Set Apart Recap

All week my heart has been reflecting and meditating on the theme and all that was shared from our women’s event last Friday night! I hope you were able to be there and that you were encouraged as much as I was! If you missed it, I encourage you to go back and watch online! You can watch through our website at this link: https://www.mid-way.com/women!

The theme we looked at was Set Apart: being Set Apart by God, and for God. We listened to two powerful testimonies of two women’s lives, who have both surrendered their hearts to God. It was so inspiring and sharpening to hear what God can do with an ordinary life, when that life is surrendered to Him. 

I loved Mrs. Michelle’s devotion; it was so powerful! She encouraged us that the first step in living a set apart life is committing to know who you are in Christ and then committing to live like it. 

She painted a picture of a young girl who had been sitting inside of a prison cell, behind an unlocked door for most of her life. Once she realized the door was unlocked, she walked out of that cell and stepped into the freedom that had been awaiting her! Mrs. Michelle used that story as an example of how we can be spiritually. God has set us free, but we don’t always live like it. We have to commit to knowing and believing what God says about us is true. 

She gave three key identities that we as Christians can confidently walk in:

1. In Christ, I am forgiven. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

2. In Christ, I am righteous - made right with God. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

3. In Christ, I am a new creation. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

   
   

Does the victory won at the cross change how we live our everyday lives? Living a set apart life is a choice of daily obedience and surrender. I love the theme verse we looked at:

2 Timothy 2:20-21

“Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver

but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable,

he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy,

useful to the master or the house, ready for every good work.”

I love breaking down the later part of our verse:

• Set Apart as Holy: something or someone designated exclusively for God for a special sacred use. 

• Useful to the Master: capable of being put to use. 

• Ready for every good work: a state of being fully prepared or equipped. 

Do those three things describe you? Our usefulness in the kingdom of God is a direct effect of our holiness to God. God has already set us apart, He already has a great plan and a great purpose for our lives. He gives us an invitation to step into what He is doing and what He is calling us to. If you keep reading into verse 22, we see that being set apart isn’t just avoiding bad things; it also must be the pursuit of Godly things. 

2 Timothy 2:22

“Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with

those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

Nothing is more powerful in the hands of God than a surrendered heart! I don’t know about you, but I want to be a vessel ready to be used by God! 



Prayer Points ~

• God, help me to not just know what Your word says but to believe it. Reveal to me ways I am not stepping into the new identity You have given me.

• God, create a heart in me that fears and loves You above all else and longs to obey You.

• God, help me to live a life set apart for You. Help me to say no to the things that keep me from You and yes to the things that stir my affections for You. 

• God, help me to surrender my heart to You everyday and in every circumstance. 

• God, help me to be Your vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to You and ready for every good work. 

God, thank You for what You did for me on the cross. Thank You for not only saving me from my sin but gifting me with an entirely new identify. God help me to walk in that new identity, help me to walk in the freedom You bought for me. I pray You would let who You say I am change the way I live everyday. Create in me a surrendered heart, help me to obey You and seek You. Help me to walk in Your plans for my life and not my own. Make me a vessel that is honorable, set apart as holy, useful to You and ready for every good work. I want to be a woman after Your own heart, a woman who You look at and say “I want to use her.” 

In Jesus Name I pray all of these things, Amen.

Madison Hartley

Flourish Women's Ministry

Mid-Way Baptist Church