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?"