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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hello, thank you for listening to your Daily

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Speaker 1: Bible Verse, the podcast that examines one verse each day

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Speaker 1: to learn more about God and his will for us.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, joy A Williams, and after this short

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Speaker 1: word from our sponsor, we'll dive into today's Bible verse.

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Speaker 1: Second Corinthians, chapter six, verse ten. Today's Bible verse comes

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Speaker 1: from Second Corinthians, chapter six, verse ten. It's a declaration

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Speaker 1: made by the apostle Paul as he encouraged the Corinthian Church,

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Speaker 1: and the verse tells us that he was sorrowful, yet

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Speaker 1: always rejoicing, poor yet making many rich, having nothing and

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Speaker 1: yet possessing everything. Well. Decades ago, when I was in college,

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Speaker 1: I set across the table from a college ministry worker.

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Speaker 1: She offered me hope in two words, abundant life. She

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Speaker 1: was referencing the scripture in John chapter ten, verse ten,

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Speaker 1: where Jesus declares and he certainly is the source of

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Speaker 1: abundant life. And as she led me through the scriptures,

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Speaker 1: I think I oversimplified what it meant to follow Jesus

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Speaker 1: and won't by faith, because surely He is worthy of

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Speaker 1: every step of faith we take, in every act of

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Speaker 1: obedience that we complete but I didn't know there would

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Speaker 1: be varying degrees of tension if I walk down my faith.

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Speaker 1: For example, when a loved one died, I felt greed

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Speaker 1: that felt unbearable. In times of financial distress, I've been

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Speaker 1: frustrated about how to turn things around. In some seasons,

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Speaker 1: I felt like life was falling apart instead of coming

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Speaker 1: together in the ways I felt hoped, and yes even

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Speaker 1: prayed that it would now. The Apostle Paul may have

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Speaker 1: had his own share of tensions, because in Second Corinthians

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Speaker 1: chapter six, he gives us a list of his hardships.

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Speaker 1: He often lists the contrast of how he was viewed

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Speaker 1: in the world or what he encountered in the world,

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Speaker 1: and how he is singing by God and what he

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Speaker 1: has in Christ. Well. The New Living Translation of Today's

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Speaker 1: Bible verse puts it this way. Our hearts ache, but

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Speaker 1: we always have joy. We are poor, but we give

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Speaker 1: spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we

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Speaker 1: have every thing now. That same day, many years ago,

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Speaker 1: as I spoke to the campus ministry worker, I recommitted

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Speaker 1: my life to Christ. But it would take me a

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Speaker 1: few more years, along with a few setbacks and heartaches,

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Speaker 1: to know more about living the abundant life Christ ofthors Well.

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Speaker 1: I believe Paul sought to help the Corinthian Church understand

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Speaker 1: that to endure the hardships of this life, we have

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Speaker 1: to look through the lens of what we have through Christ.

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Speaker 1: And in today's verse, Paul mentioned a paradox surrounding three

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Speaker 1: common distresses our heartaches, our headaches, and our soul aches. Now,

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Speaker 1: a paradox is defined as a situation, person, or thing

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Speaker 1: that combines contradictory features or qualities. As so, dear listener,

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Speaker 1: if you're experiencing the distress of a headache, heartache or

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Speaker 1: so late today, and I'm not meaning a headache like

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Speaker 1: as in pain in your mind, your brain, and you

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Speaker 1: can certainly have those kinds of headaches, But this is

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Speaker 1: more of a reference to the anxieties and the worries

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Speaker 1: that we might have in life. But if we're dealing

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Speaker 1: with the heartache, the abundant life acknowledges life sorrows while

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Speaker 1: keeping us mindful of eternal joy. If we're dealing with

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Speaker 1: the headache, the abundant life acknowledges what we lack while

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Speaker 1: affirming the wealth of our faith. And if we're dealing

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Speaker 1: with a soul ache. The abundant life acknowledges every empty

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Speaker 1: and wounded place in the soul while offering us the

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Speaker 1: fullness of God in Christ. So, yes, there can be

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Speaker 1: tension in living with our life experiences until we experience

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Speaker 1: the reality of our faith. And so in a adition

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Speaker 1: to prayer and reading scripture. For me, talking with a

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Speaker 1: fellow Christian and asking others for prayer helps to ease

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Speaker 1: the tension or provides me with greater clarity. Because God

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Speaker 1: has not called us to what we can do on

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Speaker 1: our own or bear on our own. He has called

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Speaker 1: us to be in relationship with Him and to live

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Speaker 1: in community with other believers. And yet, even when our

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Speaker 1: life doesn't seem to line up with our measure of faith,

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Speaker 1: God is still faithful. He faithfully keeps his promises to

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Speaker 1: comfort us with His love and help us to grow

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Speaker 1: in His grace. Well, I'm sure the ministry worker mentioned

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Speaker 1: something like that to me all those many years ago,

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Speaker 1: but I had yet to learn, and I'm still learning

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Speaker 1: how abundantly faithful God is. And if that's you too, today,

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Speaker 1: join me in this prayer. Dear God, thank you for

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Speaker 1: your grace in the tender and the tense moments of

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Speaker 1: our lives. When there is a stark contrast between what

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Speaker 1: we feel and our faith, help us to grab hold

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Speaker 1: of christ redemption. Because of Jesus, even when our hearts ache,

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Speaker 1: we can still have joy regardless of our financial situation.

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Speaker 1: We can give spiritual riches to others, but in reality,

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Speaker 1: we own nothing. It all belongs to You, Lord, and

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Speaker 1: thankfully we belong to you too. May that truth ease

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Speaker 1: any tension in our hearts today in Jesus' name, Amen,