Notes from this week's podcast: Transformed Tuesday with Stephanie Moore

Jo: Their life has been transformed -- they've allowed God to walk hand in hadn't with them to transform them to be more like His vessel. 

Stephanie's salvation story

Stephanie: I fell in love with God and knew that He loved me. That was the beginning of my walk with Christ.

Jo: It's important for us as Christians to remember [that] someone intentionally (that didn't know you) came to invite you.

It's the Gospel that changes us.

I heard you say: You were "all in" for God. What happened in your life after that?

Stephanie: I'll never forget the first verse He ever spoke over me. I was in nursing school. And He spoke: Be still and know that I am the Lord.

He just deepened my walk with Him through the years.

Jo: When He speaks that word, how do you respond?

Stephanie: I feel like He is speaking direction to my life and I know it's from God's Word, which I wouldn't know if I didn't spend time in it.

Jo: In your spiritual journey, you wandered off into the wilderness, lost that intimacy with God.

Stephanie: I just lost focus on my walk with God. I didn't feel close to Him. I just lost my way. I felt in the wilderness.

Jo: Life kind of settled in and got off course, focusing on your circumstances and maybe God got lost in the midst of that.

Stephanie: Not like I never prayed or read my Bible. It wasn't like it was. I didn't have that close walk with Him. I didn't have community yet either.

Jo: How did that make a difference?

Stephanie: You just feel alone. There's something about a face to face group -- that community where you are now that helps you with like-mindedness.

Jo: When did you first realize that your relationship with Christ wasn't as close as it was previously? (the intimacy with God)

Stephanie: My thoughts. My thought life had gotten very sad and negative. I just found myself spiraling into more of that. I wasn't hearing God the way I had in the past. I was sad and not looking in the right place to get through it. It was so gradual that I didn't notice until I became part of your class. And, in class, you said to find a place to get alone with God. And, I had not done that. That really changed everything for me.

Jo: Tell us what you mean by finding your spot. Some people may not know what that means.

Stephanie: Just a spot to be alone with God and my Bible and my journal and just to focus -- have a very focused time with God. And that is something I had not done since moving here. It was a game-changer -- allowing God to speak to me.

Jo: How was it that God brought you back?

Stephanie: Some of it was just dwelling on... focusing on the names of God. As I began to focus on who God was, one of the names I really focused on was El Roi -- the God who sees. Hagar was in the wilderness, literally. He is the God who sees me. It just changed me. He is with me. I just began to focus on God's attributes and who He really is. It changed my heart. It brought me back to God and who He really is.

Jo: When we do sometimes feel a distance between God and us, stop and focus. God sees us. He just wants us to get back to Him. But sometimes, we don't know how to get back. And the world starts to put up in front of us all these ploys to pull us out into the wilderness. God says, "See me." In that wilderness, it was you seeing God that brought you out. 

Stephanie: Yes.

Jo: You connected with like-minded women. How important was that to you to getting back into that intimate relationship with God -- that you're all in for God?

Stephanie: In our small group, Essentials, it was so meaningful to sit around the table and hear their stories and sharing life with them and that is a game-changer.

Jo: Just being real together

God uses our circumstances to bring us closer to Him.

If we're not willing to open up and share our circumstances with the intent that we want to get back to God and bring God glory with our life, we miss the opportunity to grow spiritually. How did you take that challenge and use that to change or deepen your walk so that God gets the glory through your life?

Stephanie: Yes. That's exactly it. Just realizing it and sharing that I had lost the intimacy with God, and to admit that is hard, especially in your Christian world. But, as I've owned up to it and grown closer again, it has helped me grow. There is a way back. He is waiting for you. He sees you. What a difference it makes. It has deepened my faith to be more careful. There will be other wilderness seasons. Be aware of that and lean closer into Him instead of feeling far apart. If you can, become part of a group of real women and stay focused. 

Jo: Isn't that a trick of the enemy -- to get us thinking that I'm the only one that's experiencing this, that's messed up. He gets us trapped in shame and guilt. And we stay there. None of us want to mess up. But when we do mess up, we embrace that -- that God is molding us, and making us into His likeness -- if we'll just embrace that. [Say to God:] "I confess. I'm coming back to You." And to do that with a small group of like-minded women, who have the same challenge and the same ambition in their life (to be more like Christ). I commend you for the humility to be willing to do that. That's how we grow and we miss it. 

God saw what He was going to do to make us better. So, how have you been better through all this?

Stephanie: I'm just back to looking for God, hearing God, and I've also noticed because of that I am so full. I pray that it does spill out on everybody around me -- that they can feel God and His amazing love. 

Jo: Thank you for being real with our audience because people just want to know you're real and how they can stay in this love relationship with God and continue to live on purpose -- purpose to stay in the Word, to lean in to God, and to see God because God sees you, and then allow God to bring you out of that wilderness back on the pathway to righteousness. 

Scriptures for further reading: Psalm 46:10, Genesis 16 (the story of Hagar)