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Becoming Whole
Relationships and sexuality are areas of life that can be beautiful or confusing, life-giving, or painful. Becoming Whole is a conversational podcast for men, women, and families seeking to draw nearer to Jesus as they navigate topics like sexual integrity, relational healing, spiritual health, and so much more.
Becoming Whole
Giving Your Body to God
What if sexual integrity wasn't an impossible goal but an ongoing journey of alignment with God's will? Join us as Josh Glaser, executive director at Regeneration, guides us through the transformative power of surrender in the face of temptation. Inspired by Mary's response to the angel in Luke 1:38, Josh introduces a compelling prayer exercise that emphasizes dedicating our bodies and desires to God.
Together, we draw a connection between Mary's act of giving her body to the Lord and the Christian call to sexual integrity. Highlighting the contrast between the self-destructive nature of lust and the life-giving essence of love, we explore how genuine heart transformation matters more to God than outward appearances. Whether you're struggling with sexual integrity or supporting a loved one who is, this episode offers hope, encouragement, and practical insights. Plus, don't miss out on our announcements for upcoming opportunities for spiritual growth, including the Awakened Men's Retreat and the Sacred by Design Women's Retreat.
Awaken Mens' Retreat - Are you ready to take your recovery to the next level? Regeneration is Excited to announce our First-Ever Awaken Men’s Retreat. We have crafted a two-day retreat at the beautiful Bon Secours Retreat and Conference Center in Marriottsville, Maryland from Saturday, September 28 to Sunday, September 29. Secure your spot today! We are currently offering an early-bird sale price and this event is open to just 20 attendees. For more information and to register click here.
Wives Betrayal Basics Webinar - For more information and to register.
Sacred By Design Women's Retreat - Are you a woman who loves Jesus & and you're doing the hard work to break free from unwanted sexual behaviors?
We would be honored for you to join us for our first Sacred by Design Retreat to be held on Saturday, November 2, 2024. This special time has been crafted for you to receive and relax, to create and connect. We pray you’ll join us as we slow down long enough to be caught up by our Creator.
Only 10 spots are available. For more information and to register click here.
Hey everyone, it's James Craig, spiritual coach here at Regen. I've been hosting our summer series here on Becoming Whole. This week we're continuing our series with an episode from Josh Glaser, our executive director here at Regen. So last week, kyle and I spoke about receiving receiving what we never got growing up, receiving from Jesus and his body, his people. This week, josh is going to share about giving Just as we need to receive. The Christian life is one of giving right back to God. In this case, josh today is talking about giving our bodies to him, even when we're tempted, praying along with Jesus. Not my will, but yours, be done, let's listen in.
Speaker 2:Hey, friends, as we start today, I want to ask you a question. I want you to consider a question and consider kind of answering the question just from your gut, like what does your gut say about this? Here's the question what comes to mind for you, how do you define sexual integrity when you think about what God wants, like what God is after in his commands around sexual morality? What's your sense of what that's all about? How does God define sexual purity, sexual integrity, sexual character, and how do you define it? How do you think about it? How does it feel in your body and how do you find define it? How do you think about it? How does it feel in your body?
Speaker 2:I think for a lot of us, we, we think about it more in the context of the battle against the flesh. You know this war that's within us, like we, we, we don't want that, but we do want that. I, I want to stop doing that, I want to stop wanting that. Oh, I really do want that. There's this kind of war between what we say we want and what we feel we want sometimes, or what we want sometimes what we want other times, or a war between the spirit and the flesh and it gets exhausting. I want to just pose this to you a different way. I was thinking about this recently and I wanted to just share this thought with you. I hope it's encouraging to you, because I think that sometimes what we kind of anticipate is that some, that sexual integrity is going to be some kind of like I don't know mountaintop, that we, that we arrived to a place where the stars align and we are sexual, integrous people, we are people of sexual character and we never struggle again and maybe that happens. I mean, I pray it does. I pray it does I pray it does for you, I pray it does for me. Lord, have mercy on us. We align our desires with our bodies, with what we're made for, but in the meantime, in the meantime, in the, in the day to day that we experience, until that day comes when, when temptation is removed, when our desires are rightly aligned, I want you to think about sexual integrity, because I'm thinking about sexual integrity and all matters of morality.
Speaker 2:This fits for how we eat and battle against gluttony and overindulgence and how we drink and battle against the desire to escape in alcohol or to escape in media. Oh my gosh, I struggle with that. So much just scrolling. Or our desire to find our worth in our work, or desire to find our worth in how well our kids are doing, or what people think of us in ministry, or whatever the other things are that we battle against. Yes, we'd love for the temptations to go away, but while they remain, while our temptations remain, might we think about sexual integrity, might we think about sexual purity in this way, giving our bodies over to God rather than to these temporary pleasures pleasures, giving our bodies over to God rather than these temporary sexual sensual food ego, you name it pleasures.
Speaker 2:What I like about that frame up is that it doesn't require the temptations go away. It doesn't require that my desires be perfectly aligned. It doesn't desire that my affections are more fully directed toward God on a feeling level. It's a decision in the midst of whatever I feel. It's a decision in the midst of however I'm tempted. It's a decision in the midst of however well I'm doing, however well I've done, to give my body over to God rather than to whatever the temptation is. And this came up for me recently.
Speaker 2:I was encouraged in one of my seminary classes to participate in a prayer exercise where, every day, for 10 to 15 minutes. I would pray through the prayer of Mary at the Annunciation in Luke 1.38. So this is the angel of the Lord has come to Mary, said hey, you're beloved by God, you're chosen, you're highly favored and you're going to have a Savior. And she was like wait, I'm a virgin, how can that be? And he says the Holy Spirit's going to come upon you and you will conceive. And her response and I recommend this prayer exercise her response is this simple prayer. On the one hand it's simple. On the other hand, it is probably one of the most difficult prayers. But the prayer is behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word. Or some translations say according to your will. Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. May it be done to according to your will. Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word. It's a simple, brief prayer and it packs a punch.
Speaker 2:So, coming back to this idea of giving your body over to God, however your body may feel in the moment, however you may find your heart or your flesh or your mind drawn to sexual enticement, mary's prayer is this beautiful expression of giving her body to the Lord, and as I was pondering it, a couple of things stood out to me. One was that this was not kind of a theoretical for Mary. This was not an out there like yep, you know, lord, if you ever want me to go on a mission field, I'm willing. What she'd just been told by the angels this is going to happen, this is imminent. And her response was I'm ready. May it be done to me according to your word Wow, wow. And how we need that kind of prayer in those moments where temptation is knocking loudly at the door. Now, right now, lord, may it be done to me according to your will, not my will, not the temptation's, will not the world's, will not pornography's will your will.
Speaker 2:The second thing that stood out to me is her prayer is really about her body. She is literally giving her body over to the Lord. The angel's word to her is the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you shall conceive. This is, this is physical language. The Holy Spirit is going to enter your body and make it so that you conceive this son, this child, and she is going to be pregnant. Those of you who have been around a pregnant woman, those of you who are married, those of you who are a woman who has been pregnant. I mean, if it's nothing else, it is a physical experience, it is a giving over of your body. It is one of the most beautiful expressions of self-giving love that a person on the earth can live out, in my opinion. And Mary is saying to the Lord may it be done to me, I am willing. She's giving her body.
Speaker 2:What a beautiful picture for those of us who wrestle with sexual sin. And Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6, you've heard me say this before. Hopefully you've read it and studied it yourself. It's worth it that our bodies are not made for the Lord, but or I'm sorry our bodies are not made for sin, sexual morality specifically but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. When we sin sexually, we sin against the body. Sexual sin is very much a bodily battle. It is something that we encounter in our bodies, and so giving ourselves over may it be done to us according to your word, according to your will, is like Mary giving our bodies over, in that moment of temptation, to God. And the other thing that stood out to me is how Mary's words really are. In many ways they reflect, they point to, they are a precursor for Jesus's own prayer later in his life, when he gives his body over to the Lord, the last supper, when he says to his disciples this is my body given for you.
Speaker 2:Mary gave her body for the Lord. Jesus is giving his body for his disciples, and this is just a little riff here. This is the difference between lust and love. Lust is always a smaller and smaller and smaller thing. Lust, when it is full grown, brings about the death of the one who has been lusting. It absorbs others into itself. It's just grab, grab, grab, grab. Devour, devour, devour. I'm taking your bodies for my sexual pleasure. And the pleasure becomes less and less and less and the desire becomes more and more and more, until the person's just kind of consumed in themselves. As opposed to love, which is expansive, which is life giving, which goes from parent to child, to parent to child, it's the family trees that grow, it's parent, grandparent, great grandparent, it's history, it's lineage, it's giving, it's more, it's expansive. This is why God can't be for lust and why he is for love.
Speaker 2:And so Jesus's words, like Mary's words, this is my body given for you, that he gives himself to his disciples, he lets them know that and then, of course, in the garden of Gethsemane, as he's waging a battle against his own temptation, against the weight of what is ahead of him and what God is asking of him, and he ultimately echoes Mary's prayer again when he says father, take this cup from me, but not my will, but yours be done as he is preparing. Father, take this cup from me, but not my will, but yours be done as he is preparing. Not my will, but yours be done as he is preparing for his to give his body over to God. So, coming back to us, what if we view sexual integrity, yes, as a destination that we're moving towards, as we hope for the day, long for the day move towards the day where our mental faculties, our regular thoughts and our affections are aligned with our true desire for God and for holiness and for love. And in the meantime, when we find that temptation is pounding at our door and we can feel its draw in our flesh, in our bodies, might we view sexual integrity as this is my opportunity to say yes to God and to give my body over to God, rather than sexual pleasure, to follow in the steps of Mary, to follow in the steps of Jesus, to follow in the steps of the saints who have gone before us.
Speaker 2:We are not alone in this battle. We too are invited to give our bodies to God. It would be wrong to not point out that we do this not on our own, not as lone rangers, but we do it one in the body of Christ. We are grafted into his body, which means that it's not just our willpower. We can draw on the willpower of our brothers and sisters. Christ has made us one. There is no dividing line. So draw on the strength of your brothers and sisters in this, and we draw on the strength of Christ, who went before us.
Speaker 2:When Jesus said to his disciples this is my body, given for you, he was talking about my will. You can have my will, my willpower. You can have my will. You can have my willpower, you can have my love. I give it for you. Why? Because you can't do this on your own. If we could, he would have just sent the word do it, do it this way. He's giving us himself.
Speaker 2:As we partake of the body and the blood in the Eucharist, we take in something in some mysterious way. We take in Christ, we reunite ourselves with Christ. Not to mention, he has given us his Holy Spirit Again. This is his Spirit given for us. We don't do this on our own. He is with us, and it's not just his power yes, it's his power, but it's not just his power. It is his presence, his tenderness, his love, his holiness, his direction, his creativity, his ideas, his inspiration that empowers us in these moments. So, brothers and sisters, might you give your bodies, might we give our bodies in the moment of temptation, not discouraged or disappointed or in any way thrown by the fact that temptations still come as strong as they do and we're still so conflicted, but rather seeing it as an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Mary and Jesus and the saints who have gone before us, to see it as an opportunity to link arms with others in the body of Christ, to own our oneness with the larger body, to reach out for help and to call on the Holy Spirit to say this is my body, lord, given for you, just as you gave yours for me. This is my body given for you. Now it's going to hurt, we'll feel the temptation, it may persist, but we can do this. We can do this.
Speaker 2:What a beautiful picture of love. What a beautiful picture of training in love. What a beautiful picture of a bride who is waiting for her bridegroom, the same bridegroom who gave his body for her. What a beautiful picture, what a beautiful orienting ourselves towards the joy, bliss, life fulfillment that God has waiting for us. It's saying no, no, no. All this temptation, all the bliss that's being offered me right now, it's not what I'm really after. It's a small thing, it's a small price to give up for my bridegroom, the one I'm waiting for. This is my body, lord, given for you. That's sexual integrity, lord. Make it so in us, lead us away from temptation, but when we experience it, lord, give us the power to overcome. In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:Thank you, josh, for your passion to see men and women give themselves fully to Jesus. You know, as Josh closed today's episode, I'm reminded of one of the final chapters of Mere Christianity, the classic book by CS Lewis. In book four, chapter 10, which is titled Nice People or New Men, lewis describes how many of us actually conflate Christianity with the idea of being a nice person. But Lewis points out that much of what we think of as goodness or niceness can really be caused simply by good heredity and a good upbringing. He even talks about having a good digestive system and how that impacts. But the moment those things are taken away, the moment we lose some of the physiological gifts that god has given us, the temperamental gifts, the psychological gifts, everything can go out the door. Here's what God cares about.
Speaker 1:Lewis says that God isn't as concerned as we are with mere niceness. What he is looking for is the smallest turn of the heart toward him, giving ourselves back to him. So if you've been listening to Becoming Whole, if you're a man or woman who struggles with sexual integrity or you love people who do, I just want to encourage you take heart. God sees our situation. God knows our upbringing, our heredity, our psychological background. But what he cares most about, yes, of course, is formation into Christlikeness. Most about, yes, of course, is formation into Christlikeness, but at the core level. That starts with the turning of the heart, the turning of the will toward him. So one announcement as we close out today if you're listening live in early September 2024, there's still time to register for our Awakened Men's Retreat, as well as our Sacred by Design Women's Retreat. More information can be found in the show notes below. Thanks for listening.
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