The Anna and Susannah Show

Here are Satan's most favorite strongholds: fear, anxiety, worry, low self-esteem, depression, doubt, suspicion, selfishness, addiction, anger, lust, jealous ... That's just to name a few. Or 11. Why? Because these lies strip us of our ability to be at peace. To be happy. To serve. To love. We can't set out into God's vision for our life when we're afraid, worried and riddled with anxiety. We can't pursue a dream and serve through our gifts if we have low self-esteem, feeling depressed or harboring envy in our hearts. We can't trust God and have faith if we're filled with doubt. We can't have a united loving home if we're consumed with lust, suspicion and selfishness. Catch the theme here? If we don't have peace, if we can't serve people with our gifts, if we can't trust God and have loving, fruitful relationships, then we aren't living, we're merely existing. And people merely existing are no threat to the enemy. Don't give the enemy the satisfaction. Refuse to believe the lies. Fight for your life with everything you've got. The bible says we have the authority to break the bondage of these strongholds, so quit acting like it's hopeless. God is our hope, he's our savior and he gives us everything we need. Not today, Satan!

What are the origins of spiritual warfare? Attacks on our minds, body, family and friends are real - but luckily for us we have a secret weapon. Anna and Susannah share frightening experiences in spiritual warfare, but there's good news in the misery. Let's talk about what it looks like, how the enemy attacks us and how to fight back for our best life and relationship with God. Special thanks to our sponsor HelloFresh! For $30 off your first week of HelloFresh, visit hellofresh.com and enter ASshow30.

Isaiah 43: 1-5 Do not be afraid, I will save you. I have called you by name - you are mine. When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you; your troubles will not overwhelm you. When you pass through fire, you will not get burned; the hard trials that come will not hurt you. For I am the Lord your God - because you are precious to me and because I love you and give you honor, do not be afraid - I am with you. When we're lonely - when we feel betrayed by friends, misunderstood, all alone, even surrounded by people who are supposed to know us and care for us the most - we can take comfort in knowing Jesus understands the full breadth of what we're experiencing, because he experienced it too. Peter denied knowing him. His disciples fell asleep when he was most vulnerable and in crisis. He was lied about, misunderstood, rejected and scorned. Crappy friends will happen to all of us at some point in our life. Don't despair, pay attention!

Galatians 6:2-7: Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.  If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else,  for each one should carry their own load.  Boundaries are a necessary ingredient to healthy, functional friendships. One might even call boundaries Godly. The Bible says to carry each other's burdens - but we need to carry our own load, sister. God wants us to help and love one another, but he wants us to be responsible for our own lives. And when we're in need, he wants us to go to Him first. Not only does carrying other people's load eventually wear us down into the ground, but it also inhibits the other person's growth. We step in as if we're God and take it all upon ourselves. No one benefits when one person is taking on everybody's problems. Instead of one person being a hot mess not everybody's a hot mess! God can't bring us to another level if we're not even pushing our own wheelbarrow - or too busy pushing everybody else's. Get yo'self some boundaries, girl!

John 15:13 - Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. When you think of a friend, what do you think of? Someone who is loyal? Someone who listens? Someone who laughs at your jokes? (Full disclosure, that's one of my top criteria. I kid! Sort of.) Someone you can trust to burn your private journals after you die? What about cattiness? Betrayal? Gossip? Disappointment? Friendships are complicated. The clash of personalities, mismatched expectations, lack of time or commitment. One person may think the friendship is close while the other thinks it's merely a casual connection. Friends can bring us more comfort and support and joy than our own families. Some friendships can bring us more pain than we can imagine. Friends can be easy breezy and friends can be a lot of hard work. After John 15:13, Jesus goes on to call us His friends. Isn't that amazing? So if Jesus creates the standard of a friend - then what is a friend, really? Oh, this is good. We dig into this and so much more. Enjoy the show! Special thanks to our sponsor RXBAR! Delicious and incredibly nutritious protein bars for kids. Find them at Target stores OR for 25% off your first order, visit RXBAR.com/AandS and enter promo code AandS at checkout.

The Spice Girls once said said, "If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends." But what does the Bible say? This month we're talking about friendships and relationships. A seemingly simple topic, but one that is very complex. Friends can bring us a lot of happiness, but also much sorrow. As Bette once said, friends are "the wind beneath our wings." But they can also be an anvil - a detriment to our personal and spiritual growth. Two song references in one paragraph, we're on a roll! What is a good friendship? What's a bad one? What kind of friend does God want us to be? Do we have appropriate boundaries or are we too walled off? This week we're focusing on Romans 1:11-12: I am yearning to see you, that I may impart and share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen and establish you. That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. Yearning. Mutual encouragement - mutual - encouraged by each other's faith. Do you have a good friend? Are you a good friend? So many questions -but we have enough time! We're going to dig in to so many answers. Enjoy the show!

Our New Beginnings, if truly a new beginning, is to truly take shape – we need a strategy. In order to achieve His purposes, God doesn’t just recommend a strategy – HE COMMANDS IT.  I remember listening to TD Jakes once – he was talking about money and finances. He said, “You don’t need a miracle! You need a strategy!” God is a God of miracles, this is true – but he’s also a God that wants us to use the gifts he’s already given us to be smart and strategize about how we’re going to accomplish what God has set before us. Proverbs 19:21: Many plans are in a man’s mind, but it is the Lord’s purpose for Him that will stand. Let's get smart. Let's get savvy. Let's get it going. But remember, the Holy Spirit must guide us with each step. Come on now! We got God's work to do!  Special thanks to our sponsor MyLola.com. LOLA is giving us a mega offer - for 60% - you heard me right 60% OFF your first order, visit mylola.com and enter ASSHOW when you subscribe. Let us know how you like it!

Last week we talked about God's compassion, God's mercy - new each morning. As the sun rises, it's a gift to start, to be renewed - again. The ultimate reset button. This week we're focusing on a verse from 2 Timothy 1:7. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. Paul is facing his final days, suffering a particularly brutal experience in prison. His next new beginning will be in heaven. This is an important letter. Paul says, the spirit God gave us does not make us timid. No, quite the opposite. the spirit of God gives us Power. Love. Self-discipline. Timidity is not from God. Fear is not from God. Chaos, flakiness and lack of discipline is not from God. And fear is the number one road block to a new beginning ... Special thanks to Lola.com! Visit MyLola.com and enter AsShow at Checkout for $10 off!

You know what's amazing? No matter how disappointing the day is, no matter the terrible news. No matter how grumpy or ugly you might have been to someone you love or even hate. No matter the mistake or mischief we got ourselves into. No matter how we may have fallen short from the glory of God - there is something we all do, every night, naturally - that's the ultimate RESET button. Ready for it? Going to bed. The sun will rise again in the morning! Listen to what Jeremiah says about this: Lamentations 3:22-24 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” God's tender, loving compassion, God's grace - is new EVERY SINGLE MORNING. Not a year from now, not a week from now - not in two days. Every. Morning. Don't throw in the towel, just hold on. Wait for Him. Cry out to God in your pillow if you must - but know this: God's compassion never fails - they will be made NEW in the morning. Special thanks to our sponser Rover! For $25 off your first booking, visit rover.com/aands and use promo code aands during checkout! 

New beginnings. They can be hard. Scary. Intimidating. A new beginning means we have to shed the past. Past trauma, past fear, past hurts, past guilt, past non-sense. Our old self, old sins, old habits, old low self-esteem. This is our time for renewal. But in order for God to renew us, we must be able to shed our old inhibiting thoughts, shame, guilt nasty habits and dysfunctional relationships. This is easier said than done, though right? How do we start? Where do we begin? We talk about this and so much more as we focus on this week's verse: Isaiah 43:18-19 Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Unconditional love. Forgiveness. There's nothing we can do that would make God turn from us, not forgive us and not love us. Forgiveness - the most incredible gift God can give, and one of the easiest to take for granted. Do we truly grieve over our sins as we should? Today's verse we focus is on is in Ezra so you know we're about to get serious! Ezra 9:6 5 Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God and prayed: “I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.7 From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today. Ezra showed a sincere and powerful reverence, humility and remorse for his sin. We don't have to do this. We're already forgiven. But if we are tempted to take sin lightly, perhaps its more a revelation of how we feel about God, our love for Him and how or if we actually revere Him. Something important to think about, eh? Special thanks to our partners HelloFresh. We can’t recommend HelloFresh enough. And guess what, they’re now offering lighter summer and breakfast options - and you’re paying less than $10 per meal. CRAZY TALK! So here’s what you’re gonna do - For $30 off your first week of HelloFresh, visit hellofresh.com and enter ASshow30 - You won't regret it!

There are many, MANY passages in the Bible that tell us not to fear. Fear is not from God, it's from ... guess who? Get behind me Satan! Fear can quite literally ruin our lives. Fear causes us to hoard, to hide. Fear causes us to quit. To never start. Fear causes us to go inward, to recede. Fear causes us to be over protective and by doing so, causes us to miss amazing opportunities and experiences. That is not the kind of life God has called us to live. He can't use us through His purpose for our life when we're a mess, hiding and untrusting. Anna and Susannah talk about our most debilitating fears and God's promises that have helped us overcome them. Fear is a choice. But in the moment, we're called to face it. Walk through it, and trust God anyway. Amen! This week's verse we're focusing on is Joshua 10:25: Fear not nor be dismayed; be strong and of good courage.

When I was a teenager, I worked at ShopKo, a department store. I was a cashier, and I was terrible. I mean, I can run toilet paper over a barcode like the next kid, but I hated being there so much that it oozed from my pores. I kid you not, people avoided my line because of the look on my face. You know the term "resting b**** face?" Well I have that naturally already, but add me preferring a root canal to being a cashier in that moment, and people were holding their children tight and running their carts over to Beth, the older cashier with a warm smile, and unlike me, didn't have a stick up her butt. The Bible says we need to serve God in all things we do, cheerfully - at that.  Colossians 3:23: Whatever may be your task, work at it heartily (from the soul), as something done for the Lord and not for men.  Have you ever signed up to bring the scones to church on Sunday then complain you gotta get there early? Or go to work all grumpy and nasty and bored? Just me? Listen, we're not working for men. We're working for God! How would our lives change if we gave every task at hand all of our heart, our energy, our focus? What if we gave it 110%, every single time? I suspect for many of us, our lives would change dramatically. Our relationships would change dramatically, and God could finally use us for His higher purpose because we actually ... wait for it ... care! Special thanks to our sponsor Jet.com! For 20% off your first 2 orders over $35, visit jet.com and enter promo code ASshow at checkout! Terms & conditions apply see jet.com for details. Again - For 20% off your first 2 orders over $35, visit jet.com and enter promo code ASshow at checkout! Terms & conditions apply see jet.com for details.

Abraham was an old man with a barren wife. Not George Clooney old, like Ross Perot old (is Ross Perot still alive? Let me Google it...) Two huge obstacles to, you know, having a baby. Plus, there was no back then - probably just some ginger root or something that the town mid-wife would recommend and Abraham would chew on that for awhile and just get heart burn and no baby. But, his faith. Wowza. Romans 4:17 says he was so full of faith of God's promise, that he spoke his blessing as if it already existed. This week's verses are Romans 4:17 - 21: 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”[a] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. Are you speaking God's promise into your life? Or are you so down, so negative, so doubtful, you're speaking curses? Speak as if it already exists. You don't hope you'll become CEO. You ARE the CEO. Don't hope you lose 50 pounds, YOU ARE 145 pounds, right now! Be like Abraham! Be bold with your faith, speak it into existence and see what happens next. It might just be a miracle. Special thanks to our sponsor, Rover. Rover is the nation’s largest network of 5-star pet sitters and dog walkers. Through Rover, pet parents can discover, book, and manage personalized care for their dogs including pet sitting, dog walking, in-home dog boarding, and doggy day care. For $25 off your first booking, visit rover.com/AandS and use promo code AandS during checkout.  

We weren't created to be lonely. We were created for friendship, love - and fellowship. Goin' at anything alone is a rough road, but trying to go down the spiritual road alone can be boring to downright dangerous. We need each other! Anna and Susannah talk about their times of loneliness and how seeking fellowship has changed the game and their lives. They also have a  big announcement centered around Ecclesiastes 4:9 - Join our Word Up Bible Study Club, y'all! Memberships sign-ups start August 1st! Go here to learn more >> http://annaandsusannahshow.com/join This week's verse, Ecclesiastes 4:9 Amplified: Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor, for if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!