I want to honor you today, sister. I’m so proud that you stuck with me this far. The road has been a little rough at times, but today we are treading on smooth, solid ground. I can hardly believe this is our last day together! My heart is already aching at the thought that our time has come to an end. I will miss you, dear sister. It has been such an honor to serve you through the teaching of God’s Word. Please know, that I will continue to pray for you long after I finish writing this.

I want to ask you a few questions today. The topic of them hits close to home for me, because in my past I would have answered a big fat “NO” to them because I was drowned by deception. It is a passion of mine that you would be able to answer yes to them.

• Do you believe that God has a specific plan for your life?

• Do you believe you were created for a specific purpose?

• Do you believe that God created you knowing every mistake you would ever make?

• Do you believe that God still has a purpose for you life even after a season of immoral sin?

Whether your answer is yes or no, write your thoughts concerning these questions below.

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It is imperative for us to come to a place of believing we were created for a purpose. Satan wants to make us believe we are here without a purpose. If he cannot get us there he will whisper lies that we are not worthy of our callings. He will whisper things like, “You can’t be used by God now. How can He possibly use you? People won’t respect you after all the bad things you have done.” Do you know why he tells you these things? List some reasons you think he tells you lies, such as these.
 
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He is scared to death of you! He knows how powerful your testimony will be to thousands and he wants to do everything he can to keep you bound with fear so you won’t ever open your mouth and tell of God’s restoring power. Many of us want to sweep our pasts under the rug. To a certain extent I can understand why. I believe there are times when God calls us to never open certain “coffins” again. However, I have found that some of the most powerful testimonies come from people who have fallen deep into pits of sin and allowed God to pull them out and restore them. I don’t know about you, but I want to learn from someone who has been down the same roads I have. I seem to identify a little more with them.

Let’s switch gears for a moment and talk about why people flirt with sin.

Many people flirt with sin because they feel empty. The emptiness they are experiencing inside desires to be filled. Most of us do not realize that a passionate relationship with Christ is what our empty souls are crying out for. Satan offers many counterfeits to fill our holes in order to keep us from finding the ultimate “fulfiller”. What we don’t always realize is that God has created us with a natural desire to worship Him. Have you ever noticed people in general are worshipers of something? Everybody is worshiping something, whether or not it is God. It’s a God-given desire created within us to worship Him, but because we don’t have that revelation we end up worshiping counterfeits. Can you think of some of the counterfeits we worship when we are not worshiping our Creator?

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Here are a few: money, people, alcohol, drugs, food, material things, our bodies, our children, etc.

Once we come to the place to realize our hearts were called to worship our creator, our deepest needs begin to get met through doing so. As we begin to get our worship on the right focus, we begin to see God’s purpose and plan for our lives. Some people feel empty because they feel they don’t have a purpose.

My hope is that through the scriptures today you will come to a place where your truly understand how pleased He was to create you and that He has a personal calling on your life.

Please read Psalm 139:16 with me. It says, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

How does that scripture speak to you personally today?

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Sisters, according to the scriptures, each and every day of your life was already written in a book before each one ever passed. I would like to try something for a minute. I am going to personalize the scripture for you and I want you to fill in the blank with your name. Picture God saying this to you personally, because He is. You can picture it as a hand written letter just written for you.

(Fill in your name here),
All the days ordained just for you were written in a personal book of mine before one of them ever came to pass. I have created you knowing every choice you would ever make and did you know I was still pleased to call you my own? No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind can conceive what I have prepared for you because you love me.

Abandon yourself in His presence for a few moments and let those words soak in as truth on your heart. What is the Father speaking to your heart right now? Listen to the still small voice within and write down what you hear.

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Isn’t God awesome? How He can love us with all of our blemishes is beyond me. I am overwhelmed at the thought of His love. Praise you Jesus!

It has been such a revelation of His love to know that my Father in Heaven chose to create me knowing ahead of time I would make some huge mistakes. It has brought such inner healing to me. It’s almost too hard to describe in words the feelings of relief I have had over this revelation. Sisters, He chose to create you and ordained each and every day of your life knowing you would make unwise choices. Does that bring relief to you?
 
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Please read Ephesians 1:4. “For He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will”.

I would like to personalize this again. God’s Word always seems so much more personal when I view it as if He was just writing to me. Put your name in the following blank and hear this straight from your Father who loves you.

(Your name goes here),
I chose you to be a part of my plan long before I even created this world. It was a pleasure to create you because I have loved you long before I ever even created you. I chose you, (place your name here), to personally take part in my plan for this world. I see you through my Son’s eyes and what I see is holy and blameless. My plan was never for you to be perfect. My plan was that through your life experiences, you would desire to come to know the Father’s love and desire to know my son as your Lord and Savior. It is to my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit. Will you believe me when I say to you, (your name), that I made NO mistakes when I created you?

Can you hear your Father whispering that over you? Oh, how I hope you do! Don’t miss it. This is truth sister. When I hear those words spoken over me, I can feel the shackles breaking. I am humbled that the Father still chose us to be holy and blameless regardless of our sinful nature.

Take a moment to praise Him for creating you.

Ephesians 1:11 says, “In him we were also chosen having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.”

Ladies, this is just another confirmation that you were chosen and predestined to be here by God. Oh, praise His name! Within this scripture, I found a treasure. I hope you will see it. The portion that says “the plan of him who works out everything...” was a treasure piece for me. This particular scripture means he is continuing to work out everything in your life. Notice the active verb tense in the word “working”. He is currently working out everything in your life. Not just that one problem you have, but each and every one of them. Girls, we don’t have to have it all figured out. Our job is to stay humble and allow the work of the Holy Spirit to work things out.

If you believe Jesus came to set the sinner free then take that opportunity to go to the foot of the cross and praise Him for all He has done for you. Praise Him for creating you. Take a moment to thank Him that He loved you enough to take your place on the cross so that you wouldn’t have to go there. Thank him that he is working out everything in your life for his glory. Please take a quiet moment to drift off to the ground at the cross. Feel free to journal your thoughts.

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As you can see, God has taken my ashes and changed them into something more beautiful than I could ever have ever asked for or imagined. I could never have written this study had I not been through the mountains and valleys in my life. I could not reach out to you had I not experienced my pitfalls in life. As I let the Father heal my wounds and encourage me to help others, I realized part of His plan for me. I believe with everything in me that He wanted me to share my past failures with you so that His name would be glorified. There is no way my life would be restored if it were not for Jesus. May those places that have been long devastated in your life be restored by the life changing blood of the Lamb (see Isaiah 61:4). God can take any form of trash and turn it into kingdom treasures for others to see and learn from. Just as we have been healed by His wounds that He bore on the tree, others can be restored when we show them the scars from our wounds that God has so graciously healed.

If you do not feel “in love” with Jesus, I ask you to confess that today and ask the Holy Spirit to begin to show you how to fall in love with Him. He is so faithful to do what we ask of Him when it is in line with His will. I asked Him a few years ago this very question; will you show me how to love you?

His Word says in 1 Corinthians 2:9 “No eye has seen, no ear has heard what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

He has something amazing planned for you, dear sister! He tells us here that we can’t even get our minds wrapped around what He has for those who love Him. He can make your heart skip beats like no other man could ever do and that is a fact. There have been times He has whispered something in my heart that has made butterflies dance in my stomach. My prayer for you is that you would fall so deeply in love with Him and that you would walk into all He has prepared for you because it is awesome!

Please join me in our closing prayer.

Oh, gracious Heavenly Father,
Your love is better than life! We want to know that love right now, Father. We ask your Holy Spirit to reveal it to us starting today. We desire to have you fill our inmost beings with your Love, God. Your word tells us that we cannot even begin to fathom what you have for those who love you. We want to be women who love you, Lord. Begin to teach those of us who are not sure how to love you with all of our hearts, minds, and souls to do so! We thank you that we can come before you, tell you anything and it will never change your love for us. What an awesome God you are.

Father, today as we end our time together, we ask that you would begin to reveal your will for our lives. Teach us to be your disciples. Show us how to sow spiritual seeds into the lives of others. We want to walk into all that you have for us here on earth. You have riches stored for us here on earth. Reveal to us the secret things of God. We don’t want to miss a thing that you have for us during our time here on earth.

We honor you and praise you for all you have done and all you are going to do. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. It has been such a blessing studying His Word with you. Consider what an honor it is to be a daughter of the Most High!

Many blessings,
Sarah