This month’s Bible study of “A Woman After God’s Own Heart” is entitled, A Heart for Your Husband. Okay, so all of us that are married know that we’re in for some pain on our toes, right? It might go all the way up to our shins and the seat of our britches before the month is over!

Day One took us to Proverbs 31 – we all knew we’d go there, right? Because it is a very familiar passage I’m trying to study one verse each day and am asking the Lord to reveal what He wants me to learn. When I read verse 13b it says, “…she works willingly with her hands.” As I stopped and pondered that thought – especially the word willingly – I pondered my own work. How willing am I to work? Oh, it’s easy when everyone’s chipping in and helping out! What fun! But what about when everyone else is “chilling” and I’m still cleaning up the kitchen, or cooking again? The willingness tends to fly out the window only to be replaced by resentment. “If it weren’t for me there would be no Christmas celebration at our house! I decorate, write the cards, buy the gifts, wrap them, bake all the goodies, cook the holiday meals….blah, blah, blah!!!!” (Please tell me you’ve had the same wicked thoughts!)

Toe cruncher #1! – I need to ask the Lord to help me to work with willing hands and a willing heart!,

Elizabeth Elliot said this as she was on her way to Ecuador, “It was the thing I was made for, and I was full of gladness.” For those of us that are married we can all make that very same statement in regards to our work at home. We were created to be a helper suitable for our husband (Genesis 2:18), therefore this work should be done with a heart full of gladness! There can be gladness in preparing a meal, doing the laundry, straightening up the house, or decorating a room. The thing that makes the difference is our heart. Do we, like Elizabeth see these tasks as helping us fulfill the very thing God made us for? If so, we will have a right attitude. Instead of just throwing something on the table at mealtime, we can go at it with joy – preparing ahead, planning carefully and making it tasteful and beautiful. Instead of waiting to do the laundry, we’ll work at it methodically, rather than letting it pile up and become a daunting task.

We’ll do ourselves and our families a huge favor if we’ll go after our household responsibilities with willing hands. We’ll be creative and have a heart of gladness. Imagine the difference that could make on your family today!

Lovingly,

• Simplify stuff

I’m going to endeavor, with the Lord’s help to simplify my belongings. “Stuff” weighs us down, keeps us from being free to serve, and keeps us tied to this earth. One day it will all be left behind. I want the Lord to free me from collecting things I don’t need.

• Seek souls

The only thing we can take to heaven with us is other people. I’m asking the Lord to give me a greater burden for souls. As a person who knows the Gospel, I have the message that the lost world needs to hear. They won’t be saved by watching my life, they must hear the Gospel from my lips, and I’m asking God to give me people with whom I can share the Truth.

Have you asked the Lord to enable you to accomplish something this year? I’d love to hear about it so I can add you to my prayer list. May this new year and new decade find us loving our Lord more and bringing about eternal rewards.

With love,

Have you learned yet to have a love for discipline? If we were honest we’d all probably agree that this is the virtue we love to hate. But as we have been reminded this week, we must do the hard things that will create the beauty God wants to bring into our Christian lives. Steps one and two were: Daily time and Daily walk. Today we move to the last two points in having a life of godly discipline.

3. Daily desire. Proverbs 31:30 – Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. This is where the desire comes in. There is a place in our lives for fearing the Lord. It’s our worshipful attitude towards Him. Do we really desire God’s best? Where do we really fall on the desire scale? Anne Ortland said, “I really do have a fear. I long to grow more godly with each passing day. Call it the fear of the Lord – being in awe of Him, scared to death of anything that would mar my life at this point.” This is the desire we need to have in our walk with God.

A woman after God’s heart must be like a tea pot on the fire! You know it’s there. You hear it, you see it. It’s jumping up and down! The lid is rattling. Smoke is coming out of it! That’s got to be us and our desire, so when people see us they see a passionate desire to walk with God and get as close to Him as we can.

4. Daily commitment – Romans 12:1 – I beseech you therefore, brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. This daily commitment is giving all that you are and all that you have to God. You do it now and you give it to Him forever, and daily is the key. We need to be reminded every single day of this commitment. Every day you need to give God your life all over again. It isn’t yours, it is His. Give Him your body, your health, your husband. We must pry our fingers off of our loved ones lives and let God do with them as He desires.

Elizabeth shared with us the example of when her husband Jim went into the ministry. She felt like she never saw him. At first she was resentful of this, but then the Lord showed her she must give her Jim to God to be used as God would choose. She said, “Lord help yourself to my husband’s life. Take him and let him spend His time with whomever You would desire.”

Each day we must pray for each of our children and ask God to do whatever He needs to do to draw them to Himself. F. B. Meyers said, “Every day make an audible commitment to God. ‘Lord, I give this day to You.'”

Betty Stam (pictured below) and her husband John, were missionaries in China under the China Inland Mission. Their life of commitment cost them their lives, their marriage, and their ministry (in human terms). Here was her prayer as they headed to China, knowing what the risks were:

“Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept thy will for my life. I give myself, my time, my all utterly to thee to be thine forever. Fill me and seal me with thy Holy Spirit. Use me as Thou wilt. Send where thou wilt. Help yourself to my life at any cost, now and forever . Amen and amen.”

That was a huge commitment that cost Betty her physical life, but I know that she would tell us it was worth it. Oh, that we would each be able to make that commitment to our great God, because He is worth it!

Yesterday our study of “A Woman After God’s Own Heart” took us to Psalm 5:1-3 where David tells us that we need a daily time with the Lord and we learned how we can do that. The next step in disciplining ourselves to have a heart for God is…

2. Our Daily Walk – This is where we purpose to choose God at every way, every thought, word, decision, and act that comes during the day. This is what it means to make God our ultimate priority. Two items come to our rescue when it comes to making this choice:

A.) Proverbs 3:5,6 – Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not thine own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and He shall direct your paths. Imagine that in the morning after you’ve been to your prayer closet and had your time with God and are walking in the Spirit, you come out and your phone rings. The person on the other end of the line says, “You did this, and you did that…” Before you say a word or think a thought acknowledge him in all your ways. Stop and take a breath and say, “Lord, what do you want me to say, and how do you want me to act?” If it’s a face to face confrontation, we may even need to ask the Lord what expression we should have on our face (it’s usually a smile!). Choose to keep on walking with Him. Consult God in every decision with every thought you’re thinking, every decision you’re making and He will direct your path.

We can also be helped making God our priority with this second thought:
B.) Good better best, never let it rest, until your good is better and your better best. Elizabeth applies this little rhyme to her life, trying to make the good choice, then the better and the best.

Because she had many miles to travel every day in her car, she asked the Lord how she could spend her time wisely. She began by listening to classical music. “Lord, is there something better I could listen to?” Out went the classical music and in came the praise music. Time went by and she asked again, “Lord, is there something better I could be doing while driving all these miles?” Out went the praise music and in came sermons on tape. A while later she asked, “Lord, is there something better I could be listening to?” Out went the sermons and in came the Bible on tape. “Lord, is there anything better I could be doing here?” Finally she turned the whole audio system off and brought in her Bible memory cards and she memorize passages of God’s Word while she traveled about. This is just one example of going from good to better, then to the best.

We each need to discern the best ways for us to spend our time so we give our best to God. Are there changes you need to make to be accomplishing the best each day? This is our daily walk.

The conclusion will be on tomorrow’s post.