Week 4 - What on Earth Am I Here For Journal
PURPOSE #3 - I Was Created To Become Like Christ - DISCIPLESHIP
Day 22 - Created to Become Like Christ
From the very beginning, God's plan has been to make me like his son, Jesus. God wants me to develop Christ-like characteristics and it is the Holy Spirit's job to produce this characters in me. To develop Christ-like characteristics I must:
Day 23 - How I Grow
God wants me to grow up. His goal for me is to mature and develop the characteristics of Jesus Christ. Spiritual growth is not automatic, it takes intentional commitment. I must want to grow, decide to grow, make an effort to grow and persist in growing. In developing Christ-like characteristics:
Day 24 - Transformed by Truth
Spiritual growth is the process of replacing lies with the truth - the word of God. The word of God generates life, creates faith, produces change, frightens the devil, causes miracles, heals hurts, build character, transforms circumstances, imparts joy, overcome adversity, defeats temptation, infuses hope, cleanse our mind, brings things into being, guarantees my future forever. I cannot live without the word of God
If I want to grow spiritually
I must fill my mind with the word of God so that the Holy Spirit can transform me with the truth - read it, study it, remember it and reflect on it.
I must apply what I read. Words are useless if I fail to put them in practice.
John 8:31-32 - If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the tutu this hall make you free.
Day 25 - Transformed by Trouble
God has a purpose behind every problem. He uses circumstances to develop our character. Life is a series of problems (test). Every time you solve one, another is waiting to take it's place. Not all of them are big but they are all significant in God's growth process for me. God uses problems to draw me closer to himself. Problem forces me to look to God and depend on him instead of myself.
When going through problems I should always remind myself:
Day 26 - Growing through Temptation
Every temptation is an opportunity to choose to the right thing or the wrong thing. While temptation is satan's primary weapon to destroy me, God wants to use it to develop me. Every time I chose to do good instead of sin, I am growing in the character of Christ. God wants me to develop the fruit of the spirit - love, joy, peace, kindness, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control and he does this by allowing me to experience circumstances in which I am tempted to express the exact opposite.
I must be aware of how satan works. He identifies a desire inside me and then suggest ways to give in to that evil desire. He will try to get me to doubt what God has said about the sin, offer his lie to replace what God has already said in his word and he will finally get me to act on the thought.
To overcome temptation, I must
Day 27 - Defeating Temptation
Sometimes I may feel that the temptation I am facing is too overpowering to bear, but that is a lie from satan. God has promised never to allow more on me than he puts within me to handle it. God will never permit any temptation that I could not overcome but I must do my part by practicing four biblical steps to defeating temptation.
Day 28 – It Takes Time
There is no shortcut to spiritual growth. Spiritual growth like physical growth takes time. Christlikeness is my eventual destination, but my journey will last a lifetime. The journey involves believing through worship, belonging through fellowship, becoming through discipleship, serving through ministry.
Don’t be so hard yourself, Christlikeness will take time because I am a slow learner and I have a lot of old habits to unlearn.
To become like Christ,
Day 22 - Created to Become Like Christ
From the very beginning, God's plan has been to make me like his son, Jesus. God wants me to develop Christ-like characteristics and it is the Holy Spirit's job to produce this characters in me. To develop Christ-like characteristics I must:
- Cooperate with the Holy Spirit by doing the right thing in spite of my fears and feelings
- Change the way I think by adopting how Jesus thinks about me, sin, other people, my life, my future and everything else about how Jesus will deal with things
- Develop new godly habits
- Read the word of God that provides the truth I need to grow
- Realise that it is a long and slow process
Day 23 - How I Grow
God wants me to grow up. His goal for me is to mature and develop the characteristics of Jesus Christ. Spiritual growth is not automatic, it takes intentional commitment. I must want to grow, decide to grow, make an effort to grow and persist in growing. In developing Christ-like characteristics:
- I have my part to play - I have to work out and God has his part to play - allow God to work
- I have to change the way I think - I must develop the mind of Christ, stop thinking immature thoughts that are self centered and self seeking.
Day 24 - Transformed by Truth
Spiritual growth is the process of replacing lies with the truth - the word of God. The word of God generates life, creates faith, produces change, frightens the devil, causes miracles, heals hurts, build character, transforms circumstances, imparts joy, overcome adversity, defeats temptation, infuses hope, cleanse our mind, brings things into being, guarantees my future forever. I cannot live without the word of God
If I want to grow spiritually
- I must read the word of God,
- Abide in the word of God
- Accept its authority
- Rely on it for direction
- Rely on it for making decisions.
I must fill my mind with the word of God so that the Holy Spirit can transform me with the truth - read it, study it, remember it and reflect on it.
I must apply what I read. Words are useless if I fail to put them in practice.
John 8:31-32 - If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the tutu this hall make you free.
Day 25 - Transformed by Trouble
God has a purpose behind every problem. He uses circumstances to develop our character. Life is a series of problems (test). Every time you solve one, another is waiting to take it's place. Not all of them are big but they are all significant in God's growth process for me. God uses problems to draw me closer to himself. Problem forces me to look to God and depend on him instead of myself.
When going through problems I should always remind myself:
- There is a purpose behind the problem
- Nothing happens without God's permission
- Everything that happens to me is Father-filtered and He intends to use it for good even when satan and others mean it for bad
- God is in control
- To stay focused on God's plan and not my problem
- To rejoice and give thanks for God's love, care, wisdom, power, faithfulness
- Not to give up and be patient
- Death of my parents - I learnt that I can only rely on God and not on other people
- Infidelity - I learnt that the only person that won't disappoint me is God and He is the only one who can heal my broken heart, heal my hurt and restore and make me whole
- Divorce - I learnt to forgive and surrender everything to God
- Raising a child with learning disability - I learnt that I am not in control, God is in control and his plan for his life will be fulfilled not my plan
Day 26 - Growing through Temptation
Every temptation is an opportunity to choose to the right thing or the wrong thing. While temptation is satan's primary weapon to destroy me, God wants to use it to develop me. Every time I chose to do good instead of sin, I am growing in the character of Christ. God wants me to develop the fruit of the spirit - love, joy, peace, kindness, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control and he does this by allowing me to experience circumstances in which I am tempted to express the exact opposite.
I must be aware of how satan works. He identifies a desire inside me and then suggest ways to give in to that evil desire. He will try to get me to doubt what God has said about the sin, offer his lie to replace what God has already said in his word and he will finally get me to act on the thought.
To overcome temptation, I must
- Refuse to be intimidated by tempting thoughts, or feelings of guilt that I am not beyond temptation
- Recognise when, what part of the day, what time of the day and where I am when I am most tempted and prepare to avoid those situations
- Call on God, ask him for his power to do the right thing and expect him to provide it.
Day 27 - Defeating Temptation
Sometimes I may feel that the temptation I am facing is too overpowering to bear, but that is a lie from satan. God has promised never to allow more on me than he puts within me to handle it. God will never permit any temptation that I could not overcome but I must do my part by practicing four biblical steps to defeating temptation.
- Refocus my mind on something else, resisting a thought does not work because the more I resist a thought or ignore it, the more power I give to the thought
- Reveal my struggle to a godly friend, don't repress it, confess it, don't hide it, reveal it
- Resist the devil by accepting God's salvation, use the word of God as my weapon
- Realise my vulnerability, never let my guard down, never put myself in tempting situations.
Day 28 – It Takes Time
There is no shortcut to spiritual growth. Spiritual growth like physical growth takes time. Christlikeness is my eventual destination, but my journey will last a lifetime. The journey involves believing through worship, belonging through fellowship, becoming through discipleship, serving through ministry.
Don’t be so hard yourself, Christlikeness will take time because I am a slow learner and I have a lot of old habits to unlearn.
To become like Christ,
- I have to humbly face the truth about myself, admit the characters I have that are not Christ-like and work on them.
- I must be willing to learn and change and let go of my old ways in order to experience new ones.
- I must develop new Christ-like habits by practicing them.
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