Hello Ladies,
I hope you all are having an amazing week. How’s your study of “Love Idol” going? These two chapters (8 & 9) have really put surrendering to God daily on my mind and in my heart. I love how Jennifer writes on page 115:
“Sinners, saved by grace, know we need daily saving grace to keep us from falling. If we come to the end of ourselves, we need to stay there, for this is the sacred place where Christ’s daily renewal springs forth.”
This quote and her other thoughts on the same page really sum it up for me. How we have to chose Him to defeat our Love Idols:
“He leaves us with a choice: follow Me or fall again.”
Honestly, I struggle to die to myself every day. Old habits are hard to break but I’m working on it. I think it’s easy to know intellectually that we are loved by God and have our identity in Him but it feels different lived out … somehow. Some mornings I wake up giddy with the thought of God’s love and other days I find it hard to really, deeply feel it. I’d love to hear how you all are battling the “Love Idol” with God’s help.
CHAPTER 8: PREAPPROVED
1. If you’re already a Christian, why would you need to continue to evangelize yourself with the gospel? How can you practically do that in your day-to-day life?
2. Do you agree that the church is full of approval-hungry people, sitting in the pews and maybe standing at the pulpits? If so, why do you think that is?
3. Look around you. How is God whispering the truest love language into your life and your world? Keep a list this week of God’s love notes, as a reminder of all the ways you’re valued by the King.
4. Be on the lookout for that one word — approved — written on credit-card offers and receipts. At last, you have a reason to celebrate “junk mail”! What have you learned about the way God sees you after reading the first eight chapters of this book?
CHAPTER 9: VERY LITTLE
1. God is the embodiment of love (See 1 John 4:8).
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8 ESV
Love is God’s character toward us. How might that knowledge change how you view your own worth?
2. Paul, the former approval seeker, wrote that the opinion of others was “a very little” thing. (See 1 Corinthians 4:3.)
3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 1 Cor 4:3 ESV
What do you need to make “very little” today?
3. If we’re secure in our Christ identity, we’ll be able to live more fully. How risky does it feel to wear the Real You on the outside, instead of tucking the most honest version of yourself away somewhere “safe”?
Blessings,
Hope
hope joy peace 