MercyTalk

Welcome back to MercyTalk! As we wrap up our series, Thriving in Your Relationship with God, we’re taking a closer look at how intimacy with God leads to a new identity.

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To wrap up this discussion, we’ll look at how getting over ourselves, believing we’re bought for and forgiven, and communing with Jesus through prayer makes it possible for us to experience true intimacy with God and reshapes and reorients our identities. Our identities are no longer our own. And most importantly, our identities are hidden.

This is key. It is so completely counter to our social media culture, which fosters self-aggrandizing habits: our lives, our endeavors, our every pursuit becomes all about us. This is especially dangerous when our pursuits or endeavors fail, because if we tailor our identity to what we do rather than whose we are, our foundation is built on shifting sand.

When our identity is firmly rooted in Christ and our endeavors fail, we can face the future secure because of who we are in Jesus. Believing this—actually believing this—will bring freedom and empowerment. This perspective will free us up to steward all our responsibilities well and for His glory, not our own!

Welcome to MercyTalk! We’re continuing our series, Thriving in Your Relationship with God, by further exploring the mandate to pray without ceasing.

Often in our prayer lives, we strive to make lists, goals, and benchmarks in order to earn more of God’s love. In the process, we can find ourselves becoming cyclical. However, the idea of working to earn God’s love and grace is not only bad theology but flat out wrong. Try as we might, there is nothing we can ever do to earn God’s love and grace. That’s what makes it grace. This can be especially hard to accept for those who have come from a more legalistic church background. Learning to rest in His grace and being certain of His pleasure in us as His children is a lifelong journey of trusting God’s word over our personal experiences with others. As we discover what it means to thrive in our relationship with God, we learn that prayer is the lifeline we’ve been yearning for—not to check off a box, but to know Jesus more deeply.

Also in today’s episode:

Welcome to MercyTalk! We’re already deep into October and excited to continue our series, Thriving in Your Relationship with God, with our newest Outreach team member, Julian Vaca! This month, we’re taking a closer look at what it means to not merely exist in our relationship with the Lord, but rather, to flourish and thrive! In the third episode of this series, we examine one of the very real ways we can start experiencing the kind of intimacy with God we so desperately crave: prayer.

For Christians, prayer can be a curious aspect of our faith. It can be an easy and difficult practice to understand—especially in application. Sometimes we spend more time comparing our prayer life to others than actually praying. However, as we continue to grow in our faith, we learn that no one holds a monopoly on what prayer should look like. While Jesus gave us the absolute perfect blueprint in the Lord’s Prayer, we also see many great examples of prayer from David in the book of Psalms. So with prayer, desire and discipline far exceed any method or way in which we should pray.

In today’s episode, we’ll ask questions like, “Do we desire true communion with the Father?” and “Do we truly view prayer as something that brings satisfaction?” As we continue to learn about the power of prayer, we’ll also seek to understand what prayer actually is: communion with God through the Holy Spirit.

Also in today’s episode:

Hey, everyone! Welcome to MercyTalk! We’re excited to continue our new series, “Thriving in Your Relationship with God”. All month long, we’ll be taking a closer look at what it means to not merely exist in our relationship with the Lord, but rather, to flourish and thrive! In this episode, we take a closer look at how trusting that we’ve truly been forgiven serves to fuel our relationship with Him!

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This may sound like a bunch of “Christianese” at first, but the reality is, living life as a beloved child of God is a critical part of experiencing intimacy with the Father. When we struggle to really believe this for ourselves, we live with an orphan-like mentality instead of the confidence and freedom that comes from being claimed as His child!

Hey, everyone! Welcome to MercyTalk! We’re headed into October and so excited to start our new series with a brand new Outreach team member, Julian Vaca! This month, we will be diving into our series “Thriving in Your Relationship with God” and asking questions like, “How do we walk intimately with the Father instead of merely getting by in our relationship with Him?” When it’s all said and done, how do we thrive?

On today’s episode, Julian, Melanie, and Brooke focus on a foundational piece of thriving in your relationship with God: humility.

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While humility may seem like a harsh place to start, Julian points out that an intimate relationship with the Father begins by acknowledging that He is in control and we are not. He is the Creator, Author, Perfecter; and we are not. Even in the midst of pain, loss, and anger, God is good, and His heart is for us. He is not the author of suffering. There are hidden mysteries that only He knows, and learning to trust His character allows us to cling to His hand in the lowest valleys.

A beautiful example of this is found in the story of David confessing his sins to the Lord in Psalm 51. In the midst of unthinkable loss and disobedience, David turns to the Lord crying for mercy and forgiveness, and his intimacy with the Lord is restored.

As we dive into what it means to thrive in our relationship with God, we see that the Father draws close to the humble in heart but is far from the proud (Psalm 136:6).