Life on Life with Punky Tolson

Mother's Day used to hurt my heart. Like a lot of you, my little girl dreams were to grow up, get married and have children. From the time I can remember I pretended my dreams to come true; playing house, mothering my baby dolls, and honing my God-given need to nurture— because I was wired for it. In fact, all women are wired by God to mother and nurture in some way. So, what do you do when your dreams haven't come true? Tune in and listen to the Mother's Day message you weren't expecting, and purchase The Four Priorities book at TheTolsonGroup.com.

In the previous episode, we unpacked the first part of Ephesians 2:10 that tells us that we are God's masterpieces. Today, we'll continue the second half of this verse– that we are created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God prepared in advance for us to do. So as God's masterpieces, we have the Master's work to do! And what is that? Tune in to find out!

Do you ever wonder what does God think about when he thinks about you? Well, to say that he thinks highly of you is an understatement, because God created us as his masterpiece! There are five things that I'll talk about in today's episode that if you can get them into your mind and your heart and believe these things– it will make a huge difference in the way you live your life and how you see yourself as God's child. Tune in!

We are not made to live isolated and alone, but we are made to have times of solitude. We're also wired to be social (to be in relationships) and our greatest relational need is our relationship with Jesus. Every other relationship in our life will be affected, positively or negatively, by the depth of our personal relationship with God. And that relationship requires SOLITUDE… quality time alone with Jesus. If we want to have "ears to hear" our Shepherd's voice—we're going to have to do our part and discipline ourselves— our heart and mind— to be quiet and listen. Tune in today for practical help in learning The Gift of Solitude!

The most important relationship in our lives is our relationship with Jesus. We've got to learn how to listen to his voice and know his voice. Jesus gives us his wisdom and his guidance to be able to hear him and discern what he tells us to do, so it's critical to our walk of faith that we learn to listen to him. But this is really, really hard for us! Right? So, why is that? Tune in and hear practical tips and tools for learning to listen to Jesus!

The question I get most often from women I disciple is "What does faith look like in real life?" As part of the answer to that question, I'm going to show you a sneak peek into my quiet time with the Lord. If you read the Bible but struggle to connect it to your life, then it's my prayer that this will help you. So, grab your Bible and read Acts chapters 3 and 4, and then tune in!

People leave relationships for all kinds of reasons– maybe it's a lack of commitment, a lack of communication, or a lack of meaningful, honest conversation. They drift apart from one another and then their interests turn elsewhere. It's the same with our relationship with Jesus. Like a spouse who may love their partner but has drifted away, so are we when we stop engaging with Jesus. How do we get back and fall in love again with our First Love? Tune in to find out!

Prayer is a vital necessity to our spiritual life. So, why is it so hard to pray? In the Christian faith, we pray to our God who is alive, who talks to us, and we can have a conversation with him. That sets us apart from every other religion and every other faith– our God is alive! And not only is he alive, but he wants to have a relationship with us! He loves the sound of your voice and he waits for you to speak to him. So, what's holding you back? Tune in today for practical help in strengthening your prayer life!

Go to punkytolson.com/podcast/ep72 to download the resources mentioned in this episode.

The greatest threat to our relationship with Jesus will always be the work that we do for Jesus. That's right! It's easier than we think to leave our First Love while we're busy doing the good work for Christ. How do we make Jesus a priority and return to our first love? Tune in!