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308 | Throwback - Refiners Fire · 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
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  well in John chapter four.
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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 her 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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  Nothing you do is ever hidden from God. The bad things you do, He knows.
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  The good things you do, He knows about them.
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  Every work you produce is common knowledge to God.
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  And on that day of judgment, all of your works shall be brought out into the open.
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  Join us in this program, Refiners Fire, as Kim Miller of Women at the Well Ministries
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  takes us through 1 Corinthians 3.13, which says, Every man's work shall be made manifest,
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  for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire,
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  and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
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  Hello and welcome to this broadcast of Women at the Well Ministries. Let us pray.
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  Our kind and most gracious to heavenly father, Lord, I just pray that you would be with each of us.
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  I pray that you would open up our minds and you would open up our heart,
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  Lord, and that you would reveal to us the intent of our heart.
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  I pray, Lord, that you would show us ways in which we could draw closer to you
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  and Lord, that we would be more effective for your kingdom.
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  I pray to heavenly father that you would help us to confess to you those things
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  that we need to, that you would fill our hearts with your grace and your mercy
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  as you forgive us of those things.
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  And Lord, I pray that you would help us to know that each and everything that
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  we do is a reflection of you and us.
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  Lord, that we are a walking testimony of who you are, and we are a witness of
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  your grace and your mercy.
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  And Lord, that we have a responsibility to show those around us who you are,
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  regardless of what they have done or who they are or what others think of them.
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  I pray, Lord, that you would teach us to see others in a way that we would see
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  their potential, Lord, and we would see who they would be if only they had you
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  in their lives and not perhaps what we see when we look on the outside.
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  I pray to heavenly father that you would just give us a patience that would
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  allow us, Lord, to just walk hand in hand with those who need you most.
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  To draw them closer to you, Lord, and that we would have a walk that is established,
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  that would keep them from helping us to slide in their direction.
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  But Lord, that everything we do would be something that would draw them closer to you.
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  I pray, Lord, that you would help us to put our hearts and our desires upon
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  the things that you would have us to, Lord, so that the things we do each day
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  is investment in your kingdom and investment in your work, and Lord, not just time spent.
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  Lord, I pray that you would touch our hearts and our minds and you truly would
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  look through each of us and allow us, Lord, to draw closer to you,
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  that each and every day we would purpose in our heart to be your hands extended and your feet.
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  In Jesus' name we pray, and amen.
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  It's an interesting thing. We go through our lives every day and perhaps we
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  don't even think about the ramifications of the choices that we make.
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  Or perhaps we don't even think about the time that we spent and where we place
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  our energy and our efforts.
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  And we don't realize that we as Christians have been commanded to follow after
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  the statutes of the Lord.
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  And that we as Christians have been enlisted in the Lord's army.
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  As children, many of us sung that song, we are in the Lord's army. me.
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  And yet we forget what it really means.
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  And so we go through our lives and we begin to make choices and we begin to
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  make plans and we spend our time this way and that.
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  And we don't even stop to consult with the Lord on how he would have us to spend our time.
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  And for many of us, all of our plans are centered on one thing.
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  And though we are to center all of our plans on one thing,
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  unfortunately we aren't centering our
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  thoughts on the one thing that we're supposed to and
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  we're not planning our days and employing a strategy that is centered on god
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  and his will for our life and the work that he would have us to do and the plans
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  that he has for us as jeremiah 29 11 says he has a a plan for us to prosper us,
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  to give us a hope and an expected end.
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  He has a plan for us.
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  And so many of us go day to day and we don't even think about what God has planned for us to do that day.
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  But as we take a close look at this scripture in 1 Corinthians 3,
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  verse 13, it says that every man's work shall be made manifest.
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  Then it says, for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire
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  and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
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  So I want you to take a moment to reflect on how you make your plans,
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  how you spend your time, where you place your energy and how you use your day.
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  Because clearly it is important for a Christian to work in a way that is pleasing to the Lord.
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  And that doesn't just mean our vocation, how we make our living.
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  That means how we spend our time, where we place our energy,
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  and how we navigate through this world.
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  And for many of us, we are so self-centered that we don't even think about how
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  we could help our neighbor.
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  You know, as we read the newspapers and look on TV and listen to the radio every
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  day, there is one need right after the other that comes before us.
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  And many of us are so immune to it that we don't even recognize what part or
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  what role we could play in helping to alleviate some of the problems that other people have.
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  Not to mention our neighbors and our church family. We see they have a need and many of us go on by.
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  You may think that this is trivial, but the other day I saw something very interesting to me.
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  The trash men had run on my street.
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  And so all the trash cans in the neighborhood were very empty because they'd.
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  Come by and taken all the trash bags out, making them fairly light trash.
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  And some people on our street have very light trash cans.
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  And so as the wind kept picking up that day, they were moving these light trash cans around.
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  And one of my particular neighbors is an elderly lady. And her trash can had
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  gotten blown into the middle of the road.
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  And I didn't notice that until I had come out and I was getting in my car and I was packing my car up.
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  And I noticed cars going by this trash can.
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  And they just went around it. and most of those people, I dare to say,
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  knew that the woman who lived in the house was elderly.
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  And so as I picked up my stuff and put it in the car and I noticed that situation,
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  I got in my car, and I was in a hurry because I was going to the doctor's office.
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  And so I get even with the trash can, and my first impulse is to take a left
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  around the trash can and go on.
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  Actually, I took a left around the trash can, got just beyond the trash can,
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  and quickly screeched to a halt.
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  And I got out, and I picked the trash can up, and I moved it back way into the
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  yard so the wind wouldn't take it any further, got back in my car,
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  and began to drive to the doctor.
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  And I tell you this not because I'm a saint, because if I'd have been a saint,
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  I certainly wouldn't have passed it up to begin with.
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  But to tell you that there was a still small voice inside of me that said you need to do this.
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  You need to show her that somebody cares about her. And so I did.
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  And so I was driving to the doctor's office, and that same still small voice
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  made me feel really good inside, and I thought, well, that's really nice.
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  And when I got into the doctor's office, I saw somebody there that I knew.
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  They weren't from the neighborhood.
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  But they paid me a compliment and said, it's always nice to see somebody who
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  tries to be God's hands extended.
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  And I felt to myself that the Lord had just allowed me a confirmation that something
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  as simple and as small that no one was ever going to see or know about was doing his work.
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  And many of us plan our days so strong and so vividly that we don't have any
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  time to even make that little stop to help a neighbor.
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  Or you don't even take the time to make a little bit of extra food that you
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  could take Take to the neighbor who's a widow and lives alone and never gets
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  a really good home-cooked meal because they're not going to cook all that food for one person.
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  But it wouldn't hurt you a bit to throw an extra pork chop in the pan to make
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  a few extra mashed potatoes.
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  Then there's the elderly neighbors that you might have that can't mow the lawn anymore.
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  Someday, that may be you. And then there are the nursing homes and the assisted
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  living homes that are filled to the brim.
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  With people who never get a visitor.
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  And you don't even have to be entertaining. You don't have to have anything to say.
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  But when you show up in their place, they're thrilled to see you.
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  And there's a love that exudes from them because they care that you cared enough to be there.
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  You see, Jesus went out of his way to help others.
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  And he went about doing good. And I dare say that none of us could be any busier
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  than he was. he was the savior of the world.
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  And in 1 Corinthians 3.
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  Verse 13, he says that someday it's going to declare what we were doing.
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  And the fire is going to try it. You see, the refiner's fire is such that when
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  you put gold and silver and precious minerals and metal into that fire,
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  when it comes out, it's purified and it's clean and it's beautiful and it's whole.
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  But if you put hay, stubble and all that yucky kind of stuff in it,
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  it'll just go up in smoke and it's of no more use to anyone and it has no value.
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  And that's the way our life is. If we continue to plan around ourselves instead
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  of around the plans that God has for us, it's those plans that prosper us.
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  It's the richness of his blessings that
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  are bestowed upon you when you follow in his will when
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  you live after the commandments and
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  statutes and promises and the will of
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  god there's a richness there that manifests itself in things that you need and
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  in peace that passeth understanding the bible tells us that he will give us
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  the desires of our hearts if we delight ourselves selves in him there's going
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  to come a day when your motives are going to be revealed,
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  and whether you have done it for the lord or whether
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  you have done it for yourself whether you've done it for fame or recognition
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  or whether you've done it out of a heart of love it's all going to come clean
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  and everyone's going to see and know but more importantly you're going to have
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  it revealed to you that day as the lord puts it through the refiner's fire.
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  But today you have an opportunity to choose you this day whom you're going to
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  serve, either man or yourself or the Lord.
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  And today, from this moment forward, you can go and be a light into someone else's dark life.
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  You can be an assistance to somebody who needs you. You can be the blessing
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  that someone's praying for.
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  You can be an answer to someone's prayer.
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  Because your works will someday be taken through the refiner's fire.
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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 a woman at the well ministries in your
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  app store or through our website at watwm.org. We're on Facebook at facebook.com slash W-A-T-W-M.
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  If you visit our website, you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits,
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  a daily devotion written by Kim and 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. site.
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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. We are praying daily for our listeners.
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  Remember that God loves you. You.
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  Music.