119 - Foundations in Faith
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Over the last several months, I have been working on a project I haven’t told anyone about, but you, my dear work and play podcast listener, are going to be the very first to know about it. So over the past several years I have been asked so many questions about a variety of topics, really. Home, life Rhythms, money, marriage, my faith, my walk with the Lord, contentment, my work, being mission-minded in my work, how to run a healthy and profitable business, how to balance motherhood and work… and over time I have tried to consolidate these topics and questions into an audio course; into content that’s digestible, that makes sense. And you’re the first to know that audio course is coming out soon and I am so excited about it.
So, I honestly hesitate to call it a course because it’s more of a comprehensive way that I look at my life broken down into three categories: faith, home and work. And in a series of 20 audio lessons, I share my heart. I break down each of these into further topics and dive deep into my outlook on relationships and money and rhythms and best practices for each of these categories of faith, home and work. It’s like an extension of this podcast, but instead of it being different topics every week it’s this comprehensive overview of the way I approach life. So, with that said. Today’s episode is part 1 of a three part episode series giving you a glimpse inside this new audio course.
Today you’re going to hear Lesson 1 from the Faith section which includes my testimony and really just the foundational outlook I have on my faith. I start every lesson off with scripture, because if you know me, you know my relationship with the lord is the most important thing to me. I share my heart, and I just lay the groundwork for what’s to come. I’m really excited to let you in on this secret, and to let you in on the new audio course and if you want to find out more about the course, stay tuned. Visit nancyray.com in the next few weeks. Again, we have’t announced it publicly yet but it’s coming soon, and if you really want to be the first to know make sure you’re on my email list at nancyray.com/emails.
For the full episode, hit play above or read through it below.
“And He is before all things and in Him, all things hold together.” - Colossians1:17.
My faith in Jesus, in my relationship with him is the center of my life. He has been my Lord since I committed my life to him. When I was just 11 years old, everything you hear in these lessons will be shared with him as the leader and center core of my life. Now, of course, everything in these faith lessons will be centered on that, but also in the home and work lessons as well. So I want you to know that first and foremost, that is where I'm coming from. My relationship with Jesus and maintaining it is number one. It is top priority. And if everything else falls apart, but I still have Him—it’s okay.
And at some point it will, my life is going to fall apart because this life, home on this earth is temporary. My work assignments will change. My family dynamics will change. I am a human, nothing is perfect, but we have the Lord to cling to. Our faith is in an unchanging God who anchors us. Now, if you have been walking with the Lord for a long time, some of the things I'm about to say might seem a little obvious, but I have to start here because it's foundational to everything else, giving your life to Jesus, asking for him to be your Lord and savior and committing to follow him all of your days, no matter what is the answer to having a healthy soul and a fulfilling life. Period, that's it.
If you put all these other things I share into practice, your life will probably be a little bit better or improved in some ways, but the heart of life will be missed if you don't have a relationship with Jesus. And while we all want to have a meaningful life here on earth, it's nothing compared to eternity.
My husband, Will, used to be a youth pastor and he would always give this analogy to the kids in the youth group. He would stand on the platform with a long rope in his hands, as long as he could find. And he would tell the kids, this rope represents eternity. Now let's imagine that this rope stretches all the way outside of this room, then into the parking lot and then all the way down the highway. And it just keeps going. Then he would take the end of the rope and he would hold it up in his hand.
And he'd say, you know how long your life lasts. You're on earth about this long. And he would point to about one fourth of an inch on the rope, like as small as he could make the gap between his fingers, the very end of the rope. And he'd say, listen, even if you live to be 100, your life here on earth is represented here. And the rest of this rope is eternity. The only, only way to spend eternity in heaven is through a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's your life completely to Him and accepting that he died, the death that you were supposed to die on that cross, and then He rose three days later and he defeated death and made a way for you and for me to gain eternal life.
When we simply ask Him to forgive our sins and we choose to make Him our Savior and our Lord by telling Him “I'm yours, all of me, my life is completely yours.” Then eternity changes for us forever. He saves us from our sin and separation from him and he welcomes us into his family. It really is that simple and that incredible. It's just a decision you make in your heart. And in that moment, darkness becomes light and we are made completely new. I'll never forget when this happened for me back when I was 11, you know, my mom and dad had always told me, Jesus loved you so much He died for you. I was raised in a Christian home. I'm so grateful for that. But as a kid, that didn't make sense to me. Like why would someone who loved me just go out and die for me. Why would you just go and die? Like that didn't make sense as a child. And it wasn't until one night at a summer camp that I went to my camp counselor read the verse, Romans 6:23 that said for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And it dawned on me. The wages of sin is death. The cost of sin is to die. If I sin, the consequence is death; death in every sense—darkness, separation, hell. That is what our sin costs us separation from God for all of eternity, living in hell for eternity, but Jesus was perfect and He never sinned, so He didn't have to die. He didn't need that consequence, but instead He chose that. He chose death. He chose to take my place so that I wouldn't have to die and go to hell. But instead I could be with Him forever in heaven.
I'll never forget when she read that verse, it's like my spiritual eyes opened and at just 11 years old, I started sobbing because I realized He loved me that much. He didn't have to die, but He willingly chose to I, I crawled up in my bunk bed and cried myself to sleep because I got it. I got His love. I got the fact that the God of the universe loved me so much that He would actually become a human to live a perfect life, to teach His kingdom truths to us and then to die so that I wouldn't have to. That is a loving, good God. And that night I got it and I gave my life completely to Him.
And it doesn't end there. I mean, it didn't end there for me. I've been walking with Jesus and learning from him for over 20 years now. And I have learned to follow his lead, hear his voice grow deep in my relationship with Him. I have read countless books. I've heard countless sermons. I'm still growing. I mean, I've grown as his daughter in so many different seasons of my life. And I'm more grateful for my relationship with Him now than I ever have been, and I'm more grateful for my relationship with Him than I am for anything else in this world.
His Holy Spirit lives in me and fills me and fuels me every single day. He constantly impatiently and gently teaches me. He empowers me to live This life. That's hard. It's hard. Every day's a battle, but yeah, It's incredible to know. I don't have to do it in my own strength. I don't have to do it alone because the Holy Spirit is with me speaking to me and leading me every single day.
This is the foundation of everything. This is where it all starts. It starts with a relationship with Jesus and making Him Lord of your life and inviting the Holy Spirit into every area of your life. And you don't need a pastor or someone to grab you by the hand and tell you exactly what to pray or exactly what to do. You just pray it in your own heart to God and say, God, I confess, I messed up. I have sinned. My consequence—what I deserve in life is death, but I receive your gift of eternal life. I acknowledged that you died in my place and you rose again, defeating death so that I could be with you forever.”
Now I'm going to do a hard stop right here and just say one thing loud and clear: I don't do this perfectly. No Christian does. We're all hypocrites to some degree because none of us are perfect. We're all imperfect. I am not the perfect wife, mother, mentor or teacher. I get exhausted and anxious just like everybody else. So please don't look to me as the model here, but instead, I'm just inviting you to take my hand and we can look to Jesus, our model, together. He is our leader. He is the one who's going to guide us in His word and with His voice, through our relationship with Him. And we'll find a fresh vision for our hearts and our home and our work in the season of life we are in because He still speaks. He speaks now. He speaks today and He is relevant to where you are in your life, right now.
The lessons and teachings I'm going to share with you are going to be timeless. They're not going to be something that will apply to you now, but 10 years from now, it won't work. My hope is to root everything that I am teaching in biblical principles and that in creating this, you're just going to have a friend to listen to again and again. Just words of truth, words of life. Maybe once a year, maybe more than that, where you can come back and listen to these words and be encouraged to re-orient your life towards Jesus.
Again, this isn't a one and done thing—walking with the Lord is not a one and done thing. It is daily because life keeps changing. Our families keep changing. Work keeps changing. Our seasons keep changing. And that is by God's design, and it's good. Now that might sound a little disappointing to you because this isn't a one-stop thing. “Hey, listen to these things and it's going to be great for you forever.” It's actually the opposite. It's the spirit of returning to these truths time and time again in setting up our lives in a way that we can re-orient ourselves back to the heart of God in every season that we're in and I've learned, this is actually the key to abundant living. And I hope that you're going to gather that from these words, the key to living abundantly is following God's leading for your life in the season you're in and knowing that this season will change. And when we can joyfully press into the season we're in and then joyfully step out of it and step into the next assignment that he has for us, we find abundance. We are right where we are supposed to be.
So these lessons are going to be foundational truths you can return to over and over again, applied to the different seasons in our lives. Now it's common to believe that our faith should be a private, separate thing in our lives. I mean, that's what the world tells us is separation of church and state. We shouldn't mingle the two things and we can't make somebody else uncomfortable by sharing our faith on Instagram or with a friend. And that we can live this part of our lives totally privately or separately than the rest of our lives. Just kind of tuck our faith away quietly. But the truth is that's not the way Jesus taught it.
Our walk with Jesus should touch everything in our lives. It is an integral part of our lives. Everything stems from our walk with the Lord, everything stems from our relationship with Him because just like I read in the very beginning, He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.
And remember the rope, remember that analogy of the rope: we are living for eternity here. We're not just living for our happiest and best self today. We're not just living for here and now. We have to have an eternal kingdom mindset. Meanwhile, we're hearing mixed messages all the time, and the world is offering us a one-time fix for everything. And everything is instant gratification. And everything is about me, me, me all the time and self-care and self-help and living your best life, buy this thing, feel better, do this thing, achieve your dreams.
We can just say that's not true. There's there is a better way. And that's the way of walking with the Lord and returning to Him over and over. These eternal truths and then sharing those truths, not just keeping them to ourselves, but living an integrated life and sharing those truths with a dying world.
So what are we going to dive into? What are you going to get from these lessons on faith? What's the end result here? What are we after? Well, my prayer is that these words are going to first, draw you closer to the Lord. Second, remind you of why we are here in the first place. And third, brings some clarity by connecting with the Lord in the season you’re in. To pause, to take a step back and look at your faith. Walk in relationship with the Lord. John Mark Comer said it this way:
“Your life is the by-product of your lifestyle. By life, I mean your experiences of the human condition, and by lifestyle, I mean the rhythms and routines that make up your day to day existence. The way you organize your time, spend your money. There's the saying in business literature that I love, ‘Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.‘ Usually this is applied to widgets and the bottom line, but I love it for life as a whole.”
This is the goal—to take a step back and look at your life. Your systems, your rhythms, your routines that make up your day-to-day existence and for you to just examine them and rework them in your faith, your home, and your work, according to the season you are in and in doing so, my prayer is that you will have a healthy soul and a fulfilling life. A relationship with Jesus and living a life grounded in that relationships inspires every aspect of how we live, how we manage our homes, our relationships, how we work. It’s the lens through which we see everything. And while He is unchanging, we know that our lives and everything in them keep changing, and that's the way He designed it. The first thing we're going to look at is the important role of seasons in our lives and how we can better connect with the Lord in the season we're in.
I’m going to close with just a few more thoughts. These lessons and this audio course that I’m going to be releasing are really just an extension of my heart and my life. It’s my overall view of how I walk out my faith, how I run my home, and how I work in a lot of different seasons of my life. I have loved doing this podcast for the past two years. When people ask me what I do and what I love doing, I just say them how much I love this medium of podcasting, it’s so fun for me. And here I am, I’m coming up on taking my first ever break from it, which is crazy. I’m excited about the break, obviously very excited to welcome baby #4 into our family, but because I’m going to be taking a break, I’m also really grateful to be able to offer this audio course to you, which in a lot of ways it’s going to be better than the podcast. It’s more comprehensive, it’s more thorough. It’s my entire outlook on all of life.
Now, whether or not this audio course is for you, whether or not you buy it, I just want to thank you for being a listener here. It really is the highest compliment when someone stops me or email s me and says that they’re a listener and they listen regularly, it means the world to me and it keeps me showing up here. So thank you. I really want you to hear me say I’m so so grateful for you.
So, keep checking nancyray.com for updates on me, my personal life, updates on me and my course, and be sure to be on my email list to be the first to know. You can always sign up at nancyray.com/emails.
Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you next time.
