Sisters

                A little over a year and a half ago me and a few other ladies started meeting each week in the upper loft of my home. We all had a desire to study God’s Word, and to fellowship with other women who had the same desire. We started in the book of John. Chapter by chapter, verse by verse we made our way through the Word of God together. God used that time of fellowship and study to grow us together, to knit us together in love and sisterhood. There was no judging, no expectations placed upon one another, and no cliques to deal with- just women sitting beside one another sharing the thoughts of our hearts through God’s word.

There is a bond between sisters that cannot be described. I think for men it is hard to understand the need that us women have for fellowship, and relationship. But we need one another. Women need other women in their lives. Women need sisters, friends that we can confide in, that can understand our emotions, our changing bodies, and yes, even our changing hormones. Men have a hard time understanding emotions, because they are not emotionally geared thinkers. Not many men think with their emotions as us women do. That is why we need a sister in the Lord who will walk beside us when we are crying for no apparent reason other than we need to “get it out”. We need a sister who will tell us what we need to hear, not what we want to hear. Only a true sister in the Lord will tell you that what you are wearing makes you look fat. (Not many men are that brave!)  In the long run, we need one another- we need sisters.

This truth has become more and more apparent to me the longer I walk with the Lord. When the Lord opened the door for this group of ladies to meet each week, I would have never imagined that He would do such a miraculous work through it all. After almost a year and a half we are entering our third book of the Bible, and we have grown to two studies a week. It all started because a few of us needed a sister to walk beside her. We have grown now, God has multiplied our group and all I can do is bow in humble submission to the work that He is doing in the lives of each woman that He brings. It is only through His grace that we are together and it is only through His grace that we will remain together.

                Yesterday, our pastor asked us a question that has been pricking my heart ever since, and is the purpose that I am writing this to you today. The question was, “what breaks our heart?” He asked this because he wants us to realize our calling, our purpose on this earth. When he asked that question I thought of our little study, which is not so little anymore. I thought of all the women who came to the first chapter in John and how they have grown and become such dear women to me ever since. Some have stayed and some have left, but the ones that stayed have become more to me than just study partners. They became my sisters. They have walked beside me, they have cried with me, prayed for me, and carried me when I needed carried. They have become more than just women I see every week, they have become my friends, my sisters, my co-laborers in the Lord. They have given me what I needed when I needed it, not what I wanted when I wanted it.

           What breaks my heart? My heart breaks when I see women outside of fellowship because they are not welcomed into a group or a clique. It breaks my heart that women do not feel comfortable speaking their hearts because they are afraid of the judging eyes and behind the back conversations. It breaks my heart that more and more women are running to someone else rather than to the One who has the answers. It breaks my heart that we, as women, are not pointing one another back to Jesus. It breaks my heart that women do not know the Bible for themselves and that they are not given the opportunity to dig up the treasures of God’s Word for themselves. It breaks my heart that women are falling away, drifting away from God and none of us seem to care. It breaks my heart that women do not know the bible for themselves, and that those of us who do know the Bible are not willing to take in those who do not.

                Today, it is my prayer that we, as women, daughters, sisters in Christ would see the brokenness of that one sister, and that we would lay aside all of our ownselves and offer them the hand of fellowship. I pray today that we as women would begin to see the great need we have for one another, and the great need we have for His Word. Our women’s group is starting our third book of the Bible. We have found treasures in abundance through His word, through fellowship and through the bond of sisterhood. But it all started because we were obedient to His leading, and His teaching. We shook off the chains of “women’s bible study” and opened our hearts to the leading of His Holy Spirit. Through our willingness to escape the norm, we found a sisterhood that surpasses all our hopes and expectations. We found a place that we can run to, where each one of us is always pointing the other to Jesus. We found a place where sincerity came to live, and where each one of us can be free to be the women He has called us to be.

                I want to encourage you today, (if the Lord is speaking to you today through these words He has given me), to be obedient to His leading and open up your home, open up your heart to those sisters around you who desire to know Jesus and to know His Word. It breaks my heart to see women alone and lost within the family of God, because none of us are alone- we are all in this together. If the Lord is leading you to open up a study with a few sisters, then do it. What are you waiting for? Our group of women is comprised of three, sometimes four different churches and denominations, but none of those facts matter because we are one in Him and He has knitted us together in His Word. For however long He wants us to remain, we will remain. We need one another, sisters, and we need His Word. Without Him we are nothing. May we, as sisters in the Lord, become one in Him through His word, forever and ever, Amen.

                If you are interested in starting a study in your home, and would like some guidance on how to do this- please feel free to contact me using the “contact me” submission form located on this blog.