What Do You Want Your Inner World To Look Like?

13 March, 201912 March, 2019Marissa

The world inside our minds can be a fascinating place. For some of us, it’s even more “real” than the outer world. Introverts in particular approach the world from the perspective that reality is what we bring to it from within. However, every type has an introverted and an extroverted side. Extroverts have an inner life, just like Introverts have an extroverted persona they use in the outer world. We all prefer one or the other as our starting point for conceptualizing reality, but every human being has an “inner world” of some kind.

Susan Storm’s post “The Secret World of Every Introverted Myers-Briggs® Personality Type” is what prompted today’s post. It got me thinking about how the worlds inside our own heads work, especially in connection with the Joyce Myers’ book Battlefield of the Mind that I’ve been reading. How much control do we have over the types of thoughts that we think? To what extent is our inner world shaped consciously? And if we don’t like something about the way our inner world or “thought life” is now, can we change it?

Our Minds Shape Us

The question of what our inner world looks like is probably most interesting to introverts, but I think it’s one that extroverts benefit from considering as well. None of us walk around all day with our minds a blank slate waiting for something outside us to fill out thoughts. We’re all using our inner thought life for something, even if it seems to just be running on automatic.

The Book of Proverbs tells us that as a man “thinks within himself, so is he” (Prov. 23:7, TLV). Even if you’re not a Bible-reader, it’s still a principle that we can apply. The things that we think about on the inside shape who we are and who we’re becoming on the outside. It’s impossible to separate what our inner world looks like from the reality of who we are as a whole person. Read more →

The Fruit Of Gentleness

9 March, 20198 March, 2019Marissa

Meekness, gentleness, and mildness get a bad rap in today’s society. People tend to think of them as synonyms for being weak or boring. A door mat. But those three words I opened with are all possible translations of the Greek word praotes (G4236), which is listed as part of the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-23.

The spirit of God is not weak or boring. It is full of power, and it is also “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control.” Indeed, though we may not think of these traits as “powerful,” we cannot display them all unless we’re empowered by God. It takes a great deal of inner strength, commitment, and willingness to be transformed by God to live-out the fruit of His spirit, including gentleness.

The Meekness of Christ

In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul opened one of his lines of thought with the words, “I Paul, myself, entreat you by the humility and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:1, WEB). The traits of gentleness, humility, and meekness that the world spurns are key to understanding Jesus Christ’s character. Read more →

What Does It Mean For Each of Us That God Is A Family?

2 March, 20198 October, 2019Marissa

“See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God!” You can feel the excitement and awe about this fact in John’s words. It’s an incredible thing to realize that “now we are the children of God” and in the future “we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is” (1 John 3:1-2, WEB).

One of the greatest truths we can realize about the nature of God and the Christian faith is that God is a family and He is inviting us to become part of that family. God’s most-used analogies for how He relates to us are family-based, focusing on marriage and children. Both the Father and Son deeply desire a relationship with us and to make us part of Their family. In fact, as far as we can tell, that’s the main reason They created people in the first place.

Unity and Oneness

People ask me on this blog and also in-person why I don’t use the word “Trinity” to describe the nature of God. It’s not a description God uses for Himself and I think “God-family” is a more scripture-based phrase, so that’s why. I think we should stick as close as possible to using the analogies and descriptions that God uses to reveal Himself when we’re talking about who He is and how He relates to us. Read more →

Learning To Appreciate God’s Patience and Cultivate Godly Patience In Our Own Lives

23 February, 201922 February, 2019Marissa

What do you think of when you think of patience? Google dictionary defines it as, “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.” Synonyms include forbearance, self-restraint, and the KJV’s preferred translation of longsuffering.

In the Bible, patience and/or longsuffering in both the Old and New Testament is translated from a combination of two words. In Greek, it’s makros (G3117, “long”) and thumos (G2372, “breath/anger/passion”). In Hebrew, it’s arek (H750, “long”) and aph (H639, “breath/anger/passion”). In both languages, patience is about waiting a long time before displaying your passionate emotions or getting all worked up about something. There’s a strong element of self-restraint implied in these phrases. You have the power to get angry, passionate, heated, etc. about something but you choose not to do so quickly or without good cause.

Patient self-restraint is a character trait of our heavenly Father, which means it’s a trait we should cultivate as well. It’s no wonder, then, that makrothumia (G3115) is one aspect of the fruit of the spirit. I’ve been studying the fruit of the spirit because I’m working on a Bible study resource I’ll be sharing here on this blog soon, and I found it fascinating that both the Greek and Hebrew concept of patience parallel each other so well.

Our God Is Slow To Anger

Back in Exodus, God revealed key attributes of His character when He proclaimed His name before Moses. We talked about this in the loving kindness posts, and it’s relevant here as well. Read more →

As For Me, I Will Serve The Lord: INTJ Christians

18 February, 201930 April, 2020Marissa

Today’s post about INTJ Christians is the fifth in a series talking with Christians of different personality types. I started this series because when I began discussing faith with different personality types, I noticed they don’t all feel equally valued and understood in Christian churches. If Christianity is a faith meant for all people (and I believe it is), then why aren’t we doing a better job of connecting with all personality types?

Our walks with God don’t all look the same. We’re influenced by our backgrounds, variations in beliefs, and individual personalities. And even though the goal is for us all to become “like God,” that doesn’t mean we become indistinguishable from each other. God created great variety in people and I believe He did that for a reason. So let’s spend today’s post hearing from and talking about the unique perspectives of INTJ Christians.

Identifying With Bible Characters

The first question I asked for this project was which Bible characters and/or stories you identify with most. INTJs tended to chose Bible Character who they felt shared their perspective on the world. Because an INTJ’s dominant function of Introverted Intuition (Ni) gives them a perspective on things that’s unique to them, I wasn’t surprised that the six INTJs who shared their stories with me each chose a different character except for two who mentioned Paul. Read more →

The Importance of Accepting Correction

16 February, 201915 February, 2019Marissa

I think, in theory at least, we can agree that being able to accept correction is a valuable skill. We might even be able to say we appreciate feedback and constructive criticism, or modestly say that we’re big enough to acknowledge our faults and change when needed.

But even though we can learn to appreciate criticism and correction that helps us improve, hearing such things isn’t always easy. In fact, I’m not sure it ever gets “easy,” though it can become easier. Most of us have a tendency to get defensive and feel some degree of resentment when people offer a critique or dare correct us. This is especially true if we haven’t asked for feedback but they offer it anyway. Such criticism might also pull us toward depression or make us feel like giving up.

As Christians, though, we’re suppose to be open to correction. Primarily, we have a duty to listen to correction from God, which comes through His word and His spirit. Godly correction can also come through people who are guided by the Lord. This sort of correction is often harder for us to hear because we might feel like other people haven’t any right to judge us.

Correction From The Lord

Before we get back to the topic of people correcting us, let’s talk about correction from God. If anyone has a right to tell us how to live our lives, it’s the one who created us, the universe, and the Laws that govern both. When we commit to following Him, we also commit to living our lives the way He tells us to and changing when/if He points out that we’re doing something wrong. Read more →