Welcome to episode #203! This week, Matt and Braden talk about fighting our battles with a focus on resilience and the importance of resilience and endurance in battles against sexual sin and life in general.
In battles, we need to think in short terms.
It isn’t always easy to think in the short term especially when we don’t want to do hard things or particular tasks. We just see the big, overwhelming war instead of a smaller battle. However, thinking in terms of small increments can be helpful. When we think in short terms, we can think “I can get through this moment or 90 seconds” rather than focusing on the struggle, it builds resilience. Knowing how to endure and get through battles builds character. Then when we look back at the bigger picture, all those small moments where we endured and were resilient will be helpful for when we face hardships or temptations again. We saw what we could do in that moment and can repeat it.
How do we know we can break free and stay free?
We need to have an understanding of resiliency and endurance. We need to look inward and go to God and heal from whatever is holding us back. We can renew our minds and change the way that we view our battles as a training ground instead of a burden. An opportunity to heal and grow. Resilience and endurance are not things that come second nature - they take time to build and grow in our lives.
God is our Conqueror.
We aren’t called to win all the battles - God has already won. We are already in victory and we can learn to fight from victory. God is our refuge, even in the midst of temptation. He is what we need. Amidst everything we are going through with temptations and struggles, God wants to be our refuge - our place we turn to when we are feeling overwhelmed. We need to focus on the reality that God is with us, not that the struggle is still there.
Ask a question
Have a question you'd like answered live on an episode? Send a voice recording of your question to braden@familylifecanada.com or matt@restoredministries.ca.
Share this with your friends
Who do you know that can benefit from this podcast and other episodes coming in the future? Share it with them so they can subscribe as well.
Braden is the Regional Director in Alberta for FamilyLife Canada. He has been married for 14 years to his wife Kristen, and they live in Edmonton, Alberta. He is passionate about seeing marriages grow and thrive, and helping couples move to a deeper oneness with one another and with God. FamilyLife Canada has a variety of resources and events to help you and your spouse take your marriage to the next level. See what would benefit you at www.familylifecanada.com
MATT CLINE
Matt and his wife Louise raise their little guys, David and Oliver, in Edmonton, Alberta. He is honoured to do what he can to tackle the epidemic of pornography and sexual perversion in every way possible. Seeing lives and marriages get free and experience the love of God in profound ways is what drives him every day. He leads Restored Ministries, is a certified speaker and coach for the John Maxwell Team, and formerly played hockey in the WHL and for Hockey Canada. You can visit www.restoredministries.ca.
Chapters
Welcome to episode #203! This week, Matt and Braden talk about fighting our battles with a focus on resilience and the importance of resilience and endurance in battles against sexual sin and life in general.
In battles, we need to think in short terms.
It isn’t always easy to think in the short term especially when we don’t want to do hard things or particular tasks. We just see the big, overwhelming war instead of a smaller battle. However, thinking in terms of small increments can be helpful. When we think in short terms, we can think “I can get through this moment or 90 seconds” rather than focusing on the struggle, it builds resilience. Knowing how to endure and get through battles builds character. Then when we look back at the bigger picture, all those small moments where we endured and were resilient will be helpful for when we face hardships or temptations again. We saw what we could do in that moment and can repeat it.
How do we know we can break free and stay free?
We need to have an understanding of resiliency and endurance. We need to look inward and go to God and heal from whatever is holding us back. We can renew our minds and change the way that we view our battles as a training ground instead of a burden. An opportunity to heal and grow. Resilience and endurance are not things that come second nature - they take time to build and grow in our lives.
God is our Conqueror.
We aren’t called to win all the battles - God has already won. We are already in victory and we can learn to fight from victory. God is our refuge, even in the midst of temptation. He is what we need. Amidst everything we are going through with temptations and struggles, God wants to be our refuge - our place we turn to when we are feeling overwhelmed. We need to focus on the reality that God is with us, not that the struggle is still there.
Ask a question
Have a question you'd like answered live on an episode? Send a voice recording of your question to braden@familylifecanada.com or matt@restoredministries.ca.
Share this with your friends
Who do you know that can benefit from this podcast and other episodes coming in the future? Share it with them so they can subscribe as well.
Braden is the Regional Director in Alberta for FamilyLife Canada. He has been married for 14 years to his wife Kristen, and they live in Edmonton, Alberta. He is passionate about seeing marriages grow and thrive, and helping couples move to a deeper oneness with one another and with God. FamilyLife Canada has a variety of resources and events to help you and your spouse take your marriage to the next level. See what would benefit you at www.familylifecanada.com
MATT CLINE
Matt and his wife Louise raise their little guys, David and Oliver, in Edmonton, Alberta. He is honoured to do what he can to tackle the epidemic of pornography and sexual perversion in every way possible. Seeing lives and marriages get free and experience the love of God in profound ways is what drives him every day. He leads Restored Ministries, is a certified speaker and coach for the John Maxwell Team, and formerly played hockey in the WHL and for Hockey Canada. You can visit www.restoredministries.ca.
Creators & Guests
Host
Braden Hafner
Braden Is the Regional Director in Alberta for FamilyLife Canada. He is also the co-host and co-founder of Pure Victory Podcast.
Host
Matt Cline
Matt Cline is the founder and director of Restored Ministries, focused on leading men and women out of sexual bondage and into a life of impact and freedom in Christ. He is a leading speaker and coach in Canada on the topic of sexual brokenness and has seen countless lives radically changed all around the world. You can learn more about Restored Ministries at www.restoredministries.ca.
What is Pure Victory Podcast?
Faith-based inspiration to win at sex, conquer porn, and find purpose in staying free forever.
Kristen Hafner:
Welcome to the Pure Victory podcast. Full of hot tips to help you win at sex, conquer porn, and find purpose in staying free forever. Here are your hosts, Matt Klein and Braden Hafner
Braden Hafner:
Welcome back, everybody. Pure Victory Podcast. This is Braden. We're here. We're back.
Braden Hafner:
Tarps, how are you doing? Good. Good. All covered out. Shirt's still on.
Braden Hafner:
That's good. That's good.
Matt Cline:
Half. How are they looking?
Braden Hafner:
We got a good start to this podcast already. Here we go.
Matt Cline:
To say. I have to say. Looking big. See those veins veins popping through your 2 layers over there.
Braden Hafner:
You bet. I bet I can't scratch my head because I gotta rip something. So Yeah. Don't do that. No.
Braden Hafner:
No. Not at all. This is all Zoom filters, everybody. Anyways, let's get back on track. Today, we have an episode on, I guess, fighting our battles with, a focus on resiliency and why it's so important to be resilient in this battle and fight against porn, addiction, other sexual issues, just life in general.
Braden Hafner:
Because I think we have, as a society and culture, often what we can kind of move towards is, focusing so much on our pain, our trauma, and our hurt, which there's importance to that. We need to own that we have some of those things, but maybe we boomerang so far one way that we can't take our eyes off of those things. We're so over focused on maybe some of that hurt and trauma that we've gone through that we don't have any positive mindset moving forward or a vision for freedom, a vision for victory, and we limit ourselves because of that. And we can actually stay stuck when we're not developing resiliency. We need to be able to work through and fight through and grind things out and and understand that we have capabilities and capacity with God's help to overcome.
Braden Hafner:
And through him, we can have that joy. We can have that focus. And let's move towards that today in this podcast, of what it means to be resilient.
Matt Cline:
And we think short term. Right? Yeah. I think so short term in this world and just the way we think, and, we don't wanna go through hard things. And sometimes I I'm like, oh, I don't wanna do this task for work, or I don't wanna do this exercise for working out or whatever.
Matt Cline:
And when I think like, okay. How long is it gonna take? It's gonna take 90 seconds. I'll be done this set.
Braden Hafner:
Mhmm.
Matt Cline:
Or, like, 10 minutes. I'll be done this portion of the workout or whatever. Yeah. It helps me because I think more short term like, oh, I can I can get through this rather than just focusing on the struggle and the thing I don't wanna do? When I when I see in the bigger picture how short of a time it actually is, that act that helps me get through things and and and have resiliency and endure through whatever I don't wanna do.
Matt Cline:
And and even when you think about, like, our life, you can think, I'm gonna go through things. I'm gonna you know, whatever thing we don't like about ourselves, I'm gonna have this for my whole life, or I'm gonna, have sexual temptation my whole life. The tempter is gonna be there for my entire life. I mean, hey. That doesn't sound encouraging.
Matt Cline:
But when you think about, like, hey, what could that build in me as far as the resilient spirit and understanding some some higher levels, some spiritual wisdom in knowing how to endure and get through and get through battles. And then in in light of eternity, you're thinking, like, life is short compared to I to to eternity. And what's the reward of enduring and resiliency and what that does to my character? What's the reward of that in light of eternity? I mean, oh, okay.
Matt Cline:
I can get through this life and let it grow me and grow my character. That sure helps me when I am going through things that I have to be resilient in where I don't feel resilient. When I look at look at it in light of a bigger picture, in light of a bigger time frame rather than just focusing on thing I don't wanna do, that sure helps me. And that's certainly relevant for stress, for hardship that leads to temptation and also for temptation itself. Mhmm.
Braden Hafner:
That's right. And it it's one of these things, like, for the resiliency too, when we hear the word resiliency, we might have some misunderstanding about what that word means for us. We think, well, it just means, enduring something, and that's true, but it could be more along the lines of you you overcome by not focusing on certain things or you have to be really tough. You gotta be really tough. You gotta be tougher than your problems.
Braden Hafner:
That's what we think resiliency means. And that's actually not a biblical perspective because our strength only takes us so far. You might feel really strong in certain areas, but again, we have a point where we no longer have strength. And and so what do we do when we face that situation? And, I'm so thankful.
Braden Hafner:
We have great models out there, throughout scripture of of what it means to be resilient and, a god given resilience. And I think that's really key, a god given resilience because, like I said, our strength, wanes over time. Like, we can only take something for so long, especially if we come at it from maybe a worldly perspective or a perspective that it's me that's gonna have to make this happen. We We have to take ownership of our choices. We have to obviously make some tough decisions in life, of course, to come out of our circumstances, but it always has to be central to god working in our life.
Braden Hafner:
If we remove god from the equation, that's when we we just falter and fail. I know I did that, like, with porn. Yeah. I tried on my own strength for a long time to be quote, unquote resilient. But the way that I did it was completely backwards.
Braden Hafner:
Like, I would I would just try everything I could to not think about porn and do everything I could to avoid porn, but that only goes so far. Eventually, I'm gonna come face to face with some of my issues of face to face with that temptation, face to face with, moments where I'm not at my best. Maybe my inhibitions are down. I'm tired. And what do you do then?
Braden Hafner:
And I think that's where a god given resiliency is where we really start to see that freedom and victory. And, so some of the models we see what are some models that we see in in scripture there, Matt?
Matt Cline:
Best biblical example, I think, is Jesus. Oh, man. What a what a profound thought. Hey. Mhmm.
Matt Cline:
But but I think I think often that story where they're they're in a boat, Jesus and the disciples are in a boat, and there's a storm. And they're all freaking out, and he's just chilling, having a nap. And boat's probably tossing and turning, scared of going over, and he's just resting, having a nap. And they're all like, Jesus. Jesus.
Matt Cline:
Wake up. There's a storm. Why are you sleeping? And he's, like, totally confused. Right?
Kristen Hafner:
Like, why do you why are you freaking out? Yeah.
Matt Cline:
Like, what where's your faith?
Kristen Hafner:
Why don't you have peace? And
Matt Cline:
I I used to to see that story in his response simply in the frame of mind that he's teaching them a lesson and saying, where's your faith? Like, what, you know, I wanna teach here. You could also, though, see it like he's genuinely confused. Like, why would you not have faith here? And and I wonder, like, as a person filled with the spirit, one with the father, like, he's the son of god, Was he actually, like, genuinely confused as to why people are freaking out in the middle of the storm?
Matt Cline:
Because he's so full of just living in peace. And I don't know. But I wanna get there. I wanna be, like, my have my natural default response to hardship, be peace, and be like, well, obviously, I'm gonna be at peace. Like, what is this thing?
Matt Cline:
What is this temptation, the sexual temptation gonna do? Like, of core and, like, you can kinda laugh at it and, like,
Kristen Hafner:
Like, people are freaking out about this? No. No.
Matt Cline:
Like, laugh at it because you're so in the peace of God. And I just wanna believe that that's real. And I think that that's what Jesus demonstrated for us. And so if we have temptations, sexual temptations, if we wanna give in, sometimes, like, that can seem so overpowering. It seems so hard.
Matt Cline:
It seems like a battle that we just can't get through unless we give in. And giving in is the only way to experience that peace or that escape for that battle. And there's so much in scripture about about enduring and being resilient and being able to fight these battles. And and I think that understanding how god gets us through these things is really important because we want as human beings, we want the situation gone. We want the temptation gone.
Matt Cline:
If we pray to God, he doesn't take the temptation from us. We're like, I guess he didn't answer my prayer. But what he's doing, I believe, is he's he's giving us a little bit to hold on to. He gives us his word. He gives us a a knowing that he is with us.
Matt Cline:
Do we always experience it or feel it? No. But that's the beauty of his wisdom is that he's training us up in that moment to just know in ourselves even when we don't experience him that he is with us. He's training us to go to the word if we don't hear from him from him directly. Go to the bible and get a get a scripture, have verses that are in our hearts so that we can endure and be resilient in the face of a battle.
Matt Cline:
And so I wanna have like, for my own life, I wanna be so resilient to the to the point where scripture is just so in me, and it's my default setting that when there's a a battle or when there's a stress or or a temptation or whatever it is where I have to be resilient in, it's like, well, of course, I can endure this. This is gonna produce good things. It's gonna grow my character. And and and I need endurance and need to be resilient for this life. And praise the lord for this opportunity.
Matt Cline:
Like, I want that to be my default because I think that was the default that Jesus had in the midst of any temptation. You look at when he got tempted those three times before his ministry started. We don't see him getting tired.
Braden Hafner:
Mhmm.
Matt Cline:
And he was. He was hungry, and he was tired. He'd fasted for 40 days. But we don't see him getting tired of the temptation. We just see him confidently combating it with the word of God Mhmm.
Matt Cline:
And with the power of the Holy Spirit in him. And we don't see him having fatigue. We see, like, actually, Satan gets tired of the word of god being declared, and he flees rather than Jesus just giving in because, oh, man. I already resisted once, then you tempted me again. And I resisted again, and then you tempted me again.
Matt Cline:
This is just too much. He demonstrates this this example of, or or this response that's that's the resiliency that we need just in life in general. And so what a beautiful training ground temptation is or hard times is. And I wanna say, like, I I've I'm I'm better in some areas of my life and worse in other areas of my life with this. And the areas that I'm worse in, there are opportunities.
Braden Hafner:
Mhmm.
Matt Cline:
And there are opportunities for me to grow, for me to get the word of God, but also for me to look inward at my heart and go, what are some some beliefs or maybe some things that are holding me back from being resilient in battles. And I'm grateful for that perspective because God's able to then grow me into an even more resilient person.
Braden Hafner:
Mhmm. And and that's so powerful what you're sharing. And, one of the hard realities that sometimes we have to come to terms with is the fact that, I mean, Jesus did tell us in this life, you will have trouble, but take heart I've overcome the world. How amazing is that? So what does that mean for us?
Braden Hafner:
I mean, there's a great tangible example for us, in scripture. I always love this is when Jesus walking on the water, and it wasn't common serene when he was walking on the water towards the boat full of the disciples. It wasn't, and we know this because when Peter said called out to him, said, Lord, if it's you, call tell me to come to you. Sure enough, Jesus did. And when Peter got on that water and, I mean, how incredible would that have been?
Braden Hafner:
Like, the only human I mean, I mean, Jesus obviously walked on water, but the only human aside from Christ that's ever done that is Peter. And that was through the power of of the holy spirit. I mean, the power of of Jesus in that moment. What we know is that Jesus didn't silence the waves in that moment so Peter could do that. In fact, that's not the case at all because Peter was looking around.
Braden Hafner:
He took his eyes off of Jesus, and he noticed how bad the storm was and the waves, and he started to sink. And then then Jesus lent him his hand and pulled him pulled him out of that. But, I mean, there's a great lesson in that. It's been used countless times throughout throughout Christian history of teaching, in regards to keeping our eyes on Jesus, but we noticed something here. Jesus didn't still the wave so Peter could walk on water.
Braden Hafner:
He called him to keep his eyes on him. And so what do we know that about life and circumstance? We all can say that there's been hardship that we've encountered in life. Some much worse than others for sure. Just because we're going through circumstances that are difficult doesn't mean that god doesn't love us or we don't have his favor.
Braden Hafner:
It doesn't mean that we're necessarily doing something wrong in life. It's just the fact of life is sometimes we face difficult circumstance, and god calls us to be resilient in those moments by keeping our eyes on him. He's not gonna necessarily remove the circumstance or the roadblock or the difficulty that we're facing in that time, but we're gonna learn through it. We're gonna walk through it with him. And why does he do that?
Braden Hafner:
Because he loves us too much to give us everything that we want. I mean, we've I've prayed away temptation for so much of my battle with porn, And then what I've learned through the the journey of it is that god didn't necessarily do that, but he he taught me to keep my eyes on him, and that's where the freedom came. And, if if he would've given me in a moment in a flash the temptation to be removed from me, I don't win and learned I wouldn't have learned anything. My character wouldn't have grown. I wouldn't have built that resiliency.
Braden Hafner:
I had to learn to to to keep my head up, to focus on on God through the midst of the storm, and I learned so much about him. I learned so much about myself, and I learned so much what it meant to battle. Because if you face circumstance, we can be a shrinking violet and just crumble, and that's not what God calls us to. Again, in this life, we will have trouble, but take heart. God is with us.
Braden Hafner:
And I I just love I always love that example of Peter because I can see myself in him. I think we all can, and we've all been there where we've taken our eyes off of Jesus. We can all relate to that, and we start to sink in our circumstances, but he always is gracious to us. Jesus always pulls us out of that, and he I mean, his kindness just says to to keep our eyes on him. He's there with us.
Braden Hafner:
He's for us. How beautiful a picture of the is that of resiliency, of, knowing that he's the one that does that work in us so long as we keep our eyes on him and not on our circumstances. Circumstances are tough for sure. If you're battling porn, that seems like the battle of your life. If you're battling masturbation, the battle of your life, and we can focus so much on those waves that are hitting up against us versus on god.
Braden Hafner:
And I understand that. I was there too. But when we put our eyes on Jesus, that's where the resiliency really starts to come forward, and we start to build that character. And we learn a lot through the process when we do that.
Matt Cline:
Yeah. Yeah. So people who are listening, if you if you've been thinking like, I've been praying to God for years or decades for him to take my porn issue from me or masturbation or or whatever it is or the pain of my of my abuse or or or if it's a nonsexual thing, then then that too. Like, if you've been praying for something for years and it hasn't yet come to pass, both of us, Brad and I, we want you to know God is not ignoring you. God is wanting to take you to something even deeper and something better.
Matt Cline:
He wants to do a deeper healing work so he can take you higher in life. He'll use what you're struggling with right now to teach you how to be resilient, to teach you how to rely on him in new ways. And it's not always simply just getting through the momentary fights. A couple years ago, I was realizing I don't have the resiliency that I used to have. I don't like, in in various things in my life, not everything, but in various things, I'm like, man, I used to persevere.
Matt Cline:
I used to have a a mentality of overcoming. And no matter what like, when I was training as a kid or teenager in hockey, I mean, I would go longer than most people even if I wasn't the most skilled or didn't have the most strength or stamina in the gym. Typically, from a mental standpoint, I would outlast people. And I was noticing that in my adult years that, hey. That hasn't been the case.
Matt Cline:
So I started instead of and and this is, I think, really key. And this is something that I've learned from my own story is that instead of simply just looking at whatever it is in my life that I don't have resiliency towards or I don't fight these battles long term, I just more give in or quit or don't engage in the fight. Instead Instead of just looking at that and going, how could I fight better or beat myself up? I'm like, come on. You can do better.
Matt Cline:
I had to start asking myself, why is it that I that my mentality changed, and when did this change? And so what happened was just through prayer and through seeking counsel with someone who was able to guide me in this inner healing, I got back to this point where I was in my early twenties. And I remember I was starting my adulthood. And when I was 18, I got hurt in hockey with a concussion. I had headaches for 6 years with this concussion.
Matt Cline:
So a lot of times in just lying in bed and pain, sitting on my couch, a lot of time in medical clinics. And I had this dream of playing pro hockey. I probably could have played some lower level of pro, not the NHL. I wasn't good enough, but but some lower level of pro, in hockey. And and that and that dream didn't come to pass because of an injury.
Matt Cline:
It was a sudden thing that happened that ended 14 years of a pursuit. And so in my early twenties, I used to say to myself, I committed 14 years to this thing, and it didn't work out to hockey. I don't know if I can commit 14 years to something else and have that not work out. I don't know if I can commit 14 years to something without the certainty that I know it's gonna gonna breed success. And so I used to say that to myself all the time.
Matt Cline:
Now later on, years later, I'm processing this with God and going, oh, that was the time where I wasn't resilient, where there was a lot of emotional pain in my life. There's physical pain. I literally couldn't do much physically, but that I also would look long term and think, I don't think I can persevere through things. And so this mentality started to change, and it was because of, obviously, a pain and a painful time in my life. And this this, feeling of, like, emotional fatigue started to take place, in my life.
Matt Cline:
Whereas before, from an emotional or mental standpoint, I was like, right on. I can do this. I can beat any challenge, and I can outlast people and and get through things. And so I I had to look back with the lord, and he actually started bringing healing. I'd say I'm still, honestly, in the midst of it, but I he's got me a lot to a lot better place with that healing and just understanding how things have taken shape in my life.
Matt Cline:
So I say that story to encourage you guys. Don't just try to fight to to be resilient without looking inward at the heart and going, why do I believe the things that I believe? For a lot of people with porn, when it's been years or decades, it's I don't think that it that I can break free because I've given up so many times. I've given in so many times. I actually don't think that I have the ability.
Matt Cline:
When we think of breaking free long term, we might be free for a year or 2. But how do we actually know that it can be long term? How do we actually know we can break free and stay free forever? It's a question I get a lot. And we have to just have this understanding of resiliency and endurance.
Matt Cline:
And if there's something getting in the way of living that out, we can we can look inward, and we can go to god and get counsel, and we can heal from whatever's holding us back, but also start to renew the mind and change the way that we think, change the way that we view our battles, and see them not as just a burden, but a training ground, an opportunity where we can heal and we can grow. Resiliency and endurance and persevering, they're it's all throughout scripture. And it's never something that we're just born with, and we know how to do immediately and and, to the degree that we need. So we have to learn it. And struggles and trials are the times where we both see the the brokenness and the deficit in our lives, but also the times where we can grow in resiliency too.
Braden Hafner:
Mhmm. Yeah. That's powerful. I think that the mindset that we need to shift is that regardless of what we're facing, regardless of the challenge that we have before us, that we have the mindset that we can overcome. There's that great verse.
Braden Hafner:
You know, we are more than conquerors, and God has a lot of verses throughout scripture that really speak to the mindset that we need to have. He told Joshua before he entered the promised land to not fear. I'll be with you wherever you go. Like, how powerful is that to have that being your guidepost, to be the thing that, sets the theme and tone of your next choice and action? It's so much more and greater than the circumstance we face.
Braden Hafner:
No matter how the big the enemy seems, no matter how challenging whatever addiction we're battling seems, I think that we need to have that mindset of understanding that we can overcome, that we are more than conquerors. And I'll talk about a scriptural precedent here too, but I I mean, I'm a big World War 2 buff. If you know that about me, that's the way I nerd out. I love reading about World War 2, the the battles and stuff, but, one of the greatest speeches that were ever given by a politician was by Winston Churchill in the midst of, the German forces sweeping across Europe, and, Britain was basically the last man standing. At that point, Russia hadn't been invaded yet.
Braden Hafner:
You're a nerd note on this, but Britain was the last was then. France had had had, capitulated. They had surrendered. Britain was it, and there was a lot of talk within parliaments. There was a lot of talk for his political enemies, the Churchill, and even a lot of voice saying we should just, sign an armistice deal with Hitler and give up.
Braden Hafner:
Maybe we can get something good out of this. Maybe we can save Britain. Churchill responded to all that pressure by that famous speech of, we will we will never surrender. You know? We'll fight on the beaches.
Braden Hafner:
We'll fight, you know, all these different we we won't give up. And what a powerful moment that was. Even though circumstances were so dire, it didn't look like Brynn would be able to withstand the enemy, and they did. Just because of that mindset, a change of mindset, we can overcome. We will fight.
Braden Hafner:
Maybe that's your rallying cry. You can fight. You will fight. You will not give up. And by the power of God working in your life, you can overcome whatever enemy you're facing.
Braden Hafner:
And if you wanna go listen to that speech, there's on YouTube, whatever else, but it's powerful. But there's another great example in scripture of of how we deal with just dire circumstance. When we think of David, we've used David a lot because he's a great example, but he was a man after God's heart. For 10 years of his life, he was on the run from a man that was supposedly supposed to be his mentor, the Saul trying to kill him. Saul had the benefit of having a massive army, a whole nation behind him, and you're David with a ragtag bunch of men fleeing for their lives.
Braden Hafner:
And he lived in ditches. He, hid in the countryside. He hid in the desert. He hid all over the place for 10 years of his life running and fleeing. And there was this point in Psalm 142 is where I'd refer, but there's this one point where it's really it's like a movie almost.
Braden Hafner:
Like, I think it's at this point is where they're they're on either side. There's cliffs, whatever else, Saul's army, David, and his men, but eventually, David is able to retreat into this, this cave. Can you imagine the sheer terror in that moment? Yeah. Like, he's like, my life could end in a moment.
Braden Hafner:
He has a whole army chasing him, and he has just a group of guys with him hiding in a cave, hiding for his life, and he'd been obviously exhausted, sheer terror. I can't imagine living that heightened state of, adrenaline constantly. Like, that'd be so exhausting. Saul didn't know where he was, and sure enough, he left his army and his guard to go into this cave to relieve himself. Scripture says to take a leak.
Braden Hafner:
And David's in the back of the cave. Saul doesn't know he's there. And David's are guys with him are like, this is a chance where you can end this. You can go kill Saul right now, and all of this problem that you have, all this terror, all this circumstance is so bad that's so dire you can end it in a moment by just simply killing Saul, and he could easily have done it. But what we know about David in this moment, he wrote a Psalm, actually when he was in this cave.
Braden Hafner:
This is incredible. Like, he writes this Psalm, and, what does he do in that moment? He cries out to God. He lifts up his voice. This is what it says.
Braden Hafner:
I pour out before him my complaint. Before him, I tell my trouble. And what does that do for David? It gives him, like, he he shares with God. He prays, calls out to God, all the struggle that he's going through.
Braden Hafner:
He talks about the enemy that's pursuing him. He talks about how dire his situation is. He talks about the terror and the fear that he's feeling. That he's he even says, I have no refuge. No one cares for me.
Braden Hafner:
And, like, how dire is that? But he calls out to god. And then what does he do in that moment after he calls out to god? He prays. He has all these voices being the men with him saying, kill Saul.
Braden Hafner:
Kill Saul. Go get him. So he has this inner turmoil. He has these guys telling to do something, but he responds by going to God, and then God, in that moment, gives him such clarity. What does he do?
Braden Hafner:
He doesn't end his problems by killing Saul. He actually calls out to Saul. He cuts a piece of robe and and gives out his evidence I coulda killed you, but I didn't because you're god's anointed. It's not my place to kill you. It's not my place to end this this way.
Braden Hafner:
And, oh, yeah. Wow. How powerful is that? So So what does he do to build resilience in that moment? He calls out to god, and through the the the terror of that circumstance, god gives him that clarity, and then he's able to see a vision beyond, the momentary solution that he is presented before him.
Braden Hafner:
And what does that do? That puts him on a much better path in life. And we we read throughout scripture and moving into the verses beyond that, and eventually, he he gets the the kingdom and he becomes king. But this is one of those moments that God used to build character, to to just allow David to trust in in God and and to learn a lot, through that process. And, so there's a good example for us of some of the things that we need to do in the moment.
Braden Hafner:
You feel the fee the pain. You might feel the hurt. You might feel the frustration of battling a big enemy like porn, but you you you talk to God about that. You reveal that to God and other, you know, in our communities as well. You can talk to him about that and talk to others about that.
Braden Hafner:
But through that, he gives us clarity and a vision for something greater than our momentary solutions. And and that's where we find our freedom, and that's where we build our resiliency. I just think that's a sort of beautiful picture for us, and it really challenges me, honestly, of how we can have that mindset of being more than a conqueror and having that resilient mindset.
Matt Cline:
I love it. I love it. And more than a conqueror, by the way, what that means is you're not just a conqueror. You're not called to win all these battles and be a conqueror because, oh, I don't know if I'm gonna if I'm gonna conquer. Now I have this battle.
Matt Cline:
If I win the battle, then I'm a conqueror. What Jesus is saying is, no. He's the conqueror, and we are more than a conqueror because we're already in victory. Mhmm. We're already in victory, and we just need to learn how to fight from victory and fight from the freedom that he already gave us.
Matt Cline:
He set us free already, and so we need to learn to fight from that rather than try and try and try to get free. So totally different mindset. And then Psalm in 142 says, I say, you are my refuge by portion in the land of the living. So you are my refuge. What is our refuge when we're not tempted anymore?
Matt Cline:
What is our refuge when people apologize to us for wronging us? Or what is our what is our refuge when we just never get tempted? Like, what are we looking to to be our refuge? What David is saying is God is his refuge. We need God to be our refuge in those times.
Matt Cline:
If we're calling on God to take the temptation from us, what we're saying to God is, that's my refuge. What we need to say is, you are my refuge even in the midst of temptation. God, thank you that you are with me. What it says is, he is our portion in the land of the living here. So he is our portion.
Matt Cline:
What does that mean? Another word for portion in scripture is inheritance, but I like both. Portion mean that he is what we need. Yeah. There's different things.
Matt Cline:
Yeah. David's fighting Saul. Yeah. He's being chased. There's, like, Saul's army is great.
Matt Cline:
There's, like, Saul want all the bitterness that Saul has. All of that's a reality, but also a reality in David's life is that God is his refuge. God is his portion. So So when you take into context all of the reality of what David's experiencing, he's focusing on the reality that God is with him. He's not focusing on the reality that the struggle is still there.
Matt Cline:
He even sees he he says, I'm not gonna kill the kill God's anointed. He he looks at his enemy, Saul, and sees the anointing of God. And I wonder if we could look at our temptations and see our hardships that we don't wanna endure and see the anointing there and see the see god's, plan there, see what god is doing in the midst of that temptation and going, oh, I see what God is doing. I'm not in this temptation. I'm not gonna just pray it away.
Matt Cline:
I'm gonna let the temptation lead me to Jesus so that I understand that he is the portion that I need, and I can focus on that and hold on to that. Totally different mindset than praying away this circumstance or this situation. And if you're there, if you're always praying about the situation, congratulations. You're a human being on planet Earth.
Braden Hafner:
Been there, done that. This is
Matt Cline:
what we do. Yeah. And so don't have shame or condemnation. Just be excited that, okay. This is what it means to be more than a conqueror.
Matt Cline:
This is what it means to have, like, a spiritual understanding of these fights, not just an earthly understanding. Be encouraged that now we can learn what it is to actually walk in the freedom that he has already set in place for us. Because we are free, now we can walk in it. His presence is there. Now we get to experience his presence.
Matt Cline:
And when we change our mindset, we literally are transformed in the midst of this fight because, that's what scripture says. When you renew your mind, you're that leads to transformation. And so changing the the mindset, another one is first Peter 41, that when you suffer in the body, if you arm yourself with the same way of thinking that Christ had, then sin will just cease in the body. Those though it it actually says, then those who have suffered, for those who have suffered, sin will cease. And so when we go through suffering, if we have this way of thinking that Christ had, which is resiliency, perseverance, endurance, God is our portion.
Matt Cline:
God is our refuge. That's how we arm ourself in the midst of trouble, and then sin just ceases in our life. Because why do we even need to go to sin if we're already in god as our refuge? So, yeah, beautiful perspective to take, and then grow in it. Every time there's temptation, grow in this.
Matt Cline:
This is the key for everybody who has been praying to god for years decades. Take this from me. I wanna be healed from this. You haven't god hasn't healed me yet. Why aren't you answering me, god?
Matt Cline:
This is why. Because he wants you to grow. He wants you to know who you are. And if the struggle is all of a sudden out of your life, all he's doing is enabling us to live as live as, be human beings who are absolutely totally dependent on his sovereign move without us engaging in the fight. And he wants to go, no.
Matt Cline:
I've put so much more power and belief in you, so much more ability through the power of the holy spirit that you can engage in this fight too. You just need to do it differently. And, and he's a great commander of the army. So hope that that encourages you and hope that you have more resiliency in your fight. Hope that if you if there's things coming up in your heart that you need to heal from that stops you from being resilient, I I I hope that that you can go through that healing journey.
Matt Cline:
And, and this is a good thing. It grows us as people when we have this mentality. It's a process. Right? And be encouraged that it's a process.
Matt Cline:
And even though we sin, even though we screw up, even though there's relapses, even though we hate the sexual sin, we hate the anger, even though that's present at times in our life, we want it to be less and less. We want it to be totally gone. But when it's less and less, but we're still in this process of healing, I think god is so excited for us that we're healing. The sin, yeah, we want it gone, but he can use that to teach us resiliency. And so this is not a not permission to engage in sin, but it's just to say, don't let that bring so much shame and guilt that you're like, oh, I guess I'm just not that person.
Matt Cline:
No. God is growing you, and there's a process in that. And so be patient with yourself in that process.
Braden Hafner:
Beautiful tarps. Love it. Anyways, we'll leave that with you. And and along with you
Matt Cline:
No, man. That I know it's gonna take me a bit, like, especially the listeners. I feel I feel for listeners who hear it and don't know God. I just wish they have to listen
Braden Hafner:
to it. You gotta listen to more. That's why
Matt Cline:
I'm doing that. Context.
Braden Hafner:
Yeah. You gotta you gotta figure this out. So go listen to more pod episodes. But, be resilient in in in these things, and, we're with you in the fight, and, stay in the fight. Don't give up.
Braden Hafner:
Don't surrender. You have a lord that is on your side. Jesus is in your is working in and through your life. So just understand that you're you're not alone in this, and he is your refuge. So trusting that, you're you have a great week.
Braden Hafner:
We're praying into that, and, we will be looking forward to hanging out with you next time.
Kristen Hafner:
Thanks for listening. If you would like to hear more, please visit pure victory podcast dot com to subscribe. This podcast was made possible by the generous donations of our subscribers. If would like to help support the cause financially, once again, please visit purevictorypodcast.com.
