Passion Spirituality (Intimacy with Jesus) – Table of Contents

Passion Spirituality is the joining of our sufferings to the Passion of Christ. When we meditate on this, we enter into a much deeper intimacy with Jesus and we even discover great joy!

This section of Good News Ministries WordBytes is a virtual, self-paced retreat tailored to your own needs. In your dive into passion spirituality, Jesus is here with you, ready to provide you with healing and recovery from the hurts and sufferings of your life.

You’ll need a Bible to get the most benefit from this retreat. Look up the passages that these articles mention and highlight them in your Bible to come back to and meditate on again in the future.

Choose the questions from this Table of Contents that apply to your own circumstances:

1. START HERE: Are you suffering on account of others?

   What if you could have foreseen these troubles? Would you have run in the opposite direction? Jesus did foresee His sufferings. And He wanted to run from it. He begged the Father take the cup away. But He chose to trust the Father’s decision. Why? Because Christ’s love for us surpassed His desire to avoid pain.

   God in His great compassion hides the future from us, because He knows we are too weak to say yes to our crosses. We are so fearful of pain, we’ll reject the way of the cross that would deepen our intimacy with Him and bring us to the greater love we’ve been seeking. God cares about us so much that He keeps us in blissful ignorance.

   Oh, He gives us hints. He prepares us for what we’ll have to endure. But how quickly we assume that we can’t handle the suffering! How quickly we assume it will lead to disaster, even though God is always at our side holding our hand, strengthening us, guiding us, showing us which forks in the road will lead to victory and resurrection.

   This kind of relationship with God is called Passion Spirituality. The word “passion” has powerful implications. Theologically, we use it to describe the suffering love that Jesus had for each of us when He was beaten, mocked and crucified. The world counterfeits this word by applying it to strong feelings of romantic, even lustful, attraction. We also use it to refer to an obsessive drive that motivates us to do something we enjoy or greatly care about, which is why we can say that Jesus cared passionately about us when enduring The Passion [continue…]

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2. Are you facing a decision that could lead to suffering?
   

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3. Have you been betrayed by a friend?
   

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4. Have your good works been misunderstood?
   

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5. Is there someone who is unpleasant to serve?
   

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6. Is anyone confusing you into believing a lie and compromising your values?
   

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7. Are there “pharisees” in your life (people who hurt you while thinking they do God’s will)?
   

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8. Have you been falsely accused?
   

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9. Is anyone refusing to accept you for who you really are?
   

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10. Are you afraid?
    

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11. Are you in need of comfort?
    

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12. Is low self esteem preventing you from loving others?
    

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13. Are you being persecuted for speaking the truth?
    

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14. Do you think you’re suffering because God has abandoned you?
    

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15. Is it too hard to be forgiving?
    

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16. Is there anyone causing so much trouble that you wish you could get rid of them?
    

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