Have you ever prayed for an answer... and then heard nothing?

Waiting on God can be one of the hardest parts of faith. You prayed. You asked God for direction. You did everything you knew to do. But the answer still hasn't come.

So what does the Bible actually teach us about waiting on God during difficult times?

In Episode 6 of the Fighting From Victory podcast, Michelle shares what she has learned about trusting God in the waiting room through her own journey with Stage 4 cancer, medical decisions, test results, unanswered questions, and seasons when she could not see what was coming next.

You'll learn why waiting on God is not the same as doing nothing, how to stop carrying tomorrow before it arrives, what active faith can look like while you wait, and four practical ways to keep trusting God when the outcome is outside your control.

Sometimes you don't have the answer yet.

But you still have Him.

And the waiting room isn't a place where you sit until God finally arrives.

He's already there.

📖 Scriptures mentioned in this episode:

• Psalm 27:14: Waiting on the Lord requires courage, strength, and trust
• Psalm 130:5: We can place our hope in God's Word while we wait
• James 5:7–8: The farmer gives us a picture of patient, active waiting for what cannot be forced
• Matthew 6:34: We don't have to carry tomorrow's worries today
• Isaiah 40:31: Those who wait on the Lord receive strength to keep going
• Lamentations 3:25–26: God is good to those who seek Him and place their hope in Him while they wait

🎧 Previous episode:
Episode 5: How to Guard Your Mind According to the Bible explores how to take thoughts captive, separate truth from fear, and renew your mind with God's Word, especially when uncertainty gives fear room to speak.

❤️ If the Fighting From Victory podcast is encouraging you, follow the podcast, leave a rating or review wherever you listen, and share this episode with someone who may be waiting for an answer right now.

📖 Read the companion Journal entry:
Waiting on God During Difficult Times

🎧 Listen to the podcast and catch up on previous episodes

Find the Fighting From Victory devotional, prayer resources, biblical encouragement, and more at:
https://www.michellepinneo.org

We aren't fighting for victory. We're fighting from it.

Have you ever noticed how quickly one fearful thought can become an entire story about something that hasn't even happened?

One doctor's report. One Google search. One person's story. One unexpected phone call. One frightening possibility. Suddenly, your body is sitting in the present while your mind has traveled months into a future that hasn't happened.

In Episode 5 of the Fighting From Victory podcast, Michelle Pinneo shares how to guard your mind according to the Bible and a practical principle she began using during her own journey with Stage 4 cancer: Guarding the Gates.

Guarding your mind doesn't mean denying reality or pretending difficult circumstances aren't happening. It means becoming intentional about what you allow to shape your thoughts, learning to take fearful thoughts captive, renewing your mind with Scripture, and deciding which voices receive authority in your life.

In this episode, you'll learn how to:

• Recognize what is entering through the "gates" of your mind
• Separate what is actually true from what fear is predicting
• Take fearful thoughts captive instead of following them
• Protect your atmosphere from voices and information that continually feed fear
• Replace lies with the truth of Scripture
• Understand the difference between biblical faith and positive thinking
• Return your mind from an imaginary future to the grace God has given you today

Michelle also shares six practical steps for Guarding the Gates that you can use when fear, anxiety, negativity, or hopelessness begins competing for your attention.

You don't have to follow every thought that enters your mind. Fear does not get to write tomorrow's story. You can keep returning to God's truth, one thought at a time.

📖 Scriptures mentioned in this episode:

• Proverbs 4:23: Guard your inner life because what you allow in can influence what flows from it
• Isaiah 26:3: God keeps the steadfast mind in peace as we continue returning our trust to Him
• 2 Corinthians 10:5: We are called to take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ
• Philippians 4:8: Scripture gives us a biblical filter for what we allow our minds to dwell on
• Romans 12:2: God transforms us through the renewing of our minds
• Psalm 121:3–4: The God who watches over us never slumbers or sleeps, so we can release tomorrow and rest

🎧 If you haven't listened to Episode 4 yet, How to Know if God Is Speaking to You explores seven biblical ways to discern God's voice from fear, emotions, pressure, and your own thoughts. Episode 5 builds naturally from that question: once you begin recognizing which voice deserves authority, what do you do with all the other voices competing for your mind?

Coming next in Episode 6: Waiting on God: What the Bible Teaches About Trusting Him in the Waiting Room. We'll talk about how to trust God in the space between the prayer and the answer.

❤️ If the Fighting From Victory podcast is encouraging you, follow the podcast, leave a rating or review wherever you listen, and share this episode with someone whose mind may be carrying a battle nobody else can see.

📖 Read the companion Journal entry

📚 Find the Fighting From Victory devotional

🙏 Find prayer resources, biblical encouragement, the podcast, and more

We aren't fighting for victory. We're fighting from it.

Have you ever found yourself asking, “God, is that You?”

Maybe you're facing a decision, feeling a persistent nudge, or wondering whether what you're hearing is God's direction, fear, emotion, or simply your own thoughts.

In this episode of the Fighting From Victory podcast, Michelle shares 7 biblical ways to discern God's voice, including how to test what you're hearing against Scripture, distinguish fear from God's leading, recognize His character, examine the fruit, seek wise counsel, and know when it may be time to wait.

Drawing from her own journey through Stage 4 cancer, difficult medical decisions, writing, ministry, and unexpected doors God has opened, Michelle shares what she has learned about seeking God's direction when she cannot see the entire road.

You don't need the entire map to follow God. His Word is your lamp, His voice is your compass, and you can trust the Shepherd to lead you one faithful step at a time.

📖 Scriptures mentioned in this episode:

• John 10:27: Jesus describes His followers as sheep who learn to recognize and follow their Shepherd’s voice
• Psalm 119:105: God’s Word is the lamp that gives us light for the next step
• 1 Corinthians 14:33: God is not a God of disorder, helping us distinguish His leading from fear and confusion
• John 16:13: The Holy Spirit guides us in truth
• Matthew 7:16: Looking at the fruit can help us discern where something is leading
• Galatians 5:22–23: The fruit of the Spirit helps us recognize what reflects God’s work in us
• Proverbs 15:22: Wise, godly counsel can help confirm direction and protect us from relying only on our own perspective
• James 1:5: When we lack wisdom, God invites us to ask Him and promises to give generously

🎧 Catch up on the first three episodes:

Episode 1: How to Pray When You Don't Know What to Say offers practical encouragement when you struggle to find the words to pray.

Episode 2: Does Having Fear Mean You Don't Have Faith? explores how fear can be present while faith is still growing.

Episode 3: How to Trust God During Difficult Times is about trusting God when circumstances haven't changed and taking the next faithful step.

❤️ If the Fighting From Victory podcast is encouraging you, follow the podcast, leave a rating or review wherever you listen, and share this episode with someone who may be asking, “God, is that You?”

Read the companion Journal entry: How to Know if God Is Speaking to You

Find the Fighting From Victory devotional, prayer resources, encouragement, and more at MichellePinneo.org.

We aren't fighting for victory. We're fighting from it.

Have you ever been told, “You just need to trust God,” while everything around you still felt uncertain?

What does trusting God actually look like when the diagnosis hasn’t changed, the prayer hasn’t been answered, or you still can’t see what comes next?

In this episode of Fighting From Victory, Michelle Pinneo shares what God has been teaching her while walking through Stage 4 cancer, treatment, surgeries, complications, and uncertainty. She has learned that trusting God doesn’t require certainty about the outcome. It requires confidence in the One holding the outcome.

Through 1 Peter 1 and her own journey, Michelle explores what it means to:

• Hold onto a living hope when circumstances are uncertain

• Trust God even when fear is present

• Remember who God says you are when circumstances try to define you

• Recognize what God may be producing in the fire

• Trust God with today instead of carrying tomorrow

• Take the next faithful step without seeing the entire road

📖 Scriptures mentioned in this episode:

• 1 Peter 1:3: Our living hope is rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ
• 1 Peter 1:6–7: Trials can refine and strengthen our faith like gold refined by fire
• Matthew 6:34: Trusting God with today instead of carrying tomorrow’s worries
• 1 Peter 1:4: Our inheritance in Christ can never perish, spoil, or fade

Whether you are walking through illness, grief, waiting, fear, uncertainty, or an unanswered prayer, this episode is a reminder that you do not have to know how your story ends before you trust the Author.

🎧 If you haven’t listened to the first two episodes yet, Episode 1, “How to Pray When You Don’t Know What to Say,” offers practical encouragement for praying through fear, exhaustion, and uncertainty.

Episode 2, “Does Having Fear Mean You Don’t Have Faith?” explores how fear can be present while faith is still growing.

❤️ If the Fighting From Victory podcast is encouraging you, follow the podcast and leave a rating or review wherever you listen. It helps more people walking through difficult seasons find these messages of biblical hope.

Find the companion Journal entry, the Fighting From Victory devotional, prayer resources, and more at MichellePinneo.org.

We aren’t fighting for victory. We’re fighting from it.

Have you ever been afraid and wondered, “Does having fear mean I don’t have faith in God?”

Maybe you thought that if your faith were stronger, you wouldn’t feel afraid at all. But what does the Bible actually say about fear and faith? Does feeling fear mean you aren’t trusting God?

In this episode of Fighting From Victory, we’re talking about faith over fear, trusting God when you’re afraid, and what the Bible teaches about fear, faith, and uncertainty. We’ll look at biblical examples of people who experienced fear while still choosing to trust and obey God.

I’ll also share what this has looked like in my own journey with stage 4 cancer, including moments when fear was very real and I had to decide whether fear or faith would have the final word.

In this episode:
• Does having fear mean you don’t have faith?
• What the Bible says about fear and trusting God
• Why experiencing fear is not the same as living controlled by fear
• What Jesus teaches us about fear, surrender, and obedience
• How to respond when fear and anxious thoughts begin to rise
• How to guard your mind with Scripture
• What “faith over fear” really means from a biblical perspective
• How to trust God when the outcome is uncertain
• Why faith can sometimes look like trembling obedience
• Practical ways to choose faith when circumstances haven’t changed

📖 Scriptures mentioned in this episode:

• Psalm 56:3: Choosing to put our trust in God when fear is present

• Joshua 1:9: Courage comes from knowing God is with us wherever we go

• Matthew 26:38 and Luke 22:42: Jesus shows us that deep anguish, faith, and surrender can exist in the same moment

• Isaiah 41:10: God’s answer to fear is the assurance of His presence and strength

• Psalm 23:4: We can walk through dark valleys without walking through them alone

• Mark 9:23–24: Bringing both our belief and our struggles honestly to Jesus

• Matthew 6:34: Staying in today instead of allowing fear to carry us into tomorrow

Fear may knock on the door, but it does not have to be invited to stay. Faith does not mean fear never speaks. It means fear does not get the final vote.

If you’re walking through cancer, illness, grief, uncertainty, waiting, or another difficult season and wondering how to trust God when you’re afraid, this episode is for you.

🎧 If you haven’t listened to Episode 1 yet, “How to Pray When You Don’t Know What to Say,” start there for practical encouragement on praying through fear, exhaustion, and uncertainty.

❤️ If the Fighting From Victory podcast is encouraging you, follow the podcast and leave a rating or review wherever you listen. It helps more people walking through difficult seasons find these messages of biblical hope.

📖 Find the companion Journal post, the Fighting From Victory devotional and more biblical encouragement at MichellePinneo.org

⚔️ We aren’t fighting for victory. We’re fighting from it.

How do you pray when you desperately need God, but you don’t know what to say?

When you’re scared, overwhelmed, exhausted, grieving, or walking through difficult circumstances, even prayer can feel hard. In this episode of Fighting From Victory, we talk about how to pray during difficult times, what the Bible teaches about prayer in our weakness, and eight practical, biblical ways to pray when the words simply won’t come.

I’ve experienced those moments myself. There have been times when I could pray boldly and speak Scripture, and other times when all I could say was one word: Jesus.

Through some of the hardest moments of my own journey, God has been teaching me that Christian prayer is not about finding perfect words. Prayer is about coming to Him honestly, whether that means beginning with gratitude, praying Scripture, sitting quietly in His presence, allowing someone else to pray for you, or simply surrendering what you cannot control.

In this episode:
• What Romans 8:26 teaches us about prayer in our weakness
• Why your prayers don’t have to sound perfect
• Why beginning with gratitude can change the posture of prayer
• How to pray one honest sentence when you have nothing else to say
• How tears can become prayer when words fail
• How to pray Scripture when fear and uncertainty take over
• Why simply saying the name of Jesus can be a prayer
• How to be still and give God room to speak
• Why other believers can carry you in prayer when you’re exhausted
• What surrender looks like when you don’t know what God is going to do

📖 Scriptures mentioned in this episode:

• Romans 8:26: The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness when we don’t know what to pray

• Psalm 56: God sees and takes notice of our tears• Matthew 14:30: Peter’s simple prayer, “Lord, save me!”

• Psalm 13: Bringing our honest questions to God while still choosing to trust Him

• Philippians 4:6–7: Bringing our requests to God with thanksgiving and receiving His peace

• Isaiah 41:10: God’s presence and strength when we are afraid

• Psalm 46 and Psalm 46:10: God as our refuge and learning to be still before Him

• Matthew 11:28: Jesus’ invitation to come to Him when we are weary and burdened

• Matthew 26:39: Jesus models honest prayer and surrender to the Father’s will

If you’re walking through cancer, illness, grief, fear, uncertainty, waiting, or another difficult season and you’re struggling to pray, I hope this episode reminds you of one simple truth: God hears you even when you don’t know what to say.

❤️ If the Fighting From Victory podcast is encouraging you, follow the podcast and leave a rating or review wherever you listen. It helps more people walking through difficult seasons find these messages of biblical hope.

Read the companion Journal post and find more biblical encouragement and resources at MichellePinneo.org.

Fighting From Victory with Michelle Pinneo
We aren’t fighting for victory. We’re fighting from it.