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Give It A Shot
Episode No. 10

Spending time with Jesus daily isn’t the easiest thing, but is one of the most important Jesus habits you can build. This week we talk through what that looks like for us and how you might start. We just want you to give it a shot!

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Josh: Hello. Hello. Hello. We’re just two normal guys trying to live this Jesus life. My name’s Josh.

Andrew: Hey. Hey, this is Andrew and we are this Jesus life podcast, dude, episode 10. This is huge.

Josh: 10 who thought we’d make it to episode 10? Let’s be honest. I done.

Andrew: Sometimes I did not every day. I’m glad we’re here, man.

Josh: This is good relations, Andrew, on episode 10. Congratulations, Dan, we didn’t miss a week.

Andrew: No

Josh: straight.

Andrew: We did. That’s right. That’s pretty solid. That’s pretty solid. We might have to start talking about when we take like a vacation or downtime, but dude, not right now, not till we get that on

Josh: insecticide 11th and we’ve taken vacations and we still sneaky.

Andrew: So sneaky about it. Yes. Well, dude, um, I see you, you’re drinking a fancy energy drink. That means this is going to be a good night. How you doing?

Josh: Yeah. It’s like a healthy version of energy drink. Uh, there’s only one, two, three, four, five, six, seven ingredients. So that says relatively. Yeah. And all of them I can read.

I don’t know what. Tartaric acid is, but I assume some kind of preservative. Oh, that’s a,

Andrew: that’s actually, uh, from the endangered tar tar bird.

Josh: I wondered if that was it. I recognize the name.

Andrew: It’s from the kidneys. It’s

Josh: pretty much just from the bird. The birds kidneys, the targeter birds. Yeah, the target bird.

That’s the one in The Bahamas.

Andrew: That’s right. That’s right. Yeah. Bahamas. Yeah, they

Josh: hunt.

Andrew: That’s right. That sounds right.

Josh: That’s probably where the tar comes

Andrew: from. It’s hard to are rest in peace,

Josh: but it does have 120 milligrams of caffeine per Cain,

Andrew: dude. I don’t think I could do that at this time of night. I can’t drink coffee at like, after like 3:00 PM or I’m really in trouble.

Josh: Yeah. Caffeine doesn’t bother me.

Oh,

Andrew: nice.

Josh: And it never, like, I think it’s because it bothered my brother drastically. So my mom was like, you can never have caffeine. So like I just trained my body though. Like, you can’t act crazy on caffeine or you’re not going to get to drink caffeine afternoon or whatever his rules were. That’s funny.

So it was really just out of self preservation that I wanted to keep drinking soda well until the night that’s fair. And I couldn’t figure out if it effected me at all.

Andrew: Right. That’s fair.

Josh: Nice dude. How you been,

Andrew: dude? I’ve been better than those tardar burdens. Um, but I will, I will tell you, literally yesterday we almost, we almost flooded our house and then we almost burned our house down.

Like home ownership is no joke, man.

Josh: Hopefully it’s in the other order though, hopefully almost burned down your house and then almost flooded it just in case you did start at burning it, at least that you had a flood coming.

Andrew: No, no, we literally, we have big leaking pipe issue only got that nearly wrapped up and

Josh: actually had to wait.

Andrew: I was about to say

Josh: something you want to nearly wrap up. We got one like full fixes kind of thing.

Andrew: We got it to the point where it was like leaking slowly, you know, not like gushing and then, and it was like livable for awhile. And then the last night I like turned our water fully off, off, ended up fixing it fully today.

But, um, yeah, but dude, the fire came after the water man. It like, once everything was dry, once it was good to get and it was a almost full electrical fire. It was no drought.

Josh: So that’s not that’s that’s a rough day right there.

Andrew: Yeah. So other than that, and I’m good. Chickens are happy. I’m just relaxed night though.

Yeah, I know. They, uh, I’ve left just tar paper on their, their roof for a long time, which is okay for like, A couple of weeks, but it’s been like over a month and, uh, I need to get some shingles on their, uh,

Josh: on their rip up the tar pair, pear the tarpaper now and putting new carpet now. Cause it’s bad.

Andrew: Probably not, probably not, but if it’s wet, I have a bunch. Cause I bought, you have to buy this huge role. You know, that’s the only size it comes in. It’s not plenty if I have to. So

Josh: I was your swimming pool. Cause I’ll be honest. The last couple of days here, I was like, man, how nice would it be? It almost seems like I’m going to find an Airbnb and just hang out.

It’d be all week that has a hot tub and a swimming pool.

Andrew: Be awesome. You should, that’d be

Josh: a blast.

Andrew: Dude come over here. You know, it’s just a quick hop, skip, and a house in

Josh: miles or whatever it is. That’s all I remember.

Andrew: I will say. I have literally, uh, showered way less in the last two weeks, because cause like I’ll get sweaty during the day. Cause it’s been like eighties, nineties, you know? And uh, and then.

In the evening, like when we finished dinner, Katherine’s gone to bed. I’ll just jump in the pool, man. It’s great.

Josh: It’s like the child again, right? Like it’s your entire summer. Was it just get in the pool? And you’re like, well, I slammed for the last few

Andrew: days for three hours. That’s fine. Yeah. Yeah. Until it’s nighttime.

Josh: That’s my thing with like pools and night because sharks know shark week’s coming and they’re going to. You’re going to be trying to impress people. And I don’t care what anyone says, those shadows in the pool late at night. I know their, I know their jobs,

Andrew: dude. I would watch shark week religiously. And that’s really why I’m scared of sharks.

Like as a kid, I watched

Josh: jaws as a child and that’s the thing that’s scarred me. Dude.

Andrew: Well, I did too. That probably was worse, but dude, I learned about sharks, bull sharks, living like swimming up freshwater rivers. And man, I’ll tell you what, even in Ohio, when we’d be out on our boat, growing up and I’d fall off the tube or fall off the skis and be floating as the boat came back around, I’d be like, Oh, I’m going to die.

Josh: Yeah. Yup. Yeah. So I can’t do it. I don’t, I don’t understand. I could never be able to pick up surfing for that reason. Right. There there’s too many videos out there of like I was watching this video of these YouTubers, um, that like traveled the world or wherever on a boat, which would be fricking amazing.

Andrew: That wouldn’t

Josh: be awesome. But they went diving with sharks. I think there were tiger sharks, which are pretty aggressive animals. And they were saying the whole thing of like, they’re not aggressive as is, you know, people say, they’re not trying to kill you. Um, sometimes, you know, they try to come and say hi to you and the way they do that and with their teeth.

And I freaking kidding me right now. And then like tell the story of like the girl, like just turned her head to swim back towards the boat. And wasn’t watching where the shark was. Uh, and like the shark realized it and it was like jet and right towards her. Like you do take a chunk out of her rear end and thankfully there’s another dude there that like, You hit him in the nose and kind of direct them a different way.

And you’re like, you’ve gotta be kidding me. Like, what do you mean? They’re not dangerous?

Andrew: Yeah. They’re like 15 feet long. Massive. They kill things for a living like

Josh: razors or sharp teeth. Like, no, thank

Andrew: you. Yeah. Razor-sharp tar tar teeth.

Josh: I bet you, they love to charge harbored big food. Maybe see if I’m picturing like really fat, like the tar chopper.

They’re not flying birds now. They’re like pudgy little legs,

Andrew: dumb, double the size of an ostrich, but all flap.

Josh: Oh, big. They’re huge. I was picturing like chicken size with super flabby. No dude. They’re like,

Andrew: they’re like the, Oh gosh. Okay. Um, I’m ruining this. They’re basically the slugs of birds. Just Mamet, slug, birds,

Josh: or slot, like kind of slow move in particular.

Good. Yeah. Yeah. Gotta be super fat.

Andrew: Great kidney oil though.

Josh: Hey, if you’re tuning in today, thank you so much for listening. We do greatly appreciate it. Um, Hey, if you could just give us a shout out on your social media forums, that’d be a huge one for us that helps us out. I’m just kind of getting this message of, we want to help you find hope again, out there.

Um, we do greatly appreciate you listening and liking us and subscribing to us and all those fun things. Uh, but this week, Andrew. What are we talking about

Andrew: this week? We are talking about giving it a shot. And, and when I say that, it sounds real vague. Cause it is just give it a shot, but we’ll

Josh: talk shots, shots, shots,

Andrew: shots.

Yeah. Yeah,

Josh: totally. Just give it a shot.

Andrew: Yeah, little wait, is that what our

Josh: motion listened to podcasts was about alcohol and marijuana. Is we just figured we bring it back. We’re going to talk about how do you take a shot on the proper way? It’s actually a

Andrew: little John Little John Wayne. Yeah. No. So give it a shot, give it a shot, a shot.

Uh, just daily. Jesus dude is what we’re trying to be. We’re trying to be a little tricky with it, give it a shot. But the reality is it’s hard to spend daily time with Jesus started to, to make that a part of your normal day. And for me, man, I’ve been, I’ve been trying to do this for years and, uh, and if I’m honest, it isn’t necessarily easier over time.

You know, there’s still. There’s still stuff that comes up every time. I’m like, alright, spend time with Jesus. It’s like daughter starts crying and I got stuff to do. I got

Josh: flood in your basement, flood,

Andrew: fire happening at the same time. Like, there’s all these other stuff, you know? And if nothing else, there’s just like, Oh, somebody liked my picture on Instagram, better go, you know, see who that was and check it out and whatever.

Um, yeah, give it a shot. Take some time, try it out. What do you got to lose? Honestly? What can you lose? Like, do you ever, do you ever spend time with Jesus and just feel like that was who he is?

Josh: No, I don’t think I ever have. Yeah, but I don’t think it’s not possible. Like you would assume, like people probably have ended their time with Jesus dude.

Like that was a waste of my time. Yeah, because not because of Jesus, what comes up where kind of where their heart was at and all that. But I think the big thing is like, we’re bringing. We’re bringing you what we’ve been talking about the last two episodes kind of like all together, right? Like, yeah.

We’ve talked about it. I think this last episode to you, but it’s, you know, it’s prayer and it’s confession and it’s reading our Bibles and it’s, um, spending time in worship and spending time in solitude and in silence and kind of bringing all that together into like one moment. Yeah, really that one moment is, is our time with Jesus, which we’re saying, Hey, why not give it a shot?

Like, um, what’s the, what’s the harm in doing it? And. Can you not give the next seven days, um, 20 minutes a day. I’m just spending time with Jesus. I’m reading your Bible and spending time in prayer. Um, and really what is, what does that really look like? And, um, you know, the, the reason why this is important to us is like, we talk about this John 10, 10 life, this life to the full and this abundant life, depending on what version of scripture reading.

And, um, we talk about, you know, having hope again and finding freedom in this life and not letting this life feel like a burden. But even in the midst of pain and hardship, um, you’re still full of hope. It’s so full of peace. Um, and I generally believe personally that a big portion of that is to spend time with Jesus, to foster that relationship with Jesus.

And we’ve said this every episode, but we don’t do these things cause this is what good Christians do. We do these things because. This is how we connect with Jesus is how we grow in our relationship with Christ and, and not a knowledge necessarily, but an intimacy and in rawness and realness, like we talked, I don’t know if his last episode, episode before, but we talked about that whole idea of, um, Like, does it feel like you’re exposing yourself?

And if it’s not, like you’re just, you’re not in there yet. Um, and that’s okay. We want to help you get there, but, um, it takes some work on your part and you’ve got to set aside time to do that. And I know we talk about, uh, spending time with Jesus every day. Like we all. Well think about it. So we want to do it like, yeah, it’s a good thing.

Um, but then we just never find the time to actually do it. Um, yeah, I’m in a guy’s group right now and we read six days of the week. Uh, and I would probably say the majority of the group probably doesn’t read not to offend you. If you’re listening, I appreciate your listening. Um, but they probably don’t read it all and they kind of crammed it all in one day.

Um, And I get it. Like, it feels like an assignment and you’re doing this work for this class kind of thing. But, um, in all reality that the habit we’re trying to foster is spending time with Jesus, like daily Jesus. Like what does that look like? And,

Andrew: yeah.

Josh: Um, but I guess kind of to dive into this Andrew, like, what does your time with Jesus look like now and how has it evolved over the years?

Andrew: Yeah, well, um, right now my, my time with Jesus each day looks a little different than it is years ago. Um, so with, uh, with an under two year old daughter, it’s like, there’s a lot of things that seem to be important and urgent at the same time. Um, especially if I’m not like working, you know, like, cause she usually gets up pretty early.

So I ended up getting up early, wife ends up getting up early and okay. I don’t get a lot of time, uh, to myself necessarily through the day. Um, or does Jenna, so one of the best times for me, uh, to spend time with Jesus is. As I shower and get ready in the morning. I’m literally, I’ve discovered in the last couple of years, maybe the last three years that I’m like, Whoa, more of an auditory learner and thinker than I am like a reader, you know, like there’s, there’s a lot of value in reading.

I still love sitting down and reading, but, uh, but man, I. Usually, I just listen to the Bible as a shower for, and not even every day, but a lot of days I do where it’s like, I have 15, 20 minutes where I’m going to shower, shave, get ready. Um, and I’m kind of doing things as I’m listening to the Bible, but there will always be things that jump out and just.

Either encourage me or kick me in the teeth or become a theme through my day that I just heard in the morning. Um, and, and I always try to like interject prayer in that time, even if like, even if it’s going, I’m listening to the Bible. If something pops out, I just start praying about it and trying to listen a little bit.

Um, but then men, the reality is that’s like, That’s a chunk of my day, but throughout the day, like I, I try to just take time. I try to take moments and be quiet, which that’s that’s way harder for me than doing something. Try to take moments throughout the day and be quiet though. And just listen, is God trying to tell me anything?

Can I even hear what he’s trying to say? Cause I think God’s always speaking something over us. Um, or to us, and it’s just like pretty rare that we, we catch on to exactly what that is. So I try to pause and listen throughout the day. Um, and then I just try to be prayerful throughout my day. It’s like, if I walk outside and see an awesome tree, that’s like a great reason to be like, God, that’s.

Beautiful. Like, thanks for letting that tree exist. Thanks for making that. And thanks for making me and thanks for making the son that I can even see that and all these things, you know, you can just spiral out from the normal stuff in your life,

Josh: but yeah,

Andrew: daily time and Jesus. Probably looks like me getting ready, you know, like can anybody else for my day Mmm.

With the Bible plan in the background and in a few moments, probably at the end where I pause that and just pray and, uh, and start my day. Um, that’s sort of a human

Josh: I’ll answer in just a second. I want to kind of jump on what you said. I think something that you said that it’s extremely helpful. I think for ourselves in terms of just evaluating where our heart is, and I don’t think it necessarily determines our intimacy with God, but it does determine, um, How often God is on our minds or Jesus in our relationship with him and around our minds.

Like if you’re praying throughout the day regularly, now you have to be careful with this, right? Like you could just get really legalistic and just pray throughout the day. That’s, that’s not the point. The point is like, if Jesus popped into your mind often to have conversation about whatever or pray through or ask or whatever happens to be, um, that’s probably a good sign that you’re in a good place to continue to kind of pursue this.

If, if you go weeks. Days weeks, months. And you don’t remember the last time that you really prayed or had a conversation with God, like you’re in a tough spot. And I think the, I think the enemy’s goal is to isolate us, right. Isolate us from community, isolate us from the people that loves the most isolated from God.

And, um, I think that’s a good sign of, Hey, like. I’ve been isolated. Like I’m not spending time with, with God. I don’t know. The last time I prayed or even talk to God, I’m like, I talk about God. Um, you know, in my conversations, but I don’t, I haven’t talked to God. I think that’s a big, I think that’s a big step.

Um, and I think in terms of giving it a shot, like, just start there. Just start a dialogue and have a conversation. I was talking with a guy last week or the week before. Um, and as we kind of talked, that was kind of the conclusion that it came to is yeah, my drive home tonight, I just, I just need to kind of open up that line of communication and start talking to God and just see what happens.

Um, I haven’t asked her about it. You know, what that experience was like since then, but you know, my prayer and my hope is that it was for Fulbright

Andrew: dude, even take a shot, give it a try. I like that’s the, I feel like that’s one of the themes of, of what we talk about almost every episode is that God’s just like, They’re waiting, you know, waiting for you to take just a small step, you know, like you don’t have to immediately run a marathon to use the step analogy.

It’s like, God’s waiting for you to just take one tiny step towards him. And he’s going to probably take three towards you. Like he’s. He’s just good to us, man. Like,

Josh: I

Andrew: don’t feel like God depends on our effort that much, but at the same time, when you take a small step towards him, when I take a small step towards him, I always feel like I get rewarded like 10 times for that, that small effort.

Um, The other night, I was struggling to fall asleep and I had been like, just going all day, you know, go and go and go. And like, I think Janna had been asleep for a while. I was laying there in bed and I was listening to a podcast. I’m still just wide awake. And I was enjoying the podcast immensely.

Josh: Was it ours?

I’m hoping it was ours. It was dude. Come on. It’s your own pod? It wasn’t ours. I was just looking at our pod. Apple podcasts app and yeah, I’ve listened to two of ours all the way through.

Andrew: That’s awesome. I’ve listened to maybe more than two, but I’ve listened to all of them, at least part of the way through.

And a couple of them,

Josh: some of them are like right at the very beginning, like I got through the enter to make sure it sounded good.

Andrew: That’s funny. Um, dude, but here’s the thing I, I realized that I had gone almost that entire day, you know, probably 6:00 AM to at that point almost 11:00 PM. And hadn’t really spent any significant time with, with God, because I had just been so busy with so much stuff, you know?

Um, mainly good stuff, but just a lot of stuff to do. And, uh, so I, I cannot be grudgingly paused my podcast and prayed for a little while and I just prayed my God. Do you want to say anything to me? And, uh, and he didn’t say anything to me. Um, but as you were telling me that, um, I felt like I understood what he was trying to say.

And it was just, don’t give me your worst time. You know what I mean? Like don’t give me, don’t make me your last priority. Uh, I don’t know. So maybe I did

Josh: that, but there’s some money to money to pray after this episode now,

Andrew: but there’s something to like giving a little bit of your time that kind of hurts or that like, you know,

Josh: like there’s plenty of times, right?

That you’re like, yeah, I probably should spend some time in prayer. Yeah, I just don’t really want to, so I’m going to turn on the music. I’m going to turn on podcasts. I’m going to turn on Nadia book, whatever happens to be, and kind of miss it, but it’s, you know, as you were saying, like Matthew seven, seven comes to mind, which is ask and it will be given to you seek and you’ll find knock and the door will be open to you.

The thing about those verses that I always, um, and this is, this is Jesus speaking. Um, he’s quoted here in the, in the end of the sermon on the Mount, but, um, what I always find really interesting to us is there is a step. In, in each of those things that we provide, but it’s such a small step in compared to what God provides on the other side.

Right. Like asking to be given to you, what all had to do was ask and got it all the work to give. Right. I’ll have to do a Sikh. I just had to turn my head and God did everything to help me find it. All I had to do is knock on a stinkin door and then he did the work to open the door to wherever I was headed.

Right, right next. Um, yeah, it’s just kind of that, that whole thing of, of. Baby steps is, is key here. You don’t stop taking the steps and grow on those steps and you know, don’t stay at, excuse me, is, um, Paul said, like, don’t stay on, on milk, like start eating solid food in terms of your faith. I’m like start taking bigger chunks of this time with Jesus and, and growing that in terms of our dependence and our reliance on Jesus.

Um, but start somewhere like

Andrew: what’s. Okay. So if you, so a lot of the time when we’re talking, I. I try to picture somebody who grew up in the church, um, and fell, not even just in the church, grew up following Jesus, maybe sincerely, sincerely, and then just fell out a drifted out of it over time. And is maybe on the fringes of like, do I even want to do this anymore?

Is this can be a part of my life. Is this not? Because I’m just. I’m on the fringe. You know, I think that person, or I think the person that’s starting to kind of explore it, but they’ve been in a lot of other paths for a long time. And they’re just like, maybe that’s the Jesus answer. Maybe it’s like, I need more knowledge about science.

Maybe it’s this other answer, you know, other religion or whatever. And, uh, and it’s, it’s that type of person that I picture. So, like, if you say, say something that say that guy is sitting across from you or gal and is just like, yeah, I haven’t really spent time with Jesus in like years. I don’t even know where to start.

Like, I don’t even know what to do. Like where do you start? What would you say?

Josh: Mmm, I’d say, I’d start with this. I’d start with empathy in terms of, I get it. Like we all go through the seasons and, um, cause we were all trying to find this, this void to fill, right. We’re maybe we’re chasing an emotion or an experience or a feeling. And, um, we’re just trying to fill with anything and everything.

And um, because our expectation of Jesus was never fulfilled in our growing up. Yeah. Um, and, and I think like, say you’ve grown up in the church, you were a youth group kid, not for lack of a better, um, Example for sure. So you’re going on camps and retreats, and you’re spending time with other people that follow Jesus or at least claim to follow Jesus.

And, um, the environment’s relatively protected, um, and it’s safe. Um, and you’ve had some great mountaintop experiences where I felt super close to Jesus. And now you kind of don’t have those same essentially handholding along the way. And I think this is where. The church misses it is we don’t make a clear enough distinction of what.

We’re trying to do as the church. So like in youth ministry, we give you these camps and these retreats in this experience with God, the create these environments with God. Um, and we don’t really do a great job of explaining the why behind it. Like, yes, we want you to connect with Jesus in these moments.

And we foster an environment for that to happen, uh, because we that’s important to us as followers of Jesus, but we don’t. Give you the tools that you need to make sure that continues to happen. And I think that’s what we’re talking about here. As we talked about just daily time of Jesus or quiet time, devotionals, whatever we call it, um, is like, here’s the piece that keeps this going.

Like here’s the piece that we keep coming back to, and that same experience that you had, um, Wherever, uh, is the same is the same experience you can have in your bedroom or on your back porch, or sit in your living room or in your car. Like those things can still be there that closeness of God can still be there.

Um, it’s just, we got to do the work and create the disciplines in our life to. To foster that relationship. Um, it can’t just be that, you know, and it’s kind of those moments of like, you know, you’re in this environment where it feels, you feel so close to God, and it’s a whole idea of like, I’ve taken this small step I’ve knocked asked, um, I’ve Seeked and God showed up in those moments.

Um, that’s fantastic. It’s amazing. But I stopped doing those things when I left or I got back into the routine of life and it wasn’t the same, like, yeah, I was reading my Bible, but it wasn’t, it wasn’t the same kind of experience. And I think the piece that’s missing is, is really that like exposure of the heart that we talked about last week of like, how honest are you with yourself?

How honest are you with God of like what you’re really thinking and where are you really at and what you’re really struggling with and what don’t you fully understand and what parts of this whole faith thing. Don’t seem to kind of gel together, ask those questions, dig into those things. Um, you know, I think the simple formula is.

Like if we had to boil it down to that, anyone can have a quiet time, any way they want. But I think you start with just prayer of quick prayer of like centering your heart on Jesus. Right? I’m like, Jesus is what I’ve done and flip, forgive me for that. And, um, I’m coming to you in this moment. I just want to seek you in this moment.

I’m desperate to hear your voice in this moment and then go into reading scripture and I’d recommend, you know, reading in concession. So like don’t, don’t do the holes. Spin up your Bible and put your finger down that doesn’t work.

Andrew: Or if you do that, just keep reading after the place, you’ve stopped your finger and do that the next day.

And the next day, like if you start, if

Josh: that’s where you started, keep going, just

Andrew: keep going and going.

Josh: Don’t do good going in new spot. I think oftentimes we want it to be like, We’re looking for like that miracle moment. Right? Cause we hear those stories of like God said exactly what I needed to hear in this moment.

That’s true.

Andrew: G board.

Josh: Yeah. And that’s, it’s true. God does do those things, but spinning through your Bible and hitting a verse, the chances. Like, like you’re playing, you’re playing a game, you’re going to lose and it’s not going to feel good. Cause you’re gonna feel like God lets you down. And you know, that wasn’t, that wasn’t the intention.

And like for the longest time I was praying a prayer. Like, God, just let this verse come up on my, my radio, just so I know that you see me still. I just saw, I know that you care and it never came up and you’re like, God, like, so now you’re in this weird place of like, okay, God, God hates me. Like. He doesn’t, he doesn’t see me.

He doesn’t care. Well, that’s not true. We know that that’s not true because scripture tells that it’s not true. Those are traditional. Our faith tells us that’s not true and it’s proven over and over again that God doesn’t feel that way about you. But when we start to play those games, I think it’s the games.

The enemy like puts in our head of like, Hey, go down this little road and does God really care? Let’s test him. Let’s see, not really cares what we’re going to test them now in this moment. Oh, he didn’t come through for you. It’s cause he hates you, right? Like that’s, that’s just the scary ground you don’t want to play with.

So concession like consecutively reading through scripture is helpful in the sense that like, when you start today, God knows what you’re going to need 15 days from now. Do you not think that God can set you on a path I’m reading right now to get you to 15 days from now. I’m like, there’s that piece of it too, that God can show up with.

Like, man, I didn’t see that coming. And that’s exactly what I need to hear on this specific day or what happens to me, but yeah. Start with a simple prayer, just setting your heart. Right. Um, you know, focusing on Jesus, take a few deep breaths, kind of get in that moment and then spend some time reading or listening.

Yeah, however you consume, um, the best, just so you hear the words that are being said, um, or understand the words that are being said and kind of find those things that are really popping out to you or speaking to you, and then kind of go down those rabbit holes of God. Why does that matter to me? Why does that, the thing that they kind of showed up and, um, Then you just start a conversation with God and talk through those things and talk through other things and really be as vulnerable and open about how you feel and what you’re thinking as you possibly can, like share your doubts, share your excitement, share your pieces of this.

God. Like this is what you say, but. It doesn’t seem to make any sense. I don’t see that in life. Like how has that played out here? But this is how he told us to live or like, I look at these Christian leaders and this isn’t how they live. Like, how is this? Okay. Like, like wrestle through those things. I think that’s extreme, but I think there’s a level of.

Of vulnerability that needs to be there for it to have impact. And I think the more vulnerable you’re willing to be with yourself and with God has a greater impact on your ability to hear from God and your ability to do the work in your own heart that God wants to do.

Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. And just take, like, I feel like we’ve been, been saying this for a while, or maybe I’ve just said it to myself.

Just take the next right step. Yeah. And all of what you laid out are, are the next rate steps. Like just, if you give that a shot, it’s not going to come back empty. Like yeah. You’re like, dude, even that example, I shared just from a couple of nights ago where I spent the last five minutes of my awake hours having a few minutes with Jesus and I felt like nothing came out of that.

Well, as we’re talking just now I kinda got hit with what, what was that even about? You know, and that’s days later, I think that was three nights ago and it’s like, That’s going to keep happening. And the more that you spend daily time with Jesus, the more that stuff will happen. It’s not always, it’s not always in that moment.

It’s not always three days later. Often. It is that moment where you’re like, this is awesome. This is the thought I needed to carry me through this day. This is the thought I need to become the. Central thesis of this season of my life. You know, the like Matthew, we’ll talk about this more, but like Matthew six 34, if you’re going through a hard time, um, Jesus said, therefore do not worry about for tomorrow.

For tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. I’m like, that’s huge. If you’re going through a tough season and you can believe that. Dude, that can be the theme of your life for a while. And that can be a solid theme, but you gotta wrap more around that. You got to not just.

Read that line only and know nothing else. Like if you, if you have that and then you keep adding context and context and relationship around it and you build trust in God, and then you actually believe that, dude, that’s a powerful theme is like, yeah. Each day does have enough stuff to worry about. I don’t even need to worry about today.

Like God’s got it, but I definitely don’t need to worry about tomorrow because I know there’s going to be plenty to worry about then like, I just feel like it’s a, it’s almost like taking a rock and just like every day is probably a silly analogy tape everyday taking a single rock, you know, and placing it next to the other rock that you put.

Well, pretty soon you’re going to have like multiple then pretty soon, you’re going to have a tower after that. Then pretty soon you’re going to have to get a ladder to like start stacking on top of that stuff. You know, it’s like you build, uh, a bigger and bigger foundation. To where when tough seasons hit, when tough things happen or unexpected things happen that throw you off, you’re like, I’m not just standing on a pebble, you know, like I have this whole foundation under me to have to understand of things that God has done in my life and said to me in my life to where.

That’s not really shaking me. Like it might be, today’s worry, but it’s not, tomorrow’s worry. It’s not this year’s worry. You know, it’s like, it’s a small thing. There are huge things in our life that can throw you off. But, um, and I don’t know. I, I guess that’s why I like the idea of just give it a shot because it’s just not going to come back empty.

It’s not going to come back and be like, yeah, that was a worthwhile or worthless, you know,

Josh: in my experience. I think that the key to it all is just be intentional about it. Like not unintentional in the sense of, you’re just doing a list of tasks, but intentional in the sense that like, just find time throughout your week to spend time with Jesus.

So like, you know, I spend time with Jesus every, every morning. That’s just kinda my habit. It doesn’t have to be that way. Hey, could really be any way you want to. Um, and I have a pretty specific way that I spend time with Jesus, but you don’t have to spend it the same way every day, either. Like it’s Hey, I’m, I’m leaving the house late today.

I’m gonna, I’m gonna spend time with Jesus at lunch today and I’ll have my Bible with me though. You always do. If you have your phone, let’s be honest. Um, I’m just gonna, I’m just gonna go for a walk and just kind of pray and, and try to be silent. Um, that’s what I’m going to do today to spend time with Jesus and then tomorrow, um, I’m going to spend time Jesus through, through worship and I’m on my way into to work.

If I have a commute or if I have some extra time, I’m just going to put on some worship music. I’m just going to sing as if God is standing before me. And I’m just going to worship. There’s a variety of different ways that you can spend time with Jesus. The key is, or just spending time with Jesus. And the benefit we have of scripture is it’s a foundational piece for us, right?

Like it’s the recorded word of God. So here’s what God has already said. It’s gone through canonization, meaning it’s, it’s gone through a vetting process of like, this is what we believe is the church really is what God has said. Um, so there’s credibility in that. Um, You in there, it was an accepted, like the new Testament books though.

It went through canonization. Like they were already accepted books and letters of the church that we said that this is like, it’s not it. Wasn’t just this council that kind of all these men, powerful men came together. Probably white, powerful men. Sorry. That was probably wrong to say for white power. I shouldn’t say that.

I apologize. I’m stirring the pot, but it wasn’t necessarily that it was, there was already consensus and these men were coming together to finalize that consensus or these leaders, not all of them were men and they were from multiple different races, but they were all white. Right? Just their probably let’s be honest.

None of them probably were coming from the middle East. Maybe some of the Romans, but, um, yeah, no, no more white. Uh, so I, I think there’s like be intentional and be consistent. Um, I think those are your two biggest pieces to this. Um, be consistent, spend time with Jesus daily, um, and as often as possible, and, and like you were saying, keep putting stones on the, on the Hill, like it’s going to build a relationship.

I’m gonna look at it that way. I’m building into relationship. So if I build into relation to say your, your, you have a new friend, his name’s Johnny. He’s a nice guy. Uh, you really liked Johnny. You just want to spend more time with Johnny. Um, cause he’s cool, dude. Uh, well, how would you spend time with Johnny?

You’d reach out to John and say, Hey dude, we should, we shouldn’t hang out this week. Um, when he got free, uh, Hey Johnny, what you want to hike this week? Um, Oh, don’t go too much with Johnny. Cause then you’re gonna freaking out. Cause he seemed like, dude, like, do you have any other friends? Like please stop

Andrew: texting

Josh: me.

It’s a little bit different. Yeah. It’s a little bit different with Jesus. He does want to spend time with you always. He’s not going to get weirded out by it. Um, it’s his, it’s his desire, but um, I was reading this, I’m reading a book right now that picked up like two thirds of the way through and maybe, um, Called enter the wild or inter wild inter awhile, uh, by Carlos Whittaker.

Um, who’s a nice Christian writer. I used to be a worship pastor. He used to work for North point, um, back in the day, and now he’s a speaker and writer, but, um, I’ve been falling for a while. Uh, but he has a new book and this whole concept is really just like into the wild of like, Intimacy with Jesus to dig into the ugliness of your life and kind of find that freedom again, like that’s kind

Andrew: of his,

Josh: his stick with the whole book, but he quotes, um, The verse.

And I don’t remember off the top of my head. Well, we’ll put it in the show notes.

Andrew: You can find it, phrase it. It’s all good.

Josh: Um, the, essentially when, when God says that, you know, he, he forgives us of our sins for his own sake. Um, which is kind of an interesting idea that maybe you read over that you don’t think much of it, but Jesus forgives us for our sins for his own sake.

So it’s this whole idea that like, he forgave you because he wants to be in relationship with you. So that’s why I took care of it. Like he wants to pursue you, but he knows that the destruction that, that sin causes and the separation that it causes. So when we’re, we’re, we’re S w when we turned to say, God, forgive, like I repented of what I’ve done.

He’s so quick to forgive, not just for your sake, but for his sake, because he wants that relationship. We restored, he wants that intimacy to be deeply present. To chase after to chase after you as much as you may not chase after him. But, um, so it was just that, that whole thing where you’re like, wow, like it’s crazy to think that we have a God that wants to spend time with us.

Like we have an all powerful, almighty God that that is pursuing us. Um, if we’re just willing to slow down enough to let him in, but. The enemy’s goal and all this is to say, God doesn’t care. God’s not around. Whereas God, and this, God didn’t let this situation turn out the way that you wanted it to. Well, maybe it didn’t need to turn out that way.

Like maybe there’s a bigger purpose in all of this. Maybe God’s doing some things in the hearts of, you know, in your heart. Maybe he’s doing it in the hearts of the other people around you. And unfortunately you have to pay the suffering of that, um, for God to get, you know, the glory that he’s looking for in the midst of this.

Um, and to do all good for those who, who follow them. Um, but like, so there’s this piece of like, yes, we suffer. Yes. We see blessing has nothing to do necessarily with our behavior or our actions has everything to do with just in the midst of this. And our suffering can produce great things inside of us.

Right. Yeah, you’re suffering produces perseverance and perseverance. You know, you know, the verses, like we get down those roads of like here I have peace again. And here I have hope again, because I had to go through the trials to know that my faith was legitimate. I had to go through those trials for my own sake.

Not for God’s sake. I got news and he knows what he’s done. He’s forgiven you. It’s taken care of. He’s not really worried about it, but for my own sake, I have to go through that journey and process to find that that deeper faith and the deeper understanding and trust of Jesus and. Yeah. Um, so I guess it really comes down to, can you be intentional this week?

Um, can you give that a shot of like, Hey, just look at your week. Uh, maybe you’re like, Hey, I get up at nine o’clock every day. Uh, because I have to be somewhere at nine 15, and I don’t see myself waking up. Any earlier than nine it’s impossible.

Andrew: Okay.

Josh: Yeah, that’s fine. Like if that’s the,

Andrew: if that’s

Josh: the thing, that’s the hurdle you don’t want to jump over right now.

That’s fine. Um, but where else in your life can you be intentional? So you’re like, well, this class ends at this time and this next class ends at this time. I’m going to be intentional in that moment. So I think part of being intentional is. You’ve got to remove the distractions, right? You got to remove the noise, candor.

Jesus. If there’s a ton of noise. And so for me, when I spend time with Jesus, I put on worship music, um, relatively low that I can’t really. Hear it, but I can hear it enough that it’s rounding out. Um, probably my thoughts. Um, but also what’s, what’s going on around me just so I can focus. Um, so it’s put some headphones in and find time, turn off the notifications on your phone.

Like how many days you’re like, I’m going to spend time with Jesus and then you get on your phone and you’re like, you know, you get on your phone and you’re having, um, uh, time would use on the back porch. And there’s this amazing sunrise. So you like. Hold on. I gotta take a picture of this. So you take a picture of this and then they’re going to post it on Instagram.

And you’re like, like, cause that’s what should, what you do. Cause if it’s not an Instagram, it didn’t happen. So you’re posting it on Instagram and now you’re like, Oh, this is super sweet. And you’re like, I gotta get, I gotta get back to Jesus. I forgot. And he pulled the Bible app back open, and then you get a notification somebody liked and commented on your photo shoot for like, laughter.

See what that is. Right. Like it’s, it’s a slippery slope that you’re going to go down and you’re like, Oh shoot. Like I just wasted 35 minutes. I could’ve been spending with Jesus. And now I don’t, I don’t know. Now I’m on, TechTalk scrolling through the feed. I, how this turn on, do not disturb on your phone.

If that’s where you read the Bible. If it’s too much of a distraction, don’t read your Bible on your phone. Take. Yeah. Take a paper Bible with you. They still exist. They’re still around. Can pick them up on Amazon really quick. I’d say at a Christian bookstore, but I don’t think those exist anymore. Uh, they do.

I don’t know where they are. Um, but you can get a paper Bible and don’t take your, bought your phone with you. That might feel really naked and exposing, but that’s kind of the emotion we’re going for anyways.

Andrew: So you can use technology to your advantage. Like if you, if you work from an office or work on your computer all day, well, most days or whatever, dude.

Put it in your calendar, put it in as a recurring appointment and choose to just snooze it until you actually do something about it. So that every five minutes you get something that pops up and says, spend time with Jesus, take a minute and pray, whatever you need. That message to be put it as the first thing in your day.

So that you’re, you’re most likely to see it. As soon as you open your computer and then. If you don’t spend that time with them, just, I say, I’m not going to click dismiss. I’m going to snooze this so that every five minutes I get this nagging thing that I’m in control of it’s nagging me. Cause I’m choosing, that’d be nagged by it.

Yeah. You know, and, and then. When you find the dude, just be like, all right, I’m going to read for five minutes. And I don’t care if you work in, in an office environment, in a cubicle and a totally not Jesus’ related company. It doesn’t matter. You can, you can pull open your phone. You can look at, um, the Bible app, which inevitably leads to check.

Talk. Like we just talked about, if you put it on, do not disturb, you might have a better chance of using the Bible app. Reading for five minutes and praying for two minutes. You’re good. That was Tommy with Jesus. You know, that’s intentional. And if you get good at doing the small stuff like that, Mmm. It’s going to grow because I’m convinced you’re going to find reward in it.

I’m convinced it’s going to be like, that was the best five minutes that set my day up for success. That set me up for success. Let’s be honest. We’re always just living in the moment. You know, we’re always living one day at a time, so yeah, you have one really good day and you start building a new habit and in a positive way, it only grows out over time if you keep at it.

So yeah, building a foundation and it, and it can be small and start small on it. It’s going to grow from there.

Josh: That’s good. And I think too, like there comes a point. In this spending time with Jesus, um, and reading, reading, and praying that you. You don’t necessarily hit a wall, but it’s not as fruitful as it used to be.

So now it feels kind of boring and it’s not the same. Like you’ve got to add to what you’re doing and not necessarily add in the sense of like, do more, but add in sense of like, do different. So like, Um, there’s definitely seasons in my life that I spent a lot more time in prayer than I did reading the Bible, kind of examining my own heart and my own emotions and my own frustrations and my own sin.

And then I, I did at other times in my life, like, that’s okay. Like there’s a level of, of deeper intimacy that starts to happen here, um, that we can really start to grab hold of like, yeah, I can read my Bible every day. Um, and that’s a good habit, but there’s more to it. Right. And as I. Pursue Jesus, that kind of starts to expose things.

And this is what’s going to happen at some point is you’re going to be kind of spending time with Jesus and Jesus is going to say something you don’t want to hear. Um, and you’re going to choose not to listen. I didn’t hear that. I wasn’t paying attention. God, can’t be talking to me about that. That’s crazy.

Um, whatever happens to be like, maybe it’s got convicted, you have something and you’re like, that’s like, I didn’t do anything wrong. Yeah. Right. Like dig into those moments. Like, don’t be scared of those moments cause there’s breakthrough in those moments, right? Like those are the moments that, that God really speaks into us.

That that makes us super uncomfortable, um, to go down those roads. But when we choose to start going down those roads, there’s a level of freedom on the other side of it. And maybe it’s thoughts about yourself that you’re like, these are terrifying thoughts or it’s sitting in your past that you haven’t necessarily dealt with fully.

And yeah, you’re not committing the sin anymore, but it’s still festering and you haven’t forgiven. Um, what you need to forgive in that moment, or maybe that’s the old you and you don’t want it. Deal with the old you, even though the old, you still a part of you, and if you’re not bringing that into you, you’re a divided soul, right?

So you gotta kind of work through those things and have those hard conversations and, and really start to dig into like, God, what are you trying to say in this moment? Or our God, when I think of that, That time in my life. This is, this is what I feel. And this is the emotions that are coming together.

That terrifies me. I don’t want to go back there. I feel helpless. I feel whatever the moment, like dig into those emotions. I’m like, because if we don’t, then you kind of get in that stale place again, and you may be continuing to buy because it’s a habit now. It’s just what you do. But the level of intimacy stops to happen because God keeps seeing the same thing over and over again.

And we just don’t want to go there. So now we feel like God’s not sending anything. Right. We’ve just grounded it out. Yeah. Um, so like when you get to those places, dig into those places, like as much as you don’t want to, as much as you’d rather, you know, throw the heels up and say, absolutely not. Um, those are moments of breakthrough.

Those are the things that are going to kind of change. Um, a lot of things about you and this is how we find hope. Again, this is how we find freedom. Again, is we, we pursue these tough conversations. We pursue these tough things with God.

Andrew: It’s like when you have, when you have an intense knot in your back or your shoulder or whatever.

Yeah. Like you don’t want, you don’t want a massage that just focuses on your foot. You know what I mean? Like, I don’t know why I went to massage, but I just think like, if you have a bad, not

Josh: in your muscle right now, Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, that’s right. Cause

Josh: I’m like,

Andrew: if you have a horrible knot in your neck or in your leg or whatever, do you have to like rub it with force and break that thing down or it’s never gone away or maybe it would in like two weeks, you know, but if you don’t focus on that thing intensely that you.

Maybe don’t want to focus on it. Cause it hurts in the moment. Like you’re never going to get through it. You’re never

Josh: going, I don’t know if you’ve ever had a, not taken out, but Holy crap doesn’t hurt. Like good illustration, like Holy. Yeah. And that’s how it feels sometimes like here, I’m going through life thinking this situation played out this way in all reality.

It was playing out in a much different way and I just saw it wrong. But now I got to look through all of that and deal with all of that. Right. You start to open those things up and accept my blame in it, and then forgive as I need to in it and forgiving yourself as a big piece of it too. Like, you know, if we can’t talk about the sin that used to own us, no, we haven’t dealt with the sin that used to own us.

Yeah. Like, I’ll say it this way. I used to struggle with pornography. I would still say I still struggle with pornography to some extent, because it’s still like, it’s still a temptation

Andrew: still. It’s still part of you, like you just said is maybe the odd you, but

Josh: it’s still part of you, you know? Yeah. But like actively going through it, like if I didn’t dig into those moments of like the emotion that was surrounding us, things of like, yeah.

There’s a high level of shame that exists in that world. Um, so like I had to deal with that. I had to have those conversations with God and I had to have those conversations with those around me of like, this is what it’s doing, and this is how it’s worked my view on life. And, uh, you know, this, I think this is why I do it.

This is what it’s stemming from. And it’s this pain or it’s this, like, for me, it was control. Like I can control this. So I’m going to go down these routes, right. Dig into those things. Like. And if we can’t talk about those things, then it’s not like, um, then we’re probably not fully healed from it. Like I think the last, last episode we got into me getting fired.

Um, I have no problem talking with talking about it. Um, I do have a problem with talking about it publicly, um, because there’s a lot of people involved in it and I don’t want to. I don’t want to cause pain or more strive for more division because it wouldn’t be the reason about talking about it, but like, yeah.

I look back in this situation. There’s plenty of things that I did wrong. It was plenty things that others did wrong in that situation. Um, and it imploded and it got bad and it is what it is. But if I couldn’t talk about those things, I couldn’t be open about those things then like, have I really dealt with those things?

No, like it’s still there. It’s still unforgiveness. It’s still whatever it happens to be. Um, now, like I said, don’t be stupid. Like no, the environment that you’re using to talk about these things. Now we’re talking about talking with God about these things, dig into that safe environment. Really great.

We’re on a podcast right now. And a lot of people from that previous job listened to our podcast. Uh, I’m not opening up that can of worms right now. Like not worth it. It’s going to create division that doesn’t need to be created. Um,

Andrew: yeah. Yeah. And there’s, there’s the whole piece of it, of what is your motive behind it and is your motive something that honors God and, uh, and man, I know you, and I know the story of what happened well, and until you’re in a spot with that example of like, this motive is God honoring, and this is, this is unifying and this is why I’m bringing this up.

Um, Until then, or it doesn’t ever need to be in the podcast in detail and it doesn’t, it doesn’t ever never, or it hasn’t ever necessarily need to be on this type of discussion in detail. Maybe that’s something that God sent you through that season so that you can counsel other people 10 years from now who are going through a season like that, you know,

Josh: like

Andrew: reasons why that is.

Josh: I have no problem talking about it. Um, it’s the medium that I choose to talk about it. Like if you’re listening to this and, and you know, I got fired and you have a lot of questions or whatever it happens to be, I have no problem. Reach out to me. I sit down with you. We could have coffee, we can’t have coffee and weren’t allowed to coffee shops.

Thank you. COVID we can go out to eat though. Make sense of that. You’re allowed to go out to cans of coffee, right? That’s right. But so like, I’d love to sit down or we can, we can talk through that on the grand scale. Uh, but it’s not, it’s not for this. And because we started at one point of like, Hey, let’s talk about it.

And as I really processed through it, it’s like, man, it’s going to cause a lot more destruction than it needs to

Andrew: see, but there’s probably like 10 lessons out of it. That you can weave in things that you learned through that experience, because you were having a daily time with Jesus through all of it, that he was teaching you things that you were uniquely positioned to learn in those moments.

That if he was trying to teach you that today, and you hadn’t gone through that, you couldn’t learn that today. Or if he was trying to teach you that and you weren’t in this, like the stress of, I might be fired, I might quit, but I’m still working here. Whatever, like, if you weren’t in that tension, maybe you couldn’t learn a lot of the things he taught you.

So it’s like, you know, if you teach the lessons, take the meat, spit out the bone type of thing, you know? Um, Yeah, and I win a few minutes ago when you were talking about kind of the seasons of like this way of, of there will be a time where spending time with Jesus feels like it doesn’t feel as rewarding in those moments.

I just, I was getting the, I was thinking about it and it’s like, um, I don’t know a good analogy, but so I don’t think I’ll use an analogy, but I think maybe that, that we go through seasons in, in building these habits of like these daily, I’m trying to follow Jesus habits and, um, and they start off maybe with like an emotional high, cause it’s like, I’m starting something new and then you get 10 days in and you’re like, This is kind of a part of what I’m doing.

And then it’s like, you’re 50 days in and you’re like, this is a part of my life. We hit like six months in and you’re like, this doesn’t feel like it used to, you know, and I think part of that is that God comes really close to us. This may be totally wrong. I think God draws really close to us and then backs off just a tiny bit over time so that we actually have to pursue a little bit more.

And then as soon as we start pursuing a little bit more in those seasons in with that motive of, I want it to get closer, I want to build more intimacy than I think he comes closer. And then he. Backs up just a little bit, you know, six months later, maybe a week later, I don’t know the timetables, but I think it’s like, that’s how you grow in this intimacy.

And trust is like, I’m not always just holding your hand. Like I can’t, I can’t ever teach somebody to swim if I’m always holding them up by the armpits. Like my daughter loves to swim. If I always just hold her, um, like this right in front of me. She never really asked to kick her legs. Never really asked to try, never asked to learn what it’s like to go underwater and have water go up her nose and learn, Oh, that’s why I should hold my breath.

You know? And I think like, I think all of that stacks up with the relationship with Jesus where it’s like, it doesn’t always feel like you’re on a mountain top, but it’s always going to be worth it. It’s always worth giving it a shot because. It’s always taking you somewhere deeper into the relationship with God.

Um, and, and frankly, making you better at being a person in this world, like making you look. A little bit different. If each day you’re saying I’m going to dedicate something in my day, even five minutes, say I have a crappy construction job where I don’t feel like I make much impact in my day. Um, well, I’m going to dedicate five minutes and I’m going to try to spend it with the God who made everything.

The God who one day, all knees are going to bow. Every tongue is gonna confess before, and that you are God, you know, I’m going to spend five minutes with. With that being, you know, and I’m going to dedicate my life to that even for five minutes in my day, it’s like it takes the focus and it shifts it and it starts to shift our paradigm over time to say like, actually, this is the lens of view.

This world through is my relationship with Jesus. And man, when you get to that point, when you, when you even are starting to get more to that point, it’s like, It’s boundless in the, in the goodness and in the, the healing, like all the past hurts that you’ve been through, whether it’s being fired or struggling with addiction or, um, whatever, whatever those hurts are men.

Mmm. I don’t know. I just think there’s infinite goodness in it and it’s, and it’s always worth it. So I do think it’s always worth taking a shot, especially if it’s been a while. And especially if you’ve fallen out of the habit or if it feels stale, maybe you just need to step into it a little bit more.

Um, you step up for a minute, um, instead of just expect in the handout from God every time.

Josh: So. Yeah, that’s fine. It’s like you were saying, like, I think, I think that the, the swimming analogy is a great one in terms of like what God is trying to do. Cause oftentimes when, when you get into these ruts where you feel very distant from God, right?

There’s typically a cause, um, Like it’s unmet expectations on your part. Like I expect God to come through in this way and he didn’t, um, uh, I expected, you know, this situation to work out in my favor and he didn’t, uh, I expected to be married by this age, but it hasn’t happened like digging into the sings.

Like I can’t just sit there and blame God for all those things. Or I can take the time to figure out like, what’s God teaching me in the midst of all these things. I’m not saying they’re not painful. Not saying they don’t hurt. Um, those are all. Valid emotions. Um, but it’s in the moment. What can I learn in the moment?

Right? Like how can I learn to forgive better? How can I kind of hold things looser in my hands though? It feels so difficult to let things I deeply love go, right? Like. All all good things that help us live a better life. And our future, um, gives us greater freedom in this life. It gives us greater treasures in the next, um, right.

Like this is, this is the work that has to be done in our souls and in our hearts for us to continue to be shaped of who Jesus is going to be. But, but I think oftentimes our faith is, is like Paul said, it’s, it’s like, we’re still, you know, sucking on the teat for lack of a better term. That was, that was my interpretation.

But, um,

Andrew: like. Yeah,

Josh: but that’s all Christianity is oftentimes we don’t get past the teat because that moment of like, this is what I’m comfortable with. This is what I know, but this isn’t giving me the nutrition that I need. Like, I’ve got to move, I got to move my game up. Like, I’ve essentially, you’ve conquered this level, but there’s this whole nother level.

And I think oftentimes people get to the end of that first level and they just sit there forever. And then, because. And they’re missing out on so much because that’s just what they know. So like, how can you increase your intimacy with Jesus now? I think it’s conversation. I think it’s intentional conversation that gets intentionally spending time with Jesus.

I think it’s tension and creating silence in your life. So removing the distractions of what’s going around and if it’s putting the Bible on, um, to listen to it, and that’s the thing that drowns out everything else, great. Listened to it. Um, like. Um, I’m not an auditory learner. I’ve learned to be an auditory learner, cause it’s much easier to listen to audio books as you drive than just to sit down and read a book.

Um, but like there’s, there’s a lot. There’s a lot to it in terms of like, know yourself, um, know the things that are, you’re going to pull the most out of, um, in terms of relationship, understanding, and then look for ways to get vulnerable with Jesus. Um, I think there’s, there’s your biggest keys, like certain verses pop out to you and you don’t want them to pop out to you, figure out why they’re popping out to you.

Take the time and maybe you’re averse into whatever you plan to read that day. That’s okay. You’re only ever sin, man. Jesus is already at work, dig into whatever that happens to be, or maybe you’re six chapters in and you’re like, Jesus, hasn’t told me fricking thing yet. Maybe it’s just time to close the Bible for now and just really dig into prayer and talk to God about, about why you think this is happening.

Um, like Jesus is seeking us as much as we’re seeking. I should say it this way. Jesus seeking us much more than we’re seeking him, but he’s, he’s pursuing. Um, he’s just, he’s just waiting for you to knock. He’s just waiting for you to ask you, just wait for you to seek, um, and the flood Gates get opened and not the flood Gates and prosperity the flood Gates and in fullness of, of relationship with him, this is what we get defined.

So take a chance and take a risk. It might not turn out the way you expected it to and that’s okay. Um, it might not be this grand hall moment and that’s okay too. Like, look for, just look for the nuggets. It’s all you’re chasing, right? Like it’s like this thing of like, Hey, I knew Jesus really well. Or I knew Johnny really well.

We grew up together. We’ve known each other for a long time. I know everything about Johnny, but then Johnny, I haven’t seen each other for 10 years all the first time I see Johnny. It could be a little awkward for some, sometimes you have those friends, like it’s just right back to wherever you left off.

That’s great and awesome. But yeah, we won’t use that example. We use the example, like it’s a little strange now it’s a little bit different than I than I remember Johnny BN and now we gotta kind of find that ground of commonality and start to build in that relationship again. Right? Like you can be awkward at first, but keep pursuing it, keep chasing it.

Keep looking for times to have. With God, like for me, like when I’m in seasons where I just need more of that time, I just go drive and I’m dressed drive and not think about anything I drive and I pray and I just drive for the next, you know, whatever hour and a half. And we’re just going to pray and seek God and, and, and really just let it all out.

I think oftentimes when we’re in those really shitty seasons, all we’re letting out is God, this is everything I’m frustrated with. Mm, that’s good. Like it’s important piece, but that’s all it is. So it’s got, here’s my problem. Now I need you to fix it, but that’s not the work that God wants to do in those moments.

God wants you to get deeper. God wants you to get to the real root of what’s going on. God wants you to really figure out why are you feeling this way? Like what, what, like have those kinds of conversations and it’s not necessarily like, God do for me. It’s remember the promises God already has and then speak those promises over you too.

Right? Like those things are true as well. Um, I think too often we focus on necessarily the problem and not necessarily the source of the problem and not necessarily the freedom and the promise that Jesus has already given to that problem. Um, we’re just too focused on the problem. So back up a little bit, um, back up a little bit, so you can, you can see, um, what Jesus is up to you and back up a little bit, so you can talk more about what it be.

Andrew: And if you talk about the problem, if you are listening to this and you find yourself in that rut where you’re just saying, this is my problem, this is my problem. This is my problem. Then just maybe ask yourself the question next time. You’re about to pray that type of prayer and ask yourself the question or just take a minute to explain to God, Hey, here’s, here’s the problem.

And here’s what I think I did to get to this place. Here’s what I think I did wrong in this thing. What do you think about that? Pause? What do you think God, is that right? Is this what I did to get into this problem? Uh, how can I get out of this? How can I avoid it in the future? Pause, Jesus. What do you want to say to me in this moment?

What are you going to say to me in the season? Cause I’ve been  time pods, you know what I mean? It’s like that type of thing where it’s actual conversation,

Josh: whereas because the enemies on the other side of that, right? The enemy’s just constantly pounding you with a lie and the lie is your God doesn’t care.

Right? God doesn’t care. God doesn’t care. This is on you. You’re a shitty Christian. I’m like, no wonder God doesn’t want to intervene in like, that’s the lie. That’s going to keep pounding. So think your questions are gold of terms of like, what am I learning in this moment? I don’t want to ask that question.

I’m Carolyn, I’m learning this moment. I want God to fix the moment, but that’s, that’s not, that’s not the posture we should be taking. Right. That’s not humility. Um, like it’s God, we want to do. W, what am I going to do in this moment? Pause God. Like, can we walk through the journey that got us to this place?

Um, pause. Um, how do I get out of this? What promises do I need to repeat to myself over and over again? Got pause, right. Like I think that’s, that’s, that’s that’s gold as well.

Andrew: Yeah, dude. That’s. That’s so good, man. I, and I need to wrap in a minute cause I’m hearing, hearing my daughter waking up, but, um, but men, um, I didn’t know exactly where we’re going to go with this daily Jesus, because we’ve been talking about all the things that contribute to this, whether it be.

Prayer or confession or time away rest or hunger strikes as we caught it, fasting, you know, listen to our last few episodes and we dig into all of that stuff. Um, the Jesus habits, you know, the disciplines of following Christ of trying to live this Jesus life out, man, all of that is gold. What you just said, ask those questions.

If, if you don’t take anything else away from this, take that stuff away. Just give it a shot and start there. It’s not going to backfire. It’s not going to look bad. You might hear the enemy speaking and it might sound like your voice, your own voice. Of course, that’s your fault. You’re an idiot. You know, you did that.

Obviously, you know that you were there, all that stuff, man. Try to tune it out, spend time and say, no, God like you don’t send you don’t use shame to push me towards you. Um, you don’t do that. Satan does. Let me not hear what he’s saying. Let me hear what you’re trying to say, because I know you’re trying to call me higher.

I know you’re trying to take me past the sin, help me get there because you know, I can’t get there alone. Um, and just start. Start simple. And it’s going to grow if you make it a pattern in your life. And if you forcibly carve out just a little bit of time each day, it’ll get it. Won’t get that much easier, but it’s going to get more and more rewarding over time.

Um, I’m not going to lie to you and say, if you start with five minutes every day for the first 30 days, you’re going to be at two hours a day. And. Nine months. Oh man. I’m not going to say that you might, but in my experience, it’s always hard to carve out time, but it’s always worth it. Just give it a shot.

Okay. Nothing to lose. What do you think, man?

Josh: No, I think that’s great. Give it a shot. Um, well, she had to lose, uh, Hey, next, next week, we talked about community and kind of the church in terms of the people, what is it supposed to look like? And, um, we’re really going to, we’re really going to kind of dig into this idea.

Andrew doesn’t know this yet, but it’s all in my head. Uh, we’re doing community completely wrong. Hmm. Yeah. Not even, I think we have wrong definitions of community. I think we don’t necessarily understand what Jesus really meant when he talked about unity and how we fight for unity. Um, I think, I think it’s going to be a great conversation.

Yeah. Please, please tune in and listen. Um, we’re going to start posting on Thursdays, um, starting not this week next week. Uh, So it’s gonna be a couple of days late compared to our normal Tuesday postings. Don’t freak out. We’re still around. We haven’t forgot about you. We haven’t given up on this thing a

Andrew: bunch that day.

You’ll see it. You’re going to see that

Josh: hopefully. Cause,

Andrew: cause you already liked us.

Josh: Subscribe to us. You are at social media. If you’re listening right now. I don’t know if we’ve said this before and you like you like the social media thing, it’s like your jam. You love to make the ticky talks. And you want to help us out just to post things for us on a regular basis.

That’d be great. Cause I look at our personal Instagrams. You’re not post like once every like six months, we’re not consistent. We don’t think about it. It doesn’t come to mind. We need help this department, we need, we need help. We need someone to help us with some social media stuff. Just to get the word out.

We’re not, we’re not super good at it. We kind of suck, but Hey, thank you so much for listening. Please rate us, uh, we’re on all the big platforms. Uh, we’re even on iHeart radio now, radio, but it feels like that was the one that made us jump through the hoops to get us on their platform, but we’re there. Uh, you, I assume you’re listening on Apple podcasts or Spotify podcasts because, um, that’s where majority, I think like 90% of all of our listeners listen from, but Hey, thank you so much for listening.

We love you guys. We are praying for you guys. Hey, Andrew as always. It’s good to see my friend,

Andrew: Josh. Thanks for that.

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