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Day #28 I MUST PARTICIPATE IN MY ONGOING TRANSFORMATION
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
» Reflect on how much your life has changed since you started following Jesus. If you are new to faith, daydream for a minute on how much change can come to your life this year.
» Why is it important to know that victory does not mean the absence of struggle?
» What new spiritual discipline could you begin to regularly practice, to increase your spiritual strength and endurance? (make a small, daily goal)
» Practice the memory verse.
QUOTE
“Spiritual formation prepares us for a life in which we move away from our fears, compulsions, resentments, and sorrows, to serve with joy and courage in the world, even when this leads us to places we would rather not go. Spiritual formation helps us to see the face of God in the midst of a hardened world and in our own heart.”
- Henri J. M. Nouwen
SCRIPTURE
“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
- Philippians 2:13
DEVOTIONAL
The things I don’t want to do, I keep on doing; the things I want to do, I don’t do. Wretched man that I am, who can save me from this treadmill of failure and inner-turmoil? We all know what it’s like to feel this way, but, thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord; we can overcome.
Remember, we are not human doings, we are human beings, and, even more accurately, we are eternal spiritual beings. The ongoing journey of becoming more like Jesus is a journey of spiritual formation, where the work of God accomplished for you, and the Spirit’s Presence in you, empower you to participate in the formation of a new person. This person trades your hate for love, your sorrow for joy, your anxiety for peace, your aggression for gentleness, your meanness for kindness, your irritability for patience, your selfishness for faithfulness, and your instability for self-control. It is God who works in you to both desire and to do His good pleasure. He works in you, gives you His desires for your heart, and empowers you to act upon it all. Most of us think that success over our sin would mean that we no longer desire sin, or find it attractive. Or that success over our anger is to never feel anger again, etc. That is naive. Victory is not the absence of struggle; victory is overcoming the struggle and living with freedom inside the struggle. Victory is having your mind governed by the Spirit, rather than your flesh, and crying out to God, your Father, when your flesh is screaming for earthly satisfaction.
Be encouraged; as you plant the Word of God into your heart, as you pursue intimacy with God in prayer, and as you lean into the work of the Spirit inside you, you will not be as good at sin as you once were, and Christlikeness will become a more and more common experience. You will find that you are increasingly acting like the person God already says you are.
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By Evergreen Christian CommunityREFLECTION QUESTIONS
» Reflect on how much your life has changed since you started following Jesus. If you are new to faith, daydream for a minute on how much change can come to your life this year.
» Why is it important to know that victory does not mean the absence of struggle?
» What new spiritual discipline could you begin to regularly practice, to increase your spiritual strength and endurance? (make a small, daily goal)
» Practice the memory verse.
QUOTE
“Spiritual formation prepares us for a life in which we move away from our fears, compulsions, resentments, and sorrows, to serve with joy and courage in the world, even when this leads us to places we would rather not go. Spiritual formation helps us to see the face of God in the midst of a hardened world and in our own heart.”
- Henri J. M. Nouwen
SCRIPTURE
“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
- Philippians 2:13
DEVOTIONAL
The things I don’t want to do, I keep on doing; the things I want to do, I don’t do. Wretched man that I am, who can save me from this treadmill of failure and inner-turmoil? We all know what it’s like to feel this way, but, thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord; we can overcome.
Remember, we are not human doings, we are human beings, and, even more accurately, we are eternal spiritual beings. The ongoing journey of becoming more like Jesus is a journey of spiritual formation, where the work of God accomplished for you, and the Spirit’s Presence in you, empower you to participate in the formation of a new person. This person trades your hate for love, your sorrow for joy, your anxiety for peace, your aggression for gentleness, your meanness for kindness, your irritability for patience, your selfishness for faithfulness, and your instability for self-control. It is God who works in you to both desire and to do His good pleasure. He works in you, gives you His desires for your heart, and empowers you to act upon it all. Most of us think that success over our sin would mean that we no longer desire sin, or find it attractive. Or that success over our anger is to never feel anger again, etc. That is naive. Victory is not the absence of struggle; victory is overcoming the struggle and living with freedom inside the struggle. Victory is having your mind governed by the Spirit, rather than your flesh, and crying out to God, your Father, when your flesh is screaming for earthly satisfaction.
Be encouraged; as you plant the Word of God into your heart, as you pursue intimacy with God in prayer, and as you lean into the work of the Spirit inside you, you will not be as good at sin as you once were, and Christlikeness will become a more and more common experience. You will find that you are increasingly acting like the person God already says you are.