Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life

God Hears Her Podcast 

Episode 225 – Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life with Ann Voskamp 

Elisa Morgan & Vivian Mabuni with Ann Voskamp 

[Music] 

Ann: I can actually look at say, okay, what does it look like to live cruciform today? That might actually look like, what am I going to make for dinner tonight? Serving the people in my home with a posture of not that this is something that I have to do, this is a way of me living a cruciform, surrendered life, reaching out to God and to people. Like, I think it’s actually in lots of ways, it’s taking our to-do list and putting a template on top of that to-do list or a lens on top of the to-do list to see, oh, this is my act of service. This is my act of praise and sacrifice to God, as opposed to a grind… 

Elisa: A task, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. 

Ann: … that I have to do every day, like, I have to do the laundry every day. Oh, this is a way that I get to… to love my family and… and to have a paradigm shift that my to-do list is a to-love list.  

[Music] 

Eryn Eddy Adkins: You’re listening to God Hears Her, a podcast for women where we explore the stunning truth that God hears you. Join our community of encouraging one another and learning to lean on God through Scripture, story, and conversation at godhearsher.org. God hears her. Seek and she will find. 

Elisa: Hey friends, before we get started, feel free to download or print our new Bible study show notes to fill out while you listen. You can find those on our website. 

Vivian: This is going to be such a fun conversation because Elisa and I are here with the Ann Voskamp who is so dear to us, and a friend, and mother of seven, wife to one fine farmer. She is also as, I mean, who has not read One Thousand Gifts, but that book has been on the New York Times bestseller for a million years, translated into twenty languages… 

Elisa: Wow, wow. 

Vivian: … just incredible. And, what I love about you, Ann, is you remain grounded, and your love for Jesus has been a consistent through line. And… you are who you are in real life and in your writing, and I just so appreciate you. So, thank you for being on the God Hears Her podcast. 

Ann: I am so grateful to be here. I mean, honestly, does it get any better than… 

Vivian: I know. 

Ann: … Vivian and Elisa? I mean, seriously, two women that I have known for more than a decade… 

Elisa: That’s so sweet. 

Ann: … and have… no, and just really seen you live out the upside-down kingdom of Jesus with such cruciform hearts and poured your lives out as a sweet fragrance and just encourage thousands, and thousands, and thousands of women, generations of women, both of you. So, just thank you. And to be with the… the Our Daily Bread community. Goodness, I get choked up. It’s just really deeply meaningful. I was raised in a non-believing family, so I was the first Christian in my family. I was saved at a Good News Bible Club… yes.  

Elisa: Anybody know what that is? Yeah. 

Ann: Yes. Child… child evangelism fellowship, I got saved and it was actually a Good News Bible Club run by my husband’s mother. So this was…  

Elisa: Oh, so cool.  

Ann: … yeah, so, like, she was… 

Elisa: How old were you, Ann?  

Ann: … I was… I started going to Good News Bible Club, she had… they had… two, she started one that she ran out of her home for, I believe it was twenty-one, twenty-two years… 

Vivian: Wow, 

Ann: … And it was like they… they made an announcement at the school and kids could get off at the bus and at the peak there were like eighty kids in their home once… 

Vivian: Wow. 

Ann: … a week. So, still in our community, people go, oh, bus camp. Oh, I went to Good News Bible Club at… at that house… 

Elisa: That’s neat… oh, that’s neat. 

Ann: … So, I… I mean, I got saved through that community and I remember Darryl’s mother, my husband’s mother, they read the Bible after every meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And at breakfast time, because she had nine children the kids would leave the house at different times to either go to elementary school, or high school, or to head off to work, and she would sit down with the Bible and open it up and read the Our Daily Bread three times every single morning… 

Vivian: Wow. 

Ann: … with the Scripture reading. So, like, Darryl’s mother really felt like you hadn’t read Scripture unless you also had read that day’s reading from Our Daily Bread. 

Elisa: Oh, I love that. 

Ann: So just… just thank you for the… for the… the investment you have made in our family’s life and just such an impact. So, just thank you for your faithful yeses. It is a joy truly to be with you both. 

Elisa: You know, it’s interesting how, I love how you just described the influences that God tilled in the soil of your life… 

Ann: Yes. 

Elisa: … so that He could grow in your heart and it’s just gorgeous. And… and that’s one of the topics that you’re really immersing in now, is just this full living, this full presence, which is… why is it so difficult for us to wake up in this moment and be present? What is our deal? 

Ann: I think the pace of everything from the moment we wake up, the… the subtext to the narrative of our lives can be kind of imposed by the cultural moment that we are supposed to hustle…  

Vivian: Yeah.  

Ann: … and that we… and that so much of our… our worth is tied to our work, and who we are as a person is dependent upon our production and our performance… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Elisa: Totally, totally. 

Ann: … So, when you wake up in the morning, the first thought can be, I’m already behind in terms of what I’m producing… 

Elisa: Sure. 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Ann: … as opposed… So, I’ve really, in my… my spiritual journey over the last several decades, by God’s grace, I wake up… like, I have a rule of life that’s… that I wrote about living out in Waymaker, but it also now is its own… its own journal… Sacred Prayer. But sacred is an acronym, and the S of sacred starts with stillness, and to every morning to when I wake up, “Be still and know that I’m God.” And when you wake up in a posture of stillness… mean it comes from Exodus 14, and there they are facing the Red Sea in front of them and the hordes of Egyptians coming after them, and they’re caught between a rock and a hard place, which is kind of the way we all are when first wake up in the morning… 

Elisa: Yes. 

Ann: … and… and Exodus 14 says, like, you need to be still and let the Lord fight for you. Be still, and God will deliver you. And I think when we start off our mornings… Can you start off in a posture of stillness? My worth is not tied to my work. Who I am as a person isn’t tied to my production. I am going to be still in the presence of the Lord and allow the power of the Holy Spirit to work through me, that I will be a channel today of His grace and His power to work through me to produce fruit in the kingdom of God, not by might or strength on my part, but actually again, exactly what you said, Elisa, can I do that through this posture of yieldedness, a life that is yielded ultimately yields the most. A life that is surrendered in that posture of stillness, the Spirit gets to work through us to produce not duct taped fruit on our tree of life, but actually… 

Vivian: Right. 

Ann: … through real fruit. 

Vivian: I’m curious because I’m like, oh, five to seven years of waking up with this posture of stillness. I mean, on a really practical level, is that… 

Ann: Yup. 

Vivian: … like, your cell phone is being charged in a different room? Is it that you just kind of, your eyes open, you just start doing deep breaths? I mean, what… what does… 

Ann: I think… 

Vivian: … that look like in…  

Ann: Yeah, I think that’s great. I think… yeah, can screens not be in our bedrooms? That has looked like in all kinds of different seasons, but some… at some points that’s actually looked like you can buy one of those safes, like those small safes, you actually stick your phone in the safe. I think actually out of sight, out of mind is actually good. So, I actually have, like, a really beautiful, like, little Shaker wooden box that has a lid. I can put my phone in that and put the lid on it. So, I think keeping screens out of our bedrooms. I think for me, that being still and knowing that I am God means I don’t start my day off when I wake up with the list right away. Or, so, it’s not the list, the running list… 

Vivian: Right. 

Ann: … neither is it the running stream on your screen. It’s not, like… 

Vivian: Right. Yup. 

Ann: … scrolling. So, stop all of the running things. I… I start with a posture of stillness. It… It’s usually a couple of deep breaths and it usually, actually, Vivian, starts with, “Our Father who art in heaven,” and I start with the Lord’s Prayer… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Ann: … Which direction am I going to turn first thing when I wake up: towards the running scroll of the screen or the running list, or am I going to turn and run to Jesus and start with, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallow be your name, your kingdom come your will be done.” So, that is setting my intention and my posture for the entire day. So, really starting off with… with a prayer that I, you honestly, you hardly even have to be awake to know how to do the Lord’s Prayer. And… and starting off with that posture has really grounded and calmed me and turned to be, like, it’s not about what I have to get done in a day. It’s about how am I living a cruciform life so that Your kingdom comes? 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Ann: … So that Your will will be done, and just… and that I’m praying that, “Give us this day our daily bread.” All I need to do is, like, Lord, I’m turning for You. You’ll be the manna. You will be my soul’s substance. I mean, this morning I was just sitting there with John 6 and… and Jesus saying that He is the living bread, and realize, like, obedience is soul sustenance. What does that look like in my life? To live an obedient life, that I want His will to be done and His kingdom to come? Which kind of hushes all the hurry around my to-do lists, which is kind of can be too loud in my head. 

Vivian: Yes. 

Elisa: in fact, you know, to be honest, I love that and I… I think I can do that… your eyes with this posture. But to be honest, I usually open my eyes to the eyes of my Jack Russell Terrier. [Laughter] 

Ann: Who’s right there, ready for the day. 

Elisa: And she… she is thirteen and a half with a bladder challenge. And so, it’s like, Mom… like, and she starts [whining sound] So, I’m trying to… I’m trying to absorb this, Ann, and I… I… I love… you and anybody listening, you may want to replay some of this because, Ann, you have invented a kind of vocabulary of what we might call spiritual formation, where you’ve defined, and inserted, and integrated certain concepts in your life that for people who don’t know them, they might be brand new fresh. You used the word cruciform, living a cruciform life, and I remember reading that in one of your latter books and how you unpacked that for us. I think maybe if you would explain that, that might help us… 

Ann: Yeah. 

Elisa: … because, I mean, how do I, “be still and know that I’m God,” while I’m racing my Jack Russell to the lawn? So, help me… help me understand the cruciform concept. 

Ann: Yeah. So good… Because ultimately, I keep coming back to the shape and form of my days and my life. My thinking in my mind needs to be shaped and formed cruciform, shaped and formed like a cross. So, cruciform being connected to a cross. And you’re thinking, I mean, honestly, I am a woman of constant soul amnesia. I forget everything all of the time, so I need all these visual reminders… 

Elisa: I love it.  

Ann: … So, I actually, for a long time I actually took a pen and drew a cross on my wrist so I had this…  

Elisa: Amazing.  

Ann: … teeny tiny little black cross on my wrist to remind me like the… form and shape of everything is to be cruciform. And like you said, Elisa, so, what does that look like? You’ve got that vertical beam of the cross, and then you’ve got that horizontal beam of the cross. So, can I shape and form my days cruciform? Can I shape and form my thinking cruciform? And that looks like that vertical beam of the cross: everything comes down from above. John tells us no one receives anything unless it comes to him as a gift. No one receives anything unless it comes down from above. So, everything comes down from God, that… that vertical beam from the cross. What do I do with all the things that come down? Can I live with a heart of gratitude? Can I live with the… and live with praise and worship that rises back up to God. We… we see Jesus do that at the… at the Lord’s Supper, He takes the bread, He takes what is given. And it… it’s a bread of suffering, it’s the bread that of… of great sacrifice. He takes that, and what does He do? He gives thanks. He lets the thanks rise back up to God. Then what does He do with the bread? He breaks it and He passes it. That’s that horizontal beam of the cross… 

Elisa: Yes. 

Ann: … Can I take everything that the Lord gives me, give thanks for it, and now live giving out into the world. “For God so loved the world,” what did He do? He gave… 

Vivian: Gave. 

Ann: … can I? So, what does love look like? Love lives giving. Can I take whatever He gives and can I now live giving out into the world? So, when I think about sacred, and that kind of becomes the shape and form of my life, my rule of life, my way of life… If the S of that acronym sacred is stillness, the C of that acronym is cruciform. 

Elisa: Oh, okay. That helps me understand and… and I’d love to hear the whole acronym, it… 

Ann: Yeah. 

Elisa: … of this, how we stay fully present. 

Ann: Yeah, if the S is stillness in sacred, and the A is attentive. What am I going to be… like, where you pay attention is ultimately how you’re spending your life. Like… 

Vivian: Right. 

Ann: … that… ultimately, whether the screen has your life, that’s how you’re spending your life, or your to-do list, or your bank account. Like, what… wherever you pay attention is how you’re spending your life. Lot of times we come into God’s presence with a million questions for God… 

Vivian: Right. 

Ann: … As opposed to, can I attend to the questions God has for us? Three questions that I can attend to of God’s every day. First, who do You say that I am? That orients your entire day. That’s why, part of why I start off with, “Our father who art in heaven,” He’s my Abba Father. If… if my Abba Father is the king of the universe, what do I really have to fear? That orients me every day. Who do I say that You are? Second question that He asks is the same question that He asks Hagar who’s in the desert fleeing. Where are you coming from and where are you going to? You need to slow yourself down enough… 

Elisa: Yes. 

Ann: … to locate your soul in proximity to Him. Where am I coming from and where am I going to? And that third question that I really want to attend to is just, I never… it never isn’t mind blowing to me. That… that Jesus asked His disciples: what do you want? And just like, I… wow… 

Vivian: Yeah, yeah. 

Ann: … We… we… we… we start off with, “Our father art in heaven, hallow be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done.” And He turns around and asks, what do you want? I believe it’s Calvin who says, you know, “Our heart can be like an idol making factory,” like… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Ann: … and when… when I slowed down enough to say, okay, Lord, You’re asking me what do I want? It’s also an invitation to really look, do I have idols in my heart? Like is… or what… what I want, is it aligned with Your will? It is aligned with Your kingdom and Your way? And it’s an invitation to, again, be really honest with God about what I really want. So, if I start with stillness, I attend… 

Elisa: Okay. 

Ann: … to the three… three questions God actually has for me. Then it’s cruciform, that’s the center of everything, sacred, there’s a C in the middle… 

Elisa: Okay. 

Ann: … I think… the shape and form… the form and shape of our days needs to be cruciform. Lord, what would it look like for me to look cruciform today? When you think about that posture of a cross, that’s a posture of vulnerability. What… what are You asking me to surrender and let go of so that I can stretch my hands out? What… what… 

Elisa: That’s good. Yeah.  

Ann: So… so what am I letting go of? So, it’s cruciformity. When you see Jesus on the cross, that’s a posture of surrender. What are You asking me to surrender? And also at the same time, that posture of being cruciform is, I’m reaching out to God on one hand and people on the other. How are You inviting me today to reach towards You? That might be a Scripture verse You’re going to ask me to hold on to today. It… that might be… maybe it’s setting an alarm on my clock to stop and pray today. What is my intention today to reach out to You, and at the same time, if I’m going to live a cruciform life, like Jesus was on the cross, He’s… He’s living this posture of surrender… 

Vivian: Yeah. Yeah, that makes so much sense because I think that we often look at our circumstances and we try to control it. We think that we can control our circumstances, and the truth is that there are so many things that happen, well, sometimes due to our own stupidity for sure, but sometimes it’s just life…  

Ann: Yes. 

Viv… And when we try to falsely think that we are in control, I think that leads to all sorts of anxiety, all sorts of striving… 

Ann: Yes. 

Vivian: … the very opposite of this place of a peaceful center. And so, this is me being like, oh, but Ann, she lives on a farm and she has all of this space. Sometimes my excuse will be, oh, well I’m in Southern California and everything is traffic… 

Elisa: Yeah. 

Vivian: … and we are just in a different… 

Elisa: Straight up, yeah. 

Vivian: … location. But I think what you’re talking about, Ann, is really a posture internally that we carry with us… 

Ann: Oh, that’s great. 

Vivian: … regardless of the circumstance. So, my question then is… 

Ann: Yup. 

Vivian: … how do you keep this… this concept that you’re talking about with sacred… how do you keep that from being a to-do list in its own way?  

Ann: It is a paradigm shift of your actual to-do list, because I can actually look at say, okay, what does it look like to live cruciform today? That might actually look like, what am I going to make for dinner tonight? Serving the people in my home in… with a posture of not that this is something that I have to do, this is a way of me living a cruciform, surrendered life, reaching out to God and to people. Like, I think it’s actually in lots of ways, it’s taking our to-do list and putting a template on top of that to-do list or a lens on top of the to-do list to see, oh, this is my act of service. This is my act of praise and sacrifice to God, as opposed to a grind… 

Elisa: A task, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. 

Ann: … that I have to do every day, like, I have to do the laundry every day. Oh, this is a way that I get to… to love my family and… and to have a paradigm shift that my to-do list is a to-love list… 

Elisa: Oh, that’s lovely. Yeah. 

Ann: … to get this is the way I get to love my family by getting this laundry done and folding it and putting it away. This is my reasonable act of service to the Lord where everything that I’m living my life becomes an altar… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Ann: … of worship to Him. That doesn’t mean that you… you… you… you escape to a monastery or… or come to the farm, which is like wild and crazy in all kinds of ways, and a million things happening… it… it really is having a heart posture, a mind posture that I want to set myself apart to the Lord. 

[Music]  

Mary Jo Clark: Hey there, is Ann inspiring you to slow down? The TEND 1 Peter Bible study guides you through slowly reading 1 Peter. You’ll learn the breakdown of the TEND acronym and how to use it as you study the book of 1 Peter. Check out the link for the study in our show notes. Now let’s get back into the show to pick up with what the sacred acronym stands for.  

Ann: So the R of sacred is about a revelation. We all want to be able to see a way through. Lord, give me a revelation. Tell me the way through my life. Well, really, He gives us His Word, which is a fresh revelation of Himself. So really, it’s about, can I have one fresh revelation of God from His Word which I can carry with me through the day. That’ll be my compass. That… that I can… that I can actually sit in front of the sink while I’m washing the potatoes, that I can be meditating on when I’m folding the laundry, when I’m… 

Vivian: Right. 

Ann: … when I’m cooking, so that I have a fresh revelation from God… 

Elisa: That’s good, yeah.  

Ann: … that I’m going to carry with me through the day. That I’m going to actually going to see as my manna. That He is sustaining my soul through Himself being living bread, that I am going to feed on Him and be nourished by Him… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Ann: … The E of sacred is examine. Can I examine my life? Can I slow down enough to really examine… Really, the question that’s asked maybe more than any other question in all of Scripture: what are you afraid of? And He says, like, three-hundred-sixty-some times, “Do not be afraid.” Whether it’s the beginning of the day or the end of the day, and just ask yourself, what am I afraid of? Because lots of times I think what’s ultimately happening in our lives, we’re being driven by two things: you’re either being moved forward, compelled, propelled by love, or you’re being moved forward, driven forward, driving yourself by fear… 

Vivian: Yes. 

Ann: … Producing enough, fear of not being enough. So, it’s either fear or love that’s driving us all of the time. So, if you could examine your own heart, what am I afraid of and lay that before the Lord, and the D of sacred is doxology… thanksgiving. And the reason, if you ask yourself, what am I afraid of? Examine your heart and what am I afraid of? And then you follow up immediately with doxology, what am I thankful for, you can simultaneously feel fear and gratitude at the same time. So, I think if we can examine ourselves and go, oh, actually… actually I’m looking at this to-do list and it’s not really a to-love list. I’m trying to produce my own worth. I’m trying to produce enough to be acceptable… 

Vivian: Right. 

Ann: … and keep up, if I can slow down… actually, I’m afraid that I’m not enough, and follow that up with, look it, Lord, I am so grateful today for breath in my lungs. I am so grateful that I get to… to see the sunrise and Your new mercies every morning, meeting me right where I’m at. I’m so grateful that You have already called me by name and I’m already Your child. If I can sit down and end with doxology, I have calmed down all of those fears in my cerebellum and my amygdala… 

Vivian: Right. 

Ann: … because you can’t simultaneously feel fear and gratitude at the same time. 

Vivian: Do you journal all of this out? I mean you could do it through your mind… 

Ann: The reason the journal exists is because Waymaker, which is my last full-length kind of memoir-ish book, Waymaker kind of lays out how I came to that rule of life, sacred, and what it was like for me to kind of live that out. We had a woman who was in her sixties who said, you know, I’ve been a… a Christian psychologist my whole life and have tried to give my clients all kinds of tools in their toolbox to be able to kind of navigate and manage their lives. And she said, I read Waymaker and I started writing out this sacred acronym and that became my journaling every morning. And she said, you know, in my thirty-five, forty years of working with clients, nothing has been more transformative than this sacred template. Could you make a journal such that… 

Elisa: Interesting. 

Ann: … so we’re like, okay, so, we made this Sacred journal. So, people I think want to actually pick up the journal, it’ll take you through. But we… we have lots of people who actually says, whenever I feel anxiety at any point through my day, I go deep breath, and I work myself through sacred.  

Elisa: Was there a season or an event… 

Ann: Yup. 

Elisa: … or a series of events that really drew you to desire to formalize this approach, this template? 

Ann: Yeah. Such a good question. Oh yeah, it was a really messy, awful, terrible season. 

Elisa: I am sorry, but I get it.  

Ann: Yeah, I think a couple of things. This was probably… in my spiritual formation, gratitude really was where I began, was, okay, this is how I’m going to really try to rewire my mind to see all of the good and all the gifts and all the graces. So that was… 

Elisa: So it was an… anxiety that… that really, yeah. 

Ann: …It… So, that was where I began with, was with doxology, with thanksgiving. But I was still really struggling with, like I said, getting up in the morning and already feeling like, my gosh, I’m already a failure. I’m already behind. And it didn’t matter how early I set the alarm clock, like, I still didn’t feel like I was producing enough… 

Elisa: Okay. 

Ann: … to be honest… and then I had a season which I kind of write about it in Waymaker… so awful. We were adopting a little girl from China who has a literal broken heart and bringing her home to our family. So, we’d had six biological children and we were bringing home Shiloh. So, telling her story with her own broken heart. In the midst of that, I really broke my husband’s heart, and it was a really difficult season in our marriage, and then, so in the midst of dealing with a Shiloh’s literal broken heart and breaking my husband’s heart, I ended up in the hospital in literal heart failure myself… 

Elisa: Really difficult. 

Ann: … with double pneumonia and… a heart murmur, and in our little country hospitals, their version of intensive care to… what the doctor’s trying to figure what in the world is going on. But when I couldn’t breathe because my… my heart was not pumping fast enough to deal with the… my fluid. So… my lungs were filling up with fluid. I couldn’t breathe. I had a real come to Jesus about where my life was at. And I really had to look at… at the pace of my life. Was I… was I picking up His word every day? And just kind of snacking on it, and that… that one degree trajectory was I’m moving way too fast in my life where I was… Yeah. Not… I did not have a sacred lens. I wasn’t living set apart. I was trying to keep up on a treadmill that was… was really not just… spiritually burning me out, but was literally leaving me in heart failure… 

Elisa: Destroying you. Yeah. Yeah. 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Ann: … It was in every… 

Elisa: Thank you. 

Ann: … every possible way. So, then it was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. When I couldn’t breathe that night and I was praying to the Lord and it was like, okay, Lord, I felt like I was literally seeing my life kind of flash before my eyes. Okay. I need to totally pick up a soul compass and reorient here, so that  I end up where I want to end up with my life, because if you have the nose of your life off by a degree or two, you put five years, ten years on this, you can wake up somewhere where you never imagined… 

Vivian: Yeah.  

Ann: … you would be with your life. So, I was like, okay, I need a way of life, a rule of life, so that circumstances and the hands of the clock do not determine my rhythm and my pace and my way through life… 

Vivian: So good. 

Elisa: Yeah. 

Ann: … That I have a… a rule and a way of life that is very intentional… 

Elisa: Yeah. 

Ann: … and make sure that I am keeping company with Christ. 

Elisa: So, for our listeners who are absorbing this, it sounds like, you know, whether you’re hit a crisis like you did… 

Ann: Yup. 

Elisa: … or there’s this ongoing kind of undefined sense of anxiety… 

Ann: Yup. Yes. 

Elisa: … or worthlessness, or this kind of apathy, this approach, this template, it really helps us to embrace a fuller life that God intended us to. I… I wonder as… as we come to a close… 

Ann: Yeah. 

Elisa: … I actually would love for you to pray for women who just feel stuck and… and maybe just get them started… 

Ann: Yeah.  

Elisa: … with your sacred… 

Ann: Yeah. 

Elisa: … template posture. 

Ann: Abba Father, you know, every single woman who’s listening to this conversation with Vivian and Elisa and I, who is having her own conversation with You, the triune God. We’re just going to pause right now and be still and feel Your smile over us. Zephaniah 3:17 says that… that You sing. You sing because of us, Lord, that… that we, in all of our fallibility and fallenness, You love us so much. Not only did You go to the cross and sacrifice everything because You want to be with us, You want relationship restored with us, but that You want intimacy with us. You want to refresh us with Your love. We just thank You, Lord, that because of the cross, because of Your cruciform sacrifice, You silenced the persecutor of our souls. That the verdict is already in because of Your sacrifice. That we… we are without any condemnation, and that You, Lord, would just like communion with us, and our soul craves that communion. You are our living bread and our living water, and that we want to… we want to live our days like they are a table that we can come and commune in Your presence and feast on that intimate communion, on Your love with us, Lord. So, we just pray, Lord, that right, whatever we’re facing, whatever Red Sea of impossible is in front of us, that we would be still and trust that You’ll fight for us. You will deliver. We don’t have to do this in our own strength, Lord, but Your spirit will do the fighting. And we want to just attend to who You are, that Your character is good, that You are Abba Father, and You are for us. And wherever, whatever we’re coming from, where we’re going to is closer into Your presence because You are the lifter of our chin, the cupper of our face, and the lover of our souls. And what do we want? We want to live our lives in the midst of this broken-hearted world, in the midst of our messy, gritty, everyday lives, Lord, we want to want You, and we want to be in Your presence. Father, cause us to be shaped cruciform, that the form and shape of our thoughts, and our minds, and our days, would be shaped like a cross. Give us a fresh revelation of Yourself in Your Word today. That Your Word is living and active, a spirit book that would speak to us. And may Your Spirit, Lord, examine our hearts. What are we afraid of when our Abba Father is the king of the universe? Cause us just to bring those fears and lay them down at Your feet and that in the presence of Your love, that Your perfect love would drive out all fear, and that we would live a life of doxology and [Music] thanksgiving and praise. That we would count our blessings, count all the ways You love us, so that we know in the midst of our lives who we can count on. The Jehovah Jireh has provided gifts yesterday, will provide all the gifts we need for tomorrow. We pray all these things in the name of Jesus, the only one who has ever loved us to death and… the realest abundant life in His name, and all God’s daughters said amen. 

Vivian: Amen. Thank you, Ann.  

[Music] 

Elisa: Well, friends, be sure to check out our website to subscribe to our email list, read the newest blog article, or check out the God Hears Her books and devotionals. Find all that and more at godhearsher.org. That’s godhearsher.org. 

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

[Music] 

Elisa: Today’s episode was engineered by Anne Stevens and produced by Jade Gustman and Mary Jo Clark.  

Jade: We also want to thank Amy and Melanie for all of their help and support. Thank you both. 

Vivian: Our Daily Bread Ministries is a donor-supported nonprofit ministry dedicated to making the life-changing wisdom and stories of the Bible come alive for all people around the world. 

[Music]  

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