Discipleship and Spiritual Growth

Ultimately, we approach God with complete humility because he is God and we are not. He is the Creator; we are the creation. Indeed, we approach him with a posture of total humility and lack of pride because “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

We should assume that we are more resentful and less forgiving and more controlled by what people have done to us than we think we are.

To finally experience the change and victory we desire, it’s essential that we understand the difference between trying and training. So read those definitions again until you’ve got it.

When someone stands up at church and says, “God told me …,” we imagine that to say something with such certainty means they’ve been let in on the secret of getting God to speak to them in obvious ways. But more often than not, it’s this Eucharistic voice they’re expressing.

Culture wars and ideologies like Christian nationalism look to the external world to find enemies and threats. But as Christians who define our identity inwardly, through a deepening and growing relationship with Jesus, we find health. The promise of hidden, inward transformation is gorgeous hope.

Humility is not self-hatred, self-neglect, or self-punishment. The Bible never says, “Hate yourself; instead, love your neighbor.” It says, “Love your neighbor as yourself ”

The powerfully influential culture found online denies the Creator’s design and, because it does, cannot ultimately work.

My Christian discipleship had been characterized by a color-blind approach rather than a color-courageous one. So I would be taking this journey without a map.