God Hears Her Podcast

Talking about finances can be so awkward! But the truth is that many adults, and often even children, face the stress and anxiety that comes along with financial instability. And although there are many speakers and influencers who strive to guide and teach us how to avoid debt, what happens when we have to learn the hard way? 

Join hosts Elisa and Eryn as they discuss their own personal struggles with finances at different times in their lives. They also chat about the steps they’ve taken to overcome the shame financial struggles cause and how they learned to hear God amidst their own financial messes.

Notes and Quotes: 

• “I remember the anxiety of seeing an unknown number on my phone knowing it was a debt collector calling to ask me to make payments on something I had zero money for.”
• “So in a way someone paying for your egg sandwich and coffee . . . in that moment you sensed God seeing you, hearing you, being with you, noticing your situation.”
• “Looking back now I can see [how] I saw my relationship with the Lord in how much money He provided, and I put the value on myself in how much money I made.”
• “Is God going to get me out of this if I got myself into this?”
• “I feel that shame, and it wasn’t my fault. I was just a kid. I felt embarrassed when friends came over.”
• “We carry around this incredible shame about our financial trauma, whether it has been our choice or it happened to us.”
• “Money can be a power thing in marriage. Whoever is the main breadwinner can control everything.”
• “The reality is that marriage is a partnership and we have to learn to ask for what we need.”
• “It was me leaning into the discomfort that led to me leaning into God, who was the only comfort that brought me out of it and also sharpened my character in the process.”
• “What is the story I am telling myself as I am getting out of this? And what is the story I am telling myself of God being in it?”

Links/Books/Resources Mentioned in Show:

• Show Notes on godhearsher.org
• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• Share the love by giving this episode a 5-star rating on iTunes!  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast
• Order God Sees Her: 365 Devotions for Women by Women on Amazon.  https://amzn.to/32lYSgh
• Free eBooklet to Download: Cultivating a Heart of Contentment: https://discoveryseries.org/courses/cultivating-a-heart-of-contentment/
• Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast platform. https://www.godhearsher.org/podcast
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

As we revisit this episode of God Hears Her, Vivian Mabuni admits that as an American of Asian descent, she’s struggled to fit in, and this reality leads to a conversation on diversity, inclusion, and healing. From understanding terms like “microaggression” to walking us through how to be a good friend to someone who’s hurting, this is a conversation about how God intended us to love others, even those who are different from us.

About Our Guest: 

Vivian Mabuni is a teacher and uses the platforms of writing, speaking, and podcasting to encourage women to find the abundant life Christ offers within the good and bad of life. Her battle with cancer led her to see God as present and faithful, even when life is not working out the way she expected. She wants people to know that following Jesus is not a pain-free and smooth journey, but it is still rich and good! Her newest book is titled Open Hands Willing Heart: Discover the Joy of Saying Yes to God.

Notes and Quotes: 

• Microaggression: An othering; it separates us. According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, a microaggression is “a statement, action, or incident regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group.”
• “I have been on a journey, really, and some of it has been learning to actually embrace and celebrate my ethnic heritage because most of my life I spent trying to fit in.”
• Here’s a kind way to ask a person of a different ethnic background about themselves:  “Will you share with me your ethnic heritage?” Also, learn your own ethnic heritage so you can contribute to the conversation.
• “American does not mean ‘white,’ and we tend to start to think that is the normal; and that is not necessarily normal. It’s its own experience.”
• There is a strong rooting that takes place when we understand who we are and where we are from.
• God intends for us to live in unity, but unity is not uniformity. 
• “I am not going to let what would be injustice, impact my character.”
• “Instead of segregating our offerings into little cliques, which is so difficult, can we be more intentional of being inclusive?”
• How to help a friend who is healing: “To be a good friend, don’t offer advice. The present of presence just goes so much further.”
• We all heal differently, and learning to be a gracious receiver is hard. We need to be respectful that each of us handles suffering differently.

Links/Books/Resources Mentioned In Show: 

• Show Notes on godhearsher.org
• Discover the Word series with Vivian: “Open Hands Willing Heart”
• God Hears Her website
• Share the love by giving this episode a 5-star rating on iTunes! 
• Order God Sees Her: 365 Devotions for Women by Women
• Vivians’s Podcast: Someday is Here
• Vivian’s Book: Open Hands Willing Heart
• Vivian’s Book: Warrior in Pink
• Bryan Stevenson’s Book: Just Mercy
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Show Summary: 

Do you find that God speaks to you in a powerful, audible voice? Or do you have a hard time discerning if God is speaking to you at all? In this episode of God Hears Her, Elisa and Eryn discuss a number of ways we can hear God.

Notes and Quotes: 

• “The title of this podcast is God Hears Her, and to be honest it has always thrown me. God hears her . . . wait, how do we hear God?”
• God speaks to us during our Scripture reading.
• Some of us may hear God audibly, whether it be loud and known or as a soft whisper.
• We can hear from God through other people: our mentors, friends, family. Be sure to discern appropriately whether the person speaking into you is doing it from the heart of God. Review their words against Scripture and allow God to confirm. 
• God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit, the living Word of God. This can sometimes bring out unexplainable emotion in you, even tears.
• Eryn’s unplugged morning routine: 1. What am I feeling? 2. Recap yesterday. 3. Talk to God. What is on your heart and mind? 4. Confess. 5. Invite Him in: “God, what do you want to tell me?” 6. Open up Scripture.
• Journaling can allow us to hear and connect with God.
• Listen for God while you enjoy art, nature, music, books, conversation, or even a Bible study.
• Pick a word. Each year focus on a word that God has given to you and really lean into His wisdom and focus on that word. 
• “How do I hear God? Sometimes it’s in the silence of just sitting and knowing that He hears me.”

Links:

• Show Notes on godhearsher.org
• God Hears Her website
• Share the love by giving this episode a 5-star rating on iTunes!
• Support the Podcast!
• Free e-booklet: “God Is Not Silent” by Bill Crowder
• Our Daily Bread
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Show Summary: 

God could have designed humans to eat rocks, but instead He created food and gave men and women thousands of taste buds to enjoy it. On this episode of “God Hears Her,” Margaret Feinberg joins the show to talk food, which is really a discussion into the deepest longings of a woman’s heart, and God’s invitation to taste and see that He is good. 

About Our Guest:

Margaret Feinberg is a podcaster on The Joycast, a speaker, and an author of several books that have sold over a million copies. She was recently named one of Christianity Today’s top 50 women shaping culture and the church. She lives in Utah with her husband, Leif, and their super-pup Hershey. Her recent book is Taste and See: Discovering God Among Butchers, Bakers and Fresh Food Markets.

Notes and Quotes:  

• "Food is God’s love made edible." 
• "God creates the garden with a plethora of food and then gives us thousands of taste buds to enjoy it." 
• "What we really ache for is to know and be known, to love and be loved, and to enter a place where we can be vulnerable and any sense of shame scurries away." 
• "Communities are little mirrors that reflect ourselves back to us." 
• "There are times when I need, through prayer and Scripture, to hear God’s love for me.  And there are other times, for that to really take root, I need to hear it through other humans who are reflecting His glory and His presence." 
• "Social media is a dangerous game because it begins to feel like 'life.' But when words come from a person, in person, they are more meaningful and life-changing." 
• "If you want to have community, you have to build it, often out of nothing." 
• "If we want to be seen, we may have to open our eyes and see first. If we want to be heard, we have to become people who are really great listeners." 
• "The deepest hungers of your heart are uniquely designed to be met first and foremost by God. Jesus really is the One who can speak the syllables you most need to hear." 
• "Reach out to meet others’ needs; and as you love them and bring joy to them, you’ll find some of your needs met too." 
• "Choose good people: life-giving, Jesus-loving, makes-you-laugh-until-tears-run-down- your-cheeks-and-other-places kind of people."

Links:

• Show Notes on godhearsher.org
• God Hears Her website
• Share the love by giving this episode a 5-star rating!
• Get your copy of Margaret Feinberg’s book Taste and See on Amazon
• Free e-booklet: Open Hearts, Open Homes
• Our Daily Bread website
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Verses: 

Hebrews 13:21 NIV “We are called, equipped, and chosen.” 

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV “Plan and a future”

Ephesians 2:10 NIV “Appointed good works for me to do”

Romans 8:38 NIV “I am loved by God.”

2 Corinthians 10 NIV “Take every thought captive.”

It’s estimated that the average adult makes about 35,000 decisions each day. But what happens when one of those decisions is life changing? Decisions like where to go to college or whether to move across the country for a job. What are some of the decisions you’re facing right now? In this episode of God Hears Her, Eryn and Elisa chat about ways in which they have learned to hear God’s voice and follow where He leads. 

Notes and Quotes: 

• “There are times when we come to a crossroads moment to make a decision and we get wrapped up in the thought that our desires and God’s desires could never align.”
• “It really boils down to ‘Is my heart aligned with God’s? And am I seeking Him? Am I listening to Him?’’’
• “God does grow us through the really difficult times in life.”
• “When we are at that crossroads; we can choose for God and with God. It’s a ‘we’ experience at that crossroads.”
• “When we’re in a ‘we’ with God, His spirit directs us. His being woos us onto the right choice with Him.”
• “We do our best and we yield the results to Him for what might happen.”
• “It is so important to have a really small group of close friends that you can let in to the choices you are making and that can speak in, like mentors.”
• “Crossroads are really a place of living. They’re a continual place  of being, of dwelling.”

Links/Books/Resources Mentioned In Show: 

• Show Notes on godhearsher.org
• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• Subscribe on iTunes!  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast
• Order God Sees Her: 365 Devotions for Women by Women on Amazon.  https://amzn.to/32lYSgh
• Free eBooklet to Download: Making Decisions God’s Way: https://discoveryseries.org/courses/making-decisions-gods-way/
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Verses Mentioned in Show: 

• Proverbs 16:9 NIV “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.” https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs%2016%3A9&version=NIV

• John 15:16 NIV “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15%3A16&version=NIV

• Jeremiah 6:16 NIV: “This is what the LORD says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, “We will not walk in it.”’” https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+6%3A16&version=NIV

What does the Christmas season mean to you? Do you still get filled with childlike nostalgia? Do you find it easy to think about the birth of our Savior? Or maybe Christmas often feels like a time of difficulty and struggle for you? The layers and emotions associated with the holidays can sometimes be overwhelming for us. Elisa and Eryn pinpoint some of their own lessons from past Christmas celebrations while also highlighting ways in which we can focus on turning this often stressful season into a season all of us can once again enjoy.

Notes and Quotes: 

• “Give thanks in all circumstances. It’s not for all circumstances, but in all circumstances.” 
• “So in that moment, look at that one item and [say], ‘Okay I don’t want this in my life, but I am going to give thanks in it, trusting your character, God, in it.’”
• “When we say that, I think we are a little afraid it sounds like whining to God, but maybe it sounds like honesty to God.”
• Thanksgiving Turkey Fingers: Trace your hand on a piece of paper and write down what you are thankful for on each finger. 
• “Gratitude changes us.”
• “It doesn't diminish the bad, it’s still there; but it puts it into a perspective that helps us in that circumstance to find gratitude.”
• “Comparison is in the holidays. We compare a lot. I compare a lot . . . what that family looks like, what their holiday card looks like.”
• “No one is really living a Hallmark life, we are all living real life.”
• Ideas to get our grateful going: gratitude journal, sticky note reminders, focus on an ornament, correct self-talk, gratitude partner, think about other people.

Links/Books/Resources Mentioned In Show: 

• Show Notes on godhearsher.org
• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• Subscribe on iTunes!  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast
• Order God Sees Her: 365 Devotions for Women by Women on Amazon.  https://amzn.to/32lYSgh
• Free eBooklet to Download: Windows on Christmas https://discoveryseries.org/courses/windows-on-christmas/
• Anne Voskamp’s book: One Thousand Gifts https://amzn.to/3lZWtjZ 
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Verses Mentioned in Show: 

• 1 Thessalonians 5:18 NIV - “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Thessalonians+5%3A18&version=NIV

We all experience life-defining moments. Some of those moments can be good and life-changing while other moments are not so good. What happens when we allow those not-so-good moments to negatively define our identities? Speaker and best-selling author Laura Smith joins Elisa and Eryn to share ways in which we can learn to overcome the lies that we’ve believed and focus on God’s life-changing and freeing truth. 

Bio of guest: 

Laura Smith is an avid storyteller through her books, blog posts, and public speaking. Her recent book How Sweet the Sound focuses on the beauty and truth that come from Scripture-inspired hymns. Along with being a wife and mom, Laura’s hope is to use her writing and public speaking to help others discover the identity that God has instilled in each of us.

Notes and Quotes: 

• “I think it’s so interesting how, you know, you can grow up thinking one way about your family life, and then you step into this awareness of what it really is.”
• “He loves us for exactly who we are, because He created us in His image—because He created us!”          
• “In college, I had my Bible. I would read it every day, then I would put it under my pillow and go do whatever the heck I wanted. I believed in God, and I loved him, but I didn’t live like it.”
• “It was some sort of lie that I started to believe when I was younger, that if I do these things, then ‘this’ will make ‘this’ true.”
• “I am trying to honor the fact that forgiveness and trust are not the same thing.”
• “I can forgive [my dad] and be kind to him, but I don’t have to trust him and let him into my safe spaces.”
• “We tend to think that when we come to know Jesus that everything is just ‘BING’ and resolved and wrapped up in this box with a pretty bow on it. And real life is often: God promises and does meet the desires of our hearts. Sometimes it’s now, sometimes it’s  later, sometimes it’s not really in this lifetime.”
• Three resounding themes: God is almighty. He loves us unconditionally. He will never leave us.
• “So many of us want to throw out the pain in our lives; the hardness of our lives; the embarrassing, depleting, revealing in our lives; and think, ‘Okay, now God can come in, and now He can do something with me.’”
• “God planted good in the soil of your pain.”
• “We have to really focus on who we are listening to for our identity.”
• Three ways to stay in the truth that God created me as a masterpiece: Read the Bible every day; pray every day “Who do you see me as?”; hang out with core people you can trust and confide in.

Links/Books/Resources Mentioned in Show: 

• Show Notes on godhearsher.org
• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• Subscribe on iTunes!  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast
• Order God Sees Her: 365 Devotions for Women by Women on Amazon.  https://amzn.to/32lYSgh
• Free eBooklet to Download: Know the Enemy: https://discoveryseries.org/courses/know-the-enemy/
• Order Laura Smith’s book How Sweet the Sound: https://amzn.to/36wMRqp 
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Verses Mentioned in Show: 

• Ephesians 2:10 NIV “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%202%3A10&version=NIV

“Adulting” can often make us feel bogged down by jobs, parenting, and other community responsibilities, and it can be difficult finding time to “play.” Elisa and Eryn look at the importance of loosening up and having fun, and why that needs to be a priority for all of us. It’s not a waste of time! In fact, we need to be intentional about it.    

Notes and Quotes: 

• “Why is it that when we get older we quit playing?”
• “I can think of all the other priorities in my life, but play is not one of them. It feels selfish.”
• “Maybe another reason we don’t play is because we need to give up a little control.”
• “The hardest time of my life to play was when I was mothering young children. Because they are always playing, and you want them to, but you don’t have any time to play.”
• “Try to enjoy play with [your kids], and then try to ask for a break. Ask for a sitter for the kids and go out for girl time or date night. And do something silly!”
• “I think sometimes we think it’s reckless, and really it’s being faithful to play.”
• Popcorn ideas of how we can begin to play: Do something you have never done! Take a pottery class. Learn to knit. Try oil painting. Be present. Play with your kids. Try to say, “Yes.” Get out in nature. Car karaoke. 
• “Play is for the very young. And when we are young, we aren’t scared to play. To play as an adult is to become yielded and vulnerable and open and exposed, and that is dangerous. We have learned we can be hurt in that condition.”
• “Doesn’t God delight in that vulnerability when we expose ourselves to His love?”

Links/Books/Resources Mentioned In Show: 

• Show Notes on godhearsher.org
• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• Subscribe on iTunes!  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast
• Download free lock screen: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• Elisa’s Instagram: @elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: @eryneddy

Verses Mentioned in Show: 

• Matthew 19:14 NIV “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2019%3A14&version=NIV

• Ecclesiastes 3:4 NIV “A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%203%3A4&version=NIV

We live in a culture that tends to avoid negative emotions. It’s not uncommon to hear someone say to another person who’s angry, frustrated, or sad, “Just buck up! Look on the bright side!” But negative emotions are important. Elisa and Eryn talk about one of the most important emotions—anger—and they explore ways to follow the signs to discover what’s really going on in our hearts and minds. 

Notes and Quotes: 

• “Anger is like a signal, it may not be the top emotion.”
•  “There is this aftermath of anger that just kind of lays before us. Sometimes there’s broken pieces of relationships, and sometimes there’s broken pieces of our own hearts.”
• “When we’re angry, could it be an expectation that’s not met?”
• “Anger can also come from blocked goals.”
• “Once I realized there are other layers under anger, I kind of felt a little more compassion for myself instead of all this self-condemnation and lostness.”
• Questions to ask yourself to get to the place of self-compassion: What’s this about? Why am I surprised? What has hurt me? Why am I hurting?
• “One thing I have learned in my relationship with the Lord is that He is so confident and so secure that my insecurity and my lack of confidence in the heat of the moment doesn’t impact Him or the way that He loves and sees me.”
• “He [God] probably is hurt that we self-condemn. I think He is probably disappointed that we self-separate from Him and accuse Him of being unloving when He is anything but [unloving].”
• When the anger switch flips, it’s easy to sin.
• “Anger can actually serve us and serve God’s purposes when we do our work with it.”

Links/Books/Resources Mentioned In Show: 

• Show Notes on godhearsher.org
• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• Subscribe on iTunes!  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast
• Order God Sees Her: 365 Devotions for Women by Women on Amazon.  https://amzn.to/32lYSgh
• Free eBooklet to Download: When Anger Burns. https://discoveryseries.org/courses/when-anger-burns/
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Verses Mentioned in Show: 

• Ephesians 4:26 NIV “‘In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%204%3A26&version=NIV

• Romans 8:28 NIV “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%208%3A28&version=NIV

We’ve all made bad decisions. Some of those bad decisions come back to haunt us, and some decisions we thought were good at the time end up having nasty consequences. Oftentimes, those moments lead to regret, and many of us struggle to move past our big mistakes. Humorist Liz Curtis Higgs joins Elisa and Eryn to share how we can find freedom from the past and hope for the future. 

Bio of guest: 

Liz Curtis Higgs describes herself as a former “bad girl” who met Jesus and is no longer defined by her mistakes. She’s a best-selling author and well-known speaker, and she wrote the foreword for the best-selling devotional from Our Daily Bread Ministries titled God Sees Her. Liz currently lives with her husband, Bill, in their Kentucky home.

Notes and Quotes: 

• “I have no comfort zone. I will tell anybody anything if it will point them to the grace of God.”
• “They saw past all the ick and said, ‘At the heart, she is a woman that needs to know Jesus,’ and so they just loved me right into the kingdom.”
• “God and His faithfulness waited.”
• “We all found ways to numb the pain of not being part of the right crowd and created our own crowd.”
• “For me, I am a girl who likes community, and I wanted that above all.”
• “When it says in Scripture, ‘He gives you the desires of your heart,’ it doesn’t mean He gives you every little thing your heart desires; it means He places in your heart the desires He would have for you.”
• “Some of it He dealt with honestly very quickly. . . . That is what I needed. Everybody is different. Some of us are weaned off the old life, and that doesn’t mean that you didn’t hear the Lord correctly or you’re disobedient.” 
• “The path for each of us is so unique; the Savior, though, is one and the same.”
• “We all share a kind of badness, and we all struggle with shame around badness. And my badness may not look like your badness, and yours may not look like mine. But we share it; and if we could just love each other in our badness and accept and not judge . . . wow, what a world that could be.”

Links/Books/Resources Mentioned in Show: 

• Show Notes on godhearsher.org
• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• Subscribe on iTunes!  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast
• Order God Sees Her: 365 Devotions for Women by Women on Amazon.  https://amzn.to/32lYSgh
• Free eBooklet to Download: The Forgiveness of God: https://discoveryseries.org/courses/the-forgiveness-of-god/
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Verses Mentioned in Show: 

• Psalm 37:4 NIV  Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+37%3A4&version=NIV
• Mark 10:18 NIV  “No one is good—except God alone.” https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2010%3A18&version=NIV