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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, Jennifer Slattery, and after this short word

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Speaker 1: from our sponsors, we'll dive into today's Bible verse, Genesis

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Speaker 1: thirty one two. Today's Bible verses Genesis thirty one two.

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Speaker 1: Then the Lord said to Jacob, go back to the

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Speaker 1: land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I

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Speaker 1: will be with you. What do you do when God

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Speaker 1: asks you to do something that scares you, maybe even

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Speaker 1: something that triggers intense anxiety or sorrow. Do you delay,

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Speaker 1: pretend not to hear him, or beg him to rescind

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Speaker 1: his request. Recently, I've since God asking me to do

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Speaker 1: something that feels super hard and painful and might for

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Speaker 1: some time. And initially I fought him on this out

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Speaker 1: of fear of where my obedience might take me. But

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Speaker 1: I also know enough about God's character and heart to

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Speaker 1: recognize that wherever he is taking me has to be good,

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Speaker 1: because He is good. What most gave me the courage

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Speaker 1: to move forward, however, was his promise to go with me, because,

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Speaker 1: as I've said in other episodes. With his presence comes power, peace,

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Speaker 1: and provision. We see this throughout Jacob's story. According to scripture,

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Speaker 1: he and his brother's sibling rivalry began before they took

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Speaker 1: their first breath. Their ongoing conflict grew so tense Jacob

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Speaker 1: fled to patent Aram for his life. He remained there

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Speaker 1: with relatives for twenty years, perhaps believing he'd never return home.

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Speaker 1: If you've ever experienced the pain of estrangement, you can

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Speaker 1: imagine how excruciating this must have felt for him. Adding

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Speaker 1: to his grief was the fact that his uncle and

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Speaker 1: patent Aram treated him unjustly, cheating and deceiving him the

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Speaker 1: entire time he was there. Jacob may have thought that

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Speaker 1: was how his story would end, but God was doing

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Speaker 1: more than providing for him and his growing family. He

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Speaker 1: was building Jacob's faith and teaching him to rely on

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Speaker 1: the one who, twenty years prior, had promised to remain

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Speaker 1: with him. God had been building a faith Jacob would

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Speaker 1: definitely need to cling to now. In Genesis thirty one,

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Speaker 1: when the Lord called him to return home, a journey

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Speaker 1: that would also lead him into a terrifying encounter with

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Speaker 1: his brother Esa, the one who decades prior, had been

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Speaker 1: determined to kill him. Worse, Jacob soon learned that his

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Speaker 1: brother was approaching with a four hundred man army. He

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Speaker 1: felt certain he and his clan were done for. Panicked,

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Speaker 1: he divided them into two camps, thinking, if Esa comes

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Speaker 1: and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: the danger ahead weighed heavily on his mind, but he

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Speaker 1: also carried in his heart the truth God had spoken

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Speaker 1: to him over the years, promises of his presence, verified

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Speaker 1: by the blessings he bestowed and protection he provided. And

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Speaker 1: so armed with the direct and personal word of God,

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Speaker 1: he obeyed despite his fear. The Lord made good on

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Speaker 1: his promise, kept Jacob and his family from harm, and

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Speaker 1: restored a relationship that but one day prior, had seemed

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Speaker 1: beyond repair. Actually, God did more than that. He brought

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Speaker 1: these men to a better place than they'd ever been,

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Speaker 1: from siblings in constant conflict to it seems friends. Isn't

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Speaker 1: God good? Yes? Sometimes he asked us to do some

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Speaker 1: really hard things, like he did with Jacob and is

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Speaker 1: doing with me. But he never asked us to take

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Speaker 1: one step alone. He remains with us each moment of

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Speaker 1: our journeys, and not as a token companion, but as

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Speaker 1: are all powerful, all knowing, loving, and ever faithful Lord

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Speaker 1: and King, the one who vowed to work all things

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Speaker 1: for our good and his glory, is more than capable

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Speaker 1: of bringing every one of his promises to pass. I

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Speaker 1: don't know what assignment feels most challenging for you in

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Speaker 1: this season. Maybe God is asking you to advocate for

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Speaker 1: a coworker being bullied by a toxic boss. Or perhaps

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Speaker 1: he wants you to initiate a difficult conversation with a

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Speaker 1: friend or loved one. Or maybe he's asking you to

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Speaker 1: wait in a situation in which you'd much rather rush ahead.

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Speaker 1: Those circumstances can greatly challenge our faith. We gain the

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Speaker 1: courage to obey by reflecting on God's never wavering presence

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Speaker 1: and all that comes with that. His power, guidance, provision, peace,

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Speaker 1: everything our souls need to thrive. God's assignments will never

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Speaker 1: take us where his presence won't sustain us. Let me

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Speaker 1: say that again. God's assignments will never take us where

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Speaker 1: His presence won't sustain us. The more we connect with

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Speaker 1: Christ today through prayer, silence, Bible reading and worship, the

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Speaker 1: stronger our faith for whatever glorious yet challenging assignments God

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Speaker 1: presents us with tomorrow. And so if you want to

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Speaker 1: stand strong whatever comes, prioritize your relationship with Him today.

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Speaker 1: Prayerfully ask Him to show you one simple practice, a

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Speaker 1: spiritual discipline you can engage in this week to deepen

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Speaker 1: your trust in Him, your intimacy with the one who

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Speaker 1: lovingly leads you while walking beside you. And if you're

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Speaker 1: struggling with anxiety related to whatever is standing before you

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Speaker 1: and would appreciate some tools often referred to as grounding

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Speaker 1: exercises in the mental health realm, along with some tips

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Speaker 1: on connecting with Christ in your overwhelm, I invite you

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Speaker 1: to catch last week's Faith over Fear podcast episode titled

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Speaker 1: Managing Anxiety with Christ and Practical Tools. Find it on

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Speaker 1: Life Audio or wherever you access podcast content. I also

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Speaker 1: invite you to download my free resource When Fear Strikes,

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Speaker 1: a seven day reset for anxious hearts, found on the

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Speaker 1: Freebeaus page of my website. Link in the show notes.

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Speaker 1: And now let's pray, Holy Father, we are so grateful

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Speaker 1: that we can always come to you. We can come

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Speaker 1: to you with shouts of praise. We can come to

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Speaker 1: you with desperate cries for help. We can come to

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Speaker 1: you in our pain and our anger, in our frustration.

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Speaker 1: You meet us in those spaces. We also thank you

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Speaker 1: that you are good. You are wholly, completely, always good.

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Speaker 1: Everything you do is good, and from your love. You

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Speaker 1: don't lead us into destruction. You don't lead us into despair.

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Speaker 1: You are constantly leading us to increased freedom, just as

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Speaker 1: Jesus promised. He said that he came to give us abundant, thriving,

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Speaker 1: beyond expectations life, and we believe that, We believe he

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Speaker 1: meant it when he said that he came to set

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Speaker 1: us free. Remind us of that promise when we're afraid,

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Speaker 1: when we're hesitant to obey, remind us of the contrast

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Speaker 1: he presented in John ten, verse ten, promising yes that

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Speaker 1: as we follow him, as we heed his voice, as

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Speaker 1: we yield to his will, we will experience increased freedom

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Speaker 1: and joy. And yet that also came with the warning

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Speaker 1: that the thief comes to steal, keel, and destroy. And

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Speaker 1: so we know whenever we resist your will, we are

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Speaker 1: heading toward the path that the enemy is trying to

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Speaker 1: pull us towards, towards increase death, increase dysfunction, increase despair,

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Speaker 1: increased fear and anxiety, and so we turn away from that.

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Speaker 1: We resist the devil and his schemes, and instead we

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Speaker 1: choose you. We choose faith, we choose truth, and we

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Speaker 1: choose to yield. And we also ask Holy Spirit, that

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Speaker 1: you would overpower our fear, our reluctance, overpower anything that

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Speaker 1: gets in your way, Remove anything within us that hinders

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Speaker 1: our relationship with you, our obedience to you and our

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Speaker 1: sensitivity to your voice. Increase our faith, increase our trust,

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Speaker 1: help us to grasp the depth of your love. Remind

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Speaker 1: us to pray that we would continually increasingly understand your

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Speaker 1: love for us, because it is through that love that

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Speaker 1: we experience wholeness and thriving life, and we're so grateful

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Speaker 1: for that. It is in the name of your son,

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Speaker 1: our savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray. And then Hey, listeners,

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Speaker 1: it's Kelly from the Life Audio team with a quick

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Speaker 1: favor to ask. We're working on a newsletter and honestly,

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Speaker 1: we'd rather ask you what you want than guess. There's

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Speaker 1: a two minute survey linked in the show notes. Fill

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Speaker 1: it out and shape what we make. Thanks