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Welcome to the Thankful Homemaker podcast, a podcast to be an encouragement
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and blessing to each other in the role God has called us to as women.
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I'm so thankful you've stopped by, so grab yourself a coffee or tea and sit
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with me a bit as we talk about how God's Word impacts every area of our lives as Christian women.
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Hello, friend. I'm Marci Farrell from Thankful Homemaker, and I'm so glad to be with you today.
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I've shared a bit on my social media accounts lately that I've been camping
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in the book of Ephesians.
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And I've just been reading it repeatedly for the past almost two months now,
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just slowly working through it, taking time to ponder the rich truths packed into this short letter.
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And today, I just want to spend a few minutes with you in those opening verses
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of Ephesians and consider all that is already ours when we belong to Christ.
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And before we get started, I want to read Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 through 14 together.
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It's a little bit of a longer passage, but I want us to hear these truths in
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the Apostle Paul's own words.
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So I'm going to start there in Ephesians 1, starting in verse 3.
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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in
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Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
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even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,
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that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
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In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ,
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according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace,
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with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.
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In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,
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according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight,
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making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose,
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which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time,
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to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him.
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In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to
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the purpose of him who works all things
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according to the counsel of
Load full transcript
his will, so that we who were the first to hope
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in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
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In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him,
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were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance
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until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory.
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So the Apostle Paul opens this passage with praise to God, and then he reminds
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believers of all the spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ.
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It's a passage worth reading slowly, maybe even more than once,
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because there is so much here to take in.
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And as we move through these verses, notice the beautiful work of the Father,
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the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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So God the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world and
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adopted us into his family according to the purpose of his will.
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And in Christ, we have redemption through his blood and the forgiveness of our
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sins according to the riches of his grace.
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And when we heard the gospel and believed, we were sealed with the promised
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Holy Spirit, who's the guarantee of our inheritance.
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So these blessings the Apostle Paul is talking about are not something we earn
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by working harder or living a better Christian life.
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They're ours because we belong to Christ. They all come to us by God's grace
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and through the finished work of Jesus on our behalf.
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And I love that Paul begins this letter by reminding us of what God has already done.
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So before he gets to those practical instructions later in Ephesians,
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before Paul is telling us, kind of in Ephesians chapter, it starts in chapters
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4 through 6. We're in these first chapters 1 through 3 here.
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So before the Apostle Paul tells us how we're to walk and how we're to love
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one another and how we're to live in our homes or how we're to stand firm,
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he is first reminding us here in these, and really in these first verses,
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but in these first three chapters of Ephesians of who we are in Christ and what God has done for us.
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And that's really important for us to remember because the Christian life doesn't
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begin with us trying harder to make ourselves acceptable to God.
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It begins with God's grace toward us in Christ. So.
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If you have your Bible open even, just look at the language Paul uses here.
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We've been chosen in Christ. We have been adopted into God's family.
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We have redemption through Christ's blood. We have forgiveness of our sins.
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We have an inheritance, and we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit.
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These aren't things that we're waiting to earn someday when we finally become better Christians.
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If you are in Christ, these are present realities. They are already yours because of Him.
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And I think this is where we need to be careful with that word blessed,
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because we hear it used in so many ways today, right?
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We might say we're blessed when our circumstances are comfortable or when our
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family is doing well, when the bills are paid or when something we've prayed
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for turns out the way we hoped.
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And certainly, every good gift we receive is from the Lord, and we should give
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thanks for his kindness to us.
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But when Paul tells us here that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing,
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he's pointing us to something far deeper than our favorable circumstances.
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Because our greatest blessings, they're found in Christ.
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Our circumstances can change. Our health can change. Our finances can change.
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We're going to have difficult relationships. Our plans don't always unfold the way we hoped they would.
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But none of those things can undo what God has accomplished for us in Christ.
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And I think that's why Paul can begin with praise.
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He isn't first looking at his circumstances. I love this.
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Paul is looking at God, and he's remembering what God has done.
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And when I say that, how easily I can still forget that. And this is where this
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passage meets us in our ordinary days.
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I can look at my circumstances, all the responsibilities still waiting for me,
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or the things I wish were different.
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And begin to focus on what I think I'm lacking. We can get so caught up in what
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is happening around us, or maybe what isn't going the way that we hoped,
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that we lose sight of what God says is already true of us. And Paul,
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he brings us back to Christ.
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So whatever this particular day holds, if we belong to him, God has already
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blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
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And notice how often Paul uses the phrases, in Christ, in him, in the beloved.
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Every blessing named in this passage there in Ephesians 1, 3-14,
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it comes to us because we are united to Christ.
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And if you're listening here today and you don't know Jesus,
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I want you to know that these blessings are found in him alone.
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We have no goodness of our own to depend on.
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Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live, and he died in our place for our sins.
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So I plead with you to turn from your sin and trust in him and in his finished work on your behalf.
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He is a gracious and sufficient savior.
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And for those of us who do belong to Christ, how we need to keep reminding ourselves
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of these truths because we can know them and I am speaking to myself here too.
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I am preaching this one to myself.
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We can know them and still so easily forget them in the middle of our everyday lives, right?
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This is such a needed reminder because I know for me, I can so easily put my
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focus on how well, or maybe how not so well, that I'm managing my day.
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But my standing before the Lord, it doesn't change with the condition of my
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home or how much I accomplished that day or how well I think I'm holding everything together.
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My confidence is in Christ and in his finished work.
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And Paul also keeps bringing us back to the purpose of these blessings,
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blessings and to the praise of his glory.
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When we remember what God has done for us, our hearts, they should be moved
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to worship, my dear friend, because he has, and I love this word,
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he has lavished his grace upon us.
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He's forgiven us our sins and brought us into his family.
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And he's given us a sure hope and inheritance in Christ.
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We are secure. He's holding us fast. He will never leave or forsake us.
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So what might it look like for us to carry these truths into today?
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And maybe it means that when I wake up and I'm already feeling behind,
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I remind myself that my standing before God, it's not determined by how productive
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I am today because I am accepted in the beloved.
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And maybe when I'm weighed down by the guilt of a past sin, I remember that
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in Christ, I have redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of my trespasses.
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And maybe when the future feels uncertain, I remember that I have an inheritance
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that is secure and that God has given me His Spirit as a guarantee.
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And then maybe, when I'm tempted to look around at what someone else has and
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wish my circumstances were different, I come back to this opening verse.
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God has blessed me in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
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I do get it. That doesn't mean that every hard thing suddenly feels easy.
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But it does help us see our circumstances in light of what is eternally true.
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So before we spend too much time rehearsing everything that didn't go as planned
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or feels uncertain or just really difficult, let's take a moment to remember
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what is already ours because we belong to Jesus.
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My dear sister, we have so much to give thanks for. So whatever this day holds,
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may we remember that we have been chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son,
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and sealed by the Holy Spirit.
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These truths, they don't change with our circumstances or our emotions or the
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kind of day we're having.
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And before we close, there's a question I'd love for all of us to ponder here.
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Which truth from these verses in Ephesians 1, 3 through 14 does your heart need most to remember today?
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Maybe it's the reminder that you were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
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Maybe your heart needs to rest in the truth that you have been adopted into God's family.
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And perhaps you need to remember that in Christ, you have redemption and the
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complete forgiveness of your sins.
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Or maybe today, you need the assurance that you have been sealed with the Holy
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Spirit and that your inheritance in Christ is secure.
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Take some time to just read through this passage again. At some point,
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if it's not today, maybe tomorrow morning, you may even want to write down each
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blessing poll names. I did this, and it was so good for me, and that's where
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this podcast came from, actually.
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Write down each blessing Paul names and spend a few moments thanking the Lord
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for what he has graciously given you in Christ.
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So whatever today holds, my friend, if you belong to Jesus, you are richly blessed in him.
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And I pray that truth will lead our hearts to worship and that it may make us thankful women today.
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Because how I always end, Jesus truly is enough always. I am so grateful for
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you, my friend. Thank you for being here.
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The full show notes are over at the blog at my home on the web,
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thankfulhomemaker.com.
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And before we finish, I have that lovely reminder again that my book,
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I'm so excited to get this into your hands.
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It's coming soon, but Homemaking Matters, Living for God's Glory in the Ordinary,
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releases on August 11th, and it explores how the gospel shapes our work at home
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and how the Lord uses our ordinary responsibilities and relationships and interruptions,
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all those things and more in his sanctifying work.
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And if you pre-order the book before August 11th, this is key.
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This is a sweet bonus. You also receive the six-week companion study guide for
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free. It's a free PDF, and it was designed to help you work through the book
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personally with a friend or a mentor or alongside a women's group.
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I'll have all the details and the pre-order link for you in today's show notes.
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I am so very grateful for you, my friend. Thank you for being here with me.
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And I do pray you have a very blessed week.