Category: Key Growth Posts

How Do I Deal With Unwanted Thoughts? – Part 1

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You are innocently working on one of your daily tasks and all of a sudden an evil thought comes into your head. It plays for a few seconds, but you don’t embrace it. You mentally fight and reject it. Then you feel a little dazed and confused by its impact. Finally, the thought fades away. Then you start wondering where it came from. Is this from you? Is it some buried corruption you are not aware of? Or is it from Satan? Is it a combination of the two? Is it from neither one, just a quirk of the human mind? Was it triggered by something around you by the power of suggestion? Is it just free association? You can’t really figure it out. This will take more time. Regardless of how it came it is frustrating and sometimes discouraging when unwanted thoughts come in. You want to grow in Continue Reading →

relationships, couple

12 Keys To Tackling Relationship Difficulties – Part 2

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This is Part 2 of this post, Part 1 can be found here. KEY 7: Be courageous. One of the big reasons we don’t tackle relationship difficulties is that we are afraid. We are afraid of conflict, we are afraid of getting hurt, we are afraid of doing it wrong, etc. In order to combat this ask yourself if you are afraid. Then ask yourself if the fear is really as big as you think. Then ask yourself if that fear should really stop you from tackling a difficulty. Is it worth some discomfort to improve a relationship? The antidote to fear is faith. Trust God to help you and to help you learn. Trust the advice you have gathered. Trust the fact that your heart is in the right place and if you express true care then nearly everyone will respond reasonably. KEY 8: Grow your communication skills. When Continue Reading →

relationships, couple

12 Keys To Tackling Relationship Difficulties – Part 1

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The purpose of this post is to learn how to deal with difficulties in relationships according to scripture, understand the root attitudes needed to tackle difficulties, and allow the difficulties to transform us into the new Christformed person God is making us. Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God and the second is to love others. This is the foundation and end of spiritual growth, spiritual formation and spiritual theology. So relationships are the most important element of Christianity! This means we should learn to master relationships and how to love people. Thus, relationship difficulties are our biggest testing ground and our biggest growth opportunity. This post looks at keys to dealing with the difficulties we have in relationships. Part 2 of this post is found here. KEY ONE: Know your weaknesses. We all have relationship weaknesses. If we can be honest about them we will be able Continue Reading →

Am I Trying Too Much Or Too Little To Be Christlike?

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PURPOSE: The purpose of this post is to help you get into the right level of cooperation with the Holy Spirit. It is to help you be aware of how you are exercising your willpower to become more Christlike. One question I ask myself fairly regularly is whether I am trying to hard to grow spiritually or whether I am not trying hard enough. In other words, am I doing my part according to scripture? Am I crowding out the Spirit by trying to do too much on my own, or on the other hand, am I not activating my will and thus expecting God to change me without my cooperation? Am I erring on one side or the other: too willful or not willful enough? I have erred on both sides in my life, and I still have to adjust regularly. This is an important question because it can Continue Reading →

Why Do Christians Have Dry Times or Dark Nights?

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The last two posts looked at stages of growth, both repeating and non-repeating. One of the stages we mentioned was dark nights, which is the topic of this post. This may apply to you or it might help you guide someone else through a dark time, so this should equip you to be a better servant for the Body of Christ. Most Christians go through one or more periods in their life when God seems absent. We use different terms for this such as dryness, dark night, desolation, desert time, or wilderness time. Even great Christians in history we admire go through such times. For example, Martin Luther, C.S. Lewis, Mother Teresa, and Oswald Chambers. Bruce Demarest mentions the last three in his book Seasons of the Soul, which I highly recommend, beginning on p. 84. He also discusses desolation in general which is very helpful. (There is a link to Continue Reading →