"Beyond Self-Help" Chapter 4 - Cycles

We talked about the difference between the "grief" cycle and the "grace" cycle. The "grief" cycle is where we strive for achievement through activities and then gain our identity in those actions, which further drives us to do more to gain more acceptance, leading to more striving to achieve to bolster our self-confidence and improve our identity. This cycle works for a while (or not), but it fails and falls short of God's abundant life.Instead, we need to get on the "grace" cycle, where we're already accepted by God through faith in the person, works, and words of Jesus Christ. God gives us our sustenance and satisfaction in Him, which leads to a solid, unshakable identity with Christ (sons of God), leading to achievements and actions (fruitfulness) that are actually God-glorifying (and not self-glorifying).