31 Days

31 Days

towards

Abundant Life

Remember that verse I've been sharing with you?

 

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

                                                            John 10:10b (NKJV)


I've been saying I'm going to unpack that verse for you, and I am.  Only I'm not going to do it in one day.  Instead I'm going to spend 31 Days in October blogging about it.  Why 31 days?  Well first and foremost I believe that God wants me to.  You might be asking yourself, "how could I possibly know that?"  Well I have not herd any audible voice.  Nor have I had anyone approach me and say they have herd a word from God.  No nothing as grandiose as either of those.  It really has been more or less a progression of thought starting with the book bag, you know the one I told you about in the blog post here .  Ever since I received that bag I have felt as if God has fanned the flame of my passion.   

Let me back up and say once again that my passion for as long as I've been walking with Christ has been that women would walk in the abundant life that Christ has come to give.  Why?  Because when I look around at women it seems to me that so many are weighed down by life and are living defeated lives.  Even those who know and love Jesus.  That breaks my heart!  It doesn't have to be and it shouldn't be. I want to share with you ladies what God has and is teaching me. I haven't arrived...I'm a work in progress, but I'm also no longer where I once was.


Reason number two is: a woman, "the Nester" a few years ago decided to blog for 31 days, the next year she asked 8 friends to join her and then the following year 746 women were blogging for 31 days.  I found her blog on pinterest and enjoyed reading it so I started following her.  When she asked if others wanted to join in I thought about it, at first I was hesitant (every day for 31 days is a lot after all).  One day after pondering on whether or not I should do it I had an avalanche of thoughts running through my mind.  I just started writing all those thoughts down and that's when I knew what I was going to be doing in October.  I had enough ideas to write for 31 days and then some.

Yikes!  I'm honestly a little bit scarred.  There are things I'm suppose to know how to do, but I don't: like how to create a button for my blog to link up with the others.  Another obstacle I'm facing is my computer is broke.  That only leaves me with my phone or the hubbies computer.  I'm using my hubbies right now late into the night, but I don't have access during the day. He kind of needs it for work... Hmm I sure do hope I can find a way to blog even without convenient computer access... As for the buttons and linking up I'm not overly concerned since even  if I never figure out how to do it I'm still going to do the challenge.  I just can't, not do it...God has placed a burning desire in my heart to share it!  Be looking for the first post on Oct. 1st.   

For tonight I leave you with this one tidbit: You girls are "loved with an everlasting love and underneath are the everlasting arms!"  That is what Elizabeth Elliot always said at the beginning of her radio show.  What comforting words!

31 Days Toward Abundant Life

Day 1 - The Beginning 

Day 2- You are Loved - Come as you are!

Day 3 - Through the fire

Day 4 - What it's not

Day 5 - If not that, then how?

Day 6 - Food for Thought

Day 7- In His Presence

Day 8 - The Blessing of Serving

Day 9 - Surrendered Heart

Day 10 - The Blessing of Suffering

Day 11 - Better not Bitter

Day - 12 Small Stones

Day 13- Paralyzed Praise: A Conversation with Joni Eareckson Tada

Day 14 or 16 Getting Back on Track = Day 14 
Day 15 - The Greatest Intercessor

Day 16 - Tender, Bruised & Broken Hearts

Day 17 - Pressing Through Fear 

Day 18 - Sabbath Rest

Day 19

Day 20

Day 21

Day 22

Day 23

Day 24

Day 25

Day 26

Day 27

Day 29

Day 30 

Day 31

He is actively involved

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."  

                                                                John 10:10b (NKJV)

Recently myself and another Women's Ministries (WM) teammate attended a WM Leadership training conference through Lifeway.   While there my teammate wanted to buy a Worship CD. As I was waiting for her I happened to glance over past the piles of CD's that were stacked on the table towards the back wall.  There laying on the floor propped up against other misc. items a plain canvas bag with a verse on it caught my eye.   There was nothing spectacular about the bag, nothing that would stand out to the casual observer.  It was the verse on the front of this bag that jumped out at me.  The very one I shared with you in my last post and the one that is at the top of this one.  When I saw it I immediately asked one of the ladies who was helping with the sale of the CD's if they were selling those bags.  She said no, she was given it at a pre-conference for volunteers.  I then said, "oh, 'cause when I saw it I thought - I've got to have that."  "That's exactly what my heart beat for women is;  that they would walk in the abundant life Christ came to give them despite their circumstances." She then said she wanted to give it to me, but since it was full of her things I'd need to come back the next day to get it.  I protested, but she wouldn't hear of it.

I went back to our hotel room that night still wrestling with what I should do. There was one part of me that wanted that bag so badly, and the other part of me thought if I were her I'd not want to give up the cool bag I just got for free.  Talking with my husband that night on the phone he said "you know you have to go back for it."  Still, I went to bed undecided. The next day I prayed "Lord, if when I walk up to the woman she recognizes me then I will know the bag is from You." "If she doesn't recognize me then I will walk away."   Well, in fear and trembling (literally) I walked up to the woman without saying a word. She looked at me, and initially there was no recognition in her face. But then all of a sudden her face lit up and she said she had the bag right here for me.  She went and got it and handed it to me, and I stood there dumbfounded.  How could I express how grateful I was to her? I fumbled through a thank-you knowing it just was not as enthusiastic as I wanted it to be, mostly because I was torn in accepting it.Why would she give it to me?  Why would God want me to have it?  Will she regret giving it to me? Were some of the thoughts that were running through my mind.  I wish I would have had the courage to give her a huge bear hug and a hearty hand shake as well as oozing over with Thank-yous through tears. That certainly would have more conveyed just how deeply thankful I was, but then I've never been one who is overt in expressing how she feels... 

Why Lord? What are you trying to tell me? What are you trying to show me? What Lord am I to do now that You've given me this:

My heart beat for women!

Daily baby steps of faith...that's how I'm responding. The first baby step of faith:  sharing this story with the WM team and the whole team excitedly deciding that this will be our theme verse for this year. The next baby step of faith: sharing the story on my blog. After all that's what this blog has been all about from the start. So it's the perfect place to share this small miracle God has done. Then in my next several posts I'd like to unpack more and more what I think Christ means when He spoke those Words.

...But then when your blogging you really don't know if your ramblings matter to anyone...is anyone out there reading this?  Is my sharing my heart helping anyone?  That's why I think at times it's so easy for me to just not do it...today I was even tempted by thoughts of shutting down my blog...who do I think I am...why do I think anyone would want to listen to what I have to say...but then somehow amongst those brooding thoughts hope arose! Maybe, I'll encourage one hurting heart today Lord! Just one broken and bleeding child who needs to hear that You are so very near to her, that You, Lord, love her right where she is at, You care, You will heal her broken and shattered heart, You will be there with her through it all, and she can live an abundant life despite her circumstances!!!  Maybe just one...love you and praying for you, whoever you are!