Encounter God's Favor: 3 Scriptures for Every Marriage

Transcribed from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability. Speaker labels are automated and may occasionally be off.

Austin: Hey, everybody, Austin and Rachel Holt here, and welcome back to the Conscious Christian Marriage podcast. We are your hosts, and we're very excited to jump into today's topic with you.

Rachel: Yes. Per the ushe handshake to start things off.

Austin: Handshake, yes.

Rachel: Feeling real good.

Austin: Feeling real good, that's right. so those of you who are joining us for the first time, one thing that we do to start off every single podcast episode, as well as every meeting we have in our coaching programs for husbands, wives, and married couples, we start it off with an appreciation, because we believe what and who we appreciates, ap appreciate appreciates. And so we just really believe in the power of appreciation, and that that's a superpower God has given us, so we like to use it every chance we get. So I'd like to go first. Rachel, I really appreciate your love for the Word of God. I feel like even this morning when, I was up early, you were up early. I came back from my run, everything, you were just I just found you in the Word multiple times this morning, just sitting in your comfy chair in our bedroom. And, and just how much you've been in the Word today to prep for today's episode, which will be very, you know, scripture-focused.

And, but I just appreciate, like, how you get the kids into the Word, how you listen to the Word in the vehicle, how you're reading the Word at home a lot. And, like, even for me, as, like, the spiritual leader of the family, it's always very inspiring to me, for how much you're in the Word. So I just appreciate that about you. And your love for being in the Word, and how even though you've been a Christian for many, many decades, like, you still get so excited when you read scripture. And you're like, "Oh my gosh, babe, look at this." And I'm like, "Wow," and you're like, "Oh my gosh," and just like it's just really cute and really inspiring, so. And I love that our kids, you know, I think it was I can't remember who it was, but someone said in some sermon we watched some time where they're like, "I love when my kids, you know, find me, you know, in the Word at home," you know?

And so I like that our kids find you at home in the Word really often. So.

Rachel: Thank you.

Austin: Appreciate you.

Rachel: I appreciate that. And I wanna do a quick shout-out for Soak Stream. We'll put a link in the episode description because I absolutely love listening to scripture. So they only do an ad at the beginning of the video, and they're like, I don't even know, like, 12-hour-long videos where it's just, like, a picture of a lion, but then it's this guy in a soothing tone, kind of like this, reading the Word of God. But it's not, like, robotic. It's like he emphasizes the words that are powerful. And I kid you not, like, I listen to it in the shower, so that's like Jesus time. I listen to it in the car. I listen to it while I'm getting ready for the day. Like, so often

Austin: It's awesome

Rachel: And so many opportunities, I just play it. It's, talk about cultivating a, a spirit of worship in your home, playing it in the living room, for the kids. So Why are you nodding like that?

Austin: Be because, we have a very limited amount of time to finish this episode.

Rachel: You're right.

Austin: And this this wasn't on the agenda.

Rachel: It was not.

Austin: Which I love you just

Rachel: I just had to throw that out there

Austin: Being willy-nilly. Yes.

Rachel: It's so good.

Austin: All right.

Rachel: So we'll put a link in. Anyway. Yes. Austin, I appreciate, you just taking care of yourself and your health choices and, the ways you're dedicated to honoring God with your heart, soul, mind, strength. And I love that you went on a run in the woods this morning. Super cool. I know that really nurtures your man masculinity solitude/conquering

Austin: Mm-hmm. Recharging

Rachel: Esque.

Austin: Thank you.

Rachel: So I appreciate that about you.

Austin: Thank you. Yeah. All right, well, so, l for those of you who are just joining us today, so the last episode, that we shared together, was our fourth, video in the Mutual Exclusive series, where we're basically helping people kinda debunk some really unhelpful mutual exclusives and helping people realize they're not mutually exclusive. And so last episode, we talked about that you can actually listen to your emotions and listen to the Holy Spirit, okay? And so you know, the mutual exclusive that has been taught so widely is just that your emotions can only deceive you, and you only need to listen to the Holy Spirit. And we are 100% about listening to the Holy Spirit. We just believe the Holy Spirit can work through our emotions. And, the Holy Spirit can work through, the stories that we tell ourselves and how we feel about that and how that translates into behavior. Because like we say around here, we believe in a really integrated approach to living life as a, as a conscious Christian, and that means listening to our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and nurturing our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

So we want to leverage the power that we have through the Holy Spirit and also through the heart and the brain and the body that God gave us. And so that episode was a lot of fun. We've had a really, lot of really cool, interesting feedback from it. And so if you haven't listened to that one, go check that out. But today, we wanted to pause our series, and we just really felt like we wanted to point out People ask us all the time, like, "What are scriptures that you love? What are scriptures that you use to help guide your marriage, help guide parenting and life, and bui building businesses and stuff like that?" And so, we came up with, you know, some, some scriptures that are really, really important to us. And so, you know, you could think of these as kind of foundational. You could think of them as even more advanced because it's like the more you apply these, and depending on the stage of life that you apply them in, just the more leverage and strength I think that you'll gain, from these scriptures.

And also, just realizing that, God really does want to, favor us. Like- God's heart really is to, to love us. It's to bless us. And how we position ourselves to receive God's blessing, favor, wisdom, grace, all that, is really, really important. And if you believe that God doesn't want to bless you, you'll have a hard time seeing that. It j and which is a total follow-up to the last episode where we talked about the cognitive model, you know, like, what you believe is typically what you're gonna see and experience. And so if, you know, there's so much shame around things like the prosperity gospel, and we don't believe in the traditional, as you would maybe listen to this, hear the word prosperity gospel, like- "Hey, if you send us a check, we're gonna send you a Lambo." You know, God's gonna mail you a Lambo, you know? But we really do believe that if we're obedient and we are as righteous as we can be and we live by the Word of God, you will prosper.

And that by living a life fervently, faithfully dedicated to Jesus, your life will prosper. So if that's the prosperity gospel, then we're all in, okay? We're not all in on the mail us a check and God will mail you a Lambo, but we're definitely all in on the idea that if we fully dedicate ourselves in complete obedience to God- That He will bring favor on our lives. And He has done that in our life. He's done that in The story that we hear countless times over and over is, "Austin and Rachel," and this is usually on the heels of someone like joining our, our program. "Hey, we invested the time, the money, the emotion, the energy. We joined your program, and all of a sudden, God is blessing us." I mean, I hear this story all the time. All the time. Almost every single couple I hear this from. And it's not that we have some magic pill or anything like that, but we really believe that when you lean in and double down on the investment in your marriage, your family, your faith, which a lot of our program is all action-oriented, right?

Like, you don't just join. It's, you know, if you buy a home gym, you gotta use it, right? So people they join our program, and they use it, and all of a sudden they start seeing God's favor show up in different areas of their lives. So we really believe, and this is what we really want you all to understand today, is that if you lean in and, you seek wisdom and righteousness and, obedience to God, He wants to give you His blessing.

Rachel: Yeah, and

Austin: He wants to give you favor.

Rachel: Yeah, and what we're talking about today is it's in scripture. It's in countless scriptures.

Austin: Countless scriptures.

Rachel: The more that I look for it, and the more that I'm aware of it, the more I see it, I'm like, "Oh my gosh, God favors the righteous." When you're righteous, He gives you blessing. And it's a theme throughout the entire Bible front to back.

Austin: I, I was just listening to Numbers this morning, and of course, I came across Numbers 6, which has some of my favorite scripture, you know, the priestly blessing. "The Lord bless you and keep you, may His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace." It's like even back then like, that was God telling the priests, like, "Here is the prayer that you pray over the people." Like, you know, like, "This is how I want you to bless them," you know? And so you're right. It's all over scripture. God wants to bless us. He wants to give us His favor. And more oftentimes than not, it's us getting in the way of God versus God just choosing not to bless us. You know, a lot of people

Rachel: Very much so, yeah

Austin: Are like, "Well, I'm just in a season where God's not really, you know, blessing me," or, or- "I don't feel God near me." More than likely we're doing something. And we're not paying attention to the lesson. We're not paying attention to where our own resistance is. We're not paying attention. If someone told you, "Don't listen to your mind, your heart, or anything else. All you have to do is pray, you know, and read the Bible, and everything will always make sense." But God also speaks to us through the meditations of our heart, through our thoughts. And so if you ignore and override all those things, sometimes you're missing what God's trying to get you to pay attention to. You know? And so again, we believe in that integrative life, you know? You listen to the Holy Spirit. You listen to how He works through your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength, your emotions, your thoughts, your beliefs, your stories, your values. And when you do that, you get just a bigger, more clear picture of what God's trying to do in your life.

And so I really believe, we really believe that God wants to bless you. He wants to give you favor. He might just be waiting on you, 'cause that's the thing people say, "You don't have to do anything. God will do it all." I get what you're trying to say with that. I get that context. But we believe in collaborating and co-creating with God, okay? So we're here to tell people, "Hey, if you're not seeing a lot of God's favor or blessing on your life, maybe He's trying to get you to step into a place of righteousness obedience, action following His commandments. And so maybe that, what might feel like a, maybe a separation or a quietness from God, maybe He's waiting on you to take some action. Maybe you think all, you, that God does everything and you do nothing. We're here to tell you that you have a lot more involvement than you probably think. And so these scriptures are, are just a way for you to understand what scripture is trying to teach you about the way you live your life, about your mindset.

But mostly, I think, is about the heart of God. God loves you. He wants to bless you. He wants to give you favor. He's just calling us to be obedient and to believe.

Rachel: Yeah. Okay, let's get into it.

Austin: Let's do it.

Rachel: So scripture number one, this is on the topic of seeking wisdom seeking God's word and godly counsel and prayer. And so this

Austin: And, and real quick, I don't wanna skip over one really important thing you just said. We are to seek wisdom, and we do it through God's word. We do it through godly counsel. So if you don't have godly counsel in your life, you need godly counsel. And I dare say need. You need.

Rachel: We don't say need very much.

Austin: We don't say need very often. But you need godly counsel. So you seek wisdom through God's word, through godly counsel, and through prayer. Three absolutely pivotal places that we're seeing.

Rachel: Yeah, and each of those have valuable input. Like, prayer is different than godly counsel. Like, you get input in a different way from prayer than you do godly counsel. God can speak to us through both, and we grow through both. But they both are not like they work together really well. so this scripture, Proverbs 24:3-4, "By wisdom, a house is built, and through understanding, it is established; through knowledge, its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures." We, talked about this scripture a lot as we were building the house, and it was something I thought about a lot as I walked through the rooms. And I believe I wrote it on underneath our sink window, because, you know, just building a house makes me think about that. And but of course, this is figurative speaking, right? But if you think of your marriage as a house and your life as a house, like, your home ethos, your marriage and your life together, it is built through wisdom.

And through understanding, you lay that foundation. It's established. And through knowledge, then that's how it grows. That's how, like, all these wonderful things begin happening because its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. If you think, like, you build the foundation of the house first. You establish the walls, you know, second. And then once you move in, you have some decorating to do. And you have some furniture to buy. And you kinda, like, you know- Put the curtains on the, on the windows and you embellish and all that. And then, you know, as you go around through life, you get to add beautiful things to your home. And so I love how it goes through, you know, how it's built, established, and then the flourishing that can happen.

Austin: How it's filled. Yeah.

Rachel: And it says, "Through knowledge, its rooms are filled

Austin: Yeah, so

Rachel: With rare and beautiful treasures."

Austin: Yeah. So think about if you're willing, if you wanna experience more in life, if you wanna experience more of that kind of abundant life, you know, that we teach about, wisdom, going to God for wisdom, okay? Going to God through understanding and going to God for knowledge. Okay? And I, and I believe that you find those things, again, through God's word, through God the counsel, and through prayer. But think about all the other scripture that talk about those three things. Wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.

Rachel: Oh, yeah, wisdom. There's so many scriptures about wisdom.

Austin: And, and we're addressed in so many different ways. You know, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, you know? and, there's, you know, grace surpasses all understanding, you know? And so those three components are important. So imagine if, as you're building your marriage, you're building your life, and if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably the kind of person that actually does wanna grow that does wanna get better. You're probably I don't think you and I are the speed of people, people like to listen to if they're really, really complacent. I think most of the people listening here are probably like, "Okay, how do I continue to level up in my life?" And if you wanna level up in your life, and we want you to level up in your life, and we believe there's no glass ceiling for you wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. That's, that's part of the key. And that's why the scripture's so important to us because God, we pray for wisdom, we pray for understanding, we pray for knowledge.

And so thinking about filling the rooms with rare and beautiful treasure is a, is really beautiful imagery. You know, and we do that through knowledge of God, knowledge of God's will, knowledge of God's plan, knowledge of God's grace and love, and design for our life. And I think when we take that seriously, then all of a sudden, everything that we want starts, you know, kinda coming out of the woodwork. No pun intended. Coming out of the woodwork. That's, that's a double entendre if I've ever heard one.

Rachel: That's a good one. yeah, it's, it's really pretty. All right, we good to go to scripture two?

Austin: Yeah. All right.

Rachel: All right.

Austin: Scripture two. So scripture two, essentially the, the heart behind this scripture, the heart behind why we picked this one is just this idea that if you, if you pursue doing the right things, you will be blessed. Again, this is the prosperity gospel. I don't know if my

Rachel: But it's in the gospel

Austin: I don't, I don't know if my teeth are white enough to, to really get you to

Rachel: I'm sensing

Austin: Really lure you in. but I'm not talking about anyone in specific. But, pursue doing the right things and you will be blessed. And, you know, ri it's, it's really pursuing righteousness. And righteous me righteousness means doing the right thing, the upright thing, being upright people. And, yeah, there's a lot of different ethical and moral considerations for that. We follow the ethical and moral considerations given to us in scripture, period. As Christians, that's what we do. And so when you pursue doing the right things as God tell you, God tells you to do, that is obedience, okay? that is following scripture. That is being in alignment to the values that God has given us through the word of God, through His son, Jesus, through the Holy Spirit. And so when we pursue doing those right things, okay? Loving the widow, loving the orphan, okay, loving those who cannot, you know, defend themselves. You know, all, all the different decrees and, and prescriptions we're given in scripture.

When we do those things, you will be blessed. And I think so many people are so afraid to look at God through that lens, because they've been shamed so many times. Again, shamed about the prosperity gospel. Shamed about seeing this god as some type of, you know, order taker, okay? And people are like, "Oh, you can't treat God like, you know, he's your waiter." It's like, well

Rachel: Yeah, or your genie or something

Austin: We're, we're just Yeah, genie. We're just swinging the pendulum so far on those statements. Like, God is a loving father. And He wants to love and bless His kids. He wants to reward them for their obedience, just like we reward our kids for their obedience. Just like we discipline our kids for their lack of obedience we reward our kids for obedience, because we're setting them up for success.

Rachel: Yeah, and he says that. He's like, "What good father would give their son, like, a rock or a snake?" It's like, of course. You love your kids.

Austin: Yeah, you love your kids.

Rachel: You want to give them good things.

Austin: That's right. So this scripture is Proverbs 21:21. "Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity, and honor." Okay, now just think about that for a minute. This is, like, pretty cut and dry. This is really in a place in scripture where someone can't just say that we're wildly taking this out of context or something. Like, this is just This is one of the books of wisdom with good advice flowing through. Whoever pursues righteousness. Whoever pursues doing the right things ordained by God.

Rachel: Yes. And note, it doesn't mean whoever is perfect or, like, nails being righteous all the time.

Austin: Yeah. He's just saying pursues.

Rachel: Yes, because, you know, he talks about how Abram believed in the Lord, and it cr it was credited to him as righteousness. It wasn't You know, Abra we watched Abraham make mistakes. He literally, like, lied that his wife was his sister, and then, like this whole thing happened. That was after, but the Lord still blessed his future. Like it doesn't mean perfection. It says, "Whoever pursues righteousness and love." If you're on a journey pursuing that, guess what? You're gonna find life. You're gonna find prosperity and honor.

Austin: Yeah, yeah. So whoever pursues doing the right things ordained by God. Doing the right things by God's law and God's standard and love, okay, finds life finds prosperity, and finds honor. And it's just interesting, you know, talking about righteousness here, because, you know, righteousness is mentioned almost 500 times in the Bible. Okay? So I have to believe It's just like when I, one of my teachers told me in, like, you know, fourth grade when we were prepping for middle school. You know, they're like, "Hey, one thing to remember is if your teacher says something over and over and over again it means it's really important. Write it down in your notes." I literally remember taking a class on note-taking when you're listening to someone talk, right? And so, you know, again, the teacher said, like, if a teacher repeats it four or five or six times 'Cause, you know, in elementary school they gave us the notes. In middle school we had to learn how to take notes.

You know, which is just an interesting skill because I, I am a note-taker to this day. And I've remembered this my entire life, 'kay, is if they say it a bunch of times, it's really important, write it down. Well, the Bible talks about righteousness almost f- 500, 493 times. Almost 500 times.

Rachel: And that's just the word righteous?

Austin: Yeah. And

Rachel: I don't know if that's righteousness as well. There could be way more.

Austin: Righteousness or righteousnessly.

Rachel: Yeah. Oh, yes, we don't know how many times.

Austin: How many times righteousnessly. Like, Austin loved his wife righteousnessly.

Rachel: Ooh.

Austin: Oof. It's kinda sexy almost. Dang. So how it's just, like, amazing when you think about how important righteousness is. And again, like, oh my gosh, we have s we should just We'll, we'll, like, rapid-fire some of these here

Rachel: Yeah. No, I'm gonna do that

Austin: In a second.

Rachel: Can I do it?

Austin: Yeah. Can we popcorn them, like, altern alternately?

Rachel: Yes. Okay, so we mentioned

Austin: So, so, so here's, like, 10 scriptures real quick on righteousness. And as you're listening to this- I want you to just slow down, open your heart up open your mind up. The, the, the goal of these scriptures is to adjust how you think about you, how you think about God, how you think about your marriage. And we want you to just maybe even just till the end of this podcast episode, even if you don't believe us right now about how important righteousness is or how much God wants to favor you and bless you, try on what we think for the rest of the day. That's my charge to you. If you're like, "Oh, Austin, this whole You know, you even mentioning prosperity gospel, I don't like that. You guys are crazy," whatever, I just want you to just for the rest of the day, we're gonna read you all these scriptures, I want you to let them permeate your heart. And I want you to let them make you anticipate God in a different way.

Not just think about him but anticipate what he's gonna do differently and see if he blesses you by the end of this day.

Rachel: Love it.

Austin: In Jesus' name, I believe that's possible. All right. So let's just run these scriptures down, okay? And I think we already said this one, but let's go for it. Genesis 15:6, Abraham believed in the Lord and he credited it to him as a righteousness.

Rachel: Yeah. And in Genesis 18, God was looking for a righteous man and he was going to save the entire city of Sodom if he could find one

Austin: One

Rachel: Righteous man.

Austin: That's how impactful a righteous man was to God. 2 Samuel 22, David said, "The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness."

Rachel: And that was mentioned over and over. David said that a lot. Psalm 112, "Even in darkness, light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous."

Austin: Yeah. So what would be wrong, and I can tell you what people would say, but what would be wrong with saying that if we are gracious and compassionate and righteous, that even in hard times, like, even in darkness, light, God, God's love, still dawns on us? Okay? How powerful is that? Okay. Proverbs 10:3, "The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked." Okay, so when we are righteousness, righteous- Righteousness.

Rachel: Making a new word.

Austin: Making up words.

Rachel: Rapid-fire

Austin: All over the place here. the righteous will not go hungry. But those who are not righteous may go hungry.

Rachel: Proverbs 10:6 says, "Blessings crown the head of the righteous, but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked." Blessings crown the head of the righteous.

Austin: So when we are righteous And yes, we are righteous because of what Christ did. I realize that, everyone, you theologians out there.

Rachel: Yeah. But

Austin: But we still choose, even though it we're powered by Christ. Okay? Kinda like powered by the Energizer bunny. If we are powered by Christ and we make the choice to be righteous because of him then blessings crown our heads.

Rachel: And Proverbs is super, like, action-driven. It's like, when you do this blessings come on you.

Austin: That's right. Proverbs 10:24, "What the wicked dread will overtake them, what the righteous desire will be granted."

Rachel: Look at that. We talk about asking for what we want all the time. Just ask your spouse for what you want. Do it with clarity and specificity. This is so cool, and he says the same thing about him, ask God. Proverbs 11:30, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who is wise saves lives." That is amazing.

Austin: Yeah. So it's like, think about, to me, that talks a lot about the impact of being righteous. Okay, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. So just imagine, those of you who are listening to this podcast today, if your goal is to be a righteous person, to walk as an upright person in the name of God the fruit that you will experience in your life will be a tree of life.

Rachel: Yeah, it'll bring, it'll lead others to Christ.

Austin: Proverbs 15:6 says, "The house of the righteous contains great treasure, but the income of the wicked brings ruin."

Rachel: Jesus.

Austin: Now, the great one here, when we are righteous our house will contain treasure.

Rachel: Yeah. Proverbs 27, "The righteous lead blameless lives. Blessed are their children after them." I love that.

Austin: Generation to generation. What you do in this life matters. What you do in your time on earth matters, not just for you, your spouse, and your generation, but for the generation, ahead of you. So let's

Rachel: So I love this word.

Austin: Yes, yes. We love, we love

Rachel: Like, in a

Austin: This word,

Rachel: Dive of just focusing on this, 'cause, like, God says so many things about it. So I'm really enjoying just seeing what else God has to say about it.

Austin: I know. I love it too.

Rachel: So there's so much more.

Austin: All right. So let's go to our third scripture today, which essentially this third scripture we picked because its impact is, is paramount, just like the last one, because when we realize that if we fully submit ourselves to God, we will prosper. Okay, if you fully submit yourself to God, you will prosper. So this comes from Deuteronomy 28, and I'm gonna have Rachel actually read this 'cause she, like an amazing rock star she is, has her Bible, which, people, has tabs. Tabs and highlighters.

Rachel: I love my Bible tabs.

Austin: It's like Can, c can

Rachel: I should probably link those

Austin: Focus on this real quick?

Rachel: Just put it in the front.

Austin: Hold on.

Rachel: Oh, tabs.

Austin: Look at that, people. Look at those beautiful tabs

Rachel: I love my tabs

Austin: And all that beautiful highlighting. Yes, I'm so thankful.

Rachel: Guys, what a way to make the Word of God- Just extra special

Austin: Just make it pop.

Rachel: Yeah, so, I'll Maybe we should link the tabs and the highlighters because I just love them. Okay. Deuteronomy 28, "If you fully obey the Lord your God " We're gonna come back to that. That's what this starts off as saying, "If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God. You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land, and the young of your livestock, the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you.

They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you." And how cool is that, that He is saying, "If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands," these are the blessings that follow. And this is a trend in the Bible. Like, here are these things, and these blessings will follow.

Austin: Yeah. I love this scripture because He really spells it out in a really powerful way, okay? It's like, if you are obedient, you will be blessed. And that's, that's part of this, just this whole lesson here today, because we have lived by these ideas and, and we've lived by these ex expectations even we have of God. You know, where it's like we expect Him. We're expectant, which is a big church word that got big in, like, the 20-teens. we've just become expectant of God. Like, hey, God, like, you, you promise us that You wanna show up. You tell us that You wanna be there for us. You tell us You wanna provide for Us and give us favor and blessing. And we're here to figure out how we can be obedient, you know? 'Cause like we've said before we believe that success means obedience. Like, in life to be successful is to be obedient. And so I want us to be obedient, not just because I wanna be blessed, but our love of God compels us to wanna be obedient to Him.

And so we really want to just, again, continue to figure out, like, God, how do I step into obedience? How do I step into faithfulness? Because I want your favor on my life. For anyone to deny that they don't want- God's favor on their life is just lying. Okay? Like, we want His blessings, you know? We, we want to, be favored by God because if God is for us, then nothing can be against us. Nothing can overtake us. If God is for us, and if God is providing for us If we're just providing for us, we can lose, but if God is providing for us there's just nothing that's not possible.

Rachel: Yeah. And I love, like, all these scriptures that we're reading today. It's like there's clues. I love reading the Bible and seeing, like, where are these clues that say, like, "Hey, this is the thing. Like, do this and this, you will be given this." Like, the scripture, the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him. What? That is awesome. I want the angel of the Lord encamping around me. I'm like, "God, am I afraid of you?" No, I'm not. Just kidding. I've had these conversations with God this week. I'm like, "God, I fear you." "I love you. You're awesome. You're amazing. Please, like, I want your angel of the Lord encamping around me." But this is you know, if you fully obey God and carefully follow His commands. So, you know, this is so cool because what we talk about, what we teach, the foundational scripture, loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength that we have here at The Conscious Christian Marriage is, you know, it's, it is submitting ourselves fully to God.

It's, hey, with our heart, like, where, where are we focusing on? God, are we are we leaving room for, you know, neglect or giving, quote-unquote, the devil a foothold? You know, our soul, our spirituality, our mind, you know, how we're being conscious, how we're, you know, sharpening our mind, and then our strength. Like, we consider that in a lot of ways, like our health, when we're talking. And so taking care of the temple that God gave us. Like, we only have one temple that God gave us, and we get one life. Of course, we get eternal life, which is amazing. but taking care of our life, our heart, our soul, our mind, our strength, and submitting all of those areas to God. So it's like my diet looks different the more that I seek God because I wanna live a life of excellence. Like, the way that I, my daily routine looks better as I grow because- I'm submitting myself to God, and I wanna learn more and grow more and be more effective in the kingdom.

So I just love this.

Austin: So yeah, it's amazing because not only does God favor us and bless us with all these things, but then we turn around, and we submit those things right back to God. You know? And so and then we do everything that we do with excellence unto the Lord as He calls us to. And it's kind of a beautiful cycle because it's like God's like, "Hey, here's what I want you to do. Do it well, and I'll give you more." So God gives us more, and then we resteward that back to God. And then God's like, "Okay, cool. Now parable of the talents, I can trust you with more." So then He can trust us with more. Boom, we submit that back to God. We're faithful with it, and then God's like, "Boom, I'm gonna bless you with even more." God gives us

Rachel: So it's doubled, yeah.

Austin: Yeah, so we submit. God gives us blessings. We're blessed. Those things play out in our life. We submit those back to God. We replant those. We reseed those into the Kingdom of God.

Rachel: Right, because He knows that it'll be effective for Him. Like

Austin: 'Cause He knows you'll be effective for Him. Again, this is why, again And everyone wants to act like, "Don't do the work. God'll do the work. It's only God," yada, yada, yada. But He is setting us up in scripture after scripture to show Him that we will be faithful with what we're given, we'll be diligent with what we're given, we will, steward. And so all the gifts God's given us, that is our participation, okay? It's our participation with what God's given us. So when we show up, and we step up, and we play full out with how we engage with God, He will give us more. And then when He gives us more, we turn around, and we reinvest that, we reinvest that, we reinvest that. And then, you know, I would, I would claim that- You know, by the time this cycle's played out for a while, you're just living off the overflow. Is the, is that the majority of what God gives you is invested right back into the kingdom of God.

And even just that little bit of overflow, like I mean, not even a little bit of overflow, but like that, that little bit of extra, you know, crop around the very edge, that's enough for you to live on, you know? And everything else is just re-invested back into the kingdom of God. So it's a, that's a really powerful thought, and I encourage anyone here to go and read Deuteronomy 28. And it's like, last thought I'll say on this one is we've talked to so many people, and I know sometimes people say this a little bit out of haste or maybe desperation or a low spot. Maybe the pendulum has swung, and they're just kinda lamenting about it. But how many people say, "I just don't know what God wants for me. I just don't know what God's will is for me. I just don't know what to do." "I have no clue what to do. God's not speaking." This, this, this, this, that. That is just victim mindset.

Now, you might be in a victim mindset because you've had some trauma, or you haven't learned yet how to move from a victim mindset. We can help you do that. Lots of other people can help you do that besides us. But here's the thing. If you're in the Word, like when someone says that to me, I know either they're being They're lamenting. They're just lamenting right now, and I'm just gonna let them lament. I'm gonna validate them and all that. But it tells me that generally they're not in the Word. 'Cause the Word is clear. It's like, "If you do these things, here's the blessings you can expect." Okay? So Rachel, if we're obedient to God, what, what, what can we expect? Read it one more time. What can we expect to happen?

Rachel: Yeah, you will be blessed basically in every area because how

Austin: Do

Rachel: He's describing this is like in the city

Austin: Yeah, just read it

Rachel: Or in the country.

Austin: Read, read, read, read that whole chunk for me again.

Rachel: Got it.

Austin: Please.

Rachel: "You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country."

Austin: Boom.

Rachel: "The fruit of your womb will be blessed"

Austin: Boom, babies

Rachel: "and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock, the calves of your herd"

Austin: Boom, wealth, provision

Rachel: "and the lambs of your flocks."

Austin: Wealth, provision, direction.

Rachel: Yeah, mm-hmm. "Your basket and your nid kneading trough will be blessed." "You will be blessed when you come in"- "and blessed when you go out." So anywhere you are.

Austin: Yeah. Blessed in your ways, yes.

Rachel: Yeah. "The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction and flee from you in seven. The Lord will send a blessing on your barns"

Austin: Seven ways to sundown. Do you think that's where that comes from?

Rachel: Maybe. "Blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to." Everything you put your hand to.

Austin: Yeah, everything you put your hand to.

Rachel: Do you hear that?

Austin: Everything you put your hand to. So

Rachel: The Lord will bless you in the land he's giving you.

Austin: The Lord will bless you. So if you're someone that's maybe wrestled with that thought, "Don't know what to do. Don't know where to go. Don't know what God's direction for me is," all that he just wants you to be obedient to him. And there are so many scriptures where you can find how to be obedient. And so then when you are obedient and you will pray and you will trust and you will have hope, God will show up for you. He will deliver you. And this is what we're trying to get you to understand. And the way that you leverage the psychology of your mind to help your faith is the more that you say it out loud, the more that you read it the more that you believe it then you will get out of the way. 'Cause most of the time God's trying to move, but you're upper-limiting your own level of success, joy, happiness, and faith you can experience. So then you're blind to it.

But God's like- "Hello, ding, ding, ding." And sometimes God sets a freaking bush on fire in front of us to get our attention because we're not paying attention.

Rachel: And that's usually health issues.

Austin: Could be health issues, marital issues.

Rachel: Painful Yeah, pain makes us pay attention. God rigged the game to help us heal, help us grow help us pay attention. So if there is an area of resistance or pain or something you're suffering from, maybe God's saying- "Here's an area you could, you could grow. Here's an area you could be healthier. Here's an area that I'm trying to lead you to."

Austin: I like how you said that. God rigged the game. He rigged the game so you could win. Spoiler alert, you already won the lottery. So lean into that. Like if, if, if you know God, you've already won the lottery. You've w- You already have a winning ticket. Okay? If, if, if you especially have salvation and you're, and you're living that out, you already have the winning ticket to the lottery.

Rachel: Yeah. All right, on that note

Austin: Okay, on that note, so

Rachel: I want you to share the nonprofit.

Austin: Yeah, so today's nonprofit shout-out is Project 111, and they're based in Oklahoma. This is actually a nonprofit that, we've known of for a long time. Actually, my older sister Jenna and the rest of the country out that we need Project 111 in every single state in the country. Project 111 stands for one church, one family, one purpose, because essentially there's about 6,000 kids in Oklahoma between, the foster care system, ba ba basically between the foster care system and the child welfare system. I can't remember if that one's actually a system in Oklahoma, but anyways, there's 6,000 kids in Oklahoma that need families, that need support. There's 6,200 churches in Oklahoma. So Project 111 is calling for 1,000 of those 6,200 churches to help just one foster family and one child welfare family every year. And if that can happen, every single child in the state of Oklahoma will have a family, will have a home, and will have hope. Think about that for a minute.

Imagine if every single state had a model like Project 111. And I'm not gonna get into politics. I'm not gonna just go down that thing. But our states have the power. The leaders have the power. And it ain't happening. So we, the people okay, everyone listening to this podcast, people like Project 111, we have to keep stepping up and rising up. Local government's not gonna do it. And I, I know there's government programs that help, and I super love that. I, I realize that. But it's not the type of priority and focus

Rachel: Yeah, we're the church

Austin: In our country that, that yeah, we are the church.

Rachel: We're called to take care of orphans and widows.

Austin: It's our job. That's right. It's our job. So- Project 111 is doing it. They're literally doing it. Excuse me. they have over, I believe, 700 churches- Engaged in their mission 300 more churches, and they're literally going to solve the entire problem

Rachel: So if you're in Oklahoma

Austin: So if you're

Rachel: You can tell your church about this

Austin: Yep, and it Yeah, that's right. And so please take a minute and visit 111project.org. Okay? 111project.org, and donate some money, or even better yet, again, who do you know in Oklahoma? Who can you get hooked up with in Oklahoma to say, "Hey, check out this organization." Get them to your church leadership. So that's our that's our charge for you today. Check out Project 111. we promise you they're going to inspire you and blow your mind. And if you can, kick them over 5 bucks, 20 bucks, 50 bucks, 100 bucks, whatever you got. It will help to give children and families in the state of Oklahoma hope, and, a future. So

Rachel: Yeah, but don't say, "Oh, I don't have 100." Just give five.

Austin: Just give five bucks. So that's

Rachel: If you only have five, give five. If our podcast has been valuable to you go over there, give them $5. It will make a difference. So thank you. We appreciate you. all right. So now that leads us to our action item. So likely this came up for you while you were listening. There's probably, like, a l like, little tug of the Holy Spirit where you're like- "Oh, yeah, that one area of my life I'm not really fully subjecting to God," or, "This is an area that I could grow in, or I could be healthier in, or I could really grow, in, and, and maybe it's getting godly counsel," whatever it is. So our question for you is: What is one area in your life you haven't submitted to God and want to grow in, or maybe you haven't fully submitted to God and want to grow in so you can faithfully say that you are fully obeying God? Share this with your spouse. So your action item, so we're asking you this, so be thinking, "Hmm, what is it?"

Ask yourself that question, and then once you have the answer, share it with your spouse, and then take a small action step to grow in this area. Again, it's not perfection. It's you are pursuing

Austin: You're pursuing

Rachel: The pursuit of righteousness. So how can you take an action today to pursue that, being more righteous in that area that God's calling you to?

Austin: It, it's almost like, you know, a lot of people say, "Well, progress over perfection." We're saying today it's pursuit over perfection. Pursue God. Do it with excellence. If you pursue God with excellence, you're gonna nail it, okay?

Rachel: Genius.

Austin: So thanks for watching or listening to this episode today. we would like for you and would be honored if you would like, comment, subscribe, share this podcast with some friends.

Rachel: Yeah, share it with your friends.

Austin: Share this podcast with your church. we go and speak at other churches that found us just by hearing this podcast, and we come out, and we can do Sunday morning things. We can do sermons. We can do marriage nights, marriage weekends, all kinds of fun stuff. We'd love to come hang out with you and your church. So share this podcast. It would mean the world to us. So thanks for watching. We love you. We appreciate you. We pray for you daily. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you on the next one.