Dancing on My Father's Feet: A Bible Study Devotional for Women

By Carol Berubee

The Christian life is one of joy and peace through the Holy Spirit, but so few believers come to experience such a life. This Bible study devotional is designed to aid you in your understanding of who God is and how that knowledge can transform your life. God has given you all that you need to glorify Him and experience the spiritual blessings He has promised. Each week, you will read a devotional and several Scripture verses that will help you to grow in Christ through His word. Unlike most devotionals, this book provides in-depth Bible study in small bites; it is a devotional that goes deeper into the word of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098308261

Book preview

Dancing on My Father’s Feet: A Bible Study Devotional for Women

Copyright 2020 by Carol Berubee

Print ISBN: 978-1-09830-825-4

eBook ISBN: 978-1-09830-826-1

Contents

Note from the Author

Introduction

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Note from the Author

This devotional had a working title of Woman, Wash Your Hands…of All Those Self-Help Books. You may recognize this as an allusion to a very popular book, Girl, Wash Your Face. The intent of this devotional is not so much to address, point by point, what was said in Rachel Hollis’ book, but to provide a response to the general message of that book and others like it.

This book is designed to aid Christian women in their walk with God. As such, each page is directed in a personal way toward my sisters in Christ. For the most part, the messages apply only to those who have been reconciled to God through faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son.

Use this devotional on a weekly basis, or just devour it daily for the next fifty days. It’s designed to be studied weekly because each page is crammed with Scriptures, but you may want to read it through once and then go back over it more slowly. It is suggested that you keep a notebook or journal in which to write notes corresponding to each devotional. No matter which way you use this devotional, I pray that the Lord will use it to edify, convict, and – ultimately – guide you through the Scriptures to a new way of living. But don’t rely on this devotional alone. This book is designed to get you thinking Biblically, but it shouldn’t replace your regular Bible reading.

This Bible study devotional begins at the beginning: God’s creation. It is important to have firmly in mind that Yahweh is God and we are mere creatures made in the image of the fallen Adam. But then, we will embrace the glorious truth that the believer is created anew in Christ. From there, we can begin to explore how we can walk in freedom from sin as new creations in Christ.

You’ll notice that the Scripture references are included only at the end of each message rather than embedded throughout. I’ve chosen to do this so that you will be able to think of each message as a letter from me to you, a personal note of encouragement or exhortation from a friend who cares about you. You may want to read the included Scriptures first, however, and then read the devotional to discover how those Scriptures form a cohesive message.

Brace yourself, though. At several points in this book, you may be greatly challenged. You may hate what it says. It’s going to be like surgery without anesthesia, like delivering twins without an epidural injection, but the reward will be great if you embrace the Scriptures and allow your mind to be conformed to His truth.

Introduction

Ladies, God tells us that everyone ever born was born in sin (except for the Lord Jesus Christ, of course). We must not be surprised that our lives were sinful before He saved us. Or, are you thinking that you were a pretty good person? Maybe you’re familiar with something similar to the following illustration.

There’s a chasm so wide, you can’t even see the other side. You were on one side and God was on the other. You thought you would throw balls of yarn across in an attempt to reach Him, but no matter how far you threw them, they failed to reach the other side. You may have been able to throw that yarn further than your friends could. Maybe their yarn plummeted a few feet short of yours, but it’s no matter because none of you could come anywhere near the other side.

When you compared yourself to others, maybe you looked pretty swell, but from God’s perspective, you and your friends were the same. None of you would make His softball team. Not even close. So, God provided the way for you and your friends to reach Him. He built a bridge across the chasm in the person of His Son so that you could simply walk across and not exhaust yourself in futile attempts to connect with Him.

That illustration is helpful to a point, but what if it’s not quite accurate? Does it matter?

God is holy. And we weren’t. We were born in sin. When Adam sinned, he lost the glory of God which he had had from the moment God made him. Adam went on to sire children in his own image. No matter what we did, we were falling short of the glory of God because we only had Adam’s nature, not God’s. You already had one strike against you when you were born.

Not only that, but when Adam sinned, we all sinned in him. God counted all of us as one with Adam as the head of the family. And the entire family would die because sin merits death. That’s strike two against you right out of the gate.

And because you were dead in sin, spiritually speaking, all of the efforts you were making to reach God weren’t going to work because you were spiritually disconnected from the one true God. You were at enmity with God. You weren’t seeking the one true God but a god of your own making, one who would put a bandage on your wounds and make you feel better; or, one who validated you and let you live as you pleased; or, one who was a hard taskmaster, goading you to work to please Him. You were in rebellion, and all your good works were as dung because none of them was done in His power. All your works counted as sin. That’s strike three.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, their new, fallen nature immediately reacted. They decided to make aprons of fig leaves to cover their shame, but God, in His grace, rejected their self-efforts and, instead, took the life of an innocent animal to make coverings for them. Here was the introduction of blood as the atoning sacrifice and the only way to God.

Like Adam and Eve after they sinned, you were dead in sin, and you were utterly abhorrent to God. Sin is grotesque in God’s sight. His holiness and your sin could never connect. This is really bad news, but that’s what makes the Good News so good. What we couldn’t do, God did because of His love. What you would think would be impossible, God fixed because of His grace. We could not reconcile ourselves to God, but God has reconciled us to Himself by sending His Son as our Substitute to take upon Himself the wrath of God against sin.

Let’s go back to the illustration. You and your friends were at the chasm trying as mightily as you could to reach God but you weren’t getting anywhere. Your estimation of how far you threw your ball of yarn is just an illusion. From God’s perspective, it really didn’t go anywhere. The reality is, whatever means you were using to try to connect with God were completely inept and -- just as important -- were not even directed at the one true God. You were only fooling yourself.

In reality, God did lay a bridge across the chasm, the Lord Jesus Christ, but you didn’t walk across in your own power. Instead, the Holy Spirit came across the bridge, picked you