Abide Class Four Psalm 23 - 13

Join us as we dig into Psalm 103 and explore the beautiful themes of gratitude, compassion, and the richness of praises that we can offer in our daily lives. In this episode, Kim is once again joined by Charity DeGonia, Laurel Wike, and Chalee Brown and they share their personal reflections on how the timely messages found in this Psalm resonate with their own experiences of faith. You will hear discussions on God’s unwavering love and mercy, and how these elements transform the way we engage with both our Creator and those around us. 

We navigate through verses that speak of God’s compassion, His grace in forgetting our sins, and the promise of His love that spans generations. By reflecting on the foundational truth that we are dust yet cherished, the conversation reveals how acknowledgment of this relationship fosters deeper gratitude and a sense of community. This episode is not merely about dissecting Scripture, but becomes an invitation to practice thanksgiving in tangible ways that renew our spirits and strengthen bonds.

As we conclude with a transition into Psalm 23, we challenge you to embrace the invitation to deepen your relationship with God through consistent prayer and reflection. This exploration beckons you to set aside distractions, making room for a personal encounter with the Good Shepherd. It's a reminder that the most important appointment you can have is one with God. Prepare to be inspired, challenged, and encouraged in your walk of faith! Subscribe, share your thoughts, and let’s continue to rise up together.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro and Welcome
• 1:00 Understanding the Theme of Psalm 103
• 5:00 Reflection on Verses 7
• 15:00 Exploring God’s Compassion and Mercy
• 25:00 Lessons on Relationship with the Creator
• 35:00 The Importance of Giving Thanks
• 45:00 Introducing Psalm 23
• 52:00 Prayer and Worship Segment
• 1:00:00 Closing Thoughts and Reflections

Transcript

Kim McIntire: 0:08

Hey everyone, welcome to the it's Time to Rise Up podcast. I'm your host, Kim McIntyre. We know there are so many things you can do with your time, so thank you for choosing to spend your time listening today. We pray you are encouraged and blessed by what is shared. If you're not familiar with our show, please check out our website at itstimetoriseuporg, where you'll find our social media links and for our podcast platforms, you'll find us on YouTube, apple Podcasts, spotify and anywhere else you find your podcast. We humbly ask you to subscribe, leave a comment, a thumbs up or, even better, a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm honored to welcome back three previous guests Chae Lee Brown, laurel Weick and Charity Degonia. Welcome, friends, I'm excited for Class 4.

Kim McIntire: 1:00

Yes, we are too, yeah, so we're going to jump right in. Today. We left off with Psalm 103. We introduced the key words give thanks and praise. We applied those to the first six verses of that chapter and we ask all of you listeners to go through the rest of that chapter, giving thanks and praising God, as you read through that passage. So today we're just going to share a few more of our responses from that very, very rich text. So grab your Bible, get ready. We're going to pick it up at verse 7, which is where we left off last time.

Kim McIntire: 1:42

God made his ways known to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities, for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him, for he knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field. The wind blows over it and it's gone, and its place remembers it no more.

Kim McIntire: 2:39

But from everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's love is with those who fear Him and His righteousness with their children's children, with those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts. The Lord has established His throne in heaven and His kingdom rules over all. Praise the Lord, you, his angels, you mighty ones who do His bidding, who obey His word. Praise the Lord, you, his angels, you mighty ones who do His bidding, who obey His word. Praise the Lord all His heavenly hosts, you servants who do His will. Praise the Lord all His works, everywhere in His dominion. Praise the Lord, o my soul, wow, thank you.

Kim McIntire: 3:24

Jesus, oh my soul, wow, thank you, jesus, for your word. That's just my thanks right there. Thank you for your word, jesus. Ladies, what do we want to share in response to this today?

Chalee Brown: 3:34

I think a foundation of all of this is just in verse 7, he reveals Himself and I'm so thankful for that.

Chalee Brown: 3:41

And you know, as he reveals Himself, who he reveals Himself to be, is then how we praise Him and this text is just so rich in verse 8 that he's gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. In verse 10, he doesn't deal with us or repay us as our sins deserve, and you know so often that can be taken as a license to sin, as our sins deserve, and you know so often that can be taken as a license to sin. But when you look at verse 11 and verse 17, it talks about His unfailing love being with those who fear Him, which is a theme that's come up a lot in this podcast, and you know, if we fear Him, we're not going to use His grace as a license to sin.

Chalee Brown: 4:21

And he is worthy of that awe and reverence and of a life lived in purity. I'm thankful for the opportunity to live, the empowerment to live a life in purity. That's so true To our holy God, that's so true, so good.

Chalee Brown: 4:35

I just want to piggyback a little bit your verse 8 that you pulled about Him being slow to anger and abounding in love, and then I tied that in with verse 14, for he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust and I think, you know, sometimes I have a stronger personality and sometimes in circumstances I can be expected to lead, and so personally, I just love. My thanks to the Lord. Is that, with God that I can follow Him. When I'm weak, he's strong.

Chalee Brown: 5:07

You know, I don't have to pave a way for myself. The Lord has paved the way, and he kind of gave me a mental picture of a child, like in the snow, going, you know, going behind their father, right, and so of course their father's footsteps are going to be bigger than theirs and that child is not having to trudge through the snow and figure it out. He can actually hop from footstep to footstep and so, not having to figure it all out on my own and know that through the example of Christ that he gave us on earth and through God speaking to me in my personal time, like I don't have to pave the way, god is doing that for me. So I love just getting to sigh in that and say you know what God will lead in this I love that Absolutely.

Laurel Wike: 5:51

Absolutely. You ladies pulled a lot of things that God had really spoken to me too. So we're just going to be some of these verses. But in verse 8, god really just showed me that this is His kind and tender, that he's kind and tenderhearted, that he's patient with us and so like when it says that he's compassionate, grace and abounding in love. And then he comes over to verse 10, and you know you hit that dealt with our sins. But honestly, we as parents deal with our kids' sins right, and not only does—it's not like we always give them punishment, but we're disciplining them to show them what's right. And this is where God just said hey, I'm going to show you where to go. Like you're talking, and I just am so thankful for a God that is merciful and compassionate enough to love me, enough to stay with me and show me Like, lead me in that path, and I'm just so thankful for that. And then, in verse 12, he removed all of my sins so I don't have to live with any more guilt. That's not of him. Yeah.

Laurel Wike: 6:56

You know, and so it says from the east to the west right, it's gone. Yeah, there's absolutely nothing that I have to worry about with any of it, not the guilt, not the shame, because that goes too when we give it to Him. And then you touched on the dust. I was, for some reason God stopped me there and I found there's a Hebrew word for dust. That means form or frame, but there's a homonym that means to be in distress. So literally, this text says that God is sympathetic to our difficulties. That's what it means that he remembers we came from death. He remembers, he's sympathetic of our difficulties and our frustrations because of the way he knows we're formed. And so I just praise Him that he understands me to my deepest core.

Kim McIntire: 7:38

Yeah, so much to thank Him for so much so good, yeah, I haven't done this, but it just occurred to me. I should just like make a list of every single thing that I could thank God for, just from Psalm 103. Because I bet it would be quite long. I never counted. You know what I mean when I'm journaling. I've never actually numbered all the things, but so much to thank Him for Any other thoughts from Psalm 103?.

Laurel Wike: 8:08

Well, when you said that I looked down at my Bible and I remember the first time we did this, I went through with one color of the thanks and a different color of the praise. Oh cool. So that it shows, like you can physically see it in my Bible, that it's like the difference, it changes. But then when we were talking about it last time, you're like, hey, that's a thanks and a praise, and then God went. Oh yeah.

Kim McIntire: 8:26

Yeah, that's so good. That comment just makes me so excited that you're one of the teachers.

Chalee Brown: 8:33

Yes, that's awesome, you know, I love it so good. On the praise side, verse 17 and 18 really popped out the steadfast love of the Lord, from everlasting to everlasting, on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children. Amen To those who keep His covenant and remember to do His commandments. Obviously, all of us here are mothers, yeah, and I just love that. God keeps His Word.

Laurel Wike: 8:56

His Word is upstanding.

Chalee Brown: 8:59

Yeah, and when I choose to be in covenant, not only does he keep that covenant, but it actually pours out on other people. It's true, pours out on my children. And you know, I remember years ago I'd heard this and it always really stuck with me that this, it's just a little silly story. This little boy was trying to comprehend, like asking Jesus in your heart, right, and so, as he's talking through it with his mom, he's trying to understand. And finally he just said, well, god's way bigger than me, so if he's in my heart, isn't he going to show? Oh, I love it. And it was just so, like I just never forgot that.

Chalee Brown: 9:33

And I just thought, you know, not just towards our kids but I thought how amazing is God's glory right, and it can't be contained.

Chalee Brown: 9:45

And I just picture, like like I've been in the presence of the Lord, I'm filled, full of the joy of the Lord, and I go to a coffee shop or I go somewhere and just the joy of the Lord and God's graciousness is pouring out on other people. How awesome for the Lord that he is pouring out His goodness on somebody who didn't even spend time with the Lord that morning. That person is getting the benefits of just how amazing he is, that he's so big and he just spills out everywhere. And so when I saw that about the generations and I thought about my kids, I thought but man, it's kind of like what Charity spoke to on the last podcast. It's kind of like what Charity spoke to on the last podcast. You know, as far as like it really depends, you know you really put yourself around people that you know you're encouraging them and you're making an impact, you know. It just kind of spoke to that a little bit, but that's kind of what jumped out at me.

Kim McIntire: 10:35

That's a declare. By the way, which I know we've already talked about, that verse is a declare, yes, because that is the truth of God's Word, and when we speak that it's done Right. His Word will not return void, yeah. So thank you, lord, for that truth. Any other thoughts, ladies?

Chalee Brown: 10:55

I just love that visual image I'm just gonna you know he's bigger than me. Oh, he shall. Yes, yeah, Taking that one home tonight.

Kim McIntire: 11:03

Thank you, lord. So very good. Well, we hope that our listeners have enjoyed spending time in Psalm 103. And we pray that it has just grown in you, in your heart, a deeper desire to give thanks to God and to praise Him, because in that you will grow to deeper places in your relationship with Him. So that really concludes the time that we're going to spend in Psalm 103. But we are getting ready to transition into our next lesson, which will be Psalm 23, which is a very familiar psalm to most people. A lot of people think of it as a funeral psalm. We're going to find some new perspective from that today. Would you settle yourself? Would you just be still before the Lord? We are in the studio and we go into worship. When we ask the listeners to join us, let's just say hands are lifted, hearts are raised and we aren't singing into the microphone, but we are singing from our hearts. So we would ask you just enter in to worship today with us.

Song: 12:43

The Lord is my shepherd. There's nothing I need. You lead me to the safest places. You lead me to the safest places To walk in the meadow and lie by the stream. You meet me in the quiet places.

Charity DeGonia: 13:07

You meet me in the quiet places, your goodness and your mercy Will follow me All the days of my life, all the days of my life, and I'll dwell in your house for eternity. I'll be there by your side. I'll be there by your side.

Song: 13:46

Though I walk through the valley, the shadow of death, I don't have to fear no evil, for I know that you are with me With oil of blessing. You covered my head, you filled me to overflowing. My cup is overflowing.

Charity DeGonia: 14:15

Your goodness and your mercy will follow me All the days of my life, all the days of my life, all the days of my life, and I'll dwell in your house for eternity. I'll be there by your side. I'll be there by your side All the days of my life, all the days of my life.

Song: 15:13

You prepare a table before me, right in front of my enemies. You're the shepherd of my soul. You lead me in the right direction, my comfort and my protection.

Charity DeGonia: 15:32

You're the shepherd of my soul. You'll be a table before me, right in front of my soul. You lead me in my right direction. My comfort and my protection. You're the shepherd of my soul. Your goodness and your mercy will follow me All the days of my life, all the days of my life, and I'll dwell in your house for eternity. I'll be there by your side. I'll be there by your side All the days of my life, all the days of my life. I'll be there by your side, all the days of my life.

Chalee Brown: 17:02

Lord, we come to you in the name of Jesus. We thank you that your word is living and active, god, that it pierces our souls. God, that it brings healing, that it brings wisdom, that it brings truth, that it brings understanding. God, we ask that you would glorify your name in our understanding. Father, as we seek you through your word, as the listeners seek you through your word that you would be lifted up. We know that as Jesus is lifted up, you will draw all men to yourself. So, father, we ask that you would do that tonight, and we thank you that we get together to think on your word and be transformed by it. And it's in the name of the Lord, jesus Christ, that we pray. Amen, amen.

Kim McIntire: 17:50

Amen. Psalm 23 is such a relational text and I would encourage all of our listeners to read John, chapter 10, verses 1 through 5, which is about the good shepherd and hearing the good shepherd's voice. These two marry beautifully, they just are beautifully knit together. But what I want to talk about, before we go into that scripture, is the value of relationship, because I feel that's so foundational to this model of Jesus the Good Shepherd. So we're human, so we understand human relationship, and as we're just around this table with our coffee cups and we're just, you know, here as sisters, let's talk about the value of relationship. What makes relationship a relationship valuable?

Laurel Wike: 18:57

Oh, there's lots Like where do I start on my list? But honestly I think something that's huge is that it's mutual, like it's mutual, like it's not one-sided. We all have people that we've had in our lives before where they come, and they only come when they want something. But a good relationship is one that's mutual. You know that they're always there for you and vice versa, that you can be there for them.

Chalee Brown: 19:18

That's good, and so to go with that, I would say I put down that it's life-giving. Yeah, that good and not just life-giving one side of it. Now there are situations where you are pouring into somebody, like as a mentor, You're mentoring them, but overall just life-giving in their speech, just in the way that you treat each other. Yeah, I like that.

Laurel Wike: 19:41

It's very mutual, but I'm going to piggyback on that that life-giving is what Christ calls us to when we're encouraging one another.

Chalee Brown: 19:47

Yeah, it's true, and obviously trust and a foundation of all of that.

Laurel Wike: 19:53

Yes, yeah, humility, I think, is big. You know, if you can come with humility to one another or have humility with somebody and hey, you hurt me, or hey, I didn't like this, or I didn't understand what you said, and come in a way like I know that I can trust them well enough that I can come and tell them this and it will be, you know, not received with a defensive spirit, exactly, exactly.

Chalee Brown: 20:17

Transparency and being vulnerable, somebody that I can emotionally relax around. There's no striving. There's no striving, there's no. You know, we know that as women too, we can fall into this. There's no competitiveness. There's no comparing, there's no, and it kind of goes back to like when you're lifting each other up, like if that's your focus, then you're not going to have that stuff Right.

Kim McIntire: 20:42

You know Right what about communication? I mean, some of what you guys have said really is about communication. Yeah, right.

Chalee Brown: 20:55

I think communicating to or listening to truly hear what the other person's saying, not just waiting your turn to talk and you can always tell in a relationship when someone's truly there to hear what you're saying rather than just waiting for their turn.

Kim McIntire: 21:13

Yeah, because there's listening, and there's listening with the heart, there's listening to know, right. So in some relationships you can just tell when the person's asking you a question they want to be in the know more than they want to be in tune with your heart. And so those really valuable relationships are people that they just want to know your heart and there's not really an agenda or a motive, right. It's truly just a care for you as a person.

Chalee Brown: 21:47

That's good and not having any preconceived ideas, like when you said asking to know something, maybe to know information, but like if I'm talking to Charity and I'm asking her something, I don't already have something in my mind about where I think she should go or what I think her intentions are or what her motives are. I think that that is a big thing too not putting things on other people, but actually like to speak to what you said, listening to see what their heart is on whatever you're talking about.

Kim McIntire: 22:14

Yeah, that's good. What about?

Laurel Wike: 22:15

time, that's a big one. Yeah, I mean, if you're not going to spend time with someone, then you don't have a relationship, right? Whether it's time communicating, time listening time just together to have coffee or whatever.

Laurel Wike: 22:31

There is no relationship without time and I honestly think that time I define time differently. You know Time sending a quick text can be valuable, but truly being intentional with your time to be present, kind of like the listening thing that you're talking about, like just removing distractions and saying this is the time that I'm going to spend talking to you, about listening, you know, to your heart, like you're saying, but it does take that removing everything else that's happening in that time that you're going to give to that person. I know that I feel more valuable when somebody's talking to me or listening to me and they're not on their phones, you know, or there's nothing else going on that's distracting them, or you know that's when I feel valued.

Kim McIntire: 23:15

Yeah, don't you love. I've had this happen a few times and I feel just like you, so valued. I love it when I'm with someone and they're like, oh, hang on a second, let me silence my phone, and then they put it away. And you're just literally, because that's so rare in our culture that someone will silence their phone and put it away for the hour that you're with them. And when someone does that, I'm like, wow, I can tell automatically I'm valued by that person because they don't want distractions in our time together. And so all of these things that we've shared listening time, mutuality, trust I'm forgetting some, grace, grace All of these are so important to have valuable relationship. Important to have valuable relationship. How much more so should these factors be true in our relationship with our Creator.

Kim McIntire: 24:15

God and I'm just going to really challenge our listeners. And, yeah, how often are we willing to silence or power off our phone to be listening and present with the Lord? How many times are we willing to give time to our Creator on a consistent basis? This isn't legalism. We would never call it legalism if we made a daily appointment to talk to our husband, but how quick are we to say it's legalism if we have an appointment with God every day that we refuse to have interrupted? Right, because it's that important?

Kim McIntire: 25:03

So it's all about the pursuit of a relationship and it's not like this requirement or a law, it's like this is a valuable part, the most valuable part of my life is my relationship with the Lord, my communion with Him. I won't compromise listening. I won't compromise trust. I want the Lord to trust me because I know I can trust Him. I want the Lord to know he has my attention. I want the Lord to know that my love for Him is mutual. It's not just Him loving me, I want to love Him in return.

Kim McIntire: 25:44

Yeah, all of these things and more make up a valuable relationship with the Good Shepherd, and so we really want to just impress upon listeners that to walk in a relationship of fellowship and intimacy where you hear the Lord will require time and attention and listening. They are non-negotiables, actually, and the reason I can say this is because I did it the other way for so so long I did it with distraction, lack of focus, lack of attention, lack of time of focus, lack of attention, lack of time. I would not trade what I know now about the Lord for anything on this earth. You know, anyone want to speak into this time element, listening element that we're talking about now.

Chalee Brown: 26:45

Yeah, well, just you said this one specific word and I just wanted to take it one step further, just for the listeners and for us, because I know when this person said it, I was just like wow, yeah, that's so obvious. When you said the word appointment, I know that we have a leader in our life that they actually will use that to people Like this is an appointment on my calendar, like it literally sounds like it's a meeting that has been planned that they will not like they make it just as important as like if they had a work meeting, and so just to take it to that level of not just like casually saying, okay, I have time with the Lord, you know an appointment, but like actually making it to that level of urgency that we say like, and not even having to explain yourself, you know, I think just it's so important to us that we would put it on that level. That just really— that's really powerful. Yeah, that just really hit me whenever he shared that.

Laurel Wike: 27:40

Yeah, Well, when you started this and started Abide and things, I liked the time, you know, of learning or whatever. But then I think, when we got to Psalm 23, that's when it transformed. Like I love this time, you know, like you know you have that best friend, you cannot wait to be with, you're like I have so much fun with them and they pour into me and all the things that we love and value and feel valued about. But then when we dive into God's word and he meets us there, then that time with him becomes just as exciting. We desire it just as much as we desire our dates with our friends, you know. Or our date with our husbands and you know. I also heard somebody say something that they make appointments with their kids, you know. They block that time out and man, how important that is for not just God, you know, not just our family. Like everything that we value, it has to be an appointment.

Kim McIntire: 28:31

My daughter and I have a Monday appointment every week, unless she's out of town or I am, or one of us is sick, and it's every Monday at 11 am, until it's time to pick up Phoenix from school. And it's a non-negotiable and it's one reason our relationship has grown to be what it is now is because the priority of time. So, as we just go through this text, our prayer for listeners is if you are not already in relationship and relationship is different from believing in Jesus it really is. So there are people who believe in Jesus and go to church, and that's great. But then there are people who believe in Jesus and follow Jesus and pursue Him in relationship. That's so much better. That's the next level and that's what we're praying over our listeners.

Kim McIntire: 29:29

So, as we go through this psalm, charity's going to read Psalm 23 aloud for us, but at this point we've introduced six key words Know, lord. What do you want me to know? Obey, holy Spirit, is there conviction in this chapter? Are you convicting me of sin, that I need to confess and repent of Confess? No, obey, I skipped one. Sorry, obey, lord, what are you calling me to? Obey, declare, what truth can I declare over my life? And then giving thanks and praising. At this point, in Abide. I encourage students to be using all of those key words, but not in an overwhelming way. They're tools. These words are just. They're intended to connect your mind and heart to the Word through response. So, but at this point, when we get to this chapter, we're really trying to apply those key words and we'll be sharing those at the end, as we've responded to the Lord through this psalm. So, charity, will you go ahead and lead us out?

Laurel Wike: 30:33

Yeah, the Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need. He lets me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He renews my life. He leads me along the right paths. For His name's sake, even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me, your rod and your staff. They comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.

Kim McIntire: 31:12

Amen, amen. So, being guided just by those key words, what responses to the Lord do we have from our heart?

Chalee Brown: 31:22

today, I'll start with no, yeah. And there were several things that jumped out at me down in verse 6, where it says Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I love that and think about that a lot. But one thing that really stood out to me uniquely this time was that that means today. You know it's pursuing me, goodness and mercy are pursuing me today, and I can say that every day. And you know it's easy to think about that in the days where things are going well. Yeah, but think about Psalm 91, 15, where it says I will be with you in trouble, and His goodness and His mercy are still pursuing us on those days that feel like days of trouble and he says call to me and I will answer you.

Chalee Brown: 32:12

I will rescue you and you will honor Me in the days of trouble.

Chalee Brown: 32:16

But then also in verse 3, it says he restores my soul. And that little sentence spoke so much to me. I have a friend who is a naturopath and she talks about how we are a spirit, we have a soul and we live in a body and that all three of those things have to be working in tandem for optimum health. And you know, if we flash back to where we were in Psalm 103, we saw in, I think, verse 3 or 5, it says you forgive all my sins, you heal all my diseases, right. So forgiving sins is like our soul, like, I mean, our spirit, right, like justification in that moment you heal all my diseases, it's my body. And then here we have in Psalm 23, you restore my soul which I've heard described as your soul is your mind, your will, your intellect, your emotion.

Chalee Brown: 33:08

And then that ties us back to Colossians 3, where we started, on week one in Abide, that, as we, you know, set our minds on the realities of heaven. Then we are partnering with God for our soul, our mind, our will, our intellect and our emotions to be restored.

Kim McIntire: 33:27

Powerful, powerful.

Chalee Brown: 33:31

Awesome, good, powerful, yeah, awesome, I know. On obey, I'll jump over to obey. Um, it says he leads me in paths of righteousness, but here's was the kicker for me for his name's sake, and you know a prayer that's been on my heart for however many months this has been. God actually spoke this to me at Rise Up 2024. Come on, shout out for prayer conference. Yes, so that was back in August and there was actually a word spoken to the group and before the word was spoken, god spoke this to me directly and I wrote it in my journal. He just removed the dross, yeah. And then there was a word spoken that literally lined up with that. And you know, if God calls me to be refined, it's not going to feel good, it's not always going to feel good?

Chalee Brown: 34:22

No, Right.

Chalee Brown: 34:23

We don't get to pick how God refines us, and so you know, I may look back, I may be misunderstood, it may affect my pride, it may not feel good, it may. You know. There's so many things, but what the part that jumped out at me is is God glorified. So that's where you know it's like you know what. It doesn't matter if I'm being misunderstood in this season or it doesn't matter if this does not feel good. Right, come on. Is God being glorified? It's good, and that is what he's challenging me to obey in this.

Kim McIntire: 34:56

Obey yeah.

Laurel Wike: 34:57

That's awesome.

Kim McIntire: 34:57

That's a strong call to obedience. Yeah, it really is, yeah.

Laurel Wike: 35:02

So I'm going to go with like a declare I know that's not really in order, but today, no, it says, even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you're with me. And so it was kind of a confess declare Lord, I'm sorry that I don't go to you the first time that I hit darkness and just struggle. You know like sometimes we want to be like angry about it and we want to go talk to our friend about it or whatever. And really this is where that relationship piece comes in, where God wants, god pursues us, and in here he's telling us to pursue him and then he's saying I'm with you, stop swearing.

Chalee Brown: 35:44

Hello.

Laurel Wike: 35:45

So and there's been a lot that has happened in my life and God is so good to redeem my story and he's still working on it and I can't wait till the end of it. But, man, sometimes it's so easy to jump to that fear and so that was like, okay, lord, I'm not coming to you in that fear. That was my confess. And then I declare I am going to not fear because I'm not doing this alone. You're walking with me because I am pursuing Him and because he is my best friend, because he is shepherding, he's guiding me through of this, so I don't have anything to fear. Why would I do that?

Chalee Brown: 36:23

That's so good, yeah, and along the same lines with confessing, talking about fear in verse one, you know where it says the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need, like, how often do we confess the opposite of that and that's my confession is Lord. I have said I don't have everything I need. And you know, thinking about the feeding of the 5,000 in the story, the disciples focused on what they didn't have, but the little boy focused on what he did have.

Chalee Brown: 36:57

Oh good, that is good. Thanks was given for it, and it was multiplied, and what was initially insufficient became sufficient. And so that's my confession, but it also becomes my declaration of I have everything I need, yeah also becomes my declaration of I have everything I need.

Chalee Brown: 37:15

Yeah, you know, the declaration I actually wrote down and wanted to share is, you know, in the end it could just stand all by itself as a declaration right, surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever, that I choose to see the goodness of God. You know, I feel like we talked about this in another episode that the world, laurel, I think you spoke to this that you know, things can just be so negative. It's like what do we not have right? What do we lack in? And I think about the Israelites and how God was with them. He was providing miraculously. And what does the scripture say? It says they were grumbling, you know. So it's a choice. So I choose to say that goodness and mercy will follow me, that you anoint my head with oil, that my cup overflows, you know. And yeah, just looking at the goodness of the Lord versus the complaining that I could go to.

Kim McIntire: 38:16

And Shaylee, I think one reason people struggle with the declare like, for example, what you just said because that declare is very concise, right? So it's very easy to rein that in Right. But I think a lot of people get stuck in this place and this is what I really want to challenge listeners with. Declaring something that you don't feel doesn't make it a lie.

Chalee Brown: 38:40

Yes.

Kim McIntire: 38:42

Yeah, right, absolutely, because you may not feel that scripture emotionally, but truthfully that's irrelevant. Right, because it's God's Word. Yeah, and so what should be happening is, as we declare God's Word and as we choose God's Word, the feelings eventually shift.

Chalee Brown: 39:06

Yeah, that's good Right.

Kim McIntire: 39:08

And so I know. For a long time I used to listen to Joyce Meyer like every day no, I'm not kidding Like for a long time I used to listen to Joyce Meyer like every day no, I'm not kidding. Like a decade ago I listened to Joyce Meyer almost every day on TV and I remember her saying you're not a hypocrite or a liar if you're speaking truth you don't feel, because if it's God's truth, that's a reality, that's not a lie. How you feel is irrelevant, and I love the boldness of that. You know to just tell people, say things you don't feel and see what a difference it makes. Yeah, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. Yeah, end of story.

Kim McIntire: 39:48

Right, yes, satan, right, and maybe let him know that. Right, because he's lying to us all the time. And it's time that we start speaking truth to the enemy, because that's what Jesus did when he came against him. He spoke truth right back, and that devil had to flee, right, yeah, took more than once though, right, yeah, he kept doing it. Yeah, by the third time the devil's gone. So I don't know. I just really wanted to. Just when you were saying that, I was like you say that with such a bold confidence, but it's because you practice declaring yeah, that if it's new to you, it's not going to feel comfortable at first.

Chalee Brown: 40:24

Right, so to speak to that a little bit. I think that you know, the enemy really twists. God gave us emotion, twists. God gave us emotion, right, god gave us that. And the enemy can really twist it to say, well, okay, I'm going to base my day off how I feel today. Well, that's not what God gave us. And I think about the Psalms, and how many Psalms. It started in a place of just emotional despair. And what did David or Solomon or whoever is writing that Psalm, what did they do? And what did David or Solomon or whoever is writing that psalm, what did they do? They spoke to their spirit and they said get up, know that the goodness of the Lord is here. So I mean just the realness and the rawness of like seeing that in the psalms and being like you know what? There's a spiritual giant. You know, and just you know we can get control of our emotions and they don't have to rule us. But God has given them to us for a reason and they can be used for good.

Kim McIntire: 41:17

Yeah, it's true. Yeah, it's very true, wow.

Laurel Wike: 41:21

Other thoughts. I'm just going to throw a thanks and praise in there, because we haven't hit that a whole lot. But at the end of verse four it says your rod and your staff. They comfort me.

Laurel Wike: 41:32

I studied a little bit of the shepherd, right, and I know we do that a little bit, talking about this too and John 10 hits on it. But the rod and the staff is the authority, and that's the authority that God gives us to walk in, and sometimes we don't remember that we have that authority that God has given us to. So you know, through all of these things, he's saying I'm your shepherd and you have access to that authority. And I'm like thank you, god, that you have given us access and I can access. It's an easy access too, right, he's right there, and so I just think I'm so thankful for that authority. But then when he comforts me, he's not just comforting me and giving me a pat on the back, he gives me strength and peace, man, that only comes from Him, right. So I'm just so grateful for that that he's not just walking with me, he's giving me authority and peace, so true.

Chalee Brown: 42:22

Yeah, that's really good.

Kim McIntire: 42:23

My praise and thanks is I'm so thankful the Lord guides me and gives me rest. He leads me, restores and directs and protects me, anoints me, and His goodness and mercy overflows. It's up to me to receive it right. Open hand, open heart unto the Lord. He's pouring it out. I have to decide whether I receive it or not, so that means being in agreement with Him. So that's my praise and my thanks that all through Psalm 23, we see who God is, but we also see what he does, and it's beautiful. Any thoughts before we move into prayer practice?

Chalee Brown: 43:04

Yeah, just talking about resting and rest is actually my word for this year and really enjoying that word. But it's interesting Again. We've talked about before reading in different translations and this verse 2, where one translation New Living says he lets me rest in green meadows, says he lets me rest in green meadows but ESV, which is more of a word for word, is he makes me lie down in green pastures. And you know, sometimes we need that, we need that little like nope. We're doing this right now. You know, and I've heard it said, that if you don't make time for rest you'll have to make time for sickness.

Chalee Brown: 43:49

And you know, Sabbath is God's gift to us and our culture doesn't embrace that. Well, but when we look at the fruit of not embracing it, His gift to us, it's destruction in our lives. You know, it's true, and so I am embracing that and that's actually my. My obey is to lie down in green pastures. You know, we often think of like God is going to tell me to do this hard thing or this hard thing, but sometimes he's like, hey, just chill out for a minute.

Laurel Wike: 44:24

Yeah for sure. My favorite one is the Passion Version, which I'm going to read in just a second. But that one says he offers a resting place, and then that, to me, goes back to what Kim was saying is we have to embrace it. It's an obedience, right. He's saying here, it is for you, are you going to do it? Are you going to take it? Are you going to obey? Yeah, go ahead, charity, all right.

Laurel Wike: 44:46

So this is the passion version, and this was one of the first times that I started looking at different versions, and this one spoke to my soul, where I was just like, oh my gosh, this is where God connected me to His heart in a way that I'm not just looking for a father like. He's more than that, and you'll hear that here. It says Yahweh, which I think most everybody knows. That's the breath, that's the air in our lungs. Right, he's my best friend and my shepherd. I always have more than enough.

Laurel Wike: 45:25

He offers a resting place for me in His luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace near the quiet brook of bliss. That's where he restores my soul and revives my life. He opens before me the right path and he leads me along in His footsteps of righteousness, so that I can bring honor to His name, Even when your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness. Fear will never conquer me, because you already have your authority, is my strength and my peace. The comfort of your love takes away my fear. I'll never be lonely, for you are near. You become my delicious feast. Even when my enemies dare to fight, you anoint me with the fragrance of the Holy Spirit. You give me all I can drink until my cup overflows. So why would I fear the future? Only goodness and tender love pursue me all the days of my life. Then afterward, when my life is through, I'll return to your glorious presence to forever be with you.

Kim McIntire: 46:41

And if that's not an invitation to relationship, I do not know what is. And our encouragement, this is Charity, shaley Laurel's heart as well. Be in relationship with your Creator, give Him time, be encouraged by Him, let Him hold you accountable. That's healthy, that's a gift. To be accountable to our Creator. Give Him time to listen and let Him speak. Be present as he is present with you. Don't be distracted by all the cares in the world. The most important appointment is your appointment with God, and we can all attest to this. It has radically changed our lives.

Kim McIntire: 47:42

I've watched you guys over the past couple of years and it's incredibly humbling that the Lord has allowed me to even do this journey with you, because you all have said I've learned so much. But the truth is I've learned so much as, I quote, teach and pour out. But you guys have taught and poured out to me, and that's the beauty of community and sisterhood. And so, listeners, we are so grateful that you're part of this community of Abide, but if you are anywhere close to the Joplin area, when there is another session open and just continue to look back at our website, we would invite you to join an in-person class. But until then, stick with us on Abide on the podcast.

Kim McIntire: 48:36

We're going to talk about the prayer practice now. This is a little trickier to do in the studio because when we do it in class, we're practicing listening to the Lord, which requires period of silence, patience, and so together we would just pray with a partner and we would listen to the Holy Spirit and, as the Lord would speak to us, we would pray over our prayer partner and then they would do the same for us. What are some experiences that you guys had when we did that? Does anyone want to share? Go ahead, shailene.

Chalee Brown: 49:13

I think that for me, a big component that the Lord had to kind of stop me in my tracks was in humility, and I kind of have just a little story with it. Again, back to the. I'm telling you guys, it's really powerful, if you have a chance to go to Rise Up 2025, be there. So this actually happened at Rise Up 2024. And it was really short, it was not a huge interaction and that was kind of the point of it.

Chalee Brown: 49:41

I had walked up to the altar and I had been in prayer and I was just on my way back from the altar and a leader that I highly respect was nearby and as I walked by she stopped me and she said she had a word for me and she literally spoke one.

Chalee Brown: 50:01

I think she spoke like one short sentence and what really impacted me with that, in combination with what Kim had been teaching us with listening to the Lord, is the humility of like not trying to speak all this grand wisdom, just speak what the Lord is saying, and so, just that she could, like stop me in that moment, speak that one sentence or whatever, let it be and not add to it, because that's what she felt.

Chalee Brown: 50:34

That really impacted me. And then being in our setting, you know, with Kim in the Abide class, I think just the Lord really honored that me stepping back and saying, lord, I only want to speak what you have. So I know that when we will pray for somebody at the end, that was another kind of component and we were all kind of praying and we would just kind of jump in as the Lord spoke and just to be able to say, okay, I'm just speaking this one short phrase that the Holy Spirit just spoke, and then I'm pausing, and then maybe in a few minutes he gave me something else, but being okay with that and leaving it there because that really was the word from the Lord. So that I was my biggest takeaway from just growing in this prayer practice.

Kim McIntire: 51:17

Amen, and also being okay with silence, right, because I would just be like sometimes the Lord speaks very directly, sometimes he's silent and that's okay. It's still important to press in and listen Anyone else?

Laurel Wike: 51:36

Yeah. So when we were doing this with your Bide group and like what Chaley was talking about we pray over, I was not bold in my prayers. I was actually very much like I don't know what to say. I kept thinking I don't know what words or whatever. And so when we did this listen the first time and we prayed, I was trying to listen and so I got literally one word that kept coming and I was like, okay, is that you, lord? And then somebody else spoke the exact same word and I was like, okay, that's confirmation, when somebody else is speaking a word, that you are.

Laurel Wike: 52:11

So again, you know I'm listening and I finally had the boldness to speak out and somebody else, almost the exact same time, said the same thing.

Laurel Wike: 52:18

So there's no way that you know, it was like it was just the Holy Spirit and the power of the Holy Spirit. And so then you gain that holy confidence of God is giving that to me, knowing that I need that you know, to speak in that boldness and to listen and to know that I'm hearing His voice. Sometimes it's easier to hear His voice when we're in His Word. You know, it was easier for me at first to hear it in His Word because I'm like that is relational and it's personal. But then when we're praying over somebody else and then I will never forget praying over somebody at church and I heard something that wasn't really what I thought was applicable and when we got done she was like that's exactly what it was and her healing came. So that was the first time that I had prayed over somebody and I'll never forget it because that was where God met me and I was listening to what he said and I had the boldness to speak.

Kim McIntire: 53:08

What I was hearing and I love that you had been practicing.

Laurel Wike: 53:12

Yes, listening.

Kim McIntire: 53:14

Because when you're practicing the listening is when you get very good at hearing. But when you're not practicing the listening, I hear so many people say the Lord just doesn't speak to me. How do you hear from the Lord all the time? This is how I hear from the Lord. First, in the Word. Time in the Word I will say every day. It's not a legalism thing for me, it's a desire from my heart. Second, by just being quiet and letting him talk. A lot of people just don't want to take time to be silent for five minutes, but wow, if you'll do that and let it increase over time, sometimes, though, he'll speak in 30 seconds. I don't have to wait five minutes.

Kim McIntire: 53:51

So anyway anybody else before we just go?

Chalee Brown: 53:54

Yeah, I'll just share a story of a time where I was sitting with two other women and we were listening and I was actually in a season where I had kind of walked through some things and was coming to a place where I felt like there was going to be some resolution in this situation and the church had been in a 21-day fast and I was like at the end of the 21-day fast, I am taking action, like I know what I am going to do, right, I'm like, unless the Lord says something else, right, but I really felt at peace and I didn't feel like the Lord was going to say something else. So it's day 21, sitting with these ladies and neither of them really knew the situation, and they got the same word. One got the word timing and another one got the word no time limit and I was like, oh, dang it, because I just knew in that moment I was like the Lord was like you're so cute that you have your plans, but that's not my plan. I'm like, really, you had to wait till day 21? Like I'm going to do this tomorrow, right? But I think that also just really speaks to you.

Chalee Brown: 55:14

Know, many are the plans in a man's heart but the counsel of the Lord, it will stand. And if we are willing to wait, like because I really thought like I had a peace about what I was going to do, I'd prayed about it, like, but I gave the Lord time and I'm so thankful for Churchwide Fasts, but he spoke, and he spoke so clearly and I just knew and I was like okay, okay, and I think that's part of the beauty of just taking those times. I mean, what a gift to have a circle of friends, that this is what we do for fun. It is.

Chalee Brown: 55:49

We talked about that on the drive over Our fun is ministry yeah.

Chalee Brown: 55:54

Important on the drive over. Our fun is ministry, yeah, so I just wanted to bring one more thing back around really quickly, because I know for me to digest this. I'm just kind of speaking to the listeners. I love that you're using the word prayer practice, right, because you know it's interesting. We were just in Psalm 23, and here we're talking about the shepherd right and a shepherd, shepherd, sheep right. So then another part of the scripture it says the sheep know my voice, right? So, as you talk about this in a prayer practice, I just want to speak to anybody who's struggling with that, who, like, might be thinking about things about the Lord as, like you know, they feel embarrassed or they feel awkward or they feel like, oh, I'm less spiritual because, whatever these are practices, these are things that, like, we all can have a weakness in if we're not practicing them. So I just wanted to take away that element of like that the Lord just comes over us on day one and, just like you know, we have a part in that.

Chalee Brown: 56:52

You know, the Bible says that we co-labor with the Lord, and so I just wanted to speak to the fact that, like it doesn't take away from the spiritual side of it, like that you're saying that it is a practice, Right, I think it's just walking with the Lord, abiding with the Lord and growing from glory to glory.

Laurel Wike: 57:07

Absolutely Well, and I think it's Hebrews where he talks about the discipline, and we don't like the word discipline, but I mean, you think about running a 5K. You can't get off the couch and run a 5K in the same day. It's the same thing with a relationship. I'm not best friends with that person because I met them today. It's because I'm spending time and I'm learning about them, and so it's the same thing with our prayer. It's the communication that we learn how to communicate with people. Not everybody's the same, you're right. So it's exactly what you're talking about. We're practicing and we're disciplining ourselves. It's not legalism, it's love, it's a love language, it's a desire, it's a pursuit of Him, because he pursues us, but we're learning from Him, and that discipline is that race that we run to get there.

Kim McIntire: 57:56

Yeah, and it's really driven by love. Yeah, and we just want everyone to be able to grasp it so they can experience the joy of it. Oh yeah.

Kim McIntire: 58:07

Because there is joy in His presence. There is fullness of joy, psalm 1611, one of my favorite verses At His right hand there are pleasures forevermore. So when I taught this in class, we were praying with partners, listening and being still so. I would encourage all the listeners to sit in silence this week. Get alone with the Lord, if you aren't already doing that. Listening is part of the relationship. Listen to His voice through His Word, listen to His voice through silence, and then be delighted by what he speaks. Even if it's difficult things, there's purpose and the purpose is always going to be good. So any other thoughts before we pray? Ladies, okay, we're ready to pray.

Kim McIntire: 59:00

Father. God, thank you for this opportunity to just pour over the pages of Scripture to glean truth and encouragement, hope, strength from your Word. You are the good shepherd. We pray that every listener will come into a personal, intimate relationship with you. God. We ask right now, through the power of your Holy Spirit, god, that you would stir up hearts to spend time with you, that there would be many God appointments on calendars this week and in the coming weeks. Lord of 2025.

Kim McIntire: 59:43

We pray for our listeners to hear your voice speak, as they set aside time for silence. God, we pray that your name would be honored and glorified through this podcast. Lord, filter our words, that only what the Spirit would speak would be heard by the listeners. We love you. We love you, lord. We praise your name. We thank you that you speak. Speak to us, us speak through us. Help us abide in you as you abide in us. For apart from you, father, we can do nothing, and it is in the holy and powerful name of King Jesus that we pray. Amen. Thank you, ladies, for being here again for Abide. Thank you for listening today. Be sure to check us out on our website at itstimetoriseuporg, where you will find our social media links. Time to rise uporg, where you will find our social media links. May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you in Jesus mighty name.