Ascend is the student ministry within Grace World Outreach Church. Since we are part of Grace World, it is important to know the core values that we teach at all levels of our church; we call them the 5 H’s.

1. Honor – We strive to honor God, our pastors and leaders, each other, and the community around us. You can honor with your words and your actions, and like Pastor Analysa says, you don’t have to agree with someone in order to honor and respect them. Often times, it’s those we don’t agree with that God wants us to honor in particular.

2. Humility – Humility can be defined as a “modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance” or “freedom from pride or arrogance.” Following Jesus requires humility, admitting that we need Him in our daily lives. If we stay dependent on Jesus, He will help us to live a life of humility in public and private.

3. Hunger – This is a spiritual hunger. Once you really fall in love with Jesus, you will desire to know more of Him. Hunger is more than a feeling – it’s a signal of a need. We need Jesus daily, and we continually want more of His presence.

4. Holiness – Pastor Analysa shares that we don’t strive for perfection, but we do try to be more like Jesus every day. God is holy, perfect, without blemish, absolute light. While we cannot obtain complete perfection, we can model behaviors of Jesus and either avoid or stop behaviors that we know are not holy.

5. Health – Healthy things grow! We want you to grow, and we want to grow – so we all need to be healthy! Some ways to know you’re spiritually healthy are spending time daily praying, reading the Bible daily, taking time to listen for His voice daily… These aren’t things other people will see very often, but they’re the foundation to your personal walk with Jesus.

Which of these 5 values do you need to work on? All of them? We do too, and that’s why they’re our core values. We never want to stop growing and getting closer to Jesus, and these core values help us with that.

TRY THIS: Take some time today and journal about each of these core values and how you personally can grow or become better at them. Ask Jesus to help you grow more this week in these areas.

PRAY THIS: God today I realize that there are some areas I need to grow more in. Help me to be better at (fill in the blank) I want to live my life in honor, humility, holiness, hunger for more of you and health in every part of my life. Thank you for being the ultimate example of this. Amen.