The Affliction of the Soul, Part 3: Garden Lessons from Jesus

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Welcome back to the podcast episode series, The Affliction of the Soul,

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Part 3, with your host, Connie Morris, the Diary of the Black Woman.

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Welcome back to the podcast episode series, The Affliction of the Soul,

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Part 3, with the garden lessons from Jesus.

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Jesus will be taking the series from Matthew 26 verses 36 to 46.

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I am your host Connie Morris from Diary of a Black Woman. So let's get started.

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Last episode, we discussed living as a sacrifice, like a living sacrifice.

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And that was a powerful series and the importance of transforming our mind and

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not getting so caught up with the culture and letting God do what he He wants

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to do with you, like being a unique person,

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doing like your own thing, not being a copycat.

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Did I say copycat? Yeah, not being a copycat, doing an original thing,

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transforming your mind, spending more time with God, being devoted to his word

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and finding out what his perfect will is for your life.

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But today we're going to delve into what Jesus experienced in the garden of

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Gethsemane. And I don't know if I said that right, so I'm not going to say it again.

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And we're going to learn what that motto is through Jesus, obedience of prayer

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and the times of distress.

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But also I found out the importance of having the importance, can I say it right?

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The importance of having the right friends around you when you're in that time of distress. stress.

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You know, we take time out, the affliction of the soul to prayer and be devoted to Jesus.

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We can pray with our church. We can take prayer to hear the voice of God for

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direction, for a perfect will of God.

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We can just take prayer and time out just to find out, you know, what God wants to do.

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We can just take prayer and time out just to be closer to God.

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But how about the time when Jesus was in the garden wanting to do the perfect

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will of God? Let's walk through that time with Jesus, and let's see how we can

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model our life to be like Jesus.

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Amen. And so some of the points we're going to cover today, there's three points.

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The agony in the garden, the challenges of staying awake, it's called wakefulness,

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and the call to move forward.

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Like I said, many of these devotions, this affliction of the soul,

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you can find that on my website, thediaryofablackwomanllc.com.

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You can download a copy for you and your family.

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And let's get going. We're going to read the whole series first,

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the whole scripture first, and then we're going to break it down into those

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three different sections.

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Then I'm going to read some decrees over you.

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You can repeat after me, and then we are going to go on to our next episode.

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I don't know about you, but I'm having so much fun just preaching to you, preaching to myself,

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learning so much about how God works and how it is so important to just to set

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this time apart, just to listen, even to myself,

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preach myself happy.

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Happy, amen, that God desires us in this time to devote more time to him,

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but also to be more and more like him.

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But let's get started. I don't want to get ahead of myself here.

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And so if you have your Bible with you, I want you to go with me to two different

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translations if you have it.

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Go to Matthew chapter 26, verse 36 through 46.

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First one, the message, and then the NLT, the New Living Translation.

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So Matthew 26, and we'll start at verse 36.

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Let me find it. And I'm going to read it all the way through,

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and then we'll break it up in the NLT.

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It says, then Jesus went with them to a garden called Gethsemane and told his

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disciples, stay here while I go over there and pray.

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So we see here that prayer is important, was important in Jesus' life.

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Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, so he didn't go pray alone,

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he took along a couple of his close friends.

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He plunged into an agonizing sorrow

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then he said this sorrow is

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crushing my life out stay here and keep visual with me so while i pray just

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watch over me anybody been in that much agony and prayer question mark going

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a little ahead he fell on his face so he's praying as he's walking He fell on his face praying,

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my father, if there's any way, get me out of this.

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But please, not what I want you to.

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But what you want, but do what you want. Wow.

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Then he came back to his disciples. He found them sound asleep.

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He said, Peter, can't you stick it out with me a single hour?

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Stay alert, be in prayer so you don't wander into temptation without even knowing you're in danger.

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There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God,

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but there's another part that is as lazy as an old dog sleeping in fire.

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There's a part that is eager, ready for anything in God, but there's a part

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that is as lazy as an old dog sleeping in fire.

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Then he left them a second time. Again, he prayed, my father,

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there is no other way than this.

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If there is no other way than this, drinking this cup to the dregs.

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I'm ready. Do it your way.

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Then he came back and he again found them sound asleep.

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They simply couldn't keep their eyes open. This time he let them sleep on and

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went back a third time to pray, going over the same ground as last time.

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And when he came back the next time. He said, are you going to sleep on and make a night of it?

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My time is up. The son of man is about to be handed over to the hands of sinners.

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Get up. Let's get going. My betrayer is here.

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The agony in the garden of Gethsemane. In Matthew 26 through 39,

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in these verses, we see Jesus' emotional struggle as he faces impending suffering.

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His powerful prayer of submission to God, God's will highlights his humanity

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and his reliance on the Father.

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Jesus models the importance of turning to God in times of distress.

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His vulnerability shows us in the power of his prayer of submission.

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Let's go to the NLT's translation and see what happens there.

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26 verses 36 through 39.

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26, 36 through 39.

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We see here that Jesus brought a couple of friends to pray with him and they

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were too exhausted to stay up. Let's go here.

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It says in verse 36 through 39, it says, and Jesus went with them to the olive

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grove called Gethsemane and said, sit here while I go over here to pray.

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He took Peter and Zebedee, two sons, James and John.

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So it was three of them. And he came and became anguished and distressed.

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And he told them, my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death.

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Stay here and keep watch with me.

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39, he went on a little further and bowed his face to the ground,

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praying, my father, if it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.

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Yet I want your will to be done.

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We see here that as Jesus, you know, knowing he is the son of God,

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knowing that what was coming was death on the cross,

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knowing that he experienced something in the garden that was probably close

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enough to death that it was an emotional turmoil.

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You can feel that in his body that he says, this is going to be a lot. This is going to be a lot.

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And he asked his father at that moment, can you, can you help me with this?

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Like, it was just too much. Can you take this cup away?

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And in that same breath, he says, no, if this is your will, let it be.

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How many of us been at that point where it's like, wow, I can't,

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I can't take this no more.

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We've all been to a point of emotional struggle, not to the point of death.

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Maybe we have, maybe we haven't, but to the point where we just had enough of

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whatever that issue was of an emotional struggle, of turmoil in our family,

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turmoil at our job, even turmoil and maybe relationships in our marriages.

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It was just to the point where it was just too much. We've had just too much.

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But what Jesus did was he didn't really make any major decisions in that emotional

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struggle until he prayed to the father.

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Right. He prayed to the father. He didn't just pray to the father and said, I had enough.

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He prayed to the father until he got what? Victory.

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And then there was something that clicked at that time of prayer that he knew that he had the victory.

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And so he prayed, he said, my

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father, if it's possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.

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And I can remember times in my life where things were like, oh my gosh, this is too much.

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I don't know if I can make it through. I don't know if I can make it through

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this. I don't know if I can do this.

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I took a deep breath. And you know how we talked about in the last chapter,

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chapter in the last, we didn't, those who haven't, it's kind of late,

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early, but I speak about being a living sacrifice.

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And this is pretty much, when you think about that last being a living sacrifice,

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according to Romans 12, one, you feel like that, like you're being sacrificed.

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And so I remember waking up every day when you're sleeping.

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Remember I said in that scripture, you're sleeping and your everyday walking,

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when you're sleeping, you're like, I wake up every day, you go like,

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oh my gosh, I'm breathing, I'm good.

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But sometimes we think that you pray, you can pray and it'll go away right away.

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Sometimes it doesn't go away right away. Sometimes it takes a couple years,

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you're still dealing with that emotional distress, that emotional drama that's

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happening at your job, that emotional, whatever that thing is.

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It didn't go away in my life, at least for at least two years.

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I remember every day, two years, then finally it was over.

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It was over.

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The victory was won.

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And so how do you handle an emotional struggle? Right here we see that Jesus prayed.

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Even though he had the victory in the garden, he still had to go through the

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actual sacrifice on the cross.

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Not even just the sacrifice on the cross.

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He had to go through the beating with the cat of nine tails.

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He had to go through the crown of thorns on his head being embedded in his skull.

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He had to go through the spitting on, the slapping on, even though he had the victory in the garden.

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Even though he decided your will be done, Jesus, he still had to go through the nails in his hands.

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He still had to die on the cross for us.

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He went through the emotional turmoil had

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the victory in the garden but still

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had to suffer that physical abuse i took a pause for effect because we have

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to know that we have the victory in jesus despite the things we may have to

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go through on earth and we just have to give it to the father.

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Jesus did. He submitted his will to the father.

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In his humanity, he gave it to the father so that we can have victory.

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So we give it to the father for victory. I ain't saying we suffer for the,

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we're not suffering for anybody.

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Some things we get ourself involved in and we might have to go through those

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consequences, consequences.

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But we know that we have the victory in Jesus. And once that thing ended,

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and then all the other things lit up for my life.

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Some things that I did wrong had to go through the consequences,

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but once I got through that, guess what?

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I learned a lesson. I'm out of it. I won't do that again.

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Amen. But I saw Jesus come through in a mighty, mighty way.

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I don't know why I shared that with you. I hope that was for somebody.

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Let's go on to point two, the challenge of wakefulness.

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Let's go to Matthew 26, verse 40 through 45.

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Let's read it. It says, then he returned to the disciples and found them awake.

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Found them asleep. Oh, found them asleep. That would be a different Bible.

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So make sure you read your Bible. It says asleep.

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Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep. I had to look like

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they were never awake, asleep.

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And he said to Peter, couldn't you watch with me even an hour?

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Keep watching, pray so that you will not give into temptation.

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He was speaking prophetic to Peter,

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give into temptation for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

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Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, my father, if this cup cannot

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be taken away, my father, if

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this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, then your will be done.

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When he returned to them again, he found them sleeping for they couldn't keep their eyes open.

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So he went to prayer a third time saying the same things.

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So it says the challenge of wakefulness. The disciples struggled to stay awake,

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highlighting the need for spiritual vigilance.

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Jesus' gentle admonition underscores the importance of remaining alert in prayer.

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And so we know that we're fasting and we committed our time to prayer and how

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important it is to prayer.

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But I also thought how important it is to have friends when you are in an emotional

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struggle, friends that will stay awake, friends that will keep you awake.

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How many times have you committed to a 4 a.m. prayer or an all-night prayer

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and you find yourself asleep at about an hour into prayer? And so the vigilance

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of prayer and fasting is important too. How bad do you want it?

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You know, how bad? Jesus don't need your prayer, but do you need your prayer?

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I don't know. The importance of remaining alert in prayer.

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For some reason, this is in the Bible. It showed that Jesus wasn't praying during the daylight hours.

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He was praying during the nighttime hours. Right?

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There's watches that you can study. I think I have a devotional on the watches

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that we will cover later on during these podcasts.

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So it's important.

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He was praying during a particular hour of the evening for some different things

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that happened during the time that he needed victory.

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And so we won't go there. But hello, this is an important time.

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This is an important time of a challenge of wakefulness. Something to check.

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Disciples struggle to stay awake. Highlighting the need for spiritual vigilance. Wow.

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There are some things are happening in our lives and we think we can just pray

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during the daylight hours.

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Sometimes God will challenge you to pray during a time when you're sleeping.

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Ask him. Remember, we're a living sacrifice.

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Sometimes a living sacrifice might need to stay up and pray and fast and not sleep.

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Interesting. That was extra. That's not even in my notes.

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So God is talking to someone saying, hey, you might want to challenge yourself

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if you want it bad enough.

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He might challenge you to wake up at midnight and pray for an hour and then you go back to sleep.

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That was a season in my life, the way my schedule works, I'm off during the summer.

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So I set my alarm, pray for an hour at midnight, midnight to one, boom.

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Sometime he had me wake up at three, pray from three to five, boom, go back to sleep.

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Then it was four, you know, get up at 4.30, pray.

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So if you alert to what God, when God needs you to pray at certain times of

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the day or hour, whenever he He needs you. You are his servant.

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You are devoted to him. He may need your voice at certain times of the day, evening, morning.

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Be alert. Remain spiritually alert and prayerful, especially during challenging times.

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He will get the victory. You will get the victory.

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But you must remain awake for this. So this is point two, the challenge of wakefulness.

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We want to pray. we want to fast, but we don't want, we want to fast and what

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we want to fast, eat what we want to do.

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We want to do what we want to do, but can we actually pray when God wants us

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to pray the challenge of wakefulness to be spiritually alert and to pray when God wants us to pray.

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That's good. Wow, Lord, that's powerful.

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Wow. And so I challenge you. That's a challenge during this Affliction of the

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Soul series is to find out as a living sacrifice.

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Wow. During this Affliction of the Soul series, when do he, God wants you to,

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he wants to answer your prayer, right?

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He wants He wants to know if you're serious about him. That's the next series

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is getting serious about God. So I'm prepping you for the next series.

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But the official of the soul is prepping you for the next series.

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Are you ready for what God has for you? Are you willing to make that sacrifice of sleep?

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We fast food or do we?

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Can you fast some sleep and really get what God has for you?

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A lot of times we, like I said, we do this copy cutter thing.

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Susie Mae is blessed with a beautiful, handsome husband driving,

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doing all the things that God has for her, but we don't know what she is doing.

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She could be waking up at three in the morning, praying to her God,

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being fully devoted, but she ain't bragging and boasting about it, right?

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What can you do to be devoted to your God?

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Question mark, question mark. Whoa.

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I don't know why I'm pausing on that, but that's really good.

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There we go. We're going to stop there.

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That's good. Let's keep going. That's so good.

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Oh my gosh. Speaking to me, speaking to me, there's a call here to be devoted

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to God, to give up some more of that delicious sleep that you're doing.

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Delicious food, delicious sleep, being a sacrifice.

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It reminds me again, if you've already listened to, which you would have listened

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to part two, is that butterfly, that transformation of that butterfly,

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you cannot disrupt that butterfly in the cocoon.

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Otherwise it falls flat. So as you are being transformed, it may require a little

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bit more devotion to God.

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Whatever that looks like, ask the Lord. And we're going to go to number three,

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the call to move forward.

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And that is going to be in 26 verse 46, the call to move forward. This is so good.

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The call to move forward. It reads in NLT and it says.

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It says, up, let's be going. Look, my betrayer is here.

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At a point of all this praying, all this fasting, all this commitment,

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it's a time to just go and do it.

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And that is so empowering. Despite his agony, Jesus is ready to embrace God's

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will, demonstrating in this courage and trust.

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And, you know, I always like to share a story. I have my podcast table set up,

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my little podcast mic, and I set this up probably May or so.

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I found the table on sale. I found the mic on sale.

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You know, I bought all these women. We buy everything on sale,

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set it up. And then the Lord said, July is your podcast.

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I'm like, Lord, I don't know how to do a podcast. But he didn't.

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Come on. When the Lord says, do it, do it. But it comes a time where you have

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to go do what he told you to do. There's been enough fasting.

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There's been enough prayer. There's been enough everything.

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And you just got to do it. You don't have any money? Well, you better ask the Lord.

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It's time to go for it. Despite his agony,

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knowing Jesus knew what he was getting ready to do,

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he says he embraced God's will, whatever that is, demonstrating in miscourage

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and trust, and he moved in obedience and he did what God called him to do.

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And he faced extraordinary challenges. I'm so glad Jesus did it for me.

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Can I get an amen, a hallelujah and praise the Lord?

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Cause I know I would have fainted in the garden if I knew I had to go with G do what Jesus did.

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Hallelujah. I faint when I have to do talk on the podcast. Hello.

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Hello. Come on people. People, so now what I'm saying is God has called us that

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it's time for us to move forward.

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Whatever God has called you to do, it's time to do it. It's time, a call to move forward.

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He's made it easy. You done fasted enough. You done prayed enough.

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You done asked your friends enough. You done asked God 1,200 times enough.

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He says now it's time to be obedient in what he's called you to do.

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And this morning, you know, as I was just before I close this out,

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he just shared this scripture with me and I'm going to share it with you.

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And I thought it was kind of cool this morning because just as you are listening

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to me, this is my first podcast.

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This is found in Zechariah 4.10 and I'm going to close it out and we're going to do our decrees.

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And it's found in Zechariah 4.10. It says, do not despise these small beginnings

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for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.

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To see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand. So this is a story in Zechariah.

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Zerubbabel was told to do something and Zerubbabel started.

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And so I stopped right there. I'm going to repeat it. It says,

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do not despise the small beginnings for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.

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So when you start what God has told you to do, he rejoices.

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The little faith that gets you to move to

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get you to even sign up to see what it

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costs to even start a podcast to

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get you to start to see what the cost is to buy a computer to see what it costs

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God rejoices then it says the seven lands represent the eyes of the Lord searches

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around the world so that God has his eye on you to see if you will do what he told you to do No,

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I'm going to stop there because this is getting long.

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I don't want you to cut it off.

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I want to keep it short and sweet. We're going to go over the decrees.

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Before I do that, I want you to just say that I will start what God has told me to do.

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And I will move forward because I know God is watching me because he is rejoicing

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over me. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Here we go. I will return to God in prayer, seeking his strength in times of

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distress, just as Jesus did in Gethsemane.

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I commit to staying spiritually alert, remaining vigilant in prayer and aware of God's presence.

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I trust in God's plan, embracing his will with courage, even when faced with challenges.

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I seek to follow Jesus' example of obedience, surrendering my will to the Father's purposes.

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I find strength in prayer, knowing that God's presence empowers me to face any trial.

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As we conclude we got one more series and

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that's gonna that'd be the final series it's gonna

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be the power of i added one

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more series to that it's gonna be the power of solemn assembly and fasting it's

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gonna come from joel and that'll be the final series of the affliction of the

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soul but i want to just thank you all for just joining in it's just been just a pleasure

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for the episode of Diary of Black Women.

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I just hope you find this series inspirational and encouraging as we explore God's word together.

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Just remember you can access these devotionals and scriptural decrees on my

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website at diaryofblackwomenllc.com.

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Stay connected with our community on social media and join the conversation.

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Let's uplift each other and support each other and our faith journey.

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Until next time, keep the faith, stay empowered, continue to walk in God's love.

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Be blessed. This is your host, Connie Morris.

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Until next time, God bless you.