Praying Grace for Women E-Book

David A. Holland

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 147

Beschreibung

Find Rest, Peace, Strength, and Fresh Intimacy with God. Far too many beloved daughters of God are spread thin, exhausted, stressed out, burned out, or living with chronic anxiety. For many, prayer has become a fruitless, frustrating, joyless exercise. Another box to check. Another duty to perform. Here's extraordinary news for the weary feminine soul. There is a more effective way to pray that produces a life-giving connection with God's love, grace, and power. Praying Grace for Women is a 55-day journey of discovery and hope created to - lead you to a deep revelation of God's goodness and faithfulness, - help your heart absorb the full implications of Jesus' finished work on the cross,  - ground your identity in who God says you are, and  - teach a form of praying that proclaims rather than pleads.  Get ready to discover grace for rest, intimacy, peace, and breakthrough, as well as the keys to praying from strength rather than struggling for it.  

Leseprobe

BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC.

Savage, Minnesota, USABroadstreetpublishing.com

Praying Grace for Women:55 Meditations and Declarations for Beloved Daughters of GodCopyright ©2022 David A. Holland

978-1-4245-6414-9 (faux leather)

978-1-4245-6415-6 (ebook)

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Unless otherwise marked, all scripture quotations are from The Passion Translation® (TPT). Copyright © 2017, 2018 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com.

Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright ©1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.lockman.org. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™ Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, Copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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Dedication

For Tracy, Caitlin, Grayson, Olivia, Cora,Winnie, Ruby, Sadie, and Holland;

the women who grace my days.

Contents

Introduction

Part I: Grace for Rest

Breathe

Discover the “Faith-Rest Life”

Step Over

Humble Enough to Rest?

Lighten Up

Organic Fruit

Choose Rest

Stop Struggling and Nestle In

The Epic Poem Titled “You”

A Vital Shift of Mindset

A Reassured Heart in His Presence

Wondrous and Inexpressible Secrets

Thousand-Generation Faithfulness

Part II: Grace for Intimacy with God

Mercy’s Kiss

You Know That Voice

Your Father’s Marvelous Love

Come with Royal Boldness

Know How to Make an Entrance

Wild, Confident Abandon

A Tenacious, Relentless, Stubborn Love

Restored Treasure

Necessary Extravagance

Debt Free

Back to the Garden

The One Who Delights to Bless

“Welcome In!”

With Him is Where You Belong

Part III: Grace for Peace

Letting Go of the Stick of Fear

The Universe is Sending You a Message

A Mystery Revealed

An Abundance of Mercy

A Good God in a World of Free Choosers

You Can’t Believe Your Eyes

Liberated from Self-Consciousness

Escape the Funhouse

The Ultimate Security System

Fearless Living

The Illusion of Control

When God Introduces Himself

Your Prince on a White Horse

Showered in Grace, Wrapped in Favor

Part IV: Grace for Breakthrough

Not for Sale

Where Power Rushes In

If You Only Knew Who…You Would Ask

Dance with the One Who Brought You

The Ultimate Wardrobe Upgrade

Discover Your Superpower

Are You in “Airplane Mode?”

Come Into Agreement with God

Your Wildly Generous Prince

The Incredible Power You Possess

Holy Audacity

The Offense of Asking Small

The Words That Unleash Heaven’s Power

The King has a Message for You

About the Author

Endnotes

Introduction

I know what you’re thinking: A devotional for women by a man? My hope is that you’ll give me the benefit of the doubt and dive into a few of the entries here before you dismiss me. I had compelling reasons to write the collection of meditations you hold in your hands.

For one thing, my journey through life has gifted me with a front-row seat for what daughters of God battle daily and what causes them to thrive in God. You see, I’m in my fourth decade of marriage to one such woman. I love and admire her more than I can express. I really, really like her, too. I know it’s a cliché, but she is my best friend.

Together, we were gifted with three daughters who, by God’s enabling grace, we’ve watched grow into remarkable women of God. Now our babies are having babies, and of our seven grandchildren, we count five girls in the mix. I’ve been surrounded by glorious femininity for about as long as I can remember.

I’m confident that if you were to ask any of these ladies if I have some helpful spiritual insights to share about appropriating God’s abundant grace for rest, peace, intimacy with God, and breakthrough, I’d get a rousing endorsement from them. (At least from the ones who can talk.)

Secondly, spiritual truth is spiritual truth. I was profoundly encouraged to discover my previous book, Praying Grace: 55 Meditations on the Finished Work of Christ, had struck a chord with many women. I’ve heard from many who expressed profound gratitude for that devotional over the last few years and have let me know that they are on their fourth, fifth, or ninth pass through the work. I believe this collection will also find a treasured place on the nightstands and end tables of many women of God.

Allow me to share a couple of notes about the content. In several places here, I briefly quote preachers and teachers from the 1800s. Some, like Charles Spurgeon and Andrew Murray, are well known, while others are quite obscure. Yet all possessed some profound insights for us concerning God’s grace and faithfulness. Because the writings I cite are well over 100 years old, they are in the public domain. So, in some cases, I have taken the liberty of modernizing the prose of the quote for clarity, while remaining faithful to the message and meaning of the author.

Finally, a word of explanation about the “Prayer of Declaration” you’ll find at the end of each devotion. In Ephesians 6:18 (NIV), Paul exhorts us to “Pray…with all kinds of prayers and requests.” Clearly, there must be numerous types of prayer, each one powerful and appropriate for its purpose. One such type is what I call “declaratory” prayer. These are prayers that put the truth of God’s Word into your mouth in the form of a bold, faith-filled declaration. Your Bible is filled with them. There is something so powerful about this. I encourage you to say them out loud for two reasons.

First, when your own ears hear those words coming from your own mouth, something transformational happens in you. The second reason is this: Your ears aren’t the only ones listening. Invisible angelic hierarchies hear you, too. If you had eyes to see spiritual dimensions, you’d see things moving and changing as you speak.

The meditations themselves are crafted to help you align your thinking (“renewing your mind” Romans 12:2) to the truth of what Jesus accomplished for you and who you truly are as a result. They are about transforming your sense of identity—rooting the truth of who you are in Christ deep into your heart.

This is not something that automatically happens when you become a daughter of God; it’s a process. This book is designed to accelerate and facilitate that process. That means that the declarations may very well sound false in your ears when you first start proclaiming them. Even arrogant or boastful. If so, take that as an indicator that you need this process. Keep reading these meditations. Ponder the key scriptures and speak the declarations that are built upon them. Then watch what happens.

May the words on the pages that follow bring you hope, encouragement, strength, confidence, peace, and power.

I

GRACE FOR REST

Breathe

So we conclude that there is still a full and complete Sabbath-rest waiting for believers to experience.

HEBREWS 4:9

The relentless striving for perfection. The never-ending struggle to meet everyone’s expectations. Heaven forbid you let anyone down or disappoint any of the multitude of people who are counting on you. Then there’s your most brutal critic of all— your own inner voice. It’s exhausting, isn’t it?

What’s worse, we often carry that same frantic dynamic right into our relationship with God. In fact, we often think of Him as if He’s the fussiest, most demanding person in our lives. Too many daughters of God relate to Him as if He is a harsh, perfectionist father who simply can’t be pleased. The dad you love and admire but who you’re always disappointing. The one whose approval always seems just out of reach.

That is a false perception that the enemy of your soul is more than happy to help perpetuate. Here’s the truth that destroys that lie. Hebrews chapter four describes salvation as an invitation to enter into an ongoing, never-ending “Sabbath rest.”

The Sabbath was a designated day under the Old Covenant in which no one was to work or strive. It was created to be a blessing, but the Israelites ultimately turned it into another religious box to check, as we humans so often do. Another achievement to be proud of.

That’s what religion does. It takes things God designed to bless and help us and drains them of all joy—turning them into yet another obligation to meet, rule to follow, or yardstick for measuring yourself against others.

Living life in this fallen, twisted world will always require effort. But God’s invitation to “Sabbath rest” means that your relationship with Him shouldn’t. In Jesus, the striving to please Him is over. Jesus pleased Him on your behalf. Daughter of God, you can lay down the struggle to qualify. Jesus was and is your complete qualification.

What’s left is simply enjoying what Adam and Eve forfeited: enjoying God. Never again having to worry whether you’ve done enough to make Him happy. Never again fretting about measuring up to some impossible standard. Jesus measured up on your behalf.

Rest. Breathe.

GRACE DECLARATION:

Father, You have invited me to join You in an ongoing, never-ending Sabbath rest. I will not keep You waiting. Beginning today, I cease struggling to qualify for or earn Your love and acceptance. Jesus, You are my qualification. You measured up on my behalf. So, I rest in You. I breathe.

Discover the “Faith-Rest Life”

God’s works have all been completed from the foundation of the world, for it says in the Scriptures, And on the seventh day God rested from all his works.… As we enter into God’s faith-rest life we cease from our own works, just as God celebrates his finished works and rests in them.

HEBREWS 4:3B,4,10

The title of a 2017 article in Psychology Today magazine asked, “Why are Women so Exhausted?”1 In it, the author, a clinical psychologist, pointed to the way women invariably end up being the default cultivators and keepers of relationships—family, friends, work, church, and community. If they don’t do it, it often doesn’t get done. Sadly, it’s easy for your relationship with God to become just one more stressor in that juggling act.

This means that when many daughters of God think about turning to their heavenly Father, they get a knot in the stomach instead of the anticipation of refreshment, peace, and supernatural help. It need not be this way. Here’s why.

For six days God was a flurry of creative activity. Day by day, order emerged out of chaos. Wonders of life, beauty, and complexity appeared. Each extraordinary phase of work was pronounced “good” at its completion. Then, after crafting and commissioning the crowning glory of His six-day masterpiece—mankind in two complementary forms, male and female—God rested.

That doesn’t mean God entered a long period of total idleness, but only that His flurry of creative effort was finished. God’s “sabbath” has been complete and ongoing. The fourth chapter of Hebrews makes it clear that God wants the same thing for you. And it is filled with both encouragements to “enter” that rest and earnest cautions about not having the faith to do so.

Faith? Yes, as that chapter makes clear, doubt is the primary enemy of your stepping into this faith-rest lifestyle. To our natural minds, God’s offer of rest seems simply too good to be true. It can’t possibly be that effortless, can it? It can. And it is. The “good news” of the gospel is that God really is ready and willing to accept Jesus’ perfect life as a proxy for your flawed and broken one. If you’ve accepted His offer, God really has imputed Jesus’ pristine righteousness to you and laid every last bit of your brokenness and sin on Him.

Yes, it’s humbling. But accepting Jesus’ finished work on your behalf means a complete and ongoing end to your efforts to create a pathway back to God. It means a full and forever end to trying to earn or merit your heavenly Father’s acceptance and favor. You may have many difficult people in your life but your heavenly Father is not one of them. He’s easy.

Oh, weary one, you have been invited into a lifestyle…the faith-rest lifestyle. God rested from His labors. Isn’t it time that you rested from yours?

GRACE DECLARATION:

Father, although it seems too good to be true, I believe it. You want nothing from me except relationship. I can bring nothing to this transaction other than a childlike heart of belief in Your astonishing goodness and generosity. Today I rest with You. I rest in You.

Step Over

Now the promise of entering into God’s rest is still for us today. So we must be extremely careful to ensure that we all embrace the fullness of that promise and not fail to experience it…So then we must be eager to experience this faith-rest life, so that no one falls short by following the same pattern of doubt and unbelief.

HEBREWS 4:1,11

You’re standing in the desert wilderness. But over there, across the river, is the Promised Land. The wilderness has been a harsh, dry place filled with striving and struggle. You’ve needed miracles of provision just to survive.

But God has led you to this extraordinary place. It’s a green, fertile place promising abundance and rest. It represents an end to both your wandering and wondering where your next drink of life-sustaining water will come. From the throne of heaven, God declared and decreed this land is yours. Now all you need do is believe what He said and act on that faith by “stepping over” into it.

Of course, we know how that first generation of Israelites responded to that choice. A fearful “bad report” by some of the spies sent out to explore the new land filled the entire nation with dread. As a result, they forfeited their opportunity to experience the “rest” that rightly belonged to them.

In the key scripture passage above, the author of Hebrews uses those Israelites’ failure to enter Canaan as a metaphor for what many born-again believers do. They let fear and misbelief keep them in a wilderness of striving and struggling to “earn” what Jesus has already gifted them. And just as the spies planted fear in their hearts, many well-meaning teachers and preachers make them afraid they’re not doing enough to earn God’s blessings or making enough sacrifices to please Him.

Here’s the truth, daughter of God. A loving Father drew you out of the slavery of sin and separation from Him. He’s patiently led you through the harsh wilderness of pointless, fruitless, self-improvement, self-sufficiency, and self-consciousness. He guided you out of the shame and despair that result from repeatedly trying and failing to do all the things “good” Christians do.

With cords of kindness, He’s drawn you to the border of a good land. A place of rest. A place where you know that you know you’re accepted, received, and approved…in Jesus. The only remaining question is: “Will you cross over?”

Your Father, through the writer of Hebrews, pleads with you to uproot the fears and doubts sown in you by Religion. He says the only thing you need to “be careful” about is whether or not you’ve trusted Him enough to rest. Step over. The “faith-rest life” awaits.

GRACE DECLARATION:

Father, I will not make the same mistake that generation of Israelites made. I’m stepping over. I trust the “good report” that Jesus has met, on my behalf, every requirement for being a resident of this beautiful land. I choose the faith-rest life.

Humble Enough to Rest?

But he continues to pour out more and more grace upon us.For it says, “God resists you when you are proudbut continually pours out grace when you are humble.”

JAMES 4:6

We’ve seen that fear is a major obstacle to entering the Sabbath rest God has prepared for us through Jesus’ finished work of love and grace. But it’s not the only one. Rest has another enemy: pride.

Have you ever given someone an extravagant, unexpected gift simply because you loved them and wanted to bless them? Did that person suddenly feel obligated to do something for you in return? How did that make you feel? You weren’t looking to conduct a transaction; you were trying to express your care and affection. You just wanted them to know they were valued.