December 28, 2024

Captivating: Chapter 8 – Letting Our Hearts Be Deepened – Faith, Hope and Love (pp 144-149)

February 28, 2013 by

Deepening our hearts sounds like a no-brainer, right?  Who wouldn’t want to deepen our hearts, grow closer to God, enhance our relationships?  Well, when we find out the method He uses to do the actual deepening, we may be a little more hesitant.

To possess true beauty we must be willing to suffer.  Wait…what?  Yes, ladies, that is scary and makes me want to run too, but we must be willing to suffer.  “Why?” you ask?  Well, the better question is “Why not?”  As our authors state, “If Christ Himself was perfected through His sufferings, why would I believe God would not want to do the same with me?” Sometimes God leaves us in the painful places.  Not because He doesn’t love us, but because He does love us. His main purpose is not to make us happy, but to grow and restore us in an eternal weight of glory.  Cultivating this beauty will likely require waiting and tenacity.  It is in this time of waiting when we turn to our relationship with the Lord.

During the wait we must not sit idle.  Along with spending time with God, we need to be kind and gentle with ourselves.  We need to feed on beauty. We need to laugh, rest, refresh.  As women, we tend to put everyone else before ourselves, and we need to stop that.  We are important, and we need to start treating ourselves as such.

Unveiling our Beauty

 

Unveiling our beauty is not just a simple matter of putting on a nice outfit and some makeup.  It is hard, and it takes work, but ladies…the results are SO worth it!  Remember:  unveiling our beauty is our greatest expression of faith because we have to completely trust Jesus.

Unveiling our beauty is our greatest expression of hope, because we put our hope in our growing beauty through our relationship with Jesus.

Unveiling beauty is our greatest expression of love, because we are able to love like Jesus, with a sincere, inviting love.

Faith. Hope. Love.

Be blessed, sisters. Never forget how beautiful and loved you are!

 

LET’S PRAY:

Lord, I ask You to come along side of us.  We know You love us, and sometimes love means pain.  We trust that with these struggles comes a life more amazing than we can ever imagine.  Give us the grace needed to turn to You when we are unsure or feel as if we are faltering.  Help us remember to pamper ourselves because we deserve to.  We want to live confidently and fearlessly under Your guardianship.  Thank You for always being by our side.  In Your Holy Name we pray.  Amen.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:

What are some of the ways you pamper yourself, or take some “me” time?  If you had one day to do whatever you wanted to, what would you do?  Let’s share!

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Captivating: Beauty Flows From a Heart at Rest – Beauty is Inviting (pp 132-138)

February 26, 2013 by

When I read the description of the two women, I saw a lot of what I am in Janet and a lot of what I wanted to be in June.

Despite our various personality traits or where we may feel in our lives, despite how we feel about our journey, or how successful we feel we have been on this journey, it is reassuring to know that we are beautiful. In every woman lies a God-given beauty. A beauty that we hide through our striving to be what we feel we should be, a beauty that we hide after hurts in life have caused us to question this beauty.

“Beauty indwells every woman…So the choice a woman makes is not to conjure beauty, but to let her defenses down.” 

Right there, that’s the key—our defenses. The book describes these defenses as our normal means of survival. We set up these defenses around our hearts and minds and keep others out, while at the same time keeping ourselves in. These defenses stop us from being who God designed us to be. But how do we let our defenses down…how do we embrace this God-given beauty?

Rest. What is rest, and most importantly, what is a heart at rest. In today’s busy world, rest is not a word we hear very often. But rest doesn’t mean an opportunity to relax in a quiet room without interruption from others. In this sense, rest means the opportunity to be who God created us to be without striving to be what we think we should be, without having to hide who we are. “That the more His we become, the more ourselves we become; more our true selves.”

I always try to find a line or two in each section that speaks to my heart. In these sections it was the following two lines:

“You are free to be you, it’s one of life greatest gifts.”

Despite what life and others may say, I know deep down that God created me for a reason, He created all of us for a reason.  He knew what character traits we would have, and He placed them in us for a purpose. Through Him and His love we can all embrace who we are, and open our hearts to rest.

 

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We do not have to be a ‘June’ to be at rest, or to have an inviting heart towards others. Like so many other discussions we’ve had, we need to simply let God in, let Him in to heal us as we walk in faith. Let our true selves come out as He shows us just how beautiful we are. Let Him in to show us the reality of 1 Peter 3:3, 4

 1 Peter 3:3 and 4

3 Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— 4 rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.

We need only to put our defenses down to let Him show us that we are inwardly beautiful.

Zephaniah 3:17

17 The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.

He will quiet us with His love. He will lower our defenses with His love. He will allow our hearts to rest with His love. And He will make our hearts inviting with His love.

With Love,

Tonya

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Let’s Pray:

Rest, open, inviting, these are words that may not resonate with us, Lord, for we do not always see the beauty that You have placed in our lives and in our hearts. Our defenses and strongholds that we have created to protect us are stopping us from being the women You created us to be. Lord, please break our strongholds and help us to bring down our defenses through Your love. Thank You for Your love; a love that quiets, a love that heals, a love that allows us to see our true beauty through Your eyes.

In Jesus’ Name, we pray, Amen.

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Your Assignment:

We so often overlook our beauty because in our eyes our flaws stop us from seeing it. Today we are all going to post a trait that makes us unique, that makes us who we are. God has placed so many beautiful characteristics in each one of us. “We are free to be us. It is one of life’s greatest gifts.”

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 If you are interested in sending a private message to Tonya, please email her at TonyaEllison@girlfriendscoffeehour.com

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Captivating: Chapter 8 “Beauty to Unveil” – Reading Assignment

February 24, 2013 by

Women are the essence of beauty.  Doesn’t that sound amazing?  There are days we may not feel like that…the flu takes hold, that overnight shift at work, it happens to all of us.  But isn’t is great to know that God sees us as beautiful no matter what?  He created us to be a beauty. This week we are going to take a look into seeing exactly what that means for us.  Here are our reading assignments for the week:

 

Monday: Jackie – Beauty to Unveil – The Essence of a Woman

Tuesday: Tonya – Beauty Flows From a Heart At Rest – Beauty is Inviting

Wednesday: Carissa – Offering Beauty – Of Course it Feels Risky

Thursday: Michelle – Letting Our Hearts Be Deepened – Faith Hope & Love

Friday: Edwina – Weekly Review

Saturday: Diane – Love Letters from God

LET’S PRAY

Lord, I ask You to come alongside each woman this week as we continue the study of Captivating.  As we look into what makes us beautiful, let us be open to the message You have for us, the lesson You want us to learn and the growth You want to see.  Thank You so much for Your love and grace, because without that we would be nothing.  In Your Name we pray.  Amen.

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Captivating: Chapter 7 – Cultivating Intimacy (pp 127-129)

February 21, 2013 by

We live in a very busy world.  I know I can personally attest to that.  We look at our schedule or our smartphone and we see “the list.”  We wonder if we will have time to get from work to appointment A on time, and then will there be time to eat before class B starts?  There is work, friends, family, ourselves…oh! and God.  Where do you put yourself on that list?  More importantly, where do you put God?

The key to enhancing your relationship with God is a simple one.  You need to spend time with Him.  Think about it, it makes perfect sense.  If you have an acquaintance you want to get to know better, what do you do?  You talk to them, hang out with them, get to know them, and possibly become friends.  If you have a man you are interested in, you date them, talk to them, learn more about them, and it can possibly lead to a more intimate relationship.  Isn’t that what we want?  Intimacy with our Lord?

What exactly is intimacy?  According to Dictionary.com intimacy is  “a close, familiar, and usually affectionate or loving personal relationship with another person or group.”  Yes!  That is what I want!  I want an affectionate, loving, personal relationship with God!  And the amazing thing is that it is ours for the taking!  He offers it freely and with no strings.  All we have to do is spend time with Him, and it’s ours.  Wait.  Spend time with Him.  Time?  Who has that to spare?  That in it’s essence is the problem.  God doesn’t deserve our “spare time.”  God deserves to be a priority.  He should be coming first on that daily to-do list.  No exceptions, no excuses.  I know…I get it…I am a single mom.  I have to-do lists as long as my arm and leg.  I run my home.  I run ministries.  I have my own business.  Trust me, I get it!

Sometimes we have to get creative with our time, and sometimes we need to get out of our comfort zones.  I am not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination.  But at the same time, I am exhausted by the end of the day, so I had to make a decision.  What I do is get up at 5:30 in the morning so I can have my quiet time with the Lord before I have to get my son up for school and the craziness of the day begins.  Do I LIKE getting up that early?  No.  No matter how long I have been doing it, it’s still no fun when that alarm goes off.  But is the tradeoff worth it?  Without a doubt!  That quiet time with God is what sets my day straight.  There may be a day I miss, and it may not seem like too big of a deal, but let that one morning turn into 2 or 3, or even more, and it only means trouble.  I can feel a difference.  Something will be nagging at me, or I will feel burdened and I won’t know why until I realize that it has been 4 days since I spent time with God, and then it’s like “Duh! No wonder!!”  It makes a difference.

So now I ask you to look in the mirror.  Where has God been on your list of priorities?  No matter the answer, there is a beautiful reality.  It’s ok.  Whether He has been at number one, or He has been relegated to “if I have time,” God is still there, He is still waiting for you.  He is not mad, or standing with a checklist checking off how many days you have spent with Him. He is just waiting for you to come back.  He loves you! He longs to spend that time with you, and He will delight in you the very second you return to Him.  That is so comforting to me.  If you don’t already, I hope you will set aside the time you need to spend with Your Father.  The change you will feel will be worth it.  Intimacy with Our Savior?  What could be better?

 

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LET’S PRAY:

Dear Lord, we long for an intimate relationship with You.  Please help us to clear our schedules and make the time we need to spend with You.  Sometimes it seems too hard in the craziness of life to set aside time.  Help us in our weariness, in our busyness, even in our laziness to realize that You are worth it, and that intimacy with You is timeless.  We love You, Lord, and we thank You for Your never-wavering faithfulness.  In Your Name, we pray.  Amen.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:

Share your routine for spending quiet time with the Lord.  Do you have a specific time each day?  Does it change depending on the day?  If you haven’t been spending time with Him regularly, share some strategies you can implement to make it more consistent.

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Captivating: Chapter 7 God as Lover – Opening Our Hearts to the Romancer (pp 113-119)

February 19, 2013 by

Yesterday in church our pastor spoke of a love so deep and passionate that it saves lives, it saves hearts and heals the wounded. It changes the course we are on; it sacrifices itself for us and places our best interest above itself. This love gave His life for us. He died on the cross for our salvation, so we wouldn’t have to pay for our own wrongdoings. A love that chose us, a love that is available at all times, day or night.

This love does not come from a man.

This love comes from God.

I can relate to the analogy used of a wilting flower. When we feel loved, desired, and pursued we seem to come to life, we perk up, and we feel beautiful. “Her (our) heart begins to come alive, come to the surface, and her (our) countenance becomes radiant.” Our heart comes to the surface; that thing we have tried so hard to build walls around and protect comes back to life.

When God pursues us, which He does passionately our hearts come back to life. The hearts we tucked away so long ago begins to desire to become what it once was, it begins to talk to us again, to share our desires again, and all because it is being pursued. This only happens when it is pursued by God. When we allow our hearts to truly know God, and when we seek that intimate relationship with God our hearts will begin to grow into the heart God intended for us to have all along. 

Potter and His clay

Shepherd and His sheep

Master and His servant

Father and His Child

His friends

Bridegroom and His Bride

All of the roles God plays in our lives are meant to guide, love, and protect us. They are meant to offer protection and caring. A potter knows the clay he is working with, he knows what it is going to be in the end. A shepherd knows each sheep by name and does everything to guide and protect them. A master knows his servant and accepts them into his family. A father knows his child and loves them unconditionally. Friend’s support and offer companionship. And a bridegroom loves his bride to no end.

Like the book says, God has been passionately pursuing us since before we were conceived. He knows our heart better than anyone, even ourselves, and He has been here from day one, loving us!

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Let’s Pray:

Dear Heavenly Father, Your pursuit for us is what makes us feel beautiful. Your love for us is what awakens our heart. You have been passionately pursuing us since before we were born; You alone know what our hearts truly desire and what our hearts truly need. Thank You for knowing what our heart can be; thank You for molding it into that image. In Jesus’ Name, we pray, Amen.

Your Assignment:

This assignment has 2 parts:

Part 1: God plays many roles in our lives; they’re listed in the post. What are some Scripture references that refer to these roles?

Part 2: God shows us His love and His presence through things that romance us. What has God used in your life to show you that He is always there?

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 If you are interested in sending a private message to Tonya, please email her at TonyaEllison@girlfriendscoffeehour.com

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Captivating: Chapter 7 Reading Assignments – “Romanced”

February 17, 2013 by

Ah…romance!  The sound of that word can cause different reactions in different women depending on where you are in your journey.  That is completely normal but deep down inside I think we all long to be romanced.  Let all your preconceived notions go as we hear about what it means to be romanced by our One True God.  Here are the reading assignments for the week:

Monday: Jackie – Romanced – Longing for Romance

Tuesday: Tonya – God as Lover – Opening Our Hearts to the Romancer

Wednesday: Carissa – What Does God Want From You – Adoring Hearts

Thursday: Michelle – Cultivating Intimacy

Friday: Edwina – Weekly Review

LET’S PRAY:

Dear Lord, I come to You today, heart in hand.  I ask You to reach out to each and every woman reading this.  Comfort them, love them, romance them as only You can do.  I pray that through reading this chapter we will trust in that love completely and live in the knowledge that You are the love we most need.  In Your Holy Name I pray, Amen.

 

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Captivating: Chapter 6 – Let Him Father You – A Deeper Healing (Pg. 106 – 112)

February 14, 2013 by

Daddies.  I have come to find that this can be a tough topic for many women.  Some have had wonderful doting fathers that made them feel like princesses.  More often than not our dads have fallen short in some way, and sometimes not intentionally.  Some work to provide and give their family as much as possible, but leave us emotionally void, never saying “I love you” or knowing we are cherished.  Some say all the right things, but their actions do not show love or respect for their family.  And unfortunately there are fathers that take advantage of their position in the family and violate their daughters in ways that no girl should have to experience.  What is wonderful though is that no matter what your experience with your dad, you have a Heavenly Father that loves you and cares about you more than any human father can, no matter how amazing they are!

I, like Stasi, have heard many times that we view God through the lenses we view our own fathers.  I can definitely see the validity in that, and I have seen women who definitely do that, but I don’t know if that is necessarily true for everyone.  For me, my dad was one of those dads that worked very hard to provide for our family.  I also knew that he was always in my corner.  But he was not someone who made me feel cherished, or like his little princess.  “I love you” was rarely verbalized in our house, and there was no “twirling around” in dresses or cuddling up in his lap that I can ever remember.  Despite that, I put my daddy on a pedestal and thought he could do no wrong.

To this day, I have very similar feelings.  But my view of God was just the opposite.  I thought of him as the “punishing God” just waiting for me to mess up.  Someone to be afraid of, and who would never “be in my corner” or provide for me.  So I viewed my Heavenly Father much differently than how I viewed my earthly father.  I think it was more about the faith I was raised in, rather than my dad.  I don’t think I ever heard God referred to as a father, except in prayers I was given to memorize, and even then it just seemed like words and not an actual relationship.

But praise Him that I know the truth now.  I know who He is.  He is my Daddy, my Papa, my ABBA Father.  I can snuggle up in His lap whenever I want, and He welcomes it.  I can talk to Him about anything and everything and He listens like I am the only person in the world.  I can ask Him, “Do you love me?  Am I beautiful and captivating?” and His answer will always be yes.  Isn’t that amazing?  What a loving God we serve. Do you believe this for yourself?  Are you still working to earn His love?  Rest easy sisters, there is nothing you can do to make Him love you any more or any less than He does right this minute.

A line in this chapter really stood out to me, “What if you have a genuine and captivating beauty that is marred only by your striving”.  Wow.  That stung a bit, and I definitely saw myself in that comment.  I know God loves me, right now, where I’m at, human and stumbling.  He does, and He loves you too.  So why do I still try to earn His love in so many ways?  I tend to try too hard in all relationships, tend to overthink every issue I face, put too much energy into pretending that everything is fine, try to do more and more for God through ministry or studies or any other number of things.  I am striving.  And I am holding myself back.  I am learning that is isn’t about “doing for” God, it is about “being with” God.  I take comfort in that.  I need to sit in His lap more and listen.  I need to embrace His love.  I need my Daddy.  How about you?

 

Captivating_Ch6_109

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LET’S PRAY

Lord we come humbly to You today.  Father, we need Your love.  Come to the core of our hearts, come and bring Your love for us.  Help us to know You for who You really are, and perhaps not as we see our earthly fathers.  Reveal yourself to us.  Reveal Your love for us.  Show us what we mean to You.  Come and father us, we need You Daddy.  In Your Heavenly Name we pray.  Amen.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT

Part of the reason women are so tired is because we are spending so much energy “striving”.  So much energy devoted to suppressing issues and keeping a good appearance.  We want to give you permission to relax. Rest in the security of the Lord’s love.  Let it go sweet sister! How does the thought of giving up all that struggling make you feel?  

 

 

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Captivating: Chapter 6 – Will You Let Him? (pp 92-98)

February 12, 2013 by

“Will you let me come for you?”

Yesterday we talked about letting God into our painful places to bring healing. The miraculous movements that He will make in our life, the beauty that He will bring in place of the ugly pain and hurt that has piled up for so long; if only we let him. Yesterday we said “if you let Him,” today it’s a question: “Will you let Him come in?”

For so long we have done things on our own…for so long we have trusted our own system, our own way of dealing with the pain…for so long we have been doing it wrong. To borrow from the quote that John and Stasi included in this section, “The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your life against being opened up and transformed.”   The walls I built—the walls we built—were an attempt to protect what remaining parts of my heart I felt I had left and I think that goes for a lot of women. We want to hold on to what we feel we have left, but in doing this we shut out the one person who can heal those damaged parts, the one who can make our hearts whole again.

God promises to be tender, to care for our hearts in a manner that would never bring pain.

Hosea 2:14

Therefore I am now going to allure her

I will lead her into the desert

And speak tenderly to her.

Another version I read said that He would “speak comfort to her.”  Imagine the healing and comfort and peace we can have if we say ‘yes!’  If we open our hearts to God and let His hands repair what years of pain has broken down. He is knocking on our hearts. Knocking and waiting. Knocking and waiting. He knocks and we hold more tightly to that key; he knocks and we fear that opening the door will bring more pain.  We fear that it will make us more vulnerable than we already are. But, lovely ladies, it is very opposite from that. Opening the door to Him will heal that hurt, He will strengthen us through His love, and He will remind us that ours are hearts of beauty and wholeness.

 

Psalm61_1thru3

Ladies, God is knocking and asking us to turn the key over to Him.  He is asking us to unlock the door and let Him in to begin the healing work He wants to do. He is asking us to stop believing the lies of our hurts and to remember the healing message in His truths.

I have worked as a hospice bereavement counselor for three years,  One of the main pieces of information I give to patients and their families is to allow themselves to feel the emotions they are having. Not to stuff and ignore…but to allow the emotions to flow.  To cry, to be scared, to be mad, that it is okay to feel in response to their situation. To “let it out.” We have to let ourselves feel again, ladies; to feel without fear of opening ourselves up too much, to feel without fear of being wrong in our feelings. To feel with the knowledge that God has our heart in His hands, to feel and give those feelings to God, the fear, the anger, the hurt.

He is knocking. He is waiting at the door to our hearts. He wants us to cry out to Him…to give Him the key.  He wants us to let Him in to heal our hurts.  To make our hearts the complete masterpiece He designed them to be.

With Love,

Tonya

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Let’s Pray:

Dear Lord, thank You for not leaving us.  Thank You for knocking and waiting. Thank You for not giving up on the women you created us to be. Thank You for Your love and compassion, for Your healing touch. I bind the spirit of fear in Jesus name, it has no control over our lives, it has no say in our emotions. Our hearts belong to You, Lord.  In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Your Assignment:

There is a prayer on page 101 (I’m not sure what page it is in the electronic version, but it is at the end of the “Renounce The Agreements You’ve Made” section. It is a prayer for the spirit of truth, it is a prayer to renounce the lies we have believed over the years.

If you journal, this would be a great place to write this prayer.  If you feel comfortable, you can pay it in our private Facebook group, as well.

Also, please stop in and share your thoughts from these sections. Your insights may bless another.

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If you are interested in joining this online Bible study, please click HERE to sign up.

Once we receive your registration, we will email you further details.

If you are interested in sending a private message to Tonya, please email her at TonyaEllison@GirlfriendsCoffeeHour.com

 

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Captivating: Chapter 6 – Healing the Wound – Hemmed In (Pgs 92-98)

February 11, 2013 by

I’m sitting at my computer stirring my coffee, allowing the warmth, and the soft vanilla smell to wake me up on this beautiful morning. I had finished reading the first two sections of the chapter and the words are still working their way into my heart. There are times when I read the book that I will re-read, look up definitions, and look up Scriptures to help me understand what I’ve read. But this morning was different. As I was curled up in my favorite reading and writing spot—the corner of our love seat—the words I was reading were an echo of what God has been speaking to me for quite some time. Hiding wounds and building walls around them is something that I have, unfortunately, become very good at. Some wounds are old while others are still fresh.

I wasn’t letting anyone near these wounds, especially not God. These wounds were destroying my heart, they were starting to show in other areas of my life because I had set up walls, I had refused access. I was taking care of it.

God had to “thwart” me. He had to step in front of me and stop all my ways from working. This summer was the time in my life when I came back to Him, wounded and aching.

I want to clear something up first: I hadn’t strayed so far from Him that I was completely living in the world. I was still going to church regularly.  I was still being kind to others. I was still trying to live the good Christian life.  My wounds were well-hidden. To be wounded, and in need of God’s healing touch, does not mean you have to be the prodigal daughter, the one who has abandoned all of her childhood teaching to go explore the world.  It means that life’s hurts, whether self-inflicted or created by others, are hindering us from being the woman God created us to be.  They are stopping us from truly being ourselves.

These sections hold some very serious topics, it may even feel overwhelming to think of it all at once.  But, if anything is taken from these sections, please let it be these four words…

If you’ll let Him

 Isaiah 61:1-3

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
 To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

*Healing. Releasing. Comforting. Providing. Bestowing. Joy-giver. Beautifier.*

We are told why Jesus has been placed on this earth, like the text says, it is not just to offer us salvation and then leave us to our own devices. He has come to continue to make us who we were designed to be. For this, I am so thankful. I am a work in progress. We are a work in progress.

Captivating_Ch6_Blog1This summer I turned to God broken and hurting and He was there to save me…but He is not done. Thank God! Despite our wounds, despite our hurts, despite the past that we as women carry He is not done with us and He will do everything it takes to rescue us and set our hearts free.  If we let Him, He can, will, and wants to be all of these things to us. If we let Him, He will make our hearts whole.

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Let’s Pray:

Dear Heavenly Father, You told us that You came to heal our wounds, to make us beautiful, to free us. Thank You. We try to handle our wounds ourselves. We build walls, we hide them. Healing our wounds is a job for You, Lord. Please forgive us for trusting in our own methods more than trusting Your words, and Your heart. Please help us to take a step back and allow You in to those walled places, those places of pain. Please continue to mold us into the women You designed us to be. I pray for peace, strength, and joy, Lord.  In Jesus’ Name, I pray. Amen.

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Your Assignment:

What are your thoughts on these sections? What touched your heart?  What do you have questions about?

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 If you are interested in joining this online Bible study, please click HERE to sign up.  Once we receive your registration, we will email you further details.

If you are interested in sending a private message to Tonya, please email her at TonyaEllison@GirlfriendsCoffeeHour.com

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Captivating: Chapter 6 – “Healing the Wound”

February 10, 2013 by

Captivating_Ch6

 

I hope studying about the enemy’s ploys last week gave you another way of looking at your struggles and reminded you to keep putting on your armor .  Most importantly I hope it reminded you that there is always hope in Jesus!  I know that my thinking was challenged.  This week we start to work on healing our wounds.  I am looking forward to this more than you know.  Here are our reading assignments for the week:

Monday: Tonya – Healing the Wound – Hemmed In

Tuesday: Tonya – Turning From the Ways You Sought to Save Yourself – We Find Our Tears

Wednesday: Carissa – Forgive – Ask Him to Destroy Your Enemies

Thursday: Michelle –  Let Him Father You – A Deeper Healing

Friday: Edwina– Weekly Review

Saturday: Diane – Love Letters from God

LET’S PRAY

Father, we stand in expectation for what You have for us as we begin week 6. If we are struggling, help us to let our fears go.  We know that the enemy is trying to steal our joy.  We strive to live completely in You and for You.  Show us the lessons we can learn, and grow us in ways we can’t even imagine.  In Your Name, we pray.  Amen.

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