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This podcast is brought to you by our friends at BJU Press Homeschool.

Hey you guys. This is Heidi St. John coming to you from our studios at Firmly Planted Family here in Vancouver, Washington. Today is Wednesday, April 8th. This is episode number 908. Welcome to the Heidi St. John Podcast. I’m going to encourage the socks right off of you today. Stick around, I think you’re going to be encouraged.

So lots of good news today. I love good news and so I’m going to spend some time encouraging you from the Word of God today about what God says about anxiety and how we can combat it from a position of faith. And I just want to encourage you to stay faithful, you guys. I want to build you up and pump you up and encourage you and get your feet out onto the battlefield even in the midst of a pandemic. We’re working on something really cool. I’m thinking you guys are going to see it hopefully Friday in the store, new T-shirt that is so awesome that I can’t wait to show it to you, but I think that you’re going to be encouraged. All right.

I am encouraged because we have a sponsor here at the podcast, BJU Press, and they’re a great resource for families with questions about teaching children at home and on the 20th through the 24th of April, they’re going to be holding a special online event to address the issues that are on your heart as you learn to navigate this new method of education for your kids. You’re going to connect with experienced homeschool moms like myself and enjoy some fun giveaways and best of all, it’s free. Registration is easy. You can go to homeschoolhelp.com/heidi for more information. I hope you guys will join us.

Well as usual, Wednesdays is kind of my day to sort of bring a little bit of devotion and hope and encouragement from God’s Word and I’m going to do that again today. I hope you guys are doing okay in the midst of all this. I realized that a lot of you are struggling. I realize that there’s some fear out there. I realize that there are points in which you are worried, worried about finances, worried about the economy, worried about the health of our nation, and certainly worried about the health of friends and family. And the Bible has a lot to say about what is important for God’s people during a time like this. God would have us be both bold and truthful. Nothing has changed in God’s economy. Everything has changed in our economy, right? But God’s heart for you is still the same. And so I want you guys to be encouraged by the Word of God and in the Word of God. And that’s really where we should be.

You heard me talk to my friend, Dr. Josh Mulvihill last Friday on the podcast and we were talking about ways that we can engage with our children, engaging grandparents, maybe playing games on FaceTime and things like that. And I hope you guys were listening because we’re really trying to just encourage you to a place of kind of finding your footing in the midst of the pandemic. So I’m going to encourage you to help find your footing today. Let’s get our feet secure. Jeremiah 17:7-8, Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord. So notice he says that twice. He says, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and he’s like, did you hear me? Whose trust is in the Lord?

We don’t trust in the stock market. We don’t trust in the price of oil. We don’t trust in a vaccine. We don’t trust in medicine. These are good things, but ultimately our trust needs to be in the Lord. So this is what the Prophet Jeremiah, the weeping prophet was saying. Blessed is the man who trust in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord. What is he like? He’s like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream and doesn’t fear when heat comes for its leaves remain green. It’s leaves remain green. It’s not anxious in a year of drought for it does not cease to bear fruit. It doesn’t cease to bear fruit. This is God’s heart for you that you wouldn’t cease to bear fruit even in the middle of all this stuff. Even in the middle of a pandemic, even in the middle of a wonky economy.

I got word last Wednesday that one of my favorite restaurants in my little hometown of Battle Ground, Mill Creek, the Mill Creek Pub said they just, they couldn’t cut it with takeout and they closed their doors. I think we’re going to start to see more and more of this. And yet God says, trust Me. He says, if you trust me, it’s going to be okay. You’re going to be like a tree that’s planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream. You don’t need to fear when the heat comes. You don’t need to be anxious in a year of drought because you’re not going to cease to bear fruit.

I showed my kids outside in the grass the other day, all the trees. We’ve had some crazy bizarro weather around here and I was showing my kids outside that the trees, I mean if you look to nature, nothing is different. The trees are budding, the daffodils are coming up. I’m starting to see little baby bunnies in the yard, which always makes me sad because our cat’s going to hunt them. And unfortunately he’s probably going to bring me about six or seven baby bunnies. He thinks I like it, but I actually don’t. And I told my kids, I said, “Look, nature is proving what God is saying is true.” I said, “Nature is not worried about what’s happening around us. Right?”

Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 6 starting in verse 25, “For this reason I say to you, don’t be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or drink or your body as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? Why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They don’t toil or spin. And yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all of his glory clothed himself like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass on the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, you can be assured that God has a plan for you. Will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith. Don’t worry then saying, ‘What will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” And here’s what he says to do instead. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. All these things, the Bible says, will be added on to you.

I don’t know about you, but that just encourages the heck out of me. I’m like, thank you Lord. Thank you that I can trust you and you guys can trust the Lord. You can trust him in the middle of this pandemic. You can trust Him. We’re trusting Him, waiting for him right now. Just trusting him with how things that are happening in our family and fears that we’re wrestling through and God’s saying, I’m right here. I’m right here. I got you. We’re going to be voices of encouragement in the culture today and we can be both encouraged by the Holy Spirit and we can be encouraging to people who are around us.

Speaking of being encouraging, I’m going to go ahead and answer some questions that you guys are continuing to send into me. Thank you so much for doing that. This was an interesting question because she was talking about how to love her neighbor in the midst of a pandemic. This is a really interesting question. She said, Heidi, I’m really struggling with this question. I don’t know how else to explain other than a recent example. I’m seeing this prevalent with Christians. Are we not called to care for our neighbor or the earth or other people even if everything is God’s will? My recent example would be with COVID-19. I’m seeing a lot of Christians saying that canceling events is ridiculous. Isn’t this part of loving our neighbor, our neighbors who are immunocompromised? Caring for the other people by stopping events that are scientifically proven to slow the spread. Isn’t not littering and recycling part of caring for the earth? Another prevalent example, and I’m not taking bleeding heart liberals and I’m not talking bleeding heart liberal stuff, I’m seeing these examples from true known Christians who are saying it’s God’s will so we shouldn’t do anything to help any situation. And can you also touch on whether or not spreading unproven conspiracy theories about COVID-19 is living in fear and creating more panic.

Okay. So wow, this is a lot. Okay. And I understand that it’s confusing and there’s lots of things to reconcile here. So first of all, I would say, and I’ve said this a lot, I think part of the reason that you’re seeing so many different, this has been such a change, rapidly changing events. So when your question came in, it was probably two weeks ago that it came into the hopper. A lot has happened in the culture since you submitted your question because of the rapidly changing nature of how the nation is fighting the COVID-19 virus. And so I think initially I would include myself in this. I was like, what is the deal? Why are we freaking out? And then I thought as more things started happening and more things started getting canceled, I thought, okay, we’re going to have to just roll with this.

I thought this was going to be a two-week thing. It looks like it’s going to be a three-month thing or maybe even longer. And so that’s important, right? So we want to care for our neighbors and part of how we’re doing that right now is we’re obeying the governing authorities. We talked about this a little bit on Monday. We want to obey. We are called, in fact, to obey the governing authorities. And yes, I think that’s part of loving our neighbor. But I think it’s also part of just obeying God, right? And so we care for each other by stopping the spread or slowing it as much as we can.

It’s the same thing with recycling. My husband and I recycle everything around here or as much as we can, but we’re not lunatics about it. We’re not going to worship the earth. And I think that’s kind of what happens, right? We get into this, I’ve seen people, they get so hung up on recycling that they care more about recycling than they do about human beings. I love the people…no, just kidding, I’m being sarcastic, but I love it when I see people who are just totally bananas about recycling, but they are pro-abortion. It’s like, are you what? I mean, that shows me that your priorities are in the wrong place. You don’t really understand.

And the last thing that you asked was about whether or not it was unchristian, I guess is what you’re saying, to talk about conspiracy theories. I don’t think there’s anything non-Christian about looking at a conspiracy theory. I think we can easily slip into living in fear, which I think is sin. God said He didn’t give us a spirit of fear. And so I think there’s a reason, there’s a really good reason why these conspiracy theories are out there. One of the reasons is that the Internet is so widely available to everyone. Right? And the other reason is, like I said on Monday, our governing authorities and our media has proven untrustworthy. And so when you’ve got people in leadership who proved to be untrustworthy, it gives rise to conspiracy theories and people saying, what aren’t they telling us? What’s going on? I don’t think that that’s sin. I think it becomes sin when we obsess over it and that’s all we can talk about. And so we want to be careful to balance these things and not let them rule us. Right?

When Paul said it was in his heart that he wouldn’t be ruled by anything. I would bet that he would put that COVID-19 and conspiracy theories in that category, right? And so be wise about it, but I think it’s easy for us to sort of overthink things. And I would encourage you away from a place of overthinking and to a place of just saying, Hey Laura, could you help me to be wise in my response to these things and not to live in fear? I think it’d be easy to live in fear and we don’t want to do that. So I hope that helps you. I know that there’s a lot of conflicting information out there right now. And to me, if you can take, just take a step back for just a minute. Just take a step back and ask the Lord to give you wisdom and ask him to give you peace. All of a sudden these things seem less important. Does that make sense? So I hope that helps you.

I had another question come in recently from a precious mom who is still struggling under the weight of an abortion. So this is what she said. Hi Heidi. At age 18 I had an abortion. I was vehemently pro-life at the time, but felt I had no other option. I’ve since repented and still strongly believe in the pro-life movement, but have a hard time feeling like I have a right to speak against something I myself have done. I am now 40 years old. How can I get my confidence back and feel like I have a right to speak against it?

This is a really great question. I thank you so much for sending it in to me and here’s what I would tell you. The Bible teaches you once you become a Christian, right? This is Romans. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You have been forgiven. You have been forgiven. And God said that when He forgave you, he separated your sins as far away from as the East is from the West. That’s how far he separated his sins from you. He doesn’t even think about them anymore. He forgets them, the Bible says. All right?

And so if you let a past sin keep you from speaking the truth… I mean, okay, look at it this way, sweet mom. The person who is most likely the best candidate to minister to the heart of a mom who’s considering abortion is not the woman who’s standing although she’s helpful, it’s not the woman who’s standing outside an abortion clinic who’s never had an abortion, who’s trying to open the eyes of the mom who’s going in there. It’s a mom who has had it and can say, I have done this. It’s wrong. It will hurt you. Let me help you. You are uniquely positioned to speak life to this topic. You really are. I am so encouraged by the moms I have met who have had abortions and their eyes have been open and they have been able to come back and tell the truth. You can tell the truth. You can be a vessel of hope and encouragement and so don’t let the enemy lie to you. Run your race and part of your race includes that you fell into this trap of sin. Don’t let it perpetuate and become a trap of shame.

I love that my grandma used to say, Heidi, if the Lord had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. And you know what? Your picture would be on his refrigerator, whether you’ve had an abortion or whether you lived in homosexuality or whether you lived in unrepentant sexual sin. The moment you repent, the Bible says God forgives you and He separates your sin from you as far as the East is from the West. And he remembers it no more. That is powerful and I hope that you’ll let it just wash over you today because God has healing for you. He loves you. He loves you. And so I hope that you’re encouraged.

The Bible says in Romans 8:28, that we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. So if you’re a follower of Christ, you are called according to his purpose, no matter what you’ve done. And so this is something that you can believe and stand on as a solid foundation. And honestly, like I said a minute ago, the fact that you have walked through this deep water, the fact that you’ve experienced the pain and the grief of abortion gives you a platform to speak truth from that somebody like me doesn’t have, and so I say, use it. Use it to speak truth, use it to speak life. Whatever he allows is going to come to pass in our lives.

This looks different from each one of us, but the Bible says that He will work it out for our good and His glory, right? Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you.” Plans to give you what? A hope and a future. A hope and a future. He says, “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with your whole heart.” You see, God has plans for you and they’re for your good. That doesn’t mean nothing hard going to happen, right? And you can tell that to the mom who finds herself in the middle of an unwanted pregnancy. You can be the person that breathes that life into that situation. So catch the last first. We will find him when we seek him. We will. We will. I love this.

I want to encourage all of you today. I know that as the COVID-19 thing drags on, I know some of you are getting weary. Will you please join me in praying for the president of the United States in supporting him in the public spaces that God gives you opportunity to do it? And also I want to encourage you to join me at MomStrong International and to join me every Wednesday on my Facebook group. That’s for Bible study subscribers. It’s a free Scripture Writing for everyone. The Bible study and the exclusive Facebook group are for Bible study subscribers, and so I hope you guys will check that out. We certainly love what God is doing there and I just want to remind you guys, it’s a great place for you to come and just kibitz a little bit with me. Just talk with us. Let me hear what’s going on in your heart. It’s a great opportunity for me to be able to interact with you on a little bit more personal level.

So we had a lot of things that we were planning for the spring and for the summer. And I would say 90% of those things at this point are no longer happening. I told my Bible study members the other day, that’s been a bitter pill for me to swallow and I’m learning how to trust the Lord. And like a lot of you I’ve had opportunities to cry a lot. I find myself… I was telling my mom the other day, I think this is like the stages of grief, when you realize that the world’s been turned upside down. It’s like at first I was in denial and like I told you guys a few minutes ago and then I was angry.

I went through this angry phase and then I was sad. Like, really Lord, I’m not going to be able to make a living this summer? Really Lord, I’m not going to have to travel? Really Lord, we have to close the Homeschool Resource Center? And I mean I grieved over that. And now even though my heart is still grieving, I am like Lord, use it for your glory. Hallelujah. You know the plans you have for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us. Thank you for slowing us down. Thank you for shutting the schools down. Thank you for breathing new life into our family devotion time. Thank you for letting me sleep in. Oh, He’s good you guys. We serve a good, good Father and he loves you.

I’m going to go out and do something I don’t normally do and close this afternoon’s podcast in prayer. Would you guys bow your heads with me? 

Lord Jesus, Father God, maker of heaven and earth, Lord of the universe. We come into your presence with thanksgiving, with praise in our hearts because you love us. Thank you for the mom that wrote in and said that she has seen the sin of abortion, Lord, that you forgiven her. Thank you that you’ve separated that sin as far as the East is from the West, from her, and you don’t remember it anymore. Father, I pray that you give her the courage and the strength to use her voice to speak the truth. Thank you for the mom who wrote to me about her transgendered son beginning to go back to normal after not being in the school system. Lord, give this mom wisdom and courage and boldness. Heal the mind of her son. Unveil our eyes, Lord Jesus.

I thank you for each person that writes to me here at the podcast every week, Lord. They’re precious to me, but they’re even more precious to you. I pray that our hearts would be drawn to you in this time, Lord. Help us to spend time in prayer with our children to come back to you as a nation. Renew our hearts, Lord, and renew our nation. Please be with our president, Lord, as he’s dealing with the unimaginable crisis. Please give him peace in the midst of pandemic. Thank you for Governor Pence serving alongside him. I thank you, Lord. I pray that president Trump comes to know you. I pray for a move of God in his life that just rocks his world and rocks this nation and jolts us awake and jolts your church awake. Lord, we pray for these things in your powerful name. The name that is above all names.

Lord, your Word says that some day, in the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that you are Lord to the glory of God the Father. We look forward to that day. We are your people, Lord. Today, I pray Your Word that the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts would be acceptable in your sight. Oh Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. We love you, Lord. In Jesus name. Amen.

Thanks so much for listening today, you guys. I really appreciate it. If you would like to get your hands on anything I’ve written, head on over to Amazon, wonderful books there that I have written, Becoming MomStrong, Bible Promises for Moms, Prayers for the Battlefield, which—hello—now’s a great time for all of those books. I hope you guys will check it out and leave reviews for both the podcasts and the books anywhere books are sold. We love you guys. Have a great day and I’ll see you back here on Friday. 

Write to Heidi:
Heidi St. John
c/o Firmly Planted Family
11100 NE 34th Cir, Vancouver, WA 98682

Support this ministry by donating through E-giving. You can also send donations to: 11100 NE34th Cir, Vancouver, WA 98682