Session 1

Prepare your heart to receive

From Ready to Receive: A 5-Day Devotional for NewSpring Women’s Conference

Doesn’t it seem like ages ago that you signed up for NewSpring Women’s Conference?

Perhaps you had all the best intentions to seek Jesus persistently in the months-long run-up to this special weekend. Begging God to hear His voice more clearly than ever. Seeking healing for a long-standing struggle. Asking for specific guidance for a decision you need to make.

Then life got in the way? It happens to all of us!

Every woman will bring different hopes and needs to the weekend — and various degrees of heart preparation. What we all have in common is a good Father who promises to be found by us when we seek Him with all our heart (Jeremiah 29:13).

Prayer is the way we seek God. But what’s often overlooked is the need to posture our hearts to receive — to listen more than we ask.

Are you really willing to get outside your comfort zone? In order to get anything from the conference, you must be yielded to whatever He wants to do in you, not your own preconceived agenda.

It may be unusual to approach God in this open-ended way. Certainly it can be awkward, especially if you don’t think you are hearing anything back. We all hate to be vulnerable, but that’s where true growth and change occur. It’s when we empty out our assumptions that we’re ready for what He wants to do.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, gives us a great example of the attitude we need to have toward the possibility of God acting in our lives.

Getting pregnant and bearing a baby boy when you’re a betrothed virgin is definitely outside anyone’s comfort zone!

Other than a question about the logistics, Mary’s attitude was one of trust and acceptance: “And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her” (Luke 1:38). What could God teach us if we took that attitude?

God is going to speak this Women’s Conference weekend, either through the music, through the speaker, through other women, through your Bible reading, or in that still, small voice you hear in prayer.

God’s voice will be clearer if we don’t have specific expectations and are open to new experiences and viewpoints. If your only expectation is that you will hear from God, you can be sure that it will happen.

Reflect:

• Is anything about my attitude preventing me from hearing from God at the conference?
• How can I prepare my heart to be open to God’s voice like Mary was?