Women's Retreat: Quotes & Resources

It will take some time to mine all the riches of the recent TGC Women’s Retreat with Betsy Ricucci. Now that we are a few weeks out and you’re back in the throws of ordinary life, we thought it would be helpful to post a few quotes from the sessions for meditation and some book recommendations from Betsy. We hope the Lord will use these to stir your faith as you walk forward in the good work the Lord has entrusted to you!

QUOTES

  • “Do not become discouraged if God does not teach you all at once. He lets in light by degrees, and teaches His children now a little, and then a little; some this week, and more next; some by this affliction, and more by the next…Though God’s teaching is powerful, it does not immediately put the soul into an immutable evenness of spirit freed from all insurrections and disturbances. Such a frame is only the privilege of the glorified state. David had his sinkings, and Job his impatient fits. We have heard of the patience of Job, yea and of his impatience too! The taught of God may be moved, but not re-moved; thy may fall, but not fall away…As God teaches us, the soul gradually gains ground…Prayer brings in God, and God gives strength to take back lost ground. We are comforted that all will be done in God’s time. I am not perfect, but I will be perfect (Philippians 1:6).” - Thomas Case

  • “Just as we don’t change all at once, so we don’t swallow all of truth in one gulp. We are simple people. You can’t remember ten things at once. Invariably, if you could remember just ONE true thing in the moment of trial, you’d be different…When you remember, you actually change. In fact, remembering is the first change.” - David Powlison

  • “Sometimes God works slowly and sometimes God works quickly. And sometimes God works slowly so that He can work quickly.”

  • “Do you pause from time to time to thank God fro the hundred and one tiny joys that make up each day? There are endless possibilities for specific ways and moments of remembering, for lifting our hearts in praise to God. We all need to take gratitude more seriously than we do….the moment of remembering, the time taken out for thanks, the pause for praise, will stand before God and our fellow human beings as a statement of declared trust, of radical reliance, of faith that will admit no turning back—in short, a decisive no to self-sufficiency and doubt and an emphatic yes to God.” - Os Guinness

  • “You have given so much to me. Give me one thing more—a grateful heart.” - George Herbert

  • “It is our work to cast away anxiety; (I Peter 5:7) and it is God’s work to take care. By our immoderate worry, we take His work out of His hand.” - Thomas Watson

  • It is our work to cast care! It is God’s work to take care! What rest!

  • “It is faith that enlivens our work with perpetual cheerfulness. It commits every part of it to God, in the hope, that even mistakes shall be overruled for His glory; and thus relieves us from an oppressive anxiety, often attendant upon a deep sense of our responsibility. The shortest way to peace will be found in casting ourselves upon God for daily pardon of deficiencies and supplies of grace, without looking too eagerly for present fruit. It is peace—not slumber, rest in the work—not from it.” - Charles Bridges

RECOMMENDATIONS