God is invisible.  No one in human history has ever seen him.  Well, anyone except Jesus.  Today, I want to introduce you to Jesus.  Today we’re going to answer the question “Who is Jesus and why is he important?”

Understanding who God is has the potential to completely shift your life, your beliefs, and the way you view yourself and the world.  There’s a lot to say about who God is… and it’s all such good news.  But for today, as we dig into understanding who God is, we’re going to focus on these 5 truths about who God is:

1. Creator
2. Father
3. Redeemer
4. Sanctifier
5. King

Galatians 5 talks about the fruits of the spirit.  Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control.  Today, we’re talking about how to have self control.

We live in a time where we have SO much available to us.  There are endless things to occupy our time and our attention.  Also, endless things to distract us from the things in life that are better.  The things that are CALLED to.

First, we’ll define ‘what is self control.’  We’ll talk about the importance of self control, and how to have self control and grow in it.

As followers of Christ, we need to be transformed by the renewal of our minds.  But what does this look like practically?  And how can you actually and practically be transformed by the renewing of your mind?  This is something that I feel the need for so strongly in my life.  I KNOW that I need this renewal, and that it is something I need to actively practice daily.  The following is what I have found to be very helpful steps to renewing your mind.

This is a guest post from Shanda Fulbright.  Shanda was generous with her time and went live in my Facebook group to discuss this topic- Chasing Perfect.

We were on our way to church and my son wasn’t happy. He looked down at his resin
sculpture, a dog he created with a mold he made, and sighed in disgust.
“What’s wrong?” I asked him. He worked on this piece all day. He was so proud when it first
came out of the mold. He sanded it, cleaned and polished it. He even touched up the edges
and smoothed out the imperfections.

Sometimes it can seem like life is just happening to us, and we’re along for the ride.  I Each day, I have a growing desire to live with more intention.  For me, this has been building for a few years, and each year I seem to add a new layer.  Now I want to help you live with intention.  Here are 6 ways:

Since becoming a mom for the first time, God has really made it clear to me that he is refining me.  Becoming a mother changed my life.  What I discovered when I became a mother was that God was using the refining fire of motherhood to change me.  One way he does this refining work is through bath time.  You parents know what I mean.

Silence.  My silence, God’s silence… I really wasn’t sure.  But I think it was mostly my silence.  My prayer life was dry. Dusty, broken… nearly non-existent.  I knew this wasn’t what a healthy prayer life was supposed to look like or feel like.  I allowed myself to become complacent, lazy, and more involved with myself than pursuing a close relationship with God.  But there’s one thing that kept pulling me back, and that was God’s word.  That’s when I realized that praying scripture could be the answer to my all-but-abandoned prayer life.

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