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Untangling Prayer with Rachel Wojo - Afraid God Won’t Come Through This Time? · LifeAudio

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: There's a name for God that appears in only one
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  Speaker 1: place in the entire Bible. A dad gave it to
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  Speaker 1: God on a mountain on the very day that he
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  Speaker 1: thought he was going to lose his son. And by
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  Speaker 1: the end of this episode, I hope that name is
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  Speaker 1: the first thing that comes to your mind when you
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  Speaker 1: look at whatever need you have right in front of you.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Untangling Prayer Podcast. I'm Rachel Wojo, and
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  Speaker 1: I'm so glad you're here. You are here. Today we're
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  Speaker 1: stepping into a brand new section of my book, Praying
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  Speaker 1: Through Life's Battles, and we've spent time with the weary
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  Speaker 1: and with the warring, and now in this section we're
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  Speaker 1: in the for the winning. I love that we get
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  Speaker 1: to do that the same week that we have flipped
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  Speaker 1: the calendar to November, which is the month that so
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  Speaker 1: many of us set aside for gratitude. And today's episode
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  Speaker 1: is about a man who worshiped before he really had
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  Speaker 1: a reason to, and the God who saw his need
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  Speaker 1: long before he knew he needed it. So whether you
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  Speaker 1: need wisdom for a decision that you're trying to deal with,
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  Speaker 1: or you need strength for a diagnosis, or whatever it
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  Speaker 1: might be, if you just need enough to get through
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  Speaker 1: the end of the month, this episode is for you.
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  Speaker 1: Before we dive in, I wanted you to know that
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  Speaker 1: Part 3 of the Praying Through Life's Battles Bible Reading
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  Speaker 1: Challenge for the winning started November 1st, and if you
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  Speaker 1: haven't joined in yet, you can do that. You can
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  Speaker 1: jump in anytime. I'll put the link in the show notes,
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  Speaker 1: or you can find it at rachelwojo.com under Bible Reading Plans.
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  Speaker 1: And now for this week's segment of Questions in Hard Spaces,
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  Speaker 1: where I answer the tough questions about prayer that you
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  Speaker 1: guys email me or send to me via message, and
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  Speaker 1: This week's question is one I've asked myself more than
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  Speaker 1: one time. How do I pray when I can see
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  Speaker 1: the need, but I can't see how God is going
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  Speaker 1: to meet it? And if that's where you are, I
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  Speaker 1: want to take you up a mountain today. In Genesis 22,
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  Speaker 1: God asks Abraham to do the unthinkable. He tells him,
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  Speaker 1: take Isaac, the son that he had waited for 25
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  Speaker 1: years for. He said, take him and sacrifice him. So
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  Speaker 1: Abraham gets up early. He saddles his donkey. He gets
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  Speaker 1: the wood and they start their journey. The trip takes
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  Speaker 1: three days. Isaac goes with him. And Genesis 22, 4 says,
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  Speaker 1: On the third day that Abraham looked up and saw
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  Speaker 1: the place in the distance. Can you imagine how he
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  Speaker 1: was carrying the load of this for three days? And
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  Speaker 1: some of you have been carrying loads for a long time,
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  Speaker 1: longer than that. When Abraham reached the mountain, The Bible
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  Speaker 1: says that he laid the wood on Isaac's shoulders and
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  Speaker 1: the two of them started to climb together. And on
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  Speaker 1: the climb, Isaac asks the question, he said to his father,
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  Speaker 1: is what the scripture says, Abraham, yes, my son, Abraham replied,
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  Speaker 1: the fire and the wood are here, Isaac said, but
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  Speaker 1: where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And I
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  Speaker 1: think so many of us are asking this same question.
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  Speaker 1: You can see maybe the test results of your diagnosis,
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  Speaker 1: or you can see a deadline, or there's a problem
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  Speaker 1: in your marriage. And what you can't see is how
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  Speaker 1: God is going to meet you in it. Isaac could
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  Speaker 1: see everything except the one thing that seemed to matter
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  Speaker 1: the most. And I think that's where fear is introduced
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  Speaker 1: into our hearts. We can see into the details, but
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  Speaker 1: we can't see the answer at all. And Abraham's reply
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  Speaker 1: is one of my favorite answers. sentences. It says, God
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  Speaker 1: himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.
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  Speaker 1: And then it also adds, the two of them went
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  Speaker 1: on together. It says after that, Abraham had no plan
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  Speaker 1: for how this was going to work out. He just
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  Speaker 1: kept walking. He was walking in obedience. And the Hebrew
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  Speaker 1: word translated provide there is the word for see. It's
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  Speaker 1: a very literal reading that God himself will see to
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  Speaker 1: the lamb. God's economy shows that seeing a need and
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  Speaker 1: providing for it is a little different. Before Isaac ever
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  Speaker 1: asked his question, God had already known the answer. He'd
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  Speaker 1: already seen the answer. So when you pray, you don't
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  Speaker 1: have to work to get God's attention. You already have it.
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  Speaker 1: Just tell him the truth about the need and then
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  Speaker 1: tell him the truth about who he is. And goodness,
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  Speaker 1: am I preaching to my own heart right now? If
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  Speaker 1: you're afraid God won't come through this time, name your
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  Speaker 1: need plainly. And then add Abraham's sentence. God, you will
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  Speaker 1: see to this. You've already seen it. And I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to keep walking with you. Hey, thanks for tuning in
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: to Questions and Heart Spaces. We'll be right back after
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: this brief word from our sponsors. Thank you for listening
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: in to that word from our sponsors. And now for
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: this week's segment of Pray More, Worry Less Encouragement. This
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  Speaker 1: is the part of the episode, the segment where we
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  Speaker 1: focus on one prayer principle that will help you pray
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  Speaker 1: more and worry less. And today's principle is Faith names
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  Speaker 1: God as the provider before the provision arises. And so
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  Speaker 1: I want to go back to the bottom of that
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  Speaker 1: mountain for a minute. Before Abraham and Isaac started to climb,
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  Speaker 1: Abraham was turning to his servants who had traveled with them.
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  Speaker 1: And he says, stay here with the donkey while I
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  Speaker 1: and the boy go over there. We will worship and
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  Speaker 1: then we will come back. We will worship and then
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  Speaker 1: we will come back. Think about that. Abraham called it
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  Speaker 1: worship before there was a lamb or a ram anywhere
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  Speaker 1: in sight. He planned on walking back down the mountain
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  Speaker 1: with his son before he had any idea how that
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  Speaker 1: would happen. And in Hebrews, it tells us Abraham to
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  Speaker 1: reason that God could even raise the dead. His trust
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  Speaker 1: showed up early, long before the answer did. So at
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  Speaker 1: the top of the mountain, at the very last moment,
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  Speaker 1: God stops him. And Genesis 22, 13 says, Abraham looked
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  Speaker 1: up and there was the ram caught by its horns.
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  Speaker 1: Abraham looked up and there was the provision. It was
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  Speaker 1: right there, ready for him. In Genesis 22, 14, it says,
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  Speaker 1: So Abraham called that place the Lord will provide and said,
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  Speaker 1: On the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided.
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  Speaker 1: In Hebrew, the Lord will provide. is Jehovah Jireh. And
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  Speaker 1: that's the name that I told you about at the
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  Speaker 1: beginning of this episode. Abraham gave God a name that
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  Speaker 1: you won't find anywhere else in Scripture. This is the
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  Speaker 1: only place in the entire Bible where it appears. He
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  Speaker 1: could have named that place a lot of other things. Like,
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  Speaker 1: it could have been called the worst day of his life,
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  Speaker 1: but he called it after what God did. And I'm
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  Speaker 1: so thankful that that it says, to this day, it
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  Speaker 1: is said in that verse. In other words, people kept
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  Speaker 1: repeating that, that it was the place of Jehovah Jireh.
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  Speaker 1: Second Chronicles 3.1 tells us that Solomon began to build
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  Speaker 1: the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah.
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  Speaker 1: And that place carries the name of the mountain where
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  Speaker 1: God provided. It became the place where his people gathered
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  Speaker 1: to worship for centuries. So what does all this have
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  Speaker 1: to do with November? Most of us think of gratitude
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  Speaker 1: as something that we offer after we get the results.
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  Speaker 1: The test results are clear, the phone call comes, and
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  Speaker 1: Abraham is showing us that he worshiped while he was
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  Speaker 1: still climbing. So whatever you're climbing today, whatever mountain, I
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  Speaker 1: want to invite you into something Maybe you can call
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  Speaker 1: it Name Your Mountain. Maybe you can call it a
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  Speaker 1: gratitude journal. Whatever you do, but get a journal or
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  Speaker 1: your notes app and start writing down the places God
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  Speaker 1: has provided for you. Maybe it's a friend who showed
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  Speaker 1: up at the right time or clear direction for a
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  Speaker 1: decision or a need that was met that you could
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  Speaker 1: not meet on your own. Whatever it is, write it
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  Speaker 1: down the way that Abraham did. And just really label
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  Speaker 1: that mountain. And I want to encourage you maybe to
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  Speaker 1: write down one a day through November. And by the
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  Speaker 1: time Thanksgiving gets here, you'll have a long list of
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  Speaker 1: things that tell the truth about who God is, even
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  Speaker 1: when your circumstances are trying to tell you something different.
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  Speaker 1: He is your provider. And if you're facing a mountain
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  Speaker 1: right now, put that one on the list too. Name
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  Speaker 1: it before you see the answer and write, the Lord
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  Speaker 1: will provide right next to it. That's what worship before
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  Speaker 1: provision looks like. And man, am I preaching to my
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  Speaker 1: own heart this week. I'd love to pray with you,
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  Speaker 1: especially if there's a need on your heart that you
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  Speaker 1: just don't see a way through. God, you are Jehovah Jireh.
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  Speaker 1: You saw Abraham's need before he ever reached the top
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  Speaker 1: of that mountain. And you see ours today. for anyone
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  Speaker 1: who's listening who can see a need so clearly but
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  Speaker 1: can't see the answer. meet them right where they are.
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  Speaker 1: Give the courage to worship before we see the ramp.
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  Speaker 1: Open our eyes to look and see what you've already
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  Speaker 1: placed inside the thicket you've already prepared for us. We
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  Speaker 1: trust you with the details and the timing. Amen. For
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  Speaker 1: our final segment of the podcast every week, I share
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  Speaker 1: and answer a prayer story. And this week, I wanted
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  Speaker 1: to remind you of a night in my kitchen when
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  Speaker 1: our family was struggling and we were short on the bills.
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  Speaker 1: It was a season when Matt lost his job, and
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  Speaker 1: I've talked about this before. And we had clipped every
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  Speaker 1: coupon and bought generic everything, and we still couldn't fill
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  Speaker 1: the gap. And I was sitting by the bills with
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  Speaker 1: a calculator that showed the shortage. And no matter how
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  Speaker 1: many times I added up, it was still there. The
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  Speaker 1: kids were upstairs doing homework. They had no idea that
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  Speaker 1: I was kind of having a bit of a panic attack.
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  Speaker 1: And I whispered to God in the silence, God, you
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  Speaker 1: know that we need a miracle here. And I talk
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  Speaker 1: about this in the devotional, Praying Through Life's Battles. making
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  Speaker 1: the choice to trust God. And that next morning, I
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  Speaker 1: walked out to the mailbox still thinking about the miracle
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  Speaker 1: that we needed. And I barely made it back inside
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  Speaker 1: the house before I tore open an envelope and there
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  Speaker 1: was a check inside for what we needed and more.
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  Speaker 1: God had provided for us in such a unique way.
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  Speaker 1: And I just wanted to share that with you as
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  Speaker 1: a reminder again. It wasn't just one time that the
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  Speaker 1: Lord did this for us. And it's so easy to forget.
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  Speaker 1: That night that I was walking up the mountain at
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  Speaker 1: my kitchen table, I couldn't see how God was going
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  Speaker 1: to provide. And I chose to trust God before I
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  Speaker 1: went to the mailbox, before I went to bed, before
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  Speaker 1: I knew how any of it would turn out. And
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  Speaker 1: that is... you know, a one-time provision, but God's provision
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  Speaker 1: doesn't always come in one way, right? Sometimes it's wisdom
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  Speaker 1: that you didn't have, or strength for the next thing, or,
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  Speaker 1: you know, there are just so many ways, peace even,
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  Speaker 1: that doesn't make sense on paper. God's methods are creative,
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  Speaker 1: and His faithfulness never changes, and so what He did
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  Speaker 1: on that mountain for Abraham, He's still doing it for
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  Speaker 1: His people today. This story is from day 62 of
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  Speaker 1: my book, Praying Through Life's Battles, 90 Days to Strengthen
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  Speaker 1: Your Faith. And each day walks you through the enemy's tactic,
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  Speaker 1: God's divine strategy, a prayer, and a battle cry to
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  Speaker 1: carry with you. So today's battle cry is one I
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  Speaker 1: want you to take with you today as well. My
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  Speaker 1: God is Jehovah Jireh. He sees my needs and provides perfectly.
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  Speaker 1: I rejoice in His abundant supply that never runs dry. Hey,
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  Speaker 1: you can order your copy of Praying Through Life's Battles
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: at battleprose.com or wherever you buy books. Thanks for joining
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  Speaker 1: me on Untangling Prayer. I'm Rachel Wojo. Remember, God sees you,
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  Speaker 1: He hears you, and He knows your need.