Hi, from the Salvation Army, you're listening to Words of Life.
Welcome back to Words of Life. Sadly, this is our final episode of our series on gratitude with April Christina Farmer. In this final episode, we spend some time talking about what's next for April in this year. So if you want to learn more about April, her ministry, her music, visit AprilChristinaFarmer.com.
A huge thank you again to our friend April for joining us on this series. This was one of those interviews where we could have hung out all day and just talked about the goodness of God and learning to live life with a grateful heart. So we would love to hear from you. Tell us if there's a story of your own that you thought of during this series, send us an email hello at words of life podcast.org or visit our website at words of life podcast.org. Thank you again for listening. Have a great week. God bless. This time is flown by April and I'm so glad that you're here.
This is truly like a Christmas present for me. Me too, Bernie. Believe me.
Me too. I hope that anyone who's had a chance to hear this or see this, however, they're coming in contact with this episode or this series that they'll find something that they can use as strength for their journey. Absolutely. But we're not quite done yet. We got this episode to figure it all out and I think where we've been brings us to a quote that I want to use for you. And the salvation army was founded by a Methodist minister back in the day. They are a denomination unto themselves, but this is a really cool quote. William Booth once said, the greatness of a man's power is the measure of his surrender.
April, when we surrender, we talked about this in previous episodes when we are weak, his strength is made perfect. Absolutely. You used a different illustration about God's economy and that comes first with us just relenting, letting him, letting go. I heard a minister say just last week that we'd be foolish to think that our job is anything more than turning over the resources, the loaves and the fish because God will take care of the rest. Absolutely. And it'll be miraculous what he can do with it. That's pretty cool. That's amazing. Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest.
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VGW Group, void where prohibited by law, 18 plus terms and conditions apply. So for this new year for April Farmer, what's next? Wow. You know, it's two things. It's the things that I have planned and the things that I know God's got up his sleeve that I have no idea about.
And so because of that, I think I want to put my hand to the plow to do the things that he's called me to do. It's really a lot of writing. I really just need to write.
Can I tell you what I'm going to write about? Nope. I don't know that part, but I'm trying to give God my yes. Okay, all right. What that's requiring of me is a lot less television.
It's a lot less social media. It's a quieting of the noise so that I can focus and hear. And it's also a lot more dedicated one-on-one time with the Lord because what I don't want to do and whatever I write, I want to be myself, but I don't want to give me. I can't help anybody. Just like you said, I just bring the loaves and the fishes. He does the multiplying. And so I want to hear very clearly from the father. What do you want me to say? And then I want him to do the work. So for me, what I feel like is coming is a continued yes and whatever that looks like. And that's being faithful in my job. That's being faithful to my family, making sure I'm designating time to spend with my husband, to spend with my kids and my grandkids, scheduled vacations, breaks are coming, being intentional about those things and resting so that the time that I have outside of that is committed to what God's called me to do so that I can do it to the best of my ability.
And then staying open-handed, even with my job, even with all things, I just want to be open-handed. But yeah, I have a plan. I'm going to set out a plan. I'm going to set out a course, just submitting my way to the Lord, but recognizing that He's the navigator. I come along for the ride. All I have to do is stay and do whatever job He tells me to do along the ride. And so I'm actually a little excited about that unknown piece.
It's frightening, but exciting. But I'm grateful because what I've seen down through the years is that God is faithful. It's one of my favorite hymns, Great is Thy Faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies, I see all I have needed. And I like that word have.
So it presents this presentness, all that I have needed in the current and all that I have ever needed in the past, your hand has provided. So why not move forward knowing that your faithfulness never ends? It doesn't cease. It doesn't set up.
It doesn't slow down. And so that's what's next. Doing something that I never thought I would do, sitting down, speaking and telling people about my life, about things that sometimes people are like, oh, don't share that.
You don't want to tell anybody you were a teenage mama. You know what? That's what I was.
That's what I experienced. And look what God did with me. Look what God can do with a life totally surrendered to Him, a life that continues to trust Him through the hard times, the highs and lows, knowing that stuff's going to come. But this journey, this walk in Christ is not a cakewalk. It's not your best life now. It is a best life now because it's a God life. And so not allowing the world to define what best means, but allowing Christ and faithfulness to Him to determine what that means.
And so I'm very grateful. I can't. Do you imagine that there's someone that made it this far into the series or the episode that just might be listening by chance and doesn't have a right relationship with Jesus Christ or a relationship with Jesus Christ, or maybe there's a skeptic out there. Can I just say there's a thought that, you know, try Him, test Him, taste and see. Taste and see. The Lord is good.
He is. And that's the thing. I never liked picky eaters. If you're a picky eater, I love you. But the thing about picky eaters is that there's so much you miss. There's so much you miss thinking that nuggets and fries. This is my grandkids right now. You think nuggets and fries are the best thing ever.
But man, when you take a shot on a filet mignon, what? You can't go back. I didn't know.
You can't. I didn't know. And that's what I love about that Psalm. He says, oh, taste.
There's an excitement in his voice. Oh, taste and see. Oh, if you would just give this a shot that the Lord is good. There's this assurance that the writer has that I know that if you just give him a shot, you're going to see that he's just as good to you as he is to me. There's another theme in a hymn. Blessed assurance.
Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste. Just a taste. Of glory divine.
Just a smidge. And that alone excites me. It just lights me up that I can have that type of assurance. And if you're listening today and you don't know Jesus, you don't have that assurance. You have guesses and maybes and what ifs.
And somebody said this, but I don't know for sure. But when you taste and see, when you take a leap of faith and trusting in the work of the cross and the work that Jesus accomplished on the cross, there's an assurance. There's a yes that you can have. There's not an I know everything, but this I know for sure that there is a God who gave up his life for me, for me, for my jacked up broken self. And that all I have to do is the simplest part is just give my life to him. All I have to do is say, you know what? What you did for me, I receive.
And because of that, I'm going to give you back what's already yours anyway. And I can then have an assurance that Jesus is mine and I can begin to taste and to get these glimpses of a life eternally that is so beyond what we could ever dream or imagine. And Bernie, at the end of the day, we sit here because we want people to experience that. Amen. That's why we're here.
It costs me nothing to surrender. Yeah. And it's scary.
Yeah, but it's worth it. He is good. He's so good. April, I'm so grateful for your time, for making time for us, for our listeners. I hope that they are encouraged by your life story, the book that God is writing in you, with you. And I can't wait to see what comes out. Now, how do we stay in touch or how do we get in touch with April? There's a website out there. There's somewhere we can find you and let you know what it is.
Yeah, absolutely. I'm on all social media platforms, except TikTok. I hadn't really gotten into that. Sorry. But you know, Instagram, Facebook, you can hit me up there, AprilChristinaFarmer or AprilChristinaFarmer.com.
You can always find me there. Yeah. Keep your ear to the ground and keep checking back because I think there might be a book coming. Hey, we're going to see what the Lord does. And there's also, there's already music out there.
Yeah. If you don't have a favorite singer, check out April Christina's music, April Christina Farmer. You'll find it, I promise you. And you will be blessed. April, we love you. I love you all too. And thank God for you. God bless.
You too. You know, we couldn't let this series go without giving you a sample of what April's worship actually sounds like. So here's a little clip. Great is that faithfulness, oh Lord. Oh, you've been good to me. So good, so good. You've been so faithful.
You've been so faithful to me. So great for Jesus. So great for Jesus. The salvation Army's mission, doing the most good means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission. Every time you give to the salvation Army, visit salvationarmyusa.org to offer your support. You can subscribe to words of life on your favorite podcast store or visit salvationarmysoundcast.org. Join us next time for the salvation Army's 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 life audio.com where you'll find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network.
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