Peace in His Presence: Hope for the Anxious Heart

Michelle and Deb sit down and talk to Faith Doerr

How do you think about your thoughts and your feelings? Do you try and ignore them and hope they will sort themselves out? Magically get better?

Michelle and Deb wanted to address the importance of mental and emotional health and they invited their friend and fellow author, Faith Doerr to sit with them to have an honest conversation about mental health.

We invite you to sit at the table with us for this important conversation. Here are a few of the topics we cover:

*Naming your feelings (fine and okay are not feelings).

*The importance of talking through your struggles.

*We may not know why we feel a certain way and that is okay

*Practical tools to help you with your thoughts and feelings

I loved this conversation with Faith and Deb and we invite you to share it with others because God created us to live in community with each other and to help each other.

You can learn more about Faith here

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/brock-hewitt-stories-in-sound/through-darkness License code: 27VKNUPK6CPXSHYO

When sorrow stirs in your soul, how do you face it? Maybe like me, you want to look away because it feels too heavy for you to carry, and you wonder how you will bear its load.

If you have ever been overwhelmed by loss, devastated by a disaster, or weighed down by defeat, you know what sorrow feels like.

It's no wonder you may want to look away…you may even wonder how you can face a new day.

Jesus steps into your sorrow, and he carries it for you. The sorrow you are facing does not have the final say over the story of your life. As we face our sorrow, we can look beyond it to the Hope that we have in our Savior Jesus, the One who carries our sorrow and gives us His strength.

In this episode, Deb and Michelle, look at when sorrow makes us weary? What can we do? They share five different ways you can express your sorrow to God. Parts of this episode were from Deb Burma's Bible Study Be Still and Know: A Study of Rest and Refuge (Click here to learn more about the study)

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Have you ever grown so weary from waiting that your heart aches with sadness? You wonder if God is still listening. The silence causes your soul to hang heavy with sorrow and the scars run deep. But here are some precious truths:

• God always hears the cries of your heart.
• God's grace goes deeper than your sorrow
• God will never leave you nor forsake you
• God cannot break His promises to you.

Jesus says come all who are weary and I will give you rest. You will never bear your burdens alone.

In this episode, Michelle and Deb, look at the story of Hannah and how she pours out her heart before God. Hannah was weary from many things and God met her in her weariness and gave her His strength.

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/brock-hewitt-stories-in-sound/through-darkness License code: 27VKNUPK6CPXSHYO

How do you see yourself walking into 2022?

• Stepping in with confidence
• Sliding in like a ballplayer to home base and hoping you are safe
• Smiling but underneath you feel like you are barely holding on
• Searching for a place to rest and to try and breathe normal again.

Maybe you relate to one or all of these statements. There isn't a right or wrong answer.

I've spent a lot of time listening this past year and I've noticed that all of us are weary in some way.

As we peer ahead into 2022 we wonder what life will look like? Do we want to know?

We long for peace.

We long for hope.

We long for connection and to not be divided.

The scars of sorrow run deep through our souls from the past couple of years and we wonder how much more can we handle?

Jesus says come to me all who weary and I will give you rest. We don't enter this year on our own, but we enter into with our Immanuel, the God who is with us. Jesus gives you His peace and the rest He promises is for this moment and all the moments to come.

Friends, I am so excited. Deb Burma will be co-hosting a special podcast series with me called Weary Traveler.

In this episode, we will take a look at Psalm 63 and see how God strengthened King David's weary heart and how this Psalm can help you too.

Deb and I will also share some ideas of what you can do when you are feeling weary.

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/brock-hewitt-stories-in-sound/through-darkness License code: 27VKNUPK6CPXSHYO

Michelle was delighted to sit down with author, Anita McVey to talk to her about her devotional book, Because He First Fed Us.

Before God created mankind, He created a garden. God was preparing a meal for us before we arrived. He gave us our senses to fully appreciate and enjoy this world. He gave us our family and friends and opportunities to share with each other and with strangers. And He gave us His Word.

Food is a love language. It nourishes, heals, comforts and delights the body and the soul. There is a way to make delicious food even better: share it. When food is transformed into a meal, it becomes love in action. All the senses are engaged: sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Memories are revived. Stories are told. Gratitude is expressed. Conversations flow and wisdom is gleaned. Even the dirty dishes have a story to tell.

Listen in as Michelle talks to Anita about her book, why she wrote it, and you get to hear from the author about a couple of the devotions in the book.

You can read more about her book here.

You can learn more about Anita on her website, Picniclifefoodie.com

Have you ever noticed how your negative thoughts can become relentless, like a neighborhood bully? Your thought life impacts your emotions.

What can we do when we are struggling? God invites us to sit with Him and to pour our hearts before Him. He wants to listen.

As we empty out our frustrations and grief before Him, God fills us with His peace and surrounds us with His love. God holds you in His capable hands and will give you His strength to move forward.

Take some time to listen in to this episode. Michelle shares how Psalm 25 helped her to work through some difficult emotions.

As we enter into this Advent Season, we remember that the God of all creation steps into our story, which is His story. Our Immanuel meets us right where we are at, and He loves us beyond measure. He is with us in each moment of our life, holding us in His capable hands. What did this past year hold for you? Unexpected joy. Unspeakable pain. Anxiety and fear. Delightful moments. Managed or unmanaged chaos. Heart-crushing grief. Sickness. Separation from loved ones. Overwhelming emotions. Circumstances you did not choose. In every circumstance, God was with you. He holds you in His capable hands. Listen in as Michelle talks about the Hope Jesus gives us in uncertainty.

Are your thoughts a tangled mess as you try to sort through a problem you face? Your mind and heart grow weary as you struggle to find a solution.

Somethings in life cannot be fixed on our own, and God invites us to put our trials and troubles into His most capable hands.

God offers us Himself as a shelter, and He promises us to strengthen our hearts as we walk with Him to face whatever comes next.

Do you feel tension in your shoulders more often than you would like? Have you caught yourself holding your breath as if waiting for bad news? Is there an ache in your heart and at times you have no words to even describe it? Do you find yourself longing for peace?

You will want to listen to the podcast today? We are going to talk about walking in wonder when life feels weary.

November is right around the corner, a month where talk of gratitude is front and center. I don't have a problem having that as a focus at all, in fact, I think we should be grateful all year round.

But how can we do that when life feels filled with sorrow right now?

What can we do? Michelle offers some encouragement from God's Word and she also talks about a special gift that she has created for you. You can find it here.

May you rest in the promises of God, His grace is sufficient for each day.

In this episode, Michelle sits down to talk with author, Sarah Baughman about her book, A Flame in the Dark. It is a novel set in the time of Luther's Reformation and it's a story of God's grace, love, and mercy.

In this interview, Sarah shares with us what it would have been like to live during that time period and she talks about some of the characters in the book.

If you would like to learn more about the book you can find it here.

sarahbaughman.org