At the request of my BEST FRIEND I am going to post the bible/book study teaching that I share with the women of my church. This was my first time leading a bible/book study and I am thankful that God led me!! I hope you enjoy!
This is my learning from the book "The Jesus-Hearted Woman" by Jodi Detrick - Chapter Five "The Cringe Factor"
Predetermined Choices:
God led me to thinking specifically in terms of Hurts which I believe to be the biggest struggle in life and especially in church.
*My Bad Hurts (pg.123) are hurts that come from our own making.
*Their Bad Hurts (pg. 123) things that others have done to us.
*Too Bad Hurts (pg. 123) things that just do not go our way.
What do we do with our about these hurts?
*We get to decide how we allow hurts/disappointments to affect us.
Predetermined Choices"
*We get to choose - Let's choose now to:
*Not to give up
*Not to wall up (if we wall up we wall ourselves in and not even God can reach us)
*we cage ourselves in and not even God can reach us
*We cannot be fully effective in ministry and loving people if we put up walls to "protect" ourselves
*Not to shut down
*We must never let bitterness Begin - once it starts the journey back in long and difficult
It is our choice
Joseph's Example (Genesis 37 and 39-45)
*Joseph's My Bad - His youthful pride in sharing his dream of his brothers bowing down to him caused friction with his brothers which led to him being sold as a slave
*Joseph's Their Bad - Potiphar's Wife wanted to sleep with him and he fled from her and it still landed him in jail
*Joseph's Too Bad - He was forgotten by the cupbearer which lead to a longer imprisonment (2 full years)
If anyone had reason to give up, wall up or shut down it was Joseph.
However, Joseph's positive response to the situations in his life transformed each set back into a step forward.
Joseph did NOT give up, wall up or shut down, he glorified God and did not allow bitterness.
I think we can learn so much from Joseph and how he made the best of each situation in his life and chose to not give up, wall up, shut down or even allow bitterness to begin in his life. Can you imagine if he had allowed bitterness how incredibly hard it would have been to stop it from situation to situation. Yikes!
I just love Joseph! He is so inspiring!!
I am choosing to not give up, wall up, shut down or even let bitterness begin - with God's help of course.
Hurts WILL come because we are loving people and people are imperfect.
I do not want to allow hurts to affect the way that I love God's people or the way I allow people to love me. Giving up, shutting down, walls and bitterness all affect those things.
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