"Open When: Gods letters to us"

What if God left you letters—written just for the hardest moments in your life?

Open When is more than an episode; it’s an invitation to unpack God’s promises in the exact moment you need them most. Whether you’re feeling forgotten, overwhelmed, ashamed, or just weary from waiting… this conversation is your reminder: God already knew, and He already answered.

Join us as we open Scripture like a love letter from the Father—each segment a promise waiting to be revealed:

• 📖 Open When You’re Tired – “Come to Me...” (Matthew 11:28)
• 💔 Open When You’ve Messed Up – “There is now no condemnation...” (Romans 8:1)
• 🕊 Open When You’re Afraid – “I will never leave you…” (Hebrews 13:5)
• ⏳ Open When You’re Waiting – “Though it linger, wait for it…” (Habakkuk 2:3)

Through real talk, encouragement, and the truth of God’s Word, we’re reminding each other that our Father never leaves a moment unanswered.

✨ So open this episode. Open your heart. And open the promises He’s written just for you.

We want this to be truly interactive podcast. Please go in the fan mail at
https://unrelatedsisterspodcast.buzzsprout.com and tell us your stories and let us know if it’s okay to share (no names). Let us know if you need prayer or how we can support you in your journey. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen. Follow us on Facebook @Unrelated Sister's: Truth & Grace Conversation Podcast or Email us at unrelatedsisterspodcast@gmail.com

Transcript

Unknown: 0:02

Hey, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of Unrelated Sisters Truth and Grace Conversation. I'm Shannon.

Speaker 01: 0:36

and I'm Deb. I'm going to pray right now. Lord, we love you today. We thank you for everything that you're doing in our lives, God. Lord, I just pray for every person listening today, God, that as we talk about promises from you, Lord, that we'll be able to dig in and find out what promises you have for us, Lord. And I just pray that you would speak through us with boldness and confidence. In Jesus' name, amen.

Speaker 00: 1:16

A today's episode is called Open When. Because we believe God has written personal promises just for you. And some of them are meant to be opened at just the right time. So this week I was... On my way to work, and I drive quite a ways to work, so I listen to the radio. And they've been talking about graduations all week and about, you know, their children graduating, going into the world, becoming adults. And they were talking about how do you give them the perfect gift. And it got me to thinking, one of the callers called in, and she said for each of her children that had graduated, she wrote them a letter. And on the outside of the envelope, it would say, open when you're sad. Open when you're homesick. Open when you're hungry. And in each envelope, there would be something in that envelope, a letter from mom and then something like a gift card when you're hungry and different things like that. So I got to thinking about God and the promises that he's given us. And we have open when for everything. Every situation in life, for everything that happens to us, for every emotion that we go through, there's an open win, right? And why is it so hard for us to do that?

Speaker 01: 2:41

I don't know. I think that we just, I don't know why it's hard for us to do that, to be honest with you. I don't know. What do you think?

Speaker 00: 2:52

Well, you know, sometimes it's one promise at a time for real-life moments. And I think the reason we can't do it is because we don't trust the promises that He gives us, right, sometimes? And when you're in the middle of it, right, when you're in the middle of what's happening or when you're in the middle of being sad, being depressed, being lonely, we're in a season of dryness, right? when you're in a season of love or in a season we forget where we're at if we're at our highest high we forget where we're at and we're at our lowest low we forget where we're at and we don't reach for god until we're at our lowest low right but the promises are there regardless of whether we're in a high place or a low place

Speaker 01: 3:37

i think sometimes too that um especially for early christians or new believers or not believers at all that we don't even know what Right. Right.

Speaker 00: 4:11

So our first open wind letter today, we're going to talk about when you feel alone. So in Isaiah 41 10, the verse says, so do not fear for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. And that verse right there, that promise lets you know that he will never leave you alone, that you will all, he will always be there for you. But loneliness, you know, especially in your times of, when you're in the bottom, right? Loneliness is all you have, or that's what you feel like that's all you have, you know? And so Phil and I, and even today as a Christian, I mean, there's moments I've been in, I was in a dry season until we started this podcast and I was, I knew there was something God wanted me to do. I knew it, but I wanted to, to do, and when what I wanted to do didn't work out, I felt left alone. I remember sitting on the couch and I told my husband, I said, I don't have any friends. I don't have anybody to hang out with. I just don't have any friends. That's a lie. I mean, when it boils down to it, that's a lie, right? I've got you. I've got my friend Frannie. I've got people at work. that call and check on me if I don't go to work, you know. And so I have friends. But at that moment, I felt so alone because I wanted to do something and it wasn't time. You know, so we feel lonely when we feel like God is off somewhere else.

Speaker 01: 5:49

You know, something that resonated with me as I was reading this, where it says loneliness doesn't always mean... being by yourself, it's that ache of feeling unseen. A lot of times we feel like we're doing so much. We're like, is anybody even noticing? Or, you know, I'm being overlooked. I feel, I don't even feel a value. And loneliness is a hard place to be at. When you feel like nobody understands you, nobody gets what you're going through. It really does your lives from the enemy. And, you know, the Bible says that he'll stick closer than a brother. You know, me and my brothers are pretty tight. And when you get in there and think, you know what, I'll always have a friend in Jesus. I'll never be alone. That's one of His promises. He'll never leave you or forsake you. He's always with me. Even though I feel lonely in this season in my life right now, I know that God's with me. Even though I can't hear Him all the time, but I can see Him working in different areas. Even though I can't Don't always hear that audible voice. I see him working through other people, you know, being encouragement to me. You know, I'm lonely right now. I'm feeling, you know, feeling this way. He always, always will bring somebody in my path to encourage me, to let me know that I'm not alone.

Speaker 00: 7:03

Oh, I agree 100%. You're never abandoned. His presence is not based on your emotions. It's based on his promises, and we can't forget that. And sometimes I feel like we do. I feel like sometimes we forget those promises, and it's not trying to forget it. I don't know. Sometimes if you've ever felt alone in a full room, you know, comment, let us know how you feel. Let us know what you need to talk about. Let us know what we can do to make you not feel lonely. I mean, I feel like a part of this podcast was started because I feel like a lot of people feel lonely in their path, right? You don't know what your purpose is or you don't know where you're headed. You don't know what's next. And sometimes I feel like that could cause loneliness.

Unknown: 7:53

Yeah.

Speaker 00: 7:54

you

Speaker 01: 7:55

know where it says his presence is not based on your emotions but on his promise you know a lot of times we base our actions on our feelings you know what i mean we get so caught up in our feelings but if we can finally if we can grasp that and i say this all the time to young people no feeling is final what you're feeling right now you may feel lonely you may feel discouraged but that's not final That's not the final thing. And God's not changing. His presence is still there. Whether you feel lonely or not, He's there with you. And if you can grasp that, it's a game changer. It

Speaker 00: 8:29

is. Our second part, we're going to talk about open wind. You're anxious about the future. And this has to do with God's plan for your future. And as a young Christian, you don't know what your plan is. You don't know what God's plan is as a person. Christian that has been walking in faith for some years now, I still don't know what the plan is, right? The plan happens day by day. It happens one day at a time. I still don't know. And it's hard to know God's plan. Because that means you have to listen to God. And that doesn't always flow. But He has a plan for you. And you just need to know that He has a plan for you. In Jeremiah 29, 11, it says, Just one of my favorite

Speaker 01: 9:27

verses. It's easy to obsess over the outcomes and the future and what this is going to happen and that's going to happen. Sometimes we want to do the plans our way and that normally don't turn out too good. But if we can just trust God's plan, trust His process, it'll change your life.

Speaker 00: 9:48

I was listening to a podcast the other day by Sadie Robertson Huff from Duck Dynasty. And she was talking, she was kind of talking about being anxious about the future. They're about to have their third child. And a lot has happened over the last year for her and her husband. And she was, she goes, my great grandmother used to tell me, you know, she said I used to ask questions for birthdays. And she said, I asked my great grandmother, you know, what do you, what do you worry about the most from yesterday? And what do you think about the most for the future for the next day? And she said, she said, her great grandmother said, I don't live in yesterday. What happened yesterday happened yesterday. And I don't think much about tomorrow because I'm going to miss the moment of today. And when she said that, I was like, Oh yeah. Like that's just, Oh, you know, because, and, and, when I was in addiction and when I wasn't, you know, doing the things that I should be doing, the moments that I've missed, you know, and that's not, you know, with my child, with my family, with just everyday life in the graces of God, the blessings that I miss. I can't think about those today. Right. Because if I do, then here comes the whispers. Right. So I remember a story one time that I heard and I don't know where I heard it out, but a guy came home and his wife asked him, she says, you know, do you not ever have a hard day? Do you not, are you not ever, you know, stressed out or do you not ever get mad? Because when you come home in that door, she's like, you're always happy. You always, you know, you seem happy to see me. You're always, do you not ever have a bad day? She said, because some days you come in and after dealing with the kids and the cleaning and all of this, she says, I'm so frustrated. And then when you walk in, it just all goes away. And he says, well, you know that bush outside, the one that's always dead? And she's like, yeah. He goes, when I get out of my truck every day, I yell at that bush and I tell it every He said, so that way when I come into the house, I don't bring it into you and to the kids. And when I first started in my faith, you know, trying to find my faith, I would do that. Like when I would get out of my car at our apartment, I would yell at this person. bush that we had I would tell it all the problems right and then when I would go in and I still do that today sometimes like before I get out of my car sometimes I'll get home and it'll take me 10 or 15 minutes to get out of my car because I just need to let that out for the day and I don't do it on my way home because on my way home I'm in prayer and I'm in worship and you know I'm talking to God and sometimes I'm telling him about the day you know but I don't want to bring that home into my home, right? And we can't, you know, this promise declares us that we have to, you know, not to do that. You know, because it's easy to obsess over what's going to happen. And with everybody graduating this year and, you know, a lot of changes happening in families and things, don't obsess over it. Just know that God's got it and He has that plan for us.

Speaker 01: 13:07

I think when you get to the point where you say, okay, God, I don't have to have it all figured out. You got this. You got this. I don't have to have a big, because trying to figure it out on my own, you get frustrated and, you know, it usually don't work out too well. So it's hard to say, okay, God, I trust you. I know your plans be your mind. And when you know that that promise is in there and you can open it up and hang on to it.

Speaker 00: 13:35

Yeah. Our third promise that we, that I chose today, the open wound when you've messed up. So God's forgiveness and restore and restores. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us. First John one nine. And I chose this promise because I feel like this resonates with a lot of the people that listen to our podcast. And I know it resonates with me and Deb as far as our stories go. It's OK to mess up. You know, it's okay. It's no different than when your kid messes up, right? Like when your kid messes up, you don't hate them, right? You may be disappointed for a minute, but you don't hate them and you don't disown them and you don't turn them away. You stand there, you give them the nod and the finger pointing or whatever you got to do, right? And then you let them know how much you love them and then you move on. And God is the same way, I feel like.

Unknown: 14:38

Yeah.

Speaker 00: 14:38

You

Speaker 01: 14:40

know, I know Kelsey, I share a lot of her story, but she don't mind. She's here with us tonight and she don't mind. So when she was going through what she was going through here a few months ago, I would text her quite often and she can attest to this and say, you know what? No matter what you're going through, God hasn't changed his mind about you. No matter what you're doing right now, you might be living out in sin. You might have messed up. I just want you to know that God still loves you, and He hasn't changed His mind about you. Because people need to know when they're messed up. But the last thing they need is for somebody to come in behind them, shaming them. They're already feeling shameful. And telling them what they're doing wrong. You can speak the truth in love. But you can also share in God's promises to them. I think that is the best weapon against the tactics of the enemy to take that shame from them. To let them know that, hey, you know what? It don't matter that you messed up. God still loves you. I mean, I'm not saying to go out. Grace is not a license to go sin. But it is a... restored her back to the peace and back home?

Speaker 00: 15:52

Well, you know, growing up, I feel like I was raised with fire, hail, and brimstone. And once you messed up, there was no coming back. I don't believe that's true, right? I believe that there's beauty in the ashes of what we've been through. And I truly believe that no matter what you have done, in your life as long as you don't continue to repeat it, right? Like, you can mess up, you know, you know, I'm not getting high anymore. Oh, I messed up and got high, right? But it can't continue to be a crutch. And that's, you know, grace is still there and he loves us regardless. You know, and to me, this is funny, but God's not afraid of our mess. He's not. He already knows.

Speaker 01: 16:47

He knew this was going to happen.

Speaker 00: 16:48

He knew your mess was coming when it came. And, you know, even the 12 disciples that he had in the Bible, the 12 people he chose to tell his story after he went back to heaven, every one of those people were messed up before they started. Every one of them. You know, and... Some of them did the worst of the worst back in those times, right? You had the tax collectors and you had, you know, you had a Jezebel and you had all these different, you know, different people. And in that day and time, they were the worst of the worst, right? They were the unclean. They were the untouchables. And, but yet that was who he chose to tell the story. So today is our time to tell the story. And that's why we're here. Yeah.

Speaker 01: 17:40

So what's something God has redeemed in your life? If you'd like to share that, you can comment and let us know. I feel like He's redeemed a lot of stuff in my life and is still redeeming things in my life. Every day? Yeah, so we want to hear what He's doing in yours.

Speaker 00: 17:54

So the next promise is open when you're waiting on a breakthrough. And that one's hard, right? So when you're, no matter what season of life you're in, and you're waiting... That, to me, feels like punishment. And I know that's not what God intends it to be, right? But sometimes you have to wait to get the true blessing or to find the true grace. But I don't like to wait. I am impatient. You know, driving home today, I was driving home today and I was behind a car. You know, we're going down 75 and we're in the fast lane and they can't decide if they want to do 70 or 80. You know, and most days that will just irritate me to death. Right. And finally, I'll just go around on, you know, kind of kind of be ugly. I feel like sometimes, but not today. For some reason today, it was just OK. Yeah. And I think it's where I've been praying over this all

Speaker 01: 19:04

week.

Speaker 00: 19:05

Oh, yeah. That instead of getting frustrated today on the interstate, it was just kind of like, okay. And I think that has to do with the waiting or the whatever. I don't know. Romans 8, 28. And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him. That was so

Speaker 01: 19:29

powerful. Yeah, that's one of my very favorite verses that I always go back to. No matter what I'm going through, I'm like, all right, Lord, you're going to work it out. We know that you work everything for the good if we allow you to. Breakthrough season is hard when you're going through things and you're praying and you're fasting and you're doing all the things. You're tithing. You've got the three-chord thing going on. Lord, I'm doing it all, but I'm not hearing you. But I'm going to wait on you. It's hard. That waiting season is very hard because I spoke on this Sunday. When you're praying for something and you're believing God for something and you're not seeing the fruit of it, it's very frustrating sometimes. And you're like, I know for me, I'm like, okay, God, are you even hearing me? I feel like I'm doing everything you're asking me to do. What am I missing here? But you know what? God... During those times of waiting, he was doing a work in me is what he was doing. He was always doing a work in me. We're the microwave generation. We want it right then. Okay, God, I'm asking, I'm believing, I'm saying all the right things, I'm doing all the right things. I want it right now. Sometimes it don't work like that.

Speaker 00: 20:42

No, no. Oh, and we do. I mean, instant gratification has a lot to do with the technologies that we, you know, that we've come up in, especially this coming up generation. And when you're a new believer and when you're in, you know, you're in those first seasons of trying to figure out who you are in God and who your identity in God, you always have that one thing you want to pray for. Right. And mine was my daddy. Right.

Unknown: 21:09

Yeah.

Speaker 00: 21:09

Before we fell from grace as a family, my daddy was a preacher and he was a man of God and you felt God's presence. And then I remember times getting high with him and he would get to talking about God and you could still, even though we're all sitting there passing the pipe around, you could still feel the presence of God when he started talking about it. And so when I finally come back to my faith, I wanted him to come too, right? I wanted him to come too. And so, you know, I started praying and, you know, I asked my church to pray and I asked, you know, over and over the years, you know, I still pray, but I didn't pray like I did when I started for him. And, but when I truly let go and truly surrendered to God, I started praying again and it wasn't, you know, it wasn't a year later, it wasn't two years later, but when I started praying again, I run into him one time, and this is, you know, after I'd surrendered, and I run into him at Walmart, and I told him I'd been praying for him, and he told me to stop. He said, I need you to stop praying for me. He's like, and he started telling me all these things that had happened to him, and, like, he'd caught his kitchen on fire, and, you know, his truck tore up and all these different things that happened to him. And he's like, just stop praying for me. He's like, it's not ever going to be. And I'm like, oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. It still took eight years from that day to get him to where he is today. So it's not like... It was one and done. I had to continue. And did I pray every day for him? No. But when he came on my heart, I would get on my knees and I would pray for him. And just because it was something that I wanted and I felt like God wanted it too. You pray for it once and then you pray for it when it's on your heart after you get through that season of praying.

Speaker 01: 23:18

Although it says delays doesn't mean denial. I love that. Oh, yeah. I love that. Just because it's delayed doesn't mean it's denied. And so we have to remember that. Just because it's not coming on our time doesn't mean he's not here and doesn't mean he's not working. We just have to be patient and know that he's working it out for the good.

Speaker 00: 23:36

Oh, yeah. It says God moves on his time, not yours, and his timing is perfect.

Speaker 01: 23:41

Always.

Speaker 00: 23:42

Always. Always. So our fifth one that we're going to talk about today is open when you need strength. And as Christians in this day and time, in this environment, you need strength every day, right? I mean, just the environment that we live in right now, as Christians, you need strength every day. You need strength when you're new. When you're a young born-again Christian, you need strength when you've been doing it for 50 years. And in 2 Corinthians 12, 9, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. You might feel weak, but that's exactly where God does his best work.

Speaker 01: 24:31

The joy of the Lord's our strength. that you make bad decisions, you make bad choices, you're more vulnerable. So why not get some joy, get some praise on those weak moments when you feel like, you know, I'm not going to make it. You know, this is the joy of the Lord's strength. Get some joy. Sometimes you've got to just choose joy. Choose to be happy. It's a choice sometimes.

Speaker 00: 25:10

Sometimes it is. It definitely is. And, you know, we're not discounting any of the times that you're in grief or that you're in sadness for a particular reason. But sometimes, I mean, and sometimes I still wake up today. Like, you know, the last couple weeks, you know, I'm usually, I wake up, as soon as my eyes open up, I say my prayer, my feet hit the floor, and I'm up and gone.

Unknown: 25:35

Yeah.

Speaker 00: 25:36

I've been working to work every day for two weeks. Every day. I just can't get up out of bed. I don't feel sad. I don't feel depressed. I don't feel unhappy. But there's something there. Because that's not who I am. And so I've been praying over that since the last time we got together because it's just been weird. And I know I know That's the way the devil gets me, right? He makes me. Because if I'm late for work, then it stresses me out, and then the day goes on. And then when I come home, like on my days off, I normally take two or three hours, and I come up here, and I turn on my worship music, and that's when I pray over the podcast, and I talk with God. And then usually the next day is when he throws something on the radio, and I'm like, okay. That's what we need to talk about. Like, I have a notebook in my car, and you can tell I'm driving right now in a notebook, right? I'm going to die one day. No, we're not. We'll

Speaker 01: 26:44

rebuke

Speaker 00: 26:45

that. Yeah, we'll rebuke that. We don't say that out loud. I'm sorry. But you know what I mean? But, like, this week was hard. Like, this week was just hard. And that's not like me. Like, I don't know. And sometimes it's hard to ask for strength. It's hard to be like, why am I feeling so weak in my faith? Because the daughter of God, that's who I am. That's my identity. So that was hard for me this week to ask for that strength and to ask for that prayer. I also find out that sometimes I'll call and ask for prayer before I pray for myself.

Speaker 01: 27:27

Why

Speaker 00: 27:27

do we do that? Yeah. We have the same

Speaker 01: 27:30

ability,

Speaker 00: 27:32

yeah. To pray for ourselves. So, I don't know. You might feel weak, but that's exactly where God does His best work. You're not holding everything together, and He is. It's okay. He's got you.

Speaker 01: 27:45

He never gets tired.

Speaker 00: 27:47

No, He doesn't. Today, episode you know has been a lot about the promises but there are so many more promises in the Bible so many that God gives to us right he gives us the promise of love and he gives us the promise of always being there for us and he gives us the promise of a family and of you know and it's not always what we think it should look like you know He promises that He'll take care of us, but just because that's the way we think it should be, that's not always how it is. You have to find the glory in the moment.

Unknown: 28:34

Yes.

Speaker 00: 28:34

You have to find the glory in the moment, and there's always a reason to give thanks.

Speaker 01: 28:40

Always.

Speaker 00: 28:41

Sometimes we pray in need when we should be praying in thanks. As a mom, sometimes it's hard when our young kid is constantly, Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama. I remember those days. And you're like, you just want to go to the bathroom because you just want two minutes. And they're standing at the door the whole time. Mama, Mama, can I have this? Mama, can I do this? Mama, can I get this? Mama, right? And when we pray together, all the time in need and not in thanks, then we forget the promises that God has given us. Yes. So today we just want to take a minute to give God thanks for being the God of ever. open wind moments we thank him for your promises that speak to us again and again we thank him for the mercy that he has given each and every one of us we thank him for his blessings and most and foremost i thank him for his grace grace is what has brought me to where i am and grace is what will continue to lead me and give me strength to where i'm headed I want the women who listen to us and who feel alone, who have anxiety, who are stressing or worrying about tomorrow. I want to speak grace over them tonight. I want them to feel his presence and to ignore the noise. Sometimes that's all it is. It's just noise. You know, Lord Jesus, we praise you today and we thank you. And we know that you have the answers tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Speaker 01: 30:33

Amen. I just want to encourage you that no matter what you're going through, dig in. Dig into your Bible and find out what the promise is. Find out what God says about it. Whether you're lonely or depressed or waiting on something, find you some scriptures to declare

Speaker 00: 30:50

and

Speaker 01: 30:51

speak it.

Speaker 00: 30:52

That's right. So if today's episode has touched your heart, we want to hear from you. What's your open wind season right now? Tag us at Unrelated Sisters and use the hashtag Open Wind God Showed Up. You can also send us your prayer requests. We're here to stand with

Speaker 01: 31:12

you. Yes. And remember, when life feels heavy, go to His Word. Open it up. And remember, He already wrote the answer. We love you.