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June 20 - Courage Over Fear · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:04
  Well, welcome back, everybody, to the Daily Ripples podcast.
• 0:07
  I'm Pastor Mike, and we've got Corey and Memphis back here with us today.
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  And I'm going to quickly turn this right over to Memphis to launch us off with
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  our Daily Ripples devotional for today.
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  Good morning, everyone. This is today's Daily Ripple.
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  June 20th, courage over fear. The stone. Fear may not fully disappear,
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  but it does not have to control me.
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  Freedom grows when I face fear with courage instead of avoidance.
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  Ripple 1. Practical Today I will act in spite of fear. I will not wait until I feel confident.
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  I will take the next right step, trusting that courage is built through action, not comfort.
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  Ripple 2, spiritual. As I trust the Father, the Holy Spirit gives both courage and grace.
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  Following Christ, I learned that fear loses its grip when I move forward in faith.
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  Over time, I become stronger, not because fear is gone, but because it no longer
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  leads me. I added that part of it.
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  I think, you know, one of the things that I, you know, think about where,
• 1:16
  to that day, where I find, where I get my courage from.
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  And this was a process of, one, developing, and you're going to hear me use
• 1:24
  these words a little bit quite often, I guess, with this conversation,
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  is developing a relationship with God of my understanding and developing trust in that relationship.
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  And I think that comes with little wins. I think it's in little,
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  you know, it's in tough conversations. It's in different situations where that
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  you use it and you have some success.
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  And I think over time that, you know, when the courage is needed,
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  you develop it where you can rely on the God of your understanding.
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  So, you know, today when something when I feel like I feel uncomfortable or I feel that,
• 2:05
  that feeling coming over me, it's when I remind myself to double down on on
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  who I get direction from and why I get direction from and,
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  how it has served me so well for an extended period of time now.
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  So, for me, that is, you know, I don't, and I've, let me, let me say this.
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  I have thought most of my life that I didn't fear anything. We're taught that
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  when we're in the Marine Corps.
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  And what I, what I found was that, that feeling that I thought that,
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  that I had all this courage, it was, it was, it was fear of.
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  Directing me to think irrationally. So it was more of a trained behavior for
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  me to overreact, to overcompensate for the fear.
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  And today I don't have to do that. Today, because I do trust the God of my understanding.
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  I do trust the direction that he's going to lead me through any situation.
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  No matter how fearful it is making me, I trust the outcome.
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  And I trust the guidance. I mean, that's, I guess that's what,
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  when I think of courage over fear, that's what I think about.
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  Well, I was thinking about when I was reading and studying this again,
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  you know, and the Daily Reflection that this, you know, is kind of derived from,
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  you know, the AA Daily Reflection uses as one of its sources a book called As Bill Sees It.
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  And then as Bill sees it, you know, on page 61, you know, it's written,
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  the problem of resolving fear has two aspects.
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  You know, we shall have to try for all the freedom from fear that is possible
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  for us to attain, and then we shall need to find both the courage and grace
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  to deal constructively with whatever fears remain.
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  And I think it's making the point that, you know, it's not possible for us to
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  be completely free of fear. You know, there will always be some level,
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  you know, of fear, you know, affecting or uncertainty or insecurity,
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  whatever you want to call it, affecting our lives.
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  And, you know, but it's, you know, through working the steps,
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  you know, we're able to address and through connection with our higher power,
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  we're able to have trust and faith, you know, that God's going to take care
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  of us. And that, you know, takes out some of those fears.
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  But I've never really considered myself to be a very courageous or brave person.
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  You know, whenever people like yourself, you know, it talks about your time
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  in the Marine Corps and things of that nature.
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  And I think, man, that, you know, I have a lot of respect for that because that's
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  not something that, well, number one, you know, medically was never an option for me.
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  But number two, I don't know that I would have wanted to because I was a little
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  bit of a chicken, you know, growing up.
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  I never really was all that, you know, brave or courageous.
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  And so, but what I found over the course of my life is that,
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  you know, I would combat my fears with, you know, with my tongue,
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  basically, you know, that kind of thing and use...
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  Either negativity or use, you know, egotistical viewpoints or what have you
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  to kind of prop myself up to make myself appear, you know, kind of bigger than
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  I am. You kind of think of the old, you know, the puffer fish in the ocean,
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  right? You know, when it gets threatened and it puffs out and it's nothing but a bunch of hot air.
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  Well, that was essentially me, you know, for a lot of my life.
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  And, you know, and it talks about, you know, finding the courage and the grace
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  to deal constructively with the fears that remain.
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  And for me, that gets right into that reaffirmation within the Ripple One practical
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  today about acting in spite of fear.
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  You know, back several months ago, you know, when I had a big,
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  you know, change in my life, and I could have just taken that opportunity to
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  kind of rest on my laurels and, you know, sit at the house and, you know,
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  watch a few good episodes of, you know, TV and try to reach the end of the streaming
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  internet, you know, but no, that was when my higher power was prompting me and leading me,
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  to start taking more and more action, you know, to be of service,
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  to not sit around and do nothing, but to do something to be of service to others
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  in the faith or in the recovery community.
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  And, you know, I've always been an ideas guy, but without the courage to act
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  on those ideas, what are the ideas worth, right?
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  And so it's just a reaffirmation for me of, you know, the next time that I have,
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  those uncertainties, those fears that arise, I have to listen for what God has in store for me next.
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  I think about what fear is, right? And the 12 and 12 says the chief activator
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  of our defects has been self-centered fear,
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  primarily fear that we would lose something we already possessed or would fail
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  something or fail to get something we demanded.
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  So something I got or something that I want, right, I'm worried about. And,
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  You know, I was thinking about, you know, something Memphis was talking about the other day.
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  And, you know, I mean, I've talked about it on here before, but,
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  you know, Memphis, you might be able to relate. I don't know.
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  But I do well in institutions.
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  My mind does. And so, like, and what I mean by that, like, you know,
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  because nothing crazy is happening, right?
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  Like nothing unexpected, you know, but like when unexpected things do happen,
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  it's like, whoa. oh, you know, so, and then you put me out here in the world,
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  right? Where anything can happen. Just hit me at any time.
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  And I think about like, I think like Alcoholics Anonymous as an institution.
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  And I might have talked about it on here before, but like,
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  if I used it just as an institution where I've done this and like I found,
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  you know, I was kind of thinking about what Memphis was talking about, this place that,
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  maybe this is kind of how you felt, but this is how I went, what I went through.
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  Where I used it as like just the program and, you know, nothing bigger than
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  that. And there was like, I stayed within the program. I stayed within the guidelines.
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  I went to the meetings, I helped the people and I did all those things. Right.
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  But the one thing that I was missing was this God thing.
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  And I got to a point in my life where, you know, man, like the people,
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  that the institution of AA was not going to be able to help.
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  It was not going to be able to get me any further than where I was at that point.
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  And that flipped for me for, you know, really, you know, going diving deep into
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  my higher power and relying upon my higher power rather than just this institution.
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  You know, that was this flip for me because this institution got me only so far.
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  And I got to a place where I needed more than that institution had to offer me.
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  And I think, you know, it was kind of like, you know, how what you were talking
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  about, Memphis, you were talking about, but then the other one,
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  you were like, man, like, you know, I started getting an AA,
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  and it was like, you know, AA wasn't as working as much.
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  It wasn't doing what I needed it to do.
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  And I was like, and, you know, man, I got a dude that texts me all the time.
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  He's like, man, we're not in the results business. And I'll tell you,
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  man, I'm not supposed to cuss.
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  I'm not going to cuss because I got power for that. But that's BS,
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  right? And I also have editing. So, yeah.
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  But that's BS, right? Because if people like Memphis and Michael and these different
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  dudes weren't staying sober.
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  Instead, like, why would I continue to do what y'all were doing, right?
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  And I needed results at the time. So, man, I dug deep and I dug deep and I got
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  in prayer. And, you know, I still was, you know, helping dudes and doing all that stuff.
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  And, you know, because it talks about on page 63, it says we had a new employer,
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  being all powerful and he provided what we needed if we kept close to him and
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  performed his work well.
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  And I stuck to that line right there, right? And I stuck to it as an institutional
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  life, but then I found out I had to go further within prayer,
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  within meditation, within getting quiet.
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  And that was a big deal for me because, man, when I made that flip,
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  I did feel a new peace, a new freedom.
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  You know, you mentioned something the other day, Pastor Mike,
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  and I'm not trying to take up the time and do anything, but on page 46, because you—.
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  You quoted this the other day. I think it was in your part, the one you did
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  by yourself. Yeah, yeah.
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  As soon as we admitted the possible existence of a creative intelligent,
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  the spirit of the universe underlying the totality of things,
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  we began to be possessed of a new sense of power and direction,
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  provided we took other simple steps.
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  We found that God does not make too hard for those who seek him.
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  The realm of the spirit is broad and roomy, all-inclusive,
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  never exclusive, or forbidding those who earnestly seek. and is openly believed all men.
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  And when I, and that power, man, I don't know if this all ever bugs you guys, but it bugs me.
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  So there's different places in this literature and different places in my life
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  where I've felt this new power.
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  And man, when I hear people say that I'm powerless, that is false.
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  I'm powerless from alcohols, from drinking, from that problem.
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  I have a, there's a power within me today that it's God. But,
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  you know, when I think about people, places, and things, that's crazy.
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  I'm the spiritual leader of my household today.
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  And, like, you know, I have power there. And I'm not saying I'm,
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  like, running things or anything. But, you know, I mean, but that main power is God.
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  But anyways, that was some of my original thoughts. Actually,
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  there's a part in the Ripple Through Spiritual. It says, I trust the Father.
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  The Holy Spirit gives both courage and grace. And I was thinking about the grace part of that.
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  And, you know, I was talking about, you know, having what in my mind I thought
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  was courage at one point. And really it was I was just trained to react to things.
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  And a lot of times I overcompensated or I tried to intimidate.
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  And that was my way of controlling it, the fear. I guess you would say it.
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  And what I found is that, you know, that since my surrender and since I developed
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  a relationship where I get guidance and I ask God and I check my motives and I do all these things,
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  I think about relationships that I have now and they allow me the grace.
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  And I'm able to speak freely and honestly with people, not just my significant
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  other, but in other relationships.
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  And what I found is relationships like God, they give me grace for when I do this step or misspeak.
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  And I think that's what allows me to be able to put things into action without the fear paralyzing me.
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  Because I have done the work and I have chosen to surrender and trust God with the outcomes.
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  And it's just up to me to do things the way you would have me to do them. I can trust that.
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  That is the important part of that is I have the courage today,
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  not because of me, but because of him.
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  I'll leave it right there. Well, that's a good word to end on because I find
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  the truth is that when I am crippled by fear,
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  it's almost always nine times out of ten because in that moment,
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  I'm not trusting the God who loves me and is with me.
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  So Memphis, if you would close us out with our prayer for today.
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  Well, Father, give me courage to face my fears.
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  Through Your Spirit, guide my steps and help me walk forward in faith,
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  following the example of Your Son.
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  Amen. Amen.