Your Joyful Order With Leslie Martinez
Ever wish you had your own personal cheerleader or coach in your ear, whispering encouraging words? Telling you how to kick butt in life, plus showing you how to get there? That’s exactly what you’ll get when you tune into Your Joyful Order Podcast. Each week you’ll get a mixture of preaching and teaching from your host Leslie Martinez who is a Certified Life Coach, Business Owner, Wife and Mom. Listen along for some entertaining real talk about life, business and relationships. Leslie wants to help you to reach your goals and motivate you to live out your God given purpose, by bringing you insightful knowledge, resources and sharing some tips and tricks to take action. No topic is off the table here, just know that faith will always be the foundation of our conversations and an occasional kick in the butt might come in the most loving way! Get ready to take your life to the next level and learn how to chase joy!
Your Joyful Order With Leslie Martinez
#81 Strengthening Your Faith: Building Strong Foundations in Scripture
Welcome to season five of Joyful Order Podcast, where we're focusing on strengthening your faith. This season introduces a fresh and exciting format, complete with an impressive lineup of guests who will share practical insights on building a rock-solid faith foundation. I promise you engaging conversations that are not only transformative but also full of joy.
In this episode, we begin with an exploration of Bible study as a cornerstone for strengthening faith. Think of the Bible as God's love letter and instruction manual for life. I give practical tips for beginners, such as starting with the New Testament—particularly the Gospels—and introduce you to the SOAP method (Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer) that has been a game changer in my spiritual journey for nearly two decades.
Join me for a new season where we will learn together, grow together, laugh a lot and chase joy!!
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Are you ready to level up your spiritual game? Let's hit the faith gym and tone those spiritual muscles. I know I'm being totally cheesy. Welcome back to your Joyful Order podcast. We're kicking off season five with a bang, focusing on the topic of strengthening your faith and sharing ways on how to build a rock solid foundation. Get ready to dive deep, laugh loud and come out on the other side feeling spiritually fit and inspired. On the other side, feeling spiritually fit and inspired, let's just say the show will be a mixture of preaching and teaching, with a kick of motivation from your girl here.
Speaker 1:Welcome to your Joyful Order podcast. Welcome back, friends. It is so good to be back with you all. I know it's been a while, but trust me, it's been worth the wait. We are kicking off season five worth the wait.
Speaker 1:We are kicking off season five yes, season five with a brand new format that I am incredibly excited about. This season, I thought that we would change up the format a bit and try a new layout for the podcast. I will be doing a monthly theme for the conversation and then chatting about specific topics that relate to the theme for the month. Now I have some pretty exciting and epic guests already lined up to share in the conversations and I can't wait for you to hear them. I curated just some really specific guests that I knew would be able to speak to you on some of these conversations that we're about to have. Can I just say that the guest list is probably the most epic guest list that I have had in all my seasons. I know I say that about like all of them. This is probably the best guest. But y'all, when I tell you, it's just, it's going to be good. I have never had this amount of talent of guests in one season. Let's just put it that way, and I'm not going to name drop just yet. I'm going to let you wait to hear who I have lined up when they come in or when they come on the show. But I am like just so giddy just thinking about who I managed to land this season and I just I want to tell y'all one thing. Can I, can I just tell you one thing? Can I be real with you guys right now? Do not be afraid of getting told. No, that's all I want to tell you.
Speaker 1:I played it safe for the first four seasons of the podcast. Asking people and guests that I knew was almost like a guaranteed yes. And this year, for season five, I got out of my comfort zone and I asked some pretty big people um, very talented people, by the way to be a guest on my podcast. And you know what they actually said yes, like you guys, my podcast like it's not a top rank podcast. I don't have millions of downloads Like some of these other top podcasters do, and I managed to land people that have really big followings and all I did was ask them hey, would you like to be in my podcast? And they said yes. I am Like when I say I'm giddy, I am so giddy. Now I also want to add this. I'm going to be completely honest with y'all In my heart, season four was going to be my last season of the podcast, like ever.
Speaker 1:I kind of ended it where I just was like oh, we'll see when we come back, and I just wasn't sure if we were going to come back. I felt like I was done. I was completely overwhelmed. I'll be honest, I was unmotivated and I just really I self-doubted myself. I didn't have the motivation to keep recording. When I like would look at the download numbers, I would get discouraged and they weren't where I wanted them to be and I just felt you know what? People aren't listening, people are getting bored of me, they don't want to hear me ramble on. But again, god always, always reminds me.
Speaker 1:Leslie, I called you to do this for just the one, and when I prayed deep about it and had conversations with my husband about it, my husband, off the bat, steve, was like I'm not done, we're not done, no, you're not hanging up the mic Like we're going to keep going. And I had to dig deep with myself and kind of unpack some stuff as to why I didn't want to keep going. And God just reminded me again. I called you to do the do this for just the one, but you're not done yet. So I had to put all my big girl chonies and suck it up and I had to think of a way to make this podcast more exciting, not just for you but for me, so that I could keep going and keep doing what I am passionate about, and that is to bring joy and order to your everyday life. So that's where the idea of a monthly theme and asking some very talented, like out of reach people to be a guest on my podcast. So enough about how we got here to season five, let's dive in to this episode. Enough about how we got here to season five, let's dive in to this episode.
Speaker 1:So our theme for this month's episode is all about strengthening your faith. Can I get an amen? This is something I think we all need right, no matter what level, like where you're at with your faith, walk with God. We all need to learn how to strengthen our faith. I know, I know, I know you're probably thinking another faith-based podcast, another faith-based episode. But stick with me. We're going to do things a little differently around here. We're going to get real, we're going to be practical and things are going to be life-changing for you.
Speaker 1:I promise you, the topics that I have planned for this theme of strengthening your faith are really going to be life-changing. And the people that I have asked to speak on this theme I mean talk about next level people talk about discipleship, people talk about knowledgeable, theological people. Your mind is going to be blown, but today I get to be your special guest. I'm not theological, I'm not, like you know, next level teacher here. I'm just everyday, ordinary me that God called to bring a word to you. So today we're just going to lay the foundation for this incredible journey about just deepening your faith and building strong foundations in scripture.
Speaker 1:So that's our topic of conversation today under the theme of strengthening your faith. It is how to deepen our faith by building a strong foundation in scripture. I know it sounds something like you've heard a million times before, but I promise you we're going to uncover some very fresh perspectives and actionable steps that you can take to grow closer to God. I'm also going to throw like some cold Bible facts out to you that you may or may not have known. That, I think, will really help you to go deeper with your study time in the Bible. So let's face it, life can be completely overwhelming. Between work, family, the constant noise of the world, social media that distracts us, it's easy to let our spiritual lives just take a back seat. But I believe that a strong foundation in God's word is the key to overcoming life's challenges and experiencing just true joy and peace.
Speaker 1:Now I want to share with you the importance of studying the Bible. So why is studying the Bible so important? Well, for starters, it's God's love letter to you. It's God's love letter to me. It's God's love letter to your enemies. God wrote this book for everybody. It is a roadmap for life. It is filled with wisdom. It is filled with guidance and encouragement. It's where we learn about God's character. We learn about his promises and his plans for our lives. When we spend time in God's word, we're connecting with the author of life itself.
Speaker 1:You know we've heard the phrase so many times like oh, I wish life came with an instruction manual. Or if you're a mom and when you gave birth and you have this child that you have no idea what to do with, and you're like oh, I wish life came with an instruction manual. Or if you're a mom and when you gave birth and you have this child that you have no idea what to do with, and you're like I wish this child came with an instruction manual. God created us and he gave us an instruction manual and it's called the Bible. It is. This is our instruction manual for life.
Speaker 1:And so many people first don't know how to use it or, intimidated by it, some don't believe what it says. But I promise you this book has so much life in it. This book is like, it's a living book that can apply to you in any season of life that you are in, and it will speak to you differently based on the seasons of life that you are in. I can read the same passage like over and over and over again, but depending on the season that I am in life, those words are going to have different value to me at that moment, in where I am in my life. Now, let's be honest reading the Bible can feel very overwhelming, especially if you're new to it or if you haven't been consistent. That's why I want to share some practical tips with you that you can just incorporate in your daily routine to read the Bible and then really learn to grasp what this book has for you.
Speaker 1:So we're going to start right here with giving you some great Bible study tips. If you want to take notes on this, which I advise you go take notes. Pause here. Go grab something to take notes with, or open up your little note app on your phone and you can take notes. Pause here. Go grab something to take notes with, or open up your little note app on your phone and you can take notes as you listen. But here's a good time to go um, write these things down that I'm going to share with you. So I'm going to share some daily Bible study tips.
Speaker 1:Tip number one is to start small. Don't feel pressure at all to read the entire Bible in one sitting or even the entire Bible in one year. There's those like oh, read the Bible in one year, plan Y'all. Those are intense. I am not going to lie. People try to start with that and I'm going to tell you don't do that. Don't do that. That is not for beginners. They make it seem like it is for beginners. It's not. You're going to feel like an epic failure because you have to read like three to four chapters of the Bible a day. There are like thousands of chapters of the Bible. So don't do that. I'm going to tell you right now don't feel pressure to read the entire Bible or read multiple chapters in one day. Begin with just a few verses or just one chapter a day. That's it, just one chapter a day.
Speaker 1:Tip number two you want to start in the New Testament, primarily reading first Matthew, luke, mark, john, or they are better known as the gospels. The first four books of the new Testament are known as the gospels. The gospels are an account of Jesus's life and it's where most people can find familiarity. Most people know about Jesus. They're familiar with what he did. They're familiar with, like, his miracles. You know, oh, jesus turned water to wine. You know he healed the sick. You know of Jesus's crucifixion, how he rose from the dead. You're familiar with the stories here and you want to start with where you're familiar Now Matthew, luke, mark and John. They each wrote about their own perspective on following Jesus and his life. So you're going to read the same events, miracles, all of that like four different times, but it's going to be written from different perspectives from each of them. Which is why you want to start there, because you're hearing about Jesus's miracles not just once, not just twice, not just three times, but four times. And hearing it from Matthew's perspective, luke's perspective, mark's perspective and John's perspective gives you a bigger picture to understand and grasp the life of Jesus. So that is tip number two is you want to start in the New Testament Now.
Speaker 1:Tip number three you want to find a quiet place where you can focus, turn off distractions, create a peaceful environment to allow you some quiet time with God. Tip number four use a study Bible or devotion to help you understand the text. There are so many great resources that are available out there to help you to like go deeper. But I strongly recommend that you use some form of a study Bible and then that you also look at um. You know devotions that can go along with it.
Speaker 1:And what is a devotion? A devotion is actually another great way to start reading the Bible, because a devotion will give you just one little verse and then it'll give you someone's perspective on that verse. So I have a devotion from one of my favorite pastors. Her name's Christine Kane and it's just one little verse. So I have a devotion from one of my favorite pastors. Her name's Christine Kane and it's just one little verse and then she basically will take that verse and write her own perspective of what she got out of the verse and she might give some life application to it.
Speaker 1:And there are tons of different devotions that are out there. You can find a devotion on just like the book of Psalms, specific books of the Bible or from very numerous different authors. A lot of very well-known pastors have devotions as well. There are themed devotions, you know, devotions for joy, devotions that help you get through anxiety, like tons of different devotions. If you don't want to start necessarily with an actual Bible, looking for just a devotion is another great way to start.
Speaker 1:All right, let's go to tip number five. Tip number five is to be consistent. Make Bible study a habit for you, even if it's just for a few minutes. Over time you'll see a significant difference in your spiritual life when you read every day. Now I will be honest with you. I started off where I would just do like a daily devotion. I'm really good at making sure that I get my daily devotion in and that's just one little verse, someone's perspective, and then bam, I'm done. It literally takes me like two minutes to read a devotion. Now, when I read my Bible, this is where things come to life and I like to spend a little bit more time.
Speaker 1:Now I have my own personal morning routine that consists of my gratitude, goals and prayer journal, which you can buy on Amazon and the link is in the show notes if you want to get my own journal there. But I do my journal. I read my devotion, I have a little one line a day journal that I write in and then I do my Bible study. All of this takes me about 45 minutes. Y'all Like and some of you are thinking I don't have 45 minutes and others were like that's it, that's all it takes you, and this is going deep with the Bible. Some mornings I kid you, not some mornings I can do it in 20 minutes, like it just depends how the verse that I chose to study. It just depends how deep I go with the verse that I chose to study. It just depends how deep I go with the verse. But at the longest it will take me about 45 minutes.
Speaker 1:Now, being consistent is the key factor here. I used to just do my Bible study three times a week and then in January of this year of 2024, god really challenged me and said hey, you need to read the Bible every day. Now my everyday routine goes from Monday through Friday. On the weekends, if I have time in the morning to do my full morning routine, I do it. A lot of times I don't have it, because Saturday mornings we like to wake up early, go on a hike, sunday we go to church and we serve and all these different things. We try to do family stuff. But if it's a slow morning and I know that I have time, I do it. And then we also like to sleep in on the weekends. I don't want to get up at 6am and, you know, open my Bible during that time I'm like, oh, I want to sleep in. So I give myself grace over the weekends and I kind of treat the weekends as like my Sabbath time, where I'm not like forcing myself to do this discipline. I've already created the discipline to do it every day, monday through Friday, so I'm happy with that. However, I used to only do my deep dive Bible study, um, like I said, twice or three times a week when I got consistent with it in January. Y'all, all I'm going to say is that I went to the next level in understanding the Bible because when I am consistent, reading like from one chapter to the next and going deep and understanding who wrote it, when they wrote it, why they wrote it, putting some of that application to heart, it allowed me to see things on a very different level. Consistency is key with that. Now let's go back.
Speaker 1:Tip number six this is the final one Find community. It is so important that you join a community to allow you to be accountable, but then also to allow you to just get feedback from people and share in some of the challenges that you might be. You know, reading through and you you can do this by joining online communities, find a group at your local church, um, using apps. There are tons of apps I did want to share with you too. I meant to share this with you earlier. The Bible app it's the gateway Bible app. If you type the Bible app, it's the Gateway Bible app. If you type in the Bible app, it's going to be the first one that comes up. It's a little brown book and it just says like the Bible. It looks like the Bible. It's a little brown book and it's by Gateway. That is probably one of the best apps that are out there. There's an online community on there. Let me finish with this.
Speaker 1:Tip. Number six is that online community. You can join an online community. You can share with friends. It almost is like set up like a social media where you can invite friends to join you on the app and you guys can share, like the verses that you read through there. Or you can just join a random online community that they have in there. You can look for like-minded groups, like-minded people that are within the app itself. I personally don't use that for that reason, but what I do is I join community groups in my church. I will post certain stuff on my social media I do weekly. You know I try to do weekly devotions with my family. It's summer right now. We've been a little off. I'm going to be totally honest, but I know once we get back into the groove of things, like my husband and I before we went into summer we were doing weekly devotions of just him and I sitting and doing, you know, some, some stuff together. So find accountability and community, because it is important for you to be able to go deeper.
Speaker 1:Now let's go back to the Bible app. I wanted to share this, one of the things that I do that have allowed me to even go deeper. So I get my good old, trusty Bible out. I've had this Bible for 23 years. It used to have a leather cover on it and it completely chipped away, so now it's just like this little soft cloth cover and pages are ripped and torn and tabs have come off and it is highlighted in red, blue, pink, green, like all kinds of colors. But I keep coming back to it.
Speaker 1:Now what I do is I open up my Bible to the reading that I am reading for the day, so I take my Bible out to where I'm reading and then I get actually my phone and I open up the Bible app. This is a great thing too, y'all, this is a great thing. You can actually like hit play on the Bible app and it'll read it to you. So I have this very deep theologian voice. That's and Jesus said I will walk with you. Don't you love my theologian voice? You can pick your voice on there, which is really cool. But I found this voice that he sounds the most biblical of all the voices that were on there. I was like, oh, this guy walked with Jesus. He sounds like a disciple voice and very stern and firm and has a little bit of an accent. So I picked a voice that I felt speaks to me to read the Bible. So what I do is I hit play on my Bible app and then I sit with my actual Bible and I am following along with the audio as I read along.
Speaker 1:Now you want to make sure, when you're in the Bible app, that you actually pick the same version. So my Bible is an NIV version, so you can pick all the different versions. In the Bible app. There's King James version message. You know all of these different ones, so you want to match so that when you're reading along they, you know, for the most part they go hand in hand and that's also what helps me to not get distracted when I'm reading it and makes my mind like, start wondering. It keeps me in the word because I'm hearing the audio of it and I'm reading along with it, so it's like a read-along book.
Speaker 1:Remember those? As a kid you had like a read-along book. It kept you engaged in the book you would put like your little cassette player. You know, remember those old little cassette player. Okay, I'm totally going off on a tangent, but remember back in the day when we were kids growing up, you had little read-along book like you would get the book from the library, have the cassette player in there. You'd go home with your cute little like Teddy Ruxpin cassette player. Do you guys remember those came with a little microphone I'm aging myself way too much but you put your tape player in there and then you got the book and then it had a little cute sound that went like and it tells you turn the page. Do you remember that? Well, that's the experience that you get, although you don't get that little magical sound that allows you to tell you to turn the page because you're just reading along in scripture. But that has been a game changer for me in studying the Bible. Another game changer, and this is the big one y'all studying the Bible. Another game changer, and this is the big one y'all. This is the big takeaway that I want you to take in allowing you to strengthen your faith in building a good Bible study habit.
Speaker 1:Here it is called the SOAP method. An effective way to study the Bible is by using the SOAP method. Nowap stands for scripture, observation, application and prayer. It is a simple but powerful tool that can help you to engage in God's word on a deeper level. Now, this has been my personal choice of Bible study for like the past almost 20 years Y'all, I'm not lying Almost 20 years. I want to share with you this method and it's just a really simple way to learn how to study the Bible and it's it's worked for me for for that long, and I will say that since I started being more consistent and reading the Bible on a daily basis and doing or using this method, it is a really that. That is, I feel, what really has taken me to the next level as well. So let's start here and let let me. Let me go back a little bit here.
Speaker 1:Now, the soap method I wish I could give credit where credit is due. I do not know who actually invented this method of Bible study. It is well-known across, like all churches going way back my church that I started at, where I was at staff on years ago, we had created community groups where we did soap and we had, like I want to say, almost hundreds of community groups that would be in local cities. You could go to your local coffee shop and stuff like that and join people in your community in a soap Bible study and it was phenomenal, it was absolutely great. This was back before social media really blew up and then things went online. Now there are lots of online soap communities and I will share with you how to get plugged into a soap community at the end of this episode.
Speaker 1:To get plugged into a soap community at the end of this episode, but y'all, it was just something that was a great way for me to get introduced on how to study the Bible and it just stuck with me since, and to my surprise, I will say I took a poll recently on my social media because I share often the scriptures, or I will actually share my like whole write-up of what I got that day on my social media. And I had I had mentioned the soap method of Bible study before and someone asked, like, what is that? And I explained to them what it is and they were like, oh, I never heard of that before. So I took a poll on my social media asking you know my thousands of followers, hey, how have you ever heard of the soap method? And to my surprise, the majority of the people had never heard of the soap method before. So this is why I wanted to do this episode also to share with you. But it also might be in the works of something that is launching this fall. Maybe this fall, if not early 2025, that has to do with the whole soap. I'll just tell y'all y'all a soap journal is coming. Just just wait for it. Just wait for it. I'm not going to keep it a big secret, but a soap journal is coming. Y'all just be ready. So let's dive deep into what the soap method actually consists of. Again, s stands for scripture.
Speaker 1:Now, what you want to do is you want to just read a passage or look for a scripture from your reading of the Bible. Now, going back a little bit here, I encourage you to start with Matthew, mark, luke or John, right In the New Testament. That's where you're going to start. So your first book that you're going to read is Matthew. We're going to get very practical here, because I got my Bible open here. Can y'all hear the pages? I got my Bible right here. I got my Bible. We're going to be very practical in this episode. You're going to start in Matthew. Now, matthew, hold on, hold on, just hold on. I'm even going. I'm going to go beyond this. I think it's important for you guys to know this and I didn't have this in my show notes. But I'm going to go a little step further than this. But I'm going to go a little step further than this. Now I explained why you want to start in Matthew, or in the in the gospels, which is Matthew, mark, luke and John in the new Testament. Let me explain a little bit of the Bible as well.
Speaker 1:Now, there are 66 books in the Bible. Okay, now, if you get a Bible and you open up to Genesis, that's one book. Genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers, deuteronomy those are each books in the Bible. Those are Old Testament, right. And then you get to the New Testament. You guys are going to hear me rattling through my pages and it's okay. I'm not stressing that. You guys hear this. Normally I don't like background noise, but you know what I'm going through background noise, but you know what I'm going through.
Speaker 1:Now, in the New Testament, you have Matthew, Mark, luke, john, acts, 1 Corinthians or Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, galatians, so forth and so forth. Those are all books. There's 66 books in the Bible Now. There are 40 authors that wrote them, so there are authors that wrote numerous books. Paul wrote like the majority of the New Testament, just so y'all know. Paul wrote, I don't know, he wrote Acts, he wrote Romans, he wrote 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, galatians, ephesians, philippians. He wrote all those. Y'all Just say Paul wrote the majority of the new Testament. Um, so that's where you only get 40 authors. Now here's something new that I literally just learned this week and it was mind blowing to me and, and, and it just all made sense afterwards. Okay, and I'm going to share this piece of information with you because it's going to help you to study the Bible and the scripture even more.
Speaker 1:Now, the Old Testament, the original context or the original language of the Old Testament was like Hebrew and Aramaic, because during the time of when the Old Testament was written, that was the common language that was spoken during that time, the common language that was spoken during that time. Now, the new Testament forward to you know, jesus, new Testament, time comes and it is. The new Testament was actually written in Greek because that during the time was like when the Roman empire ruled and the Romans, they spoke Greek. So when you are looking for the true meaning of the dialect of the scriptures, if you're in the Old Testament, you want to look at what the Hebrew context or dialect of the words actually mean, and then, if you're in the New Testament, you want to look at what the Greek meanings are of it. Okay, so we're going to flip here to Matthew.
Speaker 1:So let's get back to picking your scripture. You're starting in Matthew. Okay, now I already have a verse underlined here, because this is a verse that I've picked before. Now you have the book which is Matthew, the chapter, which is one. There's 28 chapters in here, and then within each chapter there are verses, and that's how you determine what the scripture is. So the scripture that I am going to use, for example, here, is Matthew 1, 23. And it says here the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. Now it just so happens that here, in this context now this is a scripture, this is a scripture I read there is in chapter one. There it goes up to verse 24. So there's 24 verses in here. It'll probably take you like a whole three or four minutes to read all 24 verses. It's not long at all, I promise you.
Speaker 1:And then, from the verses that you read, you're going to determine what scripture like stood out to me. What is the passage that I feel God is speaking to me, or one that I just want to go deep with and maybe understand the context a little bit more? So that is the verse right there. They will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. Now we're lucky in this one because they already gave us Emmanuel that is Greek word and they gave us the meaning, which means God with us. That's what it means in Greek, and you know that now because your girl taught you something, because it's a new Testament passage, which means you're going to look up what the Greek meaning of the word is. So you take the scripture, all right, and the S part is you're just writing the scripture out Matthew 1, 23.
Speaker 1:Next we go to observation. What do you notice about the text? What words or phrases stand out? What stood out to me here? It really stood out God is with us, god with us. The word Emmanuel, that's what really stood out to me. Now, this verse in particular gave us the meaning of it, of what the word was, the Greek meaning of it. That is what I normally will do and this is whatever I observed. But there's a word or phrase or something that stood out to me. I might go to good old Google or use my Gemini or chat GPT and I will say what is the Greek meaning of the word this Emmanuel say? It didn't tell me what it said. What is the Greek word, what is the Greek meaning of Emmanuel? And then it'll tell me uh, god with us. So my observation this is where I'm noticing and I'm learning like what did I observe about this? What do I feel that God is saying during this? Matthew is the author. What is Matthew telling us? During this time, there was a virgin with child, like a virgin with child. How does that make sense, I'm observing that also in this test.
Speaker 1:Next is the application. How can you apply what you've learned to your life? Like what? What out of this are you taking? I am taking away is that God is with me. God is with me always, and then you just write a prayer, talk to God about what you've read, and that's it, y'all. It's really easy this process, like I said, I mean it really depends how much I read and how much in depth I go into understanding the context of the scripture, but it can take me just this part anywhere from like maybe 10 minutes to 20 minutes to do just the soap part. Not a whole lot of time when you think about it.
Speaker 1:Now, once you have deepened your understanding of the scripture, the next step is to apply it to your daily life. How can you live out the truths that you have discovered? How can you share your faith with others? Those are all things to really really think about and going deep with God's word. This goes back to not only is this being a love letter to you from God, but you're learning about his character, and his character is what we want to mimic. Are we ever going to be like God? No, are we going to come close to being like him. No, god is is perfect. We are not perfect. We are sinners that are here on earth and this is why we need the instructions, because he's telling us of his character and who he is, and we want to do our best to mimic that and be able to understand life Truly. That's what it comes down to. We want to understand life, you know, and I mean talk about like some therapeutic soul searching, digging deep and like just getting in the trenches. It's all here, y''all. It is all here.
Speaker 1:I really believe that when we truly immerse ourselves in God's word, that it transforms us from the inside. Oh, it gives us the strength to overcome challenges, it gives us the wisdom to make good decisions and it gives us the love to serve others, y'all I mean when God calls you to serve people. If you know how many times I just want to hit people upside the head with this book and be like boom because they just don't get it. They just don't get it. But the more you read this, the more patience, the more grace and the more love you have for others to serve them and to help the people that got sent your way. This book just has done so much for me personally that I want to be able to share that with you, in hopes that you can take away some practical tips today that will change your life Now. Now I am just I'm so excited for this new season. Y'all I am excited to embark on this journey of faith with you Now.
Speaker 1:Over the next few weeks, we'll be exploring different aspects on this theme of strengthening your faith. We'll be including topics about overcoming doubt, understanding your spiritual gifts and how to experience the power of prayer in your life. I can't wait just to hear your thoughts and experiences and if you begin to incorporate some of these methods into your Bible study, share with me. Please, let me know. Send me an email, send me a DM. Throw up some smoke to your girl hair, do something, but just let me know. Like me an email. Send me a DM. Um, you know, throw up some smoke to your girl hair, do something, but just let me know.
Speaker 1:Like Leslie, I learned something and this has been a game changer for me, and I would love if you can share your stories with us on social media using the hashtag your joyful order podcast, or tag me on social at your joyful order style and can you please just do your girl a huge favor. Please, please, please, can you just write a review for the podcast? Just go into wherever you're listening right now your Spotify, your Apple, your iHeartRadio, your Google Play, wherever you're listening to this go in and write a review, a review of the podcast. That's like a little love letter to me, just like just like God wrote this love letter of the Bible to you. You writing a review is a love letter to me. It keeps me motivated. It keeps me inspired to keep going and to keep creating content for you. So thank you for listening to another episode of your Joyful Order podcast. Remember that you are loved, remember that you are cherished, and remember that God wants you to grow in his word and friends. Also remember to keep chasing joy.