Being a Godly Woman

I wanted to type up my notes from the seminar we had at houseparty on being godly women. It was so helpful to me, thought I'd share with the WORLD on the internet:

being godly is not about trying harder... we are free in the cross!!

how do we deal with our sin?

1. We try to cover up our sin (christians are good pretenders!)

2. We try to justify our sin

3. We secretly indulge in it

--> a breeding ground for self infulgence and pity.

how our lives can be transformed by trusting Christ

as we go on in our christian lives we see more and more of god's holiness, more and more of our sin. Our view of God goes up, and our view of ourselves goes down. The cross bridges the gap between us. Our view of the cross needs to grow bigger in correspondance with our views of God and ourselves, or else we will start to try to fill in the gaps with our own good works.
we can't and we don't need to fill the gap!
god is never surprised by our sin.

how to apply the cross to our lives?

• enjoy the gospel! --> be JOYFUL ... the cross has done everything.
  "because of jesus, God loves me today, he accepts me today, he's pleased with me today and he's with me today"
  
• trust the gospel to change us! we can often fall into the trap of thinking that he's done the saving, now i need to do the changing. but growth takes time! we can't stare at ourselves and see growth. but it's inevitable that since we are alive... we will be growing.
  
• don't move away from the gospel.
  repent recognise our sin for what it is. and be committed to talking to others about it. (something we're super bad at!) We should be the most unshockable of people! --> we should expect each other to mess up. Jesus already knows everything we've ever done and ever will do (1 John 1v8) when we confess it. we know he forgives, it gives us freedom. we don't have to be frightened about how he'll react. recognise that sin is just a symbol of idolatory (anything we put in the place of God).
  believe rejoice in the work of Christ (Romans 3v21) ask yourself "what do i need to believe about the Gospel to address my sin?"

The Great Exchange (Romans 1v25)

exchanging the truth of God for a lie. putting something as more important than God.

Ourselves

THE WORLD: self esteem, fame, always striving to be better, have a good job.
THE CROSS: Ephesias 1v38 - we've been adopted into God's family.

Each Other (girls)

THE WORLD: competition, having relationships, comparing ourselves to each other
(sets barriers between us that deprive us of relationships - how awful it is to wish bad things on others just in order to feel better about ourselves!)

THE CROSS: 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 - view people no longer froma worldly point of view. Only as Christians or non-Christians. The cross is the great leveller. He's only please with us through Jesus.

Men

THE WORLD: We need one! Or, we are independent women and don't need one. Need to please them, dress to impress, dating lifestyle. We're weid, or there must be something wrong with us if we're not in a relationship.

THE CROSS: 1 Thessalonians 4v1-8 - live in order to please God.

2 big problems for girls

• people pleasing


• discontentment - shows we have false expectations about what life should be! our situation is no mistake.

therefore encourage one another daily. (Heb 3:12-15)