Category: Interior Life

obey God's will

5 Movements Toward Pursuing God’s Will

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Last week we looked at committing ourselves to God’s will. Now consider an area of your life in which you wonder if you are doing God’s will. We will go through five steps for examining our hearts and choosing God’s will. This is not so much an exercise in finding God’s will as it is an exercise in guiding our hearts to abiding in God. Five Steps Toward Pursuing in God’s Will We remind ourselves to consider God’s will. We examine ourselves to determine if we are really open to pursuing God’s will. We try to discern God’s will. We ask ourselves if we are now willing to do God’s will. We do God’s will. The first movement is to get in the habit of reminding ourselves to consider God’s will for the decisions we make or attitudes we embrace. This is simply looking to him for his will. Common Continue Reading →

obey

Are You Committed To God’s Will?

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When someone mentions that we should do God’s will it can conjure up images of gritting our teeth and forcing ourselves to do something very disagreeable. There is some truth in this but the supreme reason we do God’s will is that we love him and know that his principles for living will produce more life and happiness than anything else. Learning to do God’s will when we don’t feel like it and when we don’t feel God is one of the greatest and most freeing lessons in the Christian life. Remember that the purpose of all of God’s commands is that we would have more life, bear fruit, abide in the kingdom of God and keep us moving in the direction of the future perfect community of love with God and his followers. The directives in Scripture are ideals that we move toward as we are gradually “attaining to Continue Reading →

shame

Have You Let Jesus Defeat Your Shame?

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By substituting for our sin Christ also substituted for our shame. True shame is rooted in our sin or in sin inflicted on us. When humans rebelled in the Garden they became corrupt and they became aware of their corruption. In this way, all of us have shame. Some have a much stronger experience of shame because of life experiences. By curing us of our sin he cured us of the shame that comes with it. His crucifixion was the ultimate shameful event in history and it was the comprehensive payment for all our shame. Since there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ (Rom. 8:1), there is also no shame to bind us. Our New Adam self is shame-free because it is made in the image of Christ, though our old self might lead us into shame or others may inflict shame on us. When we live Continue Reading →

Good or bad habits

Do You Have A Habit That Harms Your Relationships?

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It is important to take time to consider the ways in which our habits and behaviors harm people around us. The harm may not even be intentional, but if we allow a harmful habit to continue then we are responsible for the damage it causes. Sometimes our habits harm others in the sense that they keep us from projecting God’s goodness and blessing to others as we otherwise could. Our actions obscure God’s light shining through us like mud on a window obscures sunlight. What does God think of this? How will he judge your life? How do you want your biography to read when you enter the next age of the New Creation? So what do we if we have a bad habit that is harming our relationships? What if we have prayed and tried to break it but we can’t make much progress? Obviously, such habits are opposed Continue Reading →

wound of love

Living With A Wound Of Love

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We will naturally desire to experience the sweet love of our Beloved, and this is good. Wouldn’t it be sad if we did not desire this? Thus, our challenge is to desire to experience the love of the Beloved in this life as well as the next, while at the same time completely letting go of control of making that happen and being content if we don’t experience it. Instead, we focus on walking in the Spirit, Christformation and doing God’s will. This is one of the great challenges of the Christian life. It may take an entire life to fully embrace this tension. We should enjoy spiritual pleasure as long as God provides it, as long we as focus on God and not the pleasure. This means we do not cling to the pleasure. The spiritual hedonist focuses on their own will being done (their desire for pleasure) while Continue Reading →