By Andrea Belonga

I had the privilege of attending the 2014 Women's Leadership Training Conference called "Lead With Truth: Called to Serve, Equipped to Lead" in Atlanta, GA, a few months back. It is an annual conference focused on training and inspiring women in the PCA to lead and serve in the women's ministry at their respective churches. I sat under excellent teaching from some of the best female teachers and authors in the PCA, and I am wanting to share some "gold nuggets of wisdom" that I gleaned from the conference with the ladies of Redeemer. I plan to blog from a number of the training sessions so that you may be blessed as well. The first blog will be from a two-part series by speaker and author, Nancy Guthrie.

Keep A Close Watch on Yourself - Nancy Guthrie - (part 1)
I Timothy 4:6-16

1 Timothy 4:16 states, "Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers." Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate and to keep watch on both ourselves and on our doctrine because of the eternal significance of living rightly and believing rightly not only for our own spiritual growth but also for the benefit of other people's spiritual understanding and growth. This first section deals with "watching ourselves". We are distracted by so many good things that we often miss our souls. Watch yourself! Don't let yourself drift away from the Lord. What does The Lord see as important? Growth in godliness! It is crucial to continue to absorb the Bible and discover truths from God's Word as opposed to dabbling in the latest spiritual experience or the newest popular Christian book. The godly woman seeks wisdom from God's Word and changes as she grows and studies. She becomes quicker to forsake sin, she is not so easily shaken when difficulty comes, and she is able to preach truth to herself because she has hidden God's Word in her heart.

The Bible says, "The law of The Lord is perfect, reviving the soul" (Psalm 19:7). Do we believe this or do we perhaps think TV will satisfy? Would we spend an hour in the Word or an hour watching TV? Would you not miss a day at the gym or not miss a day in His Word? We could ask, what will have value in the life to come? If we don't enjoy godliness now, how will we enjoy it in eternity? Pursuing holiness is of great value! Don't hide behind the righteousness of Christ. Instead, rigorously reckon yourselves DEAD to sin! Watch what you invest yourselves in. We will regret "spending all sorts of time in our garden", whatever our "garden" might be, but we will never regret energy on watering the seeds in the lives of people! Everything else wastes away. Watch where you set your hope. It may feel like your hope is on a sports win, on eating the right foods, on getting your kids into the right schools, etc, but becoming like your Savior will truly give the greatest joy. Present yourselves as a worker approved, rightly handling the Word of truth. Let the Word ooze out of you. Know the Word. Study it. Give others plenty of good reasons to look up to you.

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity" (1Timothy 4:12) Set an example in speech, in life, in love, in faith, in purity. Therefore, watch what you talk about. Do we regularly discuss God's Word or would we rather discuss TV or Facebook? Set an example in your dress, in your speech about your husband or your church leaders, and in how you respond to foolishness or sorrow or interruption. Watch who you love. Who does Jesus love? The unlovely, the sinners, the boring, the annoying, the uneducated. As far as faith, put your faith in what God has said and live like it is reality! Radically trust God and don't give way to fear. Radically trust God when you are left out, when death comes, when a child is walking away from the Lord. Living in purity includes being good repenters. No one can do things perfectly, so be authentic repenters. Be relentless in labeling sin as sin! Don't flaunt either goodness or brokenness. Repent to friends who will encourage us to forsake our sin rather than justify it for us. Come to God in humble contrition. Don't resist spiritual oversight. Don't resist correction and covering, because it is important to handle the Word rightly. Ask, "Show me where I am wrong?"

Watching our lives is of paramount importance. It is so easy to get led astray with the lures of the world and with temptations. Things of this world that call out, telling us that they will satisfy, and we are deceived into believing that they can satisfy our longings. Even good things call out, and there an infinite number of "good things" we can invest our time and energy in. The question is, "What is best and what has eternal significance?"

Prayer for the Sick ~ Susan Ray

I have had a healthy life.  I’ve never had a serious illness, had never been hospitalized for anything but childbirth.  I’ve never even had the flu!  I can’t remember ever asking for prayer for a health issue--until recently, of course.

The recent events that changed all that for me began with a cat bite.  That was followed up by infection, a doctor’s visit, oral antibiotics, a visit to a different doctor, a new antibiotic, a surgery, yet another new doctor, a trip to the ER, another surgery, admission to the hospital, IV antibiotics, insertion of a PICC line for at-home IV antibiotics, and finished up with weeks of occupational therapy.

I had a great desire for people to be praying for my healing.  Having health problems meant being out of control, and I really, really did not like it.  My patient husband who was dragged through this along with me can tell you that I didn’t handle it well.  I just wanted to be finished with it, to get back to my regularly scheduled life, but every few days I would get more bad news emphasizing my lack of control and increasing my frustration.

I had prayed, and wanted others to pray that the antibiotic would work quickly and that my finger would be back to normal quickly.  But that didn’t happen, and as the days turned into weeks and then into months, my spiritual need was uncovered along with my physical need.  I saw things about myself that I would not have recognized if I had gotten well in the first 10 days of antibiotics.

This should not have been a surprise to me because Scripture is full of the uses that God makes of suffering.  It is right for us to pray for healing.  God has revealed himself as the Healer, and healing is a way that he shows mercy to his saints, but I would like to encourage us all also to keep before us the good that he does when he doesn’t heal.  What a benefit it would be to suffering people if we were to pray for that as well!

These are some of the things we can pray for those suffering:

• That God would show mercy to the sick and their loved ones by healing them (Philippians 2:27)
• That God would be glorified in the suffering (John 9:3)
• That they would rejoice in their suffering because of the good God is doing in it (Romans 5:3 and James 1:2)
• That God would use the suffering to produce endurance, character, and hope (Romans 5:3, 4)
• That suffering would produce steadfastness leading to the sufferer being perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:4)
• That the suffering would show the genuineness of their faith and may be found to result in praise and glory and honor for Christ (1 Peter 1:6, 7)
• That they would cast all their cares on God knowing that he cares for them (1 Peter 5:7)
• That they would know of the sufficiency of the Lord’s grace ( 2 Corinthians 12:9)
• That they would boast of their weakness because in it Christ’s power is made perfect (2 Corinthians 12:9)
• That they would be content in their weakness and know God’s power (2 Corinthians 12:10)
• That they would not be anxious but would present their requests to God with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6)
• That the peace of God would guard their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7)
• That through Christ’s strength they would learn to be content in every situation (Philippians 4:11-13)

I did not like suffering, but it is good news to us who live in this world of groaning that suffering is not empty and meaningless even when it drags on.  Romans 8:18 tells us "that the sufferings of this present time and not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us", and 2 Corinthians 4:17 gives the ultimate encouragement to all kinds of sufferers. "Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.  For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.  For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."

That’s what I needed much more than quick healing, God’s working eternal good in me and for me.  Let’s pray for that eternal good as we suffer together and expect God’s good answers.