Women Arise! WEEKLY DEVOTIONAL (February 23, 2009)

Hello ladies! I hope you all had a very blessed weekend! I would first like to welcome all the new members to our group and remind you all to invite at least 10 others so that the group can continue to grow! As you add new friends, invite them to Women Arise! They will be blessed and the more members we have, the more we can be a blessing to! Thank you!       Today we will be continuing on with Part II, which is the final part to our Devotional, "TRUE LOVE". I hope you are blessed by it!     TRUE LOVE-PART II   February 23, 2009     1 Corinthians 13:6- Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love does not involve itself in evil things. Things that it knows is wrong! We love what GOD loves and hate what GOD hates. We aren't going to get involved in cheating, stealing, lying, gossiping, etc and feel good about it. Love rejoices when it is corrected. When we do wrong, and we feel that conviction from the Lord, instead of beating up on ourselves, we will rejoice because we know then that we are truly children of God. For the Lord disciplines those He loves! (Hebrews 12:6) So we will rejoice in the truth knowing that it is the truth that sets us free!!!! What is TRUTH? Truth is God's Word! Anything that opposes the Word of God is a lie regardless of how much you may want to believe otherwise!     13:7-'Love' always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.- When we truly LOVE someone, we will protect them, we will trust them, we will never lose hope in them, LOVE always presses on! We will protect our loved ones from any type of harm. We will stand up for them to the point where we will be willing to lay down our lives for them! We will trust them, and look at the best in them. We will not ever give up hope for them. Whether it be for an unsaved child or a cheating husband. We will continue to hope for the best for them. Love always perseveres. It never gives up. It can weather any storm.      *Now that is not to say that there aren't times when we NEED to let go! Every circumstance is different, so we can't try to remain in situations when the other person is unwilling to give an inch. We can't put our lives on hold in hopes of restoring something that may not be God's will for our lives. This sisters, is when we need DISCERNMENT. This is WHY we need that relationship with the Lord so that we can 'hear' what His purpose is for our lives. It is very important to know when to fight and when to take flight! For example, I would never advise ANY woman who is in any type of abusive relationship to stay there and try to make the marriage work. I would recommend that she seek help IMMEDIATELY and try her best to remove herself (and her children if there are any) from the situation. She can pray from wherever she is and allow the Lord to work in her husband or not...We need to pray and ask God for WISDOM for each situation we come across in life!     Also, we tend to PROTECT and TRUST in the wrong people at times! Like in the above situation with an abused woman, she should NOT protect him and lie for him at the sake of risking harm to herself or her children! DISCERNMENT...WISDOM...COMMON SENSE...We have to respond according to our own unique circumstances. WE HAVE TO PRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!     Ladies, this concludes the devotional titled 'TRUE LOVE'.      PRAYER: Father, we come to you this day and ask that You give us the wisdom, knowledge and understanding that we need in our walk with You. We ask that You teach us how to love others the way You do. Teach us UNCONDITIONAL love for one another, Lord. Teach us how to put others before ourselves, but at the same time give us a balance as to know when we need to put ourselves first because at times we tend to do TOO much for others when you want them to learn to 'move' on their own! We have a tendency of trying to help people in ways that You may not want them helped. That's why we ask for Your wisdom Lord. We ask for discernment in each situation we must face. I ask You Father to bless and minister to each and every one of these women reading this right now. I don't know what their particular needs are, Father, but YOU do. I ask that You speak to each of their hearts clearly. Show them what You have for them. Show them how special and precious they are in Your sight. Show them how much You love them and enable them to allow the love You have given to them to flow out of them and into the lives of others!  Bless them abundantly Lord! Meet each of them right where they are. We ask You this in the Name of Jesus! AMEN!

LaTanya Scott