Tag: Spiritual Reflection

Change one ❤️

by Innermost Being, posted in Word Prompts

What change, big or small, would you like your blog to make in the world?

This is the kind of meaningful question I like. What difference do I want to make in the world by blogging?

I named my first blog, The Dirty Cup, a reflection of my desire, my need, to be changed on the inside. I want to have a clean heart. I do not want to be like the hypocrites that Jesus scolded.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

Matthew 23:25-26 (NIV)

Although I later abandoned that blog altogether, writing it changed me. Or I should say that God changed me. I grew spiritually.

I am still growing through this blog, Innermost Being. The title was inspired by King David, the psalmist. He wanted God to examine his heart and to change him.

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

Here’s what AI says about the words Innermost Being:

The term “innermost being” can refer to the core of a person’s being, or their inner self, which is the private, internal part of themselves that they usually don’t share with others. It can also refer to the deepest aspects of human nature, which are known only to God and are different from a person’s public image or outward appearance.

My outward appearance is not important.  What’s really important, as Jesus said, is my heart. Am I loving others as God loves me? Am I cultivating fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?

I don’t expect my blog to change the world in a big way. I just hope that if I share my perspective on life, if I share my own struggles, I can soften one heart.

Prune out the thorns

by Innermost Being, posted in Pursuing God, Spiritual Growth

Where can you reduce clutter in your life?

I associate the word clutter with disorder. I’m a fairly organized person. Clutter is a distraction to me. When things begin to look cluttered in my home, I tidy things up.

Our pastor for family ministries preached on Sunday because the senior pastor had just returned from a mission trip. Skyler had asked the senior pastor if he could use the sermon to introduce us to the practice of Lectio Divina.

Skyler began by explaining how valuable this practice is for hearing what God wants you to hear. Use silence to reflect on God’s word and to open yourself up to his voice.

The scripture for our sermon was the Parable of the Sower found in Matthew 13. I’ve read this parable many times, and it has been the subject of many sermons. Skyler read the parable to us a few times with increasing amounts of silence between the readings.

The first time, we just listened. After another reading, we were to pray and ask God if there was a word or phrase He wanted us to hear. The word that stuck out to me was thorns.

Thorns choke the word, making it unfruitful. I read the word but allow distractions to keep me from really hearing it.

Sometimes, we have to hear a message a few times before it finally sinks in. I’m hearing God tell me to tidy up my spiritual life. Prune out the thorns. Be still. Be silent. Hear my voice.

Lectio
Meditatio
Oratio
Contemplation

Read
Reflect
Respond
Rest

Real Theological Reflection

by Innermost Being, posted in Spiritual Growth

One of my favorite songs is Lauren Daigle’s song “First.” She sings beautifully about her desire to seek God above everything else. This desire to seek God, to hear him, to feel him, and to know him is unworldly. Many people today, even those who believe in God, are much more concerned with achieving personal goals, acquiring material possessions, indulging physical desires, being entertained, or even gaining power over other people.
At this point in my life, I am also seeking to know God more deeply. I am seeking because I want to know God’s will for me. I seek God because I want to make sense of a world that seems to get crazier and more wicked by the minute. I want to know my true calling. One of the ways I seek God is through spiritual reflection – reading the Bible and seeking the deeper meaning of the words or reading books by others who have also sought to know God more fully.

Henri Nouwen, a Catholic priest, professor, and author of Discernment, described discernment as the ability to distinguish between truth and lies, between good and bad guidance, and between the Holy Spirit and evil spirits. Discernment is also a form of spiritual perception: seeing, knowing, and being known by God. Discernment is seeing through to the deeper meaning because the most interesting things are not visible to our senses.

Spiritual perception requires making yourself vulnerable to God. You can’t see yourself as truthfully and authentically as God does unless you open yourself up to God’s guidance, exposing the things that you don’t want to admit about yourself. It means baring your innermost thoughts and inviting God to search and try you just as King David did when he asked God to know his heart and his thoughts and to reveal any offensive way in his inner being (Psalm 139:23-24).

In confessing my sins, I tend to confess things like anger, impatience, a tendency to judge other people or to compare myself to others, and lately, my lack of courage. I know these things about me. What areas do I not want God to investigate? My selfishness? My willingness to let go of things that are important to me, like financial security?
Nouwen said that he thinks the greatest temptation in life and the greatest enemy of the spiritual ife is self-rejection – the fear of not being enough, of not being lovable. If you reject yourself, you expect other people to push you aside. You expect to be ignored or rejected. When we reject ourselves in this way, we contradict God’s voice, telling us that we are loved. This is something I have recognized in myself.

Questions for study:
Where do I go to find refuge against darkness and confusion?
What inner voices have been part of my life?

What persistent challenges have kept me in need of discernment? Have these challenges allowed me to assist others?
In what ways have I not grown, even as I pray and study and learn from others?
Real theological reflection is thinking with the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16); it is reflecting on the painful and joyful realities of each day with the mind of Jesus, thereby raising human consciousness to the knowledge of God’s gentle guidance.
Henry Nouwen, Discernment