Pursuing a Courageous Faith

God Hears Her Podcast

Episode 53 – Pursuing a Courageous Faith
Elisa Morgan & Eryn Eddy with Debbye Turner Bell

Debbye: God proves Himself to us every day and if we’ll just take the time to notice, you know, His faithfulness in our lives, then it creates in us a bank, if you will, a reservoir…

Eryn: Hmm. Yeah.

Debbye: …of His work in our life, so that when we go through difficult times and we don’t see His hand and we don’t see any way out, we can refer back to. It’s just like it, I believe it was David who said, “I will remind myself” right? So when we have that reservoir, God you were faithful before and since you are unchangeable, immutable, I know you’re going to be faithful now and you’re going to be faithful in the future.

[Music]

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. Have you ever had a moment in your life where you needed to get something fully to God? The word surrender may seem a little overwhelming, but Dr. Debbye Turner Bell is a great example of what can happen when we fully submit ourselves to God’s best and accomplish something we didn’t feel like you were capable of doing.

Elisa: Dr. Debbye Bell is a woman of many talents. When she was in high school, she wanted to be a veterinarian, but didn’t know how she would afford her schooling. Well her opportunity to earn college scholarships came from the Miss America pageant, but her odds for winning the pageant seemed stacked against her. She was about to give up for good when a woman close to her shared something that changed her mind, which we will hear about in just a few minutes. Dr. Debbye Bell won the pageant in 1990, and then she went on to become a veterinarian, a journalist, a corporate trainer, a minister, and a motivational speaker. On top of that, she’s also a wife and a mother. Wow! You know, a lot can happen when we let go of our lives and trust the plans God has for us.

Eryn: Absolutely. We are incredibly thankful to have her speaking about surrender and overcoming the odds in this episode of God Hears Her.

Elisa: Debbye, your career list, your vita, your resume, whatever you want to call it is like ta da! I mean, it’s amazing! [Laughing]

Debbye: It’s a hot mess, come on. [Laughing]

Elisa: Well, I didn’t say that but you can if you want to. [Laughing] I think it’s super impressive and, I mean, just stuff like you were Miss America in 1990, you’re a veterinarian, you’re a journalist, you’re a corporate trainer, you’re a minister, you’re a motivational speaker, you’re a wife, you’re you’re a mother (makes noise), you know pant.

Eryn: MacGyver. Is that in there? [Laughing]

Debbye: You know, so I…I’m actually also a border collie because if I don’t have something new to do I become destructive so.

Elisa: Love that! And…and your upcoming book though gives kind of hope to everyday readers because you zero in on this concept of overcoming the odds. You know, overcoming tough stuff, and so while at first presentation, you look like MacGyver, as Eryn you said. You know, underneath is this braided tapestry of story of a lot of overcoming, right?

Debbye: Oh for sure, and we all have a story. Many of us don’t recognize the power of the story that we have, so I’m just grateful for God’s grace. What I love to say is I’m just this normal country little girl from Arkansas that was unremarkable in, you know, almost every way. I had a big forehead, buck teeth, and loved watching my cats give birth to their kittens. [Laughing] You know, nothing particularly special, but…but there…there were a couple of key things that made all the difference. First of all, I had a mother who was a God-fearing, Bible-believing prayer warrior that taught her two daughters—my older sister and I—that um we could do anything with the help of God through hard work and determination. And then the second key thing was receiving the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God into my life so that I’ve moved over a period of time from pursuing things because I was good at them or pursuing them because that’s what I wanted to do to submitting to what God’s purpose and will for my life is. That made all the difference.

Elisa: Mic drop right there, Eryn.

Eryn: Yeah, that’s so beautiful. Debbye, what brought you to that? Was there a specific moment or was it like many seasons that brought you to this base of submitting to the Lord’s plan?

Elisa: It’s not an easy thing to do.

Eryn: Yeah, cause that’s a journey in itself, right?

Debbye: It’s a journey and…and we’re still on that journey, right?

Eryn: Yes.

Debbye: We all are, right?

Eryn: Yes.

Debbye: As long as we wrapped in this imperfect flesh, we’re going to be on that journey.

Eryn: Hmm.

Debbye: But to suffice it to say after trying a number of times as it related to the Miss America Pageant system to do my very best, to give my very best, and it not…and come up short, it was not good enough. And after a while I gave up. I tell a whole bunch of details in my book, but I had to come to the place of surrender and say, Okay God, this is in my life. I believe you placed this in my life. I clearly can’t do it on my own.

Elisa: Yeah, and to unpack it a little bit more, Debbye, I mean, some listeners don’t know what Miss America is. You know, I grew up watching Miss America. My sister and I would get in front of the TV back in the 60s and just (gasp), you know, wait for which state was going to be chosen and…

Debbye: Mm-hmm.

Elisa: …it’s not just a beauty pageant. There’s much more to it, but you went at it for like seven tries, right? Tell us what…

Debbye: Well… 

Elisa: …what it is and why it had a hold on you and what you wanted.

Debbye: Yeah, absolutely, and it breaks my heart that some people don’t know what Miss America is. [Laughing] The world had literally changed since then, but Miss America is the very first, it’s the grandmother of pageants in the United States of America, it was the very first. It was a bathing beauties contest in 1921 and its purpose was to extend the tourism season in Atlantic City for one more week. It always happened the weekend after Labor Day to get people to stay a little longer so that the local economy could reap the benefits from that. So that’s how it started. It developed into the largest source of scholarship for women in the world. We don’t call ourselves beauty pageant. While beauty is an element as it is in almost everything we do in life, appearance generally matters, it’s a scholarship program based upon two heavily weighted competitions which are the private job-style interview that each contestant (or now the call them candidates) goes through and then talent, and so that’s what makes us different than the other quote-on-quote beauty pageants out there. That talent is involved, articulations and intelligence and education are evaluated, and then the Miss Americas themselves, as well as the local and state title holders then advocate for a social issue or community cause as a part of their responsibilities in carrying out that title. So I got into this pageant not because I wanted to be Miss America. Just like you, I grew up watching it, right? It was…it was a family event. However, I didn’t see many women that looked like me. I’m African American and certainly in the 70s, there were very few—precious few—that looked anything like me. So while it was great entertainment, I didn’t relate to it, I didn’t aspire to it. When it was introduced to me specifically, I was in high school and a local pageant director was trying to recruit contestant for her upcoming Miss Jonesboro pageant, and she invited me to be in it. And I wasn’t interested. By that time, I knew I wanted to be a veterinarian. I’m a science geek.

Elisa: Hmm.

Debbye: I was a band geek, you know, so walking in high heels ah with an evening gown was not my groove at all.

Eryn: Not your thing.

Debbye: No, no, I, you know, politely thanked her. “No, thank you. Don’t think I want to do that,” and she was persistent. And she finally said, “It’s the largest source of scholarship for women in the world. If you make it to the Miss America stage, you can win tens of thousands of dollars in scholarship.

Elisa: Wow.

Debbye: Well a bell went off in my head. My ponytail stood up. I was like Okay, where do I sign up for this? because I was growing up in a single parent, lower middle-class Arkansas home.

Elisa: Mmm.

Debbye: And I knew that my family could not pay for the veterinary education that I wanted, so I knew I was going to have to get scholarships, grants, loans, something to finance that education. So it became a means to an end and it turns out that that means was mighty long, because I competed for 7 years.

Eryn: Wow.

Debbye: It took eleven tries in two different states for me to win a state title and actually make it to the Miss America stage.

Elisa: So you were about the scholarship and that was about your dreams to become a veterinarian, and you sound incredibly tenacious, Debbye. I mean, 7 years, however many tries that is, that’s a lot. I mean, I think of the potential dieting and the honing of your talent and [Laughing] all these….

Debbye: Yeah, I only maintained competition weight for competition night and that was about it. [Laughing]

Eryn: I love that.

Debbye: My mother used to tell on me, so now I just tell the story that I would starve myself leading up to a pageant. I mean, it really a wonder that I didn’t develop an eating disorder, which is no laugh…laughing matter.

Elisa: Yeah. Yeah.

Debbye: But I would do these extreme really unhealthy things to try to get down to the weight, because my natural body and body type is not this rail-thin waif model body.

Elisa: Well whose is? Can I just say that?

Eryn: Yeah.

Debbye: Yeah, right. So I would starve literally to…to get down to what was considered to be acceptable, and then the day after the pageant, literally I’d like eat a whole pie. I’d just…or you know eat a whole pizza all by myself, which is not particularly healthy either. But over the…the course of that time, I mean, you know, Eryn and Elisa, I…I quit a couple times. You know, I was like This is not for me. They clearly don’t want someone who looks like me. I was really outspoken about my faith even back then and, you know, people just didn’t want to hear about Jesus.

Eryn: Yeah. 

Debbye: I’d play an instrument called a Marimba and half of the people don’t know what that is and the other half don’t know what to think of it and so, you know, I was told I couldn’t win playing the Marimba. So I had all these odds stacked against me.

Elisa: Mm-hmm.

Debbye: And there were a couple of times where I kind of threw up my hands and said, you know, “I’m going to be a veterinarian. I’m going to be doctor. I don’t need this pageant thing.” And it was really through, if I’m being very transparent about it, it was through the nudging of the Holy Spirit.

Eryn: Hmm.

Debbye: And I remember I was at a Bible study and prayer meeting and one of my mother’s best friends and prayer partners during the prayer time says “Debbye, I don’t believe you’re supposed to give up.” Because I quit. I quit for good and I meant it. And ah she goes, “I don’t believe you’re supposed to give up.” And I didn’t want to hear it. You know, I was like “Oh, gosh.” And she…then she went on to say, “While I was praying,” she goes, “I saw in my spirit” and I don’t want that to sound spooky to people, I’m just telling you the story, she says, “I see you in a white gown with the roses in your and the crown on your head. I believe if you won’t give up, God will elevate you to the top.”

Elisa: Oh my gosh. I’ve got goosebumps.

Debbye: Well that was the seminal moment.

Elisa: Mmm.

Debbye: So I couldn’t ignore that. I couldn’t pretend that that meant something, you know, else. I couldn’t apply I to anything else. And so it was at that point that I began to pray, and I think I was um maybe 18, 19 years old at the time. Maybe 20. And I just went into prayer and I said, “Okay, God, what is your will? I’ve tried this on my own. I’ve done the very best I could do. The best I could get to was first runner up at the Miss Arkansas pageant. If this is what you want from me, show me what to do and you do it.” And that was the point of surrender and that’s when my goals then became subservient to God’s will and His purpose for my life.

Elisa: Mmm.

Eryn: Mmm. That is so beautiful, Debbye. For those…the 7 years to that point, I would imagine there would have to be some sort of comparison trap you’d get yourself into or anger towards the Lord of just like I’m trying to do this and you’re not…and it seems like it’s not making…like it’s not happening.

Debbye: Mm-hmm.

Elisa: Yeah.

Eryn: How did you process the comparison and continue to move past it and stay sane, I guess, right? [Laughing]

Elisa: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Good question yeah.

Debbye: It’s no easy feat. Even…even to this day, right, you know Psalms says “Do not fret not for evil doers,” right? And it’s easy for us to look at other people and say, you know, God they don’t even believe in you. or They don’t pray as much as…as I do.

Eryn: Yeah.

Debbye: Or They’re not as faithful as I am and look at the success that they have.

Elisa: Yeah.

Eryn: Yes!

Debbye: And the Scriptures clearly tells us don’t worry about that because they fade away like a blade of grass, like a puff of wind, um that we are to be concerned about what God has for us because that lasts for eternity. And so to…to bring all of those platitudes down to practical application, it…it’s really a matter of faith. It’s a matter of deciding God, I believe you no matter what the circumstances look like.

Eryn: Yeah.

Debbye: One of my favorite Scriptures, and it’s a hard Scripture to love, is when Job said to his friends, “Though He may slay me, yet will I trust Him.”

Eryn: Mmm.

Debbye: The amount of love and faith and devotion and intimate relationship it takes to be able to say and mean that statement…

Elisa: Mm-hmm.

Debbye: …blows my mind.

Eryn: Yeah.

Debbye: But that’s what I seek to get to. That if God Himself smite me, it won’t shake my faith in Him because He is the sovereign God, and He is my loving Dad who withholds no good gift from me.

Eryn: Mmm.

Debbye: So, you know, and of course, these…this place has come over time. I didn’t feel like that at 19.

Eryn: Yeah, right.

Debbye: And, you know, I probably didn’t necessarily feel like that at 39. [Laughing] It’s been a journey. It’s been a journey. But here’s the thing, um God proves Himself to us every day and if we’ll just take the time to notice, you know, His faithfulness in our lives,..

Eryn: Yeah.

Debbye: …then it creates in us a bank, if you will, a reservoir…

Eryn: Hmm. Yeah.

Debbye: …of His work in our life, so that when we go through difficult times and we don’t see His hand and we don’t see any way out, we can refer back to. It’s just like it, I believe it was David who said, “I will remind myself” right? So when we have that reservoir, God you were faithful before and since you are unchangeable, immutable, I know you’re going to be faithful now and you’re going to be faithful in the future.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: Mmm.

[Music]

Elisa: And when we come back we’ll talk about the importance of noticing and remembering what God has done in our own lives and how that can help us get through our current and future struggles. That’s coming up on God Hears Her.

Eryn: Thanks for listening to this God Hears Her podcast. If today’s topic helped or inspired you, please consider supporting the podcast so other women can be inspired too. Simply go to godhearsher.org/impact. That’s godhearher.org/impact and see how you can help more women know that God hears them, He sees them, and He loves them because they are His.

Elisa: Now back to the show.  

Elisa: Debbye, you’re just putting my nose in the hole in the chalkboard that I think God continues to lead me to and says, “Elisa, look right here.” [Laughing] I don’t know if they still do that, but I had…I had a lot of circles drawn on chalkboards and my nose put in it when I was in school so…. [Laughing]

Debbye: Kids would say, What’s a chalkboard?

Elisa: I know, totally right.

Eryn: Dry erase is erase that with your nose.

Debbye: Right. Right.

Elisa: But what you’re pointing me to is powerful, especially as noticing and then remembering what God’s done. You know, if we’re talking about overcoming the odds, we’re talking about perseverance, we’re talking about hanging in there, you know, I’m hearing this whole list of things, but this is really popping. It was just um a couple of nights ago, Evan, my husband and I were chatting with a…a couple that are friends, they are about 15 years older than us, and we’re pretty old, so they have a long track record, and they were asking questions about how God had brought Evan and myself through various family challenges. One of which was my daughter was pregnant as a teenager and she relinquished this little one and there was a season when we didn’t know who his parents were going to be. We didn’t know. We…we trusted that God would bring people forward, but we didn’t know, and…and at times that whole experience can leave the front of my mind and go to the back of my mind and I…I overlook how beautifully God provided there. And…and I need to remember that on a daily basis that that kind of provision that was miraculous, I mean, He actually woke up a woman in the middle of the night and told her she was supposed to adopt this baby and she did. What? That kind of provision is what God wants to do every day in our lives, even when we can’t see it.

Eryn: Yeah.

Debbye: Absolutely.

Elisa: Anyway, I, forgive me, forgotten that. It had left the front of my mind and gone to the back of my mind. It’s been 20 years. I hadn’t forgotten, but I wasn’t…my nose wasn’t in that circle of God’s faithfulness, and so when I come up to the next moment and the next moment and the next moment of will He provide for me here, I’m like (makes noise), you know, just (makes noise).

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: Not sure, nope, nope could possibly come through her for me God, could ya? And Debbye you are so beautifully highlighting the circle that we need to put our nose in. That God is faithful. Let’s notice His faithfulness along the way—maybe journal it; maybe remember it;…

Debbye: Yes.

Elisa: …maybe tell a friend so they can remind us, but then let’s go back and remember His faithfulness.

Eryn: Yeah.

Debbye: That’s right. Absolutely. I mean, every time that God performed a miracle, particularly in the Old Testament and particularly with Abraham, an altar was built. The whole purpose of the altar was to remember what God had done. At this point, this is where He brought us out. As this point, this is where He fed us. At this point, this how things worked out. And we need to continue to practice that. Maybe we don’t go out in the backyard and put up a mound of rocks like they did then, but we should journal or just continue to…to speak out the goodness of God. You know, Revelation 12:11 says, “We overcome by the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony, loving not our life unto death.” And so part of us overcoming is telling of the goodness of God, speaking of what He’s done before, because here’s the thing, when we say it out loud, and I do believe in journaling, I do journal, but when we say it out loud not only does the hearer hear it, we hear it. We…we have the mechanism within us to hear what we say and those soundwaves travel back through our auditory nerve back into our brain and creates a chain in our own brain, which is why the spoken word is so important. So, yes, we have to remind ourselves. That way when we get to those tough points, when we get to the…the blind corners where we don’t see any way out, then we remind ourselves of what God has done, we remind ourselves of the Word of God. You know, I have often through tears or even in anger, God you said that all things work together for my good. You have to make this work, God! Right? Because He’s a God that can’t lie. So I tell the unlying God, Let me just remind you what you said. [Laughing]

Elisa: I loved that.

Debbye: I’m pretty sure He doesn’t forget.

Eryn: That’s so true! Yes.

Debbye: But we must do that. And here’s the thing: What I now know is I’m not saying that for God’s benefit. He knows who He is. He knows what He’s going to do. 

Elisa: Yeah.

Debbye: It helps me.

Eryn: Mm-hmm.

Elisa: Yeah.

Eryn: Ooo, that is so…that is so, so good, Debbye, and I love how you share just practical ways like going back and writing down what you’ve already seen. ‘Cause sometimes I, for me anyways, my head and my heart sometimes there’s like a disconnect and what I know versus like what I feel they get so separated. What I know about God, the how I feel about Him in the moment, like maybe I feel like He doesn’t hear me. Maybe I feel like He forgot about me.

Debbye: Yes.

Eryn: I know He didn’t forget about me. I know that He hears me. I know that He’s present, but I feel like He’s not. And I…I just love that, so one of the ways that you’ve battled that over time is writing out what you have learned, what you’ve seen to connect the head and the heart. Is that right?

Debbye: Yeah, that’s absolutely right, but also in addition to that it is knowing the Word of God.

Eryn: Yeah.

Debbye: You know, when we don’t know what God’s Word says about who we are and our identity and our authority, then we live below our privileges. And so it is so important, that’s why not just reading the Bible daily, you know, with a 5-minute devotion in the morning—there’s nothing wrong with that, I do it myself—

Elisa: Sure.

Debbye: …but committing time for Bible study and digging in it and internalizing it makes all the difference in the world, because we cannot trust our emotions. We can’t trust our flesh. It’s always going to lead to death. It’s always going to fight against the Spirit. It’s always going to lead us away from God. But when we know in our Spirit or as the old saints in my church used to say, “When we know in our knower.”

Elisa: Oh that’s good.

Debbye: What God says, you know, about who we are, then we can make decisions. And, Eryn, here’s the thing. I believe faith is a decision not a feeling.

Eryn: Yeah.

Debbye: It…it doesn’t matter how we feel.

Eryn: Right.

Debbye: It is that we decide.

Eryn: Right.

Debbye: I believe God. I believe what He said. I believe who He is in my life. So then once we make that decision, how does that decision influence our behavior?

Eryn: Yes, exactly.

Elisa: And that’s really what you mean, I think, Debbye, by surrender.

Eryn: Hmm.

Debbye: Yeah, absolutely.

Elisa: Okay. Okay.

Debbye: Surrender is a choice, it’s not a default. It is an active choice. It’s not a passive default. You know, we think especially in this modern Western society that we live in, especially as Americans, you know, we…we exalt power and influence and strength and right? Ah what we don’t exalt is humility and, you know, modesty and some of…and these others things, and so a word like surrender can sound or seem weak. It can seem as if I’m giving up, but surrender takes strength. Surrender is about subjecting our own motivations,…

Eryn: Yeah.

Debbye: …our own intellect, you know, our own strength to the will and the power of God. And then what is required for that is the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. But that’s an active decision. It is not a passive default.

Elisa: Hmm. As…as we think about ourselves and everybody who’s listening right now, Debbye, I want to invite you to speak directly to us and the women who are here with us today about persevering against odds, but to set us up, I just…this just came to my mind right now, I promise, I’d love for us to just go around between the three of us repeatedly and name the thing, name that thing that is holding you back and…and let’s name it and let’s think about things that may be holding our listeners back, and then Debbye if you could speak to those things, I would love it. So I’m just going to start off with okay, age—whether you’re too old or too young.

Debbye: Hmm.

Elisa: Eryn, what do you got?

Eryn: Oh, I’m an internal processor. Hold on.

Elisa: Mm-hmm.

Eryn: Let me think about this and come back to you.

Elisa: Go…go to Debbye then.

Eryn: Debbye, you go. [Laughing]

Debbye: Okay. Disappointment.

Elisa: Excellent.

Debbye: Disappointment holds us back.

Elisa: Okay.

Eryn: Yeah.

Debbye: We wallow in it. Right?

Elisa: Yeah.

Debbye: Yep.

Eryn: Insecurity.

Elisa: Insecurity.

Debbye: Oh, yes. Absolutely.

Elisa: How about our past?

Debbye: Mm-hmm.

Elisa: Okay.

Debbye: Guilt.

Eryn: Guilt.

Elisa: Guilt. Yeah.

Eryn: Poor choices.

Elisa: Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Oops. [Laughing]

Eryn: Yeah.

Debbye: Mm-hmm.

Elisa: How about gender?

Debbye: Mm-hmm.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: You know, I’m a woman and um I think that’s marvelous, but does everyone?

Eryn: Yeah. Shame.

Elisa: Mm-hmm.

Debbye: Yes. Yep.

Eryn: Singleness.

Elisa: Oh yeah.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: Many of us listening there may be a diminishment or a disability or an invisibility.

Debbye: Yep.

Eryn: Hmm.

Elisa: And we’ve got to say the obvious one too—race. You know, how are we not attending to the diversity among us? How are we leaving anybody out or ourselves out?

Debbye: Yeah, I’d broaden that even just to say oppression of all kinds.

Elisa: Oh, so good.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: Mm-hmm.

Eryn: Life status.

Debbye: Yes. How about this—unforgiveness.

Elisa: Hmm.

Debbye: That is a steel-trap prison.

Elisa: Mm-hmm. And how about financial trauma?

Eryn: Hmm.

Debbye: Yep.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: And how about broken families?

Debbye: Yes, I was just going to say childhood trauma.

Elisa: Okay.

Eryn: I think even I’ll say real quick also wonder awareness.

Elisa: Hmm.

Eryn: Because when we become aware of something that doesn’t mean it’s healed.

Debbye: Mm-hmm.

Eryn: That can also overwhelm us with what we’ve become aware of that can hold us…

Debbye: Yeah.

Eryn: …in a space.

Elisa: That’s good.

Debbye: And you know what that makes me think of? Um idolatry, which is an old word that we don’t use a lot, um but we set up a lot of idols in our lives. Sometimes we idolize even our trauma and we find our identity in our trauma. That’s idolatry.

Elisa: Hmm.

Debbye: Because our identity is not what’s happened to us. You know, our identity is who we were created to be.

Elisa: Hmm.

Debbye: So that can be a lot of things—money, power, status, designer clothes…

Elisa: Mm-hmm.

Debbye: …politics…politics. We have idolized politics in this day and age.

Elisa: Mm-hmm. So here is this incredible list that we can add to every minute of every day, Debbye, you know, speak to us just in a…in a couple of words as we draw our conversation to a close. Can you speak to us about persevering against these very things we have named for God’s glory and for our good?

Debbye: Sure, thank you for the opportunity. And I’ll…I’ll try to keep it close, cause I heard that little drop you said, “as we come to a close.” [Laughing] The Scripture…

Elisa: Time. Time. Is another one.

Debbye: Yeah, time that’s right. Time. Yeah.

Elisa: Okay.

Debbye: The Scripture that comes to mind is Psalm 139, I believe it starts are 14 through 16, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” This is David talking. He goes, “My soul knows that very well. Your eyes have seen me when I was yet unformed, when I was in the hidden place, and the days, they were all fashioned for me, even when as yet they have begun.” All of that flowery, poetic prose basically means that God created us in His own excellence, that He placed His excellence in us, and that He has watched us from the time we were conceived, and loved us enough to plan a redeemed and victorious life for us before our first day began, before we came out screaming and kicking, being out into the world, God had a plan for our lives. And so my message to our listeners is remember, remember what you were created to be and that is you were created by an excellent God in excellence in order to have excellence in your life. So it might be hard, you may have had disappointments, people and statistics may underestimate you, but the only person that can limit God’s power in your life is you and nobody else has that power. And the enemy doesn’t have that power. So if you remember nothing else that I said today, this is what I want you to remember and that is surrendering to God’s will and trusting His hand even when you can’t see it means that even what you’re in right now has to work together for your good. So take heart, be encouraged, and trust the Holy Spirit to empower you to get through this season in your life if you’re struggling. Even trust the Holy Spirit if you’re not struggling to sustain you.

Elisa: That’s beautiful.

[Music]

Eryn: That was such a powerful example from Dr. Debbye of trusting God and allowing Him to lead her. He is faithful and wants what is best for us even in the midst of trials and even when we feel like what we are going through is impossible to overcome.

Elisa: Yeah, Eryn, it is so important to hold on to those moments when God shows up and to remember His goodness even in the midst of our struggles. And it’s so important for ourselves and those around us to share those moments where we surrendered to God and saw things change for His good. I think this can help all of us too.

Eryn: For sure. Well before we close out today’s episode, just a quick reminder that the show notes are available in the podcast description. The show notes not only contain the talking points for today’s episode, but you will also find a link to connect with Elisa and me on social, so check out the show notes on our website 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 Mary Jo Clark, Daniel Ryan Day, and Jade Gustafson. We’d also like to thank Kristi and Maggie for their help in creating and promoting the show.

[Music]

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