Total Heart Makeover

By Danielle J Londere

There are oceanic depths to a womans heart, and in the deep are hurts and hopes, disappointments and dilemmas, and failures and fears. Combine these with a womans desire for love, beauty, acceptance, and purpose, and sometimes what you get is a jumbled mess of a heart. Without biblical guidance, one can feel confused and hopeless about how to be the woman God created them to be. Yet the Lord promises to fill and satisfy you, to make you into that beautiful piece of pottery that serves a glorious purpose.

This book presents a Bible study on some of the many issues that women struggle with that directly affect the condition of their hearts. The purpose of the study is to help you recognize the Lords active work in your life and to renew your passion and trust in the Lord. Each chapter ends with either a prayer challenge or a life challenge in which the lessons learned are to be applied. These challenges are meant to encourage you to step out in faith and trust in the Lord. Through these lessons, your heart will be molded into the heart the Lord desires you to have.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781449716806

Danielle J Londere

Danielle Londeree has a passion for learning and teaching. She is currently working toward a master of arts degree in religion with an emphasis on biblical studies. She has been facilitating women’s Bible studies since her involvement with Campus Crusade in college and continues to do so at her home church in Florida. She is a wife, as well as the mother of four young children. She also works part time for her family’s business, Moving Water Industries, where she utilizes her environmental engineering degree and professional engineering license in the state of Florida to design and develop pumps for irrigation and flood control, as well as water treatment systems for developing nations. Her passions include studying God's Word, homeschooling her kids, enjoying nature and sports, playing guitar and piano for the praise band at church, cooking, gardening, and traveling (when the chance arises).

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Copyright © 2011 Danielle J Londeree

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Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-1679-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-1681-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-1680-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011929580

Printed in the United States of America

WestBow Press rev. date: 6/28/2011

This book is dedicated to the Lover of my Soul, Jesus Christ, who has taught me that in all things, He is more than able to be my all in all.

Contents

Introduction

1. We Are His

2. New Creation

3. Sanctify Me

4. Breaking The Cycle

5. My All In All

6. The Secret Of Contentment

7. Treasure The Lord

8. The Thirst Quencher

9. Focus Pocus And Meaningless Pursuits

10. What To Expect When You’re Not Expecting

11. Desire To Be Beautiful

12. Women Of Worth

13. The Garden Of The Heart

14. Conquering Fear

15. Friendships

16. Whole-Hearted Devotion

17. Called To Persevere Into Righteousness

Endnotes

INTRODUCTION

I am consumed by the desire to know the Lord and His most intimate plans for my life! I am sick of settling for less and being scared to step out in faith, in love, and in hope. I do not want to remain in spiritual complacency, but want to be challenged to see beyond this world and focus on the next. I want to be refined by the All Consuming Fire, purified in the Powerful Presence, and loyally devoted to the Lover of My Soul. In essence, all I want is more of Him and less of me! In this study are the lessons I have learned—and am continually learning—from pursuing the heart of my Lord and replacing my heart with a heart like His. I pass these lessons on to you. My prayer for you during this total heart makeover is that you would be so in tune with the Holy Spirit that your life becomes a beautiful hymn of praise. I also pray that the Lord would remove any hindrances in your life that keep you from experiencing Him on a deeper and more intimate level. A.W. Tozer wrote of his own spiritual journey in his book, The Pursuit of God. He ends the first chapter with this prayer: O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

1. WE ARE HIS

The Creator of the Universe wants to know you. Not only does He want to know you, but He wants to make you his daughter (1 John 3:1), a princess in His kingdom! And He chooses to love you in ways that you don’t understand nor may you ever truly realize all that He already has done for you just because He loves you. Yet, He is GOD! Who are we that He should care for us? We are but dust of the earth compared to His glorious riches. I often ask myself the same question King David asks of the Lord in Psalm 8, What is man that you are mindful of him?So why are we here and why does God care so much for us? In Revelation we read that Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created (4:11 KJV). Simply said, we were created for God’s pleasure. I am confident He has some greater plan for which we were created, but regardless, we can confidently say that we were created to bring pleasure to the Lord. This means that the Lord takes pleasure in seeing us grow up, just like parents like to watch their own children grow daily. The Lord takes pleasure in blessing us. He takes pleasure in seeing us enjoy this earth. He celebrates life’s greatest moments with us and rejoices with us. But most importantly, God desires us to come to know Him in an intimate way. This is what He takes His greatest pleasure in. I love how A.W. Tozer expresses biblical truths, so I tend to utilize his words often in this study. He states,

Let us keep always in mind that God also has desire, and His desire is toward the sons of men, and more particularly toward those sons of men who will make the once-for-all decision to exalt Him over all. Such as these are precious to God above all treasures of earth or sea. In them God finds a theater where He can display His exceeding kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. With them God can walk unhindered; toward them He can act like the God He is." 1

God wants to walk with us? He just wants to be himself around us and bestow nothing but kindness on us? Yes, that is exactly what I think God intended. Remember Genesis chapter 3 where the Lord was walking in the garden hoping to hang out with his objects of pleasure, Adam and Eve. Then sin got in the way and has kept us from enjoying the perfection of that relationship with our Creator. We now face the consequences of their actions, but the relationship with the Lord is still available to us through Christ (John 14:6, Rom. 8:1-4). Just look at Leviticus 26:11-12 for example: "I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you