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.

So let me help you do that now.

What You Might Not Know

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’s 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’re 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 forwards WITH Him again.

It’s called praying with and from your heart. 

You ask me: ‘Jan, how can you be so sure that this way of praying guarantees that I’ll move forward again?’

It’s guaranteed because praying with your heart places you in direct contact with the Lord.

How does it do this?

It enables you to experience, firsthand for yourself, God’s presence.

And once you experience God’s presence directly and firsthand, it follows as night follows day that you automatically experience God’s LOVE for you.

Why is that critical for you at this point?

Because God’s love is the highest and most powerful energy in the universe.

It has the power to bring you out of your apparent rut and propel you forwards again to a fresh and vibrant place with the Lord that you might never have thought possible.

God’s LOVE, you see, is a HEALING energy —always!

Please always remember that.

When you pray with your heart in this simple way regularly each day for just a few minutes (5 - 10 - 20 minutes), you’ll gradually begin to experience the Lord in an entirely fresh way.

You’ll discover that God is —gradually, but extremely surely —establishing His inner peace and joy WITHIN you.

And you’ll discover that He is doing so at a far deeper level than you’ve known before —and in a way that lasts.

Like anything truly worthwhile, this takes a little time.

It might take 2 weeks for you to start to notice a change.

But keep at it.

And soon you’ll discover that moving forwards to a bright and radiant horizon is guaranteed.

The great thing is: persevere, never give up!

You’ll never regret praying in this way.

But there’s more good news.

This way of prayer enables you to experience God’s love not just once or twice or three times, but whenever you want or need to.

The single goal of this online Christian magazine is to help you discover this simple way to move forwards on your journey with the Lord by experiencing His presence and love firsthand for yourself —and to do so whenever you want or need to.

Then you will begin to experience the personal rewards and multitude of benefits to your life 

 Typical Points on Your Journey

1.  Limits of the Institutional Church

The institutional church has limits to the help it can offer an adult individual who wants/needs special spiritual guidance.

Your church might have met your childhood and teenage spiritual needs adequately. But in your adult spiritual journey with the Lord, it can flounder pretty badly when you’re seeking specific help, nurture and support!

Regrettably, you might discover this only when you find yourself facing personal loss, crisis, or trauma of any kind.

2. A Change for Christian Women When They Turn Age 35

After we women reach the age of 35, our needs and aspirations as a woman can start to change:

• You start to look inwards for meaning
• You begin asking yourself tough questions such as:

What has the Lord really put me here on the earth to do? 

Is making meals for my family, running kids’ carpools, going to work each day at a job I don’t enjoy, seeing my medical patients, preparing for the next business meeting, babysitting my grandkids, piloting 747 passenger jets, attending all-day sessions in the parliament or congress —is this really all there is to life?

Who am I really?

3. Times of Experiencing Personal Pain

Grappling with these serious life questions and searching for answers when you’re facing a personal crisis or trauma only adds to your confusion and your feeling of desolation.

As a result, you might find it ‘impossible’ to connect to God in the way you did so effortlessly before.

This can be a scary and painful place to be.

But if there’s ONE thing that I want you to remember, it’s this:

NEVER EVER run from your pain.

NEVER EVER run from your pain. 

Your pain, you see, is the place of unparalleled spiritual opportunity!

4. You Need to Rely Now on the Lord Himself

It’s at this point that God might invite you to learn how to rely directly on Him.  

5. Need for Reliable Guidance      

To help you do this, you need solid spiritual guidance from someone who has already come through this part of the spiritual journey, who also has a long track record of walking closely day by day with the Lord, and, preferably, who is trained to some degree in Christian formation. 

----

Read Part 2 here 

         

 

Scroll down for your Recap …

Recap…