What does the Lord require of you? I used to think that the Lord required me to follow a long list of unattainable rules; as I failed daily at checking off that list, I felt defeated.
What if we overcomplicate what God is actually asking of us? Perhaps walking with Him is simpler than we think. In today's episode, Valerie and I are going to kick off season three and dive into this topic as we explore scripture together.
If this podcast is an encouragement to you, would you partner with us to spread the message of hope and healing? You can DONATE HERE. Living the Reclaimed Life is a Reclaimed Story, Inc. podcast, An Arizona non-profit corporation.
Have you ever thought... "I am not enough, not qualified, or overlooked"? CLICK HERE to receive a FREE E-book to help you combat those lies and hear the truth of what God's heart has to say to you.
If you would like to connect with a safe group of women who are doing real-life together, join our private Facebook page, “Living the Reclaimed Life” Join us!
Free Shipping in the U.S. as you give jewelry that speaks to identity in Jesus.
CLICK HERE Every purchase helps support our mission to provide healing and hope to women.
Check out more at our website www.reclaimedstory.com
Connect with us!
Facebook
Instagram
Here are two FREE Ebooks for you!
1. Shame Off You: 10 steps to shattering shame in your life, HERE.
2. ABC's: CLICK HERE for a FREE E-book to help you combat lies and replace them with God's truth. For more encouragement, check out some of our offerings at www.reclaimedstory.com
Did you know we have a jewelry line that speaks to your identity in Jesus? CLICK HERE to shop. Every purchase helps support our mission to provide healing and hope to women worldwide.
Would you partner with us to spread the message of hope and healing? You can DONATE HERE. Living the Reclaimed Life is a Reclaimed Story, Inc. podcast, An Arizona non-profit corporation.
If you would like to connect with a safe group of women doing real-life together, join our private Facebook page, “Living the Reclaimed Life” or on Facebook or Instagram
What does the Lord require of you? I used to think that the Lord required me to follow a long list of unattainable rules; as I failed daily at checking off that list, I felt defeated.
What if we overcomplicate what God is actually asking of us? Perhaps walking with Him is simpler than we think. In today's episode, Valerie and I are going to kick off season three and dive into this topic as we explore scripture together.
If this podcast is an encouragement to you, would you partner with us to spread the message of hope and healing? You can DONATE HERE. Living the Reclaimed Life is a Reclaimed Story, Inc. podcast, An Arizona non-profit corporation.
Have you ever thought... "I am not enough, not qualified, or overlooked"? CLICK HERE to receive a FREE E-book to help you combat those lies and hear the truth of what God's heart has to say to you.
If you would like to connect with a safe group of women who are doing real-life together, join our private Facebook page, “Living the Reclaimed Life” Join us!
Free Shipping in the U.S. as you give jewelry that speaks to identity in Jesus.
CLICK HERE Every purchase helps support our mission to provide healing and hope to women.
Check out more at our website www.reclaimedstory.com
Connect with us!
Facebook
Instagram
Here are two FREE Ebooks for you!
1. Shame Off You: 10 steps to shattering shame in your life, HERE.
2. ABC's: CLICK HERE for a FREE E-book to help you combat lies and replace them with God's truth. For more encouragement, check out some of our offerings at www.reclaimedstory.com
Did you know we have a jewelry line that speaks to your identity in Jesus? CLICK HERE to shop. Every purchase helps support our mission to provide healing and hope to women worldwide.
Would you partner with us to spread the message of hope and healing? You can DONATE HERE. Living the Reclaimed Life is a Reclaimed Story, Inc. podcast, An Arizona non-profit corporation.
If you would like to connect with a safe group of women doing real-life together, join our private Facebook page, “Living the Reclaimed Life” or on Facebook or Instagram
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
God, confession, justice, mercy, reclaim, micah, basics, reclaimed, confess, sin, people, story, life, lord, kindness, pleases, humility, talking, valerie, sacrifices
SPEAKERS
Valerie McMahon, Denisha Workizer
This transcript is auto-generated.
Denisha Workizer 00:00
Welcome to Living the Reclaimed Life Podcast. I'm Denisha We're glad you're here for conversations that revive hope, inspire healing and encourage you to live a vibrant life with Christ. So grab a cup of coffee as we chat with today's guest. What does the Lord require of you? I used to think that the Lord required me to follow a long list of unattainable rules. And as I failed daily at checking off that list, I felt defeated. And I wonder if we overcomplicate what God is actually asking of us. Perhaps walking with Him is simpler than we think. And today's episode, Valerie and I are going to kick off season three of the podcast and dive into this topic as we explore Scripture together. And in this season, we are going to be placing a lot of healing resources in your hands. So be sure if you haven't already, join our community at reclaim, story.com. Click on join the community. And we'll make sure that you have lots of healing resources to meet you right where you're at. We hope you enjoy this episode. Welcome to season three. Today you have Valerie and myself. And this is season three of living the reclaimed life. That's amazing. I know we took the summer off guys, because between the Reclaim story team, we have 12 children 12, one to like over 10 And a lot of pets and a lot of pets. Valerie has her own personal Zoo. So as we kick off this season, we took June and July off of podcasting so that we could just be with our kids more and just enjoy our summers. And in Arizona summer means like 110 degrees outside, and it's real hot. So just because we're in August, y'all that are starting to like fall is in the air. No, it is real hot in Arizona. So
Valerie McMahon 01:56
weapon hits fall in April.
Denisha Workizer 01:59
You know, that's, I think I remember like on like November 1, like you're like, oh, it's starting to cool off at night. It's not 9508 shorts
Valerie McMahon 02:06
and tank tops at Thanksgiving. I mean, yeah, I guess you never know. So,
Denisha Workizer 02:11
Valerie, you just told me a story, which I'm going to now call you to tell to all of our listeners because it was quite amusing. Valerie learned a new game to play with her kid.
Valerie McMahon 02:23
Would you let me tell you and I should do it on a mission totally. Well, we're gonna be talking in a little bit about our theme for this month, which is you know, you think about back to school. Back to the basics, right? We're going to be talking about what that looks like in in our relationship with God. But there's this like game going around on Instagram called the tortilla challenge. And you remember that childhood basic game of rock paper scissors, right? You know, we play that everywhere. Like you can play it in a restaurant, you play it anywhere. Well, apparently now there's Rock Paper, Scissors, 2.0 tortilla challenge, you have a tortilla in your hand and you're facing off with a opponent. And you both fill your mouth with water. So you're holding the water and you do rock paper, scissors. And if the other person loses, you can slap in the face with a tortilla, trying to get them not to smooth out their water. But if you smooth out your water, you still lose. So anyway, my 75 year old mother played it with me like we're going back to your where you went to Kentucky this summer. And it's like I'm like, oh, yeah, like, anytime we're with family friends, we got to do this game. So if you guys want to see I say, let's let's get this podcast downloaded the most we've ever had downloaded and Donita and I will do the tortilla challenge on our Instagram page. Okay, it's on you guys. It's on you. If you download this and share it, we'll do that.
Denisha Workizer 03:45
You see, I wanted to share about a game and now she's hooked up to being the face with a tortilla. Do you see how this goes? Okay, so just wanted those out there. We have like last I looked which was a few weeks back was about 5700 downloads about 5700 downloads. So share this and we will do it on like tickety tock Yeah, I don't know.
Valerie McMahon 04:08
We will do it live on Facebook.
Denisha Workizer 04:11
Like I said gets mad when I say tickets. So this is such a good topic today. You know, we're having fun getting kick started
Valerie McMahon 04:19
doing this. That's why we're just Yes, yeah, we have while
Denisha Workizer 04:23
we have to have fun you guys we know that our ladies like to have fun. So we're talking about back to the basics, as Valerie said and how do we go back to the basics of our faith? You know, we're gonna go shopping for school supplies, we're going to pack a fresh backpack, right or even I try really hard to like Scratch the one from last year and go it's fine. Let me just clean it. And but we put new pencils, new pens, new paper, things like that in our backpack. And we go back to the basics of school. I'm not thinking about buying pencils and graph paper in March. I'm thinking about it now. So as we think about our faith, and we go back to the basics Because of our faith, we have a really great passage that kind of tackles that.
Valerie McMahon 05:04
Micah six, eight, and I don't know about you danisha Like he became a Christian, but I grew up like singing the song. I'm not gonna sing it for you guys, but but Micah six eight says he has told you, oh man, what is good? And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. So that's what we're going to look at. And we're going to kind of start talking about this. Today on the podcast, and this month is, is breaking down those three things that it says God requires of us and to act justly, to love kindness or an aversion I grew up with love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. And what does that look like? In today's world? Tanisha? Where, what even as Christians, sometimes we're like, okay, we know the truth. But then the truth has been defined this way. How do we go back to the basics and live as God wants us to live? In a world that's all about this as my truth? It matters to me, it must be real. So
Denisha Workizer 06:10
yeah, you know, our pastor said something I thought was so good. And he said, If the blade of God's word cuts up against us, in today's society, we redefine the definition of God's Word. And so this is really a beautiful passage that takes us back to the basics. And this is This is Old Testament. So this is before Jesus. And I love the context of this because, you know, when I first became a believer, I thought, okay, I thought it was all about behavior modification, like do better, right? Do Better make better choices. I didn't understand grace. I didn't understand that, you know, I was like, What do I need to do for God? And if we go back, if we back up just a little bit, and Micah six, six, they start Israel starts listing all of these things, you know, what does the Lord require? Should I bow before you? Shall I bring a burnt offering? Shall I have sacrifices like that? Some of that was in the Law of Moses, right? Do I bring rands, 10,000, rivers of oil, those that is only something the wealthy could have brought to God? Do I bring my firstborn? And it says, the fruit of my body? How do I bring the fruit of my body to cover the son of my soul? And so it's almost like Israel's asking like, what do we need to do God for you to be pleased with us? And his response is Micah six, eight, that the Lord requires of you to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. And when I first became a believer, I really thought it was I mean, I wasn't like, shall I bring burn sacrifices? But I was like, shall I watch my tongue more? Should I do this more? Should I do that more? And not that those things? Don't, I guess, bring closer our relationship with the Lord. Right? Because we don't have that's less coming between us. But as you said earlier on, when we were just chatting about this episode, was that God's already pleased with us. Yeah, elaborate more on that.
Valerie McMahon 08:02
Yeah, I think we can get confused. Sometimes when we read scriptures. I mean, there's many scriptures in the Bible that talk about what pleases the Lord. And obedience is one of them. But it's different than God already being pleased with you. And you can replace that please with that God loves you no matter what. Right? But I think of I have children. And they know that if they obey me, that it pleases me, am I going to be less pleased with them when they disobey? No, that's what grace is. The grace covers the grace from Jesus covers our disobedience. But God when it talks about what He requires, like, He wants us to be obedient, he wants us to please Him in that way. Because it ultimately is going to be for our good, it's going to be for our, in our best interest, it's going to be we're going to receive blessings. And we are going to, I can't think of the Scripture reference right now. But you know, just like, train a child and way they will go for the rest of their lives, like, do good and you will live long. I mean, what God is saying is that you do what I require of you, and you're going to be you're going to be blessed. But obviously, we know we mess up. We know we disobey And God's like, I'm still pleased with you. But I mean, think about it. Donita, right. Like, we talked about love languages. And if you're married, you know, like, if you have a particular way you like to be loved, like your husband does the dishes without being asked or whatever that pleases you. Right. And if he doesn't do it, you, you should still be pleased with him. But the idea is that it's that act of love the act of surrender for God, who has done everything for us, right. So that's, that's how I look like the difference between pleasing God and him already been pleased with us.
Denisha Workizer 09:50
Right? Yes, that's I love how you describe that. And that's what they're saying, right? What do we need to do to have you pleased with us, so to do justice Let's unpack that a little bit what those words mean, to do justice? You know, we did a little word search there and justice means Judgment, Divine Law, like stand for what is right. Yeah, if we had to really simplify that. Yeah.
Valerie McMahon 10:12
And I like I this is my definition for justice. Denise, I like saying that it's doing the right thing in the right way, at the right time. Because I mean, you know, with with what's going on in our world, too, you know, we're not gonna like, Go into all that. But the idea is that sometimes like, we want to stand for what's right. But, you know, is it the right time to do that? Is it in the right way? And we know that we aren't the judge, God is the judge. But still, we can act justly. We can do justice, by doing the right thing in the right way at the right time.
Denisha Workizer 10:46
That's so good. And the right way, can we just speak for just a second? There's a lot of social justice, things going on on social media, and we can love through our keyboard. We don't have to attack doing it the right way. Yes. And being that image, you know, that image bearer to be able to love other people, even though we disagree. I think that's part of the social justice piece, which is kind of what what is referred to in this verse as well,
Valerie McMahon 11:15
when I think of two I think Justice has a foundation of truth. When we we know we live in a culture where truth is relative, people are defining what truth is. And if we're Christians, and we stand on the absolute truth of God, then that's how do we do justice, we live in truth. We don't waver from the absolute truth of God. Jesus says in John 832, you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. So it's about freedom. It's about helping people know the truth, know the way so they can live, live free,
Denisha Workizer 11:47
one that goes so perfectly into loving kindness. There's a passage that says, and it's the kindness of God that leads people to repentance, amen, that leads them to change their mind on things. It's that kindness, it's not being a keyboard warrior. At times. It is being it's the kindness of God, and so to love kindness and your your Bible might say mercy, like Valerie mentioned, so let's what is mercy? What is mercy and kindness, Valerie?
Valerie McMahon 12:15
Well, I mean, I growing up and learning about grace and mercy, I think of mercy is that God, not giving us what we really deserve. And we know that sin separates us from God. And we know that Jesus died on the cross to pay that penalty for our sin. And that's what makes God it makes God just he can't tolerate sin. And so we do have consequences of our sin. But then God's mercy is what covers that sin. God says, I am not going to give you what your sin deserves. And Denise, I was thinking too, and you'll be seeing this on our blog this month in one of we have a new story of transformation coming out is that what happens when confession meets mercy? We live I think, even in our churches, confession is hard. It's like why why is it hard to confess? And I think of that if we think if confession just in our flesh, we immediately go to the idea of rejection, right? If I share this secret, if I share this sin if I share this addiction, if I share this hang up in my life, I am going to be rejected and you know, the truth is some of us have experienced that right? But to God confession equals acceptance I love David in Psalm 5170 like the the set we just talked about sacrifice, right like and Micah like what sacrifices Can I bring you God to please you? And Psalm says that what pleases the Lord the sacrifice and surrender that pleases the Lord is a broken and contrite heart. It is a heart that is willing to confess and we do it that's what we that's the environment we want to set here at reclaim story. And, and I think many of our women have experienced that is that we want to provide a safe space for Grace where women feel worthy, they feel loved, they feel seen they feel heard. I mean, it has to be a safe community for people to feel safe to confess. And so that's what to me loving mercy is that we always are approaching people in a posture of mercy that no matter what they bring out as what they confess that they are met with mercy.
Denisha Workizer 14:28
I love what you said that yeah, can that when we confess, we expect rejection, but what we receive from the Lord is acceptance through Christ. I mean, that is like we could end right now folks have a great day. That is such a good point. Such I have a terrible fear of rejection, like rejection is one of the things I've carried with me for a long time. And so I do I sort of prep myself and gird up a little bit, but when you know you're going to be met in a space of acceptance and love and Grace, it takes all of those walls down. Yeah.
Valerie McMahon 15:03
And what we were talking about earlier, I think about the pleasing God. Like, that's what he's saying. Like it pleases me it when you come to me like he already knows, right? It's like, well, you know, sometimes I've heard like, why do we need to confess God already knows, but it's that act of like, God, it's like Thanksgiving for His mercy, right? He knows what we've done. But when we come and confess, it's like, okay, now I can give you the gift of mercy. If we don't confess than we carry, right? It turns into shame and guilt. And we just keep hurting ourselves or other people. But that's why we confess to God so that we can receive the gift of mercy. And then James, it says that we confess to others so we can be healed. So we can feel community, we can feel acceptance, and yeah, it's so yeah, so stay tuned for just some powerful blogs this month of talking about when confession meets mercy.
Denisha Workizer 15:55
You know, the picture that came into my head, I have three teenagers in our home. And we are, we're still establishing like, I don't know what I should freak out about sometimes, you know, until I'm like, I think I'm there. I'm not sure. But you know, what I just pictured is, let's say, let's say somebody comes home late. Let's just say this is a hypothetical. Okay, I'm not throwing any of my children under the bus, it's just reminded me of raising teenagers is, if one of my children come in late, and they sneak in late, let's just say, and I'm already asleep. So I don't know, that is going to eat at them. Like that really is going to eat at their heart. And versus just coming in being like, Hey, I was 15 minutes late to curfew, you know, I'm so sorry. Like, then there's that restore restoration of relationship. They're not hiding anything. There's full trust. There's just that authenticity of the moment that I think is really beautiful. It's kind of that picture I had was like, as a teenager, you know, you go to your room, and you're like, Oh, I hope they don't know. But you carry that, as you said, shame, guilt with you versus just coming out and you're met with acceptance and grace and mercy.
Valerie McMahon 16:58
Well, that's the whole reason Denise and I started unveiled in Brea, which you know, is my devotional ministry and my biblical life coaching ministry, because I had reached a point where I felt like I wasn't being true with what was going on in my life, I was wearing lots of mask, and I was hiding, like, people did not know that I was having a lot of conflict in my marriage, and that I was struggling with sin and different things like that. And then God called me said, like, I want you to be unveiled, I want like, that's where we find freedom is when we stand before God with all of our stuff. And God meets us and says, Yes, like, this is how I want you to be this is how I created you to be is to be unveiled, so that you can be free. And so yeah, as you can tell, I'm excited about this topic.
Denisha Workizer 17:48
Well, it's so good, right? That's, that's what we walk out. And that's what we, you know, that's what we walk out every day with women is helping them to be unveiled and free to reclaim their stories. And so what about the third piece? And then in a moment, I'd love to talk about how does this apply in our past stories? That is we talk about walking humbly with God. You recently our pastor said that humility is, is basically power under control. And that just struck me and I thought, That's so beautiful, because then as you think of humility is like, I've heard some definitions of lowly and I think, oh, you know, like, I think of like a powerlessness and really, its power under control. So how do we walk humbly with God?
Valerie McMahon 18:33
Well, it's interesting, because I was just thinking about a sermon that my pastors just gave about talking about with Moses, when God first sent Moses and Pharaoh made it even harder on the Israelites, right? It's like, you know, they're like, Moses, like what you're doing to us and God's timing, say, Okay, I have a plan. Like, you just need to trust me. And I think about that as what it means to walk humbly with God is walk hand in hand with Him and trust that he's going to strengthen us. He's going to give the power we need to accomplish what he's called us to do. But if we lead with pride, right, that's usually what happens and I think a pride and control kind of synonymous. It's like, Okay, God, I'm not liking this plan. I'm not liking being patient. I'm not liking waiting. So I got it. I can be God over this area of my life, and that's pride. But when God says to walk humbly with them, it's like it's trust. It's a trust relationship with God. And it's not like we talked about reclaim story. Jesus reclaims our stories, right. There's nothing you can do to reclaim your own story. That's pride. That's self sufficiency. And but walking in humility, drawing nearer to God and James 410 says that when we walk in humility, when we draw near to God, he will lift us up, but it's not about lifting ourselves up. So that's what I think about humility is trust
Denisha Workizer 19:57
can't bring sacrifices and rams in 10,000 words First up oil are my firstborn. That not do it. What do you mean? Maybe we'll talk to your firstborn.
Valerie McMahon 20:05
Yeah, you know, right. We're so thankful that we live under grace and not the law. But I mean, there's so much you know, there's, there's so much truth that we need to understand from the Old Testament, it's still God's law. And he established these boundaries, these parameters, so that we can like I said, Walk Free, walk, secure, and walk in the way God wants us to walk. So I mean, how different in each, how different would our world be? And just as I'm speaking to our audience, how different would your world be, if you just practice these basics of acting, justly loving mercy, walking humbly, with our with our God, like, I'm, it's gonna be a challenge for me this month, like I'm up for the challenge, just like just like, I think we complicate. We just complicate sometimes what God requires of us, but it's not necessarily easy. But I think it's simple, to be obedient in what God's requiring of us and that is to act justly, to love mercy and walk humbly with our God. And that's what we want, we want hurting people to know is that we are going to be with you to to walk with you, to meet you with mercy, and to help you know how to walk and trust with God.
Denisha Workizer 21:26
Amen. And being New Testament folks, that God gives us the gift of salvation, My grace. And when, when we accept Christ in our lives, our sins as far as the east is to the west. And I think that is a beautiful picture. How does this How does Micah six eight apply to our past? So act justly? You know, when we think about that, I love what you said, is reclaiming the absolute truth in a culture where truth is relative. But what do we believe about our past? When When can we look at our past from a just perspective, and sometimes we have to name things that have happened in our story, we have to name harm that has come to us. And we have to call out justice in times when there wasn't justice done to us, whether it be abuse that we suffered when we were younger, whether it be I think it's okay to bring out those things. I spent many, many years running from those things, not wanting to look at what would justice have looked like in my past? Right. And I ran from it because it just felt so big. And one of the things is I take this first and apply it to the past, right? I mean, obviously, that's not the context. But if you look at it and go, What does this look like in relationship to my past, to act justly? Can we look back at our past and call out the things maybe that were done to us? Can we seek healing now for the things that had happened and call out that justice, peace?
Valerie McMahon 23:02
Well, in one of the things like we define justice, what is the right thing in that situation? Right? It may be repentance, that maybe, yeah, forgiveness, like, and we know, that's hard. We're not minimizing that. And sometimes reconciliation, which is another piece is not possible. But just like God calls us and requires us to act justly love mercy, we're also required and he wants us to forgive. But yeah, that's such a good point of how to apply it to the past, whether whether we have victimized ourselves, or whether we are the victim, it's again, how do we move from being a victim to being a victor, in Jesus Christ and applying God's truth? So isn't that
Denisha Workizer 23:45
true? And I think that once we know that we're stuck somewhere, once we know that there is an injustice, maybe that we have to seek healing from from our past thoughts, where what you said really strikes me is that we do the right thing in the right way at the right time. For instance, if God begins to bring up things in your heart, and I've totally walked this road, and I'm sure well, many more times, but and if I haven't forgiveness, or have bitterness or anger towards something that's happened to me from my past, to do the right thing. I know that that's to forgive. And so I think we have a responsibility once God has highlighted that, to allow him to deal with that and work with us to process that and forgive and heal and move through that versus shoving it under the rug. Because we all know when we shove things under the rug, we just keep tripping on it. Right? Yeah. So doing the right thing in the right time. And as we see injustice, I guess, even in our past stories, then we have to seek God to see what is the right thing to do right now. How do I go about that? And is this the right time?
Valerie McMahon 24:48
Yeah. And that just moves into mercy, right. Mercy and walking humbly with with God. I mean, it's, I said it's, it's God's job to enact Justice, for sin and for harm that's been done to us and like, can we trust him with that? Can we trust that he is a just God, but then it's interesting to Nish. I was even having this conversation with my five year old today about a sin as a sin. And I don't you know, kids just bring up things. And I don't know, one of my kids said, so could God forgive murder? And I was just like, yep, just like God forgives you when you lie, you know. And so just being able to understand that, as we have received mercy and grace from God, it's like a, like we are, the next step is that we are to give it and that's part of that healing from our story as well.
Denisha Workizer 25:44
And also, when you mentioned, when we confess, right, whether we're confessing harm in our story, because we haven't wanted to name that right, or whether we're going back to confess something that we've done, to know that kindness to not only meet other people as they come to us with acceptance, but to know that God accepts us like there's nothing you guys just like, just like Valerie just said, there's nothing that God cannot forgive. I mean, the power of Jesus Christ, He died for all of it. And that is just such a beautiful thing to live under that kindness and that mercy and know that we can not only receive acceptance from God, but in Christ, that we can also give that acceptance when others come to us.
Valerie McMahon 26:28
Yeah. Amen. Amen.
Denisha Workizer 26:32
You know, when it comes to walking humbly with God, and we look at our past, I think you mentioned this earlier, that we cannot fix ourselves or others that we cannot reclaim our own lives, only God can. And so I just want to encourage you, what is that thing that you want to bring to the Lord? Is there something he's bringing up even as you're hearing this podcast where you're like, hey, I don't think I've ever dealt with this thing. That we just want to encourage you to take that to the Lord. I mean, for me, that is like, we do this all the time, you know, he'll bring something out that I've maybe forgotten about shoved down, stuck under my rug. And he'll bring something up. And I get to if if humility is power under control, right? We can humbly bring those things to God not in our own power, that he's in control. We can bring those things to him and allow him to heal us in that say, there's so this verse, you know, it's an Mica. It's Old Testament, but it has so many applications to our lives, both looking forward. And looking back for the healing that we need.
Valerie McMahon 27:39
Yeah. Yeah. And I think you know, too, I just wanted to note about confession to I think sometimes we frame confession only in the realm of like, we've done something wrong. But confession is, is acknowledgement, right. So sometimes we just need to come to the Lord and say, God, I, I'm struggling with trust right now, like, help my unbelief as the disciples that. So confession, it doesn't have to be a dirty word, right? A word that we're afraid of. And it's like I said, I love the Psalms. I love David, just saying that this is what God wants. And it can be such a beautiful, beautiful thing. But I do think like we touched on, I think, where people have probably been the most hurt is confession in the context of community. But as we know what we desire here at reclaim stories we like so we want to build that safe community where we can come and realize no one is without sin. But we're all covered by the mercy and grace of God. So I just was thinking about that. It's like confession is not a bad word. It's not a bad thing. It's a beautiful thing.
Denisha Workizer 28:45
Well, it's when you've been met with rejection. Yes. to now be met with acceptance. That's a game changer, right. So we hope that today, you've taken away that God's really looking for a change of heart, not religious observations, religious service, he's looking for a change of our heart. And when we love mercy, when we act justly and walk humbly, not only do we get to receive, but we show others that they are seen, heard and loved, that our needs, their needs, our pains matter, and there is hope in Christ, amen. So thank you so much for joining us today. We are excited to see the rest of season three. You're going to find stories coming out on this podcast, you're going to find teachings and in August, we're going to continue to go back to the basics. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for listening. I pray you found hope in today's conversation, and maybe even feel a little less alone in your story. Stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram at reclaimed story. Want to learn more about living a reclaimed life and how you can be a part of our growing community ever claimers? Check Got our website at reclaimed story.com all of those links and more will be in the show notes. And if you enjoy this inspirational podcast Be sure to subscribe rate and review. Not only will you be the first one to know when new content comes out but it is also a huge help and helping us reach more people to live the reclaimed life.