The Journey

Invitation to a Journey ~ A Road Map to Spiritual Formation
M. Robert Mulholland & Ruth Haley Barton
plus
Notes and writings on Spiritual Formation from the
Institute for Spiritual Formation, Biola University

Lesson 6—The Image of Christ—Chapter 3 pp.

Opening Prayer
Gracious and loving God, it is with thankfulness that I hear your call to become Christlike.  Something deep within my heart stirs in its heavy sleep at your call.  The memory of something I was to have been, but am not, yet could still be, flits on the fringes of my consciousness.  O loving God, stir up this hunger in my heart until it becomes the all-consuming passion of my life. (Robert Mulholland)

1.  Thoughts from last time?
What was your experience with Silence?

2.  Imagine for a minute…
Imagine the face of a close family member, either your generation or your parents’ generation.
Now imagine the face of this family member’s child.
Do you think they look alike?
What features are similar?  How would you say they are alike?

3.  In the Image of Christ
In what sense are we being formed in the Image of Christ?
What does the Image of Christ look like?
The same and yet different

4.  Added On or Built In?
Is the Image of Christ alien to us, in the same sense that His righteousness is alien to us?
What about the image of Christ do we hunger for?  Why do we hunger for it?

5.  Into His Likeness
I Corinthians 13:12
I John 3:1-3
I Corinthians 15:45-49



Practice:  Prayers of Intention, con’t.

Now that we  have had some practice with Prayers 1 & 2, let’s add Prayer 3 to our daily practice.
Try starting out with Prayer 1, then spend a minute or two in silence.  Go on with Prayer 2, affirming your identity in Christ and no other.  Then begin Prayer 3, asking God to show us our hearts and what is going on in them.  We will begin then to see where we are like Christ and perhaps where we are not like Him, and allow Him to move us ever closer to being like him.

1.  Prayer of Presenting Oneself as a Sacrifice (Rom. 12:1-2):  the spiritual discipline of presenting oneself to God as a living sacrifice, open to Him and His will in all things.

Prayer of Intention:  “Lord, I am here, I present myself to you.  Here I am, I open my heart to you.”
[This protects the will from becoming asleep to the will and Person of God.]

2.  Prayer of Recollection (Phil. 3:7-9):  the spiritual discipline of reminding the self of its true identity in Christ (full pardon, full acceptance) and “Christ in me” (that I am not alone).

Prayer of Intention: “God, whatever I do today, I want to do it in you.  I don’t want to do this alone, in my own power or as a way to hide and cover.  I don’t want to find my identity in anything but Christ.  I am in Christ and that is my true identity. (confess any idolatry)

[This protects the life from idolatry, false identities and moralism or making decisions from false guilt, shame in life in the power of the self.]

3.  Prayer of Honesty (Ps. 15:1-2; Ps 139:23-24):  the spiritual discipline whereby we open to God and ourselves in what is truly going on in our heart in order for truth-telling to take place in our relationships and life in general.

Prayer of Intention:  “Lord, what is going on in my heart right now with You, with others, with my life, my situation?  Search me, O God, and know my heart.  Open my heart to you today in truth, lest I deceive myself.”  (Confess any idolatry)

This protects us from superficial obedience, from presenting ourselves in arrogance, closed-heartedness, dullness of heart, etc.  Let the heart be a mirror to the truth, and open to God.]


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