Spiritual Development

Being open to God’s plan means recognizing the difference between needs and wants. Wants are desires we believe are critical but are not actually essential, like a new car, a bigger house, or a new job. Needs, however, are essential for living, such as food, water, and shelter. Clarifying these helps us follow God’s direction. At times, it is difficult to distinguish between needs and wants. We shift our wants into the need category, believing that we deserve them or that they are necessary to make our lives better and more fulfilled. If you put too many things in your need category, you will end up frustrated with life, hurt by others, and doubting God’s goodness. – Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional Believing in God’s goodness and provision leads to contentment. When we are content, we trust Christ, accept our circumstances, and are less driven by a desire for more. Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. – 1 John 2:15-17, NLT John’s words provide an example of what we should strive for in life. Depending on and looking to God for fulfillment and direction in differentiating needs and wants is challenging. But doing so will lead to contentment, and to achieve contentment, there are three areas to consider: making comparisons, trusting God, and gratitude. Making Comparisons In this digital [...]

We make decisions every day, even every minute, without realizing it. We make decisions about what to wear, what route to take to work, what to cook for supper, when to do household chores, and how to do them, to name a few. These types of decisions are viewed as trivial, and the fear of making the wrong one is typically low. These decisions can easily be changed, and there are several right ways to do them. Some decisions in life are more permanent and less likely to be easily or frequently changed. Fear and Anxiety and God-Honoring Decisions Fear and anxiety in decision-making can be debilitating. Some will date the same person for years for fear that if they get married, it will be to the wrong person, or for fear of it ending in divorce. Some will struggle in a job and not apply for a new job for fear of it being the wrong job, the wrong company, or not enough pay or stability. Anxiety is the fear of the unknown. We will continue in something that is not best for the sole reason of it being the known. Remind yourself that the unknown becomes the known relatively quickly. When you start a new job, it is the unknown, and after you have been there for a few days or months, it becomes more and more known. We want to make the right decision and want it to be so clear that we can’t make a mistake. A billboard or writing in the sky would be nice and clear, but where would our faith be if that were how God communicated to us about His will and direction in our lives? Decision-making takes multiple parts of the brain. The brain is a meticulously designed machine that [...]