Where is God's welcome in weakness and wreckage? What happens when God's mercy doesn't arrive the way you want it? Where is God's presence in grief?

Lisa Appelo went to bed happily married and woke up a widow and single mom to her seven children, ages 4-19. In the wake of tremendous grief, she discovered that many of us are grief-illiterate, with little understanding of how to begin putting the pieces of a shattered life together again.

Lisa believes that the way through grief isn't a method; it's a person—the God of all comfort. As we lean into God's character, He meets us at every point of our pain and becomes our comfort in the middle of it.

In this episode, we explore how God's Presence in grief offers comfort, sustaining grace, and hope when life feels undone.

We talk about:

• Lisa's devotional, God of Comfort: A Devotional Journal for the Grieving Heart
• Moving from being "grief naive" to navigating the messy emotions of grief
• Why lament matters in the grieving process
• Sustaining grace and God's Presence during grief
• The three most important words to hear when grieving
• How to compassionately support someone who is grieving

Grief is disorienting and can leave us feeling isolated and undone. But you don't have to navigate it alone. Let today's conversation remind you that the God of all comfort meets you in your pain—not with a formula to fix your grief, but with His Presence in sustaining you through it.

"The way through grief is a Person—our God of comfort."

"God never expects us to show up all put together or fake that we’re fine. He says, ‘Come to me. Bring it all to Me.’"

"God’s goodness does not start and stop. There are seasons where life doesn’t feel good. But His goodness has not stopped for us."

Psalm 147:3- God heals the broken-hearted and bandages wounds

🌿 Lisa's book God of Comfort 🌿 Lisa's grief resources 🌿 Daughters First Retreat and information 🎶 Lisa's Go-to grace song, Held by Natalie Grant

Website: LisaAppelo.com Instagram: @LisaAppelo Facebook: @LisaAppeloAuthor

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👉🏼Living the Grace Life is the place where real grace meets real life. Host Jennifer Sakata helps us bridge the gap between grace as a theological idea and lived practice in everyday moments of faith, encouraging listeners to experience forgiveness, freedom, and trust that they then extend to others.

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What do you do when you discover the disconnect between you and Jesus? If a cluttered or hoarded home mirrors a hoarded heart, how do you address emotional hoarding?

Laurie Davies, speaker and author of Emotional Hoarding: Letting Go of the Stuff That Keeps You Stuck, believes we can live free, but cleaning house is hard. Laurie helps us recognize the emotional clutter that keeps us bound and discover how God's grace invites us to let go.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• How to deal with regret and the shame that often accompanies it
• The key question that distinguishes genuine conviction from false guilt
• How regret can become an invitation to God's grace and welcome
• The two questions Laurie asks herself when dealing with anger
• How the story of Joseph invites us to yield when anger feels easier to grab

If regret, anger, bitterness, shame, or false guilt have gotten too cozy in your life, let Laurie's relatability, biblical wisdom, and authentic sense of humor lead the way from emotional hoarding to living free.

"Let God's love go where you don't think it belongs."

"If the invitation is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, then I want to free up every bit of capacity that's in me to love Him that way."

"When we look at people the way God sees them, that's when we can tell grace has gotten into us. It's in our inner workings now."

Genesis 4 - The Story of Cain and Abel Genesis 37-50 - Joseph's story and waiting in the unfairness

🌿 GIVEAWAY: Enter here through October 19 for your chance at a free copy of Laurie's book 🌿 Laurie's book Emotional Hoarding 🌿 Laurie's Five Days of Living Lighter, FREE 🌿 Daughters First Retreat and information 🎶 Laurie's Go-to grace song, Jesus Paid It All by Fernando Ortega

Website: LaurieDavies.com Instagram: @LaurieDaviesAuthor

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🎁 My FREE gifts to you: Go-To Grace Songs to Deepen Your Faith & Prayers That Change Us 📩 Subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive content & episode updates ⭐ If this episode resonated with you, leave a review and share it with a friend!

👉🏼Living the Grace Life is the place where real grace meets real life. Host Jennifer Sakata helps us bridge the gap between grace as a theological idea and lived practice in everyday moments of faith, encouraging listeners to experience forgiveness, freedom, and trust that they then extend to others.

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How do you trust God when your heart is breaking? When you can barely breathe, afraid after your life has changed irreparably?

Learning to trust God on the unwelcome days isn't easy. In this episode, Jennifer Sakata shares three ways to trust God when life turns upside down—through honesty with God, recognizing His Presence, and finding courage to take the next step when the way forward doesn't make sense.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Jennifer's journey learning to trust God through her husband's extended unemployment
• How honesty with God grows trust
• What we can learn from the Israelites as they crossed into the Promised Land
• The risky prayer Jennifer has learned to pray on the unwelcome days
• What we risk when we don't learn how to trust God
• Why struggling to trust God isn't necessarily a lack of faith

Sometimes learning how to trust God isn't about trying harder to have faith. It's about adjusting the direction of our faith—recognizing where God has been present all along, risking honesty with God, and receiving courage to step forward with God when it doesn't make sense.

"Trusting God means leaning into the promise that God and His Presence never leave."

"Learning to trust God in the unwelcome places requires stepping into situations and circumstances that don't make any sense to us—things we can't control and don't understand."

"We have to close our eyes to all the impossibilities and still ourselves to the small quiet voice Who says, 'You are safe with me.'"

2 Corinthians 12:9 - God's response to Paul's thorn in the flesh Matthew 28:18-20 - The Great Commission and Jesus' promise never to leave Joshua 3 - The Israelites crossing into the Promised Land

🌿 FREE downloadable: The Welcoming Prayer by Father Thomas Keating

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🎁 My FREE gifts to you: Go-To Grace Songs to Deepen Your Faith & Prayers That Change Us 📩 Subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive content & episode updates ⭐ If this episode resonated with you, leave a review and share it with a friend!

👉🏼Living the Grace Life is the place where real grace meets real life. Host Jennifer Sakata helps us bridge the gap between grace as a theological idea and lived practice in everyday moments of faith, encouraging listeners to experience forgiveness, freedom, and trust that they then extend to others.

Website | Instagram | Facebook