Unshakeable: The Battle for Your Peace & Joy

Episode Description:
Peace and joy are not emotions — they’re spiritual anchors. Yet every day, life tries to shake them loose. In this episode of Unrelated Sisters: Truth & Grace Conversation, we’re getting real about the battle for your peace and joy — and how to stand unshakeable when everything around you feels uncertain.

The enemy’s greatest weapon isn’t always chaos; sometimes it’s distraction. He knows if he can steal your peace, he can drain your joy — and when your joy fades, so does your strength. But God has given us divine tools to stay grounded, centered, and filled with His Spirit no matter the storm.

Together, we’ll unpack how to guard your peace, protect your joy, and live from the unshakable foundation of Christ — because no circumstance can steal what the Holy Spirit has sealed within you.

📖 Anchor Verses:

John 16:33 (NIV)

“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Nehemiah 8:10 (NIV)

“Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Psalm 16:8 (NLT)

“I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for He is right beside me.”

💡 Encouragement:

You were never meant to live at the mercy of your emotions or your circumstances. When life feels heavy, peace and joy can feel out of reach — but the truth is, they live inside you through the Holy Spirit.

Peace isn’t the absence of trouble; it’s the presence of God.
 Joy isn’t found in what’s happening; it’s found in Who is happening in you.

So when the waves rise, don’t forget: you’re not sinking — you’re standing on solid ground.

🕊️ How to Stay Unshakeable: Practical Guide

1. Pause Before You React
   When life shakes you, don’t respond out of emotion — respond out of alignment. Take a breath and invite the Holy Spirit into that moment. Peace enters where reaction ends.
2. Protect Your Focus
   What you fix your eyes on will determine your peace level. Guard your mind from negativity, comparison, and constant noise. Feed your spirit more than your scroll.
3. Practice Joy Daily
   Joy isn’t a feeling — it’s a decision. Start your day thanking God for one thing. Gratitude breaks the spirit of heaviness.
4. Stay in Community
   Isolation feeds anxiety. Surround yourself with faith-filled sisters who remind you of truth when life feels unstable.
5. Remember the Source
   Your peace and joy don’t come from how things look — they come from Who never changes. When the world shakes, hold onto the One who never will.

🙏 Closing Prayer:

Father, thank You for being my peace when life feels chaotic and my joy when my heart feels weary.
 Teach me to stand unshakeable in Your truth — anchored, not anxious; joyful, not fearful.
 Remind me that peace is my portion and joy is my strength because You live within me.

Help me protect what You’ve placed inside

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:01

Lord, we love you today. We thank you for this opportunity to be here. And Lord, I just pray for a fresh fire and being shanned tonight, Lord, that uh our words would bring confidence and encouragement to everyone listening. In Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 0:16

Welcome to Unrelated Sisters Truth and Grace Conversation. I'm Shannon. I'm here with Deb today, and we're stepping into a new kind of battle, the daily fight for peace and joy. You know, I want you to picture if you were in the army, standing guard on a military base in a foreign land, you stand alert, you're scanning the horizon, you're watching for threats that might come at any moment. It's high stakes and it's exhausting work. And if we're honest, that's what a lot of us feed or feel today in our day-to-day. As we try to guard our peace and joy in the world full of chaos and uncertainty. You know.

SPEAKER_01: 0:59

I thought you just described me. I feel like I stay in survival mode. And I don't even realize it, but I am. Yeah. Like standing on guard. Well, you know, it we should stand on guard in a good way, but I'm talking about like standing on guard where you're just worrying and you're thinking about what's coming next. You're like we're talking about, wait, what's what's fixing me all apart? You know, you gotta do this, this, and this in case this happens, just in case.

SPEAKER_00: 1:30

Right. Well, you know, and as a soldier, you can't relax, right? You're you're totally, you know, you have you're always on guard, especially if you're in a foreign country, you're always in survival mode, you know, and even at night when you're trying to go to sleep, it's you're still not quiet. It's still not quiet, right? And you know, many of us stay like that. You know, we picture pictures of our mental and our emotional and our spiritual energy. We pour into keeping, you know, anxiety and fear and disappointment and loss all at bay. We try to, you know, because you don't want to feel any of that. We put ourselves on guard duty all the time. Yeah, you know, as humans, I feel like, you know, when I wasn't, when I had come out of addiction, but I still hadn't found my faith, it was always what's gonna happen next, what's next, you know, what's gonna drop next, what's the next shoe that's gonna fall, or what's you know, what is that? And then even in my faith now, you know, God loves us and he protects us, but he also gives us free will. And 99.9% of the chaos is in our life is self-inflicted. You know, it's self-inflicted because he give us the free will and the choice of free will, but not just in our spiritual faith, but being in survival mode in everyday life.

SPEAKER_01: 3:01

I feel like I stayed in survival mode all through my addiction. Oh yeah. For 20 years. Yeah, 20 years. So it's on it's a life behavior that whether we like we want to admit it or not, carries on into our. I mean, it's something I'm having to try to unlearn, if you will. You know what I mean? And rewire my brain to where, and I know we were talking about earlier. What does that even look like? Not being in survival mode because we're like, well, I gotta do this because this is gonna happen more, you know what I mean? Like, uh, I have to have this ready to do that, you know, and you're robbed of your joy and your peace. So for me, I know when I'm in a constant survival mode state of mine, which is a lot, and I'm trying to do better, it brings uh discontentment in my home atmosphere because they can be all happy as though, but because I'm feeling this overwhelmness, yes, uh, I that I create the atmosphere a lot of times in my home and don't even realize it. Where if I would just relax and be chill, and you know, but I'm always thinking about what's gonna be gonna do next. Where you know, instead of just living like I was telling you earlier, I've really been praying about living in the moment. Right. Enjoying. I feel like I've missed out. Like I do all this good stuff on stuff, even my kids and stuff and grandbabies, but am I really even enjoying it or am I doing that a routine out of that role?

SPEAKER_00: 4:28

Yeah, but even even even when you're with your kids or your grandkids or you're you know, if you're at the park, then you're constantly scanning, right? To make sure nobody, no creepers are around, right? If you're at McDonald's, you know, are they eating too fast? Are they gonna choke? You know, so you're always on this, even when you're with them and you're doing fun things with them, are you really enjoying them? You know, or messing my house up, and then I'm like Yeah, and then and then right, because it stresses you out. Yes, you know, and and um finding, you know, we talked about that in the last episode, like I've truly found a peace, right? So when no matter what happens today at work or anything else, what happens today when I lay my head down and go to sleep, I truly give it to him. And when I wake up the next day, I don't think about it. It's not that I don't think about it, I think about it, but I don't worry about it, I don't stress about it, or I don't, I don't have feelings about it, right? And no matter what it is, you know, and there's some things that happen at work that it takes me a few days to deal with, and I deal with those, and I have to deal with it, right? Because there's a lot of emotions and a lot of personalities when you have 276 associates, but I've been feeling burnt out lately. I told I told one of my coaches the other day, I said, I'm done talking to you, you're mean to me every time you talk to me, you know, and everybody's like where did that come from? But it's about protecting my peace, right? Like, I don't care what's going on in your life, but yeah, you know, I mean I care, but I don't care. You know, um, but staying on guard, like you have to you feel like you have to stay ready all the time. But how is that helping you with your peace and your joy? Well, it's not, right?

SPEAKER_01: 6:25

Yeah, because I feel like oh I peace and joy, but do I like am I masking it? Are you you know what I mean? Well, I feel like I kind of am sometimes. I mean if you'd be honest, right? And then you're like, we well, I don't want to be negative. Okay, but at the same time, there's this line of being being real and not and being negative, right?

SPEAKER_00: 6:46

Right? So once we once we're real, then you have to then what do we do next, right? Because because you if you don't if you don't do anything to deal with it, then that's when you become negative.

SPEAKER_01: 6:56

So I asked you earlier, like, okay, so how do we get out of survival mode? And like we have to trust God. Yes, and that trusting God comes in where we're like, okay, because this is your situation, and you know what I mean. I'm gonna live in joy and peace, but it's hard sometimes because I think as Gravit, and we've talked about this a lot, comes up control. Oh, yeah. Given up that given up because a lot of times survival mode is a lot of people that's it it has control issues, right? And that's something that uh, you know, I've definitely been working on because to give up control isn't uh again, is you have to trust God.

SPEAKER_00: 7:38

So um, you know, we put ourselves on guard duty because we're afraid to drop our vigilance, we'll lose our joy or peace or get blindsided again. We end up living tense, distracted, and weary, you know, and whether that's a a teness because we feel like we're going we're gonna like the next bad thing is gonna happen, or we're tense because we don't know how to enjoy the next happy thing that's going to happen, right? Because you worry about that too. Um, especially when you come from where we came from, right? And out of addiction, because you know, and it distracts you. Yeah, you always looked over your shoulder. You always wondered who was the next person coming through the door.

SPEAKER_01: 8:26

Yes, I'm doing like these. I know the people are right.

SPEAKER_00: 8:29

You know, Paul writes in Ephesians 6 10 through 18 about the armor of God gives us. He gives us the belt of truth. He gives us the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the war and the sword, the sword of the spirit. So you asked earlier how do we combat being on guard duty? Well, the first thing I think is we put on the belt of truth. Right? That's what holds it together. And that because that's what holds it all together. And like I said in the last podcast, digging yourself into his truth. And don't know what the truth is, or you believe the lies. And I and I 100% that believe in, you know, and it's not listening to whoever on YouTube, right? It's not about listening to what this preacher says or what this podcaster says or what this person says, you know, uh, I've been diving into um Bible studies, right? Because those don't have opinions, right? This is what it says, you know, and um and I've been listening to uh preacher of 2819, and the reason I've been listening to him, and it's a mega church, I love Atlanta, but he'll say, Do you want my opinion or do you want what the Bible says? And he'll be like, Well, I'm gonna give you what the Bible says, you know, and uh and he's one of us. Uh he tells a story, he used to be a drug dealer, um, and he talks so you know, and he talks about where he came from uh when he does interviews and things in the podcast, but he has a fire about him that is where I think I wanted to be, but I've come to realize I'm already there. You know, but you know, and then putting on the shoes a piece, like uh they they've started this there's this new blanket or sheet you can buy, it's called grounded, right? And you plug it in and you and you stick it in, and it's supposed to like give electric vibes while you're sleeping, which is supposed to help with it's supposed to ground you as a bot your body or whatever. I don't think it works because I bought them, so don't don't waste your money. But the concept of walking outside barefooted and in the grass to ground you, right? The shoes of peace. Like I love to walk if people weren't so nasty in the world, I wouldn't wear shoes. I would walk barefooted all the time. You will never see me in shoes at home, ever, unless I'm going out the door. I hate shoes. I hate them. And I like to buy them. But I don't like to I could care less about wearing them. I would if people went so gross, I'd go barefoot all the time. But and then just to walk around in the nice, smooth grass and stuff, it's so relaxing and it's so calming to me, where at a lot of people don't feel that way. Um, you know, and then he writes, you know, and then you have the helmet of salvation, which if you've already asked God to be in your heart, then you know, the part of salvation is finding how to do that relationship with him.

SPEAKER_01: 12:04

You know the helmet guard your mind, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 12:06

And the helmet guards your mind, yes. And I I seen a meme the other day and it said it said the space between your ears is the most convoluted space a human has. Because what we let in our ears, in our brain, affects the rest of our body. You know, uh if you if you've got an earache, then your whole body hurts. If you've got a headache, your whole body hurts. Um, if you listen to crazy music, you have crazy thoughts, right? Um, and you know, your muscles hurt, you know, all the things. And so it's it's right, and you have to guard that. As much as you guard your heart, you have to guard your mind. And because your mind leads to your heart, and your heart leads to your mind, and they work together. You know, we often stand guard over things God never asks us to protect. So, what are you protecting that God doesn't want you to? So it's the what ifs, you know, and I say I say the the biggest word in the English language is if. What if, right? What if, what if I did this, or what if this happens? There's a reason why you wake up late. Because because God uh protected you from the what if, right? There's a reason why your car won't start some mornings, even though you're frustrated, because God's protecting you from the what ifs. You know, and it just you have to own it, right? You have to own that sense of control, and you have to find real peace and joy. You can't survive when we're guarding places that only God can keep safe, right? And God can only keep you safe when you allow him to, you know, and and and I've told this story to my son several times. Now that I sit here and I think about some of the places, some of the drug houses and some of the the hotel rooms and the places that I ended up when I was in addiction, he's the only one. He could he is the only one that could have protected me because now I I'm amazed that I wasn't sold for sex trafficking, or I wasn't, you know, forced into sex work, or you know, I wasn't I uh killed, you know, when I think about some of the places that I've been, but only he could keep me safe, and he had to have been standing there the whole time, even though I had no idea, or had I knew, but I didn't want to know. I guess the battle for peace and joy. How do you win it? How do you win it? So uh this is gonna hit hard, y'all, and you may not like it, but the truth is we lose our peace and our joy every time we try to control what only God can tr can hold.

SPEAKER_01: 15:30

Every time. And then bothering my okay, God's fine.

SPEAKER_00: 15:36

You know, the Bible calls us to surrender, not to give up, right? And there's a difference. The white flag, the white, you know, uh back in the Civil War, and I'm a history buff, so I love it. So uh, you know, when the North and the South, when they finally had that last battle and they brought the white flag out, the North and the South, the South wasn't giving up, but they were coming to a resolution, you know, and to surrender it all to God is not giving up. It's coming to a resolution that is gonna lead you to the peace and joy that you've been asking for, you know, and you have to you have to understand that it's not because I don't give up easily. If I think I'm right, I am gonna argue until the walls fall down, right? But it's been so much easier to surrender to him lately, uh, especially the last couple months. It's been so much easier to surrender to my husband over the last couple months. It's been it's just been so much easier at work to understand all the emotions that come at me all the time. You know, I was getting very frustrated and I was getting very overwhelmed with everybody's problems, you know, and and I think they come to me because I offer a peace to them. But instead of offering, instead of giving their problems to God, I was trying to fix it for them because I'm a fixer. I think I think I can fix things when I can't. You know, in Philippines Philippians 4, 6 through 7 promises that God's peace guards our hearts when we trust in Him. You know, the word guard is important. The peace and joy that lasts come from knowing Jesus is on post, watching over you, never laying down his guard. So, in all honesty, God is our He's our army buddy, stand in post for us. He's guarding our hearts and he's watching over us at all times, even when we think that we have done so bad that how could he love us? Right? And that and that's very important, I believe, in this epit in this episode is there is nothing you can do that will cause God to turn his back on you. Nothing. Nothing can separate you from his love. Uh, you know, uh the peace and joy that last come from knowing Jesus is on post, watching over you, never laying down his guard. This is the peace that comes when he says, My peace I give to you. And when you and when we have his peace, his desire that we would also have a full joy, as he said in John 15, 11, that his joy would be in us, and our joy would be full.

SPEAKER_01: 18:49

You know, it goes hand in hand, peace and joy goes hand in hand.

SPEAKER_00: 18:52

Peace and joy goes hand in hand. I and I and I truly believe that it does. You know, Jesus doesn't walk away from you.

SPEAKER_01: 19:00

You know, there's a there's a verse in the Bible that says um that the joy of the Lord is our strength.

SPEAKER_00: 19:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 19:08

So, and then when we have peace and joy, you notice when you're walking in that, you're a lot stronger.

SPEAKER_00: 19:14

No matter what comes at you, yeah, right? Like it could be, you know, it could be just a bad day, but the way the strength, when you have that joy in you, you see it differently. You see the world differently.

SPEAKER_01: 19:27

We there's things that we couldn't do in our own strength, but for sure.

SPEAKER_00: 19:31

Yes, for sure. You know, Jesus stand guards, and nothing you do will make him abandon you. Abandon his post, right? And and we want our listeners to remember that, right? Nothing you can do will will make him abandon his post, you know, and and when you think about uh our army here in the United States, and uh we do a Reefs Across America where we um we lay Christmas reefs on graves for veterans in in Rockmart and um we have different uh army people come and speak for our event uh because it's all about the veterans and about honor and respect to them. But you know, they don't abandon their post, they stand guard over us. They're the reason that we have the freedoms that we have, they're the reason that we can sit here on this podcast and talk about Jesus. You know, um Ronald Reagan said, you know, you're only one um liberty away from not having any at all, you know, and you have to you have to believe in that. So practical steps to letting Jesus stand watch. Suit up with the armor of God, claim God's truth over your thoughts, seek his peace, not perfect circumstances.

SPEAKER_01: 21:00

I forget which verse it in the in is in the Bible. It says to pursue peace.

SPEAKER_00: 21:04

Pursue peace. Go after it, go after it. That's right. Look for it, find it. You know, name your post. What are you guarding right now? Surrender it to prayer, Lord. I'm handing you my child, my future, my self-image. What is the one thing that you are guarding over? And it may be more than one, right? Um your family, you know, you you uh I can do more with our family than we can. Yes, yes, and restoration, yeah, the one we did a couple weeks ago is living proof of that, right? What Deb and her family has come through and come from is definitely um, you know, putting the armor of God on and has definitely, you know, surrendered that part. And that wasn't easy for Deb.

SPEAKER_01: 21:51

No.

SPEAKER_00: 21:51

That wasn't it wasn't easy for her to give over her kids and to watch them make the same mistakes are headed to make the same mistakes. You know, uh as she did. Uh and you have to just sit back and and and pray and and but you know, and when I was going to do that, that was one of the hardest, but it's also one of the biggest lessons, or I I guess you could say uh um or encouragement that I got from the Lord is when I finally said, Okay, Lord, uh I give this, I give her to you.

SPEAKER_01: 22:26

I'm not gonna preach to her. I'm not gonna worry. I'm not you know, I'll ask for her. I said just keep your location on because she was one of places that were outrageous, you know what I mean? Right. Very scary. And uh I said just keep your location on for me. And I didn't sit and watch it all the time like I, you know what I mean? Like it had been. Like I had been. Right. I said, okay, Lord, I've just given her to you. I know that what you promised me and that, you know, calling her off, and I'm gonna hold true to that. And there was a piece that came over me. It's like I said, a piece that surpasses all understanding. I was telling her sisters, I'm like, leave her alone. They're making it work, you're pushing her away. She would blot them. She didn't want to hear because she wasn't trying to hear all that. So all I was doing was just loving her right where she was at.

SPEAKER_00: 23:08

You know. And you have to, right? And that's one thing I can always say in in my time of mess. I always knew that I could go home to my mama and that she wouldn't preach at me. She would fix me up, you know, a hot meal, let me take a hot shower, and let me sleep for however long I needed to sleep. You know, and and that was the only while her heart was breaking. Oh yeah. While her heart was breaking in the process, right? You know, um, but I always knew I could go. And I'll and I and still today I could go, you know, and um I know I kind of low key when I go back to mine or tell my husband the other day.

SPEAKER_01: 23:47

I was like your mom dad.

SPEAKER_00: 23:52

That's funny. You know, move from anxiety to trust. Practice Philippians 4. By prayer and thanksgiving, give it to God, and his peace will guard your heart. Yes, it will. It got dark quick. You know, uh, Philippians 4, by prayer and thanksgiving, give it to God. You know, his peace will guard your heart, but giving it to God means you truly, and that's the hardest thing to do, right? You can't you can't give it to him tonight before you go to bed and then and then pick it up in the morning and start out later to ruin your whole day. Yeah, you know, uh and and you may have to give it to him more than once, right? Like you may Yeah, you may have to be like, do it tonight and do it in the morning when you get up and do it at lunch. You know, you may have to give it to him two or three times before you can truly let go of control. But he's prepared for that. He knows he knows he knows that's how you are, right? So he's okay with that, and then remember Jesus' presence is unshakable. Your peace and joy don't depend on your performance, but it depends on his promises. His promises, like that, right? That's like fireworks. You know where are you trying to stand guard alone and what would it look like it to let Jesus be your protector, your guard, the source of all real peace? I can tell you from experience that it brings a new life to your soul, it brings a new life to your body. You know, I used to couldn't roll out of the bed without everything hurting, and I've not done anything differently physically. I don't go to the gym, you know. We just made jokes about that earlier. Um, because my husband goes religiously five days a week.

SPEAKER_01: 25:54

And I have a membership, but I just go to the tannabed.

SPEAKER_00: 25:56

And she has a membership, she just goes to the tannin bed. I did turn my membership off. Um, but you know, it truly when you truly start giving things to him and you find that true peace, he lights a fire under you. Like once you find peace and joy and you stay in peace and joy and you don't flip-flop back and forth, he lights a fire under you. And I I truly believe like that's what's happened in my life.

SPEAKER_01: 26:21

Joy, unspeakable, and full of glory.

SPEAKER_00: 26:23

Joy unspeakable, yes. Also remember you're not standing alone, you're not alone because Jesus is your commander and protector, he guards what you surrender to him. And you know, we are here for you. We would love to hear your stories. Please go on our Facebook page and post, uh, go on TikTok or go on to Unrelated Sisters uh podcast at gmail.com and share your stories with us. We'd love to hear them.

SPEAKER_01: 26:55

Um Lord, thank you for sending guard over our peace and joy. Forgive us for trying to do your job. Help us to surrender not only what scares us, but what steals our delight. That your armor protect us and your presence be our unshakable peace. In Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 27:18

Amen.