Love Your Enemies

Loving your enemies sounds simple until you’re face to face with betrayal, disrespect, or the kind of hurt that doesn’t go away. We sit with Luke 6:32–36 and ask the uncomfortable question it raises for every Christian man: am I really living by the mercy I claim to have received, or am I still letting my flesh call the shots when I feel wronged? If you’ve ever thought, “I can’t love that person again,” this conversation is for you. 

I’m joined by Dr. Aaron Thomas, senior pastor and longtime friend, to unpack what grace looks like when it’s not theoretical. We talk about why the gospel flips the world’s logic from “change then you’ll be loved” to “you’re loved, and that love changes you,” anchored in Romans 5:8. Aaron even uses a surprising Beauty and the Beast analogy to show how love can meet someone in their worst condition and still be the beginning of transformation, without pretending sin is no big deal. 

Then we get painfully practical. We dig into how to separate a person from their behavior, how to look past surface anger to the wounds underneath, and why losing your “first love” for Christ often shows up as coldness toward people. Aaron shares a raw personal story about wrestling with unforgiveness after a devastating family tragedy, and how God used remembrance, repentance, and time to move his heart from revenge toward mercy. 

You’ll leave with clear takeaways and weekly action steps: pause before reacting, pray for a difficult person for seven days, do one undeserved act of kindness, guard your tongue, and spend ten more minutes with God each day. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more men can find honest conversations about forgiveness, spiritual warfare, and learning to love like Jesus.

Chapter Markers

• 0:00
• Welcome To The Inner Fight
• 0:37
• Luke 6 And A Hard Command
• 2:06
• Why Loving Enemies Matters
• 3:51
• Beauty And The Beast As Grace
• 7:10
• Look Past Behavior To Pain
• 15:27
• Abide Deeper Stay In First Love
• 16:09
• A Real Test Of Forgiveness
• 21:43
• Three Truths And Weekly Practices
• 30:49
• Final Charge And Closing Prayer
• 34:07
• How To Connect And Next Time

Visit www.thesavagepath.com for more on David, his book The Savage Path: A Memoir of Modern Masculinity, and the Savage Path Ministries Corp.

Transcript

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Welcome To The Inner Fight

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Wrestling with the Inner Man. Because the first fight we face each and every day is a fight with our own flesh. Do we listen to our selfish, sinful nature or to our divine nature guided by the Holy Spirit? Your host, David Savage, is a product of the West Texas Desert and energy industry. His desire is to inspire and help other men win spiritual warfare. We hope you're ready to rumble because wrestling with the inner man begins now.

Luke 6 And A Hard Command

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Greetings, wrestlers, man. This show is always about wrestling with the inner man, and that's in our heads, you know. And there are some lessons in the Bible that frankly I struggle with. I find them just nearly impossible to live out. And one of those is found in Luke chapter six, verses thirty-two through thirty-six. And let me read it to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies. Do good to them and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the most high, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful just as your father is merciful. Whew. That's a tough one there. And my guest today is just the man who was unafraid of tackling these toughest of topics. He's also one of my favorite people to hang out with. In fact, he was my partner and co-host when we began the podcast journey five years ago on the anniversary of D-Day, with the invasion where we were taking background

Why Loving Enemies Matters

SPEAKER_01 2:06

from the evil one, June 6th, 2021. And we did 40 episodes together. Since then, he's completed his PhD and has become the senior pastor at Northwoods Baptist Church, in addition to his full-time job as an Xfinity Account Manager. Dr. Aaron Thomas. What? Welcome back to Wrestling with the other man, my brother.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

What's up, David? What's up, man? I'm excited to see you again. I'm excited to be here again. I mean, it's really truly a blessing to me uh to be back with you. I continually pray for you and we connect um in the meantime and in between time, but just to be back a part of this thing and see how God has grown it. You know, we started this journey together, like you said, several years ago when it was the first salt and pepper conversation, where God came in and transformed that into wrestling with the inner man, and it's uh truly humbling to me to see how God has blessed and used you and use this platform to impact uh a men. Even myself, you know, I'm incredibly proud of you, my brother, your faithfulness. Remember, we talked about, right, and in keeping this ministry going, your greatest promotion, right? You stay committed uh to pointing people uh to Christ and tackling uh subjects that all men deal with but don't really talk about. And um, God is using you, using this podcast to encourage people, and it's just an honor to be back uh here uh uh uh again to continue uh wrestling with the man uh inner man with biblical truths uh for the glory of God, man. I'm just proud.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Amen. Amen. Well, so Aaron, you know, loving the unlovable is indeed a heavy

Beauty And The Beast As Grace

SPEAKER_01 3:51

lift. Uh I know you got your PhD and have studied Greek and Hebrew and are all learned now, but is there a simpler story to help listeners understand this concept more clearly, like say, Beauty and the Beast?

SPEAKER_02 4:07

Yeah, man, that that that's definitely uh it's it's a tough topic, one that I had to uh truly learn. And uh Beauty and the Beast is a wonderful illustration, not because it's it's the gospel, right? It's not the gospel, but because it it echoes one of the greatest truths in the gospel, right? At the heart of the story is a man who is trapped in a in a condition. He he can't change himself, right? He isn't um he isn't restored because he came from the fright family. He he doesn't suddenly become handsome or worthy, uh, right? Uh he's loved. Right? He gets love, not because he's uh good looking, not because he's worthy of love. He's loved while he's still a beast. He's loved while he's and that's exactly what Romans 5.8 tells us that God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were still obese. I'm sorry, sinners.

unknown 5:05

Right?

SPEAKER_01 5:05

I'm gonna say, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Amen. Christ died for us. I notice that God didn't wait for us to improve. He he didn't say, Hey, get your life together, then I'll love you, right? He loved us while we were rebellious, while we were broken, while we were spiritually dead, while we were his enemy, right? Uh the world says, become lovable, and then I'll accept you, right? The gospel says you are loved by God through Christ, and that love begins to transform you. He gives you the love so that he can change you. And that's that's that's the beauty of grace. That's that's the story of beauty and the beast. Uh he was loved, and and and the moment he was loved, he changed. Right? He didn't change first, right? God doesn't love uh a future version of us, right? He he loves us exactly where we are right now, but he loves us too much to leave us there, right? His love transforms us, it it transforms us from the inside out.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Yeah, that I mean, I'd never thought of uh that that movie, you know, that Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast, as having any kind of a uh, you know, spiritual illustration, but it really is excellent. Yeah. And uh when I read that devotional that you sent me, and he's talking about, well, yeah, this is you know, here we are. I'm I'm the stinky, messy, dirty, filthy rags, you know, and he's loving me now, and that allows me to be transformed. And I think uh, you know, that's what it says. The world says, change, and then you'll be loved, you know. But the gospel says you are loved, and that love will change you. And so uh so he's he's modeled it first, he's given it to us first. And now here is where conviction meets calling. This is the hard part. The same love that saved us is the love that we are commanded to show, and the mark of a life shaped by God is this loving those who are difficult, those who are unkind, even those who oppose us. I I want to reflect the

Look Past Behavior To Pain

SPEAKER_01 7:10

life shaped by God, uh, but how can I do it? How can I do it?

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Yeah, well, one of the hardest things for us to do is separate people uh from their behavior. I separate the person's behavior from the condition of the heart. And Jesus did that constantly, right? He he saw beyond anger, he saw beyond pride and arrogance, he saw beyond sin, right? He saw the souls uh that needed a savior. He saw them in need of something they didn't even know they needed, right? And that doesn't mean he ignored their sin. He just Jesus never minimized it, right? He confronted it with truth and love. He always did so with a great compassion, right? I've learned that many people who lash out are carrying wounds, right, that we can't see, right? That nobody else is see uh can see, and and we have to see beyond the behavior and recognize the steeper needs. Uh sometimes bitterness is covering up disappointment, anger is covering fear and arrogance. A lot of times it's covering insecurity, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

I I think sometimes that you think about the uh the loudest person in the room is actually the loneliest person in the room, right? If we if we all were ever if all we ever respond to is behavior, we we become parasitical, judgmental, critical people, right? And and and and and and we can't do that. But if we ask, if we take a moment just to ask what hurt might be behind their behavior, their action, right? Uh our hearts begin to soften. We begin to see them in a different light. And that's exactly how God looked at us. He saw sinful people who didn't really know they that it was that bad. But it was that bad. He saw people who desperately needed mercy. Uh Jesus saw what God's grace could make happen in them, and that's how how he looked at it. And you characters in the Bible, that's how he looked at Peter, who denied him three times. Right? That's how that's how he looked at the woman uh caught in adultery, right? That's how he looked at me. That's how he looked at me. The more I remember how patient God has been with me, the easier it becomes for me to extend that same type of mercy, that same time, type of patience to someone else. I don't we don't overlook sin. We don't we we we don't overlook sin. Um it hurts. We don't overlook ugly behavior, we look beyond it. You have you have to get to a place where you can look beyond it to uh to the fact that the person was created in the image and likeness of God, just like you. The fact that the person's soul is broken and hurt and and they desperately need the same thing that you needed and didn't know you needed it was Jesus, right? If we're going to love like Christ, we're gonna have to look through the eyes of grace, period.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Man, that's true. I you know, I think of uh just the little illustrations because lots of times our worst behavior is when we're uh we're kind of caught off guard. You know, it's like you know, of course, uh everybody thinks of driving on the Houston freeways, you know, and somebody cuts you off, and you're not I'm not sitting there thinking, I might even be listening to a great little, you know, don't worry, be happy on the radio or something. And then somebody and then I mean you just flare. Uh you just flare immediately. And of course, you know, they can't hear you, but you're swearing and you know, you're driving aggressively and everything. But or let's say uh like my my wife, you know, does all the grocery shopping. So I hardly go in a grocery store, but you know, there's somebody in front of you and they forgot items or they don't know the price, they didn't put the little produce in the bag, and you know, and and and your time, you know, it's like this person is stealing my time. And you're not thinking about, well, well, it looks like they maybe they've had a bad day or their their hands are shaking, or maybe they don't have enough money, and they're they're really trying to just work out, you know, if they even have enough to do the transaction. It's when you do think like that, that is demonstrating, you know, the peace that surpasses understanding, and that you can like, hey, you know, take your time, you know, tell people that are being rude behind you to shut up sometimes. That's required.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

God's living in you. And when you do that, you you show that God's living in you because it comes out of you, your behaviors transform, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Yeah. So I mean, I'm I'm beginning to sense a glimmer of hope here for me, Aaron. You know, absolutely. Because I get I get that wounded hearts produce wounded words. And man, I'm unfortunately, because I've always been very quick-witted, I'm very fast with my words, and it's like a spiletto, man. It's just out and you're stabbed. It's like bridge plate. Yeah, that's right. So I've done that, so it's easy for me to understand that aspect of it. But so loving the unlovable then means choosing compassion over condemnation. Is that right?

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Right, man. The ability to love difficult people, it it first of all, it doesn't originate in you and me. It doesn't originate in us, it flows from this relationship that we have from Christ living in us, right? Where where He produces, you know, I I just did um a uh message, a devotion uh last week. Uh I'm just a branch connected to the vine, and that's the what that vine uh uh produces, that that that compassion, right? Um compassion doesn't mean pretending sin isn't serious, right? Right? It doesn't mean you minimize it, right? But it it should lead us to mercy before judgment, right? That's what compassion does. The reason we're able to do uh do that is because we've experienced that mercy ourselves. We've experienced with uh Christ in us. You mentioned wounded hearts producing wounded worms, right? And and and and that's true. However, when your heart is filled with God's mercy, his goodness, his grace, something begins changing inside of you, inside of me, inside of us, right? How we speak, how how we talk. And we do start that instead of asking, how did I get here? Why am I in this situation? We we we begin to ask, how can right now can I reflect Christ? Like you said, you use the driver who cut you off, right? I don't know why he cut me off. God, I pray that there's nothing wrong, that there's not an emergency that he's trying to get to or lost or hurt one, and I pray that he doesn't hurt himself or anyone else. I pray that you give him a piece that he can trust that whatever he has to get to, you're already there, right? It's that kind of thing. Jesus told the church in uh in at Ephesus in Revelation 2 that they had lost their first love. And I and then I need you to think about that just for a moment, right? Think about it. These are believers, these are people like you and me that that say that are Christians, right? But they had sound doctrine, sound teaching, they worked hard, uh uh uh they still served, but something had happened to their hearts, right? When our when our love for Christ begins to grow cold, when it becomes to become perfunctor and something that we just say, right, our love for people naturally follows.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

That's true. Right?

SPEAKER_02 14:29

Because the more uh uh uh amazed I am that God forgave me, the more patient I'll become with uh other people and their failures. The more I meditate on God and my relationship with Jesus, the harder it becomes for me to be angry or to carry a grudge. Because the closer you and I walk with Jesus, not say that we are of Christ, right? This is that thing. The closer we walk with him, the more um his character begins to show up in our relationships and our conduct and our attitude and behavior. That's that's why this isn't ultimately about trying harder, right? It's about abiding deeper. It's about walking in this thing because when you're connected to Christ, David, you know this. His love flows through you, and that's that's what helps us deal with the unlovable.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Unforgivable.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Well, look, man, I'm gonna go off our script a little

Abide Deeper Stay In First Love

SPEAKER_01 15:27

bit.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

Come on.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Do I have permission to go deeper into your personal life because I know a little bit about it?

SPEAKER_02 15:32

Come on, baby.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Because sometimes the unlovable or you know, the difficult to love could be someone close to us, you know, our family members. Your wife. You know, I yeah, I have I have problems with that sometimes. And and I love that you sent me this other devotional, and it had this quote in it, and I thought this is so true. It's like unforgiveness. See, unforgiveness is a real problem. Unforgiveness becomes a prison where bitterness is the jailer, resentment is the chain, and anger is the cell. Man, that really hit home for me. So I'm saying that unforgiveness.

A Real Test Of Forgiveness

SPEAKER_01 16:09

Now, you, because we were talking about drivers, and I know that your daughter was in an automobile accident, pregnant with twins, and lost one of her babies. Now, you and I have talked about the man who did that. So I know where he's at. Well, see, that's right, man. And that's exactly where a dad or a grandpa. I'll save his lives. But so how how in a situation as horrific as that, you know, can you can you love the unlovable?

SPEAKER_02 16:40

You know, man.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Ah I kind of put you on the spot there, brother. I'm sorry, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

You you you're you ah, you got you're getting messy, you're going deep.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

And um You don't have to answer, you don't need to be able to do that. No, no, no, I want to answer.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Absolutely. I want to answer, you know, because it's for somebody, you know. I believe God orchestrates what he does to you here, and and this is for somebody. That's an area, right? For years, my my it's so funny, Rowan, my grandson that was born, born with the TBI, right? In the womb, dysfunctional, developmentally delayed. They don't know if his mind will ever catch up with his body. Right? He he's never been able to speak a word. And his identical twin brother Hendrix died in the womb on July 6th, right? Four months, uh, three months before Rowan came in. Four months. And um I was angry. Nothing happened. Nothing happened to the guy. And we all know that uh Pastor Dr. Aaron David Thomas used to be gangster, drug dealer, uh, stick-up kid, um, yeah, a whole lot of other bad things until God came. And all that came rushing to the surface. You know, you how you say you want to cuss somebody out because they cut you. Our flesh and our mind have these natural physical carnal responses.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Right.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

Right. And and and and and I wanted to get him. I meditated on getting like the the cops, they they they declared it a vehicular homicide. Um, they went to talk to him, they couldn't find him, and they never pursued it. Right? And I like they didn't look hard enough because I knew exactly where he was, what he was doing, who he was. And I and I struggled back and forth with God every day. Like I I told my wife, I'd sit on my couch and cry, like, I want to get him. I want to hurt him. I'm I'm not even gonna make qualms about it. I've preached this from the pulpit. And and and God goes, Well, what do you what would you do if you were in front of it? Right? And at first, my first response, God, I hurt him bad. Right? I might find a place in that mountain behind you and and put him there. These are my thoughts, right? Right, right. Not my actions, right? There's a real life.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

This this show is for men who are want this kind of authentic conversation.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

Absolutely. And and so I'm giving to you, and and and and and for two years I struggled. It probably wasn't until the beginning of this year that I came to peace with, right? Because I kept having to look at what God forgave me. And here's the thing I can tell you. I say it like this, I broke all ten of the commandments, so I'm no better than that. And yet God still loved me. He chose to love me, he chose to forgive me. Right? I I I I I I didn't hit anybody, I I was selling dope, crack, coke, weed. I don't know what happened to people. I was doing all kinds of dirt. And when when when when when I see that God came and loved me in that dirt, in, I mean, he came and got me up out of the muck and mire, it made it. That's what I had to focus on. I want to give what was given to me. I didn't deserve it. He doesn't, he, he doesn't deserve it, but he does just like I do, because the person that can give it to him is God. And if I get excused, okay, I'm gonna even go further back. I uh the men responsible, the men and women who raped and molested me and messed me up as a child from 3 to 13, which messed me up for many, many years. I remember the day I went back to Philly and wanted to knock on the door and tell them, hey, Jesus loves you, right? And and and this this just was another episode of that with the child like this. Over and over again, God loves and forgives over and over again. And then when I got saved, just like you, I ain't been perfect. You I've sinned, I've sinned, I sinned against God, you and He and He keeps loving me, He keeps forgiving me. Right? His thing is seven times 70, Aaron, I forgive you that many times in one day. Me, and I know today, today, I'm sitting here doing this show with you today. I need that kind of forgiveness. And God goes, and freely I give it to you, so freely give it.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Man, great testimony there. And I knew, I knew you'd be I I didn't plan that, but it made me, I just realized that here you have this the situation that's quite real and quite raw, even still. And uh and we and and you know what, man, out there listeners, we all we all do, you know, and we and we don't want to love the unlovable. But again, just like Aaron so are well uh he articulated that, you know, I I didn't deserve it. And so it's easier for me, you know, once I get you know kind of off my high horse and start thinking about wow, you know, if I turn that mirror back on me, if I'm trying to judge other people with, I don't want that. You know, I don't want that magnifying glass burning a hole through my heart because I'm guilty, right? And uh so let's get down to bat brass tacks here, you know, for uh you know,

Three Truths And Weekly Practices

SPEAKER_01 21:43

our listeners. You know, give it give us three truths that we can use to help overcome overcome this problem that we have with loving the unlovable. We need like three takeaways. That's what a good preacher is.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

Three truths, bad. Well, uh this I'd encourage Everyone listening to remember three simple things. These are three simple life-changing truths. First, the very first thing is you never forget how God loves you. Never lose sight of Romans 8 while you were at your worst. And here's the thing: you might think you're okay. You never were. Even some people that didn't live my life, Jesus still had to get up off the throne and come down and die for that. So never forget the love that He gave you to bring you back into fellowship, right? We all remember where we are today, but we should never forget where God found us. Never forget where He came to Grace remember produces grace extended. Second, look behind behavior to the brokenness underneath. Every difficult person has a story, right? You may you may never know it, but God does. It doesn't excuse them. Right? It helps explain why people people often act the way they do. Seeing someone's pain doesn't mean approving their actions. It simply means choosing, what did you say? Compassion over condemnation. And third, the third takeaway, um stay close to your first love. Stay close to the love of God and the love that he gave you. Loving difficult people isn't something that you and I manufacture on our own, just like the story I just shared. I had to go back to God, to God to remind me what he did for me so he could do it through me, right? It's the Holy Spirit that produces it. It's this relationship that you have with God, right? If you're struggling to love people, don't start by trying to fix people. Start by spending time with God, with Jesus in prayer. The closer you get to him, the more you'll begin loving the people, the unlovable, right? You'll begin to love the people he places in front of you, even the difficult ones. Because that's why he does it. For you to for your growth and development and for his glory.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Right.

SPEAKER_02 24:13

So those those three, uh, stay close, right? Don't forget where he got you and and and look beyond the behavior.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Yeah. That's well, you know, that goes back to what you said earlier, and I like that, you know, metaphor of uh the vine. You know, Christ is the vine, and you know, if we're not connected to the vine, you know, we're just gonna be a withered branch, and you know, we've got this record heat out here right now. And and you want to bear fruit, and that fruit is self-control. Man, that's a tough one. Gentleness, kindness, you know, those aren't the things that kind of actually come real naturally or easily to me. Uh gentleness and kindness, you know, when your last name is Savage, it's just hard.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

But uh especially when it's not only your name.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Right. So so how about some concrete examples to practice this week? Let's let's give an assignment uh to our listeners out there. Give us some okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

Yeah, I got that. I got that. You know, our Christian life is is is lived out one decision at a time. So uh a few practical ways we can put it to practice this week. When someone frustrates you, pause. Just just just pause, count the ten uh uh before reacting, right? Think uh I guess, am I a reactionary or am I a responder? Right? Just pause. Ask yourself, man, I wonder what they're what what burden they're they're carrying today. What what I wonder what's going on in life. Because when you stop and go, I know when I act like that because something happened. So just pause, right? And ask yourself, uh uh, here's another something else you can do. Choose a difficult person in your life right now. And pray for them every day this week. From the moment you hear this podcast uh uh uh or or see this, pray for the next seven days for them. Not that God would change them first, but that God would bless them, that God would reveal Himself to them and soften your heart toward them. They're gonna throw that one out, right? How about this one? Here's uh uh a final one. Uh intentionally, intentionally perform one act of undeserved kind uh uh kindness to someone you struggle with, right? And I'm talking something simple. Maybe just a quick phone call, and you know they're at work and they're not gonna answer, and you lose, leave them a voicemail, right? I I always think that that's kind of better, but I also put down, give them a text. Hey, I just wanted to let you know today I'm praying for you. That's a compassionate text because praying for people means that I have to get closer to God and then I'll learn to pray. Right. Um just one act of undeserved kindness. Maybe just forgive them, call them up and go, hey, you know, I know we haven't talked, there's been this distance between us, and and I hope that you can forgive me for my part and I forgive you of anything, and don't go through it.

unknown 27:22

Right.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

When you do this, let it let it go. Right?

SPEAKER_01 27:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:26

Maybe it's encouraging someone who doesn't expect encouragement from you. It's guarding your tongue. Just watch what you say, right? Sometimes loving someone simply means refusing to speak words that tear people down. Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_01 27:42

And finally, who can tame the tongue?

SPEAKER_02 27:46

Who can tame the tongue? But and that and that and that leads to my final um practice that you can do this week. Spend more, spend some more time with God every day this week. Even if it's ten minutes, right? Ten it's ten more minutes with God, which will impact you so greatly, right? You can't pour out what you don't have. You can't give what you don't have, right? You you what you haven't received. The more you receive from God in his love, from his presence, right, the more naturally you'll give it away.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

All right.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

So yeah. How about that? That'll work, right?

SPEAKER_01 28:20

That that works. You know, I'm thinking of uh, you know, I've talked to you, I've asked you, you know, actually you're one of the people I prefer to come to because I know you're gonna give it to me straight, you know. When I need to hear kind of the harder lesson about maybe the problem's you, David. But uh you know, like with my neighbor here with these dogs barking and the fences and and and basically disrespecting me because he's not even trying to address or anything, he's just like, I don't I'm just gonna ignore you, you know, and then I get I'll get your attention, you know. But uh I've already talked about that on another podcast. Yeah, I'm sure you are counted through that.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

There's still a thorn in his thigh.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

It is, and you know, but being able to uh pause, uh holding your tongue is like the first thing, the hardest thing. And then, you know, I really like I'm just thinking of that beauty in the beast story, you know, it's like, hey, this person really could be a prince, you know, underneath. We don't know what what everybody's got troubles, and uh a lot of people have many more troubles than I have, and I need to that's that's what I try to do is like as soon as I hear people you know complaining, you get in you know, the water cooler talk, uh everybody just likes to bitch, you know, now and it's like about everything about everything. And and and so it's like, look, I'm gonna start counting my blessings, you know, my health, you know, the the that my financial independence at this stage of my life, my grandchildren, you know, and then that that scale gets so heavy that you're like, man, it's easy. In fact, you were ashamed of how you were you know focusing on the whiny part. And that's how you get like better sleep at night, because lots of times look at how sleeplessness is such a problem today. Everybody's like, man, there's all these things you know, help you sleep. Well, it's because your mind is working, and it's working on things that you don't want to let go of. And so I just think this is a this is a great topic, and I think it's very applicable to all of us, and I I appreciate you coming on, being back with me. Being vulnerable in a in a tough and tender area that I kind of just spontaneously, but you know, God put it on my heart, bro. That's all I can say.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

You know, Adam and E. So now I'll here's your chance.

SPEAKER_01 30:31

Last word, you know, what would you like to leave our audience if there's somebody out there struggling, going there's just this one person I could never love again? Or maybe it's I'm so mad at my spouse or my child, my adult child, or somebody that is this close that they really want to love, but they're really struggling with. What would be

Final Charge And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_01 30:49

your your your last word for someone like that today?

SPEAKER_02 30:51

Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna try to tie it all together, Dave. Um, you know, I like to leave everyone this, you know, the easiest people to love require very little of us. But the difficult people, they reveal whether Christ is truly shaping our hearts as we truly are living a transformed life. Jesus didn't simply tell us to love our enemies, he loved his first. He loved you.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

Right.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

You were his enemy, and and he hung on a cross and he and and he prayed for you. He said, Father, forgive Dave, forgive Aaron, for they know not what they do. And and that's supernatural love. That's that that's the divine, right? And that's the love he produces in everyone that believes him and then seeks him through the Holy Spirit. So this week, you know, you can't look at, don't ask yourself who deserves my love. Ask who has God placed in my life that needs to experience his love through me, right? Because when you love, because when you love those who can't repay you by basing it off the scripture use, when you when you extend grace where judging people would be easier, and when you choose compassion over retaliation, you become beauty, you become a living picture of the gospel, right? You you you you show that God has tamed the beast and as you said, turns you into the prince, right? People may never remember, you know, uh every Bible verse they read, every sermon they ever heard, uh uh everything quoted to them spiritually, but they will always remember the love that Christ uh that they experienced through uh through Jesus Christ, right? They'll always remember that if they take a moment to reflect on it. And sometimes that love is exactly what God uses to begin transforming others' lives.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

Awesome, man. Well, would you like to close us in prayer? Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you for loving us uh when we're still sinners, right? Uh thank you uh that your love has never been based on our goodness, but on your grace. And Lord, help us never to forget the mercy you've shown us and give us eyes. Placing us eyes to see beyond people's actions and let us see into their hearts. Fill us with your spirit so that we would love as Christ loves and forgive as Christ forgives, and show compassion as you have shown compassion to us, Father God. Father, help us to be reflections of the gospel in our homes, our communities, our workplaces, our churches, wherever we may go, Lord, wherever you send us, help us to reflect you. May those who encounter us experience the love of Jesus through our words and our actions. We ask it all in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Amen. I love you, brother.

SPEAKER_02 33:59

Man, I it just awesome.

How To Connect And Next Time

SPEAKER_00 34:07

Thanks for listening to Wrestling with the Inner Man with David Savage. We believe the winners in this ring courageously follow God's word, loves and protects God's women, excels at God's work, and betters God's world with his children. For information, reach out to David at David at the Savagepath.com. That's David at the Savagepath.com or visit his website, thesavagepath.com. Tune in next time as Wrestling with the Inner Man tackles more tough topics to train up a generation of better men.