Tag Archives: Spiritual Formation

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How to Overcome Worry, Fear, and Anxious Thoughts

Get Unstuck and Regain Control by Inviting God In

Tired of feeling stuck, out of control, and overwhelmed by strong emotions? This simple practice will help you get unstuck, reframe, and move forward.

All of us struggle with worry, fear, and anxious thoughts. But you don’t have to stay in the doom loop. Hope and peace are available.

This video will help.

Download the FREE Guide that will help you apply what I teach in this video (below).

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”–Psalm 139:23-24

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Everyone Is Becoming Something

As the famous quote goes, “Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.” That has never been truer than when applied to the topic of hell. C. S. Lewis vividly paints a picture of this progression:

Hell begins with a grumbling mood, always complaining, always blaming others . . . but you are still distinct from it. You may even criticize it in yourself and wish you could stop it. But there may come a day when you can no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself, going on forever like a machine. It is not a question of God “sending us” to Hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will be Hell unless it is nipped in the bud.

The simple fact of the matter is that everyone is becoming something. We are either becoming a lover of self or a lover of God. We make our choices and then our choices make us.

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The Indispensable Role of Tests in the Christian Life

Tests. Ugh. Sometimes I wish I had finished with them when I graduated from school. No more homework. No more tests. Sounds great right? Unless there is more to it than that when it comes to the spiritual life.

Recently I re-read some words from The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard that helped me rethink this approach again:

“First we must accept the circumstances we constantly find ourselves in as a place of God’s kingdom and blessing. God has yet to bless anyone except where they actually are, and if we faithlessly discard situation after situation, moment after moment, as not being “right,” we will simply have no place to receive his kingdom into our life. For those situations and moments are our life.”

These tests and situations are opportunities. Though well stated, Willard did not come up with this idea. The brother of Jesus did:

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” – James 1:2-4 (NASB)

Comfort is not God’s goal for my life–wow that is even painful to type! Being a disciple means doing homework and taking tests–not to earn God’s favor or merit his grace, but to grow. Growth is not comfortable but it is good, necessary, and what we were made for. This is another reason why theology matters.

God help me receive todays’s circumstances–as husband, father, friend, co-worker–as an opportunity to grow. Help me pass the test for your glory and my ultimate benefit. Help change my perspective.

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How have you experienced receiving circumstances as opportunities in your life? Share how God has met you in them below in the comments section to encourage one another.

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How to Keep Your Heart and Relationship with God Spiritually Healthy

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. – Proverbs 4:23

If we are to flourish as human beings, our hearts must be guarded, cared for and tended to. But who has the time? I certainly don’t. Do you? I mean, we have work, studies, families, relationships, and other responsibilities. We entertain ourselves non-stop and are habitually plugged in to a digital universe that subtly reshapes our desires and expectations of reality (most of the time, not in a Godward direction).

And yet, if we don’t take the time to tend to our hearts, life will not go well. And we will miss out on God’s best for us. We will not be healthy and we will not grow. Our souls will shrivel up and our relationships will suffer. Our humanity will be diminished and our passions enslaved.These are the natural consequences of a life in a fallen world if we do not engage our hearts (Gen.3).

What follows is my attempt at reminding myself from God’s Word how to deal with the sin that so easily entangles our hearts. You are welcome to read over my shoulder.

1. Confess your sin

  • Agree with God that what you did was actually wrong / sin (Ps. 51)
  • Admit you were wrong to the offended person and ask for their forgiveness (Matt. 5:23-24)
  • Tell your closest Christian friends that you have sinned in this way (cf. James 5:16)

2. Accept God’s forgiveness

  • Receive the forgiveness God has already provided you in Jesus Christ (1 John 1:9)
  • Reject the lie that you are not forgiven and the guilt that goes with that (cf. Rom. 8:1)

3. Renew your mind

  • Tell yourself the truth about this behavior / attitude / situation (i.e., what the Bible says cf. Rom. 12:1-2; Ps. 119:9-11 & 2 Tim. 3:16-17)
  • Ask the Holy Spirit to help you change your thinking regarding this behavior / attitude / situation. (Gal. 5:16-23 cf. Eph. 5:16)

If helpful, remember the acronym C.A.R. for this process. This is not a exhaustive to be sure. But it is a good (and throughly biblical) place to start.

*Learn how to become an everyday ambassador as we live out our faith.

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Dallas Willard on the Ruined Soul and How Not to Live

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Recently Dallas Willard went to be with His Lord. I miss him already. Here is just one of the many sobering and insightful passages from his writing (Renovation of the Heart).

Thus no one chooses in the abstract to go to hell or even to be the kind of person who belongs there. But their orientation toward self leads them to become the kind of person for whom away-from-God is the only place for which they are suited. It is a place they would, in the end, choose for themselves, rather than come to humble themselves before God and accept who he is. Whether or not God’s will is infinitely flexible, the human will is not. There are limits beyond which it cannot bend back, cannot turn or repent. One should seriously inquire if to live in a world permeated with God and the knowledge of God is something they themselves truly desire. If not, they can be assured that God will excuse them from his presence. They will find their place in the “outer darkness” of which Jesus spoke. But the fundamental fact about them will not be that they are there, but that they have become people so locked into their own self-worship and denial of God that they cannot want God… We should be very sure that the ruined soul is not one who has missed a few more or less important theological points and will flunk a theological examination at the end of life. Hell is not an “oops!” or a slip. One does not miss heaven by a hair, but by constant effort to avoid and escape God. “Outer darkness” is for one who, everything said, wants it, whose entire orientation has slowly and firmly set itself against God and therefore against how the universe actually is. It is for those who are disastrously in error about their own life and their place before God and man.—Dallas Willard

Learn more about the life, work, ministry, and writings of Dallas Willard

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