You seek approval from every, but God. Let's discuss that and what happens when we say, "God... Meet me here."

All righty, my friends.

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Happy Monday.

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Welcome back to another

episode of I Can't He Can.

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I'm Sarai, your host, and thank you so

much for being here once again, as always,

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today's episode is interesting because I

prepared some notes, some thoughts that

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I had throughout the week, and I have.

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Really been just trying to pray

more about what I have for you guys.

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Um, a lot of the time I am really just.

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Centered on one topic.

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And I, I try to do that because

I myself sometimes have a

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little bit of squirrel brain.

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And even though that's more

brandy than me, um, I, I really

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do try to just be organized and

have notes and all that stuff.

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so today's episode really is

going to start with, what was

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on my heart earlier in the week,

But when I got home from church.

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I had errands to run.

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And when I walked in the house, I

just felt so much joy, so much peace.

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Um, and I started, you know, playing

music and I was worshiping and I

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was praying, and I was just walking

around my house like a crazy woman.

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And I had these words in my mind and

it was, meet me here, meet me here.

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And.

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I don't know if, whether that

was God saying meet me here or me

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asking him to meet me where I was.

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so that is something that I do want

to discuss in just a minute or two.

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But to start off with today's episode,

I wanted to discuss what it is that

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we as a younger generation deal with,

especially on social media and having

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the support of family and loved ones

because I know it's something that a lot

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of people don't like to admit that they

care about, but we all do care about it.

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So let's jump right into that, and

we are going to start by reading

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Psalms 56, starting on verse three.

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Psalm 56.

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Whenever I am afraid, I will trust

you in God, I will praise his word.

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In God, I have put my trust.

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I will not fear.

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What can flesh do to me all day?

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They twist my words.

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All their thoughts are

against me for evil.

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They gather together.

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They hide.

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They mark my steps When they lie and wait

for my life, shall they escape by inequity

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And anger.

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Cast down the peoples.

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Oh God, you number my wanderings.

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You put my tears in your bottle.

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Are they not in your book?

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When I cry out to you, then

my enemies will turn back.

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This I know because God is for me.

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In God.

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I will praise his word in the

Lord, I will praise his word.

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In God, I have put my trust.

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I will not be afraid.

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What can man do to me?

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Vows made to you are binding upon me.

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Oh God, I will render praises to you for

you have delivered my soul from death.

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That was Psalm 56, verse

three through verse.

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13.

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Now, the reason I read this psalm

to you guys is because earlier in

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this week, I just felt some kind

of way, I felt some kind of way,

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and it wasn't anything Christian.

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I will say, I had to kind of catch

myself, take a step back, and I,

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I wondered why it is so hard for

close, close friends sometimes.

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And mostly family to celebrate you, to

support you to be your number one fan.

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And it's funny because when we're kids

and when we are little, our moms and

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dads are usually cheering us on like

they truly are our number one fans.

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But then as we grow,

they kind of lose that.

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I would say a good majority

of people lose that.

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Not everyone, however.

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Maybe even brothers and sisters, aunts,

cousins, those close relatives that you

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would think are going to cheer you on are

usually the last people to do so uneven

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actually criticize you, and those are the

people that essentially hurt us the most.

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And it's really, really unfortunate

because even in my walk with Christ in

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the beginning now more than a year ago.

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My very mom said the most hurtful things,

and she didn't say anything that was

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extremely rude, but your parents know

how to get to you in a very specific

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way, and because it's your parents, it

almost hurts three, four times more.

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So in this case, my mom Said some comment

that I didn't really take very well about

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how I was just being Christian and it

was a thing that was just gonna pass.

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Now, it wasn't in that exact way

that she said it, but I guess I can

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easily explain it in that sense.

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However, when she said that my heart was

just crushed and it made me feel like.

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Man, I could never win.

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I could never win.

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Like I always had something to prove

and I always had someone to please.

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And even though it is our parents and

we need to honor our parents, 'cause

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that's what the Bible says, we must

honor our mother and our father.

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In that moment, I didn't wanna honor her,

I didn't wanna honor her, and I wanted to

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say something snippy and I kind of did.

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It wasn't too bad,

honestly, but I felt bad.

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It really did hurt me and.

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A lot of the times, unfortunately,

people who support us and our goals

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and the things that we are working

towards are onlookers and strangers.

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It's rarely ever a family or a

friend or someone that's close to us.

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So you may have those, you know, maybe

two, three friends that do support,

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but there are always the silent

onlookers that are either number one.

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Actually rooting for you who stay in

touch, who actually genuinely seem like

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they care and they are there, they're,

they give you words of encouragement.

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There's those people, or there

are also these silent onlookers

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that are just waiting for you to

fall so they can go gossip and

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just say, oh, what did I tell you?

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You know, Sara's podcast flopped and

she stopped at, you know, 20 episodes.

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It didn't even last five months.

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Um.

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You know, and that's something that we

don't admit that we care about, but we do.

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And why do we care about that?

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Because we are imperfect, we are flesh,

we still care about things of the world.

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So I really did have that in my heart

this week that I want to care less.

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And while I have made huge improvements,

not just because of this podcast,

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but in general, I, I really do not.

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Care very much what people say

or think about me, especially

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in my walk with Christ, right?

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That is like absolutely not, like I could

care less what anyone has to say when

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I talk about Jesus and my love for God.

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However, it is sometimes harder to turn

my head away and not pay attention to,

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you know, someone that is of importance.

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Or let's say, for example, if

it's someone that I look up

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to at the church or whatnot.

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Uh, to a certain extent you do care

what a person like that thinks, and

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I am really trying so much to not

let those thoughts not consume me.

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That's not really the best word,

but I'm really trying my best to

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not let those things potentially

even become like an idol because

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we can idolize wanting to feel.

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Liked by other people.

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And at the end of the day, we

have nothing to prove to them.

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We have nothing to prove.

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And anyway, I digress because

that wasn't even scripted.

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I'm just, Ooh, I'm just getting

it all out there, I guess.

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But it is sad.

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It is sad because we count on

those people for approval and

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for support and we shouldn't.

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And honestly, those same family

members don't realize that they

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are essentially supporting, in

most cases, total strangers.

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I'm pretty sure that they have a favorite

music artist, a favorite athlete, a

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bunch of, you know, influencers or

whoever it is that they follow, but

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they don't support you and what you're

doing and how you're trying to improve.

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Or it may not be to the level

that they support that stranger.

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So it's not to say that they don't

support you at all, but they may just,

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you know, kind of go a little bit

above and beyond for a person that

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doesn't even know that they exist.

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Now and of course this is my

interpretation, but in this day and

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age, God is the one behind the scenes.

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He is the one behind the scenes,

and he is the one supporter that

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we can always count on you guys.

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He's the one with the best advice,

with the best intentions, and

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also with the best plan for you.

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He is the one with the only plan for us.

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So we should also stop trying to make our

own plans because a lot of the time things

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may even blow up in our faces, and then

we're just sitting back and we're kind of

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like, well, I wonder why this happened.

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And it happened essentially because

we weren't listening and we were

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seeking approval of other people.

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And I shouldn't be like that.

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We need to be praying and we need

to be asking God for guidance.

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We need to be seeking his approval What

he has planned for us is what matters.

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Our salvation matters.

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Doing better matters,

helping others around us.

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Those things matter.

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It doesn't matter how much

money you're gonna make.

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We were born with nothing.

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We came into this world

with absolutely nothing.

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So we are going to leave

that exact same way.

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So why are we seeking the

support of other people?

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Why are we looking for that approval?

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The only approval that is going

to matter the day that we close

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our eyes is God's approval.

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Did we pass the test?

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Is my name in that book of life, and

I sure hope that mine is because man,

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every single day, the more that I do

life, the more that I wanna meet Christ.

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I am sitting here in my little

corner and I truly have a, I

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have this paper in front of me.

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I dunno if you guys can hear it.

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I have this paper in front of me and

I'm just letting these words pour out.

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I am letting these words pour out

because it's what's in my heart.

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It's not what I'm writing on

a paper to try and, and sound

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eloquent and well put together.

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No, no, no, no, no.

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Yes, I have an idea of what's on

the paper, but I don't need anyone's

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approval that's listening to this.

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I hope that what I can say can move,

you can strike a nerve in you maybe.

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Maybe it'll just resonate so much

with you that you can share it

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with someone who you know needs it.

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And I pray that that person can

be changed by what I'm doing.

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And all I want is for what I do here

on Earth, how I shepherd my kids,

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how I treat others, and how I do now

moving forward now knowing that I

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can no longer hurt God, that I cannot

continue to sin and do things that

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are against him, that are not of him.

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That's all the approval that a I want.

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I want him to say, well done, good

and faithful servant, because that

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is all that we are here to do.

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We are here to serve,

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so stop looking for that approval.

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No one has to be okay with what you are

doing as long as you are okay with God.

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And God is the one that's

waiting for us to speak up,

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speak to him, ask him what to do.

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Seek his approval.

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Don't seek the world's approval.

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Seek God's approval.

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Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you.

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Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal itself

to you, to show you something,

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and it will.

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The Holy Spirit is there just waiting.

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They are idle.

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They're just sitting by

waiting for us to call on them.

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And you will never be disappointed in him.

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You may not understand, but you

will not be let down by him.

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Jeremiah 29 11 says, for I know the

plans I have for you, declares the Lord.

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Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

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Plans to give you hope and

a future only he knows.

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He knows the plans.

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Only he will continue to provide

and to love and to hold you.

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Christ is the only one that

will never let you down.

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So

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Do not seek that approval from

anyone else other than him.

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'cause he's all you need.

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He is all you need.

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And with that.

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Today when I got home and I started

praying, oh man, I just, I was walking

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around, like I said, like a mad woman here

in my apartment, up and down, up and down.

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Ella was looking at me like,

mom, what are you doing?

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And she had a little moment where

she kind of, you know, broke down and

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started crying for other personal things

that I will talk about eventually.

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However, um.

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I think maybe it was the spirit

moving in, her seeing me.

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Maybe it touched her.

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I don't know.

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I don't know.

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But what I gathered from that moment

that I was praying and walking around

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and worshiping and listening to

music and thanking God for, just for

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everything, thanking God for being who

he is and for never giving up on me and

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always providing and giving me peace.

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I just, I felt those words.

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I felt those words.

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I felt that thought.

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I felt that thought.

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Meet me here, and it doesn't

matter where you are right now.

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You could be having a life

changing event coming up.

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You could have heard of a

diagnosis for a family member or

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have some sort of health issue.

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You could be having problems at work.

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You could be having so many things.

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There are so many things

that we all deal with.

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But let me tell you, all you need to do

is just ask God to meet you where you

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are, whether it's some sort of sadness

or whether you know that you are in sin.

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Whether you know that you messed up.

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Ask him for forgiveness.

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Repent of what you are doing.

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He will always meet you where you are, but

you need with your heart to talk to him

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and to ask for forgiveness and to speak

with him, and to continue to build that

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relationship because that's all he wants.

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God wants your heart.

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Isaiah one 18 says, come now and let

us reason together says the Lord.

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Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as wide as snow.

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Though they are read like

crimson, they shall be as wool.

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I've been doing bible study with a person

that I care for very deeply and this

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was one of these scriptures that came up

as, you know, we were talking, we were

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reading, and when I read those words,

when I saw, let us Reason together.

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It was a wake up call and a confirmation

that you could commit the worst of sins.

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and still be forgiven.

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However, of course you would have

to do better, but if I am in sin

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and I just come to God and I just

sit there at his feet and I ask for

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forgiveness, he will reason with me.

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He will understand.

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And man, today I understood, meet me here.

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It doesn't matter where we are in our

walk, in our life, it doesn't matter.

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He will love us just as we are.

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And there is no one in this

life that will do that.

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You can find someone and it be really,

really close and be really, really happy.

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Yes, that's that's true, but there is

nothing that will ever fulfill your

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soul and every single need and give

you peace and give you love and give

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you unwavering forgiveness like Jesus.

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None.

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Absolutely none.

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It is unmatched.

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Now, if you get to experience

a love somewhat close to that

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here on earth, then you are.

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You are blessed, you truly are.

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You are blessed, so take care of it.

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Reason with that person, when

you're going through trials.

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But just know that you need to

meet each other where you are.

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The same way.

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The same way that Jesus

will meet you where you are.

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We are what he created.

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We are what he is most proud of.

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Yet we go and we seek that

validation from other people.

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We do something good.

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We get that promotion that, of

course, that he put together for us.

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He wrote that down in our book of life.

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And we go, once we seek

validation from other people.

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What?

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No, no, thank your father.

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Thank your father in heaven for

the blessings that you have.

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Something happened that you didn't expect.

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Your life took a turn for

something that you never saw.

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Coming down the pipeline,

God is protecting you.

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God is protecting you from something,

or he has something greater.

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He knows what you're struggling with.

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He knows how you're feeling.

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He knows when something is too much.

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And he knows when something is too

little because you are too great.

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You are too great, and you are too much

of a prized possession to God to be in

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a place that he did not write for you.

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So just meet him here.

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Meet him in the spot where

you are right now and say God.

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Have your way, Lord.

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Your will be done.

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Father,

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I truly hope that this podcast can be

a safe space, I want this to be a space

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where you can feel the need to speak to

God after you listen, because I'm a woman.

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I am not anything that

you should look up to.

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I am flesh.

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I am of this world.

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But if I can just even get you one inch

closer to wanting to pray and to talk to

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God, and to give him your heart, even if

you already do that from time to time.

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But after you listen,

if you say, if God what?

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She said, I'm here.

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Lord, meet me here, God, then I will be

at peace because I know this has blessed

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you and I want nothing less for you.

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Then the blessings of the Lord.

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So thank you guys again for listening.

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As always.

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Until next time, take care.