Empowered Minds: Mental Health and Faith

In this episode of Relentless Pursuit, the host welcomes back Bobby Palma, his spiritual leader, to discuss the topic of the 'Battlefield of the Mind.' They explore how men, in particular, struggle with negative and evil thoughts, often due to suppressing internal issues. Bobby shares his personal experience of separation from his wife, his subsequent loneliness, and how negative thoughts led him to hit rock bottom. He explains how God's intervention and building a relationship with the divine helped him overcome these challenges. The conversation underscores the importance of prayer, reading the Bible, and maintaining a community of like-minded believers to combat negative thoughts effectively. They also discuss how new believers can adopt these practices to strengthen their faith. The episode concludes with practical steps for keeping a sound mind and the vital role of church community in supporting one's spiritual journey.

Transcript

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Welcome to this week's episode of Relentless Pursuit. I am extremely excited for my guest. We have my leader Bobby Palma. How are you doing? Doing amazing. Glad to be back. Thankful for the opportunity to come back and discuss some things with you, man. Yeah. The last time you were on. We were definitely smaller. We were still getting ironing out the edges. But we feel, I personally feel like we're a lot stronger now and we have a lot of things put together. And to see where we were then and when you came in to now where you're coming in, it just, it feels like a lot different. I'm in a different season and I'm married. And so there's just been a lot of changes. But with that being said I'm, I want to know first and foremost this topic that we're going to talk about is the battlefield battle of the mind. How men specifically struggle in these areas of the battlefield of the mind because they like the physical things we have an issue externally and we see that we fix it. But the internal issues, we tend to cover them up. We tend to, move past them and neglect them. And the first question I have for you is, can you share a personal experience where you struggled with negative or evil thoughts? And then how did you overcome them? Yeah. First to touch on what you opened up with. I believe that men bottle these things because in some cases as a married man I don't want to burden my family with some of the things that are bothering me. So as that person who wants to fix, as that person who looks at himself as the leader or the one that I don't want to say makes the decisions, but spiritual leader of your home, as a spiritual leader of my home, I don't want to burden anybody else in my home with some of the thoughts that come into my mind. What most men don't think about is your mind is attached to your heart, is attached to your soul. And whether you share that with your family or not, they're gonna feel it. Yeah. And I think that it's important that we attack it. We have to be open because there's things that if we don't deal with, they may be laying dormant for a while, but if we don't deal with it, if we don't destroy it, man, it's gonna rear its head at some point. Yeah. There's gonna be, there's gonna be casualties. There's gonna be spiritual casualties. There's gonna be anger is gonna be expressed. And it's just, it's gonna fall on It's going to fall on the hearts of the wrong people, and it's going to come out the wrong way. So I think it's definitely something that we need to be proactive about. But to answer the question of, the personal experience of thinking negative, man, I can think of, I can think of quite a few. One of the most catastrophic times of my life is when the second time my wife and I had separated. And and we separated, and it was, she had given her life. back to Christ and she was serving the Lord and she was doing everything that she was supposed to be doing spiritually. And I still had not given my life to Christ. I was still living very much for the world. It wasn't a bad person. I just wasn't living for God, put it that way. Yeah. And the separation came it was my decision. I didn't have any ulterior motive other than, let's split. You can go find the spiritual man and I can go find the woman that I thought I had. That was my mindset at the time. And went out, got my own apartment, and that apartment was probably the loneliest I've ever been, man. Probably the loneliest I've ever been. And I knew I had, my family lived close, I had friends but I didn't want to be around any of them. I just wanted my time alone but, we all know it's not good for man to be alone. What was happening is, thoughts of you're nothing but a failure and, things are never going to be the way they're supposed to be. And Oh, look now the promises that you've made promises that you've made to yourself and to, to your spouse about not raising your daughter in a split home is now happening. So it was just a lot of negative, man. Just a lot of just beating myself up and this is without God. So these are thoughts. Of the world in the world. Yeah. And it drove me to even more drinking. It drove me to just negative thoughts on the outlook of marriage, negative thoughts on the outlook of relationship, negative thoughts on the outlook of parenting. It's just, negative situations led to negative thoughts, which led to negative actions. Yeah. And man, if we don't, if we don't apply the word, if we don't apply the word on a daily basis, and I don't care how. I don't care how seasoned or experienced you are in the faith. We're no battle for sin, man. We are no match for sin. We are no match for the flesh. So what happened was pretty much hit rock bottom, pretty much hit rock bottom in, in my thoughts in my feelings, in, in just in everything. Again, like I was drinking more than I ever had before. And so physically I was, I hit rock bottom physically and And God got ahold of me right there in my apartment. And again, I didn't have a relationship with him. I wasn't pursuing God, but God got ahold of me right there in the apartment. And I know now that it was God, but at the time I had no clue, but my thoughts at the time were, you know what, this is ridiculous. You need to go back. You need to talk with your wife. You need to reconcile and you need to make it right because she is the one that I have for you. And you were the one that I have for her and you need to make it right. And that was the initial. That was the initial, I don't want to say contact, but that was the initial time that God got a hold of me, during this time. And so I did, I reached out, and it was awkward because we had, and we had been separated for about seven months to the point of like papers were ready to go, just needed them to be signed so we can, we were trying to agree on every aspect of the separation or the, of the divorce. So all we had to do was sign the papers, I was going to file, and that was it, we were done. Never could come up to an agreement on certain things, and so I made the phone call, and I was like, hey, we need to talk, and I know that I've been pushing you away for the last seven months, but that's not right, I don't want this isn't what we need to do, caught her off guard, so that was this whole, brought on its own different set of challenges, but God got a hold of me by myself in my apartment and said this isn't right, you need to fix it. Yeah. Yeah, that was the start. Wow. Wow. In that the depth of where a man could go in, in, when he's isolated. I think, and even in my personal life I feel like the times where I was most vulnerable to the enemy, or even to the bad thoughts, not even necessarily the enemy, because it's not always the enemy, it's sometimes your own flesh desires, or sometimes your own, your own, Will in a way, anything that's contrary to God it's just that can pop up. And I think those are the times where we have a habit of picking the wrong direction when we are isolated. And that's why like men's conferences or Bible studies or even life group, how we do life group. I think that's so crucial just because it isn't good for man to be alone. But it's not just referring to you better go get married, right? Like it's also referring to that You need brothers in arms men in arms that are willing to go to bat for you that are willing To lift your head up and so With that being said, like even when I was struggling with, I was in church, like I, when I was in church, when I was following God, when I was leading, when I was ministering and doing these things for God, I still found myself in the lowest point of my life where I was debating. And if it was better for me to commit suicide so that my family could somewhat remain whole. Or keep living in and witness my family breaking up and so it felt like I was in the middle of these two evils and I was leaning towards the worst negative outlook of what I could have decided and little did I know if I chose life. That everything given to God would be restored. Everything that, that we allow, that I allowed God to put his hand on would have mended it eventually. And it would have been like a cop out to, to choose a different path. But Even in that, like I needed someone to lift my head up. I needed someone to get my eyes off of my issues and get my eyes on him. And what is the Bible to get into the more spiritual aspect of it, what does the Bible say? Like, how does how do you battle these thoughts through the Bible? There's so many, like when you sent me these questions, I was like, man, Nate, bro, there's so many, there's so many scriptures. And immediately my mind goes to Proverbs and it's Hey, as a man And that's so true, but that's just a small scripture. That's so profound as a man thinking. So he becomes if you look back at some of the times where you were at your lowest of lows, what was your mindset? Like it was honestly, it was all focused on me. Can't get out of this. Yeah. Oh yeah. You can't get out of this. There ain't no way out. I'm a failure. Yeah. Just like what I just, what I shared earlier. I'm a failure. Look at what I've done to my family. You just, you keep putting those negative thoughts into your head and they just run rampant in your head. And what was becoming, man, I wasn't doing anything. Like I told you, seven months in that apartment, I was miserable for seven months. I made a decision that I thought would make me happier. And I was miserable. I was miserable for seven months, but yet I stuck with the decision because even in my misery, It was like no, these negative thoughts is what convinced me to get to that situation. So I need to stick with these negative thoughts. I need to stick with my decision. When unfortunately, if I would have realized that the decision that I made previous to that to say I do, if I would have put forth the effort and stuck with that decision first, I would have stayed in that, and when my feelings came back. We don't act on our feelings. We gotta act on, we gotta act on our heart, man. We gotta stand firm in our decisions. Yeah. I made a decision to say I do. And I should have stayed with that decision until my feelings came back. But yet, it was the negative feelings that I kept putting on to myself that caused me to stay in that misery. As a man thinking, so he becomes, yeah, I was thinking miserable. I was miserable. But let's flip it, man. When you've had success in your life, what was your mindset that drove that success? I want to be profitable. I want to be successful. I want to start this business. I want to start this business. Nobody's thinks of starting a business like, Oh man, I can't wait for this to fail. Oh man, I can't wait for this to fall flat on his face. Yeah, no, they start a business like, no man, this is what I'm going to do. This is how I'm going to set it up. Oh man, I'm going to have, I'm going to have the world in the palm of my hand because this is such a great idea and it's going to take off. Even when you face adversity, In those successful thoughts you stay driven to be successful. Yeah So the power of the mind is amazing, but let's get back to scripture again because i'd run off on tangents all the time No, I like it. You're good. So first of all In romans, romans 8 5 through 6. It says those who are dominated By the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the holy spirit Think about things that please the spirit so letting your sinful nature control your mind Leads to death but letting the spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. So that's just one little one little scripture Romans 7 19 through 20. This is the one where man I know i'm supposed to do good But I don't do good and the things that I don't want to do I do and it's paul basically saying I want to Do what is good, but I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don't want to do, I'm not really the one doing wrong. It is sin living in me that does it. And that's what I meant earlier with, we are no match for flesh. We are no match for sin. We cannot do this on our own. We have to do this with God. Because we will fall into this trap every single time. I want to do, I know what's good because he goes on. I know the law. And I know the law is good and I trust in the law and I believe in the law But a lot of times I disobey that law a lot of times I go against my spiritual nature Yeah, and I fall into the sins of the flesh. We are no match for sin in Ephesians He talks about putting on the armor of God daily. Part of that armor is the helmet of salvation Why would it be a helmet of salvation? It's not just a covering man. It's protection. Yeah Protect your mind and the Ephesians when he talks about the bot putting on the armor of god It doesn't say make sure you put on a piece of this armor of god It says to put on the full armor of god Yeah, so we can't walk out there with our breastplate of righteousness belt of truth and sword of the spirit without the helmet of salvation Yeah, because all of that all the other armor is useless if your mind isn't right And all of the other armor is useless If your mind is right, but you're not working on the tools to use it. You're not reading the word. You're not praying. You're not getting into his presence. So yep. My mind is right But i'm not carrying any of the other tools. I'm not carrying any of the other armor to preach the gospel Yeah to speak and witness and confess in his name. I'm not carrying that the belt of truth My goodness, I can go on that podcast. Yeah the belt of truth The belt of truth holds the sword of the spirit My words cannot ring true if I'm speaking the spirit to somebody, but I'm walking in negative life. Oh, I'm walking a life. But basically I'm preaching one and living another. That's the spirit isn't going to pierce anybody. The spirit doesn't need help from me. I need help from the spirit. Yeah. Wow. So I could be spitting good word. I can be given people amazing word, biblical word, but I'm not living right. What happens? They look at my actions and even though what I spoke to them was truth, I'm not living truthful. Wow. That's really good. Holds no weight. You know what I'm saying? So the Bible doesn't say, make sure you put on a piece of this armor. It says put on the full armor of God daily. And part of that armor is the helmet of salvation. Wow. Yeah. Real quick. I want to like insert something. So there's a scripture that says for I have not given you a God speaking to or it's Paul speaking to Timothy where it says, I have not given you a sound or Saying God God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind. And another version of it that the fear is timidity. And when you're saying that it's the whole armor works together. All three of these components work together, love, power, and a sound mind. You want, you can't have love. You'll fall short in love because you don't have a sound mind. You'll fall short in power because you don't have a sound mind and vice versa to all three of those. And so I think in that it's the same thing of what you're saying of the armor of God. All fall short if you don't have a sound mind. All fall short if you don't put on the helmet of salvation. And even in that love, power, and a sound mind, what is it battling? It's battling that fear, or the intimidation, or timidity. What is timidity? What is fear? It's the opposite of faith. And so you can't operate in the God gift, God gifted ability the God empowered ability to do the spiritual gifts of your life, the spiritual anointing of your life and let it flow. If you are walking in fear, you can't you can't, let's say you can't take that step of faith if you're walking in fear because you have compromised the sound mind, you have an avenue to fear in your mind. And you've opened that door by compromising it through whatever actions that you've had And then these things have a tendency to take root in that and now are allowing other things in your mind then we'll cloud your judgment. That is For the vision that god has given you and It's just funny how the Bible is like a basket. It's all woven together. And so even something that was said in Ephesus towards the Ephesians is also being said to Timothy in a different time, different section. And it's just worded in a different way. And so I just thought that was so amazing. And even in these I feel that the scriptures that you're saying, it's just all gearing towards We need to break down the strongholds that are there so we can build up a stronghold in god 100 I and 100 and I think oh go ahead. I'm gonna suffer from a stronghold. It's gonna be a stronghold of the spirit Yeah, that's it. And I wouldn't call it suffering at that point It's if i'm gonna be bound to something. I want to be bound to god. I want to be bound to the spirit And but his word man, that's why grace and mercy are so Just amazing. Yeah, oh my gosh, man, like We're not always going to make the right decision. We're not always going to make the right choices. We're not always going to do the right thing. But man, are we righteous? Are we trying to do right? Yeah. David, man after God's own heart. A lot of people hear that. Oh, David, yeah, he was a man after God's own heart. How do we know that? How do we know that David was a man after God's own heart? Because God himself said, seek David. He is a man after and how do we, and how did God know that? Other than the fact that he created him, God knew that because so many times David said, God, open up my heart. Examine me, rid me of the unclean, get rid of these anxious thoughts that defile you. So David knew he wasn't perfect, but yet God kept trying to use him wanting to use him. Why? Because man, his heart was pure. Yeah, we're gonna make mistakes. We're gonna do wrong. We're gonna make bad decisions. It's going to happen. But man, are you trying to live righteous? Yeah, are you trying to do right? Is your heart in the right place? We may make mistakes. Those are sins and those are faults of the flesh. But man, I'm Don't operate in that. Don't stay there. Don't stay there. There's hope And let's not even and that's not even touching on the physical effects of our mind. Yeah, the physical effects that it does to our body. And stress and fear and anxiety, all those things, man, elevate our heart rate. Elevates our heart rate to where, man, sometimes it'll feel like our heart is going to pump out of our chest. Yeah. We feel like we're going to die. Why? All because fear. Yeah. Fear over circumstance, fear over finance, fear over our marriage, fear over occupation, fear over just fear. And sometimes our health itself is fearful. We get overwhelmed. Next thing you know, we get overwhelmed. We start thinking about the negative. Next thing you know, you start thinking about the negative. You fall into depression. And then you want to isolate yourself. Yeah. What does the word say about people that are isolated? The enemy loves to isolate who? The young, the sick, and the old. The devil wants to isolate believers. Yeah. So that he can attack them alone. And you've seen that in covid see yes where fear was running rampant throughout even the church Yes, and people wouldn't go out their house to even get the newspaper on the street, they wouldn't get their mail, right? You've seen that there People were becoming isolated and they built a tendency or a habit to be to live in isolation And now as we have still breaking habits of breaking that isolation Exactly for isolation instead of fighting for freedom They fought for isolation. Businesses now still can't get people to come back to work. I know right now they're fighting for their isolation. I would rather be at home at that point. It's comfort. Yeah, it's a comfort thing. I don't want to go to the workplace. I don't want to have to get up early. I don't want to, I don't want to I can get more done at home and let's face it. Statistics show that's not the case. Yeah. Businesses are not as successful as they were before because there's not that there's not that let's get up and go to work. They're fighting. For isolation, and that's gonna that's gonna be detrimental to families. Yeah. Even at that it the they're comfortable with watching church on a screen, right? They're comfortable with being like, okay, I can miss this Sunday because we can just I could just watch it on my phone. And so that's the comfortability to it where you're It's, there's no sacrifice in that, right? And the Bible says, present your body as a living holy sacrifice that is pleasing to the Lord. And so in that, we have to make that sacrifice, that initiative to say, alright, Lord, I'm comfortable in my bed, but I know you want me to gather with your people. Sure. So we can sharpen each other, right? So because what I have is useful to other people and because of what other people are useful to what I need. And so Lord, I, all right, I'll, this is my sacrifice to get up, get changed, get showered. Hopefully somebody brushes their teeth and get into the, hopefully, and get into the house of God. And so that it's building up that stronghold in your mind, because you don't allow the infiltration of comfortability in, in, in just the small, minute details of your life. And so as you build those up, then you can conquer the giants. Yeah. As you build the small things build for the small things, then you can take the mega leaps into deliverance from addictions, deliverance in your families, deliverance in these different areas. And I think we so quickly overlook the small details in our life. To focus on, ah, I'm comfortable in my bed. Let me just watch it. It's not going to do into me long term. And we do that with food too, but I'm not going to get into that. Take that as a spiritual leader of your home as a father, if you're allowing that to go on in your home, what what are you starting? Where are you starting? You're going to raise up children that feel like it's okay. They don't have to go to a church anymore. They don't have to, we don't have to assemble. The Bible clearly states, let us not forsake the assembly of the saints. What does that mean? That means Man, God has given you gifts. He's given you an anointing. He's given you special gifts that, that operate in a church setting to operate with the assembly of the saints. Nate, if I wake up in the morning and I plan on not going to church, but God has given me a word to give to you and you were there and I wasn't, that's missing out on an opportunity. Yeah. If, and I need that word. Amen. We all need it. We all need that word of encouragement. You know what I mean? Amen. Amen. If we don't go, if we don't assemble the fellowship, the camaraderie, the closeness, operating in our gifts, operating in the pathetic, praying over, laying hands over, over the sling hands on the sick praying over those people that just need prayer, having those spiritual divine appointments. Yeah. Divide all that's missed. All that's missed. So I think that as spiritual leaders of our home, as husbands, as fathers, man, let us not forsake the assembly of the saints. Man don't create a culture in your home of inclusivity. Don't create a culture of we're gonna, we're gonna remain, we're gonna stay home. Yeah. Don't get me wrong. Can the spirit meet you at your home? Absolutely. Absolutely. Do I feel as though the spirit can fully operate the way it's intended? On a Sunday, when you're talking about when you're talking about going to church and congregating with like minded believers, I don't. I don't. I think that there's things that we are called to do. The Bible says that these are the things that, that these are the gifts that Christ gave the church. If I'm a teacher, if I'm a preacher, if I'm a pastor, if I'm an evangelist, I need to be, I need to be at church. Yeah. I need to be in his house. Yeah. If you were called to do any of those things, And you've allowed fear to keep you at home. You've allowed fear to keep your family at home. Man, let today be a message to you saying, No, I gotta get back to God's house. I gotta get back to God's house. And there was a question that, that kind of works exactly with what we're talking about. It says, How can Christian community and fellowship Support individuals in their battle of negative thoughts I mean we just hit it on the head but there's still more that we can do in that. I know for myself as I walk through let's say our church lifeway as I walk through Someone that just shares a smile From the parking lot to the seat Is it brightens one's day even in those small things like that? Brother martin You he's a crazy man of God and I love that. And he'll, he will make you laugh as you're entering the parking lot. And that could change someone's entire week. And so it's the small things like that. That's just what gathering together in community and fellowship. That's one of the ways. That's one of the practical ways. The simple ways that better your mental health. Or battling these negative thoughts by somebody else sharing a smile. Somebody else doing a dance, whatever it is. And so what how can what are other ways that Christians coming to church, building community, building this network of God's people, how does that help battle against these negative thoughts? So I think one of the things is be bold. And when I say that, what I'm meaning is so many people will recognize a change in countenance on another believer, but they don't approach, they don't want to impose, they don't want to see. None of my business. No, man, it is your business. If you see somebody that's walking around that is normally jovial normally they're happy. They're talking with everybody. And for the last couple of weeks they've kept to themselves. They've been super quiet or you can tell that something's bothering them and say something, approach them and you don't have to attack it head on. Hey man, what's wrong with you? It could literally be a, Hey man, how are you doing today? Yeah, things going for you. Start to start a conversation because so many people, When they feel isolated or they feel down and depressed, they also have a feeling of nobody cares. Nobody notices. Nobody's going to nobody's going to care. Nobody's going to care if I miss one Sunday. Nobody's going to care if I miss two Sundays. That's confirmed because nobody's reached out and I've missed three Sundays. So what does it matter? Yeah. And they start feeling it. So if you see somebody who you think is struggling or it's out of the way they're acting is out of character, out of the norm, approach them. Yeah. Say something. And that, that's for, that is for the congregation, that's for the church, that's for the people. If you yourself are suffering, if you yourself are struggling, anger, depression, anxiety, doubt, fear whatever it may be, if you're not reaching out, you're hiding out. So when you feel like you are in that season to where I don't want to go to church, I don't want to see this person, I don't want to go here, I don't want to hear this word, I don't want to go to church. If you are in that season. You need to reach out. Yeah, reach out to someone close to you Reach out to someone that you know will tell you what you need to hear not just what you want to hear Yeah, you need to reach out if you're not reaching out you're hiding out and if you're hiding out you're setting yourself up for the attacks of the enemy yeah, and the image that I think of when you say that is You're stranded on an island and you have a flare gun, but you don't want to use it Yeah, you don't want to waste it. Yeah, I don't want to waste it now because I don't see a plane Yeah, i'm not going to shoot it up Yeah, when I do see a plane, unfortunately when they do see them it's because they left the Lift the flare gun on the other side of the island. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. They're not prepared. Yeah. They're not prepared. And how do you prepare? All this is leading to, all these questions are literally leading to how do you get in the presence? How am I prepared? You know what I mean? Yeah. So I think I, I think that as a believer, if you notice somebody who's just smile on their face, isn't there any. You got to reach out. Yeah, you have to reach out. It's our responsibility as a church to build up one another, to encourage one another to speak life into one another too. That's our job. It's what we're supposed to do as a church. The iron sharpening iron, that's not just a, that's not just a, Hey let's get together and have fun. It's a process, man. It's a process because if you weren't dull, you wouldn't need sharpening. And sometimes that sharpening is a rough process. You need somebody to come out and tell you to tell you what it is, how it is and why it is. And we need to humble ourselves to receive that. If we don't want to live in the negativity, if we don't want to live in the depression, we don't want to live in the fear, live in the anger, live in the doubt, live in the shame. We need to receive correction. Yeah. And I think you hit the nail on the head. We need to walk in humility. We need to be humble. Now as we come to a close here, I have one more question. And Pastor George hit this on Sunday. He said that every Sunday we've had someone give their life to God. Yeah. Now with that, it brings me to this thought of we have a lot of newcomers coming into the church, not just life way, but just in as a whole, there is a lot of new people that are giving their life to God and don't necessarily have the tools to battle this. Sometimes the enemy feels like he overwhelms you. And so what is something or how do you practically battle against these negative thoughts for a new believer? For a new believer, old believer, I think it's in the approach, but the answer is the same. The answer is getting closer to God, drawing closer to God. How do we do that? We do that in prayer. We do that in reading of the word. We do that in receiving words from others, surrounding ourselves with like minded believers, surrounding ourselves with a good support system. Again, the answer is the same. The approach is different. If I see somebody, if I see a seasoned believer down depressed or needing encouragement, my approach to them is going to be a little bit different than when I see a new believer, because a new believer could already be overwhelmed with things that they're things that they're witnessing changes that are happening in their life. They could be overwhelmed with a lot of things that are going on and the last thing you The last thing that you want to do is just bombard them with just more and more. However, the worst thing you can do is not give them the proper information to help them out. Yeah. So I believe that the information is the same approach is different. So prayer life, man, extend your prayer life. If you haven't started a prayer life, start a prayer life. Devote, dedicate, be intentional about your prayer time with God. So many people ask me how do you know that was God that told you this? How do you know that was God that was speaking to you? Because I know his voice and I know his voice because I'm intentional about spending time in prayer. I'm intentional about building a relationship with him. That's how I know it was him. Reading the word and we can't pray it if we don't know it. We can't declare it if we don't know it. And getting into his word, man. Yes. Some people go, Oh, it's just so confusing. And this and that. Okay. I get it. Pray before you get into his word, your prayer needs to be God helped me understand what it is that I'm ingesting. Help me understand what it is that I'm reading. And that's why his word also says to meditate on the word. It's not just, it's not just something that you read and you just keep it on the surface. I don't, it's not a matter of reading the Bible for what it says, read the Bible for what it means. Yeah. And the way you do that is meditating on it. Meditate on his word. Prayer, reading the word, surrounding yourself with like minded believers and positive influence and positive people, that's, those are just three. Amen. Yeah, that, that is, I'm sure if you go spiritual leaders on down, that's their same answer. Cross the board. I, yeah, they could be jumped three times into or seven times into the water. But yeah, no I a hundred percent agree. Pray, read your word and get in really just go to church. There's not going to find too many people that are negative in church, but that's the spirit of God. Praise the Lord. But yeah so we're going to close right here. Through this conversation, I just want to tell you, Bobby, I appreciate you for coming out here. This was a great time. I truly did learn things myself and I received some things that you were saying. And so I'm grateful for you for you spreading some word of words of encouragement and for everyone that tuned in and joined us this week. Thank you for joining this week. Don't forget to follow, share, and subscribe to all our social media platforms. We look forward to seeing you guys next week. See you soon.