Having a Mary Spirit
Allowing God to Change Us from the Inside Out
Joanna Weaver
“Lord, Whatever It Takes, Make Me Like You!”
You long to serve God with grace and strength, to reflect Christ in every word and action. Yet you find yourself continually struggling to bring that vision to life in your daily walk.
At our very core, every one of us is a “twisted sister” within whom the flesh and spirit battle constantly for control. We are afflicted with spiritual schizophrenia, the disconnect between our “good girl” desire to put Jesus first and our “bad girl” realities that crowd our thoughts and push him out of the way.
In this life-changing book, Joanna Weaver, author of the perennial bestseller, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, directs your gaze past your own shortcomings to the God who stands ready, willing, and able to make a new woman out of you. She equips you with biblical insights and practical tools to partner with Christ, inviting him into the hidden places of your soul and giving him full permission to redeem and renovate.
Drawing on the stories of biblical Marys and others whose experience with God transformed their lives, Joanna shows how you can find the hope, healing, wholeness, and joy your heart longs for. Having a Mary Spirit will launch you toward lasting personal transformation–soul-deep change that results in a complete makeover, from the inside out.
Includes a 12-week Bible study for both individual reflection and group discussion.
Information
Book: 9781400072477
Pages: 288
Series: WaterBrook Press
Biog: Joanna Weaver
Joanna Weaver is a pastor’s wife, a Bible study leader, and an author whose works include the best-selling Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World and the award-winning gift book With This Ring. Her articles have appeared in such publications as Focus on the Family, Guideposts, and HomeLife. She and her husband, John, have been in full-time ministry for twenty-four years. They live with their three children in Whitefish, Montana.
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Last semester our MOMS Bible Study went through Joanna's first book, "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World." I thought it was a book written specifically for me...until we started this book...Then I knew that God, in His infinite wisdom and mercy was simply preparing me for Having a Mary Spirit.
You see, I really am a Mary. Of all things in the world that light a fire under my butt, sitting at the feet of Jesus is the greatest of all. There's an old song by Amy Grant that I used to sing over and over and over again when I was in High School. The words go something like this...
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I love to sing, and I love to pray
Worship the Lord most ev-ery-day
I go to the temple, and I want to stay
To hide from the hustle of the world and it's ways
And I'd...love to live on a mountain-top
Fellowshipping with the Lord
I'd love to stand on the mountain-top
'Cause I love to feel my Spirit soar
But I've got to come down from that mountain top
to the people in the valley below
Or they'll never know that they can go..
to the Mountain of the Lord.
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Man, how I love that song! There are two more verses, but it's the chorus...the beginning of it...that truly strikes a chord with me. At this stage of my life ~ when so many of us "MOMS" are saying things like, "I just don't know when I can fit it in ~ how do you do it...make time everyday to sit at Jesus' feet?" ~ that I feel the need more than ever to carve out the time each and everyday to sit on the mountain top with my Lord. What I know is that if I don't have that time...all the people I come in contact with...the people who need to know they can go to the mountain of the Lord...will only get a sturdy push in my own strength. I suppose that's okay for some, but when we really want people to get to the summit ~ the place where Jesus takes their hands and says, "I've been waiting for you...." ~ a human push isn't getting them very far off the ground. And if it gets them half-way up, all it's going to take is a gentle shake to the grounds to send them tumbling right back where they started from. (Only this time they'll be more frustrated with the climb because they've tasted a bit of it and will now be relying on a shaky foundation to get them back up there.)
Hmmmm...other than the fact that I'm awake thanks to Diet Coke right now, I'm not sure how I got on that tangent. I suppose the purpose of this post (talking about having a Mary spirit ~ a desire to sit at Jesus' feet and listen to the Master), really goes hand-in-hand with that paragraph, but there's more...so much more.
I've been fighting my "flesh woman," as Joanna calls it, all this school year. At first I would find myself thinking, "am I really that bad? Have I dropped so far in my faith that I need to completely change everything I believe?" Those thoughts come from many different directions ~ from being an Artsy-Fartsy married to an Engineer to facing some pretty major disappointments in life that were both within and outside of my control ~ but what matters is that my faith has been slowly, but surely, shaken to the core over the past few years. My foundational beliefs are firm...yet I find myself wondering about them. My belief that God created me to be the me I am has been lit on fire and slowly burning away. My desire for more of God has been continually growing...but as if there is no rhyme or reason to the growth. I have felt more and more discombobulated as I walk the path of being a wife, mother and woman. The road has not been ugly, and the journey not worth walking, but it has been a rough and rocky road I never anticipated or desired to walk down.
The next question I asked ~ both internally and externally to the ladies in my Bible Study was, "If I completely surrender to God does that mean I have to give up on me? Does that mean I have to become someone else? What happens to the me I believe at the heart of me that HE CREATED ME TO BE??!!??"
This has been a pivotal question. It has been the watershed, if you will, of my faith. And, yes, I know it seems to be completely self-centered. I assure you it is...and it isn't. My wondering does indeed come from liking myself ~ I like that I laugh easily and heartily at silly things like Tickle Me Elmo. I love that the smiles of my children can melt my heart. I enjoy being able to make my husband groan with a bad joke...or a comment about the stink that just came out of his backside! My ability to get up in front of a group of Pre-k'ers one hour and a group of adults the next...and teach them both of the importance of seeing God for who He really is, is something I believe He has given me the ability and opportunity to do. There are talents God has bestowed on me that I am thankful for...and it seems that to surrender "me" completely would mean that all that would change. The idea of the "church" ~ humanly speaking ~ is that one who is surrendered to Christ is peaceful and quiet. They are worshipful and calm. I've been diagnosed with ADD...attention deficit disorder...there are very few calm and quiet genes in my body. Or in my gene-pool for that matter! (Have you ever had the wonderful oppportunity of being at a Tooley gathering? Or to sit with the Selkens while they're playing pinochle? These are NOT quiet people who have passed on my legacy in life, people!!) So what does it mean for one such as me to be completely surrendered in Christ? Well....
...Joanna Weaver is my crazy, loud and rambunctious sister in Christ! And if she can write a book that every week speaks to women in our Bible Study who are, each and every one, in a different place spiritually, physically and mentally....and she has surrendered to the very God I serve, then I say....I SURRENDER ALL!! We're at chapter 10 the next time we meet....guess what the second paragraph says? Well, since you may or may not know, I'll share with you...........
"Part of my lifelong prayer for Christian perfection (something I, Trayc, ridiculously long to achieve) has involved having a quiet and gentle spirit Peter wrote about in I Peter 3:4. When I first shared this life goal with friends, their response was loud laughter and a few poorly disguised snickers. Because anyone who knows me well knows I'm not very gentle. And I'm definitely not quiet."
I am not making that paragraph up! Is this not amazing!? God, in His infinite wisdom knew exactly what I needed to hear...each and every week! My friend, Molly, actually called me from Sun River, OR while away with her family to talk about this chapter as she sat by the pool at the resort and read it. She said she got about 2 pages in, put the book down, picked up her phone and called me to see if I'd read it yet. The funny thing is...the chapter isn't only making her hear my "what if I surrender?" question, it's speaking to her about where she's at, too. I am in awe of the God who pulled Mount Hood out of the ground, blew up Mount Saint Helen's, sprinkled Aspen trees about my beloved Rockies...and holds my hand every step of this rocky road.
I have been humbled and amazed at a new aspect of God's character that has become clear to me lately. Yes, our God is an Awesome God. and, yes, What a Mighty God we serve. There truly is POWER in the blood....but the beauty of our Jesus is the tenderness with which He reaches out and brings us to Him. TENDERNESS. GENTLENESS. COMPASSION AND LOVE. THESE are the words that characterize the One who asks us to surrender to Him. THESE are the words He acts upon when He sees our fears and knows how timidly and tremble-ing-ly we hand over our greatest fears. He does not grab. He does not pull. He does not shove us into a room where we are surrounded by memories and failures and tell us to face them. No. He gently takes our hand as a mother does her infant on the verge of toddlerhood, and He guides us. Surrounded by the peace of the Holy Spirit, he guides us to the place where we can lay our burdens down and drink from the well of living water ~ eternal peace and fulfillment.
And then He lets us turn around and go, "WOO HOO!!! I LOVE MY JESUS!! I'M LOUD AND I'M CRAZY AND MY BRAIN RUNS WAAAAAAYYYY TOO FAST, BUT I KNOW I AM EXACTLY WHO I'M SUPPOSED TO BE!! AND I'M SUPPOSED TO BE ME ~ COMPLETELY IN LOVE WITH HIM!!! WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!" (of course, some of you may not use CAPS to say that ~ but I do. And that's okay because that's me. And I'm glad you're you, because the world can only handle so many of me! *grin*)
Two quotes to complete this book I ended up writing....then I'm finished....
"True self-esteem comes from understanding our value to God. The more we focus on ourselves, the more insecure and self-absorbed we become. It's essential to have goals in life, but our self-value comes from realizing who, how, and with what we were made...You are God's creation, and He is very pleased with how He made you."
-Kathy Ireland in her book, "Powerful Inspirations"
~and~
"Show me the path where I should walk, O Lord; point out the right road for me to follow. Lead me by Your truth and teach me, for You are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in You."
-Psalm 25:4-5
Go with God...and let God go with you......."So long Self!"
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