Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey friend. Welcome to Perspectives into Practice, a place where life's stories meet practical wisdom. Together, we'll explore how faith filled perspectives can transform the way we live, love and grow.
[00:00:17] So grab a seat, settle in, and join us on this journey to turn inspiration into action.
[00:00:24] Let's dive in.
[00:00:29] Hey friend. Welcome back to Perspectives into Practice. Today this episode is going to be just me. I want to talk to you about something that has really been stirring in my spirit. And as we wrap up the year, a brand new one starting in just two days, I want to encourage you. You don't have to wait for the calendar to change to experience a shift in your relationship with the Lord, that spiritual shift that maybe you've been longing for. This is the final part of our year end series. Here we've been talking about what it looks like, religion versus relationship. We've been talking about how important it is to have a relationship with the Lord and not just checking boxes of our faith and why that's important.
[00:01:20] And then we talked about being a warrior woman. What does that look like, being a warrior woman, standing up for your faith, fighting those battles with God on your side. And this final part, we're discussing why faith isn't passive, learning to stand and not just sit. So we're so both of the episodes before this really were building up to this part and just really emphasizing that sometimes we think faith is about being quiet or compliant or just going with the flow. But really I've learned that real faith often looks like standing firm and sometimes alone. And being bold in your faith takes courage. And sometimes we get stuck in our faith by sitting when God has really asked us to stand.
[00:02:20] Walking with Jesus isn't about being passive or performative.
[00:02:26] It's about learning to stand firm when things shake, to be spiritually engaged when the world around us is disengaging and just stop coasting through faith, through your relationship with the Lord just because it's comfortable. Friends, change doesn't happen in the comfortable. It happens in the uncomfortable. And what I mean by that is you might be in a place in life where even though the circumstances around where you are might really suck, that is a comfort that you might be in. Because walking out of that situation, changing that situation, healing from trauma looks too hard right now and uncomfortable. And so you want to stay where you are. But as women who stand in their faith, these warrior women that we were talking about, that that's what we want to be, we are going to have to get uncomfortable sometimes, but it's not going to last. Forever. Okay? It's not going to last forever. So standing in your faith looks like not striving, but being alert. So not just going with the flow, but paying attention and being alert. It also means knowing who you are and whose you are.
[00:03:54] You are a child of God. If you are in Christ and He is in you, you know whose you are. You are the child of a king. He is a king. He is the Lord of Lords.
[00:04:08] He is everything.
[00:04:10] So when you are standing in your faith, you are confident in that. You are praying with authority. And knowing that when you pray, the demons flee. When you pray, the enemy is afraid. When you are speaking the name of Jesus, it is powerful.
[00:04:30] So saying yes to God is not always convenient, but you do it anyway. You say yes even when it's inconvenient. And walking in truth and standing in faith looks like walking in truth when the culture says something else, and right now, our culture is screaming something else. And we have to be courageous. We have to be strong in our faith. We have to know what we're fighting for and what we are fighting. God is on our side, but if we are not paying attention, we are going to get attacked. And then sometimes we get stuck there and. And then we blame others. And that's not what the Lord wants for us either. It is comfortable to be passive in your faith, and that scares me, because in the Bible, God specifically says that you are to be either hot or cold, not lukewarm. He says, if you were lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth. That's in Revelations 3:16, because you were lukewarm, neither hot or cold. I'm gonna spit you out of my mouth. And I don't want that for you. I don't. I don't want that for me. I want to make sure that I am always making sure that I am 100 with the Lord. It is so easy to fall into that passive comfort in faith, into just attending church or agreeing with someone else or checking those boxes. And while those things aren't inherently bad, God wants more from us. He wants more. He wants that relationship. And we've talked about this. If you've been listening to this podcast for any length of time, you know that we talk about having a relationship with our Heavenly Father, talking to him daily, talking to him consistently all the time. There's definitely been times in my life where I have realize that I'm actually sitting in my faith and not standing. I've had that passive come over me, and it was comfortable. I was doing the things I was showing up. I was doing everything that I was supposed to. And then I had an awakening. And I realized, Lord, this is not.
[00:06:57] This feels wrong, and I don't know how to fix it. Please help me, Lord. Help me to be strong in my faith and not standing on the sidelines watching other people grow in their faith. But help me to really get close to you and to know you more and to stand on your word and stand firm in these things. It is one thing to be passive in your faith and not know that you're there, and quite another to be doing these things, knowing that that's where you are because it's comfortable.
[00:07:33] And what that looked like in my life was showing up to church because I knew that I needed to be there. I knew that people needed to see me there.
[00:07:43] I dressed the part. I would always make sure that me and my family were all dressed up and nice clothes, and there would be always. There would be yelling on Sundays and, you know, screaming. And we're in the car and we're just.
[00:07:59] And we get to church and everyone has a smile on their face, and we go to all of our classes and we do the church thing and we sit there. Sometimes I would get something out of the lesson. Sometimes I would just be staring through the pastor because I'm so angry at everything that had happened before.
[00:08:17] But I was there. I was attending. I was agreeing. I was checking all those boxes that I was supposed to.
[00:08:24] But I felt spiritually empty. I felt that emotional blockage where I didn't know what to do next. I didn't know where to go.
[00:08:37] I was leading small groups. I was involved in so many different parts of the women's ministry, and I thought I was doing all the right things. But when I really sat back and looked at where my life was, what my relationship with the Lord was doing, and where it was going, I was so disappointed in myself that I had let it get that far out. I thought I was doing everything right.
[00:09:02] And, you know, I just stopped and prayed, and I'm like, lord, I don't know what to do. What do you want from me? And, you know, it's like I could feel God saying, I want more.
[00:09:15] I want more of you. I want all of you. And, you know, we've talked about this in the scriptures. It says that God wants all of us. Not some of us, not a little bit of us, not half of us, but all of us, all of our time, everything that we want. While I knew that I definitely was not living that out, then it Broke my heart that I had broken his. I had been doing the things that I thought were right, but was comfortable in that.
[00:09:44] So I asked him, what do you want from me? Without him saying, I want you to stand. That's really what it was doing, is standing on my faith, getting in the Word more consistently, actually applying the lessons that I was reading in the Word, sharing that with others, memorizing scripture, hiding it in my heart. I was not just showing up at church, but I was actually participating in a way that was. Was giving him the glory and not just for looks. It wasn't just a checklist at that point. And so when I surrendered that comfort to him in what was happening, he really began to do a mighty, mighty work in my life. And it flowed over into my marriage, into my relationship with my kids, into my relationship with friends. And on the other side, it actually kind of pruned out those that weren't supposed to be in my circle in the first place, but they were there because it was convenient and it was easy and it was comfortable. But God was calling me to more. And maybe you're listening and you're like, jessica, that sounds exactly what I have been going through. Friend, if that's you, I just pray that you ask the Lord God, what do you want from me? What do you want from me in this season? What do you. Who are the friends that I'm supposed to keep in my circle and who are the friends that I need to part ways with? And you know, it is not always easy to be a Christian.
[00:11:19] It is not always easy to be a Christ follower, but it is always worth it. And that's what I want you to understand, that it might be comfortable to have these friends, and it's fun to have these relationships that you have, and it's fun to do these things. But really, when you step outside of yourself, when you step outside of that comfort zone of your passive faith and you say, lord, I want to do more for you. I want to give you my everything and my all and step out into that unknown, he will bless you for your obedience in that and what is to come. I can't tell you what that might be because it's going to be different for everyone. But I just know that it's going to be worth it no matter what it is. So if you have been hesitant in. In making that change or resistant, I just pray that you give a prayer of surrender to the Lord and truly mean it and believe it. Like I said at the beginning, you do not have to wait until January 1st to do these things. You can start right now.
[00:12:31] Well, maybe right. Not this second. Maybe wait till this episode is over. But you understand what I'm saying. You can make that choice right now. You know, thinking back before I made this decision, I don't know if I was waiting for a perfect time, because like I said, I didn't realize that I had been in this passive faith. But it was one of those things that had just been kind of making me feel icky. There was just a few.
[00:13:02] Honestly, it's. It's a slow fade into the truth. And I feel like the further I got from the Lord and the more works I was doing, the more that my entire body, mind, and soul felt out of alignment.
[00:13:21] So I guess that perfect time would have been exactly when. When it happened. And, you know, the truth is that when I said yes to the Lord, when I said, yes, I will stand, yes, I am surrendering everything that I have to you because I want to know you more. I don't want to be one that talks about being a Christian and not actually walking that out. I don't want people to see me one way in church and a different way in the grocery store. I want them to see who I am, really, really am, and not putting on a show. And it felt different when I said. When I said that when I chose to not be passive in my faith, but to take charge of my faith, it changed me. And I could tell that it kind of stirred up some people around me. And while I didn't feel like it was my job to change them as well, I was planting seeds. I was planting seeds in changing a yes to a no. I was planting seeds in not continuing with conversations that I knew weren't going to be fruitful. I was changing the trajectory, I guess, of my.
[00:14:48] My relationship and walk with the Lord and everything from that point, honestly, has just been absolutely amazing. Now, do I still fall back into that comfort zone? Yes. Sometimes I will realize, hey, when was the last time you opened your Bible?
[00:15:10] When was the last time that you seriously sat down and had some quiet time with the Lord and just soaked in his presence? When was the last time that you actually just listened to the Lord instead of talking to him? When was the last time that you weren't just telling people about your life, but showing them through your life?
[00:15:31] And sometimes I have to take a step back and. And go, whoa, okay, Gotten off kilter. And that's what I'm trying to tell you is that there is never a perfect time. The time Is now if you have been feeling this on your heart, if you've been feeling this, this prompting, that's what you have to do, is just make the choice. God gives us a choice, we have the opportunity to choose it if we want. And so I'm giving that challenge to you, friend. When you're listening here, don't shrink back, don't be tempted to sit, don't be tempted to go back to what it was because it's easy.
[00:16:12] I challenge you to stand firm in your faith. So what, what does standing look like in daily life? Standing looks like getting into your word every single day, reading what God has to say to you. You can learn about other people in the Bible so that you can know how, how to stand firm. And if you're wondering, Jessica, where do I even start?
[00:16:37] James is a really great book of the Bible to start. It is all about how to be a good Christian, how to live a life standing on your faith and not being passive. It is all about that. So if I had to give you one thing to go read, it would be go read the book of James. It's a quick read, but I think it is so good and even for us as long time Christians, I'll say it's good for us to continually go back to read that, to say, hey, where can I get better at this? So getting in your word every day, praying constantly to the Lord. The Bible says pray without ceasing. What that means is pray all the time. If you have a moment in your head where thoughts may be going wild, praise the Lord. If you're sitting at the, the stop sign, you could be praying it. It's praying for everything. And you know, it reminds me of when my children were much younger and they would pray about everything.
[00:17:39] They would pray about parking spots, they would pray about rain, they would pray about friends showing up. Like they would pray about all the things that going on in their life. And that's, that's what it is. It's a conversation with the Lord. If you wanted to text your friend about it, talk to God about it. If you want to shout it from the rooftops, tell the Lord about it. He wants to hear from you, reading your Bible, praying every day and choosing to not align with the things of this world being different. And it's okay to be different.
[00:18:14] It's okay to be different.
[00:18:16] That's what I'm telling you is that even if you're tempted to sit and shrink back into that passive faith, be aware that you get to at any point stop and say, this doesn't feel right. Lord, what do you want from me? Where do I need to go? And then you go back to what you know you're supposed to be doing.
[00:18:38] I encourage you, friend. If you are feeling spiritually stuck right now, get into the word of God. Get into a Bible study that is teaching from Scripture. Get a community around you that you can know and trust and that is going to spur you on. The scripture tells us that iron sharpens iron, but if iron isn't next to iron, guess what? It can't sharpen itself.
[00:19:04] If you're in a group where everyone is passive and you're like, yes, this Bible is so good, it's so wonderful. But then all of you are not actually living out what the Bible says. You're not applying the word. You're not having those deep conversations. If you're sitting in a Bible study and you're just answering surface level questions instead of getting to the meat and the deep heart work that there is to be done for you and for the people in the study, I would really encourage you to reevaluate and see if there's another one that is going to go deeper. Because surface level faith is passive. It's sitting when you should be standing. So if you're thinking, well, I'll just go to that one last one, I'll wait till January 1, because everything else is starting fresh and I just, I don't want. Maybe it's. I don't want the dates to be off. Maybe it's, you know, you've got that one more event or that one more thing I ask you to ask yourself and ask the Lord, why.
[00:20:14] Why are you choosing to wait another day, to wait another moment, to get closer to the Lord?
[00:20:22] God wants you to understand that he is strong.
[00:20:27] Anything that you're going through, he can take it. Anything that you are dealing with or that you are under attack for, he wants to take it off your shoulder. It says that my yoke is easy. Jesus says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. That means that when we yoke up to him and if you know what a yoke is like, two animals carry it. When you yoke up to Jesus, he carries our burdens for us. It is easier, my friend, when we are close to Jesus and we are following on his footsteps, the path is straight. And when we are not following him, we are, we are not close to him. Even though you might think that you're comfortable, if you really were to look back, you might see that there's some. There's some winding roads, there's some darkness. There's some debris on your path. Come over here, friend. Come to Jesus. He's never left you, no matter what you've done, no matter what you have have planned to do, no matter what you are doing right now, he has never left you and he will never leave you. He is always there. It's us that get off the path, that get a little further away from him and he's calling you near. And this is my call to you and encouragement to say, get back.
[00:21:47] Get back to your first love. God loves you with an everlasting love and he wants to love on you and hold you and be there with you if you're feeling weak or unqualified.
[00:22:01] He qualifies the unqualified.
[00:22:04] He is the strength when you are weak. He is everything that we need to live a life of godliness. You know, it says in First Corinthians 16:13, to be on your guard, to stand firm in your faith, to be courageous and be strong.
[00:22:22] And that's what I'm talking about.
[00:22:25] That's what I'm talking about, is to stand in your faith. Stand firm, friend. Be bold. I challenge you, really, to choose one area where you've been passive in your faith and ask God what standing would look like there. I can't do this for you. Your friend can't do this for you.
[00:22:45] It's only you. You have to be willing to make that choice. You have to be willing to stand and be uncomfortable for a little bit. But I believe in you. I am rooting for you, friend. I am praying for you. I pray for every single listener on here. And as I wrap up this episode, I want to pray for us as we're going into this new year and everything that it can be, all the possibility that it's in it. Father God, I thank you for the woman listening, Lord. I. I pray blessings on her in this 2026 year, Lord, I pray that you help her to stand firm in her faith, to be a bold warrior woman in Christ. I pray that you help to spur her on in her relationship with you, to give her the strength to. To step out of her passive faith, to walk in strength with you, Lord, I pray that you put people in her path and in her walkway and in her communities that will not only be there for her, but that will lift her up. We'll be praying for her, spurring her on iron, sharpening iron. And I pray that you are able to give her bring someone in her life that she can do that too as well. Lord, be with her. Be with her family. Father, I pray prosperity over her life as she goes into this year. I pray for courage. I pray for strength. I pray for a boldness in her faith. I pray that whatever wounds she is taking care of right now, Lord, I pray that they are healed in Jesus name. Whatever that she is going through, Father, I pray that she surrenders it to you, gives it all to you, so that you can do your will in her life. Lord, I thank you for every woman that's listening. I thank you for every ear that has heard this. I know that your truth stands the test of time and is never failing. You are a faithful father. You love us so much and I'm so thankful to be part of your family. Thank you, Jesus. We love you so much. Friend, as you step into this new year, I want to remind you that you don't have to wait to stand. You can stand today in this moment and make a choice. But it's up to you.
[00:25:10] And remember that even small shifts in perspective can lead to big changes. Now go put those perspectives into practice. Talk to you next time.
