God’s Relentless Pursuit
By Hana Mira
The theme this year, on the ninth anniversary of gathering as The Hungry Ones, was to explore the idea of what it truly means to live fully satisfied in our relationship with Christ. And you know what? From the moment we entered the conference venue at Mosaic Church the night before for set up and our pre-conference prayer, to opening the doors on conference day—we felt it!
God. On the move. In the hearts of the attendees and in the space. Even as the rain came down the night before and reports of women getting sick flowed in right and left, we felt God’s presence hovering, waiting to cover each of the attendees and our team as they walked through the doors.
And there were more than 350 of us!
We gathered together, united in our hunger for the presence of God, as students, single ladies, first-time moms, single moms, divorcées, grandmas, empty nesters, widows and more. Women between the ages of 8 and 82 across 88 different churches and 6 states. They came healthy and strong, as well as broken or healing. We were a diverse, intergenerational group and we all had one thing in common—to find out what it means to live a life of satisfaction in Him.
What we found in our pursuit that day is that He is already in pursuit of us all.
“Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.” Psalm 81:10
Whether women walked in lockstep through those front doors with God or let Him trail behind, they were reminded of the true Jesus who wants to know and be known, blemishes and all.
“The God of the garden can handle my worst,” panelist Éven Garcia reminded us.
“The trick of the Enemy is to get you to look at your circumstance—CONSTANTLY. So it might be true that I don’t have a job and that I’m single, but it’s also true that there is abundance in my life in different ways if I have eyes to see it. The ONLY way I can see those things is if I fix my eyes on Jesus who gives me peace.” – Éven Garcia
Preparing Our Hearts
With coffees and donuts in hand, we entered the auditorium to the powerful sounds of worship led by Kiki & her team who, along with Speaker and Coach Emily Jamieson, prepared our hearts and minds to be present to the physical moment, as well as the emotional and spiritual state of our hearts.
As a ministry, we believe that before we can truly ingest truth and direction about how to move forward, we need to take an honest assessment of where we are. During this first grounding session, Emily asked us to reflect on these questions:
- What are you craving?
- What do you want?
- What does your heart desire?
She also guided us to center our spirits and minds on God through a very simple yet powerful breath prayer:
In: “The Lord is my shepherd”
Out: “I shall not want”
This time was followed by a listening prayer exercise, extended time to journal, and sharing with neighbors. The sense that women were present to the moment and ready for whatever the rest of the day would hold, was palatable.
During our second session, we met Founder of Salt + Light Ministry, Jihya Harris, whose passion is to reach women in strip clubs—sharing with them the transformative love of Jesus while testifying with her own powerful story of rebirth and finding true satisfaction in God.
“Just like any job, I had good shifts and bad shifts. But no matter how much I earned, it was never enough. I was never satisfied. On a good night, when I made a lot of money on lap dances, I would feel on top of the world. But on a bad night when things didn’t go well, the doubts would creep in and I would start questioning, am I pretty enough? Am I worthy of this admiration? Over time, the money—whether abundant or scarce—began to dictate my identity and my sense of worth. It took a toll on me. So I tried to numb the void and the pain with alcohol, food, excessive spending and toxic relationships but none of it worked.” –Jihya Harris, Founder of Salt + Light Ministry
After years of trying to find a way out on her own, God sent a group of Christian women into Jihya’s club to plant seeds of truth through a pocket-sized book of Psalms. Jihya’s relationship with Jesus began in that moment, and reconciled familial relationships would aid her in her final exit from that life, and ultimately lead her to starting a ministry of her doing the exact thing that redeemed her own story.
Meeting Him in the Garden
Kiki led us back into worshipping God through songs like After You and Give Me Jesus as women came forward for prayer or were ministered to in their seats as the Lord met them where they were. After worship, we tucked into a delicious boxed lunch from our trusted and adored catering team while unexpected snow flurries descended.
After lunch, Live Salted Founder Krista Breilh hosted Laura Eitel, Éven Garcia, and Katie Matthews for our panel discussion—a raw and unfiltered conversation about the realities of finding satisfaction in God day in and day out.
“Outside of the garden, there are going to be things we are unsatisfied with because we are not in the garden. So as much as we can keep our eyes on HIM, it makes everything else fall away. The thing about satisfaction is, you have to know the One who can satisfy. – Éven Garcia
Laura, a woman who retired from her career and sold all of her possessions to move across the country with her husband in support of their son graced us with this truth in regards of where to find our satisfaction:
“Don’t look for love in the wrong places!” -Laura Eitel
And from our third panelist, Katie, a woman whose body was paralysed at the age of 16—graced us with these compelling words regarding the power of gratitude:
“When I try to strive,I get exhausted. But that’s when I take a step back and ask, ‘what are three things I can be grateful for?’ The gratitude really grounds me and brings me into the present moment, especially when I first wake up in the morning. I say, ‘thank you Lord, that I have breath in my lungs. Thank you that a caregiver is going to come get me out of bed’. There are SO many things to be thankful for. The more you are thankful for the little things in your everyday life that are EXTRAORDINARY, the more you’ll come back to God. It’s the gratitude that helps me remember how to be satisfied in Him.” -Katie Matthews
Satisfaction Redefined
At our final session of the day, after a little 9th birthday celebratory picture and cookies, Writer, Teacher, Artist and Mother, Megan Johnson, taught us that while the enemy uses our desires against us, Jesus uses them to reach us.
“The enemy devours the heart of a woman and hunts her hunger. He entices her into a dysfunctional, lifelong relationship with her desires. The enemy knows, he can’t satisfy your hunger. He can only SUPPRESS it. He can’t deliver your desires. He can only DIVIDE them.” –Megan Johnson
The way to thwart the Enemy’s tactics?
“Each of these enemy strategies has deceived me at different points of my story. But now I can see them a mile away. They’ve lost their allure. You see, they don’t taste as good as they used to because MY APPETITE is changing. Because I am getting HONEST about my desires.”
As Megan wrapped up, she led us through one final listening prayer, asking the Lord to put a plate before us in our mind’s eye and to ask ourselves the question, “What do I want?” If we could ask God to fill our plate, what would we want to have on it and what would He do with it?
Satisfaction Declared In Him
As the day wrapped up, in true Salt fashion, we ended with a time of declaration; a chance to pass around the mic and hear about what the Lord did in the hearts of the woman in the room.
“Creating a moment to share testimony from different voices is one of my favorite parts of the entire day. When these women boldly chose to share what God is doing in their hearts and it stirs up faith in the room. Every woman’s story matters, and I love that we get to affirm that through this time of sharing.” –Krista Breilh
Here are just a few of the powerful words that were shared by attendees in how the day impacted their walk with God, understanding of satisfaction and more:
- “A reminder to not look to things of the world to satisfy. Satisfaction is found in obedience and pressing in to the things of God.”
- “Our desire matter, and the Lord wants to give us good gifts to satisfy us.”
- “One of the biggest takeaways that I had was that giving our desires to God, doesn’t mean, pretending they aren’t there or suppressing them. It also doesn’t mean lowering our expectations. Instead, that means we trust Jesus to meet the desire if and how He wills, and trusting that He gives His children, good gifts.”
- “Jesus wants me just as I am, whether it’s numb, hopeless, apathetic, and He will go to great lengths to show me and to use me.”
What’s your Satisfaction Story?
We saw the Lord meet with our attendees in big and small ways, visible and invisible as He taught us through our speakers, met with us through our prayer team, and celebrated our “Makers” gifts in the Maker’s Market. We cannot wait to tell you more of the stories we’ve already gathered and we look forward to sharing the ones we will hear in the months to come!
Live Salted is a ministry for the hungry ones. They create Scripture-based resources + spaces to cultivate a culture where women live intimately with Jesus and boldly in their communities.
