Redeemed #1

I was impressed by Angela Thomas-Pharr when she spoke at Women of Joy a few weekends ago.  I don't think I have heard her before; if I had, the impact wasn't as great as it was during this event.

When we returned home, I checked her out online and found the book Redeemed.  It is a Bible study book and it looked interesting so I ordered it. I  know...one more Bible study book to add to my collection.

It was delivered last week while we were in Ohio for the auction but Junior had put it in the car for safe-keeping until we were home again. I opened the package that day, but I didn't really look at it until a few days later.  I was intrigued.

Why?  Because I really like studying the Bible.  I have been participating in the Online Bible Studies from Proverbs 31 Ministries for several years and I finally got myself into the groove to complete them.  A few friends from the studies and I have formed our own FB group to dig a little deeper into the discussion. A recent study on a book written by Lysa Terkeurst was the one I enjoyed the most mainly because there was more scripture study than in some of the others.  I like that.  I enjoy delving deeper into the word of God and learning more of what He said rather than just interpretations of the verses.

When the new Proverbs 31 study was introduced, of course I ordered the book and signed up.  I actually began to read it on the drive to Wooster last week. But one thing I noticed was this.  While the author is good and the message is valid, it seemed to be a re-hashing of the same things that we had studied in recent books.  We are good people.  We have value.  We are daughters of God.  The style of this author was similar to many of the others, other than Lysa.

Yesterday I opened Redeemed and  I liked what I saw.  Angie has focused on the Psalms and prayer.  The 40-day study is one that will take the reader through the Psalms and focus on the power of prayer, hoping that the habit of daily prayer will be so powerful that it becomes just that...a habit.  Angie emphasizes in the intro that daily participation is a must, that while there may be screw-ups, we need to be focused on the task at hand.  Scripture reading and prayer.  One example that I liked was the challenge she put to a group of girls at a summer camp.  They met regularly for prayer.  She set a kitchen timer and increased the time each session, starting with 5 minutes.  I used a similar technique with journal writing in my English classes. Daily writing but we started with small amounts of time and soon the students were pouring their hearts out on paper and groaning when time was up.

I went to bed early last night.  I read the intro again and I read Day 1. A focus in the introduction is our tendency to say "I can't" and have a million and one reasons why.  None of them are really valid...because when we 'can't' we often forget that "God can."

I read Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 aloud.  I wrote a prayer, which is hard for me to do.  I may just jot down things that I need to include in my prayer so I don't forget.  But I do know that after the study of Day1, I felt so relaxed that I drifted off to sleep very easily, I didn't stay awake on one of my many trips to the bathroom (I had drunk a lot of tea yesterday - sorry if that is TMI), and I awoke feeling more refreshed than I had in a long time.

Connection?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  But I like to think that when I say "I can't sleep,"  God is really saying "Yes you can.  Turn your problems over to me and rest."

I like that!