Bible Study Archives - Wendy Blight

March 13, 2019

Praying the Promises of God Week 4 – Fear and Peace

Friends, words don’t seem enough to express what fills my heart for the prayers, scriptures and messages you sent. I’ve been overwhelmed by your love and tenderness during this time of grieving.

It’s been a hard, but sweet, time for our family, and the new family God has brought into our lives. It’s never easy to lose a parent, but for Morgan (my daughter’s fiancé) to lose his mom at age 27, just months before their wedding, it’s been devastating. But, our God has been so very present. The day we were heading to his sweet mama’s visitation, Morgan sent me this text when I reached out to check on Him.

Thank you. I feel His presence around me everyday.

Sweet friends, I know that’s, in part, because of your faithful prayers. Thank you!

This week, I’m sharing Scriptures, and my thoughts, on fear and peace. Two areas in my life where I’ve experienced great struggles. Each time, without fail, praying God’s Word brought freedom and hope.

I pray the same for you as you work through these verses as time allows.

Fear

Isaiah 41:10: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Psalm 56:3: “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.”

2 Timothy 1:7: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

Joshua 1:9: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Isaiah 35:4 “Tell everyone who is discouraged, Be strong and don’t be afraid! God is coming to your rescue….”

Psalm 27:1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?”

Deut. 3:22: “Do not be afraid of them; the Lord your God himself will fight for you.”

Thoughts the Lord brought to mind …

Do not be afraid, My child. I’m always with you. I will never leave you. I will help you through what you’re walking through and hold you in the palm of My hand.

Know fear is not from Me. I give you My Holy Spirit. In My Spirit, you have access to My power, My love and My mind. My Spirit is stronger than anyone or any circumstances you face. Remember, greater is the One who lives in you, which is Me, than the one who lives in the world.

I am your rescuer and defender! I am your stronghold. So, you should fear NOTHING! I will never leave you or forsake you. Take refuge in Me.

Peace

Philippians 4:6-7: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

John 14:27: “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid.”

Psalm 55:22: “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.”

Psalm 46:1: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”

Psalm 91:1-2: “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

Galatians 5:22: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,”

Psalm 4:8: “In peace, I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.”

Isaiah 26:3: “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”

Thoughts the Lord brought to mind …

Don’t let your worries overcome you, My daughter. Pray about each worry. Bring it to Me with a heart of thanksgiving. I will carry your worries for you and, in return, restore the peace that is yours in Me. It’s a peace that will guard your heart and mind forever and always when you surrender every worry to Me.

Cast your cares upon Me. Don’t you know how much I care for you? I will carry them for you. My Spirit, My power, My love will sustain you. Trust Me.

My Spirit lives in you. The fruit of My Spirit fills you. Peace is part of that fruit. Believe My promise. Walk in My promise. Then, you’ll live abundantly in My promise.

I will keep you in perfect peace when you trust in Me. When you keep your eyes fixed on Me. When you stay in My Word.

I pray these Scriptures minister to your heart. If you’re currently struggling with fear and/or peace, or you’ve struggled in the past and come out the other side, leave a comment sharing the Scriptures that spoke to your heart from our post or your own Scriptures that have helped you. Next week, please come back to visit. I’ll announce two names, chosen from the comments left over the last four weeks, to win some fun gifts.

If you’re just joining in the series, you can catch up here: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3.

38 Comments Filed Under: Bible Study, Encouragement, Prayer, Spiritual Growth

February 20, 2019

Praying the Promises Part 3 – Trust and Surrender

Welcome to Week 3 of Praying the Promises of God! Thank you for the beautiful prayers you left in the comments this past week … your personal prayers and the ones you prayed for each other. What a precious gift to see God’s Word consuming the prayers in each and every comment.

In each of these posts, I include a section entitled, “Thoughts the Lord brought to mind.” Please know my heart. I am not adding to God’s Word with these thoughts. They are my words, not God’s. They come as I’ve spent time soaking in the passages, allowing God to minister to my heart through them. I then share what I’ve experienced about God’s character, His heart, His Word and His promises. My prayer is that these thoughts will help you listen for the Lord’s voice as you spend time with Him in His Word. He does speak to His children. As my dear friend Marilynn Chadwick says, sometimes He whispers and sometimes He roars.

This week, we spend time with the words Surrender and Trust. Oh, these are two of the hardest things to do when walking through trials with God. These words come into play most often when we find ourselves in the “wait room” with God. We’re struggling to trust His timing. His answer. His perceived silence. I’ve walked through each of these waits and am in an especially hard one right now. One thing I’ve learned on this journey, if we don’t run to God, we’ll run away from God. And, that running will take us to an even lonelier, darker place. A place we drift deeper and deeper into uncertainty and doubt.

I have to continually remind myself that in God’s presence is peace and rest and so much more. So, even when we can’t see, feel or hear God, HE IS THERE! He has promised us in His Word He will never leave us or forsake us (Deut. 31:6, Matt. 28:20, Heb. 13:5).

God instructs us to go to Him when we’re in trouble.

James 5:13 “Is anyone among you in trouble, let them pray.”

Psalm 50:15a “… call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you.”

Psalm 55:22 “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.”

Surrender

Surrender means to yield, relinquish, submit. To raise the white flag. To release the tight grip we have on what we want and place it in the hands of our Abba Father, who is more than able to carry the load.

Isaiah 42:3-4: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching, the islands will put their hope.”

Psalm 147:3: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

Psalm 61:1-3 (David’s cry to God): “Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth, I call to you. I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.”

Lamentations 3:22-23: “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

2 Corinthians 10:5: “… ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Thoughts the Lord brought to mind …

Surrender your broken places to Me, My child. They are opportunities for you to experience Me in all My fullness and for Me to display My glory.

Always filter your hurt through My unconditional, everlasting, abundant love and compassion.

Invite Me into your pain. I will bind your wounds. My healing balm will soothe your wounded heart and soul.

Surrender everything to Me. Let it all go. I will carry it. My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in your weakness.

Trust

Psalm 31:14-16: “But I trust in you, Lord; I say, ‘You are my God. My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me. Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.'”

Psalm 46:10: “He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’”

Psalm 119:89: “Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.”

Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Matthew 28:18: “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

1 John 1:7: “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

Thoughts the Lord brought to mind …

No circumstance, person, place, hurt, or sickness is outside My reach or beyond My control. Nothing burdening your heart is too hard for Me. Trust Me.

Trust Me with Your past. No sin is too great that My Son’s shed blood will not cover. In Me, you’ll find no condemnation, only grace.

My Son gave His life for you. We both love you with an everlasting, lavish love. Never doubt that. We settled that on Calvary, when My Son poured out His blood and the veil was torn. So come to Me. Trust Me with all your heart. Don’t lean on your human knowledge and understanding. Submit whatever you’re clinging to Me. I will show you the way.

As we close today, sit a few minutes with these verses and passages. Invite the Lord to lead you to one or two verses to sit and soak in. It might be a few minutes. It might be 15 or 30 minutes. If you have time, read it in context with what comes before and after the verse. Maybe do a Google search, or look at the Concordance in the back of your Bible for more verses speaking to the same truth or promise. We’d love to know the verses you chose and the ones you found. And if you want to share, let us know what you heard from the Lord.

Finally, if you have any questions about what we’re doing today, please leave a question, and I’ll help as best I can or, with this amazing community, another one of our sisters may help too.

Can’t wait to hear from you!!!

34 Comments Filed Under: Bible Study, Prayer, Spiritual Growth

August 30, 2018

Time to Cultivate {guest post & giveaway}

Happy Thursday! I’m excited to introduce you to my friend, Jill Beran. She has poured many prayers and words of encouragement into my life through the years, for which I’m so grateful. Jill is a mom and wife and lives on a farm in Iowa. One of my favorite things about Jill are the Bible teachings she shares from life on their farm. Her stories bring God’s Word alive for me in fresh ways.

It’s been a joy to watch Jill grow and develop her gift as a Bible teacher. Today, I’m delighted to share one of her lessons from the farm and share her new Bible study, ReNEWal Road – The Journey of Becoming More Like Jesus.

Jill is giving away a copy of her study so be sure to enter to win below!

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It’s cultivating time here on the farm. If you were to stop by, you’d find my husband busily cultivating the beans we’ve planted in the field. It’s a task I associate with Iowa soil, and one I know involves work and takes time. Though you may not live on a farm, cultivating is something we all should do! Yours just might not be in a field in Iowa!

Because of the easy access to chemicals and fertilizers, many farmers find they don’t need to cultivate their fields. They take the easier and faster route. But, since we’re raising organic crops, chemicals aren’t an option. My husband must engage in the tedious task of cultivating 12 rows at a time, using equipment that churns up the dirt and removes the weeds, so the crop can grow.

While I watch my husband cultivate our crops, I picture God doing the same with my heart. Cultivating my heart takes time. It involves work and requires effort on my part. It isn’t something that happens with the flip of a switch; it’s hard work, but it brings results!

Cultivating the soil removes weeds from our fields just as cultivating our hearts removes lies, bad attitudes and wrong thoughts from our minds.

Cultivating also tills up the soil, so new growth can occur. Just as at times it would be easier for my husband to use chemicals and raise our crops conventionally, it’s tempting for us to pursue an easier way to connect with God. But, God desires a personal relationship with us. A deep and abiding relationship. There’s no quick way to make that happen, and no one else can do it for us.

In order to do his cultivating, my husband needs a tractor and a cultivator. We need two things as well … quiet time and God’s Word. Our Bible is the main piece of equipment we need – it’s our most powerful tool. Hebrews 4:12 tells us, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” God’s Word can do more work than my husband’s John Deere will ever do, but we have to open it and be receptive to what He has to say!!

Finally, God also brought to mind that my husband cultivated the same field last year, and his dad did the same many years ago. Each new year, the work had to be done again. Cultivating isn’t a task we do once and consider it done, and the same is true for our hearts. Each season, actually every day of every season, we need to cultivate the soil of our hearts. Only then will new growth take place.

Every year my husband’s goal is to produce a better yield than he did the year before. Shouldn’t we do the same as disciples of Christ? If we want to grow closer to Christ and do more to glorify our Abba Father, our hearts must grow closer to His, and that won’t happen unless we get the cultivating done!

The Giveaway

Giveaway now closed. Jill was so blessed by all of your comments that she is giving away two copies of her book! Congrats Vonnie Kronk and Heidi (hamoth). Please check your email for more information from my assistant, Kim Stewart.

Are you looking for a study that will get you into God’s Word and allow Him to do some cultivating? We’re giving away a copy of Jill’s study, ReNEWal Road – The Journey of Becoming More Like Jesus. Leave a comment with a verse that God has used to change your heart or simply say, “I’m in!” and we’ll enter you in the drawing! U.S. Addresses only please. Winner will be announced here on Friday, September 7.

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Jill Beran is a farmer’s wife, homeschooling mom to 5, and Bible teacher. When she’s not picking rocks or pulling weeds, she enjoys coaching basketball, serving in women’s ministry and writing. You can connect with Jill at Titus24U.