Why you shouldn't wait till January 1st to strategise
Towards the end of last month I had the pleasure of spending the weekend away at a spa. Not only did I take advantage of the amenities with a pedicure, massage, facial and great meals- I slept, I rested, I prayed and I journaled.
When it came to thinking about my business, I asked myself 3 simple questions and journaled my responses. These were:
Lessons from Lot's Daughters on How to not Let the Past Define You
So, I’m not going to lie…when I first came across the story of Lot and His daughters, I was like:
“What type of Game of Thrones ish is this?!”
Because ***trigger warning***
Their story (as detailed in Genesis 19:30-36) deals with themes of (male) rape and incest.
However, through the Holy Spirit’s leading, I realised that the events of their story- plus the consequences of it- have important things to teach us about not letting the past define us in 3 simple steps:
Acknowledge it
Know it doesn’t define you (God does) and that-
Where you started is not where you have to end up
All of which I shared on my Facebook page this week via the (live) video below.
Lessons from Hagar on how to stop running away from your calling
If I was to ask you about a person in the Bible who completely took off running when faced with their calling- you'd probably say Jonah, right?
But what if I told you that there was a female who:
Lived many years before him
Also tried to run from her calling
Therefore has much to teach us but is often overlooked due to being overshadowed by her mistress?
Well- if the title of this blog post hasn't given it away yet- there was and her name is Hagar. The events of her life help us to understand:
Why we run from our calling in the first place (the root cause)
How to stop it so that we can come out of rebellion and live up to our God-given purpose- all of which I shared in the live video below
Lessons from Noah's dove on how to start over
Have you ever had one of those moments where the Holy Spirit asks you to do something and it has you all confused?
Well, that was me when I was prompted to go back to the story of Noah this week.
You see, as far as I was concerned, I'd already spoken in depth about his female relatives (and what the events of their lives can teach us, as modern women). So, I really did not understand why God seemed to want me to revisit the story.
However, I'm glad I did because there does happen to be another female in Noah's life who is and was extremely instrumental to his story. A dove! One that teaches us the importance of:
Reliance on the Holy Spirit
Not being afraid to try again
Seeing failure as feedback so that we, like Noah, can manifest our God-given vision(s).
She also provides us with feminine symbolism for God as well as the Holy Spirit, demonstrating that we, as women, are not the cursed afterthoughts that we are often painted as. Rather we are also made in God's image and therefore powerful- all of which I shared on my Facebook page this week via the (live) video below.
Lessons from Esther on how to go from stuck to successful (in 3 simple steps)!
In the last few weeks, we have been studying purpose- particularly as it relates to Esther. So far we have discussed what she teaches us about purpose in terms of:
- What it is
- How to discover it
- Why this will benefit you (spiritually, mentally and so on).
If you missed this, you can check out the devotionals below. Lessons from Esther on:
- The common misconceptions about purpose and how to avoid them
- The positive correlation between existential questioning and purpose
- How purpose helps us achieve our goals
Today we are going to talk about how we can move from knowing about purpose in theory to actually being able to walk in it in our everyday lives.
Lessons from Athaliah on Seeking Godly Counsel
Athaliah was the daughter of Queen Jezebel and King Ahab. They were the monarchs that rejected God and introduced the worship of a god called Baal in Israel- even going so far as to kill the majority of God's prophets.
After lots of shuffling of monarchs, when they died, Athaliah's son (Ahaziah) became king. However, the Bible says that:
"He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother advised him to do wickedly. Therefore he did evil in the sight of the Lord, like the house of Ahab; for they were his counselors after the death of his father, to his destruction " (2nd Chronicles 22:3-4)
Athaliah, therefore, has much to teach us on the importance of seeking godly counsel.
Lessons from Pharaoh's Daughter on Mercy
In the last 2 weeks we have been studying the women that were instrumental in Moses' life. They were:
- Shiphrah and Puah, the midwives that delivered him and spared his life (despite Pharaoh's orders)
- Jochebed, his biological mother
- Miriam, his sister, was also mentioned in the piece on Jochebed
Today we will be discussing his adopted mother, who was the Pharaoh's daughter.
Through our study of Jochebed, we talked about how Moses came to be adopted by the Pharaoh's daughter. According to Exodus 2:2-4:
"...when [Jochebed] saw that [Moses] was a beautiful child. she hid him three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river bank. And his sister (Miriam) stood afar off, to know what would be done to him"
What ended up happening is that the Pharaoh's daughter discovered Moses when she went to bathe in the river, accompanied by her maidens. However, although she realised that he was a Hebrew child, Exodus 2:6 says that "she had compassion on him" and spared his life. This was despite the fact that her father, the Pharaoh, had ordered that all Hebrew male children be killed at birth (Exodus 1:15-17). Miriam, noting her compassion, was then bold enough to approach the Pharaoh's daughter and ask if she should go and call a Hebrew woman to nurse him for her. Two remarkable things then happened:
- Pharaoh's daughter gave Miriam permission to find Moses a nurse, thereby preserving his life even further (Exodus 2:7-8)
- The woman that Miriam called was Jochebed and, not only did the Pharaoh's daughter give her permission to nurse him, she paid her to do so until he was old enough to be weaned and brought back to the palace- making Pharaoh's daughter Moses' adopted mother (Exodus 2: 8-10)
Pharaoh's daughter therefore has much to teach us about the concept of mercy. If you prefer, you can listen to the rest of this devotional via the audio below rather than continuing to read. Feel free to download and share it with your loved ones as well: