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Deepening your Faith · HAVE FAITH LET IT BEGIN®

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  Have faith, let it begin, and it starts right now.
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  Good morning, and welcome to Have Faith, Let It Begin. I'm your host, Angel Santana.
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  Today, we're diving into something deeply personal. It's called deepening your faith.
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  If you've ever felt distant from God, or wondered if your prayers were even
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  being heard, this message will be for you.
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  You know, there's something about faith that's both simple and incredible,
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  hard to grasp at the same time.
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  Faith isn't just believing in God, it's believing with God, trusting him through
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  silence, through storms, and through the moments when everything you want to give up.
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  I didn't always have the relationship with God, not the one that I do today.
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  I mean, I believed, I went to church, I prayed, But there's a difference between
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  believing he exists and actually walking with him daily.
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  And that's what today's message is really all about.
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  Not just having faith, but deepening it.
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  Let me take you back, early in the 2000s. I had just come out of a painful breakup.
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  I was broken emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and depression had definitely crept in.
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  It crept into every corner of my life. I was working five jobs just to keep up with the bills.
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  I remember driving home late at night, exhausted.
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  Sometimes just talking out loud in my car.
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  Talking out loud in my car to God,
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  saying, why, Lord? Why? Why am I going through this? I'm a good person.
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  Why? And for a while, it felt like he was silent. But here's what I've learned over time.
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  God's silence is not his absence. Even when I ignored him, even when I was angry, God never gave up on me.
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  He never gave up on me. He placed people in my path, co-workers,
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  strangers, even songs on the radio.
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  That reminded me, Angel, I am still here.
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  It didn't happen overnight. My faith didn't deepen because of one prayer.
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  It took thousands of prayers, thousands of tears, thousands of small conversations
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  with God, sometimes angry ones, sometimes, most of the time,
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  tearful ones, but always honest.
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  And you know what? You know what I discovered?
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  God isn't looking for perfection. He's looking for a connection.
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  He can handle your questions. He can handle your doubts. He certainly can handle
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  your tears. What he can't work with is distance.
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  One scripture that speaks to me when I think about those years is James 1, verses 2-4.
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  Listen to what the word of the Lord says. Consider it pure joy,
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  my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
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  because you know that the testing of your faith proceeds perseverance.
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  That word, perseverance, took me forever to learn how to say that word too.
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  Change. Perseverance changed everything for me. I used to think faith meant everything.
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  I used to think that faith meant everything. I had to feel good.
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  But faith isn't about feelings. It's about trust. When you can praise God through
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  the pain, that's when your faith starts to deepen.
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  I began to realize that my pain was preparing me for the purpose.
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  Oh, yeah, preparing me for purpose every time I say that I think about it God
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  wasn't punishing me He was positioning me Each sleepless night each tear each
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  prayer It was shaping me into the man of faith.
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  I was called to become Maybe you're listening today and you're in your own storm
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  Maybe you've been working long hours holding your life together and you're wondering
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  if God still sees you, my friend, he does.
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  My brothers and sister, he does. My half-faith, let it begin family, he does.
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  And he's not finished with your story yet.
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  I wanna open the door to you. If you've been struggling with faith or if you're
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  just in need for someone to pray with you, to reach out with you,
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  please call me, 845-391-2312. to.
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  You can even email me if you don't want to speak with me directly.
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  You can email me at angel at havefaithletitbegin.com. And if you haven't already,
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  make sure you follow and share our journey together.
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  Now, I know what you're thinking. Are you just promoting another episode?
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  No, it's beyond that. We've been on the air for eight years.
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  And whether you subscribe to us or not, whether you just listen to us whenever
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  you need to, sometimes all it takes is that one time. And maybe this is the one time.
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  A lot of people always ask me almost every day, how do we get your podcast?
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  So that's why I've started to put that in, you know, to share and subscribe
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  because we don't know who needs.
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  You know, listen, even though I provide the message, there's a lot of times
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  the messages I think, even though I write them and I project them and I save
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  them, they're for me too.
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  And I don't even know it until I listen to it for the second or third time.
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  So whether you have a podcast of your own, an Apple phone and Android,
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  we're available on everything.
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  And we even have our YouTube now with 60 second messages. So if you subscribe
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  to that, if you don't want to listen to a full episode, you can just do 60 seconds.
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  You never know who might need a reminder.
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  Maybe it's today. And this way they know they're not alone. And maybe that person
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  is you. So let me close out with a prayer.
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  Heavenly Father, we thank you for your unending grace and patience.
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  For each listener who feels lost, Lord, remind them that your love never fails.
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  Help us to deepen your faith, even when we can't see the full picture.
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  Teach us to trust you, to wait on you, and to learn to lean on you,
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  and to lean into the word when the world feels heavy.
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  Lord, we know that you never give up on us. Lord, we know that even when you've
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  turned, when we've turned away, that thank you for just not doing the same to us.
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  Thank you for pursuing us with your relentless love. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
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  If today's message spoke to your heart, share it.
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  Share it with someone you love and remember that no matter what you're going through, you matter.
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  And never forget, have faith, let it begin.
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  God bless you and I'll see you tomorrow.
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  Take care. Hmm. Sorry. I was thinking. Take care guys.
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  Thank you for listening to Have Faith, Let It Begin. I'll be back tomorrow.