Category: Interior Life

humility, shame

Self-Rejection Keeps You From Connecting With Others

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Shame can be described as a sense of embarrassment, dishonor, disgrace or inadequacy. These feelings come from something you did or thought that contradicts what you believe to be good or valuable (this is essentially guilt which is a precursor to shame). Just the fact that we fall short of our own standards of good produces shame in all of us. We want to hide our weakness from others because we want them to value us. This is why it is normal for people to display their best self to others, which probably helps society stay civilized. But we also naturally display a false self in many situations, which keeps us from truly connecting with others. We use our false self to cover up our shame, for example, pretending that we have our life all together when actually we are broken or struggling. It takes time, but we need to Continue Reading →

heaven

Focusing On Your Eternal Destiny

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In the book of Genesis we hear of the tragic beginning of humans. How they lost their union with their Creator and lost harmonious community with fellow humans. But in the New Testament we hear a happy ending. All our prayers, and suffering, and trusting, and sacrifice finally bring us to our eternal destiny. God wins over sin and evil. After death He will give us new bodies and new souls that can receive all He has for us. And his followers will enjoy living with Him forever. This is a key foundation of spiritual theology and spiritual formation. In Revelation we learn that God restores all that was lost in the fall. The Bible begins with a Garden of Paradise that humans must leave because of their sin. But in the end, God cleanses our sin completely and permanently, and restores us to a paradise in a Garden that Continue Reading →

possible faith

Overcoming Our Root Unbelief

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One of the biggest challenges in our Christian life is to actually believe what God says. We read many wonderful and mysterious truths in God’s Word, and we tell ourselves that we believe them, but often our heart does not really believe. He wants us to believe what He says so that he can change us and make us one with Him. We need to overcome our root unbelief. If we don’t believe the spiritual truths He is trying to teach us, then his river of life can’t flow freely through us. Unbelief places a dam on his river of life. But knowing this problem still doesn’t purge our unbelief. He says that He loves us, but often we wonder. He says He is always with us, but we so easily believe that He is off in the distance. So we will find as we follow Jesus that we are Continue Reading →

failure discouragement distress

When Our Efforts To Change Are Failing

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As we progress in the Christian life, we begin to notice certain sinful areas of our life that we can’t seem to conquer. We all have our own weaknesses and no matter how hard we try, we continue to fail. We may be able to control our surface behavior most of the time, but inside we still feel the impulse to sin. Our efforts to change are failing. Earlier in our Christian life, we were able to overcome many of our sins just by actively resisting temptation and receiving God’s strength through the Scripture, prayer, and friends. But now we realize our sins are powered by deep desires, attitudes, and beliefs we can’t control or change. And our own special areas of weakness are constantly reminding us of this. They are a spotlight on our old nature. Rejoice! Now we are discovering the end of ourselves. We have come to Continue Reading →

heaven eternal perspective

Eternal Perspective Sets You Free From This World

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An essential principle of following Jesus is learning to live with a heavenly perspective. This means living our lives, knowing that we are citizens of heaven, (Philippians 3:20), and will spend eternity in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus said, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth … Store your treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19–20 NLT). Colossians 3:2 states: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (NIV). This eternal perspective sets you free from this world. When Jesus came, he brought the Kingdom of Heaven and his followers live in the Kingdom now! But the Kingdom is mixed with this fallen world. After Jesus comes He will sweep away all the fallenness and will fulfill the promise of a perfect Kingdom for us to dwell in, the New Earth. All the rewards we stored up in heaven will come down to the New Earth for us. Since we Continue Reading →