With All MyHeart, Mind, Body, Soul, and Strength

I am leading a Surprised by The Healer Study and am in awe of what God is already doing in the lives of these precious women in the four sessions we have met together. The love and support that goes on in our little room each week could only be the result of a Heavenly Father and Beloved Son who love us beyond anything we can comprehend.
 
Our room is a safe environment to say things they have never said out loud to anyone. When you have been broken in the area of sexuality, this love our Creator has seems beyond your grasp. I know. If I add together the years I experienced sexual and emotional abuse in my life, it would add up to 26 of the 55 years God has blessed me with life on this earth. I can say “BLESSED” because of the love He has specifically showered on me as He has brought healing into my life over many years.
 
In Matthew 5:2-12, The Beatitudes, he uses the word “blessed” repeatedly. The word “blessed” in the Greek means “supremely blest, possessing the favor of God, that state of being marked by fullness from God. It indicates the state of the believer in Christ.” (Zodhiates, Complete Word Study Dictionary)  I fully believe those words.
 
Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  In the book, Surprised by the Healer, by Linda Dillow and Dr. Juli Slattery, we are asked to write our own definition of spiritual intimacy based on this verse. The first time I wrote it, my definition was rather generic. As I prepared to lead this study two months later, I went back over what I had written. I prayed, Father God, I want to know what these words REALLY mean.  WOW, did He answer! This is what I wrote:
 
I shall lovingly show affection to MY God who created and saved me with all of my heart—that innermost part of me God knows so well. I will strive to be devoted and totally committed to Him daily. I will strive to see God's blessings, communicate with Him, and seek to understand His Will for my life. I will strive to replace discouragement, grief, and sorrow with joy, comfort, and gladness.
 
...with all of my mind—I will strive to be aware of God's constant presence in my life, to think and feel as He does, to listen for God's influence instead of the world’s, Satan’s, and my fleshly desires.
 
...with all of my body--I will strive to remember my body is a temple for the Holy Spirit and treat it with care and respect while here on earth—but also remember that one day God will transform my lowly body to be like His glorious body in eternity.
 
...with all of my soul--I will strive to grow spiritually into the woman God wants me to be; make His thoughts, my thoughts; make His emotions, my emotions. To strive to become whole, and fully relate to God with no walls, division or separation of any kind.
 
...and with all my strength--to know I have not arrived yet, but to strive to withstand any force or pressure contrary to whatever God wants for me. To live with such intensity that my feelings and beliefs are directly in line with MY Creator, Savior, and Lord until He takes me home to eternity with Him.
 
Will you strive with me?

​Marie Shoup is so blessed that God gave her a second chance to be married. She and Derek have been married now for seven years and are still so thankful to God for bringing them together. She also has a passion for sharing Faithbooking and Bible Journaling with other women.