Introduction

The God Girl is forever on a journey with her Maker, her Father, her Friend. She doesn’t walk alone but travels with her forever companion, God, who is the very giver of life and who never leaves her and always protects her. For the God Girl, life is all about him: his will, his mind, his Word. Everything she does is driven by the fact that she wants to love him with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength (see Mark 12:30). She wants what he wants, and she wants what we all want: a life filled with love, joy, and peace. She wants the patience to wait for life to rain down on her, showering her with the gifts of God. She sees that kindness and goodness are part of his nature and therefore knows they must be a part of her nature. All that is found in him, she wants poured into her life.

She has hopes and dreams like every other girl. She sometimes hates the things she does and does the things she hates (see Rom. 7), but she knows that he forgives it all. She is well aware of his kindness toward her in the form of grace, and she embraces it with passion as she daily fights the good fight, though she sometimes stumbles and falls.

But what makes her different from other girls is the Spirit by which she lives. See, the God Girl draws on the life of the Spirit that filled her when she said “I do” to the God of heaven—when she surrendered her life to him and began to see him as ruler of her comings and goings. The God Girl is built to travel this world not alone but in continual contact with her God. When life seems to be more than she can bear, God is more than she needs. Of this she is certain.

The God Girl, then, is the girl who knows her life is God’s, her plans are God’s, and her journey is God’s. Because of that she takes her first step each day in his direction. And that is the purpose of this little book: to help you to walk with God on the journey of life. The word journey is a good one to describe the walk of the God Girl because journey refers to traveling on a long and sometimes difficult path of change and growth. You may have a destination in mind, but it is the journey—the day-by-day progression—that is the life of faith.

This journey that you are on will take you up and it will take you down. There will be days that seem perfect, but just as often, if not more, there will be days of testing and even suffering. The thing you must remember, if you want the pain to count for anything, is that God’s goal isn’t to make you happy, it’s to make you holy. Happiness is a cheap goal for life; it implies that your journey should be easy, but that would make it ineffective. Because when life is easy, you have no need for growth or change but much room for distraction and amusement. But spiritual growth, strength, and success are found in the difficulties of life. That’s why God can say, “My brothers and sisters, be very happy when you are tested in different ways. You know that such testing of your faith produces endurance. Endure until your testing is over. Then you will be mature and complete, and you won’t need anything” (James 1:2–4 GW).

Can you imagine not needing anything but instead being mature and complete? That can be the description of your life, and it will be. In this life you will have trouble, it’s guaranteed, but the God Girl can take heart because Christ has overcome the world, and through him she can overcome as well (see John 16:33). When your life is completely identified with the life and the Spirit of Christ, then the world may attack, but you will smile. Your heart will find rest and peace, and your joy will be complete.

So let’s take this journey together into the life of faith, into the life of the God Girl. On this 30-day trip you will devote each day to finding out more about God and his presence in your life.