Category: Level: Beginner

It is the end of the day and you are tired. You rest for a few minutes. Your mind wanders and you realize you are thinking mostly about food and buying a new car. You haven’t really thought about your connection to God (let alone any rewards in heaven.) It would be good to get alone and pray for five minutes but that means making a little sacrifice. Do you go to pray…? The riches of the world are nothing compared to rewards in heaven. If we have a moderate share of worldly things then we have enough wealth. Any more than that nearly always produces materialism, and often anxiety. As we develop a heavenly mindset we can see better how twisted people become as they fall in love with the riches of the world. Even all the necessities of life – eating, drinking, working, finding shelter – are a Continue Reading →

If we choose to have sorrow for sin when we sin we can continue to grow spiritually. Perhaps you realized you gave yourself false freedom, and you followed your destructive passions instead of a disciplined heart. Make it a practice to ask God for a holy heart, and for sorrow for sin. After Paul corrected the Corinthians he wrote: “Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal.” I Cor. 7:11 (NLT). Don’t descend into self-rejection; look to God’s open arms and enter them with sorrow. In the future, be careful not to take unholiness too lightly. Do not laugh when you should mourn. Remember the words of James: “your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow for sin Continue Reading →

At first, solitude may feel monotonous or like a heavy burden. If you patiently practice it, in time you will know the benefits of solitude; it will be close friend. Then your soul has developed an important spiritual affection. If we don’t persevere in solitude until it becomes natural for us then it will always feel like an unpleasant task. One of the important benefits of solitude is that we learn to take our sins seriously and view them as God does. If we tend to overlook our sins, solitude gives us time to feel the proper remorse. Every sin is a sin against a relationship. Should God grant us spiritual sweetness if we are not remorseful about our sins? In solitude we remember that the distractions of the world will all turn to dust. In solitude we have time to fully absorb God’s word. Solitude and the word equip Continue Reading →

This is the second of two posts on how to resist temptation; the first one can be found here. All temptations stem from our unstable passions and from lack of trust in God. When we do not stick to our convictions we are like a ship without a rudder tossed around by a storm. Instead, temptations should refine us like a fire refines gold. Temptations should be resisted as soon as they knock on our door. We must not let them into the home of our heart, but rather go outside door and prevent them from entering at all. This is the first key to resist temptation. Once they enter they start to grow. A poet has said: In the beginning You might have won It’s past your skill now No more can be done Temptation progresses from a suggestion and moves into our imagination. Then we have thoughts of its Continue Reading →