The Thriving Man Podcast

This week we dive into the basics of prayer. Many people hear about prayer, but not many people put it into practice.

We discuss prayer and how God created us to be in a relationship with Him. We also clear up the misconceptions many people have when it comes to prayer

Prayer is Natural

Adam and Eve were designed to live in a constant state of relationship with God

Jesus came to restore that relationship

We were designed to be connected to God

Prayer isn’t a last resort

Prayer is Personal

Every person is different and they communicate differently

When people get married they figure out what works for them as they implement the universal truth of marriage

The same is true with us, we take the truth of God and implement it the way He designed us.

Prayer is Relational

Relationships take communication, connection, and TIME.

Many people think that serving God is just about following “the rules” but it is more than that.

Serving God is getting so close that the behavior of obeying Him comes naturally

The closer we get to God, the less sin will tempt us

Find more resources to help you as a man at Thriving Man

This is a special bonus episode of the Thriving Man Podcast. In this show, I interviewed author Allen Chapin. Allen has written 5 books, and we discuss his book "Listen." This book came from a year-long journey Allen went on of listening to God each morning. He talks about that season and gives us some tips about how to hear from God.

We also discuss some of his journey as a man and how men poured into him and made a difference in his life.

Find out more about Allen at allenchapin.com

You ask 50 people about how to connect with God and likely you’ll get at least 50 different answers and maybe even more!

Many people think the only way to connect with God is some secret hack that only a few people know. The truth is quite the opposite.

God tells us how to connect with Him and the way we do it is pretty simple. On today’s show, we talk about the first we way connect and that is through the Bible.

What the Bible Is

• The Bible is a collection of 66 books- with one common thread: they contain the story of God and humanity
• It is a collection of different books from different authors that all teach timeless principles
• It has the most manuscript evidence of any major book of antiquity

What the Bible is Not

• The Bible was not written to be a self-help book
• The Bible has all the different styles and stories to give us a picture of the full character of God
• The Bible also isn’t a book of secrets or codes 

Why We Have to Dig

• The design of the Bible was made so we can spend a lifetime digging into it and learning more about God
• God is infinite and the more we study the Bible the more we learn about Him and the closer we get to Him
• Knowing the Bible without knowing God Himself is not good

CHALLENGE:

• Begin digging into the Bible yourself
• Be willing to do the work and your relationship with God will grow
• This will make you a much stronger man
• Helpful Links
• https://bibleproject.com/
• https://firebible.org/ 

The spiritual side is often left out in many men’s lives. They focus on other stuff and figure that the spiritual is something for the background or they just ignore it. The problem with this is our spiritual side is the root system of our life as men. If we ignore it, we won’t be able to fully thrive as men.

This week we start a series of podcasts focusing on the spiritual side of life for men. Today’s show helps us to understand why the spiritual side is the most important in our lives.

Why the Spiritual is the Root System of Our Lives

• We are both physical and spiritual creatures
• Too many men have gotten away from that and have become creatures of their appetites
• We can live a better life, but we must choose to align with the spiritual reality beyond ourselves.

The Design of Our Spiritual Roots

• We were designed by God in a specific way
• When we try to live outside of our design it isn’t good
• Spiritual living is not just going to church, but it is living out the reality of the way we were created

The Integration of Spiritual Health

• Men often try to separate the spiritual part from the rest of their life
• The best change in our life is a spiritual change
• Many of the problems we deal with today come from spiritual deficiencies

CHALLENGE:

• Do you give the Spiritual side attention? Are you the master of your life, or God?
• More information about our connection to God - www.jesus.net

We continue talking about how to build up your confidence this week. Too many men think that confidence is something you are born with, but that is not true.

Your confidence can grow as you build up one main thing in your life: Courage.

We continue this week by talking about some of the key ways you can build your courage so you grow in confidence in every area of your life.

- Courage is the Result of Emotional Strength

- Courage Starts with Micro-Courage

Is confidence something you are born with or something you can grow? Many men struggle with their confidence and think it is something that “Some guys have and some guys don’t.”

However, the truth is very different. Every man can build his confidence up. How does he do it? Through Courage.

This week's show we start talking about the importance of courage when it comes to our confidence.

 - Courage is the Pathway to Confidence

 - Courage is the Result of Emotional Strength

We got so into this week's topic we had to turn it into 2 shows! We’ll continue it next week.

On today’s show, we are talking about the power of awareness when it comes to our emotions. Emotional awareness is an untapped resource in many men’s lives. 

They are missing out on a powerful resource that can help them succeed in every area of their lives.

We will deal with the 3 keys to build emotional awareness. If we tackle these, we will see our awareness grow. 

Key 1 - Willing

- We have to be willing to live in reality

Key 2 - Honest

- Honest about ourselves in every way

Key 3 - Active

- Honesty doesn’t help unless we are willing to deal with the things we need to change

Challenge:

• Get honest and start taking action in one emotional area of your life that you have been ignoring.
• Take small steps and don’t try to fix every area at once. 

Getting stronger emotionally is something we have to do with others. When we try to do everything by ourselves, we usually end up failing.

On today’s show, we talk about why we need to think of getting stronger emotionally as a team sport.

When you have a team around you and when you are part of someone else’s team, you become a much better man.

Jump into the show and learn why we need other men to get stronger emotionally.

Why We Need People for Emotional Success

-More People Multiplies Our Power

-We Get in Our Own Heads

-Blind Spots

-Blind Spot Negatives

-Blind Spot Positives

Challenge:

Get around good guys who help you want to be better. Here are some questions to help you:

-Does hanging out with these people make us want to be better or worse?

-Does hanging out with these people make us want to live out our values or follow our base appetites?

The words Emotions and Men are often not part of the same sentence. Many men would say they aren’t emotional and many women would agree!

However, this is just not true. All men have emotions even if they don’t know what they are. Men were created with emotions and if they want to thrive they need to harness the power of their emotions.

On today’s show, we talk about why men should be emotionally strong. We talk about what that looks like and dispel many of the myths out there about men and their emotions.

-The Difference Between being Emotional and being a Man of Emotional Strength

-Surface Problems are often caused by Emotional Root Problems.

-Why Emotions are Important to Our Thriving as Men

Many men live under the lie that their thoughts are something they can’t control. They think their brains are stuck a certain way. This can demoralize them and make them want to quit.

It doesn’t have to be that way! We have a lot more control over our thoughts than we realize. However, making changes to them must be done on purpose and correctly.

In today’s show, we give you three simple steps to help you begin the process of changing your thoughts

1. Recognize Your Thoughts

2. Challenge Your Thoughts

3. Pick Your Thought

Challenge:

- What thoughts need to change in my life?

- What kind of new input do I need to help me change my thoughts?