 Welcome to Hope Today. My name is Corey Langford and I am joined by Angela Madden and let me tell you this right now. If you are seeing this right now, God is not done with you. He says his mercies are new every morning. Every day his mercies are new and he's not done with you and it's a special day. Happy Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday. What a combination. Yes. It's all about love. It's about the one who is love and I'm excited to celebrate it with you. I am excited as well. It is a beautiful love day and let me tell you, I know everybody is not excited about Valentine's Day all the time. If you feel like, I don't have anybody special in my life or I wish I had someone and some people avoid social media altogether, I don't want to see all the love and other people might have pressure to say, I didn't come up with anything. I didn't think about anything but let me tell you this right now. Love doesn't have to be limited to one day. It shouldn't be limited to one day. This is just actually a day that focuses on that but please don't let that discourage you. Know that the love of God is continual and the love that you give to yourself is something incredibly big that God wants us to do more in our lives and we can talk a little bit more about that because I've learned a lot about what self-love truly truly means. Yeah. I mean, God is love, right? He is the author of love and with him and through him and by him, it is critical that we have a powerful relationship, that we understand what he does and how he operates and to have that, we pray, you know, we all know we need to pray. We even know the effectiveness of prayer but why is it so hard to bring ourselves to pray at times? Why is it that when life throws us pain, prayer is often the first thing to go? Well today we will sit down with author Erin Warren to discuss how she has found faith, comfort and hope through prayer and how we can too. You know, Corey, you're talking about love, it's Valentine's Day, the beginning of the Lent season and our heart and our aim and our attention is focused on the one who is love. I think that prayer is the means by which we recognize who he is and who he is in me. Yeah, and in that time of recognizing who he is, what God often does is the more we pursue him, we're actually pursuing the level of identity that he has given to us, meaning that he, areas of us are locked up in God. So when we pursue after God, we're really getting a greater view of how he sees us because I'm going to tell you something about love since we're talking about it. Relationships will give you so many identities that God did not intend for you, especially when you get into the wrong relationship. And then you start to feel that you're not beautiful, you're not lovely, you're not worthy. And this sometimes translates into our relationship with God. So when God is asking you to do something or God is saying you are this, you're always thinking how you felt about that relationship. So we're going to put a stop to that and let God give us an identity. Listen, right now we're going to play a game called Stump the Host. All right, we're going to see how we do with these questions here. This is a love and marriage theme today. So we're going to ask questions about that. All right, here we go. Question number one, who was commanded by an angel to marry a specific woman? Well now, you know, you think of Mary, right? You think of Joseph. But I also think of Hosea. So I don't know. Who should we go with? Who was commanded by an angel to marry a specific woman? All right. Now, see, Joseph was already married to Mary at the time. He was a taker. So maybe it is Hosea. Who would you say? Okay. Yeah, Hosea. Hosea. Oh, was it Joseph? It was Joseph. Okay, okay, okay. All right. You take the next one. So the answer was Joseph. That was found in Matthew 1, 18 through 25. Who was commanded by God to marry a harlot and be a good husband to an unfaithful wife? Now we just said that. That's Hosea. Yes, Hosea. Yes. We were close. We were close. We were in that vicinity here. I'm sorry. That was me. Hosea 1, 2, 3, 3. Yeah. Okay. All right, here we go. Third question. Who told his father regarding a woman, get her for me, for she looks good to me? No, I think that might have been Samson. Okay. Because when he wasn't supposed to be with a Philistine woman, that was before Delilah, his first one. I think it might have been Samson. Okay. But what do you think? What do you think? Let's go with it. Okay. Okay. Oh, we in here. Samson is the answer that is judges 14, 1 through 3, had to redeem myself real quick. Yeah. I mean we messed up Joseph. I mean how are you going to mess up Joseph? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's all good grace and mercy is here. Yes. Oh, listen. Prayer is a conversation with God, a means of connecting our heart with His, but why do we often struggle to connect? How do we grow in faith? And is God still faithful when life doesn't go as planned? Author Erin Warren set out to help you and me not only see the importance of prayer, but to turn it into delight. In her new book, Every Day Prayers for Faith, Finding Confidence in God No Matter What, Erin takes us on a beautiful 30-day journey to trusting God more and joins us now. Erin, welcome to Hope Today. Thank you so much, Angela and Corey, for having me. I'm so glad to be here. We're glad to have you on this Valentine's. I hope you got some of those trivia questions right with us. Well, I'll say the first ones don't me too. I was like, oh, that's Hosea. I said the same thing, but I'm also super impressed with Corey's knowledge because I was thinking, I was thinking, one of the thought, oh gosh, it just totally slipped. Jacob, was it Jacob? Jacob and Rebecca, Jacob and, so I was thinking that. And I was like, oh man, go Corey. Corey drank his coffee this morning. He's sharp. That's right. That's right. Well, Erin, I am so excited to hop into your book and to talk more about prayer. I understand that your book is actually one of the installments of the Million Moms Prayer series or Million Praying Moms series. Tell us what exactly this Million Praying Moms is and what do you all do? Yeah, Million Praying Moms was founded by Brooke McLaughlin and it's a ministry that helps moms know how to pray scripture for their kids. And one of Brooke's passions is having these prayer journals and it's just been a sweet thing to see them just really kind of take off to really catch the attention of moms. And so the first one was Everyday Prayers for Joy. The first prayer was Everyday Prayers for the school year and then Peace and Patience. I was really glad Patience was already done because I don't want to write that book. And so when I was approached about writing the next installment of this series, it's kind of going through the fruit of the spirit and praying around those fruits that we find in Galatians. And so, but faith has just been very personal to me and to my story and so I was just really thankful to be able to kind of speak to that topic and how we pray around the idea of faith and God's faithfulness. Well, I'm going to be joining this Million Praying Moms thing because I am a mother and I know the effectiveness and need of prayer. So I love it. I know that within that group and throughout your book you implement this model of prayer, of think, pray, and praise. Could you share with us a little bit of what that looks like and how it is really effective in creating more delight in your prayer? I think this is actually one of the reasons why I love these prayer journals. So I am an inductive Bible teacher by like that's my ministry. I have a ministry called Feasting on Truths and I teach inductive Bible study and I'm always a little weary honestly of devotionals because we should be feasting on God's word more than we feast on others. So we should we should be feasting on God's word, not snacking on his word and feasting on other people's words. But what I love so much about these is this is not a devotional that you're going to just pick up and you're going to read and check it off your day. It creates interaction for you with the scripture, with the truth about God for that day. And so it encourages you in the think to think about it, to think critically about the passage. What are you learning about God in that to write out your own prayer? And I always encourage women to use the scripture as a starting point to kind of rephrase it in your own way to craft a prayer and then to praise because I actually feel like this is one of the most important and I think the most powerful aspects of prayer that often gets overlooked is being able to praise God for who he is in that conversation with him. And it's always the rebound effect is that it always reminds me who he is that and that brings such peace and calm and rest in seasons that are really hard when I remember that. Praise really is what brings us into his courts. It allows us to experience him. And I love that you said the feasting on his word, not snacking on it and feasting on other people's words. That is so powerful. In your book, you actually have a scripture that I would consider is like the anchor scripture and it comes from 2nd Corinthians 1 19 through 20. It says Jesus Christ is the son of God. And he is the one whom Timothy Silas and I have preached to you. And he has never been both a yes and a no. He has always been and always will be for us a resounding yes for all of God's promises, find their yes of fulfillment in him. And as his yes and our man men ascend to God and we bring him glory. Could you take just a moment to break down this scripture for us and the significance of it for your life and in your book? I think one of the things that I've just kind of seen over the time and I've seen in my own life is that we just think we either don't know what God's promises are or we don't understand. We ask God to fulfill a promise to us or we say, you know, in your word, you say this, well, his promises are all yes and amen in Jesus. And that's what this verse is really saying is that those promises are ours. My grandmother, who actually just passed away last week, part of her legacy is her recognition. She said she came to a point in her life. She had actually been gifted an inheritance from her father who died when she was two. She was the last living heir and she was in, you know, a young mom and, you know, found out that she had an inheritance she didn't know about. And she just had to claim it and she was vacuuming one day and she tells the story with such clarity. She said she had to sit down because she almost heard an audible voice like, so are my promises. They're there. They're yours. You've done nothing to earn them, but all you have to do is claim them. And she always called them her gold nuggets, which comes out of the second Peter verse that talks about how that they are. They're a treasure that they are worth of great value, his promises. And so knowing his promises, like they are a yes in Christ, but we have to know what they are so that we can claim them. I love that to claim, to lay hold. It's yes and amen. And, you know, whenever we talk about this area, my mind instantly goes to those who are struggling, right? You know, it doesn't always look like a yes and amen to his promises. It looks like contrary of that. You know, it looks like I'm declaring the promise. I'm claiming it, but I'm not seeing the fulfillment of it. I know you and your family have gone through some recent health struggles. Could you share with us some of those questions that popped up in your heart and how you were able to personally address them through prayer? That's a huge part of my story of faith. You know, I grew up in a Christian home, went to Christian school, always involved in church. And it always felt like I was able to kind of, I always say, positivity my way out of hard situations. And then about seven, eight years ago, my husband was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. And we spent two years really trying to find the right treatment for him that would get him back on his feet. And it was a really hard season. It was the first time I really came to God's word and said, OK, I think I've misunderstood something about your faithfulness here because we talk about, we'll say, you know, if somebody gets the job or somebody gets the answer to, you know, a prayer, they get the healing that they want. And what do we say? Our gut reaction is to say, God is faithful. But the problem with that is that what does that say to the person who didn't get the healing or didn't get the baby or didn't find the guy, you know, Valentine's Day? What does it say to them? And if God's promises are always a yes and amen and his faithfulness is that he keeps his promises, it's like, I think I've misunderstood what you promised me. And I think a lot of the problem is that we hold God to promises that he never made. And so in that season with my husband, I really came to God's word going, OK, what have you promised me? And it was there that I realized John 1633. He actually promises us trouble like he didn't promise us good times. He didn't promise us. But what he did promise us is worth so much more. They are those gold nuggets and seeing that and understanding what his promises really are helps us to be able to see them. And so in that season, God just really kind of gripped my heart with a passion for his word and a passion to discover his character in the word. And as we kind of went on, you know, we're like, OK, great, like we we got through that. He's doing really well. It's under control. And then 2020 hit him like all these feelings come back of of what it's, you know, this collective hard thing that we all had to go through. And we get through that. And I'm like, OK, 2022, this is going to be our year. And then my youngest son was diagnosed with type one diabetes, which has been far harder and far more exhausting than anything I had been through. And in all of this, it's not that I didn't believe God could heal my husband or heal my son. It's just that we live in a broken world and I am promised trouble. And I had to I had to really understand that we may not get the healing, the sight of heaven. You know, we just yesterday laid my grandmother to rest. And she is now healed in whole in the presence of Jesus because she loved her Savior so very much. And so recognizing that, OK, if that's not what we're promised, the sight of heaven, then then how do I live in such a way that I understand what his promises are? And y'all, he has been so faithful when my son was diagnosed. I wasn't sitting around. I was tired. I was not like spending hours in Bible study and all this stuff. I was in survival mode, but I knew to remember that God promised to be with us. And so my prayer was, Lord, I know you promise to be with me. So let me see where you are. And he has so faithfully answered that prayer. I'm so sorry for the loss of your grandmother. First of all, I mean, it is so hard. Thank you. And it sounds like she was such an incredible woman. And I'm thankful that she implanted and imparted into you the things that the Lord had taught her. You know, when you share that, even with your recent struggles, with your husband and with your son and then the loss of your grandma, it doesn't mean life is easy. And like you said, Jesus has promised us trouble when we're going through those trouble moments and even when things are great. What are some of those subtle ways we as believers can recognize God's faithful presence in our lives? I tell this story in the book. It's actually day two. God is faithfully present. And there was a, you know, I was having a discussion with my husband. We were tired. And I was just like, I'm going to go shopping because that's what I do. Not healthy. It's OK. I'm admitting that on television. It's fine. But anyway, I ran to the store and I was like, what am I going to say if I run into someone I know? Like, how am I going to be? I mean, literally, this was the week after he was diagnosed. How am I going to be on it? You know, can I fake it when someone says, how are you doing? And sure enough, I turn a corner and they're in the school supply aisle is a very long time friend. And she says, how are you doing? And just tears started flowing and I shared with her what was going on with us. And she gave me the exact word. She goes, Erin, you know, I remember something you told me years ago. She said in the wilderness, God didn't give them manna for tomorrow, except for on the sixth day for the day of rest. She said she only he only gave them what they needed for that day. She's like, don't worry about what you need for tomorrow. He hasn't given you that yet, but he will in the morning. And it was the exact word that I needed in that moment of stress and anxiety and hardship. And I could have chopped that up to coincidence. You know, oh, yeah, I just happened to run in this friend. But we have a very deliberate God who ordains the steps. And it was not on accident and the Lord used her that day. And it was such a reminder to me that he's faithfully present. And so I think for us, we need to be live with an awareness that he is present with us and asking him that question. Where are you today? Don't let me miss you. Don't let me miss where you're working because he is faithful to be with us, to be before us, behind us, underneath us and with us. And so we just need to be willing to open our eyes, I think, and live in a God awareness of where he is and where he's working. I love the idea of a God awareness because he truly is our present help in a time of trouble. Aaron, would you just take a moment and look into the camera and minister and pray to that one who might be where you were on the verge of tears, feeling like God, where are you in the moment and encourage her or him to trust God? Yeah, absolutely. Oh, Father God, I just I know, Lord, that there are people out there who have questions. Lord, they are walking through something and they cannot reconcile who you are with what they are going through. And so, Lord, I just pray, God, I just pray that you would be so present to them today, that you would reveal yourself to them that they would have eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to perceive, Lord, what you are doing in their life. Help them know that there your faithfulness is not tied to their earthly circumstances, but that God, you are a God who can take what the enemy means for evil and you can use it to refine us and to teach us of who you are and to grow us closer to you. Lord, I just pray that they would see you, Lord, and that they would be able to take hold of what you have promised them, that they would hold fast to their faith, because we know that you have promised and you are faithful to keep your promises. It's in your name, I pray, amen. Amen. Aaron, thank you so much for your ministry and thank you so much for this beautiful book and being with us today. Oh, well, thank you so much for having me. It's just been such a joy. Well, listen, when we come back, we're going to take a moment to look at Sidney and see what she has coming up on this week's edition of the Glory Hour. Hey, hope today family. Happy Valentine's Day. It's Love Day, but we're going to talk about something on the Glory Hour coming up today on YouTube. You don't want to miss it. That can disrupt love. All right, it is with offense because do you forgive and forget or do you hold a grudge and refuse to let it go? Well, if your answer is yes, you're in good company because we are going to be talking about getting offended. We know offense is the antithesis to love. So whether the transgression comes home, you'll boo thing, you'll spouse your friend, your co-worker, your pastor. We are going to talk about how to handle hurt feelings. And so you don't want to miss my conversation with Patricia King because we're going to talk about how to navigate breakdowns and relationships through the lens of love. Lord, help me to be saturated with love so that no matter what, everything that oozes out of me is love. So good, you don't want to miss it. And we're also going to get into, did you know there's a science behind forgiveness? Well, you're going to find out what experts have to say is the best way to heal from a wound of offense. So be sure to join me for the Glory Hour today, Wednesday at 3 PM on our Cornerstone Telstra Network YouTube channel. Check out the podcast. I can't wait to see there because, y'all, we're going to get our hearts in check, our hearts fixed. And I cannot wait to see there. You can catch new episodes of the Glory Hour weekly on Cornerstone's YouTube page. Plus, you can now find it on Spotify. I absolutely love Spotify. And also, be sure to tune in Saturday evenings at 11 PM for You Night Owls to watch it right here on Cornerstone Telstra Network. Listen, if you are just joining us, we just had an incredible conversation with Erin Warren focusing on her book, Everyday Prayers for Faith. And let me tell you, she said some things that was so powerful. I believe that purpose has produced so much more in pressure. So there's one thing you want to remember. As purpose is produced in pressure and it brings out an oil, if you find anything, whether it's wine or oils, there is a crushing. And a lot of times in seasons of crushing, God, he literally pulls out who we really are. But do one thing for many of us, we struggle with this. And this is something I have to continually take to the cross as our desire and our addiction to be in control of how things are gonna happen, how it's gonna happen, when it's gonna happen. And one thing she had said is a story that she was sharing about her grandmother, her grandmother's father had an inheritance for her that she did not know about. And all she had to do was claim it. And the word of God is filled with promises of God that are activated upon us claiming them. The Bible is full of if then statements, if my people who are called by my name, if you would have just trusted me. So it's not just this intentional, willful, mindful thing. Literally God is saying to us, if you would but seek me first, the kingdom and his righteousness and all these other things will be added to you. So I'm telling you and I'm encouraging you right now that the enemy is trying to defeat many of us with unbelief and thinking that God is not with us, he is not for us, he doesn't see us, he hasn't hurt us. But more than anything that you will listen to whether it's a devotion or you go on YouTube and you wanna listen to a message, sit in God's word. Just last night I went to bed with the word of God playing in my ear. Right next to me I was in Colossians and I woke up, I was in Revelation chapter one. But letting the word of God and the promises of God get into my subconscious. Because I feel like many of us need subconscious healing. What did you think today about this conversation? Yeah, I think it's really important what she said about feasting on God's word and not snacking on it. Just like you were saying last night, going to bed with those scriptures playing, filling our heart and our mind with his word. Because as she shared and as we shared 2 Corinthians 1 19, all of it, all of it has been and always has been resounding yes and finds its fulfillment in him. Listen, it is not that everything around you looks great. It's not that everything in you is feeling real good and you're just progressing and looking like you're going from glory to glory. There are moments where you're in the from state, you're in the in between state. But I think when Erin was speaking today, I loved Corey that she was sharing, it was her hardships, it was those moments of the crushing like you said that really draw her into the presence of the Lord. What I want to say to you who's watching today, it is a yes and amen from the Father. He is the fulfillment of every promise. He is the answer to every question and the solution to every struggle you have. Maybe today you've never given your life to Jesus and so you don't know what it's like to have an answer that brings you peace. Well, he's it. And if you want to give your life to Jesus, all you have to do is say, Lord, come into my heart, change me, make me new. I see the wickedness, the sinfulness of my ways and he will make you a new creation. God is the one who is merciful and kind and he has goodness for you on every side. Take hope and trust in Jesus that all that you need and all that you want is found in him. There's hope today. On tomorrow's hope today, searching for joy while navigating through the difficulties of this troubled world. Radio host and author, Brant Hansen shares his personal journey of overcoming difficult circumstances and offers a message of hope on how we can attain joy through Jesus. That's tomorrow on hope today. Cornerstone Television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.