Joy 1-Joy in the Hard Journey, episode 103

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If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right

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here at When You Love a Prodigal podcast.

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And also help and hope for your own life journey.

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As I share, as God opened your mind and heart about how to have joy in this challenging

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journey, be sure to jot it down so you can put them into practice.

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This week we are beginning the first of four devotional studies leading up to the June

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2nd Worldwide Prodigal Prayer Day.

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I will give you a little bit of information on that at the end.

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Let me tell a more personal story to start with.

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My husband, Steve, has been a daily source of joy for me for more than 50 years, and

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especially for the 47 years that we were married.

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Daily he made me coffee and kept my cup filled, told me he loves me every day, sometimes several

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times a day, praised my cooking, told me I was beautiful, assured me that I can do anything

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that God gives me to do.

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He even washed the dishes and the laundry, paid the bills, rubbed my back, and always

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believed in me and encouraged me.

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He was such a source of joy.

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But six months ago, Steve left me.

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It was not his choice, but God's.

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And complications from a cancer treatment ended his earthly life, but he joyfully moved

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to his new heavenly home.

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Now, I miss him terribly, but how can I not rejoice that he is with Jesus and free from

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the growing troubles his body was facing?

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Did I say rejoice?

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Oh yes.

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As great a loss as this has been for me and my children and my grandchildren, as often

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as tears come, I can still rejoice.

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And that's one reason why I believe God can give us joy, even abundant joy, even as we

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navigate the hard journey of loving a prodigal.

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So what gives you joy?

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For most of us, joy and happiness are kind of synonyms.

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So the things that make us happy often provide joy in our lives.

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Often what brings us joy are wonderful relationships we have, like family, a spouse, children,

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grandchildren, our neighbors, some church friends, some co-workers.

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The people in our lives can be the happiest parts of our lives.

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Other sources of happiness might be a sense of purpose, meaningful work, a nice home,

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good health, fun and refreshing activities, and even when your team wins the championship,

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whatever sport you're into.

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But then there are the realities that seem to steal our joy away.

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The loss of a job, financial challenges, a scary diagnosis like my husband had, betrayal

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by friends, interpersonal conflicts, and for us, the pain and challenge of a prodigal,

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of a loved one making destructive life choices or causing chaos in the family or even rejecting

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their relationship with you.

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Our God tells us we can have joy in all those bad events I just mentioned, even when my

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husband died or when your loved one breaks your heart for the first time or many times.

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Our theme verse for these four sessions on joy is James 1-2.

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James has the audacity to say, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever

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you face trials of any kind.

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James calls us to make a choice, to consider, which means to acknowledge, recognize, regard,

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think about the trials of our lives as pure joy.

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Seriously, pure joy?

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Not just grudging joy?

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So James goes on to remind us of some gifts we receive from those trials.

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He says, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

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And then he says, let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete,

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not lacking anything.

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Now, probably perseverance hasn't been on your list of desired gifts, not mine for sure.

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Though we must admit it helps us get through hard times.

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I think perseverance has been one of my most important gifts.

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Just look at, he says, is the result of when we persevere, when we stick with it, when

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we don't quit or give up.

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We become mature and complete and we lack nothing.

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I bet you've never thought about that.

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Perseverance is a gift that helps us go through life and all the hard parts of life, including

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a prodigal.

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And we'll have everything we need.

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We will not lack.

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And therefore, we can choose to rejoice.

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We can consider it joyful as we go through those things.

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Yet, even as God calls us to perseverance and joy on a hard journey, he also invites

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us to be honest with him.

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To express your fears and feelings, to ask challenging questions, to lament.

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So sometimes we think that we are showing lack of faith if we question God, if we tell

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him we don't like what he's doing to us or in our lives.

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But he's willing to listen.

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He wants to be in a conversation with us about what we're going through.

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And this is called lament or lamentation.

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So what is lament?

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Well, it's a prayer expressing sorrow or pain or confusion or just our disappointment at

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a great loss.

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And lament should be the chief way Christians process grief in God's presence.

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Instead of just hanging out over here complaining, he says, come on, let's talk.

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And we can tell him what we're thinking.

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Almost a third of the book of Psalms and the entire book of Lamentations are concerned

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with lament.

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Like every other emotion, God wants to hear about our pain.

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He wants us to lament.

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So I'm going to just read you one psalm, not too long, from the sons of Korah.

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And this is Psalm 42.

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And I want you to recognize and see he's being very honest.

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He's saying what he's not liking.

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He's asking hard questions.

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And then he turns around and rejoices.

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And it kind of repeats.

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So just listen as I read, you will probably be familiar with this.

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As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.

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My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

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When can I go and meet with God?

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My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, where

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is your God?

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These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I used to go to the house of God under

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the protection of the mighty one, with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng.

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Why my soul are you downcast?

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Why are you so disturbed within me?

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Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

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And once again he says, my soul is downcast within me, therefore I will remember you from

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the land of the Jordan, the heights of Mount Hermon and Mount Mazar.

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Deep calls to deep, in the roar of your waterfalls, all your waves and breakers have swept over

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me.

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That's what it feels like sometimes, isn't it?

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It's like we're being drowned by the sadness and the hurt and the pain and confusion that

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we're experiencing.

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And he says, by day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me.

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He's there, he's listening, and he's caring what you're going through.

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And I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me?

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Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by an enemy?

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My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, where is your

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God?

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Why, my soul, are you downcast?

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Why so disturbed within me?

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And I say to my soul, put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my

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God.

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Do you see the psalmist back and forth, pouring out his fears, his concern, his lament, and

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then turning right around and praising God and finding joy in the midst of that hard

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time?

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As you can see, God welcomes our praise, and he also welcomes our stories of our pain.

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He receives our gratitude and also our questions.

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After Steve's death, I had a lot of questions.

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Answers included scriptural promises and reminders, but also words like trust me, wait, oh yeah,

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and persevere.

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But God was also kind to give me almost audible answers to some of my questions.

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These two I'm going to share with you.

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They've been the most important and helpful to me.

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I said to him early after Steve was gone, how will I live without him, Lord?

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And God said, I will be with you.

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And when I asked it again the next night, that's when I always ask those questions,

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was it night?

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And he said the same thing, I'm still with you.

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I will always be with you.

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But this one is the most special.

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I said, why did he have to leave now?

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And his response, God's response, has been an ongoing source of joy for me.

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God said, I wanted to be kind to him because he knew what the problems that he would face

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if he continued trying to fight this cancer that he had, which really didn't have a treatment

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that worked.

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And he said, I wanted to be kind to him.

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And I say, how can I argue with that?

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How can I do anything but rejoice that God chose kindness over what he would learn from

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persevering?

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And he does that sometimes, and I'm so grateful.

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So summing up this first devotional on joy and the hard journey, God calls us to consider

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it pure joy when the journey is hard, and as we do, we will find valuable life-giving

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gifts.

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But he also invites us to tell him how hard it is, how much it hurts, how confused we

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are to ask our deep and honest questions.

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And in the process, as he hears us, as he responds through his word, whispering to us

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in the night, through the good words of others, he will also give us joy.

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Next week, we will discover more about how in the world we can consider it pure joy when

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we are encountering hard trials, especially those that come from our beloved prodigals.

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So let me ask you, have you found any joy on your hard journey?

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What has helped you to experience some joy and to be able to do something that gives

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you joy?

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I hope you will discover some joy in the two songs that I have linked in the show notes.

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Each of these four weeks, I will have two songs for you in the show notes that I hope

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will bless you, encourage you, and give you joy, even in the midst of a hard journey.

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Remember that we are moving toward the June 2nd Worldwide Prodigal Prayer Day.

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Is your prodigal's name on the list?

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What are you praying for?

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If it is, you don't have to do anything.

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We don't take them off.

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It's already there.

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But if you have a prodigal and you would like for the hundreds, thousands around the world

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who will be praying on that day to pray specifically for the name of your loved one, we'll be glad

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to do that.

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You just need to follow the directions in the show notes to give us your name so that

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we can include yours.

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And maybe you know some others.

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A lot of time we do, don't we?

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We know who else is going through this.

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And we would love to include them in prayer for their loved one.

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God bless you.