You all have heard and seen me write several times about "my girls." This group of 10 gals who started out just wanting to study God's Word together and who came together weekly to do that. When I think about that one goal and how God sprang a thousand other good things from it I seriously want to encourage everyone I know to grab a group of people whose hearts are searching for an authentic relationship with Christ and find a study and get into God's Word together. It has FOREVER changed my life and I mean that with every ounce of my being.
On the last Thursday night I was home before I left to come to Honduras we had a special night where we all attempted to thank and encourage each other in a multitude of ways and it was absolutely beautiful. I cried bucketfuls and so did these other gals I just happen to adore.
I got to wash their feet and I think in some very small human way I understand more of Jesus' heart in that one act now. I desperately wanted to thank them for walking beside me as I sought after God's heart through the ups and downs of life. They just hung in there beside me. In the course of 3 years we've all had quite a few of both together. Anyway with tears in my eyes I went around that room and got to say words that God gave me to each of them about the ways they had touched my life, and served my heart. I wonder if Christ did the same thing and we just didn't get all of those words recorded. Can you imagine some of what He might have said to them after 3 years of ministering together so intimately? Wonder what he would have said to John the Beloved? How about Peter? I like to think he would have had the same emotions leaving them as we all do leaving one another. I feel sure he did.
One of the neatest things they did for me over the course of that night was each of them went into a room for a few minutes and on a piece of paper that I will treasure for the rest of my days they wrote some words of some things they were willing to covenant to me. They are precious. I wish I could type out the words from each of them on here because they were Spirit led and would touch your hearts as well. I think one of the things I love so much about them is that they each so fitly represent the hearts from which they came. The words sum up so much of each of their personalities and as I read them I am reminded of the bond God gave to each of us.
On my way to the airport, the next night, I got this envelope placed in my hand and I opened it and inside was this note that said "I couldn't write a better covenant than these words. I love you, Jen. - Momma Grose" Underneath that note was a stack of notecards with Momma Grose handwriting on them, that she started well over 10 years ago and has read and reread and read and reread I suppose thousands of times by now. They are tear stained and a little tattered. They are precious. Precious because they came from a time in life when she needed to rely on God's promises more than she ever had before. Given to me at a time when I needed to do the same. They were one of those grace gifts I've posted about previously.
I have kept a few that I read almost daily, that I have clung to and begged God to burn into my heart. I'm sharing them tonight on here in the hopes that you might read these words and understand they are the most beautiful covenant ever given, written in God handwriting, a gift straight to your heart. I pray you read them as such. Pretend you are in a room and God's looking into your eyes, He's going away for a while and these are just some of the things He wants you to hear. Making His words personal really does change everything. Just a suggestion, read through these verses, take them to heart, and then go back and insert your name or personal pronouns to make them apply just to you. That's the way they were meant. Just for you. That's the way our God's heart works.
"I know, O Lord, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps." Jer 10:23
"I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken." Psalm 16:8
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." 1 John 3:1,2
"The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." 1 John 4:4
"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." Prov 5:3
"Teach me Your way, O Lord, and I will walk in Your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name." Psalm 86:11
"One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard, that you, O God, are strong, and that You, O Lord, are loving." Psalm 62:11.12
Nope, guess I couldn't come up with a better covenant than these words either.
Thank You Lord for them. May we read Your word always as if it was a letter written in your handwriting with promises just for us contained inside.
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