Embraced: 100 Devotions to Know God Is Holding You Close

by Lysa TerKeurst

Overview

God doesn't pull back from your sharp edges. He pulls you close. In Embraced, beloved Bible teacher and bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst offers 100 devotions that will resonate with women in all stages of life by giving you a godly perspective on the issues you face each day.

A real embrace indicates an intimate level of closeness. It's not a high five or a casual handshake. The best kind of embrace is when someone we know deeply loves us, flings their arms wide open, and pulls us in close.

Through these 100 devotions, daily scriptures, and prayer prompts, you will be equipped to:

• Begin finding freedom from the struggles that have held you hostage by learning new ways to experience God's love.
• Surrender your deepest hurts by processing them in a godly way with Lysa, a friend who understands your pain.
• Hear the Lord speak intimately to your heart by learning how to seek His direction.
• Release the tension of wondering, If God is near why does He sometimes feel far away? by spending guided time with Him each day.

Embraced will be a treasured keepsake for you, and a meaningful gift for those you love, with:

• An exquisite cloth cover you'll want to leave out for others to see and for easy access
• Highly designed interior with Scripture, call-outs, and quotes
• Ribbon marker to keep your place

Our hearts were made for this kind of love and security, but for many of us, we know more about the pain of heartbreak and fear than the unconditional love for which we were created. In Embraced, Lysa shares her own struggles, doubts, and heartbreaks while pointing to the ultimate embrace: God opening His arms wide on Calvary through Jesus so that He could pull us close for all of eternity, welcoming us into the safety and hope of His grace, love, and embrace.

Look for additional bestselling books from Lysa TerKeurst:

• Forgiving What You Can't Forget
• It's Not Supposed to Be This Way
• Uninvited
• The Best Yes

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781400310296
Publisher:	Nelson, Thomas, Inc.
Publication date:	03/27/2018
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	70,056
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Lysa TerKeurst is president and chief visionary officer of Proverbs 31 Ministries and the author of six New York Times bestsellers, including Good Boundaries and Goodbyes, Forgiving What You Can’t Forget, and It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way. She writes from her family’s farm table and lives in North Carolina. Connect with her at www.LysaTerKeurst.com or on social media @LysaTerKeurst.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Giving My First Moments to God

Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

— Psalm 86:11

It is very early in the morning. Though my body begs me to go back I to sleep, my soul stirs to get up and talk with Jesus.

And though I can't physically see Him, I know He is present.

I open my Bible to the book of Psalms and pray through the verses I read to start my day. The more I do this, the less I hear the ongoing naggings of this world. A beautiful melody of God's truth rises up, and my worries fade in their light.

His perspective on what troubles me overshadows my anxiety. This time alone with God prepares me for what I will need throughout the day. He's equipping me to handle what is ahead with His gentle boldness, quiet strength, and loving grace.

In Psalm 81:10, God instructs me, "Open wide your mouth and I will fill it."

He will give me what to say. What to say in happy moments and in aggravating moments. What to say when I feel insecure and what to say when I am confident.

He also reminds me that sometimes it is good to keep my mouth closed and say nothing at all.

Psalm 84:1 reminds me that God's dwelling place is lovely. So I ask for Him to dwell in me richly. I want it to be evident that I'm a girl who spends time with Jesus and that He's working on me — shifting a wrong attitude, guarding my words, and whispering constant truths into my heart.

Psalm 86:11 prompts me to request, "Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name."

Each of these verses leads my morning prayer:

Lord, may nothing separate me from You today. Teach me how to choose only Your way today so each step will lead me closer to You. Help me walk by Your Word and not my feelings.

Help me to keep my heart pure and undivided. Protect me from my own careless thoughts, words, and actions. And keep me from being distracted by MY wants, MY desires, MY thoughts on how things should be.

Help me to embrace what comes my way as an opportunity ... rather than a personal inconvenience.

And finally, help me to rest in the truth of Psalm 86:13, "Great is your love toward me."

You already see the ways I will fall short and mess up. But right now, I consciously tuck Your whisper of absolute love for me into the deepest part of my heart. I recognize Your love for me is not based on my performance. You love me ... shortcomings and all.

That's amazing.

But what's most amazing is that the Savior of the world would desire a few minutes with me this morning. Lord, help me to forever remember what a gift it is to sit with You like this. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

I'm now ready to face today. Armed with truth. Surrounded by love. Filled with gratitude.

Dear Lord, I love You. All that I've expressed above is the desire of my heart. I confess that sometimes my actions and reactions betray my love for You. Please forgive me. Thank You for Your grace that enables me to recognize this new day as a new chance to walk closer with You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

CHAPTER 2

The Pineapple Principle

Get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

— James 1:21–22

I love fresh-cut pineapple. I love the way it tastes. I love that it has no I fat grams. And I love that it can be served at any meal — breakfast, lunch, or dinner — as the perfect, healthy side dish.

The problem with fresh pineapples is that they are slightly complicated. To hold up a fresh pineapple and look upon it longingly can be quite frustrating when you haven't a clue how to properly cut it open. So, for years I would walk by the fresh pineapples in the grocery store produce section, heave a sigh, and head straight to the canned fruit aisle. The canned version was fine in a pinch but honestly didn't compare to the fresh. It simply teased my taste buds that greater possibilities existed.

Then one day a friend I was visiting asked me if I'd like a snack. I gasped when she brought out a real pineapple. With ease she turned the fruit on its side and chopped off the top and the bottom. Then she sat it upright on its level end and proceeded to cut sections from each side, starting at the edge of the core. She then shaved off the outer skin, chopped the fruit into bite-sized pieces, and handed me a whole bowlful.

I was amazed. That's it? That's all there is to it? You mean for years I've missed out on the goodness of fresh pineapples because I couldn't figure out how to do that?

For years, I took the same approach with studying the Bible as I did with the pineapple. I looked at biblical truth from afar. I didn't feel equipped to open it and study it on my own. Instead of reading the fresh truth for myself, I only read books that talked about the Bible. Just like that canned pineapple, my experience with learning God's truth teased me that greater possibilities existed. But since I had no idea how to get them for myself, I avoided the Bible and settled for whatever I could glean from other people.

Then I attended a Bible study in which the teacher modeled how to open up the Bible and study it for ourselves. Each week I watched her dig into Scriptures with a passion and hunger for truth that I'd never known. The way she put verses into context and brought out the meanings from the original text amazed me.

Slowly, I decided to try it for myself. I started getting into God's Word so it could get into me. I no longer wanted to simply settle for learning facts about the Bible when it was meant for so much more. I wanted God's Word to interrupt me, change me, and satisfy me. And that meant not only reading and studying the Bible but also developing the habit of living out its message in my everyday life.

The apostle James addresses this in our key verses: "Get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says" (James 1:21–22).

The more we make a habit of applying God's Word to our lives, the more it becomes part of our nature — our natural way of acting and reacting. Knowing God's Word and doing what it says not only helps us while going through heartbreak and trouble, it also brings more satisfaction to our souls than anything else ever could.

Thank You, Lord, for giving us good things to nourish us in body and soul. Help me to dig in to Your Word and let it become part of me. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

CHAPTER 3

Stop Reading Your Bible

Give me understanding and I will obey your instructions; I will put them into practice with all my heart.

— Psalm 119:34 NLT

I have a request today. One that might sound odd right after reading I the first two devotions: stop reading your Bible.

Does that shock you? Relieve you? Make you angry at worst? Curious at best?

Read on, and see what I mean by this request.

There have been many days in my Christian journey when God was reduced to something on my to-do list. Somewhere along the way, I picked up an unwritten checklist of sorts explaining what "good Christians" are supposed to do:

Pray.

Read your Bible.

Go to church.

Don't cuss.

Be nice.

Being the rule-following girl I am, I subscribed to the good things on that list and waited with great expectations to receive the zap of contentment and happiness good Christian girls are supposed to exude.

But then something felt wrong with me. I still felt restless. I still reacted in anger. I still felt a bit hollow.

I was going through all the motions but didn't feel connected to Jesus. Others around me seemed very connected. They would talk of being "moved by the Spirit." They would hear from God Himself. They would clap their hands and shout "Amen" in the middle of a sermon that sounded like Greek to me.

I often felt like a weightless soul grasping at the air, hoping to somehow snag this Jesus that was just out of reach. Have you ever been there?

This nagging sense creeps in that you'll never get it — that you don't have what it takes to be a Christian. That's where I was. I lived there for a long time until someone challenged me to stop simply reading my Bible because it was a thing on my Christian checklist. Instead, they challenged me to experience God. To know God.

In other words, I needed to look at the words in the Bible as a love letter. God's love letter to a broken-down girl. A love letter not meant to simply be read ... but a love letter meant to be lived.

I won't lie. It took a while.

It took many days of sitting down with my Bible while praying gut-honest prayers. I told God I wasn't connecting. I told Him I wanted to understand, just like the psalmist in our key verse, Psalm 119:34.

I asked Him to help me. I begged Him to help me. Finally, one verse came alive to me. I literally felt moved when I read it. I memorized it and thought about it all day long. All week long. Maybe all month long.

I was overjoyed. I had a verse. A verse where Jesus spoke tenderly and clearly and specifically to me. It was Jeremiah 29:11, "'I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"

Slowly, I added more verses. Day by day. Chapter by chapter. And eventually my Bible became my greatest treasure, my love letter.

Now, every day I open up God's Word with great expectation and intentionally look for my verse for that day. Usually one verse among the many I read during my devotion time grabs my heart, and I know it's meant just for the day ahead. And then I attempt to live that verse out in some way, that very day.

When I make the connection between what happens in my life that day and why I need that verse, I experience God. I see Him active in my life, and I become even more deeply aware of His constant presence.

I'm sure some Bible scholars would probably take issue with my simplistic approach, but it sure has helped me.

So, back to my original statement. Stop reading your Bible. In other words, stop simply reading it because you have to cross it off the Christian checklist.

Instead, read it with great expectations of connecting more deeply and living more authentically with God.

Dear Lord, thank You for showing me the Christian life can be so much more than a checklist. I want to not only read Your Word, but live it out each day. Please give me the wisdom to understand and the courage to become more like You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

CHAPTER 4

Great Sermons Aren't Preached, They're Lived

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

— 2 Timothy 3:16–17

What if someone followed me around with a video camera all day documenting my every move? Catching all my words, facial expressions, actions, and reactions on camera. And then what if someone packaged it all together and played it on some sort of reality TV show for all the world to see? What would be the glaring message of my life?

I'm convicted thinking about this.

You see, if someone were to ask me, "What are you all about?" I would have some nice-sounding answers. But what actually happens during the strains of everyday life can sometimes betray my best intentions.

I want to be a loving mom. But my family seems to know the exact buttons to push that send me into a tailspin of emotion and exhaustion.

I want to be a strong witness for Christ. So why is it I can read my Bible first thing in the morning and then find myself honking at the person who cuts me off in traffic just an hour later?

I realize there is a place for God's tender mercies for me in all this. But I also know that while no TV cameras are following me around, my life is speaking a message about what I really believe, and I want that message to honor Jesus.

I once heard, "Great sermons are not preached, they are lived." Oh how I long to live a message that speaks loud and clear, "Jesus is true and the principles found in His teachings work!"

Let's just be honest: It's tough being a sold-out soul for Christ stuck in a body that's so tempted to sin. That's why it's essential that I view my time with God each morning as a preparation and an invitation.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Embraced"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Lysa TerKeurst.
Excerpted by permission of Thomas Nelson.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

A Note from Lysa, xii,
Part 1: Embracing the Parent of Him and His Direction,
1. Giving My First Moments to God, 3,
2. The Pineapple Principle, 6,
3. Stop Reading Your Bible, 9,
4. Great Sermons Aren't Preached, They're Lived, 12,
5. Is This the Right Decision?, 15,
6. An Agenda That Will Never Satisfy, 19,
7. Preparing for Adventure, 22,
8. Interrupted by Jesus, 24,
9. If You're Feeling Overlooked and Unappreciated ..., 27,
10. I'm Scared to Pray Boldly, 30,
11. Follow Me, 32,
12. Hearing God's Invitations, 35,
13. A Life with Extraordinary Impact, 38,
14. Your Unique Calling, 41,
15. Rest and Reassurance, 44,
16. Space to Exhale, 47,
17. Chasing Down Our Decisions, 50,
18. Read This Before Making That Decision, 53,
19. Paralyzing Fear, 56,
20. The Most Nonfrantic Woman I've Ever Met, 59,
21. The Two Most Powerful Words, 62,
22. Analysis Paralysis, 65,
23. Five Questions to Ask When Making a Decision, 69,
24. God, I'm Worn Out, 72,
25. In the Flow, 75,
26. Practicing Wisdom, 78,
Part 2: Embracing the Fullness Found Only in Him,
27. What Holds The Key To Your Heart?, 85,
28. The Most Searched-For Answer, 88,
29. If Only I Had ..., 91,
30. The Seduction of Satisfaction, 94,
31. The Pathway to Humility, 97,
32. What Are You Missing?, 101,
33. Where Brokenness Runs Deep, 104,
34. Consumed by Cravings, 107,
35. Physically Overweight and Spiritually Underweight, 110,
36. An Undivided Heart, 112,
37. Shocked by My Own Advice, 115,
38. The Value of Emptiness, 118,
39. Satan's Plan Against You, 120,
40. When the End Goal Seems Too Hard, 123,
41. Replacing Old Lies with New Truths, 125,
42. Turning North, 128,
43. How Much Will This Choice Really Cost Me?, 131,
44. The Courageous Choice, 134,
45. Telling My Flesh No, 137,
46. Why Do I Have So Many Issues?, 140,
47. If Only We Knew, 143,
48. The Real Peace We Need, 146,
Part 3: Embracing Him in the Midst of Hurt & Heartbreak,
49. I Have Trust Issues, 151,
50. Is God Good?, 154,
51. Is God Good To Me?, 157,
52. Do I Trust God To Be God?, 160,
53. The Crushing Times, 163,
54. What I Never Noticed About Jesus, 167,
55. Dealing with Deep Grief, 170,
56. Why Isn't God Answering My Prayer?, 173,
57. A Little Mad and a Lot Confused, 176,
58. The Sting of Disappointment, 179,
59. Why Would God Let This Happen?, 182,
60. What Makes Rejection So Awful?, 185,
61. If You Ever Feel Lonely, Read This, 189,
62. The Girl Called Loser, 193,
63. Yesterday's Hurts in Today's Relationships, 196,
64. There's a Lady at the Gym Who Hates Me, 199,
65. Because I Am Loved, 203,
66. Alone in a Crowded Room, 205,
67. Three Things You Must Remember When Rejected, 208,
68. The Best Worst Thing, 211,
69. A Better Place to Park, 214,
70. Wisdom Together, 218,
71. Wisdom and Humility, 221,
72. I'm Really Afraid, 224,
73. Holding on to Truth, 227,
74. Pressing Through the Pain, 230,
75. Devastated But Not Destroyed, 233,
Part 4: Embracing His Call to Be Transformed,
76. The Beginnings of a Miracle, 239,
77. Is My Pain Talking?, 242,
78. Getting Unstuck from My Thinking Rut, 245,
79. The Root of My Rot, 248,
80. I Quit, 251,
81. Receiving Grace, 253,
82. The Treasure of Thrown-Away Food, 256,
83. Giving Grace, 259,
84. Something to Consider with Criticism, 262,
85. I Had The Perfect Comeback, 265,
86. God, Give Us Self-Control, 268,
87. What To Do With Tough Relationships, 272,
88. You Don't Like Me, 275,
89. Comparisons Stink, 278,
90. Her Success Doesn't Threaten Mine, 281,
91. I Want What She Has, 284,
92. But, Lord, I Can't Do That!, 287,
93. Feeling Guilty?, 289,
94. Even When I Fall Short, 291,
95. The Friendship Challenge, 294,
96. The Scribbled Truth That Changed My Life, 297,
97. Getting Past My Past, 300,
98. Pushing Past Awkward, 303,
99. Life-Saving Truth, 307,
100. Called To Freedom, 311,
A Prayer from Lysa, 315,
Personalized Scriptures, 317,
Notes, 323,
Index, 325,
About the Author, 329,
About Proverbs 31 Ministries, 331,