Getting Over Resentment - Episode 32

Have you ever dealt with resentment?

Our hosts Justin Obrantz and Dr. Don Schaefer discuss the complex emotion of resentment, its causes, and its impacts on individuals. They define resentment as a mix of anger, bitterness, and disappointment often resulting from being wronged. The hosts emphasize the need to understand the root causes of resentment, often involving situations of betrayal or hurt, and highlight the importance of forgiveness as a means to overcome it. They suggest that releasing resentment not only involves spiritual practices and alignment with faith but also letting go of a self-centered mindset in favor of a Christ-centered one. They argue that resentment can be a tool of the enemy, keeping people trapped in victimization. The episode stresses incorporating gratitude and practicing servitude to combat feelings of resentment, and it discusses how having faith can help individuals break free from resentment's chains, fostering a life led by spiritual fulfillment and joy.

Chapters

• 0:31 Resentment Defined
• 4:10 The Power and Importance of Forgiveness
• 6:50 Spiritual Insights on Resentment
• 21:53 Faith and Trust in Overcoming Resentment
• 29:28 Being on Our A-Game

Transcript

Episode 32 - Getting Over Resentment

[00:00:00] Justin: Hi, everyone. This is Justin Olbrantz. And this is Don Schaefer. And you are listening to the wise and the wandering podcast for those who know “The Way” and for those who are led astray. And if you feel like you fall into either of those categories, then you're in the right place. So, let's dive in.

[00:00:31] Justin: So, Don, what are we going to talk about today? Don: Well, this week we have an interesting subject called Getting Over Resentment. Resentment. Yes. Oof. I feel like every week is an interesting one, but yeah, that's definitely a touchy and a tough one. 

[00:00:46] Don: Oh, it is. It is, Justin. It's going to be hard for me to talk about because I've never been resentful, but no, that's not true.

[00:00:54] Don: It seems. I was going to say, what? What is the secret? No, it seems like everybody deals with this [00:01:00] and, uh, and that's where, you know, it's I think it's important to understand a little bit what it is and what it can do. 

[00:01:05] , 

[00:01:05] Don: I don't know. Uh, 

[00:01:06] Justin: yeah, so what I was gonna say I agree with that So what I was gonna say is in the past i've done this where I kind of look up definition for a word just to give you a modernized definition so resentment is a Complex emotion that can be described as a combination of anger, bitterness, disappointment, and disgust.

[00:01:30] Justin: It's a negative reaction to being mistreated or wronged by another person, situation, or series of others. Circumstances. 

[00:01:38] Don: Yeah, 

[00:01:39] Justin: that's resentment. Yeah. Okay. So how are we gonna get over that? 

[00:01:42] Don: Well, you know first you have to understand what might be causing it, you know And that's where like you had been somebody cheated on you or somebody lied to you or or hurt you in any way Um, I know we've talked about bitterness in the past and resentment kind of falls into that same category You know, you have [00:02:00] to be able to Forgive the person that or the situation that hurts you 

[00:02:06] Justin: Yeah, 

[00:02:06] Don: and a lot of these things they they work together because you can have resentment you can have bitterness You can have trauma.

[00:02:14] Don: There's a lot of all that. We know we talked about some of this stuff It kind of works together, but resentment is is an emotion. It's powerless. It doesn't it can't change anything It's something that operates inside of you And it sometimes keeps you from Being what you could do and having the joy and happiness in your life, because all of a sudden you feel like you've been cheated or you feel like somebody lied to you or whatever it might be, you know, and it's how you perceive that, you know, I know we've talked a little bit about the fact that when you can look at it as a Other person's weakness rather than, , , taking it on yourself and leave them keep it, you know, rather than getting resentful and wanting to get even or wanting to hurt them, all [00:03:00] this stuff.

[00:03:00] Don: This isn't good thinking and it harms us and in ways more than it harms the offender that's trying to hurt us. 

[00:03:07] Justin: Yes, I think that's, that's so true. And I think there's many ways like you're saying and where resentment can build up, where it can come from. And the way I look at resentment is it hides itself.

[00:03:19] Justin: It hides itself. It's, it's hard to identify. It hides itself in your life. You can get over a lot of different things, but you might not see that you are resentful towards something or someone. Yeah. Or, or you know, a relative, or whatever it is, and that resentment, in my opinion, even my experience, is what, causes that anger.

[00:03:41] Justin: Um, if there's anger in you, a lot of it comes from resentment, and we've done a topic on anger, a podcast on anger, but I think resentment itself is kind of an umbrella term for a lot of these other things that are kind of in there. Um, but What the way I look at it visually is that it's a [00:04:00] wall.

[00:04:00] Justin: Yeah, and there's a wall of Maybe you getting over that wall and on the other side is your freedom, 

[00:04:06] both: right? 

[00:04:06] Justin: And you need to do something to release that resentment in your life. Yeah, a lot of the times That is done with forgiveness. We did three episodes talking about forgiveness Probably could have did three more because it's so important.

[00:04:21] Justin: Yes, but the first step I think to Getting over resentment is finding forgiveness And the way that you do that is Because the forgiveness is not for the other person. The forgiveness is for you. You're giving in advance so that you can move forward because you have to move forward. You can't be the only person who's stuck dealing with this.

[00:04:44] Justin: You can't be the only person who is It's affecting the only person who it's keeping up late at night. The only person who's crying about this, the only person who's Punching the wall and ruining relationships with their loved ones and their friends and their family Because you're the only one that it's affecting [00:05:00] you can't be the only one that's still affected 

[00:05:02] Don: No, no, and that's where I know the bible says that Jesus came to set the captives free, and a lot of times we look at prisons and stuff like that, and we say, those are the captives.

[00:05:13] Don: No, a lot of times we're captive in our own minds, and resentment is a part of that. And Jesus really turned things upside down because You get in the Old Testament days, and it was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. You know, if somebody did something to you, you got yourself even, boy. But then Jesus comes along and he says, if somebody slaps you, turn your cheek and let them slap the other side.

[00:05:36] Don: And you say, Oh, I'm sorry. What? What in the world is going on with this? Right, unheard of. That's right, but there was something that was coming that Jesus was preparing people for, and that's a spiritual walk with God. 

[00:05:48] both: He, 

[00:05:48] Don: you know, there has to be a transformation, a change inside of us. You know as far as getting over resentment, you know, it's a spiritual operation if you're a resentful person [00:06:00] You know You've got yourself bound up because you got people you don't like you got places you don't like you got a lot of things you Don't like you know, and you're not really free But if you can get yourself into the place like Justin is saying about bringing forgiveness in and then you know Turn in the other cheek You know, somebody wrongs you?

[00:06:16] Don: Oh, it's their problem. You know, I, what am I doing in this world by getting resentful? What's it going to do me? We harm ourselves by doing that. 

[00:06:25] Justin: You know, and we, and it allows us to fall into a victimization mindset. Yes. It allows us to further be victims. Yep. When we're supposed to be victors, Jesus came to the world to bring us back to the Father, to show us that we are victors.

[00:06:40] Justin: He beat even death itself through the resurrection, and the spirit that he has, that he had in him is now in us. So we are therefore victors. We are never to be victims ever again. So this is a spiritual podcast. This is a podcast talking about spiritual wisdom. And you mentioned getting to the source of this and [00:07:00] going to the source of this.

[00:07:01] Justin: And I think you did a good job of touching on it. The source, at the source of this thing, I believe is a spiritual thing. Resentment, the enemy likes to use resentment in your life and keep you resentful because he wants you in chains. Like you were saying, because if you're in chains, you're not going very far.

[00:07:20] Justin: He knows exactly where you're at. So he wants to keep you in chains. He doesn't want you to break out of the chains He doesn't want you to be free. 

[00:07:26] Don: That's right 

[00:07:27] Justin: So he's going to use resentment as a tool to keep you bound Because on the other side of that resentment is your salvation is your freedom.

[00:07:36] Justin: You might not look at it that way You might look at it as I feel justified to feel this way because I was hurt Because somebody wronged me because somebody put me in that position because somebody lied to me Because somebody allowed this to happen because somebody Because someone didn't believe me when I said it was happening.

[00:07:52] Justin: However, when you respond that way, you are living in a victim mindset. You are living in [00:08:00] victimization. The enemy is using you and he's using resentment to further your victimization instead of being a victor as you are supposed to be. We are supposed to, the Bible says we're supposed to put off the old self, behold all things have become new.

[00:08:16] Don: You know? 

[00:08:16] Justin: You are a new creation. We have to lose, not all of ourself, we should lose all of ourself. We should, it says you're supposed to die to yourself. But when you talk about transformation, we need to get out of what was normal to ourselves, what was ourselves, and realize Who is inside of us, because that is where your freedom is.

[00:08:37] Don: Yep, that is true. And, and one thing worth mentioning here too, you know, uh, as far as victims and that sort of thing, because it's all composed inside of our head. You know, it's our head playing the games on us. Our 

[00:08:48] Justin: mind is like a prison. Yeah, 

[00:08:50] Don: it's a head game, head game that we're playing with. And that's where, you know, You know, you talk about like the mind of Christ or whatever, where you, start to realize, and that's where, uh,, you grow in wisdom.[00:09:00]

[00:09:00] Don: You start to realize what's coming at you. And one thing about walking after Jesus and the things of God, um, the part of it is giving up your rights. You know, uh, a lot of times people think they have a right to everything. And if something doesn't go right, go right, they get upset and they get resentful, 

[00:09:19] both: you 

[00:09:19] Don: know?

[00:09:19] Don: And a lot of people don't even realize that they've got resentment in their hearts. But, you know, they have a way of looking at it. If I got rights, if I have a right to this, and I have a right to that, and all that stuff, and somebody does something that, you know, Gets into my rights all of a sudden i'm getting worked up i'm getting very resentful whatever might be And with god we have to give up, you know, that's where I don't like christians Sometimes you you see when they're praising lord, they stick two hands up in here This is usually what the crooks do when they're getting held up So we're basically giving, we're giving up our rights.

[00:09:54] Don: It's not that Jesus is going to put us in handcuffs or anything like that, but you know, it's a mindset. That's [00:10:00] where you can take Paul and Silas. I love that story in a book of Acts where they were taken, they were beaten, they were put in a prison, you know, and I heard people talk about the prisons back then.

[00:10:10] Don: They would have a hole. They were chained in the prison. They would have a hole in the center of the room and that's where they went to the bathroom, you know, and they would, Bring things, well this, Paul and Silas at the middle, at midnight, or in the middle of the night, were singing songs. They weren't going to get resentful, you know, because they realized, well, the reason things were happening, they had given up their rights, 

[00:10:31] both: you know, 

[00:10:32] Don: and that's one thing about life itself.

[00:10:34] Don: You know, if you haven't got to the place where you've given up your rights, well then, all of a sudden, something happens, like, , somebody takes something away from you, or, you know, this or that happens, or even like, The place falls apart, all of a sudden you have to move somewhere, all of a sudden you're resentful, 

[00:10:51] both: you know?

[00:10:52] Don: Like you got a whole bunch of rights. I realized that when I come into this world, I didn't have absolutely nothing, you know? I mean, I was, my mother [00:11:00] had to put the first set of clothes on me, I didn't have nothing, you know? So what rights do I have to anything? thing. You know, the only right I have is the right to worship my God and glorify my king.

[00:11:13] Don: You know, and, and this is the type of mindset that Paul and Silas had. I mean, you can beat them up. You could do whatever. They're just going to sing songs. It had to be hard on the, on the soldiers involved here because it didn't matter what you did to them because these guys got it, 

[00:11:28] Justin: you know, and that's what their joy was not determined by their own circumstances.

[00:11:32] Justin: Yeah. 

[00:11:32] Don: Yeah, these people got it, you know, and that's the same thing for us to overcome resentment and areas and we have to get it We have to get this understanding and that's the spiritual as you were saying justin This is a spiritual operation all of a sudden we start to see things in a different light You know these people they it might be a bad situation.

[00:11:51] Don: They might be stepping into my territory or whatever it is But you know, really I never came in this world with any rights. I gave them over to my lord 

[00:11:58] both: Yes, you 

[00:11:58] Don: know and so [00:12:00] whatever happens happens You Someday I'm going to be with him, but you know, I don't have to let myself be miserable being resentful of every situation that works against me.

[00:12:09] Justin: Yes. And you said, I'm going to give it to my Lord. And what do we recognize him as our savior? Okay. When we say these things, they have to have meaning. What did he save us from? Well, we said it last week, he's, you get saved from yourself, right? Because centeredness. Now there's something greater. That's there greater than yourself right greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world Yes, the world teaches us to live on self centeredness, right?

[00:12:36] Justin: Everything is about us. It feels good Yeah to live in resentment. It feels good Really does, because we were taught that way. Seriously, it feels good. We're taught that it feels good. We are taught to justify this behavior with more of the erratic behavior. So it actually starts. You have to go back. The resentment is kind of a slow burner [00:13:00] and it gets to that point and that wall like we're talking about, that wall that's being built is built over time.

[00:13:06] Justin: But you have to look at where it starts. When somebody says something you don't agree with, when somebody says something that catches you off guard, when somebody does something like you were saying, you get offended. And another thing that the enemy uses is anger. Offense right when you get offended by something now, it can work its way into resentment It might take some time But he's going to do his job and if you allow it if you allow to play victim and stay in a victimized mindset Not realizing that you are the victor over this Not realizing that you have authority over this.

[00:13:40] Justin: That's 

[00:13:40] Don: right. 

[00:13:41] Justin: Bible says we have a full authority Right. What does that mean? That means? You can't have full authority on one side and then some aside gets some authority. It's, it's full and they have nothing. So when you recognize where your authority is and when you can get away from [00:14:00] self centeredness, because you see all this stuff that derives from self centeredness.

[00:14:04] Justin: I said in the last podcast, or either, you know, Christ centered or you're self centered right? Okay. That's not just a spiritual thing. That's a mindset thing Yeah, you're talking about having the mind like christ. What does that mean? Not being self centered Being christ centered because anger this stuff it comes from being self centeredness This entitlement mindset like you're talking about before.

[00:14:25] Justin: I think that's entitlement would be a good way to describe that people, they have these expectations of everything that entitlement comes from a self centeredness. We need to get away from ourselves. We are in the way of our own salvation. Jesus wants to do a work through you. The Holy Spirit wants to do a a work through you.

[00:14:46] Justin: He wants to do a great work. The things that you've been praying about for days and for weeks and for years saying, use me, God, give me a purpose. Give me a calling. You're stuck [00:15:00] in your own victimization and you're in your own way from fulfilling your own calling. 

[00:15:05] Don: Yep, that's for sure. And it's interesting as you're saying there, Justin, there's a lot of things that happen in our life and, , God takes us through the process.

[00:15:14] Don: You know, I mean, it isn't like you live life and there's nothing to be resentful for. It seems like as a Christian, you find a lot of things coming your way. And I know I've, um, read a little bit about the spirit of offense. You know, uh, a lot of things that, uh, It will happen to you like somebody gets promoted ahead of you.

[00:15:32] Don: Uh, I know I've applied for jobs and somebody else gets it and I didn't get it, 

[00:15:38] Justin: you know, 

[00:15:38] Don: all of a sudden it offends me. It 

[00:15:40] Justin: even happens in religion. I think there's a lot of offense and 

[00:15:43] Don: offending that happens in religion. Yeah, that is so true. And myself, I know in the workplace, I'd always go over and congratulate the person who got the job that I wanted, you know, because I didn't want to be offended, you know, I wanted to end all this.

[00:15:58] Don: And that's where I think there's a [00:16:00] level of maturity in the Christian walk, because resentfulness is not a part of a Christian walk. And a lot of times, like you were saying, a lot of Christians are very resentful, a lot of back and forth, even if different denominations, you name it. A lot of resentment going on there and bitter talk and all, but, , it's not part of all that and it's a maturity level, you know, as we go through things that could offend us and we start to learn how to handle this stuff, you know, as you were saying earlier, being able to forgive the, uh, The people involved or whatever the circumstance might be, so it doesn't attach itself.

[00:16:36] Don: You know a lot of times like the spirit offense You can a lot of people that struggle in life. A lot of people are hooked up in addictions You know, I mean they're drinking or whatever it might be The spirit of offense got a hold of them all of a sudden They've got an anger built up inside and they got a lot of reasons Good reasons for being what they are and doing the things they should be doing without realizing that something's got a grip [00:17:00] on them And that's where resentment can be an ugly thing 

[00:17:03] Justin: Yes, and you know what gets rid of offense the spirit of offense, you know What gets rid of that feeling of just being offended by people gratitude 

[00:17:12] Don: Yes 

[00:17:13] Justin: And one way to really beat and to release that resentment is to be grateful for what you have you cannot be living Pessimistic and optimistic at the same time.

[00:17:25] Justin: See what i'm saying? You can only go one or the other Yeah, but if you're if you are Grateful and the things that you have in your life and you start to thank god for the things you have Yeah, those feelings of resentment those feelings of inadequacy those feelings of You Lack are going to start to dissipate because you're going to see what you have, even if it's so little, , , it's, it's going to start to magnify what you already have.

[00:17:52] Justin: And you're going to start to see that because you already have so much, there are others who don't have as much, [00:18:00] there are others who are suffering. The Christian doctrine, the Christian lifestyle is a life. Style of servitude. Yeah, and when you want to be servants for people if you want to wash people's feet not saying we need to get there, but You have to be willing to get outside of your self centeredness 

[00:18:17] Don: Yeah, 

[00:18:18] Justin: You have to be able to put off that self and I would even say Gratitude opens up the doors for so many , for so many blessings to happen in your life, because up until you understand, I think you can only be grateful for things if you understand that there is God working in your life.

[00:18:38] Justin: Because otherwise, if you don't attribute it to God, you attribute everything to yourself. And to attribute everything to yourself and to say, I only have this because of myself is selfish in its entirety. So you have to understand where these things come from. We are dealing with a God. Who is a bigger God than you could ever even possibly imagine, you know, [00:19:00] Isaiah 55 8 says my Ways are not your ways.

[00:19:04] Justin: My thoughts are not your thoughts declares the Lord so we think of things in our own mind and the only capacity that we can in the way that we are taught of the wisdom of the world the way the world is taught and we We serve a God, we're created by a God who's much bigger than all that. He's much bigger than your resentment.

[00:19:21] Justin: He's much bigger than your trauma. He's much bigger than anything that could have happened in your life. Many people say, yeah, but you don't know what happened to me. Jesus knows. Jesus paid the price for you to be forgiven of all your sins and he paid the price so that you would believe in him and follow him.

[00:19:37] Justin: Follow Him, take up your own cross, and these are things that may become later in your path of salvation, but getting over resentment is something that you have to do if you want to be a victor in your life. Yeah, 

[00:19:50] Don: this is so true. Yeah, and that's where, yeah, we have to get over this. I know, uh, as a tool of understanding, as far as getting over resentment.

[00:19:58] Don: See, what God's looking [00:20:00] for, I tell this to my grandchildren a lot, He's looking for our A game. You know, a lot of people are in the B, C, D, maybe even F, I don't know, but they're, but you know, resentment puts us down in the alphabet. God's looking for the A game. The A game is getting things right. The key to a lot of this here is our relationship with Him and drawing close to Him.

[00:20:21] Don: You know, when we find time to pray, like say in the morning, in the evening, every day, finding time to pray, there's wisdom in that. And this is what helps us. It directs us, gives us the ability to overcome, helps us to be in a place. There's nothing more precious than being in a place where you can't be offended.

[00:20:43] Don: You know, you are strong. You know, you look at Jesus himself, nobody can tear me down. That's right. Jesus himself, you know, he'd minister all day long, miracles, everything. But then he'd find a place to pray, you know, and when Jesus said, come follow after me, come follow me. You know. Follow what he [00:21:00] did. He was telling us and showing us how we can overcome.

[00:21:03] Don: These are tools, you know, and people who are wise and a lot of times it's identifying it. And that's why I'm hoping this podcast helped identify a little bit what resentment is, what you might be feeling. I don't know. But there are ways out of it, you know, God, and that's we're praying to God. That's that's key.

[00:21:21] Don: You know, God, as we draw near to him, he draws near to us. He's wanting to do good things. God so loved us that he's willing to do anything possible to get us right. Even embarrass us in. Public, you know even take us through situations that are embarrassing hurtful whatever it might be god allow that if he can use that to break us from the attitude of Resentment in our life because if we live that type of life We are not living our a game and he's trying to make the best out of 

[00:21:53] Justin: us.

[00:21:53] Justin: Yeah The a game is so spot on and you definitely want to be Putting your a game [00:22:00] forward and to say this though is I would say the last thing I would say the last thing To getting over resentment, is you have to have faith Yeah, okay. There's a lot of things that are going to be Uncertain and there's a lot of ways I like to take this spiritually because a lot of this stuff is all spiritual.

[00:22:23] Justin: We don't look at it as spiritual We look at it as if just what the world taught us that the world doesn't teach us many spiritual things And what happens is this is used against you and the enemy uses this against you and I said this last week He keeps you in a predictable cycle So a lot of the times you'll find out in your life that some of your greatest blessings come right after some of your hardest times And it's because usually you respond the same way when when the enemy when he reminds you of something That that person from church did to you or he reminds you of something that your boyfriend did Or your husband did Or your [00:23:00] brother did or your mom did when he reminds you of those things you go down a predictable path And you start to respond the same way each time And sometimes it feels like you're fighting for your life And then on those days where you feel like you're getting attacked you almost feel like you're being attacked, right?

[00:23:15] Justin: You get attacked and then the next day something good happens when you withstand Endurance is a big thing in the bible. Paul talks a lot about I don't have a whole episode, but maybe one day we'll do one. When you have that endurance, it's by having faith. And we walk by faith, not by sight and not by circumstance.

[00:23:35] Justin: We walk by faith. And part of having faith is to just wait on God, to stay in it, to do these things that I'm saying, to get over that resentment, but to stand strong in your endurance, to know what's on the other side, also to become unpredictable. to not respond like you normally would based on your circumstances.

[00:23:54] Justin: You're gonna get to a point where the things that happened in your life are things that you still might remember, [00:24:00] but they are no longer a part of you. You don't identify with them because they're not you. Jesus is in you. The old self is dead. The old self is gone. That's right. You're a new creation. It might be part of your story, but it's not your life because your life is not yours.

[00:24:13] Justin: Your life is his. We were not created to live a life like this. God did not create us to live a life of just suffering and sitting in anger. Yeah. The enemy wants that. Right. The devil wants you. Right. He wants, it says God did not give us a spirit of fear. He didn't give us a spirit of fear. He gave us Spirit of power and of love and of sound mind.

[00:24:32] Justin: Okay, he also didn't give us a spirit of anger. Anger is from self centeredness. And the enemy wants to keep you being stuck on yourself. Being selfish. And the world, I'm sorry, the world will teach you that it is okay to be selfish. Indulge with the self to be completely consumed with the self The problem is is when you read the bible it says otherwise And the enemy doesn't want you realizing that but getting over this [00:25:00] resentment is going to be a major breakthrough In finding salvation or you call it freedom for yourself 

[00:25:06] Don: That is so certain there Justin and you mentioned faith and uh, I know a while back We we talked the message called the power of faith just having that one element You know as faith is something that has to be built, you know, Bible talks about a grain of a mustard seed can move a mountain, you know, I we um faith has a grain of a mustard seed You know, we need to understand, you know, like Paul and a lot of these greats in the Bible, the things they did, and we talked about reaching out to Jesus and stuff, was they protected their faith.

[00:25:37] Don: Because faith is what puts things into operation. Many things in your life can change the hour you first believe, the hour you first put your faith in God. No matter what the circumstance might be, things start to look different. different. Things start to feel different. Circumstances have a whole different meaning.

[00:25:56] Don: Things that you would have been upset over before, all of a sudden you're not [00:26:00] upset with it, because there's an operation that's taking place. You know, and that's where, uh, I think Paul talks about fighting the battle of faith. He's finished this battle of faith his whole life. It was a matter of keeping that faith strong, no matter what he did.

[00:26:13] Don: You know, I mean, like, as far as getting into the Word of God. Listening to good podcasts, uh, praying, all this stuff here, it helps build a faith. And people sometimes don't realize the elements that are missing in their life. Know why they struggle, why things seem to fall apart, why they get an attitude all the time.

[00:26:30] Don: All this sort of thing. There's elements. out there. And faith is something that is very, very powerful. It's an action word. It's something that creates something inside of us, you know, and something that we probably, you know, a lot of things in life, we can tell when you've gotten it out of your life, you know, like if you're not eating properly or whatever, all of a sudden your body starts to show it or shut down or whatever it might be.

[00:26:52] Don: Right. Faith does the same thing. You know, all of a sudden you get an attitude again, or I, you know, this is rubbing me [00:27:00] the wrong way. All of a sudden I'm Feeling resentful over a situation, what's happening? Maybe my faith level has dropped down a little bit. And it isn't something that you can say, well, you know, I believe I believe in Jesus Christ, you know, so I got faith in Jesus.

[00:27:15] Don: No, it's something that has to be maintained. It's needs to be. Operated and worked on and developed, you know, and people of strong faith I mean the bible even talks about the gift of faith Sometimes you can speak faith your faith is not only taking care of you, but it's helping the people in your life 

[00:27:32] both: Right.

[00:27:32] both: You've got 

[00:27:33] Don: a strong belief That, that God can take care of things. And that's what God is looking for in us. You know, we, that's where praise the Lord to the individual can hear a message and believe in Jesus Christ and believe in the operations and can develop a faith. It isn't, you know, a lot of people fall from God quickly.

[00:27:53] Don: As a young Christian, because they don't have strong enough faith, 

[00:27:57] Justin: and that has to be developed. Yes, and [00:28:00] for people that don't know what faith is, okay? Because sometimes that's a word that they hear in church, and they, you know, you read in the Bible. Good way to translate that is to say faith is trust. A trust needs to be developed there.

[00:28:13] Justin: People that are faithful are trustworthy. Yeah. Often that's, the way it's perceived. Our God is a faithful God. 

[00:28:22] Don: Yes. 

[00:28:23] Justin: Just like he was faithful for Paul and everybody before Paul that had the spirit of God in them. He is faithful to you. So when people hurt you from the church, 

[00:28:31] both: people have 

[00:28:31] Justin: free will and they will hurt you, but it's not because of God that they hurt you.

[00:28:36] Justin: So we have to get that out of our head because when you have a real relationship, when you don't trust in people that can hurt you, and then when They claim to be Christians, and they've hurt you, or they claim to be something that they're not. You're hurt because you tie that to them being a representative of God.

[00:28:53] Justin: God did not hurt you. People hurt you. Or in this case, maybe the church hurt you. [00:29:00] It's, I guess, a harsh reality, but what I'm trying to say is that When you have a real relationship with God, when you put your trust in God, you stop putting your trust in people, you'll see that he's faithful. He's faithful to reciprocate that back.

[00:29:13] Justin: He's not going to let you, he's not going to leave you. He's not going to let you down. People will let you down. He's not going to let you down. So when people let you down, you will no longer say, God, let me down, because you will know the relationship that you have with him. 

[00:29:25] Don: Yep, that's true. And that's why we'd like to.

[00:29:28] Don: Dare you to be happy and reach out for the things of God. And as a one guy once told me, just get over it. Just get over it.

[00:29:39] Justin: Well, I think that wraps it up for today. This was a good one, Justin. I think so, too. Hey, we're glad you guys found your way here today, and we hope you can join us again next week for another good word. Until then, stay blessed. Bye the best. See you [00:30:00] guys.