How do you tell the difference between the Holy Spirit challenging you to read the Word more and the enemy telling you that you aren’t doing enough?

When we have spiritual disciplines, we can fall into traps on both sides of the road:

1. You do really well and end up putting your confidence in your ability and discipline, or

2. You don’t do well, and you feel like a failure

“All spiritual disciplines lead us to the realization that we can’t do anything without Jesus.” They help us realize that we need God’s help to meet with God.

There’s a difference between conviction and condemnation.

Condemnation = shame. You aren’t good enough. Have a pity party.

Conviction = love. God loves me, and I love him, and I want to express that more.

Listen for the voice of a loving Father. He knows what we need and what we don’t need. He wants to meet with us.

The value of the discipline is to keep you coming to God. If you aren’t intentional, you can gradually drift away. There are tried and true ways to meet with God. If I don’t have every discipline through every season, that’s OK.

Don’t seek an experience, but seek to show up. He’s happy to spend time with us even if we don’t have a mountaintop experience. Even if it was so ordinary you don’t remember it, it’s keeping you alive.

There are many ways to meet with God. Learn them. Try them. Incorporate them all into your life in some way. Evangelism, service, fellowship, celebration, prayer, fasting, studying Scripture, silence, and more.

In “Sacred Pathways”, Gary Thomas explains that there are different ways that God relates to each of His kids. Those that help you feel close to God incorporate daily, and the others not neglected, but perhaps done less often.

I prayed with faith, and God didn’t answer. That’s so confusing.

Do we have the courage to pray big prayers for specific things? Or do we fear not being answered so we just keep it general?

We both share recent stories of praying for things we believe align with God’s will, that we’re confident that He can do, and yet He doesn’t. Instead, He invites us to surrender, to thank Him even when He says “No”, and to receive His comfort.

When it feels like trust has been broken, do we dare continue to ask God for more?

Psalm 86:17 asks God, "Show me a sign of your favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me."

For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. - Psalm 30:5

We have to choose to trust again. We have to recall His character, keep believing, and come boldly to our Father to ask in faith for great things (and small things).

Look at the prayers He has answered and keep praying. God Himself told us to keep banging on His door and asking for good things.

In this episode, we talk about how we deal with anxiety on a day-to-day basis, whether at work, at home, or in our relationship with God.

Matt starts by sharing that his job as a teacher isn’t just to hit standards and achieve objectives; it’s also to remember God’s presence and carry it with me. Meditating on and memorizing Scriptures like these helps a lot:.

Psalm 33

18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,19 that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.

20 Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.21 For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.22 Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.

Psalm 34:

19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

Lance then shares about how Jesus is our peace. He’s the Author and Perfecter of our faith. So, why do we get anxious?

Matthew 6

28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

O you of little faith… How do we grow in faith?

People say, “Have faith.” How do we do that?

1. Looking back at what God has done for me in the past

2. Looking around at what God has done for others

3. Looking into God’s Word and up at His character

We end with discussing how returning to our first love doesn’t mean trying to get back to the “first date” feeling or the “Honeymoon” phase. Love in a marriage grows in daily choices and commitment. Returning to our first love means choosing every day to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

When we know who God is, we know we can trust Him. We don’t need to manipulate God into manipulating our feelings. We are stable through the ups and downs of our emotions because His love is consistently stable.