Janna Shoultz: Hello there, I’m Jana Faith, and welcome to episode 47 of Faith Talks. Well, I’m very excited to have here today with us my wonderful husband, Jetson Faith, And we were joking saying that Anna Faith and Boogie Faith are on their honeymoon. So, well, and it’s not a joke. They really are on their honeymoon. But we were adding in the faiths to be funny because it almost fits, you know? Yeah.

Judson Faith: Everybody has a faith on this show. Boogie Faith. I got a faith. So.

Janna Shoultz: So it works. But we’re going to be talking about today, just like faith for the new year as we’re, I guess we’re already in the new year. We’re not approaching it anymore. So three days in.

Judson Faith: So we’re still fresh. You can still make New Year’s resolutions, right?

Janna Shoultz: And who knows? You could be listening to this when you’re 10 days in. So it still applies. But we’re going to just be talking about faith for the new year. And this past year was kind of a big year for us.

Judson Faith: Our family grew.

Janna Shoultz: We did.

Judson Faith: From two to three.

Janna Shoultz: I think the first ones, there’s just something about that going from zero to one on the kids spectrum is definitely something so that was very exciting uh march 13th so it’s kind of crazy to think evan’s almost 10 months and just got two more months after that and he’s a one-year-old which is just insane so we were talking today about the cake i think he’s gonna

Judson Faith: have a lot of fun smashing he’s gonna like that he gets his hands on everything yes although just

Janna Shoultz: when he’s allowed to, that’s probably when he won’t.

Judson Faith: When he won’t.

Janna Shoultz: He’ll just sit there and stare at everybody. So anyway, it’s been a good year for us, though, in ministry here at Tabernacle.

Judson Faith: Yeah, it’s been good working with the teens. Every day is different, but it’s good. The Lord’s teaching us. I think the Lord’s teaching the teens as well. It’s exciting.

Janna Shoultz: Definitely on a journey, especially in discipleship.

Judson Faith: and just learning the community even.

Janna Shoultz: So that’s been neat. So we’re going to start out in Colossians here and just talk about some different ways that we can have faith in this coming year.

Judson Faith: Definitely. Definitely. Colossians is a good book. Only four chapters. So if you need something short to read, go to Colossians. Now, Colossians is interesting. Did you know this, Jana, that the entire first chapter of Colossians has no commands.

Janna Shoultz: I didn’t, besides the fact you told me before.

Judson Faith: Oh, okay.

Janna Shoultz: But…

Judson Faith: But you didn’t know before I told you.

Janna Shoultz: I did not know before I told you.

Judson Faith: That’s important, though, because Paul wrote Colossians. Paul wrote a lot in the New Testament. And you see this a lot in things that Paul wrote. So he’ll write the first couple chapters, no commands, and then the back half of the epistle, he’ll just load it with commands. I think the reason is because he wants to build a ground of truth to act upon, right?

Janna Shoultz: And you can even see that with, I don’t know, have you ever had someone come into your life that you didn’t really know that well and just tell you to do something?

Judson Faith: Yeah.

Janna Shoultz: You know, and you’re like, who is this person? And like, I don’t really trust them enough to just obey what they’re telling me. So it’s just interesting how, I don’t know if you’re out there listening and maybe you have a step of faith you need to take, or maybe there’s a command in the Bible you just don’t, you don’t want to obey or you’re struggling grappling with. And I think the answer to that is to understand who God is. Because when you truly understand who God is, you, you know, you, everything else falls into place and you realize that obedience is the only wise option really. So I was even reading in Genesis this morning, just reading about the creation of the world and just the awe and amazement of the God we serve. And that was even just helpful for me throughout the day thinking, wow, like any small issue I’m having or big issue that I’m having is nothing compared to the God who created the moon and the stars and everything. It’s it puts it into perspective. So I think that’s helpful.

Judson Faith: Well, that’s interesting because that’s here in Colossians 1.

Janna Shoultz: Okay.

Judson Faith: Talking even about how specifically Jesus Christ was there at creation. And like you’re saying, that actually gives you the basis for your faith. If you know who you’re trusting in, then when God tells you something to do, you’re like, I can trust this God. He’s the God of creation. Specifically in Colossians, he’s emphasizing Jesus Christ. But yeah, all that in chapter 1, and he doesn’t give us any commands. He doesn’t give us a command until verse six of chapter two. And the command there is to walk. And it’s basically the idea of walking by faith, taking steps upon the truth that you know. Kind of think of this, though. Did you make a New Year’s resolution this year?

Janna Shoultz: Hmm, I wonder.

Judson Faith: Yeah.

Janna Shoultz: About that.

Judson Faith: I don’t know if I did. Did I? Did we have that joint one?

Janna Shoultz: Yeah.

Judson Faith: Yeah.

Janna Shoultz: We’re joking.

Judson Faith: I think that’s all we had.

Janna Shoultz: So we decided, it all started from a video that I saw on YouTube of like this 100 push-ups a day challenge for a year. So we decided to do it together. But the past two days we have forgotten until the last minute. So it’s been like, you know, 9 p.m. And we’re over there.

Judson Faith: Pump out 100 push-ups.

Janna Shoultz: Which has been quite something. So we’ve done it, though. We’ve been consistent.

Judson Faith: We got to do some more here this evening.

Janna Shoultz: What have you done today?

Judson Faith: I think I’m at 20. So we got a ways to go.

Janna Shoultz: So after this podcast, we will be doing 80.

Judson Faith: But that might be my only resolution. Actually, something that I sat down and thought through. I say all that to say, obviously, this time of year, everybody’s thinking through, okay, my new year, what am I going to do? I’m going to save this much money. I’m going to lose this much weight. I’m going to start my own business. I’m going to whatever. Well, as a Christian, I think resolutions are fine. making a resolution is good. You ought to have plans. You ought to make goals. But as a Christian, we should be looking to take steps of faith in the new year. That really is a new year’s resolution for a Christian. And what he’s saying here in Colossians 2.6 is a new year’s resolution for a Christian is another step of faith or multiple steps of faith. And really the rest of Colossians tells us how to walk by faith very practically in some ways, generally in others, but I’ll just focus on one aspect mainly. It’s in chapter three. I was looking at these verses the other night, and I think these are some great New Year’s resolution or steps of faith, or maybe truths that promises we could grab for 2026, because that’s what we build our faith on. But chapter three of Colossians, starting in verse 15, he says, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts. Wouldn’t that be great in 2026 to say the peace of God ruled in my heart? I did not take a step outside of what God gave me, light or peace. And I knew, wouldn’t that be awesome? You get down to the year and say, this was a year marked by peace. Doesn’t mean it’s easy, right? Like who knows what can even happen in a year? Someone’s just saying that to me the other day. A lot can happen in a year. A lot of reasons for no peace. Think about even financially, you know, maybe much of the audience doesn’t have a ton of money, but you look at what could happen in your family or in our economy. You never know, but you can have peace politically. Boy, who knows, you know, or even just think of in your church, what could happen in your church this year? God could bring your church through a trial, but to have peace in 2026. So he says, let the peace of God rule in your hearts.

Janna Shoultz: It reminds me of the song we sang the other day. God gives me peace in the midst of this.

Judson Faith: Yeah, even in the middle, yeah.

Janna Shoultz: But it’s not, you know, it’s not God gives you peace when everything’s going great. The emphasis of the song was when you’re in the midst of the storm, God can give you peace.

Judson Faith: Yeah, exactly. And that’s a faith step a lot of times, too. Say, there’s not reason to have peace, but I have peace in my heart. And he says at the end of the verse, and be thankful. Obviously, this is the same as in if it’s a good time, if it’s a bad time, be thankful all the time. But here’s what I think is this is really the key to walking by faith. Verse 16, he says, let the word of Christ dwell in your heart richly in all wisdom. And I think as Christians going into 2026, could we say New Year’s resolution may be a step of faith? It’s got to come from the word of Christ dwelling in our hearts. Because those promises are what we base our faith on. And like we talked about at the beginning, if you don’t know what you’re basing your faith on, you’re going to be less likely to obey it. But if the word of Christ is dwelling richly, I mean, you look back at verse 15. If you have promises from God that he tells you, I’ll never leave you nor forsake you. It’s a lot easier to have peace. And that’s why he says, let the peace of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom. The word of Christ. But this is, I think is interesting too. He says, teaching and admonishing one another. So the word that’s doing in you, it’s influencing others in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And walking by faith is as simple as getting a hold of a promise from God, believing it, and letting that change your life. Thinking about some of those promises, like we just mentioned, I’ll never leave thee nor forsake thee. Even in the simplest times to say, I have God’s presence right here with me. That’ll give you courage when you’re giving the gospel to somebody. That’ll give you boldness when you need to stand up and speak out against something that’s wrong. Anything else you can think of? Just even scenarios?

Janna Shoultz: I was thinking just the Proverbs where it talks about trust in the Lord with all your heart. And lean not to your own understanding in all your ways. Acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. I know some of you guys might be looking at the next year and not exactly sure what your path is going to look like. Maybe you’re coming to the end of high school and you’re wondering, where am I going to go to college? Or maybe you’re graduated and just praying about your next step. But I know in those waiting periods in life, it can be easy to get really anxious and definitely not have peace. But I was thinking about that promise, just that if you trust in the Lord, he will direct your path. So even just claiming that verse, if you’re going through something like that.

Judson Faith: Yeah, that’s good. So I think there’s three areas where we can get a hold of the promises of God and apply them. I think the first one is victory over temptation. And this is something that I’ve seen a lot. I worked with the guys in the youth group. I think I told you this, but I didn’t show you. I made a similar to the battle plan, which is on the D generation website, all those verses. I took a bunch of verses on purity for our guys, wrote them out on a little bookmark and then put like a machine gun behind it. Cause I told the guys, I said, those verses are the ammo in your gun. If your gun’s not loaded, you can’t fire. I said, in temptation, you need those. I understand this is a girl’s podcast. So you probably don’t need a bookmark with a gun on it. But the point is those promises are what those guys need in temptation. That’s what we all need. And the promises of God, believing those promises are what give you victory over temptation. Okay, so I got to read this. I didn’t tell you this, but I had a guy text me in our youth group and he just texted me a couple hours ago and he says, can you pray for me? I’m facing some temptation. So I stopped. We were working in the kitchen. I paused for just a second and just cried out to the Lord that God would give him victory. This is what he said. He said, triumph over temptation is exactly what I need to build my faith. And it’s so true. And for him right now, he’s looking to take a faith step. There’s some things that God’s working in his life about, and he needs that. And he said that unprompted. I thought that was really interesting, but it’s really true. And I know for him, he’s got some verses he claims. And I don’t know what the temptation was. It could have been something simple, but that’s a big step for him. And this verse is important. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly on wisdom. If the word of Christ isn’t dwelling in you, you don’t have those promises to base your faith on. So when you’re in temptation, you’re scrambling and there’s nothing that you’re meditating on. There’s nothing in your heart. Then you’re not going to be as successful facing that temptation. The word of Christ isn’t doing it. That’s your power. And I think that for 2026, if we could get some promises to claim over temptation, God will give us the victory based upon his word.

Janna Shoultz: And his word will never return void.

Judson Faith: Exactly.

Janna Shoultz: It’s not going to be. I was thinking about that the other day, reading the Bible is never a waste of time. It’s never going to.

Judson Faith: Yeah, that’s good. It’s interesting, too, because I think sometimes, you know, obviously it’s good to memorize, good to meditate. But I think God can put a verse in your mind. I mean, the Holy Spirit dwells in us and he can do that. And I think I had that happen one time where it wasn’t even a verse that I had memorized, but I was praying about something and God put the verse in my mind. And it actually really helped me in that moment. I think a second thing, though, that the word of Christ and believing his promises are really important is believing who you are in Christ. And I think that’s so important. Back in chapter two, he says in verse nine, for in him, talking about Jesus, dwell with all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So in Jesus Christ is all of God, not part, not some, but Jesus is God, all of him. And then he says in verse 10, and ye are complete in him. So if I’m complete in Christ and Christ is complete in God, I don’t lack anything, which is fascinating. If you think about it, God doesn’t lack anything. Jesus doesn’t lack anything and I’m complete in him. And I think what’s so important, especially for young people to understand is you are complete in Christ. And so the walk of faith that Jesus has called you to is about living out who God says you already are. You are forgiven if you’re saved. You’re accepted in him. He has given you a calling. So he just wants you by faith to live out what he’s already called you to be.

Janna Shoultz: And I think it can be easy to look at other Christians and be like, oh, well, they have something that I don’t have, you know. But in reality, us as Christians, we all have it. It’s just whether you’re accessing it.

Judson Faith: Exactly. Exactly.

Janna Shoultz: The Holy Spirit lives. And we have on our teen, the teen room.

Judson Faith: Yeah.

Janna Shoultz: Wall. It’s a big, I want to say footprint. That’s not it. Fingerprint.

Judson Faith: Thumbprint, kind of.

Janna Shoultz: And then the kids wrote I am statements all over the wall. But in order to put an I am statement, they have to put a verse. So like I am forgiven and averse or I’m fearless and averse. So I have a girl in the youth group that she’s made her own personal sheet of that just in her journal of I am this, I am this, who she is in Christ. And even during moments of temptation there, she’ll go back and look at those I am statements because there’s such power in who you already are in Christ. Not something new that’s going to come zap you, but realizing how you stand right now before God and before who you are.

Judson Faith: And again, if you don’t know those promises, you can’t claim them. But sometimes we come to those crises in our life where either a lie comes to us because we’re believing something we shouldn’t. Somebody says something and we begin to believe, maybe I’m not who Jesus says I am. And if the word of Christ is not dwelling in us richly, we’re going to be tempted to believe the lie. But if his word is in us, if we’re meditating on his word, if we read in his word that morning, we can claim that promise. And based on that promise, believe it and take a step of faith. one more thing I think is important if the word of Christ is dwelling in you you will be able to understand day by day even step by step throughout the day what God’s will is for your life and I think that’s one of the biggest questions people have man what is God’s will for my life well you know what God’s will for your life is is to know God and when you know God he will make his way really clear but God will never show you his will without using His Word. And I think that’s really important too. God always uses His Word to show you His will. And I was preparing for Sunday school and I was reading the book Experiencing God, which is really practical, just helping people understand how to get to know God and how to understand God’s will. And the particular section I was reading, He was really emphasizing that aspect of God’s plan is bigger than your plan. So get on the same page as God. Let me just read a quote from this book because I thought it was really good. He says, why don’t we realize that doing things God’s way is always best? We cause a great deal of pain in our relationships and division in our churches because we act the way Moses did in his youthful zeal. He’s given an illustration of Moses trying to take God’s call on his life into his own hands. We decide that we think is best for our family or business or church. We develop our plans. We implement our strategies, at times imposing them on others and then experiencing the meager or even destructive results of our limited knowledge, reasoning, or power. Oh, that we would discover the difference when we acknowledge Christ as head of His body, the church. He will accomplish more in six months through a people yielded to Him than we could in 60 years in our own strength and wisdom. That’s so true. again he’s given an illustration of Moses right before he had to leave Egypt he was trying to try to take God’s will for his life into his own hands he killed an Egyptian and then he had to leave for 40 years before God finally called him back to free Israel out of Egypt because Moses had an idea of what maybe God could do with his life but he wasn’t quite in line with what God had for him and obviously God’s plan was way bigger he ended up leaving leading Israel out of Egypt But for us today, if we don’t understand the heart of God through the word of God, we could miss the will of God. And so what Paul tells us.

Janna Shoultz: I should put that on a plaque.

Judson Faith: Yeah, wow, that was pretty good. Yeah, honestly. What did I say? If we don’t know the heart of God through the word of God, we might miss the will of God. Yeah, that’s good.

Janna Shoultz: You heard it first here.

Judson Faith: That’s what verse 16 is saying. He says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Let God’s word be your source of everything. Let God’s word direct you day by day. Let those promises of God that you learn to trust by faith give you the momentum to walk and live a life of faith. You’ll know his will. You’ll be assured in who he says you are. And it will give you victory over temptation. I think that’s the key to 2026. I was thinking about this year. There’s things I want to do this year. There’s things I want to get done. I didn’t really write down any specific New Year’s resolutions, but I want to take steps of faith. That’s one thing I’m burdened about. The next verse is just a promise, but even a challenge. He says, And whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. Your life should be marked by God. But it will only be marked by God if His Word is guiding you, convincing you of truth and forming the basis of all that you do. So I think that, honestly, a New Year’s resolution for a Christian is take a step of faith. Just say yes to Jesus. But it’s got to be connected to his word. Because if you follow your feeling, you’ll probably get off. Feelings will come, but God’s word is a basis for our faith. And I think that’s key for 2026. New Year’s resolution, but could we say a step of faith in 2026?

Janna Shoultz: I think that’s good. And maybe write down, even now, if something comes to your head of a step of faith that God’s leading to, you too. And I think for some, maybe you don’t have anything, but even praying and saying, God, I want to take a step of faith. I know that God will answer that prayer. I have prayed that before. Like, God, I want to grow. Would you show me how? Or all those questions you ask to go deeper with God. Or God, would you give me an impossibility I can pray through? You’re going to get one. So just pray. Pray for steps of faith and for opportunities this year. Don’t want a comfortable life. And I know we were talking about earlier in the kitchen. I think it was from experiencing God, too. But a lot of times we look for even open doors to just walk through automatically. Instead of looking to what God wants us to do, and even if that is a closed door, seeking him about it till it opens.

Judson Faith: Miraculously open.

Janna Shoultz: Yeah. Can you give those illustrations?

Judson Faith: Yeah. Well, he said in the book, he said, when the children of Israel came to the Red Sea, humanly it was a closed door. And we look at that and say, oh, yes, it was a closed door. They must have gone the wrong way. But God led him there. But the closed door actually opened up a miracle. And if you look at it, if it was me, I would have walked up and thought, oh, can’t get across, closed door. But God said, no, I’m going to do a miracle to open the door. Yeah, no, for sure. I think that story really, I never thought about it that way. But that is who God is. But you’ve got to follow his word.

Janna Shoultz: Yeah.

Judson Faith: I would say one more thing, too, is for this year, write out some verses. And I think your list could grow throughout the year, but these are my verses I’m claiming in 2026. you know the general ones are fine but like specific ones this is a verse God gave me and write down why I have a list of verses then they’re specific through things I was praying for and I just go back these are the ones I’m claiming for this but you know write down the list for 2026

Janna Shoultz: these are my verses so that the word of Christ can dwell in you richly and the I am statements if that’s something that you heard him was like you know what I don’t really know who I am in Christ even look some up and start getting a list of that for when you’re in temptation. So, well, I think we’re here at the end. So remember this year in 2026, faith doesn’t just talk, faith walks.

Judson Faith: Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Degeneration podcast. If you’re serious about living a life of total surrender and total dependence, please consider signing the Degeneration Pledge. It’s not a promise of perfection, but a declaration of direction. To join hundreds of others who have signed the commitment,