Believe & Speak

For the past three weeks, I’ve been reading from The Gospel of Luke in honor of Christmas. I started by sharing the prequel to the beloved Christmas story, and I’ll end by reading about what happened when Jesus was 8 days old—the day Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple to present their newborn to the Lord. That was the day they met Simeon.

As I look over the top of the computer screen in my office, I see a picture hanging on the wall of Simeon grinning in wonder at the babe cradled in his arms. The picture of Simeon as he literally holds the promise of God hangs between two graphics. One says Faith… is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see (Hebrews 11:1). The other says Believe… all things are possible if you believe. (Mark 9:23).

I strategically hung those reminders where I can see them at my writing desk so that I, like Simeon, will hold on to God’s promises, no matter how long I must wait.

I look at that gray-haired old man and say to myself… well, I’m not as old as Simeon, so it’s not too late for God.

Longing to Belong: Discovering the Joy of Acceptance is now available for purchase on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Walmart.com, Booksamillion.com and Christianbook.com. It’s also available for download to your Kindle or from the Apple store for your iBooks app. Or visit my website to purchase a copy at shawnamariebryant.com

This week's scripture: Luke 2:21-39

The year 2020 will not go down in the history books as a year marked by peace and good will toward men. Even now, I see images in my mind’s eye of the unrest and anger that swept America this year.

But the angels promised peace and good will at Jesus’s birth. The promise of peace was also proclaimed at the end of Jesus’s life, when he told his disciples: “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” (John 14:27 NLT)

Jesus is the prince of peace. Focus on him, and he will keep you in perfect peace—regardless of your circumstances.

Longing to Belong: Discovering the Joy of Acceptance is now available for purchase on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Walmart.com, Booksamillion.com and Christianbook.com. It’s also available for download to your Kindle or from the Apple store for your iBooks app. Or visit my website to purchase a copy at shawnamariebryant.com

This week's scripture: Luke 2:1-20

Christmas is almost here! My two-year-old granddaughter has been counting down the days, filled with expectation. In light of the coming holiday, today’s episode will continue from where we left off last week.

God had just given Mary a huge assignment. I love that she didn’t run to her finance with the news first. She ran to her cousin, who had also experienced a miracle of God and was expecting an unexpected baby.

Mary’s cousin Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and her greeting to Mary was exactly what Mary needed to hear: “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

Mary responded in lyrical fashion. One line from those lyrics inspired our declaration for this week. It’s from Luke 1:50, which says, “His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.”

The word “fear” here is a different form of the Greek verb “phobos” than the angel used when he told Mary not to be afraid (Luke 1:30). Gabriel spoke of being frightened or alarmed, but Mary spoke of reverence and awe. In other words, God’s mercy extends to those who are awestruck by him. So, when you make this week’s declaration, think not of cowering before God, but instead think of bowing in reverence or standing in awe.

Elizabeth told Mary that she was blessed as someone who believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her. You are blessed too, my friend. When God gives you a huge assignment that frightens you, remember his mercy and his faithfulness.

Longing to Belong: Discovering the Joy of Acceptance is now available for purchase on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Walmart.com, Booksamillion.com and Christianbook.com. It’s also available for download to your Kindle or from the Apple store for your iBooks app. Or visit my website to purchase a copy at shawnamariebryant.com

This week's scripture: Luke 1: 39-56

Since covid-19 lockdowns altered my Sunday morning routine, I’ve been attending online services beyond those presented by my home church. This past Sunday, I watched Robert Morris, Senior Pastor of Gateway Church in Texas. I sat up straight with expectation when he mentioned that he’d recently been making “I am” declarations. I’m a big fan of “I am” declarations! The Believe & Speak podcast is all about empowering your tongue with truth by making declarations about our true identity, significance and worth.

Pastor Robert said that one of his “I am” declarations had been “I am highly favored.” He then confessed that he paused after declaring “I am highly favored” to consider if it was actually true. We know from Luke 1:28 that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was highly favored. But can ordinary people like you and me also declare that we are highly favored? Yes! You are highly favored, my friend. I recommend Pastor Robert’s sermon if you need to be convinced. We can know that we are highly favored by God because he said so, and we can hold onto his promises because no word from God will ever fail.

Link to sermon: https://gatewaypeople.com/sermons/highly-favored

Longing to Belong: Discovering the Joy of Acceptance is now available for purchase on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Walmart.com, Booksamillion.com and Christianbook.com. It’s also available for download to your Kindle or from the Apple store for your iBooks app. Or visit my website to purchase a copy at shawnamariebryant.com

This week's scripture: Luke 1:26-38

Have you ever felt like your words didn’t matter? That what you say doesn’t make a difference? That you waste your time by speaking up? Well, Isaiah 55:11 promises that you don’t waste your words, especially when you declare the Word of God. When we root our words in God’s word, our words always produce fruit.

In the days leading up to my birthday last month, I was feeling the weight of an unfulfilled 40-year-old promise. In the midst of that heaviness of heart, I received an email that opened with these words: You probably don’t remember me but back in 2003… and then it went on to mention the lasting impact of my ministry on sender’s life.

That email reminded me of one I’d received a couple weeks before that, which began with these life-giving words: I'm so thrilled to have found you! I was speaking to a new friend of mine. Her family, from the time she was a small child received a lifetime of hurt… My friend said that a few years ago, while her sister was still alive, her sister brought her to a Women's Christmas Luncheon where you were the speaker. You gave your testimony and "had the voice of an angel". She said it was the closest she has ever come to organized religion.

Wow! I have goosebumps all over again. Maybe, like me, you need to know your words are not empty. Your words have power! What’s more, God’s Word will never return to him empty. When he makes a promise, you can take him at his word. Always.

Longing to Belong: Discovering the Joy of Acceptance is now available for purchase on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Walmart.com, Booksamillion.com and Christianbook.com. It’s also available for download to your Kindle or from the Apple store for your iBooks app. Or visit my website to purchase a copy at shawnamariebryant.com

This week's scripture: Isaiah 55:10-11

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, I chose a Scripture that highlights the generosity of our God. I live in Central California—a cornucopia of fresh produce—so I understand the significance of a bountiful harvest. It makes perfect sense to me that Thanksgiving comes at the end of harvest season.

I received a letter last week from hospice, as if I needed reminding that I’m approaching the anniversary of my mom’s last days on earth. She died the day after Christmas last year, so this will be my first Thanksgiving and my first Christmas without the company of my precious mother. Even though I miss her terribly, I still believe that God gives me plenty of reasons to be thankful.

I learned a long time ago that we can focus on the things we don’t have and feel cheated, robbed, discouraged. Or we can focus on the things we do have and be thankful.

This Thanksgiving, let’s focus on the goodness of our generous God who has promised to meet all of our needs through His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Let’s focus on our abundant reasons to be thankful.

Longing to Belong: Discovering the Joy of Acceptance is now available for purchase on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Walmart.com, Booksamillion.com and Christianbook.com. It’s also available for download to your Kindle or from the Apple store for your iBooks app. Or visit my website to purchase a copy at shawnamariebryant.com

This week's scripture: Psalm 65:9-13

I was driven by my approaching birthday to focus on Isaiah 40:25–31 for two weeks, and will pick up today where I left off last week. These verses are very familiar to me because God used them to encourage me over and over—ever since my teenage years when he gave me the yet-to-be-fulfilled promise. My 40-year wait has not only made me tired and weary, but has also tested my faith.

In his wisdom, God first gave me this Scripture passage in the King James Version. God wanted to sustain me as I waited for the fulfillment of his promise. He knew how long it would be! In this episode, I read from the New International Version. In the NIV, Isaiah 40:31 says, “those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength…” However, as a teenager, throughout college, and well into my 20s, God kept bringing the verse to me in the KJV, which translates Is. 40:31 this way: “they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.”

Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” Forty years of hoping is enough to make your heart sick. I learned early on from the Promise Keeper that both waiting on the Lord and hoping in the Lord would renew my strength.

Last week we declared “My God does not ignore me” and it’s true. He knows what makes our hearts sick. He knows deferred hope makes us tired and weary, and that’s why he promises to renew our strength when we place our trust in him. He is faithful to all of his promises, that’s why we can also declare “My hope in the Lord renews my strength.”

Longing to Belong: Discovering the Joy of Acceptance is now available for purchase on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Walmart.com, Booksamillion.com and Christianbook.com. It’s also available for download to your Kindle or from the Apple store for your iBooks app. Or visit my website to purchase a copy at shawnamariebryant.com

This week's scripture: Isaiah 40: 29-31

If you are waiting for the fulfilment of a promise, and the wait has made you weary, you will appreciate the truth we will believe and speak this week and next.

My birthday is a week from Friday. November 20th marks the passing of yet another year without seeing the fulfillment of a promise God gave me 40 years ago. He gave the promise along with the exhortation to wait for it. I’ve been waiting a long time.

I can picture exactly where I was 40 years ago when I heard the still small voice of God make me a promise. I was 100 percent convinced that I had heard from God, and that he would do what he said he would do. Over the years I’ve waffled between conviction and doubt. Lately, doubt has the upper hand.

I cried out to God last week to remind him it had been 40 years. Forty years is a long time to keep believing for a promise. God gently pointed out that at least I hadn’t spent those 40 years wandering around in the desert like Joshua and Caleb. He also pointed out that Caleb was 85 years old when he finally saw God’s promise fulfilled. I may be having a birthday soon, but I’m nowhere near that old!

My wait has been long and hard, but I choose to believe that my God does not ignore me. I choose to believe and speak the truth from the Scripture passage in today’s episode.

God knows the waiting makes us tired and weary, but nothing will ever make our God tired or weary. He is the everlasting God.

Longing to Belong: Discovering the Joy of Acceptance is now available for purchase on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Walmart.com, Booksamillion.com and Christianbook.com. It’s also available for download to your Kindle or from the Apple store for your iBooks app. Or visit my website to purchase a copy at shawnamariebryant.com

This week's scripture: Isaiah 40: 25-28

This episode publishes the day after the U.S. presidential election, but I recorded it the day of the election. So even if the race has been called by the time you hear this, I don’t know who won. My motivation for choosing the passage I’m reading today has nothing to do with the results of the election and everything to do with our behavior in light of those results. I hope and pray we are neither embittered by a loss nor conceited by a win. I hope and pray we are gracious and loving, win or lose. Jesus said, “If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? … If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that (Mt. 5:46–47). He also said, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples” (Jn 13:35). Paul wrote in Galatians 5 that the fruit of the Spirit—among other qualities—is love. Clearly, Jesus wants us to love one another. In fact, he commanded us to love and empowered us by his Spirit to love.

As a podcaster and author of a newly released book, I’ve been trying to be more active on social media, but it’s been difficult for me lately because of the strong opinions slapping me in the face about how Christians should or shouldn’t vote. My heart breaks when I read posts like the condescending judgment of a well-known Christian author accusing certain voters of acting like Judas to an F-bomb dropped in a public forum by a former pastor who professes Christianity. What is going on? I hope I don’t sound judgmental saying that, because I honestly want to know how this treatment of our brothers and sisters is acceptable.

I want to be known for expressing love. Not my opinions or politics, but my love.

Some people are more difficult to love, but God’s grace sufficiently supplies whatever we lack. God’s resources are unlimited, including His reservoir of love. 1 John 4:12 says, “No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.” (NLT) In other words, no one can see God, but they can see God in you and me if we love each other. They can see him and feel his love for them through our love for them.

I want to help people see God, don’t you? No matter who wins the election and no matter who my brothers and sisters voted for, I want to be known for expressing the fullness of God’s unconditional love.

Longing to Belong: Discovering the Joy of Acceptance is now available for purchase on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Walmart.com, Booksamillion.com and Christianbook.com. It’s also available for download to your Kindle or from the Apple store for your iBooks app. Or visit my website to purchase a copy at shawnamariebryant.com

This week's scripture: 1 John 4:7-12 and 19-21

The United States election is less than a week away. The American people have never been more divided. The disrespect and disdain displayed on the news and in social media between the left and the right has been far from godly and dignified.

No wonder Paul wrote to Timothy “I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people.” My mom once told me that if I didn’t like someone, I should pray for them, and if I hated someone, I should pray for them a lot. I learned that those prayers did more to change me than the person I was praying for. Paul went on to write, “Ask God to help them, intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.” Then Paul got more specific about who to pray this way for, mentioning “kings and all who are in authority.” Paul instructs us to ask God to help all who are in authority; to intercede for them and give thanks for them. Do you struggle with giving thanks for those who are in authority over you? It’s easier to do when your preferred candidate wins. But no matter who wins the U.S. election in a few short days, today’s declaration is true.

Longing to Belong: Discovering the Joy of Acceptance is now available for purchase on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Walmart.com, Booksamillion.com and Christianbook.com. It’s also available for download to your Kindle or from the Apple store for your iBooks app. Or visit my website to purchase a copy at shawnamariebryant.com

This week's scripture: 1 Timothy 2:1-4