Season: 3 Episode: 038
Summary:
Shanda and Chelsey talk about the importance of being in the word and suggestions for what you can do to dive deeper in your walk with God. They also discuss the difference between Bible studies and devotionals, and why you should be wary of some social media influencers.
Quotables:
“Shallow feels safe but things can’t continue growing in the shallows.”
“If our faith is only rooted in shallow teachings, it won’t stand firm in the heat.”
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Script:
Chelsey is a wife, SAHM to her sweet almost 3 year old son, devotional writer for iBelieve.com, crosswalk.com and the podcast host of the weekly aired Living With Less podcast.
Her hearts greatest desire is to live life with a John 3:30 perspective, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” In doing so The Lord has been walking her through a beautifully challenging season to learn what this truly looks like, and as a bonus allowed her to invite others to join along for the ride.
Chelsey loves her local church and serving in women’s and middle school girls ministry. But the greatest ministry she loves to watch unfold is the one that happens in her heart and in her home with her family.
Why is it important to get into the Word as an individual?
Gosh. If this questions doesn’t point to 2020 I don’t know what does! If we don’t know what The Word says we’ll take everyone else’s interpretations and misrepresentations as truth.
Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one gets to the father expect through me.” I love this because for me it gives one of the many concrete reasons we need to know the word for ourselves. Jesus is the truth; the God breathed bible is the truth. So if we don’t know what the Bible say’s and we aren’t familiar with what Jesus’s life was for, our faith wont be built on solid ground.
Discernment
As we learn God’s word and live out Galatians 5:25 “if we live by the spirit let us stay in step with the spirit, we grow in understanding what God’s word says. We learn how to study it, we learn how to look at it from a faith-filled perspective and not a “what can this word do for me” perspective.
To many pastors right now are people pleasing their congregations to hell because they don’t want to share the truth because there is too much controversy with the world. I can’t believe I said it, but it’s the truth. And God’s word makes it clear in 2 Timothy 3-4. We as believers must know what to look for in regards to wolves in sheep’s clothing, false teachers, spiritual warfare.
A lot of women don’t understand the difference between a devotional and a Bible study.
Let’s talk about that for a minute and then let’s talk about why it’s important to have both in building and cultivating our relationship with God.
So I love devotional reading but that cannot be what our faith is built upon for 2 reasons.
Devotional –
1) I want to start this by saying when I was a new Christian the Jesus Calling devotional was my bible study. I didn’t know how to study my bible and I used the short readings and verses to teach me. This isn’t wrong, but it becomes not wise when you’ve got the foundational work to begin growing apart from someone else’s promptings.
2) It’s someone else’s words — and not just The Lords. This may seem extreme and I don’t mean for it to come off that way. But, what I’m saying is — if you and I just read devotionals everyday as our learning and leading through His word, we only get so much. We typically become more aware of the “devo” of the day said than what God’s word says.
Bible Study –
1) Most women hear bible study and they think of studying the Bible with 10-60 ladies on a weekday at their church. Which I love doing these as well. BUT, yet again. We have to be in the word of God regularly on our own as we grow in our relationship with HIm.
2) Studying the Bible for me has been one of the most amazing things. I’ve experienced so much fruit from learning The Word and I’ve had many many emotional moments knowing the Holy Spirit is leading me through something.
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Deuteronomy 11:18
There are a lot of social media Christian influencers out there and I’ve talked before about why we need to be careful who we follow and the message they preach.
What would you say are some things to look for in a woman who points others to Jesus, and what are some red flags we should look for when following Christian influencers?
What to look for:
-Scripture reference + biblical application – do they share God’s word and explain the biblical application.
-Genuine – is his/her heart in genuinely leading people to The Lord and desiring to see people grow in their walks with Jesus.
-Statement of Faith – if they have a website it’s a great idea to pop out and see what they are all about beyond the IG squares and stories, short tweets, and FB pages!
-We have to take this with a grain of salt since we only see a fraction of someones life BUT, does his/her life look like she honors God or themselves?
Red flags:
-Do they only talk about what “they believe” scripture says.
-Do they only share their quotes — very much about “me”.
-When they lead/write/speak do you feel they are holding back truth to please?
-Do they point you to Jesus or point you to how great you are?
-When you leave their page are you reminded of The Lord?
I’ve mentioned a quote from a female Christian influencer that said, “Shallow seeking leads to shallow believing.”
What are some examples of shallow seeking compared to deep seeking and what are the benefits of seeking the Lord?
Shallow feels safe for many people. It feels like if they hold God at an arms length away nothing will hurt them and they wont be let down. But, nothing can continue growing in the shallows.
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8
I love this verse from Jeremiah. It carried me through a very long drought season a few years ago. Shanda, you and I both know the drought comes.
And if our faith is rooted in the shallow teachings it doesn’t stand firm in the heat. It withers.
For example, we had a very hard season of marriage a little over a year ago. I know had I not been rooted in The Lord, I may have made the decision to leave. Think about that. When we don’t know God’s truth we make choices based off of our human thinking.
It’s scary to think that a young woman just like me is making the choice to leave her husband because she isn’t rooted in the truth. Her family will be destroyed by one choice that seems to fit her emotions in the moment.
And example of shallow seeking to me currently is when someones in a hard season, especially a Christian and they go for a self-help book. Not to mention the most popular self-help books are written by people who very sheepishly talk about God’s word. These books will not heal your heart – their messages will not fix brokenness – and they most certainly will have you thinking more about your abilities than God’s.
What are some resources you would recommend to women who want to dive deeper in their walk with God, and who may feel ill equipped when talking about God and want to learn more?
-Pray. Ask The Lord to help you understand, ask His spirit to lead and guide you to where He wants you. This is crucial — and you’ll see God move in amazing ways.
-Get a good study bible. I have an NIV student study bible and use my regular ESV bible pretty much daily.
-Jen Wilkin has the Bible study Women of The Word – it walks you through studying His word. I got this for Christmas from a friend.
What advice would you give to women to inspire them to live out their faith?
Living out your faith will cause others to watch and lean in. Wherever you go remember that you’re His workmanship. You’re on display for others so they get a glimpse of who He is and who He calls us to be.
Matthew 5:13-16 We are the salt of the earth and light of the world.
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