Friends With God

Twenty episodes ago, I started Friends With God with a simple idea: I’m just an average Joe trying to figure out my own friendship and walk with God, and maybe sharing that journey could help someone else create their own relationship with God too.

Now, 20 episodes in, I wanted to look back and ask: What have I actually learned?

In this episode, I share seven lessons that have continued to reveal themselves throughout this journey. Fear is often happening in my own head. I don’t have to know all the answers. I do have to trust. Distractions are real. Renewing the mind is a daily practice. Surrender makes life easier. And maybe most importantly, I’m remembering that I have a friendship with God and I don’t have to do any of this alone.

We also explore Philippians 4 and the practical invitation to bring our worries to God through prayer, thanksgiving, and trust, while intentionally choosing what we allow our minds to dwell on.

This isn’t about having faith completely figured out. It’s about practicing it. Showing up. Renewing the mind. Learning to surrender. And having enough courage to be exactly where we are, even when we don’t know what comes next.

As you listen, I invite you to reflect on your own journey: What have you learned lately about your relationship with God?

And if you have a story about your own friendship with God that you’d like to share, reach out. I’m excited to begin welcoming guests onto Friends With God and hearing how God has shown up in your life.

Friends With God: an average Joe learning to know Jesus, one day at a time.

Explore more from Joe - https://stan.store/Joe_Longo

Are your thoughts coming from faith or fear? Are you trusting God's plan, or allowing doubt to keep you stuck?

In this episode of Friends With God, Joe Longo explores the connection between renewing your mind, choosing faith over fear, and learning to trust God even when you cannot see what comes next.

Inspired by Romans 12:2, James 1:2-8, and a thought-provoking quote from Pico Iyer's The Art of Stillness, Joe invites us to examine how much of our lives we spend replaying old memories, imagining worst-case scenarios, and allowing fear to influence our decisions.

What if changing the way we think could change the way we experience life?

Together, we explore how negative thought patterns, doubt, and distractions can pull us away from the present moment, and how faith, awareness, prayer, and surrender can help us reconnect with God's wisdom and guidance.

In this episode, you'll explore:

• What Romans 12:2 teaches us about renewing the mind.

• How James 1 connects faith, doubt, perseverance, and wisdom.

• Why our thoughts and imagination influence how we experience life.

• How to recognize fear-based thinking and consciously choose faith.

• What it means to surrender worry and trust God's plan.

• A practical five-step Faith or Fear Check-In to use throughout your week.

Joe also shares a simple guided prayer to help you release fear, reconnect with God's presence, and find the courage to take your next step.

Your invitation this week: Notice your thoughts. Question the stories you're telling yourself. Return to faith. Choose a new thought. Take one intentional step.

You don't need to see the entire path to take the next step.

Join Our Fall Monday Night Mastermind

We're continuing our journey of renewing the mind, building trust, and growing in faith together. Join Joe for two Monday evening gatherings in November as we explore what it means to trust God's timing and guidance.

Participation is free, with optional contributions of $10 or $20.

REGISTER HERE

About Friends With God

Friends With God: One Day at a Time is a podcast hosted by Joe Longo, an average Joe learning to know Jesus, one day at a time. Through honest conversations, biblical reflection, mindfulness, and personal experiences, Joe explores what it means to live with greater faith, awareness, and trust in God.

If this episode resonates with you, share it with someone who could use a reminder to choose faith over fear today.

Scriptures referenced: Romans 12:2, James 1:2-8, Philippians 4:13, Isaiah 54:17, and the teaching about faith as small as a mustard seed.

Have you ever started your morning by setting an intention, surrounding yourself with protective white light, or asking for spiritual guidance throughout your day?

What if the Bible has been teaching us something similar for thousands of years?

In this episode of Friends With God, I'm exploring Ephesians 6:10–18 and the Armor of God, making connections between the spiritual practices I've taught and experienced over the years and the biblical wisdom I'm rediscovering through my growing friendship with Jesus.

From the helmet of salvation and shield of faith to the power of prayer and renewing our minds, we're exploring what it means to prepare ourselves spiritually for everyday life.

I also share why I once pushed the Bible aside, how my journey through yoga, meditation, and New Age spirituality shaped my understanding, and why I'm learning to stop placing limits on how God can work in our lives.

We'll close with a guided meditation inviting you to put on the Armor of God, connect with the Holy Spirit, and prepare for the day ahead.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Grab your printable Armor of God infographic, featuring our everyday Average Joe putting on his spiritual armor. Print it out and hang it somewhere you'll see it each morning as a reminder to begin your day with faith, truth, peace, and prayer.

FREE DOWNLOAD

I'm just an average Joe learning to know Jesus, one day at a time.

Scripture: Ephesians 6:10–18

What have you been rehearsing in your mind that you no longer want to become?

In this episode of Friends With God, Joe Longo explores Romans 12:2 and what it really means to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Using the simple metaphor of learning to drive, Joe looks at how repeated thoughts can eventually become automatic. Fear, scarcity, regret, worry, and the belief that we’re not good enough can become mental habits we barely notice anymore.

But awareness gives us an opportunity to interrupt the pattern.

Joe shares a simple practice for noticing repetitive thoughts, pausing, breathing, and asking: Is this thought reflecting faith or fear? Is it helping me or hurting me?

This episode is an invitation to stop trying to solve tomorrow with yesterday’s thinking and return to the grace God has given you for today.

You have a choice in what you rehearse. You have a choice in how you renew your mind. And you can continually return to faith, trust, courage, and the present moment.

If you’d like to go deeper, you can still join Joe for the Fall Monday Night Mastermind. Register for the Fall Mastermind

Join us for a special 11/11 Meditation on November 11th

What if Psalm 23 isn't simply a scripture we believe, but a roadmap showing us how to live?

In this episode of Friends With God, Joe Longo explores Psalm 23 as an invitation to stop waiting for someday and begin experiencing the presence of God right here, right now.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.”

What changes when we actually carry those words into our everyday lives? When we trust that God is guiding us, refreshing our souls, walking beside us through the darkest valleys, preparing a table for us, and reminding us that we already dwell in the house of the Lord?

Joe offers a simple practice for the week: read Psalm 23 every day. Read it slowly. Let it become more than words you know. Allow it to settle into your heart and become a reminder that you are guided, provided for, protected, and never walking alone.

The episode closes with a slow, meditative reading of Psalm 23 and a prayer to help you return to the present moment and trust God one step at a time.

Stop waiting. Start living. You are already dwelling in the house of the Lord.

And if you're ready to go deeper, join Joe and the Friends With God community for the Monday Night Mastermind beginning in October as we explore renewing the mind, trusting God, abiding in His presence, and opening ourselves to receive.

Music by Andrii Poradovskyi from Pixabay

What if getting lost in the wilderness is sometimes part of finding your way back to God?

In this episode of Friends With God, Joe Longo explores the wild, mysterious side of faith and shares his own journey from fear-based Christianity, through yoga, meditation, Kundalini, manifestation, and spiritual exploration, and ultimately into a renewed relationship with God and Jesus.

Inspired by an Instagram video from James Anthony Burke, Joe reflects on John the Baptist, Jesus entering the wilderness, and a powerful idea that stopped him in his tracks: sometimes we aren't brought back to God because someone convinces us, preaches to us, or tells us what we're supposed to believe.

Sometimes God meets us in the wild. Watch the Instagram video - https://www.instagram.com/p/Daiff4mBCBy/

Joe shares why being pushed toward Christianity actually pushed him further away, how his years of spiritual exploration never felt like separation from God, and how he eventually began recognizing God and Jesus appearing throughout the path he was already walking.

This is a conversation for anyone who has questioned religion, explored different spiritual traditions, felt judged for their path, or wondered whether there is still room for them with God.

The episode closes with a prayer and meditation for abundance, provision, trust, courage, and becoming a faithful steward of what God has already placed in your hands.

Maybe your wilderness isn't evidence that you've lost your way.

Maybe something is happening there.

Join the Fall Mastermind: We begin October 5 for a three-month journey of renewing the mind, deepening trust, and learning to receive. Free and supported options are available. Find the link in the show notes or connect with Joe on Instagram.

Friends With God is a conversation about faith, awareness, life, and what it means to develop a personal relationship with God, without pretending we have all the answers.

What if you didn’t need to know what comes next?

In this episode of Friends With God, Joe Longo explores what it means to trust God when life feels uncertain, the answers aren’t clear, and you can’t see the whole path ahead.

Using Proverbs 3:5–6 and Jesus’ teaching about our “daily bread,” Joe shares a simple shift: instead of constantly asking, “God, what am I supposed to do with my life?” maybe the prayer becomes, “God, show me my next step.”

We’ll talk about trusting God instead of leaning entirely on our own understanding, staying present when life feels uncomfortable, renewing our minds through prayer and meditation, and learning to receive what we need for today instead of demanding a five-year plan.

You don’t need the whole staircase. You don’t need five years’ worth of bread.

You need today.

And maybe faith is trusting that God will meet you there.

🍂 JOIN THE FALL COMMUNITY

This fall, our Monday night community is journeying through three themes: RENEW, TRUST, and RECEIVE. We’ll explore Scripture, mindset, awareness, prayer, meditation, conversation, and practical ways to deepen our relationship with God as we close out the year together.

There are Free, $10/month, and $20/month options. Everyone receives the same community experience. Find the registration link in the show notes.

Join us

🙏 THE SPACE BETWEEN

Are you in a season where something is changing, ending, or falling away, but you’re not sure what comes next?

The Space Between is Joe’s six-week private, faith-based coaching experience designed to help you slow down, quiet the noise, reconnect with God, and begin discerning what may be next.

Schedule a free Clarity Call with Joe to explore where you are right now and whether The Space Between is the right fit for this season of your life.

Schedule Your Call

What is shaping your reality right now?

Before we can renew our minds, we first have to become aware of what has been shaping them.

In this episode of Friends With God, Joe Longo explores the thoughts, stories, content, fears, and beliefs we repeatedly consume and how they influence the way we experience our lives.

Inspired by Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” Joe asks four simple questions:

What am I consuming?

What am I thinking repeatedly?

What am I believing simply because I’ve thought it for so long?

And ultimately, does this bring me closer to God or further into fear?

Joe also shares a personal realization about gratitude. Instead of constantly waiting for life to get better, what happens when we recognize how much goodness is already here?

Gratitude doesn’t mean pretending life isn’t difficult. It means becoming aware of what is still good, taking the next step in front of us, and allowing God to begin renewing us from within.

JOIN OUR FALL COMMUNITY

Beginning October 5, our Monday Night Mastermind community will move through three movements together: RENEW. TRUST. RECEIVE.

JOIN US THIS FALL

We’ll meet every other Monday at 7 PM ET on Zoom through the end of the year. Everyone receives the same experience, and you can join for FREE or choose a monthly contribution to help support the community.

Use the link in the show notes to join us.

EXPLORE THE SPACE BETWEEN

If you’re personally navigating a season where something is changing, ending, or falling away and you’re not sure what comes next, explore The Space Between, Joe’s six-week private faith-based coaching experience.

This is a one-on-one space to slow down, quiet the noise, renew your mind, deepen your trust in God, and begin discerning what this season may be asking of you.

Explore a Free Conversation

Schedule Your Free Call with Joe - CLICK HERE

Be part of the Fall Monday Mastermind CLICK HERE

What do you do when you know something in your life is changing, but you have no idea what comes next?

In this episode of Friends With God, Joe Longo explores what it means to trust God in the space between: the uncomfortable season between what was and what is becoming.

Using the story of Abraham as a starting point, Joe challenges the idea that faith means having certainty. Abraham wasn't given the entire map. He was called, and he moved. Maybe faith isn't knowing exactly how everything will work out. Maybe faith is trusting God enough to take the next step without knowing where it will lead.

Joe also shares a deeply personal shift happening in his own life and work. After years of teaching mindset, awareness, manifestation, visualization, and intentional thinking, he is beginning to ask different questions. Instead of only asking, "What do I want to create?" he's learning to ask, "God, what are You showing me? What are You asking me to release? Who am I becoming? What is mine to do right now?"

This conversation explores faith during uncertainty, surrendering control, renewing your mind, hearing God's direction, releasing old identities, trusting God's timing, spiritual transition, and finding courage when you don't have all the answers.

You'll also receive four powerful journaling questions to help you explore your own season of transition and identify the one faithful step you can take today.

If you're experiencing a career change, identity shift, spiritual awakening, loss, uncertainty, a return to faith, or simply feel caught between an old chapter and whatever God may be preparing next, this episode is for you.

You don't need the whole staircase.

You don't need the entire map.

You may only need enough faith to take the next step.

Friends With God is a faith-centered podcast with Joe Longo, exploring Jesus, Scripture, mindset, personal growth, prayer, meditation, spiritual transformation, and what it means to build a real relationship with God in everyday life.

Schedule Your Free Call with Joe - ⁠CLICK HERE ⁠

Be part of the Fall Monday Mastermind ⁠CLICK HERE ⁠

Music by Viktor Sklemin from Pixabay

This is a real-talk episode about what happens when life doesn’t go according to plan. One year after Simplicity and Awareness became an Amazon bestseller, Joe reflects on grief, change, faith, spiritual gifts, stepping away from oracle cards, and his evolving relationship with Jesus. Through it all, he keeps returning to one simple practice: staying present, abiding in God, and asking, “How may I serve?”

Music by andrii g. from Pixabay

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