A Story

A pastor of 25-plus years sat in his office and was deeply grieved over a report given by an outside consulting agency. The group had come and helped the church do a survey to see what the health of the church was. The survey was deeply revealing of some of the weaknesses of the leadership team and the efforts of the pastor and leadership. This pastor felt deep discouragement and had thoughts of resigning and leaving the church in shame. He felt fear, conflict, and heart pain. He expressed this fear and anxiety to those around him with the question, “Are there any scriptures that can help me?” He ran into a passage in the first chapter of Luke 1:68 and following verses 74 and 75. Let’s look at them:

Digging Into The Bible

Psalm 63:1-3:

You, God, are my God,  earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. ² I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.³ Because your love is better than life,   my lips will glorify you.

Luke 1:68(NIV):

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them.

Luke 1:74(NIV):

 ^“to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear”

Luke 1:75 (NIV):

“in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.”

Discussion & Discovery

1. How do you think these verses helped the leader?
2. When we are serving the Lord, how can we serve Him without fear?
3. What can a servant of God do to set the stage in their minds to experience ministry without fear?

The next step in his journey of dealing with the fear of failure was to read Psalm 62:1-8.

Digging Into The Bible (Part 2)

Psalm 62:1-8:

Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him. ² Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. ³ How long will you assault me?    Would all of you throw me down— this leaning wall, this tottering fence? ⁴ Surely, they intend to topple me from my lofty place; they take delight in lies. With their mouths, they bless, but in their hearts, they curse. ⁵ Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. ⁶ Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. ⁷ My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. ⁸ Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

Application & Accountability

1. How do you think this passage helped this pastor in his fear of failure?
2. What fears of failure are you facing?
3. How can you use this passage to strengthen you and deal with your fears?
4. What steps can you take to overcome fear?

Similar Verses In The Bible

List similar verses in the Bible:

A Story

How do I find more joy in my walk with God?

As I have often been with believers, they seem to have had the joy squeezed out of them like the juice from an orange. All of life’s experiences have pummeled them and there is little room for joy. This was an experience that was happening to Tom. He was having job challenges, marriage stress, raising children, and other various and assorted challenges.  He asked about this and we went to several passages from the Bible.

Digging Into The Bible

Philippians 4:4:

“Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.”

James 1:2-5:

“Count it all joy when you experience various trials knowing that the testing of your faith brings about endurance…”

Romans 15:13:

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all Joy and Peace as your trust him, so that you can overflow with Hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Discussion & Discovery

1. What do you experience when you read these passages?
2. What verse impacts you the most?
3. How does it impact you?
4. What do you hear God saying to you about joy?
5. What resources does he have to help you with these challenges

Application & Accountability

1. Which challenge would you like to take on first?
2. What do you see God doing in you through this challenge?
3. What would be your future desire in this circumstance?
4. What step do you need to take first to experience His joy?

I have found help using a book called Joy and Journaling by Wilder, the daily experience of journaling your thoughts and bringing the Lord’s point of view into the experience. It is wonderful to know that he is with us in every experience and he wants you to record your thoughts and feelings and then let him speak to you about what he is seeking to do in your life. He is excited to see you! That always brings joy!

LIST ANY OTHER VERSES THAT YOU HAVE FOUND WOULD ADDRESS THIS ISSUE:

A Story

I AM WEIGHED DOWN WITH SADNESS.  Philippians 4:4 “CONSUMED BY ANGUISH…”

In the Bible, the stories of David the King of Israel express some deeply felt emotions. David felt great loss and sadness because of the loss of family, children, and close friends. He expresses his sadness as anguish and grief. Is there a solution to this kind of feeling that seems to overwhelm? Let’s look at some passages in the Bible that give us a glimpse of the depth of pain and some possible solutions. Let’s look at Psalm 31:9-13

Digging Into The Bible

Psalm 31:9-13(NIV):

Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief. ¹⁰ My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak. ¹¹ Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors and an object of dread to my closest friends—those who see me on the street flee from me. ¹² I am forgotten as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery. ¹³ For I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side!” They conspire against me and plot to take my life.

Philippians 4:4 :

Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.

Discussion & Discovery

1. What feelings can you relate to in this passage?
2. What losses did the psalmist experience?
3. Describe the feelings of anguish.
4. What do you do when you feel this way?
5. What solutions can you think of?
6. What does it feel like to be rejected?

Digging Into The Bible (Part 2)

Psalm 31:14-20 (NIV):

But I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God.” ¹⁵ My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me. ¹⁶ Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love. ¹⁷ Let me not be put to shame, Lord, for I have cried out to you; but let the wicked be put to shame and be silent in the realm of the dead. ¹⁸ Let their lying lips be silenced, for with pride and contempt they speak arrogantly against the righteous. ¹⁹ How abundant are the good things that you have stored up for those who fear you, that you bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in you. ²⁰ In the shelter of your presence you hide them from all human intrigues; you keep them safe in your dwelling from accusing tongues.

Discussion & Discovery (Part 2)

1. What new discoveries did David make on his way to the solution from sadness and anguish?
2. What were his prayers?

Application & Accountability

1. What were the key truths that he built into his thinking?
2. What steps can you take to deal with the sadness in your soul?
3. What key statements in this Psalm help you?
4. When will you memorize these key statements and let them fill your heart?
5. What can we do when new sad things come our way?

Similar Verses In The Bible

List similar verses in the Bible:

A Story

As I have grown in my walk as a follower of Christ, I have been introduced to a number of helpful disciplines to help my understanding of God’s will and The Word. Upon learning these disciplines, I saw God lead me in his direction for my life. For over 40 years I practiced these disciplines and have seen many wonderful things happen for God’s glory. However, I also discovered that there are many areas of my life that remained hidden and undealt with. I feared rejection if these areas were exposed. I saw anger, control, and compulsions that I knew weren’t pleasing to God.  When I was challenged in these areas I began to explore and found help in reading the journey of Peter Scazzero in his book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, in his emotional growth.  He introduces the idea of our life being like an iceberg. There are many things that you can observe about an iceberg from the surface but underneath the surface, there’s so much more that is hidden. This metaphor really connected to my heart. I want to see God transform the hidden areas of my life. What Scazzero helped with was to introduce some helpful disciplines for under the iceberg and key areas to question in our lives. God is looking into our hearts and wants to transform these areas. Let’s take a look at how to start this journey. That comes from understanding the emotional iceberg.

In life, we are often observing that which is on the surface of a person, like an iceberg. However, we know in studying icebergs that the larger part of an iceberg is submerged under the water. In the same way, our outer life is above the water. But the inner life is below the water. We might call the inner life our emotional life and the inner person.

Look at these [1 Samuel 16:7 and 2 Corinthians 4:16-18] verses and let’s learn how we can value both the outer man and the inner man:

Digging Into The Bible

1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV):

“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV):

^“Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Discussion & Discovery

1. What did you discover from these verses of scripture?
2. What is your insight into what is the inner man?
3. What is it in us that looks more to the outer than the inner man?
4. How can we can a better grasp of who we are by visiting the inner man?
5. What disciplines do we learn to develop the outer man?
6. What disciplines can we develop to strengthen the inner man?

Application & Accountability

1. What will you do specifically to grow your inner man and your emotional life?
2. What books are available to read on this subject?
3. Who can you get help from to determine the state of your inner man?
4. How will you get greater focus on that which is unseen?
5. How can you explain better now what it means to be “under the iceberg?”

Similar Verses In The Bible

List similar verses in the Bible:

A Story

When I was in my late 50’s I thought that I was pretty mature as a leader. I thought I was an emotionally healthy leader.  During this time, I discovered a book written by Peter Scazzero who thought he was emotionally healthy as a leader. He encountered several circumstances that sent him on a journey to see how immature he was in his emotional journey. This led me to read and discover that after taking the emotionally healthy survey in Chapter 4 of the book by Peter Scazzero called The Emotionally Healthy Church, I discovered that I was emotionally immature in several areas. This was an eye-opener. I showed up as an emotional child in several areas of life.

HOW DO I GROW IN EMOTIONAL MATURITY? My feelings were all over the place and I did not know what I was feeling.  Let’s look at two passages that helped me get started:

Digging Into The Bible

Ephesians 4:13:

¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Colossians 1:28:

⁸ He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.

Discussion & Discovery

1. What are the three elements in Eph 4:13 that are the goal of equipping?
2. How do we get equipped in these areas of our life?
3. What does it look like to be “fully mature?”
4. Where does Christ fit into the maturity process?
5. What is the big picture for every believer in the body of Christ?

Application & Accountability

1. What actions to these verses stir in your heart about maturity?
2. How will you go about identifying the areas of maturity that you need to work?
3. What would be your first step to understanding maturity?
4. Who will help you in this area of growth?

Next Step

This as a great next step in this journey. Either get the book, The Emotionally Healthy Church, and take the test in chapter 4 or go online to:

Print and complete the Emotionally Healthy Discipleship Personal Assessment

From there when you face your current reality and in what area then you can figure by reading the appropriate area in the book what steps you can take to grow in that area.

Bring this assessment to a coaching session and then answer the questions below:

1. What area or areas did you discover that you were not mature emotionally in?
2. How does that impact you?
3. Where do you think these emotional immaturities came from?
4. Which one would you like to work on?
5. Which Chapter speaks to that one?

6. When will you read it?
7. What will be some steps to take to develop your present maturity?

Similar Verses In The Bible

List similar verses in the Bible: