"How to Deal With Difficult Family Members God's Way" RESCUE RADIO with Marjorie Cole

0:00 I have an emergency. What is your location? 'Cause there's a war for your soul. Yes, Father God, we know, we get it. We're here, Lord God, and you've not forgotten about us. We declare that your kingdom come, your will be done, oh God, on earth, in and through us, as it's being done and declared in heaven, of course. And that you, you want your will to be done through us. So we are agreeing with that. Thank you, Jesus, for dying on the cross for us, taking on our punishment.

0:52 And reconciling us and delivering us from the devil's demand for our death. And Father, I thank you for not only doing that, but giving us power and promise, promise of an eternal life with you. So I pray that whoever is hearing this that doesn't know yet Jesus as your Savior, what are you waiting for? In Jesus' name, there's no other, there's no other salvation. There's no other rescue coming. This is it. And so Father, I thank you for giving us eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to lay down the rebellion and the resistance and come into the submission to the goodness of your love. And isn't it amazing, Lord, that Satan has made your love such a despicable thing to so many people that they hold you in contempt rather than coming to and worshiping at your feet? And Lord, we thank you, Lord, for divine wisdom and counsel and the moving of your Spirit to gather in those who are left behind, the remnant, that they will not be lost.

1:46 That as you come together and harvest, you will bring forth your own, your own kingdom, your church, your remnant, your will be done. And I bind the powers of darkness who have come against us, who have tried to set up oppositions and snares and webs and discouragement and destruction. I forbid his activities in our family. I declare that So today we're talking about, uh, Relatively Speaking. I like that title. Um, you know, what's that about? Well, uh, it's kind of like, how do we deal with our own relatives? You know, the relatives, the people who God has put right around us, connected us with, who by blood, these are blood, usually blood or adopted, but blood usually.

2:41 And, um, In these troubling days when Satan is trying to do everything to divide everything, including families, how do we survive this division and this discord? You know, it seems like Satan is, he's using his most powerful and almost secret weapon against us, which is to turn us against each other. Well, God established marriage and he established the family as the basic unit of society. And this is where we get attacked the most, right there. Divorce, division. Divorce, contention. It's interesting what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10, verse 34.

3:21 We kind of give you the bad news first and then the good news. Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies shall be those of his own household. And then he goes on, he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. And he who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. So he paints a picture here. He says there's going to be family division because you become a follower of Jesus Christ. Right, right, exactly.

4:10 And I think the devil also loves that, that there's such a dichotomy between the lost and the goodness, the good news that Satan uses his most powerful weapon that he always uses to divide us again by turning us against each other, you know, through opinions and offense and discord and greed and fear and covetousness to get us to destroy one another. Because actually that's all he can do. He cannot just kill us because he wants to. He has got to get us to turn against each other and do his work for him by killing each other. And so we, and we also know that there's the power in the words. Proverbs 18:21, there's life and death, or death and life in the power of the tongue. So Satan knows if he can get us to speak against one another, curse one another, fight with one another, words of discord or division or contempt or gossip, if he can use us to launch those words, he has a force. That he can use against us. Those words either into our face or behind our back can speak evil and death. And he uses those words to grind away, break up, and create bitterness and unforgiveness, which is exactly what Jesus said. There's going to be a division coming and he's warning us about it. He's not there to make the division. Jesus isn't the one setting up the division, but he's there to warn us that Satan is going to use that division and our words to try to separate us from one another and then offend and then ultimately discourage

5:43 us from coming into the love of God. The truth always brings division. It brings unity for those that embrace the truth together and division for those who reject the truth. Now, one of the things to keep in mind here is that some of you have been, you're like the first fruits in your family. Maybe you're the first one that you know of that's really surrendered themselves to Jesus Christ. That's, that's 2 things there. Very difficult position you're in there, and it's an opportunity. Well, and another thing is everybody's watching you and wondering what happened to you. You got religion. Yeah, whatever, something. But, you know, so Satan goes back to using The differences, you know, anything that's different, he wants us to criticize or reject so he can control the course of destiny and humankind by just giving, using our God-given powers to get us to destroy each other with these kinds of words and questions and rejection. Even Jesus had this problem going on when he was in his own country. He said that he couldn't do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. He did not, he says Jesus did not, do many mighty works into Nazareth because of their unbelief. And what's that? They were prejudiced of him.

7:07 They already knew him. They thought they knew him. So many times we get stereotyped by our relatives. They think they know us, but they— and then so they kind of judge, prejudge us, so to speak. And so therefore, when he came back to town and they already knew that he was the carpenter, they were offended at him. Offended because he hadn't— he was not fitting into their mold, their stereotype— stereotypical mold. And Jesus said a prophet is not without honor except in his own country. And you just think of all, you know, a lot of people don't believe— they've been taught that Jesus never had any brothers or sisters, but we had— we know from the scripture that he had 4 half-brothers. Yep.

7:54 Right. Of course, God the Father is the father. You know, he was— Jesus was immaculately conceived in, in the, in the womb of Mary. But the father Joseph, there were 4 brothers, half-brothers. They would be half-brothers, Mary being the mother. And then there were sisters as well, at least 2 sisters, because it says sisters. Where is that? Yeah, that's Matthew 13:55. Is this not the carpenter's son? So they thought they knew him, what he did. He worked in Nazareth. He was a carpenter. Is not Mary his mother with us? Yes. Where's Joseph? He's probably passed away by this time. And his brothers, not brethren, his brothers, James, Joseph, Simeon, and Judas. So they're naming 4 half-brothers.

8:41 And his sisters, which is plural, means that there have to be at least 2 and maybe 3. And his sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get these things? So they're saying, where did— so, and it says the next verse, so they were offended at him. But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house. And he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. So this was shocking when I first realized that I'd been taught that there was the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. And then you read in the Bible that there's actually siblings and it's a bigger family than you might— so Jesus was the oldest of quite a few, of 7 or 6 or 7 brothers and sisters.

9:23 So there is a— he understands a lot of things about human relationships that we don't give him credit for, I think. And you can understand that those brothers, that they realize, oh, our big brother, and the sister, our big brother is the Son of God, is the Messiah. Yeah. They didn't really have that revelation except, oh, he's going off preaching, he's going off doing this and that. And it says, um, they said one time at the Feast of Tabernacles coming up in John 7, his brothers therefore said to him, depart from here and go to the into Judea. They're trying to tell him what to do, that your disciples— okay, now our older brother, he's got these followers and he's doing these works, that your disciples may also see the works that you're doing.

10:05 For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. So they're, they're trying to tell him what to do. And it says in verse 5, even his brothers did not believe Well, the thing is, you know, it's hard enough for a normal person to believe him, you know, but when you're related, now this is a double obstacle because I already knew him growing up. I knew who he was. He was a nice kid. He was good. He was a good big brother, but the Son of God, that's a big giant leap for, cause that makes you what? Well, you know, I think we define people according to how we understand ourselves. And so when we reject our own selves and don't, give credit to what God has done. We just kind of put people and ourselves into a box. And that's why the people in Nazareth couldn't receive the miracles because they already had set him up to be, um, just, you know, one of them. And they didn't, they didn't even know who they were. So again, our relatives, when you're coming into a new place, you're following Jesus. This is a whole new deal.

11:11 Unless you were born into a family like Jerry said, where there has been several generations of following Jesus, you are like weird. And you're like, what happened to you? And you You don't fit in. And so when you're going into a place of gathering, like we're coming up into now with Thanksgiving, Christmas, these various holidays coming up, you know, and plus all of the political division and all of the division everywhere. I mean, every family, you can't— I don't think there'd be a family out there who doesn't have some issue where there is the enemy's attempting to divide them on something, whether it's political, religious, Relational divorce, taking sides, just tragedies and catastrophes and difficulties everywhere.

11:58 And this really makes for a lot of difficulty in actually walking in the peace and the joy of God, because you are either judging or being judged. And so what would Jesus have us do in these really tense and very complex situations? Well, especially in a family. Okay, you're wanting to win your family to the Lord. Pray for them. Pray for them. That's so important. And sometimes, you know, we get so full of the Lord that we want, we want everybody to, to follow Jesus. We get it. We get all excited. And, and sometimes if they're in a part of a dead, evil church somewhere or not, if they are, we tend to criticize that church or Or if they're not, you know, we try to maybe get them to go to church or whatever, but we get— I would say pray for them. Don't get all hyper about it, but pray for them and just live your life for Jesus. And as— pray that God will open their hearts to the Word of God. And if they won't listen to you, pray that somebody else will come into their lives that will be a credible witness for Jesus.

13:15 That's what happened in my family. So someone else came in to a couple that we were really praying for. Someone else came in and God worked through them and then through us later on and before that too, but the key player was somebody else that brought the gospel to them outside the family. Taking this subject a little bit different direction, Everyone believes that they're right in their own eyes. They really all believe that I've got it right. Really, we don't have it right. And we don't want to admit that we have it wrong. So we just keep saying, my opinion is right. And we, and that's part of the problem. We're not willing or ready to surrender our opinions to the word of God. And that's where we all have to come. Everyone has to come into that place of surrendering their will, their plans, their identity, their whatever they think they are, and their relatives to the will of God. And this is, and then this takes us into another direction.

14:17 As we said, what would Jesus do? How would Jesus treat them? Would he, um, you know, cram it down their throat? More than likely not. He didn't do that. As you look at his examples of how he treated people, he, he met them right where they were at. He had the absolute word for them. Like, um, remember Zacchaeus climbing up into the tree who had done all these, shady deals and income tax evasion and overcharging people for their taxes and whatnot. And Jesus didn't mention any of that. He just said, Zacchaeus, come down. I have to be at your house today for tea. I mean, he read past all that and saw Zacchaeus had a hunger because he had climbed up in a tree just so he could see Jesus passing by. So we see that Jesus reads the crowd well. And I think that's part of what we do when we go into a a gathering, especially a relative gathering, you read the crowd and there's a time to speak and there's a time to say nothing. There's a time to be gentle and there's a time to be forceful. And usually there are more times when God wants us to be gentle and listening and not being an offense.

15:26 So even like in Romans chapter 14, where Paul is talking about the principles of Christian liberty and how, and eating, even observing days, that's what, you know, holidays or, Feast days, he who eats, he's talking about eating, and he observes the day, observes it to the Lord. And he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks. And he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat and gives God thanks. So he's saying, don't get uptight about these details where people are eating this or that, or they're vegetarians or they're— Yeah, they're vegetarian or they're eating their religion. Their lifestyle, their addictions and stuff like that. You have to focus on that person like Margie is saying. Hear what the Spirit is saying to you about that person. And the connection, it gets down to who is Jesus? It gets down to loving them. Who is Jesus Christ? And demonstrating it without hypocrisy. Without hypocrisy. Be consistent, in other words. Be consistent. Don't have a double story. And another thing too is that a lot of times people get very cruel.

16:41 They'll gossip about you. Oh man, Ernie got religion, or Susie got religion and she's in some cult now, and whatever. Yeah. So you have to— families can be very, very cruel. Be forgiving. And so it's important to be forgiving, understanding. Jesus on the cross said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Well, and again, going back to Romans 14:80, says, for we For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. I belong to the Lord. He is my Lord, and therefore I don't have to answer really ultimately to anybody but him. But I do need to answer for how I have treated the people around me. For to this end that Christ died and rose again, that he might be the Lord both of the dead and living. Why? He says in verse 10, But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For as it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me. Think about the knees that have been obstinate and bitter and wicked and cruel and merciless. Every knee will bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.

18:00 Therefore, let us not judge one another. Anymore, but rather resolve this not to put a stumbling block or cause to fall in her brother's way. And this is so easy to do when you get judgmental, you get religious, you get legalistic, and you're just critical. And they're not doing it like me, so they're not doing it right. You know, God is the judge. And to want— some people eat and some people don't eat. Some do this, some do that. Some go to this church, some don't. Some observe this day, some don't. And God is saying, I am the judge. Let me be. And I think this will back— cause us to back off a little bit on being so critical and so narrow-minded. And, you know, I mean, obviously there are some things we cannot permit or agree with or, you know, give credence to.

18:50 There's certain things that you cannot endorse, certain behaviors, certain agreements. But you can also have time to just let the Lord deal with that and you be a light. You be a witness through just your testimony. Well, Jesus was a friend of publicans and sinners. Okay. Publicans were tax collectors, hated sinners, you know, prostitutes, whatever. They loved Jesus. Jesus loved them. He did not sin with them, but he met with them. And we need to do that with our families too. So let's say say if you have— let's start in the home. If your home is intact, I mean, a lot of us are in places where there's been divorces and mixed marriages and, uh, how can I say, blended families and brokenness and stuff like that. You know, one of the ways biblically husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church So that's if you have an unsaved wife, love her as Christ loved the church. If you have an unsaved husband, respect him and let your lifestyle— Peter talks about that— let your lifestyle win him. Don't just nag him, but pray for him. And may your sweet spirit just, you know, let God use that to win them over. Yeah. You know, It's not easy, but sometimes, you know, this is our training also.

20:22 How are you going to treat the broken? How are you going to treat the ones that have offended you? How are you going to treat the ones who are bitter and spoke against you and even created trouble in your life, conflict, caused you to cost your job or cost your relationship? I mean, and do we judge them or do we love them and forgive them? I believe the most, the best way to do it is to not be offended. Recognize there's a spiritual battle. Realize that half the time what you're hearing out of their mouth is probably a demonic spirit because many people, um, we have to deal with other people's demons all the time. And so recognize it's not even them and forgive them in your heart and treat them as one that the Lord would love and that the Lord would want you to let your light so shine. You know, I was thinking the other day, a light, when you bring a light into a dark room, You bring your— you're walking into the room, the gathering, the family reunion, the whatever.

21:17 You see what's there. The light exposes what's in the room. The light does not try to rearrange the room or clean up the room, or it just simply exposes. And I think that's the, you know, the light is in itself difficult enough to deal with when people are you know, already confused and scattered and angry and offended and woke and everything else. So just be the light. Love them. Keep that smile on your face. Encourage them in any way that you can. Love them. Just, just see them for who they are. They're lost. They're woke. They're confused. They're angry. They're bitter.

21:57 They're attacked. They're addicted. Whatever it all is that you've been through and maybe have been delivered already from, And judge not lest you be judged. So we're not here to judge them. We're here to discern what's going on and the need. But discerning is different than judging. Just like discerning that you're not going to throw your pearls before swine is discerning that that's a swine and it's not something you want to throw your pearls before. But at the same time, if there's a plank in your own eye, take that out before you deal with the speck in someone else's eye. So both of those, those, principles are correct and true and appropriate for certain times. So the question is, you need to know what time is it. But the most important thing is to love them however that looks in practicality. You know, whether that, I don't know what it looks like. Just ask the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit's going with you to that reunion, that party, that celebration, that interaction, that wedding, that everyday, or that everyday, just that everyday. And a lot of mothers and fathers and grandparents are suffering because their children are, or have withheld their grandchildren from them, or they're using the children as a bartering tool or as a weapon. They've weaponized their children against their, their, their own parents, uh, or vice versa. But, but these things are not pleasing to God.

23:20 And so when you, if something like that has been happening in your family, whether you're, children are weaponizing your grandchildren against you. And so you've got to walk on eggshells so that you don't get anybody upset, um, so that you can still see the children, or maybe they've already taken away the children and there, there, there's no communication and whatnot. Then you really seek the Lord. You go back. The Lord is Lord over all of it. He is bigger than the abuse. He's bigger than the offense. He's bigger than their little bullheaded, stubborn demon that's inside of them trying to make them hurt you. God is bigger than cancer. God is bigger, bigger, bigger than anything. He's bigger than the fiery furnace. He's bigger than Jonah and the whale. He's bigger than, uh, you know, the Pharaohs. He's, he, he is over all. And so he is your God. And so, you know, the Bible says in 1 John, if we ask anything according to his will, we know that he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, we know that we have the things that we've asked for of him. So if you are asking for the reconciliation of your family, restoration of fellowship and friendship and kindness and love and healing in the relationships.

24:28 If you're asking for those things, you are asking in God's will. And if you then know that you've asked according to God's will, then you can rest that God has heard you. And many times I think we realize we pray, we know we're in God's will and praying the right thing, but we don't realize that God has already answered us because we don't yet see the answer. So we're still fretting to try to get the answer. And so we're not in joy and in peace. But if you know, well, it's already here, I already got it, even though it doesn't look like it. I don't see it yet. I know I've got it. You will act differently than if you're still fretting and fussing to try to get the answer. And you have to keep in mind this, that the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness. So he's not just saying, well, whatever is going to happen.

25:15 He is Lord over all. He's on his promises. He's backing his promises. He's not lazy about his promises. And, and this is in 2 Peter 3:9, uh, not willing that any should perish, yes, that all— but that all should come to repentance. So God is willing for your family, your relatives, your kids, your grandkids, your uncles, your aunts, your cousins, mothers and fathers, that, you know, and you're there to be a light. And it's something that should be a joy, not just a pressure, but yet it's, it's a responsibility to be a light there to that family.

25:59 I think a lot of times when people go back to their families, let's just say you have a very negative family situation and they're just, they don't like your advice. They don't, they don't want what you have to say. And actually when you go there, many times when people go back to their families, even as adults, they go back to their families, they are retraumatized or reprogrammed by the things that they learned growing up, like the rejection or the the conflict or the intense confusion or the alcoholism or whatever it is, they're, they're already traumatized. And so you walk back in there and you get retriggered to act like you did, you know, to, to kind of avoid or to feel like you're responsible or feel guilty and all of these other things that go on.

26:41 And yet, so when you go back and you still are triggered and traumatized, you do not yet know who you are and where you have been set free from because you're still, part of you is still operating triggered by the old signals, uh, that, you know, make my mom happy. I got to get the— fix the family. I gotta, I gotta, it's my fault. Um, so then you don't want to be there. You get, you're acting in your old carnal way. But when you come in there and know that you are saved, you're now part of the family of God. You have a Father who loves you and you don't have to be offended and you don't have to feel guilty. You don't have to feel ashamed. You don't have to feel like, you know, you've got to fix them. You don't you don't walk in the lie, you walk in the truth, then you can walk in there and actually be a confirming light, be a hope, be a true rescue, be a true hope. It's very hard to win your family because your family's already judged you at least 2 strikes against all of us.

27:41 Well, that's just, you know, fill in your name. That's, we know them. We know where they, we know she was always, well, we can't, you know, we just remember when they used to. Yeah. So, So we, we have those words against us, especially when we're with our blood relatives or families that's near. Um, but at the same time, you, you can't go into those families, back into those families, if you don't know your identity in Christ, that you are a created son or daughter of the Most High God first, before you were ever a son or a daughter of so-and-so. And so we have to know that we come from God, we're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. And we don't have to be apologetic, although we don't come in being offensive either. We're here as, you know, and one more thing that comes to my mind is when we are crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. So we're actually, when you're walking in the Spirit, you're actually carnally dead. You're walking in a place where you're preferring to take your direction from the Spirit of God as his Spirit imparts or bears witness with your spirit rather than just doing what the old you used to do or what you're used to doing and what people expect you to do or what you think you should do. You're just waiting for God's direction and abiding as his daughter or his son. And so we need to be proactive in forgiving.

29:03 I think of Joseph in the Old Testament that was betrayed by his jealous brothers, sold into slavery. We could say that the best years of his youth were spent in prison in a horrible situation, but God raised him up to power. He was the second in command in Egypt. And God said, listen, uh, God— he knew this. Joseph knew this in his heart. And he said to his brothers, when he finally revealed himself to his brothers when they came looking for food because they were starving back home, he said, listen, God— don't be angry with yourselves. It's interesting. Don't be grieved or angry with yourselves in Genesis 45:8. 5, because you said you sent me, you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. He said, you know, you did something evil, your intent was evil, but God has turned it around for good. And when he saw that, when he had that perspective— you might have gone through all kinds of evil in your home, but listen, God is working it together for good for those who love you.

30:14 Love God and called according to his purpose. And at the same time too, later on, after Joseph's father passed away, the boys were really worried that, okay, now that dad's gone, maybe he's going to try to kill us. But listen, Joseph said, no, he said, I forgive you. They asked for forgiveness. Don't wait for somebody to ask for forgiveness. Forgive. Yeah. We don't— because that forgiveness road goes both ways. It goes, if you know that you have something against someone, you go down that road to ask for forgiveness. Or if you know they have something against you, you go down that road to get it straightened out and ask for forgiveness. So in either case, it is your obligation to resolve the matter. Go to them. And if they don't listen to you, take a friend. And if they don't listen to the second person, tell it to the church. And if they don't, then just let it be, for God is still working in them, but you don't have to hate them. You can still keep them in your prayers and ask and just really, I mean, intervening, interceding, because if we really knew how desperately lost and what a desperate, terrible, dangerous situation these people were in, we would travail, we would pray, we would intercede, we would seek God for them in a way that, you know, a way that we don't really usually pray. We kind of pray casually and oh well, and if it works, it works. And if it doesn't, something else will work out or we'll figure it out. But, desperately praying for their salvation

31:45 and for their turning around and make it an everyday. I mean, don't just throw up. I mean, you can say, thank you, God, you already did it. We know that. But at the same time, once you pray it, you can also begin to remind God through acts of thanksgiving. Thank you, God, for hearing my prayers. Thank you for saving so-and-so, even though they're not. I thank you ahead of time. I rejoice. I give, I offer the sacrifice of praise or the sacrifice of joy. I'm offering you that as a thank offering for what I've asked you to do. And I know you're going to do it because it is your will. So it is God's will that none should perish and that all your family should be saved. So act like it, treat them like it, act, treat them like they're already saved in a way, because otherwise you're going to treat them with judgment and anger and, uh, and, and fear.

32:33 So if you already act, treat them as if they're saved, it's just like they just have to come through the veil. They're out there. They're just close. They're just not, they just have to take one more step and they're in. The kingdom, just treat them, act, believe as if they are, because if you do that, then they're going to say, oh, oh, okay, well, this isn't so bad. Maybe they don't hate me. Maybe this is a good thing. And so just act as if in your faith that they are saved and then believe God for it. Does that make sense? Yeah. And just like in the prodigals, let's pray right now. Father, we just thank you for those in our family, for placing us in the family you placed us in. Yes, Lord. And Lord, we came here, we didn't have a choice as to what family we were born into. Some of them have— some of— some listening today have, have gone through all kinds of hurt, horrible, horrible things. But I thank you, Lord, that you help, you enable us to forgive. Yes. And you enable us now to be lights for you, Father God. And we just long to see those in our family saved. We have their kids that have gone out, Lord, like prodigals. Jesus, we call them back in the name of Jesus. Nothing— no one is beyond your reach, Lord God. No person, prodigal, woke, hateful, no one is beyond your reach. So, Lord, we're just going to add our prayers to your prayers today.

33:56 Those that the people have been praying for, their own children, their own parents, their, their— whoever in their family. We agree that there is no one beyond the love of God. And so that you will use us as you said, he who wins souls is wise. Let us be wise in the way that we walk in the midst of our relatives, saved and unsaved, that we will be a light. We won't be a hypocrisy. We won't be a turnoff. We will be a light, a compelling draw from us to them. And that, that draw will come through our love for them. We forgive those who've hurt and offended us. We forgive them because we know the devil has tried to set this up as an obstacle, as an offense. So God, guide and govern and gather in our families to you, Lord God, before it is too late.

34:40 And we know the day is, is very late and soon, Lord God, to be carried and drawn in, drawn, come to a close, Father. And help us to be wise in our prayers that you would, that we would discern what's going on in our families and in the world. We would be aware of what's going on in their lives as much as we can. If they're in a crisis, if they're in a place of illness or accident or something, that we would be there for them. Sympathetic, sensitive, kind. Yeah, exactly. That we would see these opportunities and move in with your love and truth, Father. Amen. And see them as opportunities to bring the gospel and the good news. Amen. Amen. So, Margie, you have a wonderful book, many wonderful books, but talk about Doing Relationships God's Way.

35:33 This is, this is very pertinent to what we're talking about today. Yeah. Well, you know, one of the most difficult things we are called to do is be in relationship with others, whether they're difficult people, husbands, wives. Sometimes the enemy takes this opportunity to divide because the closer we are set together, the easier it is to split apart. And so he just wants to use that. But we have to understand that our relationship with everybody else starts with our relationship with ourself. If you don't like yourself, if you don't love yourself, if you're full of condemnation, hate, self-hatred, then you will not be in any position to love or reconcile or be strong and to know not only who you are, but how to relate to others. Your relationship with yourself, your relationship with God, with others, difficult people, spouses, and sin are all parts of that book, Doing Relationships God's Way. You can find it on Amazon or you can find it on liferecovery.com.

36:38 And for those of you who are wanting to join us every Thursday night from 6:30 to 7:30 on a live forum, we call it SWAT, Spiritual Warfare Application Technique. Go to our Life Recovery website, liferecovery.com and scroll down and you'll find a link where it says, uh, Setting Captives Free link or classes. Just hit that link and it'll take you right into the meeting room with the rest of us. And so you can join us. It's from 6:30 to 7:30, uh, Minnesota time. And so if you're in Minnesota, you're good. Otherwise check your, your time zone. And join us.

37:20 It's 60 minutes of not only teaching, but also conversation, questions, prayer, clarifications of things. It's just a forum. You can just join in. It's wonderful. And we encourage you to do that. Thank you for joining us today. And also check out YouTube. We have a new podcast out there called Truth Over Feelings Podcast, Truth Over Feelings. 20-Somethings Podcast with Jacinta and Margie, and it's on both YouTube and Spotify. So it's really granddaughter and grandma. Yeah, it's great. It's her questions. What are the questions of a 20-something-year-old and how would you answer them? So this is kind of a fun and light, but also very deep and compelling podcast.

38:12 It's 30 minutes long. Take time to look it up. Again, I'll say it again. Truth Over Feelings podcast on YouTube or Spotify. God bless you, and we'll talk to you soon. I have an emergency. What is your location? 3, 2, 1. Rescue Radio, 'cause there's a war for your soul.