I am constantly being reminded that:
When I surrender and do what God wants me to do He makes incredible things happen.
For the past few months I have been part of an evening women's Bible study at our church. It started out as a fairly small group of women meeting on Thursday night to work through a video based study. On average we had about 8 women on any given night. I liked how small it was for a couple different reasons.
When I surrender and do what God wants me to do He makes incredible things happen.
For the past few months I have been part of an evening women's Bible study at our church. It started out as a fairly small group of women meeting on Thursday night to work through a video based study. On average we had about 8 women on any given night. I liked how small it was for a couple different reasons.
1. It was much more personal, for me, that way. I felt like each night I was really getting to know each of the women in the group.
2. It made the whole thing a little less intimidating for me, as I was the facilitator of the group.
Our small group worked through two powerful studies over the course of a few months. One study focused on discerning the voice of God, and the other was on why God allows trials in our lives.
Last night we kicked off our third study together. This one focuses on who you are as a person. How God created you to be you and not someone different because of other influences in your life. In the few weeks leading up to last night our group worked on inviting more women and increasing the exposure of our group. I slowly watched the number of people committing to joining the group grow from 3 women to 12, then to 17, and eventually up to over 30.
If I can be totally honest with you here, I was trying as hard as I could not to get excited about that. I lacked the faith to believe that all of these women would actually show up for the study on Thursday night. We all know how that goes. You have the best intentions of joining a group or attending an event, but life gets in the way. For one reason or another you just don't make it.
Last night God humbled me and smacked that pessimistic attitude right out of me at the same time. I watched as groups of ladies walked into the church until we had 24 women sitting at the tables in the preschool large room. 24 women, and that doesn't include the 5+ women who I know simply couldn't make it last night, but will join us next week.
I know that none of this is thanks to anything I've done on my own. This is not my Bible study, and none of those women came last night to look at me or hear anything I had to say. They came because that place was exactly where God wanted them to be so He could speak to them. He used my willingness to step out in faith and do something I wasn't very comfortable with (lead a group of women who for the most part are old enough to be my mother/grandmother) to create a place that women could come to and grow in Him.
I have written all of this simply to say, Praise God. He has a plan for every single woman in this Thursday evening group, and I’m so grateful that He is allowing me to be a part of it in this small way.
Our small group worked through two powerful studies over the course of a few months. One study focused on discerning the voice of God, and the other was on why God allows trials in our lives.
Last night we kicked off our third study together. This one focuses on who you are as a person. How God created you to be you and not someone different because of other influences in your life. In the few weeks leading up to last night our group worked on inviting more women and increasing the exposure of our group. I slowly watched the number of people committing to joining the group grow from 3 women to 12, then to 17, and eventually up to over 30.
If I can be totally honest with you here, I was trying as hard as I could not to get excited about that. I lacked the faith to believe that all of these women would actually show up for the study on Thursday night. We all know how that goes. You have the best intentions of joining a group or attending an event, but life gets in the way. For one reason or another you just don't make it.
Last night God humbled me and smacked that pessimistic attitude right out of me at the same time. I watched as groups of ladies walked into the church until we had 24 women sitting at the tables in the preschool large room. 24 women, and that doesn't include the 5+ women who I know simply couldn't make it last night, but will join us next week.
I know that none of this is thanks to anything I've done on my own. This is not my Bible study, and none of those women came last night to look at me or hear anything I had to say. They came because that place was exactly where God wanted them to be so He could speak to them. He used my willingness to step out in faith and do something I wasn't very comfortable with (lead a group of women who for the most part are old enough to be my mother/grandmother) to create a place that women could come to and grow in Him.
I have written all of this simply to say, Praise God. He has a plan for every single woman in this Thursday evening group, and I’m so grateful that He is allowing me to be a part of it in this small way.
