Breaking Free: Week 6 & 7

To say “thank you” to each of you who have prayed, emailed, commented, and loved over the past week {or months} would somehow seem so very inadequate. Yet I feel the need to let you all know what a blessing you have been to me! And oh, how I have felt your prayers! One week ago today was a very difficult day for us here on the home front – prayers were needed desperately, and through those prayers came peace. I might write a longer update soon, if the Lord leads, and fill you in on some of the healing happening here these days. For now though, I want you to know your prayers were heard, and answered, and so very much appreciated!

Due to the unexpected interruption last week, I thought I would try to summarize both Week 6 and Week 7 of Breaking Free in one post. I hope you don’t mind, and I hope I can successfully combine the two! {Did anyone else notice how relevant the titles were to this blog ~ “Beauty from Ashes” and “The Potter and the Clay”?? } The timing, the truths, the titles, and this site… How amazing it is that God orchestrates even the tiniest of details!

Day One of Week 6 strongly addresses the demoralization of women in our current society. Beth offers a list of ways Satan is actively pushing this agenda on page 129 in your workbook. I sat and nodded as I read through each one. God created a man to lead and love a woman, and a woman to love and honor the man. It is a partnership created and ordained at the foundation of the world. Clearly Satan is very calculated with his attacks and devices to destroy that foundation!

“The answer is not in turning from men. The answer is in turning to God.”

Though it may not be our individual form of bondage at this moment, I believe, as does Beth, that we all have been affected by the line of thinking so prevalent today. Claim this ~ “If we are not royalty, then He is not King.”

Whether our beauty has been desecrated by physical hurts or emotional pain, God desires to bring His beauty from the ashes. As Day 2 describes in depth, we are His bride ~ He sees us that way and desires to bless us as such! I love the analogy of being Christ’s bride versus being His wife. When I coordinate weddings, I often tell the bride-to-be that she is princess for a day. As Christ’s bride though, we can be princesses for life, and for all eternity! We cannot truly appreciate the meaning of that until we really know our Bridegroom well. Allowing Him a chance to love us, to bring us out of a dark pit in our lives, looking to Him for healing… what better ways to recognize just Who He is?!

And the best part of it all… we are guaranteed the “happily ever after”, even if the chapters of our lives before that are filled with life lessons, hurts, and disappointments!

“Our passion will be birthed from our pain.” ~ Viewers Guide, Session 7.

As a teenager, the rules I was expected to obey always felt more like a cage than freedom. But Day One of Week 7 starts out with the idea that obedience to God’s Word is where our liberty can be found. This entire day’s lesson resonated with me, as I realized that I personally must face these trials, learn these lessons in the Word, walk this road, in order to be changed and renewed from the inside out. I was blessed enough to be raised in a Christian home, attend a Christian school, and participate in a local church for as long as I can remember. While that is a tremendous blessing that I do not take lightly, it also has been one of my greatest pitfalls. Christianity was almost a habit, more than an active relationship between me and the Lord. I often tell others it wasn’t until I went through our divorce that God became real to me. In that dark valley, I was forced to develop an obedient and submissive relationship with the Lord, and through that came great intimacy with Him as well!

As discussed in Days One and Two of Week 7, did you see tendencies of rebellion within yourself? I sure did! In one way or another I could identify with all six characteristics of rebellion Beth listed!

“To flee from God’s salvation is rebellion.

To flee from God’s strength is to flee from victory.”

Days Three and Four of Week 7 compared God’s right to rule and how God’s rule is right. The conclusion of Day Four is so tremendously powerful. {Please refer back to page 165 in your workbook.} God makes no mistakes. His way is perfect. He sets up rules for us to obey to give us safe boundaries in which to live our lives. His guidance will never lead us in the wrong direction.

There is freedom in obedience.

Blessings to you this week!