Category Archives: Hiding His Word In My Heart

The Bible in 90 Days! NINETY DAYS???

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Hello all!! Welcome to 2013. I wonder how long it will take me to start writing 2013 instead of 2012 or any other year for that matter.

imagesBut back to it! I have been wanting to read the Bible through for a couple of years now. I have never really had a group to hold me accountable to do complete the process. Over the weekend though I got asked by a group of friends to join them in not only reading the Bible but to also read the Bible through IN 90 DAYS!! Now is that a challenge or what?? I said absolutely! Since I am an Empty Nest Mom now I see NOTHING to hold me back. The challenge begins today and I have jumped on board. Here is what we are doing:

The program we are using is a program designed by the ladies at MomToolBox Blog. She has an abundance of Bibles Studies as well as regular blogs along with her Bible Studies. The idea for this reading program is not to discuss any reading unless something comes up on it’s own. I am planning to get one of my journals out to begin take notes in as I read that I can use in a future session in studies to come. I see this opportunity as endless chances in the future.

So if you have been wandering as long as I have feeling like you’re so far untethered from the Lord you might need to plant yourself right in #B90Days (Twitter Trend) with me. Follow @Momstoolbox, Grab your Bible, Turn off your TV and start reading along with me! It’s Day 1 so you haven’t even gotten behind yet! How about that?

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Genesis 1:1-16:16 – In the beginning God Created the Heavens and the earth…..

Face It Head On

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In my last Bible Study series post based on Beth Moore’s study So Long, Insecurity I covered The Magic Method to Overcoming Insecurity. That “magic method” was basically to lean on the strength the Lord gives you as a Christian and work on changing the way your think. When a negative thought comes to mind immediately replace it with a promise of God. This week we will address when Satan uses friends or family members to prey on us and lead us further down a path of negativity and insecurity.

Let’s begin this week with a simple question to make you stop and think. What kind of people do you have around you? How would you characterize your closest friends/family? Are they encouragers? Do you feel uplifted after spending time with them? Or do you find yourself feeling negative – not necessarily about yourself – but just more negative in general? Do you often find that you are expending more energy (positive or negative) on their issues every time you are together so that there seems to be very little support for you and your issues? Does your relationship feel one sided and it’s not really in your favor? Be honest – are you feeling used? Is there a lot of give on your part but you walk away with very little take? Now does that make you feel more secure or less secure? When you are away from that person and really get a chance to think about your relationship with them do you ever get that little nudge that something just feels “off”? Perhaps when you are apart from them you (or your spouse) notices that you seem negative, consumed with worrying about someone else’s problems, not plugged into your life/family, depressed or just “not yourself”.

What does all of that sound like? It sounds like a person who is being controlled by another person. It sounds like your friend/family member is consuming all of your mental and emotional energy so that you have none left for your family. In chapter 13 of So Long Insecurity Beth Moore refers to these people as “emotional predators”. It’s easy to see how an emotional predator could control another person in a marriage. But if you identify with any of the questions in the previous paragraph you can see that it’s also easy to understand how a friend or other family member could easily control us as well. Sometimes it’s possible to be one of the members in this type of relationship without even knowing it. But many times a person with a controlling personality will seek out a “weaker” personality that is easily controlled and will draw them in like a spider to a web. I have been in this type of friendship. This friend was very good at manipulation. So good that it was as if I was a puppet and she was the puppet master. There were so many other unhealthy tentacles in this relationship that we could be here all night if I tried to cover it all. Let’s just say that when the “friendship” ended it did not end well. I paid the price with my heart in a million little pieces and my self esteem shot to smithereens. As I look back now I can see everything so clearly. I can see the game she played. I can see how easily I fell right into her hands. When it all came to light I surrounded myself with POSITIVE people. I buried myself into the Word of God. I refused to let satan win the battle at the hands of a heartless two faced “friend”. I recognized that she was wrong. The things she said about me were wrong. I was a good person. I refused to believe the things she tried to get me to believe about myself.

You see what I did there? I changed my surroundings. I made sure that I filled my mind with the truth. I chose to believe the truth instead of the lie. I chose to find my strength and security in Christ and no longer in a “friendship” based on lies and deceit. I truly found Christ is strong in our weakness as II Corinthians 12 says. I replaced all that negativity with truth and I climbed out of that pit. I am stronger now because of it. I am more secure in certain areas of my life because of my response to that whole experience. I would hate to see where I would be now if I had not clung to the truth. The secret to overcoming insecurity is in how your respond to it. It takes a very concentrated effort to stand up to our insecurity and face it head on and refuse to allow it any more power over you.

The Magic Method to Overcoming Insecurity

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It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been able to write in my So Long Insecurity series. The last entry was The Roots of Insecurity on October 11. I apologize for leaving you hanging. It’s an ongoing battle to get my hands on a computer around here. In my last entry I talked about the most likely causes of the insecurities so many of us battle on a daily basis. Today is a much happier topic. Today we will discuss how we can overcome those causes and change the way we think so that we can recognize who God has created us to be, a wholy secure and strong woman of God who deserves respect. Praise the Lord!

“She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.”

Proverbs 31:25

One thing we can be sure of, if we constantly allow ourselves to give into our insecurities and not challenge them but let them control us, they will overtake our confidence and our interactions with those around us. We may think we have them well hidden so noone will ever know the pain we have deep inside. But the longer we push them down the more we have to walk on egg shells as if we are trying to avoid landmines. There are triggers all around us, seemingly innocent occurences, that threaten to reveal our true selves at any time. Here is a list that Beth included in her book. Do any of these sound familiar?

  • Out of the corner of your eye you notice your man looking at another woman or you notice another woman looking at your man.
  • Your mom or mother-in-law gets that disapproving look on her face over how you parent your child.
  • The guy you used to date walks into the room with a gorgeous girl.
  • You poured out your heart to someone and they didn’t get it. You think you shared too much.
  • You finally reconcile with a friend after a hurtful disagreement. You can tell within thirty seconds that she doesn’t feel the same as she did before.
  • You get a new haircut and it doesn’t come out like you wanted it to.
  • You met someone you really admire and you say something stupid.

What are you supposed to do with triggers like that? How are you supposed to overcome your insecurities when seemingly every day things like that happen and unearths the hurt and pain you thought you had successfully hidden?

The key to overcoming those insecurities lies in the verse listed above from Proverbs 31. Overcoming them is not something we can do ourselves. Our insecurities are like giant anaconda snakes (I chose that snake because I believe it is the biggest snake there is). When those things get ahold of you do you think you can fight it off on your own? Of course not! You don’t have the strength for that. You need help from someone much stronger – preferably with a big gun (AND VERY GOOD AIM PLEASE!). Proverbs 31:25 tells us that God has dressed us with strength. Think about that for a minute. He hasn’t only dressed us with our own strength but as a child of his he has also dressed us with HIS strength. Ephesians 6:11 says Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. Well, if these lies we tell ourselves aren’t a strategy of the devil then I don’t know what is. But as a Christian we are given/clothes with the Armor of God.

Now it’s one thing to know that but it’s something else entirely to claim. But that is the key to fighting those retched insecurities off. When you mind starts telling you that you aren’t good enough, pretty enough, skinny enough or WHATEVER enough remind yourself that you are created by a perfect being and are clothed with the strength and the armor of God – you possess the divine strength of your heavenly father. After so many times of replacing those negatives thoughts with the affirming thoughts of truth you will notice something different about yourself. In all actuality you are just doing what God tells us to do in Ephesians 4:23 – Let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. That even applies to the thoughts and attitudes we have about ourselves.

I can hear you now saying “That’s it? That’s all there is to it? I’ve been eaten up by these insecurities all these years and all I’ve needed to do is tell myself they are lies and I am clothed in the strength of the Lord?” Uh YEP! That’s it! When I read this chapter I was reading between the lines for the hidden formula too. But THAT IS the magic formula. The hard part is remembering to do it before we get so overcome with the negative self talk. I know what it’s like to get to that point but I’m working on this magic method of combating insecurity. Let’s work this plan together. I have it from a pretty good source that this works – the Apostle Paul in Ephesians AND Beth Moore in So Long, Insecurity.

 

Say Goodbye to Insecurity

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As you are reading this I am beginning a new Bible Study at my church, The Donelson Fellowship. It’s based on Beth Moore’s book So Long, Insecurity. The book came out in 2010. I actually preordered it before it was printed. Does that give you any idea where I stand with insecurity in my life? About a year later Lifeway released a Bible Study workbook to accompany the book. And that is the study I am now leading on Thursday mornings at our church.

All of us have some area of our life that we are insecure about. We may keep it well hidden or it may be laying open for all to see. Some of us don’t have to say a word because you can see insecurity written all over our face. Others of us hide our insecurities behind a big personality that fools others into believing we are full of confidence and self assurance.

The world spends a lot of money and a lot of time telling women how they should look, what they should say and what they are doing wrong. It tells us what our hair should look like, what color our complexion should be, what size our waist should be, what the number on the tag in our dress should say, how much money should be in our bank account for us to be worth anything, how many children to have, what age we should get married, what brand purse to carry, what color hair to have, where we should send our children to school and what size house we need to live in by the time we are 30. Those are just a few expectations you might get in one day. There are thousands more that I am not listing. It sounds really sad when you read it, doesn’t it? Have you ever wondered why we fall for that?

In the grand scheme of things none of that matters. Jeremiah 17:7 says “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.” That one little sentence sure makes that whole previous paragraph sound silly, doesn’t it? This study is about how to change the focus from that paragraph above to the sentence of Jeremiah 17:7. It’s all about searching for security in the hope and confidence that comes from God instead of the false security the world tries to sell us.

I plan to share bits and pieces of what I learn each week here. I hope that you will come by as we learn together how to say So Long, Insecurity!

I Need An Awakening

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As you know, last week I was in Charlotte for the National Association of Free Will Baptists. Our National Youth Conference meets at the same time. The convention has four different services each night – Preschool Worship, 456 Worship (4-6th graders), Teen Worship and Adult Worship.  It has progressed a long way since the days when I first started going in 1975 with my parents. Back then everyone was in the same service every night. I love that there is something for everyone now. The last few years we have been going into the teen service each night because that’s where they play a more contemporary worship and have speakers closer to our age who are used to working with teens. Since we have teens we find them the most helpful for this stage of our life right now. The adult worship is more of a traditional style. And that’s just fine. This way there is something for everyone’s style.

The theme for the NYC (National Youth Conference) this year was Awaken based on Romans 13:11 which says “And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” Each speaker spoke on that theme with that verse/passage as their key verse. It was a message directed to the teens in the room but I certainly got plenty from it myself. Each of them challenged us to wake the Spirit up within us. We are all so often ready to take the easy way…the way with less resistance. Most of us find ourselves stagnant.

I was watching House Hunter International yesterday. A man was looking for a vacation home in Belize. The agent showed him a home on a small piece of property with a “pond” on it. Ron and I both commented that that was just a stagnant mosquito infested wet piece of land. It was perfectly still. Nothing was moving. I kind of think of my heart like that sometimes – stagnant and unmoving. I want my Spirit to Awaken within me and come alive. There have been times it was alive but as time has passed things have stilled. I long to return to the time when it was alive and awake. I need an awakening. I don’t want to be found sleeping with a stagnant soul when it comes time to share Jesus. Worse still I don’t want Jesus to find me sleeping when he comes back for me. I want Him to find me alive, awake and at work for Him.

Are You Wallowing In A Pit?

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I am running a giveaway this week for Beth Moore’s book Get Out of That Pit – Straight Talk About God’s Deliverance. You can enter the giveaway here. To give you an idea of what the book is about I thought I would share some quotes with you that I underlined when I read the book the first two times. Beth’s writing style is very easy to understand. And she often writes as if she knows me personally and I have shared every secret of my life with her. I think you will find the same is true for you. So the rest of this entry will be quotes taken directly from the book. I share a piece of my heart with you at the end.

Psalm 40:1-3 – “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.”

Isaiah 42:22 says that a pit is a place where you feel trapped….you can’t get yourself out.

I beg you to see that your enemy has a tremendous investment not only in digging and camouflaging a pit in your pathway but also, should you tumble down, in convincing you to stay there after you fall in….a pit is a early grave that Satan digs for you in hopes he can bury you alive. Should you fall into it, make no mistake; he cannot make you stay. Ironically, neither will God make you leave. Like it or not, some things are simply up to us.

Grudges…my grudge against people who hurt me only strengthened the grip of my bondage to them…our grudges only work to further entangle and enmesh us with the persons we won’t forgive.

I hate how the enemy uses the guilt over how you got into a pit to trap you into never getting out.

Satan’s definitive goal is to reap destruction, but that’s rarely his starting point. His usual opening is distraction. Scripture has a name for a small distract that become a big distraction. It’s called a stronghold. Anything that become a bigger preoccupation in your mind than the truth and knowledge of God, anything that dwarfs His truth and knowledge in your imagination, is a stronghold.

He {Satan} has no intention of allowing the new focus to remain a simple distraction. The next step is addiction. You see, a stronghold is something we have. A pit is somewhere we live…if only for a little while. An addiction is a highly effective way for something you have (a sin-induced problem) to turn in to some place you live (a sin-induced pit). Defeat becomes a lifestyle.

Addiciton is not his goal. Destruction is. He wants to destroy our lives, our callings, our sense of godly significance, our personal intimacy with God, and every relationship that matters to us. The movement toward destruction is progressive, from one tiny step to the next in little increments that you don’t even notice.

Nothing is more futile or leaves us more fractured than trusting man to be our god.

People can help us but they can’t heal us. People can lift us but they can’t carry us. On occasion people can pull us out of the bit, but they cannot keep us out. Nor can they set our feet upon a rock.

Those are just a few things that spoke to me from the book. This book, along with the Word of God and the convicting power of the Holy Spirit can help us stay out of the pit of strongholds we have allowed in our life. God used this book to change my life. I know He can and will do the same for you. Please enter the giveaway here and take the first step to deliverance from the pit of strongholds that have a grip on you and your life.

I had so many strongholds in my life that I didn’t know if I could live beyond them. I didn’t even recognize them as the work of Satan. My heart truly aches for others who I can clearly recognize as living in a pit and being controlled by their strongholds. Someone very close to me is in that situation right now. I have tried to open their eyes to what they are doing. I want nothing more than to reach down and pull them out and hold them until they realize what they are doing to themselves and their family. But I cannot change them. I think that’s what hurts above all else – knowing that my love for them cannot set them free. At this point all I can do is pray for them. I pray that they will recognize where they are and what their actions are doing to affect every relationship they are in and every life that they touch. If I could just get them to sit down long enough to read this book I think the Lord could reveal to them the things that I see happening. Until then all I can do is pray. Deliverance is so liberating! Waking up every day knowing that you are set free from what has held you in that pit for so long is a feeling you can’t describe. I want to shout it from the rooftops. That’s why I’m shouting it here from my blog and providing a copy of this wonderful book to one who needs it. I have poured out my heart. My desire is to  help others live a liberated life. Believe it..accept it…and win!