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Does God Hear Me Cry? · Arise Women of God

• 0:00
  Have you ever found yourself weeping in the front seat of your car?
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  Or perhaps kneeling on your bedroom floor in a puddle of tears, wondering if anyone even cares or that your tears matter to anyone?
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  Perhaps you're asking, does God hear me cry?
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  Because the weight you are carrying feels too heavy and so invisible to the world that you've started to wonder if it's invisible to heaven as well.
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  Well, don't worry, my friend.
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  I've been there in those exact places, crying those same tears.
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  By the end of today's episode, you will understand that God doesn't just tolerate your grief.
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  He actively accounts for every tear and meets you exactly where you are.
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  We're going to help you move beyond spiritual invisibility.
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  As I share the day, my dreams for my son were completely shattered.
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  And the moment God whispered forgiveness to a mother who felt like a total failure, we're going to move from crying alone to finding peace in the middle of our grief.
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  Stay tuned.
• 1:04
  Ordinary Women Extraordinary Faith When God calls, we say yes.
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  Hello and welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God podcast.
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  I'm your host, Tamara K.
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  Anderson, and joining me today is the wonderfully amazing Wendy Christensen, my co founder of Women warriors of Light.
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  And I want to start by answering that question, Does God hear me cry?
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  With a resounding yes, absolutely.
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  In Psalm 56, verse 8, we read, Record my misery.
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  List my tears on your scroll.
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  Are they not in your record?
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  Wow.
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  God truly sees our grief.
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  He records each, each and every tear.
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  He isn't distant.
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  He is a witness to your heart and to your heartbreak.
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  One of the most difficult moments of my life came when my husband and I sat in a doctor's office receiving the diagnosis of autism for our son Nathan.
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  I hardly heard anything after she said he has autism, because my heart felt like it had completely shattered, along with all my dreams for my sweet Nathan.
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  I barely made it to the car before the floodgates open, and I wept and wept and wept, probably for 30 to 45 minutes straight.
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  I don't think my husband had ever seen me cry like that.
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  I wept for Nathan and for the things he would never be able to do, the things I had imagined him doing, like playing sports and achieving amazing things in school, marrying, having a family of his own.
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  And I also wept for myself because this isn't what I had in mind for my life.
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  Finally, my husband pulled off the freeway to comfort me and to hold me that day.
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  God answered my prayer through a kind husband who helped me talk and process and grieve and then move Forward, even though I hadn't accepted the diagnosis yet and lived in denial for a little bit.
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  But I'll tell more about that in the next episode when we talk about when God says no.
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  It is important to note, though, that we don't have to clean up our feelings before we approach God.
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  He isn't offended by our raw grief, our anger, or our ugly cries.
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  He can handle every bit of that honesty.
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  There was another time I remember falling to my knees, feeling like a total failure as a mother.
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  If you've ever lived on little to no sleep with young kids, especially those with special needs, you know how easy it is to lose your patience and maybe even yell.
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  The adversary loves to jump on those moments and tell you that you aren't good enough.
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  And sometimes we listen and spiral.
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  That night I poured my heart out to God.
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  I'm so sorry.
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  I want to be a good mom.
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  Please help me.
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  I will never forget the answering peace that filled my heart.
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  My tears were dried and I felt a quiet whisper.
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  I forgive you.
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  When I asked why, the answer was simple.
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  Because of your faith in Jesus Christ.
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  How grateful I was to know that he could hear me in my broken tears when I was feeling like a failure and move me towards faith.
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  God meets us right in the middle of wherever we are.
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  Wendy has a beautiful way of reminding us that our messy moments are exactly where God is willing to meet us, find us, and help us.
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  It doesn't have to be perfect.
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  God meets you in the messy, and he loves you in the messy.
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  And you can hear him even in the messy.
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  If you just open up to him, you will start seeing how he talks to you.
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  There are some times when there are no words and there is just so much emotion and you're just like, here's what I'm feeling.
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  And a verse of scripture came to mind as I was thinking, how do you even describe that?
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  And there's this beautiful verse In Romans, chapter 8, verse 26, that says, but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
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  So basically, when you're in those moments where you want to pray but there are just no words, that sometimes it's like, here I don't have words for all the thoughts and feelings and emotions that I'm having right now.
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  And it's often because something is heavy and hard and super emotional, and I love that verse that sometimes you don't even have to think the words.
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  You can just kind of visualize yourself handing all those thoughts and emotions to God and let the spirit do the rest.
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  Let that spirit make intercession.
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  Make the spirit be the mediator between you and God at that point, because there are no words.
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  And God understands that too, right?
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  Yeah.
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  I actually had an experience with that yesterday, Tamara, where I just felt.
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  I don't know why I don't get into these emotional spots as often as I did, you know, years previous, but I just was trying to understand.
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  I was feeling sadness and grief and trying to figure direction as a few things in my life and didn't really feel like I was getting any clear direction.
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  And I remember just doing that, that exact thing, just praying in my heart, like I didn't know how to put it in words because sometimes you don't know how to put it in this beautiful, elegant prayer or what
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  you think is an elegant prayer.
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  And I remember just going, heavenly Father, do you.
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  I hope you can just sense and feel my heart and all the things that are on my heart right now and help me untangle them and get clarity and figure out what it.
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  What my right next step is.
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  And.
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  And then just to pause for a minute after that and just feel, yeah, he knows what's in your heart, but sometimes you do have those moments where all you can do is just say, here's my heart, and I
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  hope you can feel it.
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  And I, I felt it.
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  I felt it yesterday and today has been a much better day because I know that he sees my heart and understands the loads or the burdens, you know, that we all carry, but that I carry specifically for me.
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  And he felt.
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  I felt that prayer being answered, even though I couldn't be specific in the moment.
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  So, my friend, your tears are not a sign of weakness.
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  They are a signal to your Eternal Father that you need him, whether he answers your tears with a husband's love and embrace or a direct whisper of I forgive you.
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  He is listening.
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  He sees you, he hears you, and he loves you.
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  In the messy.
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  To help you navigate these emotional seasons and learn how to hear God's voice more clearly, even when your heart is grieving or crying or angrily shouting at heaven, we want to give you our free roadmap to revelation, six
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  steps to hear God better in your daily life.
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  Along with the accompanying Receiving light and revelation audio meditation.
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  And you can download these both free at the link below.
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  When grief feels too heavy, I invite you to turn to step number five, safety checks for the soul.
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  It will help you identify the answering peace I felt and distinguish it from the shaming thoughts of the adversary.
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  There's also a page in here to help you cast out the adversary when you feel yourself spiraling down.
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  And then bring in light and peace after that.
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  So, my friend, never forget God sees you, hears you and is with you when you cry.
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  He records every tear.
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  May you turn to him in your joys and in your sorrows.
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  Until next time.
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  May you arise.
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  Do it God's way.
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  God strong.