Thinking Girls Bible Study

Philippians 1:29: “For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” Suffer. Doesn’t that word just make you pull back and feel uncomfortable just at the mention of it? The Greek word for suffer is pascho and means to be affected or have been affected, to feel, have a sensible experience, to undergo, to suffer sadly, be in a bad plight. Strong’s Definition: apparently a primary verb; to experience a sensation or impression (usually painful) — feel, passion, suffer, vex. (1) There’s also the word suffering, which in the Greek is pathema meaning:      1. That which one suffers or has suffered           A. externally, a suffering, misfortune, calamity, evil, affliction                i. Of the sufferings of Christ                ii. also the afflictions which Christians...

There’s always more to the story. The Bible can never be exhausted. That’s one of the many beautiful aspects of God’s love letter to us. And the Lord has such a lovely way of bringing things full circle. Recently, I was talking with a friend who was dealing with an issue that has also been an ongoing issue in my life for many, many years. Without going into detail, this is something that involved decisions that only I could make for myself and I had to make those decisions according to what God’s Word says. If I’m being honest, those decisions come with lots of overthinking and caring too much that other people will think I’m dumb or foolish. But I know the only thing that matters is what I know the Lord would have me do. So when this conversation happened, all the issues that went into coming to these decisions came back into question. I was pleading with the Lord the next morning to please speak to me and show me, if indeed, we had already settled this. I opened up to Job 2:9-10: “Th...

I have a confession to make.  Lately I have been struggling with rest.  If I were to grade myself on my spiritual life presently, I would give myself an A for surrender.  The Lord has worked on me and taught me much about surrender.  I have lived long enough to know that I might as well surrender. By that I mean, I've been on this earth long enough to know it's really dumb not to surrender to the One Who knows everything and has all the answers. Also, the Lord has done a great deal of heart work on me so that I WANT to surrender to my Lord of lords and King of kings.  But rest, I'm back to struggling with. I've been in about a twenty year trial where I've experienced some of my worst nightmares.  I think now I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Looking back, I see all the work He has done in me through the trial and I see how necessary it was.  I see that the work was customized...it had to be the way He did it.  Isaiah...

A few years ago I watched a program on Day of Discovery. It was about a twenty year old girl named Lygon Stevens who was a mountain climber and had died in an avalanche while climbing with her brother. Lygon did not sound like your typical twenty year old. We get a glimpse into her walk with the Lord through her journal that her brother salvaged during the accident. She seemed to have found all the things that young girls are looking for in her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But after her death, her family was left to deal with their huge heart rending loss. Their suffering was horrific. More of the story can be found on the website http://www.timetoliveisnow.org/ . The takeaway in this story for me is an illustration that came from Lygon's mother. She had been asked to speak somewhere and had gone to a place of solitude to gather her thoughts. It was still very hard to carry this whole thing around with her...the loss of her daughter, but the story of a...