Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

Product Information

This might mean taking a day off each week to rest and focus on your spiritual practices, or it might mean taking regular breaks throughout the day to recharge your batteries. When you trust in Him, you can experience peace and joy that transcends circumstances. Biblical Integration of Emotional Health Here are some tips for setting boundaries that will help you cultivate a healthy spiritual life. The Importance of Limits It’s also important to engage in activities that bring you joy and fulfillment, whether that’s spending time with loved ones, pursuing a hobby, or volunteering in your community. It is the ability to manage your emotions in a healthy way, which includes recognizing, expressing, and regulating them appropriately.

The author then states that "Jesus refused to separate the practice of the presence of God from the practice of the presence of people. When pushed to the wall to separate this unbreakable union, Jesus refused and summarized the entire Bible for us, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like it: Love our neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments'" Matthew 22:37-40 It is my opinion that this author focuses too much on the love of God and does not balance it out with God's righteous judgement. We should not go too far to either side of the scale. I also do not agree with the author's statement that Jesus summarized the entire Bible with this statement, rather he summed up the law and the prophets (Old Testament) with this statement, though it does sum up what we are to be about as Christians. It seems to me that this author is big on generalities, and not into details. A Rule of Life, very simply, is an intentional, conscious plan to keep God at the center of everything we do. (196) Setting limits is an important part of creating boundaries that support your emotional and spiritual health. Second, Scazzero writes that we must “make love the measure of maturity.” “My focus and aim was to make disciples and to grow the church,” he writes. “But over time, it became difficult to distinguish between loving people for who they were versus using them for how they could contribute to the mission. Did I need people to come to faith in Jesus to build our church, or could I simply love them regardless of their decision to follow Jesus and serve in the ministry” (136)? I feel this is a hard question for all of us; if we are honest, we are prone to love people with an agenda that is self-serving. But the mark of maturity is to love people because they are people. Our love should come from a purity that desires others to flourish and become who God made them to be.We'll model a powerful skill called "Community Temperature Reading" and talk about how it applies to real life leadership scenarios. Sabbath provides for us now an additional rhythm for an entire reorientation of our lives around the living God. On Sabbaths we imitate God by stopping our work and resting. (163) It is my opinion that this author is quite mystical-he promotes the "Jesus prayer"(Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner), which in itself is not bad, but he says that it has, "long been a foundation of the eastern Christian spirituality to help believers remain grounded and dependent on God throughout the day. By repeating the prayer throughout the day, synchronizing the syllables of these words with our heartbeat throughout the day, the intention is that our very lives will embody the richness of the prayer". This sounds quite grounded in mysticism and very similar to what those in Roman Catholicism and orthodox churches do, the repeating of a prayer simply to focus is quite meditative and not how Jesus teaches us to pray in the New Testament.

This section will explore the journey towards emotional health, including recognizing emotionally unhealthy spirituality and embracing emotional health. Recognizing Emotionally Unhealthy Spirituality I am not a "spiritual" person. "Spirituality" to me sounds vague and unspecific and trendy and New Age. I like theology and liturgy and apologetics. I am into the Disciplines.. I am not into freeing my mind or releasing the power within. And when I flipped through and saw the words "inner child", I seriously considered giving up all together. I want a relationship with Christ, yes, but based on fact and theology and Scripture, not on feelings. I find feelings highly unreliable. I was honestly just preparing myself for a watered-down, feelings-oriented, let's-not-make-any-waves Christianity. The kind that is all "your sins are forgiven" and forgets the "go and sin no more". What do we do to replace all we are now stopping during our Sabbath time? The answer is simple: whatever delights and replenishes you. (168)

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Are The Foundations Based on Spirituality?

At times our false self has become such a part of who we are that we don’t even realize it. The consequences—fear, self-protection, possessiveness, manipulation, self-destructive tendencies, self-promotion, self-indulgence, and a need to distinguish ourselves from others—are harder to hide. (80) Peter Scazzero learned the hard way: you can't be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. Even though he was a pastor of a growing church, he did what most people do: In this group, you can share your struggles and receive guidance from others who have gone through similar experiences. As emotionally mature Christian adults, we recognize that loving well is the essence of true spirituality. (179) For example, you might set limits around the amount of time you spend on social media or watching TV, or you might establish boundaries around the types of conversations you’re willing to have with friends or family members.