The GT Weekend – Safe Week 1

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The GT Weekend

At Gracefully Truthful, weekends aren’t for “checking out”.
Use this time to invite the Almighty’s fullness into you life in a deeper way!
Saturdays and Sundays are a chance to reflect, rest, and re-center our lives onto Christ. Don’t miss the opportunity to connect with other women in prayer, rest your soul in reflective journaling, and spend time worshiping the Creator who longs for intimacy with each of us!

Journal With Us!

Journal Prompts

1) Where is one place in your life you feel God calling you to step out of your comfort zone to share of his love, even if it doesn’t feel very safe?

2) Do you trust God to walk with you through an overwhelmingly dark time? Think of one time in your past when it was difficult to trust that God would be faithful to redeem the situation back to Himself. Did you choose to trust Him or walk through it on your own?

3) Have you experienced a moment when you or your loved one’s physical safety was on the line? What emotions did you experience? Was it second nature to lean into the Father or more difficult?

Worship In Song

Music Video: Chris Tomlin’s “My Deliverer”

Pour Out Your Heart

Father, let me know your peace in the crazy of my life. As I stress over keeping everyone physically safe, shower me with your perfect peace. Jesus, thank you for leading by example in showing that we are always near to the Father’s heart, even amidst the chaos. Lord, let me lead boldly in a way that lets others see You, even at the expense of my reputation, fame, or glory.

Thank You for Your faithfulness, for being our Rock. I praise You for Your perfect provision even when You answer prayers differently than how I’ve prayed them. Remind me of Your faithfulness. Let the peace of God which transcends all understanding guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus.

Pray With Us!

In everything, with praise and thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God!
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Journey With Us

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What were your thoughts from the GT Weekend?
How were you drawn near to the Father and encouraged in your faith?
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Safe Day 5
But If Not

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Click and Read!Safe - But If Not-RA
Daniel 3
Romans 8:18-25
Matthew 1:23

It had been a beautiful outdoor wedding.
A celebration we had all anticipated for literally years. My husband’s brother and his wife had finally tied the knot and we couldn’t have been happier for them. We watched through teary eyes as they promised forever to each other, I choked on joy-filled tears as I embraced my new, long-awaited sister, we rode in the limo, laughing as we stopped traffic. I cried again as my husband gave a beautiful toast to the new couple, and my man and I savored watching their sweet love as we reflected on our own. We danced with our kids and took one long slow dance, just me and my champion, savoring the nearness of each other.

I left early to take our little treasures, including our 4 week old daughter, to his parents house to spend the night. It was just past midnight when Chris’ dad woke me with a calm, but urgent voice, “There’s been an accident, Chris was taken to the hospital.”

My heart dropped and my world stopped. My ears rang with the unthinkable as I imagined the very worst. I fitted my newborn into her car seat with shaking hands and followed Dad to his waiting truck in stunned silence. “Oh Jesus. Oh Jesus,” was all I could pray, until one thought of thankfulness surrounded me in a moment of unknowable peace and stillness, “Thank you, God, for one last slow dance with my husband.”

Fear had flooded me, but peace overtook me. Not because I knew my husband would be alive and well, but because I knew my God was good.

Safety is something we often pray for, beg for, even demand and bargain for when we are desperate,
but Jesus sees safety differently than we do.
The good Father takes every opportunity, good or bad, to draw us intentionally closer to His heart. He longs for us to find total fulfillment in Him regardless of circumstances.

Tears, fear, and uncontrollable trembling battled inside me as I reached for my husband’s hand on the stretcher, his bloody face held tightly in a stabilizer. The shock oh so slowly leaving my body as I breathed in the truth that he would be okay. Later, only a faint scar above his eye would remain, always reminding me of the preciousness of my husband’s life.

The more I reflect on being safe, my longing for it, and the glaring reality that it doesn’t always happen, reminds me of a trio of young men. Men who had a lot to lose when it came to safety, their very lives in fact.
They could renounce their faith and live
or hold unswervingly to the unseen God and die a horrible death.
They chose faith.
And in their final moments before certain death, they boldly proclaimed words that sink deep into my heart when I pray for safety. Read it slowly, drink in their courage, see the faith in their eyes.

“Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from it.
But if not,
be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods or worship your golden image.”

Their confidence in a saving God was unswerving, unquestioning, and steadfast.
God would save them.
But they also allowed for God’s sovereignty to call the shots…..and they were okay with that.
“But if not….” God was still faithful. Their confidence in God went beyond the physical to the spiritual. They were safe….no matter what. If God didn’t save them from the fire, He would save them through it on the other side and welcome them into eternity with Him.

Those moments in life that have been ear-marked by fear and great unknown, have also been branded by Jesus calling me into more. When I feared that Chris was dying from the car accident, I knew God’s goodness more intimately than I had just a few hours earlier as I had danced carefree at the wedding.

As much as we wish God promised us safety, He simply doesn’t. But what He does give us is worth far more than physical, temporary security. It’s worth enough that choosing worry over trusting His goodness simply doesn’t make sense.

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Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Tap and hold from your mobile device to download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Safe Week One! Don’t miss out on the discussion below – we’d love to hear your thoughts!
Click the above image for today’s Digging Deeper!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? Here’s a link to all past studies in Safe!

Safe Day 4
From Faith to Freedom: Digging Deeper

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Digging Deeper posts are intended to help us go farther into God’s word than a simple surface reading
and are designed to help us discover new tools in the process.
Curious as to why we Dig Deeper? Here’s Why! 

The Passage

Looking for yesterday’s Journey Post? Check out From Faith to Freedom!

Psalm 139:11-16 English Standard Version (ESV)

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.

My Questions

1) Who is writing this Psalm and why did they write it?

2) What contrasting imagery does the writer use in v.12 to illustrate his point?

3) What three descriptors does the writer use in this passage to show God’s awareness even before we are born?

The Tools

A trip to www.studylight.org is in order here.
We will get super cozy with this site as we study Scripture together!
Just type in the verse you’re looking at and Boom!
It’s right in front of you in English and Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament), which are the original languages the Bible was written in.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse?
Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Find super awesome stuff like “origin”, “definition”, and even all the different ways that single word has been translated into English! If you want to be geeky, you can even click the word and hear its original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want to get more background on a word or phrasing or passage?
Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))

The Findings for Original Intent

1) Psalm 139 was written by David. Keep in mind a lot of Psalms where actual hymns that were sung in worship services. David, throughout this Psalm, wants to remind the reader that God is aware. He is there in our lowest lows and highest highs. God has intimate knowledge of His creation even before we were born. David makes it clear that there is nowhere God is not. He is both omnipresent (everywhere) and omniscient (all knowing).

2) In continuing to iterate his point, David uses the analogy of light and darkness. David says, “even the darkness is not dark to you”. In our dark moments and seasons God’s light and hope permeate. The truth is God is there and He is aware!

3) In v. 14, David says, “you formed my inwards parts…you knitted me together”, in v. 15, he says, “my frame was not hidden from you”, and in v. 16, “your eyes have seen my unformed substance.” God sees! Even before we were intricately woven by an Almighty Creator, He saw us. David repeats three times in this passage that God uniquely designed and created each one us with thought and precision. (Check out Addie’s story!)

Some Applications for Our Everyday Lives

1) David clearly wanted the reader to understand that God is in control. Circumstances, trials, and the unknown do not control what we know to be true. In moments of doubt and fear, God reminds us through David’s words that our Heavenly Father created us, protects us, and knows us intimately!

2) Light and dark are tangible analogies that can be understood. We know darkness and its capability to consume but God’s light is brighter, bigger, and more powerful than the darkest night. It will not overwhelm but even the darkness is subject to God Almighty!

3) “In the beginning God created….” Genesis 1;1. This world and our circumstances do not change God’s character. As a father loves a child, so our Heavenly Father created us and loves us. “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:14). Praise God for His thought, His vision, and His intimate nature with which He chose before the foundation of the world to frame us in His image. (Genesis 1:27)

We’d love to hear how God challenged you through today’s Journey Study! Share your thoughts, comments, and questions with the GT Community!
Can we pray for you? 
Looking for faith stories?

Want To Try It For Yourself?!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read through it (always more than a verse or two).
3) Write down your questions as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers.
Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes
(click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and
embrace the fullness of God in your everyday!

Share Your Thoughts with the GT Community!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!
Tap and hold on your mobile device to save.

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Safe Week One! Don’t miss out on the discussion – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? See all past studies in Safe!

Safe Day Three
From Faith to Freedom

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Read His Words Before Ours!

Exodus 1:8-22
Exodus 2:1-10Safe-Jochebed-KM
Hebrews 11:23
Psalm 139:11-16

“I love you, my sweet one. Everything will be alright.” The words slipped from my mouth just loud enough for my newborn daughter to hear. Although my daughter was 29 hours old, this was the first time I was getting to hold her. I pressed her little body tightly against mine and told her that she was extravagantly loved, she was wanted, the Lord has a plan for her life, despite my fears as she was being sent away to a new NICU at a different hospital.

“Oh Lord, be with my baby. Wrap your tender arms around her and hold her while I can’t. Keep her safe and healthy and whole. Let her feel you with her.”

My prayer could easily echo that of a woman named Jochebed.

Jochebed, an Israelite slave in Egypt, battled an inward struggle of utter joy and complete dread, for if this baby was a boy, he would be destined for death. Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, had forgotten that many years ago, an Israelite had actually ruled as second in command in Egypt.
But Pharaoh’s arrogance took over logic as he feared the Israelites would overrule him.
First, he made them his slaves.
Then, he killed their newborn sons.
It was with this backdrop of death, one final push, and a deep moan, that Jochebed’s baby was born.
The midwife held him up for Jochebed to see, and like waves crashing a boat in a storm, love and fear crashed against her heart as she realized her new son’s fate.

With motherly determination, Jochebed made a decision that could cost her own life: she was going to hide her son. I can imagine how she spent nights nursing him without stopping to minimize his crying, holding him constantly, singing to him often. Nothing was going to happen to her boy.

For three months Jochebed was able to hide him. When she wasn’t praying or cooking or cleaning, she was scheming. She knew that he couldn’t go much longer in hiding and she came up with a plan. Swiftly she began to tightly weave a waterproof basket. I can almost see her cradling her little three-month-old son in her arms, nuzzling his face to her own, and whispering:

“Oh Lord, be with my baby. Wrap your tender arms around him and hold him while I can’t. Keep him safe and healthy and whole. Let him feel you with him.”

With that, she placed him in a basket in the Nile River and told her young daughter, Miriam, to follow the basket. Pharaoh’s daughter opened the basket as it floated past her and instantly, she was captivated by love.
Miriam jumped out from her hiding place and asked if a wet-nurse was needed to feed this baby, and when the Princess nodded her head, Jochebed’s daughter ran to get her own mama, who was then commanded to nurse and care for this baby boy until he was older.

The precious love of a Father!
To give a boy his mama back, to protect a life, to guard a woman’s heart!
….but saving Moses was So. Much. More.

God didn’t want to just save a baby.
He wanted to save a nation.
He wanted a people called out to be His own.

There were countless other Hebrew boys drowned at the Pharaoh’s hand. Thousands of women who prayed for their sons’ lives only to scream with horror at the intrusion of soldier’s feet into their home.
These women’s distress reminds me of the very harsh reality that not every one who prays with faith, will see salvation in the way they imagine.
But Moses…
Moses and Jochebed remind me that
faithful obedience will always, always, always result in God’s Faithful Redemption!

Moses was saved to save his people from slavery.
So that one day, every Hebrew woman would give birth without fear.
Every child would grow up free.
Every soul would have access to the Father who loved to redeem them.

One incredible day, another Hebrew boy would be born and another death threat would chase down his life. But he would surrender to it. Willfully.

So that everyone born into His name would live without fear.
Every child, washed in His blood, would know true freedom.
And every soul would have access to the Father who loved to redeem.

Jochebed’s faith.
God’s graciousness.
Moses’ obedience.
A nation’s freedom.

Mary’s faith.
God’s graciousness.
Jesus’ obedience.
Our freedom.

The life of Jochebed is easily overlooked and her name sounds foreign on our lips.
But she was a woman of mighty valor!
Jochebed’s trust in the Lord for her own safety, and the safety of her precious child, pointed straight to the safety we can all have in Christ alone, despite the circumstances that surround us, no matter how dark!

Share your thoughts from today’s Journey Study!
Can we pray for you?
Sign up to receive every Journey Study!

Join the GT Community and share your thoughts!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Tap and hold from your mobile device to download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Safe Week One! Don’t miss out on the discussion below – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? Here’s a link to all past studies in Safe!

Safe Day Two
Be Careful: Digging Deeper

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Digging Deeper posts are intended to help us go farther into God’s word than a simple surface reading
and are designed to help us discover new tools in the process.
Curious as to why we Dig Deeper? Here’s Why! 

The Passage

Looking for yesterday’s Journey Post? Check out Be Careful!

Isaiah 26:3-4 English Standard Version (ESV)

You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

My Questions

1) Who was Isaiah talking to and about in this passage: who is the “You” and who is the “him”?

2) What does it mean to have a mind “stayed” on God and how does that lead to peace?

3) What is Isaiah’s definition of trust?

The Tools

A trip to www.studylight.org is in order here.
We will get super cozy with this site as we study Scripture together!
Just type in the verse you’re looking at and Boom!
It’s right in front of you in English and Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament), which are the original languages the Bible was written in.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse?
Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Find super awesome stuff like “origin”, “definition”, and even all the different ways that single word has been translated into English! If you want to be geeky, you can even click the word and hear its original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want to get more background on a word or phrasing or passage?
Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))

The Findings for Original Intent

1) In this passage the “You” refers to God and the “him” refers to the nation of Israel. Knowing the audience and keeping all the pronouns straight in Scripture can sometimes be confusing, but it is necessary to understand the context. The book of Isaiah was written to the southern portion of the divided kingdom of Israel. Isaiah wrote of impending judgement by God and to help Israel understand that God’s hope is eternal despite the impending judgement on their nation. God was with them even in the face of exile and He would restore their nation one day! God is the God of restoration and hope.

2) Biblical peace is not the absence of physical war. Isaiah wrote in a time when Israel was going to be conquered and taken captive. Peace comes from the choice to keep our minds on God. It is the absence of a spiritual battle of wills because there is understanding of how the story will end. Isaiah says that God keeps him in perfect peace whose mind is “stayed” on God. With a little investigation of that word “stay” we see that it means to support oneself, brace oneself, lean on, rest upon, revive oneself. Isaiah is letting his audience know that God’s peace, the understanding that this too shall pass and there is hope, will come when they brace themselves and rest upon the “everlasting rock”.

3) When Isaiah uses the word “trust” he is encouraging and instructing Israel to put faith in God’s keen awareness of their circumstances and continue to have faith that God knows best. Judgement and exile are not high on the list of “want-to’s” for anyone especially God’s chosen people, however, they are facing consequences for their own actions. Isaiah simply is leading them to have faith that God will protect them like only He can and rely on the “everlasting rock” of salvation. Reliance on God during flourishing and during exile sets their sight on the restoration that is to come for their nation.

Some Applications for Our Everyday Lives

1) God speaks! He speaks through Scripture, He speaks through prayers, and He speaks through people. God clearly told Isaiah to relay a message of judgement, yes, but also restoration.

2) God’s peace that “surpasses all understanding will protect our hearts and minds in Jesus Christ alone.” (Philippians 4:7) When we “stay” our minds on Him, steady our sight like tunnel vision on Christ, peace prevails. That kind of intentional focus forces us to see differently, to act differently, and to brace ourselves with His peace in the midst of our personal exile!

3) We put our faith and trust in so many different things. For Israel, putting their trust in other things is what led to their exile. They lost sight of God and how easy it is for us to lose sight, to get distracted by this world, the demands, and the desires to be something that God never says we should be. Trusting in the Lord despite what we see around us doesn’t always keep us from circumstances, from chaos, or from pain, but it does allow us to “stay” in the midst of them.

We’d love to hear how God challenged you through today’s Journey Study! Share your thoughts, comments, and questions with the GT Community!
Can we pray for you? 
Looking for faith stories?

Want To Try It For Yourself?!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read through it (always more than a verse or two).
3) Write down your questions as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers.
Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes
(click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and
embrace the fullness of God in your everyday!

Share Your Thoughts with the GT Community!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!
Tap and hold on your mobile device to save.

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Safe Week One! Don’t miss out on the discussion – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? See all past studies in Safe!

Safe Day One
Be Careful!

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Read His Words Before Ours!

Daniel 6becareful
James 1:2-12
Matthew 10:16-23
Isaiah 26:3-4
Acts 16:21-34

“Be careful!”

With two Littles at home, I often feel that I am basically a constant warning signal to them.  Flashing lights and siren singing, I find myself repeating mantras that could easily become the “voice in their head” as they grow and mature.  Cautioning against carelessness, accidents, bad behaviors, injury, poor choices and more.  I guess this is part of my job: to teach them to make thoughtful choices and decisions that will result in the best possible outcome and keep them (and those around them) safe.

But.

As I reflect on the parallels I find between my parenting and the way that God parents me, I am faced with some important differences…especially when it comes to our definitions of “safety”.  He has outlined how I should walk, and His precepts are made clear to me when I spend time in His word and seek His heart.  He has given me “rules” to follow that will keep me “safe”…  Not unlike the rules I give my Tinies.  But His definition of safe does not mirror our natural definition of the word.  At this stage in life, the guidance I give to those in my charge is mostly with regard to their physical, mental and emotional well-being, while His guidance to us regarding safety has little to do with the physical and everything to do with the spiritual.

When I examine the account of Daniel’s experiences, I am hard-pressed to find examples of Daniel being “careful”.  Practically nothing he did would be considered the “safe” choice by any stretch of the imagination.

  • When offered rich foods and delicacies, he refused the king’s offer in order to honor God.  He could have been killed at the king’s whim.
  • When faced with the threat of certain death, rather than choosing to flee, Daniel requested an audience with him and boldly interpreted the king’s dream, giving glory to God.
  • When called to interpret another dream, Daniel spoke the word of God to the king, even though he knew he could be killed for this.
  • When summoned a third time, Daniel was again faced with the possibility of physical death, but instead of choosing the “safe” option, He chose instead to speak the truth of God.  His life was spared and he was rewarded.
  • When faced with the command to worship another, Daniel chose to worship the God he loved instead, bringing honor to Him.

Throughout his life, Daniel chose to obey God.  Time and again, he blessed God through his obedience, even in the face of certain death.  Our nature is to focus on our immediate physical safety, but God is concerned with something far more grave:  our eternal safety.  In fact, we find Jesus’ own words to His disciples, those closest to Him, in Matthew 10:16-23.  I’ll summarize, but the cost He referenced is along the lines of…

You will be sent out amidst wolves.
Delivered to courts.
Flogged in synagogues.
Dragged before governors and kings.
Delivered to death… by those closest to you.
Hated by all.
(seriously, check out the whole passage here, it’s worth the 20 seconds!)

Those words don’t give me the slightest assurance of physical, mental or emotional safety.  Actually, they convince me of the exact opposite.  This, to those He kept closest.  His tribe.  His family.  Those he broke bread with, laughed with, prayed with.

But.

The one who endures to the end will be saved.  He isn’t talking about our physical well-being here.  Nor our emotional state or mental well-being.  He is talking about our spiritual destination.  

You see, here’s the thing:
He never promised us safety as the world defines it.  Quite the opposite, actually.  What He did promise is that upon accepting Jesus as our savior and committing our lives and hearts to Him, we could rest in the security of knowing that when these bodies fade, wither, and return to dust, our spirits will be safe in Him for eternity.

My job as mama is to teach my little ones to make good choices and to learn consequences.  More importantly, it is my job to teach them about Jesus, and what true safety means.

Lord, help me to walk before You in bold obedience that others may seek You for themselves, so that they might know what real security and safety in You looks like.

Share your thoughts from today’s Journey Study!
Can we pray for you?
Sign up to receive every Journey Study!

Join the GT Community and share your thoughts!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Tap and hold from your mobile device to download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Safe Week One! Don’t miss out on the discussion below – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? Here’s a link to all past studies in Safe!

The GT Weekend! Desperate Week Three

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The GT Weekend

At Gracefully Truthful, weekends aren’t for “checking out”.
Use this time to invite the Almighty’s fullness into you life in a deeper way!
Saturdays and Sundays are a chance to reflect, rest, and re-center our lives onto Christ. Don’t miss the opportunity to connect with other women in prayer, rest your soul in reflective journaling, and spend time worshiping the Creator who longs for intimacy with each of us!

Journal With Us!

Journal Prompts

1) Israel flourished because of their heart change. Where in your life do you want to flourish instead of flounder? Are you willing to allow God to make you new?

2) Think of some of your everyday tasks that you could allow Jesus to bring life to. Choose one area to focus on being intentional with this week.

3) What are some of your scars? Think deeply on these and then find one close friend to share it with. Allow healing to begin!

Worship In Song

Music Video: Kristian Stanfil’s “Come to the Water”

Pour Out Your Heart

Jesus, let me know Your deep love for me as I pray Your Word back to you.  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.  Ephesians 1:3-10

Pray With Us!

In everything, with praise and thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God!
Click here to comment and pray with the GT Community!
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Send your prayer request to prayer@gracefullytruthful.com
We are committed to praying over and walking with you!

Journey With Us

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Day Fifteen
Desperate for Redemption

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Click & Read
Matthew 12:9-21
Isaiah 42:1-9
Isaiah 40:27-31IMG_4982
Psalm 147:1-6

“For it is exceedingly bitter to me…that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.”

We all have those sore spots.
Come on, don’t cover them up with cute Christian slogans,
“Oh, I’ve forgiven that. The Lord knows best. God is just so good. Let’s just rejoice always.” All true, but sometimes we use clichés to cover our hearts.

The thing about God is that He knows our hearts. And if we aren’t being up-front and honest about the state of affairs in our hearts with God and ourselves, then we have stunted what would otherwise be a growing, intimate relationship with the Creator.

What makes your list of “the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.”?
Cancer
Early death of a loved one
Material loss
Infertility
A career that dropped out
Addiction
Emotional wounds
Abuse
Abandonment
Unfaithfulness

Scars. Some you can see, many that you can’t, but hurt even worse.

Naomi was a woman whose pain was so close to her that she seemed resigned to forever be wearing it.
Exceedingly bitter was her autobiography.
She even changed her name from Naomi (meaning pleasant) to Mara (meaning bitter).
With the collapse of her finances, severe famine and drought, the death of her husband followed by the deaths of both her sons, Naomi’s life had indeed gone from “pleasant” to “bitter”. She was aged, abandoned without security, home or husband, and so she did the only thing she could, she made the long trek back to her homeland. Shame-faced and spent from a 7-10 day walking journey on dusty roads, Naomi faced the people she’d left years before.

As if the heaviness her heart already held wasn’t enough, she now faced the shame of coming home empty when she had left so full. We watch Naomi’s story unfold and we see ourselves. Hopeful, dreamy, until the circumstances became too much. One thing after the other, heartbreak after heartbreak, and eventually we find ourselves at the very end of our tattered rope. Unsure. Lost. Scarred. Perhaps even past desperate hope to a place of empty resignation.
“The hand of the Lord has gone out against me.”

She hadn’t abandoned her faith, she knew God was still sovereign, but she just couldn’t see His goodness anymore.

Are you there, Sister?
Are you the bruised reed, the broken hearted, the abandoned and emptied?
Maybe you’re not anymore, but perhaps those broken places still linger somewhere in the corridors of your heart. You try to avoid them, but sometimes a light shines on them and the searing pain you feel is like it happened yesterday.

For Naomi, or Mara as she preferred, the Lord had not abandoned her. God was using her heartbreak to bring her home, to redeem her heart.
He was working in her as she welcomed new daughter-in-laws, one of which would become so attracted to Naomi’s solid faith that she would willingly leave her own homeland to follow Yahweh.
God was working in the pain of her heart to give her enough faith to return, despite her shame and emptiness.
The good Father was working in the timing so that Naomi would come home right at harvest season.
She couldn’t see His hand, but He was still there.
Her cause had not been disregarded by her God despite how she felt.
Her Abba desired “pleasant”, not “bitter” for His daughter.

It’s the same for us, as His adopted heirs. He doesn’t say the pain is good, but He does promise to bring goodness for our hearts from it. He promises fullness.

Naomi’s husband and sons didn’t rise from the dead. Her pain wasn’t eradicated in one fell swoop. It was still there, but God was good and He showed up. Because of her faith, God blessed Naomi through Ruth and her new husband Boaz with security, an inheritance, and an heir. An heir that would place Naomi as the great-great-grandma of King David through whom would come the Savior, the Eternal Redeemer, and our own very rich inheritance in the Lord Jesus Christ.

One woman’s pain.
One woman’s faith.
One True God who lovingly worked in the darkness to bring about His light, not just for her, but for humanity.

At the birth of Naomi’s grandson her community couldn’t possibly ignore the goodness of God in her life and proclaimed:
“Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! 15 He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

In turning over our scars to the One who gave His Own Hands to be scarred for us, may His light shine so brilliantly, even in our darkness, that our community, our city, our nation, our world can’t possibly ignore His Eternal Redemption.

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Day Fourteen
Desperate for Truth: Digging Deeper

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Digging Deeper posts are intended to help us go farther into God’s word than a simple surface reading
and are designed to help us discover new tools in the process.
Curious as to why we Dig Deeper? Here’s Why! 

The Passage

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John 4:20-24 English Standard Version, ESV

20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

My Questions

1) Why was this woman arguing with Jesus over where to worship?

2) In v.21, Jesus says “an hour is coming”, what is referring to?

3) How is Jesus defining “true worshipers”?

The Tools

A trip to www.studylight.org is in order here.
We will get super cozy with this site as we study Scripture together!
Just type in the verse you’re looking at and Boom!
It’s right in front of you in English and Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament), which are the original languages the Bible was written in.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse?
Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Find super awesome stuff like “origin”, “definition”, and even all the different ways that single word has been translated into English! If you want to be geeky, you can even click the word and hear its original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want to get more background on a word or phrasing or passage?
Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))

The Findings for Original Intent

1) John 4 shares an encounter that Jesus has with a Samaritan woman. In order to understand why she is arguing about worship location, we look to the history of the Samaritans. In the history of the Israelite nation, there was a kingdom divide, the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah) and Samaria was the capital of the Northern Kingdom while Jerusalem was the capital of the Southern Kingdom. When the Assyrians invaded the Northern Kingdom (Israel) they carried off a lot of the Jewish families. However, there was a group of Israelites that remained and the Assyrians repopulated the Northern Kingdom with five eastern tribes to squash the Israelite identity and customs. As a result, these eastern tribes and the Israelites intermarried and assimilated into one culture. They became known as the Samaritans and were considered “half-breeds” because they were only part Jewish. Eventually, the Babylonians conquered both Northern and Southern Kingdoms and the entire region became known as Samaria. This led to the Exile which was prophesied by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:11-12). The exiles were taken in waves to Babylon but there were some that were never taken. The sick, the weak, the poor, and the unskilled were left behind. Those that were left behind in Samaria began to establish their own practices of worship, their own place of worship (Mount Gerizim), and their own adapted Pentateuch in Aramaic. When the Jews returned, this caused tremendous strife and tension between the orthodox Jews and the Samaritan Jews, which still exist today. When the Samaritan woman argues with Jesus, her argument is based on hundreds of years of bad history between the “real” Jews and the Samaritan Jews.

2) Throughout John’s gospel, Jesus refers to “an hour is coming”. We see this phrase used when Jesus is foretelling his crucifixion and resurrection. In John 12:27, “But for this purpose I came to this hour.” Digging into the word “hour” here helps us to understand it does not mean a fixed time on the clock, rather a definite point of time. It refers a time where something will happen to change how she will worship.

3) A true worshipper worships in spirit and truth. Again, word study helps to gain a clearer representation of the phrase “true worshipper”. The word “true” is that which has not only the name and resemblance, but the real nature corresponding to the name, in every respect corresponding to the idea signified by the name, real, true genuine. There is understanding in Jesus’ words that a true worshiper will know God and the place they worship will not matter but more their heart and desire for the one true God in that worship.

The word “spirit” here is the same word for the third person of Trinity. Apart from the Holy Spirit in our life, we cannot worship God. The role of the Holy Spirit is to “teach you all things, and bring to you remembrance all that I said to you.” (John 14:26) In this passage, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will come when He leaves to remind us, help us, and guide us into God’s truth (John 16:13). He, the Holy Spirit, enlightens our eyes to the truth of God’s word so that we may worship Him.

Some Applications for Our Everyday Lives

1) The Samaritan woman’s argument with Jesus gives Him opportunity to explain the New Covenant. In her mind, she has been made to feel like she is less than a “true” worshipper of Christ because of who she is and what she has done when in fact Jesus takes this opportunity to set her right. Consider ways you feel “less than worthy” of an intimate relationship with the Almighty, and let your heart listen to the words of Jesus. It isn’t the place of worship, our past, or the rules we try to keep, that dictate intimacy with Christ, but rather the authenticity of our faith in the One True God.

2) Jesus’ “hour” finally came, in part, with his death, burial and resurrection. Romans 8:18-19 says, “18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.” We wait for the “hour” to come just as the Jewish people awaited a Messiah that would set them free. We eagerly wait for the “hour” that Christ will return and restore all things. In what ways can you live focused on that approaching hour?

3) Just as Jesus wanted the Samaritan woman to realize that God desired an intimate relationship with her, He’s extending the same offer to us! It was the woman’s choice to worship the Lord, not a country or people or even her past that defined her. Just a woman standing in front of a great big God, submitting out of reverence, awe, and a desire for authentic worship. Because we have Christ’s resurrection power, we too can “put to death the deeds of the body” (Rom 8:13) and truly be free to worship!

Want To Try It For Yourself?!

1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read through it (always more than a verse or two).
3) Write down your questions as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers.
Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes
(click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and
embrace the fullness of God in your everyday!

Share Your Thoughts with the GT Community!

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!
Tap and hold on your mobile device to save.

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Desperate Week Three! Don’t miss out on the discussion – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? See all past studies in Desperate!