Week One
Identity
Day 1: A New Story
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
—Ephesians 1:3–10
Our identity is the story we tell ourselves about ourselves. That story is shaped throughout our lives by our significant relationships and experiences. It’s a lens through which we view the world. Often, we are not aware of it, yet it guides many of our decisions and informs our reactions to people and circumstances.
For example, if at some point in your past you internalized the message that you are unlovable, you might be prone to see rejection all around you. Or, if your story says you are only valuable when you are successful, then you might view life as a competition, swinging between emotional highs and lows based on your latest performance.
These stories, or narratives, are incredibly powerful and can shape much of our lives. God knows this about us. One of the primary ways he brings change is by replacing our old story with a new one.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul begins by describing a new narrative that defines what is true about followers of Jesus. He outlines a new way to see themselves—the way God sees them. Paul walks them through what God has done for them. He helps them understand what is now true of them because of what God has done. And all these things are true of us too. They are true regardless of whether they feel true. They are true even if you have done nothing to earn them. They are true simply because God has said so.
Exercise
Take some time to make a list of all the things this passage says are true of you as a follower of Jesus. Don’t rush through, but go slowly enough to digest what is written. What are one or two truths you are drawn to? What truths do you want to sink in deeper? Write these on a sticky note or index card and put it somewhere you can see it to be reminded daily.
Day 2: Made New
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
—2 Corinthians 5:17
Many people begin their spiritual journey because they are experiencing the frustrating and often painful consequences of their decisions and behaviors. Driven by a desire for change, they come to church or decide to join a group. There’s nothing wrong with a desire for change. In fact, that’s precisely what God desires for you.
But his starting point for the process of change is often different from ours.
We typically want to take the fastest road to change, so we end up focusing on the behaviors we wish were different. We try to force ourselves to change by sheer willpower. This can lead us into a frustrating cycle of failure and shame. Why? Because our problem is much deeper than our behavior.
Imagine you see a giant domino about to fall, and you can see that the consequences will be bad. You rush over and put all your strength and energy into stopping that domino from falling. You succeed in propping it back up only to turn around and see it tipping over again. You repeat this cycle over and over, sometimes failing and sometimes succeeding. But even the victories don’t last long. Then someone asks you to step away from that exhausting work and look at the situation from where they stand. Once you step back, you’re able to see the domino from a different angle and you realize it was actually the last in a long line of dominos, each one falling on the next, leading all the way to the last one. This new perspective helps you see that if you really want to stop that last domino, you need to go back much farther.
God knows that our activity proceeds from our identity. So, his process of change begins by giving us a new identity as a son or daughter of God, who is loved and valued in his eyes. True change must begin at this foundational heart level and work its way to our behaviors.
It can be discouraging to realize our problem is rooted deeper than we thought, but it’s encouraging to know God is doing the foundational work for us. He is committed to the change he has begun.
Exercise
Take some time away to be still before God. No distractions. No dominos. It may take a little while to get to the point where your motor isn’t running and you can be internally still. Be patient; stick with it. As you settle into the stillness, ask God for a deeper awareness of his presence. Ask him to reveal what areas in your heart he wants to work in and make new.
Day 3: We’re Not in Egypt Anymore
Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
—Galatians 4:6–8
Did you know that growth has a cost? Before we can move forward in our growth journey, it’s often necessary for us to recognize what we will lose. Believe it or not, part of the reason we don’t move forward in growth is because we are benefitting from staying where we are—enjoying comfort, security, the illusion of control, or any number of different things.
We have lived in our own castles for a long time and have become quite used to them. Walking away from the safety of those walls to join God in his kingdom can be difficult.
In the verses above, Paul tells us that building our lives around the wrong things makes us slaves. That’s strong language, but Paul’s doing something very strategic here. Paul is alluding to a part of Israel’s story shortly after they had been set free from slavery in Egypt. God raised up Moses and performed great miracles to lead them out of those chains, and the Israelites praised God for their freedom. But it wasn’t long before they began to complain about how they missed all the benefits and comforts of their lives in Egypt. They even began to talk about going back! Can you imagine being homesick for a land where you were a slave?
That might sound crazy, but, according to Paul, that desire may be more familiar to you than you think. If there’s something you need so badly that you can’t imagine your life without it, then you are a slave to that thing. You have given up your freedom. You are bound to it. It could be a possession, a relationship, a title, or a reputation.
Because we’ve been given a new identity in Jesus, those chains have been broken and there is a new path paving the way to our freedom. And though it’s a clear and seemingly simple idea, it’s not always easy in practice. It’s one thing to get you out of slavery, but it’s another to get the slavery out of you.
Our propensity is to continually return to our “castles” for the comfort, security, and safety they provide, yet all the while turning our backs on the journey to wholeness and freedom that God desires for us.
But there’s some good news for you today. God is a loving father!
Imagine a father watching his young toddler take their first unsteady steps. What does he feel? How does he react? Is he impatient and frustrated that his child doesn’t go farther? Does he explode in anger when his child’s knees become unsteady and they fall to the ground? Do you think you’d see extraordinary disappointment in his eyes as you hear him shout, “Why aren’t you walking already? Look at your older brother! He can run laps around this house! Why can’t you get your act together?”
No way! Not in a million years would you expect that kind of reaction. Why not? Because a loving father celebrates the baby steps no matter how small they are. He knows those steps are the beginning of a long journey to becoming a mature adult. He’s patient with the progress and celebrates every victory, no matter how short-lived.
In the same way, your heavenly Father longs to see you move forward in your spiritual life. He loves and celebrates your baby steps.
Exercise
Here are two questions for you to reflect on today. What is it I am getting from staying where I am? And is there something I am too scared to lose?
As you begin to answer these questions, ask God for the grace and strength you need to take a small step of trust today. Then take time to thank God for his patience and forgiveness that meet you every time you stumble back to that old life and way of thinking.
Day 4: Dying to Live
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”
—Matthew 16:24–26
Imagine you are the lone survivor of a shipwreck. You float for days, clinging onto a piece of wood recovered from the wreckage. Then, after all hope seems lost, a boat appears on the horizon. Soon, the boat pulls alongside you and someone throws you a line. They tell you to let go of the wood and grab onto the line. This seems like a simple decision, right? You are in a desperate situation you can’t get out of on your own, and someone has come along who is both willing and able to save you. All you need to do is let go of the wood and reach for the lifeline. All you need to do is trust.
But what if before you grab the line, you begin to question your decision, thinking about how this piece of wood has gotten you through a lot during the last few days at sea. It has been there when you needed it, and you’ve come to depend on it for survival. Letting go of it to grab onto something else is too much to ask. So you yell back to the boat, “No. I’m gonna stick with the wood!”
That would be a crazy decision! But whether we realize it, it’s one we tend to make all the time in our spiritual lives. When Jesus invites us to follow him and live a new way of life as a part of his kingdom, he invites us to transfer our trust. He invites us to let go of the things we have previously trusted for our security and significance—and to take hold of him as our new source. This “letting go” of our way of life can, at times, feel a lot like dying, like we are losing our life as we know it. It can be scary and even painful to take that step.
And, unlike the story of the shipwreck survivor, our decision to let go and trust will not be a one-time decision. Even after we decide to trust Jesus and follow him, we will at times find ourselves clinging to portions of our old way of life. We will catch ourselves returning to those familiar sources of security and significance. And each time we will need to make the decision—again—to let go and take hold of the life Jesus offers instead.
When you find yourself facing another moment like this, remind yourself of Jesus's promise in the passage above. It is through the losing, the letting go, of our lives that we find them, in the deepest and fullest sense.
Exercise
Jesus invites us to transfer our trust from the old, familiar things we cling to for hope and security to something much better: Jesus himself. What areas are the hardest for you to let go and trust him with? Spend some time journaling and ask God to reveal areas in your heart and life where you are still struggling to trust him.
Day 5: That’s Not Fair
Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. “Your brother has come,” he replied, “and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.” The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!” “My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”
—Luke 15:25–32
When we read this parable, it’s tempting to write off the older brother as an extreme example of arrogance and self-righteousness—someone we simply can’t identify with. But if we do that, we end up missing an important truth: We all have some “older brother” in us.
If you take a closer look at the older brother, you may find his reaction is not so extreme after all. The anger he feels is ultimately about fairness. He believes it’s simply not fair for his father to treat his brother the same way he treats him. Honestly, he has a point. Doesn’t it seem like he deserves more than his brother? Hasn’t his obedience and consistency earned him more?
We often look at God’s offer of undeserved grace as purely positive. But sometimes, when we see it played out in our real lives and relationships, grace can be a stumbling block. If we allow comparison to sneak in, grace presents us with a very real problem. It’s not fair.
How is it fair for God to overlook someone's sin, especially if we’re the ones who are hurt by it? Paul addresses this tension directly in his letter to the Christians in Rome.
God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
—Romans 3:25–26
How can God be both “just” and “the one who justifies” those who have sinned? Is he brushing sin under the rug like it never happened? Does that mean he doesn’t take sin seriously?
It seems like a contradiction, and it is, unless there is more to the story—unless there is some way the price of the sin can be paid without having to extract it from the one who sinned. Paul writes that Jesus is our “sacrifice of atonement”—the sacrifice that paid the price for our right standing with God.
Jesus is the answer to the problem that grace presents. Through Jesus, God can be “the one who justifies” while also remaining “just” as the one who is consistent in delivering the consequences of sin.
So, when you feel tempted to withhold grace or forgiveness from someone because they don't deserve it, remember that Jesus doesn’t come to us saying, “I love you because you’re perfect.” Instead, he comes to us in our shortcomings and says, “I love you just as you are, and I will pay the price to make you perfect.” God did not settle for fair in his relationship with you; he paid the price willingly. When it comes to our relationship with God, we don’t need fair—we need grace. As those who have received something so precious, we should be first in line to extend grace to others.
Exercise
Take your time and journal through the following questions:
Where have you been withholding grace? Is there a circumstance or person that comes to mind? Why does it feel so difficult to extend grace in this situation?
Is there anyone in your life who you believe is outside the reach of grace? What would it look like for you to bring the person and situation before the Father and ask for his heart of grace to be formed in you?
Once you’ve had an opportunity to answer the above questions, find a quiet place to sit and be still for a few moments with Jesus. As you become still, hold out your hands in clenched fists, facing down. Picture the Father embracing the person who has hurt you. If you feel tension rising, allow your fists to clench harder. Stay there for a little while if you need to. When you’re ready, take a deep breath and ask God to give you his heart for this person. Turn your fists over, palms up. Relax and breath deeply as you open your hands and release them to the Father.
If you are not ready to let go of the tension, allow this exercise to be a heartfelt prayer that God would help you move in that direction.
Week Two
Connection with God
Day 6: Fruit, Not Fruits
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
—Galatians 5:22–23
It’s easy to misread these verses, and they are often misquoted as saying “fruits” of the Spirit. It might seem like Paul is giving us a list of different, unconnected characteristics that will present in the life of a Jesus follower. But Paul doesn’t say “fruits;” he specifically says “fruit.” He uses the singular noun. So, what is Paul saying here?
Eighteenth-century theologian Jonathan Edwards taught about this idea, saying, “… It appears that all the graces of Christianity are concatenated and linked together, so as to be mutually connected and mutually dependent.”
“Concatenated” is a cool, eighteenth-century way of saying “all the graces of Christianity” are chained or joined together. This means we can’t just grow in one or two areas and leave the rest untouched. If it is genuine spiritual growth, all these characteristics will grow simultaneously.
This is important to understand; otherwise, it’s easy to read this as a to-do list— or a “to-be” list. We feel pressure to somehow create these characteristics through willpower and effort. Based on our temperaments and personalities, some of these attributes may come easily. But others feel impossible—and we may be tempted to think God isn’t interested in changing those parts of us.
But if we’re talking about fruit, not fruits, there is symmetry to our growth. You can’t have joy without love, peace without gentleness, goodness without self-control—at least not in the lasting way God wants these graces in your life. They are all connected and grow alongside each other. They are not separate fruits, but different aspects of the same fruit, the fruit that grows only by God’s power when we live in connection with him.
So, don’t be discouraged by how you stack up with each of these character traits—it’s not a to-do list for you to complete. It is God giving you a sneak peek at the work he is committed to doing in your life as you walk with him.
Exercise
This fruit of the Spirit grows by remaining connected to the source, the vine itself, which is Jesus. As you think about this word picture, what is the current condition of the soil of your heart? Is it dry or well-hydrated? Easily tilled or tightly compacted? Is there anything else planted there that competes with Jesus having his way in your life?
Invite God to move in your heart in a fresh way and ask him to show you what it would look like to remain constantly rooted in and dependent on his love.
Day 7: Wax On, Wax Off
Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
—1 Timothy 4:7–10
Have you ever seen the movie The Karate Kid? It’s the story of a high school kid named Daniel who is struggling with some classic 1980s-style bullies. Daniel soon discovers that the janitor of his apartment complex, Mr. Miyagi, is a karate expert, and Daniel sees the perfect solution for his problem. Mr Miyagi agrees to train Daniel and sets him to work waxing cars, painting fences, and sanding floors. Daniel works for days doing these exhausting and repetitive tasks. He finally gets frustrated and lashes out at his new sensei about how he’s doing all this work without learning anything about karate. But Mr. Miyagi reveals to Daniel that the repetitive motions he has been doing for days have been teaching him karate! Mr. Miyagi attempts to strike, and Daniel finds he has developed the strength and muscle memory for all sorts of blocking motions that were well beyond his ability just days earlier.
The Karate Kid serves as a great illustration of how spiritual practices work in our lives. We read about love, joy, peace, patience, and many other amazing things we want in our lives. But taking hold of these things isn’t something we can achieve through direct effort. We can’t simply will our way into joy, at least not for long. So how do we, as Paul wrote to Timothy in the passage above, “train… for godliness?” We apply our effort toward spiritual practices.
Spiritual practices are the Jesus equivalent to waxing cars and sanding floors. It may not seem like you’re accomplishing anything when you spend time each day to quiet yourself before God to read the Bible and pray. But one day, when you’re hit with an unexpected circumstance, you’ll be surprised to find you don’t react the way you used to. Instead, you’ll catch yourself handling the circumstance with patience—and still feeling peace in the midst of it.
Just like physical training and exercise, spiritual practices enable us, over time, to do things that were once well beyond our capabilities. And, no offense to Mr. Miyagi, but spiritual practices do far more than sharpen and strengthen our natural abilities. Rather, they help us tap into the power of the Holy Spirit, who works in us to cultivate more and more of the characteristics of Jesus.
Author Dallas Willard describes spiritual practices, which he refers to as “disciplines,” this way: “The disciplines are activities of mind and body purposefully undertaken, to bring our personality and total being into effective cooperation with the divine order. They enable us more and more to live in a power that is, strictly speaking, beyond us, deriving from the spiritual realm itself.”
So, when you’re tempted to skip out on that daily prayer time and Scripture reading, just remember the words of your teacher: “wax on, wax off.” Just kidding… the other teacher: “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit” (John 15:5).
Exercise
Here are a few selected spiritual practices that have been helpful to Jesus followers over the centuries. They’re divided into two categories, practices of engagement and practices of restraint. Look through the list and consider one new practice you could begin as a way of connecting with God.
Practices of Engagement
These practices help us by adding new rhythms of connection with God into our regular routines for the purpose of drawing closer to him.
Bible Reading: Spending time reading and reflecting on Scripture to allow God to speak, guide, and teach us. This includes various approaches to reading, studying, reflecting on, and even meditating on the words of Scripture.
Worship: Celebrating and expressing gratitude for who God is and what he has done. This can be done privately or corporately in worship services. Worship often includes, but is not limited to, musical expression.
Prayer: Talking with God about what we’re experiencing. Prayer can include worship, as described above, intercession (praying for the needs of others), confession, and many other elements. There is no one way to pray, just as there is no one way to communicate with people we have relationships with. Prayer is ultimately about creating an intellectual, emotional, and spiritual connection with our heavenly Father so we can better know and trust his will.
Generosity: Our love for God is meant to overflow in love for others. One of the ways we demonstrate that love is by being generous with our time, energy, and resources.
Practices of Restraint
These practices are ways of denying ourselves something we want or need to make space to focus on and connect with God. Essentially, they help us connect with God by subtracting things from our regular routines.
Solitude: Pulling away to be alone with God and focus on him and what he wants to say to us.
Fasting: Going for a set period without food, or some other desire or need, to better focus on prayer and connection to God.
Sabbath/Rest: To regularly set aside time when we will not work or focus on productivity so we may worship, rest, and recharge. God instituted Sabbath for Israel to be observed one full day each week, but the essence of Sabbath rest can be practiced for shorter periods as well.
A deeper look
If you are interested in digging deeper into these and other spiritual practices, check out the "Connect with God" resource.
Day 8: Prayer – “Our Father…”
This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
—Matthew 6:9–13
When Jesus’s disciples ask him to teach them how to pray, he gives this example. In many ways, we can use this prayer as a road map for how we can approach our own prayer life. One of the most profound lessons Jesus teaches through this prayer is found in the first two words, “Our Father.”
By using the word “Father,” Jesus is defining the kind of relationship we can have with God. This was a huge shift for his first-century, Jewish followers. It was not common to approach the almighty God with language so familiar and intimate. But maybe that was Jesus’s point.
If we think of God as our heavenly boss or heavenly example, or even our heavenly friend, then our prayer life will be shaped in a radically different way. These titles bring expectations and limitations to the relationship.
Imagine an employee walking into their boss’s office and making a request. There would be a certain tone to the interaction, a deference and respect. Now, imagine the boss’s five-year-old daughter coming into the room to ask for a piece of candy. She would approach him in a completely different way, perhaps even jumping onto his lap and making her request with confidence. Why would one person act differently from the other? It’s a different relationship. The kind of relationship you have determines the level of access and intimacy.
That’s why Jesus's words are so profound. When he tells us to pray “Our Father,” he is making a radical statement about the kind of relationship we can have with God. Through Jesus, we’ve been adopted into the family of God, and we can approach with confidence as we are invited into a relationship defined by access and intimacy.
(Not everyone had the privilege of growing up with a loving father who prioritized their feelings and needs. For some, it can be hurtful to connect their idea of “father” to their relationship with God. There may be a long journey of healing ahead before you can use that name for God with assurance of his love. But do not let those hurts distract you from the main point Jesus is making by using the word “Father”—that you can approach God with confidence within a relationship of access and intimacy. God is not confined to the limits and wounds of our earthly fathers. He loves you as a perfect Father.)
Exercise
A relationship with God is one defined by access, intimacy, and confidence. Let that sink in. How extraordinary it is that through Jesus it’s possible to have that kind of relationship with God!
Take a few moments and journal through the following questions. As you write, ask the Holy Spirit to show you how God desires to have a close relationship with you, his child.
What does your current relationship with God look like? Is there any area of your heart or life you are hesitant to trust him with? What would it look like to approach the Father with full confidence that he loves you and wants you close?
Day 9: Work Out What God Has Worked In…
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to 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 2:12–13
At first glance, these verses can seem confusing. Is Paul implying that salvation is something we earn over time, something we are supposed to “work out?” We know from many other passages of Scripture that salvation is not something we achieve; it is something we receive. It is a gift of grace given freely to us from God. So, what is Paul referring to here?
The key to understanding the phrase “work out your salvation” is actually found in the next verse when Paul writes, “it is God who works in you.” Paul is encouraging these Jesus followers to continue moving forward in their spiritual growth. Following Jesus isn’t simply a moment-in-time decision. It’s actually a series of moments and decisions that add up to a journey of transformation. In the moment of your initial decision to follow Jesus, God declares you to be blameless and righteous in his sight. He gives you a new status and position as a child of God. The theological word for this is justification. The rest of the journey is the process by which we become practically what God has already declared us to be positionally. This is called sanctification. God is committed to this process in your life. He is working “in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” But it is not something he does without your participation.
Nineteenth-century evangelist George Müller said it this way: “The believer must finish, must carry to conclusion, must apply to its fullest consequences what is already given by God in principle... He must work out what God in His grace has worked in.”
This is ultimately what the journey of spiritual growth is all about—working out what God is working in. We are partners with God in the work of transformation he is doing in our lives.
Exercise
Find a quiet place and settle in to spend some time being still with God. You might have to fight for it, but be intentional to get to the place where you are able to be internally still.
Ask God to make you more aware of his presence. Ask him to highlight how he has been working in you and how you can actively participate in your spiritual growth. Finally, thank him for his faithfulness and ask him to sharpen your awareness of his spirit working in you.
Day 10: What’s Fear Got to Do With It?
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to 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 2:12–13
Wait! I know what you’re thinking—Didn’t I read this yesterday? But there are two really big ideas in these verses, so they’ve been divided between two days. Yesterday was about working out what God has worked in. Today is about the role of fear in our spiritual growth.
As uncomfortable as we may be with that idea, Paul tells us we are to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.” We tend to write off that kind of thing in our culture, thinking it’s old-school religion. We don’t want to think of God as someone we should fear, right? How could that be helpful?
Well, imagine you’re at the beach with a young child. Would it be a good idea to just point to the ocean and say, “Go have fun, I’m going to lie here and take a nap?” Of course not! That would be extremely irresponsible, right? You would walk the child by the hand all the way up to where the waves are crashing against the shore. You’d show them how powerful the waves are and tell them about the pull of the currents. You’d want them to have a healthy level of respect for the ocean because it’s much bigger and far more powerful than they are. You would never want them running in without any idea of what they’re actually dealing with, right? On the other hand, you wouldn’t want them hugging the boardwalk in sheer terror of the ocean. You’d show them how to play, splash, and have fun in the waves because that’s the whole point of going to the beach. When it comes to something as powerful as the ocean, there’s an appropriate balance between love and respect.
In the same way, when the Bible talks about the fear of God, the point is not that we should be terrified of God. It’s about having a healthy respect for the fact that God is much bigger and more powerful than we can comprehend. It’s about acknowledging that when we come to God, we don’t call the shots. He is beyond our control or manipulation—he is the almighty Creator of the universe! We can’t fit him in our pocket and carry him around as a good luck charm.
But knowing this should not pull us away from God. In fact, the opposite is true. When we discover a healthy “fear” of God, we are far less likely to take his love for granted. It fuels our wonder and draws us closer to him.
Exercise
An essential part of connection with God is having a correct view of who he is. It's easy for us to become so familiar with God as a close friend that we forget how big he is.
Here are a few questions for reflection…
Has your view of God been too small? What has been the consequence of that limited view? In what areas do you feel you may have taken God’s love for granted?
Ask God to give you a healthy and helpful “fear” of him and to see him as the immense and powerful God he is. Then thank him for the tremendous love that led him to lay aside all that power and suffer death on the cross so he could welcome you into a relationship with him.
Week Three
Belonging and Purpose
Day 11: Bear With One Another
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
—Ephesians 4:1–3
In 1917, a priest named Edward Flanagan opened a home for boys to help the neediest and most vulnerable boys in Omaha, Nebraska. The orphanage took in the homeless, boys with criminal records, and the disabled. One of those boys, Howard Loomis, had polio and wore heavy leg braces. One day, Father Flanagan saw one of the older boys carrying Howard up the stairs. Father Flanagan noticed this kindness and asked him, “Isn’t he heavy?” And the boy replied, “He ain’t heavy, Father… he’s m’ brother.”
This is a beautiful picture of what it looks like to “bear with one another." The phrase, translated as “bear with” in this passage, also means “to hold up.” It brings a picture to our minds of lifting or carrying someone. Like the boy carrying Howard up the stairs, this is what love looks like.
In a way, to love someone is to open ourselves to suffering. Their sadness becomes ours. This is one of the reasons we are so often guarded and slow to love. It can be hard to open ourselves to a relationship that may require from us what could be difficult or inconvenient.
Yet this is what God asks us to do for each other as a community of Jesus followers. He calls us to love in a way that will cost us. God is not asking us to do anything that he has not first done himself. God did not guard his heart from us. He poured it out generously. Jesus bound up his heart with ours. He made our suffering his suffering. He made our pain his pain. And he asks us to do the same for others. This is part of what it looks like to “live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”
Exercise
Think back over your life. When has someone loved you in the same all-out, costly way that Jesus has? If you have access to the person who comes to mind, schedule some time with them this week or next—perhaps a coffee date or a Zoom call. Get together and let them know what a difference their choice to “bear with one another” has made in your life.
Then imagine someone sitting with you years later and saying the same thing to you.
Ask the Holy Spirit to give you his eyes and his heart for people. Ask that you would see them the way he sees them and respond the way he responds.
Day 12: Stir It Up
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
—Hebrews 10:24–25
If you are a parent, or, for that matter, if you have ever been a child, you’ve probably had some experience making chocolate milk. So, you know that when you start stirring the milk and it turns from white to brown, it’s not some kind of magic trick. It’s because there was already chocolate syrup sitting on the bottom of the glass. Everything that was needed to change the milk into chocolate milk was already there, but it needed to be stirred to bring about the change.
The author of Hebrews is saying there’s something similar that goes on in the life of a Jesus follower. We have in us the potential and power for great “love and good deeds.” But sometimes that potential lies dormant. It settles to the bottom and doesn’t work its way into the world where it is so desperately needed. It needs somebody, or maybe even a group of somebodies, to come along and stir it up.
This is one of the most important gifts Jesus followers can give to one another. They can be agitators, refusing to let love settle to the bottom of our lives. They can come alongside one another and stir love into action through encouragement, accountability, and support.
We need to prioritize these kinds of relationships in our lives. And we need to extend permission to others to speak truth to us, even if it’s hard to hear—even if it feels agitating. We’ll often find that a little agitating is just what we need to discover a life of greater love and purpose.
Exercise
Prioritizing healthy relationships that sharpen us takes intentionality and vulnerability. Prayerfully consider the people in your life—family, friends, coworkers. Who are some of your safest people? It might be that the safest people you know aren’t that close, but you would like to get closer because they’d be good for you. What would it look like for you to give these safe people the permission to speak truth into your life in a deeper way? Consider inviting them to walk with you more closely and to know you more authentically, messiness and all.
Ask the Holy Spirit to highlight the people he wants to draw into your life in a closer way. And then reach out.
Day 13: Blessed to Bless
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
—Genesis 12:1–3
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.”
—2 Corinthians 1:3–7
Imagine you’re scrolling through your social media feed and you come across a post that really fires you up. It points out something that is terribly wrong in the world and your heart is motivated to get involved and do something. So, you share the post, adding a few words of your own to express how outraged you are that no one cares enough to do anything. And then… you move on with your life feeling better about yourself because you got involved. You don’t go anywhere. You don’t have a real conversation with anyone. You don’t actually do anything. But you feel like you did.
Sound familiar? This kind of engagement now has a name. It’s called “slacktivism” and it’s officially in the English dictionary. It’s a shortcut—and a short circuit—to our desire to make the world a better place. That’s not to say that sharing important ideas and articles has no purpose. But sharing information is only one step of a bigger journey. And if we satisfy our desire to get involved before we’ve ever really gotten involved, then we end up missing out on a significant part of what God wants to do in and through us. It’s like going to your favorite Italian restaurant and filling up on breadsticks before the entree hits the table. You’re missing out on the meal you truly want.
God is calling us to be far more than “slacktivists.” In the verses above, from the book of Genesis, Abram (soon to be renamed Abraham) is told that God is going to bless him, but then God immediately tells him he will “be a blessing.” It’s a gift with a purpose attached to it. God blesses Abram, so he will bless others.
This is a running theme in the New Testament as well. Paul picks up this theme in 2 Corinthians 1:3–7. He writes that God brings comfort, at least in part, so we would comfort others. It seems that in our culture we might be tempted to rewrite Paul’s words, as if he were saying, “You have been comforted by God so you can share a post about how there are a lot of people in the world who need to be comforted and letting folks know how terrible you think it is that they don’t care.”
Don’t take the bait. It’s not enough to simply “retweet” someone’s outrage about what’s wrong. God calls us to be part of the solution, which is harder and messier but significantly more rewarding.
If you’ve put your faith in a God who didn’t hesitate to get his hands dirty, and even bloody, to come after you, then it only makes sense that we would be asked to do the same for others.
Through Jesus, God has made so many blessings available to us, but he has also given us a calling and a purpose—to bless the world. We have been called to generously pour out our time, resources, and energy to partner with God to bring healing and renewal to this broken world. We’ve been blessed to bless and changed to bring change.
Exercise
It’s possible your life might be the only life-giving message of Jesus that someone hears. What is your life saying about what’s important to you? What is your life communicating about what’s important to God?
Take some time today and journal about the above questions. What’s important to you? Ask God to reveal the areas in your heart that get in the way of your life reflecting what you truly treasure.
Day 14: Making Good Shoes
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
—Ephesians 2:10
God has created us on purpose—for a purpose. Believe it or not, he has already prepared ways you can demonstrate and share the love of God with others. (And in case you’re wondering, he knows where you work!)
Many Jesus followers live highly compartmentalized lives, particularly when it comes to their work life and their faith. But what if your work is one of the primary ways God wants to grow your faith?
Did you know that the average person will spend about 90,000 hours—roughly one-third of their adulthood—at work? If our faith doesn’t speak into our work lives, then it has nothing to say about what we do with a huge portion of our time. God cares greatly about our work and how we as Jesus followers approach our work.
Churches haven’t always done a great job with helping people discover greater meaning and purpose in their work. In fact, some sermons leave you with the impression that the only way to serve God is to leave your job and work at a church. But this could not be further from the truth.
Church reformer Martin Luther wrote, “The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”
Dorothy Sayers, an activist and author, expressed a similar sentiment when she wrote, “The church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him to not be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours and to come to church on Sundays. What the church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables.”
The truth is, just about every type of work contributes in some way to the overall good of others. As such, our work is one of the ways God extends his love and care to his creation. To serve God with your work, you don’t have to quit your job and go work at a church—you can serve God at work with a simple shift in your perspective. Maybe you need to view your work through the lens of the positive impact it has on others. Perhaps you need to renew your commitment to doing quality work with integrity. Or maybe you simply need to realize that God has put you where you are for a reason and has “prepared good works” for you to do right where you happen to spend 40 hours each week.
Exercise
Here are a few questions to ask as you reflect on how your life and work intersect:
In what ways does your work serve others?
What would it look like to focus more on serving others through your work?
How can you influence the culture of your workplace in a more positive way?
Spend some time journaling your answers. They might seem like easy enough questions, but don’t rush through them. Invite God into the conversation by praying as you write down your thoughts. Ask the Holy Spirit to make you more aware of his presence and leading during your work hours. Consider making it a daily practice to ask God, “Who would you like me to show your love to today?” Then be ready to respond to his leading.
Day 15: Stepping Out
Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
“Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
—Matthew 14:25–29
You probably know how this story ends. Peter looks up and sees the wind and waves and becomes afraid. He loses his concentration on Jesus, begins to sink into the water, and Jesus has to come save him. We tend to focus on Peter’s failure in this story, but what about the tremendous faith in Jesus it must have taken for Peter to step onto the waves at all? That’s remarkable faith! More faith than anyone else on the boat that day. Peter so believed in the power of Jesus that he became the only man to ever walk across the surface of the sea. Well, the only man who wasn’t also God, that is.
We are typically so terrified of failure that we never step out and trust God to do the amazing. Like the other disciples in the boat, we keep our feet planted firmly on the deck and watch someone else step onto the waves. We might even celebrate when they falter as a way of justifying our safe decision to stay put.
Maybe we do this our whole lives and never fail in any publicly embarrassing kind of way, yet we never succeed in anything that was utterly worth doing either. What a tragedy! Pastor and author A.W. Tozer said, “God is looking for people through whom he can do the impossible. What a pity we plan only things we can do by ourselves.”
What if we trusted God with the reckless abandon of Peter as he jumped out of that boat? Sure, he started to sink, but not before he took several steps into the impossible. And in the end, Jesus never let him sink.
Even in the midst of failure Peter and Jesus shared a moment together that would never be repeated. And if you were able to ask Peter about that moment, he would probably tell you he never regretted stepping out of that boat.
Exercise
Can you imagine what it would feel like to trust Jesus to the point of reckless abandon? Would it feel scary, thrilling, or both?
Go to one of your favorite, most comfortable spots. Maybe it’s a cozy couch with a blanket, or maybe it’s somewhere outside in nature. Once you’re settled in, take slow, deep breaths as you become still before God.
Is there anything that’s holding you back from surrendering to how God wants to move in you? Take a few moments and ask him to show you what’s in the way—then lay it down before him. Ask God to work in your heart, however he pleases, to help you trust him to the point of reckless abandon.