How do we keep going in the struggle; how do we stay calm in the storm? Reaching out to God first, knowing He is always with us and developing relationships with other believers to help us right here right now. We help each other grow. to love bigger, deeper, better. Love is the answer but how, in this world, can we get more of it? In this week's episode, co-hosts Renée and Theresa remind us we each have a part to play!
How do we keep going in the struggle; how do we stay calm in the storm? Reaching out to God first, knowing He is always with us and developing relationships with other believers to help us right here right now. We help each other grow. to love bigger, deeper, better. Love is the answer but how, in this world, can we get more of it? In this week's episode, co-hosts Renée and Theresa remind us we each have a part to play!
The struggle is real. I've walked this journey for a while and I know that to stay on the path is not easy. How in the world can we keep going with all that's coming at us these days? What is this idea of working out our relationship with God, stay tuned because we're going to address some of those issues today, and it's going to help you stay on the path. Even though the struggle seems insurmountable.
Speaker 2:Welcome to episode 65 of the well-versed woman podcast. I'm Renee teller,
Speaker 3:Nine Theresa Morgan. You see Renee and I are two perfectly imperfect women. We come to you week after week, and we love to share our face in our testimonies with you so that your faith grows and that you have a vibrant walking relationship with the Lord.
Speaker 2:What we love to share and talk about is a relationship with God, how we do that, how we actually connect with our creator that we can't see. But before we get started talking about that, we know we have to plug in. We have to sit very still for a minute and actually invite God to be with you right now, during these next few minutes, we do that by closing our eyes, asking God to be with us, to open our eyes, to see our ears, to hear and our hearts, to know the wisdom he would impart to us today. So be very, still take these 20 seconds. They start right now.
Speaker 4:[inaudible]
Speaker 2:At set that's 20 little seconds. Can you imagine if you multiplied that by 10, how great you
Speaker 1:Would feel, how calm you would feel, and it's not easy. I know I have to remind myself every day to stop and do that. I've actually set an alarm a reminder on my phone day to make sure I sit still just for a couple of minutes and get re grounded, but about this idea of the struggles that we're all going through today, boy, it just seems like they're coming at us fast and furious. And if you've been around us, you know, for a while that I often talk about learning to love the struggle, learning to love those times. But truth be told I had a day yesterday that I was like, I don't know, throwing my hands up once saying I give up, I give up. Remember when you were a kid, I give, I give uncle uncle Theresa.
Speaker 3:I know Renee, how true, right? These two episodes, I just love last week. And this week, because you know, we're talking about the transformed life. You know, when we think about that, we say, okay, w what is transformation? Right? I just quickly looked it up Renee. And it says to make a thorough or dramatic change in the form appearance or character of, so God almighty himself in the person of Christ came to the earth, died on our behalf, right? Shed his blood so that our sin could be forgiven. When we make him Lord of our life. As we talked about last week, the holy spirit slips into our spirit in now we have the power of God. We've got that kinetic energy, if you will. And of course the almighty intellect in the one who loves this completely, we have him living inside of us, Renee to cause the transformation process, the change from one character, from one stance in life, from one place of being to a better place. And he does that first, as we learned last week or Renee in our spirit, right? He recreates our spirit. Second Corinthians five 17 were freshly, mentored were new. Then Renee, he goes to work and he transforms us from our spirits through our souls, our mind, our will, and our emotions. And I would love for us to look at our first scripture today, which is Philippians Paul. The apostle wrote this Philippians chapter two verses 12 to 13. And it says, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my absence only, but now much more in my absence, work out yourself, vacation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to willing to do according to his good pleasure or for his good pleasure. My goodness. So he sets up stand standards, right? Ways to live, to bring prosperity and health in every part of, in every part of our life, spirit, soul, and body, he will help us for the holiness that is inside of our spirit. He wants us to work out through our souls in Renee. He comes along in the presence of his spirit, which we we know is the holy spirit to help us accomplish all of the change in that will bring us the prosperity, the success and joy. Isn't that beautiful. So it should, we need healing in our body. He helps to bring us healing through wisdom. It can be through natural needs. It can be through his power, right? We don't put out in a box Rene, but we allow him to bring the necessary change to our life that so that that transformation process occurs. And before you know it, my goodness, if it was healing or health in your body, that takes place. If it's you need a better job, he shows you how to get a better job. If it's relationship problems, he starts working in showing you what to do for relationship problems. If it's a problem with your thinking, he starts and changes that so that your behavior in your actions in life bring you to that place of joy, success, and health. So, wow. I know that it's a lot, but it is the truth.
Speaker 1:It is a lot. I just want to pause for a minute on a couple of things. I think sometimes Teresa, we feel that we've, we've asked God to take control of our lives and then things aren't happening. I, I have to remind myself it's a two-part process. I can't decide, you know, make the decision and then go about my life. I need to be engaged. And so for me, when I recognize or feel the struggle continuing it's, it's the way I think my relationship with God is, is, you know, when things are going smoothly, so to speak, I begin to go back to the old Rene of feeling like, oh, I've got this. I can do it, Renee. You know, God helps those that help themselves. Renee, just, you, you got this, you keep going, you don't need God so to speak, but the struggle reminds me or those times when I feeling frustrated, oh yeah, you know what? I need to talk to him. I need to work out my salvation. I need to take action. It's not just sitting back and saying, oh, well, God's supposed to be transforming my mind. God's supposed to be working out this relationship. Why isn't he doing it? It takes action on our part. It's not just this, this magic that God's going to work and we don't have to do our part. That's a important piece for me. I just also wanted to go back to the scripture you read, and I don't know who is catching it, but in, in the Philippians two verses 12 to 13, Theresa, you just had a little slip of, uh, of a word. It says, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only you used the word absence twice. So what God's saying there, Jesus, not in as in my presence, only like when I'm with you, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Right.
Speaker 3:That's right. And I love when you said really it's a two way street, meaning exactly what you said. We have to partake. There is an action on our part that we have to be invested in, which is through prayer and through transforming in the renewal of our minds to God's word, because God's word is a representation of how to live and how to live right in this world. So that health and prosperity and success will come. So you're, you're absolutely correct. Um, you know, it's like the person that, you know, believes for let's say financial prosperity. Well, they can't just sit home. Right? They have to put their feet on the ground. They have been, you don't get educated, look for a job. So God, that's the beauty, the beauty of this situation, this truth with God is he wants to work with us. Right? It's so relationship Rene that you and I talk about that you and I have experienced for years and years with God, it's the relationship where we do our part. He does his part and we grow together and our face grows. He has, we watch him do what only he can do Renee. Right,
Speaker 1:Right. And it's the reminder for me, Tressa that, you know, I often pray more of you, God, less of me. And, and by that, I mean, you know, grow my, grow. My spiritual may, my real me less of the fleshly Renee, you know? And, and that's the transformation that we're working on. You know, we were born into the world in a physical fleshly way. And it's that understanding that we talk about a lot. We are spirit, but we have to work on our spirit. Just like we work on our flesh, frankly, we work on what we eat and we work on our exercise. We need to work on our spirit. And that is the relationship, the connection with our creator, with our spiritual leader, the king of all the universe. Right.
Speaker 3:That's very true. And I, you know, if we go back to the premise that we talked about last week and that we saw in second, second Thessalonians, you know, we're a, three-part being, we are a spirit. We were made in the image of God and he is spirit. Uh, we have a soul, our mind, our willing emotions. And we carry those things in this physical body. You know, our earth suit, if you will, this, this tent, uh, Paul calls it, uh, in first or second Corinthians. So, you know, when the salvation and the holiness occurs in our spirit, God is asking us then to take that with his help and transform it through our souls, our mind, our will and our emotions. And how do we do that? He tells us in the book of Romans chapter 12 verses one through two, which Paul wrote,
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love this one traces. So everyone really listened right now. This is one of my favorites.
Speaker 3:Yeah, me too. Me too Renee. Cause it talks about, you know, our soul and it talks about what to do with these bodies, right? So he says, therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters by the mercies of God to present your bodies, right. Your earth. So dedicating all of yourselves set apart as a living sacrifice holy and well, pleasing to God, which is your rational, logical, intelligent act of worship. Okay. And then he goes on to say, do not be conformed to this world any longer with its superficial superficial values and customs, but be transformed and progressively changed as you mature spiritually by the renewing of your mind, focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes so that you may prove for yourselves what the will of God is that which is good and acceptable and perfect in his plan and purpose for you. That's a lot of words. I'm just going to break it down real quick. You know, he's saying there's the prayer, right? Come to me, present your bodies, a living sacrifice, meaning dedicating all yourselves in the morning. Father. I thank you. I present myself to you father and I pray Lord that today. My will lines up with your well, with your ways of behaving your attitudes, father, your perspective father gives me wisdom. Lord, I purpose to align myself father with, with you, right, with your plans for my life. And then he goes on to say Renee, to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Right? Which encompasses our, our will, our attitudes, our emotions, our thinking patterns. So what do we renew it to? We renew it to God's values, which are found where in the word of God, you know, so quick example, what does that mean? It means that we read our Bible. It means that we go to a good church where a pastor is preaching the word of God, where we're being taught. It means that when we see something in God's word. So for instance, I see Paul says in the word, I think in first or second Corinthians do not gossip. Right? Pick us up away. So you say, oh, okay, gee. Yeah. I feel like I'm in a lot of circles where people are talking about one another and gossip, the paying, right? She, that's not God's way that's character assassination. I think I'm not going to partake in that. So those are the things when we see it in God's word, we say, okay, that is an example of how God expects me to live in. When we start lining up in our actions, line up with the word, we will see on move on our behalf in that maturity that he talks about will start coming into our life. So God doesn't, you know, God doesn't clean a fish before he catches it. He catches us all in the boat of salvation. And then he starts cleaning up our life. And when that occurs, the maturity and the security of knowing that you are being made into the image of Christ that is starting to take place and it just brings and sustains life when we act and behave in a righteous manner. Right.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right. Teresa. I love the boat analogy. He doesn't start cleaning the fish before he catches it. That's so awesome. But the other thing is he also, doesn't just clean the fish without we, the fish asking him, giving him permission. I love that, that he respects us and we need, and that's what our prayer life is all about. You know, prayer is just simply this discussion with God, this, uh, stopping to have coffee with the one who created us, the hopping to, to sit still long enough to talk to him, to give him permission, to do the work that needs to be done. You know, when I, uh, yesterday I talked about being in a situation where I was struggling just emotionally and, and saying, why am I in this place? Why, you know, I had to stop and, and talk to him right in the, I didn't go in a separate room, but I brought him to my consciousness, Teresa and asked him to, you know, immediately, you know, help me to be still and calm to know that he was there with me and to remind me, or let me know what it is. He wanted me to do, how he needed me to show up what, the struggle that I was feeling it or experiencing, or the, the uncomfortableness, right. That we all go through every single day. I had to give it to him and say, you know, I'm here, I'm your vessel in my flesh. You know, I, I, I request, I re you know, I beg you Lord to be in me and to do what you want to do right now to, to take over, to give me peace and calm and to, to allow me to let you work. And not me, I don't know. Does any of that makes sense?
Speaker 3:That's so true, Renee, and you and I have walked with the Lord and, uh, we understand, we, you know, we have been, um, in his word for so many years. Um, you know, when you're with someone, uh, Renee, I know your patterns of your beautiful patterns of behavior. I know how loving, gentle, generous, intelligent you are. So I don't always have to be in your presence to know that those are your ways in that really is how it is with the Lord. Although he is, we are in his presence all the time because he dwells in us, right. But once we start understanding his patterns of behavior and the wisdom that comes from that, we start acting the same way. And when that happens, we start acting like God, right? Where we're in, that where we're being made. The Bible says into the image of Christ transformed into his image. Let's see what the Bible says. In second Corinthians, chapter three, we're neighbors, the 17 and 18. It says now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is. There is Liberty man's emancipation from, true freedom. All right. And we all with unveiled face continually seeing as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are progressively being transformed into his image from one degree of glory, to even more glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. So what he is saying again, I love this scripture because it's exactly what has been taking place in my life for 27 years, Renee. It's exactly what's been taking place in your life as well, is that we are progressively, right? From one point of time to the next we're being changed into his image, into the image that he originally created humanity to be in before sin occurred. So we are living, breathing, walking testimonies of God's grace in our life. You know, I've had people say to me, how can you, you are behaving differently in this situation? How can you be so calm here? That's the point? That's the testimony. Renee is other people can see them. Richard, the date that we are walking in, in the common, the peace, even in the midst of the storm and say, what is it about you? And we can say, Hey, I know I've given this to God, or we can say Romans 8 28. I know he's turning this around together for my good, or I can wake up one morning. And he downloads the wisdom that I need for the day like he did yesterday. When I was working on a project, I woke up in the morning and all of a sudden I knew exactly the calculations that needed to be made. So this is what we're talking about here. A living, breathing, relay relationship with the God of the universe who started this whole thing, created all things. And eventually is bringing all things to a culmination and he loves us and he lives in breathes in, in us. And so, of course, I'm going to follow his lead. I've learned over time, I've read his word and then I've experienced him in my life. And my goodness, my life has changed her name. I'm not, you know, I'm not the same as I was yesterday or a year ago, a year ago or 27 years ago when I first,
Speaker 1:Mm. So true. And I think another reminder for us all is that we have each other, that when you're feeling that struggle or feeling like you're in a storm, and, and of course, as you said, Theresa, God is always with us. It's like that book who moved, who moved my cheese or something like that. But that idea that he is always here, sometimes that spiritual connection isn't enough, which is why he gave us the body of Christ, why he gave us each other, which is probably the last point of, of this conversation, Theresa, the scripture of how we're all gifted, different, how we need each other, how he intended us to uplift each other so that we have God in the flesh with us all the time in other. So I really get so much wisdom and wise godly counsel from having a friend like Theresa and, you know, and she's of course in the flash, we get to sit together, we get to be together. We get to share the wisdom that God has given each of us with each other. So I think that's the other point when we are talking about this space of working out our salvation, we do it together. And that's what the church is called. And church is really, you know, communing with each other, getting together with each other, like we did, we talked a couple of episodes ago about the baptism that occurred. That was church. We weren't in a building. We were outside, we were in a space gathered together in his name. And so the, the scripture Theresa about the different gifts,
Speaker 3:I love what the Bible teaches in Ephesians chapter four, verses 11 through 13. Again, Paul, the apostle wrote the book of Ephesians and these scripture say, and he himself, meaning Christ gave some to be a possible, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith in the knowledge of the son of God, to a perfect man, meaning mature to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So absolutely that's that talks about transformation, right? Till we all come to the unity. Right? Um, so that is, we are coming to a mature man to the measure of the fullness of Christ. So it talks about how the transformation process takes place. So it's not only by the renewing of our mind to God's word, but it's also exactly what you said, Renee it's by relating to one another in the body of Christ. It is by being taught by pastors and teachers and others who have been gifted with gifts of teaching to teach the body of Christ. And before, you know, it, my goodness maturity takes place. And really isn't the essence of life. Isn't that maturity. It, it shouldn't, we all be growing, you know, Renee, I look in the world and everything that has and any sort of movement, even plants, right? There is a, there's a process from beginning to end of growth. And so our lives are supposed to be a continual process of growth so that we can stand mature, mature spirits, soul, and body so that we can be a good content Tanner of that love. Right? The Bible says in Romans five, five, that the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts, through Christ Jesus. We're supposed to be good containers of love. So we can spread that love and help others in this world that needs so much help Renee. Huh? Yeah.
Speaker 1:I, I love that expression, containers of love. And you know, there is levels of that, right? Like that's my prayer is that I can love more because you know, honestly, in our flash, in my flesh, in the world that we're all living in, it's hard to love sometimes. I mean, I'm sure everybody's experienced it, but that is the growth process. So it's exactly Theresa. What are we growing for? We're growing to be, to, to grow love within us, for us, for others, for the world. Because going back to our generation, what the world needs now is love sweet love. It's the only thing there's much too little love, but again, God is love. If we want to simplify, we wanna, you know, do God for dummies, you know, those books, uh, accounting for dummies, you know, God for dummies, God is love. Our job is to be containers of love and grow that. And what we're talking about today is how do we do that? You know, we develop our relationship with this creator and we get around other people who are trying to do the same because we're all gifted differently and we need each other. I need your trees. I couldn't do it without you
Speaker 3:In Renee. I could not do it without you either. You know, there's a safety net. Uh, when we, uh, relate with, uh, believers there, there's such a safety net because the God that's in me is the same God that is in Renee. And if I'm having a bad day, which I do, right, we're, we're all, I'm not perfect. No one has achieved perfection. There's only one perfect one. And he happens to live in five me. He happens to live inside Renee, but if I'm having a bad day, I can call Renee and say, Renee, I'm having trouble with this. Can we pray? And the fountain of wisdom that is in her, the holy spirit, all of a sudden starts activating. And all of a sudden that wisdom that I need, or she'll, she'll share a scripture. And before, you know, it I'm back on that path. And you know, in this world, you know, there are many voices. The Bible says there's so much coming us, that we have to sometimes pull back and say, what is truth, right? What is truth, Lord? Where, where am I going with this? And that's why he's given us the Bible in the precious holy spirit to keep us from air or to keep us from being deceived in Renee. That we'll probably end with this scripture today. And it's the next scripture in Ephesians chapter four, it's verse 14 that says, as we are taught, he has, we meditate in his word. As these things are taking place, that will be no longer children tossed to and fro carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men and the cunning, craftiness and deceitful plotting. So that's so important, especially in this day and age, where is open wide to the world. There's so many ideas and thoughts, some good, some not good, some evil, some men to get us off the path that boy Renee, we need our Bibles and we need the presence and the wisdom of the holy spirit, every step we take. And I'm so grateful that he loves us so much, you know, Renee, that he came, that he died. And when we offer an invitation to invite them into our heart, boy, he slips right on in, and he is our savior and he is the wisdom. And he is the lover of our lives, Renee.
Speaker 1:And we get so much of that love and wisdom from the word, which is why we have a favorite scripture Theresa
Speaker 3:That's right. So Romans 10 verse 17 says, so then faith comes by hearing,
Speaker 2:Hearing by the word of God, thanks for listening. We love you. We're so glad you listened to this episode, but we would love for you to subscribe to this channel rate and review it. And we'll send you a journal. Journaling is so important to go back to some of those episodes. We will send you a free journal in the mail. And we talked a lot today about community and being in a good place with other people who are struggling and sharing the love of God. We do that through a Facebook community called well-versed woman. So search for that, ask to join. We'll get you in that group last but not least. The show notes contain the word of God. We summarize the scriptures that we discussed in this very episode, right down in the show notes. So scroll down on whatever app you're listening. Sometimes you need to click on the details button and it'll take you eventually to those show notes. So download those, print them out, put them on your mirror until next week. We love you. Bye now.