Foundations
We were born not just for life in this world but for eternal life. This is clear from the idea that we were created by God so that He could bless us, not just for a time, but forever.
Since we are born into the world and inclined to be self–centered and world–centered, we need to develop spiritually to enter heaven. We have been predestined for heaven, but still we have to choose it, and we do so again and again in the process called "regeneration" or "being born again."
Regeneration is a lifetime process, continuing through our life in the world and even after death. It is the process whereby we come to love the things of heaven more than the world, and God more than self. The essential work of regeneration is done by God, but we have a part to play. We need to grow in understanding of spiritual values and in our commitment to live by them. We need to seek guidance from the Word. We need to see the difference between good and evil, positive and negative, and take responsibility to make our life as open to receiving the good and positive as we can.
We see an example of this process in recovery from addiction. The person with an addiction has to come to the point of acknowledging that there is a problem. Then the person has to see the dysfunction of the situation and take responsibility to do something about it. The person will need help from a Higher Power to stop the addictive behavior and put something positive in its place.
Not all of us are conscious of addictive behaviors. We can look at our internal state of mind and see if it is positive or negative. If we find ourselves having harsh, critical and unkind thoughts we can take steps to move away from them as a person would move away from an addictive poison. It is a lifelong process and involves many struggles. This is our spiritual journey. Since we are all on such a journey we would do well to be accepting of others’ limitations a well as our own, and look for progress, not perfection (to quote the 12-step program). We do not blame others or ourselves for being imperfect. We simply take the task of spiritual growth seriously. In the end we are gifted with a new heart and a new spirit – that is, a more loving attitude to others and a deeper understanding of our spiritual path.