Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 406 | Throwback - Lighter Than Air

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406 | Throwback - Lighter Than Air · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  Music.
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  Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries,
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  where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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  Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
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  Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
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  or on our website at watwm.org,
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  we invite you to sit down with us as we look to the scriptures to learn more
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  about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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  Living a life for Christ. She's a happy girl.
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  Music.
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  She's a happy girl.
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  Rejoice in the God of your salvation. He has saved you.
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  You are no longer bound by Satan's forces or by the chains of sin. You are free.
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  When the Lord sets you free, you are free indeed.
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  We read in John 8, 36. Join us in this program,
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  Lighter Than Air, as Kim Miller of Woman at the Well Ministries takes us through
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  Habakkuk 3, 18-19, which says, Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
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  I will joy in the God of my salvation.
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  The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like Heinz feet,
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  and he will make me walk upon mine high places, to the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
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  Hello and welcome to this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries. Let us pray.
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  Our kind and most gracious to Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray that you would speak to our hearts.
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  Pray that you would open up our minds and I pray, Lord, that you would just
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  place inside of us that which you would have us to understand from this precious
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  scripture that you have given us today.
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  I pray to Heavenly Father that you would teach us to rejoice in you,
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  that we would find our strength in you, Lord, and that you would be all that we would seek,
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  and that we would realize that you are all that we need. I pray,
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  dear Heavenly Father, that you would continue to strengthen us,
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  watch over us, and lead us, and guide us.
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  And I pray for your presence in this message.
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  In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
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  The scripture says that I will rejoice in the Lord.
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  I will joy in the God of my salvation. And there's so much power in this verse,
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  But I believe that if we just stop for a moment to realize that the writer has
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  given us the absolute prescription for joy in our lives,
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  he is chosen to rejoice in the Lord and he has chosen to find joy in the God of my salvation.
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  And it's not difficult to find joy in the God of our salvation simply because of who he is.
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  And when you begin to realize that God has saved you and redeemed you,
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  not only from hell, but from the effects of sin and from the dominion of sin.
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  And it's sin that oppresses each of us in our life all the time.
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  And we can go to the Lord and we can ask him for help.
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  And he's promised that there's no temptation that he hasn't given us a way of escape from.
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  He's promised that he would supply every need. He's promised that he leads us and guides us.
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  And he promises that no good thing does he withhold from them that love him.
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  And when we begin to look that God spends his entire being wrapped in providing
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  for us the salvation that we need.
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  Then we can begin to realize that the things in this world that the devil throws
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  at us absolutely cannot defeat us.
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  The scriptures are very clear that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.
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  The scripture is very clear that in Christ, we can conquer all things.
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  And so as you look at this verse, when it says that I will rejoice in the Lord,
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  there is absolutely no wonder why the writer could rejoice in the Lord.
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  The wonder is, while we don't, why is it that we aren't rejoicing in the Lord?
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  And most of the time, the answer is we are not focusing on him.
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  When we are focusing on the things in our life that come from the world.
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  Even though there is pleasure in sin for a season, we certainly can see that
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  there is no stability in the things of the world.
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  There's certainly no stability in the things of the devil.
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  And so as we begin to focus on those things, we can see the shifting sands.
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  We can see the need to wonder when it's all going to fall apart.
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  And I don't think we purposely find ourselves saying, okay, I'm just going to
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  focus on the things of the world and I'm just going to focus on the things of
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  the devil. Well, I think what really happens is the devil just keeps throwing
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  these things in front of us.
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  And we just keep getting more and more things in our life between us and the
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  Lord and more and more things that are consuming our time.
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  That what happens is that we suddenly have pushed God out of our day to day
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  lives and we are just there surrounded by the things the devil has allowed to
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  be obstacles in our life.
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  And as Christians, we need to be very aware of the way the devil works in our lives.
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  And for many of us, that is busyness.
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  And so as he begins to throw all these things in our lives, and we think we're
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  doing all the right things,
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  but we can't remember the last time we prayed, or the last time we prayed with
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  our significant other, or the last time that we prayed as a family.
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  Or the last time that you spent time in the Word of God just playing in the Scriptures?
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  It was a practice that we did in my home growing up all the time,
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  and that was just opening up the Bible and doing what we called sword drills.
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  And my mom or dad or a brother or sister or even sometimes myself would call
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  out a Scripture, and whoever did not call the Scripture out would be chasing
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  down to try to see who could find that Scripture the fastest.
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  And then once you got to the scripture you would read it
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  and there would be a discussion among it that's what we did
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  as a family that's how we played and
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  rejoiced in the scriptures and some of those things that
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  were discussed in those moments of playing and getting familiar with the scriptures
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  were the very things that were brought to my mind by the holy spirit later on
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  in life that would help me overcome some some wiles of the devil and i think.
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  We as families as Christian families,
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  have really lost their focus in rejoicing in the Lord and who he is and rejoicing in his word.
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  The Bible says that the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
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  And when we play in his word, when we read his word,
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  and there's no substitute for true studying God's word,
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  but there's also a lot to be said with just playing in the scriptures and just
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  familiarizing yourself with his books and familiarizing himself with the things
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  that he says and the accounts that he's written and making those be focal points
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  of conversations among your family.
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  So often the conversations at dinner tables are just among part of the family
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  because that family dinner is kind of a lost art, I think, sometimes.
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  And I'm not that old, but I do know the value of coming together.
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  As a family, as a unit, and spending time in the Word.
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  And I encourage you to begin to practice rejoicing, not just in your own life,
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  but in your family and in your family's life.
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  And have it a time where you play in the Scriptures and you talk about something
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  you read that day, and you do look through the Scriptures and let the truths
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  of God just permeate your home.
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  Speak the words of Christ.
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  Over your children, over your home. Let your home be a place where Jesus doesn't
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  live in a box or isn't just contained in the Word of God, but that it's spoken all over the house.
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  And the Word of God is found in every room and in every place because that's rejoicing.
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  Where do you find your joy? What brings you happiness?
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  What brings you peace? What is it that makes you have a laughter in your heart
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  that makes you have a merry soul?
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  You know, what is it that you do that that makes that happen?
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  And this this this writer is telling us that it's rejoicing in the Lord.
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  It's it's finding the joy and
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  the God of the salvation in really enjoying him and who he is in our life.
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  And that's not hard for any one person to do when they really take the time
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  to read his word and to spend time in prayer and they get to know who he is.
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  And then he says that he makes your feet like Hans feet and that you'll walk up in your high places.
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  You know, when we think about being in high places, we think about being above the trouble.
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  We think about being above the trial. We think about being in a place that that
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  brings us joy. It's the top of the mountain, you know, high places is where you're striving to get.
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  And and he says that when you rejoice in the Lord and that you find your joy
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  in God and you allow him to be your strength,
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  he's going to make you sit in that place of joy and peace in that place of honor
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  where you have reached your goal and you have reached that place where you are at perfect peace.
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  You know, so often we are in the valley and we are trying to climb to the mountain.
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  And when we get to the mountain, we're so excited and.
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  This writer has given us the absolute understanding that when we find our joy
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  in Christ, when we don't find our joy in ourselves,
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  when we're not finding our joy in material things, when we're not finding our joy in worldly stuff,
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  but our joy is found in Jesus.
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  And when we're not relying on our own strengths, but we're relying on the strength
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  that Christ gives us, When that is how we're living,
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  we are able to reach that goal of that peace that passes understanding and that
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  joy unspeakable and full of glory.
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  It's a promise that each of us can have. But the first thing we've got to do
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  is turn our focus on him and to place our trust in a God that cannot fail.
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  Understanding wholeheartedly that really all the other stuff in the world pales in comparison to him.
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  And if we are called in the trap of materialism, where we are working all the
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  time that we can get this and get that.
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  And what are we doing and what are we expending to get that?
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  You know, are you sacrificing time with your family? Are you sacrificing time in the word?
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  Don't get so busy working for the Lord that you forget the Lord of the work.
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  We can do that as Christians, too. We're just into this and we're into that
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  and we're trying to do this and we're trying to do that.
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  And that's another trick that the devil will do for us because he's trying to
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  pull our eyes away from who God is.
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  And we find ourselves tired. And if you're finding yourself tired in the service
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  of the Lord, that is a great indication that perhaps you need to stop and refocus
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  and allow God to strengthen you.
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  And you need to make sure that you're moving and operating in God's strength
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  and that you truly are able to say in your heart of hearts that you know you
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  are following the will that God has for you in your life.
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  Not what you want to do, not what somebody else has told you to do,
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  but what the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords has purposed in your heart
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  for you to do for the kingdom.
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  Because he will supply all your needs that you get that done.
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  He will equip you fully that you understand, and you will have his strength to make it happen.
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  It's incredibly important that you realize that when you are in the will of
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  God and you are following after God, he will lift you up to that place of peace.
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  And each one of us, the child of God, can live in the peace of God,
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  being lighter than air, as we rely on him for our strength and we find our joy in him. Bye.
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  Music.
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  Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
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  quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
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  We pray today has been a blessing and we encourage you to reach out to us through
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  our app, our website, or our Facebook page.
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  You can find our app by searching for Woman at the Well Ministries in your app
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  store or through our website at watwm.org.
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  We're on Facebook at facebook.com slash watwm. If you visit our website,
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  you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits, a daily devotion written by Kim and
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  delivered Monday through Friday by text message.
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  Woman at the Well Ministries is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving our Heavenly Father.
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  And it is through your loving and generous support that our ministry continues to bless others.
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  To learn how to partner with Woman at the Well Ministries, please visit our website.
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  Thank you to the Gospel Group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
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  We greatly appreciate your prayers.
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  We are praying daily for our listeners. Remember that God loves you. You.
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  Music.