Latest / How to Faith a Life Podcast with Faith Womack / Double Your Time With God with this Devotional

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Double Your Time With God with this Devotional · How to Faith a Life Podcast with Faith Womack

0:00
SPEAKER_01: If you're listening to the How to Faith Alife podcast, where we wrestle with questions on how to live a life of faith, from everything from books to Bible studies, even Bible study tips, this is your place to wrestle with the hard questions and dive deep into what scripture really says for the Christian walk.
0:12
SPEAKER_01: Make sure you've subscribed to this podcast and your favorite podcast streaming services.
0:16
SPEAKER_01: Review this podcast so other people can find it and share with other believers who want to ask the hard questions.
0:21
SPEAKER_01: Now, with all that said, let's begin.
0:23
SPEAKER_01: Hi friends, welcome back to the How to Faith a Life podcast, a Ministry of Bible Nerd Ministries.
0:27
SPEAKER_01: Today we have a wonderful woman and new friend, Kara Stout.
0:32
SPEAKER_01: Now, Kara Stout is author of In an Untroubled Heart, Calming Anxiety and Finding God's Peace.
0:37
SPEAKER_01: It just came out with Zondervin.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: Woot woot.
0:40
SPEAKER_01: And Kara shares glimpses into her own struggles, including recovering from a medical crisis, struggling with infertility, facing financial hardship, and caring for her mother during her cancer journey and eventually losing her after already losing her father.
0:53
SPEAKER_01: She's an adoptive mom of a sweet 22-month-old baby girl, and she encourages readers to turn to God and to find solace and experience in his grace and love, whether they're feeling anxious or fearful or sad or overwhelmed in this again 30-day morning and evening devotional that I highly recommend.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: So, Kara, welcome to the podcast.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Faith.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited for our conversation.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: I really wanted to have you on this podcast because I think this is such a good devotional.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: And that's not something I say very often.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: Like often in my stuff, I'm like, a lot of devotionals are milk.
1:24
SPEAKER_01: They're they barely reference a Bible verse or it's just really feely.
1:29
SPEAKER_01: We I think we both have that in common.
1:30
SPEAKER_01: Where in the past we kind of were like, oh, this is good.
1:32
SPEAKER_01: And the more we grew in our faith, we were like, wait, there's so much more to be discovered in God's word, not just in our feelings.
1:38
SPEAKER_01: And so I think you do a really good job in your devotional of being like, yes, these are very real feelings.
1:42
SPEAKER_01: This is very real hard life, but also let's take it to God's word.
1:46
SPEAKER_01: And these are so like short but also rich that you can easily then like jump into an in-depth Bible study from them.
1:52
SPEAKER_01: And I think so much of my audience is intimidated by in-depth Bible study and wants to get started but doesn't know where.
1:58
SPEAKER_01: And you do that so incredibly well.
2:01
SPEAKER_01: So, anyway, welcome to the podcast.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm so grateful for that because that was a big prayer of mine throughout writing it is adding in his word and really the foundation of his word throughout it.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: Through the struggles, the suffering that I walk through, two big pieces were my prayer life and his word.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: I just clung to his word.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I can share more about that too as we go along.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: But I just remember how significantly his word gave me so much peace in the middle of some of my hardest, hardest seasons.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: So really having the foundation on his word, too, in addition to the prayers, was like so important to me.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: And so for you to say that is like really an encouragement.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: So I'm glad to hear that.
2:45
SPEAKER_01: I mean it, man.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: Will you share a little bit for my audience?
2:49
SPEAKER_01: If they're new to you and haven't come across you before, will you share maybe a couple glimpses to some of your struggles and that and what really turned you to the word and to the Lord?
2:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I grew up going to church, I grew up in Arizona, and then I moved to Chicago in my 20s for graduate school.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: But really, I got really distracted by the world, and I was straying, really, to be honest.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: And around that time, my dad was diagnosed with cancer and then passed away in three months.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: My faith is very different now today, but I'm just kind of showing you like my journey through a lot of like the different pieces of my suffering and and how my faith has evolved.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: During that time, I really didn't go to God in my grief.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: But the beautiful thing is when I look back, God was pursuing me.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: He pursued me, and I'll explain a little bit more why I say he pursued me.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: So there was his protection even in that time.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: I was drinking and going out to just numb the pain, and I wasn't like thinking in my mind, oh, let me go do this because I'm in so much pain.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: It was just happening.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: But there was his protection.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: He was protecting me even in that.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: And so, and then I met my husband, got married, brought grief into our marriage, you know, unhealed grief.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: And that was hard for our marriage.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: God presented, and this is where Dallas comes into play.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: God presented an opportunity for my husband, a job opportunity in Dallas.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: And that's where my mom lived at the time.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: And so we moved to Dallas, and that's really when God started transforming our faith and our hearts, and we were healing and we were active in our church and going to church, and that's when the foundation on God became what it is today, solid.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: Like that's when I was like, whoa, like, God, you are so real, you know, so real in all of that and our suffering.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: That's also when I started doing Bible studies and reading his word and just being transformed by his word.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: Twelve years after my dad, my mom also, as you mentioned, she was diagnosed with cancer.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: And so then I walked her through that cancer journey.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: And praise God, though, that he had been preparing me for those 12 years in him, because then at that point, then I was deeply pursuing him in that grief and suffering.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: So it's just beautiful to see how he pursues us and also we pursue him.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's often simultaneous too, you know, in our life.
5:05
SPEAKER_01: How did you feel or even believe and live in God's nearness in those tough seasons?
5:12
SPEAKER_01: Because I feel like that's really echoed throughout your book.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: Yes, because that's really where I feel like we feel and see how real God is.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: Because when I then I think about these times, I'm like, how did I have the strength?
5:27
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: I did not have the strength, you know, to get up to keep walking every day.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: Like when my mom was diagnosed with cancer, I was really like, What Lord, how?
5:37
SPEAKER_00: How am I gonna do this?
5:39
SPEAKER_00: Like both parents, you know, and I was really real with him and honest and vulnerable.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: And I cried to him and I would weep and I would bring him my questions, and that's really where the intimacy with him grew a lot.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so that's maybe what you were referring to in the in the devotional, where the nearness really grew when I became more vulnerable and honest and raw with with God, and we see that scripturally too.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, totally.
6:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, look at the Psalms.
6:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, David is not a perfect prayer.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
6:15
SPEAKER_01: Hey friends, quick update.
6:16
SPEAKER_01: I've been interrupting this podcast all season to talk about my book, No More Boring Bible Study, but now I finally get to tell you something exciting.
6:23
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6:26
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6:33
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6:44
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6:48
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6:49
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6:56
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6:58
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7:04
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7:06
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7:09
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7:12
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7:17
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7:25
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7:29
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7:34
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7:44
SPEAKER_01: I can't wait to put these tools in your hands.
7:46
SPEAKER_01: Now let's get back to the podcast episode.
7:48
SPEAKER_01: What gave you the audacity?
7:49
SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of people will ask me that.
7:50
SPEAKER_01: They're like, I tell them, you know, talk to God like, you know, nearer than like your spouse or your best friend.
7:55
SPEAKER_01: Like, talk to him like he is.
7:56
SPEAKER_01: Like he really can read your mind, you know?
7:58
SPEAKER_01: What gave you that audacity?
7:59
SPEAKER_01: Because I think in morning, a lot of people want to turn away from God and separate themselves from God.
8:03
SPEAKER_01: How would you encourage somebody that feels that way and feels like they can't talk to God like that?
8:07
SPEAKER_00: I see, I don't know if I want to say temptation or, you know, to turn, maybe out of anger.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: But I feel like, where else do we go?
8:17
SPEAKER_00: I could not do it on my own.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: That's a thousand times worse if you're gonna walk through suffering on your own without God.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I say that with my own experience, but also with my parents, they walked through grief.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: My dad lost three children total before I was born.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is a whole other story.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: My dad had two children in his first marriage, and my mom had one daughter.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: She's my sister, it's just us two today, which is crazy.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: We'd have this big family.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: The first daughter from my dad, she passed away from cystic fibrosis, and then my two brothers passed away in a car accident.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: And this was all before I was born.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: So I say this because my mom was this, I mean, incredible example to me.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: Like, I remember growing up and it would just it was so evident, like she couldn't have done it without depending completely on Jesus.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: And she walked that, and I saw that, and she was so confident and knew that there was no way that she could raise me.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: She had so much joy.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: It's like, what?
9:21
SPEAKER_00: And and then obviously, then you know, then she walked through cancer, she lost her husband, you know, my dad, and and just this example in my life really taught me how to trust and depend on the Lord, and also seeing it through scripture too.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: So it was like this visual that I was the the honor to have to see that, although you know, there was never like a suppressing of emotions, there was always honesty, right?
9:49
SPEAKER_00: Like it wasn't like this Christian language of pushing past the pain.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: It was like, no, we we are grieving, we mourn.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: Like my mom was heartbroken and like desperate for God when you know, when she lost her son.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, we can hold both, right?
10:06
SPEAKER_00: We can hold that God is sovereign and we have our eternal home, and there's so much joy in that, and also acknowledge to God, like I'm heartbroken, and you promise that you're near to those who are heartbroken.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm gonna go to you and I'm gonna lean on you for this promise.
10:24
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like really truly, like staking everything on his promises.
10:29
SPEAKER_01: That's like that's faith right there.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
10:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
10:32
SPEAKER_01: So will you share a little bit about what you've learned about God's peace?
10:36
SPEAKER_01: Because I think we say that as like Christianese, but we don't often really know it, you know?
10:42
SPEAKER_01: And you share it not just as a concept, but as like a real present that meets us in anxiety and sadness and our overwhelm.
10:49
SPEAKER_01: So will you share a little bit about that?
10:50
SPEAKER_00: I kept learning over and over.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm not in control.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: I mean, everything, losing parents, infertility.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: I just clearly would there was I could not control any of that.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: And so for me, the more I surrendered, the more peace I felt.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: I really felt that tangibly, you know, of like Lord, you see the whole picture.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: I don't, and so I'm gonna trust you.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: And that was really helpful with peace too, is like even when it was hard to trust sometimes, because sometimes it can be hard to trust.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: I would pray, God, give me the grace to trust you more.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: Help me to trust you more.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: And he did, he would, he continues to.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: And so that again, that honesty and prayer of like our needs, I think are really important too.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: Because I think if we don't go to him in prayer with these honest needs and like honestly, Lord, acknowledging, like, Lord, I am worried or I'm feeling anxious, like acknowledging that we bring it to him, and then it's an exchange of the peace.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: Because I think sometimes we move in self-reliance, sometimes we don't even realize that, or sometimes I feel I feel like I've heard this, and maybe you tell me if you've heard this too, where people feel like they don't want to bother God.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: Have you heard that?
12:04
SPEAKER_00: Totally.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and no, I mean that we we are to rely and depend on him.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: He is our father.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, there is that intimacy and that strength that comes from going to him and that peace, the peace that does come when we surrender and pray.
12:21
SPEAKER_01: I think we often have a small view of God, like oh, I don't want to bother him, or he's he would be surprised that I'm so angry at him, you know, or something like that.
12:29
SPEAKER_01: It's like, no, girl, no.
12:30
SPEAKER_01: He knows.
12:30
SPEAKER_01: Oh, faith.
12:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's really not shocked.
12:34
SPEAKER_01: He's heard your inner thoughts, girl.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: Yes, he, yeah, yeah.
12:39
SPEAKER_01: So, what would you say to the woman listening right now who desperately wants to feel God's comfort, but just straight up feels distant from him?
12:48
SPEAKER_00: So, well, one I want to say I do understand because I've been there, I have felt that I have felt forgotten and it hurts.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: It's I feel like it's painful when you're like, God, I feel forgotten.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: So for me, I can just share what personally has helped me is sometimes I try to think like, okay, the distance that I'm feeling is it is it me?
13:06
SPEAKER_00: Am I too distracted?
13:07
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus's words come to me, all who are weary.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: And I talk about this in the book too.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: There was a point in time where I felt like the come to me, the three, those three words were just repeating to me.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I'm so familiar with that verse, right?
13:21
SPEAKER_00: But am I actually stopping and going to Jesus?
13:24
SPEAKER_00: Am I am I?
13:25
SPEAKER_00: That is something in that is a personal check in my heart.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: Like if I'm feeling distant from God, have I kind of been too distracted, right?
13:34
SPEAKER_00: And so it's so helpful because often I find, yeah, I need to, I need more time with the Lord or with a baby, you know, time is but not as much, but just even through the day, there are all kinds of, I mean, every moment's an opportunity to just continually pray without ceasing.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: Where wherever we're at.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: And so I feel like for me that's helpful.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: And then what I also do is I recall his character in his word and in Bible verses that do tell me about his comfort.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: And I actually wrote them down, Psalm 23, 4.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: So this is obviously many people understandably love, you know, Psalm 23.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: I I do love that he's saying, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, he didn't keep him from that valley, he walked with him in that and brought comfort.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: And so that is a promise that even though surrounding us it can look just very dark and hard and trials and suffering, God is with us and he does bring comfort.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: The next one is Psalm 119.76.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: Next one is Psalm 119.50.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: And then the last one I'll read is from Isaiah.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: It's Isaiah 49, 13.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: Sing for joy, O heavens, and exalt, O earth.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: Break forth, O mountains, into singing.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: You know, if I'm struggling, I'm like, but his word tells me his character.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: And so I can cling to his promises.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: And you can tell me too if you if you relate at all, but sometimes when you're praying a prayer, if you're praying f you know, for comfort and you don't feel like it's coming, sometimes it can be tempting to like want to just stop praying.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: But I would just encourage you, at least for me, that persistent prayer, that that that phrase just came to mind like a few years ago, just being persistent in our prayer.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: Like if if we're not feeling his help quite yet, because I remember early on in motherhood feeling like so exhausted.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: And there were days where I was like, God, I didn't, I don't know if I felt your help.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: But you know, so in those moments, I remember just feeling like I'm gonna just persist and pray and continually ask for your help.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: So that's a that's something else that for me is helpful.
16:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you do a good job of being like, okay, you might feel this way, and your feelings have a place, but also they don't have to be the end all be all.
16:13
SPEAKER_01: Here's some scripture to back that up.
16:15
SPEAKER_01: And I love that because I think our, I don't know, you could give me your two cents on this for sure, but like I feel like our culture kind of worships our emotions a little bit.
16:22
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, or we like stuff them down.
16:25
SPEAKER_01: We're like, feelings are bad, they're not valid.
16:28
SPEAKER_01: There's a place for our emotions for sure.
16:30
SPEAKER_01: Jesus had emotions, they're not bad.
16:32
SPEAKER_01: And you talk a lot about anxiety versus peace and all of that, but it's taking them to the Lord, like you just did with scripture.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: That's the key right there, I feel like.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I really dug in and saw in scripture of like, you know, especially let's take David, where it was like Hannah when she was weeping, you know, and waiting and she was walking through infertility.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: I mean, these examples show us that they had emotions, they were hurting.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: And what did they do?
16:58
SPEAKER_00: They acknowledged them and brought them to the Lord.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like doing that is testifies truly to our trust in the Lord because we are trusting in Him to relieve our pain, our worries, our suffering, not ourselves.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: And so, really, that I really strongly believe that builds that relationship with the Lord too.
17:18
SPEAKER_01: I love how you identified it as trust.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: I've never thought about that.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, like in the relationships that I trust a person, I'm so much more real and raw with them.
17:26
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
17:26
SPEAKER_01: I know I can show my true colors.
17:28
SPEAKER_01: I love that trust.
17:29
SPEAKER_01: Do I trust God enough for my emotions?
17:31
SPEAKER_01: What a good what a good thing to think about.
17:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:35
SPEAKER_01: Good.
17:35
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17:42
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17:44
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17:48
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18:00
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18:30
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18:34
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18:38
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18:44
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18:47
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18:54
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19:00
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SPEAKER_01: Will you join me?
19:06
SPEAKER_01: Open the show notes now as we get back to this podcast.
19:09
SPEAKER_01: All right, so what are some tools or practices that have helped you grow in studying the Bible deeply?
19:14
SPEAKER_01: This is a question I ask all the podcast visitors because we are we do love our Bibles.
19:18
SPEAKER_01: We are the Bible nerds.
19:20
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
19:20
SPEAKER_01: We love our tools and practices.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: What are your favorite?
19:24
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: So I would say one thing that's really helped me is I put together Bible reading plans every month.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: And I started doing that several years ago.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: And I put together a 100-day New Testament Bible reading plan.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: And I was doing it while my mom, like during the time when she passed away.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's what I was maybe gonna mention to you about the power of his word.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: Like I was in her bed with her and she was napping after I think probably a a treatment that she had, and I was in her bed and I was doing my reading for that day.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't even reading out loud.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: And she was like, I feel so much peace in here as you're reading your word.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, whoa.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: And that is like stuck with me a lot because it's like we know you know his word is powerful, but then it was like, wow, like she really could sense it, and I wasn't speaking it even out loud.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: And we know that there's power, it's you know, when we say his word too, but also it was just simply reading it, it was like, wow, like the comfort that it brought her.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, back to the practices.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: So for me, it helps me, holds me accountable if I have a plan that I read every day.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: And I and so that's a tool.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: I love commentaries.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: If I have a question, I'm like, what it what does this m like mean, or what's the context?
20:37
SPEAKER_00: I do like to dig into to commentaries.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna love that you mentioned the blue letter.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: Oh really?
20:44
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes.
20:45
SPEAKER_01: I tend to use Bible Hub more so, and all the blue letter Bible people are like, come on, it's so much better, it's so much more intuitive.
20:52
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I know, I know.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: Well, I actually love Bible Hub too, and I use Bible Hub a lot when I was writing the book.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
20:59
SPEAKER_00: Yes, because I, you know, looking at context and just all of the Hebrew translations, really wanting to confirm, you know, the the scriptures that I were including were in context or correctly used.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: So that was really helpful for me, Bible Hub.
21:15
SPEAKER_01: So both, yeah, I love that both teams.
21:18
SPEAKER_01: I would also say though, like it's just so evident that you did a good job with this.
21:23
SPEAKER_01: And I think, again, I wouldn't promote it if I didn't think it was really good.
21:27
SPEAKER_01: But it's just so hard to find good devotionals and for this just to be like an intensive month to morning and evening get real with God, center your heart on truth.
21:38
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that is just such a gift for the believer.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: And so if anybody is just really feeling distant from God or really riddled with anxiety and just feeling like it's affecting their walk with the Lord, I highly encourage you to again.
21:50
SPEAKER_01: It's called an untroubled heart.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: It's a 30 day morning and evening devotional that I highly recommend.
21:55
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
21:56
SPEAKER_01: You did a good job, you did a really good job.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Katie.
21:59
SPEAKER_00: That means so.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: much.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: It's hard to be faithful to scripture and reference scripture a lot while also keeping it short.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't do it.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: That was the challenge, you know, like of exactly like kind of ending the the thought on a note that made sense.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: And also like I did want it to go deep.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: There is that challenge.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: But what was fun for me is like you had said it's a morning and evening devotional.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: I love that because my publisher was open to the evening part because that was really on my heart.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: I was like I really want the evening portion because like a lot of devotionals which is great are like morning or nonspecific day.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: But I was like the evening like is not often utilized to really spend intentional time with the Lord.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: And for me that's when sometimes like things come up or worries or sadness of sorrow and I'm like this is a beautiful time to be with the Lord.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: What was interesting too was then I would have morning and evening to sometimes develop a thought, you know, a little bit more, you know, because you'll see some of that like a lot of them build on each other.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: Most of them do.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: That was fun for me to do at times.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: No, you're so right.
23:05
SPEAKER_01: And even just the art throughout there was a couple times where I was like I really want to like photocopy this and cut it out and put it somewhere.
23:12
SPEAKER_01: It's just beautifully done.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: Good.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: I love Zondervin.
23:16
SPEAKER_01: My book's coming out in November through Zondervin.
23:18
SPEAKER_01: Yay.
23:18
SPEAKER_01: And I feel like everything that they come out with is quality and the team is like such a good support system for checking yourself.
23:26
SPEAKER_01: So I love that you know you touched on that.
23:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
23:30
SPEAKER_01: Well what do you want people to walk away with after completing 30 days morning and evening with you?
23:35
SPEAKER_01: What's like your heart cry for the spiritual like growth from this book?
23:40
SPEAKER_00: Several things.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: One would be to really know God on a deeper level and not by you know my words but their time spent with the Lord and growth in their prayer life throughout I'm talking about prayer.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: And that is and has been essential for me.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: And so I just know how life-changing it is when we really do grow in our prayer life.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: And then really just a reminder to go to God quickly and just to remember his love for them and that he's with them.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: They're not alone.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: That they'd walk away with hope and healing from the 30 days with like spent with him.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: And the last thing I would say is like again that evening portion of like my prayer and it's for me too because I wrote this and how important it was for me to like have this morning and this evening time with the Lord.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: It was like continuing that rhythm continuing in on that rhythm beyond the 30 days of like morning pray spend time intentional I mean obviously we do pray throughout the day but it is sweet to have that intentional okay God you know I'm starting my day and I'm asked like whatever you need to like go to God in prayer and then at the end of the day bringing your gratitude and requests and laying them at his feet at the end of the day.
24:55
SPEAKER_01: You know something stuck out to me when you were sharing all that like that we delay that's such a good point.
25:01
SPEAKER_01: We delay going to God.
25:03
SPEAKER_01: Right.
25:03
SPEAKER_01: I've never thought about that but we do we we kick that whatever down the road we're like I'll talk to him about it later.
25:09
SPEAKER_01: I'll pray about it later.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: Why do we do that?
25:11
SPEAKER_01: Is that the enemy like what is that?
25:13
SPEAKER_00: I you know potentially or it's our flesh or we just like move in that self-reliance or we forget.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes we simply forget I think it could be a variety of reasons.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: But yeah that is a big message I feel like I wanted to say in the in the book is go to him quickly.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: Like I mentioned about looking at it as like an alert like a signal like alerting you.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: Like you don't want to ignore a signal right and so looking at like okay I'm feeling this way I'm going to go to God quickly with it.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: You know and sometimes that means like you may have to go a few times or several times and that's okay.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: But each time you go, you are building your own faith and trust in him and also he is moving towards you and giving you that peace that you're that you're praying for.
25:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
25:59
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad you said that because I often will feel some kind of weird shame around like okay God I know I already talked to you about this like five minutes ago but I'm feeling anxious about it again.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: No absolutely not we're humans.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: I think we need to remember that we're not perfect.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: He is he is transforming us.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: You know the more we do go in these rhythms it it it does become like more of a habit of okay I'm feeling worried go to God.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: So you you go you build this rhythm and the anxiety does like diminish.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: That's not to say like it never happens again but like you have these tools like if you want to go back to like like this tool of like remembering okay I I'm can I can go the God of the universe who literally created me and who knows me.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: He knows my emotions and he knows that I cannot do this on my own.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: And so that is that is what we need to remember too like we can't do this on our own.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: And you know yeah.
27:05
SPEAKER_00: Well Kara where can listeners connect with you and your work yeah so so my book is on Amazon and I also have a website carastout.com and I have links on there to Amazon and then also it's available at other book retailers as well and then also I'm on social media and that's sincerely by Kara.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: That's where I share like I said the monthly Bible reading plans.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: I share I love sharing prayers on there.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: I really love writing prayers so I share prayers and encouragement on there too.
27:36
SPEAKER_01: Well thank you so much for blessing the Marvel Nerd community with your presence your truth like just so much of like hey I've learned this let me like give you a couple hacks for when you're going through it because I know there's no way to prep for horrible seasons when you face lost and mourning and grief but the ability to like lean on other believers and their wisdom of hey God met me here into his word you know that is like priceless.
28:03
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's exactly what God intended through the community of believers and saints and the fellowship of the church.
28:09
SPEAKER_01: So thank you for being for gifting so many people online with your truth like the or God's truth but like your voice pointing to his truth.
28:17
SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much.
28:19
SPEAKER_01: Oh thanks Faith thank you for having me.
28:22
SPEAKER_01: If you're listening to the How to Faith a Life podcast where we wrestle with questions on how to live a life of faith from everything from books to Bible studies, even Bible study tips, this is your place to wrestle with the hard questions and dive deep into what scripture really says for the Christian walk.
28:34
SPEAKER_01: Make sure you've subscribed to this podcast on your favorite podcast streaming services, review this podcast so other people can find it and share with other believers who want to ask the hard questions.