MOORE On MONDAY ~ BREAKING FREE ~ (3) BENEFITS

This is a JAM PACKED POST (meaning a lengthy but FULL one) My part in blue... Beth's in red


Chapters 3 - 7  in Beth Moore's BREAKING FREE

II. BENEFITS and OBSTACLES 
Focus of Chapters 3 - 7  
BENEFITS (remember to memorize them)
To Know God and Believe Him
To Glorify God 
To Find Satisfaction in God 
To Experience God's Peace 
To Enjoy God's Presence

These are the QUESTIONS as I shared them last Friday so you could better choose and prepare. For me or any of you to try and answer all of these at once is much more than a "blog" should entail or comments. So I ask that you choose one from each but answer the rest on your own in your notebook or book. Remember you are more than welcome to write a blog post about any of these and please share this in the comments if you do. Based on this, this post will grow throughout this week as I attempt to answer these questions... one step and one day at a time. The narrative after the questions will be where I share my responses to these questions in case you'd like to stop reading in order to answer for yourself and then come back to see what I share.

Chapter 3 To Know God and Believe Him (M)
1. Are you experiencing the benefits of your covenant relationship with God through Christ?
2. What has contributed most to your level of trust in God? 
3. What gives you the most problem when it comes to believing God?
4. What practical steps could you take to increase your trust in God? 

Chapter 4 To Glorify God (T)
1. How has God made Himself known to you?
2. What does it mean that Christ is the radiance of God's glory? 
3. What does giving glory to God mean to you? 
4. How does a christian develop a life that glorifies God? 
5. How can a person know if his or her life is glorifying God? 

Chapter 5 To Find Satisfaction in God (W)
1. How do you react to the statement that many Christians are not satisfied with Christ? 
2. What have you sought that turned out to be unsatisfying? 
3. What is the difference between salvation from sin and satisfaction of soul? 
4. What are the symptoms of an unsatisfied soul? 

Chapter 6 To Experience God's Peace (TH)
1. Is God's peace an infrequent surprise or the ongoing rule of your life? 
2. At what point does a Christian receive the peace of God? 
3. What part does authority play in God's peace? 
4. What part of the phrase "peace like a river" means most to you? 

Chapter 7 To Enjoy God's Presence (F)
1. Which is more constant, the presence of God or the evidence of His presence?
2. Is your enjoyment in God's presence increasing or decreasing?
3. What is the most satisfying part of your relationship with God?


As I reflect on these chapters of the BENEFITS, I truly do believe that I am blessed to be able to say I have ALL of these in my life yet I can only imagine how much greater it must be in heaven or when we LIVE fully daily walking in our FREEDOM without our baggage or any obstacles. For me to say this then, that I know God and believe Him, enjoy His Presence, glorify Him, find satisfaction in God and experience God's peace may mean that I am done breaking free (or a bit prideful) when I tend to think that's not true or the case. I do struggle at times yet I have found myself to be in the best part of my journey, trusting and relying on God completely more each day intentionally. Similar to 1st Corinthians 13... ⁹ "For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears... Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." is how I see me living in my freedom in Christ, the victory and aMazing Grace only He gives me. Do I falter and have setbacks? Sure... that's when and why we need the Body of Christ to be just that for each other and when I find myself running TO Him or sitting at His feet, resting and drinking in His Presence. 

But the BEST is yet to be!

TO KNOW GOD and BELIEVE HIM! (Chapter 3) my answers to the questions
1. Are you experiencing the benefits of your covenant relationship with God through Christ?
2. What has contributed most to your level of trust in God? 
3. What gives you the most problem when it comes to believing God?
4. What practical steps could you take to increase your trust in God? 
It is one thing to say I believe in God and another to claim "I believe Him", but in my case fortunately, it's both: I believe in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, 3 in 1(not 3 different gods as many say or think Christians believe). And I also BELIEVE God! What He says or has written or reveals or speaks to me. (see teaching here on the word Believe and Believe in/on from Strong's ~ you'll need to skip or scroll to that part).

Since I accepted Christ as my Savior, I asked in my initial prayer that "...I want to know, love and serve Him...". From that moment until this day, I have been "getting to know Him" more each day. It has been my joy and privilege in life as He reveals Himself to me through His written Word, His creation and my daily interactions. 

I can truly say that there have definitely been times in my life when one or the other of these benefits were lacking in my life, as well as times that I can clearly see ALL these great benefits present and surrounding me, but this was contingent on me, my ups and downs, not God. God is constant, never changes always the same, however I have my many impulses, mood changes and doing things my own way (known as a stubborn streak or rebellious nature)(some would call that strong willed). Much of my earlier life was based on my "feelings" at the moment. It was my own disobedience to God's Word that kept these benefits from me and until I was able to get my life right with God or a better grip and understanding of what obeying Him entails so that my obedience would open my life to receiving ALL these benefits daily and getting rid of obstacles that were stopping His flow and His power from living in me.
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One needs to understand what their covenant relationship is and means, to realize ALL one can experience. Seeing God's Word and learning His promises, how they are fulfilled and how He is so faithful to me, even though there have been so many times, I have acted unworthy of His love, He has never turned His back and has always waited openly for me to trust and return to His way not mine. God has been extremely patient and loving with me. Experiencing God and His perfect way and timing throughout my life has been the way I've learned to trust Him completely. He is ever so faithful! As I have had many traumatic experiences in my life, it was knowing that God was there that got me through them or beckoned me to run into His loving arms for restoration and healing. 

Not seeing the answers as I wait or seeing some pretty rough times causes me to guard my heart and wonder if I can believe God like a "doubting Thomas" (seeing is believing). I have seen much but it is the crucial ones that I wonder. Many times, it has taken me a long while to see results and in the waiting time, I loose heart or drift from where I should be. "Many variables in our lives affect our willingness to TRUST God." My life has had many losses and betrayals, which according to Beth deeply mark our level of trust. I use to trust everyone and then I chillingly trusted no one... and now I have bounced back and forth. When I do, it has not been always beneficial. When I didn't, it also impacted me. I became somewhat paralyzed or isolated which was so contrary to my nature. Trusting someone you can't see becomes even more difficult.
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When I am strongly attacked, I become ever so weak, and I fail to stay on track. My mind races ahead and so do I far too often. I need to be content in where I am until God makes a way, instead of me insisting on mine. I must keep my focus and direction in line with His or my thoughts wander, I act impulsively from my heart instead of weighing the facts and moving by faith. I wanted God to fix my life and if He was using it for my good, I wanted to make it right NOW. I really couldn't, I needed to trust Him and allow Him full reign. I needed to surrender to Him as Lord, not just say it. I needed to realize that He was there in my darkest hours as well as my triumphant ones. I have stepped out in faith and made a conscious choice to trust, and at times with humans it comes right back at 'ya but with God, I have never found that to be true.
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I find that as I daily am in God's Word, interacting with other Christians, praying for them and with them and spending time throughout the day praying and worshiping God, that I am able to trust God as I see His promises come to be or study His Word memorizing scriptures on the issues where I need strengthening. Whenever I face difficulty, to search God's Word or put on worship and praise music lifts me up and allows me to better hear from God. Being in prayer and constant communication with God, gives me a closer understanding of Him and His plan. It increases my trust each time I see God's hand directly in my day to day activity... which is more and more frequent as I step out in faith and share my witness and beliefs with others on Jesus!

I need to be accountable for growing in Christ and walking out my faith in my life. I do TRUST God more than I ever have in my life especially in this last year of relying only on Him! He is so FAITHFUL throughout my life, He has been ever so gentle in refining me but as soon as I am back into unhealthy surroundings (like my home in MN), it does not take long for all the old hurts, habits, hang-ups and unhealthy choices to surface. Similar to an addict going back into the places that enable or continue the practices that led to their destruction and addiction, I need to stay surrounded by good Christians, ambient, music and focus. Holding onto Jesus and TRUST!

*********************** MORE TO COME*********
I hope to answer the QUESTIONS for Chapters 4- 7 as well (since this post is already extremely long, I will be posting one each day this week)!
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FOR NEXT WEEK, We will continue with Chapters 8-12 with THE OBSTACLES of these benefits and I will do the same. I'll give you all of the questions on Friday, then next week, a chapter a day; Monday - Chapter 8; Tues. - Chapter 9, etc. 

The OBSTACLES of UNBELIEF, PRIDE, IDOLATRY, PRAYERLESSNESS, and LEGALISM

For MEMORY WORK, we should be working on Isaiah 61:1-4, followed by Isaiah 43:10 now; then we'll be adding Isaiah 43:6-7; Isaiah 55:2; Isaiah 26:3;  Isaiah 43:2-3 (one verse at a time). 
For Chapter 3, we focused on Isaiah 64:4. With Chapter 4, it was Isaiah 43:7 All memory verses

As we look at Chapter 5, the focus was John 8:32 (though that is NOT one of the verses to memorize, many of us know it)!!! Chapter 6 was 2 Thessalonians 3:16 but not for memory and Chapter 7 once again is a memory verse Isaiah 43: 2-3.

As we progress into the Chapters on the OBSTACLES, we have more scriptures dealing with these. Since we have identified the above 5 primary benefits of our covenant relationship with God, we will now look at the obstacles. The absence of any of these benefits may indicate some form of captivity. 

The verse associated with Chapter 8 is Isaiah 57:14(Unbelief); Chapter 9 - Isaiah 57:15 (Pride); Chapter 10 - Isaiah 44:10 (Idolatry); Chapter 11 - Isaiah 56:6-7a (Prayerlessness); Chapter 12 -Isaiah 29:13 (Legalism). 

I will share the questions for Chapters 8 -12 on FREEDOM FRIDAY to prepare for next Monday! So read on Chapters 8 through 12; the above scriptures plus the following which I have highlighted in my BREAKING FREE:

(8) UNBELIEF ~ Isaiah 57:13-14; Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3; Mark 9:21-24; Numbers 23:19; Galatians 5:1; Luke 4:18; Psalm 139:1-3; Ephesians 6:12; 1 Peter 5:8; Jeremiah 17:9; 2Timothy 3:16; Psalm 18:30; Matthew 9:27-29; Romans 14:1; Mark 9:24; Isaiah 43:10; 2Timothy 1:12

(9) PRIDE ~ Isaiah 26:8; Isaiah 43:7; Jeremiah 13:16-17; many Proverbs 8:13; 11:2; 13:10; 16:18; Obadiah 1:3-4; Proverbs 3:34 quoted in James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5; Isaiah 57:15; Isaiah 66:2; James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6; Daniel 4:37

(10) IDOLATRY ~ Isaiah 55:1; Isaiah 55:6; 2 Peter 3:9; Isaiah 2:6-7; Isaiah 44:10-13, 20-22; 

(11) PRAYERLESSNESS ~ Philippians 4:6-7; Ephesians 1:17-19; Isaiah 56:7

(12) LEGALISM ~ Matthew 29: 9-14; Acts 15; Galatians 2:15-16; Ecc. 7:20; Isaiah 29:13; 


This should keep us REAL busy this week reading Chapters 8-12! READ ON and BREAK FREE!