"...not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews 10:25)

My dear WITHIN sisters,
I pray this email finds you thriving in the Lord. Although it's not a typical devotional, I felt led to send out this email to share something that the Lord has put on my heart.
I am so grateful for you and the way the Lord is working in you to desire to grow in Him more and more. And I am forever grateful to the Lord that He placed WITHIN on my heart to be a small way that can help you in that journey.
We live in a digital age where it’s easy to establish more digital connections than real-life connections. The purpose of WITHIN Ministry is not to replace the real-life connections that we are called and commanded as Believers to build through HIS LOCAL CHURCH.
Sisters, I know that with so many online ministries and online bible studies and online communities, it’s tempting and easy to seek to find belonging there and neglect the obedience of being apart of His local church.
I will always encourage and urge you to join and be apart of what God is coming back for--HIS church. The mentality that we don’t have to belong to a church to grow a relationship with Christ is not biblical. I know we live in an era where autonomy is king, but when we believe that lie we are missing out on incredible treasures that come from being committed to the family of God. Below is a link to an article that gives more biblical insight as to why the local church is needed for the believer.
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/why-join-a-church     
(PLEASE TAKE TIME TO READ)

WITHIN should be a supplement to your growth and not the only source of your growth. And any other online ministry should not be the source of your growth. The plans WITHIN has for online Bible Studies or Gatherings isn’t to take the place of “church.” I encourage you to seek fellowship with people at your church. Seek ways to press in and unite your life more fully with what God is doing through the local body.
This issue is important enough for me to send out this email because I have seen how online ministries are replacing “church,” and how many who follow these online ministries have completely neglected the fellowship of the church -- perhaps because of “church” hurt or being tainted by the kind of church attended in the past. Please don’t let the failures of humans keep you from the purposes of God found in His local church. No church is perfect because we are fallen. Even the best of us are human at best. However, there are churches who are determined to biblically reflect the way the church is supposed to be. Below you will find a link to sound churches if you are looking for a church.

https://www.9marks.org/church-search/

I felt the responsibility to send this and make sure you knew that WITHIN isn’t trying to be a replacement for a biblical local church and a personal community. More importantly, I sent this because I long for every daughter to find belonging in a church. I have seen the difference it makes in our life and our walk with the Lord. It's how God designed for His children to grow and be edified.
I pray that you seek the Lord about finding a good church (if you don’t have one) and I pray for those who do attend a church, that you would press in and allow yourself to be known and to know others.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out!
With great love for each of you,
Yodit

***As mentioned, although this isn't a typical devotional, it will serve as this week's devotional topic and would ask that you look below to meditate on the passages and reflection questions to help you think through this. ****

 
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The weekly devotionals seek to encourage you to dig deeper into Scripture as you take the time to daily read, meditate, and internalize the verses in the devotional, along with the passages provided below to give greater context. Take the time to read them throughout the week (repetition is important) and ask the Holy Spirit to help you grasp what God is showing you about Himself, about you, and how to live in light of these truths. 

Passages to read/memorize/meditate:John 13:35
Acts 20:28
1 Peter 5
1 Thessalonians 5:12-13
1 Timothy 5:17
Hebrews 10:25
Hebrews 13:17
James 5:19-20

 
Questions to reflect on:

1. If you are not part of a local church, what are some honest reasons that you have not joined one?
   
2. How has the article within the letter helped you understand the importance of being a part of the local church?
   
3. If you are a part of a church, how have you made an effort to serve and be grafted into your local church?
   
4. How have you seen your life change through being a part of a local church?
   

"For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and
His commandments are not burdensome..."
(1 John 5:3)
 
Think back to when you were a child and you were told do a chore around the house. Did you do it right away to the best of your ability or did you, like me, wait until the last minute and was just glad that it was over? I don’t know if I can honestly say that as a child, I obeyed only because I loved my parents and it gave me joy to obey. I think, more often than not, I obeyed to simply be compliant and for the obvious reason of not getting disciplined (aka spanked).

Why and how we obey speaks volumes about us. As children of God, we are commanded to obey Him. A life of obedience to His Word and His ways is what identifies us as His children. “The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him…” (1 John 2: 4) However, it can become very easy to obey God simply out of compliance and not love for Him. Compliance isn’t rooted in authentic relationship based on love. It’s more of a distant relationship based on fear. And not the reverential fear of God that Scripture talks about, but a fear that is tainted by the outcome of punishment. A fear that thinks more highly of the approval of man than the glory of God. Compliant obedience is not about the desire to obey as much as it’s the outcome if I don’t obey. The Pharisees in the New Testament "obeyed" God. But we find that their obedience came out of the desire to look righteous before others than to be pleasing to God (Matthew 23). As believers, this pattern is exhausting. It’s not sustainable. It will drive us away from God because it has not allowed us to taste the joy that treasures Christ and His work in our lives and the joy that comes from our obedience to Him.

Obedience that flows from love and delight in God isn’t exhausting. The Psalmist describes the joy and sustenance that obeying God’s word brings all throughout Psalm 119. This kind of obedience isn’t tainted by the fear of outcome. In fact, this obedience knows that we can’t obey God on our own strength. In and of ourselves, we aren’t bent towards obedience; rather, disobedience.  It’s the work of the Holy Spirit in us to desire obedience to God. It’s reliant on the grace that comes only from Him-a sustained grace that is received from knowing Him and wanting to know Him more.

Where has your obedience been coming from lately? Have you found it coming from a compliant place? Are you reading the Word of God out of obligation and legality or can you like the Psalmist say, “Oh how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97).  Are you saying you forgive with your words but keeping unforgiveness in your heart because you don’t trust God to be your vengeance? Has going to church become a Sunday thing to cross off your list? Has serving become a chore?

If we find ourselves in any of those places, the prayer is that God would restore the joy of our salvation and uphold us with a willing spirit (Psalm 51:12). May we be reminded of the love He has shed within our hearts (Romans 5:5) so that we would overflow with obedience to please Him. May we find rest in the truth of His Word that His commandments are not burdensome. May we ask the Lord to lift our eyes a little higher to see Christ and treasure Him. May our obedience be the result of rooted joy in our faith. 
 
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The weekly devotionals seek to encourage you to dig deeper into Scripture as you take the time to daily read, meditate, and internalize the verses in the devotional, along with the passages provided below to give greater context. Take the time to read them throughout the week (repetition is important) and ask the Holy Spirit to help you grasp what God is showing you about Himself, about you, and how to live in light of these truths. 

Passages to read/memorize/meditate:
Psalm 51:12
Psalm 119 (highly encourage you to take the time to read this whole chapter)
Matthew 23
Luke 11:28
John 14:15
Romans 5:5
1 John 2:4
1 John 5:3
2 John 1:6

 
Questions to reflect on:

1. How have you been approaching your obedience to God lately?
2. If you have found that you are being compliant instead of joyful in obeying, where do you feel the change began?
3. How have you seen the difference in your life when you are being compliant in obedience VS. joyful in obedience?

​“ My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue,
but in deed and in truth."
(1 John 3:18)
 
Every once in a while, there is something I read that deeply impacts me. And I feel obligated to share it with everyone I know. May this short but powerful devotional encourage you to ask the right questions and respond in the right way:
 
1 John 3:16-18 By this we know love of God, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

In Israel we have an interesting geographical phenomenon – there are two landlocked seas. One is alive and one is dead. The sea full of life is the Kinneret, better known as the Sea of Galilee. The dead sea is.......you guessed it, the Dead Sea. Now the Kinneret is constantly emptying as it flows through the Jordan River valley.... into the Dead Sea. But the Dead Sea does not empty its water at all. Instead, the Dead Sea is continually shrinking, because the intense heat at this lowest place on Earth actually evaporates more water than is flowing in. Do you see a parable here?

The Sea that is alive is the one that gives. The more of yourself, of your life, of your love, that you pour out, the more alive, filled up, and refreshed you will become. The Lord Yeshua (Jesus) exemplified this to the greatest extent ever, by giving all He was and all He had, even to those who hated Him and were His bitter enemies. And the love that He gave was returned to Him by His Father in the resurrection, and by all the multitude of His redeemed people throughout all ages and into eternity. Could it possibly be any different for those of us who live lives of giving and loving? No. We will continue to be filled by the Lord's infinite abundance no matter how much we pour ourselves out. Of course, if we hold back, keeping all we have to ourselves, we will begin to evaporate and die...

Give and you will live. Love, and you will be filled with God’s love. Hold back, and even that which you have will vanish away. A friend of mine shares this limerick:

There once was a sea that was dead
It was, 'cause it only got fed
And never gave up
Not one single cup
Now that's something to keep in your head 

Women of God, let's be givers. Let's be lovers. Empty ourselves into His Kingdom, into His work, and be constantly refilled with His love, power and peace. With so much work to be done, I'm choosing the Sea of Life!
 
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The weekly devotionals seek to encourage you to dig deeper into Scripture as you take the time to daily read, meditate, and internalize the verses in the devotional, along with the passages provided below to give greater context. Take the time to read them throughout the week (repetition is important) and ask the Holy Spirit to help you grasp what God is showing you about Himself, about you, and how to live in light of these truths. 

Passages to read/memorize/meditate:
Psalm 104:28
Matthew 25:35-46
Luke 6:38
Luke 17:33
Acts 3:6
2 Corinthians 9:7

 
Questions to reflect on:

1. What do you have in your hands that you are we withholding?
2. Is there fear in you heart that if you give of yourself too much, people will take advantage?
3. Where does that fear come from?
4. Do you trust that God can provide everything you need in your life?
5. What has this devotional shown you about God? About yourself?

“ Fight the good fight of faith..”
(1 Timothy 6:12)
 
 As we walk this faith out, we know that it is a daily battle with thoughts and actions that counter the desire to please God. The pull of this world is strong. The waves of its ways and manners are too easy to ride if we aren’t intentionally fighting to swim against it.

Here is what is incredible about God’s Word: it never leaves us feeling hopeless. And the Word of God isn’t filled with hope without being filled with the reason for why we must hope. We are reminded in His Word that this internal struggle to cling to Jesus while having the war of sin rage within us isn’t anything new under the sun.

Paul comforts us with these affirming words in Romans 7: 15-23:
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.”
 
Paul understood that the struggle is all too real. How encouraging is that? He knew that as we desire to do good and pleasing things for the Lord, evil is always lurking. The enemy seeks to keep us from the freedom found in Christ as slaves to righteousness. Rather, he deceives us with the idea that there is more freedom found in appeasing the flesh, which makes us slaves to sin.

The beautiful truth is that IN Christ, the power of sin is defeated once and for all because of what Christ has done on the cross (Romans 6:6-7) Our sinful nature may still live in us but our sinful nature is no longer the identity we bear. We are made new in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:7). We are born-again. We are redeemed. We are children of God. We are justified, not having to be re-justified.

This fight is evidence of being born again because the Holy Spirit in us is helping us hate our sin more. Before we knew God, our sin didn’t convict us like it does now. We were blind to the ways our sin grieved God and we didn’t grieve over our own sin. Now, thankfully, we are being gently and patiently led to choose righteousness more and more, day by day. Praise be to God!

Like Paul, we can say with deep conviction that we don’t want to be overcome by sin and we don’t have to be. Why? Because of these words in Romans 7:24:
Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Christ has rescued us from the bondage of sin and graces us to fight it daily. The fight that we are in is so real that it can’t be fought by our own strength. This fight is a reminder by the Holy Spirit to be aware that our fallen nature is not something to be taken lightly. We can’t coast as Christians. In fact, the moment our eyes are open to Christ, the fight within increases. The enemy is enraged and his tactics to kill, steal and destroy the hope of Christ in us fires up.

However, we don’t have to be afraid of the fight or discouraged by the fight. But we can’t be afraid to fight.  We have been given the weapons (Ephesians 6). Let’s arm ourselves with the truth of His Word. As the Psalmist said “I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I may not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:11). Let’s not neglect the protection of being in community so that we aren’t fighting alone. The enemy loves lone Christians. Let’s not give him what he wants. Community is not just a choice as a Christian. It is mandatory. Finally, let’s not deny the power of our environments. We can’t expect to overcome the fight when we are not intentional about cultivating the desire to please God. We can’t afford to nurture our sinful nature. Our environments matter (1 Corinthians 15:33).

Women of God, let’s encourage one another to fight this good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12), knowing that we don’t fight alone and we don’t fight in vain. Take courage! Let this fight be an encouraging reminder that you are IN Him and He is IN you.
 
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The weekly devotionals seek to encourage you to dig deeper into Scripture as you take the time to daily read, meditate, and internalize the verses in the devotional, along with the passages provided below to give greater context. Take the time to read them throughout the week (repetition is important) and ask the Holy Spirit to help you grasp what God is showing you about Himself, about you, and how to live in light of these truths. 

Passages to read/memorize/meditate:
Psalm 119: 11
John 10:10
Romans 6-7
1 Corinthians 15:33
2 Corinthians 5:7
Ephesians 6
1 Timothy 6:12

 
Questions to reflect on:

1. What kind of fight do you find yourself in as a Believer?
2. How do you fight this good fight of faith?
3. How has this devotional encouraged you to look at your fight?
4. What are the ways you can use the weapons God provides for you to fight well?