Talks

Bob brings us the third part in our series on “Resilience.”

Speaking on the passage from Ephesians 3: 14-19, Bob explores Paul’s prayer to the church in Ephesus and how we can learn some top tips for being resilient today.

Paul’s Prayer for Spiritual Growth
When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.  I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

1. Pray First! Assume the best posture.  Set our posture right - a posture of prayer.
2. Resilience is best done together!
3. Trust Him to hold it! Jesus is in charge!
4. Resilience stems from rootedness.
5. Focus on the problem solver and not the problem.
6. Take a step back and rest in His presence.

Matt brings us the second part in our series on “Resilience.”

Jesus told His disciples that “living water” would “flow” from within them!  If that’s still true today, then could it be possible for God to be the source Himself that we can learn to locate within us, and provide the resilience He intended for us to have?

John Eldredge says: “The nature of true resilience – something imparted into our being by the God who created us.  Resilience is not gutting it out; it is not roughness and toughness.  Resilience is imparted into our humanity as our entire being comes into union with God.”

We have 3 parts to our being:

The Shallows – Characterised by the distractions where we spend most of our life!
The Midlands – Characterised by what Jesus called “the cares of life” – deeper concerns, heartaches, the challenges of life.
The Depths – What David called our “innermost being”.  The essence of who we are.
We live most of our life between the shallows and the midlands, but we all have an “innermost being” – the question is how much attention we pay to it.  “Our souls were never meant to carry the weight and the sorrows of the world – only God can do that.”

Through a practice called “Benevolent detachment”, we can become untangled from the shallows and the cares of life and find the presence of Jesus in the depths of who we are.

Matt mentions the “Pause App” and a 30 day programme towards Resilience – things that have helped a number of people in Ashwood.  Take a look if you’re interested.

“Lord Jesus – we give everything and everyone to you! Make my heart more and more your HOME! Amen.

It was our pleasure to have Roger Bretherton come to speak to us!  He was brilliant!!  He started a mini-series in our Sunday meetings talking about Resilience.

He gave us this Definition of Resilience:

“Resilience is the capacity to face challenge, complexity and change which enhances us rather than diminishes us.”  Resilient Leadership Foundation

Roger talked about Jesus’ famous sermon on the Mount (Matthew Chapters 5-7) and explained how the principles and the content of that message explain how we are to live so that we can live life well – the way God intended. And at the same time build resilience into our lives.

He shared some amazing stories and simple illustrations.