Chasing Happiness with Ryan DeMent

Feeling like you are going backward is not the same as going backward. The storm that comes back is often where God does the deepest work.

You thought you were finally climbing out, and now it feels like you are sliding right back into the storm you just survived. I know that feeling because I am living it right now. After eighteen months in my own financial storm and years of walking people through their worst money seasons, I can tell you the return is not the punishment you are afraid it is. This week it hit...

Stop asking God for more until you can be grateful for what is already in your hands. Clenched hands cannot receive.

After years of watching people chase money and blessings they do not have yet, I can tell you the real reason God has not given you more. It is not that He is holding out on you. Gratitude is the open hand that receives, and a hand clenched around what it does not have has no room for what God is trying to give. Every morning someone asks how I am doing, and I tell them...

What the parable of the talents says about investing is not what most Christians think. It is Jesus being blunt about money, fear, and stewardship.

The parable of the talents is a money parable from the first verse. A master gives three servants different amounts. Two put the money to work and double it. One buries his out of fear and hands it back unchanged. The buried servant is the only one the master condemns, and not for losing money. He never lost a dime. He is condemned for letting fear talk him into doing nothing.

Stop forcing the outcome. Obedience is your job; the outcome is God's, and mixing them up is why you are exhausted.

After years of doing loans for Christians, I can tell you why so many faithful people are burned out. They are doing two jobs at once, their own and God's. Your job is obedience. Small, daily, specific. Show up, do the work, tithe, steward the little. God's job is the outcome. The growth, the timing, which door opens and which one closes. When you try to do God's job for Him, you do not just exhaust...

Stop praying the problem away. It is the miracle you have been asking for, from a Christian lender who sees this every week.

Every major miracle in the Bible has a problem attached to it. The problem is not the obstacle. The problem is the setup. Lazarus had to die before the resurrection. The wine had to run out before it turned into wine. The Red Sea had to be there before it could part. God does not do miracles into abundance. He does miracles into problems.

I am recording this one from inside my...

Stop looking for the deposit. 3 signs God is elevating you financially, from a Christian lender who sees this every week.

Most Christians assume the first sign of elevation is a deposit in the account. It is not. The first signs are quiet shifts in your character that you have probably not connected to God yet. You have been begging God for a financial breakthrough for months, maybe years, and you have not noticed that He has been answering the whole time. Just not the way you expected.

I am recording this one from inside my...

Stop tithing harder and start asking a different question. Most Christians spend their whole life begging God for the breakthrough and never realize the reason it has not shown up is not that they have not asked enough. It is because they are still doing three things every single week that make it impossible for Him to bless what is already in their hands.

I am recording this one from inside my own storm. I am watching myself do at least one of these three things right now, and I am not standing over anyone. I am...

Most Christians spend the entire waiting season asking God for the breakthrough. Almost nobody stops to ask the harder question: what God is really waiting to hear an answer to.

After years of doing loans, I have watched a pattern repeat itself. The client who prays for the refi to consolidate credit card debt closes the loan and maxes the cards again in six months. The cash-out that was supposed to save the business gets spent on a truck. The inheritance is gone in two years. None of these people were bad. Nobody asked them the honor...

When a borrower stops hearing from their lender, they almost always assume the worst. They think the deal is dead. The file got lost. Someone forgot about them.

Almost every time, the file is just in process.

I have been in the mortgage business long enough to know that a quiet file is not a forgotten file. And I believe the same is true about what God is doing in your life right now.

In this episode, I use the mortgage underwriting process as a framework for understanding what God is doing in...

Rick Warren says the number one sin Christians fight every single day is not addiction, and it is not pride. It is anxiety. And once I understood what that actually meant, it changed everything about how I handle a season of waiting.

This episode is not about how to feel less anxious. It is about understanding why anxiety is a sin, specifically, how it hijacks the waiting season God designed for your growth, and three concrete moves that bring you back to the present moment where God is actually working.

I share the Bayard Park...

I used to think God was a vending machine. Put in the prayer, get out the provision. Pay off the debt. Done.

What I did not understand is that God was waiting for me to move first. This episode is about the moment that changes.

In this episode, I walk through five specific signs that God is calling you out of debt right now, not someday, not when things settle down, right now. Each sign comes with a practical application, so you walk away with one thing you can actually do today.

What...

If you have been waiting on God for longer than a year and are starting to wonder if He has forgotten about you, this episode is for you.

Waiting on God is not passive. There are three distinct phases, and most people get stuck in one without realizing it. In this episode, I walk you through all three phases, what each one feels like from the inside, and the one practical move you need to make at each stage.

What we cover:

Phase 1: The First 90 Days — You prayed, you believed, and the answer ha...

Are you in a season where God just feels quiet? You are praying, you are showing up, and you cannot hear Him. In this episode, I want to talk about what is actually happening in that silence.

I share five signs that tell you God is preparing you for something bigger than you can see right now. And I get personal about my own story: 18 months ago, we were two days away from closing on a major property development, and everything collapsed. At the time, it felt like a complete failure. Now I can see exactly what...

Morning prayer is where most people start. But what if God is waiting for something more from you than a quick prayer before your day gets crazy?

In this raw and honest episode, I share exactly how my week went in the middle of my financial storm. The battles. The anxiety. The moments where I went astray. And the two faith practices that are keeping me moving forward 1% every day, even when the storm will not stop.

The first is a morning prayer routine built around three specific things. Peace. Purpose. And wisdom. Not a...

How to surrender to God is the question nobody wants to ask out loud. Because surrendering means admitting you cannot fix it yourself.

And that is exactly where I am right now.

In this raw and honest episode, I confess something I am not proud of. I am still fighting God on multiple fronts. Still stubborn and bullheaded even while my financial storm keeps going. And the things I try to fix on my own keep getting worse.

This one is for the faith-driven entrepreneur who is grinding but spiritually empty. It is...

Surrendering to God is the hardest thing you will ever do. Especially when the storm keeps coming, and rock bottom keeps finding you.

What if that storm was not sent to destroy you? What if God sent it specifically to change you from the inside out?

In this raw and honest episode, I share where I am right now. Bouncing off rock bottom more than once. Chasing materialism and keeping up with people who were just as broke as I was. And the moment I finally stopped fighting God...

When you hit rock bottom, you don't need a motivational speech. You need someone who's actually there right now telling you the truth.

In this episode of the Chasing Happiness Podcast, I get completely raw about the last few days of my life. Financially low, emotionally drained, and spiritually tested, I woke up angry at God. Legs off the bed, feet on the floor, asking "Why? What am I doing wrong?" And then something shifted. God didn't fix it for me. He showed me where the answer already was. This episode is for anyone who's in that...

Why can't I just change this on my own terms? I've asked that question more times than I want to admit.

In this episode, Ryan gets honest about something most people in the faith space won't say out loud. Being saved doesn't mean the storm stops. It means you finally start asking better questions. Ryan shares where he's at right now, still in it, still wrestling, and what God keeps nudging him to change from the inside out.

If you're in a season where you keep asking God why this is still happening and getting...

Be still and know that I'm God. That's one of the most quoted verses out there and one of the least understood.

This week I'm getting honest about something I've wrestled with for a long time: I don't know how to be still. My still is anxiety. Worrying about what's down the road that probably won't even happen. Asking "why is this happening" instead of asking "what is God trying to get out of me?" The moment I started asking that second question — something shifted.

In this episode, I'm talking about what being still actually me...

I want to be able to put my head down on the pillow and go to sleep while everything is burning, and right now, I can't.

This week, I'm wrestling with something that's been eating at me: why do I keep trying to fix everything myself instead of giving it to God? My friend's wife has this unrelenting faith; she just lets it all go and has no anxiety. Me? I'm stuck in the exhausting loop of fighting a battle I was never meant to win alone. I bounce between peace and panic every few days. I...

Why won't we give each other mercy? When someone is going through a storm, addiction, divorce, or financial collapse, too often we judge instead of showing up. We withhold the very thing they need most.

In this episode, we dig into what it really means to meet people where they are. Why did Jesus break bread with the people no one else would? Why your tribe matters more than your beliefs. And why finding the right people, not the loud ones, is what gets you through the storm.

If you're in a storm right now...

When life falls apart, most of us do the one thing that makes it worse. We pull away from God and try to fix the storm on our own. In this episode of Chasing Happiness, Ryan DeMent shares candidly about why we walk away from God in painful seasons, how God uses those storms to reach our hearts, and the daily habits that help you come back. Honest prayer, daily Scripture, serving others, and finding a small community of people who will show up for you. If you feel distant from God and overwhelmed by everything you are carrying...

When the storm has lasted so long that quitting feels like the only logical option, it is time to get brutally honest with yourself and with God. In this episode of Chasing Happiness, Ryan DeMent shares unfiltered lessons from his own never-ending financial and business storm. He covers why he refuses to quit, how daily prayer, Scripture, and radical consistency are holding him together, and what he has learned about faith, community, and finding peace in the middle of the pain. If you are exhausted, depleted, and wondering if the fight is still worth it, this conversation will remind y...

How to pray when your life is falling apart, because God doesn't need your perfect words; He needs the real you.

Ryan DeMent knows what it's like to be pushed to the edge. A house deal in Indiana is draining him financially, bills are piling up, and he has no clear answers, but he still chooses to lean into God instead of giving up. In this episode of the Chasing Happiness Podcast, Ryan gets raw about what honest prayer actually looks like: messy, tearful, angry, and exactly where God wants to meet you.

If you've...

Are you in the middle of a storm right now — wondering if God even cares?

In this episode of Chasing Happiness, I share what hit me like a ton of bricks on a prayer walk: I realized I didn't have enough faith to believe God would give me peace WHILE I'm in the storm. This is raw. This is real.

And it just might change the way you see your struggle.🎙️ In this episode you'll learn:✅ Why God allows storms — and what they're really meant to do✅ The difference between asking God to END your storm vs. giv...

Why Your Storm Gets Worse When You Don't Change This — and what God is actually doing in the middle of your hardest season.This episode of the Chasing Happiness Podcast is one I needed to record for myself as much as for you. I'm in a storm right now. Financially. In business. In real estate development. And it's been going on longer than I ever planned. Bills aren't getting paid. Revenue dried up. And I had to sit with a hard truth:The storm isn't here to ruin me. It's here to change me.I spent years chasing the Jo...

Trusting God in hard times — what do you do when the storm won't stop and you've been asking "why" with no answer?

This is the rawest episode of the Chasing Happiness Podcast I've ever recorded. I'm in a storm right now — it's financial, it's business-related, it's real estate development — and it's been going on for longer than I ever expected. Bills stacking up. Revenue gone. And I broke down on a walk the other day.

But here's what I've learned after 52 years: the question isn't "why me." The question is "wh...

Faith isn't comfort. Being faithful to God was never meant to be comfortable — and that's actually good news.In this episode of Chasing Happiness Podcast, I'm breaking down why the storms of life aren't punishment — they're purpose. God never promised an easy life. He promised He'd be there through it. So why do we keep chasing comfort instead of growth?We're talking about:🔥 Why faith in today's society is harder than ever🔥 The "worst-case scenario" of trusting God in the storm (spoiler: it's peace)🔥 How to find your real purpose — hint: it's NOT your job🔥 Daily practices that actually quiet anxiety (pra...

When you’re in a long storm and your prayers seem to hit the ceiling, it’s easy to assume God has abandoned you. In this episode of Chasing Happiness, Ryan DeMent unpacks three reasons God may feel silent shaping you from the inside out, nudging you toward needed change, and drawing you closer to His presence and shares how daily time with God, simplifying life, and finding a small circle of trusted people have helped him fight anxiety and find peace even when nothing on the outside has changed yet. If you’re exhausted, impatient, or frustrated with God’s t...

In this episode of Chasing Happiness, host Ryan DeMent invites listeners to look beyond the question of why and start asking what’s my purpose? If you’ve ever felt stuck, anxious, or disconnected from your faith, this conversation will help you realign with God’s plan for your life.

Together, we explore how to:

Draw closer to God during difficult seasons

Discover purpose through serving others

Replace anxiety with faith and peace

<...

When your back is against the wall, and you’re out of options, it’s easy to assume God is late, but His timing is never off. In this episode of Chasing Happiness, Ryan DeMent shares a raw look at ongoing financial storms, anxiety, and exhaustion, and how daily time with God and passages like Deuteronomy 8 have reminded him that God provides in the wilderness, blesses in abundance, and calls us to serve others instead of chasing the Joneses. If you’re in a storm, financial, health, or work-related, this conversation will help you breathe, pray, and trust that God is...

In this episode of Chasing Happiness, host Ryan DeMent invites listeners to look beyond the question of why and start asking what’s my purpose? If you’ve ever felt stuck, anxious, or disconnected from your faith, this conversation will help you realign with God’s plan for your life.

Together, we explore how to:

Draw closer to God during difficult seasons

Discover purpose through serving others

Replace anxiety with faith and peace

<...

When life won’t let up and everything feels like one long storm, it’s easy to assume God has abandoned you—but what if He’s actually protecting you? In this episode of Chasing Happiness, Ryan DeMent shares a raw financial struggle with a rental property and how it revealed God’s protection, not punishment, along with practical ways to find peace in the storm through Scripture, prayer, journaling, and trusting God one step at a time.

When life falls apart and you’re asking, “God, why is this happening?”, this episode helps you find clarity in the chaos by uncovering your God-given purpose, even in the middle of the storm. Drawing from real struggles with anxiety, burnout, and loneliness, Ryan DeMent shares how drawing closer to God, serving others with your gifts, and building a Christ-centered community can transform your funk into purpose-filled peace. If you’re an anxious Christian craving direction, deeper faith, and friends you can truly count on, this conversation will help you take the next honest step with God.

For followers of Jesus who feel overwhelmed by money stress, business pressure, or constant setbacks, this episode explores how faith and persistence can turn “why me?” into a deeper sense of purpose and peace. Ryan shares honest stories about financial struggle, daily Bible reading with YouVersion and The Bible Recap, serving others, and leaning on small-group community so you can let God use your storms to reshape your heart, clarify your calling, and remind you that you’re not alone.

This episode is for followers of Jesus who feel their New Year's resolution fading on Quitter’s Day and want to reclaim their faith, consistency, and daily habits with God. Ryan shares honest stories about anxiety, a draining development project, and unexpected provision, along with practical rhythms like fasting, simple workouts, daily Bible reading, journaling, and reflecting on Deuteronomy 8, so you can stop quitting on yourself, trust God’s timing, and keep showing up one day at a time.

Christian entrepreneurs and real estate‑minded listeners wrestling with purpose in 2026 will learn how to stop letting a job or W‑2 define them and instead seek God’s calling. Ryan shares his own struggles with business storms, money anxiety, and chasing status, along with how church community, small groups, prayer, and serving others are helping him discern God’s purpose and find a more fulfilling path forward.

Feeling anxious, overwhelmed, and stuck in a financial storm that never seems to end? In this episode of Chasing Happiness, Ryan shares openly about his own money struggles, the stress of putting every extra dollar into the business, and what it’s like to feel late on bills and alone in the fight.​

He talks about chasing the Joneses, buying things on credit, and the realization that “stuff” never brings lasting happiness—then contrasts that with the peace that comes from faith, gratitude, and remembering what God has already provided: health, family, a roof, food, and the gift of Je...

When God feels silent, it can seem like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling and your storm will never end. In this episode of Chasing Happiness, Ryan talks openly about seasons when God goes quiet and what that silence might actually mean for your heart, your habits, and your relationship with money and stuff.​​

He shares:

Why storms are often meant to change you from the inside out, not just change your circumstances.

How impatience, anxiety, and chasing promotions, toys, and credit cards can keep you stuck.

The journey from keep...

Feeling like everything is collapsing—finances, business, family, even your faith? This episode explores what it’s like to be under spiritual attack and how daily time with God, prayer, and Bible reading can move you from anxiety and overwhelm to real peace in the middle of the storm. Hear honest struggles with money pressure and doubt, plus simple faith rhythms that keep you grounded when nothing seems to be working.