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613 | Trusting a Faithful God · 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 with Jesus Christ.
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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 trust
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  in the faithfulness of God.
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  Well, welcome back to our podcast, everyone. I am Erica Close,
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  and I'm here with Kim Miller.
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  Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast. We are excited,
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  and today we are talking about what it looks like to trust in a faithful God.
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  And if you listen to our podcast regularly and you caught Monday's podcast, that was episode 612.
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  The Faithfulness of God, you heard some great teaching on what it means that
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  God is faithful and examples from his word about the faithfulness of God.
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  And I believe that we know that God is faithful,
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  but I wanted to take a little bit of time in today's podcast to dig into some
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  of the scriptures that Kim brought out in Monday's podcast and look at what
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  it really looks like when we live in a way that shows that we trust in God.
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  So in Monday's podcast, Kim talked about a few different passages,
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  and I want to key in really closely on the passage in Lamentation.
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  It was Lamentations 3, 22 through 24. So if you've got your Bible,
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  we would love you to grab that and to follow along with us as we talk about it.
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  But that is the passage that Kim keyed off of as she went throughout episode 612.
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  So I'm going to go ahead and just read that, and then I think maybe we can jump
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  into some of the finer points about what it looks like in our life.
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  So Lamentations 3, 22 through 24 says, It is of the Lord's mercies that we are
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  not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning.
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  Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul.
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  Therefore will I hope in him.
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  And I encourage you to go back to Monday's podcast if you didn't get to listen
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  to it, because you'll get some of the background on this passage.
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  But as we jump into this passage, Camus made a statement in the podcast on Monday
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  where you said that we are not to add to the Word, but to ingest the Word.
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  So before we jump into this passage where we're going to ingest it and talk
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  about it, what does that really mean to you? That we're not to add to the word,
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  but we're to ingest the word.
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  I think sometimes we want the word to say something.
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  We want it to say something that moves an answer or gives us a direction that
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  is more in alignment with our thoughts and our ideas.
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  And so we will add meaning into verses that contextually are just not there.
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  The meaning is very clear and we want it to be something else.
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  And so I think sometimes we try to add to the scriptures.
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  And I think a lot of times people add to the scriptures by literally removing things.
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  And I know that sounds weird, but you add to the scriptures a somewhat false
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  approval to do this or that because you just leave the verses out that tell
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  you otherwise. That makes sense.
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  And so we have to read the Word of God for what the Word of God says,
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  not slanted in the direction we want it to be.
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  God's ways are higher than our ways,
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  and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His Word is truth.
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  We don't get to be truth.
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  Truth is the Word, and so it's the standard by which we must measure all thoughts and actions Bye.
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  And it's the standard that we have to take in as it is, right?
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  If we're ingesting it, we are taking it in as it is.
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  It's not getting changed, right? It's not going to get altered when we take it in.
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  Right. We are, and we have to take the word in piece by piece,
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  but not out of context. Right.
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  So I can't absorb Genesis to Revelations in one day.
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  I can't read that fast. You might be able to, but I can't.
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  And even if that's the case, I have to read something, study it,
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  look at it, pray about it, read it, see how it fits in other places.
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  And I have to take it bit by bit. But I can't just take a little piece out and
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  not let it fit into anything else.
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  And that's what I mean by ingesting it, believing what it says for exactly as
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  it is and not adding any salt and pepper or steak sauce on it.
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  Just take it. It is what it is. There we go.
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  All right. So I just want to talk about that. I really liked that.
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  I was thinking about that as we were starting. Okay. So let's hop into the Lamentations passage.
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  So Lamentations 22 says,
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  has a phrase in it that says, we are not consumed. It is of the Lord's mercies
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  that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not.
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  And I was thinking about what it means to not be consumed.
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  And to me, it means that we are not consumed by the fires of this world,
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  right? Like there are things that just happen.
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  There are fires that need to be put out.
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  And we may have to deal with fires and put fires out or maybe deal with the
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  aftermath of fires, but we don't have to be consumed by them.
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  And I think that it goes beyond just not being affected by them.
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  But when I think about how so often things happen and we just get them stuck
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  in our minds and we can't ever let them go. And they consume us.
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  So I think to me, the Lord is saying that we do not need to be consumed by the
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  fear and the worry about the things of this life or allow our minds to be consumed
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  by the things of this world.
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  I think that's a wonderful interpretation of what he's saying here.
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  Especially the consumption of the world.
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  And when we are consumed, I think that we become overwhelmed,
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  we become stressed, many times we become depressed.
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  I mean, there are medical reasons why those things happen as well,
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  but a lot of us are bringing that on ourselves because we are navigating this
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  world outside of the boundaries of God.
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  And I also believe there's another interpretation of this passage that goes along with that.
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  Is that he is so great.
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  That if it wasn't for his mercy, grace, and compassion, his presence would consume us.
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  But instead of consuming us with his greatness, he empowers us with his greatness. I love that.
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  And his love is beyond measure and, frankly, beyond my comprehension.
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  Because it's never-ending. And it seems like there's more and more and more and more of it.
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  To your point about there being more and more and more of it,
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  the next verse in Lamentations 3, 23, 22 ends with, His compassions fail not,
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  and 23 starts with, They are new every morning.
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  And I want to just talk for a minute about the new every morning idea.
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  To me, that is sort of the perfect do-over, right?
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  Every morning when we awaken, his compassions, his protection, they're all there.
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  We haven't used them all up the day before.
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  And we awaken each day with a day that is fresh.
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  And we have that opportunity, like you said in your message,
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  to talk to him before our feet hit the floor.
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  And ask Him to lead and guide and direct us throughout that day.
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  I'm so thankful that they are new every morning.
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  I think that is also a beautiful picture of light overcoming darkness.
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  He is the light, and sin is the darkness.
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  And light always dispels darkness, and God always defeats darkness.
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  And so I think he's showing us that each morning we get up is a reminder that
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  he is greater than the darkness around us.
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  I think it's a reminder that each morning there is joy cometh in the morning, he says.
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  And then in Psalms, he also explains to us that in his presence, there is joy.
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  So he is light and we've come through the night.
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  He's defeated the darkness and we
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  are in the presence of his light there is joy evermore
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  and i believe this this verse in
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  lamentations is jeremiah explaining
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  to the people who are in deep anguish and mourning that with god there is joy
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  there is light there is victory that's so good let's talk about that last verse
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  in that passage it says the lord is my portion saith my soul Therefore will I hope in Him.
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  When I think about a portion, I think about it being the exact right amount
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  of something that I need.
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  Right? It is exactly what I need. And it's usually specific to you.
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  Yes. So it's personal. It's personal. It reminds me of the verse in Psalm 16, 6, where it says,
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  The lions have fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yea, I have a goodly heritage.
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  You love that verse. I do love that verse. And it really is talking about the boundary lines.
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  My boundaries that God has set for me have fallen in pleasant places.
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  They have fallen in the right place.
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  Because they align with his plan for you, which is to give you a hope and expect it in.
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  And it's a plan just for me. It's a good plan. And he has a plan just for you.
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  And each one of our listeners has their own individual plan.
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  And he is enough for each of us, right?
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  When you think about the portion, he is our portion.
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  He is sufficient for all of our needs.
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  For each situation we find ourselves in, he is our portion.
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  He and him alone is enough.
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  This doesn't have anything really to do with the sanctified interpretation of this verse,
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  but I do often think of the fact that his portion is perfect for us,
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  but if we wanted more of him, we could get more of him.
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  We don't usually go for that, but we sure go for that second piece of strawberry pie, right? Yeah.
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  You know, I read something a couple of days ago, and as I was listening to you
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  in this last program on Monday's podcast,
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  and this section right here where it says, He is my portion,
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  it reminded me of Daniel 3,
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  verses 16 through 20, which is the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace.
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  You even talked about that passage in the podcast, but, you know,
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  when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are brought before the king, and they basically say,
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  you know, we're not going to talk to you about this, right?
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  I mean, he's saying, he's asking them, what are you doing? You're not bowing down to me.
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  You know, you're continuing to pray to our Lord. and they say.
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  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods,
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  nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
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  And I thought, they knew their Lord would take care of them.
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  He is their perfect portion, right? They asked for perfect deliverance.
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  And I think they also understood that they may not know how the deliverance
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  was going to come, but he would be right no matter how it was. Exactly.
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  Because even if he did not, even if he did not deliver them from the fire furnace,
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  they weren't going to bow because the Lord was still their portion.
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  Even if they didn't get deliverance from the fiery furnace, what they had at
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  that exact moment, the portion of God they had at that exact moment was more than enough. Right.
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  It was exactly what they needed. Right. It's exactly, you know,
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  we so often want somebody else's portion.
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  Well, yes. We act like we're dissatisfied with what we have.
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  Because we want somebody else's portion. Because we don't realize that we've
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  got Jesus and that's enough.
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  We don't realize that the portion is specifically custom made.
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  Yes. We don't we don't understand that the armor of God is custom made.
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  We don't understand that his plan for us isn't just an individualized plan based
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  on the creation that he gave us,
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  the skill sets that he imparted to us and the plan he has for us to do.
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  I think that that portion piece is huge and he's faithful,
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  but we often we stick some cogs in the wheel and stop the progress because we
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  want somebody else's portion and it doesn't fit us.
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  You can't wear my, well, you can wear my shirt. I can't wear yours.
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  But we each have,
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  the portion that we need. It's not just that. We each have the individualized,
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  custom-made, perfect portion.
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  Created for us by a perfect God. Who loves us. Yes.
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  Yes. He loves us enough to forgive us. And, you know, I know that your message
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  on Monday was about faithfulness, but also about the faithfulness of God to forgive, right?
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  And how faithful He is when we need forgiveness, and we sin,
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  and we are not honestly, you know, faithful to Him.
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  It's incredible. It really is. And you referenced Isaiah 118,
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  it said, come now, let us reason together.
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  And that's the verse that goes on and says, that your sins be as scarlet,
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  they'll be white as snow.
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  It speaks beautifully to the promise that we have for forgiveness of our sins and salvation.
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  But it really struck me as you were speaking, oh my goodness,
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  this Lord wants to talk to me.
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  Let us reason together. He wants you to understand. That's what I love about
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  that. and I don't think I really made that very clear in the podcast on Monday.
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  He wants you to understand. He wants you to love him, and he wants you to understand why you should.
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  And he's patient, and he continually and consistently and faithfully gives you reasons to.
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  Amen. It's incredible. It really is. And he's my friend. Yes, he is.
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  And when you think of the personal, it's the perfect portion just for us.
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  He can give us the perfect portion because he knows us.
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  And we can trust the perfect portion because we know him.
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  And he definitely knows more of us than we know of ourselves.
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  Absolutely. I don't care how self-aware you are.
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  Oh, I'm not nearly as self-aware of myself as aware of God is of me.
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  No one is. Thank goodness.
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  I'm so thankful for how aware and understanding God is of me.
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  He has infinite understanding. He has infinite understanding.
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  We said that in some verse. Yep, absolutely.
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  It was Psalm 147.5. What does Psalms 147.5 say? Great is our Lord and of great
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  power. His understanding is infinite.
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  I love that. There's enough understanding for all of us.
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  There's enough understanding to go around. And there's understanding that cannot
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  be quantified. It just keeps going.
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  He knows me, yet he loves me. Amen. So our podcast on Monday was about the faithfulness of God.
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  And these verses demonstrate what that faithfulness looks like in our lives.
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  As you go throughout the remainder of this week, it would just be our encouragement
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  that you would go back and you would look at the scripture references,
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  specifically all of the scriptures that are referenced in Monday's podcast in episode 612.
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  All those verses are linked in the show notes, and you can go back and click
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  on them and read them at any time.
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  And we would just encourage you to do so, because God is incredibly faithful.
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  He calls us to be faithful to Him, but He is faithful to us.
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  Thank you for listening today, friends. Remember that you are loved. 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.
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  If it has, please consider leaving a rating or review on your podcast platform.
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  You can connect with Woman at the Well Ministries through our app at watwm.org
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  While you're there, learn more about Bible Bits. Kim's daily devotional delivered
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