Joanna Weaver
11 min read ⭑
“Confounding my plans was the sweetest gift the Lord ever gave me. For in laying down my dreams, I discovered the joy of belonging totally to him.”
QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT
There’s much more to food than palate and preference. How does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind the web bio?
Ask anyone the best place to eat in our small town of Hamilton, Montana, and they’ll point to Naps Burgers. They’re pretty much famous for their delicious face-sized burgers. They are so big that my teenage son, Josh, and I split one with an order of onion rings.
But my most memorable and meaningful meal took place on the other side of the world. In a not-so-small town called Paris. Here’s how it happened.
Ten months before my parents’ 50th anniversary, my dad was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Although he survived the extensive surgery, there was no guarantee the cancer wouldn’t return. My mother had always dreamed of kissing her sweetheart beneath the Eiffel Tower, so when a door opened to take them to France, my brother, my sister, and I jumped at the chance.
It was a magical trip. Not only did they smooch at the Eiffel Tower, but we also made them kiss at every major monument—Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, the Louvre, you name it. We took every opportunity to celebrate their beautiful marriage. On our last evening in Paris, we took an evening dinner cruise down the Seine.
With every course, the meal just got better and better. But the crowning moment came during dessert as the Eiffel Tower came into sight. It sparkled with dazzling lights that filled the night sky.
And once again, we made Mom and Dad kiss.
So often our dreams go unrealized because we can’t justify the big chunk of change it costs. But some things are worth the sacrifice.
My father just passed away after a long battle with dementia. Gratefully, we have a rich storehouse of memories. Including the magical, sparkling night we dined on the Seine.
Nil Castellví; Unsplash
QUESTION #2: REVEAL
We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests. So what are yours? What so-called “nonspiritual” activities do you love and help you find spiritual renewal?
Several years ago, I came out of a stressful season that included filming three video Bible studies back to back and writing the study guides in between. Overlapping schedules and missed deadlines kept me racing to keep up. When everything was finished, I knew I needed a break.
I cleared my schedule, but my soul didn’t seem to get the memo. Although I’d figuratively slammed my foot on the brake, inside, my other foot continued to press hard on the gas.
“Help me find my stillpoint, Lord,” I prayed. I knew the racing RPMs of my mind weren’t healthy for my body. And they certainly weren’t good for my soul.
Slowly, with the Lord’s help, I detoxed from my addiction to adrenalin as he dismantled the lie that I needed to be productive in order to have worth. Even in my spiritual disciplines.
During my quiet time one day, I sensed the Lord inviting me to rest in his presence. As I lay on the couch, its curved arms felt as though I was lying in God’s embrace. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment, but it wasn’t long before my practical side kicked in.
I should probably sing some worship songs, I thought. Or maybe I should recite some memory verses?
But before I could formulate a plan, I sensed God’s tender voice speaking inside my heart.
Shhh, Joanna, he whispered. Just let me love you.
It’s a beautiful invitation I try never to forget. For Jesus didn’t choose us to use us. He chose us to be his friend.
QUESTION #3: CONFESS
Every superhero has a weakness. Every human, too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite and how do you hide it?
I’m grateful God’s given me a pretty tender conscience. I don’t have any trouble saying I’m sorry. In fact, I’ve been known to apologize when I bump into mannequins, offering to cover any medical costs they may have incurred due to my carelessness!
But although an underdeveloped conscience is dangerous, an overactive conscience can be destructive as well. In the past, I’ve obsessed about my mistakes and failures, beating myself up with an endless stream of shoulda-woulda-couldas and if-onlys. But the Lord is teaching me how to bring my failure to him so that he can help me move past it.
As I’ve allowed the Lord to forgive me and learned how to accept his forgiveness rather than living in regret and self-hatred, God has been rewiring my soul.
Oh, resentment that I’m not everything I ought to be still tries to assert itself at times, but I’m choosing to trust that Christ’s sacrifice is enough for me. Enough for my biggest failures, but also enough to provide the grace I need to forgive myself and move on in freedom.
While guilt might provide initial motivation to change, it’s powerless to actually transform us. That’s why we need to put our trust in God’s grace. For the grace that saves us is also the grace that changes us.
QUESTION #4: FIRE UP
Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your obsession? And why should it be ours?
God called me to be a pastor’s wife when I was 16, and I love the local church! I’ve had the privilege of serving beside my amazing husband for 40 years, but early in our ministry, a desire to speak to women started burning in my soul. However, God didn’t see fit to open any doors. Instead, I received these marching orders: “Deepen the message. Let God broaden the ministry.”
Confounding my plans was the sweetest gift the Lord ever gave me. For in laying down my dreams, I discovered the joy of belonging totally to him.
I write about that journey and other important points of surrender in my new book, Embracing Trust: The Art of Letting Go and Holding on to a Forever-Faithful God.
This is the book I’ve wanted to write for over 20 years. I believe that trusting God is the key back to the Garden—to a deeper intimacy with Jesus and the victorious, abundant life you and I are meant to live.
No longer hiding behind fig leaves or wavering between two opinions, we’ll trust the Lord with all our hearts. As we relinquish control of our uncontrollable lives, we’ll discover the peace of God that transcends all understanding. The peace that comes when we put our hope fully in God.
QUESTION #5: BOOST
Cashiers, CEOs, contractors, or customer service reps, we all need grace flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it’s God when it happens?
Writing is the hardest thing I do. Give me a microphone and I can talk for hours, but put me in front of a computer and I struggle to come up with words. Because I wanted to write this book the moment my bestselling book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World came out, I thought the process would be easy. A few proverbial pushes and the book would come out fully clothed and needing to shave.
Instead, I wrestled to get the message on paper for over three to four years. Once again, I discovered that apart from the Lord’s help, I can do nothing—at least in the area of writing. But in my desperation, God met me in powerful, life-changing ways.
“We’re getting a lot more done in my heart than we’re getting words on the page,” I told my mother as I tried to explain how simple truths from the Bible were exploding in my soul, stripping away lies that had bound me for years.
At first, I felt guilty about that. But then I realized that it was my absolute dependence on God that opened revelation. It was my willingness to trust him even when I couldn’t see that unlocked something deep in my soul.
As much as I wish writing came easier to me, I wouldn’t trade the struggle. For when we are weak, we discover all God is and all he wants to be to us.
QUESTION #6: inspire
Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied actions that open our hearts to the presence of God. So spill it, which spiritual practice is workin’ best for you right now?
Although I was raised in a wonderful church and a Christ-centered home, no one taught me how to cultivate a personal friendship with Jesus. I knew I was supposed to have a daily quiet time, but I didn’t know how. As a result, I spent a lot of time feeling guilty.
Each January 1, I’d make promises to the Lord that this year would be different. That I’d read through the Bible in a year. After all, that’s what good Christians were supposed to do! Unfortunately, a few months in—usually somewhere in the middle of Leviticus or Numbers—my spiritual resolve would run out.
But then I took a discipleship class that showed me how to read the Bible in a more meaningful way. Here’s how it works:
Ask the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you into all truth.
Read less and reflect more—no more than a chapter.
Read until God speaks, then record the verse and truth in your journal.
Before learning this method, my time in the Word was something I checked off my spiritual to-do list. But as I slowed down, reading prayerfully and then responding in my journal to what I sensed God was speaking to me, the Word of God came alive to me.
I’ve had the joy of sharing this method with thousands of people in a yearly Facebook Bible Reading Challenge. Most years, we read a chapter a day. But even when we’re reading through the Bible in a year, this method helps the Bible get through to us.
QUESTION #7: FOCUS
Our email subscribers get free ebooks featuring our favorite resources—lots of things that have truly impacted our faith lives. But you know about some really great stuff, too. What are three resources that have impacted you?
I’m so grateful for all the spiritual resources that are available to us thanks to the internet. But I’m especially grateful for the works of authors who have gone before us. Here are some of my favorites:
My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. Chambers has been my spiritual mentor since my mid-20s when a friend placed his classic devotional in my hands. Dear Ozzie. (That’s what I call him.) Written in the 1930s, his words might seem a bit foreign to modern ears. But they contain rich truth that is worth digesting slowly because they lay out a Christianity that is robust and hardy. A faith that isn’t easily shaken or dismantled but can stand the test of time.
The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. This is another book I find myself returning to every few years or so. It’s believed that Tozer once told a friend, “I want to love God more than anyone else in my generation.” Now that’s a heart I want to emulate. Tozer’s book can’t be rushed through. I usually read a few pages at a time, then journal my way through rich books like these. For they give me a glimpse of God—and glimpses of myself—that I never want to forget.
The Indwelling Life of Christ by Major Ian Thomas. I love this little book so much! It features short chapters, but it’s so powerful. Rather than calling us to self-improvement, Thomas invites us to tap into the life of Jesus within us. For as he points out: “If your life as a Christian can be explained in terms of you, what have you to offer to your neighbor next door? … It must become patently obvious to them that the kind of life you are living is not only commendable, but beyond all human explanation.”
We all have things we cling to to survive (or thrive) in tough times. Name one resource you’ve found indispensable in this current season—and tell us what it’s done for you.
I’ve already mentioned journaling, but it has become so precious to me as a record of my conversations with the Lord. Sometimes life gets busy, and because of his grace, God lets me coast for a while. But there also comes a time when, because of his grace, God lets me hit a wall and I rediscover once again that, without him, I can do nothing.
That’s when I return to journaling. It helps me center my heart and mind back on Jesus. It taps into his grace and his power.
My journal is a place where I pour out my heart to the Lord, laying down my burdens, sharing my requests, and declaring my trust in him. But it’s also a sweet place I can return to because when I look back over the entries, I’m reminded of God’s faithfulness in the past. As a result, I receive grace to trust him with both the present and the future.
More importantly, it helps me capture what God is speaking to me. So often, I’m like the person described in James 1:23-24, “who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like” (NIV).
But when I take time to record and reflect on what God is saying, I experience the blessing promised in verse 25: “But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do” (NIV).
QUESTION #8: dream
God is continually stirring new things in each of us. So give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?
Right now, we are finalizing a video Bible study we’ve created to go along with Embracing Trust: The Art of Letting Go and Holding On. We hope to release it later this year. I’m super excited to see what the Lord does through the book and study!
To be honest, after four years of intense writing, I’m ready for a little break—and so is my family. But there’s so much more that could be said on this important topic of trusting God. I really believe it’s the linchpin of our Christianity. Our joy and freedom rise and fall on this simple question: Will I trust God?
I have a lot of material that didn’t make it into the book, plus fresh revelations of what it looks like to truly trust him. I’d love to pull all the extra material and new insights into a devotional. But I’m trusting the Lord with the timing of that!
I don’t want to run ahead of God or lag behind, but I’m learning that it’s best to let my Good Shepherd set my intentions. After all, he not only knows the pace I should go, but he also knows the plans he has for me. Rather than rushing to do something big for Jesus, I’m learning to wait on the Lord to show me what’s next. I don’t want to be driven. I want to be led.
Unfold. That’s my word for this year as well as my plan. I’m going to trust the Lord and let his will unfold.
In our interview with Joanna, she talked about how difficult it can be to trust God sometimes. Do you ever find it hard to rest in God’s will when you don’t know what the next step looks like? Or when you feel your failures and shortcomings are too much to be of any good?
When we don’t understand what exactly God is doing in our lives, it’s easy to want to shrink back to what’s safe, comfortable, and expected. But the author of Hebrews offers a strong challenge to those of us tempted by that desire:
“And ‘But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back’” (Hebrews 10:38, NIV).
Do those words sound harsh in the midst of our fears and doubts? If so, we should read the very next verse: “But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved” (Hebrews 10:39, NIV).
In Christ, it’s not our nature to shrink back anymore, and that means we don’t have to. We can trust God and take that next step—with the Holy Spirit leading the way.
With over 1.6 million copies in print, Joanna Weaver is the author of Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, Having a Mary Spirit, Lazarus Awakening, and the devotional At the Feet of Jesus. Her books and video Bible studies have been used by thousands of groups and her podcast, The Living Room with Joanna Weaver, was featured in Apple’s New & Noteworthy. Joanna loves speaking to women about the powerful freedom that is found in making Jesus Lord and trusting him for things bigger than themselves. She lives with her family in Hamilton, Montana.
