The Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast

Today is a very special day on The Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast because … (drum roll please) we’re celebrating our first birthday!  Over the past year, we’ve released 31 episodes — how fitting for Proverbs 31, right? But there’s more to celebrate than just the number of episodes we released. With every episode, we reached hearts and homes around the globe (literally!) with biblical truth for any girl in any season. We’re so thankful for the way the Lord has used this podcast above and beyond what we could have imagined!  So to help us celebrate, we invited Proverbs 31 Ministries' President, Lysa TerKeurst, to the show because there’s just no one who can share God’s Word quite like Lysa. In today’s episode of the podcast, you’ll hear a teaching called “3 Things to Consider Before Making that Decision.” We’re so thankful for Lysa’s wisdom and expertise on decision-making.   In this episode, Lysa will teach you:The “daily-ness” of decisions can make them seem small, but over time, even small decisions add up and make an impact.When you look at the big picture of where you are and where you want to be, the path can seem complicated and scary! But the way you get there is one day at a time, through choosing wisely every day.Wisdom is earned through the combination of gaining knowledge, access to the Holy Spirit and living out what you know to be true. Related Resources:If the Lord has used The Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast to help you in your walk with Him, please share it with us! Simply visit us on iTunes and leave a review. Leaving a review helps others discover the podcast, so thank you for helping us! Are you subscribed to The Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast? Never miss an episode! We’ve made it easy for you because we’re available on iTunes and Spotify.Be sure to grab a copy of Lysa TerKeurst’s book, The Best Yes, and learn how to start making wiser decisions today.Click here to download the transcript for this episode.

Do you ever find yourself fighting the temptation to focus on what you don’t have instead of what you’ve already been given? When we are actively pursuing God’s calling on our lives, I think we’ve all been tempted to focus on what someone else has or is experiencing, and feel disqualified because of what we lack. It’s so easy to think, I’m not as talented, bold, smart or outgoing as she is. I can’t write, speak or lead. I don’t know how to do _______. I just can’t.  Sweet friend, we don’t know what your calling looks like, but we do know that we serve a God who’s still in charge and doesn’t leave everything up to us! Today on The Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast, you’ll hear a special message from Suzie Eller that will inspire you and empower you to trust God with your calling.   In this episode, Suzie will teach you…Being called out of your comfort zone and called into a new assignment is never easy, but it’s also never about you, and that's a good thing! Consistently coming before the Lord with what’s on your mind will help you know what you need to keep saying yes to, and what you may need to stop doing.Embracing God’s anointing on your life IS the confidence you need to step into the assignment He’s asked you to do!Related Resources:Do you feel called to write, speak or lead? It’s time to step into your assignment! At Proverbs 31 Ministries, we have an annual conference called She Speaks where we equip writers, speakers and leaders with the practical tools and biblical training they need to take the next right step in their calling. This year for the first time ever, you can join us online from the comfort of your home! Click here to check out our She Speaks livestream packages.Connect with Suzie Eller on her blog and through Proverbs 31 Ministries’ Encouragement for Today daily devotions.Click here to download the transcript for this episode.

It seems like every opportunity that comes our way is often followed by opposition. So ... how do you really know if it’s God who is really telling you to keep pursuing that opportunity when you face a giant roadblock? What do you do when you’ve lost all confidence to do what you think He’s called you to do?  In today’s podcast episode, Katy McCown, one of our First 5 mobile app writers, will give a teaching from our First 5 study titled Opposition and Opportunity, based on the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. You’ll learn that if you’re only looking for opportunities and not expecting opposition with them, it’s easy to get confused about what you thought you were supposed to do. Or worse, you might even think you’ve misheard God or taken a wrong step, because if God really wanted you to make a move … why would something get in the way?  In this episode, you’ll…Gain clarity on the calling you believe God is asking you to follow by understanding the difference between an opportunity from God and opposition from the enemy. Identify common tactics of the enemy — confusion, doubt and fear — and how to train your eyes to look away from the opposition you see and focus on the opportunity in front of you.Claim your identity in Christ and speak Truth to combat the enemy’s lies while trusting God to go before you in every battle you face.Related Resources:Discover more about Opposition and Opportunity by doing our study in the First 5 app! All you need to do is download the FREE First 5 mobile app (available for Apple and Android devices) and go to the “Plans” section in the app. Just search for the title Opposition and Opportunity and start the study!Take your study of Opposition and Opportunity further by purchasing the accompanying Experience Guide, available at p31bookstore.com. All of our Experience Guides are designed to take you deeper into Scripture with questions to help you apply God’s Word to your life.Access more teachings just like the one you heard today through the First 5 app each weekend. Simply make sure you have the app downloaded, and there will be a fresh audio teaching each weekend available to help you apply what you’re learning during the week to your life!Click here to download the transcript for this episode.

Pause for a moment and think about your relationships … your spouse, children, friends, co-workers, neighbors. You can probably name some highs and lows of each relationship because, well, humans are human. And humans mess up!   Our relationship with the church is no different. When a body of believers (who are by nature sinners) come together, things aren’t always a beautiful picture of a happy community without conflict. Whether or not you’re new to the Christian community, a phrase that you’ll likely hear is “church hurt.” At Proverbs 31 Ministries, we don’t want to just talk about church hurt; we want to dig into God’s Word and understand what He says about the Church (the body of believers). Using the first church in the book of Acts as an example, Whitney Capps will lead us through a Scripture-based conversation on church hurt and how to navigate it in our own lives.   In this episode, it’s our hope that you’ll …Understand the relationship between the church and its members as outlined in Scripture and find your place in a community of believers.Acknowledge the hurt you’re facing and find a way to forgive those who’ve hurt you through the lens of Scripture.Develop empathy for those who have been hurt by the church and discover ways you can reach out to help someone close to you take the next step toward healing. Related Resources:Stay rooted in God’s Word by giving Him the first five minutes of your day with our free First 5 mobile app! Download it today for your Apple or Android device.With Whitney Capps’ book, Sick of Me, you’ll take the next steps on your faith journey to look more like Jesus today than you did yesterday. Purchase your copy today from Proverbs 31 Ministries!Visit whitneycapps.com to download a free resource on how to walk through specific situations of church hurt and how to process the hurt you’re facing today.Click here to download the transcript for this episode.

“Why should I fast?” … is a real question that often goes unanswered. You might hear your pastor, ministry leader or friend talk about fasting and wonder what the purpose of depriving yourself of something really is. After all, why fast when you could simply pray, right?Throughout Scripture, you’ll discover fasting mentioned from Daniel to Elisha to Paul, and most commonly known, Jesus’ 40-day fast in the wilderness. In today’s teaching, you’ll hear Proverbs 31 Ministries' Director of Theology, Joel Muddamalle, discuss the real reason we should fast and answer the question you might’ve always wanted to understand.  In this episode, you will …Learn about fasting in context of Scripture and understand how it can apply to your life today.Understand how fasting is part of many spiritual disciplines that are outlined in Scripture to help us look more like Christ.Discover how going “without” can help you reposition your heart and mind toward God through your ultimate need for Him.Related Resources:Although we want to ensure fasting is a private event between you and God, we do want to encourage you to anonymously share how we can pray for you on our prayer wall. At Proverbs 31 Ministries, our staff and volunteers pray over each prayer request submitted, and we would love to pray for you! Click here to visit our prayer wall.If you’re interested in learning more about spiritual foundations or knowing God, check out our free resource library! This is a great place to start if you’re looking to dig deeper into Scripture and want more insight on questions you have about your personal faith journey.Click here to download the transcript for this episode

Social media and television make it incredibly easy to compare our behind-the-scenes to someone else’s highlight reel… especially in our marriages. We turn on the TV, and then we’re turned off because it seems everyone else has a happier, more exciting and more romantic marriage than we do. We all bring our brokenness into our marriage covenant and it doesn’t take long for that to surface. When conflict does arise, are we extending the grace Jesus extends to us or are we letting our broken selves break our relationship? In today’s episode of the Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast, Karen Ehman gives a teaching based on her new book, Keep Showing Up: How to Stay Crazy in Love When Your Love Drives You Crazy. You’ll discover…The three threads that can tangle your marriage — emotional baggage, unmet expectations and untrue perceptions — and how to have healthy conversations around them.You can honor your spouse by taking time to slow down, breathe and collect your thoughts before you enter into a hard conversation about unmet expectations.Your marriage is a message, and people are watching you preach!To read the transcript for this episode click here. Related ResourcesPurchase Karen Ehman’s book, Keep Showing Up: How to Stay Crazy In Love When Your Love Drives You Crazy from Proverbs 31 Ministries.Your life is crazy, but your Bible study doesn't have to be. Online Bible Studies is a place where you can dive deep into books by your favorite Christian authors alongside a community of women from right where you are. Check out our latest Online Bible Study now!

Do you ever wonder if all the things you do for your children is even making an impact? If the wisdom we try to impart actually sticks or if we’re really cut out for this “mothering”  job after all? Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” As parents, this Scripture sounds promising, but being in the “thick of it” is tough! Lysa TerKeurst deeply understands this feeling! In this podcast episode, she invites you in on a conversation between her and her three adult daughters where you'll hear a raw, honest, family conversation about raising children and what it was like being raised in the TerKeurst home.To read the transcript for this episode click here.  You’ll discover…A bad parenting moment today doesn’t make you a bad parent forever.Creating an environment in your home for conversations that have a gentle balance of grace and truth will help your children be more open to sharing.Keeping your children talking, connected and reminded about God throughout the small things every day will help you raise up not only a good child, but a God-honoring adult. Related Resources:Sign up for our FREE Encouragement for Today devotions filled with daily, biblical encouragement to help you filter life through God’s Word.Purchase Am I Messing Up My Kids? by Lysa TerKeurst through Proverbs 31 Ministries. Full of practical ideas, short Bible studies and plenty of encouragement, this inspiring resource will help moms to realize that — with God’s wisdom and mercy — they can experience peace and satisfaction while raising their kids. 

If you were to walk through your home and make a stack of all the “advice” books you own, there’s a good chance that stack would be pretty tall! There is a book available for every subject you could ever need: time management, pregnancy, parenting, relationships, dieting, exercising, overcoming anxiety… the list goes on! But where do you find real wisdom for living?   It’s easy to want a simple formula that leads to a quick fix. For example, if we were to read the dieting book and closely follow the instructions, then the outcome should be to lose weight, right? But if we are really honest with ourselves, we often take the same approach to God’s Word when it comes to seeking wisdom in a specific area of life.  In this week’s episode of the Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast, Karen McNary shares how to gain wisdom by being connected to the giver of all wisdom… our Heavenly Father!You’ll discover…Wisdom doesn’t mean that you’ll always know how to make the right decision. But, “wise” is what you become when you stay connected with God and apply His Word to every area of life.How to determine if, and when, you should seek wise counsel from a trusted friend by first going to the Lord for guidance first.Seeking wisdom and principles for life doesn’t have to start and stop with the book of Proverbs, but can be found starting with Genesis and ending with Revelation.To read the transcript for this episode click here.Related ResourcesFind a place to process what you’re learning each day as you discover how to apply godly wisdom to your everyday life. Study the book of Proverbs with us in our FREE First 5 mobile app! All you need to do is download the app on iTunes or Google Play to get started.Take your study of the book of Proverbs a little deeper by purchasing our Study Guide. Each Study Guide includes daily study questions and historical context to help you unpack Scripture. Purchase your copy today! 

How do we embrace what seems so glaringly imperfect in the process of becoming more like Jesus? In Lysa TerKeurst’s new book, It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way, she says “Anytime we feel not good enough we deny the powerful truth that we are a glorious work of God in progress.”   In this episode of the Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast, you’ll have the opportunity to listen to one of our favorite chapters, "Paintings and People," from Lysa’s newest book. In this chapter Lysa takes us through her own experience of feeling not good enough, and teaches us how to trust God with our imperfections on this side of eternity.   You’ll discover…Sometimes you might be expecting a perfection from yourself or others that even God Himself doesn’t expect.Time spent showing up and bringing compassion to a friend is never wasted time.Being honest with yourself and your friends (rather than trying to cover up your imperfections) will strengthen the way you see yourself and your relationships.To read the transcript for this episode click here.Related Resources:Purchase your copy of It's Not Supposed to Be This Way: Finding Unexpected Strength When Disappointments Leave You Shattered today!Sign up for the FREE It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way Online Bible Study hosted by Proverbs 31 Ministries and journey through the book with a solid community to support you. 

When things don’t go the way we want and life doesn’t turn out the way we thought it should, it’s easy to wonder why. In Mark 14, Jesus prays “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Those words read well, but they’re hard to live out.   In this episode, Lysa TerKeurst will teach us what it really means to exchange our will for God’s will and builds off her last episode titled, “The Birthplace of Disappointment.” We already learned that the human heart was created in the context of the perfection of the Garden of Eden. Today, we’ll discover that there’s a physical reality we see, and at the same time, there’s the miraculous God is working.   You’ll learn…Because God is working in the midst of your hurt, you can trust that your hurt will someday be made right. When God leads you to something hard, He will also lead you through something hard because He won’t leave you.Trading your will for God’s will isn’t a one-time decision; it’s a daily surrender.To read the transcript for this episode click here.Related resources:Click here to listen to Lysa’s teaching titled, “The Birthplace of Disappointment.” Purchase your copy of Lysa’s latest book, It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way and learn what it means to find unexpected strength when life’s disappointments leave you shattered.Make a donation to Proverbs 31 Ministries today to help us continue to provide free resources (just like this podcast) for women around the world to connect with God’s Truth on a daily basis.