Category: Level: Intermediate

We know that walking in the Spirit is an essential Christian practice. However, it can feel too abstract at times. Romans 8:5-6 has a helpful guideline for walking in the Spirit: “Those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace” (NIV). This meditation will help you to set your mind on the Spirit. Absorb. Consider the meaning of each phrase. What is the purpose of the passage? What does the Spirit desire? Read it with your name in it. Then imagine Jesus in front of you speaking these words to you; how does this affect you? Ask him any questions you have. Ruminate on setting your mind on the Spirit’s desires. Understand it and let it sink in. Feelings. How did you feel Continue Reading →

One of the most powerful passages in Scripture is 2 Corinthians 3:18 which reads: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (ESV). The idea is that as we gaze on Christ, God transforms us into Christ’s image. We will learn to practice this in today’s post; give yourself at least two minutes to do this. Absorb. Consider the meaning of each phrase. Read it with your name in it. Then imagine Jesus in front of you speaking these words to you as you gaze on his face; how does this affect you? Ruminate on this process, understand it and let it sink in. Feelings. How do you feel as you do this? Express your feelings to God. Truth Commitment. Invite God to reveal your heart then ask yourself: How much do Continue Reading →

We will go through times when our awareness of God goes dark. Last week we described an exercise for developing deep faith. In these times we can’t sense God no matter what we do and no matter how hard we try to figure it out. These seasons are very disturbing and usually trigger fear and discouragement. But, these times are opportunities to develop deep faith, so we need to stay away from embracing fear and doubt. Below is a prayer to help us through these times. It is best to consider each line and choose to apply that to your heart; in other words, do what the prayer says. Prayer for Walking Through a Dark Time I let go of trying to see God. I let go of trying to feel God. I let go of making sure that God is there. I let go of fear due to my Continue Reading →

In order to cooperate with God’s work in us we will need to be very intentional about choosing faith. This means not struggling against the darkness but rather embracing it and trusting God. This means learning a new way to “do” faith. It will be raw, deep, and unassisted by feelings or circumstances. This also means letting go of one’s old way of trusting God which is usually very difficult. It will probably help to develop one or two images that your mind can rely on in order to train it in deep faith. One image that combines fear and deep faith is the experience of walking on a footbridge over a small chasm. Perhaps you have been on a hike where others have already walked over a footbridge that you were not confident in. You felt fear, but you proceeded in faith because others had already crossed the bridge. Continue Reading →

The hardest type of suffering is prolonged deep suffering. This presents greater challenges to our faith since the pain is constant. Examples include the death of a loved one that leaves you lonely, a long debilitating illness, the loss of one’s social network, or working in a hostile environment. One-time tragedies are easier to recover from when they don’t have a drastic lasting impact. Prolonged deep suffering wears away at us like the ocean wears away at boulders. We may not notice how it gradually affects our mindset so we need to watch that it doesn’t make us into negative or dysfunctional people. And we need to keep prolonged deep suffering from damaging our confidence in God’s Scripture. With prolonged suffering you need to adopt a long-term coping strategy and focus your mind and energy on learning how to get through each day, day after day. You need to strengthen Continue Reading →