The joy of this season is overwhelming… Even in years that were “easier” than 2020, we all wish and hope that the spirit of Christmas could last all year long.
This episode discusses how to live in joy and contentment regardless of the circumstances around us.
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Things We Cover in this Episode:
- Simple ways to find joy
- Scriptures for the New Year
- AND SO MUCH MORE…
Here is a full transcription of Episode #031- Simple ways to find joy (Please excuse any typos or punctuation errors. This transcription was auto-generated!)
Speaker 1 (00:00): Merry Christmas and almost happy new year. This is a great week where we celebrate and we're so full of joy and happiness. I love this week. And if you listened last week, I started with a song and I feel that same, the music of this season is so beautiful. You know, in 17, 19 joy to the world was written 17, 19 joy to the world. The Lord has come let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare him room and heaven and nature saying joy to the world, the savior reigns. If you want that joy and contentment to last a whole year through and even forever, then you want to stay tuned.
Speaker 2 (01:02): Welcome to episode 30, one of the well-versed woman podcast, I'm Renee teller and I'm Theresa Morgan, Renee. And I are two perfectly imperfect women who have a heart to share our faith and our life's journeys with you. Yes, and our faith is all about the love of God and how we can trust him. And if you stay tuned, I promise you're going to learn to trust him as well and love him deeply. But before we get started, we start every episode being still quieting our minds so that we can actually hear from our creator so we can plug it. So we want to open our eyes, our ears, and mostly our hearts to what he would say today. I want to take 20 seconds. We're going to breathe some slow, deep breaths and just be still our 20 seconds starts right now.
Speaker 3 (02:16): That's it.
Speaker 2 (02:17): That's 20 seconds. And
Speaker 1 (02:19): I would encourage you like I do every week to grow that, make that a priority in the year to come before your feet even hit the ground in the morning. Think about being still and asking God to direct every step. Once your feet hit the ground from that bad, because that joined contentment that we feel so profoundly this time of year can last all year long. It truly can. And that's not to say we're living in Disneyland all year long because we do come upon difficult times as evidenced by 2020. Right? But it can truly permeate your body and give you joy and contentment in the midst of it all had Teresa,
Speaker 4 (03:06): Absolutely Renee, you know, as I was thinking about this episode today, I really realized that God wants us to best. We can live in a state of joy in contentment in him. And if we make the decision in our hearts and in our minds, if we choose to shift our focus off of ourselves, off of what is going on in the world in shifted onto him, who he is, what he represents, the power and the majesty that belongs to him and him only that transforms us and keeps us into that place of joy in contentment. You know, there's so much that neurologists and other others in that profession have to say about the chemistry of our body and what happens when we shift into a state of Thanksgiving. And that's what today's episode is going to be about so that we can live in this place of joy. That is rightfully ours as Christians.
Speaker 1 (04:13): My gosh, Theresa. That's so true. Those two things you said, I hope you can hear it. You know, me, you, all of us focus. You know, what we focus on becomes reality. It's so, so true. And the neuroscience, like I've said before that I learned during my tumor journey was incredible so much so that I would love to go back and study it near diversity neuroscience because it's only since the nineties. So certainly after I got out of school, that science has proven with these MRIs and pet scans, what our brains are actually doing and the magnificence of what we think about Theresa. You know, the Bible actually says Teresa as a man thinketh in his heart. So he becomes
Speaker 4 (05:11): So true. And when you think about it, no pun intended here, you know, God's word is true. I love the reverse that could come alongside that. Renee Proverbs 1722 says a Merry heart does good like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. I know in my life that if I'm down about something, if I'm thinking about something and I don't have the answer, there is nothing I can do. It's not within the circle of my control. You know, they could really put a damper on my heart and my mind, my mood of the day. And we know that our behavior stems from the mood of the day and what we've been thinking and the emotions that carrying. So when I choose to shift that onto the truths of God's word in, for instance, Romans eight 28, one of my favorite scriptures, you know, God is working out all things together for my good, when I can shift my thoughts, my patterns of thinking back to the word in the truths of the word, the Holy spirit dwelling within me takes hold of that and brings me back into my rightful place of peace and faith and joy.
Speaker 4 (06:30): If I could remind all of us that as a Christians, Romans chapter eight, verse 11 says, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, through his spirit who dwells in you. I love Christianity because it's in part the word, but the word is powerful. And it's also the Holy spirit that moves within the word that gives that that energizes in is the basis for our faith. And then the Holy spirit moves in, reminds us what is our inheritance as Christians in Jesus, Galatians chapter five verse 22 says the fruit of the spirit is love. Joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So it's in us. We just have to pull it up by faith and the Holy spirit will help us.
Speaker 1 (07:29): Oh, so true. I think about the, the Proverbs verse, you just read a Merry heart does good, like medicine Theresa. When I make, try to make sense, as my left brain always does. Think about the comedians in our life. Just that alone, forget neuroscience. Don't you often wonder they all seem to live so long, right? They all seem Don Rickles. I mean, was he a hundred something? And Bob hope like they lived long lives. I find because they laughed so much. And in fact, one of my goals for 2021 is going to be more laughter in my life, you know, to, to get out of my seriousness and just bring that laughter more constantly into my life. Like things like that are, you know, change everything. And like you said, being in the word, uh, I can't stress it enough on, you know, what are we all doing to be in the word to focus on these beautiful words in the Bible? It's um, it's just incredible. Like, like we started with as a man thinketh, that's something, I think a lot of people have heard as a cliche or whatnot and not even knowing that it came from the Bible. So many of the beautiful truths that the world just speaks are from the, from the word, from the beginning that people grasped onto and passed on generation to generation. You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (09:10): Absolutely. Renee that's so correct. And there's another scripture which I love Proverbs chapter four, verse 23 says, guard your heart with all diligence for, from it flow the issues of life. So we're not suggesting that we hide our head in the sand and we don't pay attention to life's realistic details. What we are suggesting is that we look at those details and we bring them to God. It's a constant relationship. Christianity is that relationship that says, okay, here's my position in life. These are the challenges. These are the joys in I myself. Regardless if it's a challenge or a joy, I like to bring it to the Lord in celebrate the joys with him giving thanks. Right? So that's now activating that joyful chemistry, or I bring him challenges, knowing that he loves me knowing that he's all powerful. He's all intelligent. He's everywhere in time at once knowing, because he loves me.
Speaker 4 (10:24): He is going to work those details out together for my good in Renee and I, you, you and I could, you know, talk for a very long time about how we've seen something in the word. We stand in faith for it. And we watch God move sometimes in ways that we'd never fathom. When we express the prayer father, this is broken, please fix it. And he comes in, we allow him to move like only he can. And wow. You know, the smallness of my brain could not. Sathan the amazing things he wanted to do from that simple prayer because he always brings us to victory.
Speaker 1 (11:14): Teresa. He always brings us to victory is so true. And so key in my life. I've learned to thank him for the challenges, not just thank him for the, what we term, you know, great things that happen because I've learned that he always is working on my behalf. We talked about that last week, by the way, we talked about this spirit working on our behalf, whether we're awake, asleep or whatnot. So go back and listen to that episode, subscribe to this channel. So you remember to do that because I've seen that because I've seen that evidence of him working on my behalf, even through the difficult times, Theresa, even through our cancer journeys, what beautiful things came from that, what beautiful things came from my mom's, my mom's death from cancer. It's just so reassuring that, giving him thanks. Because when you trust him, when we put our trust in him, like we have Teresa, we know that he's working all things together for good. And so what happens? It's that? It's not that we rejoice in the difficult times. They're tough and they're difficult, but I know when I go in there and I see that, I say, I see you're putting me in this Valley Lord, okay, you gotta be with me. Cause I don't think I'm strong enough to handle this, but I know great things are going to come from it. I know great things are going to come from it. And I'm, and I'm
Speaker 4 (12:54): Grateful. Absolutely. And the scripture that Renee is referring to is first Thessalonians five 18, which says give thanks in every circumstance. You know, it's not that God is bringing in tragedy. It doesn't say give thanks for the tragedy. It says in the tragedy, in the circumstance we're giving, thanks. And again, it's bringing our focus and our attention off of, okay, I'm in this situation. It's not great, but God I'm giving. Thanks knowing that you are going to move in that I am more than a conqueror through you. Who loved me, that you always bring me the victory and wow, what a shift in attitude. What a shift that I can come back to a place of contentment, a place of joy, knowing that he is working on this on my behalf, and you can help us get into a place of excitement, like, you know, in the throws and in the trenches of things that look dark, God is moving in.
Speaker 4 (14:00): It's he will bring it to, to victory, not only for myself, but others in the, in the situation. I love the scripture. First, Peter chapter five, verses six and seven. It says, therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him for, he cares for you. Wow. You know this broadcast, we talk about so many scriptures. God is love because of his enduring love for which he loved us. He gave his son John three 16, God. So loved the world. He gave why? I think if we could highlight all of the scriptures with the word, given it, that's our God. And he gives and he gives and he gives in a God that gives out of a place of wow. Could there be anything more impactful in our lives today?
Speaker 1 (14:56): So to trace, I think in our beginning episodes, we talked so much about God is love. That is who he is. God, doesn't love. He is love. Right? And so he's the source. And in the beginning, when we say let's plug into the creator, let's be still, let's open our eyes to see our ears, to hear and our hearts, to feel the depth and breadth and width of his love. And that's what we need to do and start every day with. But it also, I also love the part in some 73, 26, my flesh and my heart fail. We will fail where human he created us. He knows that he knows that about us, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. It's it's uh, just always coming back to the simplicity of that. And remembering as we again started this in 2020 in this difficult year, we started the well-versed woman, Theresa that the simple truth is we're developing a relationship with a God, an all beautiful, all loving, spiritual God. And in order to do that, there's some, some things on our part and Theresa, we talk about that a lot. It's a two way street, as we say, it's a relationship it's a back and forth. And so developing that constant back and forth is what grows and deepens the love. Just like in any relationship, right? Just like in our, our spouses, our family, our children, Teresa and I, it's a back and forth. It's a give and take.
Speaker 4 (16:53): Absolutely. And I love Renee. When you said developing that relationship because developing a relationship is developing trust and trust is the basis of our faith. If we look at the Greek language, uh, that talks about the word faith, it means leaning into confidently, pressing into who got is. I love the example that is in the gospels, where a woman with an issue of blood, a sickness, she pressed through the crowds. She reached out and touched the hem of Jesus' garment in that is a beautiful demonstration of what we do on a daily basis. We reach out our faith to touch him here in this physical realm, which we call life in. He responds faith, causes him to respond. Just like the beautiful response that came from the hem of his Carmen. When the woman that was sick reached out. And I love it because Jesus says, who touched me, right?
Speaker 4 (18:05): And if the end of that situation, her faith had made her whole healing power came from Jesus and her issue of blood dried up the Bible says in, she was made whole. So we go to him, the fountain of love, right? The fountain of relationship, we go to him day in, day out, moment by moment and say, father, we're reaching out through our faith, touching you in the realm in which we live. And we thank you that you always hear us. You know, Renee, when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, I love what he said to his father. When he prayed, before he raised Lazarus, he said, father, I thank you. You always hear me. I love that. In some times I proceed my prayer with father. I thank you. I know you always hear me. And I know you always move on my behalf because you love me. And this is the promises that you've given us, that you will move in. God never breaks his promise.
Speaker 1 (19:15): That's so great, Tracy, because that sums up pretty much everything. We're talking about. That simple prayer that you said, I thank you, Lord. You always hear me. It's that gratitude. It's thanking him right? When we pray and then letting him know that we trust that he always hears us. It's so beautiful. And I think as the new year comes upon us, we should all think about what am I going to focus on this year? What am I am I going to focus on my relationship with God? And if so, how do I go about that? And what we've summed up even just in this episode, LBL, not in all the episodes all year long is to be in the word. So if we want to grow a relationship, what do we focus on the word of God? Right? We want to be in the word.
Speaker 1 (20:14): We want to continue to find ways. Besides this once a week podcast, to be in the word, we want to have a spirit of thankfulness and gratitude. And for me, as I said, I want to focus a little more on laughter because it's, it's part of what God wants for us. I'm actually reading a book about how Jesus, how fun Jesus was Theresa. And we'll maybe we'll share that in a future episode, but that's important to me. And to reach out, to constantly be reaching out to God, to see him move, to be open with our eyes, to be open with our ears and, and open with our heart.
Speaker 4 (21:00): Absolutely. That's correct. As you're talking so beautifully, Renee, I'm thinking of children that come to their, you know, their father or their mother, you know, they don't come with anxious worries. They come simply knowing from previous experience, knowing perhaps the word of the father, the mother that, Hey, you know, we're going to go for ice cream later. So they come with a joyful heart with joyful expectation, knowing that mom and dad's word that preceded that one experience that proved out to be true will always prove out to be true, how much more the, the God that we serve and that we do relationship with here in this world. You know, faith calls to remember it's who God is, all that God has done in all that he is going to do in the future. On our behalf. I love what the Psalmist writes in Psalm 28, verse seven.
Speaker 4 (21:59): And I think we'll close with this scripture today. It's such a beautiful scripture, which we're, um, you know, closing 2020 we're ushering in 2021. The Psalmist said this, the Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusted in him. And I am helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoices in with my song. I will praise him. I carry a song in my heart daily, knowing who God is, knowing the promises of his word that I can stand on in knowing the faithfulness of the Holy spirit that interacts with me on a daily basis. And the basis of all of this is his love for me.
Speaker 1 (22:42): Cool. So cool that we closed with song when we're in a season of songs that so many of us remember, and we encourage you to look into songs of worship that worship God, even the Christmas songs that I tend to sick all year long, because those are songs to him and praise to him. And it's a, it's a beautiful, easy way to remember him all, all day long, right? She's a,
Speaker 4 (23:12): And of course, Renee, that feeds right into the foundational scripture that we know in love. And that we say every week at the end of our program, Romans 10, 17 faith comes right
Speaker 1 (23:26): By hearing and hearing by the word of God, happy new year, everyone happy new year. Thanks for listening. We're so glad you tuned in. We are closing out this year 2020 and excited about 2021 as we'll this
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Speaker 5 (24:34): Just recited
Speaker 2 (24:36): Because it's a great scripture. I assure us all into 2021 and focus on the word of God. Thanks so much.
Speaker 5 (24:47): We love you.