Woman Evolve with Sarah Jakes Roberts - Get Over Yourself

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

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Hey, family, this is Sarah Jake's Roberts. And before we hop into this week's episode, I wanted to give you a warning that a little ways through the podcast will be audio only on YouTube because I am the production crew and I forgot that the memory cards can only hold up to 29 minutes. This episode is really near and dear to my heart because I am sharing some of the things that I have learned about God throughout this journey and also what I've learned about myself and my tendencies towards God

when I'm going through a hard season. And I would have just re-recorded it if it was something scripted, but I was just speaking from my heart and it felt like I should just go with what was raw and pure in that moment. So we are uploading it anyway. But I just wanted to let you know that it will be audio only towards the end. So I hope you enjoy this episode. I pray that it blesses you and resonates with you and that God can take these wounds, these literal wounds that I have experienced, and you're able to glean wisdom from them as I am mining out myself. I hope you enjoy. Let's get into this week's episode.

What's up, family? This is Sarah Jakes Roberts, and you are listening to the Woman Evolve podcast. And I'm coming to you four weeks post-op. If you are just tuning in, I have been on the high. highways and the byways. And are we doing the Lord's work? Sure. But the work is pretty much being done on us. I actually want to talk to you guys about that a little bit. But I feel like I've been minding so much, you've been minding so much of my business over the course of the last few weeks that I wanted to take a break, dive into the inbox and see what has been going on in your world.

And I found a question that it's going to set me up. It's going to set me up. It's going to set me up for me to share with you what God has been doing in my life and revealing in my life over the last few weeks. And so I'm going to toss to my girl who has a question about submission after being a strong I-N-D-E-P, huh? Here we go. Hey, Sarah girl. My name is Nicole, and I was calling to ask you when you were in your serious, you know, your serious. stating phase and you know you were still doing your entrepreneurship motherhood thing independently but you know you got a serious man and he's like you know he also has his opinions and want to help lead the business and guide and direct and all those things and you know so that's where I am and so

the question came up like oh but would you be willing to allow me to lead in some cases and direct and help you along the way with your business and life and things. And cranged, girl, instantly cringe because I'm like, huh, lead me, guide me, listen to you, trust you on what moves to make. When I've been making moves as a single mom, making moves as an entrepreneur for the last five couple of years, making independent moves by myself. And now I'm like, ooh, I really do like him a lot. and I know if it were to grow into marriage and things of that nature.

I mean, you do have to lean on to your husband like that. That is a part of being submissive to your husband, I think. But correct me from wrong. Now, how did you maneuver that? How did you swallow that pill to, you know, be open-minded and trust your partner's judgment when you've been doing it? for so long independently. Thank you for listening, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Bye. Love you so much. Bye. I cannot tell you how much I love this question. It literally, when you said him asking you about leading, made you cringe, made your stomach flip, I felt it in the deepest part of my Shondo, the deepest part of my being. And so, first of all, I want you to know you are not alone. And I am going to share with you transparently what I have learned about a survivor strong women who have had to, you know, get it without a lot of support and help and what it's like when you finally come to a place of partnership.

So the first thing that I learned is that I had really begun to pride myself on getting things done without other people. and the idea that I could make it through life without your help and without your support was something that it meant a lot to me that I didn't need anybody. And so this idea of being open for partnership, it's like, yeah, I want to get to know someone. I want to be a part of someone's life. But I don't necessarily want to build a life that requires me to need them or for me to have vulnerability. in the way that I make decisions and choices and to be open to their wisdom and insight.

So I really didn't want partnership. I just wanted a warm body and someone who would watch movies with me. And one of the hardest parts of marriage for me, especially because my husband and I were long distance. And so whenever we would visit one another, our worlds would kind of stop to make space for one another. And then when we finally married,

we're having to understand how do we do life with one another and also make space for each other's perspectives and opinions in our marriage? And, well, not just in our marriage, but like in the life that we're hoping to build together. And, you know, I had a lot of suggestions for him. And what I learned about prayer is a lot of times when we go to God in prayer about the other person, God reveals something to us about ourselves. And one of the things that the Lord has constantly been revealing to me throughout my marriage is like I've taken too much pride in how I've been able to survive without the support of

others. You know, if my parents and I got into it as a teenager, I would say, you know what, forget it. I'll do it on my own and I would do it on my own. You know, you guys got me a car. Here are your keys. I'll get my own car. I'll waitress at the strip club. I'll take care of myself. And then I accomplish those things. And it's like, you know, I did it. And I proved to you that I don't need you. And the more that you prove to someone that you

don't need them, you end up building a life where you don't know how to include them. And so dismantling my need for independence to validate my existence had to be undone because even biblically, like we were created to exist with one another. And building lives that don't require people is to be in direct contrast to the type of life that God had in mind when he created us. And it does a disservice to who we are in general. So I think as it relates to you, one, I want to make sure that you know that you aren't alone and having that struggle. I think it comes down to one, do you trust that God brought this person into your life? And I had some just undeniable confirmations that God had brought my husband into my life. And of course at the time we were dating,

but then once we were married, just constantly over and over again, God confirmed it. And so why would God allow this person to be brought into my life to make me less than? Why would God allow this person to be brought into my life to bring harm or danger to my life? So I think, one, qualifying, did this relationship come from God? And then if you trust that, this relationship came from God and that this is a person that God has brought into your life to help build and expand his version of who you're supposed to be, not the version who we created to survive the things that we went through. But this is a part of who God wants to use to bring out the best in you. Then one, admit into God in prayer, this is hard. You know, I trust you. I want to

believe that this is the person for me, but it's difficult for me to make space for this person. The second thing I want to say is this, is that God can bring someone into your life to help serve what God wants to do in your life. And that person also need to be educated and sensitive to the best way to deliver what God is placed inside of them into your soul. And so one of the things that God placed on my husband's heart pretty early on was he told him that the hardest part for him, the hardest, that he, he, I'm messing this up and I should go get him and get it, but I'm already sitting down and I can't get up. But it was like the hardest part of being married to me was going to be leading me and him knowing how to figure out how to lead me. It's something like that. It's like the hardest part was going to be leading and me being lit, something like that.

And I think part of the reason why the Lord told him that was because like you're going to have to be sensitive to what it takes to really understand who she's. is what moves her, what doesn't move her because the spirit of rebellion is on me strong. It's very strong. The muscle memory of rebellion is strong for me. And so him being sensitive to what it means for me to feel heard, to feel validated, to feel seen,

so that whatever it is that God is placed on his heart as the direction for our family, our marriage, is something that he's able to get my full buy-in on. And so I say that to say, because I'm not telling you to be no ducked-dook-goose out here. I'm not asking you to be to not have a brain

and to just go with the float because he's going to have a mandate too to humble himself so that you can be heard and seen and also led. And so on some practical takeaways for you to consider is like if this is a person

God has brought into your life, if you realize that you've made an idol out of your independence and it's time for you to lay that idle down, After you qualify those things, I think my next advice would be, like, is there something in the delivery that makes it difficult for you to receive from him? Is it critical? Does he not honor your ideas first? Do you feel belittled? Do you feel like it's patronizing? Does he fly off the handle and say that was stupid? That was dumb. You know what I mean? How could you do that? Because I think part of what you get to offer in the relationship is saying, like, hey, you know, what you said actually did expand my perspective on the way that I was looking at. at raising the child, dealing with the business, etc. However, the way that you said it made me

feel demeaned or belittled in the process. And I just wonder in the future, is there a better way for us to do this? And this only works, though, if you have created enough space within yourself for him to actually add contribution, because otherwise, no matter how he dresses it up, you're going to send it back, return to sender, because I don't want to hear it ultimately, because it makes me feel like I need you. It makes me feel less than because I have my own things to work through. And so congratulations. You have been promoted.

You get to do life the way that God intended in community and connection with another person. And this is for everyone, even if you're not in a relationship. I feel like these rules apply with business, partnerships, friendships, et cetera. You have been promoted when you get to a space where you realize I am going to need someone in my life to help me take things to the next level, the next unfolding of what God has for me. And I'm going to have to learn to be okay with that. Your home has a way of affecting your mood. You don't even realize how much you're settling until your space starts to finally feel like you. It's funny because sometimes we think we need a whole new house when really we just

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has been one of the most difficult seasons of my life. And what's interesting about all of this is before I had my accident on April 18th, I was working on a book that's supposed to come out next year. And I have this incredible title, I'm going to tell you because it's going to happen. But the book was called Get Over Yourself, Relief from Perfection, and the Lies That Keep You from connection. And I started writing this book before I had the accident. And for me, it felt like just a timely message because there were so many people who I was in conversation with, who I noticed a lot of times their biggest barrier was themselves. They were standing in the way of pursuing their

purpose or talent because they were afraid what other people would think about them or letting people into their lives because they were afraid of what that would say about themselves. And so this idea of get over yourself truly resonated with me before I had this accident. One of the things that has become increasingly clear since having this accident is that I will need to get over. I have to get over myself. I've had to get over myself in ways that like, I am still unpacking. And I'm really tired. This is going to sound crazy.

But I'm really tired of seeking the Lord, asking the Lord for wisdom, inside him, giving it to me. Because really, I want to be the vessel. I want to be the tunnel. Like, I want to hear from the Lord. I want to get the download and I want to bring it right to you. That's what I want to do. I want to be the tunnel. I want to be a straw in this season.

And the Lord is like, you know what? You're not the straw. You're the receiver. You're going rogue, your life's going to go rogue, okay? Get over yourself, you're going to get over yourself. And I've had to get over myself. And it has happened in so many ways that, like, of course, okay, so I have the accident. And, you know, in many ways I have to be immobilized to preserve any chance of life as I have known it, whether that is literally staying alive or avoiding paralysis. And so I was immobilized. do you know what it means for someone who is used to running the things, literally running, literally putting, I mean, I just got these incredible running shoes, like from running to being steel. Okay, so that's an identity shift. And then I go from literally needing to be immobilized to needing people. The person who does things for everyone is now the one who needs someone to literally, can you hand me this? Can you do me like immobilized? And I had to get over myself and who I thought I was in order to settle into the new reality. There are things happening in my life that don't have anything to do with the accident. That have been the hardest things that I've ever had to face that, you know, we have kept private while navigating them.

It's just been hard. I think even that the postponing conference and like I don't want to come off as a failure, I want to, I'm the demon. bully. I want to be strong. Get over yourself. I have postponed conference. And what that means administratively has been something that requires so much humility, honesty, transparency, asking for help without feeling like a bad leader. Get over yourself. Having to figure out how do I show up in spaces where I am used to showing up in strength, but showing up obviously different. It's just I've had to get over myself. And in the process of getting over myself, I have sought the Lord. Like, what do you do when God doesn't tell you what to do? What do you do when God places you

in a position where there's nothing you can do? And it has challenged me to see that part of how I have distorted my relationship with God is in making it transactional, where God, you give me strength to do something. God, you give me courage to do and to build. And if God gives me the vision and God gives me the resource and the people, I know how to do what God has told me to do. And I have struggled in this season to just be with God, with nothing to do, where I'm not making him, you know, the master, the drill sergeant,

that just hands out the orders, but I am leaning into the reality that there are moments where I just need to be with God and to experience his presence. And it's really causing me to like deconstruct and rewire my perspective of like who God is and to not just long for God's power, but to really find comfort in his presence. And there's a lot of reasons. And I'm glad that I'm writing this book at this time because there's a lot of reasons why I have struggled to see authority,

God's authority and sovereignty and comfort being able to live in the same place. And learning to lean into the presence of God at a time where my life has come undone. It's been hard for another reason because I think that it's kind of like this is probably the best example I can use

but it's like imagine having a friend who is a gazillionaire and you feel like you're in this season where you're struggling to like eat like you don't even have food to put on the table and that person knows you're struggling to put food on the table

and they have the resources to fix it and they don't I think in a way, part of me keeping my distance from God has kind of been like, you could have fixed this. Like, you could have kept this from happening and you didn't. And how do I draw close to someone who I feel like couldn't, who didn't prevent this from happening? Now, I will tell you, there's lots of flaws in this way of thinking. and the Lord has highlighted so many of them because I feel like many of you have had these questions before

I want to be transparent about that being how I feel. One of the flaws is like our relationship with God was never supposed to be built on transaction where you do what I ask you to do. You use your power the way that I want you to use your power to prevent hard things from happening to me and then we get to stay close. And if you don't do that, then I draw back from you.

When we make our relationship with God transactional in that way, our intimacy is always contingent on his doing. And instead of leaning into what it means to just be in his presence. And so that's like one of the flaws. And I want to come back to that. And I didn't write this out. So literally I'm just speaking from the heart. So there's probably things that I could be saying better or differently

or more comprehensively, but just rock with it, rock with it roll with it for a minute. I think the other flaw in that thinking is that like there is, once sin entered the world, we were cooked, right? And so there are lots of things that happen in our life that were not a part of God's original plan or intention for humanity. And so what God says is that in his word as I'm reading scripture

and I'm beginning to understand who God is and who he has presented himself to be to those who had been entrusted to translate those truths into scripture, is that you live in a world now that is not the world that I had in mind, and I gave you all free will so that you could create the type of world that you wanted to create, and the world that you have created, it has brokenness, it has sin, it has disobedience, it has pain, it has disease, and this is not the world I wanted for you. And what God could have, should have would have done if he were like us, is this, distance himself. Since you're now living in a world that I didn't have for you or did not want for you,

now you in this world on your own, you figure it out. No, he says, I'll get in it with you. It's not the world that I wanted you to experience, the broken homes, the family, the disease. It's not what I wanted for you, but I can get in it with you. And my presence in it with you can keep your soul intact even when your world is falling apart. I can keep your spirit intact, even when your world is falling apart. And so I've had to reorient myself towards presence and not power, to reorient myself toward presence and not just position. And in doing that, I feel this mandate to, and I'm writing about this in my book right now, but I felt like I needed to share it with you, is like the same analogy of skin to skin for a newborn baby

as he reflecting in what happens in the Garden of Eden. And so for those of you who may not be parents or may not be well-versed in what happens when a child or a baby is brought into the world, hospitals have this thing where they want the baby to be regulated by skin to skin. So the baby comes into the world naked and they want the parent or, you know, caregiver to take off their clothing and put the baby as close to their chest as possible.

Because this baby who's used to this enclosed, tight womb is now in this world where, you know, there's so many things coming at them. And they're like, the first thing that they need to do is to be close to someone again. They need to be held, skin to skin with no barrier, nothing standing in the way so that they can be regulated. They can hear a heartbeat that feels like their own. They can feel warmth that feels like their own. A blanket can't do this. Clothing can't do this. We've got the heat lamps.

They do okay, but they're not the same thing as just being regulated by a person being close to you. And I see similarities to what happens in the garden in which they're in the garden. They're naked and they are walking in his presence. There's no barrier between who they are in the earth in God's presence until sin enters the world. world. And this season of my life that I have said is the hardest season of my life has disrobed me. It has taken away anything that I have built pride, comfort, ego. And it's disrobed me. And in the process of being disrobed, I'm having to like just peel off all of these layers of things that I thought made me good enough, made me strong, made me a wife, made me a mother, made me a leader.

I'm like, here, oh gosh, God, here's this, here's this, here's this. And now I feel so vulnerable and so naked. And I feel the Lord being like, yeah, now my presence doesn't have anything standing in the way. And now you can be who I really need you to be in this season. And that is to be raw and real and vulnerable. And so it's been the hardest season of my life because it has been the one that has laid me bare. Can I tell you all one of the areas where I am trying to get better? It is planning ahead what I am going to eat.

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needing to be who you've always been in a season where all of those things are being stripped away from you maybe the goal isn't to stay away from the presence maybe the goal is to lean into the presence even as you're coming undone so I decided

like in this pursuit of presence which I'm on and maybe maybe I could Loki do a little series on this for the podcast. In this pursuit of presence, I went back to Genesis and I started reading about how God created man and woman and the earth and the fall of humanity in Genesis 3. But then I looked, oh, this is so good to me. One, okay, so I want to say this, when you are thinking about who God is, I want you to like, Think about watching a movie. And when you're watching a movie, you can kind of tell, oh, that's the good guy.

That's the bad guy. Not because something comes on the screen that says, that's the good guy, but you watch their character. And in watching their character, you begin to categorize them. And so when I'm reading scripture, I'm reading scripture to understand the character of God and how God shows up. Not because sometimes it is explicitly said, but because it is our job to take what we have read and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to us what this means. about who our God is, who humanity is, how humanity has shown up time after time after time. Now, I was reading in Genesis 4, oh, no, this is why I wanted to tell you. So, you know, in Genesis 3, in Genesis 2, when he tells them not to eat from the fruit

of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he says that the day that you eat from it, you will surely die. And then in Genesis 3, we see them actually eating from the fruit. and when they eat of the fruit, they don't die. So I'm thinking, if the Lord tells me if you eat from this fruit, you're going to surely die. I'm thinking the moment that I bite into this bad boy, I'm out of here, heart stops, right? So they bite from the fruit that we still live and we're still kicking. But something dies.

What in them dies? If it's not their physical body, then something happens spiritually. See, a lot of times when I am receiving from God, I am thinking from, I am receiving from God through a human lens. but when God is speaking to me, God is talking about my spirit. God is talking about my soul. And so if things don't happen in the natural the way that I anticipated, that means that something has taken place in the spirit. So when I hear the Lord saying, you're free from this, you're free from this addiction,

you're free from this oppression, but I'm still walking it out in the natural. It means my spirit has been freed from it. Now my spirit has to walk out what's happened in the natural. And so when the Lord says, when you eat from this fruit, you will. surely die. They're still alive, but something in them has died. How do we know something in them has died? Because instantly they see themselves as naked and they're ashamed. Before they were naked and unashamed, now they're naked and they're trying to put fig leaves together and they're hiding from God because they're ashamed of themselves. Something in them died and their ability to see themselves

the way that God saw them and their ability to be seen for who they were. Something in them died. And so, but God doesn't look away in that moment where something has died, where they have disobeyed. God starts asking questions, Adam, where are you? What has happened? And they begin to engage in discord with God. What does it tell me about the character of God? Is that God doesn't look away. Even when we change our perspective, God never stops looking at us. And then so I flip over to Genesis 4 and I'm looking at Cain and Abel. And I'm looking at the story of Cain and Abel. And God has given me just so many insights. about the story of Cain and Abel. But when we tell the story, whether it's the story of them eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or we tell the story of Cain and Abel, we tell the story like, that's where the story ends. That is our human limitation, again, is that our storytelling ends in the moment where

we make mistakes or mess up. But the storytelling doesn't end that way for God, because after Cain kills Abel, he continues to show up and continues to talk to him. And when he's talking to Kane, he's telling Kane, you know, the blood of your brother is crying out from the ground. And so now you are cursed from the earth. That means which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood. And so the Lord goes on to tell him, you killed your brother, because you killed your brother and his blood is crying out from the ground. Literally, the earth is disgusted by this action that you've done.

When you try to work the ground, I remember you have to remember if you read Genesis 4, working the ground, that was Kane's bag. Like he knew how to till the earth. That was his bag. The Lord says, now the thing that you used to be able to do with ease, you're not going to be able to do with ease at all. I'm going to make it harder for you to be who you were before this incident took place. That's part of your consequence is that it's going to be harder. It says when you till the ground and shall no longer yield its strength to you,

a fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth. And so now you're going to be on the run and you are going to be a vagabond, someone who's wondering and begging from place to place to place. But then what's crazy is that if you continue reading, it says in verse 16, it says, Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. And it talks about how Cain knew his wife and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city. His son built a city and calls the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch, which is wild to me.

because on one hand the Lord says that he's going to be a vagabond and a fugitive, but then it says that he went into, he dwelt in a land and conceded it doesn't, it's not giving fugitive, it's not giving vagabond unless God is not talking about your physical reality. He's talking about your spiritual reality. And your spiritual reality is that you're going to be a fugitive, you're going to be on the run. Well, now that's beginning to make sense because it says that he fled from the presence. He went out from the presence of the Lord. left the presence of the Lord. He's a fugitive on the run from the presence of the Lord and a vagabond,

which speaks to wandering and searching. He's always constantly searching because he hasn't found a way to rest in the presence of the Lord. When the Lord tells him this, I take note of the fact that it says that Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. It doesn't say that the presence of the Lord left Cain and meant that whatever happened to Cain in that moment, the guilt of what he did, the pressure, the shame, the fear of retribution that took place made it difficult for him to rest and settle in the Lord. It didn't make it difficult for him to build a life. He was so able to build a life. It says that he met a woman. He had a child, his child established his city. It didn't make it difficult for him to build a life and made it difficult for him to rest in the presence of the Lord.

he was a fugitive and a vagabond. And so many of us are measuring our success by what we build and not by how we rest. We're measuring our success by what we're able to do with what we have left over and not how we are able to spend time in the presence of the Lord. And I just realized through this process that I have been a fugitive and a vagabond on the run from the presence of God. and this season is requiring me to be still and to not depart from the presence of the Lord just because I feel like the presence isn't showing up in the way that I anticipated,

but to stay in the tension of that presence and to experience what it means to have the presence of God just to be with me, even if the presence isn't showing up in the way that I anticipated. And I'm going to say this, and then I will be quiet. the reason I know that I have discounted the power of the presence and preference for the power of God became clear to me when I was having surgery. And when I was having surgery and I was thinking about, you know, I did all of this TikTok

and all of this researching about, you know, what to anticipate and, you know, a lot of the things, the cuts and the screws and the plates. But the thing that scared me the most wasn't necessarily the surgery or the pain. What scared me the most was that moment where you're rolled back into the operating room where you say goodbye to your friends and your family and you're going under and you don't know what to expect. And there was a part of me that was like, I really wish that I could take someone with me back with me, that I wouldn't be by myself back there. And like, of course, there's nurses or doctors.

I wasn't going to be by myself, but there was something about being with someone who I know and who knows me. There is something about the presence of someone who you know and who you love in the middle of a storm that makes a difference. And until we get to a point where we can honor the presence of God, the way that we would honor the presence of a person in the middle of an operating room who can do absolutely nothing but be with you while you go through it until we can see God's presence in that same light we will never fully understand the gift we have in the presence of God that the presence of God is not just so that we can receive marching orders it's not just so that we can get strength for the next mission the presence when you are down to nothing when life

will not stop raging the presence of God when the storms won't cease the presence of God when the anxiety doesn't go away, the presence of God, when the depression is hard to push away, the presence of God to just be with you in the midst of it until we have encounters like that, until we understand the value of who he is in that way, we don't really know who God is. And we miss out on who he is because of what he can do. and I have been challenged to check my sense of entitlement for God's action when his presence should be enough for me. So that's what I've been sitting in. And I still have a really tough road ahead of me, some really hard things that I'm going to have to face.

not just with my surgery, but with the things that you all don't know anything about. And I'm going to have to face them, they're not going anywhere. You know, God's not using his power in this way. And which just takes me back to, okay, I'm going to read this. And I actually wrote about this,

so it won't be the last time you hear it. Oh, everything's fine. So one of the things that I wrote about in Romans 5, it's not unfamiliar. Thank you, Jesus. Holy Spirit, just allow this to reach the heart of somebody stuck in the loop. And thank you for the work you're doing in me and through me even as I share this verse. It's in Romans 5 and Paul is writing to a church that is, in the thick of it. They have accepted this new religion, this relationship with Jesus as the Messiah,

and as a result, they are undergoing pressure from every side. The Jews at the time are adversarial because they don't believe he was the Messiah and he has upended their religion. The Greco-Roman culture at the time is looking at it oddly. They didn't mind you worshiping the gods that you wanted to worship, but this is a different God who calls himself king, and it's just causing issues with the Jews who are usually under control. So those who were choosing to believe that Jesus was the Messiah and that he was their Savior, they were undergoing pressure. It wasn't this westernized, glamorized Christianity,

where you could just say Jesus and people would honor it to believe in Jesus was to struggle. He writes to them, Paul writes to this church in Rome, and he says to them that we glory in tribulation. It's what he's telling them. He's like, I know you're going through a hard time. I know you're a little concerned because your faith is under attack, but we glory in tribulation. This is the mindset of those who are believers. Why do we glory in tribulation? Because we know that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character and character produces hope. And as I'm in this season where I know that I am going to

experience tribulation, like we're not getting delivered from it. We're not being rescued from it. This is the journey that is ahead of me. There is a temptation I have to get stuck in the perseverance part. I know how to persevere. I've been through a lot of hard stuff in my life. Persevering is something that I can do. You can be for me today, against me tomorrow, I'll talk about me. I know how to survive. I'm not saying it won't hurt my feelings. I'm just saying I know how to make it

when it feels like the world is turning against me. I have no problem with that. Where I struggle is landing in hope. And one of the things that I had to do, even last year, when Womene Evolve was being tossed to and fro on the internet for fans and offerings and whatever, is allowing that perseverance to produce character.

and perseverance produces character because our perseverance reveals to us something about who God is. And when we know who God is, it changes who we are. And so in the midst of this tribulation, in the midst of me persevering, I'm asking God to show me who you are. And the deeper I know, the deeper I go in the knowledge of who he is, the more, character is developed in me because when you know who your God is, you know who you are, you know what you can stand for. That's when you can begin to say, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me because I know who my God is. And it's not this arrogant. You can be for me today and it gets me tomorrow and I'll be fine and I'll be like, God will take care of me.

God will translate on my behalf. God will lead me. God will guide me. And that becomes a part of my character and when that becomes a part of my character now I have hope hope that no matter what happens my soul will be intact that I will maintain my faith in God and part of what I have been challenged to uncover and reading this scripture is that what God is preserving in any given season is not life as we have known it life as we have known it will change it will change through tribulations, it will change through triumph. It will change through the passage of time. And so if your goal is to hang on to life as you have known it and you want that to be the thing that perseveres, you will be disappointed. It will be stripped from your hands. What God will preserve in the

midst of it all is your faith and your spirit and your soul. God can restore your soul in seasons where you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death, where you are going through the hard things, God says, I can preserve that. And you can have hope in that. And so I'm in the toughest season of my life, and it's hard. And I don't know who I'll be on the other side of it. And I don't know whether or not you'll be there on the other side of it.

But God will be. And learning to let that be enough is what, I have been tasked with in this season of my life. I am in uncharted territory. And as a result of being in uncharted territory, I am experiencing God in uncharted, unprecedented ways. And it's making me better. I know it is.

So this is Sarah Jake's Roberts. And I don't know what that means. But I know that God does. And this is the woman involved. podcast and I don't know what that means but I know God does and I'm okay with that. I'm four weeks post up. I went to church on Sunday. I made it through service. I got to talk a little bit. I'm free from my neck brace today. I still experience pain and I'm taking each day as it comes and I'm listening to God every step of the way.

I'm grateful that I get to do this thing called life with you. And for as long as I can, I'll keep sharing what God gives me in hopes that it serves what God is doing in your life. And I am praying that a skin-to-skin anointing, a spirit-to-spirit anointing will fall on us. My stomach's growling. Everything's fine. and as that spirit to spirit anointing falls on us, I pray that we really begin to value the

presence of God, even in the midst of hard things. So Holy Spirit, thank you, God, for a master plan that didn't leave us without a high priest who can sympathize and empathize with our condition. Thank you, God, for never looking away, even when people turn their backs on us. Thank you, God, for your presence, for having access to it, even though we don't deserve it, even though we turn our back on it. Thank you for still being a very present help in times of trouble and in times of joy. God, I pray right now that you would create a hunger on those who are listening to experience your presence,

to desire to know you better and more deeply so that it changes them, changes them into your image, God. I thank you that we will behold you like a mirror and that we will go from glory to glory to glory. I appreciate you, God, for allowing this season to be weighty but not unbearable, for it to bring me down to nothing so that you could ultimately establish your truths and your identity in my life. life. I welcome your grace. I welcome your word. I welcome your presence. And I pray those listening will do the same in Jesus' name. I love you and I'll see you next week.