Tending Your Soul

What incredible hope Paul imparts to the Ephesians, who are living in a corrupt, spiritually dark culture. They are surrounded by pleasures and comforts vying for their attention. Perversions ran rampant and believers were being persecuted and hated. We can relate! We need the same hope that he offers them. Join me in the Garden of the Word as the Gardener of our soul tends to us with His true hope.

How can we walk by faith with Jesus as Lord over us? Faith is believing that what God says is true, regardless of what we see.

Join Mariel in tending your soul in the book of Ephesians and learn from the example of the ancient Ephesian church.

We have obtained an inheritance having been predestined to the purpose of God's will. Join Mariel in the Garden and turn it all over to Him who is already in control as you walk through Ephesians 1.

In a chaotic, noisy world we need the continual reminder of the gospel, not just to share with others but for our own hearts. Join Mariel in Ephesians as we consider the gift of the gospel in a fresh way.

Living with an eternal mindset can be difficult in a world of temporal pleasures. Paul knew this well and from a Roman prison he offers us the encouragement of truth. Join Mariel in the garden as we Tend our soul by the Word.

Join Mariel in the Garden as she opens the Bible to the book of Ephesians. You will consider how to keep an eternal focus in a temporal world. Your soul will be nourished by your time with the Gardener of your soul.

In this age of influencers and celebrities, there is no shortage of people screaming at us: do like me, act like me, buy like me. The still small voice of the Holy Spirit invites us into the Word of God where we are forged into the pattern of our Lord Jesus.

Join me in the garden as we lean into God's word through the TEND method in 1 Thessalonians and invite the Lord to forge us more into His likeness.

In the midst of a dark culture, remaining steadfast to the message of the gospel is difficult. Join me in the garden as we lean into 1 Thessalonians and consider Paul's letter to these people who are loved and chosen. Let's see what God might teach us in these life-giving words.

Is there someone you have been praying for so much that you have forgotten to give thanks for God’s action in their life? Is there someone you have felt competition towards rather than remembering their work and faith before God? Join me in the garden as we lean into 1 Thessalonians and the example of prayer Paul offers there. God will tend our souls by His Word as a gardener tends a garden as we slow down and lean in.

When someone we love speaks, we incline to listen. God is speaking and has been speaking His Word since Creation. How can you and I lean in to listen? Join me in the garden as we consider this today.

As a new routine kicks off this autumn, join me as we invite God to tend to our souls even in the new beginnings. HE was there in the beginning and He remains even still. Let's lean into that in the garden.

How do you know where you're headed if you don't have a plan? This is true for most things in life, including Bible study! In this episode we explore a couple method for spending time in the Word of God. Join me and let's ask God to show us what might work best as we prepare the soil of our hearts to bear fruit from His Word.

What does the posture of our body and the posture of our soul have to do with our time with Jesus? Join me in the garden today as we consider this question together before God.

What do you need in order to have an effective quiet time? Do we need the commentaries, colored pens and podcasts? Or is it really possible to meet with the Lord with just His Word and His Holy Spirit? Join me in the garden as we explore what props work best for us in this time with Jesus.

Jesus was busy yet He sought time away from distractions to spend with the Father. How can you and I follow His example so that we might tether our hearts to Him in the midst of this tangled world? Join me as we explore this idea together.

We can persevere in the hard things, the new rhythms and the unknowns when we know the WHY. Why do you want to meet with God? Why do you need to cultivate your soul by the Word? Join me as we consider what Scripture says and identify our purpose for spending time in the Word of God.

As we wrap up tending our soul through James 1, let's let God examine our actions along with our words and our thoughts. Step into the garden with me, as let's invite the Gardener to transform us with the gospel and teach us to live that out in what we say and do. 

What is real freedom? Is it doing whatever we want, running towards wherever our heart leads? God's word refers to itself as the perfect law of liberty. Join me as we seek to find true freedom within the boundaries of safety and joy in James 1:25. 

No matter how much time and effort we put into studying the Bible and knowing all the theological answers and Biblical history, if we are not doers of the Word, we are deceiving ourselves. Commentaries, color coding and hours of study will never draw us nearer to God is we are not allowing God to truly tend our soul by His Word and thus living in response to what He is teaching us about Himself. Join me in James 1:22-24 as we seek to be doers of the Word.

We might be familiar with the urging to be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger, but it isn't until we slow down and lean into the Word of God that we see God enabling us to do this. The TEND method invites us to see the Word in context and then to respond in such a way that we are able to walk out what God is calling us to in our every day life. Join me in the garden as we TEND this truth in our soul.

You are surrounded by the good and perfect gifts of God for you, personally. Not feeling loved or gifted these days? Overrun by the wearisome battle around you? I invite you to join me in the garden as we lean into the book of James using my TEND method, and pause to notice the good and perfect gifts from the Father of Lights.

Where do our desires lead? How can we tether our hearts to God in such a way that our desires line up with His and offer us life, peace and stability? Join me in the garden as we TEND through James 1:14-15 and we seek to know God better. 

How can we lean in to see from God's perspective, especially in seasons of trial? God through James offers this promise, "Blessed is the one who remains steadfast under trial." join me in the garden as we explore this promise and reflect on the goodness of God as we seek to know Him better through His Word.

Oh how easy it is to boast in the temporal and material, isn't it? Those things will fade, as James teaches us in these verses, so I invite you to join me as we lean in and ask God to teach us to boast in the One who is eternal. 

Who doesn't need wisdom in these hard times? God offers it generously and without reproach. Join me as we slow down and lean into His wisdom through the book of James using my TEND method. You are sure to be encouraged!

In the midst of hardships and trials, how can we find the perspective to be steadfast and press on? God offers His grace for us if we are willing to increasingly lean on Him. Join me in the book of James as we tend the truth of the Word into our soul and seek to strengthen our faith even in the trials.

How do you identify yourself? We think, act and live from the point of how we see ourselves. Join me in the garden as we tend the truths of James 1:1 into our soul and learn to lean into our place as a servant of God. 

In hard seasons and painful losses we can tend to define ourselves by that pain, forgetting the hope in the truth of hod God defines us. Join Mariel in the garden as we seek to lean in and listen for Gods' truth over our own wandering emotions.

Our faith ought be lead our words and actions, but all too often we let our flesh lead us right into a ditch! Join Mariel in the garden and let God tend the truth of His Word into your soul so that we might walk forward into our day lead by faith rather than by the flesh. 

We often rely on our own ability rather than on God's, don't we? Somehow we think it's all up to us. We fail to invite others to follow us towards Jesus because we think we have to have all the answers first. Naomi can relate, though she knew God's character, she failed to remind her heart of the Truth. Join me in the garden as we lean in and let God tend the Truth into our soul today.

It can be far easier to believe God for someone else than for ourselves. How can we take God's blessings personally for ourselves? Join Mariel in tending the book of Ruth and learning to lean in and engage with the Word of God in a personal way.

Regardless how far we have strayed or how hurt we have been, God is always drawing us back to Himself. Arise and return to Him as we tend the truth of Ruth 1:6-7 into the soul of our soul in this episode of Tending Your Soul Podcast.

We all navigate seasons of deep loss and grief. Lean in and join Mariel in the garden to recognize the presence of God through the healing truths of His Word. Enter into the grief in Ruth 1:2-5 while reflecting on the nearness of God, while tending through the verses using the TEND method. 

As we slow down and lean into the Word of God using the TEND method, we find so much depth in just this first verse of Ruth. The God of promise, the wrestling with the culture's ways and distractions and trying to hear the voice of God over it all. Join me in the garden as we tend our soul by the Word of God.

Are you weary from the noise and distraction of the world? Do you long to cultivate intimacy with God through His Word but are unsure how? You're in the right place! Join Mariel in the garden for a few minutes of tending your soul in the Word of God. You will walk through the TEND method and find refreshment as you pause and reflect on Truth. Join us each week for Tending Your Soul.