Where Do YOU Begin? Part 1

Hey there my sweet and snowy sistas at The Well!

Welcome to the world of blogging! I’m not at all interested in blogging just to be blogging, or to be heard, or to make myself known. But as a way to encourage- it’s great, and a wonderful way to create community. And for us, especially this week, it’s a great way to keep our little community of Bible-studying-babes together and connected in spite of the chilly weather conditions in Big D. Chilly is a bit of an understatement when it’s snowing, icing and currently 12 degrees with a windchill factor of 6. That’s 6 as in “six”. Yes.

So- here we go with our first W@W LifeWork Blog Post!

Here’s how it works:

The questions below pertain to your LifeWork study from last week. If you weren’t at Bible Study last Wednesday on 1/26/11 you can download the LifeWork by clicking here.

With what you learned from your LifeWork, read the questions below and then click on the comments link at the bottom of this post. Type in your response to one (or more) questions, and please remember to state your name (or blog name) and the question # you’re responding to. Refer back often to see what others are posting and to join in on the discussion. Let’s begin!

“Where Do You Begin?”
W@W LifeWork from 1/26/11

  1. Who does God say that you are? In Isaiah 43:1 we are told right from the start that God created and formed “Israel” (us) and that He gives us our “identity”.  Based on Isaiah 43:1b, how does God identify us?  Reading on, in verse 10a we see that God adds to our identity.  What does He call us in 43:10a?
  2. Thinking this through a little deeper, if we have received the “promise” of Salvation through trusting Christ as our Lord and Savior, then God’s name is stamped on us.  How does the designation that you are His, you are His witness and His servant change the way you think about your life… what you do and who you are?
  3. We’ve seen that God was involved in the creation of man in a much more personal way than He was with the rest of creation.  Looking at Genesis 1:1-2:27, what STRIKING FACT about God’s personal and hands-on creative process with man/woman (you) impacted you the most and why?
  4. Not only has God created us in very great detail, but Isaiah 43:10b tells us that He created us and chose us for 2 very specific reasons.   What are they?  Take a look at your “Key Word Study” of the words “know” and “believe”.  Common words, but what did you learn through your research that may have changed the way you interpret these verse?
  5. Knowing God Better: Share one or two ways that God spoke to you this week.  What way did you come to know Him better through the study of His Word?
  6. Something to Reflect on:  One of the biggest ways we women struggle with our identity is in the area of our appearance; what we like and mostly what we don’t like and wish we could change about the way we look or the way we are.  Yet in Psalm 139:13-17 we hear King David describe the very intimate and personal way in which God forms each of us; knitting us together… every detail from the color of our eyes and hair to our bone structure, our height, the way we laugh, the way we smile, the way our voice sounds… even our personality and temperament.  David praised the Lord that he was “fearfully and wonderfully made”; in essence, he was saying to the Lord, “Good job!”  Is it hard for you to look at yourself and say, “Good job, Lord”?  You do not have to share your response to that.  But we all struggle with this in some way.  I’m not disregarding the need for some healthy “temple maintenance”.  I’m talking about the thing that we are so displeased with about ourselves that it becomes a mental preoccupation of “I wish I was _______”  If only I could be______”. What I would like for you to do is to take that to the Lord in both confession and repentance.  Why repentance?  Because when  we “throw ourselves away” by being critical of the way that God made us, we are in turn being critical of God, saying, “I don’t like that fact that You made me _______.  I’d be happy if I could only be like (look like, talk like…) ______!” Only you know what fills in your particular blank.  The first step in recovering your True Self- the You that God created you to be, is in owning up to the false you that you’ve tried to be.  We will dive more deeply into this topic in the next 2 weeks, but for now, in regard to yourself… “you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse” (Philippians 4:8, The Message).

Can’t wait to hear from you all on the blog.  Remember that we are in this together to recover our True Identity in Christ.  You never know how your discovery in the Word will encourage someone else in the group.  So, post your comments and let’s get talking!

xoxo – P