{"id":6710,"date":"2013-01-06T00:01:50","date_gmt":"2013-01-06T05:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=6710"},"modified":"2013-01-06T13:43:05","modified_gmt":"2013-01-06T18:43:05","slug":"gch_vh-lifes-healing-choices-week-1-overview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/01\/06\/gch_vh-lifes-healing-choices-week-1-overview\/","title":{"rendered":"Life&#8217;s Healing Choices &#8211; Week 1 &#8211; Admitting Need"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\u201cEach of our lives is tangled up with hurts that haunt our hearts, hang-ups that cause us pain, and habits that mess up our lives.\u201d<\/strong> (Baker, page 1)<\/p>\n<p><em><strong> Ouch!<\/strong> <\/em>What a sting those simple words can bring. And immediately I begin the defense \u2013 I\u2019m only hurt because of what other people did to me. I don\u2019t have hang-ups, that\u2019s just the way I am. Habits? They\u2019re coping skills necessary to deal with life &amp; the people around me. We\u2019ve all done it, allowing the behaviors and attitudes to continue.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>But hope is here!<\/strong> <\/em>January 2013 marks not only a <em><strong>new year<\/strong><\/em>, but a <em><strong>new journey<\/strong><\/em> in your life. <em><strong>It\u2019s a time for change<\/strong><\/em> \u2026 to shed the habits, hurts &amp; hang-ups that affect your relationships, your life, and your walk with Christ. Using the book \u201cLife\u2019s Healing Choices\u201d by John Baker as our discussion tool, the GCH: Victorious Healing ministry will lead you on this journey to joyful change, freedom, and blessings only He can provide to us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RECOVERY<\/strong>. What comes to your mind when you see or hear this word? Do you brush it off as something only addicts or alcoholics deal with? Or do you think only of illness, surgery or other physical ailments? The truth is very simple. We all have hurts in our life that require healing. Some of us choose to symptomatically treat our hurts with food, chemical substances, spending sprees, toxic relationships, and more. But <em><strong>true healing, not just masking of symptoms, is possible only through the power of Christ in our lives<\/strong><\/em>. <strong>RECOVERY<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>There are eight basic principles we will uncover during our study together:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Realize I am not God.<\/li>\n<li>Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me. Consciously choose to commit my life and will to Christ\u2019s care &amp; control.<\/li>\n<li>Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God and to someone I trust.<\/li>\n<li>Voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life.<\/li>\n<li>Evaluate all my relationships.<\/li>\n<li>Reserve a daily time with God.<\/li>\n<li>Yield myself to God to be used to bring His love &amp; Good News to others.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What areas of your life do you have power (control) over? What areas of your life are spinning out of control? What coping skills do you use to get attention, or protect yourself? How do you handle pain &amp; disappointment? What hinders our ability to admit our need for change, or help?<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cI am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul\u201d (Invictus by Henley)<\/strong>. What comes to mind when you read those words? For me, it\u2019s a sad commentary on how many of us live our lives. So often we believe we can handle our lives on our own. We determine our futures and no one will keep us from doing what we want, dream, or desire. Our decisions will only affect us. No one can tell us what to do. \u00a0<em><strong>But this idea is what causes so much of our pain<\/strong><\/em>. Until we realize that <em>we are not in control of our lives<\/em>, and allow God to do what He intended for us, our pains, hurts, habits, and hang-ups will continue.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Are you ready to \u201clet go, and let God\u201d<\/strong>?<\/p>\n<p>In \u201cStudies in the Sermon on the Mount\u201d by Oswald Chambers \u201cThere must be a dominant, personal, passionate devotion to Him, and only then are all other relationships right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>God tells us \u201c<strong>You can\u2019t heal a wound by saying it\u2019s not there<\/strong>\u201d (Jeremiah 6:14 TLB). How many times do we try to ignore our hurts by saying we\u2019re fine, or nothing\u2019s wrong? How often do we try to tend to issues by our own power because we don\u2019t want to burden others, or appear weak or \u201cout of control?\u201dDenial only hinders our growth more, freezing us in our pain, insecurities, and worry even more. Denial encourages us to keep secrets as we continue to pretend that our lives are going well. Denial brings shame, anxiety, and a false sense of protection from our pain.<\/p>\n<p>The admission of our powerlessness is the first step on our journey. From here, we need to leave to stop denying our pain. <em><strong>There\u2019s only one God<\/strong><\/em>, and you ain\u2019t Him, so stop trying to control your life as if you are.<\/p>\n<p><strong>God promises so much more.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Light in our darkness (1 John 1:5-7).<\/li>\n<li>Rescue from the darkness (Ps 107:13-14).<\/li>\n<li>Healing from our pain (Jeremiah 30:17).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, join us this week as we explore this principle deeper. Instead of packing for a journey, get ready to unpack all that baggage you\u2019ve been carrying around! But I warn you, this journey won\u2019t be an easy one. However, I promise that we have the best Guide with us because He promises to never leave us, nor forsake us. Ever!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0___________________________________<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Reading Assignment for Week 1: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Chapter 1 of Life\u2019s Healing Choices<br \/>\nMonday: Laurie will discuss Principle 1<br \/>\nTuesday: Leslie will discuss The Cause of our Problems<br \/>\nWednesday: Kim will discuss The Cure for our Problems<br \/>\nThursday: Amy will discuss Make The Choice, Action Steps to make it real in your life<br \/>\nFriday: Laurie will bring it all back home with a recap of our week<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/2013\/01\/06\/gch_vh-lifes-healing-choices-week-1-overview\/ps6_2-3\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6737\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6737\" alt=\"Ps6_2-3\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Ps6_2-3.jpg\" width=\"651\" height=\"475\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Ps6_2-3.jpg 651w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Ps6_2-3-300x218.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 651px) 100vw, 651px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Restoration is possible. Will you move towards this for your life \u2026 today?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>_________<\/p>\n<p><strong>Principle 1 Power Verses:<\/strong><br \/>\nJeremiah 6:14<br \/>\nEcclesiastes 11:4<br \/>\nJob 30:27<br \/>\nRomans 7:15-17<br \/>\nProverbs 14:12<br \/>\nJob 17:11<br \/>\nPsalm 6:6-7<br \/>\n2 Corinthians 1:9<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>If you would like to join this amazing online Bible study, click <em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/sign-up-for-girlfriends-coffee-hour-online-bible-studies\/\">HERE<\/a> <\/strong><\/em>to sign up. Once you are registered, we will email you further details.<\/p>\n<p>If you would like to send Amy a personal message in regards to today&#8217;s blog, please email her at: Amy@girlfriendscoffeehour.com.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cEach of our lives is tangled up with hurts that haunt our hearts, hang-ups that cause us pain, and habits that mess up our lives.\u201d (Baker, page 1) Ouch! What a sting those simple words can bring. And immediately I begin the defense \u2013 I\u2019m only hurt because of what other people did to me. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":6737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22],"tags":[1273,1283,90,1266,1277,416,425,480,1284,1275,1271,555,1281,1278,570,1270,608,1268,1269,1272,726,1280,1274,1276,1282,873,1279,948,1267],"class_list":["post-6710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-victorious-healing","tag-1-john-15-7","tag-2-corinthians-19","tag-amy-butterfield","tag-christian-womens-fellowship","tag-ecclesiastes-114","tag-gchvictorious-healing","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-healing","tag-healing-through-jesus-christ","tag-jeremiah-3017","tag-jeremiah-614","tag-jesus-christ","tag-job-1711","tag-job-3027","tag-john-baker","tag-let-go-and-let-god","tag-lifes-healing-choices","tag-new-journey","tag-new-years-resolutions","tag-one-god","tag-online-womens-bible-studies","tag-proverbs-1412","tag-psalm-10713-14","tag-psalm-62-3","tag-psalm-66-7","tag-recovery","tag-romans-715-17","tag-sermon-on-the-mount","tag-time-for-a-change","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Ps6_2-3.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-1Ke","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6710"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6937,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6710\/revisions\/6937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}