Podcast
Walk Boldly With Jesus
Hosted by Catherine Duggan · EN
Does life feel extra hard right now? Is it difficult to find joy in your day to day living? Do you feel like something is missing? I did. I was struggling with all of it. Life seemed so hard. Then one day I realize what was missing. I needed more Jesus in my life. Our home needed more Jesus. This may be just what you are missing too! This podcast will give you tips on how you can become closer to Jesus. It will talk about scripture and how those stories can relate to your everyday life. It will help you find joy in life again and teach you to be bold with Jesus by your side. If you would like to reach me you can email Catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com or go to my website findingtruenorthcoaching.com
Music: "Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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You Can't Miss God's Plan for Your Life
Jul 1000:08:44Tap to summarizeYou Can't Miss God's Plan for Your Life Proverbs 19:21 “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” I thought today’s verse went well with yesterday’s episode. Yesterday’s verse talked about being guided by the Holy Spirit. Today, we are being told that we may have many plans in our hearts, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. What does that mean? Does that mean that it doesn’t matter what we want because we just have to do what God wants us to do? No, that is not what this verse is saying. This verse lets us know that God has a purpose for our lives and that it will prevail. How we get there is up to us. However, if we want to get there the quickest and most effective way, then we will let the Holy Spirit guide us there. Oftentimes, we don’t stop and ask God what he thinks we should do. We just go about our day doing what we want to do or what feels good to us. When we have a big decision to make, sometimes we do stop and take time to think about it, maybe even pray about it, but after we pray about it, do we listen to see what the Lord has to say about it? Do we pay attention to the feelings in our body and see if the small voice inside of us is telling us to lean one way or the other? I love that this verse assures us that the Lord’s purpose will prevail. I find great comfort in that fact. I have seen and heard evidence of this when I read stories or hear people’s testimonies about how they went down the wrong path for a long time, but in the end God brought them back to where they were supposed to be. I have been told that if it is God’s plan, no one can take it away from you. I think this is true. However, I do think things we can do and things others can do to us can delay that plan or that purpose from taking place. A great example of this is the story of Jonah in the Bible. God had a great plan for Jonah. It says in Jonah 1:1-2, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.’” God wanted Jonah to let Nineveh know that God saw their wickedness and that if they didn’t repent, then in 40 days Nineveh would be overthrown. Jonah actually heard the word of the Lord. He was tasked with this important job. What did Jonah do? He ran away. He got on a ship going in the opposite direction. Now, here is where we can see that God’s plan will prevail. God created a storm for the ship to run into. Jonah was thrown overboard and swallowed by a whale, and then a few days later was spat out on shore and went to Nineveh. So, yes, God’s plan did prevail. However, can you see how this is a good example of doing what we are told or asked to do the first time around, instead of trying to do things our way? Can you see how Jonah not only delayed the fulfillment of God’s purpose for him, but also made it much worse for himself? The same things happen to us. We feel like we are supposed to do something, but we don’t want to, so we go in the opposite direction. Many of us, even if we don’t know that God is talking to us, still know when He wants us to do something. We all have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. So, if you feel a nudge to call someone you haven’t talked to in a while, that is probably the Holy Spirit nudging you. If you take the time to call that person, you will see why you had that nudge. Sometimes we do something and get this feeling inside that what we are doing isn’t right, yet we ignore it. Then something happens, and it can prolong our purpose from God. For instance, you are with someone, and you know inside they are not the person you should be with. However, you stay anyway. This could delay God’s plan for you and the person you are supposed to be with. Oftentimes God asks us to do something, and we don’t understand why. It doesn’t make sense to us, and so we don’t do it. That can also take us down the wrong path or make us miss the path altogether, forcing us to take a really long detour to get back to where we were. I bet we can all think of a time in our lives when we took a wrong turn, and we had to take a detour to get back on track. One example I heard the other day was a young adult who got his degree in engineering because that is what his parents wanted him to do. He knew his heart wasn’t in it, but he did it anyway. Then, when he graduated, he earned his Master’s degree in counseling, became a licensed mental health counselor, and is now living the purpose God had for his life. Would he have gotten there sooner if he had listened to his inner voice sooner instead of outside influences? Maybe, but the important thing is not how long it takes us to get there, but that we do get there. I think what the Lord wants us to hear this morning is that his purpose prevails. Some of us are worried about doing anything because we are worried it is not what God wants. We want Him to reassure us every step of the way that we are still going the right way. That has not been my experience. In fact, I saw a YouTube video from Father Mike Schmitz, and he said that we want constant reassurance, but if God is not telling you to stop doing what you're doing, then keep going forward. God will tell you when to make a change, when to stop something you are doing, or when to start doing something else. If you aren’t hearing or feeling anything, then you are probably fine to keep doing what you are doing. In the end, God’s purpose will prevail! We just need the Holy Spirit to guide us! Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to thank you for guiding us. We are sorry for all the times we didn’t listen and for all the wrong turns that we took. We ask that you help us to listen to you more. We ask that you talk louder when we act as though we can’t hear you. We thank you that your purpose prevails. We thank you for always being so faithful. We love you so much, Lord. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen! Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Will you help me reach the people who need this message? Share this episode today with someone who could use encouragement. It really helps me out when you share this podcast. I look forward to seeing you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day! Today’s Word from the Lord was received in November 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “Do you love me, my children? Do you call me often, my children? Do you hear my love flowing in every fiber of your body, crying out? Come to me. Come to me. I have given you a gift, spirit to spirit. You use it less and less. I want you to be strong in my love. Use your gifts. Call on me. Spirit to spirit needs to be strong. It will not be strong until you use it.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace
Transcribe →Are You Letting the Holy Spirit Guide You?
Jul 900:10:04Tap to summarizeAre You Letting the Holy Spirit Guide You? Galatians 5:25 “If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.” I love any verses that talk about the Holy Spirit because I don’t think any of us realize the power that we have living inside of us. The Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, lives in each one of us. That is amazing. That is something that we should think about more often than we do. When was the last time you thought about how amazing it is that you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you? When was the last time you thought about the Holy Spirit at all? The first half of this verse says, “If we live by the Spirit…” So, before we move on from that, we should ask ourselves, “Do I live by the Spirit?” When I looked up this same verse in the Message translation, it provided a bit more detail, so I want to read it to you now. “Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and the other worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.” I love the beginning part of this verse in this translation for a couple of reasons. First, it reminds us that we have a choice. Did you know you have a choice? Some of us may have grown up Catholic, or Protestant, or this denomination or that, and our hearts may not be in it, but we choose to stay because that is all we know. This is ok, but it is important to remember that you have chosen the life you have. This is important because we can often blame things on the life that we have. We can forget that we make choices every single day, and that the life we are living is directly related to those choices. So now that we know we have a choice, are we choosing things that will give us the life we want? Are we choosing joy over anger? Are we choosing kindness over judgment? Are we choosing love over hate? Our choices are very important. Two people can have the same job, make the same amount of money, be married, and yet live very different lives. One could be saving for retirement and have money to go on vacations. The other could be living paycheck to paycheck. One could love going to work, and the other could hate their job. What makes the difference? The choices they make and what they decide to focus on. The next important thing, I think, that the translation of the verse says is, “That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and the other worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.” Comparison is the thief of joy. We all know this. We have all said this. Yet, we still can’t help but compare ourselves to others. We look at social media and see others living the life we want to live. We see their car, house, kids, and marriage, and we want what they have. I love how the Message translation says, “Each of us is an original.” God did not create you to be me, and he did not create me to be you. You are not supposed to be your neighbor, sister, brother, or best friend. You were created to be exactly who you are. Nothing more and nothing less. When we choose to live in the Spirit, this is what we get to do. We get to live authentically, trusting that God has a plan and that he is orchestrating our lives to fit into his plan. The second half of today’s verse says, “Let us also be guided by the Spirit.” Are we allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us? Are we pausing before we make a big decision to see what the Holy Spirit thinks we should do? Are we taking the time to listen to the Lord’s voice on a daily basis so that when He does have something important to tell us, we will recognize his voice? I want to share with you something that I didn’t realize until I started taking the Encounter School of Ministry classes. You can actually ask God questions, and then if you listen, He will answer them. I don’t know why it took me so long to realize you can have a back-and-forth conversation with God. I don’t think it is something many of us know or believe. It is true, though, and it is amazing! When I think of this part of the verse, “Let us also be guided by the Spirit,” I think of a retreat I went to several years ago. I was really struggling in my marriage and with parenting, and God told me I wasn’t coming to Him. I didn’t think this was true, as I prayed to Him about it all the time. He told me that although it was true that I prayed for help, I didn’t actually sit and listen to what He thought I should do about it. I felt like He told me I was always turning to others, books, or podcasts for my answers instead of turning to Him. What about you? Are you searching everywhere for your answers? Are you going to everyone except the one who has all the answers? Why do we do this? I think it is because we don’t know that God is talking to us. We don’t know that God will give us the answers if we ask. Also, it takes patience to wait on God as He doesn’t always give us the answer right away. Sometimes it takes a bit, and we are a very impatient people as a whole. Today is our chance to change that. Today is our chance to come to God first and let the Holy Spirit guide us. Before we make a big decision, we can pause and ask God what He wants us to do. We usually get a gut feeling one way or another. I have a friend who always asks God for some sort of confirmation when making a big or important decision. She will ask Him to show her something specific, and if she sees it, she knows that it is the right decision. God wants to be in our lives. He wants us to come to Him with our problems, with our joys, with our sorrows. He wants us to rely on Him, including asking for advice when we don’t know what to do. Or asking for confirmation when we think we know what to do but want to just make sure. If we choose to live by the Spirit, then the Spirit will guide us. We just have to let Him! Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode. Lord, we thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit. We thank you for leading us and guiding us. Lord, help us to make time as we go throughout our day to listen to you. Help us to pause and ask what you think we should do before we make any big decisions. Help us to allow ourselves to be guided by you. Lord, we love you so much, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!! Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I want to invite you to join my mentoring group. This mentoring group is a safe, judgment-free space to grow in your relationship with God. If you’ve been looking for that, this is the place for you. This month we are talking about the love of the Son, and last night’s session was great. It reminded us all that Jesus accepts us right where we are. He isn’t scared of the real us, he actually moves in closer to the real us. There is a link in the show notes if you want to check out all the details for mentoring. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day! Today’s Word from the Lord was received in November 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “I know your interior struggles. I know every single thought that the devil feeds you in order to make you curse yourself and burn yourself. I love you, my precious ones. Stay strong. Keep trying. Keep moving forward. I will let nothing hold you from me or your purpose. I kiss each of you.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace
Transcribe →Witness Wednesday #215 Joanne & Jasmin
Jul 800:14:45Tap to summarizewww.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace
Transcribe →God Is Holding Your Hand (replay)
Jul 600:10:39Tap to summarizeGod Is Holding Your Hand Acts 18:9-10 “One night, the Lord appeared to Paul in a vision and said, “Do not be afraid. Continue with your preaching, and do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack you or try to harm you, for there are many in this city who are my people.” I always get a bit jealous when I hear verses that say the Lord appeared to so-and-so in a dream or that they were visited by an angel. Then I remember that, although I am not being visited by an angel that I am aware of, if you listened to the episode on angels, you know we aren’t always aware when we are visited by an angel. Although I am not aware of any visits from angels or the Lord in my sleep, the Lord does show up and talk to us each and every Thursday during prayer group. He also talks to me during my prayer time, so I really have no reason to be jealous. I don’t know if you ever felt like I did. Have you ever been jealous that some people seem to hear the word of the Lord and you can’t? If this is the case, I want to assure you that He wants to talk to you. God is always talking to His people; we just struggle to listen sometimes. If you are struggling to hear the Lord. If you wish, you could ask Him a question and really hear an answer. I want you to know you can. It is possible. If you cannot hear Him, it is not because He is mad at you or because He is punishing you. There could be a number of reasons why you can’t hear Him. Maybe you are harboring unforgiveness toward others, which can block all kinds of graces. Maybe you don’t believe you can hear Him, so you are afraid to sit in the silence and give Him time to talk? Maybe you don’t have any quiet time in your day? Think about how hard it is to hear someone you are intentionally trying to hear in a crowded restaurant or on a subway train. Look through your day. If someone were following you around trying to talk to you all day, would there be any times when you would hear them? The world we live in is busy and noisy. It is not often that we sit and listen to the Word of God. This can change. If you want to start hearing from God, all you have to do is listen. He is already talking to you. I know that this may sound weird to some of you, and yet I think it is important to tell you. I often talk with the Lord. I write Him a letter, and then I write one back to myself and let the Holy Spirit lead what I write in the one back to myself. I feel the Lord is constantly telling me, “Thank you for listening; not many do.” God is not mad, He is not punishing you, He is patiently waiting for you to come to Him and ask Him what He thinks. He is waiting to tell you how much He loves you until you take a minute to listen. Can you give God 5 minutes of your time today to just listen? If you are quiet, if you are asking the Lord to talk and you can’t hear anything, then you can command the spirit of deaf ears to leave immediately. You can command your spiritual ears to open. You can ask God again and expect that He will answer as He always does! I am not sure that it had a lot, or anything, to do with the verse, and yet when I feel led by the Holy Spirit, I just agree and go along for the ride. Back to the verse. It says, “One night, the Lord appeared to Paul in a vision and said, “Do not be afraid. Continue with your preaching, and do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack you or try to harm you, for there are many in this city who are my people.” I think this verse is a testament to God’s love for Paul. He knew He was afraid, and He came to talk to him and to reassure him. It sounds like Paul wanted to leave the place where he was. Paul was in Corinth, and that was not a nice town. Its nickname is “Sin City.” I have heard Father Mike liken it to parts of Las Vegas. Paul was preaching at the synagogue to the Jews & the Greeks, but they didn’t really want to hear what he had to say. When they started to oppose him and hurl insults at him, he decided to leave the synagogue and search out the Gentiles. In case anyone listening is like me, and you are not sure who the Gentiles were or what that word means, let me explain. You were considered a gentile if you were not Jewish. It is not a particular race or tribe; it was all people who were not Jewish. God came to Paul in his dreams and told him not to be afraid, that He was with him and that he would not be attacked or harmed. God is saying this to us, too! He is with each one of us, and He is protecting us from all evil. I was typing up the minutes for my prayer group, and we had several prophecies that seemed to confirm this. There were two that I thought were especially good to go with this verse. The first one says, “I watch over you, my children. All of you are my children. I break the sword of the enemy who would come against you. You have nothing to fear, for I am there for each and every one of you in each and every trial. I will never forsake my children or leave my children. I will defend you in battle. I have sent you the power of the Spirit, and He will give you all that you need to do what you have been called to do.” Isn’t that amazing? God is telling us that He is here for us. He will defend us in battle and any other situation. You may be thinking you are not in a battle, but you are not in the military. Each one of us is in a battle, whether we know it or not. Each one of us is in a spiritual battle, and sometimes the enemy can take it out on our family members. We need to stand firm and hold onto this word from God and all the other words He has given us. God will not let the enemy win. He will protect us. All we need to do is turn to Him. The second word I thought went along with this verse says, “My children, take my hand. Realize that I am with you. Go into the world without fear. I am holding onto your hand. There is no need to fear, I am your God. I will protect you; I will defend you. Smile, for you are mine. Smile, my children. I am with you till the end of time. Come closer, my children, come closer, that I can reveal my mysteries to you, so you, in turn, can share them with the world. I am your Lord, I am your God, and I am all-powerful. I hold onto your hand. Move forward, move forward with joy, for you are mine.” I love how gentle God can be. He is talking about protecting us, and He is doing it in this last verse as any Father would. Think back to when you were little. When you were walking with your dad, you were probably holding his hand. If you weren’t holding it all the time, you at least know it is there if you need it. God is giving us this visual of walking with Him through life and asking us to take His hand and walk side by side with Him. What an amazing visual that is for me. Yes, please, Lord, I would love to walk side by side with you! I would love to hold your hand so you can protect me and defend me against this crazy world. I also like how he ended the word with “Move forward with joy, for you are mine.” We are His children; isn’t that amazing!! God is so good! Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to protect and bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we are so grateful you are protecting us! We are so grateful you are a loving Father who wants to hold our hands and walk through this life with us. Lord, we ask that you help us to be able to hear you when you are talking to us. We are asking that you open your spiritual ears and allow us to have conversations with you. I ask that everyone listening to this episode be able to hear your words just as they do in the prayer group meeting. Lord, we thank you for the words above, and we ask that you help them take root in our hearts. If anyone listening to this episode had a difficult relationship with their father, I ask that you let these two messages go deep down in your heart and take root. You are a good and loving Father to all your children! We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name. Amen! Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace
Transcribe →15 Promises To Those Who Say The Rosary (replay)
Jul 200:10:17Tap to summarize15 Promises to those who say the rosary. Today’s episode is a bit different. Today, there is no scripture verse. Instead, I am going to explain what the rosary is and then list the 15 promises given to those who pray it regularly. There is a lot that is going on in the world right now. In our country and all around the world. Our country is pretty divided. We are kicking God out of this country one decision at a time. During this truly difficult time, I look to strengthen my faith and lean into God’s grace, strength, and protection. Who couldn’t use a little more grace and strength right now? I have found a number of structured prayers that have really helped strengthen my faith. The first of these is the rosary. When I moved to New Jersey, one of the wives in Tony’s squadron had started a home rosary group. I did not know what that even meant, but I had just moved to a new place, and I did not know anyone. I thought it would be nice to get out of the house and meet some new people. I also knew I needed something more, as I had a newborn baby and was just learning how to be a mom. A home rosary group is a group of people who gather at someone’s home and say the rosary together. One person leads either the whole rosary, or you can switch leaders each decade, whichever you prefer. Whoever is leading the rosary says the first half of the prayer, and then everyone else says the second half of the prayer. It was so nice to be gathered with a group of women who all wanted to say the rosary each week. The rosary is a group of prayers that you say, usually using a set of rosary beads. I knew there were many benefits to saying the rosary. I have read them before. There was a time, probably after I first read these promises, that I was saying them every day. However, the enemy has a way of putting things in the way so that you are suddenly “too busy” to say the rosary, or he convinces you that if you can’t do it perfectly, then you shouldn’t bother. Remember that the enemy is a master at half-truths and lies. He does not want us saying the rosary because he knows how powerful it can be. As soon as you begin to say the rosary faithfully, you will notice that things will begin to come up during the time you set aside for the rosary, or you will find yourself forgetting about the commitment. I decided to talk with you about the Rosary today because I came upon the promises that Mary gave to us, and I remembered why I was saying the Rosary every day. I know the rosary is a longer prayer than most of us might be used to, but it is only 20-30 minutes out of your day. If you get a full 8 hours of sleep at night, that means you are still awake for 16 hours. That is 960 minutes in your day. The rosary takes 20-30 minutes. The Blessed Virgin Mary promised to Saint Dominic and to all who follow that “Whatever you ask in the Rosary will be granted.” She left for all Christians Fifteen Promises to those who recite the Holy Rosary. They were imparted to Saint Dominic and Blessed Alan. 1. Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces. 2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. 3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell; it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies. 4. The Rosary will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire for eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means. 5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish. 6. Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred mysteries, shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice; he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just, he shall remain in the grace of God and become worthy of eternal life. 7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church. 8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenitude of His graces; at the moment of death, they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise. 9. I shall deliver from Purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. 10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven. 11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. 12. All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities. 13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death. 14. All who recite the Rosary are my sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters of my only Son Jesus Christ. 15. The devotion of my Rosary is a great sign of predestination. I cannot believe all that is promised to us if we say the rosary. I read through those this morning and just kept saying to myself, yup, I need that too. Who couldn’t use help destroying vices, or for their good works and virtue to flourish? Mary, the Mother of Jesus, promised special protection and the greatest graces to those who say the rosary. I don’t know about you, but I could definitely use some special protection and all the graces I can get. I know that I probably won’t start saying the rosary every day without fail, because I am human and I often fail. I have been reminded today what a blessing it is to say the rosary, and I am going to do my best to incorporate it into my daily routine. After all, 20 minutes a day is less than the time it takes me to watch one episode on TV. I have the time; I am just using it to do other things. You do not have to say the rosary every day, even if you say it once a week, or once a month, or one decade a day, I bet you would see a change in your life. Give it a try. What do you have to lose? Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you, and we ask you to help us in our time of need. We ask you to put in our hearts a desire to say the rosary. Lord, help us to see the importance of it. Help us to understand the importance of Mary in your plan for redemption. Help us to find time in our schedules to set aside to say the rosary. Thank you, Lord. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen! Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you would like to join me for mentoring this month, there is a link below if you would like to sign up for mentoring or get more information. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day, and may the grace and favor of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon you! Today’s Word from the Lord was received in February 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “My beloved ones, your desire for me unlocks my heart of bounties for you. Your desire overcomes your weakness. I am delighted in your desire for union with me. Feed that desire for me.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace
Transcribe →Witness Wednesday #214 Catherin D. Trip to Austin W/Ryan
Jul 100:07:56Tap to summarizeToday's Witness Wednesday is about my recent trip to Austin, Texas, with my youngest son, Ryan. I wanted to do a family trip this summer since Ryan just graduated from high school and all of the kids are now 18. However, we couldn't agree on where to go, and I couldn’t get everyone on board. So I decided to do individual one-on-one trips with the boys this summer, which I felt could work better because we would get more one-on-one time together. And also, if someone doesn't want to do something, it doesn't ruin it for the other boys. So I started with my son, Ryan, and we went to Austin, Texas, because his favorite band, Once More, was playing two shows in a row, Friday and Saturday night. And they were also playing with some other bands he really liked, all small bands. So we got on the plane very early Thursday morning. We got to Philadelphia and boarded our connecting flight with no problem. And then there was a navigational problem with the navigational system. And so we waited on the plane for two hours, and then we had to get off the plane. And then they kept delaying by 30 minutes for the next four hours. And then they just said, we're going to get a new plane, and you can leave at 5 p.m. We were supposed to leave at 8 a.m. And now we're leaving at 5 p.m. So Thursday, instead of spending the day around Austin, we spent it at the airport. However, even at the airport, I could tell the Lord was at work because Ryan hates to wait, and he did well. He didn't love it, but he didn't complain a lot. He just slept in the chair wherever we were and did well. I'm grateful that the Lord was there with us in that. Then we finally landed, and we got to our hotel, and we slept well that night. And then the next day, we got up, and we did some things around Austin. And then he had his concert that night and the concert was at a small venue. So there weren't a lot of people there, and there were several bands there. And so he got to actually talk to somebody from his favorite band. And then later that night, he was texting with people from the band, and they just couldn't believe that he flew all the way from Boston, Massachusetts, to Austin, Texas, just to see them. So they said they would put him on the VIP list so that he wouldn't have to pay to get in the next day. And they just had a really nice conversation, and Ryan was so excited. And then the next day, we went to this famous record store in Austin called Waterloo Records. And Ryan loved the store. It was cool to see him looking through all the CDs like I did when I was younger, because you don't really see CDs anymore. Everybody streams music. So it was just nice to see kids in a store looking through CDs and records. Then, as we were walking out of the record shop, Ryan ran into the singer and the bassist of his favorite band. And it was really cool. They recognized him. They gave him a high five. They asked if he was coming to the show tonight, and they said they were looking forward to seeing him there. Ryan was so excited. And it was also cool for the band because they're from San Antonio, and yet they're just walking around Austin, Texas, and they see somebody wearing their band t-shirts, and it was so surreal for them as well. So I feel like God definitely orchestrated that whole thing, and it was amazing. And then Ryan went to their concert that night, and the singer of his favorite band wrote down their set playlist, the six songs they were gonna sing that night, and then had all of the band members sign it, and then gave that set list to Ryan after they played. He was so excited. We went to Walmart immediately afterward so he could buy a frame for it. And it is now his favorite prized possession. He's so honored that they would have given it to him because you only have one set list, and they gave it to him, and they had everybody sign it. And so it was just an awesome weekend. He had a really great time, and I'm really grateful to the Lord that he allowed that weekend to happen, that he allowed things to go so well, and that he orchestrated so many amazing moments for Ryan throughout the trip we had. We went back to that record store several times. Ryan really liked the record store and looking through all the CDs. And we also got Texas barbecue one day. We went to see the Texas State Capitol building. Everything worked well. The rental car went smoothly, and I am just so grateful. For all that the Lord did for us that weekend. www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace
Transcribe →Where Does Your Help Come From?
Jun 3000:13:21Tap to summarizeWhere Does Your Help Come From? Psalm 121:1-2 “I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” I heard this verse while I was listening to the Big Life Devotional by Pamela Crim yesterday, and I instantly thought of this song. The song is called Shoulders by For King and Country. I will place a link to the song in the show notes if you want to give it a listen. It is a really good song, so I do recommend checking it out. For King and Country is a great group of artists. They moved to this country from Australia in 1991 when their dad accepted a job here. I love this song because it reminds us where our help comes from. It also reminds us of various ways that God helps us. It also says the words from this verse. They both start the same way. I look up to the mountains Does my strength come from the mountains? No, my strength comes from God Who made heaven and earth, and the mountains When we are struggling and suffering, we look around for strength anywhere we can find it. We look to TV for distractions, we look to food for comfort, and we sometimes turn to alcohol or drugs to numb the pain. We look everywhere for something that will take away the pain or help us get through it in some way. As long as we keep searching everywhere but where God is, then we will never find what we are looking for. God is our strength. He is the one who can get us through the hard times. We just need to turn to Him and ask Him. We just need to seek Him out instead of all the other things that we turn to when we are struggling. When confusion's my companion And despair holds me for ransom I will feel no fear I know that You are near Think about what it is we do when we are confused and the feelings of despair set in. Do we turn to the Lord, or do we turn away? Do we have hope that the Lord will bring us out of this despair? I love the line that says, and despair holds me for ransom. That is such an accurate visual of despair. You feel like you can’t do anything but sit in it. This verse ends with I will feel no fear. I know that You are near. My prayer is that we can all say this. My prayer for each of us is that we can look to the Lord when we feel confused and full of despair. We can look to the Lord and not be afraid because we know that our strength comes from Him. The one who made the heavens and the earth. If He can create all of that out of nothing, think about what He can do in your current situation! When I'm caught deep in the valley With chaos for my company I'll find my comfort here 'Cause I know that You are near How many of us are in a deep valley right now? How many of us feel like we have been in this valley for a long time, and we see no end in sight? I love that it says with chaos for my company. Have you ever had chaos in your company? I am one of 11 children. Chaos and I are old friends. However, how often have we had comfort and chaos at the same time? This verse says I’ll find comfort here because I know You are near. When we find ourselves in a valley and we are surrounded by chaos, it helps to remember that the Lord is always near. We are never alone, even when it feels like we are. My help comes from You You're right here, pulling me through You carry my weakness, my sickness, my brokenness All on your shoulders Your shoulders Our help comes from the Lord. It can be easy to forget this because sometimes He uses human means to help us. For instance, we may think our help comes from the person giving us the things we need. For instance, help came from my neighbor when I was younger, and my dad needed a car. Yes, the neighbor did help us out, and yet even he acknowledges the Lord led Him to do so. He had no way of knowing my dad needed a car, except that my dad prayed for a car, and God worked it out for him. I like the image of this verse. You’re right here, pulling me through. Have you ever felt like God was pulling you through? Like, you for sure wouldn’t have made it if He wasn’t pulling you through. You didn’t have the energy or will to walk or even get out of bed, and yet you felt something pulling you out of bed and pushing you to keep going. The next line is great, too, because it reminds us that we are not carrying our load along. It says you carry my weakness, my sickness, my brokenness all on your shoulders. God has some pretty broad shoulders. He can handle our weakness, sickness, and brokenness. We don’t have to carry it on our own. That is just something the enemy tries to get us to believe. We can give these things to the Lord, and He will carry them for us. All we need to do is ask. My help comes from You You are my rest, my rescue I don't have to see to believe that You're lifting me up on Your shoulders Your shoulders The Lord is our rest. We can just sit and rest in him. Whenever we want, whether we are weary and we need to rest, or whether we just want to rest in His love, mercy, and forgiveness. We can always rest in Him. He is also our rescue. He will rescue us from our circumstances, or He will give us the strength to get through them. I don’t have to see to believe that you’re lifting me up on Your shoulders. This is an important thing to remember. We don’t have to see it to believe it. We often worry because we can’t see the outcome ahead of time. We can’t see a way for the Lord to work things out. We don’t have to see it. We just have to trust that He can and will work things out. He is a Way-maker. He can make a way where there is no way. You mend what once was shattered And You turn my tears to laughter Your forgiveness is my fortress Oh, Your mercy is relentless This verse talks to us about some of the things God does for us. He mends what was shattered. Can you think back to a time when you thought all was lost and things felt so broken you thought they would never go back together again? I know I can. A few years ago, my family and my marriage felt so broken I couldn’t see how it could be fixed. However, I never gave up on the Lord, and He came in and fixed what was once shattered. Our family is whole again, not perfect, but whole. God can definitely turn tears into laughter. I have seen Him do this many times. Especially when I go to visit my college roommate Kath. We spend the whole time laughing and crying. The next line, I am actually surprised, is in here, as the verse I was going to use today talked about God’s mercy and forgiveness, and I didn’t use it as I had already used that verse in an earlier episode. This song verse says that God’s forgiveness is my fortress. Take a moment to think about that. What is the point of a fortress? It is to protect you and to give you a safe place to be. When I looked up the definition, it also said it was a place of defense and protection against attacks. Isn’t it interesting that the song says your forgiveness is my fortress? Did you know that God’s forgiveness can be your fortress? It can provide you with protection against attacks from the enemy. The enemy wants you to believe that you are the sum of each and every one of your mistakes. However, if we rely on God’s forgiveness, we know this is not true. We know that He forgives everything when we turn back to Him and repent. Also, I want to restate what the song says: that God’s mercy is relentless. He will chase you down just to give you that mercy!! That is such a great song. I pray you all take the time to go and listen to the song. This song does a great job of reminding us of where our strength comes from and why we need it. Our strength comes from God! Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we know our strength comes from you. Please remind us when we forget. Lord, we thank you for all you do for us. We ask you to help us remember all the ways you are there for us. We ask you to pull us through all the hard times. We ask you to pull us out of the valley of despair. We ask you to be with us every step of the way! We love you, Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen! Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I want to remind everyone that I am starting a group coaching program in January. If you have ever desired to know the Lord more intimately, to go deeper into your relationship with the Lord, or to walk more boldly in your faith, this is the right program for you! I will help you get to know the Lord better, develop daily routines that help you grow closer to the Lord, and teach you to step out more boldly in your faith. We will learn all of that while having fun and getting to know each other. I pray you will join me on that adventure, too! I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day! Today’s word of prophecy from my prayer group is, “There is no demon who can touch you. There is no one who can steal my children from Me. You are ALL My children. I have given you a package of seeds. Those seeds will be scattered by each of My children. Some in small ways, some in big ways but not one seed sown is insignificant. It is all part of My forever plan. I am a part of you. Rest in My love and My peace. You are a chosen people. Chosen for me from the beginning of time. I cannot for the times. I cannot. You are whole in Me.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLIC...
Transcribe →Keep asking! Nothing Is Too Big or Too Small! (Replay)
Jun 2900:10:35Tap to summarizeKeep asking! Nothing Is Too Big or Too Small! 1 Samuel 9:16 “Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be ruler over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines, for I have seen the suffering of my people because their outcry has come to me.” What stood out to me when I read this verse was the very last line. In this verse, God is talking to Samuel right before Saul shows up. God said that He will save His people from the hands of the Philistines because He has seen the suffering and because their outcry has come to Him. That is the part that stood out to me. He heard their outcry. I have been encountering more and more people who don’t pray for what they need unless it is a huge deal. If they don’t need a miracle, they aren’t asking God for anything. I understand this sentiment. I mean, God is busy; He is doing important things, and we don’t want to waste His time with our small issues. When we do this, we are saying that God has a finite amount of power. We are assuming that He won’t have enough time or enough power to deal with the bigger issues and our smaller issues. God’s time and power are infinite. There are no limits to time or power for God. We never have to worry that our request will take God away from someone else. He is with each one of us 100% of the time. Not only can God take care of the little things, but He also wants to. He cares about every aspect of our lives. When we ask Him to help us, to take care of things, we are showing Him that we trust Him. We are showing Him that we want Him in all aspects of our lives. There are so many areas where I see people suffering, and they aren’t asking God for help. I understand and believe that redemptive suffering is a thing. I believe that our prayers can be more powerful when we are in the midst of great suffering. I believe that if we can offer our suffering up for others, that is a powerful and beautiful thing. I don’t believe that God wants us to suffer for the rest of our lives. I don’t believe that if we have asked God for healing once or twice and it hasn’t happened, then that means that God isn’t going to heal us. I don’t know why some people have chronic pain and have been suffering for a very long time. I don’t know why it seems like God heals some people, and yet it seems like He doesn’t heal others. His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. I do believe God wants us to ask for healing. I do believe He wants to hear the words come out of our mouths. God believes in free will. If we aren’t asking Him for healing, He is probably not going to be healing it. From all that I have learned, God wants us to be actively engaged in our relationship with Him. He doesn’t just want us to sit back and have a hands-off relationship with Him. I don’t believe He wants us to hold anything back from Him. I don’t believe He thinks anything is too big or too small for Him. We have been told in our Encounter Ministries class that God cares just as much about our hangnail as He does about someone else’s cancer. It is not one or the other with God. It is everything. At the Encounter summer intensive, there was a woman who was saying that she had pain and stiffness in her hips. When she sits for any length of time, she has a hard time getting back up and a hard time walking afterward. For a year now, she hasn’t been able to wear shoes with laces because of the stiffness in her hips. She couldn’t bend down to tie them. She was prayed over at the end of the healing night for the summer intensive, and the next day she could bend down and tie her shoes again. Do you see? God even cares about what kind of shoes you want to wear. In the verse above, God sent Saul to save His people from the Philistines. He did this because He heard them crying out. Are you crying out? Are you asking God for help? I am not saying that we need to just sit around and cry out to the Lord all the time. I am not saying we should be complaining about our pain or our circumstances either. What I am saying is that we don’t have to be afraid to ask God for something. We don’t have to feel like we are bothering Him. When we don’t ask Him, we are depriving Him of the opportunity to help us. Think about how good you feel when you help someone out of a difficult situation. Think about the satisfaction and the joy you get when you help others. Now, think about how God might feel when He gets to be your savior and when He gets to save you from whatever it is you are going through, big or small. If you have chronic pain, you may be praying to God all the time, and yet you are not seeing healing. If this is the case, I am so sorry. I wish we could understand why God does what He does. However, if you are in chronic pain and you used to ask God to heal you and now you have given up asking, I ask you to start again. I don’t know why He hasn’t healed you yet. I don’t know what His plan is or when He wants to heal you. I do believe with all my heart that He does want to heal you. I do believe He wants you to keep asking for the healing. I believe he wants you to keep believing that healing is possible, that you are deserving of healing, and that He loves you more than anything else in this whole world. I am not sure I believed healing of chronic pain was possible. I mean, I think I truly believed it in my heart, and yet there was still doubt. I mean, if He wanted it healed, He would have done it already, right? Then I prayed with my aunt. She had pain in her legs for over 5 years. She couldn’t walk without pain. It had gotten so bad that she had to quit her job 9 months earlier, and she was basically bedridden, as when she walked, her pain was level 11. I told her we could pray together and that I believed God wanted to heal her. This was true, and yet I didn’t know what it would be like. I mean, she has had pain for so long. Surely if God wanted to heal her, He would have. We prayed, and she saw no change. We kept praying for a while. She didn’t have much change that night or the next day. However, a few days later, she got out of bed and was completely pain-free. How amazing is God? Yes, he could have healed her at any time, and yet He chose that specific day. We don’t know why, and we may never know why this side of heaven. We are just happy that my aunt kept asking Him and didn’t give up and just accept that as her fate. She could have said no to my praying with her. She could have thought there was no point. But she said yes, and God came through for her. He can do this for you too! Please don’t stop asking. Please don’t think things are too big or too little for God. Please don’t feel like anything you ask would ever be an inconvenience to God or that you would bother Him. I don’t think anything makes Him happier than when we turn to Him, and when we show Him, we trust Him by entrusting our petition to Him. Another important piece to this, which I won’t go into but I do want to mention, is that we should not just ask God for things, but we should praise Him daily as well. Thank Him for all that He has done and continues to do for you. Show God you are thankful for what He has done, and He will continue to do more. God loves you. He wants to be there for you. Trust Him and share everything with Him. Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to bring things to you. Please help us. Help us get rid of our feeling of not enough and our feeling that we would be bothering you with our requests. Please help us to see that you are there for us in the big and the small ways. Please help us to see that you care about all the details of our lives, even the little ones. Lord, give us the strength and the courage to keep asking, even if it is something that we have asked for many times before. Help us to keep asking, Lord. We love you, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name. Amen! Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace
Transcribe →You Don't Have to Be Strong All the Time
Jun 2600:11:54Tap to summarizeYou Don't Have To Be Strong All The Time 2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.” I love this verse. When I hear this verse, I remember that we don’t always have to be strong. We don’t always have to be perfect. We don’t always have to get it right. When I hear this verse, I am reminded that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness, not in our strength. I don’t know about you, but I find that awfully comforting. We tend to feel like we have to be strong for everyone else around us. Whether we are a parent, a spouse, or a friend, we want to be the strong ones for those around us. Do you ever feel like that? Do you ever get tired of feeling like you have to be strong? This verse gives you permission to not be the strong one all the time. I have kiddos who struggle with their mental health at times. When they are struggling, it feels like we have to be strong as they need us to be there for them. They need us to be the safe place that they can land. They need us not to fall apart because they are already falling apart, and they need us to hold them together. This isn’t just kids, either. Maybe you have a spouse or a friend who struggles with mental illness. When they are falling apart, you feel you need to be strong to help hold them together. Is this you? Do you feel like if you fall apart, everything will fall apart? I get it, I understand how that feels. This is why I love this verse. We may have to be strong with others and for others, and yet we don’t have to be strong for God or when we are with God. When we are with God, we can let it all go. We can be weak. We can cry, we can yell, we can fall apart. The beauty of it all is that when we are weak with God, He actually makes us stronger. I just thought of an analogy, and I don’t know if it’s an exact fit, but it came to my mind, so I am trusting the Holy Spirit wants me to share it with you. The analogy I just thought of was something my son mentioned the other day. He was talking about how when we work out, our muscles are broken down, and then when they heal, they are stronger. This is what came to mind when thinking of being stronger when we are weak with the Lord. God said His power is made perfect in our weakness. When we are weak with God, we are strong. Why is this? One reason for this is that when we allow ourselves to be weak, we make more room for the Lord. We finally admit that we can’t do it all ourselves and that we need help. We turn to Him, and we ask him to help us. Actually, at this point, we usually beg Him to help us. When we finally decide to be weak, it’s because we have done all that we could do and it didn’t work. When we are finally ready to admit we need God, we are so desperate, and we would do anything for our prayers to be answered. This is when God can help us the most. This is when we are the most ready for His help. God is just waiting for us to realize that we need His help. He is such a good Father that He waits for us to ask for help. He does not try to force himself on us. He is patient too! He will sit by patiently watching us make the same mistakes over and over again until we finally realize that we don’t have to do it by ourselves. I imagine it must be frustrating for Him to sit there and watch us make the same mistakes time and time again. I heard this story at Christmas Eve Mass once, and I have never forgotten it. It just popped into my head when I was thinking about how patiently God waits for us. It's called The Man and the Birds, a Christmas story made popular by Paul Harvey. (CLICK HERE to read the whole story) The story is about a kind man who didn't believe that God would become human. One snowy Christmas Eve, while his family was at church, he noticed birds repeatedly flying into his window because they were desperately trying to escape the storm. Wanting to help them, he opened his barn, turned on the lights, and even scattered breadcrumbs to lead them inside. No matter what he did, the birds were terrified of him and wouldn't follow him to the safety of the warm barn. Finally, he realized that if he could somehow become a bird, they would trust him. Then he could tell them not to be afraid and show them the way to safety. At that very moment, the church bells began ringing, and he suddenly understood why Jesus came to earth. God became one of us so we could know Him, trust Him, and follow Him. I just love that story. To me, it shows how much compassion God has for us. He isn't watching us from Heaven, judging us or wondering why we don't get it. He sees us struggling, just like the man saw those frightened birds struggling in the snow. God knows our lives would be easier if we trusted Him and listened to Him. He isn't angry with us; He is patiently waiting for us to stop trying to do everything on our own and let Him help us. When we finally come to Him in our weakness, I imagine Him smiling and saying, "Finally, my child. How can I help you?" I just love that story. In the story, the man finally understood why God sent His only Son to save us. To me, it also shows how frustrating it must be for God to watch us live our lives. This man wasn’t angry at the birds; he was full of compassion and just wanted to help them. I believe this is how God looks at us, too. I think he watches us live our lives, and He knows things would be easier if we listened to Him. He knows we wouldn’t be suffering as much if we lived in this world but were not of this world. He is not up there judging us and thinking we are stupid and wondering why we just don’t get it. I think he looks at us with compassion and is just waiting for us to stop trying to do it ourselves and finally turn to Him. When we do, he is ready to jump in and help us. I think when we are weak, when we finally give in and ask for help, God smiles and says, “Finally, my child, how can I help you!” You may feel you have to be strong with others, but you do not have to be strong with God. Let him shoulder your problems. Hand Him your worry, your cares, and your deepest desires, and let him carry them for you. In your weakness, His power is made perfect. Wouldn’t it be great to have more of God’s power in your life? I know I could definitely use more. Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to be weak with you; show us how. We want your power to be made perfect in us. We love you, Lord, and we know your grace is sufficient for us. We know this, and we also forget it when times get tough. Please remind us, Lord. Remind us that we don’t have to always be strong. Remind us that your power is made perfect in weakness. Remind us that we can be ourselves with you. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen. Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Being a parent is hard, and raising kids who struggle with mental illness, and let's be honest, there aren’t many that don’t struggle with something these days, is even harder. If you have a child struggling, please know you are not alone. You are doing a great job. You are a good parent, even when it feels like you are failing. The unkind things they say when they are struggling are not true. They love you, even if they can’t show it at the moment. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Have a blessed day! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace
Transcribe →Do Not Despise Small Beginnings (Replay).mp3
Jun 2500:10:49Tap to summarizeDo Not Despise Small Beginnings Zachariah 4:10 “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.” I heard this verse in a sermon I was listening to on the Elevation Podcast. The sermon was given by Jabin Chavez. This verse was a small part of his sermon and yet when he said it something inside me said that someone listening to this episode needs this verse right now. Someone needed to hear that is it ok that things aren’t going as fast as you wanted or happening as big as you wanted. Someone needed to hear that we don’t have to be discouraged with our small beginnings. I know this verse is for me, and yet I felt as though I was not the only one who needed to hear it. This verse is telling us not to despise small beginnings as this is often how our prayers are answered. Are you looking around and thinking this does not look like you thought it would? You thought you would be further along at this point in your life. You thought you business would be more successful. You thought you would be married, or you thought you would have kids. You thought it would look different. The “it” is different for each one of us and yet many of us share this common disappointment. Why is this? Why do we wish we were further along instead of enjoying the ride to get to where we are going? I think we want to be further along because that is what the world seems to care about and we often get caught up in the world instead of what God wants. The world tells us that we are defined by what we have. We strive to have the biggest car, the biggest house, the best job, the most stuff. We think this makes us worthy because that is what society tells us. This is not what God tells us. God tells us in Matthew 19:30 “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” God does not look at our lives the way society does. He is not looking to see who has the most stuff, the biggest house, or the best job. God is looking to see, “Did you help out those in need?” “Did you love your neighbor as yourself?” “Did you follow His ways and put Him first?” These are the things God is judging. Even when we know this, even when we know the things God is calling us to, we can still feel discouraged because, “we haven’t helped enough people yet,” or “we haven’t loved well enough yet.” Whether it is in our regular life, or our spiritual life, we can often tend to be discouraged with our progress. How many of us have said, "I should be praying more,” “I should trust more,” or “I should rely on God more?” We all have times when we aren’t happy with our progress and this verse is the perfect verse to remember when we start to have these thoughts. Many of us can get the idea in our heads that God is up there, sitting on His thrown, looking down on us and judging us because He is not pleased with our progress. We picture Him just shaking His head and saying, “Really, again?” or “I can’t believe they haven’t learned that yet.” I think this verse is telling us that we are wrong. God isn’t up there judging our progress and being disappointed. He is up there watching and smiling at every small step in the right direction that we take. He is reassuring us not to worry if are beginnings are small because at least we are beginning. Pastor Chavez was saying that often times the answers to our prayers come in seed form. We want God to just give us the answer with all the details all worked our perfectly and yet that is not often how it works. It does happen like that sometimes and we Praise God every time it does. Often we will pray about something and God will give us an idea and then we need to take that idea and cultivate it. This takes time. It takes time and lots of listening to God to figure our what He is calling us to do with our lives. However, even when we know what our calling is, it is often revealed in stages. I am not sure anyone gets handed a roadmap for their whole life’s mission all at one time. We often feel called to one thing, which then leads to another thing, which leads to another thing and so on. I am sure this is intentional because we get the skills to do the next level of things while we are learning to do the first level. I can imagine it is also intentional because if we knew where our 40 years of hard work was going to lead us, we might not say yes to that first step. If I knew that saying yes to attending a retreat when I was in college would lead me to having a personal encounter with the Holy Spirit, which would lead me to help start a whole revivial of the Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church, would I still go to that retreat, or would I be overwhelmed with that much responsibility. Honestly I don’t know. I am grateful for those who attended the retreat that is now known as the Duquesne Weekend and has marked the beginning of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. I am sure their lives changed immensely on that weekend and they helped lead the Charismatic Renewal one step at a time. I can imagine they wanted it to spread quicker because once you know the power of the Holy Spirit you want everyone else to have that experience too. However, they went at the pace God took them and I am sure God was happy with their small beginnings. I will actually put a link for a description of the Duquesne Weekend in the show notes as it was an incredible experience for all involved and is really interesting to read about. (Click Here for article) You might be looking at your life and thinking you are not where you wanted to be or where you thought you would be and yet God is looking at your life and saying, “You are right where I want you to be.” Most of the time we have no idea of the amazing things God has planned for our lives. It’s when we do have some idea that we get impatient and we want those amazing things now. God’s timing is perfect. If we want something now and God has not given it to us yet, there is a reason. Most likely, we are not ready for it yet. God knows our hearts. He knows what we will do with what we are given. God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. We do not understand a lot of the things God does. We often can’t understand His timing. This is because we are looking at a very tiny piece of the puzzle and God gets to see the whole picture. I think what God is telling us with this verse is “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.” He doesn’t want us to despise the small beginnings because He gave us those small beginnings. Also, we shouldn’t judge our ending on the small beginnings because we don’t know what these small beginnings will grow into. One saying the pastor said in his sermon that I really liked was that you can cut open an apple and count the number of seeds in it. However, you have no idea how many apples are in one seed. Only God can make your endeavors fruitful. We won’t know how much fruit will come from each seed, each idea you have, until it is fully grown. Keep nurturing your ideas, keep working at them, don’t get discouraged if you aren’t where you thought you would be, God will get you there in His perfect timing. Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who listen to this episode today. Lord, help us to be content, happy, even joyous over our small beginnings, knowing your timing is perfect. Help us to be patient as we wait for the amazing things you have called us to come to fruition. Help us to see clearly what you are calling us to and how we get there. We love you, Lord, we want what you want. We want our wills to be aligned with your will. Please help us. We are so grateful for all the desire you placed in our hearts. Please help us cultivate those desires and be patient while we wait for your perfect timing. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen! Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I am so glad to be back with all of you this week. II just want to remind you that you can pick up an autographed copy of my book on my website. You can also sign up for my newsletter there. walkbodlywithjesus.com I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day. www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace
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