Denial and Our Image of God

In this episode, we explore how denial can impact the way we see God and receive His love. Many of us unknowingly carry beliefs about God that were shaped by our experiences with earthly authority figures, especially our fathers. If our fathers were absent, critical, emotionally unavailable, inconsistent, or difficult to trust, we may unconsciously project those same characteristics onto God.

As a result, we can begin to see God through the lens of our wounds rather than through the truth of His Word. We may believe He is disappointed in us, angry with us, impossible to please, or waiting to punish us for our mistakes. These distorted beliefs can create distance in our relationship with Him and hinder our ability to experience true intimacy.

In this episode, I also discuss how shame can cause us to misconstrue God’s love. When we are carrying guilt, shame, or feelings of unworthiness, we often assume that God sees us the same way we see ourselves. Instead of running toward His love, we run away from it. We hide, withdraw, and avoid His presence because we believe our failures have disqualified us from being fully loved by Him.

But the truth is that God’s love does not diminish because of our struggles. His love is what draws us out of hiding. Just as God pursued Adam and Eve in the garden after they sinned, He continues to pursue us today. He is not looking for reasons to reject us; He is inviting us into healing, restoration, and deeper intimacy with Him.

My prayer is that this episode helps you identify any distorted beliefs you may have about God, confront the shame that has kept you distant from Him, and discover the freedom that comes from being fully known and fully loved. True intimacy with God begins when we stop running from His love and allow ourselves to receive it.

Transcript

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Welcome to Abundling Love Podcast with your host Gwendolyn Malika Noah. Hey, y'all, how you doing, family? I'm so grateful that you guys have joined me on this journey of growing deeper in intimacy with God by facing different roadblocks that block us on our journey. The mission for Love Abundling Ministry is to do that, is to help guide people to recognize this is where I'm at on this journey. Okay, what do I need to do to overcome it? And do it all with love. And it's first understanding that you are loved by God and then responding to the love. But we we are addressing the things that stop us from recognizing that we're loved by God. Because there are so many things that that can blind us from that. And one of them is denial. And y'all, when I tell you this season has been cutting my heart, like I said in other see other episodes, how this is something that I ran away from talking about because I knew that it was gonna bring up some stuff in me and some stuff in other people that I didn't want to face, honestly. But God is like, no, we got to face these things. Like I shared with you guys in Isaiah 43, it says, basically, when you go through rivers, when you go through fires, when you go through these things, you will not be overcome by them because the Lord your God is with you. And a whole thing for me, and uh hopefully for you guys who are listening to my podcast, is to recognize wherever you are on your journey that you're not by yourself. There's no coincidences that you are listening to this podcast because God is leading you on this journey with me. And I'm so grateful that he's entrusted me with this mission to spread the gospel in this way. And thank you for trusting him and trusting me in this journey. And I pray that this has been an impact to you. On today's episode, we're gonna be talking about denial and our image of God. But before I get started on this, I need to share something first of all that's personal. I got a um a call, and basically one thing that I'm learning is that when I talk about my life, it is going to impact my family in some form or fashion. I know that it is. But this is my life. Now, if you know my family, and uh, some of you guys may listen to my podcast, you may be from where I'm from, from Popular Grove, Arkansas, a small town in Arkansas. And being from a small town, you know what happens in small towns, people talk, people gossip, and all those different things. But if you're listening to my podcast and you're from that area, I hope you listen. Listen to what I'm saying. Listen to the message that God is bringing to you. Don't just listen to it and go back and gossip. Listen to it to see how this can be applied to your life. When I open up about my journey and my hardships and the difficulties that I've gone through and the family dynamic that I grew up in, it's because my hope is through my vulnerability, it helps you to be vulnerable. It helps you to examine your own life to see where I am at? Have I dealt with where I'm at in my life? And if you haven't dealt with it, wake up and recognize that you're listening to this podcast, especially the one that's on denial, to recognize where you are before God. And like I said before in the other episodes, religious pride blinds us from really seeing where we are before God. Take account of where you are. Don't just point fingers and look at who I am or look at who this other person is. No, look at yourself. Like I said in the last one, take the plank out your own eyes so it can easily examine what's going on in you so that you can see what's happening in other people. Don't just listen to what I'm sharing so that you can go back and talk about it to other people. That's not why I'm being vulnerable. If you want to go and talk about it to other people, talk about what God is showing you in this. Talk about how you are examining your life by listening to what I'm sharing in hopes that you draw closer in intimacy with God. That is the ultimate ultimate mission in this. Please listen to me in this. Because if you do that, if you go back and gossip, you're missing the whole point. If you don't examine yourselves, you're missing the whole point of everything this podcast is supposed to give to you. Even when I share the little clips on Instagram, on Facebook, and all for things, don't just look at the little clips and say, oh, look at what Gwen is talking about. No, look at the whole podcast so that you can see the whole message. It's just like, no, I'm not like God, just not like God in this way. But you know how we can look at the Bible and we can pull out pieces and say, okay, that's what God means here. So let me just go ahead and run with it. If you don't read the whole passage, you miss the whole point. But that's what we do with God. So of course you're gonna do that with me. You're gonna pull out this little piece and say, Oh, that's what she means, and da da da. No, listen to the whole entire message so you can get the whole viewpoint in hopes that you hear God in the midst of the message to hopefully transform your life. That is the mission that my Lord has sent me on. Father God, my father has sent me out to preach the gospel, to minister to you, and hopes to help you to have a breakthrough, to break free from the prisons that you may be in, the prison of denial that you may be in, because denial is a prison. To break free from it, the chains that are on you, in hopes that you can go through and grow closer to God, to grow deeper in intimacy with Him. But those chains of denial, those chains of pride, those chains of God, so those chains of self-righteousness, those chains of selfishness, whatever those chains are, they block you from changing, they block you from seeing God, from growing deeper into Him. And I hope that this podcast helps you to have a breakthrough. That is my mission. All right. So I'm done with that. I said what I need to say. So hopefully, guys, take heed to it. Listen to the whole thing. Don't just take snippets and go out and say, run with it and talk about it with whoever in my family, whatever it may be you want to talk about too. But no, don't do that. Go and listen to the whole thing in hopes it impacts you. Okay. Now, on with the episode, y'all. On with the episode. Today we're talking about denial, our image of God. And we're gonna talk about first how denial distorts how we see God's character, which it does. We're gonna talk about that more. Avoiding God versus drawing near to him, and then why intimacy requires honesty. That is all a part of the mission, y'all. We got to face denial so we can go into honesty, so we can see God and grow closer to him. That's the only way we can grow closer to him, is if we're honest. Let's look at the scriptures first, though. I'm reading the NIV version in my old Bible. It's been well used. We're in Genesis chapter. I'm gonna start in chapter two first because I want to get an overview. Now, in chapter two, it talks about in verse 15 how the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden, right? So he put Adam in the Garden of Eden to work in it and to take care of it, right? And then from there it talks about in verse, um, verse 20 B, it says, But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into his sleep, deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. So this is talking about how he created Eve, like God created Eve from there. And then it says in verse 24, for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked. And catch this last part, and they felt no shame. So notice this, and they're in the Garden of Eden. This is intimacy with God. Intimacy with God is being clearly no shame. They were naked, purely seen before God with no shame. Right? But there's a shift in that relationship. The shift came in chapter three. Now, now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God really say you must eat from any tree in the garden? Notice that that's playing down in her mind, right? To question God. The woman said to the serpent, We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you would die. Now, notice she's telling the serpent what God said. But then here's the thing: the serpent says, You will not surely die. The serpent said to the woman, For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So notice how he's twisting God's words. But but here's the thing: what did she do? She listened to the serpent because she was enticed by the fruit. When the woman saw the fruit of the tree, saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye. And I noticed they had all the trees in the garden that was good for food, but notice her eyes were just enticed with that, right? And it's pleasing for the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom. She took some of the ate it. She also gave some of the her thumb to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Now, let me pause here. Notice how Adam was with her in the garden, too, listening and watching. Adam should have just been right there because he knew what God had said, but anyway, that's a whole nother story. So they ate the fruit, and then it says verse 7. Then the eyes of both of them were open, and they realized they were with they were naked. So they sowed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, Where are you? He answered, I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid. Ooh, y'all see that transition? Like how in chapter two, it was like they were naked and were they felt no shame. Before they ate the fruit, they felt no shame. They were truly in deep intimacy with God. Now here they are. They ate the fruit, and there was a shift in the intimacy with God. There was a breakthrough, there was a break in the intimacy with God, right? Because notice they hid, they pulled away from God. Why did they hide? Because they they said it in here, they said because they saw that they were naked, and they were I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid. What did the fear come from? Where did the fear come from? Weren't they naked and felt at ease before God before? There was no fear there before God. But notice how now there is fear before God, there is shame before God, there is this, I want to hide, and I don't want you to see me before God. And then they go into a whole nother tangent about trying to justify what they did and deny what they did. But the main point I'm trying to get to you guys right here is that shame, that denial blocks you from intimacy with God, that wanting to hide what's really going on in your life and wanting to run away from seeing yourself, it blocks you from seeing who you really are before God, or it blocks you from growing closer to Him. Even though God is wandering around in the garden, he's wondering, looking like, hey, I heard where are you? Think about God asking you that question. Where are you? And you running away hiding because no, God, I don't want you to see the sins that I mean. I don't want you to see the impudeness in my heart. I don't want you to see the lust that's in my heart. I don't want you to see the anger or the cursing that I did in my heart. I don't want you to see that I slept with this other guy over here that other night, or I'm I'm I'm gay, or I'm a homosexual, or I'm I'm I'm this. I don't want you to see those things in my my heart, Lord, because no. God is asking, where are you? Where are you? All right, let's go to the next scripture, Hebrews chapter 4. And in verse 13, it says, Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight, everything is uncovered and laid there before the eyes of Him to whom you must give account. Y'all, when I say the Bible, many years ago, over 28 years ago, it's going on, and they share with me this particular passage because it talks about the word, go back to verse 12. Talks about how for the word of the God, word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to divided soul and spirit. Joe Samara and it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing, nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. When I read this scripture, God it scared the it's scared, I scared the death out of me. It literally did scare the death out of me. It scared me because I'm like, wow, God, you see my thoughts, and I'm gonna be judged for every thought that I have. Oh, ooh, and I'm gonna be judged for the attitudes of my heart, and my attitude can be nasty, Lord. Oh Lord, and you're gonna and you see every part of me, you see the lust that's in my heart, you see the jealousy that's in my heart, you see the envy that can be in my heart, you see everything, and it's gonna be uncovered and laid bare before you in the time when when you call in us before you to be judged, my life is gonna be laid before you, and I'm gonna have to give account for everything that's in my life. So there's no hiding. There's no hiding. So, like he did with Adam and Eve, God is roaming the earth, looking for hearts or who are looking for him. He's asking that question where are you? Are you trying to hide in denial, thinking that you can hide from me? But the reality is, I see every single thing already. And you being ashamed and afraid to approach me, is blocking you from going deeper intimacy with me. Come on, I love you, I love you more than what you can even understand, and I demonstrated my love for you. He says, let's go to Romans, y'all. In Romans chapter five, which is one of my favorite scriptures, and he shared this with me when I was again running away from him because I didn't feel like he loved me. I questioned God's love for me. This is how we can misconstrue God's image by putting on him this image of our earthly father, right? And what I was doing is I thought that I had to perform well. I had to perform well. If I messed up, that meant that God would have taken his love away from me. But if I did good, that means he's gonna bless me, and God is with me and he loves me. So I had to, and I was going through this performance mentality, and I was beating myself up whatever I sinned against God. I had no grace on myself. I didn't even understand what grace was. And guess what? I treated other people in that same way, and I was legalistic, and I have to fight against that even to this day now. But like being legalistic and holding people, strong arming people, putting things on them because of the lack of grace I had towards myself. I didn't see how intensely God loved me. Even when I was messing up, even when I sinned against him, he still loved me. That's what Adam and Eve did. They sinned against God, they wouldn't did something that God told them not to do. They listened to Satan, listened to another voice that wasn't his voice. They disobeyed the voice of God. What do we get the words of God now in the scriptures? That's a voice of God. When we don't obey him and we listen to other voices, we're being like Adam and Eve and we're going into that shame and running away from. I was like that. But he had to confront me and help me to see that he's not a man that he should lie. Like it says in Numbers, he's not a man that he could lie, that he loves me. It says in Isaiah 43, when I first read that scripture, like, I love you. Hearing him tell me directly, like, I love you, broke me because I had never heard him say to me, I love you. Even though it says here in verse 8 in Romans 5, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And I'm gonna stop there. Even though he had demonstrated his love for me by sending Christ to die for me, my mind wasn't still getting it, I wasn't still wrapping my mind around how intensely he loved me because I was seeing him through my trauma, I was seeing him through my earthly experiences, you know. So, how are you viewing God? What lenses are you viewing him through? Let's confront those harmful core belief systems that we can have, because that's what's happening, or that's what happens when we see God or we see people through skewed lenses. We're bringing up our from our trauma, from our environments, whatever environment you grew up in. And if it's a lot of us, if you do ACES, a lot of us have childhood trauma. My ACE score was high. We have childhood trauma, and when we do, we project onto God whatever we grew up in. So for me, I projected to God. He's angry with me at times when I do wrong, or he pulls his love from me at times, or he gets very impatient with me at times, or he turns his back on me at times, or he, you know, all those things that I grew up watching, but God is saying, No, I showed you how much I loved you when I gave my son for you. In John 3, 13, in John 3, let me look at it real quick, y'all just make sure. In John 3, and a lot of you guys already know this scripture, it says in John 3, verse 13, it says, No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man. God is so, I mean, Jesus is the one who came from heaven, right? But in John 3 16, that's where I was going. Yeah, I'm sorry. For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only son, that whoever believed in him shall not perish but have eternal life. So notice here in John 3, 16, that God loved us first. But a lot of us can quote that scripture saying, like God so loved the world that he gave his only one, only begotten Son, right? But we don't really take it to heart. We forget he loved us first. So our job, when Jesus is telling us in Matthew to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. And the same is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. What he's telling us to do is to respond back to that love. But we have difficulty responding back to that love when we're walking in denial of the love that God has for us. When we're walking in that shame and thinking that God can't love me because I've done this. Fill that blanket for yourself. God can't love me because I've done that. Whatever that is for you. But go back to the Garden of Eden. God is asking you, where are you? We have to be honest with where we are right now. We have to face the things that we're going through, where we are in our hearts right now. And for me, I wrote about it in my book, 40 Years of Virgin Wild Away, promoting purity in a world of promiscuity. And you guys, this book is not just for single people, women or men, it's not just for singles. This is for anyone who wants to grow deeper in intimacy with God. In it, I share my journey of things I had to overcome in order for me to grow deeper intimacy with him. But the first part of it is I had to admit that I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. And I'm still sin. Even though I'm baptized into Christ, clothed into him, covered over by him, I still sin. And I have to repent every time that I do. But one of the things that I thought before I became a disciple, I thought, being a virgin, right? I thought I could just allow you to kiss me, tongue-kiss me, or touch me here and or there, whatever, or come close to having sex, but not have sex. And I would still be okay as a Christian. That was the lie that Satan was telling me. And that's the lie that he may be telling you to. That's a lie that he's telling the world. That it's okay for you to go and have sex outside, just have commit sexual morality. Go have sex with multiple people, you're still fine, you're still saved. Where's that in the Bible? And what is that saying to Jesus who died for you because of that? No. We need to repent. Repent. So for me, when I was confronted by looking in Galatians chapter, and I read this before with you guys before, Galatians chapter 5, and I looked at verse 19, and it says the acts of sinful nature are obvious. Obvious to who? That means it's everybody can see it, but then go back to Hebrews 4. Like everything that we do, we have to give account to God. That means everything, God sees everything. So I can't, I should like, I don't need to hide from you or sugarcoat things with you when God sees all of who I am. No. And it says for him, Seshima, he says the first part it says, sexual morality is the first one. Impurity. Now when I read session morality, I was saying, I haven't had sex with anybody. So you know, but in my mind, my imagination, in my heart, and God, and Jesus says back in, I think it's in Matthew, how sins begins with our thoughts. From every thought comes anger and sexual morality, all those things. And so it's in my thoughts that I was committing such morality. In my thoughts, I was committing impurities. In my thoughts, I was committing idolatry and even witchcraft because I believed in horoscopes and all those things. I had hatred and discord and jealousy and fits of rage and selfish ambition. All these different things were in my heart. But I had to sit and admit it. But honestly, I hadn't read that until I went and studied the Bible. These are passages that people skip over. Ministers skip over these things that don't want to preach about it. But welcome to Love Abundantly Ministry. We are going to talk about it because I believe that's love. Love is speaking the truth. Love is really calling you to account and examine where you are, not saying it's okay for you to walk in the fire and not see that you're gonna that you are being burned, and me looking on the outside, looking at you, walking through the fire and turning my head and not telling you, hey, turn your life around, repent, come back to God, repent, stop doing what you're doing. It's hurting Jesus, it's hurting you and your intimacy with God. That is our that's our mission of our ministry. It's calling people to really examine yourself where you are right now. You may say I'm a disciple of Jesus, I'm a follower of Christ, I am this, but looking to see where you are according to this particular scripture. Look and see where you are according to your perspective, who God is and where you are right now and how you're living your life. Do you think that God, and I've heard people say that God is a God of love, and that's it. And y'all, I was struggling with this pasture. Let me be transparent with you because I was looking at this pasture the other day, it was in um 2 Samuel, and I was reading how David was saying how um God, oh, let me find this scripture so y'all can see it with me. Because it was convicted to me, and I was talking to a friend of mine about it because it convicted my heart, and I'm like, wow, Lord, this is deep. So it's in 2 Samuel and in the last chapter in 2 Samuel and chapter 23. What was it? Chapter 23. I think it was, but I don't want to waste your time, but I think it was in chapter 23, but let me make sure. Yeah, but it was I forgot, y'all, but it was basically talking about how God allows things to happen to our lives, and I'll find it, y'all, and and I'll send it to you. I'll let you know when I when it comes to me. So, but the Lord allows things to happen, and like as you go through, it's like David says in Psalms 22, I pursue my enemies, you are me. But it also talks about how in verse 22, I mean, yeah, in verse 22, for I have kept the ways of the Lord, I have not done done evil by turning from my God, all his laws are before me, I have not turned away from them. And he's telling God, I have kept myself from sin. But even though he had kept himself from sin, he still had hardships, he still had to face evil that was coming against him, right? And when we look in Isaiah, Isaiah 53, it talks about how God crushed the anointed one for his purposes. And it scared me because God would allow things to happen or destruction to come in our lives for his purposes, but it's all to draw us closer to him. All of it is to draw us closer to him. And so when you go through your life and you look at, we think, okay, God is love. God is still love, even when we're going through hard times. But I know for me, as I was telling my friend, I struggle with believing that God's love was still with me when I was going through financial difficulties or when I was going through breakups. And I was like, God, why you let me go through this hardship with this heartache? God, why you let me? God, why you let me? But it was my choice to be in that relationship, but I want to blame God for it. No, how many guys do that? You go through things, but then you blame God for your choices. No, God is still loving because He that is who He is. God is love, like it says in 1 John. God is love, He cannot change. Our situations may change, but God, the essence of who He is, will never change. He is love from the beginning, He's love to the end. That is who He is. And I want to wrap up with this particular idea, this vision that the Spirit gave to me one day. I was having a vision, he took me back to the Garden of Eden, and he took me back to the scripture that was in 1 John, saying that God is love. In mathematics, it says God equals love. Yep. My past life, I was a math teacher. I've taught school for many years, but anyway, it says God equals God is love. So therefore, in the beginning, before the world was created, God was in the beginning, it talks about in Genesis 1. God was in the beginning, the Holy Spirit was there too, hovering over the earth. That means love was in the beginning when the hovering over the earth, wisdom was in the beginning, hovering over the earth. So in the beginning, there was love because God is love. So when he spoke the world into creation, what happened? He spoke it all out of love. So that means the whole earth was created out of love. But what happened in the Garden of Eden when Eve ate the fruit? It distorted love, it skewed how we viewed love, which is why we have these skewed viewpoints of God. So from the Genesis all the way through Revelation, God's mission is to bring us back to the original Garden of Eden, back to understanding love, who He is. First Corinthians 13 talks about how love is patient, love is kind, love does not boast, love does not envy, love that does not keep records of wrong. That is God, that is who God is. That's a breakdown of his love. What we're doing on our journey is to get back to that idea of who he is, what love is in God, and not what we think it is from our own perspective, but to confront that idea of what we believe love is with the facts of who God has showed us love is. Demonstrate it means it's tangible facts. Jesus died. That's a tangible fact, it's proven, it happened, he died on the cross. It's proven historically, it's proven, it's tangible. He died, and he also rose again. That's proven it's tangible. He is, and it's tangible that he's in heaven now, and he's also giving us the Holy Spirit that's proof that's tangible. I am a living proof in of God's Holy Spirit on me, of how God, through his Holy Spirit, transforms you. I am totally different than who I was 28 years ago. And y'all, I wrote this book to encourage y'all to know that it's possible to remain pure before God. It's possible, but I did it and I'm able to do it because of his Holy Spirit. Yes, do I mess up? Yes, and when I do, I repent. And God has trained my heart to long for him curses, longing for a man. Yes, I want to get married one day. I do, but I want my love for God to be something that is unwavering, and I want you guys to have that same aspect, that love for God to be something unwavering. That when someone comes after you, Verse, if you're a man and if it's a woman that you're interested in, that there'll be a woman right there after God's own heart. You'll be like David, a man after God's own heart. And if you're a woman, you'll be like a woman, like a woman after God's own heart. And there's a man trying to pursue that, that'd be right there trying to pursue God's heart. And if you are married, that you guys will examine your marriage and see are you a woman or a man after God's own heart? If you're not, examine what is blocking you from being that for God so that your marriage can be the intimacy with God in the midst of it, so you can grow closer to each other as you go closer to God. That is the mission. So I want to leave this with you. I want you to reflect. Is there anything I've been avoiding, minimizing or justifying in my life? How might my behavior be affecting my relationship with God or with others? How have I been viewing God? What lenses have I been viewing God through? And write down, y'all, the lenses that you've been viewing God through. Write it down on a piece of paper, anything that comes to your mind, and then go through scripture to challenge that thought. Find scriptures that counter at whatever viewpoint you have had of God and see what it says about God in the scriptures. What truth might God be gently revealing to me? Now, I want to encourage you to take small tangible steps. Prayer of honesty or repentance. Confess your sins. Go to Galatians 5 and examine yourself. Where are you in that? Confess it to an accountability partner. Confess it to someone and repent. Get someone to hold you accountable to repenting. Remember what it says. God sees all things. So you confess it to someone about it, it doesn't matter what they think. It doesn't matter what they think. Is you bringing it to the light because we can't walk into walk in darkness and think that we have closeness with God. First journey talks about confessing your sins. So we can have closeness with God. I'm paraphrasing, but go back and read it. You can't walk in darkness thinking that you are close to Him or in fellowship with Him or in fellowship with other believers. You can't. You're fooling yourself if you are thinking in that way. Have a difficult conversation with other people, loving conversation, and set boundaries. If you see that you are in a pure relationship, set boundaries now so that you can be do what's right before God. Do that and again seek accountability and write it out. Like I told you guys before, journal about this. Write this thing, write out wherever you are in denial in your life, where you see denial in your life. Seek help. Get pastoral counseling. Seek therapy, get a spiritual director. Remind you guys, I want to remind you seeking help is strength, not failure. It's not. Especially, it is especially important when you are in denial to seek help, especially if you're in denial because of trauma that you experience. Get therapy. If you're ready to grow deeper in your relationship with God, I invite you to join my growth or growing deeper in intimacy with God webinar. Join it. Together, we'll explore how to overcome spiritual roadblocks. We'll hear God's voice more clearly and develop a closer walk with Him. Visit Loveabundantly Ministry.com to learn more and email us if you're interested in coming to the webinar. I'd love to have you join us, y'all. Now, remember that you are love first, and God demonstrated his love by sending his son. Our job is responding back to that love by taking off the chains that's blocking us from going close to him. Remember, God is asking, where are you? Where are you? And I hope your response to him would say, Here I am, Lord. Here I am. I want you to see me fully without shame. All right. Until next time, keep pursuing God's heart and remember you are deeply loved.