“And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Revelation 21:5

Do you believe God is in the process of making all things new in your life?

If you believe the baby in the manager is your Savior, then his life giving Spirit is living in you, breathing new life into hopeless, hard places. The brand New Year coming is the perfect time to evaluate your walking faith.

Are you walking out the faith you believe about the Savior we are celebrating? Even in the parts of your life that you have chalked up to “living in a fallen world?” Those are the places it’s time to believe he’s in the process of making new again.

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19

As people are gathering to celebrate, you have the opportunity to exercise your walking faith by embracing others in forgiveness and believing in restoration of relationships.

You have the chance to believe he can do anything. He can heal sickness, he can provide financially, he can make an orphan a beloved daughter and he can make absolutely anything NEW.

So what is it you need to see “made NEW” by him?

God, please make _________________________________ NEW.

Fill in the blank and believe he’s working; BECAUSE HE IS. I promise, I’m not challenging you to do anything the Lord hasn’t challenged me to do. A few weeks ago, I stood in front of a room full or people and spoke about a relationship in my life that had been severed because of sin. I told them because I cared about their relationships, and I was urging them to follow God’s plan to keep loving each other well. However, the moment the words left my mouth, I felt the Spirit’s conviction.

“Do you not believe I can restore even that relationship? What little faith you have!”

Sure enough, that person called me this week and we have found restoration because of grace. This is the time friends, he is making all things new. Don’t dismiss what God’s grace can do.

As long as you are still breathing, you have another chance.

In a few short days, we will turn the page of grace into a NEW YEAR. Will you join us here at Refocused Bible Study as we start the year with our eyes fixed on Jesus for the road ahead?

The plan:

1) Visit the page on the link below to sign up.

2) Print out the weeks that apply to you. Week 1- Everyone!

Week 2- Married Ladies

Week 3- Moms

Week 4- Homemakers

3) You will receive 21 emails to walk you through the study! Unsubscribe anytime.

4) Start 2020 Following God’s best design for your life! ✨

Sign up HERE to Refocus for 2020

I hope you’ll join us and Refocus on Jesus for the year ahead!

-Amy Terry

The rush of Christmas is upon us. I just wrapped twelve presents (with the help of my two daughters) and it took us at least an hour. (Because you know when your wrapping area gets so messy, no one can find where they just set the tape? or the scissors, etc?) That is us. Soon we will gather with extended family.  We  we will take these twelve presents, play with cousins, eat an obscene amount of barbecue and hash (because we are in the south and it’s our little family tradition), and then we will head back home for our next big Christmas get together occurring Christmas Eve.

I host that get together so there will be food to be bought, a house to clean,( and then clean again afterwards), and a cake to bake. After we bake and ice the cake, we will set the sole survivor of a ceramic nativity set my kids used to play with when they were little on the center of the cake and place candles around it. Then we will sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus, blow out the candles, and head to church like we do every year.

The next part of the season is my favorite: the exhale on Christmas Eve when the house is once again put back together, the kids are peacefully sleeping, and the anticipation of the coming morning rests on us like a happy cloud. Our hearts are centered on what we are celebrating, and we know that if it were just Him – He would have been enough.

But Jesus didn’t stop at just giving us Himself.

He gave us each other.

He gave us heaven with no more slaying of animals.

He gave us teaching our daughters they can talk to God anytime they want, like He’s their best friend, because Jesus came.

He gave us so much, it’s hard to take it all in.

As we take it all in over the next few days, let’s let out praise.

Mary did this when she found out she was the one chosen to carry the Messiah in her womb.

Mary’s Song of Praise: The Magnificat

“And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.””

Luke 1:46-55 ESV

 

May our souls Magnify Him this Christmas.

May our spirits truly rejoice in Him and Him alone.

In remembering all He has done, and in anticipation of all He has promised to do.

When God fulfilled what the angel had told Mary, and she held Jesus in her arms, she treasured the miracle that was happening right before her eyes.

“But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Luke 2:19

Treasure the miracle of Jesus with us, friends. Ponder it in your hearts. How compassionate a Savior to walk in our shoes, to live in a body like ours, to weep with us, and then to suffer the death and shed the blood that was required for us to live with Him forever.

In every get together, in every present unwrapped, in every piece of wrapping paper picked up from a messy living room floor, in every dish you prepare and wash, ponder in your heart what a LOVE this must be for us to be celebrating over two thousand years later.

My Refocused Bible Study Friends: New Year’s is coming in just a few weeks! 

A new DECADE is upon us! 

It’s the perfect time to

REMEMBER WHAT GOD HAS DONE

AND REFOCUS ON THE PERFECTER OF OUR FAITH!

Redeem New Year’s resolutions by fixing your eyes on Jesus with us for the road ahead.

“I have glorified my name, and I will do it again.” John 12:28

Many of us have seen God do amazing things in the past that brought glory to Him through our lives. We just want to see Him do it again in the year to come! Our desire is to bring God glory for everything He’s done in the past year, and ask Him to bless and help us be faithful in all we do in the year ahead, refocusing on what matters most: our relationship with Him, our marriages, our mothering, and our homes.

***Happy ANNOUNCEMENT: I have  created a series of emails to walk you through Refocused Bible Study starting December 31st! It’s all FREE! 

1) Just click below and and put your email in to download the study. {And Send the link to friends!!!}

2) Print the study 

3) Starting December 31st you will receive an email for each day of the 21 study! 

Sign up for a FREE Printable copy of Refocused Bible Study and Email Course
>>> HERE <<<

If you want to buy a hard copy of Refocused Bible Study, it’s Here:

Refocused Bible Study 

Let’s do this, girlfriend! 

Praying for you, 

Amy Terry

It’s November, ya’ll!!! I can hardly believe it. However, the fact that my kids were asking for their Halloween candy for breakfast quickly confirmed, it’s true.

We will blink our eyes a few times, and it will be Thanksgiving day. Here’s the thing, I want to really be thankful. I want to really give thanks to the Giver. I want to give back.

Here’s what I don’t want to do: get stressed about things or miss out on the slow, simple gifts that he’s placed right at my feet.

I want my kids to know what this season of gratitude is all about, and to know the Giver.

So, I made this scripture writing plan:  Simply Thankful.

It’s a simple plan:

Write out the verse of the day.

Thank God for one thing.  

Do one simple, slow activity a day to enjoy the Giver. (take a walk, pick flowers, gather leaves, bake muffins, etc.)

Give back from an overflow of God’s love & as an act of worship.  

I’ll be sharing on the Facebook Group (Link here: Refocused Bible Study FB)

I’ll also be sharing on my Instagram account

 Download the simply-thankful plan and make gratitude intentional in your heart and home this month!  ❤

Amy

A Psalm for giving thanks.

Psalm 100

1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
3 Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
5 For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

 

What if God visited you in a dream and told you to ask for anything you wanted?

Would it be hard for you to pick just one need? Or do you have a huge miracle you are pleading with him to perform?

King Solomon found himself in this very position, as recorded in 2 Chronicles chapter one, and also in 1Kings chapter four.

7That night God appeared to Solomon and said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!”

8Solomon replied to God, “You showed faithful love to David, my father, and now you have made me king in his place. 9O LORD God, please continue to keep your promise to David my father, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth!

10Give me the wisdom and knowledge to lead them properly,  for who could possibly govern this great people of yours?”

11God said to Solomon, “Because your greatest desire is to help your people, and you did not ask for wealth, riches, fame, or even the death of your enemies or a long life, but rather you asked for wisdom and knowledge to properly govern my people— 12I will certainly give you the wisdom and knowledge you requested. But I will also give you wealth, riches, and fame such as no other king has had before you or will ever have in the future!”

2 Chronicles 1:7-12 NLT

Solomon asks for wisdom and knowledge, and God is faithful to grant him his request.

“God gave Solomon very great wisdom and understanding, and knowledge as vast as the sands of the seashore.”

1 Kings 4:29 NLT

Not only did God give him this wisdom, but he made sure that Solomon recorded much of it in his Word. King Solomon wrote Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, and many of the Proverbs.

Why does this matter for women in today’s world? 

Women today need WISDOM 

We don’t need  trends of the times dictating how we live our lives. As believers in our Risen Lord, we need real, ancient truth to show us the way. The word of God is old, but it is alive and active and sharper than any two edged sword (Hebrews 4:12).  When we approach it as such, with our questions about priorities, disappointments, and flailing disobedience, God calms us and refocuses us on what’s really important.

Priorities in Perspective

With the gift of liberation of women as equal partners with men, we have been given the opportunity of many pursuits. With this gift, we must seek Jesus about how to properly put Him first, and keep all our other relationships and responsibilities in order. This is so hard in 2019! The truths recorded in the book of Proverbs help us hear His voice and re-prioritize. We all get the same 24 hours in a day. We just need to abide in Him to put first things first. We do that through seeking Him in His word daily.

That is why I hope you will join us here as we read the book of Proverbs together in the month of October! I will be posting three times a week here on the blog and daily on social media.

So I hope you will join us as we read Proverbs, a chapter a day that coincides with the date. There are 31 days in October and 31 chapters in Proverbs! We will start on October 1st, so grab some friends and join us!

Join our Facebook group >>> here

>>Download the FREE Study Guide by subscribing to my email list in the pop up box!

Day 1:

 

Welcome to the first day of Proverbs, a chapter a day here at AmydTerry.com! For more background information on this practical book of the bible,  you can check out posts about King Solomon, who wrote many chapters in this book – here.

Today we start this book as women who want God’s wisdom. But we don’t want it just for the purpose of knowing it. We want wisdom for the purpose of knowing HIM. I pray that as we approach this book, we will allow the Holy Spirit to be our teacher and show us things in his word that only he ( the One who dreamed us up, uniquely wired our personalities and pursued us in love) can whisper to us. If you are new to studying God’s word or want a refresher,  you can read more about how He teaches us through it here.

In the first seven verses of chapter one, Solomon lays out the purpose of his writing, and lays the foundation for this book:

These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel.

2 Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline,
to help them understand the insights of the wise.
3 Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives,
to help them do what is right, just, and fair.
4 These proverbs will give insight to the simple,
knowledge and discernment to the young.
5 Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser.
Let those with understanding receive guidance
6 by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
7 Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

Verse seven stands at the bottom of these first seven verses, ironically the foundation of the entire book of Proverbs. Everything else in the book of wisdom stands upon this verse. Let’s study it more in depth.

According to the Strong’s Lexicon, the Hebrew Word for “fear” in this verse is

‘yir’ah” – fear, terror, fearing
fear, terror
awesome or terrifying thing (object causing fear)
fear (of God), respect, reverence, piety
revered

Are you fearing the Lord these days in this way? This kind of fear or reverence brings us to a place of honest humility. It brings us to our knees, knowing we are and will always be in need of the God who is so much bigger than our minds could understand.

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8-9

As I meditated on what it meant to fear the Lord, I heard the preschool director’s voice echo in my memory,  “bow your heads and close your eyes, be very reverent to God while we pray.” It may sound legalistic to say that, but she was totally correct in teaching our children the outward expression of an inward fear of the Lord. She was planting reverence in the hearts of our children, and I am so thankful she did.

Reverence for the Lord should start on the inside. If we need a good dose of reverence for the Lord, we can get one by reading one of the replies God gave Job: 

4“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell me, if you know so much.
5Who determined its dimensions
and stretched out the surveying line?
6What supports its foundations,
and who laid its cornerstone
7as the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?
8“Who kept the sea inside its boundaries
as it burst from the womb,
9and as I clothed it with clouds
and wrapped it in thick darkness?
10For I locked it behind barred gates,
limiting its shores.
11I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come.
Here your proud waves must stop!’

Job 38:4-11NLT

When he formed the boundaries of the seas, he knew our names, how many days we would live on this earth and which oceans our toes would touch before he decided which day to bring us home to heaven, but where were we?

The mere thought of the vast oceans fixes my need to fear him every single time. He’s so much bigger than we make him out to be.

In My Life

Grow in your respectful admiration of the Lord. Continuing to realize he is bigger and better than we can imagine will naturally lead us into more wholehearted reverence and fear of Him.

As we read the book of Proverbs, I pray we will respond to Lady Wisdom calling to us and listen. No matter how many times we have read these words, I pray they will fall fresh on us and that God will give us specific direction about things we have questions about in our lives right now. I know he will be faithful to do just that, and I look forward to hearing how he leads you through it!

What was your verse today? How is God speaking to you?

Download the FREE STUDY GUIDE in the pop up box! It includes a memory verse for each week, background on the book, and a journal.

So I hope you will join us as we read Proverbs, a chapter a day that coincides with the date. There are 31 days in October and 31 chapters in Proverbs! We will start on October 1st, so grab some friends and join us!

Join our Facebook group >>> here