Renovation of the Heart
Transforming the Mind, Part 2 (5|5)
Pages 138-143
• Rest on the Greatness of God
• Love, Joy, and Peace Cannot Be Separated
• Some Things We Can Do
• The Extreme Seriousness of Feelings for Spiritual Formation
TOGETHER read the devotional and the scripture.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
Psalm 36 (NIV) I have a message from God in my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before their eyes. In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin. The words of their mouths are wicked and deceitful; they fail to act wisely or do good. Even on their beds they plot evil; they commit themselves to a sinful course and do not reject what is wrong. Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, LORD, preserve both people and animals. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart. May the foot of the proud not come against me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. See how the evildoers lie fallen - thrown down, not able to rise!
Ephesians 3:16-21 (NIV) I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your devotional notes and pray.
Rest on the Greatness of God
”The person who is heartily abandoned to God knows that all shall be well because God is in charge of his or her life. My peace is the greatness of God. Because he, who not only loves me but is love, is so great, I live beyond harm in his hands, and there is nothing that can happen to me that will not turn out to my good. Nothing. That is what Romans 8:28 (NIV) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. really means.”
What is your response to this statement?
Love, Joy, and Peace Cannot Be Separated
“It is impossible to separate love, joy, peace, faith (confidence), and hope from one another in practice. They lose their true nature when separated. - We have all already seen in this world far too much of ‘love’ without joy and peace, or ‘peace’ without love and joy, and so on. Joy without hope is one of the most exquisitely tortured blossoms of human despair, constantly cultivated by modern secularism - By contrast, it is the positive movement into love, joy, and peace based on faith and hope in God, that eliminates the destructive feelings or at least eliminates them as governing factors in our lives.”
How can one cultivate peace, or joy, or love, or hope? What are some specific ways you have found to be helpful? How does faith fit in?
“Belonging to Christ does not immediately eliminate bad feelings, and we must not be drawn into pretense that it does. But it does crucify them. - Belonging to Christ does mean that the merely fleshy passions and desires are on the way to death and already have ceased leading a life of their own, much less, than, leading our whole lives as they used to. That is how it is with all negative and destructive feelings in those who have put Christ on the throne of their lives and have taken their place on his cross.”
In what ways have you experienced belonging to Christ and putting to death negative and destructive feelings?
Some Things We Can Do
“Our ordinary lives and our religious associations are so permeated with insincere expressions of love, often alongside contempt and anger, that is hard not to feel forced into hypocrisy in some situations. But we can learn to avoid it, and we shall immediately begin to see what a huge difference that alone makes. - In general, the task, once we have given ourselves to Christ, is to recognize the reality of our feelings and agree with the Lord to abandon those that are destructive and that lead us into doing what we know to be wrong.”
What does this mean? How does one begin or go about doing this? (recognize and abandon)
The Extreme Seriousness of Feelings for Spiritual Formation
“Feelings have a crucial role in life, but they must not be taken as a basis for action or character change. That role falls to insight, understanding, and conviction of truth, which will always be appropriately accompanied by feeling. Feelings are not fundamental in the nature of things but become so if we assign them that role in life, and then life will not go as it should.”
Wrapping up the chapters on Transforming the Mind (part 1&2) - what have been your biggest challenges and takeaways? What did you not understand or disagree with? What do you want to take and apply to your life?
EXTRA READING:
“Yes, a psalm is a blessing on the lips of the people, a hymn in praise of God, the assembly’s homage, a general acclamation, a word that speaks for all, the voice of the church, a confession of faith in song. It is the voice of complete assent, the joy of freedom, a cry of happiness, the echo of gladness. It soothes the temper, distracts from care, lightens the burden of sorrow. Day begins to the music of a psalm. Day closes to the echo of a psalm.”
- Ambrose of Milan (339 - 397)