Editor’s Note: The following is part 2 of 2 of a live Crowdcast talk on What Does it Mean to Be Fully Alive?! by Sefanit Stefanos and Danielle Knight. You can read and watch part 1 by Danielle here from 4/28/21. These talks are part of a 4-week Revival Series on desert fruits presented by our discipleship team. The rest of the talks are found here on the blog and on our YouTube channel starting on April 14, 2021.
Read the first five talking points from part 1 here, and the five remaining points are here below!
6. What if it’s hard to believe these things?
- Our heart needs work
- It can be a risk to believe God is good – we are opening up our hearts to the possibility and expectation of His blessing – this can be scary
- Having hope can be scary, being vulnerable can be scary, believing God is good can be a scary thought – what if He leads us somewhere that looks risky, potentially painful, not what we wanted, the unknown…
- Being vulnerable disarms us. We need to be disarmed to realize who we are
7. God wants us to discover this reality of our identity and live like it
- “Become who you are and you will set the world on fire.” – St. Catherine of Siena
- “The Glory of God is Many Fully Alive” – St. Iraneaus
- God wants us to thrive – not just survive. What does that mean?
- Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to prove ourselves to God, to do good things we seek out because we feel like God expects it
- The first thing God wants is for us to receive His love, to learn how to walk as His child, find peace and joy as His children, and then to walk the path He leads us on
- To hope is a big risk…putting your heart on the line and saying, “Ok, God, I believe you will bring a good out of this, someday, in some way.”
8. Why should we seek to be fully alive anyway?
- Live a good life
- Deeper joy, peace, and freedom – it’s worth the journey
- We can worship the Lord more perfectly as our true selves…because it’s a freer act of the heart
9. We open ourselves up to a beautiful and real life, one where we can taste the reality of Jesus more deeply
- Life is still hard, but living real is worth it
- God’s presence is apparent
- We KNOW it will be ok
- We can taste this life more deeply – the joys, the sorrows…living, knowing, seeing that God is in all things – surrounding us
- Being fully alive is being more attuned to God’s presence around us
10. God wants good things for us
- A life of joy, of leisure, of play
- To be His free children so He can gaze upon us
- And the more we learn to be His beloved children, fully alive, we will live with a fire within, and that is worth it
- We are meant to spread the fire of Jesus to others
- The Christian walk is demanding, but with the fire within us, it’s worth the journey
- “It’s easier to find laborers to work, than children to play. And I desire children.” – God to Sr. Marie of the Trinity
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