Wendy Blight

April 23, 2012

Hidden Joy in a Dark Corner: Week Three

Welcome to Week Three of Hidden Joy in a Dark Corner. This week we study Chapter Five, “On the Mat.” I’m so excited to announce that we still have women joining. If you are new this week, welcome. We are so excited to have you!

This week I have a special treat for you. A dear Proverbs 31 friend and sister in Christ, Veronica Herzing, shares a guest post today. Veronica went through Hidden Joy with Melissa Taylor’s On-Line Studies several months ago. God did an amazing work in her life during that study, and she wants to share some of her journey with you today. We are blessed to have Veronica joining us for this study as well. Below please find Veronica’s message. Her story is not only encouraging but also honest and authentic. If her words bless you today, please leave her a comment in the comment section of my web site. If you would like to know more about Veronica, you can visit her blog by clicking here.

At the end of Veronica’s message you will find my video message as well as this week’s memory verse and homework assignment. The prayer for the week is in my video message. This week I challenge you to take one step off your mat. And, if you take the challenge, please share with us what step you take and how God works in and through your step of faith.

Dear Hidden Joy sisters,
I want to encourage you as you go through the Hidden Joy Bible study. I am living proof that through this study you can find your joy and become closer to Jesus – forming an intimate relationship with Him. I want to share some highlights of my own journey last year:
Day 1 ~
I am feeling nervous, uncomfortable, excited, anxious, relieved!! Could this possibility be the start of being free? I truly pray so. Will I start AND finish this? I pray I will.
Day 2 ~
I can’t do this. I am going to throw up. What are my fears? That it will be painful and make things worse. Yet through this study, I hope to realize I am no longer alone. I don’t want to waste another day, let alone another year with emptiness and a hole inside my heart.
Day 13 ~
Today was a day of choosing to remember the awesome things the LORD has done for me. Instead of dwelling on the past and all that has gone wrong. I opened myself and allowed Him to speak to my heart that is so bruised and battered.
Day 28 ~
Focusing on Christ despite the pull to focus on my past and wallow in the pain. It would be so easy to go back to that place. I prayed silently during Mass for complete healing for each of us in the Hidden Joy study. No sooner did I finish that Father stood up and prayed “Dear Father in Heaven, thank You for the pain in our lives and that through You we have joy as well. That’s what the Cross stands for – joy in spite of pain. Joy through Christ despite the pain of the world.”
Day 41 ~
I wasn’t able to completely forgive just from reading Chapter 6. Thirty plus years of hurts and unforgiveness doesn’t go away in six short days. However by going to Jesus often and asking Him to help me forgive I believe, I can forgive those who hurt me, myself included.
Day 48 ~
I had many opportunities in the past week to tell the devil that my God is bigger than my strongholds. However, I gave in and focused on my pain, the past and my weaknesses. After wallowing in my pain for days, I finally said, “I don’t know what to do or where to turn except to God.”
Dear God please show me without a doubt what my next step is, where I go from here and what now
Day 57 ~
Hard to believe we are entering week 9. It’s been a great journey. I have to say I have never felt closer to God before now and that is what this journey is about. It is more than my abuse, my mistakes, my marriage, my motherhood – it’s all about my up close and personal relationship with Jesus.
Final Day ~
As I read the final page I am sad to see the study end. I have made some wonderful connections; I never gave up during the study, and I finished it!! I have experienced growth, healing, and the hole I had in my heart at the start of the study is now filled with Jesus and His love.

Now friends I don’t want you to think “that’s all good for her, look how easy it was.” It wasn’t easy. I had a lot of ups and downs; however, I kept coming back to “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!” There were days that I went to Jesus every minute begging Him to help me. The key was that I then looked for the help, He sent it. At times it was a perfectly timed message from a friend; other times an unexpected gesture from a family member, and sometimes it was as simple as five minutes of peace.

Did my life magically change? Yes but not in a worldly way. It changed through my seeking to have a closer relationship with Jesus. Did that mean my life became the fairy tale ending I dreamed of? Not quite. I still have down days; I still feel the pull to sit in my pit, and I occasionally fall back into the victim mentality. However, I don’t stay there long…I pick myself up and CHOOSE to go to Jesus. I CHOOSE to take pleasure in the simplest things. I CHOOSE to believe I am much more. I CHOOSE to believe Christ’s promises and truths are for me and that I am His beloved.

Will you start believing that for yourself? How about just for today? How about taking it one day at a time and not worrying or thinking about tomorrow. Just for today, know that you – yes you:
Are His BELOVED and you have immeasurable VALUE!

One year later ~
My daughter summed it up best. We were having a heart to heart talk. I shared with her my abuse, how it affected my life, and how I completed the Hidden Joy study. I also shared with her that it was because of her that I wanted to be healed. She was my inspiration. I wanted what I saw in her life: confidence, fullness of life and a deep faith.

My 19 year old daughter made my journey worthwhile and complete when she responded, “Mom, I now want what you have. I want an up close relationship with Jesus. I see the difference and I want that.”

Thank you, Veronica!! Your message has been a huge encouragement to us today.

Below is this week’s video lesson and assignment.

Assignment: Read Chapter Five in Hidden Joy, “On the Mat.” Complete the Guide for Reflection and Study questions for Chapter 5 located in the back of the book.

Memory Verse: What is impossible with men is possible with God. Luke 18:27

Please know I will be praying for you as you take a first step off your mat. Please share what God does this week!!

Blessings,

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66 Comments | Filed Under: Bible Study, Encouragement, Guest Post, Hidden Joy On-Line Study, Spiritual Growth

April 16, 2012

`Hidden Joy in a Dark Corner: Week Two

Welcome to Week Two of our Hidden Joy on-line study.

It is not too late to join us!! To sign up, simply visit the side column of my web site and sign up where it says “Subscribe to Updates” and “Subscribe to Wendy’s On-Line Bible Studies.” After you do that, you are registered and will begin to receive the weekly lessons in your inbox every Monday. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to leave a comment.

This week we will dig into Chapters 3 and 4. Thank you for sharing your stories this week. You were honest and vulnerable…so real. Thank you!! I love how you are praying with and for each other. It is in that vulnerability and honesty that God will do His mighty work!!!

Below please find my video message for this week. Click here to go directly to the web site and view message.

Assignment: Read chapters three and four in Hidden Joy, “God’s Story Unfolds” and “Treasures in the Darkness.” Complete the Guide for Reflection and Study questions for Chapters 3 and 4 located in the back of the book. (So sorry I forgot to include the questions in last week’s assignment, so if you did not do them, please complete them when time allows). After this week, we will read only one chapter a week until we reach Chapter 10.

Memory Verse: I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. Isaiah 45:3

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, we cry out to You to meet us in every page of this book and in every Scripture we read. Show us Your glory!! We invite You to invade our hearts and minds with Your Truth. Replace every lie with Truth. Replace our darkness with the Light of the World. Show us the treasures in the darkness…Your riches stored in secret places. And thank You, Father, that You not only know each one of us by name but also summoned each one of us by name to meet you here. Please knit us together, Lord, into a beautiful tapesty of sisterhood. Remind us daily to pray for one another. Burden our hearts with those for whom You would have us pray. Thank You that You love us so much that You would orchestrate this amazing place to meet and study Your Word. Do a mighty work in our lives through Your Living and Active Word. Penetrate us, Lord, to the core of our being. Bring change, Father, bring mighty transformational change. We come boldly to Your throne of grace and ask all of this in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I am excited for what God will teach us this week.

Blessings,

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78 Comments | Filed Under: Bible Study, Hidden Joy On-Line Study, Spiritual Growth

April 9, 2012

Hidden Joy in a Dark Corner: Week One

Welcome to Week One of our next On-Line Study, Hidden Joy in a Dark Corner: The Transforming Power of God’s Story.

Months ago, I prayed for the Lord to draw each woman to this study for whom He had a work to do in her life. If you are here, sweet friend, it is because God drew you!! Begin this study from a place of confidence that no matter where you are today in your journey with God, He will take you to a new, healthier, better place. He is FAITHFUL and TRUE. He is GOD THE HEALER. He is a God of MERCY and HOPE. He is the GIVER of every GOOD and PERFECT gift. He is the WAY. He is the TRUTH. He is LIFE.

And if you desire healing…physically, spiritually, and/or emotionally…you are in the perfect place. Every week we will be digging into God’s Word, learning, studying and praying His promises. Below are a few of my favorites to which we will cling tightly during our journey.

My Word will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11.

My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. Don’t lost sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body. Proverbs 4:20-22

My friend, STAND on these verses as we begin this study. Believe them with all your heart. And then STAND again. Stand and believe God for His promise in Jeremiah 29:13-14…

“You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.”

During this study we are going to seek hard after God, and you will have to join me in that seeking. Be diligent. Read your assignments. Read all the Scriptures. Do your homework questions in the study guide. And PRAY, PRAY, PRAY for God to do a mighty work in your life and in the life of each one of us doing this study together.

He is a FAITHUL God and will answer our prayers if we pray in faith and do not doubt!!!!

Today we will read the first two chapters of Hidden Joy. I wish my story had an easier beginning. It was hard for me to write and hard sometimes even now for me to read what happened to me on that day in June of 1986. But without this beginning, there would not be a rest of the story. Through what happened to me that day in my apartment…the day everything that I held dear was stolen from me…God has given me a TESTimony!! And I can honestly tell you that I would live through that day again if it meant that I would have the life and ministry I have today.

So, let’s dig in!! Each week I will share a short video message, post the assignment and a memory verse, and send you off for the week to do your homework. Please stop by throughout the week and share what you are learning and feeling in the comments. That is how we grow and learn in this study.

Assignment: Read the first two chapters in Hidden Joy, “Valley of Weeping” and “Why Did God Allow This?”

Memory Verse: When they walk through the Valley of Weeping it will become a place of springs where pools of blessings and refreshment collect after rains! Psalm 84:6 (TLB)

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, we invite You to join us on our journey. We praise You as our Abba Father. We thank You that You will meet each one of us right where we are as we begin today. Thank You that this is our divine appointment with You. Father, begin a work not only in us individually but also as a group, as a sisterhood of Christ. Even though we come from all parts of Your world, we invite You to knit us together through the power of Your Holy Spirit as only You can do. Begin a healing work in our hearts. Take us from glory to glory as we dive into Your living and active Word!! We love You and give ourselves to You. We open our hearts…even to the most hidden depths of pain, sorrow, fear, and doubt…and invite You to come in and MOVE us to a new place. Lift us out of the depths of darkness and into Your marvelous Light. We ask all this in Jesus’ most powerful Name. Amen.

Sweet Blessings to you,

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