Archives for June 2022

Seize Freedom And Faith To Dream Big

June 25, 2022 by Matt Pavlik 2 Comments

Reading time: 3 minutes

Does your life more closely serve as an example of slavery or freedom?

Slaves feel trapped most of the time. They feel helpless to change their circumstances. If slaves ever gain freedom, they will have nothing to show for their prior work.

In contrast, free people feel lighthearted most of the time. They have an inheritance coming so they don’t worry about the future. A free person is a partner, an owner, an equal, or a participant.

Freedom Allows You to Dream Big

For most people, slavery is a prison imposed by the mind. Depressed people are slaves to their discouraging belief systems. Anxious people are slaves to their fears. To them, it seems like there is no other way to think.

What is the real meaning of freedom?

If you believe this life (on earth, apart from God) has something left to offer you, you will probably be frequently disappointed. However, nothing can stop you once you realize this life isn’t a source of lasting happiness (Matthew 16:25). Nothing can hold you hostage. You are free to live completely with your values (hopefully the same as God’s values). Nothing can cause you to compromise your values. You can live with integrity.

However, just because you no longer need something from this life, doesn’t mean you should stop participating. As you participate in life, as God’s ambassador, you can bring God’s love to other people.

What is an example of freedom?

Braveheart and Gladiator are old movies now, but they still communicate this idea of freedom. William Wallace ultimately gave his life in pursuit of freedom. Maximus restored freedom too. Both experience severe betrayal and loss.

Faith Allows You to Dream Big

Can God use you beyond your capacity? Yes and no. Yes, you can participate in what God is doing and witness Him accomplishing infinitely more than you can imagine. No, God won’t stretch you beyond His design for you.

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.
Ephesian 3:16-21 NLT

To believe everything in the Ephesians passage requires faith. Faith expands your capacity spiritually. You might not be physically capable of more, but God is.

What are some ways you can move away from slavery and move toward freedom (Galatians 5:1)?

When you pray, are you focused too much on issues that only concern your comfort in this life? If so, consider how God wants to partner with you to accomplish His big plans.
Are you a people-pleaser to a fault? Do you instantly compromise your values to keep the peace with others? If so, write down your values. Then, increase your resolve over time to not throw out these God-given life lessons and principles.
Do you see yourself as a hired hand or a child of God (Luke 15:11-32)? A child will ask with much greater boldness.
Is the prison door open, but you are still inside? If so, take the risk to leave your cell. No one who trusts God will ever be put to shame (Psalm 25:1-3).

God won’t give you everything you ever wanted, but He will give you everything you need to accomplish what He has planned. You can gain a sense of what that is as you understand by faith who you are and who God is.

Find Freedom Through Grieving
Find Freedom Through Experiencing Jesus
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3 Ways To Protect Your Relationship With God

June 19, 2022 by Matt Pavlik 1 Comment

Reading time: 4 minutes

If you don’t protect your relationship with God, your relationship will likely deteriorate. You have an enemy that is doing all he can to destroy you.

The war against the saints is real. The enemy, the devil, wants to create animosity between believers and God. He accomplishes this by convincing believers that God is harmful, evil, or even uncaring.

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
1 Peter 5:8 NLT

The devil never ceases to slander humans to God.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power
    and the kingdom of our God,
    and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
    who accuses them before our God day and night,
    has been hurled down.
Revelation 12:10 NIV

Here are three ways you can protect your relationship from these attacks:

1 – Protect Your Relationship With God by Knowing Jesus’s Audience

The world can be divided into two sets of people: believers and non-believers. When Jesus interacts with people in the Bible, He is usually tough on the people who are against Him and compassionate toward people who are fragile. In the following text, He equates “little ones” or “children” to “those who believe in me.”

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!
Matthew 18:6-7 NIV

And, when He references causing people to stumble, He is talking about the evil in the world that wants to harm one of His children. This passage in Matthew doesn’t mean that God wants one of His children to die. This isn’t a message of condemnation for believers. His audience is non-believers, not believers.

2- Protect Your Relationship With God by Asking for the Right Gifts

What you want can be divided into two categories: external (or worldly) blessings and internal blessings. A worldly blessing will expire at the end of this life but a spiritual blessing lasts forever.

You could ask God to improve your finances or health. I want more money. I want a bigger house. These are external changes. God, change my circumstances.

You can also ask God to help you mature. I want a better attitude. I want more patience. These are internal changes. God, change me.

If you ask with the wrong motives, God might not grant your desires (James 4:3). If you don’t get what you want, you might draw the wrong conclusions about God. God is withholding good things from me. God wants to give good gifts, but He is the one to determine what gift is needed and when it is needed.

It’s okay to ask for worldly gifts. However, you will protect your relationship with God if you don’t expect more from Him than He promises.

3- Protect Your Relationship With God by Putting God First

You can interpret your experiences in two different ways. You can focus on the negatives or the positives. To avoid painful misinterpretations, you must trust God more than your experiences.

The enemy will do all he can to create interference between you and God. One of the best ways he can accomplish this is by using your experiences against you.

The enemy wants to elevate your experiences above God. For example, if you lose your job, the enemy could attempt to sow fear into your life by promoting the idea that God isn’t taking care of you. If you agree, you are valuing what happens to you more than God.

All three of these examples will protect you from doubting that God is on your side. Whatever you do, don’t let the enemy gain a foothold in your relationship with God. A weakening loyalty to God will only create an opening for the devil to stir up confusion.

In what ways are you doubting God? Talk to God about your impressions of Him. Do all that you can to restore your sense of allegiance to Him. Protect your relationship with God at all costs (Matthew 18:8-9).

Another way to interpret the Bible.
Another way to interpret the Bible correctly.
Picture from Pexels

Emotional Healing Is Possible For You Today

June 12, 2022 by Matt Pavlik 1 Comment

Reading time: 4 minutes

God won’t always grant you more money or heal your body. But the Holy Spirit is always ready to provide emotional healing.

Are you being serious, Matt? I’ve been suffering for years. I don’t believe it. God doesn’t care about my pain. Does He?

Yes, I am serious. The Holy Spirit’s purpose is to guide believers into the truth. If you think about it, that’s the definition of emotional healing. You have a personal guide who can help you become intimately acquainted with God’s truth. Healing is more than learning facts, it’s an emotional experience of the truth.

The only caveat is that you must ask for and seek healing using biblical principles. Transformation is highly desirable, but not necessarily guaranteed (without effort on your part) or easily obtained. You have to really want it.

If you want this valuable transformation, you need to pursue it with Faith, Boldness, Persistence, and Humility.

Emotional Healing Requires Faith

Faith allows the believer to see spiritually. If you are going to approach God, it needs to be with a clear view of who God is. You need the ability to trust God and stay focused on His character!

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Hebrews 11:6 ESV

If you struggle with believing God cares about you and wants you to thrive, then your first task is to ask God for the faith to see Him clearly.

Emotional Healing Requires Boldness

Boldness in this case means you seek without any kind of pretending or bashfulness. You must approach God with authenticity. You speak clearly. You tell it like it is!

In [Christ Jesus our Lord] we have boldness and access [to God] with confidence through our faith in him.
Ephesians 3:12 ESV

If you are afraid to approach God with what is on your heart, seek out another believer or a counselor who can help you develop boldness.

Emotional Healing Requires Persistence

God’s treasures are not left in the open for all to find. Only those people who really want to find the secrets to life will find them. To find them requires persistence. Do you understand the value of what you are seeking?

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
Matthew 13:44 ESV

I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.
Proverbs 8:17 ESV

If you are tired and want to give up before you reach your goal, ask God for the energy to continue your pursuit.

Emotional Healing Requires Humility

If you want help, you must first prepare your heart to receive help. Desperation is a form of humility that God desires from us. God, you are my only hope! What I want is important and you are the only one who can supply my need.

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1 ESV

In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
Psalm 10:4 ESV

Emotional Healing is the subject of an experiential course I’ve developed. To heal emotionally requires that you are willing to:

Understand what your heart needs and doesn’t need.
Learn healthy ways to manage your pain.
Remember uncomfortable experiences.
Confront negative beliefs with the truth of who God is and who you are.
Feel and express your emotions.
Stop avoiding pain in ways that do more harm than good.
Emphasize seeking God and bringing your pain to Him.

While I’m putting the finishing touches on Emotional Healing, it’s available for a substantial discount. From now until Independence Day (July 4, 2022), you can purchase it for $44 instead of $100. Today could be the day you declare independence from the lies that lower your self-worth.

The first lesson is available to preview without any obligation. Also, this post is based on one of the exercises in the course.

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