Secret Life of the Soul - chapters 4-6

Miller begins by laying out the 4 core yearnings that develop early on in all our lives. What are they? What have we learned about these longings--from the book and from our own experience? What happens when those yearnings are met or unmet?

It's significant that Miller describes those yearnings as longings for things that are "perfect." Because the reality is that people have responded imperfectly to our perfect desires just as we responded imperfectly to theirs. Some people--maybe even the people who mattered most--may have even gotten in the way. And maybe their voices have even gotten into our heads. We hear things like, "you're not very pretty, or smart, or lovable, or good enough." They are voices that daunt us, shame us, and limit us.

Miller calls these voices, or maybe more accurately the destructive power that begins to animate these voices, "personal evil." What Miller calls personal evil sounds a whole lot like what Paul calls "strongholds."

Read and reflect on these false arguments that can take foothold in our minds and hearts in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5.

What voices, if any, are we hearing? Is there a script that plays in your head? if not now, was there one that used to play in your head, or one that periodically reoccurs?

Pray together against those voices...against those strongholds.

May we become a people who are graced with truth and who quickly recognizes lies, who call them out and who give no room for them in our community.