Koinonia Pastoral Counseling
Koinonia Pastoral Counseling
Learn to Love the Life You Live.
Learn to Love the Life You Live.
ALL ABOUT YOU
Lets get healthy: mind, body and spirit!
Kauai, (C) 2012 Photo by Jessica Furino
# 2 Praying:
God created you because he loves you and wants to have a personal relationship with you.
John 3:16 tells us that our Lord loved us so much that He gave us His only begotten son, who died for our sins so that we could have eternal life with our Father. Wow, the only thing we have to do is believe! Jesus did this because He loves you. This is God's gift to you. It is not by anything you do except to accept His gift of salvation. Once you do this and make a commitment to walk with our Lord, you have taken the first staep and your life will change. You can ask Him for anything, even faith. If you are angry, tell Him. He loves you, unconditionally. He forgives you, unconditionally. What do you have to loose? It is your choice as our Father has given us free will to make our own choices. This is a good choice.
He is listening and guiding us all the time. We need to reach up to him and give Him our concerns, our fears, our hopes and dreams. Not only will He honor them but He is so capable of blessing us with His assurance and providing forgiveness, answers, healing and handling our crisises when we can't. Think of a child, you may know everything about their day. You still want them to share it with you and to be there to soothe and guide them. Our Lord feels the same towards you. You just need that little grain of faith and the rest will fall into place.
Many of my clients are not sure how to pray. I believe that it should be a comfortable conversation. These steps have helped some of my clients and I hope it is helpful to you:
Prayerful Hints:
1. Pray from a verse about who He is.
Look up one of our Lord's characteristics (for example, He is faithful) in the Bible. The more you know about our Lord (The Bible is His Word and love story to you) the easier it is to pray and ask for things that our consistent with who He is. He promises to answer our prayers if they are holy. Read your bible. The bible is God's love story to us and is alive and infallible. He will give you His peace through His word.
2. Ask for forgiveness for things you have done or said.
Ask Him to enable you with the strength to handle these things in a way that honors Him.
3. Give Him thanks and praise for the blessings in your life.
Keep a prayer and thanksgiving journals, especially if you you tend to worry about things. We can't trust our dear Lord if we worry and hold onto fear. Give it to Him, you don't need to carry those burdens. He loves you and wants to help you.
4. Expect that He will answer your prayers.
In supplication and intervention ask Him for those things you need (again they need to be holy and fully in character with our Lord.) Jeremiah 29:11-13 shares that if we are still and quiet and ask Him in prayer for what we need, not only listen but answer your prayers.
5. LISTEN.
He will answer you when you are reading His Word, listening to a song, speaking to a friend or just being still. Give yourself quiet time, at least 5 minutes, before and after your devotional to hear God speak and direct your heart. Provide quiet time, a walk in a nature, in your car, where ever you can to listen.
6: Keep a list:
With our hectic lives we are constantly bombarded with activities, information and not enough free time. You can keep a pad with you or a memo sheet on your phone. Make sure you jot down your great ideas, your bucket list, things you need to do and wonderful ideas. If you don't, you will surely forget your important thoughts and your God given ideas. For example, my memo list has; verses, songs, websites, books, apps, concerts, professional catergories (Autism, teens),book ideas ( I am a published writer,) musical artist, movies, charities, church, health tips, coaching and counseling links, gardening( I am a master garder so I frequently jot down notes about new plants), Israel, recipes and so much more. Frequently, I use these notes to help others.
7. Daily Devotionals:
To know who God is and how He can answer our prayers we need to read His word, in the bible. Schedule time, everyday to read and meditate on our Lord's word to you. Reading the bible, listening to Christian songs, listening to pod casts, going to services and bible studies are great ways to get closer to the one who unconditionally loves you and who wants an intimate relationship with you.
8. Good nutrition, diets, and healthy and consistent life skills.:
Everyone's metabolism is unique. Many of my clients have utilized a variety of diet plans an they have had wonderful success. One of my clients has lost an average of 4 pounds a week and is still doing well. She has fought off diabetes, lowered her cholesterol and is feeling great!
We all need good sleep health, exercise, quiet time, prayer, fellowship, creative outlets, hobbies, serving and loving others, and so much more. Please call me if you feel that you could benefit from a health coach to assist you in this area.
9. Understanding and developing your skills, gifts and passions:
Everyone has passions and gifts that God has equipped us with to be successful, productive and satisfied in our vocations and ad-vocations. Discovering what these gifts are can be exciting and empowering. Here are a few tools to get you started:
Gifts of the Holy Spirit test https://www.spiritualgiftstest.com
Fruits of the Holy Spirit test https://www.canyonhillscounseling.org/blog/2020/1/22/nine-tests-for-spiritual-fruit
Arno Profile Test: Please contact Jessi at jessiclc@gmail.com if you are interested in taking this assessment.
10. Understanding the wonderful person that you are and why God has made you is an invigorating and freeing experience.
God loves you so much. Seeing ourselves and others through His eyes changes or perceptions and hearts tremendously. hearing what He is calling you do and submitting to that call and how He equips us to partner in that walk with Him is enriching, empowering and amazing.
Having a purpose in our life gives us clarity and vision. As a certified APS counselor, I am able to provide my clients with this temperament assessment that uncover who we are, what motivates our behavior, how we relate to ourselves and others, what our strengths and weaknesses our and how God has made us into the wonderful and amazing person we are. Please contact me if you are interested in exploring you or your families temperaments and relationships.