I started a new Bible study this week at my church.  Faithful Abundant True by Kay Arthur, Beth Moore, and Priscilla Shirer.  Going through this first week, I find myself checking my life to see if I am matching up with God’s will.  Am I doing what He wants me to be doing?  Am I walking in the Spirit and is my soul with Him?  Hmm, these are tough questions that I need to stop and think about and I wonder if I’m following God with all of my being.  Kay Arthur pulls not bunches when she teaches her messages.  This I have learned from experience.  So I know that I can truly trust what she is saying and that the urgency has to be that we need to get ourselves right with God NOW rather than waiting.  Why?  Because we don’t  know when Christ will be returning for us.  So we have to be preparing ourselves right now for His return.

I know that I have some things to seek Him about!  What about you do you?  As each week goes on I will be adding to this post on each week.

Stay tuned!

Week 2:

Talks about having faith,  how strong are we in our faith?  Are we following the things of this world or are we following the Lord?  Are we being diligent and persistent or are we being stagnate?  Are we being good stewards with what we have been given?  These are questions that we need to be asking ourselves.  For me it hit home when Kay started asking these types of questions.

We’ve been going through the book of Hebrews, each chapter has something different going on.  The writer gives instructions and things that we need to be doing, however some of the people that the scriptures are talking about seem to be going their own way and not following what the writers are saying, or they are indulging themselves in the world following what others are doing and not listening to the teachings that the writers are stressing them to follow.

When we follow Christ we are do as He did and do what He did.  Loving others, pursuing His will not ours, enduring the hardships that come upon us, and watching what we say.  We are to be encouraging one another not tearing each other down like this world is doing.  Sometimes that is easier said than done.  We are not doing for our glory, but for the glory of God and to please Him not ourselves.  Are we forsaking our Savior or Satan?  That is the question that we should be asking ourselves and whom we should be following.

I am going to be diligently following my Lord and Savior, how about you?

Week 3:

This week was with Priscilla Shirer, she is a funny and every expressive woman.  I can relate to her on some of her points as I have been through them myself.  This week we are going through ‘God is Able,’ and ‘God is able to surprise us.’ God can do anything for us if we just seek Him and ask Him.  Which is the foundation of our faith.  A lot of the time we don’t do that.  We try to work things out on our own esteem only to find out that we are failing miserably every time.  Uggg, I don’t know about you but I’m tired of failing and am working on walking the path that God has set before me instead of my own accord.  Having that faith whether it is big or small, doesn’t matter because when we trust God for everything no matter how big or small they are He will give us the desires of our heart.

It can become not only draining, but frustrating at the same time.  We also judge and criticize those around us  Why, because they either have something that we want or they have bettered themselves than we have and we have become jealous of what they have.  It’s pretty sad if you ask me.  I know that I have fallen into that trap and I work extremely hard now not to fall into that trap every again. It is not a pretty sight for one and I don’t like how it made me feel when I was in that position.

This study so far has opened my eyes to making the necessary changes that I need to make to get closer to God and for me to become more Christ like.  Purging if you will the old past to becoming the new and improved me that God wants me to be.  Growing up to becoming the mature Christian that Kay talked about the last 2 weeks.

What about you, are you changing and growing up, having faith to move forward and cleanse yourself to become more Christ like?  I know I am, care to join me?

Week 4:

This week Priscilla talked about thinking about the beyond the beyond.  Thinking outside of the box.  God wants to abundantly bless us if we only seek Him and ask in His name, but we have to ever mindful of that if what we are asking for is not in His will then we need to know that we may not receive it.  That it is not God’s will for us to have.  Yes, we will become disappointed, but at the same time there maybe a reason that God does not give it to us.  Only He can foresee what the future holds for us.  He knows whats best for us.  He has our lives all planned out for us and we just have to seek Him to see what His will is for our lives.  Which is not an easy thing to do as we want to know what that is.  That is where we have to trust God, believe that He will come through, and have faith that God will do what is best for us.  It’s easier than we think but we have a tendency to make it harder than it really is.

We also have to get into the Word to learn and study it so that we can have it in our minds to recall it when we need it to keep us straight on our journey with Him.

It’s something to think about and put into action.  I know that I am working on that.  How about you?  Care to join me?

Week 5:

Beth Moore talked about being duped this week, where we have had that gut feeling that something was off with a person that we were talking and getting to know.  Where you come to find out that you had been betrayed and punked as she put it.  Have you ever been betrayed or duped by someone that you trusted?  I know that I have and it was not a good feeling.  You not only feel betrayed, but you end up feeling ashamed at the same time.  That is where we have to have our Spiritual Discernment.  We need to be more into the word and be applying it to our lives so that we can be more aware of things when they don’t feel right, or when something feels off.  God gives us this discernment to help us to walk more like Him.  It’s not easy, but a necessary thing that we have to do to continue and stay with the walk in our spiritual life.

I know for me it has been a hard thing to do.  You want to trust people, but you get that nagging feeling that something is not right.  We can either ignore it and end up failing or we can take it to God and seek Him for what to do.  I know for me that not seeking Him first has caused me more hurt and pain that I really needed.  So from this point on, I’m going to go to God first when I feel something is off and seek His will instead of trying to do things on my own.

What about you?  Care to join me?

Week 6:

This week Beth Moore was talking about 4 questions that we need a ‘no’ to when we are sensing things.  These 4 questions are:

1. Am I a critical or suspicious person by nature?
2. Am I jealous or do I feel threatened?
3. Do I have anything selfish to gain from this outcome?
4. Are my emotions clouding my discernment?

These 4 questions have to have ‘no’ answer to them for us to be walking in the spirit.  By us doing this and looking deep within ourselves we discover that we are doing what God wants us to be doing and we are obeying what He is telling us to do.  These are not easy questions to be asking because we have a tendency to answer yes and then we are walking in the world and following it’s rules, where as if we say no to these questions than we can be walking closer to God’s will for our lives and following His leading.

These past 6 weeks of going deeper into the scriptures and digging deeper within myself has made me think of what a better woman I can become if I only let go of things and seek God first in all of my decisions and allow Him to lead my life instead of me trying to do things on my own power.  For by doing them on my own power I am only setting myself up to fail and that not only makes me sad and disappointed in myself, but tells me that I am not trusting God to work things out in my life.

Hmm, this is definitely something to ponder and continue to do think about, because I want to be more like my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and I cannot do it if I am not obeying His will for me and following what the Bible is telling me to do to apply His teachings to my life.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I know that for me I am going to do God’s will for my life and seek Him more that looking to outside help unless it is for confirmation from Him.  What about you?  Care to join me?

I highly recommend this study if you are looking to go deeper into the word and walk closer to God.