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Speaker 1: Hey friends, it's Kelly from Life Audio. We just launched

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Speaker 1: something new. It's called The Good Word, our free weekly

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Speaker 1: newsletter built for people who want to go a little

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Speaker 1: deeper in their faith. Thank devotionals, guided prayers, curated podcast recommendations,

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Speaker 1: and a little community all in one place. No ads,

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Speaker 1: just good content. This one means a lot to us.

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Speaker 1: We built The Good Word based on the audience survey

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Speaker 1: so many of you filled out a few months back.

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Speaker 1: You told us what you wanted and we listened. So

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Speaker 1: thank you truly for helping us shape this. Head to

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Speaker 1: the link in the show notes and join our community today.

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Speaker 1: We'd love to have you Life Audio.

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Speaker 2: Hello, thanks for listening to your Daily Bible Verse, the

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Speaker 2: podcast that examines one verse each day to learn more

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Speaker 2: about God and as well for us. I'm your host,

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Speaker 2: Carol McCracken, and after a short word from our sponsor,

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Speaker 2: will dive into today's Bible verse, Isaiah twenty sixty three.

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Speaker 2: Today's Bible verse is Isaiah twenty sixty three, which reads,

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Speaker 2: You will keep in perfect peace those who minds are

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Speaker 2: steadfast because they trust in you. Several months ago, I

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Speaker 2: attended Communicators Collective, a gathering of Christian women.

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Speaker 3: Communicators from around the country. I was genuinely excited to

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Speaker 3: be there, but that excitement lasted only until I found

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Speaker 3: my seat. Started looking around the table one by one,

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Speaker 3: I recognized the people sitting there. These were authors whose

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Speaker 3: books I'd read, speakers I listened to for years, and

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Speaker 3: communicators whose ministries reached far more people than mine. Before

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Speaker 3: anyone had introduced themselves, my mind had already started writing

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Speaker 3: the story, what are you doing here, Carol, beautiful lot

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Speaker 3: of this table? Everyone else has more to offer than

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Speaker 3: you do. Just listen and try not to sound out

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Speaker 3: of place. The interesting thing is that not one person

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Speaker 3: around the table made me feel that way. In fact,

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Speaker 3: they were warm, welcome me, and genuinely interested in getting

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Speaker 3: to dote me. Looking back, I realized the only voice

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Speaker 3: questioning whether I belonged there was my own. I've thought

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Speaker 3: about that lottit several time suits then, because I don't

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Speaker 3: think it was really about a conference table. I think

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Speaker 3: it exposed something much deeper that all of us do.

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Speaker 3: We have a tendency to believe our thoughts simply because

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Speaker 3: we thought that. We don't stop to ask whether they're true.

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Speaker 3: We don't compare them with what God has said, we

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Speaker 3: simply assume that because a thought feels convincing, it must

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Speaker 3: be an accurate description of reality. Maybe your version isn't

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Speaker 3: sitting in a room full of Christian communicators. Maybe it's

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Speaker 3: walking into a new Bible study convinced everyone else knows

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Speaker 3: more than you do. Maybe it's watching another pair and

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Speaker 3: concluding you're failing your own children. Maybe it's assuming someone

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Speaker 3: is disappointed with you because of the expression on their face,

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Speaker 3: of the tone of a text message. We create stories

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Speaker 3: in our minds, and before long we begin living as

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Speaker 3: though those stories are facts. And that's why Isaiah twenty

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Speaker 3: sixty three caught my attention in a fresh way. You

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Speaker 3: will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast

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Speaker 3: because they trust in you. We often quote that verse

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Speaker 3: when we're feeling anxious, but I think we sometimes skip

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Speaker 3: over what Isaiah is actually teaching. These words were written

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Speaker 3: into a season of uncertainty. God's people were living under

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Speaker 3: the shadow of powerful nations. Their future was anything but predictable.

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Speaker 3: Isaiah wasn't writing to people whose circumstances naturally produced peace.

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Speaker 3: He is writing to people who had every reason to

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Speaker 3: be afraid. And yet he says there's a kind of

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Speaker 3: peace that isn't determined by what's happening around us. The

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Speaker 3: Hebrew language helps us appreciate that even more. The phrase

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Speaker 3: translated perfect peace is literally shalom shalom. Hebrew often repeats

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Speaker 3: the word to intensify its meaning. Isaiah isn't simply talking

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Speaker 3: about a calm feeling. Shalom speaks of wholeness, completeness, well being,

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Speaker 3: and life is God intended it to be. By repeating

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Speaker 3: the word, Isaiah describes a peace that reaches every part

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Speaker 3: of a person's life because it's anchored in the unchanging

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Speaker 3: character of God rather than in changing circumstances. Then Isaiah

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Speaker 3: explains who experiences that piece. He says it belongs to

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Speaker 3: the one whose mind is steadfast. The Hebrew word translated

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Speaker 3: mind is yester. It refers to the inclination or framework

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Speaker 3: of the mind, the place where our thoughts naturally settle

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Speaker 3: and from where we interpret the world around us. That

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Speaker 3: was fascinating to me because Isaiah isn't talking about the

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Speaker 3: occasional insecure thought that pops into our heads. We all

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Speaker 3: had thotes. He's talking about the direction our minds. A

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Speaker 3: bitch moved when life becomes uncertain Where does your thinking

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Speaker 3: settle when you don't consciously redirect it. Does it settle

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Speaker 3: on fear or comparison or worst case scenarios, or has

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Speaker 3: it learned over time to settle on the character and

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Speaker 3: promises of God? That question sent me back to my

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Speaker 3: experience at Communicators Collective. The insecurity I felt that morning

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Speaker 3: was real. I really did wonder if I had anything

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Speaker 3: worthwhile to contribute, but feeling something, improving something or not

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Speaker 3: the same thing. My thoughts had made a claim, but

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Speaker 3: they had offered no evidence. Nobody at the table questioned

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Speaker 3: whether I belonged there. Nobody suggested I had nothing to contribute.

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Speaker 3: God had opened the door for me to be in

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Speaker 3: that room, Yet within minutes I was allowing my own

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Speaker 3: inner commentary to become louder than His providence or a

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Speaker 3: good Church word. Had I believed those thoughts without questioning them,

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Speaker 3: I might have missed conversations that encouraged me in friendships

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Speaker 3: that continue to bless me today. It reminded me that

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Speaker 3: not every thought deserves my agreement simply because it showed

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Speaker 3: up in my mind. The apostle Paul understood that struggle

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Speaker 3: as well. In Romans twelve, he tells believers that our

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Speaker 3: minds need to be renewed. Left to themselves, our thoughts

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Speaker 3: to have a tendency to drift. They replay old failures,

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Speaker 3: exaggerate present fears, and predict futures that never happen. They

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Speaker 3: often speak with great confidence while being completely disconnected from

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Speaker 3: the truth. That's why Scripture repeatedly calls us back to

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Speaker 3: God's word. His truth becomes the standard by which we

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Speaker 3: evaluate our thoughts, instead of allowing our thoughts to become

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Speaker 3: the standard by which we evaluate God's truth. Perhaps you've

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Speaker 3: been believing a story about yourself that God never wrote.

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Speaker 3: Maybe you've quietly accepted the idea that you're not capable enough,

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Speaker 3: not spiritual enough, not experienced enough, or that God can

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Speaker 3: certainly use other people but probably not you. Before you

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Speaker 3: believe that thought one more day, hold it beside Scripture

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Speaker 3: and ask whether it agrees with what God has actually said.

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Speaker 3: Isaiah reminds us that peace is not found by believing

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Speaker 3: everything we think. It's found where our minds learned to

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Speaker 3: settle on the God who has always been worthy of

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Speaker 3: our trust. That's where our thoughts finally find solid ground.

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Speaker 3: We pray with me, dear Lord, in heaven. You created us,

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Speaker 3: and you know the intricacies of our mind, and you

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Speaker 3: also see the big picture, and you see us getting

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Speaker 3: caught up in our day to day and you see

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Speaker 3: us dealing with our insecurity.

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Speaker 4: And you know that sometimes our own mind is our

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Speaker 4: worst enemy. And that's why you're there, and that's why

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Speaker 4: there's your word, Because we're not to believe our mind,

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Speaker 4: because that comes from us. We're to believe you, Lord,

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Speaker 4: and the promise that you've so generously given to us, Lord,

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Speaker 4: help us direct ourselves properly, or even to catch ourselves

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Speaker 4: when we're having an insecure thought. Lord, I personally would

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Speaker 4: have missed so very much had.

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Speaker 5: I believed my thoughts that day at the Communicators Collective. Lord,

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Speaker 5: whatever situation the listeners are facing right now that causes

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Speaker 5: them to think they are less than, lead them to you, Lord,

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Speaker 5: because you created them beautifully and wonderfully.

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Speaker 4: In your precious name, we pray Amen,