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Summary:
Colossians is essentially a book on Christian Living. See how God is using the book of Colossians to help me build a brand for my business that puts Him first.
Podcast Transcript:
Hi friend! I’m Brigette Henry and welcome to the Journey Together podcast, where I share all things related to Faith, Christian Living and your Spiritual Formation Journey.
Introduction
Today, I want to give you a little update on what’s been going on in my spiritual formation journey and some of the things that God has been teaching me in the last couple of weeks.
So, I have been struggling with my business and my brand for years. I started blogging back in 2019, and my goal then was to create a business so that I could work from home. I’ve never done well with a normal 8-to-5, and I just felt like I needed something different that fit with my health issues and my mental health issues. So, I started blogging and I’ve moved on to coaching twice now. I’ve kind of flip-flopped back and forth. I’m really enjoying podcasting and recently I feel like God has been saying, like, “this is it”. Like, “get settled here.”
Establishing My Brand
My husband and I have moved a lot in the past nine years. We’ve been married for nine years now, and we have moved five times, I think? And so, I constantly feel like my life is about to get uprooted and I feel like God is finally saying, “this is it. I want you to get settled here. I want you to figure this out here.”
So, I picked up a branding workbook from Heather Schaefer, and I will put the link for her website in the show notes in case you’re interested. But I got it as part of a free bundle and my plan was to go through it Father’s Day week. Just spend some time in there and establish some goals for my business and direction for my business, like, “who am I trying to reach? What am I trying to share with you? What do I want to teach you?” That kind of thing.
Plans Gone Awry
But on Father’s Day, I woke up severely depressed. Now this is usual and unusual because I have struggled with major depressive disorder for over a decade. I was diagnosed back in 2013, so it’s not unusual for me to be depressed, but the depression itself this time was unusual. Typically, there are two things that happen with my depression. When I experience a season of depression, it normally only lasts like two to three days, and there’s also usually a trigger. There’s something that made me feel hopeless that triggered the depression to begin, and then it gets more severe. And then it calms down.
But this has been very different. I was very depressed the entire week after Father’s Day after I woke up feeling depressed. So, by Wednesday of that week, it’s already been more than three days and I was really frustrated. I was trying to work through that branding workbook, and I just felt like my business isn’t going anywhere. And I was like, “God, why? What…what do you want me to do? Where am I supposed to be going?”
God Led Me to Colossians
I just felt very confused and frustrated, and God led me to Colossians. Now I studied Colossians; it was either at the beginning of this year or at the end of last year. I can’t remember because we were in transitional housing, and so that whole part of my life is really blurry. But I studied Colossians, and when I say I studied Colossians, I devoured it. It is the most decorated portion of my Bible. It is highlighted and underlined and circled and there’s arrows and notes everywhere. I absolutely loved Colossians. So, when God was like, “why don’t you go back to Colossians?”, I just felt like I didn’t have any other choice. Like, I just felt so hopeless, and I was like, “OK, let’s go listen to Colossians.”
As a side note, when I’m depressed, I have a really hard time focusing. Like, I can read, but I’m not reading for comprehension. So, listening to a recording and reading it at the same time helps with my comprehension a lot.
What I found in Colossians
So, Colossians isn’t a very long book, so the recording for it was only like 15 minutes long. And, I kid you not, I didn’t get halfway through that recording, and everyone in my life needed me. My phone was going off like crazy. I got phone calls and text messages. My daughter woke up early from her nap. Everyone needed me.
And it was at that moment that I realized, “Oh my goodness, this is spiritual warfare.” Like, the unusually severe depression and my struggle to connect with God and my inability to focus.
All very severe and very intense.
And I just realized, “I cannot give up on Colossians.” So, I walked away and did the things I needed to do to take care of my family and to take care of myself. And that evening I had some time. I left the dishes or whatever other housework needed to be done. I came back to Colossians and I finished listening to it. And then I read through it. And I just kept pouring over it and over it and over it.
And I felt like God was saying to me, “I want you to use Colossians as your brand foundation.”
What is Proof-Texting
Now, I want to just give a little disclaimer here. I’m very careful about proof-texting. If you’re not familiar with what that means, “proof-texting” is when someone uses scripture for something other than it was intended to be used. So, for example, in my last podcast episode, I talked about 1 Corinthians 6:12, in which Paul says,
‘Everything is permissible for me’, but not everything is beneficial.
And if you’re not paying attention to the way he wrote that, you’ll miss the fact that the first half of that sentence, “everything is permissible for me” is a quote. He’s quoting someone else, and then the second half when he says, “but not everything is beneficial”, is his rebuttal. He’s basically saying, “OK, you said this, but not everything is beneficial.”
But there are a lot of people that look at that verse and they cut out the second half. And they just quote the first half and they just say, “everything is permissible for me. I can do whatever I want.”
That is proof-texting. I want to be really careful when I open the Bible and apply it to my life that I am not misinterpreting for my own gain and that I am not misapplying scripture, that I’m not confusing scripture or confusing other people with the way that I use Scripture. I want to be really, really careful.
The Background of Colossians
But God was totally right about Colossians. Because Colossians is all about Christian living, which is like everything that I’m about. Like, if I had to describe what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, I would say I want to teach other Christian women how to live a mature Christian life.
So a little background on Colossians. Colossians was a letter from Paul to the Colossae Church. It was made-up of faithful believers.
In Colossians 1:4, Paul says,
we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints.
So, this church was so great, so loving, so full of Christ, that Paul, who had never been there before, had heard of them while he was in prison. But Paul also heard that there were other people in Colossae, not members of the church, but other people in Colossae, who claimed that Jesus wasn’t enough. And he was afraid that the culture around the Colossae church would draw them away from the truth.
One of my favorite verses in this very short letter is Colossians 1:28-29. It says,
We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.
That verse is just so bold to me, and friend, that’s you and me. Like, listen to this again.
We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.
Colossians 1:28-29
A couple of things I want to say about this verse. This verse reminds me of you, because I know that if you are listening to this podcast episode, you want a deeper relationship with God. You want to figure out how to wake up every morning and put your feet on the floor and immediately feel the presence of the Holy Spirit and carry him with you throughout your entire day and share him with all the people you interact with. You want to figure out how to be mature in Christ, how to live a life that is sold out for Christ.
If you’ve made it this far, you’re not a casual listener. You’re somebody who wants a better, deeper relationship with Christ, and I want to teach you. I want to teach people wisdom, and I want to help present you mature in Christ.
But verse 29 really hit home for me. Paul says. “I labor for this striving with his strength, that works powerfully in me.
Friend, I feel really inadequate for this mission. I strongly feel called that God is asking me to teach other women, and I just feel inadequate and insecure and just not ready to do this.
But the verse that actually led me initially to go back to Colossians, the verse that God used to speak through me to say, “hey, why don’t you look back at Colossians again?”, is Colossians 3:23. Which I’ve had on my bathroom mirror basically, since I finished Colossians earlier this year. It says,
“Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people,.”
Keep Pursuing Him
Friend, it is so hard for us to stop worrying about what other people think of us. I think that’s always been difficult, but especially with the advent of social media and the challenge of having our entire lives become public, the pressure to share every portion of our lives, even if we want it to remain private. It’s just so hard for us to stop worrying about what other people think of us. And sometimes I feel like a failure, like I don’t want to tell people that I have been blogging and coaching on and off for the last five+ years. Like, I don’t want to tell people that I’ve been fighting the last five years for visibility and favor in my business, but I know that I’m not alone in those feelings.
Feeling Lost and Directionless
I know that you also feel lost and directionless sometimes. And if you feel that way, I want you to know that. God has a plan for you, and maybe that plan is wandering in the desert for a little bit. But Romans 8:28 says,
We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
Things might not work together the way that we are hoping that they will, but they will work together for our good if we love God because we are called according to His purpose.
Keep pursuing Him, friend.
Feeling Like a Failure
You might feel like a failure, like nothing you try ever works out. But you are not big enough to ruin God’s plan for you. Proverbs 24:16 says,
Though a righteous person falls seven times, he will get up, but the wicked will stumble into ruin.
If you love God and you are pursuing him, you may fall, but you will get back up, friend.
Keep pursuing Him.
Feeling Hopeless
You might feel hopeless. And if you do, I want to remind you that our hope comes from Him. Psalm 62:1-2 says,
I am at rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will never be shaken.
Put your hope in him, friend. Keep pursuing Him.
Holy, Faultless and Blameless
I have one more verse to share with you today. In Colossians 1:22-23. It says,
But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him—if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.
I want to encourage you today to remain grounded and steadfast in the faith. To not be shifted away from the hope of the gospel. I want to encourage you to keep pursuing Him and to trust, which is my word of the year, and I’m struggling with it every day, to trust that God has you where He has you for a reason.
Resources for You
I hope this has been encouraging to you. I want you to know that you are not alone in your faith journey. We are all struggling, but we all have the word of God to encourage us and guide us through. I’m going to leave a few links in the show notes for you. I have three different Spotify playlists that I thought might be encouraging and helpful to you if anything, I said today resonated with you.
I also have phone backgrounds for those last four verses I mentioned: Romans 8:28, Proverbs 24:16, Psalm 62:1-2, and Colossians 1:22-23. So, if you’d like a little reminder on your phone, you can download those phone backgrounds. They’re completely free.
Sign Off
I know this is a little different than how I normally do my podcast. And I will say that my business is changing. I don’t really know what that looks like, but I hope you’ll hang in there with me. My goal is to help women grow to be mature women of God, to be mature Christians, to trust in the Lord, and to have faith. I just want to help you grow closer to God, friend.
So if you enjoyed this podcast, please rate it, give it some stars, share it with your friends. And if you’d like to connect with me, you can e-mail me at brigette@brigettehenry.com. I’ll leave that link in the show notes. My name is spelled kinda different.
You can also join my Facebook group, you can follow me on Instagram or you can join my mailing list. All of those links will be in the show notes, and they’re also on my website.
If you have some time and you think of me over the next week, please pray for this ministry. Like I said, I don’t know where God is taking me, but I’m excited to find out and I would appreciate your prayers that I would just trust him in the process. I’m the kind of person who imagines this amazing thing and then wants it completed the next second. I really struggle with the smaller steps, and so just pray that I can trust Him through the process and know that He has me here for a reason.
Thank you for joining me today, and I will see you next time as we continue our Spiritual Formation Journey Together. Bye!
Phone Backgrounds
To save an image for a phone background, open this page with your phone and touch and hold over the image you want. A menu should come up with the option to “save image” or “save to device”.
LINKS:
CONTACT ME at: brigette@brigettehenry.com
Join the JOURNEY TOGETHER FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/journeytogetherchristianwomen
FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/spiritualformationjourney/
JOIN MY MAILING LIST: https://brigettehenry.com/subscribe
Things I Mentioned Today:
Heather Schaefer – Branding Coach – https://www.heatherschaeferhq.com/
Spotify Playlists – Who God Says You Are (encouraging and comforting), This is a Hard Thing (surrender and lament) and God’s God This (upbeat and hopeful)
Other Fun Links:
Not sure what to focus on during your QUIET TIME? Take the “Find Your Focus” Quiz here: https://brigettehenry.com/find-your-focus-quiz/
Check out THE QUIET TIME GUIDE and learn how to craft an intentional and effective Quiet Time: https://brigettehenry.com/product/the-quiet-time-guide
Visit MY WEBSITE: https://brigettehenry.com
Music by: Morning Garden – Acoustic Chill by Olexy on Pixabay
Notes:
All scripture is CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
All Greek word definitions come from Strong’s Definitions. You can get access to this resource and more at blueletterbible.org.
cess to this resource and more at blueletterbible.org.
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