Podcast

Kelly: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Unshakable Hope Podcast, where real life intersects redeeming love. I’m Kelly Hall and this is where we wrestle through faith questions such as, how do I trust God’s heart when his ways and delays are breaking mine? How can I believe God is good when life doesn’t seem good? My prayer is that God would renew our hope in these conversations and that each of us would experience the very real power of his presence and love.

Am so grateful to be welcoming you to the very first Unshakable Hope podcast, and equally thrilled that my dear friend Stacy Snell is sharing this time with me. Stacy, I’m so glad you’re here.

Stacie: Thank you so much, Kelly, and I just wanna thank you again for having me. It is such an honor to be here and be able to do this with you.

I know I’ve told you this before. But I consider you one of my hope heroes. I can think back at so many milestone moments in my walk with the Lord [00:01:00] and moments where I went through some pretty hard things and I just have story after story of you adding your faith to mine and sharing the hope of Jesus Christ in those moments.

Wow, Stacy, I wasn’t expecting any of that. You’re such a dear friend

I have so many memories of the two of us doing women’s ministries together. We’ve seen him do so many powerful things. Some of my favorite memories, some of the sweetest times, Stacy when we just sat down together and talked about how God was speaking to both of us.

Stacie: Yeah.

Kelly: I’m wondering if you can tell the listeners a little bit about yourself.

Stacie: Sure. So I am a wife and mom. My husband Schad, and I have been married almost 15 years now. We have two daughters, Skylar, who is 12 and Sydney is 10, and we live on my husband’s family farm. So we’re surrounded on all sides by Schad’s family, his parents, and two brothers and their families.

So [00:02:00] we have a tight knit little family neighborhood, and we actually jokingly call it Snellville, but in addition to being a Snellville resident, I’m also a first grade teacher and involved at Church in Women’s Ministry, Prayer partner.

I am an aspiring writer and speaker Bible teacher, and just love getting to walk alongside women and teach them what the word of God says.

You’re an

Kelly: excellent teacher and a great writer as well. Before we get into your story, I’m wondering if there’s a verse of scripture that God is highlighting for you right now.

Stacie: Yeah, actually, God speaks to me in themes so much of the time and the theme that he has been speaking here in this past season is overflow and I actually just finished giving a message at Women’s Ministry event at our church, and the title was Overflow.

One of the verses that God used to drive that theme home for me is [00:03:00] Romans 15:13, and I wanna read it to you. In the Passion translation it says, now, may God the Fountain of Hope fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in Him and may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with his super abundance until you radiate with hope.

And so here, just recently, God’s just been reminding me when you’re pouring yourself out and circumstances require you to just continue to pour yourself out for your family, to fight for your family, to fight for those around you, you have to keep going back to him because everything we do is an overflow of him in us and through us.

That’s just the theme. Honestly, I thought I was done with that theme after I gave that message at church, but he just keeps bringing me right back to it.

Kelly: Wow.[00:04:00]

Thanks for sharing that.

Stacie: Sure.

Kelly: Well, I know I wanna get into your story. I know you’ve experienced a lot of heartache along the way as you were seeking to have children and build a family. So I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about that journey.

Stacie: Sure. That’s actually where our friendship picked up too Kelly and I.

Kelly: Oh, that’s right.

Stacie: If memory serves me correctly, I met you when you were doing the pilot of Courageous Faith to our women’s ministry group, and that was one of the first Bible studies that I had ever done in my adult life. Starting out as a young bride, I was pretty fresh into my marriage and also pretty fresh into just making my walk with Christ my own. And I had a plan for my life. You know, I’m a planner and God had to teach me that lesson pretty fresh off the start. You know, I [00:05:00] had a plan of when we were gonna have kids and it was gonna look this way, and I’m a teacher, so I needed to make sure I was gonna be pregnant for a baby to be born in the summer.

So I had plenty of time off. And God taught me that lesson that it was according to his plans, not mine. So I was doing the courageous Faith Bible study and we had been trying to conceive for over a year at that point, and I was starting to get nervous that something was wrong and so sought medical advice.

And my doctor at the time had found some medical conditions and she told me that I might not be able to get pregnant on my own. And so that just broke my heart, you know, that was not according to. The plans that I had for my life, but through courageous faith, God just continued to speak to me over and over about the plans he had.

And that’s where Jeremiah [00:06:00] 29 :11, through that Bible study and just that time in the Word with you that became my life verse. Jeremiah 29; 11, God says, I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope. And through that, through so much just seeking the Lord in that He led me to a point of surrender and it’s pretty amazing.

On September 16th, 2009, I wrote a prayer of surrender in my journal and that date is important, but I just surrendered it to God. I surrendered it all to Him. And then shortly after that I became pregnant. And I remember going to your Bible study and sharing that with you and some of my closest friends at church, and you had asked me to share that testimony at the culmination of our Courageous Faith Bible study.

So that was the first time that I stood up in front of people and shared [00:07:00] my testimony and just shared how faithful God was that I was pregnant and all things were working together. And then in December, I lost that baby through miscarriage, and I remember being so disillusioned. I didn’t understand why God had let me stand up and share that testimony if he was just gonna take it all away.

That gives a moment that I can remember just having so many questions, but God met me there and I remember. We were talking earlier about the little act of obedience that you’ve taken that are huge in somebody else’s life, and that’s a moment. I remember you calling me shortly after I had lost that baby.

You called me. I could remember still where I was standing in my house for this conversation, and you just encouraged me and you spoke hope [00:08:00] over me and over my life. And I remember you even saying, God is going to use this, even this, he’s going to use and he has and he still does. I mean, look at so many years later, here we are doing a podcast and getting to share how he met us there.

But that’s one of the moments that stands out in my journey

Kelly: that is so powerful. It just brings tears to my eyes as I remember that. And it’s so confusing. When you pray about something and then God answers and then it goes away, , it’s hard to sort through that disappointment. Doesn’t seem to make sense.

Stacie: No, not at all. And I mentioned September 16th as a date to remember because September 16th, 2010, exactly. One year after that. I gave birth to our first daughter, Skylar. So I [00:09:00] know in the moment that heartbreak just seems unreal and you, it’s so hard to see God’s hand in it, and sometimes it takes years. Even I found that journal years after Skylar was born, and I didn’t even realize the connection

Kelly: That just shows the precision and the perfection of his plan. His timing is perfect. He has not stepped away. He has not stopped paying attention. He is not paying more attention to somebody else with a bigger problem than me. We have his utmost undivided attention at all times.

So I’m wondering how, if you could just maybe describe how God met you after you found out you were pregnant with Skylar.

I know there was a lot of fear about if this baby was gonna be lost as well. What did you hang onto during that time, or how did you even engage with the Lord? I know you were so excited that you were pregnant, but what did you do about your [00:10:00] fear?

Just kept running back

Stacie: to Him. And Skylar’s pregnancy was a hard pregnancy.

I was on bedrest for five months with her, so I mean, God had to just have my complete attention. I just had to keep running back to him. And in hindsight, looking back at my walk with him, that’s when he really just captured my heart, that’s where I learned to cling to him. As much as I possibly could, and I battled fear.

I can’t say that journey cured me . I still battle fear today, but I can see in hindsight how God has used all of those really hard things to set me free. And actually just, sorry to jump ahead, but I think that he really set me free from fear through my birth, my second child. That was a freak [00:11:00] accident and it was a horrific thing.

But God came through in such miraculous ways when Sydney was born and Sydney, and again, I found out later. Sydney means wide open space and I was praying one day and came across a verse in Psalm. I wish I knew off the top of my head. I wanna say at Psalm 17. But it says, you set me free into wide open spaces

and God just used sydnee to set me into a wide open space where I was free from the fear that I had been walking in for so many years.

. And then you mentioned something

Kelly: about an accident, something that was very scary.

So you got pregnant with Sydney, and then did you have a normal pregnancy with her?

Stacie: No. My pregnancy with Sydnee was not as severe. I had preeclampsia with Skyler, with Sydney, it [00:12:00] wasn’t as severe, but I did still end up with preeclampsia. And through pregnancy with Sydnee, we had a lot of different scares.

Like at one point they told us that she had a heart defect. Turned out that she did not. I was scheduled for an amniocentesis because she was gonna be early, but there was a need to see if her lungs were mature enough to be early or if it was better for me to continue on in my pregnancy with the preeclampsia that I was experiencing.

So during the amniocentesis, the needle nicked the umbilical cord, and Sidney bled out. She lost all of her blood and her heart stopped beating. They had the ultrasound machine on me during that procedure, and they could see that her heart had stopped beating. So they rushed me in for an emergency C-section.

They called it a crash C-section because the baby had crashed. [00:13:00] And Sydney was born technically dead. She did not have a heartbeat for six minutes, and she was revived at birth after six minutes and that day I could spend our entire time together. Kelly telling all the stories and all the ways that God came through that day.

There’s a story after story of how he had his hand in it, and that was a moment that God just showed me like throughout that whole pregnancy, I was terrified. I was terrified that when we found out she might have a heart defect, I remember saying like, what if she had a hard start to life and she has to be taken into surgery right away and all these what ifs that pregnant mom’s experience and God showed me even if your worst fears come true, I’m still there.

I’m still there and they did everything that I said. What if about came true [00:14:00] the day Sydnee was born. But he moved. He had his hand in it, and I could see it so clearly. So clearly

I want to read a quote from a book, and then I want you to answer a question about how God met you.

Okay? Said there were so many miraculous ways that he revealed himself to you, and I know you were clinging to his word during that time. But there’s a book called Gentle and Lowly, the Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers by Dane Ortland. And he says, “the spirit makes the heart of Christ real to us.

Not just heard, but seen, not just seen but felt. Not just felt, but enjoyed the Spirit takes what we read in the Bible and believe on paper about Jesus’ heart and moves it from theory to reality, from doctrine to experience.”

So please tell us some stories, some ways that he met you.

Stacie: Well, he prepared me before he [00:15:00] really did. Like I said, I was on bedrest for a shorter time with Sydnee, but the day before she was born, I was on bedrest and just sat and listened to podcasts and read. And I was listening to Susie Larson’s podcast, and I remember her telling a story that she walked into her kitchen when she was younger and she saw her dad watching out the kitchen window and he was watching her brother in a fistfight.

And she said, dad, why are you letting him? He was fighting a neighborhood kid or something. And she said, dad, why are you letting you know? Do something? And he said, I’m not gonna let him lose, but I have to let him fight. And I just remember that day, audibly hearing God say that to me. I am not gonna let you lose, but I have to let you fight.

And I was fearing the amniocentesis with Sydnee. I’d had one with Skylar as well, and I was terrified of it. And I [00:16:00] just had such trepidation going into it, But at the same time, I knew like this was gonna be a fight for some reason or another. I knew I was headed into a fight, but I also clung to the promise that God was not gonna let me lose.

And even that morning driving to the hospital, I remember looking at the mountains and just being in awe, just in awe. Like, God, you are the God who formed the mountains. You look at what you’ve done, I know you’re not gonna let me go. And then when we got to the hospital, my room faced those same mountains that I was in awe of.

I remember asking the nurses if I could request that room for when I was in delivery, just clinging to him that whole morning. I had my headphones in at the very moment that all of this transpired. The very moment. That the needle hit the [00:17:00] cord and everything just went haywire.

The song healing is in your Hands, was playing . That whole day was just filled with one thing after another that we could see. God’s hand in it, and so much so that three of my family members gave their lives to Christ the day Sid was born.

Kelly: I did not know that. Yeah,

Stacie: so that was a time when I’ve said it over and over. I never ever wanna go through something like that again, but I wouldn’t trade it because my dad is gonna be in heaven with me

Kelly: That just chokes me up. That is beautiful. Yeah.

Stacie: Yeah. And when you, because there’s things that we walk through too that you don’t get to see it like that, you know?

Three months after Sydnee was born, she got really sick and ended up in the I C U and on a ventilator as a three month old baby. And I remember walking through that time and [00:18:00] thinking like, this is just so different because the day Sydnee was born, I had all of this to cling to and I could see. Immediate response, you know, on God’s part.

I could see him moving just immediately and we had so much fruit from that day, like people turn their lives to him. But then this season, three months later was a very different season and it was more of a delay and we had to cling so much tighter to the promises when they. Delayed, you know, it was two weeks and day after day, me waiting for a hopeful answer.

I kept asking. The doctors, is she gonna be okay? And they would never tell me that she was, because they didn’t know. I remember coming to visit you in the hospital during that time and she, your little three month old baby looks so tiny in that I c u bed. It was, that [00:19:00] was a frightening time for you. And it went, it just went on for such a long time too.

Yep. And Kelly, that’s another moment in our friendship. One of my favorite moments of you, and I know it, it was a terrible time. But I actually have a piece published where I wrote about you and Sarah McKenzie and My Heroes of Hope, because that day, I remember when you and Sarah came, I said to you, how do you hang on to hope when there’s no hope left?

That day that you came,. The doctors had just told me that her lung had collapsed the day before. Her right lung had collapsed, and this day they reinflated that lung and her left lung had collapsed and things were just looking not good. And I remember saying, how do you hang on to hope when there’s no hope left?

And your response still rings in my ear today. You let him meet you where you are. And [00:20:00] sometimes, you know, when we’re walking through hard things, it’s not those moments where you could see his hand right away, but you still just let him meet you where you are.

Kelly: Sarah Mackenzie is another dear friend of ours who we have done ministry with for so many years.

The doctors were holding out no hope and medically speaking, things were looking very bleak, very scary. But you just kept running to him in that place.

Stacie: And actually right after you and Sarah left that day, I was like, okay, God, here I am. Please meet me here.

And I just opened my Bible randomly and it opened to Isaiah 40. And I, Isaiah 40: 11 says he will gently care for the mother’s sheep and lead them with their young, and I just had the image of Jesus carrying those little lambs in his arms, you know, like picture we see hung in churches and framed.

That was the [00:21:00] image that I clung to, that he was carrying my little lamb and proof Kelly that he was. Several years, well, I shouldn’t say several. Sydnee was two years old. Okay. She had made it through, God healed her. Amazing. And we had watched the movie Miracles from Heaven, and we were telling Sydnee something kind of like that happened to you too.

And she said, two years old. She said, I know. And we’re like, you know? And she said, yeah, God caught me and he made me dive back down to you like this. What, like our jaws were just like on the kitchen table. And she said, yeah, and he was carrying me and we were walking on water too. And we had never told her the story of Jesus walking on water like she was just two years old.

Even if we had told her, I don’t know that it would’ve like connected, but she told us that Jesus was carrying her, [00:22:00] walking on water. And I just believe that I ju, I truly believe that one of our pastors had come up to visit us when she was in the I C U and I was praying and saying, I just wish I could hold her.

It’s been two weeks and I can’t hold her cuz she’s on this ventilator. I just wanna hold her. And he said, let me pray for you that she would be held in the arms of Jesus right now.

Kelly: That is so cool that she remembered experiencing Jesus holding her and carrying her during that time, that near death experience. That was such a scary time. I love that. And I love that tender verse in Isaiah about Jesus gathering the lambs, carrying them close to his chest and leading the mothers with their young.

Stacie: And actually Kelly, when we’re in those long seasons, we don’t see the answer and we’re just disillusioned that question of why [00:23:00] and I, after Sydney was born, or after Sydney came out of the hospital that second round I was lot more disillusioned than I even care to admit because I didn’t see his hand the way I did when she was born.

You know, like it was just such a long season of. Sorrow and fear and all of that. So I went on a journey to find answers and God did tell me why. I looked for, why. I looked for, why did you allow this to happen? Again, I just didn’t understand why, you know, like she was a NICU baby and they put a lot of fear into you when you’re a NICU parent about keeping your baby safe and you know, flu season and RSV season.

And not to let too many people come to visit and not to take the baby too many places. And I was a very paranoid mom when we brought Sydnee home and was so careful and prayed so diligently for her [00:24:00] health, but she still got sick and ended up near death again. And so when we came home from that ICU stint in the hospital, I was

a little bit disillusioned in my faith. Seeing the other sick kids and sick babies in the I C U kids with cancer and kids on their deathbed. It tore me to pieces and I just didn’t understand and it’s a question I think so many people ask, why does a loving God allow this to happen?

Right. And well, I really just had. Allow myself to wrestle with those feelings and those thoughts and questions, doubts even why God, why did you let this happen? And so many times he doesn’t answer us. And he actually. Did answer in his word Kelly 40, I wanna say 47 times, cuz I wrote this [00:25:00] 47 times in his word. There is the phrase. So that, and that just jumped off the page at me one day and I was like, wait. So that is an answer to why. We don’t on this side of heaven understand what the so that is other than we have to trust that something in it is for our good and it’s for his glory. And I can see now, I mean, he has used all of these hard things to teach me more about who he is, to draw me closer to him, to teach me more about his heart and his character.

And so if that’s the, so that for me, for my good, I don’t wanna go through those things again, but I’ll take ’em. And for his glory, if any of these things can bring glory to his name and to show people his character and how he meets us in those moments, then okay. Right then. Okay. Like [00:26:00] we, we can fight against it all day long, but it is for our good and his glory and someday, All of these light and momentary trials are achieving for us a greater purpose

yeah.

As God’s delays just kept elongating our story and it kind of became a piling on of hardship. You know, I thought our, we have four children very close in age, and I thought, or three girls that had special needs. Were gonna launch. And they didn’t. In fact, they became really sick and it turned out over time, years later, we discovered they had chronic Lyme.

But as Lee and I were just sitting in this place of continual ongoing disappointment and a piling on of hardship. It really grated on our faith and it was hard to hang on to hope.

And God began to speak his word to us and the verse he kept bringing to us over and over, both Lee and I as we were [00:27:00] reading through the Bible, was he is good and his love endures forever.

And Kelly, you saying that, you know when the disappointments pile on, we can doubt God’s goodness and we have the choice to either turn toward him or away from.

And that even still today, just struggles that we’re walking through right now. I feel God asking me that same question. Do you believe that I’m good and will you just turn toward me and let me fill you and refresh you and bear all those burdens

Kelly: I know that many of our listeners are processing their stories even as we’re sharing our stories. And so that’s just a word of hope. There have been many times when I’ve asked the Lord why and I, he’s not answered the why part specifically, except once. But what he has told me more often than not is what you have shared than, I love you, [00:28:00] and I am working for your good and for my glory in this place.

And one of the scriptures you mentioned was second Corinthians. I believe it’s 4 16 through 18, where even though we’re walking through light and momentary affliction, we can fix our eyes on Jesus. We can fix our eyes on what’s eternal rather than what’s temporary because there are eternal things afoot in our heartache.

Yep. That we don’t even realize. One day I think about this a lot. One day I’m gonna look Jesus in his eye and suddenly all of this is gonna make so much sense. Yeah

so I remember Stacy, I think your parents are divorced. And then somehow along the way, imprinted on your soul a this idea that it’s up to you to carry the load everybody’s load in everybody’s burdens and to kind of fix everybody along the way.

And I know that was a lot of what was going on [00:29:00] as you walked into building your family, you were dealing with those thoughts. So I wonder if you can talk about that and howGod ministered to you in that and set you free from that lie?

Stacie: Yeah, so my parents divorced when I was nine years old and my mom was pregnant with my sister at the time.

So as the oldest of three children and one of my siblings being a brand new baby, I just took it upon myself to step in and try to be the one to help. And I carried a lot of things that probably most kids don’t carry when I was younger, just trying to support and help and growing up continued in that way.

And I think it’s just part of my personality too. But yeah, over the years I did just pick up this lie like it’s up to me to carry this. And it has continued, like you said, into my adult life. And even still, I can’t say that I’m [00:30:00] completely free from that. I still am struggling and battling that same thought and that same lie.

It just comes back to. Like I said, that overflow, letting God do it. Just recently in the past couple of weeks, I read a devotional and it was talking about repaving the neural pathways. When we believe a lie, those neural pathways are forged, and so we have to repave those neural pathways in our brains.

And so one of the ways we do that is just to, when we recite scripture or remember scripture, That’s the truth. And we have to repave the new neural pathways to believe that truth.

And there’s several verses and first and second Thessalonians that I’ve been just trying to, to clinging to, and one of them is one of my favorites in it’s first Thessalonians 5 24. It [00:31:00] says, the one who calls you by name is trustworthy and will thoroughly complete his work in you. In other translations it says he is faithful and he will do it.

And I just have to keep telling myself that he will do it. It’s not up to you. He will do it. And I mean, that doesn’t mean God’s gonna come and clean our house for us, but in his strength, his power at work in us. That’s what we have to cling to. Instead of clinging to our own strength and relying on our own power to do all of these things, we have to just tap into that source of energy and strength and power, and that’s him.

Kelly: Yes. Amen. I think that’s what God is teaching me a lot about right now too. You know, and when Paul is talking and praying about the thorn in his flesh and he wanted God to take it away. And the Lord said, my grace is sufficient for you, for [00:32:00] my power is perfected in weakness. And I think the challenge for me, and I don’t know if this is true about you, but it’s actually just paying attention to my weakness and bringing it to the Lord instead of just going through my day.

You know, my default. I’m gonna take care of this. I’m gonna take care of this. But to recognize I need the Lord here, he gives me grace enough for today. So I’m gonna stop and just admit my need and bring that to him and open my heart to receive his power, because that’s where I’m gonna experience him, and that’s where supernatural things happen

Stacie: absolutely. I’ve been really good at faking

it till I make it sort of mentality. I’m not making it actually like I’m faking it, but I’m not making it. And it’s hard to admit our weaknesses and be honest about them, but that’s, like you said, that’s where the power comes from.

Yeah. We can’t get that if we just continue faking it [00:33:00] till we make it.

Right. Right.

Kelly: Love all the stories you’ve shared today. I love how you made, you’ve made the Lord so real, so present, and I think you’ve illustrated for our listeners how to engage with the Lord and how to wrestle through those times when it is so hard to trust

you kept running to him with the why question and you kept running to him with your fears, and you’ve continued to just dive deep into his word and hold on tight to what you know is true. I’m wondering, as you look back on all that you’ve been through, Stacy, if you can tell us what you know about God now that you didn’t know back then?

Stacie: I would say just that he is present. He is present. One of the dark nights of the soul that I walked through, I mentioned my miscarriage, and I [00:34:00] actually ended up in the hospital with that miscarriage because of some complications. And I don’t know if many people know this, but when you’re hospitalized for a miscarriage, they put you on the maternity ward.

Smack dab in the middle of all the women who have just had healthy babies. And that night that I spent in the hospital after just losing a baby and hearing newborn cries, I remember just thinking God, where are you? I know I mentioned just feeling that disillusionment and I didn’t see him there.

I just didn’t sense his presence. and now God has shown me through healing and time spent in His word and just in reflection that he was there. And I know my journey as a mom has been one that has been marked with a lot of struggle and I think, it’s been. The journey that God [00:35:00] has used to show me his heart the most.

When one of my babies was very newborn and I was up late at night rocking her to sleep and I was just praying, God showed me When you are singing lullabys over your babies, I am singing lullabies over you. And he just showed me all those moments where I was just heartbroken in this journey as a mom, and that he’s there singing his lullabys over me.

Zephaniah tells us that he sings over us, and I just picture him he is such a good father and he’s present in all those moments of heartache, and he does rejoice over us with singing. I just, I don’t know. I just see his hand in all of it, including the bad and the ugly and the hard. I know he’s gonna [00:36:00] continue to show me that he is present no matter the circumstances.

He is present and he’s there.

Kelly: Beautiful, and that is the first promise that God gave me on the day. Our oldest daughter was diagnosed as being profoundly deaf. My heart was breaking and he orchestrated some miraculous circumstances and he spoke to me and said, see Kelly, I will never leave you or forsake you.

And it was so obvious that he was showing, he was working in and through our situations to bring glory to his name. He had not left us. He had not forgotten us. He is with us in miraculous, powerful, and personal ways.

That’s a promise. He continues to speak over my heart and over my life. Even when I don’t feel him

Stacie: yeah. Yeah.

Actually he was just speaking that to me this morning because my kids both have covid right now and we’re a week out for Christmas and [00:37:00] you know, we have Christmas plans and my sister and her husband are planning on coming and staying with us from Denver.

And I’m just God, please. Let all of our Christmas plans work out and I’m praying that nobody else gets sick and he just led me to that. Do you believe that? I’m good? Yes. God and Christmas, yes. Like traditions and all of the fun Christmas things that we get to do. Yes, those are part of our Christmas, but he reminded me that Christmas is God with us.

That’s what we’re celebrating. Even if things don’t work out the way I had planned , that he is God with us and it’s all gonna be okay. Amen.

Kelly: This was so helpful, thank you. Such an encouragement to me, and I know it’ll be an encouragement to many. It’s your story is a beacon of hope. Thank you for all that you’ve shared. And I’m wondering if you wouldn’t mind just praying for [00:38:00] those who might be listening, who are struggling to sense the nearness and the presence of God in their heartache and in the dark night of their soul.

Stacie: Okay. Okay. Heavenly Father, we just thank you, Lord, that you are near to the brokenhearted that you are with us. And so, Lord, right now I just pray for the listener who is struggling to see the plans that you have for their lives. Lord, your word promises that you have a plan for our lives and your plan is good.

It’s to prosper us, not to harm us, to give us a future and a hope. But Lord, we also know that verse, the context of that verse is smack dab in the middle of exile and hardship. And Lord, that sometimes it takes years for us to see the fruition of your promises, but in the waiting, in the heartache, [00:39:00] in the hard times, Lord, you are there.

So I pray for that listener that is smack dab in the middle of their heart, and they’re waiting to see the good plans that you have for their life. I pray that you would show them a very tangible piece of you just to cling to today, Lord, that you would show them your presence, that you would wrap them in your arms, that they would feel you near them.

Lord, I pray that you would give them something to cling to a word, a promise to cling. Lord, I pray that you would surround them with people like you have me with Kelly and so many others who have just brought hope into my life, that you would give that listener somebody who will speak hope and encouragement into their story, into their life, into their heart right now.

God, you are so good, and we stand on that. We know you are good even when [00:40:00] our circumstances are not. So I just pray that you would show yourself faithful like you always do in each of their stories. Would you be near to the brokenhearted? Would you lift them up? Would you raise their chin to meet your eyes so that they know that they have your attention, that you are not only looking at them and responding and working all things out together for their good.

But Lord, that you’re comforting them and singing your lullabies over them. You are a good father, and we put all of our trust and hope in you Lord, and we pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. Thank you. I can’t wait to have you back, Stacy. I can’t wait. Love you, my friend.

You too..

Thanks, Kelly.

[00:41:00] Thanks for listening to the Unshakable Hope podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please subscribe and leave a review. To continue the conversation and for free resources, be sure to visit [email protected]. Thanks so much.