{"id":15726,"date":"2025-05-17T08:27:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T13:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/?p=15726"},"modified":"2025-05-19T08:38:45","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T13:38:45","slug":"struggling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/15726\/struggling\/","title":{"rendered":"Struggling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n

I have been struggling a lot recently.\u00a0\u00a0Mostly with letting go of the past and accepting the new me, versus trying too hard to be the new me that lives in the\u00a0Spirit.\u00a0\u00a0And instead of reaching out and asking the body for help,\u00a0as well as asking my wife.\u00a0\u00a0I have let a spirit that is not of God get into my head and tell me to battle this alone, that\u00a0I\u2019m supposed to be strong and\u00a0not\u00a0show any signs of weakness, that\u00a0I\u2019m a man, and\u00a0it\u2019s my responsibility to take all the weight of the family and bear it myself.\u00a0\u00a0So,\u00a0I have been battling this in silence\u00a0while trying to navigate this on my own.\u00a0\u00a0I haven\u2019t been reading,\u00a0nor have I been listening to anything to get the good, spiritual\u00a0food I need.\u00a0\u00a0I get sucked into Facebook,\u00a0and it makes things worse.\u00a0\u00a0My\u00a0wife\u00a0finally called me out about it last night before going to bed.\u00a0\u00a0And it\u2019s getting to a point where I\u2019m choosing earthly family over the body\u00a0of Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n

I could really use prayer and advice.\u00a0\u00a0I don\u2019t like this place I am in, nor do I want to stay here,\u00a0feeling stuck and hopeless.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Name withheld<\/span><\/p>\n

===========<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi \u2013,<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

We can put too much on ourselves very easily when we have a wrong idea about what it means to be spiritual.\u00a0 Being spiritual means to be and do some the things you are feeling.\u00a0 It is not always feeling thrilled and shouting.\u00a0 Being spiritual is a very practical and down-to-earth lifestyle.\u00a0 Real life is only sometimes dancing in the Spirit; at other times, it is taking care of our business, or spending quality time with those we love, or just using our down time to be still and “consider the lilies”.\u00a0 Things like Facebook, though in themselves are harmless, can steal time from us that is better spent in other ways.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus can help you get your priorities in order so that your life is balanced and happy.\u00a0 It will not be as hard as you think.\u00a0 Thinking about doing it ahead of time may make it seem hard, but it is not.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Hope that helps.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Tell us what you think:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/WitnessofSpirit\/status\/1924459546124197924<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey Pastor John, I have been struggling a lot recently.\u00a0\u00a0Mostly with letting go of the past and accepting the new me, versus trying too hard to be the new me that lives in the\u00a0Spirit.\u00a0\u00a0And instead of reaching out and asking the body for help,\u00a0as well as asking my wife.\u00a0\u00a0I have let a spirit that is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15726"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15731,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15726\/revisions\/15731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}