Thinking Girls Bible Study

Are you waiting on the Lord for something? Have you been waiting a long time? Have you just about given up hope? Don’t. God’s delays are always designed and productive. He is doing something that He couldn’t do without the delay. It’s because He loves you that He delays...He wants to do something more in your life than what you can see. I have been waiting on the Lord for something major in my life for a long, long time. It has been a long, and at times, agonizing journey. Some days feel very dark. The longer I wait, the more I begin to question if I’ve really heard from Him. One particular day not too long ago, I woke up in discouragement. It was one of those days of questioning. I asked the Lord to just speak to me in a way that I would know that it was Him. I opened my Bible to John 11 which is the passage of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. My eyes went immediately to a note I had written in the margin, “God has told me what to do —I need to walk in the light He ha...

This study is somewhat different than the previous ones. It’s a study of Bathsheba. Her story is important to us for many reasons. She is best known as the one with whom David committed adultery. But there is more to her story than that. We can learn from Bathsheba about repentance and then being useful and fruitful for the Kingdom. 2 Samuel 11:1-3: “It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem . Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, ‘Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?’” (Emphasis mine.) Problem number one: It’s the time of year when kings g...

We often hear of the proverbial “blessing in disguise.” Many times, in fact, I would say every time we are faced with loss and hardship, there will be a blessing attached to it. It’s in our barrenness, our dry times, our wildernesses that we learn things we could not have learned otherwise. But when we come out on the other side, what we learned turns out to be precious stones in our lives. Our study of Hannah begins In 1 Samuel 1. I will be using the New King James Bible and the Blue Letter Bible and Strong’s as references. 1 Samuel 1: 1-2: “Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of the mountains of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. And he had two wives; the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. Right from the start we get a clue for studying the story of Hannah when we look at the Hebrew word Ramathaim ...

As mentioned in the previous study of the Shunanem woman, the first mention in the Old Testament for the word rest is found in Genesis 2:2: "And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done." The Hebrew word for rest in this verse is shabath and means "to cease, desist, rest (from labor.) It is where we get the word Sabbath. Another Hebrew word translated as rest is sha'an and means "to lean on, trust in, support, to trust in God, lean, lie, rely, rest on, stay." This word is found in Genesis 18:4: "Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree." This verse occurs after Abraham received the Covenant and was circumcised. I'm sure there are many lessons to be mined here, but for now, what I see is a pleasant picture this one verse depicts of rest: sitting in the shade of a tree after a journey, with a ...

Rest. Don't we all crave that rest? Especially now, with the amplified chaos of the world?  I'm good at encouraging those around me to "rest in the Lord," but I still struggle with doing it myself.  The enemy knows his time is short and is wreaking havoc on those of us who belong to Yeshua.  He is very clever and has had thousands of years to hone his craft.  And crafty he is.  He is the master of disguise and knows perfectly how to blindside us, sending us reeling from his attacks.  When those attacks come I want to run somewhere.  I get anxious and nervous and I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. What to do?  Rest.  Run to our Great High Priest who is interceding for us at the Throne of Grace, and rest there... knowing that even though our world might seem to be falling apart all around us...even though the ground under our feet seems to be crumbling...even though we see no way out...rest in Him.   Rest in the One who ...

I spent the better part of two days getting this study  ready to publish.  I was just about at the end and was correcting a mistake, and something happened, I don't know what...and everything was deleted.  To say I was devastated would be an understatement. How could I possibly remember everything? Then it occurred to me, that is what Elohim does with our sins.  When we accept His Provision, the Lamb of God as our Savior, He deletes our sins as far as the East is from the West.  He remembers them no more.  How wonderful is that? We live in a world where there are no superlatives.  Everything and everybody is "awesome" or "incredible" or "unbelievable."  As a result, nothing is. The world falls all over itself, trying to be more outrageous, more shocking, more, more, more. The noise has also been amplified.  If you'll notice, every commercial, every talk show, morning show, even news shows have a background synthesized "music" that is...

I wanted to do something a little different for this study.  The last few weeks have seemed more tumultuous than ever. The whole word seems to be in turmoil, with issues of war and hatred to the weather and geographical upheaval.  Lives have been changed forever in these last few weeks.  It's easy to get caught up in worry and woe, and to look at what's happening around us instead of keeping our eyes on our Savior.  Let's remind ourselves and each other that we serve a sovereign God who loves us and gave His life for us. He is in control and He has appointed everything to play out according to His will and His purpose. As we see all these things happening, let us remember to look up. Our redemption draws near. I decided to post this piece called "My King" by Chuck Missler for our next study.  I have benefited greatly from Chuck's teachings.  There is a wealth of free material made available on his website Khouse.org.   Every time I read this, I'm ...

In the last study, we looked at Hagar and how her life was impacted by Abram and Sarai taking matters into their own hands instead of waiting on the Lord. There are more dynamics to this story than can be addressed in two studies, but we will look at a few. God had given a promise to Abram and Sarai that He would give them descendants. But many years had passed since that initial promise, so Abram and Sarai decided they would help the Lord out. How many times do we do this? And the result is other people get hurt. Sarai came up with the idea that she would give her slave girl to Abram to have a child by her. Perhaps when Hagar conceived, that confirmed to Sarai her fear that she was the problem. But another dynamic of this story is that Hagar, in her flesh, despised Sarai after she became pregnant. When we find ourselves hurt by others, our tendency is to act in the flesh, to nurse our wounds, to feel sorry for ourselves. Hagar found herself pregnant, in bondage, in seeming hopeless...

Have you ever suffered collateral damage as the result of someone else taking things into their own hands instead of waiting on the Lord? Or maybe just the results of the fleshly behavior of someone else, or resentment or lack of forgiveness?  Or have you suffered because of a loved one's addiction or some other sin?  Maybe your own resentments and unwillingness to forgive have caused collateral damage in someone else life.  Sometimes in studying forgiveness, when people are encouraged to forgive, we hear things like, "You only hurt yourself when you don't forgive."  Or, "You are the one in chains when you hold on to unforgiveness and resentment."  But that's not really accurate.  Being at the receiving end of resentment and bitterness due to lack of forgiveness can be excruciating.  Sometimes it can feel as if a two ton boulder is suffocating the life out of you.  In a sense, a loved one's lack of forgiveness can place chains that can only be r...

In the previous two studies we saw both Abigail and David in their wilderness journeys.  We saw that David had been engaged in battles with Saul and other enemies leading up to the time he met Abigail.  We saw that Abigail was engaged in her own battle.  Many of us know very well what a wilderness experience is. Many of us have been engaged in our own spiritual battles for what may seem like an eternity.  That's why I find comfort in reading Psalm 18, a song of deliverance. David gives us the description of this Psalm in the first verse: "To the Chief Musician.  A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD who spoke to the LORD the words of this song on the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.  And he said;  I will love You, O LORD, my strength."  The occasion for David writing this was the day the Lord delivered David from the hand of his enemies and Saul.  What comfort to ...