{"id":1114,"date":"2011-06-28T17:45:06","date_gmt":"2011-06-28T21:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=1114"},"modified":"2011-06-28T17:45:06","modified_gmt":"2011-06-28T21:45:06","slug":"a-little-deeper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=1114","title":{"rendered":"A Little Deeper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy Tuesday Father!<\/p>\n

Ever since yesterday\u2019s Meditations Monday<\/span><\/em><\/a> post Father, I\u2019ve had the phrase You gave me: \u201cTransformational Benevolence<\/span>\u201d<\/em> running through my head.\u00a0 I thought initially that it was simply something You\u2019d placed on my heart to help me make a point, but it\u2019s become apparent that You\u2019re not done with what this concept can teach me yet.\u00a0 Therefore, today I thought I\u2019d delve into it a little deeper, and see where it takes me.<\/p>\n

The scholarly side of me said \u201cStart with the dictionary!\u201d<\/em> \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Merriam Webster\u2019s online dictionary defines benevolence<\/span><\/em> as \u201cdisposition to do good\u201d<\/em>, and transform<\/span><\/em> as \u201cto change in character or condition\u201d<\/em>.\u00a0 Paraphrasing those two together, I can easily arrive at a meaning for this phrase as:<\/p>\n

\u201cA fundamental change of perspective leading to the desire to do only good\u201d<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wow\u2026 No wonder this phrase has been haunting me.\u00a0 As Christians this is our ultimate goal here on Earth; to have our sinful natures overwhelmed by Your Spirit and to walk in the example Christ set for us.<\/p>\n

And what steps can we take to fuel this \u201cfundamental change of perspective\u201d<\/em> Father?\u00a0 Thankfully, all those answers have been provided for us in Your Word:<\/p>\n

Prayer.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Time spent in the Scripture.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unselfish service to others.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Opening ourselves to Your Voice.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fellowship.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Forgiveness.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Desire for true transformation.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Such an encompassing phrase this has turned out to be Father.\u00a0 You\u2019ve given me much to pray on, and even more to strive for.<\/p>\n

Thank You Lord, for placing such a powerful impression on my heart with this statement.\u00a0 I pray for Your guidance and nurturing as I walk along the path You\u2019ve laid in front of me, and for my procession to lead me ever closer to Your footsteps.\u00a0 May we all find the Transformational Benevolence<\/span><\/em> that brings us joyously to the foot of the cross.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n

~Phather Phil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Tuesday Father! Ever since yesterday\u2019s Meditations Monday post Father, I\u2019ve had the phrase You gave me: \u201cTransformational Benevolence\u201d running through my head.\u00a0 I thought initially that it was simply something You\u2019d placed on my heart to help me make a point, but it\u2019s become apparent that You\u2019re not done with what this concept can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[1410,1412,1414,1415,321,772,722,368,1413,487,541,173,220,390,543,656,35,661,1417,21,444,140,1295,222,267,658,787,1348,1409,206,1325,77,1411,56,1416,81,587,572,217,205,1358,1418,655,1401,736,476,114,40,1098,1406,1396,1419,71,378],"class_list":["post-1114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-a-little-deeper","tag-benevolence","tag-change-in-character","tag-change-of-perspective","tag-christ","tag-christian","tag-christians","tag-disposition","tag-disposition-to-do-good","tag-earth","tag-example","tag-father","tag-fellowship","tag-foot-of-the-cross","tag-footsteps","tag-forgive","tag-forgiveness","tag-fundamental","tag-fundamental-change","tag-guidance","tag-happy","tag-heart","tag-help-me","tag-joy","tag-joyous","tag-lead-me","tag-leading","tag-lord","tag-make-a-point","tag-meditation","tag-meditations-monday","tag-nature","tag-online-dictionary","tag-overwhelmed","tag-overwhelmed-by-the-holy-spirit","tag-path","tag-power","tag-powerful","tag-pray","tag-prayer","tag-scripture","tag-service-to-others","tag-sinful","tag-sinful-natures","tag-statement","tag-teach","tag-thank-you","tag-thankful","tag-transformation","tag-transformational-benevolence","tag-true-transformation","tag-unselfish-service","tag-voice","tag-wonder"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-hY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1114"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1118,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions\/1118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}