why are you so comfortable not knowing your Bible?

we are slowly becoming a generation where a “good christian” is about attending church, singing worship songs, and being kind to others. and all of these things are good... but where is the Bible in this?

how often are we actually in the word of God? how often do we have quiet time? how often do we make time to study deeply, outside of knowing the well-known verses?

in this episode, i go into the importance of knowing scripture - not just to say you’ve read it - but to allow it to shape your life.

God challenged me to be a woman who delights in His word, and i'm learning day by day to see how scripture is the foundation for handling life’s challenges, growing in wisdom, and becoming more like Christ.

what i talk about:
✨ why we’ve become a generation that focuses on christian activities, not biblical depth
✨ how knowing your word equips you to be a better disciple, friend, partner, and more
✨ the dangers of neglecting scripture: spiritual vulnerability, stagnation, and self-righteousness
✨ practical ways to take delight in the word, not see it as a chore

scriptures i mention:

• psalm 119:105 – "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."
• 2 timothy 3:16-17 – "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness."
• matthew 4:4 – "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."
• hosea 4:6 – "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."
• jeremiah 15:16 – "Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart."

i pray this is a convicting but loving reminder to go deeper in your relationship with God by knowing His word 💕

Transcript

0:09

Hey, homegirls. Welcome back to the Less of Me podcast. Welcome back, guys. It is the first. Well, we're in the second week of January now, but the first full week of January, and I can't lie to you, I thought I'd be zooming into 2025. I thought that I was going to be my best self. I was going to have my life together. I was going to be a new woman. And whilst I am always a new woman in Christ, I'm constantly being made new by God. God, girl, I felt old and raggedy. This hair. This hair is on its last limb. I can't lie because I have been going to work, just slapping in, got 2B glue, slapping an eco styler and rushing out the door today. Good thing that my work laptop is not of good quality because my boss was calling me and I'm thinking my hair looks raggedy. But he wouldn't know because it. The pixels aren't pixeling like that. So I was. I was sat a decent way back from my laptop. He couldn't see that was looking how I was looking, but I felt crusty and I was. I need to record a podcast today. To be honest, I was going to record one tomorrow because my period is meant to come. Like, let's just. I know there's men that listen to this podcast, but not really many. Girl, let me just be frank with you. Like, I wanted to get out of the way. I wanted to record before it came, but if it came, I was going to record when it got better. Because I get quite bad pains. Even though I shouldn't say that, because life and death is in the power of the tongue. I shouldn't declare over myself that I'm going to have painful periods. But also, even if they weren't painful, I feel like a period is a time to rest. It's time to rejuvenate. It's time to slow down. Like, it's almost like God's way of ensuring that women take a break. I don't know why I didn't plan in a different way. God, I have questions I need to ask you when I get to heaven. Because periods like, it's like when the Bible talks about how Jesus, like, understand our struggles. Like, he's got. There's no struggle that we've gone through that Jesus didn't go through. Temptation, life struggles, pain, whatever, periods that, that, that's a topic to unpack because Jesus didn't have periods. So God obviously understands it because he made it and he's God and he's all things, but like, do you know what I mean? Like, because I can't look to Jesus when I'm a girl, you know, I have girly things. So yeah, basically I'm doing this podcast praising the Lord that I've not started and that I can record, but also like hoping that it comes because I mentally plan out my life with my period. And my app says it's today, it is five to nine and it's not come. Yes, it's five to nine. Yes, I know that's a late time recording, guys. I know because I have a full time job and I underestimate how long it takes for me to record. Not even to record, to be honest, because it takes like the time that I actually record. Like I'm only cutting out like five to 10 minutes. So it's not that deep. Like if I record like a 45 minute podcast, I probably only actually talked for about 50 minutes to 55 minutes. It's not that deep, but it's a setting up. I started getting ready for this podcast at quarter past six, so hours have gone by because there is so much to do. And also I have some new equipment right now. Shout out to my mother. My mother is my biggest fan outside of God himself. She has supported me from the beginning. If I have not told this story, I have told this story. But if you have not heard this story, I would not be where I am say without my mum. Genuinely. My mum is an entrepreneur, so she is very big into the tech stuff anyway. And that is like genuinely a blessing when it comes to things like podcasting and YouTube, which is obviously the first thing I did. She just knows like what I need, what money to spend, what videos to watch. She does all of the research for me. Every single one of my purchases, she has done the research for me and shout out to this woman because she has just bought me my own microphone and my own mixer for my podcast. And honestly I was not expecting it because like my mom has said to me, oh, I would buy it for you because basically this podcast microphone, if you guys watch my previous episodes, this is the same one that I use, but it's not the same one that's hers. This is mine now. And she was like, I'll buy it for you, I was gonna buy it for you. And I was like, no, it's fine. Like just tell me how much and I'll buy it for myself. When I like have enough money like put to the side and I didn't know what was coming, like I Kind of thought it would be a microphone. She basically let me open it early. My birthday is next month. But this girl just couldn't wait to see my reaction. She knew that I wanted to record, so she gave it to me as an early present. And I'm just so blessed. Like, I actually feel like I have a proper podcast set up, even though I am in my teenage bedroom. But mind your business. We all have different stages that we're at, thank you very much. But I am getting there. I have invested a lot of time and money into my equipment and the quality of the content that I've made over the years, and I really feel like I'm getting there. I have my camera, which I bought years ago for YouTube. I invested in my own laptop a year ago. Boy, outright MacBook that hit the bank account. But I was like, you know what I felt so deeply from God. A, to invest more in my content, but B, to not be so frugal and allow God to bless you and then use those blessings for his glory. Because I actually felt like I was limiting his vessel, which is me. Because if I don't have the right equipment, the. The MacBook that I had, it was a 2013 MacBook that you could literally just go on Google Chrome and the fan would kick in. Like, I'm telling you, it was burning my hand. You could literally, like, heat up your house with the fact that it was so hot and it didn't do anything. Like, I couldn't record. It had terrible storage. Anytime I edited, there was, like. I had to delete everything to, like, export a video, literally. And I. I just had to take the plunge. And I'm so grateful. Like, this laptop is my baby. It genuinely still smells new because of how well I treat it. She let me do work experience with her when I was in year 10, which is 15 for those who aren't in the UK. I was gonna, like, go to a hairdressers and do work experience. And she was like, I know you didn't want to do that. Like, hair isn't your thing. But she didn't want me to do work experience with her. But I was like, you know, like, I love the thought of doing techy stuff. And she's like, well, you can do it with me, but on one condition. You have to film your first YouTube video. And I was like, oh, my gosh, all my friends are gonna judge me. But, like, I was like, no, Elodie, like, do it. Because I'd started YouTube a year before that. Then people at my School found out about it and I deleted all my videos out of like fear. But I took the plunge. I did it. I trusted my mum and the rest is history. But that's enough about me. I'mma dive straight in to this episode. We need to be Christians who know our word. For some of you that might just be self explanatory, but for some of you not. And maybe you clicked on this thinking, well duh. But like you maybe still might get convicted on what I'm gonna say. And I'm convicted on what I'm gonna say. This is not like an attack on anyone because this is something that God spoke to me on. Maybe about four or five months ago. I felt so deeply. Not just from intentional time with God on my own, but also speaking with other people and then prophesying over me different things that I need to get in my word. A is a believer anyway, but certain things that I believe that God wants to do in my life, which is the exact same as you. Like I'm not any different because we all have unique gifts and all of those unique gifts ties back to I believe fully knowing the Word because the word of God is sharper than any two edged sword. We talk about all the time in church, but we don't live it out. We talk about having a relationship with God, but we don't have our relationship with God because our bibles are shut catching dust. If you want to know how to communicate with God and hear the Word and the heart and the desire of God over your life and over his kingdom, you have to open your Bible. There's no two ways about it. There's no shortcuts, there's no ways of navigating it differently. Yes, there's prayer, yes, there's fellowship, yes there's church. And I think as Christians, I see it with myself and I see it with other people that we get caught up in like the Christianese activities, the Christian bits and bobs, the stuff that we get kind of overwhelmed with and distracted by. And it's not their bad things like attending church and worshiping and being a nice person and whatever. Those things are great and those things can reap fruit anyway because we are the salt of the earth. But our salt isn't salting. If we don't know where that comes from. Like if we don't know where our seasonings from, we're going to lack the seasoning because we don't go back and eventually we've sprinkled all our seasoning and we're left with none. And then we're just sprinkling nothing. We're sprinkling plain beige food that needs to stay in the kitchen and not be served to anyone. You will lead yourself into a surface level Christianity without the word of God being your sole focus, without the word of God being what drives everything else. Because I think even when it comes to prayer, yes, we need to pray. And yes, prayer is so important. And I want to do a podcast soon about prayer as well. But our prayers will lack substance if we don't have the word of God powering our prayers. When I first became a Christian, I wish I had it in front of me, but I'm not gonna mess up all of my stuff to go and find it. My mum bought me a. Well, she had the book from years ago, but she gave it to me when I became a Christian. It's called Prayers that Avail Much. And it's a really old book. Like, everything's in King James. That's when you know that it's old. I'm not a King James girl. Like, if. If that works for you, well done. Praise the Lord. I studied Shakespeare all throughout school, but I still can't bring myself to do it. Like, I don't want to hear Ye's and thou's in my Bible, but if it's there, I'll read it. But in this book, basically, it has loads of different prayers for loads of different things. It also has like a little bit of like, info at the start on like, the importance of prayer, the power of prayer, how to pray, whatever. And they have different prayers for different things. Very short, but they scriptures throughout. So every prayer is filled with like three to five scriptures just spoken naturally throughout it. And then in the bottom, it gives the footnotes of like, what scriptures were mentioned. And that helped me so much, not just to connect with God more deeply when I was praying, but also to have that, like, eagerness to seek the Word. Because as I was praying and I was praying these things that were in align with script, it was making me, like, more interested in learning more about scripture because I was like, wow, like, the Bible covers so many topics and I would have been praying on my own for these things, not knowing God's will for the things I'm praying for. Because I think oftentimes we can pray for things like healing. We pray for things like success in our lives and that God uses us in different ways or that God molds us into the person that he's called us to be. And we are praying in a way that the desire is good. But our prayers aren't in alignment with the word of God and they lack substance and they lack God's will. And they can either be very overly humble and weak and not powerful enough or they can be so self serving that they actually go away from the fact that it's God's glory first, not ours. And I think this is where the Bible has so much grounding, like when you think of that in prayer, where you can be living a very weak minded life or a very prideful life and both in which are from a level of self righteousness because on one side we don't see ourselves as good enough and that's why we're not going to pray these certain prayers when it's actually God's righteousness that qualifies us and not ourselves. So we stay stuck in these weak prayers because we don't believe the righteous of God. But then also the prideful aspect is because we don't truly believe that God's righteousness is enough. We think that we are enough. And think of how much that can impact prayers, but then think of how much that can impact every single avenue in our lives. And this is why the word of God is so powerful. And my favorite chapter of the Bible ever, Psalm 119, verse 105, says, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Oftentimes we are finding other things to be our light and I'm going to go into, you know, all the worldly things later on. But Christianese things can still be a false light, can still become an idol, even though they are seemingly good things and can be good things when rooted back to the heart of God. We can be so invested in church, so invested in serving, so invested in the outward looks of Christianity, so invested in the. I think it's like the surface level Christianity where when we're preaching the gospel to someone, all we can say is Jesus loves you, Jesus loves you. I just love Jesus. Cool. But really and truly, what substance long term does that provide? Because don't get me wrong, we are all saved by that recognition of the fact that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior that saves us and that can have so much impact in our lives and in other people's lives. But is that all you want? Just to know that Jesus Christ was the son of God and that he died for your sins? Or do you want to go deeper and know why that is so powerful? Because as I said, you could have that salt and have that motivation from that and it runs out. I know that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. But I need reminding of what that really means for my life through the word of God. I need reminding on how that shapes my life, on how I talk, on how I behave, on how I treat others and how I treat myself, on my purpose, on wisdom, on self control, of all the fruits of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. I won't fully unlock all that God has for me. And I won't fully use the cross in the way that it was meant to be used properly if I don't know the word. And I won't see the significance of the cross if I don't know the Word. When I read the Old Testament, my gosh, eyes were opened because I was afraid of reading the Old Testament. I didn't want to read the Old Testament. I. I just, I saw war, I saw death. I saw a lot of people just doing some ghetto stuff. And I was like, this is gonna make me feel like God is really angry at me. But when I realized the timeline of the Old Testament, when I understood the genealogy of Jesus, when I understood how the law was implemented to show the depth of human sin, and how incredible is it that we have a once and for all sacrifice, a lamb of go slain for the things that we should have been slain for, to not only just die, but rise again. Die with our sin, die with our shame, die with our guilt and our mistakes and our rejection of him, and rise again with hope and redemption and love. I wouldn't have fully understood that if I didn't know the Old Testament. And it was only when I started my 365 Bible plan, which I'm still, I'm still doing, by the way. I started that, gosh, 2021. So, like, end of 2020, like, going into 2021, I started that Bible study. I have read the whole Bible, but I just haven't read it in that plan. But the Old Testament, I read it all in that plan. And it was genuinely one of the most transforming parts of my Christian journey. Yes, the New Testament is filled with, you know, this is who we are now in Christ. But the Old Testament makes the New Testament hit, like, it's like, for me, I love ketchup and mayo. I love mayo. I love mayo so much. And I love ketchup not so much, but I love mayo, like, a lot. But like, mayo and ketchup. Girl, give me some mayo and ketchup. Like, give me some burger sauce. It just hits so much better when the Two are mixed together. And that's what I find about the Old Testament. It really just brings the New Testament to life. And I think since that time I have been chasing that feeling again. Not just the fact that I was reading the Old Testament, even though that was like a great highlight of it, but the eagerness I had for the Word. We were in lockdown. I was a New Christian, so I had that New Christian feel. I remember reading this devotional by John Bavaro on the Bible app, and he was talking about dry seasons as a believer. Dry seasons in any area of life. It might just be a physical thing, like your finances, your happiness, a dry season in your relationship, whatever it may be. But he was talking especially about dry seasons with God. So, you know, your feelings are off and you're not seeking God in the way that you used to. You just don't really feel, like, any desire to, like, read the Word and feel excited about God filled on fire. And I remember reading that and saying to myself, how could anyone not be on fire for God when you found this truth? How could you not be on fire for God? Bless my heart. You know, like. Like that ignorance period was definitely bliss. Like, I'm kind of glad that, like, I went through that. I'm kind of glad that I thought, like, who. Who would feel that's not going to be me? Like, obviously not. I'm so glad that that was me because I think that made that period of time so much more amazing because I didn't know what was coming. Like, it's almost like if the world were to end tomorrow and a big, like, meteor hit Earth killed everyone and that was it. Like, we had no, no chance, nothing. Like, there's no way of escape. The whole Earth, just, boom, done. I don't want to know about it. Like, don't put it on the news. I just want to live my life just so happy in bliss. And then when the meteor strikes, I don't even. I just. I'm just dead. I don't even have to think about it. Like, that's it. Like, I go to heaven and that's fine. But if I knew about it, I'd be panicking, I'd be crying, I'd have heart palpitation. I'd be worrying about, like, the pain and the fear and all my family and friends dying and whatever. That was exactly how it was with my word that, yes, meteor did strike. And yes, I did go through incredible dry seasons. But, like, that moisture season, that period of dramatic rainfall was absolutely incredible. But I Felt like I was chasing that feeling for years. Like I go through little bits here and there where I was like on fire for God. But then I was like right out of it. And I think my problem was, and I journaled about this yesterday. Yesterday I was journaling and I was saying how I would get in the Word and then I would think it's given me what I needed and then I would jump back out of it. Because I know some of you are thinking, what really can the Word provide? For me, I think that's a mindset that I got in in terms of A, it was that little bit of self righteousness of like, yeah, I should probably like take it off the list because it's what Christians do. Like we read the Bible. But then B, it was like, okay, it can give me a little bit, but like, then I'll, I'll branch out. Like it's kind of like, you know, when you've got a teacher, I don't know if you guys remember this, but we used to have things in all of our classrooms, like little laminated sheets of paper. And it was like steps of doing your work. And it was like, step one, listen to the teacher, then step two, when it comes to independent work, so you're doing your own activity, you would read the textbook first and try to understand it. Then if you didn't understand it, you would ask your buddy, and then if you didn't understand it again, blah, blah, blah, and it would go all the way back to ask the teacher. So you are forced to think critically on your own and not constantly, like, miss, miss, miss, like put your hand up and ask teacher what the answer was or how to figure out something. And I think we take that when it comes to God because we hear a little bit of what God has to say, then we think that we need to do it independently. We think now it's like our time to branch out into the world and figure it out. And yes, there's an aspect of practicality and moving forward in the world with what God has taught us. But that's not without God in the physical realm. When you're with your teacher, yes, your teacher is not always there, especially when you go in that test. He or she is not going to be there to hold your hand or explain the question and whatever, you're on your own. But when you walk with Christ, no matter if you are in the highest mountain or the lowest valley, he is there. So I was taking it from the sense of, okay, I'll just get a little Bit of bread here, a little bit of crumbs, a little bit of cracker. And then I'm gonna do it on my own. And then I was falling back into a life that wasn't satisfying. I was then getting depressed. I was then feeling purposeless. I was then just not living out the life of power that God had intended for me. Because I don't think I realized the power of the Word. And instead I saw it almost like a little motivational book that was going to somehow spark something in me, not in the Holy Spirit, not sparking the fact that I need the Holy Spirit who has all things for me. It was sparking something in me in terms of my flesh and my mind and my wisdom. And then I'd be able to branch out and do all the. All the good things. And maybe that's you right now. Maybe you see somewhat of a value of, like, some scriptures in the Bible, but you might not see the deep reason to really study the Bible. And it was actually only three months ago. 2. Three months ago, my mum bought a ESV study bible, which is one that I've wanted for so long, and she bought me one for my birthday. But I'm not using it to my birthday. And don't get me wrong, I've loved history since I was a kid. I love learning about different things. I love documentaries. I've watched so many Bible documentaries, like, explaining the background of things and the context and what period of time they were in and how that impacted how people behaved and what was going on. But I wouldn't say that I was like a heavy theological person. And I almost assumed in my mind that, like, theology was A, for people that studied, like, and went to Bible college, and B, for people that were men. How misogynistic of me. I just thought, that's a man thing. Like, I want A pretty devotional and my highlighters and the Holy Spirit Spirit to lead me, which is fine. A devotional, a highlighter and the Holy Spirit are all like, that's, that's, that's three powerful things right there. But so is theology. Like, theology literally gives so much grounding and true biblical understanding gives grounding. And when I got this Bible, well, my mum got the Bible. But when I started reading this Bible, there were so much contextual things in there and footnotes and articles and context. And I was like, whoa, like, the Bible's just come to life and it's made me want to study it so much more and be in my word more and really understand my word. And what really is going on? Yes, there's, you know, there's Bible studies that you are really just. The Holy Spirit is just slapping in some wisdom. And that is equally as important where you are just getting spiritual downloads, but also this spiritual download sometimes won't. It's like the Holy Spirit and context and knowledge of the Word go hand in hand. Because the Holy Spirit can use what you have seen with your physical eyes to turn into something spiritually life changing. If you don't know the Word of God, as in you don't physically pick up that word and read it, the Holy Spirit will only be able to penetrate into your mind so much because people literally use the Holy Spirit to write the Word of God. So the Holy Spirit sees the word of God with ultimate truth, ultimate power. It literally reflects him, it reflects the person of the Holy Spirit, it reflects the person of the Father, and it reflects the person of the Son. So it would be like I met Rihanna, the artist, and I was like, she's so cool. Like, I want to talk to her, but like, I don't want to listen to her music. Like, it's whatever. Like, I'll just talk to her, I'll get to know her, but I don't ever want to listen to her songs. I don't want to try her makeup, I don't want to buy her clothes. And whilst I can like know a little bit about Rihanna, I don't really know the press of Rihanna. I don't know all that she encompasses, the amazing businesswoman she is, how cool her singing is and whatever it may be. I don't know Rihanna, like in terms of what she has produced and how she has done so many great things. Right. And that's the same with God, obviously. God is God. And God is not a celebrity, a worldly celebrity. But you get my point. I think it's the whole thing of like, if you can value the fact that God is all of the things that you think he is and he is all of those things, he is powerful, he is mighty, he is holy, he is loving. He has an all encompassing purpose for you. He is intentional. He is a rock, he is a fortress. He is holy. If he is all those things, then His Word must be all those things. And if you know all of those things, you will know all of those things when you get in His Word. And one of the first things that I always say about the Word for myself in particular is I will never be able to handle life's challenges in a biblical mature way if I don't have the Word of God. Not only is the word of God just powerful because it's the word of God, but the Word of God has people, people like you and me, people who fall, people who have stumbled, people who have made so many big mistakes and so many mistakes that, you know, I think it's very easy to see the Bible as like a historical book. And there's just people in there that, you know, don't relate to our lives. The human heart and the human temptations and propensities and desires are the same yesterday, today, and forever. And the Bible is such a good guidebook of what to do and what not to do as a human being and literally gives you case studies. Like, the Bible is full of case studies of like, this person did this and this happened to them. This person did this and this happened to them. This person thought this, and this is how they ended up being. And this person thought this. This person trusted God and this one didn't. And it is just such a great way of knowing practically how to handle life situations, how to look back at how someone else has done something. And take that and use that in your prayer. Use that in times where you are facing something and you need to think quick, you need to remember something that gives you that recognition of, yes, this is how a person of God acts. This is how a person of God doesn't act. And I have the confidence because when I read so and so so and I learned that in that process, this person had this happen to them and God did this for this person. And this is what the word of God says about this particular behavior. And if you don't know that, because I think a lot of us have, you know, the Christian basic morals, the Christian basic things of what to do and what not to do, who cares, right? I know a decent amount about Islam. Does that mean I literally worship Allah? No, because I'm not a Muslim. The same with a Muslim. They like. There are literally Bible scholars, even though a lot of them do get saved in the process, which is so slay of God. There are Bible scholars, though, who aren't Christians. They are. There are Bible scholars who aren't atheists, and there are even people who aren't even Bible scholars. But everyone knows what Christianity is and everyone kind of knows what sort of values Christians have. They go to church, they're nice to people, they worship Jesus, whatever that is. Does that change them? No, it's just a fun fact. Yes, we could argue that Bible scholars, a lot of them do end up getting Saved, which shows the power of God and the power of the word, hint, hint, wink, wink. But there's people that don't know the word of God and pretty much know like an okay amount about Christianity. Does that change their lives? Sometimes. But does it all the time? No, because it's just a fun fact. I know a lot about a lot of religions in the world. I don't follow them because they don't have truth to me. I haven't found its truth, but I found the truth of God. And where I really found the truth of God was through his Word. I wouldn't have got saved, I wouldn't have got where I am today if it wasn't for me knowing my word. And I think when you see, and that's one thing that I've actually experienced myself is people that I have known fall away from the faith. And I could unpack this for a long time in terms of why that happens. And does that mean that the once saved, always saved thing is wrong? I disagree. I think once saved you are always saved. I think there's a level of questioning of like, did these people ever fully know God? And I've known people that have fallen away from God and have literally denounced the faith. And that has been tough for me because they were there at the start of my Christian journey and now they are not there. They are living their own life. They don't want anything to do with me, anything to do with Christians, because they are hurt. And I go back to one thing in my mind, it's the word of God. If that is not in you, if the only thing you have in you is I love Jesus and Jesus is so cool and I'm just going to be nice to people. That's the religion of humanity. The whole world wakes up mostly and says, I'm going to try and be a good person. I'm going to try and be nice to people. You know, I'm going to do my due diligence and volunteer. That could be the same as church and serve. I could just, you know, try, try and be an alright person. That that is what I think a lot of people assume Christianity is, even Christians, that we actually don't have the depth of what it really means to serve God. And that's why even if you don't fully fall away, you're falling away in a lot of different things because you are lacking that thing which is the Bible. Timothy 3, verse 16 to 17 says all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for te reproof for Correction and for training in righteousness. And Matthew 4, 4 says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. That's why when the Bible talks about, well, when Jesus says give us this day our daily bread, it's daily. And that that bread is spiritual bread and we need that bread, we can't live and thrive and function truly beings as well to do believers. And I'm not talking about some next hierarchy of believers. We are all saved. We will all go to heaven if you believe in the love of Christ. But yes, in this, in the physical realm and also in that connection with God, there are levels that we can all improve on, not as a competition to each other, because I think that is the literal opposite of what God wants for the body of Christ. But we should be, as it says in the word of God, to run our race. And it's so important that we run our race, the race of life every day. Choosing to choose God, not choosing to choose to be better, not choosing to choose to be self righteous and lift ourselves up and exalt ourselves, but every day to learn more about the character of God. And in turn that will impact us in the physical, impacts how we grow, how we make decisions, how our relationships thrive. And it really can mold us into being an unrecognizable person. I don't even know who I was five years ago. I'm a completely different person. I have so much depth. I have a new eye that has been opened, a new heart, a new soul. Where I was so I was, I, I had a stone of a heart literally where the Bible talks about turning my heart of stone into a heart of flesh. That's exactly what happened to me. I had a heart that couldn't be penetrated. It was so stuck in its ways and it was so stubborn and so prideful and so immature that it took a lot for the Word of God to get through. But the word of God is what changed my heart turning. And you know, we've talked a lot about how we can grow. But what are the dangers of not knowing the word of God? First things first. You're spiritually vulnerable. Church can't save you. Christian activities, coffee dates with your friends, posting a little video of you singing to Maverick City on your story is not saving you. It's not preventing you from falling into temptation. It's not stopping you from entering depression. I'm not saying that those things aren't good. I'm not saying that those things can't be an outpouring of what you've had with God. But sometimes we get caught up in those things. Because outwardly, not even for the sake of others. Because I think, yes, a lot of us, we all do. Like, let's face it, like, let's not even pretend we all crave human attention and validation, but that human can also spread to us. As in, we are looking to validate ourselves. So when we behave in a certain Christian way, we feel like, okay, I'm doing a good thing, as long as I'm not sinning. This is what happens, though, when you just think like, that, I've done it, you've done it. When we all say, oh, well, at least I'm not. I'm not sinning and I'm doing good things in life, then it's fine. You will literally open yourself up to not being able to withstand from whatever temptation it is. I've got a great example. Drinking. I've talked about this in previous episodes before. Me and drinking have had a very difficult relationship. I can genuinely say now that my relationship with alcohol is so much better. And it was never that I was an alcoholic. Like, when I was a teenager, I wasn't an alcoholic in the sense, like, oh, my gosh, I need alcohol to, like, survive. But, like, I wanted to drink very often, which I guess is kind of, like, borderline getting to a point of, like, reliance on alcohol. When I was sad, I wanted alcohol. When I was happy, I wanted alcohol. When I wanted to mourn, I wanted alcohol. When I wanted to celebrate, I wanted alcohol. But when I became a Christian, it wasn't that alcohol was on my mind, but when alcohol was put in front of me, I struggled to say no. And I would really say that this only started getting better. It started getting better before that. But I would say, like, a dramatic change for me was last summer, I drank too much at a work function. We had a bottomless brunch. And I told myself, just because it's bottomless does not mean you have to take advantage of the bottomless. But what was happening was they would only bring more drinks if everyone had finished their drink. So I was like, well, I can't let the team down. I gotta finish my drink. My goodness gracious. I. I don't ever remember being that drunk in a long time. And this is me being extremely vulnerable with you guys. Naz came. Thank the Lord for Naz. He came to meet me with my work colleagues, and he told me that when he was there, I took three shots. Do I remember? No. Was I caught up in the excitement of the fact that I could like freely drink for the first time in a long time? Yes. Was I leaning on my flesh? Absolutely. Was I approaching that day with wanting to be a light to my colleagues? No. Was I approaching it the fact that there's free alcohol that's like paid for by my bosses? Yes. Was I in my word in that period of time? No. I knew that I was approaching a day that was surrounded by alcohol. Did I stand firm in prayer and in reading my word ahead of that time so I wouldn't be tempted and so I would be alive? No, because I didn't need to avoid going there, period. And I'm very big on this. Especially recently as I have been growing in my faith, I have actually been able to share the gospel in drinking situations in my company where I've literally not touched a drop of alcohol. But before that was a problem for me and I got over excited. I was like a kid in a candy store. And I think it was like bringing up old memories of like what it was like to drink before I was a Christian. And I think I missed it in the really weird way. But one thing I want to make really clear is that you will continue to miss fleshly things if you aren't being filled up spiritually. And that was another thing that I journaled about last night that I said that I'd had such like a awakening with, with God over the last few months that I would try and cut something off dramatically like the alcohol. That was a massive one for me and I wouldn't replace it with something else. We all have a legitimate need, we just fulfill it illegitimately. Alcohol made me happy and I was someone who was prone to depression. I was someone that was prone to sitting in their room and crying and just hating life. So alcohol came at a very great time where I was dealing with a lot of just identity problems, which I think we all are in our teenage years. And it patched a great period for me where I finally was able to let go. And I was able to have like a few hours drinking a bottle of wine and taking shots and being able to like kind of let the world go. And I think when I became a Christian, whilst I was being filled up with the word in some areas, I wasn't on guard fully. So when that slipped, I then fell into things like alcohol, like the partying. And I wasn't an avid partyer. Like I've never. I haven't been to the club since a couple months after I was saved. Like in that summer. I've talked about it before, that I kind of, like, went back into the worldly stuff because I hadn't certified my faith properly. But past that, I've not been clubbing. Like, I don't club. I don't party. The only time I go to things as if it's like a family thing or a friend thing or a work thing, but I'm not, like, out there to party. But there's been times where I've not had that mindset of, I'm gonna go and show my face because I love this person and I'm going to represent the love of Christ. In fact, I just see it as an opportunity to drink because I am in a stage of maybe a drought with God. And now I'm spiritually vulnerable, and now I'm leading myself into a scenario that is not of value to me. And after that particular day, it was day drinking, which is even more embarrassing. Elodie. It was like 4pm And I was sat in Lasaguanas with Naz. It's a restaurant, by the way, for those who don't know. And I was completely drunk. And I was so looking forward to going out to eat with Naz, because I was like, I haven't seen my boyfriend in a long time. Like, he's gonna come to my work due. We're gonna leave a little bit earlier. We're gonna go to Las Iguanas. He just started his new job and I wanted to, like, talk to him about it. I was like, all excited and I ruined it because I got over excited. And I really felt so much conviction in the following weeks. And that was when God kind of started pouring into me that this is what will continue to happen if you do not stand firm in my word. And this may be something else to you guys, another temptation that comes to you very easily. But, yeah, can we just be honest? Like, when I say less of me, more of him, I'm not just talking about talking about God. I'm also talking about diminishing my image. Like, I don't care in terms of. I don't want you to think that I'm perfect. I don't want you guys to assume that I've always got it all together. This podcast is not about that. This podcast is not about sharing the fact that I'm on this, like, incredible spiritual journey and that I'm better than you. Like, this is just me, Emma, Homegirls talking. Honestly. So, yeah, I think it's also the fact of worldly wisdom that we Assume that we have it all together. There's that deception of I can do it, I'll be fine, I can withstand it, I can be in this scenario and not fall. My camera was just blinking at me, so I had to like put it on charge for a second. So apologies. Clearly not that much of a good podcaster that I didn't charge my camera properly. But anyways, my point of what I was saying was that there is so many roadblocks that you will hit in your Christian journey. And that's only short term what I was just talking about in the sense of the short term, of the times where I wasn't in my word and then the times that I was, and the difference between temptations. But this can be a long term thing. One of the biggest things is the self righteous mindsets, the self righteous mindsets that you can so easily trap yourself in when you lack that biblical backing of who Christ is and who you are in Christ. Identity is the biggest thing outside of your salvation. But once you can't get your salvation, the enemy will try to take your identity. He will try to distract you of your identity, make you think that you are someone that you are not. And that can come in so many ways of A not understanding the true love of Christ. B, still living in guilt. I did a podcast about that not long ago. And that's one of the big things that you can get trapped in. Me myself was. That was a massive thing for me, that I was living in this constant regret and guilt and shame of what I had done in the past, that I couldn't move forward in my Christian journey. It can also lead to purposelessness, it can lead to depression, it can lead to anxiety. It can cause you to be a shadow of your former self, of the person that you maybe once were when you came to Christ. But because you don't have the Word living in your heart, you dry up and you then begin to revert back to your default of the person that you were before you knew Christ. And Hosea 4, 6 says it perfectly that my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. We self destruct and we destroy others when we don't know the word of God and we don't have that dwelling in our heart. Because I think what people don't realize is that the Bible penetrates beyond your physical heart, your physical mind. Like I could read a fiction book and I enjoy it and I have fun, but like, it doesn't because it's not real, because it's a story. Maybe like some of the teachings in it, or like something that happened that made me think about my life, like maybe that penetrates me in some way. But only the Word of God has the power to truly transform your life in a positive way. I mean, there's so many things that can negatively transform your life. But in terms of a positive thing, something that has lasting impact on the person that you can become, it's only the Word of God. And it's only through his Word that you will break away from the default. Because all of these things are human default. Some more than others, some struggle with things more than others. But we all have the propensity to fall back into that if we don't have the Word of God. I moved it over slightly because I realized that was so far over. But one of the other things that I really want to talk about before my camera dies on me again is the concept of delighting in the Word. And then after that I will leave you to do your own meditation and prayer. On this topic, a lot of people don't get in their Word because it's not comforting, it doesn't provide instant gratification. It's boring. Maybe they don't have the time for it or they don't understand it, whatever it may be. And they get so caught up in self. Do you see how that's all about me, me, me, I, I, I, what I want to do and how God doesn't serve me in that moment. The Bible doesn't serve me in that moment, which is why I don't get in my quiet time, which is why I avoid whatever it may be. And I think that is exactly what the Word of God will do. And it will challenge you to stop thinking about yourself all the time. And it will start to readjust your desires to not please self, but to please God. And one thing that I really have learned, and that's why I said about Psalm 119 earlier, Psalm 119, verse 16 actually says, I will delight in your statutes, I will not forget your word. And I really encourage you to read this Psalm I. It was life changing for me. I've been reading it constantly for years, but I just keep going back to it. And I think it, it really does for me convict me a lot when I'm going through periods where I'm finding it difficult to read the Word because we all do. Like, it's not, you know, you're not the only one and you're not a bad Christian for it. But we also need to convict ourselves not Just see it as a norm. That shouldn't be the norm. God has literally given us this Word. And I think it's also wild to me that I always tell myself there are people in the world that don't have the Bible. The Bible is illegal. They have a scripture, they have a couple verses, a couple chapters. It's not easily accessible. Maybe they don't have it in their language. There are so many restrictions that other people in the world have with access. And I'm here in my house probably with about 20 Bibles all together with my parents included. We have study Bibles, we have leadership Bibles, we have commentaries, we have our phones, for goodness sake. We have so many things and, and books and devotionals that we have access to and we don't use it. We take it for granted. But Psalm 119 I love because it gives me a new perspective of what God intended for His Word and a relationship with him. And that is being with him at all times. Like I said earlier, God is with you in the valleys just as much as he is in the mountains. And that also counts for those times where you may be in confusion about the words, you may have certain feelings towards the words, you don't understand it, you feel like you're lost. Just don't know, you know, what to read or what to understand or how to apply that to your life. Psalm 119 shows that God delights in us delighting, he delights in us being with him, but he also wants us to delight back as well. And it's kind of this like dialogue between the psalmist and God, basically saying, you know, God, teach me how to love what you love, teach me how to understand your Word, walk in your ways, acknowledge your precepts, obey your statutes. And I think it's such a beautiful way of seeing God that we can walk hand in hand with him and rejoice in the fact that he wants us to be in our Word and to love it, to enjoy it, to delight in it. And Jeremiah 15, verse 16 says, Your words were found and I ate them. And your words became to me joy and the delight of my heart. And, you know, I could give you guys some tips. I've got written down some tips on reading the Word. And I will, I will read them, but just read like, that's my biggest tip. Push past it, keep reading. Because I think also, as I said with the physical, like physically you might not understand it, but spiritually your eyes are opening. And I remember this one time I've said this so many times with friends and on videos. But I will never stop giving this testimony of my life that I had one time because it was genuinely incredible. I was praying to God about feeling inferior, which is one of the things that I always felt when I wasn't in my word. And God really had to, you know, work with me on that. And I had clearly read this scripture before but I don't ever remember reading it and I certainly don't ever remember understanding it in my Bible. My Bible, my camera is about to die and I said I was praying and and I said to myself that my weakness is made perfect in God's strength. I don't even remember reading that scripture, but God gave me that scripture and God reminded me of that scripture. And that is the power of having the word of God in you even if you don't understand it in the moment. But quickly. The three things that I recommend for delighting in the Word. Number one, start small but consistent. Number two, Journal, Bible journal. Write, just talk to God in, in writing. I find that really helpful. One thing I love as well is a SOAP method. I recommended that to so many people and I find that actually really good. When I am getting into a rut, I think a lot of people assume the SOAP method is like for new Christians. No girl, imma do that forever. When I'm really struggling I'll do the SOAP method and I'll leave that in the description how you do the same method as well and then finally use tools like devotionals, Bible studies or apps. Kind of easy, self explanatory. But even for me I got out of the habit of doing Bible devotionals but I've started doing them again and it might seem really small but it in those times where I just really don't know where to start, it really does help. Don't be afraid to go back to basics as well with the Word. You might have been like me where you were like deep in your word and then you came out of it and you were like oh my gosh, like I just feel so lost. Don't have the pride of like I have to pick up where I left off. No, start where it feels comfortable to you and to your relationship with God and get back to just reading. Even if it's something simple, it's still powerful no matter how you do it because it is the word of God. But anyways, I love you guys so much. I'm not going to keep talking because my camera is going to die. But I will talk to you guys in the next podcast. Bye.