Followed By Mercy

When Suffering Becomes Your Identity: Finding Your Life Again by Looking to Christ

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2339198/fan_mail/new] Some wounds heal physically but continue living in our minds for years. In this episode, Austin Gardner shares personal lessons God has been teaching him through years of stage 4 cancer, loss, suffering, and disappointment. He opens Scripture to answer a question many hurting believers quietly ask: How do you move forward when suffering has become part of your identity? Drawing from the lives of Job, David, Paul, and the teachings of Jesus, Austin explains why the Bible never asks us to deny our pain—but it also never calls us to build our lives around it. You'll discover why Satan often attacks a believer's focus instead of their faith, how fear can shape our perceptions, what it means to take every thought captive to Christ, and why the greatest restoration in Job's life happened before his circumstances ever changed. This conversation is for anyone who has been betrayed, falsely accused, abandoned, overwhelmed by illness, or trapped in memories that refuse to let go. The gospel doesn't promise that your past disappears. It promises that Jesus becomes greater than your past. If you've been living in yesterday, this episode offers biblical hope for living faithfully today—one day at a time, with your eyes fixed on Christ rather than on the wounds behind you. Scriptures discussed include: *  2 Corinthians 10:5  *  Philippians 3:13–14  *  Job 38–42  *  Hebrews 12:1–2  *  Matthew 6:34  *  Luke 9:23  May this episode encourage you to stop building your home in yesterday's pain and begin resting in the One whose love has never changed. Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnr4HVuInKpwTE-Vybc-iLA], Substack [https://waustingardner.substack.com], Twitter, [https://twitter.com/waustingardner] LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/waustingardner/], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/waustingardner/], and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/austingardner211/].

God Is Good (And Judges Proves It)

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2339198/fan_mail/new] What do you actually see when you picture God the Father? Not the Sunday school answer. The honest one. The one that surfaces when life gets hard, and the silence stretches on. If you're like most believers, you picture someone disappointed. Arms crossed. Keeping score. Waiting to see if you'll finally get it right this time. That picture is wrong. Not a little wrong, completely wrong. In this episode, Austin Gardner walks through what the Bible actually reveals about the Father's heart, starting in a place you might not expect: the book of Judges. That relentless cycle of failure and rescue isn't a story about how bad Israel was. It's a story about a God whose mercy outlasted every single one of their failures. In this episode, you'll discover: * Why Judges 2:18 might be the most overlooked verse about God's heart in the entire Old Testament * What "God is love" actually means (it's a statement about His nature, not His mood) * How Jesus is not a softer version of God. He's the exact image (Hebrews 1:3) * Why the prodigal son's father was running before the son finished his confession * How to stop treating God's love like weather and start treating it like bedrock * What it looks like to talk to God like you're already His Key Scriptures: * 1 John 4:8 — God is love * Judges 2:18 — His soul was grieved * Lamentations 3:22-23 — Mercies new every morning * John 14:9 — He who has seen Me has seen the Father * Luke 15:20 — The father ran * Romans 8:28 — All things work together for good Quotable: > "God's love is not weather — it is bedrock. And bedrock does not shift based on your performance last week." 📬 Subscribe to Followed by Mercy on Medium or Substack to get these reflections in your inbox. 🎧 Listen to the podcast: https://followedbymercy.buzzsprout.com [https://followedbymercy.buzzsprout.com/] 📺 Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@waustingardner [https://youtube.com/@waustingardner] 📖 Read more at: https://waustingardner.com [https://waustingardner.com/] Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnr4HVuInKpwTE-Vybc-iLA], Substack [https://waustingardner.substack.com], Twitter, [https://twitter.com/waustingardner] LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/waustingardner/], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/waustingardner/], and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/austingardner211/].

Be Strong and of Good Courage: Believing God's Promises When Life Threatens

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2339198/fan_mail/new] In this episode, we dive into Joshua chapter 1 and the command that God gave Joshua at one of the most intimidating moments in biblical history. Moses was dead, the Jordan was at flood stage, and two million people were looking to him for answers he didn't have yet. But God didn't hand Joshua a strategy first. He handed him a promise. I explore the question every believer eventually asks: How do you actually believe a promise when everything around you is falling apart? We trace the thread from Adam's fear in the garden to Paul's declaration in Romans 8 and land on this truth: the courage God commands is the courage He supplies. You don't have to manufacture it. You just have to receive what's already been given. Whether you're facing a health crisis, financial collapse, relational brokenness, or just the slow wearing down of unanswered prayers — this episode is for you. 🕊️ Key Points: * God's presence comes before His instructions * Your circumstances do not define you. Christ does * The covenant is not fragile; your crisis cannot break it * The miracle meets you in the middle of the step of obedience * Meditation on the Word is how you let God's voice be louder than your fear 🔗 Resources: waustingardner.com | alignmentministries.com Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnr4HVuInKpwTE-Vybc-iLA], Substack [https://waustingardner.substack.com], Twitter, [https://twitter.com/waustingardner] LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/waustingardner/], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/waustingardner/], and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/austingardner211/].

Deuteronomy: A Love Letter for the Exhausted

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2339198/fan_mail/new] * Have you ever started reading the Book of Deuteronomy to find life, only to find a list? You read the commandments, the blessings, and the curses, and you think: "I can’t do this." In this episode, Austin Gardner reveals the stunning secret of Deuteronomy: God already knew you couldn't do it. The Law wasn't written to crush you or act as a scorecard for your performance. It was written to bring you to the end of yourself so you could finally fall into the arms of the Father who has been carrying you all along. Join Austin as he discusses: * Why relationship always comes before instruction. * The circular logic of God's love (He loves you because He loves you). * How the wilderness isn't proof of God's absence, but proof of Him carrying you like a father carries a son. * The promise of a new heart in Deuteronomy 30. If you’re a "burned out believer" tired of auditioning for God's approval, this walk through Deuteronomy is your permission to rest. * SEO/Keywords: Deuteronomy, Christian Burnout, Grace vs Law, W. Austin Gardner, Bible Study, Legalism, God's Unconditional Love, Biblical Grace. Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnr4HVuInKpwTE-Vybc-iLA], Substack [https://waustingardner.substack.com], Twitter, [https://twitter.com/waustingardner] LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/waustingardner/], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/waustingardner/], and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/austingardner211/].

Numbers: The God Who Refuses to Leave

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2339198/fan_mail/new] * Most people remember the Book of Numbers for the complaining, the judgment, and the 40 years of wandering. But if you look closer, you’ll see a different thread: God never let them go. Not once. * In this episode, Austin Gardner walks through the wilderness with Israel to show us a God who: * Counts His people because He owns them. * Puts His house in the dead center of a camp He knows will fail Him. * Disciplines His children without ever abandoning them. * Pardons not because we deserve it, but because of His long-suffering character. * If you’ve ever felt like your failures have pushed God away, Numbers is the honest book you need to hear. Discover a Father who refuses to stop walking with a wandering people. * SEO/Keywords: W. Austin Gardner, Book of Numbers, Grace in the Old Testament, Covenant Love, Bible Study, Numbers 14, God’s Faithfulness, Biblical Grace. Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnr4HVuInKpwTE-Vybc-iLA], Substack [https://waustingardner.substack.com], Twitter, [https://twitter.com/waustingardner] LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/waustingardner/], Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/waustingardner/], and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/austingardner211/].