Week 1: Experiencing God

God's Will and Your Life

It’s week 1 of my online Bible study group. Here are some of the things I took away from the first week.

My Thoughts:

The first 3 days were a little difficult for me to get into. I told myself maybe it’s because I’ve read this book that many times, but now I believe it’s because I was getting into a new routine once again. I was doing this first thing in the morning before even looking at my phone and I would not look at my phone until after I had finished my study. I was distracted to say the least. My mind would wonder here and there and I would find myself questioning why I was even doing this. This in itself is actually a good sign. It shows that the resistance is there because I’m going to be getting something so good out of it; if only I continue to push through.

By day 4, I was locked in. Day 4 was all about seeing how God works and seeing what He’s doing. It was about learning how to recognise His working around me.

I got very excited when things in my day began to align with what I had read that morning. I all of a sudden had the urge to delete some of the music I had redownloaded after my initial feelings of conviction had dissipated. Then I “randomly” came across a video that was talking about the specific music I had just deleted.

I then started to delete my photos and videos (as I want to downgrade my iCloud storage), then I came across a Substack post that spoke about losing our identity because everyone is becoming carbon copies of each other. It was crazy because I had seen myself doing it and I had seen others doing it. Whatever product I used, I was asked about what the specific name and details of it were, and I was doing the same.

Then I heard the Holy Spirit remind me of what I had just read. I knew God was working around me in the sense that He was revealing things to me that I never paid much attention to before.

On day 5 (the day of the meeting) I started my day wondering how I could get closer to God. What does it mean to be in an intimate relationship with Him?

After my study time I decided to listen to a podcast and that particular lesson was titled, “how to be a prayer warrior” which I didn’t notice until after I clicked on it. I realised this was divine alinement. This was God showing me how I can talk to Him better but most importantly, how I can listen and receive better. This was Him answering the thought I had.

This solidified another point I had learned which is “God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal.” God is the one doing the pursuing. I literally wondered to myself how I can get to know Him better. I didn’t even ask Him and He was already ready with an answer. That alone showed me just how much He wants a relationship with me also.

The Meeting

This meeting was shorter than the meeting we had the week prior which I was expecting as there wasn’t much we needed to cover in terms of how the meetings would run.

We went over most of the 17 review notes from the week that made us excited as we read each point and explained our own personal experiences or our understanding of it.

One of the points that stood out the most was: “God is always at work around you.” This point stood out because I realised just how often in my own personal life I’ve missed out on opportunities to get closer to God because I rarely stopped to ask Him what He was doing. It’s so easy to go about life asking God to bless my activities or come where I am when it’s supposed to be the other way around. I’m supposed to be finding out what activities He’s doing and joining Him in it. I’m supposed to be going where He is and working on that together with Him. The more I come into contact with Him in this manner, the better I will get to know Him.

It’s nice to “do” for God, but how much of what we do is actually what He wants us to be doing? The thing that we want to do could take us 5 months when what God wants to do could take 5 days.

God has a multitude of ways of getting things done. Don’t get so caught up in being busy with activity, that you miss out on an opportunity to get to know the One you are doing the work for.

Those were my takeaways for week one. As this post goes up we’re beginning Week 2 and I’m looking forward to delving more into the foundational points we were introduced to last week.

It’s still not too late to join! If you want to take part, just drop me a message or leave a comment and I will give you the details.

✨ Nadine