Welcome to inward training
Getting Focused with God
Self-seeking is a common problem. The solution involves humbling ourselves to ponder more about God's character and what we can do to change our thoughts and actions to better align with God.
1 Peter 5:5 Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
We must seek God with honest and sincere humility. Arrogance and pride are often problems.
Growing with God involves setting our hearts and minds to be with God. God is Spirit and love, so we will need to become ready to give ourselves over to inwardly participate with love and all that is spiritual. This will require a perspective that is changing.
Godly solutions always involve God's spirit and love. Each of us will need to guide our hearts and minds progressively into that love and respond with it. This is the spiritual solution that can help us.
Someone might think, "But how! How can I do that?"
The answer is simple, but responding in it is a struggle. It is a struggle because we tend to place other interests higher than God's. Self-seeking, money, people-pleasing, addiction, conformity, fear, and many other things can override our faith with God.
We will need to restructure our priorities. God must be first and more important than jobs, pride, self-knowledge, sex, drugs, food, games, etc. God must become so important to us that we live according to God with increasing measure. We would then seek God everyday.
We will need to choose differently with God which may involve inward conflict. We will need to progress toward what Jesus teaches in the Bible. In Matthew chapters 5-7 Jesus teaches many things we CAN begin to practice.
We may experience worry, pride, fear, and other forms of discomfort tempting us away from spiritual Good. Many of us who follow ways of life outside of God's Good may choose to continue in it. Self-denial, self-discipline, and giving ourselves over to God's Goodness will be necessary. This can be a difficult fact to accept. We can chose to trust and rely upon God, because God is the solution.
Think Solutions
It is so easy to get distracted and focus upon problems. We can focus our thoughts on problems to learn spiritual solutions. The solution will often involve a reshaping of our perspective. Our faith can be off. Our belief and reliance upon God can fall away. The solution can involve some rebuilding of our faith and understanding.
Love and peace are solutions. With every spiritual conflict we can look for spiritual solutions. If our problem is anger, we can think forgiveness and how it is Good. If our problem is fear, we can pray for help to increase our faith.
At first, this idea might seem silly. We may have disbelief. It can be unfamiliar and awkward. If we progress in it with a willingness to learn we can develop an understanding of how it is good.
On every path toward spiritual solutions we will experience choice. There will be a path we know and one that's unfamiliar. Choosing a new path may be a struggle. We can choose it.
Matthew 19:26
But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
As we grow more and more into God's goodness, goodness will grow more and more into us.
Get Convinced
Within our minds are thousands of thought messages each day. Most of them are beyond our awareness. This means we are following trained responses not even knowing why we are doing them. We CAN improve our awareness through the practice of reflective meditation and self-examination.
As we gradually improve our thought awareness we can discover thoughts we may not want. We can learn to replace them. This will require the development of inward discernment and creating new thought messages. If our thoughts are sabotaging us and leading us away from God, we can identify those thoughts and pray for help.
(See Good Daily Practices)
Steady Focus
An investigator will slowly examine details. They will collect information and try to put pieces together. As we read scripture we can look up meanings of words to better understand the message.
Teachers make mistakes
I once listened to a sermon from a pastor sharing about the Biblical word hypocrite using the common understanding as wikipedia describes.
The word hypocrisy is defined by wikipedia as "Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. "
However, this is not how it was originally defined. I recently investigated the Greek word for hypocrite and found it meant an actor or pretender. It's someone who is insincere or being fake. https://biblehub.com/greek/5272.htm
Finding truth requires investigation and critical analysis. The Bible provides instructions for us and we ought to think deeper and longer upon what it is saying to see if it fits with a teachers viewpoint.
We can easily investigate words in the Bible. With old testament we can do a search using the word we want to know more about then "Hebrew" and "define." For the New Testament use "Greek" instead of Hebrew. Try it out with words like "Fear" and "Worship." Read a few different definitions and find the patterns.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 Test all things; hold fast what is good.
Progress Toward What is Perfect
One saying in 12 step programs is "progress, not perfection." We are not going to be perfect, because if we were perfect, we would be God. Just do a Biblical concordance study on the word "perfect." It can help with understanding.
Although we cannot be perfect, we can improve toward that which is perfect. If we prioritize God correctly, we will be improving.
Applying God's Instructions - 15 minute podcast
We can choose to follow the signs
1. Read the signs.
2. Understand correctly the signs.
3. Practice walking the path or directions.
4. Learn from the practice.
5. Share what you have learned.
6. Continue to improve.
Wear God's Character Inwardly
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