Feeling a bit lost in life's journey, weighed down by weariness? Today, I hope to walk you through the less-traveled roads of our souls, where faith is the map and God's Word is the compass. This episode is a heartfelt exploration of my personal experience with fatigue, especially in recent years, and the uplifting sustenance we find in spiritual nourishment. As we discuss the essential question of direction, I share how we can tap into divine guidance and the practice of seeking the Lord's will before making life's pivotal decisions.
Let's unpack the power of Proverbs 3:5-6 together and learn how to trust in the Lord beyond our own understanding. Whether you're scaling rocky terrains, basking in the sunshine atop a peak, or gazing up from the valleys of life, join me under that cozy blanket or during your lunch break for a dose of encouragement. This conversation is an invitation to recalibrate your inner compass and journey onward with a reminder that no traveler walks alone. So tune in, fellow sojourners, and let's seek the direction we need to navigate this weary world with hope and purpose.
Feeling a bit lost in life's journey, weighed down by weariness? Today, I hope to walk you through the less-traveled roads of our souls, where faith is the map and God's Word is the compass. This episode is a heartfelt exploration of my personal experience with fatigue, especially in recent years, and the uplifting sustenance we find in spiritual nourishment. As we discuss the essential question of direction, I share how we can tap into divine guidance and the practice of seeking the Lord's will before making life's pivotal decisions.
Let's unpack the power of Proverbs 3:5-6 together and learn how to trust in the Lord beyond our own understanding. Whether you're scaling rocky terrains, basking in the sunshine atop a peak, or gazing up from the valleys of life, join me under that cozy blanket or during your lunch break for a dose of encouragement. This conversation is an invitation to recalibrate your inner compass and journey onward with a reminder that no traveler walks alone. So tune in, fellow sojourners, and let's seek the direction we need to navigate this weary world with hope and purpose.
Now get out into the world and be a woman who intentionally encourages another!
#women #podcast
Speaker 1:
Good morning encouragers. It's Joe. Happy Monday and welcome back to the Encourager Community podcast. So glad you're here. I don't know if you're driving to work sitting at home in a cozy chair with a blanket, with your feet kicked up. I so hope you're doing that. If you're running or moving your body, maybe you're hiding in a cubicle or in the bathroom at work taking a walk on your lunch break. I'm not sure what you're doing, girl, but I'm just so glad you're here. I don't know if you can hear it in my tone or my inflection, but I had a good night's sleep and I got a good amount of time with the Lord this morning, so I am ready to pour out on you.
Speaker 1:
We here at Encourager have been talking about being weary travelers in this world. We know that as believers, we are to live in the world but not be of the world. But we're in the world and it is not easy. And it's as if he knew we would need reminders right, I love that expression. He gave us his word to remind us of the truth and we can cling to, learn from, gain encouragement and wisdom from, so we can keep traveling on the path that we're on. Some of your paths look really rocky, super steep, and you are just clinging Others. You might be on a mountaintop season right now, and I hope you are. Maybe you're in a valley and you're looking up to those mountains and longing for some encouragement. Not sure where you are, but I'm with you. My day looks different every day, my season looks different and I am certainly weary at times and have been weary these past few years. So we know that we're travelers. We need some things.
Speaker 1:
These past few weeks, we've talked about how travelers need their thirst to be quenched. We need food for nourishment and we need light on our path. Go back and take a listen to the last few podcast series to catch up if you haven't heard. But, ladies, with all that said, before I open us up in prayer. We want to remember yes, we need food and water, and here we're speaking metaphorically, of course we need the quenching of the spirit. We need time in the Word of God and we need the light. Who is Jesus to light our path? But even if we have food, water and light, how do we know which way to go? Where on the path do we turn or pivot? That's what we're talking about today.
Speaker 1:
Today, we're going to be talking about direction. The weary traveler needs direction. Let me open us up in prayer and we'll get going. Dear Lord, thank you again for technology, the ability to, in freedom, share the Word of God, to be united as sisters even if we can't be together what a gift. Thank you for encourage her. Thank you for the women listening and their stories. May we be women who are in the world, but not of the world, shining your light on our path. Give us direction today as we continue on journeying in this weary world in your naming men. All right, ladies.
Speaker 1:
So, as we know, if we have light, we are fully hydrated and we have nourishment, we still need direction. Where does our direction come when we set out on a race? Well, I don't know about you, but I love making plans, I love goals, I love direction, and it's very easy for us to do that on our own. It's very easy for us to make plans and just do life and kind of be oblivious to the plans that God has for us, god's will for our life, when really our posture should always be one where we are seeking God's will before taking a step, seeking direction, peace, confirmation before making decisions. So, as we're traveling and as we're weary, we seek him for the next step. That's really the practice of a believer is coming back to the Lord and saying okay, what next, lord? What would you have for me? And I want to read to you in two places from Proverbs that I believe speak on this.
Speaker 1:
Proverbs 3, 5 through 6 says Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Ultimately, he is the director of the story, he's the author and the finisher Right, he's the hero of the story. So we are to seek him. We're busy trying to write our own stories and sometimes that doesn't go so well. Now, he is good to us, he is sovereign and he can use our pivots and our paths that we take without him still for his glory. He can still bring us under his covering. He can still protect us when we make wrong decisions or make bad turns. But ultimately, he has a perfect plan for your life that he designed before you opened your eyes. So we need to seek him for those plans and for his understanding, for the mind of God, the undivided, fearless mind of God. We have access to that we get to hear what he has planned for us. So we want to remember to trust him with it and to seek him.
Speaker 1:
Proverbs 19-21 says Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. I have a lot of plans. Just ask me lots of ideas. I've planned out my whole future. I could tell you exactly how it's going to go, ha ha right, but it's the Lord's plans that prevail and I want to be in line with his will. I want to be under his covering.
Speaker 1:
I want to understand what he has planned for me, because he has shown me again, again and again that his plans are better than mine, that, even if it doesn't go the way I want, and that, even in times of weariness and struggle and loss and grief, that he ultimately never leaves me and he directs and guides me. He is there with his light, guiding and directing me. So I want to seek him. I don't want to seek my own understanding. My own understanding is limited. My own understanding and my own knowledge is earthy and worldly and only based on what I've learned so far. He knows all of it. He knows my future. He knows the bends that are coming. He knows the rocks that will stumble down the hill, he knows the valleys, he knows the mountaintop moments that I will experience, and he will be there. So we are to seek him, trust him and know that he has a purpose in all of it. So I just wanted to encourage you with that, that you have someone who knows. You don't need to figure it all out. We waste a whole lot of time worrying and fearing and being anxious about things that we know nothing about. Today has enough worries of its own right. We are to seek him for that plan. We are to seek him for our direction and our turns and our bends.
Speaker 1:
I love in Jeremiah 29,. It reminds us that God knows the plans he has for us. He says I know the plans I have for you. I, god, I am the planner, the ultimate creator. I know the plans. Just ask me. I'm here, I'm available. I want to help you, daughter, lean into me. I love how in Isaiah, isaiah 30, 21 says and your ears shall hear a word from behind you saying this is the way. Walk in it when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. I love that. This is the way. Walk in it. That's still small voice.
Speaker 1:
That leads me to thinking about our God provided spirit, our GPS. I did a talk on this a few I guess, last year, last fall. I'll put a link in the podcast notes you can listen to the talk but really just moved by this idea of GPS and how we need directions. We've become so dependent on outside sources who tell us where to go. When we have an inside source directing us, we have a helper, we have an advocate, the Holy Spirit as a believer, inside of you directing your steps. If you would just listen, if you would just seek, if you would just be still and know that he is God, he will provide, he has the plans and the purposes for you. But we need to tap into that God-provided spirit, that GPS inside of us as we walk as well-watered, nourished women of the word, holding our light, carrying it into the world, shining our light. He will direct our steps and he will keep us safe, not to say the path is going to be easy, not saying that at all, but I am saying that he is there and I am saying that there is someone you can ask for directions. God-placed spirit, ladies, that's our direction GPS system built in.
Speaker 1:
What a gift this Monday. I don't know where you're at, I don't know what decisions or turns or bends you're looking at, I don't know what valley you're in or the mountain you're being asked to climb, but I do know who's with you and I trust him and I'm reminding you to trust him. He knows the plans he has for you, lord. He knows the plans he has for us. Ladies, I am also here praying for you. Encourage her out in your world, shining your light this Monday. I pray that you find this podcast encouraging, that it spurs you on to keep going, that it gives you a little bit more encouragement to just stay in the word of God for yourself. Find that time, fight for it, get into the word, be quenched and nourished and directed by the Holy Spirit. Ladies, happy, happy Monday. Thanks again for tuning in and, as always, feel free to share this podcast with her. Now get out into the world and go, encourage her. Love to you all. See you next Monday.
