Speaker 1 (00:00:01) - So here's the million dollar question. How are men like us who work hard, have good motives and a God given purpose supposed to fulfill the calling on our lives and the dreams in our hearts, all while establishing sexual integrity, thriving relationships, and a meaningful connection with God. That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Sathiya Sam. Welcome to Unleash the Man Within. What's up everybody? It's Sathiya Sam here. Welcome to Unleash the Man Within. Thank you guys so much for listening. I am so glad that you were here. I'm excited to jump into today's content. We're going to be talking about how to kick start your relationship with God. And this is a big one, because we know that when you struggle with addiction, sexual sin, when you do the things that you don't want to do, it can really take a toll on your relationship with God and your ability to connect with him. And so I'm going to provide you some guidance on how to navigate that and how to still maintain a good connection with him despite falling short.
Speaker 1 (00:01:09) - Now, before I do that, I do have to mention to you really quick that I give away my book, The Last Relapse Online. To all my listeners of this podcast, I would love for you to get your copy of it as well. This is my blueprint for recovery. Basically everything from start to end. What is required? I share a lot of my own story in there. It's super practical. It comes with a free workbook and we get emails every week from listeners like you raving about how valuable the book has been for them in their recovery. So if you are not fully free, as in if you have not been sober for a year, and if you are not enjoying your life and absolutely loving it and living in full confidence that you're never going to turn back. Then you need this book and I would highly recommend you go get your free copy right now at Sathya Sam. Oh no, that's not the right address. It's the last relapsed book.com. Sorry, my my brain just got a little jumbled there.
Speaker 1 (00:02:03) - The last relapse book. You can get your copy there. Hope you enjoy it. Okay, now let's talk about the three ways that you can kick start your relationship with God during recovery. And like I said, the reason that we would talk about this is because when you are in habitual sexual sin, the reality is it naturally just erodes at our sense of connection. And without real intentionality, what happens is we gradually become more and more disconnected and distance from God. And that's not something that I want for anybody, let alone you guys, my listeners. And so what I want to talk about today is how we can basically ensure that we stay connected, that we respond well when we do fall short and that our relationship with God stays solid and concrete. Okay. So let me give you some examples of what not to do. The one thing that you that you want to avoid at all cost, guys, is you don't want your relationship with God to become centered around sexual sin. Okay, imagine imagine that you you're like an eight year old kid and you're struggling with a bully at school.
Speaker 1 (00:03:19) - All right. And imagine if you've told your dad that I have this bully at school. He's picking on me and he's pushing me around, and he treats me differently than the other boys. He he does it to some other boys, but it's different with me. I get it way worse. And imagine if if when you go out for ice cream as a family, he talks about the bully and you're like, okay, well, that makes sense. He's he's bothered by it. He wants to talk about it. Okay. And then you go home that night and you talk him into sleep and he talks about the bully. And then imagine the next day you have breakfast in the morning and he talks about the bully. And every time you try to talk to him and have an interaction, it's about the bully. Now look, if the bully is really bothering him, it's a great honor that he would share that with you and that you would get a chance to talk him through it. So I'm not against that.
Speaker 1 (00:04:14) - But what I am saying is the relationship starts to lose substance when all you discuss is one singular problem that's at hand. So what should you be doing presenting multiple problems towards God? Well, no. Not quite. Instead, what we want to do is remember, the goal of this is to have a relationship. So in a relationship, yes, you discuss the major things and they may be come up frequently or you discuss them at length. But there's there's other things that are part of the equation. There's other things you discuss. Some of them are going to be lighter and easier, and there's going to be some days where you don't even bring that up. And I remember I used to feel so ashamed. I'm like, I have this, this addiction, I have this problem. And it feels weird to not talk to God about it because I feel like he might think I'm trying to hide from him, and I don't want him to think I'm hiding from him, so I'm just going to bring it up.
Speaker 1 (00:05:04) - But that was sabotaging the actual relationship, the actual connection. So the first thing that we want to do, or that we don't want to do, is we want to make sure that we are building a relationship that is not centered around our sin. Colossians three says that your life is hidden with Christ. Your life is hidden with Christ. I want you to think about what that means. Imagine something being hidden. Imagine if I said, okay, imagine if I had, let's say I had a I was eating a burger, right? But it was it was a small patty and I had a huge burger bun. If you looked at the burger, you would. You wouldn't even be able to see the the burger itself. You would just see the bun because it's so huge. That burger. I know this is just like the most brilliant metaphor you've ever heard in your life, right? That burger patty is hidden with the bun. What does it mean? It means that when you look at the burger, you see the bun, not the burger.
Speaker 1 (00:06:06) - So when Jesus looks at you, when you when you approach God in Colossians three says, your life is hidden with Christ, it means that when he looks at you, he sees Jesus. So we don't have to worry about this. Like magnifying glass being held up to our our lives. And Jesus saying like, oh, it's still there, it's still there, it's still there. And feeling like, oh, we have to confess it and keep working through it. And until we get through this, we're not going to be able to really have a good relationship. That's all. A load of baloney. That's the enemy trying to create disconnect between the two of you. Look at King David, King David, in the midst of his sin, in the midst of turmoil, still sought the Lord, and the Lord heard him. So you can have that experience too. That's King David, by the way, who is bound by an inferior covenant. So you and I. All the more should be able to walk in relationship despite our sin.
Speaker 1 (00:07:03) - So the first thing we want to do is we do not want to make our sin the center of the focus of every interaction. I'm not saying don't discuss it. I'm not saying don't repent and don't ask for forgiveness. Goodness gracious, do all of those things. Don't make that the only things that you do when you engage with God. Okay? Second way to kick start your relationship. Lean into the easiest ones. Okay? So when people are disconnected, if let's say there's like 7 or 8 spiritual disciplines, there's reading your Bible, there's praying, there's silence there, solitude, there's worship, there's fasting. Goodness gracious, there's soaking. Um, I'm trying to think of what else there's like liturgy or kind of the contemplative reflection on scripture. There's all of these different that those in liturgy are two different things. By the way, for those of you that are more theology theologically oriented, I realize that, um, the point is, in that list that I just provided, there's probably one thing that you're like, you know what? That seems to always do the trick for me, or that seems to at least be easier for me.
Speaker 1 (00:08:12) - Start there. So if you're feeling disconnected, just start there. Yes. I'm not saying that your relationship with God to be one dimensional, and if that's the thing that works for you, just stick with it forever. I'm just saying, if we need to kick start things, let's go with what's working, and then we can build into some of the other things that maybe you're not doing as often, or you find to be a bit of a challenge. Let's create a foundation or a baseline for connecting with him with the things that are easy. Okay, so the first thing we're going to do is we're going to make sure that the nature of our interactions are not centered around our sin. Number two is we are going to find the spiritual discipline that we can leverage the most easily to connect with God. And then the third thing we want to do is we want to embrace radical transparency. So something that I learned to do when I was on the back half of my recovery, which which was the most effective part of my recovery, is I would begin to invite God in to every single little moment of temptation, attraction and whatever else.
Speaker 1 (00:09:18) - And that was really key for me, because, number one, it obviously dissipated some of the kind of rising urges that can come from that. But number two, it actually fostered greater connection with him because I was I was just engaging with him on a regular basis like it was one of it was one of the best ways to just invite God into everyday moments, because I was tempted so often, you know, I would think about it so much that every time it happened, I would just say, okay, thank you God. And I would really I would I wouldn't just say it out of some kind of rote routine. I would actually invite him in. I would pause, I would think, yes, like, just think about it right now. God is with us in this moment. He's listening to my words. He's watching you listen in your car or on a run or wherever you might be in your home. He's with us. And just just creating that consciousness of like, thank you, Jesus, you're here.
Speaker 1 (00:10:13) - It does something to the heart. And it doesn't require an expensive journal. It doesn't require Uber spirituality to do that. Anybody and everybody can do that. But these are great ways for you to maintain connection with God while still figuring out the whole recovery side of things. It is not that you recover and then your relationship gets better. It's that because your relationship got better while you were struggling, you recovered. And so I want to encourage you do not delay strengthening this relationship. Don't wait for the right time. There's no such thing. Now is the time. And the glorious byproduct of a stronger relationship with God is that your appetite diminishes for the things of the flesh, for sin. And it's not to say that you'll be perfect, but it is to say that this is a very valuable way for you to further your recovery journey. So that's everything for today. Thank you guys so much for listening. I appreciate you stay clean up there. We'll talk soon guys. Bye bye. Hey, everybody, it's Sathiya again.
Speaker 1 (00:11:19) - Thanks for listening to Unleash the Man Within. I wanted to take a quick moment to let you know about a free e-book that I wrote for you, called The Ultimate Guide to Porn Recovery. It provides a basic framework for the recovery process and a few of my top tips completely free of charge. You can get it now at WW Recovery guide.com. That's w w w dot ultimate recovery guide. Com. Now, if you've been impacted by the podcast and you want to show some support in less than 60s, there are three ways you can do that. First, you can leave a rating or review on your podcast platform. This lets people like you know that the content here is valuable. Secondly, you can share this episode with someone in your life that might benefit from the content. If you're passionate about helping other people experience freedom and success in their lives, this is one of the easiest ways to do that. And lastly, you can subscribe. I personally only listen to the podcast that I subscribe to.
Speaker 1 (00:12:17) - If you're seeking daily encouragement, guidance and insight in your recovery journey, I highly recommend subscribing to Unleash the Man Within. Thanks for listening. I look forward to connecting with you very, very soon.
Speaker 2 (00:12:29) - The information, opinions and recommendations presented in this podcast by Sathiya Sam and his guests are for general information only and should not be considered medical, clinical or any other form of professional advice. Any reliance on the information provided is done at your own risk.
