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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Welcome to the Crosswalk devotional. We are so

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Speaker 1: glad to have you listening with us here today. Today's

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Speaker 1: topic is about getting in our own way. We will

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Speaker 1: return after a brief message from our sponsor. Are you

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Speaker 1: getting in your own Way? Written by Aaron D. Anthony Brown,

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Speaker 1: red by Rochelle ALBERTI Bible reading. For I know that

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Speaker 1: nothing good lives in me that is in my flesh.

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Speaker 1: For the desire to do what is good is with me,

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Speaker 1: but there is no ability to do it. For I

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Speaker 1: do not do the good that I want to do,

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Speaker 1: but I practice the evil that I do not want

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Speaker 1: to do. Romans seventh, eighteen through nineteen CSB. There is

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Speaker 1: a certain question we should ask ourselves every now and again,

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Speaker 1: Am I getting in my own way? When we don't

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Speaker 1: get the outcomes we want in life? Blaming our circumstances

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Speaker 1: and other people comes naturally enough. What doesn't happen as

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Speaker 1: frequently as it should is looking at the man in

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Speaker 1: the mirror. Recently, I remember talking to a fellow young

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Speaker 1: man about our desire for marriage. Well, we went out

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Speaker 1: to lunch with women from our church, something we both

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Speaker 1: wanted for one reason or another. This getting to know

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Speaker 1: you experience led him to talk about an extremely embarrassing incident. Now,

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Speaker 1: who in their right mind would share that on a

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Speaker 1: first date? Or take, for instance, a body of mine

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Speaker 1: who is encountering deep financial strain. The more anyone tries

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Speaker 1: to encourage him, the more he pushes back with a

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Speaker 1: woe is me attitude. He seems to want more negativity

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Speaker 1: to fuel what he already exhibits. These guys are not alone.

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Speaker 1: I've battled with my own negative thinking and dwelling. Perhaps

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Speaker 1: you too are sabotaging your own success. So ask yourself,

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Speaker 1: am I getting in my own way intersecting faith in life?

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Speaker 1: After you ask yourself this important question, the answer should

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Speaker 1: be yes. If not, the following steps are especially for

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Speaker 1: you build self awareness. The reason Paul was able to

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Speaker 1: write those particular verses in Romans is that he developed

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Speaker 1: some measure of self awareness. He may not have completely

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Speaker 1: understood why he behaved the way he did, aside from

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Speaker 1: citing his sinful nature, but he understood something was wrong

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Speaker 1: and wrote about it. He acknowledged the problem, and acknowledgment

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Speaker 1: is the first step to finding a solution. If you

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Speaker 1: want to build self awareness in your own life and

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Speaker 1: in some time pausing and reflecting. Yes, this does mean

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Speaker 1: sitting with your thoughts and not with your phone. Question

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Speaker 1: yourself why you do certain things and not others. The

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Speaker 1: better you know yourself, the more you'll be able to

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Speaker 1: identify your strengths and weaknesses develop humility. Humility is underrated

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Speaker 1: and uncommon. So many of us think we have it,

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Speaker 1: yet failed to recognize just how prideful we are. A

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Speaker 1: good way to measure this virtue is to observe how

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Speaker 1: you handle people who disagree with you. Not just the

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Speaker 1: non believers, but those people you perceive as less or

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Speaker 1: more Christian than you. Have they ever proven you wrong

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Speaker 1: about something? When did that last happen? Is it a

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Speaker 1: good thing that you haven't been wrong since have people

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Speaker 1: around you to call you out. Having agreement is nice,

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Speaker 1: but if iron is to sharp and iron, then disagreement

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Speaker 1: is essential. Encouraging one another is nice, but we can

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Speaker 1: do so at the expense of others. Instead of seeking

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Speaker 1: to appease those around us, let us hold each other

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Speaker 1: accountable and do our best to help others reflect christ.

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Speaker 1: If you know you're a sinner, act like it. Some

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Speaker 1: of us will openly call ourselves sinners in the abstract

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Speaker 1: on any given Sunday, but on other days of the

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Speaker 1: week we justify our simple behavior. People know that they

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Speaker 1: practice poor communication, but don't change it. Overeat but don't

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Speaker 1: change it. Say that they're lazy, but don't change it.

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Speaker 1: Does God take sin seriously? If you say yes, don't

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Speaker 1: say he made you that way. Recognize that He hates sin,

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Speaker 1: and try our best to hate it as well. Hate

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Speaker 1: the self sabotage, and do something righteous instead. Further reading

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Speaker 1: and listening, Want to be Happy by Kirk Franklin Galatians

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Speaker 1: five seventeen, James one fourteen through fifteen, Matthew twenty six

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Speaker 1: forty one. Thanks for listening to today's devotional. If you

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Speaker 1: liked what you heard today, we want to make sure

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Speaker 1: you know about our sister podcast, Your Daily Prayer. When

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Speaker 1: you follow your daily prayer in your favorite podcast app,

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Speaker 1: you'll get a brand new prayer and devotional each day,

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Speaker 1: so your days begin in conversation with God. If you're

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Speaker 1: looking to grow in prayer or start your day with

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Speaker 1: your heart focused on the right things, search for your

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Speaker 1: daily prayer in your favorite podcast app and be sure

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Speaker 1: to follow the show so you get a new prayer

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Speaker 1: delivered straight to you each morning,