As we practice receiving and remaining in God’s love, the question becomes this: how are we responding and loving Him back? And not necessarily in the big moments, but in the small and ordinary moments of every day life.
We all move in patterns that we have set up over time, day by day. These habits and practices shape our loves, our desires, and ultimately, who and what we worship. So what habits and practices can we take up that are aiming our love and desires towards God?
In this episode, I share 7 spiritual practices I’m engaging in right now that are increasing my capacity to receive, remain, and respond to God’s love. My hope is that they spark prayerful creativity and imagination in you around God’s invitations into deeper intimacy within the rhythms of your everyday life.
Read Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren
Listen to Daily Lectio Divina
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Watch this episode on YouTube
Grab a copy of my book Stop Saying I'm Fine
Connect with me on my website
Find me on Instagram @__taylorjoy__
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17:47
Discovering the Security of a Life Held by God with Stephanie Stewart
What if you could walk into every room knowing—deep in your bones—that you are safe, seen, soothed, and secure? Not because of the what’s happening around you, but because the face of Jesus is always turned toward you? Always attentive. Always connected.
This is what writer, artist, and soul care provider Stephanie Stewart and I talk about today. Stephanie invites us into her own journey of discovering a relationship with God that heals and grounds us. A kind of interactive relationship that is conversational, requiring reciprocity – and just like any other relationship – a turning towards one another. Stephanie also teaches us daily practices to strengthen our awareness and attunement to God’s constant connection and care.
Read Surrender to Love by David Benner
Read Inexpressible by Michael Card
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Watch this episode on YouTube
Grab a copy of my book Stop Saying I'm Fine
Connect with me on my website
Find me on Instagram @__taylorjoy__
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39:52
When You Feel Unworthy of God's Goodness with Chesed Dent
We all have these complicated tangles of belief, identity, and narrative, and one of the early stories many of us often begin telling ourselves is a one of our own scarcity.
“Maybe I don’t matter.” "Maybe I’m not good enough.” “Maybe I’m not worthy of love, belonging, and joy.”
When we bring these stories of scarcity with us into our relationships with God, we may ache for nourishment and grace, but we find ourselves living out of a place of exhaustion and starvation. We come to God’s table with a deep sense of unworthiness, scraps feeling like all we can hope for. Anything more seems selfish or presumptuous. When scarcity has become familiar, goodness and abundance can start to feel suspicious.
This is what Chesed Dent and I talk about today. Chesed beautifully brings her experiences of growing up as a missionary kid – as well as her current work in higher education – into this conversation, inviting us into her own journey towards deeper rest and trust in God’s care.
Get Faith & Feeling's weekly resource email
Watch this episode on YouTube
Grab a copy of my book Stop Saying I'm Fine
Connect with me on my website
Find me on Instagram @__taylorjoy__
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30:59
The God We Meet in Our Stories
Even though you’ve heard God described as full of compassion and always present, do you sometimes feel confused as to why you experience him as distant, disapproving, or absent?
Our experiences, from childhood to adulthood, shape the internal pictures we hold about God—sometimes in ways we don’t even realize. In this episode, I share stories of 4 different women, and how they each came to experience God differently based on their life experiences.
These stories are taken and adapted from a chapter in Sensible Shoes, a bestselling novel written by last week’s guest Sharon Garlough Brown. The first time I read these stories, I couldn’t put them down. I found myself in these women, in their stories, and how they came to perceive God… and I think you will as well.
Check out Sharon's novel Sensible Shoes
Get Faith & Feeling's weekly resource email
Watch this episode on YouTube
Grab a copy of my book Stop Saying I'm Fine
Connect with me on my website
Find me on Instagram @__taylorjoy__
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24:17
Why Is It Hard to Receive Love From God? with Sharon Garlough Brown
So many of us long to rest in God’s love, but we feel at war with actually receiving it. Why do we resist the very thing that we claim we want?
This is what author and spiritual director Sharon Garlough Brown and I talk about today. Sharon graciously invites into her own story of exhaustion and striving to meet her perceptions of God’s expectations for faithfulness, to learning what it looks like to live out of the abundance and generosity of His heart. She shares such beautiful moments along her journey where God has invited her into prayer, presence, and an enlarging capacity to receive his love. I hope you’ll listen in.
Check out Sharon's novel Sensible Shoes
Listen to Sharon's podcast Daily Lectio Divina
Get Faith & Feeling's weekly resource email
Watch this episode on YouTube
Grab a copy of my book Stop Saying I'm Fine
Connect with me on my website
Find me on Instagram @__taylorjoy__
Faith & Feelings is a podcast designed to help you untangle & honor your emotions, authentically practice your faith, and integrate both into your everyday life so that you can experience the goodness & delight that comes from living in relationship with yourself, God, and others.
Join author and clinical counseling grad student Taylor Joy every Monday, where she’ll share therapeutic insight and spiritual truth aimed at helping you implement small shifts into your daily rhythms and routines.