real life. real relationships. real purpose. in writing.
(Begin with 1-2 minutes of silence)
Take the opportunity to review this week’s questions and scripture readings.
What is one way you’ve grown this week in your understanding of God, yourself, and others?
Take some extra time today to write out a prayer to God. Share your heart, fears, and feelings with Him, knowing He is intently listening, and believing He is with you in all things.
(Begin with 1-2 minutes of silence)
How regularly do you stop to pause and consider the level of abundance we have in our culture? If we’re all being honest, it’s so normal for us that we forget just how much stuff we have. There are the basics, such a roof over our heads and food to eat. But we don’t just have food to eat, we have a lot of options of what kinds of food we can choose to eat.
Compare this with the people of God in the Old Testament. The people of God were enslaved in Egypt, and after they were freed God provided them with just enough food to eat. Manna appeared on the ground every day and it was just enough for each person to have their fill. When they became thirsty God provided just enough water for them to continue.
How did the people respond to this? They complained to Moses and to God. They wanted to go back to be enslaved, because as slaves they at least had an abundance of food and water. But God’s plan wasn’t for His people to be enslaved. Part of His plan was to provide for His people, and for His people to trust that He and He alone could provide what they needed most.
READING & JOURNALING:
Today, take the opportunity to write down at least ten ways God has provided you what you need most. Then write out your own prayer of thanksgiving.
PRAYER:
Today, write out your own prayer of thanksgiving.
(End with 1-2 minutes of silence)
(Begin with 1-2 minutes of silence)
Each and every day you follow certain routines. While some aspects of your schedule may change from day to day, there’s often a defined order to what you do and when you do it. To put it another way, you have practiced living a certain way and have practiced it so well that many aspects of life are routine. These practices will all impact how you live and how you grow.
As a result, it is vital that we all make a radical shift in our daily practices. In Emotionally Healthy Discipleship, Peter Scazzero outlines what this radical shift looks like. While it’s difficult to summarize what this looks like, Scazzero does an admirable job of narrowing it down to a single sentence. He writes, “An emotionally healthy disciple slows down to be with Jesus, goes beneath the surface of their life to be deeply transformed by Jesus, and offers their life as a gift to the world for Jesus.”
There are three main practices highlighted here. First, slowing down to be with Jesus. Second, going beneath the surface in your emotional and spiritual to be deeply transformed by Jesus. These two lead to the third, offering your life as a gift to the world for Jesus.
READING & JOURNALING:
In what ways can you make radical shifts in your daily practices so that you can slow down to be with Jesus, go beneath the surface in your life to be transformed by Jesus, and to offer your life as a gift to the world for Jesus?
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, today’s reading has helped me see that the Christian life truly does require a radical shift in the way I think and the practices I live by. Continue to guide me, shape me, and transform me into the person You have made me to be, so that I may reflect Your love to others who may be living in brokenness. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, I realize I could swim in an ocean of Your promises and would never be able to see how far and wide and deep they go. Today, I pray that the truth of being raised to a new life will captivate my thoughts, words, and deeds. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
(End with 1-2 minutes of silence)
(Begin with 1-2 minutes of silence)
Imagine for a moment that you’ve just read every single promise made by God throughout the Scriptures. Over a period of several months, perhaps years, you’ve taken the time to write down every promise He made, and now you’re re-reading each promise in an effort to better understand the mysteries of who God is. How are you currently feeling after reading through these promises? Which of them stuck out to you?
Answers to these questions will vary greatly from person to person. But there’s one promise that is regularly repeated throughout the New Testament. And this is the promise of being freed from death, and raised to new life in Christ.
In his book Gentle and Lowly, pastor and author Dane Ortlund writes, “Christ was sent not to mend wounded people or inspire bored people or spur on lazy people or educate ignorant people, but to raise dead people.”
While it’s true that you will experience wounds, boredom, and more through life, it’s also true that God has raised you to a new life in Christ. Live in that hope.
READING & JOURNALING:
EPHESIANS 2:1-10, COLOSSIANS 3:1-4
Think about your daily routines, thoughts, and behaviors. Is your life marked more by your old dead life, or by your new real life?
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, I realize I could swim in an ocean of Your promises and would never be able to see how far and wide and deep they go. Today, I pray that the truth of being raised to a new life will captivate my thoughts, words, and deeds. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
(End with 1-2 minutes of silence)
(Begin with 1-2 minutes of silence)
What were the first thoughts that went through your mind when you woke up this morning? Was it a prayer of thanksgiving? Was it a peaceful thought about the changing of the seasons? Were you thinking about all the things you need to do?
If we’re all being honest, sometimes the first thoughts that enter our mind each morning are none of the above. Sometimes, perhaps more often than not, our minds are flooded with thoughts of fears and feelings of inadequacies.
Think of it this way. Answer the following fill-in-the-blank question and write in the very first word that comes to your mind. Fill in the Blank: Sometimes I wonder if I am or ever will be ___________ enough.
How did you fill in the blank? Sometimes I wonder if I am or ever will be good enough?…worthy enough?…significant enough?…successful enough?
Now, take the opportunity to wrestle with an even more important question: Who told you you’re not _____ enough?
READING & JOURNALING:
Why do you think people struggle so much with fears and feelings of inadequacy?
Be honest: Who told you you’re not _____ enough? In what ways can you take this lie captive and cast it aside?
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, today I confess that I give in to self-loathing and feelings of inadequacy far too often. Today, I offer my thanks that You have not told me I’m ____ enough, but have instead called me your beloved child. May I remember and rest in this truth today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
(End with 1-2 minutes of silence)
(Begin with 1-2 minutes of silence)
Take the opportunity to review this week’s questions and scripture readings.
What is one way you’ve grown this week in your understanding of God, yourself, and others?
Take some extra time today to write out a prayer to God. Share your heart, fears, and feelings with Him, knowing He is intently listening, and believing He is with you in all things.
(Begin with 1-2 minutes of silence)
Think about it: is there a day within the previous month, six months, or even a year, when you felt completely at peace? What was happening in your life before that day? What were the events that unfolded that helped you experience that day of sheer contentment?
As people, we focus a whole lot of time and energy on the things we don’t like. Didn’t like the service at a restaurant? Vent to somebody about it later in the day. Didn’t enjoy a certain movie? Tell somebody what you didn’t like about it. Didn’t like a decision made by a politician? Tell the television how wrong it is. Didn’t like the decision the coach made? Throw the cat at the television!
This pattern of focusing on what we don’t like creates an unhealthy mindset. It creates within us a habit of keeping an eye out for what we don’t enjoy. Simultaneously, it prevents us from focussing on the things we do enjoy. Today, take the opportunity to think differently. Spend time thinking about and doing things that bring you contentment. Fill your tank.
READING & JOURNALING:
What are some things that help you experience real peace and contentment in life?
What are some ways you can incorporate these things into your daily life (or even your thoughts), so that you can more regularly experience peace and contentment?
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, today’s reading has helped me realize just how often I think about what I don’t like, instead of thinking about all the joys, wonders, and beauty You have granted to me. Today, my desire is to see myself, others, and the world as You do – part of Your beautiful creation. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
(End with 1-2 minutes of silence)
(Begin with 1-2 minutes of silence)
You may not struggle to identify growth areas in your emotional and spiritual life. For some, you may be able to identify them relatively quickly. But when you think about these areas, you’re just not sure what to do about them. You’re focused on your spouse, friends, work, school, and a hundred other things each and every day. As such, you may think to yourself, “My tank is empty! I just don’t have the time or the energy to pour into these things right now.”
It’s a common thought, but it’s incorrect and unhealthy. Thoughts such as these assume that these growth areas won’t impact your life if you just leave them be. It’s believing the lie that if you just leave these growth areas alone they won’t interfere with the other more important areas of your life. But they will.
The truth is that growing in these areas will actually fill your tank and provide you more wisdom and strength to pour into your spouse, friends, work, school, and the hundred other things that are part of your daily life. You’ll likely find that by growing, you’ll be doing less but engaged in real life more.
READING & JOURNALING:
Why do you think people struggle so much to address their own personal growth areas?
Be honest: Do you struggle to address some of your own growth areas? Why do you think that is?
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, it’s so very easy for me to look at others and think about the areas in which they need to grow. But in my own life, I don’t always want to dig in. I’m afraid of what I may discover, and fear that I may find myself unworthy of your grace by what’s deep beneath the surface. Yet I know these fears do not come from You. They must not, because You have already deemed me worthy! May I rest in this truth today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
(End with 1-2 minutes of silence)
(Begin with 1-2 minutes of silence)
Let’s be honest, nothing grows by accident. An acorn may naturally fall from an oak tree, but hundreds or even thousands of factors go into whether or not this acorn will take root and grow into a tree of its own.
Similarly, nobody grows by accident. An infant doesn’t become a child without being fed, cared for, and trained. A child doesn’t become a student without nourishment and ongoing instruction. A student doesn’t grow into adulthood without this process continuing on a deeper and deeper level.
The same principle is true for our emotional and spiritual lives. We won’t grow by accident. Instead, growth takes intentionality. Each of us has to have some desire to grow and take some form of responsibility in the process. After all, Jesus Himself was intentional in His own pursuit to grow.
Luke 2:52 reads, Jesus took the opportunity to grow in wisdom, stature, favor with God, and people.
On a scale of 1-10, how intentional are you in your pursuit to grow in wisdom? Stature? Favor with God? Favor with people?
READING & JOURNALING:
On a scale of 1-10, how intentional are you in your pursuit to grow in wisdom? Stature? Favor with God? Favor with people?
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, the amount of time I have spent this week staring at my phone shows that I’m not as intentional as I ought to be in growing in wisdom. May Your Word, not my social media feed, be what I dwell on throughout the day today. As Psalm 1 says, I want to delight in Your Word, meditating on it day and night. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
(End with 1-2 minutes of silence)
(Begin with 1-2 minutes of silence)
In his book Emotionally Healthy Discipleship, pastor and author Peter Scazzero provides a framework of specific steps churches can take to create a culture of emotionally and spiritually healthy Christians. But before outlining what steps churches can take to build this culture, Scazzero focuses on specific ways churches are failing when it comes to creating healthy followers of Jesus. Number one on his list: too many churches tolerate emotional immaturity. (Feel free to read through Emotionally Healthy Discipleship on your own to read about some of the other failures of the modern church, as well as solutions.)
Fortunately, this is a barrier that churches can overcome. But because some Christians are in churches that have tolerated, or even created a culture of emotional immaturity, many Christians haven’t been taught the importance of self-reflection and identifying growth areas. Personal self-reflection is a vital part of personal growth, as it helps each of us acknowledge we have some areas in our emotional and spiritual life which need to be strengthened.
READING & JOURNALING:
What are two or three growth areas in your emotional and spiritual life?
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, today I’m reminded that even though I have growth areas, this doesn’t mean that I’m a failure or weak. It simply means that I need to lean more into You and Your strength. As I lean into You this week, I pray that You will create within me a hunger to grow emotionally and spiritually. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
(End with 1-2 minutes of silence)
south ridge blog 