A Spiritual Selfie, Spiritual Intervention (23)

We have to look at what we really look like in our heart of hearts. If you want spiritual transformation to happen in your life, it becomes possible with intentional actions that open the door to personal seeking. God says we should come to Him with a meek and contrite spirit. This becomes possible when we humble ourselves before God in humility and openness.

Get alone with God before you start.

To take this personal examination, it is imperative to get alone with God. Invite God to join you. Be still with God. Listen for Him. Work through this list or through whatever God prompts you to look at. Take the time it needs. Be thorough. Take as much time and days as it needs.

1. Take spiritual inventory. Think through the past week. List out the ways God is directing your thoughts and any new areas in your life that He is helping you to understand.

2. Invite God to help you look for Him. Ask Him to make His presence known to you in a greater way. Record any thoughts, verses, songs, or prayers that enter your thinking. Consider Ephesians 2:8-10 or Matthew 11:28-30 as you meditate and listen in quietness.

3. Select another verse to meditate on. Consider every word in the verse by itself. What is that specific word’s purpose/message? Record your thoughts. Identify the significance of the verse.

4. Picture yourself in relationship with Christ. What does it look like now? What should it look like? Explain your desire to walk in the newness of close relationship to Him. Ask God to show you areas where you hold back in your relationship with Him. Record these. Ask Him to soften and change you in these same areas.

5. Surrender your right to yourself. Consciously place God on the throne of your life. Intentionally remove yourself from self-interest and its protective influence. Ask God for greater trust. Record the ways you are experiencing and knowing God’s loving intention for you.

6. What is God saying to you? What needs to change? What encourages you? Seek a holy place in your thoughts with God. Feed at His spiritual table. Listen for His leading. Write down thoughts that come to you during this time of meditation.

7. Identify and apply any new concepts. Write down any new thoughts and some ways that you can implement these items which God has revealed to you during this spiritual exercise.

Looking in the mirror is always a good idea. The mirror to your soul is not the easiest, but it reaps great rewards and makes us authentic.

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LINKS:

>Next post: God’s love transforms, A Spiritual Intervention (24)

<previous post: God and me in close relationship, A Spiritual Intervention (22)

|<<first post, A Spiritual Intervention

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©N. L. Brumbaugh

God and Me in Close Relationship, A Spiritual Intervention (22)

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30

How it works in God’s family.

God’syoke is easy” and “His burden is light reads like an oxymoron. How can a yoke be easy and a burden BE light? It doesn’t seem to make any sense when you think about it. Aren’t they opposites? Are they a confusion in terms?

It would appear to be that this is almost a too “difficult to grasp” concept. We get bogged down with our spiritual lives, depending on the day or moment, a victorious life or not so victorious life as the case may be. The burden  indicative of where we are in our spiritual walk.

It is true, they are opposites in the natural realm. Look closely, though. It’s not our burden. It is His burden. It’s not our yoke. It is His yoke. We are in this together. None of us can live this life without Him, at least not successfully. We are a team by way of His redemptive work in us. God is in us. We are in God. With God’s help, we can be returned to health, restored, purified, and healed, all to the glory of God.

We are family. We are in God’s family as His adopted sons and His adopted daughters. God is the calm director of our destiny. He has an amazing plan for each one of us. It is our job to surrender to His leading, to respond to His nudges, to act on His promptings, and to yield our way to His ways. We are not lone rangers.

It’s a formula: God + Me = Relationship.

When we try to get independent of Him, when we strain and pull our own way, the way we think it should go, God’s yoke restrains and tempers us. God prevents us for we are bound to Him. It is rough for awhile. The strain is there. We pull harder. He is steady. Sometimes we are trying to lead in the relationship because we see a goal and think it is the best one for us. But even in this, God will slow or stop us if it is not of his purpose and design for us.

Conversely, when we give up and are weary, discouraged, and unhappy, or we fall and stumble, Father God is there as well. He lifts us up, pulls us through the trying circumstance. He is the unseen force working behind the scenes. On difficult days, He practically carries us. Other times we are allowed a fairly loose rein.

Nothing surprises God. And nothing is too big for Him to manage, not even our mess-ups. He is in the business of restoring a broken world, and a broken people. The Creator loves to come close in relationship with his beloved created beings. We are His offspring. His love is gracious and kind.

I often picture Christ as the One with open arms. On the cross his arms were wide, His death was for all humankind. With the children, His arms were wide; all the children were welcome in His welcoming embrace (we are His children, too).

The next post  is a spiritual inventory assessment that is self-directed. It offers a way to notice your progress, sort of a litmus test.

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LINKS:

Next post: A spiritual selfie (spiritual self-examination), A Spiritual Intervention (23)

<previous post: God will help us heal (in our emotions), A Spiritual Intervention (21)

|<<first post: A Spiritual Intervention

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©N. L. Brumbaugh