Habits of Hope: Cultivating a Deeper Life with God

2.God’s Unshakable Faithfulness: How to Hold onto Hope on Your Hard Days

• Ginger Harrington • Season 1 • Episode 2

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Habit of Hope #2: Choose to believe God's faithfulness is a fact, not a question for debate.

When doubt creeps in, it’s easy to question whether God will come through for you. In this episode, we tackle the pain points of fear, uncertainty, and doubt by showing you how to develop the mindset that God’s faithfulness is a fact, not a question. You’ll walk away with actionable steps to cultivate hope, build unshakable trust, and navigate life’s toughest challenges with confidence in His promises. Discover how to hold onto hope, no matter what you’re facing, and learn to trust in God’s faithfulness even when life feels overwhelming.

Takeaways

  • Hope is not wishful thinking; it's a confident expectation.
  • Faith requires a decision to trust God, regardless of feelings.
  • The enemy plants doubts to undermine our faith.
  • Our emotions can mislead us if we let them drive our faith.
  • Lies we believe can affect our relationships and perceptions.
  • We must take every thought captive to align with God's truth.
  • Building habits of hope helps us focus on God's faithfulness.
  • Perspective is crucial; we should view life through God's promises.
  • Practical steps, like memorizing scripture, can combat negative thoughts.
  • God's faithfulness is a fact that we can cling to, not a question.

Chapters

  • 00:00 The Importance of the Habit of Hope
  • 01:50 The Game-Changing Nature of the Habit of Hope
  • 09:41 Faith and Trusting God's Faithfulness
  • 11:42 The Enemy's Tactics and the Battle for Faith
  • 16:19 Teasing Out Misperceptions and Recognizing Lies
  • 23:56 Practical Tips for Building the Habit of Hope
  • 39:54 Conclusion and the Life-Changing Power of Hope

Mentioned in This Episode
Ginger's award-winning book, Holy in the Moment (affiliate link)
Read the full story in this free chapter





Habits of Hope: Cultivating a Deeper Life with God is for informational and inspirational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional advice—spiritual, medical, legal, or otherwise.

Transcript 2.God’s Unshakeable Faithfulness

 

Ginger Harrington (00:05.57)

Hello again, my friend Larissa, welcome. Hey Ginger, how's it going? it's one of those days, a little bit of a crazy day, but God is good even in the midst of the craziness. How about you? Amen, yes, a little crazy for sure. And God just continues to be faithful, right? Absolutely, absolutely. We love talking about habits of hope.

 

things and mindsets, practices, disciplines. They can be all kinds of things in our life that we're working into the activeness of our relationship with God that enable us to have more hope in our life, to grow in our trust in God's faithfulness. And this is so important because we need it on our hard days. We need to be able to stand firm in faith.

 

on our hard days, but on our hard days is not when we practice getting it into our routine, into our mindset, into our normal rhythm of life. Yeah. So that's, we've had fun talking about this for several episodes now. And today we're going to be talking about the habit of hope that is a, this one could be a game changer.

 

This one can actually shift our perspective and how we look at something, how we respond to challenges in life in a really practical way. And here it is, build the habit of viewing God's faithfulness as a fact. Not a question. Amen. So good. my word.

 

How often times do we relate to God and think about, respond to our situations and our challenges from the perspective of, hope God will be faithful. I hope he'll come through for me. I hope he's present. I, you know, and all of that can shift and change to a place of confidence. Yes.

 

Ginger Harrington (02:20.255)

It can when we decide to believe that what God's word says is true that he is who he says he is and he will do what he says he will do. That is the working definition in my life on God's faithfulness. Amen. And he is faithful. He is so, so faithful. And both of us have have gotten to live that out. Yeah. Well, let's back up just a second and just reaffirm kind of what we're talking about with

 

We talk about hope so often, it's just part of our vernacular. I hope it doesn't rain today. Are we talking about hoping that the weather's good for our picnic? No. No. Even though that's nice. I love a good, rainy day picnic. Hope is a confident expectation in the faithfulness of God. And

 

So oftentimes we use hope like it's a wish or a long shot that's probably not gonna happen type of thing. But God's word tells us that we can be confident that God is faithful. And because God is faithful, we can have hope. It's based on his faithfulness, not our circumstances. And that's

 

sometimes challenging to get from head knowledge to heart and life knowledge. Yeah, definitely. When life is a little cray cray or. Well, and I love that verbage that you used. It hope is not wishful thinking, right? We're not wishing, right? God is not a genie in a bottle. We are hoping in the God of the universe, the one who created us and created us on purpose. And so I love that not wishful thinking, which changes the perspective,

 

Yes, yes. In our last episode, we talked about cultivating the habit of looking for God's faithfulness every single day and asking Him, inviting Him into our day, starting our day with prayer, asking Him to help us be aware or I love the way you put it, be a noticer of God at work in and around and through us, which is part of His faithfulness. And today we're going to be talking

 

Ginger Harrington (04:39.789)

our tendency to doubt that God's be faithful, that he is faithful. And this conversation of the soul, because this starts at the soul level in our thoughts and emotions, is as old as humanity. So we're gonna rewind, take a pan back through history into Genesis 3. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

 

We're gonna walk in the garden with Adam and today and All is well All is well, they have this perfect world this perfect relationship this perfect relationship with each other with God with their environment God has told them do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil everything else is Go for

 

And so, let me show this on our screen. Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, indeed, as God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden. So what's happening here? A lot. Yes. What's happening? He's planting that suspicion.

 

Yeah, you know, just that crafty twisting. Did God really say? And that causes Eve to give her version of the truth, which isn't exactly what scripture said. She adds a little something to it. Yes, God said. And but that was the root of the first sin. And it is the root of of how the enemy is working.

 

When it comes to our own faith, he is continually inserting thoughts that cause us to question God, to question his faithfulness, to be suspicious. Did God really say, did he really mean when God said he was faithful? Did he really mean that? Can we really trust in that? Right. And can you really trust in that for you? Like, did God really say that for me?

 

Ginger Harrington (07:07.465)

not just for others. we've talked about that. But I love that you've gone all the way back because I think sometimes we can assume that things are so new. And the good news is that the enemy is on rewind. He just continues to do the same thing over and over again. So we can know this and battle differently because we know his battle plan. True, true, true. And the Lord knows this.

 

The Lord knows that we're vulnerable. We're vulnerable to doubt. We're vulnerable to temptation. We're vulnerable to want to live life independently from what God has said. And that is part of the root of the whole deal as well. And the truth is this side of the fall, we want life how we want it, when we want it. We have very high expectations in life.

 

Somehow that marries up with our belief in God and our belief in his faithfulness. And when life isn't going according to plan, according to my preference, according to my desire, that's when some of those suspicions come in. Is God really faithful for me? Can I really believe, can I really trust that he's faithful? Can I really have

 

in tough situations, whether they're my situations or what's going on in culture, in our nation, in the world, in my kids, you know, there's all kinds of situations going on around us continually. And it's really important that we are able to stand on the truth of God's faithfulness, because that's why we have hope. And so any thoughts on

 

It's so good and it's just such a great reminder of why we're in the word, right? Why we're called to meditate on the word day and night because we so easily forget and you know, the enemy wants us to forget. So this we know and yet we have the power because not only because Jesus died on the cross for us and the Holy Spirit is in us, but because we've got God's word that reminds us of reasons to

 

Ginger Harrington (09:29.929)

and how others responded and we can learn from them both, right, the good and the not so good, right? We don't have to learn every lesson the hard way, right? So we can learn from what Eve did and instead of just passing blame as we so grace, we so wonderfully do, which isn't wonderful at all, but we can be reminded, okay, so this is what Eve did and this did not work. So I can do something different.

 

and I can remember that there is much hope and that God is faithful, but sometimes I have to remind myself more and that's okay, right? That's part of the process. Like you were saying, God knows our weaknesses. And so I love this focusing on fact versus a question, because I tend to do that. I tend to do that a lot. was like, is this really gonna work out or not?

 

So yeah, I love this conversation. Good stuff. Yes. You know, faith requires that we trust God even when we don't see tangible evidence. And it's tempting to want proof of God's faithfulness before we trust him. Right. We want to see it and then we'll believe it. But God asks us to believe it. And then we see it. That's called walking by faith. And, you know, some days it's easier than others.

 

This is why habits of hope are so important. Habits of hope are these mindsets and these spiritual practices that keep our eyes focused on God so that we are believing it before we see it. We're believing his faithfulness even when we don't see tangible evidence of it right before us, right here, right now.

 

Because just like I said, in our flesh, in our human impatience, in our human egocentricity, it's all about us. Yeah. And it's Yeah, there's something really powerfully practical about deciding. Yes. Faith is a decision. It's not an emotion. Yes. Amen. so oftentimes

 

Ginger Harrington (11:52.577)

define our faith, we measure our faith,

 

Think about the experience of our faith based on our emotions, our tangible feelings or perceptions of whether or not we can see it. And this reminds me of an illustration that I use in some of my emotion talks. And that's a train illustration. If we have our feelings at the engine of the train.

 

and we're interpreting, we're leading, we're letting our feelings drive us, then the fact comes behind the feelings. And our feelings will lead us all kinds of places. But if we put the fact of God's faithfulness, the truth of God's word, the veracity of his word, his, its trustworthiness, if that is the engine and we put our faith and our feelings in that fact,

 

then the train is gonna lead us where God wants us to go. And our feelings are gonna come along after. But so oftentimes we get it backwards and we were letting our feelings, our perceptions drive our faith versus letting our faith lead our emotions. And that's what the enemy did right here at the beginning of everything God really say.

 

You know, and we're so vulnerable to this. You know, we could talk about it like it's easy, but it's not. It's definitely not easy. And that's such a great illustration because I'm very visual. So I've loved that illustration since the first time you've introduced it to think about that as, you know, the driving force, because our feelings do lie. And a lot of times I can go back and see the mistakes I made were based on feelings, definitely not on facts. And I'd like to make a few less of those.

 

Ginger Harrington (13:51.533)

Because it's not just us that it affects in this case, right? Eve wasn't just affecting herself. my, that's a good point. mean, that's, yeah, I don't know if that's another opportunity to talk later or what, but it's good, right? mean, what we do and say affects others. Absolutely. And whether or not we're trusting in God's faithfulness not only impacts

 

our life, but it also impacts those around us. And that can be a positive thing or a negative thing. Yes. Amen. Right? Yeah. We can change the atmosphere, but we want to do it well. Absolutely. Absolutely. What a wonderful, wonderful point. Now I'm thinking, you know, when we're talking about how the enemy loves to plant suspicion.

 

you brought up in our conversations about this before we were on mic, a scripture from Ephesians. Would you share that with us? Yeah, this is such a good one. So Ephesians 4:14, this is the NLT version that I'm reading from. So Ephesians 414, then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every word of new teaching.

 

We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. yes, yes. And then I put it up on the screen as much as would show in the ESV version. Yeah. And no, actually, that one's yours. It was another one that I in a different translation. Lies so clever that they sound like the truth.

 

lies so clever that it feels like the truth. Let's talk about that for a moment. What is that like in your life? gosh, lies that look like the truth. Well, especially in relationships, right? Like I'll use this an example in my marriage when Bill was still alive and in our early years, he would say something.

 

Ginger Harrington (16:07.647)

And instead of ascribing good motives or just asking for clarity, I made assumptions based on lies that I had believed all my life that have been poured into me by parents and maybe counselors and others. And so I instantly went to this, well, he doesn't like me anymore, or he's mad at me or whatnot. And that wasn't what Bill was saying, right? You know, my husband, my late husband.

 

Now he wasn't certainly perfect by any stretch, but sometimes he was just innocent. All he was saying was X, Y, Z. And I went high and to the right because I allowed my emotions and the lies that I had been believing for so long that I'm still working through, right? I allowed them to drive that train. And that was not what he meant at all. Sometimes he was just asking a question and instead of being accusatory, you know, he just was like, you know, whatever the question was. I can't think of a specific question, but

 

When I learned to overcome this and not be so emotional about it and not add fuel to the fire, our relationship dramatically changed. So that goes back to that reminder that what we say and do affects those around us. And the lies I was believing were affecting my marriage. Right, right. So that is a great example of how the enemy works into our lives from the time that we are little.

 

Yes messages that we have gathered from our experiences And we believe all kinds of things about ourselves about other people about god based on some of these early experiences one of the ones that Is in my life is that i'm not likable? and I know that's not true,

 

But there's days on my insecure days or when I've misinterpreted something that someone has said, I've ascribed motive or meaning to something. That old belief, that old feeling, it comes up as a feeling and a thought in my mind that I'm not really likable. And here it is. This is just another case in point. does God's word say about who I am in Christ? His word says that I am loved.

 

Ginger Harrington (18:25.387)

Yeah, says that if he didn't spare his own son, what would it why would he not? Also do all things It's God's Word tells us that in Christ. I'm accepted Yeah That God rejoices over us. So that's the truth. That's the truth. Yes But on my hard days either my last experiences the messages of my history

 

of a different truth and the enemy loves to get us going back to some of those false beliefs from our past. And they're so tied to feelings. So it just like comes like we just feel like it's true. And so part of being able to navigate hope is being able to hold onto what's true and being able to tease out and recognize when there is

 

Misperception a lie a suspicion of God in play When the enemy is trying to get us to go back to those old feelings and patterns to be able when we are trying to define God's faithfulness based on what we see versus What we know to be true. Yeah, and so That It's tricky. It's true. It is really tricky. I definitely agree and I

 

This is where we need to do the work of identifying what is popping into our brains. And this is something I've learned both from you and from therapy is random thoughts are going to pop in. And I don't understand the science behind it, but random thoughts, just this week, random thoughts pop in. But this is why scripture is so clear on what we do with those thoughts. And just because a thought pops in does not mean that we have to entertain

 

And that's where I needed to learn that just because it pops in my brain doesn't mean it's true. You know, and so when a thought like that, a lie pops into our brain, we then, you the Lord wants us to learn how, and this is what he is doing when he's transforming our minds is to go, that's not true. And even if it takes me, you know, maybe I'm not as good at it right yet, but it pops in my brain. like, Ooh, that's not true. And then I can process through it. Whereas when I was younger and like I said, in my marriage,

 

Ginger Harrington (20:50.325)

A thought popped in, your husband doesn't like you. Your husband's not respecting you. He doesn't love you. And then I just, you know, respond negatively. And then as I grew in this, he would say something and I would be like, Ooh, that's stung. Okay. So Bill, did you mean that to sound like you were being accusatory? And most of the time, right? He would say, no, I just was asking, you know, X, Y, Z. So yeah, I'm learning that we do not have to entertain every thought that pops into our mind.

 

Right, yes. know, and habits of help, habits of hope, they help us hold on to the Word of God, the truth that we know from Scripture. So, you know, one of the practices that really helps us is reading God's Word and learning what His Word says about who He is and what His promises are and being able to

 

understand the movement of God throughout history because again, we have this tendency to make it all about us. This is my world. This is my view of God's faithfulness. And it's actually like way, you know, way beyond this narrow tunnel vision of my experience. so meditating on and reflecting on the truths of God's character helps us to bring our expectations and our thoughts, our doubts.

 

and prayers into greater alignment with God's nature of who he actually is. It helps us to hang on to hope that God is faithful. Even when we don't see it. And I want to just think for a second about a time in our lives or my life or your life when from what we could see, it didn't look like God was doing anything. It didn't look like a prayer was being answered. It didn't look like things were working out.

 

But a little farther down the road, we see that God was very faithful. Maybe it was a no answer to a prayer that there was something better down the line or he was doing something different. But when we were looking at it from the perspective, I prayed this God didn't do it, he's not faithful. So does anything come to mind when I throw that curve ball at you? I know, right?

 

Ginger Harrington (23:09.569)

I mean, I have a thought, I hope it goes along with this, just, you know, I talk a lot about how my husband and I were unequally yoked. I was a believer, I had been a believer since, you know, I was zero, right? You know, I know you can't come out of the womb a believer, but anyways, it was very young when I said yes to Jesus, but I wasn't walking my walk, so I got married to a man who did not know Jesus.

 

And it was not looking good. It did not look like we were going, it was going to end is what it looked like. And God was so sweet to use my husband's stubbornness, despite the fact that he still at that point was not a believer, to want to hang on to the marriage, maybe for even wrong reasons, right? So it was a mess. It was chaotic. And then how God

 

Started bringing us to a place where bill came to know Jesus in April, you know during Christmas It was at not Christmas. It was an Easter service and how it all started changing, but it wasn't overnight It wasn't like, you know, like all of us. It's not it's you know, God is not a genie in a bottle It's not how it works now. He can do that So anyways, but yeah, I I it looked like it was not gonna end well and now I look back and just think how the faithfulness of the Lord even when

 

I as the believer was not being faithful. And then I was reminded of truth. And then I was praying for our marriage. And it just snowballed in the best of ways. So I hope that answers your question. does. I think that is a great example. Because if you had stopped on day 35 or how many, was this a process that took a couple of years?

 

Yeah, we it was probably longer than that. That Bill had become a believer within a couple years of us being married. Yeah. So but it took a while beyond that. Right. But let's say at the end of year number three, if you let that be the end of the story in terms of your believing God's faithfulness, you know, I've prayed this for three years. Nothing has happened. God didn't answer. End of story. I'm

 

Ginger Harrington (25:22.711)

Cup -huts.

 

Nobody missed out, girl. Absolutely. Absolutely. Today is not the end of the story. No. And we, know, when we are letting emotions drive our faith, when we're vulnerable to the lies of the enemy or the misperceptions of our past histories, and we're not holding fast to the faithfulness of God, we're vulnerable to those things. And we can quit before God's answered. And when we do, we miss out.

 

Yes, big time. have missed out 28 years, almost 28 years together, 27 married. I would have missed out on all of that. And there was so many more great English, more better, more better memories. I love more better. More better. I want more better in my life. Right. That is such a great reminder, Ginger, because I, and I've said this so many times, even as a widow, I do it all again. I would do it better and differently.

 

I would have been nicer, more patient, you know, but I am so grateful for the faithfulness of the Lord, even when I was not faithful. Right. He, you know, that's, that is key as well. Right. Just because I'm not faithful. He can't not be faithful again, more good English. sorry. Yes. You too can broadcast and podcast and share God's love without totally knowing the English language.

 

perfectly well. Hey, we're all human. And you know what, when you are having this kind of conversation, it comes out how it comes out and we love it. Because you just made a fantastic point and gave us a great illustration that we can't let our circumstances define God's faithfulness. And we have to wait on him. We have to wait on him. And while we're waiting, the waiting goes easier. If we build this habit,

 

Ginger Harrington (27:20.261)

of not letting God's faithfulness be a question. It's a certainty. And that helps us to stay in firm when the enemy is inserting these what ifs in our life. Or did God really say, or, well, God might mean that for somebody else, but that doesn't work for you. God won't really be faithful in your life. Look around. And we've got to, you

 

Hang on to hope and one of ways we do that is to stop having the debate in our minds. Is God faithful? Yeah. And this is easier said than done. I'm not discounting the challenge of it, but I'm saying that if on our good days we build the habit, the mindset of I'm going to believe what God says is true and I'm going to allow that to speak into my feelings, my thoughts, my beliefs, my circumstances.

 

I'm going to see it from God's truth rather than seeing God's truth from my circumstances. And it changes the conversation. It changes the internal narrative and the all the chatter in our heads. It changes spiritual warfare and our ability to stand firm on God's truth and to hang on to hope. you know, when we do that, it shuts down the enemy.

 

But so oftentimes I'm guilty of creating opportunity for the enemy and he can get me going on an emotional doubt. You know, I get all haywired in my anxiety and my emotions and you know, God didn't come through for me. And he can walk away and I'll just keep keep that ball rolling. yeah. Keep spiraling in my head. And that's a picture of

 

being driven and tossed. We're not hanging on to the truth of what God says. When we embrace the truth that God is faithful, we begin to see our challenges from a different perspective. And that's, think that's what God's getting at. Like, learn to see your life from the perspective of, I'm with you, I'm in you, I'm faithful. And you see what's happening around you from a different angle. You see it from a different perspective. And that's called

 

Ginger Harrington (29:48.395)

Yeah, the hope perspective, the better perspective. Yeah, that confident expectation. I love what you just said. Say it again. that hope perspective. Hope is the better. Yeah, hope is the better perspective. Amen. Amen. Because it changes things in the past. Hope changes everything. You've said that so oftentimes about gratitude. is the same thing. Hope changes everything.

 

It does. So this makes me think of, and this wasn't in our notes, but I talk about this in my book, Holy in the Moment, and I actually learned it from a book called The Rest of the Gospel, written by Dan Stone and David Gregory. And it's a great book, friends, if you're not familiar with that one. But he talks about the holy butt. And we're not talking about what you put on your body. know, we're not talking about your pants when we talk about the holy butt.

 

It is looking at truth and our experience. And it's a simple catchy phrase to hold on to what God says is true. So the tendency is to say, my day is crazy.

 

Ginger Harrington (31:06.273)

wait, I just got that backwards. God says he's giving me peace, but my day is crazy and I'm stressed out. So it's like looking at God's word and then shifting the perspective on my experience and my feelings, what I believe to be true in the moment. And that does not take us to hope. That does not take us to the truth of God. It does not equip us to fight.

 

spiritual battles and to stay firm in faith when we're allowing our circumstances and our feelings to define our whether or not God is faithful, whether or not his word is true. So to turn that around the way it goes is God says he's giving me peace. God's word says Jesus is my peace.

 

Ginger Harrington (31:55.839)

And we'd let that inform our experience. So it might look like I'm feeling super stressed today, but Jesus is my peace. let that be what I focus on, the truth and the character and the faithfulness of God versus trying to decide whether or not I think God is faithful based on what I see or feel or what I prayed that doesn't appear to be happening. Yeah.

 

So oftentimes God's answers to prayer are bigger and longer and wider and deeper than this little thing that we prayed today. And he uses our difficulties. And here's an example. In Holy in the Moment, the book starts off when I thought I was going crazy. I was so eaten up with anxiety. I literally thought I was losing my mind.

 

And I was so stuck in my emotions. was physical things happening. had Graves' disease. My thyroid levels were off the charts. And it felt like, where's God? I can't feel him. This isn't stopping. I haven't slept in six weeks. I can't function. Like my life was just nuts. And I

 

crying desperately just to hang on day by day by day. If I had been defining God's faithfulness based on how I felt, God wasn't faithful. But God taught me such an important lesson at that point in time was that believing God is a decision, it's not an emotion. And I kept going, Lord, I don't feel like you're faithful. I don't feel like you're answering my prayer, but I stand in faith on you.

 

And he brought me through over time. And at the time that felt like the worst thing that could have happened to me. A struggle like that, and to need so much help from other people around me to be so sick. But in the fullness of time, God taught me so much about himself, so much about his word, so much about the body of Christ. And he gave me an anchor story

 

Ginger Harrington (34:17.281)

kicks off this beautiful book that God wrote through the experiences that I've had. And so he used the hard circumstances and he showed his faithfulness. But at the time, it didn't feel like God was faithful. It felt like the of the world. It felt like I was losing my mind. so, but being able to hang on to the truth, no matter what my circumstance looked like or what my feelings felt like,

 

really was a grounding habit of hope that helped bring me through. And I know you've experienced that so many times. So the holy butt, truth, and then our experience. We let truth lead the train and let our experiences and our feelings follow along behind what's true. That is treating God's faithfulness as a fact and not a question. my goodness. Well, let's talk about how to apply this.

 

Okay, yeah, we love practical tips, right? How do you walk in this? What do you specifically do that helps you hang on to the truth that God's faithfulness is a fact, not a question? One of the ways I'm doing that is being more intentional with combating those random or maybe not so random thoughts that pop into my mind. And we talked about that just a little bit earlier, right?

 

that random stuff, weird stuff pops into our mind. There's science behind that. I don't know why exactly it happens, but it's true. It just happens. doesn't mean we're going crazy. just stuff randomly pops into our mind. And so what I've been thinking about is having a specific battle plan and thinking about things. Yeah, because I love a good battle plan, being a Marine now widow, there's always a battle plan. And so specifically to have this plan, and one of the things

 

is the thought pops into my brain and is this thought right, true or praiseworthy? We know that scripture, right? That talks about this. Yeah, Philippians 4 .8. And so if it is not right, true or praiseworthy, then I can go to having some scriptures written out and at the ready, as I like to say, and I say them out loud. have them written someplace, whether it's on my phone, better.

 

Ginger Harrington (36:38.871)

to have it on a post -it note and on a mirror or spread out throughout your house, in your office. Yeah, and obviously memorize it as well. But have that ready to then say out loud because I feel like when we're speaking truth and speaking it out loud, even if no one else is around, that changes the atmosphere. If nothing else, it changes it for us. We are hearing

 

and saying it out loud. It's also a way to memorize scripture, right? I think I learned that from you as being able to say it out loud. And then it takes that unhelpful random thought captive, which we talk about or read in 2 Corinthians 10 .5. yeah, that's how I'm combating it. And it's still a process, as you said, it's not a one and done. It's not a overnight success, but it makes a difference.

 

I love the practicality of that. Finding those scriptures that help you because you know what? The enemy. Team tends to have themes. We tend to have specific struggles. One of mine is anxiety, right? You I don't own that. I'm just saying I have experienced it. More often than some other struggles in my life, and so I have memorized scriptures about. Combating fear.

 

And though the Holy Spirit uses those to bring to my mind when I'm in a circumstance that stirs up anxiety in me, do I always think about it? Nope. Not always, but it has been one of those grounding things in my life. And that's so practical. Having it, I love it, at the ready. Go ahead, write them down, have them accessible. Sometimes we need to see it, not just know it. And I love that.

 

That's another way to hang on to the holy butt. Mm Yeah truth front and center Yeah and you get you said something else that I wanted to Unpack just a second. Okay. dear So while you think about that, let me just share second Corinthians 10 5 just kind of that backup script

 

Ginger Harrington (38:54.637)

And so we demolish, so this is 2 Corinthians 10, 5, we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And I know people and I was one of those people, we struggle with that. Like, what does that really mean to take it captive? And that's why I always go to that whole, you know, battle ready idea, because it is a battle. We are

 

at war with the enemy of our souls. we know he's coming at us, right? We may not always know in that specific moment, is this from the enemy, but we know that he is coming for us and at us. And so this tells us that we take every thought captive and this is why we have the scripture. So one of my struggles was I have a little, I'm still overcoming it, but definitely have overcome it more is fear.

 

And so one of those at the ready battle scriptures is 2nd Timothy 1 7, right? For God did not give us a spirit of fear or of timidity, but of power, love and self control or sound mind, depending on which scripture. So that one, I know off the top of my head, though, sometimes I get the verse address wrong. So that's why I like to have it written out and up and around. But that reminds me that this spirit of fear is not from the God of the universe. Right. And that

 

I was not given the spirit of fear or timidity, right? But I have Holy Spirit power. I am loved by the God of the universe and I have a sound mind. So I am not going crazy, right? And so those that I had that on repeat, I had where I thought I had overcome fear. And then an incident happened when we first moved here in Texas and it brought all of that back

 

And so I had opportunity to then go, okay, it's frustrating, but God is good, right? Or it's frustrating and God is good. And then that's when I memorized that particular scripture and was reminded that that fear is not from the Lord. I have the power to overcome and I'm doing way better with that. Not perfect, but way better. love that. And you are getting exactly why this needs to be a habit.

 

Ginger Harrington (41:19.717)

A mindset that we come back to and we practice it again and again till it begins to become second nature. Yeah Because things happen circumstances come up that Spiral that trigger fear that trigger anxiety that trigger doubt And we need to have a plan ahead of time on how we're respond to that and the other thing that you're getting at and I did I

 

You reminded me of what I was going to say. that taking a thought captive, you cannot take anything captive that you didn't notice. So there's level of awareness here. another way of saying taking something captive is to capture it. Meaning you take control over it. You don't let it, the thought, take control over you. You capture it.

 

You notice it, you grab a hold of it and you know, don't hang on to it in your own power, but bring it to Christ, bring it to the truth. And it's active, right? Ginger, it's not passive. When you take something captive, is, you know, I kind of think about my bulldog when he's not active, right? And I grab him by his harness. I am actively doing something. I'm not passively going, well, it's okay, Samson. No, I'm

 

coming is harness and like this is not okay. Right? You got two hands on that dog muscle power. Yeah, all of me is in this. So the same with the thoughts and sometimes I have to physically do that. I will literally do this to myself. Hands on my face going, okay, we are taking this thought captive. This is not right or true or praiseworthy and we're going to switch gears and sometimes I'll move and walk. do physical things to kind of get out of that because some of that needs a little

 

Well, all of it needs active help, but it's not passive. that's something I've learned more in the last couple of years, that this, we're at war and it is not passive at all. Yes. And as we finish off this conversation, so many of these habits of hope that we're talking about over time are nuanced with building awareness and practice.

 

Ginger Harrington (43:41.361)

of training our minds, training our responses, training how we're gonna respond. And one of those ones that we're talking about today that's so concrete, it's so like just do it. See God's faithfulness as a fact, not a question. Shut down the doubts of the enemy, the suspicions of the enemy.

 

historical narrative of our emotions that says, yeah, see, you're not likable. See, life is going crazy. You should be anxious. No, I should not be anxious. Because I've got a sound mind and God has not given me a spirit of fear. So that's the truth. So, my goodness, sis. Wow. You just really helped unpack that today. Thanks so much for sharing some of your experiences. Any last thoughts about this habit of hope, this mindset of

 

Seeing God's faithfulness as a fact and not a question. Yeah, two things, very short. Two things come to mind. Facts leave no doubt. Facts leave no doubt and facts don't waver. Facts are facts. And we love that we have facts as truth, God's truth that we can cling to.

 

Right, and I'm gonna close us out with a scripture from James 1. Verse five says, if you need wisdom, ask our generous God and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking, but when you ask, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver. For a person with divided loyalty is unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown about and tossed by the wind.

 

In the version that I normally read New American Standard, it talks about being driven and tossed and being double -minded. And what that actually means is having two souls. Your soul that's walking by, you know, your soul and your spirit that's walking by faith, and then your one that's walking by what you can see, how you feel, that entertains those doubts. And we struggle with that, being double -minded. Like, I've got a certain measure of faith, and then, you know,

 

Ginger Harrington (46:01.759)

experiencing anxiety or all the things. And so that's why this habit of holding fast to the belief that what God says is true and that his faithfulness is a fact, not a question, not letting our feelings drive our faith, not letting the suspicions of the enemy change the faithfulness of God. And it changes everything because hope does, it changes everything.

 

Well, sis, thanks so much for helping us unpack today and just have a great conversation on this habit. It's not a simple one. I don't want to discount this. I'm not saying this is easy, taking Pepto Bismol for a tummy ache. But what I'm saying is it's truthful, it's helpful, and it is profoundly life changing because it enables us to hold on to

 

no matter what is happening around us. thank you so much for joining us. We will talk with you later, Larissa. All right. Take care, Ginger. God bless. Bye.