SLI: Chapter 9: “A Time and Place to Heal”
This is the name-it-and-claim-it chapter. In this chapter, Beth writes,
We’re going to actively and deliberately receive what He gives to us…
We’re not waiting until the end of the book to do this because we need our God-given dignity if we ever hope to be empowered to make the decision, exercise the reactions, and use the tools we’ll discuss in the remaining chapters. We need something to happen now so we can be successful then. The beauty of having God in the picture is that we’re not limited to learning a few helpful lessons that might lend occasional insight. We get to ask for a supernatural act of God Himself…
Hear this at a yell: it is God’s will for you to have your dignity and security restored…
I can promise you that God wills for us to walk out the depth and breadth of our lives with dignity and security…
When it comes to dignity and security, we have a golden opportunity to know in advance that we are praying the will of God for our lives. And we need to cash in that request posthaste…
If you’re willing to exercise the kind of boldness that excites the heart of God, you can go right ahead and thank Him in advance because you know that what you’ve asked is as good as done…
If you can take a little longer to process the emotions with the meditations, the healing will be more substantial.
Beth recommends setting aside at least 30 minutes to pray through the prayers she’s written out in this chapter. She encourages the reader to get “fully engaged” by setting aside a certain time, place, and posture. Then she gets into the specifics of how to use her prayer:
Read it slowly, thoughtfully, and out loud as if it were rising spontaneously from your own heart. This guide has not been written hastily or randomly. I’ve never before felt the leadership of God to put anything like this prayer journey in a book or a study. I am convinced it was His idea for this particular message, and if it was, I know He intends to make good use of it. God is incapable of wasting our time. I’ve asked Him to equip me with the supernatural wisdom and insight to compose a prayer that will receive His resounding “Yes!” …
The only thing you have to do to make this petition your own is it mean it…
That said, pray on, dear one, and let God have complete access to your soul as you do.
I have a few questions after reading these introductory remarks.
1) What does Beth mean when she says, “I can promise you that God wills for us to walk out the depth and breadth of our lives with dignity and security…” What does that look like? What is she picturing? How will I know when I’ve got it? On what scripture is she basing this?
2) The people who came to my mind are those living in those countries where Christianity is forbidden, where evangelism is outlawed, where Christians are beaten and imprisoned and killed for their faith. I thought about the indignity of being publicly stripped and beaten. I thought about the indignity of an entire village coming out to see someone’s belongings pillaged and burned. I thought about the insecure feelings that come from having nowhere to go for help or recourse. I considered those who live with daily ridicule and mocking for their faith. I considered women and girls who have been raped and abused by men who hate them because of the Name. Would this book appeal to those women? Can they demand their dignity back from God?
3) How does Moore know what kind of boldness excites God’s heart? Some kinds of boldness before God look like folly in the end.
4) Length of time in prayer and meditation and amount of emotional healing do not always enjoy a directly proportional relationship, yet Moore is confident that “healing will be more substantial” the longer one can spend with these prayers.
5) What happens when I’ve prayed the prayer, but then I act out of my insecurities again? Does that mean that I wasn’t “fully engaged” when I prayed the first time? Does that mean that I didn’t “let God have complete access” to my soul? Did I just not spend enough time praying these prayers?
6) How do I know that God has given her supernatural wisdom and insight to compose these prayers? How do I know that what she’s written will receive God’s blessing and affirmative answer?
What about the prayers themselves? Some of them are too focused on self and emotional introspection. What I think they lack most is a broad view of God’s glory and his overall purpose in our lives: to transform us to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). That said, they aren’t all bad. Moore includes a prayer that asks God to forgive us for sins (she lists specific sins that she associates with insecurity, like self-worship, pride, jealousy, envy, covetousness) committed in the name of self-preservation. One prayer includes a plea for divine assistance to repent (though she doesn’t use that word — she calls it “refusing” a feeling or behavior). The final prayer includes a space for recording when “I receive my dignity back.”
My main problem with this chapter is how God is subordinate to the one who wants her dignity back. It’s as though God has to restore her because she really means her prayer and she really needs her dignity back because she’s tired of playing the fool.
Another problem is that this is not a book that can be handed to anyone. This is a very western hemisphere, American brand of Christianity kind of book. As much as Moore tries to make the case that this issue of insecurity is a universal issue for women, I’m not convinced. I really believe that Moore made a mistake when she based everything on her own experience and the experiences of the men and women who read her blog, rather than allowing the book to grow from a universal truth found in God’s word.
Third, I am very skeptical that 30 minutes to one hour in prayer, reciting these words written by Moore, will be the end of insecurity. This method sounds more like practicing magic. I’m not saying Moore is into witchcraft; I’m saying that this idea — that praying a prayer can get you whatever you want just because you really want it — is like a witch doing a little hocus pocus and POOF, you’re a secure woman! It’s like Moore is the Fairy Godmother who has been given supernatural words of wisdom and insight and she’s waving her magic pen over all of us spiritually poor Cinderellas.
These sound like very wise responses to what you’re reading. You are right, the health and wealth gospel can only work in countries like the U.S.
Your comments about this being a book for the Western World is bang on correct. Only in fat, privileged countries can women afford to wallow in insecurity. How about the insecurity of a young Islamic girl who can be killed by her father for her faith? Will that 30 minutes in prayer help her?
This sounds more like Moore tooting her own horn about her “leadership.”
I commend you for being able to continue in this reading. I would have been fed up long ago.
Yes, I’m tired of this book. I ask myself often why I started this. I’m not sure it does me much good to spend so much time in bad books.
Recently, a friend of mine asked me to read a book that she valued very much. I knew from the author that I probably wouldn’t like it, but I read it anyway. It was every bit as bad as I anticipated, and then some. It was awful, but I had promised to read it. I was so glad when I was finished.