"Discovering God's will for our lives isn't always easy, but Marnie Pehrson teaches us in a down to earth style how we can examine our lives and make changes that will help us discover our place in the world

Good spiritual books from a Christian viewpoint are hard to come by. Much of the time I end up with a few grains of good advice and put aside the rest. But 10 Steps to Fulfilling Your Divine Destiny is a book to highlight, to keep by your bedside and one which you can apply the advice on a daily basis."

In this ebook you will learn how to unlock your full God-given potential. No matter your denomination, beliefs or background, the greatest thing you can do in this life is to come unto Christ, for in doing so, He will uncover your soul. Jesus Christ transforms lives – it's what He does. If you will let Him, if you will come unto Him, He can make you happier and more fulfilled than you could be if you pursued any other course.

Today's Christian women are sleeping giants, and when we finally awake and arise, we will join the ranks of Esther, Ruth, Mary and Martha. Be among those who wake up! This book will outline ten steps that will lead you to a closer relationship with Jesus Christ and thus lead you to your full potential. You may have already taken some of the steps, but they could bear repeating. As a matter of fact, these steps should be repeated throughout your life. Coming to Christ is a constant, never-ending process. We never reach a point at which we "arrive" and thus need not keep following Him. We must continually strive to follow in His footsteps and one day we will look up and see that He has led us straight to the throne of God. 

This Ebook is available in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. It is approximately 75 (8.5 x 11) pages.

Journal/Workbook

The new companion journal/workbook to go with 10 Steps to Fulfilling Your Divine Destiny helps you implement the principles outlined in the book and helps you document your conversion process and your discovery of your divine destiny in a keepsake that you can refer to for years to come.

This workbook journal will help you gain a greater understanding of who you are, who God is, and your relationship to Him. It will help you lay down your yoke and take up Christ’s by committing to fully follow Him. As you begin to experience His mighty change in your heart, your love for others will grow, and you will begin to catch the vision of your divine destiny. This workbook and journal serves as a place for you to record your thoughts, feelings and experiences. Life is filled with peaks and valleys. Remembering and enduring (Step 10) is easier when you have record of your journey and can review how far you’ve come and all that the Lord has done for you. This workbook is designed to help you do just that.

Here is a brief overview of what you’ll find in each section of the workbook:

Section 1: A City Set On a Hill

This section helps you develop a desire to know and follow the Lord. It helps you learn to ask questions, teaches you about the Savior and what He expects of you, and helps you develop a habit of documenting your spiritual insights so you can have them as a record for later when you need help remembering and enduring.

Section 2: Learning Who You Are and Why You’re Here

This section helps you continue your habit of studying, asking and pondering while you learn more about who you are as a child of God and why you are here on this earth.

Section 3: Lay Down Your Yoke

This section covers Steps 4 and 5. It helps you systematically work through the things that stand in your way of a closer relationship with the Lord and fulfilling your divine destiny. As you work through this process, your faith in Jesus Christ will grow substantially.

Section 4: Take Up Christ’s Yoke

This section covers Steps 6 through 8. It will help you resolve to commit and help you document your change of heart and the increased love for others that you are gaining as a result of Christ’s change in your heart.

Section 5: Catching the Vision

In this section, you’ll find worksheets to help you determine your talents, interests and experiences that will work together to form your divine destiny.

Section 6: Remember & Endure

You’ll find ideas here to help you remember where you’ve been, how the Lord has delivered you, and how to keep Him uppermost in your heart. The workbook includes extra journal pages for your convenience.

The Journal/Workbook is available in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format and is 129 (8.5x11) pages.

Guilt

Guilt serves its purposes. It helps us know when things are amiss in our lives, when we need some work, and when we’ve done wrong and need to repent. The Light of Christ serves as our conscience to help us know right from wrong and this valuable compass must not be ignored. With prolonged ignoring of our consciences, they can be dulled until they do not function anymore. Yet, even justified guilt serves a purpose up to only a certain point, and then it becomes destructive.

Women take guilt to a whole new level. Many women feel guilty because they can’t be super moms, successful career professionals, glamorous wives with knock-em-dead bodies, and public servants all at the same time. Instead of noticing the good they do, they let the things they can’t do immobilize them until they feel guilty most of the time. Unfounded guilt or guilt gone too far manifests itself in the following self-talk.

Unfounded Guilt

• I can’t keep my house clean and keep up with my work and the kids. I’m just such a bad mother. My husband and children would be better off with someone else.

• Look at so-and-so. She’s just so talented, and is such a better mother than I am. I just feel so bad that I’m not as kind and gentle a mother as she.

• I’m fat/ugly/short/tall and therefore am not a good wife. My husband would be better off with another woman.

•  I’m not married and don’t have children so I can’t have as great an influence as my married friends who have children.

•  I’m divorced so I’m not as deserving of God’s blessings as others who aren’t.

•  I work outside the home so I’m not as good a mother as I should be.

•  I don’t work outside the home, so I have no talents or ambition.

•  I’m not able to be perfect; I’m just taking up space coming to church. Someone worthier should be here.

• Nothing I do makes a difference, I’m just worthless.

Guilt Gone Too Far

• I’m just no good, nothing I do works. I try, but I just can’t control my temper, stop drinking, stop swearing, (or whatever that’s being worked on).

• I’m just weak. That’s who I am. I’ll never be strong enough to change.

• I’ve tried and I can’t do it so forget it. I’m not going to try anymore.

Do any of these sound familiar? I am reminded of another woman I know. We’ll call her Tonya. Tonya had a drinking and marijuana habit that had lasted for about seven years. It was a social habit in that her husband and friends all joined in either one or both of these activities with her. When she became a devout Christian, Tonya was convicted that God wanted her to remove these habits from her life. But, peer pressure was intense. People didn’t let her just say, "I don’t feel like drinking tonight." They’d hound her and try to break her will.

After an initial failed attempt at going "cold turkey," Tonya decided she just couldn’t do it… at least not yet. Every time she smoked or drank at a party she felt intense guilt. Over a period of 6-8 months, the guilt became so intense that she felt about an inch high. Her self-esteem plummeted. She felt there was nothing she could do right in her life. She agonized, "I can’t stop drinking and smoking to save my soul." She felt like a complete and utter failure until one day she decided this guilt was getting her nowhere. She wasn’t going to give up hope on overcoming her habits, but she decided this excessive guilt that led to self-pity was beating her down.

What was Tonya doing? She was trying to do it all on her own. She felt that somehow she had to muster all the willpower to overcome her addictions by herself. She had beaten herself down into the depths of humility. In this case, guilt had served its purpose – to bring her to a humble, broken-hearted, contrite place where she was willing to reach out her hand to the only One who could help her – Jesus Christ. Once she decided to stop beating herself up and started praying with conviction that God would help her overcome these habits, He began to work in her life, restructuring her priorities, until she was willing to commit once and for all to lay aside first the drugs and then the alcohol. It was a struggle, but with God's help, she beat her addictions one at a time, and her self-worth continued to grow as she did.

"His knowledge of you goes beyond a catalog of your deeds. He knows you individually and completely. He understands your darkest hours when things seem as black as a cave with no light. He understands when you are feeling unworthy or forgotten or depressed or desperate or alone. He constantly and gently invites you to open up those dark recesses of your heart to Him that He may fill them with His light. You can’t shock Him. You can’t surprise Him. He won’t turn away from you in disgust, shaking His head and saying, ‘Oh, this is worse than I thought. There’s nothing I can do here.’ When He healed the sick, He often forgave their sins as well. His healing extends to the crippled heart just as surely as to the crippled leg."⁽¹⁾

That is the wonderful message of Jesus Christ – that no matter how bad things look, no matter how lost we are, Jesus Christ can help us change. His message is a message of hope. So many times in the scriptures when faith is mentioned, its companions are also mentioned: hope and charity. This is no coincidence for faith in Jesus Christ leads to hope – hope for a better life and hope for a glorious eternity – which leads us to live more like Jesus Christ and not only love others, but to love ourselves.

Footnotes
1 Virginia U. Jensen, I Can Do All Things Through Christ, The Best of Women's Conference, Bookcraft 2000, p. 234.

"Too many people wander aimlessly through life never knowing who they are or what they can become with God’s help. They let the little things of life like busyness, self-doubt, self-pity, criticism, guilt and discouragement stand in their way of becoming the unique and wonderful person they were meant to be. It is my goal to help people learn and live the plan that God has in store for them so that they can find greater happiness and peace in the troubled times in which we live." - Marnie Pehrson

Marnie is a wife, mother of six, business owner, Webmaster, consultant, teacher and author. She is the founder of multi-denominational SheLovesGod.com which hosts the annual SheLovesGod Virtual Women’s Conference the 3rd week of October each year. She is also the creator of IdeaMarketers.com, LocateACoach.com, PWGroup.com, and PowerOfLearning.com. Throughout her sites, Marnie seeks to build resources that help others discover, develop and utilize their God-given talents.

Marnie is the author of 10 Steps to Fulfilling Your Divine Destiny: A Christian Woman’s Guide to Learning and Living God’s Plan for Her (February 2002). Frequently quoted in newspapers and magazines across the globe, Marnie has been featured in magazines such as Entrepreneur International, Small Business Start-Ups, iVillage.com, Business Opportunity World, Home Office Computing, and The Chattanooga News Free Press. She is a regularly featured Spiritual Strength columnist for The One Heart Foundation at Oneheart.org. As the creator of the IdeaMarketers writer-publisher matching service, Marnie’s articles have been featured across the Internet.

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