She Reads Truth
When I asked for comments on what kind of topics you sweet readers wanted me to write about, one of the responses was about bible studies I like. The one I’m doing right now is my favorite, hands down. It’s from the lovely people at She Reads Truth. It’s called Women in the Word. They put it out this summer and I’m still enjoying it. (Read: Summer was crazy and I didn’t get to my bible study every day.) My favorite thing about this bible study may not appeal to everyone. I got the workbook and it is basically passages of Scripture and space for your response. With many devotionals I’ve read before they give a little Scripture then a little synopsis of the Scripture or a story that relates back to the Scripture. These are all fine and good and definitely have their place. Too often the problem for me is I tend to read the verses then someone else’s thoughts about the verses then close the book and move on. I rarely sit and think about what God might be saying to me through His Word. This book gives me the space to do just that. It has been amazing what God has taught me about the women of the Bible. With this study, I work through the words and pray through my thoughts to get to the meat of what the Holy Spirit wants to reveal to me. And let me tell you, it’s been eye opening. God raised women up to positions of power in a culture where the value of a woman was dependent on how many children she could have. People tend to think that men are the heroes but what I’m learning is that women held great power over those said heroes. I mean, other than Jesus. He stood alone. No one held power over Him. Just to be clear.
When I read stories from the Old Testament, it’s clear that women are vital to men’s decision making. Good and bad decisions. Sarah told Abram to sleep with her maidservant Hagar because they wanted a child and he did. Bad decision. Delilah manipulated Sampson into telling her where is strength came from. Bad decision. Hannah, after getting pregnant with Samuel, convinced her husband, Elkanah, they should dedicate Samuel to the Lord and let him serve under Eli the priest. Good decision. Abigail protected her servants from David and took the blame for her husband, Nabal’s, bad behavior towards David. God struck Nabal dead and David took Abigail to be his wife because he was enamored by her beauty and discretion. Good decision.
As I read through His Word, He’s showing me how important women are to Him. Over and over when speaking of women the Bible says things like: He heard their prayer, paid attention to their need, He listened to them, He dealt well with them. In a culture where bearing children was their main job, God listened them and saw them. He had relationship with them. He valued them. By reading God’s Word without any other person’s voice in my ear it has helped me see and hear more of who God is. His Scripture is enough to teach us about who He is. Commentaries are wonderful. Hearing what others think is great in challenging our own way of thinking. But let’s not miss what the plain words of Scriptures say. God’s voice alone has a whole lot to teach us if we’ll just read it and listen to it and pray for discernment of it. We have so much to gain from reading the Word of God. This bible study has taught me much in the importance of that truth.
If you want to take a look at their stuff, here’s your linky-loo: www.shereadstruth.com
They also have an app called She Reads Truth for women and just recently they launched an app for men called, wait for it…He Reads Truth. The format of the app is Scripture and a devotional written by the amazing people that work there. The app is awesome because you can read it whenever you have time since it’s right there on your phone. They have all kinds of studies and plans available. Some are free and some cost maybe $1.99. I think all the plans are a week or more worth of devotionals. I can’t recommend them highly enough. Go download it! Or if you want to do a workbook go to the website and order one. You won’t regret it!
-Courtney
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