Believe & Speak

I could not have known when I kicked off this podcast 13 weeks ago how different our world would look today—from the empty shelves in the grocery stores to the empty highways during rush hour. I live in California, the first state to quarantine its residents due to COVID-19. The fact that I can’t drive to the corner store and buy a package of toilet paper proves I’m not in control of even the basics in my life. But that doesn’t mean I’m powerless. Repeating Scripture-based declarations of truth during this difficult season of uncertainty has helped me keep from falling into a pit of feeling powerless.

I invite you to drown out the lies you’ve believed that make you feel utterly powerless with the truth of this week’s declaration. You are not alone in your struggle. God is with you, He is ready to help you, and He has all the power you need. Cancel the negative effects of believing the lie that you are powerless. Declare this week’s phrase with authority and assurance.

Visit shawnamariebryant.com/mypodcast to download an image with this week’s declaration. Keeping the phrase ever before you will help you remember to speak its life-giving words.

This week's scripture:

Psalm 46:1–7

The heading in my Bible above Psalm 63 says that David wrote it when he was in the desert. Time in the desert exposes empty places. The verses in today’s podcast show us how David felt and where he turned in a particularly dry season. While I have clung to several different promises of God during dry seasons in my life, Psalm 63:1–8 was the constant cry of my heart during my driest, most desolate season of emptiness.

Visit shawnamariebryant.com/mypodcast to download an image with this week’s declaration. By keeping the phrase ever before, you will remember to speak the life-giving words you see. Drown out the lies you’ve believed that make you feel alone. You are not alone. Cancel the negative effects of those lies on your heart, soul, and mind by declaring this week’s phrase. Empower your tongue with truth.

This week's scripture:

Psalm 63:1–8

Isaiah 43:1–4 is filled with words of affirmation—from the wonderful promise in verse one that you belong to God, to the tender expression of God’s love for you in verse four. Many of the affirmations found in these four verses would make a great-sounding and powerful declaration. I certainly welcome you to declare that God has redeemed you and summoned you by name. Declare that you belong to God and are protected by His mighty power. But since I can only give one declaration each week, I chose a phrase that declares the reason God made all these promises to you and did all these things for you.

Visit shawnamariebryant.com/mypodcast to download an image with this week’s declaration. By keeping the phrase ever before, you will remember to speak the life-giving words you see. Drown out the lies you’ve believed about your worth, and cancel the negative effects of those lies on your heart, soul, and mind by declaring this week’s phrase. Empower your tongue with truth.

This week's scripture:

Isaiah 43:1–4

Believers in Jesus have been adopted into the family of God and are co-heirs with Christ. The Spirit you received when you accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior does not make you a slave. The Spirit makes you royalty, with all the wealth, prominence, power, and authority given to an heir of the King. Adoption into God’s family gives you access to God’s resources and elevates you to royal status. As a child of God, you are set to inherit everything that is his.

Visit shawnamariebryant.com/mypodcast to download an image with this week’s declaration. By keeping the phrase ever before, you will remember to speak the life-giving words you see. Drown out the lies you’ve believed about your worth, and cancel the negative effects of those lies on your heart, soul, and mind by declaring this week’s phrase. Empower your tongue with truth.

This week's scripture:

Romans 8:14–25

Today we complete our seven-week series through Psalm 139. Every phrase I’ve given you to declare on the Believe & Speak podcast is grounded in truth, and today’s declaration is no exception. You and I can walk in victory, my friend. Hallelujah!

The life-giving declarations I’ve been giving you each week are packed with power, and I hope you’ll continue to declare the truth you’ve learned listening to my podcase. To find tools that help you believe and speak truth, please visit shawnamariebryant.com/mypodcast.

You’ll not only find links to all the audio files of the archived episodes, but you’ll also see beautiful graphic images designed by my husband. Each one contains a declaration meant to be spoken out loud. The images from this particular series will help you remember to believe and speak the truth of who God is, who you are, and how special you are as God’s beloved child.

Even though we’ve reached the end of Psalm 139, we are nowhere close to exhausting the supply of truth from Scripture that we can believe and speak. I’ll be back next Wednesday with a new episode and a new promise you can declare with authority.

This week's scripture:

Psalm 139:23–24

In a world of so many lies and half-truths, I am passionate about sharing pearls of truth. I happen to believe the Bible is filled with truth. That’s why this podcast is based on Scripture.

We are now six weeks in to a seven-part series on Psalm 139. Each week, I read a passage from the Bible, and then I give you a phrase to declare that smacks of truth. Finally, I close with a prayer that I encourage you to pray along with me to seal the truth into your heart and mind

If you’ve been with me since Episode 3, you know that I’ve been sharing snippets of truth from Psalm 139—a few verses at a time—and giving you a declaration drawn from those verses. I end this week’s declaration with the word “but,” because I want you to know the truth doesn’t stop with the fact you have enemies.

This week's scripture:

Psalm 139:19–22

This week’s episode is the fifth installment in our seven-week series. The truth you’ll hear today from Psalm 139 gives you the right to declare this: God’s countless thoughts are for me. When you know without a shadow of a doubt that the one who is in control of this crazy world not only has his eye on you but also has his thoughts focused on you, you must also know that you are not forgotten.

I invite you to head on over to shawnamariebryant.com/mypodcast to find images that display the declaration I give each week. You can save these images to your desktop or lock screen on your phone to help you memorize the declarations and prompt you to believe and speak them.

This week's scripture:

Psalm 139:17–18

If you’re new to the Believe & Speak podcast, welcome! I release a new episode every Wednesday, and follow a simple format: I read Scripture, give a declaration based on that Scripture, and close with prayer. The catalyst for this podcast is my book that releases July 14th. The book—called, Longing to Belong: Discovering the Joy of Acceptance—is built on the same premise as this podcast: namely that believing and speaking truth helps us cancel the negative effects of ugly issues like rejection and abandonment, which are rooted in believing and speaking lies.

If you go to my website at shawnamariebryant.com and click over to my podcast page, you’ll find images for each week with the declaration from that week. You can save the images to your desktop or home screen on your phone to help you memorize the declarations and prompt you to believe and speak them.

This week’s episode will have you declaring the truth about how beautifully put together you are.

This week's scripture:

Psalm 139:13–16

We continue our seven-part series today with our third installment. We are working our way through Psalm 139, which paints the perfect picture of beautiful you. If you believe every word of this psalm, you will never doubt your worth. If you speak aloud each declaration I give throughout this series, you will empower your tongue with the truth of who you really are. You can declare with confidence that you are loved. You can know with unshakeable conviction that you belong. Believe and speak these truths with all the power and authority you have been given through Jesus Christ.

This week’s episode touches on the promise that you are seen by the Creator, who can turn darkness into light with a command.

This week's scripture:

Psalm 139:9–12

Today’s episode is the second installment in a seven-part series drawn from Psalm 139. The verses you’ll hear read today absolutely affirm that God is always with you. In fact, you can never sink to a pit so low that God can’t reach in and rescue you. You can never ascend to a peak so high that God will decide you no longer need him. You can never climb out on a limb so far that God will leave you hanging.

This seven-part series is based on material from my book called Longing to Belong: Discovering the Joy of Acceptance, which releases July 14.

This week's scripture:

Psalm 139:5–8