Hi, it's been some time, y'all, it's been a minute.

Welcome back to Unfiltered Faith with your host Stoss, because Meredith is not with me right now.

Today I am doing a solo episode and wow, you guys, I just want an apology and say we do not realize it's been so long since we've uploaded since January 1st. We sincerely apologize. We will be putting out more content every single month. But yeah. So today I am doing is so upset and honestly just going to be a good show, little chat, you know, like a chill little life of day.

You know, I just wanted to talk about like just my journey so far since twenty twenty it's been crazy.

I thought it'd be really uplifting and inspiring and like to share what God has brought me through and what he's doing in my life right now and teaching me it's been a wild roller coaster. You guys like I moved from my hometown from Sacramento to L.A. and it still hasn't hit me because I have never moved out in my entire life.

So moving on on my own was is definitely a journey. And it has been a crazy transition from moving from my hometown, never moving out, never really being on my own from twenty twenty to now. And I'm just going to backtrack a little bit and go a little bit of death of like how am I twenty.

Twenty was like where I was and where I am now and just how my life has completely changed in this past couple of months and how God has really brought me through like another dark moment in my life and to say, oh my goodness, sorry guys, I live like by the street, kind of like my apartment.

And it's just so loud all the time. So if you hear any any cars or anything or if you hear my roommate talking, just don't mind.

But anyways, going back to twenty twenty, it was it was just a crazy year I think for everyone mentally and financially, just whatever. Like I felt like everybody was going through it, especially me. It was definitely not an easy year for most of us. And you had to really get back into the timeline of everything. So in twenty twenty, you know, like most people, I lost my jobs. I completely like we were all in quarantine.

I was at home. It was just not a good environment for me. And long story short, I just started to have immense amount of stress and anxiety, like to the point where it hindered my health and there was just so much going on.

And especially with the social injustices, with the economy crashing, with quarantine, with just a lot of just honestly trauma to think about it.

Twenty twenty was a traumatic year and I just got so. Like stressed out, you guys, I've never experienced this immense amount of anxiety in my entire life, and I know most of you or some can relate to this because it was a very, you know, unpredictable, uncertain year of last year.

And all of a sudden it felt like it took a big hit in my confidence in my just in my life in general, like I was I was in complete, complete shock. And just with my mind and like my body, everything was just going downhill. I was at a certain point in my health where I was functioning.

And so I got so stressed out, you guys, and it really hindered my mental and physical state.

And that's when I started to develop a lot of health issues with the gut. Specifically, if you follow me on Instagram, if you don't give me the description, you can totally follow me. But I talk a lot about open up about like health and mind, body health. And I'm very like I've always been passionate about the mind, but now I'm very passionate about the body and how the mind works. And other than that, I just developed very serious health problems with my my gut issues and my just my overall body, because my stress response was so high, my cortisol was so high that my body was initially shutting down.

So some of the symptoms I was having was like my hair was falling out like crazy. I was nutritional deficient. I was literally not absorbing any nutrition, any food. I was so tired and fatigued all the time. I was irritable. I was having trouble going to the restroom. Just a lot of digestion issues. And on top of that, I was mentally stressed out.

It was just horrifying and not on top of that, like the pandemic and just the economy. It was terrible.

And it came to a certain point where I was like, OK, God, like, I need your help. I need you now. Like, this is not how I should go on. This is not it. Right. And I struggled in twenty nineteen a lot mentally and not so much physically. And God really delivered me and healed me. But then it was just like another whirlwind of like man why am I going through this physical sense.

And this just it was just terrible.

And so I kind of just was figuring it out on my own and I was praying and I was like basically doing all of the wrong things on my health journey because I was looking online and Google, which we go to Google other source first and foremost, you guys do not do that.

There's another term for that because hypochondria and you just look at your symptoms and you believe you have everything. And guys, I believed I had an ulcer. I believed I had cancer. It was insane. But, you know, it was just telling me these things like you need to go low carb and low sugar and all this stuff.

And I was like, what in the world? So I did for a while and I was miserable. I got guys I went to visit Meredith over summer and she was like, seriously concerned. It was like praying for me. And she's like, you need sugar. And I was like, no, I need to help my body. I need to eat no carbs. And guys, it was a horrifying mess. Twenty was a mess. And basically, I at a certain point, I was just so miserable and I was like, there has to be another way.

So thankfully, God literally was opening up my eyes and the doors for me to get on my health journey, to get back on track, to get back what initially the enemy stole from me. And that was definitely my mind and my body and my spirit. Because you guys know John Intendant says the devil come still kill and destroy no matter what, and he will distract you. And so I was like, man, I'm fighting another warfare. But this time it's physical.

And so basically, it's just sent me these health accounts and I was like, OK, let me look into it. And so I started looking into the body and the mind and stress and fear and trauma and all these events that cause these things. And I was like, wait a minute. Like, I am doing my research. I'm finding out that I Shinagawa Aqab, I should not deploy my sugar intake, nor do Akito, because I was doing Ketel for a long time and it was horrifying.

I was so miserable and I had the worst symptoms ever. I was I looked very sick, you guys and.

So basically, I looked into these accounts and I will link them in the description below where I found all these resources from, and basically I was just telling me the opposite, like, you need to eat sugar or eat carbs, heal your body, heal your gut.

I also had this condition called leaky gut where like basically your intestines have whole holes in them. And for to give you guys an example, it's like a hose when you see a hose and it runs out water, obviously. But if there's holes in it, it's going to leak out. So that's a very, very serious health issue because then bacteria, bad stuff can get into your bloodstream.

And so I was really I was it was it was horrible. And so finally I got into these health accounts and I was like, oh, my goodness, there's answers.

And I was like, thank you, Jesus. Like, I am figuring this out. I'm getting better. And so slowly and surely over time, I got the right resources. And this is why I'm so passionate about my body. Health is finally learning how to heal what works for me, what not. And I would say now it's February and I started this back in really healing in December. So it's not even been that long. But I really feel like myself again.

I literally hair's not falling out that much.

I can I feel better, I think clearer like and yeah. Like God really was just working on me then and there, even though I was like suffering kind of. And like in the Bible says we were going through trials and tribulations and we will suffer for his name and his kingdom. And this time it was like the devil is attacking mean God was kind of testing me like, OK, are you going to, you know, trust me and rely on me, know that you're going to get better or are you going to fall back and just blame God and hate me and and blame everybody else in your circumstances?

And, you know, it came to a certain point.

I was like, OK, like, God is clearly just wanting me to stay firm and to believe and have faith that I will get better, that this there is a way out and everything will be OK. And so that's initially what happened. I started researching, I started realizing, OK, I need sugar, I need the right sugar, I need to cut up processed stuff, cut out things that are hurting my gut and that that is not initially good for me.

And so. I basically just started to implement these things and got a really good practitioner, got some tests done, and I was like, wow, I'm figuring this out. And slowly and surely, my diet has been helping me so much and God has been really redefining my mind in my body and healing me and so many other aspects. And I just am so grateful, honestly, to go through what I've been through, because now I, you know, sharing my journey with you guys on Instagram or here, you know, it's just a lot of people have been telling me, like, I'm feeling so inspired through your health journey or just I struggle with my own health issues.

Like this is great advice. And it just makes me so happy that, you know, my trials and tribulations and the things that I go through can help others.

And initially, that's just where my heart posture has been and where my heart has just been re redefining and re changing.

And it says here I just been really in the Book of Romans. I've been really just studying it for the past couple of weeks and I'll probably take another month to it.

But it says here in Romans Chapter two, this says in verse. Twenty nine, and it says, no, it's true, Drew is one whose heart is right with God and true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law.

Rather, it is a change of heart produced by the spirit and a person with a change. Heart seeks praise from God, not from people.

And I just thought that was such a good verse because in the last redefining it like 20, 20 and now like God has been really redefining and the Holy Spirit is like changing my heart and change of my mind and just getting just closer to my relationship with God and really just honing in of like, OK, I need to let my past go. I need to let all of these trials and tribulations not put me down to the point where I'm, you know, giving up on my health or giving up on my life or letting the devil take control of my mind and my health and take control of my life like I, you know, was just learning about.

God was through these trials and tribulations, has really been redefining my heart and my spirit and giving me strength and power and through Jesus to fight the good fight initially and just keep going and like putting on the armor of God and just be like like Joe like he went through so much in the Bible, God literally allowed s.A to destroy him. And he was still faithful. And like sometimes we we get wrecked by God and in the worst way possible. But that initially reshapes us and God mends us through our trials and tribulations into becoming who God wants us to become, to grow our faith, to grow our to grow our selves just as human beings.

And, you know, that's just what I initially wanted to like kind of just like update you guys on and let you guys know that sometimes you will go through these trifling, horrible times and you may not see a way out.

You may not know like God, what are you trying to teach me here? Why is this happening? What is going on? But at the end of the day, like, God just wants us to be faithful to him no matter what, and to realize that God knows, even even if we make the bad choices, decisions, even if we if we like for example, like I got really stressed out and maybe wasn't from God that he sent me that.

But through those circumstances, through that time that I went through, God taught me something. God really redefined me as a person. He redefined just my whole aspect and perspective of life, just how life is just to serve God and serve others and to love others. And none, nothing else really matters. Like I used to be such a person that was so consumed by just the work working like to have like the grind and the hustle. And that's good.

But just the health in a healthy aspect. But my mindset was in a different place where my thoughts and my and my priorities were not on him. And now I'm like, look, I know that I need to still obviously work hard and do what I need to do. But my perspective in life has shifted to to glorify him and our trials and tribulations. That ruckus will change our life and and change your perspective on a lot of things.

So, yeah, I mean, it was it was a crazy year for me.

And it gets even crazier because after that I was still struggling a little bit with my health and I. Just was completely, you know, in the wrong mindset and then, God, it was just like a flipped a switch, like I just kind of like talk to God.

I was entitled to him and worship. And I was like, wow, like, take it all the way. God.

They just my old desires, my old mindsets, my old just.

Just the bad the old mindset of just pleasing the flesh, pleasing myself, or just not focusing in, honing in, honing in on, you know, who you are calling me to be and where my mind and my my heart posture is.

And it wasn't really one hundred percent in with God because initially 20, 19, up until 20, 20, right before the pandemic. I was honestly guys, I was very lukewarm.

I was not really fully committed, like turning away from my old ways. I was still like half inch and a half out. And now I can't say that because I'm really just growing alongside with God. And it's a journey and it is hard sometimes. You know, a lot of people think, you know, walking with God and Christianity is such an easy thing.

And it's not like we battle with our flesh so much and with the spirit of God, with us living within us like Holy Spirit, we we win those battles against the flesh because we don't fight flesh and blood through our flesh. We fight it through the spirit because we put on the former God through the spirit.

But yeah, I mean, it just it was just a redefining year for me. And I just know I can never go back to my old ways. And I don't fear anybody else. I don't fear anything but God. And that's why I, you know, just my faith grew.

And, you know, going back to that Romans verse, like we we should only please God and have no fear but of him and meaning that we should with the fear of the Lord, we should not.

Try to abuse God's grace, and, you know, when we do sin and we do make mistakes, you know, really repent and really turn away from those things, because I used to also abuse like God's grace and basically be like, well, I messed up. Well, God forgives me. He loves me. He does. But there's that still defining pivot moment I believe that everyone will encounter where you feel the fear of the Lord and you will never want to go back to your old ways.

You will never want to try to deliberately sin or play around with sin or the devil, because you have that fear and you know that.

That it doesn't please the flesh and it's a sin and we need to stand firm with God and basically hate what God hates and love or God loves, but it says in Romans one 17, this canoe's tells us how God makes us right in his sight.

This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the scripture says, it is through faith that a righteous person has life.

And just going back on that verse, guys like I, I'm also moved from Sacramento to L.A. during a very, very rocky moment. My life having really nothing to eat and nothing to none.

I said that twice, but from nothing to none lined up.

Like I really stayed with Meredith for a while while I figured out a job and a place to live. But I did that pivoting moment because I felt called to move here closer with Meredith and I felt called to be here. And because my family initially was moving out of the house that I lived in in Sacramento. So it was just a really big, pivotal moment in my family's life as well, which is they were moving out either way. So I made it out to L.A. initially.

And I completely just my faith leaped, leaped because I was like, look, God, if this is your well, if this is your well, you will make a way.

And I have faith in it. And so initially, like, I figured it out, I moved here up in and December and January had nothing really and just worked every day to figure things out.

And initially I did. And God is so good. I'm now living in Santa Monica with the best roommate ever on Instagram down below. Her name is Emily. She's a wonderful, wonderful, beautiful girl inside and out. And she's also a Christian. And I just have such a great job. I love it and I enjoy it so much. I am financially just like everything that I could ever imagine, just lining up for me. And because I prayed, I believed I put in the work to figure things out and it initially did because I put so much faith in God.

So come to say, you guys, my twenty two when he was a little bit rocky. But I'm sure a lot of you guys can relate, a lot of people can relate.

It was a tough year and now just God has been renewing my mind in my heart every single day. And honestly, just living for him is all I want to do.

Like if I got tested and just God took everything away from me again, you know, and those moments, I would honestly just rejoice like I'm at the point where I'm like, God, you can take everything away from me. Nothing else really matters.

But for your will to be done and for people to know your name. And I just my heart and my mind has changed so much because honestly, you guys, I was very, very ego driven, like very just my heart was in the wrong place even when it came to social media. I was just looking for the attention there in the wrong places, just not really doing it for my for others.

It was for myself and my looks and and just my thought on life was not up to Jesus and it was just honestly not good. And now that it's just these these past couple of months have been so redefining with everything and just the trials and tribulations and everything, it's just grown me as a person. It's grown my faith. It's grown just my spiritual lens has been just opened so much more and. Yeah, initially, I just wanted to share that with you guys and just like give you guys a little life update, I'll probably do these episodes once in a while when I feel like I want to update you guys on anything more juicy.

And I probably know Juicy just about life updates. And I probably will add in more the next life update one. But yeah, I just wanted to encourage you guys that, you know, your trials and tribulations and the hard moments you go through, like it really will not last forever.

You guys, I was struggling with my health. I struggled mentally as well for a very long time. And I thought at a certain point I was like, this is a God like this is it. And he's brought me out and just showed me the light in every single situation. And even if you can't see it now, I just want to encourage you guys and let you know that he's with you. He will never leave you over CAQ and that there's always a timing and purpose for everything.

And I just want to encourage you guys to keep going to have faith to put on the former God and to know that you're incredibly loved and valued and, um.

And just put your eyes and your ears to him and just give everything you have to him, just throw your past away, just honestly, just come to God and get in the secret place with him and just and just dwell in his presence. I definitely share a lot on my Instagram with my health story and stuff like that. And I will be posting more content on YouTube.

So, yeah, I hope you guys would love to stay tuned and I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'm going to close it out and some prayer. Dear God, I thank you, Lord, for this time that we all have together. Thank you, Lord. For every single person listening to this episode, whatever that is going on in their life, whether it be school, whether it be their health, whether it be just their life circumstances, right now, I just pray, God, that you shine your light in their life to know that you are near and with them always because you know every single person's hair on their head isn't that crazy.

Like he knows every single detail about our lives and he never leaves us or forsakes us. And he loves us so very much. And he has a purpose for every single person. And I just want to encourage you guys also with the verse JEREMI to 9/11, for I know the plans that I have faced as the Lord plans to prosper you plans to give you hope and a future.

And I just pray, God, that with every single person listening to this episode right now, whatever the circumstance may be, good or bad, that you just let them know that they have a purpose, that they have something good coming out of the trials and tribulations, and that their future is going to be so bright and so wonderful and just for any healing and restoration that needs to happen right now to be given to them and any darkness or anything that's holding them down or anything that is the devil is attacking, I break it and rebuke it in Jesus name right now.

And I thank you, Lord, for everything that you are doing and have already done in Jesus name. Amen.

Well, that being said, thank you guys so much for listening to this solo episode with stars. I can't wait to see you guys in the next episode. It's going to be such a good one. And thank you for listening again. Love you all so much. See you in the next episode.

Bye.