Dwelling with the Lord

God Hears Her Podcast

Episode 134 – Dwelling with the Lord with Sandra Byrd

Elisa Morgan & Eryn Eddy-Adkins with Sandra Byrd

Sandra: He just opened my spirit and my eyes to see the many ways that He was working around me. I mean we don’t live in mountaintop experiences. We live in vacuuming and driving to work, and so He showed me Himself in those things. And then sometimes they were just for me, in our intimate relationship, and sometimes they were devotionals to be shared with others because the point of a spiritual gift is to, you know, affirm and uplift the Body.

[Theme music]

Intro: You’re listening to God Hears Her, a podcast for women where we explore the stunning truth that God hears you, He sees you, and He loves you because you are His. Find out how these realities free you today on God Hears Her.

Elisa: Welcome to God Hears Her. I’m Elisa Morgan.

Eryn: And I’m Eryn Eddy Adkins. What do you think of when you think of “home?” A person, your house, your apartment, a cozy blanket on the couch? Maybe you feel without a home after selling your house, or homeless in a season of couch hopping.

Elisa: Today’s guest wants us all to understand how we can feel at home in the Lord’s presence, no matter where we are physically. Sandra Byrd recently wrote a devotional titled Dwell: 90 Days at Home with God, where she teaches us how the Lord can be our safe place.

Eryn: Join us for this conversation where Sandra tells us why she deeply desired a home on this episode of God Hears Her.

Sandra: My family moved a lot, sometimes every year, sometimes within the cities, a state further away. And so my heart was really craving what I felt like was home stability. In fact, when I met my husband, he was in the infantry, and we kinda fell in love right away. But I told him, “I cannot marry you if you’re going to have a career where you move all the time, because my heart craves a home.” He switched. He’s a chaplain now, and we thought at first he would…

Eryn: Oh!

Sandra: …be a military chaplain. He’s a… he’s a medical chaplain now. My heart was craving a home, and I was… I was not a Christian at that time. I was looking for a spiritual home, but I didn’t know it. What I thought I wanted was the home where I could stay forever and ever, Amen. So after we got married, we… we built, we moved, we did things. And I felt like After he’s in seminary, then we’ll have our house. After we have a little more money, then we’ll have our house. Eventually God brought me to my dream house, to be honest. It was everything I… I thought Lord, only You could do this. It was French Country, I loved it, it was fabulous. I knew He had done it. And then a couple of years after that, my husband got cancer, and the commute was too long. And part of his cancer was an invasive melanoma, so he couldn’t be in the sun. We couldn’t do the gardening. We couldn’t do those things. And so after he was at work, so he didn’t hear me, I said to the Lord, What’s… I thought You gave me this house. I thought You gave me this home. I thought this was my forever home. And I felt the Lord put His arm around me and tell me, “You have one forever home, and it’s not here.” And that was so comforting because it freed me from having to place my homeliness, my home desire, in a place to in wherever God brought us. And then I could add the adventure. It might be a short time here. It might be a great kitchen here, but no garden. It might be … Where we live now, we actually live in an urban environment in kind of a tall building. We would never have… My husband’s like a reformed cowboy kind of. For him thinking to live…

Eryn: [laughing] I love…

Sandra: …in the city…

Eryn: …The way you’re explaining your husband, he just sounds amazing!

Sandra: He is amazing, actually. And so I had to let go of home as the only place, which doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy my home and garden; but to find it in the fact that I dwell in God, and He dwells in me.

Elisa: You know you’ve just so beautifully described that journey. I think so many of us can connect and relate to that. I don’t know, from the time we’re little girls, we…

Sandra: Yeah.

Elisa: …I used to like be the one who Ajaxed my mom’s ash trays and, you know, Pledged the … the Formica back in the day, and vacuumed…

Sandra: Yeah.

Elisa: …the neat rows and etcetera. You know I just… I always was very connected to the place and wanting make home of it. So I think a lot of people are going to connect with this desire for home. Can you roll back a little bit, even further in time? What was your life like growing up? And did you have a sense of home? Did you live in one place a long time, or did you move around? And how did you find Jesus, or how did He find you?

Sandra: So we did move around a lot. My parents were relatively young when they had me, and so my father went to college, and we moved during that. And then he was starting career, and we moved quite a bit. His career required him to move quite a bit. So I was feeling a little rootless, and I think that’s where that desire for that came. My grandmother’s house, however, was always my grandmother’s house.

Elisa: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Sandra: And so she had a sewing machine with a button drawer that never went away. She had a basement with a little tin that had a bat in it that scared us all from going down in the basement, lest the tin open and the bat fly out. So … but there was all kind of crazy, fun things there. So that was kind of a … a homey place for me, but I just… I wanted one of my own. My degree is actually in real estate, believe it or not. I have a… I have a bachelor’s degree…

Eryn: Oh!

Sandra: …in real estate, so it just wormed its way into everything. And when I was in college, that’s when my parents became Christians. Even though I was away, I could see some changes in their lives. So maybe my eyes were opened a little bit, and as I was walking around the campus one day, I saw a flier that said there was a Bible study. And so I thought, Well, I’ll go. Let’s see what happens. And I went. My spiritual parents who I met there are _______ [Gossmans?]. So they nurtured me. They took me under. I was living a little bit of a party lifestyle at that time, so I… I was worried that when I sprayed my hair with hairspray, they’d think I had been drinking vodka or something. Remember that old-school hairspray…

Elisa: Yeah, it does smell like alcohol…

Sandra: It smelled like it. It did! I’m like Oh no! Is… Are all these people in this church gonna like,

Elisa: Oh gosh!

Sandra: …you know, look at me when I walk in? But they didn’t. They loved me. And then I went on a retreat, and that’s where I met my husband. I had thought I was a Christian. I mean I… I celebrated Christmas and Easter, and I wasn’t anything else. So, you know, that’s what I was. I met him, and God really used him to show me what “Christian” was, that I needed to not know of Him but to know Him, that He already knew me and desired for me to know Him deeply and follow Him. And so that was that. I still kept wearing hairspray, but I didn’t worry that people were thinking things about me anymore.

[Laughter]

Eryn: What was one thing that you can say that you noticed about how your internal spirit shifted and changed?

Sandra: You know I think it’s probably the first time in my life that I ever felt what peace felt like, that it was … you know if you remember those old-school TVs, and there was always static across. Static, static, static, static — that’s kind of what my heart and spirit felt like before… before I met the Lord. And when I sat down in my dorm and was considering, Do I become a Christian? Do I not become a Christian? I kind of weighed all the people I knew that were Christians. I looked at them, and…

Eryn: [whispers] Oh wow.

Sandra: …I looked at their life. This is what they have. This is what they do. And then, me — I was on the other side. And I finally said, Lord, you know, I do want what they have. And they did have a steadiness. They had maybe a little bit of an unflappability, that circumstances didn’t drive them. They were still emotional and human like us, but… but there was an anchor there. And I felt that anchor from the first day.

Elisa: That’s so attractive, isn’t it? And it echoes some of the ways you were describing “home” and “place” as well.

Sandra: Yeah.

Elisa: You’re a writer. You’re a prolific writer. You’ve written a gazillion books, a lot of historical fiction, those kinds of novels, but also a lot of devotionals. So I want to, you know, I want to get into why a devotional with home as its theme. But, you know, how did … in order to get there, how did you become a writer? And what was that path like? Here you’ve got real estate, you’ve got this …

Sandra: I’m all over the place. Right?…

Elisa: …reformed cowboy husband…

Sandra: …I worked in a deli. I… yeah, I… I wanted to be a hairstylist. I was everywhere, but I wasn’t good at the hairstylist, so that drove me back. But, no, I … I was a really early reader. I mean I was reading chapter books by the time I was six. And I almostly think sometimes part of our moving about and such drew me closer and tighter to my books, which came everywhere with me. I had an imaginary friend. Her name was Seedio [sp?] And my family used to tease me, and I’m like she’s making me good money now, these imaginary friends. You guys should… [laughing]…

Elisa: Whoa! No kidding.

Sandra: Mm-hmm. But I think the thing was is that I loved to read so much, and writing is the flip side of that. So the stories that I enjoyed, I then wanted to create stories. And when I first started writing fiction, I chose to write middle grade because I felt a couple of things. One, that’s where a lot of readers are really … uh… the concrete firms. They become readers. They’re not being forced to read anymore at school, or the parents don’t necessarily hand them a book. But also spirit…

Elisa: That’s a good way to look at that. Yeah.

Sandra: Yeah. So I wanted to pour back in that way. But also I feel like I remember reaching out to God at 12 even, like Are You there? You know? Are You here? So I felt like spiritually … I mean that didn’t come to culmination until I was in college, but I was looking. And so I wanted to provide something in that age group, too, for kids who were looking. So I… I’ve written a lot of middle-grade books besides my books for adults. And I’ve written a middle-grade devotional too that put… put all of those things in there. So I think I was always a writer. The other stuff wasn’t going to fly cause it wasn’t intended to fly. What was intended to fly was the writing.

Elisa: Yeah, God knew how He gifted you. And I’ve got to just dig right in here. You know I… I’m a writer, and I’m a devotional writer for Our Daily Bread. And it’s intriguing to chat with another devotional writer, you know, about devotional writing. And that’s …

Sandra: Yes!

Elisa: …that’s really kind of a neat little spot we’re in here. So how did you come to be in that space? And then we’ll go ahead and foray into the home theme.

Sandra: Yeah, for sure, and I’ll tell you that I consider myself equally a novelist and a devotionalist. And I don’t know if devotionalist is a word that exists outside of me saying things, but…

Eryn: I think own it…

Sandra: You know what…

Elisa: Oh yeah!

Sandra: …because if authors can’t make up words, who gets to? So…

Elisa: [laughing] Exactly!

Sandra: …then we get to make it up. Right?

Eryn: Right? That’s what I’m saying.

Sandra: But I… I consider those equal… equal callings in my life. So I’ll tell you a funny story about way back, how I think the devotional thing started. So not in a Christian home yet. I don’t even know where this happened, but I came across that old The Way. Do you remember that Way Bible, green cover, kind of…

Elisa: Was it… was it a paraphrase…

Sandra: … hippie-ish _______…

Elisa: …back in the day? Or was it an actual translation? I can’t remember.

Sandra: It’s a Tyndale, so it might’ve been a New Living-kind of thing…

Elisa: Oh, okay. Okay…

Sandra: …I know it’s a Tyndale House for sure.

Elisa: …Okay. Mm-hmm.

Sandra: But I came across it, and when I opened it up, there were a couple of pages of questions. Like, “Do you feel anxious? Here are some Scriptures. Do you want to know what your purpose is? Here are some Scriptures. Do you want to…” you know, “Are you lonely? Here are some Scriptures.”

Elisa: Wow.

Sandra: And I just sat on the floor with that in my little whatever I was, probably 12 … 12 or 13 self. And then I would try to find where those Scriptures were. I’m sure I looked in the table of contents to find where the individual books were. But I think that was the beginning of me as a devotionalist…

Eryn: Huh.

Sandra: …because I had some questions and feelings and emotions and observations. And I didn’t know how to solve them, but someone says Scripture does. And so I looked up those Scriptures, and I think that was the beginning of me dovetailing what was going on in my present life and taking that to Scripture; as opposed to exegesis, which is Scripture, and then bringing what you’ve understood in that Bible study back to the present life. I think they’re equal, and they’re both Scripture based. One just goes this way, and one goes that.

Elisa: Well, that’s a great way to look at it.

Eryn: Yeah. I love that. Well, immediately got the… just a visual of your heart longing to be received. And I think sometimes when we pursue devotionals, we don’t know how to articulate what we feel. And so when we read them, somebody’s helping us navigate. At least this is my experience. Somebody’s helping me navigate how I feel and how to present it to the Lord. And pointing into the direction of what the Lord sees in me and in the circumstance. And so I think it’s fascinating with the theme of “home” how back then, as we are unpacking the devotional realm of what you’ve experienced, that it sounds like your soul was searching for a place of safety and home.

Sandra: And to see God there. My underlying…

Eryn: Yeah.

Sandra: …kind of calling verse for my devotionals is Deuteronomy 11:19, which is “Teach them [His words] to your children. Talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lay down, when you stand up.” So if we are supposed to teach our children by observing God in the world around us, in the day, when we’re at school, when we’re at work, when we’re cleaning the dishes, then He’s also teaching me that way. If that’s the best way to do it, then of course He’s doing that too. And once I felt called and open to that, He just opened my spirit and my eyes to see the many ways that He was working around me. I mean we don’t live in mountaintop experiences. We live in vacuuming and driving to work, and so He showed me Himself in those things. And then sometimes they were just for me, in our intimate relationship, and sometimes they were devotionals to be shared with others because the point of a spiritual gift is to, you know, affirm and uplift the Body.

Eryn: Well, you tapped on something just there I want to unpack a little bit more, and that’s: Sometimes it’s for you, and then sometimes it’s to share. How do you decipher between what is sacred to keep to yourself versus what is something to share with another person or online, cause we live in a day where everybody shares everything. How do you decipher that?

Sandra: Well, I mean, the simple answer is with prayer, but that really is the right answer. And, to be honest, there’s like a path; so if… if I feel like He’s opened my eyes to something, and it’s just for me, once I understand, it kind of dies. Like You got it, you know?

Elisa: Oh wow. Hmm.

Sandra: But if… but if it’s for someone else, then it keeps flourishing. Just write it. He brought… He’ll bring the exact… I’ll be like I… you know, I need to flesh this out. Next thing you know, I’m in a situation where it’s being fleshed out, so when I mean “die,” I don’t mean like it wasn’t good. It just ended the … got to the end of the trail where it was supposed to be, which was me. But when it continues to flourish, then I know, No, this is something that He’s allowed me to see, and then use the writing that He’s created for me to be able to do to share with others, to help them. That’s what metaphors really are, in fictional writing or nonfictional writing. Something is like this — that’s what the parables are. “The kingdom of God is like…” You know? Or when I see something: God is like that mother bird. God is like that worker putting up the stained glass. So all of those metaphors are ways for us to take something that we understand and experience in our daily lives, and then see the Lord through a clear lens as that metaphor does. And I think most of my devotionals are somewhat metaphorical just because He’s explaining or illustrating or making clear a theological concept through an everyday experience.

Elisa: That’s super practical. Thank you for that principle of interpretation, you know, of what the message is for. But now the metaphor of “home” is one that’s the topic of a devotional that you’ve given your heart to. Help us understand why “home” is so important to you, how that came to be a flourishing… a flourishing idea that God really invited you to write on.

Sandra: He did, and I… So if we think of all the words that kind of have “home” as part of the compound. I was interesting, as I was thinking about this. I’m kind of a homebody. And I’m like Well, there it is. There’s another…

Elisa: There it is!

Sandra: … “home” show I got. Yeah, exactly. But a lot of it is, you know, we think of things like … I mentioned “forever home,” or “do-it-yourself home.” How can we improve Grandma’s home? You know “when I’m at home with someone.” I wrote this in the devotion: If I say I’m at home with someone, it means I feel very comfortable. I can let them know when I’m having a bad day. I can confess my sin to them. I can, you know, feel very comfortable with them. So when “I’m at home,” that means I’m comfortable. I’m in a relationship or an environment where I feel nurtured. God says He’s a refuge. He says He’s a shelter. There’s all those things that… that are with “home.” One of the things I really loved is in the Old Testament, when He had the people do sacrifices, He chose to have them do food sacrifices in the morning and at twilight. And it was to be of the foods that they were eating as well. But that spoke to me, like He wants to eat with us. He wants to sit down with His family, like we do, and share with us. I was so touched and, you know, almost to tears. He really wants to eat with me. He wants to come and do what I want to do, and I want Him to come too. I want Him to feel welcome at my… at my home. So I think, then, when I realized that, I began to look for Him more in my home, and in my garden, and what He was showing me of Himself there. And when I saw it, of course, I found it.

Elisa: Some of us might get a little squirmy at that thought. It… it might feel too vulnerable, just scary almost, to be that intimate with God, to have Him in our homes, every place. I remember back to that little pamphlet, “My Heart, Christ’s Home.” And there was a secret closet that the individual writing kept from God and kept secret things in. And I relate to that. I have a few secret closets in my life. How can we feel at home with God in all the parts of our home? Of our being?

Sandra: The reason we hide things is we’re afraid someone won’t love us or like us or we’ll feel shame or we’ll feel guilt or we won’t match up or we might feel defensive. I think once we can begin to see God that way, and I don’t think it’s an easy, quick journey; and I don’t think it’s a one-and-done journey either. If you can see Him as He sees us, then it’s not like He doesn’t know what I’m hiding. I mean He knows what’s there, so I’ve got to tell Him, you know, I feel uncomfortable with this. What do I do with this? And I just have found that He’s a very gentle Person, you know, like a gentle parent. Doesn’t shame you for dropping something or even throwing something, if you’re upset, says you know let’s tidy this up and see what was… what was happening. But it did take a while for me to come to the place. And I still have to remind myself from time to time that He loves me, He’s accepting me. When there’s something there that I don’t want either of us to see, He just wants me to … to help me clean it up.

Eryn: How can you identify the symptoms of living a life on autopilot? You can have some conversations with God, like you said, like we live in a day where we’re vacuuming and we’re running errands and we’re on constant go-go-go. It’s so easy and tempting to get into autopilot. Well you share some of the big things with God, some of the heavier things, but maybe not the daily minute-by-minute things. And I think it’s hard to recognize that you are even in that motion of autopilot.

Sandra: I think burnout is on autopilot because we’re trying to do everything on our own, you know. And sometimes I do have an intimate relationship with God, where I’m like Well, why are You having me do all this stuff? And then I’m like Well, is He having me do all this stuff, or am I just taking it all on, you know? I mean that’s the thing. I… it really is sometimes easy for me to blame Him for things that I take on, things that I’m doing too much. And then I’ll be like Well, see I don’t have time to read my Bible because I gotta do this, that, and the other. And then the question is kind of like Really? You have to do all the rest of this? So I think some of it is when I’m trying to push through and do things, I’m doing it on autopilot. I’m not letting Him sift and sort with me. This is important. This is not. This is for you to look good and feel good about yourself, not something that I’ve asked you to do, which is okay. But then don’t blame Me if you’re too busy. You know I think it’s in that … When I come away… Jesus went away. I mean He withdrew to pray. He withdrew to have time for Himself. If I’m not taking time to withdraw, then that’s for me. One of the understandings that I really came to realize that was so helpful to me is that we tend to think of self-control like Don’t sin. Don’t overspend. Don’t overeat. Have some self-control. But self-control is really like Don’t sign up for too much. You know make sure you do … That is still me controlling myself. And when I’m not doing that, either because I feel like I have to be the savior of the world and take care of everybody’s last possible whatever has to happen, then I think I’m on autopilot. And God feels like a Friend I haven’t reached out to for a while, and our intimacy has dwindled a little like …um… if there is a friend that you haven’t reached out to for a bit.

Elisa: I’m struck by the dual nature of this home metaphor. You know we talked for a minute about it can be scary to make ourselves at home with God because there may be things we want to hide from Him, or it’s just a freaky thought to us to be intimate. But at the other side — and, Eryn, you touched on this — is it can be difficult to invite God to make His home in our lives. You know maybe we think we have to clean up, or maybe He’ll rearrange things, our scheduled, you know; or maybe life will be different. You know it… and I think about, when you move in with a roommate, or a roommate moves in with you, or when you get married and suddenly you have a life partner. And how much you’ve got to share the closet, or you need to make room for their stuff in the refrigerator, or you know, whatever…

Sandra: Wait! I’m supposed to share the closet?

[Laughter]

Elisa: All those things! And there is the dual nature of relationship going on. When I think of it that way… I mean I think it really popped for me when you said that God wants to eat with us… [laughing]… you know that in Old Testament times sacrifices were in the morning and the evening and at mealtime, because God wanted to be in relationship with us. That makes so much sense. And there’s a lot of give and take when we enter into a relationship. We think it’s… I think It’s all about me, you know, what I’ve got on my plate today and how much I want Him in. But it’s two ways, you know…

Sandra: Or… or how much I want Him to do what I want Him to do…

Eryn: Yes.

Sandra: …so that that takes the burden off my shoulders, and I can do the other fifty things that I don’t need to do. It is interesting, and it’s scary a little, because I do feel intimate, there are times when I’m angry with the Lord. Like He didn’t do something I wanted, or He did something I didn’t want. And then I’m like Okay — I say this to myself, but He’s hearing — I’m just not going to pray. I’m just not going to talk to You…

Eryn: I’ll show You!

Sandra: … Like I’m a child! Exactly! And then I just roll my emotions, and I’m like I’m talking to Him and praying to Him anyway, because that’s just … so that I have to come back. I’m like I hope I’m not Your sassiest child. I’m so sorry, and you know, I don’t… I don’t want to be that way. I have a devotional in Dwell about running away from home. When I was a child, I was angry with my parents, and I threw everything in a paper bag and went out the front door. But it was raining, so I kind of wedged myself between the door and the screen door. And I’m like — I was little — but I’m like Now what? I mean I even knew at that point, Now what? So I turned back around, I went in, I took Mrs. Beasley out of the sack, put clothes back in the drawer…

Elisa: [laughing] Mrs Beasley! Yep.

Sandra: Yeah, but sometimes I feel like that with God. I’m like I’m running away from home. This is not going the way I wanted it to go. But, you know, ultimately the heat of the moment cools off, and I’m like Now what? Now I don’t want to go anywhere else, and I know You’re my home, and I just feel sad, so please help me not to feel sad. And … and like I said, and then He helps me unpack my bag, He helps me put Mrs. Beasley on the couch. The situation hasn’t changed, but He is still my home, and there’s no running away from that.

Elisa: Let’s go just a little bit over to another spot that might be uncomfortable. And that’s for those of us in a season where we literally don’t have a home, where we’ve been uprooted. Maybe we’re in a seasonal shift of life. Maybe we’ve been left, or we’re leaving. Maybe our homes have not been safe. You know there could be a lot of reasons for being homeless. And there are times when we can’t go home, too, when we’re just separated…

Sandra: Yes.

Elisa: …out of necessity. Maybe we’re in the military, you know, maybe we’re in a job in another state. What can you speak to those of us who are struggling with that sense of homelessness and how God can help us there?

Sandra: I think that was the overwhelming takeaway for me, where He lives in me, and I live in Him. And we go together wherever we go — in a home, not in a home. Like you had said earlier, there are seasons of life of acquisition when you’re building your family. There’s some of downsizing, and I’ve done that too. There’s sometimes when you leave a home. In the era in which Scripture was written down, there were people that packed up their tents and left. That was, you know, yes, they’d had home villages, but they also packed up their tents and moved. And I think knowing that Christ moved with them, they could see Him whether it was, you know, a pillar of fire, the smoke that was going, whatever. He was coming with them as the only place that we can place our peace and our rest in that. It’s really hard not to know where you’re going, and it’s… if you’re an unhoused person, or you just feel like you’re couch surfing and that’s not what you want. Or you’ve had to move into a very small place to afford it. Our society promotes that success is to have the big and the beautiful and the all of those things, so we feel like we’re not successful. But Christ didn’t have a place to lay His head. He… He’s with us in every single one of those places. Once I kind of grabbed that, that helped me. It doesn’t mean I’m not always sad. I’ve driven by that old house that I loved, and I feel sad. I feel sad that I missed some of those things. It’s not like everything is rosy afterwards, but He’s still here with me, too, in a new season. And I think that’s… that’s the idea of Him dwelling in us and us dwelling in Him. We move together.

Eryn: I would love for you to pray over our listeners right now, that maybe don’t know how to craft a prayer in asking the Lord to come into the most intimate parts of their lives and of their home internally, physically. Would you do that, Sandra?

Sandra: I will. Can I share a tiny little illustration about that, too, before I pray?

Eryn: Yeah.

Sandra: … There’s a proverb that I read. It’s based on the Japanese culture where everything is screens. So there’s a screen before the yard… there’s a gate before the yard. And then in their traditional homes, there are screens, shoji screens. In this screen is the kitchen. In this screen is a bedroom. But as you go deeper and deeper into the house, that’s where more intimate people are allowed, so the bedroom is the very center. So you may let neighbors in your garden. You may let a friend come in your kitchen, or a colleague. A family member might come in your living room. But only you and your partner are in the bedroom. But I think that’s a way to look at God. If you don’t know Him very close, just let Him into the garden first. Just… just open that garden gate and get to know each other. You don’t have to let Him all the way in. He’s a gentleman. So you get to know each other there. Then when you’re comfortable, you know, into the kitchen. Let’s have a meal together. Let’s get to know You a little more deeply. And then when you’ve been walking with Him for a bit, and you do feel that trust — and there’s no pressure for you to feel that trust any sooner than you do feel that trust — then you’re comfortable. Then you’re comfortable inviting Him into the deepest places. But there’s no shame or hurry to get from the garden to the other place. You do that at your pace.

Elisa: I love that.

Eryn: Mm. So good.

Sandra: And now I’ll pray. Lord, I thank You. I thank You that You… You want to dwell in us. You want to be with us. You desire our company. Any of us can think of someone who’s companionship and company we’ve desired and how rewarding it would be for them to respond. And it’s so lovely to think that You’re waiting for us to respond to Your desire for our companionship and company. So I just pray for each lady that’s listening, that You would show Your loving Self to her in some way today and this week, and that she would recognize it through the power of Your Spirit, that it’s You reaching out. And that You would let her know that You are perfectly happy to be just through garden gate while you get to know each other, or just in the kitchen, or wherever it is. And I pray that she would reach out to You, Lord, and just invite You into the place where she feels comfortable, knowing that You allow her to take her pace to get to know You as she learns to trust You more deeply. Thank You, Lord. Thank You for giving us a home in You and a home in heaven. In Your name I ask this, Amen.

Elisa: What a great prayer, Sandra! The Lord dwells with us.

Eryn: Yes. Well, before we go, be sure to check out our website to find a link for Sandra’s devotional Dwell. You can find that and a link to join our email list on our website at godhearsher.org. That’s godhearsher-dot-o.r.g.

Elisa: Thanks for joining us, and don’t forget: God hears you, He sees you, and He loves you because you are His.

[Music]

Eryn: Today’s episode was engineered by Anne Stevens and produced by Jade Gustman and Mary Jo Clark. We also want to thank Londa and Ryan for all their help and support. Thanks everyone.

[ODB theme]

Elisa: God Hears Her is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries.