Joyn Robinson (16:39)

What does being a woman of faith mean to you? Is it embracing the unique journey, growth, challenges, and strength that comes with being a Christian woman? What about sharing words of encouragement for other women on their faith journey?

Ali Yost (16:50)

We know it's sometimes hard to walk.

Joyn Robinson (16:52)

In faith every day, but the Glorify app is here to support and strengthen that journey. I will say a personal testimony of mine with the Glorify app is I love using it at night. I love using their sleep meditations, and it truly helps bring peace before going to bed. Glorify is the number one Christian daily devotional app. With Glorify, you can start your morning by reading the Bible passage of the day, diving into Glorify's daily devotional and wrapping up with an immersive experience called Daily Walk with God. Now, for all the godly women out there who want to live their best life, Glorify is the perfect resource to strengthen your faith in God. It gives you quick, practical tools to help you stay rooted in Jesus while learning to navigate life with grace. As you start the month with new habits, don't forget that March is also Women's History Month. So Glorify will be celebrating women of faith all over the world, highlighting their stories, challenges, joys, and the role faith plays in their lives today. And men, listen up. This is for you. I want you to dive into everything Glorify offers and think about how you are celebrating the women of faith in your life. Visit glorify-app.com alli right now to download the Glorify app for free. That's glorify-app.com Alli to download the Glorify app for free glorify-app.com alli I'm Joyn.

Eliza Lada (18:04)

Robinson, host of the new podcast the Women's Hoop Show. Each episode I'll be joined by a rotating group of women's basketball experts to talk wnba, college hoops, the new unrivaled league, and the shifting landscape of the sport. The game is growing and so are we. Listen to and follow the Women's Hoop show and Odyssey podcast, available now for free on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Ali Yost (18:33)

So no matter how many times your mind has gone into, you know, you're fantasizing about things or you're imagining that it's things could go this way if you just blank or if God just let me do this thing with this person, it'll just end in blank. And if, if this could just happen, like anything we've imagined is nowhere close to what God has prepared for those who love Him. It's not anywhere near what you could ever imagine what God has planned for your life and the things that you've been praying for, the things that you've been earnestly, earnestly praying for. And so just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean it will never happen. That God has made so many promises in this book that anything that we ask in his, in His Son's name, Christ Jesus, he will do. But there is a level of surrender that says, okay, God, but even if you have something better, I don't know, even if you have a better outcome, even if the outcome maybe is kind of like half what I thought it would be, but then half what you thought it would be, or maybe this doesn't come to pass because you have something better. Like, even if something doesn't come to pass, it doesn't mean that God forgot about that prayer, forgot about the fact that it actually, obviously it meant a lot to you for you to make that prayer. He's not just going to leave you high and dry and stranded, saying, sorry, you're not going to get that thing. And then I'm also not even going to have anything better to replace it. Do you know what I'm saying? Now, of course, this is only relevant to certain scenarios. Maybe this could be about a job, this could be about a relationship. When you surrender this thing, you've prayed about it, you've interceded, you've continued, you've earnestly, earnestly prayed about this thing, and you've also surrendered it and you've accepted, hey, God, but you're going to have your way. And I surrender this thing, I give it to you, I put it on the altar, it's yours. And I trust that whatever you do with it is the best thing for me. And then let's say that he doesn't let that thing flourish, right? You don't get the job, the relationship with this person that you thought you'd spend the rest of your life with or whatever it looks like, y'all, I'm just using examples. And it doesn't continue, right? We have to trust that the Lord is not the kind of God that says, yes, sorry, I didn't want that for you, and then just continues to just, like, look in a different direction, has nothing better for you. Like, we have to actually believe that that's his heart and that's the kind of father he is, is that if he's going to deny something and say, no, this isn't. It's probably an actually likely every single time he has something else prepared for you that's better. That's just his heart. That's who he is. And sometimes that's really hard to believe when there might even be time between those things. It might not be an immediate replacement. Now there's like this time of like, okay, God's denied this thing. It didn't prosper in my life, and now I'm just waiting. And there's like this in between time where you're like, it must be because he had something better for me, but I'm still waiting for that thing. Does he even have something better for me? Like, did he forget about me? I've seen the way he's done it in other people's lives. But for me, I just feel like, I don't know, maybe he forgot about me. I mean, he does have to keep track of, like, a billion children. He's got a lot of us here on Earth, so maybe I kind of, you know, slipped through the cracks and that's just a straight up blatant lie from the enemy. God could never forget about you. He could never, ever forget about you. He was so intentional when he created you. He knitted you so perfectly in your mommy's womb. He had every intention to support you in every single way. The big things, the little things, like, he was prepared to do that when he created you. So God forgetting you and you slipping through the cracks and, you know, just kind of becoming like someone over here while he's prioritizing all these other people is just not true. And maybe people have shown you that they can do that, but that's not who God is. But sometimes he doesn't give that replacement that's better for us immediately. Sometimes he does. Sometimes he does. Sometimes it's not that long of a waiting period, but sometimes there is a waiting period. So just because there's a in between, I feel like I should be plugging Ashley's book, the Joy of the in between by Ashley Hetherington. Y'all need to read that book. It's a daily devotional, actually. But it's true. Like, there has to be faith in God during that in between, knowing that he's the type of Father that would always give us something better. He's not going to take something out of our lives or not prosper. Something, even if it is a prayer of our heart, you know, or we believe that there's a certain thing that's good for us. We also have to believe that he's the kind of Father that has something prepared. He's prepared. Our God is efficient and he's proactive. Okay? So he's going to be prepared. He's prepared for that. I found this story online and I want us to all kind of read it together because I think some of us could probably relate to this. It's off of this website called Encourage Me and it says when you keep praying, but nothing is changing. I was angry at God. There were things I had been praying for, praying about and praying through, yet nothing seemed to be changing. Honestly, it felt like the more I prayed, the less things changed. I continued to pray earnestly. I had faith in who God is, which is where my anger was stemming from. I knew God could change things. So why wasn't He? My friends and I had been planning on going to a worship night at church, and when the evening arrived, I tried everything I could to get out of it. I didn't want to worship God. I didn't want to put a bow on things and pretend all was okay. I wanted to remain mad at Him. But I found myself inside a church at a worship night. Maybe God's voice would break through the thick wall of silence I've been encountering. Maybe I'd experience a fresh revelation. Maybe my heart would soften under the weight of his glory. For the first few songs, I stood with my arms crossed like a teenager. Then a song began to play about how God always remains the same. Something inside me broke as I sang. Tears flooded down my face, and the anger that twisted inside me felt a lot like grief. You say you are the same yesterday, today, and forever, I prayed. I know you can move in power. I know you can change things, I cried as I told God I felt hurt by Him. I didn't understand why it felt like nothing was changing, even when I knew he could change things. I still don't understand why sometimes God says yes to some things and says no to others. So what do you do when nothing seems to be changing? Even when you ask God to change it, you keep asking. It can feel like the worst kind of answer, especially when you're hurt by what can feel like God's silence. But Jesus told His disciples to keep asking, to keep seeking and to keep knocking. Jesus told his disciples stories to show them that they should always pray and not give up. Even when I act like a sulky teen in God's incredible kindness, he keeps the invitation wide open to keep asking, to keep coming. And the reason we keep asking and seeking and knocking and coming and crying and hoping is because God is faithful and trustworthy and always good. The mistake so many Christians make is praying only when we feel like it or praying only when we feel like we've tidied ourselves up. But that's not the invitation Jesus offers. His invitation through Paul is, to quote, never stop praying. We can accept his invitation each and every day. When we are crushed with despair, we can come to him and pour out our hearts. When our prayers are answered the way we asked, we can come to him with hearts overflowing with gratitude and thanksgiving. Jesus believed prayer works in Scripture. He told his disciples over and over to keep praying. Sometimes we see the direct results of our prayer. But for many of us, we won't understand until we come face to face with Jesus in eternity. Often we can't trace how our prayers change things, but we can choose to trust in our loving Father even when it feels impossible to understand. Prayer isn't about getting what we want. It's about getting to know Jesus. When we pray, we are in the presence of our loving Father, learning more about who he is and who we are. Prayer always works because it always brings us into the life changing presence of Jesus. Contrary to what we may feel, prayer isn't pointless. I don't know why some prayers seem to be answered clearly and quickly while others seem to go unanswered. But I do know prayer always works because prayer always brings us closer to Jesus. And the answer is always Jesus. In your despair, go to Jesus. In your gratitude, go to Jesus. In your anger, go to Jesus. Even when it feels like nothing is changing, go to Jesus. Prayer is the only thing that keeps us steady when we are drowning. Because Jesus is the only person who can hold us firm in the midst of the ground slipping beneath our feet. Prayer always quote works because prayer always brings you into deeper intimacy with Jesus. This was written by Eliza Lada and that was beautiful.

Noble (27:47)

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DSW (28:18)

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Ali Yost (28:48)

I love the conclusion in that of, you know, acknowledging that prayer always works. It kind of goes back to what we were sort of saying where, you know, we come to the Lord with prayers and these things that we are earnestly asking for. We're seeking, we're knocking, and it may not happen in the way that we thought it would. Or maybe our exception Expectancy with that time in prayer was God immediately answering it. And maybe he doesn't, but prayer always works because prayer always brings you into deeper intimacy with Jesus. And so prayer is always productive, no matter what, no matter if it's an immediate answer by God or if he makes us wait or it doesn't happen. It's productive because we actually get to sit in the presence of God and we get to know Jesus more. In those moments, I think that the times that I have come to the Lord in desperation with these prayers, it has brought me closer to him in a way, you know, where I still feel so comforted by the Lord. In those times where I'm just so desperate. I'm so desperate and I'm so vulnerable. I'm so raw and vulnerable. I feel naked. You know, spiritually, it's like it is very vulnerable to come to the Lord like that and to feel. Feel his presence and to feel his love and his comfort. It's just going to actually bring you closer to Him. It is coming to the feet of Jesus. And being honest about how we're feeling about things is going to bring us closer to Him. It's just going to make our relationship tighter with Him. Rather than feeling like these are things that you have to do on your own, that could be prayer, but that could just be like, hey, God, I'm going through this, or, hey, God, this is how I feel. I'm mad at you because I know that you have the power to do this thing and you're not doing it, just bringing those things to Him. And instead of being fearful that he's not going to accept that, and he's going to say, I'm sorry, that's disrespectful. Don't ever come to me with these emotions ever again. Instead of feeling that way and being like, you know what? I'm just going to be honest and say, this is how I feel. Believe it or not, at the least of the least of the least. In that situation, you're actually just going to leave that room, leave that situation, leave that moment being closer to Jesus than you were before you entered that moment with Him. And it's crazy that just in a moment that can happen where you can actually become closer to Jesus in intimacy after having a moment like that with him and coming into prayer with him that way. If you're praying and nothing seems to be happening, it's important to remember that prayer is not a magic formula to instantly get what you want, but rather a way to communicate with God. Sometimes the answer might be no, wait. Or God has a different plan, meaning the desired outcome might not materialize as you expect. Even if you continue praying, it's crucial to maintain faith, examine your motives, and trust in God's timing and wisdom. I also think that, I mean, this might be kind of cliche, and it's probably something a lot of us Christians have already felt and heard before, is like, you never know what the Lord is doing behind closed doors. You know, like, there's just so much that we don't see, see in the spiritual and in the physical that God could be doing that we just are physically not in front of. We. We don't see it happening. We don't. We don't know that it's happening. And so during the times of silence where you feel like God is just being really quiet about a certain prayer, we have no idea all the trillions and millions and thousands of things that God could be doing behind the scenes in the background that we're just simply not seeing. And so just because we don't see it doesn't mean that it's not real, doesn't mean that it's not happening. That goes for God himself. Like, just because we physically can't see him standing in front of us doesn't mean that he's not real. And so I think that that also comes very hand in hand with the way that he works, this invisible God. If we can't physically see him, do we still have faith that he exists? Yes, because we've seen the effects that he's had in our life. There's this analogy that I've heard that God is like the wind, where it's like, you know that the wind exists. Can you see it? No, but you can see the effects that the wind has around you. That's how you know that it does exist. You can feel it. You can feel the wind. You can see how the wind makes the trees, leaves, you know, ruffle. And like, you see the clouds moving in the sky. It's like, yes, wind exists and we see the effects and we feel wind, but we don't see a physical wind. You know what I mean? That's how God is where it's like, okay, we don't see God physically, but we do know that he exists because we see. See the effects that he has on our life. And then also we feel Him. He's very. We do feel Him. And I think that if that's the type of God that we serve, it shouldn't shock us that that's also the way that he moves, where we may not see the way that he moves, but it doesn't mean that it's not real. It doesn't mean that it's not happening. Yeah, I just think that it could even come down to, like, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who struggles with something, and she was telling me about how she was talking to someone else about the struggle that she has, this mental struggle that she has. And this other person was totally invalidating the thing that she struggles with because they had never experienced it before. And I just think that that is like, kind of also an example of, like, just because we haven't felt it, just because we haven't seen it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. Just because she's over here feeling this thing and you're over there and you've never felt it or seen it doesn't mean that this thing isn't real over here. You know what I mean? That's also the way that God moves is like, just because we don't see it or we haven't physically experienced it yet doesn't mean he's not working and he's not doing things to allow that thing to happen. And maybe it's not an immediate answered prayer by God because there are a lot of moving parts that need to happen first. And I will just say I'm going to testify to this too. So I'm going back to the story that I led with with this thing that I've been pleading to the Lord about. And that's same day that I was like, really, really desperately, like, on my face with the Lord about a few hours later that evening. God just showed me something that had to do with that very thing that I had been praying for. And I don't want to get into the details of it because it's near and dear to my heart and it's a very private thing. But I will say that God showed me something in that thing and I felt it was him saying, I got this. And I share that with you. I know that's vague, but I share that with you because I do believe that even in the midst of us waiting for God to deliver something, he can still speak to us and say, hey, I hear you, I heard you. I got this. And I don't think that it's wrong to even be like, hey, God, I want to feel your comfort during this time of me just trusting you with this thing. I've put it on the altar. I've surrendered It. But I would really love to feel your companionship and your comfort and your reassurance. And you can ask him for maybe signs or words or Scripture. He also had led me to Scripture, and it just led me to literal tears. And I felt like that was another way of him being like, I got this. You know, he's not telling me when it's going to happen. He's not going to tell me how it's going to happen. But it's like in that same day, he's comforting me about the thing that I prayed for. And I said, okay, I know that God has a plan. Then, like, I know that he does. Just in that comfort alone, I feel like that can be a way for us to say, okay, you know what? I trust him because he's comforting me in this, which means that everything is gonna be okay. And he's got it. Like, he's got it. So, anyway, I just wanna speak life into you guys, and I wanna validate you that if there are things that you have been waiting for and there are things that you've been praying for over and over again, potentially it could even have been for years. I want you to know that the Lord hears you. He's taken note of every word, and he cares. He cares so much because he created you. And so with creating you, he had also prepared to care about every single thing that you come to him for. He's prepared to provide, and he's prepared to take care of you and answer your prayers. He's prepared for that. But all he's asking is for us to just trust him when maybe it doesn't happen the way that we assumed or thought or hoped for. But that's. That's all he's asking us to do. All he's saying is, I. I need you to just trust me. And so I'm here with you through it, y'all. We are in this together. And we are going to continue to have faith in our Heavenly Father. We will not become hopeless, and we're not going to lose faith. We're going to continue to pray. Because that's also what Jesus literally told his disciples to do, was to continue to pray. And so if that's what Jesus is saying, we better believe that it's the truth, that we're just going to keep praying, we're going to keep having faith, and we're going to trust that our Heavenly Father has a really, really, really good plan for our lives. Actually, I'm going to read the very scripture that the Lord led me to moment of desperation. And I felt this. This gave me so much comfort. This scripture gave me so much comfort, y'all. It was Jeremiah 29:11. Okay, actually, let's start at Jeremiah 29:10. It says, this is what the Lord says. You will be in Babylon for 70 years, but then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you, says the Lord. I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again in your own land. Y'all the parts that got me was for I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster. In those days when you pray, I will listen. He's listening. In these days when you're praying, he is listening. And so that encouraged me so much. It really did. And I hope that it encouraged y'all, too. But, guys, I love you. Thank you for joining us for another week here at Christ With Coffee on Ice. And hey, guys, can we do something cool this week? Can we show somebody how cool Jesus is? Can we walk more like him, talk more like him? We're going to walk in faith, like he did. He had so much faith in the Father. And Jesus prayed all the time. So we're also going to pray all the time. And we're not going to give up. God has never given up on us, and so we are not going to give up on him. I love you guys. I'm so proud of you. I hope that you have a wonderful, wonderful week. And I will see you guys next Friday. Bye. Are some of y'all still listening? Okay, if you're still here, that means you're a real one, which is why I'm about to share this with you. If you've already caught up on all the episodes so far and you don't want to wait until next Friday for a new one, I have really good news for you. Subscribe to our Patreon to get early access to the episodes every week, early access to merch launches or any other exciting news, and receive personalized encouraging messages or Bible verses from us, subscribe to Our patreon@www.patreon.com C backslash CWCOI I do also want to mention that there is a way to give to the podcast, so if you ever feel led to donate, it blesses me so much and it helps allow the podcast to keep running. You can donate to our paypal at www.paypal.me backslash CWCOI we appreciate y'all and we love you so, so much.