Women's Advance

Many years ago, I was at my first women's retreat.  The woman that led me to Christ had invited me and I went.  I had given my life to the Lord not quite a year before and the Holy Spirit was working in me every chance He got - listening to Christian music, listening to a sermon, listening to the Proverbs 31 Ministries radio blurbs.  Many of these things would leave me weeping and I had no idea why. 

They actually called this women's retreat an advance which was quite clever really.  Retreat generally means to fall back and give up the battle.  These women, some of the most amazing women I have ever met, wanted to portray quite the opposite.  They wanted to advance in the knowledge of the Kingdom of Heaven.  I however, just wanted to remain invisible.  But no such luck. 

I was the one sitting at a table at pretty much every session, crying my eyes out.  By the second day, my eyelids were so puffy, there was no reason to put makeup on.  Not a pretty sight.

To be quite honest, I don't remember most of the weekend.  It was a blur of tears and kleenex and heart to hearts with my friend.  But I do remember the final session before being released to head back to our daily lives. 

The daughter of one of the leaders, a young woman in her early to mid-twenties, stood up.  She said she had gotten a message for someone she didn't know - then she picked me out at one of the rear tables wearing a striped shirt. 

I had never seen her before that weekend, I had not been introduced to her.  The message was Psalm 34:

"I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips....I sought the Lord and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.  Those who look to him are radiant, their faces are never covered with shame....Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him....The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit....The Lord redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him."

These are just some of my favorite parts of this Psalm - parts that I clung too as the Holy Spirit kept working in me to release me from the darkness and fear that I lived with daily. 

This Psalm will always have special meaning to me.  It was a message given directly to me from the Lord through an amazing young woman.

In His Grace...