The Deepening JourneySample

Day 1: Once Upon a Time

Have you ever considered our design as image bearers, how we’ve been wounded along the path of our stories, how we have arranged for our protection and provision, the healing path back toward our truest selves, and the joy of finding community in a redemptive sisterhood of women? In these first two days we will explore some of what we were created for. Today we begin with Love and Shalom. Tomorrow, we continue with how we are created in the image of God.

We were created for Love.

We are the Beloved of God. Our experience of being loved is foundational for our deepening journey.

Since the moment we are born, every child asks, “Am I loved? Do you see me? Do you like what you see?” The answers to these questions shape and direct our heart’s journey through life.

Even before Christ came to bring us wholeness, God said, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” (Jeremiah 31:3). Our Trinity God is a pursuer of our hearts. He draws us to himself with unfailing kindness. He woos us with his faithful, deep, everlasting love.

You are his beloved daughter. Do you find this difficult to believe and embrace? If so, you are not alone. Many of us haven’t known this kind of safe and enduring love, so we may not trust it to be true for us.

We were created for Wholeheartedness.

As the beloved, we were created to live more and more wholehearted as our truest, most authentic self, experiencing life in union with God and with other image bearers in this incredible world he made. Doesn’t that sound amazing? Almost too good to be true? What might that even look like in the day to day?

The image in John 15:4-5 is one of union, you and God—the branch is united with the vine, which allows the vine to provide life to the branch, bringing nourishment, strength, FLOURISHING. Oh that you may draw from and experience abundant life, the fullness of life God intends for you, for each of us.

Becoming more wholehearted is experiencing Shalom, perfect peace; not merely the absence of tension, but delight and honor. You are stunningly created and crafted. You were made for someone to see you and be captivated by you!

In Psalm 139:17, the psalmist declares that God has precious thoughts about us and our life; so vast is the sum of his thoughts about us! Do you believe that God has precious thoughts about you?

We are our Creator’s beloved daughters. We are cherished, delighted in, and God’s treasure, created for life with and in and through him.

As you ponder all this with God today, ask Him:

Father, how did you see me as a young girl? In what ways did you know me, value me, and hold me close? How do you see me now?

Jesus, where have I known and felt the absence of love and belonging?

Spirit, are your thoughts about me really precious? Would you reveal to me a thought you have about me?