Developing a Relationship with God with Kyle Prichard

What if your relationship with God wasn't about religion, routines, or perfection, but simply about spending time with Him?

In this inspiring episode of Managing Difficult People, Adam Holbrook sits down with Pastor Kyle Prichard, founder of Bethany Church and Unbound Ministries, for an honest conversation about what it truly means to develop a personal relationship with God.

Together, they explore how daily time with God can bring peace, purpose, and clarity, especially during seasons of anxiety, addiction, depression, loss, and uncertainty. Kyle shares his practical morning routine, explains why prayer is about relationship rather than ritual, and offers simple, encouraging guidance for anyone who wants to grow closer to God, even if they don't know where to begin.

The conversation also dives into trusting God's timing, recognizing His presence in everyday life, finding hope through life's greatest challenges, and learning how faith transforms the way we love, lead, and navigate difficult relationships. Whether you're just beginning your spiritual journey or looking to deepen your walk with God, this episode will encourage you to slow down, seek His presence, and discover the peace that comes from living with purpose.

Because God isn't asking to be part of your life.

He's inviting you to live your life in Him.

Stronger leadership starts with better communication.

Learn how to manage conflict, set boundaries, and lead with confidence.
Listen now: https://managingdifficultpeoplepodcast.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

If you've ever worked with someone who creates chaos, plays the victim, and blames everyone else, then this podcast is for you. So here's your host, Adam Holbrook.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Welcome to the Managing Difficult People podcast. I am your host, Adam Holbrook. I have a treat for you guys today. A real treat. I have Pastor Kyle Pritchard with me today, and I met Kyle at a Pass to Recovery conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And the reason why I invited him on the show today is because he approached me during one of the sessions. So the Pass to Recovery Conference, they recognize that people recover from addiction, suicide in a variety of different ways. They have the prevention track, which focuses really on the youth leadership. They have a community track, they have a faith-based track, and a medical track. And I was all in, I know I was speaking at the event, but I knew I was going to be able to attend some of the other tracks, and I went to a faith-based track because I'm really trying to find a solid routine for God in my life. And the speaker asked if there was any questions. And I raised my hand and I asked him, How do you find time for God each day? And what does that time look like? And the speaker really couldn't answer the question clearly enough for me. So then Kyle approaches me after the speaking, and he comes to me and he goes, Hey, I would love to offer my suggestions and how I serve God every day and my routine looks like. And that point, I was drawn in, and this guy is amazing. I'm so grateful that he is here with us today because so many times in our lives, we put God on the back burner, me included, me being suicidal, finding God, not finding God, and then bringing God back in. But when I recognize I have God consistently in my life, my life is just, you don't feel like you're hustling and always trying to accomplish the next thing. You feel like you're just living and living your purpose and serving as much as you can. So I am so grateful. You got to hear this guy's intro because he is amazing. Kyle, why don't you say hi first?

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Hey everybody, it's good to be here. Adam, thanks for having me on, man.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

All right. Kyle Pritchard has served as the founding pastor of Bethany Church in Tazewell, Tennessee, since its launch in 2017. From the beginning, he and his team felt a strong calling to engage deeply in addiction ministry and create a church culture rooted in hope, healing, and practical support for those impacted by substance use disorder. In 2024, Kyle earned a degree in Bible and theology from Lee University. In 2021, Kyle helped launch Live Free Claiborne, a nonprofit organization focused on recovery support and harm reduction in East Tennessee. From 2022 to 2025, he led a grant-funded initiative to mentor and equip 10 faith leaders across East Tennessee in addiction ministry. Kyle's a certified recovery coach and works closely with a faith-based initiative under the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. He has presented at major national and regional events, including the RX Summit and the Pass to Recovery Conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 2026, Kyle launched Unbound Ministries, a movement focused on helping people walk in lasting freedom through practical recovery, support, spiritual formation, and equipping faith communities to respond effectively to addiction and mental health challenges. Kyle is passionate about bridging the gap between faith communities and behavioral health systems, helping leaders respond to addiction with both compassion and confidence. He's supported in his ministry by his wife, Elora, licensed clinical social worker, currently pursuing her doctorate in social work, and is proud of his daughter Rebecca, who is also a social worker. At home, he enjoys time spending with his grandson Elijah and their Yorkie Franklin. Kyle enjoys gourmet cooking. Kyle's depth of experience, practical experience, and general love for people make him an engaging and impactful speaker for conferences, training, and community events. Please welcome to the Managing Difficult People Podcast, Kyle Pritchard.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Well, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Man, that was a good introduction, Adam.

unknown 5:09

Woo!

SPEAKER_02 5:10

I mean, you are packed. I am grateful that you are here. This is the guy that I wanted on the podcast more than ever. Man, I have feeling that our world has just shifted so much. And I feel like God is coming back in areas, but then there's a whole section of the world that pushes away from it. And I gotta tell you, when I have God in my life, everything changes. Yep. Kyle, let's go right into it. Absolutely. You prepare for your speaking each week, but how do you find time for God each day?

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Yeah, that's a good question, and that's an important question, Adam. Because they're two separate things. Yes, I'm always doing sermon prep, getting ready to speak here or there, or whatever. That's totally different time. I I get up every morning and I start my day off in the presence of the Lord. And, you know, it's real easy for us to get in this place of I feel like I need to spend time with God for God or to make God happy or so God won't be mad at me that I'm not ignoring Him in my life. But really, my time with God every day is for me. It's not even, it's not for God. It's kind of like, you know, you're I'm married, you're married, uh, there, I'm sure we've you've got other viewers, listeners that are in a relationship with somebody, like you spend time with your significant other so you get to know them better. Their likes or dislikes. The most important thing of that is I spend time with my wife because the more I know her, the more I know how to love her and to show her my love and my affection and um, gosh, to be present with her. So that's a big, huge thing about not necessarily finding time with God, but making time with God. And Adam, I'll share this. Like, I spent a lot of my Christian journey, from my perspective, not doing this well, because I felt like it was uh needed to be rigid and it needed to be something I was making happen at a particular time for a particular amount of time or whatever. And all of a sudden, I realized that it was just relational. It was no different than me, than me spending time again with my wife or my kids or my friends or um whatever, just spending that time with God, being in his presence and learning more about that. And so I made a decision at one point in my life, okay. I don't know about all your listeners, but I know that a lot of times it's really easy for me to want to sleep in during the morning, especially so I struggle with some, you know, depression. Like depression easily causes us to not want to get out of bed of a morning. And so I made a decision at one point in my life, a few years ago. I'm gonna get up at 7 o'clock every morning. I'm gonna spend 15 minutes with God, praying a little bit, being in the word a little bit. I started doing that, making myself do that, setting my alarm, getting up, making myself do this. And 15 minutes with God, and in that 15 minutes, I started seeing transformation in my life internally and externally, the way I was feeling, the way I was living on the inside, but not just that, but the way I was treating others and responding to life that's around me. And so I thought, well, if 15 minutes is doing that, let's get up at 6:30 and let's make it 45 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

And then let's get up at 6. And so now, you know, I shoot for 5 o'clock every morning to try and get up. I get my water, I come to my office, I take my vitamins, I take my medicine while coffee's uh, you know, perking and or dripping. I guess we're in a drip stage, not a perk stage for coffee. And uh yeah, I sit in my office in my quiet space and uh spend time with the Lord. I try to do it every day. Am I successful at that every day? No, there's still some days that I sleep in. Anytime I go on vacation or on a business trip or whatever, it messes me up and it takes me a few days to get back in the hang of things. But hey, the Lord's gracious and compassionate and slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. So he's very patient with me and not having everything all together all the time.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

Kyle, it's a lot of gold right there. So you started off, you recognized you wanted to spend a little time with God, and then your life started changing a little bit, then you started spending a lot more time with God. Now, I wanted to invite you on because my routine that I do with God, I don't believe is sustainable. And I would love to be able to hear like how you pray. Okay, not just speaking the Lord's prayers or you know, but how you actually talk to God. And how I do it right now is I go wake up in my morning for my 5 a.m. morning walk, and I start my morning off with the Lord's Prayer. And I know that you said to me, You pray for an hour, and I'm like, How do you pray for an hour? And then you told me about this book, you told me about this book, it's could you not tarry one hour? Could you not tarry one hour? And this book said to me, say the Lord's Prayer slower. And I'm like, slower? I'm like, for an hour? And they said, fully digest each word of the Lord's Prayer. And so I started like Googling each word of what it actually means in the Lord's Prayer, and I started sitting with it a little bit longer. Am I perfect in this? No, I'm not. So after I do the Lord's Prayer in the morning, I also talk to God as a friend. And I think it was a great place for me to start since I only had God in my life when I was younger, you know, with my parents taking me to church, and I haven't been to church very often. So for me, it was really just talking to God as a friend of mine. Yeah, sometimes I question God, like, hey, look, why are you doing this? Or why is this happening? Other times I'm grateful for God, but I always try to have God in my life. Yeah. And, you know, I like watch the show The Chosen at nighttime before I go to bed a lot of times, maybe 15 minutes of it. I have a Bible I read on an ongoing basis, but I only can take that in small little trags of like five or ten minutes to fully try to digest what I just read. But what is it for you? Because you would love like what does that routine look like?

SPEAKER_00 11:36

So listen, you hit on a lot of big things there that are things are very important that maybe a lot of people that are wanting to walk, that have a desire to walk with the Lord, some of it's been taught wrong over the ages. Some of it we just look at it from our fleshly, our human perspective of what it is instead of looking at it or trying to look at it, if you will, from a godly perspective or whatever. So let's start with this. I want to back up. One of the things that we do, Adam, is we think, we get convicted, or whatever the word is that you want to use. I need to include God in more of my life. And I think we have to start with this. It blows people away when I share this with them. God does not want to be a part of your life. God has no desire to be a part of your life. What God wants you to do is to live your life in Him. Like everything be in the presence of God. Like it's not a when I get done with my morning time with God and I say, in Jesus' name, I pray, Amen, and go on with my life. I don't leave God in my office or I don't walk away from God. I take him with me. And again, I want to go back to my relationship with my wife because there's a lot of wedding language in the Bible. There's a lot of marriage picture in the Bible. And like my wife is my best friend. I love being with her. I love spending time with her. I think about her all the time. And so sometimes I'll just text her and say, I love you. Hey, what are you doing right now? Hey, have you got a minute to talk? I don't need anything. I just wanted to hear your voice. It's that same thing with our walk with the Lord. And so you're talking about the morning time. First of all, I want to say this. I think it's very important it's quality, not quantity. Okay? So sometimes I will pray for an hour, sometimes longer than that. Sometimes I sleep in late or I get to studying more or whatever, and my prayer is only 15 minutes long, but it's about the depth of the prayer. So Psalm 911 talks about the secret place. It's finding that some people call it their prayer closet. Mine's my office at home. I shut my door, there's nobody else around, and I can be who I am and be completely real in the presence of God and hide in his secret place. I make him my refuge, if you will. I make him my place of safety to just be who I am and share who I am. And sometimes it's tears, sometimes it's sadness, sometimes it's fear, sometimes it's praise, sometimes it's worship, sometimes it's celebrating everything that the Lord is. And you talked about the Lord's Prayer, and I think that's very important. The Lord's Prayer, it's up, we got it up on in, you know, framed hanging on the wall, and you see it at churches all over the place, and on uh towels that you hang in your kitchen or whatever, like the Lord's prayer is everywhere. But really, what we have to understand is being a first-century rabbi, like Jesus presented the Lord's Prayer more as an outline than he did a 30-second prayer that we say. And so we say, our father who art in heaven, and we stop and we ponder on what it means that we can call God Father, what it means that he's sitting in heaven, who he is. I share this a lot when I'm teaching. Like, it's so important for us to know who God is and who we are in God. That is something that we need to grasp. And so slowing down, as you said, with the Lord's prayer and thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It's like we're literally praying, God, I want your will to be done in my life. And so I'm going to pray over my life first. I want your will to be done in what I'm doing today, and the way that I'm being a husband, and the way that I'm raising my kids or my grandkids, or the way that I'm working, the way the words that come out of my mouth. I don't want them to be my words, Lord. I want them to be your words. And so I pray, God, let and then I pray that same thing for my wife. And then I pray that same thing for my oldest daughter, my middle daughter, and my son. And then I pray it for my grandson, and then I pray it for my mom, and then I pray it for my friends, and then I pray it over our church. And I begin to break this down, and that's where prayer can start to become lengthy, is when we begin to break all of that down.

unknown 15:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

And I thank you. I that was brilliant. And I want to, because you're in Tennessee, and I'm up in the Northeast and New Jersey, New York area, and I'm noticing a quite a difference in you know the belief system where I am versus where you are, and that's okay, right? We want to connect with people first. But uh a lot of times church scares people in my area, they don't know the prayers. And for me, it was the same thing. I had recognized it coming growing up as the prayer, the prayers that I'm supposed to say, but it was the initial, because you're talking with people that are in recovery, maybe suicide prevention, and a lot of times they don't know God at all and never had a relationship with God. And to me, it's just about building some sort of relationship. It's not about repeating the Lord's prayer for me in the beginning. For me in the beginning, it was about just having a relationship and God not like judging us. God is not judging us, but God is actually just there and he wants to support us. And sometimes it's just talking raw to God, like he was one of your buddies. I don't know. Can you elaborate on this more?

SPEAKER_00 17:02

I can't, I can. Can I get theological just a minute? Let me I want to share. I'm actually working on a devotional right now. So when somebody that's struggling with addiction gets out of treatment, they are told when they're leaving treatment, you need to go do 90 meetings in 90 days. So that's one meeting every day for 90 days. So A-A-N-A, celebrate recovery, some kind of peer recovery, right? And so I'm working on a devotional right now, 90 scriptures and 90 days. Kind of the same concept. I just want to connect people to the Lord. And so I'm actually working on that writing some this morning before we got on here to do this podcast. And I was working on this verse, and it's Isaiah 43, 3, and it says, For I am the Lord your God, the holy one of Israel, and your Savior. So I'm going to do this really quick, even though I could spend hours just on a little bit of this. So you start with the word God. It says, For I am the Lord your God. And so, God, we think of the creator God, the God that spoke life into existence, the God that sits on the throne sustaining life and making things happening and being our protector and the God who gives and takes away, if you will. Well, Isaiah describes him as the Lord, and if you're reading in the Bible and you see Lord, L-O-R-D in all caps, it's actually the personal name of God, Yahweh or Jehovah, depending on one's Hebrew and one's Latin. Same name, Yahweh and Jehovah, are the same thing. And so it's the personal name of God. So it would be like somebody that's new to my church might call me pastor because they don't have a relationship with me yet and don't know me. But yet, somebody that knows me, Adam, if you came to my church, you would say, Hey Kyle, how are you doing? So it's like the creator God invites us to have a relationship with him to where we can call him by his first name, Yahweh. And then he goes on in the same scripture, the Holy One. And so that means in the Hebrew, like set apart, like there's nobody like God. There is none like God. There has never been, there will never be. He is set apart and different and unique and than anything that we can ever conceive in our human mind. And then he goes on in the same verse to say, and your Savior, He's the safe place. And so here's where that all ties into our prayer life is learning who God is and then having those conversations with him in those ways. It doesn't have to be repeating the Lord. I don't say the Lord's prayer every day. I come in and I let the Spirit move me into however I'm going to have a communication with God. Every day when my wife comes home from work, our conversations look different. Sometimes she's had a very stressful day and I need to pour into her. Sometimes she's full of energy and we have fun with each other. Sometimes I'm having a stressful day and I need her as my friend to share that. It's the same thing with God. Our conversations look different with Him. If there's somebody listening to this and they want to start a conversation with God, here's the best way to start that conversation. Hey, God, it's me, Kyle. I'm here. I want to be with you and I want to know you and I want to have a talk with you. And I feel weird doing this, God. I don't even know how to do this, God. I don't know what words to say, but I'm here, and sometimes I'm just gonna sit here and be quiet and wait on you. That's actually in Scripture. Wait upon the Lord. It talks about waiting upon the Lord. So I'm just gonna sit and wait on you right now. So there's no right way or wrong way to talk to God. He just wants you to be with him.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Wow. I love that. I love that so much. And it's just the raw, authentic self. You're not gonna stop putting all that pressure on yourself that you need to speak a certain way to God as you continue to build a relationship with him that will develop. And this is just great. I love that raw version. Just hey, I don't know, even know if I'm doing this right. Here we go. Yeah, my day is going really good, or hey, I don't really know what I did over here. Should I repair this situation? Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

Hey, so sometimes, Adam, it's God, I really want to be with you, and I really want to know you, and I really want to just be in your presence, but I don't feel like it. I'm stressed out, I'm worried, I'm upset, I'm mad. Sometimes it's okay to say, God, I'm mad at you right now. I feel like I've been wronged and I feel like you didn't take care of this, and I'm just upset with you, and I'm mad at you. Again, I want to go back to the relationship with your spouse. Like, we have to communicate that with her. My wife makes me mad sometimes. Wait, let me fix that. I make my wife mad sometimes. And she has to come to me and say, Hey, I'm upset with you right now. That's how we work things out. We learn to communicate with each other. And so doing that and also understanding that the Christian world. View is a Trinitarian worldview. You got the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and they all play their parts in this communication process. And the Bible says that Jesus is entered, He's at sitting at the right hand of God, the Father, interceding for us. Now, listen, Adam, I don't know what that looks like. The Bible calls it a mystery. It uses the word mystery all through the New Testament, the mystery. There's some things we're not going to get right now on this side of heaven, but I have to stand in my faith and believe that, okay, Jesus is with the Father right now, and Jesus is saying, hey, Dad, Kyle needs you. Dad, Kyle needs this in his life. Can we do this for him in his life? Whatever that is that that looks like, that conversation looks like. And also remembering that Jesus, Romans 8.11 says that Jesus placed his spirit inside of me. So the person of Jesus lives inside of me. And so then now I get to experience that power of transformation in me, working in me all the time. Hey, let me share one other. You pull the book up earlier. I'm going to throw another book out to you and to your listeners. It's called The Practice of the Presence of God. It was written by Brother Lawrence. He was a 17th, I think 17th century monk that wrote this book. I'm not, yeah, no, I don't have it here with me. I was going to see if I had it in my bookshelf. It's really, it's a small, very small book. I read it about three times a year. It's very important to me. And I read one chapter at a time, and then I just soak in that chapter and I relish on that chapter, and then the next day I'll read another chapter. They're really short. It's a game changer in our walk with the Lord. It teaches us that God doesn't want to just be with me. God wants me to live in Him in everything that I do. The practice of the presence of God. Fantastic book. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Say the name of it again for the listeners.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

The practice of the presence of God. You can get it on Amazon. It's like $599-699. Book. Easy read. It's a great read.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

Now, Kyle, I'm still trying to navigate God myself. Sometimes I hang out with my buddies and they don't actually don't have a relationship with God, but their lives are spiraling out of control. Take for instance, I hung out with one of my friends who's going through a divorce right now, and we went out to dinner, and over dinner, we were at in Atlantic City and we were gambling, you know, and not a huge I'm trying to find a good place for that, but I don't gamble more than like a handful of times a year. But we're there and I said to him, He's as he's telling me his problems, I'm like, Do you have space for God? Do you talk to God? He goes, No. I go, Do you ever ask God for a sign? Because I gotta tell you, every time I ask God for a sign, God shows me a sign. He says, basically, you're crazy. You're crazy. We go to the roulette table after dinner, and this guy takes a stack of money and puts it on number 33, and he goes, That's the age Jesus died at. Like, you're in a casino. You don't hear Jesus' name in a casino. And then I was like, you know what? I'm gonna put a chip on top of it too. And guess what happened? It came out. It came out. So then I'm driving my son to go pick up my daughter, and we arrived to pick up my daughter at exactly 333. Oh, and to top it all off, I just got back from Atlantic City. Sometimes I win, right? Do you know how much I deposited into the bank account? $3,300. Like, well, first of all, that's like a huge day for me, right? And I'm not talking about, but I said to my buddy, I go, look, you gotta talk to God. You gotta talk to Jesus. I don't, this is a weird sign right now. God doesn't want us gambling, right? He doesn't, but he does want us to have fun. He wants us to, so I'm trying to find that magic space with this. But I said, when you talk to God, God will respond to you. And sometimes you just have to look for those signs. What is your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 26:01

Okay, well, so I mean, yeah, God will give us signs. I pray for signs a lot. I pray to, I think signs can be a very big, broad word to use. I pray to hear God's voice. I pray to see his face, point me in the right direction. Sometimes I jokingly say, God, can you write something in the sky with the clouds and, you know, or whatever. That's never happened to me, by the way. And so, yeah, and you know, the gambling, other things that we could talk about, I think a lot of it's balance, and I think it's allowing the Lord to show us what that balance looks like in life. I was really thinking about like you and your friend and being around other people that don't know the Lord, that have never been introduced to him, that don't really understand who he is, or maybe they've got an incorrect understanding of who God is and what a relationship with God looks like. I know that we can find that a lot of times we'll have a husband that's a believer and a wife that's struggling with that, or vice versa, a wife that's a believer and a husband that's struggling with that. So a few things on that. So one of the things that I teach in what we call discipleship. So a disciple simply follows Jesus, is a follower of Jesus. That's it. If you say I'm a disciple of Christ, I'm a follower of Christ. That doesn't mean you're perfect, that just means that you're following Jesus. So discipleship is teaching others how to follow Jesus. And we want to teach disciples to make more disciples to make more disciples. And so one of the things that we talk about in our realm at Bethany Church, where I pastor, is letting our conversations go from surface to serious to spiritual. Surface to serious to spiritual. So I might be talking with a friend, and we may be talking about fishing or gambling or the race that's coming up or a ball game, or when's it going to rain again, or whatever. And I am thinking intentionally the whole time, I want to move this up a step from something that's just surface to something that's spiritual, or something that's serious. I'm sorry, something that's serious. And so I want to allow him to share with me, hey, I'm having problems in my marriage right now, or I'm going through a divorce right now, or I'm struggling financially right now, or I'm struggling with my job right now, or whatever the situation is, to where I can be empathetic and say, hey, I want you to know number one, I'm here with you. You're not struggling by yourself. I'm going to get in the ditch and I'm going to struggle with you. And then from that, I'm going to turn that into a spiritual conversation. Hey, can I share with you and in my past an experience I had similar to what you're going through right now, where the Lord really came in and helped me through this, or a particular verse in the Bible, or whatever the situation is. And so I think a lot of times we talk about evangelism and we maybe look at that as, well, I just need to go out and tell everybody that Jesus is God's son and he died on the cross for them and they need the Lord and whatever. People don't respond to that. People respond to relationship. People respond to the way that we treat them and the way that we love them. And that's it always, if you go back and read in the scripture, it was the same way with Jesus. Jesus always led with compassion. And compassion is always the other person first. And so, look, when there's a problem, a situation, you learn to stand in your faith because other people will watch you do that. When there's, I'm thinking of marriage, like if you're married to somebody that's struggling with their walk in the Lord or doesn't have a walk with the Lord. When there's a fight, you learn to let the Lord change your language and control your tongue. The Bible says that the mouth speaks words of life. Well, if the mouth speaks words of life, then the adverse of that is that the mouth can also speak words of death. And so I pray to God, let me always speak words of life. I want to, regardless of the situation, I want to speak words of life. And then we learn to let the Holy Spirit produce godly fruit from our life. Love, joy, peace, patience, so on and so forth. Other people will notice that. They will notice your buddy will notice a change in you and a transformation in you. Go, Adam, I don't know what's going on with you, but I want what you've got. What's your secret? What are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 30:12

Right. And one of the things that you said here, too, that's really critical is going back to the buddy is fine, but the relationship with our spouse, and if we recognize that both of us, because we like to do things together with our spouse, right? But you may be on a different journey with God and you may have different beliefs with God. But one of the things that you hit on that really needs to be reiterated is the relationship. Working on the relationship with you and your spouse. And you go ahead and continue to be you and develop that relationship with God. This is what I'm hearing. Continue to develop that relationship to God. Maybe talk how you would normally speak about God, and they're on their own timing. And when they're ready, if they are ready, they will find out.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

Yes, yes. You cannot force anybody into a walk with the Lord. Again, I want to go back to less a husband would be called to do with his wife that's, you know, doesn't know the Lord or isn't walking with God, whatever, however you want to word that, is we want to disciple her. Well, so again, I want to go back to the Bible. Jesus always started with compassion. And so there's scripture in the Bible that tells us to serve one another, carry one another's burdens. Jesus teaches us that if you really want to love somebody, you serve them. You get lowly and you serve them. And he even gives us an example of that by getting down on his knees and washing his disciples' feet. Like you, you do the hard things, you do the nasty things, the things nobody else wants to do.

SPEAKER_02 31:42

You're not above anyone.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

Yes, yes. And you learn to serve that way. You learn to love that way. Uh there's scripture in Philippians, Paul said, hold others at a higher esteem. So what that means is you are more important than I am. In any relationship that I have, the other person is more important than I am. But I got to go back to this has to be a fruit of the spirit. Because on my own, I can't be that with my wife. We in our flesh are self-centered people, and everything is about me. This is me. This is my story every day of my life. Everything is about me and my relationship with my wife, with my kids, with my job, with the people that I pastor, with the people that I work with. It's all going to be about me unless I'm letting the Lord live through me. And when I'm letting him, and this is why I start my day off with God. This is why I start my mornings off with the Lord, because that's when he settles in, if you will, and begins to live out of me. And that's what causes a spouse that's not following the Lord to go, hey, like I see a difference in you. Maybe even having conversations with your spouse, if they're going through a struggle or whatever, saying to them, Hey, can I pray with you about this? I know you may not believe in God or what I'm praying or whatever, but I do. And what you can do is believe that I believe it. You can believe that I have faith in it. Oh, I love it. And so let me pray with you, or let me share this scripture with you, or let me share a thought. I was listening to a message, or I was listening to a preacher, I was reading something. Can I share with you about this? Listen, and be praying the whole time. Remember, he's God, he's in charge of everything. Be praying the whole time. God, do this work in her life, or do this work in his life, in my friend's life, and whoever it is.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

Kyle, I got one last question that I have a burning desire to ask you. Sometimes we put so much pressure on ourselves to be successful, to get the things that we want in life, and we don't trust God's timing. And including myself, right? Like, when is this gonna happen? I've been going at this thing for so long. I've perfected my craft. When is this thing gonna happen? And sometimes God never gives us what we want, or he'll give us something that is not what we initially had thought what it was. But how do you learn to trust God's timing?

SPEAKER_00 34:16

Okay, so I'm gonna go back again to that time that I spend with the Lord every morning. That is the key to this. Because I'm gonna throw some scripture at you. One, I just flipped over to that if people have been around church at all, they probably heard this. Proverbs 3, uh, verse 5 and 6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways, know him or acknowledge him. Remember, we're living our life in God. In all my ways, live in God, and he will make your path straight. And so, what is my straight path to? Well, the Bible teaches us that God's will is good and perfect. Everything that the God has for the future for me, for you, for everybody, is good and perfect, and it's leading us on a straight path to God's will. Or I get over here on the curvy road that's all over the place, it's going up the mountain and way down in the valley after my own will that's not good and perfect. God literally tells us in his words, I know the plans that I have for you. They're not plans for disaster, they're plans for peace. Well, when we hear the word peace, we automatically think of lack of war, right? There's peace in the house, so me and my wife are not fighting. But actually, the Hebrew word for peace is shalom. And a good definition that I heard a pastor give about the word shalom, the Hebrew word shalom, is everything is as it should be. And so that's what I want in my life today, according to God, whose will is good and perfect. I want everything to be as it should be according to Him. And so I pray back to the Lord's Prayer: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So, God, whatever your will is for me, that's what I want in my life today. Keep me on that straight path. I'm gonna keep going back and keeping my eyes set on you, and you keep me on that path to your good and perfect will. And so, yes, that's so good. Sometimes things don't turn out the way I want them to turn out. Sometimes I get impatient about things. Sometimes I just want to pull my hair out. It's like, oh, what is going on here? And then I stop and remember, wait a minute, I don't even want this if it's not God's will, because God's will is what is good and perfect. So, God, settle me down into your will about this particular situation.

SPEAKER_02 36:47

Yeah. Kyle, this has been amazing. Absolutely, so many golden nuggets here. And that advice is directly to me, too. You know, like just trusting that I'm here for God, I'm here to serve God, and knowing that this path may not be my ideal path, but not the path that I had thought I wanted. But God has a bigger plan for everyone here and just recognizing that. I am so grateful that you decided to come on to the podcast today. Kyle, I'm gonna give you the final words today, but I also want you to let our listeners know. Because I would love to have you on again. Because this, I mean, there's so many, so many more places we can go with this conversation. But if the listeners want to get in touch with you, how would they get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_00 37:32

Best way is through email, it's PastorKyle. That's K-Y-L-E, Pastor Kyle at BethanyChurch.me, M-E. BethanyCurch.me. PastorKyle at BethanyChurch.me. Yeah. And reach out, anybody can reach out to me anytime. Listen, if they want me to, if we want to work out a speaking engagement at leadership conference, whatever, I'm good with that. If you've got a listener that just needs some advice, that just needs some mentorship or discipleship or wants to talk, listen, I'll give them my time. And so absolutely reach out to me, and I'm here for anybody I can help with. And yeah, Adam, as you were talking, that there's one more Romans 8.28 says this, and we know all things work together for the good to them that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. So everything works out good for those that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. I want to remind you, I want to remind the listeners that you are here for a purpose. And there may be somebody listening to this and struggling with addiction or depression or suicidal ideology. You may be at your lowest of low. I've been there, I've been in the bad places, I've been in the dark places. I want to remind you the Lord has a purpose for you, and he will pull you out of where you are at exactly the right time for him to work out his purpose in you, and you'll start seeing things work together for good. All of them. All things work together for the good. All of the things work together for the good in your life. And so I'm excited. Whoever catches that and writes that on their heart and begins to own that, I'm super excited for them because their life is going to explode.

SPEAKER_02 39:24

I could listen to you all day. I really could. I can listen to you all day. This was so great. If you're struggling with depression, suicide, anything, addiction of it, reach out to Kyle. Kyle, give that email address one last time.

SPEAKER_00 39:39

PastorKyle at BethanyChurch.me. And that's also our church's website. BethanyCurch.me is the church's website. You can reach me through it as well.

SPEAKER_02 39:51

You walk the walk, you talk the talk, you're credible, you serve so many people. I'm so grateful that you decided to come on today to the Managing Difficult People podcast because when you show up better for yourself and you have a relationship with God, you're not as difficult anymore. But at the same time, you can go and you create magic. Because for me, it was the feeling inside me and the cockles that just in constant pain of struggling and figuring out what's next and how to accomplish more. And as soon as I released that to God, I stopped being so difficult. And God started showing up and I started creating peace. Because people think that wealth creates peace, or they want to be just they want to just be happy. But happiness is not sustainable, but peace is. And in order to accomplish peace, it's having a relationship with God consistently.

SPEAKER_00 40:43

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 40:44

Thank you, Kyle, for being here. I'm so grateful. Till next time on the Managing Difficult People Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 40:54

So that's it for today's episode of the Managing Difficult People Podcast. Head on over to Apple Podcasts or iTunes wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week that posts a review on Apple Podcasts or iTunes will win a chance in the grand prize drawing to win a $10,000 private VIP day with Adam Holbrook himself. Be sure to head on over to Managing Difficult People Podcast.com and pick up a free copy of Adam's gift. And join us on the next episode.