“then the LORD GOD formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a LIVING SOUL.” Genesis 2:7

We were made from dust. To dust we will return. But in between those two events – we have an opportunity. We have the opportunity to live it for ourselves, or to love God with it.

Loving God with every breath seems near impossible. Life is a struggle, even though we are blessed. Life is hard work. Seasons in it seem like a blur sometimes. Like when you have multiple children under 5 and you can’t even get the dishes done… let alone do you know the last time you mopped your floor.

The enemy makes sure to keep us focused on anything that would distract us from knowing we are on Holy Ground, even in the most everyday mundane situation. He doesn’t want us to know that

every surface we touch is an altar. 

He wants us to keep God in the sanctuary on Sunday and not realize that our body is His temple…

…that even turning our worries over to him and leaving things undone to get enough rest  is an offering…

…that eating real food that actually grew out of the ground and intentionally drinking enough water, and exercising is an act of worship…

…that really seeing and loving hurting people is building His Kingdom…

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1-2 

In the video below I talk about how this passage has changed how I love the LORD with my life.

This passage really makes it plain. Love the LORD with this life very simply, by making your ordinary life an offering to HIM!

Here’s a link to more about how to take the mundane and grow in loving Him with your LIFE.

https://refocusedbiblestudy.com/2016/01/04/refocused-on-who-god-made-me-to-be-day-1/

Break your life down into the 4 areas in the passage, and get intentional about living the Lord with your

Sleeping

Eating

Going to Work

Walking around Life

Here is a peek at the page from the “ALL of Me” Study below. Notice the middle area where I’ve answered how the Lord has impressed me to love Him in these areas, and how others will be better loved through me living this way:

How can you love Him in these 4 areas? I want to hear below!

 

What’s going on here?

Tell me about the Study!

It’s a four week study

Week 1: Heart

Week 2: Soul

Week 3:Mind

Week 4: Strength

Each week has 5 days of study that you need just 15 minutes to complete

Each day of the study consists of two pages. The first page starts with a short prayer, a short passage of scripture to read, and reflective questions.  The second page is a beautiful display of His Word, with a sequence of receiving His Word in love, Giving God love in return through applying His Word to our lives, and making a plan to love others, helping us to be intentional about fulfilling the greatest commandment!

I’ll be blogging through the study right here everyday, so don’t forget to follow the blog  to receive emails on weekdays.

I will also be posting one video a week on Sundays to get you motivated and keep you ready to start the next week with some insight and encouragement to help you along the way!!!

Can’t buy the study? No worries!Here’s a FREE SCRIPTURE WRITING PLAN that correlates to the material and posting it here on Monday.We want you here to engage in God’s Word in a personal way and know Jesus more intimately!

Other ways to connect:

Join the Facebook group where I post daily questions on the study: https://www.facebook.com/groups/190148844667205/?ref=bookmarks

Facebook:  Like  Refocused Bible Study Page,

Instagram: Follow @RefocusedBibleStudy

The downloadable, printable ebook is below! Thank you for your support of this ministry to encourage and equip women to engage in God’s Word in a personal way, and know Him more intimately!

Buy the “ALL of ME” Study Here:

After you purchase, click “Return to Merchant” and you will be taken to the page for the download! So excited to journey through loving Him more! ❤️🎉

$10

All of Me: Loving God with ALL your Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength  I hope you will join us as we journey through the greatest commandment!

For more info in the study, click here 

If you can’t buy the study, screenshot this free Scripture Writing Plan instead:

I hope you’ll join us!

Praying for you,

Amy

“Is anything worth more than your SOUL?” Mark 8:37

Jesus said these words after Peter rebuked him and told him that he couldn’t say things like “He was going to suffer and die.” 

Jesus is teaching us how to love Him with A SOUL SURRENDERED.

Have you ever known God was asking you to be faithful in a HARD THING and someone, in their innocence thinking they had “your best interest at heart” discouraged you from doing it?

Maybe the Lord is asking you to do something that seems crazy to your relatives, or your coworkers, like adopt, homeschool, or go into ministry, ahem. 

Or maybe he is asking you to stay faithful in something that no one else sees, BUT YOU KNOW HE SEES – like staying sensitive to your man’s heart, or consistently disciplining your children.

These things, seen to the outside world or only to The Lord, require a SOUL SURRENDERED.

Because, you see, we could easily take a “way out, thinking, that person is right, I’ve done a lot for God already, my hands are full.”

or

“Nobody sees what I am going through, this is too hard, it’s time to quit.”

He sees. He wants what He has planned for you. He wants you to trust Him. To lean in close, and surrender your soul to him – step by obedient step.

After all, what if Jesus would have listened to Peter’s heartfelt but earthly thinking?

“You know, Peter is right, I shouldn’t let myself go through the suffering and the cross, Father wouldn’t really want me to do that, would he?”

Where would we be?

Thankfully, Jesus walked out a SOUL SURRENDERED to Father.

Even when suffering and pain, and even death loomed in the near future, he trusted Father.

We can do the same with His power in us, step by step, surrendering. 

Trusting His plan is best. Sacrifice is worth it. Suffering is worth it. Dying to ourselves is worth it.

Jesus gave us three steps to SURRENDER:

1. DENY YOURSELF
2. TAKE UP YOUR CROSS
3. FOLLOW ME

It’s not easy, sisters, but He’s WORTH IT. I don’t do it perfect, or even pretty, but I trust that this is the way. Jesus is so beautiful, because He did this. He loved us so much, that he did it.

He asks us to follow in his footsteps of love. To love Him and others in this way.

What is The Lord asking you to SURRENDER today?

How can you love another through these steps, in a self-sacrifical way today?

What’s going on here?

Tell me about the Study!

It’s a four week study

Week 1: Heart

Week 2: Soul

Week 3:Mind

Week 4: Strength

Each week has 5 days of study that you need just 15 minutes to complete

Each day of the study consists of two pages. The first page starts with a short prayer, a short passage of scripture to read, and reflective questions.  The second page is a beautiful display of His Word, with a sequence of receiving His Word in love, Giving God love in return through applying His Word to our lives, and making a plan to love others, helping us to be intentional about fulfilling the greatest commandment!

I’ll be blogging through the study right here everyday, so don’t forget to follow the blog  to receive emails on weekdays.

I will also be posting one video a week on Sundays to get you motivated and keep you ready to start the next week with some insight and encouragement to help you along the way!!!

Can’t buy the study? No worries!Here’s a FREE SCRIPTURE WRITING PLAN that correlates to the material and posting it here on Monday.We want you here to engage in God’s Word in a personal way and know Jesus more intimately!

Other ways to connect:

Join the Facebook group where I post daily questions on the study: https://www.facebook.com/groups/190148844667205/?ref=bookmarks

Facebook:  Like  Refocused Bible Study Page,

Instagram: Follow @RefocusedBibleStudy

The downloadable, printable ebook is below! Thank you for your support of this ministry to encourage and equip women to engage in God’s Word in a personal way, and know Him more intimately!

Buy the “ALL of ME” Study Here:

After you purchase, click “Return to Merchant” and you will be taken to the page for the download! So excited to journey through loving Him more! ❤️🎉

$10

All of Me: Loving God with ALL your Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength  I hope you will join us as we journey through the greatest commandment!

For more info in the study, click here 

If you can’t buy the study, screenshot this free Scripture Writing Plan instead:

I hope you’ll join us!

Praying for you,

Amy

“My SOUL magnifies the LORD, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,”

Luke 1:46

To magnify means to make something appear larger than it is… but we know that is impossible with God. We can’t make Him larger than He is, we can only see Him more clearly for just how GREAT He really is.

Here in this passage, we read Mary’s song of praise after she found out she was the chosen one to carry the Savior.

Mary’s Song of Praise: The Magnificant

And Mary said,

Mine was “He who is mighty has done great things for me.”

The Lord has done such amazing things for me, and I’m sorry to say, I don’t always magnify Him for it. But part of our study today reminds us to make God out to be big in even the smallest of things, leading to your soul loving Him even more.

We realize His hand working in our lives > We give him credit and glory > Our soul magnifies Him.

My miracle is my son who turns 10 this week! I can’t believe he’s turning 10!

When we were “ready” to have kids and started trying to conceive, well, we kept being “ready and waiting” for a while 😉

Nothing was happening, and I was getting so distraught. The Lord tenderly led me to the story of 1 Samuel 1 in His word where a woman named Hannah was begging the Lord for a child herself.

“She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.And she vowed a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.” 1 Samuel 1:10-11

The Lord answered my prayer a few years later and “Samuel” (Sam) was born! We named him Samuel from the passage I had clung to while I waited on the Lord.

What are you struggling with right now? I encourage you to search the word for a passage where someone went through something similar, and make it your prayer. The Lord will so tenderly touch your heart and move on your behalf.

No matter what He decides the outcome to be, you can be sure He has worked all things together for good and in the future you will be telling others of what He did in the situation, and how you trust it was His doing all along, and He knows best.

You will be magnifying the Lord with all your soul!

What has the Lord so clearly done for you? Magnify Him and let us know! Comment below.  ❤

Weekly Challenge in the Video below! 

Love the Lord with more of your soul by prioritizing your time this week! Ask Him how this looks in your life. Lean in and listen. His plan for you is different than any one else’s.

What’s going on here?

Tell me about the Study!

It’s a four week study

Week 1: Heart

Week 2: Soul

Week 3:Mind

Week 4: Strength

Each week has 5 days of study that you need just 15 minutes to complete

Each day of the study consists of two pages. The first page starts with a short prayer, a short passage of scripture to read, and reflective questions.  The second page is a beautiful display of His Word, with a sequence of receiving His Word in love, Giving God love in return through applying His Word to our lives, and making a plan to love others, helping us to be intentional about fulfilling the greatest commandment!

I’ll be blogging through the study right here everyday, so don’t forget to follow the blog  to receive emails on weekdays. 

I will also be posting one video a week on Sundays to get you motivated and keep you ready to start the next week with some insight and encouragement to help you along the way!!!

Can’t buy the study? No worries!Here’s a FREE SCRIPTURE WRITING PLAN that correlates to the material and posting it here on Monday.We want you here to engage in God’s Word in a personal way and know Jesus more intimately!

Other ways to connect: 

Join the Facebook group where I post daily questions on the study: https://www.facebook.com/groups/190148844667205/?ref=bookmarks

Facebook:  Like  Refocused Bible Study Page,

Instagram: Follow @RefocusedBibleStudy

The downloadable, printable ebook is below! Thank you for your support of this ministry to encourage and equip women to engage in God’s Word in a personal way, and know Him more intimately!

Buy the “ALL of ME” Study Here:

After you purchase, click “Return to Merchant” and you will be taken to the page for the download! So excited to journey through loving Him more! ❤️🎉

$10

All of Me: Loving God with ALL your Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength  I hope you will join us as we journey through the greatest commandment!

For more info in the study, click here 

If you can’t buy the study, screenshot this free Scripture Writing Plan instead:

I hope you’ll join us!

Praying for you,

Amy

Happy Friday!!! We are on the last day of Loving God with ALL our HEARTS! 💕

Today our verse is:

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, 

“Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” John 21:17

He knows. But He wants to hear us say it. He wants us to sit down and have a conversation with Him in prayer, and He wants to remind us to take care of the precious people He has entrusted to us, fulfilling the second part of the greatest commandment, by loving others as ourselves.

Each time the Lord asked Peter if He loved Him, He also responded to Peter, slightly differently each time.

FEED MY LAMBS

TEND MY SHEEP

FEED MY SHEEP

Which response resonates with you the most?

Here at Refocused, we narrow our focus to the people closet to us: our husband, children, family, and then outward to the rest of the world.

Take the response that spoke most to you, and ask the LORD how to fulfill this calling.

I chose, “TEND MY SHEEP.”

This really hit home with me right now, especially after talking in terms of gardening yesterday. Tending is constant work. I am so thankful for the sheep the Lord has given me to bless and tend.

Weekend Challenge:

Continue spending the first five minutes of the day journaling your heart out to the Lord. Spend the next five minutes writing out how you can tend to or feed the precious people the Lord has put in your life.

Love GOD, Love OTHERS. Refocus and love those closest to you really well ❤

Have a great weekend, and get ready to love Him with ALL your SOUL on Monday!

Buy the “ALL of ME” Study Here:

After you purchase, click “Return to Merchant” and you will be taken to the page for the download! So excited to journey through loving Him more! ❤️🎉

$10

All of Me: Loving God with ALL your Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength  I hope you will join us as we journey through the greatest commandment!

For more info in the study, click here 

If you can’t buy the study, screenshot this free Scripture Writing Plan instead:

Have a great weekend!

Praying for you,

Amy

Hi sweet friends! I hope that if you are Joining in on learning to Love the Lord with more of our HEART this week that He is speaking to you and lovingly correcting you in the deepest of ways. I pray that today we learn to guard our hearts like we would a garden for Him.

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” Proverbs 4:23

Do you know what my least favorite chore growing up was? PULLING WEEDS! I seriously despised my parents for making me pull weeds in flower beds that I could care less about!

I remember wondering how in the world they grew so fast! Some were so tall and so hard to yank up out of the dirt. The worst part was when I would use so much effort pulling on one and it would break off above the roots.

I knew then it would just be there again to deal with the next week. 

What I didn’t know, was that this weekly weed pulling would be used by God to give me this analogy for

Guarding Your Garden: 

Pulling lies up by the ROOT in your heart! 

(God seriously wastes nothing.)

On this journey to LOVE the LORD with ALL our HEART this week, we stop and learn how to GUARD it for Him today. The verse today teaches us to “guard” our heart. The word guard here means “to protect, maintain, obey.” We are going to be focusing in on the word “maintain,” thinking of the heart as a garden, as it is referenced as such many places in the Word.

Here’s how this looks in my life

The same stinking weed pops up weekly or more (usually out of my mouth) and I see it is UGLY -defintley not a beautiful flower intentionally planted to glorify the Lord.

Usually I just break it off at the ground level, ask the Lord for forgiveness and apologize to the person I’ve wronged.

BUT GUESS WHAT? I END UP DOING THE SAME tHING AGAIN! (yelling at your kids anybody?)

It’s because I’m not taking this to the ROOT with the LORD.

Here’s an example:

I get frustrated with the kids for not doing their chores. I yell.

I ask the Lord to forgive me, ask the kids to forgive me.

But then tomorrow, I do it again.

Why? I have not chased this ugly weed down to the source – the root:

The “Way down WHY.”

We have to dig deeper and follow the stem of the weed all the way down to find the WHY for our behavior and ask the Lord to meet us there to teach us and change us, so we can love Him with ALL of our HEART, even the way down deep.

Jesus taught this to the religious people in his time.

Matthew 15:1-20

15 Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked him, “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God?For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’⁶ In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents.^[c] And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition.⁷ You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,

¹⁰ Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “Listen,” he said, “and try to understand.¹¹ It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”

¹² Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?”

¹³ Jesus replied, “Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be uprooted,¹⁴ so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.”

¹⁵ Then Peter said to Jesus, “Explain to us the parable that says people aren’t defiled by what they eat.”

¹⁶ “Don’t you understand yet?” Jesus asked.¹⁷ “Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.¹⁸ But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you.¹⁹ For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander.²⁰ These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.”

On the surface level, the pharisees looked great. They were washing their hands and following all the religious traditions. But they were more concerned with behavior than heart.

Love the Lord your God with ALL of you HEART.

The real down deep where either weeds from sin or fruitful flowers from His Word originate.

How do we GUARD THIS GARDEN? How do we maintain this HEART from where our life flows?

Ask the Lord to help you get down to the

ROOT

Recognize weeds

Out by the root 

Over analyze – find the lie

Truth planted instead

Recognize weeds – This is usually pretty easy. What is unlovely in your life? Let’s start there. What is not bearing life and fruit, but instead thorns and pain? (Yelling at the kids).

Out by the root – Ask the Lord to show you why you are behaving this way on the outside. What is the belief system this behavior is rooted in? Where is it stemming from? (I want the chores to get done quickly!)

Over analyze to find the lie – Now find the lie contrary to the word of God. Why is this not a good thing rooted in truth? (Because training my kids up in the Lord is the most important, over the swiftness of the chores).

Truth planted instead: Search His Word for truth to plant in your heart instead. (“Train up a child in the way he should go;  even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6). Believe that the Lord is doing a good work there through that WORD He has given you to replace the lie, which will grow life and beauty instead of sin and death. 

A garden (Heart) grown from His WORD will be full of Him and full of life!

Guard your garden from the ROOT friends, let’s really love the LORD from the depths!

New Here? See what’s going on below.

What if you could ask Jesus what the most important thing is?

Wouldn’t it simplify your life? Wouldn’t it help you narrow your focus, time and energy?

Wouldn’t it help you truly live?

I’ve got good news, sisters! He has answered this question already in His Word, and His answer is just as much for us today as it was for those who asked it when he walked the earth.

Here’s the Story:

“One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.”  Mark 12:28-31

Life Simplified

Love the Lord with ALL of your HEART, SOUL, MIND, and STRENGTH

But how? What does that mean in real life?

This is a question I’ve been asking myself for years, so I sat down searched His Word for direction, put it into a devotional format, and I want to journey through it with you!

Tell me about the Study!

It’s a four week study

Week 1: Heart

Week 2: Soul

Week 3:Mind

Week 4: Strength

Each week has 5 days of study that you need just 15 minutes to complete

Each day of the study consists of two pages. The first page starts with a short prayer, a short passage of scripture to read, and reflective questions.  The second page is a beautiful display of His Word, with a sequence of receiving His Word in love, Giving God love in return through applying His Word to our lives, and making a plan to love others, helping us to be intentional about fulfilling the greatest commandment!

I’ll be blogging through the study right here everyday, so don’t forget to follow the blog  to receive emails on weekdays.

I will also be posting one video a week on Sundays to get you motivated and keep you ready to start the next week with some insight and encouragement to help you along the way!!!

Can’t buy the study? No worries! I’ll be posting a free scripture writing plan that correlates to the material and posting it here on Monday.

We want you here to engage in God’s Word in a personal way and know Jesus more intimately!

Other ways to connect:

Join the Facebook group where I post daily questions on the study: https://www.facebook.com/groups/190148844667205/?ref=bookmarks

Facebook:  Like  Refocused Bible Study Page,

Instagram: Follow @RefocusedBibleStudy

The downloadable, printable ebook is below! Thank you for your support of this ministry to encourage and equip women to engage in God’s Word in a personal way, and know Him more intimately!

After you purchase, click “Return to Merchant” and you will be taken to the page for the download! So excited to journey through loving Him more! ❤️🎉

$10

All of Me: Loving God with ALL your Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength  I hope you will join us as we journey through the greatest commandment!

Amy