Category: Level: Intermediate

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 →

Do you think of suffering as an opportunity to become more fruitful? If we do, then we can more easily embrace suffering. If we embrace suffering then we will “know Christ” better in this life (Phil. 3:10, NIV) and receive “praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Pet. 1:6-7, NIV). If we resist or respond poorly to suffering, then those blessings will be lost. The Father wants to make us fruitful (Gen. 1:28; John 15:1-8) and Jesus promised: “every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (John 15:2, NIV). This painful pruning produces blessing for others just as Jesus’ suffering did. Our “death” produces life in others; it destroys the work of Satan. Paul viewed his suffering as something he accepted so that he could bless believers: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my Continue Reading →