Feb. 12, 2024

A Perfect Match: Our Heavenly Love Story

A Perfect Match: Our Heavenly Love Story
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Her God Story with Jodie Chiricosta

 

You are loved! And it is not an ordinary kind of love.  You are loved, by Love incarnate!  It is hard to comprehend a love like God’s.  It is so much better than any love we will ever encounter from anyone else.  As part of the Bride of Christ, He wants you to know the depth and breadth of His love more each day. Knowledge of that love shatters all the lies of Satan.  Listen as Jodie explores various aspects of God’s amazing love.  You will gain a greater understanding of how HIs love is a perfect match for you!  

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Want to help Widows and Orphans? Join our growing company of women meeting special needs of parentless children and nurturing their unique gifts so they can be ALL God has in mind for them!  And help meet real needs of women who have given a lifetime of service to God! Support the Somebody Cares Widows and Orphan fund today!  

 

Transcript

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Hey friends, welcome to the Her God Story podcast where you will always hear a good

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story to encourage and inspire you in your walk with the Lord.

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I'm your host, Jodie Chiricosta, ministry leader at Somebody Cares America International, author

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and traveler on this journey of faith.

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If you haven't done so yet, make sure to like or follow this podcast on your favorite streaming

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platform so you don't miss any of our encouraging episodes.

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I'm sending out a special thanks to all of you who have joined our growing company of

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those supporting our Widow and Orphan Fund.

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Together, we are building an indoor bathroom and shower facility for a girls' home in

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Kenya.

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These precious girls have only had access to outdoor showers and outhouses, which at

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night in rural Kenya can be very dangerous.

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The girls are so excited about having an indoor bathroom.

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I'll share more about it once it's completed, but please, please be praying that all goes

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well and there are no delays.

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If you have not joined us yet, we'd welcome the help.

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There are many special needs that we as a company of women and men can meet together.

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Will you consider joining us with a special gift to help?

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Just go to hergodstory.org and click on the Widow and Orphan tab at the top of the page.

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There's a song from the 70s by John Paul Young called Love is in the Air.

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Some of the lyrics go, Love is in the air in the whisper of the trees, Love is in the

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air in the thunder of the sea.

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Love is in the air in the rising of the sun.

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Love is in the air when the day is nearly done.

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Love is in the air everywhere I look around.

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Love is in the air every sight and every sound.

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The apostle Paul probably felt the same way.

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In Romans 8, 38, and 39 in the New Living Translation, he says, I am convinced that

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nothing can ever separate us from God's love.

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Neither death nor life nor angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries

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about tomorrow, not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.

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No power in the sky above or in the earth below.

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And nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is

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revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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I know God loves me.

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I hope you do too.

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But our flawed experience with love, even with those who love amazingly well, cannot

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compare to the perfect love that God has for us and showers on us.

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You see, we are loved by love incarnate.

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In fact, if you have confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised

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him from the dead, you have become a child of God and are part of the bride of Christ.

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Revelations 19 tells us that Jesus will marry his bride when he returns to the earth at

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the end of the age.

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And in John 14, two and three, Jesus said he is going to prepare a place for us and

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that he will come back to take us to be with him.

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And that will be for eternity.

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In the meantime, we're here on earth preparing ourselves to be his bride.

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Revelation 19, seven and eight says, Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory for

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the wedding of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.

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Fine linen, bright and clean, was given to her.

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Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God's holy people.

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While we his bride are here waiting for his return, we must also be on guard against the

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enemy of our souls.

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Revelation will try to convince us that we are abandoned, unworthy, even unloved.

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But this is, of course, a lie.

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The devil will try to isolate us from one another because we are created to be united

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with other believers as the bride of Christ.

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You see, God created us to live in relationship with himself and other believers.

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He's the one who formed us.

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He knows us better than we know ourselves.

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He knows that we are a perfect fit for him as part of his bride.

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And when we are in unity with other believers, we experience the fullness of his love.

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It's hard to comprehend a love like God's.

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It's so much better than any love we will ever encounter from anyone else.

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The apostle Paul knew this too.

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In fact, he prayed for other believers to understand this love more fully.

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Ephesians 3, 16 through 18, he writes, I pray that from God's glorious, unlimited resources,

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he will empower you with inner strength through his spirit, then Christ will make his home

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in your hearts as you trust in him.

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Your roots will grow down deep into God's love and keep you strong.

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And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how

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long, how high, and how deep his love is.

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When we're rooted in God's love, we're strong.

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Even once in a while, a new aspect of the depth and breadth of God's love dawns on

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me.

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And I'm always overwhelmed by it.

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That happened to me recently when I was having my devotions.

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I was confessing a wrong attitude to him yet again, feeling like a failure for not getting

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it right for the umpteenth time.

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And his gentle voice in my spirit said, love keeps no record of wrongs.

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You may recognize that from 1 Corinthians 13.

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I was astonished that I had never recognized that God's love works like that for me.

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When I come to him in contrition and repentance, he remembers it no more.

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He does not keep count of how many times I fail in the same area, for love keeps no record

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of wrongs.

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And he is love.

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He not only loves, but he is love.

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Isaiah 59.2 explains, of course, that our sin separates us from God.

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But 1 John 1.9 assures us that when we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive

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us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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Now I've heard and read 1 Corinthians 13 many times, but always in the context of how

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I should be loving, how I should be behaving, which of course I should.

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But that day I realized that is how God loves me.

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Because God is love, which we know from 1 John 4.8, the description of love that we

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find in 1 Corinthians 13, 4 through 8, is how God loves me, how God loves you.

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When I read through that passage as a description of how God loves me, it's startling.

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It shatters all the lies Satan tells us about God.

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So let's do that.

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I'm using the New Living Translation, but any translation will do.

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Love is patient.

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Love is kind.

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It does not envy.

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It does not boast.

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It is not proud.

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It does not dishonor others.

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It is not self-seeking.

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It is not easily angered.

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It keeps no record of wrongs.

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Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

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It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

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Love never fails.

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Now let's personalize it.

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God is patient with me.

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God is patient with you.

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I often use the Bible Hub app to see the fuller meaning of words in the Bible.

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And the Greek word used for patience is macrofemaeo, if I didn't pronounce it right, forgive me.

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But the fuller meaning of that Greek word includes refusing to retaliate with anger,

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deferring anger for a long time.

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And since 2 Peter 3, 8 says with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand

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years are like a day, we can be sure His patience is never going to run out on us.

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God is kind, even benevolent to me and you.

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This reminds me of Jeremiah 29, 11, one of my favorite verses, which says, for I know

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the plans I have for you, says the Lord, they are plans for good and not for disaster, to

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give you a future and a hope.

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Even when we think we deserve harshness, God is so kind.

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His plans for us are always good.

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Yes, sometimes He does discipline us, but it's out of His kindness, not out of anger.

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He always has good in mind for us, always.

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God does not envy us or anything we have.

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In fact, James 1, 17 tells us every good and perfect gift is from God.

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Because He is the one who gives us good things, He would never begrudge or resent us having

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them.

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Boasting in pride is not God's way.

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He does not hold His lofty position over us to make us feel subservient or small.

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Philippians 2, 7-9 reminds us that Jesus gave up His divine privilege and took the humble

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position of a servant when He was born a human.

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Even more, He humbled Himself to die a criminal's death on the cross, to redeem us from the

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slavery of sin and death, and to make a way for us to join Him as a child of God, as the

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Bride of Christ, with a divine inheritance.

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God never dishonors us.

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The Greek word used here can also be translated to act unbecomingly, indecent, or improper.

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God is the author of free will and He never forces us to do anything, good or bad.

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Galatians 5, 13 reminds us that we are called to freedom, so we should not use our freedom

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to serve our flesh, but to do good.

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We may dishonor ourselves, others may try to dishonor us, but God offers the way of

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life and lets us choose how to respond.

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God always seeks the best for us.

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If He was self-seeking, He certainly would not have sent Jesus to die an excruciating

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death on the cross for us.

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He would have left us to suffer our just punishment.

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Remember Jeremiah 29, 11?

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God has good plans to prosper us and give us a future and a hope.

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I am so thankful that God, who is love, does not get angry with us easily.

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Three times in the Old Testament we are assured of this, God is slow to get angry, but His

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power is great and He never lets the guilty go unpunished.

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You may think that is a contradiction of His love, but no, because He is slow to anger,

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He gives plenty of time for people to repent of their sins and have their guilt wiped away.

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Only those who never accept His gracious gift of forgiveness out of their own free will,

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by making Him Lord of their lives, suffer punishment.

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Exodus 34, 6, 7 reveals that God's character and nature as He is passing in front of Moses.

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God says, Yahweh, the Lord, the God of compassion and mercy, I am slow to anger and filled

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with unfailing love and faithfulness.

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I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.

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I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin, but I do not excuse the guilty.

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Again, He is slow to anger, wanting everyone to come to Him for cleansing, for everyone

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to be declared righteous in His eyes.

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But it's our choice whether we step into His love or remain in our condemned state.

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Numbers 14, 18 reiterates this again, saying the Lord is slow to anger and filled with

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unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion, every kind of sin and rebellion,

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but He does not excuse the guilty.

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If we made Jesus Lord of our lives and truly repented of our sin, our rebellion, then we

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are not guilty anymore.

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Colossians 2, 13 and 14 in the New Living Translation says, You were dead because of

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your sins and because of your sinful nature, was not yet cut away.

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Then God made you alive with Christ, for He forgave all your sins.

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He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

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In this way, He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities.

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He shamed them publicly by His victory over them on the cross.

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So when Satan reminds you of past sin and failure, you can remind him that the record

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of those sins were nailed to the cross and remembered no more.

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God does not keep a record of your wrongs.

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When we are forgiven, our slate is wiped clean.

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That does not mean God forgives our sin without true repentance, which includes a revelation

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that our thoughts and attitudes or inaction is sinful, followed by sincere remorse and

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a dedication to change, but He understands our frailties and when we truly repent, He

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remembers them no more.

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Psalm 10312 assures us that God has removed our sins from us as far as the east is from

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the west.

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God never rejoices when we experience evil, injustice, or hurt.

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He is not the cause of our distress or oppression.

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Isaiah 61, 1-3 tells us, Jesus came to bring good news to the poor, comfort the broken-hearted,

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proclaim that captives are released, set prisoners free, tell those who mourn that God's favor

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has come and give them beauty for ashes.

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King David recounts in Psalm 40 how God heard his cry and lifted him out of the pit of despair,

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out of mud and mire.

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Many of God's servants in the Bible encountered evil and experienced injustice, and God was

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a very present help in their time of trouble.

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If you find yourself in that place, declare God's love over yourself, thank Him for His

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love is everlasting and never fails, and ask Him to intervene on your behalf.

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God rejoices in truth.

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He rejoices in what is just and right.

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He rejoices when we know who we are in Christ and live as children of God, taking our place

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in the bride of Christ and preparing ourselves as part of the bride of Christ for the coming

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of our true and eternal love, Jesus.

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But Jesus tells us in John 8, 44 that Satan is the father of lies, and in 1 Peter 5, 8

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we discover he's always roaming around looking for someone to devour.

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Be a lover of truth, biblical truth.

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If you question what truth is, if you think that you have your truth and I have my truth

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and someone else has their truth, I encourage you to listen to an episode entitled, Rejoice

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in Truth.

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I think it was recorded last October.

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There's a link to it in our show notes.

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I think it would be very helpful for you because God rejoices in truth.

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God always protects.

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The expanded meaning of the Greek word for protect includes to cover, conceal, ward off,

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and place a roof over and shield.

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John 18, 28 assures us that He has given us eternal life.

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We will never perish and no one can snatch us out of His hand.

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Our eternal future is protected.

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Jesus tells us in John 16, 33 in the NIV, in this world we will have trouble, but take

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heart I have overcome the world.

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Psalm 46, 1 assures us God is our refuge and strength and ever present help in trouble.

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So we will face difficulties, that's part of living in a fallen world, but God will

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be our refuge, our strength and help in the midst of it all and our future is protected

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in Him.

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Here's a thought, God always trusts you.

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Wow, that gets my attention.

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What about you?

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Just think about all the things He's entrusted to us.

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From the very beginning God entrusted humankind, Adam and Eve, with dominion over and stewardship

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over the earth.

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Adam and Eve of course gave that dominion to Satan through their disobedience, but Jesus

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took it back through His death and resurrection.

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Matthew 28, 18 and 19 reveals all authority in heaven and on earth were given to Jesus

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and He has given back the earthly authority to us.

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Matthew 10, 1 sends we have authority to cast out evil spirits and heal every kind of disease

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and illness.

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Luke 10, 19 says we have authority over all the power of the enemy.

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Matthew 28, 19 shows we have authority to disciple nations and baptize people.

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God has also entrusted us with spiritual gifts to use in building up the body of Christ and

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sharing the gospel with others and He entrusts some with great wealth and resources.

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He entrusts others with great knowledge and insight.

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When we steward well the gifts and resources He gives us, we often find ourselves entrusted

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with more.

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And that's just a glimpse of what God trusts us with.

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We frequently let Him down by misuse or not using at all the authority and gifts He trusts

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us with, but God is patient with us and continues to trust us with so, so much.

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God always hopes and expects great things for us and from us.

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Ephesians 2, 10 explains that God prepared in advance good works for each of us to do.

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That means He has great expectation and hope that we'll do them.

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He's given us Holy Spirit to lead us, empower us, give us wisdom and everything else we

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need to live a godly life and accomplish His will.

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His hope and expectation for us is good.

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He doesn't dread it when we wake up in the morning thinking, what a kind of a message

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will she make today or will He make today?

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No, His mercies are new every morning and He is delighted to see what and how you and

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I will get right each day.

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If you're a parent, you can relate to that at some level.

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Your hopeful expectation of your children is success and unlike us, He never throws

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in the towel on hope.

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He always has hopeful expectation of us because the same Spirit that raised Christ from the

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dead dwells in you and me.

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If you've given your life to Him, as you yield your life more fully to Him day by day,

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you cannot help but succeed.

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God always perseveres in His love and support for you.

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He doesn't grow weary.

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He never slumbers.

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He never sleeps.

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The New Living Translation says, love endures through every circumstance.

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God will be with you in every situation.

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You've probably heard the poem entitled Footprints in the Sand.

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There's some dispute about who wrote it, so I don't know who to credit.

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I know I did not write it, but I've been touched by it many times.

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It reads,

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One night I dreamed a dream, as I was walking along the beach with the Lord.

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Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.

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From each scene I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to me and one to

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the Lord.

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After the last scene of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the

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sand.

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I noticed that at many times along the path of my life, especially at the very lowest

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and saddest times, there was only one set of footprints.

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This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.

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Lord, you said once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way.

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But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life, there was

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only one set of footprints.

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I don't understand why.

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When I needed you the most, you would leave me.

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He answered,

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My precious child, I love you and will never leave you ever.

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During your trials and testings, when you saw only one set of footprints in the sand,

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it was then that I carried you.

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God will always be with you in every circumstance.

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God's love for you will never, ever fail.

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A love so complete, so understanding, so enduring is really hard to comprehend.

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His love is a perfect match for every need, every fear, every doubt, every disappointment

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you have.

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His love is the perfect match for every joy, every success, every triumph you have as well.

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His love is a perfect match for you, dear one.

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He made you.

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He knows you completely.

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He loves you.

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You are part of His bride.

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Let's pray together.

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Heavenly Father, we are in awe of you.

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Words cannot express how grateful we truly are for your unconditional, all-encompassing

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love.

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Thank you for your patience with us, your kindness toward us, for all the good things

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you shower down on us.

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Thank you for not keeping a record of our wrongs.

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Thank you for being quick to forgive.

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For mercies that are new every morning, thank you for your trust in us, your hope, your

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expectation of our success, and for giving us everything we need to be successful in

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your kingdom.

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Thank you, God, for enduring with us through every situation and protecting us in our future.

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Nothing can separate us from your love, God, because your love never fails.

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It's hard to comprehend that kind of love.

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So like Paul, Lord, we ask that you would fill us with inner strength through your Spirit.

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Then Christ will make us home in our hearts as we trust in Him.

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Cause our roots to grow down deep into God's love and keep us strong.

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Give us, Lord, the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide and long

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and high and deep your love really is.

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Father, I ask you to reveal a new aspect of your love to each of these dear friends.

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Protection, hope, trust, forgiveness, patience, kindness, whatever they need today in their

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journey with you.

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Father, reveal it to them.

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And it's in Jesus' name, our coming bridegroom, that I pray.

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Amen.

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Thank you for tuning in.

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As I mentioned earlier, we welcome you to join us in being a tangible expression of

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God's love to widows and orphans who have desperate needs.

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Will you consider joining us with a special gift to help?

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Just go to hergodstory.org and click on the Widow and Orphan tab at the top of the page.

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In our show notes at hergodstory.org, you will find scriptures and the other information

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we talked about.

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You can also get a free six-week devotional on Women of the Bible to download or purchase

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a 12-week devotional that we will send you for just $12, knowing that all the proceeds

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go to the Widow and Orphan Fund.

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We'd love to pray with you on our 24/7 prayer and text line, so give us a call or text anytime

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at 855-459-CARE or email us at prayer@somebodycares.org.

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And now I bless you from 2 Corinthians 13:14.

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May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy

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Spirit be with you all.

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Her God Story is a ministry of Somebody Cares America and international.

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To find out more about or support the ministry, go to somebodycares.org.