GirlTalk: conversations on biblical womanhood and other fun stuff

girltalk Blog

Jan 3

Maybe This Year

2012 at 8:49 pm   |   by Nicole Whitacre Filed under Biblical Womanhood | Spiritual Growth

Each year we make New Year’s resolutions for things we want to change, but we also have New Year’s hopes for things we can’t change, but wish we could. We long to receive certain desires of our heart that seem elusively out of reach. And maybe, just maybe, we will see those hopes fulfilled this year.

When I was single, I hoped for a husband. Maybe this year, he will come. I imagined myself married by the following New Year, or at least engaged. Maybe the New Year was holding my future husband in the wings. God eventually gave me an amazing husband, but new hopes still sprang up with each New Year’s Day. When we lived in a teeny apartment, I wanted to move to a bigger place. When I experienced secondary infertility, I wanted to have another child. Maybe this year.

I’m sure you have hopes for this year. They are probably whatever you are thinking about right now.

But in her book, Keep A Quiet Heart, Elisabeth Elliot encourages us to focus on the most important of New Year’s hopes:

“Will the young woman find a mate? Will the couple have a child? Maybe this year will be the year of desire fulfilled. Perhaps, on the other hand, it will be the year of desire radically transformed, the year of finding, as we have perhaps not yet truly found, Christ to be the All-Sufficient One, Christ the ‘deep sweet well of Love’” (page 49, emphasis mine).

This year, let us ask God to dissolve all our hopes (however good they may be!) into a single hope: to know Christ and to be found in Him. May this be a year of desire radically transformed, a deeper, truer, knowing of Christ as our All-Sufficient One.

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:7-8a).

Dec 30

Sitting in the New Year

2011 at 9:33 am   |   by Carolyn Mahaney Filed under Biblical Womanhood | Devotional Life

Will you wake up on January 1, 2012 and say to God: “I don’t need to read your Word or pray or listen to your voice today. I am competent on my own. I can keep my New Years’ resolutions all by myself, thank you very much.”?

Of course not! We would never dare say these frightfully arrogant words.

But if we neglect God’s Word and prayer, we are saying with our hearts and actions: “I can do it all by myself.”

Jesus has a different perspective: “Apart from me you can do nothing.” He says in John 15:5.

We can’t start a new diet, stick to our budget, or kick that bad habit without Him. None of these things—no matter how hard we work at them—will have any “eternal value or…produce spiritual fruit” without God (ESV Study Bible).

To bear fruit, we must sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to his teaching (Luke 10:38-42).

We must renounce our self-sufficiency.

We must repent from our arrogant independence.

We must come to the God of mercy who is eager to forgive.

And we must sit.

When we sit at Jesus’ feet, we are saying: “I need you! I can’t obey you without your help. I can’t serve you in my own strength. I can’t walk in a manner worthy of the gospel by myself. I need your grace.”

And you know what? He will give it! God doesn’t correct our self-sufficiency to push us away. He wants us to draw near to sit and listen. He wants to speak to us, to teach us, to give us grace to bear fruit.

So let’s say—with our words, our hearts, and our actions—I need you, Lord, today and every day this year!

(For encouragement and accountability in prayer and reading God’s Word join our clubs!)

Dec 27

Christmas Clean-Up

2011 at 10:35 pm   |   by Nicole Whitacre Filed under Homemaking | Holidays

It’s a girltalk tradition to recommend a sermon to listen to while taking down your Christmas tree and trappings (if you haven’t already!). I listened to an excellent series of sermons today as I was packing away our Christmas decorations. These messages on the life of Joseph (of the OT) were preached by Dr. Sinclair Ferguson over a few months this past year. I’m only part way through and already greatly encouraged. So while you’re putting away those ornaments and lights, listen and enjoy.

Page 113 of 356 pages ‹ First  < 111 112 113 114 115 >  Last ›