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In this personal healing retreat from Heather Khym, cohost of the popular Abiding Together Podcast, you are invited to break through the barriers that prevent you from trusting and experiencing the deep love of Jesus and be transformed by the freedom that comes when we vulnerably bring our entire selves to the foot of the Cross.
Rooted in the teaching of Khym's Vancouver-based ministry, Life Restoration, Abide shares scripture, essential Catholic teaching, and the author's personal healing journey to reintroduce you to God as the Divine Healer, Restorer, and Miracle Worker. Khym offers you a compass to navigate your past as you dig into difficult memories that have disoriented your understanding of God and made you afraid to trust him. She challenges you to cast off your self-protective tendencies and to recognize your need for healing so you can be the person you were created to be.
Jesus says, "Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit because apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:4-5).
We are meant to abide in Jesus, to unite ourselves to him. Yet over the course of our lives, we experience brokenness and loss, which lead us to doubt God's presence.
Khym challenges you to step outside your comfort zone so that you can authentically:
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recognize God as a loving father who desires your happiness;
practice spiritual and emotional vulnerability with Jesus;
invite the Divine Healer into your past and relationships;
acknowledge that you have an enemy who battles for your heart; and
overcome false beliefs about God and learn to trust Jesus as a compelling, captivating, and trustworthy lover of your soul.
Each chapter includes practical reflection-based exercises that help you recall troublesome memories, identify the roots of your feelings, and meditate on excerpts from scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You'll come away with a renewed hope in the power of God to bring freedom to your fearful heart as you start to live a life restored in Christ, one that begins with and is sustained by an intimate relationship with Jesus.
Pause and Reflect
Take some time to journal and reflect on the following questions
What are the things in my life that create “the fog,” the things that make it difficult to remember who I am and God’s plan for me?
What are the things I do or don’t do that frequently cause a rupture in my relationship with God?
When I think about heaven, what comes to mind?
Am I ready to commit my life to Jesus and accept him as my Savior?
Slowly and thoughtfully pray these words…
“Jesus, you are the Son of God and I believe in you. I believe you died for my sins and have made a way for me to be with you forever. I believe you want to heal and restore me. I want to come into the light of your presence and abide with you. I want to acknowledge that the story of salvation is my story. I am sorry, Lord, so sorry, for all the ways I have sinned against you. I ask your forgiveness for all the moments I have chosen to go my own way and turn away from you. Jesus, I want to commit my life to you; I choose you. I ask that you would come into my life and be my Lord and Savior. I pray that you would restore me, heal me, and set me free. I love you, I trust you, and I give my life to you. Amen”
Pause and Reflect
Take some time to journal and reflect on the following questions
Who are the main characters in your life story?
Who had a positive impact on your life? Who had a negative impact on your life? what is one negative and one positive event from your past that you would say changed everything?
““It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.
It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.””
Life Messages
Write down the memories and messages from your story in chronological order. You can use this chart as a base or form your own chart. Go back into each stage and write what you remember. Ask yourself, what are the two or three most prominent positive and negative messages I received in that time frame? Then ask yourself, what are the beliefs I have from each of those messages? Which beliefs are lies? What truth does Jesus want to speak into that lie? Finally, invite Jesus to come into each message with His truth.
Pause and reflect
Take some time to journal and reflect on the following questions.
What are some of the blocks to healing you can recognize in your life right now?
What are some of the key lies you believe about God and yourself?
Take a moment to ask God to give you the grace for forgiveness and healing. Ask Him what truth He wants you to know about that relationship that is broken.
Take some time to study the chart (below) and reflect on the qualities of God’s voice versus satan’s voice.
DISCERNING THE VOICES
~The voice we listen to impacts what we believe ~
In what areas of your life do you desire to hear God’s voice?
In what area of your life do you regularly hear satan’s voice speaking instead of God?
Pause and Reflect
Take some time to journal and reflect on the following questions:
Open your Bible and read the passage from the Gospel of John 3:1-2. Try to imagine the scene and imagine yourself there. What does this scripture show you about the personality and character of Jesus?
What are two positive ways your parents or primary caregivers reflected the face of God?
What are two negative ways your parents or primary caregivers disfigured the face of God?
Who are the people God has provided in your life that have reflected parts of His character and created a mosaic of His face?
“Parents are the first lens that we see God through, and their wounds and gifts are a primary way we come to know or misunderstand who God is.”
Pause and Reflect
Take some time to reflect on the diagram below.
Where in your life are you experiencing suffering?
Where in your life are you or have you experienced a spiritual death?
Where in your life have you or do you desire to experience resurrection?
Living the Paschal mystery
The Paschal Mystery is the way that Jesus showed us to experience life to the fullest. When we follow the path of Jesus, we can enter into the places of suffering and death with hope, because He shows us that resurrection and new life are on the other side.
“The road to suffering and death might be a long one, but when you’re following and abiding in Jesus there is always a resurrection at the end.”
Pause and Reflect
Take some time to journal and reflect on the following question:
What theme do you need to memorize a scripture about? Consider going on the internet and searching scriptures with that theme such as hope, love, or mercy.
Here is a list of scriptures that have helped me…
Isaiah 43:1-4, 1 John 4:18, Psalm 103:12, Jeremiah 29:11-13, John 16:33, John 10:10, Lamentation 3:21-23, John 15:5
Pause and Reflect
Take some time to pray through the chart that applies to you (below). Invite the Holy Spirit to illuminate the things in your life that you needed at a certain stage and didn’t receive. Invite Jesus to come into that void and to speak His Truth. Invite the Father to come into those little places of your heart and fill you with His love and Fatherly Blessing. (This is meant to be not a one-time exercise, but one you do regularly.)
Do we know that there is still a part of us that is a child, needing to be fathered by God? It is exhausting when we try to keep it all together, to look so strong and capable. Take some time to reflect and journal about this dynamic in your life. What words of delight and love do you desire to hear from God the Father?
DEVELOPMENT OF THE FEMININE HEART
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MASCULINE HEART
Pause and Reflect
Take some time to journal and reflect on the following questions
1) What holds me back from making progress in the journey of restoration and healing?
2) What is one practical step I can take to pursue healing right now?
3) How would I describe my false self? How would I describe my true self?
4) Who is one trustworthy and equipped person I can reach out to for help in my healing journey this week?
“The journey of healing involves uncovering the false self so the true self can emerge. You are glorious, chosen, royal, unrepeatable, and made by the hands of Love Himself, with the fingerprints of the Father upon you. There is never a better time for us to shed the false self than right now.”
Pause and Reflect
Take some time to journal and reflect on the following questions.
1) What are some signs of glory, places where you have personally experienced Christ and His Love, in your life?
2) Who in your life is Christ calling you to share your story with?
3) Who might Christ be calling you to disciple?
“We don’t need a platform to share our testimonies we just need to open the door in the relationships that God has placed before us, invite the Holy Spirit to come, and let Him do the rest.”