There are many
things I thank my mother for: taking me to church from the day I was born,
teaching me to clean and cook, for letting me be creative, my musical talents,
and the trillions of other things she taught me over the years. However I have
a harder time being as thankful for my ticking time bomb of a bowel system, the
social anxieties that I have, my stubbornness, and the genetic depression that
runs on her side of the family.
My depression and
anxiety issues began showing themselves in high school and began getting worse
in college. They’ve only progressed since then, but I’m slowly learning to stop
being so stubborn and let God handle them. Unfortunately one of my biggest anxieties
is speaking in front of others, so when I felt God pulling me to lead a women’s
only Bible study, I tried to run every which way I could. Since exercise has
never been a strength of mine, running didn’t get me far. I have to write down
every single word I’m going to say, rearrange it, re-write it, and then type it
in order to stay focused, but I have made it through several and feel that it
has gone much better than I could’ve imagined. I know it’s only because of
God’s help.
Being active in
a small group setting allows you to see people in a more intimate setting, and
you begin to learn more about their lives. Soon you realize that you aren’t the
only one in the world who has ever had these kinds of struggles. Since you’ve
lived through the situations, you know what hindrances they can be and how hard
it is to stay motivated when you come to one of Satan’s obstacles.
Satan doesn’t have
our best interest in mind. Jesus said so in Matthew 16:23: “But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” (KJV)
I want to cover
thirteen every day challenges that we face (especially as women) and how to
become victorious over Satan. I want to do more than give scripture to turn to
when you feel anxious or worried. I want us to dissect those scriptures and
study the writers and what they were going through at the time of their
writings. Despite what we think, times haven’t changed that much since Paul and
Peter walked around this earth. Chances are, they had things a lot rougher than
we do today.
Before any study, hobby, job, project, or anything else
you plan on doing in life, you should plan on doing it well and carrying
through til the end. These verses are SO incredibly important for a
woman of any time period. It doesn't matter if it's someone in the
1800's or if it's in the 2000's - a Godly woman is a Godly woman no
matter what. Yes, according to Bob Dylan "the times, they are
a-changin'". However, our God hasn't changed and His requirements for
what he expects of us have not changed. In an earlier study I used a visual to
explain commitment: If you have people coming over that you care for and
want to impress, you aren't going to serve them takeout food in a
Styrofoam container. More than likely, you will pull out the nicest
stuff you have and will make sure everything looks appealing. Even if
you do order takeout (like I would because I don't cook), you won't
leave it in the box it came in. You'll put some effort into making it
look nice. Tonight we took the same meal and one was thrown in a takeout
box and the other was on Dollar Tree dishes. The same commitment is
required of us when it comes to our relationship with God. He doesn't
want our rushed efforts at an attempt to please Him. He would rather
have your heart and time that was spent putting forth the small effort
to make that takeout look the very best it could in your Dollar Tree
serving dishes. You get more out of studying one verse for 10 minutes at
a time than you do when you try to read a chapter in 10 minutes just to
say you read it. God is pleased more when you spend your time wisely in
the scriptures and actually strive to learn rather than just skim
through it to check it off your list of good deeds for the day.
God has given us
the tools to defeat Satan, but if we don’t know how and when to use them, they
are useless to us. You also have to want
to use them, so my prayer is that you will have the courage, knowledge, and
strength to do so.
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