August with Grace Women
Grace U groups and "back to school" encouragement!
You may not be buying backpacks or sharpened pencils and loading up on vitamins and sanitizer…but there’s something intriguing about the “back to school feeling” as summer wanes. It’s the turning of the seasons (do we have those in Florida?!) and perhaps —even if you’re facing just another day of work— there is hope for God to be turning the pages of a new thing.
Summer in Florida may seem to trudge on and on — but “the same God who made the planets spin, tells the tide when it should rise, put the color in my eyes; The same God who makes the seasons change knows the number of the stars, every secret in my heart…”1
There is nothing you bring to this new season that God doesn’t see and know and care about. And He makes a way in the wilderness.
We think of 2 Corinthians 1:3-5:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
Everything you are carrying is known and seen by the God who counts the hairs on your head, and whose goodness and mercy are following after you2.
If you are carrying grief and longing into the new season: God is your comfort.
If you are carrying exhaustion and weariness into the new season: God is your rest.
If you are carrying excitement and anticipation: God is your joy!
Whatever you are bringing into this new season, “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). He doesn’t say “all things work together and feel good” or “all things work out the way we want” — which reminds us that all the things we carry are being worked and woven into a completely other, HOLY good that God is authoring in our lives.
Let’s trust and rest and hope in Him, sisters.
Small groups, anyone?
If you haven’t yet seen the course offerings for Grace University this fall, you can visit the website here! There are multiple women’s-only and co-ed offerings this term.
FYI: did you know our Wednesday evening studies are split into two terms each “semester”? Grace University, our on-campus small group courses, operate similar to the academic school year. Each fall and spring, GBC runs two mini-terms of classes, usually 6-8 weeks long.
As a function of GBC’s discipleship ministries, information about courses (even women’s groups) is shared through GBC’s main information streams: the Facebook page and the website, under Groups Ministry info.
A “back to school” download for you!
Whether you’re heading back to school or not, we thought it would be fun to share our own version of a “supply list” — things we think are a great addition to the spiritual life rhythms you may have in place, things to encourage you. Click the image below to download our Grace Women “Back to School” Supply list.
We’re so glad you’re here and we’re looking forward to being together again for our Fall Women’s Gathering on September 18! Save the date, invite a friend, and you’ll be the first to hear when registration is live for the event.
Lyrics from “Same God” by Hannah Kerr, listen here.
Luke 12:7 and Psalm 23
Going through a new season, in my life, and just finished a book by M. Esther Lovejoy. It is called, "The Sweet Side of Suffering". So good, and talked a lot about Hope, and how it is so easy to lose hope, unless we are receiving it from our Holy Spirit. The Hope of Holy Spirit is alive and well, and it keeps us focused on Him, and helps us through the fire, where God is refining us. The more we suffer, the more God is refining us, so that one day, He will see His face in us. What a Hope we have in Jesus. A new season does not always mean something pleasant, sometimes it is a season of suffering, but we know that God is in the details, and is making us more like Himself, through the process.