Ep. 151: Needing God

God Hears Her Podcast

Episode 151 – Needing God

Elisa Morgan & Eryn Adkins with Lina AbuJamra

Lina: All this to say, I’ve not been able to get away from Him. It’s like the infamous Psalm 139. “If I make my bed in hell, You are still there.” Now I can walk you through specific points where that has been very clear. I…I think the easiest way for us to go back to the place of seeing His love is to fix our eyes on the cross. I don’t think there’s any more convincing love than seeing Jesus on the cross for us.

[intro music]

Voice: You’re listening to God Hears Her, a podcast for women where we explore the stunning truth that God hears you, He sees you, and He loves you because you are His. Find out how these realities free you today on God Hears Her. 

Eryn: Welcome to God Hears Her. I'm Eryn Adkins. 

Elisa: And I'm Elisa Mogan. What needs do you currently have? Are you looking for a job or a place to stay, a spouse, a new role? Do you feel like all your current needs have been met?

Eryn: Today’s guest reminds us all of how our needs lead to a deeper trust in Jesus. Lina Abujamra has wrestled with her own wants through the years. In the midst of trusting the Lord, she has grown into a strong woman of moxie, learning resilience and courage through God.

Elisa: Lina is a guest on the film series Unshakable Moxie. And we are excited to have some time to get to know her more personally. 

Eryn: Let’s kick off this God Hears Her conversation by asking Lina, what were you like as a little girl?

Lina: Well my elementary school teacher wrote in my report card once, “Lina needs to take time and smell the roses.” So that pretty much encapsulates who I am to my dismay sometimes. But really it is true. I think I was always very…a high achiever. I think I grew up in a home of high achievers and expectations in a war-torn country which made it even more, you know, just this drive to get out, to make sure that we did everything we could to have a productive life that also gave us opportunities outside of staying in my home country of Lebanon. And so my parents came from very poor means and difficult means. But they had done really well. So we grew up in sort of privilege, enough to know that again, we were given a lot of opportunity in a very bad country at the time.

Eryn: Okay, so you grew up…

Lina: Grew up in Lebanon…

Eryn: Okay.

Lina: …in Beirut. And so during the 70s and 80s, there was a big civil war in Beirut, brought up in a home that was very disciplined and very efficient also. And so people always…

Eryn: Okay.

Lina: …you know, talk about oh you do so much. And you know, I chuckle, because it’s not uncommon in my family. And I think some of it is really the culture and the home that we grew up in and some of the gifts that…that God has put in me really to do that.

Eryn: So tell me about that.

Lina: Well, my dad was a plastic surgeon and my mom a pharmacist.

Elisa: Wow.

Lina: And back in the 60s from Lebanon, my mom is a Palestinian refugee. And my dad grew up in an unnamed, like it’s a little town in south Lebanon where nobody was educated. So I think the fact that they achieved, my dad trained at the Mayo Clinic for his plastic surgery. So the transition from where they started and how the Lord opened doors for them to get to where they did, you know, obviously they are very gifted, my parents and…but humble, humble, humble. And I mean you wouldn’t even to the day that my dad died, you would never meet him and go oh, my gosh, this is a plastic surgeon. In fact, people were always surprised, you know, to find out that he was. And my mom same, very educated but very godly and…and meek. She came to Christ in her college years. And so she was the route of…of my knowing Christ after she married my dad. He was a very good man but not a believer and then eventually came to Christ but later. So maybe he was fifty at the time. 

Elisa: Okay, you grew up in Lebanon.

Lina: Yeah.

Elisa: And then and you knew Christ growing up…

Lina: Yeah.

Elisa: … because of your mom and such. So then what did it look like when you began to “achieve.” I mean you moved on through all of these phenomenal achievements. What kinds of passion started to build in you, and when did you leave Lebanon?

Lina: Lebanese in general, we have a cultural DNA of passion. I would say that’s…that’s very common. People who meet me and meet other Lebanese, they always say, oh, you remind me of my friend who’s Lebanese. We’re very intense. Honestly, as a race, like we tend to be as…as ethnic group, we tend to be very intense, very ambitious, and very driven. And again I think it’s because of the environment that we grew up in, more so than in other countries. I think because Lebanon is not a third-world country. So when you grew up with a country that has been exposed to means, our medical system was one of the best…is one of the best in the Middle East, it’s a common story to be like me. So we’re all driven. So everyone in my family has achieved a lot.

Elisa: Okay.

Lina: I'm not that unique. I did become a doctor. The rest, I mean my brother, you know, he just became a dentist and…

Elisa: Just.

Eryn: Yeah.

Lina: And my sister, she’s a physical therapist. And my father is an actuary. But like…but it’s funny, cause it’s like I did, you know, fulfill my dad’s dream. And…and we all thought my sister should have been a doctor. And he went to the grave telling her that, no hard feelings. They…they’re all…it’s hilarious though. Cause he really…he wanted her to be a doctor. But…and she was smarter than me. She is smarter than me. But she…she did the right thing. And anyway, she got married and had kids. So she did check those boxes off. But, you know, Lebanese are very intense. And so all of these things are reflected in my life and ministry and in my walk with Christ. I don’t think the way that I teach the Bible is unique to me in the sense that I always joke when I start teaching. “Like listen, I'm Lebanese. I'm not mad at you. It’s just how we are. We’re intense. We’re intense.” 

Eryn: Love it.

Elisa: People think you’re mad at them, I love that.

Lina: You know, everyone in Lebanon thinks they’re angry. Believe me. When I bring my American friends, they’re like, why are you yelling at each other? We’re like, we’re not yelling.

Eryn: They’re like you’re loud and you’re talking fast. You’re yelling.

Lina: Yes, the more excited we are, the faster we talk. Exactly.

Eryn: Which is why people…they should feel more loved because that’s what’s coming out of you, right?

Lina: Yeah, you’d think so. We feed people a lot of food, and so you know…

Eryn: That’s right.

Elisa: Oh that’s awesome.

Lina: …just certain habits that…that sort of translate into your walk with God. And I do think when you see where you’ve come from, it explains how you are.

Eryn: Yeah.

Lina: The positive of where I’ve come from is that I have achieved a lot for “the kingdom of God.” The negative is that God isn’t impressed with achievements, right? Now…now I think…I think God honors achievement, and I think achievement done with the right motive is honoring to God. I mean He does want us to use our gifts. But I think it’s that balance of learning when am I doing these things for God because deep down, I think He’s gonna honor me and do the things that I want Him to do…

Eryn: Yeah.

Lina: …versus really doing them out of a heart of love. And so significance, you know, how do you find your significance? The negative in my culture is a lot of people find their significance in how many letters they have after their names…

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: Sure, sure.

Lina: …in terms of their careers.

Eryn: I want to know, how did you come to that conclusion? Was there a moment, like did you learn the hard way?

Lina: Everything I learn, I learned the hard way, everything. I’ve never learned anything the easy way. You know, you…they tell you, watch other people’s examples; and you’ll learn. And it’s…it’s just…I…I…I have to live it and feel it, and then I teach it.

Eryn: Yeah, was there a moment in high school or in college or in your early twenties in that formative…cause you’ve kind of taken us through when you were younger, what you grew up with…

Lina: Right.

Eryn: …and the environment that you were in. And so then and you know, you grew up with a mom that loved Jesus. So that…that clearly was infectious for you to learn. How did you learn that, I guess, in your high school into your college years?

Lina: I…I wouldn’t even say necessarily I learned it then.

Eryn: Okay.

Lina: I mean I think for me, the lessons came maybe a little bit later after medical school.

Eryn: Okay.

Lina: Fast forward a little bit, I became a pediatric ER doctor. And…and then I started my career in my fellowship as I was finishing my training is when God called me. I really felt God’s call to be in vocational ministry. So I became bi-vocational. I teach the Bible, and I thought God was gonna use me somehow as a…some how full-time writing, speaking God’s truth to…the context was women where I was called. You know, the singles arena has opened doors in college arenas where I teach more men, but in general, my heart is women in terms of teaching the Bible. So I started doing both of those jobs. So in that process, as an example, a big failure in my life early was, after passing all my tests, all everything, I f…the last test I took was…and maybe it was the pediatric boards. I don’t remember, one of them. That’s how long ago it was. I failed. And…and of course, you know, during those years, you know, I look back and I can see why. I didn’t study. I was involved with trying to, you know, heal from heartbreak, which is what I wrote in my singles book about and trying to figure out what I was gonna do with my life and wrestling with God. So there was a lot going on. So it’s not surprising in hindsight that I failed. But it was a huge, huge ego check. And then to see God open a job, literally, I remember the interview I had at Children’s Memorial which was one of the most elite places that I could work in Chicago and in the US, I had to interview the week that I found out I failed. And I actually got the job. And I told the interview person, the…the dean of the department, that I…that I had just not passed the board. And I thought that was it for me.

Eryn: Yeah.

Lina: Not because I was so great, but because God’s hand was on me. And see, things like that was happening. And so as an example, my books, when I started publishing, I was convinced that God had called me to do this. And I thought I would, at the very least, start making some kind of income so that I didn’t have to work as hard. Cause I was doing both jobs, right? And I was trying to juggle these things with the conviction of what God wanted me to do. And honestly, like people see that you wrote a book, but they don’t see how many you sell. And…and…

Elisa: Right.

Lina: …and I…

Elisa: Right.

Lina: …you know, it’s not like I sold none, and I sell a lot more than other people but not…

Eryn: Sure.

Lina: …what I expected God to do and certainly never had a best-seller as an example. So the tension then in a Christian culture…in a Christian environment where, you know, the institution of publishing needs book sales. So the first time you might not sell a lot of books, you might think, well they think I'm a newbie. They might give you a second chance. After that, you start to question. Like how am I ever gonna publish again, because I'm not getting numbers that attract attention, right? And for someone who values self based on how well you do, how many followers you grow, I early on, really wanted to quit again and again and again. Because I would feel like, well I must be nothing. I must be a loser. Maybe God doesn’t want me to be in ministry. Maybe I need to stick to my day job which was, has always done really well. I still practice and love medicine. So those are the ways that I think God has, well the fact that I continue…I have continued to get book offers and book deals despite, you know, I would say a very humble like I’ve done better with every book. But really, I mean I think my story of writing hasn’t been like, you know, amazing. And but…

Eryn: Yeah.

Lina: …and…and speaking, you know, getting invited to some things, being left out of others. You know, ways that I have initially thought of as curses, and now I see the spectrum of what is happening in American celebrity Christianity. And I see some of the people that I longed to be invited to who I knew and met along the way and felt very rejected when I wasn’t included, now I kind of look and see. And we talk about it on our team. I have a small leadership team on my…in my ministry. And I think, my goodness, God knew what He was doing. It was so protective. Like I, the last people I would want to be with. You know, and I mean like you start thinking about like how God just has protected us and our ministry and…

Elisa: Sometimes you can’t see until we’re on the other side of these things, yeah.

Eryn: And I just want to say I'm so grateful for your vulnerability and sharing that about books and when you start to pursue something. And you think that there’s gonna be this special favor when it’s released and that it’s gonna provide financially. And I released a book too, and it was probably during the worst time around Covid. And I recognized how I did not want to find my value in sales. And yet I was also seeing that sales signified my value to other people. And so that was really hard for me in my career of trying to figure out, do I have value? Does God want me to be in this space? And so what was it like to answer those questions of not failing, but quote unquote, you know what I mean? 

Lina: I think it doesn’t have to be in book sales, right? You…women you are listening. I mean we can apply it to anywhere. I think the context is where you think you are following Jesus in obedience…

Eryn: Yes.

Elisa: Yes.

Lina: …and it’s something that honors Him. I think the hard part for me has always been that I feel I'm giving 180 percent. Cause I'm intense. I'm all in. I don’t hold back. Like it’s not like I'm doing half job. I'm giving everything, everything, every project, everything. So that by the end, I'm bleeding out. Like and then I kind of go like, really God? This is Your above and beyond? Cause I just don’t see that. And…and this is the tension. And then you kind of go like you start to question all of these things like God’s calling. And…and…and you start to question His goodness. And of course, some of the hits I took later in the last 10 years related to church hurt really messed me up. And so I think you know to say how do deal with them slowly and consistently, God has had to keep me in the furnace of affliction. Which, according to the psalmist, is a good place.

Eryn: Yeah.

Lina: Every book of mine now, I…when I started ministry, people would ask, like what…what is your ministry? Like what’s your thing? You know, like everybody wants to know. Well, sum up your ministry, you know, in a word or two. And you’re like, I don’t know, Jesus, the Bible. Like you know, I didn’t have a niche. I didn’t feel I had a niche. I was like I want to encourage people to love Jesus, you know. It just was so vague. And now six books into…into it, I can tell you that my…our ministry’s mission really, I mean besides I mean bringing hope to the world, and really when I boil down to what do we do? What do we take, every theme…every project is on pain and healing. We’re a pain…

Eryn: Yeah, I love that.

Lina: …pain, pain, pain, pain. We are about pain and healing. And it’s not that I love pain, it’s that we learn in painful places. And the Lord, I mean it’s been slow and steady. And it’s been His grace of putting not many but a few sound voices in my life. My team is amazing, my mother, you know, people who sometimes when they say things, you go ah. Can’t you say something else? Like I want sympathy, right? That’s why I go to counseling, cause I get sympathy from the counselor. 

Eryn: Yeah.

Lina: But…but the voices in my…

Eryn: Hey, Lina. That’s a strategy that we’ve never discussed about therapy.

Lina: Yeah, right? I know, but it’s true. Like I’ve got a lot of empathy there. But I think the Lord has put a few, you don’t need a lot, but you need a few. And I want to say a few, I mean two or three sound godly voices in my life that have stood the test of time. And when the bad voices, cause everybody has a few really ugly voices in their lives, be it through family or through friends or through old relationships. That’s consistent to everyone. And I have those voices in my life. When those voices are loud and condemning, accusatory voices in life can be very loud. I think when those voices are loud, you need again those people who know you, who see you…who’ve seen you at your worst, so say okay, you can talk about quitting. And then tomorrow, you know, okay our staff meeting. Like what are we doing this week? You know what I mean?

Eryn: Yeah.

Lina: It’s like okay, let’s just…

Eryn: You can have a moment.

Lina: Yes.

Eryn: But it’s not your forever. You know I saw a quote where you said, “Learn to be with the Lord without an agenda.”

Lina: Right.

Eryn: And that’s what I hear you’re saying is…

Lina: Yeah.

Eryn: …don’t try to perform. Don’t have an agenda. Just practice just being faithful and present.

Lina: My sort of background of church has had the sense, yes, the quiet time, even though in my heart I’ve taught and…and felt like well, it’s not duty, it’s relationship. But it’s so in my DNA that like for a season, after I left the mega church and sort of, you know, went through my season of…of church hurt that I wrote Fractured Faith on, in that season, I…I had to switch out of those mode where…and there were levels where you kind of say something that you think you know, but you don’t really feel it. If you didn’t do your quiet time one day, you would say, oh I know God forgives me, but you really felt guilty, right?

Elisa: Yeah.

Lina: And you felt like oh God’s not gonna bless me as much. Oh I need to catch up on my Bible reading, cause I missed a chapter yesterday, right? Those things which I think I believe in daily Bible reading. Do you understand? I'm not saying it’s not important. But there’s a legalistic DNA in me that needed to be eradicated of understanding some days being with God does not mean reading a lot of verses. and listen, I’d even say, some days it may not mean reading any verses.

Eryn: Yeah.

Lina:  We need the verses, cause it’s the Word of God. But some days, I just sit with God. And that’s where I’ve had to learn like, you know, it’s like any relationship, our relationship with the Lord. And I think we just forget that. Like, you know, I see marriages. And you see the…the dynamic. There’re seasons where, you know, it changes. And I think it’s like that with Jesus and with the Lord. And…and…and I think the thing that has tethered me consistently to the Lord has been need. You go back to pain, to need. It’s our Achilles’ heel. We hate it, and yet it is the number one, hands down, my need whatever area of life is needy, has been what has literally tethered me to Jesus.

Elisa: You know, Lina, when you say that, I think our bent is to push out of need, push out of brokenness, think I'm gonna get to the other side of it…

Lina: Yeah.

Elisa: …and there’s beauty, and there’s recovery, and there’s restoration and redemption and transformation. And we know God’s about that. But the reality is, we’re never done with it. You know and…and if we were done, we’d be dead.

Lina: Yes.

Elisa: You know, you mentioned a heartbreak back in med school and, you know, these experiences shape us all.

Lina: Yes.

Elisa: You know, and now you have present-day needs of course. But how did that heartbreak, as you’re able to share from it, how did that shape you as you continue to manage your very practical needs?

Lina: All heartbreak shapes us, right? And it comes to every human in different forms. Of course, the singles, this is an easy wounding in the sense. I mean we know; we understand. Like for me, I mean I think it wasn’t just that I’ve remained single. I was engaged twice. And so it…breaking engagements I think any time is hurtful.

Elisa: Totally.

Lina: And so to think there’s baggage with that. But then the biggest issue I had was a best friend that I had for 10 years that I really felt, and not just me felt, but everybody who met us for those 10 years thought we would end up together. I don’t know why it took us, well why we didn’t see that early on. And by the time I caught on, I had already been engaged and broken off an engagement two weeks before the wedding. So that even if that person had at one point contemplated anything, I probably nailed the coffin when you…the other person gets engaged, right? So there’s this complicated…life is complicated. But you know, I'm in my mid-twenties when I'm going through…when I'm going through that. But it was also an awkward thing, because it wasn’t…we never dated. We were just best friends. And because of that, like no one really understood what I went through. It was a little more invisible in a sense to people. Like I think everyone kind of knew but, you know, it was like weird. I was the one who got engaged and then…then we didn’t get married. And then no one really ever talked about us dating. So it wasn’t even something I could grieve with others. It was really shameful for me to think that even this best friend of 10 years who I thought was so committed to me, I felt a lot of shame to the reality that he didn’t wait around for me. Like I always thought he would wait, like he would…like I just felt like there’s something intrinsically wrong with me if I broke off the engagement and this person who I thought would be there for me had decided I wasn’t worth the wait. I think the idea and…and later of course when you go through church hurt and like you leave a church community, but no one comes after you, a theme in life becomes that you’re sort of not worth being pursued. And I think it’s easy to then…then you bring…

Elisa: [inaudible]

Lina: …now to like going back to the idea of the books, for example and…and being asked to speak in certain places. You might say on one level, like you might roll your eyes and go, that’s so stupid. Like who cares? You’re…you’re a doctor. You’re living in a big house. You go on vacation. You know, they don’t…people don’t see that really…

Elisa: Everybody wants to be loved.

Lina: …that’s it.

Elisa: Everybody wants to be pursued.

Eryn: And valued.

Lina: That’s it.

Eryn: Yeah.

Elisa: And wanted.

Lina: And it’s so easy to move from saying, well the guy, okay, he didn’t want me. And then the church, well they didn’t come after me, to then making this conclusion, well then maybe God doesn’t really want me. And so you start having this mind game that maybe God doesn’t love you for who you are.

Elisa: So how has He convinced you…

Eryn: Yeah, that’s good.

Elisa: …that He does. You know what is He saying to you, showing to you, revealing to you about His love and His care and pursuing of you? 

Lina: I think the thing about God is that He never leaves. It’s so simple, and it’s so profound. Every…I mean at the end of the day, I have not had any big, like, you know, I think the sexy thing in the church to say, well now I know God. Because one day I had a dream. You know like, you know, we’ve all…I go to so many events. And I’ve heard so many testimonies. And you know, I used to be envious of these women and be like, well I was almost gonna quit; and then God said something to me. And then I knew. And I'm like, I have never heard audibly. I mean I hear His Spirit in my heart, but I’d never Him audibly. You know I…I haven’t met the person yet to…that I might marry. I haven’t had…you know like everything in my life has continued circumstantially. But the lower I’ve been, He’s just still there. He’s there. Like I don’t know what is more convincing than the fact that, even when you kick and scream, even when you accuse Him, even when you ignore Him, even when you just feel utterly frustrated and act out in so many ways, and you know you no longer deserve Him, you know it. You know it. Because everybody, when we’re mad at God, we do things that we…it’s almost like we do them on purpose; because we want to sort of, like a kid with a tantrum. We want to hurt Him in a sense. Like, right? Cause we’re so upset. Like pay attention to me. Can’t You see? Like and I’ve done my share of that. All this to say, I’ve not been able to get away from Him. It’s like the infamous Psalm 139. “If I make my bed in hell…

Elisa: Yeah, yeah.

Lina: …You are still there.”  Now I can walk you through…

Eryn: Yeah.

Lina: …specific points where that has been very clear. I think the easiest way for us to go back to the place of seeing His love is to fix our eyes on the cross. I don’t think there’s any more convincing love than seeing Jesus on the cross for us. So and I find that when I fall into patterns of sin, and I'm not saying that we need to pursue sin in order to see Him on the cross. But usually, that’s why having your communion at church is so powerful. Because that’s where we sit and think about our sins, right? And that’s where we kind of think back to the cross. And I think in my moments, again, of failure is when I have been able to see Him on the cross so much more clearly, again in…in just that reality of I just can’t get away from Him. He's always there with me.

Elisa: I love the way you’re expressing this as we long to be pursued. We long to be loved. We long to be desired. But even when we, in our childlikeness, turn away and run from God; we can’t outrun Him. He is there. And He’s with us, and He is pursuing us. We may not know it. We may have our backs turned to Him. But if we just stop long enough and look over our shoulder, there He is.

Lina: Well, and I’ve wrestled a lot with this question of like why…I mean…He…you go, are you any special? Why is He there with you versus not others, right? Cause I mean you can get into a theological discussion on it and move away from heart to heart. But like you know people are well God chooses who He’s gonna save or not [reformed] versus hyper-reform. I don’t even think it’s that complicated. I think the difference, like why…why do you grow up in the same home with someone. And one person is like walking in Christ despite the same pain of somebody else who’s…who throws their back away. Or you hear two people who have the exact same similar experience. One will be like I'm done with God, where the other stays with God. And you know without getting too theological, I think the difference is that you…at some point I just keep saying yes. I have not found…and I honestly…I’ve not found a better option than Jesus Christ. He is indeed the option that has brought me peace and continues to bring me peace. And…and I would urge anyone who’s listening who’s still wrestling, and I’ve wrestled my share of time, I'm not one to easily give in. But oh my goodness, to know that when you give in that He’s not gonna like Peter in…in John 21, after his mess, Christ just has breakfast with him and…

Elisa: That’s right.

Lina: …shoves him back into ministry and leads Pentecost a chapter later. Like how? How is this grace so abundant? I don’t understand, but I can’t get away from it. And say yes to God. Like if you’re listening, just say yes to God. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done before. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been. It’s like He’s still there waiting with open arms. And I just find that irresistible.

Eryn: You know, Lina, as we close, would you pray over the one woman that is listening right now that feels like she is in a…in a wilderness season. And she does not know if it is forever or if it’s gonna be done. Will you pray over her heart right now?

Lina: God, I…I just feel the tenderness of this moment for the person who’s listening who is wrestling and struggling. And oh, Father, I just know that You know, and You understand. And so Lord, I...it just feels tender to me to pray for that person because of God just that we try so hard to find our peace in every other place but You. And so God, open her eyes right now to see Your presence so near. God, I don’t know why we struggle so much when all You’ve ever done is show us Your love. But Lord, I know that even in this moment, for the woman who is listening who is hurting; Your goal isn’t even just to get over her pain. Your goal is just to help her to know that You are with her, that there’s not an injustice that has been done to her or is being done to her that You have not seen and that You have not taken account of and that You will not vindicate. I think, God, the reality of You as judge who is fair and good is a reality that we cannot shy away from. For the woman who is listening who is being treated in a way that she ought not be treated, Father, would You help her to understand and see that it is not that You don’t see or that You don’t care but that the time is coming, Lord. And that for some reason, as long as pain exists here in this world for now, God though, I do pray that You would bring freedom and fast for that woman but God, that she would rest assured that You will never forget, and that justice will be served. And for those, Father, who just feel unloved and ignored, Lord, how deeply I understand that. And God, how good it is to know that even in this moment, You know us so well and You love us so much. And so please, God, please break the chains open God for those people who, like me, God, have spent way too much time in the pit of self-pity and the place of bitterness and accusing You of things that You are not and have not done. And Father, would you help us say yes, God. Would you move us to the yes that You have for us. And God, for the areas and the places where freedom can come even sooner and redemption can be seen, would You give that gift, would You give that breakthrough. And Lord, and if You choose to delay, would we trust Your goodness, God, even…even if our enemy is someone that looks like they are loved by You, Lord. I know when I left the church, it was so hard, Father, to understand that You did not prefer them over me but that You somehow were working Your perfect will in my life for my good. Lord, I see it now. I didn’t then. And so Father, by faith, would You give this gift for the woman, even the man who might be listening to this, Father, who might need this freedom. Please provide it. Lord, You are freedom. You’ve died to give us freedom. So please do what You do best. This is who You are. So give us Your love, Your peace, Your freedom. And above all, Father, restore that hope in us that better days are coming but that even in those difficult days, You are here with us, which is what makes today the best day that we could live. Thank You for what You are doing. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen. 

[musical interlude]

Elisa: Amen, Lina. What a beautiful prayer for all of us. Make sure to check the show notes for a link to watch Unshakable Moxie. You don’t want to miss it.

Eryn: Well, before we go, be sure to check out our website for that link and more at godhearsher.org. That’s godhearsher.org.

Elisa: Thanks for joining us. And don’t forget, God hears you. He sees you, and He loves you because you are His.

[music]

Eryn: Today’s episode was engineered by Anne Stevens and produced by Jade Gustman and Mary Jo Clark. We also want to thank Diana and Irina for all their help and support. Thanks, everyone.

Elisa: God Hears Her is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries.