Overcoming Hindrances

The speaker discusses the importance of the inner life and the impact it has on mental and emotional health. They talk about the prevalence of pain and hurt in society and the need to address hindrances to a fulfilling life. The speaker emphasizes the significance of recognizing and addressing the attitudes, beliefs, and emotions that shape our inner life. They share personal experiences of rejection and the process of overcoming it. The speaker also explores the role of beliefs in shaping emotions and attitudes and highlights the importance of focusing on truth and light rather than dwelling on negative thoughts. They discuss the formation of strongholds in our minds and how they can be overcome by seeking truth and spending time with God. The speaker encourages self-reflection and the pursuit of a healthy inner life. Hi there ladies, I hope you are doing well today. I recently studied and prepared a message on the inner life and when I did it just made me thankful for the opportunity of studying and chewing on and preparing information to share with others because I feel like certain topics are more needed today than ever and especially when it comes to our inner life. I mean think about it, how much does the person on the inside that no one sees physically, how much more important is that person than even the one on the outside and it all ties into of course the mental health, the emotional health, the attitudes of our heart, our belief systems and it's all so important and you know as I even learned the stats last week of the rates of suicide in my own area and even walking through the mall and seeing people and almost feeling or sensing and knowing that people are hurting all around us and of course naturally I have endured pain. All of us have endured the pain of rejection and the sting of betrayal or feelings of worthlessness or that we have been abandoned in some way or that we're not important or you know just all of the different emotions and feelings that come and so I am going to talk over this next session or two just about these hindrances honestly. I feel like our hindrances in our life to having this breakthrough joyous walk with God and there is a way to overcome and I feel like over the last several years as part of it is probably just getting older and a little wiser but there is some benefit to that and I believe that the younger generation can learn a lot and maybe avoid some obstacles or just learn some things early on that some of us have to learn the hard way or maybe it took us a while to stumble on the right information that we needed. So yes, what is our inner life? It's a little complex. It's our emotions, it's our attitudes, it's sometimes the strongholds in our thoughts or the sins in our hearts. We all know that the Bible says our heart is deceitfully wicked above all else. Who can know it? You know only God sees the heart. It's actually a unique phrase people say well you know God forgives me, God sees my heart, God sees my heart. Well you know what that's actually a terrifying thing because he sees our heart and that is the key and that is actually something to consider that you know we tend to look at others and point the finger and we can see the faults in others but sometimes we don't realize there's things in our own hearts that God sees and he wants us to see them but sometimes we are deceived which means we do not see them or we are ignoring the promptings or we just don't see it. Sometimes we learn one thing at a time and we don't get overloaded with all of our failures and faults and things wrong with us all at once but I think when we say to God search my heart, try me, know my ways, see if there be any wicked way within me and reveal it to me I think he can then if we really mean that and we can handle the truth without breaking and without going into pity parties he can begin to grow us up and to mature us and show us where we are off and let us work on it. Let us rid ourselves and pull those things off repent of certain ways and we grow into a more mature tree that bears fruit for others to just be able to learn from us and there's just so much benefit in letting God work on us on a deeper level and in that inner life. You know our core values and beliefs and desires those things really play in a role of who we are. They are the core of us. Our beliefs and core, we're going to get into that, our true self it's not seen by others but we all have that true self and unfortunately for those of you that maybe know my story I was teased growing up in school from the maybe from the fourth or fifth grade all the way up until the ninth grade I was rejected by pretty much all of my peers teased on a regular basis for being ugly or fat or that I stunk when I didn't think I didn't have we didn't have money I wasn't in sports my parents couldn't afford that and there was a lot of rejection deep deep deep deep deep on the inside of me where I felt that everyone at some point would reject me if they really got to know me and the sad part is I look back at that now and I think why would they have rejected me I didn't you know I was just a sweet girl I wasn't mean I wasn't a bully I was being bullied but you know what that was the sad thing is I thought no one could see the real me because they would reject me because I had experienced so much rejection and the truth is that that was a lie and me believing the lie of everyone is going to reject me and no one is going to accept me would have devastated my life. Okay so now let's talk about emotions and attitudes. Did you know that beliefs are regarded as one of the major determinants of emotion which reveal that our feelings are connected to our thinking and oftentimes we have feelings based on what we think and those feelings rise up if we're thinking to ourselves no one likes us we're likely going to withdraw from others and feel sad and self-conscious and maybe become tense because we think we're in a room full of people that don't like us or if we think I'm always going to mess things up we will stop doing things we enjoy we're going to feel anxious and lack energy and having these attitudes that develop into wrong belief systems it's a scary thing because our attitudes arise out of just the hurts and the different things we we go through all of us experience hurt or pain or rejection or mistreatment and if we are healthy or unhealthy it can basically ingrain something deeper in us where I think sometimes us just knowing the truth and being able to recognize what's going on and then react in a healthy way will change the outcome you know I remember just as a personal story because of all of the years of rejection I would read book after book after book on overcoming rejection because I knew that although I got saved and I was born again and God redeemed my spirit I no longer craved the things of this world I now craved more of God and I wasn't bound by sin like I didn't have this craving to do wrong anymore it was now something I did not want to do so it's like my soul got saved but I was still had this flesh on and the way I'd been wired in the way I'd been treated and was having to now go in and learn a new thing in a new system in a new way and be healed honestly of what the enemy had done in my life and of course he still tries even at of course even after we're saved but I remember reading rejection books and one of the rejection books had certain phrases and it would say you know say things out of your mouth profess things out of your mouth there's you know life and death in the power of the tongue and so there were events and things that I would even go to even later after I'm married and I would walk in feeling inferior or intimidated by those around me who maybe have a large ministry or or just I don't know I mean just the fact that I just had battled rejection so much it was and I had to sometimes speak out loud before I would go into events and say they they are going to like me I walk in the favor of God I am a great person and I'm a great friend and I'm a you know I I have gifts from God and there is no reason why anyone in here is going to reject me and if they do reject me God Jesus does not reject me I am accepted I am adopted into I'm a child of God and I walk in that and you know I had to really just speak over my own emotion to make sure I walked in there and not feeling digested and to myself where I had no self-esteem to talk to people where I had no confidence to connect with others and basically hide who I am out of fear that they will reject me and so it's it's so sad I tell you anyone who battles that fear of rejection I tell you there is there is an overcoming day because I no longer battle that I actually live in the opposite of what I spoke over my life and now I live walking around thinking that people do like me and and and praise God you know not in some weird way but just a healthy way uh you know yeah now now do I does my personality mesh with everyone you know there's balance to all of that but it was a stronghold that's what I'm trying to get to so strongholds in our thoughts we have to remember we all and many of you know this we're in a spiritual battle it's a battle between truth and a battle between lies and it takes place in our minds and if we are aware of how satan works we're not going to fall for his schemes we can basically know what is what I'm believing truth or is what I am believing a lie you know if you're in a dark room and you need to see what do you do you turn on the light you don't go focus on the enemy that is causing darkness you just go turn on the light and we don't we shouldn't focus on sometimes the dark things in us or the dark but where we're imperfect we just need to start turning on the truth turning on the light and how does the clerk learn that if a bill is fake they say it's by handling the real one all the time so that they can resemble a fake and that it's truth um for us today in our walks with God in getting healthy in our inner man in our lives in our minds and our emotions is that as we dwell on the truth as we pray as we spend time with God as we soak in his presence as we worship as we go to church and and connect with friends and and just there is a level of so that you get to a place of so much health and so much truth that if a lie pops in you recognize it and you're like oh that was the enemy you know almost like you can almost laugh at him and not be tainted by it um you know how how does these strongholds form many of us know but it's some of it's our environment how we were raised um maybe even how our parents believed can sometimes get ingrained in us whether they're right or wrong sometimes it's good and we got we've had great parents who ingrained the truth in us but unfortunately we don't live in a world full of everyone saved so um sometimes the the lies are actually ingrained or traumatic experiences which all of us for me my traumatic experience was being bullied for years um your traumatic experience could be you know being abused in some form or fashion in a different way or controlled by someone or or just all the or just all the various ways we endure in a traumatic experience the loss of someone we've loved and they can sometimes in those reactions and in those experience ingrain either the truth or a lie um when we give in to temptations even you know the bible even says uh well one we're supposed to pray that we enter not into temptation but that when we sin we're separated from god so if we sin and in those moments are separated from god lies are able to come and so um you know it's just it's so many different ways do strongholds set in um if we're feeling helpless i mean i mean if what if you know if you or i are feeling hopeless is that the truth or is there hope is there a real god who redeems us or you know is there hope if we're if we're feeling stuck does that mean we're stuck forever in reality if god is real and we're seeking after god and we are following god we are never hopeless and we are never stuck because all things work to good all things work together for the good to those who love god and are called according to his purposes romans 8 28 says and it even says in romans 8 1 8 that our present sufferings are not to be compared to the glory that will be revealed as revealed in us on that day so every single situation in every single circumstance can be used for god by god and we can have hope that we just need to keep following jesus we just need to keep walking in obedience we just need to keep walking in faithfulness because he's god he is jehovah jireh he's our provider he's the way maker he he will come through there is no hopeless situation there is no helpless person who is stuck forever that does not exist in the kingdom of god when i read the bible that is just not that's not how god works and actually just as believing by faith that we are not hopeless that we are not stuck just believing that god is going to make a way we'll make a way because of our faith so it is uh god is just good like that and um anyway let me keep going verses that i put some verses that were are good for just busting strongholds like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control um proverbs 25 28 that would i guess maybe even for someone who is like me and you just tend to want to eat eat eat all day and never stop and it's just like lord help me have self-control because i just want to eat um or galatians 5 16 says say so i say live by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh because a lot of us think that we cannot stop doing certain things in our lives um when we can live by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh the bible says on galatians 5 22 through 24 says but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control against such things there is no law those who belong to christ jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires we can live in the fruit of the spirit as long as we are walking in the spirit which is that's another podcast day on how to do that we'll talk about that may your unfailing love be my comfort psalm 119 76 says he is a god who comforts us and his love is there a lot of people battle that god doesn't love them or that he's far away but yet he is there to comfort even right now if anyone needs comfort from the lord receive it now may his unfailing love comfort you right now deuteronomy 31 6 says be strong and courageous do not be afraid or terrified because of whoever whoever it is or whatever the situation for the lord your god goes with you he will never leave you nor forsake you he is for you and that is ah it's such a glorious promise you know but naturally of course i think about um the verse where it says do not cast your pearls before swan in the book of proverbs and or maybe it's in the gospel actually but anyway um that verse just comes to mind and i know some people have misconstrued or what that verse means and when you cast your pearls before swine i believe that there's several different interpretations but one meaning that stands out to me is that we have pearls as christians as as god's children who follow him and who have been born again and the promises of god are for us we are the ones who can walk by faith and hang on and cling to these promises but we should not cast our promises to those who are not even saved to those who don't aren't really following jesus like they should that are living with habitual sins in their lives um and and are not truly following are not their lives are not laid down and surrendered to christ the promises of the word of god are for his children um and so it's for us and that's what's so cool so let's move on the false beliefs versus god's truths i there's really so much to talk about here and i have done several different studies with different groups of ladies before on the different things that bust all of this um feeling the the low self-esteems and low worth and because i've needed it myself and i i just wanted to study it over and over and over and over and over and i love doing it with a group of ladies one of the ones that relates most to me is perfectionism because um i'm a perfectionist by just the the my mom was as well so maybe that's why but i have i would walk into the trap that says that i have to meet certain standards to feel good about myself so if i couldn't meet a certain standard uh maybe even just like even of holiness or reading my bible enough or praying enough or um probably just through the years i'm sure whatever it was shifted based on whatever it was that i was whatever standards in my life that i was setting if i couldn't meet a certain standard i didn't feel good about myself so i'd end up moody or thinking i'm going to be rejected by god or by somebody or i would react defensively to criticism so i i walked around literally believing that i was never good enough and i remember um speaking at a chapel many years ago and with the students and i'm kind of a what you see is what you get and i am very transparent and just share whatever i'm going through or whatever god's doing in my life i don't just tend to hide i'm just kind of tend to be an open book and i remember walking in and telling them i've heard this message by by joel osteen saying that you are good enough and then a lady friend of mine giving me a word and saying trisha i feel like the lord says that you feel like you're never good enough and i'm like oh my lord i mean that's literally what god is telling me in revealing to me after and i'm in my 30s and i'm learning that i never ever ever ever feel like i'm good enough it's a constant constant struggle and i never am able to attain it and just live in peace and it's really sad and i hope that no one listening struggles with that but god had to reveal it to me that i i was dealing with those emotions because of i was such a perfectionist and i'm trying to attain and trying to meet certain standards or trying to get people's approval or sometimes it's not those of us wanting to get everyone's approval around us it's maybe a certain person maybe if you can think of that one person who just never really gives you that you're doing a great job you're amazing you're if there's that one person in your life that kind of gives you the eye of disapproval that person never good enough to that person and where maybe you care and i would battle that or thinking we must please others i of course there were seasons where i was approval addict where i thought i needed to make everyone happy around me i wanted everyone to like me i would do anything to avoid conflict or in any way form or fashion you know but is our self-worth based on our ability to do these things if our self-worth is not based in the truth that god made us as this amazing unique individual made in his image for a purpose with a destiny with a hope in a future with specific assignments from god then we are going to spin our wills in all of this other messiness of perfectionism and never being good enough and trying to accomplish goals and being approval addicts and you know what at the end of the day it feels so freeing to just find our worth in him and him alone to sit at his feet and soak in that he loves us and that we don't need anyone else to love us if if he does and if we're made whole in his perfect love and then you know what we don't walk around as needy with everyone around us needing their affection and needing their approval and needing them to to meet all of our needs because i mean of course there's a fleshly thing where we do have needs that we need other people to meet of course there's a bounce to what i'm saying and you know especially you know if you're married or your friends you need you know we need friends right we need people in our life god even created us to need others so don't overdo it i mean i'm not saying we just need god and only god we definitely need people but to find our worth in god and have that core need met makes us a much better friend a much better spouse a much better mother a much better you know a minister and everything so um how does failure make me feel or how does failure make you feel or or us feel a lot of times failure may make us feel anger or resentment or worry or fear or anxiety or depression um expressed sometimes and sometimes these things are expressed as impatient or being rude or blaming people because at the end of the day we failed at something and we are dealing with feelings and emotions because we just failed at something and so we end up displacing sometimes those feelings or turning them inward um and being angry or or fear or anxiety or all the all the things you know depression it's a real thing i mean people really struggle with depression and one thing um we don't have time to talk about it right now but i was doing a different book study with some ladies lady friends of mine and we really got to the core of depression with them some and she was talking we were talking about it's like this displaced anger um that sometimes causes us to feel depression because we're displacing the anger but if you believe you're a failure you may cut yourself off from worthwhile activities fearing you're going to fail um it's a stronghold in the mind to to fear failure um depression generally results when a person turns their anger inward or they feel a deep sense of loss and i think that's what it what it was in some ways it's you know when i say depression a deep sense of loss meaning someone passed away that's not always the case depression could be when a person feels any kind of loss any kind of sense of loss whether it be their kids moving on or their um husband didn't remember their birthday or or their mom didn't um take care of their whatever i mean i'm just this sense of of a loss turning into a depression and so it's like what to do with those those senses of loss and and really honestly turning them inward and allowing depression to come up is it's the opposite of what we should do we should be able to cast those things um over to the lord but also to realize that we're just sensing that there was a loss in that moment and what should we do with that with that um once depressed people become emotionally numb they lack energy or will um they believe that there's no hope and depression is the body's way of blocking the mind's pain and so really again i feel like or from what i've studied depression is linked again to the mind which links of course to these emotions and beliefs and all of these things it's all tied in and um we're in a pandemic right now so i just feel like this topic is just so needed and a needed discussion how much do we think about what others think about us um do you ever say yes to the point of getting exhausted um who who whose approval do you need to be happy is there a person in your life that you need their approval in order to feel happy that's that's a question only you can answer but hopefully you say no there's no one there's no one like i have to have their approval to be happy is there anyone in your life it where the rejection is something that you fear do you have a fear of someone rejecting you i am so thankful today that i can say no to these questions but there was definitely a day where i could not say no um a result could be that we have an inability to give or receive love because if they really knew us they might reject us um have you ever avoided people to avoid the risk of rejection that's of course i've talked about that so you guys already have read my mail and know my story um you know there's even a time where god ended up giving me a dream because i kept asking god to show me what was wrong with me in my marriage i knew something was wrong but i did not know what it was or how to fix it and i was asking i tend to have dreams and a lot of us do god gives people dreams i was asking god to show me what it was and i ended up having this dream where a minister that i respect got on the mic and said trisha you don't believe joe loves you or really loves you i think is what she said and i woke up out of my sleep and i thought that's what it is at the core i didn't believe it and because of the rejection it's just it was it was just the way i had built up walls to protect myself and to be strong and even though it's like my mind actually knew he loved me because i could tell right i mean i could tell that my heart was there was something in me that was blocking just a little block there that that that little revelation helped me break that down and go okay i've got to accept his love so yes it's so fun admitting our brokenness right and to other people but we can embrace and apply god's truth and refuse to believe satan's lies because of christ's redemption we are a new creation of infinite worth we're deeply loved forgiven pleasing and accepted by god complete in christ god made us an original one-of-a-kind person made in this image if we're being honest some of us have unfortunately even in the past probably performed good deeds to make ourselves feel more acceptable to other people or to god or to ourselves um i never thought about that before till i was reading in a book and i'm like wow i wonder what deeds or what good things i've done in the past to try to be accepted by other people or to try to be accepted by god or even to try to feel good about myself um instead of having the right heart mode of an heart attitude that just did something a good deed out of the goodness of my heart from a pure place of being something without trying to earn worth or earn acceptance how good and healthy that place is uh the focus of our lives should just be on christ and and making his name famous and making him known or making letting him use us to be glorified in the lives of and saving other people who need to be redeemed and need to be healed and need their lives restored and need to be saved um because they're bound by sin and and shame and worthlessness and and drugs and alcohol or whatever it may be um relationships from one to another you know whatever their cycles are that are keeping them bound in um self-destructive behavior god is the answer and really being born again um is the answer some people i think are stuck in these situations and and claim that they're a christian or claim the name of jesus well i have jesus i talk about god every day i pray every day but have they really been born again have they surrendered their life because if they surrender their life they're going to turn from those things now will they never struggle with anything of course that's that's impossible to maybe not have an area where we struggle but there's that balance where um you know where they've turned where we've turned our life and we've turned away from sin and we've given up everything we know possibly that we can give up you know that's different than something that you know there's just i hope you understand what i'm saying but the focus of our lives should be on christ anything used to obtain self-worth apart from god's plan goes against god's truth um it's just that's just the way it is another inner self thought would be the sins of the heart proverbs 29 says who can say i have kept my heart pure i am clean and without sin or mark 721 through 23 says for it is from within out of a person's heart that evil thoughts come sexual immorality theft murder adultery greed malice deceit lewdness envy slander arrogance and folly all of these evils come from inside and defile a person jeremiah 17 9 says the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond here who can understand it ouch our heart is deceitful this is one reason why we need to always stay humble because we could be thinking we have this perfect heart and the bible says it's the most deceitful thing who can it's beyond cure we really do have to say god i can't live this life without you i can't do anything without you i can't even be pure i can't have a pure heart without you i need your help genesis 6 5 says the lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually so god has created man and cannot find anyone who has a good intent in the heart towards righteousness it was only evil so it's telling us that we have these sins in our hearts that god wants us to cleanse and it goes deeper than just even turning to christ um there's these other areas where god is continually cleaning us and let's talk about them there's pride self-righteousness being judgmental or critical being negative envying jealousy being dishonoring unforgiving seeking our own glory selfishness anger or or lust a lot of us could can relate to any of these of course pride i've talked about that self-righteousness where we think we are right you know it's so easy to find sins in other people and compare ourselves to other people or judge other people but the bible tells us you know not to do that um it's actually i see it a little bit in church lives you know you might have the little church on the corner that thinks that they're the only ones who are doing it right and that they love god the most and all the other churches are worldly or off or that's a self-righteous thought um you know we are a the body of christ and that's a scary thing to fall into self-righteousness being judgment and critical kind of also follows falls in that um maybe one of these days i will do a podcast on being critical or being discerning the discernment of spirits is a gift but we have to be careful if we are being either critical or or discerning of something i've done a study on that and i would love to talk about that later but i i'm sure all of us have known a critical person or someone who always finds the negative in every person or every situation or of every church of everything they find the negative they see the negative it's just how they see life it kind of goes in with the next one of negativity um and it's some it's an area that i definitely had to work on in my life to overcome this because i was making joe a little miserable there for for a while because i was negative i i could find something to complain about and i know that even good leaders there's a leader in our life now if you say something negative he will turn it around or almost rebuke because the negative the negative vibe the negative thought the negative opinion is negative and it brings negativity into the room and it's just the bible tells us to give thanks in all things in all situations and honestly even if we are going into a surgery to get our kidney replaced as much of a difficult situation as that is and while we may have questions of why god's allowing it and all the different things or maybe the cost and the doctors and the headaches and the pain we it is still better to say thank you god that i have good health care in this nation thank you lord that there are doctors and thank you that there is help for me and that this that my life is not over because you have made a way and that you are going to help me overcome or just not being negative about it um another one is uh envy and jealousy and honestly this is one of the ones that i had to grow through recently or kind of recently i did not know that i had any of that crept into my heart because it was kind of hiding from me i guess until finally it came bubbling forth when i realized that i was comparing myself to so many people and when other people were flowing in the gifts say prophetic gifts or the gift of healing even or helping in deliverance ministry i was comparing and wondering why i had prayed and fasted and done all these things but yet they were flowing in it more than me well that's a little envious right a little jealousy there little uh you know even in ministry we can envy and be jealous and i think envy is one of the top things even right now that is causing depression i think it's causing mental health issues i believe it's causing low self-esteem and even there's a there's certain scriptures i think there's even a scripture in the bible where it talks about i think how envy can be like something that it's tied to even like just someone going crazy i think like there are verses that talk about envy and it's it's a deep thing it proverbs 14 30 said says envy is rots the bones think about that envy rots the bones i mean can you think of something rotting that's what envy does to you if we have envy in our heart and our world is a breeding ground for the spirit of envy we see everyone's life as they want us to see it and then negative emotions become rooted in our hearts as we are scrolling and seeing that person luxuriously living in hawaii or vacationing and wherever living a best life having tons of money or on their private jet and cruises or whatever i don't know if if there's envy there negative emotions will root we have to recognize that if we're feeling discontented or resentful or having longings that are aroused by what someone else has or the quality someone else has or the blessing god's giving them or even the gifts of the spirit that god is using them in the bible even says he gives them what 10 30 50 100 you know like we we need to be thankful that god is using others instead of envious of them envy goes further than jealousy because it says why should they have something that i don't think about the story of cain and abel and how they both sacrificed to the lord and god accepted one over the other and so the brother became jealous and killed because god accepted his offering and not his own um god does not want us envious of our brother and even of what they're doing for god saul and david do you think of of thought of david coming in and saw becoming jealous and seeing david with the favor of god on his life are we jealous of the favor of god on other people's lives are we jealous of the gifts and other people's lives that god's given them and that they're able to use them uh jesus was even um envied by the chief priest that the scripture even says that the chief priest put him up out of envy i mean i've never caught that before and it makes sense that jesus was becoming famous people were following him people were were coming around him and being healed and the chief priests were envious and envy is such a such an evil thing it stops admiration it it prevents us from admiring someone or respecting someone or being grateful for someone because we envy them james 3 16 says for where jealousy and selfish ambition exists there will be disorder in every vital practice oh wow what a verse i mean can you think of churches or ministries or or people that jealousy or selfish ambition got in and then disorder and every vow practice um began taking off and you know what some people could have looked from the outside and wondered and blamed and pointed fingers and god may have looked down and just said this is the core this was the root of it and hearts began things began rotting from the inside um and so that was one um that i i recently and and honestly too when i discovered that i had envy in my heart um as a general that i was i wanted to be used by god myself when i discovered it um personally i just fasted and prayed and said god i who can cleanse their own heart who can who can make their own heart clean and i don't know how to heal myself i don't know how to get in the uprooted completely out of my heart i don't want these emotions i don't want to feel this way and i need you to help me and i just began doing studies on overcoming envy and fasting and praying and i think just because i took it so serious and i wanted it out of my heart god blessed me and i feel like i'm on the other side of it and i mean i don't know if i if i've had i don't know sometimes we don't know until we're tested i guess but and again but i have not noticed myself struggling at all and i think to some degree even if the enemy plants a seed so say i'm around someone and they're moving and and they're moving and say say they're just i don't know i don't i really don't know an example but um i guess for us ladies it would be someone who walks by who works out all the time and has this perfect figure and perfect clothes and perfect car perfect whatever and so say i'm like man i wish i wish i could look like that you know and of course we know you know a lot of us want to look a certain way but we don't want to do what others do to get there and stuff takes work and honestly that's why to some degree you give someone a fist bump and say good job man you you work hard and i'm too lazy to do that to work out that hard or to eat that discipline you know god bless you um you know instead of just anyway i'm not i'm not i was trying to think of an example but um i just feel like we can totally get on the other side of that i feel like i am on the other side of that and sometimes you know what the truth is what sets us free if we just realize something and we see the truth that's all we needed to see we see the truth we take it serious and we're good to go um another one is honor you know to esteem or value greatly respect others um the bible exhorts us to express honor to our parents elders those in authority and even double honor to the leadership of churches um and honestly our culture is so full of a lack of honor for authority for police for pastors for anyone over us our husbands there's a lack of honor and which it means to value or greatly respect them and you know i it's a heart condition we know that david honored saul even he never spoke a negative word about him even hannah when eli that priest accused her of being drunk she said not so my lord she talked so honorably and so respectful back to him that it's a message for all of us to learn the value of honor and how honor um is tied to a lot of things the bible says um to honor everyone first peter 2 17 says honor everyone love the brotherhood fear god honor the king a lot of people speak negative things about our president and i think it's okay to say i disagree with this law i disagree with this um this decision but there's a difference in slandering someone and devaluing and de honoring them and and and d not respecting them at all and not showing respect in the way we talk about them you know and honestly we shouldn't talk about anyone at all especially behind their back or to them in a disrespectful way it's okay to disagree it's okay to say certain things i disagree with that i don't believe you should dress that way um i don't believe you should they should have said that that was out of line sure but to go further than that and slander and dishonor there's just knowing that difference and knowing where to draw the line romans 12 10 says love one another with brotherly affection out do one another and showing honor and so that has been one that i've been challenged in it's a condition of the heart again it's a it's a sin of the heart sometimes when we have dishonor in our heart when someone in authority has asked us to do something and we show up 10 minutes late or various ways that we are dishonoring in our behaviors um unforgiving that's a whole nother podcast to talk about a lot of us know that forgiving you know one of the best things i was taught um over the years in the past by different ministers was that we become what we judge and sometimes unforgiveness is tied to judgment so if someone in our life has been a jerk to us for example and we say well that they're a jerk at the core we just like we've judged them they're a jerk well you know what forever and ever and ever and ever they will always be a jerk because you have judged them as a jerk and then you will likely become a jerk i hate to say that but it was a boomerang and to learn those principles that we become what we judge there's there's certain laws of of living and laws of things that we do that matter and so releasing someone who is a what we would i'm just trying to throw in an example out there someone who's a jerk to us um by not late calling them and judging them as a jerk but saying that hurt my feelings or i felt they mistreated me this time but you know one thing i do and i try to do it every day of my life is say the lord's prayer and the reason i do that is because i can say please forgive me as i forgive others and if i do that every day it keeps the seeds of someone being a jerk or someone mistreating me or someone hurting my feelings it keeps that seed from going down deeper and instead i'm able to wash it away that next day as i ask god to forgive me for whatever's in me or whatever i've done to help me to also forgive something that someone else has done unto me another sin would be seeking our own glory as we know this culture especially i feel like so much attention is is put on ourselves everyone wants to feel important be important be seen be known and sometimes i think we could people can fall into that category of seeking their own glory um or taking credit you know i love i just read the story of gideon this morning again afresh i think i might do a podcast on that story at some point but how gideon jesus god tells gideon to go down to the army of 300 because he did not want the army to take credit for what he did and i think it's sometimes if we are not careful we don't realize that any good thing that we do every good thing that we do is all because of him it's it's all because of jesus any even the ability to speak or teach or write or read it's all really unto god it's all for god it's through god it's from god he's the one who gives us the abilities selfishness or anger a lot of us a lot of ladies sometimes i mean anger can be a big thing but anger is not a sin unless you sin in anger having anger is sometimes just a barometer that says ding ding ding ding ding something's wrong something's wrong you know so having anger is not a sin it is if we hurt someone in anger if we say something we should not say because of anger then we have sinned if we hurt someone that is when anger crosses the line and at the end of the day after all the studies i've done as long as i don't hurt someone hurt my husband hurt my children hurt someone's feelings because of my anger then then i'm not going to sin lust that's a given you know we do live in a world of lust where a lot of people love to draw attention to themselves and have lust come their way so we do have to watch out for that make sure that our heart is honoring to god and not lusting after other things or idols of the heart that's another topic but even in the book of gideon this morning as i was reading it uh it said that gideon after they had got you know taken over that many nights in that area of the land they took the gold and everything and he had put off put up this you know how they back in the day they would carve images they would put something together and and the bible says it became a sampling block to him and his family and i think anything that we adore or or put before god he's a jealous god and he he's um it can be a snare to us so the last thing i would want to say is um that we you know throughout all of this our lives we have to give ourselves time to grow and to bear fruit the scripture depicts seasons of planting weeding growing and harvesting and we live in an age of incense and microwave and electronics and we want rapid spiritual and emotional and relational health but that is sometimes just unrealistic and so we have to realize that growing in god and growing in the fruit of the spirit and having our heart become purified and sanctified is sometimes not something that is just done in a microwave it is seasons and times and and you know what and we the cool thing is we can be used by god in all of the seasons and in all of the times and now is there another time and season where he may use us more sure but uh as far as just growing and maturing and becoming more and more like jesus it takes time and it's we just need to be honest and have it's good to have healthy relationships um right thinking the holy spirit and time you know i naturally i think of someone right now in life that is is struggling in general and i'm i just immediately just wanted to tell tell them and comfort them in that a healthy atmosphere breeds growth and if you're not in a healthy atmosphere now someone's some people are in a marriage and it's not healthy but you know what certain stuff you can't get out of and you shouldn't get out of but you can outside of those certain moments if it's something that you're responsible for and it's it's unhealthy but you know what you can get around other things that are healthy or healthy people that will healthy friendships and have a healthy walk with the lord that will help bring health to the situations um so now you know i want to close with this first the thessalonians 523 says now may the god of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our lord jesus christ allowing him to sanctify purify and abide with us continually will strengthen us and learning knowing believing truth will set us free and cause us to live a life of joy so i want to pray for you as we close and we'll close this out dear heavenly father i just thank you for every every lady every girl every woman listening to this podcast even men if they are i just pray that you would come and that you would touch them even now i pray that your your spirit would rest upon them and that you would begin to do a deep work of healing where they have battled any issues of worth or depression or lies that the enemy has fed them or ways that they've believed or just things that steal their joy and steal their enjoyment of life um negativity or or judging or just um not feeling good about themselves perfectionism whatever it may be i just i pray that you would surround them and that you would begin to walk with them out of this and that they would know that there is hope because of you and that they are not hopeless and that they can even start now to enjoy you and enjoy the journey and enjoy walking out that they can wake up every morning and say thank you lord it's your mercies are new every morning great is your faithfulness you are going to help me today to walk into another level of freedom and the next day another level of freedom and the next day another level and that you what the the good work you have begun in me is only the beginning and i'm not where i'm uh should be but i'm not where i used to be says joyce meyer and thank you god i just pray that you would bless them and keep them and may your face shine upon them and be gracious to them may they experience the love that you have for them the inner deep love i pray that you would do a deep inner work in their hearts and in their minds and may they just live the abundant joyous blessed life enjoying every day enjoying who they are and who you've created them to be and their families and and and that you would just let them be the healthy woman of god that you've called them to be to be a blessing to all that's around them but without pressure from a place of peace from a place of rest may they be so ever so blessed by you in jesus name amen hope you guys enjoyed this and i will talk to you soon bye