(00:00): Easier said than done. Those are words that always follow things like exercise. Do this, eat this way. Don't be afraid. Easier said than done. You've probably said, I know I have a few times in my life, but fear has always been very real for all us humans. We're afraid of what direction to go. We're afraid of some thing we've even been afraid of someone. What I learned studying neuroscience is it's our brain's way of protecting us, keeping us safe. Our brain's number one job is to keep us safe. And when it doesn't have the data or the experience recorded, that it throws out the fear signals. I've also learned from neuroscience. The good news, my brain's just an Oregon by brain can be trained. Like a computer stuff can be erased and filled with the proper data training exercise. Deliberate attention can change fear into big faith.

(01:09): Welcome to episode 11 of the well versed woman podcast. I'm Renee teller and I'm Theresa Morgan. And we are two perfectly imperfect women sharing our life's experiences in our faith with women. Just like you. Yes. See what we've learned and experienced in life is the love of God. And we know if you stay tuned, you will also experience that love of God, which brings more peace than you ever thought possible. But if you've been listening to us, you know how we start every episode. So go ahead and get ready. Hit the subscribe button if you haven't already so that you can go back and learn from one of those very first episodes about how we start and how we plug in to our God. Our creator, what we do is we sit very still and we close our eyes and we take 20 seconds to just read and open our hearts, our ears, and our minds to what God would have to say to us in this very episode. So get ready. Here we go. And if you're driving, make sure you don't close. Your eyes are 20 seconds. Start right now.

(02:45): [inaudible]

(02:45): There. That's 20 seconds. That is not very much time. And I bet you're feeling better already, but you're going to want to stay tuned today because we're going to talk about how fear can be overcome as our faith grows. What you focus on is what comes to fruition in this episode, Theresa and I are going to discuss how to stay the course, how to stay strong, how to grow your faith. We can change our focus from fear to faith. Can't we

(03:17): That's exactly right. Renee. The incredible opportunity that we have is women of faith is to choose what we're going to focus on day by day. Now I'm not suggesting that we ignore natural circumstances in life. But what I am suggesting is that we move our focus from what we see to what we cannot see in God's word is always bringing us to a place where when we engage our faith in the things that are not seen, he will be certain as we engage our faith in his word to bring about what that word promises and an example that I love is taught in the book of Matthew chapter 14, verses 27 to 31. When Peter actually got out of the boat and he walked on water, it was a miracle because what he did was he changed his focus from being fearful because of the waves and the wind were crashing upon the APOE. But when he saw Jesus in, he heard the word of Christ that said, Peter, come to me. He put his focus off of the wind and the waves and onto the word of God. And that's what we're called to do time and time again,

(04:49): Teresa, I love what you said. When we focus on what we can't see. It's such a oxymoron. Is that what you call it? Focus. You generally think about seeing and focusing with your eyes and you're saying focus on what you can't see. That's such a beautiful thing to remember if you're taking notes and I hope you are just write that down. I know I'm going to focus on what you can't see. Brilliant. It's just brilliant. And talk a little bit more about the story about Peter in the boat. So Peter near and dear to my heart, because that's my husband's name. His personality was so much like my husband's, which is why I, I love, I love stories about Peter. It means rock, right? His name means rock and Peter was a strong, seemingly tough guy, seemingly one of the, uh, parcels or P people chosen by Jesus to walk those days with him who often spoke when he maybe should have kept his mouth quiet again, not to not to blow my Peter in, but you know, he and I realized from my husband, Peter, his heart Peter's heart, like my husband's heart is it's just, it's just that innocent.

(06:17): He just speaks without thinking whatever he, you know, he feels, he thinks. And so Peter, the apostle got himself into some troublesome time, as he did in the story of when Jesus told him to get out of the boat, there was a storm raging on the seas and the apostles were afraid and they had totally forgotten Theresa that they were with the one who created the wind and the seas at wasn't complete control. And so what, what happened? That's exactly,

(06:49): Exactly right. We have to read it.

(06:52): Remember one thing before I go into the story,

(06:54): We have to remember that we're talking about God and he super natural. That's the thing. We are natural people, but we're connected to a supernatural gap. So let's look at this in Matthew chapter 14, verse verse 27, we'll pick up, but immediately Jesus spoke to them saying be of good share. It is that I do not be afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it is you command me to come to you on the water. So how neat was that? Peter really had some courage to just sort of inch out there and say, okay, Lord, if this is you command me in, we can look at the word of God sometimes, and we can do the same thing. You know, God is not dismayed at our lack of faith or at our Lord. Really? I'm going to try this out today. God is not dismayed as that because at least we're trying, right?

(07:58): So let's pick up, uh, and Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it is you command me to come to you on the water. So Jesus said, come in. When Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to Jesus. Wow. So what happened here? Jesus spoke to Peter, take heart, do not be afraid. And how many times does God come to us? How many times in his word do we see? Do not fear I am with you. So Peter got out of the boat. He walked on water because faith hears faith believes and faith acts. So when Peter kept his eyes on Jesus and engaged his faith, the miracle happened. But let's see what happened next. When he got his focus off of the Lord in the Lord's word, verse 30. But when he, that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid.

(08:58): And beginning to sink, he cried out saying, Lord, save me. Could you imagine being in this situation? And we are sometimes today, but let's see in verse 31 and immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him, Oh, you of little faith. Why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. So what can we take from this? Well, many things when Peter looked away and got his eyes on the wind and the sea, right? The natural circumstances, his eyes of faith, or his focus shifted to the eyes of the natural circumstances and surroundings. He doubted and he began sinking. But what happened? Jesus caught him in the thing we always need to remember here today, ladies and gentlemen, because I know there are many gentlemen listening to this podcast. The thing we have to remember is that Jesus will always catch you. And he loves, if you put your baby tall in the CFA faith, he loves that because once you get your baby toe it, and once you experienced the goodness and the faithfulness of God before, you know what you're going to be plunging your whole foot, your feet. And before long, you're going to dive headlong into the sea of faith.

(10:23): Love that. I love that you said faith hears faith, believes faith acts. And I mentioned in the beginning about this need to train our faith. Like we train our brains. I, again, that journey I had with my kidney tumor, I began to train my brain and the fear that it had was not truth. And we talked in other episodes of how Teresa came alongside me and we trained together by reading the scriptures. That's the same training. That was the faith training. That was our way to train our faith. And it's sometimes I get afraid that I don't have big enough faith, but I CA I keep getting reminded. Like you're saying here, Theresa, the focus on what I can't see is really the definition of faith. And we focus on it by doing the things we do meditating on the word, reading the stories of Peter, reading these words in the Bible, where God proves to us over and over again, Jesus will always

(11:43): Catch you. That's exactly right. You know, a few of my anchor scriptures, if you will, one of them is Isaiah 41 10. Listen to what Isaiah 41 10 says, fear. Not for, I am with you, be not dismayed for, I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand boy, during these turbulent times, we really need to keep our eyes, the faith in our focus on Jesus and his word. You know, another one of my anchor scriptures, if you will, is second Timothy one seven, God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power love, and a sound mind. My goodness, Renee, when I was going through a very anxious period in my life years ago, I must have quoted that scripture a million times. I kept muttering to myself, really like the woman with the issue of blood that we've talked about in previous episodes, I muttered to myself in, I would put emphasis on every word of that scripture.

(12:56): The Lord has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power love, and a sound mind. And I would just say over to myself, I have a sound mind, the Holy spirit that resides within me, the power of God resides within me. He will never leave me nor forsake me. He who promised he is faithful. So another one of my anchor scriptures was Romans eight, 28. God is working out all things together for my good. So these are the things that I meditate. And these are the things that I focus on when life around me seems to be turbulent and is tossing me to and fro, and it anchors me. And again, not that I ignore the natural responsibilities of life, but what people of faith do we engage in is saying, okay, this is what is happening, but what is this beautiful, faithful, supernatural God going to do about it? Because I believe with all my heart, we were not meant to walk the earth and live a successful life without the power of God, without the presence of God and without God leading and directing us every step of the way. Wow,

(14:15): Theresa, I've taught a lot of entrepreneurs and my, my favorite words and listening to all the gurus, but the Renee words are consistent focus. So consistency is great. Focus is great. Consistent focus is powerful. And so this is what we need to do daily. These kinds of things we talk about when Theresa mentions that she constantly did this and, and every word in the sentence important, it's that consistency and that zeroing in on those words and what they mean. I'm also a big definition person. I love the meaning of words. So powerful. I also love to train my eyes. I can tell you, I, anybody who knows me well knows that I don't, I don't watch many movies. I don't watch TV for me, for my eyes to see something. It affects me in my, my cells, my, my, my soul. And I protect what I focus on.

(15:32): Both focusing on good and not focusing on things that are not good for me. And we all have to take a look at that for ourselves and how we're made everybody isn't made like me. But those are things that I've had to do. Consistent focus on the words I love. Teresa's comment about her anchor scriptures, and you know what we're going to do for you. We're going to put anchor scriptures this week, the anchor scriptures in the show notes, every episode we put in the show notes, the scriptures that we discussed so that you can print them. I love, I love again to see it. I love to print the piece of paper and put it in a notebook and actually look at it. So you can take these anchor scriptures, put them on your mirror, where you brush your teeth in the morning so that you can actually see them consistently every day. It's amazing what our minds pick up, how amazing these brains are. Even if you didn't have the time that morning to look at them and they're there and your brain subconsciously already goes to those scriptures. I love that Theresa. So in keeping with this idea of how do we adjust our focus from fear to faith? It's this consistency on these words, this meditating on the words, what's another thing we can do, Theresa.

(17:00): That's exactly right. And I love when you say, you know, where are your eyes focused? I'm going to just sneak in another scripture here about where our eyes are focused. Isaiah 26 three says, Jesus promises to keep us in. Perfect peace has our eyes are fixed on him because our eyes are fixed on his word. So how do we keep ourselves in a pasture of faith? Well, as we have mentioned, Renee, we meditate in the word, right? Our scripture of all times that, that this podcast focuses on is Romans 10, 17. They've comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So we, I read the word daily. I confess the word off and I listened to praise and worship music in boy, before long, I am in a posture of faith, spirit, soul, and body. The second thing we can do is first fess alone, aliens chapter five verse 17, beckons us to do is pray without ceasing giving.

(18:02): Thanks to the Lord. You know, prayer is something that is so essential to person's life. A person of faith. If you're building your faith, praying is your Spirit's food. If you will, as you're communing with God, this definitely stirs up faith. Philippians chapter four, verses six through eight, says be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. And the peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ. Jesus, wow. Be anxious for nothing but pray and everything, you know, in the Greek. This actually says that when you pray that God's peace, that passes understanding will Mount Garrison about your heart in your mind. And isn't that what we're striving for today, especially in these very turbulent, uneasy times. Okay.

(19:03): Question. And I, and I love the last thing that we talk about in terms of get shifting. Our focus from fear to faith is developing a community, just having people around you. You know, two things I've mentioned before that my sister Barbara and I opened a wellness center way back in 1999, seems like forever ago. And that became a community for people, for weight loss. And all these people would come that had tried everything Theresa for weight loss. But because they had that community, that fellowship with others, they had support it. It became easier. They were excited. It was fun. This is the same way. This is why this podcast exists. This is fellowship with others because we do have a Facebook community that you can get in and chat with us and comment and ask questions. And if you go to Facebook, it's well-versed woman surprise, surprise.

(20:08): So, so as to join that well-versed woman community, but it's surrounding yourself with those people. We were not made on this earth to go it alone. And I love a scripture that we put on the wall. Theresa. We wrote a lot of scriptures on the wall at the wellness center, but in the room where we did our group exercise was the scripture from Philippians four, verse eight, finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are, noble, whatever things are, just, whatever things are, pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things of a good report, if there is any virtue. And if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things, it ties back to my idea of what movies I watch. The things I allow to pour into my mind are Disney or love stories or things that uplift me. And this is what the scripture saying, whatever things are, lovely, whatever things are true, whatever things are pure. Think on these things, consistent focus, do it with the community around you. And that's a home rod. That's a recipe for success.

(21:27): Absolutely correct. You know, some of you listening might be thinking, yeah, but you know, you guys are women of faith. And boy you've walked with the Lord for years. And, but I have to, I have to be honest. Fear still comes knocking at my door. And when it does sometimes, and depending on the circumstance that I'm in, I will call Renee. I will call other women of faith. And I will say, I'm feeling fear in when they speak the scriptures. Back to me, it is like something supernaturally comes in and pierces the fearful darkness. And I again can come back into a place of faith. So exactly what you're saying, Renee, we need one another. Um, God never meant us to walk the earth alone. Um, as a matter of fact, in the book of Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25, God encourages us to fellowship with one another. He says, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, but exhort one another, which means encourage one another so much as you see the day approaching. So we have to be in constant communication and fellowship with one another, in order to live this faith filled life in order to live a successful life, the life that God meant us to live so

(22:49): True and Theresa and I call each other prayer partners. So you can actually have the community and then have one special person that you pray with each other to do exactly what Theresa just said. And in fact, you're going to want to stay too next time, because we are actually going to do an episode on how to go about praying, how to go about what we sometimes call praying the scriptures, inserting your name. So it will be helpful for you to listen exactly how to go about praying, because I know I'm sure it's still confusing. We learn things Theresa and I every single day. You know, they say the journey is the destination. There is no finish line when you're trying to be perfect in Christ. As we say, there is no finish line. So state two next week, remember we are still giving away well versed woman journals.

(23:53): They're beautiful ways to jot down those notes. They're small enough, easy enough to fit in your purse to the first 100 that subscribe rate and review this podcast. We also want you to join our Facebook community, and don't forget to download the show notes. You do that by scrolling down on your favorite podcast episode, click, you'll see the word details you click on that. You scroll down and get the links for the show notes. They're going to help you immensely to print them out and put them on your mirror. So thank you again and Theresa our favorite verse for the well-versed woman podcast. Absolutely Romans 10 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Amen. Amen. Love you. See you soon.