A Re-learned Lesson

I hope you have been blessed this week through your Bible study. God has reminded me of the value of His presence. I am blessed to walk right in and sit with Him. He invites me to bring my deepest hurts and fears and my most casual conversation. He desires relationship. He welcomes wherever we are, broken and weak, strong and joyful, calm and quiet, loud and laughing. He delights in the presence of His people and longs for His people to delight in His presence. 

 Here’s what I re-learned this week: His presence = fullness of Joy

 Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the lesson I am writing or teaching that I forget to sit and bask in His presence. I get to the end and see what He has taught me and what He wants me to teach others and find I missed the greatest treasure. I struggle to discern the relational aspect of being in His word to know Him and being in His word to know about Him and what He is like. We definitely want to know about Him and what He is like, but if it is not for relationship sake, we miss the whole point.

 

I truly do find my greatest time and place of joy is in His presence. Studying His word is one way He intended for me and you to relate to Him and bask in His presence. 

Why  do we study His word?

·         To know who He is for relationship sake

·         To know His heart and desires for relationship sake

·         To know what He says about me and His expectations for relationship sake

 

Why is relationship so important? For me, I am not a rule follower by nature. Apart from relationship with Jesus, I saw the Bible as a book of rules. I now see the Bible as a book of vibrant life that delights my soul!

Thank you for joining the journey through His word! Now It’s your turn.

 

What lesson did you learn or re-learn that was most significant to you and why?

Week 1 - Forget the Past & Link to God's Word

Well Ladies, So glad you joined me on this journey, this Quest for Wholeness! Just like Paul and Joshua, we all have things in our life we need to forget.

• Forget doesn't mean that our past never comes in our mind again, but that we stop acting on the memory of it.

If not, we might stay linked to a past that hinders us from the future, the Promised Land, or the Wholeness that God intends. Our pasts and futures all look different, but wholeness is a part of every believer’s future who links to the truth of God’s word rather than the reality of their past. Linked to our past keeps us connected to who we were. 

•  Remember, through His word we walk in wisdom, power, and victory on a successful path to wholeness. Linked to God’s word keeps us connected to our God and what He can do. 

 

Joshua could have easily stayed linked to Moses’ memory and missed the Promised Land. But Joshua listened and responded to God in obedience. Joshua learned to trust in God’s love. He learned that God’s word and direction for His life was good, right, and true. Paul learned the same lesson. Paul said, “what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. (Phil. 3:7) Therefore, Paul said he forgot those things which were behind and reached forward to those things which were ahead. (Phil. 3:13)

I always think about the way God’s spiritual healing in my life affected my children’s life. I remember the day my daughter (10 at the time) heard my testimony of my ugly sinful past. Wise for her age she said, “Mom, do you realize how different my life would be if Jesus had not changed your life?” WOW! Girl, do I ever!

 Are there things in your life that you have been able to forget, to leave behind, or let God bury and therefore, experienced His healing and wholeness in your life? What areas of your life have been affected because of that healing?