Real Love in Real Life - Four Barriers to Love, Part 1

When love and relationships are going great, life is wonderful. But the fact of the matter is our deepest sorrows, our deepest challenges are really in relationships. Today I'm going to talk about two of the biggest barriers that just shut down relationships and then how to overcome them.

Stay with me. And as he just teased, in this program, Chip's going to share two significant roadblocks that hinder us from experiencing authentic love in our relationships. Now, Chip gets really practical today, so let me encourage you to go to livingontheedge.org and download his free message notes. And if you're looking for deeper insight into this topic, keep listening after this message to hear some practical advice from Chip. You're not going to want to miss out on this video. You're not going to want to miss what he has to share.

If you have a Bible handy, turn now to Genesis chapter 3 for Chip's message, Four Barriers to Love. For some of you, you know, it's like 40 years ago you were doing that and for others it was 40 days ago. But can you go back and think about all the excitement and, you know, once you got through the hassles of planning the wedding and it was getting kind of close. And then I'd like you, if you would, to dream, just in reverse, sort of a dream in your mind of what were you hoping? What were you expecting? I mean, when you walked down that aisle and when you said I do, and in most cases friends and family and these hopes and dreams, I mean, for some of you since you were tiny little girls and for us guys thinking, you know, I'm going to find that right woman someday. What did you think it was going to be like?

Do you remember? I mean, what did you expect? What were you hoping? My wife and I look back and I would say the day we got married has to be one of the top maybe two, three days and maybe number one of all the experiences we've ever had. I mean, it was awesome. I mean, it was just over the top awesome. Friends and a sense of God's blessing and, you know, we had waited and longed for this to happen. So are you there?

You got it? I mean, just like these pictures, just how wonderful it's going to be. Well, we came back from our honeymoon a little bit early because one of her dad's brothers got sick and was in the hospital and they asked us to come and pray and help him.

It was an amazing thing. We saw a miraculous recovery and so we came back to this empty apartment and, you know, our wedding presents were there and we unpacked a few of them and we didn't have any premarital counseling. I don't know why.

I'm not sure they did it in those days. All I can tell you is it was about a picture and we were trying to get this picture over the fireplace. I can't tell you whether she wanted it right or left or high or low or whatever, but she said something and then I said something and she said something and then I said something else and then she said something, I said something. And I mean, in about 15 minutes it was like I didn't think I could have feelings like this for Teresa. I mean, we did not have any big fights before we got married. If anything, we were a little overly spiritual. And we prayed together and sang together and read the Bible together, but expectations and finances and kids and practical living and how it was going to work, we didn't really talk about that stuff. We thought if you really love one another, all that will just work out.

And all I got to tell you is I've only been married now, let's see, I'm thinking back in my mind, maybe it's like seven or nine days max because we had to come back early. And I got so mad and she got so mad and then I got so mad, I just slammed the door and I left and I got my little green Volkswagen and I got in the Volkswagen and I'm driving around Fairmont, West Virginia and I go up into the mountains and I look down in that little house and part of our apartment, I thought, man, did I mess up? I think I married the wrong person, it's too late, what have I done? I thought, how can you have feelings like this? I've never been so angry in my life, she makes me nuts.

I mean, I love her, I love her, I love her. I can't believe she said that to me, sweet little kind loving Teresa, there's something in there I didn't know about, how come I didn't find out about this earlier? I was livid and then I was scared because I thought, whoa, is the rest of my life going to be like this?

I mean, this is like a line came out of the closet and of course she's home crying, I can't believe he talked to me that way, you know? And get this, it's about a picture, are you kidding me? It's about a picture and now neither of us can remember what the picture was about.

What went wrong? That's what we want to talk about. You've had dreams, I've had dreams, if you've been married more than about six weeks, you've found out that it's not exactly what you thought it was going to be, right? And if you've been married a long time, you've realized there's a lot of hard stuff that comes in marriage and a lot of people when it gets hard, they give up because they think something's wrong or I married the wrong person instead of this is normal. My experience is when you can define a problem, it's about 50% solved, okay?

I mean, if you can really figure out this is the problem, you're about 50% of the way there of understanding, oh, okay, now I know how to respond. And what I want to talk about in this session is what went wrong or what are the barriers to intimacy in marriage? Now, in your notes, you're going to see I have four premises.

They're taken from scripture and a lot of research I've done over the years. Premise number one, we all have legitimate needs and longings. The need to have open, honest, vulnerable, completing relationships, accepting relationships, relationships that are affirming, I long to have those, most especially with my wife, but we all long those. Second premise, God originally designed our spouse to be a major tool in his hands to meet those needs and longings and not the only tool.

Your mate cannot come through for a year. They can't solve your problems, but a major source of meeting the deepest longings and desires that you have. Third premise, the fall or sin, Genesis chapter 3, short-circuited man's relationship with God, his mate, and this world. Okay, sin entered the world and we have these longings and literally it's like the wiring now is short-circuited so that premise number four becomes the reality. What was once the most natural relational response, other-centered grace-giving, is now the most unnatural of responses requiring supernatural enablement and hard work to achieve. In other words, in the garden, the first man and the first woman, when Adam was thinking, you know, I kind of have a need in this area, there was just something that clicked in and Eve said, I'd love to fulfill that. Great, can we do that?

Can I help you there? Or if Eve was, you know, taking a walk and wondering, you know, what are we going to do with that giraffe over there or, you know, we're going to subdue the earth and do this and that, can I help you? In other words, the unconscious response to every situation before sin entered was other-centered grace-giving. In other words, I want to help you, I want to put you ahead of me, and then the fall occurred. And when sin occurred, that natural response is now unnatural. You see, when sin entered the world, what was the most natural, other-centered grace-giving, caring for others, turned opposite.

And to be other-centered and grace-giving and love an individual and to meet their longings when down deep you want yours met, I want my way and I want it now. And the picture is, we have God's blueprint, right? We've got the blueprint, God's at the top, equilateral triangle, we want to have a relationship with God whose desire is for oneness with one another. But notice what's been added. There's now a barrier between us and God.

Something happened. We're not in fellowship with God now. There's a barrier and that barrier is sin.

And now there's another barrier, there's a barrier between one another. See, this idea that I had, I can still remember sitting on this chair, sipping my coffee, this beautiful blonde who I love with all my heart, who we prayed together, we read scripture together, we were doing ministry together, we had these dreams together. Everyone else was going to have problems, but see, they didn't do it the way we did it and they don't know Teresa and she's sweeter and lovelier and kinder and more wonderful than any other woman in the whole world and I was completely deluded. And I'm just going to be this man for her, it's all going to work out great and we couldn't even handle hanging a picture.

And I mean I had feelings of rejection and hurt and wound and pain and anger like I didn't think I could even have. And that's because when we were hanging that picture, my way is the way to do it. How I see it is how it is.

Your difference isn't different, it's wrong. This is it. And so once that was just the symptom, we begin to attack one another. That's what sin does.

But it's not the only barrier. See, most of us think, here's that myth, and it's you, every movie you watch reinforces it, every little book that talks about how wonderful an ideal thing is, every TV show says this. If you really love one another, it'll all work out. Loving another person is the most natural thing. You'll be kind and other-centered. If you really love one another, it'll be easy and it'll be great. That is the farthest thing from the truth.

If you really love one another, it will require supernatural enablement from God and an amazing amount of hard work. And it is the grace of God that teaches us to say no to worldliness and lusty passions and instead to live sober, self-disciplined lives of caring for other people. And so I want you to pull out your pen and I want you to roll up your sleeves and I'm going to walk through the four barriers so that you can identify what they are. And the first one is the biggie. I'll spend the most time on the barrier of sin. And as you open and what I want you to know is this barrier of sin distorts the others too. The others are normal barriers. I mean there's differences between men and women.

There's differences in terms of just our personalities. But that barrier of sin is going to tilt things to make even those things negative or bad. Let's look at barrier number one and it's spiritual barrier of sin, shame, and selfishness. And if you would, open your Bibles again to Genesis chapter 3.

And I would love to spend a bit more time than we will but let me give you an overview of how the barrier occurred, the impact that it had then, and the impact that it has now. Beginning in verse 1. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord has made. And he said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat of any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, we may eat from the fruit from the trees in the garden but God did say you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. And you must not touch it.

Two quick observations. The first attack in sin entering in the world is in God's word. The first attack is you can't trust God's word about what's real, what's right, what's true, and how life works.

The second error, the first theological error of mankind was to add to God's word. God never said, and not touch it. And when you add to God's word, and then you know what, can you imagine what happened when she took the piece of fruit, she's touching it, she's not dead? Well all of a sudden it raises, well I guess the rest of it is not true.

We go on. He goes on to say in verse 4, you will surely die, the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you'll be like God knowing good from evil.

And when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some of it and she ate it. The first attack is on God's word, the second attack is what? It's on his character. God doesn't have your best in mind. Don't do it God's way. I mean, don't handle your money God's way, he's trying to keep you from all this stuff, you can just put it on time now.

There's an easy way to do everything. He attacks God's character. You know, don't be a prude, are you kidding me? Sex before marriage, he's trying to keep something good from you. Every command of God is guard rails because he loves you so much to protect you from getting something second rate or something that would hurt you. And the very first temptation, what do we have?

God doesn't have your best in mind. And the temptation always comes in the same three areas. It was for Eve, it was for Adam, it was for Jesus and it is for us. She saw lust of the eyes, the food, lust of the flesh. It would make her wise, the pride of life.

And those are going to be the strategies of shortcuts that Satan's going to use and this world system that we live in to pull you away and pull your marriage away from what God wants for you. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. And you might jot in your Bible the first passive male. And you know what, isn't it interesting that when we get to the New Testament and God begins to assign culpability to the fall, it doesn't say Eve fell. Eve was deceived. Adam went in with his eyes wide open.

Adam had an issue of loyalty and Adam saw all the same things and he chose to disobey. Now let's find out what happens. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Notice psychologically what's happened. The first human experience of self-consciousness occurs. They're aware of me.

What's going on with me? They realize they were naked. Their response, shame. After the shame, they hide.

And that has been the response of human beings to God and one another ever since. We're self-conscious. How am I coming off? Do people like me? Am I affirmed? What do they think?

How's it going? When I look down deep and I see me, I don't measure up. When I don't measure up, oh, I don't want to be rejected. So I will hide myself.

And I can hide myself behind power or money or clothes or looks or surgery and I can hide myself behind a paper or ESPN or a magazine or children. And so the process starts of this is how we begin to relate to one another and you just have different fig leaves on than they had on. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they notice the hiding isn't just from one another. And they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. And now we get a rhetorical question. Obviously, God knows all that has happened, but He wants them to learn.

So He gives them a diagnostic question. He goes, where are you? And Adam answers, I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid. If you have permission in your Bible, circle the word afraid, naked, and hid.

It's how we relate to God and that's how we relate to one another. I'm afraid. Why I'm afraid? Something's wrong with me now. I'm insecure.

I don't measure up. I've done something wrong. There's both legitimate guilt and shame.

I was afraid. And so what did he do? He hid. And the average couple spends a lot of energy hiding from one another and hiding from God. Somehow, you know, it isn't amazing, the human psyche, this all-knowing God. We play all these games thinking, you know, he won't really see.

Right? You know, he won't really see what's going on. And so a lot of us have a very significant struggle in prayer, don't we?

We have a hard time concentrating. We have a hard time really opening up because what you know is when you have significant, prolonged, relaxed time where you open your heart to God, what's he going to do? He's going to convict you of sin and righteousness and judgment. But we wrongly think it's so he can shame us and put us down. And instead, it's the arms of a loving God who says, let me show you some things that are going to put a barrier in relationships and a barrier with me. And the word confess means why don't you come and be honest and real and agree with me so I can put my arms around you and forgive you and cleanse you so that we can remove that barrier. And that's why I don't know about you, the hardest discipline in my life is praying. I mean praying deep, praying honest. And so we still hide.

And so when we hide from God, we don't get his supernatural resources to give our mates what they need. He goes on to say, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? Now I want you to just get there with me, okay?

Manly, let's just get there. They've been through this, they've got some fig leaves on. Their relationship has really changed.

This is a lot bigger than the picture over the fireplace. But they've had that relational click where they were in sync, now they're out of sync. Now God comes. And you know, Eve, I don't know how long they've been in the garden, but we have a general idea that they've had a great, wonderful relationship without sin.

And now Eve is going to get her first experience of what happens when things go wrong. Is your man going to step up for you? Can you trust him? Is it safe to bury your soul and if you make a mistake, is he going to be there for you?

Ladies, I want you in your mind's eye to imagine what it would feel like when God of the universe asked your husband this question and you listened to this response. The man said, the woman that you put here with me, she gave me some of the fruit of the tree and I ate it. Sin, shame, fear, hiding, blame shifting. It's not my fault. By the way, I was doing fine, it was a little lonely, but me and the animals, we were doing fine. I don't know what happened, this woman that you gave me, she's the problem.

Probably not going to open up to a man like that, are you? And she's a quick study. So God then begins the interrogation with her and then the Lord said to the woman, what is this that you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all the wild animals you will crawl on your belly and you will eat of the dust of it all the days of your life. And he goes on to say, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers. And then we get this messianic promise that comes out, we can't develop, but he will crush your head and you will strike his heel. And then to the woman he said, I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing with the pain that you give birth to the children.

Your desire, you might circle that word, will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you. So here we have it, isn't it interesting? What's the problem? The man says it's the woman.

What's the problem woman? It's the serpent. And by the way, who makes that serpent?

Who made these animals anyway? Ultimately, who do we blame? God.

God, this is your problem. Now what I want you to hear is God is going to give three curses. One on the serpent we've heard, one on the woman, and then as you read the text, one on the man. Now, a woman's greatest desire is for emotional connection. And a man's greatest desire is for impact and significance. And what you're going to see is that God's curse is going to thwart the deepest longing in a woman's heart and soul. And then the curse will thwart a man's deepest longing in his soul.

Because he's going to say what to the man? You know, now all your work, it's going to be toil, it's going to be painful, and there's going to be thistles. In other words, you want to subdue, you want to make an impact, you want to be significant, you want to make a difference. That's godly, that's in you.

You're made in the image of God. He's going to say, guess what, it's all uphill now. It's always going to be difficult. And as soon as you make some progress, you're going to look back and it's going to deteriorate.

Why? The curses are an act of grace. The curses are the kind gentleness of a heavenly Father who knows if a woman could have relational connection and get her longings filled in an easy way, she would need God. The curses help her understand she wants to be relationally connected, and you women know, I mean like no one can know, but you women, the joy of giving birth to a child and the extraordinary pain.

And every time, that's the fruit, but boy there's the process. And this word for desire has the idea of being in control over your husband. See, a woman is afraid, so what a woman does is she wants to control things.

And she does it a lot of different ways. She wants to control environment, she wants to control things, and she's going to have this desire for her husband. But she wants to rule over him, and God says, but he's going to rule over you. So those desires that are blocked will bring levels of increasing frustration that God hopes that one day, out of his mercy, a woman will say, you know something, life's just too hard, I just can't make this on my own.

And she'll realize she needs a Savior, and a Deliverer, and a Redeemer. And a man will keep trying, and keep trying, and keep trying, I got to make an impact, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, and then the stock market fails, oh brother. I'm going to cut, I'm going to make this beautiful yarn, now the weeds come up. There's always weeds in a man's life.

No matter how hard you try, how hard you work, how many degrees you get, how much money you make, how good you are at athletics, how good a musician you are. There's always going to be weeds in your life, and there's always junk. And you just feel like, well I'm over the next hill then, over the next hill then. And at some point in time, you wake up and smell the roses, and you realize you're never ever going to do it without tons of pain. And God gave that curse to us as men to say, you were never intended to live like this.

I'm going to frustrate you to the point where you come in dependency upon me, and realize only through my supernatural power, and my forgiveness, and my strength, can you live out this life. Because there's a new barrier, it's a fallen world. You know, it's like the world got cancer, it's like there was a coup, there was a cosmic conflict. This world isn't like this anymore, it's tilted this way.

And so living out this life is always going to be difficult and painful. Now, notice what he says after he disciplines the man. Verse 21, then the Lord, this act of grace, he says, verse 21, the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and he clothed them. He sheds blood as a prefiguring of what will happen, and then he covers their shame.

Isn't that awesome? He forgives them. There's always a price tag to forgiveness, and this foreshadows the great forgiveness of Christ.

And so an animal must die. And the word covering here, we get our same word for atonement. He's going to do something that will cover their sin and cover their shame. And then the Lord God said, now the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. So the Lord banished him from the garden to work on the ground from which he was taken. And he drove the man out and placed him on the east side of the Garden of Eden. And then he put this cherubim, it's this huge, powerful, I mean I've never seen one personally, but the definitions I get are the most powerful angels with this flaming sword and another act of grace.

You never can get back in here where the state that you're in and this fallen state could become permanent. And all the rest of Scripture, really all of Scripture, is you have a reality that goes up to Genesis chapter 3. And at Genesis chapter 3 we start a parenthesis. And you go all the way through all of life and all of Scripture until you get to Revelation chapter 20.

And all of life is one big parenthesis. And in 20 and 21 all of God's reigning in a perfect environment with people that he loves comes to fruition. But you and I get to live in Genesis 3 up to Revelation 19 or a little bit of 20. Your marriage is always going to be hard.

Forever. Because you are married to a selfish person who wants their way. Now they can get sophisticated and learn a lot of verses and God changes things in significant ways. But at the core of the flesh of us as human beings, I want my way.

At the core of my being, I want my wife to fulfill my needs on my terms. In fact, I summarize all of Genesis 3. Here's the changes that occurred. Notice in your notes. Differences. Okay, male and female, very different. Differences originally designed to complement and complete one another have become sources of friction, confusion, and competition. See, in a perfect world where there's grace, you celebrate differences. Oh, Adam, I'm so glad you're so different than me.

This is wonderful. When I was dating Teresa, she was so organized that I married her. She was so rigid. Did you get that? Right?

So structured, made me nuts. When we dated, I was spontaneous, adventuresome, going to change the world. Then we get married, now I'm irresponsible.

And I'm doing all kind of wild, crazy things. Second, sharing has turned to shame. Our insecurities and shame bring condemnation and fear. So deep in your heart and deep in my heart, you've got to realize there's a barrier. Your fear is down deep, you don't measure up. And so you don't want to open up who you really are to your mate.

Because you're afraid they'll see who you really are. Givers have become takers and manipulators. The unconscious goal in our marriages is meet my needs, fix me, satisfy my longings. And it takes a radical, supernatural intervention for that to be turned around when you want them to meet your needs, when you want them, quote, to fix you, and to meet your needs and to say they are unable to do that, they are hurting right now. And so love by the supernatural power of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Spirit dwelling in me, empowered by His word in the community of believers, I'm going to give my mate what they need the most when they deserve it the least at great personal cost.

You know what that's the definition of? Love. It's what love is. Love isn't ooey gooey feelings walking on the beach. Love isn't walking down the aisle. Love isn't everything's wonderful. Love isn't there's money in the bank, the kids are healthy. Love is giving another person what they need the most when they deserve it the least at great personal cost.

And that's what Jesus did for you and me, didn't He? It's a choice. It's not a feeling. Now, I love all the good feelings that come with marriage, but all of us, or most of us, have been so brainwashed by the culture that we keep waiting and manipulating trying to get all the good feelings instead of realizing what we need to do is operate under we've got barriers and learn to love our mate. God's way and God's power. And then it's an amazing thing some good feelings really come.

Builders have become blamers. You know, when you have a problem in your marriage, I don't know about you, but I don't go, I bet I really have a bad attitude. You know, I must really be not living up to my measure as a husband. When we have a problem, I'll tell you exactly where I go. You know, what if Teresa would shape up?

This would be solved in about 24 hours. Now, I hate to say that. I'm just being honest with you, right? I mean, how many of you have a conflict and immediately you go, I must be a jerk. I must be so narrow.

I must be so selfish. Personally, I don't go there until the Spirit gets a hold of my life. Finally, openness has given way to hiding. Women fear abandonment, so they hide. See, at the core, core, core of a woman, the reason you want to control, you're afraid you're going to get left. And we do things we don't even know as men that give you this fear that we're going to leave you either emotionally or spiritually or physically.

Men fear failure, so they hide. And we're going to talk about how we compensate and how this works. The barrier, first and foremost, is spiritual. The answer is grace. The answer is grace.

The answer is, I can't do this. The answer is, I need someone to save me. I need someone to remove the barrier from me and God, and I need someone to remove the barrier from me and my wife. I need to have open access, supernatural power. I need to be covered with His blood. I need to be forgiven. I need His Spirit deposited in me, and then I need to strengthen the power to give my mate what they don't deserve. What I don't want to give when they don't really deserve to get it from me and to pay a real cost whether I get anything back or not.

Only grace does that. Chip will join us here in studio with his application in just a minute. You've been listening to the first part of his message, Four Barriers of Love, from his series Real Love in Real Life. Every relationship, whether it's inside a family, a marriage, a friendship, a dating couple, has issues to overcome. Through this series, Chip will address the struggles that impact every relationship and unpack what real love should look like.

Discover how to better communicate, handle conflict, and even be more romantic with your spouse. If you're ready to deepen every relationship in your life and be better at giving and receiving love, then this series is for you. For more information about the resources for Real Love in Real Life, just go to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003.

That's 888-333-6003 or livingontheedge.org. App listeners, tap Special Offers. Before we go any further, here's Chip with a special word to share. I want to ask you something really important. Would you choose to become a financial partner with us? I'm not using that language to disguise the fact that I'm asking you to give or trying to be fancy or asking for money, but when you invest in this ministry, it's more accurately saying, Yes, I will partner with you.

Yes, I'll go to work with you. Yes, I want to be on this mission with you. When you give, you become a part of all that we do, a part of the hundreds of thousands of people hearing God's Word, a part of discipling new Christians and encouraging persecuted Christians in China and the Middle East.

It's a part of supplying teaching and training and resources to pastors right here in the U.S. So will you ask God what part He would give you in all of this and then just do whatever He shows you? If all of us do our part, however God leads, it'll be exactly what we need to fulfill exactly what God wants us to do. I want to thank you in advance for whatever God leads you to do and thank you.

Thanks so much for being a partner. Thanks, Chip. What a great encouragement. Well, if you want to be part of ministering to believers all across the world, won't you prayerfully consider becoming a monthly partner with Living on the Edge? Your gift goes places and accomplishes ministry work you wouldn't believe. So let me encourage you. Set up a recurring donation today by going to livingontheedge.org or by calling us at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or livingontheedge.org.

App listeners, tap donate. On behalf of Chip and the staff here at Living on the Edge, thank you for your prayers and financial support. As we close today's program, all I want you to know is that conflict is normal. It's going to happen. In fact, the scripture talks about as friends sharpen one another.

Well, sharpening causes sparks, and our tendency is to move away or to blame or think that something's wrong. So here's what I want you to get. Conflict is normal, and it's not even bad. It doesn't mean everything is over. It doesn't mean you failed.

It doesn't even mean there's a huge problem. In fact, you really want to stay with us in this whole series. I'm going to spend two broadcasts, two full broadcasts, on how to resolve conflict and how to actually learn to communicate, even if it doesn't come naturally. So here's what I want you to get.

Here's the application. In your current situation, seek to understand instead of the understood. Seek to just try and figure out what's going on with this other person where there's conflict. Second, seek to own your area of needed growth instead of focusing on theirs. The more you focus on them and what they need to change and what bothers you, it will constantly send you into frustration and it will cause division in the relationship.

So just ask yourself, what could I change? And then the final thing is that the answer to all great relationships is being on the common bond of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ask God to speak to you and pray. I have a friend who's a very, very powerful CEO and has had these huge jobs and a godly man and all the rest. And in a casual conversation, because of some circumstances, he said, my wife and I started praying out loud every single night. It's not that we never prayed, but every single night before we went to bed. And then he looked at me, and he's been married plus 30 years.

He said, we're closer now than I can ever remember. That just might be the very one thing you need to do. Well, just before we close, would you pray for those who are feeling challenged to respond to Chip's encouragement right now?

There's always a spiritual battle when we feel prompted to draw near to God. Thanks for taking a minute to do that. And if there's a way we can pray for you, let us know. Call 888-333-6003 or email chip at livingontheedge.org. We'd love to hear from you. Well, until next time, for everyone here, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.