May 14 – Plans in God’s Hands

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Welcome to Bible Chat, where we
have devotional conversations

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rooted in scripture and relevant
for.

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Today, May 14th, plans in God’s
hands.

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Have you ever had a plan fall
apart completely?

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Maybe you worked really hard for
something, a grade, A

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relationship, an opportunity,
and it just didn’t come together

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the way you hoped.
Or maybe you had everything

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mapped out and life took a
sudden turn that you never saw

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coming.
That feeling of plans unraveling

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is one of the most disorienting
things we experience because we

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like to feel and control.
We like to know what comes next.

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Proverbs chapter 16 verse one
speaks directly into that

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tension.
The plans of the heart belong to

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man, but the answer of the
tongue is from the Lord.

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You make your plans, and that’s
not wrong.

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Planning, dreaming, working
towards something, all of that

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is good.
But the ultimate outcome?

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The final word that belongs to
God.

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And honestly, when you really
think about it, that’s not a

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threatening idea.
It’s actually one of the most

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comforting truths in Scripture
because it means the one holding

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the final word is not random
chance, not other people’s

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opinions, not your worst fears.
It’s God.

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Paul writes in Second
Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3

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and 4.
Blessed be the God and Father of

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our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of mercies and God of all

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comfort, who comforts us in all
our affliction, so that we may

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be able to comfort those who are
in any affliction with the

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comfort with which we ourselves
are comforted by God.

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Did you catch the ripple effect
in that verse?

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God comforts you, and then that
comfort doesn’t just stay with

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you, it flows through you to
someone else who’s hurting.

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Your difficult season becomes a
source of empathy and strength

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that you eventually offer to
someone else in theirs that

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reframes everything.
Your disappointment isn’t

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wasted.
Your struggle isn’t just

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something to survive.
It’s actually equipping you with

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something that no classroom or
textbook can teach.

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A lived experience of God’s
faithfulness that you can pass

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on to someone who needs it.
And then Paul gets incredibly

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honest in verse 8.
For we were so utterly burdened

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beyond our strength that we
despaired of life itself.

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This is the Apostle Paul,
someone whose faith we admire,

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whose letters we still read
thousands of years later.

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And he?
Admits to feeling completely

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overwhelmed, beyond strength to
the point of despair.

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If that’s not permission to be
real about your own hard

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moments, I don’t know what is.
You are allowed to say this is

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too much for me right now.
That’s not weakness, that’s

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honesty.
And honesty is exactly where God

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can meet you.
The beautiful thing is that

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Paul’s despair didn’t have the
final word in his story, and

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neither will yours.
When we release our plans, not

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just intellectually but actually
surrender them with open hands,

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we make room for God to work in
ways we couldn’t engineer on our

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own.
So wherever you are today,

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whether your plans are going
great or they just fell apart,

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bring them to God.
All of it.

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The dreams, the disappointments,
the question marks.

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He holds it all with perfect
wisdom and perfect love, and He

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can use every piece of it,
including the broken ones.

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Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for

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the reminder that my plans are
held in Your hands when things

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go differently than I hoped.
Help me to trust that You are

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still working.
Teach me to find comfort in your

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presence and to stay open to
what you are doing even when I

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can’t see it clearly.
And God use what I’ve been

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through, the hard parts, the
confusing parts, to help me

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encourage someone else who is
walking through something

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similar.
I trust you with all of it in

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Jesus name, Amen.
What if the battles hitting your

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family are not random and your
home can become a place where

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darkness loses every right to
stay?

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Now I invite you to spend time

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with God in today’s three-year
Bible reading plan.

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Proverbs chapter 16 verse one
world English Bible The plans of

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the heart belong to man, but the
answer of the tongue is from

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Yahweh.
Second Corinthians chapters one

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to two world English Bible.
Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus

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through the will of God, and
Timothy our brother to the

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Assembly of God, which is at
Corinth with all the Saints who

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are in the whole of Achea.
Grace to you and peace from God

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our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ.

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Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the

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Father of mercies, and God of
all comfort, who comforts us in

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all our affliction, that we may
be able to comfort those who are

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in any affliction through the
comfort with which we ourselves

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are comforted by God.
For as the sufferings of Christ

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abound to us, Even so our
comfort also abounds through

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Christ.
But if we are afflicted, it is

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for your comfort and salvation.
If we are comforted, it is for

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your comfort, which produces in
you the patient enduring of the

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same sufferings which we also
suffer.

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Our hope for you is steadfast,
knowing that since you are

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partakers of the sufferings, so
you are also of the comfort, for

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we don’t desire to have you
uninformed brothers, concerning

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our affliction, which happened
to us in Asia, that we were

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weighed down exceedingly beyond
our power, so much that we

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despaired even of life.
Yes, we ourselves have had the

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sentence of death within
ourselves, that we should not

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trust in ourselves, but in God,
who raises the dead, who

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delivered us out of so great a
death, and does deliver, on whom

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we have said our hope that He
will also still deliver us.

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You also helping together on our
behalf by your supplication,

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that for the gift given to us by
means of Many thanks, may be

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given by many persons on your
behalf for our boasting.

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Is this the testimony of our
conscience, that in holiness and

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sincerity of God, not in fleshly
wisdom, but in the grace of God,

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we behaved ourselves in the
world, and more abundantly

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towards you.
For we write no other things to

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you than what you read or even
acknowledge, and I hope you will

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acknowledge to the end, as also
you acknowledged us in part,

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that we are your boasting, even
as you also are ours in the day

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of our Lord Jesus.
In this confidence I was

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determined to come first to you,
that you might have a second

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benefit, and by you to pass into
Macedonia, and again from

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Macedonia to come to you, and to
be sent forward by you on my

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journey to Judea.
When I therefore was thus

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determined, did I show
fickleness, or the things that I

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purpose?
Do I purpose according to the

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flesh, that with me there should
be the yes, yes, and the no?

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No, But as God is faithful, our
word toward you is not yes and

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no.
For the Son of God, Jesus

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Christ, who was preached among
you by us, by me, Sylvanus and

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Timothy, was not yes and no, but
in Him is yes.

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For however many are the
promises of God, in him is the

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yes.
Therefore also through him is

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the Amen to the glory of God
through us.

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Now He who establishes us with
you in Christ and anointed us is

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God who also sealed us and gave
us the down payment of the

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Spirit in our hearts.
But I call God for a witness to

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my soul that I didn’t come to
Corinth to spare you.

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We don’t control your faith, but
our fellow workers with you for

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your joy.
For you stand firm in faith.

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But I determined this for
myself, that I would not come to

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you again in sorrow.
For if I make you grieve, then

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who will make me glad but he who
is made to grieve by me?

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And I wrote this very thing to
you, so that when I came I

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wouldn’t have sorrow from them
of whom I ought to rejoice,

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having confidence in you all,
that my joy would be shared by

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all of you.
For out of much affliction and

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anguish of heart, I wrote to you
with many tears, not that you

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should be made to grieve, but
that you might know the love

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that I have so abundantly for
you.

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But if any has caused sorrow, he
has caused sorrow, not to me,

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but in part, that I not press
too heavily to you.

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All this punishment which was
inflicted by the many is

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sufficient for such a 1.
So that, On the contrary, you

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should rather forgive him and
comfort him, lest by any means

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such a one should be swallowed
up with his excessive sorrow.

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Therefore I beg you to confirm
your love toward Him.

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For to this end I also wrote
that I might know the proof of

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you, whether you are obedient in
all things.

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Now I also forgive whomever you
forgive anything.

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For if indeed I have forgiven
anything, I have forgiven that

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one for your sakes in the
presence of Christ, that no

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advantage may be gained over us
by Satan, for we are not

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ignorant of his schemes.
Now when I came to Troas for the

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good news of Christ, and when a
door was opened to me in the

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Lord, I had no relief for my
spirit, because I didn’t find

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Titus my brother, but taking my
leave of them, I went out into

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Macedonia.
Now thanks be to God, who always

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leads us in triumph in Christ
and reveals through US the sweet

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aroma of His knowledge in every
place.

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For we are a sweet aroma of
Christ to God in those who are

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saved, and in those who perish,
to the 1A stench from death to

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death to the other a sweet aroma
from life to life, who is

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sufficient for these things.
For we are not as so many

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peddling the word of God, but as
of sincerity, but as of God.

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In the sight of God we speak in
Christ.

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Thanks for joining us on Bible
Chat, where Scripture meets

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everyday life.
If today’s devotional encouraged

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you, share it with a friend and
be sure to follow the podcast so

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you won’t miss the next
conversation.

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Until next time, stay rooted in
truth, anchored in hope, and

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walking daily with.
Jesus.