Tuesday's Together in the Word!

Welcome to Tuesday's Together in the Word. We are a group of women reading through the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs using the same reading plan and holding each other accountable. On Tuesdays we share what we have gleaned from our time of study in the Word. To join us and to read what others have to share visit DeeDee, we would love for you to join us! You can find a link to our reading plan on my sidebar.


I wanted to start today's post with an entry from my prayer journal from May 6, 2009:

I am experiencing deep physical pain - I am asking God to reveal Himself to me through this deep pain - to reveal to me the deeper things of Himself that I can only learn through this suffering.

Christ suffered deep, agonizing pain - tremendously worse than what I am suffering - and yet He focused on God and others first, before Himself, as evidenced by His Words from the cross.

Dear Lord, Please help me continue to have a heart for You and for others through this pain - enable me and empower me to be and do all that You have called me to be and do, even in the midst of my pain.

I need your supernatural strength and endurance, I need your grace to push through this pain until You bring me to the other side. I pray that I would not be in bondage to this pain - but that through You I would be able to live the victorious, abundant life you came to give me.

Help me to focus on You, help me to allow You to work on the deep things of my heart, to allow You to bring more freedom in my life so I can be more free in You. Please enable me to make it through the pain victoriously - and please give me wisdom and make it very clear the course of treatment You would have me to follow.

I Love You Lord,
Your daughter

Immediately following writing this in my prayer journal, I opened my Bible to my reading for the day and this is what I read...

Galatians 5:1
"It was for freedom that Christ set us free;
therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery."

The Lord began to impress upon my heart that it is not His desire for me to be in bondage to the pain. Through Him I can live victoriously through any difficulty, and I can live in the freedom that He came to give me. Freedom to live fully and wholly for Him... not in bondage to any earthly thing.

He also began to impress upon my heart that I am to "be" and not to "do"...

I looked up the meanings of each in Webster's, here they are:

Be - to have an objective existence; to have, maintain, or occupy a place, situation, or position;

Do - to bring to pass, to carry out, do another's wishes; to wear out especially by physical exertion;

Realizing that He is calling me to "be" and not to "do" has been very freeing for me this past week! Because you see, in the midst of my pain, I could not "do", but I could "be"... and I felt horrible that I could not "do" all the things I felt I should be doing. He has called me to "be" a wife and a mom. He has called me to "be" intentional about being a wife and a mom. He is not calling me to "do" all day long so that my house can be clean and spotless, or so that I can get everything checked off my to do list. He is not calling me to "do" all the various activities and opportunities that present themselves along my way, even though they may be great activities. He IS calling me to "be" with my husband and my children, to "be" with Him. It is in being with others that we can see the needs in their lives and in their hearts. And it is in being with them that we are able to minister to their needs and hurts. And most importantly, it is in "being" with Him that we are filled up and able to "be" there for those He has placed in our life.

I feel more free in my role as a wife and a mom now... more free to say "no" to those things that would take lots of time away from them. More free to stop house cleaning and have fun with my family, more free to just "be". Thank you Jesus!

Psalm 46:10
"Be still and know that I am God." NIV
"Cease striving and know that I am God." NASB

Luke 10:41-42
"But the Lord answered and said to her,
"Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things;
but only a few things are necessary, really only one,
for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

Would you join me on this quest to "be" rather than "do"? There is freedom in it, freedom to live the life that Christ died for us to live... freedom to live wholly in and for Him!

Father God, Thank you so much for the freedom that can be found in You! Freedom from this world and from having to "do" what everyone thinks or wants us to do, freedom to "be" who you have called us to be, freedom to embrace our callings with joy! In Jesus name, Amen.