Desert Grace is a contemplative space of prayer, worship, and whole-person healing. Join us as we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, and discover that even in our driest moments, we are held, we are loved, and we are being transformed into the image of Christ.

You may have felt misunderstood, judged, and persecuted but God sees and knows the truth! This guided prayer exercise invites you to listen to the Holy Spirit's perspective and bring clarity to what you're believing about yourself and your circumstances. Through intentional breathwork and Spirit-led reflection, you'll release the lies of the enemy, align with your identity in Christ, and invite God to enact His righteousness and justice on your behalf. Find a quiet place, settle your heart, and let the Spirit of Truth speak over you.

**Visit the Amazon store to purchase a Desert Grace Reflection Journal or printed copies of the Desert Grace book series**

⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTKWW1ZK⁠

Introduction:

Judgment, rejection, and alienation can be some of the most painful experiences in life. Since 2020 we have seen some of the highest rates of alienation and isolation due to differing beliefs and value systems. Rejection can come in the form of being alienated based on a certain belief, discriminated against based on your race, religion, or value system, abandoned by a parent or loved one, and even rejection of ourselves.

Any type of discrimination, whether it be economic, racial, age-related etc, goes against what God intended for creation because we are rejecting the unique and wonderful way, He has created each person. The reason we have a difficult time seeing other people through the lens of God’s image is that we don’t see ourselves the way He sees us. When we see and accept ourselves the way God sees us, it enables us to also see the people, and accept and love them through His lens of love. This is what God intended for us in Ephesians 4 and Romans 12.

Ephesians 4 urges us to conduct ourselves with “humility, patience, and gentleness, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Verse 7 goes on to say that “grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” In this passage of scripture, Paul is urging believers in the church of Ephesus to have unity during differences, understanding that we were all made with a variety of giftings given to us by Jesus! Earlier, Paul had written about gifts to the church of Rome, but it seems like this understanding hadn’t yet gotten to the church of Ephesus. In Romans 12 he says for by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function.” This passage is taught often when it comes to church function, but not often applied to us in relationship with our spouses, friends, family members, and even strangers. We continue to experience rejection of the gifts that Jesus himself has graced us with, but God is calling us higher to accept ourselves and the people around us.

During this time, we are going to examine what makes you feel rejected, but I want to ask you first: do you accept yourself the way God created you? Can you say that you love who God created you to be? The goal of this session is to #1 Get real and honest about whether you believe you are fully accepted and loved by God. #2 Be vulnerable about the areas of yourself that you have rejected. #3 Identify any connection to times you have been abandoned and rejected by others. #4 Identify any stories or beliefs you created from times you were abandoned and rejected. We tend to create a story or belief system surrounding our emotions, trauma, or past events in our lives. It is an expectation that something negative will happen because of a traumatic or disappointing event. #5 Finally, declare the truth about who God says you are.

**Visit the Amazon store to purchase a Desert Grace Reflection Journal or printed copies of the Desert Grace book series**

⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTKWW1ZK⁠

Introduction:

I was cleaning our rental unit one morning like I did every time we had guests arriving. I was in a rush to get things done in time to get to the airport and go away for a family vacation. As I made the bed, I noticed that the sheets did not fit and realized the queen-sized sheets had been switched with the king-size sheets. I had to refold the fitted sheet- something that I hate to do and noticed that my heart was racing, and I was feeling physically annoyed. It felt so trivial, and I wondered why something so small could make me mad! But I realized that the root of my anger was at something I had lost, and a belief and story I created. The belief was that when systems are out of place, things will go wrong, and the story was that if things don’t go as planned, I won’t be able to do what I really want to do. The thing that I wanted to do was to get to the airport on time to leave for vacation!

Anger often works with fear and a belief that something will or will not happen that we want to happen. It’s an emotion we feel when there is an injustice- something we believed should have gone a certain way but unjustly, didn’t happen the way it was supposed to. It can be traced back to disappointment over a hope we had for something to happen, an expectation that was not met, or grief over something that wasn’t right. Anger can apply to any kind of grief and loss you are feeling whether it is something big like the death of a loved one as small as sheets getting put on the wrong shelf.

Ephesians 4:26-27 teaches us to “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil.” In The New Bible Commentary, G.J. Wenham et all have to say this about these verses:

“(Ephesians 4:26-27) is not an encouragement to righteous anger, it is a warning 'If you become angry, beware!' You are at sin's door' Anger and the related sins of vs 29 and 31 are the epitomai of socially destructive and alienating sins, and so characteristic of the old creation.”

What strikes me about the commentator’s take on anger is his mention of the social destruction and alienation it can cause. It can alienate us from the people we love and those who love us. In vs. 28-32, there is a warning about “corrupting talk that grieves the Holy Spirit” Corrupting talk can be how we act out our anger, and how it affects those around us. But what we often forget is the negative self-talk we direct at ourselves when we expect perfection and view our disappointments as personal failures.

The expectations we put on ourselves to be perfect are a gateway drug to anger. Perfection is the exact opposite of the grace and mercy Jesus offered us at the cross. We are so much harder on ourselves than God is. Jesus wants to bring us to an understanding of how much mercy He has for us, and how He isn’t focused on our failures. He keeps giving us chances to grow and change in His lovingkindness.

During this session, we are going to work on healing disappointment, and how to use self-control so that the emotion of anger isn’t directed to the wrong place. The goal of this session is to #1 Be honest with God and yourself about what disappointments or losses you are experiencing. #2 Identify your loss and how it makes you feel. #3 Identify any connection to a similar loss you felt in your past. #4 Identify any stories or beliefs you created based on your loss. We tend to create a story or belief system surrounding our emotions, trauma, or past events in our lives #5 Declare the truth about how God sees you. #6 Connect God’s character and who He is for you, even when you feel angry.

**Visit the Amazon store to purchase a Desert Grace Reflection Journal or printed copies of the Desert Grace book series**

⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTKWW1ZK⁠

Introduction:

Going through any type of betrayal is painful and sends a shock to our system. It is an especially deep wound when we are betrayed by someone, we believed we could trust. It's hard to imagine an evil so great that someone would intentionally cause another person pain. Many of us inflict pain on each other out of ignorant self-protection but it is truly cruel when someone inflicts pain to purposely injure another. Even more evil is when someone inflicts pain on another for personal self-gratification. It seems like pain in the church can get easily overlooked, possibly because there is an expectation to forgive and move on.

One of the most shocking statements that Jesus said as he was being betrayed was "Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34 NIV) While Jesus in His mercy understood that those who put Him on the cross didn't understand that they were crucifying God, it didn't make it any less painful. Luke 22 shares that Jesus was in so much anguish before He was crucified that as He was praying His sweat was like drops of blood. God recognized Jesus's anguish and sent an angel to comfort Him and strengthen Him to move forward. How beautiful that Jesus shared in understanding our pain and also understanding the need to forgive at the same time. While forgiveness is a command in scripture it is not based on an emotion. It's also important that we realize that forgiveness does not require that we trust or move back into the relationship. We can forgive and still set boundaries. As we work through the process of forgiving betrayal, we acknowledge the pain that was caused and use wisdom to evaluate whether those relationships are healthy enough to continue.

During this session, we are going to work on healing betrayal, by acknowledging the wrongs that were done to us and offering forgiveness to our offenders. This is an opportunity to #1 Get real and honest about what is in your heart. #2 Be vulnerable with God about your pain #3 Identify any connection to a similar pain you felt in your past. #4 Identify any stories or beliefs you created based on your pain. We tend to create a story or belief system surrounding our emotions, trauma, or past events in our lives. It is an expectation that something will negative will happen because of a traumatic or disappointing event.

**Visit the Amazon store to purchase a Desert Grace Reflection Journal or printed copies of the Desert Grace book series**

⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTKWW1ZK⁠

Introduction:

A wise mentor once shared with me that “faith and fear are the same things. They are both based on an expectation that something might happen- one is based on something positive, and the other is based on something negative.” I am convicted that our belief about God’s love for us, and our position as His children determine our ability to have peace when we face circumstances that make us fearful and anxious. 1 John 4:16 says “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”

I wonder how many of us struggle with fear and anxiety because we believe that God's love for us is conditional and that somehow His protection waxes and wanes based on our good behavior. When we stand before God, we don't have to cower before Him in unhealthy fear, but we fear and stand in awe of the One who is just, who is good, and who we can trust because He loves us perfectly and completely. Do we have a healthy fear of God that leads us to trust Him with everything? We can acknowledge what is making us afraid and anxious, then knowing that God is good, bring those things before Him because we have rights and authority as His children.

We have the right to ask God for help, and the authority in the name of Jesus to come against the things that stand in the way of what God wants for us. God desires to care for your well-being and give you a future and hope! You have a spiritual enemy that will attempt to move you into fear and anxiety by causing chaos so that you won’t believe God wants to give you a future and hope. We can bring everything into the authority of Jesus, including our thoughts, desires, hopes, and fears. We have rights by the authority we carry in Jesus! Yet some things block us from believing that we carry authority as His children because many of us have a core belief that when something goes wrong in our lives it is because we are being punished. To be perfected in the perfect love that casts out fear, we need to know beyond a shadow of any doubt that God perfectly loves us and sees us as His children!

In this session, we will #1 Examine your belief about the rights and authority you have as a follower of Christ #2 Be vulnerable about the areas of yourself where you struggle with fear. #3 Identify any trauma you have experienced related to fear and anxiety #4 Identify any stories or beliefs you created when you had traumatic experiences that caused fear and anxiety. We tend to create a story or belief system surrounding our emotions, trauma, or past events in our lives. It is an expectation that something will negative will happen because of a traumatic or disappointing event. #5 Finally, declare the truth about who God says you are in your position as His child.

**Visit the Amazon store to purchase a Desert Grace Reflection Journal or printed copies of the Desert Grace book series**

⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTKWW1ZK⁠

Introduction:

I was spending time with a friend who recently lost her husband. As we talked, she pointed to a crack in the street and said she felt like there was this chasm dividing her and her husband similar to the crack in the road. Her husband is on one side of the chasm in Heaven and she is on the other side here on earth. She felt like some of the people in her life wanted to focus on what he is experiencing in Heaven- freedom from pain and suffering in the fullness of glory with Jesus. But she is on the earth side of the chasm, experiencing the pain of loss, and at the same time having to take care of all the logistics of the death of a partner. As much as she would like to engage in the experience of joy he is experiencing, the reality is that they are not in the same place and not having the same experience.

We read in Psalm 16 that life in Christ is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore but the same author who wrote about joy in Psalm 16 also wrote about suffering and lament. Joy isn't found in the ignorance of suffering but first in unearthing the roots of heaviness and bringing them to the surface. Isaiah 61 speaks to those who are afflicted, brokenhearted, and bound. There is a promise that the “Lord will grant those who morn beauty for ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and praise instead of a faint spirit, so that they may be called oaks of righteousness.”

There are important steps to take before we can move into joy, and that is one of lament. Lament isn’t sitting alone in grief but acknowledging grief within the scope of God’s presence and care. When we read the words “joy comes in the morning” in Psalm 30, it doesn’t mean that we

go to bed grieving one night and wake up happy the next morning. The morning in Psalm 30 represents the time it takes to move out of darkness and heaviness, into the daylight. David speaks about his soul being in Sheol and in a pit, which is a place of darkness and death, and then contrasts it with God's mercy and help, which brings him into rejoicing. He beautifully wants to meet you right now in your despair by entering into your pain alongside you!

During this session, we are going to work on processing heaviness by uncovering the hidden things that might be contributing to it and making Jesus a part of that process. This is an opportunity to #1 Be honest about what is in your heart. #2 Be vulnerable with God about it #3 Identify any connection to a similar loss you felt in your past. #4 Identify any stories or beliefs you created based on your loss. We tend to create a story or belief system surrounding our emotions, trauma, or past events in our lives. It is an expectation that something will negative will happen because of a traumatic or disappointing event.