Welcome to His Light, Her Life, a Reliance Church Women’s Ministry blog dedicated to encouraging women to grow deeper in their intimacy with Jesus Christ!
We want to briefly share our hearts with you as we all begin this new journey together. It is exciting to participate in a work the Lord is doing and we are hopeful to see the fruit that is harvested from iron sharpening iron. We cannot wait to hear stories of how the Lord is moving in your life and what He is showing you about His love for each of you.
His Light, Her Life, is comprised of a team of women, who will be working together to provide weekly writings, live teachings, and resource recommendations, that we pray will be tools used in your growing relationship with the Lord. Lisa and I (Andrea) wanted to take a moment to share the motivation behind His Light, Her Life.
Lisa:
I was introduced to the Lord as a teenager. It was several years before the definitive realization on January 1, 1997 that I needed to surrender ALL aspects of my life to Him and He captured my heart. God created me with an inquisitive mind that LOVES to learn and as I was gaining my new spiritual legs I asked questions of anyone who came across my path and claimed to know God. I dug into the Bible during my college years with more voracity than any of the English and Russian literature novels I was studying. As I learned to integrate my personal Bible study with prayers to Him, His Light came alive in my life. The more He revealed Himself to me, the more desperate I was to have an intimate relationship with my Savior.
God was the only one to know my innermost thoughts and struggles and care for my heart when I had been so wounded by the world for many years. This created a depth of trust and gratitude unfamiliar to me in a relationship. My whole life became focused on living for Him and searching out ways to serve Him. Eventually, the Lord’s plan began to unfold and I continue to seek Him for guidance and direction on the most effective way to be a physical manifestation of His love to others. Currently, my greatest joy comes when in the midst of serving Him and my heartfelt prayer is for others to experience an intimacy with God unlike any other relationship on earth.
As a lover of learning I’ve always sought to glean from others more experienced than myself. I attend conferences and retreats often to soak in new information and perspectives, expectantly waiting to hear from the Lord. He also speaks to me through literature and when the communication landscape changed and blogs became a new writing medium, those opened my world even further. Podcasts became (and influenced!) my adult conversations once I started raising children and technology again expanded the horizons of my established paradigms. Before I knew the Lord personally, music spoke to my soul and now many years later, God still uses music to draw me closer to Him. What a gift to experience the Lord through so many creative people on earth, all on a unique path. May we endeavor to discern the way we were created to live in the fullness of His glory.
Andrea:
I have been a Christian for as long as I can remember. But it wasn’t until the last ten years when my life was actually enveloped by Him.
“When finally you are gripped by all He has done for you, your most logical, reasonable, intelligent, and natural response in return, is to give everything you’ve got – your mind, your emotions, your will, to his lordship. Now you’re internally motivated and on your way to maturity.” –Howard Hendricks
There came a point in my life, in the midst of great heartache, when He asked, “Do you still believe that I love you? Do you understand the kind of love I’m really wanting to overwhelm you with?” And so our dance began. My hand in His, through tears and pain, through regret and sin, through wandering and finding. In secret places, He met with me and I am now gripped by Him. Consequently, the most natural response to it all is: “You have to know what this is like!” “You have to taste this!”
Herein lies the motivation behind His Light, Her Life. Our desire is for you to experience the depths of love He has for you, and in my own walk, one of the ways He grew me in that understanding, was through different teachers, authors, bloggers, podcasts, and music. They were all avenues the Holy Spirit used to speak directly into my heart, right where I was. And we want to help you in any way we can, understand the vastness of the love He has for you. We hope for all to grow in the grace and knowledge of Him, and we pray that we will be able to encourage you in this endeavor. Because, we know that once you are fully gripped by Him, your natural response will be to give everything you’ve got in return. And think about what kind of impact that will have on a world like ours.
We pray that seeds will be planted, that the soil of your heart will be watered, and in due time, that you will reap the reward of seeking and following hard after Him.