Thank you to Sara Poynter, Queenie Anderson, Jameriah Gaines, Carrie Mae Grimes, Melissa Hearring, Gina Frazier, and Natalie Demonbreun (Pumpkin) for attending the study this past Tuesday and helping bring a snack or drink or something to supply the kitchen with. I believe we had a great first teaching and I am looking forward to our next one. To those of you who couldn't attend we hope to see you next time and you missed out on some awesome cake! lol! Review - we went over strongholds in our lives and also briefly talked about asking ourselves the question "Who am I?" Moving forward in your walk with Christ and in fulfilling your destiny here on earth is more successful when you can demolish strongholds... things that are holding you back and chaining you down. The first step of treatment to a person with an addiction is to first admit that they have a problem. To do that, you have to be humble. I think we are too often caught up in what other people are doing wrong rather than taking the time to take an inward look at ourselves... Matthew 5:7 says: You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye....Meaning... take a look within before trying to clean up someone else's life. My challenge for each of you and myself is to dig deep and pray on things that are holding you back - bitterness, jealously, envy, deception, lies, anger, hostility, insecurities with your weight and image, selfishness, lust, gossip, alcohol, drugs, etc, etc... find that thing or things and mark them down somewhere - then reflect over them with "Why am I this way?" " What or who is causing this to rise up in my life?" Asking yourselves these questions can help you to see clearly if a person or thing causes ANGER to rise up in you or causes JEALOUSY to rise up in you, and asking WHY am I this way - can help you reflect back to maybe a childhood that has caused you to be the way you are - but the point is to try NOT to figure everything out but to dig deep and chew on it for a bit. Then take it to God. Talk with Him about it and ask Him to reveal more strongholds to you- He has already forgiven you- so go ahead and forgive yourself ... then take a step forward. In our study we learned that the basic definition of a Stronghold is something that is contrary to the Word of God and His Will for your life. The way to define sneaky strongholds is by staying in your Word. Read your bible... for those of you who have no clue what you're reading, I suggest that you get a New Living Translation or New International Version Bible and start in Matthew - NOTE** When you start out in Matthew it's going to list the genealogy starting with Adam and leading up to Jesus-- so don't be alarmed when you start reading and can't figure out what's going on or pronounce the names that are listed... haha.. just keep reading! It will start making sense once you get past that part. We have to know the God we serve and we have to know what we believe... it is so important for our lives and the challenges that test our faith on a daily basis. We also learned in our study that of course Satan is the ruler of this world and although he can set traps for us and temptations that pull us strongly... he CANNOT make us do anything. That is our own free will and we choose to take the opportunities that he places in front of us or we choose to walk away. So although he is to blame - we have to keep an eye on ourselves and take fault for our actions. You will know as you attend more studies and get to know me more that I often talk about The Inward Change... and am actually writing a book titled The Inward Change- it's an inward reflection of ourselves and making changes in ourselves so that we can then reflect God's light in dark places. I am praying peace over every one of you ladies and hope that you have had a great week and an even greater weekend. On a side note - just some encouragement to help the flood victims with your money, time, or non perishable items. I can't even imagine the devastation. If you want to get involved or donate check out http://www.wayfm.com/ for more information.
Stayed charged and keeping shining, April Poynter
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