All Things Skin, Wellness & Faith
Take A deep dive into skincare and wellness with Natasha Dias, Licensed Holistic Esthetician & Wellness professional. Learn key tips to care for your skin from the inside out while making overall health improvements and deepening your faith walk.
All Things Skin, Wellness & Faith
BREADCRUMBS OF FAITH DEVOTIONAL 35 : How Intimacy with God Transforms Our Battles
In this intimate conversation, we explore the concept of building a "faith bank" – creating spiritual reserves during peaceful seasons that sustain us when storms arrive. This isn't about avoiding life's inevitable battles, but transforming how we navigate them. When we surrender our illusion of control and stop trying to carry everything ourselves, we paradoxically become stronger through our dependence on God's perfect strength.
Hey, there, you're tuned into another episode of All Things Skin Wellness and Faith, a podcast where you'll learn simple ways to implement skincare and wellness techniques from a holistic approach. On this podcast, we'll explore practical ways to address skin health and overall holistic spiritual well-being, while deepening your faith. I'm your host, natasha Diaz, a licensed holistic esthetician, day spa owner and a faithful believer and follower of Christ, and it's time to get ready to get encouraged and empowered as we dive into all things skin wellness and faith.
Speaker 2:Hey family, welcome back to this week's episode of Breadcrumbs of Faith by All Things Skin, wellness and Faith. This is a podcast where we share some weekly encouragement, where we gather just enough truth, hope and grace for the journey up ahead. I'm your host, natasha Diaz, and today what we are talking about is spiritual battles, and specifically not just any spiritual battles, spiritual battles that really feel fatal. So, yeah, let's just jump right into it and let's open up with a little quick icebreaker question. And what I want to ask you guys today is have you ever been in a battle that you felt like could break you? This may be a battle where you feel like you've been doing everything right, you've been praying, planning, thinking it through from every single angle you can possibly think of, but it just seems like, no matter how many solutions you come up with, peace just will not settle in. This may be a situation where you feel like you're stuck, unsure and maybe even spiritually worn out. And yes, I'm sure we have all been in these battles. I mean whether you're, you know, just starting out in your walk as a Christian or whether you've been a seasoned Christian for many, many years. These moments just don't go away. It's just part of the faith walk. It's part of our walk with Jesus, and we're all going to go through these, probably more times than we'd like. So today, what we're going to do is we're going to look at what it's like to really walk through those battles and what it looks like to come out on the other side successfully. The truth is that, no matter where you are in your walk with Christ, these things are just inevitable, and what I've learned personally is that it's how we handle them that makes all the difference. And what I've also learned is that pretty much for me, I want to say, over the years, as we grow deeper in Jesus and we stop trying to carry everything ourselves, this is when we learn to surrender, and it's that surrender that help us to grow stronger.
Speaker 2:In Romans 3.23, it reminds us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory and that none of us are perfect. In 2 Corinthians 12 and 9, it adds that my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. What does that mean? That means that you don't have to be strong all the time. You don't have to have all the answers. It's like this God's power shows up in the gaps. It shows up in our weaknesses and in uncertainty. It shows up in the exhaustion and it's really there for us in the times that we fall short, just like the scripture says. But the question is, how do we learn to lean into that power instead of defaulting back, to leaning back on our own selves or on our own understanding? Reminds me of another scripture, in Proverbs 3, 5. Trust on the Lord and lean, not on your own understanding. But, like I said, how is it that we do that? How do we execute? Well, what it comes from? It comes from intimacy, it comes from a connection, it comes from building a deeper relationship with him, and not just when things are easy, but especially when they're not.
Speaker 2:One of my pastors in my church recently taught a sermon and or spoke a sermon, and the title of that sermon was the Shift. And one thing that stood out to me in that sermon is a particular part. She said a lot of good key points and a lot of things that I had heard and I've been aware of, but one takeaway that I really got from it is where she spoke about having a faith bank and just building up your faith so that when you get hit in these situations that you're already prepared and you have a faith bank and just building up your faith so that, when you get hit in these situations, that you're already prepared and you have a faith bank to kind of draw from. And I thought that was so practical and it was just so simple, yet it was just so important. So today, what I want to do is I want to dive into a few practical, real life ways that we can grow deeper in our relationship with the Lord, even in our hardest seasons. And these are all things that I exercise myself. These are things that I have utilized collectively and kind of built up in my faith bank over the years.
Speaker 2:And one thing that I've learned that is very important is to surrender daily. Don't just make it a one time rhythm. Every morning or every night is really where you want to start off with. The Bible says pray without ceasing, but, as before, you can go into praying without ceasing all day long. What I recommend is that we start off with two major points the beginning of the day and the ending of the day. So, like I was saying, yeah, every morning and every night, give him what's heavy, let him carry what you can.
Speaker 2:Another thing that I recommend that you start off with or not even start off with, but implement is to guard your secret place time. What does that look like? It looks like when you're setting aside a time and a place that is just for God. Now, ultimately, what I love about the secret place, as you get more seasoned over your walk and your journey with Christ, is that the secret place can be anywhere and when you really get good at this, you can tuck away. I think I mentioned that in my last episode. You can be in the middle of an airport, you can be in the middle of a classroom, you can be at work at your cubicle, wherever you are, and that secret place is a place that you dig in deep and you go into, this quiet place where it's just you and God.
Speaker 2:But ultimately, you also want to have a secret place in your home, a secret place daily. That may be a prayer room, a prayer closet. I don't really recommend and it's not recommended that we use our beds or our bedrooms, because you know we get comfortable and we can go to sleep, but certainly, you know, if you have a special chair in your bedroom, I don't recommend doing it in bed while you're laying down, because I think it's very important that when we pray and when we go before God, that we have a hot posture. So, even if you are on your bed, sometimes my secret place may not be my prayer room. Maybe for me, sometimes what I like to utilize is my back porch, or I may kneel at the foot of my bed, but it's just a time, depending on what time of the day, that I come before the father and just have that time for him. It's a time that I set aside, with no phone, no distractions. That time was set apart for just you and him. This is where the intimacy grows and this is where your soul gets fed, so important.
Speaker 2:Another thing is to pray with your heart wide open. Jeremiah 29, 12 through 14 says then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you. He wants to be found by you. He's not hiding. He wants for you to come close to him. And another thing is to read to know him. When you're reading your word, you're reading your Bible. Don't just read it for inspiration. Let the word of God be your source, not just for motivation, but also for revelation. Knowing who he is changes how you see everything else.
Speaker 2:Also, it's important to be able to have a quiet in the still time. I know a lot of the times that we go before the Lord and we get so busy and we're like Lord, we need this, we need that, we need to. You know, we need this answered. We need what's going on in a marriage, in the school, with the kids, at work, whatever it is, but do we take some time just to sit before him in peace? And that Jehovah Shalom peace, that peace that surpasses all understanding? When you sit before him in that peace and you feel the awe of his presence, it's so awesome. It opens up the door for a divine encounter with him. So don't rush for your quiet time. Give God room to speak Stillness is where the whispers of heaven are often the loudest and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you, even in the small stuff.
Speaker 2:One thing I've learned is to incorporate the Lord into everything. Definitely, when I wake up in the morning, the first thing you want to do is command your day. And what does that look like Just going before him and acknowledging that he is the author of your story. He is Alpha and Omega, he's the beginning and end, and just surrendering the day to him to go according to his agenda and his will, but just giving him the opportunity to move in the small stuff, lord. What are we going to do today, lord? Are we going to the gym today, or are we maybe just going to go for a short walk today?
Speaker 2:Let him know that he is the Lord of your life. That is intimacy. When you involve him in every single aspect of your life, he begins to show up. And he begins to show out. When you reverence him for every little step of your day, it just lets him know that he actually is the Lord of your life and it's not just words that you're muttering out your mouth. The more space you make for him, the more you hear his direction and remember you are never alone. He is always an ever-present help. This is what Psalms 41 and Psalms 91, 11, which is another one of my favorite scriptures is, that he tells his angels to take command over us, everything concerning us. So help is really closer than you think. All you have to do is dig into it Honestly.
Speaker 2:What it boils down to is this the more we chase after God, the more we fall in love with him. The more we chase after God, the more we fall in love with him, and the more we fall in love with who he is and who he is in us, the more we begin to see the depths of his love for us. Psalm 42, 1 says as a deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants in thirst for you. What does that mean? So my soul pants in thirst for you. What does that mean? That means that a hunger from him comes from spending real time in his presence, and once you've tasted that intimacy, once you've basically been in that secret place, you won't want to leave. It's something that you begin to crave. You'll start to prioritize it, because it's where your soul begins to breathe again.
Speaker 2:This isn't just, you know, emotional hype. This is about a divine encounter. This is a holy love story between you and your savior. The more time you spend with him and the more you experience his peace, his presence and his power on a deeper level than you've ever received before, the more you will definitely begin to utterly just crave him. I mean, there's no other way than I can describe it than you know, to crave him. I mean for me to have a heart posture, you know where, and, like I said in my last segment or my last episode that I usually get up early in the morning, and that has been a time that he has just really showed me that. You know, he communes with me. At that time he really speaks to me. His voice is so loud. I get so much wisdom, so much clarity, you know, for the day. And it's like the Bible says taste and see, taste and see that he is good. When you taste and see that something is good and I think I've used this analogy before on other episodes but you just begin to crave and you want more and more of it. It's like your favorite ice cream, except no calories, but anyways, you begin to see that he sees what you can't. You begin to see that he's working in ways that you don't understand and that he's inviting you not just to, you know, survive the storm, but also to come closer to him in the middle of it.
Speaker 2:Speaking of storms, this is just so interesting. You know another analogy as I was traveling today, I was traveling to see someone. And as I'm driving down a highway, I was driving and I was seeing that I was coming into a storm. And as I'm driving down a highway, I'm like, oh my goodness, this is like so prophetic. Here I am driving down the highway, I can see that I'm coming into the midst of a storm and I'm like, oh, I don't want to drive in the rain. You know, I just I should turn around. You know, this is not something that you know, I really want to be in the downpour.
Speaker 2:Driving in rain and driving in bad weather is really not my favorite thing. But then I heard the Holy Spirit just speak to me and just say you know, I am with you, you don't have to fear. And he was actually, he was with me in that moment. And so, as I got deeper, I began to see the lightning. Long story short, I began to hear the thunder, I began to get nervous, because those two are not my favorite things and then, all of a sudden, the rain started to downpour.
Speaker 2:I'm driving, the traffic's going slow and it just it seemed like it was a long time. I mean, honestly, it was probably only a few minutes, maybe 10 minutes at most, but while you're driving through the storm. It seems like it's forever, it seems like it's never ending, and so I'm driving through it, and I'm driving through it cautiously, and then, all of a sudden, what happens? You get through the storm, the downpours stop and the sun begins to shine again. Usually, when you have those downpour rainstorms like that, it is pretty much just like life storms. It seems like forever when you're going through it, but ultimately, it's really not as bad as you make it out to be.
Speaker 2:So, like I was saying, he's inviting you to not just survive the storm, but to come closer to him in the middle of it. The promise of Jeremiah 29 is this is that if you seek him with all your heart, that you will find him, and that's a guarantee. That's a breadcrumb that you can follow when you feel lost. So what I want you to do is to lean in. Don't just ask for answers. Ask for more of him. That's what you truly need. So I want to wrap it up for there, right. Wrap it up there for right now.
Speaker 2:I always make that mistake and I actually want to close out in a little bit of prayer. So, father, god, I just say thank you, father, for every person that falls underneath the sound of my voice. I pray, lord God, that in the midst of these battles, in the midst of these battles, in the midst of these storms, that my brothers and sisters that are listening to this podcast episode will know that you are near, you are dear and that you are close, that we know, lord God, that we can tap into you and that you will see us on the other side, through the storm and onto the other side of the storm. Let us always remember that we are not in this alone, for your word says repeatedly that you will never leave or forsake us. So we just thank you, father, for always being close, lord God, and we thank you, lord God, that your word says, lord God, as we draw close to you, that you will draw close to us. In the name of Jesus, I pray this prayer and I say amen.
Speaker 2:So I just want to thank you for joining me on today's episode of Bread Comes to Faith. I hope that this touched your heart. I hope that you will share this with a friend who's walking through a battle, or you will even save it for a storm of your own. And just remember God always leaves bright crumbs of grace, truth and love for us to follow and to keep looking for them. Keep following him Until the next time. Stay rooted in faith and wrapped up in grace and thirsty for more of God. All right, I love you guys, till the next episode. Ciao.