Janna Faith: Hello, this is Jana Faith.

And this is Anna Faith, and welcome to episode 39 of Faith

Anna Faith: talks.

Well, we are excited.

This is the last episode of 2024 and this year has definitely flown by.

I know for myself, I’ve been really blessed by just our theme this year of that, the trying of your faith worketh patience.

And it’s been a trying year in several ways.

And we’re excited next week, we’re going to be unveiling the theme for next year, 2025.

So we’re excited about that.

But just with the podcast today, we thought we’d just share some different lessons in 2024 that God’s taught both of us, and then just some thoughts about the woman from the Christmas story.

I know it’s a little past Christmas, but still just kind of reflecting on them and just different things they might have encountered in Jesus’s birth.

So we’ll be talking about that a little bit later.

So first of all, we’ll start just some lessons that God’s taught us in the year.

I think one huge thing for me that God’s really hammered in is just the idea, the truth that working hard and being busy in the ministry is not necessarily what pleases God.

And I think of some of you might have read the book, The Cure, where there’s the man in the allegory.

He goes down this path and it splits into two.

And one of the paths is pleasing God and one of the paths is trusting God.

And he was wondering, which way should I go?

And a lot of times it’s easy to think, oh, both are good things.

But truly, if you live a life where you’re aimed at pleasing God, it can be a lot more focused on, I’ve got to do, do, do for God.

And the trusting God path is actually harder because it’s not a passivity, but you’re trusting that God will lead you to what he wants you to do instead of trying to accomplish your own plans.

And something God’s taught me this year just practically that sometimes it’s his will for you to be homesick or taking care of your family instead of out doing something you might have wanted to do.

And really accepting God’s will for your day instead of being crushed when your agenda doesn’t happen is so key and it’s so freeing.

And for me this year, that’s been a huge thing with just being pregnant.

And, you know, sometimes I, oh, I want to go on this visit or I want to go to this youth group thing.

And I would be home throwing up instead.

And it was very easy at first to be frustrated, feeling like, okay, God, like I want to be diving into the ministry here.

Why are you making me sick?

But then just accepting, it was freeing to just accept, okay, this is the stage of life God has me in.

And it’s obviously his will.

He gave us the baby.

It’s his will for me to be pregnant.

It’s his will for me to be homesick right now.

And learning to trust God through that trial instead of being, you know, frustrated that what I thought should happen isn’t happening.

And again, this isn’t meaning we’re passive, but it’s really more of the idea of being submissive, submissive to God’s plan for your day, whatever that might be, and trusting him with that.

So that’s been something that God’s really taught me this year.

Janna Faith: I also wanted to add another angle on what Jana just shared about not being busy is not what pleases the Lord, but accepting his will for your day, even when things change.

So I’ve had a couple things change in my thoughts of what I thought should happen recently.

We were going to go back to P&G this November and our visas got denied.

So we couldn’t go, which was a huge disappointment to me because I was really excited to go back, see the people that we administered to for so many months.

And the Lord just closed that door.

And do I understand every reason why he’d close the door?

No, but the Lord has made it clear that for this point, his will is not for us to be in Papua New Guinea.

So that was a disappointment, but the Lord has taught me through that.

And then recently I had another, I was going to go on another trip to India with my dad this coming March, and that visa also was denied.

So that was a huge disappointment to me as well. but the Lord has just been teaching me that what I think of my service to him for the Lord, my service for the Lord does not equal my worth, but that he alone needs to be my worth and just knowing him.

And even if it means that I’m here back home working, doing things that may not seem glamorous or really adventurous and romantic, But things that are just simple and small, but that I just need to focus on knowing my God and spreading him to those around me.

And just realizing that the focus is not about me.

Because it’s so easy in ministry and in anything in life to so easily get focused back on yourself.

And I know that’s a constant temptation that I think we’re always going to be learning. but just knowing that my life is simply here for the Lord’s, for whatever he has for me and I can just rest in what he wants for me to do today and just trust him for the future and if things change it’s not about me anyways and what I thought but just that’s been a huge lesson that I’ve been learning very recently and just trusting that he’s going to open the doors for where he wants me to go.

But even if it’s being, um, being back home, I know in Zechariah, I was reading about not despising the little things and just, if I’m just doing little things, it seems, and maybe not big, um, world changing things that I’d like to do that I can just trust the Lord with that and seek him for today and just know my God in a deeper way in that way.

So just a little different angle on what Janice shared, but that’s a huge lesson I have learned these last couple months.

Anna Faith: Thank you.

That’s, and that’s, I feel like too, probably something everyone can relate to.

You know, there might’ve been things that you really wanted to happen this year and they happened and that’s amazing.

But there might be things you’re like, Oh, I just, I don’t, I don’t feel like anything huge happened.

Like I liked what Anna Faith said, you know, it doesn’t feel like I’m out there to having this big adventure.

And you might even compare yourself to others.

Like, Oh, it seems like they, you know, they have more, but just accepting where God has you is so key and really giving, um, giving you that joy and that contentment.

So we’ll talk about that.

Janna Faith: I wanted to add to that too, that it makes you so much more thankful for what the Lord has given to you.

Like even our whole PNG trip from this last year is like, wow, Lord, you allowed us to go.

We were able to be there.

Like what a blessing, you know, cause sometimes we can’t go.

Um, even if we physically want to go, like the Lord is closing the door, but it makes you so much thankful, so much more thankful for the doors that he has opened to.

So that’s been another lesson in that

Anna Faith: whole journey.

Totally.

And then the second lesson we were going to talk about today is just how you can trust God in specific areas when you might not see the end exactly.

And I know one thing in Judson and I’s life that we’ve been just trusting the Lord through in the past couple months is just to be able to find a home.

And some of you listening out there, you might be homeowners and understand this, but a lot goes into it and just being approved for a loan and then just looking at it financially and just a whole lot of things.

And God just absolutely blew us away with specific answers to prayer.

And sometimes it was just praying for a token for good and a random gift coming in.

Sometimes it was down to the exact number that we had and we were praying that God would give.

And exactly, I remember one night we were just talking through some stuff and got some emails and we’re doing some, and we literally realized that we had like the exact number that we needed.

And it’s just simply amazing how God provides.

And I would just say as an encouragement to you all out there, don’t be afraid to take your specific prayer request to God and see him do amazing things.

And we closed on a house last week and moved in this week.

So it’s been a little crazy, but it’s been super exciting.

And definitely a lot of times it didn’t seem like it would ever work for us.

It seemed like a, you know, darkness and like, I don’t think this is going to happen.

And we were perfectly content for it not to, but also just praying that for ministry opportunities so we could have space to have people over and do stuff with the youth group, that God would open the door, and he did.

And it was an absolute miracle just to stand back and watch God do that.

And then Anna Faith is going to talk a little bit more about just sometimes you don’t, God doesn’t give you the whole picture, but he gives you just enough light to take the next step.

Or he gives you, oh, you need to ask me for this. just ask him for it and take that step and you’ll find that he leads you to the next one.

Janna Faith: Yeah, so probably the biggest way in which I learned this lesson was through our whole P&G journey the first six months of this year.

In going there, we didn’t have our visa situation figured out.

We didn’t even have our whole itinerary figured out.

And a lot of details that in my, I guess in my thinking, we would probably should have figured out already, but that we didn’t have the answers for that point.

So we couldn’t do it yet was, so that was just a huge, huge, constant lesson of just being content to have enough light for this step that the Lord had led us to and just taking that step.

And as we took that step, then the Lord gave more light for the next one.

And I just was so blown away at the Lord’s goodness to take care of us.

Like Jan was talking about, even in the Lord’s providing financially for your house, but for us just in the journey of, you know, just spreading the gospel light over there in Papua New Guinea, the Lord was just so good to give us exactly what we needed for the step and the stage that we were in and just not give us more than than we, you know, not not five steps down the road, but just that next step.

And that taught us that constant dependent, dependent trust in in God for that step.

And I think like if we had planned it at the beginning, we would have missed so many things that the Lord gave us so many extra blessings that he gave us so many extra connections with people.

And even how he worked out us to be on Mushu Island for the time that we were there and to be in Australia and connect there.

Then we were in Fiji for the last couple of weeks and we hadn’t planned that at all.

And the Lord opened the door for us to be there.

And Lord willing, I’m going to be going back there in a couple of months.

And so just to see the Lord’s goodness in directing us to exactly where we needed to be at the right moment. but helping us to trust him for that, for those next steps, even though we couldn’t see them right away.

And even being back home since our trip has, I’ve seen that happen a lot, just with so many different things.

But the Lord is so good to give us exactly what we need, the light that we need for where we’re at.

And I think for me, my personality is I like to know the big picture.

I want to know the end.

Like, what’s it going to be?

But the Lord is so good to just give us enough light for us to be able to completely depend on him for the future and everything.

And then as he unfolds his beautiful journey that he has us on and he unfolds some of the end things, we get to see so much more of who God is than we would have if we had known the big picture at the beginning.

And that journey of faith, of trusting him, is just so much more precious because we chose to trust God when we could not see.

So that was a huge, huge lesson

Anna Faith: that we learned while we were over there and being back as well.

Then the third thing, just a lesson that God’s taught both of us this year, is just that there are people who are searching for the truth around you and it doesn’t matter where you are.

Antifaith was in a lot of different places this past year and I was in I guess mainly too Wisconsin and then down here in Indiana but I know for myself it was a little hard to leave Wisconsin just leaving just different discipleships and different people you’ve worked with for years and then you kind of start over when you move to a new place and we’re not really in the city you know we’re in the small farming town of Martinsville and um sometimes it’s it’s harder you know to build new connections and just God has really been good this year to just show um show us people who are open and teens who are ready to be saved and families who need to be discipled and um that was something I was even just praying about a is that the Lord would just really lead us to people that are open.

And one of the things Pastor asked us to pray about, even when we came, is just that people would be reached in the town of Martinsville who don’t know the Lord, but also that those who do but are, you know, fallen away, that God would also lead us to them to be able to disciple them.

And one family that we’ve been recently visiting every couple weeks, last night we got to do our first discipleship Bible study with their family, and that was really just special.

We ended up doing a lesson from the encounter on the thief on the cross, and it was really neat.

A couple weeks ago we heard the mom’s testimony, but both parents have come out of years and years of addiction and even homelessness and now are stable.

And when the mom really met the Lord in prison when she came to the end, and that’s where she got saved.

And they’re very broken people, but they’re also healing.

And it’s been really neat to see how they were taking steps to follow the Lord even before we met him.

And to see how they were reading different parts of their Bible and praying and asking God to show them. and then just to see how God led us to them was really neat.

And they have a teenage daughter who they actually just got back because she was in the foster care system.

And just one thing stood out to me last night.

We were doing this Bible study.

We were just having the greatest time discovering what God has and asking questions just from the Bible.

And the dad just said, you know, no one’s ever done this with us before.

And the mom’s like, you know, yeah, we’ve never really had anybody over.

And like, we’ve never studied the Bible with anybody.

And they like, we’ve been searching and we talked to God, but we’ve never had anybody to show us anything.

And one of them was like, I, you know, we think that God sent you, you all to us.

And I definitely think that’s the case.

God knows where each and every one of us are. and he sends us to people and brings people across our path.

And so I’d encourage you, maybe you’re out there listening and you’re like, I don’t know if there’s people in my area who are searching or I, you know, there are, but I don’t know who they are.

That’s a prayer that I love to pray and I’ve prayed multiple times in my life.

Just, Lord, would you bring me to the people that are searching and the people that are open and then have your eyes open when you’re out there to be looking for the opportunities because God is working where you are.

Wherever you live, he’s working.

And so to ask him, God, would you show me where you’re working?

I know that in the book Experiencing God, if you haven’t read that book, do you remember the author, Anna Faith?

Janna Faith: I’m drawing a blank right now.

I can’t remember.

Is it?

No, I don’t remember.

Sorry about that.

Anna Faith: Well, maybe I’ll look it up.

Experiencing God, that’s one of the big things they talk about is just that God is at work and finding where God is at work and being a part of that is so key.

So anyway, that’s the third and final lesson.

We’re just going to talk about that because that’s been a huge thing God’s even showed me in the past couple of months.

It doesn’t matter what state you’re in.

There’s people.

There’s people that God wants you to be a light to.

Janna Faith: That’s really good.

I wanted to add to that that so there’s people everywhere and God has us right where we’re supposed to be.

But I know even on the mission field, there are people searching for truth and they’re only going to find the truth if somebody with the truth goes to tell them.

And we found that to be very true as we were in Papua New Guinea.

We went to Hungary this year.

My parents are going to Cameroon.

Like everywhere you go, there’s people searching for truth and somebody has to go to tell them.

And that’s a huge thing that I’ve just been thinking about.

Like, wow, there’s places, I mean, still there’s unreached people groups still that don’t know the truth and don’t know Jesus and want to, but they don’t have anyone to tell them.

And so maybe the Lord’s working in your heart and just giving you a deeper heart for those unreached people.

And maybe the Lord wants to send some girls, young girls listening to this episode of Faith Talks and he wants to send you and you can go be that light to people across the seas and over in different parts of the world.

But I also wanted to, a story came to mind, a recent testimony came to my mind of a pastor friend that I know.

And he recently had a, one of the, one of the members in his church, she had been through some trauma in years past.

Well, his neighbor that he had been trying to reach out to, I think it’s his neighbor.

She had been through some recent trauma. they were able to connect the two of the lady in his church and this lady that he was trying to reach out to and because of the trauma that the member in his church had been through she was able to share that with this girl and and then give her the gospel the girl got saved and I think she got baptized recently and just I think it was just so neat to hear personally just a direct testimony of just somebody who had been through something that was so hard, but here she found somebody else who needed her in that moment, but then obviously needed Jesus.

And she was able to share that.

And because the Lord worked it out, he worked it all for good in that specific situation.

And I think that’s another, just another application is that the Lord wants to use us with whatever brokenness we may feel we have, he can use it for good and even connecting us to the unsaved around

Anna Faith: us.

So another lesson there.

I think that’s, we even saw that this year with those who gave testimonies on faith talks about their trials.

I know the Lord worked in my heart, even just hearing those testimonies.

And I’m sure many of you were blessed by that.

And just to show how God can take those trials and if you allow him he can lead you to other people who are going through the same thing um I did look up that book so it’s by Henry Richard and Mike Blackaby

Janna Faith: you know I was thinking it was something about black I actually I actually did think Henry Blackaby but I didn’t say it because I thought it was another book I think that our now I know

Anna Faith: our Greek book in college is isn’t that by Black?

I think Ellen Black.

I think.

Yeah.

Anyways.

Okay.

There you go.

Okay.

So if you were interested in that and the subtitle is okay.

Experiencing God knowing and doing the will of God.

And it’s, it’s really a life-changing book if you haven’t read that one.

Okay.

That’s that promo done with that.

Okay.

We’re just going to talk quickly about the two women from the Christmas story, Mary, and then Anna Faith’s going to talk about Anna.

Just how, just some different thoughts about what they went through.

So first, just thinking about Mary.

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot.

Just thinking of the Christmas story and then also being pregnant.

Think of Mary’s journey on that Christmas.

She was bumping along on a donkey, I imagine she was probably cold, probably sick.

I know my mother-in-law said probably she threw up a couple times on her way to Bethlehem.

And, you know, obviously she was in a lot of pain because she was in labor.

And honestly, as a mom, she was probably nervous about where would she give birth.

You know, probably her ideal birth plan was to be at home in a clean environment with midwives that she could trust and people she knew, her family, but it was a sacrifice for her to go, you know, somewhere she’d never been for Christmas.

And maybe when she realized she was going to give birth in a stable, she was disappointed.

Maybe she was grossed out, but she had to accept with humility that this was God’s plan for her life and for God’s plan for his birth of the Messiah.

And, you know, it’s just interesting to see how Jesus chose to do things.

Jesus chose to be birthed in a dirty environment.

He, in a really probably lowest birth that any baby in Bethlehem had ever had.

And then also just to see how he died.

He died in utter humility, dying the worst death anyone could die.

And he’s just such the picture of humility.

And Jesus didn’t want the comfort or the ease, but he came instead to save the lowest of sinners.

And I was just thinking about Mary and how she had to make choices that, you know, her Christmas didn’t probably go as she had planned.

And I was thinking about that for us.

You know, maybe you think back to your Christmas a couple days ago, and it didn’t quite go as you planned.

Maybe it wasn’t as fancy or as big as you wanted it to.

Maybe people didn’t treat you how you thought you should be treated.

I know with a lot of family gatherings, that can be hard.

But before you get discouraged about it, think about Mary.

Think about Jesus.

You know, Mary’s Christmas didn’t go as she planned.

It wasn’t the birth plan that she had planned.

And think about how the people treated her.

You know, Judson was saying the other day, I can’t imagine a lady showing up in labor and people in the inn or the innkeeper saying, you know, go away.

There’s no room for you here.

You’d think they’d make some exception.

But then thinking through, because of what she went through, you know, a Savior was born to the world, even in that spot of humility of the stable.

And so just being content with what you have is a great lesson, especially after Christmas.

And where your life is at, just two verses I’ll share.

Luke 14, for whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

And just seeing how Jesus and really Mary, just both of them, continually humbled themselves throughout their lives, but they are some of the most exalted.

You know, obviously Jesus is exalted in heaven, but even Mary for what she went through.

And so humility, don’t underestimate humility and what God wants to do even through that in your life.

Then the second verse is Philippians 4, 11 and 12.

And this is Paul as he’s in prison.

Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.

And I know my mom used to quote this a lot growing up, just whatever state we’re in.

Now, he was obviously talking about being in the state of imprisonment, but just to be content.

And then verse 12, I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things.

I’m instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

So just being content as this year reaches a close, content with where God’s put you and content with what God’s given you.

Janna Faith: That’s really good.

Now I wanted to turn our attention to the second woman of faith that we see in the story of Jesus’ birth.

And that would be the woman, Anna.

And I have a special connection with Anna, obviously, because my first name comes from her.

And so I have at different points just studied who Anna was, just even as just a little, as someone that I want to aspire to be, even thinking of my name and just how the Lord has directed my life.

But we recently were studying Anna and just some themes of her worship to the Lord was just a huge encouragement to me.

And even thinking to Jana with what you shared about Mary and her humility, I think Anna also evidenced much humility in her daily life.

It says here that she was a widow, but she departed not from the temple, served and served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

And I was, I’m just so blown away by that.

And even thinking of how old she was, just her humility to give of herself, even physically to fast and to pray in that way night and day.

I mean, I don’t know exactly what it’s saying, how much that was, but obviously it’s saying that it was all the time.

Um, and there’s so, so often I can think like, Oh Lord, I’m not at the physical point.

Like I’m not strong enough to fast or, you know, you think about that in different, in different ways, but just looking at Anna, as an older lady, she was just giving of her body out of worship to her God.

And that’s just a huge challenge to each one of us.

And I think it’s just so neat.

My dad was sharing another day about Anna that she doesn’t really necessarily, like, the Lord could have been born and her little part in the story would not have mattered really, you know, but because of her worship to the Lord and then just her bold declaration of Jesus to those in Jerusalem, the Lord chose to put, to include her in this story and her life of faith and worship to God is just a huge encouragement and challenge to each one of us.

And so I’ve just been so challenged by Anna’s worship through just her daily life, through her prayer night and day, and just how serious she took the things of the Lord.

And so often we worship the Lord on Sunday and then we go through the rest of our week not even thinking of him.

And here’s Anna just constantly thinking of the Lord and praying without ceasing.

And also just thinking of 38 says, she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

And even thinking of her Thanksgiving, and we were talking about in our little group that Thanksgiving is a huge, huge declaration that you are walking with God and that you were living a life of faith because if you’re not trusting God for things, you’re not going to be thanking him for them.

And just thinking of Anna’s life of prayer and thanksgiving to the Lord and just how that showed her deep trust and her walk of faith in her God is a challenge to each one of us.

And I think Anna also just really showed that she was living Romans and two, that she was a living sacrifice and that she wasn’t here for herself.

And humanly speaking, she didn’t have a whole lot of things.

You know, her husband had passed.

It doesn’t say that she had any children.

And she could have, you know, just sat and been sad that, you know, all the good days are past.

But instead, she’s here giving of her life in the temple.

And the Lord gave her such joy and peace in that.

And here she is able to see the birth of her Messiah that they had all been waiting for for so long.

And I just, I can imagine how Anna must have felt to know that Jesus was coming and that her Messiah had been born.

So I think Anna’s testimony and her just her lifestyle of worship and prayer and fasting in her daily life is such a challenge to each one of us. and I know I’m not at that point like I don’t think I would have a verse that I was in the temple praying and fasting and all night and day not not anywhere even close to that and so I know it’s a challenge to me to truly really just look at my life even thinking of the next year coming up and look at my life and say how much am I really evidencing my love for the Lord in my daily walk and just worshiping the Lord through my choices and just putting God first in my life and not putting myself first.

And like we were talking about even earlier with the lessons, it’s so easy to just focus on yourself and yourself become the center of your life and not the Lord.

So I know that’s a huge challenge in thinking of the story of Jesus, the birth of our Messiah, And just these women of faith, these women who evidenced much humility through their choices and who worship their Lord through hard things.

Thinking of Mary, like Jana was sharing, and I liked how you just depicted what Mary would have been going through.

I haven’t thought about some of that.

But Mary and Anna and two women in totally, completely different life stages, but how they evidenced much worship through their life and how they simply were humbly proclaiming their Lord.

So as we consider this next year and even look back on Christmas and still thinking of the themes of Christmas, I encourage each one of you to think about these women, think about what the Lord has done in your life, and really commit the next year to live a deeper evidence of your love for the Lord, and make specific decisions that you’re going to spend more time either in prayer, or if you’re like Jana, maybe you’re a mom that’s about to go through birth, just getting to know God deeper, even through trials.

So I encourage you, whatever stage you’re in, that you would just choose to humbly worship your Lord in whatever way that He’s leading you to.

Remember, faith doesn’t just talk, faith walks.

Guest Speaker: Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Thee Generation Podcast.

If you have an issue you need help with, we have a resource that can help you.

The Battle Plan for Victory is an online resource designed to help young people deal with personal sin issues through the Word of God and ultimately to find victory in the Lord Jesus Christ.

To view the Battle Plan, please visit thegeneration.org slash victory.