Bible study - Jeannie Waters, Writer & Speaker

Rise, Shine, and Share the Blessings

February 14, 2023Jeannie Waters26 Comments

Liz Curtis Higgs grabbed my attention with joyful greetings when she opened her weekly “Rise and Shine Mondays LIVE with Liz” online presentations. “Lively” is a more apt description.

“Good morning, Lord!” she often prays in a cheery voice when she teaches online. Then she praises Him and requests His help and blessings for listeners.

Liz sprinkles funny stories into her teaching, often laughing at herself. She shares the names she assigned to her wigs during chemotherapy and giggles about the large, colorful earrings she prefers.

Although I learn from Liz’s deep study of Scripture and obvious reverence for the Lord, I also enjoy her contagious passion for God’s Word and the way she shares joy and other blessings. An international speaker and author of over thirty books, Liz seeks to obey God and share His truths with her unique blend of teaching and laughter.

I view Liz as a woman who stands on tiptoe each morning with a big smile, ready to capture the blessings God designed for that day. She embraces them for her life and generously shares them with others—blessings like His love, mercy, kindness, laughter, forgiveness, generosity, guidance in trials, and more. She points not to herself but back to the Giver of all good gifts, our heavenly Father (James 1:7).

Although I admire this godly woman, years ago, I learned the hard way not to pattern my life after another person—even a godly woman like Liz Curtis Higgs. God made each of us as unique individuals created for His plans, and He teaches us to imitate Him, not other people.

God made each of us as unique individuals created for His plans, and He teaches us to imitate Him, not other people. Share on X

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Ephesians 5:1-2 ESV

We can, however, notice Christlike characteristics in others and pray for God to continue His work in us. In Philippians 1:6, He promises He will. I admire Liz’s diligent Bible study and her exuberance for sharing His truths and His goodness with others.

As we follow Christ, we can start our days with cheer and prayer as Liz started her presentations. We can take time to study the Bible, notice God’s blessings, embrace them into our lives as we thank Him, and then ask Him to help us share His gifts with those we meet each day.

As we follow Christ, we can start our days with cheer and prayer. Share on X

Your turn

What suggestions do you have for beginning each morning on tiptoe with a big smile, ready to capture the blessings God designed for the day? How have others helped you focus on a truth from God’s Word or shared His blessings with you?

What Blocks Your View of God?

June 30, 2021Jeannie Waters22 Comments

Weather permitting, my best mornings begin like this:

My coffee and I walk out to the deck. I turn on the stone fountain and let caffeine percolate in my brain. I place my Bible, journal, and coffee mug on the table, then raise the umbrella.

Seated in my outdoor sanctuary, I pray and study God’s Word—unless distracting thoughts and unwise choices obstruct my view.

Did you notice I said, “my best mornings?” True confession: They don’t all start that way. Even when the weather and my decisions allow deck time, stray thoughts surface. What time is that appointment? What should I cook for dinner? The shrubbery needs trimming.

To minimize distractions, I pull my chair closer to the table, start a conversation with God, and read Scripture. Time spent with my heavenly Father opens my spiritual eyes to see Him at work and my ears to hear His instruction throughout each day.

When I look upward from my Bible and journal, I see only the brown and white floral pattern of the umbrella’s lining and a sliver of the sky. The umbrella blocks further view, so I either close it, or walk in the yard for a few minutes to enjoy a panoramic view of God’s creation.

This morning, after removing the visual hindrance, I gazed at a vibrant blue sky filled with jumbo-sized cotton ball clouds. If I’d remained hidden in the umbrella’s shadow, I would have missed signs of God’s glory and majesty.

Our thought patterns can obscure our view of God like the deck umbrella limits my view of the sky. The enemy of our souls is a master deceiver. He devises a mental umbrella and weaves onto its lining a design of distractions, fear, worry, and doubt that can block our view of God’s peace, love, and hope.

My morning view of God can be hindered by late bedtimes, cell phone dings, and misplaced priorities.

People who find an evening time with God more suitable for their lives may discover fatigue, frustration, or the lure of technology sways them to postpone or even miss evening visits with God.

Whatever our situation or stage in life, our thoughts and choices can thwart the full biblical view of God we need to learn more about His character, to enjoy fellowship with Him, and to discern how He guides our steps.

Whatever our situation or stage in life, our thoughts and choices can thwart the full biblical view of God we need to learn more about His character, to enjoy fellowship with Him, and to discern how He guides our steps. Share on X

Three Ways to Close the Umbrellas that Block Our View of God

1.Trust God and His Word, not our own thoughts.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV

Our preconceived interpretation of truth can skew our comprehension of actual truth. (Truth is what God says about an issue.)

As a teenage driver, I once transported my friends for a downtown shopping spree. I ignored the speed limit sign on a bridge that read “15 mph” because I believed my speed of 45 mph speed was safe. Imagine my surprise when all four tires left the pavement after hitting a hump in the pavement. Five girls screamed as the Chevy station wagon became airborne and thudded down on the opposite side of the bridge.

My decision to trust my own opinion instead of the speed limit sign could have ended in disaster. When we cling to our own stubborn beliefs about the Bible instead of adopting a teachable spirit, we can restrict God’s work in our hearts and land in disobedience.

God illuminates the signs we need to heed on the road ahead. Our responsibility is to close the umbrella of stubborn pride and insistence on our own beliefs and accept God’s teaching.

Some people embrace the verses that prove God is love but ignore the passages that teach He is also a just judge. Some teach that “good people” will go to heaven, while God’s Word teaches us Jesus is the only way to eternal salvation.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6 ESV

2. Set a high priority on prayer and Bible study by choosing a consistent daily time.

Close the umbrella of procrastination and beliefs that other activities are more important than spending time with God. Erase the thought that someday you’ll study the Bible when you aren’t so busy. As a friend once said, “There’s no day of the week called Someday.”

Determine to go to bed earlier, forego a television show, or limit social media engagement to allow time for prayer and study. You might track the way you spend time for a week to reveal pockets of times you hadn’t considered.

Listen to podcasts or praise music while you complete other tasks, and set aside another daily time to read the Bible.

If we devote ourselves to reading and studying the Bible, we’ll be rewarded with marvelous Truths few ever witness because most aren’t willing to gaze long and deep into the Scriptures.
Jean Wilund, “It Takes a Whole Bible to Make a Whole Christian” post and video, March 10, 2021, www.jeanwilund.com

For Jean’s complete post and video: https://jeanwilund.com/it-takes-the-whole-bible-to-make-a-whole-christian/

3. Pray for guidance as you study God’s Word daily.

Close the umbrella of self-dependence when studying God’s Word. The Holy Spirit teaches us and applies scriptural truths to our hearts (John 15:26, 1 John 2:27).

Pray with the psalmist:

Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.
Psalm 119:18 ESV

The psalmist doesn’t depend on his own ability to see with spiritual eyes. Rather, he asks God to open his eyes. Only the Holy Spirit can provide an accurate lens for seeing truth.

Our heavenly Father will show us wondrous things from His Word we may not have considered before. Instead of rereading the same familiar passages and books, why not read from different sections or study books of the Bible you haven’t read before.

Lori Hatcher’s devotional, Refresh Your Faith: Uncommon Devotions from Every Book of the Bible, offers memorable stories and wise perspectives on passages you may not have considered before. Here’s the link:

Refresh Your Faith: Uncommon Devotions from Every Book of the Bible

Let’s ask ourselves this question:

Which of your thoughts or choices could hinder your view of God?

Please share what you do to see God clearly.

Storing Treasure: Thoughts from a Jewelry Box and Psalm 119

January 26, 2021Jeannie Waters32 Comments

Once my daughter and nieces claimed their favorites of my mother’s rings, the dark green satin-and-velvet-lined jewelry boxes that sat on Mama’s dresser for decades held only valued memories and a collection of inexpensive pieces.

When I study the contents of the jewelry boxes, I recall bits of Mama’s well-lived life and evidence of the values she held dear. You can tell a lot about a person by the things they keep.

Among bracelets, necklaces, and earbobs (as she called them), I found my brother’s Scout medals and my 4-H pin, as well as a lapel pin I made in second grade from a wooden ice cream spoon and sequins.

Mama saved pins from her Pilot Club days and from the PTA offices she held. Sunday school attendance badges and a pin that reads “Jesus in the Reason for the Season” rest in the bottom section.

Faith, family, and community service filled her heart and her calendar.

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The piece of her jewelry I appreciate the most reminds me that Mama’s heart was also filled with truths from God’s Word which she’d held dear since her early teen days. The tiny gold cross on a dainty chain that my dad gave to her on their wedding day bears the engraving “EJC to SMC 5-13-51.”

As her jewelry box indicates and my memory affirms, my mother valued biblical truth more than expensive jewels. She would agree with the psalmist who said to God,

The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.
Psalms 119:72

God’s Word is a precious gift to His children. Let’s consider the value we place on Bible study as we read what the psalmist believed.

Thoughts from Psalm 119

Consider this familiar one:

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path .
Psalm 119:105

As we search for answers in troubled times, a fresh look at this verse reminds us that God uses His truths to help us navigate uncharted waters when they swirl around us.

Have you wondered lately how to respond, what to say, or whom to trust? When we search for answers, God often provides them as we study His Word. When we search for answers, God often provides them as we study His Word. Share on X

Let’s picture the verse another way: Imagine walking in an unfamiliar backyard void of light except for the flashlight you hold.

As you proceed onto each steppingstone, the flashlight shines on your feet to keep you steady. When you move forward, the beam illuminates the next steppingstone to prevent you from wandering off into the darkness.

We need not fear the next step even in darkness.

The more we study, the more light our heavenly Father sheds on our path as He continues to transform us to be more like Jesus.

We can assess the value we place on Scripture as we read the psalmist’s views in Psalm 119:

Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.
Verse 97

You are my portion, Lord; I have promised to obey your words.
Verse 57

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Verse 11

As we engage in Bible study this week, let’s ask God to use His Word mightily in our hearts, to endear it to us, and to guide us to fall in love more deeply with the One who led the psalmist to write these prayers:

Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.
Verse 18

Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart.
Verse 34

As we store God’s words in our hearts, He transforms them into sparkling jewels that change our lives.

Three-Part “Storing Treasures” Series

This post is part one of a three-part series about treasuring God’s Word. In the next two posts we’ll consider how specific portions of Scripture meet our needs, then we’ll share ideas for memorizing Scripture.

Please tell us in the comment section how God’s Word has ministered to your heart lately.

Verses are taken from the NIV.

Autumn Rain Blessings

October 30, 2019Jeannie Waters20 Comments

When landscape workers tilled the wrong section of our son’s sloped yard, he prepared to create a new lawn. The salesperson at the feed and seed store recommended immediate planting due to rain in the forecast.

My husband and son sowed ryegrass seed onto the upturned soil and topped it with wheat straw. Before they finished, a soft rain began to fall.

Although sprinklers provided water for the newly planted seeds on several sunny days that followed, no evidence of growth appeared. In less than a week, however, bright green shoots popped up through the wheat straw.

Gentle rain and additional water stimulated the growth of tiny roots that penetrated the soil, anchored the seedlings, and absorbed nutrients like tiny straws.

As another autumn rain fell today, I placed thirsty unplanted pansies on the deck.

I thought about my morning Bible study as I positioned the plants and considered how God’s Word gradually seeps into our hearts and promotes spiritual growth just as rain nourishes tender plants. Both processes take time and intentional watering.

The beautiful passage below speaks of rain and God’s intention. I hope these verses encourage us to study His Word even more and treasure it in our hearts.

¹⁰For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:10-11 ESV

Did you play in warm rain showers when you were young? I remember tilting my head back with glee and opening my mouth to taste the fresh rainwater.

May we be as eager as puddle-splashing children to let our heavenly Father’s words saturate our hearts. God uses Scripture to change and mature us—one verse at a time, one passage at a time—gradually nourishing our soul like a gentle rain.

I hope the next autumn shower reminds us to fill our hearts and minds with raindrops from God’s Word.

How do you study the Bible? Which practices help you memorize verses? How has God used His Word to grow you spiritually? Please leave a response below to encourage all of us.

God Is Speaking Encouragement. Are You Listening?

February 25, 2019Jeannie Waters15 Comments

When our daughter was three years old, she would take my chin in her little dimpled hand and turn my face toward hers before she made a request. She wanted to ensure she had my undivided attention when she asked for cookies or described something she saw outside.

Do you have that same desire in conversation? How do you feel when you’re talking, and the other person is obviously distracted? I’m sure you’ll agree that focusing on the speaker enhances comprehension.

What about listening to God? We don’t have to get His attention, but does He have ours—our undivided attention? He doesn’t force us to focus on Him, but He longs to teach us and encourage us.

Here are some thoughts about preparing to listen to God as we read the Bible, pray, and walk daily with Him.

Preparing to Listen to God

Position yourself to listen.

Whether you’re a night owl or an early bird, isn’t it exciting to set aside a quiet time in a comfortable place to read Bible passages and pray? When Spring arrives, I’ll move from the bedroom chair to the deck for my daily appointment with God. What’s your favorite place to sit with Him?

Once we’re physically positioned, tuning in to His voice prepares us to listen attentively. Checking our level of obedience and exchanging our will for God’s, paves the way for hearing from Him. My quiet times are more productive when I remember to set my heart to listen.

After a quiet time with the Lord—as we take care of daily responsibilities—we can keep our eyes and ears tuned to His messages.

Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!

Luke 11:28

Avoid distractions.

Silence your phone and grab a cup of coffee or a glass of water as you head to your selected spot. Keep a notepad handy to jot down distracting thoughts. I call my notepad the “Rabbit Trail Pad” because my mind often hops to other thoughts or responsibilities when I sit still to hear from God. Anybody else? Just as I silence my phone to avoid distractions, I need to silence the voice of “me” and train my ears to listen.

Focus on God as you seek Him.

When we are in the presence of an expert on area where we have interest, we rivet our attention on the speaker, straining to catch each detail. I recently learned in a deeper way a truth about listening closely to God.

I desperately needed the Lord’s wisdom about a decision. Multiple times each day, I wondered what His direction would be as I prayed. The potential answer was uppermost in my mind. One morning, I read a statement written by Priscilla Shirer that changed my perspective.

Stop frantically searching for God’s will; start frantically searching for God Himself. ¹

I needed my Father more than I needed an answer, but I had slipped into a bad habit of concentrating more on the response, on what I needed to learn, than on Him. I continued to ask for wisdom, but I fixed my attention on the Shepherd who would guide me.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

James 4:8a

Respond to what you hear.

As a teacher, I know that applying what we learn helps us remember. How can we apply the truths God shows us? Here are some ideas:

When you are amazed by God’s goodness or love, sing a hymn or praise song to Him.
When you marvel at His involvement with people in the Bible or answered prayer, tell Him.
Record truths you learn in a journal to log your spiritual growth and to remind you of His messages.
Write a verse you want to memorize on a card and post it on a mirror or at your desk.

Preparing to listen to God sharpens our spiritual sense of hearing. We can converse with Him at any moment, but taking time to listen attentively equips us to learn more about Him and His Word.

Sometimes I imagine God cupping my chin in His hand, tilting my face up to His, and saying,

Listen to Me, my daughter. I have important truths to tell you and I want to teach you more about Me. In our conversations, I long to give you peace and comfort, and because I am a good Father, I will also correct you when you disobey. Stop what you’re doing for a while and turn the eyes of your heart to Me. Come talk to me and listen to what I say.

Not only will listening for God’s voice bless our lives, but we can offer the encouragement of Christ to others as we learn more about Him. Please share the ways you prepare to listen to God.

What a good listener! 😉

¹Shirer, Priscilla, Discerning the Voice of God: How to Recognize When God Speaks (Nashville: Lifeway Press, 2017), 62.

Bible verses are from the English Standard Version.