Spending Time in the Presence of God (with Amy Robbins) - Episode 13
Friends, my guest today is a huge delight to have on the Wandering Wilde Podcast! I think of Amy as a soul sister, and I know you’re going to love her as well. Amy and I first met when I photographed her family years ago, and I loved recounting some really powerful words she spoke over me even way back then.
Amy Robbins is a pastoral counselor with nearly two decades of experience in helping individuals with a wide range of issues. She is passionate about helping people get free, truly know who they are in Christ, and experience the Father’s presence. She and her husband of 21 years live in Austin with their two children.
In our conversation today, we have a powerful conversation about spending time with the Lord, what that looks like practically, why we can have as much of Jesus as we want, how allowing ourselves to be loved by God impacts life around us, and why it's okay to not be strong all the time. I just know you’re going to leave this episode feeling the invitation to draw closer to the Father.
My Key Takeaways
1) "There is no substitute for positioning ourselves in the presence of God." God calls us to be still and know that He is God over it all. We don’t have to hold it all up... because He is! And while there will always be seasons of life making it hard for us to prioritize this, Scripture shows us time and time again how even Jesus went off to be with the Father. I loved Amy’s encouragement that if Jesus, who carried the responsibility of the salvation of mankind, could go off and be with the Father, do we have any excuse not to?
2) Don’t get caught up in the activity captivity. God has called us to be human beings, not human doings. He wants us to be in a relationship with Him. Like Amy reminded us, He says if you love me, keep my commandments. Not “if you’re my slave and do as I say." What sweet freedom to simply be with Him.
3) "We love each other best by loving God first." Our intimacy in our other relationships is a direct reflection of our intimacy with God. It can be so easy to think we need to take care of everyone and everything else first, when in reality all of life springs from our relationship with the Lord.
4) There’s only one perfect person, and it's Jesus. So we don’t have to be. I loved this part of our conversation, and it reminded me so much of what I’d just been reading in the Word lately. Perfectionism is something I can easily fall into, but like Amy said, perfectionism doesn’t exist. Only Jesus is perfect. It’s a standard we don’t need to set for ourselves, and a burden we can take off our shoulders.
Resources Related or Mentioned
- Wandering Wilde's Bible Study Journals
- Connect with Wandering Wilde on Facebook and Instagram
Where I've Been Wandering
For the past few days, I’ve been waking up at 4:41 am. When this happens repeatedly, I often ask the Lord if there is a reason, and spend time praying over my husband and kids. When it happened again this morning, I got up and opened my Bible. Now honestly, I didn’t feel like it, but I’m so glad I did. I ended up reading in Psalm 90, and verse 8 really struck me. It says: “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.” I spent some time thinking on the fact that Jesus knew my sins. They were not a surprise to Him! We talked about perfectionism in this episode, which is something I often struggle with. What a gift, friend, that He knows all our imperfections and bore the cross anyway. He knows every single part of our dark humanity, and He still chose to give His life for us.
I encourage you to take a moment to let that reality sink in today!
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We want this to be an honest, encouraging, and inspirational resource to remind you that you're not alone, that you truly can grow closer to God each day, and that you have all you need to be transformed by the Word. We'd love for you to help us tell other women about it! You can do that in 2 ways:
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Again, thank you for listening and we'll be back with Episode 14 in just a couple weeks!
