I Hate This World

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Learn more at arnicare.com. That's a-r-n-i-c-a-r-e.com. Hey, this is Jim Graham from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explore relationship instead of religion every week. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. The resurrection power of Jesus Christ is absolute, transforming and restoring lives, healing hurt, and making all things new. This power set Michael Bowen free from the captivity, darkness, and hell of addiction and delivered him back to God. This is Jesus Breaks the Chains. Hello, and thank you for tuning into this podcast, which is a part of the Jesus Breaks the Chains series on Truth Network. I'm evangelist Michael Bowen.

I pray that the Lord blesses you greatly and you receive this word in love and in truth. This podcast is titled, I Hate This World. Brothers and sisters, friends of mine, everyone listen to this podcast. If you're anything like me, I bet you have said to yourself at one time or another, I hate this world. Maybe you've said it many times in one day that I hate this world. And I'm here to tell you right now, I do hate this world. And as we go in through this podcast, I'm going to tell you why I hate it. And I'm going to tell you why we're supposed to hate it.

We're supposed to hate this world. You know, I also believe that if you're anything like me, you oftentimes get upset and wonder why this world is so messed up and wonder why you're having so much difficulty in it. You know, for me, I thought life would be easier once I gave Jesus control over it.

But in my experience, that is not always the case. You know, I had a very difficult life. For 25 years, I was addicted to crack cocaine. I was in and out of rehabs, hospitals, even mental hospitals, at times, 12 step programs, jails and prisons. I lost everything I ever had many, many times over, lost relationships, destroyed others, just some very difficult and dark times in my life.

Dark valleys, I like to refer them to. And I spent a lot of time in those valleys, trying to maneuver my way through that terrain in the darkness of my shame and the guilt for all the things I've done while being addicted to drugs. You know, I was really just, I felt really bad about who I'd become. I really began to hate myself. And in the end, I hated myself for the man I'd become. And I didn't know what to do. This condition, I was so dirty. And I felt so unworthy and so in love and so disconnected with everything.

It was just horrible. It was that darkness and the pressing down of all that stress that was the precursor or that led me to my full surrender to Jesus Christ on a prison chapel floor. And now as a believer, I've found out that my difficulties, yes, they are different from before, but strangely, they are still very hard to navigate through. I still, as a believer, find myself in valleys. They're not the same dark valleys that I once moved through, but they're a different dark, but dark valley, all the same. Just because we've given our life to Jesus Christ and made Him our Lord and Savior, He did not promise us to bring us out of the dark valleys forever. Hallelujah. We are in this world, the world I hate.

And we're going to get to that later, why I hate it, why we are to hate it. But we are delivered from our sinful nature. We are delivered from the bondage of sin and we are given a new life. We are reborn in the Spirit and we are filled with God's Holy Spirit with power and the ability that helps us move through the dark valleys that will always be there until we move to the kingdom of heaven. Hallelujah, into eternity with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You know, I'm going to go through some times in my life, some things that I go through as a believer, as a disciple of Jesus Christ that maybe you can identify with. I try to be good to all people. I try to be uplifting and encouraging and really treat people the way I would want to be.