Welcome to Nancy Guthrie’s guided journal “Hoping for Something Better,” which she based on her book of the same title (Tyndale 2007).
New journal entries will appear in your profile Monday-Saturday for 6 weeks. If you missed any so far, stay subscribed to this feed and you can begin when it starts over. Be sure to start your own journal within your Beliefnet profile or in a notebook to respond to Nancy’s prompts.
Day 15
There is something better than nibbling at the edges of life in Christ without ever truly entering in. It is swallowing it whole and living a life that produces spiritual fruit.
Read Hebrews 6:4-20.
Paul instructed us in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”
Chapters 5 and 6 in Hebrews help us with this question, because the writer does not want us to live wondering and wavering.
So if you have been in a place of wondering if your faith is for real, this passage offers clarity and confidence. And if you have had a false sense of comfort, this passage will show you that, too.
Do you think it is possible for a person to be “enlightened,” to “taste” and “partake” of God and yet not put faith in him for salvation? Why or why not?
What do the following verses indicate about the impossibility for someone who has genuinely partaken in the spiritual experiences described in verses 4-6 to fall away from faith?
John 10:27-29
Philippians 1:6
1 Peter 1:3-5
–Nancy Guthrie