Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 674 | Riding out the Storms

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674 | Riding out the Storms · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast.
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  With Kimberly Miller, where we believe that every man, woman,
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  boy, and girl must come to Jesus just like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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  Our highest priority is helping you experience the reality of God in your everyday life.
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  Whether you're listening in our app, on your favorite podcast platform,
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  are on our website at watwm.org.
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  We invite you to sit down with us as we open the scriptures to learn more about
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  who God is and to strengthen your daily walk.
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  In this episode of the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast,
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  join Kim Miller and Erica Close in a conversation as we walk with Jesus.
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  In today's conversation, we're chatting about what life looks like when we choose
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  to walk in faith through the storms of life.
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  Well, hello all, and thank you for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the
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  Well Ministries. I am here with Kim Miller. Kim Miller.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast. I'm so excited because those of you who,
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  listen to us regularly know that I absolutely love the account of Peter walking
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  on the water, and that is the crux of today's message.
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  Absolutely. So I'm Erica Close, and today we are talking about what it means
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  to walk in faith as we ride out the storms of life.
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  And if you're a regular listener to us, you likely listened to our Monday podcast, which was episode 673.
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  It was called Keep Your Eyes on Jesus. And today we're just having a conversation.
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  Talking about some of the main points of that podcast.
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  So if you weren't able to listen, that podcast covered Matthew 14,
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  22 through 33, which is the account
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  of the disciples going across to the other side and a storm arising
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  and Jesus coming and the disciples failing to recognize him until they do.
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  And then Peter asks the Lord that if it's him, bid him come.
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  And the Lord says, come. And then I think most of us know what happened after that.
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  But just in case you don't, we would invite you to read Matthew 14, 22 through 33.
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  And it's fantastic if you find yourself in a storm because it's all about with
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  Jesus by your side, the storm doesn't have the final word.
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  I love that. That was a great statement you made a couple of times in that podcast.
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  And I think that really ties into one of the points you made at the very end
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  of the podcast was that your circumstances may change, but Jesus's power never changes.
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  Amen. And I was going to pick that up at the very end of this conversation, but there we go.
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  We throw it out there. So I think in today's conversation, we're going to talk
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  sort of about three things. We're going to talk about the purpose of our storms.
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  We're going to talk a little bit about faith and obedience and how they go together.
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  And then we're going to talk about some truths that will help us weather the
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  storms that we have in our lives.
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  So I just wanted to talk about some of the points that came out of Monday's
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  podcast about the purpose of our storms.
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  And you made the statement in the
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  Monday podcast, Kim, where you said the storm may be just what we need.
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  And I loved it because you said that the storm may be to correct you It may be To clean you up.
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  It may be to allow you to see Jesus
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  in a new way, but it is certainly an opportunity to shine your light.
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  And it is certainly for you to see who he is for you and who he is to you.
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  I loved that. I loved this idea that storms come and storms are allowed to come into our lives,
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  with the ultimate purpose of showing others who Jesus is.
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  Because it's the ultimate purpose for everything.
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  And a storm, when it arises, Peter teaches us these three things.
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  You've got to keep your eyes on Jesus, you have to trust his word,
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  and you have to always remember that he's near.
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  That's the three things we need to walk through our life believing every single solitary day.
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  And Peter demonstrates it to us in this really miraculous account.
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  Like you talked in there about the laws of physics aren't going to let somebody
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  walk on physical water. Nope. Right?
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  Like this is truly a miracle. We don't always, I mean, I don't know.
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  I don't always think of this when we talk about the miracles of Jesus, right?
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  We often refer to these accounts of healings and things like that.
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  But it's very much one of the miracles of Jesus, of him allowing Peter to come
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  to him and walk on the water.
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  I think we don't give that enough attention in the miracle, in the miracle conversation.
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  But I think it's important for us and for our listeners to realize that.
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  The storm may be what we need. And that is both encouraging,
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  but that's also hard, because some of the storms are really stormy.
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  I know, but I think just it's worth noting when we say it's what we need,
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  it may not be what we need to correct us from something we have done.
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  It may be what we need to prepare us for the call he has coming for us,
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  and he always equips us we don't get to choose how he equips us
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  so we don't get to choose the we don't get to choose the college experience
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  no right like you're not making a college choice right this life is not about
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  going on a series of visits and saying oh i'll take that one thank you,
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  no and you don't going to choose your major.
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  Right. It's not, there's no, there's no menu for, for this life.
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  You got to get in the boat. And when you're in the boat, if you are trusting
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  the Lord as he demands and commands and requires, then he's leading and you're just with him.
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  When the boat stops in that storm, you just get out of the boat and follow him. I really liked it.
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  In Monday's podcast, you said, you know, you got to get in the boat.
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  Then you also got to be willing to get out of the boat, right?
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  Yeah. Yeah. The boat, you're, you know, you got to get into the boat,
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  but you also got to be ready to get out of the boat.
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  Love that. So we, we can, we can rest assured that there is a purpose for our storms.
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  One of the things that you talked about a lot in Monday's podcast was just faith.
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  And that came through so many of the points that you made about this account in Matthew chapter 14.
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  But you made a really important tie that I don't want our listeners to miss.
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  It is that tie between faith and obedience.
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  And you quoted the verse about how obedience is better than sacrifice,
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  but then you made a follow-up statement where you said that sacrifice is required for obedience.
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  It is for me because he's generally leading me in a direction that's not my forte or my choice.
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  And so I have to sacrifice what I want for what he wants.
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  And maybe I'm just, you know, the child of his that he has to keep a tight rope
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  on and everybody else isn't that way. But for me, I can't think of...
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  If it had been a smorgasbord or the golden corral of assignments,
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  I'm not sure that I can think of too many would have ended up on my plate with me choosing them.
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  But I'm grateful for all that he gave me and completely humbled and over the
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  moon ecstatic that he allows me to be part of his story and that he has a job for me.
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  And I'm also fully aware why I don't get to pick my jobs, because I would pick
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  the ones I wanted, not the ones that were necessary for me to do the best work for him. Amen.
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  You made another sort of statement that I kind of wrote down as a little bit
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  of an equation, where you said that complete submission equals utter belief. Yep.
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  So complete submission equals utter or i would say perfect,
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  i remember using the word utter and it stumbled me for a second i don't even
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  know where that come from but i meant complete,
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  but it is it's utter i mean utter utter is strong word right and i meant it's
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  you got to believe with everything you have yeah,
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  well and like we might say you know perfect submission right all is at rest
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  right that phrase perfect submission but perfect submission,
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  is perfect belief because you're not going to perfectly submit,
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  unless you believe in the one to whom you're submitting that is perfect trust that is correct,
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  and i think we don't often think of trust and belief from the lens of submission,
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  no but it honestly is the only lens you can right Right.
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  And you've perfectly captured what I meant by it being a sacrifice. Mm-hmm.
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  We sacrifice for what we fully believe.
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  So when we walk through these storms of life, you know, we need to walk in full faith.
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  And so often our faith is demonstrated by our obedience.
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  And our commitment is going to drive all of it. Absolutely. And our commitment
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  is completely wrapped in our confidence in whom we believe.
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  And when we have confidence in whom we believe, we submit our want-tos.
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  We submit our authority. I think we even give up having them.
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  I think there's this business of becoming like Him.
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  And every day I think we're to strive to be more like Him.
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  And I believe the fruits of the Spirit are fully meant for others to see and
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  to be convicting to them.
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  But they are a demonstration of your maturity in the Lord and how you walk.
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  And I believe the more we are like Him, the less of our fleshly desires we acknowledge.
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  I mean, even inside to ourselves. I mean, I don't mean to acknowledge each other.
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  I mean, we just, we release them.
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  I got a ways to go. We all have a ways to go.
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  But I think when we understand the power of and the importance of faith,
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  it allows us to understand on what we lean on when we do encounter those storms,
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  which we will encounter.
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  We know that the storms are promised as much as his presence is promised.
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  So in Monday's podcast, you shared a number of truths that I think will really
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  help us to weather the storm if we really grasp them and listen to them.
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  And the first one was, he knows where you are and he has put himself there with you.
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  Will you talk about that one a,
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  I think that one of the tools the devil uses is to try to make you feel alone and isolated.
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  And Hebrews 13, 5 tells us that he never leaves us or forsakes us.
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  So when we find ourselves in the middle of our darkest hour or deepest,
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  most dreadful storm, we tend to feel like he's gone.
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  But since we have gotten in the boat,
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  and he's the one leading because we have to trust in him,
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  wherever the boat goes he clearly is there and he's put himself in the midst
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  of whatever it is we feel that is horrible and miserable,
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  so how could it be when he is joy he is light He is goodness.
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  He is grace. He is love.
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  So when we look at our surroundings with the lens that our surroundings is the
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  focus and everything that is in the surroundings takes a backseat,
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  then we are looking at that with a fleshly view and in the way that's going
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  to be detrimental to our faith and our service to the lord our joy and our happiness,
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  but when we look at who we are in christ jesus and realize,
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  that we are with him and he has purposely put himself there because he's the
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  one leading the show then we must have a sense of of confidence in.
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  That he who controls it all doesn't just control the storm we're in, shows the storm.
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  So we're safe.
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  And I think what happens is we just can't get our eyes off of the circumstances.
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  And if we really understood that the true circumstances is that the child of
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  God living by the word of God is covered by the love of God and is safely secure in his hands.
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  Because the circle says our environment is love, grace, mercy, joy, peace.
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  When we step out of the environment that God has given us and go flesh, that's a problem.
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  But our environment isn't the storm.
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  We are hidden in Christ Jesus. Hidden in Christ Jesus means every part of us is inside, hidden.
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  So our circumstances really shouldn't go past,
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  him i love that and that perfectly follows up the very next truth that i want
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  to talk about was that our circumstances might change,
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  but god's character does not change and so if we are completely hidden in him,
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  regardless what happens outside of our sort of holy, God-filled bubble that
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  we can be in, that we choose to place ourselves in, hidden with Him.
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  Things around us may change, but our circumstances change.
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  And maybe our circumstances change and our environment doesn't. I like that.
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  And maybe that's a more scientifically correct way of saying it.
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  But either way, if we're looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, nothing else matters.
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  Absolutely. And nothing in him changes.
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  No. So I change us not. Right. So our circumstances may change,
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  but we hide ourselves in him and our environment is his grace, truth, love, mercy.
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  And we're living under his character, right? His love, his compassion,
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  his presence, his faithfulness. His character is not unchanging.
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  It is unchanging. It is unchanging regardless of what is happening outside.
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  I think the problem is, is we live below our privileges because so many of us don't know who he is.
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  Therefore, we don't know who we are in Christ Jesus. And if we don't know his
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  character well enough, we won't have the foundation to understand that it's not changing.
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  But I got new scripture tells us to study, to show ourself approved unto God,
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  to work when that need is not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth in 2 Timothy 2.15.
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  And the Holy Spirit will reveal to us what the word of God says,
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  and he'll bring to our remembrance, according to John 14.26,
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  I think it is, what we have need of when we have need of it.
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  You can't say, I can't read the Bible because I don't understand it.
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  Ask, and he will give you an understanding. Look at it. Ask other people.
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  Read and just pray.
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  Because when you do, you will know the one who changeth not.
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  He wants you to know him. He says, little children, these things I have written that you may know.
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  You know, the next point that you made that I wanted to talk about,
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  really, these are just perfectly following, is that God positions himself so
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  that we can see him if we're looking for him.
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  And we can't be looking for him if we don't know him. Or if we're in the wrong places.
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  Right. Like it's, you know, like when you go to the airport and you see,
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  you come down the escalator, a baggage claim, and you see the people that are
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  getting picked up, right?
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  And they have a little sign, you know, with the person's name on it because
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  they don't know who they're looking for, right? The people coming down the escalator,
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  they know their name so they can find the person, but they don't know that person.
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  Like you can't find and recognize someone you know nothing about.
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  It's like if a stranger is picking you up at the airport, you know,
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  like your friend's brother or something like that.
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  Like your friend is going to explain to you what the brother looks like,
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  how tall he is, his hair color, what he's maybe what the color his jacket is,
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  what he's wearing. Like, you know, if you're going to look for somebody and
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  find somebody, you need to know them.
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  And you're never going to find somebody or something looking in the wrong place.
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  I'm never going to find a tray of ice cubes in the oven. That's true, right?
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  But people go to all kinds of crazy things trying to find about who God is more.
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  Go to His Word. Go to Him in prayer.
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  Go to a trusted, godly person to read the Bible with you, not to tell you this is what I think it says.
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  I would not even invite you to come and sit in front of me and ask me to tell
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  you who God is unless you come and tell me,
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  tell me who God is, and I say, bring your Bible, and me and you just walk through the scriptures.
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  You can't take somebody else's word forward.
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  He is the Lord God Almighty, and he wants you to know him.
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  And from Genesis to Revelations, he reveals who he is.
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  And the word was made flesh and dwell among us, according to John 1, 14.
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  Therefore, he is the word, and the word is God.
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  And therefore, that's what you need to be looking in and seeing,
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  but get people who know them, but walk through the scripture with them so you
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  can see for yourself what the Word of God says.
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  Because I believe I'm going to tell you exactly what the Word of God says,
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  and I am committed to holding to the doctrine of the gospel, not of any church.
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  So therefore, I believe you'd be fine with me, but you need to see what God
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  says, not what Kimmy says.
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  And you need to see what God says for yourself so that you are then equipped.
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  To go find it again, to go find it again and to find him.
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  Like you mentioned on Monday about like God sightings, which is your family.
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  You know, your family word. I know there's a lot of people who talk about like God, God winks.
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  Right. But just things where you say, oh, that's God that Like,
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  you need to know him to be able to recognize him in a situation.
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  We had that the other day.
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  And I don't know. Other people may not think this is something, but...
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  Erica and I were out on a fishing trip, and it was raining.
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  And so we were going to go drive an hour to a special bait shop so I could get
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  some equipment that I wanted that we don't have at home.
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  And where we were fishing didn't have the same kind of rig, but I knew this bait shop did.
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  And so she and I rarely have cash on us. And so Erica sees a Chase Bank,
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  which is not an advertisement for them, but that's where we bank.
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  And there's not a lot in this area, but there was one. And so we went and got cash.
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  So we had been driving like 40 minutes, get to the bait shop.
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  And lo and behold, because it was raining, I guess people don't fish in the
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  rain like that. We weren't either, but we were coming for bait. They had closed. Yeah.
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  And so some man that worked there was cleaning the bait stuff and all that business, the live bait.
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  And he said, well, if you have cash, I can sell this to you,
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  but I can't run the register.
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  I think he probably felt we didn't have cash, just kind of the way he said it.
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  And I said, we have cash. Because five minutes before, the Lord had given us
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  a bank and told us to get some cash.
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  And we got cash. And so we had driven it out. And I get it. You could say,
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  well, you could go tomorrow. You could do this. But we didn't. We were there then.
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  And that was, you know, to me, that was God saying, hey, here's a bank you need
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  to get. Because I even said, well, do we need cash?
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  And I said, well, we probably do need cash. We've seen a bank we never see.
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  And so we got cash. And then we get to this place five, six, ten minutes later.
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  And we couldn't have gotten anything that we had driven almost an hour for if
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  we hadn't had cash and to me that was God affirming.
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  What we did he he took us to the bank,
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  then he got us to this place and we had the place all by ourselves the man let
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  us just wander through do what we needed to do got exactly what we got gave
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  us information we didn't even come for that we truly ended up needing.
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  So I look at that as a true God sighting.
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  And does that change his kingdom? I don't know.
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  We did give the man a glimpse of Jesus from the light that was in us.
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  He certainly made us feel like he had his hand upon us, like he has the hand upon the sparrow.
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  And that's the kind of thing that when you are walking hand in hand with him,
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  you see, you recognize, and we were going out of the building going, thank you, Jesus.
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  And because we walked out of the building saying, thank you,
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  Jesus, I think that's a really important point because it was an opportunity...
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  For us to practice recognizing what he does.
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  You know, it's interesting, this word practice, like we talk about like, what's your practice?
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  Like, what is the thing you do all the time? But also, we all know that there
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  is, it is important to practice the things that are important to him.
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  And acknowledging what he does, if I can regularly acknowledge his hand at work
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  in something as simple, right, as saying, hey, there's the bank,
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  you should get some cash.
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  And then seeing why that was important, I'm practicing recognizing who he is,
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  which means when I get into the real things, the scary things, I am already confident.
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  And it becomes a default. Right.
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  Of knowing who he is and what he does.
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  I want to go to the statement that we kind of started with, which is that our
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  faith may waver, but Jesus's power does not.
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  Our faith in a storm might shift.
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  We see that with Peter's, right? Peter's faith shifted because he started looking
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  at the storm, but Jesus's power never changed.
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  And regardless of what Peter thought of God, did not change his power, right?
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  And I think So those of us who are stewing over God, not doing what we want
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  to do, that's only hurting you.
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  His character doesn't change. His presence doesn't change. And his power doesn't change.
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  Wherever you are, He knows where you are, and He has put Himself there with you. Amen.
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  One of the last statements that you made in the podcast, and we're closing up
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  here, but you made the statement, don't let the storm be the only thing you
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  remember about your experience.
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  Remember what God has done.
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  There are going to be storms in our lives. We're promised that,
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  right? Consider it all joy when these trials and tribulations come. It's a when.
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  We know that. It's not an if.
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  And when these things happen, we can't let the storm be the only thing you remember.
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  It needs to be His power. Amen. It needs to be His character.
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  It needs to be His presence.
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  It needs to be all the things he did and who he was for you and who he was to
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  you amen as you walked through those storms.
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  It takes practice sometimes to recognize who he is and to choose to submit to
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  him absolutely to demonstrate our faith praise the lord praise the lord he's faithful Amen.
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  But when we do that, when those storms arise, we are well equipped for the storm.
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  No fisherman would take their boat into a storm without provisions,
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  without GPS, without a good engine, right? Without foul weather gear, right?
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  If you have to go into a storm, you need to be equipped.
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  And we equip ourselves for the storms of life by learning how to obey Jesus,
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  and to submit our lives to him.
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  Because that's how we perfect the faith that will walk us through all those storms.
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  Friends, if you haven't listened to Monday's podcast, episode 673, keep your eyes on Jesus.
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  We absolutely recommend that we do so.
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  But most importantly, we pray that this podcast was a blessing to you and that
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  you remember that you are loved and that Jesus loves you.
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  Thank you for joining us for today's podcast. You can find quotes and scripture
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  references from this episode in the show notes.
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  We pray today's message has been a blessing. If it has, please consider leaving
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  a rating or review on your podcast platform.
• 28:15
  Your feedback helps others discover the truth of God's Word.
• 28:19
  You can connect with Women at the Well Ministries through our app at watwm.org
• 28:25
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• 28:27
  While you're there, learn more about Bible Bits, Kim's daily devotional delivered
• 28:31
  Monday through Friday by text message, and the Bible Bit podcast.
• 28:36
  Thank you for your prayers and support.