The Deepening Journey

Scriptures: Jeremiah 31:3, John 15:4-5, Psalms 139:13-17

Day 1: Once Upon a Time

Have you ever considered our design as image bearers, how we’ve been wounded along the path of our stories, how we have arranged for our protection and provision, the healing path back toward our truest selves, and the joy of finding community in a redemptive sisterhood of women? In these first two days we will explore some of what we were created for. Today we begin with Love and Shalom. Tomorrow, we continue with how we are created in the image of God. 

We were created for Love.

We are the Beloved of God. Our experience of being loved is foundational for our deepening journey. 

Since the moment we are born, every child asks, “Am I loved? Do you see me? Do you like what you see?” The answers to these questions shape and direct our heart’s journey through life. 

Even before Christ came to bring us wholeness, God said, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” (Jeremiah 31:3). Our Trinity God is a pursuer of our hearts. He draws us to himself with unfailing kindness. He woos us with his faithful, deep, everlasting love. 

You are his beloved daughter. Do you find this difficult to believe and embrace? If so, you are not alone. Many of us haven’t known this kind of safe and enduring love, so we may not trust it to be true for us. 

We were created for Wholeheartedness.

As the beloved, we were created to live more and more wholehearted as our truest, most authentic self, experiencing life in union with God and with other image bearers in this incredible world he made. Doesn’t that sound amazing? Almost too good to be true? What might that even look like in the day to day? 

The image in John 15:4-5 is one of union, you and God—the branch is united with the vine, which allows the vine to provide life to the branch, bringing nourishment, strength, FLOURISHING. Oh that you may draw from and experience abundant life, the fullness of life God intends for you, for each of us. 

Becoming more wholehearted is experiencing Shalom, perfect peace; not merely the absence of tension, but delight and honor. You are stunningly created and crafted. You were made for someone to see you and be captivated by you! 

In Psalm 139:17, the psalmist declares that God has precious thoughts about us and our life; so vast is the sum of his thoughts about us! Do you believe that God has precious thoughts about you? 

We are our Creator’s beloved daughters. We are cherished, delighted in, and God’s treasure, created for life with and in and through him. 

As you ponder all this with God today, ask Him:

Father, how did you see me as a young girl? In what ways did you know me, value me, and hold me close? How do you see me now?

Jesus, where have I known and felt the absence of love and belonging?

Spirit, are your thoughts about me really precious? Would you reveal to me a thought you have about me?

Scriptures: Genesis 1:27, Ephesians 2:10, Matthew 23:37

Day 2: Made in the Image of God 

Yesterday we explored some of our design and intention: belovedness and wholeheartedness. Today let’s explore what it means that women were created in God’s image. Here are four of the many unique ways we bear the image of God as women: 

1. Through our Strength

“God said, ‘It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’” (Genesis 2:18) That word “helper” is the English translation of “ezer” which literally means warrior; strong help; man’s perfect match. We use our beautifully fierce heart to protect, to act justly on behalf of those who are weak, unprotected, and oppressed. 

2. Through our Beauty

Women are the crown of creation. It was only after Eve was created that God declared his creation very good. Our beauty is about far more than outward appearances. Beauty is set in our hearts. A woman’s beauty is the very life of God within her. Our very presence can bring goodness, life, and healing to another. Beauty captivates, awakens, draws us in. Beauty nourishes and delights. 

3. In Relationships

One of the most beautiful ways women bear the image of God is through our capacity for relationships. There is something in us that longs to be wanted, to be invited, to be included. As women we have a unique way of offering presence, compassion, comfort, of engaging hearts, inviting others near, and of cultivating spaces for connection. Belonging—connection—happens in the context of relationships. YES! It’s what we long for, because we were made for it! 

4. Through the Mother Heart of God

In scripture God is portrayed with both paternal and maternal aspects. Jesus declares in Matthew 23:37, “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” He longed to show Jerusalem affection to comfort and guide as a mother hen would her chicks. The name of God “El Shaddai” means strong breasted one. This name describes how like a mother, God desires to embrace, nurture, and nourish us. We bear the image of God when we protect, provide, nourish, comfort, and care. 

As you ponder all this with God today, ask Him:

Father, what are the ways that you nurture me and care for me with maternal love?

Jesus, what things are in the way of my receiving your love?

Spirit, how do I push back against your care?

Scriptures: Genesis 3:1-10, Psalms 51:17, Romans 7:15-19

Day 3: The False Self: Who We Aren’t 

In Genesis 2, we read how God makes man and woman in his own image, blessing them, and giving them a lush garden in which to flourish. He created us to live intimately with Him, to experience first hand his love and goodness. 

Yet the enemy lured Eve into doubting God’s words and desires for her, “Did God really say?…You will certainly not die… For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God.” (Genesis 3:1,4-5) Instead of rooting herself in belovedness, she questioned God’s heart for her. You might even say she was lured into believing God was holding out on her. Satan is sinister, plotting and strategic—he will do whatever it takes for you to believe lies about God, about yourself, about others, and about your life. 

When we believe him, when we believe his lies that come our way about our true selves, we hide, covering ourselves with the “fig leaves” of the False Self. What do you do when you’re feeling ashamed of what you’ve done, afraid of not being enough, afraid of not being seen, known, and loved? What is it that you cover with fig leaves? What are your go-to fig leaves? What do you hide behind? 

What keeps us from the intimacy and flourishing God intended for us? 

In constructing this False Self, we sacrifice our heart and our truest, most authentic self for the sake of arranging love for ourselves. When we put on this facade–a way of moving that “ensures” the attention and care we need–we diminish our True Self, our genuine, authentic heart and way of moving as God’s beloved daughter. She shrinks back and the False Self takes the reins of our lives. 

Our God wants our honest hearts, our whole hearts, our true selves, to live and move in union with him. When we self-protect and live life from the lies and fears, the False Self keeps us from experiencing all the love, wholeness, and goodness God has for us. 

As you ponder all this with God today, ask Him:

Father, what lies have I believed about you, about me, and about others?

Jesus, what has been my way of securing love when I have felt the need to hide, prove, and fear?

Spirit, would you show me what I do when I’m feeling ashamed, afraid of not being enough, afraid of not being seen, known, and loved?

Scriptures: John 10:10, Luke 4:18, Psalms 10:17

Day 4: Wounded: The Loss of Eden 

Today, we are invited to consider going back into our stories–into the beauty and the brokenness, the joy and the pain, the places where Eden was lost and the False Self was created. 

The False Self comes from the places in our hearts that were missed and harmed, where we were wounded as little girls or as adults, long ago and perhaps even just yesterday. 

In moments of wounding, harm, and loss, we are renamed. What names landed on you in those moments? Where is there shame in your story? How did you learn to shut down your heart? This is where we are being invited to linger for a little while. 

In Luke 4, Jesus declares one of his purposes is bringing good news to the poor, releasing captives, and setting the oppressed free. When the False Self is constructed, our True hearts are often locked away, held captive, exiled out of self-protection. Jesus longs for our whole self to be set free to live and move and have our being in him! 

We need to go back in our stories, particularly to our stories of harm. There are things in your story that need to be named, in order for there to be grieving, healing, and restoring that Jesus offers and provides. 

Often we distance ourselves from our pain and wounding moments, minimizing them or comparing them with others. We often try to stay positive and push past them. 

Imagine with me that the sun is setting. In not allowing ourselves to name and process the past, we are running after the setting sun, but “the quickest way for anyone to reach the sun and the light of day is NOT to run west, chasing after the setting sun, but to head east into the darkness until one comes to the sunrise,” (Jerry Sittser in A Grace Disguised). 

When we courageously face and move with God through the pain and darkness of the past and in his presence honestly name the harm, may we experience his love, his comfort, and healing in his wings. And may we glimpse the hope of sunrise! 

Set aside time today to be still, open, and honest with God, considering what has been ignored, minimized, or perhaps locked away for far too long. Take time in God’s Presence to name what happened to you, and how it has affected you to this day. 

As you ponder all this with God today, ask Him:

Father, what were some of the wounding moments in my life? Where did I feel vulnerable and unprotected as a little girl?

Jesus, how have my wounds named me? Where do I feel shame in my story?

Holy Spirit, what are the vows and agreements I made in the wounding moments?

Scriptures: Isaiah 61:1-11, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Matthew 5:4, Luke 4:18-19

Day 5: Healing: A Path Toward Eden 

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the wounds of the brokenhearted. Jesus spoke these words from Isaiah 61 as he began his ministry (Luke 4). Jesus came, and continues to come, inviting us to experience his presence, his comfort, his care, his healing—in the midst of the darkness, and in the places of our pain. Jesus knows what we have endured, he knows what we bear in our bodies and our souls. The Man of Sorrows sympathizes with us, weeps with us when we weep, and comforts us. 

Our kind God has made provision for our healing and our restoration. It doesn’t happen overnight, it isn’t a one-size-fits-all, and it isn’t linear. But healing IS possible. And there are countless ways we are able to experience healing! 

When we are able to consider our stories with sorrow and grief on behalf of our young self and what she endured, and when we allow tears to come for her and the sorrow that she didn’t get what she needed in those moments, this opens the door to healing, integration, and restoration. 

Healing can come in the presence of an empathetic witness who offers safety, comfort, and good care. It can be incredibly healing when we hear and believe, “It’s not your fault.” The wounds that happened to you are not your fault. 

All of this opens the door for healing. These are holy moments. 

Sometimes it’s a song we hear in a new way that helps to unlock something deep within us. Played on repeat, it can literally help to rewire our brain! God created our neural pathways to reconnect and heal. Integration happens when we experience the coming together of the broken pieces that fragmented when we experienced trauma. 

The Holy Spirit facilitates healing. And in these spaces, we always need and always have the Presence, the wisdom, the discernment and the help of the Holy Spirit, who is our most wonderful counselor. We need and we have the supernatural power and kindness of God that brings deep healing, restoration, transformation, and life to the full. 

Healing happens when our truest self is being restored, welcomed, uncovered, unbound, let up for air, cared for, nourished, and set free! 

There are layers to healing. Oftentimes we are brought back to a story where something else needs to be explored, named, grieved, and tended to. And a deeper level of healing can be experienced. 

As you ponder all this with God today, ask Him:

Father, what is one wounding moment you want to bring back to my memory and to heal? What was I feeling in that moment? (pain, shame, abandonment, fear…?)

Jesus, would you show me how and where you were with me in that moment?

Spirit, what did I need at that time and did not receive?

Scriptures: John 16:33, Ephesians 5:15-16, Ephesians 6:11-12

Day 6: The Story We Find Ourselves In 

Have you ever considered that your own story is set in the midst of an epic narrative God is writing? 

The context of our lives has been described as a great love story set in the midst of a war. This is the larger story our story is situated in, and the battle is over our hearts. YOUR heart! It’s the pursuit of your heart by a loving God who will move heaven and earth to draw you to himself. And at the same time, it’s the long and brutal assault on your heart by an enemy who knows what you could be … and fears it. 

Jesus told us we would have trouble in this world, and he also told us he has overcome this world. From the book of Revelation, we know that the kingdom of light wins the battle over the kingdom of darkness, but our lives, here and now, are set in the Already-But-Not-Yet. We have been redeemed by Jesus, but this world and the context we live in is currently more dystopian than it is the happily ever after. We have a very real enemy who wants us to stay in our small stories, both unaware of his schemes and how much our lives matter. 

May we come to know and trust in deeper measure this loving and strong God–one who overcomes, one who breathes on dry bones, and they come to life, one who raises the dead, calms storms, casts out demons, and in the end will usher in the new heavens and the new earth–and will make all things new! 

What you believe matters. It has authority in your life. The power of a lie is believing it, living out of it, and building your life around that false belief. It shapes and colors what you believe about God, about yourself, and about others, and keeps your focus on a smaller story. 

Do you realize YOU have a vital role in the Larger Story? Jesus has given us eyes to see, ears to hear, and redeemed hearts to awaken to and engage in this Larger Story–will you move with him through the journey of your life? May you lean into the Spirit as you learn to live and move in the Kingdom of God, becoming more and more oriented: knowing, experiencing, and living from who you are (God’s beloved), where you are (the Larger Story), and the good God is up to in your life. You, your voice, your way is needed in the Larger Story. 

As you ponder all this with God today, consider asking Him:

Father, what do you want me to consider and see through this new understanding of my story being set in a Larger Story?

Jesus, would you show me some of the ways the enemy has uniquely come against my experiencing my role in the Larger Story?

Holy Spirit, what are some false beliefs I’ve held about You? About myself? About others in my life?

Scriptures: Hebrews 10:23-25, Matthew 22:37-40, 1 John 4:11, John 10:10

Day 7: Sisterhood: The Deepening Community 

You were not created to do life alone! As we mentioned on Day 2, one of the most beautiful ways we bear the image of God is through our capacity for relationships. We were created for relationship; for belonging, for knowing and being known, to bear witness to each other, where our authentic true self is needed and invited. 

As you move along your healing journey, becoming more and more your true self–who you were created to be–there will be opposition and struggle–familiar voices you’ve heard your whole life. Do you see that in your life? Particularly as you move with Jesus in friendship and sisterhood? 

Cultivating redemptive sisterhood takes time, intentionality, and commitment. 

Cultivating Redemptive Sisterhood takes time. Perhaps you’ve experienced making a friend quickly, experiencing the delight of camaraderie with a woman you’ve met. And yet it is the intentional getting together and sharing life and the deeper matters of the heart over weeks and months that deepens friendships, moving it from ‘Hey, we could be friends,’ to someone you call when you’re experiencing the dark night of the soul. 

Cultivating Redemptive Sisterhood takes intentionality. Deep friendships are forged in the face of loss, grief, repair, as well as in the joy and celebration, as we care for each other, remaining fully present, intentionally exploring our own stories and each other’s stories. It is far too easy to listen and quickly respond with pearls of wisdom or scripture. It takes more energy, time, curiosity, and wisdom to allow yourself to stay present to the pain, to ask good questions, to experience empathy, to weep with those who weep, joining with each other in the moments that present themselves. 

Cultivating Redemptive Sisterhood takes commitment. In these days of social media, sound bytes, short attention spans, and demands on time, it is not unusual to have many casual acquaintances. May we even dare say that sometimes the semester Bible study culture perpetuates this? When you commit to investing your time and your heart with friends, experiencing the messy and hard times as well as celebrating the good with and for each other, over time you will have endured and experienced much together. Making this a priority—a commitment—means seizing these opportunities to be together, to get to know each other, to care for one another, and to build a redemptive sisterhood that could last a lifetime! 

Think about how Jesus has come for you over these seven days; he also longs for flourishing for your friends, your sisters, your daughters. Will you make space and a place for the women in your life? In the Larger Story, friendship—SISTERHOOD—is deeply opposed. Will you pursue it?

As you ponder all this with God today, ask Him:

Father, where have I held back in friendships, not allowing my true self to be known and seen?

Jesus, I long to experience belonging, for friends who love me for me. Will you show me how this has been opposed in my life? Where have I experienced wounding in friendships?

Holy Spirit, in my deepest heart, I yearn for a redemptive sisterhood. Who might I invite into exploring more together? Where do I start?