To Know God is to Know HOPE - A Message with Rhonda Stoppe

To Know God is to Know HOPE. In this message, Rhonda Stoppe unpacks practical insights to help you grow in your knowledge of God and HOPE in Christ. Using the acrostic from the word HOPE:

Hope in His Steadfast Love

Open His Word

Prioritize Time with Him

Enjoy Him Forever

Please share this message with a friend who needs HOPE. Or an unbelieving friend who needs Christ. Rhonda clearly lays out the plan of salvation in this talk.

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"This podcast is for the purpose of mentoring only and is not a replacement for therapy. We suggest you seek out the help of a trained biblical counselor for help with your specific situation.”

Transcript

Rhonda Stoppe [00:00:00]:
Let's start with prayer. Holy father, who are we that you would invite us to know you? Who am I that you should know my name? What is my family that you have brought me thus far? Oh, Lord, still our hearts, quiet our minds, and let us just hear from you today. In Jesus' name, amen. James four eight says, draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Do you ever read biographies of great Christians that have gone before you? I love hearing their stories of hope. One of my favorite is the story of Corrie ten Boom, and most of you probably know who she is. She was arrested for hiding Jews. And let me just point out, there is a movement of antisemitism in our country that is against God's holy people.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:01:12]:
Do you realize that? And I'm not getting political, I'm getting biblical. Do not ever think that it's okay to stand against the Jewish people. Corrie ten Boom put herself on the line. She hid Jews and was eventually arrested and put in a a concentration camp. And if you read of the horrific things that she endured at the hand of her persecutors and her sister Betsy, and watching her sister Betsy be so terribly abused until Betsy died. And Corrie ten Boom came out of that concentration camp. Despite unimaginable horrors, she emerged from this crucible of suffering with an even stronger faith and hope in God. And she spent the rest of her life sharing that hope with the world.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:02:07]:
It's an incredible story of hope because she knew her God. One of her powerful quotes that I just love, she says this, You may never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have. Some of you have been there. Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Another quote from Corrie. She says, the measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation. Not how long we lived, but how well and how fully and in the living did we give ourselves to our Lord. This is a woman who had lived a life.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:02:50]:
She earned the right to talk to us like this. You know what I'm saying? Like those pie in the sky, like those 20 year old influencers that really haven't hit a bump in the road yet that's telling you how to dress and telling you how to make dresses for your little toddlers out of the pillowcases in your house, and she's posting pictures of all the cool stuff she's making for dinner and you just fed your kids Cheerios. You know what? She's not there yet. But Old Ladies Know Stuff that's the name of my podcast. It's a nod to the Titus two woman because we are, I'm 64 years old. You're gonna sit here and try to do the math. Actually, I'm not 64, I'm 63. I will be 64 in May.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:03:26]:
I always do that, I always get ahead of myself. But I always wanna tell my age because I feel like I lose you when I start, and you're like, okay, she was born and she got married, it's been that many years, and it's like, I'm sick. I'm gonna be 64. So we that's on the table. Corrie ten Boom's writing and speeches consistently emphasize how knowing God intimately was the foundation of her hope and finding purpose in her life, even amongst difficult struggles. I wanna take you today on a journey of discovery that has filled my life with unimaginable hope. To deepen your knowledge of God, I wanna unpack four key principles that will help you be filled with hope and purpose for your life beyond your wildest dreams. A life without regrets.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:04:14]:
I'm the NoRegretsWoman, that's my website, and you can find all kinds of free stuff on there because I help you build a no regrets life. And the older you get, the more you look back and you say, did I waste it? Don't waste it. Let's roll our sleeves up. We're gonna use the acrostic for the word hope, and that will be our points. The first point is h is hope, hope in His steadfast love. Some scriptures. Psalm thirty three eighteen. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him and on those who hope in His steadfast love.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:04:52]:
My son, Brandon, the one that I was talking about earlier, Steve and I had moved to Texas. We planted a church in Austin. And Brandon was six years old, and one night, Steve was still in California. He was coming home and coming back to Texas. We had just landed there, didn't really know anybody, hadn't even really got a community yet, and my son had a twenty eight minute seizure. It was unbelievable. Didn't know what it was. I'm not gonna tell the whole story.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:05:22]:
It's in my book, Moms Raising Sons to Be Men. But I'll tell you this, that scared me so badly, and they life flighted him to the hospital. And when he left, he was talking baby talk. Twenty eight minutes of a seizure means you're not getting oxygen to your brain. And so they were afraid he had brain damage. But I got to the hospital, and he jumped on the the bed, and he said, mommy, I rode on a helicopter. And I'm like, you did, buddy. Yeah.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:05:46]:
Most expensive trip ever. And And then they did an EEG on his little brain. They'd glue little things on their head and they have him go to sleep and they're testing him for seizure activity in his brain. And they came back, and as they glue these little things, you can watch a readout. Now this was back in the olden days when they actually did it on a piece of paper with a pen. Like now I know it's all computerized, but this was in the 1900s, so work with me. And so as Brandon's asleep on that little bed, and he's six years old, adorable little guy, Actually, I have a grandson that looks just like him. And I bent over and I kissed Brandon on the temple.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:06:24]:
And then the tech called me over, she goes, Let me show you something. And I cry every time I say this. She circled it with a pen and she wrote, Mom's kiss. She said, they know you kiss them when they're sleeping. So you kiss those babies. You kiss those junior hires. I did. I snuck in and kissed them when they were sleeping.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:06:41]:
Mommy loves you. You love mommy. Brainwash them. But as Brandon's seizures, they had to put him on heavy medication, and he was stoned. And as we were living in Texas, we had planted this church, we were having youth group in our home, 200 teenagers every Wednesday night coming to Jesus. We made over 10,000 hot dogs in Jesus' name. If you feed them, they will come. And as these kids are coming to Christ in the Bible Belt thinking they know who Jesus is because they've been raised with a granddaddy that was a Baptist preacher, They actually met Jesus, and their lives were being transformed.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:07:18]:
They were coming to Jesus, and my son was having seizures. And I was coaching high school cheerleading in Texas it's a cult, don't join it and I was expecting to see my son run one down the field or hit one out of the park, be an athlete, and he didn't want to do any of that. He was stoned. They put him on special ed at school. When the administrator uses that word over your child, it just breaks your heart. I know some of you are there. But on Wednesday nights, after we had youth group in our home, the band came and did worship practice in our dining room. And Brandon would just sit behind these different musicians, and he learned all of these instruments.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:08:08]:
And one day, he had a severe seizure after four years of being heavily medicated, and I went upstairs and I just wept before the Lord and I said, I quit. I'm done. I'm out. You can't heal my son? We're serving you, we're leading people to Christ, we're doing all of these things for your glory, and you can't touch and heal my little boy? And I called the neurologist, and they said, yeah. If he had that severe of a seizure, he still has severe seizure activity in his brain, and he needs to we need to up his medications. I quit, God. I am done. I am out of here.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:08:49]:
But here's the thing. The Bible says if you hide God's word in your heart, you will not sin against Him, because that word of God is what's quick and powerful and sharper than a two edged sword. It's what will pierce your heart. And when you're ready to walk, the spirit of the most high God will speak to your heart, not through your feelings, not through your dreams, experiences, through the word of God. And if you're not hiding it in your heart, you are missing the most incredible communication with your father. And as I wept before the Lord, quietly, not audible voice, I heard whispered to my heart, in everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And I said, mm-mm. How? How could good come from this? But, God, I know that your ways are above ours and thoughts are above ours as high as the heavens are above the earth.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:09:51]:
I know you love Brandon more than I do, and I'm gonna trust you, but you're gonna have to change my heart. And slowly over time, the Lord gave us glimpses of what he was doing through Brandon's circumstance. My husband is a is a pastor. He's a worship pastor. He's he's he's a musician. He said, at 10 years old, about Brandon, I have never met someone who thinks in music theory like Brandon does. He's an he's an incredible musician. And so what we found was I wanted to see my son run one down the field, hit one out of the park.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:10:32]:
I wanted to hear the crowd glory in my son's accomplishments. But God said, I gotta get you out of the way, mama. You're gonna ruin him. Because God had a plan for Brandon to raise him up to bring the crowd to glory in his son's accomplishments through worship. Brennan grew up. He's a worship pastor at Big Valley Grace, is where he's at now. But he's been he's toured with some incredible Christian bands. He went to Cal Baptist University, graduated, music and biblical studies.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:11:04]:
But what if I had walked? Because some of you do that. I my husband's been at the same church for twenty five years. We've been in ministry for a lot. Some of you get mad at God. How dare you? I'm doing how who are you? And you question his goodness. Isn't that what what Satan did to Eve in the garden? Oh, if God were good, he'd let you eat of that fruit so you could be just like him. God's not good. That's the lie from the pit of hell.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:11:34]:
And when we walk, when we resent the Lord, if you're truly His, if you have truly given your heart to Him and the King of Kings is your Lord and the spirit of the hope most high god indwells you, you'll come back. You can't pluck yourself out of his hand, but at what cost? See, sometimes your trial is not about you. Sometimes your trial is to validate your hope, your testimony to someone who's watching. And guess what? Sometimes it's your kids. Ten years later, my daughter Meredith, who was, early high school age when all that was going on, went to Master's University. She married her husband Jake and they went to after they graduated, he stayed on and went to seminary and they lived in a guy's dorm. And his brother died in a motorcycle accident that that year, and then they gave birth to Ivy Love. And we walked in, and Jake said, hang on.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:12:40]:
Something's wrong. Ivy was born with special needs that we didn't know about. And after they got settled in the dorm, I asked Meredith, how are you doing? And she said, mama, this is Ivy's trial. God's called us to equip Ivy for this trial. Wow. Ivy is 10 years old now. She's adorable. But what if Meredith had watched her mom shake her fist at God when I faced my trial? See, Jesus said the student becomes like his teacher.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:13:20]:
Not like the teacher teaches him to be, like the teacher is. And sometimes those trials, God knows the Goliath that your child is gonna have to face. Remember when David told Saul this isn't in my notes, this is for somebody. David told Saul about fighting Goliath? I don't need all that armor. I'm gonna use this slingshot. What did he say? Because God gave me victory over a lion, and he gave me victory over a bear. I know he'll give me victory over this giant. Where was David's mama when he was fighting the lion and the bear? Oh my.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:13:55]:
He was 17 years old when he said that to Saul, which means he was younger than that when he killed a lion and a bear with his bare hands. See, guys, listen. Sometimes God sends that lion in our kids' lives, and sometimes He sends that bear because He knows He's equipping them for a giant that He wants them to battle with hope and with faith in their God. I wanna real quick talk about Naomi. I'm writing a new book for Harvest House. It won't come out until, April 2026, but I'm seven chapters in. You can pray for me. It's due May 15, so Naomi was in the Bible.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:14:53]:
Her story takes place in the book of Judges around thirteen hundred BC. In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man's name was, Elimelech. His wife's name was Naomi. The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were no. How do you say that? Aphrothites.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:15:19]:
Aphrothites. I don't know. That's probably not right. From Benjamin, Judah, and they went to Moab to live there. Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth, after they lived there about ten years. But both, Mahlon and Kilian, also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. And then we just keep reading.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:15:45]:
Stop. This woman's life was a train wreck. And we read through her story, and we jump ahead to Ruth and Boaz, and Naomi takes her back. And that's cool. And honestly, when I wrote this chapter about Naomi, I was expecting to write about this amazing mentor mother-in-law that took Ruth back to and she meets Boaz. Nope. The whole chapter is about grief and loss. Her husband died in a foreign land.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:16:16]:
She followed him. And then her boys married Moabite women. Do you know what the Moabites did? They worshiped Moloch, Shemash. You know how they worshiped him? They burned their babies on the altar. And her boys did not marry Hebrew women, they married Moabite women. You feeling me? And now they're married to these Moabite women, so she's thinking, I'm probably not gonna go back to Israel because I'm not leaving my family. And then for ten years, neither daughter-in-law can conceive infertility. I I have eight grandbabies in heaven.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:16:59]:
I understand the grief as a grandmother of one more miscarriage, of one more ectopic pregnancy, of one more set of twins that didn't survive. I feel Naomi's grief. Do you feel? This woman was in a hard place. And then finally, when her sons died, she's like, that's it. I'm going home. I'm packing it up, and I'm going back to my homeland. I'm going back to my people, and I'm going back to my God. Wow.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:17:44]:
The value of your trial. Naomi's faith let me give you a peek into the book. Naomi's faith in who God is was her driving force. Amidst the most painful losses anyone could endure, both of her daughters in law observed Naomi's resilient trust in God. Have you ever considered how sometimes the very trial you endure is less about you and more about validating your testimony to those around you, beginning with your own children? When life falls apart, your kids' faith and hope can be bolstered if they observe your unwavering devotion to Christ, even when life doesn't make sense. Consider Richard Warmbrandt, who endured unimaginable torture for his faith, quote, there are two kinds of Christians, those who sincerely believe in God and those who, just as sincerely, believe that they believe. You can tell them apart by their actions in decisive moments. Preach it, Richard.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:18:47]:
Naomi's decisive moment came after she lost everything she held dear and she knew she had to go back to her God. And then remember, she's like kind of heading back and then she tells the girls, her daughters in law, you know what? You should just stay here. You really I I have nothing for you there. And Orpah goes back, but what does Ruth say? Ruth says this in Ruth one sixteen-seventeen. But Ruth said, do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you, for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, Elohim, will be my God. This is significant because Ruth, as a Moabite woman, was abandoning the gods of Moab to find hope in following the God of her mother-in-law, the God of Israel. God does not hide Himself from us.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:19:47]:
And sometimes when life's going great, we don't look for him. Sometimes he slows us down. I shattered my wrist in 2019 after I had told the Lord, I've got all these great things on my schedule I wanna do, Lord, and I wanna do every single one of them, speaking engagements. I had some opportunities, different but if I'm too busy, Lord, slow me down. Literally, I got home from a speaking engagement, and I wrote Steve and I wrote a marriage book, and part of the marriage book is like play with your husband, That's like part of romance. So I'm in getting ready for my next event, and we live on an 80 acre ranch in the mountains. We had snow yesterday, super cool. And Steve said, hey, babe, you wanna go on a motor a dirt bike, what's that called, quad ride with me? Everything in my heart wanted to say, I'm too busy.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:20:32]:
But I'm like, take your own advice, Rhonda, and get on the back of that thing. And I did, and we rolled it. And I put my hand out and it shattered. I've got a metal plate and a bone graft, and it wasn't just a break, it was like, cancel that, cancel that, cancel that. And it was hard. But you know, the Lord answered my prayer. It's like, girlfriend, you're too busy. And the one thing I really wanted to do and he allowed me to do was I had a focus on the family interview in May, and I was praying that I would be able to do that.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:21:02]:
And I got to go to that. I had to be all bandaged up, but I got to go. And I wanted to serve the Lord, but sometimes even the good things that we're doing makes us too busy to be still and to know Him in His presence. Jeremiah thirty three:three says, call unto me and I will answer you, and tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. Psalm 30 four:eight, taste and see that the Lord is good. James four:eight, draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. That's incredible. The God of the universe is beckoning you to hang out with Him.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:21:50]:
Please don't take that for granted. If you've grown up in the church, if you've heard this your whole life, wake up. This is incredible, that Yahweh Himself knows you by name and is saying, psst, come over here. Let's hang out. Hope in His steadfast love. Number two is open His word, and I'm gonna have to go fast. Open His word, understanding God through His word. Isaiah 50 five:six, seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:22:26]:
Second Timothy three sixteen-seventeen says that all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. It is God's divine love letter to us. When I travel, my husband, like, I miss him like nobody's business. We've been married forty three years, and he's the love of my life. And I'm kind of a stopy stalker, have been since I was in high school. And back then, you had to actually stalk someone because we didn't have social media, so you had to, like, accidentally kinda put out the vibe when they walked by. Hey. How's it doing? Anyway, again, nineteen hundreds, olden days.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:23:03]:
But when I'm traveling, I miss him, and I wanna check on him. He had a he actually had a a stroke last in 2024, like, just several months back, and it scared me so bad. He's he doesn't care if I tell his age. He's 70, and he's a stud, like, you wouldn't believe. Like, literally such a strong man. So it took us all by surprise on Father's Day when he came in with his face droopy. He's fine. But when I'm gone, I wanna check on him, I wanna hear from him.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:23:31]:
And we will text back and forth, and he's so funny. He's really funny. He's clever. He flirts. It's the cutest thing ever. And then every once in a while, if I've been gone for quite a while, I'll call him up because I wanna hear his voice. And he literally goes like this, yeah? I'm like, it's me. And he goes, I know.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:23:50]:
I'm like, dude. He's like, are you okay? I'm like, yeah. I just wanted to talk to you. Okay. What do you wanna talk about? I'm like, he doesn't like to talk on the phone. But you give him a text, and he is having a blast. What if I'm too busy doing things for God, speaking at that woman's event, going to that conference, that I don't pick up my husband's phone, my text from my husband to see what he's gonna tell me? You know what he always says when I say I'm getting ready to speak? Do well, babe. Praying for you.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:24:20]:
I love that. How'd it go, babe? How are you doing? Don't get into cars with strangers. I've got stories. God wrote you the most amazing texts, and it's found in the pages of his word, and you're too busy doing good things to open his love letter to you? He's clever. He's romantic. He woos your heart to himself. You he's the lover of your soul, and you're so busy doing good things like Mary and Martha. And what did he say? She chose the better thing.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:25:00]:
Martha, it's awesome what you're doing, but throw something in the crock pot. Stop folding those napkins into swans and sit at the feet of Jesus. You're missing Jesus doing good things, right? If you ever wanna discover God in a new and fresh way, study the names of God. He reveals His character all through scripture so that we will know Him intimately and trust him. And I was gonna go over those, but I have run out of time. So there's a really good book by Kaye Arthur called Lord, I Want to Know You, great book, with the names of God. When you truly know Him, you start to understand your identity in Him, you find your worth in Him, and you grasp the depth of His love for you. Oh, what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the children of God.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:25:56]:
And that is what we are, one John three:one. Ladies, I know who I am without Christ. I I come from a long line of broken marriages. My sister overdosed a few years back and and passed away. There's there's addiction all over my family. There's nothing in this woman that wouldn't be than Put that on steroids, and that's who you'd be without Jesus. Let's stand in awe that he rescued us. They call him savior for a reason.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:26:41]:
I would have destroyed my marriage. I would have raised my kids for what you all thought of me, and they would have rebelled. I would have ruined my family. I would have continued climbing that corporate ladder and pursuing what I could buy, and I would have missed God's purpose for my life. I love Philippians so much. I've got most of the book memorized. Philippians three eight, Paul writes, indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish. Right? Hope in his steadfast love.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:27:19]:
Open his word. Prioritize time with him. Be intentional with your time with the lord. Knowing God requires intentionality. Go to the old ladies bible studies because they have a lifetime of truth to share with you. When I was a terrible wife, and I knew it, and I knew I wanted to do better, I looked at some of the women that were in our church family that were still married, that their husbands laughed with them, held their hand, that they enjoyed each other, and I became friends with those women. And you know, I said, I need help, and they invited me to their bible studies. And it was a precept bible study, five hours of homework a week through the book of Philippians.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:28:02]:
And I'm like, oh, I don't have time for that. And they this one friend of mine, Gail, she said, just go to this study, and if it doesn't change you, I'll never ask you to come again. And I found in these bible studies, these women shared their stories. As they read scripture, as they applied it to their life, as they adjusted their life to obey or to repent of something the spirit was showing them, they were honest. They were real. They didn't pretend like they had it all together. They were so wonderful because these women poured into my life. That's why God calls Titus two women.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:28:38]:
We are the journey women for those apprentices. However old you are, there's somebody younger than you that needs your wisdom. And I don't know about you, but I teach way more powerfully from my failures than I do from my successes. Right? Go to those bible studies. Hope in his steadfast love, open his word, prioritize time with him, and the last point is enjoy him. Happiness in God is found in knowing Him and loving Him deeply. The Westminster Catechism says man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. What is man's chief end? To glorify God and enjoy Him.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:29:28]:
God wants us to live in a way that brings glory to Him. That means reflects His character. Live in a way that His character is reflected through your life. You don't have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and try hard because Jesus said, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The more you spend time with him, the more his spirit will live out through you, and you will reflect God's glory. And when you don't, you'll be sensitive to the leading of the spirit who stops who shatters your wrist to slow you down. Our lives are designed with the intention to magnify our creator and to experience incredible hope filled joy that comes from a relationship with Him. God expects us to walk in joy.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:30:25]:
The abundant life that Jesus offered is what He has for each and every one of us. Is life hard sometimes? Yeah. Sometimes it's super hard, but that's when that joy shines even brighter. That's when we glorify him in a way we could never glorify him if we hadn't gone through that financial setback, that diagnosis, that betrayal, that divorce, that illness, that death. He is most glorified when you are most satisfied in Him. And He satisfies your hungry soul if you would just be still and know that He is God and press in to know Him as He's revealed Himself through the pages of scripture. God doesn't want us to just imagine. There's a scripture that says, you thought I was altogether like you.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:31:20]:
God's like, stop imagining what I'm like. Don't assign your dad's character qualities to me. I'm not a sugar daddy that gives you everything you ever thought you should have. That's what a good God does. I'm not a genie in a lamp. You read all those Bible stories that you know so well, go back, and instead of going, what did David do? What did Sarah do? What did Naomi do? Go, what did God do? And discover his character. You wanna fall in love with someone? You find out who they really are. And that's why God didn't ask you to blindly love him.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:31:53]:
He said, let me show you who I am. Let me show you that my ways are above yours and my thoughts are above yours. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so my ways are above yours. Let me show you great and mighty things about myself that you do not yet know. I don't care how old you are. There is it. God who says, I know the plans I have for you, to prosper you, not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future. And then he doesn't stop there.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:32:17]:
Everybody loves that part of the verse, but he says, if you seek me, you will find me. If you search for me, what? With your whole heart, I will be found of you, declares the Lord. And then I will set you free from your captivity. What captivates you today? The captivity of activity, anxiety, resentment, religiosity? What is it? What captivates you? Sometimes it's just good things. Here's how you can know if something's become an idol in your life. If you'll sin to get it, it's become an idol. I just want my husband to be more spiritual. If he would just be more spiritual, our family would be so much our marriage would be so much better.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:32:56]:
If he would just be so much more spiritual, and I'm so mad at him and I resent him and I'm a dig at him and I'm a you know, there's a men's bible study. You should probably go to that. Hey. How about you pray for dinner tonight instead of me in front of the kids? Hey. Hey. How about you? Oh, yeah. You want your husband to be the spiritual leader of your family. But when you'll sin to get it, now you think your happiness is based on how your husband lives out his spirituality.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:33:20]:
That's idolatry. Ask God to forgive you. Press in. You grow spiritually. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous one accomplishes much. Search me, oh God, know my heart. Try me, know my anxious thoughts. See if there's any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:33:37]:
Now, from a pure heart, Lord God, please send godly mentors for my husband. Lord God, please send someone to his work to share the gospel with him. Lord God, please help me to trust that you're leading him even when he doesn't know you for the sake of our family. Lord, please help me not to resent him. Knowing and trusting and glorifying God is the purpose for which you and I were created. Hope in His love, open His word, prioritize time with Him, and enjoy Him forever. If you determine before God to live this way, at the end of your life, I promise you'll have no regrets. And if you never truly have come to a place where you've repented of your sins, remember remembrance the quote I said earlier, my brain just went blank.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:34:39]:
It's not if you believe or it's maybe you believe you believe. John three sixteen says, for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We like that. Right? God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. The word believe in John three sixteen is not a mental ascent to the truth of it, like believing in Santa Claus. It's a one point in time action with a continued result. It's understanding, if I believe this, it's a covenant I'm entering into. Just like Naomi and Ruth, when Ruth made a covenant with Naomi and with her God, I will follow you the rest of my that's what true salvation is.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:35:21]:
If your Christianity isn't working for you, this might be the place to start. Lord God, I wanna not just believe. The demons believe and tremble. I don't wanna just believe. I wanna be in love with you. I wanna know that my sins are truly forgiven because I am a sinner in need of a savior, and I will turn from my sin. I will repent. I will ask you to forgive me, and then I will make you Adonai, born of my life.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:35:50]:
I will do all that you call me to do from this day forward. Let's pray. Father, I know that you know our hearts, and I know that you are the one that woos us to yourself. Only you know what you have planned for each of us, but, oh, what joy to know that you love us more than we could imagine and that our hope is in you. If there's anyone here that does not know you, Lord Jesus, let today be the day that they seek out someone to help them understand who Jesus truly is and that they're ready to surrender their heart to you. In Jesus' name, amen.