How To Strengthen Your Relationship With God 8

How I Strengthened My Spiritual Relationship

Several years ago a friend of mine told me about an online bible study named Love God Greatly. Completely free. Yes, you read that right, free.

I said, where do I sign up?!

It transformed my life.

I signed up for it in 2014; however, I was not very dedicated. I saved it on my computer and I would do a couple studies here and there, but I didn’t commit to an everyday study.

In 2015 that changed.

I went through some of the hardest times in my life.

My husband and I almost went through a divorce. We were separated for 6 months out of the year. Not only did we almost go through a divorce, but the things we both were dealing with during this time were also overbearing.

My life was in shambles.

I lost friends over this.

One of my dear friends stopped talking to me. I told her about what we were going through and I haven’t spoken to her but a couple times through text since then. This broke my heart even more.

Another person I considered one of my good friends betrayed me. She would talk about my husband to me and then talk TO my husband about me. It worsened our relationship and caused our problems to escalate.

I felt utterly helpless.

What bothered me the most was the possibility of our son having to live out of a suitcase. Going from weekend to weekend, parent to parent. I didn’t want this. I knew of nothing else to do. We couldn’t keep living the life we were living.

My heart was broken. My life was broken.

I can say that I learned who my best friend was. She stood with me and talked with me every. single. day. She checked on me day in and day out. I believe God put her in my life because what an amazing and loving person she is.

When my husband is comfortable with me talking about what went on, to possibly help others who were in our position, I will post on that. But for now, I am respecting his wishes.

The bible study I was in helped strengthen my relationship with God and got me through this time.

God got me through this time.

I began printing out my study materials and every night I would do my bible study (Monday – Friday).

God spoke to me a lot through this study. I’m serious. I almost could have heard Him saying my name when I read these verses.

It was that real.

I read passages about praying, being strong, obedient, serving others, the list goes on and on.

Every night I would get my bible out, write out my passages and my lesson out.

I would get so into it that I would have front and back of pages written down. I loved it.

Sometimes Jesus was so near I could have touched him!

That closeness, that connection with The Almighty, there is none other. My friend, it is a wonderful and edifying feeling.

This study wasn’t like I was flipping open my Bible and just reading random passages, which there is nothing wrong with that if it works for you. We have our study journal, reading plans, weekly blog posts from the moderators, weekly memory verses, weekly Monday video’s, weekly challenges, & an online community of women just like me participating in the Bible studies.

They give us a topic for that week, for instance right now our study is about “Growing Through Prayer”. Each week we have a specific topic about how we are to grow through prayer with coinciding Bible verses each day.

We SOAP in our lessons. Once I write out my SCRIPTURE I then OBSERVE that Bible Verse. I write down what is unique about it. How things are said, are there words used more than once?, etc. I then APPLY it to my life. What can I take from this scripture to benefit my walk with Christ? Then I PRAY about it. I pray for God to use what I have just learned, in my life.

You’ve just learned how to SOAP.

The studies are 8 weeks long, not long enough it seems, then we break for a few weeks and start another study. You can download the journals for free online, but this last time I purchased one on Amazon for $10 and I’m so glad I did! If you decide to do this, go through the Amazon app on my webpage. Every purchase helps Honeysuckle Footprints!

The Love God Greatly moderators keep past Bible studies on their webpage so if you want, you can go and download them to get started! We should be getting a new Bible study plan in a couple weeks. We’re on week 6 of this one, so soon they’ll announce the new one. Sign up!

I want to add that I am in no way obligated to write this for Love God Greatly. I am not a paid affiliate for Love God Greatly. I have just participated in their studies and I am testifying for how God used this study to work wonders in my life.

I can say without a shadow of doubt that God saw me through this difficult time and He used the online community of Love God Greatly to do it.

I applied what I read, what HE was showing me, to my life. My husband and I got back together and we are happier than we’ve ever been. God also worked miracles in his life. I can’t give his testimony for him, but I am a witness of God’s Grace.

This was GOD’s work.

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