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Speaker 1: Life Audio.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to your Daily Prayer, a podcast

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Speaker 2: dedicated to helping you find the words you need to

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Speaker 2: connect with your Father in Heaven. No matter what is

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Speaker 2: going on in your life today, you can trust that

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Speaker 2: God wants to hear from you. Right after this short

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Speaker 2: word from our sponsor, you will pray through today's prayer

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Speaker 2: to stand firm when everything feels unstable. Together A Prayer

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Speaker 2: to Stand firm when Everything feels unstable, written by Rachel Bojo.

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Speaker 1: Read by Carrie Anker.

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Speaker 2: Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between

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Speaker 2: miss bat and Sheen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, thus

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Speaker 2: far the Lord has helped us. First to Samuel seven

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Speaker 2: verse twelve, the house was finally quiet. My daughter Taylor,

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Speaker 2: aged four at the time, had fallen asleep after a

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Speaker 2: long day, and my husband Matt had just left for

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Speaker 2: his night shift at the hospital. I was sitting on

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Speaker 2: the couch with Taylor's medical report spread out next to me.

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Speaker 2: I'd scanned them when they arrived. This was my moment,

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Speaker 2: and I started reading, really reading. Her doctor had listed

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Speaker 2: fifteen diagnoses she wanted to rule out. I remember thinking, Okay,

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Speaker 2: we're ruling it out.

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Speaker 1: That's good.

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Speaker 2: But then I started comparing the potential diagnosis against the

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Speaker 2: symptom list we'd been living with, and one by one,

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Speaker 2: every thing lined up. I sat there with those papers

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Speaker 2: in my lap, and the reality I'd been pushing away

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Speaker 2: crashed into me. This wasn't going to get better, This

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Speaker 2: wasn't something we could fix with the right treatment or

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Speaker 2: enough prayer. The future I'd been imagining for her wasn't

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Speaker 2: going to happen. Her diagnosis was terminal. I remember feeling

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Speaker 2: so shaky, literally, like the ground was moving.

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Speaker 1: I remember trying to think ahead. What would next year

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Speaker 1: look like?

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Speaker 2: Five years from now? How do you plan for something

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Speaker 2: like this? How do you even get up in the

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Speaker 2: morning and function when you know what's coming. My mind

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Speaker 2: kept going to places I couldn't let it go, and

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Speaker 2: I'd pull it back, and then it would go there again.

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Speaker 1: Anyway.

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Speaker 2: I don't know how long I sat there, maybe twenty minutes,

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Speaker 2: maybe an hour. While that moment was almost twenty five

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Speaker 2: years ago, I can.

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Speaker 1: Recall all the details like it was yesterday.

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Speaker 2: Recently, I was reading my Bible and read about Samuel

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Speaker 2: setting up a memorial stone after the Israelites victory. Samuel

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Speaker 2: called it an Ebenezer stone, Samuel said, thus far, the

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Speaker 2: Lord has helped us. I thought about that phrase thus far,

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Speaker 2: because when the moment of reality dropped in my heart

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Speaker 2: and I looked ahead at Taylor's terminal illness, all I

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Speaker 2: could see was terrifying. When I look back now, I

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Speaker 2: can see God's faithfulness throughout my life so clearly. My

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Speaker 2: mom's death that nearly broke me, yet God was faithful.

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Speaker 2: The financial burdens are family endured through medical bills and

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Speaker 2: high need care felt impossible. That God had provided the

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Speaker 2: grief that felt like it would never lift didn't leave.

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Speaker 2: But God's strength carried me and I grew stronger. And

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Speaker 2: here I am still breathing, still standing, not because any

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Speaker 2: of those situations had been stable, secure or fixable, but

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Speaker 2: because God had held.

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Speaker 1: Me through them.

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Speaker 2: Friend, he is our anchor when the future feels unbearable.

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Speaker 2: What if we started looking backward to remind ourselves thus far,

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Speaker 2: the Lord has helped me through everything we didn't think

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Speaker 2: we could live through.

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Speaker 1: He was there and still is.

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Speaker 2: I don't know where you are right now, and I

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Speaker 2: can't tell you the future is going to be stable.

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Speaker 2: I can't promise the ground won't keep shifting under your feet.

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Speaker 2: Jesus told us that in this world we would have trouble,

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Speaker 2: but he also told us to take heart because he

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Speaker 2: has overcome the world. Friend, when you can't look forward,

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Speaker 2: look back, look at where God has already been faithful.

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Speaker 2: Every hard season you survived, every unbearable loss, He carried

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Speaker 2: you through, every moment that the ground gave way, He

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Speaker 2: held you up anyway, Set up your Ebenezer. Remind yourself,

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Speaker 2: thus far the Lord has helped me, and the God

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Speaker 2: who's been faithful thus far is not going anywhere. Let's

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Speaker 2: pray God. I can't look ahead right now. It's too much.

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Speaker 2: If I try to think about tomorrow or next month

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Speaker 2: or next year, I can't breathe. So I'm pausing right

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Speaker 2: now to look back instead at every heart.

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Speaker 1: And I didn't think i'd survive.

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Speaker 2: Yet you were there through every loss that felt unbearable.

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Speaker 2: You held me every moment the ground gave way. I'm

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Speaker 2: so thankful that you held me up. Thus, our Lord,

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Speaker 2: you have helped me. Help me remember that when the

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Speaker 2: fear tries to pull me under, remind me of your

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Speaker 2: faithfulness when I can't see it and what's ahead, be

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Speaker 2: my firm foundation when everything else is shifting, You're the same, Yes, Dame,

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Speaker 2: today and forever, you don't change when my circumstances due.

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Speaker 2: I'm setting up my Ebenezer today, remembering thus far you've

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Speaker 2: helped me, and I'm choosing to trust you'll keep being

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Speaker 2: faithful even when I can't see how. In Jesus's name, Amen.

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Speaker 2: If you enjoyed this prayer, you'll appreciate the beautiful card

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Speaker 2: set thirty one days of Prayers for the Heart. Enjoy

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Speaker 2: and display Rachel Boja's beautiful thirty one day prayer card

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Speaker 2: collection that includes a morning prayer, a prayer for the moment,

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Speaker 2: and more.

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Speaker 1: Easily place your favorite on display.

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Speaker 2: Or transition through the set using one.

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Speaker 1: Each day for a month.

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Speaker 2: All cards securely rest in the display stand. This set

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Speaker 2: includes five x seven cards on sturdy one hundred pound

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Speaker 2: card stock, a beautiful, smooth professional print, and to hand

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Speaker 2: to craft did wooden display stand to hold all cards.

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Speaker 2: Your Daily Prayer is a production of Life Audio and

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