Lysa TerKeurst _{Leading Women in the Adventure of Faith}

Today is the fourth and last devotion preparing the hearts of those coming to She Speaks.

But, like I stated Monday, whether you are coming to the conference or not, I pray these posts have stirred your heart and prepared your mind for whatever God is about to place right in front of you. 

What is the very best preparation for She Speaks? I bet if you asked people coming to the conference, you’d get as many answers as women planning to attend. There’s just so much to do. 

But, let’s pause for just a minute in the midst of fingers flying over computer keys, phone calls to arrange child care, outfit borrowing or buying, nail painting, hair dying, and urgent prayer requests being sent to friends and family. 

Yes, let’s pause. 

And consider. 

Psalm 45:1 says, “My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer,” (NIV). 

Oh sisters, please don’t shortchange your spiritual preparation.

…God needs to woo you into the special secret places.

…He desires to sit with you and pour some timely wisdom into the dry places of your heart.

…He longs to shore up those cracks and crevices within your emotions.

…God wants to entrust you with the perfect words, the right message, and the pliable attitude necessary to make this conference all it can be. 

But God won’t make us stop and pause and consider. We have to make the choice. And if we do, we’ll be prepared in the perfect way God knows we’ll need to be. 

Let your heart be stirred by a noble theme… as you recite your verses for the king. Your tongue will then surprise you in the best kind of way as it communicates words you didn’t even know you had.

A few months back I wrote a post about finally getting a phone call I’d been waiting over 15 years to receive. It was the slightest crack in the doorway of a dream.

I was hesitantly excited. When you have wanted something for a long time and it comes close enough to possibly be a reality, it’s thrilling and terrifying all at the same time. Suddenly, your heart shifts from neutral into this vulnerable place where acceptance commingles with rejection. And you are all too aware, things could go either way.

So, I packaged up a CD of one of my talks sent it off through the crack in the doorway of my dream. And I let my mind prematurely celebrate.

Then I waited.

And waited.

And nothing.

Feeling like a foolish girl who’d bought a prom dress before actually being asked to the dance, I sheepishly called to inquire whether or not the CD had been received. I was told it had been and if I hadn’t heard anything yet, I should assume it was a “no.”

Ouch.

That’s when you go sit on your back deck, close your eyes, and decide whether to let the tears slip quietly down your cheeks or blink them back in an act of courageous defiance.

Rejection stinks.

I mean it really stinks.

It stunk when Saxon Palmer didn’t ask me to couple skate in the 5th grade. It stunk when when my Dad left our family. It stunk when I thought I was getting engaged at the very dinner my college love broke up with me. It stunk when each of my book proposals for years were declined by publishers. And it stunk when I sat on my deck and processed this situation.

Sometimes things like this just simply stink and there’s no cheery rainbow or pot of gold around the next corner. The music doesn’t crescendo as the hero in the story swoops you onto the side of his horse and the two of you ride off into the sunset to live happily ever after.

Sometimes it just is what it is. And that’s that.

But God’s girls have a beautiful promise tucked in our pocket that lets us smile even when tears puddle in the corner of our eyes. Even when there’s no rainbow, pot of gold, or galloping prince- we have the promise of redemption.

On the other side of every death there will always be a resurrection of some sort. Maybe not a resurrection of our circumstances. And maybe not a resurrection of things lining up like we thought they should. But there will be a resurrection. Jesus has insured that.

Nothing in this world can permanently strip hope from our lives when we know, “we do not follow cleverly invented stories about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” but we follow the reality of the Risen One (2 Peter 1:16). He is our resurrection.

He is our hope.

He is that beautiful reminder that rejection from man never means rejection from God.

And He is the one who is weaving a story into our life that will one day make sense.

Be sure to join in tomorrow for the last post of this series called, “Words You Didn’t Even Know You Had.”

I remember the first time I went to a conference filled with potential speakers and writers. I had been so excited. At home, I felt handpicked by God to attend this conference. I felt chosen, worthy and empowered. 

Then I got to the conference with hundreds of others who were also chosen, worthy and empowered and suddenly I did not feel handpicked any longer. I felt insecure.

I remember hearing women talk about their proposals, their messages, their ministry experiences and suddenly everything in my world felt woefully small and insignificant. Even my outfit felt dated, my backside big, and my voice painfully hollow. I could feel my personality shutting down and my heart sinking to places no God loving woman should go. 

Satan is a cruel manipulator who desires for God’s girls to get ensnared and distracted by competing and comparing. The more we look around and jockey for a position that’s better than the girl standing next to us, the less we remember God’s assignment for us. And that’s exactly what the enemy wants. 

Our calling is never to one up the next girl. It is to raise up the name of Jesus and live his truths in an authentic way. Period. Nothing else. 

So, what is a Jesus girl to do when she finds herself sucked into the comparison trap? 

After many tears shed beside my hotel bed and much prayer, I willed my hurting little feet to walk back down to the conference and get intentional about being blessing focused. I determined with each and every interaction for the rest of the conference I would seek to receive and give a blessing. 

As women talked to me, I looked for some blessing of truth, challenge, or revelation I could glean from this other person. Even if the person was self-focused and not caring a bit about giving me anything, I chose to see my interaction with her as blessed reminder to not act that way myself. 

I also sought to give a blessing to every woman with whom I interacted. It’s amazing when you intentionally look for good in others how much you can quickly find. 

By the end of the conference I was so full of blessings, I could honestly say to the Lord, “Whatever your will. Whether I receive a contract or not. Whether I stand and share my message in front of 5 or 5000. Whatever your will, I only want your plans.” 

The less we compare and compete they more we’ll be able to embrace Jesus’ attitude of blessing and feel amazingly complete. And isn’t that what we’re all after in the first place?

Be sure to join in tomorrow as we uncover how rejection from man doesn’t mean rejection from God.

If you have a moment today, pop over to my article titled ‘Embracing Who I Am’ published on the (In)Courage site.

Happy Monday sweet friends.  For the next several days I’m re-posting some devotions for people to use who are attending the She Speaks conference later this week. My prayer is that these messages will resonate with each of us in some personal and relevant way.

If you are coming to She Speaks, I pray these devotions usher your heart into some tender moments of reflection before the conference.

If you aren’t coming to She Speaks, I hope you’ll still look for some nuggets of truth tucked within the next several day’s posts.  I’m trusting Jesus to reveal to you whatever these nuggets may be and that they’ll be relevant to something you’re facing this week.

In the giant world of publishing, I’m a not a giant author. I’ve never stepped my toes near the New York Times Best Seller List nor been featured in the front windows of a major bookstore chain. And if by some miracle I hear of a Walmart carrying one of my books, I nearly pee in my pants.

But, inside this small author, you can always find a big message. By big, I mean big to me. It’s just the way I process what God teaches me. I write it down.

Soon many of you will be packing your bags complete with outfits, hairspray and shoes that are too cute to be comfortable.

Tucked in and amongst these things will be a little stack of papers covered in words, filled with dreams. For some it’s the talk you’ll be giving or an article you’ve written or a book proposal you’re presenting.

For months you’ve prayed, written, thought, researched, hoped, and poured out your very best efforts for a few days at this conference.

Will they see how much I want this?

Will they know how strongly I feel led by God to speak or write about this?

Will they think I’m gifted enough, talented enough, and able enough?

Or, am I just fooling myself and wasting massive amounts of time on a pipe dream?

Sweet sisters, I know these thoughts all too well because my files contain book proposals that never got published and talks I prepared but never gave. I’ve spent hours- days- weeks- sometimes months working on things that never came to fruition in the way I thought it should. So, was all that preparation and writing a waste of time?

No, not at all and let me tell you the Biblical reason why.

When I was a little girl I remember one person praying specifically for me everyday- my great grandfather.

I have vivid memories of him sitting in his chair for hours reading the biggest Bible I’d ever seen and bowing his head in prayer for what seemed like unreasonable amounts of time. While I was flitting to and fro about his house causing trouble, making messes, and asking him to please watch me do one more dance routine to music that made his head hurt, he prayed for me.

I’m convinced his prayers helped turn that little wispy, shallow girl into a woman hungering for God.

And don’t you know I’d give just about anything to have one page of that man’s wisdom written down and preserved for me to treasure now. All he knew, all those experiences with God, all those prayers, all that wisdom went to his grave with him and that grieves my heart.

Psalm 78: 1-4 says, “O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old- what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done.”

Verse 7 goes on to say, “Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.”

The experiences with God and the wisdom you’ve gained in your journey with Him will be treasures for someone. Whether it’s your children or your friends or the masses- God will make sure the exact audience who is supposed to be blessed by your teaching will be. And with that assurance, write down what God teaches you. 

No time spent recording God’s faithful presence in our lives is ever a waste.

I pray each of you discovers a ministry beyond your wildest dreams.

But don’t get discouraged if the details of that ministry do not take shape the exact way you think they should. I bet my big, strong, farmer great grandfather had no clue his prayers would one day turn into a ministry for women. But they did.

And that makes me smile.

Nothing done with the focus on God is ever a waste of time.

Be sure to visit again tomorrow for the second post of this series leading up to She Speaks called, “Competing and Comparing.” 

Thank you sweet sisters for all the birthday wishes.  Yesterday, my Mom called me before I’d had the chance to see that Holly had secretly hijacked the blog.  It made me laugh out loud that she said I proclaimed, “Let’s get started” upon my arrival in this world. 

I actually thought she said, “Let’s get this party started,” which would have been totally appropriate since I do love a good dance song.

I’m convinced that my home in heaven will not be filled with harp sounding music.  I like harps.  For weddings.  I had one playing when I walked down the aisle at my own wedding.  But I did not have a harp playing at the reception. 

At my reception I had the best 80′s music ever!  I may or may not have done the MC Hammer dance in my wedding dress.  I’m not saying that was the most Southernly proper thing to do.  I’m just saying that a great beat makes me happy. 

So, I think my heavenly house will be filled with all the best beat music rewritten as praise songs to Jesus.

I do.

And you are all invited to come over and dance.  It will be a blast.

Not that I’m planning to head on over to Heaven any time soon.  I’m old, but not that old.

As a matter of fact my sweet Brooke told me yesterday that I shouldn’t feel sad about being so old because I don’t look so very old.

She drew me a card featuring a birthday cake with 41 candles on it.  That’s a lot of candles.  She had to draw a 7 tiered birthday cake to fit them all.  And then she wrote on the inside these words:

“Dear Mommy you are the coolest and prettiest Mom I no.  You and me look a-like and I am happy that I will look like you when I am older.”

Great emphasis was placed on the word ‘older’ when she read it out loud. 

But I’m okay with that.  I secretly tried out my dance moves in my closet last night.  I’ve still got it!

It’s  a Holly Day today~

41 years ago today…Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. He proudly proclaimed ‘the Eagle has landed’.

And the world was changed.

41 years ago today…Lysa TerKeurst arrived on the planet. She proudly proclaimed ‘I am here! Now let’s get started!’

And the world was changed some more.

Lysa, I know I speak for your loving family and friends, your amazing team at Proverbs 31 Ministries and your faithful blog readers when I say that we appreciate your wisdom, we are grateful for your written and spoken words of truth and we are captivated by your humble heart.

You live out loud what you teach my friend. You give beyond reason. And you serve without expectation.

You have challenged me. Redirected me. Changed me.  And for that I thank you and love you.

Happy birthday my dear friend. Happy birthday. May you feel loved today~