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
You Need a Rule of Life Part 2
The world has a plan for your formation—are you consciously designing your counter-strategy? In this episode, we continue our conversation about developing a "rule of life" that helps us resist the powerful current of cultural formation pulling us away from Christ-likeness.
We tackle one of the most common obstacles to spiritual disciplines—the subtle belief that these practices earn God's favor rather than create space for relationship. When morning prayer becomes an obligation rather than a connection, we've missed the point entirely. Instead, we explore how disciplines function as training exercises that prepare us for lives of love.
Resources from this episode:
- Rule of Life Workbook
- Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster
- Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton
- Daily examen
For more information or to join click one of the links below.
Manna - Men seeking freedom from unwanted sexual behavior, temptation, and shame.
Oasis - Women seeking freedom from unwanted sexual behavior, temptation, and shame.
Compass - Wives seeking healing from betrayal and broken trust.
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Free Resources to help you on your journey to Becoming Whole
👉Men's Overcoming Lust & Temptation Devotional
👉Women 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Women overcoming unwanted sexual Behavior)
👉Compass 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Wives who are or have been impacted by partner betrayal)
Hey everybody, we are thrilled to be back with you this week. Last week we picked up a conversation. We started a conversation on rule of life, the reality that everybody all Christians need a rule of life because the world around us is trying to turn us into their machine, their rule of like the trellis, they want us so that we can grow the kind of fruit they want. So we buy their stuff, end up being formed according to their image and ultimately steer away from the Lord. But God desires us to have a rule of life that helps us to be with him, to become like him and to do the things he did. Borrowed that straight from John Mark Homer. That'll be in the show notes again. But so we're going to pick up our conversation and talk more about rule of life today with me and James Craig. Hi, everyone.
Speaker 2:Excited to get into it. Yeah, I'm so convinced, josh, that we can't help but pursue joy. Maybe happiness in a broad sense, like if, if, if I'm waking up and I'm nodding off and not able to connect with god at all as I'm trying to read the word, or pray, or or actually another one in the past is, I would try to work out first thing in the morning. It's a very healthy thing to do, like you know, it's one of the ways to optimize your body or whatever. But, dude, all I want to do is sleep in. If I'm about to, if I'm about to have to work out, all I want to do is sleep in. And so what I found is I'm not saying that there's always pure joy or ecstasy when I'm in these places, but there's a couple of things about them that helped me to do them. One is I've found ways to make them relational.
Speaker 2:Our brains are longing always for relationship, for connection with God and connection with others, and so the way I'm trying to learn how to read scripture and even pray is a more relational way. And I'd argue and maybe you found this too like the more relationally I can connect with God, the more effective I am at that, the more it's like I want to do this, as opposed to like I just should do this, because the should isn't inherently terrible, like you could argue like, hey, we should read scripture every week, or, you know, perhaps daily, uh, pray daily, worship daily, you know, go to church every week, maybe twice a week, but like, but I think if we can't find ways to say this is actually bringing joyful connection, this is actually somewhat satisfying. I don't know, it's just gonna be really hard to pursue it in a regular way. And so one of the great saint prayers do I have it behind me? No, it's actually from a different saint, but it's like satisfy me, god and Moses.
Speaker 2:I love this prayer from Psalm 90. Satisfy us each day, something like this Psalm 90, 14, with your unfailing love, satisfy us. This is something we're allowed to pray like god, I need you to be my satisfaction, because pouring um all these other things might be the thing that feels the most satisfying. So, like, how do I pursue satisfaction in these things and in these ways?
Speaker 1:man. You know what it makes me think of. Like, um, I think it's so easy with spiritual practices to, to, to get back into some kind of, some version of God.
Speaker 2:Expects me to do this in order to earn something from him, to to get his attention, um, to pay him back a little bit for what he gave me, you know, um um, to pay him back a little bit for what he gave me, you know, um, or even like to get good things from him, like if I do my daily quiet time, things should go well for me. Like that could be the similar side of the other side of the coin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I remember, as a as a young Christian, zealous Christian, if I, if I missed a quiet time in the morning, I started to recognize I had this unspoken but also very powerful feeling that somehow God was going to be a little bit more distant throughout the day for me, and I think so where that stuff kicks in.
Speaker 1:It's important to notice that, and what I, what I want to suggest in this podcast is that our we might, we might respond to that by, or react to that by saying, okay, well, I'm just not going to do those things because I am not under the law, I don't need to God's with me all the time.
Speaker 1:And I want to suggest instead that when we find those things, when you, listener, find those things coming up in you, the feeling that somehow God is displeased with you, know that the hour you set aside for your quiet time, you only spent 15 minutes, or the 15 minutes you set aside you only used five, or that you fell asleep the whole time. When you find yourself kind of face to face with a feeling, use as an opportunity to come back to him with questions, to come back to him with the level of like God, I know that you're still here. I know that you still love me and I'm feeling this way about what just happened. I'm feeling that I'm not doing enough for you. Josh and James said don't trust us. Actually, spiritual fathers and mothers throughout the ages have said that we don't have to do these things to earn love from you, but I'm feeling like I do. Can you help me walk through?
Speaker 2:that that is so important and it's also this is another Willard thing he taught a lot of what I understand about the disciplines. He taught indirectly John Mark Comer as well, who we referenced earlier, but he emphasizes that disciplines are not acts of righteousness. I just think that is so liberating. Like sometimes in church we learn, okay, you gotta get saved and then you gotta have your daily quiet time, like in some spaces you could boil down that's the spiritual life. Of course those are two really important facets of it.
Speaker 2:But having your quiet time is not an act of righteousness, it's not a good work. If you will, and even if it was, it wouldn't necessarily, you know, it's still by, as you can't see right now, but John Chrysostom, the church father, is still going to be by mercy that you're saved, even if it were. But what is a good work? A good work is a work of love, an act of love. Good work is a work of love, an act of love.
Speaker 2:And so again, going back to that training image, having the quiet time might be, we realize, a fruitful part of developing a posture of love so that we can love people and God throughout the day. And of course we can love God in the midst of it. I'm not completely separating out like practice versus the game the way it would be for baseball, but like it's so that we can love game the way it would be for baseball, but like it's so that we can love, it's not so that we're like thinking of ourselves as, as you know better, or something like that. I don't know if that insight helps at all, but that's helped me a lot actually yeah, another thing.
Speaker 1:This is a very different direction. But another thing that's really helped me with spiritual disciplines has been I think I think this came from ruth haley barton or I don't know if it originates from her, but I learned it from her and she has got a lot of good, good spiritual and the rule of life as well. Um, but she points out that a lot of us in America kind of approach this with like almost like a you know, a vending machine idea, like I come and I spend my 15 minutes with Jesus, or I fasted for the day or whatever, and so therefore I should be experiencing the fruit of that. And she said often that we don't have, we don't recognize the fruit at all. We might actually feel, we might feel worse afterwards, like gosh, I'm tired, I could have slept in or or whatever. So we need to, we need to trust that the God is working, that seeds are planted and that he is, he is moving through those times. That's been really helpful for me, just to just to take the pressure off. You know, having a great quiet time this morning.
Speaker 1:You know not that I don't want great experiences with Jesus when I'm having devotional time, when I'm reading scripture. Like I love it when the scriptures come alive and something pops and I feel like, oh my gosh, god just spoke to me, he just reveals something new. I love it when I'm fasting and have an encounter with Jesus that feels like man, you took me deeper. I love that stuff. But when I don't experience that, instead of kind of looking inward and self critiquing, I can instead turn it back to Jesus and just say I trust you, I trust you, my days are in your hand, um and that's a good counterbalance, too, to what I said earlier about seeking things that bring you joy, because sometimes these things do bring you joy, but it's not always as immediate.
Speaker 2:There's probably a little bit of a both and like. On my walks I'm getting to see beautiful trees and plants and flowers and that helps me engage God's heart and beauty and it's good for my mind. And I'm walking. It's like there's this holistic goodness that I know. If I do that 30 minutes of walking, it's going to usually be almost immediately great. But things like fasting there's times where it's like this is miserable, but over time, or maybe by the end of the fast or something, hopefully God has given you something richer or deeper or something I don't know. There's more wisdom than I have, guys. So don't just follow your heart quote unquote because maybe you'll end up sleeping in the rest of your life if you do that. But, but, but, still like. Are there ways to find joy at the same time in these things, things that are life giving?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you're bringing up the reality that that any disciplines that we do and we're talking about spiritual disciplines it's not just new, we're talking about this before, in a different way it's not just something we can expect to impact our quote-unquote spirit Like they actually do impact us holistically. You know, there is power in the discipline of going to bed at a certain time, waking up at a certain time, taking a walk, fasting, getting together with community prayer, observable things that can change in us that we might not categorize as quote-unquote spiritual. And that goes back to what you're saying about elizabeth waning's idea that that we're not so the, our spirit and body are not really meant. We're not, we're not meant to think about them as separate things. The only reason it makes sense to talk about them separately is when you're trying to like hone in on what one area might do or mean, but really, like they operate together inside of us. They operate.
Speaker 1:We are spirit and body. As christopher west says. You take, take one apart from the other and you end up with what a corpse you're dead like. So, um. So spiritual disciplines aren't aren't to be confused with, or spiritual practice aren't to be confused with something that you just do somehow in the ethereal realm like these are actually very physical, very practical things and willard would actually say, like you do them with your body.
Speaker 2:There are things you do and arguably you could pray in your mind or you know whatever, but like, oh, most of these are bodily actions you're doing to, yeah, to engage with god well, and, to be fair, if you're praying in your mind, you're praying inside of your brain, which is a part of your body.
Speaker 1:So sure, um, and exercise helps your brain and rest helps your brain. So, like, even if you all you do ever do is pray in your quote, unquote in your mind and your sleep habits are horrible, and your habits are horrible. You're gonna have a harder time, you know. So it it all connects, yeah, all right. So, talking about the body, that this, this, now we have to go straight to that where we started, which was, uh, you need a spiritual rule of life. If, if, for no other reason and everyone has a reason but for those who are in recovery, those who are trying to heal from unwanted sexual behaviors, those who are trying to heal from infidelity, those are trying to heal from what's, whatever's going on with a son or daughter, you need a spiritual of life, and I want to, just by way of reminder, then we're talking about maybe, some specifics that could help you, by way of reminder. You need one because the current of the world, the flow of the world, the river that is around you all of the time, has ideas for what healthy sexuality is, and they are not healthy. They have ideas for what a marriage should look like no-transcript. And so for our purposes, we're going to park a little bit, just for time's sake, into the realm of those of you who are wrestling with unwanted sexual behaviors.
Speaker 1:You need a rule of life, not because God's holding out on you, not because you've done something wrong and you're guilty and you better now do this good thing, but simply because there are the forces of the world certainly the forces now of your flesh that have learned to habitualize towards sexual sin, and there are malevolent forces, devils, that are actually seeking to draw you away from God and draw you towards sexual sin. So you'd be captive there. You need a rule of life. So, james, kind of putting it in this context, I know in your recovery journey you had specific things that you would do. What of those things would you say? "'yeah, for a season these were a part of my rule of life? "'to grow in sexual integrity'".
Speaker 2:That's such a good question rule of life, but well, yeah, but yeah, what are things, what are patterns that I really need? So let me again think daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, just a little bit, as as as buckets. Here's some ideas and again, if you don't do these things doesn't mean you know, like you will never recover or something like that. But these, which of these might give you life? Which of these draws you toward jesus and his body? You know, one of the ideas is daily. What could it look like to reach out to a brother or a sister, you know gender specific or the same gender daily, like, is there the same person, are there different people? If you're in Awaken360 or one of these recovery groups or programs, like, is it a different person from your group each day? And that would actually begin teaching you. You're not alone in this. You could receive some prayer. You're growing relationally. Another thing is, I'd say, at least on a weekly basis, very easy. If you're in Awaken or something like that, you have content. But like, what could it look like to engage in recovery, focused content, every single week?
Speaker 2:I remember Josh going through Awaken when I was a participant. I can't help plug it because it really did like God used it to change my life and part of it was when I'd sit there, you know, engage the video, the reading and then the questions, and I really did the questions with Jesus. I had like at least two, and this is out of two years. So I really did the questions with Jesus. I had like at least two, and this is out of two years, so I'm not saying it happened every week, but I had two of like the most life-changing experiences. Reflecting on some of those questions where God brought me back into a memory, I literally could feel my brain like felt like it was, like it was like goosebumps, but on my brain and I knew God was healing me, perhaps even in my brain like, wow, there there's a wisdom to not overdoing the recovery I know some guys benefit from. Hey, I need to go to a group every single day for a season, but but at the very least, I think we need to find ways to invest in particular ways.
Speaker 2:One idea for monthly I guess I'm just going to list one for each at this rate, but one idea for monthly. What could a monthly fast look like? A 24 hour could be more, could be less, but a food and or a tech fast, and I throw the idea of a tech fast in, because when we actually take that break from technology, I've noticed and this was in my 2023 rule of life it's dropped out of my life. I used to do a monthly tech fast and if I, if I planned it well and I had a meal with this friend and I had this time with my wife and I went on a walk here like it was so joyful and by the end of the day, into the next day, I felt more alive than I'd felt in weeks, which shows you know, the research shows these things don't actually bring us I'm holding on my phone for those not watching the YouTube video but these things don't actually bring us as much life as they're promising. And so, whether it's with tech like I just shared, or food teaching yourself, I don't actually need food. Obviously, we need food in the long run, somewhere between 22 to 40 days, your body starts eating away at its organs without food, so we do need food.
Speaker 2:That's a whole interesting conversation we can reference in the show notes where I got that, which is Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline. He talks about the details of fasting, but Jesus did a literal 40-day food fast and I know people who have done that too Wild. It's a little maybe extreme for some of the listeners here, but but what could a monthly 24-hour fast look like? Teaching yourself I don't need food for this day, I need the lord in this place. And what? How? How might his power show up? Like teaching you to say no to this very real desire and, yeah, longer term need versus with sex? We don't actually need sex.
Speaker 2:You've hopefully heard that from us before, but you're saying I'm going to say no to this thing that, yeah, in the long run, I do need so that God can come and fill in some of these places. And it's teaching you some of that Yearly. It might be a retreat. We're actually having our awakened retreat again this fall in October. Some guys found that really life-changing like getting away with a group of like-minded believers to get after some stuff. That could be a really powerful kind of you know, refreshment in this journey. Those are just four, four ideas right off the top, josh, I'm sure there's many, many more. You stole all mine.
Speaker 1:So that's fantastic. The other thing I'd add about fasting is that and there's more mystery to it than this, but it is among the spiritual disciplines it has a unique place, related to sexuality, in that we feel the longing in our bodies, and so it is teaching our bodies that we can say no. We can say no I don't mean that over and against our bodies and so it is teaching our bodies that we can say no. We can say no, Um. I don't mean that over and against our bodies. What I mean is that our bodies can say no, Um.
Speaker 1:One of the things I love to do when I fast is, when I feel hunger pangs, to turn that as prayer to the Lord with a simple I hunger and thirst for you, Lord, I long for you most of all, and that's been really meaningful to me. John Mark Comer actually teaches that in the early church, a lot of people it was a pretty regular thing for a long, long time would fast two days a week, from sunup till sundown, and that's something that in the modern era we've really lost. Fasting is kind of a unique thing.
Speaker 2:Well, I've actually heard some of our roman catholic brothers and sisters they, they fast from meat on fridays, still to this day. I'm like, oh okay, you're doing something each week to remind yourself like you don't live on bread alone. Like jesus would say like yeah, some of the things our bodies wants it doesn't need, in that moment at least, right, yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly, exactly, um, uh, two others that I'd include, like for early recovery, I'd say at least, and I'd include this in the kind of the idea of you going to a group, as you described, every week confession. So confession is typically a, a it is included in a recovery group, um, but confessing, getting it all out, what did you do this week? What are the sins that you committed, and saying them plain. I'm a, I'm a big fan of that. I had a mentor at one point who really helped me with that, like I, I had so much, I don't know, like fat and fluff around my confession.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you just say, josh, just say what you did, like um, um, kind of stripped it of all the justification or the nuance or whatever. Just to say like, yeah, I lusted after women in porn for two hours. You know it's hard to say. The point isn't that it's hard, it's just, it's just confession, bring it into the light, drag it into the light. And you do this not to humiliate yourself, not shame yourself. You do it as as an um agreement that you are actually made for the light, and the fact that this stuff doesn't like the light is evidence that it's really not a part of you.
Speaker 2:It's not meant to be a part of you, um there's also promises in Proverbs 28, in first John and in the book of James, like healing can come through confession, purification, forgiveness, mercy. Uh, there's some really beautiful promises in scripture that come from that. Just, I'm getting it out. I'm being honest with God and others.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and others, I think is a key, key part of that, always for me, as part of a rule of life and recovery for me. And then the other, the other couple that I'd say one is, is communion or Eucharist. This may not be a weekly thing, depending on your, your Christian tradition, but with with a heart that and a mind that recognizes and believes, takes God at his word, there is something happening that we are in some mysterious way taking the body and blood of Jesus into ourselves and united ourselves with him. And no matter your church denomination most at least, mainline denominations agree that this is a sacrament, meaning that there is grace. Sacrament meaning that there's grace applied to you even beyond your ability to conceive of what's happening. Um, uh, so so take it with that, with that sense of God. I need you, uh, my body alone just keeps going to sin. I need you in me, I need your holiness in me.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, one, one way that that's been a common place of common ground actually for church history for most Christians is whether or not you go as far as transubstantiation, like our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, or you kind of lean toward the memorialistic, like this is just in remembrance. Most could agree on this idea of real presence.
Speaker 1:Some mysterious way there's a real sense that god is, he's present, in that jesus is present, in that he wants to work, work in and through you, in that, in that meal exactly, and isn't it a beautiful thing that that jesus recognizes that in our bodies, our flesh alone without him we are, we do harmful, hurtful things to ourselves, others, we, we sin sexually, etc. Um, and it is. It is this beautiful expression of him giving his body that doesn't do that to people, that doesn't devour people with our lustful looks or with our grasping hands or, uh, sexual hookups, but rather, um, he gives his body, his naked body on the cross for us. This is my body, given for you, and so we take his body into our bodies that we might become more like him as we and we take his body.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sorry to cut in, but we take his body instead of taking the body of our unwilling victims. That sounds weird the way I just put it. But but like I know that people might consent to be in pornography or this or that, but like we're using these people who don't really know what they're giving and they're not actually giving themselves in a way that is like Jesus and instead we're saying Jesus gave himself to me. I mean, it's kind of wild to think about like that. Yeah, he's meant to be the one that we're consuming. In a sense, he's meant to be the one that we're consuming. In a sense, he's the one who wanted to die for us so that we may live. Can I just throw two more in Josh? Two more, yeah, let me.
Speaker 1:Let me say say one more before you do, because it fits with what you're just sharing, and this is something I didn't do in early recovery but I've, I've learned to do since. I think it's really helpful. You can look up when I have time to get into it, what a daily examen is, where you call it through your day for moments where there's resonance or dissonance with the Lord. But one of the places I think that's valuable to do that on a daily basis, if you can, is to just reflect on how you have seen people. Did you see them as objects or did you see them as human persons? Did you see them, in other words, do you see them through the eyes of lust or did you see them as objects, or did you see them as human persons? Did you see them, in other words, do you see them through the eyes of lust or did you see them through the eyes of Christ's love?
Speaker 1:And that goes well beyond lust, because there are so many ways that we might view people just kind of with, with loathing or with. You know they're, they're an obstacle in my way. They slowed me down, you know, I, I, they look terrible, whatever, whatever it might be, all the ways that we kind of look at people and just see them, like the Pharisee and John in uh in Luke seven did, is just a, you know, a sinner, rather than an actual human person, a man or woman. And I think, meditating on taking some time just to reflect on that and and again, not to shame ourselves but to invite Jesus into that Lord, I, I didn't see a person I just saw a subject, but that's a person.
Speaker 1:Would you help me see people when I look here or there, when I'm exposed to the image of a person?
Speaker 2:There are many ways to do the examine. But as someone who works from home, I don't have a drive commute, except for when I'm visiting the team out in Baltimore a few times a year. But I would do this daily commute where I do a 10 minute loop around the block after work, and I would do this daily commute where I do a 10 minute loop around the block after work and I would do something like an exam and we'll put an example in the show notes. But I now don't do that because I'm doing other things. But I shower after work and that's a great opportunity to reflect on the day with the Lord. Can you invite the Lord even there? Not put on music. Or, if you're in your car, not put on the radio. Pause this podcast, whatever that not put on the radio. Pause this podcast, whatever that looks like, maybe just one leg of your commute, maybe not both, but the way home I'm going to process my day with the Lord. I'm going to consider how I saw people Two other ones that I really love that are so good for recovery and also for betrayal situations for parents.
Speaker 2:Celebration I mean literally the name of Richard Foster's classic book that I referenced earlier is Celebration of Discipline, and one of the disciplines is celebration. We need to celebrate, like so many of the commands in Deuteronomy, in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, so many of the laws for Israel were. You need to celebrate this feast. You need to kill your best animal, some of which you're going to put on the altar. It's completely burned away for God, like pure sacrifice, but a lot of it was like give it to the priests and then they're going to make a feast for the whole town. It's like you got to celebrate guys, like I got you out of this place.
Speaker 2:So what happens when you finish your next quarter of awaken? What happens when you hit a month of sobriety? We're not huge in accounting days, but what happens when you hit a milestone in like it's been a year since my husband's acted out, or my wife and I have been on this recovery journey, or my child has not been going to this for some time, or there's been progress. I want to take them out to ice cream to celebrate that. So marking these things with a time of celebration can be such um, such a joyful and powerful way to. That could be one of your roles of life yearly, ideally quarterly, monthly, like something where it's like I'm going to celebrate. Even the small small-ish wins love it.
Speaker 1:You had one more.
Speaker 2:I got so excited about that that I might have lost that. But let me just throw out this last thought. Willard argues that everything we allow into our minds has either a positive or negative effect on us. I don't know if he's right about that. About that I genuinely I've thought about. I'm like is that? Could that really be true that there's not anything that's really neutral that we allow into our minds and someone like me can take that legalistically. I know that tendency in myself.
Speaker 2:But I want you to consider when you think about this idea of rule of life, are there things that I'm letting in 10 steps before I give into porn? Like do I need a part of my rule of life is in this season, I'm going to cancel my subscription to Netflix. In this season I'm going to choose to. You know, if I'm going to watch media, it's going to be things that you know are particularly edifying. Again, if you have a legalistic tendency, I want you to take all of that with a grain of salt, take it prayerfully. But like could there actually be some joy? Could your mind get more freed up? Hey, on Wednesday nights I'm not going to do any electronics after work because I'm going to give my mind some room to breathe. I'm going to be more focused on my family.
Speaker 2:Like, are there ways that you can actually structure to not allow those you know rules of life from the world to have so much stake in your household, like the TV representing that trellis of the worldly rule of life for some of us, or the you know the phone or whatever? Like, are there ways you can actually decrease some of the thoughts that are coming into your mind? Willard would say that we have a free will but it's weak. I appreciate that it's kind of a middle ground between some of those debates. But we have a will that's free but it is weak. And our most powerful choice is what we allow into our minds, because once we've allowed something into our minds it's a lot harder to respond well to it. But choosing what we even allow in can be part of our rules life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so good, and a couple. So I'm gonna we're gonna wrap this up. But, like, pay attention, especially as you think about this podcast, those ideas of the things you might introduce into your life, that you actually felt a tinge of joy around, like that could be cool. So good, pay attention to that and start there. God's not looking to like, you know, create a you know a dour list of things for you to do. Um, so start with the things that actually, that feels really good. I like that idea. Also, don't do all these things. Pick one or two, just begin.
Speaker 1:Um, if you're, if you're really out of control in your behaviors, you might need support to actually introduce a number of things pretty quickly. But get some help with that. You don't need to do the heavy lifting on your own. So where have we been? Everybody needs a rule of life. Everybody has a rule of life, whether it's something that they've been given or something that they are, um, they're doing themselves. Uh, and we, we believe that those in recovery are not the exception of the rule, in that they just have a, maybe a specific point in their lives where it's most, it's especially important. They have a rule of life and, brothers and sisters, you don't, you don't, you're not gonna get past that this side of heaven. And that's not bad news. It's actually really really good news. In the same way that it's really really good news for a great musician to have time to practice every day and the joy that he or she experiences when they sit and play a masterful piece that they've learned and it's taken a lot of work to do.
Speaker 1:They are free at that keyboard and God desires you and me, to be free in the, in our bodies, not to be constrained by sexual sin or other habits that draw us away. So, jesus, um, we pray against legalism. We pray against any image or accusation of the enemy against you that says you just want us to do a bunch of things and you're dour faced, and against joy. Lord, you have eternal pleasures at your right hand and all you invite us into Lord is for our good, not because you need us to do something, not because you're mean, but because you want us to be free and alive, fully alive. Lord, we want that too. We pray that for us. We pray it for our listeners in Jesus name. Amen, amen, thank you.
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