Do the ordinary tasks of my day actually matter to God?

You’re doing all of it — the meals, the laundry, the emails, the driving, the remembering. And somewhere in the middle of it a question surfaces. Does any of this actually matter? This episode is about what happens when we move through our lives productive but not present, and what abiding in the ordinary actually looks like.

Through the story of Brother Lawrence and the theology of Andrew Murray’s The True Vine, this episode reframes the mundane as the very place God is forming you. The laundry isn’t the obstacle to your spiritual life. It is your spiritual life.

In This Episode

•Why productivity without presence leaves us spiritually exhausted
•How Brother Lawrence practiced God’s presence in unglamorous ordinary work
•What Psalm 16 teaches us about security and presence in our assigned portion
•How Murray reframes pruning as God’s precision formation in everyday life
•The three questions that help you abide in the ordinary instead of just endure it

Key Takeaways

•The ordinary moments of your day are not the obstacle to your spiritual life — they are your spiritual life
•Abiding is a connection you maintain in the middle of the doing, not a feeling you chase
•The laundry is the pruning — God is actively forming you in the mundane moments
•The fruit grows while you remain connected to the vine — not when you finally finish the list

Series Note
Episode three of the Simply Remain series, which began on episode 156.

Keywords

•Abiding in God in everyday life
•Christian women and spiritual exhaustion
•Finding God in the ordinary
•Spiritual formation in daily routines
•John 15 abiding and fruit
•Andrew Murray The True Vine

Discover ways to work with me at www.thehappiestlives.com or www.myhappyvault.com
Questions? Email Jill directly at Jill@thehappiestlives.com

What does it mean to abide in God when your quiet time feels empty and your spiritual life feels flat?

You’ve been showing up — reading your Bible, praying, doing all the things — and something still feels off.

This episode is about what’s actually happening when that occurs. Not what you’re doing wrong. What’s actually going on. We go deep into John 15 to unpack what Jesus actually meant when he said remain in me — why the fruit that grows from genuine abiding was never meant to just feed you, and what it looks like to stay when everything in you wants to fix the flatness or conclude that God is gone.

Abiding is not a feeling you achieve. It’s a posture you return to.

In This Episode

•Why doing all the right spiritual things can still leave you feeling completely disconnected
•What John 15 actually says about dependence, pruning, joy, and friendship with God
•Why reading God’s word alone doesn’t produce transformation — and what has to be added
•How the fruit of abiding flows outward and feeds others not just yourself
•Why hormonal shifts can affect your spiritual life in ways nobody warned you about

Key Takeaways

•Chase the feeling and you end up performing. Stay in the posture and the fruit takes care of itself
•The Word has to abide in you — not just pass through you
•Grace positions you in the vine. Faith keeps you there. The fruit grows as the overflow of both
•The flatness in your quiet time might be the Father pruning — not evidence that something is wrong
•The fruit you bear isn’t yours. It’s Christ’s life flowing through a branch that stayed connected

Series Note
Episode two of the Simply Remain series. Start with episode 156 or jump in here — either works.

Resources

Song: Abide by Dwell Music

The True Vine by Andrew Murray

Keywords

•How to abide in God
•Spiritual disciplines and faith
•Feeling disconnected from God
•John 15 abiding in Christ
•Perimenopause and spiritual life
•Andrew Murray abiding in Christ

Discover ways to work with me at www.thehappiestlives.com or www.myhappyvault.com
Questions? Email Jill directly at Jill@thehappiestlives.com

Are you exhausted from chasing outcomes that never quite deliver the peace you’re after?

Underneath every goal is a feeling — security, love, peace, worthiness. And that feeling is already available to you through abiding in Christ, not through achieving.

In this episode Jill opens a new series called Simply Remain, anchored in John 15 and Andrew Murray’s The True Vine. She names the works of the flesh we don’t recognize because they look like diligence, introduces the idea of hard moments as portals into faith rather than detours around it, and shows what remaining actually looks like in a real moment of grief and loneliness.

In This Episode

•Why the fruit of the Spirit is not a to-do list
•How to trace any outcome back to the feeling underneath it
•The works of the flesh that look like virtue but quietly deplete you
•What remaining in Christ looks like in a real hard moment
•Why your hardest circumstances are doorways into abiding

Key Takeaways

•You’re chasing the feeling underneath the outcome — and it’s already available through abiding
•The branch has one job: to stay
•Striving and controlling are works of the flesh — they never deliver what they promise
•Your hard moments are portals, not interruptions

Series Note
Episode 1 of the Simply Remain series, based on John 15 and Andrew Murray’s The True Vine.

Keywords

•Abiding in Christ
•John 15 vine and branches
•Fruit of the Spirit
•Christian podcast for women
•Overcoming striving and perfectionism
•Spiritual growth for women

Discover ways to work with me at www.thehappiestlives.com or www.myhappyvault.com
Questions? Email Jill directly at Jill@thehappiestlives.com