Walk Boldly With Jesus

Thank you so much for sharing your story with us. Did you all notice that before she received the healing she took a leap of faith and started testing out to see if she was healed? Sometimes, that is when we are healed, when we step out in faith to test the healing. Testing the healing means trying to do something you couldn't do before. Like in Caitlyn's case, she tried to see outside without her sunglasses on. This would have normally induced a headache, but she tried it anyway, and she did not get one. She also put her feet in hot water, which again would have usually been really painful, but there was no pain. She trusted that God gave her the healing she asked for, and He gave her the healing she asked for.  St. Augustine said, “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.” Caitlyn believed she was healed despite no evidence of that healing. She stepped out in faith and tested the healing that was granted to her. I know praying for healing, even just hoping for healing, can be scary because what if we are let down? However, Romans 5:5 says, “ and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” I am so proud of Caitlyn. I am proud she was brave and went to the healing service. I am proud that she took the leap of faith to test her healing when nothing indicated she had been healed. I am proud of her for signing up for the class to learn to be the Lord's instrument and help heal others. I can't wait to watch her light get brighter and brighter and to see all the amazing things God has planned for her. I am so grateful he brought the two of us together. I know he has great plans for us and all those at the Encounter School of Ministry Boston Campus. Look out, Boston Diocese, a revival is coming, and we are here for it! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Praise Series #16 Bless The Lord, O My SoulPsalm 103:1-5 “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.”Yesterday I couldn't get a song out of my head. It is such a good song. I wanted to share that song with you this morning. The song is called “10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord).” It was written by Matt Redman and Jonas Myrin and is based on Psalms 103:1-5. It explores how we can never run out of reasons to worship and praise God. On Monday of this week, Episode #1036, we talked about how vital praise and worship are to our faith journey. This song and this Psalm remind us that there are so many reasons we can be grateful to the Lord.Let's first look at these verses. They begin with “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” This is exactly what we talked about on Monday. Praising the Lord is so important. Even when we are in a really difficult season of life, there are many reasons we can be grateful to the Lord, and we can praise Him.In the verse, it says, “who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.” Those are some pretty amazing things to thank God for. You might not have experienced all of them, but I bet you have experienced some of them. Have you felt God's steadfast mercy and love in your life? Have you experienced His forgiveness? Some of you have even experienced his healing touch. I know some of you have been redeemed from a pit as well. I love the line that says your youth is renewed like the eagles. We could all use our youth to be renewed.Can you see all the amazing things God has done and will do for us? Can you see how there are endless possibilities when it comes to praising the Lord? The song for today also talks about praising the Lord. I invite you to listen to the song sometime today. You can look it up on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Music, wherever you usually listen to music. The reason I would like you to listen to the actual song, instead of just this podcast, is that it is really good. Here are the words to the song.[Chorus]Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soulWorship His holy nameSing like never before, O my soulI'll worship Your holy nameAs you can see, this chorus comes almost directly from the Psalm. I love it when artists do this. I love it when they use the Bible verses in the songs. It helps get the Lord's word out to more people.Next is Verse 1:    The sun comes up, it's a new day dawningIt's time to sing your song againWhatever may pass and whatever lies before meLet me be singing when the evening comesThis is something we can always be grateful for: that we got to wake up to a brand new day of life. I love how this verse says, whatever may pass and whatever lies before me, let me be singing when the evening comes. Wouldn't it be great if we could be singing to the Lord at the end of the day, no matter what happens to us throughout the day? How great would it be if we got so used to praising the Lord that we could praise Him no matter the circumstances?Verse 2:You're rich in love and you're slow to angerYour name is great, and Your heart is kindFor all Your goodness, I will keep on singingTen thousand reasons for my heart to findWe tend to have a perception of God that he is angry at us all the time. We look at some parts of the Old Testament, and we think God is full of Vengeance and Wrath. This is not what He is constantly telling our prayer group. He always tells us how much He loves us. God is rich in love and slow to anger. Does he get angry? Probably, we all do. However, He loves us so much more than his anger. I love how the verse says, “For all your goodness, I will keep on singing ten thousand reasons for my heart to find. If you are looking, there are always reasons to be thankful to God. Even in your most difficult season, there are things you can praise the Lord for; you just have to look for them. Or, as I mentioned on Monday, you can put on praise and worship music and let the artists praise the Lord for you![Verse 3]And on that day when my strength is failingThe end draws near, and my time has comeStill, my soul will sing Your praise unendingTen thousand years and then forevermoreForevermoreIt is beautiful to think about praising the Lord when our time on this earth is ending. When we can feel our strength failing. How great would it be to get to the end of our lives and still want to sing the Lord's praises? I like how it says ten thousand years and then forever more. Once we are in heaven, all will make sense. We will understand all the things that we don't understand now. Then we will get to praise the Lord for all eternity.[Chorus]Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soulWorship His holy nameSing like never before, O my soulI'll worship Your holy nameThis song is such a great song to play when you want to worship the Lord. As I listened to it last night at prayer group I knew I would be listening to it, more often. It's a great way to praise the Lord!Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode. Lord, we love you, and we are so grateful for all you do for us. We are sorry we don't always appreciate all you do. We are sorry that we don't always know how to praise you. Please help us with this, Lord. Please stir our hearts and help us to learn to praise you more often. We want to always be telling you how much we appreciate you. We ask all this in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you all here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend!Today's Word from the Lord was received in August 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “You are my people, anointed under my blood. I walk with you and talk with you and guide you through my Holy Spirit.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Praise Series #15 God Has A PlanActs 16:25-28 “About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.  Suddenly, there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once, all the prison doors flew open, and everyone's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don't harm yourself! We are all here!”This story actually begins a few verses before this. In Acts 16:16-24, it says, “Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”  She kept this up for many days. Finally, Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her!” At that moment, the spirit left her.  When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.  They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar  by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.  After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.  When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.”This is where our verse takes place.  They have been beaten with rods and are now chained up in prison.  You would think after a day like that, they would feel defeated.  You would think that they would be questioning God and asking Him why they have to suffer so much when they are just doing what He asked them to do.  You might also think that they were passed out in pain and sleeping.  Is this what they were doing?  No, the verse says it was midnight, and they were still praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.  This is something that always amazes me about the apostles and other believers in the faith, such as the Saints.  I am always amazed by their strength.  I know that God underwent extreme suffering in the 24 hours before He was crucified.  He sweats drops of blood. If that is not suffering, I don't know what is.  And yet, I think we can downplay it sometimes and think, well, He is fully God and fully human, so of course He can withstand it; he is God.  However, countless other Saints have gone through extreme suffering and have done it with joy.  Paul & Silas had just been beaten with rods, and yet they were not questioning God. They were praising and singing to Him.  This is something that I think we can hear sometimes and not pause and think about how truly amazing it is.  I don't know if we glaze over it because we don't understand it or because we don't think we are capable of it.  I don't know the reason, but I wanted to pause and take a moment to recognize how remarkable these two are for how they endured their suffering.  We could all learn a lot from them and how they lived, not only when times were good but also when times were tough.  The verse says that at midnight, while they were praying and praising, they were set free.  The door opened, and their chains came loose.  What strikes me about this verse is that they were set free yet did not leave.  They stayed there until morning, when the guard woke up.  What I hear the Lord saying to me about this verse is that everything He does is for His glory and the good of His kingdom.  If Paul & Silas had left at midnight, they could have escaped.  However, it would not have been known how they escaped.  People could have said that someone broke in and freed them.  God would not have gotten the Glory.  However, by waiting until morning, they not only converted the guard and his whole house to believers, but they were also set free and did not have to worry about being caught for escaping.Sometimes, the things we are going through or the things others are going through make no sense to us.  If we had been there in that jail cell, it would have made no sense to us that when they were freed, they didn't leave the cell.  I can't imagine sitting in that cell and just waiting for the jailer to wake up when we could have escaped and been hours away by the time the jailer woke up.  Luckily, Paul and Silas were good at listening to the Lord and trusting in Him.  They were not scared in that jail cell.  They praised the Lord and trusted that the Lord would get them out of the situation.  They were patient and waited on the Lord's timing, and by doing so, they saved the jailer and his whole family.  Do you see how if the apostles had left at midnight, they would have escaped and would have been free?  Do you also see that they did not leave at midnight, yet they were still free?  We never know how God will work things out for us.  Sometimes, we can only see things in black and white.  We can see only two choices.  For instance, we could see that if we left the cell when the door was open, then we would be free.  However, if we stay there, then we would be stuck in jail forever.  Sometimes, we are so angry, upset, scared, and afraid that we can't see all the possibilities.  We only see the two.  Sometimes, we may not see all the options because we have limited information, whereas God has all the information He would ever need.  It seems as though the apostles waited for God to tell them what to do next.  They trusted that God would take care of it even though they didn't know what would happen next.  This may be the same in some circumstances in our lives, too.  We may not understand why God asks us to wait a little longer.  We know God can save us now, but we don't understand why He isn't.  We don't understand why we are going through all of this in the first place.  Maybe God is using this thing you are going through to save someone else.  Maybe by watching your strength in the face of your situation, someone will decide to give God a try.  Maybe after watching how you were saved from your circumstances, someone else has also decided to be saved.  We don't know what God's plan is or why He does what He does.  There is one thing that we can be sure of, and that is that God has a plan, and He has a reason for everything.  God can use all things for His glory.  We may think that some things are a coincidence.  However, if you look back over the last 5 or 10 years of your life, I bet you will see how those things you felt were coincidences were actually things that God timed out perfectly for a specific reason.  It is amazing to me how detailed God's plan is.  He has every tiny detail planned out.  The next time we get tired of waiting for our suffering to end, maybe we can remember this verse, pray, and praise him even when we are struggling.  We can remember that if He has not saved us yet, it is for a reason, and that a greater good will come from our situation.  I know that doesn't always make it easier for us when we are in the moment.  However, I felt God wanted me to share with you that even when we don't know His plan and don't understand it, we should still know that He has a plan, and it is for our good and the good of his whole church.  Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  We ask that you give us the strength of Paul and Silas when we suffer.  Lord, we ask that you give us the strength and the wisdom to pray and sing praises to you when we are suffering.  Help us know that you have a plan even when we don't see or understand it.  Help us to know that we are never suffering in vain.  You will always use our suffering for your glory.  We love you, Lord, and thank you for all you do for us.  You are amazing, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and Jesus' holy name. Amen.  Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend.Today's Word from the Lord was received in August 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Don't let the negativity slip in. Remove it. Rejoice in me. Pray to me so that your joy may return.”  www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Mary Liked to Ponder Luke 2:1-20 "In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered.  Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David.  He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.  Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:  to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”  So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.  When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child;  and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.  But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.  The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”There are two things about this verse that I would like to focus on today. The first is how Jesus was born in a manger.  Growing up I didn't understand this.  I felt like if Mary was giving birth to the Son of God, then the least He could do is provide her with a comfortable bed to deliver the baby in.  I felt like it was all so disorganized and I really didn't understand why God didn't plan better.  Now that I am an adult, or actually more accurately, now that I know more about God and the story of Jesus I am able to understand that it was all very well planned out.  God always has a plan.  God had been preparing His people for this birth for a very long time.  He had given very specific details and He was ensuring that all the details were accurate so that His people would know that His son was the Savior.Jesus was not born into luxury because He was not going to be that kind of king.  He was going to be an amazing leader and yet He would also be a servant.  I have a rosary app on my phone and I like how they describe Jesus' birth.  Jesus enters the world in poverty to teach us the detachment from earthly things.  I have also heard others describe that he was born in the stable to teach us humility.  I am not sure why Jesus was born in a stable, but I think it set Him on the path for what kind of person He wanted to be.  If we have a lot of stuff, we don't need to rely on the Lord as we feel we can provide for ourselves.  We also get distracted by all that stuff and then sometimes don't think about God or don't want to give up that time we spend doing other stuff to spend with Him.  When you experience poverty you are also more grateful for the things that you have.  I now know that Jesus' birth happened exactly as it was supposed to and was very well thought out.The second thing I would like to talk about are the word at the end of this section.  Luke 2:19 says, “But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”  I think Mary does this a lot.  I remember Father Michael Gaitley talking about Mary's heart pondering in his Book 33 Days to Morning Glory.  When the magi, or the shepherds visited Jesus they told Mary and Joseph all that the Angel's said about Jesus.  Mary did not get overwhelmed, she did not freak out, she treasured all they said and she pondered them in her heart.  I am not sure what I would do if I were in her circumstance.  I think I would feel that was a lot of pressure, but it doesn't seem like she felt that way.At the end of chapter 2 in Luke it mentions Mary pondering again.  Do you remember the story of when Mary & Joseph went to Jerusalem for the festival of Passover and then when it ended they started the return home and Jesus wasn't with them?  They were traveling with friends and family and assumed He was with them, but He wasn't.  They were a whole day's journey away before they found out.  When they found Him and asked Him where He was.  In Luke 2:49-51 Jesus said to them, “‘Why were you searching for me?  Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?'  But they didn't understand what he said to them.  Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.  His mother treasured all these things in her heart.”  I find it interesting that the verse says that Mary and Joseph didn't understand what he said to them.  I wonder if this happened a lot?  At this point Jesus was 12 years old.  I remember watching this scene in the show The Chosen.  I remember Mary looked up to the Lord and said, “Not yet,” or “I'm not ready yet,” or something like that.  I can imagine that is how she felt.  I can imagine how difficult it is when our kids grow up and move out of the house.  I have several friends whose kids went to college over the last few years and they are sad they don't see them every day.  I can imagine Mary being concerned that Jesus was going to grow up and have to leave home to fulfill his destiny too soon.  I don't know how much of Jesus' life and destiny was revealed to Mary, or when it was revealed.  She new from before His conception that He would be the Son of God, but was she able to understand what that meant?  Was she given an understanding of all He would have to go through?  I wonder if she knew from the beginning that he was going to have to sacrifice himself for us?  Do you see why Mary would have a lot to ponder.  I can imagine when others told her things, like the shepherds, she might not have understood the gravity of the situation.  The definition for ponder is to think about something carefully, especially before make a decision or reaching a conclusion.  A synonym for it is to meditate.  It makes sense that Mary would spend a lot of time pondering things.  As I said the other day, it is hard enough being the parent of any child.  I can imagine the pressure would be so much greater if we were parenting God's child.  There are so many things about Mary that we could look up to.  Pondering is one of them.  Instead of making decisions or leaping to conclusions before we have all the facts, maybe we can slow down and do some pondering.  We could take some time and ask God what He thinks we should do, or how we should think about things.  When we hear something that is upsetting or overwhelming, maybe we could ponder it for a bit before we react.  I know this won't always be easy.  I don't think it was always easy for Mary either.  I think it is something to consider, though.  Think about what normally happens when you get upset.  For me, I hear something upsetting, and if I react right away, I am not reacting as my best self.  I may say unkind things, or maybe I am sarcastic or rude.  However, after I react and I have time to calm down and really think about it, I realize that I should have done things differently.  What if we all took time to ponder more this year?  How would our relationships be different if we pondered more before we reacted?  I wonder if we would grow in wisdom if we took the time to ponder why things were happening and the meaning behind them?  Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we ask that you help us to ponder more this year.  Help us to slow down and not let life just pass us by.  We ask that you help us to ponder the things that happen to us and why they are happening.  Help us to be willing and mindful participants in our own lives.  Don't let us just sleepwalk through life on autopilot.  Help us to take it all in and enjoy it.  Lord, we ask that this Christmas season be amazing for all of us and that you bless those who need your blessings, Lord.  Please help those who are struggling and help them to feel loved.  We love you, Lord, you are amazing.  We are so very grateful to you, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen.Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus, and this week for joining me in preparing our hearts and minds for celebrating the coming of our Savior, Lord Jesus Christ.  I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and I will be here to spend time with you again on Monday.  Have a blessed weekend! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Today, I want to replay my witness about Christmas 2023. I felt like with this Christmas being Christmas Eve, a Christmas witness would be good. In 2023 it was the year my sister Dee moved back to CT and bought a new house. She had a Christmas Eve party because my aunt used to have one each year, but she is now moving to FL. I went to Dee's house on Christmas Eve alone as my family wanted to chill out at home. Well, Sam & Noah were both working. It was great to see my parents, Dee, my sister Suzy & her husband John, two of her boys and her granddaughter, and then my sister Theresa and her husband Glenn. We ate dinner together and talked. Some played games. It was a really great time.Then, when I got home, Sam & Noah were in the kitchen talking, and then Ryan came down. The boys and I stayed in the kitchen talking for over 2 hours. This in itself is a Christmas miracle as they are teenagers, and so they don't love talking to their parents. We talked about all kinds of things, and it was so great. Of course, sometimes they were arguing, which I didn't love, but it was awesome to see them interacting with each other. I feel like 2024 is going to be a great year. I think they are starting to come out of their rooms a bit more. They are starting to talk a bit more and hang out with friends a bit more. I am really looking forward to this upcoming year. Noah is a senior and is planning to go far away for college in the fall, so I am hoping to get to spend some good family time with him before he leaves.On Christmas day we always go the Duggan's house. The Desilets, my family, always celebrate on a different day, so we are lucky, and we don't have to alternate. I like that we get to do the same thing each year. I love that we get to see his entire family. His brother and wife, their two girls, my mother and father-in-law, and Tony's aunt. Usually, when we go, our boys are on their computers, and their cousins are, too. Occasionally, we will play a game or two, but I would say the majority of years, we just hang out. It is nice to get a chance to catch up. They don't live far away, but we don't really see them too much. They have kids, we have kids, they work, we work. Life gets busy, and we don't schedule time to visit.It's funny because when we lived in NJ when the boys were younger, we saw them a lot more. We would come up for all the holidays, and so they would come up and visit as well. It has been dawning on me more and more lately that we saw family more when we lived further away than we do now. We are only one and a half hours from Tony's parent's house and an hour and 10 minutes from my family, and yet we don't see them that much. This is something I will change in the New Year as family is important. You never know when the last time you will see someone is.Regret is something that is difficult to live with. I try to live my life so that I don't have any regrets later. We can't ensure this, but we can do our best to live in a way that we will be proud of later. I don't want to wish I would have spent more time with people when they were alive. I want to actually spend more time with people when they are alive. This is something we can all work on. Do you have people you are unhappy with? Are you waiting for someone else to make the first step or the next move? Don't wait on others. If someone is hurting you, let them know. What have you got to lose? If they don't respond well, at least you gave it a try.We only have one life, and I, for one, do not want to have regrets. Make amends, say the thing you have been wanting to say, and forgive the person you are angry with; you might not get the chance later. I know you may be waiting for them to do the right thing, but what if they never do? Are you ok with things never being said? What if you just confronted them? What if you just said you wanted to get past this? What if you said the thing that hurt you?Ok, back to Christmas this year. I just want to thank God for it because it was really great. We had to wake our boys up because they are teens, and so they sleep late. I asked the night before, and they agreed to get up at 10. We didn't actually know what to get the boys this year for Christmas as they didn't give us too many ideas. We got them some practical gifts, and we weren't sure how that would go over. They all had a great time opening the gifts, and they all seemed not only happy but appreciative, which you don't always get with kids. Or at least we don't always get it. Then we asked if we could change plans and leave earlier than we agreed, and no one got upset. They were all ok with it.I had bought myself and the boys matching pajamas so we could do a family photo. They were all okay with it, and we wore the pajamas all day. When we got to the Duggan's house, I realized none of the boys had brought their computers. They were sitting around the table, talking and playing on their phones. I asked if they wanted to play a card game, and they all said yes. So Joanie, the boys, and I all played Monopoly Deal. Then, when Tony's brother and family arrived, we had dinner. It was great that even those who weren't eating were sitting at the table. Everyone seemed to be engaged in good conversations and having a good time. After dinner, the kids opened presents and were really happy with all they received. Tony's mom, Joanie, played piano, and then later Kaylee, his niece, also played piano. It was a great day.  I hope you had an amazing Christmas too! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Saint Joseph's FaithfulnessMatthew 1:18-25 “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.  Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.  But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”  All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).  When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.   But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son.  And he gave him the name Jesus.I thought since Christmas is coming, I would focus on that this week.  Today I want to focus on Saint Joseph.  I think he is someone that we don't talk about enough.  Everyone I know who has read or learned more about Saint Joseph just keeps talking about how incredible he was.  Let's talk about the different things in this verse.The verse begins by describing how they were pledged to be married, but before they were together, he found out that Mary was pregnant.  Joseph now finds himself stuck because it says he is faithful to the law.  He wants to follow the law, and yet, according to the law, back in the day, if a woman was caught cheating on her husband, she was to be stoned to death.  Joseph didn't want to disobey the law, and he also didn't want to publicly disgrace Mary.  He was a good man, and so he was going to quietly divorce her to keep her from all of that.  However, he was visited by an angel in his dream before he could do anything.  This angel explained what was going on and told Joseph to name the baby Jesus.  Can you imagine being visited by an angel in your sleep?  When I was little, I used to imagine what it would be like to have an angel come and visit me, like Mary or Joseph.  I wondered what it would feel like.  I wondered if I would believe what I was seeing.  I wonder how Joseph felt when he woke up from that dream?  Did he know it was a visit from a real angel and not just a normal dream right away?  I wonder why the angel came to Joseph in a dream, but to Mary when she was awake.  I think it is hard for us to imagine what it would feel like, as it is so foreign to most of us.  I like to think things were different back then.  It was easier for them to believe because they lived in a time when there weren't so many distractions or when the faith was stronger.  However, I don't think, even back then, it was a common occurrence to be visited by an angel.  I don't know that those around them would have any easier time believing it than we would.  Yet, Joseph did believe, and he did obey.Joseph had a choice, just like Mary did.  Joseph could have decided that it was all just a dream.  He could have believed that Mary had cheated on him, and he could have left her.  However, he made a choice to stay.  He chose to listen to the angel and to name the baby Jesus.  He was faithful to the Lord, and he raised Jesus as his child.  Did you know that Joseph was visited by an angel a second time in a dream?  This time was right after the Magi visited baby Jesus.  Matthew 2:13-15 recounts, “ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”  So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”Again, Joseph had a choice to make.  His wife had just given birth recently.  He had a baby, and I am sure they were all tired as she gave birth in a manger.  I can't imagine they were getting great sleep there.  Then the angel of God tells Joseph to get up in the middle of the night and take his wife and baby to Egypt.  Remember the first time the angel visited he was told that what he was asked to do was to help fulfill the Lord's word through a prophet, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” Now the angel is asking Joseph a second time to fulfill the Lord's word, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”  The benefit that Joseph has over many of us is that he would have been well-versed on the Old Testament prophets since he was a Jewish man.  The Jewish males went to school/class to study the Jewish scriptures.I wonder if knowing about all these scriptures or words from the prophets made it easier or harder to say yes?  I wonder if knowing what he was getting into made it harder or easier.  I am not sure I would want to know the fate of my child if it were to suffer as Christ suffered.  I wonder if knowing all he knew about Jesus and what he was to become added pressure on Joseph as a father.  I think most parents feel pressure to be a good parent.  We feel like we don't want to mess our children up.  When they are babies, they are completely dependent on us, and as they grow, they want to become more independent.  However, I don't think that sense of responsibility for our children ever goes away.  I can just imagine the pressure that I felt not to mess my kids up too badly would be multiplied by 100,000 if I knew I was raising God's child.  I am hoping it wasn't like this for Mary and Joseph.  I am hoping that they didn't feel constant pressure to measure up or to be perfect.  I like to think that they were able to be a somewhat regular family at the time.  Although I am sure it was super stressful when Jesus stayed back in the temple to talk to the teachers when they left.  I can't imagine not knowing where my child was for that long.  I did actually lose my child at a fair once, and although it was less than 5 minutes real time, it felt like a million years.  I can't imagine if I had to have that feeling for days.  I know things were always perfect for them, but I hope that they were able to raise Jesus without too much pressure to be perfect parents, and also without feeling that they weren't worthy.  The bible doesn't share many interactions with Joseph in the bible, but you can tell by the reverence that Jesus had with Mary that he was very respectful to his parents.  Joseph had two more dreams where an angel appeared to him.  These are described in Matthew 2:19-23, “After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead.”  So he got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel.  But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee,  and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.”  Again, Joseph had a choice, and he said yes.Joseph had several chances to say no, to refuse his destiny or fulfill his purpose, and yet he didn't.  Each time he was given a task, he completed it.  He did not ask questions; it doesn't appear that he argued or did it begrudgingly.  Joseph had four dreams where an angel of God appeared to him and told him to do something, and he said yes.  They were not easy things that the angel was asking him to do, and yet he did them anyway.  I wonder if we would have the same strength?  I wonder if we could stay when we thought we should go?  I wonder if we would move to another country after just having a baby, and then move back.  Joseph was so faithful to do what God wanted him to do.  There is very little that I know about Joseph, but what I do know, I admire.  He had so much strength and so much faith.  I think we could all benefit from getting to know Joseph a little more.  Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we thank you for choosing Joseph to be Jesus' earthly father.  He was so faithful to your word and your commands.  Help us to be more faithful.  Help us to do what you want us to do, whether we feel like it or not.  Help us to be willing to listen more to Your word, Lord.  We thank you for giving us Mary, Joseph & Jesus.  You are so amazing, and you love us so much to have sacrificed your son for us.  Lord, we ask that you help us keep our hearts and minds focused on you this week and not on the commercialized version of Christmas.  Help us to remember the reason for the season.  We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in August 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “And when they see you, they see me, and they feel my love for them where they are in the condition that they are in.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Honestly, I Think We Just Need Jesus!Acts 2:40 “And he testified with many other words and exhorted them, saying, 'Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”I chose this episode to replay for you today for two reasons. The first is because if you are listening to this on the day I released it, then we celebrate Jesus' coming into the world in just four days, and we need Jesus more than ever! The second is because there was a loss in our family last Thursday, and so many people are hurting, and they just need Jesus right now to help them through it.  There is a song that I have heard on the radio more and more recently, and these last few days, it has been running repeatedly in my mind. I can't seem to get it out of my head. I am not sure I want to get it out of my head, as the words that are running through my head are. Honestly, I think we need Jesus by Terrian. Since I can't seem to shake this song, and then I read the verse above this morning, I think the Lord wants me to share it with you. I will place a link for the song in the show notes, as she does a much better job singing it than I do. I also love that she is young and yet can still see that we need more Jesus. I will go over the lyrics of the song with you today.The song starts with:I got a front-row seat to the madnessI pick up my phone every mornin' out of habitI've been fiendin' for the drama, yeah, I said itI'm addicted to the rush, need a medicHow many of us pick up our phones or turn on the news first thing when we wake up? How many of us want to know what is going on in the world before we even stop and spend our time with God? I use my phone for an alarm, so I would turn off my alarm, and then I would check my messages, emails, and Facebook before I would sit down with the Lord and spend time with Him. I have gotten better; now, I just check my messages, mostly to make sure my kids got home safely. Sometimes I still check my emails, but I am getting better and usually save that for later.I love how the songwriter points out that we usually pick up our phones out of habit. This isn't just the first thing in the morning. We do this all throughout the day. I bet we all spend more time than we would like on our phones. I also like how they bring our attention to the fact that we are “Fiendin' for the drama” and “addicted to the rush.” It seems we are drawn to the conflict and the drama more than the good things that are happening. I don't know if that is because we crave drama or because that is all the news tends to show us. Either way, there is good and bad going on in the world, and it is up to us to choose which we seek out and focus on.The song goes on to say:When I take a step back, I can see itAll the pain, all the fear we've been feelin'Losin' sight of the thing that we're needin'That we're needin' This is a great reminder that sometimes we need to take a step back. When we do, we see that we are focusing on all of our pain and fear that we are feeling instead of focusing on the one who can take all that pain and fear away. When we watch the news or listen to all that is going on in the world, we tend to get overwhelmed. We can also start to feel a sense of hopelessness. We can feel a sense that the world is going crazy, and there is nothing we can do about it. However, we are never hopeless because we are children of God, and we can always turn to Him, and He can save us. There is nothing too hard for God to handle.Next, the song says:Honestly, I think we just need JesusHonestly, I think we just need JesusHave we all gone mad? Have we lost our minds?What used to be wrong, we say that it's rightHonestly, I think we just need Jesus This is the part that gets stuck in my head. I can't think of a truer statement. I can see how our country is falling apart because we keep removing God from more and more things. This country was founded with God. He was a part of the government; yes, Church and State were separate, and yet God and State weren't. God was invited into the Constitution; he was invited into the pledge of allegiance. He was invited into our courtrooms. God was welcome everywhere. Now, it seems He is welcome nowhere.I also love how the song says, “Have we all gone mad? Have we lost our minds? What used to be wrong, we say that it's right.” We have all thought this for a long time now, and it is nice to hear it in a song, so we know we aren't the only ones who think it. This world does seem to have gone mad, and it does seem like we are all losing our minds. Some of the things that seem to be ok in the world today still shock me.  I think this song points out very real and honest questions. Have we all gone mad? Have we all lost our minds? Take a good, long look in the mirrorSearch my heart and soul, make it clearerHelp me take your love, trade the bitterLeave it in the dust, help me leave it in the dust, Lord I think it would be a great idea if we all stopped and took a good look in the mirror. What are we doing? Not what is the world doing, but what are we doing? Are we staying true to God in this crazy world? Are we staying above all the drama and walking in the light of Christ? Are we showing love and hope to everyone we meet? We are all called to be “little Christs” to all we meet. Are we doing so? Are we loving everyone, even those who aren't like us? Even those who aren't living their lives the way we think they should? Even those whom we don't like. God said to love our enemies. Are we doing that?The next line says, “Search my heart and soul, make it clearer.” Do we want God to search our hearts and souls? What would He find? I do like how it says to make it clearer. With all that is going on in this world, and all this world says is ok, the water we wade into can get muddy. I don't think the world makes it easy or clear how we should live our lives. We need to focus on God and ask God to help make it clear to us what He wants from us and how He wants us to live.It also says, “Help me take your love, trade the bitter. Leave it in the dust, help me leave it in the dust, Lord.” It can be easy to become bitter. We live in a broken world, and people offend us all the time. Things aren't fair, and sometimes good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people. This can make us bitter. We need God to come in and replace our bitterness with His love. We need His help to walk away from the bitter and leave it in the dust.  We've been preachin', we've been drinkin' in the vanity (in the vanity)Now it's got us questionin' our sanity (sanity)And we wonder how we get all this anxietyIt's clear to me Yep, I think we have all probably questioned our sanity at some point over the last few years. I definitely think there is a lot of vanity in this day and age as well. With everyone having phones and taking photos every moment of every day, we have become obsessed with how we look and what we have. We want to make sure our life looks as good online as everyone else's life does. This leads us to do and say things that aren't always true. We act online like our lives are perfect, and yet so many of our children and adults are hurting inside, but don't reach out and get help because everyone else seems like they are doing so well. This definitely makes us question our sanity because our lives are falling apart, and everyone else seems to have it all together. I love the line that says, “And we wonder how we get all this anxiety.” Exactly!! All of the things I just talked about, along with the news, the decline of our country, and the division in our country, we wonder why everyone is so anxious.After the song repeats the chorus about us just needing Jesus, it goes on to say:We turn away (we turn away)We're running back to you (oh-oh)Covered in grace (covered in grace)God, You can make us new (make us new) Yes! We are like a revolving door. We turn away from the Lord and then turn back to Him, then we turn away, and then we turn back. I love how the author of this song understands that even when we do this, we are covered in grace. God will always accept us back in. He is not angry with us that we have turned away. He is happy that we have turned back. God is always there with open arms, waiting for us to turn back to Him. God is the only one who can make us new. We may think we have done too much, we have really messed up this time, and there is no hope for us. There is always hope in the Lord. He can make us new, He can make our country new, He can make our world new. We just have to invite Him in and ask Him.The song ends by repeating the chorus. I will leave you with those words.Honestly, we need, we need You, Jesus (we need You, oh)Have we all gone mad? Have we lost our minds?What used to be wrong, we say that it's rightHonestly, we need, we need You, JesusOh, Jesus, Jesus, JesusWe need You, Jesus, JesusOh, JesusJesus, Jesus (we're running back)(We're running back to You) JesusWe're runnin' back to You, oh (Jesus)Yeah, Jesus, JesusMake us new Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you, and we are sorry we turned away; please help us to turn back. We are sorry our country is falling apart. Please show us how we can help to bring you back into our country. Please put in our hearts what you are calling us to do. Please help us to stop searching for the drama and start searching for you. Help us to be your love and light to others instead of spreading the drama and the worry. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I would like to ask a favor. I have been talking about my mentoring program for a while now. It is on Tuesday nights at 8 PM EST on Zoom, and I record it, so if you aren't able to make it live, you can watch the recording. Maybe mentoring is not for you, and yet you may know someone who might benefit from it. My favor is that you pass the information along to them. I have put a link in the show notes. You could just copy it and then paste it into a text message or email. Also, you could just direct them to the walkboldlywithjesus.com website, and the link is right on that first page. If you would like to join mentoring, but just don't have the $30 per month, please reach out to me. I don't want a lack of money to hinder the ability to grow closer to the Lord. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day.Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “My spirit burns deeply within each of you, my children. It burns away the things that you no longer desire to have because you know me and you know my love. And it fires up the gifts and the graces that I give you so that you become a lamp, a light to those around you.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Praise Series #14 I Keep My Eyes Always On The LordPsalm 16:7-8 “I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.  I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”When I read this, my first thought was, I wish my eyes were always on the Lord.  I wonder if sometimes, in the Psalms and actually in any part of the Bible, they are saying what they know they should do instead of what they are actually doing.  The person writing this Psalm, were their eyes always on the Lord, or were they saying this as a reminder to themselves of what works best?  The beginning of this verse says I will praise the Lord, and you guys know that is one of my favorite things to do.  Praising the Lord is something I tend not to forget to do too often.  Luckily, I am in a prayer group that knows how important praise is, so even if I didn't do it regularly on my own, we praise God every Thursday for an hour.  That is one of the great things about surrounding yourself with other people who love God; they help you remember what is truly important.  “I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.”  This is a great verse because it reminds us who is leading us through this crazy thing we call life.  The Lord is there to counsel us.  Are we seeking His guidance?  Are we stopping to ask Him what He thinks of all the plans we are making in our heads?  When is the last time you slowed yourself down long enough to run something by God before you did it?  Has it been a while?  Have you been running into a lot of dead ends lately?  Have you noticed that things aren't bad, but they aren't great either?  Maybe that's because you are going so fast, you haven't had time to listen to God's counsel.  He really does have some pretty great advice if we slow down and listen to it.  Things just go more smoothly with the counsel of the almighty one. You can tell just from His name that He knows what He is talking about.  He has seen your entire life, He knows what turns you will make, and He knows how to help you get to the life you want faster than you could ever do on your own.  So, why don't we listen to His counsel then?  We don't listen because we are too busy.  One luxury that Covid afforded us was the gift of slowing down.  There was so much bad that came from COVID, and I am not disputing that.  However, COVID also allowed us to clear our calendars.  To just stay home and be with our family for a little while.  The amount of time we were all home with family varies by person, but we all had some time when our schedules were completely clear.  No one was going to work or school; grocery stores and other stores weren't open for a bit.  The whole world slowed almost to a stop.  This was not good for many reasons, but the fact that it allowed many people to stop and consciously choose what to add back into their schedules was a benefit.  Some people found out they liked the less busy schedule.  Some people decided they liked spending more time with their kids.  Some families were so busy they went from one activity to the next without any time to even eat a meal together.  However, with the forced time to slow down, they were able to spend that time together.  People were able to spend more time in quiet with God because they no longer had a long commute to work each day.  There was a brief period in time when life slowed down, and we all had the chance to check in with God and ask for His counsel.  I am sure not everyone used this time to check in with God, but they had the chance.  When I read the second half of that first line, “even at night my heart instructs me,” I thought of how it was dark at night.  I am not sure if this verse is talking about at night, meaning, even when I am asleep, my heart instructs me, or even through the dark parts of my life, my heart instructs me.  However, I think, regardless of what the Psalm is saying, both of these are true.  God doesn't guide us sometimes, and then other times leaves us on our own to fend for ourselves.  He is always there, guiding us.  He is always there in that “still small voice” down deep inside of us. However, we can't always hear him because we aren't always listening.  If you are going through a difficult time right now and you feel like you could really use some direction, take some time and sit with the Lord.  Ask Him for direction, then wait and listen until you receive it.  We tend to ask God a lot, but we don't really ask expecting a reply.  God wants to talk with you; He wants to guide you.  If you ask Him a question, sit expectantly, and He will answer you.  The last line in this verse is awesome, if we can remember it.  It says, “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”  There is so much anxiety in the world, and I think there wouldn't be if we could remember this verse.  If we kept our eyes on the Lord instead of on the news, our friends' Facebook pages, celebrity tabloids, politics, and all the other things we keep our attention on, we would not be so anxious.  It says with the Lord at our right hand, we will not be shaken! The Lord is our shield and our refuge.  We do not need to be afraid, and yet we often lose sight of this fact.  We take our eyes off the Lord, and we forget He is there for us; we forget He promises to always be there for us.  This is why when I read this verse, I instantly thought, “I wish I kept my eyes always on the Lord.”  It is so easy to take our eyes off the Lord.  It is so easy to get wrapped up in what we're doing and forget to stop and ask the Lord what He thinks about it.  It is easy to turn to the news, our friends, and other things in the world for answers.  We expect answers from these things, but for some reason, we don't expect answers from God.  Maybe we think He is too busy to talk to us. Perhaps we feel we aren't good enough for God to speak to us.  Whatever the reason is, we take our eyes off the Lord because we don't expect Him to talk to us.  If you notice you are getting anxious or feeling scared by the things around you, it is time to turn your eyes back to the Lord.  It is time to let Him guide your steps.  It is time to ask the Lord what you should do and then wait with an expectant faith that He will give you an answer.  In episode #13 of this praise series, I talked about how to have a conversation with God. I talked about how I started journaling with the Lord and how it changed my life. The problem is not that God is not talking to us; the problem is that we are not listening when He does.  We are too busy to listen.  Think about your week this week.  When could you find time to listen to the Lord? Schedule it into your day or your week.  I am sure if you started doing this, scheduling in time to sit and listen to the Lord, you will be amazed at what you hear Him say.  Give it a try this week and let me know how it goes.  Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, I ask for you to help us listen to you. Please show us where in our schedules we can take the time to sit with you.  Put it upon our hearts, Lord, so that we take this ever-important time with you.  Lord, we want to keep our eyes on you.  We don't want to be shaken by the things we encounter.  We want to know and trust that you have everything under control.  Lord, we trust in you!  You are amazing, and we are so grateful for all you do for us.  We are amazed that you would talk to each of us individually, and we thank you, Lord.  We love you, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to meeting you back here tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Love is the only one true weapon that heals, converts, and ministers. It is all you need with your friends. It is all you need with your enemies. It is what the world desires, even if it can't identify it. My love will fall upon you, and you will love with my love.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Today's Witness Wednesday is about my trip to Ecuador. Let me explain in a bit more detail how and why I decided to go to Ecuador. My brother-in-law, Daniel's best friend, has been in the hospital for a month now. He had a heart attack and then a stroke. Daniel sent me a message asking me to pray for his friend Anival. I then sent this prayer request out to all those I know who could pray for him. Everyone started to pray for him, and I asked Daniel for an update. He said he was still in a coma and they were waiting for him to wake up so they could do the CT scan. However, they were decreasing the sedation, and he wasn't waking up.Then Daniel asked me for more prayers as they did the CT scan, and it said that there was more damage than they thought. It showed that he still had oxygen bubbles in his brain. When I got this text message from Daniel, I relayed it to all those who were praying for him, as I feel the more specific we can pray for someone, the better, as it shows all the more glory to God when he answers our specific prayers. Then I got another message from Daniel a week or so later, saying that Anival got worse and they need him to start breathing on his own so that he can start eating, as he is not getting enough nutrients.When I got this message from Daniel, I also felt like I got a message from the Holy Spirit asking me to go to Ecuador to pray over Anibal in person. I thought this sounded a bit crazy, so I did what everyone should do when they feel like the Holy Spirit is telling them to do something that seems crazy. I discerned it with my spiritual director. I told her what I thought I heard, and I asked her to pray about it and see what the Holy Spirit says to her about it.She said the first thing she heard was “go” and then she asked Him to confirm it for her. The way this usually happens for her is that she sees the word she heard other places throughout the day. In this instance, she saw what looked like “go” on two different license plates throughout her day. She felt that was the confirmation she was looking for. As I was walking into the prayer group on Thursday morning, I asked the Lord to let me hear something at the meeting that confirmed that He wanted me to go. I was surprised because I didn't really hear anything during the meeting. Then, at the end, while we were cleaning up, one of our members, who just went to the national conference for Charismatic Catholics in the United States, said, “The main message of the entire conference was to Go Out. Don't just stay in the comfort of praying within your prayer group, but be bold and go out into the world and pray with others.” I took this as the confirmation that I had asked the Lord for.Now it was time to talk to my husband about it. It was not a good time for me to go to Ecuador, as he works for the government, so he is not getting a paycheck right now. Also, he was going out of the country to visit our son Noah since he is away in Scotland for school and happened to have a week off for his Birthday. Tony is not working and has a free travel credit. They were staying with a friend, so it would not be an expensive trip, and the timing was great for that trip. Another reason the timing wasn't great for this call to go to Ecuador is that in order for me to go with my sister, Daniel, and their daughter, I would have to leave before Tony got back. This isn't a big deal, as our kids at home are 17 and 21. They would be fine without us for a night, but it would have been better if we didn't have to leave them alone for a night.Anyway, I talked with Tony about the trip, and he wasn't thrilled with the idea of me going, especially since he is not getting paid and we would both be out of the country at the same time. However, he didn't say I couldn't go, and I felt strongly that I was supposed to go, so I looked at getting a ticket. Before going to dinner, the tickets were $576. When I got home from dinner and tried to buy the ticket, it had gone up to $698. I went back and forth between Expedia and Travelocity, and I couldn't find a ticket for less than $600 now.  I sent my sister a message explaining that the tickets were too much, and so I didn't think I could go. Then, I had a chat with God. I explained that there was no way I could spend $700 on a ticket when Tony wasn't thrilled about me going in the first place. I told him that if he wanted me to go He was going to have to do something about these ticket prices. I switched back to Expedia one last night before giving up for the night, and there was one ticket for $540. Thank you, Jesus!! I bought it and was excited that I would be on my way to Ecuador in just one week.There were lots of things that were trying to get in the way of my going on this trip, which is another way I knew I was supposed to go, and that God was going to move powerfully. Whenever we are about to do some amazing work for the Lord, the enemy tries to put up a million roadblocks. I fought through each one of them. I discerned them to make sure they weren't legitimate reasons why I shouldn't go, and ultimately decided it was ok if I went.I got there last Friday night, and so it wasn't until the next morning that we got to go to the hospital. They have a much different visitation schedule than we have in the States. They are only allowed to visit their loved ones for 15 minutes twice a day, and it can be only one person at a time. Also, sometimes they switch up the times. One day, we waited for over an hour and a half before I was able to go in and pray over him. The first day, we missed the visitation time as they did it early that day, around 11. However, they talked with the staff, and they allowed me to go in and pray for a few minutes. I wasn't really sure what to say, but I just let him know that he was loved by the Lord, by Jesus, and by Mother Mary. I prayed commands over his body to be healed. I asked the Lord for a healing. I begged the Lord for a healing. I said all I could think to say.Someone came and knocked on the door and told me my time was up. I went out into the hallway and waited with the family. Then the doctor came and talked with Daniel, Anival's sister, and his daughter. They said there was an infection in his finger, and they needed to amputate the finger or it would spread to the other fingers. They also said most of the brain area was dead, so that he would never walk again. He would be paralyzed from the neck down. This, of course, made the family very upset. I sent out an updated prayer request, letting everyone know the new details.After leaving the hospital on Saturday, I asked the Lord for a sign that He would heal Anival. I saw what appeared to be the shadow of a chalice with the Eucharist on it. I also saw a bumper sticker that said Nothing is impossible for God. Nada es imposible para Dios. I knew those were both signs from the Lord that He would work in this situation.We weren't in that town on Sunday, so the next time I could pray was Monday. We went on Monday morning and Monday evening. When we went in the morning, they talked to the doctor on call, and he said they do not need to amputate the finger. Thank you, Lord, prayers answered!! Daniel also asked if they could do another CT scan of the brain, as we saw Anibal cry and smile, and they hadn't seen this. They said they would do another one.I have not heard if they have done it yet or not, but the family was in a much better place on Monday than they were after the news on Saturday. I really felt as if Anibal could understand what I was saying on Monday, not as much on Saturday. Saturday, he did seem to smile and look at me a bit. However, on Monday, especially the second time, his face seemed to come alive. He had tears coming out of at least one eye when I told him how loved he was and that God was there with him. I told him he was never alone and no matter what, he could always talk to the Lord and ask for whatever he wanted. I told him God loves to do impossible things, so ask big! I explained it didn't matter what he had done in the past; the second we tell God and ask for forgiveness, we are forgiven. I asked him to fight hard to stay with his family and he seemed to respond. I commanded his body to heal. I explained that God had asked me to come all the way from America to tell Anibal how much he is loved by God.I got home late Tuesday night, and my brother-in-law, Daniel, checked in on Wednesday to see how I was doing. I told him that this is the part I have a hard time with; we all probably do. Now is the time to trust in the waiting. Now is the time to thank the Lord for the work we haven't yet seen and to keep hoping that, in His time, He will heal Anival. I believe He will heal him. Around dinner time on Wednesday, Daniel sent me another text message that was like music to my ears. It said that I just got news and that Anibal woke up! He finally regained consciousness after over 30 days. He also said he responded to the order of the doctor when they said to open the mouth and other things with the face.  Thank you, God! Thank you, Jesus! You are so good!!! Praise God!! When I checked in on Sunday, they said he is better. He is actually getting a bit anxious because he knows where he is, but doesn't know what happened. This is good. Not that he is anxious, but that his brain is recognizing where he is and that it is thinking. They also said he is feeling more pain. Which again, we don't want him to be in pain, but it could mean he is not paralyzed and his limbs are trying to respond.Whatever all of that means, I believe Anibal will get to walk out of the hospital and be reunited with his family and dance with his daughter again someday. I am not a fan of waiting, but sometimes it is necessary, as God knows the best time to work His miracles. God is in all of this. That is something I know with my whole being. I am 100% sure God is in this, and I am so excited to see how it all unfolds.Thank you, Lord! Thank you for calling me to go on this trip and for allowing me to be part of this miracle. Thank you for the amazing time I got to spend with family. I made some wonderful memories this weekend. Thank you for the miracles you are working in this situation. Thank you for the results of this next brain scan. Thank you for whatever progress in healing is made before the scan. If it's not all the way healed, Lord, please make sure they do another one. Lord, thank you for the full restoration of his mind and body. Thank you, Lord, all the Glory is yours!!Don't worry, I will keep you updated as I know so many of you are also praying for Anibal! We can all celebrate together when he gets to go home and resume his life again. www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Praise Series #13 Let's Have A Conversation With Our Heavenly FatherPsalm 145:8 “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”I heard this as the verse of the day on KLOVE radio, and I instantly knew it was one I wanted to talk about because I have been thinking a lot about God lately and who we think He is.  I have heard several people say lately that they think of God as a task master in the sky who is watching us carefully and is just waiting for us to mess up so he can punish us.  I can't say that I ever thought of God in this way.  However, I used to think I needed to do the right thing or say the right thing in order to make God happy, in order to earn his love or his approval.  I can also see how one can look at God like He is up there waiting to judge us.  I mean, we are taught to fear God, and yet I don't think we are taught what that actually means.  When it says we should fear God, it actually means to have reverence for God.  Our fear of God is not negative but a positive attitude of reverence that helps us ascribe to God His due: Omnipotence, Sovereignty, and Supremacy.I now think God is Love.  I know God loves me.  I know He delights in me and that He is pleased with me.  I know I am His beloved daughter.  I know I don't have to do anything to earn these feelings; they are freely given.  I know he is not up there waiting for me to mess up so that he can punish me, although he is waiting with open arms for me when I mess up so that I can come back to Him.  When I try to think about how I know this, I am not too sure.  When I was on the Big Life New Year's Retreat, I was reading one of my journal entries to two of the ladies there, and I felt like the Holy Spirit said to me, “This is how you know.  This is where your confidence in yourself and in my love for you comes from.”  I took a minute to think about it, and I knew He was right.  I mean, He is the Holy Spirit, so of course he was right.  But I could see how He was right.  I learned about writing letters to God in my journal and then asking Him to write back to me using my pen in 2019, when I was learning to be a life coach and a spiritual coach.  I started doing this regularly sometime in 2020.  I was listening to the Bible in A Year Podcast, and Father Mike was talking about how if we want a more intimate relationship with God, we could start by speaking to Him more intimately.  I don't know what he said exactly, but that is what I heard.  I started writing in my journal as if it were a letter to God.  I began addressing it, Dear Father, because Dad felt too informal, and I wanted to make sure I was being reverent.  However, over the days to come, I experimented with other terms: Dad, Daddy, Papa.  It felt strange at first, but the more I did it, the more comfortable I felt with it. I was growing closer to Him.  I went back and looked in my journal.  I am not sure which journal I used before this one, but his one starts May 1, 2020. I was writing pretty often during this time. That is probably because it was during COVID, and so the world kind of slowed down, and we had more time.  The first time that I can see in this journal that I asked God to answer me through my pen was June 2, 2020.  This is what I felt He said to me:“Dear Holy One, I love you!  I do not feel you lack trust.  You are a good and faithful servant.  Thank you for getting the prayer group online.  I missed you, ladies, and the praise and worship.  I am here for you, lean into me.  I love you, my daughter.  I love what you are becoming.  I will mold you if you let me.  Help the leaders of the prayer group, as the leaders are tired.  You can bring new energy into the group.  The workshop is a good idea.”Can you see how hearing words like this from your heavenly Father would help you see that God is love? How would it help build your confidence and help you better understand who He is and who you are in His eyes?  It is not always super positive.  It is not as if the letters are always filled with compliments, and that is it.  Sometimes we need correction and guidance, and sometimes we don't want to hear that.  However, when it comes from God, correction is given with love and grace.  When you spend time listening to what God is actually saying, you realize He is not a mean task master waiting for us to screw up.  He is a loving Father who wants to help and protect us.  Here is an example from June 24, 2020.  This is the second time in this journal that I have asked to hear from God.  This is just a portion of what I felt He was saying:“You will do a great many things.  I will show you when you are ready. Stay the course.  Your work pleases me.  Your effort pleases me.  Notice the good more in Tony.  Point out the light you see.  Live by “will this matter in 5 years?”  Help bring more light into your family, not darkness.  No sarcasm, no teasing, just building each other up.  You are better than that.  Be a good listener, put first things first.  You are doing great, keep going.  I love you, my daughter, and I am with you. I know your name.  I love you.”Again, can you see the love in His words?  I know that not every word might be from God.  Sometimes our own thoughts can get mixed in as well.  However, I asked God to answer me, and when we ask God, He answers, so I trust most of this is from God.  Another way you can tell when you are writing that the words are not primarily from you is that we are not this kind to ourselves.  We are our own worst critics, and we don't believe in ourselves as God does.  We don't say nice things to ourselves as God does.  God loves you, and He wants to tell you how much. We are just too busy to listen.  I have found that sometimes, even when I do sit down and find quiet time to listen to God, I can't hear anything.  I think for me, this is because I get too much in my head.  I tell myself I won't hear anything, or I question everything.  This is why, for me, writing letters to and from God helps me listen to him better.  When I am writing, I am not thinking too much.  I am not questioning or overanalyzing.  I am just writing down all that comes to mind. Sometimes it was a few things, and sometimes it was longer.  There were times when we had a conversation back and forth.  I would write something, then write what I felt God said in reply, then write again, and so on.  It was amazing!  Have you ever wanted to sit down and talk with God?  A real back-and-forth conversation, you can.  All you have to do is start it and then listen for God's reply.  If you are listening and can't hear Him, try writing down what comes to mind.  We don't usually hear God's voice as a loud booming voice from the sky.  Usually, He sounds more like your own voice in your head.  It is more like a thought than an audible voice.  Writing these letters to God and having Him write back has been amazing.  I truly think it has helped to cement my knowledge of who I am in His eyes.  I have less stress and anxiety because I don't just think God is looking out for me, I know He is because He tells me often.  I don't just believe that God loves me, I know he does because He tells me often.  I don't wonder if He is proud of me or if I am doing a good job, I know I am because He tells me often.  He is longing to tell you too.  All you have to do is ask and then listen for His response.  Give it a try, I know you will be blown away by the love He gives you.  If you try it and nothing happens, please reach out to me.  I would love to help you with this, as I know God is longing to talk to each one of us individually.  He tells me often, and also tells us at the prayer group, that His people aren't listening to Him.  If you struggle to see God as a loving Father, start writing letters to Him and ask Him to reply.  You will see just how much He loves you, and who couldn't use more love in their life?The reason I decided to include this in our praise series is that part of the reason it can be hard to praise the Lord is that we struggle believing that He is a loving Father. We struggle to believe He has our best interest at heart. However, when we are constantly hearing from the Lord, and we realize how intimately He knows us, then we might find it easier to praise Him. If you are struggling to see God as a loving Father, bring that struggle to Him. Talk to Him about it, and He will help you.  He is a good good Father.Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, I ask you to show each person listening who they are in your eyes. Thank you for all the times you have answered my letters, and I ask you to encourage others to write to you as well.  Lord, I pray that each person listening begins to listen more to what you have to say.  I pray that your words will fill their soul and they will see just how amazing you are.  I pray they will know that you are not waiting for us to screw up so you can punish us, you are waiting to welcome us back with open arms.  You are a good, good Father, and I pray that every person listening will be able to see that for themselves, not just take my word for it. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I.  Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “I enrobe you with My power, with My love, with My strength. You are my creation. You are the heart of My heart. Open yourselves up like the petals of a beautiful flower and receive all I have to give you.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Praising Through Hard TimesMatthew 10:29-31 “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”It is essential to praise God in Hard times. I recall a time when I was going through a particularly challenging period, raising my boys, and in my marriage, and I found solace in praising God. It was a powerful reminder that my problems were not insurmountable and that God was with me. It is important to praise God even when we don't feel we have any reason to. One of the most important reasons to praise God in a difficult situation is that it puts the focus back on God rather than on our problem.One piece of advice I love is: “Instead of focusing on how big our problem is, we should focus on how big our God is.” I have never forgotten this, and it is so true. God is bigger than any problem we might be facing. There isn't anything too big or too hard for Him. When we praise the Lord, we bring our focus back to Him.Also, when we praise God, we are reminded of all the things He has done for us in the past. It reminds us that if He did it for us before, He would do it again. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) If we are in a difficult situation, we can look back to other times when we were struggling, and we can see how God helped us out of or through that situation. Sometimes God helps us out of a problem we are in. Sometimes, He helps us through the situation. What I mean is that he doesn't remove us from the situation; he gives us all we need to get through it. He gives us the strength, perseverance, and peace to get through each day.While studying about praise from my mentoring group, I read an article that mentioned something I hadn't really thought of before. It said that praise reminds us that God is in control. While reading this article, I came across a line that made me laugh. The article said, "As I praise God during the difficult times, I am reminded that God is still in control. God is never surprised by the things that come into my life. God never says, “Wow, I didn't see that coming. I hope Billy makes it through this.” This made me laugh because it is so true, yet we don't really think about it. We can praise God in the difficult times because He knew we would be in this season of waiting. And because He knew we would be in it, He has a plan to get us either out of this season or through it.It is funny to me that we would think we could ever catch the Lord off guard. It's weird to think something could happen that He wouldn't know about. Jesus says in Matthew 10:29-31 “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.” God knows everything about you. He knows about your situation and what you are waiting for.Praising the Lord during a hard season is telling Him that we trust Him and know He has a plan for us. Our job is to wait and to keep trusting that God is in control. It is hard for us to let God be in control. We want things done our way and in our time. I saw a video on Facebook the other day of a woman who was showing what it is like when we try to let God be in control. She was all excited and told Jesus to take the wheel. However, she wasn't happy when He didn't take the exit she wanted Him to take. She wasn't pleased when he wasn't driving as fast as she wanted him to. She tried to stop and pull over for a snack, but Jesus wanted to keep moving. Then she finally said, “I just thought that when I said Jesus take the wheel, we would take turns. You know, you would drive a little, I would drive a little. I thought this would be a little more collaborative.”It is hard to let Jesus take the wheel. It is hard to let God be in control, but it is always worth it. Have you ever tried to take the wheel, tried to run things your own way, and then had it not turn out so good? Abraham and Sarah tried to take things into their own hands, and Sarah had Abraham sleep with her handmaid so they could have a baby. It worked, and then Sarah got jealous of her handmaid and sent her away. God told them He would give them a baby, but Sarah got tired of waiting.  We get into trouble when we grow weary of waiting and take things into our own hands.This is why praising can be so beneficial. While we are waiting, we praise God for all he has done in the past, all that He has planned for our future, and all that He is in control of, so that we don't have to be. When we praise God, we keep ourselves busy, focused on God, and remind ourselves that God is in control.The article I read had some practical suggestions for praising God in difficult times. Here they are:It may not seem natural, and you may feel uncomfortable, but go ahead and praise God. Don't fake it, be honest. God already knows your heart, so if you don't feel like praising Him, tell Him, but praise Him anyway.Verbalize your praise. Praise is meant to be heard. Don't praise Him silently. Praise Him openly and verbally. There is something powerful about hearing our own voice praise and worship the Lord.Use fear and worry as indicators of when to praise the Lord. When fear and worry raise their ugly heads, use them as reminders to praise the Lord. Counter fear and worry, praise and worship.Allow God to teach you as you walk through the situation. God never wastes any event in our lives; He wants to grow us to be more like Christ through every problem we face. As you praise Him, ask what you can learn from this experience.Review God's work in your life in the past and praise him for it. Part of praise is reviewing God's faithfulness in the past. As you review His goodness and provision in the past, you will find new strength to face the problems of today.Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each person listening to this episode. Lord, help us praise you. If we are uncomfortable praising you out loud, give us the courage to step outside our comfort zone and do it anyway. Lord, remind us that when we start to be filled with fear and worry, we can use that as an indicator to begin to praise. Teach us how to praise you, Lord. Each one of us can praise you in a different way; put that on our hearts, Lord. Help us to praise you when times are hard, when times are good, all the time. Help us to develop a habit of praise so we are praising you regularly whether we feel, like it or not. Lord, we love you. We are so grateful for all you have done for us, and praising you is one small way we can show our appreciation. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. If you are enjoying this podcast, please consider rating it in whatever app you're listening to and leaving a review. The more ratings a podcast has, the more people will see it. Also, please consider sharing it with a friend or two. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “If today you hear Me call my children, if today you hear Me whisper your name, open yourselves up like the petals of beautiful flowers. Remember that they, in their beauty, are not arrayed in such beauty as I, your Father, your Savior, and your Spirit can bring to you.”  www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Why Praise Is So ImportantPsalm 103:22 “I will bless and praise the Lord with my whole heart! Let all his works throughout the earth, wherever his dominion stretches—let everything bless the Lord!”My top 3 favorite topics to talk about are praise, forgiveness, and God's love, not necessarily in that order. These are my favorites because I think they are some of the most important. God has really been showing me over the last few years how important praise is to Him. He often gives us a word of prophecy at our prayer group that talks about how much He loves that we come together to praise Him each week. Here is one example from June 2025: “Praise me with your whole heart and soul. I long to know you from the depths of your very being. Sing praises to me, for I am your God who loves you.”He has also been telling me over the last few years that praise is a big part of the reason I have been able to grow in my faith so much and that I am able to trust so much. When I ask what I am doing differently, He tells me that I am praising more. I am praising God, not just when I feel like it, and not just when all things are going my way. I am praising God every single day, whether it is a good day or a bad day. I actually praise Him more on bad days sometimes because listening to praise music can help me change my mood.If you have not discovered any really good praise music, go to Spotify and search through Christian music. My mentor, Pamela Crim, put together an awesome playlist called The Big Life Mornings playlist. It is a public playlist on Spotify, and if you type "Big Life Mornings" into the search, it will come up. I also have one called “Walk Boldly With Jesus Favorites,” which you can also find on Spotify. Some of my favorite artists, in case you are not into playlists, include for King and Country, Lauren Daigle, Elevation Worship, Phil Wickham, TobyMac, Cory Asbury, and so many more on that playlist. There are several reasons that I recommend you find some great Christian music that you like.First, listening to Christian music has helped me learn even more about how much God loves me. I have included some of my favorite songs in various episodes over the years. However, if you have not heard the song Reckless Love by Cory Asbury, you are really missing out. If you do not use Spotify, you can check out YouTube as well. There is actually a playlist on my channel, “WalkBodlyWithJesus”, on YouTube called Prayer Group, and it is a great list of praise songs. It would be a great place to start. Whether you are on Spotify or YouTube, you can save songs to a playlist and listen to it whenever you need to.Another reason I recommend you find some good Christian music is that it can change your mood or your focus. Anytime we are anxious, angry, scared, mad, frustrated, or any other feeling, it is because of the story we are telling ourselves. If we are anxious, we are probably focusing on what may or may not happen. If we are angry or frustrated, we might be looking at a situation we can't change. Listening to this music can help shift our focus from our problems, our worries, and our situation to our God. There is a saying that says that instead of looking at how big our problems are, we can focus on how big our God is.  Music can help us do this. If you are listening to songs about how God is a miracle worker and a way-maker, it shifts your focus and helps you praise God in tough times.A third reason I recommend listening to praise music is that it fills your head with God. God will be on your mind more because the things you listen to become the thoughts in your head. Have you ever noticed that when you hang around someone a lot, you start to talk like them? This is because you spend so much time with them and constantly hear how they talk, so your brain picks it up. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what they are saying. When I first learned this, I was discouraged because the people in my house, with whom I spent the most time, were very negative and used very bad language. I did not want to start talking like they did. I needed to figure out a way to surround myself with different voices. This is when I started listening to Christian podcasts and found more Christian music. Imagine if you were listening to songs each day that talk about how much God loves us, how much He forgives us, and who God is. If you are hearing this over and over again, these will be the thoughts that fill your mind, and these will be the thoughts that come to your mind in times of trouble.I feel I could go on and on about why I love listening to praise music. However, I will end with this last point. Praising God helps us become more grateful people. I know sometimes it doesn't feel like we have much reason to praise God. It is not as if my life has been perfect over the last few years; that is why I have been able to praise God. I have had some really difficult times over these past few years, actually over the past 20 years. There have been lots of ups and downs in my marriage and in my parenting. My kids have really struggled over the years, and there have been several times that I could have gotten really depressed and lost hope. However, I didn't, and I truly believe it was because I have learned to praise God even in the hard times. I was able to do this because there are so many songs out there about people who have made it through really dark times, and God brought them through to the other side. I was able to do this because the thoughts in my mind from constantly listening to praise music are that God is there for me, He will always be there for me, and He can make a way where there is no way.God is so good. He is there for us in good times and bad. There is always a reason to praise Him. When we are in a tough time and can't find a reason, we can look back on all the times He has provided for us in the past. We can look forward to all the good things He will bring from this hard time. We can look at all the beauty around us and praise Him for that. You don't have to praise God for your situation; you can praise Him for other things. If you want to, you can praise Him for the good that will come from your situation at a later date because we know God can use all things for our good. (Romans 8:28) I challenge all of you to begin to praise God more, and then let me know if you find that your trust in Him is also growing. I know it did for me, and I know I am not the only one. It can help you trust more, too. If you are in a season when praising God seems too difficult because of your circumstances, find some good Christian music to listen to and let it praise God for you while you listen. It will change your life, I am sure of it.Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each person listening to this today. Lord, I ask that each person listen and find some music that praises you that they really like. There are so many different genres of Christian music out there, and I pray that each person who listens finds the ones that make their heart happy. Lord, I pray they find songs that fill their soul. I pray this music helps us to praise you when we don't feel we can. I pray this music helps us to shift our focus from our problems to you and how big you are. Lord, help us to find that music that speaks to our hearts, minds, and souls. We want to praise you, Lord, please show us how. We love you, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Remember, remember to look up at his face, for He smiles down with great love and goodness on all of you.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Why Take The Longer Path?Exodus 13:17-18 “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest the people repent when they see war, and return to Egypt.” But God led the people round by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the sons of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle."I was listening to a sermon on the Elevation podcast. The pastor of Elevation church, Steven Furtick, gave a great sermon called “This May Be Plan C.” When I heard him talking about one part in particular I felt like the Lord wanted me to share it with all of you. There were many things about the sermon that stood out to me but it was almost an hour long so I can't go into all of it. However, I do recommend you check out the whole sermon as it was really good. I am just going to talk about the part that has to do with this verse.Pastor Steven was talking about how God didn't take the Israelites on the shortest path out of Egypt. The verse says, “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near.” This makes us think that there was a way to the promised land that was shorter. And if God is explaining why He didn't take them that way, then that leads us to believe that way would have made more sense. If we are taking the quickest, easiest way, we usually don't explain why we are going that way. Everyone knows why. However, if we are taking an unexpected path, or one that is longer, we might explain why.So, why did God take them on a longer path? The verse says, “Lest the people repent when they see war, and return to Egypt.” God knew the people were leaving Egypt but if they ran into trouble and had to fight their way out of Egypt, they might turn around and go back. Also, God knew that the Pharaoh was going to change his mind and come after them. God knew the way of the Philistines would lead them into a situation they were not ready for yet. He also knew what was coming after them and He knew that they would need the Red Sea.I wonder if you have had a time, or maybe many times in your life when you felt like God took you on the round about way to get to where you were going? You feel like there must have been an easier and quicker way to get to where you ended up. What if we trusted that God knew what He was doing? What if we look back and try to see how God might have been protecting us from taking the easy or most quickest path because we might have encountered something we weren't ready to encounter? What if God took us the way He took us because He knew we would need something from that journey or that other path.Pastor Steven talked about how sometimes the problem we are trying to wish away is actually the answer to our prayer we have be asking from God. When the Israelites got the the Red Sea, I am sure they thought it was a problem. I am sure they saw the water on one side of them and heard the army coming up behind them and they questioned why God would lead them to this body of water when there were other paths they could have taken. I am sure they were wishing they were anywhere but in front of the Red Sea at that moment. Yet God used this perceived problem to answer their prayers. He parted that sea and allowed them to walk across it on dry ground. And then he used that water, the one they thought was a problem, to swallow up their enemy.Do you have any problems in your life that might be the answer to your prayers? It may not look like it at first. You may just look at the problem and see it as a problem. However, what if you looked at it and explored how it might be an answer to your prayers? What if you look at the path that the Lord has taken you down and try to see why that path makes sense? Is there a reason God didn't take you down the quickest easiest path? Is there something you needed to go through so that you could be the person He created you to be? Is there something you needed to survive so that you could show others they will survive it too? Was there something on that other path that the Lord knew you weren't ready to face yet?When I asked the Lord what He wanted me to teach today this is what I felt like I heard, “Teach them about how they may not be where they thought they would be. They may not have taken the path they thought they would have but if they keep walking with Me and trusting in Me then they will get there in the end. Show them I am walking with them and leading them. There is a reason I led them on the path they are on. I will help them get to where they are going. It's never too late for Me to grant your heart's desire. Don't give up asking for what you truly want. I do hear you. I am working all things for your good.”I know some of you are disappointed with the way things in life have turned out. I know some of you have been asking for some pretty big things for a long time. I know some of you really need a healing or some direction. I feel the Lord wants you to know it is coming. Your healing is coming. Your trip to Africa is coming. Your heart's desires will be fulfilled. Yes, you might be on the long road to get here, but there is a reason for that. God is putting you on the road you need to be on. Trust in Him and keep walking with Him and He will lead you to where you want to go. I really feel like He wants me to emphasize that it is NEVER too late. Don't give up. Don't feel you are too old, too young, too sick, to inexperienced, to anything. It is NEVER to late for God to fulfill your dreams. Keep asking, keep walking with Him, He won't let you down.Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to the podcast today. Lord, please give us the strength to keep asking. Please help us never to give up. Please help us to walk the path you put us on, not the one we think we should be on. Please help us keep walking with you and trusting you. Please help us to trust even when we don't understand. We love you Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with Your Will and in Jesus's Holy Name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you still have some last-minute gifts to buy, why not get your loved ones a copy of my book? CLICK HERE to order an autographed copy.  It could be a great way for them to start out the New Year, learning about how much God loves them and who He says they are. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Everything he has created is good in his sight. And his blessings and his mercies pour out each morning anew on every creature and part of his creation.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Witness Wednesday #187 Summoned to PrayToday's witness is from Chicken Soup of the Soul, A Book of Miracles by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hanson, and Leanne Thieman. The title of this story is Summoned to Pray.Matthew 11:28 “Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.”“Honey, I'll leave as soon as duty is over. That should be right after midnight,” my new husband promised. I hung up the phone, a newlywed anxiously anticipating our every other weekend reunion. At that moment, I questioned the sanity of our decision to spend our first year of marriage apart as I completed my teaching degree at UT Arlington, and he completed his last year of service at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.I straightened up our tiny one-bedroom apartment, then went to bed to await his arrival. In spite of my anxiety, I still managed to fall asleep, dreaming about our weekend together. Suddenly, I was awakened from my sound sleep with a summons to pray, as real as if it had just been delivered by a mailman.It was accompanied by an urgent knowledge of what to pray for. My husband's immediate safety. I thought back to another instance just the year before, when I had felt an urgent need to pray for Jim in Vietnam.Later, I received a letter he wrote, telling me about a late-night trip back from taking a shower when he nearly stepped on a bush viper. Miraculously, he had seen it just in time. He was not wearing his glasses at the time, and the only light was from a friend's tent where a prohibited candle burned.I wrote back telling him about my urgency to pray for him on that very same night. We both knew it was the Lord's doing. So now, I fell out of bed on my knees. I cried as I prayed to the Lord. Then, as quickly as the summons had come, it was gone. My tears dried, and I fell back asleep, remarkably peaceful despite the traumatic awakening.The last thing I remembered was glancing at the clock on the nightstand. It was 2.50 a.m.There was a knock at the door. I sat up in bed and looked at the clock again, 6 a.m. I thought to myself, Jim must not have been able to leave when he originally planned. Then I remembered the urgent call to prayer. I rushed to the door, opened it, and there stood my young husband, a bit disheveled, his right eye covered with a black patch.He quickly answered my questions. A car going only 30 miles per hour, with no lights, pulled out of a bar onto the highway just outside Fort Worth. My husband was driving 70 miles an hour on the highway, and there was a collision. Our new car was totaled. The officer at the scene said the other man had been drinking. The only injury was broken glass in one eye.For some reason, I felt that I needed to buckle my seatbelt right before getting to Fort Worth, Jim said. He'd never done that before. Back then, in 1969, there were no seatbelt laws. Thank God I gasped, hugged him tighter. What time did this happen? I'd just checked the time. It was 2:50 A. M.  By: Sharon L. Patterson.I thought this was a really good Witness Wednesday for today because I know a lot of you get woken up in the middle of the night, and you're not sure why, and you're not sure what to do. So I just wanted to share this with you and to tell you if you do get woken up in the middle of the night, ask the Lord if there's something specific or someone specific He wants you to pray for. Your prayers could make all the difference in the world. And thank you to Sharon for sharing this story in the book so that we can all learn from it. www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Are We Underestimating Praise?2 Chronicles 20:21-22 "After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”In this chapter of Chronicles, God's people have armies coming to attack them from three different places.  Things were not looking good.  Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel, son of Zechariah, as he stood in the assembly.  He told the king and all the people of Judah that they shouldn't be afraid because this was not their fight. It was God's fight.  He told them to march down against the invading armies, but that they would not have to fight the battle.  This is where the verse picks up.  “After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: 'Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”Jehoshaphat and his army were headed into what seemed like a hopeless battle.  There were three different armies waiting to destroy them and take their land.  You would think they would have the soldiers lead them in this battle.  Even if they trusted God, you would think that just to be on the safe side, you would have the soldiers go first.  However, King Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise Him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out to face the armies.  “As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”Did you catch that last part?  It doesn't say that once they started fighting, the Lord gave them victory.  It doesn't say their enemy was defeated by their mighty hand.  It says that as they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against their enemy, and they were defeated.  They didn't even have to fight a single person.  They didn't have to lift their hands at all in this fight. They just needed to lift up their voices.   Do you have enemies that you need to defeat?  Are you praising God now while you are in the middle of it, or are you waiting until you get out of it?Sometimes we are trying to fight our enemies on our own.  We know we need God, and yet we ask Him for so much that we feel we should try to do this one on our own.  Yet, instead of leading with praise, we lead with anger, frustration, sadness, jealousy, and whatever other emotions we are feeling at the moment.  Can you think of a time when you have charged into a situation with your emotions leading the way?  How did that work out for you?  For me, it never works out.  When I go into a situation on my own without inviting the Lord to come with me, it never works out as I intended it to.  However, when I do think to praise the Lord while I am in the middle of a difficult situation, it always turns out well.  There are times when we think God has abandoned us.  We are praying and it does not seem like He is with us. Maybe we are the ones who have abandoned God.  We may be praying, but are we praying with a hopeful heart?  Are we trusting God will come through for us when we pray?  Are we praising God for all He does for us?  God is working in our lives every single day. Are we praising Him for that?  I talk a lot about gratitude because I think it is so important to go through life being grateful for what we have.  I think when we are grateful for what we have, God blesses us with more.  Being grateful is also a great way to shift our mood if we are feeling sad or having a bad day.  Sometimes, all it takes is a perspective switch, and we can turn our whole day around.  Praise is different from gratitude.  Sometimes, we can be praising God for what we have and what He has done for us, and yet praise is so much more than that.  We can also praise God for who He is.  Sometimes we are in a situation where we may not want to or be able to praise God for the situation. For instance, in this verse God's people were not praising God for the situation they were in.  They were not grateful they had three armies coming after them.  They were praising God for “the splendor of His Holiness.”  They were praising God for who He is.  He is the Fountain of Life.  He is the great “I AM.”  He is the Just One, and He is the King of kings.  He is the Lord of Lords, and He is the Light of the world.  He is the Lord our God.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  How often are you praising God for simply being God?  How often are you spending time in prayer thanking and praising God for being everything you need Him to be?  Maybe the next time we are in a hard situation, instead of charging into the situation with our guns blazing, we can lead with our praise.  Instead of leading with our anger, frustration, and sadness, we can lead with our praise.  God is always there for us.  Let's be there for Him.  Let's give God the praise that He so rightly deserves.  The thought just came to me that not everyone knows how to praise God.  There is no specific way.  I love to listen to praise and worship music, which is really any Christian music.  I am also part of a prayer group, and we praise out loud to the Lord, thanking Him for all He has done and all He Is.  I say phrases such as those listed above, things such as, you are the Light of the World, You are the Word made flesh, You are the King of the Kings.  You can also think back to all you have and thank God for that one by one.  You can thank God for everyone He has brought into your life.  Praise is time spent with the Lord when you are either thanking Him for something or you are talking about all the reasons He is awesome!!  I challenge you to find some time in your day-to-day and praise the Lord.  You can do it silently within your own heart, or you can shout it from the rooftops and everything in between.  Whatever you feel comfortable with.  The more you praise the more comfortable it will feel to you.  Also, the more you praise the more you will see God working in your life.  Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to praise you more.  Put praise for you on our hearts so we long to do it.  Give us a thirst for praising you Lord.  It is so amazing how you defeated Judah's enemy when they started to praise you.  Lord, we have many enemies, and we need you to defeat them.  Help us to praise you first instead of trying to fix it all our selves.  We love you, Lord; you are so powerful.  You give Light to our lamps.  You straighten our crooked path.  You are always by our side, and we are so grateful.  I ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen.Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you on Monday.  Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I!  Have a blessed weekend.Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “If you don't have the strength to stand firm, just desire it, and I will be firm in you. I desire you.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Praise Series #9 Praise & Thanksgiving Psalm 145:1-3 “I will proclaim your greatness, my God and king;  I will thank you forever and ever.  Every day I will thank you; I will praise you forever and ever.  The Lord is great and is to be highly praised; his greatness is beyond understanding.”I read this and thought it was a great verse for this series.  I was talking to a friend on the phone, and she mentioned that she was talking to a family member and they had a great discussion on gratitude.  She said they talked about being thankful for this day, the sun, and all the little things.  She was explaining to him how important gratitude is.I was talking with another friend after mass, and she also happened to mention gratitude. She suggested picking one night of the week and having the kids think of at least one thing they can be thankful for and then talking about how important gratitude is.  There are so many benefits to gratitude and no downside.  One benefit of gratitude is that it can help you shift your mood.  You can take any circumstance that you are in and find something in that moment to be grateful for.  No matter how bad the situation is, if you can find something to be grateful for, then it will help shift your mood.For example, if you have lost a loved one recently, you can be grateful that you had that loved one to lose; some people don't.  If you broke your arm, you can be thankful that you still have your arm, or that it will heal eventually.  Some people lose their arms and have to figure out how to live life without them.  Although even in that circumstance, you can be grateful that you didn't lose more than your arm, or you can be grateful that although you lost your arm, at least you didn't lose your life.  These are examples of how you can find something to be grateful for in any situation, even the bad ones.  However, what about the good times?  It is important to be grateful in the good times as well.  Sometimes, when things are going well, we don't take the time to stop and be grateful for it.  Why is this?  Is it that we are just too busy?  Is it that we don't think of it?  Is it because we don't want to jinx it?  I'm not sure why we don't do this more. Maybe it is a combination of all those reasons.  The reason why isn't really important.  What is important is that we start doing it now.  If we want God to trust us with more, then we need to show him that we appreciate what we already have.  What can you be thankful for today?  Can you pause this episode and list five things that you are grateful for today?  They don't have to be big things; it could be as simple as the changing of the leaves or the snow falling.  I find myself so much more grateful this time of year.  I drive around in awe of God's magnificent beauty, and it makes me so grateful to be alive.  What makes you smile, brings you joy, and makes you grateful to be alive?  Have you thanked the good Lord above for it yet?  Why not? You wouldn't have it without Him.  “I will proclaim your greatness, my God and king;  I will thank you forever and ever.  Every day I will thank you; I will praise you forever and ever.  The Lord is great and is to be highly praised; his greatness is beyond understanding.”  I just talked about gratitude and how we should be grateful to God for all that we have.  Now, I want to talk about praise.  This is why I read the verse to you again.  It is so beautiful.  I will proclaim your greatness, my God and king, I will thank you forever and ever.  Do you see how the two sentiments go together so nicely in this verse?  First is the praise, talking about how great the Lord is.  Then it ends with I will thank you forever and ever.  The author is taking time to stop and thank the Lord for all that He has done for him.  Then it says, Every day I will thank you; I will praise you forever and ever.  Do you see how both of these things are so important to the Lord?  He wants us to thank Him every single day and also praise Him forever.  Praising the Lord can be something else that we forget to do.  We don't usually forget to pray to the Lord when we need something; however, praising him is not something that we think to do.  What if you started adding praise into your prayers?  What if, at the same time as you are asking God for something, you were also telling Him how great He is?  For instance, “Dear Lord, I ask that you be with my son as he has a contest at school today.  Please help him to be calm and remember what he has learned.  Please help him to be gracious, whether he wins or not.  Lord, you are truly amazing.  You do so much for us, and we are so very thankful.  I love you, Lord, and I ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen.  Did you see how easy it is to praise the Lord?  It could be as simple as adding a line or two to the prayers you are already saying.  Another time we seem to forget to praise the Lord is after He has answered our prayers.  This may sound strange, as you would think the first thing we would do when our prayers are answered is thank the Lord.  However, sometimes, we don't realize our prayers have been answered.  Sometimes we see good things happen and think we are lucky.  Or we know something great happened, but we don't remember that just so happens to be the exact thing that we were praying for.  It is not that we are trying to forget about God; we just don't see the miracle He gave us.  I have been noticing God's miracles much more often ever since I started writing down my prayers.  I have been making a conscious effort to write down the things I am asking God for and those that others ask me to pray for.  I write them down in a notebook, and then I leave space underneath so I can go back and write notes when they have been answered.  Here are a few answered prayers:My friend's eye was healed!A young severely depressed girl found a treatment center after being told all the beds were filled.My friend is raising more than $20,000 for her mission cause in Haiti.  A woman who was losing hope that her baby would ever get to come home, as he was in the hospital for over a year, got to take her baby home.  Someone else's toe was healed.A woman who had several miscarriages was finally able to get pregnant again and have a healthy pregnancy.A friend who was really ill with COVID and then had a blood clot and was in the ICU for a while is now home with his family.A church was starting a new UNBOUND ministry and wanted prayers for its success.  Their first session was awesome.A friend had to have eye surgery and was very anxious.  She had a very successful surgery and was able to sleep through it all.  A friend's brother needed to find a new residential facility.  He was living on the other side of the state, and it was hard for my friend to get to see him.  Now he is living just minutes away.  God is so good!  He is there answering our prayers.  If you can't see how God is working in your lives, then may I suggest you start writing down your prayers?  Keep a list of all the things you have asked God for, and periodically review it to see if any have been answered.  It's not really if they have been answered as much as it is noticing when they are answered.  Because God tells us, “Ask and it will be given to you.”  He does answer our prayers; we just need to pay attention.  I believe the more you can praise the Lord and thank the Lord, the more you will be aware of His presence in your life.  I don't think that if you praise and thank the Lord, He will show up more; He is already showing up.  I just think if you are praising Him and thanking Him, you will see it more.  Will you take the time to notice Him?Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to praise you and thank you.  We repent for all the times that you answered our prayers, and we did not thank you or praise you.  Lord, we are sorry for all the times that you answered our prayers, and we didn't even recognize that you answered them.  Lord, help us notice this more.  You are so great, and you always answer our prayers, help us to see this every time, Lord.  We love you so much, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen. Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “When My love covers you, you know you are covered. You feel My presence, but when you fall, and you think you have messed up, you think that My love is gone. No, My love is more, so get up and start again, for I never cease to teach and I never fail to love. Stand firm even if you fall. Stand firm.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Praise The Lord, Both Now And Forevermore Psalm 113:1-2 "Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, you his servants; praise the name of the Lord.  Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore.”This verse was given at the prayer group last week, and when I first looked it up, I was hesitant.  I had a little conversation with God about how I have already talked about praise a lot and that maybe I should use a different scripture.  I still think it is so crazy how I always try to talk to God about how my ideas might be better than His, or try to tell him something like He doesn't already know everything.  Anyway, while I was trying to convince God about how I wasn't sure praise was the topic I should talk about today, he reminded me of what I learned while listening to Father Mike's Catechism in a Year podcast.  This podcast is so great.  I know I have talked to several of you who started it and couldn't really get into it, and so you stopped.  I just want to say that I get it.  It was not super interesting like the Bible in a year was when it first started.  Now, I love it.  I thought it was going to be just a litany of rules that I didn't really want to listen to, but that I would because I want to be able to defend my faith to others, especially my loved ones, and also because I truly want to know why Catholic's believe what we believe.  I was so wrong.  It is not at all a litany of rules.  It is an explanation of so much.  It talks about who God is, who Jesus is, who the Holy Spirit is, and who they are in relationship to one another. That part was beautiful.  Recently, we have been talking about the mass and why, where, when, and how we meet.  I had no idea about most of the stuff he was talking about.  It helps me to see the mass in a whole new light.  A much-needed new light.  I have always liked being Catholic.  I mean, I didn't always love going to mass every single week, even when on vacation.  I didn't love getting picked up early from a friend's house so I could go to mass.  However, I did like the mass.  I like how I know what to expect; I like how every mass is the same all over the world.  I love that we have the body and blood of Jesus at Mass.  I love all the prayers and sacraments.  I love being Catholic, and yet after listening to the Catechism for a year, I am falling even more in love with our faith.  It is not just about our faith, either; it is about so many things.  I thought it would be a bit like the 10 commandments, a list of what we can do and what we can't do.  However, it explains in so much detail not only what we believe, but why we believe it, and where in the Bible you can find reference to it.  It has been amazing.This week was about the mass, and it was talking about praise, specifically praise music.  The church says that out of all of the art, out of all of the things that can help us pray well, singing and music are of inestimable value, greater than that of any other art.  That is from CCC #1156. The reason music and praise songs are so important is that they combine sacred music and words.  Many praise songs use words right out of the Bible.  I remember when I first noticed this, I was so excited.  After I went to a retreat with the Military Council of Catholic Women, I picked up a CD of Anne Trufant's music.  I had no idea that Christian music was a thing. I mean, I knew we sang songs at church, but I didn't know there was a Christian artist in all genres of music.  It was the greatest discovery ever!  While I was listening to this music all the time and starting to learn the words, I would then begin to see or hear the words when I was reading or listening to the Bible, or when I was in church.  Over the last few years, when I talk with God about the growth in my prayer life, the deepening trust I have in Him and His plan, and the calm I am able to have in the storm, He repeatedly tells me it is due to my praise.  I truly feel praise can deepen our faith more than we know.  The more we praise, the more we can see the amazing things God does for us, even in the hard times.  When we are focused on praise, we are focused on finding the good, even in a bad situation.  Praise can be hard at times.  There can be times when we feel as though we don't have any reason to praise God.  There can be times when it feels like everything is against us, and everything we try fails. When it is hard for us to praise, I think this is a sign that we need to praise all the more.  The good thing about praising God is that you can do it through listening to music.  You don't even have to say anything if you don't want to.  You can let the words of the music just wash over you.  The songwriters and singers of Christian music do such a good job of praising God.  They have taken lyrics right from the Bible and put them to music.  Not only is this good because we get to hear God's words, but also because it helps us learn them.  Matt Maher took the Our Father prayer and made it into a song with a nice beat.  He did this because one of his friends texted him one day and said that he thought it would be a great way for kids to learn the Our Father.  Just picture kids hanging out and singing along to that song.  I am betting more people have prayed the Our Father through singing that song than they did before. “He who sings,” said St. Augustine, “prays twice.” The holy Bishop of Hippo meant that singing adds to our praise and worship of God—that our voices are gifts, with which we can make music to the Lord.Another thing praise is good for is to pull you out of a dry season of prayer or an attack of Spiritual Warfare.  If you are trying to pray and yet nothing is coming, or if you are feeling oppressed by the enemy, put on some praise music.  The enemies don't understand why we praise God, especially when we are struggling. It confuses them, and they leave.  If we can praise God when we are struggling to pray, we will be rewarded.  We will see fruit from our praise.  I know I have said this before, but I will keep saying it because I know it is hard to hear. You can always praise God, even in tough times.  You don't have to praise Him for that hard time; you can praise Him for the small ways He is showing you He is there.  For instance, a beautiful sunrise, a text from a concerned friend, a really great cup of coffee, a small step in the right direction.  Whatever it is, no matter how small it is, just stop and praise God for it.  I truly believe that things get better faster when we can praise God in the middle of the storm.  Take a second and look at your life.  Where could you add a little praise to it?  Could you listen to praise music while you clean up, or while you drive?  Could you spend 2 minutes while you drink your morning cup of coffee or tea and thank God for 3 things He did yesterday?  Can you wake up and thank God for letting you wake up to a brand new day before your feet ever hit the floor?  How can we praise God today?  How can we add it to our daily routine?Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to praise you, we want to thank you, please show us how.  Lord, we are so grateful for all you do, and we are sorry if we haven't said so lately.  We are sorry if we let the overwhelming world and our situation prevent us from seeing your glory at times.  We know you are amazing.  We know you are the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings.  You are the beginning and the end, and we are so grateful for you. We are grateful that you have chosen us to have a relationship with.  We are grateful you redeemed us.  We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  If you would like an autographed copy of my book with a personal message just for you, CLICK HERE.  If you get a message that says it is unavailable, that will go away as soon as you pick regular or personalized.  Also, if you would like to receive my weekly newsletter, CLICK HERE.   I look forward to bringing you a witness tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I!  Have a blessed day! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Praise Series #7 Great Is The Lord, and Greatly to Be Praised Psalm 145:1-3 “I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.  Every day I will bless you, and praise your name forever and ever.   Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; his greatness is unsearchable.”This is a great verse.  I think if you know me at all by now, you know that I love to praise the Lord.  I think He is truly amazing, and I think it is so important to tell Him that.  Our Lord does so much for us every day.  He gives us so much mercy and so much grace.  He forgives us again and again, even though we don't really deserve it.  His love is unconditional and unending.  How many people can you say that about?  He performs miracles for us, just to make us happy.  He doesn't need anything from us in return.  Again, how many people can you say that about?  How many people do you know who will do things for you without expecting anything in return?  I hope you do know at least one, because there are people out there like that, but they are certainly not the majority.  This is why I love praising the Lord so much.  There is little that we can give God to repay Him.  There is nothing He needs from us.  He is complete and totally perfect just as He is.  Even though He doesn't need anything from us, He does like it when we praise Him.  Praising the Lord is something that costs us nothing but our time and is easy to do.  Once you start to incorporate praising the Lord into your daily routine, you will wonder why you weren't always doing it.  It feels so good to say thank you to God for all that He does for us.  The more you praise Him, the more you realize how amazing He truly is.  When I attended a Life in the Spirit seminar, they gave us praise sheets so that we could participate in the praise part of the meetings.  You do not need a praise sheet to praise the Lord.  There is no right or wrong way to do it.  However, if you are new to praising the Lord, it may feel intimidating, especially if you are in a room full of people who have been doing it for a long time.  If this is your first time intentionally praising the Lord, it may feel strange.  That's normal, just keep doing it.  If you are like me and most people who have never really spent time praising the Lord before, you are not really sure what to say.  I understand this.  I had no idea what to say at first, and even though I have been doing it at least every Thursday for the last 3 years or so, I still use the praise sheet.  I like the things that are written on the sheet.  I do praise on my own, with my own words at home sometimes, but I really like using the sheet.  Here are some of the things that are on the praise sheet I was given.Praise you our Lord and our God, Praise your holy name, we rejoice in your presence oh Lord, Jesus you are my strength, Jesus you are my rock, Jesus you are my fortress, Jesus you are my deliver, Jesus you are my refuge, Jesus you are my shield, Jesus you are my strong hold, Jesus you are my salvation, Jesus you are my healer, Jesus you are my teacher, Jesus you are my savior, Jesus you are my advocate, Jesus you are the great amen, Jesus you are the author of life, Jesus you are the beginning in the end, Jesus you are the blessed and only ruler, Jesus you are the breath of life, Jesus you are the captain of salvation, Jesus you are the good shepherd, Jesus you are the healer, Jesus you are hope and glory.You are the Messiah, you are the fountain of life, you are the vine keep us attached to you Lord, you are the holy one of Israel, you are the Christ, the power and wisdom of God, you are the Lamb who was slain you are the word made flesh, you are the holy one who sits up on the throne, you are the living word, you are Emmanuel, you are the son of God, you set my feet are dancing, you are truth, you are loved, you are power, you are wisdom, you are the faithful one, you are our redeemer, you are the great “I AM”  The list goes on, but those are several examples of the kinds of things you would find on a praise sheet.  There is a great little book called “Opening The Gates of Praise” by Father John M. Capuci.  The reason I say little book is because it is just 38 pages long.  However, in this book, Father talks about five things. First, why do we praise?  Second, what are our obstacles to praise?  Third, ways to praise.  Fourth, how to develop a spirit of praise.  Fifth, He takes you through the steps so you can write out your own string of praise.  This was a great book for explaining praise.  In this book, Father has 10 great reasons why we should praise God.  I am not going to read them all to you, as it is not my book; it is his.  I will list a few that you may find surprising.  One that I didn't know is that praise breaks down the walls that are barriers to God's grace.  Father Capuci says, “When we praise, the walls of arrogance, self-hatred, and low self-esteem begin to be broken down.  God begins the healing process in us as we go before Him, praising His most awesome power!” Another reason we should praise God is that praise allows us the freedom to be ourselves before God and the community.  Father Capuci says, “When we can praise God for an extended time, on a regular basis, areas of being overly concerned with how people will look at us begin to be healed.  When a person can praise God out loud, in the midst of the community, we can be assured that healing of self-image is taking place.  The last reason I will touch on is that praise breaks down negativity in our lives.  Who couldn't use a little less of that right now?  There is so much negativity everywhere we look.  If praise can break that down, I say it is worth it.  Father Capuci says, “There is no such thing as a negative personality.  Instead, many people struggle with the temptation to fall into negativity.  What happens is this: it becomes increasingly difficult to see God's goodness and action in our lives or even around us.  So, we begin to develop a spirit of negativity.  Praise binds the spirit of negativity, setting us free from its hold.  The more we praise the Lord, the more we will see the effects of negativity lose its grasp, and we will move toward the power of the Holy Spirit.  I don't want to relay everything in this book to you, as it is not my information to share.  I would highly recommend you get a copy of this book if you can.  If you would like a copy, I will put the info from the back of the book in the show notes.  I do want to go over quickly the four different types of praise that Father Capuci talks about.  First, praise God for being God. An example of this type of praise would be the phrases I mentioned earlier from the praise sheets.  The second type of praise is praise God for your history, for example, your faith, family, being born, your faculties, and your life.  The third type of praise is praise God for your present, your here and now.  What is God doing right now in your life?  Did He help you find your keys? Did you give yourself a nice sunny day, a green light? What can you praise God for right now in the moment? The fourth type of praise is praise, God for what the Spirit is doing right now, for instance, healing a headache, a sore shoulder, an outpouring of the Spirit, receiving new gifts, or perhaps healing your self-image.  Is there anything the Spirit is doing within you right now that you can praise?  Father Capuci talks about how if you string these four categories together, then you have a “string of praise.”  He encourages us each to sit down and write down at least five things in each category and then start to use this list to praise God more often.  If you would like the praise sheets that I was talking about earlier, just send me an email at catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com, and I will send you a copy.  I would be remiss if I didn't also mention my favorite way to praise, which is to listen to praise and worship music.  If you are listening to this podcast and you have a smartphone or a computer, I recommend you go to an app or website called Spotify.  It is free to make an account, and you can listen to all the Christian music you want for free.  It is a great way to try out a bunch of different artists and see who you like.  You could do the same thing on YouTube if you like that better.  Listening to praise music can lift your spirits instantly.  There is a playlist on Spotify that was created by my mentor called “Big Life Mornings,” and it is a great compilation of upbeat Christian songs.  I have discovered so many new great songs.  Maybe give it a try?  What have you got to lose?Dear Heavenly Father, please bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we love you, and we want to praise you. Please show us how.  Please put this upon our hearts, and if we are not already praising you, help us to start.  Help us start.  Give us the courage to praise you silently and also out loud.  Help us to push through the feelings of awkwardness until we get comfortable praising you, Lord.  You are so amazing, you do so much for us and expect nothing in return.  Help us to do this for you with no expectations.  Lord, we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  Thank you for continuing to show up and listen.  Thank you to all of you who have given me your feedback. I really appreciate it.  If you are able to go to the rate this podcast, that would be great to help others see it more.  Also, if you have a friend or loved one you could share it with, that would be great too.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Enter my children, enter into the secret place. The secret place of the Most High is where you hear My heartbeat under My feathers. Be still and know that I am God, I am Your God.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Today I have two witnesses or you. One is from a friend of mine that recently went on a vacation to see her daughter and she shares how the Lord was with her the whole time. The second one is from Matthew West's website, called popwe.org. If you don't know who Matthew West is, he is a singer, songwriter, and storyteller. This website is for the non-profit that he has with his father, a pastor. Matthew and his father encourage people to share their stories. They have various categories of stories. Today, I chose one testimony from the Anxiety/Depression Category. I know so many people who are struggling with anxiety and depression right now. Suicide seems to be increasing as well. Often, we can hear our own story in someone else's story. When we listen to others tell their story, it helps us see that we are not alone. When we hear how God worked in their situation, it gives us hope that He will work in ours, too! I pray that when you hear these testimonies, you get the faith and hope to believe that miracles can happen in your situation, too. I pray you know that God is there with you, and if you invite Him into your anxiety and depression, He can help.First up, my friend from the prayer group.. She realized once she got to FL that she had lost her passport. She didn't really have any other current form of ID, and so she had no idea how she would get on her plane back to MA. This is the message she wrote after she got back from her trip.I want to thank everyone who prayed for me during my trip to Florida. God showed me that He was God and that He was taking care of me. I was not supposed to board the plane without my passport, but I did. My daughter Maria and I arrived early at the airport on Monday, 11/24/25. I had a late flight. The plane was supposed to arrive at Logan at midnight.  We went directly to security. When I saw the security officer, I immediately asked the Holy Trinity to soften his heart.  He took my expired license. He photographed me and then let me go. He asked Maria to obtain a pass so she could stay with me. JetBlue changed my flight to an earlier one and upgraded my seat to 6F. A male passenger helped me with my bags until the wheelchair assistant arrived to help me. He brought me directly to where my ride was parked.The perfect moment arrived when I listened to my phone messages on my landline. I heard JetBlue say, "We have found your passport. Please call us at this number. I could hardly believe it. I had to set up a FedEx number so JetBlue could mail me back my passport. I received a phone call today regarding the tracking number. I should get my passport back this coming Monday. While I was in Florida, someone charged my credit card for an unauthorised transaction, but my bank caught it and prevented it from going through. They froze my card. I had to go to the bank yesterday to obtain another credit card. I can testify that the Lord is taking excellent care of me!I was mostly sick throughout my trip, but I will always be grateful to God for showing me His love and care.Brianna: From the age of 10, I was stuck with the label “child prodigy,” winning piano competitions, featured in local newspapers, and recognized as a passionate, fiery recitalist. Yet, even as a youth, I was severely depressed. I was insecure, seeking affection, and perpetually in pursuit of attaining “good enough.” Right before my 16th birthday, my world suddenly turned upside down. In an unexpected turn of events, I faced a close encounter with death, had my innocence taken, and watched helplessly as my mother's health began to rapidly fail. Too ashamed to ask for help and blaming myself for the situation, I despairingly turned to self-harm, eating disorders, and eventually, planned my own suicide. One day, I heard the song ‘Broken Pieces', and I found something onto which I could cling to – Truth, even when I could not feel it and it failed to make sense.Through involvement with an organization called Csehy Summer School of Music, I came to personally know Christ. For the first time in my life, I experienced peace, hope, and true joy. Dedicating my life to God, I went back home with a different perspective. My life was still intense – balancing high school and conservatory studies, living between home and the hospital, while being a full-time caretaker for my undiagnosed mother. By the grace of God, I managed to graduate as Salutatorian and get accepted into music school. However, shortly before college began, my mother passed away.I started my B.A. in piano at Charleston Southern University, using every spare moment to pour my heart out into the keys as a wordless prayer. Yet, a lingering pain in my right hand soon became constant. A few months after my mother's funeral, I was diagnosed with severe damage in my right hand, incited by the physical strains from being a caretaker. The only option left was surgery, followed by excruciating therapy, without a guarantee of returning to the keys. My doctor strongly advised me to quit and choose a different career path. But I fought back.Over the next several years, I fought through recovery from both surgical and emotional scars. I realized that though I had given my life to Christ, I hadn't fully “surrendered” it. In those precious years of undergrad, I experienced the freedom found in surrendering to the grace of God, the beauty of vulnerability, and the power of learning to fly again.Then, nearly four years to the day the doctor said it was over, I found myself sitting onstage, performing at Carnegie Hall. When I turned to the audience to see a standing ovation, I burst into tears, because I remembered the words, “With You I can attack a barrier, and with my God I can leap over a wall.”-Psalm 18:29Today, despite the formalities infused in classical music, I get to use the concert stage as a platform to share my story and encourage others to seek help and experience the peace of God. I perform and travel internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, frequently being sought after to premiere avant-garde piano works, and I am actively involved in youth and collegiate ministry. Although healing is an ongoing process, by the hand of God's work in my life, the label of “Victim” has been replaced with “Victorious,” “Hopeless” has been covered by “Confidence,” and what was “Impossible” is now a living, breathing, walking “Miracle.”Thank you both for sharing your stories so that others might see how the Lord is working in their lives too! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Praise Series #6 Praise the LordPsalm 117: “Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.  For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.  Praise the Lord.”Praising the Lord is so important.  It is important not only when things are going well, but when things are not going so well.  God can and will use all things for your good.  It may feel impossible to see that when you are in it, but he will take what the devil means for harm and use it for good.  I was going to say that praising God when things are going well is easy.  But actually, that is not always true.  A lot of times, when things are going well, we don't think about God.  We are busy just living our happy lives, and unless something comes into our lives to upset the good things we have going, we often don't think of God.I don't think the problem is that we don't want to thank God for all the good he has given us; I just think that it doesn't occur to many of us.  We think more of God when we need something.  When things are bad, we are quick to blame God, or to ask Him why this is happening, but when things are good we don't think to ask God why it's happening.  What did we do right to deserve all this happiness?  Why did God allow the great things to happen?  Those are not questions we usually ask Him.  However, he is the first to be blamed when things go wrong.  Why is that?  Why do we give him none of the credit when things are going right and all of the blame when things go wrong?  God is there in the good and in the bad.  We would be nothing, have nothing, without him.  It would be so great if we could learn to praise in both good and bad situations.  That probably sounds strange, praise Him in the bad situations?  What am I supposed to say, thank you so much that my baby boy is sick?  No, that is not what I am saying.  You don't have to thank him, but you can praise.  You could say something like, “Lord, you are all-knowing, you are the great physician, and I know that you can heal my son.  You are all-powerful, and your ways are better than my ways.  I don't know why this is all happening, and I know I may not understand this side of heaven.  What I do know is that you love us and you want the best for us.  We ask that you heal our son.  We thank you so much for answering our prayers.  As you have said in Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it will be given, seek, and you will find, knock, and the door will be opened.” So, Lord God, we are grateful for your hearing our prayers and answering them.  We thank you for the strength you have given us, the strength to get out of bed in the morning. We love you, Lord, and we praise you for being you.”  Do you see how there are ways to praise God even in an impossibly bad situation? There are plenty of bad things that happen.  God does not want all these things to happen; they are not his perfect will.  I don't know why he allows bad things to happen.  However, I believe, if we start praising God more in our own lives, then we will see fewer bad and more good things happen.  If we can learn to praise God when we are struggling, and also remember to praise him and thank him when things are going well, I truly believe that is the way to a happier life.I have been listening to Father Mike Schmitz read the Bible in a Year podcast.  We have spent quite some time now listening to the story of King David.  Actually, David was discussed long before he became king.  When he was just a young boy, he took a slingshot and four flat stones and defeated the giant that no one else would go near.  The whole army was afraid of the giant, Goliath, but David knew God could do anything, so he was not afraid.  David had a complicated life.  He did so much good, and yet, he also did some really terrible things.  One thing that David did really well was praising God.  He thanked God when he was being blessed.  He remembered to thank God when things were going well.  He pointed out to all who would listen that God was the reason for his success.  However, even when things were bad, he praised God.  That doesn't mean he didn't question God.  He definitely did that.  He definitely asked why he had to go through things, why God was allowing them to happen, and how long the hard times would last.  Then, after questioning, he usually ended up praising. The Psalms in the Bible are full of David's praises and his questions to God.  In one minute, David will be asking God how long he will have to endure this suffering, and then in the next verse, David will be praising God and thanking God for all that He has done to bless him and provide for him.  I think when we start praising God more, we start to see more good things happen.  I believe this happens for two reasons.  First, I think God blesses us more when we remember to take a minute to thank Him and praise Him for all He has given to us.  Second, I think we see more because we are looking for the good.  When we stop to praise God when something good happens, then we are taking the time to notice it.  It is similar to when you start a gratitude practice.  If you stop and take 10 minutes in the morning, or even just 2 minutes, and write down a few things you are grateful for, then you will start to notice more and more things you have to be grateful for.  Is it because more great things are happening, or is it because you are noticing more good things?  Where you put your focus is so important.  If you focus on all that is going wrong, you will start to see more bad things in your life.  Where you are putting your focus is something that you have control over.  There are plenty of things happening in our lives that we don't have control over.  However, the focus of your thoughts is not one of those things.  If you do not believe what a difference this can make, I ask you to give it a try.  For one week, try focusing on noticing the good things that are happening throughout your day.  Try at the beginning or end of your day to write down 10 things that you can be grateful for or that you can praise God for.  If you know you are going to have to come up with 10 things, then you will spend your day looking for good things.  When you are on the lookout for good things, you will start to see them.  Trust me.  I will leave you with Psalm 118:1, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for all that you do for us.  I ask that you show us how to praise you, Lord.  I pray that we will remember to praise you in the good and the difficult times.  I pray that we can all find something to be grateful for each and every day.  Lord, I don't know why bad things happen.  I do know that you love us and work all things for our good.  I know you are leading this journey and that we are just along for the ride.  I ask that you lead our journey.  Lord, I ask that you bless all those who are listening right now.  Lord, I pray all of this in accordance with your holy will and in Jesus's holy name, Amen.Thank you so much or joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Have a very blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “You are my children, and I love each and every one of you, and I meet you where you're at. So you can bring me your muck and mire, and your brambles. You can bring them to me, and I will fix them. I will heal them. I will lift you out of them. ” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Praise Series - Praise Is The Way Out Of The DarknessPsalm 150 “Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his exceeding greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with timbrel and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud, clashing symbols! Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!”There is so much power in praising God, and the enemy knows that.  One day, I was talking with some of the ladies in my Encounter class about dryness in prayer and when we feel we are in the darkness.  Have you ever felt like that?  Have you ever felt like you are doing your part, praying to God, and yet you can't feel Him, you can't seem to find Him?  Have you ever felt like He has abandoned you?  You are not alone; this happens to everyone at some point.  We had a speaker at our conference who said that when we feel like God is pulling away, that is not a bad thing; it is actually a good thing.  Damian Stayne said during his talk that when we feel like God is pulling away from us, He is actually just stretching our heart muscle.  If we want to grow in our faith, in our trust, in our love of God, our heart muscles must grow too.  God is helping it to do that by gently pulling away at times and then coming closer.  During a discussion with my friends and classmates, we talked about what we do in the dark times.  One woman said she just had a few days where she felt alone.  In the previous days, she had felt very close to the Lord, and it felt amazing.  Then she entered a few days where she couldn't feel the Lord.  She felt alone.  She said she remembered hearing somewhere that when you are in the darkness, you should praise the Lord.  She decided, even though she didn't feel like it, she would praise the Lord, and in a few days, she came out of the darkness.I may have mentioned this before, but in case you haven't heard it, Mother Teresa was known for her love of Jesus.  She had a very personal, intimate encounter with Jesus on a train once, and it fortified her faith beyond words.  She loved Him.  When others met her, just by being around her, they came to love Jesus too.  Her love for Jesus was overflowing.  Mother Teresa also went through a dark time.  She would go into prayer time, and she couldn't pray; she didn't feel God anywhere.  There were times when she questioned if He existed.  She knew He did, because she had seen Him, yet she didn't feel as if He existed.  This dark period for her wasn't just a year or two; I believe it was more like 50 years.  I saw one place online that said, “For nearly 50 years, Mother Teresa endured what the church calls a 'dark night of the soul' — a period of spiritual doubt, despair, and loneliness that many of the great mystics experienced, her namesake St. Therese of Lisieux included.”Can you imagine that?  Fifty years of spiritual doubt, despair, and loneliness, and those around her did not know.  She did share this information with her spiritual director, but most of those around her would have said she was a happy person, so full of the Light of God.  She smiled often and spread God's joy to many others.  It makes me sad to think she didn't have that joy inside of her.  I pray that none of you listening to this podcast have to endure 50 years of suffering as she did.  You will probably have to endure some times of darkness, times when you feel lonely, you think God has abandoned you, and so on.  When this happens, remember this episode and praise God through it.I believe that praising God more is the answer to so many questions. It is the solution to so many of our problems.  I was praying one time while I was out for a run, and I asked God to tell me what I was doing that was different than others.  I asked Him to tell me why I was able to have such a deep trust in Him, and I really felt like He said it is because I praise Him so much.  I love to listen to praise and worship music.  Ever since I discovered Christian music, I have been in love with it and listen to it whenever I get the chance. Spending all this time praising God has definitely increased my faith. I have also had a practice of daily (or as close to daily as I can get) gratitude.  This has really made a difference, too.  I think both of these help train my mind and keep it focused on the things that are important.  They keep pointing me back to Jesus.If you find yourself enduring what the church calls the “Dark night of the soul,” try praising God through it.  I don't know a lot about the “Dark Night of the Soul,” but I don't think it is typical for it to last as long as it did for Mother Teresa of Calcutta.  I believe Damian said his lasted about 10 years.  However, you can also have dark periods of isolation that last just a few days, as my friend had a few weeks ago.  The timing of it all is up to God.  God has a purpose for this period of isolation, and only He knows when it has done its job.  I don't know that praising God while you are in the Darkness will get you out of the darkness any faster because God has His own timing.  I do believe that it will help you endure the darkness better.  I believe praising God is a great way to step outside your thoughts and focus on Him and all He has done for you.  I am going to read Psalm 150 to you again so you can hear the intensity with which the author of Psalm believes in praising the Lord.  I think the words of the Psalm are the best words to leave you with today.“Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his exceeding greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with timbrel and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud, clashing symbols! Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!”Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to praise you and love you forever.  Lord, we ask that you be with everyone, even those going through that dark night of the soul.  I pray that you give them the strength they need to make it through to the other side.  We know that on the other side of that darkness is light.  We know it is not just light, but also growth and new treasures that you have for us on the other side.  We thank you, Lord, you are truly remarkable.  We know you never abandon us, and we love you for it!  We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen.Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Resting is the word, from your worries, from your thoughts, from your concerns. Rest. All is well. Trust. Know that I am the Great I Am of all things. So rest.”  www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Today's Witness Wednesday has two stories I read on Facebook. They are stories of people giving of themselves when they didn't need to. The first one starts with one young girl's selfless acts and ends with a whole lot of people. The next one is about a man who made a lot of mistakes and yet at the end of his life does something remarkable for a little girl he didn't even know. I pray that when you hear them, you can see God moving in the world. I pray that when you hear them, you can see that yes, there are a lot of bad things going on in the world, but there is also a lot of good. We need to focus more on the good.”My name's Walter. I'm 69. I'm the night custodian at Lincoln Middle School. Been mopping these halls for 11 years. Most folks don't even know my name. I'm just "the janitor guy' who empties trash and fixes broken lockers.But I notice things. Like locker 247, every morning, I'd find food wrappers stuffed in the vents. Candy bars, chip bags, cracker boxes. At first, I thought it was just messy kids. Then I realized someone was hiding food.One night, I stayed late. Around 8 p.m., I heard the side door creak. A girl, maybe 13, sneaked in with a backpack. Went straight to locker 247, stuffed it with grocery bags, then left quickly.The next morning, the food was gone.I didn't report it. Instead, I watched. For two weeks, the same pattern. She'd stock it at night. By morning, empty.Finally, I left a note in the locker, "You're not in trouble. I just want to help. -Walter, the custodian."The next night, she came to my supply closet. Terrified. "Please don't tell anyone," she begged. Her name was Sarah. She'd been sneaking food to three younger kids, brothers whose dad worked double shifts and forgot to buy groceries. "They're too embarrassed to ask anyone," she whispered. "So I use my lunch money and... borrow from my mom's pantry."My heart shattered."What if," I said slowly, "locker 247 just... had food in it? And nobody asked questions?"Her eyes went wide.I started small. Spent $30 of my paycheck on peanut butter, bread, juice boxes. Left it in the locker overnight. By morning, gone. So I added more. Granola bars. Apples. Crackers.Then something unexpected, I found money taped inside the locker door. $5 and a note, "I'm a teacher. I know what you're doing. Here's for more food."Then $20 from someone else. "My kid graduated from Lincoln. This school saved him. Keep going."Within a month, other staff knew. The nurse donated. The librarian brought canned soup. The gym teacher left his Costco card. "Buy in bulk," he said. "I'll cover it."Locker 247 became legendary. But quiet. No announcements. No assemblies. Just... there. A place where hungry kids could take what they needed without shame.Sarah graduated last year. Came back to see me during finals week. "Walter, I'm studying social work now," she said. "Because of you. You taught me something. Hunger hides in plain sight. But so does kindness."She handed me a photo. Locker 247, but at a different school. Across town. "My college volunteer project," she smiled. "We're putting them everywhere."I cried in my supply closet that night. Sixty-nine years old, crying over a locker.Now? Seventeen schools in our county have them. They call it "The 247 Project." Stock the locker. Ask no questions. Feed the invisible kids.I'm just a janitor. I mop floors and unclog toilets. But I learned this: Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is notice. And then quietly make space for dignity.So look around. At school, work, your neighborhood. Someone's hiding their hunger. Their struggle. Their shame.Leave something behind. Food, money, hope.Locker 247 isn't just metal and paint. It's proof that caring doesn't need permission. Just action.And it starts with seeing what everyone else walks past."Let this story reach more hearts....Please follow us: AstonishingBy Mary Nelson The Death Row DonorAt County General Hospital, 6-year-old Maya's kidneys were failing. Nine months on the transplant list, and her rare blood type meant no matches. Her tiny body was shutting down.Two hundred miles away, Marcus—a number, not a name anymore—sat in a Death Row cell. Twenty years he'd been there, waiting for an execution date for a crime that destroyed lives, including his own.In his cell, he kept one possession: a faded photo of his daughter, who died at six from sudden illness. That was 25 years ago, before everything fell apart.When the prison chaplain mentioned a public plea for Maya's rare blood type, Marcus recognized it immediately—the same type he and his daughter shared. He volunteered for testing, knowing it wouldn't change his fate. The prison board suspected manipulation. The media called it a publicity stunt.He was a perfect match.After brutal legal battles, officials approved the donation as his "final act." Yesterday, handcuffed and flanked by guards in his green jumpsuit, they brought him to meet Maya before surgery.The little girl, told only that this man was "her helper," looked up at him with those wide, trusting eyes. "I want to give him a hug," she whispered."Ma'am, that's not—" a guard started, hand moving toward his weapon.But Maya, despite her weakness, slid off the bed and wrapped her arms around the kneeling inmate's neck.Marcus, untouched by kindness for two decades, closed his eyes. His cuffed hands rose gently to hold her back."You don't gotta thank me, little one," he said, voice breaking. "Just get better, alright?”Follow Us ℕ

Praise Series—God Provides In Mysterious WaysPsalm 145:14-18 “The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.  The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.  The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does.  The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”There are so many good things in this passage.  “The Lord lifts up all who are bowed down.”  How often do we need the Lord to lift us? It is so great to know that the Lord lifts us when we pray to Him and ask Him to.  When we are bowed down to the Lord, we are praying and worshipping Him.  When we spend this time with Him, He can lift us. This verse helps us to see the power of praise. When we praise and worship the Lord, He lifts us to higher heights. I heard a saying once that I absolutely love and placed on the door in front of my treadmill. It says, If you complain, you remain. If you praise, you will be raised.I have seen this time and time again. I have seen the difference between people who sit and complain about their circumstances and those who can be grateful. Those who spend all their time thinking about what they don't have and those who focus on the little that they do have. We have a choice in every situation. Are we going to turn to the Lord? Are we going to ask Him and rely on Him for all that we need? Are we going to be grateful for what is going right or focus on all that is going wrong? I promise you, if you start to focus on the good. If you start to praise the Lord for what you do have, you will get more of it.Next, the verse says, “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.”  This one is a hard one for many of us.  We do not want to wait for the proper time.  We want things to happen on our timeline, or maybe we think our timeline is the proper time.  Then we struggle when God disagrees.  My dad told me a story once that shows how God will give food to those who look to him at the proper time.  My mom & dad have 11 children.  They also had a friend who had several children, I think at least 7.  This friend called up and asked my parents if they could watch their kids, as something important had come up.  My parents said yes because they were always there for those in need.  However, my parents had just been talking about how they had no idea how they were even going to feed their own children dinner that night, and now they had seven more mouths to feed.  So, they did what they always did in these situations: they turned their eyes to God and asked Him to provide.Shortly after their prayer, they received a knock at the door.  It was a neighbor holding bags of groceries.  It turns out the neighbor's father had to move in unexpectedly, and they needed to combine his father's household with his.  They had just gone grocery shopping, and so they did not have room in their cabinets for all the food from his Dad's place.  So, they asked my folks if they could use any of the food.  My parents graciously accepted.  When looking through the bags they notice that there was plenty of pasta.  My parents prayed, “Lord, if we only had some meat, then we could serve spaghetti to all these kids.”Guess what?  There was another knock at the door.  It was a different neighbor.  He had a cooler full of meat.  He said that he and his friend had been hunting and they had too much meat.  He explained that he and his friend had already stuffed their fridge and freezer, and still they had no room for this leftover meat.  Again, my parents graciously accepted.  Then, when they looked in the cooler, there was ground meat for spaghetti.  They were so thankful.  This was not a one-time thing for my parents.  My parents were faithful in their prayers, not just when they were in need, but even when things were going well.  God was faithful in answering them. My parents did not have a lot, and yet I didn't hear them complain a lot. My parents knew that God was their provider. They knew that all they had came from Him, so they praised Him and thanked Him for all He gave them.Next, it says, “You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.”  This is another great verse.  I believe that God puts our desires in our hearts.  I am talking about our deep desires, not the desire to eat ice cream at midnight. The desires I am talking about are the desires to have a specific job, the desire to be married and have children, the desire to sing, or act, or whatever it is you feel you are called to do.  As this verse states, God wants to satisfy the desires of every living thing.  I know this can be hard to believe if you have a desire that you have been waiting for God to satisfy.  Maybe you have been waiting for the right man/woman to come along so that you can be married and have children.  I know it is hard when we want something, and we have to wait a very long time.  Isaiah 55:9 says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  God has a plan for our lives, and it is better than our own.  I know this can be frustrating because God does not always let us in on His plan for our lives. Sometimes we can be left wondering what His plan is and when we will understand it.  If you have been thinking these things, I want you to know that you are not alone. Many of us do not understand God's plan or why the things we have been praying for have not happened yet.It's easy to lose hope when our prayers aren't answered immediately.  It can be frustrating when we pray for something and don't seem to get any answers.  I found this definition of hope online, and I really like it.  In the Bible, hope is the confident expectation of what God has promised, and its strength is in His faithfulness.  We know God is faithful to His children.  We know He keeps His promises.  Therefore, we can confidently expect that He will answer our prayers.  It says in Hebrews 13:8, ”Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever." Jesus has kept all of his promises in the bible.  If He did it then, He will do it now.  If you are getting frustrated waiting for your desires to be fulfilled, I ask that you turn to the scriptures and either use the ones in this episode or find other ones that show you how faithful your Heavenly Father is.  He will come through. Please don't give up asking for what you want.  Saying that makes me think of the story in Luke 18:1-8 of the persistent widow.  “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.  He said, “In a certain town, there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.  And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.' “For some time, he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually come and attack me!'”And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.  And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?  I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”Jesus told this parable to show his disciples that they should pray and not give up.  If He was worried his disciples would stop praying and give up, and they lived with Him day and night for 3 years, then I think He will cut us some slack for wanting to give up.  I am sure He gets how frustrating it is to wait for the Lord's timing.  If you are tempted to give up and stop praying for something that you genuinely desire, I ask you to pause and remember this woman in the parable.  What if she had stopped bothering the judge?  What if she had not kept going back?  Would she have her justice?  We never know when the answer is right around the corner.  What if you pray for 3 years, then stop, and God wants to give it to you the next day?  Don't stop praying for your deepest desires. He gave you those desires, and he will bring them into being if you let Him.  We need to thank the Lord for fulfilling our desires even before we have proof that He is fulfilling them. Praising Him for things unseen shows the Lord that we trust Him to keep His promises to us just as He did to His people in the Bible. God did extraordinary things in Scripture, and He is still doing extraordinary things today. Are we going to be able to see those extraordinary things? Are we going to praise Him for those extraordinary things even before we see them? Are we going to trust that God keeps His promises and that if He has done it before, He will do it again? You get to choose how you respond.Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all of those listening to this podcast today. Lord, we ask that you help us to praise you, even as we wait for answers. We ask that you fill us with hope for those desires that we've been praying for. Lord, we pray that you give us perseverance to keep praying even when there's no end in sight. Lord Jesus, we ask that you give us strength to keep praying when we don't have any answers. Give us strength when we're weak, and we don't think we can go on. Lord, we know that you are the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We know that you've kept your promises in the past and you will continue to do so. Lord, we ask that you fortify our hope and faith in you. We ask that you increase our faith. Lord, if there is a desire that we have given up on that you want to give to us, we ask that you renew that desire in our hearts, Lord Jesus. We ask that you keep whispering it louder and louder until we can no longer ignore it. Lord, we thank you for fulfilling these desires, as we know you keep your promises, and so these desires will be fulfilled. We thank you for helping us stay persistent and for giving us the strength to keep asking. Lord, we thank you for listening to all of our prayers every time we ask. Lord, we love you so very much, and we ask all of this in accordance with Your Will and in Jesus ' Holy Name.  Amen. Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I want to invite you all to sign up for my newsletter. It is just a once-a-week newsletter that has a brief teaching on the mentoring topic for the month, and then any news on my life and what is upcoming for the podcast or mentoring. I do have some very exciting news about the podcast that I will be sharing shortly. If you would like to sign up, you can CLICK HERE or head over to my website, findingtruenorthcoaching.com. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “My children, I come to you as a gentle rain. I come to you as a torrential waterfall. I come to you at every moment of your life in the way you need me at that moment.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Praise Series- Praising in the WaitPsalm 40:1 “I waited and waited and waited some more, patiently, knowing God would come through for me. Then, at last, he bent down and listened to my cry.”My friend gave me this verse above, and I instantly loved it. I love that it captures our reality at times and also captures the love of the Father. Sometimes, we feel like we are asking and asking the Lord for something, and yet we wait and wait and see no answers to those prayers. Have you been in a season of waiting? Have you been asking the Lord for something, and yet you are still waiting for the answer to those prayers? This can be really hard. We pray to the Lord, and we want Him to help us right away, or at least I do. I really struggle at times with waiting to see the results of my prayers. This is especially true if I am praying over someone for healing.I struggle because I know how powerful God is, and I know He can heal anyone at any time. I struggle because I don't believe he wants to see anyone struggle, and yet He doesn't heal everyone, and He definitely doesn't heal everyone the second we pray for healing. So, we end up doing what this verse says: we wait, and we wait, and we wait. Sometimes we wait patiently, as this verse says, and sometimes, not so patiently. It all depends on our circumstances at the time. One thing I like about this verse is that it says I waited patiently because I knew God would come through for me. This is important for us all to remember. God will come through. It is also important to remember that His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts.If I can remember this, I could wait more patiently. I need to remember that God knows what He is doing and that His plan is better than my plan. He is the creator of the Universe; of course, His plan is better than my plan. If he is not healing someone right away, there is a reason for it. I don't have to know that reason, I just have to know that He has one.One way to remind myself that God has a plan and to trust that God will come through is to think back to all the times He has come through in the past.  When did the Lord come through for you? When in the past did you wait on the Lord, and then he answered your prayers? I know for me, He has always come through, and sometimes I ask for some pretty big things. When I asked the Lord to heal my niece and let her live, He did, and we didn't even have to wait very long. Well, I am sure it felt like a long four months in the hospital before she could come home. When I asked him to help my son get off of drugs, He did. When I asked Him to take away my dad's pain, He did. When I asked Him to take away my sister's pain, He did. When I asked Him to save my marriage, He did. God has come through for us more times than I can count, and this is why I can wait patiently. I know He will always come through for me. He will always come through for you, too! We just have to wait longer than we would like at times.I love that this verse says, “Then, at last, he bent down and listened to my cry.” I love this because it shows the Father as a loving father. It shows that He cares about us. It doesn't just say they finally heard us. I love that it says he bent down and listened to my cry. What I picture is a loving Father who bends down to listen to me cry. He doesn't just stand there and let our cries go up to his ears. He bends down to show us we have His attention. I picture Jesus; since we don't really know what God looks like, bending down, and I picture us as little children whispering our requests into his ear. It's almost like we are telling Him a secret, one that no one knows.I love to picture the Father like this. I think if we read more verses like this, we begin to see God as our loving Father rather than a stern Father figure who is judging us and just waiting to call us out on everything we are doing wrong. God loves us, and He wants to answer our prayers. However, like a loving Father, He also knows that when we ask for something that is not good for us or that we are not quite ready for. He knows this, so he either gives us something else or waits until we are ready. God is so good!One thing that I have found really helps in the waiting is praising the Lord. If we are going to have to wait anyway, then how are we going to spend that time? We could spend it complaining about the wait and how miserable we are, or we can spend it praising the Lord for the good He does every single day and for the good we know He will do when He answers our prayers. Which would serve you better? Which would be a better way to pass the time? God is good. If you look back over your lives, I am sure you can see many ways in which He has come through for you. It might not always be exactly how you would like or when you would like, but He does always show up.If things have been bad for a really long time and you honestly can't think of a time when God has come through for you, then praise Him for what He has done for others. Or, you can praise Him for things like a really good cup of coffee, or a sunny day just when you needed it. When I remember to focus on praise, my whole day gets better. When I am focusing on praise, I can see God more throughout my day. When I am looking for reasons to thank Him, I always find them. I find the green lights are just long enough for me to get through them. I find that my day seems to stretch so I can get everything done.Praising in the waiting isn't always easy, trust me, I know that. I was praying for peace in my house for over 15 years, and I still have to pray for it some days. I can promise you that it is worth it. I can promise it will make the wait more bearable. Praising in the wait can even allow you to have joy in the midst of really hard times. Finding things to be grateful for in the wait shows you that there are good things mixed in with the bad. Life is not all bad, even when it seems like most of it is bad. There can always be joy if you choose to look for it. Will you join me in praising the Lord today?Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each and every person listening to this episode today. Lord, help us wait patiently for your timing. Help us to understand that your timing is best. Help us to see that you know what is best for us. Help us to have faith that you will come through for us. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I would like to invite you all to join my email list. I will not overwhelm you with emails. It is usually one email a week with an article on the mentoring topic for the month. Then I include any other info about what is coming up with Walk Boldly With Jesus. If you would like to join my email list you can go to my website FindingTrueNorthCoaching.com or you can click on the link below. That will sign you up for my emails, and it will also get you an awesome free audio training. I look forward to meeting you all here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Walk with faith. Believe that all is possible. David slew Goliath, the giant of his time. David crippled him with one shot from his slingshot, a child's weapon at best, but whose power came from me.”  www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Praise Series — God Is Not Punishing You!Psalm 103:8-10, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.”Praising the Lord when we are in a good place is one thing. It is a completely different story when we are struggling. One reason is that we might think we are going through this hard time because God is punishing us. I was praying for someone who was suffering from tinnitus. While I was praying with him, he mentioned that he thinks he has tinnitus because God didn't want him to listen to so much music and wanted him to pray silently more. If you lose your job or even if you lose a loved one you may believe that these bad things are happening because of something bad you have done in the past. We are all sinners and we may feel like God is punishing us for our sins.I want to reassure each of you that God is not punishing you! I am 100% sure of this! God does not punish us. God is only good. If you want proof that God does not punish us, you can look at today's Psalm. Psalm 103:8-10, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” God does not create the bad things that are happening in our lives. You did not get cancer because you had an affair. You did not have a miscarriage because you don't go to church. God is not punishing you. God did not do this bad thing to you.God is all-powerful and all-knowing. If he wants you to learn a lesson, he can teach it to you in a million different ways. He doesn't have to have you get sick before you turn to Him. Just because God can use this awful tragedy or the illness for your good doesn't mean He gave it to you. God does not create illness. He is a healer. God is love and mercy. God blesses people; He does not curse them.If you need another scripture verse, look at Romans 8:1, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Condemnation (punishment) is not for those who belong to Christ. God does not punish His children—He saves and restores them. John 3:17 states, "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. The central message is that Jesus's mission was not to judge and punish humanity, but to offer a way to be freed from sin and its consequences.It is easier for many of us to believe that Jesus wouldn't punish us, but harder for us to believe that God does not punish us. God is a good and loving Father. Regardless of what our own father was like, God is always good and always loving. It is hard for us to believe things if we have no frame of reference for them. I think part of the reason I can believe that God is a good Father who loves me and doesn't want to punish me is because my own father was a good example of God's love to me. I am not saying I never got into trouble as a kid. I did occasionally do things that weren't ok. I did get in trouble. But my parents did not condemn me or make me feel shame for what I did. They gave me consequences so I would learn not to do it again, but they didn't punish me.I know that I am lucky and that so many kids don't grow up with a loving, caring example of a Father. In the United States, 1 in 4 kids grows up without a dad in the home. That means 25% of kids in America are growing up without a dad. In the 2020 Census, there were 18.4 million kids who were living without their biological dad. It is easy to see how the view of God got so distorted. We are living in a world of broken people. We are all just doing the best we can, and yet the best for so many of us is not good enough. These are just the kids who grow up without a dad. We also have the kids who grow up with an abusive dad. If so many people have no reference for a father who loves you unconditionally and who would never hurt you, then how are they supposed to understand that God could actually love them like that?If none of those other scripture verses convinced you that God is not punishing you, hopefully this one will. Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”Jesus took the full punishment, so we don't have to. What we receive now is peace, not wrath. Do we deserve to be punished? Absolutely. Every single one of us has done something wrong, deserving of punishment. However, that is why God sent Jesus to us. Jesus came to save us from the punishment we deserved. "Jesus died the death we deserved, so we might live the life he earned.”Why would God send his only Son to earth to die a gruesome death if he was just going to punish us for all we did anyway? If God is punishing you for your sins, why did Jesus die on a cross? When you are wondering if God is punishing you. When the enemy is whispering in your ear that you deserve this because of all the things you have done, I want you to take a look at a crucifix and ask yourself this question: “If that is true, if God is punishing me for all I have done, then what did Jesus die for?”We must know that God is not punishing us, because once we know this, praising becomes a bit easier. I know it is still not easy to praise in difficult times. I know there are many circumstances where the idea of praising God or being grateful for anything while you are in that circumstance seems unthinkable and impossible. That is why I am doing this series. My prayer is that by the end of this series, you know how vital praise is, you know how to praise, and you can praise, even in the challenging times. I genuinely believe that praise is the secret answer to so many of our problems.Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who are listening to this episode. Lord, please help us in the wait. Help us to believe you are not punishing us. Help us to believe you are with us while we wait. Help us to keep faith and hope that things will get better and that we won't be in this forever. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with Your Will and in Jesus's Holy Name, Amen!Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you have been enjoying this podcast and you are looking for more, I want to invite you to join my mentoring group.  If you are enjoying this series on praise, this might be the perfect month to join the mentoring program. It is Tuesday nights at 8 PM Eastern Time on Zoom. If you can't make that time, no worries, you can always watch the replay. I would love to help you grow closer to the Lord. Click on the link in the show notes for more info. I could meet you live on Zoom on Tuesday. I would love to get to know each one of you. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day.Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Have no fear about how you will respond or how you should respond. Because my Holy Spirit given to each of your hearts deep inside of you, will respond as you see more and more clearly what it is that I wish to pour out on my people for healing, for goodness, for mercy, for forgiveness.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Praise Series-Sacrifice is the Heart of WorshipPsalm 95:6-8 “O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!”This verse was received at the prayer group yesterday, and when I read it this morning, I thought it would be a great one for today's devotional. It talks about worshiping the Lord and hearing the Lord's voice. These are both things I love to talk about, so it seemed perfect. I also think they are great topics to end the week with. I believe the world could be a much better place if more of us were worshipping the Lord instead of all the things in this world that we worship.I was listening to Father Mike Schmitz's sermon from Sunday, October 27th, yesterday on Spotify, and I really enjoyed it. He talked about how the heart of worship is sacrifice. He said you can tell how important something is to someone by what they are willing to sacrifice for it. I thought this was interesting and also challenging at the same time. Everything involves a sacrifice or at least a giving of something. For instance, if you want to eat healthily, you need to give up your soda, your junk food, and your comfort foods. If you want to watch TV, you need to give up that time that could have been spent doing something else. If you want to worship God, you need to give Him your time.Father Mike talked about one of the most important times to worship the Lord in Jewish culture: Passover. He described how the Jewish people would sacrifice a lamb to the Lord at Passover. However, they wouldn't just buy a lamb and then sacrifice it. They would buy a lamb the Sunday before Passover, and they would bring this lamb into their home. They would live with this lamb for a week. They would begin to care for this lamb, and they may even love this lamb by the end of the week, as they have just spent the week taking care of it. Then, they would carry this lamb upon their shoulders and bring it to the temple to sacrifice it to the Lord. They would do this every year.  All this talk about sacrifice being the heart of worship really challenged me. It challenged me because I am in a season where sacrifice is hard for me. Well, true and meaningful sacrifice is hard for me. These days, it seems I am all too happy to sacrifice my productive time so that I can watch TV. However, what am I getting from the TV? What is that saying about what I am worshipping? I am really struggling with sacrificing for the Lord. My heart wants me to fast, and my brain finds all these reasons why I can't. My heart wants to spend more time alone with the Lord, and yet I find myself watching TV instead.I am not sure why sacrifice is so hard for me right now. Sometimes, it comes much easier. I used to be pretty good at fasting or not watching TV. I am not sure why it is more of a struggle these days, other than the fact that life is not always linear. I heard this term when I was teaching about the dark night of the soul, and I think it not only applies to that, but it applies to all of life. Sometimes, we can think that life is like a mountain we are climbing, and we climb this mountain slowly and steadily, and then we reach the top. However, have you ever really climbed a mountain or seen someone climb a mountain? Yes, slow and steady is a good pace, but you aren't always moving forward. Sometimes, you slip and fall. Sometimes, you catch yourself right away, and other times, you slide down a bit before getting back up again. Sometimes, there will be a big cliff you can't climb directly, so you need to take another path, which might not be headed up the mountain, but rather around the mountain until you find a safe way up the mountain.Do you see how walking up the mountain is probably not just a straight path up? Life is like this. It is not linear, meaning we go from one step to the next to the next. Sometimes, we go to the next step, and then we regress back three steps, then we take the next right step. Life is a process. It is one we all go through, and I am sure if you look over your life, you will see that it didn't always feel like you were moving forward. Sometimes, it felt like you were moving backward.I think going into this weekend, we can remember what Father Mike said about the sacrifice being the heart of worship. How can we worship the Lord better this weekend? What can we sacrifice in order to show our love for the Lord? If we look at what we are already sacrificing in our lives, that will show us what we are worshiping right now in our lives. What are you worshiping? For me, I think it is food and TV, but I wish it was the Lord. This weekend I will spend some time talking with the Lord and seeing what He thinks I should be sacrificing.Which brings me to the second part of this verse. The last line of this verse says, “ For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!” We are the sheep, and the Lord is our shepherd. Sheep can hear their shepherd. There have been studies done where they put a bunch of different herds of sheep together, and they disguised the shepherds so they were wearing different clothes and smelled different, and then they had the shepherds call out to the sheep. The sheep went with their shepherd because they recognized the voice.We can hear the Lord's voice, too! I like that the verse says, “O that today you would listen to his voice!” This is the desire of the Lord. He wants to talk with each one of us, and yet we are not listening to His voice. I think for most of us, we are not listening because we didn't know we could hear the Lord's voice. This is why I love talking about listening to the Lord. The more we talk about it, the more people will understand that we all have this gift. They will know that they, too, can listen to the Lord. This is such an amazing gift, and it is so important for us all to know that we have it. It is not set aside for a select few special people. It is a gift God wants to share with each and every one of us.Let me briefly go over the ways that we can hear the Lord's voice. You might already be hearing Him, and you didn't know it was Him. We can hear the Lord in four main ways. First, you may hear a voice in your head, which usually sounds a lot like your own voice. Second, you may have a thought that just pops into your head. Third, you might have a feeling about something. It is not a word or a thought, but you know something because of a feeling somewhere in your body. The fourth way is through a vision. You might see something, almost like a dream. The vision can either be like a dream, where it plays sort of like a movie, or it could just be an image, almost like a picture that you see. God can speak to you using one of these methods, a few of them, or all of them. Usually, He uses the one that He knows we will be most comfortable with because He doesn't want to scare us.You may be hearing the Lord already. Have you ever asked Him a question and then felt like you knew what the answer was? You didn't understand how you knew, but you definitely knew the answer to the question you asked the Lord. If you have not spent any time trying to hear the Lord, I invite you to spend some time this weekend practicing hearing the Lord. The reason I say practicing is because it can be hard sometimes. We don't always believe we can hear the Lord, and so sometimes, it takes a bit to get over ourselves. It can take a while to convince ourselves that we aren't crazy and that the Lord really does want to talk to us.One way that helped me was to journal our conversations. I would write a letter to the Lord, then I would ask the Lord to answer my letter using my pen, and I would write a letter back to myself. Now, I have started asking the Lord specific questions and then writing down whatever comes to mind right afterward. I don't question it while I am writing it down. I just write down all that I hear, and then I reread it the next day to see if I think the Lord could have said that. The Lord will never contradict Scripture. That is His written word, and so if you hear something that tells you to do something you know is wrong, that is not the Lord. Also, the Lord is gentle, and He does not condemn us. If you are receiving words that make you feel shame, regret, or just overall bad feelings, that is not the Lord either. The Lord may convict you of something while He is talking to you but never in a way that leaves you feeling shame.I hope you will try to hear the Lord's voice this weekend. I hope you will spend time with Him in conversation. Maybe ask Him a question you have always wanted to ask Him. I also hope you spend some time thinking about how worship is the heart of sacrifice. So, what are you currently worshipping with your sacrifice and how can you shift your worship more towards the Lord?Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you, and we want to worship you. Please help us. Show us where we are worshiping other things instead of you. Help us to sacrifice for you, Lord. We also want to hear your voice, Lord. Help us to hear your voice. Give us the confidence we need to know you are talking to us. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. We completed our “Come As You Are Series” the other day, and I thought we might take a break from doing series. However, I talked with the Lord this morning and came up with Praise at the end for our next series. It is something that is so powerful and yet overlooked. I saw a quote I had placed in front of my treadmill several years ago that says, “If you complain, you will remain. If you praise, you will be raised!” I believe this with my whole heart, and so I decided to start the new series this morning. I hope you enjoy it. Remember, if you liked the series on Identity, all the “I AM statements," I put it all together in a book, and you can find that on Amazon. It would be a perfect gift for someone you care about for Christmas. If we are firm in our identity as a Child of God, our lives can look so much different. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Open the eyes of your heart, for they are the eyes that see with the clarity of my Holy Spirit who lives within you. They are the eyes that show you the depth of my love, not just for you but for all my people. When you open those eyes, you will see things that perhaps you wish you did not see. But I will fill your heart with my forgiving, merciful love so that when you see things that disturb you, that upset you, you will know my heart and you will have the grace to respond with my fullness of mercy.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Today's Witness is from a very dear friend of mine. It is her testimony of how she forgave someone who did the unthinkable to her. She is a wonderful woman who has such a strong love for Jesus. She is a mother of two kids and a wife. She is a photographer, a karate champion, and so much more! You can hear in her voice just how excited she is for this breakthrough. God is so good! We have all seen God working in our lives. However, we might not all be aware it is God working in our lives. This is why it is so important we start talking about it more. The more we share our experiences, the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us. If you would be willing to share any experience of how God has worked or is working in your life, please email me at catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com or click here. It won't take up much of your time, and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today. Prayerfully consider sharing. Everyone has a story, and the world needs to hear them. Music:"Adding the Sun"fine us. It is not fun, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com CLICK HERE TO DONATE CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring  CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Matthew 18:21-22 “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”A few of the ladies from my prayer group and I attended a bootcamp to teach us about the unbound method of deliverance.  Unbound is a method of setting people free from the things that weigh them down.  Sometimes we open doors to the enemy in ways we didn't know and Unbound helps us close those doors.  There are 5 Keys in the Unbound program.  The five keys are: Repenting of sin and expressing faith in Jesus; forgiving oneself and others; renouncing the lies, spirits, and tactics of Satan; taking authority over the works of Satan; receiving the Father's blessing. When you go through an Unbound session you meet with someone and they walk you through each of these keys.  In our first night of training we covered an intro and then we learned about the first two keys.  The first one was repenting of sin and expressing faith in Jesus.  We all sin, it is a part of our daily life, and yet when we sin in hurts our relationship with God.  When we sin we are opening a door for the enemy to come in.  Repentance for our sins is a big part of our freedom.  If we truly want to be free we can't have our sins hanging over us.  One way our sins can invite the enemy in is because He will then use that sin to make us ashamed of what we did.  Shame is straight from hell, it is not from God.  Once we start to feel ashamed then we pull away and we tend to isolate because we feel as though we aren't worthy of anything.  Once we repent we bring our sins out of the darkness and into the light and they no longer have hold over us.  The second key we talked about is forgiveness.  This is the one that left the biggest impression on me.  This is the one that I don't think we realize how important it is.  I remember when I was at a Bible study and they were talking about forgiveness.  We were talking about Matthew 6:14, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” When they said that God forgives us the same way we forgive those who trespass against us I was so surprised.  I had no idea what they were talking about.  Now, I have been a Catholic for my whole life and this was only about 10 years ago.  I have probably said the Our Father prayer more times than I can count and yet I never really put two and two together.  Have you ever had a time when you heard something or realized something and it was life changing for you?  I can remember two times this has happened for me with scripture.  The first one was when I discovered Romans 8:11, “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.”  When I discovered we have the power of the one who raised Jesus from the dead, the same power Jesus had, that was life changing for me.  The second time was when I discovered what I am really saying when I say the Our Father prayer.  “Forgive us O Lord as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  Did you know that is what you are saying?  How many times do you say that prayer, have you said that prayer?  If you say the rosary every day you have said it at least 6-5 times daily.  When I heard this I was determined to learn how to forgive better.  I was determined to not hold things against people.  I have done my best to do this.  Over the course of the last 10 years have a learned quite a bit about forgiveness in my quest to become better at it.  First I learned what forgiveness is and is not.  Forgiveness is making a decision that you are no longer going to give the thing that happened any space in your brain anymore.  You are not going to think about it and you are not going let it dictate what you do and how you act.  Forgiveness is an act of the will, it is not a feeling.  You can, not feel like forgiving someone and yet you can still forgive them.  You can forgive someone and yet not feel like anything has changed.  Forgiveness is not saying the thing that the other person did was ok, it was not.  When you forgive you are not letting the other person off the hook and condoning their behavior.  Forgiveness is making a decision to turn the judgement over to God.  Forgiveness is making a decision that you are no longer going to let the unforgiveness eat you up inside.  The person you are refusing to forgive probably has moved on and your unforgiveness is not bothering them at all.  The analogy that I have heard time and time again about forgiveness is that it is like taking a little sip of poison every single day with the expectation that the other person will die.  I know you are angry, hurt, sad, I am sure you have every right to be and also, as long as you keep thinking about it and refusing to forgive, you can't really heal.  I talk to people I know about unforgiveness all the time since learning we will be forgiven as we forgive.  I can't help it, I understand what is at stake and I know it is not worth it.  Whoever you are refusing to forgive has probably taken enough from you, are you really going to let them take you eternal salvations too?  What they did to you, is not forgiving them worth the risk of God not forgiving you?  Our teacher on Monday told us about a preacher/minister who had died and found out he was on his way to hell.  He said he saw how horrible it was.  In hell this man saw another man on all fours on fire from head to toe.  He had a collar around his neck attached to a chain and a demon was holding the chain.  Our teacher told us that this man went to hell because he had unforgiveness in his heart.  I was curious to hear the exact story so I looked it up online.  I will put a link to the article in the show notes.  It turns out is was a priest who had a heart attack and must have flatlined at some point.  CLICK HERE for the article.Here is what priest said, "I thought I was going upward because I thought I had done so much good in this lifetime trying to help so many people and made so many decisions that were godly decisions, but as opposed to me going up, I went down.”  This priest was very angry as he said he did so much good in his lifetime.  Then he said he saw Jesus and Jesus gave him a personal message.  "He said, 'You have been secretly upset with the people who have hurt you. You had been hoping that I would punish the people that hurt you. These are not your people. These are my people.' He said, 'I only want you to focus on the assignment I am giving you.' The priest explains, “Although I did good, the thing I had in my heart was the unforgiveness to the people who wronged me. A person that can't forgive is a person that has forgotten how much they have been forgiven of.”This example is probably not what we want to hear.  I know it scared me when I heard it and yet we must hear it.  We have to know what will keep us from spending eternity with our Father.  This is why God sends people to share these messages with us.  Mary gave the little children of Fatima an image of hell and told them that more people than we know are ending up there.  Forgiveness is not easy, I know that.  I know that I don't understand some of the things that have happened to you.  I know people can be terrible and they do terrible things.  If you are struggling to forgive I ask you to review what forgiveness is and is not again.  You don't have to forgive and forget.  You don't have to forgive the person and invite them over for Christmas.  It is perfectly ok to forgive the person and never see them again, never tell them you forgave them, never talk to them again.  Forgiveness is for you, it is not for them.  The last line the priest said really hit me.  “A person that can't forgive is a person that has forgotten how much they have been forgiven of.”  What if all the people we wronged refused to forgive us?  What if God held original sin against us and refused to forgive us?  What if he refused to send His only son to save us?  Forgiveness is so much more important than we think it is.  I know so many people who are refusing to forgive because they say the other person doesn't deserve forgiveness.  You might be right and also, forgiveness is about them, it is about you.  It is about setting yourself free from the spirit of unforgiveness.  Unforgiveness can block so much from the Lord.  It can block healing, it can block graces, it can block your forgiveness from the Lord.  Is it really worth it?I want to take a minute to add some hope to this episode as if you are harboring unforgiveness it might be very scary to think of the consequences.  You might have had some truly terrible things done to you and you want the Lord to forgive you and yet you have no idea where to even begin forgiving the other person or people.  Here is the thing, the Lord doesn't expect you to forgive on your own.  We can't actually forgive on our own. All we can do is say, yes Lord, I want to forgive, and the Lord can change your heart for you.  If you are at a point right now where you really can't even say, Lord, I want to forgive, please help me, that's ok, the Lord meets us where we are at.  Can you say I want to want to forgive?  Can you say, Jesus, can you give me the grace to want to want to forgive?  If so, Jesus will help you get to that point and then you can move to actually forgiving.  My teacher told a story about a woman who was doing an Unbound session and the woman who she was working with refused to forgive her sister.  Well, this is the first key, you can't move on to the rest of the keys if you can't first get through forgiveness.  The woman was adamant that she would not forgive or even pray for her sister.  The woman leading the session asked if she would be able to ask Jesus to help her want to want to forgive.  She said yes and she asked Jesus.  She said ok, now she wanted to want forgive, but she still couldn't forgive. The leader asked her if she would be willing to do 1% of the work to forgive if Jesus could do the other 99%.  She said she thought she might be able to do that and so she forgave her sister 1% and Jesus did the rest.  Remember, forgiveness is an act of the will, it is not a feeling.  She might not have felt any different after she forgave her sister that 1% but she was willing to do it.  God will meet you where you are at too!  If all you can say right now is, “Lord please give me the grace to want to want to want to forgive.”  That's ok, just say it.  God is the one who does the forgiving.  We just need to say the words and God does all the hard parts.  God is asking us to let Him in, to not refuse to let Him work on any area of us.  Can we do that?  Can we give God even a tiny little crack of a window where He can come in and transform our heart?  Don't let the unforgiveness of what others did dictate the level of forgiveness you get from God.  Haven't then done enough, don't let them continue to have an effect on your life and definitely not your eternity.Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, today's topic was a hard one.  I ask you to open people's hearts and minds and let them hear the word that you want them to hear.  Holy Spirit I ask you to convict each person listening to this of any unforgiveness that they may have so we can all work to forgive.  Sometimes our unforgiveness is hidden and so we ask for you to show us any areas we need to forgive in Lord.  We say yes to you coming in and helping us forgive.  We say yes to you forgiving us as we forgive others.  We say yes to loving your children as you love them.  We love you Lord and we are sorry for closing you out and not letting you heal our hearts by guarding them with unforgiveness.  We need your help Lord and we are so grateful you always come when we call.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen.Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.   I look forward to meeting you hear again on Monday.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I!  Have a blessed weekend! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Come As You Are Series -- MaryLuke 1:38 “I am the Lord's servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.”I have been hesitant to talk about Mary in our Come As You Are series. I am not sure why. Part of it was that there was so much you could say about her. Another part of it was that we may feel we can't relate to Mary. She is amazing and so brave, and is the Mother of Jesus. What could we possibly have in common with her?I went online to learn more about Mary before she became the Mother of Jesus. Scripture does not tell us a lot about her before the Angel Gabriel visited her. There are a few things they do tell us and then there are a few things that we can learn from historical context. We know she was a woman living in her time.Here are a few things we know about Mary.1. She lived in NazarethLuke 1:26 says the angel Gabriel was sent “to a virgin in Nazareth.”Nazareth was a tiny, poor, obscure village — maybe 200–400 people.Nothing “good” came from there (John 1:46 “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”)This tells us:
Mary was from a humble, ordinary, overlooked place.2. She was a virgin engaged to JosephLuke 1:27 “to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary.”Engagement (betrothal) in Jewish culture was legally binding — more serious than a modern engagement.This tells us:
She was likely between 13–16 years old, a normal age for betrothal.3. She was deeply faithful and knew ScriptureMary's song, the Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55), is filled with: Quotes from Psalms, Echoes of Hannah's prayer (1 Samuel 2), Old Testament theology about God's mercy, justice, and covenantThis tells us:
She had a heart soaked in God's Word long before Gabriel appeared.4. She was humbleHer response to Gabriel: “I am the servant of the Lord…” (Luke 1:38)Her song: “He has looked on the humble state of His servant” (Luke 1:48)This tells us:
Humility wasn't something she learned after meeting Jesus — it was already who she was.5. She found favor with God before she was chosenLuke 1:28: “You are highly favored.”Luke 1:30: “You have found favor with God.”This tells us:
She already lived a life that pleased God — long before she carried Jesus.Now that we know a bit more about Mary, we can see that there may be some similarities.Here is a summary of the things we know about Mary. She was a young teen, living in an obscure, poor town. She had little earthly status, but had a deep love for God. She was humble, faithful, and obedient. She really knew her Scripture. God already favored her at a young age.Some of this we might relate to, and some of it we might not. Many can relate to growing up in an obscure place or feeling out of place in our community. We talked about this when we talked about Gideon. He was a man from the weakest clan in Manasseh and, by his own admission, the least in his family. Yet the angel of God called him a “mighty warrior.” What about you? What do you call yourself? What does your family call you? Do they see the amazing person that God sees, or do they just see you as a friend, a mom, a dad, a sibling? I know my kids are always surprised when I know something they don't think I should know. To them, I am just mom. They don't see me as someone who has her master's degree or someone who has written books and started her own business. They just see me as mom.I doubt many people from Mary's town would have looked at her and said, “She is going to be the mother of our Savior one day.” I doubt they looked at her and saw anything special. If the days when she lived were anything like when I was young, then she was probably an outcast, as those who love God tend to be outcasts. People don't understand why we love God so much. They don't understand why we would choose Him over all the “fun” things to do in this world.I was told by a priest one time how Mary and Joseph got engaged. He said that Mary had made a vow to the Lord to remain a virgin. The unmarried men in the area gathered to see who would marry this young woman who wanted to remain a virgin. They all threw their staffs in a pile, and when Joseph threw his in the pile, flowers grew out of it. This is why you will often see Joseph depicted with a staff with flowers growing out of it. When I looked up this story online, I found that this story is from the apocrypha (ancient books not considered reliable enough to be included in the Bible). There, the Protoevangelium of James claims that when young Mary wanted to dedicate herself as a perpetual virgin at the Temple, the high priest prayed for direction. An angel then told him to gather all of the unmarried men of the area, and have each one bring his rod (generally thought to be a walking stick or staff) to the temple “and to whomsoever the Lord shall show a sign, his wife shall she be…and Joseph took his rod last; and behold, a dove came out of the rod, and flew upon Joseph's head. And the priest said to Joseph, ‘You have been chosen by lot to take into your keeping the virgin of the Lord.'”Isn't this beautiful to know that God picked Joseph out for Mary? Who better to arrange your marriage than the Lord your God? I also heard that Joseph may have also made a similar vow, so it worked out well for both of them. Imagine that God knew what He was doing when her put Mary and Joseph together. I have a friend who is getting married, and he was praying about the marriage one day, and he heard the Lord tell him that it was an arranged marriage and that God had arranged it. Can you imagine? What better proof that you are meant to be together than the Lord telling you that He arranged your engagement?Notice, God did not arrange for Mary to be with someone who wanted to change her. He didn't arrange for her to be with someone who was unkind to her and criticized everything she said and did. He brought someone in her life that loved her for who she was and supported her, even when she was pregnant and they weren't married yet. Even when she was pregnant, and he didn't know how she could be.  He supported her and raised Jesus as his own son. That is truly a God arranged marriage.God loved Mary. He knew her wishes and how much she loved Him. He arranged for her to be married to a good husband. He asked her to do an incredible thing, and she said yes. I am not sure if Mary understood all she was saying yes to, and yet she said yes anyway. What if we could do this? What if we could say yes, even though we don't have all the details? What if we could say yes, even when we don't quite understand the call? What if we just said yes because we know God and we trust that if He is asking us, then we will be able to handle whatever comes our way.God wants us to come to Him just as we are, and He will give us all we need just as He did for Mary. He gave Mary a loving spouse. One who would find her a safe place to have her baby. One who would listen to the angel from his dreams and wake them up in the middle of the night and move them to Egypt until they were the same. Then he would move them back once they were safe. God will give you all you need to do what He is calling you to do as well. God is calling you to do something. It might not be as extraordinary as carrying the Savior of the World, but it will still be an important call. Will you say yes? Will you come as you are and trust that you are exactly who God needs for this particular call? God loves you, yes, you, just as you are! I hope that if you get nothing else out of this series, you will believe that God loves you more than you could ever imagine and that He wants you to come to Him just as you are. You don't have to change anything to come to Him! He just wants you!!Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening today. Lord, we love you and we want to believe you love us. Please help us believe that we don't have to do anything for you to love us. Please help us to believe we don't have to change before we come to you. Lord, this whole series has been about how you want us to come as we are. I pray that every person listening has come to realize that they can come to you just as they are and that you will help them become the person they want to be. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name, Amen!!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. This episode concludes our Come As You Are series. If you have any ideas of what you would like to see for our next series, please reach out and let me know. It could be a topic like forgiveness, love, mercy, joy, or it could be something like a specific book of the Bible that you have always wanted to understand better. It could also be on the various people of the Bible. The options are endless, as there is so much in the Bible. Please let me know what you are interested in learning more about. I want this podcast to be for you! I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Yes, I am your victory, my children. But I am not a victor as you picture in a battle. I am the victory that brings your heart closer and closer to mine. My victory reigns in your heart. My victory doesn't have ticker tape parades, loud shouting, or gracious singing. My victory has gentle, peaceful love and joy placed deeply in your heart because you know beyond all knowing that I am yours, and you are mine.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Though We Stumble, We Shall Not FallPsalm 37:23-24 “Our steps are made firm by the Lord, when he delights in our way;  though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong, for the Lord holds us by the hand.”I have read that verse several times today and yet this time when I read it I got the image of toddler walking along the sidewalk while he is holding his daddy's hand.  When we are just learning to walk we definitely stumble and sometimes we even fall.  We fall because we are learning something new.  We fall because we are letting go of the safety of the wall, couch, or coffee table and venture out on our own.  It is not a bad thing when we fall as long as we get back up and try again.  It is expected to take time to learn something new.  It is part of the journey.  If we never let go of that safety net we will never learn what we are capable of.  What I love about this verse though is that it says we will stumble, but we will not fall because God hold us by the hand.  God allows us to venture out into the unknown, but we are not alone.  He doesn't send us out alone, he holds our hand.  He allows us to stumble, but we don't fall headfirst into the ground.  We stumble and He steadies us.  To me that is a great image.  The beginning line of this verse says, “Our steps are made firm by the Lord, when he delights in our way.”  I found the word “when” an interesting addition to this sentence.  I was wondering why it was there.  I know the words in the Bible are chosen carefully so what does that first sentence mean?  The first thought that came to me was maybe when our steps are unsteady and weak, we aren't doing what the Lord wants us to do.  Maybe we are like a child venturing out on our own.  We aren't waiting for the Lord to hold our hand, we are just heading out without him.  Have you ever done this? Saw something you wanted and went after it.  You didn't stop to ask God if it was right for you?  You didn't stop to weigh the pros and cons, you didn't really give it much thought at all.  It all seemed too good to be true and so you ran after it.  Yep, me too.  How did it work out for you?  Was it all you thought it would be?  The thought that keeps coming up in my mind is, “Not every opportunity is from God.”  If something feels too good to be true, this is a great time to pause and examine the situation.    I am definitely an optimist so you won't find me raining on your parade.  Maybe it is exactly what you have been praying for.  Maybe God gave this opportunity to you as an answer to your prayers.  God does do amazing things.  Often times God's plan do seem too good to be true.  This is not me telling you if it seems too good to be true it probably is.  What I am saying is if the opportunity is from God He won't mind if you pause to consult Him about it.  He will like it if you take time to pray about it.  Even if that time is 5 minutes.  A job may come up and you may not have a lot of time to consider it, that's ok.  Take a few minutes, catch your breath and ask God what He thinks.  Ask Him for guidance and see what he says, or how you feel about the job after you have talked to God about it.  Have you ever rushed into the perfect opportunity because you thought it was the answer to your prayers and it wasn't?  This can happen when we don't stop and invite God into our decision making.  For instance, we have been praying for more money and then a promotion becomes available.  We decide, without talking to God, this promotion is the answer to all of our prayers.  However, when we get the promotion we find out it has a lot of travel attached to it, or longer hours and now we never get to spend time with our family.  Not every opportunity is from God.  Sometimes the enemy offers us things that seem like what we want but aren't actually good for us.  For instance we want to be rich and powerful and we achieve it and yet we are not happy.  These opportunities, or maybe the desires, might be from the enemy.  We live in a fast paced world and sometimes it seems like we have to do everything so quickly.  We feel as though we don't have 5 minutes to stop and think.  If you don't have time to pause and consult the Lord then I don't believe that opportunity is from the Lord.  I think that is the enemy trying to get you to make decisions based on your feelings instead of your thoughts.  Our feelings can betray us.  When we are acting solely upon our feelings we are letting go of God's hand and telling Him we can walk on our own.  We are telling God we don't need Him.  Our feelings don't have our overall best interest at heart.  Our feelings are based on our temporary happiness.  Their goal is to make us feel good in the moment.  For instance, we might eat some macaroni and cheese for dinner because are feeling sad today and want to feel happy.  However, how is that macaroni and cheese going to make you feel when you no longer fit into your clothing.  We might take a job that seems good and pays a lot of money because we feel scared that we won't have enough money to pay the bills.  However, how much are you going to enjoy that job when you find out you never get to see your family.  Do you see how your feeling can betray you.  The verse says, “Our steps are made firm by the Lord, when he delights in our way;  though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong, for the Lord holds us by the hand.”  When we stop and consult God, ask Him what He wants us to do, invite Him into the situation, our steps are made firm.  When we pause and grab hold of God's hand He will lead us.  This doesn't mean everything will be perfect.  We will still stumble, but we won't fall.  God hold's tight to our hand.  Yes, he allows us to stumble, and that is because when we stumble we learn, when we stumble we become more resilient, when we stumble we learn to lean on Him  more.  However, He does not allow us to fall headlong.  He catches us and sets us on solid ground once again.Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we are so grateful that you make firm our steps.  We are grateful you allow us to stumble because that is where we grow and yet you don't allow us to fall.  You are there to catch us.  You hold our hand gently guiding through these uncharted waters.  Lord, we are sorry for all those times when we run off without you and do the things we want to do.  We are sorry for the times when we don't consult you.  We know you know better than we do.  We know your ways are higher than our ways.  Help give us the strength to pause and invite you into our decisions.  Help give us the patience to wait on your timing.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus holy name, Amen.  Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  Have a blessed day! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Come As You Are Series - The Woman Who Anointed Jesus' FeetLuke 7:47 "Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”I usually don't have a scripture verse for these episodes in advance.  I usually ask God to give me one right before I write it, or I look in my Encounter Ministry notes, or my prayer group notes.  However, yesterday, when I was listening to another podcast, this story from the Bible came to me clear as day.  This is not necessarily strange because, as you know, I sometimes get my episode ideas from other podcasts like The Big Life Devotional, Elevation, or Father Mike's podcasts.  However, this time the podcast I was listening to was not talking about this story at all.  The story just popped into my head, and I felt as if that was definitely the verse I was supposed to use today.  I chose Luke 7:47 as the main verse because that was the main point I felt the Holy Spirit emphasized when I got the verse; however, it probably won't make any sense without the context of the whole story.  The story is called “Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman,” and it is found in Luke 7:36-50.  “When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.  A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.  As she stood behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”  Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now, which of them will love him more?”  Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.  Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.  Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”  Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”Actually, now that I am writing, I see why this came to me while I was listening to the other podcast.  The Big Life Devotional Podcast with Pamela Crim was talking about loving other people yesterday.  As soon as she said Do we love others, this story came to mind.  I think the point the Holy Spirit wanted me to make is about forgiveness.  In this verse, Jesus is forgiving this woman of her sins.  The reason she was crying and was washing Jesus' feet with her tears and anointing them with perfume is that she knew all of her sins.  She didn't come into that house pretending to be anything different.  She knew she was full of sin and that she was in the presence of the Lord.  She knew she had a lot to repent for, and she knew Jesus could forgive her sins.  She wasn't afraid to approach Jesus.  She didn't let her sins keep her from coming into the presence of God.  She approached him, bowed at his feet, and washed his feet.  She humbled herself with the faith that she would be forgiven.  Today's verse says, “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” The person who owned the house was thinking in his head that Jesus didn't know all of her sins.  He was thinking if Jesus were a prophet, he would know her sins, and he would not let her touch Him.  What Jesus is saying here is that if she weren't a great sinner, if she didn't really have many sins, she wouldn't have humbled herself, she wouldn't have sat at his feet and washed them with her tears.  She loved Jesus so much because she knew how much sin she had and how great a thing it was for Him to forgive it all.  She loved Him so much because she had so much sin.  What the Holy Spirit was saying to me yesterday was that we should be more loving to others because we have been forgiven so much also.  I feel like I am struggling to get you to see what the Holy Spirit was showing me, and yet I am trusting what He wants you to hear; you will hear.  What he showed me was that we struggle to forgive others, even when they had done little offenses to us.  Sometimes, they haven't done anything to us, and yet we don't love the person because we don't like how they look, how they think, how they believe, or how they talk.  We judge others so much, and God is saying, “Why are you judging them when I am not judging you? Why are you acting as if you have done nothing wrong?  Why are you judging my creations?  I created each person, who are you to judge them?  You have been forgiven of so much, I have overlooked so much for you, why can't you do the same?  I love you, my children, with an everlasting love and unconditional love, and I am asking you to do the same.  I know you don't all look alike, sound alike, dress alike, or believe the same things, and that is ok.  I still call you to love one another unconditionally.  I know you can't do this on your own, and yet if you only say the word, I can help you.  If you strive to love everyone, I will make your efforts fruitful.  First, you must make that choice.  You must choose to love others, even those you don't agree with.  When you wish to judge someone, imagine me up in heaven using those same standards to judge you.  Is it worth it?  Do you want me to use your standards to judge you?  Remember all you have done, remember all your imperfections, and remember that I have forgiven them all, and I ask you to do the same towards others.  Spread my love like wildfire.  I promise that if you start to lead with love, your whole life will change.  You will be friends with people you never expected.  You will learn things you never expected.  Trust me, my children, and start loving more and judging less.”Well, I did not expect the Holy Spirit to speak directly to us, although I did pray for this episode to be His words, not mine, and I did let Him know I was struggling to get His point across, so thank you, Lord, for your amazing words this morning.  I will end with that because He has said it all.Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we can't thank you enough for showing up and speaking to each one of us directly.  Help us to ponder your words, Lord.  Please help us to see how we can live into those words.  Give us the grace to lead with love, let that be our default, Lord!! Help us to stop judging, help us to love first.  Lord, we need a lot of help in this area.  We ask you to rain down your love, your grace, and your strength on us so we can follow your command to love all.  We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to seeing you again soon!  Remember, Jesus loves you, and He wants you to share that love with others.  I love you all too!  Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in July 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “As my love is poured out upon each and every one of you, breathe it in, receive it, rest in this moment of love. I am pouring through you so that you can pour it out of you into others.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Today's Witness Wednesday is from Chicken Soup for the Soul "A Book of Miracles" 101 True Stories of Healing, Faith, Divine Internvention, and Answered Prayers by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and LeAnn Theiman. Today's witness is about a woman who found out she had 5 weeks to live and yet God had other plans. We have all seen God working in our lives. However, we might not all be aware it is God working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences, the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience of how God has worked or is working in your life, please email me at catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com or click here.  It won't take up much of your time, and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story, and the world needs to hear them. Music: "Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com CLICK HERE TO DONATE CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring  CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Words Have Power to Bless or to WoundJames 1:19 “You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.”This verse really hit home with me this morning.  It was the subject of the daily devotional I am reading, “Jesus Calling.”  Actually, it wasn't even today's message.  I am behind because I was on vacation and I wasn't doing my normal morning routine.  This morning I got up and decided I would do two devotionals so I can try to catch up to where I should be.  This book is so good.  I always really enjoy the devotionals.  The reason I say this morning's devotional hit home for me is that I know how important words can be, and I know how much what we can say can hurt others.  I just got back from a family vacation with my husband, all three of our boys, and my husband's whole family, his mom and dad, his brother and his wife, and their two girls.  This is one of our favorite times of the year.  It is so nice to get to spend a whole week with family.  We get to hang out and talk.  We get to play lots of games, especially with his mom and dad.  My youngest two boys love to play with their two girls.  They play all different board games and card games.  It is music to my ears to hear them talking and laughing.  The place we go to is a campground in Maine.  We stay in a cabin with no internet.  There is internet at the lodge, which is open 8-7, but not in our cabins.  There is a TV, but it doesn't have cable; you can just watch movies on it. I love this because it means we have so much more time to talk and to visit.  However, as you can imagine, my kids do not love this.  Two of them really enjoy playing games with their cousins, playing chess with their Pop (Tony's dad), and playing Parcheesi with both Tony's parents.  They also really enjoy it when we rent a boat and they get to go out in the boat and go fishing, or when we pull them behind the boat on a boogie board.  However, that still leaves a lot of time when they are bored.  They do not enjoy the fact that there is no Wifi.  They miss talking with their friends on the computer and playing video games with their friends.  Also, this year was super hot, and the cabins are not air-conditioned.  Since our house is air-conditioned, they are not used to sleeping in such hot temperatures.  Some parts of the trip were difficult for them.Our oldest really did not enjoy the vacation. He really liked spending time talking with Tony's brother, and he got to play chess with Pop a few times, but most of the time, he was unhappy.  I did go out and get him a fan at one point, and he was much more comfortable after that, but he still was very unhappy.  He is the reason this verse hit home today.  When he is unhappy or angry, he says things he doesn't mean.  He is really struggling right now, and being away from his friends and his work for a week was more than he could take.  Each day, at least once a day, he would start to say very unkind things.  Not because he really thinks those things were true, but because he was upset, and that is how he acts when he is upset.  I don't know why he does this.  It is not something new; he has done this ever since he was little.  In the moment, when he is angry, he does not care what he is saying or who he is hurting.  However, afterwards, he feels really bad about it.  I wish he could hear this verse and adopt this principle.  I am going to write it on a sticky note for him, because I know he doesn't want to do this.  He doesn't want to feel this way; he doesn't want to say unkind things and then feel bad about it later.  He needs help learning to control what he says, and it is not human help he needs.  He needs the Lord's help.  I know my son is not the only one who says things they don't mean when they are angry.  We have all done this before.  I thought I would read you the devotional I read this morning because it really explains this verse well and how important it is to watch our words.  “Watch your words diligently. Words have such great power to bless or to wound. When you speak carelessly or negatively, you damage others as well as yourself. This ability to verbalize is an awesome privilege, granted only to those I created in my image. You need help in wielding this mighty power responsibly.  Though the world applauds quick-witted retorts, my instructions about communication are quite different: “be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” Ask my spirit to help you whenever you speak. I have trained you to pray – "Help me, Holy Spirit" – before answering the phone, and you have seen the benefits of this discipline.  Simply apply the same discipline to communicating with people around you. If they are silent, pray before speaking to them. If they are talking, pray before responding. These are split-second prayers, but they put you in touch with my presence. In this way, your speaking comes under the control of my spirit. As positive speech patterns replace your negative ones, the increase in your joy will amaze you.”I love the advice in this short devotional.  Imagine how much different our interactions would be if we all paused before replying and said, “Help me, Holy Spirit.”  Also, if you need to start a conversation with someone, you just quickly pause and say, “Help me, Holy Spirit.”  The Holy Spirit is within us.  He is waiting for us to ask Him to help us.  What if we got into the habit of doing that more often?  I wonder how different our days would be?  I wonder how much smoother our conversations would be?  I love how it says, “In this way, you're speaking comes under the control of my Spirit.”  Wouldn't you love that?  I know I would.  I would love it if everything that came out of my mouth was under the control of the Holy Spirit.  I know I say the wrong things sometimes.  I have gotten so much better than I was because I have spent a lot of hard work and time learning to say the right things and to say kind things.  And yet, I still mess up, I still say the wrong things.  I wish I had heard this before or thought of this before.  I have prayed things like, “Lord, guard my mouth.”  However, I never thought to say a quick half-second prayer every time I open my mouth.  This sounds like it could be a great way to become better at my interactions with others.  The other thing I wanted to quickly touch on, because it really touched me this morning, was the last three words, “slow to anger.”  This touched me because sometimes I can be quick to anger.  Sometimes I can take offense at small things.  Sometimes I can get upset over things that weren't intentional or weren't really a big deal.  I know I can't be the only person who does this.  When I read them, it was as if the Holy Spirit shone a light on my actions.  It was as if He was gently reminding me God wants us to be slow to anger.  God doesn't want us to take things so personally.  He doesn't want us to walk around taking offense and getting angry at everything we encounter.  He wants us to be slow to anger.  Is that you?  Are you slow to anger, or are you quick to anger?  If we are quick to anger, it doesn't mean we are bad.  It just means we need to ask God for help.  We need to ask Him to show us how to be slow to anger. It means we need to invite the Holy Spirit into more of our interactions.  Maybe each morning when we get up, we can hand our day over to the Holy Spirit.  Maybe we could say a quick prayer like, “Holy Spirit, come into all my interactions today.  Help me be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. I give you permission to take control.”  That would take not more than a second or two, and yet you are inviting the Holy Spirit into your daily interactions.  You are handing over control to the Holy Spirit.  I bet we would find this practice very powerful.  Let's start now.  “Holy Spirit, come into all my interactions today.  Help me be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. I give you permission to take control.”Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, you are amazing, and we are so grateful for all you do for us.  Lord, please help us to be quick to listen and slow to speak and to anger.  Help us not to take offense at everything.  Help us to see that our loved ones aren't intentionally trying to hurt us.  Helps us to hold our tongue when we get angry and not lash out.  Help us to invite the Holy Spirit into our interactions before we even open our mouths to say anything.  When we do speak out rashly and possibly unkindly, help those we offend to forgive us and to heal from what we said.  We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

We Are More Than Conquerors Through Him Who Loved UsRomans 8:35-39 “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”This scripture verse is letting us know that there is nothing that we can do that will separate us from God's love.  It is also telling us that we should not interpret the bad things that are happening in our lives as proof that God has stopped loving us.  God will continue to love us forever.  There is nothing that we can do to change this.  The verse is asking us if hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword will separate us from Christ.  This is a tough question because these things can separate us if we let them.  One really important part of this verse is when it says, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”  Do you need to hear that again?  “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”If this is the case, then why do we feel so defeated at times?  Some of the things listed above can absolutely separate us from Christ if we let them.  Have you ever gone through a hardship and instead of feeling closer to God, you felt farther away?  Have you ever struggled to see where God was in all of your pain?  This can happen to a lot of people.  I just heard about a couple that lost one of their 6-month-old twins.  Loss of a child is something that can really strain your relationship with God.  Losing a loved one is always hard.  However, losing a child has got to be one of the hardest things to understand.  It makes no sense to us.  Why did she have to die?  Why would God do this to their family?  Why wouldn't God heal her, as we know that He can?  When we are hurting, we tend to lash out and we try to find someone to blame.  God is a good candidate as He is strong and He can take our anger.  God doesn't mind when we yell at Him, as He understands what we are going through.  The problem is when we don't process our anger and our grief, and we stay mad at God.  If we are able to lean into God instead of turning away from Him in anger, God can give us the strength to get back up again after we have been knocked down.  God can ease our pain and help us to get out of bed in the morning.  God can help us find a reason to go on.  We can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us.  We can defeat the grief we feel if we turn to God and ask Him to help us.  The same is true with any hardship you are going through.  Maybe you have lost your job, and you don't know how you are going to provide for your family right now.  Turn to God, and He will help you provide.  He will provide for you if you ask Him to. He is amazing!What about persecution and famine, could that separate you from Christ?  I can see how it could.  If you are being persecuted for your beliefs, you may start to hide your beliefs more so that you fit in with the crowd.  You may even compromise your beliefs just so that you do not get persecuted anymore.  Today, when I was listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, Father Mike read from 2 Maccabees 6.  It told the story of a wise old man named Eleazar.  The Greeks were trying to get the Jews to become more like the Greeks.  They were trying to force Eleazar to eat pork, which was against Jewish laws.  His friends were telling him that it would be ok, he could eat whatever meat he wanted to eat, but it would look like he was eating the pork.  The Greeks wouldn't know the difference, and Eleazar wouldn't have to die.  However, Eleazar refused, saying that if people saw him eat the meat and thought that he had gone against the Lord's law, then they too might sin, and He couldn't do that.  Eleazar was able to withstand the persecution, but what about those who didn't?  Persecution and famine can definitely mess with your head.  Most of us don't want to die, especially if that dying involves torture and a painful death.  We also don't want to starve to death. When you don't have anything to eat and you haven't had anything for a very long time, you will do something that you normally wouldn't.  The same goes for how you act when your life is on the line.  These things don't have to separate us from the Lord.  If we turn to Him and ask Him for help, we will get the help we are looking for.  Remember, it says right in this verse that, “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”  We can conquer anything with Christ.  He is there for us, and He will help us get through whatever it is we are going through.  The only thing we need to do is ask for this help and then accept when He offers it to us.  I know accepting help can be hard.  We think we need to be strong and do it all ourselves.  I am telling you, accept the help.  Accept the help, even if it looks different from what you thought it would.  You never know how God will reach out and help. Sometimes it is through a complete stranger, sometimes it is exactly what you asked for, and sometimes it is nothing like the help that you asked for.  The thing is, God knows best.  If he is sending you help, it is because that is exactly what you need right now.  Accept it.  Trust that He knows what He is doing.  I will end with the end of the verse, as I think it sums it up nicely, and it doesn't really need any explaining.  “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to lean into you in times of distress and not turn away.  Lord, give us the strength to not let anything separate us from your love.  Give us the strength to get back up again when life knocks us down.  Help us to process our grief in a way that does not blame you for all that is going wrong.  Help us to see that you are with us through all the bad and the good.  We love you, Lord. You are so amazing. Help us to never forget that.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen.Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow, have a blessed day!! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Come As You Are Series - The Prodigal SonLuke 15:20-24 “So he set out for his father's house. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'  “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quickly bring out the finest robe we have and put it on him. Place a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us celebrate with a feast. For this son of mine was dead and has come back to life. He was lost, and now he has been found.' And they began to celebrate.”I really like hearing other people talk about the various aspects of the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  It seems like such a straightforward story to me, at least at first glance.  For those who are not aware of the story, let me read it to you.Luke 15:11-32 “The Parable of the Lost (or Prodigal) Son.  Then he said: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that I will inherit.' And so the father divided the property between them.“A few days later, the younger son gathered together everything he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissolute living.  When he had spent it all, a severe famine afflicted that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who sent him to his farm to feed the pigs. He would have willingly filled his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “Then he came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father's hired workers have more food than they can consume, while here I am, dying of hunger.  I will depart from this place and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired workers.” '“So he set out for his father's house. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him.  Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quickly bring out the finest robe we have and put it on him. Place a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us celebrate with a feast. For this son of mine was dead and has come back to life. He was lost, and now he has been found.' And they began to celebrate.“Now the elder son had been out in the fields, and as he returned and drew near the house, he could hear the sounds of music and dancing.  He summoned one of the servants and inquired what all this meant.  The servant replied, ‘Your brother has come home, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has him back safe and sound.'  The elder son then became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him,  but he said to his father in reply, ‘All these years I have worked like a slave for you, and I never once disobeyed your orders. Even so, you have never even given me a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours returns after wasting his inheritance from you on prostitutes, you kill the fatted calf for him.' “Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are with me always, and everything I have is yours.  But it was only right that we should celebrate and rejoice because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and now he has been found.' ”I have heard many people talk about this one parable.  Some have focused on the younger son, who took his father's money and left.  Some focus on the father and his willingness and eagerness to forgive.  Others focus on the older son who stayed and worked his father's land.  Every time I listen to someone explain this story, I always learn something new.  No matter how many times this story is explained, there is a whole new level I didn't know about.  It truly amazes me.  Today I want to explain one small part of it that Father Mike explained on day #319 of the Bible in A Year podcast. I thought it was so great, and I think everyone should hear how he explains the interaction between the younger son and his father when he comes home.  Father Mike explains that when the younger son is leaving, he is saying he doesn't want anything to do with his father.  He takes the inheritance and leaves.  Then he comes home because he is starving.  Father Mike and Stephanie Parks, who work for Focus, created this retreat called the Prodigal Son Retreat, and it focuses on the four things the father said when the son came home.First, what does it mean that the father gives him the best robe?  In the ancient world, one had only a couple of robes and a single best robe.  This son just took half of his father's money and squandered it away.  He is not a good son. He is a failure, and yet the father says Give him the best robe.  This represents giving him the glory of the Father. Next, the father says, Put a ring on his finger.  On that ring would be a signet of the father, a sign of the father's authority.  So, not only is he clothed in the father's glory, but he is also putting on his hand the father's authority.  He is fully restoring him to sonship.  Thirdly, he is saying to put shoes on his feet.  Why?  Because the son is free.  He is free to leave again if he wants to.  Lastly, the father says, “Kill the fatted calf.”  There are not a lot of fatted calves lying around.  You get one.  Not only does he get the best robe, but he is also clothed in the father's glory, then he gets the ring to show the father's authority, and he is restored. Not only does he get shoes and is free to leave if he wants to again, but then they kill the fatted calf because he is relentlessly pursued. We know he is relentlessly pursued because his father didn't wait for him to get home. His father was already looking for him, and when he saw him, his father ran after him. The master of the house did not run at the time this took place. This would have been out of the ordinary, and yet that is how excited the father was to see his son. Once his son was home, he was ridiculously celebrated.  I haven't heard anyone explain the four things the father gives to the son before.  I knew that the father was accepting the son back as is, but I didn't realize the significance of those four things.  This story is a parable to explain what it is like for us when we come home. Jesus told us so we could try to understand how loved we are by our Heavenly Father. The son is coming home, just as he is. He didn't get all cleaned up before coming home. He didn't wait till he earned back all the money or became successful. He was at the bottom of the bottom, and he still summoned up enough courage to come back home to his father. Can we be brave too? Can we summon up the courage to come to the Lord, even though we don't feel worthy? Can we come to the Lord just as we are? God loves us. Can we accept that love? Please close your eyes and picture your Heavenly Father running up to you and putting his arms around you and picking you up and spinning you around like you are a little kid. How amazing does that feel?Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, you are amazing.  I love that you teach us in parables.  I love that you reveal the truth to us slowly so we don't get overwhelmed.  Thank you for showing us your love for us by demonstrating it in the Father of this parable.  You are so forgiving, and you welcome us with open arms.  You don't even wait for us to get up to the door.  You see us from afar and you run out to greet us.  We are so lucky you love us so much.  We love you, Father, and we are so grateful that you forgive us for our sins.  We are grateful you welcomed us back in and restored us to sonship and daughterhood.  You are amazing, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen.  Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you on Monday.  Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in June 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “There is a long and winding road that leads to love, to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It leads you to places you wouldn't go on your own. As you navigate this road, you will meet many difficult and unsuspecting challenges. I am beside you, close enough to you to direct your steps, to nudge you to the right or to the left, lest you get lost along the way, or perhaps rest too long in one place.”   www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Come As You Are Series - BartimaeusMark 10:46-52 “Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately, he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.”How many of us have the faith of this man that Jesus healed?  He was sitting on the side of the road, and when he heard Jesus was passing by, he called out to him.  The crowd of people told him to be silent, but he continued to call out.  How many of us listen when others tell us to be silent?  Or worse yet, we don't feel worthy enough to speak up in the first place, or we are too nervous to speak out and ask for help, fearing rejection.  Bartimaeus did not listen when others told him to be quiet.  He kept calling out.  He believed that Jesus could heal him, and he was not going to let the chance pass him by.  Once Jesus heard him calling out, Jesus told the crowd to call him over.  When the crowd told Bartimaeus that Jesus would see him, the bible says, “He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.”  How great is that?  How many of us are jumping up at Jesus' call?  I know it's different.  Jesus was right there, and he got to see him and talk to him.  However, we can also talk to Jesus at any time we want to.  Even though we cannot see him, he is calling us to him.  He wants to invite us into a deeper relationship with him.  Do we hear this call?  Do we jump up, throw our cloak aside and run to him when we are called? I love the faith that Bartimaeus had.  He knew Jesus could heal him.  He did not seem to have any doubt that Jesus could cure his blindness.  He also didn't seem to doubt that Jesus would want to help him or to question whether he was worthy enough.  He saw Jesus walking by and called out to him.  Do we do this?  Jesus is here for us; he wants us to call out and to rely on Him.  Are we doing that?  It seems each week at my Prayer Group, God is showing up for us, and he is telling us to come closer.  He keeps telling us to rely on him, that he is our protection and our refuge.  Why are we not calling on him more?  When Jesus healed Bartimaeus, He said, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.”  How great would it be to hear those words from Jesus?One scripture verse that I think is amazing and that I struggle with is Mark 11:22.  This verse is Jesus' reply to the cursed fig tree.  Jesus said to them in reply, “Have faith in God.  Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him.”  This is the type of faith that I strive for, yet I sometimes wonder if it's possible.  I wonder if there are humans who can have this type of faith?  I know that God can do anything.  I truly believe this.  And yet, when I think of myself commanding a mountain to be lifted up and thrown into he see, I can't seem to wrap my head around that.  I have searched for this type of faith for a very long time now.  Probably since the first time I actually heard this scripture and let it sink in.  The very next verse is Mark 11:23, “Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.”  This again just blows me away.  All that you ask for shall be yours if you believe. That seems like a lot of pressure, and at the same time, a huge promise on God's part.  As I mentioned earlier, ever since I heard scripture like this, I have sought out this type of faith.  I would love to believe without a shadow of a doubt that God can do all the things I ask Him to do, that He will answer all of my prayers.  I find it a struggle to believe as much as I would like to, and I wonder if this is because I have a human brain and we were trained from an early age not to believe in things that we can't see or prove.  We were mostly taught that there are certain things that can be done and things that can't be done.  I think as humanity grows, we are learning to question that more and more.  But it takes time to overcome years of that type of thinking.  I thought I would share one way I have been able to deepen my trust and faith that God can do all He says He can do.  I read books about all the miracles God has done and continues to do.  I love reading books about healing.  God is truly amazing, and He performs miracles every single day. If we were just on the lookout for them, we would see them.  If we can't see them in our lives, we can read about them in others' lives.  Harold Hill's book, “How to Live Like a King's Kid,” is an excellent example.  If you read all the amazing things that God did in his life, you can't help but start to believe he will do it for you as well.  Harold Hill also discusses his faith journey and how he reached a point where he began to see God do amazing things in his life.  Additionally, I have read books on healing by Francis McNutt, Randy Clark, Mary Healy, Matthew & Dennis Linn, which have been particularly beneficial.  When you read about God's healing of others and how there are people out there today who are calling upon God to heal people every day, then it strengthens your faith that he will answer your prayers as well.  Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”  We all know that Jesus performed miracles while he was alive and walked the earth.  He raised people from the dead, he cured numerous illnesses, he turned water into wine, and he did many other remarkable things.  This verse from Hebrews lets us know that these miracles were not just something he did in the past.  “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”  He is still performing these miracles today, and if we struggle to believe this, then we need to seek out the testimony of it, because it is out there. Another thing I pray often is Mark 9:24, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”This story goes well with the Come As You Are series because Beartimaeus did just that. He knew he wasn't worthy to talk to Jesus, yet he called out to him anyway. He heard everyone telling him to be quiet, and yet he continued to call out, not because he thought he deserved the healing, but because he wanted it so badly. Is there something that you want so badly you are willing to call out to Jesus even though you don't feel worthy? Is there something you want so badly that you are willing to jump up and answer Jesus's call? Ask Jesus for whatever it is; what have you got to lose?Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we ask that you increase our trust in you. Lord, we believe, help our unbelief.  Lord, we need you to show us the way. We would like nothing more than to have the faith to move mountains, and we know that you are the only one who can give us that faith. So we're asking you, Lord, we are asking for the faith to move mountains.  Lord, give us the courage to ask when we need healing or when someone else needs healing.  Help us to turn to you first and ask you to heal them.  Lord, we give you permission to use us as your instruments of healing, as you used countless people before us.  Jesus, you are the great physician, and we ask that you continue that work through us.  There are too many people dying in the world today.  Let us help you help them.  Let us be your hands of healing, Lord Jesus.  We love you, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen.Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in June 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “My children, I tell you that I love you. I want you to be fully convinced of it. The more you are convinced of it, the more you will convince others that I love them, too. Again, I tell you, be bold, be courageous, be mine, and make me known.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Today's Witness Wednesday is about my trip to Ecuador. Let me explain in a bit more detail how and why I decided to go to Ecuador. My brother-in-law, Daniel's best friend, has been in the hospital for a month now. He had a heart attack and then a stroke. Daniel sent me a message asking me to pray for his friend Anival. I then sent this prayer request out to all those I know who could pray for him. Everyone started to pray for him, and I asked Daniel for an update. He said he was still in a coma and they were waiting for him to wake up so they could do the CT scan. However, they were decreasing the sedation, and he wasn't waking up.Then Daniel asked me for more prayers as they did the CT scan, and it said that there was more damage than they thought. It showed that he still had oxygen bubbles in his brain. When I got this text message from Daniel, I relayed it to all those who were praying for him, as I feel the more specific we can pray for someone, the better, as it shows all the more glory to God when he answers our specific prayers. Then I got another message from Daniel a week or so later, saying that Anival got worse and they need him to start breathing on his own so that he can start eating, as he is not getting enough nutrients.When I got this message from Daniel, I also felt like I got a message from the Holy Spirit asking me to go to Ecuador to pray over Anibal in person. I thought this sounded a bit crazy, so I did what everyone should do when they feel like the Holy Spirit is telling them to do something that seems crazy. I discerned it with my spiritual director. I told her what I thought I heard, and I asked her to pray about it and see what the Holy Spirit says to her about it.She said the first thing she heard was “go” and then she asked Him to confirm it for her. The way this usually happens for her is that she sees the word she heard other places throughout the day. In this instance, she saw what looked like “go” on two different license plates throughout her day. She felt that was the confirmation she was looking for. As I was walking into the prayer group on Thursday morning, I asked the Lord to let me hear something at the meeting that confirmed that He wanted me to go. I was surprised because I didn't really hear anything during the meeting. Then, at the end, while we were cleaning up, one of our members, who just went to the national conference for Charismatic Catholics in the United States, said, “The main message of the entire conference was to Go Out. Don't just stay in the comfort of praying within your prayer group, but be bold and go out into the world and pray with others.” I took this as the confirmation that I had asked the Lord for.Now it was time to talk to my husband about it. It was not a good time for me to go to Ecuador, as he works for the government, so he is not getting a paycheck right now. Also, he was going out of the country to visit our son Noah since he is away in Scotland for school and happened to have a week off for his Birthday. Tony is not working and has a free travel credit. They were staying with a friend, so it would not be an expensive trip, and the timing was great for that trip. Another reason the timing wasn't great for this call to go to Ecuador is that in order for me to go with my sister, Daniel, and their daughter, I would have to leave before Tony got back. This isn't a big deal, as our kids at home are 17 and 21. They would be fine without us for a night, but it would have been better if we didn't have to leave them alone for a night.Anyway, I talked with Tony about the trip, and he wasn't thrilled with the idea of me going, especially since he is not getting paid and we would both be out of the country at the same time. However, he didn't say I couldn't go, and I felt strongly that I was supposed to go, so I looked at getting a ticket. Before going to dinner, the tickets were $576. When I got home from dinner and tried to buy the ticket, it had gone up to $698. I went back and forth between Expedia and Travelocity, and I couldn't find a ticket for less than $600 now.  I sent my sister a message explaining that the tickets were too much, and so I didn't think I could go. Then, I had a chat with God. I explained that there was no way I could spend $700 on a ticket when Tony wasn't thrilled about me going in the first place. I told him that if he wanted me to go He was going to have to do something about these ticket prices. I switched back to Expedia one last night before giving up for the night, and there was one ticket for $540. Thank you, Jesus!! I bought it and was excited that I would be on my way to Ecuador in just one week.There were lots of things that were trying to get in the way of my going on this trip, which is another way I knew I was supposed to go, and that God was going to move powerfully. Whenever we are about to do some amazing work for the Lord, the enemy tries to put up a million roadblocks. I fought through each one of them. I discerned them to make sure they weren't legitimate reasons why I shouldn't go, and ultimately decided it was ok if I went.I got there last Friday night, and so it wasn't until the next morning that we got to go to the hospital. They have a much different visitation schedule than we have in the States. They are only allowed to visit their loved ones for 15 minutes twice a day, and it can be only one person at a time. Also, sometimes they switch up the times. One day, we waited for over an hour and a half before I was able to go in and pray over him. The first day, we missed the visitation time as they did it early that day, around 11. However, they talked with the staff, and they allowed me to go in and pray for a few minutes. I wasn't really sure what to say, but I just let him know that he was loved by the Lord, by Jesus, and by Mother Mary. I prayed commands over his body to be healed. I asked the Lord for a healing. I begged the Lord for a healing. I said all I could think to say.Someone came and knocked on the door and told me my time was up. I went out into the hallway and waited with the family. Then the doctor came and talked with Daniel, Anival's sister, and his daughter. They said there was an infection in his finger, and they needed to amputate the finger or it would spread to the other fingers. They also said most of the brain area was dead, so that he would never walk again. He would be paralyzed from the neck down. This, of course, made the family very upset. I sent out an updated prayer request, letting everyone know the new details.After leaving the hospital on Saturday, I asked the Lord for a sign that He would heal Anival. I saw what appeared to be the shadow of a chalice with the Eucharist on it. I also saw a bumper sticker that said Nothing is impossible for God. Nada es imposible para Dios. I knew those were both signs from the Lord that He would work in this situation.We weren't in that town on Sunday, so the next time I could pray was Monday. We went on Monday morning and Monday evening. When we went in the morning, they talked to the doctor on call, and he said they do not need to amputate the finger. Thank you, Lord, prayers answered!! Daniel also asked if they could do another CT scan of the brain, as we saw Anibal cry and smile, and they hadn't seen this. They said they would do another one.I have not heard if they have done it yet or not, but the family was in a much better place on Monday than they were after the news on Saturday. I really felt as if Anibal could understand what I was saying on Monday, not as much on Saturday. Saturday, he did seem to smile and look at me a bit. However, on Monday, especially the second time, his face seemed to come alive. He had tears coming out of at least one eye when I told him how loved he was and that God was there with him. I told him he was never alone and no matter what, he could always talk to the Lord and ask for whatever he wanted. I told him God loves to do impossible things, so ask big! I explained it didn't matter what he had done in the past; the second we tell God and ask for forgiveness, we are forgiven. I asked him to fight hard to stay with his family and he seemed to respond. I commanded his body to heal. I explained that God had asked me to come all the way from America to tell Anibal how much he is loved by God.I got home late Tuesday night, and my brother-in-law, Daniel, checked in on Wednesday to see how I was doing. I told him that this is the part I have a hard time with; we all probably do. Now is the time to trust in the waiting. Now is the time to thank the Lord for the work we haven't yet seen and to keep hoping that, in His time, He will heal Anival. I believe He will heal him. Around dinner time on Wednesday, Daniel sent me another text message that was like music to my ears. It said that I just got news and that Anibal woke up! He finally regained consciousness after over 30 days. He also said he responded to the order of the doctor when they said to open the mouth and other things with the face.  Thank you, God! Thank you, Jesus! You are so good!!! Praise God!! When I checked in on Sunday, they said he is better. He is actually getting a bit anxious because he knows where he is, but doesn't know what happened. This is good. Not that he is anxious, but that his brain is recognizing where he is and that it is thinking. They also said he is feeling more pain. Which again, we don't want him to be in pain, but it could mean he is not paralyzed and his limbs are trying to respond.Whatever all of that means, I believe Anibal will get to walk out of the hospital and be reunited with his family and dance with his daughter again someday. I am not a fan of waiting, but sometimes it is necessary, as God knows the best time to work His miracles. God is in all of this. That is something I know with my whole being. I am 100% sure God is in this, and I am so excited to see how it all unfolds.Thank you, Lord! Thank you for calling me to go on this trip and for allowing me to be part of this miracle. Thank you for the amazing time I got to spend with family. I made some wonderful memories this weekend. Thank you for the miracles you are working in this situation. Thank you for the results of this next brain scan. Thank you for whatever progress in healing is made before the scan. If it's not all the way healed, Lord, please make sure they do another one. Lord, thank you for the full restoration of his mind and body. Thank you, Lord, all the Glory is yours!!Don't worry, I will keep you updated as I know so many of you are also praying for Anibal! We can all celebrate together when he gets to go home and resume his life again. www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Come As You Are Series - EsterEsther 4:14  For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”  I think the story of Esther is a good one for this series. Esther was a young Jewish woman who found favor with the king and became the queen.  Her uncle Mordecai adopted her as his own when she was young, as both parents had died.  Mordecai had instructed Esther before she met with the king not to reveal that she was Jewish, and she followed his advice.  This story tells about how a powerful vizier to the king, named Haman, wanted to kill all the Jews living in the Persian Empire on one day.  You see, he was angry because Mordecai refused to bow down to him.  Mordecai explained he only bows down to God, and this angered Haman, who told the king that there were people living throughout his kingdom that did not obey the same laws of the king and that he should not tolerate them.  He convinced the king to issue a decree that would destroy the Jews, and upon doing so, Haman agreed to put ten thousand silver talents into the royal treasury.  When the Jewish people heard, they went into mourning with prayer and fasting.  Mordecai got word to Esther and explained the situation.  He asked Esther to talk to her husband, the king, and beg for the lives of her people to be spared.  Esther explained that if anyone goes in front of the king while he is in the inner courtroom without being summoned, they will suffer immediate death unless he offers them the end of the scepter.   Mordecai wrote back the following in  Esther 4:14 “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”.  Esther risked her life to go in front of the king, and because of her bravery, she saved her people, God's people.  We do not usually know why we end up where we end up or why we go through the things that we go through.  God is a mystery, and only he knows what he is doing.  He can see the whole picture, past, present, and future.   We can only see the past and present.  I once heard a quote that I really liked and found comforting during some difficult times.  The quote said, “You were assigned this mountain to show others it can be moved.”  I found it comforting to think that by making it through the situation, I would show others that they could make it through, too.  I also used the quote in reverse and thought, “Ok, then I just need to look for someone who has made it through this type of situation to show me that I could make it through as well.”  There is a song by Christina Perri called "I Believe."  In that song, she says, “I believe that you fell so that you would land next to me.”  Have you ever been in a situation where you could just tell that God arranged it?  Sometimes, we can tell what God is doing.  Sometimes, we can feel it in our bones that we are exactly where we were meant to be at that precise moment.  The reason I think Esther's story goes well in this series is that she had to go to the Lord and ask Him to save her people. She needed God on her side if she was going to be able to walk into the inner room where her husband was and not suffer immediate death. She was living as a queen and pretending that she wasn't Jewish. I can imagine it might have been hard to go to the Lord and ask for something, when she was pretending she wasn't Jewish. I can imagine she might have wondered if God would answer her prayers. Would he be mad at her for not being honest with those around her? Would he want to punish her for not practicing her religion? I can see how she might not have felt worthy to go to the Lord and ask for help.Esther knew the Jewish people needed her, and so she rose above her insecurities. She rose above her fear of dying, and she stepped out in faith that God would not let her and her people perish. She stepped out in faith, and she saved her people. Can you relate to Ester? Have you stepped away from God? Have you pretended that He is not there, or that you weren't His child? It's ok. Come back to Him, just as you are, and He will welcome you with open arms. I know this is hard to believe, as that is not how those we know in this world behave. This world is broken, and so are the people living in it. We often struggle to forgive and forget. We hold onto things and resent people for the things that they do.God is not like us. He is for us, not against us. He loves us unconditionally and is just waiting for us to come to him so he can pick us up in His arms and give a giant hug.  If you ever wonder what it will be like when you turn back to the Lord. If you ever wonder what God's response will be, you can look in the Bible at Luke 15:20. “ So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.” You don't even have to walk all the way back to the Father. As soon as God sees you headed in His direction, He will run towards you, put his arms around you, and kiss you. That is how much He loves you and wants you to come to Him, just as you are!! Trust that God is for you. Trust that He wants you to come to Him. Trust that no matter what you have done, you can still come to Him.Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this podcast today. Lord, we thank you for making us who we are meant to be. We thank you for placing us in this time of need.  We ask that you be with everyone who is struggling right now.  Lord, we ask that you give us the strength and perseverance to keep going. We ask that you show us those who have come before us, who have overcome similar circumstances, and give us the knowledge that we, too, can overcome the circumstances. Lord, help us believe that despite all we have said and done, we can still come to you and you will still be waiting for us with open arms. Lord, you are amazing, and we're so very thankful for all you do for us.  We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus ' holy name, Amen.Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Especially because I get to bring you my Witness Wednesday from my trip to Ecuador, and I can't wait to share all the miracles with you. It was a truly blessed time, and I am so grateful that God let me share in these miracles. I hope you will listen in tomorrow and continue to pray for Anibal. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in June 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “My children, I keep telling you, do not fear. I keep telling you, I am right next to you and I am all-powerful. You may be weak, but I am strong. Move forward in trust. Move forward in my will. Move forward. ” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Come As You Are Series - The Man With LeprosyMatthew 8:1-4 “When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; and there was a leper  who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.”  He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately, his leprosy was cleansed.  Then Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”This story of the man with leprosy is an excellent example of someone brave enough to come to the Lord, despite the religious and social laws that forbade him from doing so. Back when Jesus walked the earth, “The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face, and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!'... He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.” (Leviticus 13:45–46) While it wasn't a civil crime to be around people, it was a religious and social violation that carried serious consequences — it cut you off from worship, fellowship, and daily community life.This man would have known the consequences of coming up to Jesus and talking with Him. He would have known it was forbidden, and yet he was willing to risk it all for the chance that Jesus might heal him. Can we be that brave? Can we approach Jesus with all of our baggage, with the chance that He might be able to heal us, too? What if Jesus could heal your heartache? What if Jesus could heal all of your physical ailments? What if you didn't have to keep feeling whatever you are feeling?Life doesn't have to get worse before you come to the Lord. Life doesn't have to get better before you come to the Lord. This man came to Jesus just as he was. He knew he shouldn't. He knew he wasn't good enough to go up to Jesus and ask for anything.  He knew he could get in trouble for asking Jesus for anything. And yet, he knew he needed Jesus to make him clean. He was willing to take the chance that Jesus could change his whole life. And guess what? Jesus did! He will do the same for you if you ask Him.The man said to Jesus, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” He was showing Jesus that he knew how powerful he was. He was trusting in Jesus's ability. He had the faith he needed to ask Jesus to heal him. Do you remember what Jesus said? He said, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Jesus will say the same for you. He wants all of us to be clean. He wants all of us to be healed and whole. He wants all of us to come to Him and let Him help change us. Can we do that? Can we be brave and ask Jesus?Perhaps some of our hesitation to ask Jesus is that He might say no. I mean, the man with leprosy said, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” What if Jesus doesn't choose to? What if we ask and He says no, what then? Asking Jesus for a healing takes a level of vulnerability that isn't always easy, especially if others have hurt us in the past. If we feel we aren't worthy, then it makes sense we would be nervous to go and ask Jesus for help. What if He says no, and then we are embarrassed that we even asked in the first place?I used to be someone who hated to ask for something unless I knew the answer was yes. I had a somewhat irrational fear of being told no. I would refuse to return things to the store if they didn't fit me or if I didn't like them. I would always have Tony do it because I would be afraid they might tell me no, and I would feel stupid for even asking. I would be afraid to go up and ask if my kids could exchange their Happy Meal toy for another one, because what if they said no? It affected so many parts of my life, and yet I just couldn't do it. It's one of those things where you have a fear, and then shame about that fear, and then it just adds up.For instance, I would want to just go ask if my kids could exchange their toys, but I was afraid they would say no, and then I would feel embarrassed. Then I would probably start to cry because that is what I do when I am nervous or when I feel embarrassed. Then I would feel even worse because I would be crying for no reason, and so I would cry even more. Then I would also feel bad because my kids really wanted the other toy, and I just couldn't go up and ask.Eventually, I learned to just ask. It is not a big deal if they say no. You just say, Ok, thanks anyway. I didn't cry when they said no. I didn't feel stupid when they said no. Actually, I doubt anyone ever said no. Who cares which toy the kids have? It is very rare that anyone at a store will say you can't return something. So, most of my fears were not really necessary. Yet, they were very real and kept me from things that I would have liked to do.I get why it might be hard for you to come to the Lord as you are, especially if you fear rejection. I want to assure you that the Lord is different than anyone you have met in this world. He doesn't reject His children. He welcomes us with open arms anytime we turn back to Him. You might think you are different because you have turned away from him or turned your back on him too many times to count. It's okay, he still loves you and is still waiting with open arms for you to come back to him.What I love about this story of the man with leprosy is that leprosy is contagious. That is why those who had it needed to be separate from the community. However, when the man encountered Jesus, instead of the leprosy infecting Jesus, Jesus made the man clean. The good in Jesus, His love, peace, and healing touch, can make you clean too. All you have to do is be around Jesus, and you start to become like Him. He is infectious in all the good ways. His peace, love, and joy spread to all those around Him. When you are in His presence, you can't help but start to feel all those things.I understand that it is hard to come to Jesus like we are and ask Him for anything. We feel unworthy and unclean. Yet, it is worth the risk. Think about the outcome. In business, they always talk about your ROI (return on investment). If you can be brave and step out and come to the Lord just as you are, the return on that investment of trust is paid back a million times over. That first step of trust is hard, and there may be other times in your life when it is hard. Unfortunately, God doesn't promise us an easy and stress-free life. He does promise us that He will always be there for us and that He will protect us and deliver us from our problems. He does promise us eternal life and all the provisions and strength we need to get through this life. He promises to use all things for our good. He promises so many things. We just have to be willing to take that first step and invite Him into this mess that we call our life. Can you be brave today? Can you ask the Lord into your life, even if you are afraid he might not come? I promise He will not reject you.Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each person listening to this episode. Lord, we love you and we want to come to you as we are. We want to be brave like this man with leprosy and just walk up to you and ask you to make us clean. Lord, help us to trust that we can come to you and that you will not reject us. Please help us to believe the truth that you are always ready to welcome us back with open arms.  Help us come to you Lord! We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name, Amen!!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you have not checked out my book yet, CLICK HERE! If you would like a signed copy, please reach out to me, and I will be happy to sign a copy and mail it to you. I look forward to meeting you all here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in June 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, a vision “In every room, in every house, wherever you're sitting, you are filled to the capacity with angels. You are surrounded. Ceiling, floor, round, and round, as well as this room. As we were singing in tongues, as we were praising, they were marching in to surround us. And they were praising the Lord with us.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Come As You Are Series - The Broken Ones Are Beautiful Too!Romans 7:19-20 Paul said, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.”God knows we are broken. He knows we struggle. He doesn't get disappointed. Instead, He celebrates every time we don't give in to temptation. Every time we mess up, we can bring that to God with the assurance that He welcomes us with open arms and celebrates because we came home instead of being upset we messed up.We live in an age where social media lets us see what everyone is doing. Social media has many benefits. I get to see photos of friends I haven't talked to in years. We can notify everyone with one post about the biggest things in our lives. We get to post all the amazing things happening in our lives. It also has downsides, and one of them is that people tend to post all the amazing things and leave out all the bad stuff. Which in itself isn't bad. I mean, who wants to read about negative things? However, when we see all the good and none of the bad, our brain tells us stories about how everyone else has it all together. Everyone else can do all the things, so why can't we? Why are we struggling when no one else is? Our mind starts to play the comparison game. Comparison is the thief of joy. We can go on Facebook for 20 minutes, then feel terrible, and we can't figure out why. It's because we compare ourselves to others and decide everyone else has so much more than we do, they are so much further along than we are, they are happier than we are, and so on. We may not even realize we are doing it. Do you ever notice your mood change after spending time on social media? That could be why.We can do the same thing when we look at the various saints or we look at the people of the Bible. We can look at how God used them and get discouraged. We can tell ourselves He will never use us like He used them. We put them on a pedestal and assume that they were so holy, which is why God used them. We look at all they did for God and are sure they were much holier than we are. We tell ourselves they had it all together; they must have said their prayers perfectly, always worshiped God, and were always perfect. We do this with people we see in church, too. We see the Deacon, the Priest, the minister, and his wife; we think they must be so holy. They must not have the struggles that we have. Let me tell you a little secret: they struggle just like we do. No one is exempt from struggling. No one has this life figured out.I found an article titled' The Bible Heroes Who ‘Failed Forward' by Greg Laurie. I just want to read you the beginning part, as it shows us that these people came just as they were. They didn't change before God used them. God knew who they were, and he chose them anyway.Pastor Levi Lusko tells the story of collecting shells on the beach with his daughter Clover. Levi was looking for the nice shells that were in good condition. Meanwhile, Clover was picking up all the broken shells.When her little hands couldn't hold any more shells, she turned to her father and said, “Daddy, the broken ones are beautiful too.”I think God sees things the same way.The New Testament book of Hebrews includes a collection of great heroes of the faith, men and women whom God used and blessed. I find that interesting because these people messed up. They weren't perfect examples.But the funny thing is that chapter 11 of Hebrews mentions only their victories and not their mistakes. That is because God sees what we will become, not necessarily what we are.In fact, a lot of people we read about in the Bible messed up. Abraham, the father of faith and of the Jewish people, lied about his wife twice. His son Isaac did the same thing. Sarah, Abraham's wife, laughed at the promise of God and then denied that she laughed.Jacob lied and connived. Noah got drunk. Samson was immoral. Gideon was fearful. Rahab was a prostitute. David had an affair and then had someone murdered to cover it up. Elijah was deeply depressed and didn't want to live. And Jonah ran from God. The disciples fell asleep when they should have been praying, and Simon Peter openly denied the Lord. Then there was Moses, who killed a guy.”This article shows us that these amazing people in the Bible weren't perfect. Could God have selected perfect people to do these things? Yes, absolutely. He is God. He can do whatever He wants. Yet He didn't. He chose people who had made mistakes. He chose people who had done things that we might think are unforgivable. He chose people who probably didn't feel up to the task. He chose people who failed more than once. Do you know what these people all had in common? They said yes. Not all of them said yes the first time they were asked, but God wouldn't have used them if they didn't cooperate with Him. I love that Greg said in his article that God sees what we will become, not necessarily what we are.The same is true for you. If you want God to use you, all you need to do is say yes. There is a song I love titled Nobody by Casting Crowns. The lyrics confirm that God uses the unlikeliest of people to do the most amazing things. God isn't looking for perfect people. Just like we talked about in previous devotionals in this series. Jesus didn't come for the righteous; they do not need a savior. God is looking for ordinary people to do extraordinary things. The song starts out:Why You ever chose meHas always been a mysteryAll my life I've been told I belongAt the end of the lineWith all the other not-quitesWith all the never-get-it-rightsBut it turns out they're the ones You were looking for All this time Is this you? Have you always been on the outside looking in? Have you always been told you wouldn't amount to anything? Have you always struggled to feel worthy or part of the crowd? Have you always felt different or less than? Have you been told you are either not enough or too much? Have you been told no one would ever love you? Well guess what? You are the one God has been looking for all this time.The song goes on to say:'Cause I'm just a nobodyTrying to tell everybodyAll about SomebodyWho saved my soulEver since You rescued meYou gave my heart a song to singI'm living for the world to seeNobody but Jesus This is great because it says, I'm living for the world to see nobody but Jesus. Would you relate as much to those in the Bible if they were all perfect? If they were perfect from birth and never made the wrong choice? I know that is how we see them in our eyes. Yet, when we learn they weren't perfect, don't we feel better? Isn't it somehow comforting to know they aren't perfect? If God only used perfect people, then we might say, Of course, they could do that; they were perfect. However, when we hear about some ordinary person doing something extraordinary, we know it had to have been God. No one is looking at the ordinary little shepherd boy, David, and saying that He killed Goliath because he is just that good and he is that strong. It is clear that God was with Him, and He could only kill the giant because He was with him. The song points out people that God chose and why they probably wouldn't have been our first choice. Moses had stage frightWhen David brought a rock to a sword fightYou picked twelve outsiders nobody would have chosenAnd You changed the worldWell the moral of the story isEverybody's got a purposeSo when I hear that devil start talking to me saying"Who do you think you are?” I sayI'm just a nobodyTrying to tell everybodyAll about SomebodyWho saved my soul I want you to remember this when the devil starts talking in your ear, too, because he will. I am not even talking about if you have some big mission for God. Even if you try to come to God in prayer, the devil will get in your ear and ask, “Who do you think you are?” “Why would God want to hear from you? Remember that thing you did last week? Do you think he will ever forgive you for that?” “God has more important people to talk to.” “God has better things to do than to listen to you complain about the same pain you have been complaining about all month.” The enemy can be relentless. When this happens, not if, but when, you need to be armed with truth. That is what this series is all about. During this devotional series, we have been finding the truth in the scriptures, in songs, and in the lives of those who came before us. My prayer is that by the end of this series, we will be so confident in our ability to go to the Lord just as we are when the enemy asks us, “Who do you think you are?” We will be able to say I am a child of God. I am a son or daughter of the one true king. I am worthy because Christ died on that cross for me. I can come to God just as I am because of God's mercy and grace. God doesn't want me to wait till I am perfect to come to Him. He wants me to go right now, right where I am. I know you might not be there yet, but we are done with this series yet!Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who are listening. Lord, I ask you to show us how wonderful we are in your eyes. Please help us to really believe that you want us to come to you just as we are. We love you, Lord, and we want to believe it! We want to believe you love us even though we are deeply flawed. We want to believe you love us even though we sin. Please help us Lord! We ask all of this in accordance with Your Will and In Jesus's Holy Name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. We are coming to the end of this Come As You Are series. If you have an idea of a topic you would like me to cover next, please reach out and let me know. Also, please check out my book; it is on Amazon right now. Walk Boldly With Jesus Devotional: Who I Am: Discovering God's Truth About Me. If you do get the book, I would be really appreciative if you could leave a review on Amazon. It doesn't have to be long, and it doesn't have to be glowing. Just leave an honest review, even if it's just one sentence; it will be helpful. I need to have a certain number of reviews before I can run ads, and that would help more people find the book. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed weekend.Today's Word from the Lord was received in June 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “I saw their ways, but I will heal them and lead them. I will give comfort to those who mourn for them. I, the creator, who gave them life, peace to the far and to the near, says the Lord, and I will heal you.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Come As You Are Series - Your Sin Did Not Cause Your IllnessJohn 9:1-3 "As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him.”Another reason we might struggle to come to the Lord is that we think our sickness is somehow a punishment for something that we did. We were awful teenagers, so God is repaying us with this chronic pain that we have. We think that our sins from the past are catching up to us, and that is why we got cancer or why our child is sick now, why our loved one is sick. If we look to the Bible, Jesus addresses this for us in today's verse.You are not sick because of your sins or because God is punishing you? What if you are sick so that God's works might be revealed in you? What if God is going to use this illness for something amazing? God did not cause you to be sick. God does not cause illness. God is a healer, it says so in Exodus 15:26, which says, “He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.” However, God can use your illness for all kinds of reasons.  I heard a story in a book written by Heidi Baker and her husband. They were trying to heal a man from the Middle East. I can't remember where exactly she said he was from. Her friends asked them to come because they had had great success in praying over people and having them be healed. The man whom they were praying for was muslim, and so were all of his family members. Heidi and her husband thought that the man would be healed when they prayed over him, and it would be a lot of Glory for God because all those in the room would see him healed and know it was God who did it. They prayed and they prayed, but the man was not healed. They had a trip planned, so they had to leave. However, when they got back, they heard that the man was still alive. They went to visit him, and this time he had twice as many people to visit him because they were sure he was going to die. So all his relatives came, even those from out of town. Their friends asked them to come and pray one more time. So then they prayed over him again, and this time he was healed, and all of his family members became Christians. God used his illness, and he healed him, but he healed him in his timing, not our timing, not like when we thought he would have healed him. And so the same can be true for us.Another saint who had to deal with a lot of illness was St. Teresa of Lisieux, who is another doctor of the church. And yet she died at age 24. She had tuberculosis. Again, she was very dedicated to the Lord. She loved Jesus. She spent so much time in prayer, and she really wanted to be a missionary. That was her goal. That was her dream for how she thought God would use her to take her all over the world to spread the love of God. And yet she never got to go anywhere because she was so sickly.And yet she is the patron saint of missionaries because she prayed for all the missionaries who were there. And her writings and her work are now spread throughout the whole church. So even though she wasn't able to go herself and spread the word, God used her, even with her illness, to become a doctor of the church and to spread the word of the Lord.I just want to encourage all of you that if you're thinking that you can't come to the Lord because you have too much sin, or you're thinking you're sick because of something you did, or you're thinking that God can't use you because of what you've done or because of your illness, I just want to assure you that none of that is true. You're not sick because of your sins. You're not counted out because of anything you've done. God still wants to use you. And all the sins or the illness that you feel have discounted you, God could use them for good. Don't give up on your hopes and dreams. Don't let anyone tell you they won't happen. You have a miraculous God who can make anything happen. Just keep bringing it to the Lord! Just keep coming to the Lord, and He will be there for you!Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to the episode. Lord, you are the almighty one. I ask that you help us realize we are not the cause of our illness. I ask you to help us know that you are not punishing us. Our illness is not from you and is not because of our actions. Help us to know how loved and wanted we are, just as we are. Help us to know how much you truly love us! We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I am sorry I didn't bring you an episode at the beginning of this week. I was in Ecuador. I got back very late Tuesday night. I look forward to sharing about the trip with you next Wednesday. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in June 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Build up, prepare the way. Remove the stumbling blocks from my people's path. For thus says He who is high and exalted, living eternally, whose name is the Holy One, on high. Indwell in holiness, and with the crushed and the dejected in spirit, to revive the spirits of the dejected, to revive the hearts of the crushed.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Are We Underestimating Praise?2 Chronicles 20:21-22 "After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”In this chapter of Chronicles, God's people have armies coming to attack them from three different places.  Things were not looking good.  Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel son of Zechariah as he stood in the assembly.  He told the king and all the people of Judah that they shouldn't be afraid because they was not their fight, it was God's fight.  He told them to march down against the invading armies, but that they would not have to fight the battle.  This is where the verse picks up.  “After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.”Jehoshaphat and his army were headed into what seemed like a hopeless battle.  There were three different armies waiting to destroy them and to take their land.  You would think they would have the soldiers lead them this battle.  Even if they trusted God, you would think just to be on the safe side you would have the soldiers go first.  However, King Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise Him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out to face the armies.  “As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”Did you catch that last part?  It doesn't say once they started fighting the Lord gave them victory.  It doesn't say their enemy was defeated by their mighty hand.  It says as they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against their enemy and they were defeated.  They didn't even have to fight a single person.  They didn't have to lift their hands at all in this fight, they just needed to lift up their voices.   Do you have enemies that you need defeated?  Are you praising God now while you are in the middle of it, or are you waiting until you get out of it?  I have known that praise is important for some time know.  I have even done other episodes on how important it is to praise through the storm, not just after it is over.  However, I didn't know about this story.  I didn't know about God destroying three armies with praise alone.  Sometimes we are trying to fight our enemies on our own.  We know we need God and yet we ask Him for so much we feel we should try to do this one on our own.  Yet, instead of leading with praise we lead with anger, frustration, sadness, jealousy and whatever other emotions we are feeling in the moment.  Can you think of a time when you have charged into a situation with your emotions leading the way?  How did that work out for you?  For me, it never works out.  When I go into a situation on my own, without inviting the Lord to come with me, it never works out as I intended it to.  However, when I do think to praise the Lord while I am in the middle of a difficult situation, it always turns out well.  There are times when we think God has abandoned us.  We are praying and it does not seem like He is with  us. Maybe we are the ones who have abandoned God.  We may be praying, but are we praying with a hopeful heart?  Are we trusting God will come through for us when we pray?  Are we praising God for all He does for us?  God is working in our lives every single day, are we praising Him for that?  I talk a lot about gratitude because I think it is so important to go through life being grateful for what we have.  I think when we are grateful with what we have God blesses us with more.  Being grateful is also a great way to shift our mood if we are feeling sad, or having a bad day.  Sometimes all it takes is a perspective switch and we can turn our whole day around.  Praise is different from gratitude.  Sometimes we can be praising God for what we have and what He has done for us and yet praise is so much more than that.  We can also praise God fro who He is.  Sometimes we are in a situation where we may not want to or be able to praise God for the situation. For instance, in this verse God's people were not praising God for the situation they were in.  They were not grateful they had three armies coming after them.  They were praising God for “the splendor of His Holiness.”  They were praising God for who He is.  He is the the Fountain of Life.  He is the great “I AM.”  He is the Just One and He is the King of kings.  He is the Lord of Lords and He is the Light of the world.  He is the Lord our God.  He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  How often are you praising God for simply being God?  How often are you spending time in prayer thanking and praising God for being everything you need Him to be?  Maybe the next time we are in a hard situation, instead of charging into the situation with our guns blazing, maybe we can lead with our praise.  Instead of leading with our anger, frustration, sadness, we can lead with our praise.  God is always there for us.  Let's be there for Him.  Let's give God the praise that He so rightly deserves.  The thought just came to me that not everyone knows how to praise God.  There is not specific way.  I love to listen to praise and worship music, which is really any Christian music.  I am also part of a prayer group and we praise outloud to the Lord thanking Him for all He has done and all he Is.  I say phrases such as those listed above, things such as, you are the Light of the World, You are the Word made flesh, You are the King of the Kings.  You can also think back to all you have and thank God for that one by one.  You can thank God for everyone He has brought into your life.  Praise is time spent with the Lord when you are either thanking Him for something or you are talking about all the reasons He is awesome!!  I challenge you to find some time in your day today and praise the Lord.  You can do it silently within your own heart, or you can shout if from the roof tops, and everything in between.  Whatever you feel comfortable with.  The more you praise the  more comfortable it will feel to you.  Also, the more you praise the more you will see God working in your life.  Dear Heavenly Father I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to praise you more.  Put praise for you on our hearts so we long to do it.  Give us a thirst for praising you Lord.  It is so amazing how you defeated Judah's enemy when they started to praise you.  Lord, we have many enemies and we need you to defeat them.  Help us to praise you first instead of trying to fix it all our selves.  We love you Lord, you are so powerful.  You give Light to our lamps.  You straighten our crooked path.  You are always by our side and we am so grateful.  I ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, AmenThank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you on Monday.  Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I!  Have a blessed weekend. www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Come As You Are Series - Can A Leopard Change Its Spots?Jeremiah 13:23 “Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.”What really struck me when I read this was kind of like an aha moment: we tell ourselves we can't come to God until we have it all together. And yet, we can't get it all together without him.I think that's why the enemy tells us we don't need to go to God. We're not good enough to go to God. Wait a little while, get it all worked out, and then you can go to God. The enemy is putting this in our minds because he knows that on our own, we can't do anything.But through Christ who strengthens us, we can do all things. It really struck me when I read that verse that, yeah, we can't change on our own. So why do we think we can't go to God until we have it all together, until we've figured it out, until we've perfected this or that? When we actually need him to help us, we need him to change our hearts, we need him to change our lives, we need him to show us the way.As I talked about in one of the other devotionals, we need to attach our yoke to God and to Jesus and let them show us the way. All these scriptures are pointing out that we don't have to have it all together. We don't have to know how to pray. We don't have to pray perfectly before we come to God. God wants us to come to him as is, just as we are, and he will help us figure all the rest of it out. He will help make our struggle easier, but we have to come to him.The Lord honors our free will. If we want to go at it alone, if we want to do this life on our own, God's going to let us, and that's because he loves us and because he wants us to love him, truly love him. And you can't have true love if you don't have a choice in it.And so it's very important that we invite God into our struggles, that we invite God into our mess, that we come to God even when we're a mess, and we ask him to help us. Because if we don't invite him in, he's not coming in. He's going to let us do it on our own if that's what we think we want. He's not going to take away our free will.There was an article I read about coming to God as you are, and they had this passage from “Steps to Christ,” and I want to share it with you. "With the rich promises of the Bible before you, can you give place to doubt? Can you believe that when the poor sinner longs to return, longs to forsake his sins, the Lord sternly withholds him from coming to His feet in repentance? Away with such thoughts! Nothing can hurt your own soul more than to entertain such a conception of our heavenly Father. He hates sin, but He loves the sinner, and He gave Himself in the person of Christ, that all who would might be saved and have eternal blessedness in the kingdom of glory. What stronger or more tender language could have been employed than He has chosen in which to express His love toward us? He declares, in Isaiah 49:15, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”I want you to take a moment and think about your own children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or friends' children. Think about any kids that you've ever been close to. What would you do if they came to you when they had just messed up, when they had done something really bad? Would you turn away from them? Would you want them to have to figure it out on their own before they brought you the situation? Or would you want to be there with them? Would you want to walk through the situation with them hand in hand? One month in mentoring, I was talking about praise and worship, and I was thinking of David and how he always turned back to the Lord, and it's amazing to me. I mean, he murdered someone, and he repented and turned back to the Lord. When he had an affair with Bathsheba, he turned back to the Lord. David was always turning back to the Lord, and I don't remember ever reading anything where it says he was too ashamed to turn back to the Lord or he felt like he wasn't good enough to turn back to the Lord.When I really thought about David always turning back to the Lord, I just thought, Wow, that is a man who knows his identity in Christ. That is a man who knows his Heavenly Father, and he knows the love that the Father has for him. David was so sure of who God was and the love he had for his people. I mean, David went up against a giant when he was a child because he was sure God had his back. Don't you just wish you had that faith? Don't you just wish you knew without a doubt that God was always going to be there for you? Even when you were in danger, in trouble, running for your life, you still knew God was working all things for your good.This is my prayer for myself, each one of you, and honestly, the whole world. I want nothing more than for each person to know how ridiculously loved by God they are and that he is right there with them. I wish everyone knew they could rely on the Lord for all their wants and needs. Yes, wants, not just needs. God cares about all the things that are important to us, not just the things we need. That doesn't mean that God is going to give us everything that we want because we want some pretty silly things sometimes.Also, not everything we want is good for us. For instance, my son wants a motorcycle. Just because he wants it doesn't mean it is good for him. Sometimes, we may want something, and yet God knows that if we got it, it wouldn't be good for us. So, he closes those doors sometimes, and it hurts in the moment, but He wouldn't be a good Father if He just gave us everything we wanted, even if He knew it would hurt us in the long run. For instance, you have this promotion that just came up at work, and you didn't get it. You are really upset, and then you find out more about the job, and you learn that you would have had to travel a lot more, and then you are relieved because you didn't want to be away from your family.God knows us better than we know ourselves. God formed us in our mother's womb. He has seen our whole lives from beginning to end. He not only knows what is good for us and what isn't, but he knows what is best for us. He knows our innermost desires before we even know them. Come to the Lord, just as you are, and let Him change you in all the best ways!Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode. Lord, you are amazing. We are so grateful for all the love you give to us. Please help us to accept that love more Lord. Help us to realize we are helpless without you. We don't need to wait until we change to come to you because we can't change without you, but we can do all things through you! Lord, we love you and we ask all of this in accordance with Your Will and in Jesus's Holy Name. Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I would like to ask you all for prayers for me. I am headed to Ecuador to pray for my brother-in-law's best friend, who is not doing so well. His name is Anibal. If you could keep us all in your prayers. I am praying for safe travels and also for healing miracles. I am praying he will be completely healed and all mental and physical functioning will be completely restored. I am praying for peace, strength, and love for him and his family. Please join me in these prayers. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!!Today's Word from the Lord was received in June 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Most ears will be open. Most ears are waiting. They're waiting to hear that I love them, that I cherish them, that they are precious to me. They need that word. The world is falling down upon them.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Today, I am bringing you three witnesses from my prayer group. Each week, we take 10 minutes at the end of our prayer meeting, and we thank God for all he is doing in our lives. We share the various ways we have seen God show up in our lives. Each week, people share, and what is amazing is that He shows up in our lives in so many different ways. Sometimes healings, sometimes an outpouring of love or peace, sometimes provisions. So many different ways. If you are looking at ways He is showing up in your life, you will see them too.I wanted to share something about last week's prayer meeting. When we lifted up the basket, I had some really important, not that any of our intercessory prayers or requests are unimportant, just a couple of really big ones, and it was the Feast of the Holy Angels. So I said to my guardian angel, Guardian angel, I can't be there. I know everybody's praying for my things, even though they're not in the basket, but would you take them and put them in the basket?This is in my imagination. And while you're there, would you get all the other guardian angels, all the angels in that room, to lift the basket up to God? There we go. So I'm picturing this. I'm imagining this. But as I see them, or as I'm imagining them lifting it up, all of a sudden, the basket turned golden. Because the prayer meeting was running late, I didn't get to share that. But there's more to it now, because one of my petitions was for a wonderful priest I know who was going for a biopsy that afternoon. And I figured I wouldn't hear from him until I saw him for Mass this coming week. But I got a text message from him that afternoon saying they didn't do the biopsy. They couldn't find the tumor. Last week, I took somebody to one of these places for cancer treatment. And while I'm out in the lobby, I had the opportunity to share with a variety of people of different faiths some of the wonders that God has done, and also share some psalms and stuff. And one particular lady didn't have any hair. She had had a double mastectomy a couple of years ago and had a very severe infection in her chest cavity. Didn't have any teeth and had some major other ailments going on. And I asked her, were you brought up in a faith? And she says, No, no faith at all in the home. And I said, Well, could I share some psalms with you? And I shared like 91. She had tears in her eyes. I shared 100. And when she gets called in, she gets about 15 or 20 feet away, and she turns around and says, This is the first time in two and a half years I've felt peace. Saturday night, I was in an adoration. The same person who told me about the Eucharistic Rosary by Wording Knowledge came in. And I said to her, You've been telling me about all these healings wherever you go. I wonder if you'd want to just pray for me now. I'm not asking for a healing on demand, but, you know, whatever the Lord wants. And I explained to her that chiropractors for years have told me that there's a rotation and a tension in my pelvis so that one leg is twisted up higher than the other, and that throws my gait off balance, and at least our leg isn't bowed down. And I don't want to go back to chiropractors and have them give me a little relief and take a lot of money, you know? I'm just tired of that. And so if the Lord wants to do something about that.First, I felt tingling in one foot, and then tingling in the other foot. But then all of a sudden I felt weak. I couldn't hold myself up. And she said, Oh, the presence of the Lord is so strong, isn't it? And then when she stopped, it was because she had a confirmation that it was done. And so I was standing, I went a little way, and I'm walking like I'm drunk. So that was my sign that the Spirit had been there. So I said, Okay. I wonder how that's going to manifest in my body. Thank you, Lord. It's been so long, part of my lack of faith and all that. Bless her, and just get me home because I drove there.I got on my bed, and I said, Well, let's just see about this. Because if I, on my back, put my legs out straight, my ankle bone here is usually about this far from the other ankle bone. Those ankle bones line right straight up. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for all the amazing ways you are working in the lives of those in the prayer group. Thank you to all of those in the prayer group who are willing to share the ways the Lord is working in their lives, so that it can build the faith of all those who hear it. We love you, Lord, you are amazing! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Come As You Are Series - I Have Not Come To Call The RighteousLuke 5:30-32 “But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”The theme for the devotional is “Come As You Are.” I chose this because too many of us feel we aren't worthy to come to God as we are. We think we need to get it all together before we come to God. We believe we have to clean up our lives, and then we can come to God. I can see why we might think this, as that is what society tells us. That is what it looks like on Social media. It seems like everyone else has it all together, so we need to get it together before we're ready to ask God for anything. We can't attend mass or church service because our kids don't behave, or we don't have the right clothes, or because we make bad choices.I love a song called Truth Be Told by Matthew West. Let me read you some of the lyrics because I wish we all knew the truth.Lie number one, you're supposed to have it all togetherAnd when they ask how you're doingJust smile and tell them, "Never better."Lie number 2: everybody's life is perfect except yoursSo keep your messes and your woundsAnd your secrets safe with you behind closed doorsTruth be toldThe truth is rarely told, nowI say I'm fine, yeah I'm fine, oh I'm fine, hey I'm fine, but I'm not, I'm brokenAnd when it's out of control, I say it's under control, but it's not, and you know itI don't know why it's so hard to admit itWhen being honest is the only way to fix itThere's no failure, no fallThere's no sin you don't already knowSo let the truth be told How true is this song? We think that we need to keep it all together because everyone else is keeping it all together, but that's the thing, they aren't holding it together either. We are all just pretending. I love it when it says, There is no failure, no fall, there's no sin you don't already know. Why do we think we need to keep our mess from God when He already knows about all of it? There isn't anything we can keep from Him, so why are we so ashamed to admit it? The song goes on to say…There's a sign on the door that says, "Come as you are," but I doubt it'Cause if we lived like it was true, every Sunday morning pew would be crowdedBut didn't you say the church should look more like a hospitalA safe place for the sick, the sinner, the scarred, and the prodigalsLike me. Well, truth be told, the truth is rarely told This is where Matthew West reminds us what Jesus said in the verse above. Not what the world says, but what Jesus says. Come as you are. Imagine how full churches would be if everyone knew they could truly come as they were. If we all knew that God wants us, even when we don't have the right clothes or do the wrong thing. Even when we yelled at our kids or our spouse, even when we stayed out too late drinking, God wants us just as we are. No matter what it is, you can come to the Lord. The song ends with…Can I really stand here unashamed, Knowin' that your love for me won't change?Oh God, if that's really true, then let the truth be told This is the truth that I wish everyone knew. The truth is that God loves us completely and fully before we are even born, and that love never changes. It doesn't matter what we do or even what we don't do. He still loves us the same. We can do nothing to make Him love us more or less than he already does. When we see how the world sees us, we think God is the same. We think that we're not worthy of his love until we get it all together.However, in the verse above, Jesus tells us something different. God sent Jesus to die on the cross for us while we were still sinning. If you want to know how much God loves you, it says in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Hear that again: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.This is how God demonstrates his love for us. This one statement shows us that we don't have to be perfect to come to God. Jesus didn't wait for us to have our lives together before he died on the cross for us, so why should we wait until we figure things out to come to Him?The verse above says that those who are well have no need of a physician. Those who are righteous, those who are not sinning, those who are praying perfectly, and those who are getting it all right have no need for Jesus. Jesus died for us, for you, and me, and he did it strictly because he loved us. He did it because the Lord wanted us to come to him. The Lord didn't want anything to be in between us. When Adam and Eve sinned, there had to be a separation, and God hated that. He hated that we couldn't be with him.He hated that they brought this upon themselves and wanted to redeem them. God could have done that in any number of ways, and the way he chose to do it was to become human and to take all of our sins upon himself, and when he did that, when Jesus died on the cross, the veil between us and God was broken, and that means we don't have to be perfect to come to God. We don't have to get it right before we come to God. We can come to God just as we are, and God loves us just as we are.If we look through the scriptures, we will find God repeatedly telling us that we don't have to have it all together to come to Him. He is calling us to come to Him just as we are, in our brokenness and woundedness, and He can fix us and heal us. When we look at the people that Jesus was drawn to in the Bible, it wasn't the most religious people or the people who were doing everything right. It was the tax collectors and the sinners. If Jesus can use those he chose to use in the Bible to do amazing things, then we can come to God and lay our problems at His feet, and He will help us. All He wants is for us to invite Him into our mess. Will you invite God in today? Even in the mess?Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each person listening to this today. Lord, we are sorry we don't come to you more often. We are sorry we let our shame and our guilt put up a wall between us. Lord, we invite you into our mess right now. We invite you to sit with us in the mess and help us clean up our mess. Lord, we want to be with you, and we want to come to you. Please help us. Show us how you think of us instead of how the world thinks of us. Lord, we ask you to take away our shame and our guilt. We ask you to remove anything that is getting in the way of us coming to you. We love you so much, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and Jesus's holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If this podcast has been blessing your life, would you consider sharing it with someone today? I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, just as you are, and so do I. Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in June 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “I have called you to be my witnesses. I have called you to talk of me to others. I have called you to bring the broken and the weak. I am here for them, and I will breathe upon them. If you carry my love to them.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Come As You Are Series - Come All Who Are WearyMatthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”This is not the verse I was planning to talk to you about today, but after the night I just had, I am hoping that the Holy Spirit will talk to me as He talks to you tonight.  I remember hearing a teaching on this verse once, where they explained why farmers would use a yoke.  A yoke is a wooden crosspiece that is fastened around the neck of two animals and then usually hooked to a plow or a cart.  This yoke allows them to pull loads that they would not normally be able to pull on their own.  I think I also remember the person explaining that a younger animal is usually paired with a more experienced animal.  This way, the more experienced animal can set the pace and teach the younger one.  This seems to fit so perfectly with this verse.  The Lord is calling us, all who are weary and carrying heavy burdens.  I don't know about you, but this evening I am feeling pretty weary, and my burdens are feeling pretty heavy.  The Lord is calling us, and it says He will give us rest.  God is calling us to take up His yoke and to learn from Him.  That is such a great visual for me.  I got an image of this giant wooden yoke on the ground.  I go up and put my head in it, and God puts His head in, and my burdens are suddenly weightless.  I wish it were that simple.  I wish we could just hand God our troubles, and then we would feel this enormous weight off our shoulders instantly.  I think it can be this simple sometimes.  I think we get in our own way sometimes.  We want to hand our problems over to God, and yet we also want to hold on to them.  We don't want to completely release them, because then we wouldn't be in control anymore.  Have you heard of the expression, “Hitch your wagon to the right cart?” or “Don't hitch your wagon to the wrong horse?”  Both of these came to my mind when I started talking about what a yoke meant.  I was thinking that if I had my choice of anyone to hook my yoke to, it would be the Lord.  There is no one else that I would rather rely on and no one more powerful.  I love the idea of taking His yoke and learning from Him.  The Lord has so much to teach us. Even in this verse, He says, “I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul.”  How awesome would it be to find rest in your soul?  Can you imagine what that would feel like?  When I imagine rest in my soul, I imagine peace about all things in life.  I imagine I am stress-free and have no anxiety.  I imagine I am filled with hope and joy.  I really feel as though the Holy Spirit is reminding me of Rick Warren's definition of joy and wanting me to share it.  I have talked about it before, but right now I feel the Holy Spirit telling me that I am not the only one who needs this refresher right now.  Rick Warren's definition of joy is as follows: “Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright, and the determined choice to praise God in every situation.” Wow, yes, I did need to hear that tonight.  For me tonight, this is a reminder that joy doesn't mean I am always happy about everything.  This to me means that it is ok that I am sad tonight about things going on, and that doesn't mean that the situation has taken away my joy.  I do know that God is in control of all the details of my life.  I am sure of it.  I am grateful for it because He does a much better job than I could do.When I think about it, truly think about it, I do have a quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright.  Does that mean that I know how it is all going to turn out? No, no at all. Does that mean that I know when it will get better?  Nope, I don't know that either.  However,  I do know that eventually everything is going to be ok.  Will it be exactly as I wish it would be, probably not.  But that is ok, because God's plan is better than my plan and His ways are higher than my ways.  The last part of this definition is the part that we forget about a lot.  It says, “the determined choice to praise God in every situation.”  Wow, that is not something I always think of.  Then, even when I do think of it, I don't always want to do it.  For instance, tonight was a rough night.  Do I want to praise God for tonight?  Not really?  This is where I think we get confused.  We think that praising God is about thanking Him for the situation we are in.  There are many ways to praise God without thanking Him for the specific situation.For instance, even though it was a rough night, I am thankful that I have kids to argue with.  Some people don't, and I realize that even when parenting them is difficult, I am still blessed beyond measure that I have them.  I am grateful to the Lord for giving me amazing friends.  Friends who dropped everything they were doing to say a quick prayer just because I said I needed some.  If it wasn't for the argument tonight, I wouldn't have had the amazing gift of peace that I felt immediately after they prayed.  That is something that I am not sure I have felt before.  I have heard people say that I felt your prayers, and I always thought that was nice, but I didn't truly understand what they meant until this evening.  Not even 5 minutes after I asked my friends for prayers, this immediate sense of peace came over me.  That is definitely something to praise the Lord for.  We can also praise the Lord for being amazing.  He does so much for us, and even if we don't want to praise Him for the current circumstances, we can praise Him for being awesome and for the amazing outcome that we know He is working on as we speak.  In all the books about miracles and faith, the authors always talk about how important praise is.  I think this could be the secret ingredient that many of us are missing.  How often do we praise the Lord?  I mean, truly spend time thanking the Lord for all He does and praise Him for being our almighty Lord and Savior?  What if we all tried to praise Him more this week and see how much better our week goes?  When you start to feel down or get in a bad mood, think of 10 things you are grateful to God for.  The bible verse Luke 16:10 came to mind just now.  The verse says, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”  If we appreciate what we have and praise the Lord for it, God will entrust us with more.  What if the Lord is waiting for us to be grateful in our current circumstances before He moves us out of them?  Can we spend just 5 minutes today praising the Lord?  When I am finished with this episode, I am going to listen to 5 minutes of praise and worship music.  That is another great way to praise the Lord.  If you can't think of anything to say, you can always just listen to music.  I have heard many people say that singing is praying twice.  So if you feel as though you just don't know what to say, sing a song; they have amazing songs out there that say all the things you want to say.  Remember, all of us who are weary and those of us carrying heavy burdens, come to the Lord and we will find rest.  Take up His yoke and let Him help you carry your load.  Wouldn't it be so much easier if you weren't the only one carrying it all?  You are not alone.  God is there, He is offering you His yoke, reach down and pick it up!  Through the Lord, we can find rest for our souls.  Whose soul could use a little rest?  I know mine could.  How about yours?Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that You bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, the devil is having a heyday with our families, and we ask that you intercede for us. We ask that you show us how to kick him out of our lives once and for all.  Lord, we ask for your protection over our families and give us the strength to keep fighting another day.  Lord, we love you so much, you are so very amazing!!  You have given us all so much, and we are so very grateful.  Lord, we ask that you fill us with your love, peace, and joy.  I ask that you wrap your arms around each person listening to this today and give them a squeeze.  Help them to feel your love a little extra this week, Lord.  I sense that I am not the only one who needs this week, Lord.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen.  Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I am so grateful to have you here. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Have a Blessed Day.Today's Word from the Lord was received in June 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Continue on your road. You have been called to a divine purpose. Walk with your spirit. Use the gifts given to you by the Spirit. I have called each one of you by name. I have called you here.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

The God of HopeRomans 15:13 “ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”The God of hope, what a great way to refer to the Lord.  He is the God of hope.  All hope can be found in Him.  I like the thought of God filling me with joy and peace as I trust in Him, don't you?  I feel as though that would be reassurance that we were doing the right thing.  Actually now that I just said that I can see how this is the case.  When we are trusting in the Lord, we are filled with peace and joy.  Can you think of a time when you had a decision to make and you felt completely at peace with it?   Can you think of a time when you were so happy and filled with complete joy?  Think about these circumstances.  Can you see how you were trusting the Lord in them?The second half of 2020 and the first half of 2021 were really tough on our family.  Actually they were tough on most families as we were in the middle of a pandemic, and we were stuck in our houses for a lot of it.  It was not an easy time for anyone.  However, on top of all of this we had a lot of other things going on that made it even more difficult.  Probably some of the hardest parenting issues we will ever have to face, and we have faced a lot of parenting issues.  Although it was a really difficult time, I was filled with joy and peace for much of that difficult time because I was trusting that the Lord knew what was best.  We were encountering situation after situation that we had never encountered before.  We didn't know what to do or how to handle most of it.  What do you do when you are in a situation and you don't know what to do?  You turn to the Lord.  I spent a lot of time in prayer.  I asked the Lord at every turn which way He wanted me to go.  I relied on Him to get us through it.  I am not saying this to boast at how great I am for turning to the Lord.  I turned to Him because I did not know what else to do.  This is usually why we turn to the Lord.  When we have tried all we can think of on our own and nothing worked.  However, I would love to change this.  I would love to turn to God first in every circumstance, not just when I feel stuck and don't know what to do. This is what the Lord wants too.  He is always there for us and He is happy when we turn to Him in times of trouble.  However, I am sure He would also love it if we turned to Him in our every day decision making.  Or, what about when you do know what you want to do?  What about stopping to ask God what He thinks about you taking that job you want or buying that car you want.  You may already know what you want to do, but what if we stopped to run it by the Lord and see if He thinks it's a good idea?  Sometimes our decisions can be clouded by superficial things or we have the wrong motivation driving our decision making and we don't realize it until it is too late.  Invite the Lord into all your decisions.  Wouldn't it be great to feel that peace and joy of trusting the Lord all the time?This verse ends with, “so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  I don't know anyone that would turn down the chance to be overflowing with hope.   This verse also tells us where hope come from, the power of the Holy Spirit.  If we want to have more hope, we just have to ask for it. Jesus tells His disciples in John 16:23-24 “ On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.  Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.”  If we want to have more hope in our lives all we need to do is ask the Lord for it and we will receive it by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord we ask that you fill us all with joy and peace as we trust in you.  We all want to overflow with hope, please show us how.  Please fill us with the power of the Holy Spirit.  Please help those that have given up on hope, or have forgotten how to hope.  We love you Lord, you are so amazing.  You give us so much to hope for.  We are so grateful for all you do for us.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Come As You Are Series- Mary MagdaleneMark 16:9 “Now when He arose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.”Mary Magdalene is mentioned several times in the Bible. She is mentioned in all four Gospels. That is unusual, as most stories are mentioned in one or two of the Gospels, but very few are mentioned in all four. This shows us how special Mary was to Jesus. It shows what an important role she played in His life. The Bible doesn't tell us much about who Mary is as a person, but it does tell us a few things.First, it tells us in today's verse and also in Luke 8:2 that she was delivered from 7 demons. Second, we know she was present at the crucifixion. Third, we know she went to anoint Jesus's body in the tomb after his death. Lastly, as today's verse tells us, Jesus appeared to her first after He was resurrected. Of all the people in the world that Jesus could have first shown himself to, He chose Mary Magdalene. That is pretty cool. Again, Jesus is showing us that our ways are not his ways and his ways are not our ways.If we had to choose someone to be the first person who saw Jesus, I don't think we would have chosen Mary Magdalene. I think if it were me, I would have chosen Mary, his mother. Or what about Peter? He was chosen to be the rock on which the church would be built. Why wasn't he the first? Jesus is constantly doing things in the Bible that we don't understand. He is doing and saying things that shake things up. I am sure Jesus had His reasons for choosing Mary Magdalene to be the first to whom he revealed his risen self. I am sure Jesus has his reasons for choosing you, too.Jesus saved Mary Magdalene from 7 demons. Do you feel like you need to be delivered from some demons? Do you feel like you are struggling in an uphill battle? If so, you are not alone. We are all fighting something. One great thing about this story is that it shows us that Jesus doesn't just heal us or free us from our demons and then walk away. He stayed with Mary Magdalene, and she stayed with Him. She became one of His followers. Are you one of his followers? Do you stay close by Him and listen to all He says? Do you try to get to know Him and to spend time with Him?Mary did. She put in the work. She was so grateful for the freedom that Jesus gave her that she stuck by His side, trying to learn all that she could from Him. We can do this too. We can't follow Jesus around as one of His disciples anymore, but we can listen to all He says by reading scripture. The New Testament is full of Jesus's actual words. We don't have to guess who He is, or what He said. It's all in the New Testament. There are actually verses in the Old Testament that talk about Jesus as well. As you can see, even though Jesus is not walking on earth, we can still be His followers and we can still get to know Him.Even though we don't know why Jesus chose Mary Magdalene to be the first person to see him alive, we do know that He did choose her. Jesus is choosing you, too. I don't know what He is choosing you for, but I know that He is. I know you don't think you are worthy, and you might not even feel up to the challenge, but He is calling you anyway. You might worry that no one will listen to you or that no one will believe you if you try to share the message of the Gospel with others. Guess what? You wouldn't be the first person they didn't listen to. The very next verse after today's verse says, “She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.”Just because Jesus chooses us doesn't mean everything is going to fall into place and be easy. We live in a broken world, and not everyone will see what Jesus sees in you. Not everyone will believe what you have to say. Not everyone will support the calling God has placed on your life. That is ok. Jesus also appeared to two other disciples, and when they told everyone, no one believed them either. Just because others didn't believe them doesn't mean what happened wasn't true.Of all the people in Jesus's life, He chose the one who had been delivered from demons as the one to reveal His risen self to. He didn't choose the one we would have chosen. He didn't choose the one who was perfect and blameless. He didn't surround himself with people who were perfect and blameless. He surrounded himself with regular, everyday, ordinary people like you and me. We don't have to clean ourselves up to be around Jesus. We don't have to heal ourselves of all our demons before we come to Jesus. Jesus healed Mary of her demons. She didn't wait until she was healed to come to Him. She couldn't have healed herself of her affliction. She needed to come to Jesus as she was, and He healed her. He will do the same for you. Come to Him with all your baggage. Bring your demons. Bring your fears and your worries. Bring all that you have to the foot of Jesus, and He will heal it. He will take all of that from you, and He will replace it with love and with peace. Come to Him just as you are, and He will take care of everything else!Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode. Lord, we want to come to you as we are. We want you to free us from our demons. We want you to choose us when you could choose anyone. Lord, we ask for you to help us come to you. Help us get to know you. Help us turn our demons, fears, and worries over to you. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in May 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “We have a steed, a fine horse, and on that horse is the Lord with a big flowing cape, and as he rides by us, he scoops us up with one arm, tucks us under the shield of his armor, and he says, “I may not swoop you up every time and deliver you from your discomfort.” Then the image changes, and he's on his feet, and he's walking behind us, and he gets closer and closer to us, and then he hides us under the cape he has. He says, “But I may walk with you through all your distress, so fear neither being scooped up nor walked with. I am always there.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

I have two witnesses for you today. One is from a member of my charismatic prayer group and one is from YouTube. It is from the 700 Club. I will place a link for the video in the show notes. Both of these show how good our God is. The first witness shows how God never forgets our hearts' desires and the second one is a miraculous healing after a heart attack. Let's begin…Well, when I hit my 30th anniversary, my husband and I went to Italy. Now, when we got married, we got married in front of the Virgin Mary, the side altar, and it was just family because the wedding was too expensive for me, so that's how we did it. We did have a nice meal afterward, but it was simple. And the thing that I wanted most was to hear the Ave Maria sung by this beautiful vocalist at the church, but she was extremely expensive, so I was very disappointed. I had to forgo it because of the price. So then, when I was in Italy, we were in the dining roomOne morning, having breakfast, I kept getting this message from God to get up and to go to the next table where there was a little four-year-old boy sitting with his mother and father, and sing, Santa Claus is coming to town. And I said, well, I couldn't get over it, so it was his birthday. So I put some money in an envelope or whatever I had, and I got up, and my husband was looking at me, and when I started singing, he was like, and I was singing, Santa Claus is coming to town in this dining room with all these people sitting around. So the mother, when I finished, I gave him the envelope, and I said, Happy birthday. So the mother looked at me, and she said,Wow, that is his favorite song in the whole world. Well, okay. So that night, when I entered the big sitting room that they had in this hotel, the woman came over to me, and she said, Oh, you made my son so happy. I want to do something for you. And I said, well, unless you can sing the Ave Maria, because I happen to be thinking about it, I said, really, I'm fine. And she said, Well, as a matter of fact, I'm an opera singer, and I can sing the Ave Maria. And so I went into the dining room for the acoustic part, and she sang me the Ave Maria.Wow. Thank you, Lord. You would have missed it, had you not sung. If I had not sung Santa Claus is coming to town. What time of year is your anniversary? June. You're singing Santa Claus is coming to town in June? June 29th, almost the last day of June, yeah. And my husband was like, Are you kidding me? I would have been so embarrassed. What'swrong with you? Apparently, I don't know. Yep. You're obedient, Mary. Yep, you got what you wanted. He never forgets us. God never forgets the tiniest thing, and He rewards us for our obedience. Miraculous heart healing (CLICK HERE to watch on YouTube). As the band began to start the worship music, I stood and raised my hand in worship. And a woman that I didn't know, I had never seen her before, she walked past me, turned around, and came back and stood nose to nose with me. She said, Fear not, for the Lord your God says you will surely live and not die. I think both of us were a little concerned.Obviously, you'll live and not die. It kind of tells you something is going to happen soon. So both of us were quite concerned and just kind of, Okay, what's going to happen next? Monday came. I just didn't feel quite right. I just felt kind of out of sorts, tired, and not feeling my best. I was sitting on my sofa with my husband, and something's not right. I can't breathe. I said, I need to go to the hospital. We took her immediately to the emergency room. They came out with a wheelchair, wheeled her inside. The whole time, I'm saying to God, Have your hand on her. My vitals are slipping, and I'm saying, Lord, forgive me for everything I've ever done.Anything, Lord, that's not pleasing to you. And I saw our pastor lean down and whisper,  Remember, Dale, you shall live and not die. They came back, and they said, You've had a heart attack, and it looks like a bad one. And she's going to have to have a stent put in. They did the stent, and the cardiologist said, You should be dead right now. 90% of the people who have the kind of heart attack you've had don't even make it to the hospital, or they die in their sleep at night. The heart attack was so bad that it severely damaged my heart. My heart was functioning at only about 20%. They were so worried that I could have another heart event that they fitted me with a life vest. It's actually a defibrillator that they strap around you with all kinds of monitoring devices on it.Coming back to the house was tough. The only way to get her around was in a wheelchair. My husband had to pretty much just kind of take over whatever was needed. He would not leave my side. And when we got home, every night, every night, he served me communion and prayed. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't bend over. I couldn't do anything. All I could do was just get up, go to the bathroom, and go back and lie right back down because I was terribly, terribly, terribly weak. With the amount of damage that I had in my heart, they told me, You need to get used to this life because your life as you have known it is never going to be the same. My daughter had a friend who came over to visit with me.He had gone to seminary under this well-known pastor, and he called him. He said, We have a friend, and she's had a heart attack, and her heart is severely damaged. She's very weak, and she needs a miracle. And this man said, Have her at my church Sunday morning at 930 because God is going to heal her. You know, I mean, we had to wheel her in. She was so weak. And then lifting her up, two people on each side of her, lifting her up. They lifted me out of the wheelchair, and I stood there in front of him. And when he put his hand on the top of my head, it felt like a bolt of electricity just shot through my body. And when it did, it set off the siren on my defibrillator. I mean, the noises and the bells and whistles, everything's happening, you know, and I'm thinking, What is going to happen now? And she was able to get around there and cut it off before the thing, you know, went off. It hit me right then that something special was going on here.The very next day, I had a preset appointment for a follow-up with my cardiologist. No wheelchair. He looks at me and he says, How are you doing? I said, I'm doing great. And I said, But I don't like this life vest on. I want to take it off. He said, Oh, no, you can't take off the life vest. And I said, I want another test. I want to prove to you that God healed me. After the test, he said, Take that defibrillator off because you don't need it anymore.Your heart is back to normal. He said, You've had a miracle. My heart was back to normal, but it was the low end of normal.  they show us the love of God. So this young man calls that pastor back again, and he said, You have her back here Sunday morning. I think God's going to finish what he started. We wound up going back in and kicking it up a notch.He touched her, and I could tell God healed her. Then we went back to the doctor. He said these words after the test, Dale, not only is your heart back to normal, but your heart is at the high end of normal. The Lord had given me a brand-new heart, a brand-new heart. I feel better now than I did 20 years ago. I have more strength. I feel healthier than I ever did. Keep walking and keep believing and hoping and praying and hanging on to God. Sure enough, he came through. There is nothing that he can't do.I love both of these because even though they are different, www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Come As You Are Series- JonahJonah 1:1-3 “The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai:  'Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”  But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.”Jonah is a great person to discuss this morning because we can all relate to him for several reasons. The first one is displayed in this verse. The Lord came to Jonah and asked him to do something, and Jonah ran away from the Lord. How many of us have done that before? Maybe not physically run away like Jonah did, but we do not do what God asks. We tell Him no, with a whole host of reasons why we can't do it. Or, maybe we ignore the Lord, busy ourselves with work and other things, and pretend that he didn't ask us to do anything. Both of these are similar to Jonah. The Lord asked Him to do something He didn't want to do, and so He left.This didn't work out so well for Jonah. He got on a boat headed in the other direction, and God sent a storm to the ship. The other people on the boat asked what was going on. They drew lots to see who was behind this storm, and Jonah drew the short lot. They asked Jonah what they should do, and he said to throw him over the side of the ship into the water. They were afraid to do this, as they knew he was a man of God. They tried to row back to safety, but did not have any luck. So they prayed God would not hold it against him if they killed this man, and then they threw him over the side of the ship.As soon as they threw him over the side of the ship, the raging sea grew calm. “At this, the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.” (Jonah 1:16) These men all became God fearing after God calmed the sea. Even though Jonah was trying to run away from the Lord, God still used that circumstance to bring about the conversion of hearts. God can do the same with our actions. He can take our actions and their consequences and use them for good. He can take them and use them for the conversion of others in ways we can't even imagine.When they threw Jonah over the side of the boat, he was swallowed up by a whale or some giant sea creature. While he was sitting in the belly of the sea creature, he was praying to the Lord, and the Lord heard his prayers and had the fish spit him out on dry land. Then the Lord tells Jonah to go to Ninevah to give them the message that God gave to Jonah. So, this time, Jonah goes and does what is asked of him. Jonah tells Nineveh that it will be overthrown in 40 days if they do not repent and change their ways. As soon as the king heard this, he declared a fast in the land, and all of Ninevah repented and turned back to the Lord. When the Lord saw how they repented and turned from their evil ways, He relented and did not cause destruction.You would think, after all that, Jonah would be happy. He did what the Lord asked him to do, and the people actually listened to him. Yet, Jonah wasn't happy. Jonah was upset that God spared the people of Ninevah. He thought that they deserved to die, and he wasn't happy that they took the second chance and turned from their evil ways. We have all been here in one way or another before. Have you ever been upset that someone got away with something that you think they should have been punished for? Have you ever seen someone do something and then wished they would get in trouble for it? One common example I can think of is when we are driving and see someone else driving unsafely, and we hope they get pulled over by a police officer. It is not our place to decide what should happen to others.God chose Jonah for this task, and Jonah ran from it. How many of us have done that? How many of us have run from a task because we didn't want to do it? Jonah ran because he knew how good God was. He understood that if Ninevah repented, God would save them, and he didn't want them to be saved. He didn't think they deserved it. How many of us have run from a call from the Lord because we disagreed with Him? It might not be the same situation as Jonah, but we disagreed that we were the right people or that we had the skills it took to do what He wanted us to do. We might all have different reasons for running from what the Lord calls us to do.However, Jonah's story reminds us of a few things. First, just because we ran doesn't mean God gives that call to someone else. He is still waiting for you to do what He called you to do. Second, he can use bad consequences for good, like when Jonah ran from God, and the others on the ship almost died in the storm until they threw him off the ship. God used that to convert the hearts of all those on the ship. Whatever bad came out of you running from the Lord, He can redeem it. He can use it for good. The important thing is that we turn back to the Lord and that we answer that call. God doesn't make mistakes. If He is calling you to something, then He will help you do it. If he is calling you to it, then you are the perfect person for the job, even if you don't see how or why.Jonah's story also reminds us that God is sovereign. We don't know all the things that He knows. Just because what God is doing doesn't make sense to us, that doesn't mean it doesn't make sense. God knows the whole picture. He knows all the details. We only know the few tiny things we can see from the outside looking in. We need to trust that God knows what He is doing. We need to understand that He sees things we don't see. He knows what we can and can't do. He knows us better than we know ourselves. So, if God says you can do it, then you can do it. Stop running and face the task He is asking you to do!Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless each person listening. Lord, we all want to be able to do what you are calling us to do. We want to trust you and believe we can do it. Please help us, Lord. Lord, help us not to run from you but to run towards you. Please help us not to think we know better than you do. You are the almighty one. You are Lord of Lords and King of Kings. You know all things, and we love you. Please help us to continuously come back to you. We pray all this in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name, Amen!!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Thank you for all your prayers for the retreat this weekend. It was an awesome weekend. I also want to remind everyone that my new book is out. It is called Walk Boldly With Jesus Devotionals: Who I Am: Discovering God's Truth About Me. I am very excited about it. CLICK HERE if you want to check it out! Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in May 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “I got the image of Jesus as a carpenter coming into our hearts and stripping away all the old wallpaper, layers and layers of crud, and then just replacing it with brand new, shining, you know, immaculate white paint and welcoming the Holy Spirit in.” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Storm-Battered and UnconsoledIsaiah 54:11-14 “O afflicted one,* storm-battered and unconsoled, I lay your pavements in carnelians, your foundations in sapphires; I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of jewels, and all your walls of precious stones. All your children shall be taught by the LORD; great shall be the peace of your children. In justice shall you be established, far from oppression, you shall not fear, from destruction, it cannot come near.  If there be an attack, it is not my doing; whoever attacks shall fall before you.”When I read this verse this morning I knew this was the one.  So many are struggling right now.  This verse is to show you that God understands.  “O afflicted one, storm-battled and unconsoled.”  He gets it.  He understands how you are feeling.  He's showing you that He sees you.  You haven't somehow escaped His attention.  He knows you are suffering and he knows that you are unconsoled.  Once He has your attention and lets you know He sees you, then He is telling you that he has laid the way before you with precious stones.  “I lay your pavements in carnelians (a semi-precious stone), I lay your foundations in sapphires; I will make your battlements of rubies, your gate of jewels, and all your walls of precious stones.”  Actually the Lord is not just talking about laying the road before you, He is talking about building all around you.  He talks about the pavements, which I was thinking was the path ahead.  However, then He talks about your foundation, your walls, your battlements, and your gates.  We all know that if we wish to get anywhere in life, we need to have a firm foundation.  If our foundation isn't firm, it won't support us.  This reminds me of Matthew 7:24-27, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”  If we don't build our house on a firm foundation it will slip away.  Next, the Lord talks about our battlements made of rubies.  I was not sure what battlements were, so I looked it up.  Battlements are the parapets at the top of a wall, especially of a fort or castle, that have regularly spaced squared openings for shooting through.  Also, our walls are make of precious stones and our gates of jewels.  These are how we defend ourselves.  God is building these things for us out of the finest materials.  He is our protection and He will make sure we are safe.The next part of the verse says, “All your children shall be taught by the Lord; great shall be the peace of your children.”  This might not be your experience right now.  You may hear this and wonder when that peace is going to come.  I know when I read that line, I thought that is not true for so many children I know these days.  I have heard several people say over the last few months that it seems like the enemy is really attacking God's faithful ones through their children and their marriages.  There are so many children struggling right now with so many things.  The mental health of our kids is under attack for sure.  Also, with social media and constant access to their phones, our children are being bullied in ways we don't even know.  I am surprised at the number of young kids who are willing to send inappropriate photos over the phone because it doesn't feel like a big deal.  It feels like everyone is doing it.  I think social media also allows kids to say things that they would never say to someone's face because they just have to type it into a phone.  It gives them a sense that they are somewhat removed from it.  I have three teenagers, and I get how hard it can be.  If you are listening to this and you either have teenagers or maybe you have teenager grandkids or nieces and nephews, I would say pray for them definitely and also remember this promise from God.  “All  your children shall be taught by the Lord; great shall be the peace of your children.”  God always keeps his promises.  He doesn't tell us when they will have peace, but he tells us they will.  Our job is to keep them going through the hard times until they have this peace.The next part may be hard to understand as well.“ In justice shall you be established, far from oppression, you shall not fear, from destruction, it cannot come near.”  You will be established in justice, far from oppression, destruction cannot come near.  If you are struggling right now, this may be hard to take in.  It may be hard to see how you are far from oppression.  It may seem like oppression is all around you.  You may feel beaten down at every turn.  If this is you, remember the ending of that line, destruction cannot come near.  Although you may be struggling, this will not destroy you!  You will make it though this.  Whatever it is, you will come out on the other side being better, stronger, and more faith filled.  God is with you through this difficult time.  He is building this protective house around you.  Keep hanging in there.  The ending of this verse may be the most important to hear for some of you. “  If there be an attack, it is not my doing; whoever attacks shall fall before you.”  This is so important for us to realize.  “If there be an attack is it not my doing.”  I bet we have all wondered or even ask God, “What have I done to deserve this?”  If you have thought this, you are not alone.  The apostles also thought this way.  In John 9:1-3 it says, “As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”God is telling in both these verses, we didn't do anything.  This is not His doing.  He did not give you cancer, He did not take away your loved one, He did not cause your spouse to leave, it is not His doing.   I love the last sentence.  He says, whoever attacks shall fall before you.  He is showing us that evil will not win in the end.  Evil will not get the last word.  He will protect us and He will defeat evil.  Whoever attacks shall fall before you.  There are several promises in this scripture verse today.  If you are struggling, if you feel storm-battered and unconsoled, maybe write this verse down and read it again.  Try sitting with this verse and see how God wants to use it to talk to you.  The things I said about the verse today, actually any day in this podcast is just the way God is talking to be about the different verses.  However, He wants to make each verse personal to you.  If you spend some time after you listen to the podcast to reread the verse, it's in the show notes, and then ask God what He wants to say to you about the verse, I am sure you will be surprised at what you start thinking about.  If you ask Him, He will answer, you just have to give Him the time to listen.  Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we thank you for showing us that you see us in our struggles and that you are there for us.  Thank you for building us a beautiful house of protection.  Thank you for promising peace for our children.  Thank you for letting us know that it is not you that is attacking us and that whoever does attack us will fall before us.  Lord, you are so loving and so merciful and we are so very lucky to have you in our lives.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus' holy name, amen.Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Please keep me and those attending the retreat in your prayers this weekend. I pray it is a fruitful retreat for all who attend. I will be doing the retreat on zoom too. If you want to check it out on zoom, email me at Catherine @findingtruenorthcoaching.com and I will get you the zoom link. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I! Have a blessed day! Today's Word from the Lord was received in May 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is,“I will fill you with everything that you need. But you must learn to listen. Listen and then act upon it. I just don't want you to listen and do nothing about it, my children. I speak so that you, in turn, may help others, encourage them. ” www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace