Gift # 1

Sometimes Christian women feel that they have to leave behind some particular, ‘unattractive’ aspects of who they are, of what they are experiencing/have experienced in life, when they enter into prayer with their Lord.

They feel that they have to first make themselves ‘attractive’ to the Lord.

So …they put on their ‘spiritual make-up’ before they come to God in prayer.

Nothing could make the Lord grieve more.

Nothing could harm your beautiful spirit more.

Nothing could stunt your friendship and relationship with your Lord more.

Please don’t do that!

I want you to know that the Lord loves you JUST AS YOU ARE, with all your sins, clutter, baggage,  weaknesses and limitations.

He honours your raw humanity.

Your human weaknesses never present a barrier to the Lord’s love for you.

And it’s very important to always remember that the Lord sees not just your drawbacks but your great GIFTS! Never forget this.

In fact, the Lord understands how your weaknesses and sins have come about far better than you!

After all, He knew you before you were in your mother’s womb (Jeremiah 1:5).

He longs to heal your limitations for you!

Your Christian journey is all about fully embracing BOTH your gifts AND your weaknesses.

It’s all about fully embracing BOTH the good times AND the traumatic times of your life.

It’s in your heart that both the fruit of the Holy Spirit and your spiritual baggage reside —side by side!

It’s in your human heart that the seeds both of good and of evil reside.

But the very good news is that it’s your HEART that God has chosen to make His home!

And the word ‘heart’ refers to the whole, entire person you are: your will, conscience, thoughts words, actions, decision-making. It includes every single aspect of your human nature.  Nothing is left out!

The Lord resides right smack inside your heart, side by side with your goodness and your sins/limitations!

In other words, the Lord resides IN EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of who you are!

God is to be found inside your sins and weaknesses, not somewhere outside them!

God is to be found inside your pain, not somewhere outside it!

When you bring your sins and your painful, traumatic experiences to God, you allow Him to find you right smack in the midst of them. 

You give Him the green light to nurture, sustain and guide you through them and ultimately heal you of all the wounds they cause you.

So why bother to apply your spiritual make-up when getting together with God?

Since He’s never going to force Himself on you, it’s up to you to share with Him ALL that you are —the good things AND the not-so-good things!

When you try to hide your sins and limitations either from yourself or from the Lord, you put up a barrier to your healing!

Why?

Because God can’t heal what you don’t voluntarily give Him!

He will never override your will.

He respects your personhood far too much for that.

Always remember: The Lord wants be Father, Saviour, Friend, Brother, Guide, and Teacher to all of you, NOT just to your ‘good’ parts!

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Gift # 2

Don’t Know Where You Are

On Your Christian Journey?

Part 1

Understanding your Christian journey can be helpful, especially in times of personal crisis or confusion when things seem to have hit a roadblock.

At these times on the journey, you might become concerned that what worked for you before in your relationship with God no longer works.

It seems that you’re making no spiritual headway.

In fact, it can even seem that you’re going backwards, that you’re regressing.

This is when a bit of perspective can really help.

Getting a Perspective

When an architect is building a house, there are points in the construction process where everything looks extremely confused.

The architect knows that each part of the construction is necessary to the final outcome. But until that point is reached, it all looks disappointingly confusing.

It looks as though the builders are making no progress.

That’s when the architect removes himself from the building site and seeks perspective.

Now, looking at the site from a distance, he starts to feel better.

He can relax.

He recognizes that the confusion is essential.

In fact, he understands that without it there would be no progress!

He has proven to himself yet again that, from time to time, it is necessary to have a broader perspective.

It’s just like that on your spiritual journey.

From time to time, you need to get perspective in order to appreciate what might be happening at any given time.

You see, your spiritual life is dynamic, just like all life is.

In your walk with the Lord, sometimes you feel that you are going forwards, sometimes backwards. Sometimes you seem to be spinning your wheels.

There’s nothing wrong with feeling that you are going backwards from time to time.

All of us go backwards from time to time.

It’s like the relationship between house-building and the architect. From time to time, everything on your journey seems confused and in disarray. You yourself might go backwards for a while.

The important thing is to know HOW to go forward again!

Here’s the thing.

Sometimes you might have to go in what seems to be a backwards direction in order to go forwards.

God knows that far better than you and I.

It’s nothing to feel guilty about.

The real challenge to concern yourself about is:

How to maintain your connection to God —even when you feel you’re going backwards!

This is where sound spiritual guidance can make all the difference.

How to Maintain your Connection to God
Even When You’re Going Backwards

You say, ‘Jan, how on earth can I maintain my connection to the Lord when I seem to be going backwards?’

Here’s my answer:

There’s a simple and guaranteed way to maintain your connection with God and move forward WITH Him again.

It’s called praying with and from your heart. 

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 Gift # 3

Why I Believe I Can Help You

Obviously, words and thoughts and feelings are necessary for, and are part and parcel of, other forms of prayer.

But when you want to experience God’s presence, love, and peace directly, any one of these 3 things can get in the way.

Feelings come from an active emotional centre.

Words and thoughts come from an active intellect.

Both are perfectly natural and human.

In fact, they are part and parcel of your and my God-created humanity.

But here’s the thing:

When you wish to open your whole self (i. e. what the Lord calls your heart) to God’s presence, an active emotional centre and an active, stimulated intellect can get between the essential ‘you’, the ‘you’ the ‘you’ that matters most to God —and God himself!

You and I know it’s very easy to speak many words to God.

But this is no guarantee that our hearts are in the same place as the words we speak!

You and I know this well from our ordinary human conversations. How often have you found yourself speaking ‘words’ to someone and yet, deep down, be preoccupied with something completely different!

So …the Christian journey is about aligning your heart to your words.

This is guaranteed to happen in heart prayer because, in this form of prayer, you align yourself to God himself!

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Gift # 4

The Two ‘You’s’

That Make Up the One ‘You’

You Are Simultaneously

Both a Bud AND a Flower

If you look closely at the picture above, you’ll see a fully developed dahlia flower . Then you’ll notice a little dahlia bud at the bottom right of the flower.

I want you to keep that Dahlia picture in mind whenever you think about the two ‘you’s’!

You see, it’s an accurate image of who you are at any moment in your life.

The bud represents your God-given potential for full development.

The fully grown flower represents what God has always planned for you to become.

You are simultaneously both a bud AND a flower!

Now let’s take a deeper look at ‘The 2 You’s’.

Here’s the thing.

You mightn’t realize it — until it’s brought to our attention one way or the other, few of us do! —but you’re journeying with God with a fair amount of mental and emotional —and yes —even spiritual baggage.

Like any baggage, this baggage weighs you down. You’re not fully free.

Everyone carries around baggage in their souls…until they come to the Lord for healing that baggage.

Here’s the thing.

Your baggage embodies a powerful energy.

This is the energy that helps to drive your false self.

Our false self causes problems not just in our journey/ relationship with God but in our personal relationships, in our faith communities, and in our work life.

Only God can gradually heal your false self. Your will alone can’t!

But, There’s Truly Good News for You …

The really good news is that you don’t have to heal/dismantle that baggage yourself.

Once you realize that this baggage might be getting in the way of your friendship with the Lord, the Lord himself will heal it —if you ask Him!

And the way He does it is so gentle, patient, sensitive and loving, that you mightn’t actually notice it.

Your family, friends and co-workers often notice the change in you for the better before you do!

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Gift # 5

How to Anchor Your Inner Peace before You Go to Bed

Your Daily Experiences are Where God Lives

God is to be found IN EACH AND EVERY ONE of your life experiences, both good and bad, NOT somewhere outside of them!

This includes everything you experience each and every day, even your ‘little’ experiences.

God is ALWAYS present to you in your experiences each and every day.

But here’s the thing:

You and I can keep Him at bay.

Sometimes we might do so deliberately, sometimes unintentionally.

This review at the end of your day helps you see where you have let God in and where you might have shut Him out.

Your Prayerful Review of the Day That’s Ending

The purpose of this review is to

• give thanks to God for the good things of your day
• share the disappointments, failures, negative reactions, dark emotions etc. with the Lord just as you might with a very close and trusted friend or confidante
• ask His forgiveness and healing where you need them
• ask for a real sense of His love and guidance and wisdom for the day ahead

Note

As you go through this brief review …

Please do not engage in self-judgment

Please refrain from any attempt to analyze your experiences

----

Here’s a way to prayerfully review your day:

1. Start with
   Thank the Lord for the events of the day for which you are grateful.
   Even in days when things might have gone badly wrong, there’s still at least ONE thing to thank the Lord for.

2. Ask God to show you where you have let Him be God and where you might have kept Him at bay.

3. Reflect on your negative experiences of the day.
   Ask the Lord to show you the attitudes which gave rise to them.
   Recalling your emotions during the day is important. What feelings did you experience e. g. anger, joy, worry, fear, irritability, gratitude, frustration, satisfaction, etc?
   Ask the Lord to show you whatever He wants you to see. Usually, God doesn’t reveal this to you instantly but over a period of time, His time.
   The important thing is to ask Him tonight. Then leave it with Him.

Ask the Lord to be with you as you do this.

Imagine Him sitting in a chair next to you looking at you with that inviting, welcoming, indescribable love of His.

Take a minute to remind yourself that His love has no conditions.

Remind yourself that He is never judgmental.

Use the pdf ‘Relax Your Body’ on this web page to remind you of this. 

 

4. Ask the Lord to forgive you for the events of the day where you might have shut Him out.

Ask Him to HEAL you from any painful experiences.

As you do, consciously remind yourself of these 2 key facts:

 

1. The Lord NEVER gets tired of forgiving you. 
2. The Lord wants passionately to bring you HEALING. 

5. Look briefly at the day ahead. Ask God for the grace, strength, and guidance you need to live the next day hand-in-hand with Him. Ask the Lord to be with you in every detail of it —both the day’s good events and emotions and its not-so-good ones. Then ask Him to give you the faith to believe that He will be with you. That’s it!

Benefits

This brief review before bed

• Helps to maintain your inner peace before you go to sleep. It does this by anchoring the experiences of your day, whether joyful or painful, rather than letting them keep floating around in your head like a never-ending movie screen.
• Helps you acknowledge any negative emotions and what might have given rise to them
• Offers you an opportunity to see where you need God’s forgiveness and/or His healing
• Offers you an opportunity to ask for God’s light, strength, wisdom, and guidance for the day ahead

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Gift # 6

Here are 3 infographics that might help you.

They all explain the journey that the Lord invites you and me to embark on at any time on our journey but ESPECIALLY when we find ourselves facing trauma, inner pain, or crisis.

He invites us to leave aside for a few minutes each day our ‘monkey-mind’, 24/7- non-stop mental and emotional hyper-activity, and our preoccupations and worries, and meet Him DIRECTLY AND FIRSTHAND.

Whenever we accept this invitation, we allow ourselves to EXPERIENCE His HEALING PRESENCE, LOVE, and PEACE—whenever we want or need to.

Trust me: you’ll never regret doing so!

Note

PUT THE LORD’S INVITATION INTO PRACTICE BY GETTING MY FREE GUIDE:

titled

How to Regain, and Maintain,

God’s Lasting Inner Peace and Joy:

A Guaranteed Way to Experience God’s Presence, Love and Rest One-On-One

In this Guide, I hold your hand and take you through the 2 simple steps that enable you to reach your one single goal: i.e. to accept the Lord’s invitation and EXPERIENCE FIRSTHAND FOR YOURSELF HIS PRESENCE, LOVE, and PEACE!