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172 | Praying Through Chronic Illness & Suffering with Olivia Gerber
2 Playsin 7 hours
Olivia Gerber is a sunset-chasing, Jesus-loving adventurer based in Northern Indiana. She finds pleasure in perfectly ripe avocados, plane tickets, and lavender lattes, but her deepest joy is found at the feet of her Savior and she longs to spread His hope in the world. Her health challenges have given her a tender heart toward those facing chronic pain, and she loves bringing hope to this under-served community through her book, Hold Hope. She recently married the curly love of her life and is loving her new adventure with Jack!
In this conversation, Olivia shares how suffering stripped away her sense of control and turned her faith inside out—and how praise, specific prayer, and keeping a record of God's faithfulness carried her through the hardest years. If you're in a season where the answer feels like "no" or "not yet," I hope this encourages you to keep praying anyway.
You can find Olivia at letterstoholdhope.com and on Instagram @letterstoholdhope. Her book "Hold Hope" is available through the Every Woman a Theologian shop.
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Transcript
Introduction and Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
I think if I just said one thing to someone about prayer, it would be this, to pray specifically. I see his footprints right beside me the whole way along, and I can look back and be like, wow, I know that he is real, and he is present, and he is actively involved in life.
00:00:21
Speaker
Welcome back to Verity Podcast, friends. I'm Felicia Mason-Hymer, your host. We are wrapping up our prayer series, and as we get close to the end, we're concluding with three awesome interviews on the topic of prayer.
Interview with Olivia Feller Gerber
00:00:36
Speaker
Today's episode is an interview with Olivia Feller Gerber. who you may know if you bought her book, Hold Hope, from the Every Woman a Theologian shop.
00:00:47
Speaker
Since Hold Hope has been in the world, we've been able to encourage hundreds of women who are walking the path of chronic illness and pain through this resource that we published with Olivia's authorship.
00:01:01
Speaker
So in this interview, you will get to hear from Olivia herself as she shares, how do you pray through times of suffering, through long seasons of illness or chronic pain? How do you hold on to hope when it seems like all hope is lost?
00:01:19
Speaker
And how do you persevere in prayer when you start to wonder if God is even listening? Olivia is sunset-chasing, Jesus-loving adventurer based in northern Indiana. And today, you're going to hear from her why her deepest joy is found at the feet of her Savior.
00:01:41
Speaker
She wants to spread the hope of Jesus to the world, including to those who are suffering and beginning to question whether God really loves them and God sees them in their pain. Her health challenges have given her a tender heart towards those who are facing chronic illness, and she loves bringing her hope to the underserved community of chronic illness.
00:02:06
Speaker
And this interview is one way that she does that. I hope you enjoy our time together with Olivia Gerber.
00:02:16
Speaker
Well, Olivia, it is so exciting to have you on Verity Podcast and joining us in our series on prayer to talk about how to pray through suffering and specifically through chronic illness and pain. And we've gotten to journey with you for part of your story because your book on this the subject is part of the Every Woman a Theologian bookstore. It's called Hold Hope. and we are so excited to get to talk about that again as i get to share your story here on Verity Podcast. So why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit of the background behind you and behind Hold Hope?
00:02:58
Speaker
Yeah, well, first of all, thanks so much for having me. It means a ton just to be here with you. Like you said, you're like my publisher. And so I just feel like there's such a connection of how you actually enabled this story to like reach the world. So just feel especially grateful for this opportunity.
00:03:18
Speaker
on But yeah, so I'm Olivia ah Feller on my book cover, Gerber now. I've been married since then. um But my story is really just one of God's faithfulness in the midst of unknowns and health challenges and kind of this roller coaster of trying to figure out what's going on life.
Olivia's Health Journey
00:03:41
Speaker
my body. And I know that there are a lot of women um who have walked through things like this. Felicia, I know you've walked through autoimmune challenges and so you know it well. i'm But yeah, so kind of the the fast version is around my junior year of high school, actually. So i was pretty young.
00:04:02
Speaker
yeah I started noticing that my stomach was hurting a lot. Didn't really think much of it at the time. um It was kind of like, you know, I've had troubles before, like they go away, it'll be fine. um But this kind of started growing and becoming this daily thing where I was having all of this pain.
00:04:21
Speaker
And that went on for the course of a few years and towards the end of high school, I realized it was kind of a problem and becoming a really big deal.
00:04:33
Speaker
um Actually, i had a stomach attack, which is kind of a term we coined for these debilitating stomach aches that I would get. And this particular one happened on my college visit to Purdue, which is where I ended up going to school. But it was very instrumental because I was i had to pull out of my college tour and lay on this bench on campus. And it kind of hit me like, man, I have no idea what's going on in my body.
00:05:04
Speaker
And I'm about to leave home. i'm about to be away from my community. And like I need to figure this out. At the time, it felt very much like a physical journey. i wasn't necessarily spiritualizing it very much at that point. um But i as time went on and this became a big part of my story in college, I i had a time where every answer we thought we had found was coming up short. I went through a bunch of testing. I just kept getting told that it was normal, it was normal.
00:05:37
Speaker
on And at that point, I feel like there was this shift of like, okay, this is a journey with Jesus and Any control that I thought I had, the surgery I thought that I could do, the out that I thought I had was gone.
00:05:51
Speaker
And it became this this time of just trusting the Lord and seeking him and really kind of turning my faith inside out, making sure it's still fit for size. Like, was God who I believed
Challenges of Invisible Illness
00:06:04
Speaker
he was? Is he who he says he is? um even when life.
00:06:09
Speaker
circumstances would want you to think otherwise. um There's a lot more to it. It's been, yeah, not a linear story. So how long did you struggle with chronic pain?
00:06:24
Speaker
So I would say I'm still kind of in this journey. um I'm not where I was, but this is 10 years in now. um Wow.
00:06:35
Speaker
That said, it was ah around halfway, like five years in, where we got some pretty major improvement after parasite treatments, actually, which was a really big discovery. Wow.
00:06:47
Speaker
on Yeah. So I feel like I kind of got my life back at that point, but we don't quite have all the answers even now. So let us into kind of like on a daily basis, how was this impacting your life? Like, so when you're doing the college visit, this is an example. It pulls you right out of your college tour. That's so this is kind of like, oh, my goodness, this is going to be life altering if this is going to be happening while I'm trying to go to class and trying to be involved in the social life of college. So did that happen? Did it dramatically
00:07:23
Speaker
impact your your college experience and then going into your early you know career years? Yeah. Oh, man. It changed everything. And yet the answer is also no, because on the surface, i still looked like Olivia. i looked healthy. and People would assume that I was fine and i would still show up to things.
00:07:47
Speaker
But During that time, I would be having a lot of pain. i would Every time I ate, I struggled a lot with just bloating and uncomfortability. Never being able to find the diet that really worked well for me.
00:08:00
Speaker
um And so there was just in this headaches and fatigue. It was kind of this thing where, you know, your roommates stay up late and order pizza. And it's like, oh, if I don't get sleep, I will feel it. If I eat that, I can't. um So almost this.
00:08:18
Speaker
I'm losing my personality type of feeling of like, I'm not who I once was. um And yet, yeah, on the surface, a lot looked very similar, which I think was ah Maybe why it became such a spiritual journey because it was like I had to lean on the Lord. He was the one who saw the hidden moments. He was the one who could you know understand everything I was walking through. um When in most of my other relationships, I felt very misunderstood.
00:08:52
Speaker
So because it was a chronic illness that you know you look healthy, you look you know fine visibly from the surface when you talk about having the chronic pain and the chronic stomach aches and not knowing the answer, can't figure it out.
00:09:08
Speaker
It feels like people are kind of maybe disbelieving that it's as serious as as it actually was in that moment. Was that kind of your experience? Yeah. Yeah, I think, and honestly, i don't blame them. Like I think before I walked it, it was hard to imagine that anyone was facing pain every day and there's no diagnosis. There's no real answers. um That was hard for me to wrap my head around.
00:09:34
Speaker
i So yeah, it felt very much like people just didn't quite have a a spot for that in their mind or it wasn't intentional. It just was, maybe I didn't share it as I should, or I didn't,
00:09:48
Speaker
have the need to and i wasn't in a wheelchair, I suppose, right? There's not something visible. um And yet I i love Catherine Wolfe and she talks about invisible wheelchairs. And I think that's kind of how it felt to me.
00:10:03
Speaker
Yeah, that makes sense. I know in my own autoimmune disease, it was a skin related disease, but it was hormonally driven.
The Complexity of Prayer and Faith
00:10:10
Speaker
And so um there was no way of knowing what caused it or where it came from. And for me, it was about five years long and it was visible sometimes.
00:10:22
Speaker
But, you know, even with the visible, you know, chronic illnesses, then people are just full of solutions. You know, then it's like, well, did you try this diet? And did you try this solution? And it's like playing whack-a-mole with all these suggestions. And it can just feel like so overwhelming to find the answer. You just want to find the answer.
00:10:42
Speaker
And through all of that, there's this, you know, kind of struggle with how do I pray about this? You know, there's all these solutions. And of course, we're seeing doctors and we're trying to get answers. But how do I pray about this? And that's why I wanted to have you on to talk about this, because I think that, you know, we've covered in this series deliverance, prayer, what does that look like? We've covered praying in tongues and all these controversial issues related to prayer. and then practical things like praying God's will. But I think for a lot of people, there's this idea that well, I prayed maybe for years over something and I didn't see an immediate change, specifically in areas of suffering and illness.
00:11:27
Speaker
And so why bother to pray? Like God's not listening. God's not going to hear me. He doesn't care. It's kind of the feeling. And i mean, i get that going through both autoimmune and secondary infertility.
00:11:40
Speaker
It felt sometimes like I'm praying about this and God is just not hearing me. So i kind of want to, you know, segue into kind of how you navigated prayer when it comes to your chronic illness. Specifically, how do you pray for healing if it's not guaranteed?
00:12:03
Speaker
Yeah, man. Well, first thing I think of is I navigated it not perfectly, right? Like everyone else. This was a struggle. This is a struggle.
00:12:14
Speaker
um This is a question I feel like that comes up sitting across from friends for coffee all the time because there are just there are things in our lives that it can last for so long.
00:12:28
Speaker
And we can be circling them in prayer. And sometimes it feels like we just don't see the movement. um One of the things I've been thinking of lately is's just actually the the interesting kind of concept of this question of of praying for something that's not guaranteed. And I was like, man, when we really pause and think about it, though, how much of what we are praying for is guaranteed?
00:12:56
Speaker
You know, there are there are a few things, right? um James promises that as we pray for wisdom, it will be answered. and And I know you did a series on praying God's will, and there think there are promises about that in Scripture, too. um But so many circumstantial things in life we lift up to the Lord, and whether that's health or you know, a child or a broken relationship or the salvation of a person in our lives. You know, these are things that are unknowns and they aren't guaranteed.
00:13:31
Speaker
And yet we lift them to the Lord. And so I think in a way there's almost like a question behind the question of like, how do we not be disappointed and how do we keep trusting God if the answer is no, or if the answer is wait.
00:13:48
Speaker
And um yeah, that's, um that's something i love. I, I actually pulled a quote from my book called hope, and which says understanding that God doesn't promise earthly healing or that it's not guaranteed.
00:14:02
Speaker
Doesn't mean that we don't hope for healing rather that we don't become bitter if our hopes aren't met in the way we expect. Yeah. This is submission, not hopelessness. And I just think that that that piece of submission as we come to the Lord, does it doesn't mean that we are made to squash our desires. It doesn't mean we aren't to desire what is good. Healing is good. We know like it's part pain is part of the former things in Revelation, right? So it's going to be gone one day. And so, of course, we desire that.
00:14:39
Speaker
And that's not wrong, but then can we surrender like the timeline to know that the Lord has has a plan and and He's doing something that we maybe can't see? That's really good. And honestly, we're recording this episode on Good Friday, and I think that that's such an interesting alignment because...
00:15:01
Speaker
We even see Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane saying, Lord, take this cup from me, but not my will, but thine be done. And there was a much greater purpose in his suffering. And that was our salvation. And, you know, it's not exactly equivalent, but, you know, walking through miscarriages, infertility, I thought, why did two of my babies die and one Olivera, why did she live? you know why why This doesn't make sense to me. like Why didn't God answer then, but then you know he answers now? And I think your point about you know it's God is answering what you said about James. you know He's answering certain things
00:15:44
Speaker
He's saying no to other things or wait for other things. And that's a tension that we don't fully understand. And yet accepting that is not hopelessness. It's submission. I think that is so good. And that's so important for people to understand. But I also thought of a passage as you were talking, Olivia, and it's Luke 18.
00:16:04
Speaker
One through eight, the parable of the persistent widow, where Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. That's literally Luke 18 one. And then he tells the story of this widow who just will not stop pestering this um this judge until she gets justice. And so the unjust judge responds to her and Jesus says, and will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly. However, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? And I think that really lines up with what you're saying that, you know, holding that hope is still
Faith and Suffering
00:16:50
Speaker
fake.
00:16:50
Speaker
But you have to be persistent in your prayer, trusting God's character through that process. Did you write about that parable or anything similar in Hold Hope? Yes, I did. I love that story. The persistent widow, even the King James, I laugh. It's like because of her importunity, which I think is just awesome. It's like he gives in because of her importunity. i'm like, I've never used that word in my life, but that's awesome. And I want to be like that.
00:17:19
Speaker
Um, I even kind of correlate her with the woman with the issue of blood who reaches for the hem of Jesus' garment. And, you know, she's 12 years in and she still reaches. And I'm like, wow, I'm 10 years in and am I still...
00:17:37
Speaker
reaching do i still believe that he can he's able because it's like it can be like that it's a snap of a finger for him when when his purpose is accomplished and you know for me i believe part of that was like a book that wouldn't have been written without this people who have been impacted by that which has in turn encouraged me it's kind of a crazy cycle how that works but But, you know, there are purposes and I'm sure there's so much that I just don't see and I won't see until the lights are turned on in eternity. But there, you know, God is on a way bigger rescue mission story than just the Olivia Gerber story. And so um trusting that that this is kind of falling into place as it should.
00:18:23
Speaker
ah That's so good. But there's there's something greater that he's accomplishing, but that doesn't mean that the answer is no forever. and And I think that's the part that we can start to feel like because he's not saying yes right now, it means that it's no forever. And that's not true. There's something being done in us through suffering that could could not be done, you know, any other way. And I'm not saying that God is ordaining suffering or causing it. Like you said, it's the brokenness of this world, but that God redeems it.
00:19:00
Speaker
And he yes ultimately uses it in ways that we could never, ever imagine. So, Olivia, you were talking about, you know, continuing to be persistent in prayer and praying for healing. Like, don't give up praying for healing like like the woman, on the bleeding woman who seeks out Jesus even after she spent all of her money on doctors and has had no solution. What other ways can we pray when facing chronic illness or pain aside from asking for healing? Are there any other ways that we can pray?
00:19:31
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I think if I just said one thing to someone about prayer, it would be this, to pray specifically. And what I mean by that is i could look at my story and say, for 10 years, I've been praying and no answer.
00:19:49
Speaker
But instead, because i I can look back on specific things I prayed for, like guide me to a doctor that I feel confident about. Or, you know, could I have a day of relief?
00:20:03
Speaker
Or, you know, I have a speaking event coming up. Can i um not have a headache that day? um Even like a small thing like that sprinkled throughout, I can look back on my journey and say, wow, I don't maybe have this overarching answer yet in the way that I would desire But I have something maybe on a good day, I would say even better, right? Of this, I see his footprints right beside me the whole way along. And i can look back and be like, wow, I know better now than I did 10 years ago when this started that he is real and he is present and he is actively involved in my life.
00:20:43
Speaker
And honestly, suffering brought that to me. And so I just, thank God for that. and Wow. That's beautiful. So that's that's a big one. I mean, just not to just pray the the one the one prayer, the big prayer, but also the smaller ones. Oh, that's so good. So not just praying for the the one big thing that we're hoping for.
00:21:04
Speaker
Don't give up on that. But also pray these specific prayers. And the way I like to put this is take God personally. Like look for his personal small movements and In your day and in your life that are evidence that he is answering you in other areas. So if you can trust that he is answering you in other areas, you can know that there's a reason why the answer is wait in that big area. You're not seeing him move yet. And it's hard. I'm not saying that it's, oh, it's just so easy. And you aren't either. you know, it's like you're still in pain.
00:21:41
Speaker
You're still walking through that pain. And yet, you know, okay God is still at work in my life and in this area. And I can trust that that he has a reason why he hasn't given me full clarity on this other area. yeah Oh, yeah, for sure.
00:21:59
Speaker
And even a couple of things that I think of, you know, we talked about this persistent widow and this, you know, kind of persistent, consistent prayer.
00:22:10
Speaker
on One thing, and even, okay, two pastors come to mind. So I think of just praying earnestly, like this this begging. i think of Matthew 17, when the disciples are trying to cast out this demon and they can't.
00:22:26
Speaker
And Jesus casts out and they're like, hey, why why couldn't we? And Jesus tells them this kind comes out only by prayer and fasting now certain translations include fasting some don't so it's actually something you may notice in your bible which translation you have but it's interesting that jesus talks about this just this importance of fasting in certain scenarios and so i do believe that like Even though I think it can almost be harder in chronic pain or health things like fasting can be a very challenging thing. um That doesn't mean we have to be legalistic about exactly how long or what it looks like. But come to the Lord with that reverence and like a seriousness at times of just really begging him and leaning in.
Practical Prayer Approaches
00:23:18
Speaker
And then. I also have seen we can turn our entire spiritual life into one topic, like chronic pain, my healing. We can like, ah this is my whole relationship with the world. And i do want to push back. Like sometimes we can almost like,
00:23:37
Speaker
stress ourselves out i don't love that phrase but just by this like guttural prayer every time and that's when i think there's such a release and a freedom matthew 6 8 matthew 6 7 to 8 says and when you pray do not heap up empty phrases like the gentiles do for they think they will be heard by their many words do not be like them for your father knows what you need before you ask him her And I just think we can pray restfully.
00:24:05
Speaker
Like God knows we have an intercessor. We have a Holy Spirit who is groaning with utterings like too deep for words. And so when we are out of words or we are repeating ourselves over and over and it becomes this anxious thought pattern in our minds, we can kind of check ourselves and step back and say, wait a second.
00:24:28
Speaker
You already know that I need this. I think I'm going to let Jesus pray this for me today. And I'm going to take a deep breath. You know, love that. I love that. That is so good. I think people don't always know what to do with those passages. You know, well, Jesus is my mediator.
00:24:44
Speaker
Holy Spirit is interceding for me. But what does that mean? And what a cool way to put it that you can say, you know what, Jesus, I need you to pray this for me today because I'm tired. And actually, I'm going to direct my energies to praying for someone else or praying for something else. I found for me, when I intercede for other people, sometimes it lifts some of that, you know, heaviness on the the thing in my own life that I'm hyper focused on.
00:25:12
Speaker
And it is kind of like when you're when you're struggling in your own life, if you serve others, it kind of helps you gain some more perspective. I feel like that happens in prayer, too, where you're handing it off to the Lord and saying, I'm going to let you pray for this because right now I can't.
00:25:29
Speaker
But I have these other people that I can bring to your throne and intercede for. And then how cool when you get to see God's movements in their lives as encouragement as well. And encouragement. God's going to answer. He is active. He is working. um No matter how small the the answer may be, maybe just one little step.
00:25:48
Speaker
I love that. That is such a great a great articulation of that verse. Thank you. And I love that reminder, too, of praying for others. think that makes such a big difference of just shifting our mindset and our focus.
00:26:01
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, so how do we trust God's character? Because I know that some people are listening and they're like, okay, I hear you. But I still struggle to trust God's character because I've had the answer no you know in the past or the answer wait. And it feels like it's so often that I just don't even know how to pray and trust him anymore.
00:26:27
Speaker
So how can we, how can we trust his character or, or do we pray even when we don't feel like we trust his character? What, what did that look like for you? Yeah.
00:26:40
Speaker
Yeah. I honestly think through prayer is how I began to trust his character. Even, even in seeing, you know At first, ah it felt like just so many no's, so many not not yet. ah But like I said, as I began to pray specifically, I started to just see this personal God that can be trusted. And so I think that...
00:27:07
Speaker
even if you don't feel like you trust God, you know, there's these promises of like draw near to him. He will draw near to you. And so, I mean, i don't, yeah, I don't know if I should use this phrase in this context, but almost the fake it till you make it like as you come to him and don't be a hypocrite. Right. But I'm saying like in terms of as we seek him, even if at first it feels uncomfortable and unnatural and like,
00:27:34
Speaker
hey God, i don't even know if I quite trust that you hear me or would do this, but here's my thoughts. Here's my prayer. um i think we we just begin to to commune with him.
00:27:47
Speaker
a But I think a really, really helpful thing is to begin training your mind to look for the faithfulness of God in the Bible and in the stories of others.
00:27:59
Speaker
And i think especially as we look at You know, so many of these stories we've known forever. Like, just for example, we take Joseph and it's so easy to read, oh, he's in, you know, he's in bondage. And then we flip the page and oh, second in command in all of Egypt. Like, cool. Look what God did. And it's like, wait.
00:28:20
Speaker
He did not flip the page for years and years and years. Yeah. And so it's, it I feel like for me, i I changed how I read scripture as I was walking through this because so many of these stories, I just kind of jumped to the end and I'm like, wait though, God could be writing something just like that in my life. And I'm just right in the middle of it.
00:28:42
Speaker
Um, And even, you know, asking people in your life, older, wiser, your mentors, like ask them about the times when they've struggled to believe that God would be faithful to them and how they've seen him come through for them. ah Man, there's a lot of wisdom and ah you can just glean from other people's faith in and begin to train your eyes to look for That is so good. that You know, two things stand out from what you said to me that one, it was by praying that you began to trust the Lord.
00:29:16
Speaker
And in our episode on liturgical prayers, we kind of talked about this, how in church history, people would pray these prayers that were pre-written and based on scripture as a discipline, like as a practice. So you're praying the truths of scripture, even if you maybe didn't feel it at certain times of day. And through that, you train yourself to pray extemporaneously, so spontaneously to the Lord, which is it's not hypocritical to do that, right? It's not hypocritical to pray when you don't feel like it. But I think Americans in particular, American Christians, we tend to think like, if I don't feel like doing something, it's not authentic. So it's it's kind of like my emotions are leading my decisions. So if I don't feel like I'm attached to Jesus, I'm not. If I don't feel like praying, then it's not, you know, authentic prayer. And the very act of continuing to pray when you don't feel like it is a step of faith.
00:30:20
Speaker
And I think people forget that, that like when you pray, when you don't feel like it, because you trust that, you know what, God said
Lessons from Biblical Stories
00:30:27
Speaker
to do it. And I believe that Jesus is my savior. So I'm going to do it. That is faith.
00:30:32
Speaker
And I think that's why, you know, in Luke 18, when Jesus says, you know, your father's going to give you justice. But when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?
00:30:43
Speaker
Will he find people who are persistent beyond emotion? And that's really what you're kind of articulating here is to keep praying based on who God has been in the past, according to scripture and who he promises to be in the future, even if you're not seeing it yet. And, and I love your example of Joseph because he was in a slave for years. Then he's in prison for years.
00:31:10
Speaker
So, it's you know, like two thirds of the story, Joseph is not in a good situation. And the final third is the part that we rush to. And we're like, look, at it all ends happily. It's a happy ending and it's great. But, you know, it's it's a lot harder in reality to be living year after year in what seems like a completely hopeless situation. But amazing how his faithfulness in those years is what led to.
00:31:44
Speaker
his impact when he came out of them so great examples of of how we can do that olivia you know if you could say one final thing to people who are struggling through chronic illness chronic pain or just suffering in general if you could encourage them in any one way regarding prayer what would you say do it. um I would really encourage you to seek, I guess, a balanced prayer life of coming to the Lord.
00:32:19
Speaker
Do bring your situation to him. Do beg him. Also rest in him. And even i would also kind of on this, this idea of doing what we don't feel like doing.
00:32:34
Speaker
I really would encourage you to incorporate praise into your prayer life as much as you can, even when it does not feel natural. That changed my life. It dramatically changed my outlook in my chronic pain situation.
00:32:51
Speaker
And i think it can change yours too. o I love that. Praise and thankfulness, acknowledging his movements so that you don't just see the no's, you actually see the yes's. Yeah, right.
00:33:05
Speaker
Right. And write them down too. So you can go back on the rainy days. You kind of need a log sometimes to see what what he's done. That's so good. Yes, that would be, that is such a great practice to have a record of the ways God has answered so that you can look back and say, okay, I'm having a discouraging day. I'm feeling like this answer no is lasting forever. Let me look back and see the ways God has been faithful, not just in my life, but in other people's lives that I've been praying for.
00:33:34
Speaker
That's been huge encouragement for me is tracking when I'm praying for other people, kind of tracking like what what God has done in their lives. yeah You know, I've been praying for a couple marriages recently and a couple of them have had these breakthroughs like where they're really growing in their intimacy and in their love for each other. And um that's an answered prayer, you know. And so I can see that in someone else's life and that encourages me in my own situation.
00:33:59
Speaker
Well, thank you so much,
Conclusion and Resources
00:34:01
Speaker
Olivia. How can people follow your work, follow you? What resources do you have? Tell us about where people can find you.
00:34:10
Speaker
Awesome. Well, I am letters to hold hope at all the places. So Instagram, I'm most active on Instagram. My website is also letters to hold hope.com.
00:34:22
Speaker
um And my book is hold hope, which you can find through Verity, um everyone, a theologian, um or through my website, which will link you there.
00:34:34
Speaker
Um, yeah and yeah, I have, so my book is hold hope. It's a series of letters to encourage believers walking through chronic pain, illness, or really suffering a bit kind.
00:34:46
Speaker
And we will link all of that in the show notes on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube. Thank you so much, Olivia, for taking the time out of your day to share your story and to encourage us to keep praying even when the answer is no or not yet.
00:35:03
Speaker
is Thank you for having me. This was great.