Treasured Ministries

Offering women a biblical solution for inner healing

Challenge

Shine

by

Once surrounded by the shadows of shame from her wounded heart, the dark cloud of depression settled above her hiding light in her life. She felt heavy. Dark thoughts echoed in her head from the way she was treated.  Seeking relief from the pain from shame, her temporary fixes only gave short-lived relief and slipped her soul into further darkness.

But then one day, someone shared the light of Christ with her. This Light pierced through the pain to see clearly beyond the words that wounded her heart and eclipsed her thinking. This light was powerful. The darkness could not overcome this light (John 1:4-5, Ephesians 5:8-9).

Jesus. The light of the world. Jesus carried both grace and truth to the world – to her. She saw herself differently. She saw God differently. He was love and truth. 

The life of Christ awakened inside her and changed her completely. She found herself singing songs of praise and her heart found the beat of joy again. 

Much like the light of candles that grow in a Christmas candlelight service as light is shared from one candle to another… someone brought this light to her, and now she wanted to make the most out of every opportunity to share this light with others.

At first, she was confused because she felt if she held out truth, she had to let go of love. And at other times she felt if she held out love, she had to let go of truth. 

However, the Lord showed her truth defined love and love defined truth. It was not truth OR love. It was not one or the other. Both were needed, but in order to create the right balance, instead of hanging onto one or the other… Jesus told her– hang onto me by holding on tight to the Holy Spirit. As you are led by the Holy Spirit you will walk in love and truth so that they intertwine to create just the right current to carry my light to a dark broken world.

And as she was led by the Lord, a pattern of love and truth came so closely together that others saw the light of Jesus shining brightly in her. 

Love and truth find perfect balance as we are filled with the Holy Spirit to share the light of Christ.

Light overcomes darkness. That’s godly girl power. Shine brightly. Love bravely.

ONWARD!

Nourish Scripture: Ephesians 5:1-20

Prayer is Conversation with Jesus

by

Last week we talked about how prayer is a filter that helps us determine God’s priorities so that we live with focus each day. While prayer is that and so much more, I admit I don’t take advantage of this privilege as much as I could because “religion” gets in the way. Sometimes “religion” can make prayer so confusing that we don’t enjoy one of the greatest gifts of being a child of God…coming to him in prayer.

But this is not the way God intended prayer to be.

A while ago, I ran into this blog written by Martha Fry on prayer and I knew I immediately wanted to share it with you.

Prioritizing Prayer

This year, C3 is starting off its year with a focus on prayer. I love that – don’t you. As you set into this first month of the year, make prayer a priority and find focus and direction to become the woman God created you to be.

Enjoy Martha’s blog, and don’t miss my podcast with her this week on prayer.

Some people get so confused when it comes to prayer. Who do I call on when I pray: God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Lord, Christ…………

Do I pray one way or are there different ways. How do I pray for people? How do I pray for myself?

I am that “some people”. And I have gotten so caught up in believing that I have to do it right and I wasn’t sure what right was that at times I didn’t even pray until a crisis came.

But praying is like having a conversation with God. And if I think about my conversations with Matt I have to realize no two conversations are the same. Some of my conversations with Matt are planned, like a date night. Sometimes they are very intentional because I have something I need to talk to him about. Sometimes they are off the cuff. Sometimes they are sad and full of emotion. Sometimes they are a little heated. Sometimes they are funny and we just joke around and laugh, but one thing is for sure we talk a lot.

I cannot say it is everyday because when we travel there are days we don’t talk, but even when we don’t talk I have talked to Matt so much I have thoughts like, if Matt were here this is what he would say.

This is how our time with God should be. Our conversations shouldn’t always be the same. We need planned, intentional, off the cuff, emotional, heated, funny, confessing times with God, just to name a few ways we should talk to Him.

Want more? You can read more about prayer in Martha’s blog.

Nourish Scripture: Mark 9:14-29

Download Nourishing Your Heart to discover the key to connecting with God’s Word in a way that transforms your life. 

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.