How to be a
Secure Woman
TBASW_Dev_internals_final.indd 1
40-day devotional
Catherine Butcher Foreword by Jeannette Barwick
3/4/06 12:07:40
Contents Introduction Week 1 Know your own heart Week 2 Where does your security lie? Week 3 Knowing God’s heart Week 4 Facing hard facts Week 5 Removing the roadblocks Week 6 Moving forward Week 7 Believing, becoming and being secure Week 8 Developing good relationships
TBASW_Dev_internals_final.indd 3
3/4/06 12:07:40
Introduction
O
ne of the joys of my Christian life has been to meet and work with women in many and varied settings and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to gain a special understanding of how women tick – myself included! Over thirty years, the ministry into which God gradually led me has taken me to four continents and provided a wealth of experience. Through it I have come to realise that the issue of insecurity, though not of course unique to women, is certainly problematic for us, not least in the spiritual dimension of our lives. The teaching at the heart of How to be a Secure Woman is fundamental to the full range of CWR’s teaching and ministry, which you may already have encountered. It is the subject of the women’s seminar we present extensively, both in the UK and in a number of other countries, and also its companion eight-session workbook, which is particularly, though not exclusively, suited to group use. Study groups using the material have been set up in many churches while others have hosted the seminar. I was recently encouraged to be told that a women’s conference in Frankfurt on this theme was ‘one of the highlights of our church’s year and made a lasting impact advancing Christ’s kingdom’. At the end of this devotional are some more testimonies
TBASW_Dev_internals_final.indd 4
3/4/06 12:07:40
from women whose lives have been transformed by this teaching. The issues tackled in How to be a Secure Woman are real, rooted in the everyday experience of women in all their diversity everywhere, and require a practical response. The devotional to which I am now introducing you stands apart from the other resources as more personal, being designed to encourage individual exploration and sustained reflection in pursuit of the common goal: a richer and deeper relationship with God. I pray that this booklet will prove a valuable resource in helping you to find security as a woman in the only place that it can truly be found – Jesus Christ. For I am convinced that neither death nor life … nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:38–39)
Jeannette Barwick Head of Women’s Ministries
TBASW_Dev_internals_final.indd 5
3/4/06 12:07:40
Week 1 Know your own heart Day 1
God knows my heart Jeremiah 17:7–10 ‘He will be like a tree planted by the water … It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.’ (v.8)
H
ow can I be a secure woman? If only I could flick a switch to know instant, unshakeable security. But life and faith are not like that. Even the most outwardly secure woman is a work in progress. We discover the extent of our security through the challenges of change and difficulty. When I first met Jennifer Rees Larcombe she was confined to a wheelchair. A mother of six, she’d been struck down by serious illness. ‘I felt as if our happiness had been smashed forever,’ she said. Years later we met again – she’d been miraculously healed and was leading a conference with her husband. Then her marriage broke down. Again, she had to put the pieces of her broken life into God’s hands: ‘When we are willing to hand Him all those broken pieces, He can begin to rebuild us,’ she says, and with hindsight she adds, ‘The marriage break-up
TBASW_Dev_internals_final.indd 6
3/4/06 12:07:41
was one of the most helpful things God could have allowed.’ Jen has had to learn through pain and hardship that security doesn’t lie in being healthy or married. Lasting security comes when we trust God. Then, like the man Jeremiah describes, we can live fruitful lives whatever our circumstances. We might think we are secure, but we are easily deceived by our own fickle hearts. Difficulties show our weaknesses and challenge us to change as we learn to trust God. There are no short cuts, but God will not test you beyond your endurance (1 Cor. 10:13). Even though she was imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camp where she later died, Betsy ten Boom asserted: ‘There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.’
TBASW_Dev_internals_final.indd 7
Switch your focus to God: His character, His purpose for your life, His promises. Praise Him for His strength, His reliability, His love. Ask for His help to see your life as He sees it: a work in progress. Look to Him for your security.
3/4/06 12:07:41