7 Keys to Spiritual Renewal

1. Surrender
See the need to allow God to help you grow through others. "So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and in His good time He will honor you." - 1 Peter 5:6

2. Acceptance
Accept the full reality of your situation. "Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me." - Psalm 139:1

3. Confession
Begin to open up about the reality of your life. "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed." - James 5:16

4. Responsibility
Accept responsibility to make the changes that must be made. "Each one of you should test his own actions...each one should carry his own load." - Galatians 6:5

5. Forgiveness
Forgive your own failures and the failures of those who have hurt you. "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you." - Matthew 6:14

6. Transformation
Transform your pain into a purposeful ministry out of love for others. "He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us." - 2 Corinthians 1:4

7. Preservation
Protect the spiritual gains you have made-persevere through the struggles we must all experience as we grow. "...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." - Philippians 2:12-13

Following The Map

He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.


--Psalm 23:3

Have you ever set out to go somewhere, only to realize that the direction you were heading was the wrong direction? There’s nothing quite like the experience of a trip that ends up going in a direction different then you thought it would.

That’s how it is at times in our Christian lives. We are called to follow Christ, which sounds easy enough. But there are times when it feels like He is taking us in a different direction then we thought He would. That’s when we need to cling to the Bible’s promise that Christ will indeed be with us and lead us every step of the way.

When Moses led Israel out of Egypt, God instructed him not to take the quickest and most direct route to Canaan, but to follow the path He would lead him on. I’m sure Moses wondered many times what was going on and why God was having the nation of Israel trek so many extra miles to reach the Promised Land.

But God was working out His plan in His way. In fact, in Deuteronomy 8:2, Moses says this about God’s leading in the wilderness, “And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.”

Be assured God is at work in your life no matter how strange His leading might seem at the moment.

So if you’re not sure where you’re heading today, just get close to Christ and don’t give in to the temptation of giving up or going the way you think best. We don’t have the promise of an easy and clear journey, but we do have the promise of His guidance!

STEPPIN' OUT

Have you ever said something to someone about God’s power, or love, or your faith, or “standing on the Rock”, etc., etc., only to realize that you were terrified and lacking in that professed faith?
That’s why I love this passage in Ezra. That’s exactly what happened. The exiled Jews were returning to Jerusalem, led by Ezra, and they were scared half out of their wits that they were going to be attacked along the way. They had already told the king, basically, “No problem! Our God has it handled.” The problem was that it was more bravado than belief. Aren’t you glad that when we aren’t wholly faithful, He is?

Ezra 8:21-23 NASB
Protection of God Invoked
21Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our little ones, and all our possessions.
22For I was ashamed to request from the king troops and horsemen to protect us from the enemy on the way, because we had said to the king, "The hand of our God is favorably disposed to all those who seek Him, but His power and His anger are against all those who forsake Him."
23So we fasted and sought our God concerning this matter, and He listened to our entreaty.

Are You David or Saul?

Saul answered, “Am I not a Benjaminite, from the least of the tribes of Israel? And is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me in this way?”

--1 Samuel 9:21

When you look at the life of Saul, you see a man who had everything life had to offer. He was good-looking. Humble. A leader. And God’s Spirit rested upon him. But he squandered it all because of the choices he made and the life he lived.

Saul’s fatal flaw was his own selfishness. He was determined to do his own thing and not wait on God. This selfishness transformed into stubborn disobedience, and it cost Saul everything. His stubborn will wasn’t worth the price he paid.

How often are we determined to do things our own way? To have what we want just because we want it. When we do, we take our eyes off God and plow ahead blindly.

Hopefully though, we’ll learn from the actions and hearts of both Saul and David!

David, like Saul, also wandered far from God. But David was also very different from Saul. David’s heart sought after God. He had the will to obey Him, and that made all the difference in David’s life.

You may be walking in disobedience and defeat, but you don’t have to stay there! Seek God. Seek His forgiveness. Become a man or woman after God’s own heart. Because that is the life of true victory!

is your heart more like David’s…or like Saul’s?

Above Our Circumstances

Philippians 1:19-21

We are expected to live above our circumstances and focus upon God and His sovereignty. But how do we accomplish this in practical terms? In reality, we are often too weak to properly adjust our mindset to Christ and see the potential for good in painful times. Thankfully, believers are not without help.
In order to focus on God and successfully live above our circumstances, we must understand our unity with Christ through the Holy Spirit. Life is not segregated into neat packages of work, family, church, etc., with no crossover or blurring of the lines between areas. Christ should permeate our entire existence. Paul was in such oneness with the Lord that to live in his earthly body meant to have Christ with him every moment, no matter the situation. No area of the apostle’s life could be defined apart from his faith. His mind, heart, and will were completely saturated with Christ.
When Paul wrote, “To live is Christ,” he was referring to Jesus living and working through us in the Holy Spirit’s power (Philippians 1:21). That doesn’t mean we think of divinity every second of the day, but we do make God’s will our first consideration when dealing with others.
Trying circumstances are a reality for everyone, Christian or not. The difference for believers occurs when we recognize our oneness with Christ, when we act by His strength and live according to His directions. That’s when focusing on Him becomes second nature.