Hi sweet friends! Happy October! I want to make sure you gals know how grateful I am to get to jump into your email inbox and send you what I pray is always hope-filled, soul-fueling, inspiring encouragement. I treasure each of you. On that note…
Today I want to introduce you to something that’s been marinating in my heart for the past few months: The Woman I Want to Be Devotional Series.
Now, this doesn’t come from a place of me having all the answers. It comes from a place of desiring to be a woman after God’s heart – with you. It’s not about us transforming ourselves. It’s really about letting God transform us. It’s not about striving to be different, or better, or someone else, it’s about fixing our eyes on our Maker and allowing Him to shape us into all He created us to be – together. It’s not about giving you a list of rules to live by. It’s about pointing our hearts (mine too) to the One who offers us day-by-day grace. It’s about helping us remember that we are daughters of Christ and equipping us to live sure-footed and sure-hearted with God-confidence. It’s about living out God’s unique purposes for us. It’s ultimately about drawing closer to the One who formed us and knows us and loves us.
And as I’ve discovered over the last few months, every once in a while, a gal needs some sticky notes for her heart. A gal can be forgetful about who she is in Christ. (raising my hand here) In a world full of distractions, busyness, responsibilities, and a fast-paced culture, a gal can feel a little wobbly inside.
So think of this series as your weekly dose of encouragement to live as the woman you want to be, but also as the woman God already sees that you are and that you are becoming more and more of every day by His grace and provision.
So we’re just going to dive right in today with this week’s devo.
By the way, you don’t have to do anything to sign up for this because if you’re on my email list – receiving this email today – you will automatically receive these devos right here in your inbox on Wednesdays the next 12 weeks. I will be praying for you and your precious heart as we go through these devos.
So with no further a due, here’s your Week 1 Devo:
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Psalm 55:10 NLT
Steadfast – firmly fixed in place – IMMOVABLE; not subject to change; firm in belief; loyal; constant, dedicated, devoted, faithful, steady (from Merriam Webster Dictionary)
In my dancing years, one of the most important and crucial things I could do every day to make sure it was a good, dancing day was to make sure I had happy feet. Happy feet equaled happy dancing. If my feet hurt, I could count on it being a pretty rough day in the ballet studio. For a ballet dancer, there’s a good chance she’s going to deal with some foot pain because she is dancing in pointe shoes. Pointe shoes can be quite uncomfortable if the fit isn’t just right – like Cinderella’s slipper. A dancer is always battling blisters, tendonitis, corns, you name it, her feet go through quite the ordeal every day so it’s really important that she tends her feet. She’s got to make sure her pointe shoes fit correctly, make sure she’s wearing the right padding on her toes that works for her, make sure she puts her feet up after a long day of rehearsals and rests them well. She’s got to soak them in an ice bucket when she needs to…whatever it takes to keep those feet happy.
My sweet mom and dad actually bought me my own foot massager years and years ago to help me keep my feet my happy in my dancing days. I still get it out to this day, and my three little boys love it too. But all that to say, when our feet hurt it affects everything – our thoughts, our motivation, our energy, our passion. But when our feet are happy, we dance happy.
What I notice in real, everyday life, is that when my heart is happy and steady in God’s promises – fully trusting in Him, fully believing He’s constantly with me, firmly rooted in His love – I’m good! I feel strong, joyful, and purposeful. But when my heart loses its footing if you will, when my heart hurts, it affects everything.
When our hearts are unsteady, our confidence slips.
When our hearts are unsteady, our joy deflates.
When our hearts are unsteady, our sense of purpose dissolves.
When our hearts are unsteady, we are unsteady.
And a gal who feels unsteady needs the love of God to show up in a real, tangible way in her life so that she can live with joy, purpose, and steadiness of heart.
Sweet one, He will do that for you. He will gladly show up and get your heart back to a place of steadfastness.
I love the definitions of STEADFAST. And what I want us to see today is that the way for us to be a woman who is steadfast – firmly fixed in place, immovable, not subject to change, firm in belief, etc. is to focus on the One who is completely steadfast.
God’s love for you is STEADFAST. Psalm 103:8 says,
“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
God’s love for you is:
- Firmly fixed in place
- Immovable
- Not subject to change
- Firm
- Loyal
- Constant
- Dedicated
- Devoted
- Faithful
- Steady
Sweet one, God’s love for you never changes. He’s not going anywhere. So every day when you wake up, you can know that God’s love is the firm foundation of your life. Every day, in a sense, He wraps His arms around you and starts the day with:
YOU ARE LOVED.
His love is not dependent on circumstances, the pace of our culture, our emotions, or anything else.
You are loved with the STEADFAST love of God. Let that be your firm foundation, your sure-footing, your steadiness of heart. As you look to Him, He will steady your heart. And just like happy feet lead to happy dancing, His steadfast heart towards you will lead to you becoming a gal with a steadfast heart. And that affects absolutely everything.
A Prayer for Your Heart:
Jesus, You have made this gal’s beautiful heart. The gal who reads these words, the gal who longs to be a woman who is steadfast, a woman who is firmly fixed in You, steady in her faith and steady in her heart no matter what the day ahead looks like. She longs to be a woman who is calm on the inside because she so firmly knows and believes the God of the waves and the seas who calms storms, is with her always. Today, give her a steadfast heart. Let her feel Your love in a tangible way today. Let her let You be the firm foundation of her life – and let that affect everything in her life. Let Your steadfast love encourage her and ooze out of her through everything she does today. Bless this gal with Your steadfast love today and begin a transforming work in her heart and life.
Leave a Reply