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There is a tale told of the great English actor Macready. An eminent preacher once said to him: “I wish you would explain to me something.”
“Well, what is it? I don’t know that I can explain anything to a preacher.”
“What is the reason for the difference between you and me?” The preacher asked. “You are appearing before crowds night after night with fiction, and the crowds come wherever you go. I am preaching the essential and unchangeable truth, and I am not getting any crowd at all.”
Macready answered: “This is quite simple. I can tell you the difference between us. I present my fiction as though it were truth; you present your truth as though it were fiction.”
Bam!
This story both motivates and cautions me. Let’s be honest, Christians embarrass the cause of Christ all the time. It’s vital that we be confident in the message of hope we cling to as believers in Jesus, but it’s equally vital that we be prepared to share truth in love – share Scripture in proper context – share our hearts with meekness and fear for the purpose of attracting others to the restoring love of Christ. We don’t need to be Bible scholars with capital letters following our names … but we DO need to be Bible girls!
No one needs to harp on the fact that there’s a great moral decline in the world. We see that coming and going! As Girlfriends In God let’s commit to making a difference in the lives of others, in our homes, among our friends, in our communities, and in this world.
How? Here are a few ways we can prep ourselves to be ready to represent the hope of Christ well – as fact not fiction:
Know the Word of God.
Pray and think through current issues.
Share your story.
Be prepared to talk about how you have been changed by the love of Jesus.
People around us need to know that God is still in the restoration business – and that He longs to bring His peace, hope and love to every life.
Look at the apostle Paul. He was prepared to speak about Christ wherever he went. In New Testament book of Acts, we learn that, “He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus. (Acts 28:23b, NIV)
The life-changing, peace-giving Truth we know needs to be presented to the world as life-changing, peace-giving Truth!
So I will get in His Word – get in His presence – and look for opportunities to share God’s love as truth with confidence.
Will you join me?
Dear Lord,
Please forgive me for the times when I doubt your truth, or fear speaking it. Help me to always be prepared to give an answer for the hope I have … to speak of Your unfailing love and unchanging truth to those around me so that they might be drawn to your heart.
Draw me to Your Word and teach me Your ways.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
FOR YOUR REFLECTION and RESPONSE
Read 2 Timothy 1:12: “Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed…” Can you say that and mean it?
Have you been changed by God’s grace? What is the hope that you have in Christ? Grab your journal or leave a comment on my blog and write a few sentences or paragraphs that describe how God has worked in your life. It’s time to testify some truth, girls!
Thanks for doing life with me!
GWEN
Why do women rarely pause to dream big dreams, think big thoughts, or expect great things from God? This is a passionate call to follow God with great expectation for the impact, the challenge, and the blessing that comes from dreaming big and believing that God keeps his promises. JOIN ME in a FREE seven-day journey into a bigger, deeper and more significant relationship with God taken from my upcoming book I Want it All.
Comments 27
I battled drug addiction for 20 years. When all self-willed attempts to quit failed.. I cried out in desperation for help from God. The Holy Spirit met me right where I was.. on my face in my bedroom floor. That moment He forever changed my life. I am so in love with the One who saved me. I just want to tell the world how He loves us! I can’t tell you the times I should have died.. but looking back.. I can see now that God had a plan and I have a purpose. Hallelujah.
My life has been full of heartache in many many ways but because of God’s grace in my life he has brought me through all of it and still is bringing me through some pretty tough stuff . And he has bestowed the gift of mercy to me so that i am able to forgive and to love beyond what is ordinary . He has also placed lovely people in my life to help me through rather they be family,friends ,or strangers . I am blessed in more ways than i can count and i wouldnt change a thing
I have had several encounters that have brought me closer to God. When I was about 5 months pregnant with my 3rd son I had a dream one night that he was dead…..the next day I went in for a heart check, and he was…..I believe that God came to my dream to spare me further grief because our big 20 week ultrasound was the next week. In the hospital, our minister came withing 30 minutes, and our nurse was amazed at the attentiveness by those from our church, and said she would like to visit our church. It helped me to realize and be comforted that Gage had a purpose beyond just being our baby. He helped to bring someone to a church home. Gage’s death helped me cling to faith that God had other plans for me.
I am so thankful for all that Christ has done in my life. He helped me come along way. From my step fathers sexual verbal and physical abuse, and the one person that was always suppose to take my side didn’t ( my mother). I sunk into a very deep dark depression for several years, inflicting pain on myself cause that felt better than the other pain. One day I cut a little to deep and ended up in the hospital for about 15-20 hours. The. I slowly relized there was more, and I thank God for the youth leaders that he placed in my life at that moment , they showed me Gods unconditional love peace and joy. Now I live passionately for Christ daily spreading his word peace and love daily and I’m blessed to have the opportunity to be involved in children’s ministry and missions!!
Lara R
I struggle with alcoholism daily. Although, when I read the Word of God, I feel stronger.
I lived in the depths of depression and addiction for many years. By the grace of God, I got into recovery and a special woman God chose for me became my sponsor. As a result of her guiding me through the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, I found Jesus and had an amazing spiritual awakening. I get on my knees daily and thank the Lord for my sobriety today and I live a life of gratitude and faith. I am training my mind to focus on Christ’s presence and to trust the path He is guiding me on. This provides me with such comfort and joy there is no room for the darkness that once haunted my life. God is working a miracle on me, has lifted my obsession to drink and use drugs and I live free from anxiety and depression. God has taught me through the twelve steps to hand my will and my life over to Him on a daily basis. Now I have the honor of sponsoring a woman struggling as I did and am helping her to find her way to freedom through the twelve steps. I know God has a plan for her as well.
I am so grateful to be an addict/alcoholic because my weakness led me into the loving arms of Christ Our Lord and Savior and I get to live a beautiful and joy-filled life with Him everyday.
Growing up I was diagnosed with a seizure disorder which was a blessing in disguise as it lead me to God and kept me away from the drugs and alcohol so popular in my day. But the medication was connected to birth defects. God blessed me with 2 beautiful healthy living daughters. I also had several miscarriages, 1 baby died in utero at 7 months, and two were diagnosed with severe birth defects and I was advise to terminate the pregnancies. Although this was a choice I was strongly against I did not have the support of my husband and family so I followed the doctors advice. The guilt of these decisions spun me into a 20 year spiral of believing God hated me. My marriage ended. While I was able to work and raise my daughter, I avoided making friends and any relationships I did enter into were not necessarily healthy ones. In 2012 while playing on the computer I found a picture of what I had been told my babies would be like. Finally I was able to slowly forgive myself for the choices I made. It has been a slow process, but God is walking with me, I feel his presence and I believe he will restore my life and provide me with new healthy friends and relationships. I can honestly say I still struggle with Satan haunting me with my past, but I can stand up to it and say I am good enough, God has made me whole and will restore me.
I have been provided with many blessings. Thirteen years ago, I experienced an unplanned pregnancy. I was unwed and after viewing the ultrasound – very scared. My son was born a few short weeks after finding out I was pregnant. I had no time to plan or prepare for his entry into this world. The moment he was born, he was whisked away into surgery to repair the whole that was in his stomach – allowing all of his internal organs to protrude. Although I had known God previously, I had strayed from his way and I knew it was time to get my life in order. Things began going well. Then as I found myself astray four years later and questioning Gods will, my fiance had passed away in a fatal car accident on our wedding day. So, I was able to get past my hurt and anger and again start moving towards God. This time, I brought my son into a relationship with God and began our journey. Time was passing and we were not as obedient to our studies as I would have liked. I was active in teaching Bible lessons to young children and we also participated in our church, but it wasn’t enough for me. Yet, we continued without change. Finally, on Memorial Day 2009 I was tragically burnt in a brush fire. My son was only six at the time and he stood and witnessed the whole incident. He rode with me and my mom to the hospital where he watched me be taken away via helicopter. As I laid in a coma, with no clue what was going on around me, I fought for my life. Doctors were not sure if I was going to make it and asked to have my family called in. I was still in intensive care, but they permitted my son to come into my room and visit. He laid over me crying and praying and his prayers were answered. The next day I woke up from my coma and began therapy. I have been strong in my way with God ever since and I am thankful to have him in our lives.
The LORD IS SO GOOD, all the time!!
HE has placed a disease in my life to show me just how holy and Soverign He is and how He is Mighty to Save- no matter if He saves me from the pyysical ailments, He is always saving me from my flesh! He has shown me and will continue to- that we need to all make Him our First Desire alone! He needs to be number ONE in our lives and at the center of all we do and who we are!
I read a book by Dr. Larry Crabb, called Soultalk, and it beautifully illustrates the intimacy we long for between us and the Holy Spirit within our hearts! It goes on to tell us that our First-Thing Desire must be Jesus or we will have no foundation and no way of speaking the Truth (Jesus) into our neighbors lives!
We must make Him our absolute First-Thing Desire! Nothing or No one else, period!! Amen. Praise God!!! 🙂 HALLELU YAH!
I do pray and read the Bible, when I have time, but I prefer to live and lead by example to the people around me. I work retail, and this is the Holiday Season. I pray for God to fill me with His peace, so that I may pass it on to others. Then I pull people into my peace, instead of getting sucked into their storms. This really works for me and I get people asking me to pray for them and saying “God bless you.” all day long. Do everything you do with great love, and people will see the Light shining in you!
God healed my body of Cancer. After 2 bouts with it i am healed. So now i consider myself to be entering into another level of spirituality. God has things HE wants me to do and HE is preparing me for them. I am excited to know what they are. For now HE has me in a position to practice the gift of discernment, discipline, obedience. A VERY painful place. I am asking for prayers as this is very difficult.
I’m working hard to train myself to listen and be sure to take the time daily to spend with God, even if it is just reading your devotional and saying a prayer. It’s really hard when my mind has all the daily task of work, being a mom, wife, friend, the list goes on. Since I’ve been reading your devotions and sharing weekly with a group of friends it is the first time in my life that I have consistently started and ended my day speaking to God. I would fall in a rut of in crisis only due to exhaustion at bed time and not wanting to start my day in the morning. Thank you for that. May you have had a blessed Thanksgiving and a blessed Christmas.
Keep being intentional, Neva! God will bless that for sure. 🙂
Gwen
For many years my marriage, business, and life was in shambles. I prayed and prayed for God to please help me and give me the strength that I needed. But, after each prayer I would get up and try to fix in on my own. That didn’t work. It wasn’t until I realized that if I was to give it to God, that is exactly what I had to do, Give it to God and walk away from it, DON’T PICK IT BACK UP. Once I left it with him, WOW! My life started coming together. That is what we call FAITH. It’s the hardest thing to achieve, but the most rewarding once you do. As I found, as long as I have Faith, why worry. God is in control and I practice everyday letting Go and letting God.
Yes. Yes. YES! Lisa this is such a great testimony of wisdom. It’s hard to let GOD be the source of our strength, but SO worth it!
I have been a Christian since I was 10… I am now 37…. I always felt God calling on me to share His love with others. It took letting Satan almost allow my husband and I to throw away 14 years of marriage last year for me to finally see what God wanted to do with my life! When you say that God is still in the RESTORATION business well that is the most truthful statement! God has restored our marriage and is blessing us in ways I never imagined! God has restored me from the inside out and it is a wonderful feeling! My husband and I are now singing music together in our church and we are sharing our testimony with others in hopes that others will see that God can restore something broken and make something beautiful out of it!!! You simply have to let Him!!! God is always there…He never let’s go….take your burdens and leave them with Him! He wants to restore each and every one of us!!!!!
I was having trouble getting a job, largely because of bad decisions I made during my schooling. God has been using this time to mold me, refine my faith, and cause me to develop my character. Eventually I got a job that has humbled me, but also given me such wonderful experiences and joys. I know I am far from perfect but I am so thankful for everything I have, and I hope to grow more in my faith each day. God is good and He is faithful despite the mistakes we make. The past few years have caused me to be more rooted in God in a way I never would have been had everything gone ‘according to plan’. His ways are better than ours and He can make any mess a message of restoration.
I am a single mother of four children. After my seperation from my first husband met a man. Shortly after I got into drugs. Eventually I lost my children. It was over 3 years that I was separated from them. I started going to church and praying for God’s help and eventually god provided a place for us and I got them back.. unfortunately when I was two years clean I. Met another man. I stopped going to church and eventually I started drinking again. When he broke up with me I used drugs to cope. I knew I was headed down the wrong path again but didn’t know how to get out. I stated using on weekends and spend alot of money on my drug use. I am a student and eventually the money ran out. I call a lady from my church who use to mentor me and told her I needed help she told me to cry out to the Lord and start reading his word. She was praying for me and I also started going to a healing center asking for prayer. I know if I didn’t get help soon I would lose my children again. I went back to church even though I was ashamed. The church is helping a bit with finances and I go to a group where they are providing meals some nights. I know God is providing for my faimly. It reminds me of the story in the bible where the son spends all his inheritance and he is ashamed to gohome but when he does the father has a party for him. I still feel disappointed and shamed with my self but I have asked for forgiveness and god has forgiven me. I am now 24 days clean. Some days are hard but I know with God on my side I can do anything. It is hard for me to share this for fear of getting judged. I hope this helps someone who is also struggling
Thank you sooo much for sharing and being honest … I have had similar struggles … I have been sober 21 years. I go to AA to help others and give them hope … God is our only defense!!! I got called to be a Christian after being sober 16 years and living a life of sin. He met me where I was (as He always does … we can meet Him where He is) I know have a double blessing, AA and the church. Dive in and surrender to Him. Obedience is the key❤️
Thanks for sharing with me. I also go to na.. I just need to rely on God instead of myself. Going to na without God doesn’t work. I need him. If you don’t mind praying for me. I would really appreciate it. I need all the help.I can get right now. It’s hard for me to go to as many meetings as I should because I kids and school. I’m finding life overwhelming most times.
I certainly will pray for you sister … if you want email me and then we can exchange numbers and I can be your support if you would like and I can pray with you 🙂 my email is farina2362@yahoo.com look forward to chatting.
I grew up in the church and remember accepting Christ at a young age. At that time I did not have a real understanding what all that meant. I was just going through the motions becuase I saw everyone else doing it. Fast forward to many years later I am married with a family and last year December my husband tells me he does not want to be married anymore. I was devestated. I sulked, cried and even got on meidcation for depression. Normally I am the kind of person that will let whatever go. It may not be an easy process but eventually I was going to release my husband from marriage. I kept getting encouragement to not let go. But I questioned, “how do I fight when he says he no longer wants me.” I had no clue. I found some resources and started what I thought I needed to do and even went to counseling. It was there that she told me about a movie she saw on a special cruise she and her husband went on. This movie would be somewhat a mirror image of my life at the time and gave me what I needed to begin to lay the foundation of my battle plan! It was time for me to go to war. This battle I was dealing with in my marriage was a spiritual battle that I had no way of handling on my own. I prayed and have been praying to God and he has reassured me that he has already given me the strength to stand for my marriage and the hope that He is here for me and will be with me every step of the way. I have seen God work on me during this time and I have not done a good job of sharing that at all. He deserves all the praise because I was at a point of giving up and giving in and I will not lie, there are many days that are a struggle but I do not feel as chaotic as I used to and feel a sense of purpose; I feel like He is making me whole! He has given me hope and love when I believed I was not lovable and all possibilities are lost. My husband and I are still separated at this point but with God I am still standing for my marriage and no longer trying to wish away my storm but battle through it and become a warrior for God. Thank you for your emails and given us the opportunity to share. I have been reading your emails for months and this is the first time I have shared. Thank you. I love you ladies for what you do and the Word of God you share.
Great share thank you so much. A few months ago my pastors wife gave me prayers from Girlfriends in God, to pray for my husband. I didn’t even know I should be praying for my husband. I’m newly married and just thought “Gods got him”, and He does but as a wife I need to pray for my husband. WOW what a difference sister. I have been handing these prayers out like you would a coupon handed to you in a store. I had to not assume the girls I knew were praying for their husbands like this. Most of them weren’t. I tell you it has made a big difference to everyone I have given them to. I met a girl at a training for work that was contemplating suicide, she had a pros and con list already. Her husband wanted a divorce and she just couldn’t handle life anymore. I went up to during the training and told that was the enemy trying to end her life and she should throw that list away! I then told her I don’t know wether you have a belief in God or not but marriage is very sacred to Him. I asked her if she was praying for her husband and she said no. I offered her the prayers too and within a couple of days big changes were happening. I don’t know what will happen with your marriage. I do know 2 things. 1 is Gods covenant with marriage and 2 He is faithful !!! Our will and fleshly desires get in the way. Hang in there and keep praying sister. Look for the prayers on their website. If you can’t find them email me and I will email you them. My email is farina2362@yahoo.com I will pray for you and your husband❤️
Susan I can not say thank you enough. Today was one of those days where the devil was working on me and had me in a place of uncertainty. Up until all of this happened I had not prayed for my husband. I am learning so much about myself through this process and what my role of a wife should be according to His word. Something else that is crazy is that I found Girlfriends In God on Facebook but it never occurred to me to go on their website. Thank you for that suggestion. I so appreciate your response and thank God for speaking to me through you! I appreciate your prayers!
I am a Christian and I am not ashamed but I have a hard time telling of “the good news”. It is my lack of confidence that holds me back. Over the years and most recently I’ve learned how much God wants us to rely oh Him and not on ourselves. Let Him have control . God wants to make it easy on us but I tend to make it hard but I’m learning that He is the way the truth and the life. And because of your devotions and others and being in the word it helps growing and understanding Gods’s word. I thank God for people who take the time to help us grow. Thank you Jesus and thank you Gwen and Girlfriends in God
I met Christ when I was 9, but I have had so many periods when it is not that I walked away but that I wasn’t really walking in His power. I was doing Christian things but I wasn’t trusting Him in everything. Over the last few years, actually, through losses of people I love, I have felt His grace and presence in a way that assures me of His unfailing faithfulness and that He loves me unconditionally and that fear and worry are not what He wants for us. Faith and grace are part of His package! It’s ours! I praise Him.
I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He has come into my heart back in October of 1989, changed me from being such a negative, not so nice person. It wasn’t automatic, but oh, how He changed me little bits at a time. Now I am a positive, optimistic woman who had been called into Youth ministry, and now Women’s Ministry. I write poetry, psalms and songs, I have written my testimony in a book, printed it out and shared it with very close friends and others who needed to be touched by God.
Many years ago my uncle battled cancer for the second time, my prayer was that he would come to know Christ if he didn’t already. I never preached to him or talked to him about Christ, just prayed silently. One Good Friday, I was off work, God laid on my heart that I needed to visit my uncle, I did. When I got ready to leave, he grabbed my hand and told me he’s so glad I’ve come to know Christ. My mouth dropped open. The next day he passed away. God gave me that gift! Thank you Lord Jesus, I praise Your wonderful name!