The Hope Hotline - Just Trust God?! Do I Stop Trying To Fix Things?!!?

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

The Hope Hotline | S03-E31 | 04-30-2025

Hello and welcome to the whole pot line. Thank you for joining us. We missed you guys on Friday. Friday was pretty great. It was worth not being with you guys. Yeah, no offense. No offense. But well, first of all, it was Tom, like Tom took over.

So we couldn't be here. But that's because Pastor Rodney was here, which man, that was super special. That was beyond special. I wish I would have told you to put the pictures of him with the helmet on. Oh my gosh. So Tom has in his office, he has Jer, Tom's favorite movie, which happens to be,

I think all of their favorite movies. I know it's Alan's, Pastor Alan. Every man's favorite movie. I think it is, I think you're 100% correct. Yeah. It's very manly. So the Gladiator. So the Gladiator is Tom's favorite movie. He has, they all have the same part memorized.

Mm-hmm. I do. Which is what? Like when Pastor Alan came walking in He has, they all have the same part memorized. Mm-hmm. Right down. Which is what? Like when Pastor Allen came walking in and he saw Pastor Rodney and the whole, because Jer bought Tom a helmet, a sword and a shield. And he has them hanging in his office.

And they're real, like it's all authentic. So Pastor Rodney comes walking out of Tom's office, and then Pastor Allen saw him, and then he starts saying the line from Gladiator where he's saying who he is, the Maximus Decimus, but it tells about who he is as his identity. I'm like, oh my gosh. It was flipping awesome.

Super funny. But just a really great night. We had a fantastic turnout. Almost 1,500 people were in the building. And so it was really good. Wasn't it almost 1,500? I think, I don't know. It was a lot.

It was a lot. I can swear that's what he said. I don't remember what the number was. Yeah, I'd have to look on his little thing, but. Or it was close to 1300. It was either 12 or 14. I feel like I might be wrong. It might've been almost go.

There we go. I'm gonna zoom in a little bit. Yeah, put it in. That's pretty funny. There we go, okay. Yeah, that was him and Tom's, that helmet's heavy. It is, and it's oily. It's super oily to keep it conditioned.

I don't even know how they could touch that thing. And that sword's not light. No, no. But it was pretty awesome. It was pretty funny. We were laughing so hard back there. Yes, we were. While people were getting spiritual out in the sanctuary.

They were laughing back in Tom's office at Pastor Rodney. Yeah, it was pretty hysterical. It was very funny. So, but it was a great night. Hopefully everybody was able to come out and be in it because he won't allow those things to be taped. Right. Or streamed.

Very true. I don't know, it's each his own. Which made a lot of people sad, but you know what that requires? You leaving your living room. Correct. Getting out. Which was part of his message, which he said,

get to church. Like, go to church on Sunday. I think that's one of the reasons he won't do it. Yeah. Is it forces people to have to come to church. Yeah, you gotta come. You gotta come check it out. And it's different.

It's different than watching it online. And so. Being in the room is way different than sitting and watching it. Sure is. If you've ever been to the river, you absolutely know that to be a fact. 100%.

Like my neighbors came. And I literally wanted to say buckle your seat belts. They stayed the whole entire time. They didn't leave. They liked it. Yeah. Yeah, they liked him. They were laughing.

Yeah, he was funny. He is super funny. Super funny. But they're all in that crowd. All of them from Jonathan to Rodney to I think Tom. Tom's hilarious to me. So, but all of them, they're all funny. So they really are pretty interesting characters.

So thank you very much for working with us on Friday. We're back, we're back this week. And then we're off next week because we will be in Pittsburgh. Yes, we will be at Adaless shuttle, Shuttlesworth, pastor Adaless Shuttlesworth is got her ladies, what's that one called this time? Transformation, right? Transformation. She has her ladies conference in Pittsburgh

and a bunch of us are going. So we can't wait, but the whole potlend will be there. Or it's transformed, thank you. That's what it is. May 7th. I literally feel like that's a vampire. It is very vampire-y. I love it.

Yep, tell ya. Of course she does. Red's my color too, so. It's red. I just believe I'm gonna be. Red, white, black. They went a whole different way than what they have been going.

Yeah. Cause usually it's camo. True. Yeah, so that literally looks like a vampire. Twilight. Twilight, yeah. Not my cup of tea, but. Vampire.

Whatever. I'm not a vampire girl. But apparently, if you are going, it's all red all the time. Yeah. Yeah. I got to start figuring out my own pants. Which is a problem. Yeah, I found red pants yesterday.

You have red pants? I found them and I which is a problem. You have one red pants yesterday. You have red pants. I found them and I purchased them. Interesting. Yes, I did. Very interesting. Okay, well, I'm in a good theme. I'm in big trouble. Because I do have a red dress,

but unless this girl has lost substantial weight, I don't think it has. I have. No, put it has. I have. No, put it on. I have it for Christmas, from Christmas. There ain't been enough time. No. No way.

Put it on. I don't believe it. There's shapewear. Yeah, always. I'll help you. There ain't enough shapewear. It doesn't go high enough or low enough to transform. Prove it. I will. I plan on putting that dress on It doesn't go high enough or low enough to transform.

Prove it. I will. I plan on putting that dress on in the next couple of days. It's too depressing though. How many of you guys understand that? I do. Guys and girls get this. Like you go into your closet and you're like,

oh, this is gonna be good. And then you like walk out and you wanna be, you're almost in tears. If I cried, I might cry. If you're a crier. I do not cry. That's funny. But if I did, I know in that very moment,

I would be leaving with tears. Cause my heart hurts a little. It does. But I think you need to try it on. I think you'll be- Oh, I am gonna try it on. I think you'll be- Oh, I am gonna try it on. I think I might be devastated when I walk out. No.

I don't know. What if it fits? What if it fits? What if it's the best case scenario? Well, here's the thing, I do know it fits, but the ripples and the ripples don't look good. Don't you own shapewear? No. Why?

I mean, one piece, I don't have the top upper parts. That's okay. I have the lower parts. No, it's flowing out of the upper, the below our parts. No, it needs to be high rise. I have high rise, it's still flowing out. I don't know. Tuck it into your garden.

Yeah, let's tell you, check it out. We'll see if there's a better solution. I'm just saying. I am. Just saying. Sometimes it doesn't work. Yeah, there's peptide for that. Yeah, I need a peptide.

There's gotta be. Hey listen, for the record, today is the 30th day of the month. And all of us, which I'm the only one, that has stuck with it, have gone and done our parasite cleanse. I'm the only one, people, as usual. I'm the only one left working out by myself

with my friend, Natalia. I need daily reminders. And like, I'm the only one that has finished the parasite cleanse. And I am parasite. How did it do? I never saw one parasite. No. Not one. It was kind of disappointing.

That is disappointing. I mean, if I am gonna do it, I'd like to see something. I know, I wanna like poop snakes. Just burp people, sorry about that. Yeah, no. Well, I don't wanna poop snakes, but a worm here and there might be nice. A worm here and there? You know, like an earthworm or something might be nice. A worm here and there.

You know, like an earthworm or something might be nice. No way. But no, no snakes. Then if you, I mean, I'm not even gonna get it. Yeah, let's not. But I got nothing, people. There is nothing. Now I can go back to not looking anymore,

which is what I prefer. Oh my gosh. I'm not a looker. Were you doing the metal one too. I'm not a looker. I'm just a flusher. Were you metal? The squirt metal? I did everything.

And you did nothing different for that either? Nothing. You don't feel different? No, I don't feel any different at all. I never felt different. But I am on so many supplements right now. I don't even know if I'm coming or going. That's true. Like I told her, I was talking to Heather and Norma

and Trish yesterday and they're like, how many? I'm like, you don't want to know. Like it's so many, just Tracy's birthday gift for me alone last year is five horse pills. And I'm nice. It's the gift that keeps on giving. It's coming again. It's coming again.

So needless to say, I don't know, but no, I do not feel any different with anything. I feel no different. So, okay. Well, you do your thing and then we'll get on my thing. Okay, all right, so if you are on Facebook, you can like, share and comment. Let us know until I ask you a little question in there today. So make sure you answer that question for us.

We'd love to know. And then you can head over to Rumble. We want to have that conversation going over there. If you are in Rumble, if you could repost and like, that would be really cool. When you click the repost, just ask you to write something. So you can just say, you know, watch live with us or something super easy. And then if you want something to stand the test of time, you're going to have to put a comment because the live chat will disappear. If you're on YouTube, hello to you guys watching right now. If you're watching the replay,

you can always post replay Hashtag replay anything like that. We'll see that later. You should get an email or something seeing that you watched it And we always appreciate that we love knowing who's watching with us And make sure you're following on all these things too. So rumble What like right now while you're looking on it if you're on a desktop it literally says follow And if you scroll over I'll say unfollow So if it says following you've already done your job on YouTube make sure you're subscribed and all that good stuff too. Blackrobe is just a place that you can watch live with us and then audio podcast is available afterwards. If you have any questions you can send them

in askhope at hope hotline.com. We have some really great questions today so I'm excited to get to them. I really think that if it's not something that you are dealing with, you will know somebody or you might already know somebody that's dealing with this stuff. So it'll be great to have Hope's perspective on these questions. The Hope hotline is on TikTok and the Hope hotline is also,

or actually Hope is actually on her own TikTok and she's doing her own thing right now and she's gonna be so mad that I haven't updated her followers. I have a whole nother 29 girl, get on it. I know, and some big numbers. So I could update that. I did?

Thank you TikTok. And we are live on Hey It's Hope today. So make sure you head over to right now if you want. You can head over to Hey It's Hope if you're watching on a desktop and you have your phone next to you, you can double fist and head over to right now if you want. You can head over to Hey It's Hope if you're watching on a desktop and you have your phone next to you, you can double fist and head over and you can just do all the things over there. You can push the little hearts, you can watch it that way. It's definitely a better user experience if you head over to Rumble, but there you can go either

way. You can share it, you can do all that good stuff on TikTok. And just a reminder, Natalie comes back every month so she will be here again very very soon. And just a reminder, Natalie comes back every month. So she will be here again very, very soon. So if you want, you can send in your questions. I'm going to put this other slide up. Just as a reminder, askhope at hopehotline.com. And just let me know it's for Natalie. I probably will be able to tell.

But she will be back every month. I actually already have a question in my mind for her. So I am always excited that she comes back on even though like I have a relationship with her. I still like think they're questions that like I think everybody could use or understand or hear about. And so for the don't say an everyday thing for you because I saved my questions just so that you can also hear the answer. But make sure you share your questions, send them

over to me. And you can follow us on Instagram, and you can also get our merch. And that is available at foundationchurchfl.com. You click shop, and you can also come to church on Sunday and buy it directly from our merch store and go home with it the same day. So, and I think that is it today. Done and done. Hot doggity. Diggity doggity. Diggity dogg. I love, love, love these three questions.

Now, when I do the hope hot, I mean, when I do Hey, It's Hope for TikTok, like the questions that are Hey, It's Hope, I don't really answer them with a Christian spin. I answered them with a common sense mindset. And then listen, I sometimes am astounded like how in the world people get themselves in the positions they get themselves in.

True. Like some of these questions that I'm answering, I'm literally like my eyes are as big as dollar signs. Yeah, I understand. Like what the heck? Like my eyes are as big as dollar signs. Like what the heck? Like how do you not know? True. Either not to do that or not to get involved with that or not to do that.

How do you not know? Cause you could change them. You could be the answer. It's not just people. It's things in general. Sometimes people do the stupidest things. What's in your mind right now? There must be one question.

The one today, like how does somebody destroy somebody's personal item that they love and treasure? And you say you love and treasure this very person enough to say, I wanna marry you. And yet when you destroy their something that's important to them, you're like, get over it. And this is not like a cheap item.

This is an expensive item. And yet you still want that person to take you serious and marry you. Like, what are you freaking thinking? Collusional. That's what, those are common sense questions that I answer. Those are just like street smart, like don't run from that person.

Do not marry that person. If it was a biblical, if you wanted a biblical perspective, I would have, you know, I don't answer it that way. But here on the whole pot line, it is from a biblical perspective. But I'm just saying, sometimes people get themselves in the strangest situations

and you just sit there go, how? But these three questions on this side of things, I mean, I get every single one of them. I was telling the girls them, like, I love these questions because two of them, like I remember very well being in these positions and totally getting where these people are, like in life. Like it makes complete sense to me.

And then there's one that it doesn't make sense to me, although I do know people who have experienced it and having to overcome. So I do get it because it's very common. All these questions, I can guarantee you, you will either have known somebody or are yourself been there before and you'll be able to use them to help somebody else.

I truly believe it. So I have scripture for a lot of these. So sorry, Tracy, I didn't give you any of it, but write, if you're at your house, write it down because you might need it sometime for somebody. But these are all common situations, you know, laced differently than somebody else, but they're all very common.

It says, lately my life feels completely out of control. Like I'm just barely holding it together. I keep hearing people say, just trust God. But honestly, I don't even know what that's supposed to look like. I pray, I try to have faith, but anxiety and chaos don't go away. Does trusting God mean I stop trying to fix things? Does it mean I just sit back and wait for something to change? I want to believe He's got me, but right now it feels like I'm drowning.

How do I actually trust God when nothing around me feels stable? I actually trust God when nothing around me feels stable. I think every single one of us have met somebody like this or has somebody in our family that has experienced this stuff. I mean, it's very common, but I'm gonna tell you, you need to just stop right where you're at because you have allowed your emotions to like, your emotions are completely out of control, 100%.

And I, you guys, I mean, you can put yourselves on, but like, have you guys ever gone through, I've never felt like this, like where I'm at. Well, actually when I wasn't saved, I literally felt like I was the Lucille Ball Show because every time I turned around some calamity was happening to me. But I wasn't a Christian,

and so that makes complete sense to me. But as a Christian, I've never felt like this. Have you guys ever felt like this? Not as Christian, I mean- Not to this extent, no. Yeah, not to this extent, but not being a Christian. Kind of like you were just saying, I've had definitely had moments where I'm like,

why is nothing going right? Yeah. And I like really questioned it. That was definitely me in the beginning of mine, but I was so young, so it's like. Yeah, you're a mess anyway when you're young. You're just trying to figure things out. Yeah. What you list though, what you say is,

like you left out the very thing that you're supposed to actually do. Okay, it's great that you pray and you have faith, but that's not what the Bible tells us to do. It tells us to know the Word, to be in the Word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The things is, is if you're not doing that, those things, then how do you,

that's your instruction book. That like is your guidance, your guideline. And if you're not using that to help make your decisions on a daily, then you're gonna be lost. Praying, you can miss God because you don't know the word and you feel like, God told me to do this or I feel like I'm so, well, if it's against

what the Bible says, then you're completely wrong out of the gate, you know? So you're gonna keep making the wrong decisions which is gonna have consequences consequences for all that stuff. So Romans 10, 17, and this is the New King James Version. It says, So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If you don't stay in the Bible, then you're going to stay in anxiety. And you're not going to know how to get out of it

because the Bible has got so many scriptures about being anxious, about being fearful, about being full of worry, about not walking in chaos, about having a stable mind. If you don't know those scriptures, how do you know how to not live like that? How do you know to get out of that? Exactly. Ladies, do you want to add anything to that before I move to

the next scripture? No, that's good. I totally agree. Yeah. Huge. Okay, let's keep going. The second Corinthians 10-5. Now the rest of these are amplified classic, which adds a little bit more to the scripture, but it adds to it because you all understand the Greek or the Hebrew for what some of the words are. It said, inasmuch as we refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the true knowledge of God,

and we lead every thought, this is the most important thing, and we lead every thought and purpose away, captive into the obedience of Christ. How many times do you have a thought that comes to your mind because that's what fear worry and anxiety are. How many times do you take that thought captive and make it obedient to what the Word of God says. Problem is if you're not reading the Bible and all you're doing is praying have faith you don't know that. And it's

that first thought it's that first thought. It's that teeny tiny little, like Vanessa always says, there's the first step. And so the first step for this is the first thought. And I've had people in my life for a really long time and that's what they've even said is like, I know I wasn't, I thought I was taking the first thought captive, but I let that first, like, we're at just,

it's that first little lie, and it doesn't seem like a big deal. Then you make a nice little comfy home for it. Right, and then it's like a whole thought process, and then you start looking for things that match that. And then the situation starts to match what you heard, but what you heard was a lie. And you're building a whole thing

around this little tiny lie that got in. But if you knew the word, and if you knew it was true, you'd be able to tell it was a lie because you had the truth. And that's why it says, make it obedient to Christ. Right. It's like what you just said is super important because when, when Jesus, just before he stepped down into ministry, the devil came to him, right? And what did the devil do? He used a little element of truth to try and deceive and be deceptive to the Lord. But what did the Lord respond with? Scripture.

Scripture, the word every single time. He did it also in the garden. With Adam and Eve. When he asked Adam and Eve, did he really say, so he sowed doubt. Yeah, did he really say you could not touch the fruit? That's not what the Lord said. Both of them were present.

Adam was the one that God told him, do not eat of the fruit. And when the serpent said to Adam and Eve, because if you read the word, it says Adam was there when he was talking to Eve, when the serpent was talking to Eve. And when the serpent said, did he really say you couldn't touch it?

Adam should have said, no, that's not what he said. See, we have two examples. We have the way Jesus approached the enemy. And then we have what Adam and Eve and how Adam and Eve approached it. Like Jesus used scripture, whereas Adam and Eve like leaned into the deception. Yep. One destroyed one person's destiny.

And the other one ushered them right into ministry. Right. And if you do it that way, like, the truth is, is Adam and Eve had a purpose and God wanted to fulfill that purpose, but because they allowed themselves to sin, that purpose was stopped and their future also as well of what God had for them. Jesus on the other hand

responded correctly and literally fulfilled his purpose and changed many people's lives. So did Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve changed all of our lives. Yeah, they did. Yeah. Thank you for childbirth, Eve. Appreciate that one. And that's also like the way that Jesus responded is also like very biblical because if you resist the enemy, he has to flee, right? And so that is exactly what happened in the desert

when he, you know. Yeah, even on the Temple Mount, when he was up high. Like the whole entire thing, yeah. So true. Be like Jesus. Yeah. If you can, be like Jesus. And you all can.

If you're saved, everybody, every single one of us. But at the end of the day, if you can control your thoughts, you can control your emotions. You control your anxiety. And the chaos has to stop and cease along with everything else. The thing is, it's, you know, everybody will say,

well, easy for you to say, that's hard to do. Yeah, you're right. It is, cause you know what? Cause you created a really bad habit. Right. It's the easier you fix that habit and you correct that mindset, the easier every day is not to walk in anxiety

and letting your emotions rule you. It's like anything, like playing basketball, if you start shooting a certain way, it's so hard to break that habit. If you lift weights and you lift a certain way and you're not doing it right, it is so hard to break that habit. And then you get injured. And you always get injured, especially in that case. Or when you get lazy and you don't lift the way

you're supposed to, you get injured. And so it is, but it's hard to break those habits that you set up even in the natural. So imagine the supernatural when you've created a whole system that isn't biblical. Absolutely. And then sometimes you learn a bad habit in any sport from golf swings to basketball,

a throwing, you know, free throws and everything else. You can either cost you your game. You can, you'll maybe never become pro or whatever, whatever your hope and dream is. If you won't fix it, or you'll cost your team. But in your spiritual walk, you cost yourself everything. When you don't fix bad habits, it ends up costing you potentially everything.

I'm not saying, like when I say everything, I'm not saying you're gonna lose your family. What I'm saying is, is a lot of times you're so distracted that you don't fulfill the will of God for him. That he has for your life. Which to me, that's everything. Like sure you get your family, but are you the best mom or dad you could potentially be?

No, you're distracted. Right. Well, it's the same as like shooting a free throw. Like you can have a bad form and make it every single time, but it's not the best way. It's not that like there's one way to do it. And so yeah, you could make it every time, but like it's not the best way.

And so it's the same with this. Like you might be able to find a way to do it in your own strength, but then you have to keep it in And so yeah, you could make it every time, but like it's not the best way. And so it's the same with this. Like you might be able to find a way to do it in your own strength, but then you have to keep it in your own strength. That's really hard in this world to do something in your own strength consistently and be like perfect in it. It's not gonna happen. I tried, it doesn't work.

That's when burnout comes in. And it does. Yeah, you're exhausted. Yeah. And eventually become what you would love, you no longer love. True. Because it's so much effort.

Exactly. That you don't love doing it and you grow weary and you're like, what's the point? Right. And it's really fun to show up on a Tuesday and be like, all right, God, what you gonna do today? Right. You know, like, or never like,

oh, I don't know if I really like this message that I put together and I have to perform it. Like, I'm literally like, all right, Vanessa, let's see what God does today. And Tuesday was awesome. Like, we had an amazing Tuesday group and it wasn't because Vanessa and I decided this is what we're, right.

You know, we had our own agenda. Right, we just let God do what God does, but we're obedient and we make sure that we, you know, follow a process. Super important. Yeah. It's not about you. It's not about you.

And once you stop focusing on you, which is usually your emotions, focus on yourself. If you stop focusing on you and focus on him, then everything kind of like falls into place. And even in a lowly way, sometimes people are like prideful and they're like, ooh, look at me. But then there's people that are like,

oh, I just don't know if I'm ready to do this. I don't know if I can, I don't know if I'm good enough. And like, there's both sides of it and just get out of your way. Yeah. 100%. Just get out of your way. 100%.

Let's look at your second part of your question, which is, does trusting God mean I stop trying to fix things? Does it mean I just sit back and wait for something to change? Well, I would tell you, God mean I stop trying to fix things? Does it mean I just sit back and wait for something to change? Well, I would tell you, it's not your job to fix things anyway. Now, a lot of times our bad decisions create a mess for ourselves,

but if you start getting things in the right direction, if you start applying your walk, like spending time in prayer, spending time in the Word, God'll fix them for you, because what God's going to do is He's going to lead you and give you instruction either through the Word or that still small voice that says, okay, this is what I want you to do, and this is how we're going to unravel this ball of yarn that you've created for yourself. And we'll begin to fix it

together, but really it'll be through his leading and instruction. And then you just follow him. So it's not really your job to fix things. You can't just sit back either. You have to put effort into it. So when you feel like that he's given you a prompting, then that's when you feel like that he's giving you a prompting, then that's when when you feel like you feel prompted to do something, that's where you take the

step forward and start moving in that direction. But I will tell you, so a lot of people will say, well I don't know if I really know his voice or I really don't know is this what I'm supposed to do? That's where fasting and prayer comes in. If you fast, what you'd end up doing is it's twofold. One, you're making your emotions and your feelings die to your flesh, right? And your spirit man will rise up. And then you'll be able to hear him more clearly on the direction he's trying to lead you in to.

But I would tell people that there's a lot of people who struggle with eating disorders and things like that. And I literally told people who have those issues, like they would love to fast, like fasting is right up their alley, right? Because they, and a lot of people have to see eating disorders, like that it's really, it's what they wanna do. I say to you, if that's you, don't do it. And I've always forget to address that particular thing because there are a lot of people that, if they do have an eating disorder,

then you are feeding your carnal man instead of your spiritual man. Right. But I would say to you, if you do have something like that and you love social media. Right. Yep. But I would say to you, if you do have something like that and you love social media. Right. Give it up.

Give it up. Yeah. Just like giving up food for me, like rip my heart out. Yep, same. Yeah. Please, please don't make me not eat. Yeah.

Which I, you know, but the best thing for me is when I fast and the best thing for you is when I fast. And the best thing for you is for you to maybe fast social media. If food is not something hard for you to give up, then figure out something else. But I mean, it is so common. I mean, I literally can think of people who have told me,

one of them is a good friend of mine. She literally says, oh, fasting for me. I love that because in her past, she's battled having eating disorders. So for her, she's like, well, that's a piece of cake. Like that's something that I have to battle not dealing with. Always remember these things too, cause Satan will come to you like that. So she's smart enough to go,

maybe that's not what I should do. Maybe I should do this instead of that. And be smart people, like use your head. The next question you have that I want to address, which is your last one, is how do I actually trust God when nothing around me feels stable? Well you need to know your word more and more and more and it'll answer this question. But Proverbs 3, 5 through 6 says, Lean on trust and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. So how do you trust in Him?

How do I actually trust God when nothing around me feels stable? It's right there. It says, trust with your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. And then it goes on to say, in all your ways, recognize and acknowledge Him and He will direct and make straight your plain and plain your paths. So that answers that one very clear, that scripture right there. But then Isaiah 41 10 says, Fear not, there is nothing to fear for I am with you. Do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, "'for I am your God.

"'I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties. "'Yes, I will help you. "'Yes, I will hold you up and retain you "'with my victorious right hand of righteousness and justice.'" And then Jeremiah 17, seven through eight says, "'Most blessed is the man who believes in, "'trusts in, or relies on the Lord and whose hope and confidence is in the Lord.

So you might wanna do that. Yeah. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters that spreads out its roots by the river, and it shall not see and fear when the heat comes, but its leaf shall be green, it shall not be anxious and full of care in the year of drought, nor shall it cease yielding fruit

You need to write those scriptures down I'm gonna give them to you one more time with just Proverbs 3 5 through 6 Isaiah 41 10 Jeremiah 17 7 through 8 and then the last one is Yep, that was the last one and then The most important you guys want wanna add anything to that really quick? No. Also, like remember that death and life

are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit. Like what are you saying? How are you speaking? Are you expecting the best? Something that I've trained my own mind to do is what if, and then insert like the best case scenario. Yeah.

Every single time. And if you do that enough, you'll see changes in your life. Well, the thing is, is when you do what if with the positive thing, because most people it's what if this happens and it's always negative. It's always negative.

But the negative hardly ever happens, if at all. Right. But if you speak it, life and death is held in the tongue, right? But the negative hardly ever happens, if at all. Right. But if you speak it, life and death is held in the tongue, right? So just like you said. So if you speak the negative, like don't be surprised when it happens.

Exactly. But if you speak the positive, cause prophetically you're speaking out life, which is the word tells us to choose life. You know, the odds are the positive is going to happen or at least close enough to it. And it and surrender your agenda. Yeah.

On how a specific scenario should look like or how your life should look like. Surrender your life to the Lord and like the steps of the righteous are ordered. Trust him with each and every step and be obedient. Like favor follows the obedient. If he's telling you something and you're not listening or you refusing to follow that first step, like don't be surprised that you feel stuck. Oh yeah. And then you're questioning everything. Why are you questioning it? You didn't do it. You didn't do it.

You didn't do it. You wanna get all the way to like C, yet you haven't done A. Or even started A. Do A. Yeah, I know it's crazy. It's so crazy. And a lot of times people through that whole process, they do do the what ifs and they're the negative what ifs

and they sit there and now they're worrying and fearful about making the step that they feel like the Lord's telling them to get out of the chaos and the anxiety. So what this scripture is, is freedom, which is first Peter five seven, which is casting the whole of your care, all of your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns once and for all

on him for he cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. So unless you're willing to give it to him, live like you're living right now. Yeah. Because nothing's gonna change for you. Yeah. There was really no point in you asking the question

because you're not gonna change. Put things into motion. And then once you put things into motion, say, you know what Lord, I'm gonna do what your word says. And now I'm just giving it to you. And I'm not gonna think a lick about it from this moment on. Your word says that you're gonna take care of it.

So guess what? It's yours now. It's no longer mine. Now I'm gonna watch and see you how you take care of it. And for me, I would say when you're walking through something and you need to know how... a lot of times when people are walking through things, they'll just go straight and start reading the Bible. That's great, okay? But it's not addressing the issue that you're dealing with. So what you need to do is start researching and studying out the scriptures that deal specifically what you're dealing with. If you are worried about financial issues, start looking at the scriptures that talk about finances, prosperity, things that will help you to understand how I got myself in this position,

how do I get myself out of this position? What does that look like? Because the Bible's very clear about that. Like, if you don't work, you don't eat. Hello, start working. It's not complicated. There's just good instruction on whatever you're... If you are a person full of anxiousness and fear, there are scripture after scripture after scripture that'll address this for

you, and then you need to start memorizing those scriptures so that when fear and anxiety come your way, you can start speaking those scriptures to yourself and reminding yourself of what the Word tells you about those. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And lastly, I would say homework. Do your homework. Like, it doesn't happen through just like, what is that? Is it osmosis? It just doesn't happen through like... I think that's it.

Osmosis. It's not not gonna just come on you. You're gonna have to apply yourself. And that means daily just digging in, in your prayer time, in fasting, in your worship time. And then, I mean, be intimate with the Lord. Have long drawn out conversations with him so that he knows where you're at. He already knows, but it's good for you to talk to him about those things.

Be transparent, be vulnerable, and then be in your word. And I tell you, if you turn off the TV, shut off the phone, quit scrolling, you'll do in one week, you'll be feeling a hundred times better than what you do right now. Turning over a new leaf. Go ahead. That's a guarantee. Like, if you applied exactly what you had just shared, like your life will look ten times more different or ten times better in like 30 days. Scrolling makes people anxious just alone.

Yeah, give yourself 30 days, do all the things and then check back in. I agree. I think. And also like have fun. Because if everything's like, some people, yeah, exactly. And some people come from very serious families

and there's lots of rules and there's no fun. And it's like, you also want to draw people in, even if you're in a season where things are hard, you still want to draw people in. Like people should still see you and see Jesus, even if you're in a moment. Because I mean, there's stuff that all of us like go through, hope goes through and you want to know, nobody knows when hope's going through something. And so she's just consistent. And so she also finds things that make that she loves doing and it's fun. And she finds things that, you know, along her day, like mukbangs and weird stuff like that. But that's her thing. And so it's true though. Yeah, everything is so

serious, which a lot of this stuff is serious. And if you are really battling with your mind, you do need to get serious, but also like have fun. Like, like, and Gerald be the first to say, like he's he's battled in his mind and he tells the youth almost every single Wednesday. Like he has had moments where he has battled in his mind. But like when he like lets go and does something and goes and has fun and like he likes taking photos, he likes to lift, like he finds things that aren't biblical.

I mean, not that they're not biblical, not religious or whatever, they're like in the Bible. They're just things he enjoys specifically. And they're not sin. And it brings a joy to his life. He likes that. Like we like watching travel stuff on YouTube sometimes. And so you just find things and it like,

I actually really enjoy that. And so sometimes I want to sit down and watch a travel show. Just take your mind off crap. Yeah, exactly. And so, yeah, but like Vanessa said, give it 30 days, do the opposite of what you've done so far because that obviously isn't working. And then find something that you enjoy doing

and do everything else, like they said. Being consistent is the key. Creating good habits versus bad ones. And be careful what you magnify. Yeah. If you're constantly thinking of the thing that is causing you anxiety or your life and it's not going in the way that you,

and you're constantly focusing on that, you're magnifying it and it's becoming larger and big. And if you can just shift your focus and magnify the Lord and magnify the other things that are not your situation, like that makes a difference too. Yeah, because that's such a great point, Vanessa, because when you put a magnifying glass on something, you are enlarging it,

but you take that magnifying glass off of it. It is so super tiny. It's sometimes almost negligible. You can barely see it. But when we focus on our problems, that problem can be as small as that item that you've put the magnifying glass on. And now the magnifying glass has made it so much larger

than what it really is, but it's a lie. What's real is when you take that magnifying glass off. How tiny that situation is or that whatever you're thinking on, that's how tiny it actually is, but you you're thinking on, that's how tiny it actually is, but you've made it much larger because that's what your focus is on. Exactly. So put things into perspective. And eventually you won't even see it. Like there's stuff that goes on and it's just not worth even focusing, like

thinking about, so you just move on. Like when you buy a jeep, guess what you see all the time? Jeeps. Guess when you buy a purple car, you're like, nobody has a purple car. Guess what you see all the time? Purple cars. And it's just because you focus on it. You probably saw them everywhere, but because your brain is like,

oh, I have a purple car now, nobody has it. Now you're gonna see them everywhere. And it's not like they just magically showed up. But when you stop focusing on stuff, like Hope was just saying, all of a sudden you don't even see it. And it just like, when you have a pain in your knee, you're just like, I'm not even gonna think about it.

I'm just gonna move on. And guess what? That's faith. You're walking in faith. So yeah, just don't, yeah, magnify who you are in Christ, who God is, scripture. Cast all your care on him. Don't even worry about the enemy.

Don't let it go. Don't even worry about it, because it's probably you anyways, so. A lot of times it is us. We've created it. It's not really been anything other than what we've created. And a lot of times our problems were made by bad decisions. It was nothing more than that.

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He will be timed. Can you imagine? How fast can you take and remove and replace an engine? Probably fast. Probably. It's probably not his first time. He's going to have us lifting. Yeah, he'll make us do it.

Like, I'll have a hemorrhoid by the time the whole thing's over. Oh my gosh. That's a great way to prophetically speak over yourself. Right. No, not a hemorrhoid. A hernia. No, I'll take a hemorrhoid over hernia any old day. I don't know what either of those are.

You want me to tell you what they are? No. I think I know, but I don't know. I'll ask Chachi Petey later. Yeah. Both uncomfortable, one's just Petey later. Yeah. Both uncomfortable. One's just really uncomfortable sitting. Okay.

Isn't hemorrhoids uncomfortable sitting? Yes. Okay. Yes. And a hernia is not? No. A hernia is in your gut. Yes, a hernia is in your gut.

It's like your intestines going through. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Ouch. Yeah. I know about one of them very well. Only from having kids. One, no, really from Tommy.

That's pretty common with pregnancy. Yeah. Well, it wasn't pregnancy. It was when I was- Or delivery. Yeah, it was terrible. Like three hours of pushing. Yeah.

Let your imagination run wild with that one. Literally. Chet, GPT, is that what you're doing? Now I was gonna get Tudy's attention. Tudy. Yeah, so literally, I'm not kidding you. A charger. Nightmare.

Yeah, that doesn't sound fun. I pushed for three hours and then they were like, hey, they were just about to like, they would only do the vacuum back then three times. And if the vacuum didn't work when you pushed, you do a C-section, I was one away. They're like, you have one more push and then we're giving you, and I didn't,

I was like, this is not gonna happen. So they were like, hey, we have some firemen that are studying to be, or they're going to school for EMT. And the last thing they need to do is see somebody have a baby. Can they come in? I said, I have a hemorrhoid this big. No, they cannot come in.

Normally I'm your girl, but today, not happening. Yeah. Not happening. Yeah, when the girls were born, we had like 1,900 people in that room. They were like, this is a twin birth. Can we have everybody come in? I'm like, I don't know, I can't.

I was like so out of it. I was like, sure. Well, Norma was five weeks early, so they had the NICU, they had everybody in there. Okay, my husband at that time was such a, Tom was a fearful person. So like his anxiety was, it was high. So they have all these people in there.

And so she finally comes, she was easy. She finally comes out and like they're like examining her up and down, you know? And he will not leave like everywhere she goes, he's there. He's like following, he's asking them questions. Like he's given them like, like they committed a crime. Right, right. Okay.

He is, he is doing the detective work and he is asking every investigative question there is possible to find out if she is okay. Cause he was on heightened alert. I finally had to say, Tom, can you come over here please? Oh my gosh, leave him alone. He's like, yeah, what's going on? Stay over here.

Do not go over there. Do not ask them one more question. You are getting on their last nerves. Leave them alone. He's like, I'm just, I'm like, nope, nope. Just stay right over here, buddy. It's gonna be all right. Just stay with me.

That's so funny. Like, oh my gosh, they're literally gonna kill him. Right. I can picture that whole thing. Yeah, me too. And he's so large. Yeah. Take her down some notches.

I like took, yeah, all this space in the room. Oh my gosh. He was hovering and he, you know, he towers over everybody. So he's peering over them. I'm like, they're like, can you give me some space, dude? Exactly. Yeah.

Oh man. And then me, I'm some little pipsqueak in the bed. Yeah. Right. Tom, get over here right now. Yeah. Oh my gosh. That's about right. That actually eases his conscious.

When I'm like chill, back then, he's not like that anymore. But back then, if I was like, listen, knock it off. It's all okay. Just he'd be like, oh, okay, if she's not worried about, then I don't need to be worried about it. I'm gonna, okay, I'm gonna follow her lead, you know? But it's like, okay, the guy needs to like. Chill out through his job.

I felt bad for them. I know. I didn't really care about him. I literally felt bad for them. So funny. Oh my gosh. Next question. Enough about hemorrhoids. I don't even know how we got there. Oh my gosh. Next question. Enough about hemorrhoids.

I don't even know how we got there. That was you. Yeah, I'm sure it was. It wasn't me this time. Yeah, exactly. Oh, lifting an engine. That's right. Thank you, Norma.

Good job, Norma. Someone in my life hurt me deeply, not just once, but over a long period of time. How, like we get a lot of questions like about people being hurt, but you know what? Like this one I can relate to. This question I can totally relate to. Like this one applies like to my first boyfriend.

Yeah, I've only had two boyfriends my whole life. One was Tom, obviously. And the next one was a fricking load of poop. But like you sit there and you go, this person really loves me. I really love this person. I am giving my all to this person. And then they like stomp all over your feelings

and all over you, right? I totally get this question. Someone in my life, I think a lot of people have though, somebody in most people's lives have hurt them like to the core. Someone in my life hurt me deeply, not just once, but over a long period of time. The worst part, they never apologize, no ownership,

no regret, just silence like nothing happened. You know how many parents do this to their kids in divorce situations? Am I not wrong about that? No, you're not wrong. Like all the time. Yeah. And maybe not even divorce.

Like lots of cultures have people that, I mean, women have done it to their children, but men have done it. So I don't wanna make it sound like only men do it because I've known of women who've literally done this to the kids Because they're addicts and everything else but a lot of parents one or the other the father or the mother have done this to their kids just up and like See I'm gonna go live my life. Yeah, either it's with somebody else or they just wanna live their own life.

It's insanity to me. And it's usually, not usually, that's not true. In today's world, it is becoming very common. It's because of addiction to some substance of some kind or for another person. It's not usually so they go off and do their own thing because they wanna just live their own life. No, it's usually because something else

has taken priority over what truly should be important. And so for me, I'm like, this is like a lot of people. For me, it was a person, but it was like my first love. For a lot of people, It's worse than that. It's their parent Which is like horrible Just horrible. And if you're guilty of this It's fixable. Yes

Don't think that just because you've done it that you can't fix it because you can because and I'm sorry or please forgive me fix it because you can because an I'm sorry or please forgive me goes a long way so if I am talking to you and you've been not the victim but the one that's caused the hurt fix it like you wouldn't believe how how much that can change somebody's life but it's this question says is it really possible to forgive someone who doesn't think they've done anything wrong? What does that even look like? Well, Scripture is very clear you have to forgive. It's not even an option. If you are a Christian, you must forgive no matter what that person says or does or ever doesn't say or do. And the best thing you can do for yourself is to forgive them

because you are like hurting yourself every day that you don't. Am I correct ladies? Very correct. Yeah. Trust me, I know. Like the best thing that I ever did was move on and like just say, I don't care.

I don't care. And you know what ended up happening was that very person, like he found me, this is crazy, before I ever married Tom, that person ended up calling me, found me, I don't even know how, found me and apologized and ended up owning to everything. Oh, wow. That usually doesn't happen.

I was in complete shock. Yeah, that's crazy. And then they wanted to get back together. Fair day. Fair day. Fair day. But you know what the sweet thing was, is I could say thank you.

Because I always felt like I did nothing wrong or did nothing to deserve the way that I was treated. But on top of that, it was also awesome to say, and I wasn't even, Tom, this is during a breakup with Tom. So it's one of his three times he broke up with me. But during that period, I was able to say, you know what, I got my life right with God. Best thing that ever happened to me,

that we're not together. I got my life back right with God. And I'm living a great life. Yeah, yeah, that's good. And not that I'm living a great life without you, because that would have been mean and that's ugly. But it was just like to say, you know what? I've moved on, you've moved on and we're both okay.

But thank you for owning up to that. Cause the thing is, is oftentimes when you move on and you let it go, things like that do happen. It really, I mean, somehow, some way you'll find out that, you know what, it's okay. Do you wanna add anything before I add the scripture about forgiveness? No, that's good.

Yeah. Nothing? Okay, Matthew 6, 14 through 15 says, "'If you forgive people their trespasses, "'their reckless and willful sins, "'leaving them, letting them go, "'and giving up resentment, "'your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

"'But if you do not forgive others, their trespasses, the reckless and willful sins leaving them, letting them go and giving up resentment, neither will your heavenly father forgive you your trespasses. That's huge. There it is. A lot of people think, well, I don't have to forgive them.

Bull crap. Right. Bull crap. And why would you wanna hang on to it? For me, it's like, I say this all the time, but I would never want anybody to have one thing on me. Yeah, exactly.

How do you live your best life? Which is, I love that Heather, I mean Heather, I love that Tracy always says that, go live your best life. Because that's the best thing you can do to anybody who's hurt you or wants to like see you be defeated is for you to live your best life. The thing is, is for me,

why would you want anybody to have something on you? Because then they've got a hold on you. And then they're happy because they still know that you are renting space in your mind about them. Never in a million years. Never in a million years. Or that person is living their best life and they can care less.

It's usually there are. That's way most of the time is though, Vanessa. Care less how you feel about them. Right, exactly. And you look at everybody that is not living their best life, and most of them do have issues with forgiveness, and why do you want to replicate what their life looks like?

Don't you wanna rise up and be like other people that are like, they have great lives, they have great families, they're financially doing well, they're healthy, maybe do what they do. That every day they find a piece of joy in something or many things. Right. Like for me, there are every day,

every day for me, when I wake up, I know like this is gonna be a good day. I don't go, oh, I know that it's gonna be a good day. Like, now let's see what happens. Let's see what God does and unfolds. Like it could be like better than any day I've ever had before. Let's walk this thing out.

Always. Every day. But if you hold on. Yeah, and do you really want to go to like hell because of unforgiveness? Absolutely not. You know what I mean? Like is it worth it?

No. No. I have so much to be forgiven over. I can't afford it. And that's the other thing. Like if you, like you've never messed up, you've never needed forgiveness. Right.

Like all of a sudden. I have needed forgiveness. And it's not about what the thing was. It's still needing forgiveness. And so if you've ever needed forgiveness, then you should be like the first to forgive. And when I was put in a situation that was really bad with my, in my marriage, my last marriage,

he messed up, I didn't cheat, he did cheat, but I forgave him right away because I knew that I did things also that were wrong and they weren't to the level, in society standard to the level, but there was still things that I probably did that he didn't like that I should apologize for. And there were things I did apologize for.

And some people didn't like that I did that because they're like, yeah, but he cheated. And I'm like, I get that, but I still did things. So I could wipe my hands clean. Right, I could wipe my hands clean and I could stand before God one day and be like, I did everything I could to salvage that marriage, to do everything.

And you know how like good that feels? To know that you can stand before God one day Like I did everything I could to salvage that marriage, to do everything. And you know how good that feels? To know that you can stand before God one day and be totally blameless. Yeah. There's nothing better. There really isn't. There's something you can start doing too,

is start praying for that person. Yeah. That changes everything. Ask God to show them as a child. Yeah, when you pray for somebody, like your anger and animosity towards them completely changes when you put it into a spiritual perspective.

Yeah. Yeah. You know what I do too? Like if there's somebody that comes to my mind that, like there is really, I ask the Lord quite often, and this just happened like, I think last month or maybe two months ago. Like I'll ask him, is there anybody

that have any unforgiveness in my heart towards, is there anybody that I have bitterness towards? Do I need to fix anything? Because I have big things that I'm waiting to see God do a finished work for. Like part of when you're walking things out in faith is making sure that you don't have unforgiveness in your heart. So there's no barrier to getting to the manifestation

of what you're believing for. So I'll try and do that, but you know, like a month ago or two months ago, I was like, is there somebody? And the Lord brought somebody onto my heart. It wasn't that I had any bitterness or anger or even unforgiveness towards them, but it's somebody that I'm not really close to anymore that I was close with.

And the Lord, and He has done this way more than once with me. And He said, I want you to reach out to them and just let them know that you're thinking about them. And it wasn't even hard for me to do that. But for this person that I sent it to, they were like, I've been waiting so long to hear from you. When I saw that, I was like, holy crap.

Like, I'm not bothered a bit. I'm not, but they must've thought that I was, maybe. I don't know, but I don't know how. Cause I've conversated with this person, but for them, that's what they needed to hear. So the Lord knew that, and it really wasn't for me, it was for them, but I was like, didn't bother me, I literally started texting right away.

So just like, even in those things, that's super important to be able to do. And that's how you know whether or not you've really forgiven somebody or not. True, absolutely. Very true. And the other reason I will forgive is I don't want sickness on me.

True. I don't want sickness on me. Absolutely not. So when you are angry and bitter towards people, that does something to the insides of yourself. It ages you too. You know, all these like frown lines. It's not attractive quality.

To be easily offended and anger, easily angered and bitter and unforgiving. Yeah, definitely start praying for that person because the Lord will soften your heart towards them and show you things that you might have like Like not noticed before you know a lot of people who hurt you are probably hurt themselves Yeah, and have gone through things themselves that make them a certain way Absolutely, and they might not even know that scripture. Mm-hmm. So that they think it's totally okay. I remember somebody saying,

I think I used this scripture one time and somebody said to me, they were like, I cannot believe that that's expected because they literally had a hard time forgiving people. And they were like, Pastor Tom should have told us that from the pulpit. I've never heard him preach that before. And I literally said to them, I'm like, well, he has,

but more importantly, don't you own a Bible? Right. Yeah, exactly. They're like, huh? And I'm like, it's not his job to make sure you know everything in the Bible. He only gets you about an hour and a half a week. The rest of that is all yours. So you might want to be taking some responsibility for what you know and you don't know.

And they were like, oh, yeah, it's true though. You can't blame somebody for something that you should know because you own a Bible yourself. Correct. Crack that baby open. Proverbs 17 22 and I'm not kidding you when I say have forgiveness in your heart because a happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing. People do not understand how the mind is so powerful that it actually works healing but But then it says, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. So you wanna be angry and bitter,

expect, you know, not good things come in your way because it does affect your health. And anxiety and depression and, what was the other thing that girl said or that guy said in that first question? Anxiety, it wasn't fear or worry, but it's all along the other thing that girl said or that guy said in that first question? Anxiety. It wasn't fear or worry,

but it's all along the same thing. Anxiety. Hold on, I'm gonna go back up here. Because that scripture goes right along with them. What did that question, what did they say? Come on. I'm so sick of spam calls. I cannot tell you.

Um, says that their life is out of control. anxiety and chaos. So just, we'll stick with the anxiety, but fear, anxiety, depression, worry, all of those things go right along with that scripture about your mind. And it creates healing and it is very, very, very true. A happy heart is good medicine. And a cheerful mind works healing. So your heart and your mind are synonymous together. They can do mighty things, good, but negative things go negatively for you. So ladies, you wanna add anything else

before we close the shop? No, that's good. No, that was really good. Yeah. Good ending. So Friday's first question, I'm really excited about Friday's first question. So join us on Friday. We will see you then.

Thanks for tuning in and bye, Tik Tok. See ya. Real talk. Real talk. Real talk. Real talk. Real talk. Real talk.

Real talk. Real talk. Real talk. Real talk. Real talk. Real talk.