Spiritual Disciplines for Every Season

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Gretchen Saffles
The more you taste, Jesus, the rest of the world will lose its flavor. So even in those small moments where you’re tasting and seeing that God is good and His word and the hunger is stirred, it’s stoked inside you, and you want more and more. And God is faithful to give us more of himself as we seek Him.

Amy Gannett
The other lie that we’re tempted to believe is that we look at others who are, yes, who have matured in the faith in a way that we desire, and we say, well, they must be disciplined and I’m not. There are disciplined people and there are not disciplined people. I must be one of those not disciplined people.

Heather Ferrell
Welcome to the gospel coalition podcast, equipping the next generation of believers, pastors and church leaders, to shape life and ministry around the gospel. On today’s episode, you’ll hear a conversation with Joanna Kimbrell, Trillian, newbel, Gretchen, sapphills and Amy Gannon on spiritual disciplines for every season, we’re gonna

Joanna Kimbrel
be talking about spiritual disciplines in all kinds of different seasons of life. And so I would love to just hear a little bit about everybody’s season, current season, as we get started. So truly, I want you to start us

Trillia Newbell
off. Yeah, well, I’m in an interesting season. I’m in a launching season. So I have a almost 18 year old and a 14, almost 15 year old, and we are heading towards senior year of call High School, senior college. That’s terrible senior of high school, and then a freshman in high school. So I’m launching that’s the season I’m in. I’m

Gretchen Saffles
in a season of energy depletion, young kids, a lot of change, a lot of stuff going on in our life that we’re trying to navigate with wisdom, but is not only depleting physically, but emotionally and mentally and even spiritually, which is why this conversation is so important for seasons like this. Yeah, absolutely,

Amy Gannett
I’m in a season somewhat similar in life to Gretchen, with a four year old and a two year old that I stay home with most of the week. And then two businesses that I run. I know Gretchen runs a business also, and my husband and I are church planters. So our week looks like a lot of juggling. You know, it’s a lot of businesses around the clock, ministries around the clock. Parenting is around the clock, so trying to figure out rhythms and routines that really are sustaining and life giving. So, yeah, that’s our season. Yeah,

Joanna Kimbrel
I find myself in a season with littles. Also, I have a 14 month old and a four year old and a seven year old, and I’m a work from home mom, so lots of different things going on, but I’m also kind of in a season of intentionally stepping back to rest a little bit more, yeah, and I know that we’re going to be, you know, interacting, and so many women are going to be listening in who are in all kinds of different seasons, whether it’s a season of singleness or a season with or without kids or empty nesters or, you know, whatever that may look like. And so we want to talk about what it looks like to incorporate and practice spiritual disciplines no matter what season we’re in, but let’s kind of define some terms. First, what do we mean when we talk about spiritual disciplines? Amy, why don’t you get us started on that?

Amy Gannett
Well, spiritual disciplines are really that when you say we want this to hit women, we’re in whatever season of life there is, that’s the gift of the disciplines that God has given us in Scripture, is that they’re they are in a way, in a way, one size fits all. We can all be growing in disciplines that nourish us spiritually and draw us closer to Christ. No matter what season we’re in, it’s not like, Okay, you’re in the littles season. So this one’s for you right now. You know you’re in a launching season. So this one’s for you right now the Lord has given us these habits of grace, which is another way to refer to spiritual disciplines, these habits that grow us into the grace of God in a deeper way. So we’ll go through what some of them are, but it can be things like reading scripture, prayer, meditation, on scripture, fasting, all of these different disciplines. They’re habits that form us into Christ likeness and draw us closer to the heart of God. So that’s what we mean when we say spiritual disciplines. And by His grace, no matter what season you’re in, there is a habit. There is a discipline that can grow us closer to him.

Joanna Kimbrel
I love that. I love that those disciplines of grace, those habits of grace, because I think we hear discipline and maybe Grace isn’t the word that we associate with that. You know, we think, Oh, that’s something that I have to do. I think especially in some of these really busy seasons, it can feel like I don’t have time for spiritual disciplines. Trillia, you are kind of little bit ahead of some of us, and have walked through probably some of the seasons that we’re in and have moved a little bit ahead. Would you say that spiritual disciplines are something that we should practice in every season, or are there seasons when it really just doesn’t make sense to practice spiritual disciplines?

Trillia Newbell
Well, the short answer is yes, and so the long answer is. Yes, but it’s going to look different. And so there isn’t a cookie cutter. It must be this way. You have to do this. I don’t see it in the scriptures. Thank the Lord that there is grace for how we practice and walk out our faith, which ultimately is what we’re talking about, walking out our faith, right? And so, so there, there was a season where I could read my Bible all the time. I was in college, and that’s I was seeing it, soaking it in, and then after having four miscarriages, the Lord in His grace. I remember one day I was just very discouraged and despondent, and I couldn’t my brain was foggy. I couldn’t read, but he recalled all this scripture, all this verse, because I’d spent all that time in His Word. But could? I couldn’t. I had foggy brain. I couldn’t read, but I sure could pray. Yeah, and I was asking God for help, and so yes, there are going to be, I don’t think that we we stop pursuing God, we stop running towards the Lord in any season, I think that it just shows our need for him. That’s really what it’s about. It’s not it’s because we love Him and we need him, and we want to know him, so that’s why we practice these things. But it’s going to look different. So my season right now looks probably really different,

Gretchen Saffles
for sure. I remember when I had my first child being so exhausted, foggy, brained, could not keep my eyes straight on a passage, and realizing that God has given me so many ways that I can commune with Him, even as I am with my child, even as I am completely tired or up in the middle of the night. And then that is extended to seasons of anxiety and seasons of depression, where it feels so hard to open your Bible and to see the movement in the hand of God. We have these means to connect with the Lord, and a lot of them, you know, they’re personal. We’ve got Bible reading and prayer, you know, talking with God. But then there’s also the disciplines of fellowship, that’s right, and worship that is also personal, but it extends to the body of Christ, giving too. I think that can be one that’s often overlooked because we think of this, you know, spiritual disciplines. I’m receiving this from God, yes, but then when we do turn outward, he actually fills us in a way that we wouldn’t have received, that’s right? And so I remember just being so overjoyed that I didn’t have to, you know, it didn’t only look like I wake up at this time and I read my Bible and I fill out my journal, and it looks like this, you know, because some mornings I couldn’t wake up. And yet, God has provided so many ways for us to commune with Him, and we’ve got the Holy Spirit with us, yes. And you were

Trillia Newbell
talking about Sabbath, well, you didn’t use that word, talking about rest, pulling back, but, but I do think that that’s also as I listen to the seasons that you are in so important. And I don’t know that we think of it as a spiritual just so, yeah, it’s in more, more resources now, but, but it is such a gift. And so I just want to encourage whoever’s listening that sometimes our our discipline, that sounds like action, doesn’t it is sitting, resting, reflecting on the Lord and not doing anything well.

Joanna Kimbrel
And that’s so important. Because I think when we hear this word rest, we tend to think that means doing nothing, or it means doing something where I can turn off my brain and maybe zone now, veg out numb. But soul rest is not going to happen. That’s right, apart from communion with us, Lord and these spiritual disciplines are the means that He has given us to experience that communion with Him. And I love that you said it can look different in different seasons. That’s because I know that in some of my most difficult seasons, when I feel like I don’t even have the brain space to comprehend what I’m reading, or, you know, to do these extended Bible studies, or something like that, the gift of biblical meditation has been so important because it’s as simple as reading God’s word and taking one truth, taking one verse and asking the Lord, Lord show me how this impacts what I’m walking through right now and repeating it in your mind throughout the day, and the spirit is so faithful to apply those truths to our hearts and our minds, because it’s not about how much we can do, about how much we can read, or about how even how disciplined we are. It’s that the Lord uses these things to minister to us.

Amy Gannett
And I think we often think, well, I’m in a hard season, right? So this is not a time for me to add anything extra, but we ought. I think that that term, like talking about them in terms of habits of grace, helps us reorient our brains to what what the Lord is. Gifting to us in these habits. Another way that people refer to it often, is habits that lead to maturity in Christ. And I don’t know about you. I mean, I think I do know about some of your stories. The hardest seasons have been so maturing for me, so formative. And so if we were to say this is a hard season. I’m sitting this one out. I’m not growing spiritually. I’m just gonna sit this one out. We’re the ones who miss out on receiving God’s grace when we don’t lean in to these habits that lead to maturity, that can be such a gift to us, especially on the other I mean, it’s hard in the in the middle of the season to see the fruit from it, right? But then you look back and you go, wow, the Lord brought fruit where I could not have done it on my own, and it’s because I chose to receive His grace through these habits that have grown me up in in a difficult season, not despite it, but in a difficult season,

Joanna Kimbrel
yeah, and I love that idea of the fruit that the Lord brings through it. You know, I think sometimes hearing stories of how God has worked in other people’s lives can be so encouraging. I would love if some of you could share the kinds of fruit that you’ve seen come out of this practice with spiritual disciplines.

Gretchen Saffles
Yeah, I’m thinking immediately of one season that I was just completely depleted mentally. So in a real season of burnout, one of them that I talked about, you know, just hard to open your Bible. And so I meditated for an entire month only on Psalm 23 sometimes it would just be the Lord is my shepherd. That was the one portion of that chapter. And it transformed my life when I would go to bed, and anxious thoughts would then inundate my mind. I would go back to the Lord is my shepherd. Lord you are my shepherd. And it transformed into prayer, and then that Psalm. So what’s interesting is, you know, I’ve been in a season two of a lot of change, and at night, when those anxieties have started to come, Psalm 23 is the first thing that comes to mind, and it’s the fruit of that season that I meditated so deeply on it. And the amazing thing is, as I continue to think about this psalm, as I continue to pray about it, God’s still teaching me. God is still weaving this and I mean really, kind of like tattooing it onto my mind, engraving it into my heart and my life, so that these aren’t just words that I know in my head. These are words that I live literally in my body, that the Lord is my shepherd. That’s

Trillia Newbell
good, that’s good. And we don’t want just knowledge that puffs us up, right? That’s right. So, you know, it’s interesting. I feel like I this is a silly confession. I love God’s word. You we’re not surprised, but I do and and that is, I became a Christian at the age of 22 and I didn’t know a thing. I don’t I didn’t grow up knowing these Bible stories. I didn’t know anything. So I was like, people were telling me things or talking to me. I was like, I don’t know which, so immediately I just started to dig, just to learn. And I have been on a journey of learning since I was 22 which has been, I’m not gonna tell you, a few years ago, just a few years ago. Actually, I love this. Getting older is awesome, but anyways, but my point is, is that when I am in God’s word, it reminds me of who he is, which brings peace. And so I was telling someone, I was like, I feel like I’ve had four years of peace lately, and there’s a few circumstances why, but also I’ve just had sweet times in His Word. And so I really do believe that a fruit of reading God’s word, that’s one spiritual discipline, is peace, and because you not because it’s about reading His word, it’s because we know him.

Trillia Newbell
so he is. Yeah, we learn who he is, we learn about his character. I can trust him more when I’m reminding my heart about that, I’m reminding myself of the gospel, which is why you can approach it with grace, because you remind yourself of who he is and what he’s done, and it’s not about me and so all of these things. So I just, I really do, I think God has been so kind to transform my heart so that I love him and I love his word, and it brings me a lot of peace. So I’ve just been in that season of peace, which is a fruit that only he could bring.

Gretchen Saffles
I see so much joy in your life. That’s, you know, when I think of trillia, I’m like, she has the joy of the Lord, that’s right. And, you know, that’s produced because you’re not doing these spiritual disciplines to earn the favor of God or to earn his love or his approval. These are opportunities that He’s given us to connect with him, and we get to model Jesus as He did those spiritual disciplines. We see it unfold in the gospels, and we see these means of grace that we. Can connect with the Lord as we also connect with his people, and get to see his hands and feet. Yeah,

Joanna Kimbrel
Amy, what does fruit look like for you?

Amy Gannett
Well, one of the biggest areas I feel like the Lord has grown me in the early years of motherhood, when I felt like I just didn’t have much to give, was taking him at his word, when he says in his word that he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. My habit, my husband and I, early in 2020, we’re having our first baby, the beginning of lockdown, you know? It was like great time. It was just we were fresh church planters, you know. So it was like this very strange, bizarre season, and I felt really depleted, and I felt the Lord by His Spirit, convict, convict my heart, my heart posture towards serving in our local body. I sort of felt like, well, I’m doing on my job tasks. I mean, I’m a staff member. I’m the director of discipleship. I was doing on my job tasks, but my heart wasn’t in serving in kids mystery. I didn’t feel like I had anything to give. I felt like I was pouring out of this empty cup, and the Lord invited me to take him at his word that when we serve others, we will ourselves actually be filled up, and that that was just a season of saying yes to the Lord and serving in nursery when somebody, you know, when I art I had a baby on my hip all the time, and I didn’t, I didn’t want to have, you know, 10 babies on my hip 90 minutes.

Amy Gannett
So saying yes to the Lord in small ways, but then seeing how many times, the highlight of my day was watching these little ones grow and feeling safe at church, watching these little ones laugh and just praying in my heart as I watched them play. You know, two year olds on the floor going, Lord, would you raise them up to always feel at home among your people? You know, those were always my highlights. And I realized one Sunday, I’m like, I am being refreshed. This is blessing me, and so the discipline of service, serving others and serving in the local body, I now am able to encourage other people and say, you may not feel like you have a lot to give, but say yes to wherever God has called you to serve. Be discerning. Ask where the Lord would have you serve, but when he calls you to something, say yes, because he’s got blessing for you in it. And even when you feel depleted, my suspicion is, from my own story, is that you’re going to feel filled up in a way that is counter cultural, that just goes against the ways of the world, but is totally in line with the kingdom of God. Yeah, yeah, that’s

Joanna Kimbrel
beautiful. Now we’re talking about spiritual disciplines in this really lovely, beautiful way, but I know that sometimes we struggle to believe what we’re saying. Right? It can be really easy to kind of get in our heads and to think, well, this is too difficult. Or, you know, maybe we start thinking about this is all based on what I can do. And so what are some of the lies that we can be tempted to believe about spiritual disciplines? And then how do you overcome those lies?

Gretchen Saffles
Some of the lies is that we need a lot of time, or we need to have a certain kind of circumstance. It needs to be quiet, it needs to look peaceful. It needs to feel good

Amy Gannett
while the sun is rising.

Gretchen Saffles
No, but there’s this opportunity to meet with God at any time. That’s right, even in the reading of the Word of God. And we know that there are places in Scripture that you will read, and you’ll be in Chronicles and reading all these names for your devotion. Say you’re going through the Bible, and God still produces fruit in that. That’s right, it may not be a certain kind of fruit that you’re wanting in that moment. It may be this fruit of I am retraining my mind to go to God’s word and pursue.

Speaker 1
But then there’s wisdom in that. And so even there’s times where, you know, I have actually been on a journey of reading through scripture for the past year and a half, because I’ve got young kids, and doing the whole Bible in one year was just not feasible. There’s so many sickness, you know, all those different things. So I’m in the urine. I’m actually the two year version perfect, and God has brought so much fruit. But I mean, there were times where I was like, I’m still in the prophets. I’ve been in the prophets for 20 years, and that’s, you know, how the people felt. And yet God has produced so much fruit in my life from that and looking forward, so the spiritual disciplines aren’t always going to feel good or produce in that moment. Oh man, I feel so much better. And sometimes we have like, five minutes of stillness. You know, our lives are so busy, but are we going to choose to take those five minutes of stillness to actually set our minds on the Lord? Are we going to use them to scroll our phones and look on social media? Because the outcome of those is very different. That’s right. Yeah.

Amy Gannett
I think the other lie that we’re taking. To believe is that we look at others who are yes, who have matured in the faith in a way that we desire, and we say, well, they must be disciplined. And I’m not. There are disciplined people and there are not disciplined people. I must be one of those not disciplined people. But by definition, discipline is takes effort. It takes it takes perseverance. It takes intentionality. There is nobody that is born saying, yeah, these habits of grace, like I was born with those. You know, in my DNA, nobody is that way. So we all have to start at some point choosing what can often feel like the harder path of discipline. When I was a new believer, newly walking with the Lord on my own, I remember thinking, How do some of these? You know, I had heard from other older, mature women about their prayer life, and I thought, how, how does somebody pray for 45 minutes? Yeah, I remember thinking that thinking of things to pray allowed for a group for three minutes felt difficult to me. But you know what? You know decades later, it is not I mean, I can pray for 45 minutes, but why? Because I started and I I just continued little by little. So I think we have to not believe the lie that there are some disciplined people, and they’re going to get it. And I must not be one of them, so I’m gonna give up. But we have to not despise the day of small things, when the Lord calls us to first start in prayer and start in His Word, saying, You know what, if I’ve never done this before, it’s okay if I’m praying for five minutes and reading my Bible for five minutes, start there, and don’t despise that. Let it be the beginning. But also, God’s grace receives us right where we are, but it also has never left me where I am. I have always noticed five minutes becomes eight minutes, eight minutes becomes 10 minutes. 10 minutes becomes 15 minutes. And it’s, it’s not about clocking time in God’s word, right? But it’s about the delight that grows where I go. I looked up and realized man, I was communing with God in prayer, enjoying the peace of His presence. I was enjoying time with my father, and time passed in a way that it didn’t used to. And guess what? That tells me that I am growing in this particular discipline? Yeah. So I think we need to shed the lie that there are disciplined people and not disciplined people, absolutely. But also, just let ourselves start small. It’s okay to start small. Yeah,

Gretchen Saffles
one thing that I say a lot is there, the more you taste Jesus, the rest of the world will lose its flavor. So even in those small moments where you’re tasting and seeing that God is good, and His Word, and even in his world, His creation, these common means of grace, everything else starts to lose its flavor, and the hunger is stirred. It’s stoked inside you, and you want more and more, and God is faithful to give us more of himself as we seek Him. Yeah,

Trillia Newbell
yeah. I so I don’t have a lie, but I have a hindrance. Yeah, I’m great, um, laziness and distraction. So I think you mentioned scrolling on your phone. If, if I ever am not in the Word, or not trying, or it’s I’m distracted, yeah, and now that other things kind of get in my way. And I also have if, if there’s a spiritual discipline that I’m not just terrible at, I barely think about is fasting. I

Gretchen Saffles
was gonna say that. I was like, I wonder if she’s gonna say about

Trillia Newbell
prayer, reading the Bible. Yeah. So there, there are certain things I gravitate to because they’re more natural. They’re not natural. It’s Supernatural, right? But it’s easier for me to run to God’s Word and more healing. It’s not healing while I’ve grown and I’d like to talk to the Lord, so I’m so those are kind of like, but fasting is uncomfortable. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s I also feel like it’s something that it’s it’s just harder for me to grasp or to do or figure, and I can get this is so lame what I’m about to say, but it’s the truth. I can get distracted with, oh, well, maybe it’s like a diet, right? Like, that’s right. I can I question my motives so I don’t do it. It’s so odd.

Joanna Kimbrel
Yeah, I totally understand that. And isn’t that the case with so many of our spiritual disciplines that our motives get muddled? Right? A lot of that is because I think we can very quickly think this is the measure of how good of a Christian I am, and what’s underneath that is this is actually the measure of how pleased God is, yes, and even if we don’t believe that in our heads, we believe it with our hearts, because we maybe say it’s been a while since I’ve prayed so I can’t come to the Lord, because he’s going to be frustrated. You

Gretchen Saffles
know? Well, there’s another lie that. Came to mind. As you said that I go back to Matthew six, where Jesus is actually warning not to do these things, these spiritual disciplines, to be seen by man, yeah. And so that can be a place where our heart motive gets off, you know, oh, I’m gonna, I’m gonna make sure everybody sees that I gave my offering in the plate. I’m gonna make sure everybody sees that I donated my time here, or, you know, I sacrificed for children’s ministry today. Instead, we are to do those things in the secret in our heart, to honor God, because we love him, because we do want to commune with Him and walk with Him. But it can be really easy to do those things, or to read your Bible and go, I need to make sure everybody knows I did this today. You know. Well, another

Trillia Newbell
thing, if we’re talking about lies, this is that generally can come in, yeah, I think we could just think that other things are satisfying, and so we don’t need the Lord. And so we’re running to all of we run to Netflix, or we run to this, or run to that, and they’re easier, they’re accessible, yeah, and so, so really, I wonder if all of this begins with God needing we need him to want him, right? Yes, that’s kind of what abiding, if we’re going to you, if the Scripture says we can do nothing apart from Jesus, that means we can’t grow right, apart from Jesus, which is really what that’s about? Obedience and fruit comes from Him. So if that is the reality, then we can’t approach any of this right in our own strength and with our own efforts and in our so we need him so that we can read and pray and fast talking to myself. No, and so, so I just, I think that’s just important to point out, remember Yeah, and remember that, and then it will help guard against the temptation to feel like we are doing anything to please Him. That’s right. The scriptures also say that we can please him. That’s right, like Enoch, right? And so, so that’s good, that’s encouraging to this, but we don’t do these things to earn his favor, absolutely. And so thank God that we already have His favor and we can ask him, Lord, I need your help to do this. I’m not going to do it well or perfectly, but I want to know you, and so we ask, and

Amy Gannett
we can even be honest with the Lord in those moments where we say, I just don’t find the appeal of this Lord. Help me desire, yes, time in prayer. Help me desire serving. Help me desire to give. Grow my affections in ways that are in line with the kingdom of God, I think a lot of times we have this misconception that if we don’t desire something, that we shouldn’t do it. That would be inauthentic. It would not be our true self. But the truth is, is that God actually changes our desires as He sanctifies us. So when you don’t desire to fast when you don’t desire time in prayer, when you don’t desire to serve or to give or to spend time in God’s Word. We can be honest with him. We’re not going to surprise him with that information. He knows our hearts, yes, but we can say, Lord, grow in me a desire for your word. Grow in me a desire to commune with commune with you through prayer, grown me a desire to give. And you know, in my own heart and life, he has done that. He has made it not a have to, but a get to yes in places I would have told you what felt impossible previously.

Trillia Newbell
Yeah, yeah. It makes me think of legalism like it’s trying to earn God’s favor. That’s the legalism doing things. And you don’t fight legalism by shutting your Bible and stopping No, yeah, right, yeah, you learn about grace. And where do you learn it? Through His word and so, and that’s right, and and also through a community of people. I’ve always had accountability partners, yes, which is a means of grace. Yes, it’s so good to have people who can speak into your life, but also that diversity of gifts helps you to see okay. So I was always very strong in faith, but I had a girlfriend who was very strong in grace, and so she would always remind us in anything that she would she would just pull it back to God’s love and, and, and the gospel and what Jesus did, and that our sin is from the east, is from the west, and, and so my point is, is that we also need people, yeah, to remind our health, hearts and minds of the truth and right? So run to the word and run to other people you can to get help. Yeah,

Gretchen Saffles
that’s great. You know, like I said, we have lots of different people and lots of different seasons joining us in this conversation. And so I was wondering if we could give some words of encouragement to some people in those different seasons. Gretchen, what would you say? What encouragement would you give to the woman who feels like she cannot. Do spiritual disciplines, because her life is so overwhelming and so busy right now, I would encourage her with the accessibility of the spirituals of these different disciplines, because the truth is, I remember just it clicking with me that I can stand in line at the grocery store and be praying and talking to God, even in the midst of a crowd, I can be talking to my father, I can be interceding, or I can even practice this discipline of gratitude, write out loud while I’m with other people. And so to realize that this is not something, you need to work okay, somehow I’ve got to switch everything around. It comes into your life. You know the worship of God being still, taking those moments to connect with God, rather than to try to connect with the outside world, to still your mind on his truth. That never changes, but it transforms our lives. And so I would encourage her to know that this is not a burden. This is not adding to your Christian to do list. This is not something that you have to do. And ooh, if you don’t do it like, oh, you know, this is a means of grace, but it also will turn into delight. So I would encourage her that as you look into, okay, what are the spiritual disciplines, you know, how can I? How can I meditate on God’s word? That can feel really overwhelming, but when you realize it’s filling your mind with God’s word. And you can literally do that anywhere. I remember, when I was in college, I was desperate for God’s word. I was at a secular college, I was walking through an eating disorder, and I needed God’s word, so I took these little note cards with me everywhere. Even when I was studying for a test, I would have those note cards with me to fill my mind with God’s word. I didn’t even realize I was meditating on the Word. But even today, the Holy Spirit brings those passages to mind from those moments, and so weave them into your everyday life. That is possible. That’s how the Lord has created these disciplines so we can connect with him. Yeah, love that.

Joanna Kimbrel
Amy, what about the woman who has more time on her hands. Maybe she’s in a new season where she has less on her plate, and that can feel overwhelming in its own right. What encouragement would you give her? I think

Amy Gannett
one of the gifts that God gives us is community that will often give us some sort of direction. Accountability partners have been huge in my life. So if there is a friend that similarly wants to grow and maybe not grow in the exact same ways, but you’re both going, Hey, I kind of want to grow well, then see what the Lord might do as you both choose a new discipline to practice together. The Lord has given us this ability. And I would even dare to say somebody could correct me. I could be wrong, but I think women can be really creative with creating some kind of structure out of nothing. Yeah, we look at a whole day, and there’s a lot of times where we go, you know, we’re away from our kids right now, and I know, I wake up in the morning, I go, Okay, we’re gonna do the splash pad in the morning, and then we’re gonna do a picnic lunch, and we’re gonna come home for rest. I’m like, I can structure something out of nothing, and I think that’s a gift God has given us. And so maybe a friend will be a catalyst for you thinking in that way. But just pick something as you discern in the spirit how the Lord might be growing. You pick something and then explore that topic in Scripture. Explore what God says about giving, explore what God says about fasting, and maybe particularly if you do have this kind of time on your hands, one of the ways that God might be leading you is the resources that God has entrusted to us are a stewardship, and they are not only to be a blessing for ourselves, but for the community that he has brought us into. So if the resource God has given you is time, I would be curious to explore in prayer, whether or not that gift of time is the stewardship he has called you to give to others. So maybe service is a great place to start. Community is a great place to start. See how the Lord might lead you as you start small, but using the gift that He’s given you. And a lot of us don’t feel as though the gift he’s given us in this season is time, so recognizing it for what it is, and then saying, Lord, how would you use this for your glory and for your people? Because the disciplines were never meant. You said this earlier. What have you said this earlier to make us inward? Yes, they’re meant to be a blessing for God’s people as he goes his kingdom for

Joanna Kimbrel
His glory. Yeah, I love that encouragement, because those seasons can feel really lonely too. They can and so that’s prompting for us to look, to look outward,

Gretchen Saffles
lonely and purposeless too. Yes, it’s like, well, I have all this time, so what does that mean? Yeah, what does that mean about me? So even to realize that they can be preparation seasons, that’s right, you don’t know what the next season is going to be. You know, only God is sovereign. But even in those seasons, it may be a storing up type of season for what is to come and God is going to prepare you. And equip you for maybe a season of dryness, you know, loss, grief, all kinds of things.

Trillia Newbell
I think of my mother in law, and she’s just, she’s in a season where she has a lot of time. Father has her my father in law’s passed away, died and and she has a lot more time. And she is pouring herself out. She’s volunteering in different ways. She volunteers at her church, she volunteers at a local homeless shelter. So she’s doing all of these different things. And so as you were talking, I was like, Oh, I’m gonna go and encourage her, yeah, and she won’t have probably more seasons of Yeah, but, but I think the Lord is just using her in such sweet ways.

Joanna Kimbrel
Trillia, what about the woman who’s going through a season of suffering, and for whom opening the Bible or even calling out to the Lord in prayer feels like too much? Yeah?

Trillia Newbell
Well, I think there’s few things one Romans eight tells us that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groans when we don’t have words to say. So I would encourage her. That’s okay. You’ve got a Jesus who’s interceding for us, and the Spirit who knows and is groaning and understands also. Jesus says He was tempted in every way, without sin. He invites us to a throne of grace. He understands your weakness. So I would start there with the character of Jesus, the spirit that’s interceding that she doesn’t have to muster up energy to try to do all

Joanna Kimbrel
silence and solitude, sitting, just sitting with the Lord absolutely knowing that the spirit is praying on your behalf, absolutely

Trillia Newbell
so, but you so reminding your heart of those things that he draws near to the brokenhearted. You’re not alone. Yeah? So lament too, yeah. So that is, like one of the first things is that I would tell him, and then I think I would tell her also that that she doesn’t have to have beautiful words. What’s the I think, Paul, he says you don’t have to have eloquent speech. You can just speak. And it might be, help me, Lord. It may be, I believe, help my own belief. You know, it could just be real simple. It doesn’t have to be long and eloquent. It can be wrong. It ends praying the Psalms and so you don’t you can get help also, but I really do think that when you’re in a deep suffering, which I’ve experienced you, you have to be okay with your weakness, knowing that Jesus understands, that he relates and that you have a God who’s interceding and cares so deeply for you And so so so I hope that takes the pressure off. Yeah,

Gretchen Saffles
right. Maybe that’s where the disciplines can intersect, too, because in that season of silence and solitude, there may be a brother or sister in Christ that comes alongside you to serve you, yeah, to be the kind of the other vessel in that moment of need. Or maybe it is I’m gonna sit with you in silence and solitude or in grief with you. Yeah, you

Trillia Newbell
might need to invite someone in. Yeah. I think Amy, you mentioned something similar to this, and I can’t remember what it was. Oh, well, that we get to comfort with the comfort we’ve received. But that was a different scripture that you use. Well, look at that the Bible. But anyways, but yeah. So, so I think that you can invite people in as well. You can ask a friend to help you and pray that they will have words of wisdom or no words,

Amy Gannett
if job is any example,

Joanna Kimbrel
well and the last season that I’ll kind of address is for the woman who maybe feels like everything’s going well, like she doesn’t really need these disciplines right now, sometimes we can wait until we’re in need to reach out. And my encouragement think to that woman would be when you are in this season, where things seem sweet and easy, that that is the time to establish these habits, yes, because they’re going to carry you through in the seasons of suffering, when they come, in the seasons of loneliness, in the seasons of overwhelm and busyness. That it won’t be something you have to start new, but it’s something that is there, and it is a habit that the Lord will use.

Trillia Newbell
I’ve called it the test of prosperity, and I didn’t, I did not coin that, but, yeah, y’all were like someone else, someone else. But it’s important, I think, when we are in seasons of prosperity and it can be a test, because we we feel like everything’s good, we’re good and but we still need Jesus, everything’s Amen.

Heather Ferrell
Thanks for listening to today’s episode of the gospel coalition podcast. Check out more gospel centered resources at the gospel coalition.org.