Tag: Hope

Tetelestai Recovery

Redefining Perfection: Growing Into Your Full Potential

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A tiny green tomato on the vine is a perfect tomato, although it does not have the color, flavor, or texture of a fully ripened tomato. The tiny green fruit is perfect, but it is not yet useful for its intended purpose. If it remains on the vine, the perfect green tomato will grow into its full potential. And throughout each stage of its growth, it will continue to be perfect.

Thus, we conclude that perfection is about potential. Perfection has little to do with current behavior or ability, but a lot to do with our mindset. Perfection is a state of being which maintains continuous momentum toward progress.

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Tetelestai Recovery

Learning to Live with Imperfection While Longing for More

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We are perfectionistic by nature and refuse to give ourselves permission to fail. Therefore, we say, “I’m not perfect,” to soften the impact when crashing into our own imperfections.

We also use the phrase, “I’m not perfect,” to preface a judgmental statement like, “I know I’m not perfect, but I would never do what he did.”

We long for perfection. This is a normal desire, since we believe that it will be our reality someday. But what do we do in the time between now and then?

How can we be perfect in such an imperfect world?

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Tetelestai Recovery

Finding Strength in Patience: A Guide to Resilience

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Patience tells us that tests are only temporary. Patience tells us that God is doing a good work in us, and He will complete it. Patience tells us not to judge our walk by one random stumble. Patience keeps us steady as we wait for the storm to pass.

It is patience that we lack when we throw up our hands and give up. It is patience that we lack when we question our progress.

Patience will get us to the finish line. Patience will help us be gentle with ourselves.

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Tetelestai Recovery

Finding God in Silence: Embracing Spiritual Tests

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Weary adventurer slumped at tavern table holding an empty tankard

Previously, these difficult times had been dark and made us doubt our relationship with God. We were frustrated to find Him so distant when we needed Him the most.

However, when we begin to view these events as a process which increases our patience and equips us for the next level, we start to see their value. We no longer need to feel frustrated when God goes silent. A good teacher is always silent during a test.

Thanks to the book of James (and our brother by the same name who shared this passage with us), we are learning to identify our spiritually ‘blah’ times as simple tests. These tests are challenging and exhausting, but they mark the completion of one level which advances us to the next.

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Tetelestai Recovery

Signs Our Faith is Being Tested

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What is the Testing of Our Faith?

  • When our feelings betray us and tell us we don’t love God like we should.
  • When our behavior slips into an old pattern and makes us believe we have not changed.
  • When the excitement and enthusiasm we once had for God seems dull and muted.
  • When we just don’t care about trying so hard, because it’s too much work.
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Tetelestai Recovery

It’s Not a Red Flag: Understanding Spiritual Tests

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My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

James 1:2-4

****This is a Test. This is Only a Test.****

The times when we feel spiritually depleted or disinterested are not red flags for us to fret over. They are simply tests. The temporary times when we lack inspiration or get caught up in life’s drama have no bearing on our position in Christ or our commitment to His work.

We have come to understand that the testing of our faith can never happen during good times when inspiration flows freely, we are highly motivated, and praise songs play on a loop in our heads. Times of high spiritual energy and passion are thrilling, but they can’t do the work of generating patience. Only the testing of our faith can do that.

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Tetelestai Recovery

From Mountains to Deserts: Navigating Life’s Journey

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Hiker trekking above winding roads in a lush mountain valley

We love the mountaintops and the flowery meadows, but we must face the fact that dry deserts and muddy bogs are also part of the expedition. We must make peace with both if we want to get where we are going.

When the roads are easy, we feel joy in looking back to see how far we’ve come. When the roads are difficult, we seem to take one step forward, two steps back. Sometimes we slip and fall. Sometimes we just stand still and shrug. Even when we do finally get on firm footing again and start to move forward, we scold ourselves for not being stronger, more resilient, or more determined.

We aren’t sure what to call these moments of uncertainty. The term ‘backsliding’ is way too harsh. The last thing we need is to feel more isolated and cut off from God than we already do.

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Tetelestai Recovery

Believing for Miracles: Stories of Hope and Patience

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Person raising arms in a field overlooking a town at sunset

Group Discussion:

  • What are you doing while you wait?
  • Share about a time when you believed for a miracle and received it, even though you had to wait for it.
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Tetelestai Recovery

Waiting with Certainty: Trusting God’s Timing

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Waiting on God and being certain of His blessings is not pie-in-the-sky or wishful thinking. This faith choice is not presumptuous or improper. Blessings are the divine energy of God empowering us to succeed because we choose to believe in His goodness. He has equipped us with a divine destiny. He wants to see us succeed as much as we do.

_____________________________

And so, we wait for what God has promised, in the same way we might wait at a bus stop, in eager anticipation. We aren’t sitting at some random corner, hoping a bus might drive by. We are positioned at the right place at the right time, waiting for what we know is on its way. We aren’t waiting to see if a hopeful future will appear. We are waiting with confidence, certain of it.

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Tetelestai Recovery

The Electric Flow of Faith: Harnessing God’s Promises

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The power of God flows into each person like an electric current. For it to have an effect, there must be a conductor to draw it out. Our beliefs create the cord that connects us to the Source.

An electrical outlet by itself will not turn on a fan. The receptacle may hold the promise of power to run the fan, but if the cord is not plugged in, the current cannot flow.

Imagine the outlet as one of God’s promises found in scripture. The cord is our belief which connects us to the current. Sure, we can become shamelessly independent from time to time, using arrogance and aggression to empower ourselves, but in that frame of mind, we are turning the blades of the fan by spinning them with our fingers. It is neither efficient, nor productive.

Self-induced exhaustion is the result when we resist plugging in and letting the energy flow. We use our own manipulations and self-defense mechanisms, rather than just resting on the promises of a hopeful future because of God’s goodness.

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