At Thrive Ent, planning your finances is bigger than money. It's a way to support the people, causes, and community you love. Because helping you put your faith into action is at the heart of what we do. ThriveEnt, where money means more. Connect with us at ThriveEnt.com.
Life audio. Hi from the Savish Army and you're listening to Words of Life. These are the words, these are the words, these are the words of life. These are the words, these are the words, these are the words of life. Welcome back to Words of Life.
This is now our second week with author and podcaster Nicole Yunis. I first discovered her ministry through her podcast, How to Study the Bible, and I was just immediately drawn to her teaching style and just her very gracious approach. I immediately wanted more from her ministry, and so. I bought her latest book which came out last year, not what I signed up for. And after reading through this book and just how much it blessed me, I I really wanted to bring her on the show to discuss this topic even further.
This book focuses on helping the reader find the strength, purpose, and faith to get through an unexpected season. And so if you're currently just going through a really difficult time, Especially if you're in a season that just feels like it came out of nowhere, this book is really for you. And so I have an exciting announcement to make. We want to hear from you. We want to know how we can pray for you.
We want to know what you think of the show or if you have any ideas for upcoming episodes.
So if you send us an email at hello at wordsoflife podcast.org. We are going to be giving away 25 free copies of this book to the first 25 listeners who reach out.
So again, just say hi, let us know how we can pray for you, and we will happily send you a free copy of Nicole Eunice's latest book. Again, that email is hello at wordsoflife podcast.org. In this second episode with Nicole, we really start to dive into the book and just the heart behind it. And if you are in the middle of one of these seasons, The first thing that we really start to focus on is remembering the promises of God. Remember the times that He's been there for you in the past.
And why would he let you down now? God does not play hide and seek when it comes to these tests. He uses this time to reveal what is in our hearts, who we are becoming, and what we are believing. Welcome back to Words of Life. We're in week two of our series with Nicole Yunes, an author, a mother, a wife, a preacher, a multi-talented person who we are blessed to have.
Welcome back, Nicole. Oh, thanks, Dave. I'm so glad to be here, you guys. Thanks for joining us again. If you didn't hear the episode from last week, we want you to check it out.
Of course, if you're on this podcast already, you know how to do it. Just get back to episode one with Nicole Eunice, and you'll hear about who she is, where she's come from, and a new resource that she's got out, her 10th book. Talk about words. This one's called Not What I Signed Up For. And if you are someone Who has ever had Something come your way that was hmm.
Not something you planned on. You're probably going to enjoy this book. I could tell you, I've gotten almost all the way through it. I've had to be. Honest with the coal.
There's no pictures, so be prepared. You got to keep going. But it is something that rings so true in my life when we've had trials that we weren't. quite ready for, perhaps. But I'm amazed now as I look back on my own journey.
God has never let me down, despite the fact that I might not have seen him when I was going through a trial in my own mind. He was there the whole time. At Thrive Ent, planning your finances is bigger than money. It's a way to support the people, causes, and community you love because helping you put your faith into action is at the heart of what we do. Brivent, where money means more.
Connect with us at Brivent.com. We're going to jump right in.
So, Nicole, tell us what does it mean to have your faith tested?
Okay, I would love to.
So, for those of you guys, if you're just joining us now, the invitation of this book, you know, I know, especially if you're in and not what I signed up for season, it can be so challenging to try to grow when you're just trying to survive. It can feel like a survival time.
So, the invitation of this book is to really come into the twists and turns of the story of Joseph from the book of Genesis and just allow the Spirit of God to speak to you through someone else's story.
Something about that can be very freeing when we're not just like focusing on ourselves and trying to fix ourselves or heal ourselves or whatever. That's really the opportunity of the invitation. But what's immediately challenging about the story of Joseph is that God keeps calling things blessed. He keeps saying that Joseph is prospering. The definition of prospering, if we were going to look there, would be that everything is good around Joseph, like he's making things better for the people around him.
But if we're really to engage in the story, his actual Life does not feel so good. And that's already a challenge for what we might think about blessing or prospering. The other thing that's really challenging about this story is that in the book of Hebrews, it actually says that Joseph was tested.
So we're thinking test, and that can really land weird for us when it comes to the idea of a father in heaven. My kids went to a school, a high school, where they had to take pre-tests before they came to the school. It was a like a magnet school, so people were coming from all different counties. And even though I tried to help my kids understand this kind of testing, it is to see where you are. It's not a pass/fail.
It's not to say that you're a good student or not a good student. It's to land you accurately where you are in your learning journey with whatever this subject is. And try as I might to get my kids to believe that it didn't make it less anxious to them to have to go get tested. That's my best. Definition of the kind of testing that God does of us.
God doesn't test because He needs to know what's in our hearts, He already does. Therefore, God tests so that we can know what's in our hearts. That's actually the part of the journey that's really important: testing allows us to accurately know where we are on our map of faith. God uses tests not only to show us how far we've come, but also to reveal places of true need, true dependence, true limitation, because He wants us to know where we really are and who we're becoming in the process of these trials. Trials have lots of other reasons as well, but if we were gonna boil it down to one simple concept, that's where I would go with testing.
Yeah. There's obviously lessons that we've learned from previous trials for me if I could be transparent. The lesson that I learned after a cancer scare and diagnosis in 2020 is: while I might be fearfully and wonderfully made, I'm not alone when it comes to trials. I don't believe that God gave me cancer. I think that I'm a product of my society, my diet, the things that I've subjected myself to, that cancer may have developed.
It can also be something that is hereditary. But what are some of the lessons that you've learned from previous trials? Yeah, that's so great. Thank you for asking and for sharing that as well. You know, I think things like really hard things like cancer or children being sick or abuse, those kinds of things make us ask the question: how would a loving God allow this?
Yeah, that's a pretty flat look at the world because we forget that sin has corrupted our whole world. Sin is not just individual rights and wrongs, it's a pattern and it's an oppression that's over our entire world. And we've been corrupted by that sin.
So that includes our bodies, right?
Now, that doesn't mean that God isn't at work and active and redeeming, but yeah, we have to live in a fallen world, in a broken world, which we have, you know, talk about extensively. For me, I think what I've learned oftentimes in trials is that I am more likely leaning on security or identity that comes from roles or titles, all kinds of crutches that when they're taken away, you really start to ask, do I really trust God alone? Or do I just think like, My background plus trusting God is going to give me that answer. My family plus trusting God. These relationships plus trusting God.
And it's oftentimes only when those things fall away or taken away or removed for a period of time that you begin to ask yourself: Do I wait, do I really trust God? Or have I trusted all of these extras that he's given in my life that have maybe lulled me into a sense of security or faith that isn't actually based on faith? And that is a big wake-up call when you go through that. And the question is, Are you ready to call on God wherever you find yourself, even if you feel like you've really lost your way? because he's ready to answer.
He's not surprised by the trials that you're facing, nor should we be surprised, but oftentimes we are surprised. And God's waiting and willing to meet us there in a true understanding of our deep need and dependency on Him. Yeah. And there's zero reluctance. He's already there.
He's just waiting on us. Yeah. Man. The setup for this next question is perfect because. What we want to ask you is, you know, often during the best times in life, We find ourselves relying on God less than when we're in the middle of a tragedy.
Mm-hmm. That seems a bit backwards. I don't know if you feel the same way, but when things are going smooth, maybe we relax our relationship with the Lord, perhaps, and we're not as diligent. And then all of a sudden, when there's a need or a scare, he's the first thing we might invoke, the first name we might call on. How do you feel about that?
I mean, I think it's just like, I think it's like the reality of the human condition. I'm not here to be like, yeah, we should change that. I'm like, yeah, we're just, we are sheep who need a good shepherd. We are likely to wander off. That is who we actually are at our core.
And there's something like, why do we eat junk food? We know it's not good for us because it's just, it's fine in the moment. And I just, I love Cheetos, you know, like it's just, it is what it is. And that's not to excuse sin. It's not to.
Do anything except say: the more honest we are about our actual condition, the more likely we are to continue to see ourselves as children of God who truly need everything out of His hand. every single day. I think it moves us toward dependence rather than away. That's how I see that. I'm like, oh, yeah, we're just, we are just like the Israelites.
We really are. Like, human nature isn't changing, but God is, God is faithful to our fickle human nature, and that is worth celebrating.
Okay, so you've got the book, you've got a study guide, which we're still going to learn more about. But if our listeners want to connect with you, there's still another way. Mm. I hear you have a pretty cool podcast. Oh man.
Yeah, I would love for you guys to come check it out sometime. This podcast was born out of COVID. I had just written a Bible study that's like a passion project. As you guys can tell, I love the Bible. I also have this great desire for people to feel confident reading the Bible.
And I recognize from being in church work that a lot of people don't. Like, basically, if you weren't in an awesome college ministry, you probably missed the boat on somebody teaching you actually how to use a study Bible and how to really feel confident, not with a Bible study, but just with a study Bible.
So, the whole podcast is built out of that. And five years later, it's just become this great community. Last year, we reached 188 countries. Fantastic opportunity to really just all we do is look at a passage of the Bible together each week. And we walk through what does it mean and how do we apply it to our lives?
And it's just delightful.
So, it's called How to Study the Bible. Love for you guys to come check it out. How to study the Bible All right. It's available on all the streaming networks, I'm sure. Absolutely.
At ThriveEnt, planning your finances is bigger than money. It's a way to support the people, causes, and community you love. Because helping you put your faith into action is at the heart of what we do. Thriveent, where money means more. Connect with us at ThriveEnt.com.
Well, Nicole, I think it would be awesome. If you were willing to just have a prayer with our listeners, and then we'll invite them back for week three. Mm, okay. Let's do it. Uh Father, sometimes it feels like we are running on empty, or we are running behind, or we are running scattered.
And Jesus, our good shepherd, could we hear your voice and be led into open pasture? Would you allow us right now, everyone, wherever they are listening, to have a moment of Sabbath rest in our hearts? We thank you, Jesus, that Sabbath rest comes from knowing you, which means that even when the storms are raging all around us, we can find our safe place right with you in our heart. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Thanks, Nicole. Be sure to check us out for week three. Come on back for Nicole Eunice. Thanks for joining us on Words of Life.
See you next time.
Well, I really pray that you're already being blessed by these conversations with Nicole Yunes. If you missed the announcement at the beginning of the episode, we're going to be giving away 25 free copies of this book to the first 25 listeners who reach out to us. We want to hear from you. We want to know how we can pray for you. So send us an email: hello at wordsoflifepodcast.org.
And for some uh extra credit. We're currently working on a future series where we're going to have a panel discussion with a group of people who have either recently or are currently doing a Bible study reading plan where they're reading the Bible Genesis to Revelation in a year. And we want to know if you've done this, what truths about God or yourself or the world or the Bible itself did you learn during this process?
So, if you would include that as well, we would be very grateful. Thank you so much for listening. If you wouldn't mind leaving us a rating and a review on whatever podcast platform you're listening, we would also really appreciate that too. Until next week, have a great week and God bless. The Salvation Army's mission, doing the most good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs.
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These are the words, these are the words, these are the words of life. Thanks so much for listening to Words of Life. We want to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the show. Visit lifeeaudio.com where you'll find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They have shows about prayer, Bible studying, parenting, and more.
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