Why What We Believe Is So Important

[Jennifer] Welcome to the Marriage After God podcast.

[Aaron] We’re your hosts, I’m Aaron.

[Jennifer] And I’m Jennifer.

[Aaron] We’ve been married for 14 years.

[Jennifer] And we have five young children.

[Aaron] We started blogging over 10 years ago sharing our marriage story in hopes of encouraging other husbands and wives to draw closer to God and closer to each other.

[Jennifer] We have authored over 10 books together including our newest book “Marriage After God”, the book that inspired us to start this podcast.

[Aaron] “Marriage After God” has a message to remind all of us that God designed marriage with a purpose.

[Jennifer] To reflect His love.

[Aaron] To be a light in this world.

[Jennifer] To work together as a team.

[Aaron] Using what he has given us–

[Jennifer] To build His kingdom.

[Aaron] Our hope is to encourage you along your marriage journey.

[Jennifer] As you boldly chase after God together.

[Aaron] This is Marriage After God. Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Marriage After God podcast. We’re Aaron and Jennifer Smith.

[Jennifer] Your hosts.

[Aaron] And we’re glad to be here. And we’re gonna do something a little different than usual. Usually we have like a little bit of banter in the beginning–

Little intro.

And we share some things, but we’re just gonna actually just slide right into this episode. There’s a lot to talk about.

[Jennifer] It’s an important topic. I mean, we’re talking about that whole battlefield of your mind and why what we believe is so important. Because really what we believe, it becomes the basis and the foundation for why we do the things that we do, why we, and how we interact with those around us in the world, how we view the world. So I mean, what we believe is really, it matters.

[Aaron] Yeah, it’s what shapes us. We actually struggled with the title of this episode. We were thinking like the Power of Lies

[Both] The Mental Game.

Yeah.

That was mine. I was like we’re just getting trapped in that thing.

[Aaron] Or why what we believe is so important. All of those things are encompassing what we’re gonna be talking about, that the battlefield of our mind. But mostly, even more important than the title, we hope that this episode will disrupt any and all lies that you might be believing.

[Jennifer] Yeah, any untruths, anything that is getting in the way of what God is doing, what God’s word says, and his truth in our lives.

[Aaron] Yeah, because what his truth is, the Bible calls it a light, a lamp unto our feet, a light into our path. That’s what the Bible calls the truth, the word of God, His precepts, His words are the things that illuminate our souls and our life. And so I pray that what we talk about today will reveal to you, if you’ve been believing any lies, the things that you need to just run to God with and say, I don’t wanna believe that anymore. Change me, show me the truth, and that we would believe the truth.

[Jennifer] Also, if you’re feeling unstable in your mind, if you’re feeling like you’re wrestling or struggling–

Confused.

Confused, frustrated, we hope that this episode also brings you confidence and hope and peace. And so, yeah, let’s just jump in.

[Aaron] Well, I wanna say one more thing.

Just kidding.

I wanna say one more thing.

[Jennifer] Go ahead.

[Aaron] I love that you like listen to our podcast but–

[Jennifer] Thanks for being here.

[Aaron] We want to encourage you to run to the word of God.

Always.

[Aaron] The Bible tells us to meditate on His word day and night. And that word meditate in the Bible, is it’s this idea of like chewing the cud. It’s what cows do when they chew over and over and over again. And they chew and chew and digest and chew and chew. And so getting into the word of God and reading it and letting the word wash you, wash your mind, letting the word of God change how we think. That’s what we want from you. So yes, enjoy this podcast. But man, when you’re done with this podcast, go to the word of God and have it wash you. Have God wash you in His word.

[Jennifer] All right. So why what we believe is so important? This is relevant for all of us listening, especially if we’re married because like–

[Aaron] Any person actually.

[Jennifer] Well, any person, but I was just thinking about how much our beliefs matter when you’re married because your day is full of those interactions with your spouse and you’re supposed to be one, but sometimes your flesh gets in the way and you become–

[Aaron] Yeah, your spouse and your children are gonna experience what you believe more than what–

First hand.

Yeah. Firsthand more often than you ever say it.

[Jennifer] As we say, up close and personal. And so I was just gonna say how we operate in marriage. So just to share a couple of examples, Aaron, from our marriage, from our life, what’s something that you think that, something that you’ve thought wrong that has led to that kind of breakdown in marriage where things aren’t going right?

[Aaron] Yeah, well, and this is a great way to just look practically at what we’re talking about with belief and how it shapes what we do.

What matters, yeah. The impact it can have.

[Aaron] So if I believe that I can’t change until you do–

[Jennifer] Like just in a random area.

[Aaron] Our communication, or if I don’t feel respected. I’m like, well, you want me to love you more. You want me to serve you more. You want me to do these things that are more gentle for you and you want me to listen better. And you want all these things from me, but you won’t change, Jennifer. You still disrespect me. You still say mean things to me. You still don’t notice the hard work I put in. So I can’t change until you will treat me the way I want you to treat me.

[Jennifer] It’s like that holdout of, I’m just gonna wait until they XYZ.

[Aaron] And it’s not as simple as, I’m just waiting for her to change so I can change. It’s, I believe I can’t change until Jennifer changes. And because I believe that, I’m going to act like that. I believe like, well, why should I change? She does this, she does this. She does this. So therefore that belief that I have, whether it ever comes out that way, whenever I say, I believe I don’t have to change unless you do, I’m acting that way. So therefore I don’t change. I never walk in obedience to the things that I know to be true, that I should live with you in an understanding way, that I should love you as Christ loves the church, that I should be slow to anger and quick to listen. The things that I’m told to do. And it doesn’t say, do these things if your wife respects you. Do these things if your wife treats you kind and with love and reciprocates, then do those things. No, I actually should have just obeyed them. But I don’t obey those things, I don’t follow those things because I believe I’m allowed to stay the way I am until you change. And so that belief system, that thing I believe and I hold on to allows me to keep going the way I am.

[Jennifer] And your behavior becomes contingent on me or for those listening to the other person. Yeah.

[Aaron] I mean, this is in various ways something that we actually deal with and have dealt with, but what’s something that–

[Jennifer] I was just thinking something else that you were just talking about reminded me that I’ve also struggled in this area of forgiveness, where if you’ve done something that I feel offended by, I felt like I can’t forgive you too soon, because then I feel like you haven’t learned your lesson or you’ll do it again too quickly.

[Aaron] Yeah, it’s too easy.

[Jennifer] It’s too easy if I just forgive you and I’ve seen that and how the negative impact it has on our relationship. So I can see how that plays a role into the same kind of belief of just, well, it’s wrong. It’s not believing what the Bible says about forgiveness or how to walk with you in an understanding way.

[Aaron] That’s a great point. And the question is, is how many of these wrong beliefs do we have? Because we do, we’re raised, growing up to think certain ways, and we see certain ways of being–

[Jennifer] There’s so many influences in the world as we’re maturing that we take from and we see, and it comes out.

[Aaron] And these are just a couple of brief, negative ways that we believe. There’s positive ways that we believe that cause good things in our lives, but there’s so many more. And we just wanna encourage you listening to, as we do this episode, be prayerful about your own heart and ask the Lord to reveal if there’s been any lies or beliefs that we’ve had that are not biblical, or not what God would have for us. So this is what we mean when we say our belief is like the foundation. It’s something that we base our actions on. So when we think about why we choose certain things, why we do certain things, they’re based off of something we believe already.

[Jennifer] So I suppose we should start at the beginning then.

[Aaron] But the beginning beginning?

[Jennifer] The beginning.

[Aaron] In beginning.

[Jennifer] Well, when I was thinking about this, I thought about Eve in the garden and she was deceived. What she chose to believe brought actions that led to death and destruction.

[Aaron] And sin entering the world.

[Jennifer] Yeah, let’s read about that, Genesis 3:1. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say “you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” So this is where that battlefield of the mind starts where a question is posed that leads Eve to doubt what she knew of what God had said. And what I see from this is if the enemy could break down her thinking process, he would be successful in getting her to disobey God, which is what he wanted.

Mm-hmm. And this happens with us. So she began to doubt what she had believed. So she heard God. And I guess the question here is, is unbelief, did she even believe what God said in the first place is just a good question to ask, because she was right there at the tree. We don’t know how she got there. Wandered, was standing by, and the serpent’s talking to her and questioning the things that she supposedly believed. Again, what did God say?

[Jennifer] Yeah.

[Aaron] And so it always goes back to like, well, does God really want me to love my wife? Does God really want me to love others? Does God really want me to, all these same questions.

[Jennifer] I think it’s interesting that he came out with a question, and I wonder what would’ve happened if he just said, hey, you should eat this.

[Aaron] Right. Hey, here’s this fruit. Eat this.

[Jennifer] But the fact that it’s a question, that stirs up that thinking process, it’s interesting. I’m just gonna say it’s interesting. As humans, we like to think–

[Aaron] So let’s continue on. So it says, “And the woman said to the serpent, “we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, “but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree “‘that is in the midst of the garden. “‘Neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'” So she tries to repeat back what God told her. And we do this too when we’re struggling with temptations. When things that we’re ever tempted by are put in front of us, we start questioning things that we know to be true, because we’re tempted. So we’re trying to think like, well, am I really tempted by the, you know, it’s okay, just this one time. Like, it’s not that big of a deal. And oh, I already kind of thought about it, so I might as well just continue on. I mean, is God really gonna be bothered by those? Of course He forgives me for everything, right? And we started going through this conversation kind of similar to the serpent and Eve. But what’s interesting here is she says something. She says, “God says not to eat of the tree “that is in the midst of the garden. “Neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” So God didn’t tell Eve not to touch it. He actually says something positive. You can eat everything in the garden, except for this one tree, for in the day you eat it, you’ll die. It’s like a warning. Hey, enjoy all this stuff. Hey, don’t touch that one thing, ’cause you’ll die if you do. It’s like telling your kids, you can play with all the toys in the living room. Don’t go touch the stove. It’s not a bad thing. It’s like a warning. Like, hey, yeah, be safe. Don’t do this. But she says back to the serpent, no, I’m not supposed to eat it. And I’m not supposed to touch it or I’ll die.

[Jennifer] So she added that touch part.

[Aaron] Well, yeah. And so she’s not even believing the right thing that God told her. She’s conveying something totally different. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you’ll be like God, knowing good and evil. And so this goes back to a question of, I mean, the Bible says that we’re tempted by the passions that are inside of us. So was he pricking at that passion that’s inside of her? I mean, God made man and woman in his image. So she already have this desire to be like God. And so he tells her like, oh, you’ll be made to be like God. And so I think about this. So it says, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband and he ate. And so I think of this, the moment she touched the fruit, do you remember how she said, you shouldn’t touch it? God said, don’t eat it and don’t touch it. So if that’s true, the moment she touched it and didn’t die–

[Jennifer] She affirmed her wrong thinking.

[Aaron] She affirmed her the wrong thinking, the lie that she believed. She was like, well, see, I’m touching it. God said, don’t touch it. No, God didn’t say don’t touch it. He didn’t say anything about touching it. And so, again, I’m elaborating on this story. She said, don’t touch it. God didn’t say that. She reached out and grabbed the fruit. The moment she touched it, she would have been proven that her way of believing was true even though it was false. And so we do this. And I wanna go to verse in James 1:14. It says, but each person is tempted when he’s lured and enticed by his own desire. So she was tempted by what was already in her. We’re all tempted by things that are inside of us. And if we believe things that allow us to get what we’re tempted by, then we will always fall for the temptation. We’ll always grab the fruit. We’ll always reach for the thing even if we feel shameful later, even if we feel guilty later. We’ve believed a thing that allows us to keep doing that thing or get the thing that we desire. So speaking about things that we’re tempted by, what I love about Jesus is that the Bible calls him, it tells us that he is a, he’s a good high priest. He’s a high priest that understands us in every way. It says that in every way that man has tempted, he was tempted. So if you think about that, and when James chapter one says that we’re tempted, every man’s tempted by what’s inside of him, when Jesus was led out in the wilderness in Matthew chapter four, let’s read it real quick. It says, “Then Jesus was led up by the spirit “into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. “And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. “And the tempter came and said to him, “‘If you are the son of God, command these stones “‘to become loaves of bread.'” Satan tempts Jesus the same way he tempted Eve questioning what God said. Just before this, he was baptized and the Holy Spirit came down and everyone heard her voice and said, “This is my son with whom I’m well pleased.” And in the very first temptation, “If you are the son of God,”

[Jennifer] Right, setting that tone of doubt.

[Aaron] Yeah. “Command these stones to become loaves of bread.” So it just said he was hungry. He wasn’t tempting him with something like a cigarette. He wasn’t something him with something like alcohol. He’s like, oh, make these rocks into bread. It was inside of him. He was tempted by the, he desired food.

[Jennifer] Real quick. ‘Cause this is a really great point, I want you to finish this out, but I was just thinking this can help us understand why, not that we judge others but we sometimes will think why is it so hard for that person to give up that thing when we’re not tempted by that thing? So we don’t understand the lure, the excitement or the–

The enticement inside them.

[Jennifer] That is pulling them towards that thing. But here we are sitting over here with this other, you know, desire that we crave or want or choose. So I think that it’s important. I think this is important.

[Aaron] Yeah, so the question is, is what did Jesus believe? Because Jesus was perfect, but he’s being tempted right now. The same way we’re attempted, he’s being tempted. If you are the son of God, did Jesus believe he was the son of God?

Yeah.

Okay. So his response is going to be based off of what he believes.

[Jennifer] Look how confident he is. He doesn’t even address that part.

[Jennifer] Yeah, he doesn’t address behavior. He says, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone “but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” So his answer to him doesn’t respond to the doubtful question. It responds to the temptation of food. And it also affirms that he believes who God is. And then the devil took him to the Holy City and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the son of God, “throw yourself down for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you “and on their hands, they will bear you up, “lest you strike your foot against a stone.” So now he’s tempting Jesus, again, questioning if he’s the son of God. We already know just chapter before this, God said, “You are my Son.” So what did God say? Do we believe what he says? Jesus did. And he’s tempting him to tempt God actually.

[Jennifer] Well, I just wanna. I’m just looking at the scripture and it says, throw yourself down. And I’m just picturing him in the garden not only weeping over what’s about to happen but then actually going to the cross.

[Aaron] He does give himself up.

[Jennifer] He throws himself down for us.

[Aaron] Yeah, he actually lifts himself up on a cross. And he says, no one takes my life. I give it freely. So he’s being tempted right now with this idea of salvation, of being raised up. And Jesus has that in his heart. He came to be raised up, right? For it is written, He will command his angels, and then Satan even uses scripture. So we have to know that Satan’s much older than us. He’s been around much longer than us. He’s not a fool. No, he is a fool; he’s smart. He knows the word of God. And he will use the word of God to make us believe false things, which is why we need to know the word of God, read it in context, learn it, study it because we can be deceived by little snippets of scripture. He’s pulling stuff out of context and trying to tempt Jesus. Jesus says to him, “Again, it is written, “you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” So he’s saying, I’m not gonna test God. I don’t need to. I know what I’m here for. What did he believe? Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All of these I will give you “if you will fall down and worship me.” First of all, it’s a lie that he was gonna give him anything because he’s not gonna give him anything, and Jesus knows this. If you will fall down and worship me, then Jesus said, “Be gone, Satan, “for it is written, you shall worship the Lord, your God “and him only shall you serve.” Jesus wants to be in charge of all the kingdoms. He’s a King. He’s going to be.

That authority. That power, yeah.

[Jennifer] All of these temptations are things that are inside of Jesus. There are things that he desired inside of his heart, but guess what he did instead, he walked in the thing that he believed, not in the thing that this temptation was bringing.

[Jennifer] Which is God’s way.

God’s will.

God’s word

[Aaron] Because in the garden like you brought up Jesus says, “Not my will be done, but yours.” He says, “You shall worship the Lord your God “and Him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. What Jesus did here is three times defeated the temptations of the devil when Adam failed once, with a very simple temptation. And so we just see here that if we have the wrong, if we believe something wrong if we believe something false and we think it’s truth, it’s going to allow us to choose wrong. So just to go back to the garden, Eve believed something wrong. And the devil tempted her and she was able to get what she wanted because of what she believed. Her belief system allowed her to get what she wanted. If she would have believed God, she would have been nowhere near the tree. She would have said, okay, I hear what you’re saying, Satan, but God said to not eat it. If she would’ve answered the way Jesus did: it is written, He has said, “Do not eat the tree.” She would actually would have re repeated: I can eat of every tree, but this one. Because in that day I do, I’ll die. And then he would say, you’d surely not die. And she would repeat, God said, if I eat this tree, I’ll die. That’s what she would’ve done. She wouldn’t have eaten of the tree ’cause she believed God but she didn’t believe God. so she ate of the tree. She believed the serpent instead because it gave her what she wanted already in her heart.

[Jennifer] Yeah, and I think that the fact that she had her eyes on that fruit and was there long enough to dwell on it–

[Aaron] And have a conversation about it.

[Jennifer] And have a conversation, it was enough to convince her the path that she would continue down or on. And so I think that this is important to consider when we think about our own minds and the things that we think about but also to just to point out how the enemy or any outside voice can share something that really sticks with us, sticks in our minds. And if we keep our eyes or minds or our hearts on that thing instead of on God and His word and what He has said, our thoughts can also lead us on a path to start believing those things.

[Aaron] And the tricky thing about deception is it’s deceiving.

[Jennifer] So you don’t know you’re being deceived.

[Aaron] Exactly. You’re like, oh, I’m being deceived right now which is why we need to bathe our minds in the word of God. Otherwise we will be easily tricked and swayed. Our flesh in itself wants to trick us into giving what our flesh, what it wants.

[Jennifer] I think that’s why, what am I thinking? The word is humility, humbleness. It’s so hard for our flesh because when we recognize what we’ve actually done when we’ve actually sinned, we’re like, oh, I just.

[Aaron] Actually, can I elaborate on this?

[Aaron] Sure.

[Jennifer] So thinking about that in my life, if any of you listened to the episodes that we did, man, a year or two ago now about my struggle with pornography in the past, what kept me addicted to pornography for so long was my belief, what I believed about salvation and what I believed about God, what I believed about myself. Like, you have a question here. It says, if we know God’s word, is that enough to resist temptation to sin? And then you ask, I’m talking about my notes, by the way, it says, what is the difference between knowledge and belief? I knew what the Bible said. I knew that there should be no hint of sexual morality amongst his saints and that fornication shouldn’t be what we do. And like I knew all these truths that I’m free in Christ, that he came to set the captives free, that he’s broke the bonds of sin and death. I knew all these things. I knew what the Bible said. I knew it, but in my mind, I believed it wasn’t true for me because my life didn’t live up to that. And I thought, well, why isn’t my life? I love God. Why do I keep doing this thing over and over and over again? And it came down to the fact that I actually believe that I was still, it came down to the fact that I actually believed that I was still in bondage to it. I believed it had a power over me that it actually didn’t have. And so it kept me there. I stayed there when reality was a choice I was making I was free because what the Bible says is true. And so there’s a lot of things in our life that we stay somewhere and we wonder, why am I still here? And it’s based on what we believe. The reason we’re still there is because of what we believe.

[Jennifer] So just to go back to you kind of hinted at it but I did ask this question, what is the difference between knowledge and belief? And then I put the definitions. So I’m just gonna read those. Knowledge is facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education, the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation. And then synonyms include understanding or comprehension.

[Aaron] And that makes perfect sense because knowledge, we can acquire tons of knowledge of lots of things actually. I mean, especially in today’s world, you can Google anything about anything. But none of that was internal. Like, none of that was transformative. It’s like, oh, I have all this knowledge, cool. I know this and I know this and I can, I understand that idea. And I could talk about this and I can explain that. But what’s belief? What’s the definition of that?

[Jennifer] Belief says, an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists. A religious conviction, trust, faith or confidence in someone or something. Synonyms include stance, reliance, ideology, which is the manner of thinking.

[Aaron] So belief, which by the way, is how we’re saved. Read the Bible, go read all of the things that talk about salvation, from the front of the book to the back of the book. And they’re all tied to belief. Abraham believed God. And it was a credit to him as righteousness. We believe God and so we are saved. He sent His Son, we believe that he’s our Lord and that God raised him from the dead. That’s how we’re saved, belief. Not knowledge, know that Jesus saved you, okay. No, believe that he did. It’s an acceptance that it’s true. My favorite way of describing belief in faith, this idea of like belief that causes action, is in “Indiana Jones” movie. And I think it’s the Holy Grail. It’s Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail. And there’s a scene where he finally gets to the temple where the Grail’s at, and there’s this chasm. It’s like a door and he gets across and there’s just this deep, deep, deep chasm. And there’s no way to get across. There’s another door on the other side but there’s no bridge, nothing. And then he gets this is an inscription on this thing. And it says, you don’t see. And he realizes there’s probably a bridge there, and so he takes a handful of sand then he throws it across and there’s this stone bridge that’s the same exact stone as the walls. So it’s camouflaged, it’s invisible. But once he knew it was there, even though he still couldn’t see it visually, he starts walking across. And so to describe belief, you can stand on one side and be like, oh, I believe there’s a bridge here and that’s great. But it’s not belief if you’re not willing to trust it. If you don’t take this first step onto the bridge that you say is there, then there is no belief. So you can stand there all day long and say, yeah, there’s a bridge. If I wanted to, I totally can go across and get the Holy Grail. And so that’s what belief does. What you believe is going to animate what you do, is going to be how you make the decision. If you say you believe something but it doesn’t make the decision that that belief should make, then you actually don’t believe it. So for me, I would say, I believe that was free and yet I didn’t walk in freedom, in reality, and it took a long time for me to accept this and confess it, I didn’t believe I was free and so I stayed not free.

[Jennifer] Something else that I’d like to add is that when I think about the difference between knowledge and belief, the difference is what is applied. So knowledge is the consumption of information. It’s the retainment of, you know–

The facts.

The facts. But the belief comes in when you apply those things. And it’s an active thing.

[Aaron] Yeah, we can come up with tons of ideas, like examples. If you believe that there is gonna be a tornado ripping through your house tomorrow, what do you do? Well, we’re just gonna be fine, ’cause maybe it won’t happen. Like, you don’t actually believe a tornado is gonna rip through your house. But if you do believe a tornado is gonna rip through your house, what do you do? You grab all your personal belongings, things that are important to you, the animals, your kids, you get in a car and you go somewhere else that that tornado is not gonna be. So if you believe something, you’re going to make decisions based off of that belief. If you say you believe something and your decisions don’t reflect that belief then you don’t actually believe that. And that’s something that we get to look at and be like, wow, I say I believe this, but I’m not doing anything about that. Then the question is, is do you really believe it?

[Jennifer] So the reason what we believe is so important is because when temptation does come, which it will and it will continue to come and it’ll come daily, how will our minds be strong enough to resist the enemy and flee that temptation?

[Aaron] So to answer that question, I think about if we believe what the word says when it says this in 1 Corinthians 10:13, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful. So do I believe God’s faithful? He is faithful. And He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. So temptations come, temptations to be angry at you because of the way you treated me. Temptations to be frustrated with the children because the way they’re behaving. Temptations to talk rudely to the guy on the phone who’s not dealing with my insurance well. Temptations to treat friends at church with contempt. Like the temptations, like temptations to do other forms of sin. You fill on the blank. Any temptation that comes to walk in the flesh, which is essentially what this is talking about. Do I believe God is faithful? Or do I believe He totally leaves me in the dust and when that temptation comes, it is too strong for me.

[Jennifer] And then you get mad at God and say, where were you when?

[Aaron] Yeah, I thought You were gonna help me. I messed up again. No, if I believe God’s faithful when those temptations come, two things happen. Either I choose to take the way of escape that He gives and I start looking for the ways of escape and I start fleeing the devil as the Bible tells me, I start resisting the devil as the Bible tells me, because I love God and I believe He’s faithful, or I choose to do the thing that I already wanna do. It’s already been decided in my heart. There’s nothing to do with this thing happening outside of me. It’s something that I want inside of me. I want it. I want to be angry. I want to consume this filth. I want to, you know, you fill in the blank. So what we believe is gonna tell us how we’re gonna respond. So the other thing that happens is if we do believe that God is faithful and that He does provide a way of escape and that He does love us is that when I do choose that sin, I don’t lie to myself and say that it happened to me. Oh, that thing happened to me. If I believe that sin happens to me, guess what that means. I’m never responsible for the action. Well, it happened again. I was just minding my own business and that image popped up and I took me with it. It made me click. It made me watch. It made me blah, blah, blah.

I feel like our justifications get a lot better than that though. I mean, we–

[Aaron] Get much more creative, yes.

[Jennifer] We do get creative in our justifications as human, you know. It’s my DNA or all the reasons. It’s all the reasons why it’s not our fault, but really it’s just our fault.

[Aaron] And so if I believe that the choice that God has freed me, that the chains of sin and death have been released, that I do have the Holy Spirit and that I have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness, these are all things that the Bible says about me. If I believe those things, then I’m also gonna believe that I fully chose to walk that way. And guess what that does. It causes me to genuinely repent. I chose this thing. That was my doing, and that’s not who God made me to be. That’s not who God freed me to be. I’m sorry, I’m going to change. I’m not gonna choose that next time. Otherwise, my wife, I yell at you. Let’s say I yell at you for something. And I’m just a yeller. I’m like, well, it’s how I was raised. Sorry, yeah, I’m sorry I yelled at you again. But in reality in my heart I believe that my yelling is how I am supposed to be. It’s a part of me. I’m not really repenting of anything. And guess who gets to suffer. My wife. Every time I do it.

[Aaron] Well, I knew because I’m sure even though you tell yourself that that’s who you are and how you’re gonna be, you still struggle with guilt and shame and frustration over who you are.

[Aaron] Yeah, why can’t I ever change? Oh, I wish I was raised differently. I wish all the past things would have been different instead of just realizing who I am today, and saying, I don’t actually have to be that way anymore. And guess what, if I mess up in the future and I walk in the flesh, I’m gonna remember then that I don’t have to be this way. So one way of belief, even if I mess up, gets me to be better over time. The other way of belief keeps me exactly the same and nothing ever changes and I probably actually get worse.

[Jennifer] So what we’re trying to get at here is that in order to guard and protect your mind and to believe truth, we have to be actively engaging with and know and believe the word of God. I mean, Jesus responded to the temptation of the devil with the word of God. and He showed us that example of how we should be responding. And so in those moments of temptation if our response is justification, we’re doing something wrong. But if our response is that scripture that the Holy Spirit brings to our minds and reminds us of how we should be walking, then we’re doing something right. So we have some scriptures that we wanna share with you guys today. Aaron, you wanna read that first one?

[Aaron] Yeah, 2 Corinthians 10:3 through 6: for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. Now listen to what this is talking about. So weapons, flesh, not of the flesh, but listen to what it’s talking about the war is. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. This is our warfare. The majority of our warfare in this life is in our minds. It’s what we believe. It’s why we’re to be renewed or to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. That’s what God wants for us is to renew us through how we think.

[Jennifer] Yeah, arguments and opinions. That’s what we struggle with in our minds.

[Aaron] Yeah, I’m not good enough. I’m not capable enough. I can’t win this battle of my flesh.

[Jennifer] And it says, the way that we destroy them is to take every thought captive, to obey Christ. And then you kinda stopped reading right there, but it’s a comma, so I’m gonna keep going. Being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.

[Aaron] And it’s talking about obedience and disobedience. So this warfare is in obedience to the word of God to what the spirit is leading us in or disobedience to it. But it starts in our minds. It starts in what we believe. Have we set our minds on the things above? Have we set our minds on what Christ has said, on what Christ has done? Or are we continuing to willfully believe things that are false so that we don’t actually have to change or be obedient? So this is why it matters what we believe. Because, Jennifer, if I believe that God cares how I treat you. And I love God. And I believe that he saved me from my sin and that He has saved me from eternal damnation, and He’s saved me from separation from Him. He’s brought me near, as the Bible says, He has made me His own, then I’m gonna look at my relationship to you in a much different light. Not just, well, yeah, I treated you some way, but that’s normal. Like, yeah, we’re gonna fight. It’s not that big of a deal. Okay, so I got a little angry. What, are you gonna judge me on that? Rather than being broken, that I’m not loving you like Christ loves the church.

[Jennifer] Yeah, this goes back to how we started this. And it’s that the way that we think becomes the basis. What we believe becomes the basis for how we interact with each other and how we view the world.

[Aaron] Mm-hmm.

[Jennifer] So that’s exactly what you’re talking about. That verse talks about destroying arguments and opinions, and those are the very things that stir up doubt and encourage patterns of sin in our life.

[Aaron] Yeah.

[Jennifer] And I think this scripture that we shared is a familiar one, taking every thought captive. You know, we hear that a lot. How would you encourage those listening, like what is the practical, what does that mean to take every thought captive?

[Aaron] Well, it says, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. So the thing is in our thoughts, in our temptations, in our way of thinking and believing that our our heart is to say, is that of Christ? Does that thought, is that way of being and thinking, is that an obedience to Christ? Am I thinking in the flesh or in the spirit? Is what this, what I’m pursuing right now based off of what I believe is that what Christ wants me to pursue? And just like Satan tempted Jesus and Jesus responded with scripture, and you brought this up, we can look at the things in our life. And I always think back to the ’90s, the great ’90s, WWJD, what would Jesus do? But we can ask ourselves like, and to be honest, often we don’t even have to ask ourselves. We know, and I want every believer to listen. I want every one of you listening to know this. This is something that truly helps me finally understand the freedom that Christ has given me. It wasn’t that I finally have the freedom, the freedom was already there; I finally understood the freedom and embraced it.

[Jennifer] You believed it.

[Aaron] Yeah, and I believe it. I believe in the free–

You accepted it.

[Aaron] Yeah, it doesn’t mean I walk perfectly. I’m not trying to say that. But it definitely changes how I respond when I do mess up because I recognize it and I’m like, oh, I chose that. I have to repent to that. We already know. Everyone listening, you listening, the things that you struggle with, the things that you continually have this pattern of sin, because we all have something. 1 John says, if you claim to have no sin, you’re a liar, okay? So there’s something in your life. Maybe it’s anger, maybe it’s pornography, maybe it’s overeating. Maybe it’s gossip. You fill in the blank. You know what it is. And this is what I realized. It’s not something that you’re enslaved to. If you’re saved, you have been set free from that. So it’s not something that has a power over you. You have the power over it. And so when you fall into that, you know exactly what you did every time. 100% of the time, you know it. But it’s what we believe that helps us justify it. It’s what we believe that helps us beat around the bush with it. And so once I realized that, once I was like, oh my goodness, every single time I’m tempted, I chose it. I chose to pursue it. It didn’t happen to me. It was not something that I had no control over. I chose it. And it was incredibly liberating. It’s hard because then you immediately realize how often you choose sin. And you’re like, oh my goodness. But I just want you to listen that you can identify it right now the things that you struggle with. And I know if you were to be prayerful and you were to contemplate on those things, you choose it and you justify it in your heart. Well, I only did that because it’s such and such. Oh, I wouldn’t have done it if so and so. It’s incredibly powerful because the Holy Spirit speaks to us because he loves us.

[Jennifer] That’s really good, Aaron. And I love how well the gospel just pours out of you. It’s like you can’t not talk about it because it literally has changed your life. And I just love that about our podcast too that we can share about this. And if we kept reading that chunk from 2 Corinthians 10, and we kept reading in verse seven, it says, look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ, so also are we. And that beginning part of look at what is before your eyes, I just kept thinking of Eve in the garden and that fruit that was before her eyes and it’s what she was dwelling on. And I guess the question is, what is before your eyes what are you dwelling on, what are you consuming? What do you believe? Because it all matters. And the other verse that I wanna share, Philippians 4:8, it says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true. “whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, “whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. “If there is any excellence, “if there is anything worthy of praise, “think about these things.” Like, this is what we should be putting before us, before our eyes. This is what we should be believing.

[Aaron] Yeah, which is all of these are infinitely more positive and spiritual than some of the wrong ways that we might think.

[Jennifer] So with this idea of things, Aaron, that we dwell on just as humans in general, when I say we, it’s like us, you and me, them, whoever’s listening.

Yeah, believers.

[Jennifer] There are certain things that people dwell on that is not like an uncommon thing. I’m not saying that everybody thinks about these things but–

[Aaron] They’re fairly common, yeah.

[Jennifer] They’re fairly common. So I thought it’d be cool if we just kind of blurted out what some of those thoughts can be and then what the truth of God’s word says about us and see how it lines up.

[Aaron] That’s good.

[Jennifer] Okay, so I’ll start and then you want to read the scripture?

Mm-hmm.

Okay. So I tell the lie, you tell the truth.

[Aaron] Okay.

[Jennifer] For anyone who has had thoughts that they’re not smart enough to understand or are ill-equipped to do what should be done.

[Aaron] The truth is 2 Peter 1:3 through 4, His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them, you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. That’s infinitely more true than the statement that you said.

[Jennifer] Yeah.

[Aaron] Which lots of us believe.

Yeah.

I’m not good enough. I don’t have what it takes. I don’t have enough, God.

[Jennifer] Even when it comes to God’s scriptures, I’ve thought that of myself, like, I’m not capable of understanding that. And we tell ourselves these things that are not true and then His truth is so much more powerful. Here’s another one. For anyone who has had thoughts that they are not worthy or that they don’t have value.

[Aaron] The truth is Romans 5:8, but God shows His love for us that, or in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. And Matthew 6:26 through 29 says, “Look at the birds of the air. “They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns “and yet your heavenly father feeds them. “Are you not of more value than they? “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour “to his span of life? “And why are you anxious about clothing? “Consider the lilies of the field, “how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, “yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory “was not arrayed like one of these. “But if God so clothes the grass of the field “which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, “will He not much more clothe you, “oh, you of little faith?”

[Jennifer] Oh man, at the end, he really calls that out.

[Aaron] Yeah. So we can have a low opinion of our value to God, which this is a common thing. We get tempted with this idea that we’re not loved by God or that we have nothing. I mean, we don’t have anything to offer Him, but He has offered us everything because He loves us and because He sees us as more valuable than everything else.

[Jennifer] Here’s another one. For anyone who has had thoughts that they are not sure if God is real and what the Bible says is true.

[Aaron] Yeah, the truth is for His invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. And so if you doubt and as Romans 1:20, if you doubt God, if you doubt that he’s real, look at everything. Every single thing it’s miraculous. What’s that? Oh, just as a thought, what’s that, it’s like a wildlife show that’s called the–

[Jennifer] “The Riot and the Dance” or something.

[Aaron] Yeah. “The Riot and the Dance,” go look that up. It’ll blow your mind on how amazing God is.

[Jennifer] Here’s another one, Psalm 119:160. The sum of your word is truth and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

[Aaron] For anyone who had thoughts that others would be better off without me. This is a big one. This is a big destructive lie that the enemy tries to tempt us with. What’s the truth, babe?

[Jennifer] The truth is Psalm 18:16. He sent from on high. He took me, he drew me out of many waters. So he’s a rescuer. He’s a redeemer.

[Aaron] Yeah, Ecclesiastes 4:9 through 10, two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone, he falls and has not another to lift him up. And I’m just thinking of Genesis. God says, it’s not good for man to be alone. We’re needed. Every single one of us. Psalm 55:22, cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. So when you think that you’re not needed, that people would be better off without you, it’s not true. The truth is, is you are a vital and necessary part of the Body of Christ, that Christ died for you.

[Jennifer] So how we handle our thoughts is, it’s important, you guys. And Aaron and I can talk about our mind and the things that we have wrestled with, or, you know, our opinions about all of this, but God’s word is infinitely more important and more powerful. And so we’re just gonna go through some more scripture about what that means to handle our thoughts. And so let’s just read through these kind of one by one.

[Aaron] Yeah, 1 John 1:8 just shows us that we can be deceived. There’s many verses that talk about this, but this says, “If we claim to be without sin, “we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” And so this is just a sober position of having a sober understanding of who we are like, okay, we have sin. It’s something that needs to be dealt with. If we say we don’t have sin, we’re deceived. We’ve deceived ourselves.

[Jennifer] Romans 12:2, do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

[Aaron] Colossians 3:1 through 4, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your minds on the things that are above not on things that aren’t earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

[Jennifer] This makes me think of when you’re, anyone listening, if you’re wrestling in your mind, in your thoughts with any sort of frustration or anxiety, or like Aaron said, the famous fill in the blank, I wanna encourage you to do what this verse says and set your minds on things above. Evaluate those thoughts. Are they things that have to do with what’s temporary here on earth? Or are you setting your minds on things above?

[Aaron] Yeah, on eternity.

[Jennifer] Yeah, it really puts things into perspective.

[Aaron] So here’s another verse, Ephesians 6:10 through 18, finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his mind. Okay, that verse by itself–

[Jennifer] Amen.

[Aaron] It’s strong in the Lord and in the strength of his mind. So we’re told to be strong in Him with His strength. Put on the whole armor of God. It’s also his armor. That you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. Guys, we live in an evil day. Having done all to stand firm, stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth, which by the way, this whole episode has been about truths and lies. Having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So right there, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, that is our defensive weapon and an offensive weapon. Praying at all times in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints.

[Jennifer] Another one is 1 Peter 5:6 through 10, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you. Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

[Aaron] There’s that word suffer. And this suffer that it’s talking about in 1 Peter, there’s many types of suffering. There’s suffering in persecution and then there’s a suffering in just the flesh. The fact that we have a flesh. The Bible says that Jesus learned obedience through the things he suffered, which is a very interesting scripture about Jesus. But what did he suffer? Yes, he suffered the cross, but he also suffered in the fact that he was a man. Think about that. The God of the universe becoming man. We know what we have in our bodies. Like, we get tired. We get sick. We have our frustrations and irritations and pains and sufferings and sin like a sinful nature. Jesus didn’t have a sinful nature, but he was tempted just like we are. So he’s suffered in the flesh. And so when we suffered a little while in this body, one day, he’s gonna give us a new one. And we have something to look forward to in that. So I just think it’s awesome that Jesus understands what it’s like to suffer as a man, because he had to deal with these thoughts as well. But he dealt with them perfectly.

Appropriately. Oh, yeah, perfectly.

Perfectly.

[Jennifer] When I think about our minds and just I referred to it earlier as like this battlefield where we have constant conflict and we wrestle, there’s no peace. Even in our marriage relationship, Aaron, when our minds are at war with each other or we disagree about something or we’re thinking like against each other or against whatever the thing is that we’re trying to figure out, there’s just no peace there. And with every choice that we make and everything we set our eyes to and everything we pursue, what we’re doing is we’re seeking that peace in whatever decision we’re making. Eve believed that if she ate the fruit, her desire to be like God would be fulfilled. Her thoughts would be at peace when she took and ate it and so she did. Do you get what I’m saying? Like that piece, we’re not thinking about it anymore.

[Aaron] She had this conflict because what she wanted, she couldn’t have but she wanted it, and she thought it was gonna fulfill that thing in her, so she’s like longing for it.

[Jennifer] Yeah, think about it. Like in our marriage, there’s been times where we’ve had to make choices individually and together and we’ve pursued this peace. So like, I think about this one time where you had a decision to make for a job. You had this job over here and this job over here, which one should you take? And we were praying about them and they would have left us in kind of different locations in Southern California. But ultimately we really just wanted peace. We wanted to know which one we should do, but we wanted to choose one or the other in peace. Do you remember that?

Yeah, I do. And it’s an interesting thought that you’re having that like based off of what we believe in various forms, we’re seeking that calmness, that resolve.

Yeah, resolve. That’s a good word.

For the thing that we want.

[Jennifer] Yeah.

[Aaron] And so if I believe one way that I need to pursue that thing to make it fulfill what I believe, which would be the piece. Without having the thing I long for that is based off what I believe, I won’t be at peace.

[Jennifer] Here’s another example. So we believe as Christian that repentance and reconciliation and confession are all very important. And so in our marriage, that’s–

Necessary.

Necessary. And so that’s how we operate. And so when let’s say I’ve sinned, I don’t have that piece until I come to you and I confess because I believe that that’s what’s needed in order to be one and reconcile with you.

[Aaron] This totally makes sense. So when I’m thinking about this, even when I’m being tempted, I’ve experienced this wrestling in my soul of wanting the thing until, and the wanting just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. That’s why it feels so powerful, so controlling, like, oh, I don’t have any control over it. But what it is is I’m just, I’m fighting with myself because I’m trying to keep myself from what I want rather than changing what I want.

Yeah.

Right? I still want peace, but I can’t get it the way I want it. And so true peace is gonna come from denying my flesh because I don’t want that thing. Not pretending I don’t want it and just like, until I get it. And then I, yeah, that’s good.

[Jennifer] So you just said that true peace comes when you deny your flesh. And I was just thinking, there’s true peace that we actually do receive when we walk in the spirit. but then there’s counterfeit piece of when we justify our sin in the middle of that temptation, we say we should choose that thing and we choose it, even though we’re still seeking peace from the thoughts and the conflict of what we’re wrestling with in our minds. But that’s counterfeit peace. That doesn’t last. It’s like that satisfaction for a brief moment and then comes the shame and the guilt.

[Aaron] Well, and if it’s a long lasting satisfaction, it’s pride. Like, yeah, I got what I wanted and I don’t even care how that person is gonna take it. And so that the piece that we arrived at from that way we believe is just keeping us in our disbelief and keeping us in our sin and keeping us in our way of being that is broken and not right. But if we seek the things that are above, like that scripture said above, then the piece that we’re looking for is actually with God himself. So the way I walk with you, the way I walk with others, the way I walk with myself in privacy is now based on I want peace with God. And I don’t want the shame. And I don’t want the guilt. So if we change what we believe, if we believe what the Bible says, if we believe what God says about us, and we allow the Holy Spirit to shape our beliefs, then the things that we pursue are gonna change. The way we respond is gonna change. And the peace that we seek will be pure, good peace.

[Jennifer] Yeah, Romans 8, starting in verse 5 says, “For those who live according to the flesh “set their minds on the things of the flesh, “but those who live according to the spirit “set their minds on the things of the spirit. “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, “but to set the mind on the spirit is life and–

Peace.

Peace.

[Aaron] That’s good.

[Jennifer] For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God for it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot.

[Aaron] See, it ties the mind being in the flesh and not submitting to God’s law.

[Jennifer] And it ties in setting your mind on things above with life and peace.

[Aaron] Yeah. So when we are getting death and no peace, we can be assured that our mind is set on the flesh. We’re not believing God’s law. We’re not submitted to it. We don’t trust it. We trust our own. We’re making our own rules up as we go rather than trusting what God says.

[Jennifer] So what we believe motivates how we make choices, and our choices determine our steps which impacts our future. Will we be people who make choices with our future in mind with thoughtful intention? Or will we be slave to our flesh? I guess what I’m saying is what peace will we choose, counterfeit or true peace?

[Aaron] Yeah. And yeah, that leads me to Isaiah 26, verse three. It says, “You keep him in perfect peace “whose mind is stayed in you because He trusts in you.” This puts all of that together.

[Jennifer] Well, trust is that another word for belief. It’s that confidence. It’s that assurance and reliance on–

[Aaron] Yeah, so where does the mind stayed? On God. And what do we get for that? Perfect peace. And so, friends, I want to encourage you. What do you believe? It’s not gonna just be just to say I believe in God. Oh yeah, I believe what the Bible says. We get to ask ourselves, do I really believe what the Bible says? ‘Cause we can be deceived. We can be deceived to think, say with our mouth one thing and be far from Him with our hearts. And we see it in our actions. I see it in how I treat my wife. I see it how I treat myself. I see it in how I treat my kids. I see it in what decisions I make when I’m alone. What I believe. If I believe God is to be feared, because Proverbs 1 says, the beginning of all wisdom, or “Fearing God is the beginning of all wisdom.” If I have this understanding that God is mighty, that He saved me, that He sent His Son to die on the cross, that He raised him from the dead, that one day I’ll live forever with Him in heaven. If I believe these things, if He’s given me His Spirit, but in privacy, I totally act wicked and I am a liar and I steal and I commit adultery with my my eyes and my heart or physically, like I’m not believing the thing I say I believe, because I would care infinitely more about those things that I believe than those acts and those choices. And if I did believe those and I still made one of those choices, I would repent of that choice because it’s contrary to what I believe. And I would know, oh man, I did that thing contrary to what I believe. And I don’t wanna do that thing anymore. All that to say, there’s just, I think there’s a lot for us to pray and ask God if we dare, to show us if there’s things that we’re believing falsely, if there’s belief systems in us that are keeping us in bondage to things that we are freed from, if there’s things that we believe that are keeping us justified in certain ways of being in our homes or with our families or with our friends. I think it’s good to to ask God then to show us if there be any way in us that he wants to change, if there be any belief in us. Romans 15:13 says, “May the God of hope fill you “with all joy and peace in believing “so that by the power of the Holy Spirit “you may abound in hope.” And so we just pray that our beliefs that we would, first of all, we’d know what we believe. And we’d recognize that if there’s any broken beliefs in us that they’d be fixed or removed. So we pray that in this episode, if there’s any lies that you might be believing, that they’d be broken today.

[Jennifer] Well, I know that that was a big episode and it’s one that I know I’m gonna be able to glean from ’cause I’m gonna relisten to that. It was an important topic to cover and I think we did decent. What do you think?

[Aaron] We will see.

[Jennifer] We hope that it encouraged you guys but we are gonna move on to just the season we were talking about gratefulness. So at the end of each episode, we are just sharing things that we are grateful for. And the hope is that it would spur guys on to consider things that you’re grateful for. And then you can share it with the Lord, with your spouse, with your neighbor, whoever you want. And we’ll just spread gratefulness all around because gratefulness is good. So Aaron, do you wanna start?

[Aaron] I had some tonight. I’m grateful for coffee. I started drinking it out of nowhere, not out of nowhere, but I was on the mission field and everyone drank coffee.

[Jennifer] It’s like a culture thing.

[Aaron] Yeah, and now it’s my culture ’cause I love coffee. Killing times in the airports, around a fire pit at night. I love coffee. So I’m really grateful for it. It’s a pretty awesome thing that God created.

[Jennifer] Awesome. Well, I’m grateful for the ability to homeschool. I was thinking about that today. Yeah, just being in the school and with the kids and we’re kind of outgrowing our table a bit, but it’s really fun. And I really love to see how my kids are growing, that I get that perspective and that I get to be the one that, I don’t know.

Grows with them?

Yeah. Grows with them and gives it to ’em.

Learn with them.

Yeah. It’s been a really valuable thing for our family. And I know that there’s a lot of responsibility that comes with it. And so, yeah, grow with them. That’s good word. ‘Cause I’m definitely growing into my role as a teacher with them, but I love it.

[Aaron] Awesome. So as usual, we end the episode in prayer. Jennifer, would you pray for us.

[Jennifer] Dear Lord, thank You for designing our minds and creating us to think so deeply. Our minds are complex and wonderful. We pray we would be diligent to protect our minds and guard them from the enemy, from lies, from ways of thinking that lure us into temptation. We pray we would actively memorize Your word and use Your word to fight against doubt or lies. We pray for our marriages that we would not use tactics like the enemy to get what we want or to cause each other pain. Please help us to walk righteously, to think soundly, to lift each other up with encouragement. Please help us to support each other in marriage and protect each other’s minds as best as we can. May we glorify You with our thoughts and how we think, in Jesus’ name, amen.

[Aaron] Amen, we appreciate you guys. We love you all. If you have some time after this episode to share it, you’d be our share warriors, we’d really appreciate it. We’ve been seeing a lot of people sharing about themselves on social media. We really appreciate it, we love that. Sometimes we share the share. I think that’s a thing, yeah. All right, see you all next week.