This episode: A true love relationship with God breaks the power of sin. What should a person do if they don't sense God's love for them?
In the 9th message of our “Unveiling Yahweh” series, Ed Buch breaks down the amazingly good gifts of God.
Timeless Truths: God knows every person by name and wants to draw them to Himself and conform them into the image of His Son.
This episode: Deliverance from sexual sin often comes only after truly waiting on God. Learn some of these principles in today's episode!
When someone claims that they don't have anyone to help them in their distress, how often is that true? And what should they do if it is?
In times of extreme need, people often claim that they have no one to help them. But how often is that actually true, and how often is that just a feeling? And what do you do if you really don’t have anyone who is willing to help you? If you’re feeling like you have no support in your current situation, this episode is for you.
In "Stephen and Kelly's Story of Hope," we see that the light of Christ shines with incredible brightness in times of greatest darkness.
There is no doubt that sexual sin and betrayal brings men and women into long seasons of terrible darkness. But Jesus is the light of the world! In this episode, Stephen and Kelly Hauck share very openly about their past life of sin and suffering to show that in times of greatest darkness, the light of Christ shines with incredible brightness.
From Ashes to Beauty (Book) by Jeff Colón
The Day it all Fell Apart (Short Video) by Pure Life Ministries
We must have a level of humility to approach the Lord, because He is a holy, magnificent and awesome being.
God is humble by nature. And when He came to the earth as a man, He lived a life completely absent of pride. But this means that God utterly detests pride as well. So if we want to approach Him, we must value and cultivate humility in ourselves. This teaching is foundational here at Pure Life Ministries. We hope that anyone seeking to overcome sexual sin, or any life-dominating sinful habit, will see the value of humility in combating sin. (from Podcast Episode #469 - Don't Stop Fighting for Humility)
Nate: So, Pastor Steve, we want to talk about humility. Humility is so important because God makes it clear in His Word that He, because of His lowliness and His humility, is repulsed by pride. So that creates a barrier between Him and someone who is proud. If we're going to be Christians, humility is absolutely essential. It's a condition for fellowship with this humble God. But it can be hard for us because humility is not easily defined. So, the first thing that we want to talk about is how to know if someone is humble. What things do you look for in a person's life to say, “I believe this is a humble man or woman?”
Steve: Well, I don't tend to look at people and even think that, but let me just say a couple things about humility. I think maybe the reason why it's hard to define is because it's a negative to something, meaning that it is not pride. Pride is something. The negative of that is the absence of pride. So, what is pride? Well, pride is self-importance, and it comes from the self-life. So, the stronger the self-life, the more pride there is, and pride is the aspect of the self-life that protects the ego.
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Pride is like a watchdog that is going to protect its ego no matter what. And if it has the opportunity, it's going to do that by rising up and making itself look better than other people around it. If it feels threatened then it's going to attack the perceived threat. Now first of all, to know God, we have to humble ourselves. We have to have a level of humility to even approach Him because He is such a magnificent, awesome being and He is humble by nature. So, when you think of the devil and how he rose up against God, that is pride and that's the spirit of the enemy. That's why God abhors it: it's coming against Him. So, like I said, I don't go hunting to see who is in pride, but when someone's a prideful person, I can't help but see when it comes out.
Nate: That's interesting when you think about the life of Jesus, because when it comes to either protecting self or rising up in pride against other people, you don't ever see that coming out of His life.
Steve: No. Never. He lived His life always with the mindset of wanting to do for others even at His own expense. Even when you see Him go on that rant so to speak in Matthew 23 against the Pharisees, that wasn't to one up them, or get over on them, or come out as the one that's right, or any of those underlying, sinful, human motives that we usually have. That was for one thing only. It was to protect other people from their ugly pride and the false system of religion that they had set up in Judaism. And that rant, so to speak, has been there for 2000 years for everyone to see the things that Jesus called out that we don't want to see in Christianity.
Nate: And maybe even to reach some of them.
Steve: Yeah. Some of them did come to the Lord eventually. So maybe it began on that day. Maybe He was putting His finger on something that they couldn’t squirm out from under. Maybe the conviction of the Lord and His truth was stirring something up inside of them. And then after Pentecost, maybe they were some of those priests that actually came to the Lord.
Nate: One of the things that really resonates with me when I listen to people's testimonies about coming to the Lord is when they say something like, “Pride has just been my nemesis even after coming to the Lord.” They’ll talk about just how natural it is to be proud. And I can attest to the fact. Without the Lord's help, the world I live in is the world of pride. You've been working with people for over 40 years. You have a lot of experience watching God's dealings with people as He's teaching them how to live a life of humility. Could you give us two big categories of things that God uses to help people live the life of lowliness.
Steve: Yes. I would say one is through teaching, and another is through the Lord's direct intervention in a person's life. I think teaching is always His default. He wants to see people come into humble living and He wants to develop in a person the sense of value for humility. He wants them to feel inside that it would be so much better for them, and certainly for those around them, if they would learn to be more humble.
If a person can learn to value humility, they can start seeking God for it, saying, “Please bring me down. Help me not to rise up in pride. Help me to walk in humility.” God’s first desire is that someone can seek after humility in that way. If that doesn't work then sometimes He will revert to stronger measures. There's nothing like affliction and suffering to humble a person, and I've had plenty of both. I just thank God for it now. Some of the things I've gone through that really humbled me when nothing else would mean everything to me now. So yeah, of course God has other things in His arsenal to humble a person, but I would say those are the two main things He uses.
Nate: Yeah, it's like when we tenderize meat. Sometimes our hearts just need the hammer.
Steve: Yeah, it's definitely true that we need our hearts to be constantly tenderized because they harden up so quickly in the self-life.
Nate: Yeah, like you said, in the middle of the humbling it's so hard and it feels awful, but it's so precious in retrospect because you realize what God is doing for you.
Steve: That's right – if your heart's right. But how many people have gone through stuff like that and they come out on the other end of it bitter? They can even be bitter towards the Lord when the Lord is just trying to help them. But all I know is I’m grateful myself for what He's done to help me.
Nate: Can you think of someone in the scriptures where you can see that happening over a period of time?
Steve: Well, there are lots of examples. There was Joseph in prison. The Lord had to humble him before he was going to rise into such a position of prominence. Saul the Pharisee got a sight of Jesus the lowly one that absolutely devastated him because his whole life had been built on self-righteousness and looking down on other people. And that just came collapsing down in that one vision of Jesus. There was also Moses who was so prideful in Pharaoh's palace. He was humbled throughout his entire lifetime. He had become self-righteous and that drove him to killing an Egyptian soldier. So he had to go out into the desert for 40 years. And really, 40 years out in the wilderness after the palace life will humble you. There are many stories I could allude to, but those are a couple of examples.
Nate: As you talk about those things it's helpful for me because I realize that this is God's way of dealing with us. It's not even punishment in a certain sense. It's His loving, fatherly discipline, which we all need.
Steve: Yeah, it's not punishment at all when it’s a believer He is dealing with. It's totally remedial. He wants to help them get better because pride destroys, and it just makes us ugly and ruins everything we touch. It's only God's goodness that causes Him to step in and help us come down.
Any concept of grace that makes us more comfortable sinning is not biblical grace.
When the Apostle Peter urged Christians to stand fast in the true grace of God, he implied that there is a false grace that we must avoid. We are living in a culture that is saturated with sensuality and perversion. We don't need a grace that leaves us unforgiven, unsaved and unchanged. We need something real, something full of life and power. In this episode, we play a sermon by Steve Gallagher where he shows us what true grace is, and what it's not.
There are radical differences between what secular psychology and Biblical Christianity have to say about addiction.
In this episode, we're going to ask the question: "Should Christians Use the Word Addiction?" To help answer that question, Dr. Daniel Berger helps us understand what the culture means by addiction and whether or not the Bible gives credence to those ideas.
The ultimate authority in our lives needs to be the Word of God and not the way we feel or think.
In part two of our discussion on living by faith and not feelings, Nate and Austin discuss how the Word of God needs to be the ultimate authority in our lives. If we put our trust in the character of God and His Word, we will be able to live by faith and not feelings. If you haven't already read part one of this discussion you can do so by clicking the link below. (from Podcast Episode # 510 - Live By Faith, Not Feelings | Key Lessons on the Road to Freedom)
Nate: Let’s continue our discussion on living by faith and not feelings. I've thought quite a bit about living by faith because I'm the same way as you Austin. There have been some powerful feelings that have tried to hinder me from really following the Lord. At times I would make some gains, like, “Okay, I'm living by faith. I'm not going to live by my feelings.” But then I would just inadvertently slip back into living by my feelings. After some time I would realize, “Wait a second, I've got to live by faith.” So, there were just times of gains and times of regression. It took a lot of effort. And I've definitely learned some lessons. I'd be interested to hear what you would say about the need to have some absolutes. If I'm going to live by faith, what are some absolute things I need to know about? What would you say some foundational lessons are that you had to learn?
Austin: I would say there are about three things that I had to learn that were foundational. The first one is probably a bit counterintuitive if you're thinking about faith. A lot of what we hear is that we have to put on faith and be bold in our faith. But I've found for myself, that it is foundational to persevere in a lifestyle of repentance. And the reason is that at the cosmic level, God is trying to give us as believers something valuable, but the enemy is trying to allure us away from receiving from the Lord by exploiting our tendency to live by our natural senses.
So, there's this war inside that causes me to need to continually be purified in my attitudes, motives, loves, and affections. They constantly need to be purified and turned toward the Lord until Jesus is what I love, desire, and treasure, not the things of this world. Because if that's not the case, I won't have any faith for what God is trying to give me. Why would I put faith in something that I don't even want? Why would I persevere past feelings for something that isn't even valuable to me? So, continuing to walk in a lifestyle repentance is foundational.
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The second thing is that, now that my heart is being purified, I really do need to put my trust in the character of God. That is a choice. Faith is not something that's just going to happen on its own. It's something that takes an active choice. That choice needs to be very much intentional. The ability to trust in God hinges on my attitude towards the Word of God, because the Word of God is how I know who God is. That is the bedrock of truth for me. If the Word of God doesn't have absolute authority in my life, then I will find myself compromising here and there and thinking that God doesn't really stand faithful in certain areas of my life. Or I might look at a certain aspect of my life and think that God isn't there for me in that way. All of those kind of cynical thoughts and feelings slowly eat away at our faith. So we really have to have a confidence in the Word of God that reveals the character of God to us in a deep way.
I would say that the third thing is choosing to praise the Lord, even in difficult circumstances. I talk about the choice to praise the Lord with every single person I counsel. Choosing to praise the Lord and choosing to give gratitude is so foundational to persevering in a life of faith. It keeps your eyes off yourself and your circumstances and keeps the Lord front and center.
Nate: That's good. When I was preparing this interview, there was a passage in 1 Peter that came to mind and I'm going to paraphrase it. It’s in 1 Peter 1. Peter is basically saying that you have a living hope and you have an inheritance in heaven that's incorruptible. And maybe you've been grieved by various trials, but that's only because you need them so that your faith will come out like pure gold, and it will result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus, whom not having seen, you love. What hit me is that when we're talking about faith, our faith is supposed to be all wrapped up and intertwined with knowing Jesus and reveling in Jesus and worshiping Jesus. I guess I wanted to close this segment by giving you a chance to just testify about Jesus. Something that has become real to you or something that has become precious to you about Jesus as you've been learning to walk by faith.
Austin: It is a walk that is tested and there are various trials, and there is a testing by fire that's going on and I've experienced that in my life. But Jesus in the midst of that has been so faithful and I'm so thankful to Him that He is the one who's in charge of my sanctification in that process. I'm so thankful that He keeps the vision when I lose it. When I'm overwhelmed in the midst of that wilderness and that trial and that fire, He knows what He's doing. He's been so faithful to me in that. He always brings me back to the fact that He is purifying me. He's purifying me to be His bride, to live with Him and to love Him. And even when I don't feel it, I need to come back to worshiping Him, giving Him my affections, and giving Him my love by telling Him with my words and my actions, even when I don't feel it, that I love Him. That’s what I really love about Jesus, that He keeps bringing me back to seeing His faithfulness.
Nate: That's so awesome. And anybody who walks this thing out is going to have their own testimony about Jesus. It's not just learning some tips about how to be a good Christian; it's about knowing Him. And He will reveal Himself in ways that are very precious and in ways that it becomes ours.
We are aware we must fight against the flesh and the Devil. But are we prepared to acknowledge that we must also fight against the world?
In this episode, we look at two strategies for winning the war against sexual sin. The first is that we have to separate ourselves from the spirit of this world. The second is that, as we do this, we must begin to seek God with all our hearts.
In this weeks blog, join us for part one of our discussion on living by faith and not feelings.
As human beings we are naturally driven by our feelings. On the one hand, they are a gift God has given us and can even protect us. For instance, fear keeps us from doing things that could cause us harm. Pain can give us warning signs that we might have an injury or illness. But on the other hand, we are challenged by God’s Word not to let our feelings dictate the way we think and act, especially when it comes to moral decisions. Instead, God calls us to live by faith. (from Podcast Episode # 510 - Live By Faith, Not Feelings | Key Lessons on the Road to Freedom)
Nate: Austin, I wanted to start off by asking you how relevant you think the topic of living by faith and not by feelings is. If you could venture a guess and think about all the guys you've counseled and the guys that you've interacted with on our Residential Program campus, what percentage would you say need to learn this lesson?
Austin: I would say it's safe to say 99%, if not 100%. I can't think of anyone that I've counseled that I haven't addressed this issue with.
Nate: Okay. For someone who’s listening and has never even really considered if they are living by feelings or if they are living by faith, can we first describe what it means to live by feelings?
Austin: To live by feelings is simply to live by my senses. You can easily quantify that by using the following example and examining these patterns in your own life. If you have a two-year-old kid who's just sitting there playing and they see a toy that they want, at that moment all hell breaks loose until they have that toy. That's what you can see. There's a sense and there's a desire that that kid has as a two-year-old that says, “I want that and I'm willing to do whatever I need to get that. We could get that same perspective looking at a teenager who has a friend group and he wants to be like his friends. His friends maybe have the latest video game and he's like, “This is something that I want.”
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So, this mindset of living by what one wants, if left unchecked, will continue to go step by step into each stage of our lives. If that goes unchecked in a teenager's life, then as a young adult what's going to keep him from doing all kinds of other things? This kind of consumer mentality of whatever I want is mine can really monopolize our lives. I took some time to think about it and if you really want to boil this issue down it comes down to submitting to one’s feelings regardless of what the Word of God tells them. The Word of God has something to say about what is right or wrong in any given situation and we have the temptation of whether we want to heed what the Word says, or just do what we want and what feels good in the moment. So living by feelings would simply just be going by what feels best at the moment rather than taking into consideration what the Word of God says.
Nate: That's a really good perspective because we are Americans through and through, and one of the things that's deeply entrenched in our culture is the idea of “I'm just going to be me.” We believe that if we feel it or if we think it, we’re going to act on it. I think a lot of people, especially our younger generation, are just being taught to live this way. If you ask somebody, “Why didn't you go to work today?” They may respond with, “Well, I just wasn't feeling it.” And as you said that kind of life will end up being very destructive. Then on the other side, it can be really hard to break out of that kind of life, especially if you've been living like that for a long time.
Austin: Certainly. For someone who's now really repented, who's now wanting to walk in the right direction, how does this now carry into their new life with the Lord? There are a couple of things that I've really found we have to face with the Lord that I’ve learned from personal experience. For instance, we may begin to not completely give over to sexual sin, but now in this new life with the Lord there are things that are coming against us that we must face and deal with, as far as feelings go. Some of these things include despair, depression, and condemnation. There are strong inward feelings that if we submit to, can run our lives in a very wrong direction very quickly.
Nate: Yeah. Or maybe anger or laziness. There are so many things in our inward lives that are trying to get us to live a certain way. And that's kind of what you were saying. If I feel condemnation or if I feel despair or depression, it's not just that I feel it, but it's actually causing me to live in a certain way. Maybe I neglect my responsibilities because I don't feel good. Maybe I shut people out because I'm depressed. Maybe somebody has a need right in front of me, but I just say no, I'm not going to take care of them because I don't feel like it. It always ends up affecting our lives. So, like you were saying, there has to be a whole reorientation of one’s life from doing what their feelings tell them to do, to doing what the Word of God tells them to do. That's what you were saying. What it means to live by faith is to let the Word of God tell us how to live our lives.
Austin: Yes. For me personally, that's really something that goes deep because I still remember in the program the first time that I started walking by faith. I remember it was early in the morning one day getting up out of bed and it was one of those mornings that you just feel dead and have no desire to seek the Lord or to spend time with Him. But I knew that that was what I needed to do. I needed to seek the Lord. I needed to pray and read the Word. So, I went to the place where I would normally spend time with the Lord in the program, even though internally I just felt like I couldn’t do it. I was sitting there with my Bible open, but I just felt like I didn't have it in me to seek the Lord.
And in that moment the Holy Spirit reminded me of what my counselor had told me. The night before this happened my counselor told me that you can choose by an act of your will to praise the Lord. And that came back to me at that moment as a revelation of, “In this moment, even if I feel completely dead, I can choose to praise the Lord.” And as we know, the Word of God is full of commands to praise the Lord and in every circumstance to give thanks. And so that's just what I began to do. I began to praise the Lord and thank Him for the Word of God and how sure and how faithful it is.
And I just remember that after about 15 minutes of doing that, something broke. It went from being completely dead to me to being full of life. The Holy Spirit really began to speak to me, and the Word of God began to become real to me. So, a morning that was completely dead got turned around all the way to where it was the best quiet time I had ever had thus far. I just remember that for myself and the revelation of how powerful it is to obey even when I don't feel like it.
Nate: Yeah. And I'm just thinking about what would have happened if you would have gotten there to your quiet time, opened up the Bible and were like, “You know what, I'm just not feeling it.” And shut the Bible like, “I’ll just see if I feel better tomorrow.” Then maybe you come back the next day and you're not feeling it again. And this can go on forever. Eventually you will create a pattern where you never read the Word or pray because you never feel like it. And that's a death sentence, to never read the Word because you don't feel like it. We need the Word of God. And what's so awesome is that when we obey, like you were saying, the Lord rewards us.
Even marriage cannot fill the empty void that only Christ can satisfy.
There have been many testimonies told from those who've gone through our counseling programs. Some of those testimonies are so similar to each other that they can become almost predictable, but we never get tired of hearing them. There is something powerful about God's individual, intimate involvement with each person that He comes to. In this episode, we walk through the story of Danielle. She had a relationship with Jesus from a young age, but for a long time, there wasn't much depth to her walk with God. She wanted to follow Jesus, but there were things that were really hindering her. And then her husband’s sexual sin really brought things to a head, and God used that trial to really draw her to Himself.
Whether you have a secular job or serve in ministry full-time, social media can breed a mentality which is anti-Christian.
We continue our discussion on the role social media plays in the Babylonian system in this week’s interview. Nate sits down with Pure Life counselor, Trey Best, who has experienced first-hand the Spirit-quenching effects of social media. He discusses how various media platforms helped foster sexual sin in his life, and what it took for God to free him from its addictive nature.
This series is based on the book Intoxicated with Babylon: The Seduction of God’s People in the Last Days by Steve Gallagher. You can find out more about that book by visiting our bookstore.
If Christians give worldly things a higher priority than God, there’s something seriously wrong with their life in Christ.
Satan wants you to focus on the things the world has to offer you instead of on God and His life-giving Spirit. One of the ways he keeps your attention on that Babylonian system is by fostering a frantic lifestyle, constantly going from one thing to the next. This is so much a part of our 21st century culture that even Christians have fallen victim to this scheme and opened the door to sinful habits and attitudes in the church. Two of our counselors, Ken and Trey, join Nate in this interview to discuss the effects of this lifestyle and how to escape it.
This series is based on the book Intoxicated with Babylon: The Seduction of God’s People in the Last Days by Steve Gallagher. You can find out more about that book by visiting our bookstore.
As you go through the Spiral of Degradation, you can come to a point where you celebrate sin and believe there is nothing wrong with it.
In part three of our discussion on the Spiral of Degradation, Ken Larkin dives into the last steps of the Spiral. If you haven't already read part one or part two of this discussion you can check them out by clicking the links below. (from Podcast Episode #493 - Babylon: When Satan Rules the Hearts of Men)
The Spiral of Degradation (Part 1)
The Spiral of Degradation (Part 2)
Nate: I want to start this part of our discussion discussing the sixth step of the Spiral of Degradation, which is being given over to a depraved mind. What does depraved mean?
Ken: Well, it's interesting. I like the King James version, because it says reprobate. And from what I understand, the Greek word for reprobate has the idea of being tested and found wanting. So, your character is being tested and you're without character. It’s like worthless silver. You’ve tried to refine it and there's nothing inherently good in it. You've basically shown yourself to be a man or a woman without character where you just give over to a lifestyle of sin and you don't even care anymore. And one of the problems of the depraved mind is that it has the idea of your conscience being hardened. It's not just the idea that you're given over and you love your sin. You can no longer distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. You begin losing your sensitivity to what’s right and wrong is. You could use the analogy of the human nervous system when you hurt yourself. I can get a small paper cut and it hurts a lot, because my nerves are very sensitive to pain to protect me from further pain. So, in a sense that protection in your conscience is gone at this point and you’ve lost that sensitivity. You're no longer convicted over your sin and you no longer feel pain or remorse. It's like there's something in you that becomes dead inside.
It's very scary because you're to the point where you're in darkness, you love darkness, and you don't even realize how far down the spiral you've gone. And some people get to the point where they are militant in their sin. Where they exalt and love their depravity. And I don't even know how else to say it, but one begins to actually celebrate it and expects everyone else to join in. A person that has gone this far will begin to associate with other people that are like-minded, whose minds are also depraved. They choose to surround themselves with those who have the same lifestyle and preferences as far as how they give over to their sin. The Bible says at the end of Romans 1 that these people have come out of a knowledge of God. So, they know the judgment of God. They know that He has pronounced a judgment on these sins and that people who committed them are worthy of death. But a person gets to the point where they might still have an idea of that, but they not only love these things, at this point, they celebrate them and approve of others who do so. For example, someone who watches pornography is actually watching someone sin and enjoying it. That's exactly what he's talking about here in Romans 1. Where you're actually given over to a lifestyle and you love the people that are like minded and do and approve of what you're doing.
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Nate: Yeah. And I think then you can kind of see how that leads to the last step of the spiral, which is to be filled with all unrighteousness. Once you get to the point where you can't distinguish between good and evil, and you're celebrating evil, then every stop has been pulled out. Then it's just a matter of time before you really reach the place of being filled with all unrighteousness. What's happening in this step?
Ken: First of all, I would say it's a scary place to be in. Of course only God knows where you cross a line where there's no return. But I would say this, it reminds me of Genesis 6, where it says that every intent and thought of man's heart was only evil continually. This is to the point where you're totally given over in your heart and your mind to sin. Your conscience isn't convicting you and you don't have any qualms about it. You have just totally given over to sin.
And I think the scary part there is that while it is progressive in nature, you get to the point where you are totally depraved and you don't even realize it because you've exchanged the truth for a lie. At that point you've embraced the lie and you actually believe the lie that this is the ultimate fulfillment and that there is nothing wrong with it. Even if you do believe in God at some level, you may still tell yourself, “Well God made me this way, so it can't be wrong if it feels so right.” You can justify it in a million ways, but you get to the point where you can't even distinguish good or evil and you actually love the evil. You’ve embraced it and your whole life is centered around it.
Nate: I do want to end with just a little bit of hope or maybe just a way of sharing that we're not victims and we can come up and out of the Spiral of Degradation no matter where we find ourselves. Some people who are listening may be pretty far down the spiral. They may know what it's like to be given over to the lust of the flesh or given over to degrading passions. What would you say as a counselor to somebody who's in that condition?
Ken: Well, I would say you're a perfect candidate for salvation, because really that spiral describes every single human being. We all might have been at different levels down that spiral, but we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But the hope is that Jesus came to save us from our sins. He came to set the captives free. He came to deliver us, and Jesus can do that for anyone that is willing to cry out to Him and ask for help. I like to look at Ezekiel 36 as a reference point when thinking about the issue of the corruption of sin. In Ezekiel 36, beginning in verse 25, the Lord says, “I will Sprinkle clean water upon you and you will be clean, I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols” (NKJV). So, God can cleanse us. God can remake us inside. God can give us a pure heart. And then He even goes on and says, I'll give you a new heart and a new spirit. I'll take out the heart of stone and I'll give you a heart of flesh. I'll put my spirit in you. So there's hope for anyone in that sense. I would say if you care, you haven't gone too far. That might be a blanket statement, but the reality is if you've really gone down that spiral, you're not anywhere near walking with God. But if you are crying out to God I believe God put that cry in your heart because God is the one that pursues us. And then our hope is that Jesus is the Good Shepherd and He's willing to leave the 99 to find that one and bring them back to Himself through repentance and faith in Christ.
Nate: It sounds like one of the cruxes of this whole issue is how bad do you want to be free. If you're willing to just tolerate this and let it be in your life then the fact is you're not just standing still, you are moving further and further away from God. But if you really care and if you're really crying out and you are willing to get to the place where you're not going to tolerate this anymore, then you must fight for freedom until you get it. And you need to realize that God knows how to get us up and out of the Spiral of Degradation.
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