Inward Lessons
We must look to our own hearts before we
can start to help others
Why are Inward Habits Important?
Jesus taught us that until we change the inward man (the heart we cannot become what God has called
us to be outwardly and onwardly.
The Bible has a lot to say on the subject of the inner man and the need to change our habits.
Read these verses and list what the Word of God says about the inner man
We cannot hope to lead others into the Kingdom of God when we have not taken the time to meet Jesus
in a personal inward way ourselves. This means that as men we must give up the impulse to do it ourselves and let God
be our guides. This takes a lot
of spiritual maturity, which means developing the 5 Habits of Inward personal growth and connection
to the Lord.
These five habits that are detailed in the following pages are:
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Lesson#1 Humility |
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Lesson # 2 Love |
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Lesson # 3 Presence |
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Lesson # 4 Holiness |
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Lesson # 5 Surrender
Take a few minutes to list all you positive inward traits.
Now next to those traits list how the Lord for His service can use them.
Now the hard part. Take some time to list all you negative inward traits.
Now ask the Lord to replace those negative traits with positive ones. An example of what I mean would
be if you ask the Lord to give you focus of mind to do His work so you are not easily drawn away from the Lord mentally. Your list could contain almost bad habit that you could think of but the only important
thing is that you remember that we are called to be Christ like in all we do Inward, Outward and Onward. This means
that you must develop do away with the 12 Bad Habits That Christians that may develop in your Christian walk over time.
I know there is a lot more but I was led to choose these 12 because as a man they are the ones that we get most confused by.
I hope you enjoy this study as much as I enjoyed putting it together. I
know you don’t like to hear that as Christians we may develop bad habits, but the Bible says that we are not to whitewash
anything, but we are to state it like it is. I am also not saying that I am above
the bad habits myself because I have lived through most of them and am concerned that other Christians, know how to overcome
the habits and move on.
May God Bless You In Everything You Do |
Read
and Remember
"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever
is right, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute,
if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind
dwell on these things." (Philippians 4:8)
This verse reminds us that as Jesus Freaks our minds should always be centered on the truly good things
in life.
Take a moment to examine your thoughts.
You want to find out what really occupies your mind and your daily thoughts? .
For the next week keep a journal of your thoughts. See if all your thoughts are God centered
or world centered.
You might be surprised by the outcome.
There is an old saying, that if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck,
but when it comes to looks sometimes the Christian act can be deceiving. We can put on a good show but deep down in
our inner most thoughts (what the world refers to as the id and ego) we can be a very different person and sometimes not even
realize what we are doing.
Habits are funny like that. We get so used to doing them that we don't even know we are doing
them anymore.
That is why it is important to keep the journal to track your thoughts so as the Bible says "your eyes
can be opened".
If you feel real ambitious you might even try tracking you words as well, but I will leave that up
to you.
You Are Not What You Think You Are, But What God Says You Are, His Unique Creation,
Apply It
Hear His Voice
I hear a lot of Christians say that they do hear God talking to them. Now before you think I
am nuts, I am not talking about a those physical aspects of hearing where you actually hear a voice, I am talking about those
times when you pray that you feel in your mind the clear answer to that prayer.
Most people, who say they do not hear from God, are not getting the answers because their minds are
have too much background noise from the worries of this world to ever hear the voice of God. It is also interesting
to me when people state that they get a busy signal from God when they expect to get an answer to prayer, but most of
those people fail to see the answer that is given to them because they give God a busy signal when HE tries to call.
Most stress relief programs today talk a lot about freeing your mind from clutter in order to take
away the stress. These programs state that you are going to need to find your quiet place where you can meditate
on the peaceful thing in life. This is the heart of biofeedback and other programs similar to it. Did you know
that Jesus Himself talks about His own stress relief program?
Matthew 6:31-34 – states for us “So
do not worry saying "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" for the pagans run after these
things and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”(NIV)
Also in:
1Peter 5:7 is states to “ Cast all your anxiety upon Him because He cares for you.”
Now in your own words describe Gods stress relief program for your mind.
Once you have completed this you can move on to the five mental that will help you to set your mind the things of
God which will make you a more effective man about town.
