortable at first because we're not used to just writing down whatever we think we're hearing, but it's really valuable in removing distraction. So all you do is you sit down with your pen and your paper, your journal, and you ask Him a question. And then you start writing whatever pops into your head. And it might feel a little bit like, well, was that God or was that me? You'll know. We like to remember that when God speaks, it's kinder, it's wiser, it's more intelligent and gentler than our own voice. And so you'll recognize I could never have come up with this, or I never would have said this to myself. And so just begin to take away the clutter. I think often we might be praying, and then all of a sudden, you're thinking about 10 different things, right? I'll be praying. I'll be in this beautiful place with Jesus. And then I'm like, oh, I forgot to pull out the meat for dinner. Right. And then now I'm planning the rest of the afternoon. But when I'm journaling, that actually focuses my attention on what I'm hearing, because I'm. I'm trying to get it onto the page. And it also allows you to see what he's saying over time. So it creates a bigger picture than just what is he saying in this moment? But as I look back over the month, what has he been speaking to me in these past weeks? What has he been speaking to me this year? And I really believe that it gives form to what you're hearing.
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Speaker B: It.
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Speaker A: It makes it real. It's not just something that I heard and then I immediately forgot, but it's actually something that I can look back on and say, oh, I remember when God said, spoke this to my heart. And so it really gives a form to what God is speaking to you. And that allows you to see what he's saying more clearly.
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Speaker B: Yeah, I love that. I know that throughout the years, I've done this journaling with the Lord. A lot of times I would get so frustrated or scared or so worried about some situation when I would finally break down on Sunday afternoon where I had had enough and just sit with the Lord and say, okay, God, I need you to speak into this situation. He was always so faithful to speak so powerfully. And I have journals just with what the Lord has spoken to me, the different promises that he's given to me. And it's neat to go back and see where I wrote words back then that I didn't even really understand what they meant. And then those have happened more recently in our lives. It's like, oh, wow, God actually is doing all those things that he spoke to me so long ago. It's. It's really neat when you see that happening. Yeah.
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Speaker A: I think journaling also provides accountability to what God is speaking to you. You don't. You can't forget it. And you can't deny that he said it to you. And so it kind of gives you this written accountability. Remember that John 16:13 says, the Spirit of truth will lead you into all truth. So you are. You are covered by the Holy Spirit. You are sealed by him, and he is the one that is leading you and directing you. So as you spend this time with him, before you even start, say, holy Spirit, I invite you and only you to speak to me. I silence every other voice. And right now I choose to engage with you and then invite him to speak to you. And you could start with a simple prompt like, God, how much do you love me? Or who am I to you? You know, just ask him simple questions to start where you can begin this practice of journaling with Him. And I love that you shared that story about how you would go months of frustration, and then finally you would break down. Because it was kind of like a clue that Josh was overcoming whatever he had been struggling with was when the journals would come out and there would be lots of pages written, you know, and now more recently, it's like. Like that often you're constantly writing down what the Lord is speaking to you. And so I love that you've come to that place where it's like, no, I'm engaging with him regularly. I want to hear what he has to say. So that's just so beautiful.
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Speaker B: The last tip that we have for you is to focus on identity over accomplishment. We talked a little bit about it. Our time with God is not checking a box, not something that we have to do. Yeah, it's just like spending time with your best friend or your spouse that you love to spend time with that person. And sometimes you don't even have to say anything. You just enjoy being together and experiencing the moment together. Let's reframe the way that we look at our time with the Lord as I'm just spending time with my favorite person in the universe, and he looks at you and says, this is my favorite child. You know, we're all his favorite. I love that he can do that. So it comes down again into, am I coming to God as a son or as a servant or a slave? Is it something that I have to do? Is there a checklist of things that I have to do? Or is it, I just want to spend time with my dad and allow him to speak to me. And I love just going on a walk with the Lord and just saying, God, you know, thank you that you're here with me. I leave space on the sidewalk for Jesus, so he can walk beside me and just say, what do you want to talk about? And I find often he wants to speak into my identity, who he created me to be and how proud he is of me. And he loves to just speak that over and over. Just like with our children. It's not like, okay, I told my kid I loved him one time when he was 2. I don't ever say it again. No, it's constant. Every single day you're telling him how much you love them, how proud you are of them. That's what a good parent does. And that's the same way he doesn't change the subject. It's like, I need you to know who you are to me and how important you are to me.
20:19
Speaker A: I think it's something that we are not used to doing, allowing ourselves to just be loved. And I think children are better at it. You know, they're better at, tell me how much you love me. And, you know, they're better at coming and letting you know, I need a hug or whatever it might be. But grownups just, we're not that good at it. It makes us uncomfortable. And so there is sometimes an obstacle that we have to overcome of. It might feel a little uncomfortable at first to allow God to tell you how much he loves you. And it will be healing. So it might hurt a little. And I think that is something that we have to recognize that as you come to him as his child, that's a different posture than as a slave or than as a student and then as just, just another follower. And so we're not just trying to get close to him for the sake of appearance or whatever it might be, or we're not just trying to please him so that he'll. He won't, you know, strike us with lightning. We are coming as children who want to be connected to our Father. And so for me, that is one of my questions that I know I can evaluate. Did I. Did I do it right? Did my heart connect to his heart? Did I come into his presence and connect with him? Or did I allow myself to get caught up in striving and try to say the right things and feel like I'm performing in my prayer instead of coming for his presence. There is a pool in our sin nature to turn it into work.
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Speaker B: Yeah. And so, you know, so many of us are goal oriented and so evaluate. What is the goal of my time? The Lord is it. I need to read so many chapters. I need to spend so many, so many minutes, hours in prayer. Did I check off my prayer list and pray for all the people which those are not necessarily bad, but maybe change the goal of it's connection. I want to connect with my Father and he can take care of all the other things too like you can, you can cruise through your prayer list pretty quick once you've connected with his heart and you're, you're in his presence. But spend most of your time focusing on connection with the Lord. That's really powerful because when we pray out of that place of peace and our authority and our position in Christ, then those are the prayers that move the heart of God, that change the situation on earth and bring heaven to earth. So we would love to invite you to work with us through our one on one coaching program where we help you identify and overcome limiting beliefs and walk into sustained freedom. If this is an area where you've been struggling with of understanding your identity in Christ, that believing that you're God's beloved or you just can't seem to make these good habits stick, even though you really want to change, we can help. That's what we love to do. We love to work with our clients and see them get the breakthrough that they so desperately desire and need in their relationship with God.
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Speaker A: And oftentimes it's simply that moment of we engage with God together and we show them you can hear God. We help people understand you can hear God and he wants to tell you how much he loves you. And so it's really cool to see the light go on when somebody's really experiencing that connection for the first time or re engaging with the Lord and recognizing oh he really does love.
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Speaker B: Yeah. And we spend a lot of time breaking off lies. So many times that's what's holding us back. We don't even realize we're believing these lies. And so we help you identify those. We'll break them off and reveal the truth and give you an action plan of how to live that truth out. So check out our coaching website. It's Josh and Karina.com coaching J-O-S-H-A-N-C-O-R-I-N A.com coaching Check that out. We have the link in the show notes as well. And we just want to wrap up by having you say these declarations with us. And this is going to release grace for you to encounter the Lord in new and beautiful ways as you spend time with Him. So repeat after me. I love to read the Bible.
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Speaker A: I love to read the Bible.
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Speaker B: I expect to encounter God and receive revelations from what I read today that will change my life.
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Speaker A: I expect to encounter God and receive revelations from what I read today that will change my life.
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Speaker B: Life. I am in a new season of being in love with the Bible.
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Speaker A: I am in a new season of being in love with the Bible.
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Speaker B: The Holy Spirit helps me interpret the Bible accurately.
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Speaker A: The Holy Spirit helps me interpret the Bible accurately.
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Speaker B: I am changed every time I read the Word.
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Speaker A: I am changed every time I read the Word.
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Speaker B: So we just thank you so much for spending time with us. We bless you and your time with God. He wants to speak in you and in powerful ways that you've never experienced before. God right now is releasing grace for a new depth in your devotional time with him, your quiet time with him. And he's just drawing you closer into his presence every single day.
25:12
Speaker A: Amen. Hey, friend. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. If so, would you take 30 seconds to share this podcast with someone who may need encouragement or practical tools for fighting their battle?
25:28
Speaker B: Then rate and review this podcast. Help us spread the message of transformation far and wide.
25:34
Speaker A: All right, time to walk back into the noise with peace, purpose, and maybe a tiny bit of guessing.
25:39
Speaker B: We'll meet you back next Thursday for another episode. Bye.