A little peak into my woman's bible study...

I like to share little tidbits of things I am learning on my Facebook wall.  Today at Every Women's Grace (a weekly women's bible study at my church) I collected several tidbits.  Too many actually to qualify as a "tidbit", it is more like a "tidbunch"... ha ha.  So instead of trying to figure out how to squeeze it all into a Facebook post I decided I'd write a short blogpost.

Somewhere in high school I was told that no one ever has an original thought.  I am not quite sure what I believe or don't believe about that statement, but I do know that this post will NOT be an original thought.  Almost all of the following "tidbits" I am going to share came directly from today's lecture speaker at Every Women's Grace, Anna Sanders, I am just paraphrasing them.
   

• Do you ever play the "what if?" game in your mind?  Listing all of your fears, real or imaginary, and allowing the worst case scenarios of each fear or run wild in your imagination?
• The solution to stopping the endless spiral of the "what if" game is to replace your fears with trust in God by remembering God loves His people and will deliver them through His providence.
• Providence is God's intentional care for, and guidance of, His creation against all oppression.
• Hard times don't erase God's promises or His compassion.

Do you need evidence of God's intentional care and guidance of His people?  The story of Moses illustrates God's mercy, compassion, and steadfast love towards His people.  When reading of Moses' life from Exodus 1:1-2:25 the fingerprints of God's providential care is evident.  Are you struggling to take captive your wandering "what if" fears and imagination?    Do you yearn to trust God and climb up the sliding scale from fear to faith?  Then it would do you good to study the old testament and observe God's steadfast mercy and faithfulness towards an obstinate people.  For have you not read Romans 15:4 which states, "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of Scriptures we might have hope."

I hope you are as encouraged as I was by listening to the lecture linked to below.  :)

(Note: You can listen to the lecture by going to this link, look for Anna Sanders and January 9, 2013.  Give them a day or two to upload her lecture to the webpage since it's only been a couple of hours since she gave the lecture.)