It’s Practical
Resiliency is the ability to withstand or recover from a difficult situation. Aldous Huxley once wrote, “Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.” In the final installment of our series Resilient, we are going to discover there are very specific spiritual practices resilient people engage in every day regardless of their circumstances.
Teaching Notes
Resilient [def]: the ability to withstand or recover from a difficult situation
How do we have resiliency in the face of difficult situations?
Week 1: It’s Tempting
Week 2: It’s Emotional
Week 3: It’s Powerful
IT’S PRACTICAL
Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:26-27
Three Spiritual Practices:
- Bite your TONGUE.
“yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves”
A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
Luke 6:45
Rein In:
- Gossip
- Slander
- Criticism
- Negativity
- Crude
- Harsh
- Roll up your SLEEVES & LOVE.
“look after orphans and widows in their distress”
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Galatians 5:6
Followers of Jesus are to look after:
- The VULNERABLE
- The OSTRACIZED
- The INVISIBLE
“Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.” - Andy Stanley
- Engage in a SPIRITUAL DETOX.
“keep oneself from being polluted by the world”
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23
- Identify the toxins in YOUR WORLD – 1 John 2:15-17
- Begin a daily habit of CLEAN THINKING – Romans 12:1-2
We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. C.S. Lewis