During January and February we’re walking through core areas of our 20something journey that we have to navigate well…and then answering your questions. You can listen to this past Tuesday night’s talk HERE.
“What is your definition of ‘real life’?”
Emily – For me, I would say real life is living the best we can according the ways that God desires for each of us to live. There are several places in scripture where God gives us instructions on the best way to do things, simply because He cares deeply for us. Real life is not a life without fun and living by stringent rules, but rather it is a lifestyle of learning to honor God with our thoughts, our words, our actions, our motives, etc.
Paul – When we say “Lead us into Real Life” what we’re talking about is life lived God’s way. The passage actually says “everlasting” life. It’s a life that begins now and continues for eternity. In the book of John, it says that Jesus came that we may have life and have it more abundantly. So when we talk about real life, we’re pointing to a life that is full and purposeful because it’s focused on living God’s way and is fueled by God’s power.
”How do you fix a broken heart?”
Emily – Last week (1/17) we talked a lot about how God is the only one that can make your heart new. I think this applies here, as well. There are realities and consequences to doing a poor job of guarding your heart…in my experience this goes far beyond almost a physical aching that we can experience to our minds and emotions being held captive to a situation or circumstance. In those seasons, healing takes place when we invite God into what we’re dealing with and ask him to restore us and renew us. Spending time in the Word discovering and re-discovering Truth, sharing our story with others who will guide, instruct, and encourage, being mindful of our thoughts and actions are practical things that can be done to begin this process. More than anything, if your heart is broken or hurting, know that there is hope and restoration found in Jesus.
Paul – I’m going to give my best shot at this answer without knowing why it’s broken. Knowing why would help me provide a more specific answer. But overall, fixing broken hearts isn’t easy. I think there are some steps to overcoming broken hearts that would help most situations though: 1) Believe what God says about life…believe the truth that he is in control and cares deeply about us 2) Evaluate what truly happened or why you feel this way. What is the truth about the situation, not necessarily how I “feel” 3) Extend forgiveness. God encourages us in the same way that we’ve been forgiven much, we must freely forgive 4) Ask forgiveness of others if you’ve contributed to hearts being broken 5) Saturate yourself with God’s word, prayer, and the encouragement of good people around you.
”Guarding my heart toward action to fit in versus the true belief in the situation. Thinking values and personal morales. How would you go about this?”
Adam – I think what you might be asking is “what do you do if you want to fit in?” Or “what if you are faced with a situation to fit in versus choose the moral high road?” I think this question hits on what we talked about during our discussion time. One of the things I asked Paul was how do we keep this from being a legalistic, list of rules type of mindset. The only option for that is to view guarding your heart as a proactive thing. That mean making the decision before hand, before you ever get into a situation where you are faced with the above question, to know how you will respond. That way when the pressure’s on, your mind is already decided. We’ll also unpack this a little more over the next three weeks at Saturate Eight.
Paul - I agree with what Adam said and the only other things I’d add is we have to have some principles we’re committed to first. Hopefully those are ones found in the Bible. And from that point, our commitment to Jesus and the truths of the Bible have to be greater than our loyalties to any other person, even our own desire to go with the group or majority. It’s no easy task, but you’ll never be able to do it, if you’re not committed to some core principles…and the Bible provides a great foundation for those.
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