Happy Valentine's Day! We hope this conversation adds a little extra love to your day and encourages you on your journey in, or toward, marriage. So sit back, relax, and let's dive into some heart-to-heart chats about all things love and matrimony.

Biblical community is a place of shared brokenness and shared joy. It's

We are created for relationships with others.

1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-7 ESV

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

It is impossible to overestimate the power and importance of the Word of God.

Over these past 21 days of prayer and fasting, we have set aside our comfort to seek something more valuable. It is impossible to spend time calling on God, asking Him to bring Heaven down, and there be no change because God is faithful, and His Word promises that He responds to the prayers of His people.

Throughout these past few weeks, God has shown up and moved in an extraordinary way. People have been saved, set free, and miraculously healed. There’s so much to celebrate, but the exciting reality is that this is only the beginning. There is still more that God wants to do!

Have you ever found yourself in this place? You have a friend that you want to tell about Jesus. You know that they don’t have a relationship with God but have never had the courage to bring it up. Every time that you start to work up the confidence, your thoughts are flooded with “What if they think I’m weird?”, “What if I don’t know what to say?” or “What if they stop being my friend?” Ultimately, you decide that it’s better not to say anything. You’re frustrated with yourself because you know what you need to do, but you don’t have the boldness to do it.

If you resonate with that scenario, then know that you’re not alone. When we come to Acts 4, we find the early church in a situation where they need boldness. Except for them, the stakes are higher. If they share Christ, they wouldn’t just be losing a friend…they could lose their lives. The Jewish ruling council had just given the order that Peter, John, and the church could no longer speak in the name of Jesus. If they broke this charge, it could result in a beating, imprisonment, or even death.

For most people, if they hear a threat like that, they would start praying for God to remove the opposition. What the church did was completely different. They did not pray for God to remove their problem; instead, they prayed for boldness. The incredible reality about this account is that God immediately answered their prayer. What was God’s answer to their prayer for boldness? The baptism of the Holy Spirit. Every person in that meeting was filled with the Holy Spirit, which enabled them to speak the word of God boldly.

In this episode, envision a scenario where a friend generously covers a family's massive financial loss, and you become the messenger delivering the life-changing gift. Drawing a parallel, the podcast delves into the believer's role in operating within the power of the Spirit, emphasizing that, like the generous friend, believers are entrusted with God's power to make a difference in others' lives, freely sharing the miraculous resources they have received. Scriptures from Matthew 10:5-8 illuminate this concept, urging believers to go forth, minister, and share the freely given power of the Holy Spirit.

As we approach the end of this fast, you are probably sensing that over the last few weeks God has begun uniquely moving in your heart. Fasting has a way of quieting our hearts so that God will not only start to work in the situations we have been praying for, but he often works deeply in our hearts as we draw close to him. Leviticus 6:9 gives us a clear picture of God's presence in our lives. God had descended on the Tent of Meeting and kindled a fire. God's instructions to his people were to keep the fire burning. God told Moses: “Give Aaron and his sons this command: 'These are the regulations for the burnt offering: The burnt offering is to remain on the altar hearth throughout the night, till morning, and the fire must be kept burning on the altar.'”

So often in our lives, we can miss what Jesus is doing because we are looking at our situation with physical vision rather than spiritual vision. Like the disciples, we can find ourselves going through a place filled with people who don’t know Jesus, and our primary concern is not sharing the Gospel; it is getting something for lunch.

One of the most encouraging aspects of fasting is that it invites God’s favor in our life. We desperately need God’s favor because there are times when life’s circumstances are out of our control. And when we are hit with an unforeseen difficulty, the results can be tragic. Although we may not be able to control our situation, we can dictate our response to them.