My church is following a video series about the Fruit of the Spirit by Beth Moore. It has been so fabulous! I have learned a lot. I want to share with you one of the main points she discussed with us in this week's session. Beth talked about the importance of submission to God in our lives. Sometimes it is difficult for us to submit to Him because we have wounds from situations in our past that have hurt us deeply. God wants to heal us from our hurts. There is no need for us to be walking around with bloody wounds. It is important that we give God time to bind those wounds.
I think that many of us don’t know how to let God bind our wounds. Beth encouraged us to carve out time to spend with God to allow Him to do this for us. But that isn’t specific enough for me. I left Tuesday night thinking that I wished I could call Beth and ask her for a specific formula that I can plug into my own life and ba-da-boom ba-da-bing my wounds are bound. I realize that the time with God would include prayer and reflection and time alone....still it seems a little confusing to me. As I was praying about this this morning a seminar I attended almost three years ago came to mind. It was a seminar taught by Shymala Krishnan about Praying for your Children. She shared with us a step-by-step guide on what our time with God can look like. I believe that we can use this “formula” during our time with God when we are seeking Him to bind our wounds.
Here it is:
1. Set aside some time to spend with God (it’s not about the quantity of time, but the quality of that time). Be intentional. Write it on your calendar. Ask your spouse to watch your kids. Make it happen. Jesus wants to take care of you. He wants to wash your feet. Let Him.
2. Prepare yourself: use whatever works for you to enter sacred space. For example: listen to worship music and follow along reading the words or singing.
3. Enter with thanksgiving: tell Him how glad you are to be in His Presence.
4. Clear the slate by confession.
5. Ask God to open your eyes to hear his voice. Ephesians 1:17-18. Ask Him to set the agenda.
6. Read scripture out loud.
7. Listen to the words. Ask God to use your imagination. Let Him tell you His thoughts. Be still.
8. Respond accordingly. Take the images God gives you and pray them back. If you don’t know what to pray, read Scripture and pray it back to Him. Repeat it verbatim.
One more thing: Beth had us think about the question “why do we have to keep our scars?” Why is it that our wounds can’t be bound and then disappear? She suggests when people doubt the goodness of God they can feel our scars and see our joy and know that our hearts have been healed because our wounds have been bound.
I hope that encourages you as much as it has encouraged me.
3 comments:
I loved that series by Shymala. I listened to it while in Africa when Noah was only 6 months old. I think I need to listen to it again.
Having quiet times has been beyond difficult I've found in this stage. But thank you for writing this.
Very interesting blog. I also think that when we remember or see our scars we can remember that Jesus was also a suffering Saviour. We are not alone in our pain. His scars did not go away either. I find this very interesting because when he came back after he had risen he proved himself to His followers through his wounds. And it is through these wounds that we are healed.
Amen, Danielle! Amen.
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