"Finding Rest in Divine Presence: Ep 9: A Journey Beyond the Burden"

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Music.

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Welcome to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast with your host,

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Connie Morris, where truth speaks, healing begins, and every word is rooted in faith.

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Before we begin, let us go before the Lord in prayer.

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Father God, we thank you for this moment. We thank you for every listener,

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every heart, and every home represented.

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We invite your presence into this space. As we begin, we stand on the words

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of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4.10.

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And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, So that thou wouldest bless me

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indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me,

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and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me.

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And God granted him that which he requested.

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Lord, today we echo that same prayer. Bless us indeed.

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Bless every woman listening. Bless her mind, her body, her relationships.

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Her dreams, and her destiny.

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Let your blessing not only surround her, but transform her.

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Enlarge our coast. Stretch us beyond what we thought was possible.

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Expand our influence, our impact, and the reach of this message.

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Not for our glory, but for yours.

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Let your hand be with us. Go before us in every conversation.

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Guide our words, anoint our purpose, and let every episode carry your truth with clarity and power.

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Keep us from evil that it may not grieve us.

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Shield us from harm, from cycles of sorrow, from spiritual attack and emotional heaviness.

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Cover us in your grace so we rise in strength, not in grief,

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in wholeness, not in wounds.

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And just as you granted Jabez what he requested, Lord, grant it unto us.

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Let this podcast be a wellspring of truth, a refuge for healing,

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and a launchpad for purpose. In the mighty name of Jesus, amen.

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Well, hello and welcome back to Diary of a Black Woman podcast.

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We are still continuing our When God Wants to Talk series with our faith on the go message.

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Today, finding rest in his presence, go with me to Matthew 11, 28.

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It says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

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God has a plan for everything. You know, as you read the Bible,

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you will find out that whatever your needs and wants are, God got you covered.

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You don't have to worry about a thing. It says not every time God wakes you

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up, wakes us up in the nighttime hours or in the early morning hours is for action or revelation.

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Sometimes he wants us to rest in his presence.

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It's a time of restoring your energy. It's like going to the gas station and filling up your car.

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Sometimes you'll wake up and you might feel like I don't have enough energy

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to go on, But yet you sit in his presence and it's like a refill.

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A download of new and refreshed energy or whatever you're doing.

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I was just doing my podcast and I was sounding and feeling like I was falling

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asleep. I'm like, wait a minute.

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Hold up. Lord, I need a download of your energy. I want to rest in your presence.

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I want to do your will. But my flesh is weak.

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I need you to give me some energy and give me a fresh feeling of the Holy Spirit.

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And then boom, bam, and I got it, right?

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So sometimes resting in his presence is an opportunity for you to refill, refill in him.

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So in a world that has constant demands on us, God invites us to lay down our

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burdens and find peace in him.

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Resting in God's presence is not only physical, it's spiritual.

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It's about releasing anxieties, fears, and endless to-do lists that crowds our

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minds. Psalms 23, verses 2-3.

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Reminds us that God leads us besides quiet waters and refreshes our souls.

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So when we take the time to be with him, we experience the peace and renewal

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that only he can provide.

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Can we get an amen on that one? Many times you think it's a waste of time to

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read your Bible, a waste of time to prayer, but you don't realize that that

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time is an opportunity for refreshing, a physical.

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Refreshing, a spiritual refreshing that will renew your soul,

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your mind, and your emotions.

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Because what it does, when we get in the flesh, we can get kind of filled with anxiety, fear.

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We can get like a baby, a little whiny sometimes.

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And so when you're whiny, you might need a little more Jesus.

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Amen. You might want to say, you know what, Lord, I'm being a little whiny.

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I might miss my being in the presence of my father.

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So that can be a limpsest test where you can say that, you know what,

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I'm feeling a little whiny.

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I need to get in this presence. And that will be a chance where you can cast all your cares upon him.

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All those weary, if you're weary and burdened, and he said he will give you rest.

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This kind of rest doesn't always mean sleep though. It's a deep assurance that God is in control.

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So when you cast all your cares upon him, it's like, I'm just going to give it to you, Lord.

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Same, similar to Peter walking on water. Peter just says, if you say I can do

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it, I can do it. And he just started walking on water, right?

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So when God is in control, even when our life feels overwhelming,

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this is an opportunity to just trust God.

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These quiet moments remind us that we are not alone.

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How about this one? We are not in control and we are definitely not God,

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but we can trust him with every detail of our lives, right?

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So let's go a little deeper. Rest as worship.

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Resting in God's presence is an act of trust and worship.

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By setting aside time to be still, you acknowledge his sovereignty and his ability to care for you.

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You know, there's a scripture that says, keep the Sabbath holy.

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Like the Sabbath, since everything is turning out to be a 24-hour event,

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you can go to anything, anytime, anywhere, anyplace.

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And so nobody really gets a chance to rest. But there was once upon a time when

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stores would be closed on Sunday.

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Gas stations would close on

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Sunday. If you didn't get your stuff done on Saturday, they were closed.

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So sometimes you do have to schedule time to rest, time to be still,

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time to not do anything, and just to trust.

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He says, be still and know that I am God.

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Be still in one moment might really mean to be still.

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Another one might mean for you to just quiet your mind, quiet your soul,

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and just allow God to just, you know, take you away, like just being able to

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just trust, trust in him, closing your eyes and just resting in the Lord.

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Number two, release your burdens.

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Rest requires letting go.

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Name the things that are weighing you down, fears, decisions,

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relationships, and give them to God in prayer.

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There was a time that I worked for the CPS, Child Protective Service,

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and with Child Protective Services, it's a good job, but there's deadlines.

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So you have to meet with the child, get face-to-face with the child within a certain amount of time.

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You have 30 days to close the case.

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You're going to continue. It depends if you're going to find anything that's

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supporting what the original call was, then you have to close the case within

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30 days. But that's not just a simple close.

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You have to go through a whole process of assessments to determine if that child

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is going to be safe in the future.

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Is he safe right now? Is he going to be safe in the future?

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And you're getting about four or five cases or more to do that with these separate

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deadlines. And I remember working that, doing that job. And I didn't mind it.

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It wasn't a hard job. It was just, wow.

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And I remember just praying and the Lord said, just give me these cases.

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Like, go to me. Because usually every week you had to meet with your supervisor about the cases.

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But before I met with the supervisor, I had a one-on-one with God.

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And I'll say, Lord, this is this case. What should I do with this one?

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This is that case. What should I do with this one? So it was kind of like I had a heads up.

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On what to do with these cases because I'm working with the Lord.

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So the way I release my burdens instead of me trying to figure it out,

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because you have to, when you work in a CPS case and you're out there and you

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know about it, if there's a single parent, you have to find the father. They have six children.

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You got to find, attempt to locate the father of each one of these children.

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And so it's a lot of just grinding, grind work.

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And so, and I just had to go before the father. Father, I have this case.

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And all of them are not easy. Some of them are difficult.

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And I released each case to him every time I had them.

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And when I went to my supervisor for our weekly meetings, I had a piece.

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Before that, I was pretty much stressed out because it seemed overwhelming to have one case.

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You got six baby daddies. Somebody got seven baby daddies.

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You know, just a whole lot of stuff going on. and you have just the drama that

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brought the case in the first place and the welfare of the kids.

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But there's a time when God says, release these burdens to me.

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If you've never done that, I would like for you to just try it.

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Just find a quiet place, go in your closet, go in your bathroom.

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Go into a room, close the door, and get on your hands and knees and just begin

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to, just like I did methodically, release the case to him.

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And I would just give the names of the person and the child.

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It'd be the mother or the father and the name of the children.

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Even if I had need help locating the father or whatever was going on in that

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house, I just ask the Lord to help me.

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Because you got to understand that the Holy Spirit is our helper.

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And I don't think many of us go to him for help.

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You know, we don't really utilize our assistance. We have angelic assistance.

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The Holy Spirit is always there. Heavenly Father does not sleep.

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And Jesus didn't die on the cross just for to be carried around on a necklace, right?

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You know, and so it's like we have to access what is available to us.

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And one thing that he did say is he want us to release our burdens to him.

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What is weighing you down?

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I want you to try that this week.

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We carry too much. One thing I learned about releasing the burdens is that it also releases us.

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A lot of your medical problems. We've been praying for healing,

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but we don't realize that we're carrying things that we should not carry.

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I had high blood pressure when I was younger.

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And that's something as I got older, I don't have it because I learned how to release that burden.

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I don't have to carry it. I'm not responsible for the next person.

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I'm only responsible for me. And then I'm not even responsible for me because

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the Lord wants to take care of me and provide for me.

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How peaceful is that? And so we want to rest as a worship, that it's a worship to God.

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We want to learn how to release our burden, taking them to God in prayer.

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Once you give it to him, don't take it back because things that happen at your

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pace, at your rate, you just say, I'm going to give it to you.

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I'm not going to take it back.

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Take that backpack off your backpack or suitcase, whatever, boom.

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Give it to the Lord and let him carry it.

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Three, receive his peace. As you rest in God's presence, allow his peace to fill your heart.

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Philippians 4, 7 promises that his peace will guard your heart and mind,

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even in the midst of chaos.

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It's so cool to know that God has everything covered.

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He said it was guard your heart and mind.

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What's the part that really gets really in a tizzy when things are out of play.

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It's our heart and our mind.

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But it says God's presence, his peace will fill.

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It said it will guard our heart and mind. And so when we allow that, guess what?

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We can stand in the middle of a major crisis.

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In perfect peace. Why? Because we know that God is with us and his promises will keep us.

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Let's go to Psalms 46.10.

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Psalms 46.10 tells us that we should know this, all right? Be still and know that I am God.

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Stillness is where we encounter God's peace and assurance.

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Many times when you're feeling a little anxiety in your body,

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and I can sometimes, you know, I can have that happen to me.

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I'll take a deep breath and I'll relax and I'll just say, I just got to steal away.

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Inhale, deep exhale and say, Lord, I'm just going to be still and know because you are God.

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Exodus 33, 14, the Lord replied, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest.

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You see how that presence equals rest?

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It's found in Exodus 33, 14.

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God's presence is our ultimate source of rest.

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So when we invite him in the room, we also invite his rest in the room.

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And then finally in Psalms 4.8, it says, in peace, I will lie down and sleep for you alone.

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Lord, make me dwell in safety. One thing that can get us in an uproar and anxiety is safety.

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Peace and safety. Us rest is both physical and spiritual, providing safety and renewal.

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Here are some action steps. Create a quiet space. Tonight when you wake,

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resist the urge to fill the silence with activity.

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Instead, sit quietly and invite God to meet you.

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Say, Lord, I'm here to rest in your presence.

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Remember, it's like getting filled up again when you're on E, empty.

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Number two, practice deep breathing. Like I just said, use slow,

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deep breaths to calm your mind and body.

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With each exhale, release your worries to God.

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Those right there will put you to sleep. If you're a worrywart,

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you know, you'd love to worry.

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To some deep inhales and exhales, I would lay flat on my back.

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Take your arms out nice and wide. Take your feet apart, you know, your knees apart.

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Just wiggle your toes and wiggle your fingers.

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And, you know, relax your shoulders back into the mat, you know, in your bed.

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And take a big inhale and then a slow exhale as though you're breathing out through your fingers.

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And then as you're breathing out, even through your toes.

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And then you inhale, you want to breathe in through your toes,

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breathe in through your fingers. You're imagining this and then you exhale.

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And number three, you want to reflect on his goodness.

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Meditate on a verse or a song that reminds you of God's faithfulness.

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Let it guide your heart into a worshipful rest. So sometimes even as you're

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breathing, doing your breathing exercise to relax your mind and your soul.

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You can turn on some nice, quiet worship music.

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I like worship music without words because our mind is so smart.

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It wants to kind of figure out what the song is saying and try to sing along.

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And that's fine, too, if you've got a song you like to sing along.

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But sometimes I just want just to play the music and let my body feel the music.

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Many times I'm asleep, especially if you have been worried and things are not

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going your way and you don't know what to do.

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That's a good way to allow your body to rest. You can do that breathing exercise any you need it.

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So let me just do a quick review here. It says, action steps is create a quiet

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place, practice deep, deep breathing and reflect on his goodness because God is good.

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And so let's pray. Father God, in the name of Jesus, I thank you for being my

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source of peace and rest.

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Teach me to release my worries and find stillness in your presence.

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Refresh my soul and renew my strength as I trust in you.

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Help me to carry this rest into every part of my life, knowing that you are in control. Amen.

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The challenge for the week is each night this week, take five minutes to rest

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in God's presence before going to bed.

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Use this time to release your worries, reflect on His goodness,

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and experience His peace.

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Journal how this practice impacts your mindset and heart.

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Many times we are so tired, we run to bed and we just lay down and we forget

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to spend that little minute, few minutes with the Lord.

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And I'm guilty of that too. So just lay down and just say, Lord,

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I just want to practice being in your presence before I go to bed.

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It can just be a silent rest, be a quiet prayer. But it's that time where you

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are going to just practice his peace, you know, just practice and practice in his peace.

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And so right now, I just want to just thank you again for listening in to Diary

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of a Black Woman podcast.

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I'm your host, Connie Morris. And I'd like to just share with you that this

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podcast would not be anything without you.

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And so I do appreciate you. And just make sure if you know someone that can

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benefit from what's happening on this podcast, go ahead and share it or leave

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a review. I love to hear from my listeners.

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So remember, finding rest in His presence. And Matthew 11, 28 said,

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Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

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Take the time to just find peace in the presence of the Lord.

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Till next time. This is the Diary of a Black Woman podcast with your host,

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Connie Morris, where healing speaks, truth stands tall, and every episode is a divine encounter.

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Before we begin, let us open with prayer, opening prayer.

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Heavenly Father, we come before you today with open hearts and expectant spirits.

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Just like Jabez, we call on the God of Israel, so that thou wouldst bless us

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indeed. Bless every listener, every household, every woman carrying the weight

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of silence and survival.

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Bless us not just with things, but with wisdom, healing, and restoration.

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Enlarge our coast. Stretch us beyond comfort, beyond fear, and into divine purpose.

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Expand this platform, Lord, so that your truth reaches every ear that needs

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it, near and far, young and old, broken and bold, and let thine hand be with us.

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Guide this episode, this voice, and this vision.

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Let your presence saturate every word spoken and touch every heart that hears.

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Keep us from evil, from harm, from shame, from generational pain.

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Let no bitterness take root and no trauma define us.

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Keep us covered so that we rise and not grieve.

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Lord, just like you did for Jabez, grant us what we request in faith.

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Make this podcast a place of power, purity, and purpose.

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In Jesus' name, amen.

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Music.