Ladies! I hope you enjoyed our first Bible study day of PWOC. If you were unable to make it, this is an outline of the devotion from Tuesday. I pray that you are well, and that we will see you this coming Tuesday at 9:30 am!
So as I was preparing for this devotion, I started thinking about how where we are – wherever that is, matters. It is by God’s design that we woke up this morning and are here right now.
It is by God’s grace that we are able to be together in the name of the Lord, as women of God in this place.
However, I think we all have those times when we find ourselves somewhere we don’t want to be. We find ourselves in circumstances we never would have chosen on our own. Sometimes these circumstances can be a great surprise, and sometimes we want to cry out and ask God, “Why?”
Sometimes it’s easy to think this life is all about us. That’s what the world tells us. It’s easy to be so disappointed when things don’t go the way we would like, when we don’t get the PCS we want, or our husband is gone at an inopportune time,
and we can become complacent when things are going well, because we tend to forget that we are not here for our own comfort.
The truth is, this life is not about us. It is about Jesus. It is about loving others.
-Maybe you’re not where you want to be right now in life.
-Maybe your husband is deployed or about to deploy and your hopes for the next year are down the tubes. -Maybe you hate New Jersey and never wanted to be here.
-Maybe you are in a good place and loving it, but feel that God is challenging you in a new way
-Maybe your comfort in your circumstances has allowed for you to serve in a way God has never used you before.
-Maybe you are a seasoned PWOC goer who has loved God and His people for years and years,
-maybe you are here at PWOC to get some adult time and socialize.
-Maybe you’re not sure why you’re here today.
Whatever it is, you are here - right here for a purpose. For a reason. God sees you and He knows the plans He has for you. Today.
One of my favorite books of the Bible is the book of Esther.
• Esther, a poor Jewish girl has been made queen by God’s grace, but her people are about to be murdered and her uncle Mordecai is urging her to go to the king (her husband) and ask him to do something. To save her people. In this time, she could be killed for asking anything of the king. But Mordecai knows that Esther’s lofty position is not just about her own comfort.
• And he says to her, Esther 4:14 ”For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
“And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
Whatever your position you hold right now, it is royal.
We are the daughters of God, and co-heirs with Jesus Christ to the throne of Grace.
And we are not of this world.
We do not look at our circumstances the way the world looks at them.
We see that God has a plan, that God is working everything together for the good of those who love Him.
In your pain, in your frustration, in your peace, and in your comfort, who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?
I am so excited about what God is going to do this year at PWOC. I am so excited about the relationships we are going to form and how we are going to grow more in the image of the Father, and away from the image of this world.
These studies we are about to begin today are all Biblical studies about what it means to be royal in God’s kingdom, to be less like the world and how to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
Whether you are going to Girl Talk with Annie and learning how to bond deeper in relationship with other women (which is something we all need as believers),
or studying the book of Philippians with Ginny and diving into what it means to be a more mature Christian,
or if you are discovering how to treasure the Gospel in your home with Alissa,
or if you are in Lena’s class about what it means to be more than just a bible study girl,
or if you are going to study Ephesians and how to put on the full armor of God with Katie,
you are in the right place. There is something for each of us in these studies.
I believe by faith that each of you are here with your God-given gifts and talents because God has created you to worship Him with those gifts and make the body of Christ complete.
Together we make up the family of God. One person does not a family make. A family is many people with strengths and weakness, who bear each other’s burdens and forgive one another’s faults, and compliment each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
We know this to be true in the military! It takes every person on this base to make this base successful, and every person in the military has an important job to do. No matter how small one feels, they are just as important as anyone else. Each job fits together with other jobs to make the machine known as the United States Military go forward. As it is with this family of believers here right now.
Let me read 1 Corinthians 12:12-26:
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it,25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”
You are an integral part of the body of Christ, and so you are royalty in the family of God. Know that you are right where God has you for a reason in life and in circumstances, because “we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.” And you’re not here by accident.
Father God,
I pray over this amazing group of women Lord, that our hearts would be stirred today. I pray that we trust you in the trial and trust you in the triumph. I pray that we go into our Bible study groups with open minds and open hearts, eager to see what you have for us. I pray over each of these teachers Lord, that they would depend on you fully throughout this year, as they lead these ladies in learning more about you and your Word. I pray for the individual groups, that you would be present among each one and grow us each closer to you and closer to one another in turn. I pray for our little ones as they are in the nursery, and the hands that are caring for them. I thank you for even being able to come together as believers, and I pray that this study time would be fulfilling and refreshing, and that we can take the gifts you give us home to our families and our workplaces, and to anyone else we come across, that others may see your light in us. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen!
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