Our Guest: Brayden Brewer
Brayden Brewer is a follower of Jesus, a wife, and a mom who cares deeply about faith, family, and living out God’s Word in everyday life. She serves in her local church through the worship team, small groups, prayer, and mentoring, and has a heart for encouraging others to grow spiritually and walk closely with Christ. Brayden also shares biblical teaching and encouragement through her writing, offering practical, Scripture-centered insights for daily life. By profession, Brayden teaches high school English, but her greatest passion is discipleship and pointing people toward hope, purpose, and freedom in Jesus. She values honest, grace-filled conversations about faith and obedience and brings a warm, relatable voice to the messages she shares.
Key Thoughts and Scriptures:
- Placing our trust, identity, and hope in anything other than God carries real consequences.
Psalm 16 NIV …I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”…Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more….Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup…You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
- True life and lasting joy are found only in Him.
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” – St. Augustine
- Joy doesn’t come from a pain-free life, but from a surrendered one.
- He is a living, breathing God and wants to have a personal relationship with us.
- God has a plan and is able to redeem even our failures.
- When we sin, it can distort not only how we view ourselves, but how we view God.
Romans 8:1 NIV Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
- It is often easier to believe lies than truth, especially when shame or failure is present.
- Brayden felt she had to earn her way back to God instead of receiving the free gift of salvation.
- God never turns His back on us, even when we struggle.
Hebrews 10:25 NKJV Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another…
- Community matters because isolation makes us more vulnerable to lies and spiritual attack.
Brayden dedicated a year to intentionally strengthening her relationship with God.
- During that season, God revealed to Brayden that her calling was not to serve as an attorney in earthly courts, but to serve His purposes in a greater, spiritual calling.
- He led her toward teaching, where she found deep purpose in helping children from difficult and broken backgrounds discover hope in Christ.
- Through this calling, Brayden helped them understand the power and impact their words can carry.
- After putting her trust in the wrong person and not asking the Lord, she didn’t trust herself to judge character.
Jeremiah 29:11 NIV For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
- She wanted God to bless her plans instead of surrendering those and asking Him for His plans for her.
- When faced with problems, instead of coming together and inviting the Lord into those problems, Brayden and her husband tried figuring them out on their own.
- When her husband had an affair, she was angry. And didn’t want to go through the pain of healing. But hurt people hurt people.
- A good seed can grow for a little bit, but if it’s not taking root in good soil, it’s not gonna last. And when the winds of change or trouble start blowing, it’ll be very easy for that little flower to fly away.
- Sin happens in cycles.
- Fear will lead you to try to control things. And when you can’t control things, especially people, you act out in anger.
Brayden was bringing her anger to the Lord and doing all the right things except for surrendering.
Deuteronomy 32:35 NKJV Vengeance is Mine…
- The Lord said He would vindicate her, but Brayden wanted it on her timeline.
- But none of that was God’s plan.
Psalm 34:18 NIV The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
- Brayden didn’t allow God into her pain.
- Even though she and her husband went to counseling, there was a lack of repentance on both sides.
- When you know that you have a calling on your life and you’re not walking in that calling, that’s disobedience.
- Cancer has a way of shaking everything up.
- After her diagnosis, her husband told her, “I don’t have the capacity to deal with you.”
- So Brayden cried out to the Lord because He was the one place she knew she could go.
- “I don’t know who you are. And I don’t know what you’re going through, but I just feel like the Lord let me tell you that you’re getting ready to walk through a transition, but God has already prepared everybody that you need to go through this transition.”
- While going through the divorce, she felt like the woman brought before Jesus in her sin. (John 8:1-11 NIV)
- “God, I don’t know how to deal with all of this. I need you.”
Brayden was determined to end the cycle of divorce.
- At the same time, God showed her through Scripture that there are biblical grounds for divorce, including infidelity and abandonment if an unbelieving spouse chooses to leave.
- “We didn’t have a good foundation to begin with. And so there was a grieving process, grieving of things that I thought we were gonna be able to do.”
- When you honor God during a divorce, He will break things that you never knew needed to be broken and He will restore things that you never thought could be restored in the first place.
- So Brayden started trusting Him, “Lord, whatever you want.”
- Every question she had, God had the answer. She just needed to be silent enough to hear.
- And the Lord said,”Let’s get your healing because you’re going to walk your children through healing.”
Brayden didn’t want to tell her children about the cancer or the divorce.
- And the Lord said to her, “How will I ever help write their testimony if you don’t let me in?”
- Often, our identities are based on who our parents are.
- When we don’t know who we are and don’t know who we are in Christ, then the enemy swoops in and tries to use the world to tell you who you are.
- “I’m going to be vulnerable and I’m going to let my kids see my pain because I’m going to let them see my healing. And I’m going to let them see my victory. I’m going to let them see that the victory that God has for me is the same victory God has for them.”
- Brayden prayed, “Lord, reveal yourself to my kids in a way that they cannot ignore you anymore.”
- Sometimes He’ll do that through relationships and sometimes through His word. And sometimes He’ll do it through both.
John 14:6 NIV Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life…
- Truth was like a healing bomb on her daughter’s heart.
- The Lord allowed Brayden to go through a season of silence so she could learn what obedience genuinely looked like.
- She gave God her heart and all the broken pieces.
- God has two speeds, slowly and suddenly. And He will work things out in such a way that He will redeem lost time.
- God is not one who does things half-heartedly. He does things thoroughly and fully.
Psalm 37:4 NIV Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
“Lord, I’m gonna delight in you and I’m giving you my desires. If this is what you have for me Lord. I will receive that gift.”
- Brayden told God, “I don’t want to make a person my idol.”
- God takes notice of trauma that happens on a specific day and He redeems that day.
- You have to be willing to lay it all down.
- Life does not always work out the way that you want it to. And you have to walk in forgiveness.
Matthew 6:9-13 NIV The Lord’s prayer
Nehemiah 8:10 NIV …For the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Philippians 4:13 NKJV I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
The Woman with the Flask of Oil
- This woman was willing to lay down her financial stability.
- She was also willing to lay down her ego, pride, everything at the feet of Jesus.
- When we’re willing to lay it all at the feet of Jesus, He picks us up and puts us in places that nobody else could put us.
- God doesn’t wait for us to have it all figured out. He loves us anyway and meets us right where we are.
- And when we’re willing to lay things down, He proves Himself faithful.
- When God becomes our refuge and our portion, He leads us on a path of life and joy we never could have orchestrated on our own.
- Joy doesn’t come from a pain-free story, but from a surrendered one.
Psalm 119:105 NKJV Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Revelation 12:11 NKJV And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony…
- Just stay in today. We don’t need to worry about tomorrow because God already has it planned out.
- He’s able to redeem our past, but is so good and loving and personal that He’s also with us in the present.
Links for Brayden:
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