Latest / She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ / Embracing Trust With Joanna Weaver

Transcript

Embracing Trust With Joanna Weaver · She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ

• 0:01
  Hey there, welcome back to she speaks life, where women share
• 0:05
  their faith, stories, I'm Jamie Elizabeth, and I'm really
• 0:08
  excited to share with you my guest, Joanna Weaver.
• 0:12
  Now you may know Joanna by her best-selling book that sold over
• 0:16
  1 million copies called having a, merry heart in a Martha
• 0:20
  world. This book went by roll and
• 0:23
  rightly so it's a great read on how to find intimacy with God in
• 0:28
  the busyness of life. Life.
• 0:30
  Well, today she brings another great message on trusting.
• 0:34
  God, her newest book called embracing, trust, The Art of
• 0:38
  Letting Go and holding onto our forever faithful.
• 0:41
  God is just amazing. We can all have trust issues,
• 0:45
  especially when it comes to guide.
• 0:47
  Coming through for us when we doubt and let fear take over in
• 0:51
  this episode with Joanna, she's going to give us 10 ways.
• 0:54
  We can start stepping into a deeper trust with God and cling
• 0:59
  to his goodness. Love and power despite the
• 1:02
  difficulties we Face. Here's my guest, Joanna Weaver.
• 1:09
  Hi Joanna, Weaver, welcome to she speaks life.
• 1:14
  Oh, Jamie, it's so great to be with you.
• 1:16
  I'm so excited for you to be here.
• 1:20
  And, you know, before we jump into what we are about to talk
• 1:25
  about, which is such a major one, I think, trust trusting.
• 1:30
  And God that I wanted to begin with.
• 1:34
  Do you have a life verse a verse that?
• 1:37
  Maybe you hold onto on a Lee or maybe something that you go to
• 1:43
  in hard times? Yeah, well, I've got several but
• 1:48
  probably the one that means a lot right now, is because I've
• 1:51
  been living in, it is Proverbs 3:5 and 6 trust in the Lord,
• 1:55
  with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding,
• 1:59
  in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your path
• 2:02
  straight. And that's just, yeah, I love
• 2:06
  unpacking that. In fact, I'm going to be doing a
• 2:08
  five-day trip. As challenge where we're just
• 2:10
  going to like unpack each phrase because I believe there's so
• 2:14
  much there that really is that life first, that we need.
• 2:20
  Yeah, so true. I know that that hits home for
• 2:23
  me. I have a testimony on that verse
• 2:26
  and I actually wrote a devotion on that and it has to do with my
• 2:31
  lip, my oldest son, but he was a little boy at the time when when
• 2:36
  that whole verse really rocked my world.
• 2:39
  And, you know, change the trajectory and my perspective at
• 2:43
  the time when things were really hard.
• 2:46
  And so, thank you for sharing that I thought, I'd love that.
• 2:50
  I love that one week and share similar verses that really means
• 2:54
  something to us. So your book embracing trust and
• 2:59
  how many of us just can struggle with trusting God and especially
• 3:07
  when all we see are these Glide ith's, right?
• 3:11
  And you know, whether it's a diagnosis of a health issue,
• 3:16
  Financial Mass, our marriage is a mess, I mean anything, where
• 3:24
  what we're seeing in the natural I says, you know, oh my gosh,
• 3:30
  how can I get out of this? How can this be fixed and really
• 3:35
  having to trust in God it's not all that easy.
• 3:39
  So I do love your subtitle. You caught the Art of Letting Go
• 3:44
  and holding onto forever. Faithful!
• 3:46
  God. And I think that's so key
• 3:50
  letting go and then holding on. So I can't wait to dive in more
• 3:55
  of that. So before we jump into the, all
• 3:58
  of that, I want you to share with us, you'd mention that it
• 4:02
  took you a lot of years to finally pour into the world this
• 4:07
  book. So, Why did you pick this timing
• 4:12
  to publish it? Well it definitely wasn't my
• 4:16
  timing. Yes, I thought it was a glorious
• 4:20
  book to write about 20 years ago.
• 4:23
  I thought, I thought I had all the research.
• 4:26
  I thought I had everything I needed, but God obviously
• 4:29
  thought maybe something different, but I still think it
• 4:34
  was just as valid my, I knew in my heart just Experientially
• 4:41
  personally through the word but also in Ministry watching so
• 4:46
  many people, struggle to trust God and my own battle, you know,
• 4:50
  because here's the reality. I mean, honestly, I'm great
• 4:54
  days. We all trust God, I mean we love
• 4:58
  him with our whole Hearts but boy, when trouble strikes when
• 5:02
  we're faced with the impossible and we can't see the answer
• 5:06
  either in ourselves or in Our resources or in those times when
• 5:12
  God takes longer than we, think he will to answer the prayer
• 5:17
  that is were just frantic to have answered.
• 5:20
  That's when it's really hard to trust.
• 5:23
  And so, it's been a theme that God's been working in my heart.
• 5:27
  I think, since I was a young teenager when he first said,
• 5:31
  Joanna, I want you to go all in with me.
• 5:35
  You've given me your heart, but I want your entire life and And
• 5:39
  I write about it in the book about total surrender.
• 5:42
  You know, he wasn't making any promises, not like the Youth
• 5:45
  Camp speaker. Did, you know when you say, oh,
• 5:48
  if you give your life to Jesus, he's going to do marvelous
• 5:50
  things. No, God didn't promise me that.
• 5:53
  He just said, it's time. I want all of you and it was a
• 5:58
  battle because because we have the flesh you know our flesh the
• 6:02
  Bible says is enemy of God. So we have our spirit that's
• 6:06
  been Nate made new in Christ and yet we have this flesh that
• 6:10
  wants control and there's this tug of war and so I had felt it
• 6:13
  and I also felt the freedom on the other side of surrender and
• 6:17
  so I have I just I felt like this is the key, this is a pivot
• 6:21
  point, you know? But for whatever reason God said
• 6:24
  no, not yet. And one by one, he gave me other
• 6:27
  books that he wanted me to write.
• 6:29
  And then there were DVD Bible studies and of and a devotional.
• 6:32
  And I remember a five years ago, finally saying, can I do it now,
• 6:37
  you know, and I almost was like Joyful to do it now because it
• 6:41
  has grown Beyond letting go and surrender to this idea of
• 6:45
  holding on faith because I really do believe until we fully
• 6:49
  surrender. We cannot fully trust nor can we
• 6:52
  truly hold on in faith because what we're doing is we're
• 6:55
  holding on in faith for an outcome and we're missing out on
• 6:59
  this beautiful Joy of holding on to God.
• 7:02
  And so, yeah, about five years ago, I felt the go ahead and I'm
• 7:07
  thinking, I mean, The book I wrote it was trust that I saw in
• 7:12
  my research and I'd write those letters LG and TG which stood
• 7:17
  for my working title, letting go and trusting God.
• 7:20
  And so, the message was so book, big, I just thought it would
• 7:23
  come out fully formed and instead God took me on a
• 7:27
  four-year journey of writing, one year to write the proposal
• 7:31
  which is insane. It took forever.
• 7:33
  I'm I'm long I take forever writing books but I usually do
• 7:37
  the proposal quick that And then three years to like get this
• 7:43
  message out because I knew it was so big.
• 7:45
  And I knew that there was so many facets and I didn't want it
• 7:49
  just to be that Band-Aid that we sometimes throw out those right
• 7:53
  phrases that are trite and overused because they're true
• 7:58
  and yet they can feel so empty. When, you know, we're having a
• 8:03
  good day and we say to our friend who's having a hard day
• 8:06
  just trust God, it's like that. Kim Band-Aid but it doesn't
• 8:12
  really build that platform of faith that we need.
• 8:15
  And so that's been my prayer for this book that somehow and I
• 8:19
  know that Justin in one book we couldn't be be begin to tap all
• 8:24
  the different facets or even the different ways that we can
• 8:27
  deepen our trust. But it's my prayer that the holy
• 8:30
  spirit will speak between the lines and between the words that
• 8:35
  message that we each need to hear.
• 8:37
  Yeah. And in hindsight do you You see
• 8:39
  him. Having you just wait because
• 8:43
  there were many experiences and having to trust in him that you
• 8:50
  needed to go through in order to write about it.
• 8:53
  You know, that's a great question Jamie.
• 8:56
  I'm sure that yes it was and and honestly, the book is full of my
• 9:00
  stories of these past 20-some years of learning to trust him
• 9:06
  more. But but I think the immensity
• 9:09
  And the weightiness and importance of the message that
• 9:13
  hasn't changed. If anything is only just grown.
• 9:17
  Like, like I'm sometimes just overwhelmed by the importance of
• 9:23
  this message because what I've come to discover is that, it's
• 9:27
  not as important that we work up the trust or we become
• 9:31
  disciplined Christians who have a deep faith in God.
• 9:35
  No, it's that the eyes of our understanding would be Opened to
• 9:40
  how incredible our God is how trustworthy he is.
• 9:46
  And when we get a glimpse of that I think trust is just
• 9:50
  that's just the natural result. And so yeah these bats expanded
• 9:55
  in my soul definitely and oh my goodness.
• 9:57
  I'm so glad it took longer than I wanted just to come to that
• 10:02
  greater revelation of who he is. Well, it definitely shows.
• 10:07
  I've been reading your book as Speak here.
• 10:10
  And wow, I mean you have covered everything that we can possibly
• 10:16
  face in order to really Embrace trusting and God.
• 10:22
  And so one of the things that you had you had you had two
• 10:28
  sections of Letting Go and holding on and you blew me away
• 10:34
  with this analogy of the Fig leaf, and I've just done.
• 10:39
  Never had somebody point this out before on this perspective.
• 10:45
  And, you know, I've been doing a lot of women's conferences.
• 10:48
  I've been under a lot of teachings and I have not seen
• 10:53
  that analogy and how you did your research on a fig leaf and
• 10:57
  how that even more came had it come to life to us as we were
• 11:03
  reading it. So could you explain to our
• 11:06
  friend here? That's listening the analogy.
• 11:09
  Of the Fig Leaf. Yeah, laying down fig leaves.
• 11:14
  Well, I think it really goes back to this question.
• 11:18
  Where did distrust come from? You know, I mean, when you
• 11:22
  consider how wonderful God is, why don't we just trust him?
• 11:27
  But I think we can trace it. Clear back to the Garden of Eden
• 11:30
  where the enemy came and he's so doubt and suspicion.
• 11:35
  He made Adam and Eve question God's goodness, as well as his
• 11:38
  love. Of and doesn't he try to do that
• 11:41
  to us as well? And as a result, you know, Adam
• 11:44
  and Eve decided. Yeah, we'll take control of our
• 11:48
  lives. And so, they took of the
• 11:50
  forbidden fruit and we all know what happened, they realized
• 11:54
  that they were naked. And so they hid from God and
• 11:56
  they were afraid, and the first thing they did was so fig leaves
• 12:01
  to cover their nakedness and how often even as Christians, even
• 12:06
  though, even though we've been accepted in the Beloved, Even
• 12:09
  though our eternity is certain, we tend to live frightened,
• 12:15
  because we know our inadequacies, we know our sin,
• 12:20
  we know, we're not nearly what we ought to be and so we can
• 12:24
  sell fake leaves and try to cover up our nakedness, try to
• 12:28
  prop up our worth and without realizing it.
• 12:31
  We can begin to trust our fig leaves more than we trust our
• 12:36
  father. And it almost becomes a Layer
• 12:39
  between us in the Lord and if it will just simply come to him and
• 12:44
  go and you know, really that's kind of my testimony.
• 12:47
  All my fig leaves shriveled up and died here.
• 12:50
  We are as much as I tried to get the approval of people and and
• 12:55
  tried to kind of shape shift to be what everybody wanted me to
• 12:59
  be all those figleaves. Just never ever really worked.
• 13:05
  And God brought me to that place and just bringing everything Him
• 13:09
  and see Lord, unless unless you cover my not enough - unless you
• 13:15
  cover my sin, unless you clothed me in the righteousness of
• 13:19
  Christ, I can never be what you want me to be.
• 13:22
  But oh my goodness, I think this is the thing that just blows me
• 13:25
  away about our loving God. If we're not careful, we can
• 13:29
  kind of compartmentalize how we read scripture and we can say oh
• 13:34
  Adam and Eve rebelled and they got kicked out of Eden and we
• 13:37
  completely miss the fact that number one, God clothed in them,
• 13:42
  he shed then innocent the blood of an innocent animal to cover
• 13:46
  their nakedness, foreshadowing, what Jesus did for us, but then
• 13:51
  their his love, followed them out of the garden.
• 13:55
  And kept pursuing them, kept looking for a people to call his
• 13:59
  own kept kept, you know, turning them over to their rebellion and
• 14:04
  then receiving them back when they repented and then sending
• 14:07
  his son as the ultimate. Sacrifice and I believe the key
• 14:12
  back to the Garden is given to us.
• 14:15
  And I believe it's the key of trust that when we really not
• 14:19
  just put our trust in Jesus for our salvation but put our trust
• 14:23
  in God for every aspect of our life.
• 14:26
  We not only come back into that intimate Fellowship of the
• 14:29
  garden but we come back under the umbrella of his provision in
• 14:33
  love. I mean, I just I'm constantly
• 14:36
  blown away at the mercy. See and the love of our God,
• 14:40
  that never stops pursuing us, but we've got to leave the
• 14:45
  borders of distrust and turn our hearts and fully rely on him.
• 14:49
  In order to experience that beautiful security of his love
• 14:54
  and that freedom of not having to hide behind things that are
• 14:56
  going to shrivel up and leave us exposed.
• 14:59
  I write about The Emperor's New Clothes.
• 15:01
  You know sewing the swindler that said will will show you the
• 15:06
  most beautiful clothes in the world and only Leave the wisest
• 15:10
  in your kingdom will be able to see them, but the emperor was
• 15:14
  the fool, putting his hope in a swindler.
• 15:16
  And that's really what we do when we put our hope in the Fig
• 15:19
  leaves of this world. Oh yeah.
• 15:21
  So God I mean and then you have us reflecting like what are
• 15:25
  those fig leaves in our lives. You know, and the real like
• 15:29
  about the Fig Leaf like that. It's kind of rough.
• 15:33
  It's not comfortable and house ends not comfortable, and how it
• 15:37
  shrivels up. If it's not a Guiding to the
• 15:39
  tree and and just how you know it just it was such a Perfect
• 15:45
  Analogy. I could go on and on and then
• 15:47
  you tell us to like what are those areas to let go and you
• 15:52
  really cover so much? And one of them that I really
• 15:56
  love is smashing Idols I think in our culture today it's so
• 16:01
  easy for us to obsess over something.
• 16:06
  Just let it fill up our lives. What are we More of.
• 16:10
  I mean, it's anything, that's kind of, it's taking the place
• 16:13
  of where God should be, right. The more common thing is, you
• 16:17
  know, shopping, you know, having too much wine, drinking too
• 16:22
  much, you know, our, our work money cars, you know, anything
• 16:28
  that's just kind of become something that just overtakes
• 16:33
  our life and really it needs to be God, really filling up all
• 16:39
  all of our lives. And so I really love how you
• 16:42
  touched on that. You also talked about having an
• 16:47
  unoffending able heart and that's something I kind of hear
• 16:51
  over and over again. Could you explain more on that
• 16:57
  how we can step into an unoffending able heart?
• 17:02
  Yeah. Well, you know, I think when
• 17:04
  something happens and someone does something to us It just
• 17:10
  feels like we have no no other option but to get offended to
• 17:16
  get angry. Now here's the deal when
• 17:18
  something happens like that, we really can't stop from feeling
• 17:22
  the heard of that feeling the Betrayal feeling, the wrongness
• 17:26
  of that. So I'm not saying that oh
• 17:29
  nothing ever matters because sometimes it really really
• 17:33
  matters, but it's what we do with it.
• 17:36
  And you know, I talk about the unoffending Heart of Jesus, that
• 17:41
  he and just this revelation of, oh, Lord, what you did on the
• 17:46
  cross. Not only was enough to forgive
• 17:49
  me my sins, but it's enough Grace to enable me to forgive
• 17:55
  the sins of those that are done against me.
• 17:58
  And I think part of the problem part of what makes us struggle
• 18:03
  with forgiveness, is that we really don't believe that God
• 18:07
  can turn it for anything. Good.
• 18:09
  In fact, we secretly believe that they've ruined our lives
• 18:13
  that they have somehow thwarted God's purpose for us.
• 18:16
  So how can I not be offended? You've just ruined my life.
• 18:20
  Right? Right right.
• 18:22
  When we really see our great Redeemer God in fact honestly
• 18:27
  Jamie like that's my favorite name for Jesus.
• 18:29
  He is Our Redeemer, he takes the very worst and he turns it for
• 18:36
  good. God is no one can.
• 18:39
  For God's purposes for our lives.
• 18:42
  Unless we walk away in Rebellion, unless we refuse to
• 18:46
  give God access to that wound in our heart.
• 18:49
  Well yeah. Then that offense is like a
• 18:52
  poison, John bevere calls it, the bait of Satan and all of us
• 18:57
  in and I've watched it over and over and I want to be careful
• 19:00
  because I don't want to dismiss the legitimate pain.
• 19:04
  I mean there are listeners out there that have been betrayed in
• 19:08
  the Best most painful way imaginable the life.
• 19:13
  They thought they were going to have has been totally dismantled
• 19:17
  by the actions of someone else. And so let's not dismiss that.
• 19:22
  Oh my word, this world is so broken and we're falling people
• 19:27
  being hurt by Falling people and hurting other Fallen people as
• 19:30
  well. So Jesus said it's impossible,
• 19:33
  that offense won't come, it's going to happen.
• 19:36
  But what do we do with it? And I think we can look to
• 19:40
  Jesus, who we've got to remember, though.
• 19:43
  He was fully God. He was fully, man, he felt every
• 19:49
  betrayal. He understood what it was like
• 19:52
  to wrestle with just two. How could you do that to me?
• 19:56
  When we ate together in Fellowship, together, like David
• 19:59
  writes in the Psalms he knows betrayal firsthand and yet he
• 20:04
  was able to take that pain to the Lord and I think That it's
• 20:09
  so important that yes this was legitimate and I think this is
• 20:14
  another important thing when we choose to forgive.
• 20:17
  We're not saying that what they did, didn't matter we're just
• 20:21
  taking ourselves. Were resigning from the role of
• 20:24
  judge jury and executioner and in a sense we're putting that
• 20:30
  person out of that situation into the hands of Jesus and
• 20:33
  we're saying you're the only righteous judge you know father
• 20:37
  and and and with the Grace that God provides were able to pray
• 20:42
  the words of Jesus father forgive them for they know not
• 20:45
  what they do but we can even say father, forgive them because
• 20:49
  they know exactly what they did. The same Grace is available and
• 20:54
  as we I call it hammer out, forgiveness, because sometimes
• 20:58
  you do it once, and then all of a sudden, something fresh
• 21:01
  happens and it's there again. So it's that you poised over and
• 21:04
  over over and over to trust God with that situation to Anguish
• 21:09
  our right to have it resolved in the way that we think it should
• 21:13
  be resolved. And instead just saying lord,
• 21:15
  gave me that undefendable. Heart.
• 21:17
  And for me, what? That looks like a lot.
• 21:19
  I've just prayed this prayer. Lord, give me a tough hide and a
• 21:23
  tender heart, you know, so that when those things happen, they
• 21:27
  don't have that wounding ability instead.
• 21:32
  Oh, yeah, it was wrong and it hurt but it bounces off of that.
• 21:37
  Just that unoffending able heart of Jesus that says oh you know
• 21:41
  what? God knows how I love Joseph's
• 21:44
  heart. We talk about Joseph in one of
• 21:47
  the chapters who said you meant it for evil but God used it for
• 21:51
  the saving of many souls and I wonder how many times that
• 21:56
  offense that we think has destroyed our life, might not
• 22:00
  just have the seed of our purpose.
• 22:03
  The seed of something that God wants to do in us first and then
• 22:07
  through us As we just allow him to give us that undefendable
• 22:12
  heart. Yeah, that's so good.
• 22:15
  I mean that takes me back to that story that you wrote about
• 22:18
  your husband, he's a pastor. And in order for you guys to
• 22:24
  move to a different area, he had to resign from that job.
• 22:28
  And so there's a job transition. And if that saying no to him
• 22:34
  working as a pastor at that church, if that didn't happen,
• 22:38
  then you guys will. In a move to that different area
• 22:41
  where both you guys just flourish there and started a
• 22:45
  church yourself, right? It's interesting because that
• 22:48
  transition was not our decision. Hey, yeah.
• 22:53
  It came through a, through an instrument of what felt like
• 22:58
  Injustice and I write in the book that so often that
• 23:03
  Injustice is vehicle's that God uses to get to our own, our next
• 23:08
  assignment. But boy if we're not careful, if
• 23:10
  we don't hammer out that forgiveness, if we don't take
• 23:13
  that pain to the Lord, we become Frozen at that past point of
• 23:18
  pain and everything. Refers back to that, we may be
• 23:21
  living ten years later, but we're still circling that same
• 23:25
  Injustice and yeah, I just think we can't afford, we can't afford
• 23:31
  to hold it because if we'll give it to the Lord then you know, I
• 23:34
  mean Romans 8:28 is true. He works all things together.
• 23:39
  For good to those who love him to those who call is, who are
• 23:42
  called according to his purpose. And so that thing that the enemy
• 23:45
  meant to take you out, could be the very thing that God uses for
• 23:50
  his glory. So good.
• 23:53
  I know, I can relate to our move from Southern California to
• 23:56
  Austin, you know, that wasn't our choice, but it was
• 24:00
  definitely something. I knew God was directing us to
• 24:04
  and something that happened to me a couple years ago.
• 24:09
  Oh, it was a huge disappointment and talk about, you know, having
• 24:13
  those expectations. Yeah, just and you know, the
• 24:16
  disappointment but I can see at the time I couldn't see why it
• 24:21
  was happening, but now, in hindsight, I can see that God,
• 24:26
  like you were saying, was taking me to that next step, right?
• 24:29
  It was just that needed to happen to take me to that next
• 24:32
  step. So, so good.
• 24:34
  Okay, so moving on to that next section, you had your book
• 24:37
  holding on So what have you experienced in your life about
• 24:43
  contentment and how that creates a deeper trust in God?
• 24:47
  Yeah well I you know I just think again when we when we get
• 24:53
  let go and surrender then we're able to hold on to God, you know
• 24:58
  someone has said famously, you know, God can't fill our hands
• 25:02
  if they're full you know? And so we've got to empty our
• 25:05
  hands in order to receive what he has for us.
• 25:09
  But, you know, boy that carrot that the enemy dangles in front
• 25:12
  of us, seeing if you only had that, then you could be happy.
• 25:17
  You know, if your situation was different than you would Thrive.
• 25:21
  And I've just learned especially in the process of hammering out
• 25:27
  trust because it's just like forgiveness, you know, it's not
• 25:30
  just a one-time Choice. It is a recommitment to trust my
• 25:34
  friend, Jody, Dietrich calls it trust, I trust God.
• 25:38
  And then when my Waivers I really trust him so it's just
• 25:43
  that moment by moment decision to trust him and I've just found
• 25:48
  to be able to say and I don't always live here Jamie but be
• 25:52
  able to say Lord my boundaries have fallen in delightful
• 25:56
  places. You know I had a luge ins and
• 26:00
  delusions of grandeur early in Ministry.
• 26:04
  I was pretty sure we would be megachurch pastors.
• 26:07
  We'd see thousands of people 12, the Lord.
• 26:10
  And instead, God has kept us fairly small.
• 26:13
  We serve a beautiful Congregation of about 250 people
• 26:18
  in Montana and just a little town.
• 26:20
  I've never gotten to be a big city girl that I always dreamed
• 26:23
  of and even even though my books have sold a lot.
• 26:29
  I'm still probably the least known author in the universe.
• 26:33
  So you know, I know you're I want to get this right.
• 26:38
  You're Having a merry heart in a Martha world.
• 26:42
  Girl, that went viral. Okay, I when I lived in
• 26:46
  California, I went to Rick. Warren Saddleback Church, Pastor
• 26:51
  Greg warns church, right? And we I mean your book was
• 26:55
  floating everywhere. And that Ministry, I mean I
• 26:59
  can't even count. I mean it was like about
• 27:03
  thousand plus. I mean there was just an
• 27:06
  annoying, the biggest women's ministry, I've Ever experienced
• 27:10
  and you were very popular. Lester Faith.
• 27:14
  Your viral Amos. Everyone was reading it.
• 27:20
  So you may not get in your little town Montana.
• 27:24
  But meanwhile, in California. Everyone's knowing your name.
• 27:28
  Yeah, that's sweet of you. I mean, it isn't that just the
• 27:31
  beauty of Jesus? Because, yeah, that was before I
• 27:34
  had a website. In fact, God didn't allow me to
• 27:37
  have a website, I wasn't on, so, Some media.
• 27:40
  What he did with Mary Hart was completely his.
• 27:44
  And I, and even though I know that, I know he's called me to
• 27:47
  this online space. He keeps challenging me.
• 27:50
  Are you going to do this on your own Joanna?
• 27:53
  Are you just going to pack your lunch and put it in my hands?
• 27:57
  And let me do what I want to do with it and that is so freeing
• 28:02
  to be able to say, This Is The Life you've given me.
• 28:05
  This is, this is the portion you've assigned to me.
• 28:07
  And Lord, let me be. Faithful there.
• 28:10
  Let me be faithful there you. You may have bigger platforms
• 28:13
  for other people. They may have a larger following
• 28:17
  quote unquote, but God me, I'd be faithful with what you've
• 28:20
  assigned to me. And so in that, I think there's
• 28:23
  a sweet contentment because we simply do what he asks and we
• 28:29
  leave the results to him. I've done it the other way Jamie
• 28:32
  and it's miserable and I'm sure I'll do it again but I've just
• 28:37
  felt that so strong. Only during the writing of this
• 28:40
  book because when I couldn't write it without him, I was
• 28:45
  stuck and so dependent on him and now, you know, wanting to
• 28:50
  get the message out there in a world where there's no Christian
• 28:53
  bookstores. And so, how does this even work
• 28:56
  or mostly notebook. Christian bookstores.
• 28:59
  I just keep saying hearing him say, Joanna, just do your part
• 29:03
  and let me do mine. Don't run ahead of me.
• 29:06
  Don't lag behind but don't Believe the lie.
• 29:09
  You have to make this happen. You've put this in my hands now.
• 29:14
  Watch me work and just just cooperate.
• 29:18
  Do what I ask you to do and I'm going to do the rest.
• 29:22
  So good. Okay, I have a stirring in my
• 29:25
  heart that I need to ask you, what is the difference between
• 29:29
  faith and trust? I think.
• 29:32
  Yeah. So many of us are confused by
• 29:35
  it. We don't know.
• 29:36
  We think it's the same I made, you know, or there's a
• 29:39
  difference, but we can't really articulate it.
• 29:41
  Well, I would love to hear from you.
• 29:44
  Yeah, well, that is a great question because when I went
• 29:47
  into this study, I was I thought that there would be some really
• 29:50
  clear delineation. In fact, I was going to write a
• 29:53
  chapter called the vocabulary of Faith because I was just
• 29:56
  certain, I was going to get some really great nuggets, but it
• 29:59
  turns out that the, the word for faith, pistis in, the Greek is
• 30:06
  can be interchangeable with belief.
• 30:08
  Trust Faith. Hope has a different kind of
• 30:12
  word and there are some other little variance but for the most
• 30:18
  part they're interchangeable but I know for me.
• 30:22
  And in my experience of faith, faith is always felt a little
• 30:26
  ethereal. It's kind of like, I have faith
• 30:30
  in God. I'm in the faith.
• 30:32
  You know, by faith, I've been saved, not by works, I know all
• 30:35
  that but I haven't been able to really grab it and paint, it
• 30:38
  blue, you know? And so I have this working
• 30:42
  theory, that works for me. And that's this.
• 30:45
  Faith is a noun but trust is a verb.
• 30:48
  Faith is something I have, but trust is Is something I do, it's
• 30:53
  tangible. I know when I'm trusting God and
• 30:56
  I know when I'm not, it shows up in the things I run to when I'm,
• 31:01
  when I'm freaking out, the, the device that I Seek, You know, if
• 31:06
  my last thought is God, rather than my first thought then, I'm
• 31:10
  probably not trusting him the way I should.
• 31:13
  And so it is. But I also believe it's a
• 31:16
  muscle. It's something that has to be
• 31:18
  exercised. Because I really do feel like
• 31:21
  Are wired for fear much, more than Faith.
• 31:25
  Because of the Fallen, we talked about that because of the Fall
• 31:29
  were wired for fear rather than faith.
• 31:31
  And so I've just been asking God to update my operating system,
• 31:36
  you know, like that. I'm not, I'm not operating from
• 31:41
  just that triggered fear. But instead, when I'm afraid
• 31:45
  that it would trigger trust instead and David writes that in
• 31:49
  dies in Psalm 56 3, When I am afraid, I will trust in you.
• 31:55
  And so I want to put that together because sometimes I
• 31:57
  think we think it's a sin to be afraid.
• 32:00
  No, I mean it's not a sin to be tempted.
• 32:03
  It's what we do with the Temptation that becomes the sin
• 32:07
  and neither is it a sin to be afraid, but what do we do with
• 32:12
  it? And so for me just to bring it
• 32:14
  down to practical matters because boy, I don't know about
• 32:18
  you but I can be doing great one day and then all of a sudden,
• 32:21
  It's like fear just sideswipes me I thought about one of my
• 32:25
  kids or or something comes in the mail or in an email and all
• 32:29
  of a sudden just Panic wants to arise.
• 32:32
  And so what I've just been asking the holy spirit is to
• 32:36
  help me rewire those those trigger mechanisms.
• 32:42
  So rather than triggering Panic, it would trigger trust instead.
• 32:46
  And so, sometimes the only way for me to escape that spiral of
• 32:51
  fear, Here is just to say out loud I Trust You Lord I trust
• 32:57
  you I trust you I trust you and and again trust is in a feeling
• 33:03
  because if we wait until we feel it we may never get around to
• 33:07
  trust. Trust is a choice to put our
• 33:10
  hope in the Lord to look to him. I love that verse.
• 33:14
  They look to him and were radiant, their faces were never
• 33:18
  covered with shame, but that does not come naturally.
• 33:22
  Now, I have to, I have to insert this, because there are some
• 33:25
  people bite by personality that Trust might come easier, or at
• 33:32
  least our concept of Trust, might, come easier than those of
• 33:35
  us who are, might you a little bit more wired for control.
• 33:39
  But I think all of us have those points where yeah, it can
• 33:44
  trigger fear, worry, anger, rage all of the staff.
• 33:48
  God wants to rewire Soul, so that our first response is
• 33:52
  trust, and then bringing that to him to help him, allow him to
• 33:57
  help us work out all of the emotions of it.
• 34:00
  So good. Okay, I like to ask the guests
• 34:03
  at the end to leave a take away. That our friend here can ponder
• 34:09
  on what is something that you can impart to us?
• 34:13
  Well, you know, there's just this little phrase from an
• 34:17
  orthodox prayer. A Telly, Elizabeth Elliott wrote
• 34:20
  that. Just I have not been able to get
• 34:22
  away from and it's really become my my life prayer in these last
• 34:28
  few years. Teach me to treat all that comes
• 34:33
  to me with peace of soul and firm conviction that your will
• 34:39
  governs all. And I'll tell you what, if I can
• 34:43
  understand that then I don't have to struggle with anger and
• 34:47
  unforgiveness. Because no one thoughts God's
• 34:49
  purposes for my life. If I can really understand that
• 34:53
  even the unexpected and The Unexplained and The Unwanted I
• 34:58
  can trust that God has allowed it for a purpose and he knows
• 35:04
  how to work it for my good and I'm just finding that peace of
• 35:08
  soul in just learning to See Him and acknowledge Him in all my
• 35:15
  ways, not leaning on my own understanding.
• 35:18
  But trusting in Him. It's beautiful.
• 35:22
  Thank you so much Joanna and I got to add that I love you have
• 35:28
  a Bible study in the back of the book.
• 35:32
  How cool is that? That's the first time I've
• 35:35
  really seen like a full Bible study.
• 35:37
  So you get the book and then there's some separate thing that
• 35:41
  you can do with your friends. And I know I love leading Bible
• 35:45
  studies and I know this will be such a Good one to do with my
• 35:50
  community. And so I just feel like you get
• 35:53
  a little bonus there, and with the book, so, so good.
• 35:57
  Okay, we /. Yeah.
• 35:59
  Where can people connect with you and get your book?
• 36:03
  Will you bet? Well, you can go to Joanna,
• 36:04
  Weaver books.com or just embracing trust.com takes you
• 36:09
  right to that book page. And speaking of the Bible study,
• 36:12
  we do have a downloadable workbook that you can actually
• 36:15
  use online or print and it The questions as well as space for
• 36:20
  the answer and so you can sign up for that at my website.
• 36:23
  But I do have a video Bible study coming out in December.
• 36:27
  That is a video teaching for each of those ten sessions that
• 36:31
  kind of springboard off of the reading and the Bible study that
• 36:35
  they will be doing with the book and so you can learn more about
• 36:39
  that too. It's not out yet, but it will be
• 36:42
  available for purchase at the website as well.
• 36:44
  And then of course, I'd love to connect with your listeners on.
• 36:48
  Or Instagram at Joanna, Weaver books.
• 36:50
  And and and I have a podcast. So it would be fun to have them.
• 36:55
  Check out the living room with Joanna Weaver as well.
• 36:57
  Yes, and it's so good. I now well great, I'm glad
• 37:01
  you're doing the videos. I know I love I'm more favorable
• 37:06
  to those videos because you get a, I'm a visual learner.
• 37:09
  So I love like watching the women teach and it just I don't
• 37:14
  know. I remember and retain
• 37:15
  information better that way too. Wow, so glad you're doing that
• 37:20
  well, congratulations on everything that God is doing in.
• 37:24
  And through you, it was honored to have you share with us.
• 37:28
  One of the most important things in life trusting in God but also
• 37:33
  the hardest. So thank you for just giving us
• 37:37
  your wisdom that God has given to you to give to us.
• 37:42
  So thanks, it's been an honor and God bless all that you do
• 37:46
  Jamie I just appreciate you. You saying yes to the Lord and
• 37:50
  trusting that he'll take you and this ministry, just exactly
• 37:55
  where he wants you to go. Thank you so much for listening
• 37:59
  today and I trust that God has encouraged you through this
• 38:03
  story. Did you know this podcast is on
• 38:05
  YouTube, hop on there and subscribe and you can see a live
• 38:10
  recording of each episode and for more information on this
• 38:14
  ministry and to access free downloads, please visit my
• 38:18
  website at Jamie Elizabeth.com that's ja yme Elizabeth.com and
• 38:25
  let's connect Beyond this. Just by going to my Instagram
• 38:28
  handle, Jamie Elizabeth she speaks life or Facebook until
• 38:33
  next time my friend. I hope God reveals himself
• 38:35
  through your own life story.