Laurie Aker - Lord, Look Inside My Heart: Engaging in the Joy of Our Role in Sanctification

Other titles by Laurie Aker and Thistlebend Ministries can be found at www.thistlebend.org.

Falling in Love Again with Your Lord

Falling in Love Again with Your Husband

Falling in Love Again with Your Children

Heart of a Woman: A Thistlebend Expository Discipleship Study

Jesus, I Need You

Jesus, I Want to Love You

Who Am I in Christ?

Beyond Belief

More than 35 electronic devotional titles by Laurie Aker and Thistlebend Ministries are also available at Bible.com and by downloading the Bible app by Life.Church and searching for plans by Thistlebend Ministries.

Thistlebend Ministries provides resources for calling, equipping, and encouraging women to know Jesus and follow Him in love and obedience. We serve churches, ministry leaders, small groups, and individuals through:

• Expository discipleship Bible studies with companion childrens and family curriculum
• Devotional studies for the pursuit of spiritual growth and personal holiness
• Corresponding video and audio teaching online or on DVD
• Tools for teaching and training women how to take the truth of Gods Word to heart and bring it to life
• Mentoring and discipleship training for leaders
• Full-service online resource center and support staff
• Study and training center in Louisville, KY

Please visit www.thistlebend.org for more information. Thistlebend Ministries is located in Louisville, KY.

Lord,
Look Inside
My Heart

Engaging in the Joy of Our Role in Sanctification

Laurie Aker

Copyright 2017 Laurie Aker.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-6951-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-6953-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-6952-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016921225

WestBow Press rev. date: 03/07/2017

Contents

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my husband, Kevin Aker, and to the Thistlebend Ministries Executive Vice President Hope Walrad, Ministry Assistant Kevin Purslow, and the Executive Leadership Team of Kathleen Donaldson, Susan Sampson, Amy Sizemore, and Angie Thomas. This work is the result of the prayers and devotion of these dear friends and partners in the gospel.

Epigraph

Psa lm 1

1 Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD ,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

4 The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

6 for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.

Thank you to all the Friends of Thistlebend for their prayers, support, and generosity. A special thank you to the Kaczorowski family and the Price Foundation.

A great Christian theologian once began his greatest work with these truths: Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God, and Without knowledge of God there is no knowledge of self. What he meant was that if we are truly to understand who God is as a merciful, loving, and compassionate heavenly Father, we first have to understand who we are as people created in His image and yet sinners before him. But in order to understand our own hearts in that way, we must look deeply into Gods Word and let it expose our finitude, our sin, and our need for a Savior.

Knowledge of self, and knowledge of God.

Thats what Laurie Aker and the team at Thistlebend Ministries are aiming to cultivate in this book, Lord, Look Inside My Heart . Full of spiritual insight and built firmly (and frequently!) on quotations from the Bible, this little book is a sweet and profound journey into knowing yourself in the light of God. Its not an easy journeyasking God to reveal your own heart to you never isbut it will be deeply rewarding! Youll not only learn about, but be equipped to practice the spiritual disciplines of prayer, repentance, fasting, and self-examination in the light of Scripture. Whats more, Laurie herself is a sure and compassionate guide through this journey of Bible-based self discovery. Not only is she an able teacher of Gods Word, but she has also struggled in her own life with her own sin and her struggle to know herself and her Savior. The result is a book full of heart and humor and compassionate help and encouragement. By the end of the book, I honestly think youll feel like you know Laurie not just as an author, but as a friend!

And of course, infinitely more important than that is that I think youll come away knowing more intimately the depth of sin in your heartand therefore loving more intimately the One who died and rose again to save you from it!

One final note: I really cannot say enough about Laurie, her husband Kevin, and the rest of the team at Thistlebend Ministries. These are dear and serious saints who are committed not in the least to building their own kingdom or publishing empire, but to providing resources for the use and good of the local church. As the pastor of a local church, Im deeply familiar with the frustration of having to watch men and women under my care be swept away by books and programs that are selfish at best and unbiblical at worst. But Im thrilled to say that in Thistlebend Ministries, Ive found a set of resources and a group of partners who will be a great help in discipling the women who are members of my churchnot a hindrance to that goal, and not in competition with it. If youre looking for discipleship tools for women that are theologically sound, biblically solid, and spiritually insightful, I dont think youll do better than Thistlebend resources.

So off we go on this journey! Ask God to use His Word to show you yourselfand then lead you through that knowledge to know and love Jesus more.

Greg Gilbert

Pastor, Third Avenue Baptist Church

Louisville, Kentucky

2017

by Scott Kaczorowski

Sometimes we are scared to look within. After all, we might not like what we find there. We might have the perfect picture of ourselves that we have manufactured in our minds eye shattered by the realization that we still have weeds of sin deeply entwined in certain furrows of our heart. And then would begin the difficult task of digging down and pulling up these roots from some very delicate places. Perhaps, we may think, it is easier to be ignorant and let these things go. But if we let them go, the weeds will continue to grow, and the kind of fruit they bear will hinder our walk with the Lord. If we desire to bear the fruit of righteousness in our hearts, we mustwith the Lords help of courseexplore these places, uproot these sins, and plant seeds of righteousness instead.