The Eric Metaxas Show - Rebekah Lyons

Episode Date: September 10, 2021

Rebekah Lyons offers practical advice and spiritual wisdom from her new book, "A Surrendered Yes: 52 Devotions to Let Go and Live Free."

Welcome to the Eric Mettaxas show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Hey, folks. Welcome to hour two, two, two, zviio, wow. Those? Yeah. Anyway, you pick one of those. That's what it is. It's the second hour. The theft edi is the Greek.

The twaida, stunda. We've got a lot of languages that we could use, but we choose to speak in English. That's the language of the Apostle Paul. And so we're always, we always choose a language that all used in, in the King James Bible. So we've already, we've already confused people. That's on purpose, folks. That's so you'll listen more carefully. All right, we got some big news here.

First of all, we're now on one today. We had my really dear friends, Ron and Lynette Lewis, Pastor Ron Lewis and Lynette. We've been friends for years. They shared about their new book, Miracles, in Manhattan. But right now in hour two, we have another friend, Rebecca Lyons. She's the wife of Gabe Lyons. And she's, we've known them for so many years as well. What a blessing to know some of these dear people.

So we're beginning to talking to Rebecca in a minute. But I got to say, I have to tell our audience again. We have some big news, Albin. I, for years, have thought to myself, you know, we are, and I'm not talking about which I'm, you know, taping in a hotel room, but most of our show is taped at the TBN studios in New York City. And of course, where does it air? Where does that air?

There's 30 minutes that air on TBN on the weekend. But we're taping hours of programming every week for video, glorious video, technicolor, glorious technicaler. And I want to say that, um, Since YouTube canceled the program, you know, we need a place to air what we're doing because it's so beautifully produced in the studio and we want people to see it. We want people to see what you and I are wearing because it's the talk of Hollywood. And Mike Lindell has offered us an hour, 2 p.m. every day at Frankspeech.com. You can also see it at Lindell TV.

But if you go to frankspeech.com, they have running TV programming. They've got Diamond and Silk. I don't know who else they have. Steve Bannon. We are now in the lineup. 2 p.m. every day. If you go to Frankspeech.com, you'll see this program. It is one hour of this program. And that's most of what we do, because you take our commercials and stuff. I mean, we're, we've got, you know, every hour with commercials and news ends up really being 40 minutes of this kind of content. of me interviewing people. And then 20 minutes from the second hour. So most of what we do will be every day

in glorious video at frankspeech.com. You should be going to frankspeech.com anyway, for other reasons. Also, Mike Lindell said that if you use the code Eric, the specials that are frank, it's frankspeech.com, which there's some like loony specials that he puts up only at frankspeech.com,

you can get those if you use the code Eric. also. It's not just at mypillar.com or my store.com. If you go to frankspeech.com, you can do that. But frankspeech.com is going to be a big deal. I mean, it's already a big deal because the number of people around the world that follow Mike Lindell and follow what's going on with the election of 2020 and all this kind of stuff. If you're not following it, I don't know what you're doing with your life, probably wearing three masks in the basement. But who's who's to judge on a president's activity? Oh, certainly we.

But we've got other announcements. I want to say that, let's see, the most important thing probably is that Neutermetics, which is our other sponsor, they're the best. They are offering 35% off this week only, only this week. It's usually 20% off if you use the code Eric, 20% off. But this week only, which I hope includes the weekend, is if you use the code Eric, it's 35% off. That's what they call an introductory offer.

That's to lure you in. So you can sort of say, hey, this stuff is amazing. I want to get my vitamin C, D, zinc, and all these other things from Nutramatics.com. Because somebody told me they get 50% of all their profits to missions. Yeah, folks. Mission. Wouldn't that be nice to buy medicine and be giving money to missions or to be buying nutristols or whatever they call vitamins and be giving much?

So that's Nutrametics.com, 35% off if you use code Eric, this week only. Albin, two more things that I would say. Okay, well, three more things. I'm wearing a turtle shirt in honor of you being down in Florida. That's all I wanted to say. Is that all you wanted to say? That's it. I want to thank you for that.

And I want to say to you, on behalf of Mitch McConnell and all the turtles around the world, I want to say, thank you, my friend. We are honored. Now, let me say real quick, if you want to be on the launch team for my new book is atheism dead, we're sending out emails to our email list. If you're not on the email, please sign up for the email news news, please. I don't know what you want. I'm going to tell you that if you don't do it.

Hey, but we are offering anybody who wants to read the book. This is more than a month ahead of its publication. It doesn't come out until October 19th, 2021. So when the book comes out, you can get a hard copy, obviously. But if you want to read it now, you have to be on the launch team. We need people to be on the launch team. And I'll tell you, one of the reasons we need people to be on the launch team is the launch of a book is really important. Getting reviews up on Amazon, Goodreads, all those places is really important for the launch of a book.

And this book, to me, it's pure evangelism. People are going to read this book, and they're going to realize that their intellectual objections to God are unfounded, utterly unfounded. if they're intellectually honest. So this is a book about which I'm tremendously excited, but not just because I wrote a book, but on the contrary, why do I write books? I write books because I want to do what I believe God put me in this world to do.

One of those things, the chief of which probably, is to lead people to himself. And there are facts that have come out in science, in the scientific world, in the world of archaeology. They're nothing less than astonishing. They're astonishing. They're crazy, and nobody knows about it. I have had the privilege to find these things out,

So I put them in this book. It's called his atheism dead. You can read it immediately if you become a member of the launch team. So we'll post information on my website, Erictaxas.com, but I'm excited. And there's another reason why I need your help in getting reviews up of places like Amazon particularly. Because whenever you have atheism in the title of something, very, very, very nasty trolls come out and they post one star vicious reviews. to drive down the sales of the book because they don't want the truth to come out. The truth is scary to them. I think they're going to call this book a conspiracy theory. Your whole book is. Yes, exactly.

The truth is now conspiracy theory. So. You need you to read the book and post honest reviews at Amazon.com. Give me if you care about the cause of truth or evangelism, whatever, these are the kinds of the things that you have to get involved in because we're living in a weird world where Amazon allows people who've never read the book to post vicious reviews. That to me seems odd, but there's some reason they do that. In any event, we need your help. So you have to join the launch team. You could read the book today, folks, tomorrow. You could read the book. Speaking of tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, by the grace of God, be in Washington,

D.C. on the mall in Washington, D.C. for an evening event with Sean Foyt prayer for the nation. It will air live on Daystar TV. Daystar TV. Tomorrow night, you probably have Daystar on your dial. I'm almost sure you do if you live in the United States. Daystar TV, it's going to air. I'm speaking. It's going to be prayer. This is about praying to God. It's not a political thing in case you think it is. If you want to come to political thing, don't come to this. So much else to talk about, but I think we're at a time. We've got five minutes at the end of the program. We can, okay, after we talk to my friend Rebecca Lyons, we'll add a couple things. We'll be right back, man. I said my sights on Monday, and I got myself on grass. Hey, folks, I've got to tell you a secret

about relief factor that the father, son, owners, Pete and Seth Talbot have never made a big deal about, but I think it is a big deal. I really do. They sell the three-week quick start pack for just 1995 to anyone struggling from pain like neck, shoulder, back, hip, or knee pain, 1995, about a dollar a day. But what they haven't broadcasted much is that every time they sell a three-week quick start, they lose money. In fact, they don't even break even until about four to five months after if you keep ordering it. Friends, that's huge. People don't keep ordering relief factor month after month if it doesn't work. So yes, Pete and Seth are literally on a mission to help as many people as possible deal with their pain.

They really do put their money where their mouths are. So if you're in pain from exercise or even just getting older or to the three-week quick start for 1995, let's see if we can get you at a pain too. Go to relieffactor.com. Relieffactor.com or call 800-500-384-800-500-800-3-834. Relieffactor.com. I use it. It works.

Hey there, folks. I've come to that point in my life when I've got friends all over. over the country. And if I want to hang out with them or talk to them or find out what they're doing, pretty much I need to have them on the show because they're busy too. And they don't come on the show unless maybe they've got a book out or something like that. So here's the good news. My friends, Gabe and Rebecca Lyons, okay, they write a lot of books. You've heard about both of them, I think. We've had both them on this program. They're the founders of Q ideas. Some of you know about Q. But Rebecca Lyons has a new book out. Actually, it's a devotional. Rebecca, you wrote a

devotional? I did. My very first one. Welcome to the program. It's just great to see you. I mean, I'm always, as usual, only half joking because I really, it thrills me when I get to see my friends haven't seen in a while. But you and Gabe are well, I assume. Yes. We are. We are well. You're so well that you wrote a devotional. Yeah, it was my survival devotional for the last year and a half. Is that true? Well, for sure, the topic of surrender is something we've all been living, especially in the last 18 months. So it felt very timely to be writing on that at the same time.

Okay, I'm going to ask you like my, you know, the softball question that I ask a writer of a book. The title, okay, by the way, great title. It's called A Surrendered Yes, 52 devotions to let go and let me. live free. A surrendered yes. The softball question is, what does that mean? Yes, well, none of us want to surrender. Usually we never choose that. But what I've learned is that's always a nudge. It's a whisper. It's something that prompts us that usually takes us to a place that's going to shift our life, possibly, or shift our every day. Maybe it's a posture. Maybe it's a decision of growing family, shifting careers, moving across country. But then I also think it's very much an everyday practice,

gratitude, of forgiveness, of surrender, really, just accepting what is so that you can actually get that out and then ask God to kind of interrupt that and show you what a healing journey looks like. So what prompted you to write a devotional? Because I've actually thought of doing that at some point because I have a lot of those kinds of thoughts. And I think, you know, that's a valuable thought. And if it's a valuable thought, you know, it probably didn't originate with you because

truth is truth, wisdom is wisdom, it's from the Lord. But when did you get the idea that, because you've obviously written other books, but when do you get the idea that you wanted to do a devotional devotional? Well, I found that the themes I kept writing about were always surrender, just this acceptance of the way things are instead of fighting against. I found that my anxiety was really rooted in pushing against or fighting against the obstacles or the barriers in my life that I would come up against. And so that would actually increase anxiety by fighting against it versus accepting it and then finding the peace flood my heart.

And so I just thought if this is a season of life, like my anxiety journey started 11 years ago with panic attacks. And then it's now been a healing journey for a season. It's like part of that came. It dovetailed with this acceptance, this release, this saying God, okay, I don't want to live life the way. Life never looks the way we plan it anyways. So we can either get mad about that and be frustrated and fight it or we can go, okay, that that serenity prayer, grant me the wisdom to accept what I cannot change, but then to know the difference of the things I can. And so as I began to be honest with myself, whether or not it was having a special needs son at 26 and then learning like that the journey of being a mom with a son with Down syndrome, who's now 20 years old or moving across country to New York City, you know,

with our three littles in elementary school or even choosing to adopt this last little girl three years ago joy from china at five and a half also with a down syndrome diagnosis i just believe that god constantly prompts us towards things that require risk and we get a choice in that moment to go no i can't do this i'm i'm afraid this feels too big i'm not enough for this or we can go all right can i trust you in this and i think surrender is a lot about trust Well, you've been open about dealing with anxiety, like real anxiety, and that's where we differ, because I'm not open about it. I don't want anyone to know. Do you understand that?

And if you tell my friends, anybody else, I don't want people to know that I deal with this stuff, please. But you, you live openly and freely, and you talk about this. And I just want to say how important that is. Obviously, I'm joking. I think it's really important, especially that those of us who look really bad. buttoned up like we have it together. Obviously, we don't because we're creating God's image and because of the fall, we're messed up. So we are all dealing with stuff, whether we look like it or don't. You've been really open about that, and I just think that's beautiful and important,

and it's one of the reasons that I value what you write, because we do need to be open and honest about these things. And when you say that anxiety for you comes from, I mean, these sounds like cliches because you hear this, but it's obviously true. We all deal with this stuff in one way or the other, and it has to do with we're living outside of God's plan, right? God says, be anxious for nothing. Bring me your problems, but don't get anxious and stuff. But a lot of people think, like, being anxious is almost like a virtue instead of a sin. They kind of act like, well, I'm anxious because I care. But scripture says, no, there's another way. That to me is what you're surrendered yes sounds like is that basically yeah yeah because we can white knuckle

and really that just becomes control because control is the opposite of surrender right like we're trying to take matters back into our own hands we're trying to fight against maybe the sadness or the longing uh maybe the disappointment and and yet choosing to instead release those things to god and go god i just ask that you'd heal my broken heart right i heal the fact that i'm that things didn't turn out the way I thought they would and help me choose to actually accept that so that that can be that pain can actually become purpose because the thing is is all of us are suffering from something that doesn't look the way we planned it and COVID is a great example of that on a global scale and so our our response is about okay there are agency there is agency we do have when we when we

give these things back to God and we trust him and go okay what little corner of the world that I live in, can I affect change through hope? Because when you think about it, in scripture, it says suffering produces character, character produces faith, and faith produces hope. And so in the end, even though life never looked exactly like we thought, we still get the opportunity to share hope. And I think that's been the journey for me of I can push against anxiety, I can fight it, I can try to control it.

and control is just masking fear, or I can open my hands to God. I can surrender and release these things back to me, back to him, excuse me. And like you said, when he says, be anxious for nothing. He gives us a tool right in that verse, how to be anxious for nothing. It's not like, just stop being anxious, right? If we could, we would all do that. But he's saying with prayer and petition, with Thanksgiving, give me your request, and my peace will flood your heart.

And so I'm going, okay, if I wake anxious one day, then I immediately, interrupt that anxiety with gratitude. And I say, God, I praise you and I thank you for these five things maybe that are all related to this area that I feel anxious about. And immediately that shifts, that shifts perspective, it shifts posture, it gives me back to a place of open-handedness and surrender. You know, there's something, as you're talking, I mean, going along with the theme, right? Like, you know, if somebody looks at you or looks at me, they'd say, well, you know,

he's not a violent criminal. He's just violent. No, just kidding. He's not a drug addict. He's not a did a that, but Jesus says, I care about what your thoughts are. And so a lot of times people on the outside look like, oh, I'm living a great life. But in your thought life, you're sinning against God. God says be anxious for nothing. It's not a suggestion. He is commanding us not to be anxious and to do the things that you just mentioned because he cares about us that much. And when you talk in the devotional, you deal with, you say find freedom from the approval of others. That's another place where you can look like you've got it all together. But in fact, a lot of times people who do look like they have it all together, they worry about what others think. It almost drives them to look like they have it together. That's something that if you're a serious Christian, you can hide that.

People wouldn't know that what's driving you is, what are people thinking? So talk about that. Yeah, absolutely. I think the approval of other people is just sometimes coming very much so from a place of insecurity of like, I'm not enough and I need to make sure that other people tell me that I am so that I can innately believe that I am. So that approval of other people is supposed to support our doubt and our skepticism of ourselves. When God is saying the opposite, he says, hey, if you come to know my love for you first, not everyone else's love for you, but my love for you first, then that love will fill you up, and then that will be an overflow where you can go out and love other people.

And it's less about you needing no love for you, but more about you just extending with gratitude the love that God's given you and it flows through you to them. So it's just seeing it in reversal. It's less about like other people validating us, but God validating us through his love and then the overflow. Folks, I want to remind you before we go to the break, please go to my website, Eric Metaxis. com, sign up for the newsletter so we can send you these interviews, these videos. Ericmataxis.com, please sign up for the newsletter so we can reach you with this great stuff.

We'll be right back. With his most dangerous formulas could fall into the hands of evolutionary elite scientists. His most amazing discoveries about to be written in a lost journal. The right hands, it could revolutionize the 21st century. They want to start a new world order where elites rule and everyday people are not created equal. Now the elites plan to set off an earthquake under L.A. to take out world leaders. There's an old brown battered notebook in my office at work. You have to find it, take it, and keep it hidden at all costs.

Let's just say there are a lot of enemies of the state interested in his research. It's up to regular people to stop them. A grad student, a campus cop, a deaf army vet, and a group of a local. Live action role players. A vertical quake this size could collapse half of dot top. Catch Final Frequency. Playing exclusively on SalemNow.com or download the mobile app. For more information, visit Final Frequency Film.com.

Hey there, folks. I'm talking to Rebecca Lyons. In the interest of honesty, I should say. She's a friend. She and her husband, Gabe, I've been friends for a long time doing great stuff. The latest, Rebecca, you've written a devotional called A Surrendered Yes. 52 devotions to let go and live free. I have to ask you, you practice, quote unquote, the Sabbath.

I find it's a real conundrum for me because the scripture is really clear. It's one of the ten commandments. And there's not one commandment where it's like, well, that doesn't apply anymore because we're under the new law or the new covenant. But Christians really struggle with the concept of the Sabbath. I don't know anyone really who practices the Sabbath other than Dennis Prager, who's, you know, an observant Jew. How do you, how do you do that? I mean, I'm fascinated with this.

I think it's something that Christians really need to take more seriously. So I'm glad to know you deal with this. Well, and I think it comes back to posture, just like when you mentioned earlier, be anxious for nothing. It's easy to be like, I want to stop. but part of it is God is coming to us with compassion when he says be anxious for nothing. He's not he's not mad at us for being anxious, but he's saying, hey, you don't have to be anxious because I've asked you to cast your cares upon me because I want to carry them for you. So it's out of love.

It's out of compassion. And so it's less about legalism and like you're sinning because you're anxious. It's going, hey, do you trust me? I'm a good God. I'm a good father. And I can hold these things for you. And so that to me, that compassion compelled. me that kindness compels me to repentance so when you come back to sabbath right i look at that the same

way it's less about going do i make sure that i don't like lift a finger for 24 hours it's more about a posture of like there's a full day of the week that i don't have to make things happen that it's not up to me to try to push something or have an agenda around something or create work for worth it's really it's a day of complete rest and gratitude that God holds all things together and I can just be. I can be with my family. I can be with my friends. We can talk about what God has done in our lives. It's kind of a celebration, quite frankly. It really is treated as if like, let's talk about the goodness of God. Let's receive that goodness. Let's stop trying to earn his love because he's already said it's free. And let's enjoy that and be thankful for that. So to me, it's still a posture.

and it's a day of enjoyment of quality time with my friends and my family. And when you think of it that way, it's just giving thanks for God's goodness. Now, do you do anything particular on the Sabbath, anything intentional that you will not do or that you will do? Like, how do you, you know, because keeping our thoughts in the right posture toward God, I mean, that's obviously something we want to do every day. But how is the Sabbath different for you? Like, is there something that you do or don't do on that day?

Yes, so definitely no work. It's not a work at all. So I'm not on my laptop personally because it's like work. And I'm not online much at all. I'm not doing much on social media or anything like that. Just because I like a day of quiet. I like just being offline. And that's just a good rhythm in general.

But I like that for Sabbath because it creates more connection with people in the present. And so it's all about an embodied experience. So sharing a meal. extending hospitality, having long conversations, going for a walk on, you know, a hike in the woods, just something that's just more quieting, I think, for my soul. When we think about the anxiety that comes and creeps in every week, it's, it's in it. Sabbath to me is an expression of soul rest. Like, I need my soul to be at rest, which means I need to stop the constant news stream.

I need to stop all those inputs and pause and pause and just go, God, can you? you quiet my soul and center me here in how I'm reacting to things. And so I do think even on Sabbath, sometimes there's insights that God gives us through prayer and through just a slower pace that just slows us down. And it helps keep our heart clean, honestly. I think that's part of what it's about. So, for example, you would light a stove on the Sabbath. I would.

You would. I would. Would you ride in an elevator? Would you press the button in the elevator? Yes. Okay. So you're no longer under the law. you're under grace.

But I hear, well, what you're saying, it's really interesting because in order to do that on the Sabbath, basically, you have to trust God that he's going to take care of whatever you think, I need to do this and this and this. I need to move the ball forward. And the Lord says, yeah, you need to move the ball forward. But not today. Today, I command you to rest. You have to actually trust God that he really is in charge of your life and your career and what it is that you're supposed to do

and not do. I mean, that, that takes real faith to trust God. He's real and he's doing that. Yeah, you're giving that day back to him and go, like, you're at the helm, you're control of all things. I trust in your sovereignty. I trust that when I relax, you actually can do more for my good or on my behalf than I can do on my own. It really, it is surrender. It's a render of a day, a surrender of a day of production. Because instead of like, I'll push the elevator because I want to go visit a friend and have connections and vulnerability and honesty and community. Those are all good gifts given to us by God. He's a communal God and he makes us as a communal people. And so he delights in the fact that we have restored friendships and restored marriages or restored relationships

with our children. He wants that. That's blessing from God. And so that Sabbath is a way of living that out in a very practical way. So if you have an opportunity to get a non-believer to push the button on the elevator. You don't do that. You just push it yourself. I do push it myself. Fascinating. And if you have like an ox or donkey that falls into a ditch, you would, you know what? Don't answer this. I want you to think about this. On the other side of the break, let me know if you would take the ox or the donkey out of the ditch on the Sabbath. Folks, I'm talking to Rebecca Lyons. The new book is called a surrendered yes. 52 devotions to let go. And live free. We'll be right back. Folks, welcome back. I'm talking to my.

friend Rebecca Lyons. She is the author of Free Fall to Fly, which we've talked about on this program. She's a mother of three, wife of one. And I know who that one is. It's Gabe Lyons. I'm just guessing, but I think that's right. And she has a new devotional out, a new book. It's a devotional called A Surrendered Yes, 52 Devotions to Let Go and Live Free. Rebecca, I have to ask you, you know, you say that in the devotional, you deal with your own back. openly with anxiety and depression. And I've talked about that, that I talk about those things openly too

because I never really dealt with anxiety, but with depression, serious depression, because you want people to know lots of people deal with this stuff, and it's really hard. But one thing you have on your list that you deal with a battle to deal with consumer impulses,

kind of like worrying about what other people think. I think a lot of people who, they look like, oh, that's a really wonderful Christian person, and they must have everything going on fine. But if they're dealing with what other people think too much, you don't really notice it. If they're dealing with consumer impulses, people go, well, that's just, that's normal. We all, we shop or we do. Why did you list that here? And how do you, what do you mean by that?

Because I do think that's like one of those things where we can be really secretly and unconsciously. It's not like we're overtly sinning, but in our hearts, we're giving something over. that belongs to God? In the end, these are all coping mechanisms. I believe that mask pain. And so we're just looking for something that'll kind of give us that quick fix where we're a little less sad

or a little less depressed or a little less anxious. And so I come at this topic with a lot of compassion because so many people are in these categories. I mean, we all have had life kind of thrown at us that looks different than it because as a result of the fall, that's just the truth.

And so the acceptance of that still comes back to going, am I trying to numb out? Am I trying to escape through whatever that coping mechanism looks like? You could call it consumer impulses or just like shopping online. It could be a Netflix binge. It could be just too much wine. It could be anything. And it's more going, what are we reaching to to numb out or to escape versus coming to God and going,

God, here is the lament of my heart. Here's the longing or the lostness that I feel. I think sometimes we don't give God the brutal honesty because we fear that it's not a righteous or holy way to engage him. And you're not saying that. Hey, pass it to me. You're not saying that shopping is evil. You're just saying that shopping at QVC is evil, correct?

No? I love how you are doing. I lost my house and my first family because I just blew it all on. QVC over a weekend. Unbelievable. Don't tell Suzanne she thinks she's my first wife. No, but I mean, the point is that some people have like an overt addiction and you know if you're around them, you know that person has a problem. But a lot of us, we do what you just said. It's a coping mechanism and it's a way, I mean, look, it's why people do overt sin, right? Whether it's sex or drugs or whatever it is. It's to escape some pain and you mask it in this different way. But this is much more

subtle. And so what do you say in the devotional? Is this about sort of being in tune with that, realizing why am I doing this? Is this because I need to do this? I mean, you're not saying we can't have fun. I mean, if I have fun, I'm masking the pain. If I exercise, I mean, in other words, in some ways, what's the difference between processing the pain or dealing with it in a healthy way and dealing with it in an unhealthy way? I mean, if I'm having fun, like it's not wrong to have fun. Right. I agree.

I think fun is a gift, right? Just like fitness is a gift. It's actually, it's giving you clarity. It's giving you firm muscle, strong bones. Like God talks about that in scripture. Like, that's beauty. That's restoration. That's healing.

That's part of it. Because he made our bodies and he knows what we need and he uses all kinds of methods of healing for our good and for his glory. So when you think of the idea of shopping online, of course, you buy things you need online. I think it's just more about the idea of X. in any area. Fitness is great unless you start running 25 miles a day and then all of a sudden that becomes disordered, right? It's all about what is healthy and then what becomes disordered. And it's when we consume ourselves with any one thing, like fun is not, fun is great. But what if like you quit your job and you just

played every day all day long and you lost your house and you lost your family because you couldn't provide? So to me it comes back to what are the guard rails of these rhythms? and these enjoyments of life. And I think even the guardrail of Sabbath, I think Sabbath comes every seven days for a reason. It lets us auto-correct what got off track that week. You know, maybe there was some excess here. And the reflection allows us to look back and go,

God, search me, oh, God, know my heart. Test me, know my anxious thoughts. See what, show me what's wicked in me and leave me in the way everlasting. So David in Psalm 139 right there is just saying, hey, even though I'm your bestie, I'm your friend, I know there's things that are blind spots for me, and those coping mechanisms can get out of whack, and I ask that you kind of bring those things back to center from a place of surrender.

The book is called a surrendered yes, 52 devotions to let go and live free. I want to get back to the Sabbath thing. Was there a moment in your life when you said, I'm going to start being intentional about the Sabbath, or was it gradual? Because I just think this is a great thing for people to think about. Yeah, I realized that Sabbath. was going to come in my life. So God doesn't, he doesn't, it's not an option to God. It's a command as you talked about. You never talk about it though. It's crazy though, right? I mean, it's one of the

ten commandments and we don't even deal with that. Right. Well, so in, in the Israelites, he said, you need to rest the land every seven years and they chose not to. They disobeyed. They never rest the land. And eventually after 70 cycles of seven, he exiles them for the 70 years exactly that they never rested the land. He's basically saying, if you're not going to rest the land, I will rest the land for you and I will exile you. So this is how I apply that to us personally. He's saying to us, if you're not going to give me a day of the week, there's going to come a season of your life where you're going to have burnout.

You're going to lose your work anyways. So you can be preventative and actually just follow my biblical principles and guidance. Or you'll come, there will come a day where your body will stop and you will spin out, you'll experience burnout. out because you never and I think a lot of our anxiety that we're paying for as a society is because it comes from a place of unrest, inner unrest. So we lose sleep, we lose productivity, we lose clarity, we lose focus. And that goes back to going, are we actually honoring the obedience of rest, showing that if we trust God along the way, we will prevent possibly these long seasons where we derail

ourselves, our careers, our families, and so forth. We're going to have to leave it there. Folks, the book is a surrendered, yes, 52 devotions to let go and live free. Rebecca Lyons, God bless you. Great to see you. And give my best to your one husband, Gabe. You can go, your own dress and black. Why you never see bright colors on my back.

I forgot to tell you something. What was that? This is the end of our two. And I have two pieces of big news. Gosh, there's so much going on. Number one, every single day at frankspeech.com, this program is now airing as a video TV program. It's at Lindell TV, and it's at Frank Speech every day at 2 o'clock, Eastern. Folks, this is now a TV program, a daily TV program at Frankspeech.com.

Please tell your friends, because a lot of people prefer to watch it that way. That's number one. Number two is that we are launching my new book is Atheism Dead, and we need my audience to do two things. Number one, join the launch team. If you join the launch team, you can read the book right now more than a month. month, five weeks ahead of its publication. Yes. So there's no other way to read it unless you join the launch team, right?

So we want people to read it to join the launch team. In order to join the launch team, all you have to do is what I think you were going to do anyway. And do you hear this traffic outside? Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Where am I? Yeah. Close the window.

Let me say that again. In order to join the launch team, all you have to do. is what you were going to do anyway, which is pre-order the book at $14.97. It's a $29 book or $28. I think it's $28. This is almost 50% off for the hardcover, the hardcover, 50% off. In order to get that, you have to go to the link that's provided through the launch team. Or if you go to my website, Eric Mataxis.com, I think you can get there. I think it's the middle link.

We offer like five options, and I think the Baker book link is, it's at that price. I don't think Amazon or Barnes & Noble or anybody can come near that at this point. It is insane. And I want you to do that because Baker is related to parable books. They were the ones that canceled this book, me, a few months ago. They decided to change their approach. And I want to thank them by sending you. to get the book from them because they did the right thing. I spoke up, they listened,

and they did the right thing. And not only did they do the right thing, they're making the price of the book so insane. I mean, folks, a 400 plus page hardcover with color pictures. Wow. 1497. Wow. You will never, I cannot imagine. I mean, if it ever goes lower than that, it will be by pennies. That is just an insane price. The best, best sellers don't go that low. Like, it's just an incredible offer. So we want you to pre-order the book anyway, please, at that price. But if you want to join the launch team, that's all you have to do is pre-order the book.

Read the version, the electronic version, which will send you immediately. And then post a review either on Amazon or good reads or something like that. I want to be blunt and say, we need your help. We need your help on a lot of things. That's one of the main ones, getting the word out. When a book is atheism in the title, people attack it, trolls attack it. People go on Amazon to post negative reviews that are really vicious just because they hate God or the idea of God or the people who talk about God, which is sad because, my goodness, we're only trying to get to the truth, folks. We're not like just pushing.

A lot of times people think that they're pushing a political agenda or whatever. I don't know what to tell you. This book has no politics in it. Let me remind you also today and tomorrow only Nutrametics.com. Yes, Nutrametics.com. 35% off if you use the code Eric. That's only for the next two days because it's what we call an introductory offer. 35% off if you use the code, Eric.

You want to buy their products anyway, I promise you. So you might as well get them at this crazy price. I think we're out of time. Folks, you've got your instructions. God bless you.