Podcast Episode

Knowing Women of the Bible

About this Episode

Episode Summary

When it comes to the women in the Bible, we tend to talk about Ruth, Esther, and Mary. But what about the other women who are in the Bible? There are many forgotten or briefly mentioned women who deserve recognition for their roles in God’s Word. Join Elisa Morgan and Eryn Eddy-Adkins as they talk with editor Anna Haggard about the women in the Bible you don’t usually hear about, and get a sneak peek into the new Our Daily Bread Devotional Known by God on this episode of God Hears Her.

Episode Transcript

God Hears Her Podcast

Episode 123 – Knowing Women of the Bible

Elisa Morgan & Eryn Eddy-Adkins with Anna Haggard

Anna: Martha is unhappy, because it looks like Jesus is just sitting. And her sister is there just at Jesus’ feet doing nothing to help. And so she tells Jesus, why isn’t she helping me? And Jesus honors Mary and says she has chosen what is better. The prompt would be, imagine that Jesus is coming to town and coming to your home. And He’s coming to teach. Where are you in this scene? What activity are you doing currently? Are you Mary or Martha? Are you happy with the current activity that you’re doing? What would you prefer to be doing if not? What do you want Jesus to know? What does He want you to know?

Voice: 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. In our conversations, we’ve mentioned specific women of the Bible. But today, we want a conversation about all of the women in the Bible and how God sees them.

Elisa: Today’s guest, Anna Haggard, is a writer and an Our Daily Bread editor who’s compiled the Known devotional, an Our Daily Bread devo about women in the Bible, even some that typically go unnoticed.

Eryn: Let’s jump into this conversation by first getting to know a little bit about Anna on this episode of God Hears Her.

Anna: I grew up in an Air Force family, so kind of was all over. It’s also a medical family. So my father’s a physician. My mother’s a nurse.

Eryn: Oh wow.

Anna: And this goes back several generations though. So I have two grandfathers that were both doctors and two grandmothers that were both nurses, and I became an editor. So…

Eryn: I love that. So you just kind of decided to change the…the…

Anna: Yeah.

Eryn: …generational…

Elisa: Surgery on words.

Anna: I love it.

Eryn: Do surgery on words and sentences.

Elisa: And our manuscripts bleed with ink…red ink.

Anna: Yeah.

Elisa: Oh gosh.

Eryn: You work with spines.

[laughter]

Elisa: Oh…oh this is good. Okay.

Eryn: How else can we go down this road? Okay, sorry. We interrupted you. I know you’ve moved a lot. So where would you say home was for you the most?

Anna: Ooh yeah. So I guess Pennsylvania. Once we got out of the Air Force, we were overseas. My family…I have two younger sisters. And we were in England, and we have friends from all over the world because of that. I loved it. But central Pennsylvania is kind of what I would consider home.

Elisa: That’s beautiful.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: How did you get interested in words?

Anna: From the start, I think God puts desires in us and passions from the beginning. And I think my parents knew…and I really appreciated too. Because we have this legacy of medicine in our family, but they never pushed me towards that place. They knew I was passionate. So like I remember there was an open call at this local library said we’ll publish your book. There was a contest. So we entered into this contest. I typed a 40-page treatise on the Irish potato famine. And I was in fourth grade at the time, and the people were like…

Elisa: Oh my gosh.

Anna: …okay, so you like writing. So kind of from the beginning just really loved that. And then I really like the Bible too. So I, in college, got to go to…last minute my study abroad plans fell through. And I had a Biblical Studies major friend who was like, you should come with me to Israel. So I got to be on Mount Zion in Jerusalem for a whole semester…

Elisa: Oh gosh.

Anna: …just studying historical geography of the Bible, walking in Jesus’ footsteps, you know. That’s such a beautiful classroom just the…the Word came alive. I think I had such a good foundation of just loving words but also loving the Word.

Elisa: So God just rearranged that, didn’t He?

Anna: Yeah.

Elisa: Yeah, okay so you came back from that and where…where’d you end up next?

Anna: Yes. So I ended up in Lancaster again and got an internship with a Christ-centered organization called Hope International. And they invest in the dreams of those in poverty. And I, yeah, landed this internship with the CEO who was starting to write books at the time. And I think the Lord just knew, this was kind of like I think there’s this misconception in the church that if you hate something, God wants you to do it. And it’s truly like, He often puts the desires on our hearts, and they grow the more we spend time with Him and confirm that. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He’ll give you the desires of your heart. And I think there’s a lot of ways to interpret that, but I do really think a lot of times, the Lord is the one who’s planting those in us. And He kind of grows that. So and He gives you the opportunity. So I think this…during this time when it was really hard to get a job, this kind of opened up. At the same time though, it was hard. I was just out of school and, until that point, I had been a big fish in a small pond and had always kind of put my identity on excelling and sports and especially in academics.

Eryn: Yeah.

Anna: And right then I was with these people who were very driven, very ambitious. My boss went to Harvard. And it was just like suddenly I was a very small fish. And I was new. I was learning. I was being thrown into the deep end.

Eryn: Yeah.

Anna: So it was just a really interesting time where I feel like the Lord kind of stripped away a lot of what had been what I considered my identity. You talk about worthiness. I think I felt very unworthy to be in a place like that.

Eryn: That is so common, yet you feel very alone.

Anna: Yes.

Elisa: Yeah.

Anna: Yes.

Eryn: How did that translate in moving forward?

Anna: Yeah, so I was really drowning in it for a…for the first…that first year. And I remember coming home from a…work one day, and I…I like to run. So I went for a run, and it was crazy. I feel like the Lord just flashed a verse across my spirit. And it was “My grace is sufficient for you. For My power is made perfect in weakness.” And it was just this, I know God just planted that on my heart. And I just kind of was just like floored. I just stopped. And it was kind of the start of recognizing that my journey is not based on my strengths but on my depending on His strength. And being weak is a place where His power resides. And so that just kind of opened up that journey towards relying on Him, cause I had relied…I was very independent, very…relied very much on myself and just learning that He collaborates with us when we’re in a weak place.

Elisa: Did people begin to play a role? Were you able…did God lead you to reveal your weakness, inadequacy to others? Was that part of your journey, or maybe not?

Anna: Yeah, I had to start getting honest with people whether that was at my work and just saying, I…I feel like this is a lot. And that’s hard, cause I…I really liked having it all together. I’m a first-born, you know, we like getting the grade.

Elisa: Bring us forward into, you know, how you began to leave that spot and begin to integrate towards words, the Word…

Anna: Yes.

Elisa: …and women.

Anna: Kind of towards the end of that time frame. So got thrown in the deep end, but it was very cool to see how the Lord kind of worked with me throughout that time. And we put out a few different books like Mission Drift

Elisa: Oh yeah.

Anna: …and The Spiritual Danger of Doing Good. And these books ended up really helping organizations stay on mission and stay proclaiming Christ if they were intended to. So I just kind of started seeing how God was faithful in that even in a tough spot. Around that time, I felt called to kind of just go deeper. I felt like my early twenties was very much about stripping down. And later…late twenties was kind of like I want you to be more intimate with Me, to be more vulnerable. And I could kind of be at that place. So I left that organization and decided to go to a spiritual formation program and do that for two years, spiritual direction, spiritual formation. And meanwhile was writing on books on women of the Bible as well.

Elisa: Okay.

Anna: So yeah.

Eryn: So what sparked the inspiration to write about women of the Bible?

Anna: Well I don’t know about you guys if you grew up in church or you didn’t, I did. And my friend and I who worked at Hope, we…she had a young daughter. And I kind of was involved in Sunday school and helped kids a lot. I love kids. And we just realized that the first stories that kids were hearing from the time when we were kids to the kids that we were teaching and her daughter, were David and Goliath, Peter, maybe Paul…

Elisa: Jonah and the whale.

Anna: …Jonah and the whale, exactly, yeah.

Eryn: All men.

Anna: All the men, and great men, but no women.

Eryn: Yeah, sure.

Anna: And I think, specially for young kids, that first stories that they hear really shape who they are. So we really wanted to get women models from the Bible who were faith-filled and leaders to be part of their narrative too. So that kind of started that, and so that just kind of got my interest. And since then, I’ve…I just love researching about women of the Bible too. So that kind of led me into the cir…current project so.

Elisa: How did you end up here at Our Daily Bread Publishing? That’s the mom-dad ministry of God Hears Her, in case somebody doesn’t know, yeah.

Anna: Well I had been on the outside of publishing working with authors or being an author myself. So I kind of wanted to be on the inside of publishing and kind of see what editing looked like from the inside. And this position just fit. I work as an associate content editor, so I do kind of a hybrid of content creation and editing manuscripts as well. So this book, this women in the Bible book, is kind of a little bit of both with that.

Elisa: And it’s called Known by God.

Anna: Known by God.

Elisa: I’m just curious. Maybe go through three to five women…

Anna: Yeah.

Elisa: …that have surprised you or ministered to you.

Eryn: I want to know who your favorite is.

Elisa: The favorite? Okay, you’ve gotta rank them.

Eryn: But then I want to know who su…and maybe the one who surprised you was your favorite.

Anna: Yeah.

Eryn: But if not, I want to know who your favorite is and then who surprised you that you’re like, oh I didn’t know. Cause I have some questions about one and specifically…

Elisa: Oh good.

Eryn: …that I don’t know a lot about, but…

Elisa: Good.

Eryn: …I’m mulling over in my head. But I would love to hear from you.

Anna: Yeah, well I want to ask you guys that question too. Who’s your favorite? And then I’ll…I’ll answer too.

Eryn: I have questions about one.

Anna: Okay.

Eryn: It’s Abigail.

Anna: Yeah.

Eryn: I’m so fascinated by her. Because the Lord strikes her husband down. And…and…and then he’s like she’s a woman of integrity, and he entrusts her. And then she gets…does she get married to David?

Anna: Yes.

Eryn: Yes, so I’m so curious about just that whole…I can’t even…I mean could you imagine if that happened now? Like what…we’d be all like what is happening? Somebody got hit by lightning. So I would love for you to share, what have you learned? Tell me about Abigail, cause that’s all I’ve read. I’ve not studied much of her, but I’m so intrigued with the story and the messiness of the story.

Anna: I will share, but Elisa…is there anything…cause you’ve written the devotion that’s being featured on…

Eryn: Which is hilarious. I did not know that when I brought her up.

Elisa: Tickles me.

Anna: Yes.

Elisa: It tickles me. Yeah, and I’ve done a Discover the Word series on Abigail and a couple of video things on her. But I want to hear what you’d do with it too, Anna. So Abigail is married to a guy named Nabal, and he is a fool. He is a lout. I mean his name kind of means fool, right?

Anna: Yeah.

Elisa: Yeah, Anna, yeah. And she knows it, but she’s stuck with him. You know patriarchal culture like we’re talking about. Well it happens to be sheep-shearing time. And David’s men help shear Nabal’s sheep. And Nabal’s not about giving the customary tip. And he has this big party, and he gets drunk. And Abigail is just really aware that he’s refused, and David is getting really mad. And David’s king. And she is nervous that Nabal’s gonna kill David or David’s gonna kill Nabal, and either one of those is not gonna work out well. So she basically puts together a peace offering and takes it herself and meets David. And you know what she does, Eryn? It…she pulls him up to a higher level. She reminds him of who he is as king. And she appeals to his integrity.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: And he’s blessed by it and changes his mind. And that night when Nabal’s drunk, he falls over dead.

Anna: Yeah, yeah.

Elisa: And Nabal is gone out of the picture, and David marries Abigail. So poof…

Anna: Yeah.

Elisa: …what do you do with that story? She is super strong.

Anna: Yeah.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: What you said.

Anna: Yeah, the…the devotion’s called “Hard Conversations.” And so we kind of get into what does it look like for you to have a hard conversation?

Elisa: Can you imagine having…

Eryn: That’s why I like her so much.

Elisa: I know.

Anna: Exactly.

Elisa: I mean oh Eryn, who likes direct communication. I mean Abigail’s that.

Anna: Yeah.

Eryn: Yeah.

Anna: Yeah.

Elisa: And she’s really a role model.

Anna: She is. Actually, you’re gonna like Abigail.

Eryn: Whoa.

Anna: Like I could…yes.

Eryn: Oh gosh.

Anna: Cause I think she’s very passionate, and she’s a diplomat and just very good at speaking but can see all sides. And I think…it seems like in your ministry, you do that a lot. So…

Eryn: Thank you.

Anna: Yeah.

Eryn: I take that to heart. Thank you for saying that.

Anna: Yeah.

Eryn: I didn’t bring her up saying she was my favorite cause I thought I was like her. But I do love how the Lord protected her throughout all of that.

Anna: Yes.

Eryn: And she followed through in what she was entrusted to do and be a woman of integrity in the process.

Anna: Yes.

Eryn: I love it. [inaudible] Elisa?

Elisa: Well, I have a million favorites. But one that comes to mind is Mary of Bethany, and I wrote a book on her…

Anna: Yeah.

Elisa: …called She Did What She Could. And I just love that she got who Jesus was. I mean she understood His pathway to the cross really before the rest of the disciples did. And she acted, and she anointed Him before His burial, before He even went into the triumphal entry. And I just think it’s amazing story.

Anna: Yeah.

Elisa: So but okay, now back to you.

Eryn: Yeah.

Anna: Well Mary is my favorite.

Elisa: Mary of Bethany?

Anna: Mary of Bethany.

Elisa: Oh.

Anna: Yeah.

Elisa: Okay.

Anna: And partly because she recognized who Christ was and His path. And I think too, we sometimes typecast so Mary and Martha. Martha is the feisty one, and Mary is the…the quiet one. But when you look at her story a little bit more, what kind of surprised me as I was learning…

Eryn: Yeah.

Anna: …is that she was very countercultural in a lot of ways.

Elisa: She was like Yentl.

Anna: Yes, she was.

Elisa: She sat at the rabbi’s feet…

Anna: Exactly.

Elisa: …in a position women were not…

Anna: Were not.

Elisa: …welcomed into at all…

Anna: No.

Elisa: …in that day, in that culture.

Anna: Yeah, exactly. And Paul even says, he uses the exact same phrase, I sat at the feet of Gamaliel who was the rabbi, leading rabbi of the day. So when she’s positioning herself like that…

Elisa: It’s a student, learning posture.

Anna: It’s a student learner, exactly.

Elisa: Yeah.

Anna: She is a disciple.

Elisa: Yes.

Anna: Yeah.

Elisa: Oh, that’s awesome.

Anna: Yep.

Elisa: Okay. Who else hits you?

Eryn: Who surprised you?

Anna: I mean I think my heart goes out to Hagar. She’s our opening one.

Eryn: Yes.

Anna: Partly just because she’s such an outsider. Here she is enslaved, mistreated. She’s on the run. She’s pregnant.

Elisa: Yeah, would you just give the backstory, maybe just walk us through her story. Because it really is the backstory…

Anna: Yes.

Elisa: …of God Hears Her. But you want to unpack that for us?

Anna: Yeah, so she is an Egyptian woman who is enslaved by the patriarch Abram and Sarai. And so she, in the process of time, when they can’t conceive, she is given to Abraham to have his…their child, to be the heir. So here she is at that time. She is pregnant with his child. And his wife becomes very jealous, and Sarai abuses Hagar. So she takes off, runs away. And it’s where we kind of come in the story in this book is where it says “the angel of the Lord found her in the desert.” And so I just…this gets me every time is just that the Lord was not only just bumping into her, He found her. He was seeking her out. He knew who she was. He knew what her shame was, her feelings. And He came and encountered her in that moment in her struggle.

Elisa: And she wasn’t an Israelite.

Anna: No.

Elisa: Yeah.

Anna: She was an Egyptian. Yeah, yeah, she was a complete underdog or an outsider.

Elisa: And He ends up saying, what to her? God does.

Anna: So He gives her a blessing and a promise, a great promise about her son who is…she’s gonna name Ishmael, which means “God hears.” And she gets a blessing from Him, and they have this conversation which, in Scripture, He’s I think the first…the first time God, the Son who they think it is, has a conversation with somebody in the Bible. And she’s chosen for that. And not only that, she names God “you are the God who sees me.” Cause she recognized that God knew her and saw her.

Elisa: Thank you, Anna. You know, so God hears you. God sees you. God loves you, because you are His.

Anna: Yeah.

Elisa: That’s part of the backstory here of our message. So surprising, that was surprising to you. Or you just had tenderness towards her.

Anna: Yeah.

Elisa: Yeah.

Anna: And I think too it’s just an amazing…here you were talking about her being a complete outsider. But she’s the only, I think the first and the only person in the Old Testament to name God. And so here she’s given this kind of honor too.

Elisa: Wow, isn’t that something/

Anna: Pretty cool, yeah.

Eryn: What is another woman that comes to mind for you that you’re like, when you get to have these conversations that you’re excited to talk about?

Anna: Yeah, overlooked ones.

Eryn: Yes.

Anna: There are two women, Shiphrah and Puah, and they are these midwives who kind of stand up to the Pharoah to protect the Israelite slave babies. And it’s kind of thinking about it, they defied like somebody I guess today would be like defying Putin or somebody who was maniacal and evil.

Elisa: Yeah, right.

Anna: Cause he was trying to commit infanticide against the Hebrew babies.

Eryn: Wow.

Anna: So just…

Elisa: He thought the Hebrews were too many in population.

Anna: Yes.

Elisa: And he wanted to cut them off so he ordered all the babies to be killed.

Eryn: Right.

Anna: Yeah.

Elisa: And so he ordered the midwives to…

Anna: Yes.

Elisa: …to do this.

Anna: Yeah.

Eryn: Wow. Okay, continue. So what do they do?

Anna: So they defied him.

Eryn: Yeah.

Anna: They didn’t obey. It says that they feared God, and so they listened to God, not to man.

Eryn: They didn’t fear him. They feared God.

Anna: Yes, exactly.

Eryn: Ooh, that’s such a powerful lesson.

Anna: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Eryn: Wow.

Elisa: There are moments God might invite us to not listen to man, not fear man.

Anna: Yes.

Elisa: But to fear Him. And what did they do as a result?

Eryn: To do the right thing.

Anna: Well they actually kind of lied to pharaoh which…it’s an interesting part of the story too. I don’t know what I think about that, but…

Eryn: The deception piece.

Anna: Yes, yeah, yeah.

Eryn: God’s like, oh sweet girl. Well you’re sinful, but you know, you’re scared of Me so I love you. I don’t know.

Anna: It says that God blessed them, cause He was…He favored what they did. So apparently, He endorsed it, so yeah.

Elisa: He let the little…she…they let the little babies live. And they just said, oh you know what? Hebrew women are so strong, they just deliver so fast. We can’t kill those babies.

Anna: They’re too vigorous.

Elisa: They’re too vigorous.

Anna: Yes.

Elisa: Exactly, strong, yeah.

Anna: Yeah.

Elisa: Yeah, that’s good. How about…do you cover the women in Jesus’ genealogy?

Anna: Yeah.

Elisa: That’s fun.

Anna: That’s really fun. Yeah, one of the cool things about this project was that it was such a collaborative project. We had so many women coming into this project and working on it. And one of the women, I just really felt from the beginning, kind of God nudged me. This is not about you. This is about you featuring the women that are in this project and kind of letting them shine and just cool to see how that manifested itself. And one of the women who was writing for us, an Our Daily Bread writer, she was writing about Tamar which is one of the ones in the line of Christ. And she was like, I…she was wrestling with this passage. Cause it’s such a tough passage.

Elisa: It’s a touch passage, yeah.

Eryn: Yes, yeah.

Anna: Yeah, and she just sat with it for days and just prayed about it. And she said, one day she just got God like implanted this idea. So you have to read her devotion.

Elisa: Ooh I can’t wait, yeah.

Anna: Because it’s really powerful. And just talking about how God uses even dysfunction and you know a tabloid kind of story and redeems that.

Elisa: The Bible has a lot of X-rated stuff in it.

Anna: Yes.

Elisa: You know that…and we get all uncomfortable with that. We think oh, you know, that should be flushed to the side. But the reality is we live in a broken world that has all kinds of roughness in it, and that’s where God came, you know. And He comes to people in that messiness.

Anna: Yes, yeah.

Elisa: Women included. How did the times of the Bible, studying them in terms of the culture, you know, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the Hebraic culture, the Jewish culture compared to the…maybe the Roman culture. You know, how did they get featured in your understanding and the writer’s understandings?

Anna: Yeah, so we did a lot of word studies and insights. But it’s kind of interesting. What surprised me was that it seemed like, when you look at the patriarchs, the women in those stories are no wallflowers. They have strong opinions. They are very bold. And they had a lot of agency, sometimes a little bit more behind the scenes. But in some ways, the further you got into the New Testament, the rights of women were restricted more. So there was almost less power for women during Jesus’ time than really in the patriarch time, so…

Elisa: Why did that happen, do you think?

Eryn: Yeah, why do you think that is?

Elisa: Yeah.

Anna: You know, I’m not even sure. I think the society got more regulated. And with Roman control, things…just life got. I mean when you’re in a hurting society like the patriarchs were, there was not a lot of outside restrictions. You were kind of the family was…

Elisa: It’s a clan.

Anna: It was clan-based and yeah.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: Yeah, and Roman culture I guess was pretty. I mean slaves, children, women.

Anna: Yes, exactly.

Elisa: Nobody had any value. It was also patriarchal. Okay.

Eryn: Now you’ve been writing about women of the Bible for how many years?

Anna: Probably about five years now.

Eryn: Okay. So five years. And in creating this devotional, was there something new that you discovered in yourself that you were grateful for or that it was hard for you to receive maybe?

Anna: You know, there’s always layers of…I remember. So a few years ago, a spiritual mentor asked me, what are your images of God when you pray? And so I kind of went in prayer and realized that, as much as my head I saw God as a very loving and close, intimate God, He was far away in my prayer life. And I think there’s always this vulnerability of coming, learning. I think through a lot of these stories, He’s like God often, especially in the New Testament when we look at Christ, He’s dealing with women who are kind of outsiders. And He commends them for their faith. And it’s a very personal thing. He even says “daughter.” And I think when it comes to that, I…I sometimes…a lot of the…what we did in the…these devotions was, we did imaginative prayer prompts where we invited the women to come in and put themselves in the scene, kind of what I did within Israel which is kind of allowing women to experience what it would be like to be a woman and to connect with God in those situations.

Elisa: Beautiful.

Eryn: That’s beautiful.

Anna: Yeah, and I…and it’s very vulnerable. So I did that in my spiritual formation program. But just knowing the tenderness of God is something that hits me again and again. And sometimes it’s scary to me, to be honest. I want to push it away.

Elisa: I agree.

Anna: And I think, just because it’s so other than what we know here on earth with conditional love. And so I think just being in God’s presence while doing this and just recognizing again God’s nearness, it just always floors me. So…

Elisa: That is so raw, thank you for sharing that.

Anna: Yeah, yeah.

Eryn: What are some words that you want to speak over the women right now listening that feel overlooked, maybe feel unknown, hidden, feel like they need to perform or be or do in order to be seen and loved?

Anna: You are seen. God is with you. God is on your side. God is for you a hundred percent. God hears your pain and knows it and is experiencing it with you.

Elisa: You know, I’m not going to ask you to read from the devotional here, but…but maybe if you can think of a devotion that you think would minister to these women that you’re speaking of, Eryn, maybe describe it. And then I’m real intrigued by these biblical imagination prompts that you’re talking about, about putting ourselves in the scene. Could you talk straight to the woman with this devotional and then with that prompt?

Anna: Yeah.

Elisa: And we’ll try and go along with you too.

Anna: Maybe just starting with something like Mary and Martha. The story is, Jesus is coming to town and coming to the house of Mary and Martha. And Martha is unhappy, because it looks like Jesus is just sitting, and her sister is there just at Jesus’ feet doing nothing to help. And so she tells Jesus, why isn’t she helping me? And Jesus honors Mary and says she has chosen what is better. The prompt would be, imagine that Jesus is coming to town and coming to your home? And he’s coming to teach. Where are you in the scene? What activity are you doing currently? Are you Mary or Martha? Are you happy with the current activity that you’re doing? What would you prefer to be doing if not? What do you want Jesus to know? What does He want you to know?

Elisa: Oh, that makes it so alive, doesn’t it?

Eryn: Yeah, it does. It really does.

Elisa: If a listener wants to start studying the women, you know, maybe they’ve never really read many of the women of the Bible; is there one you would suggest they start with?

Anna: Either start from the beginning with Hagar. The one that I really love is the woman with the issue of the blood. And she is a woman who has been suffering for 12 years, and she sees Jesus in a crowd. And she moves through the crowd and grabs His cloak and receives healing from Him. And that is actually a really powerful one to do in imaginary prayer. But just the power of Jesus’ words to her, it’s just really comforting; because God commends her and heals her. So if you’re looking for healing, emotionally or spiritually, and I know healing can take years sometimes. Or it can be instantaneous. But just opening yourself up to Christ’s tenderness, His healing, that is just a beautiful story to kind of start with.

Elisa: What is your prayer for this book as it’s put into hands of women?

Anna: I want them to be able to encounter the God who encountered the women of the Bible and in a way that He knows that He sees them and that He is for them and on their side.

[musical interlude]

Elisa: We’re so excited for everyone to get their hands on this devo.

Eryn: To check out the Known devotional and learn more about Anna, check out our website at godhearsher.org. That’s godhearsher.org.

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 Barry and Kevin for all their help and support. Thanks everyone.

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

Show Notes

  • “Being weak is a place where His power resides.” —Anna Haggard

  • “God uses dysfunction for redemption.” —Elisa Morgan

  • “You are seen, God is with you, God is on your side, God is for you one-hundred percent, God hears your pain and knows it and is experiencing it with you.” —Anna Haggard

  • “Are you happy with the current activity you are doing?” —Anna Haggard

  • “I hope the readers will encounter the God who encountered these women in the Bible.” —Anna Haggard

Links Mentioned

About the Guest(s)

Anna Haggard

Anna Haggard is an associate content editor for Our Daily Bread Publishing. A follower of Jesus, she loves to write and edit books sharing about God’s generous and deep love for all people. Anna co authored the Called and Courageous Girls Series (calledandcourageousgirls.com); Mission Drift, a 2015 Christianity Today Book Award winner; and The Spiritual Danger of Doing Good.

Comments

4 Responses

  1. I have always had questions about Tamar in the Bible, that was the most confusing story I have ever encountered. Where can I find more information about this?

    1. Tabitha, if you check the show notes for this particular episode, there are links you can go to check more information. Known by God has a chapter specifically on Tamar’s story. I hope this is helpful.
      God bless.

  2. My Biblestudy this morning was about the unknown woman with the alabaster jar. She has no name here in scripture. She loves God and is obedient is what is important. She ‘pours the oil on Jesus, ‘pours the oil Hallelujah. I want to be the unknown women to serve my God in obedience. I want to be pleasing to God all the days of my life. He saved a sinner like me. When I fail Lord please forgive me as I repent in the name of Jesus. We are in a sad and broken world and God needs us to do the work in a Christian way of life. Thank you for sharing. God Bless you and this Wonderful platform.

  3. Hearing about the women of the Bible, whom God loved, was so insightful for me. Thank you, Kathi.

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