Stretch Yourself

Heart Guide for Lesson 8:
Beholding the True Image

Here are seven ways of beholding the Lord. Try to do at least one a day and all of them at least once a week for the first week. Then see which ways are most fruitful for you and pursue them, but don't entirely abandon the others!

1) Personal prayer and quiet times: Seek to "see" Him as He really is, full of grace and truth.

2) Corporate worship: Direct your words to Him personally: With songs of the cross, imagine Him at the cross; with songs of heaven, imagine Him in heaven, etc.

3) Meditation on the scriptures: Dialog with Him; follow Jesu's movements in the gospels; look to see how God is described in dreams and visions of the prophets.

4) Pray in the Spirit with a focus on Him: Pour your heart out; open your mind; let Him fill you.

5) Silence: Gaze in adoration towards Him believing that He is present (which He is).

6) Christian art and symbols: Let them direct your thoughts toward Him.

7) Intercession: Let your heart hold an image of how willing and capable He is as you lift people and situations up to Him in prayer.

Whenever we behold the Lord even a little bit by faith, the Holy Spirit goes to work shifting our emotional state back under grace and freeing us from focusing on whatever it was of the world, flesh or the devil that was robbing us of our trust and vital life in Christ.

So let's all learn to get the look—that gives the shift!

Return to Beholding the True Image: Head to Heart Guide for more ways to go deeper into these truths or stay 'on course' by going to the...