The Family Disciple Me Podcast // Discipleship Starts With a Conversation

LIFE VERSES | Introduction | Convo #1 in "Finding Scriptures That Shape Your Story"

• Tosha Williams for FDM • Season 6 • Episode 6

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Ever notice how many people navigate life guided by simple mottos like "follow your heart" or "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger"? While these sayings shape decisions and relationships, followers of Jesus have something infinitely more powerful – God's Word. Out of thousands OF verses in the Bible, certain Scriptures become deeply personal, transforming into what I call "LIFE VERSES" that guide our journey for decades.

This episode launches a series exploring how God uses specific scriptures to direct our paths. I share my own story of discovering a life verse at 14 years old, recording it in a green spiral notebook I still have today. That single verse has provided direction throughout my life, demonstrating how God can use scripture to shape us from youth through every season. Looking at Psalm 119:35 – "Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it" – we find both a prayer for guidance and a declaration of joy that perfectly captures our relationship with God's Word.

Throughout this series, we'll explore five types of Scriptures that make powerful LIFE VERSES: promises, prayers, purposes, praises, and pledges. I candidly acknowledge that Bible reading sometimes feels like duty or drudgery, but consistent engagement transforms that duty into discipline and eventually into delight. I encourage you to mark meaningful verses in your Bible, journal about them, and share them with others. When you point someone else toward a verse that shaped your story, you're inviting them to experience God's Word personally. Download the Family Disciple Me app (SOON TO BE RELEASED!!!!) for conversation guides that help facilitate these meaningful discussions. As we discover the joy of life verses together, may God use His Word for His glory, our good, and the good of those He's entrusted to us.

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The Family Disciple Me ministry exists to catalyze devotion driven discipleship in our homes and around the world. We believe that discipleship starts with a conversation, and FDM provides free, easily-accessible, biblical resources to encourage these meaningful conversations along life's way. Sign up through our website to be "the first to know" about upcoming releases and resources (including the FDM App - coming soon!!!) You can also follow Family Disciple Me on social media.

Family Disciple Me is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit ministry, and all donations are tax deductible. More information, blogs, statement of faith and contact info can be found at familydiscipleme.org

Speaker 1:

Have you ever noticed how so many people live by little mottos or sayings, things like you only live once, or follow your heart, or my favorite, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger? These sayings, these phrases, they shape decisions, they shape relationships, they even shape entire lives. But thing is, for those of us who follow Jesus, we have something so much greater to follow. We have God's Word to guide us. Out of the 31,000 verses in the Bible, some of these become especially meaningful to us and personal along life's way. These life verses can shape not only what we believe but how we live. So with that, in this new series that I'm calling Life Verses Finding Scripture that Shapes your Story we're going to talk about how God uses His Word to direct our paths. You know, this is what happened for me way back in well, 1985. I was 14 years old, sitting with my Bible one Saturday night. I was doing my devotions when I came across a verse that stopped me in my tracks. I don't know exactly what highlighted it to me, but that evening it leapt off the page at me. It became something that I could not ignore. So the very next day I got out my green spiral-bound notebook, which actually I still have to this day. And I wrote this, I wrote down the reference of the verse and I said this verse really impressed me and as of June 1st, I claim it as my life verse. With that, I claim it as my life verse. With that, I could not have known how God was going to use that verse to lead me and guide me in his path for well, decades, decades to come. But he has faithfully and again and again and again, he's used that scripture to give me direction, to give me delight. I'm going to talk about the specific verse in a different episode, but for now the point is this God can use his word to shape us when we're young and he can continue to use that scripture to guide us with it throughout our entire lives. And if he can do that in our lives when we're young, well, he can do that at any time along the way. So with that, I welcome you into this collection of conversations as we consider life versus finding scriptures that shape our stories.

Speaker 1:

As we begin today, I want to draw your attention to a special scripture in Psalm 119, verse 35. And that scripture says this Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. This verse comes from the longest chapter in the entire Bible, psalm 119, which, by the way, is a psalm that God spoke into my life and had me memorize about eight years ago, and that's a story for another day. But the whole psalm celebrates God's Word, celebrates His commands, his precepts, his law, his promises, and in this particular verse that we're looking at today, we hear a prayer, a plea that says Lead me God. And we also hear a declaration that says I delight. I delight in your Word. This is Scripture in action, not just words on a page, but words that draw us to ask God for direction and confess our love for him and for his truth. And so, with that, here's something that I'm so excited about in this conversation guide as a whole.

Speaker 1:

As we go through these six conversations, we're going to look at five different kinds of scripture, week by week, episode by episode. Five different kinds of scriptures that can become life verses. These are promises, prayers, purposes, praises and pledges. Purposes, praises and pledges. God's Word is so rich and I get so jazzed about every single one of these and these categories. They help us recognize what's the best of the best of God's Word, the verses that we can hold close to us, the words that we can speak over our own lives, and then the verses, the very scriptures, that we can speak over the lives of those that God has entrusted to us. I get so jazzed about this, I get so enthusiastic about this if you can't tell, because when we see scripture in this way, it doesn't just stay on the page. When we see scripture in this way, it doesn't just stay on the page, it becomes personal and transforms our lives and our stories. So what does this mean for us? No-transcript, it's transformational. It provides directions for our steps and delight for our souls, all at the same time. But for this to happen, we have to spend time in it. We have to make space for God's Word. Think of this verse as a commitment that you can speak out loud to the Lord right now. Lord, lead me in your path. Help me to find joy in walking with you through your word Right now. I encourage you to take a moment to reflect. How is God inviting you to spend time with him in his word today?

Speaker 1:

Now, I don't know about you, but I'll admit there have been seasons in my life when reading the Bible felt like a duty, like checking off something on my to-do list. Other times, reading my Bible felt like drudgery, it felt difficult, it felt dry, it felt confusing. But as I've kept showing up, as I've continued to seek the Lord and His Word, I've seen God transform duty into discipline and from discipline transform that time in seeking Him and His Word into delight. Maybe you've felt the same as you listen to this episode. You identify with that. You say I have felt that drudgery or devotions feel like duty. If you feel that way, I just want to say you're not alone. And that is why I love this collection of conversations so much, because in this we're going to find the cream of the crop, the easiest to understand, that which is going to give the most delight to our souls. This is such a special part of the journey and, thing is, I know that God is going to meet us right here, right now, as we walk these steps with Him. Thing is, it's not enough to just seek Him for ourselves. Devotion is seeking Him, but discipleship means making Him known to others.

Speaker 1:

I don't know why I was doing my devotions that Saturday night, june 1st 1985, except that I had older adults who showed me what it looked like to have my devotions. They had spent time with God, and then they showed me how to spend time with God. They had done their devotions and then they discipled me in that. And here I am, decades later, still impacted as the fruit of their time with Jesus. So imagine this happening in your life as well, later still impacted as the fruit of their time with Jesus. So imagine this happening in your life as well.

Speaker 1:

As you spend time looking at life verses let's just take this topic as you spend time looking in life verses, as you spend time finding scriptures that shape your story, then imagine sharing that path with someone else that God has entrusted to you. Maybe it's your child, maybe it's your grandchild, maybe it's your spouse or a friend or roommate. When you point out a verse that God has made especially meaningful to you, well, you're inviting them to experience God's Word as well. And here's where I see my middle school story coming full circle. I didn't know it then, but God was planting a seed in my heart way back then as a teenager, a seed that, well, I recorded in this journal that I still have. That's falling apart, but here I am today and it means the world to me to get to share it with you.

Speaker 1:

If you're raising kids, maybe you're speaking into the life of your teenager, or you're walking alongside someone in their faith journey. Encourage them to find their life verse even as you begin to look for yours, the verses that God highlights along the way. They shape our stories, for our whole entire journey with Him. So, with this, I want to encourage you to open the Family Disciple Me app and go to the Discipleship Conversation Guide that goes along with this particular episode. Spend time with this introduction into this journey Life Verses, finding Scriptures that Shape your Story. I challenge you not just to take my word for it, but spend time with the Lord. You can use that conversation guide as your springboard to seek Him about what he wants to say to you through that scripture, and then to turn around and speak Him using interactive, relational. Turn around and speak him using interactive, relational, intentional questions to spark meaningful discussions. You can use this conversation guide in your own personal devotions and then, well, with the help of your smartphone, you can have that resource available along life's way as you talk with your kids or your friends or whoever it is that God has entrusted to you, to your life, your friends or whoever it is that God has entrusted to you, to your life, the people that you care about.

Speaker 1:

And here's something else that's really practical. As we talk about life verses, I want to encourage you to get out your Bible and mark in it. There's nothing like a Bible that well has no markings, a Bible that well has no markings. It's okay to get out a pen, a marker, colored pencils, crayons, post-it notes, whatever it is that helps you and mark in God's Word. When you're reading the Word and you find something that leaps off the page at you, well, mark it, highlight it, write it down, make stars, asterisks right in the margins. Take it and mark it in your journal, write about it. That's the way that you can remember and come back to that moment where you had a God encounter, where you can actually remember that for decades to come. Unfortunately for me at this point I'm not sure what Bible I was using back in 1985. So I'm so glad that, as I was spending time in the Word, I was also journaling about it, and so I encourage you to do the same.

Speaker 1:

So my prayer for you is that you will lean into Psalm 119, verse 35, this week, that you will let God speak into you through it, that it will become your delight, as you say lead me in the path of your commandments, lord, for I delight in it. Oh, god will honor that commitment. I know he will. I know that he honors His Word. That's what he says over and over again.

Speaker 1:

Through His Word, and especially as I learned through Psalm 119, he's going to guide you. He's going to give you joy in His Word. And as you discover the joy of life verses, as you seek Him, be sure to turn around and speak Him into the life of someone that you love. To turn around and speak him into the life of someone that you love. Oh, may God use this in all of us for his glory, for our good and for the good of those he's entrusted to us. I'll see you next time, in the next episode, as we begin this journey through life verses and see what God has to say to us through his word. Be encouraged, friend, go with God.