Aliene

God’s design for family establishes a framework that creates a place of rest, solace, and love—a refuge from the storms of life. His boundaries establish a place where we are free to make the mistakes necessary to uncover our true potential and thrive, free to become who God created us to be.

• Wives are to be loved as Christ loved the church.
• Husbands are to leave the nest of their mothers to create their own family, putting their wives first.
• Daughters are to be valued and raised without anger through unconditional love.  

This love, family love, is sacrificial. It is costly. It brings beauty.  

Sadly, under the weight of a broken world, the experiences most of us have with families is fractured rather than whole, distorted rather than ideal. Every woman has an imperfect family.  

While God’s framework for family is perfect, we are not. The perfect family does not exist because there are no perfect people.  

The Goal Should Be Perfect Love

When you see the fractures do you feel like you failed or that God failed you? Do you feel the shame that comes from using the measuring stick of having a perfect family? I did that for years until I learned this truth: my goal should be perfect love not perfect families. 

Don’t believe the enemy’s lies that God’s framework for family doesn’t work.

If marriage and family have failed to satisfy your own needs or the needs of society, it was not God or his plans that failed. It was people, fallen and imperfect, who were not there to fulfill their God-given role so that you could have the security you needed. It was people, fallen and imperfect, who did not love and nurture you the way God designed you to be cared for. 

Just after Paul’s description of God’s family framework in the book of Ephesians, he writes about the armor of God and our war with the enemy (Ephesians 5:21–6:20). This order in Scripture is no accident…

The enemy knows that there is strength in family and would love nothing more than to destroy God’s design, because then he can distort our perception of our relationship with him.

But Satan’s attack on family goes beyond just us; it is an attack on the gospel itself, since God’s family framework communicates the reflection of his desire to have a relationship with all people. 

The Marriage Relationship Reveals God’s Heart

In marriage, God created a relationship like no other. It goes beyond any friendship. It is a covenant in which two lives intertwine to become one.

With the purpose of providing a reflection of the relationship between Christ and the church, the marriage relationship was designed to reveal God’s heart for intimacy with us. Quoting Genesis, Jesus reminded the Pharisees who came to test him,

“But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh” (Mark 10:6–8).   

But even in the brokenness of our own family frameworks, the gospel message pierces through those cracks when we look to Jesus.

• Redemption
• Forgiveness
• Adoption
• Unconditional love

Stop the shame in Jesus name! 

Treasured Tribe, let the fractures be the very parchment upon which Jesus writes his story of redemption, illustrating it with your life.

From our Nourish Scripture this week, we see the heart of Jesus towards women inside fractured families. Let the imperfections in your family drive you straight into the arms of the only source of perfect love—Jesus.  

Our goal should not be perfect families but, rather, families and lives that reflect God’s perfect love toward others within our fallen, fractured world. Could there be any greater blessing in life than that?

Nourish Scripture: Mark 10

When you encounter Jesus, you not only experience perfect love but also discover the truth about who you are meant to be. Download Nourishing Your Heart and learn how to use God’s Word to discover your purpose. 

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Blog written by Aliene Thompson. Aliene Thompson is the founder of Treasured Ministries and the Author of the Nourish Bible Study Series. © 2019 Treasured Ministries.

Treasured Tribe,  can we talk real today? 

There is a difference between ministering to someone who needs the Lord and tying your soul to someone who is unhealthy.

There is a difference between loving others and deeply enmeshing yourself with them. I know this – because for years I did not understand the concept of boundaries.

Can you relate? 

God is the only one who can be God (it’s not our job!) and when he is, we are free to love others and let go of those unhealthy entanglements. 

Sometimes we must take drastic steps to detach from unhealthy relationships when they are causing us to stumble. Relationships, like our eyes, hands, and feet, are good and necessary in our life, but some relationships are not healthy. 

“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands. If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one foot than to be thrown into hell with two feet. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell.” Mark 9:43-47 

Jesus was not advocating self-mutilation; he was making the point that it is wise to recognize your weaknesses and temptations and remove anything or anyone enticing you to sin.

Jesus is teaching an effective strategy to avoid sin—it is better to sever ourselves from anything that separates us from him than to keep it and sin.

For a time, you may need to lose something or someone valuable, essential, and beneficial so you can find your life in him. 

Identifying Unhealthy Relationships

Unhealthy relational entanglements have destroyed many of Christ’s strongest branches. We all understand the overt signs of an unhealthy relationship—signs like physical, verbal, emotional, or spiritual abuse, and infidelity. But what about the more subtle signs? 

In her book When Godly People Do Ungodly Things, Beth Moore, who has ministered to the church for years, points out how some of the most committed Christians have fallen into “messy” relationship entanglements. Beth Moore also talks about the importance of discerning clean versus messy ties in relationships.

How can we discern a messy tie? Beth provides some warning signs.

Do these describe any of your relationships—either friendships or romantic ties? 

• Unhealthy dependency on each other
• Temptation to engage sexually with the person outside of marriage 
• Someone in the relationship becomes a false Christ figure, spiritually guiding the other person more than Jesus 

Is there a relational tie in your life that needs to be severed?

Don’t ignore those red flags and warning signs, no matter how strong your emotional attachment is and how well your desires are being satisfied. Anyone who is influencing you to sin is not worth keeping around, no matter how valuable the relationship may be to you. The situation may be sticky, and the severing may be painful, but you must cut it off.  

Instead of depending on this relationship, bring your desires to God, who can fulfill every one of them. 

Nourish Scripture: Mark 9

Download Nourishing Your Heart today and discover how to rely on the Holy Spirit so your desires may be fulfilled. 

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Blog written by Aliene Thompson. Aliene Thompson is the founder of Treasured Ministries and the Author of the Nourish Bible Study Series. © 2019 Treasured Ministries.

Faith perceives the invisible and depends on God to achieve the impossible.  

But faith always has an object. Oh, my how the devil would love for us to miss this detail! 

I did for many years as I put my faith in people and not the Lord. This created people pleasing, a lack of boundaries, and a lifestyle of codependency camouflaged by “helping others”. 

The problem was not with the people in my life, it was with my perception of those people. 

What is at the center of your faith? 

A Closer Look at Faith

Let’s take a look at faith itself. The Bible tells us that “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is complete trust. Believing in something we can see and understand does not require faith.

Faith is complete confidence in something or someone we cannot see or necessarily understand.  

Every day all of us act by faith in something or someone. What we believe drives our actions and determines our steps. I don’t understand how flipping a switch can turn my lights on, but by faith I flip the switch and the room lights up. If I don’t have faith that the lights will turn on by using a switch, I will never flip the switch and will fail to see the light. Although the power source is there, I will live in the dark.  

Our Savior is our power source. His power is always available. But we won’t experience his power in our lives unless we “flip the switch” by trusting him. By having more faith in his power than in our own abilities or understanding. By having more faith in him than in what we see. “We live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).  

Walk by Faith

The object of our faith is as important as the depth of our faith.  

If I trust a water faucet to turn the lights on, my house will remain dark. If we trust anyone or anything other than Jesus with our lives, we will live in frustration and never become all God has designed us to be.  

In our Nourish Scripture this week Jesus asks Peter an important question:

“Who do you say I am?” (Mark 8:29) 

I imagine Jesus must have held Peter’s gaze as he posed this question to the disciple who had left his nets to follow him. The adventure that began the moment Peter dropped his nets was amazing for him.

I wonder if during the time between Jesus’s question and Peter’s response, memories of miracles played back through Peter’s mind. So much had happened over the last months. Walking on water, healing the sick, feeding the multitudes. The living water surged freely. Divine provision and restoration flowed from the compassionate hands of this carpenter. Peter’s response came quickly and simply:  

“You are the Christ.”  

Those days were great and glorious, but Jesus knew the cross was on the horizon. If Peter based his faith on what Jesus did instead of who he was, offense and unbelief could invade his heart when trouble came. Looking deeply into Peter’s soul, Jesus was inviting him to search his personal convictions and define his faith.  

Who Do You Say Jesus Is?

“Who do you say I am?” Allow that question to linger in your thoughts. Peter was already a disciple, but Jesus paused to ask him about his personal faith.  

Jesus invites you to explore your heart. He says you are his beautiful, beloved bride, but who do you say he is? Your answer is of utmost importance to a sure foundation of faith. Turn your eyes to your heavenly husband. Listen to his heart as he calls you to search yours.  

Years later under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter wrote his second letter “To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours” (2 Peter 1:1). Faith in Jesus is precious. “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame” (1 Peter 2:6).  

Jesus is eternal and everlasting. 

The name above every name.

The Bread of Life, the Light of the World.

Our Anchor in the storm.

Emmanuel—God with us.

Jesus, our Kinsman Redeemer, the Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End.

Jesus is our strength when we are weak. He is constant and never changing, an anchor of hope (Hebrews 6:19).  

Our faith in Christ alone is fundamental to experiencing his power in our life. We “live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20 AMP). Rest your expectations in Jesus alone and watch your faith rise above your circumstances. 

Nourish Scripture: Mark 8 

To experience Christ’s power, you must have faith. Discover how you can connect with God’s Word and transform your life by downloading Nourishing Your Heart. 

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Blog written by Aliene Thompson. Aliene Thompson is the founder of Treasured Ministries and the Author of the Nourish Bible Study Series. © 2019 Treasured Ministries.

Generational patterns are not our fault, but they sure do pull us away from becoming the woman God created us to be…

Often, we stay stuck in these patterns because they are familiar and we are unaware that they even exist. Like a drumbeat creating a rhythm for our soul, our subconscious pulls us to react out of our past identity instead of responding to our current reality as a child of God.   

Often we become frustrated because we try with all our might to fix our behavior instead of changing what we believe. Ahhh… but part of the privilege of becoming a child of God is that you CAN create new patterns and leave a legacy in your family for years to come.  

Finding the resilience to rise up and break free from generational cycles will take grit to walk by faith in ways that go against the grain of past generations.

But one day at a time, one step at a time you can leave blessings in your wake for generations to come.  

Walk by Faith

Faith requires GRIT to go beyond generational patterns to be the first to bless future generations. 

• Patient perseverance
• Optimistic resilience
• Reckless love for new life

In our Nourish Scripture this week, a Gentile woman’s faith in Jesus persisted for the life of her dying daughter, and ultimately provided a catalyst for walls between Jew and Gentile to fall (Mark 7:24-29). Steadfast, immovable faith in Jesus – determined drive to find a way to partake of Perfect Love. A Gentile woman kept “outside” with bold faith gained acceptance inside the circle of eternal life, wrapped in the arms of Perfect Love.  

Sometimes walking by faith means we have to leave limits of what we have lived with to walk by faith in Christ to create new legacies. 

To experience abundant life, this woman on the outside would break current glass ceilings with optimistic resilience faith in the Lord and usher in a new season. At the end of her resources, her determined faith would connect with the Living Fountain from which healing and an abundant harvest for others would flow. 

Women have a beautiful ability to hold onto our faith before we see the harvest because we are created to nurture.

We forge forward with bold, brave persistence that believes new life is possible when our circumstances suggest otherwise. And this patient perseverance to walk by faith is a necessary element to see the seeds of God’s Word grow and create a harvest to nurture others. 

“And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest.” Luke 8:15 NLT 

Clinging to God’s Word with determined faith brings healing to our hearts and an abundant harvest to nourish others.  

Cultivate This Calling

While God calls women to nurture life, cultivating this calling is a challenge as the enemy of our soul seeks to destroy new life.

Our children struggle.

Our marriages see difficulties.

Our hearts are broken.

We face health challenges.

Disappointments seek to dilute our faith, and our brave hearts break under the weight of an imperfect world. 

Where can we find the courage to cultivate optimistic resilience for reckless love?  

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. Hebrews 12:1 NLT 

Looking back at the many women before us who arose and carried hope into hopeless situations will help to bring bold faith to believe what we cannot yet see. The Gentile woman who persisted in her request is an example of great women who have gone before us to make a difference by believing in perfect love. 

• Patient perseverance
• Optimistic resilience
• Reckless love for new life 

Faith is contagious. There is personal truth that only the Holy Spirit can reveal. As we daily rise up with GRIT to challenge those past patterns, we will align our thinking with our birthright. This is walking by faith.

Nourish Scripture: Mark 7 

Do you want to discover the personal truth that only the Holy Spirit can reveal? Download Nourishing Your Heart and receive guidance on how to connect with God’s Word to transform your life. 

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Blog written by Aliene Thompson. Aliene Thompson is the founder of Treasured Ministries and the Author of the Nourish Bible Study Series. © 2019 Treasured Ministries.