Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 582 | Conversations - Hope in the Wilderness

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582 | Conversations - Hope in the Wilderness · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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  She's a happy girl. Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Woman at the Well.
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  Ministries podcast with Kimberly Miller, where we believe that every man,
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  woman, 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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  or 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 Kimberly Miller and Erika Close in a conversation as we walk with Jesus.
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  In today's conversation, we are chatting about what it means in our daily lives
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  that God sees us and He hears us. Amen.
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  Well, thank you, everyone, for joining us. I'm Erika Close, and I'm here with Kimberly Miller.
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  Hello. Thank you for spending this time with us as we discuss God sees and hears you. Yeah.
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  So if you are listening, we are following up on Monday's podcast.
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  So if you listen to Monday's podcast, it was number 581 and it was called God
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  Sees You and He Hears You.
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  And there were so many points in that podcast that I wanted to just dig a little deeper into.
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  So we are going to do that today.
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  So just for a little bit of a refresher about that podcast.
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  The podcast centered around the account of Sarah and Hagar and Abraham and how
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  Sarah was really just trying to help God along.
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  She felt she had to do that. She was impatient. She was impatient.
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  She heard the promise, and she wanted to speed up the timing of God's promise.
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  And in doing so, she enlisted her handmaiden, Hagar, to have a child with her
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  husband, Abraham, and that caused a whole number of consequences, right?
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  For every action, there's a reaction, and we can't ever expect an action to not have a consequence.
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  And not only a consequence for yourself, but Sarah's decision had consequences of...
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  Big proportion that were negative for Abraham and Hagar as well.
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  Yeah. And the child Ishmael.
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  Absolutely. We don't live in a silo. No. And the reality is,
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  is we can trace that, those consequences to today.
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  Yes. Those consequences continue to this day. Right.
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  But in that account where the podcast on Monday landed was with Hagar in the wilderness.
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  And one of the things that I just think is so important is that there's hope
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  when we find ourselves in the wilderness.
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  If you all want to hop into, I think it's Genesis chapter 16,
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  verses 11 through 13, you can
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  read a bit of this account. But I think we can land just in that truth.
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  There is hope in the wilderness.
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  And what we're trying to figure out is what does that look like?
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  What does the wilderness look like for us?
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  Thankfully, I don't think many of us are actually sitting in a desert.
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  Not a physical desert, but I think plenty of us are sitting in a desert of productivity
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  and fruitfulness where we don't have those two things.
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  We are estranged from our walk with God.
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  We are not being very productive because.
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  And if the truth be told, we feel distant. I think that's a really important
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  point right there, that we feel distant from God.
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  And we can feel distant from God. We can feel distant from His Word.
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  We can feel distant from God's people.
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  We can sometimes feel distant from people that may not know God,
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  but we don't know how to get them any closer because we ourselves are in a place where we can do that.
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  And He's the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. and he changes not.
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  And he's standing there knocking on your heart's door. So if you're feeling distant, it isn't him.
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  You've moved from the door, right? He is the door and you have moved from it.
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  But the amazing thing about God is, is you can't outgive him.
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  You can't go beyond his reach of forgiveness.
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  And if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse
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  us from all unrighteousness.
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  And if you take one step towards him, he's going to come flying at you because
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  if you draw a nod to him, he'll draw a nod to you. What a promise. What a promise.
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  I'm wondering, you know, for so many of us, it may not, we may not even understand
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  when we're in the wilderness.
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  You know, we may think we're going along what seems like we're going along just
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  fine, but there are probably things occurring that would give us some clues
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  that we're in the wilderness.
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  There's definitely things that
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  occur along the way that make you end up in the wilderness. Like what?
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  There are distractions in your life. So you can, one, get your priorities skewed,
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  in which case you're not making enough time to study the Word of God.
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  And we're told in 2 Timothy 2.15 that we are to do that.
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  We can look at,
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  for our help from somewhere other than the Lord.
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  And he said that you should have no other gods before me. And he said,
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  I am the way, the truth, and the life.
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  And no man cometh unto the Father but by me. So if you need help, come to him.
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  We can dabble in sin, which removes us from that position that we had.
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  It does not keep us from his love. But the psalmist David tells us that he doesn't
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  hear the prayers of those who have iniquity in their heart.
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  We separate ourselves not from the love of God, but from the presence of God
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  because he can't look upon sin.
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  We have to ask for forgiveness that he can wash that sin so we can sit in right standing with him.
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  So these distractions are what leads us to a place of far distance from the Lord.
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  I really like that. You know, one of the things I'm thinking about is clues
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  that we might have when all of those things have happened.
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  Clues to say, hey, listen, you're not where you're supposed to be.
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  Like you're in the wilderness.
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  And I think so often we seek out those types of sin that you just mentioned
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  when we're discontent, right?
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  When we have this feeling of discontentment and we're trying to fill that contentment
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  on our own, or when we are anxious and we're seeking to relieve that anxiety
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  in a way that we shouldn't perhaps.
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  And I think sometimes too, we even could have a sense of loneliness,
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  even like in a crowd, like just this not, just knowing that there's something,
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  missing. We can know when we're in the wilderness.
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  And I think the Holy Spirit will convict you. Yeah.
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  He will let you know that you need to repent. You know, repent, you viper.
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  And get back out of the wilderness. Right.
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  And I think, you know, we, we, we joke about repenting, but it's not a joke.
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  It's not a joke. Right. It's not a joke.
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  It's, it's realizing that where you are is, is not where you're supposed to be.
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  And it's your actions that have gotten you there.
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  And that's not to say, you know, there can be events in people's lives that
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  are truly tragic, that are hurtful, that cause great pain,
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  But there is always a choice as to what we do when that occurs, where we run.
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  It rains on the just and the unjust. It's going to happen.
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  And not everything that happens in your life is a result of something negative
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  you did or something wrong.
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  There are things I think we do bring into our lives, but there are plenty of
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  things that don't. And you make such an amazing point.
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  It's about how we embrace that. Right.
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  You know, is God only wonderful in your mind and heart when everything's going great?
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  That's not trust. That's not a true relationship.
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  You got to love him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength,
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  regardless of what your circumstances. You can't have circumstantial love.
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  He doesn't. He has unconditional love.
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  Amen. Since you just mentioned God's unconditional love.
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  Let's go on to sort of one of the next big ideas that came out in Monday's podcast,
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  and that was that God seeks out the brokenhearted.
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  Hagar was brokenhearted in the wilderness, and what a merciful God.
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  He went to her. He went to her.
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  You talk about how the Bible says that God is knocking on our heart's door.
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  And we often talk about that in the context of salvation, right?
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  That initial salvation.
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  But even in those times when we are saved and yet downhearted, He is still knocking.
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  He always wants to be close.
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  We live in the world. And so the world gets on us.
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  I think a lot of the whole washing of their feet in the Old Testament,
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  not just in the upper room, but that process was to get the dust of the ground off their feet.
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  I think every day we need to dust the world off of our feet.
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  We live in the world, but we don't need to be of the world.
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  And that's a difference. And he says that if we are friends with the world, we're enemies with God.
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  And we need to live a life that's intent and hard is to be in the will of God,
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  realizing that sometimes we're going to veer left or right of it,
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  but there'll be a conviction.
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  There'll be a need to move forward. There'll be repentance. We don't like take
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  up residence in the sinful thing.
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  I love that not taking a residence in the
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  sinful thing and he he's
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  always trying to ensure that doesn't happen he's always
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  between you and the wrong choice right and so it's our choice as to what we're
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  going to listen to joshua said choose you this day whom you will serve as for
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  me in my house we will serve the lord well every day gotta choose it he says
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  abstain from all appearance of evil. He says, pray without ceasing.
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  We have all that we need pertaining to godliness, we are told in 1 Peter.
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  So we have all that we need. It's just we don't always employ any of it.
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  And it's always there. And you talk about employing it.
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  What we're employing is it's like you're activating the presence of God in your life, right?
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  It's listening to the Holy Spirit, right who it
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  dwells in your heart it's not shoving it down right
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  but listening to him as he's speaking and then following and and making all
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  of those choices that you just talked about walking the christian life isn't
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  a trend or a fad or something you do on a high right.
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  Those things will all fade. It is a day-to-day choice to deny yourself and pick
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  up your cross and follow Him.
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  So what would your advice be if we have a listener who really is in a place
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  that they would consider themselves to be brokenhearted?
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  What does that first step look like?
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  I honestly would say, pick up your Bible, get yourself by yourself,
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  read the 23rd Psalm, and pour your heart out to the Lord. That's what I would do.
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  Because once you realize He's your shepherd.
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  And everything else. And if his people bother you, he prepares a table in front
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  of your enemies. And that's between you and them. And they want what you have.
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  And he leads you to that place of still waters where he's providing what you
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  need and he's providing the rest.
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  And he says, surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life.
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  It's the perfect place to go when you're brokenhearted.
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  But it starts with an understanding in your heart. My help cometh from the Lord.
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  That's really the picking up the Bible, the beginning to pray,
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  all stems from I know Jesus loves me and he's going to take care of me.
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  Trusting in the Lord. But if you have a tendency to have those issues or you're
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  deep into that, you know, look up some, like Proverbs 3, 5 through 7,
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  where you trust in the Lord.
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  Philippians 4, 6, and 7, to be anxious for nothing.
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  Jeremiah 33, 3, call unto the Lord and he will answer thee.
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  Matthew 7, 7, ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find,
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  knock and it shall be opened unto you.
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  Those are just a few. You know, with Jeremiah 29, 11, we know because we talk about the plans.
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  But 13 says that you'll find him when you seek him with your whole heart.
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  These are promises. These are guarantees.
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  The word of God and perusing through it.
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  That's where it's at. But those verses will certainly get you to start with prayer and Psalms 23.
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  The last thing that you talked about in your message on Monday was about how
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  God walked Hagar back from the wilderness.
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  And I think it's amazing. You know, we talked about how he seeks us out,
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  but he doesn't just seek us out and meet us in our brokenhearted place.
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  He then walks us back to where he wants us to be. And he changes us with his life-giving essence.
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  If you think about John chapter 4, I mean, the woman was brokenhearted.
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  And when she gets to the well, he's already there.
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  He put himself in harm's way. He had to explain himself to his disciples, but he's waiting there.
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  But she comes with an empty vessel.
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  She was empty. She was empty, but she come to get water empty.
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  So she comes to the well ready to receive.
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  And that's important. We have to come to the well ready to receive.
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  But I want you to just for a moment recall what happens.
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  He meets her where she is, and he speaks on a level she can understand.
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  He speaks about the living water. She gets water, speaks about the living water.
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  And he explains, if you take of this water, you'll never thirst again.
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  But what you see in this passage of Scripture is that she is completely transformed.
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  And she leaves John chapter 4, verse 29, with, Come see a man who told me all
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  things ever I did is not this, the Christ.
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  Hagar is in the wilderness, but she didn't live in the wilderness.
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  He comes to get the woman. He comes to get Hagar.
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  He's coming to get you, but you have to receive.
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  Hagar recognized he was the God who sees her.
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  She says, I looked upon he who sees me. That was a recognition of who he was.
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  The woman at the well says, come
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  see a man who told me all things ever and not. Is not this the Christ?
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  She was so, you know, you talked about when we, that first step was prayer and pouring out your heart.
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  When the woman at the well came, she had such an honest conversation with Jesus.
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  I mean, he laid it out, right? He laid out all that she had done,
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  everything of who she was, right? He forced her to be really honest about what was going on.
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  But not in condemnation. Not in condemnation.
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  And that was the best thing.
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  It was so—I just love that it was just so honest.
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  Sometimes I think we think we can hide things from the Lord, and there is no way.
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  There was such realness in both of those accounts.
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  There's therefore now no more condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
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  And Jesus tells her who she is so she knows, I'm waiting here for you.
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  Put myself in danger, and I know you.
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  So that honest love, that complete acceptance, strips away pretense. Complete acceptance.
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  Hagar had complete acceptance.
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  I saw the God who sees me. Amen.
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  And if we could get ourselves in touch with our faith.
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  In such a way that we can see the God who sees me, everything else falls off.
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  Jesus loves me, this I know. And when we do that, it's a short walk back.
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  I think he carries you. Right back from the wilderness.
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  There's something to be said for that whole footprints in the sand business.
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  I think he carries you. It's truth. And he's always been one.
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  He come. to Mary because she was the one broken at the grave.
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  He spoke to Mary and Martha in such loving manner because they were broken.
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  Jesus loves the brokenhearted. Amen. Because brokenness dissipates all pride.
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  Amen. I think we can end there. There's hope in the wilderness.
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  He's the light. And He is going to always seek out the brokenhearted.
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  And most importantly, He will walk us back from our wilderness.
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  He is always the answer. Amen.
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  Remember, 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. We pray today's message has been a blessing.
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