Tools needed to mature your relationship with God

 

Welcome back to my blog. We are on a fascinating journey evaluating what the Bible says about wellbeing. Can we further improve our lives with the benefits of Christianity and the Bible?

The answer comes from the Bible’s 5-step approach to maturing our relationship with God which helps us access additional benefits to our wellbeing. I call this method the ‘5 tools to maturity’ and they are taken from Acts 2:42 and 47. They are as follows:

• Prayer
• Praise
• Fellowship
• Receiving biblical teaching
  
• Reach others with biblical truth

These five tools describe the activities in the very first church in Jerusalem and provide a model to us today for what actions individuals and the church should perform routinely. Importantly, these five activities are confirmed in later verses in the epistles.

Why are these 5 tools important? When implemented consistently, and in balance with each other, these activities appropriate God's Word into our daily lives. We will consider them individually in upcoming blogs. 

For now, it is important to emphasize that the 5 tools may enhance personal wellbeing, not only when performed individually, but even more so done in aggregate. A number of studies have shown that church attendance, which would allow for these 5 tools to be expressed in a community setting, may enhance personal wellbeing (1-4). Further, several studies sponsored by Teleios also have noted that individuals who perform these activities have enhanced wellbeing and especially when performed in aggregate (5-6).

This is exciting news! Consequently, scripture tells us that we can have a sure and certain relationship with God, guilt free, and He provides us measures to propel our spiritual growth leading to better personal wellbeing. What great promises! Join us in upcoming blogs as we look individually at these 5 tools, and why and how they can promote wellbeing. Thank you for joining me today. I look forward to seeing you next time. 

Read more on this topic at https://teleiosresearch.com/tools-to-maturity/.

Please tell me your questions and comments and please share this blog with your friends.

William C. Stewart, MD

1. Parsons S et al. Religious beliefs, practices and treatment adherence among individuals with HIV in the southern United States. AIDS Subject Care STDS 2006;20:97-111
2. Reed P. Spirituality and well-being in terminally ill hospitalized adults. Res Nurs Health 1987;10:335-44.
3. Keefe F, et al. Living with rheumatoid arthritis: the role of daily spirituality and daily religious and spiritual coping. J Pain 2001;2:101-10. 
4. Cotton S, et al. Exploring the relationships among spiritual well-being, quality of life, and psychological adjustment in women with breast cancer. Psychooncology 1999;8:429-38.
5. MacIlvaine WR, et al. Association of strength of community service to personal wellbeing. Community Ment Health J 2014;50:577-82.
6. MacIlvaine WR, et al. Association of strength of religious adherence to quality of life measures. Complement Ther Clin Pract 2013;19:251-5.

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Disclaimer - This blog and its content are provided only as information and are intended for visitors 18 and older. No content on the website should be taken as advice or recommendation to any personal or institutional situation. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Teleios. Both the blog and the contents are subject to change at any time without notice. Although I endeavor to ensure that the blog and the content are current and accurate, it may contain errors. I do not represent that the blog or the content is current, accurate or complete, or appropriate for your specific requirements. I do not accept any liability from any person for the blog, the content or any other information (or the use of such information) I provide. I do not have a seminary degree, but I have trained myself in the scriptures to teach and provide this information. For any specific question, I suggest you contact experts in that field and or do your own research into the scriptures.

Your relationship with God is secure!

Welcome back. We recently started an important journey on what the Bible says about wellbeing. Last week we considered the vital topic of entering the gateway to receiving improved Biblically based wellbeing: by faith in Christ’s forgiveness for your sins by his death on the cross. By his gracious sacrifice, God sees you as without fault and completely accepted by him (Ephesians 2:7-9; Romans 3:21-25; Romans 10:9). 

What is the next step? This is also most important, and it is to realize that as a Christian you are SECURE in your relationship with God. Why is this critical? We cannot grow in our faith and serve others well if we lack confidence that God accepts us.

The Bible itself makes a great example in Ephesians 5:20-33. In this fascinating letter the Apostle Paul likens the relationship between Christ and the church (individual believers) to marriage. In the same way a married couple will find it difficult to grow in their love, intimacy and confidence in each other if they fear their partner will reject them, so a Christian will find it next to impossible to grow in the love of God if they fear His repudiation.

Likewise, our loving God, who made and understands us, knows we cannot grow in His love without the confidence that He will not reject us. Wow, this seems incredible! How can we know this from Scripture? There are three basic arguments:

Direct statements. Scripture says it directly in a number of verses (1 Peter 1:3-5; John 10:27-31; Romans 8:28-39).

Position. Because of our salvation we have unchangeable positions before God.

• We are declared legally innocent; as in a court of law this cannot be overturned (Romans 3:21-25)!
  
• We are legally adopted as God’s children (Ephesians 1:5).
• We are sealed by the Holy Spirit to salvation (Ephesians 1:13-14; 2 Corinthians 5:5).
• We are baptized by the Holy Spirit, being made like Christ in his death and resurrection. Therefore, we are a new person in Christ, a change that cannot be undone (Romans 6:2-9)!
  

Perseverance. God causes us to persevere through our life unto salvation not by our own stamina (2 Timothy 1:12; Philippians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:23).

What great promises! Because of our faith in Christ, we are a new person who cannot be unmade, with legally unchangeable promises that guarantee our salvation. This comfort and confidence allows us to invest ourselves in knowing and serving within a wonderful relationship with God.  We should not be burdened with guilt and worry over the status of God’s acceptance of us.

Everyone wants security! Next time we will continue our discussion security and how it relates to guilt.

For more great information about your security, read https://teleiosresearch.com/security-summary/.

Thanks for joining us today! Stay tuned next Wednesday for another interesting blog.

For questions or to view more of our research…

Email - info@teleiosresearch.com 

Website - http://teleiosresearch.com/

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Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/TeleiosResearch 

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh6wIbPgxeP0YvypwAn5-9Q

Disclaimer - This blog and its content are provided only as information and are intended for visitors 18 and older. No content on the website should be taken as advice or recommendation to any personal or institutional situation. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Teleios. Both the blog and the contents are subject to change at any time without notice. Although I endeavor to ensure that the blog and the content are current and accurate, it may contain errors. I do not represent that the blog or the content is current, accurate or complete, or appropriate for your specific requirements. I do not accept any liability from any person for the blog, the content or any other information (or the use of such information) I provide. I do not have a seminary degree, but I have trained myself in the scriptures to teach and provide this information. For any specific question, I suggest you contact experts in that field and or do your own research into the scriptures.

Scripture that can impact wellbeing: Salvation!

 

Welcome back to our blog. I appreciate you spending time with us.

So far, we have been exploring Teleios’ research regarding Christianity and wellbeing. Teleios’ purpose in conducting this research is to show the validity and usefulness of God's Word in living a content, productive and purposeful life. How exciting! Now we want to turn our attention to specific scripture that can impact our wellbeing. Let's start from the beginning: salvation!

Prior psychological research has shown that an adverse relationship with God hurts wellbeing and places a person at risk for depression (1). In contrast, Christianity is generally associated with positive wellbeing and a positive relationship with God (2,3). How does a person transition from a negative to positive relationship with God?

Scripture provides the clear sure pathway! It states an adverse relationship with God may be corrected by admitting our need for forgiveness, recognizing that Christ died on the cross for all wrongdoings so we could receive forgiveness. We receive this forgiveness by simply asking God by faith to forgive us and correct our relationship with Him.

Scripture declares:

• For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9 
• If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9 

It's as simple as that, 3 steps:

• Recognize that you need a correction in your relationship with God because of your past wrongdoings.
• Recognize He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross on your behalf because of your past wrongdoings.
• Trust God by faith that you're forgiven as activate the free gift of salvation.

This is the first and ground-laying step to increased wellbeing in your life. If you have not done so, take this first step to a sure relationship with God. We will then explore together how it will enhance your life and you will in turn benefit others.

For more impactful information about scripture that can impact wellbeing, read ‘Our Great Salvation’ at https://teleiosresearch.com/salvation-explanation/. 

Thanks for joining us today! Stay tuned next Wednesday for another interesting blog.

1. Fitchett G et al. Religious struggle: Prevalence, correlates, and mental health risks in diabetic, congestive heart failure and oncology patients. Intl J Psych Med 2004;34:179-96.
2. MacIlvaine WR et al. Association of strength of community service to personal wellbeing. Community Ment Health J 2014;50:577-82.
3. MacIlvaine WR et al. Association of strength of religious adherence to quality of life measures. Complement Ther Clin Pract 2013;19:251-5.

For questions or to view more of our research…

Email - info@teleiosresearch.com 

Website - http://teleiosresearch.com/

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Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh6wIbPgxeP0YvypwAn5-9Q

Disclaimer - This blog and its content are provided only as information and are intended for visitors 18 and older. No content on the website should be taken as advice or recommendation to any personal or institutional situation. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Teleios. Both the blog and the contents are subject to change at any time without notice. Although I endeavor to ensure that the blog and the content are current and accurate, it may contain errors. I do not represent that the blog or the content is current, accurate or complete, or appropriate for your specific requirements. I do not accept any liability from any person for the blog, the content or any other information (or the use of such information) I provide. I do not have a seminary degree, but I have trained myself in the scriptures to teach and provide this information. For any specific question, I suggest you contact experts in that field and or do your own research into the scriptures.

Does Bible Study Really Help?

 

Welcome again to the Teleios blog! We have been exploring together practical ways by which the Bible improves our lives. 

“Oh, do I have to study the Bible every day?” Many people consider Bible study a time-consuming chore that they must endure to prove their faithfulness to God. We consider Bible study a wonderful life-enhancing activity that is part of our vital relationship with God. Does Bible study really help?

We decided to evaluate the effect of Bible study on the wellbeing of 46 healthy young adults from a Christian community environment. This was a “proof of concept” study since we don’t know of any prior research about this topic. The design was a prospective, randomized, active-controlled, single-blind interventional trial (more details http://teleiosresearch.com/index.php/bible-study-methods-summary/).   

Subjects were randomized to either an active (detailed bible study program) or a control (minimally detailed bible study program) group in a 3:1 ratio. Ephesians Chapter 1 was chosen as the study text since it details many wonderful characteristics of our great salvation.

The results showed no differences between the active and control groups for any general or specific wellbeing measure. However, when the active group was compared to its own baseline data significant differences were observed in overall wellbeing.

It is unclear from our results why there was an increase of overall wellbeing in the active group. We speculate that the gain in knowledge about the security of their relationship with God, by faith alone, allowed for less guilt and greater confidence.

Interestingly, increased wellbeing was also observed in the control group, but did not quite reach significance, possibly because of the smaller sample size. This group also studied scripture, but about events surrounding the creation of man in Genesis Chapters 1-4 that did not contain the salvation information from Ephesians provided to the active-intervention group. 

Consequently, with a larger sample size it could be that greater wellbeing would have been statistically significant in both groups. If true, it might be that studying any scripture, regardless of the specific content, could have a positive effect on wellbeing. 

This proof-of-concept study suggests that increases in short-term well-being potentially can be achieved by a Scripture study program over the course of 4-weeks in young Christian adults.

More research is needed to better understand the effect of improved wellbeing associated with scripture study both in the short and long term.

Thanks for joining us today! Stay tuned next Wednesday for another interesting blog.

For questions or to view more of our research…

Email - info@teleiosresearch.com 

Website - http://teleiosresearch.com/

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Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/TeleiosResearch 

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh6wIbPgxeP0YvypwAn5-9Q

Disclaimer - This blog and its content are provided only as information and are intended for visitors 18 and older. No content on the website should be taken as advice or recommendation to any personal or institutional situation. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Teleios. Both the blog and the contents are subject to change at any time without notice. Although I endeavor to ensure that the blog and the content are current and accurate, it may contain errors. I do not represent that the blog or the content is current, accurate or complete, or appropriate for your specific requirements. I do not accept any liability from any person for the blog, the content or any other information (or the use of such information) I provide. I do not have a seminary degree, but I have trained myself in the scriptures to teach and provide this information. For any specific question, I suggest you contact experts in that field and or do your own research into the scriptures.

Don't let guilt rule your life!

 

Ever feel guilty? This emotion seems to afflict most of us at least intermittently. Non-Christians think Christianity causes guilt. Is this true? Amazingly, Christian practice recently has been associated with enhanced wellbeing. Further, increasing adherence to biblical lifestyle principles such as praise, prayer, fellowship, church attendance, service and Bible study have been associated with improved wellbeing.^1,2 Guilt, in contrast, is linked with diminished wellbeing^3,4 No surprise there!

Unfortunately, little information is available that examines the effects of guilt in a healthy Christian population and how to minimize it. Teleios recently examined the influence of guilt on the wellbeing of evangelical Christians especially associated with their adherence and knowledge of their faith. We defined evangelicals as those who accepted the free gift of salvation through faith in Christ’s death on the cross for forgiveness of their sins (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 3:21-26).

Our study showed that wellbeing scores appeared generally healthy among our evangelical subjects (complete results found https://teleiosresearch.com/the-influence-of-guilt-on-wellbeing/). However, of those who felt no guilt there was greater wellbeing reported with each question (see table) except ‘God cares about me’ than the in those who felt some level of guilt. This finding indicates that the presence of guilt may degrade wellbeing in a generally healthy population. 

The overwhelming cause for those who indicated they felt some guilt was although they had confidence in their salvation, they “feared that they had not performed enough good works to gain God's ongoing satisfaction.” The most common reaction to guilt by participant was anxiety, followed closely by a desire for complete acceptance by God. 

Importantly, when the eight wellbeing rankings were compared to the scores for adherence to the Christian faith, those who indicated they held to the activities or beliefs noted above showed statistically greater scores compared to less adherent participants! This was especially true among those who most often studied the Bible study or praised God.  

How do we explain this? Studying the Bible may be important because it reinforces scriptural principles that salvation is achieved only by God’s grace, not human efforts, and thus removes guilt as a factor in a Christian's life.  Those less willing to embrace scriptural lessons may demonstrate more guilt because they may imagine God’s wrath and rejection based on their own contrived system of works.

Praise also may help alleviate guilt as it demonstrates an expression of the believer’s view of God's authority and power to save them and helps maintain a correct mental attitude of humility towards God. Humility has been shown in prior work to have psychosocial benefits.⁵

This study suggests that Christians who conform to basic activities and beliefs of their faith are likely to demonstrate improved wellbeing and less guilt than those who are less adherent.

Thank you for taking time to visit my blog. I look forward to seeing you again next week.

1. MacIlvaine, et al. (2013). Association of strength of religious adherence to quality of life measures. Complement Ther Clin Pract, 19:251-255. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2013.05.001. 
2. MacIlvaine, et al. (2014). Association of strength of community service to personal well-being. Community Ment Health J, 50:577-582. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10597-013-9660-0. 
3. Piderman, et al. (2011). Spiritual well-being and spiritual practices in elderly depressed psychiatric inpatients. J Pastoral Care Counsel, 65:1-11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/154230501106500103. 
4. Satterly, L. (2001). Guilt, shame, and religious and spiritual pain. Holist Nurs Pract, 15:30-39. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12119916 
5. Krause, N. (2010). Religious Involvement, Humility, and Self-Rated Health. Soc Indic Res, 98:23-39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9514-x   

For questions or to view more of our research…

Email - info@teleiosresearch.com 

Website - http://teleiosresearch.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TeleiosResearch

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/TeleiosResearch 

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh6wIbPgxeP0YvypwAn5-9Q

Disclaimer - This blog and its content are provided only as information and are intended for visitors 18 and older. No content on the website should be taken as advice or recommendation to any personal or institutional situation. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Teleios. Both the blog and the contents are subject to change at any time without notice. Although I endeavor to ensure that the blog and the content are current and accurate, it may contain errors. I do not represent that the blog or the content is current, accurate or complete, or appropriate for your specific requirements. I do not accept any liability from any person for the blog, the content or any other information (or the use of such information) I provide. I do not have a seminary degree, but I have trained myself in the scriptures to teach and provide this information. For any specific question, I suggest you contact experts in that field and or do your own research into the scriptures.