This is it, sweet friends! We’re going to do this thing together and you know that little excites me more than women in the Word together!
Before we dig into our first lesson, would you please take a few minutes and read through the introduction?
Okay. I really wanted you to read it because it sets the stage for our next 10 lessons. Becoming You is not about writing your own story. It’s about looking at our lives through the lens of God’s plan for us and then letting Him write our stories for us.
I’ve wanted to do a lot of things through the years. I wanted to be a teacher, a nurse, a doctor, a professional organizer (Lord help us all!), an advertising executive, a missionary, a homeschool mom, a stay at home mom, a business owner, a speaker, a Bible teacher and a myriad of other aspirations.
Like trying on shoes…some of them were a fit; some of them didn’t work and some of them I never even attempted to try on.
Our hearts often pull us in directions that our feet should never go. We forget that not every open door is ours to walk through and we forge full steam ahead without spending time in prayer. Many a day is wasted heading in the wrong direction all because we did not seek our Father’s face first.
However, the other side of the equation is equally true. We often fail to take positive steps in our own destinies because we are either too distracted, defeated or intimidated to begin the journey.
We don’t take the time to examine where we are or the necessary steps it will take to get to where we are going. We allow past failures, future fears or the enemy’s lies to define and defeat us. And sometimes we are so intimidated by a call to something bigger than ourselves that we are afraid to ever begin the journey in the first place.
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- Your desire to do so many things, you aren’t sure whether they are God’s will or just your own desires?
- Feeling like every open door is yours to walk through?
- Being so distracted by the dailies of life that you’re allowing your life to slip by without fulfilling your purpose?
- Never understanding your true identity in Christ and being defeated by the lies you’ve allowed to wrongly define you?
- Being intimidated by a call to something bigger than yourself and one that you know will require a lot of time, energy and prayer?
Good study today! The only way that we will know what God desires of us and what His Will is for us is to spend time in prayer and above all else to be QUIET and listen! That is my problem…the being quiet part! LOL. Amazing though at how God speaks to us when we are quiet before Him and seeking Him. Some of my problems from the past has been “making choices without weighing the consequences”….and this has proven true with everything in my life. Whether it be a personal thing or a church thing or whatever. Because I tend to be a people pleaser at heart I have more than one time agreed to something or dove into something that I had not really given thought to or “weighed” it out. I love the part in the study where you wrote basically we should “filter” each though through the Word of God! Enjoying this study. Blessings, Cindy
Thank you for sharing so transparently Cindy! So many of us struggle with that people pleasing thing that it's hard to say “no” to what may be a good thing and choose to say “yes” when we know it's a God think!
Loving this study already. “Your desire to do so many things, you aren't sure whether they are God's will or just your own desires?”—- This is my biggest struggle!Somethings I know right away that they are God's will and then there are those that just leave me sitting there wondering what to do or which way to go. I am learning that making quick/instant decisions are not wise. I am really trying to do some serious praying over every decision and seeking His face and His will. Thank you for your heart Steph! Love you!
Amanda
Thanks Amanda! You know my struggle is that I want to do EVERYTHING! It ALL sounds so wonderful! Ministry is like that! There are so many great ways to minister to others, so many great opportunities…yet not every open door is ours to walk through and so we pray for wisdom and more according to His plan…not our own…and not just what sounds good!
Still learning that one!
Hi, My name is Melissa I live in the Sunshine State and this is my first Stephanie Stott study.
I love it. I live in such a rural area there is not many live Bible studies.
Thank you for doing this.
I have a lot to work on, loved the dreams part. Kinda lost those for a while being a wife, mom and employee.
Melissa
Hi Melissa!
I live in the Sunshine State too! Not so sunny today, but it's been beautiful lately!
I'm SO excited that you are walking through the Word with us! This study is a culmination of so many biblical principles we find in Scripture, yet we don't always see the the thread that weaves them together and changes us.
It's so easy to lose sight of our dreams in the midst of life. Sometimes, we're supposed to tuck them away for a season until it's time for them to sprout.
Other times, we're supposed to get the shovel out and start digging those old dreams out of dry barren soil and start walking in them.
So thankful Jesus shows us when and how!
Glad you're in this with us!