You're Worth It!

Sheila Walsh

Description

In this beautiful book, bestselling author Sheila Walsh shares how you can experience the wonder of feeling and being worthy. With understanding and wisdom, she leads you to God's Word and encourages you to receive His unending grace. When you do, that restlessness you've carried for so long falls away, and a new spirit of fulfillment takes its place. You can let go of the fear, shame, doubt, and sense that your life is less than ordinary. And you can experience the freedom found in God's outrageous love and mercy. In His embrace you are worth it!Go the distance and let Sheila help you uncover the beautiful truths through which you--a daughter of the King--can regain your peace.

Informations

• Publié par: Harvest House Publishers, Inc.
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780736963862
• Langue: English

Extrait

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Verses marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version . Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Verses marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Verses marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
Italicized emphasis in Scripture quotations is added by the author.
Cover by Harvest House Publishers Inc., Eugene, OR
Published in association with the literary agency of The FEDD Agency, Inc., PO Box 341973, Austin, TX 78734.
YOU RE WORTH IT!
Copyright 2015 Sheila Walsh
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
ISBN 978-0-7369-6385-5 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-7369-6386-2 (eBook)
All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author s and publisher s rights is strictly prohibited.
Contents
A Greeting from Sheila
1. Our Secret Self
2. God Knows Our Whole Story
3. The Fear of Rejection
4. Receiving God s Love
5. Forgiven and Forgiving
6. When the Past Nips at Our Heels
7. Unmet Expectations
8. Stormy Weather Ahead
9. An Eternal Perspective
My Prayer for You
About the Author
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows .
M ATTHEW 10:29-31
A Greeting from Sheila
I believe within the heart of every woman is a deep desire to be fully loved and accepted for who she is. To feel worthy . I believe we all desire the security and affirmation of a love and acceptance that cannot fail. If we re married, our husbands can only give us a limited measure of this kind of love. Loving parents, good friends, and beloved sisters in Christ can also do their part but in the final analysis, it s just not enough. There is only one source for this kind of love and acceptance we crave-and that s in God, our creator and heavenly Father.
How do I know this desire for that kind of love is a nearly universal quest for women? I know it in part because I want that kind of love.
I also know it because for the past two decades I ve ministered to more than five million women from every walk of life through our Women of Faith conferences. Six of us women formed a team in 1996 to travel to approximately 20 cities a year where we have listened, sung, worshipped, laughed, cried, and shared our hearts with other women. Some I visited in prison, some are June Cleaver moms, some are successful businesswomen. Some are brand-new Christians, others are seasoned veterans of the faith. All are different in many ways, but all have the same desire to feel valued worthy .
Many of these women pray, attend Bible studies, they may teach Sunday School and yet there s something vital missing from their faith. They will rarely speak to friends about it-they think they re the only ones who feel as they do. But they speak to me about it. They privately acknowledge that their present Christian experience simply isn t enough. There must be more but what?
When you think about it, it s odd that we should feel this way. After all, we women work hard at what we do. If we have a job, we give our all to our bosses. If we re moms, we do our best to raise good kids. If we re wives, we try to meet our husband s needs as we hope he ll meet ours. If we have responsibilities at our church, we plunge right in to fulfill our calling.
Many of us have additional responsibilities unique to us. We may care for an aging parent or we may deal with adult children who have chosen the wrong path. Our grandchildren may need us in a way we had never anticipated. If we re single, it seems like we pull double duty, performing tasks that could be cut in half if only we had a spouse.
With all that goes on in our busy lives, is it any wonder that so many of us are tired, discouraged, and, despite all we do, still feeling unloved, unfulfilled, unworthy? And yet is that the way God wants us to see ourselves?
No, I m certain it s not.
Like many of you, I ve walked the walk. Shame, yes . Confusion, check . Questions, yep . Depression, oh yes ! Frustration, amen to that too .
But because I ve walked the walk, I ve also been able to discover some answers-God s answers-to my feelings of unworthiness and unloveliness. In this short book, I d like you to take a journey with me. This journey begins where we are right now, right this very minute, and will take us past feelings of worry, doubt, rejection, shame, confusion, and all the other negative (and wrong!) self-perceptions we have.
If deep in your heart there is a fervent desire to be known and accepted and loved and valued for who you are just as you are, please come with me on our brief journey. Despite all you may feel now, you are worthy!
1
Our Secret Self
Somewhere in the side streets of our soul is a place where [our] secret self lives.
M IKE Y ACONELLI
Within us is the secret place where the doubting, condemning, and self-nagging come from. Where defeating voices accuse us of being worthless to God. They re constantly telling us we don t measure up to some phantom image we have of a Super Christian Woman who never fails, always looks as if she stepped out of a magazine, and whose house makes Martha Stewart look like a slacker.
Please be advised the phantom Super Christian Woman does not exist. You are not her. I m certainly not her.
Although I don t know the exact words your secret self uses to undermine your worth, I know mine. I know how they came to be too. Some of you already know my story, but for those who don t, perhaps this is the place to tell you how early tragic events in my life caused me to build a secret self that would one day cause my world to crumble.
When I was five years old, my father was in a car accident that may have contributed to a blood clot that eventually caused a massive brain aneurism and precipitated a marked personality change. Dad became violent and had to be taken to a psychiatric hospital where he died at his own hand. My dad s death took its toll on our entire family-including me. Because of my dad s brain injury and the unreasonable anger he directed toward me, I was convinced he hated me. To feel the brunt of your own father s anger (and lack of love) is very destructive to a child. It was to me. It affected me profoundly, following me into my adult years.
At age eleven, I committed myself to Christ, yet my pain of having an earthly father who seemingly hated me caused me to remain fearful. I wondered, would my heavenly Father ever turn on me as my own earthly father had?
The Sanctuary of God s Word
At that young age, I began to take refuge in the powerful verses of Psalm 91. Many of you know this psalm as well as I do. You, too, have made it your pillow when you ve been overwhelmed.
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the L ORD , He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.
Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler
And from the perilous pestilence.
He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.
Because you have made the L ORD , who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.
New King James Version
We can t read this psalm without pausing from verse to verse and taking in the love and protection it offers. The God of Psalm 91 is our high tower, our refuge, our strength. I m grateful that my young heart believed in God s fierce love because later, as an adult, I would desperately need to cling to that love.
The Unveiling of the Secret Self
Fast-forward through several years of successful music ministry, including several bestselling albums and TV appearances. By age 36 in 1992, I had reac