Hayley DiMarco - Devotions for the God Girl. A 365 Day Journey

2010 by Hungry Planet

Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com

Ebook edition created 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

ISBN 978-1-4412-1361-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Scripture is taken from GODS WORD, a copyrighted work of Gods Word to the Nations. Quotations are used by permission. Copyright 1995 by Gods Word to the Nations. All rights reserved.

Published in association with Yates & Yates, LLP, Literary Agents, Orange, California.

Creative direction by Hungry Planet
Interior design by Michael J. Williams

Contents

The God Girl wants what every other girl wants: to love and to be loved. She wants acceptance and laughter. She wants hope and peace. But her life, like everyone elses, isnt perfect. Its messy and lonely, its stressful and hard, but one thing sets her apart, one thing makes her life amazingly different from others, and thats her heart. Her heart is set on something above, something greater than her that gives her strength and hope. She has found the truth, and the truth is that God lives. He lives above and he lives within. She calls him Father, she calls him God, and she calls him her salvation.

Because of that the God Girl wants more than anything else to hear from him. She wants his words to ring in her ears. This makes her crave him. It makes her look for him, listen for him, and wait for him. When other people are sleeping, the God Girl is waking up to wait and watch for him. She knows that a day that starts off in his presence is better than a day when he is forgotten or pushed aside for other more pressing things. Sure she has a lot to do, sure she is tired, but when a girl is in love, she must spend time with the object of that love.

If your life isnt what you would like and you wish you had more of God in your life, then youre on the right path. A desire for more is the first step. Your willingness to be uncomfortable, to be put out, to be tired all mean spiritual success. Each day you are given a finite amount of time, and often it doesnt seem like enough time to do all the things you have to get done. That can mean that God, in his graciousness and kindness, gets pushed to the bottom of the list. All that does is ensure that you will do life today on your own strength and not on his, and that leads to exhaustion and stress. But when you start your day off waiting for your orders from him and watching to see what he wants you to do next, life becomes almost effortless. Time seems to become more abundant.

In his book The School of Obedience, Andrew Murray calls this time spent with God the morning watch. He challenges students all over the world to be faithful enough to devote a significant amount of time to the one they love the most, and to give their most important time at that. Take a look at his call to begin living a life fully devoted to the one you love the most by practicing the morning watch:

You tell me there are many Christians who are content with ten minutes or a quarter of an hour. There are, but you will certainly not as a rule find them strong Christians. And the Students Movement is pleading with God, above everything, that He would meet to train a race of devoted, whole-hearted young men and women. Christ asked great sacrifices of His disciples; He has perhaps asked little of you as yet. But now He allows, He invites, He longs for you to make some. Sacrifices make strong men. Sacrifices help wonderfully to wrench us away from earth and self-pleasing, and lift us heavenward. Do not try to pare down the time limit of the morning watch to less than the half-hour. There can be no question about the possibility of finding the time. Ten minutes from sleep, ten from company or amusement, ten from lessons. How easy where the heart is right, hungering to know God and His will perfectly!

If you think you are too busy to spend a half hour with God, make a list of everyone you spend more time with in conversation during the day and list God below them. Yikes, right? My hope is that with the help of Devotions for the God Girl and maybe even the book God Girl and the God Girl Bible, you will find the passion and desire to devote more of your time to the pursuit of God and watching for him each day. But if you are ready right now, then by all means go for it. Give your time to him and watch how it impacts your day and even your life. As you do you will notice that your emotions soften, your fear diminishes, and your stress lessens. The more time you spend with God, the more things you can actually get done. If you want to spend your day in devotion to God, in obedience, and as far away from sin as possible, then you have to get close to him, talk with him, and listen to him.

I pray that God will give you the desire for more of him and the urgency to wake before the sun. Pay attention to your sleep patternif you find yourself awake in the early morning, then consider it his calling you to his side. Crawl out of bed and dive in. If you arent sure what to do, consider reading your daily devotion and then praising him and adoring him for who he is. Confess your sins and offer your repentance, then dive into his Word. Read. Study. If you need help knowing what to read, pick up the God Girl Bible and use the guides in the back. Get yourself some good worship music; it can really help you to get into the worship mood and draw you closer to him.

There is not one right way to devote your time to God. If this doesnt work for you, then try something else. If you have the God Girl Bible, youll find a lot of ideas for study in the front of it, so check that out. Just dont delay. If you want more of him, then now is your time and this is your call. Devote yourself to more than a superficial reading of these devosread, pray, study, and listen. When you do, youll find your faith growing deeper and your love growing stronger.

I am praying for you, God Girl. I pray that God will be your everything and that you will discover his true worth. If youd like, come by GodGirl.com and hang out. Tell me how your morning watch time is going. Share your ideas for study and get more ideas yourself. All for one and one for all! Let us lean on one another as we make this walk of faith. I look forward to hearing from you. Enjoy your God Girl journey.

Hayley

I dont reject Gods kindness. If we receive Gods approval by obeying laws, then Christs death was pointless.

Galatians 2:21

W hen it comes to Gods Word, there are two popular lines of thought. One is that your salvation depends on doing all that it says. This is called legalism, and its wrong. Salvation doesnt come from anything other than the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When you turn your life over to him and make him your Lord, then you are saved. Period. The end.

The other line of thinking when it comes to Gods Word is that because of his grace, or great kindness, we are free to break the rules because his grace is relentless and hell forgive us for it all, so why worry about it? This kind of thinking goes like this: I really want to do this sinful thing, and since its too hard to say no, Im just gonna do it and then ask for forgiveness later. This way of thinking is just as bad as legalism, and it becomes a way of life that is contradictory to Gods Word. Gods grace isnt cheap, and its not meant to be abused or used as a loophole to sin.