Episodes

  • Surrender To God - James 4:7

    Surrender To God - James 4:7
    Mar 15 2021
    Surrender to God! James 4:7 instructs us. I personally struggle with this. How about you? Can you relate? My struggle with God is this: I want to have control but God wants me to surrender control to Him. God wants me to choose to trust His plan. And I want to trust God if He reveals to me what His plan is... So, we fight and argue me and God. And ... God always wins! https://AnnaSzabo.com/surrender-to-god-james-4-7 Today, let’s discuss how to surrender to God and let go. Thanks so much for tuning in today.   My name is Anna Szabo.   I am the founder of OnlineDiscipleshipforWomen.com and my life’s purpose is to help YOU create a joyful life by embracing God’s word. This podcast for Christian women is all about living for God!   If you’d like to support my work, donate from the heart.     James 4:7 says: “Submit yourselves to God.” It says:c “Subject yourselves to God.”   The Bible is clear: we must step out of our own power, strength, and wisdom and step into Christ’s power, strength, and wisdom .    How? Through faith-based action.    It’s hard to do. What is so hard about it? It requires complete surrender of control.    We must lean not on our own understanding in life. We must trust in the Lord with everything. This requires giving up control. And it is scary... it is hard.   Surrender feels like falling backwards into the arms of God trusting that He’ll be there to catch you from crushing.    This is very difficult.     In 2014, I fell on my knees in the middle of my living room late at night, wept, invited God to take control, and gave my life to Christ that night. I asked Jesus to be my personal Lord and Savior; and I surrendered myself to Him completely.     God controls my life.    God is the source of my blessings, faith, and strength. I am here alive and productive today not because of my own power but because of the power of Christ in me.      Submit to the authority of God - James 4:7 tells us. Place yourselves under God's authority!     I pondered and questioned everything when it comes to God. Today, I know that God is my creator, that I am God’s child, made in His image, here on earth to do His work, the work He prepared in advance for me to do, and once I do His divine work, I will go to heaven to spend my eternity with Jesus when my time here is up.    These truths about myself and my life I received from God’s word. After understanding that Jesus, who was fully man and fully God, came here on earth to surrender His life so that I could have mine, I was overcome with gratitude for my salvation .    Once I fully - intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and wholeheartedly - understood what happened on the cross, that Jesus was sacrificed for my sake... I wept, fell on my knees, and surrendered my life to Christ. What happened?    I accepted God’s grace.    Not in theory but in practice.    I understood how broken and weak and powerless and hopeless I am on my own and how much I need a Savior - Jesus Christ. I surrendered myself to God.    Still, God and argue because I am human.     God took me from a lost and confused addict to a woman of God, a disciple of Christ, a helper to Jesus Himself.   Surrendering everything I had (my life, my habits, my identity, my desires, my control...) surrendering it all to God allowed me to become a woman of God.   Thanks to God’s saving grace, I am who I am, how I am, and where I am.    I live a sober ad simple life of peace and joy.     God’s grace is sufficient for me in all my circumstances and helps me endure adversity, persevere through challenges, and share my testimony with you to encourage and empower Christian women.   Biblical faith requires strength from us. Don’t be strong in your own power, be strong in Christ. Biblical faith guarantees that we will have trials in life and asks that we surrender our own power and live in the power of Christ, through whom all things are possible.    To be strong during hard times, you must surrender your own power, admit that you are weak, and ask God for help because in your weakness His strength is displayed and perfected.   Here’s what I know from my own experience and experiences of those who received Christ: When you truly understand who Jesus is and you genuinely believe that He died an unimaginably cruel death on the cross for your sins so that you can live a free life, you will fall on your knees in the act of surrender from a place of heartfelt gratitude for your salvation and redemption, and you will weep.   Have you surrendered to God?
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    9 mins
  • Do Not Fear - Isaiah 41:10

    Do Not Fear - Isaiah 41:10
    Mar 8 2021
    “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10   In today’s Biblical devotional for Christian women, we will ponder Isaiah 41:10 and its practical application in our daily lives as women who follow God and love Jesus.   In this Biblical devotional, I will share with you a very specific, unique, and breakthrough spiritual practice I perform regularly that causes many people to fear intensely, and in fact, there’s a record of people being unable to benefit from this spiritual practice that goes back to 1929. Frankly, this very profound spiritual practice caused me to fear for my life initially, but now I perform it several times a month, in faith, with peace.   I’ll share with you today HOW exactly I continue this uncommon and bold spiritual practice without giving in to my fears.   In this Biblical devotional for Christian women today, I’ll help you examine YOUR fears and show you how confronting them courageously allows God to not only work IN you but also THROUGH you spiritually.   The examples of fears and the antidote to fear, which I’ll share today, will be relevant to most of the Christian women listening to my Christian podcast The Anna Szabo Show and reading my Christian blog Onlinediscipleshipforwomen.com   This original and authentic Biblical devotional for Christian women will encourage and empower you with God’s truth as we apply it practically to real-life experiences of fear and anxiety we all go through as His disciples and daughters.   I am Anna Szabo from AnnaSzabo.com/devotionals, and you are listening to The Anna Szabo Show Christian podcast for women who love Jesus. I make content to help you create a joyful life by embracing God’s word. My passion in life is to help encourage and empower you by sharing testimonies of God’s amazing glory revealed through my own adverse yet faith-filled life story.   Subscribe to my podcast and tell other Christian women about it to help me do God’s work through this women’s ministry.   If you’d like to support my ministry, please donate at the link is in the notes below.   There are three things you can expect from this Biblical devotional for Christian women today:   You’ll hear the scriptures-based devotional I prepared for youThere will be an exercise for you to do in order to ponder Isaiah 41:10 as it relates to your own faith journeyI’ll offer you a prayer to lift you up to God and ask for His peace, protection, provision, and promotion   Let’s get started!   PART 1. BIBLICAL DEVOTIONAL FOR CHRISTIAN WOMEN   “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10     As I’m sharing this Biblical devotional for Christian women with you right now, I have been without any food and any water for 24 hours. This is incomprehensible to many people, and the fasting book from 1929 reveals a story of a man who began fasting but quit when he felt overcome by intense fear for his life. He broke his fast.   I practice fasting regularly and have been doing it since early 2018, for three years now. I’m 38 years old, and enjoy the best health of my life after being very sick for decades. My height is 5’10”, my weight is 116 lb, my size is zero, my weekly, monthly, and yearly spendings include zero dollars on medical bills or doctors or hospitals or pills or diets. I’m able to do 10000 steps every day, perform handstands, backbends, jump on the trampoline, run, swim, hike, hula hoop, squat on a BOSU ball, exercise with weights, do all my own chores, travel as I wish, and do all the necessary handy work at home by myself.   I’ll leave some links below for you to explore how I live my life free from illnesses, unwanted weight, and useless medical spending.   When I started fasting, I practiced water fasting: not eating and only drinking water for up to 5 days. Last year, in 2020, at 37 years old, I discovered dry fasting: no food, no water. I’ve been able to go fir 48 hours without eating and drinking anything, and this has been the most profound spiritual experience with God.   Dry fasting became my favorite way of fasting and prayer after I completed my first 24-hour dry fast in 2020. You can find out more about it at AnnaSzabo.com/dry-fasting where I share my diaries, insights, faith testimony, as well as breakthroughs.   Dry fasting is my preferred way to fast.   I’ve written thousands of words of helpful content to help other Christian women experience the profound spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical benefits of fasting. I’m going to link in the description box below my blog articles about the experience and the journey of fasting in the last 3 years.   As I’m sharing this Biblical devotional for Christian women with you right now, not only ...
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    19 mins
  • Have No Fear of Sudden Disaster - Proverbs 3:25

    Have No Fear of Sudden Disaster - Proverbs 3:25
    Mar 1 2021
    In today’s Biblical devotional for Christian women, we will ponder Proverbs 3:25-26 (how to not be afraid) and its practical application in our daily lives: “Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin, for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being trapped.” I will share with you an example from my life of how I stay mentally strong in the midst of a global pandemic, nationwide unemployment, and an economic crisis.  I will also explain why learning how to not be afraid is critical. We will review the consequences of allowing the fear of a sudden disaster and ruin to overwhelm you. At the end of my message, I’ll offer you a powerful prayer. In this Biblical devotional for Christian women today, I’ll help you examine your own faith journey with God. We will explore why it’s so critical for us as Christian women, the disciples of Jesus, to always remember that it’s the Lord who is at our side and keeps us from being trapped.  “Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin, for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being trapped.” Proverbs 3:25-26. Fearing sudden disasters and ruin leaves you anxious, scared, mentally paralyzed, emotionally overwhelmed, physically exhausted, and unable to do God’s work, incapable to fulfill His purpose for your life. That is why learning and practicing how to not be afraid is so critical. The CDC reports: “Communities have faced mental health challenges related to COVID-19–associated morbidity, mortality, and mitigation activities, including the impact of physical distancing and stay-at-home orders. The percentage of respondents who reported having seriously considered suicide in the 30 days before completing the survey (10.7%) was significantly higher among respondents aged 18–24 years (25.5%). This Biblical devotional for Christian women will be relevant and helpful to all of the listeners of my Christian podcast – The Anna Szabo Show – and all the readers of my Christian blog everywhere in the world. We all need to learn now how to not be afraid because being afraid is deadly in the midst of this ongoing global crisis. This original and authentic Biblical devotional will encourage and empower you with God’s truth as we apply it practically to real-life experiences we all are going through all around the globe because we are all facing a continuous sudden disaster and have been affected by it for over a year already. I make content to help you create a joyful life by embracing God’s word. My passion in life is to help encourage and empower you by sharing testimonies of God’s amazing glory revealed through my life story. I personally have adjusted my life a lot due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I myself have a history of suicidal depression, and also during the pandemic, the number of women who came to my Christian blog because of their self-harm impulses has increased significantly. I have to practice every day how to not be afraid by leaning on God. I love you. When I was depressed and suicidal during my marriage with a narcissist a few years ago, as God was working in me to keep me alive in the midst of cruel abuse, I thought of you: the Christian woman facing challenges. I thought to myself: if I ever make it out of this abusive marriage alive, I’ll dedicate myself to ministry and help other Christian women. And I’ve been doing this since 2017 when I started my Christian podcast for women and founded Online Discipleship For Women. Subscribe to my podcast and tell other Christian women about it to help me do God’s work through this women’s ministry. If you’d like to support my ministry, you can donate here. There are three things you can expect from this Biblical devotional for Christian women today: You’ll hear the scriptures-based devotional I prepared for youThere will be an exercise for you to do in order to ponder Proverbs 3:25-26 as it relates to your own faith journey (how to not be afraid)I’ll offer you a prayer to lift you up to God and ask for His peace, protection, provision, and promotion Let’s get started! PART 1. BIBLICAL DEVOTIONAL FOR CHRISTIAN WOMEN “Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin, for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being trapped.” Proverbs 3:25-26  Many times in my life, I faced disasters.  When I was little, my mother molested me and would physically torture me by spreading dry toasted triangular grain over the bare hardwood floor and forcing me to kneel for hours at a time.  God protected, saved, and restored me.  When I was 25, I emigrated to America to live my happily-ever-after with a real-life Prince Charming. As soon as I arrived in 2008, I was beaten and enslaved. After 8 months of domestic violence, the Dunwoody Police Department conducted a rescue operation and helped me escape on April 9th of 2009. I was homeless in a foreign country without speaking any English. I had no ...
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    26 mins
  • Guard Your Heart - Proverbs 4:23

    Guard Your Heart - Proverbs 4:23
    Feb 21 2021
    “Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” - Proverbs 4:23. In this Biblical devotional for Christian women today, I’ll help you examine your journey and witness how not guarding your heart leaves you overwhelmed, exhausted, paralyzed by anxiety, unable or unwilling to do God’s work, and incapable to fulfill His purpose for your life. We will ponder Proverbs 4:23 and its practical application in our daily lives. I will share with you how I personally guard my heart and how I realized the deadly implications of leaving my heart unguarded, defenseless, unprotected, and exposed. The deadly consequences were a paralyzing anxiety and suicidal depression.   The examples of an unguarded heart, which I’ll share today, will be relevant to most of the Christian women listening to my Christian podcast The Anna Szabo Show and reading my Christian blog Onlinediscipleshipforwomen.com This original and authentic Biblical devotional for Christian women will encourage and empower you with God’s truth as we apply it practically to real-life experiences we all go through as His disciples and daughters.   I am Anna Szabo from AnnaSzabo.com, and you are listening to The Anna Szabo Show Christian podcast for women who love Jesus. I make content to help you create a joyful life by embracing God’s word. My passion in life is to help encourage and empower you by sharing testimonies of God’s amazing glory revealed through my life story.   Subscribe to my podcast and tell other Christian women about it to help me do God’s work through this women’s ministry.   If you’d like to support my ministry, you can donate at onlinediscipleshipforwomen.com, the link is in the notes below.   There are three things you can expect from this Biblical devotional for Christian women today:   You’ll hear the scriptures-based devotional I prepared for youThere will be an exercise for you to do in order to ponder Proverbs 4:23 as it relates to your own faith journeyI’ll pray for you to lift you up to God and ask for His peace, protection, provision, and promotion in your life   Let’s get started!   PART 1. BIBLICAL DEVOTIONAL FOR CHRISTIAN WOMEN   “Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” - Proverbs 4:23   I was raised by a very abusive mother. This year, in 2021, I have been sharing my story as a scapegoat daughter of a narcissistic mother on my main YouTube channel every day. Every day, I post a new helpful video on YouTube to share what happened to me and how the narcissistic trauma affected me. I always mention that the best way to deal with abuse is to block the abuser. I blocked my abusive mother on social media everywhere even when I still had social media, before I permanently deleted my Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter in 2020. I also blocked my abusive, hostile, cruel mother on email and phone. But while those were effective measures, in February on 2021, as I went to my email trash can to clean it, I was stunned to see that, despite all the blocking filters I applied, almost 100 hateful, abusive, death-focused emails from my toxic mother made their way to my email. As I saw her messages terrorizing me, denouncing me, harassing me, and condemning me, I immediately spiraled down into a deep and very dark place.   It’s important to disclose here something significant. My mother tried to kill me many times, and she repeatedly told me: I hate you and I just want you dead. This was the main theme of her 25-year long relationship with me while I lived with her on Russia. I’m 38 now, and I’ve lived in America for almost 13 years. I haven’t seen my mother for this long but her hatred and cruelty are deadly.   “Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” - Proverbs 4:23   I became unable to work out or get out of bed many times before due to her hateful, cruel, evil, death-wishing attacks. This time, I knew that even technology is imperfect, and I needed to build guardrails around my heart in addition to blocking my toxic narcissistic mother with technology. Not guarding my heart, leaving it exposed to my mother’s negativity, I attempted to kill myself twice.   When I protect my heart by guarding myself against hateful people, evil cookers, gossipers, manipulators, and abusers, I am able to be very productive, live a life of joy and peace, stay healthy, and focus on my future. When I don’t guard my heart, abusers suck the life out of me, leaving me lifeless and depressed.   It happened to me many times: my abusive mother sucked the life out of my heart and my three abusive husbands did the same. Today, I live a peaceful and productive life with God. I am single and celibate, healing from all the trauma inflicted on me by cruel abusers. I did not guard myself from them very well.   “Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” - Proverbs 4:23   How do I guard my heart?   I pray and stay in God’s word dailyI have an ...
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    20 mins
  • Keep Your Foot from Evil - Proverbs‬ ‭4:27‬ ‭

    Keep Your Foot from Evil - Proverbs‬ ‭4:27‬ ‭
    Feb 15 2021
    In today’s Biblical devotional for Christian women, we will ponder Proverbs 4:27 and its practical application in our daily lives. I will share with you how I personally battle two TWO evils in my own life (lust and gluttony), and I’ll help you examine your life and witness how God is leading your path straight. https://onlinediscipleshipforwomen.com/proverbs-4-27 The examples I’ll be sharing are for adults only. Children should not be listening to this content. The examples of evil from my own personal life, which I’ll share today, will be relevant to most of the Christian women listening to my Christian podcast The Anna Szabo Show and reading my Christian blog Onlinediscipleshipforwomen.com   I am Anna Szabo, and right now you’re listening to The Anna Szabo Show Christian podcast for women who love Jesus. I make content to help you create a joyful life by embracing God’s word. My passion in life is to help encourage and empower you by sharing my testimony of God’s amazing glory in my own life story.   Subscribe to my podcast and tell other Christian women about it to help me do God’s work through this women’s ministry.   If you’d like to support my ministry, you can donate at onlinediscipleshipforwomen.com, the link is in the notes below.   There are three things you can expect:   You’ll hear the Biblical devotional I prepared for youThere will be an exercise for you to do in order to ponder Proverbs 4:27 as it relates to your own faith journeyI’ll pray for you to lift you up to God and ask for His peace, protection, provision, and promotion in your life     PART 1. BIBLICAL DEVOTIONAL FOR CHRISTIAN WOMEN     This is the most difficult devotional I have ever set out to create. I’m going to share with you my deepest struggles, which I’d prefer to forever keep to myself of course, but God called me to share my testimony and tell you my story to display His glory.    God’s glory is not the only thing you’ll see displayed throughout this Biblical devotional for Christian women. You’ll witness what’s called “the human condition,” which is my endless struggle with the flesh. The flesh and the spirit always at odds within us, the Christian women who desire to obey and honor God. I desire to obey and honor God.   My Heavenly Father God specified two evils, and told me personally to flee from these two evils. What are they?   Proverbs 23:2 says: “put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.”   Why is gluttony so evil?   Proverbs 23:21 explains this: “the glutton will come to poverty, and the drowsiness of overindulgence will clothe them with rags.”   Not only is it expensive to indulge in gluttony but also overindulgence in food leads to drowsiness, which is the opposite of what God’s word directs us to be - alert, aware, awake, and alive fully as His daughters and disciples of Jesus Christ. We can’t serve God being drowsy, which is a feeling of being sleepy and lethargic.   Whenever I indulge in gluttony, I feel not only sleepy and lethargic but also powerless as the desire for food overwhelms me. After I indulge in gluttony, I feel off my path, exactly the opposite of what Proverbs 4:27 teaches: “Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.” Whenever I surrender to this first evil, the sin of gluttony, I stray away from God.   1 John 2:16 explains this in great detail: “For all that is in the world - the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes - are not from the Father but are from the world.” So what it means is that whenever I give into the desires of the flesh, such as the sin of gluttony, indulging in food, it is not from God, so it is evil.   The first evil I battle is gluttony.   Only a few people know this: my best friend Maria, my neighbors Gabby and Mary, and the readers on my Christian blog posts about fasting and the plant-based diet. I will link those resources below in the description box if you want to read. There, I shared my food diaries, and they reveal my struggles with gluttony, the first evil that’s distracting me from God.   The second evil in my life is lust.   “Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.” - Proverbs 4:27 says. How does lust lead me to the left and toward evil when I’ve been celibate for many many years?   Matthew 5:28 establishes this very clearly: “a woman who looks at a man with lustful intent has already committed adultery with him in her heart.”   If you know my addiction story, you know that I struggled with promiscuity and slept around for years. I am divorced three times, and I live a simple, single, celibate life with Jesus Christ who has my heart.   But this celibacy is fragile, though I’ve stayed faithful to God for many years, I know how fragile I am, and how strong the enemy is, so I battle this evil courageously every time lust is lurking around looking to devour me and lead me astray from Jesus....
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    15 mins
  • Let Your Eyes Look Straight Ahead - Proverbs 4:25

    Let Your Eyes Look Straight Ahead - Proverbs 4:25
    Feb 8 2021
    “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.” In today’s Biblical devotional for Christian women, we will ponder Proverbs 4:25 and its practical application in our daily lives: https://onlinediscipleshipforwomen.com/let-your-eyes-look-straight-ahead-proverbs-4-25 There are three things you can expect: You’ll hear the Biblical devotional I prepared for youThere will be an exercise for you to do in order to ponder Proverbs 4:25 as it relates to your current situationI’ll pray for you to lift you up to God and ask for His peace, protection, provision, and promotion in your life   PART 1. BIBLICAL DEVOTIONAL FOR CHRISTIAN WOMEN   Have you ever felt distracted from your purpose, knowing exactly what you need to do, walking the narrow path, following God, and staying focused? I have. In fact, I’ll share my personal stories with you. Two stories. The first story happened twice. I was 22 lb overweight and felt that I was on the wrong health path. God called me to pursue holistic weight loss to honor Him with my body. And I knew exactly what to do, but doing it was difficult because the numbers on my scale showed no result. For a long time, my weight wouldn’t come off but despite my distractions with numbers, I kept following God’s calling and guidance on a very narrow path: 10000 steps a day, 100 squats a day, regular water fasting, and eating a plant-based diet. “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.” Proverbs 4:25 helped me push through and stay focused on one step at a time, one step only, step by step. I fixed my gaze directly before me. At the end of 60 days, all my weight melted away, and I was the healthiest I had been. You might wonder: why would you need to go through this twice? The reason why is that I was rear-ended in a car accident and had to recover. After my recovery, I went on to lose 22 lb again by doing exactly what Proverbs 4:25 teaches us to do. Here’s my second personal story. Today is 2/7/2021. On January 1st this year, I started publishing a video a day on my main YouTube channel, which I’ll link below for you. I have been working so hard, but my analytics show that right now my videos get only between 14 and 200 views. It looks like I’m getting nowhere. The analytics make it appear as if I am not going far. But God gave me a vision for my ministry Online Discipleship for Women. He asked me to take my message to YouTube. And He advised me to do this: “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.” Proverbs 4:25. I am publishing a video every single day on my main YouTube channel for Christian women, following God’s sacred word. In addition to that, today, I started a new YouTube channel called The Anna Szabo Show where I now publish my weekly podcast. I have only 1314 subscribers on my main channel and zero subscribers on my podcast channel as of today. But I won’t let myself get distracted! “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.” Proverbs 4:25 That’s what I’m doing. Because God called me to a very specific mission. He created me for this purpose. And I won’t get destructed. I am staying focused, fixing my gaze directly before me, taking productive action every single day. And I want to share with you my poem about purpose, which I hope will help you focus and take action without letting anyone or anything distract you. This is poem number 127 at AnnaSzabo.com/poems   “Purpose”   Purpose is what you know you are supposed to do. It’s what you’re confident you were created for. It’s why you think God to Himself you drew. It helps transform your life into a blessing from a chore. Pursuing purpose is fulfilling and exciting. Your purpose fuels your daily life with joy. A purpose-driven future is inviting Because it can your heart and mind deploy. Pursuing purpose is a very special blessing. To know your purpose is to live a life of meaning. Your purpose knowing, you yourself can be expressing In spite of others’ hateful interfering. 9/26/2020 © Anna Szabo, JD, MBA     PART 2. PROVERBS 4:25 SPIRITUAL EXERCISE TO GROW IN FAITH   I want you to think right now about YOUR purpose. What is it that God put in your heart as fire but something always gets in a way of you taking productive steps on your path anointed with God’s purpose? Once you identify what that fire in your heart is, go to AnnaSzabo.com/proverbs-425 and let me know in the comments what your purpose is. Once you share it with me, I want to hold you accountable because your next step in this exercise is the following: “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.” Proverbs 4:25 Tell me what your purpose is and let me cheer you on as you fix your gaze directly before you and do what God anointed you to do. Now, let me pray for you. Before I do, if you’d like to support my ministry, there’s a link in the description where ...
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    11 mins
  • Pray without Ceasing - 1 Thessalonians 5:17

    Pray without Ceasing - 1 Thessalonians 5:17
    Jan 31 2021
    In this Biblical devotional for Christian women, let's ponder 1 Thessalonians 5:17 - how to pray without ceasing. If you've ever asked yourself: "What does pray without ceasing mean?" this Christian podcast is for you. I'll share with you how and why I myself pray unceasingly AnnaSzabo.com/pray-without-ceasing-1-thessalonians-5-17 1 Thessalonians 5:17 New International Version says: pray continually.   Why should we pray continually? I can speak for myself and share my testimony in hopes that it will help you reflect on your life and your relationship with God and your own faith. I’ll explain from my own experience how to pray without ceasing. I am pursuing intimacy with God. I want to know Jesus, not only be known by Him. I talk to God. I hear God’s voice. And all this happens through prayer. I pray unceasingly. Because life is continuous and ongoing, my questions about life are also ongoing. That’s why I never stop praying. I want God to know that I am intentionally reaching out for Him, every single say, in every situation.   1 Thessalonians 5:17 New Living Translation says: never stop praying.   I believe that the Bible is God-breathed word. I believe that 100% of the Bible is accurate and was created through the Holy Spirit in believers who manifested it physically, exactly how this Biblical devotional for Christian women is manifesting physically right now through the power of the Holy Spirit in me. To continue being guided by God’s spirit, I cherish and leverage my direct communication line with him, which is prayer. That’s why I never stop praying.   1 Thessalonians 5:17 Amplified Bible version says: be unceasing and persistent in prayer.   In everyday life, most Christian women have a habit of calling a mom or a sister or an aunt or a boyfriend or a husband or a grandma when things happen, when they have questions about something, or when they want to share their heart.  I don’t have a mother. I don’t have a father. I have no sisters, aunts, uncles, or grandma. I’ve been single and celibate for years, so I don’t have boyfriends, husbands, or any mortal human to whom I’m reaching out on a regular basis to share my heart or to seek wisdom.  I reach out to God, and that’s why in my prayer, I’m unceasing and persistent. I pray unceasingly. Next, I’ll explain from my own experience how to pray without ceasing.   1 Thessalonians 5:17 Holman Christian Standard Bible version says: pray constantly.    If I’m deciding how to best structure my day, I pray. When I wake up in the morning, I smile and pray for the day ahead. As I lie down to go to sleep, I pray and thank Jesus for a productive day and for keeping me safe. I pray constantly.  In my work, I reach out for God regarding the topics I need to bring to your attention through my ministry for Christian women via my Christian podcast The Anna Szabo Show or my Christian YouTube channel or my Christian blog. I pray without ceasing: for guidance and wisdom.   1 Thessalonians 5:17 Good News Translation version says: pray at all times.    When I was going through a divorce years ago with my narcissistic husband who abused me, I prayed at that time, continually. And God blessed me with beauty for my ashes and my heartbreak. I pray without ceasing. When I was looking for a new home to reestablish my life, I prayed at that time, continually. God blessed me with a beautiful home where I still live today, enjoy my life here very much, and heal. I pray without ceasing. When I was looking for a new marketing job, I prayed at that time, continually. Gods gave me a new job, but it wasn’t meaningful. While working that job, I prayed at that time, continually, about a meaningful career, and God blessed me with this ministry – Online Discipleship for Women. I pray without ceasing. When I was trying to lose 22 lb to get healthy and improve my health and quality of life, I prayed at that time, continually, and God led me to discover water fasting and dry fasting. I’ve lived a fasting lifestyle for years now, being the healthiest I’ve ever been in my life, maintaining my perfect weight, staying active, and having lots of energy. I pray without ceasing. I pray at ALL times. I pray unceasingly.   1 Thessalonians 5:17 International Standard Version says: continually be prayerful.    Being playful means that praying to God is so much a part of your lifestyle and mental habits that praying to God is not only something you do, it’s also who you are. I am prayerful. It’s who I am. I’ve shared dozens of my personal prayers on my Christian blog and on my YouTube channel. Also, people leave me their personal prayer requests in the comments both in my blog and on my YouTube videos. I always respond with a personalized genuine prayer from the bottom of my heart. I pray without ceasing. If you’d like me to pray for you, leave a comment.  Before I pray for you, I want to invite you to support my ...
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    9 mins
  • Honor Your Father and Mother - Exodus 20:12

    Honor Your Father and Mother - Exodus 20:12
    Jan 24 2021
    “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” – Exodus 20:12 In this devotional today, we will ponder this scripture, and at the end of my message, I will pray for you to lift you up to God and ask for His peace, protection, provision, and promotion in your life. https://onlinediscipleshipforwomen.com/honor-your-father-and-mother-exodus-20-12 I’ve pondered Exodus 20:12 for many years because I have always wanted to honor my mother. As far as my father, I did not know him but I do know that he spent most of his life in prison.  If you want to know about my life story, you can read my article called “Getting to know Anna Szabo.”   If you read “Getting to know Anna Szabo,” you will learn that my narcissistic mother abused me, tortured me violently, bullied me cruelly, molested me at a very young age, taught me to prostitute my body, encouraged me to commit suicide, and told me repeatedly “I hate you and I just want you dead!” I wanted to honor God by honoring my mother but I wasn’t sure how. My mother told me that the best thing I could do for her was to die. I attempted suicide twice at 11 and 12. But God saved me and revealed to me that He had a purpose for my life. I knew that suicide was not God’s will for my life, I knew that I had to continue living faithfully.  I stayed in touch with my toxic mother after emigrating from Russia to America in 2008. However, by doing so, I was only exposing myself to more abuse and seeing clearly that my mother’s goal, indeed, remains until this day to bully me into suicide, which she told me will forever be her mission.  When I went no contact with her, people in my Christian community would tell me I must let it go and try harder to make my mother happy. Today’s Biblical devotional is for Christian women who, like me, have struggled on the one hand with guilt when separating from their abusive mothers and on the other hand longing for peace, safety, and boundaries to protect themselves as they should. Exodus 20:12 makes it clear that your ultimate goal as a Christian woman is this: “that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” Every time I was in contact with my toxic narcissistic mother, she’d bully me into suicidal ideation.  It’s January 23rd of 2021, Saturday.  My birthday was on Monday January 18th. I turned 38 years old. I haven’t seen my toxic violent cruel monstrous mother since 2008. This year is the first time I am able to share what I’ve learned on my journey with God who has grown my faith and revealed His purpose for my life to me, which is this: “that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” That is God’s plan for my life and for your life.  The most important thing is for me to continue living life, and my mother attempted to compromise this many times by physically attacking me and of course attacking me emotionally and mentally.  After years of pondering Exodus 20:12, I have realized that maintaining contact with my narcissistic mother makes living a long life in the land my God has given me impossible. I had to choose to follow God. I had to choose life over darkness and death, which my mother inflicted on me.  This year, in the past 22 days, I have released 15 videos on my YouTube channel about a specific topic dedicated to narcissistic mothers and their daughters. I’ve shared my own story of narcissistic abuse and so much more helpful information for Christian women who endured abuse from their toxic mothers. Here’s what one woman wrote in her comments on my recent YouTube video: “Thank you so much. I appreciate your message. I’m glad you’re doing these videos. I’m glad you got away from your torment. So many people don’t. I’m also glad God saved you. Be blessed!” This woman who commented on my video called called “What Does The Bible Say About a Narcissistic Mothers?” is right.  Talking about this topic is unusual and very difficult. But God called me to ministry, and He asked me to share with you the same comfort I myself received from Him. It is why I founded Online Discipleship for Women in 2017, and now my ministry has helped Christian women across 208 countries. Glory to God!  This is what it means to have days that are long in the land that the Lord my God is giving me. It’s only possible because I am alive. I am still alive only because because I established boundaries to protect myself from the death and darkness imposed on me by my toxic and conscience-lacking narcissistic mother.  Only because of my no contact with her, am I able to honor God and continue living and serving His kingdom. By honoring God and doing His will, I am honoring my mother, though she’d prefer me dead. If you are interested in the topic of honoring your mother, there’s a reason for it. If you’ve struggled with guilt when setting ...
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    13 mins