If this is your first time here we are doing a study using the book "Battlefield of the Mind" by Joyce Meyers. You are welcome to join in anytime, just click the button on my side bar and it will take you to the Intro. We would love to have you comment and let us know you're here.
Well Ladies you all are coming up with great comments and insight, but that's what we are praying for. We want to grow more and more each day, which leads into the next lesson.
Chapter 4 - Little by Little
In this chapter, Joyce is focusing on cutting ourselves some slack. I've heard & believe we can be our own worse critics. We never feel that we match up. But remember "Only a fool compares".
I think we need to quit looking at others and seek God to find out who we are individually supposed to be. I also believe that a lot of wrong thoughts have to do with the "Stinking Thinking" that we are not quick to cast out. God calls them vain imaginations. 2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And for me I love that she uses Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:1 was a hard pill for me to swallow - but very beneficial to receiving Gods mercy in my life. Like Joyce states, this doesn't happen overnight, it happens "Little by Little" then one day you look back and you see where you were and where you are.
I know some of us journal and that is a great way of encouraging yourself as you reflect on the battles that God has brought you through. If you haven't written in a journal, maybe you would like to try it to see if it helps you as well. There may be times when we are only taking ground an inch at a time but adding those inches together will soon become the MILEstones of our lives.
I'm going to cut you loose you all are doing a great job of commenting and gaining from each other, and I'm learning from you as well. So let me know if anything in the chapter touched you.
Father God, Thanks again for more time so we can fellowship together. I again thank you for the wisdom you give us as we study your word and change our lives to walk closer to you. Help us to embrace you as our Father to crawl up on your lap and let you hold us and kiss us with your love and mercy. Help us to always remember the security we feel when we let you direct our paths. We love you, In Jesus Name, Your girls.
Blessings Ladies,
Lynn
14 comments:
Hi Ladies:
While reading Chapter 4 a scripture that my friend Jane gave me many,many,many years ago kept coming to mind:
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept: line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little; that they might go and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
Isaiah 28:1013
As I said this is the scripture that kept coming to my mind...I still need to keep meditating and praying to know what the Lord is speaking to me.
Hope you are all having a great day! Looking forward to reading all your comments.
Be Blessed,
In His Love,
Debrah
Lynn, I have been reading what you wrote and the comments but have I don't have the book. All of it has been good.
I just wanted to let everyone know that I had posted a very urgent prayer request on Rachel's blog this morning. The twin son of my husband's niece was in a car accident sometime Sunday morning and was on life support. He had very severe head injuries and I've just learned that he did not make it. Please be in prayer for his parents and his brother. He was 19years old. They live in Ringgold, Ga.
Thanks,
AliceE.
LYNN,
Just a quick note. I have been traveling and gardening and trying to walk 3+ miles a day on the days I am not working (at the hospital), and have not been at the computer much. I returned from Mexico last Sunday from celebrating my mom's 80th Birthday and it was wonderful.
I discovered your Study and it looks awesome. I had purchased this book a while back but have not read it. My intent is to try and catch up with you all. I just read the introduction and all the great comments. I'm excited and look forward to reconnecting with everyone.
Love Katrina
Debrah,
That's good. As we go through here we may all get different things, because God meets us where we are at. But what I've noticed is that sometimes a revelation will come to someone like this scripture that came to you. Then even though that scripture didn't come to me because you brought it up it can give me or someone a totally new revelation. That's why I think it is so good that we share like you did what hits us because sometimes God is giving us a "Word of Knowledge" for someome else that we aren't aware of. Thanks Debrah you are so faithful in your pursuit of God's word. I know He will bless you for it.
Loves,
Lynn
Katrina,
WELCOME Home :) Yes I'd love to hear about your travels and have you study with us. We're not going real fast. The ladies here have been coming up with great scriptures and revelations, it's very nice. Looking forward to hearing more from you.
Loves,
Lynn
Hello All,
Yes, welcome back Katrina! I'm glad you are interested in joining us in the study.
I have been a little behind - a dear lady in our church passed away this week and I am occupied with helping to cook food for her family that will be coming in for the funeral. The funeral will be tomorrow (Thursday) and I just got word yesterday that my uncle passed away on Monday night and the funeral will be Friday, so that's two funerals this week.
Please remember these two families in your prayers.
I will be back tonight, hopefully, to get in on the discussion of Chapter 4.
Plant Lady
Welcome all!
Alice and Plant Lady, your family and friends are definitely in my prayers. My uncle passed away about a month ago. He had lived a long and full life, but I am not sure he was a Christian. He left behind many children and my aunt (his second wife). She has also over the years, turned away from God and so she does not feel His comforting presence in her life. Please pray for her, that she will return to God and receive his comfort and peace in her life again. Thank you!
As for chapter four of The Battlefield of the Mind, Debrah, I read your comment yesterday before I had a chance to read the chapter. I looked up the passage and pondered it, and when I read the 4th chapter, I could really see how it kept coming to you! That was a great verse to be inspired by! It really emphasizes how God builds us up and trains us, little by little, precept upon precept and line upon line. I found it ironic that in the Isaiah passage, the first instance of this pattern is "mockingly said" by the Israelites, and yet God turns it around to be a blessing and a source of comfort!
I was comforted by chapter 4. I did pray this morning for a new day filled with the power of the Spirit to fill my mind with encouraging and life-giving thoughts for the people I work and live with, and for strength to press on, not seeing a failure in my attempts as a failure of myself. I repeated the passage from the book that it just means I'm not good (at that thing or skill) yet and that there is no condemnation for those who walk in the Spirit.
I hope you all have a great day and I am looking forward to further discussions!
- Karen
Hi All:
Karen I really like the way you "worded" your prayer...the words encouraging and life giving thoughts... For the last few days I have been thinking about "words"...in the past I have only thought of mean or cruel words as those I needed to keep guard over...but I am beginning to see words that are spoken to make someone feel better are also words that can be harmful...we can speak things to other and be well meaning and the words can appear kind, sometimes even wise...but they are interrupting the work that the Lord is doing in someone...sometimes we may be encouraging someone to remain or to move into something that the Lord did not intend for them...because we want to be kind and encouraging...
Your prayer for life giving thoughts really speaks to me...speak truth with Grace and Mercy...keep silent when necessary...love at all times...
I pray you are all having a blessed day.
In His Love,
Debrah
Lynn,
Your prayers and comment was so much appreciated. I also appreciate your offer to buy the book. If I could put time into the study I could get the book, but with things in limbo with the death of my husband's niece's son I can't concentrate on anything. He was an organ donor and is being kept on life support until the doctors can get all the organs. His parents are staying at the hospital until that is finished. When we find out the funeral arrangements we are going to Tennessee. His niece is like one of our daughters. She stayed with us some while she was in college and we've been home for her and her sister for a lot of years. My oldest daughter is on her way there now from Virginia Beach. Please pray for her a safe trip and for the family. If you don't get any comments from me for a while you'll know that we have gone. I appreciate you and this whole group so much. You've all been such a blessing to me.
Love to you and everybody and thanks for your prayers.
AliceE.
All,
As some of you may know, I have been reading the book, "A Woman After God's Own Heart", by Elizabeth George. I noticed that in her book,she talks about keeping our homes cheerful, warm, positive and constructive. This can be accomplished by going to God's Word each day, praying and giving Him the opportunity to set the "thermostat" of our heart and then we are to "maintain" the temperature like our heating/cooling units do to maintain the comfort of our home.
If our thoughts get to hot (tempers, hot words or emotions) we must go to God's word to "cool" things off- "a soft answer turns away wrath-Proverbs 15:1 and another scripture in James 3:18.
In contrast, if our minds and hearts start to cool, scriptures like Proverbs 12:25, 15:13, 15:15 will refocus our thoughts.
I thought this was especially speaking to me in that I need to make an extra effort to keep myself in check in these areas.
Any thoughts?
Plant Lady
Ladies,
Sorry that I seem to be running in behind this week.
I really really felt convicted by what Joyce said on page 39 about pride being the beast spoken of in Deuteronomy 7:22. This is a huge thing with me. Pride is a constant battle, along with it's sister low self esteem, and they are my bestest friends. I go back and forth between, look what I did, and I can't do that.
Lynn I like what you said about us being our own worst Critic. I don't know about ya'll, but I am known for getting out the magnifing glass and inviting everyone around to look at my faults through it.
But then along comes someone like Joyce that says don't give up and cut yourself some slack, and it is all biblically backed up so, I have to stop and hear not just listen to but really hear what God is trying to tell me, and apply it to my life. And that is the hard part. Like you Lynn I am finding that Romans 8:1 is a very hard scripture to swallow and allow to reign in my spirit.
Debrah I agree with you about the scripture from Isaiah, and it just so lines up with what we were reading this week, if God just cleaned our house on us, we would not know how to handle it, and would be running around going look what I did.
Karen, I am going to be borrowing your thoughts in the days to come to line them up with God.
Alice, Plant Lady, and Katrina, I am praying for you all for your friends and family.
My girlfriend and I are off on Friday to see Beth Moore in San Antonio. The weekend is not going as I had planned, but as my Father has planned. I can not wait to see what He has for each and everyone of us.
In Him,
Sallye
Ladies,
I just had to jump back on because my nightly reading is just clicking right along with this study. Well duh! Deuteronomy 7:2 "and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them." How many times have we shown mercy or even made covenant with our thoughts and actions after God has delivered us from them? I am begining to realize what a battle this really is, and that it is won moment by moment, and that when God give us victory over something, we have to just like the Israelites utterly destroy it and show it no mercy, or like in the new testament, Matthew 12:43-45 we will be in a worse state than the first. We also have the responsibility of taking the "swept and clean" house and filling it with the Word of God and with praise and worship.
Sallye
Hi Salley,
Your insights are great! Beth Moore talked about holding on to your sins (failing, fears) asking for the same forgiveness (blessing) over and over again before God. She likened this to a lack of faith that God is powerful enough to forgive you or answer your prayer. I think your citing Deut. 7:2 is a good illustration of this same thing.
I came across a devotion (Girlfriends in God) today (Aug. 21) where the topic was checking your heart. Here are a few thoughts on this from Mary Southerland:
James 3:3-4 (NLT) “We can make a large horse turn around and go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a tiny rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot wants it to go, even though the winds are strong.”
The power of the spoken word is great! The bit in a horse’s mouth and the rudder of a ship must be under the control of a strong hand in order to accomplish what they were created to accomplish. So must the tongue.
Matthew 12: 34-35
"34You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 35The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him."
(from me again) - So, here again, the tounge, the heart, and the will of God are aligned. I agree with Salley who said " am begining to realize what a battle this really is, and that it is won moment by moment"
I know we are moving on, so I want to thank you all again for all the discussion and I look forward to the next sessions!
- Karen
I finished Chapter 4 and after reading all the comments I have nothing new to add. What great thoughts and questions each one of you have brought up. I'm on to Chapter 5 and hopefully will be up with the rest o you.
Katrina
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