Finding Your Way Back to Christ with Rhonda Stoppe

Finding Your Way Back to Christ

Have you ever felt distant from God after a season of closeness? In this powerful episode, Rhonda shares seven practical steps to reignite your intimate relationship with Jesus. Drawing from the Apostle Peter's journey—from his bold declarations to his devastating denial and ultimate restoration—Rhonda reminds us that even our failures can humble us and prepare us for greater service.

Discover how to:

• Seek God intentionally through daily prayer
• Read Scripture with fresh eyes, focusing on God's character
• Write and meditate on the Psalms
• Learn the names of God and what they reveal about Him
• Draw inspiration from biographies of faithful believers
• Ask God for help without hesitation
• Press on without giving up

Whether you're coming back from a season of wandering or simply longing to deepen your walk with Christ, this episode offers hope and practical guidance. Rhonda vulnerably shares her own struggles with falling short and reminds us that God's grace meets us in our humility.

As Peter discovered after his restoration, our greatest ministry often flows from the seasons where we've been broken and rebuilt by God's love.

Article Mentioned: Finding Your Way Back to Christ

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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 [00:00:01]:
Hey, friends. Rhonda Stoppe, no regrets woman here with this year's amazing spiritual growth summit 2024. Marnie, thank you so much. This. This has been just so amazing, and I know it will continue to be. Today I am going to talk to you about finding your way back to Christ. And I don't want to waste one minute because I've got a lot to say in the short amount of time that I have here. Finding your way back to Christ.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:00:27]:
You know, that time when you were so near to Jesus, you were never going to wander away. You were always going to be close to him. You were going to be intimate with him for the rest of your life because you loved Jesus. Maybe it was right after you came to Christ. Maybe it was after you went to a woman's retreat. I just spoke an amazing woman's event this last weekend. And women make a commitment to pursue Jesus in a personal and intimate way. And then life gets in the way, Right? I remember being in that situation.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:00:55]:
And you know who somebody else that was near to Jesus was? The Apostle Paul. I'm sorry, back up. Apostle Peter. The Apostle Peter, he was so near to Jesus, and yet when Jesus said that he was going to die, Peter was like, oh, no, you're not. And he said, I won't let that happen. And what did Jesus say to him? Get thee behind me, Satan. Like, what now? This is the Apostle Peter who hung out with Jesus all the time. And he put his foot in his mouth again.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:01:21]:
And then Jesus told him, peter, Satan wants to sift you like wheat. And I wish so bad that Jesus would have said, but I'm not going to let him. But Jesus didn't say that. He said, but I have prayed for you. Wow. And then Jesus said when he comes back, he was going to build his church. And I am here to tell you that sometimes those times that we fail Christ, those times when we feel that we could not believe we did or didn't do the thing that we promised we were never going to do or always going to do, that we fall on our face sometimes. It breaks our pride.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:01:54]:
And God says, you know what? I resist the proud, but I give grace to the humble. I love knowing that when Jesus resurrected, the first thing he told Mary was, go tell the disciples and Peter that I'm alive. Jesus came after him. Where was Peter? He was hiding. And then he went fishing. Because sometimes when we fail Christ, we go back to what we know we're good at, right? And Peter was a good fisherman. So where do we find Peter in his boat fishing, and Jesus on the shore. And when Peter sees him, he jumps in the water and he swims to Jesus.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:02:27]:
Sometimes it takes us falling on our face before we're ready to know. I can't live this Christian life on my own. I can't be religious enough or good enough. I will let people down. I'm going through that right now. I've let someone down, and I can't let myself off the hook. And I'm dealing with that regret, the no regrets woman, of just not measuring up to someone's expectations. That just kills me.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:02:50]:
And yet Peter ran to Jesus and he said, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? And then Peter was ready to be the leader of the church because he had been humbled even in his own failure. And sometimes that happens with us. So let's unpack really quickly. I think if you're a true follower of Jesus, his spirit is likely stirring in you a longing to deepen your relationship with Christ. In fact, if you're joining this workshop, I have to believe it's because that's what you're looking for. I believe that every Christian woman can walk in close fellowship with Christ, and men too, for all of their days. And I believe that you can find your way back to a more intimate walk with Jesus. And today we're going to unpack some practical ways to show you how, number one, get alone with God to seek him.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:03:39]:
I have these little points there. There we go to seek God. Acts 17:27. Sorry, that's not in the bubble. That they should seek God in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find Him. Yet he is not far from each one of us. Oh, I love knowing that he is near. Draw near to God, he will draw near to you.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:03:58]:
Deuteronomy 4:29 says, but from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all of your heart and with all of your soul. I don't know about you, but man, I long to seek him with all of my heart. And life gets in the way. Sometimes what gets in the way is just unconfessed sin. Are you willing to daily get before the Lord? Psalm 139, 23:24 and pray. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the way.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:04:33]:
Everlasting unconfessed sin is the number one hindrance to a Christian's walk. With intimacy with Christ. And so often we have those, quote, respectable sins that we don't even really observe how sinful they are because we look at other people and how bad they are. But God wants us. Jesus words were get the log out of your own eye. So are you willing daily to get alone with God and seek him and ask him, Search me and show me my own heart. Number two, begin reading through all the Bible stories. Get in the word, girlfriend.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:05:06]:
The word of God is what is quick and powerful. And a sharper is a two edged sword. He is the living word. Spending time in the Word is spending time with Jesus. And you will draw near to him. But read those Bible stories that you know so well. But instead of looking at what did, what did Adam do, what did Moses do, what did Abraham do, Look at what did God do? Because God reveals his character to us through those historical biblical accounts of his ways in history and how he moves among men. And then he says, love me.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:05:39]:
Search me and Love me. Mark 12:30 with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. He doesn't ask us to blindly love him. He says, this is who I am. You can love me for who I've revealed myself to be and you can fall in love with him. The Next one, number three is write out Psalms 119. Write out the Psalms. Psalm 119 is one that I write out.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:05:59]:
And then I pray it back to the Lord and I meditate on it. And I asked the Lord and I've loved it so much that I have memorized so much of Psalm 119. I love when the psalmist says, open my eyes that I might see wondrous things from your law. Wow. I want to see you in a new and fresh way, Lord. I want to see you as you reveal yourself in scripture. The next point is learn the names of God back to what we were talking about. God reveals himself through those biblical accounts.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:06:28]:
Jehovah Jireh. He is the God who provides Jehovah. Nisi he is the. The Lord is your banner. He is the. The one who will fight our battles for us. Elroy. The God who sees.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:06:41]:
That's Hagar's story. And she said he is the God who sees. Sometimes just knowing that you're seen and knowing that he cares means so much and draws us near to him. Next, read biographies about people who have followed so close to Jesus. I love to read biographies and in history that were missionaries that have been preachers. I love the story of Spurgeon's life. There's a Book called Susie that's about Susanna Spurgeon's life. Such a great book.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:07:09]:
So many accounts of missionaries and how they served God, but how he showed up. And it's just incredible. If you want to see God's character revealed, look at those incredible biographies and you will see God in a fresh way and then ask God for help. You're not alone in this. The Bible says you have not because you ask not. And sometimes we are so busy trying that we forget that God's like, just ask me. Jesus promises in John 14:13, Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the son. Matthew 7:8.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:07:44]:
For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks, finds, and the one who knocks it will be open first. Chronicles 16:11 Seek the Lord in his strength. Seek his presence continually. Which leads me to my final point. Number seven. Don't give up. And I don't think I put, oh yeah, I did. There it is.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:08:02]:
Don't give up. For it is God who works in you to will and to do his good pleasure. He gives you the want to, and then he makes it happen. But you have to continually draw near to God as He will draw near to you, seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness, looking for ways that you can press into him, finding your way back to Christ. Get alone with God, spend time in his word, begin to read through Scripture. We read through the Bible every year together. And I got to tell you, reading through the Bible with my church family, with my husband, with my family, it knits my heart together with other believers. And you want to fellowship with others who want to draw near to God.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:08:42]:
If you are fellowshipping with apathetic, status quo, whatever Christians, you're most likely going to be status quo, apathetic and whatever, and think that's the normal Christian life. It's not. Jesus told the church in Laodicea, I want to vomit you out of my mouth, that they were a good church, doing good things, but they had lost their first love. They needed to press in. And I pray that for you today as you begin reading all those stories and writing out scripture, beginning with the Psalms, learning the names of God, K. Arthur has a book out that is called Lord, I want to know you, I think, and it's the names of God. So good. Read those biographies and ask God for help.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:09:21]:
And then don't give up. Never give up. Daily, one foot in front of the other, seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. I pressed toward the mark of the prize of the upper call of God in Christ Jesus is what the Apostle Paul said. Not that I have already attained this or I'm already perfect, but one thing I do, I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. He's made you his own. Press on, make it your own. If any of you think otherwise, God will reveal that to you also.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:09:53]:
I'm praying for your maturity in the faith and then I just want to spend one minute reading about how the Apostle Peter's life ended up from my book Real Life Romance. One of the best love stories in all of that book full of love stories is the Apostle Peter and his wives. But the way that it ends is from an excerpt that you read. Eusebius, a well learned Roman historian. He said the Apo the blessed Peter, seeing his own wife led away to execution, was delighted on account of her calling and returned to her country that he cried out to her in a consolatory and encouraging voice, addressing her by now by name, oh thou remember the Lord. Such was the marriage of these blessed ones. The Apostle Peter had failed once, but he did not fail when his life was put on the line, when all he had to do was deny Christ and it would invalidated the testimony that he had seen the resurrected Christ. And not only would it have invalidated his testimony, but all of the other disciples as well.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:10:53]:
He stayed true because he had drawn near to Christ and for the rest of his life he built the Church of God. And that's what God wants to do through us. He wants to us to stay near to him so that he has saved us unto good works that he ordained in advance that we should walk in them so he can accomplish those works through us as we're near to him, as we're humbling ourselves under his mighty hand so that he knows what he wants to accomplish in and through your life. And as you draw near to him, don't focus on what you want to do for him. Focus on who he is. Fall more in love with him through the practical steps we've given today. And you will draw so near to him, and then in you he will do exceedingly and abundantly, above all you could ask or even imagine in Jesus name. Thank you so much for joining me today for finding your way back to Christ.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:11:43]:
You can find that article on my website noregretswoman.com there's an article called finding your way back to Christ and you'll find all of these points. You can also text the words no regrets to 55444 and I will send you a free video of me teaching your marriage can survive toddlers and teens. I believe that's what's up there. And if you go to my website noregretswoman.com and follow my newsletter, you can get a free chapter from one of my books, I think it's Moms Raising Sons to Be Men, my bestseller. And please follow my podcast Old Ladies Know Stuff because it's a nod to Titus two Women old ladies called us to pour into the lives of the next generation and so Old Ladies Know Stuff is a wonderful way for you to connect with with me. And my best of episode is what to do when you don't know what to do. My best of 2023 episode. You'll find that at my podcast oldladiesknowstuff.com thanks so much for joining me.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:12:40]:
I appreciate you and let me just pray. Lord God, in the name of Jesus, we want to find our way so near to you that nothing can pull us away from Christ. I pray Father that you would accomplish in each woman watching and self all that you have for our lives. As we draw near to you, Father, draw near to us and give us a sense of your presence, your joy and your peace in Jesus name. Amen. And if you don't know Jesus, contact me through my website noregretswoman.com and I will send you an article how to know how to have a relationship with Jesus. Thanks so much. Enjoy the rest of your conference.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:13:15]:
Have a great day.