Becoming a Woman of Grace: A Bible Study

By Cynthia Heald

Becoming a Woman of Grace takes you on a transforming journey to the boundless reasches of God's grace. In this study guide, Cynthia Heald explores the many ways God's grace has already enriched your life and how you can know His grace more fully and then extend it to others.

Fulled with the elements that have endeared Cynthia Heald's study guides to millions-key Scripture passages for study and reflection, provocative questions for discussion and response, quotations from classic Christian writers, and personal reflections from Cynthia's life-Becoming a Woman of Grace is an invigorating study sure to encourage, challenge, and change you.

With gently wisdom, thorough commentary, and unique personal insight, Cynthia Heald presents the gift of grace in a way that will enrich the lives of women in Becoming a Woman of Grace.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: May 7, 1998
• ISBN: 9781418568719

Book preview

BECOMING

A WOMEN OF

GRACE

CYNTHIA HEALD

BECOMING

A WOMEN OF

GRACE

Copyright © 1998 by Cynthia Heald

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.

Scripture quotations noted The Message are from The Message: The New Testament in Contemporary English. Copyright © 1993 by Eugene H. Peterson.

Scripture quotations noted NASB are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®. Copyright © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations noted NIV are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

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

Scripture quotations noted PHILLIPS are from J. B. Phillips: THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN ENGLISH. Revised Edition. Copyright © J. B. Phillips 1958, 1960, 1972. Used by permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.

The material credited to Jerry Bridges in Chapters 4, 7, and 8 is reprinted from Transforming Grace, copyright © 1991by Jerry Bridges. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. For copies call [phone]. The material credited to Jerry Bridges in Chapter 11 is reprinted from The Practice of Godliness, copyright © 1983 by Jerry Bridges. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. For copies call 800-366-7788.

ISBN 0-7852-7240-2

Printed in the United States of America

01 02 03 04 05 — 19 18 17 16 15

CONTENTS

How to Use This Guide

Preface

The Father and the Child

1. God Is Gracious

2. Covenants of a Gracious God

3. The Law and the New Covenant

4. God’s Gracious Salvation

5. Set Free by Grace

6. Liberty and Legalism

7. The Law of Love

8. Freedom to Serve

9. Growing in Grace

10. The Sufficiency of Grace

11. Becoming a Gracious Woman

The Father and the Child

Notes

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE

This Bible study has been created to help you search the Scriptures and draw closer to God as you seek to understand, experience, and reflect His grace. All you need is a Bible, a writing tool, and an expectant heart. You may find it helpful, however, to have access to a supplemental resource such as a general commentary, Bible handbook, or a study Bible with reference notations.

Becoming a Woman of Grace is appropriate for individual as well as group use, and for women of any age and season of life. Before you begin each chapter, pray for attentiveness to how God is speaking to you through His Word and for sensitivity to His prompting. At the conclusion of each chapter, you will have opportunity to write out a prayer as a way of verbalizing your response to the Lord and drawing closer to Him. Choosing to memorize the suggested Scripture passages will help you abide in Christ day by day as His truth dwells deep within your mind and heart.

The Bible has much to say about the importance of learning from and encouraging one another in the community of believers. If you are using this study with a small group, the questions and prayers will give you excellent opportunities for talking and praying together about appropriating God’s grace.

The quotations from Christian writers have been selected to help you understand the biblical content of each chapter and to enhance your personal response to God’s Word. Consider using the Notes section in the back of this book as a resource list for further devotional reading and study.

As you come to the Father and Child dialogues that open and close this study of grace, read them prayerfully as a means of drawing closer to the heart of God.

PREFACE

Amazing grace—how sweet the sound! Grace is a lovely word and a prized attribute, manifesting itself in steadfast kindness and benevolence. To be known as a gracious person is a high compliment.

It was last year that I felt led to write a Bible study on grace. I actually had another topic in mind, but the Lord seemed to say quite clearly, Cynthia, it is time that you learned about grace. So began my immersion into the vast ocean of God’s unmerited favor. It often seemed that I was treading these gracious waters looking for the shore—for grace itself is infinitely deep.

This study has probably been the hardest to write of any I have embarked upon. I have read more commentators, deleted more sentences, and

Reviews for Becoming a Woman of Grace

[mypennameonly · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this book via an Amazon KINDLE Unlimited download.Growing up almost every woman might remember having their mother read them the poem “Wednesday’s Child” where every child had a certain quality:Monday’s child is fair of face Tuesday’s child is full of grace Wednesday’s child is full of woe Thursday’s child has far to go Friday’s child is loving & giving Saturday’s child works hard for a livingA child born on the Sabbath day is a perfect child in every way However, in this devotional book, author Cynthia Heald wants to show ALL women to realize that they’re already full of grace and not just Tuesday’s child. Ms. Heald wants to show all of her Christian “sisters” how they can become one by taking each one who reads this book on a meaningful, miraculous, spiritualistic journey in order to discover how real the Lord’s grace is for them, even more so than they’ve ever known previously. For we must remember NUMBERS 6:25 [ESV]“The LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.”Through the motivational pages of this study book, Ms. Heald takes her “sisters” on an awe-revealing expedition which will show them the Lord’s never-ending graces, and how they’re enhancing their lives each day without even their knowledge; as well how they can now spread His graces unto others each day of their lives.For wanting to share the Lord’s graces with other in the gentle manner she has, as a reviewer of Christian I’m grateful to give Ms. Heald the 5 STARS she’s received from me.