Candace Nassar (00:01)
Heidi, welcome. I am so excited to be talking with you today. You have such a great story and a perspective on life that your story has given you. And I know our listeners are going to be so encouraged. So thank you for being here.
Heidi Anderson (00:15)
Man, I’m excited to be here, Key and us. You guys are doing great things. It’s just fun to be a part of it.
Candace Nassar (00:20)
thank you so much. okay, so before we get started, just, you make me laugh. And so you describe yourself as chugging coffee like a Gilmore girl while cleaning up Cheerios and building Lego towers. And I feel like our listeners just became fans from just hearing that, right? So what, is this your actual life on a Tuesday?
Heidi Anderson (00:42)
Well, yeah, except instead of Cheerios, it was Chex this last Tuesday, but I’m certainly on my second cup of coffee by 9am, so I’m joining the Gilmores. But yeah, it sounds about right.
Candace Nassar (00:57)
Good, I love that. Just keep keeping it light when you can and staying engaged with your kids. so yeah, why don’t you tell us about your family and your kids and what you do.
Heidi Anderson (01:08)
Sure, I’m a Minnesotan. Maybe you can hear it in my long O’s in this talk, but my husband and I have actually lived here all of our lives. Someday we’re gonna break free, I say. Someday we gotta fly south where it’s at least warm at some point in the year. But Ty and I now have been married for 13 years. We have four kids who are 11, 10, seven, and four. And most days I am a stay at home mom. I just started homeschooling my oldest.
Candace Nassar (01:27)
Mmm.
Candace Nassar (01:36)
Okay.
Heidi Anderson (01:37)
I’m home with my bookends, my oldest son and my youngest daughter. Other days though, I’m on social media, which is always a weird question when people ask me what I do for a living since it seems as if everyone is on social media these days. But what I mean is I do a lot of writing and speaking and really I just love to talk about the Bible in a way people actually understand. And every now and then I come out with a book and I speak at events, which is actually my very favorite thing in the whole wide world.
Candace Nassar (01:45)
Hmm.
Candace Nassar (02:05)
Okay. I love that so much. And your Instagram is super encouraging and I love all, you know, just going through the, just, have those moments like when you feel this have these verses and those are so important. So thank you for what you do. And so you, let’s just start off and talking about your, your cancer and how that impacted you. And I know that’s part of your story and your ministry. So,
Heidi Anderson (02:05)
to talk about God’s word with his people. Yeah.
Heidi Anderson (02:17)
Yeah.
Candace Nassar (02:32)
Why don’t you just share how all of that, you know, has impacted your story and shaped your message.
Heidi Anderson (02:37)
Yeah, well, I’d have to rewind about yesterday. I really mean 15 years ago somehow, but at the age of 23, I was single and I was just ready for the next great thing. Instead, I felt a lump on my neck that turned out to be not so great. And I remember just going through so many tests, so many different doctor appointments, but after about a few weeks, I sat on that white crinkly paper and I looked over and I heard my oncologist say, you have Hodgkin’s lymphoma. And really in that moment, it sucked all the air right out of me, certainly all the hope. And I walked out of that appointment just desperately needing someone to save me. I knew Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior.
Praise the Lord, I grew up in a Christian home. My parents loved the Lord. But it wasn’t until that moment where I faced something just completely out of my control and there was nothing I could do to fix it, right? Or I would have by that point.
Candace Nassar (03:32)
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Heidi Anderson (03:36)
I needed help beyond myself. I needed a savior bigger than myself. And praise the Lord, he meets us there, right? He never leaves us when we need him. He never forsakes us, never abandons us. I did find out I had stage two cancer. I would need to go through about six months of chemotherapy and then six weeks of radiation. But then he walked me through all the scenarios that could result if I wanted to sign off and receive treatment.
Candace Nassar (03:43)
Amen.
Heidi Anderson (04:01)
Like he said, short term, that could involve loss of muscle movement in your neck. Or he said, we don’t really know how chemotherapy works, which is not very encouraging when your doctor says that. But he says, we know it attacks cancer cells, but we can’t control it. It attacks everything else. So yeah, it’s going to attack the cancer that’s in your body, but you probably won’t be able of kids, he said. Best to come to terms with that reality.
Candace Nassar (04:10)
Mmm-hmm. Mmm.
Candace Nassar (04:24)
Yeah. Wow.
Heidi Anderson (04:26)
He then flipped the page and went on to the long-term side effects or the long-term risk. Like he said, someone who gets radiation to the chest, that could mean breast cancer is a common second cancer and can come in your 30s. And then in your 40s, one of the chemo drugs we give you could result in cardiac arrest or heart failure. And on and on he went for every decade of my life. And yeah, you
Candace Nassar (04:46)
This is too much.
Heidi Anderson (04:49)
Yeah, I mean, exactly. You sit in that appointment and you should have seen my face. I’m looking up at him, looking down at the wrist like a deer caught in the headlights. And I just want to know, like, excuse me, how in the world do you expect me to live, laugh, love with conditions like that, always hanging over my head at every stage of my life down the road?
And honestly, for a long time, I sat in that fear. Grappled with all the what ifs and what could be. And that’s actually how my newest devotional, all in all yours, was birthed. Because I realized, man, all of God’s promises are yes and amen. And no matter what someone else has spoken over me, God has spoken a different word over me. And so I can move forward in His promises above all else. So with all that to say, that’s my little story in a nutshell. I mean, there’s so many things that came of it.
I actually met my husband in the middle of my cancer journey, that is a cool story. And then, you know now, spoiler alert, I have four kids. So what the doctor said, it always makes me emotional, but I have four walking miracles every day that remind me, God alone holds the final word over my life, over their life, over this world, and I can keep resting in him.
Candace Nassar (05:59)
Yeah, and I know that through all that, that’s what you’re speaking to, right? and when did you started your your social media? All of that.
Heidi Anderson (06:10)
Yeah, so that fast forward then I was healed of cancer and so praise the Lord. I’m in 13 years in remission right now, but as I was going through this, this is another way where God flipped the script and he redeemed that bad part. I was currently in that season in kids ministry, but I started blogging. I called it dear Mr Hodgkins and I just started writing my journey as if I was writing a letter to Mr Hodgkins, but.
I was sharing more about where I was at in my journey to give people real life updates, but more than anything I was sharing verses I was listening to or sermons that really encouraged me. And I soon found out that it was being shared, not just by my mom and her friends, but hundreds and then even thousands of people. And back then it was blogspot. You can still find it on the worldwide web, but I didn’t have an Instagram at the time. And so I just shared personally, but.
I soon found out, not everyone likes to write. this might be a gift of mine. And so I started writing actually devotions for my church. moved me. They realized too that that would be my passion, my path forward. So they moved me out of kids and I started writing daily devotions for my church for just all adults. We had about 25,000 people on our email list. So I would write to them. I would write small group curriculum for our church.
And it just evolved more where I realized, okay, I not only like to speak the word of God, teach the word of God, but I like to write it too. And so I became a stay at home mom. had my oldest son. And at that time I wanted to become a stay at home mom, but I wanted to bring a peace back home with me. So I asked them, can I bring that daily devotional part home and just write during nap time or bedtime? So I did that for about five years, but when they phased that out, I felt like…
What do I have now? How can I find that outlet, use my creativity for the Lord? And so I just was like, man, I don’t have any opportunities in front of me, but I do have Instagram. So that very day I flipped it and I started just still posting pictures of my family at the time. It wasn’t video. I know some young people listening are like, what? There wasn’t reels, wasn’t videos, no, straight up pictures.
So I would still post pictures of myself and my family, but the captions would be, the devotionals, what I would be writing for the church I just started writing and posting about. And that grew and now I’m reaching over 250,000 people. It’s a cool thing how the Lord has used that. And again, it all started with that really hard time in life where it felt like this is so bad. How in the world could God ever flip this for good? And I my husband through it. We’ve had four kids even still. And now my very message, my very platform, like what we’re talking about today,
Candace Nassar (08:46)
Yeah.
Heidi Anderson (08:54)
is that journey, which is wild. And so day by day, God still redeems it and is using it. And isn’t that just like Him? Isn’t that what He will do with our situation? He’s always out for our good in His glory. I’m so grateful for it.
Candace Nassar (09:08)
Amen. And, and it’s so hard when we’re in the midst of it to trust, right? That’s, you know, cause like you’re all you’re hearing is that, that doctor speaking all that stuff into your, into your head and, we create, you know, our own,, repetitive thoughts and all those things. So when you hear a mom say that she’s stuck in this, rumination, what if thinking, what do you think she’s really describing underneath?
Heidi Anderson (09:34)
Yeah, well, for one, I get it. I am a mom and sometimes I do get stuck in what if thinking. So I know exactly what that feels like. And the underlying thing underneath that all, right, it’s control. I mean, we start asking what if scenarios in the places where we start to realize we don’t have control. I mean, when our kids were babies, we had total control. We controlled what went in their mouth. We controlled what clothes we put on them.
Candace Nassar (09:47)
Mmm.
Heidi Anderson (10:01)
on their sweet little bodies. We controlled, even who held them sometimes, when, where, how. But then they grow up and we start wondering like, what if my toddler chokes the one time I look away? And then that shifts to what if my elementary kid doesn’t have anyone to sit with at lunch? And then it deepens into what if my teen or young adult makes a decision I can’t fix? What if they carry pain?
Candace Nassar (10:24)
Mmm.
Heidi Anderson (10:26)
I can’t reach. What if they stop coming to me altogether? And underneath all of that though, is this slow realization that I don’t have control like I used to, but I love them more than anything and I wish I did. And so I get that, but praise the Lord, we do have someone who is in control of their lives and ours and he wants good for us. And so I always go back to that in those what if scenarios.
Candace Nassar (10:51)
Yeah, Well, I think you’ve really addressed it, but why is it such a struggle for moms? This “what if” thinking?
Heidi Anderson (10:55)
Yeah, I think we just love them, right? We love them more than anything. We want what’s best for them and we think we know what’s best for them. And so if we can avoid their pain, if we can avoid bad decisions, then we wish we could, right? And I think sometimes we got to remember that God is our heavenly father. And so he’s thinking the same things with us. Like, he does not want us to sin. He does not want us to make these bad decisions.
I mean, his heart for us is pure and it’s good. And so when we feel these things, I mean, we can empathize with our heavenly father and that’s what he feels like for us. I mean, that should bring us a little bit to repentance, right? About the sins that we’re actually grieving the father’s heart when we do that. When that happens with our kids, they grieve our hearts when they missed step, when they choose a different path than we wish we did.
But at the end of the day, it’s love and that’s a good thing, but we gotta put that love back where it rightfully belongs and not in our hands, but in his hands and he has them, he has them and they’re in good hands.
Candace Nassar (12:00)
So good. So good. Is there a what if question that you circle back to even today?
Heidi Anderson (12:05)
Yeah, you know what? What if I just hate them and I’m familiar with them. And I mean, in the struggle when I was first diagnosed for sure, like, if I don’t make it? I mean, that I had to wait three weeks before I even was able to have a treatment plan before they even told me what stage I was in. So for three weeks, I just sat there knowing I had cancer, but not knowing at all what it looked like or how far off I was.
But the biggest one that I look back on is for a long time, they said, right, you won’t be able to have kids. And that, I remember the day they told me that I went back home and I locked myself in my closet and I cried for these future kids that I desperately wanted, that I felt like was just stolen from me. And honestly now, I I look back at, I see my kids and now I remember Psalm 139, it says, all the days were ordained for us before any of them ever came to be.
Candace Nassar (12:39)
Mm.
Heidi Anderson (13:05)
all of our days are actually ordained and what God had for me was for me and cancer couldn’t steal it, the enemy couldn’t steal it, God wasn’t running his hands through his hair like, wait, you just said she can’t have kids, like what am I gonna do with Oscar? Like what home am I gonna put Mabel in? Where am I gonna put Hazel and Dottie? No, he knew, he knew they were coming and that wouldn’t steal it from me and so there are things I realize now when I’m nervous of what if and maybe I’m crying over those things.
But I got to remember, I don’t actually need to mourn about what could be true. Philippians, God only tells us in Philippians to focus on what is true. And so that means just today, what I’m given today, He actually doesn’t tell me I need to plan and prepare and I need to come up with all the options from A all the way down to Z. I mean, I know us moms, we’re planners. And if we don’t feed these children, I mean, they die. So stakes are high, right? But at the end of the day,
Candace Nassar (13:42)
Hmm.
Candace Nassar (13:53)
Yes.
Heidi Anderson (14:01)
we actually don’t have control, but we can trust the one that does. And so in these moments that I’m thinking my current what ifs, I look back to the big what ifs that I faced and I think, man, if God did that then, and he did immeasurably more than I could have asked or imagined, he’s gonna do it again.
Candace Nassar (14:20)
Yeah, his faithfulness, right? There’s a Lisa Torquist quote that I love. says, tracing the hand of God’s faithfulness in the past is so much more calming than looking toward the future and trying to predict. It’s actually trying to predict the future, which is what we do, right? And really something that I’ve learned to help me through my anxiety a lot is what you’re talking about just one day at a time. Stay present. And instead of looking at your child and worrying about
Heidi Anderson (14:22)
Yeah.
Heidi Anderson (14:27)
Hmm. Yeah.
Candace Nassar (14:49)
you know what college they’re going to get into when they’re 12 be in the moment and and enjoy it right, though it’s hard so okay so let’s talk a little bit about your book that I have picked up and just find great is a PS it’s going to be good and yeah such a good book and you walk you walk every reader through the Bible characters who face the same questions that we do today and so can you share one of those stories about the what ifs that
Heidi Anderson (15:04)
Yeah!
Candace Nassar (15:16)
speaks to the what ifs that moms might be carrying.
Heidi Anderson (15:19)
Yeah, you know what? I love the story in Judges 6 about Gideon because he is up against something, someone far bigger than him. There are these ruthless bullies, the Midianites, and they have pushed him out of his home. And so now when we meet up with him, he is hiding out. He is scared of broad daylight to face his life. And you can almost hear his what ifs, like, what if I’m not enough? What if I fail? What if it’s always going to be this bad?
What if God isn’t going to come through and moms, mean, we feel that too, right? Like, what if I don’t have what it takes? What if I can’t protect them? What if I’m in over my head? I mean, it’s a different story, but it’s the same question. But the one verse that I go back to time and time again, that is the biggest encouragement to me. It’s in Judges 6, 14, and God did not tell Gideon, okay, you just go, you figure it out, figure out the strategy, muster up enough strength and you got to defeat them.
No, all the Lord said, he turned to him and said in this verse, go in the strength that you have, save Israel out of Midian’s hand, am I not sending you? And at the end of the day, that’s all he’s asking us to do. He just says, go in the strength that you have. Even if it’s very, very small, as tiny as a mustard seed, it does not matter. You just go in the strength that you have and you can trust the Lord, he’s sending you. So that means he’s gonna more than make up for the difference.
Candace Nassar (16:28)
Mmm.
Heidi Anderson (16:46)
I don’t know about you, but that gives me a lot of peace, a lot of encouragement where I don’t need to carry the weight of everything that I’m carrying. And I don’t need to focus on my lack because there will always be that. But I can focus on Him, the Great I Am, and He is with me, He’s sending me, He goes before me, He’s gonna make a way. And so at the end of the day with these what ifs, we just have to go in the strength that we have and trust that God’s gonna show up because He will.
Candace Nassar (16:54)
Mmm.
Candace Nassar (17:38.152)
So what do you do? I mean, I hear you’re saying, you know, trust God and you’re looking at Bible stories that show multiple situations where God has come through. You’re talking about your cancer diagnosis and the faithfulness of God. But when we can’t see what God is doing, you know, today, what are some things you were talking about waiting on that? You had to wait three weeks for that appointment. What are some things that we can actually do practically today? to help us trust God.
Heidi Anderson (18:10.572)
Yeah, I mean, really, I always go back to Martha whenever the worst case happens, in my opinion, right? Because for Martha, the worst case did happen. Her brother did pass away. She sent for Jesus expecting him to heal him because she knew him as the healer. And so when he didn’t show up, I love how she meets him on the road. Days later, when Jesus finally makes an appearance, you can almost see her with her hand on her hip, finger wagging. And she says, if you would have come,
Candace Nassar (18:10)
hehe
Heidi Anderson (18:12)
If you would have come like I asked, then my brother wouldn’t have died. And so when we are in the middle of things, when it looks really bad, when it all goes up in flames, I love looking back in these Bible stories and sitting in the middle. mean, literally, if you sit in the middle of Shadrach, Meshach, and Benigal, it did all go up in flames. The worst case for them in that moment, it did happen. But where are they when we’re reading these stories? They are only in the middle. And so what I love about Martha’s story, though, more than anything, is that when the worst case happened,
She wanted healing, but Jesus planned for a resurrection. What she had planned was good, but what he had for her was far better. And so at the end of the day, I remind myself, it is one question I will repeat time and time again. It was my husband that asked me this in the beginning, and now I’ve learned to just train my mind to ask this. But my husband would ask me, who told you that? Whose voice are you even listening to? Because at the end of the day, it really is that black and white. We will want to make it gray and be like, well, I’m just
Candace Nassar (18:44)
Mmm. Mmm.
Candace Nassar (19:03)
Hmm
Heidi Anderson (19:09)
processing, I’m just thinking through this, but there are always two people in the Bible that actually face the same situation on paper. Joshua and Caleb, the rest of the spies, Ruth and Naomi, they faced the same situation, but they pivoted and lived out far different conclusions. Why? Because they asked themselves, whose voice am I listening to? And at the end of the day, they listened to the voice of the Lord. Naomi listened to herself and her problems and
She said, don’t even call me Naomi anymore, which means pleasant. Call me Mara because the Lord has made me bitter. And we can. We can allow our circumstances to make us very bitter and think that is the Lord and he has turned against me. Or we can cling to our God like Ruth and say, I don’t know why. I don’t know how. I don’t know when you’re coming, Lord, but I am clinging to you. And so that’s what I ask myself. Whose voice am I listening to? And then I will
on worship music. That is the only music I listen to and I will just praise and praise and praise until my mind catches up with my heart. And those practically are the two things I immerse myself in Bible stories and I sit in the middle of their stories so that I can empathize. Okay, I’m not the only one that’s feeling discouraged. I’m not the only one that’s thinking the worst case happen. I’m not the only one thinking that God didn’t answer my prayer, but all these stories were flipped for good in crazy ways. And that’s my author too.
So that means I can wait in faith and know that my story is gonna be flipped for good. I just gotta keep holding on. And so that means I’m listening to him and I’m praising him. And at the end of the day, that’s all he asks for his people.
Candace Nassar (20:46)
What’s your favorite worship song right now? What are you listening to?
Heidi Anderson (20:49)
that is such a good question. My husband is one of those where he always finds the songs, you know, before they get on the radio, before they’re popular. And I come back like months later like, honey, have you heard this song? It’s amazing, right? And he’s like, Heidi, I’ve been listening to that. I…
Candace Nassar (21:03)
Yeah
Heidi Anderson (21:06)
I have been listening to A Forgiving God by S-E-U Worship, just like literally my kids know. I’m one of those where once I find a song, it will be on repeat for hours. I don’t shuffle a playlist. So yeah, that one, A Forgiving God, it feels like heaven on earth when I sing it, when I hear it.
Candace Nassar (21:11)
Mmm.
Candace Nassar (21:17)
I do.
Candace Nassar (21:25)
love that. And I, one of my favorites, it’s been around, but as I don’t fight alone by John Rettick, which reminds me of something that exactly what you’re saying, just remember that God is fighting the battle for you and trusting him in it.
Heidi Anderson (21:35)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Candace Nassar (21:39)
So how do we keep our own anxiety from becoming something our children absorb?
Heidi Anderson (21:46)
Okay, this is a great question. I love this question because I get that. I don’t want my kids to carry this weight that they weren’t meant to carry, right? They’re these young, precious, sweet kids and they don’t need to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders, the weight of my world on their shoulders. And so I actually will be very honest with my kids though. And I tell them a lot when I’m scared. Recently I had my annual mammogram.
And like I said, with breast cancer being a common second cancer in your 30s, and I’m now 38, that one hits a little more closer to home. So they bumped up my scans to every two times a year, so every six months. And I was really anxious this last time. And I was telling my kids, I have a doctor appointment tomorrow. It is a really big test. And you know what? Mom is freaked out. But does God tell me I ever need to be afraid? And I let them preach to me.
Candace Nassar (22:40)
Mmm!
Heidi Anderson (22:40)
So I say that I am open, this is what I’m battling with, but does God say I need to be afraid? And of course, they’re like, no, mom, No, he says, do not be afraid. And I said, you’re right. So I have a choice. Should I listen to my feelings right now or should I listen to God? And they’ll tell me, you got to listen to God, mom. You don’t have to be afraid. And so that’s how I not only help my kids process, like I want them to know we’re going to face stuff that is scary, but at the end of the day, it comes back to that.
Does God actually tell me I have any reason to be afraid right now? No, and he actually knows what’s gonna happen, and he still tells me I don’t have to be afraid. Okay, so then I have a choice right now. Am I gonna listen to my mind? Am I gonna listen to my feelings? Or should I choose to just listen to God? And so that’s how I do it. I invite them in and I let them preach it to me.
And my hope is that when they face their own stuff as they get older, that they remember this process and they do it too and maybe they’re open and they come back to me so I can preach at them. I don’t know, but that’s how I’ve been doing it is just really be honest and open with them.
Candace Nassar (23:43)
I think that’s so powerful just communicating with our children and allowing them to see faith real faith in every day how we’re walking it out. mean they’re they have to see that to own it for themselves and so you’re helping them through that process and I really really like that. Okay so if a mom what’s one thing she can do this week if she’s starting that what if spiral in whatever situation?
Heidi Anderson (24:07)
Yeah, you know what? As much as I am a very private person and I don’t really love to talk about the hard things in my life, especially in real time, right? Like when things turn out good, when I see the answered prayer, then it’s easier for me to share, I actually had the scan and it turned out good, so thanks everyone. But I’ve really been challenged to tell someone in the middle of things. I mean, when Moses asked all of his what ifs, like,
Candace Nassar (24:24)
Mmm.
Heidi Anderson (24:32)
What if your people don’t believe me when I come? What if I go to Pharaoh and he doesn’t listen to me? And he is rattling off all these what ifs. How does God respond to his what ifs? Well, he sends Aaron, he sends him a brother. And so we too can open up to our brothers and sisters in Christ and let them shoulder it with us and for us and battle with us in prayer.
I mean, all throughout the New Testament it repeats: bear each other’s burdens. We don’t have to carry it on our own. He’s given us the body of Christ. And so we just need to do that. It’s vulnerable and it’s hard and it’s scary. And sometimes we can’t control their reactions, right? That’s my biggest thing. Like I don’t want you to now make me scared or make me anxious because now you’re scared for me, right?
But there is power when other people are linking arms with you. And I love how Suzy Larson puts it. She has a quote where she says, we link arms together, the devil doesn’t know where you end and I begin. And that is a powerful imagery of just being linked arms. But as a body of Christ, that’s what we are. We’re one with Christ. We’re one with each other. And so I think you just tell someone, if you’re dealing with a what if now and that spiral starts, let them preach to you. Let them pray for you. Let them carry it for you too.
Candace Nassar (25:48)
That is beautiful. I love that image of linking arms. That’s really, really powerful. So thank you for that. You, you talk about trading the, trading a lie for truth. And so how does that work in the real life anxious moments?
Heidi Anderson (25:50)
Yeah.
Heidi Anderson (26:02)
Yeah, you know what? I have such a strong belief about this that I started a podcast specifically called trade a lie for a truth, because sometimes I think it’s too overwhelming to think of all the things, all the lies that we’re hearing and believing. And if we just demolish one lie at a time, it just feels a little bit easier, more manageable. But really, on any given day, they say we think about 50,000 to 80,000 thoughts. But get this.
of those, let’s say 50,000, they say 95 to 98 % are the same ones from yesterday. So that means we just keep thinking the same stuff over and over again, like who’s gonna do lunch today? What’s for dinner? Is the laundry done? I mean, we just keep thinking these things, but that’s all great if all the things we’re thinking are true, if all the things we’re thinking are encouraging or praiseworthy, but.
Candace Nassar (26:36)
Mm.
Heidi Anderson (26:53)
with the father of the lies on the loose who is out to steal our hope, out to kill our peace, out to destroy our faith. My guess is they’re all not. And so in every episode, we actually camp out on one thought. We pick up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, because at the end of the day, we’re going to follow the voice of truth above all else. His name is Jesus and his words, John 8:32, right? Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. You know it, you know it. And so that’s what I do is I’ll just…
Candace Nassar (27:17)
and the truth will set you free. Amen. Amen.
Heidi Anderson (27:23)
pick a lie and then we’ll pick up the word of God, the sword of the spirit, and we’ll find passages, stories, verses that speak right to that because he doesn’t leave us hanging. God gives us all of his promises and then we choose. Am I going to believe the voice of truth? Can I follow the voice of truth? I mean, it really is our choice.
I get that, I hear those lies all day long, but yeah, it’s a powerful thing to be set free with Christ and in Christ and by Christ. So super passionate about that.
Candace Nassar (27:56)
so good. just recently I’m mentoring a young woman and she was talking about all the lies that are just holding her hostage and I said I want you to list those lies. I want you to sit on a piece of paper, write on a piece of paper, what are those lies and then across from it I want you to have a scripture verse that speaks straight to that lie and can completely demolish the lie, right? And then we meditate on those scriptures.
Heidi Anderson (28:06)
Yeah. Yeah.
Heidi Anderson (28:21)
Yeah.
Yeah, it’s powerful thing. It’s the powerful thing.
Candace Nassar (28:24)
could not agree more powerful thing. I’ve used it in my own life. You’re using it. We attest that scripture like you said earlier, Philippians 4:8, whatever is true. Promises of God are true and we can meditate on that and we can hold to that. So amen. man, well this has just been such a great conversation and we could just keep talking. But if a mom is walking away,
Heidi Anderson (29:8:42)
Amen.
Candace Nassar (28:51)
from this conversation with one thing, what would you want her to know?
Heidi Anderson (28:57)
Well, honestly, God is bigger and he is greater and he is more powerful. And sometimes when his timeline is not like ours, when things happen that we would not want them to, we start to question that or we curb our prayers and we just don’t want to be disappointed. But I would say keep praying big, keep praying audaciously, keep praying boldly.
Candace Nassar (29:05)
Hmm.
Heidi Anderson (29:18)
because he’s still moving and doing miracles around us. And we’re only in the middle, but someday we will get to the end. I think of Job 14:5, it’s actually been a verse that has been so relieving for me when I’m facing my what ifs. And that says, Lord has decided the length of our lives. It says, he knows how many months we will live and we are not given a minute longer. It says, we are not given a moment longer.
Sometimes we battle this control, like if I just do this, then I won’t have this and this won’t happen. And we think that we have control over the length of our days, but at the end of the day, I mean, we do have free will, but it actually says he’s decided the length of our lives already. And so that, I don’t know about you, but that is entirely freeing for me that I can walk forward in my days. I can walk forward and with my family beside me knowing there’s actually nothing I can do.
Candace Nassar (29:49)
Mm.
Heidi Anderson (30:11 )
So I don’t need to shoulder that weight. can live freely in Christ knowing that he’s already gotten it taken care of. Again, all of our days were ordained before us. And so that is a powerful thing to be, to know that the King of Kings has got me and I’m okay. And it’s not only gonna be okay, but Romans 8:28 reminds us it’s gonna be good. That’s why I named my first book that it’s gonna be good. We know his hand and so we can trust our stories that he’s moving and he’s doing great things.
and we’re gonna stand in awe when we get to the end of it all.
Candace Nassar (30:43)
So encouraging, it’s such a neat thing how God, he does that. And I’ve had it in my own life where you go through really hard times and he uses it for his glory, right? And that’s what, I mean, I say for our good and his glory. He’s used your story, your struggle with cancer. He’s blessed you through it. He’s given you a ministry through it. And if we can just hold onto that and know that whatever it is we’re going through, he’s going to use it for our good and his glory.
So thank you so much for all of that. Well, so Heidi, if our listeners want to find out more about you, we talked about your Instagram, your book, where can they find you?
Heidi Anderson (31:11)
Amen. Amen.
Heidi Anderson (31:21)
Yeah, well, everything is on my website, Heidi Lee Anderson ministries.com. And yeah, I’m online, Heidi Lee Anderson and my podcast, Trade a Lie for a Truth and my two books that all in all yours is a hundred day journey through the promised land. Once I found out that the promised land is symbolic to our free, abundant life in Christ. Well, then I was like, man, every city conquered means something every footstep into the land of promise. It wasn’t just for them, but it’s for us, too. And so if you want to live free,
That’s actually someone deemed it the guide to spiritual warfare, the Gilmar Girls guide to spiritual warfare. I try to keep it light and fun, but I’d love for you to join me on the journey, 100 days to really go all in knowing that all of his promises are yes and amen in him. So yeah, I would love to be best friends anywhere and everywhere.
Candace Nassar (32:09)
Great, so good. Well, thank you so much, Heidi. It was so great to meet you and hear from you, and I just wish you all the best.
Heidi Anderson (32:14)
Yeah.
You too, Keynes. Thanks for everything. Love you guys so much.
Candace Nassar (32:20)
Thank you.
