Podcast

Overcoming Fear and Worry by Praying God’s Promises: Rachel Wojo

Rachel: [00:00:00] I felt overwhelmed as a mama and I would struggle with going to sleep because my husband wasn’t at home.

Rachel: I would read. The Bible and I would say, okay, God, I believe what you said is true.

Rachel: Lord. I’m telling you I’m gonna rest on your word.

Rachel: And I would tuck my Bible underneath my pillow, his word became living and active for me,

Rachel: You’ve promised that you will supply all our needs according to your riches in Christ Jesus. You’ve promised that I have no reason to be afraid that even though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death, I do not have to fear evil.

 

Rachel: His promises are not only for eternal salvation, but they’re also for everyday solutions, for everyday sustenance.

Welcome to the Unshakable whole podcast, where real life intersects redeeming love. I’m Kelly Hall, and this is where we wrestle through faith [00:01:00] questions such as, how do I trust God’s heart when his ways and delays are breaking mind? We’ll hear from people just like you and me who have experienced God’s faithfulness when life didn’t unfold as they expected my prayers, that God would renew our hope and his word and his love through these conversations.

Kelly: Hey friends, I wonder how many of us today are feeling a little worried or fearful or anxious about the situations in our lives, and maybe we’re even struggling to talk to God about all of this. How do we pray through these difficulties? And I wonder, this has been my line. Where’s my peace?

Kelly: I am a believer I should have more peace in my life. Why am I so filled with worry and anxiety? Well, if this is where you’re at, I think you’re really gonna enjoy our topic today. It’s called Overcoming Worry and Fear By Praying God’s Promises. I’ve had women come to me before and say. [00:02:00] How do you pray the promises?

Kelly: What are the promises that God has for us to pray? And those questions resonate in my heart because I’ve asked those same things. God has put a verse on my heart before and I’ve said, but God, what does it really look like to trust in you with all my heart? How do I pray that? How do I live that out on in a daily?

Kelly: Way. Well, my guest today is gonna help us walk through this process. We’re gonna process some of these questions with her. She has a beautiful prayer journal I wanna tell you about. It’s called Praying the Promises of God. A 52 week guided prayer journal. It is absolutely beautiful. If you are looking for a Christmas gift for someone, or if you are wondering what journal you wanna start on January 1st to help you draw near to God’s heart as you go through next year, I would highly recommend you check this out.

Kelly: My guest is Rachel Wojo She’s been on the podcast before. I’m gonna link to [00:03:00] her previous episodes as well because I want you to know her. Rachel Ojo is an inspirational author, speaker, and the host of the Untangling Prayer Podcast, which I’ve listened to many times. If you’re walking through a hard season and you’re wondering how do you pray?

Kelly: Or you’re wondering, how do you have peace? She has a beautiful resource, prayers to calm your anxious heart and her whole demeanor is just calming. You will sense the power of God just radiating through her. Rachel has many prayer and journal resources on her website.

Kelly: I encourage you to also check those out. Well, let me tell you a little bit about her family. She’s deeply in love with her husband, Matt, and and cherishes her motherhood with her six children on earth and two in heaven. So Rachel, I am so glad you’re joining me today. Thank you.

Rachel: Kelly, thank you so much for having me.

Rachel: Your heart for people is just off the charts. I mean, you love people and I feel like it’s like so [00:04:00] close to the way Jesus loves people. You just want people to succeed. You want them to have. Things that they need to propel them forward. You want people to experience healing, and I just appreciate that about you so much that you, you’re such a link arms kind of person.

Rachel: Let me walk with you and, and I really appreciate that about you.

Kelly: Oh, That is how I feel and that’s what this whole podcast is about. And that’s why I’m so glad you’re joining me.

Kelly: I know you have a heart for women. This. Same way. And Rachel, I had so much fun recently, I was speaking about prayer and about going to God’s word, and I had an opportunity to give away your prayer journal at this event. Aw. It was so much fun. And this woman that wanted, she said, I loved a journal.

Kelly: Like she could not wait to dig in. [00:05:00] But here’s what was kind of funny. You know, it’s hard to give away. Prizes at women’s events, they’re usually in the fall and spring. And so sometimes people’ll say who has a birthday, but I always feel bad for the summer birthdays. And so I looked up your birthday and it’s a summer one.

Kelly: And so I asked for who, whoever had the birthday closest to yours, that’s who won it.

Rachel: Aw, that’s fun. . I’m gonna have to remember that for the future when I do giveaways at retreats.

Kelly: Well, Rachel, I know you’ve been on my podcast.

Kelly: Before, and like I said, I’m gonna link to those previous episodes where you tell more of your story. But I’d love it if you could just give a little bit of an overview of who you are.

Rachel: Yeah.

Rachel: Well my name is Rachel Ojo and I live in the northwest suburbs of Columbus, Ohio with my family.

Rachel: I do have six children on earth and two in heaven. One lives next door, one lives just about 15, 20 minutes away. And then [00:06:00] the one that lives next door, she’s a PA and is married. And my, a 23-year-old is now married. He got married this spring, and so that’s, we have newlyweds not living that far from us.

Rachel: And then we have two in college right now. One is away at college at the University of Cincinnati School of Engineering. We’re feeling very spoiled because he is in a co-op program and gets to come home. In order to do his co-op semesters, so that’s very spoiling that he gets to be at home and work from home those semesters.

Rachel: He will be coming home shortly and, and I’m excited about that. That’s awesome. My other daughter who is in college goes to Liberty University online, and then my two younger girls are, uh, 16 and 14. They are a junior and freshmen, and they actually have a dual. A school enrollment where they attend [00:07:00] an online charter school for their academics, but then through our local public school, they do their extracurricular and athletic opportunities.

Rachel: So it’s really fun to stay with it. They are volleyball girls and so they play school season and club season and it keeps us all hopping. As far as my ministry, I. Started serving the Lord. Way back when my 16-year-old was still in my belly. I believed that the Lord was calling me to write Bible studies for, for women and just share my heart with women, and I didn’t really know how to go about doing that.

Rachel: No one I knew was a writer. No one I knew personally was a speaker. And so it’s been quite the journey over the 16 years. To go from just having that little desire in my heart that I felt like the Lord planted in there, to now having a an online platform and an email list, and being an [00:08:00] author of this now being my third traditionally published book with a couple more in the hopper here to be releasing in 2026 and 2028.

Rachel: So feeling very grateful for the journey that the Lord has taken me on. I think from a, the standpoint of those who are listening today, I would just say you came because you feel overwhelmed or weary. That was what Kelly kind of named this. How do we pray the promises of God when we’re feeling overwhelmed and weary, and I just wanted to share that.

Rachel: I truly do know what that feels like. For 22 years, I cared for my special needs daughter Taylor, who had a rare metabolic disorder, and her disorder was neurologically degenerative. So she went from being a beautiful, bubbly little girl to um. Gradually not being able to do anything for herself. Eat, drink, walk, call me, mommy.

Rachel: She [00:09:00] lost every skill gradually over the course of 22 years until God called her home. And so when I say that, now I can kind of get all of those words out. Without crying or breaking down, but I’ll be honest it has been a few years now that Taylor has been in heaven, and sometimes even this week, I look back over the journey and think, how did we ever make it?

Rachel: How did we ever get through all of those hard challenging circumstances? So I’m here to tell you that. When I say it was by God’s word and his grace, I really do mean that I think that I would be in, in a psychiatric hospital or somewhere, you know, I don’t know, just at the bottom of the barrel kind of thing.

Rachel: Maybe even not alive if I did not have the living word of God accessible to me and in my heart and know him [00:10:00] on a personal basis. So when you talk about. The promises that he has made to us that really made a difference. And I’ll just, I wanna give you a chance to, to jump in, but I just wanna tell one more quick little story because Okay,

Kelly: sure.

Kelly: Yeah, I do.

Rachel: It’s really coming to the, the forefront of. My mind at this moment, and I feel like that must be the Holy Spirit. When I was a young mom and I had five kiddos at home and my special needs daughter as well, I really struggled with trying to understand what it was that God. Was doing in my life.

Rachel: And one of the reasons was not just because I had a special needs child, but because I felt like I was so overwhelmed with caring for my family. My husband worked night shift and he would leave for work and I would have these five children who were in bed and I would think, okay, Lord. If there’s a fire, how are we [00:11:00] going to get out of here?

Rachel: I can’t even get one child down the steps, much less all these babies. And I just had a lot of fears just because I felt overwhelmed as a mama and so I would struggle with going to sleep because my husband was wasn’t at home. And finally I was like, okay, Lord, I believe you. I’m gonna stand on your promises.

Rachel: I would get up before I would go to bed. I would get my Bible. I would read. The Bible and I would say, okay, God, I believe what you said is true. And I would put my head on the pillow and still struggle to go to sleep. And so then I got to where I was like, okay, I’m gonna rest on your word, Lord. I’m telling you I’m gonna rest on your word.

Rachel: And I would tuck my Bible underneath my pillow, which wasn’t exactly comfortable. And I just, I believe that his word [00:12:00] became living and active for me, and I would put those promises on memory and on replay. And when I would lay down in bed, I would feel God’s promises on my, in my mind before I went to sleep.

Rachel: I would fill up my mind, then I would feel my Bible in my hands. And then as I was going to sleep, I would say to the Lord. You’ve promised that you will supply all our needs according to your riches in Christ Jesus. You’ve promised that I have no reason to be afraid that even though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death, I do not have to fear evil.

Rachel: And you’re talking to someone who actually at one point, called the firemen in the middle of the night because I thought I heard someone in the basement. You know, I mean, I will just confess that it was real and tangible to me. Yeah. But by claiming God’s word, by telling God, you know what? You said these things and so I believe them and I’m [00:13:00] trusting you.

Rachel: It was the special infusion of truth that came into my heart and helped me. Not only get through that time, but also come to grips with the victory and confidence I could have in my God’s sovereignty, in my God’s power. So, I don’t mean to get all preachy with it, but that really is the heart behind this journal and as beautiful as it is, and as, wonderful as it is to. To use it and you know, it feels like so much pleasure in, in the beauty of it because the publisher did an amazing job. I just really believe the power is in letting God’s words saturate our hearts with truth.

Kelly: Absolutely. Thank you for sharing all that. I, I love not only the update on your family, but the overview of actually how to pray the promises.

Kelly: I love the osmosis thing where, of course that’s not what’s [00:14:00] really happening, but you were saturating yourself all of your senses in the truth of God’s word,

Kelly: and one of the things I had asked God for promises to help bring peace to my heart and

Kelly: I was overwhelmed , I had two little children, one hearing impaired, and I was pregnant with twins and I’m not a happy pregnant person. It was very. Stressful for me. And so I said to the Lord, I don’t understand why I don’t have more peace.

Kelly: What is going on? And that is when he brought to mind. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don’t lean on your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge me and I will direct your path.

Kelly: And I said to the Lord,

Kelly: thank you but I don’t know what that looks like in the day to day when I’m taking care of my kids, when I’m washing the dishes, when things are falling apart, what does it really look like to trust in you with all my heart and not myself.

Kelly: And so I just asked him, if you teach me nothing else would you please teach me [00:15:00] that or for the rest of my life? Teach me what that looks like. And what you described was praying the word in that way. Just saying, this is true. I know this is true. Build this truth into my life.

Kelly: And I would love to, bounce off just one more thing. . I was at a church one time where they prayed the way you just prayed, where they’re saying,

Kelly: god, you say, this is what you say, and that was the first time I’d ever heard people pray that way, Rachel. And it increased my confidence in God’s word and helped me grab hold of it in a deeper way. So thank you for that illustration.

Rachel: I think what that does, I think some people think, well, God doesn’t need my reminders.

Rachel: That’s the way they view that. Right? And it’s really not about that at all. What happens is when we say with our mouth, what God’s word says is already true, it actually invokes confidence into [00:16:00] our hearts. Yeah. It’s not even about. Reminding God, so to speak. It’s about reminding ourselves. And then I will just say this, I, I use this little illustration sometimes my.

Rachel: My girls when we’re traveling, they love to stop at the infamous Bucky’s gas station.

Kelly: Yes. Just

Rachel: for the entertainment factor even. You know, you gotta go to the bathroom. We’re gonna go there even if we don’t need anything else. And so what will happen is if, if we’re about to pass Bucky’s and my husband has said at the beginning of the trip, sure, we’ll go, we’ll stop at Bucky’s if we’re about to pass it.

Rachel: What happens? My girls say, dad. Dad, there’s the exit. You said you would, you promised. And what happens? My husband pulls off the exit and goes to Bucky’s If he loves to give his girls that good gift of going to Bucky’s , imagine how much more our heavenly father loves [00:17:00] to give the gifts of his promises to his children.

Kelly: Oh, that is a great illustration. Yes. That is God’s heart.

Rachel: Mm-hmm.

Kelly: And he, and one of the things we discover with God’s promises it reveals the character of God. Yes. And Gods character is never changing. He is eternal. Promises are unfailing. And so when we pray God’s promises, we can have great confidence because he never changes his mind.

Kelly: Yes, he doesn’t wake up in a bad mood we can really count on who he is and how he works and his promises remind our heart that that’s true.

Rachel: Yes. So good.

Kelly: Well, Rachel, let’s just drive this in a little bit deeper for us. Just, just be really, really practical.

Kelly: I’m wondering if you can share a story where you felt worried or afraid, and then help us more deeply understand what it actually looks like to pray God’s word

Rachel: yeah. I remember as a mom who [00:18:00] had a terminally ill child, we were given a lifespan of her having 10 to 15 years, and so the reality of that kind of made me live in a little bit of fear, not of.

Rachel: The day to day things that happened, like seizures and needing medicine and needing provision, and not as much those things, but I feared death. I feared, okay, what happens when she stops breathing? Do we call 9 1 1 or is that the end of it for her? Uh, do we have a DNR? I mean, there were just some very detailed questions we had to ask ourselves, and so.

Rachel: I thought to myself, am I going to live in this state of, what if that drives fear? Because this question of what if, what if she has another seizure? What if she has, something [00:19:00] happens when we’re not home and there’s a caregiver there? What if they have to call the ambulance? What if And it it just that what if question, the worry and the.

Rachel: Fear would easily take hold of me. And then it would also drive down into, well, if she dies and I had to come to grips with this thing of there won’t be an if she dies. It will be a when she dies. Hmm. And when that sunk over me, I was saturated in the book of Isaiah. I was attending a bible study fellowship that year, and I was saturated in the book of Isaiah really trying to foster my heart in.

Rachel: The study of God’s word. Yeah. And I came to Isaiah 43 and it’s a very famous verse. A lot of people use this verse or talk about it, but it says, when you pass through the waters, I will be with [00:20:00] you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. Wow. And that very first part of the verse, the when was so important for me because I had been living with that.

Rachel: What if, what if, what if? And then all of a sudden I, I had this, you know, epiphany. Well, it’s not an if, it’s a when, so I’m reading God’s word and it says when, right there, when you pass through the waters. And I thought. Oh my goodness. All of us are going to pass through the waters at some point,

Kelly: right?

Kelly: None

Rachel: of us, even Lazarus died a second time. Imagine what that was like for him. Oh boy. Here we go again. You know, everyone talks about his resurrection, but no one really says he actually died a second time. Wonder what that was like, him knowing what was happening to his [00:21:00] body. I just think that this promise was such a special gift from the Lord in that season of my life.

Rachel: So much so that I clung to it and I, I said, okay. There’s two parts to the promise. God’s promises. There are always two parts to them. There’s what he says he will do. And it’s usually as a result of if we choose to obey in this form, here’s what the result will be. Mm-hmm. So it’s an if then statement.

Rachel: Sometimes his promises are based on his character. Sometimes his promises are based on what we choose to believe about his character, right?

Kelly: Yes. And

Rachel: that’s the difference. And so when I look at this passage, it’s when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. Okay? Do I believe [00:22:00] God is going to sustain us through death and suffering, or is that only reserved for heaven?

Rachel: So do I believe that? His promises are not only for eternal salvation, but they’re also for everyday solutions, for everyday sustenance. And so this passage then the second part, it says, when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. In other words, this death, it may take you out. Body, but it will not take your spirit and your soul out of restoration with me.

Rachel: Hmm. And so when you look at that as a whole, those of us who are still in our bodies, and I know this is really deep, and maybe not even what you were expecting when you opened up this podcast to listen to it, for those of you [00:23:00] who who are listening, but I’m just telling you this. Truth is how I was able to hold onto the fact that God is present.

Rachel: He is with me.

Rachel: His promises will sustain us. They are true. And so between his presence and his promises that can carry us for eternity, that can sustain us here on this earth and help us grasp that, what he says will.

Rachel: They will not sweep over us until we are in heaven. Those rivers and those things that we encounter on this earth are not designed to demolish us. They’re designed to bring God glory. Hmm. And so I can wrap myself in his presence. I can wrap myself in his promises and take so much comfort and encouragement from the fact that he’s protecting me.

Kelly: That is such a powerful promise that [00:24:00] really does remove so much fear from our everyday lives. Mm-hmm. And you know, Rachel, just this morning I was reading about a missionary who spent 30 years with a cannibalistic tribe in a South Indian ocean kind of place, an island, and they all came to know Jesus at the end of his life, but it took many decades and there were so many times when the chief was threatening to kill him. And he said, but I was never afraid because I know that there was a certain time appointed in my life when God would take me home, and nobody could interfere with that.

Kelly: Yeah. And so he was able to have so much peace in his life because he wasn’t afraid of dying.

Rachel: Yeah. I, I just believe that when we can. Saturate our hearts with that truth and clinging to it, then God’s presence is more [00:25:00] tangible to us if, if that particular verse is standing out to anyone who’s listening right now.

Rachel: I just did a recent podcast episode. That’s titled by that verse when you pass through the waters, and if, if that verse is meaningful to you and you’d like to soak up more of that, I would encourage you to pop over to untangling Prayer and listen to that episode.

Kelly: That’s so good. We both know there are times when the crisis will hit and we can easily be sidelined in a moment when something happens.

Kelly: God’s sovereignty and his love have anchored me so much during uncertain times like that. You know, when the chaos hits, when the crisis hits, and we as a family faced a legal battle against injustice. So it wasn’t like someone’s gonna go to jail. It was, we were facing a great deal of injustice, one of our loved ones, and.

Kelly: And it seemed like the other people had all the [00:26:00] power and we had zero, and it was so important for me to pray through promises that reminded me. God is completely in charge of all things. He is in charge of this. He lives outside of time. His will will be accomplished. That nothing they do can thwart God’s plans.

Kelly: Job praised that in Job 42 2. But there’s another verse I wanted to share from two Chronicles 20 where the kingdom is facing this heavy battle, this army is coming against him. It’s a vast army, and they’re a tinier. People. And so they are at great risk. They’re at great risk of being just completely wiped out.

Kelly: But the king goes to the Lord and he prays, and he says this in um, two Chronicles 20 verse 12. For, we have no power to face this vast army that’s attacking us. We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. And that gives us some words to pray when we [00:27:00] are in a crisis and we can put our eyes on Jesus.

Kelly: It’s really just a verbal way of handing over the controls and saying, my confidence is in you. I don’t have to figure this out. I would pray that verse so much during this time. And as you go through this story, you realize that God tells them, Hey, I’m gonna win this battle.

Kelly: You’re not gonna have to fight it. And so they send the praise team first, and that encouraged my heart so much because they are praising God. They’re praising him for who he is. Like they are just saying, God, you’re, you promise your love endures forever. God, you are faithful. That’s what they’re declaring.

Kelly: And so they just go out praising and God does win the battle. And I will say that as this crisis continued to evolve and I continue to pray these promises. It gave me peace. Mm-hmm. And it gave me confidence that God’s will would be carried out, but it truly [00:28:00] was sometimes an hour by hour surrender.

Kelly: Mm-hmm. ’cause the chaos was. Very present.

Rachel: Yeah. In

Kelly: their lives.

Rachel: I would agree. And I think probably someone listening right now is saying, yeah, not just hour by hour, but moment by moment, you know? And yeah. And I know you’ve been there too, Kelly, where you feel like you have enough sense about you to know that you need God hour by hour.

Rachel: But really it is a moment by moment basis. Clinging to those promises, the promise that he has already won the battle and that he will see you through it. So important. Thank you for sharing that.

Kelly: Yeah. We know there are many promises that point to God’s character where we are reminded that God’s bigger than our circumstances, he’s larger than our fears, I’m wondering if you have another situation that you could share with us where God met you in a place of fear and walked you through it because of his word.

Rachel: I think the last time I shared on your podcast, Kelly, I talked about [00:29:00] how our family had a period of my husband being unemployed for eight months and how difficult that was for us and how the Lord met us all of our needs.

Rachel: The one story that I don’t believe I shared before, so if you wanna hear a, uh. A fun story, go back and reference that episode, but this story that I’m about to share was a little more subtle, if you will. I, it was summer during that season of my husband’s unemployment and I thought to myself, you know, summer costs money just does, all the kids are home.

Rachel: Like all the fun stuff. Yeah. Costs money. And I thought, how will we get through this summer and bring our family closer together, and how will we feed everyone while doing that? And so. I was asking the Lord just for provision, like, how do I [00:30:00] do this? How do I love my family well, and keep them all fed? And one of the things that my neighbor reached out and said, Hey.

Rachel: I got a new grill and if you would like this one, you can have it. He changed the style of the grill that, that he wanted and it was using, and so we rolled his grill over to our house and there was no gas. Tank with it, no propane tank. And I said to my husband, like, we don’t have 50 bucks to buy propane right now.

Rachel: So I don’t know how this is gonna work, but I feel like the Lord gave it to us. So here we are. So the little grill set out on the patio with no propane. And two days later a friend of mine text me and she says, I know that you really. You know, you’ve got a large family to feed. I would love for you to come over to my freezer and shop it for [00:31:00] meat.

Rachel: Wow. She had a meat full of freezer and uh, freezer full of meat. Yeah. And she wanted me to come over and just get some of what we needed. That was huge. It was so huge. Incredible. So I go over and shop and I’m still thinking, okay, Lord, this is really funny. You’re pulling these pieces together, you’ve provided a grill, you’ve provided meat.

Rachel: And then on Friday I’m texting my, my friend Regina. And I say, Regina, I we’d love to have you come over just to, to grill out and I would invite you to grill out except I don’t have any gas for the grill. And, um, she said, will I do. And I said, you do because she lives in an apartment. She has no grill.

Rachel: She said, yeah, I have a propane tank in my storage unit. I don’t know why I kept it, but you can have it if you can use it. No way. That’s awesome. So in a week’s time, God [00:32:00] used one person to give us a grill, one person to give us meat, one person to give us a propane tank. And you just look at that and think, here’s, here’s the verse, here’s the promise.

Rachel: Ephesians three 14 to 21. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power. That is all work within us. And I love that part of the verse because God used our neighbor, God used Regina. The story wasn’t about us. It was about his love flowing out of the people that he was using in order to minister to us.

Rachel: And it says to him, be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Reminding us that he works, he connects the dots, [00:33:00] he moves in people’s lives, and the purpose of that is to bring him glory. So why would he not be our provider in this season? The verse promises.

Rachel: That he’s gonna do immeasurably more than we can ask or think or imagine. And you know, me, Kelly, you know, I like to imagine things. I’m a big dreamer. Yes, you do. But his dreams are even bigger and better than mine. Yeah. And just remembering that the first part of that is to him who is able to keep you from stumbling.

Rachel: And I think that that part is really cool because I’ll be honest with you, my husband will tell you when I get tired, I get very trippy. Like I trip over my own two feet, I’ll drop things. You know, I just get clumsy. So when I look at that promise to him, who is able to keep you from stumbling, I think.

Rachel: Okay, Lord, you’re gonna provide, you’re gonna be the one who does more than we can ask or imagine. You will sustain [00:34:00] us because you can keep me from tripping out when I am at my trippy state, when I’m struggling to keep myself together. You’ve got it all under control, and it’s just such a comfort to know his promises are true and that we can rely on them.

Kelly: Yes. Oh my goodness. I love how the Lord used all these people, the Holy Spirit’s working in their lives. You’re seeing him put it on their heart. They’re responding to the movement of the Holy Spirit. You’re continuing to trust God and just hold up your questions. You’re saying, I don’t know how, but, but could you?

Kelly: And he does.

Rachel: I think this Promises Prayer journal just really emphasizes, it gives us a way when we write God’s promises.

Rachel: There’s something special that happens when we use all of our senses to [00:35:00] establish God’s truth in our hearts. So not just reading it, saying it aloud when we pray it to him. And then using our hands to tact, tactile, that tactile sensation to ride it out confirming what we know to be true, and then allowing our eyes to see that we have written it out.

Rachel: It’s just a full experience with the Lord when we use all the senses that he has given us to establish our hearts in the truth of his promises.

Kelly: Absolutely. Yes. And I feel like too, that when you, you have just one promise that you work through, you focus on, you pray through for a whole week. I think that’s so helpful in our A DHD culture where we’re constantly distracted. To help our minds just hone in on what is true. Have you seen women benefiting from [00:36:00] that when you’ve ministered to them?

Rachel: It’s been so fun to see what God is doing with. The way that people are latching onto this journal.

Rachel: They’re excited about the beauty, but I think the bigger excitement is they feel it’s very doable. It’s not so consuming where you have something you have to do every single day, but you can really savor it. And I think that that savoring allows you to easily memorize as well. Yeah. Gives you a little bit slower pace to where.

Rachel: You may not fully memorize it in a week, but you have the, the gist of it that’s, you know, prominent in your life. Yeah. And then reinforcing that I, I’ve just seen so many women with huge smiles on their faces and just saying. Thank you for creating this journal. Thank you for helping me remember what is true in a world that is [00:37:00] so upside down.

Kelly: Well, as I know that so much of our worry and fear is based on worst case scenarios where we’re imagining a future where God forgets to show up, and that’s why these promises really do help us.

Kelly: You’ve shared so many wonderful stories, but can you think of a time when God brought you peace or rescued your heart from worry about the future.

Rachel: Yeah, I was thinking about, um, and I’ll try to make this quick.

Rachel: There was a. A time when I thought that I always had to see things in a tight timeframe to think that God had done them. Like for example, the story I just shared about how within a week’s time he provided all of these things and boom, it was all there. Yeah. And I think most of us like those kind of instant gratification.

Rachel: Answers. And when we don’t get those kind of answers and a problem we have in our hearts or based over the future is more [00:38:00] lingering and it lasts longer and it’s not resolved as quickly, then it’s just harder to connect to that promise and believe God to be true. I think what has. Helped me now that I’m older, is that I can see that sometimes the connection of the dots has not been a week, but it’s been decades.

Rachel: Yes. It’s been years. It’s been, this thing happened way back when so that this thing could happen now. And I’m just gonna give a quick little story that I don’t know how quick it will be, but it’s just a treasure to my heart. Yeah. I, I had written an article for a magazine called Day Spring. It was their everyday faith magazine, and when that magazine first was published, and I can’t even remember what year that was, I was so excited [00:39:00] because I got to go to the grocery store and see my name inside a magazine that was in the grocery store.

Rachel: Wow. Now, if you’re not a writer, you might think. Big deal. But for anyone who’s a writer, that’s like big dreams. Yeah. To have, be able to go to the store and, and pick, pick up a Christian faith-based resource that has your name in it was just a huge milestone for me. Yeah. And so I. Went to the store with my daughter and we were, um, checking out and I’m like, oh wait, Tris, we gotta see if we can find one of those magazines that’s supposed to be out this week.

Rachel: And we found one Wow. At the checkout and we were just elated. While we’re all on cloud nine, we had checked out and we walk out of the grocery store and two aisles over is a friend of mine that I did not know very well at all, [00:40:00] but. I saw her and she locked eyes with me and she smiled. I could not even remember her name in the moment.

Rachel: I had gone to church with her years before. Couldn’t remember her name, but I went up to her anyway. I felt the Holy Spirit. Prompting me, yeah. To go to her. And I went to her and I said, well, hi, how are you? And she proceeded to explain that she was not doing well and all of the circumstances in her life, her physical health, her mental health, her marriage, various things that were really an upheaval.

Rachel: And so I said. I, you know, I’m so sorry. This is all in a quick transaction. You know, she’s still checking out at the grocery and, and I’m walking past with my cart and I said to my daughter, we bought one magazine. I said, we need to give that to Theresa. I was continuing to walk out [00:41:00] after passing her and I said, can you all stay at the grocery cart?

Rachel: Can you run this back? And she did. She ran it back and just the face of this woman was just a elated. That I would think to give her something that could bring comfort to her heart in the season. It was the only thing I had at the moment. Yeah. Wow. And it was like the Holy Spirit was just telling me to do it, so I did.

Rachel: I have often done things like that and never expected a return on that kind of small act of kindness, that small, random,

Kelly: sure

Rachel: moment, but I just wanna share with you, years have passed. Years passed, and. One winter after, you know, January 2nd, 2019 is when my Taylor went to heaven. Mm. And just a couple of weeks after, I think it had [00:42:00] been two or three, it had been two years since Taylor passed away.

Rachel: One winter day I got a knock on my door. I thought I didn’t order anything and I went to the door and this woman was standing there. She looked a little sheepish and she said, I don’t know if you remember me or not, but I have something I wanna give to you. And I invited her in. And it was this same woman.

Rachel: I had not seen her since that I had given that magazine to probably 10 years before this. And she had given me a scrapbook that she made where. All of the online registries, the entire, all of the comments of the online obituary from my daughter, she had cut them out and put them in the [00:43:00] scrapbook. There were hundreds because, oh.

Rachel: Taylor was, our story was well known by many people since she had suffered for so many years. And so many of our online, my online ministry had gone on and, and written a comment on Taylor’s obituary, and years had passed. Two years had passed since Taylor had died, and this woman. Made the scrapbook and brought it to me and gave it to me.

Rachel: And I’m sharing that because do you see how God’s promise that he’s gonna do more than you can ask or imagine? Yeah. Is so prevalent and real and true. That connection was so distant and so small, and I thought I was the one ministering to her in that moment by giving her a magazine. And yet God used.

Rachel: Her to minister to me in such a [00:44:00] deep, personal, intimate way. I hope that encourages someone right now to know that when you’re holding onto God’s promises, you may not see a lot of fruit from that promise and that cling in that moment. Okay, but you don’t know the decade that could pass or what God might do with that little seed of truth that has been planted.

Rachel: And so I remind you to, to hold on to God’s promises, even when you cannot see, it could be years, but you don’t know what he wants to do with that little seed of truth.

Kelly: Oh, amen. Such a powerful reminder that our God lives outside of time. Yes. And he is doing things behind the scenes that we would not even believe if we were told.

Kelly: Wow. Well, Rachel, as we are coming to a close, I’m wondering if you could, [00:45:00] first of all, I just want you to take a minute and direct people to your website so they can find these resources, and then I’d love for you to pray. Pray for the one whose heart maybe just captured with fear and anxiety at this moment.

Rachel: Aw, thank you so much. I, if anyone is interested in the Promises Prayer Journal, you literally go to promises prayer journal.com and you will see all of the information there about the praying, the Promises of God, prayer journal. You can download a sampler easily of that journal if you’d like to see what it looks like kind of on your computer screen, a whole week’s worth before you purchase one.

Rachel: And I pray that that’s a blessing I have. All kinds of [email protected] and we’ve talked about several different things on the prayer podcast, that episode, when you pass through the water. I hope that that is an encouragement to someone today. Thank you Kelly, again for having me and mm-hmm.

Rachel: Absolutely. Just for giving me [00:46:00] this opportunity. I, I truly appreciate it and appreciate you. I would love to pray for us as we close.

Kelly: Oh, thank you.

Rachel: Lord, thank you so much for Kelly, for her heart to minister, for how you’ve worked in my life and how I am just in awe. Sometimes your promises. We see the fruit of them in a week and some of the, the time it’s years.

Rachel: And Lord, we trust that even some of the promises we won’t fully grasp or understand until we get to heaven, but we know that we can rely on your character. That you have been faithful, that your presence is available to us, and so I ask that you would help us in the name of Jesus to hold on to your promises and to pray them back to you and to find the reassurance and confidence that we need through that exercise.

Rachel: Thank you for Kelly. Thank you for. The amazing podcast as she shares hope with so many. [00:47:00] Bless us now. Lord bless the listener, the one who is doing their best to hold onto that hope to clinging to your promises. Bless them richly today, I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen.

Kelly: Thank you so much, Rachel. What an inspirational gift this time has been. I hope you know how much you’ve blessed me and our listeners with these stories and with your heart for God’s word,

Rachel: my privilege, friend.

If you were encouraged in your faith today, i’d love to hear from you. You can reach out through my website, kelly hall.org and pick up some free resources while you’re there. Thanks for listening to the Unshakeable Hope podcast.